Page:The Moral and Religious Bearings of the Corn Law.djvu/23

23 if the distress and perplexity of nations, if the brutalizing and degrading of humanity, if the tears and agonies of the orphan and the widow, if the retardation of civilization and religion, follow in its train, let us pray and labour that our own beloved country may be placed in such relations with other countries as shall establish a mutual interest in peace and cherish a mutual indisposition to war.

I have thus glanced at some of the moral and religious bearings of that law of our land which relates to the admission of foreign corn, and only at some of them. Time would fail to allude to all. It is a root of all evil. I believe the misery or the mischief cannot be mentioned which does not spring from it in a greater or less degree. And all its fruits are increasing day by day. The already grievous accumulation of national guilt is being augmented while it remains; the ignorance, and vice, and irreligion of the people is being augmented while it remains; the general distress is becoming wider, and deeper, and more likely to continue, while it remains. Then let every one present arise, and, without violence or threatening, by the force of truth, and charity, and justice, endeavour to remove it. Let each one that hears me gird up his loins and breathe his vow to do his part in this great cause.

The cause has become a religious one. Hundreds of ministers have publicly committed themselves to it in this character. A conference of "men of God" has been held about it, and they have pledged themselves to use every legitimate influence to secure its triumph. How different that assembly from others which the history of the church records! They met, not to pronounce anathemas, but to diffuse blessings; not to foster and express a theological hate, but to feel and show a human love; not to settle the orthodoxy of some incomprehensible proposition or hard word, but to interpret and apply the dictates of an unsophisticated charity; not to dispute about or impose tithe of mint and anise, but to expound and defend the weightier matters of the law—justice and mercy.