that generosity may well be suspected, which, with open eyes, can permit extravagance and excess to sink it, from the full enjoyment of ease and plenty, into a state of beggary and dependence. That man who allows his eagerness for pleasure to destroy his own temporal happiness, and immortal prospects, is not likely to feel a very conscientious and tender regard for the happiness of others. 2. That men of pleasure are ungenerous, appears from their conduct in relation to God. Under this view there is enough in their conduct to stamp with degradation all the pretended beauties of their character. In relation to God, the fountain of excellence, and the source of all created happiness, there can, of course, exist no such thing as generosity; but there is opened up an ample field, for displaying the warmth of the affections, and the susceptibility of the heart. It is a fact sufficiently demonstrated by experience, that, though gratitude and generosity are by no means convertible terms, yet they are feelings so nearly allied to each other, that they cannot exist among men in a state of separation. In that heart which is so callous, and so completely devoted to its own purposes, as never to feel any grateful emotion, there cannot exist the noble sympathies, nor spring from it the beneficent actions, of generosity. The same fountain cannot send forth sweet and bitter waters; the human heart, diseased in every other respect, cannot be sound only in one of its affections. The man who is ungrateful, is, to a certain extent, from the same cause, also positively ungenerous. It is the province and the pleasure of generosity to confer happiness on others. But he who repays good with evil, and rewards kindness with hostility, plants a thorn in that heart which perhaps at the very moment is yearning towards him with affectionate tenderness, and wounds the mind, which still probably is contriving schemes for his welfare. And if his wickedness permits him to inflict such an injury, in that case where there exists the strongest claim upon his generosity, and where the feeling might be indulged without trouble and without expense, we do not see that mankind can believe that such a man feels much general benevolence, or would be inclined to make any great sacrifice to promote the cause of human felicity. It would be strange if he, who could be wantonly cruel without an impulse, could at the same time cheerfully undergo all the trouble of doing good, and prac tise all the self-denial which the cause of Christian charity frequently demands. Men of pleasure, who make such a boast of their generosity, and their warmth of heart, are chargeable with the foulest ingratitude to God. All those worldly comforts which they are daily enjoying, and all those pleasures which they are daily abusing, never excite one inquiry, or produce one emotion of thankfulness to the bountiful Giver. They cast their eye forth upon the landscape, and admire its varied and transporting loveliness, yet their heart never once rises from nature up to nature's God. They listen to the melody of the winged warblers, and admire their lovely plumage, but they forget him who tunes their voices, and robes them in beauty. They inhale the fragrance of the surrounding flowrets, and admire their rich and varied hues, but they have no recollection of him, "Whose breath perfumes them, and whose pencil paints." They look with fond regard on the beauty of a well-formed counte nance, without ever reflecting that the hand of the Divinity has been there; and probably throughout life, riot amid profusion, and roll in plenty, without one prayer of thanks, one emotion of gratitude. And can it ever for a moment be believed, that a heart so deeply and so universally marked with thanklessness, so utterly alienated from God and from goodness, can enter tain one pure, or one praiseworthy feeling? 3. That men of pleasure are ungenerous, appears from their conduct in relation to our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is under this head particularly that we would charge them with insensibility; and we would tell them, that if their feelings had not been rendered altogether callous by means of iniquity, they must have expanded at the noble and disinterested proofs of affection to our sinful race, which beamed from the person, and shone forth in all the conduct, of the divine Saviour. It was a love unmerited and unsought, and which endureth from everlasting to everlasting. It was a love which all our rebellion could not quench, and which all the fierce opposition of sinful men, all the efforts of Satan, and of a world lying in wickedness, conjoined, could never for a moment turn aside. It was a love which endured the contradiction of sinners; which defied scourging, buffeting, mocking, crowning with thorns, the agonies of the garden, the more awful agonies of the cross, and the king of terrors. It was a love, compared with which, the tenderest and most enduring emotions of the human heart are cold and ephemeral; and it was a love, probably equalled in intensity by nothing so much as by that spirit of hostility with which the young, the gallant, and the generous oppose it, though its objects were VOL. XXIII. NO. II. their temporal welfare and eternal felicity. We would request these men to figure to themselves the death-bed of a generous friend. Would not every expression which he might use be carefully treasured up in the memory of the relative, and every dying request which he might utter be punctually fulfilled? If in the tenderness of his last moments, he should mention the spot in which he would wish his remains to be deposited, would not his wish be most religiously complied with? If he recommended to their attention some objects, which, in former days, it had been his pleasure and pastime to tend and provide for, would not these objects be venerated for his sake, and perhaps never be hailed without a tear to his me mory? All these questions the young and the generous will not hesitate to answer in the affirmative, But the love of their dying Saviour excites no sympathy, and arouses no gratitude; and the only dying request which he uttered, "This do in remembrance of me," is by them forgotten and disregarded. If the requests of the dying friend were of such a nature as to tend to the welfare of the survivors, would not this be an additional incentive to them, to see that they were punctually complied with? Would not this circumstance awaken in their minds the liveliest emotions of gratitude, when they reflected, that the very last moments of the departed had been devoted to the consideration of their happiness? Almost the last act of the departing Saviour was one of the most essential consequence to our welfare. It was founding an institution which forms one of the strongest cements of our faith, one of our greatest incentives to spiritual love and joy and one of our chiefest comforts in travelling through the wilderness of this evil world. And this insti N tution the generous ridicule, neglect, and despise! If the deceased friend happened to have been, in his lifetime, particularly kind and affectionate to certain of the surviving relatives, to have at all times anxiously sought their good, and at last even to have sacrificed his life that he might save them from some calamity, would they not use every exertion to honour and hallow the memory of one to whom they had been so much indebted; and would they not be forward, on every fit occasion, to express regard for his goodness, and gratitude for his kindness? Would not his splendid career and godlike actions, be ever present to their recollection, and excite them to emulate his character and to tread in his steps? Would they not be mindful, above all things, of his instructions, and anxious about his precepts; and would they not at all times avoid what he disapproved, and despise what he contemned? What then can we think of the generosity of those men, for whom the Saviour died, who, instead of venerating, do something every day of their lives to outrage his memory; who, instead of taking his pure and heavenly example for their guidance, choose that path which he abhorred; and who, instead of loving him for his affection, obeying him as their God, and resorting to him as their Saviour, commit all manner of sin, and oppose to all his gracious offers of forgiveness, acceptance, and eternal bliss, a heart of hatred, and a front of hostility! We have taken some pains to convince the young, we hope not without success, that among men of pleasure, tenderness and generosity have no existence; that they are mere salvos to quiet the conscience, and to give some show of countenance to their continuing in the path of pleasure and of folly. These men may probably, in the mean time, be sincere in their views, but soon, unless they change their course, will they find that they have been awfully deluded. This, to the young, should be sufficient warning to doubt their pretensions, and to shun their company; they may be amusing, beautiful, and elegant; but these qualities only make them the more dangerous. They may have the power to make sin more pleasing, and profligacy less repulsive, to paint them in vivid and glowing colours, and to blandish them with polish and refinement; but they cannot make them more innocent in themselves, nor less hateful to God. Because these men are accomplished, they are enticing; and because they are indulgent they are courted and followed; but because they are deceitful they are ruinous, and their indulgence is only a faithless and perilous security. While they are most alluring, they are most destructive; and while they seem to point the way to happiness, they conduct to everlasting ruin. The true friends of the young would never wish to deprive them of one safe and innocent enjoyment; and they would prohibit nothing but what has a tendency to destroy their happiness, corrupt their principles, and endanger their eternal prospects. If they warn them against the generosity of the wicked, it is only because that generosity is, in many cases, a mere pretence, and because in others it is found leagued with iniquity. They have no wish to proscribe lofty sentiment, except in so far as it is inconsistent with the meekness and humble-mindedness enjoined by the Gospel. They wish the young to be poor, but not mean in spirit. If they ever curb the flight of fancy, and the flow of good humour, they As much misapprehension respecting the state of the Northumbrian Presbyterian Churches prevails in Scotland, both among the ministers and members of the established church-as we have heard some of its preachers affect to regard us with sentiments of pity—as some of its ministers, who have been inducted, by the kindly hand of patronage, into a comparatively lordly benefice, have pronounced us the scum and refuse of their church—and as many of its members have been grossly imposed on with respect to our real character, it is my humble opinion that a few observations on the actual state of Presbyterianism in Northumberland, would furnish a useful article in your valuable Instructor. In this rapid survey, we trust it will appear that Presbyterianism is in a very flourishing condition in Northumberland-that the honour and dignity of the Scottish Church are abundantly maintained by her representatives, (not, indeed, by their opulence and splendour; but. by their learning, piety, and zeal,) that they are respected by the Episcopal Church-and that they have a strong claim on the respect and patronage of their brethren on the north of the Tweed. If we include, as we ought to do, from their locality, in this short survey, Berwick-on-Tweed, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and the northern parts of the county of Durham, which naturally belong to Northumberland, though ecclesiastically and politically separated from it, the number of Presbyterian churches in which ministers regularly licensed and ordained by the Scottish Church actually officiate, or to which they are eligible in cases of vacancy, though, at present, for causes hereafter to be named, they may be differently. supplied, amount to thirty-six; to which we may add other four for South Shields and South Sunderland; and thus the whole amount will be forty. From this statement it appears, that the number of Presbyterian churches is by no means contemptible; especially, when it is considered that those Presbyterian churches which have connected themselves with the Associate Synod are excluded from this computation; and which, if added, would materially affect the calculation. These churches differ widely among themselves in point of wealth, numbers, and eligibility; but all of them are capable of furnishing a decent subsistence to a minister-a subsistence varying from L.80 to L.200 per annum, with, in many cases, a to lerable manse-all of them present, to a good man, abundant opportunities of usefulness-all of them are infinitely preferable to an Asə sistancy in Scotland, or to a state of genteel starvation in the metro polis, or to the situation of a parochial schoolmaster.* It cannot be denied that Presbyterianism was at a very low ebb about twenty or thirty years ago; but, since that period, phoenix-like, it has revived from its own ashes, renewed its youth and beauty, arranged its sober plumage, and commenced a daring flight to its native skies. There may be two or three churches in a languishing state, and there may be two or three ministers not quite so evangelical, or so zealous, or so pure, as they ought to be; but, as a whole, we can fearlessly pitch them against any similar number of churches and ministers in the very native soil of Presbyterianism, where the high wall of patronage shelters it from chilling blasts, and where rich endowments fatten its roots. Let us state a few facts to support this bold challenge. That our churches are flourishing will appear from this fact, that the numbers who attend them vary from three hundred to a thousand; and that the medium between these two extremes may be considered as the fair average of the whole. Tweedmouth, Spittal, Lowick, Crookham, Branton, and North Shields, may be cited as undoubted specimens of an excess of the average. At Crookham, the number, perhaps, amounts to 1500. Now, what country presbytery in Scotland can boast a better average attendance in her churches? And when it is distinctly noticed that we have to contend, not only with the Socinians, in common with our mother Church, not only with numerous hosts of Methodists, but also with the Epis copal establishment-with all the powerful influence of a dignified hierarchy, and of a jealous nobility, this prosperity cannot fail to excite astonishment; for, in consequence of the intimate connexion that subsists between church and state, and, in consequence of the penal statutes that still, to the disgrace of our legislature, impend over the heads of all dissenters, and even over the heads of the members of the Scottish Establishment itself, we cannot rationally hope to reckon among our number many wise men after the flesh, many opulent men, whose birth, or talents, or interest, entitle them to look forward for the loaves and fishes which our rulers dispense only to such as conform to the Episcopal Church. That our ministers also are highe ly respectable, with two or three exceptions, for their talents, learning, piety, and zeal, may be fairly inferred, under all the disadvantageous circumstances in which they are placed, from the view that has been given of the flourishing state of their churches; for how is it possible that men, situated as they are, could collect and keep together such large congregations without It may be proper here to mention, that the income of Northumberland ministers arises solely from seat-rents; that these seat-rents vary from two shillings to eight shillings or ten shillings per annum for each sitter; that some never pay at all, and others pay irregularly and at distant intervals, and, consequently, the stipend of the clergyman (I mean in country places) is precarious, and may be very different this year, in its amount, from what it may be the next. There are a few chapels that have tolerable manses, with a small piece of ground attached to them. The greater part of the ministers have a small allowance from Lady Hewley's charity; some have, in addition, £5 from the Regium Donum. I have no doubt, that, were the General Assembly to make application to Government, a greater sum from this fund could be obtained for those ministers in Northumberland that were regularly licensed by the Church of Scotland. The higher dignitaries of the Church of England, whose opposition in such a case might be feared, entertain at present a very favourable opinion of them. |