State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1831-1836, 1836-08-30
PROSPECTUS
OF
THE Il lend OF MAN.
This commandment have we from Him, that he
who loveth GoD loveth his brother also

man as his equal, and to love him as he
loves his own soul. And ever since Cain
sought the favor of his Maker by preten-
ded worship, without love to his brother,
the progeny of Cain have dreamed them
selves religious while saying in their hearts,
'Am my brothers keeper"
The second table engraved by the finger
of God on Sinai, contained a solemn re-
enactment of that original law; decisive
testimony against such selfish and spurious
religion. Century after century holy men
were inspired to tune the harp of melody
and sweep the Tyre of prophecy, in unison
with the statutes of Righteousness Oftheir
testimony, the fiftieth Psalm, with the first
and fifty eighth chapters of Isaiah, may be
adduced as incidental, yet glowing speci-
mems. But the religion of Cain had cor
rupted and well nigh displaced the religion
of the law and the prophets, when Jesus
Christ himself appeared among men to
magnify and make honorable its require
ments. For this cause his Sermon OH the
Mount unfolded its long forgotten principles
and indicated from perversion its oft mis-
construed enactments. For this cause he
went about doing good TO the bodies as
well as the souls of men, that his followers
might initiate his example. For this cause
he put forth the parable of the good Samar-
itan,which teaches us to be neighbor to him
who is fallen among thieves. For this
cause he tested the religion of the rich
young man, who imagined he had kept
the law from his youth up by require
ment which sent him away sorrowful.' For
this cause he drove the eXtorlioners, ms
thieves, with scourge Of cords, from the
house of prayer. For this cause he de-
nounced woes upon the orthodox and high
protesting Scribes and Pharisees, whose
hypocrisy was attested by their expressions.
For this cause he announced his fixed de-
termination to distribute the awards of the
last Judgement upon the principle of con-
sidering the good or i'll treatment of one of
the least of his earthly brethren TO be virtu-
ally the treatment of his own person.
Christianity while it remained such, was
emphaticlly the Friend Of Man. 1t could
only become otherwise by a corruption
which should eXtinguish its vital principle
OF equality and impartial love. The mSs-
terry of lniquity began early to work. The
Apostles themselves were 'in perls among
false brethren who 'lovcd to have the
prominence and lord it over Gods her.
itage.' In this spirit was revealed the Man
of Sin, who exalted himself above all that
is called God. Christianity degraded. be-
came the ally OF despotsm. Tyranny
dreaded the light that shone upon its own
deformity, and deemed it unsafe to entr,lst
to the injured poor the privilege of reading
the Bible that condemned thei. own griev-
Gus wrongs!
| This was the slumber of the dark ages
Luther illumined its dungeons with few
CLEANS of day light. But we live in an aye
in which Protestants- so called are re-
doubling its horrors, and becoming clam
orous for the perpetuity of its darkness.
In our own country, $50 boastful of its lber-
| ties) they not only withhold the Bible from
their brethren, but claim, and hold, and buy,
| and sell their souls and bodies as goods and
'chattels PERSONAL They forbid to marry
and put asunder whom God hath joined
together. They expunge, not the second
merely, but every command of the Deca-
logue, particularly the first, the fifth, the
seventh, and the eighth. They effectually
say to their brother, 'thou shalt have no
otherGod before thy earthly masters They
null the law of obedience to the parent
and of instruction to the child. They de-
clare the wife and husband mot entitled to
the conditions of matrimony.' They sancti-
fly and legalize the highest kind of theft, the
robbery of the labor of whole life the
person of the laborer himself They extort
not the unwilling 1.-THE Of the reaper's toll,
but the hire itself, and the reaper with his
hire! They use their neighbours service
without wages, and give him not for his
work. They Judge not the cause of the
widow, neither doth the cry OF the needy
come before them.
Such, to an alarming extent, is the relig-
ion of the nineteenth century, in America
"a religion which claims 70 be the religion
of Protesfants and of the Bible! II prates
OF the horrors of the inquisition, and erects
gibbots for the defenders of the truth - the
advocates of the poor 1t builds the tombs
of reformers, and accounts it insanity and
treason to ask for the oppressed American
the occupancy of so elevated a condition as
that from whose degradation it was the la
Dor of the Reformers to redeem the benign
ted peasantry of Europe!
A remonstrance has been raised against
these accumulated wrongs; rebuke has
been uttered against these unparalleled
sins. Satan is reused from his seat, aud
wages war against the throne of God aud
of the Lamb. Lawless violence has been
welded by the boosted guardians ofthe law. /
1 he National Constitution has been tram /
pied in the dust, under the plea of preserv-
ing the Constitution. The bands Of society !
have been severed under the pretext of pre-
venting dsunion. The contemners of law |
have been clamorous for despotc legisla-
ton. A corrupted christianity looks COM
placently on, and cautions the transgressor
not against his sin, but against its TOO sudden
abandonment! Its anathemas, SO charitably
withheld from iniquity, are Numbered
fiercely upon the heads OF its reprovers.
Instead of calling to her children in the
confines of Babylon, Come out of her, my
people, that ye partake not her sins, and
that ye receive not her plaques, - she is
heard proclaiming that all who in any way
impair her powers are justly liable TO the