Eastern times. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1846-1857, 1855-02-15
Gbe MOralist,
The Reformer.

py MARY U. CHANDLER. we nope ueEediteE
to make copious extracts, which, we trust,
will be entertaining and instructive 10 our
readers -
a The zeal for special reforms in morality
that so strongly characierizes the present age,
Whatever may be its utility or necessity, may
not be without an evil effect upon the train
ing of character as whole. The intense ef
fort after reform in certain particular direc-
tions causes many to forget or TO overlook al
together the fact thar one virtue is not enough
to make a moral being 1t cannot be doubted
shat the present surpasses all former ages in
its eagerness TO put down several of the most
prominent vices to which man is subject bat
it may be well to pause and calmly examine
whether larger promise is not sometimes
uttered by the zeal so actively at work in So
ciety. than will probably be made good BY its
results.
Nothing can be worthy the name Of reform
that is not based on the Christian religion
that does not acknowledge the laws of eternal
truth and justice,-th does not find its life in
Christian chrirty, and its light in Christian
truth. The tendency Of reform at the present
day is too often to separate itself from rel-
gion; for religion cannot work fast enough 10
satisfy its haste; cannot, at the end of each
year, count the steps it has advanced in arith-
metical numbers. The reformer asks not al
ways for general growth aud advancement in
Christian character; but demands special ev-
licences, startling results, tangible proofs
These things all have their value, and the per-
sons who strive for them doubtless have their
reward but if the kingdom of heaven and its
righteousness were first sought, the good
things so iercely advocated and labored after
by special reformers would be added unto
them, as naturally as flowers and fruits, and
the wealth of harvest, are added to the tight
and warmth Of the advancing wear.
Persons who devote themselves to one spe-
cial branch of reform are apt to lose the pow
er of approaching any virtue save that one
which they have selected as their own.
and which they seem 10 love. not so much be-
cause il is virtue as because 1t is thar virtue.
They soon lose all moral perspective. and re-
semble him who holds some one object so
closely before his ewes that he can sae nothing
else, and cannot see that correctly while he
insists that nothing else exists worthy Of be-
ing seen.
There IS ever an effort going on in the mind
of man TO find some substitute for that unlver-
sal obedience to the laws Of faith and charity
which the Scriptures demand and this tempt
alton adapis itself specially to every different
class Of believers. Thus temperance is at
times preached bv men 50 intemperate in their
zeal, that they are unwilling to make public
addresses on the Sabbath. because On that dav
they are trammelled hv the constraint Of de-
cency, which prevents them from entering
freely into the gross and disgusting details in
which they delight We have the emancipa-
ton Of negroes sometimes preached BY men
fast bound in feters of malignity and spiritual
pride. We have the destruction of the ruling
influence of the clergy lnculcated BY men dog
matte as Spanish lnquisitors.
If we find men leaving no stone unturned in
promoting the cause of temperance, who 70
not hesitate TO cheat and slander their neigh
bors, temperance is no virtue in them; but is
the result of of love of wealth, or of property.
or of reputation. or of the having no desire
for strcng drink; because if a man abstain
from intemperance from love 10 God. he will
abstain from cheating and slanderng from
love to the neiehbor. He that loveth not his
brother whom he hath seen, how can he love
God whom he hath not seen =
So, too, slavery is an enormous evil, and it
is very easy for one who dwells in the free
States to cover with opprobrium those who
hold slaves but if the abolitionist INDUCES
in violence of invective that compels one to
fear that his heart is burning with hatred to-
wards his Southern brothers, he stands quite
as low in the moral scale as a cruel slavehold-
er. and possibly lower than hind one.
The Incorporate, and often malignant, vio-
ience with which men preach, and lead on
crusades, against special vices, proves them
ignorant of, or Indifferent to. the significance
of virtue as a whole. It does not erNer into
their hearts to conceive Of the beauty of that
growth in grace which results in the complete
stature of a man-that is, of an angel. In
their haste to produce great growth in some
particular directions, they overlook the fact,
that In precise proportion to such growth must
must be the dwarfng of the other members of
the soul''
4" There is class of men who assume to
De, and are received by many as, phiIanthro-
Pists, who appear to delight in detecting and
publishing to the world the vices of their fell
fow-beings. They seem to love to hate and
to find, in villifying the regulations of those to
"hom they are opposed, pleasure that can
De compared to nothing human; but rather to
the JOY OF vulture as he gloats over, and
rends In pieces, his carrion prev. While
reading or listening to the raging denupcia-
tons of such persons, one is painfully remind
ed of the spirit that few generations .oo
armed itself 10 destroy those who held onin-
ions in opposition to the dominant Dowe,
The axe and the fagot have disappeared hut
alas for human nature. the spirit that de-
lighted in their use has not wholly passed