The Life of Harlan Page. By William A. Hallock [pp. 233-243]

The Place of the Laity.
(if not saved by means of-the Sabbath School) will easily
discard what little may descend to them of hereditary prejudices in favour of religious respect.
All the while there are toils laid to make sure that neither
of these classes shall escape from the more direct designs of
the adversary. The infidelity of" Free Inquiry" is artfully
connected with the system of combination by which a powerful effort is making to unite the mechanics of the whole
seaboard in a league for the use of unlawful force and the
refuge of mutual protection. These "Trades Unions," as
they are called, patronise journals and disseminate tracts and
handbills, which not only teach the most revolutionary doctrines of Agrarianism, but echo the paganism of the reign of
terror. They appeal in the most artful manner to the rude
ideas of the uneducated, and whilst they argue that to hold a
deed of property however honestly and laboriously acquired,
is an unnatural and intolerable monopoly, that no man should
be permitted to live more comfortably than another, fail not
to represent the institutions of religion as part of the tyranny
by which "the people" are oppressed.
How shall this class, whose consequence is becoming more
portentous every day, be reached by the means of grace?
No one can have influence with them who goes as an official
religious adviser. And to obtain a hearing at all, the person
who desires to do them good must either be one of their
own rank, or must approach them in some way which shall
not arouse their most cherished antipathies. Here is an opportunity for a prudent layman to exert his influence. Let
the believing men who are surrounded by this deluded class
allow their light to be seen among them. Let them be
known, not only as the public professors of religion, but its
exemplification, and the advocates of order and law. Instead
of excluding themselves from all participation in the counsels
of the disaffected, they should be among them, and manifest
on proper occasions the energy and the charity of a true
follower of Christ. It is not always by withdrawing from
the society of men of their own class, when they find them
in the wrong, that pious men give the best evidence of their
conscientiousness. What might not the honest and evident
piety of a few master mechanics, or journeymen, or apprentices, effect in their respective circles? What so much contributes to the conservative principles of integrity in the
commercial ranks of our country, as the weight of the character of godly merchants? And what is it that —-all uncon
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