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June 8, 1850.] Wfyt &£&&£?+ 253._. * . ....
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RELIGIOUS ALLIANCE. Glasgow, May 13, 185...
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WHAT IS WANTED TO REFORM THE PEOPLE ? Ju...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The Population Question. London, May 20,...
So far from its being desirable to check population , the great want of the world for generations to come , tinder a wise system of society , will be the increase of population , to bring the earth into high cultivation , and make it everywhere the healthy and beautiful abode of highly educated human beings . When the earth shall have attained a population fully equal to its capabilities of producing food and other materials for the use of man , and of being highly cultivated and beautified—if there is not in Nature some Law by which the over-increase of population will be prevented , it will be time enough for the more enlightened generation of that now
fardistant period to provide for the " population question " of their time . That of our day is—how to rationalize the mind , and , through it , the constitution of society ; and to form arrangements to apply the powers of a sufficiently large proportion of the population to agriculture ; by which , when hands enough shall be employed in it , under wise regulations and with the best appliances , a large surplus of food may easily be produced annually , with great interest and pleasure to those who are engaged in its production , and by the employment of a very moderate proportion of their time .
Under those circumstances , every individual will receive the best education that society shall be able to give , and all will enjoy equ ^ l general advantages ; for society , when it shall be rational , will no more think of neglecting or half-educating any of its members , or of doing less than justice to any , than a just and intelligent parent , with abundant means , would now think of neglecting or half-educating , or doing less than justice to , any of his children . Then , the actual cultivators of the soil , instead of being , as now , poor , neglected , and uneducated boors , working with
ill-directed strength and inferior appliances , and plundered of five-sixths or some other large proportion of the produce of their toil , and left to continue their existence and that of their families upon the smallest pittance that can keep them alive and in some degree of strength—will have received a superior and rational education , and will enjoy the fruits of their intelligent industry in harmony and just participation with others who , like themselves , will fulfil a fair proportion of the duties of society , —duties which , under a rational construction of society , will all be pleasures .
It will then , for ages to come , be most desirable that population should be increased as rapidly as it can be , consistently with the health and happiness of the parents . Henry Travis .
June 8, 1850.] Wfyt &£&&£?+ 253._. * . ....
June 8 , 1850 . ] Wfyt & £ && £ ? + 253 . _ . * . .. __ _ __ - — — . - . _ ——
Religious Alliance. Glasgow, May 13, 185...
RELIGIOUS ALLIANCE . Glasgow , May 13 , 1850 . Sik , —I belong to that wandering tribe who are unconnected with any of the religious sects of the day , and although we are a numerous and rapidly increasing class , we have no organ whereby we may express our opinions , or endeavour to collect and organize the scattered elements of good which remain undeveloped within us , and which are now dissipated by our isolated position . We therefore claim a corner in your Open Council , in order that we may give
some reasons for the faith that is in us , and to vindicate ourselves from the uncharitable conclusions which the sects have arrived at regarding what they consider our deplorable condition . They look upon us as a godless race living without God in the world . Nevertheless in Him we love to move and have our being ; and instead of looking on ourselves as degraded beings we believe ourselves endowed with a divine gift , inasmuch as it is our high privilege to stand on neutral ground to witness the grand battle of progress which is now going on with increasing acceleration .
On this ground we are enabled to take a more comprehensive view of the great providential drama of human destiny which is being enacted before us . Hitherto the talent of silence has been too strongly developed in us . We have been afraid to enter the lists with men of education ; but the time is now come when we must make our opinions known , however strange and roughly expressed these opinions may be .
It is assumed that , because we are not connected with any of the professing creeds , we are either Infidels , Atheists , or at least extremely indifferent to the great truths of Christianity . On the contrary , we believe that it is because society is not constituted on Christian principles that so much disorder and misery now prevail . Rather than act on the principles which Christ has laid down for our guidance , they have acted on the principles of political economists , who have taught them to increase the
wealth of the nation into the hands of the few , without any regard to the moral results , or the equitable distribution of that wealth . "Buy in the cheapest market and sell in the dearest , " regardless of the reciprocity of the action . The great Barons forcibly took possession of enormous tracts of land , and compelled the serfs to work for them and buy what they had produced at the Barons' own price . That is the English of buying in the cheapest market and selling in the dearest . Then the peasants are driven from the soil into the large towns , so that from the
superabundance of hands the manufacturers may buy their labour in the cheapest market , and turn the world upside down to find a dear market ; while those who have produced the goods are going naked for the want of them . They openly acknowledge that there is no humanity nor Christianity in trade ; so that they think themselves justified in acting in direct opposition to the principles of Christianity for six days in the week ; then , to make atonement for the violation of their Master ' s will , they make a wonderful ado about the sanctity of the Sabbath , as if He had not sufficient penetration to discover the hollowness of their vain professions .
And what is the result of acting on the principles of political economists instead of the law of Christ ? On the one hand we have enormous wealth , and its owners making laws to protect themselves from their own iniquity ; on the other , a rapid increase of crime and poverty , so that every tenth individual is a pauper , and the rich earnestly endeavouring to ascertain how small a quantity of gruel will sustain human existence . ** A new law give I unto you , that ye love one another . " " Other foundation than that which is laid can no man lay . " Behold the result of these other foundations and the way this law of love has been obeyed . " Verily by their deeds shall you know them . "
Yes , sir , it is because we cannot reconcile the deeds of professing Christians with what we conceive ought to be the practice of Christianity that we have departed from the sects ; yet in departing from them we still retain an abiding faith in the truth and righteousness of the everlasting Gospel . We are waiting for the introduction of the new reformation which will bring glad tidings to the noor ; and although we are not learned in the mysteries of scholastic theology , when this Gospel comes we will feel its benign and healing influence and well know when our yoke is easy and our burden light : we , therefore , hail with much pleasure your efforts to introduce the new Reformation .
We regard it as a providential interposition that every sect in this country is now split into two or more divisions . Every element which has hitherto held them together appears to be undergoing a rapid decomposition , preparatory to a new and more universal organization in which alone the high mission of Christianity can be accomplished . In their divided capacity they cannot do the will of their Master , consequently they must be convicted of a departure from His commandments . There is no unity of action among them in anything that relates to the moral , intellectual , or physical elevation of the
masses . While they acknowledge the dense ignorance which prevails in every corner of the land , they will not agree to remove it . While they dolefully lament the rapidly increasing poverty , destitution , and crime which is now threatening the utter subversion of society , they will not devote themselves in a united capacity to avert these evils by feeding the hungry , clothing the naked , and protecting the fatherless and the widow . While they neglect these most essential requisites of the religion they profess , they seem to forget that He has said , " Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these ye did it not to me . "
We have therefore separated ourselves from the Church in its first or divisional aspect , and look for its return to its second advent , in which it will promulgate a higher destiny for man both in this life and that which is to come , than the present circumscribed limits of its creeds will admit of . Then it may establish peace on earth and goodwill towards
men . Even now from our elevated position we can discern some far distant streaks of light which indicates the dawn of a brighter day . In other lands we hear the voice of a great multitude proclaiming the social wrongs which they have long endured , and perceive the infatuated efforts of their oppressors to chain them in the slavery of past ages . In every country there appears to bo a movement in the minds of men which is leading them to a conviction of the evils of the past , and directing them to look for a new and better future . In our own country judgment has commenced in the house of God , the light of day has penetrated to the dark spots of the Church , and the which has her h
selfish accumulation disgraced hig dignitaries is being exposed to public view . She has commenced to discuss the merits of her doctrines ; a still small voice is proclaiming that they belong to the past , and that she must learn that many of her doctrines and formularies are but types and shadows of better things to come . Many of the noblest spirits among her clergy are overleaping her prescribed bounds and proclaiming new and more equitable doctrines of social economy . Here and there a better foeling is rising up between the employer and the employed , and they are meeting on equal terms at the social board to give vent to the new feelings which will lead them to a more cordial union in the " good time coming . " Samuel Wklj / wood .
What Is Wanted To Reform The People ? Ju...
WHAT IS WANTED TO REFORM THE PEOPLE ? Juno 3 , 1850 . Sir , —In attempting to reform the great mass of the
people , one of the greatest mistakes of the present day , in my opinion , is , to suppose that the prevalence of vice and crime is owing to the want of education , and that the remedy consists in the increase of schools and scholastic instruction . I can say with truth that in various districts with which I am , acquainted , the most ample provision already exists for common education even far beyond the wishes of the people to receive it . And in trying to devise new means for the moral reformation of the people it is
astonishing that the existence of so immense an amount of machinery as our numerous churches , chapels , associations , and religious movements exhibit , and the vast expenditure of money , should seem to be all thrown out of the calculation . These are passed over as incompetent for the work . Hence morals are to be improved , and crime lessened by such agencies as schools , mechanics' institutions , improved prison discipline , & c , and religion is exonerated from the task . Indeed , looking at the vastness of the machinery and the largeness of public liberality for
working it . in our various sects , and yet observing the very little that is really effected , speaking mechanically , we cannot but observe a tremendous loss of power . The error is , I conceive , that we have not adapted the means to the end as we have in other things . In spinning cotton , if a man double his machinery he is not satisfied with less than a double produce ; but we may build three churches where th ^ re was but one , and spend five hundred where one had served , without any visible improvement in the means of the people .
The causes of this , I conceive , in the first place , to be in giving religion too much of a theological and ceremonial character instead of a practical one . This splits professors into parties , and hence teachers are engaged , not so much to instruct the ignorant and reform the vicious as to " perform" ceremonial services and to engage in such a mode of teaching as will secure party ends . Indeed the teachers themselves are neither fitted nor chosen for battle with practical evil . As to the manner , matter , time , and place of imparting religious instruction , they are all at fault in this respect . To teach the people we
should all have plain , honest , energetic men , who would despise the religious fashion of the world , and the love of filthy lucre ; men who long to raise the masses from the ignorance and thraldom , and who are willing to sacrifice ease and worldly good for so noble a purpose . But if we take the church and the other conflicting sects togeth er , we find that the qualifications of teachers are either in being sons or branches of wealthy families , bred and brought up-in a style of gentility , and whose thoughts and habits are all iormed from the wealthier classess ; or in acquiring
an university or academical education ; or in being fluent in speech and good pulpit orators . Now none of these , nor all together , qualify for teaching the millions , and hence they are neglected like sheep without a shepherd , and each preacher , thus qualified , secures to himself a select congregration , frequently including none of the poor , and generally made up only of those who are in respectable circumstances . The great mass of the people therefore remain untaught , and through ignorance and neglect become the prey to every temptation . instead of
Then as to the manner of teaching ; addressing the people in a plain , common-sense way , as we do in every other case , religious teaching is usually moulded into absurd forms of sermons , dividing and subdividing a detached sentence of scripture , and trying to bring out of the words doctrine * and discoveries which no common mind could apprehend , and which generally send home a congregation ( " highly edified ! " but ) j ust as wise as they were before . As to matter , this consists in discoursing on incomprehensible doctrines and theological views agreeable to some «* system of
divinity" adopted by the party . Very little is said that is practical . The teaching I should think most important would be to enforce , plainly ^ and affectionately , the duties men ought to perform in all their different relationships of life , to point out the vices to which they are addicted , and to urge repentance and obedience by the motions best calculated to influence the human mind . As to time , instead of Sundays merely , a good teacher , whose method of instructing was not by sermons , should be employed every day ; and as to place , instead of the consecrated building , the cottage , the schoolroom , the wayside , the street , as the case might be , should be the sphere of his labour . Abandoning theology
as such , and the sermonic form , he would talk to the people in a plain and powerful manner ; but not confining instruction to the same people , almost preached stupid , he would address as large bodies as he could get together every evening in the week , and through the day instead , by visitation from place to place and from house to house . Suppose a teacher commenced on Monrlay morning and kept to his work every day Jill Saturday night , just as other labourers" do , teaching and admonishing the people in ones , fives , tens , twenties , or hundreds , as was most convenient ; and supposing he abandoned the unnecessary form of accompanying his teaching with worship—what an immense number of people one such zealous individual might
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 8, 1850, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08061850/page/13/
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