RELIGIOUS ANXIETIES. 55 his prudence, unless he escaped them in good time. He declared that if the people of the city had been equal to their beautiful climate, in integrity and character, Mexico would have been the most alluring home for him in the world. But while his taste felt the charms of the Spanish grace and lofty courtesy, his sturdy English sense and pure honor taught him the incompatibility of a hollow and corrupt state of morals, and a debasing religion, with all his radical principles; and so he firmly withdrew himself, before his self-respect was tarnished. But we have now reached the most important era in Jackson's life; the beginning of a vital change in his religious character. All the information which can now be gathered, points to the devout Colonel Frank Taylor, commanding his regiment of artillery, as his first official spiritual guide. This good man was accustomed to labor as a father for the religious welfare of his young officers; and Jackson's manly nature seems to have awakened his especial interest. During the campaign of the summer, his instruction and prayers had produced so much effect as to awaken an abiding anxiety and spirit of inquiry in Jackson's mind. He acknowledged his former practical neglect of this transcendent subject, and deplored the vagueness of his religious knowledge. It seems to have been almost a law of his nature even before it was sanctified, that, with him, to be convinced in his understanding of a duty was to set straightway about its performance. He resolved to make the Bible his study, and with a characteristic independence of mind, to take nothing, as to his own religious duties, from prejudice, or from the claims of the various denominations into which he saw the religious world divided. His attitude towards all creeds and sects was at this time singularly unbiassed. His parentage cannot be said to have belonged to any party in religion; his youth had been passed in a household where Christianity was practically unknown; and his later education was obtained among a great company of young men, assembled from every church, under the slender instructions of an army chaplain. His own religious knowledge was at this time extremely scanty. Resolved to examine for himself and decide conscientiously, he concluded that there was now a rare opportunity to inform himself concerning one church at least, the Popish, from a high and authentic source. He was surrounded by educated Papists; and he determined to hear the very best they could say in commendation of their system. He therefore sought the acquaintance of the Archbishop of Mexico, introduced, probably, by his monastic friends, and had a number of interviews, in which that prelate entered at large into an expla nation of the Romish system. Jackson always declared that he believed him a sincere and honest advocate of that Church, and that he found him not only affable, but able and learned. He also said that the system, as expounded by intelligent Romanists, was by no means so gross or so obnoxious to common sense as is represented by the mass of decided Protestants. The truth is (and herein is the subtlety of that form of error), the statements of doctrines are so artfully drawn up by the welltrained doctor of the Romish Church, that they may bear always two phases of meaning; the one more decided and gross, the other more akin to the evangelical truth. When, for instance, Rome requires her teachers to say that, in the sinner's justification, the "meritorious cause" is the righteousness of Jesus Christ, while the formal cause" is the personal holiness inwrought by the grace of the gospel in the Christian's soul; the words in the hands of a Jansenist, may be made almost to mean that precious truth which every evangelical Christian, in every church, embraces in substance, that our acceptance before God is only in the merits of the Redeemer; while, in the hands of a RELIGIOUS ANXIETIES. 57 self-righteous Jesuit, they will teach essentially a Pharisaic dependence on our own observances. So the doctrine of pen ance and absolution, in the instruction of the former, will be made to mean little more than that the minister of God's church is commissioned to publish therein His mercy to the truly penitent soul; while, in the teachings of the latter, it will encourage the ignorant to believe, with a gross literality, that the priest, and the priest alone, can forgive sins. Doubtless, in the case of Jackson, the skilful polemic saw that his mind was too clear and strong to be hoodwinked by the darker phase of these dogmas. But with all the casuist's plausibility, he failed to commend Popery to his convictions. The inquirer departed unsatisfied, clearly convinced that the system of the Bible and that of Rome were irreconcilable, and that the true religion of Jesus Christ was to be sought by him elsewhere. These studies seem to have left Jackson's mind for a long time in a singular state. His progress towards the full light was extremely gradual. He was henceforward conscientious, and more than ever punctilious about the purity of his life; he never remitted his interest in the great question of his own salvation; yet, for more than two years after, he still remained in suspense. He apparently had no clear persuasion of his own acceptance before God, and no settled conviction as to' the branch of the Church which he should select as his own. His residence in Mexico, however, was not long protracted. On March 5, 1848, an armistice was concluded for two months between General Scott and the Mexican authorities; and on May 26th, a treaty of peace was finally ratified. The military occupation of the city and territory was therefore terminated as speedily as possible; and on the 12th of June, the last of the United States' forces left the capital to return home. Major Jackson's command was sent to Fort Hamilton, a post situated upon Long Island, seven miles below New York city, and commanding the approach to its harbor, known as the Narrows. Here we must follow his quiet career for a time through the monotonous life of a garrison, diversified by occasional resorts to the society of a great city. LIFE IN LEXINGTON. 59 CHAPTER IV. LIFE IN LEXINGTON. THE narrative of Major Jackson's introduction into the military academy of the commonwealth of Virginia at Lexington, is naturally preceded by a relation of the few incidents of his residence at Fort Hamilton. His life here was uneventful, save in his spiritual progress. The duties of the garrison fell lightly upon him; his rank as an officer of artillery entitled him to keep a horse, and thus indulge his passion for equestrian exercise; and the society of the post, enlivened by the presence of the superior officers' families, was attractive. Best of all, his Christian friend and father, Colonel Taylor, was residing near him, and continued to extend to him his pious advice. To him he ever after looked up, as one of the chief instruments of God in bringing him to a saving knowledge of the truth. Another spiritual guide now presented himself, in the chaplain of the garrison, the Rev. Mr. Parks. This gifted man was also an alumnus of the military academy at West Point, and a distinguished scholar. His religious zeal had led him to forsake the life of a soldier for that of a minister of the gospel in the Methodist Episcopal Church. In this communion he rose to distinction as a pulpit orator, and professor in their college, Randolph Macon, in Virginia. But his ecclesiastical views having undergone a change, he took orders in the Episcopal Church; and, as a clergyman of that communion, had, at one time, a post |