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SERMON
DELIVERED AT THE ORDINATION
OF THE
REV. WILLIAM PARSONS LUNT,
AS PASTOE OF THE
SECOND CONGREGATIONAL UNITARIAN SOCIETY
IN THE
CITY OF NEW YORK,
JUNE 19, 1828.
BY F. W. P. GREENWOOD,
JUNIOR MINISTER OF KING’S CHAPEL, BOSTON.
NEW YORK.
PUBLISHED BY DAVID FELT, 245 PEARL STREET,
1828,BOSTON—EXAMINER PRESS.
Hiram Tupper, Printer—Bromfield Lane.SERMON.
Revelation, XXI. 1.
AND I SAW A NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW EARJH; FOR THE FIRST
HEAVEN, AND THE FIRST EARTH WERE PASSED AWAY.
Many centuries have rolled on, since this sub-
lime vision was recorded. A long vista of eventful
ages now intervenes between our own position and
that on which the seer stood when such things were
unfolded. What he saw in rapturous prospect, we
may behold more calmly, though I trust not less
gratefully, in retrospect. What to his gifted vision
was drawn in bodiless colors on the future, we may
trace with our common mortal sight on the actual
ground of the present and past. A new heaven
has been given to the faith of man, and a new
earth has been formed for his abode. And the
first heaven and the first earth have passed away—
a heaven of men’s fancies and frailties, an earth
of his desperate and unblushing crimes—these
have passed away.
But is it really so ? Do we not deceive our-
selves ? It behooves us very much to know, and4
that with a great degree of assurance, and a due
regard to particulars, what has in reality been
effected by the religion which we profess ; espe-
cially when there are those, who deny that its
operation has been extensive, or extensively bene-
ficial ; who assert that the good which it has done
has been balanced by the evils which it has intro-
duced, and that reckoning good abd evil together,
the natural progress of the human mind would
have led to results as important and as happy as
those which are now perceived and experienced.
In this inquiring age, the intelligent will not be
satisfied with rhapsody and exclamation alone,
however exciting it may be ; but would rather be
confirmed in a solid faith, than inspired with a
temporary ardor. It is to the intelligent that I
would address myself; for whatever may be the
present influence of mere numbers and voices, it
is the intelligent who hold in their hands the per-
manent and progressive mental power of society.
Conviction may indeed be warm and glowing, and
such I would endeavour to make it; but excite-
ment alone is not conviction, which must be
founded on something more steady and calm. If
we can bring distinctly before our minds the un-
questionable influences and effects of the gospel
of Jesus, and find that they have been ample and
salutary, we shall deeply feel, and with a settled
feeling, that the Christian system was in truth good
news, and that its author is a Saviour sent from
God.5
In pursuing this interesting investigation, I shall
take a view, in the first place, of the effects of
Christianity on the general state of the world, and
secondly, of its effects on private life.
I. That Christianity has been a mighty engine
in the moral world, for better or for worse, is a
fact so plainly written down in human records,
that it is blindness to question it. In two or three
centuries, for instance, from the date of its origin,
the whole heathen heaven, the old heaven, was
depopulated; the gods were driven from the
skies, the nymphs from the streams and woods,
the heroes from their celestial seats; and all the
attendant machinery of priest and victim, oracle
and fable, flitted away like a crowded dream from
the mind of waking man, and One Deity, ever
present and omnipotent, awful and merciful, was
revealed instead, to fill the thoughts and satisfy
the capacities of his watching soul. Now, whether
ancient idolatry, or the religion which took its
place, is the best in practical efficacy, I do not
intend here to discuss ; but will only say, that the
revolution itself was by no means a trifling one,
and that it was brought about by the doctrine and
the disciples of Christ. Would it have been
effected by the progress of reason alone ? Reason
had been at work for ages. Philosophers had
offered system after system, each differing from
the other in character, and many of them opposed
to heathenism, and presenting something better;
yet what was the result ? The world remained as6
it was before, a heathen world ; and why it would
not have remained so to the present day, unless
for the intervention of Christianity, I know not.
Aristotle was of more consideration as the precep-
tor of Alexander, and Cicero possessed more
authority as the consul of Rome, than the lowly
Jesus did, as a friendless teacher in remote Jeru-
salem. Why then were the doctrines of the two
former mere food for speculation, while those of
the latter rose up and revolutionized the religion
of the world ? What they, and others of famous
name, continually failed to accomplish, it is not
likely would have been done by succeeding
philosophers. But however this may be, here is
the simple fact, to which I would return, that it
was done by Christianity ; that the Christian system
gave a direction altogether original to the opinions
and faith of men, and established a religious
nomenclature which was peculiarly its own, and
as it were a new language on the earth—a new
and universal one, taking place of the Babel con-
fusion which reigned before, and intelligible to all
kindred and tribes and people.
From this great root of change, it is easy to see,
but not to recount or to number, the events which
have sprung directly up. Some of them have
been apparently auspicious and beneficial in their
nature, some calamitous, and others doubtful; but
all remarkable.
There were those wild, multitudinous waves of
chivalry and royalty, nations and tongues, ambi-7
tion, piety, restlessness, and riot, the crusades,
which, gathering in the west, swelled, and ran,
and surged, and broke upon the shores of the east,
covering the land with wrecks and ruin. Treatises
have been written to point out the effects of these
general bursts of warlike zeal on the moral and
political state of Europe; and after all that has
been said, it is probable that much of their actual
agency remains unnoticed. Yet it is not to be de-
nied that the origin of all was the Christian
religion—or, if you please, mistaken conceptions
of it. These tumultuous expeditions were called
holy wars; and their professed object was to res-
cue from the overshadowing and profaning power
of the crescent, the sepulchre of him, whose cross
was displayed before every host and blazoned on
every shield.
I will but glance at another event, the Reforma-
tion by Luther, which was wholly of a religious
character, to bring to your observation, in a strong
light, the influence of Christianity on the destinies
of mankind. If there is an event which stands
out in bolder relief than any other on the tablet of
modern history, it is this. It is an event, never-
theless, which you cannot separate from the Chris-
tian system, even by supposition, and you must
therefore look to that system as its source.
The immense influence of Christianity is evi-
dent. But a more interesting question remains.
Has that influence been greatly beneficial ? I8
should say, as a prompt and general answer to
this question, that it was reasonable to suppose,
that a religion which had put a stop to the orgies
and crimes which even made a part of the poly-
theistical religions, introducing to the adoration
and imitation of men a Supreme Being who is of
purer eyes than to behold with favor any sort of
iniquity ; that a religion which enforces with more
powerful sanctions than any other has ever done,
the practice of all virtue ; a religion, too, which
has not been nominally received alone, but truly
and earnestly professed by those who were ready
to die for that profession; that such a religion, to
enumerate no more of its qualities, could not fail to
exert the most direct and kindly influences among
those by whom it was embraced.
But I am told, perhaps, that such general views
are not satisfactory and conclusive, and that there
are some particular facts in the history of Chris-
tianity, the tendency of which is to weaken, if not
to destroy our confidence in the justice of our
speculative reasonings. I have spoken of the dis-
appearance of pagan forms of superstition; but
I am reminded that Christianity had its supersti-
tions, too, dark, debasing, monstrous; and what
account, I am asked, is to be given of these ? This
very simple one, that these Christian superstitions,
as they are called, were the old superstitions
themselves, under another form. They belonged
not to Christianity ; they possessed nothing in9
common with its spirit; they drew no authority
from its rules; they borrowed no countenance
from its author. They were its corruptions.
They were the errors, and delusions, and weak-
nesses, which were brought into it, and upon it
by the floods of converts who poured in from the
obsolete and vacated religions of the earth. They
were unable to perceive and appreciate at once,
its simplicity and purity. It presented modes of
thinking and feeling, to which there was but little
that was correspondent in their previous habits,
and to which they could not suddenly and entirely
accommodate themselves. What, therefore, have
been called Christian superstitions, were, in reality,
the cleaving remnants of pagan superstitions. It
was not to be expected, from the nature of the
human mind, and the constant laws of its advance-
ment, that these remains were to be instantane-
ously and thoroughly uprooted; but it was, on
the other hand, to be expected, from the real
nature of Christianity, that they should, by the
unseen and ceaseless operations of its spirit, be
gradually undermined and ruined. And thus it
has been. The progress of the religion of Christ,
from the first age to the present hour, has been
the progress of light surrounded and struggling
with darkness; the progress of a power of holi-
ness and spiritual life and majesty, contending and
compelled to contend with the powers of evil,
ignorance, earth, and death. The abuses of Chris-
tianity have been exposed and corrected by a
210
reference to Christianity itself, to its written code,
to its clear and fundamental principles. Some
have been disposed to attribute the Reformation
to the preceding revival of learning. It may have
cooperated with it; I have no doubt that it did ;
but it was not the cause of it, nor could it have
been. The reading of the heathen poets and
philosophers of old, could not have suggested
the overthrow of superstition and the purifica-
tion of religion. Their efficacy had been tested
long before, and the experiment had failed. Now
there was something which had been corrupted,
and which needed a reform; facts which of them-
selves were proofs of its excellence and purity.
As mankind approached towards a true under-
standing of the Christian system, they left their
errors behind them. This knowledge was attain-
ed by successive steps. At the time of the Refor-
mation, the minds of men were in a great degree
prepared for it, by the palpable enormities of
existing abuse and corruption ; and the appeal of
the Reformers was made continually and perse-
veringly to the sacred oracles—not to philosophy,
not to the lights of former ages, not to human
discoveries, but to the law and to the testimony.
Reason made no corrections in Christianity, for
there were none to make ; but Christianity, by its
own simple, inherent energies, and by the aid of
reason, its natural and faithful ally, corrected and
drove away the abuses which had taken shelter,
and continued to live under its wings.11
Thus has it been with superstition—heathen
superstition I should term it, and not Christian ; a
superstition which has nothing in common with
our religion, and which has been continually giv-
ing way before its divine and resistless energies.
But this objection disposed of, another rises up.
There is another heavy charge against Christian-
ity, another imputed blot upon its scutcheon. It
introduced religious persecution into the world, it
has been said. It taught man to slay his brother
man for difference of opinion ; it exasperated the
angry passions ; it prepared the rack ; it lighted
the faggot; it sharpened the sword; it wasted
human blood like water; and in this respect, at
least, heathenism was to be preferred to it, inas
much as it was mild, and peaceful, and tolerant.
The Christian may begin his answer, by deny-
ing that heathenism was so eminently tolerant.
He will readily admit that a new god, or a new
family or nation of gods, might at any time be in-
troduced into the countless company of divinities,
without causing the least disturbance or exception,
simply because it was a principle of polytheism to
fill up a heaven, and deify anything. But he will
ask, why it was that Socrates, the best of pagans,
died by poison. It was because he was thought
to inculcate doctrines which were in opposition
to the religion of the state. He will ask too,
by whom the first religious persecutions were
excited and carried on, after the introduction of
Christianity ? There is but one reply; it was by
O12
heathens against Christians. Heathenism was
not, therefore, intrinsecally tolerant. I will go
further, and assert that it was intrinsecally intol-
erant, because it laid no restraint on the angry
passions, and because it encouraged a spirit of
revenge and a spirit of war. On the contrary, the
religion of Jesus was a religion of forbearance
and mercy, and gentleness; for the language of
its records is not to be mistaken, and they are the
only proper witnesses on this subject. And though
Christians fell to persecuting each other, as soon
as persecution from without had ceased, the cir-
cumstance only proved, that they were ignorant,
in this respect at least, of the real spirit of their
own religion, and were still in bondage to the
spirit of heathenism and the spirit of the world.
But here also, true Christianity has been gradu-
ally prevailing. The worst species of persecution
is extinct. There is nothing said among us, and
but little anywhere, about the secular arm; the
Inquisition is but a terrible and hateful shadow ;
Smithfield is a market for brutes. Those sainted
individuals who have been instrumental in for-
warding this change, have resorted for aid to the
acknowledged authority of Christ; and through
his word they have triumphed.
In the same manner has the acrimonious spirit
of controversy been diluted by the flowings in of
the mild waters of Christianity. The few, who
in times past stood back from the crowds of theo-
logical railers, and protested against the abuse13
and denunciation which were hurled by party
against party, have been followed by increasing
numbers of disciples, till at length the general
voice is beginning to be expressed on the side of
candor and charity. I speak of controversy as it
has been abused, and not of controversy in its
own simple nature ; for I am firmly persuaded
that if mankind ever were or are to be enlighten
ed and improved, it chiefly has been and will be
by the means of controversy, incessant controversy,
the examination, discussion, refutation or estab-
lishment of all sorts of opinions, doctrines, and
systems, old and new. But controversy, as well as
Christianity, and almost all good things, is exposed
to abuses, and it is to these that I have reference.
The teachings of reason and religion on this sub-
ject are plain and explicit. They say to all
disputants, ‘ If you are seriously and singly con-
tending for the truth, in the name of truth go on,
persevere, prove all things, and hold fast that
which is good;—but, if you are Christians, if you
pretend to be Christians, in the sacred name of
Christ himself, and peace, and heaven, imitate the
example of your Master, and do not insult his
name and prejudice his cause, by the exhibition of
that angry, domineering, exclusive temper, which
is so opposite to the temper, which his life and
his doctrines inculcate.’
I would maintain, therefore, on the ground of
fact, that Christianity has always been, and still
is, and long will continue to be corrective in its14
nature and operation. Since its introduction, the
condition of mankind has been manifestly melio-
rated by a constant reference to its principles,
and the radiating diffusion of its influence. The
great point which I would endeavour to establish
in this discourse, and in which the principal bene-
fits of our religion are involved, is, that in all the
moral improvements and reforms which have been
extensively carried on or accomplished in the
world, it has been the highest source of appeal,
and that its own constitutional strength has been
the best final remedy against the corruptions which
have parasitically attached themselves to its sub-
stance and life.
There are two reforms, of the most interesting
character, at this moment in progress among us,
to which, in connexion with our subject, I would di-
rect your notice. They are the abolition of slavery
and the abolition of war. What was it that work-
ed in the hearts of those lovers of their kind, who
first brought the wrongs of the unpitied African
into the British Parliament, and at length made
every heart throughout a kingdom to beat in sym-
pathy with theirs ? It was the spirit of Christian-
ity which stirred up the holy indignation within
them, and which inspired them with a searching,
subduing eloquence, to drive hard selfishness from
its fortresses, and to open the ears of conscience
to the commands of God.
And what is it that has been prompting man-
kind for a long, long while, to mitigate the horrors15
of war, and is now audibly persuading them to
renounce it altogether, and banish the red-eyed
demon to his own place ? The spirit of the
blessed Jesus; the peaceful voice of Christianity.
This reformation is in its infancy, and it must be
long before it can acquire much strength. Many
causes yet exist, deeply rooted in the passions of
men, which demand, or seem to demand, the em-
ployment of warlike preparation and force ; for
in the present state of the world, if the good did
not repel aggression and insult, it is much to be
feared that the wicked would prevail even oftener
and more mightily than they do. But Christianity
is calmly going on, teaching, enlightening, and
convincing. Some of the bewitching illusions
which have hung over the form of war, are dissi-
pating fast; the scales are falling from the eyes of
men; and reason is beginning to be ashamed that
she could have been so deluded by the glitter
•and array which accompany the career of the
conqueror; ashamed that she should have been
carried away by the notes of the war march, and
dazzled by bright dresses and laurel crowns;
ashamed that she could ever have placed glory
in bloodshed, or have made virtue synonymous
with a bold, though it might be an unfeeling
heart, and with a strong, though it might be an
unsparing arm.
Let it not be said that there is no express pre-
cept in the Christian code against slavery or
against war. There is more than an express pre-
o16
cept against them ; there is its whole spirit and
purpose, its whole temper and influence. Show
me a man, who, in the spirit of Christianity and
with the authority of its founder, can drag an un-
offending fellow creature from his country and
kindred and make him his slave ; or a man, who,
in the spirit of Christianity and with the authority
of its founder, can march humbly, meekly, and
forgivingly to seek the life of his brother man in
the red battle, #and I will grant that in these par-
ticulars I have overrated the influence of my re-
ligion, and that we must go to philosophy and rea-
son alone for arguments and principles on the
subjects of slavery and war.
Nor let me be thought to disparage reason. I
disparage her not, when I say that she halts behind
God’s word, and beats the path where Christiani-
ty had preceded her. What better proof of this
can there be, than that she is, from time to time,
approving and confirming the decisions, which-
Christianity uttered almost two thousand years
ago? We talk of the march of the intellect, and
the rapid strides of moral improvement; but the
truth is, that when the mind of man has strode its
farthest, and executed its boldest step, it is only to
find that there, in the very spot,' has Christianity
been before it.
II. I have spoken of the influences of Christi-
anity, as they have been manifested in great events
and public changes. I wish now to draw your at-
o17
tention toward them as they have been and are
exerted within the sphere of private and domes-
tic life.
And in the beginning I would observe, that it is
a misapprehension of Christianity, to suppose that
it is something which exists out of the boundaries
of human feeling and the human mind. It is nbt
an indefinable something, living independently of
our hearts and thoughts. The religion of Christ,
as generally adopted, is nothing more than the
opinions and practices which are united with the
Christian name by those who assume it. The re-
ligion of Christ, in reality, is just so much of those
opinions and practices as can be authorized by the
written laws and the manifest spirit of Christiani-
ty, and is produced by them. These opinions and
practices constitute the effects of Christianity in
and upon the world. The public influences of
this religion flow, therefore, from the private, be-
cause the former are the aggregate of the latter.
Still they may be separately considered, for in
some points of view the spheres of their action
are distinct.
The influence of Christianity over private mor-
als and domestic life, I shall consider as principal-
ly derived from three of its characteristics ; from
its strict morality ; from its peaceful and gentle
spirit; and from its sublime faith.
1. With regard to the morality of the gospel,
it is difficult to make any selection from among its
various influences, because it enters so broadly and
318
generally into the relations of life. The golden
rule alone, as it has been termed, of doing to oth-
ers as we would that others should do to us, has
been of great efficacy in the dealings between man
and man. It touches at once the self-love of men,
and no sooner touches it, than, by a happy alchy-
my, it transmutes that very self-love into benevo-
lence and justice.
But Christian morality is not satisfied with com-
manding the outward actions; it extends its do-
minion to the thoughts; and he is not a true be-
liever nor a true subject, who does not acknow-
ledge its sway in the deepest and innermost cham-
bers of his breast. Motives and intentions must
be pure and holy, as well as the conduct. They
must be regulated as carefully.
Thus a standard is set up, much higher in its
nature and requisitions than any which the world
before Christ had seen. Many have looked up to
it; many have fashioned themselves by it; and
many have consequently exceeded the mark to
which any of the heathen had attained. It would
be doing an injustice to multitudes of Christians,
to allow them but an equality in virtue with the
very best of the heathen. Their opportunities
have been greater, it must be allowed ; but it is
of those very opportunities that I speak; of
Christian opportunities; of opportunities which
have not been altogether neglected; which have
been improved by many ; and which, in this fact
and circumstance of their improvement, constitute19
the superiority of the new earth over that which
has passed away.
Blessed has been the influence of the strict mo-
rality of the gospel on the condition of domestic
life. It sanctions the singleness and the purity of
the marriage state, and declares that wandering
thoughts are sins against its holiness. It makes a
civil contract a sacred one. It infuses an herb of
health into the fountain of the tenderest relations.
It call on parents to bring up their children in
those principles of religion, and that regard for
duty, which they themselves respect, and know to
be most conducive to happiness. It gives to man
and his affections a home ; if there is anything on
earth, indeed, which may share that name with
heaven.
To sum up all in one word, the morality of the
gospel is perfect, irreproachable, comprehending
all human connexions, and conducive to the high-
est happiness in all; and it is, moreover, enforced
by the whole weight of the sanctions of the gos-
pel. Our religion watches over our virtue, with
all its angels, as over its most precious charge ;
and such guardianship cannot be, nor has it been
vain.
2. And quite as characteristic of Christianity
as the strictness and purity of its moral code, is
its gentle spirit. It is peculiarly a religion of be-
nevolence, brotherly love, charity, forgiveness,
peace. It would have men treat each other as
brethren. It teaches them to help each other’s20
infirmities* to forgive each other’s trespasses* to
guard each other’s rights, to redress each other’s
wrongs, to relieve each other’s wants and distres-
ses, to strengthen each other’s virtues, to heal each
other’s sicknesses* both of body and mind.
This spirit has been imbibed, these lessons have
been practised, by many a one whom the gospel
tidings have reached. Individuals have been found
who have sacrificed every selfish inclination on
the altar of benevolence. But this is not all, nor
near all. A few instances of this kind would not
be enough to prove any remarkable change in the
state of the world. The mild influences of Chris-
tianity are to be observed all abroad 5 in house
after house, in heart after heart. Men who love
peace and promote it, are not so generally de-
spised as they once used to be. The quiet, unob-
trusive virtues are more respected and loved; and
men begin to think that enmity and revenge are
no virtues. This has come to pass gradually and
slowly. The gospel has been read for ages to
fierce audiences, by fierce priests; and mail-clad
bosoms have beat in the sanctuary as wildly as in
the field. But convert has dropped in after con-
vert, strength has been added to strength, and
light to light* and a new class have risen up and
demanded their proper place and their due con-
sideration ; not with an arrogant demand, but with
the appeal of their lives and examples. I mean
the class of those, who, neither admiring, envying,
nor coveting worldly glory, pass through life in21
the exercise of the humble and charitable virtues,
doing all the good in their sphere, and looking for
another reward than the praise of men. I call
them a new class. Formerly there was no such
class. ‘Men like those who now compose it, would
have been termed ignoble and timid souls, and
would have been thrown by, among the refuse of
society. None were counted but those who had
swords and armour on. It is not so now. Peace
has more votaries, and they are of more reputa-
tion. The trumpet cannot now make so many
madmen by its fierce breath as it could then.
There are men who can hear it unmoved—brave
men too, and honorable. The work of destruc-
tion and death is not regarded as the great object
of life. The meek and lowly are coming in at
length to their inheritance, the earth—the new
earth, for the old one has passed away.
Of course there has been more domestic happi-
ness, more domestic security, and more domestic
virtue, since the number of the peacemakers has
increased ; since the hearth-stone has been more
rarely stained with blood; since those mild,
social, amiable qualities are more generally culti-
vated and held in higher repute, whose peculiar
dwellingplace and sanctuary is the domestic cir-
cle. The diffusion of peaceful sentiments, the
general interchange of good will, the multiplica-
tion of gentle courtesies, have built up more and
stronger and higher defences about the humble
roof of a Christian dwelling, a Christian home,22
than moated walls or lordly turrets could afford,
when rapine walked abroad with a commission to
destroy, and violence was protected in its designs
by the names of honor, courage, and virtue.
I would mention one more effect of the gentle
spirit of our religion, and then I have done with
this division of my subject. It has made audible
the claims of the poor, and given them a title to
the assistance and consideration of the rest of so-
ciety. Regarding them as the children of the
Heavenly Parent of all, it has furnished them with
a demand on our compassion, not only as destitute
beings, but as destitute and suffering brethren.
They are one part of the human family, appealing
to the fraternal affection and justice of the other
part, and strengthening that appeal by a reference
to their common parentage. And it is not their
bodily wants only which are attended to. The
wants of their minds, the crying wants of their
souls have been supplied, from the same motives
and with the same feelings which have prompted
the relief of their temporal and corporeal necessi-
ties. They have been instructed, enlightened, con-
soled. They have been taught their duties and
their privileges. They have read from the same
books with the wealthy; they have knelt in the
same temple and to the same God in prayer. The
exercise of Christian charity has imparted fresh
strength to Christian holiness ; and those who
have given and those who have received, have
been alike and richly blessed. In all that I know23
of that first earth which has passed away, I am
presented with no such picture as this.
3. I was to consider, in the last place, those influ-
ences of Christianity which are derived from its
sublime faith. I have time to speak of one of its
doctrines only, the doctrine of a future life. This
belongs in an especial manner to my subject, as its
power is principally confined in its exertion to in-
dividuals and domestic relations.
The heathens had their paradise, the first earth
had its heaven. It was more a heaven of poetry
and fancy than of sober belief, and entered but
little into the thoughts or hopes of the multitude,
however it might present itself to the imagination
of the few. It corresponded very well, as might
be supposed, to its relative earth. Those who
gained no fame in the one, were to expect no seat
in the other. Heroes, princes, sages, and poets
wandered through its bowers. The poor, the
humble, the unknown on earth, were there also
unknown ; they were shut out from it forever.
To the new earth its own heaven is equally
correspondent. The merciful will obtain mercy.
The pious and the good, of every rank and station,
will tread the spiritual and everlasting courts of
God. That man cannot be so low in condition
merely, who, if he has been faithful in that con-
dition, may not stand among the highest there.
Neither can a man be secured by a worldly station
of any supremacy, against total exclusion from24
those blissful seats, where his pride, his power,
and his fame will little avail him.
Let us observe the effects of the heathen be-
lief. As far as it had any influence of a positive
character, it would, and it did, only tend to excite
and inflame those appetites which already found
too much food on the earth. It might prompt the
warrior to pluck new leaves for his wreath, and
become a treble scourge to his fellow men; it
might increase the presumption of the arrogant,
and the vanity of the vain ; it might goad on to
pernicious extravagance the headstrong passion for
notoriety ; but it would not make a single individ-
ual more just, honest, or kind. It could not.
On the domestic character, its influence, if of
any, must have been of the most chilling and de-
pressing kind. No light broke into the dwelling
of a lowly family from a better world. They sat
together in the shadow of death ; belonging to
earth, and perishing on earth. Brothers and sis-
ters were kindred clay, and nothing more. The
child was to its mother but as the frail vine which
clambered round her door ; and when death called
the one from her embrace, and winter nipped the
other at its root, she no more hoped that the one
would again bless her sight, than that the other
would again shade her window with its blossoms.
There was an Elysium, the priests and poets said—
but not for her—not for anything that belonged to
her; the green land had ‘no home for the fair crea-
ture from her bosom gone.’ She cherished its ashes25
in an urn, perhaps; and a meet emblem and sign
it was of the fate of the innocent one; a meet
emblem of dissolution and death, of grief that
could not be comforted—of anything but hope,
and faith, and heaven.
Let us now visit a Christian family. They have
heard more joyful tidings. Their choicest trea-
sure, and often their only treasure, is a volume
which at once teaches their duty, and offers their
reward; which forms, as they read it reverently
together, a centre, round which are gathered un-
dying thoughts, unfading hopes, affections that
cannot perish. They have commenced together
an eternal life. They are joined in an union
which, though interrupted, is never to be dis-
solved. They see on each other’s foreheads the
bright seal of God and the Lamb, stamping them
as coheirs of immortality. For them Death lays
aside his deadliest dart-—that which bears the word
eternal on its shaft, for it cannot pierce their
shield of faith. When husband and wife, brother
and sister part on earth, it is with the promise of
an early meeting. And though the Christian
mother may go out to weep natural tears on the
grave of her child, her knees will not have long
pressed its sod, ere she will hear, as Mary did, the
angel voice of comfort, < He is not here, but is
risen.’
I could say more on this theme, for it is one on
which I love to dwell; but it would be wrong to
trespass any longer on the patience of my hearers,
4
o26
I have attempted to communicate, and I wish that
I could have done it more forcibly, the impres-
sions I entertain of the influences which have
been exerted and the effects which have been pro-
duced by the gospel of Christ. When I look back
on superstitions overthrown, on persecutions passed
away, on controversies forgotten ; when I reflect
that slavery and war, and all unrighteous oppres-
sions seem to be retiring away before the steady ap-
proaches of Christian truth ; when I see that pri-
vate morals, and domestic happiness have been
elevated and sanctified by the spirit and principles
and hopes of Christianity, I strongly realize the
blessedness of that heavenly dispensation, and
feel that I owe a debt to it, which I would, but
cannot pay. I feel that to say I received it, would
be to utter a word too languid for my emotions,
and too poor for its honor ; and that to talk cold-
ly of approving it, as on the whole the best system
of morals ever devised, is to insult the celestial
brightness of its majesty. I feel that it calls for
a grateful, lively, living faith, and that it ought to
be firmly and warmly embraced, if for no other
reason, yet for its very works’ sake.
But though I exult in what I see, I exult yet
more in what I anticipate. I should do but scanty
justice to the religion which I preach, to present
it to you as one, whose work was accomplished,
and whose energies had grown old. Though there
has been enough of improvement to cheer the
heart, there has not yet been enough to satisfy ex-27
pectation or to fulfil augury. The cleared spots
of the earth are as yet small, in comparison with
the waste places which remain ; and some of those
waste places are in our land, even in the midst of
us. Let us not be so weak as to congratulate
ourselves that ours is the age of the fullest light,
or that we have arrived at the bound and termina-
tion of all advancement. If Christianity has done
much, let that be an assurance to us, that it will do
more. If it contained within itself at the begin-
ning, the improvements of two thousand years,
why not of two thousand years more to come ? It
must be so ;—and the time will arrive—I do not
say when my lips are cold, and the loved brethren
and friends who now hear me are mingled with the
dust—for that is but a small thing—but when these
walls are trembling under the very weight of years,
like an old man, aye, when not a vestige of them
is left, and changes which we cannot imagine have
swept over all that is familiar to out eyes,—that
the religion of Jesus will be hailed with a more
ardent acclaim than ours and a more enlightened
joy ; for it will have accomplished more, both with-
out and within ; it will be more widely diffused
and more generally and intimately understood ; it
will be more venerable and more powerful, be-
cause it will be more divested of its corruptions, and
brought back by those who profess it more near
to its first simplicity ; and there will be less exclu-
siveness, less bigotry, and bitterness, among Chris-
tians, and more liberality and more peace.A CHARGE.
BY THE KEY. N. L. FROTHINGHAM.
When the minister of this new church was
invited to assume that trust) and consented to
assume it, he became, by those acts, a minister
of the gospel among this people. We have not
come here to make him such. He was so before
we came. We confer no new privilege on him.
We bestow no new gift on them. We lay no new
obligations on either. The covenant is between
themselves. No man can interfere with it. The
vow is upon themselves. A better blessing than
that of man must fulfil it. We have come to
recognise and to greet them, to counsel if we are
asked, to help if we can, and to repeat among
them the solemn usages of the Congregational
churches.
SIB, MY BROTHER,
If the Charge, which it is customary to
give on these occasions, implied any dominion
over you, or any assumption of superiority towards
you, this Ecclesiastical Council would have had
none to appoint. If it needed the sanction of
years and experience in him who pronounces it, or29
supposed any pretension on his part to the fidelity0
which it enjoins, I certainly could have none to
pronounce. But everything personal is here out
of sight. It is not the speaker, who charges you
to be true to the important duties, to which you
have been consecrated; for he would fear to do
so. It is not even these churches that charge
you to bring a devoted heart to the service of this
religious community, and of the church universal;
for they have no commission to do so. But there
is a voice that is not of human utterance. There
is a spirit above us all, that now, as in the days
of the Apocalypse, speaks to the churches. It is
these that charge you,—by your honor and your
peace, by the mercies of heaven and the necessi-
ties of man, by the greatest of all interests and the
noblest of all services, by the testimony of God,
by the hope of the world,—to be faithful to the
cause of which you are now set for the defence.
It is not the cause of a party. It is not the cause
of a single generation, but of universal benevo-
lence and everlasting truth. Let the word of
Christ, that shall judge you and us at the last day,
admonish us on this.
As a minister of the gospel, the most obvious
and important of your duties is the preaching of
the gospel. This was the leading object of the
Saviour himself; and all other objects were made
secondary and. subservient to it. ‘ To this end
was I born,’ was one of his ‘ good confessions’
before Pilate, ‘ and for this cause came I into the30
“world,—that I might bear witness to the truth.’
For the truth he did and endured all. If he
wrought wonders, it was to gain for it attention.
If he suffered, it was to give it spread. If he
wandered without a restingplace through the
cities of Judea and Galilee, it was to preach in
them all ‘ this word of the kingdom.’ He healed
the sick in the synagogues—but it was to teach
that he entered in. He multiplied the loaves in
the wilderness—but the crowds who followed him
thither were taught for three days before they
were fed. You are to take this word from his
lips and to help it forward. Let it be with some-
thing of his spirit of constancy and kindness and
trust in God. It is the religion of the meek and
lowly one. You will never declare it passionately
or proudly. It is a religion for the simplest and
humblest, as well as for the distinguished and the
wise. You will not perplex it with vain specula-
tions. You will not hide it from those who most
need it. You will not darken its heavenly coun-
sel with words, in which they can find neither
comfort nor knowledge. It is for the depressed
and the sorrowing. Show it to be full of com-
passion. It is for the careless and for the depraved.
Show that it has lost nothing of the majesty of its
rebukes. It is the power of God, and the wisdom
of God. You will not spare your strength, and
you will not waste your mind, when they may be
employed to make it effectual to salvation. It is
an enlarged and elevated faith; spirit and not
form; the religion of the heart and not of the31
letter; addressing itself to all classes of minds,
conforming itself to all degrees of intellectual im-
provement, existing under different modes of think-
ing, different institutions of life; if it is a faw, the
law of liberty ; if a kingdom, not of this world; if
a church, none of man’s building. You will deal
generously with this expansive principle, this im-
mortal truth. You will not think it confined
within a single circle of opinions, or of men, or
of ages; to be sought in one spot or spoken in
one way. You will honor its influence wherever
it is shown. You will follow its light, wherever
it breaks. You will gather up its wide testimony
from all the manifestations of God’s will, and all
the means of human advancement.
The chief office of religious instruction at the
present day seems to be, not so much to reveal
what is hidden, as to make the disclosed treasure
and the unfolded mystery more prized. What is
already well understood we may be sure it is the
most important to understand. The most com-
mon things are the best things, in the spiritual as
well as the natural world. Men most need to be
reminded of what they know, to be affected by
what they believe, to be influenced by what they
profess. There is more knowledge than obedi-
ence, more speculation than faith, and more faith
than charity. You will therefore not be negli-
gent to put them in remembrance of the things in
which they are established. But at the same
time, you will not forget that all knowledge is in
progress, and Christian knowledge as much as32
any other. The gospel is not a thing to stand
still. It is not like an image, beautiful indeed,
but without breath. It is not like an oracle, that
has spoken but once, however divinely, to be then
silent forever. It is ‘ alive and powerful,’ as the
apostle has finely expressed it. It is going for-
ward in company with all improvement, and its
perfection is as far off as the perfection of the
human mind. You will not imagine, therefore,
that its great meaning can soon be exhausted.
Examine into its deep counsel, and do not shrink
from declaring it all, even where it may seem
strange and unheard of. Dwell not on a few doc-
trines, disputed or undisputed, as if religion could
live in its whole blessed fulness, in so narrow a
compass. Be not content with insisting on a few
of its propositions, which your past studies may
have made dear, or your present circumstances
may make popular. You will have broader views
and higher purposes, in fulfilling the ministry you
are charged with.
The example of our Lord instructs you to draw
your proofs and illustrations from the greatest
possible variety of objects. He went back to the
law of Moses, to the exhortations of the prophets,
to the old histories of Israel and Judah, and
selected something from them all to join with his
divine teaching. He described the perfections of
the Almighty, from the parchment rolls, that were
yellow and worn with age in the synagogues, and
from the shining heavens, and the beautiful earth,
and the living creatures on which he was that33
moment looking. The chronicles of days long
past, and the events that were then taking place;
all nature and all fact, were macfe the means of
enforcing the doctrine, which he had received
of the Father. Imitate, as far as you can, that
matchless example,
I have left myself no time to enter on any
other topic. But there is no need of any other.
The duty now spoken of, cannot be discharged
faithfully and to the utmost, without including in
it the chief graces of the ministerial character,
and the most important labors of the ministerial
office. The servant of Christ must cherish in his
own mind a deep and habitual piety, or the doc-
trine according to godliness will never recommend
itself from his lips. If he does not give himself to
much anxious thought, he will present it without
variety or interest. If he does not maintain a ten-
der and a susceptible spirit, he will preach it with-
out earnestness. If he does not adorn its profes-
sion by a corresponding life, he will preach it
without success.
Go forward, then, with this word of redemption.
Give your whole heart to its influences, and your
whole strength to its cause. Stand fast in its
freedom, and encourage others to stand fast in it
too. And so,
May God give his blessing on your endeavours
as long as you live to make them ! May he ac-
cept their service, when you live to make them
no longer!
5THE RIGHT HAND OF FELLOWSHIP,
AND
ADDRESS TO THE SOCIETY.
BY THE REV. WILLIAM WARE.
MY FRIEND AND BROTHER—
It is with no common sensations of religious
joy, that I rise to discharge the duty imposed up-
on me by this Council, of offering to you the right
hand of Christian fellowship. It would be a
grateful office—for this custom, descended from
apostolic times, is a beautiful and expressive one—
in any case, at any time or place, to welcome, in be-
half of the brethren in the ministry, a new labor-
er to the vineyard of the Lord Jesus. But in the
present instance I feel a peculiar joy, which I
could not conceal if I would, in tendering to you
on my own part and that of the church over
which I am placed, and on the part of these your
elders and brethren in the ministry, the most af-
fectionate wishes and most cordial salutations. I
feel, I say, a peculiar joy; for in you I greet my
first fellow laborer in this great city. After six
years of solitude, I to-day for the first time find a35
companion in my labors. You are to cooperate
with me in the defence of the truth as it is in
Jesus; you are to labor in concert with me in the
great work of human salvation; you are one, with
whom, for the first time, I can now, in all respects,
hold a free and equal ministerial intercourse.
While, therefore, I should with real pleasure hail
any sincere and pious Christian, of whatever be-
lief, and wherever his field of labor, to the good
work of an evangelist; it is, 1 confess, with in-
creased satisfaction, that I bid you of my own
name and faith, welcome to this place, and these
holy duties, and, at the bidding and as the organ
of the Council, present you the right hand of
Christian fellowship. Receive it, I pray you, as
a token of the friendship and fellowship of your
sister church in this city, of the friendship and
fellowship of our Congregational churches at
large. By this act, your brethren and elders in
the ministry bid me assure you of their affection-
ate solicitude for your welfare as a man, a Chris-
tian, and a minister; of the deep interest they
take in your happiness and prosperity. They bid
me declare, that they will ever be ready to coun-
sel, to aid, and to comfort you, to meet you on
the equal ground of a disciple of our common
Master and a preacher of his truth, and to inter-
change offices of Christian kindness and ministe-
rial duty. They bid me say to you, Welcome
to the duties of the office of an evangelist, the
bearer of good tidings of great joy to sinful men.36
Welcome to the pleasures of the Christian1 minis-
try, the ministry of peace to the unhappy, conso-
lation to the afflicted, counsel to the erring, hope
to the dying, salvation to all who will close with
the offered terms. They bid me welcome you to
its toils, and trials, and difficulties; for if great
they are honorable ones, and if you should sink
beneath their weight, you would fail in a holy
cause, and would not lose your reward among
those who have been faithful according to their
strength. They bid me welcome you, not only to
the general life and duties of the ministry, but to
the peculiar labors and responsibilities of this par-
ticular spot. They are aware that its labors and
responsibilities will be unusually great, and it may
sound strange to rejoice that their burden is to be
laid upon your young strength; but the opportu-
nities of usefulness, and the wide circle of im-
portant duty, which will open upon you here, teach
them to believe that your ultimate reward, in
your own improvement and the perfection of the
church of Christ, will be proportionably great, and
will be more than a compensation to a lofty and
good mind for whatever daily toil and midnight
watching shall have been exacted. We welcome
you, therefore, to these opportunities of usefulness
and this field of labor, and doubt not, and we call
upon you not to doubt, that, engaging in your
work with the high resolves which become the
nature of the trust which you assume, and looking
for strength, by prayer, to Him who is alone suffi-37
cient for us, the only source of strength, you will
be able to finish that work in joy, to offer yourself
and the people of your charge, an acceptable of-
fering to the great Judge of character and of
conduct. May the blessing of God, the great head
of the church, rest with you, and go with you!
BRETHREN OF THIS CHURCH AND CONGREGATION—
While I welcome your pastor to this place,
and to the duties of his high office, I would turn
to you also, and congratulate you on the hopes of
this day. The Council have offered the right hand
of fellowship and love to your minister; they offer
it to you also. Receive it as a token of respect, of
affection for you as one of the members of the
body of Christ, of interest in your prosperity and
peace.
Allow me now for a moment—I will not, if I
can avoid it, weary you—to give utterance to a few
thoughts which seem proper to this occasion, and
to the relation in which you stand to your pastor.
First, then, I would express my sincere joy in
this occasion, on your own account. No words
that I could use would adequately express the
deep satisfaction and joy with which I at length
behold a minister placed over you. This is an
hour of many‘wishes and of many earnest prayers.
I fully participate in the joy with which you wit-
ness its transactions. Since the first day this
church was projected, I have watched its progress,38
with an interest not inferior,! believe, to that which
you yourselves have felt. I have deeply sympa-
thized with you in your disappointments, and have
done what in me lay to encourage and aid you.
Confident that you acted with wisdom, with an
enlarged view to the good of the true church of
Christ, influenced by no narrow and illiberal feel-
ing toward any, in the first building of this house,
I have also felt confident, all along, in your abun-
dant success, and I have never doubted for an
hour, that your every ardent wish and zealous
effort would be crowned with lasting and happy
issues. As your purpose was single and pure, as
your measures have been deliberate, and judicious
and fair, grounded on the noble desire to benefit
in the most efficacious manner the church of Jesus,
I have ever felt that it was not in the course of
things that you should do otherwise than prosper.
If a cloud has appeared and hung over you for an
hour, it has vanished almost before its chilling in-
fluences could be felt. At any rate, all of evil is
forgotten in the joy of this day, in this happy con-
summation of every hope and fear. I congratu-
late you most heartily on this event. I rejoice
with you on the prospects which are before you.
I hope and pray, that in this place will ere long
be gathered a large assembly of those who wor-
ship the One God, in the name of the one Lord,
Jesus Christ.
Let me now intreat you, brethren, to carry on
the good work of this day, and ensure to it the39
best results by the conduct you shall now adopt
toward him who is connected with you as your
Christian teacher and guide. He is unhappy un-
less you are cordial, he is solitary unless you
sympathize with him in his labors and endeavours
in your behalf, he is impotent except you help
and strengthen him, he can actually accomplish
nothing, or nothing that will be of any value, un-
less you are of his side and work with him. If it
is on the one hand true, that a people will not be-
come active, and interested in personal or even
sectarian religion, if their minister do not come
to them in a spirit of zeal to warm and direct
them—so on the other hand is it true, that he can
accomplish nothing, if, when he shows himself
interested in great and good objects, his people
do not move with him, and communicate new heat
and power by the energy of their own action. If
they resolve on being indifferent, and will not
suffer themselves by any means to think and feel
and act with him, or are to be roused by infinite
labor and effort, his ministry will be a languid and
useless one. A vast deal of a young minister’s-
power, influence, and usefulness, depends on the
suggestions, hints, conversation, advice of his el-
ders in the parish; on the heartfelt interest in
him ; on the ready spirit of cooperation, manifest-
ed among the leading members of his congrega-
tion. Let them, on all important subjects of
action or thought, keep aloof from him, and he,
as their younger, and through the diffidence inci-40
dent to youth, will naturally keep aloof from them
and a total stagnation will ensue. It might as
reasonably be supposed that the teacher of youth
could infuse his own reason and knowledge into
his pupils by some professional sleight of hand,
though they sat in idleness and indifference, as to
suppose a Christian teacher can be of the least
service to his people, except in the proportion in
which they themselves work with him, and for
themselves.
In view of the importance of this sympathy and
cooperation on the part of the congregation, let
me hope, as one chief mode of its manifestation,
that you will give to your minister your habitual
attendance at church, and lend him while there,
an inquiring, a willing, and a candid ear. He
can do nothing without this. Empty pews, and
dull ears, will in time cool the ardor and palsy the
arm of the most zealous.
And surely, if it is worth while to be at all this
trouble and expense, to have and maintain a
preacher of the gospel, it is worth while to hear
him, and strive to reap some of the benefits, with
reference to which it is that you have a minister.
It is something more than inconsistent, it is want
of wisdom, stupidity, to build a church, and drain
your purses for religion, and then habitually neg-
lect the church, and give up all care for the relig-
ion, for which you have made such costly provision ;
or even by frequent absence show that you care
about anything else more than the ministrations of
the sanctuary.41
I pray, therefore, that you may guard in the out-
set against this indolent habit—for nine times ou
of ten it is sheer indolence—of staying from church
one part of the day, whenever you feel no par-
ticular relish for going out. If you once allow
yourselves to stay at home, whenever, as a mere
matter of personal convenience or indulgence, you
would a little rather sit still, or sleep, or take a
walk, or write a letter, this place and these sober
duties will soon become intolerable to you, and
you will either absent yourselves regularly one
half the day or forsake the service altogether. I
hope therefore you will go to church on princi-
ple—not in the idea of being always highly enter-
tained, or greatly improved, or strongly excited,
but on principle ; because the institution is vitally
important to society and religion, and, in the long
account, to yourselves ; because it has a claim on
the respect and notice of every thinking man.
Do this, even if in the first instance you should
receive no great pleasure or profit from your at-
tendance ; do this faithfully, and I am confident of
nothing more than that in the end you will be the
very persons that shall most highly prize the in-
stitution, and derive the greatest benefit and plea-
sure from it.
I said, do not go to church in the idea that you
are always to be highly excited, do not stay at
home, when there is faint prospect of this. Allow
me to insist on this. It is enough in the majority
of instances, if you are plainly instructed, simply
642
reminded, in a calm and solemn way, of very com-
mon duties. And it is so, for this plain reason,
that ninetynine out of a hundred preachers, let
them try ever so hard, can do no more. Nature
denies them the power. And even if they could
each day greatly arouse and excite their hearers,
I, for one, should doubt whether it were best.
I am disposed, sincerely, to deprecate this prevail-
ing passion for excitement—excitement in religion,
or rather in the preaching of it—this modern
placing of religion in something supposed to be
better than soberness, purity, and goodness, and the
quiet discharge of common duty. So high does
this passion run now-a-days, that there is a large
proportion of Christendom, who would not listen
to a sermon written on the model of the sermon on
the Mount, or to a prayer formed on that of our
Lord’s prayer, which a high Orthodox authority,*
styles ‘ an extremely deficient model—containing
an inadequate exhibition of the principles of Chris-
tian devotion ’—as a merely £ Jewish prayer.’ Ser-
mons which shall attempt to explain and ex-
pound scripture, though well digested and learn-
edly done, or which shall treat of the evidences
of religion, or illustrate the wisdom and good-
ness of God by minute reference to the works of
nature through all their parts, will not be heard
with patience. They will be denominated dry
moral discourses, philosophical disquisitions, with-
out any of the vitality of religion. Men would
* The Eclectic Review,43
be moved, not enlightened; they would have their
passions stirred, not their minds. They are too
unwilling to listen to what shall demand much ex-
ertion on their part. The matter presented must
be easy, and so wrought up, by the power of words
and gestures, that the hearer shall be forcibly borne
along whether he will or not, and the more pas-
sive and subjected the mind is, the better. This
is the modern preaching most coveted. And
while, on the principles of the popular theology,
this preaching is the easiest of any, implying no
study and no style, but only strong figures and
startling appeals, and extreme statements of ap-
palling doctrines—in our case it is different, and
a sermon, to produce similar results, must be
painfully elaborated by the application of a refin-
ed rhetoric, and yet so skilfully wrought, that the
art shall not appear; for then again the charm is
broken, and the preacher is styled affected, studi-
ed, or pedantic. This renders the labor on our
part extremely difficult, in some instances more
than can be met ; and not a few have fallenvictims
to their desire always to produce a striking ef-
fect, which desire they have felt because the peo-
ple have demanded it. Some one has said, speak-
ing on a similar topic, ‘ How impossible is it to
conceive of our Saviour’s hearers going away from
his sermons, saying, “ What an admirable discourse
we have had! how delightful a season! ” We
cannot conceive of it. We can think of his hear-
ers departing in no other way than with their44
heads bent to the earth, in silence and in tears;
each one communing with his own heart, or smit-
ing his breast, saying, “ God be merciful to me a
sinner! ” ’
But still, after all, the preaching may not only
be such as cannot excite you, but such as is abso-
lutely uninteresting and unprofitable. But this
even, is no reason why you should refrain your
feet from the church. If it has so happened, that
your minister, either from inability to do better,
or from indolence, or any other cause, really
falls far below a reasonable standard of excel-
lence, the proper course is fairly and frankly to
tell him so—not ruin yourselves and your religious
habits, because he is not what you could wish him
to be. It is too great a sacrifice for a whole con-
gregation to make for one man. This course is
infinitely better than to drag-along in an unprofit-
able connexion, year after year. Separation, un-
der such circumstances, should be considered a
duty on both sides; and it would be accomplished
without difficulty. For I do not believe that the
man is to be found, who, were he assured that his
labors were unprofitable, would consent to retain
his post for an hour for its living, though children
cling to him for bread, provided he had hands
with which he could dig.
One word more on this head. I hope you will
be somewhat influenced in your attendance in
this place, by a sense of the duty you owe to your
peculiar views of Christianity. I would not, in-45
deed, have you go to church as partisans; to
muster all your forces to show how many you
are. There would be sin in thus numbering your
tribe. But I would have you habitually remem-
ber, that as you really value your simple faith,
and have been willing to make very great sacri-
fices for it, so there is nothing you can do in
addition to what you have done, that will half so
signally testify to your love of it, as attending on
its ordinances ; nothing that will so recommend it
to others and propagate it through the city and
the world, as that practical, speaking argument,
a well filled church of constant and devout list-
eners.
I address you, my brethren, not only as Chris-
tians, and members of a church of Christians, but
as Unitarians and members of the true church, and
I should be unfaithful if I failed to speak of your
duty in this relation.
High duties devolve upon you in consequence
of the position in which you stand, in relation to
the whole body of true Christians, and to the
cause of truth. If truth is to go forth and prevail,
it must be through the efforts of those who hold it
and value it. If we sit still and keep the truth
locked up in our own breasts, it may die with
us. We have no reason to believe that any doc-
trine will prevail, either in science or religion,
simply because it is true and in proportion to its
truth; but because, being true, men take pains
to make it appear so. Truth has little active46
power of its own; error has often defeated it, as
the history of opinions abundantly shows. The
seed of Christianity was not dropped and left to the
chances of the way-side; it might so have perish-
ed. It was laboriously cherished, and nurtured;
watered by the blood of martyrs, and reared up to
its great growth, by the watching and toil of mil-
lions of its devoted disciples. A single bull of
the Vatican would have crushed the Reformation
at its birth, had Luther and his followers, after
proclaiming their opinions, sat down content with
the indolent and fatal maxim, ‘ Truth is great and
will prevail.’ All that is good comes of labor;
labor proportioned to its value. The greatest
good of which we can conceive in relation to the
religion of the blessed Jesus, is, that Unitariarism
should once more, as in the beginning, become
the religion of the Christian world; that that
which Christ once preached, should again be
preached in every ear, and from every house top.
But just as great as this good is, just so great is
the labor that must convey it abroad. The two
things are inseparably connected as cause and
consequence.
You, therefore, as the holders of the truth as it
is in Jesus, owe it a great duty in this view ; you
must become its defenders, its propagators, its
very champions. And for the very reason that
you are few, is your duty the more imperious to
be zealous in doing that, which, if you do it not,
will not and cannot be done. You have it in47
your power to do much, very much for Unitarian
Christianity; a vast deal more than your min-
isters have. The power of laymen is, in this,
greater far than that of the clergy. Nothing is
so impressive, or carries such weight with it in
the eyes of the community, as when a whole con-
gregation is seen engaged, heart and hand, in
advancing, by a use of Christian means, what they
conscientiously conceive to be gospel truth. Re-
ligion is not their profession; and the merit of
sincerity, which is everything, is therefore at once
conceded.
I beseech you, therefore, brethren, be active, be
zealous, be interested in the good work of prose-
cuting the cause of original Christianity. Re-
member, that in spreading your tenets, you are
engaged in the great and dignified task, of restor-
ing the gospel from the saddest corruptions, to
what it was as it fell from the lips of its holy au-
thor. This labor will not lose its reward. You
will have it in the approbation of your own minds ;
in the consciousness of having done Christ a great
service; in the approving smiles of the great
Head of the Church, and of God the Univeral
Father. In the name of my brethren and elders, I
wish you all joy, and peace, and prosperity.ORDER OF EXERCISES
VOLUNTARY ON THE ORGAN.
CHANT.
INTRODUCTORY PRAYER,
BY THE REV. MR COLMAN, OF SALEM.
SELECTIONS FROM THE SCRIPTURES,
BY THE REV. MR PIERPONT, OF BOSTON.
ORIGINAL HYMN.
O God, whose presence glows in all
Within, around us, and above !
Thy word we bless, thy name we call,
Whose word is Truth, whose name is Love.
That truth be with the heart believed
Of all who seek this sacred place ;
With power proclaimed, in peace received—•
Our spirits’ light, thy spirit’s grace.
That love its holy influence pour,
To keep us meek, and make us free,
And throw its binding blessing more
Round each with all, and all with Thee.49
Direct and guard the youthful strength
Devoted to thy Son this day ;
And give thy word full course at length
O’er man’s defects and time’s decay.
Send down its angel to our side—
Send in its calm upon the breast ;
For we would know no other guide,
And we can need no other rest.
SERMON,
BY THE REV. MR GREENWOOD, OF BOSTON.
PRAYER OF ORDINATION,
BY THE REV. DR KENDALL, OF PLYMOUTH.
CHARGE,
BY THE REV. MR FROTHINGHAM, OF BOSTON.
ORIGINAL HYMN.
All that in this wide world we see,
Almighty Father ! speaks of thee ;
And, in the darkness or the day,
Thy monitors surround our way.
The winds, the lightnings of the sky,
The maladies by which we die,
The pangs that make the guilty groan,
Are angels from thine awful throne.
Each mercy sent when sorrows lower,
Each blessing of the winged hour,
All we enjoy, and all we love,
Bring with them lessons from above
750
Nor thus content, thy gracious hand,
From midst the children of the land,
Doth raise to stand before our race
Thy living messengers of grace.
We thank thee that so bright a ray
Shines on thy straight and chosen way,
And pray that passion, sloth, or pride,
May never lead our steps aside.
RIGHT HAND OF FELLOWSHIP AND ADDRESS
TO SOCIETY,
BY THE REV. WILLIAM WARE, OP NEW YORK.
CONCLUDING PRAYER,
BY THE REV. MR PARKMAN, OP BOSTON.
DOXOLOGY.
BENEDICTION,
BY THE REV. WILLIAM PARSONS LUNT.