網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

the idea, that it is destined to retire for ever from the scene of action at the hour of death.

But the noblest examples of exalted virtue are to be found among those who have enlisted themselves in the cause of Christianity. The Apostle Paul was an illustrious example of every thing that is noble, heroic, generous, and benevolent in human conduct. His soul was inspired with a holy ardour in promoting the best interests of mankind. To accomplish this object, he parted with friends and relatives, relinquished his native country, and every thing that was dear to him either as a Jew or as a Roman citizen, and exposed himself to persecutions and dangers of every description. During the prosecution of his benevolent career, he was "in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by his own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in stripes above measure, in cold and nakedness." Yet none of these things moved him, nor did he count his life dear to him, provided he might finish his course with joy, and be instrumental in accomplishing the present and eternal happiness of his fellow-men. In every period of the Christian era, similar characters have arisen to demonstrate the power of virtue and to bless mankind. Our own age and country have duced numerous philanthropic characters, who have shone as lights in the moral world, and have acted as benefactors to the human race. The names of Alfred, Penn, Barnard, Raikes, Neilde, Clarkson, Sharpe, Buxton, Wilberforce, Venning, and many others, are familiar to every one who is in the least acquainted with the annals of benevolence. The exertions which some of these individuals have made in the cause of liberty, in promoting the education of the young, in alleviating the distresses of the poor, in ameliorating the condition of the prisoner, and in counteracting the abominable traffic in slaves, will be felt as blessings conferred on mankind throughout succeeding generations, and will, doubtless, be held in everlasting remembrance.

pro

But among all the philanthropic characters of the past

or present age, the labours of the late Mr. HoWARD, stand pre-eminent. This illustrious man, from a principle of pure benevolence, devoted the greater part of his life to active beneficence, and to the alleviation of human wretchedness, in every country where he travelled,-diving into the depth of dungeons, and exposing himself to the infected atmospheres of hospitals and jails, in order to meliorate the condition of the unfortunate, and to allay the sufferings of the mournful prisoner. In prosecuting this labour of love, he travelled three times through France, four times through Germany, five times through Holland, twice through Italy, once through Spain and Portugal, and also through Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Poland, and part of the Turkish empire, surveying the haunts of misery, and distributing benefits to mankind wherever he appeared.

"From realm to realm with cross or crescent crown'd,
Where'er mankind and misery are found,

O'er burning sands, deep waves, or wilds of snow,
Mild Howard journeying seeks the house of woe.
Down many a winding step to dungeons dank,
Where anguish wails aloud and fetters clank,
To caves bestrewed with many a mouldering bone,
And cells whose echoes only learn to groan;
Where no kind bars a whispering friend disclose,
No sun-beam enters, and no zephyr blows
-He treads, inemulous of fame or wealth,
Profuse of toil and prodigal of health;
Leads stern-ey'd Justice to the dark domains,
If not to sever, to relax the chains,
Gives to her babes the self-devoted wife,
To her fond husband liberty and life.

;

-Onward he moves! disease and death retire;
And murmuring demons hate him and admire."

DARWIN.

Such characters afford powerful demonstrations of the sublimity of virtue, of the activity of the human mind, and of its capacity for contributing to the happiness of fellow intelligences to an unlimited extent. We have also, in our own times, a class of men who have parted from their friends and native land, and have gone to the "uttermost ends of the earth," to distant barbarous climes, exposing themselves to the frosts of Labrador and Greenland, to the scorching heats of Africa, and to the hostile attacks of savage tribes, in order to publish the salvation of God, and

to promote the happiness of men of all languages and climates. Some of these have felt their minds inspired with such a noble ardour in the cause of universal benevolence, that nothing but insurmountable physical obstructions prevented them from making the tour of the world, and imparting benefits to men of all nations, kindreds, and tongues.

Can we then imagine, that such active powers as those to which I have now alluded-powers which qualify their possessors for diffusing happiness to an indefinite extent among surrounding intelligences-will be for ever extin. guished by the stroke of death? and that, after a few feeble efforts during the present transitory scene, they will never again exert their energies through all eternity? This will appear in the highest degree improbable, if we consider, 1. The limited sphere of action to which the generality of mankind are confined in the present state. Most men are confined to laborious employments, and have their attention almost entirely absorbed in providing for their families, and in anxious solicitude for their animal subsistence and success in life, so that they find no scope for their moral powers beyond the circle of the family mansion, and of their own immediate neighbourhood. 2. The period within which the most energetic powers can be exerted is extremely limited. It is not before man has arrived near the meridian of life that his moral powers begin to be fully expanded, and it frequently happens, in the case of ardent benevolent characters, that, at the moment when their philanthropic schemes were matured, and they had just commenced their career of beneficence, death interposes, and puts a period to all their labours and designs. 3. In the present state of the world, numerous physical obstructions interpose to prevent the exertion of the moral powers, even in the most ardent philanthropic minds. The want of wealth and influence; the diseases and infirmities of an enfeebled corporeal frame; the impediments thrown in the way by malice and envy, and the political arrangements of states; the difficulty of penetrating into every region of the globe where human beings reside, and many other obstructions, prevent the full exercise of that moral energy which resides in benevolent and heroic minds, and confine its operations within a narrow span. But can we

ever suppose, in consistency with Divine Wisdom and Benevolence, that God has implanted in the human constitution benevolent active powers, which are never to be fully expanded, and that those godlike characters that have occasionally appeared on the theatre of our world, are never to re-appear on the field of action, to expatiate, in the full exercise of their moral powers, in the ample career of immortality? To admit such a supposition would be in effect to call in question his Wisdom and Intelligence. It is the part of Wisdom to proportionate means to ends, and to adapt the faculties of any being to the scene in which it is to operate. But here, we behold a system of powers which can never be brought into full operation in the present state; and, therefore, if death is to put a final termination to the activity of man, the mighty powers and energies with which he is endowed have been bestowed in vain,—and we are led to conceive of the Divine Being as deficient in Wisdom and Intelligence in his government of the intellectual beings he has formed.

This will, perhaps, appear still more obvious, if we attend to the following considerations.-Throughout the universe we perceive traces of a system of universal benevolence. This is distinctly perceptible in relation to our own globe, in the revolution of day and night; in the constitution of the atmosphere; in the beautiful and sublime scenes presented to the eye in every country; in the agencies of light and heat, and of the electrical and galvanic fluids; in the splendour of the sun, and the glories of the midnight sky; in the organization of the body of man, and the different senses with which he is endowed; in the general adaptation of the mineral and vegetable kingdoms, and of every element around us, to the wants of man and other sensitive beings; and in the abundant supply of food and drink which is annually distributed to every rank of animated existence. We perceive traces of the same benevolent agency in the arrangements connected with distant worlds

in the rotation of the planetary globes around their axes, in the assemblages of rings and moons with which they are environed, and in the diversified apparatus by which light and heat are distributed in due proportion to the several bodies which compose the solar system. And, in

other systems, in the distant regions of space, we perceive that it is one great end of the Creator, to diffuse light and splendour throughout all the provinces of his immense empire, in order to unveil his glorious works to the eyes of unnumbered intelligences. But, although a system of benevolence is abundantly manifest in the mechanical fabric of the universe, yet it does not appear that happiness can be fully enjoyed without the benevolent agency of intelligent beings. We have abundant proofs of this position in the world in which we dwell. For although the goodness of the Creator is displayed throughout all its regions, yet the greater part of the human race is in a state of comparative misery, not owing to any deficiency in the Divine bounty, but to the selfishness, ambition, and malevolence of men. With the blessings which Heaven provides from year to year, the whole population of our globe, and a thousand millions more, would be amply supplied, and happiness extensively diffused, were benevolence a prominent and universal trait in the character of mankind. Even in those places where only a few energetic and benevolent individuals bestir themselves in the cause of general philan. thropy, a wonderful change is rapidly produced in the condition of society. Disease, and misery, and want, fly away at their approach, the poor are supplied, the wretched relieved, the prisoner released, the orphan provided for, and the widow's heart made to sing for joy.

Now, we have every reason to conclude, that moral action extends over the whole empire of God-that Benevolence exerts its noblest energies among the inhabitants of distant worlds—and that it is chiefly through the medium of reciprocal kindness and affection that ecstatic joy pervades the hearts of celestial intelligences. For we cannot conceive happiness to exist in any region of space, or among any class of intellectual beings, where love to the Creator, and to one another, is not a prominent and permanent affection.

It is, therefore, reasonable to believe that those virtuous benevolent characters which have appeared in our world, have been only in the act of training for a short period, preparatory to their being transported to a nobler scene of action, and that their moral powers, which could not be

« 上一頁繼續 »