BENEFICIAL RESULTS, PROBABLE AND POSSIBLE.
“Albion! on every human soul
By thee be knowledge shed
Far as the ocean waters roll,
Wide as the shores are spread:—
Truth makes thy children free at home,
Oh, that thy flag unfurl’d
Might shine, where’er thy children roam,
Truth’s banner round the world.”
MONTGOMERY.
POSSESSED as we are of an aptitude and an inclination to speculate on the
issues of any enterprise in which we take a lively interest, we naturally
turn, when revolving in our thoughts the subject of our Glass Palace and
our great gathering, to look at the consequences which seem likely to
emanate from such a remarkable exhibition, or which may be elicited by
wisdom and benevolence from the fact of such an assemblage of the human
family. There are temporal results of an advantageous kind certain, or
almost certain, to arise. While we deprecate the all-absorbing interest
felt by too many in pursuits terminating upon our condition in the
present life; while we condemn an extravagant and idolatrous admiration
of talent in invention and cleverness in contrivance; while we deplore
that in the present day there is, in some quarters, an unmingled
enthusiasm about such matters, which almost looks like the worship “of
the vice, the saw, and the hammer;” while we look with pain upon the
instances around us, in which our fellow-creatures are under the supreme
and disastrous guidance of what an inspired teacher calls the “lust of
the eye and the pride of life;” while we bear in mind that the insatiable
love of gain, which is obvious enough in this commercial age, and is
plainly the besetting sin of multitudes, must lead its subjects into
temptation and a snare, and many hurtful lusts, which drown men in
perdition:—yet, consistently with all this, in strict accordance with the
spirit of our holy religion, which has “the promise of the life that now
is and of that which is to come;” we look with interest and thankfulness
upon all that may improve, elevate, and adorn the condition of mankind in
the present stage of existence. It seems impossible that this exposition
of the works of all countries should not have a most favourable influence
upon the taste, knowledge, convenience, and physical welfare of mankind.
Whilst the sight of so many productions of art will exercise the
judgment, inspire the admiration, and chasten and guide the sensibilities
of the mind in reference to artistic beauty, we shall obtain an enlarged
acquaintance with modern inventions, and thus derive information relative
to what forms an interesting chapter in the history of human
achievements. Among the suggestions of philosophical and philanthropic
minds, that of Douglas, for the establishment of a Great Society, which
should survey the compass and collect and arrange the treasures of human
knowledge, a suggestion founded on Lord Bacon’s germinant idea of a
_philosophia prima_, is one of the most remarkable. The Great Exhibition
will accomplish to a considerable extent one of the ends contemplated in
the project. It will convey more intelligence, in reference to art, than
any written description could do. The operations of our “Regent Society”
will furnish a gigantic catalogue of the inventions of men, illustrated
by the inventions themselves. “Few works,” says the writer we have
named, “would be more conducive to further advancement than ‘a
calendar;’”—here he uses Bacon’s words;—“than a calendar resembling an
inventory of the estate of man, of all inventions which are now extant,
out of which doth naturally result a note what things are yet impossible,
or not invented.” Here we shall have the very thing—the huge household
book of the world’s furniture, bound in covers of crystal. By its
influence on the knowledge and cultivation of art the Exhibition will
promote at once our individual enjoyment, the comforts of our home, and
all the conveniences and elegancies of domestic life, and also tend to
strengthen and elevate our national importance. What will benefit the
rich may bless the poor. “The discoveries which are the property of the
higher class in one age descend indeed to the lower, but slowly and
imperfectly; and there is ample opportunity and scope for accelerating
the general diffusion of knowledge and inventions among all classes of
society. Even, in the most civilized countries, the mass of the nation
have been suffered to remain comparatively barbarous; and it will be the
dawn of a new and happier era, when the condition of the multitude is
considered with that interest which is due to those, the sum of whose
joys and sorrows are to all that is felt by the rest of the community
what the ocean is to the drops of rain that fall into it.”
“It would be difficult to point out any branch of art which does not tend
to the prosperity of our country; those which in appearance are most
remote in their influence, however indirectly, yet effectually contribute
to the perfection of its manufactures. The pursuits of immediate utility
and of refined pleasure, however far separated from each other, alike
combine in exalting our national welfare. It is not necessary, in
recommending the fine arts to public patronage, to point out how far they
improve and recommend to other nations the productions of manufactures,
since they have higher and more direct claims upon the national
encouragement. Still their advancement, and above all their diffusion,
become of high importance in a country like Britain, to be and ever to
continue the centre and heart of trade and manufactures.” {122}
We may also advert for a moment to the connexion of the present
enterprise with the pursuits of science. In the history of human
progress it may indeed be remarked that art has preceded science; that
Phidias came before Aristotle, and Michael Angelo before Lord Bacon; but
still science has ever proved the friend of art in those branches which
minister immediately to the enjoyments of mankind.
Scarcely any specimens of modern ingenuity could be found in the
Exhibition which are not indebted for something of their beauty and
adaptation, if not their very existence, to scientific knowledge. The
practical application of philosophy has given birth to the manifold kinds
of machinery which at once abridge the toils and improve the products of
human skill. Now art, if it cannot pay back the debt it owes to science,
may be subservient to the interests of its patron. So it has proved in
many instances already, and will continue to do, no doubt, as the
necessities of artistic invention give an impulse to philosophical
inquiry. The manufacture of watches long since led to careful
observations upon the effect of temperature on metals. Glass-making, at
an early period, occasioned examinations into the colouring properties of
metallic oxides; and the dying of woollens and silks has naturally
induced persons employed in that department to investigate the qualities
of mineral substances as they bore upon the operations of their own
trade. No sagacity can anticipate, no fancy conceive, the yet future
enlargement of the sum of human science, especially in its minute
details, to be derived from the busy activities of useful art. All this
the present collection of the industry of the nations will be likely to
promote; and, even with this limited view, one may regard it, in its
relation to the Illustrious Personage who may be deemed the founder of
the Great Institute, as worthy of a place among the “_Opera Basilica_”
which Bacon desired to witness. Some princes have sought to immortalize
themselves by war; some by purchasing the praise of contemporary poets;
some by erecting palaces, temples, and statues: but at length a prince
has arisen, who, to his lasting honour, seeks, by encouraging a noble
enterprise, to foster the arts and manufactures, not only of his adopted
country but of the wide world.
But the social effects of the great gathering are most important. Vast
multitudes of the human race cannot be brought together for one common
peaceful purpose without its tending to some desirable end. There is a
bond of consanguinity which encompasses all the descendants of Adam.
“God has made of one blood the families of men.” There are sympathies in
all human hearts like the strings of a concert of harps attuned in
harmony: “as in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to
man.”
When men are marshalled under opposite banners in the battle-field, and
taught to look on each other as _natural_ enemies, deadly passions are
evoked from the depths of the heart:
“Like warring winds, like flames from various points
That mate each other’s fury, there is nought
Of elemental strife, were fiends to guide it,
Can mate the wrath of man.”
But when they meet amidst scenes of peace, to contemplate the glories of
nature, or the beauties of art; where they are freed, for a while at
least, from the sophistry which would persuade them that the depression
of one class or country is necessary to the prosperity of another; the
kindly instincts of the human breast are likely to unfold and operate,
and mutual amity and good-will to brighten and bless the interview. We
know how the selfishness, pride, and irritability of men, after having
for a season been lulled to rest, may easily be aroused again: we are not
unmindful of the possibility that, even through the Exhibition itself,
jealousies may be excited in some minds; yet still we cannot but hope,
and we fervently pray, that after this peaceful congress of states, and
the amicable interchange of kind thoughts and good offices which
generally, we trust, it will produce, there will be far more even than at
present an indisposition for war among the nations of the earth. May we
not expect that, after this, America, the continental powers, and
ourselves will feel an increased reluctance to unsheath the sword? Will
not fighting look more than ever like fratricide? It was a custom among
the Romans to split in two, and divide between themselves and foreign
visitors who shared their hospitality, a small token called the _tessera
hospitalis_, which was preserved from generation to generation in the two
families who formed the friendly alliance. It became an heir-loom, to be
enjoyed and used by remote descendants. Fervently do we desire that the
result of the great gathering in the industrial mansion, the minor
gatherings in other, and especially sacred, places of resort, and the
private gatherings of foreign friends around English-hearths, will be
like the division of the _tessera hospitalis_ in old times, and that its
memory will be cherished and honoured through years to come.
It cannot be supposed that men should meet together from such different
quarters without enlarging their knowledge of each other, of human
nature, and the world. Narrow and contracted modes of thought on certain
subjects incident to very circumscribed travelling will, we may expect,
expand into generous dimensions, in consequence of a visit from afar to
the British Metropolis; while the opportunities afforded us for
intercourse with foreigners cannot but bring the knowledge of their
methods of life and social habits to our very doors. By those who are
skilled in the languages of other countries the means of improvement
afforded this year are great beyond expression.
May we not add, that the intelligent observation of our country, its
large freedom, its general order, its civil institutions, its commercial
activity, and, above all, its numerous benevolent associations, will be
adapted to suggest valuable hints and reflections to strangers; by
creating comparison between what they witness here and what they have
been familiar with in their own land, and by leading them to inquire into
the causes of difference between themselves and us?
These are probable beneficial results of the Exhibition; there are still
more important advantages to be contemplated among the things that are
possible, the actual realization of which must depend upon combined and
individual effort. Whether, in a moral and religious point of view, it
will terminate in blessing the world and ourselves must be determined by
the use we resolve to make of it. England has created an unprecedented
opportunity for doing spiritual good on a large scale to the other
countries of the earth. A field of usefulness at home is now opened,
which may, by careful tillage, yield a harvest to be reaped by multitudes
who shall return rejoicing, “taking their sheaves with them.” No one can
tell where the undulations of the influence will terminate which the
Christians in Britain may now put in action. Evils relating to the
interests of morality and religion will no doubt be incidentally
occasioned by this vast concourse. Monsters in human form, who seek “the
wages of iniquity,” by pandering to the gratification of sensuality and
intemperance, will make the months of our world-festivities the season
for plying all the bewitching arts of their deadly craft. They will
spread their toils with the utmost cunning, dress up profligacy and vice
in the most gorgeous apparel, and deck their “chambers of death” with
surpassing luxuries. The strange woman will “sit at the door of her
house, in a seat in the high places of the city, to call passengers who
go right on their ways,” and to “lead her guests to the depths of hell.”
The harpies who live by the intemperance of others will not be slow in
making provision for temptation, where the dissipated may “stretch
themselves upon their couches,” and “chant to the sound of the viol, and
drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the chief ointments.” The
gambling-house keeper will be also on the alert, to stimulate and keep
alive a feverish avarice, or to excite some desperate attempt to repair
an already ruined fortune. In all these ways, and many more, evil
agencies will be busy, even beyond their common wont, to seduce the
innocent, to kindle passions impure and vile in the breasts of the
unsuspecting, and to rouse afresh the palled appetite and the jaded
desires of the man hackneyed in the ways of sinful pleasure. Incentives
to the breach of the sabbath will also be contrived; facilities for
amusements and excursions on the day of rest will be multiplied;
pleasure-gardens will be opened with new attractions; and steam-boats
will ply, and omnibuses travel, in augmented numbers. The Sunday press
will, we fear, start on a fresh race for the favour of the worst portion
of the public, by supplying more stimulants than ever to a vitiated and
diseased taste; and other publications of vicious tendency will be
industriously vended. Against all these dangers we warn the reader. If
the young and unexperienced, when they visit the metropolis under common
circumstances, need to be on their guard against the designs of the
profligate and unprincipled, with more than double force does that
necessity press upon them at the present season. A much more than usual
share of caution, wisdom, self-control, and virtuous presence of mind
will be requisite, in order to preserve the visitor from falling a prey
to such as “lie in wait to deceive.” And let every youth, whose piety
has been formed amidst quiet sequestered scenes, and has till now been
sheltered by parental care, and quickened and trained by domestic example
and instruction, seek, as he comes within the reach of new and unknown
temptations, the special protection of Divine Providence, and the holy
safeguard of the Spirit of God. Carefully should he strive to fortify
himself against peril, by fixed and frequent meditation on the precepts
and principles of the gospel; and, above all, it becomes him earnestly
and often to present to God that memorable prayer, “Hold up my goings in
thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.”
But though mischiefs may be anticipated, yet it appears to us a vast
preponderance of moral and religious benefit may be accomplished, if
British Christians rise up to the spirit of the great occasion, and seek,
under the blessing of God, to turn it to that valuable account which
Divine Providence seems now to suggest to thoughtful minds. We repeat,
that England has created for herself an unprecedented opportunity for
doing spiritual good: and we may add that her guilt will be indeed heavy
if she neglect to improve it.
1. The great gathering supplies singular facilities for making religious
impressions on the minds of our foreign visitors. As a preliminary to
this, indeed an indispensable prerequisite, we must be careful to show
them courtesy and kindness. It was held to be a religious duty among the
Greeks to give friendly entertainment to a stranger, because it was
believed he might possibly be a god in disguise. An inspired pen
enforces the duties of hospitality, on the ground that “some have
entertained angels unawares.” We look for no such guests; but we are
assured that, whatever be their costume, clime, and speech, they who
visit us are indeed souls of Divine origin and enduring existence; and
the dignity of their nature is a sufficient reason why we should “honour
all men.” A sedulous and constant endeavour to treat them, wherever they
meet us, with marked respect, and with affectionate civility—to answer
their questions, to guide their way, and to assist their examinations
into objects of interest:—not to do this in a careless manner, but so as
to exhibit that true politeness which is described as “benevolence in
little things,” will tend to secure for us a vantage ground in all the
direct attempts we may make for their spiritual welfare. It will bespeak
their friendly regards; it will be on the surface of our character a
beautiful proof of the practical nature of our religion, and will
recommend to candid inquiry the principles from which it springs. A
proud, an indifferent, a suspicious, an antagonistic, or even a
patronizing air of intercourse—(one or other of which habits, or all in
turn, some Englishmen are prone to display when travelling abroad)—will
at once alienate from us the people of other lands, and prevent the
success of our well-meant efforts, however vigorously employed, for their
spiritual good. We must look on them not as inferiors, not as
individuals worse taught than we—nor as ignorant or foolish—but as men of
like passions and powers, having heads as clear and hearts as warm as our
own. This propitiation of their favour is in a high degree important;
and if, in the impetuosity of religious zeal, it be disregarded, the high
purpose planned will be removed beyond the probability of accomplishment.
To secure great spiritual results, both combined and individual action
are requisite. The Bible Society has devised its methods for supplying
foreigners with the word of life in all languages. Means will be
furnished for sending home many a sojourner amongst us, like him of
Ethiopia, who returned from Jerusalem “sitting in his chariot, and
reading the prophet Esaias.” And, if he should receive a favourable
impression of our civilization, as we hope he will, and be led to see
that its chief excellences are based upon the influence which the holy
book has wrought in English society—as we trust he may—then will he be
thereby prepared, in some degree, to search out the blessed contents of
that volume which unfolds the promise of the “life that now is, and of
that which is to come.” The Tract Society has also religious
publications in various tongues for cheap sale or gratuitous
distribution. And perhaps when prejudice, or an indisposition to afford
sufficient time, may interfere with the reading of the Scriptures, a
tract may obtain a perusal, and drop into the mind some germinant
thoughts which may grow and ripen into the strength and beauty of
spiritual life. A special organization, moreover, has been contrived to
secure places of worship for “devout men out of every nation under
heaven,” and to provide preachers in foreign languages, to conduct
earnest evangelical ministrations. And is it too much to suppose that
when they hear, “every man in his own tongue wherein he was born,” the
“wonderful works of God,” there will be some, who, like those assembled
on the day of Pentecost, will be pricked to the heart, and will receive
the word. And let it not be forgotten that “the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him:
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned;” and
moreover that this spiritual discernment is one of the “gifts for men,”
which an ascended Saviour gives in consequence of his having “led
captivity captive.” The written letter is not “the power of God unto
salvation,” save as the Spirit takes “of the things of Christ,” and shows
them unto us. Seeds of truth will not produce “them thirty, sixty, or a
hundredfold,” till the Lord give the increase. There can be no pentecost
without an effusion of the Holy Ghost. But, while we feel the necessity,
we should by faith and prayer honour him who has promised the supply.
God is willing to do his part, if we do ours. “Prove me now herewith,
saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven,
and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to
receive it.”
But associated efforts will not suffice. Isolated action was everything
once. Combined action is too exclusive now. The one must be done, and
the other not left undone. Each man must strive in his own sphere to do
good to the stranger from a far land. He may distribute tracts, he may
guide to the house of prayer, he may know how to drop a fitly spoken
word; or he may be able to introduce the foreigner to a courteous,
intelligent, and educated friend. Persons of wealth and influence, and
especially such as, together with these, have tolerable facility in the
use of modern languages, possess talents for usefulness at the present
time, the value of which they can hardly overrate. By judicious
hospitality; by making a point of cultivating acquaintance with the
guests of the nation, and selecting certain among them as guests of the
family; by frequent and wise arrangements for this purpose; by
entertainments, elegant but simple, generous but not extravagant; and, by
methods easily understood and adopted by those who possess the requisite
means, many may be brought within the reach of the gentle, tender, and
softening influences of Christ’s blessed religion of friendship and
love—may have images painted in their memory never to fade, and emotions
kindled in their hearts never to be quenched, and
“Oft, while they live—
In their own chimney nook, as night steals on,
With half-shut eyes reclining,—oft methinks
While the wind blusters and the pelting rain
Clatters without, shall they recall to mind
The scenes, occurrences they meet with here,
And wander in Elysium.”
They may discover that they were entertained by angels unawares.
Elements of piety, like rich odours, may steal over their soul, to leave
behind an undying fragrance. Our Christianity, through our kindness, may
become endeared. In the reminiscences of future years they may strangely
feel that never were they so near heaven, as during the memorable moments
they spent around the domestic hearths, and at the domestic altars of
England; and, stimulated by the recollection, they may embrace the truths
and find the inward hidden life which will enable them to perpetuate and
multiply such hallowed scenes.
2. The great gathering affords an argument for making efforts to promote
religion at home, and presents an opportunity for the purpose—“We are a
spectacle to the world!” The supreme Governor of the nations, the Prince
of the kings of the earth, has assigned us a rank amongst the empires of
the globe which cannot fail to attract the attention of mankind. Our
constitution and laws, our literature and science, our commerce and art,
our army and navy, present points of interest, forms of grandeur,
specimens of activity, and developments of power, which the other
cultivated portions of our race intelligently study as great theorems in
the science of civilization; while our brethren in distant regions, still
half barbarous, gaze on the signs of our glory, or listen to the tale of
what we are and do, with a vacant and bewildering kind of wonder. And
moreover the people, institutions, and language of this little isle have
attained a sort of ubiquity. They are seen, felt, heard, in almost every
latitude of both hemispheres. Something or other British, some
foot-marks of our wide-spread influence, may be discovered on nearly
every shore. “We are a spectacle to the world!” The Christians of our
country—embracing the true disciples and servants of man’s Divine
Redeemer, commissioned by his express mandate, and constrained by his
infinite love—have united and are still employed in the sacred task of
teaching to the ends of the earth the blessed name of him they worship
and adore. They send the missionary, the Bible, and the tract, to the
pagan people of the world’s two continents, and to them that “are afar
off upon the sea.” “We are a spectacle to the world!”—rendered so by
Providence, accepting and maintaining the position by our secular and
still more by our sacred enterprises, we more emphatically than ever
assert the publicity of the post we occupy, by now inviting the
inhabitants of the world at large to visit our land. As a professedly
Christian nation, then, glorying as we do in that title—making a boast
very often of the purity of our religion, of the reformation of old
corruptions, and the brilliant beauty of its spiritual truths, “what
manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness?”
England should be the model nation for the world. Will not some
strangers come, almost expecting to find us such? Will they not look for
striking indications of the influence among ourselves of that
Christianity which we preach to them as worthy of all acceptation? Will
they not inquire, what is it doing for us? And we do not fear but the
intelligent and candid among them will recognise not a few of the
beautiful footprints of our religion in our institutions and our homes.
But will they not see something else? Will they not mark, here and
there, broad spaces in our civilization where the power of our
Christianity has never come—spaces in society left uncivilized? We need
not now point them out; they have been laid bare again and again, and
urged on our notice by home missionaries and city missionaries, by
magazines, newspapers, and parliamentary records. They have met our eyes
and made us shudder, in revelations from the press, the pulpit, and the
platform. Terrible secrets have been divulged respecting some
departments of English life. Facts have been stated indicative of the
vice and irreligion of some portions of the community. Meditating on
these things, we seem to hear, from the lips of the foreigner whose
spiritual welfare we contemplate, those well-known words—“Physician, heal
thyself; whatsoever ye have done in Capernaum do also in _thy_ country.”
And the just retort makes us blush—not indeed for our Christianity, but
for ourselves. Our Christianity, wherever it has been purely taught and
faithfully applied, has wrought marvels on a scale fully proportioned to
the extent of our efforts. What makes us ashamed is, that we have not
discharged our duty in reference to its diffusion among ourselves, any
more than we have done our duty in reference to its diffusion throughout
the world.
The presence of so many foreigners, whom we virtually challenge to come
and inspect the working of our Christianity, does not really _increase_
our obligation, does not bind us more than we were previously bound, to
promote the religious interests of our own countrymen; but surely it
should powerfully _remind_ us of our obligation, should press it on our
conscientious regard, should awaken us from our slumbers, should
stimulate us now vigorously to do what ought to have been done long
before. While we see so much in our great towns and rural districts to
pain and humble us in the sight of men, much more ought we to be pained
and humbled in the sight of God. The observation of mortals is trifling
compared with his. Their reproach a light matter placed beside his
condemnation. For years has the eye of him who watched over ancient
Israel to see what they were doing with his truth, whether they obeyed or
dishonoured it, whether they taught its doctrines and precepts to the
young and ignorant, or left them uncultivated, a prey to unbelief, to
superstition, or false philosophy—for years has that eye been looking on
English Christians and noting down their culpable neglect. Happy will it
be for us as individuals now, and for our country in all coming times, if
the great event of the present year should excite a prevalent attention
to the remaining spiritual necessities of the kingdom—if it should give
an impulse to our schools, our churches, and our missions. That is among
the possible advantages to be reaped; and earnestly is every Christian
reader who may glance at these pages implored to take up, and ponder, and
carry out practically, with diligence, zeal, love, and prayer, the hints
imperfectly suggested, that so the year may be signalized by an
exhibition of Christian devotedness to the work of religiously benefiting
our countrymen, for which we shall have the approbation of our Divine
Lord, the testimony of a good conscience, and the grateful remembrance of
posterity, who will “rise up and call us blessed.”
At the same time the assemblage of many persons from the provinces in
London this summer, affords an opportunity, an unprecedented opportunity,
for attempting, in a humble and devout spirit, something bold,
significant, and generally attractive of attention, with a view to the
spiritual good of the multitude. Let thousands upon thousands of
appropriate religious publications be cheaply sold or freely given to the
crowds about the park, and the streams of passengers flowing through the
principal thoroughfares. And let the gospel be preached by well-known,
accredited, intelligent, and earnest-minded men, in the spirit of the
preachers in the day of Pentecost, not in spacious buildings only but in
the open air, wherever it can be done with propriety;—judicious
arrangements being made for the purpose, that holy and apostolic zeal may
not, without prejudice and misrepresentation, be regarded as ignorant and
rash enthusiasm. The enterprise is commenced.—Exeter Hall has been
engaged for public services on the Lord’s day through several
months—preaching out of doors is also contemplated. The initiative
taken, let others follow up the work, till London and its environs be
pervaded with the light and power of the gospel.