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qualities never be obliterated nor impaired! Of a religion of costly pomp and show, established by law, a pampered, meretricious handmaid to the state, flush with wealth, showering its honors on the indolent, and only stooping to the common level of men as an act of special favor,-of such a religion we, happily, are ignorant. Nor have we shown our respect for that which we possess, by erecting splendid cathedrals, as if religion were a goddess to be honored like the deities of classical paganism; nor by filling its temples with statues or paintings to delight the eye; nor by clothing its services with the solemn formality of a dead language. The faith which has been delivered unto us, is indeed a faith and not a form;-it is a system of living principles, and not a collection of cold dogmas. Its words" they are spirit and they are life;" and if its influences are not resisted, we are transformed by that spirit, and made partakers of that life, the life of God. Religion, as it exists among us, nourished, if we may so say, by our soil, is not, as religious establishments too often are, a tree spreading its branches high and broad toward heaven, intercepting the light and absorbing the dew which the famished earth needs, and subserving no better purpose than to shed a slumbrous influence on the eyelids of thousands who repose beneath its shade. It is rather a tree whose fruits, ripening every month, never fail, and whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. Its spirit, its form, its institutions, its operations, are all singularly practical. Like the atmosphere we breathe, to employ a different illustration, it seeks to pervade the entire body of the people, purifying all, refreshing all, animating all, saving all. It has no titled benefices for the aspiring; no gorgeous palaces for the indolent; no meed of promotion to excite the pride of the successful, nor the envy of the disappointed. A visitant from heaven on a practical errand, religion goes forth in a dress of patriarchal simplicity, moving on the common level and among the common mass, scattering her blessings indiscriminately on every side, visiting the meanest cabin and laboring to bless the most abandoned outcast. Her eye of benevolence and pity is on all mankind; and not one of the race, friend or foe, at home or abroad, civilized or savage, would she leave in ignorance and sin. She would gather under the voice of wholesome instruction our whole population; she would carry her gifts of love to every door, and fire-side, and bosom. She puts forth her power in the form of associated effort, to crush every enemy of human

purity, peace, and happiness. Thus, with the energy of an embattled host-for it is a religious spirit that has accomplished this work-she has pursued that subtile foe, Intemperance, driving it from fields and workshops, closets and tables, hovels and halls into its last den, the bar-room and the dram shop, where it must expect only a momentary shelter. Thus, she is now laboring to ferret out, if possible, a still worse enemy from the secret receptacles of pollution where, alas! the respectable and honored as well as the infamous and mean seek gratification, and the unfortunate and unsuspecting are ruined. Thus she is sending forth her heralds of truth throughout our borders, to instruct the ignorant and reform the vicious; and planting her schools of secular and sacred learning, like so many watchfires, along our dark, western frontier. Thus, finally, she is performing her circumnavigations of charity, visiting the remotest continents and islands, scaling impassable mountains, traversing burning deserts, gliding up interdicted rivers, dwelling among murderers and cannibals; and though shivering in the midst of northern snows, or scorched by the fervors of a tropic sun, still standing erect, untiring, undaunted, and holding high the lamp of Christianity, from whose blaze, the gross darkness that has covered the earth is breaking, and in heavy shadows gradually rolling away.

Such is the active energy and practical development of the religious spirit, as it exists to a considerable-would that it existed thus to a much greater extent!-in our republican community. It has here a peculiar freedom and elasticity of movement, unfettered by the laws either of statute or prescription, or by any cold and cramping formularies. In its activity, it promises itself no relaxation, till every wrong shall be redressed, every root of bitterness plucked up, every bloody strife quelled, every baleful superstition extirpated, and every dark cloud shall pass away from the world. This honor, it is only a part of our praise, that we share with that people from whom, being one with them in our origin, we derive no small portion of whatever of excellence we possess.

Thus whether we look at the state of our Literature, the Arts, or Religion, there is abundant evidence presented, that whatever other honor may be denied us, to us belongs at least the praise of being characteristically and emphatically, a practical people.

Possibly this quality, incomparably valuable as it is, has prevailed to excess, by displacing others which, though less useful

immediately, cannot be discarded without endangering all. The eye may no doubt be kept too steadily fixed on immediate practical results. It is one thing for the farmer to double the products of his lands for a single season; and quite another, so to enrich the soil as to ensure great increase of permanent productiveness. It may be true that our best minds have been too anxious to adjust every thing to the square and compass of direct and actual utility. In this way, their free action may have been restrained, and a weight attached to the wing of genius. By this means, existing materials may have been consumed too fast in the attempt to meet the pressing practical demand, while no adequate provision was made for a permanent supply. The miner, who would throw up the choicest metal in the largest quantity, and, in the end, with the greatest ease, must allow himself some breadth and depth of excavation, and not confine himself to the single vein where the treasure may seem to lie. It is undoubtedly the fault of our times and especially of our country, that few broad and deep excavations have been attempted into unexplored regions of thought; the too prevalent disposition has been to collect and refine and scatter far and wide for popular and instant use the metal that had been partially dislodged by other hands, or that lay near the surface, and within the range of easy reach. It is well that the eye has been directed to the real wants and advantage of men; but it were certainly a misfortune that it should be fixed so steadily there, as to fail to discover aught beneath the surface of things. This, as our popular literature will show, is beginning to be, or rather is already, our misfortune. There has been so much eagerness to furnish the public with what the public needed, or was supposed to need, that the supply, too frequently, has been caught up in haste no matter from what source, so it answered the existing demand. There has been, if we may so speak, a lavish expenditure without a corresponding reproduction of materiel. And the consequence of this must necessarily be, a poverty of intellectual resources. There has certainly been a want of profound and patient thinkers, who, forsaking for a while the smooth upper surface where the useful seems to lie, should break new ground, and descending into silent, unfrequented depths, gather the crude ore, which, though it appear to be of little value at first, shall be wrought into abundant use in after times. The practical which, it is true, has heretofore answered our purpose well, producing rich fruit after its kind, requires now to be united

with the contemplative and profound. From such a union we might anticipate a harvest of extraordinary value. Neither alone can long subserve the best purposes of utility. The former will soon degenerate into superficiality and barrenness; and the latter will expend its strength in a thousand excrescent speculations, as nugatory as they are curious.

And is there not already apparent, a decided tendency to this happy union! Does it not appear in the increasing enthusiasm with which at least some of the sciences are studied in our colleges; and in the recent publication of original works of a very high order, on intellectual and moral philosophy? Does it not also appear in the effect of our theological schools, infusing into a large class of men a taste for more critical and profound theological investigation?

And what if we should say that the dark omens in our political sky, which seem to threaten fearful storms if not utter ruin to the Republic, are, when viewed from another direction, like the Hebrew pillar of cloud and fire, omens full of bright and cheering promise? The galaxy of English mind was never lighted up with so much brilliancy, as during that stormy period of England's history which succeeded the accession of her first Charles. And if, as some may apprehend, similar tempests are gathering over us, their effect, however otherwise disastrous, may be-nay, undoubtedly will be-to drive a choice portion of intellect, which might else have wasted its energies in more bustling pursuits, into the cloisters of studious, philosophic retirement. Some will abandon the field of political glory in disgust, and others will refuse to enter it. Even before the storm begins to rage, great and good men, finding, as they are certainly beginning to find, that successfully to climb the ladder of general popularity, is only another name for renouncing every principle of common honesty and every feeling of self-respect, will seek a field of exertion where, at least for a portion of their life, they may employ their powers in a manner less revolting to conscience, and with results quite as useful, ultimately, to their countrymen and the world.

As the glory of English literature and science arose amid clouds and a war of surrounding elements, it is more than possible that the now unfolding pages of a mysterious Providence, may contain a similar chapter, to be added in mingled light and shade to our own country's history. And another generation may look back with thankfulness upon the agitating conflicts,

that we so much dread, as the very means of enriching the world with intellectual treasures which otherwise had never been developed.

ARTICLE VI.

CALVIN'S COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO PHILEMON.

neva.

Translated from the Latin by the Editor.

[ONE of the animating signs of the times is the interest which is extensively felt in the works of the immortal reformer of GeHis commentaries on various parts of the sacred writings have been lately published in Germany under the superintendence of Tholuck. A second edition of the commentaries on the Epistles was issued in 1834. They were published at a low price in consequence of the aid of some pious English friends of the editor. A translation of the commentary on the Romans, with Beza's life of Calvin, has appeared in England, and is now republished in this country. In the mean time, a new and elaborate life of Calvin is in preparation at Edinburgh. The late Rev. Dr. Thomas McCrie, the learned author of the lives of Melville, Knox, and of the histories of the Reformation in Italy, Spain, etc., had made extensive investigations in Geneva, Paris, and elsewhere, respecting the life and times of Calvin. In these labors, he was assisted by his son, who will soon complete the undertaking. Further light may be thrown on the subject by the researches of some of the learned men of Paris, who are diligently examining the public and other records of their country. For some excellent remarks, from the pen of Tholuck, on the merits of Calvin as a commentator, see Bib. Rep. Vol. II. p. 541. The commentary on the Epistle to Philemon will show to such of our readers as are not in the possession of the original work, the general style and manner of Calvin. Some of the longer Epistles, however, would furnish more favorable specimens of his peculiar merits. TRANSLATOR.]

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