Cheraw gazette. [volume] (Cheraw, S.C.) 1835-1838, 1837-07-12

n'o'tSo tlle same VaTleQ TeSultS. lNe
north, Unitarianism grew up while in the
middle and southern states Deism became
) the common sentiment. The previous
condition of Massachusetts made it certain,
march away from God she would he Socin.
ian while that of Virginia, after On equal
march forced her into condition Of more
Il reasonable buttless religious skepticism.
Even the mercies of God lavished societies
IN such conditions, blessed as they were in
the geaerals points, We're liable to unusual
perversions, differing according to the ex.
listing conditions. Thus wide and true
revival of religion in New England ended,
to lementable degree, in all sorts Of meta.
physical heresies-which still disturb the
minds ofmen while in the west, the same
gifts were perverted into extravagant and
unnatural system, regarding social life,
which are still exhibited among those called
shaking quakers."
There is great principle at the bottom
of all these varying results-a principle
universal in the providence of God, as in.
44fuenced by. or Influencing IN 1e.urn nls
spiritual dealings with mankind. The con-
dition in which we are, is the uniform basis
of that which is to follow. The influences
applied, of necessity produce some result,
and whether good or bad, 1t is akin to the
state on which they acted. The gospel ii.
self either melts or hardens, and the eterni.
ty before US will assume, in its most glorious,
or most aggravated aspect, no other char
acter, to each separate spirit, than the etern.
al development, perhaps, ofthat with which
it emerged from its state of trial, into eter.
nifty.
As with each separate individual. so also
with communities, the beginnings are more
distant from the final result, than we CON-
monty imagine. suppose that the final
cause, humanity speaking Of that awful state
Of society IN France, which obscured with
horror the real benefits of the first revolu.
ton, is to be sought a: least as far back as
the revocation of,he edict of Nantz, more
than a century before its eruption, and that
the brutal RIGHTEOUSNESS of that mobiles and
clergy, under the regency Of the Duke Of
Orleans, added the finishing touch, and so
prepared the people, that the actual results
were inevitable, under the given state of the
case. So too, In Great Britain the state
of the churches and people, at the darkest
pesiod of the latter part of the last century,
had undoubtedly direct relation 10 the
leentiousness of religious opinion, fostered
in the last years ofthe commonwealth, and
perfdious conduct of the parliaments and
prelates ofCharles H., by whom religion
was hunted Gown, as the only crime which
could not be tolerated within the realm.
The differ ence of the final results in the two
kingdoms, is fully accounted for by the
different degrees in which they prepared
for themssyes wrath "a and the consequently 9
when the day ofwrath came to them as ma.
tions. We trust, lis it too much to say,
we have faith to believe y that such days
will return 10 them no more. Oh that the
world knew its day of merciful vsitations
and would appropriate its blessings before
they be hid again from their eyes.
No spot of earth has exhibited more
thoroughly this mournful declension Of re.
ligion than the republic Of Geneva; nor has
any illustrated more forcibly, at the same
time, the truth of the principles already
stated. For although Geneva has thor
oughlj shaken off the peculiar doctrines
which were so long her glory, the long and
blessed influence which her civil and relig.
ious institutions had exerted, put her in a
condition 10 make her fall without commo.
ton, without bloodshed-without the des.
truction of public morals, and to preserve
after it, many ofthose habitudes, Of which
the spirit and life were gone. And what
was not less important, retained her in a
state easily accessible to those previous in.
fluences, which in Geneva, as throughout all
Protestant Christendon1, are repairing the
breaches of Zion, and restoring her lost
beauty. l would speak briefly Of both
these events.