1859 - Fuller, F. Five Years' Residence in New Zealand - CHAPTER I. ON THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES...

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CHAPTER I.

ON THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES UPON THE POPULATION OF NEW ZEALAND.

THE influence of colonial life upon religious opinions is generally greatly to modify sectarian prejudices;, but the influence of religious opinions on every-day life enters, as usual, into all social questions.

The political bearing of this influence is an object of study in itself. For those who do not think at all on the subject of religion estimate political combinations as being formed independently of that influence; while those who do regard their own religious convictions are

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well aware that religious convictions really enter largely into the feelings of mankind, and consequently have an influence, either for good or for evil, in men's transactions with each other. The Legislators of the Imperial Parliament surely are familiar with this feeling, for it is constantly before them, in the shape of religious differences breaking up the combinations formed among them for carrying on the government of the country. In the question of education this influence is brought to bear in New Zealand as in Great Britain. Parents feel distrust in sending their children to schools conducted by persons of another denomination, and, though prejudices do not run as high, still care and contrivance are required to meet this feeling, and to avoid hurting each other's scruples.

Now, though all generally revert ultimately to the house of worship of their own denomination, when one is established in the colony, or when they may return to the United Kingdom, still there are fundamental principles in Christianity which are remembered, and enable persons attached to different forms of belief to meet together as worshippers in a new colony. To comprehend the details or varieties of opinion that exist among professing Christians, requires a regular course of study; but some acquaintance with the principles on which different professions of faith are regulated is highly useful among communities in every country, in order to avoid offending each other's feelings, and to estimate the probabilities of continuing political combinations, when they require to act together. Now this may not be generally apparent in the society of a crowded country, except among its political leaders; but the greater intimacy that subsists between people

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struggling together to evoke civilization in a wilderness, urges greater care to avoid intruding upon each other's tenets.

People come to New Zealand from every quarter of the United Kingdom, some of whom may never before have left their own immediate neighbourhood. From most of the counties of England, Ireland and Scotland, are persons to be met with in the Canterbury Province alone; there are others who had resided previously in different parts of the Continent of Europe, and some who had resided in other colonies of the British Crown.

Now people are generally brought up in their religious training to read only upon the side of that particular profession of Christianity to which they belong. They would deem it to be almost a breach of allegiance to their own party to read the treatises of teachers of other denominations. And, indeed, to the mass of mankind, this must be the general rule; because there is not time to read arguments pro and con for men who have much of regular bodily or mental labour to undergo, to secure their daily bread. Comparatively few have time to enter on the arguments of other denominations; it may be feared, therefore, that differences in religious opinions must be a great obstruction to social intercourse, or else that religious opinions are lost sight of entirely in colonial society. But such is not the case; for churches and Christian ministers are gladly hailed and supported in New Zealand, as soon as a new district is able to support them; and her political leaders comprise members of various persuasions. However, to treat upon religion in general, some definition of principles must be made. It is to be remembered that moderate views express

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the opinions of the great bulk of Christian societies, and that extreme opinions, though held by some, do not constitute the general sense of such bodies, though it is usual in argument between different schools, to quote extreme opinions on the opposite side, as showing the tendency of the first principles which are being disputed. It may be of service, therefore, to enumerate some of the principles that run in common through the more prominent forms professing Christianity at present assembled in New Zealand, which may serve to show that there is a common bond running through a variety of professions, which, for the purpose of the early settlement of a new country, are sufficient to enable people to act together, and worship in common, without offending the nicer distinctions of different denominations. Natural religion, as distinct from revealed religion, must be first considered.

The historical definition of religion in general may be said to consist in accepting a book as a revelation, by which man is taught to guide his actions; and on the interpretation of this book do all who claim to be the teachers of each system profess to found their doctrines. The grand divisions of parties that afterwards arise are said to be upon the acceptance or refusal of books subsequently written, as being of subsidiary authority, or explanatory of the original one. This line of argument is followed in treating historically of all the religions of the present day, whether the Christian, the Mahometan, the Brahmin, the Buddhist, or any other form.

All religions, more or less, imply and suppose there is a future life, and profess to teach man that there is a power superior to him, to which he must bow; and that it is his interest to sacrifice some portion of his

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time or worldly goods, to secure for himself hereafter a position in the unseen world. Now every religion has its devotees, and it is not to be wondered at that those who think strongly upon their respective creeds should be jealous of seeing their opinions slighted. Universal experience teaches us that mankind, when once formed into distinct communities, whether kingdoms on large continents, or mere associations of small tribes of a few families, scattered through small islands in the ocean, have ever among them a body of men whose professed business it is to put their fellows in mind of a future life, and instruct them in regard thereto. These teachers of religion are generally held to be a distinct order, separate from the community at large. But untaught and untrained minds seek their own pleasures, aim at satisfying their own desires, and will submit to no rule external to their own, except so far as necessity compels them. Now when we remember that in every old religion, and in most of those new ones which seek to obtain any real hold on the faith of their members, this order of divine teachers claims also to be the appointed ministers of worship and sacrifice, standing between the people and the Divinity, not only as instructors, but as ambassadors, and as commissioned and dowered with gifts for bestowal on their disciples, and with privileged access for propitiating the Divine favour towards them, and for making the oblation of human service towards God: then it ceases to be matter of wonder that this order of men, under the name of priests, are received with distrust and suspicion, as taking too much upon themselves; and are regarded as lording it over those whose ignorance rebels against instruction, and whose self-will rejects any human aid in making its peace with the Divine Ruler.

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In contradistinction to this definition of religion, the man of the world, who does not profess to care about religion, pleads that the affairs of the present time--it may be making of money, or matters of present enjoyment-- are the necessary subjects to engage his attention, and that the affairs of a future life may wait until a man arrives there. At one time such an one will challenge the proof of a future state, at another he will draw adverse arguments from the divisions of opinion among the teachers of different religions. In the former case he will urge that there is no occasion for religion at all; or, if choosing among many, he adopts the profession of any particular form of worship, he argues from division among the teachers of that profession, either that it is, unnecessary for him to follow their guidance with strictness, or more generally that it is not of much consequence to him of what particular religious communion he may profess himself a member. Opinions of this nature are openly avowed among the lower classes of every nation; but are more generally concealed under the disguise of superior knowledge, greater light and freedom, among the more educated of the upper classes.

Now the business of Christianity is to shew that other religions are false ones, and how they are false ones, and then to place before those professing her doctrines what she learns from her Divine Lawgiver, as He speaks infallibly in his written Word, and demonstratively, by way of interpretation, in the Church, which is his body, "the fulness of Him that filleth all in all."

Among the first and foremost of her doctrines may be stated, that man is an imperfect creature--that he needs help--that he cannot of himself find out and come to a knowledge of the Creator who made him, and

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governs all around him, and sustains by his living volition all which his almighty fiat called into existence --that it is the special act of the Creator to convey this knowledge of himself to his creatures--that it is from this Divine power alone, supplying an inward strength, that man is enabled to act contrary to the opinion of the world around him, which regards the accumulation of material wealth, ease, comfort, or enjoyment, as the business of his time on earth. And, as a general rule, that this knowledge is only increased to men individually, according as they act on what is by degrees imparted to them, as members of the aggregate society in which the Spirit of God dwells.

In contradistinction to self-interest and self-love being the proper principle for man's actions through life, humbleness of mind and desires are taught as being among the characteristics of Christianity, arising from the knowledge of man being a fallen creature, and not as he was originally created, and also as more particularly pointing to his time on earth as being but a period of probation. It is taught that the various orders, classes, and ranks among mankind, as matters necessary for his well-being, are appointed by man's Creator, though the particular forms in which they are arranged may be left to man's contrivance, as part of the work allotted to him for his comfort and well-being on earth: and, therefore, that men born in the lower positions of life are to remember that an all-seeing Providence appoints the place, the position, and the trials allotted to every individual person--that the higher ranks have their trials and work appointed for them to do, just as the lower ones have theirs in their own sphere, which they often erroneously deem to be one offering fewer

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sources of enjoyment; and that mankind cannot always expect to be competent judges of the acts of others, who are born and trained for duties other and different from those they are appointed to fulfil. Christianity excludes no clime, race, or colour; but its teachers are commanded to go into all the world, and yet to expect persecution everywhere, and at the same time to trust in Divine help to overcome it. Christianity professes, further, to send divisions on the earth--in the language of its Divine Author, to send "rather a sword upon the earth"--a sword, but still, as happily expressed by a writer of the present day, "a sword that heals as it wounds," just as his service is a yoke and a burden, but yet an easy yoke and a light burden--easy as compared with the world's hard exactions, light as compared with some of the world's heavy drudgery. Christianity is prophetically described, in her great Book, as a small stone becoming a great mountain and filling the whole earth; yet its first teachers were sent with little of outward pomp or ceremony; but they taught as men having authority, and they were accredited ministers, and the disciples generally believed that men knew them by their love to one another. This characteristic of charity is taught to be its highest virtue. But how does the wilful man of this world take this doctrine?-- He considers it as a claim to him for connivance and concealment in vice and crime, by those who profess the doctrine, not knowing or not remembering that charity is an active, and not a negative principle, and strongly opposes crime. Charity is the ground for bearing testimony to mankind of the nature of sin, of its hatefulness to the Creator, and for the necessity of an untiring conflict being maintained with sin

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while in this world. It is the argument of charity to insist on principles of doctrine, as the rule for life and conduct, in opposition to the man of this world, who holds expediency to be the true ground and cause for men's actions, and that it is idle to argue for ideas of future retribution, when measures of what he conceives to be of a more practical and immediate import are required for his present sustenance or enjoyment; and on the same ground he may sometimes advance his scorn at faith or belief in matters of revelation offered for his acceptance, when he conceives them to be above his reason; though, at the same time, they may not be contrary to it. Charity argues for the exposure of corrupt doctrines, and for the prevention of incorrect doctrines being taught the people at large, and makes teachers only more zealous to spread their own particular views: whose contentions, therefore, may only indicate life and real earnestness in their opinions, and are not necessarily connected with ill-will or ill-feeling to other persons.

Christianity tells man that there is a principle implanted in him called conscience, an emanation of his Creator, by which he is to know right from wrong, and wherefore it is that he is held hereafter accountable for actions done while on earth. Man is taught that this principle, having been perverted, becomes a guide to him to do evil instead of the good, to which it was originally designed to incline him; that he, therefore, thinks evil to be good, and good to be evil; also, how it is that this principle was perverted, and man thereby rendered subject to delusions from a superior intelligence, ever watching further to corrupt him, and thus ultimately to ruin his hopes in the unseen world; but man is also taught how

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to proceed to obtain the restoration of this, his moral nature, to its original state, as being the main business while on earth for him to attend to, requiring his constant individual exertion to be trained and formed anew. Teachers of Christianity treat this as one of the first lessons to be taught mankind; for without, there is a just conception of the complete fall man's moral nature, in the person of his forefather Adam, has undergone: there can be no comprehension of the value and necessity of the great price that has been paid for man's redemption, and of the peculiar doctrines of Christianity which distinguish it from all other religions whatsoever.

It is argued by the man of this world, on his side, that this notion of conscience is an abstract idea, incapable of any proof to his perceptions, and that man's power of knowing right from wrong proceeds merely from mental training, or association with what is around him, and that no other idea of conscience is capable of demonstrative proof. And as for what is said on the wide-spread universal fall and wickedness of man, that he does not believe in it, but considers it is only an argument adopted to advance the importance of the priestly office, of which he always entertains suspicion. And as this meets his idea of self-interest, and self-love being the true source of man's actions in this life, he is satisfied it is a sufficient answer to the arguments brought before him, as being drawn from revelation.

The following notice of some distinctions which occur among bodies who hold strongly to all the previous definitions of Christianity may be mentioned, as illustrating that the subject is one affording scope for the fullest exercise of intellect; for the greatest minds have found

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pleasure in the practice and study of its doctrines, and have shown that they did not consider religion is a matter that may be deferred until man's arrival in the world to come.

A large portion of Western Christendom professes to acknowledge the occupant of one particular See as their ecclesiastical head; but members of this branch of the Church are yet too few in number in the middle island of New Zealand to make separate allusion to their particular doctrines for the purpose for which this chapter is composed. It is under the head of Protestant Christianity that those combinations for political purposes may be expected for some years to occur, which may cause an enquirer to look for some connecting bond to be found running through their principles. For it may be considered that, though the Canterbury colony was started by members of the Church of England who would decidedly be considered as possessing what are termed High Church views; yet the mass of the people at large, as it is throughout England generally, are decidedly of what are termed Low Church views.

Now there have been great discussions in the Church of England on the nature and value of certain ceremonies therein performed; one side objecting to place that degree of value upon them which is placed by the other side, because they argue that they see people daily, after partaking of these ceremonies, acting as if they were insensible to their religious calling. But the real doctrine which is at the bottom of these dissensions is the dogma of election, which is held by one party to signify a preordained acceptance of an individual in the foreknowledge of the Almighty, irrespective of the amount of good works or actions performed during life; this

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being based upon the supposition that a person once called will never finally fall away. That is to say, as often as he may fall, he will ultimately recover himself. Consequently a meaning is attached to the word regeneration used in the Prayer-book by the one party, which is not attached to it by the other party, who do not accept the doctrine so defined as correctly drawn from their great book of authority, but deem it to be only an idea of philosophical speculation; as they consider those who have attained the highest virtues may fall away, if they neglect appointed means for continuing in that state. Thus one side usually preach upon the nature and value of ordinances, ceremonies and observances, which they regard as divinely appointed means; while the other side consider it is of more consequence to dilate upon the spirit that should accompany the use of those appointed means, as constituting the only efficacy which is attached to them by others. So the arguments of the latter side are said generally to be more acceptable to the population of towns, whose occupations accustom them to more mental activity in their daily life; while the arguments of the former are said to be preferred in the rural districts of the country, where people are generally of a quieter and more mechanical turn of mind.

However, election, irrespective of works, is a doctrine held by many as their main hope of a happy eternity, and as long only as they are supposed not to contradict it do they consider they are justified in complying with forms and ceremonies that are held in repute by the other party, with other views. This doctrine is believed in largely throughout the United Kingdom, and is said to be at the bottom of all separations from the Church

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of England on the ground of ceremonial observances. And it is plainly traced in the writings of Presbyterians, from the times of Calvin. Bishop Bull is the great writer against this doctrine among Church of England divines; and Bishop Russell of Glasgow, among others in the present day, has written upon it, in a form more suited to the general reader.

Now it may be stated that the re-action of opinion, at the time of the Reformation, caused by the excesses of the previous period, induced some portions of the Christian world to depart from the Episcopal form of Church government, and among the congregations who have not reverted to that form considerable opposition has been shewn to the doctrine of "Apostolical Succession," as it has been taught by some writers of late years in the Church of England, which is considered to lower the position of ministers in all congregations which have not adopted that form. However, in the Church of England the recognized position of every Christian minister is to teach men, "to do their duty in that state of life to which it has pleased God to call them," in order that man may be benefited and God glorified; or the object of the gospel is a new creation in Christ Jesus, "Faith which worketh by Love." And it may be said that the political bearing of objections urged by her ministers to those teachers who have dissented from her rules, is that, by descanting too freely on the errors or vices of the upper ranks before their congregations, who contain but very few of them, they weaken in the lower ranks respect towards their superiors, and thus diminish their just regard for the rights of property when in the pursuit of material wealth.

It may also be observed that the prophecies are fre-

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quently unreservedly entered upon by the Presbyterian writers; but the matter-of-fact parish priest, established in a country cure, generally considers unfulfilled prophecies as matters beyond his province to enquire about, and unsuited to him for profitable teaching, and prefers to enforce practical attention to the daily duties of life. But among the comments of Protestant writers upon prophecy this agreement may be traced, viz., that the old Roman empire having professed Christianity, and fallen away from the truth as it was first delivered, by introducing adorations and invocations to created beings, into services intended for worshipping the great Creator of all, had thereby called down foretold judgments upon them. The Eastern portion being punished with the foretold Mahometan desolation; while in the Western portion (though many sore judgments were upon it) a wide-spread priestly despotism was permitted to arise; because it was foreknown that within that portion of the old Roman empire would the effort be made to throw off that yoke, and return to the primitive faith as it was first delivered. Again, the doctrine of a millennium on earth, to be enjoyed by the elect prior to the general judgment, is held by some ministers in all Protestant denominations; while the great majority (as in the early days of Christianity) consider that this doctrine is not sufficiently defined in their book of faith, and, as usually taught, it would seem to detract from the reverence with which men ought to regard the Church at large in the present dispensation, and appears therefore unsuited for general enquiry, as withdrawing attention from the more necessary doctrines of attending to personal uprightness of character. But in a new country emerging from the state of a wilderness, these parties

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all meet in one church or room, rather than go without some public divine service once a week; Presbyterians and Dissenters agreeing to pay for a seat in the Established Church of England, though they may object to subscribe towards the payment of the stipend of a minister of a communion to which they do not belong; and this continues until the respective denominations are sufficient in number to have a church or chapel of their own. Thus the income of ministers may be made up partly of rents for seats, partly of yearly subscriptions by those of their flock who are in better circumstances, and partly from funds accruing from the rent of lands, given or subscribed for at different times, and which are held in trust for church purposes.

And it may be said that the colonists in the Canterbury Province in no way disavowed their attachment to the Church of England, when they altered the previous rule of devoting the third part of their land fund for her separate service. For though such might have been considered a useful measure, when the settlement was first started, as designed to draw together a body of men in the United Kingdom possessing similar sentiments on religious subjects, and being particularly attractive to the talented among either church party; nevertheless, afterwards, when the great majority in the colony were known to belong to the Church of England, it implied no desertion of her principles to adopt the voluntary mode of paying ministers, when many highly useful members of society had joined the colony, belonging to other religious bodies, who would require their own ministers, and whose system only admitted the voluntary principle. Yet the funds voted for educational purposes are applied through the ministers of different

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religious bodies, in proportion to their numbers returned by the census.

Much opposition was shewn in England to the principle of starting a colony with the rule of applying a portion of the land sales to the support of any particular religious body, and the objections urged are sometimes considered to have arisen from the general body of the colonists; but this is not correct. A great political principle, which has violently agitated the United Kingdom since the opening of the Legislature to persons who were not members of the Established Church, was thought to be affirmed by it, and caused the outcry, viz., --the connection between Church and State. The nonconformist body generally urge a separation, but maintain their right to join the Church established, and carry further reforms into it, just as they change at will among their own denominations. The arguments used by writers of this party may therefore at times appear to the public as coming from members of the Established Church, when in truth, none of her habitual attendants entertain such views; while there are others, attached to the opposite extreme of religious opinions, who view these divisions only as a further argument for adopting the principle of one ecclesiastical head for settling all disputes: some among whom, therefore, may not be unwilling to view these differences as being of greater magnitude than they really are. And as both these parties are willing to make the most of inconsiderate letters from the colony, (written often by persons of hasty temperaments or of extreme opinions, in moments of irritation or disappointment) to support their respective views, ideas may be circulated in the United Kingdom, of religious dissensions among the colonists, which

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many of them may hear of for the first time only when they visit England. Divisions occur among all religions; but it is practicable, and it occurs that members of the Established Church of England and Dissenters do meet together for the purpose of public worship, rather than go without the ordinance; for neither party charges the other with idolatry in their ceremonies.

One ground of the Protestant separation from the See of Rome is, that adoration, direct or indirect, paid to any created being, detracts from the homage due to the Creator of all; that the great Book of Christianity nowhere allows, but every where forbids, man making to himself the likeness of anything in heaven or earth as his God; for any act of worship, invocation, or prayer, offered to an unseen being, necessarily invests the object addressed with the attribute of ubiquity; but this attribute belongs to the Creator only, who alone is omnipresent, everywhere supporting his creation. Again the ultra-Protestant theory rejects all appeal to the writings of the early times in the History of the Church, as bearing upon the correctness of doctrines, arguing it is no more strange that man should early fall away from the revelation of his Creator's will, or the knowledge of the true God, after its delivery by the apostles of Christianity, than it was for mankind to have so early fallen away, as they did, in the days immediately after the days of Noah.

Nevertheless the ground is maintained by the High Church party in the Church of England, that the writings of the early Fathers contradict those doctrines of the Church of Rome to which they object as the superadditions of a later age: for they do not consider that traces of the philosophy of the times, or the remains of former heathen doctrines, of which they had given

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up the profession, is sufficient to invalidate their testimony that doctrines now propounded in the Church were not known, or, if known, were condemned, in the earliest days of the Church. From the days of the Reformation, writers of this party constantly appeal to the writings of the early Fathers in support of their positions against the Church of Rome; and when in late years the great movement arose leading to the revival of the study of the early days in the history of the Church, it was gladly hailed by the old teachers on this side (who could say it taught them nothing new,) as being significant of a desire for enquiry into the deeper doctrines of Christianity. One great result of this movement was the publication, in a form accessible to the general public, of translations of the works of the earliest writers on Christianity; when the profession of their faith was made at the peril of their lives, and while some still lived who could witness that these doctrines were those which either themselves had heard from Apostles or apostolic men, or from those who had conversed with them. The critical appreciation of these particular writers, it was argued, was a study in itself, comparatively few persons having mastered the peculiar style of this portion of the Greek and Latin languages.

But there were reasons of a political nature which urged this movement forward. The constitution of the realm, as settled at the Reformation, excluded from the legislature all who were not members of the Established Church; and when this restriction was removed during the present generation, so as to allow members of all persuasions professing Christianity to legislate for the temporalities of the Established Church, it was natural that the attention of observant minds, among

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her ministers, should be directed to placing before the public mind, information on the origin of their right to the possession of their benefices: for they had many bitter opponents, who must be expected to endeavour to curtail those rights by circulating statements calculated to dispossess their present possessors. This feeling, therefore, revived the study of primitive Christianity, when the contest was carried on with professed heathendom; but the excesses of the movement are traceable to extending the enquiry into the periods, and too implicitly and indiscriminately copying the ideas of mediaeval times, when the truth was overlaid with the grossest superstitions, and the sufficiency of the revelation made to the first apostles of Christianity too faintly recognized.

This movement is considered to have been a very wide one, and to have attracted the bulk of the more energetic and earnest men entering upon the ministry of the Church of England; but it happens that all movements in the history of the world have been abused, an evil spirit is ever busy watching to take his advantage, and mar mais endeavours for his advancement in the knowledge of what relates to his eternal welfare.

And this movement was much abused; for some early began to slavishly copy the ceremonies of the Church they were separated from, hoping by outward attractions to induce the giddy and weaker portion of the population to think religion was not the melancholy subject they generally supposed it to be; but in doing so, were ultimately drawn to embrace the doctrines of that communion. But it is said, that, though a few hundred of those who joined this movement have joined the Church of

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Rome, many thousands throughout the kingdom have been brought to more earnest and just ideas of the value of their professed religion.

It is considered that as a philosophical and condensed summary of the arguments for Christianity, Bishop Butler's Analogy and Sermons, written in the last century, are the best expression of them that has been written; and it is therein shewn that, even if the truth of all the arguments used to oppose Christianity be admitted, there still remains a body of evidence in its favour, which to candid minds must be conclusive. That little book has been adopted as a text-book in nearly all the Protestant Colleges in the United Kingdom. And though a small book, it is supposed to require for the comprehension of its arguments, more exertion of the intellect than any other theological work. The distinction is there plainly maintained between natural religion and revealed religion, and the arguments of Protestant Christianity are stated generally against the opinions of the men of this world in a condensed form. Now this book is not generally understood by persons, without a previous training in theological knowledge! but the wider views, obtained by a more extended acquaintance with the general struggles of business in life, have enabled some, in a young colony, to grasp the mighty meaning of this book, who were never able to understand it before.

The freedom with which persons enter into their opinions, on social and religious subjects, causes in the minds of those who hear these ideas for the first time maintained by people drawn from every direction of the United Kingdom, embarrassment and confusion. They have never before been brought into close intimacy with

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the practical expression of the many and various opinions which may be assembled there.

The perusal of Bishop Butler's Analogy may tend to remove embarrassments of this nature, and show the common bond running through the arguments of the man of this world on one side, and also tend to explain how, with the apparent contradictions running through the many religious opinions of really earnest and well-meaning people on the other side, there is still a common bond running through these contradistinctions.

And if the circumstances of his previous life should have led a reflecting colonist into much foreign travel, if accustomed to enquiries of this nature, he may take interest in tracing in the opinions of different professions in the Christian world, a similarity to the line of argument whereby the enemy of mankind deludes him in the heathen world into forgetting the first requirements of natural religion, viz: That every man should maintain good feeling towards his fellow, and that all should act with just judgment and fair dealing in all transactions with one another. For it is to be remembered that great violence has been done to the dictates of natural religion by all nations professing Christianity, and under its holy name; but that this applies with greatly diminished force to the several reformed faiths of modern times, who have endeavoured to purge themselves of former errors. In several countries, both in professedly heathen and in Christian ones, sects exist whose creeds are drawn from the tenets of various religions. Still in all countries the mass of mankind claiming the right to pursue their own desires and regarding only their individual interests, some are always to be found entrenching upon the rights of others, who, feeling that they are wronged, in their turn seek to

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obtain what they require at the expense of others, and thus continual contention is maintained; and, as excuses for selfishness and domineering are never wanting, general approbation lies with the heroic rather than the Christian character, as has been noticed by Paley, in showing that the morality of Christianity differs from that of all other religions.

It is a serious reflection that the great bulk of mankind regard one another as being but subservient instruments, to be imposed upon or coerced for each other's gratification, and by attributing the same desire to all, effectually hinder the few who are really seeking their greatest good, as the later are not learned in such ways. Man is placed in this world to fulfil a duty to his neighbour, to society at large, as well as himself; there are rights and duties of the governor as well as those of the governed; the judgments of neighbours on the selfishness of individuals, when grasping only for their own wants, becomes more apparent in thinly-peopled countries, the effect is more signal and striking. Those who live but to think of themselves become more noticed among the community, and find that their influence does not accord with their mental acquirements; moreover the feeling of isolation begets distrust among newly-arrived persons, and encourages the formation of Masonic societies. These, however, are not necessary to the true Christian, who, acting from higher motives, does not require to join secret combinations "to do good to others who do good to us," and may safely regard, as a sound philosophical argument, that his true interest in this world lies rather in preparing for the one to come, seeing that the affairs of eternity must be of immeasurably greater consequence to him than those of time.