show, that delicate attentions and courteous treatment of guests were well understood in those primitive times. St. Paul makes use of these attractive examples of patriarchal hospitality, to encourage Christians, and to persuade them to the observance of this duty, saying, that they who have practised it have had the honor of entertaining angels under the form of men.* One ground of the condemnation of the wicked in the day of judgment will consist in their not having received strangers with hospitality. St. Paul makes one of the qualifications of a bishop to consist in his being "given to hospitality." St. Peter enjoins, "Use hospitality one to another without grudging."§ The primitive Christians made the exercise of hospitality a special part of their duty, and were so exact in its discharge, as to excite the admiration of the surrounding heathen, by whom they were watched with a vigilant eye. They were hospitable to all strangers, more especially to those who were of the same faith. Letters of recommendation, given to believers, procured them a hospitable reception wherever the name of Christ was known. Besides the protection, relief, and personal comfort, which hospitality affords, and which especially it was accustomed to afford in ancient times, when "violence was abroad in the earth," and the restraints of law were comparatively feeble; its fruits at all times are, the cultivation of social intercourse, mutual kindness and good feeling, the removal of unjust prejudices, &c., objects always important. Josephus understands the provision of the law of Moses, which required all the Hebrews to assemble three times a year at Jerusalem, to have been partly designed to give opportunity for the cultivation of a friendly intercourse and good feeling by personal acquaintance, festive entertainments, and other social meetings. This assembling of the great body of the nation thrice a year, in the capital city, must have furnished infinite occasions for giving and receiving hospitality. So far as the exercise of festive and social hospitality is concerned, it is liable to two very manifest abuses, which ought to be carefully guarded against by every good man. *Heb. xiii. 2. Matt. xxv. 43. 1 Tim. iii. 2. § 1 Peter iv. 9. Antiquities of the Jews, Lib. IV. ch. 8, sect. 7. 1. When, in the interchange of hospitalities of this kind, men incur expenses beyond those, which in sober calculation are justified by their resources and means of living. When men are of a social temper, there is always a strong temptation and tendency to fall into this abuse; higher claims are, in consequence, disregarded, higher duties are neglected, debts are incurred, and perhaps the patrimonial estate is wasted. The hospitality, too, which has respect to the personal comfort and accommodation of others, especially to their wants and necessities, is a duty of manifold greater importance, than that which spreads the festive board, and presides over the social circle; and it is the former branch of hospitality, which is chiefly commended by the sacred writers. One ground of the benediction, to be pronounced by our Saviour on the righteous, at the day of judgment, will be, that they have hospitably entertained strangers, as well as given food to the hungry and drink to the thirsty ; and one ground of his malediction upon the unrighteous, on the same most solemn and august of all occasions, will be, that they have refused the claims of hospitality to strangers, as well as refused to give food to the hungry, and drink to the thirsty.* Even the heathenism of the Greeks and Romans invoked the vengeance of the highest divinity known to, and acknowledged by, the heathen system, against all who treated with cruelty and bad faith the unprotected and way-worn stranger. Some nations have been distinguished for hospitality, (we have all heard, for instance, of Arabian hospitality,) who seem to have few other virtues. 2. Again, it is a flagrant abuse of hospitality, when festive and social entertainments are made the occasions of luxury, intemperance, or excess of any kind. Christianity subjects men to no hardships. It justifies them in eating and drinking, and in enjoying, with sobriety and temperance, the full measure of the fruits of their labor. But it justifies no excess or intemperance of any kind or degree. And, to be satisfied of the magnitude of the abuse, to which the pleasures of the table always tend, it is only necessary to call to mind the enormous and criminal extent to which they have sometimes been actually carried. Instances, * Matt. xxv. 31 - 46. + Odyssey, IX. 269–278. without number, of this criminal abuse, must crowd on the memory of every one who is at all acquainted with the later Roman writers, especially Juvenal, and even with those of the Augustan age, who frequently contrast the extreme luxury, extravagance, and excess of the times in which they lived, and the accompanying decay of virtue, decline of the national energies, and extinction of the spirit of liberty, with the plain living, independence of mind, energy of character, self-reliance, unconquerable spirit of liberty, and the rest of the host of hardy virtues, which flourished in the times of the Commonwealth. I cannot enter into details, but the luxury and extravagance of the later Romans became such, that, as M. Peignot has remarked, "The gastronomic reputation of the Romans became no less colossal, than their political and military renown." The luxuries and extravagances of the table among the modern nations of Europe do not seem to equal those, which, we are assured, existed in the ancient nation I have just mentioned; but they are quite enough to excite the disgust of every man of sense and sobriety, much more of every serious Christian.* CHAPTER XI. THE DUTIES OF GOOD NEIGHBOURHOOD. THE duties of good neighbourhood form a branch of our relative and social duties, which ought not to pass entirely unnoticed. The chief duties of good neighbourhood are, to render mutual aid, as circumstances may require, to cultivate social and friendly intercourse, and to preserve harmony and good feeling among those whose lot in life Providence has cast near each other. single individual may do immense good in his neighbourhood, by using his influence to promote peace, to improve morals, man A * An industrious writer has collected a vast number of details on this subject, pertaining both to the Greeks and Romans, and to the nations of modern Europe, in "The American Quarterly Review," Vol. II. pp. 422-458; and in "The Southern Review," Vol. III. pp. 416-430. ners, and the state of society in general; by forming associations to accomplish what he cannot do by his unassisted endeavours; by disseminating useful knowledge and good principles; by setting an example of industry, temperance, and public spirit; by projecting or encouraging useful enterprises; by encouraging the support of schools and churches; by introducing improvements in agriculture, new inventions in machinery, &c. 1. It may be well to glance at some legal considerations, and principles of a general nature, pertaining to the duties of good neighbourhood. It is often said, that "it is lawful for every man to do what he will with his own; that he may use his own property and his person as he pleases, and even his tongue and his pen, if he always adheres to the truth. But, as a rule of universal application, nothing can be more erroneous. It is always subject to this essential limit and modification, that no injury be thereby done to his neighbour." As has been said before, the rule of the municipal law, as far as it can be enforced by human sanctions, is identical with the golden rule of our Saviour, by which we are required to do to others as we would wish them to do to ourselves, in an exchange of situation and circumstances.* "Thus, in general, a man may lawfully erect what buildings he pleases on his own land; but yet not so as to deprive his neighbour of the light to which he has acquired a title by long and uninterrupted enjoyment. He may carry on what trade he pleases; yet not so as to render the air unwholesome to others, or essentially to impair their comfort. He may govern his family with more or less regulation, and manage his affairs with much or little noise, as he pleases; yet, when his house becomes the scene of common brawls, or the noise made on his premises becomes intolerable to his more quiet neighbours, he becomes the subject of legal animadversion. He may employ his capital in the purchase of goods at his pleasure; yet, should he buy up the whole stock in market of any one article of the necessaries of life, corn for example, with a view to create a scarcity and enhance the price for his own advantage, the law would regard him as nothing better than a rogue in grain,' and punish him accordingly. He * See above, p. 214. may order, at his pleasure, the rites of sepulture for his dependants who die, yet so that common decency is respected; for, if this be violated, the law will not suffer the outrage to pass unpunished. In fine, the law protects every member of society in the quiet possession of his private property, his liberty, his reputation, the common comforts of light and air, and the enjoyment of the public peace. And it is only in subserviency to these rights, that any one may do what he will with his own." "It is on this principle that the law of libel is founded; which forbids the impertinent and malicious publication, even of the truth, if it tends to disgrace another, and to provoke him to a breach of the peace. The offences which men may have committed in time past against society, if repented of and atoned for, ought to be forgiven. The penitent should have some motive to acquire a new character for virtue, in the assurance that he shall be protected in its enjoyment. If private intermeddlers, assuming the character of reformers, should have the right maliciously to arraign others before the public, and, when called to account, to defend themselves by breaking into the circle of friends, families, children, and domestics, to prove the existence of errors or faults which may have been overlooked and forgiven where they were most injurious; the party thus accused, without lawful process, might be expected to avenge himself by unlawful means, and duels or assassinations would be common occurrences.'* Hence the publication of disgraceful truth is unlawful, unless it is done with good motives and for justifiable ends." | 2. This class of our social and relative duties, may be illustrated further, by adverting to the chief causes, occasions, and circumstances, which are accustomed to disturb and injure neighbourhoods. (1.) Great unhappiness is frequently caused in neighbourhoods by slander, tale-bearing, jealousy, envy, prying by one neighbour into the concerns of another, &c. Slander sows the seeds of discord, tale-bearing scatters them far and wide, and in due time, springs up a plentiful harvest of heart-burnings, evil surmises, and quarrels of every kind which can embitter life and render existence * Pickering's Reports, Vol. III. p. 313. † Manuscript Lecture of Professor Greenleaf, of Harvard University. |