THE PULPIT STAIRS OF RURUTU. BY WILLIAM LADD. [Born at Exeter, May 10, 1778. Died at Portsmouth, 1841.] THAT man must be dead to every feeling of religion and philanthropy, who can read, without emotion, the wonderful triumphs of the christian religion in the late savage islands of the Pacific ocean, now exhibiting the charming prospect of brethren dwelling together in unity; where so lately, brother was armed against brother, and wAR was the occupation and delight of the whole male population. If it be asked, what has effected this wonderful change? the answer is obvious - the christian religion. But another question may be asked, which is not so easily answered: What is the reason, that the christian religion has not effected a similar change, in the character of the inhabitants of Europe and America who have so long enjoyed it? What is the reason, that the gospel of peace, which has been preached in Europe for almost eighteen centuries, has not had so great or so good an effect, as it has had, in eighteen months, in some of these islands? From the Missionary Herald of October, I make the following extract, from the speech of Mr. Ellis, missionary to the Society Islands, delivered at a meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Society. "The alterations that have taken place, in their political economy and civil institutions, have been but the legitimate effects of the truth of the Bible on their minds, in which, through all the various relations they sustain in civil society, they are taught to do unto others as they would that others should do to them. War, the delight of savages, has ceased its ravages have been unknown since the principles of the Bible have prevailed among them. The last pulpit, that I ascended in the Society Islands, was at Rurutu, where the rails connected with the pulpit stairs were formed of warriors' spears." The inspired prophets, of ancient times, foretold that the time should come, when swords should be converted to plough-shares, and spears to pruning-hooks-when the implements of war, no longer used for slaughter, should be used to till the ground- as has been actually the case in these Islands: but that "warriors' spears" should be used as a material, in constructing a temple for the worship of God, seems indeed to exceed the promise. Has the christian religion effected any such changes in Europe? No. We find, indeed, warriors' spears in the temple of the God of Peace; but we find them placed there, not as useless instruments of war, converted to a useful purpose, but as proud trophies of war as an insult to the feelings of other nations, in time of peace, and engendering that martial pride and vain glory on one side, and that mortified pride, rancor and animosity on the other, which are the fruitful sources of war. When swarms of Goths and Vandals, from the "northern hive," overran the christian world, christianity was already corrupted, and these barbarians were converted to the christian faith, more by accommodating that faith to the customs of the worshippers of Odin and Thor, than by preaching the Gospel of Peace in its purity. A long age of darkness succeeded, when war was the order of the day; and when the light of the Reformation dawned on a benighted world, it could not have been expected, that all the shadows would at once flee away. We derived our religion from our ancestors, rather than, like the islanders of the Pacific, from the gospel, and of course we have inherited their prejudices; but we have been gradually going on in reformation, and we have reason to hope, that that reformation will progress, until the purity of the THE PULPIT STAIRS OF RURUTU. 243 first professors of christianity shall prevail over the whole. earth, and the custom of war be abolished along with slavery and popery. In view of these facts, what ought to be the reflections of professing christians, in this favored land? How are their virtues eclipsed by these tawny sons of the "farthermost isles!" Is the gospel preached to us in its purity? If so, why not the same results? Why this hum of busy preparation for war? Why, in time of profound peace, do we see christians - yes, professors buckling on their armor, and perhaps spending the Sabbath eve in preparation for the Monday's muster? Some in regimentals and with arms, passed my house on the Sabbath for the muster-field but these could hardly be christians. If, indeed, we believe like some, that men are without souls, and that they perish like the horses, that rush with them into the deadly conflict, we might console ourselves with the reflection, that their sufferings are soon to end, and therefore to effect a pacific change, is hardly worth the effort. Or if we believe that mankind are not moral agents, and that they are hurried on by a fatal necessity to blood and slaughter, that their carcasses may feed the vulture and the wolf, we might despair of effecting a change. Or if we thought, that warriors, while agitated by all the most direful passions, and those passions heightened into madness by the intoxicating draught of mixed rum and gun-powder - which, worse than the fabled cup of Circe, transforms them not into brutes merely, but into devilsand breathing out revenge and wrath, and dealing death and destruction - in this state, while their bodies are shivered to atoms by the bursting of a bomb, or flung into the air by the springing of a mine, their souls ascend to the blissful seats of paradise, to enjoy the smiles of that God who is love, and to hear the joyful sentence of "Come ye blessed of my Father;" and so, at once, be transformed into angels of light. I say, were these our sentiments, we might glory in war as the noblest employment of man, kindly hastening his fellow creatures to eternal happiness; and might imagine, that God had set the Devil to do the work of Gabriel - that a battle was the harvest of Heaven, and the reaping of it committed to Moloch, LINES. BY OLIVER W. B. PEABODY. O WHO that has gazed, in the stillness of even, Has seen not afar, in the bosom of heaven, And mourned that the path to a region so fair That the night-winds of sorrow, misfortune and care, And who that has gazed has not longed for the hour When misfortune forever shall cease; And hope, like the rainbow, unfold through the shower And O, if that rainbow of promise may shine 21* |