public action, but, like the subtle power assigned by Young to death, it "Plays its weapon in the narrower sphere Of sweet domestic comfort, and cuts down The fairest bloom of sublunary bliss."

It steals unperceived into the family circle, and intrudes upon our social, shall I say our religious, converse?

It will hardly here be necessary to supply examples of the manner in which the phrase of independence of mind is abused by nominal Christians of all classes; among whom it is only a soft name for a proud spirit, as economy is another word for avarice; indiscretion, for vice; pleasure, for sin; and puritanism, for holiness. But we may pass on to the more grateful part of the subject which respects independence of mind as found in the true Christian, exercised upon Christian principles, and guard. ed by Christian cautions. And here "the noble army of martyrs rises at once to our view, and we behold the men" of whom the world was not worthy "brought before kings and rulers" for the sake of a despised and crucified Master; preaching righteousness to a world which chose death rather than life; witnessing a good confession, though the Holy Ghost had first testified to them that only "bonds and death" awaited them as their reward; and counting not their lives dear to themselves, so that they might finish their course with joy, committing their eternal interests to the Saviour in the midst of a shower of stones, and singing halle lujahs and hosannas as they ascended in the fiery chariots of pagan and papal persecution. his is a grateful theme, and it would be easy to enlarge. It is perhaps the highest example that can be given of independence of mind. In ordinary acts of heroism, the absence of a spiritual motive and the mixture of human passion are essential defects: "they

do it that they may obtain a corrupti. ble crown ;" and "they that take the sword shall perish by the sword :" but in the cases alluded to, faith is found acting upon the express injunction of our Lord, Fear not them who kill the body, and, after that, have no more that they can do; but fear Him who, after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell." They do fear God rather than man; they "endure as seeing him who is invisible," and "great is their reward in heaven." But to descend from this mount, and view the subject as more immediately applicable to ourselves

How are we interested in the ques tion of independence of mind? If we could even trust our faith that we should be able to exercise it on occa sions of public trial (which I suppose none of us will be sure that we should,) it is clear that to such trials we are not called in the present peaceful state of the church and the world. Yet as things now are, and viewing ourselves in connection with all about us, it is perhaps not too much to assert that the true Christian alone possesses real independence of mind; and it may be no loss of time to consider upon what principles this may be affirmed.

1. He is independent of the world.— He is not of the world, as Christ was not of the world, but is the native of another country, and the subject of another Sovereign. He is "a citizen of no mean city;" and when vilified and persecuted by those who know him not, he can appeal to his own King as the Roman Christian appealed to Cæsar. He looks forward to the day when the earth is to be burnt up, and sees that a con flagration like that will consume the stubble and chaff which others are building their peace upon; and therefore he learns to form a proper estimate of earthly treasures and to be independent of them,

having his treasure elsewhere. Thus, if the possessions of the world come into competition with his better inheritance, he knows how to choose the good and refuse the evil, and prefers to lose an employer rather than offend God.

2. He is independent of life, because he is to live for ever; and though he may fear death when his faith is not in exercise, yet, in his better moments, he knows whom he has believed, and is persuaded that He is able to keep that which he has committed to him against that day. Besides, although it were otherwise as to the state of his assurance, yet the covenant that is made with him is ordered and sure, and is not for feited by his fears although it is exalted by his hopes.

3. He is independent of opinion. He applies another rule and measure to his conduct than the world does, even the unerring word of God; and when many consider him melancholy or mad, he knows that they who mourn now are blessed and shall be comforted, and that the same misjudging world said of his Master that he was mad and had a devil. When he is thought a fool, he knows that the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God, and that the wisdom by which he is directed is justified of her children.

4. He is independent of circumstances and events, of changes and reverses.-Something of this sentiment is expressed by Watts in his lyrics, "I'd have a life to call my own That shall depend on heav'n alone; Nor earth, nor air, nor sea, Mix their base essences with mine, Nor claim dominion so divine To give me leave to be."

As it is an axiom of mathematics that every thing great contains in it something that is less, so the Christian, in having so much more real independence of mind than the worldling, can lay claim to every advantage attached to this spirit which the unbeliever may boast,

whilst he possesses it in a form that is refined and purified, and divested of the grossness and feculence of its natural elements. Hence the Christian has been often found the best patriot; and Baxter and Bunyan did not urge or promote the cause of liberty and Protestantism (in other words, the cause of independence of mind) at all the less because they preached and wrote laboriously for Christ; nor did Colonel Gardner fight the worse, or bleed the less willingly, because he went to battle in the Christian armour or served under the banner of the Lord of Hosts.

.5. The Christian is independent of himself. This is perhaps that which most effectually promotes and se cures his independence of mind. He is saved by grace:-he stands not in his own strength, but is strong in the Lord: because Christ lives, he lives also. he lives also. His independence of mind is no more his own than any grace or virtue in his stock, and only exists for a moment as it is fed and nourished from a higher source. The whole secret of his independence of mind is, that he has a mind which depends upon God, and therefore does not depend upon man, or which, in other words, is, as to man, an independent mind. Now here is the great distinction between Christian and worldly independence of mind. He who has not God for his support never can carry a mind which is independent either of others or himself, but is the slave of one or the other, and often of both at the same moment.

"Do my lord of Canterbury But one ill turn, and he's your friend for life."

Then it is evident that he takes the noblest revenge, and becomes far more independent of his enemies than if he had banished one and beheaded another. Not only is it true, that "a soft answer turneth away wrath;" but he who has the grace to give it, is really more independent of his opponent, because less in his power than he would have been by

the most severe retort. Saul allows that David was more righteous than he; because, to pass by a transgres sion is the glory of a man, and be cause he who can do this must first have conquered himself, which is his greatest enemy, and he may well smile at meaner foes: in other

words, he is independent of them. To love our enemies is to annihilate them; and to return good for evil is to heap coals of fire upon their heads. It is perhaps time to bring these observations to a close; but on adverting to the precise terms in which verting to the precise terms in which the question is couched, I observe that it is proposed to consider the advantages and disadvantages of maintaining and exhibiting this principle in different situations of life. I apprehend that, on considering what has been said, it will be thought that, although these advantages and disadvantages have not been specifically distinguished, yet that they have been virtually recognised; and with a view to shew this, a short recapi tulation may be. necessary. And first as to the advantages. In order to any advantage at all from independence of mind, we must take care that it is of the right kind; that it is the genuine principle, and not a spurious substitute for it. If ours be indeed true Christian independence, we may sooner count the stars than enumerate its advantages. It dignifies the prince, because it humbles him to rest his claim to real independence of mind, not upon the footing of his place or station, but on the qualities of his mind and

the graces of his heart, without which he has no more real independence than the meanest of his subjects. What Shakespeare has poet, ically said of mercy may be said of this quality,

It becomes the throned monarch Better than his crown."

It raises the beggar from the dunghill, and sets him with princes, even the princes of God's people, since it gives him an interest in a world to come by making him indethe lowest in the scale of being by pendent of the present. It elevates establishing a sort of moral equality, which while it still renders to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's will yet first render to God the things that are God's. Its advantages in middle life are endless. When it is clearly the result of piety, it is an emanation of the Deity within us: hence it was declared, that when the primitive saints were to deliver their tes-timony, they were not to stoop to study their subject, but that it should be given them in that hour what they should speak, and that it was not they who spake but the Holy Ghost

within them. When its movements are not so clearly the result of such seraphic and elevated feelings, but yet steer clear of the lower motives of pride and selfishness, it has in it enough to dignify and beautify the records of past ages, where we still behold amidst a mass of ruin and

disorder these few Corinthian co

lumns standing here and there as if to prevent our closing the page of history in disgust, and which remind us of the stars in the darkness, "For ever singing as they shine,

The Hand that made us is Divine."

Before I quite close the subject of the advantages of independence of mind, I would observe, that it has appeared to me from my own expe. rience, that there is scarcely any way in which independence of mind can be so fully cultivated, or so usefully displayed as-by our determining to express our senti

s which may never lay up the talent s in a napkin. Talks like walking in an do not slip in paces present themetimes make them t; if he do not use atch and seize every occasionally run our, he will neither a Londoner. Inde d is both acquired speaking, whether te. I thought while eminent preacher a one of his bold and for God against an how has it pleased reaching, and what of independence of ibiting! If we deDulpit to the senate, sel kings and give They who speak. If ar, speaking is not is necessary, it is What are general Societies, but a few on the peg of a Remittees of those soe business of such ey who speak. If a to the purpose, he it, and give way to ich will teach him y let him speak as gh he who speaks en blunder, he who it, can never be in is it that adorns and ntercourse, that rees folly, silences the ms the learner. He silence, if it do not quently involves us f doing so.

the disadvantages ependence of mind aps find on near inNo. 159.

ous independence; and that therefore it will not be just to charge upon the principle itself, the inconveniences and dangers referable to another source. Some men, for instance, pique themselves upon speaking their minds, as they call it; but this is done in such an imprudent and offensive way as to alienate others and injure themselves: they then complain of the disadvantages of independence of mind, when the only disadvantage which appears is to be attributed to their own indiscretion in the application of a principle which was good in itself. But, after all due allowances for mismanagements and mistakes are made, it is but too certain that the exhibition of independence of mind is more or less opposed to the temporal interests of every man who acts under its influence. There is no public reprover of sin from John the Baptist downwards, who has not had occasion to feel something of this. Truth is odious in all its shapes to the lovers of error; and they must needs hate the light who are reproved by it. On minor questions also than those of morals, it is offensive to age and to station when any one is hardy enough to suggest the possi bility of grave and reverend persons being in the wrong; and as two cannot well walk together, except they be agreed, such persons will look out for those characters, on the soft velvet of whose pliant spirits they can repose for admiration and assent, and they will avoid all those who have too much independence of mind to acquiesce in every proposition, merely because it bears the stamp and sanction of authority, while it has perhaps nothing else to boast. There are certain men in the world, of whom it may be predicated without difficulty, that they will never be rich, because they are too honest to disguise their own sentiments.

Y

When the restraint of public persecution cannot be placed upon such men, the scourge of private slander shall be felt by them; their character shall be defamed, their society shall be shunned, and they shall know that "a man's foes are they of his own household," because of their fidelity towards God, and their independence of mind towards man. Persecution thus assumes a mitigated form; and if we have all been exempt from its influence, it is high time we should begin to question the sincerity of our religious profession.

Watts affords a noble specimen of independence of mind; and one of his lyrics begins,

"Custom, that tyranness of fools

That leads the learned round the schools, In magic chains of forms and rules!

My genius storms her throne.

No more, ye slaves, with awe profound,
Beat the dull track nor dance the round:

Loose hands, and quit th' enchanted ground:

Knowledge invites us each alone.
I bate these shackles of the mind

Forged by the haughty wise:
Souls were not born to be confined
And led like Sampson blind and bound;
But when his native strength he found

He well avenged his eyes," &c.

Watts experienced a singular lot in meeting with a patron who could endure him; but our surprise ceases when we know that this patron was as much a man of God in civil life as Watts was in religious life. They were agreed upon all the higher questions of doctrine and practice; and while Watts preserved his inde. pendence, Abdy would have scorned to invade it. Such instances, however, it is to be feared, are rare,

Many disadvantages of independence of mind might here perhaps be enumerated; but they would be found, I apprehend, after all, to be for the most part referable to the single instance of disadvantage which has been stated, and to be only members and branches of that secret dislike which the world has ever felt to virtue and talent. It may, however, be

fairly questioned whether, after giv ing to those disadvantages all their force, we are not applying to them a term which does not belong to them; whether we ought not to hail them as auxiliaries, rather than regard them as enemies; and whether we should not all rather desire to possess them as evidences of our religion and honesty, rather than want them, and at the same time want the principles whose existence they serve to víndicate.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

a constant

I AM a country squire, fond of good old English customs, a staunch friend to Royalty and Episcopacy, a diligent observer of what passes in the world around me, and reader of your very profitable work. Like many others in the present day, and I believe in all former ages of Christianity, I fancy that I can discern blemishes and defects which might be remedied in some of our most excellent establishments. I watch, with a jealous eye, the encroachments which are attempted to be made upon our venerable mother, the Church; and I am equally careful that her sons should do their duty, and prove, by unquestionable evidence, their attachment to their parent. Good, sound, scriptural sermons, and good correspondent prac tice, ensure for every clergyman, a hearty welcome to my family mansion. My father, and grandfather before me, sir, were "lovers of good men."

A country gentleman, resident upon his estate, often complains of much idle time, which as often hangs heavily upon his hands. To check the very first approach of this evil, after my family devotions are concluded. and my domestic economy is arrang. ed for the day, I generally mount my poney, and ride, not merely to admire the beauties of Nature, and then to contemplate the great goodness of the God of Nature; but, in my