elf the friend of peace and freedom, of
learning and science, of trade and agriculture, of temperance and
purity, of justice and charity, of domestic comfort and national
prosperity. The history of Christianity was the history of our superior
laws, of our improved manners, of our beneficent institutions, of our
schools of learning, of our boundless wealth, of our constitutional
governments, of our unequalled literature, of our world-wide influence,
of our domestic happiness, and of all that goes to make up our highest
forms of civilization. Imperfectly as it had been understood, and
defectively as it had been reduced to practice, Christianity had placed
the nations of Europe at the head of the human race. Christian nations
were the most enlightened and virtuous, the most prosperous and
powerful, the most free and happy of all the nations of the earth. The
pious frauds, the intolerance and persecutions, the oppressions and
wrongs, the selfishness and sin, which were found in the history of the
Church, were not the effects of Christianity, but the effects of
passions and principles directly opposed to its spirit and teachings.

3. I looked at the Churches of the day. I found them all at work for the
education of the young, and for the instruction and salvation of the
world. I saw them building schools and chapels, and supplying them with
teachers and preachers. I saw them printing books, and tracts, and
Bibles, and spreading them abroad in all directions. I saw them founding
libraries and reading-rooms, and young men's Christian associations, and
ladies' sewing societies. I saw them sending out missionaries abroad,
and carrying on a multitude of beneficent operations at home. I asked
for the schools and libraries, the books and periodicals, the halls of
science and the missionary operations of the enemies of Christianity;
but they were nowhere to be found. They _talked_ about education, but
instructed no one. They talked about science, but did nothing for its
spread or its advancement. They abused Christians for neglecting men's
temporal interests, but did nothing to promote men's earthly happiness
themselves. They found fault with Sunday-schools, and talked of the
faults of Christians, but never corrected their own. They talked of
liberty, and practised tyranny. They complained of intolerance, yet
followed such as renounced their society, or questioned their views,
with the bitterest reproaches, and the most heartless per