The scriptures exhibit covetousness as pervading all classes of mankind. They describe it as having thrown the world generally into a state of infidel distrust of the Divine Providence, and of dissatisfaction of the Divine allotments. "For after these things," saith Christ, "do the Gentiles seek." They seek after worldly objects as independently and intently as if there were no Providence to care for them, no God to be consulted. They pursue them to the entire neglect of every higher object. Sometimes covetousness has been seen actuating and debasing the character of an entire people. Against the Israelites, it is alleged, "From the least of them even unto the greatest of them, every one is given to covetousness." Of Tyre, it is said, "By thy great wisdom and by thy traffic hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches." And of Chaldea, it is said, "Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high." The insatiable desires, or the continued prosperity and boundless possessions of these nations, have left nothing in the national character but rapacity, arrogance, and a proud impiety which braved the very throne of God. HARRIS' MAMMON. For scriptural examples of this sin and God's punishment thereof, the reader is referred to the characters of ACHAN, JOSHUA vii; AHAB, 1 KINGS XXi; GEHAZI, 2 KINGS V; JUDAS, MATT. xxvii. It was COVETOUSNESS, or the love of gain which first instigated man to the commission of innumerable crimes -piracies upon the high seas-robberies by land, with their attendant murders-the inhuman traffic in slaves; and, to swell the catalogue with an amount of evil past all human calculation, it is this passion which has caused half the wars which have desolated the world; for what is AMBITION,—the desire for power and dominion-but covetousness upon an extended scale? "The cruel nations, covetous of prey," have drawn the sword upon the slightest pretext, and wide-spreading desolation and misery have been the fatal results. The footpad who first robs, and then murders his solitary victim, wants but the power to become one of those scourges of the earth called "heroes;" the principle which animates both is essentially the same. Let them both reflect on the words of DAVID, "The wicked blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth," Psalm x. 3, and let them pray with him to the Lord, " Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.' Psalm cxix. 36. EDITOR. THE VANITY OF WEALTH. No more, thus brooding o'er your heap, No, all that's worth a wish-a thought, DR. JOHNSON. CRUELTY. INHUMANITY; savageness; barbarity. JOHNSON. There are great changes in the world by the revolutions. of empire, the cruelties of conquering, and the calamities. of enslaved nations. TEMPLE. This word comes from the Latin adjective Crudelis, from whence we also derive CRUEL, which applied to persons or things, signifies bloody; mischievous; destructive; causing pain. CRUELTY and CRUELN ESS are likewise from the same root; the latter is a word but seldom used now. Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked; out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man. PSALM LXXI. 4. Have respect unto the covenant; the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty. PSALM LXXIV. 20. A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast; but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. PROVERBS XII. 10. The following from the mouth of one of the prophets is a fine description of a warlike nation, and might well apply to any of those fierce and rapacious ones, who have at various times desolated the earth. "Behold a people cometh from the north country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth. They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon horses set in array as men of war against thee, O daughter of Zion !" Oh, if when we oppress and goad our fellow-creatures, we bestowed but one thought upon the dark evidences of human error, which, like dense and heavy clouds, are rising slowly, it is true, but not less surely to heaven, to pour their after vengeance on our heads-if we heard but one instant, in imagination, the deep testimony of dead men's voices, which no power can stifle, and no pride can shut out, where would be the injury and injustice, the suffering, misery, cruelty, and wrong, that each day's life brings with it. DICKENS. Men see and understand guilt a little sometimes, when it starts upon them in a new and unexpected form, while they are entirely blind to far greater enormities, which they have themselves assisted to make common. The whole city of Boston was shocked by the disclosure of a scene of vice and cruelty, which was, to the mass of the inhabitants, a new and unusual form of sin. It was cockfighting. Cruel, unrelenting wretches, prepared their victims for the contest by sawing off their natural spurs, and fastening deadlier ones of steel upon the bleeding trunks. Then, having forced the innocent animals to a quarrel, by thrusting their beaks into each others faces, till they provoked them to anger, they sat around to enjoy the spectacle of their combat. The whole community was shocked by it, for this was sin in a new and unexpected form, and one in which they had not themselves personally partaken. But when the same experiment precisely is tried with men, the world looks on calmly and unmoved. Military leaders bring human beings together by thousands, men who have no quarrel, and would gladly live in peace. They drive them up together front to front, and having armed them with weapons of torture and death, which nature never furnished, they succeed, half by compulsion, and half by malicious art, in getting the first blows struck, and the first blood flowing, as a means of bringing the angry passions into play. This they call getting the men engaged! There is no trouble after this. The work goes on-a work of unutterable horror. The blood, the agony, the thirst, the groans which follow, are nothing. It is the raging fires of hatred, anger, revenge, and furious passion, which nerve every arm, and boil in every heart, and with which thousands upon thousands pour in crowds into the presence of their Maker; these are what constitute the real horrors of a battle-field. And what do mankind say to this? Why a few Christian moralists feebly remonstrate, but the great mass of men gather around the scene as near as they can get to it, by history and description, and admire the systematic arrangements of the battle, and watch the progress and the manoeuvres of the hostile armies, as they would the changes in a game of chess; and were it not for the flying bullet, they would throng around the scene in person. But, when it comes to sawing off the spurs of a game-cock, and exasperating him against his fellow,-oh! that is shocking cruelty; that they cannot bear! JACOB ABBOTT-The Corner Stone. All amusements which consist in inflicting pain upon animals, such as bull-baiting, cock-fighting, &c., are purely wicked. God never gave us power over animals for such purposes. I can scarcely conceive of a more revolting exhibition of human nature, than is seen when men assembled to witness the misery which brutes inflict upon each other. Surely nothing can tend more directly to harden men to worse than brutal ferocity. WAYLAND. The cruel pastimes here alluded to are now happily nearly abolished in England; bull-baiting has come to be considered as a relic of barbarous times, and none but the most depraved avow themselves lovers of cockfighting, the opinions of society having, within the few past years, undergone a great change. There cannot be the slightest doubt that, in the process of time, WAR will also be regarded with equal horror and disgust by the reasonable and humane portion of the community, and that the meeting of armies on the battle-field, like the gladiatorial spectacles of ancient Rome, in which men fought with each other, and with wild beasts, will be matter of history only-a custom that has passed away, never to return a record of human crime and misery, from which we shall gladly turn our eyes to find consolation and peace in the realization of the scripture promises. EDITOR. THE COLISEUM AT ROME. I hail thy desolation-blood-stained pile ! While crowned Wealth and bloated Power looked on, In frantic exultation; where, e'en the maid, The writhe of mortal agony ;-shall we weep,- As their own graves?-That Rapine's fatal hand Whilst o'er the mouldering galleries, straggling wild, BISHOP SHUTTLEWORTH. I would not enter on my list of friends, (Though graced with polish'd manners and fine sense, Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm. |