ON RELIGION.
As reason and revelation both tell us that this state of being is but a preparation for another of a still higher and more spiritual order, all the interests of life are of comparatively little importance, when put in the balance against the future. It is in this grand fact that we are to seek for the explanations of whatever may strike us as unjust, partial, or unkind in the dispensations of Providence, as these dispensations affect our temporal condition. If there is no pure and abstract liberty, no equality of condition, no equal participation in the things of the world that we are accustomed to fancy good, on remembering the speck of time passed in the present state, the possibility that what to us may seem a curse, may in truth be a blessing, the certainty that prosperity is more corrupting than adversity, we shall find the solution of all our difficulties.
In a religious point of view, it may be permitted to endeavor to improve our temporal condition, by the use of lawful and just means, but it is never proper to repine. Christ, in the parable of the vine dressers, has taught us a sublime lesson of justice, by showing that to the things which are not our own, we can have no just claim. To this obvious truth, may be added the uncertainty of the future, and the ignorance in which we exist of what is good, or what is evil, as respects our own wants.
There is but one true mode of viewing life, either in a religious, or in a philosophical sense, and that is to remember it is a state of probation in which the trials exceed the enjoyments, and that, while it is lawful to endeavor to increase the latter, more especially if of an intellectual and elevated kind, both form but insignificant interests in the great march of time. Whatever may be the apparent inequalities here, and even they are less real than they appear to be, it is certain that we bring nothing with us into the world, and that we take nothing out of it. Every thing around us serves to teach the lesson that, though inequality of condition here is as probably intended for some great end as it is unavoidable, we come from a state of being in which we know of no such law, to go to one that we have divine revelation for believing will render the trifling disparities and the greatest advantages of this life, matters of insignificance, except as they have had an influence on our deportment, characters and faith. It would be just as discreet for a man who is suffering with hunger to murmur at having been created with such a want, while others are feeding, as to repine that another enjoys advantages he cannot possess. In this country, the aim has been to reduce all the factitious inequalities of station, condition, wealth and knowledge, to a state as natural as comports with civilization, and beyond this it exceeds the power of man to go, without returning to the condition of the savage. Let him, then, on whom the world bears hard, seek his consolation in that source which is never drained, and where more contentment is to be found than shadows a throne, or smiles on riches and power. If it be a positive thing to be a gentleman, or a lady, and as much a folly to deny it as to deny that a horse is an animal, it is equally positive that we carry in us a principle of existence that teaches us, however good and pleasant may seem the outward blessings of the world, that there are still blessings of infinitely greater magnitude, that have the additional merit of being imperishable.
The limits and objects of this work neither require, nor admit of very profound dissertations, but a few words on the peculiarities of religion and of religious feeling in America, may not be misplaced.
The causes which led to the establishment of the principal American colonies, have left a deep impression on the character of the nation. In some respects this impression has been for good, in others for evil. Our business is with the latter.
Fanaticism was the fault of the age, at the time our ancestors took possession of the country, and its exaggerations have entailed on their descendants many opinions that are, at the best, of a very equivocal usefulness. These opinions are to be detected by the contracted nations of those who entertain them, and by a general want of that charity and humility, which are the most certain attendants of the real influence of the meek and beneficent spirit of Christ.
In America the taint of sectarianism lies broad upon the land. Not content with acknowledging the supremacy of the Deity, and with erecting temples in his honor, where all can bow down with reverence, the pride and vanity of human reason enter into and pollute our worship, and the houses that should be of God and for God, alone, where he is to be honored with submissive faith, are too often merely schools of metaphysical and useless distinctions. The nation is sectarian, rather than Christian.
Religion's first lesson is humility; its fruit, charity. In the great and sublime ends of Providence, little things are lost, and least of all is he imbued with a right spirit who believes that insignificant observances, subtleties of doctrine, and minor distinctions, enter into the great essentials of the Christian character. The wisest thing for him who is disposed to cavil at the immaterial habits of his neighbor, to split straws on doctrine, to fancy trifles of importance, and to place the man before principles, would be to distrust himself. The spirit of peace is not with him.
The institutions of the country, by wisely breaking down all artificial and unnecessary distinctions, while they have preserved the ordinances necessary to civilized society, have removed the factitious barriers from one particular vice, which, while it belongs to the nature of man, may be termed a besetting sin of this country. We shall conclude this article, therefore, by simply quoting the stern mandate of the tenth commandment: "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife; nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's."