The museum of religious knowledge

Front matter

i/ jy

7 ■

.=5^. .1^/

Preface

In the preparation of this little volume, the editor has desired to consult particularly the circumstances of a numerous portion of the community who have but little time for extended investigation on any subject. Immersed in various kinds of business, and eng-aged in the stirring scenes of life, they are not inclined to wade through huge volumes to winnow out the wheat from the chaff, and thus to get valuable knowledge. They will seize hold of a small volume w^hich conveys important truth in an interesting manner, and will read it with interest, and lay up valuable facts, maxims, and principles, for future use.

At the same time that he has desired to furnish such a collection of articles as convey important truth, in an interesting and eno-aorinor style, he would do nothino^ to vitiate the taste of the age. He w^ould carefully exclude every false principle, and every thing calculated to dissipate the mind, and lead it away from the great end of its being. " He would unite holiness to the Lord under all that is beautiful and picturesque, majestic aiid sublime in nature. He would have every garland and chaplet which the literature of the country weaves, composed of the fragrant leaves of the tree of life."

The only merit which the editor claims for his own pieces is that which arises from the intrinsic importance of the subjects themselves. Prepared, as they have been, in a short time, and amid other pressing engagements, he is far from supposing that he has done justice to the discussion of the subjects. But he believes that truths and important principles, are presented in them, though perhaps in some cases buried in rubbish.

The union of moral and religious culture with mental^ which the editor has discussed in one article, is a subject of surpassing interest at this day of feverish excitement, hurried action, and skeptical influence. The writer has only touched on a few of the great principles connected with this subject, just sufficient to show how vital is this principle of education in its bearings on the wel-

4 PREFACE.

fare of individuals and nations. If we would shun the rock on which other republics have split, w^e must enthrone in the hearts of our people the sacred influence of the Bible.

But why write any thing more about China ? Have not too many books been already written in relation to that people ? To such inquiries I would reply : In the first place, China is assuming- great importance as a field of missionary exertions; and it is highly important that correct information be spread out extensively before the people, and in various ways, in regard to that immense empire; and that the church, which is slumbering over a perishing world, be roused to the discharge of her duty in respect to those teeming millions, who are " perishing for lack of vision." In the next place, though much has been ably written on this subject, yet it is spread over so vast a surface, that comparatively few will ever take the trouble to gather it up, and bring it before the mind in such a way as to make a distinct impression. The editor has thought that an article which should imbody the most interesting facts and views in relation to the condition and prospects of China, in a form accessible to all, and requiring but a few hours' attention, was a desideratum at this time. He very cheerfully admits his incompetency to do full justice to the plan ; but if it should only have the effect to awaken a deeper interest in the cause of missions in a few minds, he will feel richly repaid for his labour.

The articles from other writers are on important subjects ; and the principal part of them from the pens of those who have established a high reputation as authors in the department of Christian literature. Their views are sound, and they have handled their themes in an able and interesting manner.

In the selection of materials for this w^ork, the editor has not confined himself to any section of the Christian church, w^hich should give it the appearance of a sectarian work. He would repudiate that narrow spirit that looks upon Christian societies as rival empires, each aiming to raise itself on the ruins o^ the others ,• and would cherish a spirit of Christian union and liberality.

To the blessing of that Being, under whose guidance the feeblest instrumentality may secure the choicest moral influences, he commits this little book, with the humble hope that in the great day it. may unfold some blessed results on immortal minds,

M. E. C.

Philadelphia,

CONTENTS,

No. PACE

Preface , 3

I. — The pre-eminent Value of the Bible. — Hox. Alexander

H. EVEBETT 7

II. — A Vision of the Church. — Rev. Gardiner Spring, D.D. 33

III.— The Perils of Infidelity 52

IV. — Plan of Reading — Rev. Joel Hawes, D.D. 95

V. — Mental and Moral Culture combined, the only true Basis

of Education. — Marcus E. Cross 115

VI. — The Drunkard reclaimed. — Mrs. Harriet B. Stowe.. 139

VII.— Early Piety.— -Rev. William S. Plumer, D.D 154

VIII. — Influence of a praying Mother 184

IX.— A Plea for China.— Marcus E. Cross 190

X. — The merciless Creditor. — Rev. George A. Ratbold... 235

XL— Striking Coincidences. — Rt. Rev. B. B. Smith, D.D 245

XII. — Moral Influence of popular Descriptions of Battle Scenes. —

Marcus E. Cross 247

XIII. — The Glory of the Saviour contrasted with that of earthly

Conquerors. — Rev. R. Babcock, D.D 250

XIV. — The Existence of God. — Marcus E. Cross 252

XV. — Seamen the best Missionaries 261

No. I.

THE PRE-EMINENT VALUE OF THE BIBLE.

AN ADDRESS AT RUTGERS COLLEGE,

BY ALEXANDERH. EVERETT.

Gentlemen of the Societies,

The occasion which has called us together, and which, by your appointment, has devolved upon me the agreeable, though arduous task of addressing you, is one of a deeply interesting character. For those of you who are more immediately concerned in the ceremonies of the day, it marks the dividing line between the walks of studious and active life. Thus far you have pursued your course under the eye of affectionate and careful friends, of tender parents, or watchful guardians and tutors. Their experience and love have supplied the want of the mature judgment wliich your youth denied you, and have brought you safely through many perils, to the portals of the great theatre of the world. To-day you pass the threshold. No longer looking up to others with implicit faith as the guides of your course, and as mainly responsible for its direction towards good or evil, you are now to go forward as independent, self-directed, self-sustaining men ; to discharge the duties, to encounter the labours and perils, and to reap the rewards and honours which may have been reserved for you. Like some gallant ship, bound for distant regions, and freighted with a rich cargo, which the care of her owners has provided with all the necessary stores, and safely towed out of harbour, you this day spread your canvass to the breeze, and launch out boldly upon the broad ocean of life.

But though you are now to go forth and pursue your course as independent responsible men, you go not forth

8 MUSEUM or RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE.

alone. The friends, whose care and kindness watched over your earlier years, are still to accompany and aid you as counsellors. They are now assembled to witness, with affectionate and eager interest, your departure from the retreats of preparatory study, and to welcome you to the open field of manly exertion. They are to co-operate with you ill its toils ; to sustain you, as far as may be, in its perils ; to sympathize with you in good and in evil fortune. As you advance in life, new relations of a dearer and tenderer kind than any that you have yet formed await you. A home of your own creation — the true temple of happiness and virtue — will receive you into its charmed circle, and bind you with new and delightful ties to your brother men. It is also your fortune to have your birth in a land of equal laws, and of wise and well-administered political institutions. Your country spreads over you her broad protecting shield, to guard you from all injustice or oppression at home or abroad ; secures to you unimpaired the fruits of your industry ; lays open to your enterprise, unfettered by monopoly or privilege, every branch of useful and honourable labour, and holds out to your noble ambition her highest places of trust and honour as the rewards of zealous and successful exertion in her service. In a still more elevated sphere, the All-seeing Eye watclies over you with a love surpassing that of friends, parents, or protectors, and will make all changes and chances work together for good for those who love him and keep his commandments.

It is, therefore, under happiest auspices, gentlemen and friends, that you this day go forth from the shades of academic retirement to the walks of busy life. You ^o forth, as well you may, with fresh and buoyant spirits. You look forward with hope and confidence to the future. To the eye of ingenuous youth the world appears in prospect like some enchanted landscape of perennial verdure, adorned with fairest roses, and glittering with the fresh dews of the morning.

" Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr hlows,

While proudly riding o*er the azure realm, In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes,

Youth at the prow, and Pleasure at the helm."

For you, gentlemen, may no clouds overspread this bright prospect ! May no disappointment blast the promise of so fresh a spring ! May the highest hopes and wishes of your

THE TKE-EMINENT VALUE OF THE BIBLE. 9

friends be more than realized in your future course ! May your country hereafter register your names among those of her worthy and well-beloved children ! And may the great Being, in whose hands are the issues of all events, receive you, on the final day of account, to the rewards of good and faithful servants !

In executing the task which you liave assigned me, I would gladly say something to enforce upon your minds the motives to upright and honourable conduct that result from the various considerations to which I have now alluded. Of these motives, the highest, the purest, and, if duly weighed, the most effective and powerful, are those which are founded in religion. When we view the mind, not as a mere ephemeral form of matter, but as a substantial intelligence, — kindred in some sense, as we are permitted to say, to the High and Holy One that inhabiteth eternity, — every pleasure, care, and duty, presents itself under a new aspect ; the ordinary temptations to vice lose their charm ; the passing troubles of the world are divested of their sting ; and a celestial day-spring illuminates the otherwise dark and dreary chaos of human existence. A full exposition of the nature of the religious motives to good conduct, would, however, be hardly appropriate to the present occasion, and still less so to the studies and pursuits of the present speaker. It belongs to the habitual duties of the sacred desk. The objects of our meeting are of a literary character, and naturally suggest for our reflections a theme of the same description. In accordance with this suggestion, and with a view, at the same time, to the high importance of religious influences on the minds of the young, I propose to offer, in the present address, a few remarks upon the literary and scientific character of the Scriptures. These ancient records, that imbody for us the religious spirit which, we may hope, is not entirely foreign to other forms of faith, are venerable and interesting under every point of view. Their most important aspect is that under which they are considered as the symbols and assurances of divine truth ; but regarded merely as literary monuments, they are not only the most ancient and curious, but, I may safely say, the most extraordinary and valuable in the whole compass of literature. *' Independently of the divine origin of the Scriptures," says the accomplished and clear-headed Sir William Jones, '* I have found in them more true wisdom, more practical good sense, a warmer benevolence, and a higher strain of thought and poetry than I have met with in any other work that I have perused, or indeed all other works put together." In this opinion I entirely concur. On a subject so extensive you will, of course, not expect a complete and regular disquisition. I can only offer a few imperfect hints, which, for the sake of some appearance of method, I will arrange under the three heads into which the illustrious Bacon divides the whole field of learning, Philosophy, Poetry, and History.

1. The philosophy of the Scriptures is at once sublime and simple. It satisfies the highest aspirations of the highest minds, and it falls within the comprehension of the humblest inquirer who honestly seeks to understand it. It embraces the material universe, with its glories and complicated system of

" planets, suns, and adamantine spheres,

Wheeling unshaken through the void immense ;"

the moral world, where the ruling spirits of good and evil carry on a perpetual warfare, with alternate, and apparently not unequal advantage ; — the great problems that have attracted, exercised, and defied the severest study of generation after generation : — it embraces them both with unshrinking grasp, and solves them with a single word. It carries home the sublime truth to the simple heart of the common believer with a clearness of conviction that Socrates and Cicero in their happiest hours of inspiration never knew. This word of power that solves these mighty and momentous problems, that carries home this cheering conviction to the believing heart, — need I say to you, gentlemen, — is God !

When from the merely spontaneous exercise of our intellectual and physical powers, we must turn the mind inward to reflection upon its own nature, and outward to an inquiring contemplation of the objects around us, we find ourselves part and parcel of a vast system. We ask with intense curiosity, with agonizing interest, *' What am 1 ? Whence came I ? What means this glorious panorama of ocean, air, and earth that I see around me,—- these splendid orbs that illuminate the day and night, — these lesser lights that twinkle and burn around tliem, — the seasons with their ever-changing round ? Who can tell me the secret of the being and working of this wondrous machinery ? Did necessity fix it firmly, as it is, from all eternity ? Has accident thrown it together to remain till some other accident shall reduce it to nothing, or did some master-workman adapt it, with intelligent design, to some great and good end? If so, what means this dismal shade of evil that overshadows with its dim eclipse so large a portion of this good and fair creation ? What relation do I bear individually to the grand whole ? Am I a mere ripple on the boundless ocean of being, swelling into life for a moQient and then subsiding forever, or is this curiously compacted frame the abode of a substantial, immortal mind, destined to exist hereafter through countless ages of happiness or misery?"

The greatest and wisest men of all ages and countries, have undertaken to answer these questions in various ways, but generally with slender success. One tells us that the origin of all things is in water, another that it is in fire ; a third places it in the earth, and a fourth in the air. Epicurus resolves the universe into primitive atoms, while Zeno fixes* it firmly in the brazen bonds of necessity. In regard to the problem of the moral world, opinions are equally various. In one system fate is the supreme arbiter, and chance is another. Some acknowledge the existence of gods, but place them apart in some remote celestial sphere, where they live on, regardless of the stir and bustle of this lower world. A few, more wise than the rest, obtain some faint glimpse of the truth, of which, however, they avow that they feel no certain assurance. All is doubt, uncertainty, error. There is no absurdity so great, says Cicero, that some distinguished philosopher has not made it the basis of his theory. The labours of modern inquirers have not been attended with better results. They have terminated in reviving successfully, one after another, the exploded follies of antiquity. One denies the existence of mind, and another that of matter, while a third doubts the reality of either. All — I mean all whose researches have been conducted independently of Scripture — deny the reality of moral distinctions, and reduce man to a level with the animals around him. Such are the noble and consolatory views which the wisdom of Europe proclaimed within our own day, through the mouths of her ablest and most judicious apostles, as the last results of the labours of all preceding ages upon the great problem of God, man, and the universe.

If we turn to the teachers of the various religions, the scene is, if possible, still less agreeable. Stocks and stones ; the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air ; the vilest reptiles ; nay, the very vegetable products that serve for daily food, are held up by the most learned and civilized nations as objects of reverence and arbiters of human fortune. Enlightened Egypt, in her brightest days of power, wisdom, and glory, enrolled the beetle and the onion on the list of her divinities. The mythology of Hindostan is, if possible, still more monstrous. Revolting or childish fables are presented as solutions of the great problem of the universe. The world reposes on the back of an elephant, and the elephant, again, upon a tortoise, which finally rests upon nothing. Even in the elegant creations of the brilliant fancy of Greece, we discern little more than the sports of infancy playing in wantonness w^ith ideas, of the importance of which it is utterly unconscious. In its severer moods, the Greek mythology presents the most desolating views of" the destiny and character of our race. Take, for example, the fable of Prometheus : — On the side of a rocky precipice of immeasurable height, a human being extends his giant length, writhing in agonies of extrem^est torture. Chains of iron attach him to the cliff, while a vulture of enormous size, hoveringover him, perpetually tears his entrails, which are constantly renewed by the supernatural fiat of destiny. This is the Titan Prometheus, as described by the gloomy genius of Eschylus. His crime was, that he had given life to human figures of clay of his own formation, by touching them with fire v/hich he had stolen from lieaven. He is intended as an emblem of humanity. The moral is, that wretchedness is the lot of man, and that superiority of intellect, though employed for the most beneficial objects, only dooms its possessor to intenser miser3^ The wayward genius of Byron, who had chiefly sought for speculative truth in the sources to which I have alluded above, was captivated by this heart-rending fable, which he seems t^) have regarded as the vehicle of important truth, and has dressed it up in some of his finest poetry.

" Titan ! to whose immortal eyes The sorrows of n^ortalit}', Seen in their sad reality,

Were not as things that gods despise ;

What was thy pity's recompense 1 A sufifering, silent, but intense : The rock, the vulture, and the chain : All that the proud can feel of pedn ; The agony they do not show, The suffocating sense of wo.

That speaks but in its loneliness, —

And then is silent, lest the sky Should have a listener, nor will sigh

Unless its voice be echoless."

All the errors, absurdities, and fables to which I have now alluded, have been sustained and illustrated in ancient and in modern times, with the whole power of the human understanding in its most improved condition. Eloquence, logic, learning, and wit, have been employed to make the worse appear the better reason, until the honest inquirer, who seeks for truth through the mazes of these controversies, finds himself completely bewildered and hopeless of arriving at any satisfactory result, were there no other difficulty to be encountered but the extent of the ground to be gone over. To crown the whole, the severest and most celebrated metaphysician of modern times affirms, that the truth cannot, in fact, be discovered by the mere use of the understanding in the ordinary sense of the term ; and in proof of his assertion furnishes what he considers complete and unanswerable demonstrations on both sides of all the great questions that most deeply interest the mind, at the head of which is the existence of God.

From the chaos of controversy, doubt, confusion, imposture, and error, we turn to the Scriptures. Here, gentlemen, we find ourselves at once in a new atmosphere. The very first sentence removes all difficulty. What do I say ? The light breaks upon us before the sentence is finished. The first half-sentence settles at once and forever the great problem of the universe. In the beginning God. No metaphysics ; no logic ; no rhetoric ; no tedious induction from particular facts ; no laboured demonstration a priori or a posteriori ; no display of learning ; no appeal to authority, — but just the plain, simple, naked, unsophisticated truth : In the beginning God.

With the utterance of this little word, an ocean of light an3 splendour bursts at once upon the universe, and penetrates its darkest recesses with living beams of hope and joy. Order, harmony, intelligent design for happiest ends, take the place of unintelligible chaos and wild confusion. A cheerful confidence in the wisdom and goodness of an All- Wise and Almighty Creator, is substituted for gloomy doubt and blank despair. Evil still remains, but how different is its character ! In a universe of chance and fate, it is a blind, irresistible power, like the destiny of ancient fable : treading under its giant feet with remorseless fury, the fairest flowers of the natural and moral creation. '* In a godless universe," says Madame de Stael, " the fall of a sparrow would be a nt subject for endless and inconsolable sorrow." With an Almighty Father at the helm, evil, physical and moral, puts on the character of discipline. We cannot, it is true, penetrate the necessity of its existence, or the nature of the good which it is intended to effect. We are tempted at first to exclaim with the eloquent sophist of Geneva, "Benevolent Being! where, then, is thy almighty power, I behold evil on the earth." But what then ? Does our limited intelligence comprehend the universe ? Can the infant at his mother's breast understand why the honied stream is removed from his lips, and a bitter draught of medicine substituted for it ? Does the little child realize why the kind father confines him in schools, — refuses him the indulgences which he thinks so delightful, inflicts upon him, perhaps, a severe punishment for some, to him, unimaginable fault? To the child, the lapse of a few years makes all these mysteries clear; in the mean time, his confidence and love for his parents induce him to submit with undiminished cheerfulness, where he cannot understand. Shall the frail being of a day repose with less faith and hope upon the bosom of Omniscient and Omnipotent goodness ? How beautiful is the language, in which a late English writer expressed the eftect upon the inquiring mind, oppressed with doubts and fears, of the introduction of an intelligent principle into the theory of the universe.

'* Foreshadows — say, rather, foresplendours of that truth, and beginning of truths, fell mysteriously upon my soul. Sweeter than day-spring to the shipwrecked in Nova Zembla ; — ah ! like a mother's voice to her little child, that strays bewildered, weeping in unknown tumults ; — like soft streamings of celestial music to my too exasperated heart, came that Evangile : the universe is not dead and demoniacal — a charnel-house with spectres, but godlike, and my Father's."

In the beginning God. This little phrase, then, gentlemen, solves in one word the problem of the universe. The same strain of thought runs through the whole volume ; but if it ended here, the system of speculative wisdom would be perfect. It suffers no subtraction : it admits no addition.

In THE BEGINNING GoD.

But knowledge is not every thing. We are not only intelligent, but active beings. A complete system of philosophy must include the essence of practical, as well as speculative wisdom. Satisfied upon the theory of the universe, I turn my views again homeward. I seek for a rule of practical conduct. What are my relations to the beings around me? How am I to act? W^hat am I to do ? Here, too, the schools are given up to inextricable doubt, disputation, and confusion ; and here again, the Scriptures interpose with another masterly solution, in a single word : Love.

Interrogate the doctors, and you find their answers as various as their names. All agree in this : that the object in life is happiness, but how shall I attain it? AVherein resides this long-sought sumrnum bonura : this far-famed fair-and-good, of the Porch and the Academy ? Zeno stretches the inquirerontherack, and endeavours to persuade him that he is happy, by convincing him that pain is not an evil. Epicurus unlocks the blooming gardens of sensual indulgence. Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. "Wonder at nothing," says Horace, ''that is the only way by which a man can make or keep himself happy." The son of Ammon seeks for happiness in the *' pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war," and weeps at last that he has only one world to conquer. The student thinks that he has found it in his library. *'When I am once fairly seated before a fine old parchment," says the disciple in Goethe's Faust, '* all Paradise opens before me." But the master has already learned that of making many books there is no end ; and that much study is a weariness of the flesh. And what says the sweet songster of Twickenham, — the charming poet of the Essay on Man : — he whose life, according to a brother bard, was an even more endearing song than his writings ; and who, if this eulogy be true, had a right to judge of that in which he himself excelled ? Hear him addressing his celebrated " guide, philosopher and friend !"

" O, Happiness ! our being's end and aim : Good ! Pleasure ! Ease ! Content ! whatever thy name : That something still that prompts the eternal sigh, For which we bear to live or dare to die ; Which still around us yet beyond us lies,— O'erlook'd, — seen double, — by the fool and wise. Plant of celestial grow^th ! if dropped below, Say in what mortal soil thou deign'st to grow ! Fair opening to some court's propitious shrine, Or deep with diamonds in the flaming mine 1 Twined with the wreaths Parnassian laurels yield, Or reaped with iron harvests of the field 1 Where grows ] where grows it not 1 If vain the toil, We ought to blame the culture, not the soil. Fix'd to no spot is happiness sincere ; 'Tis nowhere to be found or everywhere : 'Tis nowhere to be bought, but always free. And fled from monarchs, St. John, dwells with thee !"

Beautiful, brilliant, but, alas, too flattering eulogy! No, gentlemen ! happiness never dwelt in that troubled bosom where love of pleasure and ambition reigned supremely to the last. The guide, philosopher, and friend, whom our delightful, but too mistaken moralist has addressed in these beautiful verses, was never happy for a moment : no, not even in that hour of triumph when he gave the law as prime minister of England over half the globe, — when his eloquence ruled in parliament, — when the seductive charm of his person and manner captivated all hearts in the saloon, and when the greatest wits and poets of England were proud to share the retirement of his leisure hours, and exhausted their finest strains of eloquence and song in his praise. Still less was he happy, when the charming Minstrel of the '' Essay on Man," composed under his instruction, and dedicated to him that celebrated poem ; and when fallen from his high estate, attainted of treason, barely permitted, after years of exile and poverty, to breathe his native air, and till his paternal acres, he destroyed the quiet which he might have enjoyed by unavailing efforts to grasp the glittering baubles which in his brilliant youth he had so easily won and so early lost ; and by efforts still less pardonable, and happily not less unavailing, to disturb the religious faith of his countrymen. No, gentlemen ! happiness dwells not in the propitious shine of courts, nor yet in the flaming depths of the diamond mine. It is not to be conquered on the battle-field ; nor is it gathered in, as the bard of Twickenham knew too well by his own experience, with the richest harvest of Parnassian laurels. But the error lies still deeper. Happiness is not, as it is here represented, '' our being's end and aim." The object of life is improvement, progress, preparation for an infinite future. Happiness, so far as we enjoy it in this mingled state of being, is the indirect result of employing the proper means to effect these objects. Abandon then, gentlemen, the poet's treacherous guide, who was a wretched philosopher, and at best a very doubtful friend, Open the Scriptures, and you will there find that rule of practical conduct which he vainly sought to establish in so many beautiful, but too unsuccessful moral essays, revealed with unerring certainty in a single word : "I give unto you a new commandment, that ye love one another."