The Crisis 2

Was female prostitution ever more unblushingly committed, or more widely extended than at this day. What swarms of miserable creatures crawl from their skulking places at the hour of darkness to infest our streets, and spread their toils for their too willing victims. It is computed that London alone contains fifty thousand of these wretched beings, who subsist wholly or in part on the wages of iniquity. "O you who are of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, what a scene of pollution for you to openly look upon perpetually!" The crimes committed by this class have quintupled within the last few years.

I come now to the profanation of the Sabbath; that day of holy rest, given in mercy to man, at once to refresh his body, worn with toil, and assist his soul in the pursuit of salvation. How are the precious hours of this day squandered upon reveling, business, and traveling! It is probable that in this town, to go no further for an example, not above half the population, who are prevented by no uncontrollable cause, attend the solemnities of public worship. It might be said in reply to this, that there is not sufficient accommodation for the inhabitants. But are all our places of worship crowded to excess? Are our church and meeting wardens in every case wearied with applications for seats and pews?

Is it not manifest, that tens of thousands in Birmingham go to no place of worship on the Sabbath, merely for of inclination? With still greater force and propriety this remark will apply to the metropolis, whence myriads are to be seen every sabbath morning issuing through its different avenues for a day's pleasure and recreation in the country; who pass the inviting doors of sanctuary after sanctuary with a contemptuous smile upon those who are hastening to appear before God in Zion. Where there is a demand for accommodation (at least it is so among the dissenters), there is generally found generosity sufficient, at any expense, to supply it. It is to be feared that the first day of the week is devoted by a very large portion of the trading part of the community to journeys of business; by the rich to journeys of pleasure; and by the poor to habits of indolence. Who can help mourning in secret for the games, parties, and private concerts, which are given in the fashionable circles of high life on that day which is commanded of God to be kept holy? It would be well if many who are loud and long in their declamations against the growth of sedition and impiety, would not in disregarding the sabbath, encourage by their own example the growth of every evil work.

I am sorry that the charge of employing the sabbath for the purpose of traveling, may be brought with great justice against many professors of religion. It has become, even among them, a very common practice to return home from a journey late on Sunday morning, and to set off on a journey early on the Sunday evening. In the former case the whole day is, in a measure, sacrificed, for after traveling all night the body is not in a state to allow much edification to the mind; and in the latter case, a very valuable portion of the day is lost for purposes of piety. Is any one part of the day less sacred than another? Has not the same authority enjoined all the parts of it to be kept holy? And what an example to the world! I am aware that necessity is sometimes laid upon us in this matter, but it is much oftener made by us. The Christians in Otaheite are already in this particular the reprovers of the Christians in Great Britain, and we shall soon need a missionary from the South Sea islands to teach us how to observe the sabbath!

There is one mode of showing disrespect to this divine institution, which has very much increased of late years; I mean the sacrifice of it to political discussion. Sunday newspapers are a source of moral and political evil, from which a silent stream of corruption has long been flowing through the land, and which has carried through the medium of ale-houses and political clubs, to ten thousand cottages, principles to which, but for such means, they would have been happy strangers to the present hour. But let us not wonder at these things, while their betters make no scruple of frequenting the public news rooms, or reading the newspapers at home. The practice of the poor is but the copy of a picture which hangs above them. It is useless to tell a poor man that he has no right with a paper on the sabbath; we should show him, by our conduct, that none of us have a right with it on that day. The proper observance of the sabbath is so inseparably connected with public morals and piety, that there is no greater national sin than its profanation. And should neglect of the sabbath unhappily ever become generally prevalent, we shall see the removal of the last mound that resists the overflowings of ungodliness on the one hand, and the inundations of divine vengeance on the other.

I shall mention one more national iniquity, and that is, a growing departure in our commercial transactions from the principles of strict integrity. Indeed, 'principle', in a great measure, seems to have departed, while there has come into its place a system of false credit, of rash and ruinous speculation, of dishonest artifice, and unblushing trickery, until the professed disciples of Jesus are imitating the practices of the basest and most degenerate Jews.

It will be expected, probably, that I should allude to two vices, which, although not national, are committed to a certain extent in the nation. No, brethren, infidelity and sedition never have been, never will be, I trust, the characteristics of Englishmen. Insubordination to the laws and authorities of the realm does exist, I admit, among a misguided and deluded party, and must be exceedingly displeasing in the sight of that Great Being who has given his own divine sanction to the authority and arrangements of human government. "Everyone must submit to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist are instituted by God. So then, the one who resists the authority is opposing God's command, and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves." (Romans 13:1-2)

Infidelity, as if it had become mad by its confinement during late years, has broken its chain, and with the fury of a violent wild animal, has rushed into society, uttering its howlings, sending horror and consternation before it, and leaving infection and death behind it. Many have been bitten by its fangs, who, in their turn, have communicated the contagion to others, until the range of the mischief has reached an extent which we shudder to contemplate. It is at length, we hope, arrested. The multitude are put upon their guard; knowing the dreadful evil that is abroad, they have grasped the weapons of truth, and go armed with the "sword of the Spirit." To every observing eye the prevalence of infidel sentiments has long been apparent in our periodical literature, our current poetry, our commercial habits, and the state of our social fellowship; not so much in the gross and direct form, which Hume or Paine would have displayed, but in practical irreligion, in systematic contempt of divine revelation, in disregard of religious institutions, in ridicule of true piety, and in the absence of all reference to the Word of God, either as the source of instruction or the standard of character.

Such are a part, and only a part of the sins which lie heavy on our country; and they are attended with peculiar aggravation, on account of the mercies which we have received from the hand of God.

At a period when the public attention is fixed so intently upon our national affliction, and when the general complaint seems to imply a state of almost unmitigated calamity, there appears to me peculiar propriety in bringing forward into view the many mercies which are still left us, and which, while they aggravate our sins, should moderate our discontent. The temporal comforts arising from our local circumstances are neither few nor small. Our climate is temperate, our soil fertile, our internal resources as to all that constitutes national wealth and comfort, inexhaustible; our insular situation admirable, both for commerce and defense; and the number, natural strength, and genius of our population very considerable. How happily are we preserved from those solemn visitations which have so often filled other lands with terror, and transformed the most populous and flourishing districts into the valley of the shadow of death!

No volcanoes terrify us with their eruptions, and submerge our towns or cities beneath their streams of lava; no earthquake'sconvulsive throes bury our population beneath the ruins of their own abodes; no hurricanes carry desolation through our country;famine never whitens our valleys with the bones of the thousands who have perished beneath its reign; no pestilence stalks through our land, hurrying multitudes to the tomb, and filling all that remain with unutterable terrors; war, except in the most mitigated forms, has not been seen within our shores for nearly a century and a half; and although we have been chief agents in the unparalleled scenes of bloodshed and misery which have been exhibited in this quarter of the world during the last twenty-five years, yet have we only sipped of that bitter cup which other countries have drank to its very dregs; and while every country in Europe besides has heard the confused noise of the warrior, and beheld garments rolled in blood, we have only heard reports from afar.

Are not our civil privileges still very great? We have a constitution, which, in theory, is the perfection of political wisdom, and the admiration of the world; and although in practice some abuses may have disfigured its beauty, and the lapse of ages may have impressed upon it here and there the symptoms of decay—it is still, with all its faults, a grand and venerable structure, which, we trust, the crude hand of violence will never be permitted to assail from without, nor the more insidious influence of the prerogative be allowed to endanger from within. How impartially are our laws administered! Are not the life and the property of the peasant as secure as those of the prince? Do we not all repose in equal security beneath the mighty shadow of British Law? That our judges are the faithful guardians of the rights of all men alike, the events of the present reign, and especially of the last few years, and even months, incontestably demonstrate.

Our spiritual mercies are innumerable and incalculable. How great is the loving kindness of God, which, in this respect, has been manifested through a long succession of ages. How long have we been favored in this country with the "glorious gospel of the blessed God." Almost as soon as any Gentiles were admitted "to be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ," were the savage and idolatrous inhabitants of Britain called from the sanguinary rites of Druidism, into the church of the living God. The name of the first Christian missionary to our country is lost in obscurity, but it is universally admitted that the true light shone upon this corner of the earth when nations, much nearer to the fountain of illumination, still sat in the darkness of idolatry.

When Christianity was eclipsed by the dense Saxon superstition, it was again restored, although in diminished purity, by messengers from Rome. In subsequent ages, when the increasing corruptions of popery, like the suffocating clouds which John saw issuing from the bottomless pit, had well near extinguished every ray of heavenly light, the morning star of the Reformation arose upon our island—in the ministry and writings of the immortal Wickliffe, and this beaming signal of approaching day, was afterwards followed by the noontide splendor of gospel truth. The yoke of the Vatican was torn from the neck of the English church, when many of the nations of the continent remained still in bondage. After a dreadful struggle, in which the friends of truth endured for one hundred and fifty years indescribable sufferings, the most precious of all the birthrights of an immortal creature was won from the spirit of intolerance, and religious liberty secured by law to the descendants of those heroes, who had died for it in prison, upon the scaffold, and at the stake. It is our distinguished mercy to "sit every man under his own vine and fig-tree, none daring to make him afraid."

Through the unrestricted enjoyment of this blessing, how have the means of religious instruction been multiplied. What multitudes of holy, faithful, laborious ministers of every denomination, are continually employed in preaching the gospel of salvation, and urging the practice of "whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report"! If men neglect salvation it is not for lack of cautions; if they go astray it is not for lack of guides; if they sin against God, it is not because there are none to warn them. What a universal concern is manifested for the instruction of the rising generation! Through the prevalence of Sunday schools, it is now a rare thing to meet with a person under the age of thirty, who is unable to read. Nearly the whole of the children of the poor are every sabbath taken to those institutions, where they are taught to read the Word of God, and conducted to hear it preached. In addition to this, how general is the circulation of the Scriptures! The Bible Society alone has issued since its formation between two and three million copies of the Word of God. The Bible is in the hand of almost every individual. Societies of every possible description have been formed to diffuse religious knowledge into every dark corner of the land. Commentaries upon the Scriptures, treatises in explanation of the doctrines of the gospel, sermons enforcing the duties of revelation, periodical publications, in which appeals have been made, in the form of essays, to the understanding and feelings of the public; religious tracts in every form, and in numbers impossible to be counted, have all been put into circulation; eloquence, taste, genius, imagination—have all been employed to increase the influence and extend the blessings of religion. What a train of mercies!

Where is the country that can be compared with ours for spiritual privileges? It may in a manner be said of Britain as it formerly was of the Jews, "God shows his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel—he has not dealt so with any nation." And with equal justice may he appeal to us as he did to them, "What more could I have done for my people than I have done?" And yet, after all, what aboundings of iniquity! How unfruitful have we been under all this spiritual culture! To what an extent are the glorious truths of the Christian gospel neglected, denied, and ridiculed! How small is the portion of true Christian knowledge in the land, and how much less still the degree of piety! How has iniquity abounded, and the love of many waxed cold! To form a true estimate of our moral condition, we should certainly take all our mercies into the account—and calculate what ought to be the gratitude, the piety, and the zeal of a people so eminently distinguished.

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