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clearly protects and defends them, that he who once imbibes its principles and precepts, must necessarily cease to oppress the laboring poor-must necessarily become their friend and protector? And do you, my dear sir, call yourself a philosopher, which means a lover of wisdom; and yet aim to quench the light of that wisdom, which shines so brilliantly and benignantly upon the poor man's pathway? And do you, my dear sir, call yourself a lawyer, and yet wish to banish from the legal, moral and intellectual world, that Divine System, on which all just and righteous law is founded, for the source of all law that deserves the name, is the bosom of God; and the source to which we must look for God's will, which constitutes the sovereign law of the Universe, is his Divine Word-that word which, whilst it does not shut the gates of salvation upon the rich, opens them wide to the poor-that law which, whilst it received Lazarus, the poor beggar, into heaven, to become the companion. of saints and of angels, consigned Dives, the rich man, for his want of charity to the poor, to the dark recesses, and the tormenting fires of perdition.

And now, sir, permit me to step aside, to address a few words to the working men.

My brethren-for brethren we are since the hand which inscribes these lines, has been inured to labor in the humblest and the hardest walks of life-will you listen for a few minutes only to the voice of a real friend? As having been long a member of your fraternity, in the strictest sense of the terms, I claim a right to address you, and to receive a fair hearing. How, then, I ask, can you reasonably reject the Bible, which I have briefly but clearly shown to be the best bulwark of your rights and happiness? And how can you reject the Lord Jesus Christ, your eternal and unfailing friend? It was he, who, whilst on earth, sojourned exclusively among men of your description, called around him every where the poor and the needy, imparted instruction to the ignorant, comfort to the afflicted, relief to the distressed, vigor and strength to the lame and the feeble gave hearing to the deaf, and sight to the blind; healed the leper; restored health to the sick, and wiped the tears from the eyes of the widow and the orphan! To say noing of his divine character, as the Redeemer of a lost world,

the saviour of sinners; but viewing him as a mere man, and he outstrips in greatness and goodness, all that ever lived in Time, or shone on the page of history. But with all his greatness, he could stoop to the humblest duties of humanity; with a halo of glory around his brow, reflected from the god-head, to which he was united, still the widow's husband, the orphan's father, and the poor man's friend, are titles won by his condescending goodness, and which he will wear for ever. For the good of such as you, if a man only, he spent his life in constant danger, toil and sorrow: For it was because of his being the friend of the friendless, that he became himself "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with griefs!" When the poor rejoiced, then he rejoiced; and when they mourned, then he hung his harp upon the willows, or tuned it to the strains of wo! And may I not hope that you will take my advice, and seriously study the history, with a view to do justice to the memory and the merit of a being so humane and benevolent, so glorious and god-like? If you will not do this, with what propriety or consistency, can you join his enemies in reproaching his name, and ridiculing his creed-that creed which if merely human surpasses in wisdom and justice any that was ever published either before or since. But supposing him, as I believe he was-and as Joв knew he was, when he said, I know that my Redeemer liveth-to have been the God of Heaven and of Earth in human shape; and still displaying, as he did, so much solicitude for the welfare of such as you; so much tender regard for the working men, that with such alone he communicated, and to such alone he seemed to have come; that for you he took upon himself the shape of humanity; for you he toiled and suffered thro' a life wonderful in its events, and ever memorable by its termination on the cross, whereon he died that you might live; and from whence he descended, and rose again, that you and such as you might also rise after him, and be received at the right hand of God, as heirs of that life and immortality which he alone brought to light! Supposing all this and I solemnly believe it all, after a laborious and thorough examination-and then let me ask you, what an awful risk do you run in neglecting to study his history, and to lay hold of his atonement? I view him, you now perceive,

not merely as the humane and benevolent Nazarene-but as God made manifest in the flesh; and so will you, my brethren, if you study his glorious life, and his immortal works, for yourselves, and listen no longer to the sophistry of my friend Herttell, or that of his more celebrated if not more talented coadjutors, the inimitable Frances Wright, and the unfathomable Robert Owen! And to what are their wretched sophistry, their false premises and their baseless conclusions, now leading you? I fear not to answer, they are leading you from industry and economy, to idleness and dissipation; from order and regularity, to disorder and confusion; from health, wealth, and peace of mind, to disease, poverty and mental anguish. Their first pernicious effect has been, to withdraw many of you from the holy ob servance of the Sabbath, contrary to the express command of God; to induce you to turn your backs upon the church, and to spend that time which ought to be devoted to God, and the re-invigorating of your physical and mental powand your benevolent, humane and divine affections, in the most frivolous as well as the most wicked pursuits; in idleness and dissipation, in vice and impiety. Some of you, it is true, meet at Tammany Hall in New-York, or at some other hall-some nick-named "hall of science!" in Albany, or elsewhere-to hear some half-learned or worse than ignorant driveller- -or some cunning, but daring and impudent deceiver-insult the Divine Majesty, and the Moral Sense of mankind, by pouring forth floods of nonsense, falsehood, impiety, and even blasphemy! Others of you stroll across the ferries, or throng the streets and highways, wending your way to some tavern, or public garden, where the dice-box, the billiard table, the bottle and the bowl, stand ready, and invite you to intoxication, disgrace and ruin! And what, during all this waste of time and virtue, are the condition and the prospects of your children? They are totally neglected-and are growing up in the same disorderly habits, the same ruinous vices.

ers,

"No mother's care

Now shields their infant innocence with prayer;
No father's hand their guileless youth maintains,
Calls forth their virtues, or from vice restrains.""

But, like the miserable author of these lines, which I have

-just quoted, with a trivial alteration, who, though a bright genius himself, went to ruin for the want of parental carethey are learning the same creed, and pursuing the same course, which have already led so many of you, their pa. rents, and others, to temporal ruin, and will, I fear, if persisted in, prove the eternal ruin of you all! If I speak out fairly, on this occasion, it is because I speak from experience, the experience of ages, which proves clearly, that without the Christian Religion, man ever has been, and ever will be, the victim of licentiousness, if not of barbarism.

You are laboring to effect certain political, as well as religious, reforms or innovations; but are you weak enough to believe that you can improve the superstructure of the State, by subverting its foundations; that you can reform the church, by overturning and prostrating the altar in the dust; that you can make your rights respected by breaking down the bulwarks of righteousness; that you can repair a temporal edifice, by rashly daring to attempt the downfall of an eternal one; that you can, indeed, sever from your fellowman the sacred tie that binds them not only to the cause of justice here, but to the Throne of Eternal Justice hereafter; and still expect them, in their dealings with you, to be just and honest, either morally or politically. If you believe all this, you are indeed to be pitied as fanatics and visionaries beyond the reach of argument, and .far beneath the notice or animadversion of any legal tribunal.

To reform government, to reform the Church in its temporalities, or in its heresies, if any have crept into it; these, I cheerfully admit, are just and proper measures, whenever called for by a due regard to the happiness and prosperity of mankind: But to reform Christianity-to abolish, or alter, to add to, or diminish, the Christian Religion itself-these are measures which no man, no body of men, no earthly power, has the right to attempt. The Lord of Lords, and King of Kings, can alone interfere in this case: And whosoever, of mortal stamp, may have the hardihood, the vanity, the weakness, or the wickedness, to attempt it, must do so at the risk of eternal ruin: For thus is it written by the pen of Jehovah-and if TIME do not, rest assured that ETERNITY will, prove the Truth of it:-"I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this

book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book."

Rev. 22.

18, 19. Here, my brethren, is truly depicted the awful risk you are running, in your mad attempts to subvert Christianity; and though I have very justly attempted to alarm you on the ground of those temporal evils that are flowing to you, and to your innocent offspring, on account of your Infidelity; yet these are but "trifles light as air," compared with "the Plagues that are written" for those who not only disobey the book of life, but madly attempt to erase it from the records of the Universe, and dash its divine light from the intellectual, moral and spiritual world!

my

In your important, and, strictly speaking, political objects, as avowed in The Working Man's Advocate, I am your friend; I mean, especially, so far as you are opposed to unjust Monopolies. I am the foe of all such monopolies. I am the decided friend of equal rights, and equal laws: And one reason, and an all-sufficient one, for my being so, is, that REDEEMER, the blessed JESUS, was the foe of TYRANTS and the friend of MAN. Tyrants frowned upon him, wherever he went; for they knew that he was the friend of the poor, and the oppressed: And for the same reason, that they hated him, did their subjects love him, and fall down and worship him. At his approach the clamor of the multitude was hushed, and while love and gratitude beamed in their countenances, the flame of devotion kindled in their hearts; for they saw and felt, in their friend and benefactor, the presence of GOD! Since, then, your politics and mine are founded on the Bible, the only sure foundation of right, the only safe bulwark against wrong, and essentially the same, why should our Religion differ? Your politics are the politics of the Bible-but your Religion, I mean that of those among you. who embrace the religious principles of Paine, Palmer, Houston, Wright, and Owen, is the Religion, shall I say of hell-I must say so-for there and there alone could it originate. From thence, and thence alone, I repeat it, could so cold, so heartless, and so mis

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