LOVE TO MEN AS SENSITIVE BEINGS. 195 ing, that he may enjoy a more comfortable repose; and he can cheer him by those expressions of tenderness and affection, which have a tendency above all other acts of kindness to revive the downcast spirit. 441. He can assist his neighbor by his strength or by his skill, by his counsel and advice, and by taking a lively interest in his concerns. He can promote his joy by rejoicing in his prosperity and success; by assisting him in his employment; by rescuing him from danger; by forgiving the injuries he may have inflicted, and by listening with patience and complacence to his sentiments, complaints, or grievances. The Widow's Light-house. The island of Rona is a small and very rocky spot of land, lying between the isle Syke and the main land of Applecross, and it is well known to mariners by the rugged and dangerous nature of its coast. There is a famous place of refuge in its southwestern extremity, called the "Muckle Harbor," of very difficult access, however, which, strange to say, is easier entered by night than during the day. At the extremity of this hyperborean solitude is the residence of a poor widow, whose lonely cottage is called the light-house, from the fact that she uniformly keeps her lamp burning in her little window at night. By keeping this light, and the entrance of the harbor open, a strange vessel may enter with the greatest safety. During the silent watches of the night, the widow may be seen, like Norma of the Fitful Head, trimming her little lamp with oil, fearful that some frail bark may perish through her neglect; and for this she receives no manner of remuneration; it is pure and unmingled philanthropy. The poor woman's kindness does not even rest here, for she is unhappy until the benumbed and shivering mariner comes ashore to share her little board, and recruit himself at her glowing and cheerful fire, and she can seldom be prevailed upon to accept any reward. She has saved more lives than Davy's lamp, and thousands of pounds to the underwriters. The poor creature, in her younger days, witnessed her husband struggling with, and swallowed up by the billows, "In sight of home and friends that thronged to save." 196 LOVE TO MEN AS RATIONAL BEINGS. This circumstance seems to have prompted her present devoted and solitary life, in which her only enjoyment is doing good. 442. He may promote the happiness of his neighbor in a negative way, by not injuring him in his character or reputation; by not standing in the way of his prosperity or advancement; by not interrupting him in his innocent amusements; and by refraining from everything that would tend to injure him in his trade or profession. 443. Such offices every one has it in his power to bestow, and upon such apparently trivial actions, the happiness of mankind in general more immediately depends, than on many of those legislative arrangements which arrest the attention of a whole empire. For, were they universally performed, the greater part of the miseries which afflict humanity would disappear from the world. 444. Love, under the advantages of a high degree of intellectual talent, wealth, and influence, will endeavor to counteract public evils, and to promote rational schemes of general philanthropy. Some portions of society labor under many physical evils and inconveniences, which tend to injure their health and their comfort, and to obstruct their moral and intellectual improvement. Were the comfort of such portions of society made as particular an object of attention as the acquisition of wealth, every obstacle to its accomplishment would soon be removed. II.-Love to our Fellow-men, considered as Rational and Immortal Beings. Man is a rational and immortal, as well as a sensitive being, and therefore the operations of love will have for their ultimate object the promotion of his best interests as a moral and intellectual agent, and as an heir of immortality. 445. In all ages, mental darkness has enveloped the greater portion of our race: the grossest ignorance of the most important truths, accompanied with the most degrading affections and superstitions, still prevails among the greater part of men, our own proud land not excepted. Multitudes of the young, both in city and country, are suffered to shoot up from infancy to manhood as if they were mere animal existences, ignorant of the character and operations of God, of the duties they LOVE TO MEN AS IMMORTAL. 197 owe to their Creator and to one another, and of the eternal state of existence to which they are destined. 446. Love to man, as an intellectual being, will lead to the erection of seminaries of instruction where they are needed, and it will employ every suitable method of diffusing knowledge, and of imparting a useful education. It will not confine its attention to the instruction of the young, but will endeavor, by writing, by conversation, by actions, by lending and circulating books, by establishing public libraries, and similar methods, to diffuse the rays of intellectual light among men of all ages, ranks, and professions, till ignorance, with its degrading accompaniments, shall be banished from society. In a word, it will endeavor to make every branch of knowledge subservient to the illustration of the character and the revelation of God, and to the preparing of mankind for the employments of that nobler state of existence to which they may aspire. 447. In view of his immortal nature, involved, as it is, in moral degradation, it becomes one of the highest offices of love to promote its eternal well-being, which is jeoparded by ignorance and by depravity of heart and life. The man of enlightened benevolence will not rest satisfied with prayers and wishes for the salvation of men; so far as the circle of his influence extends he will endeavor to instruct the ignorant, to arouse the reckless, to reclaim the dissipated, to convince the skeptic, to train up the young in the knowledge of God and in the paths. of virtue, and to encourage and animate every one who is inquiring the way of life. 448. He will give due encouragement, by his advice and by his wealth, to Christian churches, and to faithful, pious, and intelligent ministers of religion. He will patronize every rational scheme for the propagation of the Christian religion among the nations. He will encourage the translation of the Scriptures into the languages of all kindreds and tribes: he will give countenance to societies formed for circulating the Bible in foreign lands and in his own: and he will assist in sending forth intelligent and philanthropic missionaries to unenlightened tribes, for the purpose of diffusing the blessings of knowledge, civilization, and religion. He will also set himself in opposition to every species 198 THE TEN REVEALED PRECEPTS. of bigotry and intolerance, and to all those petty jealousies and bitter animosities which have so long distracted the Christian church, which have thrown odium on its character, and prevented the harmonious intercourse and coöperation of the followers of Jesus. [Dick's Philosophy of Religion.] 437. In what two points of view may man be considered? 438. In regard to man's corporeal system, what are some of the principal wants that require to be supplied, and what are the more common and painful sufferings which require to be alleviated? 439. In reference to these wants and sufferings, what are the operations of love, when genuine and ardent? 440. What can such a man do for this object? 441. What further can he do? 442. How may a man promote the happiness of his neighbor even in a negative way? 443. What importance is to be attached to such offices of love? 444. In cases where a high degree of intellectual talent, of wealth and influence is possessed, may not, and will not love take a wider range in its beneficent operation? 445. When we consider man as an intellectual being, standing in various important relations to his God, and to his fellow-creatures, what are some of the numerous evils that are to be remedied? 446. How will love to man as an intellectual being operate to the removal of the ignorance that prevails? 447. As man is possessed, also, of an immortal nature, to what exertions will love prompt us? 448. What further action will the man of enlightened benevolence and philanthropy be disposed to adopt? CHAPTER IV. THE TEN REVEALED PRECEPTS OF HUMAN DUTY. We have already considered the duty of man as inculcated in the two fundamental precepts of love to God, and to our neighbor; also the explanation of the latter in what has been called the Golden Rule, and in the apostle Paul's description of the duty of charity, or love. Love to our Maker and to our fellow-men, is the principle of obedience. Our various duties are merely the development of it. "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets;" that is, the precepts delivered in the Pentateuch, and in the prophetical writings, delineate the different modes in which love to God and to man is expressed, and they will be obeyed by every man in whom this love exists. DELIVERY OF THE LAW AT SINAI. 199 It is the design of the whole of the Old Testament dispensation to illustrate and enforce these laws, and to produce all those excellent tempers which are embraced in the love of God and of our neighbor. This appears to be the grand object of all the historical facts, religious institutions, devotional exercises, moral maxims, prophecies, exhortations, promises, and threatenings, which it records. These principles, now that they are communicated and sanctioned by divine authority, appear quite accordant to the dictates of enlightened reason, and calculated to promote the happiness of the intelligent creation; yet we never find that the moral systems of pagan philosophers, in any country, were built on this foundation, or that they assumed them as indispensable axioms to guide them in their speculations on the subject of ethics. The most important precepts of the Pentateuch, or Five Books, written by Moses, exclusive of the two already referred to, are the ten precepts or commandments, often called the Decalogue or Moral Law, recorded in the twentieth chapter of the book of Exodus. SECTION I.-CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH THE MORAL LAW WAS DELIVERED AT MOUNT SINAI. 449. It may, and should serve as an incitement to study the moral law with deeper interest, and to obey it with the greater diligence and care, to consider and appreciate those circumstances of awful grandeur and of supernatural displays, in the midst of which this celebrated law was originally delivered to men. A just, perhaps, though still inadequate idea of those circumstances may be acquired from the following admirable sketch by the Rev. J. T. Headly, extracted and condensed, from the New-York Observer of Feb. 28, 1846. It would be well, first, however, to read the more brief, and perhaps even more impressive account given us by God himself, by the pen of Moses, and which is recorded in the nineteenth chapter of the book of Exodus. 450. " Standing in the midst of some of the most desolate scenery in the world, MOUNT SINAI lifts its huge form into the heavens, like some monster slumbering in conscious strength. Its bald and naked summit, its barren and rocky sides, and all its somber features, correspond perfectly to the surrounding scene. It is a wild and des |