As a preliminary, I ask the reader to peruse the Scriptural statements themselves, every word of which I here place before him. 1 KINGS ix. 23. These were the chief of the officers that were over Solomon's work, 550, which bare rule over the people that wrought in the work. 66 2 CHRON. ii. 17, 18. And Solomon numbered all the strangers that were in the land of Israel, after the numbering wherewith David his father had numbered them; and they were found 153,600. And he set 70,000 of them to be bearers of burdens, and 80,000 to be hewers in the mountain, and 3600 overseers to set the people a work. Now, giving the author the advantage of supposing that both these passages refer to the same event, and refer exclusively to hewing and carrying wood for the erection of the temple, I find, first, that "their bondage was not the result of a recent conquest," since David "had numbered them" before Solomon's days. But, secondly, were these workmen in bondage at all? Yes, says our author, for "the same word," &c. This reason would equally prove that Josiah made bondmen of all Israel (2 Chron. xxxiv. 33). Like our own word serve (from the Latin servus, a slave"), the Hebrew 72, which originally denoted bond-service, came to have a general import, and thus is found used even of the service or aid which one Israelite had from another (Jer. xxii. 13). Accordingly it is rendered in our version, "to till" (Gen. iv. 12), "to do work" (Numb. iv. 30), "bring to pass" (Is. xxviii. 21). That it does not of necessity signify the work of bondmen, appears from the fact that it is used of the service of the Levites (Numb. xviii. 23), and is the word employed in the command, "Six days shalt thou labour” (Exod. xx. 9). But had the writer looked into the original of the passage in Kings, he would have found himself at once deprived of any pretext, for the word there rendered "work," is the same as that which is employed of the act of God in creating the universe -" on the seventh day God ended his work” (Gen. ii. 2; see also Exod. xii. 16; xx. 9, 10; xxxi. 15; xxxv. 2, 21, 24, 29, seq.). What, then, becomes of all the implied cruelty of Solomon? And what are we to think of the author's discovery-his "important fact"-and the moving terms in which he sets it forth-as "working slaves;" "their masters;" "overseers of the slaves;" "the work of mules," "partially manacled," "driven;" "gang of 50 or 60 slaves;" "the task-work of these slaves;" "their bondage;" "their wrongs and their sorrows;" "reduced to slavery;" "hapless multitude whose unheard groans"? The word "slave," or a related term, is here employed some ten times for one term in the original, which may and may not denote bond-service. Ten to one is surplusage indeed! A UNITARIAN MINISTER. WHAT THE PREACHER SHOULD BE. LEARNING should help a preacher to separate the living spirit of the Divine Word from the learned incrustations which have formed around it. What he should aim at, is to throw himself back into the spirit of the persons whose mind is reflected in the sacred books; and having possessed himself of it, he must endeavour, when he addresses his contemporaries, to forget all that is antique in the thought or inappropriate in the phraseology of the text through which he imbibed it, and to speak under the sole consciousness of present, living interests, as Paul or John would now speak, if from our point of view they were looking out, with their own deep heart of faith and warm impulse of human sympathies, on the still enduring strife of man, with doubt and sin and woe. Rev. J. J. Tayler's Religious Life of England, p. 480. FRANCE. INTELLIGENCE. Pro-Religious Socialism in France. We have extracted from the "Démocratie Pacifique" of the 23rd of April, the following short paper, not because we think it of any great value, for there is no novelty in the thoughts, and it is purely declamatory, but because it gives some information concerning a party in France, the very existence of which has been hardly known in this country. It has been generally supposed that the purely anti-religious character of the French Revolution constitutes one of the great features by which it may be contrasted with our English Revolution of the seventeenth century; and Socialism has been deemed the ally of impiety and irreligion. This opinion was strengthened by the antichristian turn which Owenism took in this country, for it was not so at its origin. But it could not be unknown to any one who had seriously thought on the subject, that Communism in its severest form, supposing the utter extinction of private property, had been found among the intensely religious, such as the Herrnhüter or Moravians and the German ultra-reformers of the 16th century; not the anti-religious. These could appeal to the practice of the earliest Christians, and quote the words of their Founder and Master. The supporters of things as they are had a sufficient answer to these men in the use of a word. And they who are content with a word, were satisfied with calling these sectaries enthusiasts or fanatics. In the meanwhile, these rejected and divided men had given currency to a language which was employed again when the French Revolution broke out. Then, indeed, it was used by those who laboured to substitute for Christianity other systems, such as Theophilanthropism, St. Simonism. The sincerity of these men, and the singleness of their motives, might reasonably be doubted; and, indeed, a like doubt will always rest on the motives of the assailant of powerful bodies and existing institutions. A personal knowledge of the actors can alone enable any one to determine whether the opponents of a state-religion wear a mask only when they assume that character, or whether they be genuine enthusiasts, striving to enforce a sys tem of extreme purity, and demanding from society sacrifices which hitherto have never been extorted, except under the transient influences of especial excitement. A long catalogue of martyrs, political and religious, shews how vain such attempts have been in past ages. In the present age, the spirit of Reform is in the ascendant; but the religious element has not been found in any large proportion among the acts of reformers. In our own country, numerous as the Calvinistic Dissenters and Methodists are, the Anti-StateChurch Association does not appear to be making a progress very alarming to the body it would overthrow; and a coalition between the anti-religious and ultra-religious could not easily take place. Possibly a conductor may be raised to divert the lightning in the shape of Church Reform, by which the support of moderate and practical men may be gained. As to France, especially its present prospects, it would be idle to waste our time in speculation. A few days will suffice to shew whether the anarchical or peaceful spirit will prevail in the new Government. This in the meanwhile we would remark, that by far the most eminent and respected member of the late Provisional Government, M. Lamartine, was first known to the world as a religious poet, and his prose writings all partook of a religious character; but we do not mean to suggest that he belongs to the party to which we have been alluding; and it must be owned that his conduct as Foreign Minister since the last Revolution does not partake of that sentimental and dreamy character which is supposed to denote the poet or religious enthusiast. We do not affect much acquaintance with the "Démocratie Pacifique." We had heard the name of Doherty as its editor, but the number before us bears the name of Ferdinand Guillon. On the face of it there are no indications of a great circulation. It announces agents only at Lyons, Marseilles and Brussels, which betrays a want of extensive ramifications. It has very few advertisements,-and those of books only, chiefly of the cheap works of V. Considerant, at the Libraire Phalansté rienne, rue de Beaune, which designates the system of Fourier. Among the cheap works announced for workmen (les travailleurs) is an edition of the Moniteur in 32 volumes, at 5 francs each. We learn also from this number that there has been a schism among the Socialists, probably on the great questions arising out of the rights of property. This paper especially advocates the rights of labour. It is full of catch words by way of mottos, besides a line running along the whole page, of some significance "The Republic of 1792 destroyed the ancient order; the Republic of 1848 ought to establish a new order." The New Idea. (From the Democratie Pacifique of April 23.) At the hour when these lines will be read, the elections will have commenced throughout France. In all the districts and cantons the urn will be opened from which will issue the constitution of the Republic, the legal incarnation of the democratie idea. It is now eighteen centuries and a half since also a new idea, equally fertile and glorious, arose, shedding its beams upon the world which it was about to transform. Christ ascended from his tomb. Persecuted at once by the adepts of sophistry and the men of violence, smitten with death, or at least supposed to be by scoffers and executioners, the Christian idea sprang at once from the sepulchre victorious over death, and interested calumny to hover over a transfigured universe. The scholars of that day, the men of letters and tradition, the organs of official life, said to each other-Here is a petty sect which is stirring among the lowest of the people. Let us crush it in its leader. Let us punish this Carpenter's Son, who dares to speak of liberty while we are resolved to remain masters; of equality, while we choose to command slaves; of fraternity, while we all find it advantageous that each should think only of himself. And after having poured on him sarcasm and insult, they nailed him to the cross, not considering that a true and sympathetic idea cannot be killed; without perceiving that a cross was a rostrum; without understanding that a doctrine which aspires to break down the barriers raised to separate from each other the various members of the great family of mankind, and which tends to realize a unity in variety, has necessarily a futurity for its operations. In a few ages, Christian Europe revered him who was crucified at Golgotha, and cursed his murderers. But long ages have elapsed, wars and grievous trials have been sustained by mankind, before the sentiments of Christ could penetrate into the souls of men and his doctrine touch their hearts. The gospel virtually abolished slavery; and yet slavery, at the end of eighteen centuries and a half, is restrained, not suppressed. It is not long since the mightiest intellects could not imagine a society without slaves, and slavery had its place in the boldest of social dreams. There are slaves in the democratie Utopia of Sir Thomas More and the Salentum of Fenelon. There are, in fact, offices so burthensome and offensive, that it is hard to imagine them executed by free citizens and brethren. It is in vain that we would sanctify them as an offering to the public weal. Sentiment protests against the sacrifice of some for all. But this sentiment is insufficient and powerless in its resistance. And it is science that has completed the work of Christ. To the invention of the first instruments of labour we owe the first formation of society. And the invention of the larger instruments permitted the application to the service of mankind of those gigantic powers whose action has a mighty influence on society. In the fiery womb of the steam-engine is contained the secret of the emancipation of the labourer, the final abolition of the enslavement of man by man, and of man by poverty. But it is on condition only that the machine act for the benefit, not of the privileged few, but of all; that science preside over the production, and justice over the distribution; and that social science direct and complete the blind work of natural science. The labours of moralists, the unity of the Roman empire, had prepared the way for Christian feeling; the diffusion of light and the progress of mechanics and chemistry, have prepared the way for the social idea. Today, as then, the nations are looking out for a law, a faith, ready to greet the star that may arise in the West. To work, then, you, all the workmen of thought, whose voice and instruction the Pharisees and official Publicans of the day have stifled! The sufferings of the Passion are at an end, the darkness which enveloped souls is dispersed, and the old political and social organization is torn like the curtain of the sanctuary. The ancient law is no more. The stone of the sepulchre so clumsily sealed has fallen on you: you are sufficiently strong to raise it, now that public sympathy has augmented your strength. Distrust and persecution await you in this state of trial. You will find scoffers, like the disciples of Emmaus; unbeliev ers, like Thomas. But you will break bread with them and say, Lo! these are our works. And they will be confounded, and rejoice in being so; for on the day of your ascension in the regenerated world, you will draw them after you and associate them to your conquests. And you, electors, who are called to choose the Assembly that is to incarnate new France, do not imitate those executioners and men of physical force who took measures against the idea which they thought they had buried in the tomb. Do not imitate those watchmen who slept while the miracle was wrought. Be the angels, the messengers, who unsealed the tomb. Raise the stone which shuts up the idea. Aid the resurrection and salute its first beams. Do not fear strange doctrines. The dangerous men to-day are those who have none, and who employ constraint and terror because they are unable to organize. Every idea which unites a number of intelligent minds contains, necessarily, a portion of the truth. Let this idea be brought to light. Discussion, that alembic of thought, will separate in it all that is just and applicable from what is mere dross, what tarnishes and corrupts. Let there be no exclusion, no proscription. Personal sympathies ought to be silent in order to assure to every one his liberty of action. If you assist in its resurrection from the tomb, and afford it a vehicle for exhibition, if it be true, the world will have the benefit; if false, it will, like false coin, be put out of circulation, and no one will be injured. But if, on the contrary, you seal the tomb in which it lies buried, it will not the less arise, but in its rising and explosure it will be destructive of men and of institutions. DOMESTIC. Laying the Foundation-Stone of the New Church, Hope Street, Liverpool. On Tuesday, May 9th, the foundationstone of a new church was laid in Hope Street, on the vacant piece of ground lying between the Philharmonic Concert Hall and Hope Place. This church is intended for the congregation of Protestant Dissenters who now are, and for years past have been, worshiping at the chapel in Paradise Street; and it will, when completed, be an exceedingly commodious and elegant structure, surmounted with a lofty tower and spire. There was a large assemblage of ladies and gentlemen present to witness the laying of the stone,-a ceremony that was performed by Mr. Thomas Bolton, who, previous to using the trowel, delivered an appropriate address. The ceremony of laying the stone having been completed, the Rev. James Martineau addressed the company as follows: Friends and Fellow-christians,-There are times when those who are most distrustful of themselves lose for awhile the depressing consciousness of fear and frailty, and are constrained, by the bright aspect of the present, to look upon the future with joy and hope. Even when standing at the solemn birth of a great undertaking, I cannot contradict the glorious sunshine above us, and the multitude of glad faces before me, by suffering any shadow of despondency to rest upon this moment. It is a happy angury for scends to its place beneath an eye so any enterprize, when its foundation desteady and a hand so firm as those of our honoured friend. Nor is this the only encouragement that cheers the day. If to have lasted long already is evidence for an institution that it will not speedily perish; if to have deep roots in the past in the future; then we are not without affords promise of blossom and fruitage assurance of a lasting blessing on our work. The memorials of a century and a half lie beneath that stone, and constitute the autobiography of our society. There is a singular mixture of resemblance and contrast between the present occasion and the corresponding period when the chapel in which we now worship was commenced. The newspapers just deposited in the vase contain tidings of recent Revolution in a neighbouring country, whose fates, interesting to all thoughtful men, are doubly so to the descendant of an exiled Huguenot. And if, when the walls of Paradise-Street cha pel are levelled, any similar documents should be found beneath its corner-stone, they,-the journals of 1789,-will be filled with the traces of parallel events, then equally fresh and equally portentous. Yet there are grounds to hope that the intervening sixty years have not been lost on European society, and that many a folly of the receding generation will escape repetition now. The outskirts of the last century's great storm reached even the seclusion of our own societies. In Sept., 1791, the chapel which we still occupy was to have been opened by Dr. Priestley; but, two months before, he was driven, by the madness of riot, from the town which he adorned by his virtues, his philosophy and his fame: "Patriot, and saint, and sage, Him, full of years, from his loved native land, Statesmen blood-stained, and priests idolatrous, By dark lies maddening the blind multitude, Drove with vain hate. Calm, pitying, he retired, And mused expectant on these coming years." I see near me some venerable men, whose memory bears witness of that time; and others, again, so new to life, that its traditions sound like the old voice of history. When thus we link ourselves, on the right hand, with aged who can tell us of these things behind, and, on the left, with the child whose eye shall look forward no less far into the story of humanity, we seem to brood over a solemn expanse of time, and to feel upon the wing of our thought the breath of the 18th and the 20th century, as well as the sunshine of our own. Under favour of this genial sky, I would detain you while I say something as to the principles and purposes to which this church is consecrated. Its claim and its disclaim concur, as I fully believe, to justify the hopes with which you will watch its rising walls. We dedicate it to no priestly offices. No mystic rites, no discipline of the secret, no magic spells of salvation, will find a shelter here. The structure rising from this spot is not designed to interpose between the soul and God, but to bring them into intimate and personal communion; not to provide a sacerdotal medium of approach, but to shut out the secular causes of forgetfulness and separation. We build a place, not for the high altar, but for the humble spirit; where the worship will be, not for the people, but by them; where the minister appears as a man amongst men, conscious of their frailties, their sorrows, their aspirations, and, only through his sad partnership in these, able to interpret them aright in preaching, and without pretence acknowledge them in prayer. It is but by the sympathy of mind with mind, the attraction of like to like, that the lines of supplication from each separate and silent heart converge to the place in which he stands, and finding a representative spirit there, burst into open voice. accept here the deposit of no man's faith; but will help him, if we can, to use the talent with a faithful trust. We We dedicate this place to no individual's teaching, and erect no throne for mere personal influence. A stranger has but to cast his eye upon the design of this building, to see that you are raising something nobler than a lecture-room, and are inspired by a reliance which no man's wisdom can deserve. You have kept it in wholesome remembrance that, while teachers are transitory, the things to be taught are imperishable; and, in these days of giddy tastes and slight convictions, have brought your homage still to the eternal essence of Christian truth, not to the accident of its mutable representation. You have provided for a permanent society of persons, bound together by common attachment to certain sentiments and purposes which will survive the lapse of successive lives and the vicissitudes of human admiration. Unworthy should we be of the freehold we have received from our fathers, did we think only of a life-interest for our chil dren. We dedicate our church to no creed. It is indeed most natural, indeed inevitable, that all the successive discoverers of new doctrine, and all its simple disciples, should hold it to be everlasting; should build temples, and organize endu ring institutions, to serve as its receptacles. Did they for an instant allow that it might be perishable, they would suspect it to be false. Yet who can follow the history of Christendom-who observe the phenomena of any one period of intellectual activity-who even register the experience of his own mind-without a check to this unthinking faith? How plainly is it the law of Providence, that there shall be a perpetual change, be it cycle or be it progress, in the forms under which the same indestructible ideas operate in our nature! It is time that this should be openly recognized as fact, and allowed for in our provisions for the future. We therefore forego all attempt to fix the type of belief from age to age: and through such abstinence, we do conceive, the inevitable movements of opinion are likely to take place, less by polemic convulsion than by peaceful development. Not-let me be understood that we are, individually, without definite belief; or, collectively, without a belief strongly marked by common characteristics. We do not pretend to be mere seekers, with a system awaiting us in the future. We are not drawn together by the sympathies of a universal unsettledness, and the resolve to discuss an indefinite series of open questions. No, we raise here, not a school, but a church; not a hall of debate, but a shrine of God; and shall collect, not a parliament of critics, but a brotherhood. of worshipers. For this end, there must be a faith in each not wandering far from the faith of all. Only where there is es |
