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wholly absorbed in admiration of the divine goodness, in wonder, gratitude, and praise.

The relative position of the United States, the numerous and various privileges and honors of an American citizen, now appeared to me so ineffably beyond comparison with those of any nation or people on earth, of the present or of any past age, that I would not sell my political rights and privileges of American citizenship for all the honors and emoluments that cluster around the stateliest and most aristocratic subject of any European or Asiatic crown now worn on earth.

I have frequently given it as my opinion, but now I affirm it as a stubborn and invincible fact, that few, if any native born American citizens, who have never travelled abroad, either did or could fully appreciate the privileges, duties, and responsibilities of an American citizen.

To feel oneself a lord, a prince, a potentate, clothed with a little brief authority-to feel oneself decorated with hereditary honors, titles, and privileges, of which some are possessed without any virtue, and from which others are debarred by birth without any vice, of their own, may, indeed, minister some gratification to the pride and selfishness of fallen humanity; but to feel oneself a man — endowed with reason, conscience, and moral feeling, invested by a constitutional provision of paramount human authority, with liberty of thought, liberty of speech, and liberty of action-knowing no one superior in rank to a man-a well educated, moral, and religious man-as the noblest, greatest, and best work of God on earth, is the greatest and best nobility to which any human being can rationally, morally, or religiously aspire. And with all these honors, immunities, and privileges, is every American citizen invested, and of which he never can be divested by any superior on earth, so long as he conducts himself in harmony with reason, morality, and religion.

We can desire for ourselves no better political or temporal birthrights or inheritance than we now possess, and we can pray for no greater honors and privileges of this world for any living people greater or better than those guarantied by our institutions to every American citizen. May we act worthily of them! May they be long continued as the inheritance of our posterity, and may they soon be bestowed on all the kindreds, tongues, and people of earth, until there shall ascend from every dwelling on the spacious earth one grateful sorg of praise to Him that hath redeemed man from the tyranny of man, and invested the human race with equal laws,

equal institutions, and equal national and political birthrights, leaving it to every human being under the government and providence of God to be the architect of his own fortune-the creator of his own personal rank, dignity, and honor!

We arrived in Boston early in the morning of the 19th October. Soon after my landing, and while in the custom-house passing my baggage, I received from a gentleman unknown to me a letter from home, informing me of the sudden and unexpected death of my dear WICKLIFFE, around whom clustered so many bright hopes of long life and great moral excellency and usefulness. My emotions may be by a few more easily imagined than I could express them. But God's ways cannot be traced. As it was when he led Israel out of Egypt, so is it still, concerning which the Psalmist of Israel has said, "Thy way was in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps were not perceived." Ps. lxxvii. 19. But for this affliction, my travels abroad as well as my travels at home would long be remembered with pleasure. On all other occasions, during many years, and my frequent and long journeys, the good hand of the Lord has been always around my family.. I was never afraid of evil tidings. But in this case he thought good to take to himself the choicest lamb from my flock, and has not revealed to me the reason why. But he is too wise to err, and too kind causelessly to afflict the children of men. May our affections never be unduly placed on any thing on earth; but as those we love both in the flesh and in the Lord are taken to himself, may our affections be more placed on things above and less on things on the earth!

I am aware of the many imperfections necessarily incident to these letters, sketched as they have been in galloping haste, and in the midst of daily and hourly interruptions. I would desire (as many seem to think I ought) to revise and improve them, to enlarge upon some items and incidents too hastily passed over, and to add others wholly omitted, and to present them together in a neat duoéecimo volume. But this must depend on two or three conditions:: -First, whether my health and time will permit; secondly, whether a sufficient number of copies might be desired to authorize a new and improved edition of them. These matters, like all things human, must await the developments of the future.

Your affectionate Father,

A. CAMPBELL.

MORAL SOCIETIES,

Having religious rites and secrets, "Sons of Temperance,” “Odd Fellows" and "Free Masons."-No. IX.

TROY, N. Y., October 13, 1848.

To the Editor of the Millennial Harbinger:

In

DEAR SIR-During a number of years past, I have frequently enjoyed the privilege of reading the Millennial Harbinger; and while I have not been prepared to admit all opinions advanced in it, as established truths, I have found much in its numbers to approve. deed, the fearless tone which has characterized your journal-the bold and uncompromising stand which you have taken against errors, established in the world's estimation by age, and apparently sanctified by the great names enrolled on their banners-the zeal and ability with which you have warred in the cause of truth, are above all praise, and necessarily give to your opinions an influence rarely attained by any individual.

Feeling thus conscious of the power that your magazine wields, it can hardly be supposed that any one, having the good of his race at heart, can be indifferent to the principles it may advocate in any of the many great questions now being discussed or practically tested before the public of the nineteenth century. Almost every age of the world's history has exhibited its peculiarities; the great leading drift of the human mind being directed, as if by the hand of Providence, to some point in some special direction of thought or action, as marked as the sun at noon-day; and the philanthropic historian finds but little difficulty in discovering these phases in the history of

our race.

Our own age exhibits, among its leading traits, a disposition to associate. The power of combinations is being practically tested; and instead of the various offices of benificence and mercy being left, as heretofore, to the uncertainty of individual effort, they are committed to the care of some patron association. "You can scarcely name an object for which some institution has not been formed. Would men spread one set of opinions, or crush another? They make a society. Would they improve a penal code, or relieve poor debtors? They make societies. Would they encourage agriculture, manufactures, or science? They make societies. Would one class

encourage horse racing, and another discourage travelling on Sunday? They form societies. We have immense institutions spreading over the country, combining hosts for particular objects. We have minute ramifications of these societies penetrating every where, except through the poor-house, and conveying resources from the domestic, the laborer, and even the child, to the central treasury."* To any one, therefore, who would act advisedly, the question of association, for specific purposes, becomes not only a subject of consideration, but also for philosophic discrimination. A man, unless a drone, can hardly remain a passive spectator, when all about are

*Channing's Works, vol. i. p. 282--3.

moving; and yet, where the objects are so numerous, time, if nothing else, would make it necessary to limit his participation in the movements of the day.

I rejoice to learn that in some of the recent numbers of the Harbinger you have made a few of these associations the subject of remark; and though I differ with your opinions almost in toto, the discussion, I am convinced, will result in no disadvantage to the church, the world, the associations themselves, or to the great cause of truth.

I have seen but three of your numbers on this subject, and consequently, am only prepared to judge of the arguments contained in them. You will also allow me to premise, that of the three societies mentioned in these numbers, I have a practical knowledge. I am a member only of one-the Odd Fellows;-and in my remarks would only be undertood as defending that institution, against your objections. I object, first, to your title-"Moral Societies; having religious rites and secrets-Sons of Temperance, Odd Fellows, and Free Masons."

Odd Fellowship makes no pretensions to the character of a religious association; and while its principles are of a highly moral and benevolent nature, I have never known the Order, either collectively or individually, to claim that the institution is, in any way, a substitute for or lesse ned the obligation resting on its members to connect themselves with-the Christian church. Founded on the great truth of man's descent from a common Creator, with a spirit of noble tolerance, it opens its doors alike to the believers of every creed, the inhabitant of every clime. Its prime principles are, Friendship, Love, and Truth. Its members are commanded to "visit the sick, relieve the distressed, bury the dead, and educate the orphan." It requires an acknowledgment, of its candidates, belief in the existence of a Supreme Ruler of the universe, and teaches that whatever may be the various conditions of men, under the influence of natural or artificial causes, there is one point where all become equal—it is when helpless from disease. At this point Odd Fellowship interposes its arm, to cherish and support the worthy brother during his hour of affliction.

It also recommends a liberal charity to the world at large, but enforces a strict attention to the necessities of its own "household of faith." The initiate is left to the choice of his religious and of his political creeds, without advice or dictation. Your remarks, there fore, that it is believed that a majority of the members of the three Moral Societies which you mention, make them a complete substitute for the Christian church, and that, "practically, they (the members) are anti-church, and pro-masonry, pro-temperance, or pro-anything, rather than pro-church," falls to the ground, as far as Odd Fellowship is concerned; and I should deem it ungenerous to the Order, unless you have many facts not presented to the observation in this section of the country, to consider them as more irreligious than the average of the moral portion of the world at large. Allow ine now to examine positions more in detail. You say "For if the Christian church requires auxiliaries in the works of humanity, benevolence, and mercy, she is most unquestionably a defective and

imperfect institution; and on the assumption that her founder was, and is, the Supreme Philanthropist, how can this idea be entertained by any one believing in him! A person must become in fact, if not in theory, an infidel, before he can entertain, for a moment, the opinion, that the Christian church needs any auxiliary in any one of the objects or purposes for which she was instituted by her founder." "The question then is-Are works of humanity and mercy assigned to the church, by her founder, as one great end of her existence 'in the world?" "

Before discussing this question, it may be remarked that even though an affirmative to it should be established, it would fall far short of proving that Christians should confine the doing of good works entirely within the pale of the church, or that they should refuse to unite with those of the world, in efforts to mitigate the sufferings of humanity. Our Saviour informs us that he was accused of being "a friend to publicans and sinners;" "but," he says, "wisdom is justified of her children." All analogy, whether in the economy of nature, or of God's moral government is against such a spirit of exclusiveness. The just and the unjust are evidently not to be separated here, and in no circumstances of life do we find unmixed good or unmixed evil; but in all events, whether in the physical or the moral world, a mingled cup is presented; and even in moulding the human mind, as progressing age developes it, no similarity of influences insures similarity of character. "Individuals born of the same parents, and in the same house, suckled on the same breast, nursed on the same knee, educated by the same masters, and subjected to the same authority, introduced to the world at the same period, and moving in the same society, are different, frequently as different as the clumsy Japanese and the elegant Circassian are in body, or the ferocious Tartar and harmless Hottentot in mind. * * * * Indolence and activity, talent and stupidity, passions the most headstrong, and affections the most engaging, may thus be found growing out of the same soil, associating under the same roof, and peculiarizing individuals, born and nurtured under the influences of the same circumstances."

The world of man thus made up of every variety, dependant upon each other in every condition, and bound together by bonds, national, social, and kindred; the question properly arises, whether the Divine Founder of Christianity intended to break up all these natural ties, separate communities hallowed by the holiest feelings of humanity, and connect with the polity of the institution he was about to establish among men, the various and complicated earthly interests of his followers, or whether he designed it should be merely an organized association of his followers for the purpose of converting the world of men to his kingdom, and leave them to keep up their natural connexions and to mingle with the world to do good.

That the Author of salvation spent a large portion of his life in works of benevolence and mercy, no one will pretend to deny; indeed, we have no account that the prayer of suffering humanity was ever made to him in vain; and yet the divine power which he wielded in healing diseases and casting out devils was never vouchsafed to the church beyond the few disciples who drank of his in

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