Again. It was required of Christ, the Saviour of the world, the director of all knowledge, the demonstrator of all law, that law from which all just progress springs-that he should give some information not only on the cause, but likewise on the course, of sin and misery in the world, and how these would bring on the destruction of empires, together with a necessity for the destruction of the world itself. The Saviour, by his clear view and perfect wisdom, directed the attention of those who heard him, and of the world, to that unjust or bad power by which desolation was wrought amongst families, amongst neighbourhoods, amongst nations, and throughout the world in general. He directed attention to that which was, is, and ever must be, quite opposite to, and antagonistic of, the social law of God; for, whilst the law of God exhibits the will and action of the Provider, its opposite exhibits, as a matter in course, the will and action of the Desolater. This must be so in the simple practical nature and course of things. The Saviour directed attention to the words spoken by the Prophet Daniel, namely, "the abomination of desolation," the abomination that maketh desolate that abominable perversion of created things, of things of the world, by means of bad social action, that frustrates God's law, deranges his providence, circumvents and prevents the provision made by him; by which abominable courses so many of the families of men are either prevented from acquiring, or deprived of, the maintenance and enjoyment provided for them within the sphere of nature or the world. The provider, then, is one character; the desolater is another, and that an opposite character. When we have to see the principle of the desolater raised to the highest sphere; or when the influential and powerful of the world have become so deceived by the spirit of lust, the spirit of pleasure, that spirit which denounces and dis - places social duty from the highest position, and exalts pleasure to this high and highest position, -the spirit of sin and of evil-as to unite in lauding, applauding, and glorifying this spirit, we are to feel assured that the influence of the destructive power has been thoroughly established in the world, and is working more freely and more ardently, that is, with less opposition, impediment, and prevention, than theretofore, and that the hand of the Omnipotent one will be required for destroying the desolater and the destroyer, though the particular moment when this forcible, irresistible, and merciful stop shall be put to the power of the general corrupter, desolater, and destroyer, is not for any man to presume to foretell, or even to deliver a conjecture upon. We are instructed to derive knowledge of this working of the human destroyer only by marking well the signs of the times the character of those spiritual, moral, and physical elements, that are at work around us. -- I maintain here again, as I have before maintained, that our received and applauded principles and system of Political Economy present, commend, and recommend to us that very principle, and those courses of selfish action, that are alluded to as emanating from the influence and character of the desolater-involving that rejection of right and just social law— on account of which it was that our first parents lost their condition of virtue and happiness, were expelled from the sphere of heavenly society, and from the heavenly kingdom, not to be readmitted, until thorough purification on the one hand, and love of obedience or of God's social law on the other, had become, in each individual case, an accomplished fact. It behoves every man so to reflect, and to examine for himself, as to make up his mind upon the character of that social, that national, and international, working. - which the free principle and system of commerce promote. It was announced, and it still is announced, by those who desired and desire to glorify the principle of free social action, that peace -harmony-brotherhood-mutual kind and good feelingtrue fellowship are the social features that must be attendant on the free principle and system. Have these features been realised? or are they in course of realisation? During the years last past, do the feelings and minds of men exhibit these noble features? We examine the actual condition of men's feelings and minds both near to us, around us, and in every part of the civilised world. No man can say with truth, that the good results predicated have come to pass, neither can it be affirmed that the prospect of their coming to pass impends. Some men will say that when they attempt. to examine, or to anatomise, general society or any nation, they become surrounded by so many features having a deplorable and horrid character, that their mental vision is oppressed, clouded, and overwhelmed, by darkness and difficulties; that they can see little or no difference between the state of society in nations, as regards the most important features of society, where the people have been pursuing a course of what is called regulated or protected trade and commerce, or a course of commerce much more free. This objection is pertinent. But, what is proved by it? This, I maintain, is proved, whether living or acting under the one system or the other, free action, excess of action, too much change and action in the aggregate, or the courses involved by the free or bad social principle, have, at all times, and under all states of circumstances, been dominant and operative, so that for a solution of this comparative feature of the great question, we must have recourse to the law of degree. It may be useful, here, to adduce proof of a distrust, a painful apprehension, and a disturbing fear, which some of the advocates themselves of the free principle of social action entertain on the great point of the working of their free principle upon the civilisation of nations. For this purpose, I will select, as a witness, a man of the present age, though lately called from amongst us; a man of great natural genius, as well as of great erudition; a man who, by evidence furnished by himself, is proved to have allowed, like so many other men, his genius of humanity to lead him into that sphere of liberal thinking, of liberal action, of liberal ideas, or of myths engendered by his own free imagination, in which he could find no secure resting-place. The man to whom I allude is Dr. Channing. This highly-gifted and powerful member of the modern school of free and liberal writers, appears to have discerned that terrible condition of immorality, of confliction, and of general confusion, to which society, in all the more advanced and civilised nations of the world, is approximating, induced by an addiction to that free social action, and free living or free enjoyment of the world, which he and other ardent advocates of the unqualified exercise of human liberty, have been so instrumental in promoting. From amongst many powerful passages of Dr. Channing's two treatises, the one entitled "The Present Age,"* the other entitled "The Elevation of the Labouring Portion of the Community," † I will quote the following, as conveying the judgment of this powerful and influential writer: "There is another dark feature of this age. It is the spirit of collision, contention, discord, which breaks forth in religion, in politics, in business, in private affairs; a result and necessary issue of the selfishness which prompts the endless activity of life. The mighty forces which are at this moment acting in *The Present Age, by Dr. Channing, p. 32. †The Elevation of the Labouring Portion of the Community, by Dr. Channing, p. 47. governed by love. society, are not, and cannot be, in harmony, for they are not They jar; they are discordant. Life now has little music in it. It is not only on the field of battle that men fight. They fight on the Exchange. Business is war; a conflict of skill, management, and too often of fraud; to snatch the prey from our neighbour is the end of all this stir. Religion is war; Christians, forsaking their one Lord, gather, under various standards, to gain victory for their sects. "Politics are war, breaking the whole people into fierce and unscrupulous parties, which forget their country in conflicts for office and power. The age needs nothing more than peace-makers; men of serene, commanding virtue, to preach in life and word the Gospel of human brotherhood.” And again: "The present civilisation of the Christian world presents much to awaken doubt and apprehension. It stands in direct hostility to the great ideas of Christianity. It is selfish, mercenary, sensual. Such a civilisation cannot, must not, endure for ever. How it is to be supplanted, I know not." These passages are presented to us as coming from the feelings, and conveying to us the convictions and conclusions, of a highly-gifted literary man of the present age. One of the noblest spirits of all those numerous and active spirits of whom the "liberal" school of men can boast. This talented man and popular speaker and writer, in his attempt, by the aid of a powerful intellectual faculty, to study and to comprehend the economic law of God and of nature, missed his way, and so failed to discover the LAW of social action and commerce. Being influenced and governed by an abhorrence of those oppressive and repressive laws, by means of which human restraint has been set up and enforced in place of God's law, resigned himself, as so many other men have done, and as so many more are now doing, to a veneration of, and a |