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Show tirrre true .S~ irit of "!\ cfonn. THE religion of Jesus, acting as a vital principle in the individual heart, and thus leaving the entire mass of humanity, to this alone are we to look as of sufficient power to do away the evils that arc now rife in the world. Just so far as the true spirit of Jesus is infused into the soul, and acts in the life of man, we know that sin, in its various forms of sensuality, oppression, and bloodshed, must disappear. All reforms, which arc not based on this corner-stone, arc superficial; and, however goodly their proportions 111ay appear to the eye of man, they want that firm foundation which will secure them against being undermined or overthrown by the force of adverse circumstances. " Other foundation can no man lay, than that is laid," for the building up of all that is really excellent and heavenly. TRUE SPIRIT OF REFORM. 181 But, while we acknowledge the omnipotence of true religion for the ratification of all social wrongs, we are not to rest in the inculcation of its abstract principles and outward forms alone. It is not enough that we ourselves become, or persuade our fellow·men to become professed disciples of Jesus; not enough that, in a general way, we urge the precepts of the gospel. The obtuseness of the human heart, when hardened by habit and early education, requires that we make particular application of the precepts of Christ, and address our efforts to the removal of specific sins: the sins of our own age and country. It may be that our brother, sincerely intending to act in the spirit of Jesus, is yet blinded by the force of habit, and fails to see the sin in which be is living If 0 ·1· i· · ur pos1 IOn make us to see more clearly than he the course he should pursue, let us endeavor gently to remove the veil from his eyes, remembering how often our own vi"ion is dimmed by prejudice and outward circumstances. In the moral, as well as in the natural world we believe that God demands our active cooperation~ and, as the farmer not only sows the seed, but root~ out the weeds from among the grain, so are we to endeavor to eradicate from the broad field of the moral |