Such is the language which those stars address To melancholy man, while from the heath Accordant voices rise. Lo! it is night-- Extinguished is the brilliant orb of day, And none is left, save those bright stars above, To cheer the solitary world. So thou, Unthinking man! shall one day see thy life Extinguished by the chilly touch of death. But still upon thy grave a light shall stream-- And 'tis the torch of _Hope_ enkindled there By meek Religion, to watch o'er thy dust, Which life again shall animate and warm.
To-morrow, and the sun shall rise sublime, Painting the face of nature; and each scene, Tinged by its golden beams, shall glow and laugh, Fraught with new life: so thou shall lay thee down Within the midnight chambers of the tomb, And darkness shall encompass thee awhile; But then the light of Immortality, Bursting into the cold recess, shall shine, And wake thee from thy slumbers: thou shall rise, And, robed in never-fading glory, live, And rest thee on the bosom of thy GOD.
EVERY age and every community have their peculiar moral and religious symptoms, under the action of the Christian system. So also every separate form of Christianity hath its own characteristic features. Doth not the Roman Catholic religion differ from the Protestant? Doth not Protestant religion in Germany differ from that which passes under the same name in Great Britain? Presbyterianism in Scotland from Episcopacy in England? English Episcopacy from Dissent? Christianity in Great Britain from Christianity in America? Congregationalism in New-England from the Presbyterianism of the middle and southern states? The two latter from Wesleyanism? The Baptists from all three? Unitarianism from the four? And American Episcopalianism from each of this tribe? We might descend to other specifications, were it needful. It is enough for our purpose, that they are suggested.
It is interesting as well as pleasant to suppose, that the actual experiment of the different and successive modes, or developments, of the divine economy of redemption, as they transpire in human society, operates as a sifting of their qualities as excellent or otherwise; and that the good gradually combine and become permanent, while the faulty, by the same gradual process, become obsolete. Human frailties have ever found their way into Christian institutions, and pervaded more or less all Christian enterprises; but the proof of time invariably determines their character before the public, and causes them to be severed from such connection--to be ejected from such society--and consequently, to lose their influence, while that which is excellent abides. Faults almost innumerable may be traced in the history of the Church; but the candid reviewer, occupying our present position, can separate the good from the bad. We are more immediately concerned, however, to observe the character of _American Christianity_--especially those parts of it which have been most prominent and influential, and which have generated what may be called the religious spirit of the age in our own quarter. It cannot be denied, that there is something peculiar in American religion. First, religion here has been uncommonly energetic. Next, it has assumed some striking peculiarities in its modes of operation. There has been a disposition to lay aside old forms, and to put on new ones; to make experiments; and the business of _experimenting_ has been pushed so far as to bring the public mind to a pause. It may be profitable, therefore, in the temporary and comparative quiet of this hiatus, to interpose a little philosophical inquiry.