did not do violence to either the person or property of their neighbor. Historians have given the characters of these men much as they have done the scenes of the battle-field; in describing which they seek to keep the mind of the reader upon "the prowess of the soldiers," "the skill and bravery of the General," "the soul-stirring clangor of martial music," and "the splendors of the victory;" well knowing that, were they faithfully to go into the heart-sickening details of "the heaps of the slain," "the mangled corpses," "the rivers of gore," "the anguish of the wounded," "the groans of the dying." and the grief for "the slain in battle," "the father's sorrow," "the mother's lamentation," "the widow's wail," "the orphan's tears"-I say, did they faithfully describe all this, there would be few admirers of the science of killing men!!! Thus in describing the characters of the ancients the historians have given the brilliant spots in their characters, and have concealed the disgusting details. Few historians, in giving the history of Socrates, have told us that "he was a Sodomite," and that "he prostituted his wife for gain:" few also have told us, when describing the philosophical composure with which he discoursed upon death, in the presence of a large circle of friends, that, in his solitude, he used often to exclaim, "O death! thou terrible thing!-thou most terrible of all things!!"* Few historians have told us that the admired Epictetus was a Sodomite, and that the renowned Seneca instigated Nero to murder his mother; that an eminent philosopher when asked, "What could best enable a man to bear misfortunes?" replied, "To see your enemies in a worse condition;" or that the refined Cicero was most revengeful, and said, "Revenge is sweet!" But all know that the admired Cato was a suicide!! Although these things have been mostly concealed, yet the page of authentic antiquity, when fully searched, I believe as fully declares them as any other facts concerning these men. But if you leave these individuals, and go to the nations to which they belonged, what shall we behold? Survey the Pantheon of Greece and Rome!-their human sacrifices-their cruel and bloody rites-their obscene ceremoniestheir stupid adoration: then count their forty thousand Deities, and tell me what you think of "the light of Nature"-of "the lamp of Reason." If you are wearied and disgusted with this survey, you may seek relief in a survey of the oriental world in modern times; where the nations, in the plenitude of their wisdom and superior light, drove Christianity from their dominions by the irresistible arguments of the sword and the spear! Go to the temple of Juggernaut: behold its nameless pollutions-its horrid cruelties! witness the thousands crushed to death under the wheels of its ponderous car! behold the whitened bones of its wretched victims strewing the highways in every direction for fifty miles around, who perished from want and starvation! behold the widow ascending the funeral pile of her husband! behold the wretched victims suspended from the branches of trees by ropes and Thus in modern times David Hume, in the presence of company, was quite merry, even to the very last, making sport of death, and jesting about "'haron's boat;" but when alone with his nurse he appeared so horrified, that, as she said, she could scarcely hear to stay in the room with him. His gaiety was, then, as one has said, merely "whistling alond to keep his courage up." VOL. III.-N. S. 37* hooks in their flesh, for hours beneath a vertical sun, to appease the anger of their deities! behold infant innocence and infirm old age cast out upon the banks of the river to perish beneath a burning sun, or be devoured by beasts of prey! If you cannot look upon these scenes, go to the temple of the learned and philosophic Brahmin, and behold his stupid worship; or go to his harem, and glance at his pride, his cruelty, and lust. If you turn away from all these idolatrous scenes in loathing and abhorrence, come back to the nations where idolatry has been abolished in seas of blood! Behold the Priest of Mahomet setting forth the doctrines and pretensions of that Prophet at all times with a drawn sword in his hand, a perpetual memorial of the manner in which his religion was first propagated! Hear him setting forth his "Elysium of bliss" his heaven of beastly sensuality!! Nay, do not frown upon me for leading you to these scenes. I know your heart will sicken; but these men are all guided by reason—that is, their reason. You will not imitate the example of the Brahmin, who, on being presented with a microscope that disclosed to him the realities of things, and showed him that his daily food was teeming with living creatures, in a rage seized a stone and crushed the microscope to atoms. The picture is a startling one, but it is true to the life. But if you insist that these are barbarous and unrefined people, (though surely the Brahmins are proverbial for wisdom and learning,) I will allow you to come to the most enlightened times and the most enlightened nations of Europe; and thence select the very Apostles of Reason-alias infidelity. If we may credit their own countrymen and cotemporaries, the matter stands thus: "Blount committed suicide, because he was prevented an incestuous marriage"-"Bolingbroke was a rake, and a flagitious politician"-"Collins and Shaftsbury qualified themselves for civil offices by partaking of the sacrament, (a solemn expression of belief in Christ,) while at the same time they were preparing a work against the Christian religion"-"Morgan continued to profess the Christian religion while writing against it." "Hume was proud, revengeful, disgustingly vain, and a public advocate of suicide and adultery"-"Voltaire was a lewd and profane blasphemer""Paine was the slave of the most low and debasing habits"-and Rousseau-yes the refined and eloquent Rousseau, who wrote such a sublime eulogy on the New Testament; this same Rousseau was "an abandoned sensualist, guilty of the basest actions, which he sometimes confessed and attempted to palliate.”—But you are wearied and disgusted with this picture; and so am I. Tell me, then, what you think of the light of nature and reason! These men themselves despised their own systems: they saw their ruinous tendencies. Dr. Beattie once proposed this question categorically to David Hume: "If you had a wife and daughters, would you wish them to embrace your sentiments?" And he added, "Reflect on what you are going to say; for whatever your answer is, I will not conceal it." Mr. Hume replied with a smile, "No: I confess that scepticism is too sturdy a virtue for woman.' 39 When some of Voltaire's friends visited him on a certain occasion, they proposed to him, in the presence of some of his servants, to introduce a conversation on Atheism; he said to them softly, "Wait, if you please, till my servant leave the room: I do not wish my throat cut tonight." But sin led on these men: they hated the purity of the Christian religion: "they chose darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." But I must conclude for the present. In my next I will endeavor to give you a more pleasant picture. In all bencvolence, yours, &c. M. S. CLAPP. WORSHIPPING ASSEMBLIES-No. I. THE APPEARANCE OF THINGS. God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be bad in reverence of all that are about him.-Psalm lxxxix. 7. A DEEP and radical reformation of all things connected with religious meetings, whether ordinary or extraordinary, is indispensable to the edification of Christians and the conversion of sinners. Our meetings of all sorts are greatly defective in many respects, and in none more visibly than in the dress and manners of the professed worshippers. The present costumes and general display are in extremely bad taste. They are so in the judgment of all well informed men of sense, out of the church; and certainly of all persons in the church of unquestionable piety. There is a congruity between persons, places, and employments, which never can be violated without detriment and disgust, if there are any persons of good education present. To see worshippers appear in church as at a marriage feast, a presidential levee, a theatre, a dance— either in dress, manners, or general demeanor-strikes all persons of reflection as snow in summer, or a plaudit in the midst of a prayer. We Americans are in advance of our English and European ancestors in this general apostacy from good taste and good sense. In the political and fashionable church of England at home even in the metropolis of the empire itself, whither the grandees of the earth resort, there is not such a revolting incongruity between the dress and general appearance of noble lords and ladies, as is found in many of our backwoods meeting-houses. On the Sabbath and in the cathedral the nobility dress in their plainest garb. They reserve their splendid equipage, their courtly attire, their gems and coronets, their glittering decorations for courts and carnivals, for tilts and tournaments, and appear in the sanctuary as though they sought not to be worshipped, but to worship God. But we frequent the houses of prayer and the places of worship with all our "finery" upon us, as though our synagogues were theatres of fashion-and the "Ladies' Book," rather than the New Testament, was the guide of our devotions. If, then, the outward garb be an Index to the soul, or resembles the ruling passions within, how unwelcome are such worshippers at the footstool of the Almighty; and how unfit to offer acceptable sacrifices upon the altar of Christian worship! Can any one imagine that the sacrifices of such persons are the offerings of an humble mind, a broken heart, a contrite spirit, that trembles at the word of God? May we not rather say with the Prophet of Israel, "The show of their countenance doth witness against them;" for the daughters of Zion thus attired "are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, making a tinkling with their feet”? Surely this is not "the beauty of holiness,"-"the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, in the sight of God of great value." Kings and Prophets, the saints and martyrs of other times, were oftener seen in sackcloth and ashes than in the gaudy fashions of a flippant and irreverent age. Their sense of propriety forbade that soul and body should disagree that the outward man should betray the inward, and falsify the state of the mind. The Jews' religion taught men congruity, and especially that the exterior attire should always correspond with the inward plainness and simplicity of the heart. "Slovenly neglect and rustic coarseness," though also incongruous with good Christian taste, are nevertheless more tolerable in Christian assemblies, than the gaiety and style now in vogue amongst the American communities: for, as a chaste and sensible Christian poet has said— "A heavenly mind May be indifferent to her house of clay, And quaint in its deportment and attiré, Can lodge a heavenly mind, demands a doubt." A very strong doubt, indeed! We trust, then, that among all the disciples of Christ there will be a very great reformation in this particular. They are by no means generally more exemplary than others in their dress and manners, or in their marked reverence for the institutions of religious wership. Gravity, sincerity, simplicity, humility, and spirituality are not more comely than requisite to our spiritual attainments and happiness. It is impossible to grow in grace, to improve in any of the Christian virtues, or to increase in the rational and moral enjoy. ments of our Christian profession, unless there is a perfect harmony in all our actions and professions. We are necessarily much influenced by external circumstances: our spirits are in our bodies, and our bodies are in our apparel; therefore, what we see and feel upon our persons must quite as much affect ourselves as our neighbors. Let any one who doubts try a few experiments upon himself: let him dress himself in the proud costumes of the reigning fashions in Paris, London, or New York, and approach the sanctuary of the Lord: let him enter into his closet and shut the door, and pray to his Father who sees him in the secret place, and ask himself how he feels in communion with God, caparisoned with all the vain trimmings and blandishments of dissipated fancy upon him. Or let him approach the Lord's table in company with the saints who celebrate the Christian passover; and while he muses on the sufferings and death of the Son of God, hanging almost naked on the cursed tree, ignominiously expiring between two nosed malefactors, let him look into his ruffled bosom, upon his golden trinkets, and fantastic apparel, and ask himself how this comports with all the affections of his heart absorbed in the contemplations of the judgment hall, the pretorium, and Mount Calvary. Then let him change his apparel, sell his finery, and gold to those who can afford no higher honors, no brighter glories- give the proceeds to the poor, and dress himself according to the Christian mirror, in the plainest and most unassuming garb, and try himself kneeling or lying upon the earth, in some deep cavern, in some lonely alcove, in some deep forest, or in the secret chamber in the lonely hour of even, or at midnight, and see how he feels in converse with his Divine Father, or seated thus among the faithful at the communion board, compared with himself on former occasions, with all the pride of fashion thickly set upon him. I am willing that his verdiet, faithfully rehearsed, be final on any issue formed against my views of these congruities for which I plead. But it is not only in this single item of dress that our public worshipping assemblies call for instant and thorough reformation. Our manners, I mean those of this age, are not sacred. Our attitude, our countenances, our demeanor, are not reverential: we feel not that we stand on holy ground, and therefore we do not loose our shoes from off our feet. The vacant stare, the wandering eye, the dissipated countenance, to say nothing of the foolish levity or pharisaic disdain, proclaim that our hearts are not engaged in spirit and in truth while we are professedly worshipping the Lord. The undignified and irreverential, the witty and the sarcastic airs and remarks of some who too often speak in the name of the Lord, greatly contribute to this unpropitious and unsanctified state of things. The denunciation of Hosea has come upon them: "There shall be like people like priest," or "like priest like people;" for they act and reac upon each other; and the one cannot long be erroneous or corrupt without the other. The radical error which works in all these forms is a want of a deep |