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having his treasuréelsewhere. Thus, if the possessions of the world come into competition with his better inberitance, he knows how to choose the good and refuse the evil, and prefers to lose an employer rather than offend God.

2. He is independent of life, because he is to live for ever; and though he may fear death when his faith is not in exercise, yet, in his better moments, he knows whom he bas believed, and is persuaded that He is able to keep that which he has committed to him against that day. Besides, although it were otherwise as to the state of his assurance, yet the covenant that is made with him is ordered and sure, and is not forfeited by his fears although it is exalted by his hopes. 3. He is independent of opinion. -He applies another rule and mea sure to his conduct than the world does, even the anerring word of God; and when many consider him melancholy or mad, he knows that they who mourn now are blessed and shall be comforted, and that the same misjudging world said of his Master that he was mad and had a devil. When he is thought a fool, he knows that the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God, and that the wisdom by which he is directed is justified of her children.

4. He is independent of circum stances and events of changes andre verses. Something of this sentiment is expressed by Watts in his lyrics, "I'd have a life to call my own

That shall depend on heav'n alone;
Nor earth, nor air, nor sea,
Mix their base essences with mine,
Nor claim dominion so divine
To give me leave to be."

As it is an axiom of mathematics that every thing great contains in it something that is less, so the Chris tian, in having so much more real independence of mind than the worldling, can lay claim to every advantage attached to this spirit which the unbeliever may boast, whilst he possesses it in a form that is refined and purified, and divested

of the grossness and feculence of its natural elements. Hence the Christian has been often found the best patriot; and Baxter and Bunyan did not urge or promote the cause of liberty and Protestantism (in other words, the cause of independence of mind) at all the less because they preached and wrote laboriously for Christ; nor did Colonel Gardner fight the worse, or bleed the less willingly, because Ite went to battle in the Christian armour or served under the banner of the Lord of Hosts.

5. The Christian is independent of himself.-This is perhaps that which most effectually promotes and secures his independence of mind. Hs is saved by grace :-he stands not in his own strength, bat is strong in the Lord: because Christ lives, he lives also. His independence of mind is no more his own than any grace or virtue in bis stock, and only exists for a moment as it is fed and nourished from a higher source. The whole secret of his independence of mind is, that he has a mind which depends upon God, and therefore does not depend upon man, or which, in other words, is, as to man, an independent mind. Now here is the great distinction between Christian and worldly independence of mind. He who has not God for his support never can carry a mind which is independent either of others or himself, but is the slave of one or the other, and often of both at the same moment.

6. He is independent of enemies.When Crates the philosopher wrote under the brand in his cheek inflicted by Nicodromus, " Nicodromus fecit," there was something equivocal in this; but when a man upon Christian principles returas good for evil, and his character becomes so established for divine forbearance, that men can say of him as Shakespeare said of Cranmer,

But one ill turn, and he's your friend for "Do my lord of Canterbury

life."

Then it is evident that he takes the noblest revenge, and becomes far more independent of his enemies than if he had banished one and beheaded another. Not only is it true, that " a soft answer turneth away wrath;" but he who has the grace to give it, is really more independent of his opponent, because less in his power than he would have been by the most severe retort. Saul allows that David was more righteous than he because, to pass by a transgression is the glory of a man, and because he who can do this must first have conquered himself, which is his greatest enemy, and he may well smile at meaner foes: in other words, he is independent of them. To love our enemies is to annihilate them; and to return good for evil is to heap coals of fire upon their heads.

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It is perhaps time to bring these observations to a close; but on adverting to the precise terms in verting to the precise terms in which the question is couched, I observe that it is proposed to consider the advantages and disadvantages of maintaining and exhibiting this principle in different situations of life. I apprehend that, on considering what has been said, it will be thought that, although these adbe thought that, although these advantages and disadvantages have not been specifically distinguished, yet that they have been virtually recognized; and with a view to shew this, a short recapitulation may be necessary. And first as to the advantages. In order to any advantage at all from independence of mind, we must take care that it is of the right kind; that it is the genuine principle, and not a spurious substitute for it. If ours be indeed true Christian independence, we may sooner count the stars than enumerate its advantages. It dignifics the prince, because it humbles him to rest his claim to real independence of mind, not upon the footing of his place or station, but on the qualities of his mind and the graces

of his heart, without which he has no more real independence than the meanest of hissubjects. What Shakespear has poetically said of mercy may besaid of this quality,

"It becomes the throned monarch

Better than his crown."

It raises the beggar from the dunghill, and sets him with princes, even the princes of God's people, world to come by making him insince it gives him an interest in a dependent of the present. It ele

vates the lowest in the scale of be

ing by establishing a sort of moral equality, which while it still renders to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's will yet first render to God the things that are God's. Its advan tages in middle life are endless. When it is clearly the result of piety, it is an emanation of the Deity within us: hence it was declared, that when the primitive saints were to deliver their testimony, they were not to stoop to study their subject, but that it should be given them in that hour what they should speak, and that it was not they who spake but the Holy Ghost within them. When its movements are not so clearly the result of such seraphic and elevated feelings, but yet steer clear of the lower motives of pride and selfishand beautify the records of past ness, it has in it enough to dignify ages, where we still behold amidst few Corinthian columns standing a mass of ruin and disorder these closing the page of history in dishere and there as if to prevent our gust, and which remind us of the stars in the darkness,

"For ever singing as they shine,

The Hand that made us is Divine."

Before I quite close the subject of the advantages of independence of mind, I would observe, that it has appeared to me from my own experience, that there is scarcely any way in which independence of mind can be so fully cultivated, or so usefully displayed as-by our determining to express our senti

ments on all proper occasions; and not to be too nice or particular as to what are proper occasions, lest we lose opportunities which may never return, and thus lay up the talent of social usefulness in a napkin. Talking in London is like walking in London: if a man do not slip in wherever vacant spaces present themselves, and sometimes make them where they do not; if he do not use all his faculties, watch and seize every opportunity, and occasionally run against his neighbour, he will neither talk nor walk like a Londoner. Indepen dence of mind is both acquired and developed by speaking, whether in public or private. I thought while I was hearing an eminent preacher a few days since, in one of his bold and beautiful appeals for God against an ungodly world, how has it pleased God to honour preaching, and what a fine specimen of independence of mind is here exhibit ing! If we descend from the pulpit to the senate, who is it that counsel kings and give laws to nations? They who speak. If we look at the bar, speaking is not graceful only; it is necessary, it is indispensable, What are general meetings of Bible Societies, but a few speeches hung upon the peg of a Report? In the committees of those societies, who do the business of such committees? They who speak. If a man do not speak to the purpose, he will soon discover it, and give way to those who do, which will teach him humility; but only let him speak as a habit, for though he who speaks frequently will often blunder, he who is invariably silent, can never be in the right. Who is it that adorns and improves social intercourse, that reproves vice, abashes folly, silences the scorner, and informs the learner. He who speaks for silence, if it do not give consent, frequently involves us in the suspicion of doing so.

To come now to the disadvantages of exhibiting independence of mind-We shall perhaps find on CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 159.

near inspection that these are not so much the disadvantages of real independence of mind as of false and spurious independence; and that therefore it will not be just to charge upon the principle itself, the inconveniences and dangers referable to another source. Some men, for instance, pique themselves upon speaking their minds, as they call it; but this is done in such an imprudent and offensive way as to alienate others and injure themselves: they then complain of the disadvantages of independence of mind, when the only disadvantage which appears is to be attributed to their own indiscretion in the application of a principle which was good in itself. But, after all due allowances for mismanagements and mistakes are made, it is but too certain that the exhibition of independence of mind is more or less opposed to the temporal interests of every man who acts under its influence. There is no public reprover of sin from John the Baptist downwards, who has not had occasion to feel something of this. Truth is odious in all its shapes to the lovers of error; and they must needs hate the light who are reproved by it. On minor questions also than those of morals, it is offensive to age and to station when any one is hardy enough to suggest the possibility of grave and reverend persons being in the wrong; and as two cannot well walk together, except they be agreed, such persons will look out for those characters, on the soft velvet of whose pliant spirits they can repose for admiration and assent, and they will avoid all those who have too much independence of mind to acquiesce in every proposition, merely because it bears the stamp and sanction of authority, while it has perhaps nothing else to boast. There are certain men in the world, of whom it may be predicated without difficulty, that they will never be rich, because they are too honest to disguise their own sentiments. Y

When the restraint of public persecution cannot be placed upon such men, the scourge of private slander shall be felt by them; their character shall be defamed, their society shall be shunned, and they shall know that "a man's foes are they of his own household," because of their fidelity towards God, and their independence of mind towards man. Persecution thus assumes a miti gated form; and if we have all been exempt from its influence, it is high time we should begin to question the sincerity of our religious profession.

Watts affords a noble specimen of independence of mind; and one of his lyrics begins,

"Custom, that tyranness of fools That leads the learned round the schools, In magic chains of forms and rules!

My genius storms her throne. No more, ye slaves, with awe profound, Beat the dull track nor dance the round: Loose hands, and quit th' enchanted ground:

Knowledge invites us each alone. I hate these shackles of the mind Forged by the haughty wise: Souls were not born to be confined And led like Sampson blind and bound; But when his native strength he found

He well aveng'd his eyes," &c. Watts experienced a singular lot in meeting with a patron who could endure him; but our surprize ceases when we know that this patron was as much a man of God in civil life as Watts was in religious life. They were agreed upon all the higher questions of doctrine and practice; and while Watts preserved his independence, Abdy would have scorned to invade it, Such instances, however, it is to be feared, are rare. Many disadvantages of independence of mind might here perhaps be enumerated; but they would be found, I apprehend, after all, to be for the most part referable to the single instance of disadvantage which has been stated, and to be only members and branches of that secret dislike which the world has ever felt to virtue and talent. It may, however, be fairly questioned

whether, after giving to those disadvantages all their force, we are not applying to them a term which does not belong to them; whether we ought not to hail them as auxiliaries, rather than regard them as enemies; and whether we should not all rather desire to possess them as evidences of our religion and honesty, rather than want them, and at the same time want the principles whose existence they serve to indicate.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

I AM a country squire, fond of good old English customs, a staunch friend to Royalty and Episcopacy, a diligent observer of what passes in the world around me, and a constant reader of your very profitable work. Like many others in the present day, and I believe in all former ages of Christianity, I fancy that I can discern blemishes and defects which might be remedied in some of our most excellent establishments. I watch, with a jealous eye, the encroachments which are attempted to be made upon our venerable mother, the Church; and I am equally careful that her sons should do their duty, and prove, by unquestionable evidence, their attachment to their parent. Good, sound, scriptural sermons, and good correspondent practice, ensure for every clergyman, a hearty welcome to my family mansion. My father, and grandfather before me, sir, were "lovers of good men."

A country gentleman, resident upon his estate, often complains of much idle time, which as often hangs heavily upon his hands. To check the very first approach of this evil, after my family devotions are concluded, and my domestic economy is arranged for the day, I generally mount my poney, and ride, not merely to admire the beauties of Nature, and then to contemplate the great goodness of the God of Nature; but, in my

daily rides, I venture to inquire into the temporal and spiritual wants of the poor in the adjacent villages. In one of these solitary excursions, my course was directed to a neighbouring parish, which does not enjoy the blessing of a resident clergyman. There I had occasion to enter into conversation with a poor woman, whose distress required every kind attention; but who, alas! found no friend to pity her. "O, sir," said she, "how different was our case in the life-time of good Mr. D. our late Rector, who was called to rest from his labours last year: we do, indeed, miss him, sir. A blessing upon his A blessing upon his memory! Never were so many tears shed in our parish, as on the day when he was buried. Good man! He was a faithful servant of God. So like his Master, sir, he went about doing good. Well! our loss is his gain. We must not wish him back again; for he had many sharp trials in his own family; but he bore them all so patiently, and used to say, that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.' Good man! we do, indeed, miss him, sir!"-Relieving the wants of this poor woman, I passed on to another cottage, where a tribe of fatherless children were watching the hand of a widowed mother, busily employed in distributing a homely meal of potatoes. Here again, I was greeted with a somewhat similar complaint: for upon my asking how the family did, "The little ones have been well, sir," said the mother, "since their poor father's death: but anxiety of mind, I believe, produced a fever; and I have been confined to my bed for these six weeks. Oh, how I wished for the prayers of a good minister of religion; but you know, sir, our gentleman lives so far off, and is so much burried, that I did not see him during my whole sickness. I did, indeed, send a message to the clerk last Sunday morning; but after service there was a

christening, and Mr. - was afraid he should be too late at

church; and so, sir, I prayed as well as I could myself, and asked the Lord to teach me, and He heard my prayers."-Here, again, having offered my temporal assistance, and mounted my horse, I journeyed homewards; and on my way, passed the rectory house, now inhabited by a farmer, who rents the glebe. On the opposite side of the road, was an old tythebarn, whose folding doors seemed to have been the common receptacle for all the hand-bills published in the neighbourhood. Not a sale of oxen, sheep, or household furniture, but here found a ready welcome. Meditating, as I rode, upon the loss these poor people had sustained by the death of Mr. D., I suddenly lifted up my eyes, and beheld, in the midst of the hand-bills, a printed paper in small letters, with the exception of one word, and that word in large capitals was, "RESIDENCE." started back, and wondered that my poney did not start likewise. Residence, said I; the very thing which is here wanted! Surely it is a summons placed here by authority. I examined this monitor, and was chagrined to find it merely gave notice, that a country residence was to be sold, with a three-stalled stable, coach-house, field, and garden. It told the passenger no more; but to the present rector, passing to receive his rents, must it not have spoken, as we read the hand-writing upon a wall once did of old? Must not its language have been, "MENE MENE, TEKEL, UPHABSIN?"

I

As a layman, I am not to upbraid my brethren in the ministry, who hold a sacred office; but the word "RESIDENCE" still seems to haunt me; and I cannot but hope, that in time, some method will be devised to ensure this very desirable object. Clerical residence is certainly the grand turning point of clerical usefulness.

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