the poverty, distress, and ruin of his customers-for the widowhood and orphanage of his neighbor's wife and family!

'But,' said a distiller once to me, 'sir, I do not manufacture ardent spirits to kill or ruin any one; nor do I know of any one ruined by my distillery.' 'Well, sir,' was the reply, 'what your intentions are, or what your knowledge of the effects of your profession may be, I do not need to know to convict you of the immorality of your calling. I only ask you to concede to me that other distillers may tell your story of themselves with as much truth and evidence as you tell it. Substantially, at least, you do admit it. Well, then, this at least simplifies the problem, and makes the solution more easy. There are, for example, ten thousand distilleries in the United States, and the number of persons annually destroyed by the articles manufactured are at least thirty thousand, one-third of whom are husbands and heads of families; besides many who are greatly injured, though not absolutely ruined by the use of your merchandize.

Now, sir, not one of these distillers in a hundred will, or can admit to you, that his distillery is chargeable with any proportion of this vice, calamity, and ruin. Like you, they say, 'We do not vend it to the consumers, but to the retailers-we keep no tipplers nor drunkards about our premises." No, indeed, that would neither be their interest nor their honor! They are wholesale venders of the article; and, of course, they only furnish the retailers with the poison. Well, sir, if you did not make it, they could not buy it; and so endeth the first chapter.

'But do not follow every you barrel have made and sold, to see you the last drop of it consumed; and therefore you cannot tell how many may have been ruined by it. God alone, in the final judgment, may show you the full amount of vice, immorality, crime, and murder chargeable to your individual account. But, till then, we are obliged to divide equally among you ten thousand distillers, thirty thousand annually ruined by your profession; and that gives to you, sir, three murders per annum-the head of one family and two unmarried persons. These, sir, are ruined by your daily business, in which Paul commands you to be diligent; saying, "Be diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." But Paul, you say, did not mean your business. Well, then, that is pronouncing judgment against yourself It is saying that your business is unlawful-a business in which you cannot be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.

Still you shuffle the matter upon the shoulders of the retailers, who measure out and wait upon the drunkard and suicidal wretch, as their daily and regular calling. You say these are public nuisances. These

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CHRISTIANITY AN ORIGINAL INSTITUTION.

men cannot possibly fear God, or believe in his Son. How could they have their ears filled all the day long with cursings and blasphemies? They live upon the rankest vices of apostate wretches. They fatten upon the very carrion of iniquity. The breath which they inhale is impregnated with the grossest obscenities and profanities. The bread which they eat is the free-will offerings of the priests of Satan. They drink the libations of Bacchus, and tithe the sacrifices of demons. They draw their maintenance from the gates of hell.

'Admit all you say of those dram-sellers-those pests of every community; still if you did not furnish the article, they could not sell it. You are the cistern of their iniquities-the reservoir of all their crime, infamy, and ruin. They are but the streams that flow from your wells of pollution and death. They do but facilitate your operations and make lucrative your labors. Think, I pray you, how many tears of anguish you have bottled up for the widow; how many curses you have distilled for the orphan! Think of the lava of iniquity which belches forth from the many volcanoes of moral desolation which you have kindled by the fire of Tophet, and wash you and make you clean from this most ruinous of all the devices of Satan, of all the pursuits and callings of sin-crazed mortal man!' So readeth the second chapter. The third at a more convenient season.

A. C.

CHRISTIANITY AN ORIGINAL INSTITUTION.

No. 1.

THE Christian Institution differs essentially from every other known amongst men, on account of its universal adaptation to our wants and circumstances. Unlike the preceding institution, which conferred its blessings upon the descendants of a single family; or the false and corrupt religions of Polytheism, confined to the members of their caste, and the creatures of a peculiar age and country; and, like the green scum that grows upon the surface of the polluted pool, or the vapor that exhales therefrom, these institutions were the legitimate offspring of ignorance and of a depraved public sentiment: the manners and morals, and politics of the state, originated and perfected them. But Christianity was not the creature of the age, nor of the country in which it was first published, it bears upon its face the least resemblance to any thing which then existed. The beautiful and sublime features which she wears had no prototype on earth; the state of private and public morals could afford no model upon which so perfect a system as this is could have been formed-no mould into which it could have been cast. It was a plant by no means indigenous to the soil in which it grew; it was an exotic; its seed was wafted upon the breath of heaven from the celestial world; and while its leaves were for the healing of the nations, its fruit administered life and immortality to those who eat of it. The entire and absolute originality of the Christian religion is

CHRISTIANITY AN ORIGINAL INSTITUTION.

319

a strong and convincing proof of its divinity: as well might we expect
to find the variegated heauties of the garden of Eden growing upon the
glassy mirror of the ocean, or the fruits and flowers of Paradise upon
the burning sands of Arabia Deserta, as to expect such an institution as
that of Christianity appearing as the natural and spontaneous product
of the times in which it originated. The laws and institutions of
Sparta, the statutes of the inexorable Lycurgus, were nothing more than
the spirit of the age embodied and made tangible; they were but "the
types and the interpreters" of the times: this distinguished lawgiver
cannot claim even the merit of originality. But it was not so with
Christianity: this was the work of a mind untaught by human wisdom,
unschooled in the religion or philosophy of the times, unaided by the
sages or the learned of antiquity; a religion unique and perfect, the
product of Him in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge
had been laid up. But although such was the origin of this wonderful
system, and such the character of the age which gave it birth, yet it
anticipated all the future, it saw and made ample provision for a better
day, a more enlightened and perfect state of society than that which the
world had ever seen; and its expectations have not been disappointed;
the gospel of Christ has realized the most triumphant success in the
fairest and best portions of the globe in Europe and America; and so
far as the English language is spoken and English literature is known,
the Christian religion is believed and valued as the wisdom and power
of God for the salvation of men. After Europe arose, as from the
sleep of ages; and the ancient literature of Greece and Rome were
disinterred; and the scriptures of truth were brought to light and dis-
seminated among the people; and the hateful aspect of the Papal Beast
was exposed to the view of the astonished world; and the false systems
of philosophy which had kept the mind in abeyance for two thousand
years, was openly attacked and finally exploded; and the art of printing
and the mariner's compass were discovered; and the magnificent reve-
lation of a new world burst upon the sight in the western hemisphere;
and Bacon began to develope the true foundation of all science, as ori-
ginating in facts and observations, and that we know nothing "of the
order of nature-quantum re vel mente observa verit." This was a
perilous day for the Christian religion; this was the day of her trial-
not by the fires of persecution simply, but the more searching elements
of reason and intellection-not by the physical arm of power and
authority, but by the giant, the almost superhuman energies of the dis-
enthralled mind of man: every thing in science, in morals, in philoso-
phy, in politics, in religion that could be shaken, was shaken; there was
a great earthquake; and a third part of all that genius, and learning,
and the accumulated ages of the past had gathered together, was thrown
along the ground an utter ruin. And did Christianity pass by unno-
ticed? By no means. She was subjected to the most careful and
rigid scrutiny; she was put upon the rack, and tortured to apostatize
from her allegiance to the God of heaven; and she spoke, but it was not
in the accents of servility or remonstrance; she asked for no pity; she
entreated for no favor; but she raised her voice, and said, "I am all
divine! My nature is immortal!" She spoke in the commanding voice
of authority and in the uncompromising language of truth, and the day
of her trial was the day of her triumph.
J. C.

Brother Campbell,

WESTERN NEW YORK, May, 1839.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES.

I HAVE, during the past winter and the present spring, travelled considerably in this section of the country; and having had opportunities much better than "a looker-on in Venice," I have come quite satisfactorily to the conclusion that we live on the eve of a revolution in the religious polities in this state. The public mind is on the qua via. "Men are running to and fro, and knowledge is increasing." loyale to the sects are becoming desperate. The people of "sober second thought" are retiring. The leaders and the led of all parties are growing into an untempered compact of lordship and vassalage. But, as Lord Byron said upon another occasion

"This cannot endure, nor be endured;

Mankind have felt their strength, and made it felt.”

The

To meet the exigencies the sects are active. Their conclaves are rife with projects. They are alarmed for their titles. There are older deeds upon record than theirs. The cry is sounding from all quarters, "What shall be done" There is but one party among the sects, of which I have any knowledge, that is on the proper road to the emancipation of themselves and their fellows, which is the party known as Unionists. These have moved discreetly and correctly as far as they have gone; and must not be opposed nor anticipated. They have some distance yet to sail; but their compass is true. We must with them strike a truce, and offer our assistance to help to trim and row the ship. They are afraid of pilot boats; and they have cause to be, for they found themselves under such guide, hard upon the breakers, the foam and roar of which are yet in sight and hearing. I said their compass was true; and they know it. I was almost sorry to see a boat with the pilot's flag, in the last two Harbingers, although we know the pilot to be one of the most skilful. There are many of the Baptists here who have almost the truth. In the Genesee Association they are probably more advanced than any other. They are much more so than any of their western brethren of Pennsylvania, Virginia, or Ohio, with whom I am acquainted. They have not the "Philadelphia Platform." Every church is independent of all others. So far, so good. Still more they plead for all the items in the proclamation of the gospel, with their proper definitions. Yet I have somewhat against them: they seem not to have yet learned that "ORDER IS THE FIRST LAW OF HEAVEN." They lack the arrangement.

So much have we of a redeeming nature. But that of which I am more apprehensive than of any other means of opposition to the truth in this country is this, that, to meet the present time, prophesied by John, Rev. xix. 11. &c. by the "white horse and rider," the sects are about to follow in track of the Mormons, by adopting the Saviour's method of enlisting, and then convert them to their several parties afterwards. You know they all have one way of enlisting now, and they certainly can do as well with any other one way. The thing has been proposed by one of the sects, in this way, that they would unite with us, only requiring the adoption of their name. The ruse did not take; and I

trust there is sufficient intelligence among the disciples not to act the part of "seven women." I therefore say we must be prepared to meet this attempt on the purity of the gospel and its institutes. There is no doubt but this is in process of maturing in other places as well as heres and I believe the only way to prevent it is to be prepared to meet it. Yours in the gospel, A. P. J.

Beloved Brother,

YOURSELF.

VICKSBURG, April 17, 1839.

"SEIZE upon truth where'er 'tis found" is a noble maxim. I every department of literature we often meet with observations, just and striking, calculated to arrest the attention and leave a profitable impression.

The following remarks on "Concerning Yourself" met my eye in the "National Intelligencer," originally from the "Pennsylvanian:""You cannot find a more companionable person than yourself, if proper attention be paid to the individual. Yourself will go with you wherever you like, and come away when you please; approve your jokes, assent to your propositions, and, in short, be every way agreeable, if you only learn and practise the true art of being really "on good terms with yourself." This, however, is not so easy as many imagine who do not often try the experiment. Yourself, when it catches you in company with no other person, is apt to be a severe critic on your faults and foibles; and when you are censured by yourself, it is gener ally the severest and most intolerable species of reproof. It is on this account that you are often afraid of yourself, and seek any associates, no matter how inferior, whose bold chat may keep yourself from playing the censor. Yourself is likewise a jealous friend. If neglected and slighted it becomes a "bore," and to be left for even a short time "by yourself" is then regarded as actually a cruel penance, as many find when youth, health, or wealth has departed. How important is it, then, to know thyself, to cultivate thyself, to respect thyself, to love thyself warmly, but rationally. A sensible self is the best of guides; for few commit errors but in broad disregard of its admonitions. It tugs continually at the skirts of men to draw them from their cherished vices. It holds up its shadowy finger in warning when you go astray, and it sermonizes sharply on your sins after they have been committed. "Our nature is two-fold, and its noblest part is the self to which we refer. It stands on the alert to check the excess of the animal impulses; and though it becomes weaker in the fulfilment of its task by repeated disappointments, it is rarely so enfeebled as to be unable to rise up occasionally, sheeted and pale, like Richard's victims, to overwhelm the offender with bitterest reproaches. Study, therefore, to be on good terms with yourself—it is happiness to be truly pleased with yourself. Pleasures and successes cannot compensate for the loss of this good understanding and amicable relationship between the parties who occupy "the house you live in."

"One self-approving hour whole years outweighs
Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas."