"Scripture arguments." Our brief examination of the chief passages on which they depend for the support of their system, has evinced, it is believed, that not the shadow of a reason can be adduced in its favor from the word of God.

[NOTE. We regret that our limits will not allow us to conclude this article in the present No. of the Repository. In the remaining sections, the author presents a brief synopsis of direct arguments against Campbellism, considers, at some length, the Unitarianism of the system, and reviews with much point, and in a very satisfactory manner, the Translation of the New Testament adopted by the Campbellites, showing it to be a gross deception practised upon the public. His arguments are characteristically biblical, and the article, as a whole, appears to us highly valuable and appropriate at the present time, as an able and learned refutation of the scheme of a pretender, whose popularity in some parts of our country has given him the power of destroying much good. The reader will also perceive that the strong language of disapprobation used by Mr. Landis, is fully justified by the facts in the case. The conclusion will appear in the Repository for April next.-EDITOR.]

ARTICLE VIII.

ADVANTAGES AND DEFECTS OF THE SOCIAL CONDITION IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

By Calvin E. Stowe, D. D. Prof. of Biblical Literature, Lane Seminary, Cincinnati.

"He hath not dealt so with any nation."-Psalm 147: 20.

"What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes ?"-Isaiah 5: 4.

It is obvious that the people of the United States are placed in a different position from any which has ever before been occupied by a nation. Our providential advantages are such as ought to work out a state of society far superior to any which has ever existed before, in the universality of its intelligence, virtue and happiness; while our abuse of these advantages has been such as in some respects to throw us backwards from the

point whence we started. A brief notice of these advantages and defects is the subject of this article.

I. OUR ADVANTAGES.

1. In our very origin we started from the highest point of civilization which the human race had then reached.

If we trace the progress of man from the commencement of history in the great Egyptian and Oriental monarchies, through the republics of Greece and Rome, down to the ripened age of modern Europe, we find that the advancement of civilization has been uniform; that it has gradually but steadily enlarged its sphere, and proceeded from the few towards the many; and that each successive development of man has been more extensive and more free than the last. It is also true that each point of transition has been marked by bloody revolution, by the violent disruption of the old forms of society, and modelling them all anew.

In Egypt and Old Assyria the history of human cultivation commences, and in many respects these ancient nations had advanced quite as far as any of their successors. The stupendous remains of their architectural efforts which still exist, excite the astonishment and exceed the skill of the most ingenious of modern architects. The ablest engineers of the French Army, when they surveyed the ruins of Memphis and Thebes, acknowledged that they were acquainted with no mechanical contrivances by which such immense masses of heavy material could be moved and arranged in the admirable order in which they found them. Nor was it in the massive and heavy only that they excelled. In the lighter arts they were equally successful. Colors which, though laid on four thousand years ago, are found as fresh and bright as if mingled but yesterday, attest the progress of the old world in the lighter ornamental

arts.

Civilization, the arts, and sciences, were carried to a very high degree of perfection; but what proportion of the people partook in this progress? how extensively was the human race benefitted? Probably not one man in a hundred thousand of that ancient era enjoyed the benefit of its advancement, or participated in its civilization. A very few were hereditary lords, the many, the vast majority, were hereditary, hopeless slaves. No luxury, no self-indulgence was too great for the noble; no op

pression, no deprivation too much for the plebeian; till at length when human nature could endure no longer, and the vengeance of God could no longer sleep, those old systems were dissolved in blood.

To these monarchies succeeded the republics of Greece and Rome. Civilization was carried forward, the refinements of life were increased, the arts were practised in a style of greater finish and better taste; and the benefits of this progress became far more widely diffused. Where there was one in Assyria or Egypt who enjoyed all the privileges of a man, there were ten in Greece and Rome. But in Greece and Rome two thirds of the people were slaves, or in circumstances which shut them out from all participation in the progress of society. Corruption debased the high, and oppression brutalized the low; till they all together fell a prey to the hardy courage of the barbarians of the north; who, after gorging themselves with the blood and treasure of their victims, were the instruments of Providence for working out a new state of society in modern Europe, as much superior to the Greek and Roman, as that was in advance of the Egyptian and Assyrian. The civilization of modern Europe is a much greater advance on that of Greece and Rome, than this itself was on that of the ancient oriental world, both in respect to its quality and also in regard to the extent of the diffusion of its benefits among the mass of society.

But of all the kingdoms of modern Europe, England had, two centuries ago, made the farthest advances in everything calculated to elevate the intellect and the morals of the whole people, and give them the dignity and self-respect of freemen. It was from the best portion of this most advanced of the nations of the earth, from that very class of the population which had made her what she was, and given her her distinction, that our nation took its origin. We began therefore in advance of all the nations of the earth, and ought always to have kept in advance of them in all that is civilizing, ennobling and excellent. Nay it is our destiny and our duty here in this western world, to work out a fourth development of man as much superior to that of modern Europe, as modern Europe herself is superior, not to Greece and Rome merely, but to Egypt and old Assyria. And sooner or later this will be done-it is the decree of Heaven -the whole analogy of Providence shows it-and it cannot be reversed.

2. We sprang from an enlightened and conscientious ancestry.

The history of nations has generally commenced in rude barbarianism, in savage and plundering wars, in ambition and selfishness and violence. But in the history of this country, particularly the north-eastern section of it, we have the singular spectacle of religious men, animated with the purest zeal and directed by an enlightened conscience, leaving their homes of ease, respectability and affluence, and penetrating a forested wilderness, to lay the foundations of a new empire, for the purpose of themselves enjoying and transmitting unmolested to their posterity, certain great moral principles, which they held dearer than all the blandishments of life, or even than life itself. They were truly men of principle; they not only held to the principle distinctly and decidedly in theory, but uniformly acted on principle, and reckoned no sacrifice too costly, when called upon to make it for the sustaining of principle. This characteristic feature of their own moral development, they took unwearied pains to transfer to their descendants; and at the earliest period of their history, and at an expense which they could not sustain without denying themselves all the luxuries and many of the physical comforts of life, they laid the foundations of those institutions, which, if they have not given to the children all the exalted virtues of the fathers, have at least endued them with a strength and energy of character which has sent their influence to every quarter of the globe, and conferred on them an almost resistless power in every circle where they move.

3. The equality and freedom of development which exist among us is another advantage which distinguishes ours from all preceding conditions of society.

One of the first peculiarities which attracts the notice of the intelligent traveller on coming among us, is the perfect equality of rank which obtains in our free States, so different from the artificial forms of society which prevail in the old world. For this the human race has been struggling from the very commencement of its history; to this it has at length arrived by slow degrees and through a series of revolutions which have deluged the earth with blood. The few have all along obstinately resisted the efforts of the many; the ground has been contested inch by inch; but here at last the victory of the many over the few has been completely achieved, and here there is no rank but what each man makes for himself by his own efforts. The field is entirely open, and the same incentives to exertion are held out to every member of the community.

Accordingly, whatever advances any one may make, they are speedily within the reach of all, and whatever elevates any one class contributes directly to elevate the whole mass of society. No one family, no one order, can appropriate to its exclusive benefit a single improvement produced by the progress of society, any more than it can monopolize the light of the sun or the rains of heaven.

Very different from this is the condition of the old world. There the lower orders have but little direct participation in the improvements of the higher. The nobility, the clergy, the military, may each avail themselves to any extent, of the progress of civilization, while the mass of the people, the vulgar herd, are still shut up to the inferior condition in which they were born, and receive only a remote and a very inferior kind of benefit. This is strikingly true at the present time throughout modern Europe, and still more painfully was it true of all the states of society which preceded this. The American traveller in Europe sees that everything there is arranged for the convenience and luxury of the few, while in regard to the great many, the problem seems to be to crowd together the greatest number possible, into the least possible space. Hence the spacious, splendid castle of the nobleman surrounded for miles with unproductive pleasure grounds, and the little, crowded, narrow, dirty, treeless villages of the poor, where thousands herd together without ground enough for a cabbage garden, and expecting nothing more from their griping landlord than a bare shelter from the heat and the storm. The independent, healthful mode of each farmer's building his own house on his own farm, and thus dotting the whole surface of the country with comfortable dwellings is there unknown. There, the princely mansion, the open field, and the crowded village, are the only objects that diversify the scene.

4. Religion in this country is disconnected with politics; and is therefore comparatively pure, moral and free.

Where religion is interwoven with the state it becomes almost entirely a political matter; and the character of the minister sinks to that of a simple governmental officer. The sacredness of his character is gone, and an irreligious or vicious clergyman excites no more remark, and is regarded as in no way more peculiarly unfit for his office, than an irreligious or vicious magistrate. In countries where there is a state religion, the amount of moral worth that would make a justice of the peace