ARTICLE VIII.

CHRISTIANITY AND OUR SOCIAL RELATIONS.

A FAMILIAR Combination of the human race would be one which would embrace families, societies, communities and nations. Man was created a social being. He is a creature of sympathy. He shares in the joys and sorrows of his fellow-men; and while he is bound by such strong ties to his race, the question naturally arises, what relation do these several ties hold to the religion which he professes? Do the temples he erects, the sects he forms, and the families to which he is united, sustain any connection with our eternal happiness?

This subject we propose to discuss. We intend to do it in a popular manner, without special reference to the philosophical principles that lie at the basis of the family relation. To give the subject a specified form, we may say that Christianity harmonizes beautifully with our social

nature.

We argue this, from the fact that the social affections are found in their most cultivated state under religious influence. We would not be reckoned among those who assert that no heathen precept can be found which will compare in purity of sentiment with the moral theses of our Saviour. This assertion is not true. There cannot be found a more beautiful sentiment against revenge, than that contained in the sacred books of the Brahmins, when we are commanded not only to " forgive him who seeks our hurt, but to show him kindness, as the sandaltree perfumes the axe that fells it; or, on the same topic, the maxim of the seven wise men of Greece,-" be kind not only to your friend, but to your enemy; or the celebrated sentiment of Confucius, who says, "the perfect man loves his neighbor, and treats him as he would wish to be treated in like circumstances." These maxims, however, while they contained lofty precepts, did not rest upon great principles. They had no solid foundation. They had no self-propagating power. They did not

operate upon the mass of humanity. Once fallen from the life, they are lost in forgetfulness. But when Christianity inculcates such sentiments, they lay hold of the heart; and, once there, become the germ of a spiritual life, which strengthens and develops itself until it renovates the entire man.

It is the distinctive and fundamental principle of the Christian religion, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." But how much is meant by this assertion? Are we to take the expectations and wishes of others as the rule, or the requests of others governed by reason? Shall we submit to every demand made upon us by persons in every state of society-persons incompetent to judge of our ability to satisfy their wants-persons avaricious of our time and property-and, with an Agrarian sweep, cast ourselves into a public fund? Or shall reason, enlightened by Christianity, teach us the true extent of this law, and make us responsible for a violation of it? Shall we break down all barriers, amalgamate all parts of society, and form one vast community? So thought Fourier. With the fondness of a pleased fancy he indulged the idea, and with a vigor of intellect scarcely ever surpassed he grappled with it, until he seemed to mark out an attractive road to wealth and happiness by association. He failed in laying his corner-stone to the building he wished to erect. It was not broad enough, nor firm enough to support the temple he thought to rear upon it. How beautiful was his theory! Looking upon man as destitute of moral character when he comes into being a creature of circumstance-a creature capable of spiritual cultivation to the highest degree, by the mere operation of human influences-he expected, in a world of sin and impure passions, to regenerate humanity, and make the earth evermore a paradise. There is to be a kingdom of God on earth. God made the world out of chaos, and this chaos must make society. Thus far there has been no society. All now and hitherto is but the yearning and heaving of the elements, ere the commencement of its long ages. We are to expel competition, and make the very industry which now degrades us, our initiation into the law of liberty and love. The great central thought is universal unity. Nothing is to exist by itself and for itself. Nothing is complete in itself,

or completes its destiny in itself. The universe of matter and mind is one great harmony. Every planet, every leaf, every atom, every action, every thought or character has its destined place, in which it is of infinite importance and value, but out of which it is worse than nothing. And so every individual, as it were, occupies the centre, and feels life radiating from him, from every part. Man is destined for unity with himself, with nature, with his fellow-man, and with God. And to accomplish this end, our relations to nature organize us into one universal body, so that all men work as one man, and cultivate the earth as one. Our relations to our fellow beings make us one body, and these relations combined identify and unite us with God. In a word, by a process of education, the child may be taken and develop himself perfectly by placing him in harmonious relations with all about him. This of course supposes that what is in him is good, and you have only to keep him in harmony with nature and with his neighbor to harmonize him with God. Having done this, society becomes perfect, and the world regenerated. Bring to bear upon him the influence of character, and like an imponderable fluid it will pervade the atmosphere he breathes, and he will inhale into his own character, virtue and holiness. Let the halls of nature be the place where he shall come into being. Let them be a perptual symbol of the wisdom, the love, and the harmony which he is endeavoring to realize. Let the infinence of art and genius combine to make him both an artist and one who shall be artistically inclined. Let music float in the air, so as never to allow a dull atmosphere, and he will feel the outpouring of the lives, the hopes, and prayers, and faith of men like Handel, Mozart and Beethoven. Add to all this the influence of organization, and you have the spiral line of beauty extending to all his relations and occupations, so that good, virtuous man is able to perfect himself in goodness and holiness. Educated in this way, the evil of sin, which is only a negative thing, will be eradicated, and the heart beat harmoniously with its Author. The pupil passes through infancy in a spot the most attractive. The sun, the green shades, the winding river, curious play-things, never tiring from their variety, are ever before his eyes, and the child, receiving its first impressions from a beautiful

world, with the fragrance of flowers, the harmony of forms and colors, and the soft notes of music, will find the seeds of spiritual power sown within his mind by the means of the senses. He passes through infancy, pupilage and probation with every thing about him alluring and cheerful. His mind and heart, being moulded in the form of beauty, will expand and convey to others these holy impressions; and others to others still, until this world shall become an Eden, and bud and blossom like the rose. In this manner our social affections are to be properly cultivated.

All this finely spun theory is very beautiful, but utterly impracticable. It supposes a condition of the human race, which can never be realized while its basis is a fallen one; imagining as it does that we are so strictly parts of one great whole, as to lose our individuality in this great unit. It is defective in reaching the evil to be removed. It touches man as a bundle of principles, but not man as a being governed by motives, whose seat is the heart, and whose heart is sinful. It aims to develop man without character, except so far as circumstances develop it; but has nothing to do with man positively inclined to sin, which is in reality the thing to be done. Moreover, if we individually and collectively surrender what property aud rights we have, who is to supervise the whole, so as to make an equal distribution? If any one person is appointed, does not the selfish principle we wish to eradicate begin to act; and by making some one supervisor general, are we not cherishing the very thing it is the aim of the system to destroy? There are preliminaries to be adjusted. There are prejudices to be removed. There is an equalization to be made, never to be realized by any human being. If it is impossible to unite the tastes, wishes, pursuits and habits of any small town, so as to make them coalesce, so as to combine them upon one given object, and accomplish that object; if we cannot become one in religious opinion, in modes of thinking, and modes of gaining wealth, much less can there be unity in a state, a country, or the world. No. Until the leaven of divine love shall have pervaded the hearts of men, destroying the selfishness, the malice, the ill-will and the competitive interests of men, we never can expect to realize so sublime a theory. Any one can 49*

VOL. XIII.-NO. LII.

see that it meets the error at the wrong point. If selfishness is to be removed from the heart, the seeds of it must be entirely eradicated; or, if they remain there, they must have no soil in which to germinate. It is absurd to suppose that all the nations of the earth, with their different climates, different modes of industry, different prejudices, different modes of thought and education, different religious systems, and different governments, can be brought together and made to harmonize as the heart of one man. Little can a man know of the wickedness of human character, who expects to realize the development of such a dream. Families, villages, countries and nations have their own interests, and will and must preserve them. There are rights belonging to the individual members of a family, which, once seized upon and destroyed, would soon open a high road to licentiousness, and destroy the two most sacred institutions of the Christian religion; the oath and the marriage tie. Indeed, this is the ultimate consequence of Fourierism; a consequence which is the legiti mate and inevitable result of his principles. We should become a universal family, with universal freedom, universal licentiousness, unbridled passion, unrestrained liberty. We should become a band of lawless devotees to

vice.

It is for this reason we have turned the reader's attention to it; assuming as we did that the social affections. are no where cultivated in their most perfect state, except where Christianity is the most influential. This beautiful theory of Fourier, it proposes to realize in a far different

Instead of breaking down society, it purifies it. Instead of removing sin from the body, it roots it out from the heart. Instead of proposing principles incapable of being reduced to practice, it offers to renovate the heart and the life, and by the holy influence of a regenerated nature, to strengthen and enrich the ties of nature; gathering friends and kindred under its shade, and extending its arms to embrace all men as brethren; conferring upon all the same blessings, and gathering them all in holy union around one common altar of sacrifice. Every thing announced as desirable by the Associationists falls within the scope and design of Christianity, aud its expectation is to make every man a brother and a friend. Levelling upon holy principles, it seeks the same