Massachusetts spy and Worcester advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1823-1825, 1824-10-06
For the Massachusetts Spy.1
LAW AND LAWYERS.
Dangers attending Professional Men

There are employments and occupations
which seem peculiarly favourable to the gen.
GRAFTON Of pious sentiments, and the practice
of moral and Christian virtues. Had not ex-
perience and observation proved the contrary,
we should not hesitate to have affirmed, that
the votaries of certain pursuits would necessa-
rhy and inevitably have been persons of genu-
ane religion. He that has his dwelling, as it
were, among the tombs-who is continually
performing last Offices for the dead, and with
IN the sound of the passing bell, ought, above
all men, to be ready in his turn to die in the
full hope of the Gospel of Christ. But the
clown in Shakespeare's Hamlet, who had been
grave-digger and sexton thirty years, had
emo feeling of his business, and could sing at
grave-dgging." Amidst corpses and skele-
tons and mouldering relics, he has no more
sensibility than the bones he spaded up, and
little more thought of his own dissolution than
the heaying tart around him. Just SO it is
with this class Of men in our day. They go to
the house of mourning and keep burying the
dead, yet there is little evidence that their
! tendance on funeral obsequies.
There is another class of men who spend all
| their days among tears and groans, the dying
| and the dead, having their attention and af-
fections specially called and directed to the
fralties of nature and the harbingers of mortal
ity, and yet, it is to be feared, that none are
SO callous and thoughtless as they need not
! inform my readers that Physicians are here in
| tended. While they are perhaps sufficiently
solicitous and alive to the state of their pa
tients, and their ownreputation, as practition-
ers, strange apathy pervades their moral
powers; and one would think they had been
long administering to themselves anodynes and
narcotics to benumb all religious sensibilties
Day and night during long life, are assidu-
ously devoted to the cure Of the bodily diseas
es of others, while the dead maladies of their
oWn hearts are unfelt and incurred, having
never applied to the Physician of souls.
! There are likewise peculiar dangers incident
al to the clerical character, Clergymen, be-
fore their initiation into the sacred Office, are
naturally led to seIfexamination, to scrutinize
their own motives, and are solemnly interro-
gated by others respecting theirreligious views
and experiences, and their preparation ofheart
for the gospel ministry. 1t is then their feel
ings are awake, and the spiritual work appears
in all its in6S'te magnitude and Importance.
But if they actually enter on the work anpre-
PU'I"i VIII lSSl less anu less CONCERNED
for themselves, while they preach truth or
talsehood with zeal and apparent anxiety for
the souls Of their hearers. When they have
lived an exemplary life, and preached with a
good degree Of fidelity to others, they them
selvesare at last "cast-aways." "There is an
insensibility to religious impression which
constant conversation with religious subjects,
and, still more, a constant intermixture with
religious offices, are wont to induce. Such is
the frame of the human constitution, (and CAL
culated also for the wisest purposes,) that,
whilst all GctaUe habits are facilitated and
strengthened by repetition, impressions under
which we are paSSiUe are a0eakened and din.i7a-
sShed. little observation Of the world must
have informed us that the human mind is
prone, almost beyond resistance, to sink the
weaknesses or the irregularities of private
character in the view of publick services that
this propensity is the strongest in mans
own case; that it prevails more powerfully in
religion than in other subjects. 1.-THE Egyp-
tians had custom of carrying about at their
teasts skeleton, lest their guests, in the midst
OF their feastings and merriment, should forget
the frail tenure of life and its enjoyments ;
yet we do not learn that this gloomy monito-
rial attendant generated seriousness, or caus-
ed them any more to consider their latter end.
In the organization and progress of courts Of
; justice there is something peculiarly interest
ing and solemn, and calculated to remind us
all OF that grand and last assize, when the
whole world shalfbe summoned and assembled
for final judgment. "The history of a long
) law suit may be considered as no contempt.
BILE lesson OF morality. Amidst the sombre train
OF dusky parchments, religion sometime.
has condescended to rear her holy front. Dc
you not, In the pernsal of. these discoloured
monuments OF human prudence, behold the
consequence, the inevitable consequence, oil
our most anxious care? What is this history
but tale OF race following race in rapid and
melancholy succession of contrivance and in
. dustry! The extIavagant mortgagor and the
parsImonious mortgage, the crafty buyer and
the careless seller. the provident father and
the impatient heir, are all gone down to the
} dust together; and nothing now remains OF
their influence or their names to create fear
or excite hope, but the legal instrument they
have left to their posterity." The arraign
ment, trial, and sentence of criminals cannot
out awaken our memories to the "great day
OF dread decision and despair,'' to which we
are all rapidly fastening. This continual
disclosure of non-feasance, n,is-feasarce, and
naGI-ieasaace, detection and punishment OF
crime, ought to make all who are witnesses Of
this guilt and depravty, grow wiser and bet.
ter while justice is administering in these
earthly courts. While others are tried and
adjudged before us, shall we not seriously
) think Of future tribunal-that " we must all
appear before the judgment-seat of Christ
that every one may receive the things done in
his body, according to that he hath done.
whether it be good or bad" In this High
Court, to which we are all summoned, we all
must plead gully, and throw ourselves on the
mercy of our Judge, and mention alone the
merits of the Rcdeemer. No abatement, de.
murrer, continuance, and appeal can delay
our doom. We can hope nothing from the
: ignorance or prejudice of jury, or partially
of the Judge. There can be no interlocutory
Judgments, no motions for arrest, no bills Of
exception, no reyiesO, and no reversal. Nothing
but the merits of the case will prevail, and no
plea will be adjudged good and sufficient. eS-
, cent nl1Hpcfpd D5pf1J Notwifhs III ca