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LECTURE I.

AMONG the manifold evils of our present manufacturing and commercial systems, there are results which are not to be deplored in themselves, and which give promise of eventuating in a manner highly satisfactory to the friends of humanity. So long as the working classes were scattered over the country in agricultural pursuits, or here and there gathered in small numbers in our cities and towns, their minds, wanting collision and impulse, remained more or less torpid, and, in very rare instances only, rose to the dignity of individual thinking. Mental power was, in consequence, the heritage of the few whom nature and education favoured, and who were thus enabled to use the great bulk of the people as their passive instruments. No sooner, however, did the mechanical discoveries which have distinguished the last half century begin to bring masses of men together into one place, than the natural consequence ensued, in activity and fermentation of mind; the immense power of production of which the people found themselves capable, in conjunction with machinery, led to the formation, on their part, of a high estimate of their individual and social importance, which not only prompted an enquiry into their condition and their rights, but also encouraged that action of their mental faculties, which could not fail to augment their mental

power, and give a deep earnestness and intensity to their enquiries.

The result of their investigations could not be otherwise than highly unsatisfactory to the people. The might which slumbered in a peasant's mind had been suddenly awakened;-to behold what? A social position no less vicious than artificial ;-a position which had, indeed, lost the outward bonds of the serfism of darker ages, but retained too many of its necessary consequences. The body had been freed from actual chains, but remained enslaved to social customs and necessities which kept the mind inert, made the affections gross, and held he spirit in the fetters of superstition. The privileged orders, having wielded the power of the state and conciliated the efficient co-operation of the priesthood, had secured to themselves the greater portion of the good things of the land, and left to the many scarcely more than the crumbs which fell from their table. And although, in the new creation of wealth to which the manufacturing impulse gave birth, the few were compelled, as the essential condition of their own aggrandizement, to allow the people no inconsiderable share, yet it was found, such was the inequality of social arrangements-that the great current of influence bore in favour of the opulent and the elevated, and to the detriment of the humble labourer. Here, then, we have, in the same mind, a sense of social disqualification and a consciousness of power: we have, in face of each other, ancient institutions and observances which favour the few, and deep and powerful discontent which demands the rights of the many. Such discontent could not be expected to be very discriminating in its judgments, and it therefore came to look with an eye of jealousy on every thing connected, whether accidentally or otherwise, with the causes to which it owed its existence. A species of class morality, therefore, has

arisen, which not only frowns with a threatening brow on existing social inequalities, but arrays itself in hostility against our domestic relations and our religious convictions. 'Owenism' is not least among the consequences of this state of things.

Born of a spirit of philanthropy brooding over our social evils, it stands up in stern opposition alike to the good and the bad in our actual condition, and while its mission is to remedy the one, proceeds most unwisely to destroy the other. Its real and proper antagonist is the feudalism in which society is still deeply embedded, but its blows are indiscriminately aimed at the very religion which has taken from that feudalism some of its worst qualities, and will, I have no doubt, work society free from its direful evils.

From these remarks it will be gathered, that I entertain no hostility to any rational attempt which the people may make with a view to better their condition. On the contrary, I wish them every success; and though I have my doubts whether the economical arrangements proposed for adoption in the New Moral World,' would prove much better than delusions, yet so fully aware am I of the infelicity of the actual condition of the people, and so firmly am I convinced that their salvation must, in the main, be wrought out by themselves, and moreover, so well do I augur of at least the indirect results of any honest and earnest effort after social improvement, that I, for one, not only have no quarrel with the disciples of the New Moral World,' in their attempts to better their condition and the condition of the many, but can do no other than look with interest and hope on their undertaking. But when I find that, in pursuit of their proposed social reforms, they strike at what I consider the most sacred principles of religious and moral truth, I feel an impulse which I cannot resist, to assume a defensive position; and while I attempt to shield important truth

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from the rude assaults of error, to utter a voice of warning to those, and especially the young, who, in their zeal to effect social ameliorations, are hurried onwards into the dark gulf of moral and religious infidelity. And it is far more in a spirit of sorrow than of anger, of that charity which loves humanity too well to be harsh even in the exposure of its most injurious errors, that I would address myself to the task. I am not unaware of the influence of the circumstances in which I am placed, and on that very account I entertain a hope, that in proceeding to offer some defence of the religion of Jesus Christ, I have no prejudices to gratify, no interests to serve but those of truth, and no desire but to benefit my fellowcreatures. What I shall present to your consideration will be my own honest convictions, and though you may conclude by thinking me wrong, I trust you will have no reason to declare me perverse. I claim no authority but such as truth may be found to confer, and appeal to no tribunal but the faculties and sympathies with which my hearers are endowed. Give an impartial, if not a favourable hearing to what I advance; let it enter as an element into your considerations; carry on your enquiries with diligence; deal honestly and faithfully with evidence; judge calmly; determine cautiously; keep your minds ever open to new light, and disallow every authority but that of your own convictions. The result must be beneficial.

My business is, to defend the religion of Jesus Christ against the assaults of what is termed Owenism. It may be well, therefore, in the outset, to say a few words in explanation, respecting these two influences.

It is the religion of Jesus Christ that I propose to defend. You will understand that I make a distinction between the religion of Jesus Christ, and prevalent Christianity. To prevalent Christianity I am in no way pledged, and the defence of it I leave to its adherents. The attachment I profess is to none of the outward, to

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none of the popular forms of Christianity, but to that view of the religion of Christ which I have been led to form. It is only my own convictions that I can be expected to maintain; and if those convictions either agree not with the opinions of other professed Christians, or prove less open to the shafts of the unbeliever, I can have no other feelings but one of fellowregret, that my disciples should, in my mind, be involved in error; and of rejoicing, that I have found a path of security as well as of confidence. And I cannot but add, that I deplore the fact that while all true philanthropists may find in the religion of Jesus both light and impulse for their divine engagements, the constructor of the New Moral World' should have not merely thrown away the power which it would have given him, but arrayed himself in an attitude of most determined hostility to its truth and influence. Such, however, is the fact, for Owenism presents itself as the dire antagonist of the religion of Jesus. Whether or not its author has ever studied that religion in its own unadulterated qualities, I am unable to say, but certainly his hostility is as indiscriminating as it is decided. To no small extent, indeed, is Owenism, in its bearing on religion and morality, an attempt to erase all the impressions which hold the first rank in the religion of Christ. It sets aside, with no gentle hand, the disclosures which it makes respecting the Deity, a future life, man's responsibility, and the sanctity of marriage, and ascribes to the prevalence of the Christian religion most of the evils which infest society. In one thousand eight hundred and eighteen,' I quote Mr. Owen's words, 'I proclaimed that ignorance and error, crime and folly, had their sources in the different religions of the world.' I now denounce the marriages of the old world, as I then denounced its religions."

The Marriage System,' p. 13.

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