with human blood. For ages the simple Christian principle of human brotherhood has been proclaimed, and yet at this very hour this great Christian empire stands with blood-stained sword in hand, and with foot planted on the neck of the African, and invokes the sanctities of religion and law to vindicate the wrong. Why talk we of our Christian light?" He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now, and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth, because the darkness hath blinded his eyes." I repeat, if we find any difficulty about the time of Christ's coming, we may well wonder why he came so early, not why he came so late, seeing that his religion is not yet understood, not yet received, not yet, properly speaking, given. But all wonder is out of place, except at the unutterable bounty of God. For since Christianity came in the course of nature and of Providence, as to raising any questions about its place in that course, we might as well ask why the fruit does not come before the blossom, or the blossom before the stem. Truth is given to men in as full measure and as fast as they are able to receive it. To those who have is given. And this principle, which Christ himself taught, is illustrated in the appearance of Christianity itself, which came as soon as there were only the fewest prepared to appreciate it, and the Christian religion is a fact and an era and a step in the natural progress and development of mankind.

All the confusion of thought that exists in relation to the limited diffusion of Christian light arises from the radical error of supposing that the culture of the understanding precedes the culture of the heart, that there must be religious knowledge before there can be religious life. Directly the reverse is the course of nature. And directly the reverse is most explicitly taught by Christ. The child's heart is touched by the beaming looks of maternal love before one ray has penetrated to his reason, and it is through the heart that the understanding is rendered active and becomes enlightened. If it is true that they who see God become pure in heart, it is first true that the pure in heart see God. The language of Christ is, not "if any man knows, he will do," but "if any man will do, he shall know." "He that

doeth truth cometh to the light." Doing the truth is to come to the light. Through the inversion of this great evangelical principle, Christianity has been first and chiefly

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regarded as an intellectual light, as a system of abstract truth, in a word, as a creed, written or unwritten, and not as a spirit of life, -— which it is, the breathing of God, quickening the life that is in man and so kindling light. And Christ is everywhere represented as if he came, not first to inspire the world with the love and life of righteousness, but to promulgate certain doctrines. Now I say that Christianity is not a form of worship, nor a form of words, nor a form of thought even, but a spirit and a life. Christ taught no doctrines, in the ordinary sense of the word. By a doctine is commonly understood something which is only to be believed, and in the belief of which there is a religious value, apart from all relation to life. With doctrines thus defined, with articles of mere faith, Christ had nothing whatever to do. The term doctrine, as it occurs in our common version of the New Testament, may be exchanged for "teaching" or "instruction " in all cases, I believe, without injury to the sense, and in some instances with advantage to it. It is true, Christ required men to have faith in him, but it was faith of such a sort that he said, "He that believeth in me believeth not in me, but in Him that. sent me." faith in God, in right, which is the life of life. did not live to establish a creed, but he came and spoke words which were spirit. And brief as was his stay on earth, he told his friends that he must depart to give room for the true spirit, which was already in them, and which would lead them into the knowledge of all things.

It was
Christ

Accepting Christianity in this character, we may see, that under all forms of language and religion, amidst the thickest clouds of barbarism and in the lowest depths of moral degradation, religious life, if not actual, is possible, that wherever a spirit of goodness breathes ever so faintly and fitfully, religion is there, - nay, that there may be, that there is, "a soul of good in things evil." However confused may be the thoughts of the mind, the "law of the spirit of life" may be illustrated in the heart. In the vicinity of the city where I reside stands one of the most splendid edifices in the land, devoted to the protection and education of the orphan children of the State of Pennsylvania. This institution has been built by the fortune, and bears the name, of one whose long life was a steady course of rare commercial success. By his last will, devoting his immense wealth to the unprotected, he directed that there should be no relig

ious instruction given to the objects of his munificent charity. How a community professing Christianity and religion could accept the trust under such a condition, I have never been able clearly to see. But this by the way; I wish here merely to remark that the testator has evidently sought to exclude religion altogether from his college for orphans. And it would seem that he regarded religion as a morbid affection, a disease, and a disease so contagious withal that he orders in his will that no minister of religion, of any name or denomination, shall be permitted to set foot within the precincts of the institution. That he greatly erred, that he was all in the dark in his ideas of religion, I believe. But however vague and erroneous may have been the perceptions of his understanding, we see that he was animated by a great humane purpose; and that magnificent structure stands there, illustrating the very words of the New Testament where it saith that "to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction" is one of the first great offices of "pure and undefiled religion." We have reason to believe that Stephen Girard was inspired with the idea of being a father to the fatherless. To the realization of his idea he consecrated his wealth, and thus the life of religion, the spirit of Christianity, was manifested in him.

Christianity has been made the occasion of the bitterest exclusiveness, but wholly without reason; for if there is any one thing for which we should most especially prize it, it is, that, shedding upon us the full light of nature and of truth, it shows us all mankind included under one great religious denomination to which all other denominations are subordinate, as brethren of one family, members of one immortal household, whose head and whose Father is God.

ART. IV. -DR. PAYSON AND HIS WRITINGS.*

It is now within a few months of twenty years since Dr. Payson's death. One of the most distinguished ministers

*

Memoir, Select Thoughts, and Sermons of the late Rev. Edward Payson, D. D., Pastor of the Second Church in Portland. Compiled by REV. ASA CUMMINGS, Editor of the Christian Mirror. Portland: Hyde, Lord, & Duren. 1846. 3 vols. 8vo. pp. 606, 608, 608.

1847.]

Memoir.

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of his day, he is still remembered with gratitude and affection by many who attended on his preaching and enjoyed the benefit of his pastoral care. A shining light in the church here below, many friendly eyes now gaze, reverent and delighted, at his star in the heavens. Not long after his decease a volume of his sermons was published. Two years later, a highly interesting and instructive memoir of him appeared. This was soon followed by a second and third volume of sermons; and these by a miniature volume of his "Thoughts," prepared for the press by his daughter. These are all now published, with several important additions, in three large volumes, of uniform size and appearance. The numerous friends of Dr. Payson cannot fail to be gratified with the indication, which the call for this beautiful edition of his Life and Works affords, of the grateful remembrance in which he is still held by the religious community, and of the stability of his well-earned reputation as a Christian minister. And even those who were strangers to him, and who find little in his posthumous writings to awaken either their sympathy or their admiration, will be pleased at the evidence which the appearance of these volumes furnishes, that the labors of a faithful and self-denying minister are not speedily forgotten; and that long after his voice is silent, he may continue to speak, in acceptable words, to his fellowmen. We welcome the publication in its present form as an interesting and valuable contribution to our religious literature. Though differing widely from the theological views which they present, we welcome the sermons as affording a good sample of the Calvinistic preaching in New England twenty or thirty years ago; and, though the reading of it has filled us with a profound melancholy, we welcome the Memoir as a well-written, candid, and authentic history of a life sincerely devoted to the work of the ministry, and for many remarkable traits deserving particular attention. We think we may render a service to many of our readers, into whose hands the Memoir is not likely to fall, by giving them here some account of the life, and especially of the religious experience, of this eminent divine.

Edward Payson was born at Rindge, New Hampshire, July 25, 1783. His father was the minister of that town; one of the strong men of his generation; much and widely respected; an astute theologian; a man, we infer, of austere manners, but fervent piety; and withal, a faithful, exemplary,

and revered pastor. His mother, of the same family name, was a woman of uncommon qualifications for the position she was called to occupy. With a well-cultivated mind and a heart naturally rich in sweet affections, which were purified into heavenly loveliness by the discipline of Providence and the grace of the holy spirit, she was admirably fitted to be the religious guide of her children, to train their hearts to the love of virtue, and to instruct them in "the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven." And this her appointed duty appears to have been also her favorite work. Edward was admitted to her intimate and most unreserved confidence. The depths of her heart, where Jehovah was enshrined, lay open to his eye. And to this maternal love he returned a reverence the most profound, a docility the most filial, an affection the most simple, which continued, not merely through the years of his youth, but, with increasing beauty, through those of his mature life, till the end of her days. From his earliest childhood his mother looked on him fondly and hopefully, solicitous for the cultivation of his mind and his future respectability, but much more that he might be a child of God; and not failing to make her solicitude holy by baptizing it with her prayers. All her thoughts, instructions, plans, hopes, had reference to this single end. And not wholly in vain, it would seem; for he early gave signs of a serious disposition; became inquisitive concerning the facts of religion; 66 was more or less affected by his condition as a sinner "; "never," as his intimate friends had reason to believe, neglected secret prayer while a resident in his father's family"; and "by consent of all sustained the reputation of a magnanimous, honorable, generous youth." And we do not hesitate to add, the doubts of others and the sin of Adam to the contrary notwithstanding, that he was a religious youth; and his sagacious mother, it seems, thought so too. But his father had a different rule of judging, and demanded more evidence. He could not think of conferring on him the advantages of a public education till better satisfied on this point. "To give you a liberal education while destitute of religion," said he, "would be like putting a sword into the hands of a madman!" Rather sharp language, considering how good a boy Edward was! But the father was resolute. He could not send his son to college till he should give some better "evidence"; and so he was kept waiting and waiting, "till he was fitted to join the Sopho