FROM THE BEQUEST OF L 1915 ADVOCATE OF PEACE. No. III. DECEMBER, 1834. ARTICLE I. THE CAUSE OF PEACE A NECESSARY AUXILIARY TO THE BENEVOLENT OPERATIONS OF THE AGE. BY REV. LAURENS P. HICKOK, LITCHfield. THE present is not only an age of benevolent effort, but of special success in the general cause of humanity and religion. Since the formation of man, there has never been a period when so many direct, and extensive causes of human agency were put in operation for the general benefit of the race, as in the present generation; and at no time perhaps has so much been accomplished, or so many favorable circumstances combined their influence for the consummation of those great designs, which the record of inspired prophecy unfolds. God, in his favoring providence seems to be saying to his children :-Put your hands to what work you will, that is for the good of man, and the glory of my name, and press it on with faith, and perseverance, and prayer; and I will uphold and prosper it. The streams of benevolence springing from a thousand different sources meet, and blend their influences; and as the moving current deepens and expands, it draws in new advantages and opportunities around us, which leave us nothing to do but to seize them as they come up, turn them in their proper direction, and let them be borne on to the sure and speedy accom plishment of the final glory. "The plowman overtakes the reaper and the treader of grapes him that soweth the seed." The more there are who go out to break up the ground and cast the seed upon the furrows, the larger is the harvest, and the greater are the numbers immediately needed to go in and gather it. This augmented power and increased success of benevolent operations, is in a great measure the result of the harmonious action and combined influence of different voluntary associations; each laboring in its own field, yet all bearing directly upon the general object, and thus becoming mutually auxiliary to each other. The formation of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions twenty-five years since, became an occasion for all the different organizations in the wide departments of benevolence that have subsequently followed. This great organization for the direct object of converting the world to God, could not move on and accomplish its mighty work single handed and alone. So soon as it began its operations, it was directly seen that many collateral channels must be cut out, and their tributary streams kept full and flowing. Hence in succession the Bible Society, Tract Society, Education Society, Domestic Missions, and the Monthly Concert of Prayer to call down the blessing of Heaven upon the glorious undertaking. No one of these can now be spared. They were formed and brought up into action as new exigences and opening circumstances required, and will probably all be needed. till the work is done and the glory of the latter day breaks upon the world. Among the last which has been put in motion, and is now adding the co-operation of its mighty influence, is the Temperance Society. Nothing can occupy its place in the general cause of humanity, and until it has effectually accomplished its great design, it can never be allowed to fail. And as we move on in the great cause of God, other new auxiliaries will be needed, and when their need is felt, the cause must have them-the Church must provide them. It must not be allowed that any of the sons or daughters of benevolence shall say, in the spirit of complaining, that objects of effort and charity are mul iplying to such an extent that they cannot be sustained; that the calls for aid are so many, we must begin to hold back our hand, and give at least the rebuke of a decided refusal to the pressing claims of benevolence which are thickening around us. This cannot be permitted. All are needed for the great work, and more still will be called into existence. The slumber of ages is now to be broken up; the errors and vices of long centuries are now to be corrected; a world lying in wickedness is now to be reclaimed; and the coming glory of its redemption to be enjoyed; we shall need many hands and great resources; and we must learn to live for these objects, to make this—not wealth or honor or pleasure-the end and aim of all our efforts. And with this divine object in view, as well might we complain of the number of fingers on our hands, or the muscles of our bodies, as of the multiplying associations auxiliary to the cause of Benevolence. If we wish to live in sensual gratification, and indulge every pampered appetite, then these claims are too many; they demand too much of our time and attention and contributions ;-but if we wish to live for the good of man, and the honour of God, and the peace of an approving conscience, their demands are neither too frequent nor too large; for it is the very thing essential to the accomplishment of the objects. It is the only way in which the spirit and power of benevolence can be perpetuated and extended; and in this way it may be indefinitely diffused, and like the great Author of all Benevolence himself "Live through all life, extend through all extent, The Church, in this land, and the nation itself, are now heaving with the struggling spirit of African Emancipation ; and the agitations produced by the different views and conflicting operations of those who have the same ultimate ends, in regard to the miserable victims of an unrighteous bondage, admonish us that here there must be some new organization to meet the present exigency, and that some common channel must be provided through which, in mingled current, kindred feelings-in apparent hostility only from circumstances-can flow on together. The Church can better sustain ten times the demands of any such efficient and harmonious organization, than bear the convulsive agitations of such unhappy and unnecessary commotions in her own bosom. Nor can we doubt that as the present exigency demands, so the wisdom of God will direct his children in some form and manner to the adoption of the proper remedy. Years since it was seen by a few watchful and benevolent spirits, that direct efforts for permanent and universal peace were demanded. Few and unknown, but resolute and persevering, they commenced their labour. They saw, and they knew that others would ere long see, the necessity of such an organized effort for the accomplishment of the general designs of benevolence. Every effort they made fixed deeper their own convictions, while it awakened, convinced and called out others. Their augmented labors and numbers for the last few years have added much interest to this subject, and invested it with a far higher importance in the view of the community. The general events of Divine Providence, the position of the different nations of Europe, the practical ten len y of their avowed principles, and the influence of their mutual interests and relations, together with the collected and published facts and reasonings on this whole subject, have matured and strengthened and advanced the plans of the advocates of Universal Peace an hundred fold. Many are now distinctly seeing (and their number grows every month) that the great result of final blessedness to man which is the object of all our benevolent associations, demands at the present time emphatically that direct efforts should be made in the cause of Peace. Associations should be multiplied; public sentiment should be enlightened, aroused and combined; and the charities of the community should be sent out over this field, which contains the promise of an abundant harvest. It is time that the general cause of benevolence had the full advantage of all the aids and influences which efficient and multiplied Peace societies would most surely impart. The main design of this article is to present this point more distinctly than we have yet seen it before the community-to show some of the reasons why the church should now take the cause of universal Peace more particularly into her hand as a direct and powerful auxiliary to the many other instruments she is using for the final triumph of the Redeemer's Kingdom. One important reason why the church should now engage in the cause of universal Peace is, that she might thereby turn the attention of the Christian world directly to this prominent feature of the millenium. Nothing more distinctly marks the prophetic features of that great period of glory to the church, and blessedness to man, than the universal peace which shall then reign among the nations. Some of the sublimest imagery, and most beautiful figures which the Bible contains, are employed in the illustration of this peculiar feature of the millennium. The swords beat into plowshares and the spears into pruning hooks—the lion and the lamb, the leopard and kid feeding and lying down together-the child playing harmlessly with the asp and the cockatrice-the mighty Angel laying hold of the dragon and binding him a thousand years, that the deceived nations may hereafter rest in quietness from their bloody contentions-the whole earth thus become as the sacred Hill of Zion, with nothing to hurt or destroy throughout all this Holy Mountain, and every family peacefully reposing under their own vine and fig-tree ;-present the brightest scenes to the eye of christian faith which Inspiration hath any where unfolded this side of Heaven. These topics have awakened some of the softest, sweetest, sublimest strains which were ever flung from the prophetic harps of the seers of Israel. Instead of the confused noise of the battle of the warrior, and garments rolled in blood, all along the marts of trade, and through the busy scenes of enterprise, is to be heard the cheerful hum of active and contented industry. The hand of christian cultivation clothes in bloom and beauty every valley, and spreads along the mountain side and over every hill top the luxuriance and fruitfulness of a perennial harvest. The feet |