THE

MILLENNIAL HARBINGER,

NEW SERIES.

VOLUME 11.- -NUMBER IX.

BETHANY, VA. SEPTEMBER, 1838.

MORALITY OF CHRISTIANS-No. IX.

A FEW Suggestions on what is due to the property of our neighbor completes our present plan. His personal rights, and the regard due to his reputation, on the basis of Christian righteousness, have been touched with a very gentle and rather sparing hand. But as the Great Teacher has said, "Unless your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven," it becomes us diligently to inquire into every branch of this righteousness.

Justice is wisely regarded as the basis of all the social virtues. It is an essential attribute of the Divine Nature; for, in the language of inspiration, "justice and judgment are the habitation of God's throne." Justice, however, as respects God, is merely distributive; amongst men it is also commutative. No creature can ever demand any thing as a matter of justice from his Creator: for who can first give to God, that it may be recompensed to him again? for of him are all things!

We have natural, political, and Christian justice; but as we write for those who "hunger and thirst after righteousness," and not to make. a treatise on justice, I shall confine myself to practical views, not of natural or political justice, but of Christian righteousness. This is, indeed, the most comprehensive and excellent justice, and comprehends much more than any other species of justice known amongst men.

The Christian system sometimes seems to place under this head what are generally se posed to be virtues of another name; such as alms-giving-clemency cards our debtors-not exacting in all cases what may be strictly due us, or not pressing unseasonably our de

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mands against others. Such strict, or such unseasonable demands, Solomon regards as being "overmuch righteous." The Christian righteousness is therefore above the righteousness of law-above political and natural justice: for to that righteousness it adds clemency, generosity, almsgiving, and the rights of humanity in general.

But we must limit our suggestions in the first place to what, in the common estimation of mankind, enlightened by the New Testament, is regarded as justly due to our brother and neighbor. This is, however, such a common sense and popular theme, that it would appear idle or unnecessary to expatiate at length upon it. I should have come to this conclusion had I no other guide than my abstract and a-priori reasonings on the subject: but really I am almost a sceptic in this thing called common sense views of right; for how can we call that a common sense view of any subject which is not perceived nor understood by one in a score of our contemporaries.

My acquaintance with men and things, though on subjects of this sort limited, has very reluctantly compelled me to think either that there is no common sense view of justice, or that there is at this day a great lack of common honesty among mankind. There is no escaping from the one or the other of these alternatives-either men have no common sense views of justice, or they lack common honesty. But it may be said that is not common honesty which is possessed by a few. True; but perhaps common sense and common honesty are so designated, not because they are possessed by the majority or commonalty, but. because they are ordinary and not extraordinary attainments-just as we would, in contradistinction from marble or granite, call the sandstone common, even in a country where there was very little stone of any sort.

Justice, it is agreed on all hands, is a fundamental virtue, and the basis of all social qualities that adorn and bless human nature. As respects the rights of property, it has decreed, that, as no man can justly demand what is not his own, so neither can any person keep or hold back the property of another person one moment without his consent. It has recognized, if not established, the principles upon which any thing becomes our property; and then it decides how that property shall be transferred to another. Common consent has, without any recorded conventional agreement, ordained the ways and means by which any creature of God becomes ours; and therefore there are but few controversies about these rules and reasons; but very many difficulties arise in society about the infraction or disregard of those principles, both in the pursuit of property and in the enjoyment of it.

Cupidity, avarice, and worldly temper are the most common and

the most fixed characteristics of this age and nation. Mammon never had, in the same number of people, a larger class of devoted worshippers-true-hearted, sincere, and constant in their homage, adoration, and praise, than are found at this hour in England and America. Every city is a church, a few non-conformists excepted, and every Bank a temple consecrated to this golden god. His altars are covered with the richest sacrifices, and his censors smoke with the costliest incense. While other gods have their pagodas, their tents and groves, their altars and their worshippers, like Jupiter Olympus, this divinity is supreme and fills the canopy of every Pantheon from London to Marion City. His worshippers have no uniform, costume, nor established rites; for theirs is the worship of the heart-the spontaneous and voluntary devotion of the soul.

The Christian church, after having waged a long, protracted, and varied conflict against "the minding of the flesh" and "the love of the world,” has greatly fallen under that very influence which she so sternly reprobated and once so sincerely contemned. A worldly temper is always aggressive. Having ceased to cherish that Christian love "which seeketh not her own," which pleases not itself, which rejoiceth in the prosperity of others; and having suffered the demon of selfishness to pollute the heart with the promptings of covetousness, the restraints of the Christian precepts present but a feeble barrier against the encroachments of cupidity and personal aggrandizement. Hence the sin of carnality, or "the minding of the flesh," like a leprosy has spread itself over the professing communities, and sadly defaced the ancient boundaries between the kingdoms of Satan and of Christ.

It is owing to this that the refined and elevated sense of justice, which always distinguished the men of moral eminence in the annals of the saints of God, has measurably been lost; and in its stead that aggressive temper which will build up its own interests, not only regardless of those of other men, but often in violation of their rights, has grown so strong and made itself so formidable, that courts of civil judicature have become almost as necessary in "the Christian church" as they formerly were in the dominions of the Cesars. Against this state of things it was originally an essential element and object in the current reformation of manners to remonstrate, and to oppose to its infractions the solemn restraints of reason, of law, and of the gospel of God.

We feel daily more and more the necessity of this. The spirit of American enterprize, aggrandizement, and national improvement has seized all classes of this community, and greatly augmented and confirmed the love of this world in the minds of men. A new country,

like a young man stepping forth into the walks of life, elate and gay, is exposed to great temptations, as well as subject to the strong passions and affections of a healthy and vigorous constitution, and therefore requires more and more the help of sound doctrine and an efficient discipline to keep within the bounds of reason and restrain the appetites and passions of its inhabitants.

The communications of the daily and weekly press, the conferences in the market-place, the forum, and around the social hearth, all tend to cherish and increase the spirit of the world in every person that falls under their influence. The Lord's day and the worship ordained for it are now very generally profaned and violated by such communications. Even those who preach that the Lord's day is but a Jewish Sabbath changed and improved, and that neither our own thoughts nor our own words are allowable guests during its sacred hours, are often found engaged on worldly themes-such as the crops, the seasons, the prospects, the politics of the country, until they appear within the very walls of "the sanctuary." What a heavenly preparation for observing the day to the Lord-for worshipping God in spirit and in truth!

But to these indications of a worldly spirit we merely allude as illustrative of that state of mind which necessarily tends to that injustice and unrighteousness of which we are now about to speak. That covetousness and injustice which break through all covenants, promises, and engagements, and which so aggressively often invade the premises and rights of others, is but a single manifestation of that worldly temper which is at variance with the spirit and precepts of Christ.

All the perfections of Deity, all the moral attributes of a good man, and all the ingredients of a Christian spirit are homogeneous. They are one spirit, one essence, uniformly manifesting itself in relation to surrounding objects and circumstances. Hence the spirit of Christ is an immutable spirit, and works the same results in all mankind. From this view of the subject it will follow that the man who does not appreciate his own word never does appreciate the word of God; and conversely, he that reverences the word of God will always honor his own word by keeping his covenants with all mankind. The inference may appear too strong for the present style and spirit of the professing world; but we are nevertheless deeply penetrated with its demonstrative truth and evidence that the man who is not honest to God cannot be honest to man; and the man who does not habitually preserve truth in his intercourse with the world, does not reverence and love the word of God.

In all covenant transactions justice and truth go hand in hand. The one cannot stand without the other. He that for value received pro

mises to pay a stipulated sum against a given day, and fails to do it, is guilty of two sins-falsehood and injustice. There may be extenuating circumstances, it is admitted; but still the word is forfeited and the pledge unredeemed. It is alleged that dates and covenants are often but mere forms, and that they are not expected to be fulfilled according to the letter of the instrument; that they only mean that the person will be liable to do against that day what he promises to do. They argue that such being the understanding between the parties at the time, there is neither falsehood nor injustice in a failure to comply. Admit the plea, and what follows? That men agree to use language which they intend to falsify for the sake of conforming to the customs of the world!

If, then, a lie may be told, and injustice done in word, but not in deed-in form, but not in substance then is the defaulter innocent in one point, but guilty in another-innocent in doing all that was expected at the time, but guilty of using language which according to its fair construction, and according to its acceptation and obligation in innumerable instances, means the very opposite of what he intends. Thus habituating one's self to trifle with truth is not good; and who can tell but the latitudinarianism of many professors is occasioned, if not caused, by thus tampering with truth in wilful evasion of the meaning of words.

But however the customs of society in giving and accepting of securities may be plead in some cases in extenuation of the sin of falsifying, in other cases where there is a bona fide understanding that at a given time a certain sum shall be paid, palpable injustice and falsehood must inevitably be perpetrated on every such failure, and can only be excused or extenuated when interferences specially providential or wholly uncontrollable have occurred.

So appreciable is the excellence of punctuality, that most men by a tacit agreement call him "a good man" who faithfully meets and fulfils all his engagements. And he that fails in such engagements, however religious in prayers and alms deeds, is regarded by society at large rather as a hypocrite than a Christian. It is therefore as essential to our usefulness in this world as it is to our Christian integrity and purity, that truth and justice be supreme in all our transactions with But as this will be readily admitted by all persons of reflection, it is of more consequence to suggest how this excellence may be attained than to expatiate upon the utility or the necessity of it. Of this we cannot now speak particularly; meanwhile, it may be observed that the less we pamper a worldly or fleshly temper, the more easy will it be for us to cultivate truth and justice in all our intercourse with the world. A. C.

men.