REFERENCE TO DR. CARPENTER. 183 
The wonderful change that now seemed to be 
wrought in the minds and hearts of many, did not 
appear to be more the immediate result of instruc¬ 
tions given at the time, than the remote but cer¬ 
tain effect of truth imparted, and precious seed, 
which, having been scattered years before, was 
now revived with a power, that the individuals 
themselves could- not comprehend, nor on ordi¬ 
nary principles explain. This circumstance should 
never be lost sight of; it is a wonderful manifes¬ 
tation of the faithfulness of God, who has declared 
is not always regarded. Christianity is not, as some of its 
enemies have misrepresented it, a morose unsocial system ; 
it is eminently adapted to promote cheerfulness, and social 
as well as individual enjoyment; but its enjoyment is of 
another and a higher order than that of which the mere 
animal parts of our nature are susceptible—the excitement 
of wine—beneath the influence of which, the loftiness and 
energy of intellect, and the kindliest affections of the 
human heart, are often alike degraded and destroyed. On 
occasions of festivity, when toast follows toast, though the 
parties may not have passed the boundaries of sobriety, the 
giving of Christian sentiments as toasts, is not very hon¬ 
ourable to Christianity itself. It is like introducing the 
sacred form of Religion, entwining the leaves of the ivy 
and the vine around her brow, placing the bacchanalian 
cup in her hand, and causing her to utter the responses 
which direct the orgies of the place. The habit of sitting, 
or standing up, and repeating, before drinking a glass of 
wine after dinner, a religious sentiment, is much less 
followed than formerly ; and the sooner it is altogether 
discontinued the better. The practice is not peculiar to 
Unitarians, though, at the Manchester dinner, the toast, 
in support of which Dr. Carpenter’s speech was made, 
was one of a series, which, according to the Report, 
extended to twenty-one. 
It is not, however, my object now to remark on the 
toasts, nor even the speech of Dr. Carpenter, excepting so 
far as the speech regards the instructions given to the 
Tahitians. It is not necessary that I should offer any 
