THIS is indeed a glorious age we live in!-glorious, that is to say, in certain aspects and to certain orders of minds; though a sad one in some points of view; and a most uncomfortable one, it must be confessed, to many very worthy and decent people. The present actually around us is in itself sad enough, in the frightful spectacle everywhere visible of wrong and wo; and yet glorious indeed in the manifestation equally visible, of a Spirit at work, under the whole and through the whole, actively and powerfully busy in the mission for which it was sent from God, to regenerate and redeem. We have reached a point, in the development of our civilisation, in the progress of the race, at which its best and highest minds are beginning to perceive, to realize (to use a very good Americanism), the impossibility of getting along much further in the old way, and the absolute necessity of setting earnestly about the task of solving this vast and world-old problem of Human Society-of finding out the true principle of its organization, and of applying it to a fundamental reconstruction of the old fabric now worn out and out-grown. This spirit is that of the

Christian Gospel-working sometimes most powerfully through many of those who are the most unconscious of the source from which their inspiration and stimulus have been derived. A vague idea of this truth is beginning, too, to descend and diffuse itself, fast and wide, among other minds, than those which stand in the midst of society like the high mountain-tops, commissioned to receive and reflect to the rest of the earth the first rays of the coming light. The reaction of the age back from that state of doubt and infidelity, which was the leading characteristic of the one immediately preceding-or rather we should say, its forward progress and passage out of that state-is too manifest to every eye, to need more than an allusion to it as an understood fact. The general revival of Christianity, apparent throughout all Christendom, is the most interesting moral phenomenon of the century. At no period since that of its promulgation to the world, has it exhibited a higher, warmer, or more vigorous life, than is now beginning to show itself, in various degrees and modes, throughout all the denominations into which the common body of the Church

is divided. And in the midst of all this new activity, of all the many sounds and voices in which it is every where working and crying aloud, there is one voice which makes itself heard high and clear above them all, as though the utterance of a silver trumpet, held by an unseen hand, and breathed forth upon the air by other than human lip. It is the solemn rebuke of Christianity against that awful state of misery and evil, moral and material, in which in this, our grand Civilisation of Selfishness, even in the communities seemingly freest and happiest, the great mass of mankind is kept chained and grovelling. And this rebuke is also a command, to which it must be impossible much longer to withhold attention and obedience, that this practical denial and mockery of Christianity must not be suffered to continue, that some mode must be discovered by which it may be practicable to apply the principles of the Gospel to the constitution and government of society; and for individuals to do that which is now an utter impossibility to the best and purest, namely, to conform the regulation of their private daily walk of life to the standard of those principles. In every direction do we see individuals starting up under the power of this rebuke, earnest to do what may in them lie, each in his little sphere and on his particular point of action, in obedience to this command. How they preach, and toil, and strive, and devote themselves, in their respective and manifold ways, to that which they feel to be to them the highest and holiest of duties, for that is their mission, their allotted field of labor, their appointed post in the advancing move ment of the great army of the race. Each has his particular good to be done-evil to be removed-truth to be taught error to be corrected. Each is full of his own idea; and perhaps in nine cases in ten, its proximity to his eye may shut out the view of all others, and his enthusiasm may pass into a fanaticism. What then? In Paul's words, "It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing." These fanaticisms never get strength to do any great harm. They exhaust themselves, and counteract each other. They can never singly get such hold upon the general mind as to be danger. ous,—even if the sluggish vis inertia

of society, which makes it so difficult to rouse and move it at all, presented a less heavy resistance than it does to all their passionate impulses. And what though all these various classes of reformers-each at work on his own stone, in that huge pyramid of Evil which is destined, however slowly, to disappear under the eventual influence of their common efforts?-what though they misunderstand, and abuse, and persecute each other? In Hawthorne's beautiful apologue of "The Procession of Life," published in our Number of April last, he thus finely expresses that pervading harmony which is made up out of the very conflict of all their discords:

"But let good men push and elbow one another as they may, during their earthly march, all will be peace among them when the honorable array of their procession shall tread on heavenly ground. There they will doubtless find that they have been working each for the other's cause, which, with an honest purpose, any mortal and that every well-delivered stroke, struck, even for a narrow object, was indeed stricken for the universal cause of good. Their own view may be bounded by country, creed, profession, the diversities of individual character-but above them all is the breadth of Providence. How many, who have deemed themselves antagonists, will smile hereafter, when they look back upon the world's wide harvest-field, and perceive that, in unconscious brotherhood, they were helping to bind the self-same sheaf!"

To our view and our sympathies, one of the most interesting of all the thousand indications in every direction visible, of the presence and working of this spirit, is the formation of the Society whose name constitutes the title to this Article, and whose principles and objects are set forth with equal eloquence and condensation in the pamphlet above referred to. It is from the pen of William H. Channing, a worthy nephew of the great and good man who has given that name its consecrated celebrity. We quote from it the following statement of its view of that condition of society out of which has grown the movement of which it is the first expression:

"The spirit of reform which is animating the hearts of men in this generation,

"1. The contrasts in condition, intelligence, and character, which are produced by our modes of domestic, industrial, and social life, are felt to be at utter variance with our faith as Christians and as men. Professedly we believe, that all are born to be children of God, to grow up in love, and truth, and joy; to enter upon a spiritual existence; to be united as brethren by interchange of blessings received from one Father; practically we are separated into castes, reared upon accidents, upheld by caprice, mutually jealous of each other's encroachments, and tenacious of conflicting rights. Excessive wealth, exclusively possessed, is side by side with abject want; leisure that breeds frivolity with exhausting toils; incitements to intellectual culture with necessities which fetter the noblest powers; influences well fitted to refine and purify, with degrading relations exhaling an atmosphere of vice. Masses are crowded into narrow places, foul airs, and situations engendering disease. Society expends in the punishment of criminals, sums, which justly shared, and wisely used, would have insured the virtue of these victims of neglect. All suffer for the common wrong. There is a general temper of restless discontent; a worldliness exhausting the finest energies in anxious struggles for subsistence; a collision prolific of fraud; a selfish indifference to the unfortunate, and as selfish exultation in success; a contempt of the weak, and a flattery of the strong; an over estimate of conventional refinements, a prejudice against honest toil, an indiscriminate standard of the value of services; a distrust repelling man from man, and class from class; a general exercise of constraint and force; which are as fatal to individual purity and happiness, and to social prosperity and peace, as they are hostile to that law of love, so universally acknowledged, and so universally broken. Men can rest content no longer under these violations of the will of impartial Providence. A new sense has been born of the worth, rights, and capacities of the human being. Necessity and the tendencies of the commercial world co-operate with the spirit of freedom, and of Christian humanity, to stimulate us in the solution of this problem of injustice. The resources opened by science, the wonderful inventions of art, give timely aid. And society at large seems gathering up its strength for some effectual effort, so to organize its institutions, as to secure for every individual, man, woman, child, the freest exercise of its powers, and its just share in

2. The confusion of existing opinions, upon all subjects, religious, moral, praetical, is seen to be as unnatural as it is harmful. Fundamental truths, established principles, clear views of divine order, are nowhere expressed in forms that command universal assent; and in their place we have perplexity and doubt. Time justly due to useful labor, to friendship, self-culture, and enjoyment, is wasted in fruitless speculation; powers best developed in fervent action pine for want of ends steadfastly believed in, strongly comprehended, and worthy of devotedness; feeling is chilled by indecision; conscience blinded by sophistry; theories withdraw regard from natural laws; servile attachment to systems takes the place of convictions, widening with experience and growth; and the dogmas of past ages usurp the reverence which man owes to God's ever present glory. Hence, endless controversies, wasting the means, paralyzing the enthusiasm which should be consecrated to the universal good; and the church designed to be a living body, with one heart and will of love, is sundered into disputing sects. But a great change is spreading over men's spirits. Disgust is becoming general at this jargon of barren polemics. The multiplicity of opinions which first drove men into an extreme freedom of inquiry, has resulted at length in mutual deference and respect for the combined judgments of the race. It is seen that no man, that no age can know the whole of truth, but only such of its phases as their peculiar character fits them to perceive; and that in the constantly unfolding wisdom of mankind alone is there any approximation to infallibility. The era of denial and scoffing has passed; we long for affirmations; there is a new confidence in the universal presence of the Spirit of Truth. We begin to perceive that through all varieties of creeds, through the thousand-fold forms of mythology and theology, through the systems of philosophers and the visions of poets, has spoken more or less audibly one Eternal Word. Sublime analogies present themselves between the spiritual and natural worlds. Christianity comes to be recognized as the pure outshining, through a soul made transparent by inspiration, of those heavenly laws which have more or less brightly illumined all sages and saints; the various modes of Christian belief, formed by the partial comprehension of different eras, appear as refracted rays from one central sun; and long severed dissenters at length are reconciled as fellow seekers of the Unity of Faith.

"3. The tone of religious feeling in so