to open the prison door, to give wings to the hunted fugitive, to come out from iniquitous institutions, to let the oppressed go free. To be persecuted for righteousness sake is considered proof positives of the grossest atheism, while to be upheld by the praises of a wicked and adulterous generation is to give certain evidence of the new birth! To advocate doing unto others as we would that they should do unto us, is to incur the charge of being mere abstractionists; and to preach the doctrine "be ye perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect," is to subject yourself to the coarsest ribaldry! To advocate entire reliance upon the arm of God, and to proclaim Christ as the noblest of Reformers, because his faith was not in principalities and powers, but in the omnipotence of Truth and Love, is to be a no-government-man and a French Revolutionist !—and if you so much as intimate the propriety of returning good for evil, you shall be reckoned as AntiChrist himself. To preach the antiquated doctrine, that “where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty," and to hold our religious and political institutions to this test, is to be an advocate of downright mobocracy—and to demand for poor dis-man-tled humanity free thought, free speech, and free worship, is thought seriously to endanger the throne of the Omnipotent! To assert that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath, and therefore that it is lawful to do well on that day, is to be a contemner of God's laws and a despiser of his institutions; and any practical enforcement of that doctrine is treated as a crime, in comparison with which the selling of men and women at auction, and the rupturing of the bonds of marriage are cardinal virtues! To represent it as any part of a clergyman's duty to labor in behalf of such secular and Nazarene enterprises as Temperance, Anti-Slavery, Peace, or Chastity, is shuddered at, (not without reason,) as endangering the "brotherhood" itself; while to deny the divinity of this hungry locustry is nothing short of rank blasphemy! Such is a picture, hastily composed, of the religion of this nation-and, strangely enough, it passes quite generally for the religion of Christ! It would seem that God had sent the people a strong delusion, that they might believe a lie. One in the least acquainted with the genius of Christianity must be struck with a surprise bordering on horror, to hear a community to which the above strictures apply calling itself by the name of Christ, while he will look upon the fact that its church and clergy have assumed that sacred name, as setting the limits to human assurance. A friend said to me a few days since, that the terms_christian, and pious, and Godly, and the like, having undergone a radical change in their signification, we ought, as Reformers, to repudiate their application to us or our enterprise, as a gross indignity, and adopt the name of infidel, as the most honorable appellation extant. There was a spice of good sense in the suggestion, and I sympathized with the spirit which dictated it. But I think it is due to the age in which we live-an age surpassing the Lutheran in searching scrutiny and bold exposure-to pursue an opposite course, until we have compelled the "long, low, piratical looking craft," which infests our seas under the deceptive name of "THE CHURCH," to strike the white flag of Christianity, which it has dared to place at its mast-head, and run up the bloody banner of the Bucaneer! Long enough have the Scribes and Pharisees of our time covered their nakedness with the graceful drapery of a Christian profession. True, it Like a giant's robe upon a dwarfish thief;" but the people have been so long accustomed to consider the poor rattling skeleton which is hid in the folds of that robe as the true body of Christ, that it is hard to undeceive them. Nevertheless, or rather all the more, the work should be done. Until this is done, the cause of Reform will continue to languish. But do this-dethrone the pro-slavery priesthood of America, and its cannibal god—and Humanity will spring to her feet with the alacrity of youth; the cords of oppression, which have worn deep into her quivering flesh, will be snapped asunder; the clouds of superstition, which have for so long a time obscured the light of reason, will be scattered, and righteousness will cover the land as the waters cover the sea. To accomplish all this, it is mainly necessary that in our lives and conversations we illustrate the life-giving energy and purifying influences of the Reform movement. Let this be done. Let the people see that all the ways of Reform are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace ;—not that pleasantness which is but the reflection of the lascivious smiles of public opinion, not that peace which takes no thought of purity, but that pleasantness and peace which have their beautiful emblem in the great heart of old Ocean, which, alike in the wildest storms and the serenest calms, remains ever in undisturbed serenity. Show the people this, prove to them how perfect the harmony between the essential principles of true Reform and the divine life of Jesus; contrast the barren ceremonials and creaking performances of the Church with the healthful exercises of a benevolent life ;—and ere long you shall see the people flock to our cause like the army of birds, which every winter leave behind them the naked forests and ice-clad mountains of the North, for the sunny plains and fragrant gardens of the South. A PSALM OF LIFE. BY HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. Tell me not in mournful numbers, For the soul is dead that slumbers, Life is real-life is earnest And the grave is not its goal, Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, Art is long and time is fleeting, And our hearts, though stout and brave, Still, like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches to the grave. In the world's broad field of battle, Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant! Lives of all great men remind us We can make our lives sublime, Footsteps, that perhaps another, Let us then be up and doing, A HARMLESS SOLDIERY. The good people of Nantucket never had the military disease but once, and then they "took it kindly," as some folks do the small рох. That exception is curious enough to record. A few years since a number of her public-spirited youths feeling the need of more elegant amusement than their homely town afforded, and feeling, possibly, a little desire to imitate the natives "on the continent," resolved to form themselves into a military corps.They accordingly sent to Boston, or some other wonderful place, for a due supply of " shooting irons," cutlasses, tail-feathers, patent leather boxes, (to put their heads in,) blank-cartridges, (and boxes to put them in,) &c. &c. &c. The articles arrived "in good order and well conditioned,"-and the enthusiastic young men,— guiltless as yet of all military glory, and green as grass on all military affairs, (with one or two ripe exceptions,)-proceeded to "organize" themselves with all dispatch. One of the first things to be done was to "frame a constitution;" for a body without a constitution is as ungainly as a neck without a collar. After long, patient, and prayerful consideration, they at last adopted one, worthy of a Jefferson. It will be impossible in this brief paper to give the curious (and, as I trust, by this time impatient) reader but one article of this solemn instrument; but that shall be the first one, both in order and importance, and will serve as well, perhaps, as a greater number, to convey an idea of the burning patriotism and bloody intent of these embryo soldiers. It is very laconic, and reads thus: ARTICLE 1ST. In case of war this company shall disband. The further history of this corps is hidden in the womb of oblivion. Those bran new, and possibly bran-stuffed, coats never took public possession of one of the citizens,-nor were any of their heads ever taken cap-tive by those formidable looking caps. The bayonets never kept any one at bay-and the only time the guns ever "went off" they forgot to come back again, though, as |