"I well know that what I now say may seem to some to want the sanction of Experience. By many, Religion is perhaps regarded as the last principle to give inward energy and freedom. I may be told of its threatenings, and of the bondage which they impose. I acknowledge that Religion has threatenings, and it must have them; for evil, misery, is necessarily and unchangeably bound up with wrong-doing, with the abuse of moral power. From the nature of things, a mind disloyal to God and Duty must suffer; and Religion, in uttering this, only re-echoes the plain teachings of Conscience. But let it be remembered that the single end of the threatenings of Religion, is to make us spiritually free. They are all directed against the passions which enthrall and degrade us. They are weapons given to Conscience, with which to fight the good fight, and to establish its throne within us. When not thus used, they are turned from their end; and if by injudicious preaching they engender superstition, let not the fault be laid at the door of Religion.

"I do not indeed wonder that so many doubt the power of Religion to give strength, dignity, and freedom to the mind. What bears this name too often yields no such fruit. Here, Religion is a form, a round of prayers and rites, an attempt to propitiate God by flattery and fawning. There, it is terror and subjection to a minister or priest; and there, it is a violence of emotion, bearing away the mind like a whirlwind, and robbing it of selfdirection. But true Religion disclaims connexion with these usurpers of its name. It is a calm, deep conviction of God's paternal interest in the improvement, happiness and honor of His creatures; a practical persuasion that He delights in virtue and not in forms and flatteries, and that He especially delights in resolute efforts to conform ourselves to the disinterested love and rectitude which constitute His own glory. It is for this Religion that I claim the honor of giving dignity and freedom to the mind."

In the present rapid extension of Civilization, we see the need of a true and powerful

Religious Influence, to counteract the force of those evils which are inseparable from the luxuries and refinements of Society, and to liberate Man from that sensual thraldom which they are too apt to impose. On this subject, the high-minded and far-sighted Channing has written so well, that it were presumptuous in us to attempt to enlarge on his wise observations; we shall, therefore, offer no apology for permitting him to speak through these pages. "Without Religion," says he, "the civilized man, with all his properties and refinements, rises little in true dignity above the savage whom he disdains. You tell me of Civilization, of its arts and sciences, as the sure instruments of human elevation. You tell me how, by these, Man masters and bends to his use the powers of Nature. I know he masters them, but it is to become in turn their slave. He explores and cultivates the earth, but it is to grow more earthly. He explores the hidden mine, but it is to forge himself chains. He visits all regions, but therefore lives a stranger to his own soul. In the very progress of Civiliza

tion, I see the need of an antagonist principle to the senses, of a power to free man from matter, to recall him from the outward to the inner world; and Religion alone is equal to so great a work.

"The advantages of Civilization have their peril. In such a state of society, opinion and law impose salutary restraints, and produce general order and security. But the power of opinion grows into a despotism, which more than all things represses original and free thought; subverts individuality of character, reduces the community to a spiritless monotony, and chills the love of perfection. Religion, considered simply as the principle which balances the power of human opinion, which takes man out of the grasp of custom and fashion, and teaches him to refer himself to a higher tribunal-is an infinite aid to moral strength and elevation.

"An important benefit of Civilization, of which we hear much from the Political Economist, is the division of labor, by which arts are perfected. But this, by confining the mind to an unceasing round of petty operations,

tends to break it into littleness. We possess improved fabrics, but deteriorated men. Another advantage of Civilization is, that manners are refined and accomplishments multiplied; but these are continually seen to supplant simplicity of character, strength of feeling, the love of nature, the love of inward beauty and glory. Under outward courtesy, we see a cold selfishness, a spirit of calculation, and little energy of love.

"I confess I look round on civilized society with many fears, and with more and more earnest desire that a regenerating spirit from Heaven, from Religion, may descend upon and pervade it. I particularly fear that various causes are acting powerfully among ourselves, to inflame and madden that enslaving and degrading principle, the passion for property. For example, the absence of hereditary distinctions in our country, gives prominence to the distinction of wealth, and holds up this as the chief prize to ambition. Add to this the epicurean, self-indulgent habits which our prosperity has multiplied, and which crave insatiably for enlarging wealth