Elizabeth Town Gazette

From the Baltimore Morning Chronicle.

ENTHUSIASM.

Looking over a late paper, we were very forcibly struck by a report of the success of the Moravians in the propagation of the gospel. Many very affecting instances of heroism are there recorded, which would appear perfectly incredible to those, who judge by the common feelings and motives by which mankind are usually stimulated to action. What shall we say for instance to an example of such self-devotion to the cause of Christianity, as this; two Moravian missionaries who contemplated the erection of the standard of the Redeemer on the burning sands of Africa, were given to understand, that the tribe of natives to whom they proposed to dispense the light of salvation, would endure the residence of no white man amongst them, unless in the character of a slave. He who measures human actions and human motives by the ordinary standard, would be led to believe from this formidable obstacle, that the enterprize itself was abandoned. No! quite the reverse: these two missionaries, with a zeal and devotion little short of Apostolic, embarked in this expedition with a firm determination to sell themselves for slaves, if their object could be accomplished by no other means. This severe trial by the mercy of Divine Providence however did not await these faithful servants of the gospel; they were received by the natives with open arms, and abundant success crowned their labors of love. What is to be said to all this? The common cant of the day is, that this is to be attributed to enthusiasm only. Yes! it is enthusiasm: that enthusiasm which renders the concerns of this life subordinate to a better—that enthusiasm that would dispense life, and hilarity, and perennial joy, as wide as the dimensions of the world that we inhabit—that enthusiasm that, in the accomplishment of this noble object, sacrifices ease, all the allurements of pleasure and grandeur, and devotes itself to persecution, to sufferings, to privations of every kind, to calumny more cruel than the sword, to dungeons and to death.

Examples of this kind of self-devotion, are by no means rare amongst Christians: but the infidel, startled by the fact; astonished by such evidence that he cannot explain, account for, or deny, flies to the word enthusiasm for shelter; which in his sense of the phrase, is absolutely a word without any meaning whatever. But we will now suppose that this strong principle of enthusiasm, as it is courteously termed, had been turned, not to the salvation, but to the destruction of the human race; that its effects were seen in the tears of the widow and orphan, in the conflagration of their dwellings, in church-yards prematurely filled with their silent and butchered inhabitants. 'All this is termed warrior's pride, and the million shout with rapture at the approach of this sanguinary hero. This principle, so destructive in its application, is no longer called by the name of enthusiasm now; it changes its character, and the word glory, is regarded by the infidel as more than an equivalent for all these enormities.

Let a plan be suggested for assuaging the miseries of our unhappy race, whatever hazard may be incurred in the attempt, is sufficient to dishearten any one engaged in the enterprize; he is laughed to scorn, and denounced to the world as an enthusiast. If this enthusiasm once turns to the destruction of our species—to invent engines of death of more speedy and certain execution; to devise any plan to hasten the approach of the king of terrors, and he is hailed at once as a public benefactor. The Christian however, looks with other eyes on the world, which he considers only as his place of temporary residence; anxious only to obtain the applause of his Maker, he devotes his life to his service, unawed by the frowns, unseduced by the smiles of the world—he casts his eyes towards the starry firmament, and awaits the arrival of the hour, when his existence shall surpass in duration those glittering spheres. Death comes at last, not robed in darkness and in tempest—he appears an angel of light—bright with celestial beauty, he stands beside the couch of the Christian, and whispers in his ear these consoling tidings—"Well done thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into thy master's joy."