BX 9178 .W54 1895 
 Wilson, Samuel Jennings, 
 
 1828-1883. 
 Occasional addresses and 
 
 sermons 
 
OCCASIONAL 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 BY THE LATE 
 
 Rev. SAMUEL j/WILSON, D. D., LL. D. 
 
 Senior Professor in the Western Theological Seminary at Allegheny, Pa. 
 and some time Pastor of the Sixth Presbyterian 
 Church of Pittsburgh 
 
 WITH A MEMOIR BY THE 
 
 Rev. WILLIAM H. JEFFERS, D. D., LL. D. 
 
 Senior Professor in the Western Theological Seminary 
 EDITED BY THE 
 
 Rev. MAURICE E. WILSON, D. D. 
 
 AND THE 
 
 Rev. CALVIN DILL WILSON 
 
 NEW YORK 
 DODD, MEAD & COMPANY 
 
 1895 
 
Copyright, 1894, 
 
 BY 
 
 DODD, MEAD & COMPANY, 
 
 All rights reserved , 
 
 THE MERSHON COMPANY TRESS, 
 RAHWAY, N. J. 
 
TO THOSE 
 
 M'HO WERf: NEVER ABSENT FROM THE JNIIND AND HEART OF 
 
 THE AUTHOR, 
 
 HIS STUDENTS AND PARISHIONERS, 
 
 IN ACCORDANCE WITH 
 
 FHAT WHICH WOULD CERTAINLY HAVE BEEN HIS OWN WISH, 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This volume is published in compliance with the 
 repeated and earnest requests of students, friends, 
 and admirers of the author ; its immediate occasion 
 being the desire expressed to one of the editors at 
 a meeting of the alumni of the Western Theological 
 Seminary, at Saratoga, last May. 
 
 In the following selections from the writings of 
 Professor Wilson are presented specimens of his bio- 
 graphical and historical addresses, patriotic speeches, 
 and sermons. Some of these have been printed be- 
 fore in fugitive form ; but it was the wish of many 
 that they be collected into one volume, together with 
 additional material from manuscript. 
 
 It is due to the author to state that several of the 
 sermons are little more than generous outlines. In 
 his later life he was largely an extemporal preacher, 
 usually committing to paper less than one-half of 
 his discourse. The great body of his work lies 
 untouched. 
 
 The editors gratefully acknowledge the courtesy of 
 the Presbyterian Board of Publication and the Pres- 
 byterian Journal Company, in granting the use of the 
 copyright of " John Knox," " Presbyterianism in the 
 United States from the Adoption of the Form of 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 Government to the Present Time," and " The Dis- 
 tinctive Principles of Presbyterianism/' 
 
 They are especially indebted to Professor Jeffers 
 for his service of love in the preparation of a Memoir 
 so careful and comprehensive. 
 
 M. E. W. 
 
 C. D. W. 
 
 December, 1894. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Memoir, ix 
 
 Tributes, xli 
 
 I. Addresses : 
 
 I. John Knox, ...... 3 
 
 II. Presbyterianism in the United States 
 
 FROM THE Adoption of the Form of 
 
 Government to the Present Time, 39 
 
 III. The Distinctive Principles of Presby- 
 
 terianism, 95 
 
 IV. The History of Preaching, . . 113 
 
 V. Our Country Calls— A War Speech, 147 
 
 VI. Ministerial Consecration, . . 157 
 
 VII. Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Pas- 
 
 torate of the Rev. Dr. Brownson, 173 
 
 VIII. " Higher Life"— A Chapel Talk, . 187 
 IX. Address to the Graduating Class of 
 
 1883 195 
 
 II. Sermons : 
 
 I. The Spirit of Missions, ... 201 
 
 II. "Quit You Itke Men," . . . 219 
 
 III. Hope for the Republic, ... 247 
 
 IV. The Thief on the Cross, . . .271 
 V. Tribulation and its Fruii s, . . 289 
 
 VI. The Ascension of Christ, . . .305 
 
 VII. The Great Salvation, . . . 3I7 
 
 VIII. Caleb and the Anakim, . . .329 
 IX. Farewell Sermon, .... 341 
 
MEMOIR 
 
 BY 
 
 PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. 
 
 Samuel Jennings Wilson was a native of Wash- 
 ington Co., Pennsylvania, a district of the State which 
 was thoroughly seeded with evangelical truth a 
 century ago, and has been yielding to the Church 
 since a singularly rich harvest of lives consecrated to 
 the Gospel ministry. The home of his parents, Henry 
 and Jane Dill Wilson, was situated on a moderate- 
 sized farm, about five miles east of Washington. The 
 date of his birth was July 19, 1828. 
 
 At this point our memoir properly begins ; yet it 
 may be of interest to the reader to know a few facts 
 connected with the earlier history of his family. The 
 farm on which his parents lived had been granted by 
 the State of Pennsylvania to his grandfather. Captain 
 Thomas Dill, for military services in the Revolution- 
 ary War. Among the engagements in which he had 
 taken part was the Battle of Brandywine, in which he 
 was severely wounded. His father, Matthew Dill, 
 served in the army of the Revolution as colonel of 
 the 5th Battalion of York Co. Several of his sons 
 besides Thomas were active in the service ; one of 
 them suffered death on a British prison ship in New 
 York Harbor. The ground on which stands the 
 
X MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. 
 
 Presbyterian Church at Dillsburg, York Co., Fa., was 
 received as a donation from this Colonel Matthew 
 Dill. 
 
 Thomas Dill, already mentioned, was distinguished 
 in his later years no less for his ardent piety than he 
 had been for his self-sacrificing patriotism. He be- 
 came noted for his habit, somewhat eccentric, indeed, 
 but thoroughly devout, of visiting his neighbors, far 
 and near, that he might pray with them. In Western 
 Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio he was widely known 
 as the Praying Elder, and did much to promote 
 revivals and quicken the spiritual life in Christian 
 homes. 
 
 His daughter, Jane Dill Wilson, inherited in full 
 measure her father's devoutness and spirituality. 
 She was known in the community in which she lived 
 as a woman of unusual faith and piety. The Rev. 
 Dr. S. C. Jennings, referring to a revival of religion 
 which took place during his ministry at Washington, 
 says : " Much was attributed to her instrumentality ; 
 and I could detail an account of conversions which 
 I regarded as answers to her prayers and ardent 
 wishes ; for she did what she could. It may readily 
 be supposed that besides attending to her domestic 
 duties she would be faithful in the religious instruc- 
 tion of her children. The older ones regularly 
 accompanied her to the church at Washington, five 
 miles distant, where she was a member ; and she 
 brought others with her who attended the enquiry 
 meeting during my ministry. To me as a youthful 
 preacher she was a great helper." How much the 
 Church owes to the quiet influence of such mothers ! 
 
 Her son Samuel, like him who bore the name of 
 
MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. XI 
 
 old, was lent in covenant to the Lord ; and when the 
 seal of baptism was applied, the additional name of 
 Jennings was given him, after the pastor whom she 
 so highly esteemed for his work's sake. Her in- 
 struction and example exercised a controlling influ- 
 ence on his character as he grew toward manhood, 
 and determined in no small degree the tenor of his 
 subsequent life. 
 
 He was nineteen years of age when he entered 
 upon his academical course in Washington College. 
 The way had not been open to him until then for 
 realizing the hope he had long cherished of securing 
 a liberal education. His years previously had been 
 divided between the labors of the farm and a pre- 
 paratory school in the neighborhood, his summer 
 months being devoted to the former and his winters 
 to the latter, in which he was first pupil and after- 
 ward teacher. The opportunities of study which he 
 thus enjoyed had been well improved. In the 
 English branches and in mathematics he was some- 
 what advanced ; a foundation had been laid in Latin, 
 but little or nothing had been undertaken in Greek. 
 Accordingly his first year in Washington was pre- 
 paratory. At its close he was enrolled with the class 
 of 1852, in connection with which he continued till 
 his graduation. 
 
 The quality of a man's mental and moral fibre 
 never fails to become apparent during college life. 
 Though reserved and unassuming in his manner, 
 young Wilson was soon recognized among his class- 
 mates and throughout the institution as a man of 
 more than ordinary ability. He had no reputation 
 for brilliancy ; his method of study was not that of 
 
Xll MEMOIR F>V PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. 
 
 rapid acquisition ; but he was systematic, painstaking, 
 and persistent. With an inflexibility of purpose 
 worthy a Stoic philosopher he determined never to 
 allow the proper work of to-day to interfere with that 
 of to-morrow. The recitations of the morning must be 
 prepared without fail the evening before, even though 
 his hours of sleep should be abridged in consequence. 
 To this resolution he seems to have adhered with 
 characteristic firmness. It does not appear that 
 during his entire college course a single failure was 
 recorded against him in the class-room. And in 
 addition to the prescribed studies, he accomplished 
 an unusual amount of general reading, historical, 
 literary, and scientific. Though there were several 
 men of acknowledged ability in his class, the dis- 
 tinction of valedictorian was awarded him by the 
 Faculty, and his classmates heartily approved their 
 decision. 
 
 One who was with him in the recitation room four 
 years and a half, and part of this time his room-mate, 
 has written : " To the students in general he would 
 appear to be a man of few words, reticent, unambi- 
 tious, perfectly unaspiring ; but to those who were 
 most intimate with him he was known to have a vast, 
 though righteous, ambition. He was thorough in 
 everything, true as steel to his friends, all the time at 
 his 'post, universally esteemed and trusted by the 
 students, and especially beloved by the members of 
 his class." 
 
 A few months after his graduation the chair of 
 classical instruction became vacant through the death 
 of Professor Nicholas Murray. An invitation was 
 extended to him, then a student in the Theological 
 
MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. XIU 
 
 Seminary, to take charge of the classes in Latin and 
 Greek for the summer session. He accepted with 
 hesitancy, understanding the delicacy of the task 
 assigned him ; but his embarrassment was soon re- 
 lieved by the spontaneous welcome he received from 
 the advanced classes. His earlier experience as a 
 teacher and his thorough habits of study enabled him 
 to perform the duties of the chair to the satisfaction 
 of all. 
 
 There is another feature of his college life which 
 must receive mention as still more significant and de- 
 terminative of his future career. Before his coming 
 to Washington and during his first year in college he 
 had been habitually thoughtful and reverent. He 
 was never indifferent to things spiritual, never could 
 have become so, in view of the constitution of his 
 mind, and the early training which he had received. 
 New and alluring vistas of thought were now opening 
 to him ; the work of life with its serious as well as its 
 attractive side was coming into nearer prospect ; and 
 no doubt he felt at times in accordance with the 
 picture presented by Prodicus in his familiar apologue, 
 that he was approaching the solitary place where the 
 two ways meet, and where he must make openly and 
 once for all the choice that would determine his 
 future course. In the providence of God it was 
 ordered that during the second year of his college 
 life, the Presbyterian church of Washington was 
 blessed with a revival of great power. The present 
 senior pastor, Dr. Brownson, had just entered upon 
 his work when the blessing came. For some weeks 
 the quiet but deep and thorough work of grace went 
 forward. The college shared with the church in the 
 
XIV MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. 
 
 Spiritual baptism. Fifty-nine names stand recorded 
 on the church's roil as part of the fruits of that re- 
 vival, and among these is the name of Samuel J. Wil- 
 son. His spiritual nature had evidently been stirred 
 to its inmost depths. The remembrance of those 
 revival scenes, the sermons, the prayers, the ex- 
 periences, remained fresh in his recollection ever 
 afterward, and he never referred to them but with 
 kindling emotion.* It is not too much to say that 
 the peculiar impress which he then received, the 
 special lineaments and shading of character then 
 stamped upon his spiritual being, remained with him 
 through all his subsequent life. The steel of his 
 nature ever after retained the specific temper which 
 was given it in the fire of that revival. 
 
 As has been mentioned, his graduation at Washing- 
 ton occurred in 1852. The question of his life-work 
 had been settled as far as deliberate choice and 
 solemn consecration on his part could determine it ; 
 and in accordance with this decision he at once 
 entered the Western Theological Seminary. With 
 the life and work of the Seminary he had already 
 been made somewhat familiar. kw older brother, 
 Thomas B. Wilson, had but recently completed the 
 course and was now beginning his ministry in one of 
 the churches of the city. By him he was introduced 
 to the professors and students, and relieved of much 
 of the embarrassment to which a young man is liable 
 when entering a new circle and beginning a new line 
 of work. This brother, it may be said in passing, 
 after a brief but earnest and fruitful pastorate, first in 
 Pittsburgh, and then in Xenia, O., died at the age 
 of thirty-six. His two sons have taken up the work 
 * See pages 179, 180. — Eds. 
 
MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. XV 
 
 which he laid down, and though still young, have 
 become well known and influential ministers of the 
 Presbyterian Church. 
 
 The Seminary building in 1852, containing chapel, 
 library, and lecture-rooms, as well as apartments for 
 the fifty-five or more students then in attendance, 
 stood on the summit of Monument Hill. Its appoint- 
 ments and accommodations, as Professor Wilson used 
 to remind the students of later years, were not such 
 as to encourage luxurious habits, or to unfit young 
 men for the practice of self-denial in the ministry. 
 The ascent from the street was laborious, the furni- 
 ture meagre, the walls bare, the descent in either 
 direction dangerous for those not accustomed to 
 stand on slippery places, the outlook from the windows 
 less exhilarating than might have been expected, in 
 view of the cloud of smoke which made it difficult at 
 times even to trace the outline of the hills or discern 
 the meeting of the rivers. Yet he seems to have 
 found his life in the Seminary from the very beginning 
 congenial and attractive. He soon became absorbed 
 in his new studies, which interested him more deeply 
 than those of the college curriculum, and he pursued 
 in these the method of careful and thorough mastery 
 which he had previously adopted. His Hebrew was 
 often prepared several days beforehand, that the 
 vocabulary might be the more deeply imprinted on his 
 memory by frequent reviews. His history was thrown 
 into tabulated form so that its facts might be grasped 
 and held the more firmly. In theology he tasked 
 himself with a liberal course of reading, in connection 
 with the study of lectures and text-book. And in his 
 careful economy of time, provision was made for 
 
XVI MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. 
 
 heart-culture no less than mental improvement. He 
 believed firmly with Luther, Bene ordsse est bene stu- 
 duisse, a motto which he often repeated to his students 
 subsequently. In recalling the pleasant memories of 
 his Seminary life he would frequently speak with deep 
 interest of the morning prayer-meetings to which the 
 classes were summoned by the early bell in the hall, 
 inconveniently early for some, and of the alternate 
 Mondays which were given wholly to prayer and 
 meditation. He would gratefully recur to the seasons 
 of refreshing which were at times enjoyed in the insti- 
 tution, and to the spiritual influence exerted by those 
 holy men of God who then constituted the Faculty. 
 
 At the close of the Seminary year in 1855 his 
 theological course was completed, but his connec- 
 tion with the institution was not allowed to terminate. 
 His accurate scholarship and force of character had 
 commended him to the P'aculty as one who might 
 render them valuable assistance in the work of in- 
 struction. The chair of Ecclesiastical History had 
 become vacant through the transfer of Dr. McGill to 
 the Seminary at Princeton. The Professor of Biblical 
 Literature, whose work included both Old and New 
 Testament exegesis, was in urgent need of assistance 
 in Hebrew. As the way was not yet open for the 
 election of a new professor, it was necessary to secure 
 as instructor one who would be qualified to render 
 aid in both these departments. The selection was 
 made with entire unanimity on the part of the Faculty 
 and the members of the Board who were consulted, 
 and the name of Samuel J. Wilson was announced 
 for the ensuing year as Instructor in Ecclesiastical 
 History and Hebrew. Thus, under the guidance, as 
 
MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. XVU 
 
 he always felt, of Divine Providence, and without any 
 seeking on his part, he was led to enter upon that which 
 proved the great work of his life. 
 
 On the i8th of April, 1855, he appeared before the 
 Presbytery of Washington, then in session in Wheel- 
 ing, as a candidate for licensure. His early pastor, 
 Dr. Brownson, was in the Moderator's chair ; and it 
 was a pleasant coincidence which he often recalled, 
 that he whom he revered as his spiritual father, under 
 whose ministry he had been brought into the com- 
 munion of the Church, and from whose hand also he 
 had received his college diploma at graduation, was the 
 one from whom he now received the official announce- 
 ment of his license to preach the Gospel. 
 
 His first work in the pulpit was that of supplying 
 the First Presbyterian Church of Steubenville while 
 the pastor, Rev. H. G. Comingo, D. D., was travelling 
 in Europe. After this he preached for some months 
 in the Second Church of Wheeling and received an 
 urgent call to become their pastor; but his engage- 
 ment with the Seminary precluded his acceptance. 
 
 After two years of service as instructor in the 
 Seminary, in which he fully met the expectations of 
 the Faculty and indicated his eminent fitness for this 
 line of work, it was felt by the friends of the institu- 
 tion that he should be advanced to the full professor- 
 ship. He was elected to this by the General Assem- 
 bly of 1857, in session at Lexington, Ky.; and on the 
 27th of April the year following he was duly installed 
 as Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Homiletics. 
 The union of two subjects of theological instruction 
 so entirely distinct in the department assigned him 
 was not intended to be permanent. It was to con- 
 
XVIU MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. 
 
 tinue merely until the Faculty could be further 
 strengthened. When Dr. W. M. Paxton, three years 
 later, was elected Professor of Sacred Rhetoric, the 
 proper adjustment was effected ; and Professor Wilson 
 was allowed to devote his whole time to Sacred and 
 Ecclesiastical History. These branches, together 
 with the History of Doctrines, included subsequently, 
 continued to be his proper department during the 
 twenty-five years of his service. 
 
 It was not without embarrassment and misgiving 
 that Professor Wilson, with his modest estimate of 
 his own ability and his conscious want of experience, 
 took his place beside the eminent men who then con- 
 stituted the Faculty. Dr. David Elliott ranked as 
 senior professor, dignified in manner, saintly in 
 character, for years past a recognized leader in the 
 Church ; next to him was Dr. Jacobus, an accom- 
 plished scholar, a high authority in Biblical interpre- 
 tation, and an eminent author ; and then Dr. Plumer, 
 renowned as a pulpit orator, a commanding figure in 
 church courts and religious assemblies, singularly im- 
 pressive and magnetic in the lecture-room and the 
 conference. To become the colleague of these distin- 
 guished men he justly considered a high honor ; to 
 be judged by the standard of their attainments he 
 could not but regard as a severe ordeal. But the 
 cordiality with which he was received by both pro- 
 fessors and students at once relieved him of his em- 
 barrassment and afforded him all needed encourage- 
 ment in his work. The high conception which he 
 was led to form at the outset of the character and 
 attainments requisite for a theological professorship 
 was doubtless of great value to him in subsequent years. 
 
MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. XIX 
 
 The field which he was required to traverse, as Pro- 
 fessor of Sacred and Ecclesiastical History, is one of 
 such extent that to become familiar with all portions 
 of it is the work of a lifetime. Sacred or biblical his- 
 tory as derived from a careful and critical interpreta- 
 tion of the sacred text, and illustrated from ancient 
 monuments, contemporaneous records, and tradition, is 
 a vast field for investigation in itself. The history of 
 the Christian Church through its more than eighteen 
 centuries of varying progress, growth, degeneracy, 
 corruption, reformation, persecution, controversies, is 
 a field equally vast, with a literature still more bewil- 
 dering in its compass and variety. These two were 
 united in the department of instruction for which 
 Professor Wilson was to be responsible. Accordingly 
 the work of preparing for his classes, while to him 
 intensely interesting, was necessarily laborious. He 
 was not so constituted that he could rest satisfied with 
 superficial and showy acquirements. Neither his taste, 
 his judgment, nor his conscience would admit of any 
 preparation for his work which had not the stamp of 
 thoroughness. For a time he fell into the mistake, 
 to which ardent students are ever liable, of denying 
 himself his afternoon recreation and abridging his 
 hours of sleep, in order that he might get on more 
 rapidly with the course of reading which he had 
 mapped out for himself. His health, as might be 
 supposed, suffered in consequence, and he was com- 
 pelled to modify his plans ; but it is doubtful whether 
 he ever learned the lesson of observing due modera- 
 tion in intellectual work. 
 
 As an equipment for his work in the field of Old 
 Testament History he regarded a measure of Hebrevv 
 
XX MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. 
 
 scholarship as essential ; and this he aimed to supple- 
 ment with some knowledge of the cognate languages. 
 He thought it important, too, that he should keep 
 himself fairly conversant with the latest investigations 
 in the sphere of biblical archaeology and sacred geog- 
 raphy, and with the latest movements in Old Testa- 
 ment criticism. In dealing with the history of the 
 early Church, particularly in tracing the development 
 of Christian doctrine, he would find his way, whenever 
 practicable, to the sources. He aimed at familiarity 
 with the writings of the leading Reformers, especially 
 those of Switzerland and Scotland. Of the careful 
 study which he expended on the life and times of 
 John Knox an intimation is given in his celebrated 
 lecture. With the general progress of investigation 
 in the department of historical theology, as presented 
 in periodical literature, German and French as well 
 as English, he strove to keep himself thoroughly 
 familiar. It is probable that he attempted to accom- 
 plish too much during the first few years of his ser- 
 vice in the Seminary — that he subjected himself to an 
 undue strain in his effort to acquire at once the full 
 mastery of his subjects ; but of his remarkable effi- 
 ciency as a teacher there can be no question. 
 
 His own interest in the branches which he taught 
 was kept fresh through daily study and investigation, 
 and this naturally awakened a corresponding interest 
 in his classes. He was considered specially success- 
 ful in giving attractiveness to the more rugged and 
 forbidding portions of ecclesiastical history. He 
 had the art of bringing into their proper relation the 
 disjointed facts of the narrative ; of marking the suc- 
 cessive stages of a bewildering controversy ; of point- 
 
MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. XXI 
 
 ing out the underlying principle to which events were 
 due and by which they were to be explained, and 
 thus evoking order from apparent confusion. And 
 his skill as an instructor in this department was illus- 
 trated no less in what he omitted to teach than in 
 what he taught. Amid the multitude of incidents, 
 chaos of facts, with which he had to deal, he was 
 careful not to allow himself or his classes to become 
 bewildered. He would fix attention on the character- 
 istic features of each period and keep these steadily in 
 view until they had been thoroughly photographed on 
 the memory and made, as far as might be, a perma- 
 nent acquisition. 
 
 At the death of Dr. Jacobus, in October, 1876, Dr. 
 Wilson became the senior professor and the presiding 
 officer of the Faculty. Within the eighteen years 
 which had elapsed since his inauguration, the Faculty 
 had undergone a complete change. First came the 
 resignation of Dr. Plumer, who was followed in the 
 chair of Theology by Dr. A. A. Hodge. Then Dr. 
 Paxton resigned the chair of Sacred Rhetoric, having 
 accepted the pastorate of the First Presbyterian 
 Church in New York, to be succeeded a little later 
 by Dr. Hornblower. The venerable Dr. Elliott, after 
 his thirty-eight years of service, died in 1874; two 
 years later occurred the sudden and lamented death 
 of Dr. Jacobus. 
 
 In consequence of these changes it had frequently 
 become necessary for the professors to take up work 
 which lay outside of their proper departments. Some 
 delay on the part of the Board in filling the recurring 
 vacancies was unavoidable, and in the meantime the 
 work of instruction had to be provided for in all the 
 
XXU MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. 
 
 branches of the course. It was remarked by his col- 
 leagues that Dr. Wilson was peculiarly fitted for such 
 extra service ; that with little embarrassment to him- 
 self and no detriment to the classes he could take up, 
 in an emergency, and conduct successfully, the work 
 of any department in the Seminary. There was no 
 branch in the curriculum, it was said, which he did 
 not at some time teach, and teach well. 
 
 During the last seven years of his life he had 
 devolved upon him, in addition to his regular work, 
 the administration of the Scholarship Fund and the 
 general supervision of the students, which materially 
 increased his labor and responsibility. For the 
 financial management he had but little taste, and, he 
 thought, but little aptitude ; but the work of helping, 
 counselling, and encouraging the young men was to 
 him thoroughly congenial. He was always ready, 
 though quiet and seemingly distant in his manner, to 
 welcome the confidence of those who approached him 
 for advice and spiritual counsel ; and as his relations 
 with the students now became more intimate, he was 
 all the more earnest in seeking to impart to them 
 spiritual quickening and stimulation. " I am per- 
 suaded," he would say again and again, " that more 
 should be done to i7ispire these young men for their 
 work." He sought to have the atmosphere of the 
 institution so warm with spiritual influence that every 
 heart might catch the glow, that every student might 
 go forth to the field as the Disciples from the upper 
 chamber in Jerusalem, on whom had rested the 
 tongues of fire. His standard of ministerial character 
 was high ; he wished no drones in the hive ; he would 
 have everyone who was seeking admission earnest 
 
MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. XXIU 
 
 and consecrated; and he would have everyone who was 
 going forth filled with a holy enthusiasm for his work. 
 He attached special importance to the meetings in 
 the chapel for conference and prayer. Those who 
 attended these conferences will not soon forget the 
 spirit and power with which he often spoke. Some- 
 times he would begin with hesitation and seeming 
 reluctance, as if feeling that others might occupy the 
 time more profitably. For. a few sentences he would 
 proceed slowly, pausing between his words, uncertain 
 apparently what special line of thought he should 
 present. But the momentum would increase with 
 each succeeding sentence. As he mused the fire 
 would burn ; his drift and purpose would be more 
 clearly indicated ; every ear would grow attentive. 
 The short, clear statements would follow each other 
 with increasing rapidity, interspersed with luminous 
 illustrations, sometimes provoking a smile, but clinch- 
 ing the truth which he sought to fix upon the heart 
 none the less effectually. Everyone present would 
 be touched and thrilled with a style of address which 
 might almost be described in the words of the Roman 
 poet, ^^Fervet immensiLsqiie I'uit^'' as he would be 
 pressing, perhaps, the Church's aggressive work — the 
 cause of Foreign Missions, the cause of Home Mis- 
 sions in the West or South ; perhaps discussing the 
 duties and responsibilities of the pastorate, urging to 
 diligence in the work of preparation, or pleading for 
 the unreserved consecration of the life to Christ. 
 And the young men would go to their rooms with 
 new views of the grandeur of the work for which they 
 were preparing, and new conceptions of the responsi- 
 bility connected with their high calling. 
 
XXIV MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. 
 
 It is perhaps rarely that a life is so thoroughly iden- 
 tified with an educational institution as his was with 
 the Western Theological Seminary. His connection 
 with it was continuous, from the time when his name 
 was entered in the matriculation-book till the close of 
 his life ; and while many tempting fields were open 
 to him in the pastorate and in educational work else- 
 where, he never harbored a wish, as he often said, 
 to have the relation sundered. This was due not 
 merely to his feeling of loyalty to an institution by 
 which he had been highly honored, but to the con- 
 viction that he could in no other position exert a 
 wider or more lasting influence. In April, 1883, at 
 the close of the seminary year, it was remembered by 
 his friends that he was just completing twenty-five 
 years of service since his inauguration as professor. 
 The directors and trustees, and many of the alumni 
 and friends of the institution assembled to offer him 
 their congratulations. Those who were present well 
 remember the earnest words of his response, in which 
 he expressed his thankfulness to God that he had 
 been preserved for so many years of work in the 
 Western Seminary, and declared his readiness to 
 devote twenty-five years more to the institution, if 
 God should spare him so long. 
 
 It is natural that one who was associated with him 
 in the Faculty should give special prominence in this 
 sketch to his work as a theological professor. But 
 the record would be very imperfect if it should not 
 present with equal distinctness the eminent service 
 which he rendered to the Church as a preacher of the 
 Gospel. The work of preaching was that to which 
 his life had been specially consecrated; that to which 
 
MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. XXV 
 
 he looked forward with absorbing interest from the 
 beginning of his seminary course, and which he 
 always found thoroughly congenial. Even when his 
 other duties were most engrossing he regarded this 
 as privilege and enjoyment rather than exhaustive 
 labor. " In the pulpit and in my preparation for it," 
 he said on one occasion, *' I have had the happiest 
 experiences of my life. I have often gone to it 
 weary and depressed and have come back refreshed." 
 The work which men do with a sense of enjoyment is 
 for the most part that which nature or grace, or both 
 combined, have fitted them for performing success- 
 fully. 
 
 His licensure by the Presbytery of Washington, at 
 the completion of his seminary course, has been 
 already stated. On the 20th of October, 1857, a few 
 months after his election to the professorship, the 
 same Presbytery ordained him to the Gospel ministry. 
 The Presbyterian Church of Sharpsburg, then with- 
 out a pastor, requested him to take charge of their 
 pulpit, and to this he consented with the understand- 
 ing that no services should be expected of him which 
 would interfere with his regular work in the Seminary. 
 The arrangement, which was thought of as quite 
 temporary at first, continued for three years, and with 
 great benefit to the congregation. His labors were 
 blessed, shortly after they had begun, with a revival 
 which is well remembered in the history of the 
 church, when more than fifty were received to the 
 communion on profession of their faith. No pastoral 
 relation was constituted in view of his connection 
 with the Seminary, but the work of a pastor he per- 
 formed during his period of service with none the less 
 
XXVI MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. 
 
 diligence and success. Tlie church was strengthened 
 in every respect, and advanced to a higher position of 
 usefuhiess in the community as the result of his 
 labors. 
 
 In 1 86 1 he was induced to undertake the supply of 
 the Sixth Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh. If he 
 had been seeking an inviting field for the exercise of 
 his ministry, he would probably have declined the 
 invitation. The organization had been made up of 
 discordant elements seemingly, and its history thus 
 far had been one of alternate growth and decline, 
 with frequent changes in the pastorate, due largely to 
 the want of harmony and co-operation among the 
 members. The church had been for some time 
 vacant when he was asked to take charge of it, and 
 was greatly depressed. Its membership had been 
 reduced to about forty ; it was burdened with debt ; 
 its resources were limited, and its prospects for the 
 future seemed very far from encouraging. He entered 
 with much trembling upon the work that was thus 
 set before him, the work of strengthening the things 
 which remained ; and through his earnest labor, and 
 the hearty co-operation of the little band that gathered 
 about him, the process of restoration began almost 
 immediately. Twenty-two were added at the first 
 communion ; a new interest was felt, the throbbing of 
 a new life, before the close of the first year. The 
 church became cemented together and organized for 
 work as never before. Ten years later it had a 
 membership of 466, instead of the forty with which 
 the pastorate began ; the debt had been cancelled, 
 the edifice remodelled, and it had become one of the 
 largest and most effective organizations in the city. 
 
MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. XXvii 
 
 He ministered to this church for fifteen years, first 
 in the relation of stated supply, then from 1866 as 
 regularly installed pastor, resigning the charge at the 
 close of 1876 in view of his increasing duties in the 
 Seminary. The growth of the church under his 
 ministry was in the main steady and uniform. There 
 were two seasons of special religious interest followed 
 by unusual accessions, as the records indicate, but 
 with this exception the ordinary conditions of spiritual 
 husbandry seem to have prevailed. The seed of the 
 Word was duly sown ; the former and the latter rain 
 came in their season, and at every recurring com- 
 munion, of which there were sixty-two in all, the 
 church was gladdened with a more or less abundant 
 in-gathering."^' 
 
 Now what were the main characteristics of that 
 preaching on which the divine seal was so conspicu- 
 ously set during the years of his regular ministry, first 
 in Sharpsburg, then in the Sixth Church ? These are 
 illustrated in some measure in the selected sermons 
 which appear in this volume ; but there are elements 
 of power in the pulpit which are not discernible in the 
 printed discourse. 
 
 As a man and as a preacher Dr. Wilson was 
 thoroughly and intensely earnest. Those who sat 
 under his ministry had no question that he believed, 
 and therefore spake. The tone and emphasis of per- 
 sonal conviction could be recognized in every utter- 
 ance. There was that in his manner which indicated 
 that he was conscious of the divine presence, and that 
 his uppermost thought was not how he might please 
 men, but how he might approve himself to God. His 
 earnestness was often that which makes itself felt, 
 * See page 357. — Eds. 
 
XXVUl MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. 
 
 rather than that which is conspicuous to the eye or 
 obvious to the ear ; a quality which baffles analysis 
 and eludes description, but which finds its way to the 
 heart as nothing else can. 
 
 In harmony with this intense earnestness of pur- 
 pose was the subject-matter of his discourses. A 
 marked preference was given in his preaching to the 
 great central themes of the Gospel. He had no such 
 dread of commonplace subjects in the pulpit as that 
 by which some clerical minds have been invaded. 
 He would not allow himself or his hearers to be 
 turned aside from the main object of the service by 
 the love of novelty or sensation. The first text on 
 which he preached as pastor of the Sixth Church, 
 vividly recalled still by some who were present, was 
 the familiar doxology : " Unto him that loved us and 
 washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath 
 made us kings and priests unto God and his father." 
 The text which 'he selected for his last discourse, at 
 the conclusion of his pastorate, was the no less familiar 
 benediction : " Now the God of peace that brought 
 again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shep- 
 herd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlast- 
 ing covenant, make you perfect in every good work to 
 do his will." These texts, the first and the last of the 
 series, are not unfair specimens of the subjects he was 
 accustomed to select. The work of the crucified 
 Redeemer, remission of sins through his blood, the 
 duty of faith, that of repentance, the new life, com- 
 munion with God, Christian courage. Christian work, 
 Christian giving, the life to come — these and such as 
 these were his favorite topics for pulpit discussion ; 
 and in some way or other he succeeded in investing 
 
MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. XXIX 
 
 them with such interest and freshness that his hearers 
 never betrayed drowsiness or impatience. In his 
 closing sermon he records it as one of the grateful 
 experiences of his pastorate that he had " found the 
 people ever ready to come and listen to the plain, 
 simple Gospel." 
 
 His discourses were constructed with immediate 
 reference to practical results. The doctrinal content 
 of his text was usually unfolded in clear statement at 
 the outset, argument when it seemed necessary was 
 employed, and illustration still more freely ; but he 
 never appeared to be fairly under way with his sermon 
 until his logic was on fire. By some his ardor and 
 vehemence were regarded as extreme. They were, 
 however, the natural expression of his earnestness 
 and depth of conviction. In his personal tastes he 
 was by no means averse to the quieter and more 
 meditative manner which some employ so effectually 
 in their pulpit ministrations, whose speech distils as 
 the dew and drops as the small rain upon the tender 
 herb ; but this was not the style of discourse for 
 which nature had fitted him. It was his special gift 
 rather to arouse and incite, to quicken the con- 
 science, rebuke indifference, and stimulate to immedi- 
 ate spiritual activity. He wished to have people go 
 from his church, he said, not soothed and self-satis- 
 fied, but with the deepened consciousness that their 
 lives were far below the proper standard, and with the 
 resolution to double their diligence for the future in 
 pressing toward the mark. 
 
 In the style of his discourses he was careful to 
 avail himself of the language of common life, exclud- 
 ing as far as might be technical and scholastic terms. 
 
XXX MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. 
 
 His sentences were simple in their construction, 
 direct, not weighted with explanatory or restrictive 
 clauses. He kept them straight like arrows that they 
 might the more readily reach the mark. Such quali- 
 fying phrases as strict accuracy might seem to re- 
 quire, and as he would have employed if writing for 
 the press, he introduced but sparingly. He had 
 a thorough hatred of certain forms of prevailing 
 wickedness, and answering to the strength of his 
 feeling was the strength of his expression, border- 
 ing at times on paradox and hyperbole. He was 
 convinced that the portion of the impenitent and un- 
 believing is death, and he so asserted in terms that 
 could not be misunderstood ; willing to be thought 
 harsh and dogmatic rather than to be found unfaith- 
 ful to his trust. He was resolved that he would 
 announce no doctrine of the Bible in an apologizing 
 or compromising way. " Let the Gospel be preached," 
 he said in a published address, "just as it is, and woe 
 to that man who trims or temporizes for the sake of 
 an ephemeral popularity." 
 
 His power in the pulpit was widely recognized 
 while he was comparatively young in the ministry, 
 and his increasing reputation was attended, very 
 naturally, with increasing labor. His services were 
 in great demand for special occasions, the dedication 
 of churches, the ordination of ministers, the opening 
 of Presbyteries, commemorative and historical ad- 
 dresses. To the invitations which he received from 
 far and near he generously responded to the limit of 
 his ability. The number of special sermons and 
 lectures which he sometimes delivered in the course 
 of the year is surprising when we bear in mind 
 
MEMOIR BV PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. XXXI 
 
 the amount of work which was regularly devolved 
 upon him in the professorship and the pastorate. 
 During the years of the war his voice was often 
 heard not only in the pulpit but on the platform in 
 city and country, urging to loyalty and self-sacrifice 
 in support of the government. It was in this cause, 
 shortly after he had begun preaching in the Sixth 
 Church, that he first attracted the attention of the 
 public as a popular lecturer. A lecture on *' The 
 Times," or the crisis of the nation, which he de- 
 livered in his own church on November 20, 1862, 
 produced such an impression that he was at once 
 requested by leading citizens to repeat it in one of 
 the halls of the city, for the benefit of the Subsistence 
 Committee. The vigor with which he assailed the 
 enemies of the government and their sympathizers, 
 and defended the policy of emancipation, is described 
 in glowing terms by the city press of that date. 
 From this time forward his services as a patriotic 
 speaker were in frequent demand. One of the most 
 characteristic of his addresses was that which he 
 delivered before the Ladies' Loyal League of Pitts- 
 burgh on the 27th of December, 1864. A few sen- 
 tences may be quoted as a specimen : "■ We are far, 
 far below an adequate appreciation of the epoch in 
 which we live. We are making history which the 
 latest ages will read with wonder and study with profit. 
 Providence is crowding into years revolutions which 
 it formerly required centuries to accomplish. Swift 
 and unerring as the arrow from the string ideas and 
 events rush onward. Mighty potencies are at work 
 in the seething crucible of the nation's trial. The 
 dross is being thrown rapidly off. New elements are 
 
XXXll MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. 
 
 seeking new affinities and crystallizing into new forms 
 and combinations. Everywhere there is quickened 
 thought, deepened feeUng, intensified action. God 
 WORKS. Who at such a time, in such a cause, and for 
 such interests would be idle, listless, indifferent ? 
 God has put within the reach of everyone the oppor- 
 tunity of doing something. Your hands can war and 
 your fingers can fight f When the fearful struggle is 
 over, when the awful crisis is past, when white-winged 
 peace broods over a land renovated and purified by the 
 fires through which it has gone ; sharp, poignant as 
 the tooth of remorse will be the regret of those who 
 failed by effort, by offering, by self-denial, by sacrifice, 
 to do everything in their power to aid and fortify the 
 good cause." 
 
 It was at a later period, and in the discussion of 
 subjects connected more immediately with the work 
 of his profession, that he achieved his highest distinc- 
 tion as a platform speaker. In 1872 he was invited 
 to take a leading part in the Tercentenary celebration 
 in Philadelphia, commemorative of the work of John 
 Knox in Scotland, of the organization of the first 
 Presbytery in England, and of the martyrdoms of St. 
 Bartholomew's day in France. In view of his famil- 
 iarity with the history of the Reformation, and his 
 recognized ability as an orator, he was requested to 
 prepare the Memorial Discourse on the Life and Times 
 of John Knox. A more congenial subject could not 
 have been assigned him. Such was the impression 
 which his discourse produced, when delivered on the 
 20th of November before the great congregation 
 which thronged the Seventh Presbyterian Church, that 
 there was a general desire expressed that it should be 
 
MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. XXXlll 
 
 repeated at some convenient time in the Academy of 
 Music. He complied with the request on the 2 2d of 
 January, and was greeted with an audience of four 
 thousand persons, occupying every seat in the build- 
 ing, at least as many more, it was estimated, having 
 been unable to gain admission. The oration, slightly 
 modified as the occasion might require, was delivered 
 subsequently one hundred times as a popular lecture. 
 
 In 1874 he was called to preside as Moderator over 
 the General Assembly at St. Louis, an honor which 
 came to him wholly unsought, and which indicated 
 the esteem in which he was held by the church at 
 large. The sermon with which he opened the 
 Assembly at Cleveland the year following was on a 
 subject which lay near to his heart, and on which he 
 never spoke but with kindling emotion — the mission- 
 ary purpose of the Church's organization and her duty 
 to give the Gospel to the world. It has been regarded 
 as one of the ablest and most effective of his dis- 
 courses.'^ 
 
 In accordance with an appointment which he re- 
 ceived from this Assembly, he took part as a delegate 
 in the conference, which was held in London in July, 
 1875, for the purpose of maturing a plan for the con- 
 federation of the Presbyterian churches throughout 
 the world. The deliberations of this conference re- 
 sulted in the organization of the Presbyterian Alliance, 
 with its General Councils to be held " ordinarily once 
 in three years." He was a member of the first of 
 these Councils, which met in Edinburgh, Scotland, 
 July 3, 1877. In the second, convened in Philadel- 
 phia in September, 1880, he read a paper on the Dis- 
 tinctive Principles of Presbyterianism, in which he 
 * See page 201. — Eds, 
 
XXXIV MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. 
 
 Stated and defended with characteristic clearness and 
 emphasis the pohty of the Presbyterian church. At 
 the time of his death he was under appointment as 
 delegate to the third General Council, held in Belfast 
 in 1884. He was also at the time Moderator of the 
 Synod of Pennsylvania, having been elected to that 
 office at the meeting in Harrisburg in 1882. 
 
 It would not be in place in a sketch of this kind to 
 refer in detail to the various departments of Christian 
 enterprise to which he lent his influence. His sym- 
 pathy with the cause of liberal education was natural 
 in view of his work in the Seminary. He was a warm 
 friend of the colleges in which the Seminary students 
 received their classical training, and was frequently 
 invited to deliver literary and missionary addresses 
 before their societies. The last duty which called 
 him from his home previous to his death was that of 
 delivering an address at the commencement of Hamil- 
 ton College, New York. He was specially attached 
 to his own Alma Mater at Washington, and of course 
 deeply interested in the plan by which the two col- 
 leges, Washington and Jefferson, were made one. At 
 the time when the consolidation was effected, in the 
 spring of 1869, he was requested by the Board to 
 become the acting president of the Institution until 
 the office could be filled permanently. His fitness for 
 college-work, it will be remembered, had been tested 
 already. We can well believe that he entered upon 
 the unaccustomed duties of the presidency with less 
 apprehension than he had felt seventeen years before 
 when undertaking the work of classical instruction. 
 Many of the friends of the institution hoped that the 
 temporary relation would be made permanent, but 
 
MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. XXXV 
 
 though he was profoundly interested in the prosperity 
 of the college, now entering upon a new career of 
 usefulness, he entertained no thought of withdrawing 
 from the Seminary. 
 
 During the last year of Dr. Wilson's life his health 
 seemed fairly vigorous, and he was able to complete 
 the laborious duties attending the close of the session 
 with less exhaustion than usual. The pleasant recog- 
 nition of his services which surprised him at the close 
 of the term in the spring of 1883 has already been 
 mentioned. In the course of the summer his health 
 became perceptibly impaired, but not to such an ex- 
 tent as to occasion much solicitude on his part until 
 the middle of July. Although his appearance alarmed 
 his friends, with characteristic energy he persisted in 
 the discharge of his daily duties. Growing interested 
 in athletics at Sewickley, he became a member of the 
 association and indulged now and then in games of 
 bowling, excelling in this as he had years before in 
 quoits. Sabbath, July 15, he preached twice in the 
 Presbyterian Church with great earnestness ; in the 
 morning on " The Manliness of Faith," and in the 
 evening on " The Charge of David to Solomon." The 
 death, the next day, of Dr. Hornblower, his intimate 
 friend and associate in the Faculty, deeply affected 
 him ; he was compelled to give over his part in the 
 funeral service to others, undertaking nothing but to 
 pronounce the benediction. This was the last time 
 his voice was heard in public. Three days later he 
 was unable to leave his room in Sewickley. The dis- 
 ease which had been preying on his system was pro- 
 nounced by his physician to be typhoid fever, and 
 before it had run its course his strength and vitality 
 
XXXVl MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. 
 
 were exhausted. When during his illness he was 
 reminded that he had often said, '' I would rather 
 wear out than rust out," he acknowledged that he had 
 carried this too far. '^ Nature is only taking her re- 
 venge." Toward the last, in answer to the tender 
 question of those at his bedside whether he wanted 
 anything, he whispered, " Rest ! " And when further 
 asked if he were at peace, he replied with peculiar 
 distinctness, " Perfect peace ! " On Friday morning, 
 the 17th of August, at half past ten, he fell asleep. 
 
 A funeral service was held in Sewickley, Sabbath 
 evening, which was largely attended and was pecul- 
 iarly impressive. But the main service was at the 
 First Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, on Monday 
 morning. The immense edifice was filled with minis- 
 ters and laymen of all denominations. Lawyers, 
 judges, physicians, and merchants were there to show 
 the respect in which Dr. Wilson was held and to do 
 honor to his memory. The Rev. Dr. Allison pre- 
 sided. The addresses of the Rev. Dr. Brownson and 
 the Rev. S. F. Scovel, delivered with touching emotion, 
 were worthy tributes to the great qualities of mind 
 and heart which marked the life of the man whom 
 they sought to reverence. 
 
 Dr. Wilson was married in 1859 to Mary Elizabeth 
 Davis, a woman of fine spirit and lovely character, a 
 favorite with all who knew her. She died in the sum- 
 mer of 1880 after a prolonged illness, leaving a son, 
 Robert Davis, and two daughters, Eliza Cochran, now 
 Mrs. Charles McKnight, and Jane Dill, now Mrs. 
 William Walker. The son was a member of the 
 Pittsburgh bar, with unusually bright prospects of 
 success at the time of his death in 1890, 
 
MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. XXXVll 
 
 This memoir of Dr. Wilson would be very incom- 
 plete if a few words were not added in regard to his 
 more private character, as known to his intimate 
 friends and associates. 
 
 He was a man of more than ordinary sincerity. 
 He had a profound dislike for pretence and simula- 
 tion in all their forms. This was not shown in any 
 sweeping denunciation of the shams which are preva- 
 lent in society, but rather in the scrupulous care with 
 which he regulated his own speech and deportment. 
 In his salutations and social intercourse his words 
 could be taken at their par value. They were valid 
 always for at least as much as they seemed to express. 
 He was a stranger to the little devices by which many 
 well-meaning persons solicit the good will and attach- 
 ment of others, the employment of smiles and com- 
 pliments as a means for the accomplishment of an 
 end. In his manner he was singularly undemon- 
 strative. Some thought him on this account distant 
 and cold ; but it was his strong recoil from the 
 insincerities which are prevalent in social life, carry- 
 ing him, perhaps, to the other extreme. His real 
 regard for his friends was greatly beyond that which 
 he would ordinarily indicate in his greetings, or ex- 
 press in their presence. They were often indeed sur- 
 prised to learn, through other channels, of the thor- 
 ough confidence he reposed in them and the deep 
 interest he felt in their welfare. The more intimately 
 men came to know him, the more deeply were the}'' 
 impressed with the entire genuineness, " the simplicity 
 and godly sincerity " of his character. 
 
 He was kindly and charitable in his judgment of 
 men. He had a keen perception of character, never 
 
XXXVlll MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. 
 
 failing, however, to discern the good qualities as well 
 as the frailties of those with whom he was thrown in 
 contact. Nowhere was this more apparent than in 
 his intercourse with the students of the Seminary. 
 While the members of his classes often felt under his 
 glance that they were searched through and through, 
 there was at the same time that in his manner which 
 encouraged them to believe that he gave them credit 
 for honesty of purpose and endeavor, and that he had 
 faith in their ultimate success. His criticisms were 
 thorough, but always kindly and helpful. There 
 was no mistaking the motive by which they were 
 prompted. They left no sting behind, even when at 
 the moment they may have been regarded as severe. 
 
 His sympathy flowed out spontaneously toward 
 those who, in want of means, were struggling to work 
 their way through the course. Many who are now 
 laboring successfully in the ministry have reason to 
 remember the kindly assistance they received from 
 him in their time of need, and no less the tact and 
 delicacy with which this was extended. Contributions 
 were often entrusted to him by benevolent persons 
 to be used at his discretion in connection with the 
 Scholarship Fund of the Seminary. He esteemed it 
 one of his highest privileges to employ such gifts in 
 relieving worthy young men of their discouragement, 
 and in helping them to enter the ministry without a 
 burden of debt. 
 
 Another quality which he possessed in a singular 
 degree was that of self-control ; perhaps one should 
 rather say, self-mastery. Body and mind seemed to 
 be alike the ready servants of his will. The physical 
 constitution which nature had given him was not the 
 
MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. XXXIX 
 
 most vigorous. Few who observed his slender form 
 and pale face while a student in college would have 
 anticipated for him a long life. Some were appre- 
 hensive that he might not live to enter upon the work 
 of his profession. But through the self-control and 
 systematic care which he exercised, his health became 
 quite firm, and his vigor seemed to be increasing with 
 his advancing years. His mental powers were inured 
 to severe labor and held to a strict accountability. It 
 was a principle with him that everything must be done 
 thoroughly and finished at the proper time. Con- 
 scious, like most men of his temperament, of a natural 
 tendency to procrastinate, he kept his work quite in 
 advance. He would counteract the tendency by 
 going almost to the opposite extreme. So in meeting 
 his engagements he was accustomed to hold an ample 
 margin of time in reserve. It was observed that 
 during his entire ministry in the Sixth Church he was 
 late in entering the pulpit only once, and then after 
 a journey of fifteen miles over wintry roads. He 
 would allow himself to shrink from no work that was 
 devolved upon him because uncongenial or distasteful. 
 His tastes and emotions as well as his intellectual 
 powers seemed to be kept under strict discipline. 
 He was no Stoic when sorrow and bereavement came, 
 yet he maintained for the most part an outward calm, 
 even when the inward storm of grief was at its height. 
 He would not allow himself to appear, even for a 
 moment, to have forgotten the inspiring and sublime 
 truths which he had preached for the consolation of 
 others. 
 
 He was eminently a man of God. What wilt thou 
 have me to do, was the question he had asked with all 
 
Xl MEMOIR BY PROFESSOR W. H. JEFFERS. 
 
 the earnestness of his nature at the time when the 
 gracious call came, and the heavenly light shone 
 about him ; and he seemed never to be forgetful of 
 the obligation he had then assumed. His life was 
 effective and fruitful because his devotion was deep 
 and fervent. The things of the spiritual world were 
 to his conception intensely real. When meditating 
 on these it was not as if he had climbed up to some 
 unusual elevation and was panting in the thin atmos- 
 phere of the mountain summit, but rather as if he was 
 looking out from his accustomed point of view and 
 breathing his native air. His spirituality was duly 
 nourished by meditation and devotional reading. 
 Next to the Word of God his favorite selections for 
 this purpose were from the older Scottish and Eng- 
 lish divines, those whose writings evinced the deepest 
 Christian experience and the most vivid sense of the 
 divine presence and love. The writings of Samuel 
 Rutherford occupied perhaps the first place in his 
 esteem. To his letters, especially, he would turn 
 again and again, as presenting the thoughts and 
 aspirations of a thoroughly congenial spirit, often 
 re-reading or recalling a favorite passage on Sabbath 
 morning in connection with his immediate preparation 
 for the pulpit. Yet he was by nature no recluse or 
 ascetic ; his piety, as we have seen, was of the most 
 active and practical type. It was in the closet that 
 he received his baptism of power. He sought to live 
 in habitual communion with God, as if in the very 
 pavilion of his presence ; and hence the power and 
 far-reaching influence of his consecrated life. 
 
TRIBUTES. 
 
 From an editorial in the Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette. 
 
 " The Rev. Samuel J. Wilson, D. D., senior pro- 
 fessor in the Western Theological Seminary, was one of 
 the best theologians of the Presbyterian Church, and 
 his demise in the zenith of his intellectual power and 
 in the midst of his usefulness will be severely felt and 
 widely lamented. He was pure and spotless in his 
 private life, and an earnest and devoted teacher of 
 the doctrines of Christianity." 
 
 From an editorial in the Interior. 
 
 '' Dr. Wilson ranked among the finest orators and 
 ablest men in the pulpit and in the teacher's chair. 
 He was symmetrical in mind and character, and of 
 bright and agreeable presence. With all his intel- 
 lectual strength and his scholarship, he combined 
 tender sympathies and an easily stirred emotional 
 nature. Human, humane, brilliant in talents, modest, 
 and devoted, the Church has met with a loss of the 
 first magnitude in his untimely death." 
 
 The Rev. Henry C. Minton D, D., in the Presbyterian Banner. 
 
 " His career was unique. His life was an inspiration 
 and an object lesson. It grandly illustrated not only 
 his own force of character, but the force of the prin- 
 
Xlii TRIBUTES. 
 
 ciples he held. His loyalty to truth, blended with 
 charity for error, furnishes a lesson we all need to 
 learn. His students and friends can never forget his 
 impressive simplicity of character." 
 
 From the New York Observe^'. 
 
 " Dr. Wilson was one of the ablest and most distin- 
 guished ministers in the Presbyterian Church. His 
 public addresses were characterized by great learning 
 and argumentative power. As a professor his great 
 characteristic was luminous clearness ; as a man, 
 transparent sincerity^ and singleness of heart. His 
 students were devoted to him, and there will be 
 unfeigned sorrow at his death in every continent of 
 the globe, among the many graduates of the Seminary 
 who have enjoyed his teaching." 
 
 From an editorial in the Pittsburgh Leader. 
 
 *' Professor Wilson was in the prime of his intel- 
 lectual manhood, was capable to an extraordinary 
 degree of inciting that enthusiasm in young men, 
 without which all teaching is vain, and was probably 
 held in more affectionate esteem than any divine in 
 the Presbyterian Church of the West. He was, it is 
 safe to say, one of the most popular platform speakers 
 in the United States, and before and during the war 
 he distinguished himself by his patriotic addresses to 
 soldiers and sailors, and his death is a public loss." 
 
 From an editorial in the Preshytefian. 
 
 " The worth of Dr. Wilson, his great acquisitions, 
 and his rare excellence of character made him widely 
 known not only throughout the Presbyterian Church, 
 
TRIBUTES. Xliii 
 
 but to many outside of its pale. A thoroughly modest 
 man, he never thrust himself upon the notice of the 
 Church, and only his great merit and his abundant 
 labors drew to him the attention of all. His departure 
 is a sad loss to the whole Church. There is no man 
 in the denomination who held the confidence of the 
 people more fully, and to whom, in any contest for 
 the orthodox faith, more eyes would have turned as 
 unto a leader and guide." 
 
 From an editorial in the New York Evangelist. 
 
 " That the death of Dr. Wilson has occasioned great 
 sorrow throughout the wide circle of his personal 
 acquaintance is a matter of course : for he was pos- 
 sessed of qualities to call out warm friendship. And 
 to a yet larger number who, though not intimate with 
 him, yet recognized his excellence and devotion as 
 a preacher and trainer of ministers, the sad event will 
 be long remembered. The Church at large experi- 
 ences a heavy loss in this sudden striking down of 
 one who stood in the front ranks of her ministry, and 
 was an habitual bearer of heavy cares and burdens. 
 Dr. Wilson loved the truth, and the. brotherhood 
 which he believed to be its best embodiment. Thus 
 his duties were congenial, and the Church has profited 
 by all the mind and strength of a true son." 
 
 From the Pittsburgh Chronicle. 
 
 ''In his public addresses Dr. Wilson showed himself 
 a man of great earnestness and force, and his popu- 
 larity as a speaker can best be illustrated by the fact 
 that his lecture on John Knox made so great an 
 
Xliv TRIBUTES. 
 
 impression that he was invited to deliver it over and 
 over again. Naturally, after obliging his friends 
 about a hundred times, he had earned the right to 
 decline any further invitations to this end. Dr. Wil- 
 son made some splendid speeches at the breaking 
 out of the War of the Rebellion ; speeches which 
 vibrated with life and energy, and devotion to the 
 Union, and which roused the spirit of the people of 
 Western Pennsylvania, as but few other efforts at 
 the time could do. His learning, sagacity, integrity, 
 and charity made him a counsellor in church affairs 
 of unapproachable value." 
 
 The Rev. Daniel W. Fisher, D. D., LL. D., President of Han- 
 over College, in the Herald and Presbyter. 
 
 " Professor Wilson profoundly impressed himself 
 upon his students. He did this in part by virtue 
 of unquestionable superiority of intellectual gifts, 
 scholarship, and piety. But it seems to me that with 
 these qualities as a basis, the main secret of his 
 influence over his pupils was his royal manliness. 
 Intense by natural disposition, he threw the whole 
 fervor of his being in the direction of that which is 
 unselfish and noble. There are people in our day 
 who think of orthodox Christianity and vital piety 
 as savoring of that which is weak and sentimental. 
 The best antidote for these wrong notions would be 
 to know such a man as Dr. Wilson. To his faith he 
 added virtue, in the true Christian sense of the 
 word — strength married to gentleness and humility. 
 To this quality he also was largely indebted for much 
 of the tremendous power which he often wielded in 
 his sermons and public addresses." 
 
TRIBUTES. Xlv 
 
 The Rev. Samuel J. Niccolls, D. D., I.L. D., in an address to tlie 
 students of the Western Theological Seminary. 
 
 " What a rare man Dr. Wilson was ! He resembled 
 a mountain lake, silent in its power and fulness, never 
 moaning or clamorous like the sea ; pure, cool, trans- 
 parent, lying indeed in the earth, yet mirroring so 
 much of heaven. He was tender and gentle as a 
 woman, yet with inflexible firmness of principle and 
 conviction. His consecration to his work burnt like 
 a constant fire within him. 
 
 '' Eloquent in speech, a master in the arts of 
 homiletics, ripe in scholarship, and, above all, rich in 
 the experience of grace, he was as well qualified for 
 the pastoral office as for the professor's chair. We 
 can all give his memory the tribute of our tears ; but 
 to me there comes a feeling of loss and loneliness, as 
 I walk these halls, which I cannot cast aside. 
 
 " * He passed ; a soul of nobler tone ; 
 
 My spirit loved, and loves him yet, 
 Like some poor girl whose heart is set 
 On one whose rank exceeds her own.' " 
 
 Resolutions adopted by the officers of the Fourteenth Regiment, 
 N. G. P. 
 
 *' Whereas, Chaplain S. J. Wilson has been con- 
 nected with the Fourteenth Regiment since December, 
 1875, ^"^ t)y his courteous and Christian example 
 has endeared himself to every member of the organiza- 
 tion and set an example worthy of emulation, there- 
 fore be it 
 
 ^^ Resolved, That in the sudden and unexpected death 
 of our chaplain we mourn and feel that we have lost 
 
Xlvi TRIBUTES. 
 
 an earnest and sincere friend and spiritual adviser, 
 and a consistent worker among the members of tiie 
 regiment. That we bow with submission to the will 
 of Him who does all things right, knowing that if 
 we live the life that he did we shall all meet when 
 the final roll is called across the river ; and be it 
 further 
 
 " Resolved, That these resolutions be recorded in the 
 adjutant's record of the regiment and a copy be sent 
 to the family of our dearly beloved chaplain. Further, 
 that we wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty 
 days, and that the officers attend the funeral in a 
 body." 
 
 From an editorial in the Pittsburgh Times. 
 
 " In the death of Professor S. J. Wilson the age loses 
 a man whose place cannot be refilled perhaps during 
 the present generation. While consistent in every- 
 thing he advocated, whether of a secular or spiritual 
 nature, his forcible utterances were always straight to 
 the point and were calculated to sway the actions of 
 men who were not easily led by another's eloquence. 
 As a minister he was eminently practical in all he 
 advised, and was singularly free from any suspicion 
 of the 'bunkums' that too often detract from the 
 influence of otherwise worthy divines. This straight- 
 forward principle he carried into his sermons, and 
 they were as practical in their aims as any of the 
 secular enterprises engaged in by a successful 
 merchant. Professor Wilson, in his half century of life, 
 did more to elevate the cause of religion than almost 
 any other divine in Western Pennsylvania, and while 
 shedding a tear at his too early departure we must 
 
TRIBUTES. Xlvii 
 
 admit that he did the work of a long life during the 
 limited period he was allowed to remain on earth." 
 
 From the Minute adopted by the Presbytery of Pittsburgh. 
 
 "This Presbytery is profoundly moved by the utter- 
 ances of sister Presbyteries on every side regarding 
 the character and work of our beloved co-Presbyter, 
 Samuel Jennings Wilson. While it is not possible 
 that such a man can be the exclusive possession of 
 any fraction of the Church, yet next to his family, and 
 to the beloved pupils who were brought up at his feet 
 in the school of the prophets, this Presbytery feels 
 itself peculiarly bereaved in his demise. 
 
 " As we gather here to-day it is with unspeakable 
 sadness that we perceive that seat vacated which was 
 so seldom unoccupied at our meetings for the last 
 twenty years. We feel a melancholy pleasure in join- 
 ing our testimony with that of others as to our 
 brother's learning, so profound and varied ; as to his 
 unreserved consecration to Christ of all his gifts and 
 attainments ; his unswerving loyalty to the doctrines 
 and polity of the Presbyterian Church ; his forceful 
 eloquence as a preacher of the Gospel ; and his in- 
 valuable services to the cause of Christian education, 
 both in promoting the prosperity of Washington and 
 Jefferson College, and especially in subserving the 
 interests of the Western Theological Seminary, to 
 which his very life was a sacrifice. 
 
 '' But while we who knew Dr. Wilson most intimately 
 are proud to testify that in such tributes to his memory 
 there is no extravagant eulogy, we desire here to 
 emphasize our testimony to his exemplary character 
 as a Presbyter. Throughout the course of his varied, 
 
Xlviii TRIBUTES. 
 
 arduous, and willing labors, he by no means subordi- 
 nated his duty as a Presbyter, but made it co-ordinate 
 with the exercise of the other functions of his minis- 
 try. As an inflexible rule in his place at the organiz- 
 ation of Presbytery, he was found at his post at ad- 
 journment. A loving son with filial reverence to the 
 fathers in the ministry, he was an elder brother be- 
 loved to every younger minister; yet in Presbytery 
 the people were ever on his great heart. He was wont 
 to say, 'Brethren, the smallest church of Christ is 
 greater than any man ! ' 
 
 " Clear and positive in his conviction of principles 
 and methods ; earnest, ringing, and fervent in debate ; 
 his perfect sincerity and unmistakable deference to 
 the feelings and judgments of others won and kept 
 the affectionate esteem and respect of those who most 
 widely differed from his opinions. While his multi- 
 farious duties might seem to have rendered it im- 
 possible that he should add to the offices of professor, 
 presbyter, and preacher that of pastor, the truth is 
 that for fifteen of the best years of his life he fed and 
 led a flock of Christ in green pastures and by the still 
 waters. He preached with marked individuality — 
 with the power and demonstration of the Spirit. At 
 the same time he knew his flock. He lived in their 
 joys and sorrows. He kept accurate trace of their 
 temporal affairs and spiritual concerns. He habitu- 
 ally analyzed and formed a definite idea of the char- 
 acter of each member and adherent of the Sixth 
 Church, Pittsburgh, the people to whom he gave that 
 special work for the Master to which his mother dedi- 
 cated him in infancy. 
 
 " Whether in the sanctuary feeding the flock of 
 
TRIBUTES. xHx 
 
 God, teaching in the school of the prophets, or sitting 
 with the elders of Israel, he was alike eminently use- 
 ful to the Church." 
 
 From a paper adopted by the Presbytery of Washington, Pa. 
 
 " Some men are great by the position in which 
 Providence has placed them ; some again are distin- 
 guished by the gifts of fortune, and have acquired 
 fame and distinction by the noble use of the means 
 which God has committed to their stewardship. 
 Others, like our departed friend, are endowed with 
 those remarkable intellectual and moral qualities 
 which, in their combination, always compel the atten- 
 tion of men ; exerting an influence and commanding 
 a respect which is not limited by position and is not 
 dependent upon the gifts of fortune. This kind of 
 greatness belongs to the man and not to his place ; 
 it is individual and not official ; it is inherent and not 
 reflected from place or circumstance. It is a great- 
 ness which is not exaggerated by distance, but is felt 
 the more as we approach the nearer. 
 
 " Dr. Wilson had a wonderful facility in acquiring 
 knowledge, and to this he added ready eloquence and 
 quick sagacity in seeing the true bearing of questions 
 which required an unflinching adherence to Script- 
 ural principles, and conscientious convictions which 
 no gentleness of spirit, or influence of retiring mod- 
 esty, ever brought him to compromise or suppress. 
 
 "He was equally distinguished for his resolution 
 and self-reliance. Hence it was that from his very 
 boyhood, through the whole course of his life, he was 
 so eminently a self-made man. He had untiring 
 enero^v — work was his element. He was never idle, 
 
1 ■ TRIBUTES. 
 
 and while life lasted he worked. Of all things he 
 loved to preach the Gospel of the free and glorious 
 grace of God. No one who has had the good for- 
 tune to hear him can ever forget the grand exhibitions 
 of truth which he presented. 
 
 ''But it was not in the pulpit only that Dr. Wilson 
 shone ; in his private sphere of action as a Christian 
 his virtues were not less distinguished than his duties 
 as a minister. He was a man of ardent piety, though 
 he was not forward to speak of his religious exer- 
 cises. Deep devotion and unaffected humility 
 entered largely into this part of his character. His 
 nobility of mind rendered him utterly incapable of 
 performing a mean or selfish act, his native kind- 
 ness of disposition, sweetened still more by grace, 
 made those who knew him trust and love him, bind- 
 ing men who stood in nearest relation to him with 
 the strongest bonds. He was a genial companion, 
 and, in his hours of relaxation, mingled with his 
 chosen friends in conversation with a heartiness that 
 was delightful. He was a firm and true friend as 
 well in adversity as in prosperity. 
 
 " He was a remarkably modest man, as free from 
 arrogance and presumption, as humble in the esti- 
 mate of his own importance, as one can be well con- 
 ceived to be in this world of sin. And yet he was 
 as brave a man as ever lived. 
 
 " He was a successful and accomplished professor 
 in the Theological Seminary. He was a thorough 
 Presbyterian in his views of doctrine and order. He 
 was not merely acquainted with the doctrines of the 
 Gospel, but they so imbued his whole train of thought 
 that they came forth in his teaching without effort 
 
TRIBUTES. 
 
 li 
 
 or labor in all their native majesty and grace. He 
 united in his own person a remarkable assemblage 
 of those qualities which fit a man for discharging his 
 high trust as a professor ; he possessed in a high 
 degree the dignity that commands respect, the 
 accuracy that inspires confidence, the ardor that 
 kindles animation, the kindness that wins affection. 
 
 " On the whole, if a bright intellect, unaffected 
 simplicity of manners, stanch integrity of heart, un- 
 swerving fidelity in friendship, the gentleness of the 
 lamb, and the boldness of the lion, — and all these 
 qualities consecrated by a piety the most ardent and 
 sincere on the high altar of devotion, — have any claim 
 to respect, the memory of Dr. S. J. Wilson will long 
 be cherished with tears of admiration and sorrow by 
 those who knew him." 
 
 The Rev. Dr. A. A. Hodge in the Presbyterian Review. 
 
 " The death of Rev. Professor Samuel Jennings 
 Wilson, D. D., LL. D., of the Western Theological 
 Seminary, Allegheny City, Pa., is noticed in the 
 editorial pages of the Presbyterian Review because 
 he was from the beginning one of its most honored 
 and influential Associate Editors. The undersigned 
 is entrusted with the preparation of this notice, 
 because he was for thirteen years the colleague and 
 intimate friend of its distinguished subject. 
 
 '' The fact that Professor Wilson was by the sponta- 
 neous suffrages of his peers made the first Moderator 
 of the great Synod of Pennsylvania, accurately marks 
 his rank in the entire Christian ministry of that 
 immense Commonwealth. In learning, ability, elo- 
 quence, and influence he was beyond question the 
 
In TRIBUTES. 
 
 most eminent Christian minister of any denomina- 
 tion in his native State. And it is a coincidence that 
 will not be forgotten that Pennsylvania's greatest 
 minister, Samuel Jennings Wilson, and her greatest 
 lawyer, Jeremiah Black, lay awaiting their burial at 
 the same time. 
 
 " There are two measures of a man's greatness : the 
 one to be determined in the estimate of his intrinsic 
 qualities, the other by his acquired position and rela- 
 tion to the community of which he is a part. In each 
 of these Professor Wilson's claim to be regarded great 
 is valid. 
 
 " His natural faculties were of a high order, and 
 they were earnestly and wisely exercised in the high- 
 est uses from his childhood. He possessed capacity 
 for concentrated and sustained attention, a retentive 
 rnemory, wide and clear intellectual vision, accurate 
 judgment, vivid and fertile imagination, strong affec- 
 tions, burning enthusiasm, and unparalleled powers 
 of expression by word, look, and gesture. The 
 foundation laid in his school and college days for 
 his future scholarly growth was accurate and broad. 
 Afterward he continued uninterruptedly to the close 
 of his laborious life a constant student in every 
 branch of his profession, and a wide general reader. 
 He was for twenty-eight years tutor and Professor of 
 Sacred and Ecclesiastical History and of the History 
 of Doctrines, but on different occasions and for pro- 
 tracted periods he also discharged the duties of the 
 professors of Hebrew and Old Testament Literature, 
 of New Testament Greek and Exegesis, and of Sys- 
 tematic Theology, and all with distinguished success. 
 His thought was as clear as light, his judgment 
 
TRIBUTES. liil 
 
 sound, and heart-pure and brave and as true as steel. 
 He was extraordinarily grave and silent in his 
 manner ; often, in the company of his colleagues or 
 in his family, giving for long passages of time no 
 other sign of conscious life than that afforded by the 
 following of his watchful eye. But under that ap- 
 parently sleeping surface a whole teeming world of 
 life brooded, and sometimes volcanic fires rolled. 
 His preaching, as the many thousand hearers of his 
 oration on John Knox will testify, and as the majority 
 of the churches in Western Pennsylvania and Eastern 
 Ohio will cherish among their proudest sectional 
 traditions, was often characterized by the most mov- 
 ing and overmastering eloquence. Often in the 
 Seminary prayer meeting- his voice broke upon us like 
 the sound of a trumpet, and he at once lifted up the 
 whole service to a higher level of vision and devotion. 
 
 " The true greatness of a man rests more in his char- 
 acter, especially in its moral elements, than in his 
 intellect or his learning. Professor Wilson in this 
 species also graded among the very highest of his 
 generation. He was unselfish, pure, absolutely con- 
 secrated to his chief ends, concentrated in purpose, 
 of strong will, of strong passions held in restraint and 
 always made to serve reason and conscience. Self- 
 respectful but unambitious, sympathetic with all weak- 
 ness and suffering, strong as a lion, tender as a 
 woman, true and honorable as a knight of Christ, 
 
 " As to the second element of greatness found in his 
 position and his relation to his community, Professor 
 Wilson must be estimated as occupying an even yet 
 higher rank. He was native to the soil, embodying 
 in finest quality and proportions the characteristic 
 
liv TRIBUTES. 
 
 excellences of Scotch-Irish ancestry and or the 
 Western Pennsylvanian population. He was truly 
 representative as a man, and as a Presbyterian minis- 
 ter, in a sense and to a degree not true of any other 
 man of his generation. His grandfather, Thomas 
 Dill, gave his whole life to prayer ; visiting in turn all 
 the sections of Western Pennsylvania and Virginia 
 and Eastern Ohio, seeking the conversion of souls 
 and the revival of the Church. His mother, Jane 
 Dill, was a woman of great force of character and 
 eminently spiritual and devoted. She consecrated 
 her son to the ministry from his birth, and impressed 
 her own character and purpose upon him in his 
 infancy. 
 
 " On the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of 
 his entering upon his professorship, he said : ' I am 
 glad to have the opportunity of saying that whatever 
 I am is due to my mother. I would rather hear it 
 said that my mother was Jane Dill, and my grand- 
 father praying Thomas Dill, than to hear it said that 
 my mother was Queen and my grandfather Emperor.' 
 He struggled to gain his education, but went up 
 through all the stages first in each class from the 
 start. He became teacher in every school in which 
 he learned, retaining to the end a most absolute 
 identification of himself and his interests with his 
 scholars and his schools, and of the section of the 
 nation out of which these grew. His roots ran out 
 into all that land and took deep and wide hold of the 
 ground. 
 
 '* Every student, especially every struggling student, 
 was taken into his heart. The professor appeared 
 always reticent and undemonstrative, yet no honest 
 
TRIBUTES. IV 
 
 Student ever misread the man. It was to him before 
 any of his colleagues through all those years of service 
 that the student needing sympathy went ; whether 
 poor, or sick, or bereaved, or in spiritual darkness, or 
 in need of counsel for his future course. Once lov- 
 ing he loved forever, for greater tenacity of fibre 
 God never wrought out of Scotch-Irish or Northman 
 blood. Thus his nearly one thousand graduate^ 
 remained bound to his heart by hoops of steel. He 
 prayed for them, wept with them, gloried over them, 
 following them along all their ways. And they knew 
 him and gloried in him as their leader, and now they 
 weep over the wide world, for their prince is dead. 
 
 " He was naturally put forward as the representative 
 of his section, and as such bore all the honors from 
 his immediate constituents, and from the Church as a 
 whole, open to the career of a Presbyterian minister. 
 He had been Moderator of the Synod of Pittsburgh, 
 and was Moderator of the great Synod of Pennsyl- 
 vania at the time of his death. He was Moderator of 
 the General Assembly in 1874, was for a time acting 
 President of Washington and Jefferson College, and 
 would have been so always if he had not preferred to 
 be the presiding professor of the Western Theological 
 Seminary. He represented his Church in the pre- 
 paratory meeting in London in 1875, and in the Grand 
 Council in Philadelphia in 1880. He was the orator 
 always spontaneously chosen to represent his de- 
 nomination as a whole on its grandest occasions, as 
 upon the Tercentenary Anniversary of Presbyterian- 
 ism, A. D. 1872, in Philadelphia, and his own more 
 immediate circle, as at the funerals of men so pre- 
 eminent in his section as the Rev. Dr. Elisha P. 
 
Ivi TRIBUTES. 
 
 Swift and Rev. Dr. C. C. Beatty. And if he had con- 
 tinued in his place for a century, all the elements of 
 power, and all the tributes of love and honor from 
 a wide constituency, would more and more have 
 gathered into his hands. 
 
 "Western Pennsylvania has generously entertained, 
 while they lived, many an ally enlisted from other 
 fields, and with equal generosity cherished their 
 memory after their death. But there is no risk in 
 anticipating the judgment of history in inscribing in 
 letters of gold the name of her own son, Samuel 
 Jennings Wilson, at the head of the list, first and best 
 beloved, and longest remembered of a noble line. 
 Dear friend, it was a blessing to know thy heart. It 
 will be a living joy to assist in keeping thy memory 
 ereen." 
 
I. 
 
 JOHN KNOX. 
 
OCCASIONAL 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS, 
 
 I. 
 
 JOHN KNOX.* 
 
 At the beginning of the sixteenth century Scotland 
 was wrapped in the densest gloom of intellectual and 
 moral darkness. Feudalism, ignorance, superstition, 
 licentiousness, and tyranny — the worst elements of 
 the Middle Ages — held brutal sway throughout her 
 borders. The bishops and abbots, with half of the 
 wealth of the realm in their coffers, outranking princes 
 and nobles both in dignity and power, and setting at 
 defiance alike the laws of God and man, outraged 
 every principle of virtue and every dictate of decency. 
 Priests and friars, bestial in their stolid sensualness, 
 filled the land like the frogs of Egypt. There were 
 friars white and friars black and friars gray — friars 
 of every hue and habit and description, and friars 
 everywhere. 
 
 Monasteries and nunneries were counted by the 
 hundred, and each several one of them was a leprous 
 plague-spot. The investigation into the condition of 
 monasteries in England which was ordered by Henry 
 Vni. disclosed a corruption as festering and loathsome 
 as that upon which fire and brimstone were rained in 
 
 *At the tercentenary celebration, Philadelphia, November 20, 
 1872. 
 
4 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERxMONS. 
 
 Sodom. The state of morals in the Scottish monas- 
 teries was, if possible, worse. 
 
 The people had these bishops, abbots, priests, and 
 friars for their teachers, leaders, and examples in holy 
 living. '' The priest's lips no longer kept knowl- 
 edge ; " and when immortal souls " sought the law at 
 his mouth," they were tantalized with dead forms in 
 a dead language, which were as destitute of the spirit 
 and grace of the gospel as a mummy of the Pyramids, 
 wrapped in cerecloth, is destitute of warm, pulsing 
 blood and stirring passions. The Bible was almost 
 as unknown as one of the lost Sibylline books. The 
 pulpit was obsolete. Instead of the sermon were 
 substituted gossip, scandal, ribald jest, and obscene 
 comedy. By means of excommunication, anathema, 
 and interdict — the most terrific ecclesiastical ma- 
 chinery ever invented — the clergy tyrannized relent- 
 lessly over the souls and bodies of men. Priests 
 ground the faces of the poor as systematically and 
 as sedulously as though they had been called of God 
 and ordained of men for this specific service. The 
 Church, which should have been the friend and 
 helper and teacher and lifter-upof the people — which 
 should have been quick to discern their wants and 
 swift to avenge their wrongs — used all its power to 
 keep them in ignorance, to foster their superstitions, 
 and to add to the bitterness of their burdens. 
 
 This apostate Church, winking at every species of 
 vice, and tolerant of all forms of iniquity, '' breathed 
 out threatenings and slaughter " against all who ven- 
 tured to question her authority or dared to seek for 
 light and truth. For all such she had the ready argu- 
 ment of tyrants, 7^;t and sword. Men were burned at 
 
JOHN KNOX. 5 
 
 the stake for having the New Testament in a language 
 in which they could read and understand it. Yet this 
 vast despotism, with all its elaborate machinery of 
 oppression, was impotent to arrest the progress of the 
 truth. It could burn men with balls of brass in their 
 mouths to keep them from preaching the Gospel in the 
 flames, but it could not destroy or paralyze the truth 
 for which these men died. 
 
 But the day of Scotland's redemption was drawing 
 nigh. The echo of the voices of Wickliffe and Huss 
 sounded faintly along her shores. By and by she 
 caught glimpses of the light which had been kindled 
 in Germany, Switzerland, and France. 
 
 A youth of twenty, with the blood of earls and 
 dukes in his veins, invested with a high ecclesiastical 
 dignity from his childhood, and with a long and 
 brilliant line of promotion open before him, began 
 to feel the stirrings of the new spirit that was 
 abroad among the nations ; went to Germany, sat 
 at the feet of Luther and Melanchthon at Wittenberg, 
 caught the enthusiasm of the eloquent converted 
 Franciscan monk, Francis Lambert, at Marburg, and 
 returned to Scotland all aflame with zeal to preach 
 the gospel. One afternoon a fire was prepared in 
 front of the old college in St. Andrews, and this 
 young man — only three-and-twenty years old — died 
 at the stake as only one of God's heroes can die, and 
 then history wrote, in ineffaceable characters, the 
 name of the proto-martyr of the Scottish Reformation 
 — Patrick Ha in iltou . 
 
 As had been predicted, " the reik of Patrick Hamil- 
 ton infected as many as it blew upon." From his 
 ashes sprung men armed with the panoply of the Gos- 
 
6 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 pel. The hierarchy could burn men, but these very 
 burnings kindled a light which could not be put out. 
 A learned and eloquent evangelist arose in the person 
 of George Wishart. When he preached, crowds hung 
 upon his lips, spellbound, by the hour. If churches 
 were shut against him, he preached in the streets, on 
 dikes, or from city gates. His voice rang like a trum- 
 pet through Scotland. It was one of the few truly 
 brave and grand voices that have been heard in this 
 world, but it was soon quenched in fire. On the 
 gentle slope in front of the castle of St. Andrews, the 
 sea sounding his requiem, George Wishart gloriously 
 sealed his testimony with his blood. His persecutors, 
 fearing that eloquent, clarion voice even in the flames, 
 stopped his utterance by tightening a cord around his 
 neck. Through the tapestried window of the castle, 
 reclining on luxurious cushions, Cardinal Beaton wit- 
 nessed the martyrdom, glutting his lecherous eyes 
 with the agonies of this illustrious witness of the 
 truth. 
 
 The hierarchy, wielding the tremendous power 
 which had been won for it by Hildebrand and Inno- 
 cent III., bearing two swords, the temporal as well as 
 the spiritual, insolently lording it over prince, priests, 
 and people, and setting its face like a flint against all 
 enlightenment of the intellect or soul, exercised a most 
 cruel and heartless despotism. Its spirit was devil- 
 ish. So long as its magnates could roll in wealth, so 
 long as they could pamper their lazy bodies on the 
 hard earnings of the poor, so long as without restraint 
 or let or hindrance they could indulge their brutal 
 lusts and passions, they were content ; but rather than 
 lose an, iota of their ill-gotten and ill-used power, 
 
JOHN KNOX. 7 
 
 rather than have the people read the Word of God for 
 themselves, they would see Scotland lighted from one 
 end to the other with blazing stakes and fagots. 
 They had the power, and they used it savagely. Their 
 inquisition for those who dared to preach Christ was 
 as keen and unerring as the scent of the bloodhound. 
 Every voice that was raised in behalf of truth and 
 righteousness was stifled in fire. Every kindling of 
 light was trodden out in blood. To have the love of 
 Christ in the heart, and to dare proclaim it, was swift 
 and sure destruction. 
 
 Whence, then, can deliverance come ? Where can 
 be found a man strong enough and brave enough to 
 grapple with this gigantic despotism, whose mighty 
 power has been the steady growth of ages ? Has God 
 in his quiver one such arrow ? Has he, in all his 
 kingdom, one such champion hero ? 
 
 A tutor in the family of Douglass of Langniddrie, 
 who had been a teacher of philosophy at St. Andrews, 
 until, becoming disgusted with the jargon of scho- 
 lasticism and the corruptions of papacy, he abandoned 
 the one and renounced the other, became the devoted 
 follower and chivalrous sword-bearer of George Wish- 
 art. When Wishart was arrested, he advised the 
 tutor to return to " his bairns," as he could no longer 
 be of any service to him. Very reluctantly, and only 
 after earnest remonstrances, the tutor followed this 
 advice. Besides teaching the classics, he exercised 
 his pupils daily in the Holy Scriptures and indoctri- 
 nated them theologically, by catechetical instruction, 
 and at stated intervals these catechisings were public. 
 
 The times were now fraught with momentous 
 issues, and events big with the destinies of peoples 
 
8 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 crowded thick upon each other. A few months only- 
 after the day upon which Cardinal Beaton, lounging 
 on his velvet cushions, had witnessed from his window 
 in the castle, with undisguised satisfaction, the burn- 
 ing of Wishart, his own lifeless body, covered with 
 the gaping wounds of assassins' daggers, was hung as 
 a public spectacle from that identical window. 
 
 The tutor of Douglass, together with his pupils, 
 took refuge in the castle of St. Andrews, which was 
 then held by the enemies of the late cardinal. Here 
 he was soon recognized as one who was eminently 
 fitted to become the teacher and leader of men and of 
 princes, rather than to be the tutor of boys. When 
 the judgment of his friends in this regard was 
 solemnly announced to him, and he was adjured to 
 undertake the work of the ministry, he burst into a 
 flood of tears, shut himself in his chamber, and for 
 days was overwhelmed with the profoundest grief. 
 Through the importunity of friends, and partly through 
 the impertinence of a certain champion of the papacy, 
 he was at length constrained to enter the pulpit in, 
 defence of the truth. It was a memorable day in 
 Scottish history when he first preached in the parish 
 church at St. Andrews. Brave men held their breath 
 as they listened to his bold and sweeping utterances. 
 Such preaching had not been heard in Scotland for 
 ages. " Others hewed the branches of the papistry, 
 but he struck at the root." Some rejoiced and took 
 courage, some doubted, some hoped, some feared, 
 many were furious, but all felt that there was a new 
 power in the world, while a few chosen spirits recog- 
 nized John Knox cjs the ordained champion and leader 
 of the revolution then beginning in Scotland. 
 
JOHN KNOX. 9 
 
 By the aid of French forces the castle of St. An- 
 drews was reduced, Knox was taken prisoner, was 
 loaded with chains and confined as a galley-slave. 
 Through hardship, exposure, and sickness his body 
 was reduced to a skeleton, but his spirit remained in- 
 vincible. Once the galley on which he was confined 
 came in sight of St. Andrews, and the spires of the 
 city being pointed out to him, he was asked if he knew 
 the place. With kindling eye he replied : " Yes, I 
 know it well, for I see the steeple of that place where 
 God first opened my mouth in public to his glory, and 
 I am fully persuaded, how weak soever I now appear, 
 that I shall not depart this life till that my tongue 
 shall glorify his godly name in the same place." We 
 admire the indomitable spirit of Julius Caesar, who 
 threatened to their faces to crucify the pirates who 
 held him in their power as a prisoner ; but these 
 words of Knox, in the condition in which he then 
 was, breathe a grander courage than that of Julius 
 Caesar. 
 
 Released from the galleys, he spent five years in 
 England as an asylum from persecution, and as a 
 preacher in Berwick and New Castle he was " mighty 
 in word"; as Chaplain to Edward VI. he "stood 
 before kings"; as a court preacher he was as plain 
 and fearless and searching as Latimer ; as a theolo- 
 gian he was consulted in regard to the Book of Com- 
 mon Prayer and the Articles of Religion ; as a divine 
 a brilliant line of promotion was open before him in 
 the Anglican Church. Edward VI. proffered him a 
 bishopric, and any dignity in the English Church was 
 within his easy reach ; but he could accept none 
 of these without the sacrifice of honest and well- 
 
lO OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 grounded convictions, and he therefore relinquished 
 them all " for conscience' sake," and remained loyally 
 and heroically true to these convictions in spite of 
 gold and glory. He remained poor and untitled ; but 
 is there a title on earth that would add any dignity to 
 the simple name John Knox ? 
 
 When that " idolatrous Jezebel, mischievous Mary 
 of the Spaniard's blood," came to the throne, Knox 
 was compelled to flee from England. He went first 
 to France, thence to Switzerland, and thence to Ger- 
 many. His exile on the Continent forms an important 
 segment of his life, for it threw him into contact with 
 other Reformers from all parts of the world, and 
 afforded him time for study and mature reflection. 
 In the matter of the church at Frankfort, he had an 
 opportunity of testifying publicly against the false 
 and pernicious principles upon which the English 
 Reformation was conducted, and, in consequence, he 
 again proudly accepted exile rather than sacrifice or 
 compromise a jot or tittle of his honest convictions. 
 But the most important feature of this part of his life 
 was his intercourse with John Calvin at Geneva. 
 These two great men, whose influence has struck 
 deeper into the currents of history than that of any 
 other two men then living, entertained the most ardent 
 esteem and friendship for each other. Although 
 Knox at this time was fifty years old, he pursued his 
 studies at Geneva as diligently and enthusiastically 
 as the merest tyro. This seems to have been the sun- 
 niest part of his stormy life. He was engaged in con- 
 genial studies and he was surrounded with congenial 
 companions, yet he relinquished these studies and the 
 society of congenial spirits in Switzerland, and re- 
 
JOHN KNOX. II 
 
 turned to Scotland just so soon as he felt that he 
 could be of service there. 
 
 Back once more in his dear native land, he 
 preached day and night, almost incessantly, and the 
 "word grew mightily." No part of his life was more 
 fruitful of great results than this brief sojourn in Scot- 
 land at this time. His clear vision pierced through 
 all disguises, shams, and compromises. His sharp, 
 incisive judgment penetrated to the very core of the 
 issue. To him all compliance with papal ceremonies 
 was treason to the cause of truth. With a steady 
 hand, that never missed its aim, he at one blow cut 
 the last tie that bound the hesitating Reformers to 
 the papacy. Thus early in the struggle he settled at 
 once and forever the policy of the Reformation in 
 Scotland. There were to be no compromises, no tem- 
 porizing expediences. The work was to be genuine 
 and thorough. At this time, when almost totally 
 hidden from the world and unknown to it, he laid deep 
 and immovable the foundations of the Scottish Refor- 
 mation. His glowing earnestness fused the floating, 
 incoherent elements of Reform into consistency, sym- 
 metry, and strength. A master-hand was on the 
 helm, and the noble ship, responding to his touch, as- 
 sumed that course which she held triumphantly to the 
 end. All ecclesiastical history since that day is a vin- 
 dication of Knox's policy of the Reformation. It is 
 the only true policy. 
 
 Called to the pastorate of the English church in 
 Geneva in 1556, Knox returned to Switzerland, where 
 he remained for two years. While there his time 
 was occupied in preaching, in pastoral labor, in work- 
 ing upon the Geneva Bible, and in uttering his terrible 
 
12 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 " Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regi- 
 ment of Women." 
 
 In the meantime the queen regent of Scotland, 
 " crafty, dissimulate, and false," having thrown off her 
 cunningly woven disguises, took the first step toward 
 the total extirpation of the Reformation in Scotland 
 by summoning the Protestant preachers to stand their 
 trials at Stirling. The queen regent, Hamilton, arch- 
 bishop of St. Andrews, and Beaton, archbishop of 
 Glasgow, notwithstanding bitter and rankling jeal- 
 ousies among themselves, had joined hands for the 
 purpose of crushing out Protestantism utterly. The 
 plans were all matured. The plot was ripe. The 
 mine was about to be sprung. At this supreme crisis 
 the man whom God had been preparing, by a long and 
 severe discipline, to be one of his ordained instru- 
 ments in great achievements, steps suddenly upon the 
 scene. Elijah was kept hidden in obscurity until he 
 was to confront Ahab. Moses had a forty years' dis- 
 cipline in the wilderness, and came from the deserts of 
 Midian to stand before Pharaoh. Moses and Elijah 
 were no more really chosen, ordained, and prepared 
 ministers of God to act in great crises of the Church 
 than was John Knox. In slavery and in exile his 
 nature was seasoned and toughened to the texture of 
 true heroism. In his public catechisings at Langnid- 
 drie, he first trained to popular speaking that voice 
 which afterward shook thrones and dashed to pieces 
 the schemes and policies of kings, queens, princes, and 
 nobles. 
 
 On the invitation of certain noblemen he returned 
 to Scotland " in the brunt of the battle." His appear- 
 ance at Edinburgh, as sudden and as unexpected as 
 
JOHN KNOX. 13 
 
 the appearance of Elijah at vSamaria, created among 
 his enemies as great a panic as though it had been the 
 invasion of a hostile army. A good man in earnest, 
 and with a good cause, is as " the chariots of Israel 
 and the horsemen thereof," mightier than armies and 
 navies. Although under sentence of outlawry and 
 liable at any hour to be arrested and executed, Knox 
 resolved to stand with his brethren at Stirling and 
 share their dangers and their fate, "by life, by death, 
 or else by both, to glorify God." But from this 
 threatened danger the Lord preserved both him and 
 them. 
 
 Amidst the throes of incipient civil war, and in veri- 
 fication of his own prediction while a galley-slave, he 
 returned to St. Andrews. The archbishop peremp- 
 torily forbade his preaching in the cathedral, and 
 threatened that in case he should dare to do so he 
 would be shot down in the pulpit by the soldiers. In 
 defiance of the archbishop's threat, and in spite of the 
 remonstrances of his friends, he yet preached. 
 
 This was the very crisis and pivot of the struggle. 
 At Augsburg the princes saved the Lutheran Refor- 
 mation, when the theologians would have compromised 
 or surrendered. Knox, by his splendid intrepidity, 
 saved the cause in Scotland, when nobles as brave as 
 the bravest would have yielded to the demands of the 
 archbishop. John Knox at St. Andrews is a figure as 
 grand and towering as Martin Luther before the diet 
 of Worms. 
 
 The effects and results of Knox's preaching at this 
 time were marvellous. In the three days at St. An- 
 drews — the primal see of Scotland — popery was 
 utterly overthrown, the Reformed worship was set up. 
 
14 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 images and pictures were torn from the churches, and 
 monasteries were demolished. Knox's doctrine was 
 as fatal to popish superstition as the fire which ran 
 along the ground in the plague of the hail was fatal 
 to the vegetable gods of Egypt. Wheresoever that 
 doctrine went — and it ran very swiftly — popish power 
 and popish idolatry, with all the paraphernalia thereof, 
 melted before it. 
 
 In less than a month after his triumphal appearance 
 at St. Andrews, Knox's voice was ringing among the 
 rafters of St. Giles's and of the Abbey church at Edin- 
 burgh. Chosen at once as pastor of St. Giles's, he 
 entered upon his labors in. that church which his 
 name has made historic throughout the world, and 
 where " his tongue was more than a match for Mary's 
 sceptre," and where so often " his voice in an hour 
 put more hfe into men than six hundred trumpets 
 could." 
 
 During the trying vicissitudes of civil war, Knox 
 was the one pillar of strength upon which Scotland 
 leaned with her whole weight. Wise in counsel, 
 utterly fearless in action, mighty in the resistless tor- 
 rents of his eloquence, the nation turned to him in- 
 stinctively as its God-given leader. With a price 
 upon his head, with hired assassins waylaying his 
 path, ever at the post of duty and of danger, " care- 
 less of his own carcass," thinking only of his dear 
 Scotland, in the darkest extremities of perilous times 
 waking the expiring courage of heroes with the trum- 
 pet peals of his eloquence, he fought the good fight 
 bravely through, until within one year peace was pro- 
 claimed, popery was abolished by act of Parliament, 
 and a confession prepared principally by himself was 
 
JOHN KNOX. 15 
 
 adopted. There never was a nobler fight or one 
 that was more signal in its achievements. A complete 
 revolution was accomplished, popery was abolished, 
 the Reformed Church had a firm status and a com- 
 plete Presbyterian organization. The battle was 
 really gained. Henceforth the struggle was to main- 
 tain the ground which had been won. 
 
 A more dangerous power, however, than fire and 
 sword was now to be encountered in the insidious in- 
 fluence of a brilliant court, which had as its centre the 
 beautiful and fascinating Mary Stuart. The eagle eye 
 of Knox perceived at once the point of danger, and 
 Mary, on the other hand, as soon discovered the one 
 power which stood in the way of the accomplishment 
 of her designs. Knox was summoned to Holy rood, 
 and in a long conference Mary tried her best to intim- 
 idate and awe him. She might as well have tried to 
 shake Salisbury Crags with the breath of her nostrils. 
 
 When the news of the massacre of the Protestants 
 at Vassy in France reached Holyrood, Mary had a 
 grand ball to celebrate the event. On the next Sab- 
 bath, Knox thundered in St. Giles's against those who 
 " were more exercised in fiddling and flinging 
 than in reading or hearing God's most blessed Word, 
 and those who danced as the Philistines their fathers 
 danced, for the pleasure which they take in the dis- 
 pleasure of God's people." Mary sent for Knox the 
 next day. He retracted nothing, but told the queen 
 to her face that her uncles, the Guises of France, 
 '' were enemies to God, and spared not to spill the 
 blood of many innocents," and then let her under- 
 stand very distinctly that " it was not his vocation to 
 stand at her chamber door and to have no further 
 
l6 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 liberty, but to whisper his mind in her Grace's ear." 
 That voice was for Scotland and the world. 
 
 " He departed," as he tells us in his " Historic," 
 *' with *d reasonable merry countenance." " He is not 
 afraid ! " whispered the papists as he passed. Turn- 
 ing upon them, he replied, " Why should the pleasing 
 countenance of a gentilwoman affray me ? I have 
 luiked on the faces of many angry men, and yet have 
 not been affrayed above measure." That man could 
 not be frightened. Next, Mary plied all her exquisite 
 art to flatter him, but in this she succeeded no better. 
 
 Times grew critical. Many of the nobles were 
 proving recreant. Knox sacrificed some of his dear- 
 est and sweetest friendships rather than yield an 
 inch or an iota to the growing encroachments of the 
 papacy. In his estimation one mass was worse for 
 Scotland than a hostile army. The nobles were ready 
 and anxious to compromise. Parliament was pliable 
 and plastic in the hands of Mary. Knox alone stood 
 in her way. He, therefore, must be silenced or put 
 out of her way somehow. 
 
 For the fifth time Knox was summoned to the pal- 
 ace. In a torrent of tears and a tempest of passion, 
 Mary stormed and railed at him. Carried beyond all 
 bounds of prudence, she at last spitefully exclaimed : 
 " What are you in this commonwealth ? " Grandly 
 Knox replied : " A subject born within the same, 
 madam ; and, albeit I am neither earl, lord, nor 
 baron within it, yet has God made me — how abject 
 soever I am in your eyes — a profitable member within 
 the same ; yea, madam, to me it appertains no less to 
 forewarn of such things as may hurt it, if I foresee 
 them, than it doth to any of the nobility." 
 
JOHN KNOX. 17 
 
 There is not in history a nobler answer. 
 
 For writing a circular letter, which he was author- 
 ized to do by the General Assembly when any exi- 
 gency demanded such a measure, he was arraigned 
 and tried for treason. He made a brave and able 
 defence, and to the bitter disappointment and chagrin 
 of Mary he was acquitted. The queen had learned 
 that Knox could not be intimidated, neither could he 
 be flattered, or cajoled, or wheedled into compliance 
 with her wishes. She had also discovered that she 
 could not have him beheaded for treason in Scotland. 
 
 She next entered into a conspiracy by which, 
 through a wholesale slaughter of the Protestants, she 
 hoped to get rid of her enemy. A league had been 
 formed between the Pope and the Guises, by which 
 Protestantism in France was to be utterly rooted out 
 by force. To this infernal bond Mary set her fair and 
 jewelled hand, and that brought Scotland within the 
 fatal scope of the league. But there is a wheel within 
 a wheel. A jealousy between Mary and her husband, 
 Darnley, and the consequent murder of Rizzio, turned 
 the fierce currents of history into other channels, and 
 Scotland was saved from the horrors of a massacre 
 such as that of St. Bartholomew. 
 
 Under the regency of Murray the Church had peace, 
 and the revolution of 1560 was ratified. There was 
 still a strong and vicious papal party, but by firmness 
 the regent kept down all insurrections until he was 
 taken off by the hand of an assassin. 
 
 Under the regency of Lennox there was civil war. 
 The castle of Edinburgh was held at this time by the 
 queen's forces, and these forces were under the com- 
 mand of the apostate Kirkcaldy of Grange. Over- 
 
l8 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 whelmed with grief on account of the death of his 
 beloved Murray, Knox had been smitten with apo- 
 plexy, and was no longer able to walk to church or to 
 ascend the pulpit without help. Yet he was as watch- 
 ful and fearless as ever. Not liking the reports 
 which he received of the preaching in St. Giles's, 
 Grange came down to church one morning with a 
 band of desperate men to intimidate the preacher. 
 The old man rightly interpreted their presence as a 
 threat, and, his infirmities forgotten for the time 
 being, his wonted fires flamed forth again ; and level- 
 ing his thunders right at Grange, he made the very 
 shingles on St. Giles's tremble. 
 
 His friends now feared for his life. The castle was 
 full of Hamiltons, all thirsting for his blood. He was 
 shot at through the window of his own house. But 
 he was totally unconscious of fear. At length he was 
 prevailed upon to leave Edinburgh, on the ground 
 that his longer continuance there would involve the 
 lives of his friends. He went to St. Andrews. 
 
 James Melville, who was then a student, has pre- 
 served for us in his diary a very graphic account of 
 the habits and appearance of the great Reformer at 
 this time. He brings the scenes vividly before us. 
 We see the tottering old man walking and sitting in 
 the yard at St. Salvator's College, calling the students 
 around him, exhorting them to be diligent in their 
 studies, to know God and his work in the country, 
 and to stand by the " gude cause." With his heart 
 yet young, we find him encouraging the students by 
 his presence at a play which was acted by them on 
 the occasion of the marriage of one of their regents. 
 We see him in his great weakness creeping to the 
 
JOHN KNOX. 19 
 
 kirk, "slowly and warily," with a "furring of 
 martics about his neck," a staff in one hand and 
 his trusty servant supporting him on the other side. 
 We see him lifted bodily by two men into the pulpit, 
 and then leaning wearily upon it for support. We 
 hear his tremulous, faltering, uncertain tones as he 
 opens the text ; we listen as he " proceeds moderately 
 for the space of half an hour"; and then entering 
 upon his application, he warms and glows until he 
 makes the students " grew and tremble so that they 
 cannot hold their pens to write," and kindling with 
 the rush and momentum of his thought, the spirit 
 triumphing over the half dead body, we see the shriv- 
 elled limbs become instinct with life and energy, 
 and the whole man " so active and vigorous that he 
 is like to ding the pulpit in blads and flie out of it." 
 
 Providence opened up the way for his return to 
 Edinburgh before he died. He returned according to 
 an earnest invitation, and on the express and emphatic 
 condition that he " should not temper his tongue or 
 cease to speak against the men of the castle." 
 
 Once more he is back in his old pulpit, but his voice 
 can no longer fill St. Giles's. To accommodate him 
 with a smaller audience chamber, the congregation 
 prepared for him the Tolbooth church. While these 
 preparations are in progress, I invite you to accom- 
 pany me for a little while to the Continent. 
 
 When Knox was driven out of England by " Bloody 
 Mary," he found a grateful asylum in France, where 
 he formed many intimate and ardent friendships. 
 Perilous times cement kindred spirits. 
 
 While Luther was lecturing on philosophy at Wit- 
 tenberg, the venerable Lefevre in France, through the 
 
20 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 Study of the Epistles of Paul, had reached the central 
 doctrine of the Reformation, justification by faith. 
 Brigonnet, bishop of Meaux, occupied the same theo- 
 logical ground. When, therefore, this doctrine was 
 proclaimed in Germany, France responded to it with 
 a quick and live sympathy. The leaven of the Gospel 
 spread rapidly from the professor in her great univer- 
 sity to the peasant in the furrow — from the prince by 
 the throne to the mechanic at his bench. Margaret 
 of Valois, queen of Navarre, the witty, the accom- 
 plished, and the beloved sister of Francis I., was in 
 full sympathy with the Reformation, and for some 
 time she carried the sympathies of her royal brother 
 with her. But it was not to be expected that the 
 enemies of the Gospel would quietly witness these 
 rapid conquests without putting men to death, " for 
 the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus 
 Christ." As in other countries, so in France, perse- 
 cutions raged fiercely. Loaded with every oppro- 
 brious epithet, charged with crimes as atrocious as 
 those which were laid against the early Christians by 
 the pagans, subjected to tortures as refined in cruelty 
 as those of Nero, in spite of fire and steel and the 
 balancoir, the noble band of martyrs and confessors 
 in France heroically maintained their course, singing 
 psalms at the stake, " glorifying God in the fires," 
 bearing their testimony to the truth, until their en- 
 raged persecutors, in order to silence them, cut out 
 their tongues and flung them, yet quivering, into their 
 faces. In the sixteenth century, France was the 
 bloodiest theatre of persecution of any country in 
 Europe save one. 
 Yet the blood of these glorious martyrs only ferti- 
 
JOHN KNOX. 21 
 
 lized the soil for the propagation of the truth. The 
 smoke of their sacrifice disseminated the principles 
 for which they died. The Scriptures were translated 
 into French by Olivetan, the relative of Calvin. The 
 Psalms, turned into metre by Marot, " the poet of 
 princes and the prince of poets," were sung at the 
 court and on the fashionable promenade of Paris, and 
 were hummed even by King Francis himself. The 
 printing-press was busy. It teemed with books and 
 tracts. Tracts were scattered like autumnal leaves in 
 the streets of Paris. 
 
 A placard against the mass was one night posted 
 on the walls of the principal cities throughout the 
 kingdom, and even on the king's own door. Francis 
 was infuriated when he thought of the insult against 
 his own majesty, and was alarmed and horrified when 
 he thought of the insult against the holy sacrament. 
 As a public expiation for this latter offence, he ordered 
 a solemn procession, which in its object, its spirit, its 
 incidents, its grotesque blending of extreme devout- 
 ness with savage ferocity, is one of the most unique 
 in history. Everything possible was done to make 
 it the most imposing spectacle of the kind that had 
 ever been witnessed in France. The highest digni- 
 taries in Church and State, emblazoned with the in- 
 signia of their offices, adorned the ranks. Every 
 shrine in Paris was emptied of relics, and the proces- 
 sion was graced with all the treasures of the reliquary, 
 from the crown of thorns to the beard of St. Louis. 
 Under a canopy borne by princes of the blood, the 
 host was carried by the bishop of Paris. In six public 
 places on the route of the procession as many altars 
 were erected for the repose of the sacrament, and be- 
 
22 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 side each of these altars there was a scaffold, a pile 
 of fagots, and an iron beam, so arranged by means of 
 pivot and pulley that it could be raised and lowered 
 at will. When the head of the procession reached 
 these altars successively, a Reformer was tied to the 
 end of the beam, and by a seesaw movement was 
 plunged again and again into a bath of fire. These 
 awful dippings were so timed that, the ligaments be- 
 ing consumed, the victim dropped into the blazing 
 pile just as the king was devoutly kneeling at the 
 altar in adoration of the host. The misguided, mad- 
 dened populace bowed down in the streets to worship 
 bits of wood and dead men's bones, while, at the 
 same time, they morbidly luxuriated in the exquisite 
 tortures of those " of whom the world was not 
 worthy." Strange extremes meet in human nature ! 
 This spectacle engendered a morbid taste for public 
 slaughterings, which has many times since converted 
 France into an Aceldama, a field of blood, and which 
 has had as its legitimate results the guillotine of the 
 Revolution and the awful butcheries of the Commune, 
 three centuries later. 
 
 A French refugee in Basle heard with keenest pain 
 reports of the awful sufferings of his friends in 
 France, and his indignation was kindled to a white 
 heat when the persecutors, with the king at their head, 
 attempted to palliate the atrocities which they were 
 committing by publishing the basest calumnies 
 against both the opinions and practices of the Re- 
 formers. He determined that these traduced and 
 persecuted people of God should be vindicated. To 
 this end he wrote a little book^ and in a bold and 
 immortal address dedicated it to Francis I. This 
 
JOHN KNOX. 23 
 
 was the first edition of what the world now knows as 
 Calvin's Institutes, the noblest apology ever penned 
 by an uninspired man. 
 
 The Institutes of Calvin at once gave consistency 
 and symmetry to the Reformed Church in France ; 
 and, in spite of sceptre and sword, cemented by the 
 blood of martyrs, it grew strong, until it published its 
 own apology, in its doctrines as crystallized in the 
 Confession of 1559. At this time, a single step in the 
 right direction would have emancipated France from 
 the thraldom of the papac}', but she knew not " the 
 time of her visitation." Behind the throne, upon 
 which sat a poor, weak, sickly, uxorious boy yet in his 
 teens, stood the Lorraines, with the Duke of Guise at 
 their head, and they with consummate ability and 
 craft and utter unscrupulousness wielded the powers 
 of the government for the suppression of the gospel. 
 It was an ominous conjunction — the gloomy despot, 
 Philip II., on the throne of Spain, the Duke of Guise 
 behind the throne of France, with Mary Stuart, niece 
 of Guise, as wife of the puppet king, and the mother 
 of Mary and sister of Guise as queen regent of Scot- 
 land. It was a conjunction which portended evil, and 
 it brought upon France *' a day of wasteness and deso- 
 lation," a time when God's people " were scattered 
 and peeled, meted out and trodden under foot "; a 
 time when every sanctuary of safety and of right was 
 ruthlessly invaded and wantonly desecrated ; a time 
 when clustering villages of peaceful, thrifty, God- 
 fearing citizens were razed as though they had been 
 dens of wild beasts, and with an overthrow so utter 
 and complete that not a stone was left to mark the 
 spot where they had been, nor a human being to tell 
 
24 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 the Story of their destruction ; a time when rivers in 
 their courses were dammed up with the bodies of 
 slaughtered saints ; a time when the lords and ladies 
 of the court regaled themselves daily, amidst pleas- 
 antry and repartee, by witnessing, from the windows 
 of the palace, the mortal agonies of tortured martyrs ; 
 a time when the atmosphere of the court became pes- 
 tilential from the stench of blood ; a, time when little 
 children at their plays talked about and familiarized 
 themselves with the thought of death by martyrdom. 
 
 The massacre of Vassy, in open and utter defiance 
 of the edict of January, which has been called the 
 Magna Charta of religious liberty in France, demon- 
 strated to the Protestants the absolute necessity of 
 self-defence. Longer non-resistance would be sui- 
 cidal. They rallied, therefore, under the standards 
 of their renowned leaders Conde and the Colignis. 
 Jeanne d'AIbret, queen of Navarre, put her young 
 son Henry into the ranks as a soldier, and pawned 
 her crown jewels to raise money for the war. Char- 
 lotte de Laval, urging her husband, the Admiral 
 Coligni, to take up arms in defence of the suffering 
 Protestants, was asked by him : " Are you prepared 
 to endure confiscation, flight, exile, shame, nakedness, 
 and hunger, and what is worse, to suffer all this in 
 your children ? Are you prepared to see your husband 
 branded as a rebel and dragged to a scaffold, while 
 your children, disgraced and ruined, are begging their 
 bread at the hands of their enemies ? I give you 
 eight days to reflect upon it ; and when you shall be 
 prepared for such reverses, I will be ready to set for- 
 ward and perish with you and our friends." Char- 
 lotte instantly replied : *' The eight days are already 
 
JOHN KNOX. 25 
 
 expired. Go, sir, where your duty calls you. Heaven 
 will not give the victory to our enemies. In the name 
 of God I call upon you to resist no longer, but save 
 our brethren or die in the attempt." The Admiral 
 was in his saddle the next morning. There were 
 heroines as well as heroes in those days. 
 
 The baleful theory of uniformity — the theory that 
 there was room in France for only one Church, and 
 that the Roman Catholic Church — divided the nation 
 into two hostile camps and plunged the country into 
 a series of civil wars. Spain sympathized with and 
 aided the Catholic party; Philip II. urging upon France 
 the policy of extermination which he was carrying out 
 in the Netherlands. England and the Netherlands 
 sympathized with and aided the Protestants, the latter 
 country sending her immortal Prince of Orange to 
 take the field. It was a struggle great and memo- 
 rable, both in the principles at stake and in the distin- 
 guished leaders on each side. It was the genius, 
 heroism, and godly enthusiasm of the Bourbon and the 
 Coligni on the one side, and the Machiavellian craft, 
 intrigue, and devilish hate of the Guise and the 
 Medici on the other. 
 
 Wars follow each other in rapid succession. 
 "Blood toucheth blood." The fields Dreux, St. 
 Denis, Jarnac, Moncontour, and Arnay le Due ren- 
 dered the valor of the Huguenots historic. Conde 
 and D'Andelot are dead on the field. Then there 
 comes a lull in the din of battle, a short respite from 
 war. Negotiations are going on concerning a mar- 
 riage alliance which is to unite the two parties and 
 give lasting peace to France. The Admiral Coligni 
 is invited to the court, and has repeated interviews 
 
26 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 with the young king Charles IX. He urges upon 
 Charles the policy of uniting France and the Nether- 
 lands in an alliance against Spain. Catharine, the 
 queen-mother, on the other hand, used all the witchery 
 of her power to thwart that policy and to poison the 
 mind of Charles against Coligni. 
 
 One loves to dream of the results that would have 
 attended the policy of Coligni. France Protestant 
 and in alliance with the Netherlands, and the allied 
 armies of the two countries led by such men as the 
 Prince of Orange and Coligni ! What a different his- 
 tory of Europe would we be reading to-day, and what 
 a different map of Europe would our children be 
 studying to-day ! 
 
 The Admiral Coligni was at this time the head and 
 soul of the Huguenot party. He had gained the ear, 
 and by his frank, high-toned Christian chivalry was 
 rapidly winning the heart, of King Charles. The 
 queen-mother, her son the duke of Anjou, and the 
 young duke of Guise took the alarm. Charles must 
 be rescued from the potent influence of Coligni at all 
 hazards, and these three spirits balk at nothing that 
 will further their plans. They resolved upon the 
 assassination of the admiral, but through unsteadiness 
 of aim the assassin only succeeded in severely wound- 
 ing him. The conspirators had hoped to destroy the 
 Huguenots by striking down their illustrious chief- 
 tain. In this they were foiled. They then deter- 
 mined to compass their ends by a general massacre, 
 which was to begin with the Huguenot nobility then 
 assembled in Paris on the occasion of the marriage of 
 the gallant Henry of Navarre with the sister of 
 Charles IX. The beginning being made in Paris, 
 
JOHN KNOX. 27 
 
 the massacre was to become general throughout the 
 provinces. 
 
 Catharine, with all the magic power which she 
 exercised over her children, and with all her con- 
 summate Medicean art, began to work upon the king 
 to wrest from him the fatal order. She appealed, in 
 turn, to every motive and passion. With exquisite 
 skill she touched every spring of his being— his fears, 
 his suspicions, his pride, his vindictiveness, his vanity, 
 his jealousy, until, maddened, frenzied, in a delirium 
 of rage, vexation, and mortification, he exclaimed, with 
 a horrible oath, that since they thought it right to kill 
 the admiral, he was determined that every Huguenot 
 in France should perish with him, so that not one 
 should be left to reproach him with the crime. 
 
 This happened an hour before midnight. Arrange- 
 ments were instantly completed for the murdering to 
 begin the next morning. The signal was to have 
 been given from the great bell of the Palace of Justic, 
 at daybreak, but Catharine, in her impatience and 
 nervousness, ordered the tocsin to be sounded from 
 the belfry of a neighboring church an hour and a 
 half earlier. Then Catharine and her two sons, 
 Charles IX. and the duke of Anjou, stole to a window 
 of the Louvre and tremblingly peered into the dark 
 and quiet streets. All was as still as death until they 
 were startled by a single pistol shot. A sudden spasm 
 of remorse seized the guilty trio, and they sent word 
 to Guise that he should proceed no further with the 
 massacre. But it was too late. Guise, with his leash 
 of sleuth-hounds, was already well on his way to the 
 hotel of the admiral. The soldiers who had been 
 stationed to guard the hotel betrayed their trust, and 
 
28 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 became the eager accomplices of the murderers. 
 Awakened by the noise at the gate and in the halls, 
 Coligni, yet weak from wounds, had risen from his 
 bed, had thrown around him his dressing-gown and 
 was sitting in an arm-chair when the assassins en- 
 tered. He did not move. There was not the tremor 
 of a muscle. There was not the quiver of a nerve. 
 He looked into the faces of those desperadoes as 
 calmly as though they had been his children coming 
 to kiss him good-night, and regarded their naked 
 swords and daggers with as much composure as 
 though they had been the arms of his mother ex- 
 tended to embrace him. One of the most desperate 
 of these desperate men was wont to say that he had 
 never seen man meet death with such constancy and 
 firmness. 
 
 The assassins made swift and thorough work of it. 
 In the court below, Guise and a few of kindred spirit 
 sat upon their horses. Up from the horsemen comes 
 the eager, impatient cry : ^' Have you done it ?" " It 
 is over," was the reply that dropped from the window. 
 Again comes up the cry : " But here is Guise, who 
 will not believe it unless he sees it with his own eyes. 
 Throw him out of the window." And the gashed 
 body of the best and the greatest man then in France 
 was thrown down upon the pavement of the court 
 beneath as though it had been the carcass of a dog. 
 Not yet satisfied, Guise dismounted, stooped down, 
 and in the darkness of the early morning peered into 
 the face of the dead hero. The face being bloody 
 beyond recognition, Guise coolly took his handker- 
 chief from his pocket, wiped the blood from the 
 features, and again scrutinized them narrowly. " 'Tis 
 
JOHN KNOX. 29 
 
 he. I know him," he said, and as he rose gave the 
 body a kick, then vaulting into his saddle, and shout- 
 ing, '* Courage, soldiers ! We have made a good be- 
 ginning. Now for the others ! " he galloped from the 
 court-yard. 
 
 The blood of the great, the good, the immortal 
 Coligni was the first that was shed in this awful 
 massacre. His body was afterward subjected to 
 every indignity and insult which satanic malignity 
 and ingenuity could suggest. 
 
 The preparations and arrangements for the mas- 
 sacre were extensive, elaborate, and complete. They 
 were made by those who had a genius for laying 
 snares and weaving nets and setting traps and achiev- 
 ing success in murder on a grand scale. Ever since 
 the great procession of expiation under Francis I., 
 the people of France had been undergoing a continu- 
 ous education which was fitting them to become ac- 
 tors in tragedies of horror. The inflammable popu- 
 lace of Paris were as ripe for a carnival of blood as 
 tinder is ready for a spark. The houses of the Hu- 
 guenots were all marked. The papists had as a 
 badge a strip of white linen round the arm and a 
 white cross in the cap, while in the windows of their 
 houses flambeaux were burning for the double purpose 
 of designation and of giving light to the murderers in 
 the streets. The signal was sounded from every 
 steeple in the city. " Kill ! kill ! Down with the 
 Huguenots ! Down with the Huguenots ! " were the 
 watchwords. Suddenly Paris was converted into hell. 
 The halls and staircases of the Louvre were slippery 
 with the best and noblest blood in France. There 
 was no more pity for the toothless babe than for the 
 
30 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 bearded man. Dead and dying bodies rained from 
 the windows. In some cases blood reached the shoe- 
 latchets. But I draw a veil over the horrible, sicken- 
 ing details. 
 
 Fast as couriers could carry the news, the hellish 
 contagion spread throughout the provinces. In each 
 city and town and village the scenes of Paris were 
 repeated, until, according to some estimates, as many 
 as one hundred thousand were slain. And certainly it 
 will not lessen our sad interest in this awful tragedy to 
 know that the victims of it were Presbyterians in 
 doctrine, worship, and discipline. 
 
 When the news reached Spain, Philip II. was 
 beside himself with joy. He regarded the massacre 
 as the highest possible exemplification of Christian 
 virtue. At Rome the Pope and cardinals went in 
 state to church and had Te Deums sung and masses 
 said in honor of the event ; and genius, in the person 
 of Vasari, was employed to perpetuate the memory of 
 it by a painting on the walls of the Sistine chapel, and 
 there, on those walls, stands that painting, the damn- 
 ing evidence of the Pope's complicity in the massacre. 
 A medal was also struck to commemorate the event. 
 But when the news reached England the court went 
 into mourning, and Queen Elizabeth did herself and 
 her nation immortal honor by administering a sting- 
 ing rebuke to Charles IX. through his ambassador. 
 When the news reached Edinburgh, Knox was over- 
 whelmed with grief, because many of his personal 
 friends had been slaughtered. Once more the old 
 man was carried to the pulpit and lifted into it, and 
 then he poured out the red-hot lava of his indignation 
 against the perpetrators of the hellish outrage, and 
 
JOHN KNOX. 31 
 
 denounced the judgments of heaven against the cruel 
 murderer and false traitor, the king of France, con- 
 signing him to the eternal " execrations of posterity 
 to come." This was one of his last public services. 
 After this he preached the installation sermon of 
 his colleague and successor in the Tolbooth church. 
 That was his last public service. 
 
 In devout meditation, in hearing God's word, in 
 joyously entertaining his friends — for Knox was emi- 
 nently a genial and social man — in counseling his 
 session and his colleague, in trying to reclaim Kirk- 
 caldy of Grange, in solemnly admonishing Morton, 
 who was about becoming regent, in taking affection- 
 ate leave of relatives and friends — the few days that 
 remained to him on earth were occupied. With ex- 
 clamations and ejaculations dripping with the very 
 myrrh of the Gospel constantly on his lips, he lay 
 waiting till " God's work was done." With a clear 
 intellect and an unclouded spirit he triumphantly 
 ended his "long and paneful battel." 
 
 In the middle of a paved street in Edinburgh the 
 passer-by reads, upon a square stone, this inscription : 
 
 J. K. 
 1572. 
 
 Beneath that spot, over which now trundles the 
 commerce of a great city, were once laid the remains 
 of him who '' never feared the face of man." 
 
 He has been dead these three hundred years. 
 During all this time history has been busy with his 
 life and his character. These have been fiercely 
 assailed and eloquently defended. For three cen- 
 
32 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 turies his work has been speaking for him with ever- 
 increasing volume of meaning and of eloquence. He 
 needs no other monument. He needs no other 
 apology. 
 
 He is charged with rudeness and coarseness toward 
 the elegant lady, Mary Stuart, queen of Scots, but 
 there is absolutely nothing in the records to justify 
 such a charge. He was firm — firm as the Pentland 
 Hills ; he was inflexible — inflexible as the fully-devel- 
 oped, storm-strengthened oak ; and having learned, 
 as he tells us, from Isaiah and Jeremiah, to "call 
 wickedness by its own terms, a fig a fig, and a spade a 
 spade," he did speak in all plainness as both his " vo- 
 cation and conscience craved," but always with dig- 
 nity and courtesy, nevertheless. With some soft sen- 
 timentalists it is an unpardonable offence that he 
 should have made Mary weep and " shed never a tear 
 himself." Hear his own defence : " Madam, in God's 
 presence I speak ; I never delighted in the weeping 
 of any of God's creatures — yea, I can scarcely abide 
 the tears of my own boys, whom my own hand cor- 
 rects, much less can I rejoice in your Majesty's weep- 
 ing ; but seeing that I have offered you no just occa- 
 sion to be offended, but have spoken the truth, as my 
 vocation craves of me, I must sustain, albeit unwill- 
 ingly, your Majesty's tears rather than I dare hurt 
 my conscience or betray my commonwealth through 
 my silence." If that be coarseness, perpetual thanks- 
 givings to God that John Knox had the grace to use 
 it ! " Better," said Regent Morton, " that women 
 weep than that bearded men be forced to weep." 
 
 But I submit that such a man as this is not to be 
 measured by the rules of etiquette or by the laws of 
 
JOHN KNOX. 33 
 
 gallantry. Knox had more serious business than 
 playing the courtier. Every time that he stood be- 
 fore Queen Mary he carried the spiritual destiny of 
 millions on the tip of his tongue. He was there to 
 defend truth which had taken hold of every fibre of 
 his being. He might have pleased Mary, but by 
 doing so he would have betrayed the cause of Prot- 
 estantism in Scotland, and that would have involved 
 the cause of Protestantism in England. So long 
 as Elijah the Tishbite and John the Baptist need 
 no apology for coarseness, John Knox shall need 
 none. 
 
 But suppose he had faults ? They are but specks 
 on the surface of the sun. The sun makes the earth 
 rich in all beauty and fertility, notwithstanding, 
 and Knox made Scotland "blossom as the rose." 
 " Knox is the one Scotchman to whom of all others 
 his country and the world owe a debt," says the weird 
 hero-worshipper, Thomas Carlyle. 
 
 '' It was not for nothing that John Knox had for 
 ten years preached in Edinburgh and his words had 
 been echoed from a thousand pulpits. His was the 
 voice which taught the peasant of the Lothians that 
 he was a freeman, the equal in the sight of God with 
 the proudest peer or prelate that had trampled on his 
 forefathers. The murders, the adulteries, the Both- 
 well scandals, and other monstrous games which had 
 been played before Heaven there since the return of 
 the queen from France, had been like whirlwinds fan- 
 ning the fires of the new teaching. Princes and lords 
 only might have noble blood, but every Scot had a 
 soul to be saved, a conscience to be outraged by these 
 enormous doings, and an arm to strike with in revenge 
 
34 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 for them. Elsewhere the plebeian element of nations 
 had risen to power through the arts and industries 
 which make men rich ; the commons of Scotland 
 were sons of their religion, while the nobles were 
 splitting into factions, taking securities for their for- 
 tunes, or entangling themselves in political intrigues ; 
 the tradesmen, the mechanics, the poor tillers of the 
 soil, had sprung suddenly into consciousness with 
 spiritual convictions for which they were prepared to 
 live or die. The fear of God in them left no room 
 for the fear of any other thing, and in the very fierce 
 intolerance which Knox had poured into their veins 
 they had become a force in the state. The poor 
 clay which, a generation earlier, the haughty baron 
 would have trodden into slime, had been heated red 
 hot in the furnace of a new faith."* Thus historians 
 who have no sympathy with Knox's creed are con- 
 strained to recognize the inestimable value of his 
 work and his teachings. Such services as he rendered 
 to his country and to the world might condone for a 
 little rudeness in the presence of a woman whom he 
 believed to be, and whom history has adjudged to be, 
 a murderess. 
 
 He is charged, moreover, with intolerance. But of 
 what was he intolerant ? Of error and corruption 
 that were rank and pestiferous, of tyranny which 
 treated the soul of man as a mere plaything of kings, 
 lords, and prelates. He did well to be intolerant. 
 He could have done nothing less, and have remained 
 a true man. His intolerance consisted simply in his 
 carrying out unflinchingly the only principles upon 
 which a reformation worthy of the name could have 
 been achieved in Scotland. 
 
 * Froude. 
 
JOHN KNOX. 35 
 
 His Presbyterian ism was not derived from Geneva. 
 He did not learn it from John Calvin. He found it 
 where Ulrich Zwinglius found his Presbyterianism — 
 in his Greek Testament. He made the discoverv 
 when he was teaching- his " bairns " at Langniddrie. 
 His views on this subject were fully matured when he 
 was in England, before he had ever seen Calvin. And 
 so strong were his convictions on the subject that the 
 offer of a bishopric could not tempt him to modify his 
 policy in the slightest. He and those who aided him 
 in preparing the Book of Discipline, as Row said, 
 "took not their example from any Kirk in the world — 
 no, not from Geneva — but drew their plan from the 
 sacred Scriptures." Knox, therefore, could make no 
 compromise with popery without a total betrayal of 
 principles in defence of which he counted not his life 
 dear unto him. 
 
 And this Presbyterian system of doctrine and 
 government is the strongest and safest defence against 
 popery that has ever been reared. Knox detected 
 the weakness of the English Reformation. Events 
 have amply justified his fears and vindicated his 
 views. The Anglican Church has, in a measure at 
 least, become a training-camp for the papacy. In the 
 great reaction against the Reformation which was 
 directed by the Jesuits, Presbyterianism saved Prot- 
 estantism. It formed a bulwark against which the 
 maddened waves beat and dashed and broke in vain. 
 Had Knox faltered in Scotland, Protestantism would 
 have been swept from England as the 'whirlwind 
 sweeps dry leaves from the highway. 
 
 The time may not be far distant when the decisive 
 struggle will be between the armies of Antichrist and 
 
^6 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 the compact and serried hosts of this our beloved Pres- 
 byterianism. Contemplating, therefore, the life of 
 Knox, one of the grandest ever lived on this foot- 
 stool of God, and catching inspiration and enthu- 
 siasm from our theme, let us close up our ranks and 
 stand firm, ready to repel assault or to charge to 
 victory. 
 
IL 
 
 PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE UNITED 
 STATES FROM THE ADOPTION OF 
 THE FORM OF GOVERNMENT TO THE 
 PRESENT TIME. 
 
II. 
 
 PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE UNITED 
 STATES FROM THE ADOPTION OF 
 THE FORM OF GOVERNxMENT TO THE 
 PRESENT TIME.* 
 
 American Independence has been achieved. The 
 Colonies have taken their place as free and inde- 
 pendent states among the nations of the earth. In 
 bringing about this, the most momentous political 
 event of the last century, the ministry and laity of 
 the Presbyterian Church bore an essential and a con- 
 spicuous part. These men were the descendants of 
 the Huguenots whose blood, shed in the cause of 
 religious freedom, had baptized almost every acre of 
 France ; of the Dutch, who, under William the Silent, 
 had struggled and fought against civil and religious 
 despotism amidst the dikes of Holland ; of the Scotch- 
 men who signed the Covenant with the warm blood 
 of their veins, and who had fought to the death under 
 the blue banner of that Covenant ; of the heroes 
 whose valor at Londonderry turned the scale in favor 
 of the Prince of Orange and secured the Protes- 
 tant succession in England — sons of the women who, 
 during that memorable siege, carried ammunition to 
 the soldiers, and in the crisis of the assault sprang 
 
 *At the Centennial Celebration in Philadelphia, June, 1876, by 
 appointment of the General Assembly. 
 
40 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 to the breach, hurled back the assailants, and turned 
 the tide of battle in the critical, imminent moment of 
 the conflict. 
 
 These were not the men to be dazzled by specious 
 pretexts, or to stand nicely balancing arguments of 
 expediency, when issues touching human freedom 
 were at stake. These were not the men to barter 
 away their birthright for pottage. They who had 
 endured so much in the cause of freedom in the Old 
 World, who, for its sake, had left all and braved the 
 perils of the ocean to seek a refuge in the forests of 
 an unbroken wilderness, were not the men tamely to 
 submit their necks to the yoke, how smoothly soever 
 it might be fitted for them by the deft hands of king, 
 Church, or Parliament. Consequently, the Presby- 
 terians in the Colonies were almost to a man, and to 
 a woman, patriots " indeed, in whom there was no 
 guile." 
 
 In a Presbyterian community not far from the spot 
 where the first blood of the Revolution was shed, in 
 a Presbyterian convention which had for its presid- 
 ing officer a ruling elder, was framed and promul- 
 gated the Mecklenburg Declaration, which embodied 
 the spirit and the principles of the Declaration of 
 Independence, and which antedates that document 
 by the space of a year and more ; and even earlier 
 than this, within the bounds of old Redstone Presby- 
 tery, the " Westmoreland Declaration," was made at 
 Hanna's Town, in Western Pennsylvania. 
 
 None in all the land better understood the nature 
 of the struggle, or more thoroughly appreciated the 
 importance of the issue, than those men. They saw 
 in the impending conflict more than a tax on tea or 
 
PRESBYTERIAXISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 4I 
 
 a penny stamp on paper — more even than " taxation 
 without representation." In addition to political 
 tyranny they perceived the ominous shadow of 
 spiritual despotism, which threatened to darken the 
 land to which they had fled as an asylum, and they 
 esteemed their fortunes and their lives a cheap 
 sacrifice at which to purchase for their posterity in 
 succeeding generations the blessings of religious 
 freedom. 
 
 Into the struggle, therefore, they threw themselves 
 heart and soul. With enthusiastic devotion, they put 
 at the service of their country the last penny of their 
 substance and the last drop of their blood. Wherever 
 a Presbyterian Church was planted, wherever the 
 Westminster Confession of Faith found adherents, 
 wherever the Presbyterian polity was loved and 
 honored, there intelligent and profound convictions 
 in regard to civil and religious liberty were developed 
 as naturally as the oak grows from the acorn, and 
 there, when the crisis came, strong arms and stout 
 hearts formed an invulnerable bulwark for the cause 
 of human freedom. As the Spartan defended his 
 shield, as the Roman legions fought for their eagles, 
 as a chivalrous knight leaped to the rescue of his 
 sweetheart, so our Presbyterian ancestors, with a 
 prodigal valor and an unquenchable ardor, sprang to 
 the defence of their sacred rights. 
 
 An adequate history of their services, their sacri- 
 fices and their sufferings has never been written, and, 
 alas ! never can be written now. No monuments 
 have been left from which such a history can be com- 
 piled. In the pulpit, in the halls of the provincial 
 and the Continental Congresses, in the army as 
 
42 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 chaplains and as soldiers, the ministers rendered 
 invaluable service by their eloquence, their wisdom, 
 their learning, their courage, and their example, while 
 the laity took into the ranks a heroism as stalwart 
 as that of the Ironsides of Cromwell. Presbyterian 
 blood from shoeless feet tracked the snow at Valley 
 Forge. From the Schuylkill to the Chartiers pulpits 
 rang with utterances which were at once scriptural 
 and patriotic, and which were so sound and fearless 
 and inspiring that they deserve to take rank in the 
 series of kindred testimonies in the Scottish Church 
 borne by such men as Knox, Buchanan, Rutherford, 
 Brown of Wamphry, Cargill, and Renwick. These 
 utterances embodied principles which, emanating 
 from the republic of Geneva, consecrated by the 
 holiest blood of Scotland, sheltered and defended by 
 more than Spartan heroism and endurance in the 
 forests of America, now underlie the institutions of 
 every free government on the face of the whole earth. 
 Republicanism is Presbyterianism in the state ; so 
 that in the victory of our revolutionary forefathers 
 there was a triumph of principles in defence of which 
 our ancestors in the ecclesiastical line had for genera- 
 tions poured out their blood like water. These prin- 
 ciples could find no hospitable or congenial home in 
 Europe, and had fled for refuge to the great ocean- 
 bound wilderness as their last hiding-place. A few 
 half-clad, half-starved, and not half-equipped regi- 
 ments of provincial militia bore the ark which con- 
 tained the charter of freedom for the nations. They 
 bore it bravely and well, and when the clouds of war 
 drifted away, lo ! there stood on these shores, dis- 
 closed to the gaze of the world, a Christian republic 
 
PRESBVTERIANISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 43 
 
 which, as a pharos, flings its light across the ocean to 
 guide the footsteps of nations in the path of liberty, 
 of progress, and of universal brotherhood. Every 
 civilized nation on the globe has felt the throb of our 
 free life. Over the ark of our liberties dwells the 
 political shekinah of the world, to which all the op- 
 pressed shall look, and guided by which they shall 
 at last be led into a large and goodly Canaan of civil 
 and religious freedom. 
 
 But the war is over. The transcendent achieve- 
 ment has been won. After seven years of fierce and 
 bitter struggle, dove-eyed Peace has spread over the 
 land her shadowing wings, dripping with celestial 
 benedictions. The inchoate elements of national life 
 have crystallized into a compact and symmetrical 
 republican government. The colonies have become 
 States, and the Constitution of the United States has 
 been adopted. 
 
 Owmg to their pronounced and intense patriotism 
 during the war, the Presbyterian ministers and 
 churches had borne the brunt of the fury of the 
 enemy. Pastors were driven away from their flocks, 
 churches were turned into barracks or stables, and in 
 many instances were torn down or burned. Congre- 
 gations left without pastors, and exposed to all the 
 deleterious influences of war, were scattered as sheep 
 without a shepherd. Many churches could adopt the 
 refrain of the prophet : " Zion is a wilderness, Jerusa- 
 lem a desolation. Our holy and our beautiful house, 
 where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire, 
 and all our pleasant things are laid waste." 
 
 But as soon as the sword was returned to its scab- 
 bard the Church addressed herself to the task of 
 
44 OCCASIONAI, ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 restoring her broken walls, building up her waste 
 places, and gathering her scattered sheep to the fold 
 again. With a sublime faith and an unerring intuition 
 she divined the future greatness of the nation, and 
 hastened to make such adjustments in her polity and 
 organization as would enable her to meet worthily 
 present and prospective responsibilities. 
 
 The complete constitution of the Presbyterian 
 Church in the United States of America, containing 
 the Confession of Faith, the catechisms, the govern- 
 ment and discipline, and the directory for the worship 
 of God, was finally ratified and adopted by the Synod 
 of New York and Philadelphia in the year 1788 ; and 
 at the same meeting the necessary steps were taken 
 toward the formation of a General Assembly by divid- 
 ing the synod into four synods, and by ordering that 
 a General Assembly, constituted out of the '' said four 
 synods," should meet in Philadelphia in May of the 
 following year. 
 
 Thus organized and equipped the Church stands 
 abreast of the new era, " her loins girt about with 
 truth, her feet shod with the preparation of the gospel 
 of peace," in her hand " the sword of the Spirit," and 
 with her feet set toward the west. 
 
 The first General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
 Church in the United States of America met in the 
 Second Presbyterian Church in the city of Philadel- 
 phia on May 21, 1789, and was opened, according to 
 the appointment of synod, with a sermon by Dr. 
 Witherspoon. 
 
 In fancy let us visit this small but august body of 
 men. 
 
 In the moderator's chair is the courtly Dr. Rodgers, 
 
PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 45 
 
 and at the clerk's table sits the chivalrous Duffield— 
 whose ancestors, reaching America by way of Eng- 
 land, Scotland, and Ireland, had their Huguenot blood 
 enriched with Puritanic and Covenanting ingredients 
 —who during the war had preached under fire, and 
 who, along with Beatty, had braved the perils of the 
 wilderness in crossing the Alleghenies, in order to set 
 up the standard of Presbyterianism on the banks of 
 the Monongahela, the Allegheny, and the Ohio, and 
 to proffer the blessings of the Gospel to the Indians 
 on the banks of the Muskingum. On the floor is Dr. 
 Witherspoon, of distinguished presence and of still 
 more distinguished achievement ; the eminent divine, 
 the able statesman, the pure and valiant patriot, who 
 shone alike conspicuously in the pulpit, on the floor 
 of Congress, and in the president's chair ; in whose 
 veins ran the blood of John Knox, and whose whole 
 life proved him to be a worthy descendant of the 
 great Scottish Reformer. Beside him, and coming 
 from the same presbytery (New Brunswick), and des- 
 tined to be his successor in the presidency of the 
 College of New Jersey, is the eloquent and learned 
 Dr. Sunhope Smith, the founder of Hampden-Sidney 
 College, now in the fullness of his marvellous powers 
 and a't the zenith of his splendid fame, whose oratory 
 recalled the grandeur of Davies and did not suffer in 
 comparison with that of Patrick Henry. 
 
 There, too, is the polyhistoric, the encyclopedic 
 scholar, the profound divine, the accomplished prov- 
 ost of the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Ewing, 
 who on an hour's notice could lecture on any subject 
 in the curriculum of the university, who was the peer 
 of Rittenhouse in mathematics, and who in conversa- 
 
46 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 tion could keep old Dr. Sam Johnson at bay. From 
 Baltimore comes the renowned Dr. Patrick Allison, 
 who went to that place when it contained only thirty 
 or forty houses, and in a log hut had preached to a 
 congregation of six families, but whose usefulness and 
 reputation grew with the growth of the city, until, as 
 a preacher, a presbyter, and an accomplished and fear- 
 less controversialist, no one stood above him, and of 
 whom Dr. Stanhope Smith said, " Dr. Allison is 
 decidedly the ablest statesman we have in the General 
 Assembly of the Presbyterian Church." There, too, 
 is Cooper, one of the Apostles of the Cumberland 
 Valley, a valiant military as well as spiritual leader ; 
 and the ungainly but saintly Moses Hoge of Vir- 
 ginia, who, destitute of the natural gifts and graces 
 of oratory, so moved men by his " blood earnestness " 
 that John Randolph said, " That man is the best of 
 orators"; and McWhorter, who had been the chap- 
 lain of Knox's brigade, and who in the darkest hour 
 of the Revolution hastened to headquarters to en- 
 courage the commander-in-chief ; and Azel Roe, who 
 inspired a cowardly regiment with courage and then 
 led them into battle, and who was as full of humor as 
 he was of courage and patriotism ; and Latta, who 
 with blanket and knapsack had accompanied mem- 
 bers of his church to the camp and the battle-field ; 
 and Dr. Sproat, in the pastorate the successor of 
 Gilbert Tennent and the predecessor of Ashbel 
 Green ; and Dr. Robert Smith, who at the age of 
 fifteen, having caught the spirit of Whitefield and 
 having consecrated all the strength of a vigorous 
 body to the work of preaching the gospel, was 
 abundant in labors, and with his hand on the plough 
 
PRESRY'IF.RIANISM IN THK UNTTKD STATES. 47 
 
 never once looked back ; and Dr. Thomas Read, 
 whose extensive missionary labors in the wilds of 
 Delaware gave him so accurate a knowledge of the 
 roads, paths, and bypaths of the region, that he was 
 the only man who could extricate Washington and his 
 army from the perilous position which they occupied 
 at Stanton, before the battle of Brandywine, so that 
 the modest pastor of Drawyer's Creek may be de- 
 nominated the saviour of his country ; and the 
 genial Dr. Matthew Wilson, who was both a divine 
 and a physician, and eminent in both professions — 
 good men and true, all of them, who had " endured 
 hardness as good soldiers" both in the cause of 
 Christ and for their country. 
 
 In point of numbers this Assembly was not large, 
 there being on the roll only thirty-four commis- 
 sioners, representing thirteen presbyteries, but in 
 point of dignity, learning, ability, zeal, and experience 
 it compares favorably with any of its many illustrious 
 successors. An able committee, raised for the pur- 
 pose, reported fifteen rules for the government of the 
 body, which have since been supplemented but never 
 improved, so that substantially these are the rules by 
 which, to this day, the General Assembly has been 
 governed. Drs. Witherspoon, Allison, and Stanhope 
 Smith, the ablest committee which the Assembly could 
 command, drew up an address to George Washington, 
 President of the United States, which address, as a 
 document, is worthy of the genius and eloquence of 
 these three illustrious men, and which, while it has 
 nothing in it of the cringing servility and sycophancy 
 which are begotten of the adulterous union of Church 
 and state, is yet, at the same time, a dignified and 
 
48 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 loyal acknowledgment of the " powers that be " as 
 " ordained of God." 
 
 Regarding with apprehension the fact that many of 
 the presbyteries had failed to send commissioners, and 
 thoroughly comprehending the importance of holding 
 together the widely separated parts of the Church by 
 a common bond, and being as jealous against schism 
 as the Israelites when they went posting to Shiloh to 
 demand of the trans-Jordanic tribes an explanation of 
 the altar of witness, the Assembly adopted a circular 
 letter " urging in the most earnest manner the respect- 
 ive synods to take effectual measures that all the 
 presbyteries send up in due season their full represen- 
 tation," so that the scattered tribes of this Israel 
 might, through their representatives, appear together 
 once a year before the Lord at the sanctuary. Nor 
 was the deplorable and pitiable condition of the 
 frontiers forgotten or neglected, but received, as it 
 deserved, most earnest and solemn attention. On a 
 report of Drs. Allison and Stanhope Smith, the synods 
 were requested to recommend to the General As- 
 sembly at their next meeting, two members well 
 qualified, to be employed in missions on our frontiers, 
 for the purpose of organizing churches, administering 
 ordinances, ordaining elders, collecting information 
 concerning the religious state of these parts, and pro- 
 posing the best means of establishing a gospel minis- 
 try among the people ; and in order to provide neces- 
 sary funds the presbyteries were enjoined to have 
 collections made and forwarded with all convenient 
 speed. This action was in full accord with an un- 
 broken line of deliverances stretching back to the 
 very beginning of organic Presbyterianism in this 
 
PRESBYTF.RIANISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 49 
 
 country. 'I'he Church of our fathers was poor of 
 purse, but rich in faith ; and though '' little among 
 the thousands of Judah," she had a heart big enough 
 to take in the world. From the first she has been a 
 missionary Church. Woe be unto her if she lose that 
 spirit ! 
 
 Desirous, moreover, to spread the knowledge of 
 eternal life contained in the Holy Scriptures, the 
 Assembly adopted measures by which to aid the publi- 
 cation and dissemination of an yVmerican edition of 
 the Bible, thus indicating the genuineness of their 
 Protestantism by their love for and attachment to the 
 Word of God pure and simple. 
 
 Adam Rankin, from the presbytery of Transylvania, 
 who, like the thief in the Gospel, seems not to have 
 "entered by the door," but to have climbed up some 
 other way, brought before the Assembly a portentous 
 overture to the effect that the Church had fallen into 
 a " great and pernicious error in the public worship 
 of God by disusing Rouse's versification of David's 
 Psalms and adopting, in the room of it. Watts' imita- 
 tion." Mr. Rankin being heard patiently *' as long 
 as he chose to speak," which was at " great length," 
 an able and judicious committee was appointed to 
 confer with him privately ; but efforts toward reliev- 
 ing his mind proving futile, he was earnestly " recom- 
 mended to exercise that Christian charity toward 
 those who differed from him in their views on this 
 matter which was exercised toward himself, and he 
 was guarded to be careful not to disturb the peace of 
 the Church on this head." These reasonable and 
 fraternal recommendations were disregarded by him, 
 however ; and returning: home, by a fierce and fanati- 
 
50 OCCASIOXAl. ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 cal agitation of the subject, he produced in the 
 Church in Kentuck}' a schism which for years entailed 
 lamentable disaster upon the cause of Christ in that 
 State. The temper and action of the Assembly in 
 the premises show that the policy of the Church on 
 the question of psalmody was settled. 
 
 In answer to an overture as to whether the " Gen- 
 eral Assembly would admit to their communion a 
 presbytery who are totally averse to the doctrine of 
 receiving, hearing, or judging of any appeals from 
 presbyteries to synods or from synods to General 
 Assemblies, because in their judgment it is inconsist- 
 ent with Scripture and the practice of the primitive 
 Church," it was said " that although they consider the 
 right of appeal from the decision of an inferior judi- 
 cature to a superior one an important privilege, which 
 no member of their body ought to be deprived of, yet 
 they at the same time declare that they do not desire 
 any member to be active in any case which may be 
 inconsistent with the dictates of his conscience." 
 This does not prove or argue that the Assembly, 
 which was almost entirely composed of Scotchmen 
 and Irishmen or those of Scotch-Irish extraction, held 
 or sympathized with lax ecclesiastical views, but it 
 only shows that in peculiar and delicate circumstances 
 the Assembly acted cautiously, prudently, and chari- 
 tably. It would have been marvellously strange if, 
 after all her testimony and all her sufferings in 
 defence of her principles, the Church should at this 
 point have tamely repudiated these principles. The 
 very calmness and mildness of the answer rather show 
 the firmness of her convictions and the strength of 
 her position. 
 
PRKSBVTERIANISM TX THE UNITED S'lAJES. 5 I 
 
 The Church at this time consisted of 4 synods, 16 
 presbyteries, 117 ministers, and 419 churches, 204 of 
 which were vacant. Single presbyteries embraced 
 whole States and indefinite expanses of territories 
 besides. Pastors had parishes as large as England, 
 Scotland, and Ireland all put together. 
 
 The shock of the French revolution was felt on 
 these shores. Infidelity in France, in the name of 
 liberty, equality, and fraternity, had committed atroc- 
 ities for which human speech has coined no fitting 
 or adequate terms. In its wanton, blasphemous im- 
 piety it had violated all sanctities ; it had desecrated 
 all shrines, it had trampled upon all rights, human 
 and divine ; it had christened the dreadest instrument 
 of modern times the '' holy guillotine "; it had striven 
 to quench the light of hope in the heart of man by 
 decreeing that " there is no God," and that "death is 
 an eternal sleep "; it had wreaked its direst vengeance 
 on the living, and then, hyena-like, had rifled the 
 grave that it might dishonor the bones and dust of 
 the illustrious dead. It has left its track on the page 
 of history as the trail of a filthy snake, in orgies of 
 lust and in carnivals of blood. The mephitic atmos- 
 phere of its licentious and ribald atheism was wafted 
 across the ocean, and threatened to blight with a 
 curse the virgin life of the young republic. If the 
 principles of French infidelity had fairly taken root in 
 American soil, they would have produced a harvest 
 of anarchy, lust, and carnage such as they had pro- 
 duced in their native soil ; and for some time after 
 the Revolutionary War it seemed that such a catas- 
 trophy as this awaited the nation. 
 
 During the war France was our ally, and thus the 
 
52 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 sympathy between the two countries was close and 
 responsive. French fashions, French manners, and 
 French modes of thought and of living dazzled the 
 minds of many. Some of the leading statesmen of 
 the time and many of the lower politicians were 
 avowed infidels. French infidelity was discussed 
 around the camp-fires, in legislative halls, in social 
 circles, at the Federal capital, and in the backwoods 
 of remote Western settlements. War, too, had left its 
 dregs and debris of vice, idleness, drunkenness, and 
 debauchery. The very air was heavy with the poi- 
 son of deadly error, and the Church itself felt its 
 paralzying influence. Formalism, indifference, and 
 skepticism prevailed among professing Christians, 
 while many of the pastors were mere " hirelings who 
 cared not for the sheep." The foundations of re- 
 ligion, morality, and of social order seemed to be giv- 
 ing way. In view of this state of things, the General 
 Assembly, in the year 1798, issued a pastoral letter 
 which to this day sounds like the blast of a trumpet. 
 The letter speaks eloquently and solemnly of the 
 "convulsions in Europe " and of the '' solemn crisis" 
 in this country ; it points with alarm to the '^ bursting 
 storm which threatened to sweep before it the re- 
 ligious principles, institutions, and morals of the 
 people "; it frames a dreadful indictment against the 
 age, charging it with corruption of manners, prevail- 
 ing impiet}^, horrible profanation of the Lord's day, 
 contempt for religion, abounding infidelity, which 
 assumes a front of daring impiety and possesses a 
 mouth filled with blasphemy ; and it declares that 
 among ministers of the Gospel and professors of 
 Christianity there was a degree of supineness, inatten- 
 
PRtSBYTERIAXISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 53 
 
 tion, formality, deadness, hypocrisy, and pernicious 
 error which threatened the dissolution of religious 
 society. A dark picture, truly, but not a whit darker 
 than the subject which is portrayed. 
 
 Nor were such views and forebodings confined 
 to the clergymen. Patrick Henry, in a letter to his 
 daughter, says : "■ The view which the rising greatness 
 of our country presents to my eyes is greatly tarnished 
 by the general prevalence of deism, which, with me, 
 is but another name for vice and depravity." 
 
 The clouds which thus lowered over the new States 
 and threw their black shadows of evil portent far into 
 the future were scattered by the breath of the Spirit 
 of God going forth in powerful and widespread re- 
 vivals of religion. During the Revolutionary War, 
 on the borders of Western Pennsylvania, in a rude 
 fort into which had been driven the scattered families 
 of a sparse neighborhood, and in which they were 
 held besieged by bloody savages, through the modest, 
 earnest conversations of one layman, the mighty work 
 began which forever settled on these shores the issue 
 as between the Gospel and French infidelity. It was 
 ** an handful of corn in the earth," in a strange seed- 
 plot, but the fruit thereof to-day, in all these States, 
 and far hence to the Gentiles, " shakes like Lebanon." 
 " It is the Lord's doing, and it is wondrous in our 
 eyes." From the year 1781 to the year 1787 there 
 was an almost continuous effusion of the Holy Ghost 
 in marvellous power upon the churches in Western 
 Pennsylvania. Souls were drawn as by an irresistible 
 magnet to the pulpit, and held for days and nights 
 under the power of the truth in its enlightening and 
 saving efficacy. To measure the results of such a 
 
54 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 work at such a time, in a society which was in a for- 
 mative state, is as impossible as it would be to 
 estimate the contents of the covenanted blessings of 
 Abraham. From that rude fort *' their line is gone 
 out through all the earth." 
 
 When the work had gone on for five years in 
 Western Pennsylvania, there might have been found 
 beyond the Blue Ridge, one Saturday afternoon, in a 
 dense forest, a mile from Hampden-Sidney College, 
 four young students holding a prayer meeting. For 
 the first time in their lives they opened their lips in 
 prayer in the presence of any except their God. 
 Hidden in the deep recesses of the woods they 
 stammered forth their broken petitions, but no 
 prayers uttered beneath the domes of grand cathe- 
 drals and in the presence of thousands of rapt wor- 
 shippers were ever more efficacious. The next meet- 
 ing of these students was appointed in one of their 
 rooms in the college, and behind bolted doors and in 
 suppressed voices they began to sing and pray ; but 
 the news of the strange proceeding spread rapidly 
 through the college, and soon a mob was collected 
 at the door of the room, whooping, thumping, swear- 
 ing, and threatening vengeance ; nor was the riot 
 quelled until two of the professors appeared upon 
 the scene and vigorously exercised their official 
 authority. A prayer meeting raised a riot in Havipden- 
 Sidney College ! If we take into account the additional 
 fact that outside of this little praying circle there was 
 not a copy of the Bible among the students, we can 
 form an idea of the degree to which the leaven of 
 infidelity had infected the minds of the young men of 
 that generation. From that little prayer meeting in 
 
PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 55 
 
 tlie woods began a precious work of giaec which 
 spread through the counties south of the James River 
 and swept up and down the great valley of Virginia, 
 baptizing in its course the two literary institutions, 
 Hampden-Sidney College and Liberty Hall Academy, 
 which afterward became Washington College, and 
 giving to the ministry such men as Drury Lacy, with 
 " the silver voice and the silver hand," William Hill, 
 Carey Allen, Nash Legrand, James Blythe, John 
 Lyle, James Turner, and Archibald Alexander. Thus 
 the proud, vaunting speculations and blasphemous 
 scoffings and swollen insolences of infidelity were 
 silenced in Virginia by the power of the Holy Ghost 
 exhibited in the conversion of souls. 
 
 Such power as this was not pent up within State 
 lines. The venerable Patillo came up from North 
 Carolina to see the wonderful works of God, and 
 returning home with mind and heart aglow finished 
 his ministry in a blaze of religious fervor. A young 
 man who years before had left North Carolina in 
 order to seek an education in Western Pennsylvania, 
 and who in the meantime had been converted under 
 the preaching of Rev. Joseph Smith, and who was 
 among the first of those who were educated under Dr. 
 McMillan, having been licensed by the presbytery of 
 Redstone, started southward to visit his kindred, and on 
 the way havmg stopped at Prince Edward and caught 
 the holy contagion of the revival there, was the means 
 under God of arousing the churches from a deathlike 
 stupor and of diffusing the spiritual awakening from 
 the Dan to the Catawba. W^ith intense convictions, 
 a fearless and merciless reprover of sin, a pitiless 
 scourger of formality and hypocrisy, with an impas- 
 
56 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 sioned manner and a voice like seven trumpets, Rev. 
 James McGready flashed the terrors of the law into 
 the minds and hearts of men until the stoutest 
 quailed. After some years of most arduous and fruit- 
 ful labor in North Carolina he removed to Kentucky, 
 where his searching, discriminating preaching became 
 the means of the great awakening in that State, the 
 mighty influence of which, in a refluent tide, swept 
 over Tennessee, the Carolinas, Virginia, and Western 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 The revival in Virginia and North Carolina had 
 brought into the ministry a band of young men whose 
 hearts God had touched in a signal manner. Never 
 was a knight of the cross more eager to encounter 
 hardship and peril in the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre 
 from the hand of the infidel than were these young 
 soldiers of the Lord Jesus eager in their flaming zeal 
 to engage in arduous and perilous enterprises for the 
 glory of their Master. In order to furnish them a 
 suitable field, the Synod of Virginia, in the year 1789, 
 organized a com.mittee on missions, which from year 
 to year sent forth these young heralds to carry the 
 Gospel to destitute places. Among these went forth 
 such men as Nash Legrand, an Apollo in physical 
 grace and proportion, with a voice whose modulations 
 were as pleasing as the dulcet notes of a lute, and 
 *' whose labors were more extensive in spreading the 
 revival than any other agent employed in the work "; 
 William Hill, one of the immortal four who held the 
 prayer meeting in the woods at Prince Edward ; the 
 eccentric, witty, brilliant, genial, and eloquent Carey 
 Allen, " whom the common people heard gladly," and 
 whose intense ardor soon consumed his physical life ; 
 
PRESBYTERIANISM IX THE UNITKH STATES. 57 
 
 Robert Marshall, who, spared through six hard-fought 
 battles of the Revolutionary War, to become a soldier 
 in a holier war, enlisted all the enthusiasm of his 
 impulsive nature m the work of preaching the Gospel 
 with earnestness and startling directness ; Archibald 
 Alexander, whom to name is to eulogize ; William 
 Calhoun, the companion of Carey Allen in his mis- 
 sionary toils and perils ; the brilliant, able, and 
 scholarly John Poage Campbell (a lineal descendant 
 of the seraphic Rutherford), whose sledge-hammer 
 logic dashed to pieces the Pelagianism of Craighead, 
 and who wielded a pen which was at one time as keen 
 as a Damascus blade and at another as terrific and 
 crushing as the battle-axe of a mailed knight; the 
 praying Rannels ; James Blythe, whose room had 
 been the rendezvous of the praying students at 
 Hampden-Sidney College ; and Robert Stuart, the 
 laborious missionary, the accomplished educator, the 
 faithful pastor, a Melanchthon in council, but a 
 Luther in battle. Of this number some labored in 
 Virginia and some went to Kentucky. These were 
 the young guard of Presbyterianism, who, snatching 
 up the drooping standards of the sacramental host, 
 with a holy chivalry bore them onward through teem- 
 ing dangers and sore privations, to plant them firmly 
 and conspicuously on outpost and picket-line. These 
 were the youthful heroes whose clarion voices, tuned 
 to the love of Jesus, called the Church from out her 
 intrenchments, in which she had for long been cower- 
 ing, and made her aggressive in her whole mien, atti- 
 tude, and spu-it, and led her forward to victories which 
 rendered the spiritual opening of the nineteenth cen- 
 turv as bright as " another morn risen on mid-noon." 
 
58 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 The last century drew to its close amidst dense 
 spiritual darkness in Kentucky. The rapid increase 
 of population had far outstripped the supply of 
 ministers and the multiplication of the means of grace. 
 The labors of Father Rice and a few men of kindred 
 spirit were wholly inadequate to meet the demands 
 of the times. Amidst the contagious spirit of land 
 speculation and the exciting scenes and incidents of 
 border life, many who at their former homes had been 
 exemplary Christians forgot their vows, struck their 
 colors, and went over to the ranks of the enemy, while 
 those who, although not professors, had been respect- 
 ers of religion, became open scoffers, and operi 
 scoffers grew more and more bold in iniquity. Mam- 
 mon, rum, and mad adventure ruled the hearts of men 
 with despotic sway. Infidelity, vice, and irreligion 
 came in like a flood, wave on wave, threatening to 
 overwhelm and sweep away the foundations of all 
 social, civil, and ecclesiastical institutions. *' The 
 people sat in the region and shadow of death." In the 
 perilous crisis many of the ministers of the Gospel 
 grew faint-hearted, and through cowardice or apostasy 
 betrayed the cause which they were sworn to defend. 
 A stiff and stark formalism, and the unhappy contro- 
 versy and schism on the subject of psalmody, had well- 
 nigh destroyed all piety in the Church, while in the 
 walks of public life infidelity prevailed, and among the 
 masses abominable and high-handed crime abounded. 
 Such was the desperate condition of things in 
 Kentucky when the young missionaries from Virginia 
 and North Carolina entered it and began to preach 
 the Gospel with such a fulness of conviction and with 
 vividness so awful that all classes of men, from the 
 
PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 59 
 
 philosophic skeptic to the red-handed desperado, 
 were swayed by its power as the fields of headed 
 grain bend before the sweep of the wind or as clouds 
 marshal to the step of the storm. 
 
 The revival began in the year 1797 in the churches 
 which were under the pastoral care of Rev. James 
 McGready, who preached the most vital and solemn 
 doctrines of the gospel with prodigious force and 
 startling directness. The religious interest thus 
 begun, extended and deepened until, in the year 
 1800, on sacramental occasions, thousands came from 
 far and near, bringing with them provisions and con- 
 veniences for temporary lodging. This was the origin 
 of camp-meetings ; and when once inaugurated, they 
 became a distinctive feature of the times and consti- 
 tuted a marked agency of the work as it was carried 
 on. When the camp was established, it became, for 
 the time being, the centre of all life and interest. 
 The plough rusted in the furrow, the sickle was hung 
 up even in the time of harvest ; all ages and all classes 
 swelled the crowds which poured in from all sides, 
 as the tribes of Israel converged by all paths to the 
 tabernacle. Thousands of vehicles, with their thou- 
 sands of neighing horses, filled the groves and gave 
 the appearance of an army encamped. Men, women, 
 and children, old age with its staff, the child with its 
 rattle, the invalid with his bed, the matron with her 
 cares, the maiden in the freshness of her beauty, the 
 young man in the glory of his strength, were there by 
 tens of thousands. 
 
 From the moving, teeming multitudes the hum of 
 voices arose like the distant roar of the sea. Now 
 the volume of praise arises as the " voice of many 
 
6o OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 waters," and now all is hushed except the impassioned 
 tones of the preacher, which, magnetized by the 
 burden of the message and by intensity of emotion, 
 kindle to a flame the hearts of the breathless throng 
 as when the wind drives to race-horse speed the 
 leaping flames on a dry prairie. The spectacle at 
 night, with the scattered tents and wagons, and the 
 multitudes of men, women, and children, and horses, 
 all dimly revealed by camp-fires, torches, lamps, and 
 candles, and the deep, dark, silent forest around, 
 made up a scene fit for a Raphael to picture in colors 
 or for a Milton to paint in words. Amidst scenes 
 and incidents so wild and strange and impressive, 
 with so many inflammable elements commingling and 
 with so many intense influences and forces co-operat- 
 ing to produce the deepest conviction of sin on the 
 one hand and to excite the most ecstatic devotion on 
 the other, it need not be a matter of astonishment that 
 lamentable extravagances both of sentiment and of 
 conduct were developed ; but these extravagances 
 formed no essential part of the revival, and are to be 
 carefully discriminated from it. Some of the ablest 
 and wisest pastors who were engaged in the work 
 solemnly protested against the ^' bodily exercises " 
 and all their unseemly concomitants. The Lord sent 
 a gracious revival, but through the folly and vanity 
 of man it was marred and disfigured by abominable 
 excrescences ; or, in the language of the venerable 
 Father Rice, " it was sadly mismanaged, dashed down 
 and broken to pieces," so that the work which began 
 under auspices so bright ended in disastrous fanati- 
 cism, heresy, and schism. When the Spirit of God 
 moved the waters which had been so long stagnant, 
 
PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 6l 
 
 profuse froth and scum were thrown to the surface in 
 the form of New Lightism, Universal ism, Arianism, 
 and fanaticism. 
 
 The New Light schism in its brief and fitful career 
 swept up the cast-off skins of errors, new and old, as 
 they lay strewn along the track of time all the way 
 from Gnosticism to Shakerism, and was at last 
 merged into that creedless Babel of theological 
 opinions founded by Alexander Campbell. 
 
 The widespread religious interest created a demand 
 for ministers of the gospel, and at the same time 
 begat a desire to preach the gospel in the minds of 
 many who had no academical or other training to fit 
 them for the sacred office. The licensing and ordain- 
 ing such men, in utter and high-handed defiance of 
 the requirements of the Book of Discipline, both in 
 regard to literary qualifications and to the adoption 
 and subscription of the Confession of Faith, led to 
 the schism which resulted in the organization of the 
 Cumberland Presbyterian Church. 
 
 From these conflicts the Church emerged greatly 
 reduced in numbers and resources, it is true, but, 
 nevertheless, purer and more compact than before. 
 Amidst the fierce storms she preserved her standards 
 intact, vindicated the cause of theological education, 
 resolutely refused to abate an iota of the conditions 
 of subscription of the Confession, and demonstrated 
 to all the world that in times of high-wrought excite- 
 ment it is safer to stand on the rock of principle than 
 to drift with the eddying currents of expediency. 
 
 Notwithstanding these deplorable fanaticisms, 
 apostasies, and lamentable schisms, there was a 
 genuine and extensive work of grace throughout 
 
62 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 the churches in Kentucky and Tennessee. The 
 "bodily exercises" were no part of the work of the 
 Holy Ghost. The revival was a work of God notwith- 
 standing the "bodily exercises." In the prolonged 
 and intense excitement the infirmities of human 
 nature threw to the surface a great many irregu- 
 larities and extraordinary physical phenomena which, 
 to a degree, obscured the real work in its progress 
 and results. The winnowed wheat glides quietly 
 into the garner, while the chaff and mildew darken 
 and pollute the air. 
 
 In the second year of the present century the 
 revival began at Cross Roads, in Orange Co., 
 North Carolina, and from that centre radiated its 
 spiritual quickening light and power through a wide 
 circle. Such was the interest in hearing the gospel 
 from the living teacher that thousands, in the depth of 
 winter, stood listening the livelong day in drenching 
 storms of rain, sleet, and snow. Meetings were con- 
 tinued through the whole night to the breaking of 
 the day, and then were resumed at nine o'clock on 
 the next morning. The infidel, the scoffer, the 
 formal professor, the drunkard, the debauchee, the 
 giddy youth, the hardened criminal, the learned, the 
 ignorant, the bond, the free, the master, the slave, 
 were all brought under the resistless influence and 
 were mafle one in Christ Jesus. No barriers erected 
 by Satan were sufficient to arrest the progress of the 
 work ; but purged to a great extent of the extrava- 
 gances and excrescences which had been so prolific 
 of mischief in Kentucky, it gained thereby in depth 
 and power, and has left in the Carolinas spots as 
 marked in the memory, and as dear to the hearts, of 
 
PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 63 
 
 Presbyterians, as the moors and mountains of Scot- 
 land are sacred in the eyes of the Covenanters. 
 
 In Virginia the revival began in a little prayer 
 meeting of private Christians among the mountains 
 where there was no stated ministry — another instance 
 of prgof that genuine revivals are not produced by 
 blowing trumpets or by the impressive marshalling of 
 great crowds. Now, as ever, the Lord is not in the 
 storm nor the earthquake nor the fire, but in the 
 ''still, small voice." The more quietly and obscurely 
 a revival begins, the greater is its real power. The 
 influence of that little band of praying disciples among 
 the mountains, not one of whom probably could con- 
 struct a half dozen consecutive sentences of good 
 English, rose like the little cloud which the servant of 
 Elijah saw from the top of Carmel, and descended in 
 copious showers of blessing throughout the State for 
 many years thereafter. 
 
 In the autumn of the year 1802 there were mar- 
 vellous displays of divine grace in the pastoral charge 
 of Rev. Elisha McCurdy, consisting of the churches 
 of Three Springs and Cross Roads in Western Penn- 
 sylvania, in which churches a praying band had for 
 some time before been observing a concert of prayer 
 on each Thursday evening at sunset. The gracious 
 influences thus kindled soon spread to the congrega- 
 tions of Cross Creek, Raccoon, Upper Bu^alo, and 
 Chartiers, whose pastors were respectively Rev. 
 Thomas Marquis, Rev. Joseph Patterson, Rev. John 
 Anderson, and Rev. John McMillan. The interest 
 and power of this revival culminated at the " great 
 Buffalo sacrament," in November, 1802, at Upper 
 Buffalo, Washington Co., Pennsylvania. Vast 
 
64 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 crowds attended this meeting, and religious services 
 were continued almost without interruption from 
 Saturday noon to Tuesday evening, and all these 
 exercises were accompanied with marvellous displays 
 of divine power. During the progress of this meet- 
 ing Rev. Elisha McCurdy preached his celebrated 
 " war sermon," under the power of which, according 
 to eye-witnesses, it seemed that every tenth man 
 had been smitten down. Rarely in the history of the 
 Church have such ministers labored together in a 
 revival as met in this one — Patterson, " full of faith 
 and the Holy Ghost," Marquis of the silver tongue, 
 Anderson, whose searching discourses penetrated the 
 hidden places of the human heart as a surgeon's 
 probe goes to the bottom of a festering wound, and 
 the lion-like McMillan, whose thunderous tones in 
 preaching the terrors of the law made sinners feel 
 that the trumpet of the archangel was sounding. 
 Under the preaching of such men began the wonder- 
 ful work of grace which in its progress reached and 
 blessed " every Presbyterian congregation west of 
 the mountains in Pennsylvania." 
 
 Nor were these outpourings of the spirit confined 
 to the South and the West. In the Eastern part of the 
 Church the revival influence was not so mighty nor 
 so extraordinary in its phenomena, yet it was no less 
 genuine or precious or far-reaching in its influence 
 and results. In the year 1802 a deep and continued 
 work of grace began in the First Church of Newark, 
 N. J., which was then under the collegiate pastorate 
 of Dr. Alexander McWhorter and Rev. Edward Dorr 
 Griffin. The ministry of Dr. McWhorter had been a 
 series of revivals, and the history of this ministry 
 
PRESBYTERTANISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 65 
 
 had a brilliant continuation under Dr. Griffin, a 
 physical and intellectual giant, whose splendid en- 
 dowments were consecrated without reserve to the 
 service of his Lord and Master ; and whether 
 preaching in a metropolitan pulpit or in a school- 
 house or in a cramped and dingy town hall, these 
 endowments were all brought into play with their 
 overpowering effulgence. His wonderful endowments 
 both of body and of mind, his majestic presence, and 
 his magnificent oratory place him conspicuously in 
 the front rank of the preachers of all the ages ; 
 and a revival of religion was the occasion on which 
 he seemed to be most at home, and on which his 
 faculties worked most harmoniously and most 
 brilliantly. 
 
 While in commanding ability and Demosthenic elo- 
 quence Dr. Griffin was without a peer, there were 
 colaborers of his who were not a whit behind him in 
 devotion and in influence. Such were Rev. Henry 
 KoUock, upon whom the mantle of Whitefield seems 
 to have fallen ; Dr. James Richards, afterward the 
 successor of Dr. Griffin in the First Church of Newark, 
 N. J.; Rev. Asa Hillyer, whose every instinct was 
 evangelistic, and whose thoughts and prayers accom- 
 panied his gifts to the ends of the earth ; the 
 witty and genial Armstrong (Amzi, D. D.) : the 
 amiable Perrine (Matthew La Rue, D. D.) ; Robert 
 Finley, *'the father of the American Colonization 
 Society," who, in his enthusiasm for the cause which 
 he had espoused, brought the mightiest minds in 
 the United States Senate to sit at his feet. These 
 brethren, quickened by the spirit of revival, went 
 forth two by two through the destitute portions of New 
 
66 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 Jersey, in quest of " the lost sheep of the house of 
 Israel," and in these missionary tours they were greatly 
 blessed. Preaching to the miners among the mountains 
 they saw, as Whitefield in England had seen, the tears 
 of penitence wash white furrows down the begrimed and 
 hardened cheeks of these men. The work was quite 
 general throughout the State, and persons of all ages 
 and of all ranks and classes were brought to Christ. 
 
 From the year 1803 to the year 181 2 the narratives 
 on the state of religion which were adopted by the 
 successive General Assemblies are almost uniformly 
 cheering and inspiring by their intelligence of revival, 
 of victory over infidelity, which had been so much 
 dreaded ; of steady, healthful growth and increasing 
 aggressive power on the part of the Church. One 
 year brings the news that " there was scarcely a pres- 
 bytery under the care of the General Assembly from 
 which some pleasing intelligence had not been an- 
 nounced, and that in most of the Northern and Eastern 
 presbyteries revivals of religion of a more or less gen- 
 eral nature had taken place." In the following year 
 we hear of remarkable outpourings of the Spirit of 
 God over the " vast region extending from the Ohio 
 River to the Lakes, which region a few years before 
 had been an uninhabited wilderness," as well as in 
 the Synods of New Jersey, New York, and Albany. 
 Then again the glad tidings come up from Long 
 Island, from the banks of the Hudson, and from the 
 " newly settled regions in the western parts of the 
 State of New York," which desert, under the auspices 
 of grace, promised to become as the garden of the 
 Lord ; and at another time these glad tidings come 
 from Philadelphia, Cape May, Baltimore, and Wash- 
 
FRESBYTERIANISM IN THE UNITED STATES. G^ 
 
 ington City. From time to time the dele^^ates from 
 the Congregational churches of New England brought 
 good news of revivals in Connecticut, in Yale College, 
 in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and 
 Maine. From the Merrimac to the Mississippi, from 
 Cape Fear to Cape Cod, from the Chesapeake to the 
 Lakes, came year after year tidings of revival, of the 
 conversion of sinners, of the discomfiture of infidelity, 
 and of the triumphs of grace, which were more 
 glorious than any that were ever bulletined by martial 
 heroes from Nimrod to Moltke. In all this wide 
 circle the General Assembly from its watch-tower 
 " could trace the footsteps of Jehovah," could perceive 
 distinctly amidst the tumultuous strife the progress of . 
 the triumphal chariot of the Lord of hosts, and could 
 see the pillar of cloud and of fire going before the 
 people as they penetrated the great Western wilder- 
 ness. With the smoke of the " clearing " rose the 
 incense of prayer and praise. Thus into the founda- 
 tions of our national institutions went the tempered 
 mortar of sound theology and of vital godliness. 
 With these fathers religion was not a theory or a 
 philosophy, but a life. 
 
 The narratives on the state of religion frequently 
 and eloquently refer to the conquests of grace over 
 infidelity and false philosophy. They tell how these 
 opposing forces were by the power of God driven 
 from the field, and how their champions were either 
 converted or else covered with confusion. They also 
 repeatedly rejoice in the fact that the educated mind 
 of the nation was turning more and more to the cross 
 of Christ. When we remember the widespread prev- 
 alence of infidelity in the latter part of the eighteenth 
 
68 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 century and the front of brazen-faced assurance which 
 it put on, and when we think of the persistent and 
 malignant efforts which were made to brand Chris- 
 tianity as a vulgar delusion, utterly unworthy the con- 
 sideration of an intelligent mind, and when we con- 
 sider how this seductive infidelity, under the guise 
 of philosophy and respectability, had poisoned the 
 political and social life of the nation — we can under- 
 stand the solicitude of the Church in the solemn crisis, 
 and know why it was that she so rejoiced when she 
 saw the banner of the cross lifted up and advancing, 
 while the standards of the enemy went down amidst 
 the panic-stricken ranks of unbelief. 
 
 Thus, by the power of the Holy Ghost, the gates of 
 the new century on this continent were swung open. 
 The Sun of righteousness arose, and the sentinels, 
 from Plymouth Rock to the peaks of the Cumber- 
 land Mountains, passed the watchword, " The morn- 
 ing Cometh r 
 
 The first pulsations of organic Presbyterianism in 
 this country were the throbbings of missionary zeal. 
 As early as the year 1707 the presbytery ordered that 
 '' every minister of the presbytery supply neighboring 
 desolate places where a minister is wanting and oppor- 
 tunity of doing good offers." The entire ministry 
 of the Church was thus organized into a missionary 
 corps. Like the children of Issachar, they were " men 
 that had understanding of the times to know what 
 Israel ought to do." They divined the coming gran- 
 deur of the empire which, springing up in the forests 
 of America, was to stretch ''from sea to sea," and 
 they recognized clearly and felt profoundly the 
 
PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 69 
 
 supreme necessity of laying the foundations of this 
 empire in the principles of the word of God, so that 
 it might be able to withstand the winds and floods 
 and earthquake shocks which it must encounter m its 
 march down the centuries. The Church and country 
 greatly needed godly and faithful ministers, and also 
 the means by which these ministers could be supported. 
 Earnest and repeated cries for both men and money 
 were sent to England, Scotland, and Ireland, and any 
 favorable response to these entreaties awakened the 
 liveliest sentiments of gratitude in the hearts of these 
 laborious self-denying servants of God, who, with 
 scanty material resources, but with a marvellous 
 wealth of faith, were humbly and heroically discharg- 
 ing the obscure duties which belong to the " day of 
 
 small things." , ., ^ , u- 
 
 At the first meeting of the Synod of Philadelphia 
 an overture was adopted to the effect that the several 
 members of the svnod " contribute something to the 
 raising of a fund for pious uses." These mmisters 
 gave out of their poverty, and according to the spirit of 
 the overture, it was only after they had thus given, 
 that they might " use their interest with their friends 
 on proper occasions to contribute something to the 
 purpose." They did not merely inculcate benevo- 
 lence, " as the m'anner of some is," but gave a practical 
 exemplification of it. They not only pointed out the 
 way to their flocks, but led them in that way. As 1 
 may not traverse this part of the field, which has been 
 so thoroughly canvassed* let it suffice to say that the 
 Presbyterian Church in this country, from the very 
 first, has been in heart and soul, in body and spirit, 
 in life and limb, a missionary organization. 
 
 *In the address of another on this same occasion.— Eus. 
 
70 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 The General Assembly took up and carried forward 
 the work which had been inaugurated by the presby- 
 tery and the synod. At its first meeting this subject 
 occupied the earnest thought and care of the General 
 Assembly, and the synods were enjoined to furnish, 
 through the presbyteries, suitable missionaries, and 
 the churches were urged to take collections for the 
 cause, that thus both men and means might be 
 furnished for the establishment of churches on the 
 frontiers. 
 
 In the next year (1790) the Synod of Virginia, not 
 having received the official action of the General 
 Assembly, organized a very efficient " Commission of 
 Synod," which sent its missionaries from the " bay 
 shore to the Mississippi." I have in another con- 
 nection spoken of the Commission of the Synod of 
 Virginia, of the remarkable band of missionaries 
 which that Commission sent forth, and of the great 
 work which these missionaries accomplished within 
 the borders of Virginia and in Kentucky and Ten- 
 nessee. The Synod of North Carolina also inau- 
 gurated measures of its own for advancing the picket- 
 line along the extensive frontier. These synods were 
 to report their operations to the General Assembly. 
 
 By these different agencies and from these differ- 
 ent centres the aggressive work of the Church was 
 pushed vigorously forward. The missionaries were 
 itinerant, travelling over fields immense in extent 
 and bristling with difficulties and dangers. The 
 General Assembly sent its missionaries mainly to Cen- 
 tral New York, Northern Pennsylvania, and to the 
 Eastern Shore of Maryland. One circuit extended 
 from Lake George to the northwestern frontier of 
 
PRE5BYTERIAN1SM IX THE UNITED STATES. 7 I 
 
 Pennsylvania. Another stretched from Northumber- 
 land Co. along the branches of the Susquehanna, 
 and beyond the head-waters of that river northward 
 to Lake Ontario and westward to Lake Erie. At 
 the beginning of the century the Synod of North 
 Carolina had sent its missionaries, in connection with 
 the missionaries of the General Assembly, westward 
 to the Mississippi and southward well-nigh to the Gulf 
 of Mexico. 
 
 In these aggressive movements of the Church the 
 Indians were not forgotten ; the work of " gospelizing " 
 them occupied the early and earnest attention of the 
 General Assembly. Abundant and urgent incentives 
 to such an enterprise were found in the condition and 
 necessities of these savage tribes, while splendid ex- 
 amples of devotion and success in this field were on 
 record as a sanction and an encouragement in the 
 undertaking. The immortal author of " The Treatise 
 on the Will," " the greatest divine of the age," had 
 spent the fullest and the ripest of his years among 
 the Indians at Stockbridge, Massachusetts ; and 
 Brainerd, by his labors and apostolic zeal among the 
 same people on the Delaware and the Susquehanna, 
 had given to Christendom new ideas on the subject 
 of missionary consecration and enthusiasm, and on 
 the power of the gospel as a saving and civilizing 
 agent among the lowest and most degraded classes. 
 Under the power of such incentives, and in the light 
 of these great examples, the Gospel was preached to 
 the Indians along the frontier from the Hudson to 
 the Mississippi. Our forefathers, with their trusty 
 rifles as a defence in the one hand, held out with the 
 other the Bread of Ljfe and the blessings of civiliza- 
 
72 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 tion and education to their treacherous and bloody 
 foes. The dreadful war-whoop was answered by the 
 trumpet of the Gospel of Peace. The Church kept 
 bravely abreast of the line of population as it ad- 
 vanced westward. The watchmen of Zion, seeing 
 the standards of the sacramental host borne steadily 
 onward over mountains, across rivers, through difficult 
 and perilous places, and planted amidst the log cabins 
 of the frontiersmen and the wigwams of the Indians 
 from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, could 
 have taken up the shout of the mediaeval poet : 
 
 The royal banners forward go, 
 
 The cross shines forth with mystic glow, 
 
 Presbyterianism has always been the patron and 
 promoter of learning. An open Bible, an enlightened 
 intellect, and an unfettered conscience have ever been 
 her watchwords. Whithersoever she has gone she 
 has borne the torch of learning along with her. Her 
 goings forth have been attended by an illumination 
 like to that which attended the steps of Milton's 
 Raphael in Eden. The pioneers of American Pres- 
 byterianism, true to the traditions of the past, carried 
 the lamp of learning with them into the wilderness. 
 Under the bare and rude rafters of log cabins they 
 held converse with the mighty spirits of Greece and 
 Rome, and within sound of the Indian war-whoop 
 and within sight of the council-fires of savage tribes 
 they laid the foundations of literary institutions 
 whose influence has had a wider reach and a deeper 
 current than ever belonged to the doctrines of the 
 Porch or the Academy. 
 
 The log college of Tennent on the banks of the 
 
PRE5P.VTERIANISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 73 
 
 Neshaminy first gave the distinctive stamp to Ameri- 
 can Presbyterianism, and that of Blair at Fagg's 
 Manor, Pa., was scarcely less influential, and shall 
 ever have a secure place in its unique historic niche 
 so long as it can be said, " Samuel Davies was edu- 
 cated here and went forth into the world an exponent 
 and exemplar of his Alma Mater''; while that of 
 Finley at Nottingham, Md., sent forth such men as 
 Dr. Waddell, the immortal blind preacher, whose elo- 
 quence William Wirt has made familiar to every 
 schoolboy. 
 
 In Western Pennsylvania, as early as 1782, Rev. 
 Thaddeus Dodd opened his log academy on Ten- 
 ]\lile Creek ; Rev. Joseph Smith, at Upper Buffalo, 
 appropriating his kitchen for the purpose of a Latin 
 school, gave it the dignified and classical title, " The 
 Study"; while even earlier than this Dr. McMillan, 
 on the banks of the Chartiers, laid the foundations of 
 Jefferson College. 
 
 The same policy was pursued in North Carolina. 
 The self-educated Patillo taught a classical school 
 at Granville; Dr. Hall had his famous "Clio's 
 Nursery " at Snow Creek, and his " Academy of the 
 Sciences," with its philosophical apparatus, at his own 
 house ; the flaming evangelist McGready opened a 
 school at his house ; Wallis had a classical school at 
 New Providence, McCorkle at Salisbury, and Mc- 
 Caule at Centre. Patillo and Hall not only taught, 
 but wrote text-books. The spirit of these men is 
 indicated by an incident in the life of Patillo. Once, 
 in his absence from home, his house was burned ; 
 and the first question on meeting his wife was, " My 
 dear, are my books safe .? " 
 
74 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 Down the beautiful valleys of the Holston and the 
 Clinch, in Tennessee, emigration poured from North 
 Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. 
 The first settled minister in this region was Rev. 
 Samuel Doak, who built a log college, which in 1788 
 was incorporated as Martin Academy, the first lite- 
 rary institution established in the valley of the 
 Mississippi, and which afterward, in 1795, became 
 Washington College. Subsequently removing to 
 Greene Co., Mr. Dpak opened his " Tusculum," an 
 academy to prepare young men for college. This 
 institution also developed into a college. A small 
 library, procured for Washington College in Philadel- 
 phia, was carried to Tennessee in sacks on pack- 
 horses. In five years after the first settlement of the 
 State by Daniel Boone steps were taken toward the 
 founding of a seminary of learning in Kentucky. The 
 originators and promoters of this scheme were Pres- 
 byterians, and the school, the first in Kentucky, was 
 opened in the house of Father Rice. 
 
 Presbyterianism is an Aaron's rod, which always 
 buds with intellectual as well as with spiritual life. 
 The Graces and the Muses, in chaste and modest 
 fellowship with Christian virtues, dwelt in the Western 
 forests. Beside the fires on the altars of pure religion 
 burned the lamp of sound learning. " The church, 
 the schoolhouse, and the college grew up with the 
 log cabin, and the principles of religion were pro- 
 claimed and the classics taught where glass windows 
 were unknown and books were carried on pack- 
 horses." 
 
 Devotion to freedom, profound conviction of duty, 
 stanch and unswerving loyalty to truth, stern adher- 
 
PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 75 
 
 ence to principle, catholic charity, an active benevo- 
 lence, love of learning, the spirit of missions, and the 
 power of revival — these were the vital forces of early 
 American Presbyterianism ; and these forces had as 
 the theatre of their operation the republic of the 
 United States, with its vast and unsolved problems 
 and its untold possibilities of wealth and power, while 
 as the epoch of their development these forces had 
 the nineteenth centuiy, with its teeming enterprises, 
 its concentrating energies, its momentous conflicts 
 and issues. 
 
 Having thus endeavored to set before you clearly, 
 in its distinctive characteristics, the Presbyterian 
 Church of America during the last decade of the 
 eighteenth century and the first decade of the nine- 
 teenth century, and having endeavored to place the 
 Church fairly abreast of the mighty current of modern 
 history, the rest of my task must be despatched more 
 summarily. In the execution of it I shall give only 
 broad outlines and shall deal with forces rather than 
 with facts. 
 
 The work of revival, the power of which had been 
 felt from the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi, had 
 evoked the spirit of missions, and the spirit of mis- 
 sions had enlarged the views and broadened the sym- 
 pathies of Christians and of churches, and in this way 
 different denominations had been brought together 
 m friendly co-operation. In the year 1802 the 
 General Assembly adopted the Plan of Union, under 
 which a Presbyterian church might have a Congre- 
 gational pastor or a Congregational church might 
 have a Presbyterian pastor, these pastors retaining 
 
76 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 their respective ecclesiastical relations. The motives 
 which prompted this action were in the highest degree 
 laudable and honorable, but the practical operation 
 of the plan was beset with difficulties, and these diffi- 
 culties soon began to manifest themselves. Swift 
 currents were now sweeping the Church out into 
 untried waters. New elements, new forces, and new 
 issues entered into the history year by year. The 
 incidents of the drama thicken. Events hasten ; the 
 tide of mingling peoples rolls westward ; the steps of 
 Divine Providence will not tarry ; States in the South 
 and in the West rise as by magic ; along new lines of 
 trade and travel cities spring up in a night ; vast and 
 important mission-fields are rapidly opening, and the 
 Church has neither the men nor the means with which 
 to occupy these fields. 
 
 In the year 1806 the late Dr. James Hoge of 
 Columbus, O., was sent as a missionary to " the 
 State of Ohio and parts adjacent." 
 
 As the new age, with its tumultous and mingling 
 elements and its pressing demands on Christian 
 activity, hurried on, it developed difference of views 
 and of policy where unanimity of both had prevailed 
 before. In pushing forward the cause of evangeliza- 
 tion there were two antagonistic theories according 
 to which the work was conducted. One theory mul- 
 tiplied voluntary and irresponsible societies in different 
 localities, and operated from various centres without 
 unity of purpose or of government. The other theory 
 strove to unify the benevolent work of the Church 
 and to bring it within the metes and bounds of eccle- 
 siastical control. In the slow but steady working out 
 of this latter theory the committee on missions, which 
 
PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 77 
 
 was raised by the General Assembly in 1790, became 
 a stated committee, the stated committee became a 
 standing committee, and the standing committee 
 passed into the Board of Missions in the year 1816. 
 In the same way successive efforts in behalf of minis- 
 terial education resulted at last in the Board of Edu- 
 cation in the year 1819. 
 
 Besides these antagonistic views and policies in 
 respect to the benevolent work of the Church, ques- 
 tions arose under the operation of the Plan of Union 
 which touched the vital principles of Presbyterianism. 
 There was no dispute as to what Presbyterianism was, 
 but as to how far its fundamental principles might be 
 ignored or suspended for the sake of expediency. 
 These questions and the differences which arose out 
 of them became more and more emphasized each suc- 
 ceeding year. By some the Plan of Union was put 
 above the constitution of the Church. By others the 
 Plan of Union was regarded as a masterly device for 
 congregationalizing the Church, or else for destroy- 
 ing both Presbyterianism and Congregationalism and 
 producing a hybrid monstrosity of ecclesiasticism 
 which would be a caricature of both. The differences 
 were deep, striking down to the roots of the Pres- 
 byterian system, and were consequently irreconcilable. 
 
 In addition to the differences in regard to policy 
 and polity, there were deeper doctrinal controversies. 
 The cloud which contained this storm came from New 
 England. New measures and New Haven theology 
 created a great amount of distrust and disturbance 
 throughout the Church. The very sincerity, earnest- 
 ness, and honesty of the men who were engaged on 
 both sides of the controversy made the contest all the 
 
yS OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 more determined and the excitement attending it all 
 the more intense. Each succeeding year, with its dis- 
 cussions, conventions, and trials for heresy, widened 
 the lines of divergence and whetted the points of 
 antagonism. With much of heroic devotion to prin- 
 ciple, as well as with much of mingled human infirmity 
 and error on both sides, the contest waxed hotter and 
 hotter, until it reached its culmination in the exscind- 
 ing acts of 1837 and the division of 1838. 
 
 Of late years it has become quite the style to speak 
 in a tone of deprecating pity of these ecclesiastical 
 battles of forty years ago, as though they were mere 
 quibbles about words or disputes about the tithing of 
 the mint and the anise and the cummin, and to quote 
 them as proofs of a very low state of piety and of the 
 prevalence of a rabid spirit of scholasticism and of 
 dead orthodoxy ; but it becomes us to beware lest we 
 fall into the condemnation of those who, " measuring 
 themselves by themselves and comparing themselves 
 among themselves, are not wise." Deep and strong 
 convictions of truth and of duty, and a firm adherence 
 to these convictions at any cost, can never be a just 
 cause of reproach to Christian men. For such con- 
 victions believers in all ages have been " tortured, 
 not accepting deliverance," and have counted their 
 blood as cheap as water when shed in such a cause. 
 They "contend earnestly for the faith " because that 
 faith is infinitely precious to them. A Church or a 
 Christian without sharp and distinctive beliefs is a 
 body without a spinal column, bones, or marrow. If 
 ever the time comes when men shall not care to de- 
 fend what they hold as Presbyterians or Methodists 
 or Baptists or Congregationalists, the time will have 
 
PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 79 
 
 come when men will not care to defend the truth of 
 the Gospel at all. If to be a Presbyterian makes a 
 man any the less a Christian in any sense or in any 
 particular, then let us burn our Confession of Faith 
 and our Book of Government ; let us tear down and 
 tear up the banner which was carried by our fore- 
 fathers through so many persecutions. But if Pres- 
 byterianism is scriptural in theory and holy in its 
 practical results, then let us never be afraid or 
 ashamed to avow it. A Church without a creed is to 
 one which has a creed as the hyssop on the wall is to 
 the cedar of Lebanon or as the jelly-fish is to the 
 Nemean lion. The danger is not that we shall hold 
 these doctrines too firmly or cherish them too 
 sacredly, but that through remissness and indiffer- 
 ence we shall let slip the precious trusts which have 
 come down to us on rivers of martyr blood. 
 
 It is a significant and remarkable fact, and one 
 which deserves especial emphasis at our hands, that 
 those years of controversy and debate which pre- 
 ceded the division of 1837 were years of spiritual 
 growth and prosperity in the Church, ''the Holy 
 Ghost thus signifying " that the doctrines of the gospel 
 are the wisdom of God and the power of God unto 
 salvation even when preached in strife and debate. 
 Better preached thus than not to be preached at all. 
 We are not justified in passing judgment on these 
 men of '37, some of whom linger among us, who, 
 " firm in the right as God gave them to see the 
 right," followed their convictions straight to the issue, 
 regardless of sacrifices or consequences. 
 
 The division of 1838 was followed by a period of 
 tumult, litigation, and readjustment. The ploughshare 
 
8o OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 ran through most of the synods and presbyteries, and 
 through many of the churches even. Certain loose 
 elements which were set afloat by these riving proc- 
 esses oscillated between the two bodies for some 
 time, but at last attached to one or the other of them, 
 or else drifted away to other spheres of ecclesiastical 
 attraction and affinity. When the dust and smoke of 
 the conflict were dispelled, the view revealed two 
 Presbyterian Churches with the same Confession of 
 Faith and the same Form of Government and the 
 same Book of Discipline, working side by side in the 
 same field, yet having differences which were quite 
 characteristic and distinctive. 
 
 The Old School Church was to a remarkable degree 
 homogeneous in its constituent elements, and was dis- 
 tinguished for a rigid orthodoxy and a strict ecclesi- 
 asticism. The New School Church, on the other 
 hand, was not homogeneous in its constituent ele- 
 ments, and was distinguished for a liberal construc- 
 tion of the standards, and for an ecclesiasticism which, 
 for the sake of the voluntary and co-operative system 
 of beneficence, put in jeopardy the interests of a just 
 and necessary denominationalism. The Old School 
 Church continued in its orbit, in possession of its titles, 
 dignities, and endowments, while the New School 
 Church, against its will, was flung off into a new and 
 untried sphere. The Old School Church had a well- 
 defined policy, and went right on in its course, with 
 scarcely a jar or a jostle in its ecclesiastical operations. 
 The New School party, stunned by the sudden and 
 summary blow of excision, without a legal status and 
 beyond the pale of its wonted ecclesiastical relations, 
 was at first without a fixed policy ; and through 
 
PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 8l 
 
 abounding magnanimity refusing to disentangle itself 
 from incongruous alliances, was by these alliances 
 seriously distracted and weakened. Its generosity, 
 magnanimity, and charity are beyond all praise, but 
 unhappily these amiable and noble qualities outran 
 the less dazzling and sterner attributes of wisdom, 
 prudence, and a just conservatism. The experiment 
 of an amalgamated Presbyterianism, therefore, was 
 made in propitious circumstances, under favorable 
 conditions, and by those whose sentiments and sym- 
 pathies rendered the effort a sincere and cordial one ; 
 yet the experiment failed, and the failure has gone 
 into history. There is nothing in this that is de- 
 rogatory to the party which made the experiment, but 
 it is, on the contrary, in the highest degree honorable 
 to it that in the circumstances the experiment was 
 made ; yet the failure is none the less significant and 
 instructive. 
 
 The changes which were made in the constitution 
 by the New School Church were soon discovered 
 to be disastrous to the interests at stake and to the 
 efficiency of ecclesiastical operations, and the mistake 
 which had thus been made was speedily rectified by 
 restoring the " Book " to its original form and by rein- 
 stating it as the constitutional law of the Church, both 
 in the letter and in the spirit of it. In the violent 
 agitations, and amidst the swift and turbulent currents 
 which succeeded the division, the Church had been 
 swept somewhat from its moorings, but as soon as the 
 storm had subsided it swung back to the safe harbor 
 and the strong anchorage of constitutional Presby- 
 terianism. 
 
 The theory of co-operation and of undenomina- 
 
82 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 tionalism, in spite of the most unselfish and liberal 
 efforts in its behalf, gradually broke down, and the 
 pitiless logic of facts forced the Church to adopt a 
 policy against which her charity and her sympathies 
 reluctated, but which the solemn calls of duty and the 
 urgent exigences of the times not only justified, but 
 rendered imperative. She undertook to educate her 
 own ministry, to create and disseminate her own 
 literature, and to conduct her missions in her own 
 fields in her own way ; and when to a well-defined 
 task she set her hand, the work glowed beneath her 
 touch. A new energy thrilled along every fibre of her 
 organic life. Full of hope and zeal and enthusiasm, 
 with a united and inflexible purpose, she entered upon 
 a new era in her history which was as radiant with 
 promise as the roseate sky mantling with the blushes 
 of the morning. She had come at length to a clear 
 conception of her mission. She saw her work dis- 
 tinctly and emphatically outlined in a field which sug- 
 gested and invited boundless effort ; and to that work 
 she went, with heart and mind and soul exulting in the 
 free play of her untrammeled individuality. 
 
 The Old School, at the time of the division, had 
 a wonderfully homogeneous constituency, a clearly 
 defined theology, a pure Presbyterian form of govern- 
 ment, a fixed policy, an enthusiastic unanimity of 
 sentiment, leaders of consummate ability, the prestige 
 which accrued from its legally recognized status, an 
 ecclesiastical machinery ready to its hand, a definite 
 work to do, and an entire singleness of purpose in the 
 prosecution of that work. The Board of Missions 
 (Domestic) and the Board of Education had already 
 been organized and in operation for a score of years. 
 
PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 83 
 
 In the stormy year of 1837, amidst the tumults of 
 excision and division, the Board of Foreign Missions 
 was organized, and into this board was at once 
 merged the Western Foreign Missionary Society, 
 which had been formed and operated by the synod of 
 Pittsburgh for six years previous to this date ; and 
 thus " the wall was built even in troublous times." 
 Nor did this old church, even amidst the absorbing 
 interest and excitement of such a crisis as that of 
 1837, forget for so much as an hour that " the field is 
 the world." The Board of Foreign Missions, which 
 was then constituted, has continued to this day to be 
 a source of steadily increasing power and blessing, and 
 on its records are the names of as heroic men and 
 women as ever planted the cross among savage men 
 or amidst " the pestilence that walketh in darkness," 
 and its martyrology is as glorious as that which was 
 enacted in the Coliseum or in the imperial gardens of 
 Nero. 
 
 With a full recognition of the power of the press 
 and of the supreme importance of a sound theological 
 literature, the Board of Publication was organized in the 
 year 1838. Out of the work of Domestic Missions grew 
 the Church Erection Fund of the New School Church 
 and the Board of Church Extension of the Old School 
 Church, both of which were merged at the reunion 
 into the Board of Church Erection. Nor has the 
 Church forgotten her worn-out veterans and their 
 widows and orphans, and her efforts in their behalf 
 resulted in the Board of Ministerial Relief. The 
 benevolent agencies of the Church are not cunningly 
 devised frame-works of abstract and finely spun 
 theories, but each one of them has arisen out of the 
 
84 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 actual necessities of the work and t'ne urgent, emphatic 
 demands of the times. They are a growth, a develop- 
 ment, not an invention. 
 
 In both branches of the Church, during the separa- 
 tion, the subject of slavery produced earnest discus- 
 sion and deep, widespread agitations. In the New 
 School Church the deliverances on the subject by the 
 General Assembly became more pronounced from 
 year to year. The Northern portion of that Church 
 became gradually, but surely, more emphatic in its 
 anti-slavery convictions and utterances, while at the 
 same time the Southern portion, through a variety of 
 potent and subtle influences, was quietly slipping 
 away from the testimonies of the Church against 
 slavery, and assuming the position that slave-holding 
 was sanctioned by the Bible and was an institution not 
 only to be tolerated but defended. Of necessity the 
 breach between the parties became wider and wider 
 each succeeding year. Their views were so diver- 
 gent and so utterly irreconcilable that there was no 
 hope or possibility of a compromise. The crisis came 
 in the year 1857. The Southern synod withdrew. 
 The debates preceding the schism were candid and 
 fraternal, and the parties separated without bitterness 
 and with sincere mutual respect and love. 
 
 In the meantime the political horizon grew black 
 with angry and portentous clouds, and muttering 
 thunders gathered to a storm in which not only 
 churches went asunder, but in which States which 
 were knit together by ties of brotherhood " were rent 
 with civil feuds and drenched with fraternal blood." 
 Amidst the trooping furies of an awful civil war the 
 
PRESP.YTERIANISM IX THE UNITED STATES. 85 
 
 Old School Church was riven asunder, the split 
 following the line which separated the loyal States 
 from those which were in rebellion against the 
 Federal government. 
 
 At this point a word is necessary in regard to the 
 attitude and the teaching of the Church on the sub- 
 ject of slavery. The testimony of the Church on this 
 matter has always been clear and explicit. In the 
 year 1787 the Synod of New York and Philadelphia 
 " highly approved of the general principles in favor 
 of universal liberty that prevail in America, and the 
 interest which many of the States had taken in 
 promoting the abolition of slavery," and '' recom- 
 mended to all their people to use the most prudent 
 measures, consistent with the interest and the state of 
 civil society in the counties where they lived, to pro- 
 cure eventually the final abolition of slavery in 
 America." This action was reaffirmed in 1793. In 
 the year 1815 the General Assembly ''declared their 
 cordial approbation of those principles of civil liberty 
 which appear to be recognized by the federal and 
 State governments in these United States," and urged 
 the presbyteries under their care " to adopt such meas- 
 ures as will secure at least to the rising generation 
 of slaves within the bounds of the Church a religious 
 education, that they may be prepared for the exercise 
 and enjoyment of liberty when God in his providence 
 may open a door for their emancipation," and the 
 same Assembly denounced "the buying and selling 
 of slaves by way of traffic, and all undue severity in 
 the management of them, as inconsistent with the 
 spirit of the gospel." 
 
 The immortal paper upon the subject which was 
 
86 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 adopted by the General Assembly in the year 1818 
 begins with these ringing words : " We consider the 
 voluntary enslaving of one portion of the human race 
 by another as a gross violation of the most precious 
 and sacred rights of human nature, as utterly incon- 
 sistent with the law of God which requires us to love 
 our neighbor as ourselves, and as totally irrecon- 
 cilable with the spirit and principles of the Gospel of 
 Christ, which enjoins that ' all things whatsoever ye 
 would that men should do to you, do ye even so to 
 them '; " and the entire paper is in the tone and spirit 
 of its initial sentence. The action of 1845 deals with 
 the single and specific question as to whether slave- 
 hold'mgper se and "without regard to circumstances 
 is a sin and a bar to Christian communion "; and that 
 action did not in any way or to any extent nullify or in- 
 validate the former deliverances of the Church courts 
 on the subject. The General Assembly of 1846 de- 
 clared that in its judgment the action of the Gen- 
 eral Assembly of 1845 was not intended to deny or 
 to rescind the testimony often uttered by the Gen- 
 eral Assembly previous to that date. Upon the 
 deliverance of 1818 the Church as a body has always 
 stood. To have abandoned that ground at any 
 time would have rent the Church in twain. 
 
 Up to the time of the division the united Church 
 occupied that ground. After the division in 1837 
 the utterances of the New School Church on the 
 subject grew clearer and sharper every year. Dur- 
 ing the same time the Old School Church, while she 
 was not aggressive on the subject, but for the sake 
 of peace and charity was conservative, yet stood 
 firmly by her past testimonies, so that even during 
 
PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 87 
 
 the Civil War and after the abolition of slavery she 
 had not to change a sentence or a letter in her 
 record, nor to adjust in the slightest her attitude so 
 as to put herself in line and sympathy with the moral 
 forces of the times. While the General Assembly 
 thus held the ground of 1818, it must nevertheless be 
 confessed that a rapid change of sentiment was going 
 on in the Southern portion of the Church, until finally 
 the bold position was assumed that slavery as an 
 institution was right politically and morally, and as 
 such was to be defended and conserved, but the 
 Church as a Church never held nor sanctioned such 
 views. The spirit of both the Old and the New 
 School Churches was to bear unequivocal testimony 
 against the system of slavery as an institution, and 
 yet at the same time to exercise the largest charity 
 toward those who, through no fault of their own, 
 were involved in the evils of that system. If, there- 
 fore, the Church committed an error, the error was 
 on the side of charity ; and if there were those who 
 proved recreant to her testimonies and who abused 
 the '' charity that hopeth all things," the fault was 
 theirs, not hers. Whatever may have been the errors 
 of individual members or of portions of her com- 
 munion, I am bold and proud to say that there is 
 nothing in her records on the subject of slavery of 
 which she need be ashamed or for which she need 
 offer an apology. 
 
 Amid the fearful throes of rebellion both Churches 
 were in full sympathy with the government in its 
 efforts to restore order and to preserve the integrity 
 of the nation, making their voices heard and their 
 influence felt in favor of supporting the '' powers that 
 
88 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 be as ordained of God," and both Churches rejoiced 
 and sang hallelujahs when, in the providence of God, 
 slavery, the cause of the rebellion, was utterly over- 
 thrown and ground to powder. Neither, in their 
 ardent loyalty to their country, did they forget their 
 allegiance to their Lord, nor were they, even in these 
 perilous times, derelict in carrying forward the stand- 
 ard of the cross. 
 
 In the suspense and danger and agony which 
 attended the ravages of war. Christians of all 
 denominations were drawn closer to each other. 
 Great union associations, such as the Christian Com- 
 mission, threw different Churches into contact and 
 sympathy. This was specially the case with the Old 
 and New School Presbyterian Churches. In the 
 furnace of affliction their hearts were fused and 
 mingled. They began to look each other in the face, 
 to take each other by the hand, and in doing so they 
 found that their hands were warmed by the same 
 Presbyterian blood, and that their pulses beat to the 
 same Christian hopes and purposes. They found 
 that they had imperceptibly come together, that they 
 were standing on common ground, that God had been 
 leading them by a way which they knew not. 
 
 Each Church, in its own sphere and in its own way, 
 had been working out important problems under the 
 guidance of Divine Providence. In its own sphere, 
 and according to the laws of its inner life, the New 
 School Church had freed itself from alien elements 
 and entangling alliances, and had become a homo- 
 geneous Presbyterian body both in doctrine and 
 government. The Old School Church, straining her 
 conservatism to the utmost tension, hoped and prayed 
 
PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 89 
 
 that the dark and perplexing problem of slavery 
 might be solved in peace and charity and without the 
 stern arbitrament of the sword. But God willed other- 
 wise. The fetters of the slave must be dissolved in 
 blood. Standing bravely by her testimonies against 
 slavery and bearing her witness against treason and 
 rebellion, the Old School Church calmly awaited the 
 decisive events of Providence ; and when the schism 
 of the Southern Church came, taking from out her 
 pale the slavery issue, she felt herself relieved of a 
 weight which had grievously beset her for years. 
 
 Thus God in his wise and mysterious providence 
 had settled the issues between the two Churches. 
 All that was left was for them to acknowledge and 
 accept what God had done. The union of the two 
 bodies was consummated on November 12, 1869, in 
 the city of Pittsburgh, Pa., and the two Churches 
 became organically one on the basis of the standards, 
 pure and simple, and under the title of the Presby- 
 terian Church in the United States of America, form- 
 ing, as we trust, a true Church of Christ, whose up- 
 lifted banners shall become a rallying-point for all 
 Presbyterians on the continent, where they may meet 
 and settle all differences in a way which will be 
 honorable to all parties, where the scattered Presby- 
 terian tribes may flow together as the tribes of old 
 Israel poured to Zion, and shall become one, and shall 
 be to all the world the best representative of a true 
 unity which is not formed by external appliances, as 
 though bound by hoops of steel, but a unity which is 
 developed and strengthened by a conscious and in- 
 telligent oneness of intellectual belief and spiritual 
 life — one not as a wired skeleton is one, but as a living 
 
90 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 man is one ; a broad Church not in the sense of being 
 latitudinarian, but broad in Christian sympathy and in 
 the worldwide scope of Christian effort. 
 
 Since the reunion the progress of the Church has 
 been steady, harmonious, and rapid. With past aliena- 
 tions, feuds, and bitternesses buried utterly out of sight 
 and out of hearing ; united, hopeful, and " strong in the 
 Lord "; bound by indissoluble ties of brotherhood and 
 fellowship to those of our own household of faith, 
 and with ardent and ample charity for all others, we 
 stand on the threshold of the new century, and with 
 devout thanksgiving to God for the past and for the 
 present we hail and welcome the great future. 
 
 Such is the past. Its perils, its toils, its journeyings, 
 its disasters, its achievements, its conflicts, its dis- 
 couragements, its declensions, its revivals, its mighty 
 sermons, its high debates, its struggles, its privations, 
 its sacrifices, its rewards, its failures, its successes, its 
 hopes, its disappointments, its divisions, its reunions, 
 its unheralded and unrequited labors — have all gone 
 into their place, arid have performed their part in ful- 
 filling the purpose of God toward this land and the 
 world. They form a picture of surpassing interest — 
 a picture strong in blended light and shadow, but 
 having withal much more of light than of shadow. 
 We have good reason to be proud of our Presbyterian 
 ancestry, for what they were, for what they achieved, 
 and for what they represented. We have a glorious 
 heraldry, but we must not rest in these. 
 
 The great Roman satirist lashes with whips of 
 scorpions the degenerate sons of the Curii and the 
 Lepidi, who with dice and wine and soft voluptuous- 
 
PRE5BYTERTANISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 91 
 
 ness melted away their dissolute lives in the statued 
 halls of illustrious ancestors, where every tablet 
 groaned with a wealth of genealogical lore and every 
 wreath and chaplet was redolent with glorious mem- 
 ories. Let us be careful that we incur not such 
 satire. We have been sitting beneath our genealogi- 
 cal tree and rejoicing in its stanch branches and in its 
 capacious shade. We have been gathering up the 
 articulate lessons and the solemn, inspiring voices of 
 the century that is gone. Let these lessons and voices 
 only quicken us to read aright the signs of the times, 
 and to hear and to interpret rightly the voice of God 
 as it comes to us in his Word and his providence, that 
 through watching and prayer, through faithfulness 
 and self-sacrifice, the present may not be a lie and a 
 slander on the past, but that it may be a consistent 
 opening and preparation for a brighter and grander 
 future. 
 
Til. 
 
 THE DISTINCTIVE PRINCIPLES OF 
 PRESBYTERIANISM. 
 
III. 
 
 THE DISTINCTIVE PRINCIPLES OF 
 PRESBYTERIANISM.* 
 
 From eternity God chose a people for himself. 
 The idea of the Church rests upon and springs out of 
 the eternal purpose of Jehovah. In the working out 
 of this eternal purpose the divine thought assumes 
 form and visibility in time. The true people of God 
 as they are known to him throughout all the ages, 
 those who have been, and those who will be redeemed, 
 constitute the invisible Church. But since man can 
 only judge as to who are the people of God by a 
 credible profession, " all those who profess the true 
 religion, together with their children," constitute the 
 visible Church. The Church, therefore, in its idea 
 and necessity, rests upon no tradition or expediency, 
 not upon apostolical authority alone, not upon a 
 happy after-thought of God, but upon his blessed, 
 eternal purpose according to the counsel of his own 
 will. As to churchism — if we must have it of all 
 dimensions, high, low, and broad — here is churchism 
 which in its " breadth and length and depth and 
 height " is commensurate with the " love of Christ, 
 which passeth knowledge."- 
 
 In the government of a God " whose bosom is the 
 
 *At the Second General Council of the Presbyterian Alliance, 
 Philadelphia, September, 1880. 
 
 95 
 
96 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 home of law," which law is voiced in the harmony of 
 the world, this visible Church must have a form, an 
 organization. It is a body. The earth, which is pre- 
 served from fire for the sake of the Church, swings 
 through the ranks of marching suns to the music of 
 the spheres. This God of order would not leave his 
 highest creation — the Church — to go on at random 
 or in anarchy. Here, naturally and presumably, we 
 should expect the highest type of law and order and 
 government ; of power regulated ; rights guarded ; 
 order maintained, with all due liberty of thought and 
 action. 
 
 I. Presbyterianism maintains, therefore, that there 
 is a Church ; that there has been a Church from the 
 beginning of human history ; that the plan of the 
 Church lay in the mind of God before the foundations 
 of the world were laid. This is high-churchismof the 
 right kind. 
 
 II. This Church, then, has a founder, a lawgiver, a 
 governor, a king, a head ; and this king, lawgiver, and 
 head is Christ. Presbyterianism maintains, always 
 has maintained, and always will maintain so long as 
 true to herself, the supreme headship of Christ. To 
 his Church Jesus Christ has given laws and a form of 
 government. To him alone is the Church responsible 
 for what she does in her legitimate and appropriate 
 sphere. These laws given by Christ to his Church 
 are contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New 
 Testaments, which Scriptures — 
 
 III. Presbyterianism holds to be the only and suffi- 
 cient rule of faith and practice ; the Bible, the Bible 
 alone, and the whole Bible. To this principle Pres- 
 byterianism has always been loyal ; always " fol- 
 
PRINCIPLES OF PRESBYTERIANISM. 97 
 
 lowing God's word," as the immortal Rutherford 
 
 has it. 
 
 Richard Hooker — nomen clarum etvenerabile ! — in his 
 "Ecclesiastical Polity" begins the discussion at very 
 long range, concerning law in general, law of nature, 
 of angels, of reason, etc., then Scripture. On the 
 other hand, Presbyterianism begins, continues, and 
 ends with Scripture— with all Scripture. After we 
 have learned what the Scripture saith it is time enough 
 to consult antiquity, history, canons, nature, or logic. 
 The Old Testament and the New Testament are not 
 antagonistic nor contradictory, nor inconsistent the 
 one with the other ; the one is not a supplement to 
 the other, nor is the New Testament a feeble apology 
 for the Old, but both alike are the Word of God. 
 The Church is one throughout the ages. Thus going 
 to the Word of God, to the whole Word of God, rever- 
 ently to learn what form of government Christ has 
 given to the Church, and pressing out the very 
 essence of all dispensations, and lifting the name 
 right from the sacred page, with the breath of Jehovah 
 upon it, we exclaim, Presbyterian ! 
 What, then, is Presbyterianism ? 
 I. First and most obviously, it is a Church govern- 
 ment in the hands of Presbyters (elders) ; and of 
 these there are two classes— viz., teaching elders and 
 ruling elders. Every ordained teaching Presbyter 
 has a'uthority to discharge all ministerial functions— 
 viz., to preach the Word, to administer the sacra- 
 ments, to dispense discipline. There are no orders 
 in the ministry, such as characterize Prelacy— Bishops, 
 Presbyters, Deacons. Each Presbyter in the New 
 Testament was, and by right is, a Bishop— a Bishop 
 
98 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 in the sense of an overseer of the flock, not an over- 
 seer of his brethren. Associated with the Presbyters 
 — who, besides ruling, " labor in word and doctrine " 
 — are others whose peculiar function it is to rule ; 
 hence called Ruling Elders. 
 
 These ruling elders are not laymen, but are chosen 
 from among laymen, and are ordained to a spiritual 
 office, and in ecclesiastical courts represent the people, 
 and in these ecclesiastical courts have equal powers 
 with the teaching elders. It is conceded on all hands 
 that the office of ruling elder is perpetual, and in 
 logical Presbyterianism the exercise of this spiritual 
 office should no more expire by limitation of time 
 than the exercise of the spiritual office of a preaching 
 elder should expire by limitation of time, or than the 
 exercise of a man's spiritual gifts and graces should 
 expire by limitation of time. 
 
 Each congregation is governed by a bench of 
 elders. From the lowest court to the highest the 
 power of the keys is in the hand of Presbyters, and 
 this Presbyterian authority is episcopal. We have no 
 controversy with Episcopacy. We hold it, believe it, 
 teach it, practice it, defend it. Each Presbyterian 
 minister is a bishop — is indeed the only scriptural 
 kind of bishop ; an episcopos, overseer of the flock, but 
 not a lord over his brethren. We are Episcopalians, 
 truer ones than those who arrogate the name to them- 
 selves, for they have but few bishops, whereas we 
 have many. Prelatists are they, but scriptural Episco- 
 palians they are not. We are Episcopalians, but not 
 Prelatists. Prelacy has no foundation in the Word of 
 God. It is a human device, a human invention, a 
 human after-thougfht. 
 
PRINCIPLES OF PRESBYTERIANISM. 99 
 
 The government of the Church is by elders ; and 
 
 2. This government by eiders binds the Church 
 together organically. Each court is subordinate to 
 a higher court — the Church Session to the Presbytery, 
 the Presbytery to the Synod, the Synod to the 
 General Assembly. The power of the Church is not 
 in the whole body of believers, but representatively 
 it is in these courts. There is no scriptural example 
 of ordination by one presbyter, but by Presbytery ; 
 so there is no scriptural example of authority exer- 
 cised by one bishop, but by an assembly of bishops, 
 Presbyters. Thus order, decency, discipline, in the 
 house of God are secured, and at the same time the 
 rights of every member are carefully guarded. The 
 proceedings, conclusions, findings, and judgments of 
 all lower courts are subject to review by the higher 
 courts, and this review carries with it control. No 
 congregation is or can be independent, but is an 
 integral part of the Presbytery, and the Presbytery is 
 an integral part of the Synod, and the Synod of the 
 General Assembly. An independent Presbyterian 
 Church is an anomaly — a monstrosity. Thus we 
 have 
 
 3. Unity. Many members forming one body, and 
 the body in subjection to the head ; a living organism, 
 not a unity secured by arbitrary power, not the unity 
 of iron bands which make the chariot-wheel one, but 
 the plastic power of an inforniing inner life which 
 makes the cedar of Lebanon one, or the oak of Bashan 
 one, with many members. There is a strong govern- 
 ment, but this government is only ministerial. The 
 Church can make no laws to bind the conscience. 
 She can only administer the law as laid down in the 
 
lOO OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 Word of God. It is constitutional government — gov- 
 ernment according to the divine constitution. 
 
 And, 4, this unity is catholic. 
 
 If Presbyterianism be jure divino, it is and must be 
 catholic. " We believe in the Holy Catholic Church ;" 
 and besides this, Presbyterianism is the only form of 
 government which can really give scriptural exj^ression 
 to this catholicity. Papacy or Prelacy can no more 
 do this than Napoleonic imperialism could give 
 expression to the catholicity of human freedom. 
 Catholicity, moreover, is an instinct of Presbyterianism. 
 In the Book of Discipline of the Kirk of Scotland, 
 as early as 1581, it is declared, '' Beside these assem- 
 blies, there is another more general kind of assembly, 
 an universal assembly of the Church of Christ in the 
 world, which was commonly called an ecumenic 
 council, representing the universal Church, which is 
 the body of Christ." 
 
 Rutherford in " Divine Right " declares that '' ecu- 
 menic and general councils should he, Jure divino, to 
 the second coming of Christ " (58). 
 
 Gillespie says : " Besides provincial and national 
 synods, an ecumenical, or more truly a general, or, 
 if you please, an universal synod" (Prop. 36). 
 
 {a) This scheme of government therefore is logical 
 and symmetrical. Each part fits to its fellow without 
 jar or friction ; the body develops naturally and har- 
 moniously into full, rounded proportions, without 
 excrescences or monstrosities; ''the building, fitly 
 framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the 
 Lord." 
 
 {!)) It is logical and symmetrical because it is 
 scriptural. It claims to be Jure divino. Normal, 
 
PRINCIPLES OF PRESBYTERIANISM. lOI 
 
 healthy Presbyterianism — Presbyterianism which has 
 the breath of life in its nostril, the pulse-beat of life 
 in its wrist — has never abated a jot or a tittle of that 
 claim. If the system be not jure divino^ if it be not 
 scriptural, let us know it and let us have done with it. 
 Let us understand ourselves, brethren, and then the 
 world will understand us. Our right to be here as a 
 General Presbyterian Council rests on the fact that 
 our system in government as well as in doctrine is 
 jure divino. Our catholicity is not to be maintained 
 by a dilution of our Presbyterianism ; we are not to 
 reach comprehension by beating out the gold of the 
 sanctuary until it becomes so thin that it can be put 
 to the base purposes of tinfoil. If our system be not 
 jure divino, we as Presbyterians, especially as a Pres- 
 byterian General Council, have no right to exist. Let 
 us not be ashamed of our birthright ; above all, let 
 us not sell it at Esau's price. 
 
 Boast they of apostolical succession ? We claim 
 patriarchal succession. Presbyterianism is older by 
 millenniums than the apostles. The apostles only 
 take their place in the unbroken line of Presbyterian- 
 ism, which had been in successful operation for thou- 
 sands of years before Peter cast his first net or caught 
 his first fish. At Horeb, in the light of the burning 
 bush, nee tanien consumebatur, Moses received his 
 great commission, which ran thus : " Go, gather the 
 elders of Lsrael together." Jehovah sent Moses down 
 to Egypt to convene the Presbytery. Through the 
 elders, the representatives of the people, he was to 
 act, and through them he did act. From the burning 
 bush at Horeb, Moses went to Presbytery. There 
 were Presbyterians ages before Peter was born, or 
 
I02 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 Rome was builded, or Prelacy or Papacy was ever 
 heard or dreamed of. We date far beyond apostolic 
 times. One purpose runs through the ages. The 
 Church is one in all dispensations. There is but one 
 plan of salvation. Abel was saved through the blood 
 of the Lamb. At Sinai, and during the sojourn in 
 the desert, the elders represented the people. The 
 establishment of the monarchy left the Presbyterial 
 government of the Israelitish Church intact. Let it 
 be borne in mind that the Israelitish Church and 
 state were not identical. Gillespie and Rutherford 
 set that at rest for ever. 
 
 The government of the synagogues was Presby- 
 terian. The death of Christ abolished the temple 
 service, which was sacrificial and ritual. There was 
 no more need for altar, or priest, or sacrifice. Christ 
 fulfilled the law by taking the place of the types. 
 When the temple service was thus abolished there 
 remained the form and service of the synagogue ; and 
 the first converts being Jews, the synagogue model 
 was ready to hand. There was no revolution ; when 
 ritualism was abolished by the sacrifice of Christ the 
 Presbyterianism of Moses remained. There is not a 
 scintilla of evidence for any other form of government 
 in the New Testament. Diocesan bishops are un- 
 known to the New Testament. Neither is there any 
 trace of Independency or Congregationalism in 
 Judaism. 
 
 The lines of the covenant run from one dispensa- 
 tion to another unbroken, only expanding so as to 
 embrace all who shall believe, of all nations, together 
 with their children. 
 
 The system is scriptural, and because scriptural it 
 
PRINCIPLES OF PRESBYTERIANISM. IO3 
 
 is logical and symmetrical. It is not first made logi- 
 cal, and Scripture made to square with it, but it is 
 drawn directly from the Word of God, not cunningly 
 framed to meet some exigency or expediency, not ac- 
 cordi<ig to any prepossessions. The eternal thought 
 of Jehovah takes form and visibility in just and due 
 proportion. Presbyters are identical with bishops in 
 New Testament usage. On this point there is an 
 unbroken chain of authorities from Augustine to the 
 present Bishop Lightfoot. 
 
 Paul called presbyters of the Church of Ephesus 
 bishops (Acts xx. 17, 28). 
 
 The apostles ordained them elders in every church 
 (Acts xiv. 23). 
 
 Peter, himself an elder, charges elders as bishops, 
 overseers, and pastors of the flock, but not *' lords over 
 God's heritage." 
 
 Presbyters were ordained by the laying on of hands 
 of the Presbytery (i Tim. iv. 14). 
 
 An accusation against a presbyter could not be 
 entertained except in and by Presbytery before two 
 or three witnesses (i Tim. v. 19). A presbyter is 
 entitled to a fair trial by his peers. That was Paul's 
 presbyter, according to the glorious Samuel Ruther- 
 ford. Throughout the Bible from end to end the 
 Church is Presbyterian, from the times of Moses to 
 and through the times of the apostles — from the 
 Shekinah of the burning bush to the Apocalypse of 
 John. Jehovah sent Moses to the elders of Israel, 
 and in the Apocalypse the elders, together with angels 
 and cherubim, worship and preach and sing the new 
 song in company with the countless multitude before 
 the throne. In the visions of John there are no prel- 
 
I04 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 ates, but the elders are there, and are there representa- 
 tively. From the household of the antediluvian 
 patriarch to the worship of the apocalyptic Church in 
 heaven, the thought and scheme and spirit of the 
 Bible are Presbyterian. 
 
 (c) And, being scriptural, it is historical. 
 
 That apostolical Presbyterianism was in the third 
 century superseded by Prelacy is only too obviously 
 true, but this Prelacy came not by the door of scrip- 
 tural authority, but, like a thief and a robber, climbed 
 up some other way. From Judaism and paganism it 
 crept in, bringing with it altars, priests, sacrifices, and 
 the elaborate ritual appropriate to these ideas. 
 
 During the Middle Ages, whenever and wherever a 
 witness for the truth arose, who by the study of the 
 Word of God had been instructed and quickened, and 
 who, thus instructed and quickened, desired to lead the 
 Church back to apostolical simplicity and purity, there 
 we find a Presbyterian. This is true of all the fore- 
 runners of the Reformers and of all the Reformers ; 
 and in every country the Reformation was conducted 
 on Presbyterian principles except in England. Prel- 
 atists say Presbyterianism is not historical, but it is 
 historical in apostolical times and in the best ages in 
 the world's life. If it ever is submerged it is in the 
 days of the deepest corruption, when it is confessed 
 that Prelacy held the field. 
 
 Nor is Presbyterianism simply a form of ecclesiol- 
 ogy, but, going as it always does to the Word of God, 
 it there finds a system of doctrine which is much 
 more important and precious than any form of polity. 
 Excellent as our form of government is, it is withal 
 only the casket which contains and conserves the 
 
PRINCIPLES OF PRESBYTERIANISM. I05 
 
 treasure of sound doctrine. We put doctrine first, 
 form of government secondary — the form only to give 
 proper expression and efficiency to the doctrine. So 
 that, with all its strength and clearness of conviction, 
 Presbyterianism is catholic and charitable in spirit and 
 in sympathy. 
 
 Presbyterianism, then, is not a mere form or badge, 
 but a system of doctrines and principles, the form 
 being appropriate to the doctrines, the history of 
 v^rhich can be traced back along a line of fire to the 
 Apostle Paul, and thence to the burning bush at Horeb. 
 The true line of succession does not consist in the 
 unbroken continuity of empty, extra-scriptural forms 
 and ceremonies, but in the continuous holding forth 
 and passing forward of the vital doctrines of the Gos- 
 pel, accompanied by the spirit and power of true 
 godliness. The line passes on from Abel, the first 
 martyr, to Enoch, the seventh from Adam ; from 
 Enoch to Noah, the preacher of righteousness ; from 
 Noah to Abraham ; from Abraham to Moses ; from 
 Moses to Paul ; from Paul to Augustine ; from 
 Augustine to Claudius of Turin ; from Claudius to 
 the Waldenses in their Alpine fastnesses, to Succat, 
 commonly known as St. Patrick, a good, sound Pres- 
 byterian ; from Succat through the Culdees ; thence 
 through every witness of the truth during the Middle 
 Ages; thence through the Reformers. Along the 
 whole line stakes and fagots have blazed, and along 
 the whole line Presbyterian blood has been sprinkled 
 and ashes of martyred Presbyterians have been 
 scattered. 
 
 Kings, prophets, patriarchs, all have part 
 Along the sacred line, 
 
I06. OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 This system is scriptural, logical, and symmetrical. 
 The form is not a mere shell, but is a body for vital 
 forces which live and move and work ; which work, 
 moreover, within prescribed limits according to 
 established laws. We are not dealing with dead 
 forms, but with living principles. For example : 
 
 I. The headship of Christ as held by Presbyterians 
 renders Papacy impossible. Christ is King alone, 
 and has on earth no vicar. He has no deputy, and 
 needs none, and he who usurps such an office pre- 
 sumptuously puts himself in the place of God. Christ 
 has no vicar, but he as King sends out his ambassa- 
 dors, his ministers, and they declare his will, they 
 preach the Word. They are not to minister at an 
 altar, not to parody the one infinite sacrifice of the 
 Son of God ; nor are they sent to amuse or astonish 
 the people with the fancies and crudities of their own 
 imaginations, but to declare the will and counsel of 
 the ever-living, all-ruling King. This will of the King 
 has been written, put on record for us in his Word, and 
 this is our rule, our only rule, our sufficient rule. 
 
 This sound, simple principle sweeps utterly away all 
 theories of tradition, all theories oiquodsejuper^ quodubi- 
 que et quod ab omnibus, and all theories of development. 
 
 All intelligent and honest papists and prelatists 
 know that their systems are not found in the Bible, 
 and on that account they scout the idea of the suffi- 
 ciency of Scripture : hence they base these systems on 
 expediency, decency ; then they have fallen back on 
 tradition, antiquity, Church history, the consensus of 
 the ante-Nicene fathers f but being ignominiously 
 
 * Note by Eds. — It is "sure that nothing like modern Episco- 
 pacy existed before the close of the first century." — Dean Stanley. 
 
PRINCIPLES OF PRESBYTERIANISM. 107 
 
 routed from these positions b}^ advancing scholarship, 
 Moehler suggested, and Cardinal Newman elabo- 
 rated, a theory of development which can account for 
 the Papacy apart from apostolic authority. Is it not 
 suggestive, is it not decisive against them, that all 
 these extreme prelatic theories, and just in proportion 
 to their intensity, discredit the sufficiency of Scripture ? 
 In the magical hands of Newman this development 
 performs the most wonderful feats. He makes the 
 Incarnation to be the antecedent of the doctrine of 
 mediation ; this develops into the doctrine of the 
 Atonement, and that into the doctrine of the mass 
 and the worship of saints. In other words, the 
 divinity and incarnation of our Lord develop into the 
 worship of saints and relics. From the same source 
 he draws the sacramental principle, and this develops 
 into the seven sacraments, the unity of the Church, 
 the Holy See, authority of Councils, sanctity of rites, 
 veneration of holy places, shrines, images, furniture, 
 vessels, and vestments. " The doctrine of the sacra- 
 ments leads to the doctrine of justification ; justifica- 
 tion, to that of original sin ; original sin, to the merit 
 of celibacy." With such a theory he only needs the 
 last law of development which he lays down — viz., 
 "Chronic Continuance" — to be able to achieve any- 
 thing by development without either Scripture or his- 
 tory, and for that matter without reason or common 
 sense. 
 
 The headship of Christ is potent against Popery, 
 so also against Erastianism. To the Church is given 
 no sword, but the power of the keys. The State 
 bears the sword, the Church the keys, and Christ 
 alone the sceptre. 
 
Io8 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 Ministerial parity as a principle is sharp, keen, dis- 
 tinctive, and far-reaching in its sweep and power. It 
 is a two-edged ploughshare which cuts up by the 
 roots Prelacy and the very beginnings of hierarchical 
 order, distinction, supremacy. As a principle this is 
 the touchstone of Presbyterianism. Departure from 
 this simple principle early in the history of the Church 
 laid the foundation for the astounding claims and 
 achievements of the Papacy of Hildebrand ; and 
 departure from it, however slight, is always fraught 
 with danger. 
 
 Ministerial parity implies a ministry. Presbyteri- 
 anism holds no uncertain views on this subject, but 
 sound scriptural views, which the world greatly needs 
 to hear. There is a Christian ministry, y^^/v divino, 
 and the sacred functions of this office — preaching 
 the Word and administering the sacraments — are not 
 to be assumed or usurped by anyone's taking this 
 honor to himself ; but men are to enter this office 
 according to the order laid down in the Word of God. 
 
 If a man be called to preach, he is called of God, 
 and called according to the divine ordinance. Here 
 again we find in Presbyterianism a ploughshare, which 
 cuts up by the roots the pestiferous weeds of Plym- 
 outhism, and all forms of ecclesiastical insubordina- 
 tion and anarchy : and may God speed the plough- 
 share I 
 
 The office of Ruling Elder gives the people a 
 representation in all ecclesiastical courts, and the 
 people having a right to choose their own officers, 
 the heart of the Church is thus brought near to the 
 people, and the heart of the people is kept near the 
 Church, 
 
PRINCIPLES OF PRESKYTERIANISM. \og 
 
 Presbyterianism is an impregnable bulwark against 
 spiritual oligarchy and spiritual monarchy ; and also 
 against sacerdotalism, sacramentarianism, and ritual- 
 ism. A Church truly Presbyterian can never become 
 ritualistic, because ritualism is extra-scriptural. Even 
 on the theory that the Christian Church is modelled 
 after the temple service, it by no means follows that 
 the Church must be prelatic ; but, on the contrary, it 
 is quite true that the Levitical priests were not prel- 
 ates, nor was the system in any of its features prelatic. 
 But the temple service was abrogated by the one 
 infinite sacrifice, offered once for all by our Great 
 High Priest. Priesthood, altar, sacrifice, types, all 
 vanished in the presence of the Antitype. He is a 
 priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, not 
 after the order of Aaron. He has no successor in 
 office. Who now dares obtrude himself into the 
 sanctuary as priest ? who dares to build again Jewish 
 altars and to usurp the prerogatives of the one High 
 Priest who, in the heavenly sanctuary, ever lives to 
 intercede ? 
 
 What a pitiable spectacle it is to see a poor mortal, 
 tricked out in his vestments, manipulate a wafer and 
 call it a sacrifice ! With this sacerdotal idea comes 
 ritualism in all its modes, degrees, and extremes. 
 Presbyterianism knows but one King and Head of 
 the Church, and but one High Priest and Mediator, 
 who " hath made us kings and priests unto God." 
 The dowry through his blood is the universal priest- 
 hood of believers. This is Presbyterian sacerdotalism. 
 
 Presbyterianism gives strength and security just 
 where these are needed, and gives this strength and 
 security on scriptural foundations. It has liberty 
 
no OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 with Strength as against the Papacy, and strength 
 with liberty as against Independency. " Strength 
 and beauty are in his sanctuary." We are not 
 ashamed of our polity and form of government. We 
 are not ashamed of its origin, of its history, of its 
 past, of its present, of its hopes for the future. 
 
 Presbyterianism is liberal, charitable, unchurching 
 no one, attaching more importance to purity of 
 doctrine and of life than to any form of government, 
 and is ready always with a good conscience to fellow- 
 ship with all who "hold the Head "; and so in con- 
 troversy she has always been on the defensive ; but 
 when attacked she has always shown that she is able 
 to take care of herself and the precious interests com- 
 mitted to her. We are willing and anxious to live in 
 peace and in charity and good-will toward all men, 
 but if prelatists persist in unchurching us, and in 
 spurning Presbyterian ordination, we retort by saying, 
 "Your Prelacy is unwarranted by Scripture ; and if 
 you have nothing better than this figment of apostoli- 
 cal succession, then your bishops are no bishops, and 
 your Church is not a true Church." We are Episco- 
 palians, true Presbyterian Episcopalians. 
 
IV. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF PREACHING. 
 
IV. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF PREACHING.* 
 
 Fathers and Brethren of the Board of Direct- 
 ors, AND Chi#stian Friends of this Assembly : 
 It is expected that I should discuss, on this occasion, 
 some subject connected with the department the 
 charge of which has lately been devolved upon me by 
 the Supreme Judicatory of the Church. With what 
 sincere shrinking and self-distrust I enter upon its 
 duties, I need not here express. As appropriate to 
 the chair of History and Homiletics which I am to 
 fill, I have chosen for my theme to-night, " The 
 History of Preaching." 
 
 In Eden, at the cool of the day, when the voice 
 of the Lord was heard in the garden, preaching be- 
 gan. That was the first religious instruction given 
 to a man as a fallen creature needing salvation ; and 
 that voice was the voice of Him who afterward 
 preached on the mountain-sides and the seashores of 
 Judea. The Messianic promise in that sermon con- 
 tains the essence of all evangelical preaching ever 
 since and till the end of time. It is the text of which 
 Redemption is a divine elaboration — the bud of which 
 prophecy and its fulfillment are the blossom, and a 
 Redeemer crowned and a Church triumphant, the 
 glorious fruit. 
 
 " At the inauguration of the author as Professor in the Western 
 Theological Seminary, April 27, 1858. 
 
114 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 This, therefore, is the beginning and the basis of 
 all preaching. 
 
 The first distinguished preacher of whom we have 
 any account is Enoch, the seventh from Adam. He 
 had the primary requisites of his ofifice — a vigorous 
 faith and an ardent piety. He enforced his precepts 
 by a consistent practice. His life was "visible 
 rhetoric." While yet a young man, according to the 
 standard of that age, " God took %iim " from the 
 pulpit on earth to the choir in heaven. Jude gives 
 us an idea of his preaching. The godlessness that 
 brought the Deluge was then rapidly increasing. 
 Against this, and amidst this, he lifted up his voice in 
 no timid or ambiguous tones. He fearlessly pointed 
 men to the judgment seat and the pains of an eternal 
 retribution : and his course was approved, for before 
 his translation " he had the testimony that he pleased 
 God." 
 
 Noah was " a preacher of righteousness " — *' was 
 perfect in his generation," and for more than a cen- 
 tury preached to the skeptical antediluvians. This 
 we know ; his style and manner are subjects of con- 
 jecture. 
 
 As early as the days of Moses, elocution was 
 regarded as an important element of a preacher's 
 success. When pleading to be excused from the 
 mission to his brethren in bondage, his language is, 
 " O ! my Lord, I am not eloquent : but I am slow of 
 speech, and of a slow tongue." And the Lord said, 
 " Is not Aaron, the Levite, thy brother ? I know 
 that Jie can speak well.'' It is absurd, indeed, to 
 attribute to Aaron theatrical tones and attitudes, but 
 it is equally absurd to suppose that his discourses 
 
THE HISTORY OF PREACHING. II5 
 
 were rude deliverances, with no regard to emphasis, 
 intonation, or gesture. We have the word of God for 
 it, that he could speak well, and the crisis justified his 
 speaking as well as he could. 
 
 Ezekiel's discourses were set off by an exquisite 
 delivery. He had " a pleasant voice," and had it 
 completely under his control. So flexibly obedient 
 was every organ of speech that he is compared to 
 one who could play well on an instrument. Those 
 who cared nothing for the matter of his sermons were 
 charmed and enchanted by the manner of them. 
 They listened with rapture to the melody of his voice 
 and the music of his periods. " He was to them as 
 a very lovely song." Good elocution, therefore, is 
 by no means a modern accomplishment. 
 
 Samuel was the founder of theological seminaries. 
 The first institution of the kind was at Naioth, near 
 Ramah. Others were afterward established at 
 Jericho, Gilgal, and Bethel, whither Elijah and Elisha 
 often resorted. Under these venerable and inspired 
 teachers, young men were trained for the prophetic 
 ofBce ; and from these seats of sacred learning they 
 went forth in the spirit of their great masters. From 
 this time onward we have a succession of prophets, 
 which extends in an unbroken line to Malachi ; and 
 an illustrious succession it is ! They not only served 
 their own generation, but have left behind them 
 works that will outlive the world. So long as there 
 is a saint or a sinner on the earth, their words will be 
 a power in the hearts of mankind. 
 
 Almost every species of style, temperament, elo- 
 quence, and delivery had its representative among 
 these men. In this succession was the distinguished 
 
Il6 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 missionary and street-preacher of Nineveh, whose 
 Startling sermons brought a haughty king and two 
 milHons of his dissipated subjects to repentance. 
 Here, too, we find the uneducated but sublime and 
 fearless Amos ; the concise and pungent Hosea ; the 
 Homer of prophets, Isaiah ; the fervid and imagina- 
 tive Joel ; the copious and elegant Micah ; the glow- 
 ing and graphic Nahum ; the tender-hearted Jere- 
 miah, the John of the Old Testament ; the prayerful 
 Habakkuk ; Daniel, the Christian statesman, who went 
 to his closet for inspiration and political wisdom ; the 
 tragic Ezekiel, the y^schylus of the Hebrews ; the 
 earnest revivalists, Haggai and Zechariah ; and last of 
 all, Malachi, on whose lips prophecy expired. 
 
 Preaching from a pulpit and on a text began in 
 the time of Ezra. History has afforded us few such 
 scenes as we have in this reformer's preaching in the 
 square before the Water Gate in Jerusalem. Upon 
 a temporary " pulpit of wood which they had made 
 for the purpose," he stood and preached " from the 
 morning till midday," to a congregation of fifty thou- 
 sand souls. That the young preacher of Surrey Gar- 
 dens should keep the attention of ten thousand for 
 three-quarters of an hour is considered wonderful, but 
 here the attention of five times that number was kept 
 for six hours. God's spirit was there, and a great 
 revival was the consequence. That public square 
 became a Bochim. The weeping of the people was so 
 excessive that it had to be restrained. A correct read- 
 ing and a faithful exposition of the Scriptures were the 
 means. That day forms an interesting section in the 
 history of preaching. Here, too, dates the origin of 
 synagogues, which continued to multiply till the com- 
 
THE HISTORY OK PREACHING. II7 
 
 ing of Christ, and in which, during all this time, 
 preaching was regularly kept up. 
 
 Now we glide in silence over a period of four cen- 
 turies, nothing special arresting our attention, until we 
 are startled by the voice of one crying in the wilder- 
 ness. " In the spirit and power of Elias," who was 
 his model and whose mantle had fallen upon him, 
 John the Baptist went forth to preach to a careless, 
 apathetic generation. Earnest, vehement, and orig- 
 inal, he drew great crowds to hear him. His elo- 
 quence thrilled like an electric current through the 
 land. Such was his popularity that politicians 
 trembled for the safety of the state ; and had he 
 been a demagogue, he could have bidden the people 
 bear him in triumph to a throne. As it was, such 
 a hold had he upon the popular heart that Herod was 
 afraid to put him to death. With his coarse raiment, 
 solitary habits, and simple diet, he would, no doubt, 
 nowadays, be considered eccentric, as perhaps he was 
 then considered ; but there was an inspiration and 
 power in his eccentricities. He was second to no 
 human preacher whose words ever woke the echoes of 
 this earth. Unawed by greatness or authority, his 
 voice rang out as distinctly and decidedly against sin 
 in the court as in the wilderness, on the commons or 
 by the river-side. At the cost of his life he rebuked 
 immorality. We have such an estimate of him as we 
 have of no other mortal. He whose forerunner he 
 was says of him, '' Verily, I say unto you, Among 
 them that are born of women, there hath not arisen a 
 greater than John the Baptist." 
 
 The ministry of the Great Preacher let us pass in 
 awful silence. " He spake as never man spake." 
 
Il8 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 The child plays and prattles around the little cascade, 
 but stands awe-struck and speechless at Niagara. We 
 are on holy ground, we are in the presence of a divine 
 subject — let us, in adoring silence, pass on. 
 
 In the apostolic age, Peter and Paul are the promi- 
 nent figures that attract the attention of the most 
 casual and careless observers. They are the repre- 
 sentative preachers of their day — the one an apostle 
 to the Jews, the other to the Gentiles — the one a 
 domestic, the other a foreign missionary. 
 
 Ever since the Fall, the boundaries of revealed truth 
 had been gradually extending, the horizon of man's 
 spiritual vision enlarging, and the topics of religious 
 discourse multiplying. By the life and death of 
 Christ, the armory of the Christian orator had been 
 replenished with wonderful facts and fulfilments. The 
 kingdom of heaven had actually come. All the 
 materials, equipments, furniture, and resources neces- 
 sary for the full operation of a Christian ministry 
 were ready. The crucifixion, resurrection, and ascen- 
 sion were recent facts, to be wielded with prodigious 
 power by the apostles. The day of Pentecost, there- 
 fore, is an era in preaching. The pulpit occupied 
 a higher level that day than ever it had before — com- 
 manded a more extensive and astonishing view than 
 ever before, and received, as its legitimate possession, 
 topics which it never reached till then. Peter then 
 announced that the work of redemption was complete. 
 Christ actually crucified was preached for the first 
 time. It was an illustrious inauguration of the New 
 Dispensation. Three thousand souls will celebrate it 
 in heaven forever and forever. 
 
 The sermon was a model one. It is thoroughly bibli- 
 
THE HISTORY OF PREACHING. II9 
 
 cal. Verbal quotations from the Old Testament com- 
 pose fully the half of it, and what is not in the letter, 
 is in the spirit of the Bible. It is evangelical. Christ 
 is the theme throughout. Every sentence is a tribute 
 to his name, and work, and character : and if Peter 
 was the first Pope, he preached a very different doc- 
 trine from his " infallible successors." He gives no 
 hint of any Mediator but One. He gives to his Re- 
 deemer undivided glory, and puts upon his brow an 
 undivided and untarnished crown. 
 
 Had the sermon been delivered in our time, the 
 preacher would be pronounced, by some, an ultra- 
 Calvinist. He hesitates not to speak of '' the deter- 
 minate counsel of God," and makes no apology for 
 using such language. 
 
 It is bold. He charges his congregation with Dei- 
 cide. He valiantly takes up and adopts the reproach- 
 ful title the Jews had given his Saviour, and preaches 
 to them Jesus of Nazareth. Nor was it a harangue 
 without order or object. His purpose was to prove the 
 Messiahship of Christ, and the accountability of his 
 hearers, and never for an instant does he lose sight of 
 it. He advances to his conclusion as directly as an 
 arrow goes to the mark. There are no digressions or 
 episodes until he announces his "Therefore." Those 
 who look upon preparation and premeditation as a 
 reflection upon the promised grace and assistance of 
 God, find little to support their opinion in this great 
 inaugural sermon of the New Dispensation. 
 
 This was the kind of preaching that filled Jeru- 
 salem with the doctrines of the apostles, and made 
 the proud Sanhedrim tremble under the conscious 
 guilt of the Redeemer's blood. 
 
I20 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 In the meantime a diligent young Jew was prose- 
 cuting his Studies on the banks of the Cydnus, stroll- 
 ing for relaxation through the woods that lined its 
 banks, or, for more vigorous exercise, scaling the 
 craggy tops of the Taurus mountains, all the while 
 nursing his pharisaic prejudices and dreaming of pro- 
 motion in the Church of his fathers. While with 
 callous and sunburnt hands Peter was plying his nets, 
 this ambitious young Hebrew was studying law with 
 Gamaliel. He left Jerusalem amidst the conflicting 
 joys and regrets with which a student leaves college ; 
 he returns to the city with the fury of a persecutor. 
 He was one of the mob that hurried Stephen to his 
 martyrdom. This horrible tragedy only increased his 
 thirst for blood. He is away to Damascus in pursuit 
 of his prey. Past Bethel and Shiloh and Gilboa, , 
 Ebal and Gerizim and Jacob's Well, the fiery young 
 inquisitor hurries on in a frenzy of bigotry and 
 pharisaic zeal, on an inhuman errand to the oldest 
 city in the world. But instead of persecuting the 
 Church, he preaches Christ when he gets there. In 
 that city, rich in patriarchal associations, began the 
 ministry of Paul. How shall we get his dimen- 
 sions ? Spiritually and intellectually, his propor- 
 tions are gigantic. Beside him, modern preachers 
 are like ordinary sized men beside the Colossus of 
 Rhodes. 
 
 At Antioch, where first arose the name that is to fill 
 the earth, within sight of the grove of Daphne, the 
 first farewell meeting for missionaries was held. 
 After prayer and the laying on of hands, and we can 
 well imagine, tearful partings, " Saul and Barnabas 
 were sent away," the simple but impressive cere- 
 
THE HISTORY OF PREACHING. 121 
 
 monies strangely contrasting with the orgies in the 
 neighboring grove. 
 
 The first field visited by these regularly appointed 
 missionaries was the island of Cyprus. Amidst the 
 groves of Paphos, where Venus is fabled to have 
 arisen from the foam of the sea, they preached the 
 Gospel. From this place Saul carries with him a new 
 name, and henceforth Paul becomes the prominent 
 actor in the Apostolic Church. Past places immortal 
 in history he presses on in his journey, envying not 
 the great Athenian the combined laurels of Salamis 
 and Plataea, as he passes the spot where they were 
 won in one day. At Perga he stops to preach Christ 
 to the devotees of Diana, as he afterward did at 
 Ephesus. Up through the mountain passes of 
 Pisidia, whose ruggedness and dangers had worried 
 the patience and perseverance of two whom the world 
 calls Great J " in perils of robbers," for he was amidst 
 dens of them ; with blistered feet and aching limbs, 
 he toils on to preach to the citizens of the Capital for- 
 giveness through the blood of the Redeemer. Thence 
 he goes to Iconium, the cradle of the Ottoman empire. 
 Leaving civilization, he. penetrates the wilds of 
 Lycaonia, exploring districts where " water was sold 
 for money," to preach to the uncultivated pagans of 
 Lystra and Derbe. Weary and wounded, scarred and 
 blackened by stoning, he turns to retrace his steps. 
 Scorning to take a near cut home, he revisits the 
 scenes of his persecutions and sufferings, braves again 
 the enmity of the Jews at Iconium — dares the dangers 
 of the Pisidian passes — struggles across the plains of 
 Attaleia — and, once more at Antioch, gives to the 
 Church the first missionary report. 
 
122 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 Soon he is away on a second tour. Past the home 
 of his childhood — over the Taurus mountains — 
 through the Cilician gates (a narrow defile, for the 
 possession of which Cyrus and Alexander spent both 
 blood and treasure), he is back again to Derbe 
 and Lystra and Iconium. He spends the period of 
 sickness and convalescence in preaching the Gospel 
 to the volatile Galatians. As a soldier of the Cross 
 he treads the plains of Troy, where once rattled the 
 Grecian and Trojan war-chariots ; and where Alex- 
 ander gathered inspiration for the conquest of the 
 world, at the tomb of Achilles, he girds himself for 
 the evangelization of Europe. Bruised and sore, 
 from scourging and the stocks, he leaves Philippi 
 and goes to Thessalonica, where, after the arduous 
 labors of a day of missionary life, he works till late at 
 night at his trade to eke out a frugal subsistence. 
 Persecution chases him to Berea. His enemies dog 
 him to this retired village. As a fugitive he passes 
 the vale of Tempe and Olympus, "the home of the 
 gods"; but his thoughts go higher than the throne 
 of Jupiter, and trusting to a mightier power than the 
 " red right hand " of Olympus' chief he sails for 
 Athens. Classic associations cannot detain him 
 there. In a few days he is in Corinth — the Paris of 
 the old world — working diligently at his trade 
 through the week and preaching in the synagogue 
 on the Sabbath, and in the intervals of his toil writ- 
 ing letters to the disciples in Thessalonica. Once 
 more he is at sea, sailing among the gem-like islands 
 of the T^gean. He stops but a little while at 
 Ephesus, but long enough to preach Christ. Across 
 the Mediterranean again he sails to Cagsarea, visits 
 
THE HISTORY OF PREACHING. 1 23 
 
 Jerusalem, and goes once more to Antioch, where he 
 was ordained as a missionar\'. And comes he to 
 throw up his commission? No! He equips him- 
 self with higher resolves and renewed zeal for greater 
 conflicts than ever. Toiling through his native 
 Cilicia, through Galatia and Phr3^gia, he redeems his 
 promise and comes to Ephesus. Next we find him 
 at Troas. Across the ^gean again, he visits Neapo- 
 lis and his beloved Philippians — poor, but liberal 
 Philippians — and from this point pushes his mission- 
 ary researches almost if not quite to the shores of 
 the Adriatic : then down through Greece, he pays 
 the Corinthians a last visit, and in the house of Gaius 
 writes the immortal letter to the Romans. Hired 
 assassins are on his track, and he is driven up 
 through the north of Greece, over the plains where 
 the fate of Rome as a republic was decided, and 
 across the fields that Homer has peopled with his 
 heroes. Again he is on the ^gean. The scenery 
 is enchanting — classic associations are swarming 
 around him, and he can appreciate them too, but his 
 thoughts and his heart are in Ephesus. Behold the 
 pastor ! He sends a message to the elders for them 
 to meet him at Miletus. They eagerly comply, and 
 upon the seashore hear, for the last time, the Gospel 
 from the lips of their beloved Paul. He tears him- 
 self away from his broken-hearted congregation, and 
 is soon floating again over the blue waters of the 
 Mediterranean. While the vessel is discharging 
 freight at Tyre, Paul is up in the city preaching. 
 At Caesarea his girdle is made a symbol by which to 
 predict for him chains and sufferings ; but his own 
 prophetic instincts had anticipated any warning of 
 
124 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 that kind. The weeping and remonstrances of his 
 friends wring his heart, but the prospect of martyr- 
 dom moves him not. The prophetic intimations 
 were not false. Scarcely is he in Jerusalem till he 
 is in the hands of a mob. Rescued by the police 
 from a violent death, he is likely to receive as little 
 mercy at the hands of the civil power. He is 
 actually stretched on the rack, and but for the 
 talismanic words, / am a Roman citizen^ would 
 have been cruelly tortured. Forty men bind them- 
 selves by an oath to neither sleep nor eat till they 
 have taken Paul's life. By an escort of Roman 
 soldiers, therefore, he is hurried to Csesarea, and is 
 thence sent to Rome for trial. While the ship is 
 lying at the wharf at Sidon, the apostle is on shore 
 engaged in pastoral labor. A shipwrecked prisoner, 
 he evangelizes Malta. After a long and disastrous 
 voyage, jaded by travel, and galled by fetters, he 
 comes at last to the city of the Caesars. He does 
 not wait to know the issue of his trial. He is 
 bound, " but the word of God is not bound." He 
 throws open his house and invites the people to his 
 ministry, and to it they come in crowds. For two 
 years he preaches constantly, from morning till night, 
 his chains clanking upon him at every gesture 
 he makes. That manacled, emaciated prisoner 
 wields in Rome a power mightier than that of Caesar 
 or the Senate. His words thrill through the brave, 
 hard hearts of the praetorian guards. He has con- 
 verts in Caesar's household. And let us hope at least 
 that Seneca learned from him something better than 
 Stoic philosophy. 
 
 At last he is at liberty. Surely the old man will re- 
 
% 
 
 THE HISTORY OF PREACHING. 1 25 
 
 tire now ! He is hardly out of prison until he is away 
 on a tour of pastoral visitation to the Eastern churches, 
 and then to the far West, accompHshing his long con- 
 templated visit to Spain. Stooping beneath the 
 weight of seventy years, his constitution, never 
 rugged, now shattered by hardships and exposure, he 
 carries the Gospel to " the utmost bounds of the 
 West." Then northward he goes to " those inclem- 
 ent shores, which the lordly Roman shivered when 
 he named," and, if tradition is to be believed, he 
 preached in the streets of London, then returned to 
 Rome and received his crown. 
 
 Such was preaching, and such was a preacher's life 
 in the first century. Congregations did not then 
 assemble in solemn churches, and sit devoutly in their 
 pews. Paul preached to the Jew in the synagogue, 
 and the pagan in the streets ; his text in the one 
 instance being a jVlessianic prophecy, in the other an 
 inscription upon an idol god. He adapted his lan- 
 guage and his thoughts to the unlettered barbarian 
 and the erudite Athenian— to the Attic philosopher 
 and the Corinthian merchant— to the lounger in the 
 market place and the king in his palace — to the 
 beggar in rags and to Caesar in his royal purple. 
 When speaking in his own defence, he forgets his 
 cause to plead the cause of his Master. Dragged 
 bleeding from an infuriated mob, he stops on the 
 stairway of a Roman prison to entreat his per- 
 secutors to be reconciled to God ; and may we 
 not presume that the eloquence which made the 
 old profligate Felix tremble, would also startle the 
 young wretch Nero ? As Paul was arraigned at 
 his bar, we may feel assured the tyrant would not 
 
126 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 go to judgment without hearing of Jesus and his 
 Atonement. 
 
 The Apostolic age was succeeded by the Patristic. 
 After the death of the apostles the prominent minis- 
 ters were their pupils, the apostolic fathers, some of 
 whom had seen Christ in the flesh. 
 
 There was no special change in either the manner or 
 the matter of preaching. The ministry became less 
 itinerant and more local. As yet they had no church 
 edifices. When they could, they availed themselves 
 of the synagogues. Ordinarily they met in private 
 dwellings. Gains is called the host of the whole 
 Church, because ,they assembled at his house, which 
 was convenient and commodious. Benches to accom- 
 modate the hearers, an elevated seat for the preacher, 
 and a table for the elements of the Supper, consti- 
 tuted the simple paraphernalia of these primitive 
 places of worship. Their meetings, which, according 
 to Pliny, took place very early in the morning, were 
 social, and all their exercises were free and familiar. 
 They were untrammeled by any conventional rules or 
 customs. After hearty congregational singing, much 
 prayer, and lengthy readings of Scripture, the preacher 
 delivered, in an easy conversational style, a short 
 sermon on some portion of the Scripture that had 
 been read. 
 
 Their intimacy with the apostles is what dis- 
 tinguishes these men, whom we take as the represent- 
 ative preachers of their age. These were the com- 
 panions of those who had been the companions of the 
 Lord. They were brought into close and sacred con- 
 tact with inspiration and apostolicity, until inspiration 
 and apostolicity ceased. As these men received the 
 
THE HISTORY OF PREACHING. 1 27 
 
 indorsement aiul approbation of John and Paul, tliey 
 need no vindication of ours. 
 
 The apostoHc fathers were succeeded by the apolo- 
 gists, and into this class we shall admit more than 
 those technically so called, including all from Quad- 
 ratus to Augustine. 
 
 In those days Christianity needed able and valiant 
 defenders, and it had them. Emperors, philosophers, 
 wits, satirists, humorists, atheists, infidels, pagan 
 zealots, the snarling Cynic, the sensual Epicurean, the 
 cold Stoic, the proud and polished disciple of Plato, 
 and the Jew, with his chronic prejudices, were all up 
 in arms against the rising sect. 
 
 In the Roman empire religion was incorporated 
 with all their civil, social, and domestic relations. A 
 blow at their religion, therefore, struck their whole 
 civil and social fabric. Hence, demagogues and 
 politicians cried havoc to Christianity ! Men who in 
 their very hearts loathed paganism and laughed at it, 
 were yet furious in its support for the sake of the 
 state. The conflict between the two powers was a 
 death-struggle, and they knew it. No wonder it was 
 desperate and bloody. When to be a Christian was a 
 capital crime, the apologists stood up nobly in defence 
 of the truth. 
 
 " Tenterden steeple was the cause of Goodwin 
 Sands." Upon the Christians was heaped the blame 
 of all calamities. If there was not enough rain in 
 Africa or too much in Italy ; if the Nile did not over- 
 flow its banks or if the Tiber did ; if there was an 
 earthquake in Asia or a fire in Rome ; a pestilence in 
 Ethiopia or a famine in Egypt, it was all attributed 
 to the evil influence of the saints. In the courts of 
 
128 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 kings, the apologists intrepidly defended their religion 
 from all such attacks and aspersions. 
 
 Pliny had scouted the idea of Providence, had pro- 
 nounced immortality a dream, the nature of man a lie, 
 and had lauded suicide as a virtue. The Stoics saw 
 nothing better than obstinacy in the heroic fortitude 
 of the martyrs, and it was gravely debated whether 
 by philosophy it might not be possible to acquire the 
 same intrepidity as the Galileans acquired by mad 
 fanaticism. The fact they could not deny ; but they 
 would neutralize its effect by attributing it to a wrong 
 cause. Miracles were classed along with the tricks 
 of magicians and vagabond jugglers. The spread 
 of Christianity was accounted for by the extreme 
 credulity of the age. The Greek scholar, too, came 
 gayly to the attack, with all the gallantry of a knight- 
 errant. If Lucian had a shaft of wit sharper than his 
 wont, he winged it against Christianity. The wisdom 
 of Celsus was scandalized by the simplicity of faith. 
 That the Gospel was offered to the illiterate and the 
 poor on the same terms as to the philosopher, was a 
 mortal offence to his pride. To him, humility was 
 meanness ; the Atonement was his scorn. He made 
 himself merry over the supposed uncomeliness of 
 Christ's person. Porphyry, with the pinion and the 
 eye of an eagle, swooped over the field of sacred 
 history to search for contradictions and discrepancies. 
 Hierocles hissed on the hounds of persecution ; and, 
 when the Church was torn and bleeding, had the im- 
 pudence to address '' words to Christians from a lover 
 of truth." Old sages, and heroes, and contemporary 
 impostors were held up as compeers, if not superiors, 
 of Christ. Against all these the apologists defended 
 
THE HISTORY OF PREACHING. I29 
 
 their religion manfully. They parried blows, come 
 from what quarter they might. In the presence of a 
 power that had their lives at command, they spake 
 out heroically, and the thanks of all succeeding ages 
 are due to them for it. 
 
 But these men were earnest preachers as well as 
 gallant polemics. Justin Martyr would go home 
 from contests with skilful dialecticians, where all his 
 hellenistic culture was called into active requisition, 
 to meet a few plain, simple-hearted disciples, who 
 were awaiting him at his own house, or go to some 
 cave or other secluded spot to preach the Gospel 
 to those who were ready to risk their lives to hear it. 
 
 Let us go into one of these assemblies. Every- 
 thing, even to the apparel of the congregation, is 
 plain and unostentatious. There is a hearty, sincere 
 affection between the members. The test of disciple- 
 ship, love to one another, is there. Christianity has 
 disenthralled and exalted woman, and she is here 
 along with, and on a level with, her husband. An 
 atmosphere of prayer pervades the room. These 
 people live beneath the droppings of the Mercy Seat. 
 They begin not their ploughing in the fields or their 
 labor in the workshop without prayer. Now all is still- 
 ness and solemnity. At a desk, some distance from the 
 pulpit, arises the reader. He is a youth, possibly a boy 
 ten or twelve years old. He reads passages from the 
 Old and New Testaments, which are heard with eager 
 attention. A necessity for much reading of Scripture 
 in public arises from the scarcity and costliness of 
 copies of the Bible. There are men in the assembly 
 who, although they are unable to read a word, can 
 nevertheless repeat the greater part of the Bible from 
 
130 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 hearing it read at Church. The reading is inter- 
 spersed with singing, which, although it is not artistic, 
 is powerful enough in its fervent simplicity to make 
 such men as Augustine weep. After the devotional 
 exercises, the preacher from his seat — the congrega- 
 tion standing — delivers his sermon. 
 
 Sermons were much more frequent then than now. 
 There was one at least on almost every day in the 
 week and several always on the Sabbath, two or three 
 sometimes during the same service. In length they 
 varied from ten minutes to two hours. In structure 
 they were simple, mostly expository. Sometimes 
 they were written out and memorized ; sometimes 
 they were read from manuscript ; sometimes the sub- 
 ject was studied, and the speaker clothed his thoughts 
 as he went along ; sometimes they were delivered 
 from short notes, and sometimes were quite extem- 
 pore. 
 
 The illustrious names of this period — and there is 
 a host of them — need not feel aggrieved at Chrysos- 
 tom's representing them. Augustine, indeed, was a 
 profounder thinker ; Jerome, a better scholar ; Atha- 
 nasius, an abler debater, and with more influence in 
 deliberative bodies ; Origen was a greater critic ; the 
 Gregories were more learned theologians and stronger 
 controversialists ; Tertullian had more acumen ; 
 Ephraim Syrus had a more splendid fancy ; Basil the 
 Great had a purer style, and was more of a belles- 
 lettres scholar ; but Chrysostom was pre-eminently 
 the preacher of the age. 
 
 He grew up in the genial sunshine and the pure 
 atmosphere of a pious mother's influence. He enjoyed 
 the very best advantages of education. He studied 
 
THE HISTORY OF PREACHINCi. I3I 
 
 eloquence in the school of the man whom Gibbon 
 calls "the last glory of expiring- paganism," and in 
 that school carried off the pahn without a competi- 
 tor. During his short practice of law, he would learn 
 much of human nature and human depravity. Four 
 years he was in a cloister, and spent his time in 
 studying the Bible. Two years he was in solitude on 
 the mountains, and spent his time in the same way. 
 Six years more he devotes to hard study at Antioch. 
 At forty he preaches his first sermon. Xo hasty 
 preparation here ; no hurrying from Jericho before 
 the beard had grown. Antioch is soon full of the 
 fame of the young preacher. For twelve years he 
 labors faithfully in his first charge, and is then called 
 to Constantinople, where his eloquence drew to his 
 pulpit ten thousand hearers. 
 
 His mind was vigorous, comprehensive, fertile, and 
 well disciplined. His imagination was brilliant and 
 his heart full of fervor and tenderness. His exalted 
 nobleness exposed him sometimes to the charge of 
 pride. His command of language was wonderful. 
 "The common people heard him gladly." He was 
 eminently a popular preacher. Instead of allegorizing, 
 refining, philosophizing, and elaborating subtleties, 
 he wrung from the text its true spiritual import, and 
 gave it to his congregation in its purity. He had 
 great versatility. Every species of eloquence almost 
 can be found in one of his sermons. His delivery 
 was earnest and impetuous. He spake with great 
 ease, grace, and naturalness. His declamation must 
 have been magnificent. Even when speaking from 
 memorized manuscript he worked loosely enough in 
 the traces to take advantage of any extempore 
 
132 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 thought. If the attention of his congregation was 
 diverted by the sexton's lighting the lamps, or by any 
 noise in the streets, a paragraph of the sermon would 
 be devoted to it. He used material wherever he 
 found it, and used it well. On his way to church he 
 sees a number of sufferers in the street, and that 
 morning preaches an extemporaneous sermon on 
 charity. 
 
 Eutropius, the prime minister of Arcadius, was an 
 unscrupulous villain. From his persecutions, persons 
 often fled for asylum to Chrysostom's church, and 
 the pastor always bravely refused to deliver them up. 
 Eutropius, therefore, had the right of asylum abolished. 
 Times changed. The first man who fled to that altar 
 after the law was enacted was Eutropius himself. 
 Chrysostom comes into church on Sabbath morning 
 and finds h'im lying at the altar, when he delivers a 
 thrilling extempore address on the vanity of the 
 world. " Vanity of vanities," he exclaims, as he sees 
 the crestfallen tyrant. He calls the roll of departed 
 honors, pomps, luxuries, offices, and hopes, and lets a 
 melancholy echo answer the call ; then turning to the 
 humbled courtier, reminded him of the faithful warn- 
 ings he had given him. He lashed the sins of the 
 city without mercy. He had not to go to Sodom, 
 Gomorrah, Nineveh, Tyre, or Sidon, for themes. He 
 found enough to talk about at home — in Antioch and 
 Constantinople, A corrupt court smarted beneath 
 his scourge. He called the queen a Jezebel and a 
 Herodias. His invectives against royal iniquity 
 remind us of John Knox. But even this golden- 
 mouthed prince of preachers sometimes so far forgot 
 himself as to play upon words, and once indulged a 
 
THE HISTORY OF PREACHING. 133 
 
 desire lo be singular so far as to write three sermons 
 on the text, "Salute Aquila and Priscilla." 
 
 From the time of Augustine, the tone of the pulpit 
 steadily deteriorated, until at last it became the merest 
 jargon. Religion gradually left the heart and en- 
 throned itself in the intellect, the imagination, and the 
 senses, and as the result, we have scholasticism, mysti- 
 cism, monasticism, ritualism, celibacy, and supersti- 
 tion. There were other enemies of literary and re- 
 ligious life at work in those days besides the barbarian 
 hordes that overthrew the Western Empire. The 
 Asiatics are constitutionally dreamy and contempla- 
 tive. This is as characteristic of them as thought and 
 action are of Europeans. Plato is more Asiatic than 
 any of the Greeks ; consequently he was the favorite 
 of the Mystics. Beneath the combined influence of 
 this temperament and philosophy, the active, vigor- 
 ous, living Christianity of the first century degener- 
 ated into a mopish sentimentality. The fancy 
 usurped the place of conscience. Religion consisted 
 in a passive, listless, dreamy semi-consciousness, an 
 introversion of the thoughts, an abstraction from 
 everything objective or practical, until the man became 
 a spiritual and an intellectual chrysalis. We would 
 expect such a system to produce every species of 
 fanaticism and insanity, but would go elsewhere for 
 pulpit eloquence. 
 
 Monasticism was calculated to dwarf the intellect, 
 narrow the mind, freeze the affections, and render the 
 most generous outgoings of our nature stagnant. It 
 is from beginning to end a system of selfishness, self- 
 torture, and self-conceit. The benevolence of the 
 anchorite terminates on the salvation of his own soul. 
 
134 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 He is either unwilling or afraid to grapple with the 
 actualities of real well-doing. The system is calcu- 
 lated to make misanthropes and lazy slovens — almost 
 anything, indeed, but good preachers. 
 
 Prosperity and royal favor, moreover, loaded the 
 Church with a splendor and a ceremonial that well- 
 nigh smothered her inner life. Architectural taste 
 and display were considered as of more importance 
 than genuine piety. The spiritual was sacrificed to 
 the aesthetic. 
 
 A temporary expediency, too, threw down the bar- 
 riers that had kept the unworthy out of the Church. 
 Heathen rites and snatches of heathen mythology 
 were adopted in order to conciliate the pagans and 
 effect a compromise between the two systems, so that 
 Christianity came to be little more, little else, indeed, 
 than a baptized paganism. 
 
 As with the Church, so with the pulpit. When the 
 preacher's office came to be attended with honor, ease, 
 affluence, and influence, instead of persecution, self- 
 denial, and death, there was a rush of the unworthy 
 into it. Men actuated by the most mercenary 
 motives sought the office of the ministry. Worldly- 
 mindedness, pride, hypocrisy, low intrigue, chicanery, 
 selfishness, sluggishness, and ignorance distinguished 
 the clergy. In the election of men to high places in 
 the Church, spirituality was scarcely a consideration 
 at all. Their rhetorical attainments, their political 
 influence and financial tact, were of primary impor- 
 tance, while piety was hardly allowed to occupy even 
 a secondary place. 
 
 Theological learning, as well as learning of every 
 kind, steadily declined. Magical effects, that were 
 
THE HISTORY OF PREACHING. 135 
 
 supposed to supersede altogether the necessity of 
 education, were attributed to ordination. 
 
 The want of good theological seminaries was also 
 greatly felt. At first there was but one, that at 
 Alexandria. Others were afterward established, but 
 they were not adequate to the demands of the age. 
 Among the Greeks, candidates for the ministry went 
 to the schools of rhetoric which then flourished. The 
 learning acquired there, although entirely secular 
 and artificial, yet, when baptized by the Spirit of God, 
 was consecrated to good ends, as in the case of 
 Chrysostom, Basil the Great, the Gregories, and 
 others ; but when in the absence of spirituality, a man 
 took to the pulpit nothing but the rhetorical precepts 
 and artificial manner and tastes of these schools, he 
 made a sorry successor of the apostles. The pulpit 
 then became a platform from which an orator 
 exhibited to a congregation what graceful curves he 
 could make with his arms, what exquisite attitudes 
 he could assume, and how completely his vocal organs 
 were under his control. In godly men it required 
 grace to keep them from being intoxicated by the 
 injudicious demonstrations of approval from their 
 audience. What must have been the state of the 
 Church when the pulpit was filled with men who 
 aimed at nothing higher than to elicit a round of 
 applause or incite a smile b)^ some low witticism ! 
 
 Charlemagne felt the necessity of an able min- 
 istry, and directed his efforts accordingly, but for 
 the want of competent teachers little was accom- 
 plished. As few of the clergy had the intelli- 
 gence to compose even very inferior discourses, 
 homiliaria were prepared for them — sermons ready 
 
136 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 made to hand — so that they might have something 
 to read to the people. 
 
 Without descending to particulars, some idea of the 
 pulpit in those days can be gathered from these 
 generalities that have been given. It spoke all kinds 
 of languages, until at last it emitted nothing but a 
 mummery which neither preacher nor people under- 
 stood. Alms-giving, asceticism, celibacy, flagellation, 
 voluntary beggary, and mystic contemplation took 
 the place of the blood of Christ. Men preached 
 pilgrimages, purgatory, the martyrs, Plato, Aristotle, 
 or a crusade — anything, indeed, but Christ. Those 
 who dared to speak the truth were silenced by perse- 
 cution or driven into exile. But we emerge into the 
 light again. 
 
 The Reformation was a revival of religion, and 
 consequently a revival of evangelical preaching. 
 
 As early as the sixth century, Gregory the Great 
 found it necessary to urge upon the clergy the 
 necessity of preaching more than they did ; and long 
 before the times of Luther the pulpits had become, 
 as Latimer quaintly remarks, " bells without clappers." 
 Now the pulpit rang out once more joyously and 
 distinctly with a pure Gospel, and the churches 
 became vocal with the earnest utterance of God's 
 truth. Learning lit her lamps again. The Bible was 
 brought out from cloisters, its lids were unclasped, 
 and as it was opened it flung from its leaves a heavenly 
 fragrance and influence. Instead of the chatterings 
 of drowsy monks, or the wire-drawn distinctions of 
 schoolmen, the people heard the Gospel in its purity. 
 No longer compelled to listen to the rude deliverances 
 of illiterate men upon the necessity of pilgrimages, 
 
THE HISTORY OF PREACHING. 137 
 
 the sovereign virtues of relics and dead men's bones, 
 or the primary importance of self-inflicted tortures, 
 or self-imposed poverty, or insulated anchoretism, 
 they heard with delight of the doctrines of grace, 
 Christ crucified, and justification by faith. 
 
 Great crises develop great men. God makes emer- 
 gencies, and he makes the men to meet them. All 
 the world listens with respectful attention when, in 
 the roll-call of the mighty dead, the names of Luther, 
 Melanchthon, Zwingli, Calvin, Beza, Ridley, Latimer, 
 Cranmer, and Knox are pronounced. These men all 
 had their peculiarities and their failings, too, but they 
 were earnest and evangelical, and left their mark 
 indelibly upon the history of the race, 
 
 Luther was bold, impetuous, overwhelming. 
 Cowardice and indecision were no part of his nature. 
 When he fastened his theses to the door of the castle, 
 he drove the nails to the head. When he burnt the 
 Pope's bull, he sent it into the fire with a defiant 
 fling. When he hurled his inkstand at the devil's 
 head, he did it with a steady and resolute aim. In 
 the pulpit we recognize the same Luther. Melanch- 
 thon, on the other hand, was mild, amiable, conciliat- 
 ing. Luther was the storm, Melanchthon was the 
 "still, small voice"; and the latter was often the 
 more effective of the two. Knox, Calvin, and Beza 
 have been thus described : " Knox came down like a 
 thunder-storm, Calvin resembled a whole day's set 
 rain, Beza was a shower of the softest dew." 
 
 The preaching of these men was scriptural, direct, 
 cogent ; sometimes uncouth and inelegant. There 
 were sentences and passages in their sermons which 
 would offend the ' delicate and fastidious ears of 
 
138 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 modern critics and congregations, but those sermons 
 never failed to exhibit Christ and his cross. They 
 never treated with timidity or false delicacy the 
 subjects of man's apostasy, total depravity, and ex- 
 posure to eternal wrath. They were earnest men 
 engaged in a serious business, and they had no time 
 to spend in toying with men's fancies, or coquetting 
 with their tastes. Their anecdotes and illustrations 
 were not used because they were elegant or beautiful, 
 but because they served a purpose — not as mere tinsel 
 and trapping, but as solid material. 
 
 Uninspired men never produced more wonderful re- 
 sults. Luther's words have been called '' half battles." 
 In his power to impress the popular mind, it is ques- 
 tionable if Latimer was ever excelled. He did it in 
 his own quaint, droll way, to be sure, but he did it. 
 The ardent soul of Knox always rose superior to his 
 frail body ; and he infused his own fire into his 
 audience. 
 
 Time will compel me to pass over, in very great 
 haste, the history from this point to the present. 
 
 Since the Reformation, the pulpit in all countries 
 has undergone great vicissitudes. In England the 
 simple, effective style of Latimer, Cranmer, and 
 Jewell was soon lost, and a strained, stilted one was 
 substituted in its stead, with which the people had no 
 more sympathy than if it had been in the Sanscrit 
 dialect. The king set an example of pedantry, and 
 the nation, like a great sycophant, obsequiously fol- 
 lowed. Sermons came to be little else than a display 
 of shallow scholarship, an array of Greek and Latin 
 quotations, an assemblage of bad puns, studied antith- 
 eses and feeble alliterations. They were studiously 
 
THE HISTORY OF PREACHING. I39 
 
 destitute of unction, or anything that savored of ear- 
 nestness. The preachers would have been scandalized 
 by the insinuation that they were affected by the 
 truths which they professed to teach. They were 
 immaculately innocent of being in the least moved 
 themselves, or of attempting in the least to move 
 others. 
 
 Then came the Puritans, who, much as they may 
 be scoffed at for their nasal twang, their sanctimonious 
 eccentricities, and long, lumbering sermons, were 
 nevertheless mighty in the Scriptures, and of con- 
 sequence mighty in the pulpit, and have done a work 
 which entitles them to the everlasting gratitude of 
 Church and state. 
 
 The seventeenth century boasts of many pulpit 
 orators. Barrow was the first sermon-writer in Eng. 
 land, and the second mathematician in the world — 
 the model which the great Chatham copied, and 
 whose sermons he had by heart. Baxter, when 
 living, was admired by such men as Barrow and Sir 
 Matthew Hale, and now his name and works have 
 been embalmed in the hearts of five generations. 
 Bunyan, with no learning, and a library consisting of 
 the Bible and the Book of Martyrs, became one of 
 the most powerful and popular preachers that ever 
 lived, and produced works that have become the com- 
 mon property of Christendom. Literary critics are 
 as eager now to do justice to his genius and his Anglo- 
 Saxon, as Christians always have been ready to honor 
 his piety, spirituality, and experience. We can barely 
 mention John Howe, Tillotson, South, Charnock, 
 John Owen, and Jeremy Taylor. Such a constellation 
 would shed glory upon any age, 
 
I40 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 These men were not immaculately faultless, nor as 
 a body are they so superior to the clergy of the 
 present as to make us discontented with our lot. 
 The division and subdivision of sermons they some- 
 times carried to a ridiculous extreme. Even Baxter 
 occasionally indulged his propensity for ingenious 
 speculation in discussing topics that belong more to 
 scholastic philosophy than to Christianity. Tiliotson 
 was by no means deeply evangelical. Dr. South 
 rather wickedly exhibits the faults in the style of his 
 illustrious contemporary, Jeremy Taylor. 
 
 The reign of Louis XIV. was the Golden Age of 
 pulpit eloquence in France. In proof of this it is 
 only necessary to say that this was the age of Bos- 
 suet, Bourdaloue, Massillon, Saurin, and Fenelon. 
 Technically speaking, these names suggest all the 
 highest excellence ever attained in the art of sermon- 
 izing. In sacred oratory, Bossuet, Bourdaloue, and 
 Massillon have a pre-eminence and an association 
 akin to that of Demosthenes and Cicero in classic 
 eloquence. In spirituality, faithfulness, and genuine 
 earnestness they have been far enough surpassed by 
 men to whose names belongs no such lustre as belongs 
 to theirs ; but in them we find an elaboration, a com- 
 pleteness of design, and an exquisiteness of finish 
 which we seek in vain anywhere else. 
 
 The echoes of the great and good men of the last 
 century and of this still linger among our altars, and 
 their virtues and memories are sacredly and tenderly 
 treasured up in the sanctuary of our affections. Is 
 there an Irish Protestant heart that does not beat 
 quicker at the name of Kirwan or Carson ? To men- 
 tion Christmas Evans, or John Elias, is to start the 
 
THE HISTORY OF PREACHIXG. I41 
 
 tears in a Welshman's eyes. Have Scotchmen for- 
 gotten M'Crie, Chalmers, or Edward Irving? Do not 
 Vinet and Monod live in the affections of the French ? 
 Have English arms or intellect achieved anything in 
 the last century which Great Britain could not better 
 afford to lose than the fame of Whitefield, Robert 
 Hall, and John Foster ? An American feels almost 
 sinfully proud when he repeats the names of Edwards, 
 Davies, Grifiin, and Mason. 
 
 Such the History of the Pulpit has been. Whether 
 in the future it shall grow purer and stronger, year 
 after year ascending to a still higher level, from which 
 Christ crucified shall be more fully exhibited, or 
 whether it shall again become corrupt and imbecile, 
 a blot and a disgrace — God knows. 
 
 Shall we have preachers whose hearts are all aglow 
 with love to Christ ? The Church needs them — the 
 world demands them. No amount of natural or 
 acquired ability can compensate for the lack of fervent 
 piety. Intellectual sermons may be as clear and 
 sparkling as icicles, and as cold. The moonlight is 
 beautiful, but it is the heat of the sun that brings the 
 verdure from the soil and ripens the fruit in its 
 clusters. The truest eloquence earth ever heard is 
 the unrestrained utterance of a heart full to over- 
 flowing of love to God. Evermore give us that elo- 
 quence ! 
 
 And shall we have preachers mighty in the Scrip- 
 tures ? There was an intimate connection between 
 the eloquence of Apollos and his knowledge of the 
 Bible. In all ages, in proportion as the pulpit has 
 been biblical, it has been powerful. There is no 
 danger that the Bible will be exhausted. Its subjects 
 
142 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 never wear out. All other subjects do. Christ cruci- 
 fied is a theme that will never grow old. 
 
 And we want men who shall not only know the 
 truth, but who shall not be afraid to speak it. He 
 who preaches any doctrine of the Bible in an apolo- 
 gizing, compromising way, is a coward. Those 
 doctrines, when faithfully uttered, never fail to find a 
 response in the hearts and experience of men. Let 
 the Gospel be preached just as it is — and woe to the 
 man who trims or temporizes for the sake of an 
 ephemeral popularity ! 
 
 Great responsibilities, therefore, devolve upon our 
 theological seminaries. They must necessarily give 
 tone to the pulpit. Most of all, it is expected and 
 desired of them that they send out from their halls and 
 lecture-rooms a re-enforcement of good preachers — 
 men trained more for active service than for abstract 
 speculation and scholastic theorizing — men in com- 
 munion with their God, and in sympathy with their 
 fellow-men ; whose ministrations shall not be cold, 
 perfunctory task-work, but the earnest utterances of 
 living truths, the power of which they have felt upon 
 their own hearts, and are thus enabled to speak that 
 " which they do know." 
 
 Our piety and our patriotism unite inputting up the 
 petition that in our land the pulpit may achieve its 
 proudest triumphs — that Anglo-Saxon energy, enter- 
 prise, and genius may have their highest development 
 in the American preacher. It is said that " men go to 
 Scotland to learn what to say, and to England to learn 
 how to say it." God speed the day when they shall 
 come to the United States to learn both what to say 
 and how to say it. All the world should pray God to 
 
THE HISTORY OF PREACHING. I43 
 
 send America an able ministry, for all the world has 
 mighty issues at stake in this matter. '' Westward," 
 long since, "the star of empire took its way," and a 
 tide of intelligence and true greatness came along with 
 it. That tide will find its farthest limit on our shores, 
 and then in a sublime ebb will roll back till it has 
 covered all the East with millennial glory, and the 
 nations shall see in reality what Ezekiel saw in 
 vision — the waters of the sanctuary flowing from the 
 Far West, and flooding the earth with righteousness. 
 
V. 
 
 OUR COUNTRY CALLS— A WAR SPEECH. 
 
V. 
 
 OUR COUNTRY CALLS— A WAR SPEECH.* 
 
 Fellow-Citizens : I am a minister of the Gospel. 
 I am no politician. If I looked upon this struggle as 
 a mere political issue, I should not be here ; but I con- 
 sider it as high above mere party politics as the 
 heavens are higher than the earth. My allegiance is 
 first to my God, next to my country. 
 
 Is this issue worth all that it is costing us in blood 
 and treasure ? I solemnly believe it is. 
 
 In the balance over against the interests at stake, 
 money is lighter than a moth-eaten feather. Let debt 
 come. Out of the vital energy of your sinewy arms, 
 farmers and mechanics, you will pay it. Let every 
 acre in our farms, and every stone and brick in our 
 houses be mortgaged. We will pay the debt, or we 
 will bear it without a murmur, and when we die we 
 will roll it over on our children, who will be worse 
 than craven if they do not assume it cheerfully and 
 bear it bravely. 
 
 To estimate this issue in dollars and cents would 
 be as monstrous as it would be to barter away a 
 mother's love for husks that the swine do eat, or as 
 it would be to trade and traffic in the affections of a 
 wife or of a daughter. Gold is trash, silver is dirt, 
 real estate is dung, when once thrown into the scales 
 
 * At a Mass Meeting in Allegheny, July 24, 1862. 
 147 
 
148 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 against an undivided country, an unsullied national 
 honor, an unstained and an untorn national flag. 
 
 But is it worth the blood, the tears, the agony, the 
 maimed bodies, the broken hearts that it is costing 
 us? 
 
 Yes ! and a thousand times more thrice told. 
 There are worse things than death, or bloodshed, or 
 war. Cowardice is worse. Dishonor is infinitely 
 worse. Let blood flow until it reaches the throat- 
 latches of the horses, rather than have one Star 
 plucked from the galaxy of States — rather than have 
 one inch of American soil alienated from the Consti- 
 tution which our fathers gave us. 
 
 Let no man " lay to his soul the flattering unction," 
 that there can ever be two peaceful republics on this 
 continent. In the language of Holy Writ, " Say ye not 
 a Confederacy." We had better fight it out now than 
 have incessant and interminable war hereafter. Se- 
 cession consummated is the infernal Pandora Box 
 from which will issue all imaginable and monstrous 
 political evils for us and for our children, and for the 
 world. Let one rod of American soil be wrested by 
 force from the jurisdiction of the United States, and 
 we may as well tear our flag to ribbons and sell it for 
 rags. We may as well take the parchment on which 
 the Constitution is written, and make lighting-papers 
 of it. That proud banner would then no longer float 
 on every sea and on every shore, the unchallenged 
 emblem of republicanism triumphant ; but it would 
 be jeered at by every despot and aristocrat on earth 
 as the tattered, despicable symbol of the utter failure 
 of popular government. 
 
 The hour we fail in this struggle, the sun goes back 
 
OUR COUNTRY CALLS. I49 
 
 fifteen degrees on the dial. Men of Pennsylvania ! 
 shall it be so ? No ! over the smoking blood of 
 Rippey and of Black, swear to-day that it shall never 
 be so long as there is in Allegheny Co. a man to 
 ram home a cartridge, fix a bayonet, or pull a trigger. 
 
 If it must be so, let this land be deluged with blood. 
 Out of that red and clotted ocean, civil liberty will 
 arise regenerated and purified and resplendent as 
 Minerva leaped in full panoply from the brain of 
 Jupiter. 
 
 There is no election left us in this matter. The 
 bloody issue has been forced upon us, and we must 
 meet it manfully, or lie down like whining spaniels 
 at the feet of a treason-dyed aristocracy. Are ye 
 ready for that, ye sons of Benjamin Franklin ? 
 
 We call Heaven to witness that the loyal people of 
 this country desired not blood. To a man they were 
 for peace. While you were going on with your farm- 
 ing, your merchandise, and your mechanic arts, per- 
 jured traitors were secretly plotting the destruction of 
 the best Government on earth. The conduct was so 
 atrocious that you would not — you could not believe 
 it. While you were at home quietly pursuing your 
 peaceful callings, these iniquitous men were rifling 
 our arsenals, drilling soldiers, and even training their 
 guns on the flag-staff of Sumter. Still you could 
 not credit the atrocity. 
 
 At last came the consummation of the blackest 
 villainy, perfidy, and treason in the records of all 
 time. Men who all their lives had been dandled and 
 fondled by the most indulgent Government in the 
 world, deliberately shot down the Stars and Stripes, 
 shouting and cheering as it felk The heroic Ander- 
 
150 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 son and his gallant band left the hot and smothering 
 walls of Sumter, carrying with them their colors, 
 riddled with rebel shot. Then you and I, and all of 
 us, started from our sleep. 
 
 Pennsylvanians ! will ye ever sleep more until that 
 outraged flag shall float again on Sumter, and over 
 every nook and corner from which treason, for a time, 
 has driven it ? 
 
 The leaders of the rebellion have, of late, a very 
 pious horror of bloodshed. But we all know per- 
 fectly well that there was scarcely any other word in 
 their vocabulary but blood until the spirit of the 
 North awoke. Their horror of war and their let-us- 
 alone policy were developed simultaneously by the 
 " uprising of a Great People." Mrs. Jeff. Davis had 
 engaged a cook for the White House. Wigfall was to 
 have been dashing up Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, 
 on his prancing charger, last June, one year ago. 
 
 Their meekness of spirit was induced by the de- 
 termination and the sublime battle cry of the united 
 North ; and if ever that meekness of spirit is to 
 return to them, it will be through the same determi- 
 nation and the same battle cry. 
 
 In the sight of high heaven we protest that the 
 loyal people of this nation are not responsible for this 
 bloodshed. Upon the heads and souls of the rebels 
 will cling with damning tenacity every drop of blood 
 shed in this struggle. They would have it so, and 
 now that the issue is fairly made let us not shrink 
 from meeting it. We must meet blood with blood — 
 steel with steel. 
 
 Never did a Government bear so much from im- 
 pertinent traitors as this Government bore. The 
 
OUR COUNTRY CALLS. 151 
 
 sword of retribution slept too long, but now that it 
 has leaped from its scabbard, never let it again be 
 sheathed until the very odor of treason is purged 
 from the land. 
 
 With you, fellow-citizens, rests the settlement of 
 this contest. Let the people rise in their majesty 
 and will it, and in less than six months treason will 
 be crushed into the earth so deep that the trumpet of 
 the Last Judgment will not awaken it. 
 
 Oh, that we could feel our responsibility ! Oh, that 
 we could, for once, get to the top of our high privi- 
 leges ! 
 
 Never have such responsibilities been rolled upon a 
 nation as those that rest upon us in this crisis ; and 
 the privilege is equal to the responsibility. But one 
 such opportunity has occurred in the history of the 
 world as that which is now offered to us. 
 
 To you, fellow-citizens, are committed the interests 
 of civil liberty and the destinies of popular govern- 
 ment throughout the world, and for all time. Dare 
 you prove recreant to the high trust ? It may be that 
 this generation is to be made a vicarious sacrifice 
 for posterity. No higher honor could be put upon 
 it. Let the sacrifice be made. The eyes of the 
 world are upon us. The fate of unborn millions is 
 involved in our conduct. Never did such incentives 
 spur a nation to action. If we falter, if we balk, then 
 henceforth let Ichabod — " the glory is departed " — 
 be written on the forehead of every man-child born 
 in the North. 
 
 There is no use in disguising the fact : a perilous, 
 a momentous crisis is upon us. The hour is big with 
 the fate of the Republic. " It is high time to awake 
 
152 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 out of sleep." The rebels are in awful earnest. 
 Their leaders are fighting with halters about their 
 necks, and of course they will fight desperately. 
 They will scruple at no means. The life of a mudsill 
 is nothing to them. They will slaughter their men 
 like sheep for the shambles. Action, prompt, resist- 
 less action, is the demand of the hour. This we must 
 have, or all is lost. Let no man lay his head on his 
 pillow to-night until his name is on the roll of his 
 country's defenders, or until he has rendered to his 
 conscience a good reason why his name should not be 
 there. Don't wait to cure your hay or bind your oats. 
 Your country is more to you than meat, and that 
 country may be ruined beyond redemption before 
 your harvest is gathered into your barns. 
 
 Men of the North, awake ! arise ! arouse ! The 
 reveille of liberty is beating ! Up ! up ! and to arms ! 
 Rally to the colors ! 
 
 Stay not for questions while freedom stands gasping, 
 Wait not till honor lies wrapped in his pall ; 
 
 Brief the lips' parting be, swift the hands' clasping, 
 " Off for the wars," is enough for them all. 
 
 The issue is clearly, sharply defined. We must 
 achieve by force the permanence of this Government, 
 or go to our graves dishonored, and bequeath to our 
 children and our children's children a heritage of 
 taunts and sneers. We must accept the alternative. 
 Alleghenians ! what say you? Shall your country 
 cry to you for help, and cry in vain ? What is a man's 
 convenience, what a man's life, in a contest like this.^ 
 
 In the God of battles trust ! 
 Die we may, and die we must ; 
 But oh ! where can dust to dust 
 
OUR COUNTRY CALLS. 153 
 
 Be consigned so well, 
 
 As where Heaven its dews shall shed 
 
 On the martyred patriot's bed ? 
 
 Fall in ! fall in ! ye brave Pennsylvanians ! To 
 the rescue of the old flag ! Liberty on her bended 
 knees and with streaming eyes implores your aid. 
 Take a solemn vow to-day that your life shall be at 
 the service of your country until our eagles shall again 
 sweep in triumph over every acre of American soil. 
 Never had brave men so many incentives to heroic 
 deeds. Treason is to be punished, blood is to be 
 avenged, wrongs are to be righted, a country is to be 
 saved. Strike, then ! 
 
 Strike ! till the last armed foe expires ; 
 Strike ! for your altars and your fires ; 
 Strike ! for the green graves of your sires, 
 
 God and your native land. 
 Strike ! for tyrants fall in every foe ; 
 Strike ! for Liberty's in every blow ; 
 
 Forward ! let us do or die ! 
 
VI. 
 
 MINISTERIAL CONSECRATION. 
 
VI. 
 
 MINISTERIAL CONSECRATION.* 
 
 It is necessary neither to prove from Scripture, nor 
 to enforce by argument, the duty of Christian or min- 
 isterial consecration. It seems to be universally con- 
 ceded that this consecration is to be so entire as to 
 comprehend the whole man in the completeness and 
 symmetry of his being. Yet while no word in the 
 Christian vocabulary is more readily admitted or 
 more orthodoxly used, there is no thing in the Chris- 
 tian life that is more sadly misapprehended and more 
 grossly misapplied. Out of this misapprehension 
 have grown doctrines and practices which, for ages, 
 have been sapping the vigor and energies of the 
 Church of Christ. This was the fountain-head of 
 asceticism and all the extravagances and fanaticisms 
 which have flowed from it. Under the conviction 
 that prayer and meditation comprehended the whole 
 duty of man, thousands, in the early ages of the 
 Church, rushed to the deserts, dwelling in dens and 
 caves, and living on herbs and roots. Zoroastrianism 
 soon tinged the theology and piety of the Church 
 with its peculiar views of the essential evil of matter, 
 and hence, in order to promote godliness in the soul, 
 ingenious methods of torture were invented for the 
 body. 
 
 * To the students at the opening of the Western Theological 
 Seminary, September 15, 1868. 
 
 157 
 
158 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 Here, then, we have the philosophy of the wonder- 
 ful, grotesque, eccentric, sad, and thrilling history of 
 asceticism. This, with all its concomitants and con- 
 sequences, grew out of a partial and distorted view 
 of Christian consecration. While the soul was con- 
 secrated to God, the body was devoted to dishonor 
 and abuse, and vile neglect and extremest mortifica- 
 tion. In reading this history, the conviction is forced 
 upon the mind that these ascetics were sincere and 
 almost sublimely earnest, and we feel the kindlings 
 of a certain kind of admiration for them. Simeon 
 the Stylite, on his pillar, was a hero ; a very con- 
 tracted, distorted, lop-sided hero, it is true, but a hero 
 nevertheless and notwithstanding. 
 
 You, gentlemen, are in no probable danger of ascet- 
 icism, but you are in danger of errors which spring 
 from the same partial and defective one-sided view of 
 Christian consecration from which sprang the ascet- 
 icism of the early centuries. It is of the utmost im- 
 portance that each of you should be impressed with 
 the fact that you have a body, and that the Lord 
 claims for his service your entire being in its com- 
 pleteness, symmetry, harmony. It was monstrous to 
 abuse the body as the Stylites and Flagellants did ; 
 but to be indifferent to health and physical develop- 
 ment is an error of the very same kind. The body is 
 the only organism through which we can serve God ; 
 and there is no antagonism between spiritual health 
 and physical health, nor any sympathy between godli- 
 ness and indigestion. No degree of spirituality, there- 
 fore, can absolve a man from his duty to his own 
 flesh. What your ministry is to be either respecting 
 your own comfort in it or respecting its power upon 
 
MINISTERIAL CONSECRATION. I59 
 
 Others, will depend in a large degree upon the state 
 of your stomach and nervous system. It is said that 
 Henry Ward Beecher once sat to be examined by 
 Fowler. The phrenologist laid his hands on the sub- 
 ject's head, stepped back, and exclaimed : " What a 
 splendid animal ! " It was no disparagement to Mr. 
 Beecher to say that he is a splendid animal. The 
 ministerial invalid corps — the large number laid utterly 
 aside, and the still larger number who are crippled 
 and straitened in their work on account of ill-health — 
 furnish lamentable evidence that there is some sad, 
 radical defect in our system of theological education 
 and in the style of our clerical living. In this educa- 
 tion and in this style of life there is little or no atten- 
 tion given to the body. If it can stand the strain 
 upon it without suffering from acute disease, it is left 
 to the inevitable attack of the whole host of chronic 
 complaints. There is no care or attempt to develop 
 it along .with the mind. 
 
 Gentlemen, there is as much need of physical con- 
 secration as there is of spiritual consecration. The 
 soul and the body, God has joined together ; let no 
 man put them asunder. Let no one flatter himself 
 that he is doing God service by pushing his studies 
 or his work at the expense of the brain. Let no one 
 presume that he is guiltless in jeoparding or injur- 
 ing his health by overeating, oversleeping, or by ir- 
 regular or slovenly habits. In keeping yourselves 
 unspotted from the world, forget not to keep the 
 pores of the skin open ; in ruling the spirit, forget 
 not to control the appetite. We relieve our con- 
 sciences by attributing our ailments to the will of 
 Providence, while these ailments result from the vio- 
 
l6o OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 Ration of the simplest laws of hygiene. The seat and 
 cause of nine-tenths, if not of ninety-nine hundredths, 
 of our clerical sore throats, are to be sought for and 
 found in the stomach. Speaking injures the throat 
 no more than exercise injures the muscles of the arm. 
 It is disuse, or misuse, through which the throat 
 becomes diseased. If the vocal organs cannot endure 
 exercise one day in seven, what must be the lot of the 
 digestive organs, which are taxed day and night ! 
 Rest is conceded to everything but the stomach ; and 
 men treat it as though it were the wickedest thing on 
 earth, and deserved no rest. What wonder if it rebels 
 under such treatment, and in retaliation inflicts the 
 horrors of hypochondria ! 
 
 It is high time that we were emancipated from the 
 idea that a clergyman is a sort of semi-spiritual being, 
 and that he is subjected to a set of arbitrary laws 
 from which other mortals are free. We have the 
 clerical gait, the clerical tone, the clerical suit, and 
 the clerical cravat. According to this code clerical, 
 there are special, peculiar proprieties for the minister, 
 which he dare not violate even for the sake of having 
 his torpid lungs filled with fresh air, and his languid 
 blood startled from its sluggish pace. He who allows 
 himself to be cribbed and fettered by these unright- 
 eously imposed laws will soon be as destitute of life 
 and nature as a bandaged mummy. With his cares, 
 anxieties, and overpowering responsibilities, the minis- 
 ter above all men needs rousing, exhilarating exer- 
 cises. He demands something more than a melan- 
 choly walk, or a dull turn at the dainty game of 
 croquet, which bears to the manly exercises about the 
 relation that the Latin diminutive bears to the parent 
 
MINISTERIAL CONSECRATION. l6r 
 
 noun. Clerical hands are not too holy to throw th^ 
 quoit, or wield the bat, or hold the fishing rod, or level 
 the rifle. Never mope and stew over the fire and 
 drug yourselves with nostrums, while there are fish 
 in the streams, game on the hills, an ax at the wood- 
 pile, or a horse in the stable which can carry you on 
 a gallop through the eddying snow and storm. Such 
 recreations will not only give tone to your system, 
 but tone also to your piet}^ and vim and variety to 
 your sermons. Many of you I trust will find your 
 fields of labor on the Western frontiers ; yet an indis- 
 pensable condition of success in such a field is the 
 physical capacity to endure hardness. The founda- 
 tions of our Western Zion were laid by men who were 
 not addicted to kid gloves or cologne water, tea and 
 toast, mufflers or warming pans. Until mid-life 
 Macurdy cracked the whip over a six-horse team. 
 McMillan had the body of a giant and the voice of 
 seven trumpets, while Herron more than once quelled 
 fights on Penn Street by rushing from his study in 
 his gown and taking the astonished combatants one 
 in each hand, and shaking them at arm's length, and 
 giving them a lecture at the same time. These men 
 were not quite up to the Oxford standard in Greek 
 accents and Latin prosody, but they were thoroughly 
 versed in tlie profanities of muddy roads and swollen 
 streams. 
 
 It is to be feared that there is in the breast of 
 many the lurking sentiment that it is not quite fitting 
 that a student should have rugged health ; but that 
 there is some necessary connection between intellectu- 
 ality and ill health, that it is vulgar for a scholar to 
 eat anything stronger than toast and tea. Remember 
 
l62 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. * 
 
 the mind works through the brain, and the brain of 
 the student needs material nourishment as much as 
 the right arm of the blacksmith. We want a scholar- 
 ship higher and wider and profounder than we have 
 ever had, but along with it we want physical force to 
 make it available. 
 
 There is another phase of the subject which is no 
 less pertinent and important. Your ministry is not 
 only to be in the body, but by and through the body. 
 The light and fervor of the inner man must be com- 
 municated through the instrumentality of the outer 
 man. You are to be preachers. Your vocation is to 
 speak and teach. Vocal culture, then, is a necessary 
 part of your education. When you have disciplined 
 your mind and stored it with theological lore, your 
 work is not yet done. You must learn to communicate 
 that which you have. A communication must be 
 established between your heart and the hearts of the 
 people. Puritanism, in the violence of the reaction 
 against ceremonialism, went to the opposite extreme, 
 and fell into the error of supposing that the Word 
 of God is honored by an unattractive and vicious 
 delivery. The influence of this error has been felt 
 even down to our own day. For his altar, the Lord 
 requires at our hands the very best we have to offer. 
 It is preposterous that a minister, under 'pretext of 
 reverence for the Word of God, should convert the 
 sound of the Gospel trumpet into a nasal twang, and 
 pitch the great and precious promises to a dismal 
 monotone, and in reading the Scriptures adopt a 
 style of elocution which in inflection, intonation, or 
 emphasis, makes not a shadow of distinction between 
 the blessings of Gerizim and the curses of Ebal. Is 
 
MINISTERIAL CONSECRATION. 163 
 
 this the service which God requires at our hands? 
 The Lord touched the mouth of Jeremiah, and sera- 
 phim laid a live coal from the altar on the lips of 
 Isaiah. The mouth is to be consecrated to this serv- 
 ice, as well as the mind and the heart. The ground 
 of the divine election of Aaron to the ministerial office 
 was that he could speak well. 
 
 Has that man, then, come up to the standard of 
 ministerial consecration who has paid no attention to 
 the development and culture of the vocal powers, and 
 who, for want of this, has in his utterance as little 
 flexibility as though his lips were made of pot-metal ? 
 Actors give to this subject the intensest labor and 
 study, but young preachers rush into the pulpit with 
 about as much knowledge of speaking as was pos- 
 sessed by Balaam's ass, and for their presumption 
 deserve as sound cudgelling as that venerable beast 
 received at the hand of its master. Your duty in 
 this regard, gentlemen, will not be discharged without 
 great labor. There is a sentence of Quintilian which 
 I commend to your attention, and which might profit- 
 ably be used by you as a motto : Multo labore, asst- 
 duo studio, varia exercttatiojie, plurimis experwientis^ 
 altissima prude Jitia, prcEseiitissivio consilio, constat ai's 
 dicendi. (In much labor, assiduous study, varied 
 exercise, many trials, greatest prudence, and readiest 
 judgment, consists the art of speaking.) 
 
 The true orator, the man who is instinct with the 
 spirit of his subject, and who has all his powers well 
 in hand, speaks with his whole person. From head 
 to foot the limbs of the body and features of the face 
 become the live exponents of the thoughts and feel- 
 ings of the soul. Those of you who have heard 
 
164 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 Gough, know how he can convulse or subdue an 
 audience without articulating a syllable. The coun- 
 tenance, the limbs, the arms, the hand, the very finger- 
 tips, are made to tell the whole story. By the iniqui- 
 tous construction of pulpits, two-thirds of the 
 preacher's person are hidden from view. It behooves 
 him, therefore, to turn to the best possible account 
 all the resources of the remaining third. Imagine 
 Demosthenes making the Athenians shout, " Let us 
 fight Philip," by speaking to them from within a hogs- 
 head, or even from a modern pulpit ! Imagine 
 Choate swaying, melting, moulding his twelve men, 
 from a box pinned up to the wall in the neighbor- 
 hood of the ceiling ! By his surroundings the 
 preacher is put at a great disadvantage ; but instead 
 of tamely submitting to this disadvantage, he should 
 do all in his power to overcome it. The Gospel is not 
 preached by merely forming words mechanically and 
 lazily, with no other sign of life or emotion, and with 
 a face as blank as a dead wall and as expressionless as 
 a piece of sole leather. It is no wonder that such 
 preaching falls short of the hearts of the people. 
 Far be it from me to advocate a theatrical style, or 
 anything, indeed, that even tends to degrade the ser- 
 mon to the level of a mere performance for display 
 and elocutionary effect ; but I do insist that the man 
 who has consecrated himself to the ministry should 
 bring to that work every force and element of his 
 nature which can be made available. 
 
 The two chief defects of education are super- 
 ficiality and narrowness. The riches and resources 
 of the intellect do not lie on the surface. They are 
 not reached by skimming ; they are brought out only 
 
MINISTERIAL CONSECRATION. 165 
 
 by thorough cultivation. The mind must be sub- 
 soiled. As men who have consecrated yourselves to 
 a holy work, it is your solemn duty to educe and dis- 
 cipline every power of the intellect. To do this is as 
 sacred a duty as it is to pray or to preach. It is 
 mockery for a man, under pretense of spirituality, to 
 neglect studies and exercises which conduce to the 
 growth and discipline of the mind. It is making 
 spirituality a cloak for laziness, which would other- 
 wise appear in its stark nakedness and ugliness. 
 Piety must have knowledge to sustain it and thought 
 to nourish it. Without these it will evaporate in 
 sighs ; and the man who in the seminary is too holy 
 to study, will, in his ministry, have nothing better to 
 offer than vapid commonplaces. The Levitical offer- 
 ing had to be without blemish. Nothing that was 
 maimed, or scurvy, or scabbed, or having on it so 
 much as a wen, could come upon the Lord's altar. 
 Take care, gentlemen, that you, through indolence and 
 negligence, do not bring to God's altar minds dwarfed, 
 and maimed, and scurvy through inaction. 
 
 Not only is education superficial, but in the culti- 
 vation of the intellect large tracts of it are left 
 untouched. It is astonishing how small a fraction of 
 their powers even educated men call into active serv- 
 ice, and in case of the ministry this is not only 
 astonishing, but lamentable and blameworthy. The 
 extreme reaction of Puritanism, to which I have before 
 referred, has made itself felt at this point of the 
 Church's life also, by discountenancing all the amen- 
 ities of style, and acting upon the theory that only a 
 part of the powers of the mind, and they of the baldest 
 and driest, are to be brought to the service of the 
 
l66 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 sanctuary. Shall the understanding be consecrated to 
 God, while the imagination, with its wondrous powers 
 and possibilities of good, is subjected to a proscrip- 
 tion as relentless as that enforced by the Stylite 
 against his body ? Rather let the understanding, 
 imagination, and sensibilities all be cultivated to the 
 highest pitch, and let the whole soul, thus symmet- 
 rically developed and all aglow with its harmonious 
 action, be laid at the feet of Jesus. What right has 
 any of you to keep back from the service of your 
 Master any faculty with which he has endowed you ? 
 Let your education, then, be not only thorough, but 
 let it comprehend your manhood in its integrity and 
 completeness. Let all your powers be kept in con- 
 stant training, ready for efficient service at a moment's 
 warning. The Lord has need of them all. 
 
 After the mind has been properly educated and 
 disciplined, it must be kept in condition, and con- 
 stantly improved by a liberal course of study and 
 reading and observation. 
 
 All study is useful. Any mental exercise which 
 gives tone and snap and litheness to the mind, is 
 beneficial, and is to be pursued as bearing directly 
 or indirectly upon the work of the ministry. The 
 volume of the Word is to be illustrated by the volume 
 of nature. Thus taught the great Teacher. Let 
 science, philosophy, and art bring their treasures to 
 adorn the Cross. Let not the pulpit be converted 
 into a lyceum, with Christ dimly in the background ; 
 yet let the whole domain of thought be laid under 
 tribute for the Gospel's sake. Let the heart be under 
 the baptism of the Spirit, and all things will be seen 
 in the light of the Cross, and science and art will 
 
MINISTERIAL CONSECRATION. 167 
 
 proffer their willing ministries to the service of the 
 truth as it is in Jesus. Put Christ in the triumphal 
 car, and let all science and knowledge take their 
 place in his train to aid m swelling his triumph ; and 
 do not, as the manner of some is, lead Jesus bound 
 behind some inflated theory or favorite hobby. With 
 your every faculty awake and active, gather all the 
 resources within your reach, and put them all into 
 the service of the truth. Take the spoils of Egypt 
 for the tabernacle. Strive to make your ministry rich 
 in thought and observation and the garnered wisdom 
 of the ages. The preacher should be wise, that he may 
 teach the people knowledge. The dignity and worth 
 of your ministry will not depend upon the place where, 
 or the circumstances in which, it is exercised ; but upon 
 the spirit that shall pervade it, and upon the labor, 
 thought, learning, and experience you shall put into it. 
 
 Brethren, have I made myself understood ? What 
 I wish to say is this : as consecrated men you have no 
 right to keep out of your work any part of your 
 nature, or to subtract any particle of that which goes 
 to make up human force ; that you are to carry into 
 the cause your whole spirit and soul and body. If 
 this standard be reached, you will never complain of 
 the hardships of your calling. 
 
 It is the world's standing reproach that the pulpit 
 is dry and uninteresting, and dwells apart from the 
 ordinary thought and sympathy of humanity. No 
 longer ago than last week, William Lloyd Garrison 
 began an article in the Indepe?ident, with these sen- 
 tences : " The pulpit is proverbial for its dulness. 
 Ordinary sermonizing powerfully tends to somnolency, 
 closing the eyes like an opiate." Instead of efferves- 
 
l68 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 cing with righteous indignation at such reproaches, 
 we would do well to profit by whatever of truth they 
 may contain. If the pulpit is dull, it is because the 
 occupants of it do not put into it the whole soul and 
 all its powers. 
 
 The high themes of the Gospel can be so presented 
 that the popular heart will thrill at the utterance of 
 them. There is, it may as well be confessed, a grow- 
 ing prejudice against doctrinal preaching. The cry 
 is for practical sermons. But how divorce practice 
 from doctrine? How enforce precepts which pertain 
 to godly living apart from the doctrines which under- 
 lie the Christian life? The ground of this prejudice 
 is not in the doctrines, but in the manner of present- 
 ing them. In the hands of Paul they were not dead 
 abstractions, but quick and powerful. And put them, 
 now, in the hands of a living, earnest man, a man who 
 has convictions, and they are still quick and power- 
 ful — it may be Newman in St. Mary's ; or Spurgeon 
 in his Tabernacle ; or Lacordaire in Notre Dame. It 
 is not a question between written or unwritten ser- 
 mons — between sermons read or sermons spoken — 
 between sermons extempore or memoriter — sermons 
 doctrinal or practical. It is not the form, but the 
 spirit, that is vital and essential. An unwritten ser- 
 mon may be as dry as mummied dust, while a manu- 
 script may be as fresh and fragrant as the morning. 
 The Word of God is not bound, in the sense that it 
 can be preached in only one way. The preacher 
 should be master of all styles, ready to adapt his 
 address to all audiences and to ever varying circum- 
 stances. He should be able to write as elegantly as 
 Melville, and be, at the same time, as offhand as 
 
MINISTERIAL CONSECRATION. 169 
 
 Spurgeon. In preaching he should be equally at 
 home in a cathedral or a coal-bank. He should be 
 able to preach with manuscript or without, with prep- 
 aration or without ; by following a premeditated 
 train, or by adopting a new one, on the spur of the 
 moment, which will be adapted to the immediate oc- 
 casion; he should be so full of the digested matter of 
 the Gospel, as to make it a matter of indifference with 
 him whether he preach twice or twenty times a week ; 
 he should be so apt in pat and telling illustrations, 
 that he can carry his message right home to the 
 hearts of the people who are at the moment looking 
 up into his face for the bread of life. 
 
 This is not an ideal standard, impossible of realiza- 
 tion. It is within the scope of practicability ; and the 
 Church and the world want and wait for such men ; 
 but those dainty, kid-gloved, pomatumed exquisites — 
 who put the " balm of a thousand flowers " in their 
 sermons as well as upon their handkerchiefs ; who 
 have a keen eye for the highest temporal good ; who 
 rate churches according to their material resources ; 
 and whose first question is, " What's the salary?" — 
 are wanted nowhere, unless it should be in a millinery 
 shop to sell ribbons. 
 
 Brethren, a glorious work lies before you. Thank 
 God that he has called you to it, and that he is about 
 to put you into it. ^' Magnify your office." " Covet 
 the best gifts." Prefer to be a prince among 
 preachers to being the first crowned head of Europe. 
 Be men — earnest, strong, brave men — healthy in 
 body, mind, and heart — men of God — God's men 
 true and loyal : 
 
 Sworn liegemen of the cross and thorny crown. 
 
VII. 
 
 TWExNTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
 
 PASTORATE OF THE REV. DR. 
 
 BROWNSON. 
 
VII. 
 
 TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
 
 PASTORATE OF THE REV. DR. 
 
 BROWNSON.* 
 
 Twenty-five years of human life in any station 
 and in any circumstances is a matter of momentous 
 interest and importance. Life ! Human life ! Of 
 what hopes, regrets, defeats, successes, loves, griefs, 
 and sympathies the wondrous fabric is woven ! A 
 quarter-century of such life cannot be void of inter- 
 est, though it be spent in a dungeon or in an Esqui- 
 ma'ux's hut or in a felon's cell. By what factors, 
 then, will you compute the results of a quarter-century 
 of flithful ministerial labor? Who will write the 
 history of the work done in twenty-five years by an 
 accredited ambassador of Christ, who pleads with 
 men, " in Christ's stead," to be reconciled to God ? 
 Such work humbly and faithfully done anywhere must 
 tell mightily on human destinies, and must project its 
 influences forward until they take hold on eternal 
 issues. The real results of such work are not mani- 
 fest. The breaking up of the fallow ground and the 
 sowing of the seed only are done here. The harvest- 
 ing is to be done hereafter. Now we look abroad 
 over fields newly sown, or, at most, with the tender 
 *In the First Presbyterian Church of Washington, Pa., De- 
 cember, 1873. 
 
 173 
 
174 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 shoots Struggling up through the clods. But oh ! 
 what an apocalypse for men and angels the harvest- 
 home will be when all the sheaves shall be gathered 
 with shoutings and rejoicings ! 
 
 In any computations concerning such work, we are 
 dealing with elements which are invisible and intan- 
 gible and imponderable, but which are superlativel}^ 
 potent and far-reaching in their power. The minister 
 of God wields spiritual weapons. He touches springs 
 which in their action and reaction are mightier than 
 the sweep of the universe. He strikes keys which 
 make heaven resonant with joy. Twenty-five years 
 of such work ! Who will write it up ? It cannot be 
 put into figures or statistical tables. It cannot be 
 written in annals, expressed in eloquence, or sung in 
 poetry. Written history is but the anatomy of real 
 history, and bears to it the same relation which a 
 wired skeleton bears to a living man. When God's 
 books shall be opened, causes as well as effects will 
 be seen, and then " they that be wise (teachers) shall 
 shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they 
 that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever 
 and ever." Could we see the hidden springs and the 
 occult forces which lie beneath the surface of things, 
 we might be able to write a history in some degree 
 worthy of such a work. 
 
 The history of this ministry is greatly enhanced in 
 interest, and the power of it is greatly intensified by 
 the fact that it has been exercised for all these years 
 in the same place. It is a rare privilege to be per- 
 mitted by Providence to preach the Gospel for twenty- 
 five years to one church, and especially when that 
 church is united, harmonious, fraternal, and cordial. 
 
REV. DR. BROWNSON. I 75 
 
 In these fretful, feverish times of ours, long pastorates 
 are alil^e honorable to both pastor and people. The 
 fact itself deserves distinct recognition and emphatic 
 commendation. But it also carries in it a certifi- 
 cate concerning the quality of ministerial work done 
 here. No tlieological wish-wash, no weak rinsing 
 of the wine-cask, no gilded, decorated cobs and 
 husks, no dishing up and setting forth of highly 
 seasoned hodge-podge of the current news or of 
 sensational themes would have fed and nourished and 
 satisfied such a people as this for these twenty-five 
 years. Their cultivated, just, discriminating taste 
 would long ago have turned away with loathing and 
 disgust from all vulgar clap-trap ; from all theatrical 
 display or rhetorical tricks ; from all intellectual gym- 
 nastics or pyrotechnics ; from all clownish oddities 
 and eccentricities and idiosyncrasies. 
 
 And just here we find a pertinent and suggestive 
 lesson for both churches and preachers. The lesson 
 is this : The pastors who make for themselves a large 
 and warm and firm place in the hearts of their people 
 are those who preach simply and plainly the pure 
 Gospel. It is a lesson which the public greatly 
 needs to learn. The question that is now too often 
 asked by churches seeking a pastor is not " Does he 
 preach the gospel," but " Will he draw ? " The iden- 
 tical question which is asked concerning a third-rate 
 actor in a Bowery theatre ! Will he by startling utter- 
 ances, made in disregard or in utter defiance of God's 
 Word, or by fantastic tricks of voice or manner, attract 
 a throng of gaping curiosity-seekers and sensation- 
 mongers ? An affirmative answer to such questions 
 is generally regarded as an unqualified recommenda- 
 
176 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 tion. If there should be, perchance, a flaw in his 
 moral character, so much the better. It will give 
 Spice and piquancy to the sensation of those who 
 go to the house of God as the Athenians went to the 
 market place, to " hear something new/' 
 
 By such a policy churches may be forced into an 
 artificial growth, but it is as different from the healthy, 
 steady growth which comes from the preaching of the 
 simple old Gospel as the growth of Jonah's gourd 
 was different from that of the oak of Bashan, or as 
 the course of a planet is different from the whirr and 
 flare and explosion and — extinction of a sky-rocket. 
 
 The popular opinion is that the influence of a 
 minister, after a certain length of time, wears out in a 
 church and community. This is a very great and a 
 very grave mistake. The influence and the power of 
 a pastor, who is earnest in his studies and faithful 
 in his duties, not only do not wear out or diminish, 
 but, on the contrary, increase steadily year after 
 year, as the on-flowing river deepens and broadens 
 and gains momentum. Those who wear out or run 
 out or run dry are like the Nile in its lower course, 
 which has no tributaries, no afliuents, and of neces- 
 sity diminishes instead of increasing as it advances — 
 its waters being drunk up by the sand, and there 
 being nothing to supply the waste. Each added year 
 should make a pastorate more and more rich in all 
 elements of usefulness and power. The possibility 
 and practicability of this have been demonstrated here. 
 
 What an ineffable privilege it is to be permitted to 
 stand in one place for a quarter of a century and preach 
 the Gospel to one people, with the bonds of mutual 
 confidence and esteem growing firmer and the ties of 
 
REV. DR. BROWNSON. 177 
 
 sympathy and affection growing stronger all the while ; 
 to see children grow up under the moulding influence 
 of an unbroken pastorate, the same hand which 
 sealed them in infancy as members of the visible 
 Church leading them in the paths of righteousness and 
 distributing to them the elements of the Lord's Sup- 
 per ; and the same lips which invoked the name of 
 the Trinity over them in baptism pronouncing upon 
 them nuptial benedictions ; to watch middle life soften 
 into age, old age mellow and ripen for glory, and 
 childhood and youth take the place of those who are 
 passing away ; to mingle with and to share the joys 
 and sorrows and sympathies of the same people, to 
 bear comfort to the same families for so many years 
 and through so many vicissitudes, and to be the 
 means of leading to Christ souls of the same house- 
 hold, even to the third generation ! 
 
 Not only is the length of this pastorate a matter of 
 congratulation, but the place, the time, and circum- 
 stances of it could scarcely be more felicitous. From 
 what other spot could the influence of a pastor radiate 
 farther or along more important lines ? With a col- 
 lege on the one hand and a female seminary on the 
 other, a class of hearers of both sexes have been 
 brought to these pews who are more interesting and 
 hopeful than any others who come within the compass 
 of a preacher's voice or within the sphere of a pastor's 
 influence. If you would see the fruits of this ministry, 
 you must look far beyond the limits of this congrega- 
 tion and of this commonwealth. You must go far 
 beyond the seas, where the cross of Christ is being 
 set up in the face of the grim and mighty systems and 
 superstitions of the Orient ; you must search far and 
 
178 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 wide in hundreds of families over wliich is cast the 
 halo of a saintly woman's influence and example ; you 
 must go into the pulpit, on the bench, into legislative 
 halls, into seminaries, colleges, academies, and 
 schools and mission stations throughout all this land. 
 The number of those who have been brought to 
 Christ in this church during these twenty-five years, 
 and who have entered the ministry, is sufficient to 
 form a good-sized presbytery, or even a small synod. 
 Such a record as this will surprise no one who knows 
 anything of Dr. Brownson's lively interest in students ; 
 his genuine, sturdy sympathy with them in their studies 
 and struggles, and how his labors and his prayers 
 have been bent to their conversion. In him the stu- 
 dent always finds a true friend and a wise counsellor, 
 who can enter into his feelings and sympathies as 
 though he himself had been at college but yesterday. 
 He has read and criticised many crude essays and 
 orations ; and, while his criticisms have been just, and 
 sometimes severe, they were always made in such a 
 spirit as not to discourage, but to stimulate to more 
 earnest effort. If the spiritual masonry by which 
 the Church is edified could be revealed to the bodily 
 eye, traces of his hand and the impress of his spirit 
 would be found in hundreds of pulpits throughout the 
 land. Thus the results of his labors have not been 
 confined to this congregation, but are like the river of 
 Egypt, which overflows its banks, filling canals and 
 lakes, and carrying fertility and verdure far and near, 
 *' making the wilderness and solitary places glad, and 
 the desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose, giving 
 to it the glory of Lebanon, the excellency of Carmel 
 and Sharon." 
 
REV. DR. BROWNSON. 179 
 
 A chief and a crowning glory of this pastorate is 
 that it has been a pastorate of revivals. It was inau- 
 gurated in revival. An outpouring of the Holy Spirit 
 solemnized and consecrated its beginning, and fur- 
 nished a promise and a pledge that the Lord would 
 continue to be with pastor and people. With some 
 of us those initial weeks are the most memorable of 
 all the weeks of these twenty-five years. To some of 
 us the "old church" is invested with a glory which 
 can belong to no other building— a glory such as, in 
 the eyes of the Israelites, belonged to the Tabernacle, 
 over which rested the fiery-cloudy pillar. That was 
 the time and that was the place of " the love of our 
 espousals." Then were displayed the presence and 
 the power of God as really as when, at the dedication 
 of the temple, "fire came down from heaven and con- 
 sumed the burnt offerings and the sacrifices : and the 
 glory of the Lord filled the house." The strange but 
 mighty influence stole over the town and the college. 
 There was an unwonted solemnity and awe in the 
 rooms of the. students, along the halls, and in the 
 campus. When it was whispered from one to another 
 that such and such a one had remained at inquiry 
 meeting, an electric thrill made the circuit of the 
 whole company of students. None could resist the 
 power of the influence. The most giddily thought- 
 less and the most desperately reckless were subdued 
 and awed. They were in the presence of a mysteri- 
 ous power about which they could no more be skepti- 
 cal than the Israelite could be skeptical at Sinai when 
 he saw the '' mountain altogether on a smoke " and 
 wrapped in a " thick cloud," and when he heard the 
 thunderings and "the voice of the trumpet exceeding 
 
l8o OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 loud." Nothing could divert the mind or wrest the 
 thoughts away from the great subject. A little inci- 
 dent may serve to illustrate this. One night a student 
 who lived a short distance in the country, having to 
 wait for a brother who remained as an inquirer, asked 
 a classmate to stay and keep him company. The two 
 got in a cellar door-way at the end of the church to 
 shelter themselves from the cold winds, and while 
 keeping up a vigorous stamping of feet to stimulate 
 the circulation, they talked of studies and literary 
 societies, of contest, of fun and frolic, and projected 
 amusements — earnestly striving to keep up their spirits 
 and to act as though there was nothing unusual going 
 on. But it was of no use. All attempts broke down. 
 Finally one said : " I wish I was in there with my 
 brother Tom to-night. It is where I ought to be 
 instead of shivering here." The other said nothing, 
 but thought much and felt more. The boys who 
 stood stamping and shivering in the door-way that 
 night are both in the ministry. 
 
 It is no wonder that a pastorate thus inaugurated 
 by such an unction from on high should be prolonged 
 and blessed. At the very outset the prayer of God's 
 people was answered : " Arise, O Lord God, into 
 thy resting place, thou and the ark of thy strength." 
 And as it began in revival, so it has continued to be a 
 pastorate of revivals. The pillar of cloud and of fire 
 has been over this tabernacle. Happy, thrice happy, 
 the pastor who has thus the manifest seal of the Holy 
 Ghost upon his ministry ! May the years that remain 
 of this pastorate be a continuous Pentecost ! 
 
 Not by any means the least significant topic sug- 
 gested by this occasion is the character of the times 
 
REV. DR. BROWNSON. l8l 
 
 in which this ministry of a quarter of a century has 
 been exercised. Within that time thrones have been 
 set up and thrown down ; science has put a girdle 
 round the world in less time even than the daring 
 fancy of Shakespeare demanded ; God's step has been 
 among the nations, until all barriers are removed and 
 every land is open to the heralds of the Gospel. In 
 the fierce strifes and conflicts of the times, and in the 
 rapid revolutions of opinions, venerable parties and 
 theories and policies and philosophies have crumbled 
 as a potter's vessel that has been smitten by a sledge- 
 hammer. " The foolish things of this world " — in 
 both Church and state — have " confounded the wise," 
 and the "weak things of the world have confounded 
 the things which were mighty, and the base things of 
 the world, and things which were despised, yea, and 
 things which were not, have brought to nought things 
 that were." Frequently during these years we have 
 read in the daily newspapers items concerning single 
 events which contained in them more that was of 
 supreme interest to humanity, and which portended 
 more of weal or woe for the future, than all of the 
 events which have been embalmed in the histories of 
 Herodotus and Thucydides. So rapid and radical 
 have been the changes, so swift and thorough have 
 been the revolutions, that we can scarcely be said to 
 be living in the same world in which we lived twenty- 
 five years ago. And when facts and issues shall 
 appear in their true light and at their proper value, it 
 will be found that the man who, amidst these tumult- 
 uous years, ever watchful of the great interests com- 
 mitted to him, with an eye to "discern the signs of 
 the times," brave enough to speak the right word at 
 
l82 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 the right time, unswayed by popular tempests — smvis 
 tranquillus in undis — with a true heart and a firm 
 hand has stood here, at his post, an accepted coun- 
 sellor, teacher, and leader, it will be found that this 
 man has wielded a sceptre more potent for good than 
 has any king in Europe. 
 
 How infinitely grander is such a record than that 
 of an Alexander, or a Caesar, or a Napoleon, or a 
 Wellington ! 
 
 The men to whom the gratitude and honors of the 
 Church are due are those who patiently cultivate the 
 field into which the Lord has put them. The ministry 
 of some men is as unsettled as a gypsy's camp. They 
 are perpetually seeking change, and as intensely covet 
 the fields of their neighbors as Ahab coveted the vine- 
 yard of Naboth ; and like him, in chagrin and dis- 
 appointment, they " lie down upon their bed and turn 
 away their face and eat no bread," instead of ''doing 
 with their might whatsoever their hands find to do." 
 Thus energy is frittered away, enthusiasm evaporates, 
 and life is wasted. The men who conquer are those 
 who ''fight it out on the same line." 
 
 The walls of the spiritual building which "groweth 
 unto a holy temple in the Lord " go not up by sound 
 and fury. Quiet, steady forces are, in all spheres, 
 the mightiest and the most efficient. During the con- 
 struction of a great bridge in Holland one of the 
 principal traverses, nearly five hundred feet in length, 
 was placed about one inch too far on the piles. No 
 enginery could move it. In the morning the end that 
 was too far advanced was securely bolted down. 
 Then by expansion, through the heat of the sun, the 
 end that was left free silently, imperceptibly crept 
 
REV. DR. 15ROWNSON. I 83 
 
 along the piles. In the evening the latter end was 
 fastened, and the contraction, through cold, caused a 
 like movement of the opposite extremity. Twice 
 repeated, the operation brought the traverse into posi- 
 tion. The noiseless warmth of the sun and the cool 
 atmosphere of the night accomplished that which deaf- 
 ening machinery could not accomplish. Thus the 
 quiet, steady, and often unappreciated labors of 
 a long pastorate lift up and carry forward great 
 works and interests of immeasurable preciousness, 
 while the world sees and hears nothing. Only the 
 opening of the Lamb's Book of Life will reveal the 
 work that has been done here in all the importance, 
 results, and issues of it. 
 
VIII. 
 HIGHER LIFE "—A CHAPEL TALK. 
 
-HIGHER LIFE"— A CHAPEL TALK.* 
 
 To all that the advocates of this so-called " higher 
 life " say about the fulness and sufficiency of Christ 
 we most cordially agree. In this there is surely 
 nothing new. The fact is, all that is good in this 
 theory is as old as the Gospel itself, while all that is 
 novel is erroneous. What is true in it you can hear 
 on any Sabbath from any evangelical pulpit in the 
 land. The fulness and sufficiency of Christ we be- 
 lieve, preach, and rejoice in. We also believe in a 
 higher spiritual life. But the advocates of this theory 
 confound justification and sanctification, in that they 
 make them both acts; whereas sanctification is a work 
 — a progressive, a life-long work. Now in opposition 
 to this old, sound, and scriptural doctrine we have the 
 theory set forth that by going through a certain for- 
 mality of making and signing a covenant, or by some 
 other magical art or operation, there is brought about 
 this sudden transition into a state of holiness or per- 
 fection ; for if you get down to strict definition, the 
 doctrine is found to be identical with the old doctrine 
 of perfectionism. There is nothing in the act of sit- 
 ting down and writing out a covenant to make a man 
 holy. The men who trust to such things are deceiv- 
 ing themselves. 
 
 * November, 1878. A stenographic report. 
 
l88 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 A few weeks ago a man came into my study, and 
 he had not been there five minutes until he volunteered 
 the statement in voluble and vainglorious terms that 
 he had not committed a sin for twenty-six years — 
 and yet he was a book agent. He asserted with great 
 emphasis that he was perfectly certain that he had 
 not, in thought, word, or deed, done wrong for 
 more than a quarter of a century. Yet that man had 
 not grace enough to keep his face clean. He wsissm- 
 fully dirty. It is sheer absolute presumption for a 
 man to say that he is certain that he has not com- 
 mitted sin. What does such a man know of the 
 human soul with its faculties, with its thoughts 
 and desires darting more rapidly than electricity, 
 with its passions and impulses in all their com- 
 plex and occult workings ! To pronounce dog- 
 matically on such a subject is presumption at least, 
 if not blasphemy. Our highest conception of the 
 holiness, the spirituality, the scope, and comprehen- 
 siveness of the divine law falls infinitely below the 
 truth. And beyond the line where we suppose that 
 responsibility ceases there is still a world of ac- 
 countability. 
 
 Just here lies the secret of this error. It arises 
 from a lack of a true and adequate conception of 
 what sin is. The theory does not exalt holiness, but 
 it drags down the divine law. Each man makes a 
 divine law to suit himself. The law is cut to fit the 
 capacities and tastes of different persons. The book 
 agent before referred to admitted that he had bad 
 dreams ; in the heat of the discussion he became 
 white with rage, and in order to escape dilemmas in 
 his argument he lied three distinct times ; yet went 
 
" HIGHER LIFE." 189 
 
 away declaring solemnly that he had not sinned for 
 twenty-six years, and that during that time he had not 
 once prayed for forgiveness. Not long since I asked 
 a Presbyterian minister — an advocate of this theory — 
 what he would say to a man who made such assertions 
 as the foregoing. To my utter surprise he did not 
 object to them, but said that it was necessary to define 
 what was meant by "sin." There it is in a nut-shell. 
 Why define, or refine, or split hairs ? We are not 
 talking about words, or fancies, or definitions, but 
 about things. Under these definitions and distinctions 
 are hidden things which they call infirmities — not sins, 
 but "infirmities." These infirmities need tobe repented 
 of, they need the washing of the blood of Jesus, but 
 it will not do to call them suis. Why not call them by 
 their right name, unless it be to foster an abominable 
 vanity ! I do not believe that there is any true 
 Christianity in such a course. I do not believe that 
 there is any true Christian experience in it. By the 
 Spirit of God we are led to see the glorious sufifi- 
 cienc}^ of Christ. In the same way we are led to dis- 
 cover the pollution of our human nature, and these 
 discoveries do not contract our views of the sweep of 
 the divine law, but on the other hand greatly heighten 
 and amplify these views. This is Christian experi- 
 ence as described by the Apostle Paul, and the testi- 
 mony in regard to it has been uniform throughout all 
 ages of the Church. The real controversy between 
 us is not so much about holiness as it is about sin. If 
 these men do not sin, their natures must be perfectly 
 holy, for " who can bring a clean thing out of an 
 unclean ? " P'rom an impure fountain, impure streams 
 will flow. 
 
190 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 The tendency of this doctrhie is to antinomianism. 
 Suppose one man covers up some sin under the name 
 and the guise of an infirmity. Another man covers 
 up some other sin under the same name and guise. 
 Thus every man sets up his own standard, and the 
 motive is not to honor and exalt the infinite law of 
 God, but to preserve the assumed reputation of living 
 without sin. Every iniquity may be committed under 
 such a system. 
 
 Another trick is to evade the charge of sinning by 
 the plea of unconsciousness. They do not sin con- 
 sciously. The question is whether we sin at all or 
 not. The assumption here is that we are not respon- 
 sible for unconscious sins. But we are responsible 
 for the formation of evil habits, and through these 
 evil habits we sin unconsciously. The profane swearer 
 takes the name of God in vain unconsciously. " If 
 we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and 
 the truth is not in us." 
 
 1 have known an advocate of this doctrine to per- 
 mit a promising missionary enterprise to languish 
 under his pastorate for lack of consecrated work. I 
 do not want such a " higher life " for any of you. If 
 this is a " higher life," then I want a lower. I want a 
 life low enough to get down on a level with the thresh- 
 olds of the poor, that will expend itself in laboring 
 for the conversion of sinners. I do not say that a 
 lazy man cannot be saved, but I do say that a man 
 who is too lazy to discharge his solemn and manifest 
 duty has no right to lay claim to perfect sanctifica- 
 tion. I have no faith in any Christian experience 
 which detracts from the spirituality, depth, breadth, 
 length, height, scope, reach, and comprehensiveness 
 
" HIGHER LIFE. I9I 
 
 of the divine law. I believe in that Christian experi- 
 ence which, in proportion as it is developed, sees 
 more and more the infinite purity and holiness of the 
 law, and which, just in this proportion, discovers de- 
 filement, corruption, and utter unworthiness in our- 
 selves, and which thus sinks the soul in the dust at 
 the foot of the cross to give all honor and glory to 
 the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
IX. 
 
 ADDRESS TO THE GRADUATING CLASS 
 OF 1883. 
 
IX. 
 
 ADDRESS TO THE GRADUATING CLASS 
 OF 1883. 
 
 Young Gentlemen: With many pleasant mem- 
 ories of the past, with a profound feeling of sadness 
 at the present parting, and with most earnest prayers 
 for your future success and welfare, we now sunder the 
 tie which has united us so closely as professors and 
 students. Three happy years have glided quickly 
 past as day after day we pursued together our inves- 
 tigations in the boundless fields of theological inquiry. 
 These investigations, in their place and measure, were 
 intended to fit you for your high calling ; and if they 
 have at all served their purpose, they have formed 
 within you habits of thoughtful study, they have cre- 
 ated within you a quenchless thirst for knowledge. 
 The truly educated mind will find fields for endless 
 research everywhere. If there be no opportunity 
 for quiet study in a cosey library, then the broad 
 prairie, the mountain path, or the narrow, busy street 
 will become a library teeming with lessons and 
 suggestions. These diplomas are not to be con- 
 sidered as certificates of discharge from the duty of 
 study, but, on the contrary, they should be interpreted 
 as your written orders for the campaign, which mean* 
 your whole life. All these past years of preparation 
 were intended to fit you for systematic and effective 
 
196 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 intellectual work, and if you are to do that work 
 efficiently, you must be earnest students. You can- 
 not acquit your consciences in this regard by con- 
 cluding that your situation is so unfavorable, that' 
 circumstances are so unpropitious, that you cannot 
 study. You must study. Let the situation be favor- 
 able or unfavorable, let circumstances be propitious or 
 unpropitious, you must study. Circumstances must 
 be made to bend to your necessities in this respect. 
 Obstacles must be converted into opportunities. 
 Without intellectual and spiritual activity and growth 
 you will become drivellers and drones, and will spend 
 your lives in threshing old straw. There is no incom- 
 patibility between the most profound learning on 
 the one hand, and the most direct contact with the 
 popular mind and heart on the other. Learning that 
 educates men away from the people is a false learning. 
 It is shallow, spurious, and undeserving of the name. 
 The last, the highest, and the ripest result of 
 scholarship is the faculty of simplifying that which is 
 abstruse, of expressing profound and difficult things 
 in the plain language of every-day life. Read Hebrew 
 and Greek — indeed I charge you to read and study 
 these languages every day, and Latin too. Read if you 
 choose, also, Egyptian hieroglyphics and Assyrian 
 cuneiform inscriptions, but when you preach do not 
 display the processes by which you reach results ; do 
 not parade your learning, but speak to the people in 
 good, honest Anglo-Saxon — preach the Gospel straight 
 from the heart ; let it leap from the tip of a ready 
 tongue. The great steam hammer of Nasmyth, which 
 crushed rocks and ores as if they were pipestems, 
 could nevertheless be worked with such delicacy that 
 
GRADUATING CLASS OF 1883. I97 
 
 it would break an egg-shell in a wine-cup without 
 injuring the glass. Strength and delicacy, force com- 
 bined with fineness — this, young gentlemen, is the 
 ideal which you should set before you. Be as strong 
 as lions, as swift as eagles, and as gentle as doves. 
 
 Vast fields open before you at home and abroad. 
 By the blessing of God you may mould civili^tions, 
 and lay the foundations of empires. In whose mouth 
 the Lord puts his word, him " He sets over the nations, 
 and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, 
 and to destroy, and to throw down, to build and to 
 plant. He makes him a defenced city, and an iron 
 pillar, and brazen walls against kings and against 
 princes." ''Be strong and of a good courage." He 
 who goes to his work timidly invites defeat ; indeed 
 he is half defeated already. You have the truth of 
 God to preach, you have the commission of the 
 Master under which to work ; and the promise is that 
 " He will be with you alway, even unto the end of 
 the world." 
 
I. 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS. 
 
THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS.* 
 
 " And let the rvhole earth he filled ivith his glory.'" — PsALM 
 Ixxii. 19. 
 
 These words breathe the innermost spirit of the 
 Gospel. In whatever form this spirit expresses itself, 
 whether in prophecy, in type, in parable, or in prayer, 
 its aspirations and its utterances embrace the whole 
 world. The spirit of the Gospel is the spirit of mis- 
 sions. Without this, Christianity is a spurious or a 
 dead Christianity ; without this, a Church is not a 
 true Church. The missionary element of the Gospel, 
 therefore, is not an accident or an adjunct, but 
 belongs to the very essence and soul of it. 
 
 The spirit of missions, therefore^ is a badge of the 
 true Church and a pledge of her success and triunph. 
 
 From out the ruins of the Fall, prophecy uplifts her 
 majestic form; with a glance she scans the vista of 
 the coming ages and proclaims ultimate and complete 
 victory through an incarnate Redeemer. Thus was 
 struck the keynote of prophecy ; and the resounding 
 prophetic harmonies to which the Church has marched 
 through the ages have never fallen below this pitch. 
 
 Abel by his martyr-blood, Enoch by his walk with 
 
 *Moderator's sermon at the opening session of the 87th General 
 Assembly, in the First Presbyterian Church, Cleveland, O., 
 May 20, 1 8 75. 
 
202 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 God and his translation to heaven, Noah by his min- 
 istry of righteousness — these bore testimony to a 
 faith which was not restricted by any lines of race or of 
 latitude. The blessing of Japhet was that he was to 
 be " enlarged " and was to dwell in the tents of Shem. 
 Ungodliness, rallying its forces at Babel, attempted to 
 set up a universal empire in the interest of atheistic 
 humanitarianism ; but He that '' sitteth in the heavens 
 laughed" at the impious attempt to wrest the crown 
 of universal dominion from Him to whom only it 
 rightfully belongs, and scattered the races " abroad 
 from thence upon the face of all the earth," to be 
 gathered again only at the cross of Christ. Babel 
 stands as a monument to all generations of the folly 
 of attempting to establish a universal kingdom save 
 under the sceptre of the Son of God. In its deepest 
 significance, the history of Babel is a chapter on 
 missions. 
 
 The separatism of the Abrahamic covenant and of 
 the Mosaic economy did not contravene this oecu- 
 menical spirit of the Gospel, but was in the fullest 
 accord and sympathy with it. The lines contracted 
 for a time in order that with a wider and a more 
 assured grasp they might embrace the world. All 
 that was national and restricted in these dispensations 
 was only temporary, and had for its purpose the edu- 
 cation of a people through whom the knowledge of 
 the true religion was to be diffused throughout the 
 earth. The fence was not to shut the world out, but 
 to keep the Church in. The Abrahamic promise rose 
 from the individual to the nation, and from the chosen 
 nation to ''all the families of the earth." The dying 
 Jacob, with prophetic vision, looking past the waving 
 
THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS. 203 
 
 sceptre of Judah, saw the gathering of the people to 
 Shiloh. When read aright, the Abrahamic covenant 
 is only another form of the Apostolic commission. 
 
 The distinctive doctrine of the Patriarchal religion 
 was the unity of God, and this doctrine carried in 
 itself the ground and the pledge of a reunion of 
 humanity. By her belief in this doctrine the Church, 
 amidst the brick-kiln's of Egypt, proclaimed the uni- 
 versality of her mission. On her march from bondage 
 she carried in the same doctrine the charter of her 
 freedom and her title-deed to the Promised Land. 
 Even in the desert, by her testimony to the truth, she 
 touched by her influence distant nations, as the fiery 
 pillar flung its light far into the surrounding dark- 
 ness. A Church which has in its creed the unity, 
 omnipresence, and supremacy of God can accept no 
 field which contains less than the whole race. So that 
 the creed of the Patriarchal and the Mosaic Church 
 made it, of necessity, a missionary Church. 
 
 The land of promise was at the centre of ancient 
 civilizations — " by the cross-roads where the highways 
 of all nations met." The influence of the covenant 
 people, therefore, radiated in all directions. Their 
 altar-fires were signal-lights of hope to a perishing 
 world. Their jubilee trumpets woke seas and moun- 
 tains and deserts to the echoes of salvation. The 
 converging tribes, on their march to keep festival at 
 Jerusalem, startled nations and kingdoms by the 
 swelling choruses of their hallelujahs. The ships of 
 Solomon bore the name of Jehovah to India on the 
 East and to the Pillars of Hercules on the AVest. 
 And with their capital and temple in ruins and their 
 land laid waste, they became a nation of missionaries 
 
204 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 in foreign countries. Tlie time of exile was the mis- 
 sionary age of the Jewish Church and nation. Thor- 
 oughly cured of idolatry, chastened and spiritualized 
 by affliction, although without temple and altar, and 
 with her harps on the willows, the Church became 
 vigorously and valiantly aggressive. Her Psalms 
 were sung in the palaces of kings. Cyrus the Great 
 studied prophecy, and under the impulse of that study 
 sent the exiles home with their holy vessels to re-es- 
 tablish the worship of Jehovah on Mount Zion. The 
 seeds of truth were scattered as on the wings of the 
 wind in the dispersion. Alexander the Great, in his 
 conquests, carried with him the language of the Sep- 
 tuagint. These latter days of Judaism were distin- 
 guished for vigorous, aggressive activity. Syna- 
 gogues were planted everywhere ; and what were these 
 but mission chapels ? The unworthy proselytism 
 which the Saviour denounced was only a distortion 
 of this missionary zeal. It is deserving of special 
 emphasis that while national glory was waning — 
 while crown and sceptre were passing away, the truth 
 which had been committed to the chosen people was 
 widely disseminated among the nations. In this way 
 the earth-shaking tread of Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, 
 and Alexander the Great prepared the way of the 
 Lord. So that in the course of history from Eden to 
 Calvary, there never was an hour when the Church 
 was authorized to confine the blessings of the Gospel 
 within circumscribed limits. The people of Israel 
 were subjected to separistic ordinances only in order 
 that they might be educated in spiritual knowledge, 
 and thus be fitted to transmit this knowledge to others. 
 It was the aim and purpose and spirit of the dispen- 
 
THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS. 205 
 
 sation to prepare a nation, each member of which 
 would be fitted to become a missionary to the Gen- 
 tiles. He who was a Hebrew of the Hebrews became 
 ''the Apostle to the Gentiles." The philosophy of 
 history, therefore, is the spirit of missions. 
 
 The spirit of prophecy, moreover, is the spirit of 
 missions. The vision of the seers was fixed upon the 
 form of the Son of Man towering above the coming 
 events and advancing generations. In the distance, 
 cross and crown and kingdom blend ; humiliation and 
 suffering lead to conquest and universal dominion, 
 and the last and highest note of prophecy is always a 
 note of triumph. 
 
 In the very beginning of his sublime prophecies, the 
 rapt son of Amoz saw " all nations flowing unto the 
 mountain of the Lord's house." Beyond the battle 
 of the warrior with confused noise and garments 
 rolled in blood, he saw arise the Prince of Peace, '' of 
 the increase of whose government there shall be no 
 end"; whose administration is to be confined to no 
 pent-up limits, but w-ho is to "bring forth judgment to 
 the Gentiles," who is given " for a covenant of the 
 people," a " light of the Gentiles," who is to '' set judg- 
 ment in the earth," who is to "sprinkle many nations," 
 to " bring forth judgment unto victory," and although 
 bruised and put sorely to grief, he is to " see of the 
 travail of his soul and be satisfied." He is to " divide 
 the spoil with the strong," " the isles are to wait for 
 his law," and " all flesh shall see his glory." 
 
 By an eternal decree the " heathen are given to the 
 Son for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of 
 the earth for his possession." The wail of anguish 
 in the 22d Psalm passes into a shout of triumph in 
 
206 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 view of the fact that " All the ends of the earth shall 
 remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kin- 
 dreds of the nations shall worship before him." 
 
 Even Balaam heard the shout of a king among the 
 people of God, and saw a sceptre rise out of Israel 
 which was to be swayed over the nations. The royal 
 son of David depicts, in glowing colors, the benefi- 
 cence of the reign of the Prince of Peace ; describes 
 the growth of his kingdom until it reaches from " sea 
 to sea," and " from the river unto the ends of the 
 earth." He watches the handful of corn in the earth 
 on the top of the mountain until the " fruit thereof 
 shakes like Lebanon." He sees the blessing of 
 Abraham fulfilled in Christ, and hears all nations call- 
 ing him blessed. Then prophecy passed into praise 
 in the sublime doxology : " Blessed be the Lord God, 
 the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. 
 And blessed be his glorious name forever; and let 
 the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and 
 Amen." 
 
 If we turn to the prophecies respecting the Church, 
 we shall find the same spirit pervading them. The 
 Bible knows nothing of a Church which is restricted 
 to any limits of race or of latitude. The vision of 
 the seers never rested until it touched the ends of 
 the earth. 
 
 When the " Church shall rise and shine," the 
 "Gentiles shall come to her light and kings to the 
 brightness of her rising." *' The abundance of the 
 sea," " the forces of the Gentiles," " the dromedaries 
 of Midian and Ephah," " the gold and incense of 
 Sheba," " the flocks of Kedar," " the ships of Tar- 
 shish," " the glory of Lebanon," " the service of the 
 
THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS. 207 
 
 sons of Strangers," and " the ministry of kings" shall 
 be devoted to her. According to her chartered rights 
 she is authorized to take possession of the earth in 
 the name of her Lord. By her commission she is 
 commanded to "go into all the world and preach the 
 Gospel to every creature," and when by faith she shall 
 arise to the level of her duties and her responsibilities, 
 the Lord will put all forces, material, financial, and 
 political, at her service. Commerce, science and art, 
 peoples and kings, will become her allies. "The 
 earth will help the woman," 
 
 Two objects filled the vision of the prophets as they 
 looked down the long avenues of the future. These 
 objects were the coming Messiah and the Church 
 redeemed by his blood ; and the mission of .the one 
 and the progress of the other were unrestricted by 
 any limits of race, latitude, or nationality. Before 
 the cross all lines are obliterated. The blood-washed 
 congregation come "out of every kindred, and tongue, 
 and people, and nation." With a steady gaze and an 
 unwavering purpose. Prophecy points forward to a 
 time when the " kingdoms of this world shall become 
 the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ." Whither 
 Prophecy points, thither should the Church move with 
 unfaltering faith and with undeviating step. 
 
 The types of Scripture carry in them the same sub- 
 lime lesson. A type is an embodied prophecy ; and 
 the entire system of typology in the Old Testament is 
 in complete harmony and sympathy with the cove- 
 nants, promises, and prophecies, both in thought, spirit, 
 and impulse, and gives expression to them moreover 
 in a dramatic form. When our first parents were 
 driven out of Paradise, the Tree of Life was left 
 
208 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 Standing in the midst of the garden. It was kept for 
 man, until he should be led back to it through the 
 righteousness of another. The cherubim and the 
 flaming sword were not placed at the east of the 
 garden to terrify man, but to " keep the way of 
 THE Tree of Life." The flaming sword turned 
 every way, so that when the time came, access to the 
 tree might be had from every quarter. Here, then, 
 was an embodied promise of a coming salvation and 
 of a reunion of humanity. The Tree of Life in the 
 midst of the garden expressed in type that which the 
 Protevangelium expressed in words. From Eden, 
 Prophecy flings her bow of promise until it spans the 
 whole course of time and touches again the " Paradise 
 of God, in the midst of which is the Tree of Life, to 
 which all who do his commandments have a right." 
 The Tree of Life was thus kept for no one race or 
 nation, but for all of every race and of every nation 
 who shall accept the proffered salvation. 
 
 At the east gate of Eden cherubim were placed. 
 We find them also in the tabernacle and in the 
 temple, as well as in the visions of Ezekiel and of 
 John. These strange figures arrest attention and 
 excite enquiry both from their peculiar form and by 
 reason of the positions which they occupy in Revela- 
 tion. The cherubim were composite figures, com- 
 bining in themselves the four highest forms of animal 
 life. Typically they represent glorified humanity. 
 By their position in Eden they showed that the way 
 to the Tree of Life was kept open for the return 
 of fallen man. By their position in the Holy of 
 Holies they showed that, through atoning blood, 
 humanity is raised to the throne of God, since they 
 
THE SPIRIT OF- MISSIONS. 209 
 
 overshadowed the Mercy Seat, which was the dwelling- 
 place of Jehovah. In the vision of Ezekiel they are 
 also in connection with the throne of God, and thus 
 typify the exaltation of our glorified humanity. In 
 the Apocalypse they, together with the elders, sing 
 the new song, saying : " Thou art worthy to take the 
 book, and to open the seals thereof : for thou wast 
 slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out 
 of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. 
 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests, 
 and we shall reign on the earth." Then the angels 
 to the number of ten thousand times ten thousand 
 and thousands of thousands, catch up the mighty 
 strain, saying, with a loud voice : " Worthy is the 
 Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, 
 and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and 
 blessing." Then all creation joins the universal 
 chorus, saying : '• Blessing, and honor, and glory, and 
 power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and 
 unto the Lamb for ever and ever." That which was 
 suggested in type in Eden is now consummated in 
 heaven. Grace has triumphed. Glorified humanity, 
 with indefinite powers and possibilities, comes from 
 "every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation." 
 From Genesis to Revelation — from Eden to the Para- 
 dise of God, the types of Scripture point along the 
 exact line of the covenants and of prophecy, and find 
 their realization in a Church blood-washed and re- 
 deemed out of every nation under the whole heaven. 
 Along that line the Church must move or be derelict 
 in her first and her last duty. 
 
 The Son of God, in whose Person and life were 
 represented all the spiritual forces of previous dispen- 
 
2IO OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 sations, when about to leave the earth — with the marks 
 of his sacrificial death upon him — gave to his apostles 
 the supreme law of the Church : " Go ye into all the 
 world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." 
 This must ever be the norm and standard of duty for 
 the Church of Christ. By disregarding it, the Church 
 forfeits her claim to the perpetual presence of her 
 ascended and power-invested Lord. 
 
 Pentecost, the festival of first fruits and the memo- 
 rial of the giving of the Law, had its typical fulfilment 
 in the inauguration of the Covenant of Grace and in 
 the gathering of the first-fruits of the new dispensa- 
 tion. By tempest and flame the Holy Ghost was 
 manifested, and the apostles began to speak as the 
 Spirit gave them utterance, so that " men out of every 
 nation under heaven heard in their own tongues the 
 wonderful works of God." Races dispersed at Babel 
 were reunited at Pentecost. The import of the cloven 
 tongues of flame was that the Gospel was to be 
 preached in all languages, in all lands, and to all 
 nations. No one tongue was to have a monopoly of 
 the good news. The message could no more be con- 
 fined to Palestine than a peal of thunder can be pent 
 up in the cloud which gives it birth. 
 
 Pentecost was the harvested results of former dis- 
 pensations, as well as the inauguration of the new 
 dispensation ; and, consequently, comprehended in 
 itself the spiritual forces of both the past and the 
 present, and these concentrated forces met and 
 blended in one focal thought and purpose — The 
 Gospel to every creature. This should be the supreme 
 thought of the Church from which nothing must 
 divert her. Just before his ascension the Lord said 
 
THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS. 211 
 
 to his disciples : " It is not for you to know the times 
 or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own 
 power ; but ye shall receive power after that the Holy 
 Ghost is come upon you ; and ye shall be witnesses 
 unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in 
 Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." 
 The power of the Holy Ghost and the spirit of mis- 
 sions are synonymous. The language of the Lord just 
 quoted contains the charter of our Boards of Home 
 and Foreign Missions. There was no time for idle 
 speculations, while Judea and Samaria were without 
 the Gospel. The manifest and imperative duty of the 
 Church was to carry the Gospel from Jerusalem to the 
 uttermost part of the earth. Home missions were not 
 to be neglected, nor were foreign missions to be for- 
 gotten. Through Judea and Samaria the Church was 
 to reach the uttermost part of the earth. The same 
 law binds us— binds us as really as though the Lord had 
 uttered those words to us directly. We have our 
 Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and through these we 
 are to push our conquests to the ends of the earth. 
 The whole work of the Church is one work. No two 
 parts of it antagonize. This work the Lord Jesus 
 Christ has committed to the Church in an awfully 
 solemn commission and stewardship. How can 
 the Church answer to the Lord for the non-accom- 
 plishment of the work which has been assigned 
 her? 
 
 The apostles understood the import of their com- 
 mission and went forth to the fulfilment of it in the 
 spirit of their Master ; one to Mesopotamia, another 
 to Parthia ; one to Scythia, another to India, and Paul 
 " far hence to the Gentiles." Thev took the commis- 
 
2 12 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 sion and translated it into heroic deeds and triumphant 
 martyrdoms. 
 
 The spirit of missions which breathed in the 
 promises, which lived and wrought in the covenants, 
 which sustained the voice of prophecy, which shaped 
 the course of history, which inspired the prayers of 
 patriarchs, prophets, and kings, which was sung in 
 Psalms and dramatized in types, became at last incar- 
 nate in the apostles. From the Protevangelium to 
 the Apocalypse, the idea of missions pervades every 
 part and every page of the Bible. It is the fibre of 
 its life, the blood of its veins, the pulse-beat of its 
 heart. He, therefore, who would escape responsi- 
 bility in this matter must be blind to all the events of 
 a comprehensive Providence in the past, deaf to all 
 the voices of prophecy for the future, dead to all the 
 appeals of duty for the present ; he must tear out of 
 the Word of God that which constitutes the very 
 warp and woof of it ; he must repudiate the example 
 of apostles and martyrs ; he must deny the '' Lord 
 that bought him." 
 
 Nor has there been anything in the history of these 
 eighteen centuries to lift this responsibility from the 
 heart and the conscience of the Church. There is 
 not a single reason, motive, or impulse which actuated 
 and impelled the Apostle Paul which should not, in an 
 equal degree, actuate and impel us. He, indeed, saw 
 in all their enormity the pollutions and atrocities of 
 Paganism. He saw thrones and fortunes built on the 
 tears and blood of the poor. He saw the family in 
 ruins, woman a slave, infancy exposed to death, and 
 old age dishonored. He was brought in contact with 
 religions in which lust and murder were enjoined as 
 
THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS. 213 
 
 acts of worship. On every hand were altars which 
 reeked with filth, and temples which flamed with the 
 unchaste creations of genius. The people came to 
 the shrine and the priests came to the altar with 
 images of uncleanness before them on every side. 
 Children grew up amidst scenes and in an atmos- 
 phere where modesty and virtue were stifled before 
 years of discretion were reached. A lewd mythology 
 was the catechism of youth. But in this there was noth- 
 ing peculiar. Such was and is and will be human na- 
 ture without the Gospel. Paganism improves not with 
 age. "The world by wisdom knows not God." The 
 awful indictment framed against the heathen world in 
 the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans still 
 stands in force in every count and specification of 
 it. The very evils which the Gospel encountered in 
 the Roman empire, it encounters in heathendom to- 
 day. The Gospel at first restored the family, lifted 
 woman to her true dignity, and proclaimed the uni- 
 versal brotherhood of man. It purified and conserved 
 civilization at home, and laid foundations for new 
 institutions and new civilizations abroad. The Gos- 
 pel has the same spheres in which to operate now, 
 and the same functions to perform within these 
 spheres. To his ancient people God said : "Behold I 
 have set the land before you ; go in and possess the 
 land." By his Word and by the commingling voices of 
 his Providence, he is saying with emphasis the same 
 thing to us. To no other nation, in all time, has he given 
 such a heritage as he has given to us — a land whose 
 territory extends "from sea to sea," whose "stones 
 are iron," and whose " rocks pour out rivers of oil." 
 Along with this wealth of heritage come correspond- 
 
214 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 ing and commensurate responsibilities. We do not 
 have a perpetual lease of our liberties and privileges ; 
 but the continuance of these will depend upon the 
 manner in which we use our stewardship. If the 
 purifying and conservative influences of the Gospel do 
 not pervade the body politic, not only shall we perish, 
 but the very elements of our strength and greatness 
 will become the swift instruments of our destruction. 
 We shall fall to pieces of our own weight. The ballot- 
 box will become our Pandora Box. Constitutions and 
 charters will become so much waste parchment, and 
 the ghastly skeleton of our greatness will be flung 
 into the charnel-house of nations. In the home work 
 of the Church, therefore, there is a field for the exer- 
 cise of the purest patriotism and the profoundest 
 statesmanship. The loftiest eloquence of Senate 
 chambers cannot save nations in which the masses 
 are corrupt. While Cicero was thundering in Senate 
 and Forum, Roman liberty was expiring in the grasp 
 of a despot. A pure Gospel for the people is the 
 only hope for this nation. Without this the republic 
 will not complete the first half of the second century 
 of its existence. If this overthrow of the republic 
 should come, the ruins of it will be the most melan- 
 choly of all those which mark the track of nations ! 
 The only way in which so dire a calamity can be 
 averted is by evangelizing the masses. This, fathers 
 and brethren, is one of the deepest convictions of my 
 heart. What superlative folly, then, for men to rob 
 the treasury of the Lord in order to hoard up fortunes 
 for their children ! Rather let them, by their Chris- 
 tian labors and benevolence, make sure that their chil- 
 dren shall have a country in which to live ; that there 
 
THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS. 215 
 
 shall be in the country institutions under which 
 the dearest rights and interests of life will be pro- 
 tected. 
 
 Nor must we forget that ''the field is the world.'' A 
 thousand jNIacedonian cries come to us, for one which 
 came to Paul. Our faith, our prayers, and our gifts 
 must embrace the whole world. It is no mean honor 
 to belong to a Church which has its arms around the 
 globe. Let us not be unworthy sons of such a Church. 
 Rather than deny their Lord timid young girls faced 
 the Libyan tiger and the Nemaaan lion in the Colos- 
 seum. It is to be feared that some deny their Lord 
 now rather than give a few dollars of their superfluous 
 wealth to his service. The Lord does not call us to 
 martyrdom, but surely he does call us to some service 
 which involves self-denial and self-sacrifice. In the 
 Levitical economy it was required by statute that a 
 tenth be given to the Lord. In the Christian dispen- 
 sation the amount or proportion is left to the con- 
 science of each individual : but surely it should not 
 be less, but more. Abraham gave voluntarily to 
 Melchizedek a tithe of the best — " from the top of the 
 heap." Of one thing we may rest assured ; the king- 
 dom of Christ will come whether we aid in its coming 
 or not. If we refuse to do our duty, widows and 
 orphans will take up the work and carry it on. 
 
 Nations die of plethora — of financial apoplexy. 
 The hoarded wealth of Rome destroyed her. Mer- 
 cenaries bore her eagles to defeat and disgrace. A 
 similar fate awaits this nation unless its rapidly ac- 
 cumulating wealth be carried through channels of 
 benevolence to the ends of the earth. In this respect 
 a great responsibility rests upon the office-bearers of 
 
2l6 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 the Church ; for if they who bear the Ark of the 
 Lord go forward, the people will follow. 
 
 In every system there is some principle which is 
 controlling, harmonizing, and regnant. In the prac- 
 tical operations of the Church w^e find such a princi- 
 ple in the spirit of missions. When this spirit is active 
 and vigorous, all schemes of beneficence are carried 
 forward harmoniously and successfully ; and this is 
 so, simply because the spirit of missions is the spirit 
 of the Bible, and the spirit of the Master. So long, 
 then, as this spirit is regnant in the Church, her prog- 
 ress will be steady and harmonious and abreast of 
 the developments of Providence ; and her march will 
 be in the line of the covenants, promises, and prophe- 
 cies, and every step will be toward victory. Prepara- 
 tory influences are at work on a vast scale ; and when 
 these shall have fulfilled the plan of God, then, 
 " nations shall be born at once." The Lord of Hosts 
 is organizing victory. " He will hasten it in his time." 
 
 For ten years the Grecian sentinels kept their 
 watchtowers, waiting and watching for the beacon- 
 fires which should announce the fall of Troy. At last 
 the signal came — a flash of light — and from tower to 
 tower the fiery message leaped over land and oversea, 
 until from Ida to Argos the announcement of victory 
 had been carried on the wing of the flame. 
 
 So the watchmen of Zion " shall lift up the voice ; 
 with the voice together shall they sing ; for they shall 
 see eye to eye " when the light of the Gospel shall 
 flash from shore to shore, from island to island, from 
 continent to continent, from pole to pole, and "the 
 whole earth shall be filled with his glory. Amen and 
 Amen." 
 
II. 
 
 " QUIT YOU LIKE MEN.' 
 
II. 
 
 "QUIT YOU LIKE MEN."* 
 
 " Quit you like meti." — I CoR. xvi. 13. 
 
 These words stand near the close of this epistle. 
 They are a part of the concluding exhortation. The 
 sentence is a short, but a very strong and significant 
 one. Neither the language nor the idea was original 
 with Paul. The text is a quotation from the Old 
 Testament. In a battle between the Israelites and 
 Philistines, Israel was defeated with a loss of four 
 thousand men. They wondered why the Lord had 
 smitten them, and determined to send to Shiloh for 
 the ark of the covenant that it might save them from 
 their enemies. Accordingly the ark was sent for, and 
 when it came into the camp was welcomed with such 
 enthusiastic shoutings as to send terror and dismay 
 throughout the ranks of the enemy. But the narra- 
 tive itself is graphic : 
 
 "And when the ark of the covenant of the Lord 
 came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great 
 shout, so that the earth rang again. 
 
 " And when the Philistines heard the noise of the 
 shout, they said, What meaneth the noise of this 
 great shout in the camp of the Hebrews ? And they 
 
 * Before the Society of Religious Inquiry, of Washington 
 College, June 17, 1855. 
 
 219 
 
220 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 understood that the ark of the Lord was come into 
 the camp. 
 
 '' And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God 
 is come into the camp. And they said, woe unto us ! 
 for there has not been such a thing heretofore. 
 
 '' Woe unto us ! who shall deliver us out of the 
 hand of these mighty Gods ? these are the Gods that 
 smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilder- 
 ness." 
 
 But their language was not all the language of 
 despondency and despair. Hear their commanders 
 speak : 
 
 " Be strong and quit yourselves like men, O ye 
 Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews, 
 as they have been to you : quit yourselves like men, 
 and fight." 
 
 Paul's imperial fancy laid all things under tribute. 
 From the arena and the battle-field he drew some of 
 his most startling imagery. The whole of the verse 
 from which my text is taken is couched in military 
 language : " Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit 
 you like men, be strong." The idiom of the text is 
 somewhat unusual, yet very impressive. It is used 
 by Xenophon and other classic writers, and signifies 
 a manly, conscientious discharge of duty, or intrepid 
 conduct in danger. " Samson," says Milton, *' quit 
 himself like Samson." 
 
 Paul and the Philistine, however, spoke from very 
 different platforms indeed. The one stood on the 
 battle-field — one sanguinary conflict over and a second 
 in prospect ; while the other stood on a watch-tower 
 of Zion. The conduct, then, of course demanded by 
 the one would involve in it far more than that de- 
 
** QUIT YOU LIKE MEN. 221 
 
 manded by the other. A stubborn resolution, with 
 more of the dogged than the heroic in it, would have 
 met the demands of the Philistine : but Paul has 
 spiritualized and expanded the idea. 
 
 Christianity sanctions neither churlishness nor pusil- 
 lanimity. It makes the heart bigger and the views 
 broader — the affections more chaste, the sympathies 
 more catholic. Never, no, never did Christianity 
 make a man anything less than a man. It makes men 
 humble, it is true, but humility is not a mean or 
 crouching feeling. It is a rational sentiment founded 
 on self-knowledge. The humblest Christian that bows 
 in dust and ashes before his God has a far more ex- 
 alted idea of the dignity of his nature than the proud- 
 est Pagan that ever trod the earth. Webster said, 
 everything great is simple. We may add, everything 
 great is humble. It is narrow and unworthy ideas of 
 what we are and what we are to be, that make men 
 proud ; whereas, it is a lofty consciousness of the vast 
 capacities of the soul, and a sense of the meagreness 
 of present attainments, that make men humble. The 
 Latin tyro declining stella is wiser in his own conceit 
 than Newton composing his Principia. AVebster was 
 as much an humbler, as he was a greater man than 
 Joe Smith the Mormon. Absalom was prouder than 
 Solomon. 
 
 Christianity not only enlarges the heart, but the 
 intellect also. The Christian's text-book — the Bible 
 — is above all other documents, extant or extinct, in 
 sublimity and all that expands and exalts the soul. 
 Those who study it most become not only mighty in 
 the Scriptures, but mighty in word and deed also. 
 Take from Milton the language and imagery of the 
 
222 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 Bible, and you have shorn him of his strength and 
 glory. Byron borrowed his beauties and his sub- 
 limities, too, from the Book of Books. Chatham read 
 Isaiah for hours before going to the House of Com- 
 mons in order to arouse and elevate his mind for his 
 contemplated effort. Burke read the Bible " morning, 
 noon, and night." " He formed a habit," says his 
 biographer, " of going freely to its pages for imagery 
 and illustrations." And was there ever a man of 
 broader views than Burke ? '^ The first thing," says 
 a judicious reviewer, '^ that strikes us in a survey of 
 Burke's mind is its remarkable comprehensiveness. 
 He had an amplitude of mind, a power and compass 
 of intellectual vision, beyond that of most men that 
 ever lived." I do not say that these Bible readings 
 made Burke everything that he was ; but I will say, 
 that without them he would never have been either 
 the man or the orator that he was. 
 
 Christianity and the Bible had a similar effect upon 
 the intellect and ideas of Newton, our enemies them- 
 selves being the judges. That illustrious philosopher, 
 in his commentary on Daniel, remarked that before 
 the fulfilment of the prophecy (viz., 1260 years) the 
 modes of travelling would be so improved that men 
 would go fifty miles an hour. Upon this, Voltaire 
 made the following criticism : " Now look at that 
 mighty mind of Newton who discovered gravitation, 
 and told such marvels for us all to admire ; when he 
 became an old man and got into his dotage, he began 
 to study that book called the Bible, and it seems that 
 in order to credit its fabulous nonsense we must be- 
 lieve that the knowledge of mankind will be so 
 increased that we shall be able to travel fifty miles an 
 
" QUIT VOU LIKE MEN." 223 
 
 hour. The poor old dotard ! " A Httle more than a 
 century only has elapsed since Newton penned his 
 prediction, and we travel already sixty miles an hour. 
 Besides, we have summoned " the winged minister of 
 thunder" to our service, and send it over the land and 
 under the water, to do our errands for us. In the light 
 of the nineteenth centur}^ Voltaire's opprobrious epi- 
 thet, dotard, seems much more applicable to himself 
 than to the object of his pity. 
 
 Permit me now to enumerate some things which, 
 according to my conception of the subject, enter into 
 the character and course of conduct demanded by 
 the text. And here, I observe, that this character in 
 its general features comprises : 
 
 I. Love and loyalty to God, 
 
 II. Integrity toward man, 
 
 III. And fidelity to self. 
 
 No one will presume to say that Wolsey was any 
 less honorable or manly because he loved and assidu- 
 ously served his king. His error was not that he 
 loved and served his sovereign, but that he loved and 
 served him to the exclusion of his Creator ; hence his 
 bitter reflection on his death-bed, that if he had served 
 his God as he had served his king he would not, then, 
 have deserted him. 
 
 If love and loyalty to an earthly king be manly, 
 love and loyalty to the King of Kings, still more. 
 Love to God as a principle of action is the grand 
 governor in the machinery of a man's motives and 
 efforts. This is the loadstone that gives to human pur- 
 suits their proper direction — a heavenward tendency. 
 To adopt the figure of another : " If you carry steel 
 filings from a muddy street to a beautiful garden, you 
 
224 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 make an improvement in their condition, but if you 
 apply a magnet to them, you give to them another 
 motion altogether, and lift them not horizontally but 
 vertically from the earth." All the elevation of man 
 by science and civilization is only a horizontal change. 
 It is reserved for grace to change man's pursuits from 
 a prone to an upward direction — to raise him from 
 earth toward heaven. 
 
 Without this controlling element the most laudable 
 enterprises are '' Babel-building and will have a 
 Babel issue." " A crown reached in the face of God 
 will be but a burning circlet. A throne or a presi- 
 dential chair attained by violation of the laws of God 
 will be a restless seat. Reputation and renown 
 achieved in spite of God will be but poor enjoyment 
 to him who has them." But how all this Babel ambi- 
 tion of getting a name sinks into less than insignifi- 
 cance in presence of the grand master principle of the 
 Christian life. Love to God once in the heart, and 
 human life moves on, " wheel within wheel," with all 
 the beautiful regularity and delicate adjustment of a 
 celestial system — steady and undeviating as the rings 
 of Saturn, as they whirl with almost incredible 
 velocity around their planet and keep it company, at 
 the same time, in its pathway round the sun, bound 
 by no bands — suspended in space by no power, save 
 the invisible but omnipotent influence of attraction. 
 How alike are God's natural and moral governments ! 
 " Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness," 
 is the precept ; " and all things shall be added unto 
 you," is the promise. What is this but the law of 
 gravitation in the moral universe? "All falls under 
 it, clusters around it, becomes holy and prosperous 
 
" QUIT YOU LIKE MEN." 225 
 
 just by loves being; in the heart and actuating all." 
 The sum of the moral law is love to God and integ- 
 rity toward man, and there is not a virtue adorns our 
 nature or exalts our species but is the offspring of 
 these parent virtues. Conformity to God's law will 
 evolve a manhood of the most consummate symmetry, 
 perfection, and proportion. Deviating from this 
 standard, down the scale we go till we land in 
 drunkenness and debauchery, on a level with the beast. 
 
 But while the moral law enjoins duties toward God 
 and man it no less distinctly enjoins duties toward 
 self. We have an inspired epitome of the Ten Com- 
 mandments in which self-love is made the standard of 
 our philanthropy. The law requires no man to love 
 his neighbor, whether Jew or Samaritan — more than 
 himself. To defend one's body, and one's good 
 name — compared with which '- the purse is trash " — 
 is only to obey an exalted instinct. He who does less 
 is a suicide. 
 
 But to descend to particulars, I observe : It is 
 manly and manlike to bear contumely and reproach 
 in defence of the truth, in advocacy of the right, and 
 in behalf of the weak. So long as the constitution 
 of our nature continues as it is, it will require more 
 of moral heroism than men ordinarily possess, to 
 brook the sneers of public odium. The pangs of the 
 rack or the stake are little harder to endure than the 
 pointing of the finger of scorn. John Blair Smith 
 said, that of all the trials and sufferings enumerated 
 in the eleventh chapter of Hebrew.s, none struck him 
 as being so severe as the " cruel mockings " mentioned 
 there. The wagging of the heads of the passers-by 
 was made an ingredient in the Crucifixion. To bear 
 
226 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 popular contumely from day to day— to be met at 
 every corner by the pointing of scorn's contemptu- 
 ous finger, and to see continually the wagging of the 
 heads of those that pass by, is a living crucifixion 
 still. Yet the world has but little of which to be 
 proud to-night but has cost some one suffering, loss 
 and ridicule. The first principle of modern astron- 
 omy, taught now in the nursery and the lap, cost poor 
 old Galileo wearisome days and nights in prison. 
 The right of private judgment — a free pen and a free 
 press — cost both blood and treasure. It is said there 
 was not a single man in the venerable Synod of Dort 
 who had not been maimed or mutilated in some limb 
 or member, for the truth's sake. Hampden braved 
 the displeasure of his sovereign, rather than pay a 
 penny or a peppercorn of unjust taxation. Such men 
 are martyrs, for they had the spirit of a martyr and 
 should have a martyr's crown. 
 
 Again : It is manlike to live and labor for the 
 amelioration of the present, and the permanent good 
 of posterity, to the disregard of the ephemeral applause 
 that accrues to the sycophant and time-server. 
 
 Popular fame and favor have a marvellous power 
 over the human mind and heart. To obtain them, 
 many (alas ! but too many) are willing to sacrifice 
 their integrity and independence, and to assume the 
 air and address of the demagogue Absalom. To such 
 the voice of the people is louder than the voice of God. 
 " But to put to hazard one's ease, security, interest, or 
 popularity," for the benefit of those he has never seen 
 is a trait — you may depend upon it, my brethren — it is 
 a trait of the true man. 
 
 The path of duty is rarely easy and never, indeed. 
 
" QUIT YOU LIKE MEN. 227 
 
 flowery. '' Obloquy," says Burke, " is a necessary 
 ingredient in the composition of all true glory. Not 
 only in Roman customs, but in the very nature and 
 constitution of things, calumny and abuse are essen- 
 tial parts of a triumph." To relinquish honors and 
 hopes for the sake of sentiments honestly adhered to, 
 to turn the back upon and pursue a course that leads 
 away from ease and laurels, and do it from a con- 
 viction of duty, is manlike. But if there is in all the 
 wide, wide world one who should be taken as the 
 standard of all that is pusillanimous and little, it is 
 he who cringingly compromises his sentiments for 
 popularity or applause, and accommodates his con- 
 duct to the crooked policy of avarice or ambition. 
 He who subdues a hemisphere, and does it from self- 
 ish and sordid motives, deserves not as much glory 
 as he who plants a tree for posterity. Byron sought 
 the applause of his own generation, and catered to the 
 tastes of a degenerate age to win it. Verily, he 
 obtained his reward ! Milton had an aim and object 
 far above the mercenary motives of most men. His 
 invocation is not to Mammon or the Muses, but to 
 the Holy Spirit. Yet Byron acquired fame and a 
 fortune, too, while Milton realized but fifteen paltry 
 pounds for " Paradise Lost." But it is not difficult 
 to decide which of these men acted more in consist- 
 ence with the dictates of a true manliness. Ay ! it is 
 manlike to spurn lucre and reputation when the 
 attainment of them conflicts with our duty to God 
 or to our fellow-men. None but the truly manly do it. 
 Again : To alleviate misery ; to go to the house of 
 mourning in preference to the house of feasting ; to 
 light up the chamber of sickness and suffering ; " to 
 
228 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 explore the thought and explain the asking eye of 
 the sufferer"; to brighten the path of life and 
 smooth the pillow of death ; this, this is manlike — I 
 had almost said it is godlike. 
 
 Howard in the pestilence and prisons of Europe 
 is a far prouder specimen of our species than Napo- 
 leon on the throne of France, with a nation at his 
 feet and a world in awe of him. Miss Nightingale 
 amidst the sick and wounded, in the hospitals of Scu- 
 tari, is a far, far greater glory to her sex and her race 
 than the Queen of England and the Empress of 
 France, amidst the pomp and parade of a royal visit 
 to London. The traveller in the millennium will pass 
 by in disgust all the .sensual and fulsome inscriptions 
 on the tombs of kings and conquerors — from that of 
 Sardanapalus, which Aristotle said was fit only for a 
 hog, to that of the latest royal murderer — but will 
 pause and read with peculiar interest the simple 
 epitaph of Howard : " Vixit proptei- alios,'' and feel 
 while standing there, that he is at the grave of a man 
 who in his lifetime quit himself like a man. 
 
 The history of the world furnishes the life and 
 example of but one perfect man. That example, 
 however, thank Heaven ! is neither negative nor 
 neutral. Christ's philanthropy is always and every- 
 where apparent. He not only went about doing good 
 but went in search of good to do. Nor did ridicule 
 and contempt dampen his benevolence or arrest in 
 the least his beneficence. Amidst scorn and laugh- 
 ter he raised the ruler of the synagogue's daughter. 
 Escaping from an infuriated mob, who are attempting 
 to stone him, he meets a blind man ; and apparently 
 unconscious of his own situation, stops and restores 
 
"QUIT YOU MKE MKX." 229 
 
 the man's sight. The S:iviour's sympathies were 
 hemmed in by no restrictions of caste, narrowed 
 down by no country or creed. The Syro-Phenician 
 and Samaritan — the soldier and the soldier's servant, 
 his friend, and his foe in arms against him — challenged 
 alike his attention and his tenderness. He was no 
 less very God and perfect man, while weeping at the 
 grave of his friend Lazarus, than when entering Jeru- 
 salem amidst the hosannasof the inhabitants. If there 
 is any virtue or meaning in Divine precept and example, 
 then, verily, a philanthropic heart, a benevolent dis- 
 position, and beneficent hand are the noblest attri- 
 butes of our nature. 
 
 Again : An energy that is indomitable and that 
 never desponds is a trait of the true man. 
 
 Milton has almost constrained us to admire vSatan 
 himself, by investing him with just such a character. 
 
 " To be weak is to be miserable, doing or suffering." 
 Luther never rises into loftier sublimity than when 
 rallying his timid and misgiving comrade Melanchthon. 
 Washington was never in his life more himself than 
 when, in the darkest hour of the Revolution, he aroused 
 the expiring energies of his staff by telling them that 
 he could not yet persuade himself that his neck, which 
 he playfully clasped with both his hands, was made 
 for a halter. There spoke out the spirit of a man, 
 indeed, in whom there was no guile. Canrobert was 
 never more of a man or a hero than when he told the 
 discouraged allies to " be still ; be still ; if they could 
 not get into Sevastopol by the door, they would leap in 
 at the window." The storm strengthens the sturdy 
 oaks ; it is the weak ones only that it prostrates. Yet 
 a man may win battles, subdue empires, or in a pro- 
 
230 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 pitious moment vault into a vacant throne and after 
 all be only, at best, a lucky fool ; but he who wins 
 his way, step by step, through difficulties and dis- 
 couragements — nothing daunted all the while — though 
 it be but to the humblest post of influence and useful- 
 ness, " gives to the world assurance of a man." 
 Cicero in his study was a greater hero than Csesar in 
 a battle. At one time in the battle of Inkermann, a 
 division of the British army was surrounded by ten 
 times their number. At this critical hour the terror- 
 stricken soldiers cried out to Sir George Cathcart, 
 the commander, that the ammunition was failing. 
 " Have you not still your bayonets, boys ? " calmly 
 replied Sir George. The old hero fell a few moments 
 after, covered with mortal wounds, but that remark 
 itself will immortalize him. When one resource fails, 
 it is a characteristic of manly energy to fly to what is 
 left. When the cartridges are expended, brethren, 
 rely upon the bayonet. And then, when this energy 
 of which I am speaking is strengthened by faith and 
 perseverance quickened by prayer, they become ele- 
 ments that possess more than a talismanic power. 
 
 Once more : Generosity is an element of manliness. 
 
 It is unnecessary, before this audience, to draw a dis- 
 tinction between generosity and prodigality, between 
 the benevolent man and the spendthrift. Yet this 
 trait will appear to better advantage when laid along- 
 side of its opposite, avarice. 
 
 Of all the gods enthroned in the Pantheon of an 
 idolatrous world's worship, the Money God is the 
 meanest ; and of all men among mankind, the miser 
 has the narrowest heart. Avarice contracts the soul 
 into a nutshell and congeals the heart into an icicle- 
 
" QUIT YOU LIKE MEN. 23 1 
 
 The drunkard may plead early temptation as an excuse 
 for his vices. The gambler attempts to extenuate his 
 crime by calling it polite amusement or gentlemanly 
 sport. The duellist quotes the code of honor and 
 screens himself, though dripping with blood, behind his 
 chivalry, and even the highwayman talks loudly of his 
 bravery and lofty daring ; but what excuse or extenua- 
 tion for the miser ? The mean idolator, who " adores 
 the dirt matured to gold." Avarice is not only antag- 
 onistic to true manliness, but it is pusillanimity. It 
 was Mammon — " the least erected spirit that fell from 
 heaven" — that broke ground in building Pandemo- 
 nium ; and from that day to this the fiend has been 
 pursuing his graceless calling. In every heart of 
 which he takes possession he builds a Pandemonium, 
 where he and the seven other evil spirits he always 
 takes with him, revel and hold jubilee, to the total 
 exclusion of everything that is generous or good. 
 The laws and institutions of Lycurgus were designed 
 to develop the magnanimity of the nation. According 
 to those institutions the money of the Spartans was 
 made of iron, and even yet the name Spartan is almost 
 synonymous with all that is magnanimous and noble. 
 All nature is generous and teaches us an example 
 of generosity. The rose is not stingy of its fragrance 
 even to the desert air. The clouds do not hoard 
 their treasures, but shower them upon the woods and 
 fields, and they, in return, send up their vapors as 
 incense to the clouds again. The earth gives forth 
 nourishment to the orchard and the garden, and they, 
 in return, throw down their golden gifts into the lap of 
 their mother. How dare that man lay claim to genu- 
 ine humanity who is not only dead to all the generous 
 
232 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 impulses of his own nature, but insensible, also, to 
 the teachings of inanimate nature all about and above 
 him ? He who spends his life in hoarding dollar upon 
 dollar, only in the end to tantalize him with con- 
 tentment and happiness ; who sits counting and con- 
 templating his money in his chest, while wretchedness 
 and want stand shivering at his door ; who shuts his 
 heart as closely as his coffer to all the appeals of 
 charity at home and to the Macedonian cry that 
 pierces his ear, from every point of the compass, from 
 abroad — oh, it is folly, absolute folly, to say that such 
 a one is a man in Paul's sense of the word ! 
 
 As another element of manliness I would specify a 
 rational courage that shrinks not to meet death in 
 the path of duty, whenever, however, or wherever, 
 that event may, in the providence of God, take place. 
 
 This, of course, is different from that recklessness 
 that throws life away as a thing not worth having. 
 The courage of which I speak is consistent with the 
 most perfect prudence. 
 
 Death is by no means the greatest calamity that 
 can befall a person. A man may live too long. 
 When life no longer meets the ends of life, it ceases 
 to be desirable. Napoleon said he should have died 
 at Waterloo, or sooner. He spoke, it is true, from the 
 abundance of a vain heart, but asserted a great truth, 
 nevertheless. To his friends, who were dissuading 
 him from sailing on a certain occasion, Pompey re- 
 plied : " It is necessary for me to sail, but it is not nec- 
 essary for me to live." A pompous speech in Pom- 
 pey's sense of it ; yet, it has a Christian application 
 and propriety. I would couch my counsel to you, 
 brethren, on this subject, in the words of Michael to 
 
" QUIT YOU LIKE MEN." 233 
 
 Adam : " Nor love, nor hate thy life ; but what thou 
 livest Hve well." 
 
 It was not the Spirit of God, nor yet an angel, but 
 the devil who said a man would give all he had for 
 his life ; and this, like the other assertions of its 
 author, is a lie and a slander on humanity. 
 
 Let us, now, take a glance (for we can do no more) 
 at the times we live in, and see if there is not enough 
 in them to call into vigorous exercise every energy 
 and manly attribute of our natures. 
 
 In many respects our age is an extraordinary and 
 exciting one. Change follows change in quick suc- 
 cession. Event treads on the heels of event. The 
 wires quiver beneath the magnitude of their messages. 
 In nothing, either, is the age more extraordinary than 
 in " its uncommon combinations of men and affairs," 
 The bankrupt vagabond of '48 is the adored idol of 
 '55. Two nations that have been implacable enemies, 
 from time almost immemorial, are allies in the Crimean 
 campaign. The guns that thundered defiance and 
 destruction against each other at Waterloo are now 
 turned in common cause against Sevastopol. The 
 author of atrocities which a few years ago shocked 
 civilization to its centre, and at which England stood 
 aghast with horror, is the lately promoted and highly 
 applauded Commander-in-Chief of the French forces 
 in the Crimea. 
 
 Special and astonishing providences, too, are every- 
 where observable. He who is insensible of them must 
 shut his eyes and stop his ears. Amidst the most 
 exciting scenes Europe has been witness of for ages, 
 the Czar — the prominent actor in the terrible drama — 
 is suddenly cut down. But yesterday he '* was rejoic- 
 
234 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 ing in the rapture of the strife, and like a chariot 
 wheel catching fire as he went." To-night Nicholas 
 sleeps alongside of his fathers. The Emperor and 
 usurper of France is taking an evening ride through 
 the streets of Paris. A resolute man, but a few paces 
 from him, levels a pistol at his breast and fires twice. 
 Napoleon's career is not yet accomplished, and till 
 then he is immortal. The same hand that preserved 
 the young George Washington from the seventeen 
 balls of the savage marksman on Braddock's field 
 preserved Louis Napoleon from the two balls of the 
 assassin Pianori. It is consoling to be assured, by 
 such special interpositions of Providence as these, that 
 amidst all the din and clash of current events the 
 Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. There is not a 
 manoeuvre performed by Menshikoff, Raglan, or 
 Pelissier, but the evolutions are inspected by the eye, 
 and directed by the hand, of the Lord of Hosts. 
 There is not a battery or bastion projected by Tod- 
 leben but had its design from eternity in the mind of 
 the Architect of the universe. There is not a ball or 
 a shell thrown from or against Sevastopol but is 
 guided by the same hand that guided the arrow shot 
 at a venture — through the joints of the harness and to 
 the vitals of Ahab. There is not an event occurs — 
 jagged and rough-hewn though it seem to us — but 
 will fall with perfect adjustment into its appropriate 
 place in God's plan and purpose. But I am digress- 
 ing. I return to ask what all these things mean ? Or, 
 " are they without a mission or a meaning ? " No ! 
 They are portentously significant. They are the 
 handwriting of God in the presence chamber of all 
 nations. I do not pretend or presume to interpret 
 
*' QUIT YOU LIKE MEN." 235 
 
 these mysterious characters, in which the signs of the 
 times are written. I do not say, I do not believe, 
 that passing events will usher in the millennium ; but 
 it certainly requires a considerable degree of apathy 
 and indifference not to feel that we are hurrying on 
 to some important period in human history. An ava- 
 lanche of events is manifestly precipitating us into 
 some astonishing crisis or catastrophe. Presentiments 
 are said to be prophecies. If this is true, the public 
 mind at present is one vast volume of unwritten proph- 
 ecy. From the old gray-headed man to the gay 
 and giddy school-girl, there is in the minds of all a 
 presentiment of something momentous impending. 
 Dr. Gumming, supposing that the earthquake spoken 
 of in the Apocalypse under the seventh vial is to 
 be literally fulfilled, says he is every day expecting 
 to hear the rending of the earth's crust and the 
 outburst of its subterranean, long pent up elements. 
 To say nothing, my friends, of a physical earthquake ; 
 the world, by its premonitory sighings and tremblings, 
 gives signs of an approaching moral convulsion that 
 will send a thousand tottering systems reeling to 
 their downfall and destruction. The Crescent is wan- 
 ing to inevitable extinction. The river Euphrates — 
 the emblem of the Moslem power — is rapidly drying 
 up. And while the Koran is destined soon to become 
 an obsolete and unread book, a steamship is now in 
 readiness to carry a million Testaments and half as 
 many Bibles to China. Paganism is slowly but surely 
 dying out. So weak and unpopular is Popery at 
 home, that the papal chair has to be propped up with 
 French bayonets. China is surging in a revolution. 
 " Uneasy lies every head that wears a crown " to-night. 
 
236 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 Daniel gives it as a feature of the times of the end 
 that many shall run to and fro and knowledge be in- 
 creased. To be satisfied that we occupy this very 
 point of prophecy, let anyone stand for an hour on 
 one of our wharfs, or at a railroad station. Over the 
 iron net-work that covers the earth, up and down our 
 rivers, and across our oceans, thousands pass and 
 repass — to Kansas, California, and Australia — as in- 
 cessantly as the running to and fro in an ant-hill. 
 And is not knowledge increased ? Is it not increasing 
 with almost incredible rapidity ? The best kind of 
 knowledge, too. At the beginning of this century 
 there were not more than five millions of Bibles in the 
 world. Since that time the Foreign Bible Society 
 itself has sent out thirty millions, and private enter- 
 prise perhaps twice that number. Astronomers are 
 exploring immensity in search of new worlds, and find- 
 ing them. Men go to the ends and the depths of the 
 earth — to the North Pole, and into the tomb of buried 
 cities — in search of knowledge ; nor is their search in 
 vain. Science and skill have despoiled disease of 
 more than half its terrors ; and, indeed, in every 
 department the very palpableness of the truth that 
 knowledge is increased has quite taken away its force. 
 Society, brethren, is on the advance, and he who in his 
 sympathies and feelings does not keep pace with it is 
 not fulfilling his mission as a man. He who will not 
 voluntarily keep up with the eager throng, will either 
 be carried along with it, nolens volens^ or trampled 
 down and left in the dust where he ought to be. 
 
 But the name and object of your society direct 
 our inquiries more particularly to the religious com- 
 plexion of the times. 
 
"QUIT YOU LIKE MEN." 237 
 
 To imagine that the struggles in the cause of truth 
 are over is Utopian. Just now a reckless infidelity, 
 supported by an insinuating system of error, is de- 
 ploying into the field ; a force more formidable per- 
 haps than Christianity ever faced before. It will be 
 well for the Church, and well for the world, if there be 
 found men adequate to the crisis. 
 
 The history of the next fifty years will, without 
 doubt, form a thrilling chapter in the annals of the 
 world and be read with avidity till time shall be no 
 longer. This is an age of mammoth enterprises ; so, 
 too, it is destined to be an age of Titanic strifes. The 
 enemies of our Christianity must be met in serried 
 columns and single combat. Infidelity will have to 
 be counteracted in the daily print and in the gilded 
 quarto, in the court and in the coal-pit. 
 
 Few men attain so impious a temerity as to deny 
 altogether the Divine Existence. The atheist has 
 always been considered a moral monster. The 
 Athenians drove him from their city. Atheism is the 
 Ultima Thule of unbelief ; yet it is not at all unlikely 
 that before long the restless heavings of humanity 
 will turn up some more daring system than the world 
 has ever yet seen. But if out and out atheists and 
 atheism are rare, we have enough of both in disguise. 
 A system that degrades God to a mere process of 
 thought, and makes Christ a creation of the Church, 
 rather than the Founder and Redeemer of it, is cer- 
 tainly not many removes from the sheerest atheism. 
 Now, rationalism does this, and even more. It anni- 
 hilates a historical Christianity, and resolves the 
 simple but sublime life of Christ into a gorgeous 
 myth. The cradle of the Reformation is filled with 
 
238 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 the nestlings of scepticism, and it will require a work 
 little less arduous than cleansing the Augean stables 
 to purge Germany. 
 
 Driven from one point the enemies of Christianity 
 retreat, only to intrench themselves in another. De- 
 feated on one field, they fly as decently as they can to 
 the next. This shifting process has been going on 
 for ages, and from present appearances will continue 
 for a long time to come. Half a century ago the dis- 
 tinctive doctrines of Christianity had to be defended 
 on the ground of Biblical criticism. On this field 
 our foes were fairly vanquished. The most heartless 
 and ruthless criticism could not expunge from the 
 Bible the doctrines of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the 
 Atonement and spiritual Regeneration. It is not now 
 denied that these doctrines are found in the Bible, or 
 that miracles are recorded in the Gospels, but then 
 these are all resolved into myths, fictions, and philo- 
 sophical figments. Hume said miracles were incredi- 
 ble, but Strauss and his compeers have gone in 
 advance of him, and pronounced them impossible. 
 The contest must now be in behalf of a historical 
 Christianity. 
 
 The young advocate of Christianity must expect to 
 encounter infidelity in all its phases, from the boldest 
 atheism down to the most diluted form that it assumes 
 as it floats through the yellow literature of the day. 
 Proteus was distinguished for his shapes — Rumor for 
 her tongues — Error has its complement of both. It 
 assumes the form of an angel of light, and talks in 
 glowing language of the Gospel, but with a kiss be- 
 trays it into the hands of its crucifiers. Subtle and 
 adroit as the serpent, it flatters the pride of the human 
 
" QUIT YOU LIKE MEN. 239 
 
 heart ; or, as the " toad squat " at the ear of the sleep- 
 ing Eve, appeals to the worst passions of our poor 
 fallen nature. 
 
 Pantheism, that makes the worm an incarnation of 
 Deity ; rationalism, that ignores Providence, resolves 
 inspiration into genius, and makes prayer preposter- 
 ous ; spiritualism, that " surrenders Christianity into 
 the power of mere sentiment" ; indifferentism, that 
 " makes a man no more responsible for his belief 
 than he is for the hue of his skin or the height of his 
 stature," and a stolid formalism, that reduces a vital 
 and vigorous Christianity to a haggard skeleton of 
 ceremonies — these, these are thy enemies, oh, Church ! 
 
 '' Heresies," it has been said, '' are like the river Are- 
 thusa, though they lose their current in one place they 
 rise up again in another." Our day is pre-eminently 
 distinguished for the revival of old errors, for the resur- 
 rection of dead and decomposed systems. These 
 carcasses are raised from the tomb to which they 
 were long ago consigned, dressed up in modern cos- 
 tume, and exhibited to the public, with a Barnum 
 amount of impudence and assurance. Pantheism, in 
 all its poetic and attractive attire, is paraded as a new 
 creation, just sprung from the brain of some transcen- 
 dentalist ; but long, long ago, the sages of India 
 taught substantially the same system. There were, 
 no doubt, pantheistic antediluvians. There were pan- 
 theists, at any rate, in Japan ages before Spinoza was 
 born. That the Egyptians were pantheists might be in- 
 ferred from their worshipping beasts. That they were 
 such the monuments of the country fully demonstrate. 
 From Egypt pantheism migrated to Greece, and 
 thence to Rome ; is now revived in Germany, and 
 
240 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 transported to America, by such men as Emerson. 
 Carlyle's hero worship is only a revival of ancient 
 apotheosis. Rationalism is but another name for Epi- 
 cureanism. Justin Martyr says the philosophers of 
 his day thought it useless to pray to God, since all 
 things recur according to the unchangeable laws of an 
 endless progression. The positivist of this day 
 harps upon the same string precisely. Spirit rappings 
 are only the loosened tongue of Delphi's dumb- 
 struck oracle. And so I might go on. Now to ex- 
 pose the origin of these errors is a very effectual way 
 of arresting their progress. It is humiliating for men 
 who plume themselves before the public as the legiti- 
 mate proprietors of some patented system to be shown 
 to be mere hucksters of the wares of other men. It 
 is not pusillanimous, to say the least of it, thus to ex- 
 pose these z/;/manly moderns, who pilfer their errors 
 from ancients and palm them off as original. 
 
 Roman Catholicism — the Antichrist, and arch 
 enemy of Christianity — must very much occupy the 
 attention of every Protestant American for years to 
 come. After the Congress at St. Peter's last winter, 
 and the new impetus imparted to Jesuitical intrigue 
 by the deification and coronation of the Virgin, it will 
 require the vigilance of an Argus to watch our 
 liberties aud our institutions. That man will not 
 have lived in vain who shall loosen a single prop 
 that supports this consolidated structure of supersti- 
 tion and sin, whose shadows darken our land like the 
 locusts of Egypt. All compromise and conciliation 
 here are traitorous to the truth. The attack of allied 
 Protestantism against Rome should be as steady and 
 unhesitating as the tread of the " noble six hundred," 
 
"quit you like men." 241 
 
 last winter, down the valley of Balaklava. We are 
 now in the heat of the struggle with the emissaries of 
 Antichrist, and that man is a coward and a miscreant 
 that cries hold ! 
 
 There is enough to be done in our day to engage 
 a thousand hearts and employ a thousand hands, 
 if a man had them. For Heaven and humanity's 
 sake, brethren, stand not in or around the vineyard 
 idle and dreaming. " The age of apathy is gone " — 
 gone, it is to be hoped, never to return. Men are in 
 earnest now in all they do. " Whether it be the 
 manufacturing of a pin or the enlightening of a 
 soul," they enter into it in right good earnest. If 
 ever there was a time since the creation-shout of the 
 sons of God went up, that called for " no vulgar con- 
 ception of things and for exertions in no vulgar strain, 
 it is the awful hour in which Providence has appointed 
 our being." 
 
 It has been rny privilege and pleasure, too, to be 
 in-timately and favorably acquainted with nearly all of 
 you. I have no fears — I am sure no fears are enter- 
 tained — as to your being able to acquit you honorably 
 as men. The danger is that, by narrow and unjust 
 ideas of your mission, you will wrap yourselves up in 
 some secluded and contracted sphere, and sleep your 
 lives away in a chrysalis state. Entertain, I implore 
 you, some worthy conception of yourselves and your 
 influence. Be not content to fulfil in society the 
 office of a candle in a chamber — to light up a little 
 circle, or a fireside — but aspire, oh, yes ! aspire to the 
 sphere and functions of a sun, to spread light and 
 fertility over a hemisphere. There is no topic to 
 which I advert more cheerfully, or dwell upon with 
 
242 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 more zest, than that of individual influence. It makes 
 a man feel better, makes him prouder of his species, 
 to think of what individuals (humble ones, too) have 
 done, and of what they may still do. It reconciles one 
 very much to the labors, hazards, and hardships of 
 this hard, hard life. Samuel Mills said he would 
 make his influence felt by half the globe. He died at 
 the age of thirty-six, but accomplished all he said he 
 would. We may, and often are, indeed, doing most 
 when we suspect we are doing the least ; when, so far 
 as we ourselves can discern, we are doing nothing at 
 all. The skipping of a grasshopper moves the world ; 
 but who perceives it ? There is no cause for de- 
 spondency, either. Though the enemies of the truth 
 are busy and bitter, and though there are some 
 things that appear ominous of evil, upon the whole, 
 our day is brighter and better than any that has come 
 and gone before it. Our knowledge of the issue 
 should nerve our arms with steel, and fill our hearts 
 with fire. Final success is sure. Voltaire, the daring 
 anti-theist, swore he would dethrone God, and blas- 
 phemously boasted that he would erase the name of 
 Christ from the earth ; yet, " in every tongue on earth 
 the Gospel has its music and glad echo " to-night. 
 Anti-theists and atheists together — skeptics and 
 scoffers, alike — are doomed to an inevitable and ter- 
 rible overthrow. Every system and individual that 
 opposes the cross will fall, and in that fall, like the 
 Apostate Julian, as he threw his life-blood toward 
 heaven, ascribe conquest to the Galilean. 
 
 At the battle of the Pyramids, as Napoleon threw 
 his infantry into squares to sustain the impetuous 
 charge of Murad Bey's cavalry, in order to arouse 
 
" QUIT YOU LIKE MEN." 243 
 
 their heroism he shouted to his soldiers as they fell 
 into their places : " From yonder Pyramids twenty 
 centuries look down upon your actions ! " From 
 yonder heavens, my brethren, " ten thousand times 
 ten thousand and thousands of thousands" — look 
 down upon_)w^r actions. 
 
 Just as this same hero had made his dispositions for 
 another great and decisive battle, his eye caught the 
 sun, as he rose in his strength and grandeur — 
 " Behold the sun of Austerlitz ! " broke in beauty and 
 sublimity from his lips. Lifting our eyes away to 
 China, Japan, and the Isles of the Sea, we can give 
 utterance to the sublimer expression. Behold the 
 "Sun of Righteousness " ! 
 
 Everything, indeed, invites you to active, decided, 
 manly effort. Where you can find nothing to encour- 
 age, you can always find something to excite you. 
 
 And now, brethren, in view of the past, the present, 
 and the future ; for the sake of the dead, the living, 
 and the unborn, I charge you, this night — wherever 
 you go, whatever you do, whatever you be — in the 
 name and in the presence of God Almighty, I charge 
 you, "Quit yourselves like men." 
 
III. 
 
 HOPE FOR THE REPUBLIC. 
 
III. 
 
 HOPE FOR THE REPUBLIC* 
 
 ''Look tipon Zion, the city of our solemnities : thine eyes shall 
 see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be 
 taken doiun ; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, 
 neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. 
 
 ''But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad 
 rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley 7vith oars, neither 
 shall gallant ship pass thereby."— Is AiAB. xxxiii. 20, 21. 
 
 These words were spoken of the Jewish nation 
 when it was threatened with dismemberment and de- 
 struction by Sennacherib, the Assyrian. They seem 
 to be singularly applicable to our own case as a 
 nation. 
 
 My political creed is very brief : / Mieve in the 
 union of these States. 
 
 Shall this Union be preserved or shall it be rudely 
 torn to fragments and the fragments thrown to the 
 dust? This is beyond all comparison the most 
 momentous political question that agitates the public 
 mind at this time. In the presence of this, all others 
 sink into insignificance. If the Union be preserved, 
 the text will receive a second glorious fulfilment. 
 
 What reason, then, have we to hope that this will 
 be the result of the pending struggle ? 
 
 * Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1863. Repeated for the 
 benefit of the Christian Commission, in Masonic Hall, Pittsburgh, 
 Tuesday night, December 8, 1863. 
 
248 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 I believe in the perpetuity of the Union because : 
 
 I. We are one by the physical structure and consti- 
 tution of the country. 
 
 By the fiat of creation the Almighty has ordained 
 that this nation be one. He has poured the floods of 
 ocean around it in the form of a U, and that U stands 
 for UNION. Through and through these States He 
 has driven the iron bolts of mountain ranges. From 
 north to south He has stretched the throbbing arte- 
 ries of the nation's life ; and from east to west He 
 has spread the tissue and net-work of the nation's 
 blood-vessels. So long as the waters of the Missis- 
 sippi flow to the Gulf the Union of these States must 
 be preserved, at all hazards, at any cost, at all sacrifices. 
 By virtue, therefore, of our national life and by the 
 physical geography of the country, we are one. 
 
 Man, in his physical structure and constitution, is 
 scarcely less a unit than this land is a unit. The head 
 cannot do without the heart, nor the heart without 
 the head. One member is the complement of the 
 other, and it is only when all unite harmoniously that 
 the body is complete, strong, and healthy. 
 
 So it is with this country. Sever it, disunite it, 
 dismember it, and it becomes a heap of incomplete 
 fragments. 
 
 Disjointed wheels, lying apart, do not constitute a 
 watch. They may be complete and perfect in them- 
 selves ; but scattered over a table they will not keep 
 time. From mainspring to pointer, everything may 
 be in perfect order, but these disunited fractions do 
 not, cannot mark the passing hours. In order to do 
 this there must be union. Wheel must act upon wheel, 
 cog must fit to cog, the chain must be stretched, the 
 
HOPE FOR THK REPUIUJC. 249 
 
 spring must be bent ; there must be action, re-action, 
 inter-action, and counter-action. Then the hands 
 move, then it keeps time, then it is a watch. 
 
 Like the members of the body, like the wheels of a 
 time-piece, the States and Territories of this country 
 are parts of one great whole. The South supplements 
 the North, the North supplements the South, and the 
 AVest is the complement of both. 
 
 The old world may shut up our ports ; we can laugh 
 a blockade to scorn. 
 
 We have within ourselves all necessary supplies and 
 resources. 
 
 Let any man take the map and examine it for five 
 minutes, and he will be convinced, beyond the power 
 of logic, that the Almighty Maker of the world in- 
 tended this land for one great people. The decree 
 has gone forth ; it is proclaimed aloud and afar by 
 the voice of the mountain storm ; it is thundered 
 forth by the floods of the Atlantic ; it is echoed back 
 by the billows of the Pacific ; it is carried by the Ohio 
 to the Mississippi, and the Mississippi rolls it on in 
 thunder tones to the Gulf. 
 
 The decree has gone forth. It is written in char- 
 acters as enduring as the everlasting hills. The 
 letters are traced in ocean-beds, in river-courses, and 
 mountain- ranges. It has thus been written and pro- 
 mulged. Who will believe that a few mad-cap des- 
 pots at Charleston and Montgomery can repeal it — 
 can annul it ? 
 
 The glorious tabernacle of our liberties shall not 
 thus be torn down. " Not one of the stakes thereof 
 shall ever be removed ; neither shall any of the 
 cords thereof be broken." 
 
250 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 If this generation shall be so dastardly and derelict 
 to duty as to permit the dismemberment of the nation, 
 the next generation will rise in its might and its 
 wrath, will dash to atoms every obstacle interposed 
 between the different sections, will gather up again 
 the dishonored fragments, and with the richest blood 
 of the age cement them into one. 
 
 But I do not believe that this generation will leave 
 to the next so glorious a consummation. 
 
 Great Britain was never designed by the Almighty 
 for a heptarchy, nor France for a partitioned king- 
 dom. The physical structure of these countries 
 demonstrates this. Great Britain and France were 
 insignificant powers until their disintegrated frag- 
 ments came together, were welded into one, and they 
 stood before the world consolidated kingdoms. 
 Their union was the beginning of their strength and 
 glory. Our dismemberment would be the end of our 
 greatness and power. All over " the dishonored 
 fragments of this once glorious Union," would then 
 be written in hideous characters: " Ichabod ! Ichabod ! 
 the glory is departed I " 
 
 I believe in the perpetuity of the Union, because : 
 
 II. The people of this nation are one. 
 
 Not, indeed, in speech, nor descent, nor taste, nor 
 temperament, nor habits, nor customs. In these 
 respects we are exceedingly diverse. We are, in these 
 respects as varied as Jacob's ring-streaked, speckled, 
 and spotted kine. 
 
 But, nevertheless, we are one by a far deeper and 
 mightier principle of unity. 
 
 A common impulse peopled these shores when they 
 were an unbroken, howling wilderness. A common 
 
HOPE FOR THE REPUBLIC. 25 1 
 
 sympathy brought the colonists to this land. The 
 Huguenots, the Puritans, the Dutch from Holland, 
 the Scotch-Irish from Londonderry, had a common 
 interest, common sufferings, a common hope, and they 
 sought and found here a common home. Persecution 
 and oppression drove them from their own lands. 
 They left all, they sacrificed all but liberty. On these 
 shores they sought and found a common asylum. 
 They came from different countries, they spake dif- 
 ferent languages, their customs were widely different, 
 but their hearts, notwithstanding, beat in unison on 
 the subject of human rights and religious liberty. 
 By virtue of this deep and tender sympathy they were, 
 and their descendants are, one. 
 
 The fact that so many noble, self-sacrificing men 
 of different countries, yet bound together by so 
 powerful a bond of union, were thrown on these 
 shores at the same time, is one of the grandest provi- 
 dential phenomena in human history. God's hand 
 was in it. Political storms shook Europe. The tor- 
 nado was wild and fierce. The ripened, mellow fruit 
 was loosened from the branches. It fell — at Plymouth 
 Rock and Manhattan Island. The green, the gnarled, 
 the blighted fruit hung on, clung to the branches. 
 
 God sifted the nations of Europe ; the finest of the 
 wheat was sown in American soil. The chaff, the 
 cheat, the cockle, and the tares were left on the other 
 side of the ocean. 
 
 All through our history this unity of principle and 
 sympathy is manifest. While apparently we are the 
 most heterogeneous people in the world, we are really, 
 on the great and vital points, the most homogeneous. 
 The diversities among us seem to be endless ; but 
 
252 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 touch an}' of the wide-spreading chords of sympathy 
 that unite us, and a response in perfect unison peals 
 forth. How, for instance, the cannon-shot that 
 snapped the flag-staff of Sumter brought the whole 
 North together as one man, shoulder to shoulder, 
 hand in hand, heart to heart ! 
 
 There was the grand mistake made by the con- 
 spirators. They did not take this fact into account. 
 They saw the North divided and wrangling about 
 minor issues. They supposed that their overt treason 
 would rend these parties hopelessly asunder, and set 
 us to cutting each other's throats. Their view was 
 superficial ; they did not look deep enough ; they did 
 not go down to those deep-toned chords — far below 
 the casual and superficial view — which stretch from 
 heart to heart, and make a continent of freemen one. 
 
 Trees in the forest grow apart ; their branches 
 chafe and fret each other ; they quarrel and wrestle ; 
 every blast brings them into violent contact and col- 
 lision ; but down out of sight, below the surface, their 
 roots interlink and intertwine in the most intimate 
 and inseparable sympathy and fellowship. So it is 
 with us. At wide variance on a thousand minor 
 issues, we are as one on the great root principles. 
 Below the surface our sympathies intertwine. 
 
 That this is the fact the history of the rebellion 
 demonstrates. No other government on earth could 
 stand such a shock as ours has stood. Its strength, 
 its bulwarks are in the hearts of the people. True, 
 we have lamentable dissensions, but the wonder is 
 that every State has not been rent with internecine 
 war. 
 
 How grandly the old ship rights herself and climbs 
 
HOPE FOR THE REPUBLIC. 253 
 
 the waves ! She is no " painted ship upon a painted 
 ocean." She has not only the form but the power. 
 Her timbers are sound, every one of them ; she is sea- 
 worthy if ever ship was ; stick to her — she will ride 
 the storm. 
 
 The South, it is true, listening to the counsels of 
 her Catilines, has been precipitated into revolution ; 
 but even in these rebellious States, if the hearts of the 
 people could be reached, these chords of universal 
 sympathy would be touched and would respond. Al- 
 ready they begin to vibrate in North Carolina, Texas, 
 and Tennessee. 
 
 This rebellion, therefore, is not a natural out- 
 growth of our national life. It is not American. It 
 is a vile fungus on the body politic. It comes from 
 disease — disease brought on by the poison of slavery 
 that in an evil hour was injected into the national 
 blood. Slavery is an unnatural element. This land 
 was not peopled that it might become a prison-house 
 in which human beings should grind in servitude, but 
 that it might be an asylum for the down-trodden and 
 oppressed the world over. The government was not 
 founded for slavery. The constitution was not made 
 for it. It is an unnatural element that has been 
 foisted into our political system. It gained its im- 
 portance through the power of filthy lucre. It was 
 conceded on all hands to be wrong, until it became 
 profitable. If it ever had any claim to sympathy 
 or protection, it has lost every shadow of it by the 
 rebellion. 
 
 The consequence of this poisonous foreign element 
 in the system has been fever, delirium, and this foul 
 boil and tumor on the body. It no more comes from 
 
254 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 the natural, healthy iVmerican life, than small-pox or 
 leprosy comes from the pure blood that God poured 
 into the veins of Adam when he became a living soul. 
 It is a disgusting fungus, a loathsome excrescence 
 that has been produced by a virulent poison intro- 
 duced into the system. 
 
 But it will not be fatal. There is vigor enough in 
 the system to purify itself — to fling off the disease as 
 the ocean billow tosses the feathery spray from its 
 crest. Besides, skillful surgeons are at work on it. 
 They will cut the vile excrescence away. Grant has 
 just made a terrible incision. 
 
 The rebellion is only a fitful, unnatural exhibition 
 of disease. This will be thrown off. Health will be 
 restored and not even a scar left. Then from the 
 Lakes to the Gulf, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific 
 the life-blood of the nation will flow again, pure and 
 free, and as true to the Union as is the pulse-beat of a 
 healthy man to his heart. 
 
 The overwhelming sentiment of the people is : The 
 Union, it must and shall be preserved. 
 
 We could not have this sentiment unless there was 
 something for it to rest upon. That basis is the fact 
 already mentioned, viz.: That on all the great root 
 principles that underlie republican institutions, the 
 people are one. Feeling thus, and bound together by 
 sympathies so deep and comprehensive and wide- 
 spreading and far-reaching, they will not allow a few 
 — a despicable minority of despots — to overthrow these 
 institutions. 
 
 They will keep the starry banner aloft and afloat. 
 They will not let the tabernacle be torn down. They 
 will fix every stake firmly in its place.* They will see 
 
HOPE FOR THE REPUBLIC. 255 
 
 to it that not a single strand of a single cord be 
 broken. 
 
 I believe in the perpetuity of the Union and govern- 
 ment because : 
 
 III. This perpetuity will be conducive to freedom 
 and human progress. 
 
 This proposition can be doubted only by one who is 
 totally blinded by prejudice or who is utterly ignorant 
 of the issues involved. The rebels do not doubt it. 
 They fight with this understanding. They want 
 neither freedom nor general intelligence. Slavery 
 and the general diffusion of knowledge cannot dwell 
 together. Slavery dreads the spirit of the North 
 quite as much or even more than it dreads the bayo- 
 nets and columbiads of the North. The South at- 
 tempts to found a mighty empire, the " corner stone " 
 of which is Human Bondage. The North inscribes 
 Universal Freedom on her banner, and flings it to 
 the breeze. While He who came into this world " to 
 proclaim liberty to the captives " sits on the throne 
 of the universe, who can for one moment doubt the 
 issue ? 
 
 There never was a contest more clearly and sharply 
 defined. The struggle is between liberty and oppres- 
 sion ; between democracy and aristocracy ; between 
 republicanism and tyranny. If the Southern Con- 
 federacy, with its present constitution, succeed, back 
 goes the sun on the world's dial twelve degrees. 
 Shall this be? 
 
 Ever since Christianity entered as a factor into 
 human history, ever since she taught the true dignity 
 and worth of man, liberal ideas have been gaining 
 ground. True, there have been long and dismal 
 
256 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 nights of gloom , but, on the whole, freedom has been 
 on the advance. 
 
 Every man is now considered worth educating. 
 No life is so mean that it is not worth caring for. 
 We are too often disposed to croak, to think and 
 sometimes to say that we are going backward ; but 
 our civilization, with all its faults, is vastly in advance 
 of Greece and Rome, where the people went in 
 crowds for entertainment to the amphitheatre, which 
 flowed ankle-deep in human blood. The world does 
 move, has moved, is moving. Our croaking can no 
 more stop it than the Papal Bull could stop the 
 sweeping comet in its fiery course. 
 
 When we are in a railroad car it seems to us the 
 trees and fences, houses and fields are all flying, 
 whirling backward. They seem to go backward be- 
 cause we are going so rapidly forward. So we some- 
 times think that the world is going backward because 
 we are going with such velocity forward. 
 
 Man used to be held cheap ; his price has greatly 
 advanced and is still going up. Christianity, educa- 
 tion, general intelligence and free institutions have 
 wrought the change. They put man's value up and 
 keep it buoyant : and all the emissaries Satan can 
 hire, in the shape of kidnapper, or slave-trader, or 
 slavery propagandist, cannot bring about a depression. 
 In the price current of the world, humanity has gone 
 up to a high figure, and it will go much higher yet. 
 
 We hear much, indeed, of the low value set upon 
 human life. This is a lamentable evil ; but it is felt 
 keenly now, not because it is greater than formerly, 
 but because our appreciation of human life is better. 
 
 In Rome — refined, elegant Rome — men by the thou- 
 
HOPE FOR THE REPUBLIC. 257 
 
 sand were turned into the amphitheatre along with 
 wild beasts to die, that b}^ their expiring agonies they 
 might cater to the morbid taste and curiosity of Latin 
 ladies and their dissolute lovers. Would our civiliza- 
 tion tolerate such exhibitions now? 
 
 In the Dark Ages, if a man dared to think for him- 
 self, he was consigned to the dungeons and the racks 
 of the Inquisition. That was the last heard of him. 
 What matter ! It was only a heretic ! The Inquisi- 
 tion could not live twenty-four hours in America. 
 
 In England they used to hang a man for stealing a 
 sheep. It was on the principle, I suppose, of a life 
 for a life ; and they put the sheep's life on a par with 
 the man's life. 
 
 Frederick the Great regarded a man as worthless 
 unless he was six feet high and built in proportion, 
 that he might stand on a level in the ranks of his 
 gigantic grenadiers. " Military offences," says Ma- 
 caulay, " were punished with such barbarous scourg- 
 ing that to be shot was considered by the Prussian 
 soldier a secondary punishment." By Frederick 
 man was valued as a fighting machine. 
 
 But now humanity is valued for its inherent worth 
 and dignity. A man is not estimated on account of 
 his wealth or his rank, but on account of God's image 
 which he bears, and the God-given endowments he pos- 
 sesses. The value yet is far too low, but it is much 
 higher than ever it was before. Every hospital, every 
 asylum, home, and refuge bears testimony to the same 
 fact. Thus Christianity and intelligence are elevat- 
 ing men — bringing them up from the depths and mak- 
 ing each man a sovereign. No slavery, no system 
 of oppression ever instituted can resist this uplifting, 
 
258 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 on-moving force, but will die under it as certainly as 
 the snowflake and icicle melt in the spring. 
 
 Already this force has emancipated England's 
 slaves, and has struck the shackles from the limbs of 
 Russia's serfs. 
 
 When Christianity was introduced into the world, 
 slavery was universal. The number of slaves was 
 prodigious. Some Roman citizens owned as many as 
 twenty thousand at once. This was slavery, too, in 
 its most revolting and horrid form. A slave's life 
 was held cheaper than a dog's life. Under the silent 
 but mighty influence of Christianity, the system began 
 to die out, and under that influence the decline has 
 been gradually going on ever since. The charge 
 that Christianity has favored slavery is not true. 
 Did time permit, I could show how Christianity has 
 abolished slavery. Let Christianity, a free press, and 
 free speech have a fair field, and there will be no 
 slave in America in fifty years. This the slaveholders 
 very well know. 
 
 Now I ask, if these ideas, if this upward and onward 
 movement that has been gaining strength for nearly 
 nineteen centuries, are to be arrested and turned back 
 by a nest of conspirators hatched at Charleston ? As 
 soon would I believe that the bickerings of a brood of 
 swallows on the eaves of a barn could stop the sun in 
 the heavens. The conspirators may embarrass and 
 check the movement somewhat for a time, but that 
 they will succeed in turning back the mighty current 
 of popular thought and feeling, I can no more believe 
 than I can believe that the snowy arm of the Alpine 
 maiden can stop the avalanche in its leap and its bound 
 from its mountain home. 
 
HOPE FOR THE REPUBLIC. 259 
 
 The chariot moves ; God is the charioteer. Clear 
 the track ! Woe to the man who stands in the way ! 
 He will be ground to powder, and all of him that will 
 go down to posterity will be his dust and the immor- 
 tality of his infamy. 
 
 IV. The past history, the present and the future 
 prospects of the war, afford a good assurance that the 
 tabernacle of our liberties shall not be taken down. 
 
 All things considered, our success has been amaz- 
 ing. President Lincoln expressed a great truth in 
 homely phrase, when he said that the suppression of 
 the rebellion was "a big job." It is not the work of 
 a day nor a year. We must not be impatient. We 
 have had great success ; no rebel pitches his tent on 
 free soil to-day. With Gettysburg before his eyes, 
 the enemy will not try invasion soon again. Not only 
 have we defended our immense border, but our armies 
 are in the heart of the Confederacy. Suppose the 
 tables were turned, and that the enemy had driven us 
 as far back as we have forced him, the faint-hearted 
 among us would begin to think of taking refuge in 
 Canada. 
 
 The interpositions of Providence in our behalf have 
 been wonderful. None but a downright atheist can 
 doubt them. When the traitors had the power com- 
 pletely in their own hands, why did they not stab the 
 republic to the heart ? They attempted it ; the hand 
 was raised but the blow was arrested, no one knows 
 how. The historian who leaves special providences 
 out of his account, will never write correctly the 
 history of the momentous weeks which closed the last 
 Administration. Providentially the President was 
 delivered from the assassins of Baltimore. General 
 
26o OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 Anderson told me that when he and his little band 
 passed from Moultrie to Sumter, the shadows of the 
 night fell in such a way as to conceal them entirely 
 from the view of the rebels. They passed undis- 
 covered, although they were narrowly watched. The 
 Monitor arrived just at the nick of time to meet the 
 Merriviac and drive her back to her rebel den. Buell 
 arrived at Shiloh in time to turn the fortunes of the 
 day ; he was to Grant what Blucher was to Welling- 
 ton. All through the struggle such providences are 
 observable. 
 
 In this connection the prosperity of the North 
 ought to be mentioned. This has been contrary to 
 all the predictions of enemies, and contrary, indeed, 
 to the most sanguine hopes of friends. According to 
 the traitors, cows were to graze in Broadway and 
 Chestnut Street three months after the war began. 
 Pittsburgh was to be as still as a cemetery. There 
 was to be nothing in the North but bankruptcy and 
 bread riots ; yet never was there such prosperity. 
 
 This, by some, may be attributed to second causes, 
 but these second causes would be utterly inefficient if 
 they were not directed and controlled by the great 
 First Cause. 
 
 This prosperity, amidst so gigantic an intestine war, 
 is a fact unparalleled in history. Nor has it been with- 
 out its effect. It has given other nations a concep- 
 tion of our resources such as they never had before. 
 Europe stands aghast. When the war began, she 
 locked her coffers, put a hard knot on her purse- 
 strings, turned up her supercilious nose, and said : 
 "You can't have my money to carry on the war." 
 The war has been carried on without her money, and 
 
HOPE FOR THE REPUBLIC. 261 
 
 now she begs to have the exquisite pleasure of lend- 
 ing us a few millions sterling. It is now Brother 
 Jonathan's turn to be supercilious. He coolly thrusts 
 his hands into his capacious pockets, and says : ''No, 
 thankee!'' Europe begins to respect our financial 
 resources. 
 
 She begins, too, to have a profound respect for our 
 army and navy. When Russell, the correspondent of 
 the London Times, was in this country he was never 
 done threatening us with Admiral Milne's fleet. If 
 Mr. Seward did not speak more respectfully of Eng- 
 land, the fleet would come down and knock Washing- 
 ton about his ears, some morning before he was up. 
 If Mason and Slidell were not surrendered forthwith, 
 Milne would weigh anchor and drop down along our 
 coast, when our blockading fleet would disappear as 
 snow in harvest. But now, so far as Great Britain is 
 concerned, we should not know that such an institu- 
 tion as Milne's squadron existed on the face of the 
 earth. 
 
 Suppose this terrible fleet should weigh anchor, who 
 is so poor as to do it reverence ? We would send out 
 a little iron-clad after the whole batch as a farmer 
 calls out his little terrier and sets him on a flock of 
 sheep in his lane. 
 
 It is this development of power that has modified 
 the course of Great Britain toward us. In strength 
 is our safety. If we show the white feather every 
 jackdaw will begin to peck at us ; every second-rate 
 cock on the European dunghill will begin to strut 
 and crow and whet his spurs. Europe must be taught 
 to let us alone. 
 
 I detest Russia ; from the depths of my heart I 
 
262 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 sympathize with Poland. Yet, notwithstanding, if 
 England and France conspire against us, I would 
 strike hands with the Czar, as a diplomatic measure. 
 I would fraternize with the Polar bear, even, against 
 any and all who will make alliances with the Southern 
 Confederacy. Rather than yield one jot or tittle of 
 the principle involved, viz., the integrity of the 
 Union, and the right to manage our own affairs, let 
 Europe and the whole world be wrapped in the flames 
 of war. On other heads than ours will rest the re- 
 sponsibility. 
 
 Not only has our prosperity thus falsified all mali- 
 cious predictions and opened the eyes of Europe, but 
 it has also dethroned forever cotton as king. The 
 king is off his throne, and the throne has gone to 
 pieces and to the dust, never again to be set up. 
 Cotton is deposed ; Corn and Iron are supreme. 
 
 The past history of the war has accomplished 
 another thing : it has vindicated Northern courage 
 and manliness. These could not be vindicated under 
 the " code," but they have been gloriously vindicated in 
 the line of battle, in the impetuous charge, at the can- 
 non's mouth, on parapet and wall. 
 
 When this war began, to hear rebels talk one 
 would have supposed that every man in the Con- 
 federacy would have gone to the bottom of the last 
 ditch rather than strike a single color ; rather than 
 relinquish a single gun ; rather than surrender a 
 single prisoner of war. Yet the Confederate flag has 
 gone to the dust eleven times at the bidding of the 
 Stars and Stripes. One man alone has taken from 
 them 472 guns, and has captured of their soldiers 
 90,000 prisoners of war. I need not tell you who 
 
HOPE FOR THE REPUBLIC. 263 
 
 that man is, for I am sure that already, in your hearts 
 at least, if not on your lips, is the name of Uncon- 
 ditional Surrender Grant. 
 
 The most bigoted Southerner admits now that 
 Yankees will fight. Donelson, Vicksburg, Antietam, 
 Gettysburg, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge 
 are ugly facts to reconcile with the theory that there 
 is nothing but poltroonery in the North. 
 
 Greater heroism has not been displayed since the 
 world began than has been displayed by the Northern 
 army in the war for the Union. The glory of Sparta 
 pales before the splendor of its prowess. This sounds 
 like mere fustian, but it is sober truth. At Lookout 
 Mountain our men charged the enemy above the 
 clouds. Through the clouds and above them they 
 swept upward with fiercer impetuosity than the storm 
 sweeps downward. They fought with the clouds be- 
 neath their feet. The roar of their musketry was 
 above the home of the thunder. Who dare say now 
 that Northern men will not fight ? 
 
 Thus the two topics which for twenty years have 
 supplied the staple of Southern eloquence in Congress, 
 and out of it, are exploded. Cotton is not king. 
 Northern men are not cowards. What will the sen- 
 ators at Richmond find to talk about this winter ? 
 
 From the past, then, we draw encouragement ; and 
 while the present is big with interest and fearful 
 issues, nevertheless the heavens above us to-day have 
 more clear sky than clouds. With Grant, Sherman, 
 Thomas, and Foster in Tennessee ; Banks in Texas ; 
 Gilmore thundering at the gates of Charleston ; But- 
 ler at Fortress Monroe, and Meade on the Rapidan, 
 we can, at least, rest in hope. 
 
264 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 Grant is Lincoln's thunderbolt. He launched it, 
 and Vicksburg was smitten to the dust. It is 
 launched again — it gleams along Lookout Mountain, 
 it scales the crest of Missionary Ridge, and the 
 *' Bragg " is knocked out of the Confederacy. 
 
 We cannot fathom the Divine purposes, but the 
 doings of God in the past shed light on these pur- 
 poses. If God has designed that but one nation shall 
 inhabit this land, then the Union will be preserved. 
 
 May we not infer such a design from the physical 
 structure of the country ? It is a large land, but not 
 large enough for two nations to dwell in. God has 
 given us " broad rivers and streams," but they are not 
 to be ploughed by war-ships, as that is the meaning of 
 *' galley with oars " and " gallant ship," in the text. 
 
 The same design may be inferred from the one- 
 ness of the people who settled these shores, and from 
 the fact that God, in his providence, and in his Word, 
 is on the side of the oppressed ; and also from the 
 fact that he has been most gracious unto us in the 
 gifts of his bounty, and in special interpositions in 
 our behalf. 
 
 When the Jew wanted to assure himself of God's 
 continued favor and protection, he ran his eye back 
 over the history of his nation, from the overthrow 
 of Pharaoh to the destruction of Og, king of Bashan. 
 The past was glorious and full of miraculous power. 
 Doubt fled. With hope and joy he flung his glance 
 into the future. 
 
 So do we to-day. God has not piloted the ship of 
 state through so many storms, and over so many 
 breakers, to allow her to be sunk by the snag, 
 secession. 
 
HOPE FOR THE REPUBLIC. 265 
 
 Then let the hurricane roar, 
 It will the sooner be o'er ; 
 We'll weather the blast. 
 And we'll land at last, 
 Safe on the ever-free shore. 
 
 " Then thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habita- 
 tion, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down ; not 
 one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, 
 neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. 
 
 " But the glorious Lord will be to us a place of broad 
 rivers and streams ; wherein shall go no galley with 
 oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby." 
 
 Faith, patience, endurance, are the requisites of the 
 crisis. Great ideas develop slowly. Great sacrifices 
 are the price of great blessings. 
 
 Greece rose, fought, struggled, died, and left as her 
 legacy to the world heroism of character and beauty 
 in language and art. That is the residuum of her 
 wonderful history. 
 
 Rome rose, fought, struggled, died, and left to the 
 world as her legacy the majesty and supremacy of 
 law. May our legacy be republican institutions, 
 based on Christian morality and intelligence ! 
 
 Great blessings are to be had only at great expense. 
 All the martyrs died for religious liberty. They 
 were a mighty host. It was a fearful price, but the 
 issue was worth it all. 
 
 The Crusades desolated Europe and Asia, sunk 
 untold treasures, and sent millions of men to the 
 grave, and after all failed in their object ; but they 
 gave the death-blow to feudalism, and in this they 
 were worth all they cost. 
 
 Thus the world rnoves. The commonest rights we 
 
266 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 enjoy have cost blood enough to fill the channel of 
 the Ohio, from bank to bank, with a crimson tide. 
 
 If we expect to enjoy the precious blessings of this 
 government, and transmit them unimpaired to our 
 children, we must be willing to pay the price. Rivers 
 of oil, the cattle upon a thousand hills, are not suffi- 
 cient. The best blood of the nation must be given. 
 
 Now it only remains to exhort everyone to be true 
 to his country. Be turned aside by no sophistries 
 of demagogues. Be warped by no partisan preju- 
 dices. Stand straight and firm by the flag-staff from 
 the top of which stream the Stars and Stripes. 
 
 When a man sees a ruffian strike his mother in the 
 face, it is no time for him to consult Paley on a point 
 of morality. God has given him an arm, has poured 
 into it the blood of manhood, and so long as one drop 
 of that blood remains his duty is clear. 
 
 That patriotism is cold, to say the least, which, after 
 it has seen the flag of the Republic torn with rebel 
 shot, can sit down to discuss nice metaphysical dis- 
 tinctions in constitutional law ; or which, worse still, 
 can enter into calculations on the probabilities of the 
 success of each party, that it may be certain to be on 
 the winning side ; or which, worst of all, balances 
 itself with all the skill of Theramenes between the two 
 parties. 
 
 Patriotism is instinctive. There is a story told of 
 old King x\bgarus, who came from the far East, from 
 Ur of the Chaldees, whence the patriarch Abraham 
 came. He brought wild beasts of various countries 
 to Rome, and let them loose in the amphitheatre in the 
 presence of Augustus. As soon as they were loose, 
 the beasts ran, leaping, bounding, each one to that 
 
HOPE FOR THE REPUBLIC. 267 
 
 part of the Circus where had been laid a Httle of 
 its native soil. Its heart took it to the spot. 
 
 Man by instinct ought to love his country. A 
 patriotism that can with stoical indifference see the 
 old flag trampled in the mire by traitorous feet is not 
 the kind for these times. Rather give us a manhood 
 which, when it sees tender motherhood reeling beneath 
 the murderous blow of a ruffian, will spring to its 
 feet, and cry : " Villain ! that is my mother, and while 
 this heart sends a drop of blood to this right arm I 
 will protect and defend her ! " Give us rather a 
 patriotism which when it sees perjured, blood-stained 
 hands clutching at the flag, to tear Stripe from Stripe, 
 and pluck Star from Star, will rush to arms, as a lion 
 leaps from his lair, and cry : " Hands off ! ye traitorous 
 horde ! Hands off ! while a spark of manhood lives 
 that flag will be defended! The last loyal heart will be 
 flung between it and violence! Through that heart ye 
 will have to strike before ye can touch its sacred folds ! " 
 
 Citizen patriots ! stand by the colors I through 
 good and through evil report — in sunshine and in 
 storm — come weal, come woe, stand by the colors ! 
 Uplift and uphold the tabernacle of our liberties ! 
 Strengthen its stakes, lengthen its cords ! Then when 
 you are gone — when Jerusalem is a quiet habitation — 
 when every stake has gone down to its place thence 
 to be removed nevermore, when every cord has become 
 stronger than triple brass ; when on all our broad rivers 
 and streams there go nothing but the ships of a peace- 
 ful, prosperous commerce, then will your children, 
 pride elating their countenances as they speak, rise up 
 and say : " My father never moved lip nor finger against 
 his country in the hour of her crisis and her trial." 
 
IV. 
 THE THIEF ON THE CROSS. 
 
IV. 
 THE THIEF ON THE CROSS. 
 
 "'■And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remefuber me, zvhen thou comest 
 into thy kingdom. 
 
 '' And Jesus said tinto him, Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt 
 thou be with me in paradise" — Luke xxiii. 42, 43. 
 
 No passage perhaps in all the Bible reveals more 
 vividly the power of the Gospel to save to the utter- 
 most than does this one. God's grace descends to 
 the very bottom of human degradation and rescues 
 the vilest and the lowest. The passage reveals not 
 only the depths to which the Gospel goes in order to 
 save, but also the heights to which it exalts those it 
 thus saves. It gives us the soundings, and at the 
 same time the altitude of redemption. It shows to 
 us the Gospel thrusting its arms of love to the pro- 
 foundest abysses of sin, grappling the most abandoned 
 spirit there, and raising it to a citizenship in heaven 
 and a companionship with Christ. It also reveals 
 very clearly justification by faith. If salvation were 
 not all of grace the hope of the best men would go 
 out in the darkness of despair. If salvation were not 
 thus of grace the hypocrite and Pharisee might hope, 
 but the good man never. This little piece of sacred 
 history is worth whole libraries on justification by 
 faith alone. If men are not justified by faith, but 
 by works, the thief would have been in perdition that 
 day instead of in Paradise. 
 
272 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 I invite you, my hearers, to spend this morning 
 with me on Calvary. We could not be in a better 
 place. 
 
 It is a spring morning. The birds are abroad and 
 the flowers are in bloom, but the scene on the top of 
 the hill Calvary ill comports with the peace of spring. 
 The Son of God is on the cross — under the curse of 
 the law — in the company of malefactors and thieves — 
 exposed to the gaze and insults of the rabble. The 
 hill is covered with his persecutors, who mock and 
 taunt him. The executioners have finished their 
 task, and have nothing to do but sit down and watch 
 their victims. Thus watching they while away the 
 time (as time, alas ! is too often whiled away) by 
 gambling. There is one piece of the Saviour's 
 apparel that is beautiful and valuable. " This coat 
 was without seam, woven from the top throughout." 
 Tradition says it was a present from his mother. She 
 had wrought it with great care, and with a kindness and 
 yearning tenderness which none but a mother feels 
 she had given it to her Divine Son. For this the 
 soldiers were now contesting, unconscious that its 
 owner was paying the penalty of their sins. " They 
 parted my garments among them and upon my ves- 
 ture did they cast lots." While they were thus em- 
 ployed, the Scribes and Pharisees reviling, the crowd 
 insulting, and one of the thieves reproaching him, the 
 dialogue between the Saviour and the other thief took 
 place. 
 
 The world is seldom aware of the existence of its 
 greatest benefactors, and likewise knows little about, 
 or cares little for, the events that conduce most to its 
 welfare. France gives birth to a young usurper who 
 
THE THIEB' ON THE CROSS. 273 
 
 is to crush the Hfe out of human liberty, and yet the 
 event is heralded from Paris to Cathay ; but when 
 the Son of God and Redeemer of the human family 
 was born, few in the world were any the wiser for it. 
 The event created no excitement in the little village 
 of Bethlehem. A warrior dies. His death stanches 
 the blood that is streaming from a thousand hearts. 
 His death is deplored. The press issues its sheets in 
 mourning, bells chime solemnl}^, and business stands 
 awe-struck and still ; but the Son of God, the King of 
 kings, the Lord of lords, expires on Calvary, and the 
 world knows not that he is suffering the expiation of 
 its own guilt. Every event since the Fall pointed to 
 that cross — every type and sacrifice was a shadow of 
 it — the glory of all the prophecies gathered around 
 it, yet the world, as stupid as the gambling execu- 
 tioners, was not aware that anything was taking place 
 on Calvary more than the crucifixion of a common 
 criminal. But this dying thief calls us back to the 
 subject. 
 
 In the whole history of the world it would be hard 
 to find an instance where in all human probability 
 there was so little likelihood of a conversion to Chris- 
 tianity as in the instance of this man. He was an 
 abandoned and desperate fellow — perhaps a mur- 
 derer. He had been judged worthy of capital pun- 
 ishment. He was according to his own confession 
 deserving of the ignominious death he was suffering. 
 He may have been a pagan, and if so his religious 
 education had been nothing but a jumble of silly and 
 licentious fables about the heathen gods. He wanted 
 that mightiest agent to melt the heart — the recollec- 
 tions of the relio:ious instruction of childhood. To 
 
274 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 him there were no remembrances of the little closet, 
 and of prayers learned by rote from the lips of a pious 
 mother, to revive latent truth and awaken dormant 
 affections. 
 
 Moreover the man was dying. He was writhing in 
 the agonies of crucifixion. Life was ebbing rapidly 
 to a close. His spirit was fluttering on the brink of 
 hell. Yet he joined with the other thief in railing at 
 and reviling him who alone could save him. The 
 other Evangelists say that " the thieves " took up the 
 taunt from the crowd around the cross and cast the 
 " same in his teeth." 
 
 But hark ! His scoffings are turned to supplica- 
 tions ! He prays ! God has ordained that this brand 
 be plucked from the burning. The Holy Spirit 
 touches the heart of that thief, and though apparently 
 as flinty and as unsusceptible of any impression as the 
 rock that Moses smote, yet a gracious stream gushed 
 forth. 
 
 If any think the evidences of this conversion are 
 scanty, I invite such to examine for a few moments 
 the faith he manifested, and this is the test of all 
 Christian character. Such faith would save Satan if 
 the Gospel had been designed for devils. 
 
 " I know not," says Calvin, "that since the creation 
 of the world there ever was a more remarkable and 
 striking example of faith." 
 
 He had to believe on one whom the highest tri- 
 bunal in the land had put on a level with himself — 
 one who " was in the same condemnation." He had 
 to believe that a bleeding, dying, insulted fellow-suf- 
 ferer was the God of glory and Redeemer of the 
 world. The eye of his faith had to pierce through 
 
THE THIEF ON THE CROSS. 275 
 
 all this humiliation and shame to see his divinity. 
 His faith had to break through the ignominy of the 
 Son of Man in order to get to the Son of God. He 
 seizes, too, with a vigorous and as it were an intui- 
 tive faith upon all the fundamental principles of Chris- 
 tianity. He believes in a future state, the divinity of 
 Christ, human inability, and the necessity of a Saviour. 
 The Spirit has darted all these truths into his heart, 
 and he has responded cordially to the divine teaching. 
 
 He was made no exception to the manner of coming 
 to Christ. The law of the Gospel was not relaxed a 
 particle. He came as all must come. He repented 
 and confessed. He was converted as a sinner. The 
 other malefactor wanted to escape ; but this one ac- 
 knowledges his guilt. He repents as David repented, 
 as Bunyan repented, as any Christian repents. To- 
 gether with this conviction of sin comes the conscious- 
 ness of human helplessness. He dictates no terms, 
 proposes no conditions, but surrenders himself wholly 
 to the mercy of God in Christ, and in that surrender 
 every spark of pride is extinguished. There is no ask- 
 ing for a seat at the right or left hand of the Saviour ; 
 he asks for no place whatever, but simply a remem- 
 brance. " Remember me when thou comest into 
 thy kingdom." The prayer is touchingly humble. 
 
 Euclid said there is no royal road to geometry. 
 With much greater truth it can be said there is no 
 royal road to heaven. Every rich and royal sinner 
 must come to Christ just as this poor thief came. At 
 the cross is one of the places where the rich and the 
 poor meet together. David threw aside his robes of 
 royalty and v/ent into the closet, not as a king but as 
 a sinner, and prayed like the publican. Christianity 
 
276 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 admits no reservations, and makes no compromises. 
 It will have the whole of the price, or none at all. 
 He who would obtain the happy assurance of the 
 thief must commit the matter of his salvation to Christ 
 as he did. The experience of Christians is essentially 
 the same in all ages. The religion of this thief is the 
 religion of Adam and Abel and Enoch. His experi- 
 ence is theirs. 
 
 But I have already kept you too long from the 
 Saviour's part of the dialogue. The answers of our 
 Lord, especially to those in distress, have the direct- 
 ness of a sunbeam. There is no ambiguity about 
 them. To one he says, " Son, be of good cheer ; thy 
 sins be forgiven thee." To another, " Daughter, be 
 of good comfort ; thy faith hath made thee whole." 
 To a third, '' I will ; be thou clean." The same 
 promptness and directness characterize his answer to 
 the thief. 
 
 All the sayings of the Saviour are of great interest 
 because on every subject he touched never man spake 
 as he did ; but his sayings while on the cross are pos- 
 sessed of special interest on account of the circum- 
 stances of their delivery. They have in them the 
 melancholy sweetness of a broken, half articulate fare- 
 well of a dying friend. There are seven of these 
 sayings on the cross recorded. Three of them are 
 expressions of compassion for those around him. He 
 prays for his executioners with tenderness enough to 
 make a statue weep. He notices his mother — speaks 
 to her kindly, and commends her to the protection of 
 the disciple most beloved. Another is the answer of 
 the text, by which he converted the cross of a thief 
 into the deathbed of a Christian. Was there ever 
 
THE THIEF ON THE CROSS. 277 
 
 such a change ? An hour ago he was blaspheming, 
 now he is praying and praising. In the morning he 
 was posting on to perdition, before night he was with 
 his Redeemer in Paradise. Never was such assurance 
 given to mortal as was given to this penitent by this 
 reply. You may search the Bible from beginning to 
 end, and you will find nothing like it. How dif- 
 ferent this answer from any that men would have 
 made him ! Some would have told him he was too 
 wicked, others that it was too late, his day of grace 
 was passed. The Romish priest would have sent him 
 to Purgatory instead of to Paradise. But, thank 
 Heaven, amidst this babel of human opinions there is 
 a more sure word of prophecy, which always yields an 
 infallible certainty to the souls that trust it. There is 
 a truth in the text that extinguished forever the fire 
 of Purgatory, and silenced effectually all who would 
 exalt sacraments or ordinances above the sacrifice of 
 Christ. 
 
 Thoughts at once obvious and interesting arise 
 spontaneously from so suggestive a subject as this. 
 One of the most evident of them all is Chrisfs power 
 to save. If ever a sinner's case was desperate, this 
 thief's was. The most sanguine piety could scarcely 
 have indulged a hope ; yet the Saviour brought him 
 off triumphant and took him to glory as a trophy of 
 his finished work. And if he could save while on the 
 cross, who will despair now that he is in his kingdom 
 and on his throne ? If, while he himself was dying, 
 he could save the thief from eternal death, who will 
 now despair, seeing he '' ever liveth to make interces- 
 sion for us " ? And oh ! the precious power of that 
 blood of atonement. While it was yet streaming 
 
278 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 fresh and warm from the Redeemer's body, see what 
 it could do ! It could take this dying robber, wash 
 his soul of stains that had been deepening for a life- 
 time, and in an hour make him clean and holy — fit for 
 the inheritance of the saints in light. Ye who would 
 make sure of heaven, try the efficacy of this blood. 
 Here is the specific, and the only specific that can 
 cure and save you. 
 
 But Christ's power to save is not more certain than 
 his readiness to save. 
 
 Would it not be natural to suppose that he might 
 be excused from answering prayer or granting pardons 
 just then ? Without adverting to his spiritual agony, 
 which was the burden of his passion, let us look a 
 moment at his physical conditions. In the 2 2d 
 Psalm we have a wonderful and dramatic description 
 of the Saviour's sufferings while on the cross. Accord- 
 ding to this " all his bones are out of joint," his 
 " strength dried up like a potsherd," and his '' tongue 
 cleaving to his jaws." These all are the natural 
 effects of crucifixion. His extension on the cross 
 would dislocate his joints. One of the most painful 
 things in the world is to keep any part of the body in 
 an unnatural position for any length of time. But 
 the Saviour's body with all his bones out of joint had 
 been kept in such a posture for hours ; yet, notwith- 
 standing, he is ready to listen to the first breathings of 
 prayer in a dying penitent. The loss of blood, and 
 the mid-day sun in a hot climate parching his naked 
 body, would soon bring on violent inflammation in the 
 wounded parts, which would spread through all the 
 veins and arteries, and rapidly dry up the moisture of 
 the system, and thus produce the most intense and 
 
THE THIEF ON THE CROSS. 
 
 279 
 
 intolerable thirst. No description of ^i battle-field is 
 full and faithful which does not introduce the cries of 
 the wounded for water. The soldier, as he lies wel- 
 tering in his blood, will beg for water or for death. 
 These entreaties are touching, and used to draw tears 
 from the eyes of Napoleon, the hero of a hundred 
 battles. It was this furnace-like thirst that dried up 
 the strength of the Saviour like a potsherd. He did 
 not complain of the nails in his hands or the spikes 
 in his feet, he said not a word about his sore and 
 swollen joints, but he was compelled to cry '' I thirst." 
 Yet, parched for drink as he was, he forgot all to save 
 the thief. 
 
 To understand fully the sufferings of Christ on the 
 cross, it must ever be borne in mind that he was a 
 perfect man. He did not assume half of our nature 
 but the whole of it. He was tremblingly alive to 
 insult and ignominy ; so insult and ignominy were 
 made ingredients of the bitter cup he drank. " I may 
 tell all my bones while they look and stare upon me," 
 is a part of the description to which I have already 
 alluded. This being stared upon is here put alongside 
 of his most intense bodily agony. We have seen the 
 Romans gambling for his clothes. He is exposed for 
 hours to the embarrassing stare of a gaping crowd. 
 One of the sorest temptations to which anyone can be 
 subjected is to be dared to put forth a power which 
 he is conscious of possessing. The Saviour escaped 
 not this temptation either. " Ha ! " cries one on this 
 side of the cross, " he saved others — let him save 
 himself if he be the Christ, the Chosen of God." And 
 on the other side cries another, " Ah ! If thou be 
 King of the Jews, as thou dost profess to be, save 
 
28o OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 thyself." Now these taunts were as much a part of 
 the Crucifixion as the stripes and the nails were. They 
 were poisoned arrows that stuck and quivered in their 
 victim. But all this could not make him disregard 
 for one instant the sinner at his side. His fever and 
 intolerable thirst produced in his case, as it would in 
 the case of anyone, a swelling of the tongue. It 
 would be painful and difficult for him to speak. He 
 might have heard and pardoned the thief without 
 uttering a word of comfort ; but no ! no ! in broken, 
 half-articulate accents he gives him an assurance 
 such as he never gave a patriarch, prophet, or apostle. 
 Doubt that this light streaming around us comes 
 from the sun, doubt your own identity or existence, 
 doubt anything, but never doubt Christ's willingness 
 to save the worst, the humblest, the youngest, the 
 oldest, all — everyone. Listen to me when I tell you he 
 is ready to save all, everyone ! I will make the asser- 
 tion as strong as the Englisii language can make it ; 
 as strong as all languages, living or dead, can make it. 
 The power of prayer is another truth growing out 
 of this subject. The man had never prayed before. 
 The first petition that fell from lips worn callous by 
 oaths and blasphemy was answered. It was one in 
 which there was no formality. It has been said by an 
 eminent divine that if Christ should be engaged in 
 creating a world, and the cry of some penitent prodi- 
 gal should be addressed to him, if both could not 
 be attended to at once, he would abandon the 
 creation of the world to attend to the case of the sinner. 
 We can have no dynamics by which to compute the in- 
 fluence of prayer until we have an arithmetic by which 
 we can compute the value of the soul. 
 
' THE THIEF ON THE CROSS. 281 
 
 Beside its saving quality, it has a preservative power. 
 Naturalists tell us of a curious insect called the diving 
 water-spider. By a law of its nature this little creature 
 can envelop itself in an atmosphere like that which 
 encircles the earth, only on a small scale, and thus 
 shielded it can descend to the bottom of deep and stag- 
 nant pools, and although the water around it be bitter 
 and putrid, the diver moves about dry and at its leisure. 
 Prayer protects the believer with a vesture like this. 
 Guarded thus he can descend into the unhealthy and 
 contagious pools of the world, untouched and uncon- 
 taminated. Prayer is the buoy which rides the roaring 
 flood ; the asbestos robe, which defies the devouring 
 flame. It is the tent in which frailty sleeps securely, 
 and anguish forgets to mourn. It is the shield on 
 which the world and the Wicked One expend their 
 darts in vain. And when pain and temptation and 
 agony are all over ; whether wafted by Sabbath 
 zephyrs, or winged by scorching flames ; whether 
 guided by hurrying angels, or dragged by raging 
 lions ; whether the starting-point be Patmos, or Jeru- 
 salem, or Smithfield, or Babylon, it is the chariot 
 which conveys the departing spirit to the Saviour's 
 bosom. 
 
 The text corrects an error which it is to be feared is 
 quite wide spread. This consists in supposing that 
 some preparation is required of the sinner before he 
 can come to Christ. Men are ashamed to come to 
 the Saviour all covered and reeking with their iniqui- 
 ties, and in too many instances set about a vigorous 
 reformation of their lives to make themselves, if I 
 may so speak, respectable candidates for regenera- 
 tion. They want to take a part of the work out of 
 
252 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 the hands of the Saviour. An egregious error ! 
 Christ will do the whole work, or none at all. He 
 will have all the glory or none. If a man is dying he 
 never thinks of waiting until he himself can effect a 
 partial cure before he applies to a physician. The 
 sinner's case is similar. What preparation had this 
 thief? If he had waited to lop off his more flagrant 
 vices ; if he had waited to trim his character into a 
 more decent shape ; he would have waited till he was 
 evermore undone. 
 
 Let not conscience make you linger, 
 
 Nor of fitness fondly dream; 
 All the fitness he requireth, 
 
 Is to feel your need of him. 
 
 There are a great many other topics suggested 
 which I cannot take time to discuss. Permit me 
 to mention some without dwelling upon them at any 
 length. 
 
 (i) Justification is complete at once and forever. 
 Bad, abandoned, and desperate as he was, the moment 
 this thief believed, he was immaculate in the eyes of 
 the law. Justice had nothing against him. With a 
 faith only half an hour old he was as completely justi- 
 fied as was Abraham with his faith of a century. One 
 drop of that blood now trickling down the cross was 
 worth all the good works ever performed, all pilgrim- 
 ages ever made, or all relics ever collected. The most 
 eloquent preacher in France, if not in the world, died 
 a few days ago. Among the last things he said was 
 that his ministerial labors, his works, and preaching 
 he reckoned as filthy rags ; " a drop of my Saviour's 
 blood," said he, " is infinitely more precious." 
 
THE THIEF ON THE CROSS. 283 
 
 (2) Faith without works is dead. Let it never 
 be forgotten that good works are no part of our 
 justification. Let it ever be remembered, on the other 
 hand, that faith without them is as worthless as salt 
 without savor. They will never produce faith, but 
 faith invariably produces them. This thief is no ex- 
 ception. He performed one of the best deeds ever 
 mortal performed. He confessed Christ before a 
 scoffing world. No sooner was he a Christian than he 
 made a public profession of Christianity. And was 
 ever Christ professed in such circumstances ? He was, 
 too, the only one in that awful hour who was found to 
 testify to the Saviour's innocence. His disciples, for 
 whom he had done so much, had deserted. John in- 
 deed was in the crowd, but fear had shut his mouth. 
 Not one of those whom Christ had fed or healed was 
 there to publicly declare that he was innocent. This 
 was left for a dying thief. Who will say now that he 
 did no good works ? 
 
 He not only professed Christ, he preached him. 
 The sense of pardoned sin makes every man a mis- 
 sionary. His field may be small. It may be his own 
 household, or his neighborhood, yet he is none the 
 less a missionary. Both the Bible and experience 
 prove it. " The Spirit and the Bride say. Come ! And 
 let him that heareth say, Come ! " As soon as this thief 
 heard, he said, Come. He began to preach. He could 
 not work for God with hands and feet. They were 
 fast to the cross. He had only one member left free 
 — his tongue — and that he consecrated to the service, 
 swollen, parched, and feverish as it was. All preach- 
 ing is not done in the pulpit, or by ministers. All can 
 do this in their own way. The little child that with 
 
284 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 clasped hands kneels daily in its closet preaches to 
 careless, prayerless men a more powerful sermon 
 than was ever delivered by Whitefield or Chalmers. 
 The lark that mounted singing to Heaven, as we 
 came to church, uttered a sermon on gratitude and 
 praise. 
 
 (3) The Gospel as a Gospel of love is exemplified in 
 the case of the thief. There is scarcely any more 
 striking proof of human depravity than the supreme 
 selfishness that has reigned ever since the Fall. Man 
 went from Eden a selfish, and consequently an un- 
 happy being. This evil, like a haughty tyrant, has 
 ruled him ever since. Christianity drives him out of 
 self and sends him abroad with blessings for his fel- 
 lows. No sooner did grace enter the heart of this 
 thief than self-love left ; and he immediately thinks of 
 others, admonishes a gentle rebuke to his companion, 
 and comes out as the apologist of Christ. 
 
 (4) Religion is the easiest, and at the same time the 
 most difficult thing in the world. 
 
 (5) No two parts of the Bible have been wrested 
 more from their original purpose than the Parables of 
 the thief and the eleventh-hour laborer. " This case," 
 it has been said, " is recorded that none should de- 
 spair, and only this one that none should presume." 
 Indeed the mercies of God are never recorded for 
 man's presumption, nor the failings of men for imita- 
 tion. Death-bed repentance is too perilous an experi- 
 ment to be tried in a case involving so much as the 
 loss of the soul. And it never should be forgotten, 
 that if one was saved the other was lost ; if one went 
 to Paradise with the Saviour, the other went to perdi- 
 tion with blasphemy on his lips. It was then as it is 
 
THE THIEF ON THE CROSS. 285 
 
 now, and as it will be at the Last Day ; two are together, 
 the one shall be taken, the other left. The sun that 
 ripens one apple rots another. The means of grace 
 that are a savor of life unto life to one, are a savor of 
 death unto death to another — another in the same 
 circumstances, church, pew, or family. The thief 
 that was lost had the same opportunities of repentance 
 as the other, he heard all he heard ; yet one was taken, 
 the other left. 
 
 But I only ask of those who are procrastinating 
 to do as much as this man did. We have not a shadow 
 of evidence that he had ever before had an opportunity 
 of professing Christ. He embraced his very first 
 chance. If all would do as he did there would be no 
 need of death-bed repentances. 
 
 Have we, or have we not, the faith of this thief ? If 
 we have, happy are we. The man who has a tithe of 
 his assurance is as far above the petty trifles and 
 troubles of the world as the eagle is above the crawl- 
 ing snail or the grovelling worm. There is an hour 
 coming when we shall all need the remembrance this 
 man prayed for as much as he needed it. This reply, 
 indeed, shows us how close we live to eternity. A very 
 slight partition divides the two states. We step 
 aboard the cars ; the glowing wheels have to make a 
 deviation of but six inches and we are in eternity. 
 When we go aboard a steamboat there is the power of 
 five hundred horses tugging at the boilers under us. 
 Time is so short that it is really not a hyperbole 
 to say of each one of us, to-day we shall be in 
 Paradise or perdition. If that could be spoken 
 literally, how it would startle us ! It should startle 
 us as it is. 
 
286 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 When that eventful hour comes, and come it 
 must, it will little matter if our friends neglect and 
 desert us — if our father and mother forget and dis- 
 own us ; but it will be a matter of infinite importance 
 if then he who remembered the thief shall remember 
 us. 
 
Y. 
 
 TRIBULATION AND ITS FRUITS. 
 
V. 
 
 TRIBULATION AND ITS FRUITS. 
 
 '^ And not only so, but ive glory in tribulations also ; knowing 
 that tribulation worketh patience ; 
 
 ''''And patience^ experience ; and experience, hope ; 
 
 ''''And hope viaketh not ashamed : because the love of God is shed 
 abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.' 
 — Romans v. 3-5. 
 
 In the preceding chapters of this Epistle Paul 
 elaborated the argument for justification by faith. 
 This fundamental article established, he proceeds to 
 show the effects and consequences of it. The first 
 effect is : " Peace with God through our Lord Jesus 
 Christ." The second is : Access to God through the 
 same Saviour. The third is : Exultation in hope of 
 the glory of God. The fourth is : Grace to glory in 
 tribulations even. 
 
 The chastisements of Christians are a means of 
 grace. They are not judicial punishments ; they 
 are the corrections of a loving Father. 
 
 Nothing is more clearly revealed than the fact that 
 tribulation is an important element in the Christian 
 economy. 
 
 In one of his visions John saw "A great multitude, 
 which no man could number, of all nations, and kin- 
 dreds, and people, and tongues, standing before the 
 throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white 
 robes and palms in their hands." 
 
 289 
 
290 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 The enquiry is made : " What are these which are 
 arrayed in white robes ? And whence came they ? " 
 The answer is : 
 
 " These are they which came out of great tribula- 
 tion, and have washed their robes and made them 
 white in the blood of the Lamb." 
 
 " I know thy works, and tribulation and poverty," 
 are the words of commendation sent by the Spirit to 
 the Church of Smyrna. 
 
 " In the world ye shall have tribulation," were 
 among the last words of the Redeemer to his disciples. 
 
 Through much tribulation we must enter into the 
 kingdom of God, was the uniform teaching of Paul. 
 
 The manifest teaching of the Bible, therefore, is : 
 
 That tribulations are sanctified to God's people 
 and become the means whereby Christians attain to 
 the stature of perfect men in Christ Jesus. 
 
 This is the general statement of a general truth. 
 
 In the text Paul gives us a brief analysis of the 
 process by which this general result is reached. To 
 this analysis I now invite your attention. 
 
 Tribulation worketh patience. Patience includes 
 not only the disposition that .quietly and meekly sub- 
 mits to suffering, but also the power to endure suffer- 
 ing. The simple point before us then is : How, in 
 the economy of God, is this power acquired ? 
 
 Exercise, effort, is the great law of growth in the 
 divine government. It applies to the body. 
 
 If the child should lie in its cradle from morning 
 till night it would soon be a corpse or a dwarf. It is 
 the irrepressible activity of the child that develops 
 the beautiful symmetry of the body. Not a muscle, 
 tendon, fibre, nerve, gets leave to remain inert. By 
 
TRIBULATION AND ITS FRUITS. 29I 
 
 an ordinance of God the child romps, the lamb skips, 
 and the kitten plays. Exercise is life and strength. 
 Inactivity is imbecility or death. 
 
 The muscles on the arm of the blacksmith that 
 wields the hammer are as hard as hickory withes. 
 The brutal prizefighter goes through the most rigid 
 training before he enters the bloody arena. Roman 
 fable illustrates the same thing, in the exaggerations 
 of the strength of Milo, who, according to ancient 
 story, carried a calf every day, his strength increasing 
 with its weight, until he carried the full-grown ox, 
 and with his hands could rive the living oak. 
 
 The law applies to the mind. 
 
 Why is every student, regardless of his prospective 
 sphere, put upon the brain-perplexing problems of 
 algebra, geometry, trigonometry, conic sections, and 
 calculus ? It is because the mind, as well as the 
 body, grows only by effort. The greater the effort, 
 the greater the growth. 
 
 Stuffing the mind with facts, dates, principles, is not 
 education. A mind thus crammed is to a really edu- 
 cated mind what a sack of wool is to a pillar of brass 
 or iron. The man who knows the most is by no 
 means the strongest man intellectually. He that 
 eats the most is not the strongest man physically. 
 Gormandizer is not synonymous with giant. Effort — 
 continuous, arduous, intense effort — develops the intel- 
 lect, and nothing else will. 
 
 The law applies to the moral nature as well. 
 
 Love, pity, benevolence, are strengthened by exer- 
 cise. The more a man pities, the deeper and tenderer 
 his pity becomes. His demonstrations may not be 
 so great as at first, but his feelings will be stronger. 
 
292 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 The same is true of benevolence. The more a man 
 gives, the more he will give. The more anyone does 
 for the good of others, the more is he ready to do. 
 The law applies in its full force to all the affections 
 and virtues ; they develop and strengthen by exercise 
 and only by exercise. 
 
 This same law obtains in our spiritual nature. 
 
 Faith, hope, charity, develop by exercise. Abra- 
 ham's faith was athletic because God proved and 
 tried him. *' The trial of our faith," Peter says, " is 
 more precious than that of gold which perisheth," 
 
 Our capacity for suffering is developed in the same 
 way. 
 
 "Tribulation worketh patience." 
 
 One unaccustomed to pain will chafe under the 
 slightest disorder ; but he whose companion for 
 thirty years has been his crutch, who has not been 
 free from pain for half a century, is resigned and 
 cheerful. His passive powers have been undergoing 
 an education all this time. The wonder so frequently 
 expressed at the cheerfulness of great sufferers is a 
 practical exegesis of the text : " Tribulation worketh 
 patience." Physical pain is but a small part of tribu- 
 lation. The soul is more susceptible, by far, than the 
 body. " The spirit of a man will sustain his in- 
 firmity ; but a wounded spirit who can bear ? " The 
 wide territory of man's sensibilities and susceptibili- 
 ties is exposed to attack ; soul and body suffer. 
 Tribulation embraces the whole range of human 
 sensibility. 
 
 God, in his manifold wisdom and infinite skill, 
 adopts various expedients in his providence to disci- 
 pline and edify his people. As varied as the skill 
 
TRIBULATION AND ITS FRUITS. 293 
 
 which clothes the earth with blades of grass and robes 
 the forests of all the globe in leaves, no two of which 
 are precisely alike, is the dealing of God toward 
 different individuals. 
 
 Many of the noblest traits and highest virtues are 
 brought out only by tribulation, as the golden wheat 
 flies from its husk beneath the flail ; or as the 
 mallet and the chisel bring statuary from the form- 
 less marble, or as darkness makes the stars leap forth 
 from the depths of the heavens. The man who escapes 
 tribulation goes to his grave with many of the best 
 springs of his being untouched and inactive. The 
 full rounded symmetry of his character is no more 
 developed than the whole harmony of a musical 
 instrument is brought out by playing upon one string 
 or striking upon one key. God in his providence 
 sweeps his hand over all the keys and stops until the 
 full harmony of the man's being is called forth. 
 The passive powers of humanity God evokes by 
 suffering. He stretches out the rod, and it becomes 
 the wand beneath which hidden virtues and powers 
 spring to light. An entirely new phase is given to 
 character. A new and distinct set of qualities and 
 attributes is called into exercise. Job in the ex- 
 tremities of his affliction is a greater and a better man 
 than when he washed his steps with butter and the 
 rock poured him out rivers of oil. The strength and 
 glory of his character were never seen until he was 
 smitten, stricken, and buffeted. Fire slumbers in the 
 rock, and slumber it will until the hammer or the iron 
 hoof of the prancing steed awakens it. 
 
 He has the most complete and symmetrical char- 
 acter who, sustained by God's spirit and grace, has 
 
294 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 passed through the most trying vicissitudes of fortune 
 and the keenest experiences of suffering. 
 
 Nothing more imperiously compels our admiration 
 and homage than great patience — the power of endur- 
 ing. This power, under God, is developed by tribu- 
 lation. "Tribulation worketh patience." 
 
 But this is only the beginning of the work ; the 
 first step in a long process. Patience has its results, 
 consequences, tendencies, influences. These all 
 work. " Patience worketh experience." 
 
 Experience here signifies test or trial. 
 
 It tests the promises of the world and finds them 
 false. It tests the promises of God and finds them 
 true. It tests the pious affections and finds them 
 genuine. 
 
 With false weights in false balances we weigh the 
 world, when in prosperity and success. In the fur- 
 nace of affliction the balances are more accurate. 
 The promises of the world are there received at a 
 considerable discount. 
 
 The world fails just when some assistance or 
 recourse is needed. It cannot pluck a single sorrow 
 from the heart. It cannot put a particle of down in 
 a death-bed pillow. It can give no title to any hope 
 or inheritance beyond the grave. In all the critical 
 junctures of human existence it is barren of sympathy 
 and aid. What worth to him was David's crown as 
 he went up to the chamber over the gate, crying as 
 he went : " O my son Absalom ! my son, my son Ab- 
 salom ! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, 
 my son, my son ! " A trinket to lure the hours of a 
 child his crown seemed then to him. His royal state 
 and power proffered him no support or solace. He 
 
TRIBULATION AND ITS FRUITS. 295 
 
 would have exchanged the regal palace for the shep- 
 herd's hut and his kingly sceptre for the shepherd's 
 crook, if thereby he could have plucked from his heart 
 the gnawing grief. 
 
 He whose patience has been educated by tribula- 
 tion writes with a diamond point on the world's best 
 estate : '^ Thou hast been weighed and art found 
 wanting," 
 
 Experience tests the truth of God's promises. 
 
 Many of the most precious promises are verified 
 only in affliction. We cannot appreciate the Almighty 
 as a shield until we need protection ; nor as a sun 
 until we need light. Nor can we appreciate Christ as 
 a brother until we need sympathy. 
 
 " As thy day so shall thy strength be ; " " My grace 
 shall be sufficient for thee ; " and a large group of 
 similar texts have a fulness of meaning, a plenitude 
 of comfort in affliction which they never could other- 
 wise have. In seasons of severest trials God delights 
 to prove himself faithful. He gives his people, at 
 such times, indubitable evidences of his veracity and 
 sincerity. " Taste and see that the Lord is good," is 
 the challenge to every man. The infinite Jehovah 
 stakes his character and his throne on the issue. 
 Thousands in all ages certify the fact that these 
 promises have been kept. They have glorified the 
 Lord in the fires. 
 
 Experience tests pious affections and proves them 
 genuine. 
 
 The house that resisted the storm and flood fur- 
 nished good evidence, by that resistance, that its 
 foundation was on a rock. The faith and love and 
 holy affections that survive the tribulations which 
 
296 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 produce patience furnish evidence quite as good 
 that their origin is divine. Graces which outlive 
 such trials are not the earth-born impulses of an 
 hour. The man in whose heart they dwell has passed 
 from death unto life. He is a new creature. 
 
 A word, here, of recapitulation. Experience tests 
 the hollowness and emptiness of the world. This 
 discovery gives wings to the affections and desires. 
 They fly up to an eyry that is in the clefts of the 
 Rock of Ages, where no storm, or flood, or disaster 
 ever comes. The Divine faithfulness is tested at the 
 same time, and this produces confidence in God, 
 while the trial of faith proves it genuine. All this 
 experience tends to one point. All these discoveries, 
 influences, and tendencies combine to produce hope. 
 Experience worketh hope — a blessed hope — a good 
 hope through grace. " Which hope we have as an 
 anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and 
 which entereth into that within the vail." A hope 
 that maketh not ashamed ! It will never disappoint 
 those who cherish it. It will never perish. 
 
 It is a bitter mortification to find a cherished hope 
 go to pieces in the hour when all that it promised 
 was about to be realized. But it is a source of grati- 
 fication and unspeakable joy to find a hope to which 
 we have long and fondly clung more than equal to all 
 the emergencies which are to try it. Such will be 
 the sequel of the hope begotten of experience. 
 
 The earnest of this final and complete vindication 
 of this hope is the love of God shed abroad in the 
 heart by the Holy Ghost. A spark of that love once 
 in the heart will never go out. Rivers and deluges 
 cannot extinguish it. Mountains and continents can- 
 
I TRIBULATION AND ITS FRUITS. 297 
 
 not smother it. It will live on, burn on, until it 
 blazes up into a lambent flame of eternal glory. 
 
 Thus : Tribulation worketh patience, patience 
 experience, experience hope, and hope maketh not 
 ashamed. This is the apostle's inspired analysis. 
 
 The subject may have various applications : 
 
 I. Mark the estate of the righteous. All things 
 are theirs, " whether the world, or life, or death, or 
 things present, or things to come ; all are theirs ; and 
 they are Christ's and Christ is God's." 
 
 The believer can glory in tribulation even. He sees 
 all things working together for his ultimate good. All 
 the chaotic, conflicting, antagonistic events and inter- 
 ests of his history are as true to this one great end as 
 the needle is true to the pole, or as the planet is loyal to 
 the sun. While the unbeliever is bewildered and diz- 
 zied by the tumultuous eddy and whirl and strife of 
 opposing influences, the believer sits aloft on a calm, 
 strong tide, that with steady progress bears him on- 
 ward to the everlasting haven. Nothing for a moment 
 impedes his course. Nothing can. In prosperity he 
 blesses God and walks softly. Beneath the rod he 
 sings praises. Amidst the crash and utter wreck of 
 earthly fortune he blesses him that gave and him that 
 takes away. Temporal loss he sets down as spiritual 
 gain. While his deposits and assets are diminishing 
 he is laying up treasures in heaven which bankruptcy 
 can never touch. His assets on high are safe. His 
 deposits there are in the vaults of a bank that never 
 fails or suspends. 
 
 The great universe, as it rushes like the lightning 
 through immensity, will be made to stand still, if need 
 be, sooner than the real interest of the meanest saint 
 
298 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 shall suffer detriment to the weight or valuation of a 
 hair. 
 
 If riches are for your good, the riches of the Roths- 
 childs shall be yours. Your cup and your coffers 
 shall be filled, pressed down, heaped up, shaken 
 together, running over. If honors are for your good, 
 honors you shall have until they overtop the regal 
 splendors that perched on the imperial crest of 
 David's son. If tribulation is for your good, tribula- 
 tion you shall have. In the furnace you shall stay 
 until all dross is purged away ; and God, the great 
 Refiner, shall see his own image clearly reflected in 
 you. If necessary you shall pass from the society of 
 dogs at the rich man's gate to be ushered through 
 pearly gates into the New Jerusalem. 
 
 II. There is then a unity in the Christian's life. The 
 purpose of God toward him is single. Everything in 
 Divine providence contributes to carrying forward the 
 Divine purpose. The believer's falls and backslid- 
 ings are overruled for his good. Peter never forgot 
 his denial. Perhaps no experience less bitter would 
 ever have shaken his self-confidence. This, however 
 (it may be observed parenthetically), no more justifies 
 these falls and backslidings than the purpose of God 
 justified the betrayer and crucifiers of our Lord in 
 their work of perfidy and blood. To man belongs 
 the sin. To God belongs the glory of bringing good 
 out of evil. 
 
 No vicissitudes of fortune, therefore, no reverses, 
 no disasters, can disturb the believer's relations with 
 his God ; nor change the purpose of his God toward 
 him ; nor arrest the drift and current of his life 
 heavenward. Let all else be lost, the Divine idea of 
 
TRIBULATION AND ITS I RUITS. . 299 
 
 ultimate salvation is preserved. This is never lost, 
 nor lost sight of. Let fire, and flood, and financial 
 crises come. Let them take everything that is inflam- 
 able ; the title-deed to an inheritance in light is safe. 
 It is secure beyond all risks. Scent of fire, moisture 
 of flood, or tooth of moth shall never touch it. 
 
 We do not need, therefore, a different adminis- 
 tration of Providence, nor a new charter, nor an 
 amended constitution of the kingdom of God. The 
 urgent need of Christendom is an overcoming faith. 
 " This is the victory that overcometh the world, even 
 our faith." 
 
 We stand amidst the deafening jar and din of con- 
 flicting interests. To the carnal and sensuous ear it 
 is a bedlam of harsh and discordant noises. The ear 
 of faith, however, detects a melodious harmony in it all. 
 
 We stand amidst events which seem to us as lawless 
 and frenzied as a mob. Backward, forward, hither- 
 ward, thitherward they seem to be rushing in all the 
 complex and intricate movements of chaos and con- 
 fusion. Rise, my hearers, up to the serene region 
 of faith and look down. Then you will see order 
 springing out of chaos, system out of confusion. 
 Then you will see tribulation working patience, 
 patience experience, experience hope, and hope 
 exultant in victory. 
 
 III. The legitimate effect of hope is to elevate, 
 ennoble, and make magnanimous. 
 
 He that cherishes the hope of a nobleman's estate 
 will pitch the tenor of his life above the purposes of 
 a scavenger. This buoys up his tastes and pursuits. 
 Pluck this from the heart of man and you consign 
 him to infamy and beggary : but plant in his heart a 
 
3^00 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 joyous hope and you give him an impulse that will 
 do much toward his elevation. 
 
 The aims, the conduct, the bearing of a Christian, 
 should comport with the hope he indulges. Ye are 
 God's noblemen. Act worthy of your estate and the 
 reversion in prospect for you ! 
 
 How can you go back to the beggarly elements of 
 the world ? For a Christian to besmear his profession 
 with the vices of the world is as incongruous as it 
 would be for a king to act the part of a pimp or a 
 buffoon. " He that hath this hope purifieth himself 
 even as God is pure." Your citizenship is in heaven. 
 Act as though that citizenship were a reality and not 
 a sham. Actuated by such a hope, men ought to 
 surmount all difficulties. With such a goal in view 
 they ought to scale mountains, swim oceans, cross 
 deserts, quench fire, vanquish storms, put fear beneath 
 their feet, challenge death^ and defy the powers of 
 the grave. Not for one moment should their courage 
 be dampened or their zeal abated, not even by the 
 most formidable obstacles which the powers of dark- 
 ness can interpose between them and their prospect 
 of such a realization. 
 
 Could we but climb where Moses stood, 
 
 And view the landscape o'er, 
 Not Jordan's stream, nor death's cold flood, 
 
 Should fright us from the shore. 
 
 In the presence of such a hope all murmurings, 
 complainings, repinings, ought to be hushed into per- 
 petual silence. 
 
 This life is but an infinitesimal segment of the soul's 
 existence. On ! on ! on ! and outward, and upward 
 
TRIBULATION AND ITS FRUITS. 30I 
 
 Stretches the immortal life of man. Embrace in your 
 calculations that endless existence, the glory of which 
 will augment forever, and what signify our present 
 afflictions, which are light and but for a moment ? 
 They no more disturb the great sum total of the 
 spirit's blessedness than the vibration of a gnat's 
 wing disturbs the depths of the ocean. 
 
 When the travel-worn Israelite found himself at last 
 in Canaan, plucking the grapes of Eshcol, he forgot 
 the trials of the wilderness and blushed that he should 
 ever have complained. And if the sensation of shame 
 can be felt in heaven, the Christian will blush to 
 remember that, with such a hope within him and with 
 such a prospect before him, his lips ever uttered, or 
 his heart ever harbored, a murmur or a complaint. 
 
VI. 
 
 THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST. 
 
VI. 
 
 THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST. 
 
 ''And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he 
 was taken tip ; and a cloud received him out of their sight. 
 
 '"And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went 
 up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel ; 
 
 " Which also said. Ye men of Galilee, 7vhy stand ye gazing up 
 into heaven ? this same Jesus, 7vhich is taken up from you itito 
 heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into 
 heaven" — Acts i. 9— ii. 
 
 Brief as this account is, it is the longest we have of 
 the ascension of the Lord. The fact is so grand and 
 subUme that it had no need to be put on the stilts of 
 grandiloquent language. The account tells us in 
 chaste, simple phraseology all that it is necessary for 
 us to know. 
 
 The central doctrine here is the ascension of the 
 Lord. This is the stem, the trunk, and anything 
 else in the passage belongs to the trunk as branches 
 belong to the tree. 
 
 Forty days after his resurrection the Son of God 
 ascended to heaven to assume the universal authority 
 of his mediatorial kingdom. 
 
 This was a real transaction. It was no sham. As 
 his incarnation, death, and resurrection were real, so 
 was his ascension real. The incarnate Son of God 
 in his theanthropic Person ascended from Olivet. 
 
 305 ♦ 
 
3o6 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 The reality of his bodily presence he demonstrated 
 on several occasions after his resurrection. In this 
 body, from a definite locality, within full and satis- 
 factory view of competent witnesses, he gradually 
 ascended to heaven. The same Jesus who lived, and 
 died, and arose on earth, ascended to and now reigns 
 and intercedes on high. Although removed from 
 their sight he is not separated from his people. All 
 his human interests, attachments, associations, and 
 sympathies he took with him. A whole Christ is in 
 heaven on the mediatorial throne. His interest in 
 his people is as undying as is the power of his 
 eternal life. 
 
 He went up from a definite locality. From a cer- 
 tain hill-top within view of men he ascended to a 
 place where his glorified body now is. 
 
 It was necessary that Christ should thus ascend 
 because : 
 
 I. He carries on his mediatorial work in heaven. 
 He, as their Great High Priest, intercedes for his 
 people. His death and resurrection instead of finish- 
 ing his work only fully inaugurated it. His redemp- 
 tive sufferings were finished, but his mediatorial work 
 was only fairly begun. He ascended to heaven to 
 carry it on. Within view of the scenes of his agony 
 and crucifixion, in the body which was nailed to the 
 cross, he went up to further advance in glory the 
 salvation which he began in humiliation and suffer- 
 ings. His interest in the results of his earthly mis- 
 sion is just as fresh to-day as it was on the day he 
 passed into heaven. In his glorified humanity, sus- 
 ceptible of being "touched with a feeling of our 
 infirmities," he prosecutes his work on high. This 
 
' THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST. 307 
 
 was the object of his ascension. " He ever lives to 
 make intercession for us." 
 
 II. It was necessary that he should ascend in order 
 that the Holy Ghost should be given. 
 
 To his sorrowing disciples Christ said : " It is ex- 
 pedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away 
 the Comforter will not come unto you ; but if I 
 depart I will send him unto you." 
 
 This was the divine arrangement. We are under 
 the dispensation of the Spirit. Christ was *' exalted 
 to give repentance and the remission of sins." The 
 redemption which he purchased with his blood must 
 be applied by the Holy Ghost. In thus ascending he 
 was making another step in the progress of his work. 
 Instead of having the earth as the centre of his 
 achievements he has the throne of universal empire ; 
 and with the reins of dominion in his hands, and all 
 powers and Forces at his service, he sheds forth on 
 the Church the gracious influences of his reign. By 
 his precious blood Christ purchased our redemption. 
 But Redemption would be valueless and inefficacious 
 if it were not applied. The application thereof is the 
 office of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is God as 
 really as the Father or the Son. He loves sinners as 
 tenderly as Christ does. As lovingly as the Redeemer 
 himself, does the Holy Ghost deal with them. So 
 that to each one who accepts it, this redemption is as 
 perfectly applied as though there were but one sinner 
 on earth and as though the Trinity had no other work 
 than the salvation of that one soul. When Christ left 
 the earth he did not leave his work unplanned. All 
 was arranged. From the universal throne down to 
 the smallest incident which concerns a child of God, 
 
3o8 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 everything is made to contribute to the good of the 
 Church. In all those vast and intricate connections 
 there are no gaps. The system is a harmonious unit. 
 
 III. Again, he said to his stricken disciples : " I go 
 to prepare a place for you." In his intercessory 
 prayer he reveals his deep interest in the future of his 
 people when he says, " Father, I will that they also 
 whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, 
 that they may behold my glory." 
 
 He has gone on high to prepare a place for his 
 people ; a place adapted to the glorified humanity of 
 believers. What that preparation is who can tell ! 
 Enough to know that he who gave his life a ransom 
 for sinners is making the preparations. And while he 
 is preparing the place yonder the believer is being 
 fitted therefor by all the gracious dealings of God 
 toward him. 
 
 This abode which Christ is preparing for his people 
 is no narrow or pent-up habitation. Lift up your 
 thoughts to take in something of the magnitude of 
 God's works. God's thoughts are not as our thoughts. 
 Imagination is not swift enough or bold enough to 
 reach the boundaries of the universe. The telescope 
 sweeps a circle whose diameter is twelve million years 
 as the light travels. That is, it would take a ray of 
 light twelve million years to cross this diameter. 
 " The rays which reached our earth last night from 
 the pole star started forty-six years ago." There are 
 orbs within that telescopic circle from which light that 
 started when Moses was in the ark of bulrushes is 
 travelling yet and has not reached the earth. " Could 
 the heavens above us be blotted out, w^e should con- 
 tinue to receive light for thousands of years." 
 
THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST. 3°9 
 
 And with all that, how feeble and inadequate tele- 
 scopic vision is ! That which it reveals, vast as .t >s 
 s onlv a corner of the universe. Beyond telescop c 
 ken. there are systems and galaxies of systems stretch- 
 in./ away to distances which to us are infimte. Al 
 Ihtt we know of the universe is no more than a h , t 
 and a suggestion of its vastness and grandeur. Th,s, 
 however.ive do learn, that order and suborcu^a Uon 
 reign e;erywhere. Planets revolve around the.r 
 suns ; suns with their planets revolve around othe 
 centr s ; galaxies of systems move in rhythm around 
 higher centr?s ; and systems of galaxies move arotuid 
 still higher centres. We are justiaed m beUevmg that 
 ■there iL common centre, and capital, an metropol, 
 of all ; and may it not be that ,n th,s centre Ch st is 
 preparing a place for his people ? Suppose that on 
 t'hs summit of the universe the heavenly Jerusalem ,s 
 builded, and that the glorified sp,r,t has a v, ,on 
 which «n sweep and take in all that ,s below that 
 summit - such a place, as an abode f- h'S peop 
 would be no more than conformable w,th all that 
 Christ has done to render them capable of enpy.ng 
 a heavenly inheritance. Past suns -''^^f" ^^^ 
 galaxies, attended by a retmue of angels, Cl.rst, lead 
 fng captivity captive," ascended to h,s hrone .n 
 heaven Where he is. there shall his people be a^sa 
 Their outlook will be upon the universe. The.r 
 study will be the annals of God's marvellous works. 
 Nothing less than eternity can suffice for such a study 
 God is great. His works declare h,m so. But 
 we have mean and low ideas of Him. Th,s earth ,s 
 only a pebble amidst the magnitudes around us- 
 Look up at the Milky Way at night. In ,t there are 
 
3IO OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 eighteen million suns, whirling through space at the 
 rate of thirty thousand miles a minute. We count 
 forty miles an hour fast. The sun seems to us large, 
 and so it is ; but yonder is a star which is two hun- 
 dred and fifty times as large ; and yonder another 
 which shines with the power of twelve thousand suns 
 like ours. 
 
 When such a Creator, with such resources at 
 hand, undertakes to prepare a place for his blood- 
 bought people, what will that place be? In the light 
 of these facts read again the Saviour's words, " I go to 
 prepare a place for you." 
 
 ' Having thus considered the main fact, let us give 
 some attention to two or three incidental matters. 
 
 I. He continued to converse with his disciples to 
 the very last. " When he had spoken these things " 
 " he was taken up." Luke says : " While he blessed 
 them, he was carried up into heaven." His deep 
 and lively interest in his people survived his suffer- 
 ings. It was active and tireless during the forty days, 
 and as he ascended he shed down blessings upon his 
 awe-struck disciples. He is just as near to his people 
 now as though he stood in the midst of them, bodily, 
 as he stood among his disciples on Olivet. He as 
 really blesses them as though the blessings were 
 uttered audibly from his cloudy chariot. Our faith is 
 dull and laggard ! Unbelief suggests that the Being 
 who sits as ruler among all these magnificences, 
 amidst clustering suns and marshalled systems, will 
 not stoop to notice the affairs of a poor sinner on this 
 mean ball of our earth. The answer is that Christ is 
 God ; and God no more neglects the unfolding of a 
 corn blade than he neglects the revolving of suns. 
 
THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST. 3II 
 
 Witli him the bottle in which he keeps the tears of 
 his poor saints is more precious than a world blazing 
 with diamonds. To him the experiences by which 
 holiness is developed in a believing heart are of more 
 interest than the marshalled glories of the starry host. 
 A pure desire, a holy emotion, is worth more than a 
 universe of material splendor. 
 
 2. The ascension is a matter of history, as the 
 resurrection is. • 
 
 It was seen by competent witnesses. They had 
 conversed with him, had walked with him — and they 
 saw him ascend from the midst of them. They 
 bore united testimony to the fact. Their testi- 
 mony has been sifted by an infidel world. 
 
 Were these men mistaken ? They were convinced 
 of the resurrection against their prepossessions. 
 They were not looking for such an event. Neither 
 were they expecting the ascension. They hoped that 
 Christ would remain on earth and establish a kingdom. 
 
 Were they dishonest ? Why should they die in 
 defence of a lie ? Why should they lay down their 
 lives for an impostor? 
 
 3. This same Jesus shall come again to judgment. 
 This same Jesus ! He changes not. As God-man he 
 will come to judge the world. In the body which 
 was scourged and crowned with thorns, and which 
 was nailed to the cross, he will sit on the throne of 
 judgment. All nations shall be gathered before him. 
 ''His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom." Amidst 
 incessant flux and change our faith is apt to give way. 
 But through all, the truth and righteousness of Christ's 
 kingdom remain, and will remain evermore. Whatever 
 betides, the " foundation of God standeth sure." 
 
312 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 And at last, right under the gaze of this same Jesus, 
 all things will be tried, weighed, and judged. Then, 
 with the light of the judgment hour streaming, flash- 
 ing through all cloaks, shams, and disguises, the uni- 
 verse will see the transparent hideousness of the char- 
 acter of all " dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, 
 and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth 
 and maketh a lie." 
 
 Live for that day ! Put beneath ^ur feet and into 
 the dust all interests and theories which are inconsis- 
 tent with the eternal principles which shall then decide 
 all issues ! So believe and live that you can on that 
 day claim the king as your friend and elder brother — 
 the same Jesus in whom you believe and whom you 
 serve. 
 
 If a believer, " your citizenship is in heaven." You 
 are a sojourner and a stranger here. Your home is 
 yonder. You seek a " city which hath foundations." 
 While you touch the earth with your feet, by faith 
 you should lay your hand on the stars. You should 
 " seek those things which are above, where Christ 
 sitteth on the right hand of God." Your lot and in- 
 heritance are there — among the grandeurs and mag- 
 nificences of the metropolis of the universe. While 
 you walk amidst temporalities your faith should be 
 familiar with spiritualities. It is only thus that 
 secular callings become dignified. The commonest 
 laborer while he pursues his toil may, by spiritual 
 contemplation, elevate and refine his nature. While 
 his hand digs, his spirit soars. The man who thinks 
 great thoughts lives a noble life, even though he be a 
 bod-carrier ; and he who thinks mean thoughts is an 
 ignoble man, even though he wear the royal purple. 
 
THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST. 313 
 
 If a believer, in a few years 3'ou will be a king, a 
 priest unto God. Be content with your lot now. 
 
 Think of the place which Christ is preparing for 
 you, and be careful to depart from all iniquity. Ye 
 who are to handle crowns and sceptres, soil not your 
 hands with any manner of uncleanness. 
 
VII. 
 THE GREAT SALVATION. 
 
VII. 
 THE GREAT SALVATION. 
 
 ''How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" — 
 Hebrews ii. 3. 
 
 The apostle is not speaking here of the greatness 
 of salvation in an absolute sense ; but he is contrast- 
 ing the Law and the Gospel — the Mosaic economy 
 and the Christian dispensation. The Law was given 
 by or through the. mediation of angels. Even the 
 Decalogue, which was uttered to the people directly 
 and not through Moses as mediator, was, neverthe- 
 less, given through the mediation of angels. But the 
 Gospel, as distinguished from the Law, was delivered 
 directly by Jesus Christ. According to this view, 
 then, the greatness of salvation consists in this, that 
 it was spoken to us directly by the Son of God. 
 
 The argument is from the less to the greater. The 
 word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every 
 transgression and disobedience received a justrecom- 
 pence of reward. Sins of inattention, sins of omis- 
 sion, as well as sins of commission, were condignly 
 punished. How, then, shall we escape if we neglect 
 the salvation which was delivered by the Son of God ? 
 This does not array the Gospel against the Law, or 
 the Law against the Gospel. It does not mean that 
 there is no Gospel in the Law, or that there is no Law 
 in the Gospel ; neither does it destroy the unity of the 
 
 3x7 
 
3l8 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 Bible. Both Law and Gospel are equally the Word of 
 God. The only difference is that in the one case 
 the Word came to man mediately, and in the other 
 immediately. " In time past God spake unto the 
 fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he hath 
 spoken to us by his Son." The word of the prophets 
 is as really the Word of God as is any part of the 
 New Testament. There is no antagonism between 
 the different parts of the Bible. It is all God's Word. 
 But it was delivered under different dispensations, 
 and our responsibilities are awfully increased because 
 in these last times we have received the Word from the 
 lips of the Son of God himself. 
 Two topics claim attention, viz.: 
 
 I. The greatness of the salvation. 
 
 II. The greatness of our consequent responsi- 
 bility. 
 
 I. The greatness of this salvation. 
 
 As already seen, this consists in the fact that the 
 Gospel was spoken by the Son. Who, then, is the Son ? 
 (i) What is he as described by Paul ? 
 
 (a) He is the brightness of the Father's glory. 
 This means that he is the very essence of the Father, 
 as light is the very essence of the sun. He is not a 
 reflection of the Father's glory, but, on the other hand, 
 the very effulgence and fulness of it, the manifestation 
 of that glory to men. He thought it not robbery to 
 be equal with God. 
 
 (I?) '* He is the express image of his person." 
 
 The figure here is that of a stamp or die. The 
 impression corresponds exactly to the image on the 
 stamp. The son is the express image of the Father's 
 essence. The point here is the exact correspondence 
 
THE GREAT SALVATION. 319 
 
 of the two. What God is in essence, that is the Son. 
 Who, then, is the Son, who has spoken ? He is God 
 essentially in every attribute. This is undoubtedly 
 what the apostle wished to express, and he has 
 taxed the powers of language to put it into phrase- 
 ology which cannot be misunderstood. It is only by 
 exquisite torturing of language that any other mean- 
 ing can be made even to appear in these sentences. 
 
 But (2) what is the Son described as doing ? What 
 are his acts and prerogatives ? If there could be 
 any doubt as to his nature before, there certainly can 
 be none after the apostle enumerates his works and 
 offices. 
 
 (a) He is heir of all things. Sonship suggests 
 heirship. A son inherits because he is the equal of 
 his father. Besides, no being less than God can in- 
 herit all things in the sense in which the heir inherits 
 here ; for, as we shall see, inheritance implies uphold- 
 ing and ruling. It would be the sheerest and 
 severest mockery to put such an inheritance into the 
 hands of any creature. The heir to such an estate 
 must be God — God in essence, God in every attribute. 
 
 (^) But beside sonship, there is another ground for 
 this heirship ; that is, creation. " By whom, also, he 
 made the worlds." 
 
 John says, " In the beginning was the Word, and 
 the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 
 All things were made by him and without him was 
 not anything made that was made. " He has the right, 
 the proprietorship, which arise from creation. He 
 has made the worlds. He has laid the foundations 
 of the earth, and stretched forth the heavens as a tent. 
 He has made and possesses all things. He who was 
 
320 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 rich, for our sakes became poor. How ineffably rich, 
 then, was he as Creator and heir ! 
 
 (c) Unless he were God he could neither possess 
 nor create all things. But as if to remove the possi- 
 bility of doubt the apostle adds another divine pre- 
 rogative : " Upholding all things by the word of his 
 power." " By him all things consist." No less power 
 is required to sustain than to create. 
 
 In essence, in act, and in prerogative the Son is 
 God. He who has created and possesses and upholds 
 all things, cannot be one whit less than God. 
 
 {d) But this Creator, Possessor, and Upholder 
 purged our sins. This involved infinite condescen- 
 sion and humiliation. He not only stooped to take 
 upon him our nature, but he took on him the form of 
 a servant, emptied himself, became of no reputation, 
 and " became obedient unto death, even the death of 
 the cross." 
 
 Now we can understand something of the greatness 
 of this salvation. It was procured by the Creator, 
 Possessor, and Upholder of all things, and at the cost 
 of his incarnation, humiliation, sufferings, and death. 
 By him was this salvation spoken. He brought the 
 great message directly to men. 
 
 (i) He spoke with infinite authority, because he 
 was God, having infinite power, excellence, and pre- 
 rogative. He spoke, too, without mediators of any 
 kind; standing face to face with man. 
 
 (2) He spoke as the God-man ; in his human na- 
 ture ; in his indescribably glorious mediatorial Per- 
 son ; composed of perfect divinity and complete 
 humanity. While he spoke as God he at the same 
 time spoke in the sphere and on the plane of human- 
 
THE GREAT SALVATION. 32I 
 
 ity. While it seemed to be one man speaking with 
 another, it was God speaking with all divine authority 
 and out of all the fulness of divine wisdom. 
 
 (3) He did not contradict the Old Testament Scrip- 
 tures. He did not nullify what had been said and 
 done by the prophets who spake to the fathers. He 
 did not destroy the Law, but fulfilled it to the utter- 
 most. He confirmed all that had been hitherto 
 revealed. Indeed, he himself was the fulfilment of it. 
 So that, not only did he conserve the unity of revela- 
 tion, but he was the most perfect realization thereof. 
 He abolished the types only by taking the place 
 of them, and of all that they prefigured. All these 
 pointed forward to him. All scattered rays concen- 
 trated in him. He bound all the parts of revelation 
 together. Types, prophecies, figures, shadows, and 
 suggestions all met in him ; and his word was the 
 completion of the great salvation. His word was the 
 final, the consummate word, and he spoke it directly 
 to man. 
 
 (4) He spoke with infinite interest and sympathy, 
 because he not only taught this salvation, but he was 
 himself the salvation. Its doctrines and hopes were 
 the product of his sufferings. He carried the whole 
 system in his own person on the cross, and brought it 
 in triumph with him from the sepulchre of Joseph of 
 Arimathea. Never was there such a teacher as this. 
 " Never man spake like this man ! " How philosophy 
 pales before his simple utterances of truth — truth 
 which he had lived and which he had vitalized by his 
 death. He was the Truth, and he directly revealed 
 himself to men. 
 
 But there is another supreme fact which enhances 
 
322 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 the greatness of this salvation, viz.: After he had 
 purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the 
 Majesty on high. To that exalted position he took 
 our nature, lifting it far above angel and seraph, and 
 associating it with divinity on the universal throne. 
 And such was the completeness of the finished work 
 which he had engaged in covenant to do, that it is in 
 infinite consistence with divine right that he should, 
 in his complex person, occupy this exalted place. And 
 in the same line of consistency and congruity he has 
 received a name which is above every name — a name 
 which will be known fully only when mysteries which 
 are now unfathomable shall be revealed in eternity. 
 But this name belongs to him, not as the son of God 
 simply, not as God simply, not as King of kings and 
 Lord of lords, but as God-man, as Redeemer, Saviour 
 of sinners. 
 
 This Son of God, in the ineffable excellence of his 
 character, and in the fulness of his covenant relations 
 and achievements, spoke this salvation to men. He 
 committed the final and complete delivery of it to no 
 mediators, but spoke it directly himself. In this con- 
 sists the greatness of it. How great is this salvation ! 
 
 Another element contributes to the greatness of 
 this salvation, and that is this : Whatever by his 
 life and sufferings Christ secures, he secures not for 
 himself but for his people. He leaves his peace with 
 them. He gives his righteousness to them. He 
 sends the Comforter to them. He rises from the dead 
 and becomes the first-fruits of them that sleep. If he 
 is exalted to the right hand of the Majesty on high it 
 is that his people may be kings with him. He carries 
 his people still in covenant. What is his, therefore, 
 
THE GREAT SALVATION. 323 
 
 is theirs. He became poor that we might be made 
 rich. He humbled himself that along the path of 
 his humiliation we might rise to the Majesty on high. 
 Oh, great salvation ! 
 
 He who is the brightness of the Father's glory and 
 the express image of his person ; who is Creator, Pos- 
 sessor, and Upholder of all things, in our nature 
 purged our sins, and as God-man — very God and 
 very man, the antitype of all types, with infinite inter- 
 est and sympathy, being himself the embodiment of 
 all his doctrines — spake this salvation to men directly. 
 Dispensing with all types and figures and shadows of 
 good things to come he spake face to face with men, 
 and revealed in his own person the infinite riches of 
 divine grace. As God-man he bears a name which 
 is above every name ; and when that name shall be 
 revealed it will reflect glory upon the redeemed. Oh, 
 great salvation ! 
 
 II. I have left myself little time to speak of the 
 greatness of our responsibility in regard to this sal- 
 vation. 
 
 But surely this subject carries in it and with it its 
 own application. Neglect of the Mosaic law was 
 punished condignly ; how much more shall neg- 
 lect of the Gospel be punished ! There is law in 
 the Gospel as surely as there was Gospel in the Law. 
 This Gospel was wrought out and was spoken by the 
 Lord, and the government of the universe is admin- 
 istered by him in order to the complete success of 
 the scheme. He tenders it thus wrought out to men. 
 He sends his Spirit to recommend and apply it, and 
 men neglect it. Could a greater insult be offered to 
 the Almighty ? It is not optional with men whether 
 
324 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 they accept the Gospel or no. The overtures of 
 mercy to-day are as direct and personal to each one 
 as though the incarnate Son of God stood face to face 
 with him and himself made the offer. Believe on the 
 Lord Jesus Christ and confess him before men ; this 
 is the law on the subject. The supreme sin is unbe- 
 lief. It is for this that men are condemned. " He 
 that believeth not shall be damned." In the presence 
 of this great salvation and the Author of it, of what 
 avail are your excuses ? You have never found a 
 time when it was exactly convenient to confess Christ ? 
 Making a way of salvation possible involved the humil- 
 iation and crucifixion of the Creator, Possessor, and 
 Sustainer of all things ; yet you act toward that salva- 
 tion as you would not act in reference to a trivial 
 business transaction. It is this neglect, this wilful, 
 wanton,, sinful neglect of salvation which is ruining 
 souls by the million. It is the memory of this neg- 
 lect which will constitute the undying worm and the 
 quenchless fire of hell, and the remembrance of 
 slighted opportunities will be fuel to feed the fire 
 eternally. To neglect this salvation is to despise the 
 riches of God's grace. If we could see the whole 
 case in its reality, we would as soon think of cursing 
 the Almighty to his face as of neglecting this salva- 
 tion by even an hour's delay. 
 
 From first to last the work of Christ contemplates 
 and aims at the elevation and exaltation of the indi- 
 vidual believer and of human nature. The destina- 
 tion of the weakest believer is the right hand of his 
 exalted and glorified Lord in the heavens. Through 
 Christ is the line of promotion for humanity. The 
 aim, the spirit, the tendency of this salvation is to lift 
 
THE GREAT SALVATION. 325 
 
 up and to carry forward the subjects of it until they 
 shall sit with Christ on his throne. Where Christ is, 
 there shall they be also. He will withhold from them 
 nothing which they can use to edification and enjoy. 
 Not only may we say, ** How shall we escape, if we 
 neglect so great salvation ? " but also, How shall we 
 escape, if we neglect so great privilege and oppor- 
 tunity ? Cast not from you wantonly such an oppor- 
 tunity this morning ! He who is in Christ Jesus by 
 faith is not only on his way to heaven, but through 
 grace he is on his way to a crown, and a throne, and 
 a kingdom, and to an eternal association with the 
 exalted and glorified humanity of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 " How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salva- 
 tion ? " 
 
VIII. 
 CALEB AND THE ANAKIM. 
 
VIII. 
 CALEB AND THE ANAKIM. 
 
 ''Then the children of Jiidah came unto Joshua in Gilgal : and 
 Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite said unto him," etc. — 
 Joshua xiv. 6-15. 
 
 Caleb is first mentioned in the sacred history as 
 one of the twelve spies who were sent into Canaan 
 from Kadesh-Barnea in the second year after the 
 Exodus. Ten of' those spies brought in an evil 
 report which greatly disheartened the people. They 
 acknowledged, indeed, that the country was a most 
 desirable one ; but at the same time they declared 
 that the obstacles in the way of its conquest were 
 insurmountable. In view of these they quite lost 
 their faith and almost lost their senses too. They 
 were frightened out of their wits by a few tall speci- 
 mens of Anakim which they saw. Then Caleb stood 
 nobly forth and stilled the people and said : " Let us 
 go up at once and possess the land, for we are well 
 able to overcome it." He and Joshua alone were in 
 favor of an immediate invasion. Then and there the 
 Lord promised an inheritance in Canaan to these two 
 men. All the rest of that generation, from twenty 
 years old and upward, were doomed to fall in the 
 wilderness. 
 
 Some thoughts appropriate to the time and the 
 occasion may be deduced from this passage of sacred 
 history. 
 
 329 
 
330 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 I. As we pass along the journey of life our friends 
 and companions drop by the way, so that in old age 
 we shall be almost alone in respect of those who 
 started in life with us. Of the adult generation which 
 came out of Egypt only Caleb and Joshua remained. 
 Aaron, the high-priest, had died on Mount Hor ; 
 Moses had died on Pisgah ; Miriam, who sang the 
 response to the Song of Moses at the Red Sea ; Aho- 
 liab and Bezaleel, the architects of the tabernacle ; 
 the Levites who first bore the tabernacle ; the 
 elders who assisted Moses, and Hobab who accom- 
 panied them, all were gone. A new generation had 
 succeeded. During these forty-five years how many 
 ties had been sundered ! What vicissitudes had been 
 experienced ! Caleb had been emancipated from 
 slavery ; he had seen the plagues of Egypt — the Nile 
 rolling blood, the darkness which could be felt — he 
 had heard the lamentations of Egypt when her first- 
 born were smitten ; he had heard the thunders of 
 Sinai ; he had been in the desert forty years. But he 
 was now in the Promised Land. 
 
 During these forty-five years change had marked 
 every step of his way ; yet we now find him just 
 where he was forty-five years before — in the path 
 of duty. He, in this respect, had not changed. 
 Times had changed, but he had not changed with 
 them. His conduct was not governed by caprice, or 
 policy, or expediency, but by principle. It was this 
 which gave him steadiness and poise and persever- 
 ance. Had he consulted (lis popularity, he would 
 have countenanced the clamors of the crowd at 
 Kadesh-Barnea. But right in the teeth of such mur- 
 murings he said : '' Let us go up at once." The 
 
CALEB AND THE ANAKIM. 331 
 
 lapse of half a century makes no change in such a 
 man. There is no sublimer thing on earth than a life 
 like that. What wonderful consistency of character ! 
 At forty he says, " Let us go up at once and take 
 Canaan." At eighty-five he says, " Give me the very 
 citadel of the Anakim, and by the help of the Lord I 
 will take it." 
 
 Although he had seen all his own generation buried 
 except one man, he had not become morose or misan- 
 thropic. He lived in the present and for the future. 
 He used the past only as a means of strengthening 
 his faith and as an incentive to duty. 
 
 This is the true spirit. As old ties are sundered 
 we should form new ones. We should never become 
 alienated from the society or age in which we live. 
 
 As our companions fall by the way we are tempted 
 to say, ''There is nothing more to live for." But 
 there is enough to live for so long as duty is to be 
 done — so long as there are a present and a future, in 
 which and for which to act. 
 
 As we increase in years, one by one, we are becom- 
 ing a minority which is growing smaller and smaller, 
 and we are hastening on to join " the great majority." 
 Only Caleb and Joshua now remained of their genera- 
 tion, and a few years later Caleb stood alone. 
 
 Thirteen years ago this morning I began my labors 
 in this church. What a remnant of my first congre- 
 gation is left ! What a small audience that remnant 
 would form ! And yet how short a time it is! It 
 seems to me but yesterday. I remember the morning, 
 the people, the sermon as distinctly as the events of 
 last week. Yet since then we have passed through 
 an awful war. Since then children that I baptized 
 
332 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 have grown to manhood and womanhood. Great 
 changes have taken place here and elsewhere. In 
 this church I have associated with eleven men in the 
 eldership. Five of these are no more. The godly 
 Robert Scott, the kind Uncle Dickson, the urbane 
 Tower, the beloved young elder Gray, and the 
 lamented and honored Brown — these all are gone 
 from the session. About one hundred of the member- 
 ship have died in the same time — one hundred — a 
 silent congregation ! 
 
 II. God's promises are not impaired by age. They 
 are good for all periods of life. 
 
 In this case forty-five years intervened between the 
 promise and the fulfilment of it. But during no day, or 
 hour, or moment of all this time had that promise lost 
 its vitality or its validity. It was just as good in the 
 darkest day of all these years as it was on the day that 
 Caleb took possession of Hebron. We grow old, but 
 God's promises do not grow old. If we continue in 
 the path of duty as did Caleb, we need have no more 
 doubt of the fulfilment of God's promises than of 
 God's existence. Towering difificulties lay between 
 this promise and its fulfilment. The desert was to be 
 traversed. Nations and kings were to be conquered. 
 A fordless river was to be crossed without boat or 
 bridge. Walled towns were to be taken without bat- 
 tering-ram or scaling-ladder. But Caleb did not 
 doubt nor fear nor murmur. He went straight to 
 duty and stuck right at it, never questioning God's 
 ways or God's times. 
 
 In our view the providence of God often seems to 
 be working directly in the face of his promise. Caleb 
 was given the assurance of an inheritance in the land, 
 
CALEB AND THE ANAKIM. 333 
 
 and yet it was declared in the same connection that 
 that generation should fall in the wilderness. He was, 
 indeed, to have his inheritance, but it would be after 
 forty-five years of waiting. He was to reach Canaan, 
 but it was to be by the way of the wilderness. Thus 
 God's people often reach their inheritance, through 
 wanderings ; but God leads them in the right way. 
 Abraham waited— Isaac waited— Jacob waited. It is 
 not strange that you should have to await God's time. 
 Man would go to the inheritance by the shortest cut, 
 but God's way is through the wilderness. Though 
 deserts and rivers and enemies and impregnable walls 
 intervene God's word holds good, and God's provi- 
 dence moves forward toward the accomplishment of 
 the promise. God's pledge and providence harmo- 
 nize, God prepares his people for their inheritance. 
 Promises ripen to their fulfilment, and we ripen to the 
 reception of them. If we are not prepared for 
 them, they will prove a bane instead of a blessing. 
 
 III. A life of faith and of virtuous obedience 
 always receives its reward. 
 
 The reward was pledged to, and bestowed upon 
 Caleb, '' because he wholly followed the Lord." At 
 Kadesh-Barnea he spoke a brave word for the Lord, 
 and forty-five years afterward he received an inheri- 
 tance which was at once a recognition of and a recom- 
 pense for his services. Thus a good action faithfully 
 performed never loses its requital. This will come 
 in some way or another and at some time or another. 
 Goliath's sword turned up to the hand of David just 
 when it could render him the most efficient service. 
 
 While this, which has just been said, is true, I 
 would have you remember another fact — he did 
 
334 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 not do duty for hire. He did his duty for its own 
 sake, and he would have done it as faithfully if there 
 had been no reward attached. Nor did he go about 
 making long faces, and uttering loud complaints be- 
 cause the compensation was not forthcoming. Had he 
 been of the spirit of a great many men, he would have 
 been continually grumbling : '' The Lord has prom- 
 ised me an inheritance in Canaan yonder ; and here 
 I am dragged hither and thither in this desert with 
 this rebellious generation." He did not work in the 
 Lord's vineyard for wages, or for honor, or for con- 
 spicuous places. He quietly did his duty, and in due 
 time remuneration and honor came. 
 
 Duty faithfully performed has a richer reward than 
 a heritage in Canaan. The inheritance comes to us 
 as happiness comes ; that is, indirectly and without 
 our seeking it. Let anyone set out to be happy, and 
 the very thing that he seeks will elude him. It will 
 not be wooed. But let the same person set out to do 
 right, to help others, to do good, and lo ! before he 
 knows it, happiness becomes a guest in his heart and 
 his home. So it is with our reward. If we work for 
 it, we shall not get it ; but if we do our duty without 
 reference to it we shall certainly receive it in due 
 time — that is in God's time and in God's way. It 
 may be after a desert pilgrimage of forty-and-five 
 years. 
 
 IV. Let youth be so spent that one can look back 
 upon it with pleasant reminiscences, and that old age 
 may be enriched and honored by the rewards which 
 always attach to an early service of the Creator. 
 
 With what a glow of generous satisfaction Caleb 
 could refer to his youthful conduct, which had been 
 
CALEB AND THE ANAK.IM. 335 
 
 approved by Moses, the man of God, forty-and- 
 five years before ! With pride he could recall to 
 Joshua's remembrance his life as a young man : 
 " Then he wholly followed the Lord." Even before 
 the first mention of him, and before his first recorded 
 service, he had made a reputation for himself. If this 
 had not been the case, he would not have been sent as 
 one of the spies. In the conscientious discharge of 
 duty he had won the confidence of Moses and of the 
 congregation. Of these first forty years of his life, 
 history gives us no particulars. But we can easily 
 and safely infer their general character. Into such 
 positions as Caleb occupied men are not put by 
 chance. These are won by a steady, conscientious 
 discharge of the duties of whatsoever post is assigned 
 a man in the providence of God. Joseph in 
 Pharaoh's prison made a reputation which carried 
 him to the second place in the land of Egypt. Dis- 
 charge well the duties of the position which you are 
 already in, before you aspire to a higher one. Do 
 not spend your time and sour your temper by regret- 
 ting that you are not appreciated, or that you have no 
 sphere for the exercise of your faculties. " Whatso- 
 ever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." 
 Ten to one your sphere is larger than your capabilities. 
 Surely you have as good a chance as Joseph had when 
 he was in Pharaoh's prison. A virtuous youth will 
 carry its rewards even to old age. Faithful conduct 
 which seems to go unrequited will surely receive its 
 due recompense, even though half a century elapse ; 
 and a youth spent in idleness or vice will as certainly 
 entail evil and curse and misery. Would to God this 
 thought might be written with the point of a diamond 
 
^;^6 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 on the heart of every young person here this morn- 
 ing ! So spend your early days that you can look 
 back upon them with pleasure and can say to others, 
 as Caleb said to Joshua, *' You remember what I did 
 forty and five years ago." 
 
 V. Let old age be active. 
 
 Caleb had an active, green old age. He had seen 
 a great deal of hard service, yet he was not worn out, 
 nor had he rusted out. At eighty-five he was as 
 strong as he was at forty. He was ready, and eager 
 too, for further exploits. He does not say to Joshua, 
 " I am now old, I have borne the burden and the 
 heat of the day ; let me retire, and let younger men 
 conquer my inheritance in the land." But he asks that 
 Joshua give him the mountain where the Anakim 
 dwelt, the appearance of whom had so demoralized 
 the ten spies. These giants dwelt in fenced cities on 
 a mountain fastness, but the old hero covets the task 
 of conquering them. The same spirit is in him that 
 was in him nearly half a century before. He says : 
 " If so be that the Lord will be with me, then I shall 
 be able to drive them out." And this he did. He 
 drove out the children of Anak. 
 
 This is a model old age. Far too soon men begin 
 to say, " I am growing old." By saying so and think- 
 ing so they make themselves old. If the body must 
 age, that is no reason why the mind and heart should 
 partake of its infirmities. Let them be kept young. 
 
 As men approach the three-score years they be- 
 come timid about undertaking new enterprises for 
 Christ. They gradually put off the armor, and go 
 upon the retired list or upon the superannuated list. 
 Not thus do men give up the race for riches. Van- 
 
CALEB AND THE ANAKIM. 337 
 
 derbilt, who is over eighty, still keeps a sharp eye on 
 his fifty millions. Astor and Stewart, both old men, 
 are carrying heavier financial burdens than ever.* 
 Why then should men crave exemption from the 
 service of Christ because of advancing years ? 
 Neither should they seek or covet light service. 
 Like old Caleb they should attack the Anakim in 
 their strongholds. 
 
 The Church is shorn of about one-half her strength 
 by men's making themselves prematurely old. It 
 mattered little to Caleb, at his age, whether he pos- 
 sessed Hebron or not, but with a large vision and a 
 large heart he acted for the future ; not for himself, 
 but for posterity. Do thou likewise. 
 
 Caleb spoke these words on the anniversary of his 
 birth : " Lo, I am this day fourscore and five years 
 old." Instead of looking back complacently on the 
 past and resting satisfied with it, he is forming large 
 plans for the future — imposing upon himself an 
 enterprise more hazardous than any he had ever under- 
 taken. 
 
 This is an anniversary with us. How shall we 
 accept the future ? Are we ready to undertake large 
 enterprises for the Master ? Are we ready to attack 
 the strongholds of Satan, even though they be held 
 by the very Anakim of iniquity ! Brethren, we have 
 been resting on what has been done as though the 
 whole land had been conquered. Oh, that the spirit, 
 the courage, the devotion, of the aged Caleb might 
 incite each one of us ! 
 
 Better have Gideon's three hundred than an army 
 of thirty thousand who have no heart for the fight. 
 " This sermon was preached in 1874. — Eds. 
 
^S^ OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 My hearers, what lesson, what inspiration, has this 
 anniversary for us ? Shall we not ask the Lord to as- 
 sign US to some arduous and hazardous enterprise for 
 his cause and for his dear sake? How was Hebron 
 taken — the nest in the rocks of the Anakim ? By old 
 and young marching against it ; Caleb, who was nearly 
 ninety, leading the columns. In this land, which lies 
 around us, we have a large inheritance, if we only have 
 faith to receive it. 
 
IX. 
 
 FAREWELL SERMON. 
 
IX. 
 
 FAREWELL SERMON.* 
 
 ''N'ow the God of peace, that brought again frorn the dead cur 
 Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood 
 of the everlasting covenant, 
 
 '' Make you perfect in every good work to do his tvill, working in 
 YOU that which is well-pleasing iti his sight, through Jesus Christ; 
 to whom be glory for ever and ever. Allien." — Hebrews xiii. 
 20, 21. 
 
 I SHALL not preach an historical or a statistical ser- 
 mon this morning, although the materials for such a 
 sermon are abundant and inviting. In working up 
 these materials there would be inevitably more or less 
 of apparent egotism, and this I desire to avoid. 
 
 The text is the benediction of the great apostle 
 upon the Hebrew Christians, in whom he had so great 
 an interest, and for whom he felt so deep and so ten- 
 der a sympathy. By faith he seems to open the treas- 
 ures of divine love and grace, and with an unstinted 
 hand to pour these blessings, in all their fulness, upon 
 the heads of those for whom he had labored and 
 prayed. These wonderful blessings are not peculiar 
 to the Hebrew Christians, but are the common inheri- 
 tance of all the people of God in all ages of the world. 
 And what an inheritance it is to the Church, and to 
 each member of that Church ! 
 
 I. The God of peace as a Father. 
 
 * On retiring from the pastorate, December 31, 1876, 
 341 
 
342 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 II. The risen, the ascended, the glorified Saviour 
 as a pastor. 
 
 III. The blood of the everlasting covenant as a 
 charter of right, of privilege, and of salvation. 
 
 IV. Perfection in every good work as the aim of 
 human life. 
 
 V. The sufficiency of Christ as an unfailing re- 
 course in all labor and trial. 
 
 VI. And as the end of all, the glory of Jesus Christ. 
 Let us notice briefly these points : 
 
 I. You have the God of peace as your Father. 
 Through the death of Jesus Christ, God the Father 
 is reconciled. He is at peace with the believing soul. 
 Not sullenly, not reluctantly or grudgingly does the 
 Father accept the sacrifice of the Son as a satisfac- 
 tion, as an atonement ; not coldly or perfunctorily 
 does he come mto relations of peace and reconciliation 
 with the sinner, but the moment that the soul accepts 
 by faith the finished work of Christ, all past sins are 
 forgotten forever. They are blotted out. They are 
 cast into the depths of the sea. They are all covered 
 by the blood of Jesus, and even the eye of divine jus- 
 tice can discover no sin through or beneath that 
 blood. The sinner then stands in the righteousness 
 of Christ, and as the Father loves the Son so does he 
 love those for whom the Son died. With divine com- 
 placency he regards those who through faith accept 
 the benefits of the death of Christ, and who have 
 wrapped around them the robe of the righteousness 
 of Christ. He is at peace with them, and to them he 
 is the very God of peace. So profound is this peace, 
 so solid and enduring, so secured against all risk of 
 disturbance and loss, that to the quickened vision of 
 
FAREWELL SERMON. 343 
 
 the believing soul God appears as the God of peace. 
 The blessed and overwhelming fact of reconciliation 
 becomes conspicuous and pre-eminent. 
 
 Nor does the Father with judicial coldness pro- 
 nounce the acquittal of the sinner and then retire 
 within his own infinite sufficiency, and leave that jus- 
 tified sinner to fight his battles single-handed and 
 unaided, but he rests not until, through the Holy 
 Spirit, he has established intimate and confidential 
 relations with that soul. He not only makes recon- 
 ciliation a fact, but he makes it an experience. 
 Through his Word and by his Spirit he so exhibits his 
 love, and compassion, and condescension, and sym- 
 pathy, and faithfulness that the believer is constrained 
 to cry, "Abba, Father." Not only is the peace an 
 established fact, but this fact is made manifest in the 
 experience of the believer, and it is a " peace which 
 passeth all understanding." It is no fictitious peace ; 
 it is no hollow truce ; it rests on no uncertain condi- 
 tions, on no shifting foundations. It rests on the per- 
 fectly adjusted relations between God and the soul ; 
 and in the adjustment of these relations nothing has 
 been overlooked or omitted which could, in any way, 
 or to any degree, contribute to the perfection and ever- 
 lasting security of this peace. The sinner looks over 
 his past life — over the dark past it may be — but with 
 unspeakable joy he sees the precious blood of Jesus cov- 
 ering it all ; he looks into his evil and corrupt heart, 
 but he sees the blood of Christ cleansing from all sin ; 
 he looks tremblingly into the unknown future, but he 
 hears the voice of Christ, who ever lives to make inter- 
 cession, cheering him onward. It is perfect peace. 
 
 But as doctrine does not rest in theory, but when 
 
344 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 received produces experience, so experience does not 
 remain in the region of the affections, but produces 
 practical results. This peace in the heart makes its 
 warmth felt on others. The reflex of love to God is 
 love to man ; and so the reflex of peace with God is 
 peace with our fellow-man. The legend is that when 
 the Apostle John was so old and feeble that he had to 
 be carried to church he would repeat again and again 
 the injunction, as he was borne up the aisle : ** Little 
 children, love one another." This was his last ser- 
 mon — his dying testimony. 
 
 Remember that the God of peace is your God and 
 Father. " Let brotherly love continue." For the last 
 fifteen years we have dwelt together in peace. We 
 have not spent our time in biting and devouring one 
 another. Through the grace of God we have found 
 enough to do without that. We have found enough 
 to do in fighting Satan and in battling for the truth 
 and the right. There has been scarcely a jar in the 
 congregation in these fifteen years, and in the session 
 there has not been even a jar ; and truer brotherly 
 union and friendship than have subsisted between 
 the pastor. and the elders I do not expect to enjoy 
 until I get to heaven. Let no bickerings, no little 
 jealousies, no heart-burnings arise among you. Keep 
 your great work in view, and keep steadily at it. 
 This will shut out of the Church a hundred difficulties 
 which otherwise would be sure to creep in. If you 
 do not understand a brother, go to him and talk to him 
 face to face. Look each other in the eye honestly for 
 five minutes, and you will understand each other. I 
 charge you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, " Let 
 brotherly love continue." 
 
FAREWELL SERMON. 345 
 
 II. You have the risen, the ascended, the glorified 
 Saviour as pastor. 
 
 A pastor is a shepherd. He feeds and leads the 
 sheep. Christ is the great Shepherd of the sheep. 
 He is the great Pastor of the Church. Others are 
 only under-shepherds. So that, in this sense, a church 
 can never be without a pastor. 
 
 When Christ came from the tomb he did not forget 
 his work. He was still the great Shepherd of the 
 sheep. His interest in his mission is as great now as 
 it was when he wore the crown of thorns and carried 
 his cross to Calvary ; although exalted and crowned, 
 he is still the great Shepherd. His interest in his 
 work has not abated an iota, and his shepherd's 
 crook is the sceptre of the worlds. To that sceptre 
 every power in the universe is subject, it extends over 
 every interest of the Church and of the believer and 
 is always at their service. He delivered his people 
 from Egyptian bondage, he made a path for them 
 through the sea, he led them through the desert, he 
 planted them in the Promised Land, he brought 
 them back from captivity, he made the preaching of 
 fishermen the wisdom of God and the power of God 
 to the overthrow of false systems of religion and of 
 philosophy, and to the building up of the kingdom of 
 righteousness in the earth. Even to this day he has 
 made good every promise which he has ever spoken 
 concerning his Church. The good Shepherd gave his 
 life for the sheep ; will he, after that, abandon them 
 to their enemies ? No ! he will lead them, feed them, 
 and defend them even unto death. He unites in him- 
 self all divine offices and attributes, and he devotes 
 himself without reserve, in the fulness of these offices 
 
34^ OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS, 
 
 and attributes, to each one of his people. He who is 
 the faithful witness, and the " First Begotten " of the 
 dead, is also the Prince of the kings of the earth ; 
 and this Redeemer is your Redeemer, and this God is 
 your God. It is considered a great honor and advan- 
 tage to have a friend at court, but your friend is the 
 King himself — the King of kings, the King of glory, 
 the King of the universe. The great Pastor leads, 
 feeds, and defends his people, and will do so even to 
 the end. 
 
 I have stood beside many death-beds in this con- 
 gregation. I have been with the people of God in 
 great affliction, in deep troubles, but I have never 
 heard one of them complain that Jesus Christ had 
 proved faithless to his promises — never. I have stood 
 beside many of your friends and acquaintances in the 
 trying hour, who looked death in the face as calmly 
 as they would look into the face of one of their chil- 
 dren, or of one of their dearest friends. Through the 
 grace of this good Shepherd I have seen those who 
 believed on him die not only without fear, but in 
 rapture and triumph. I could stand here and relate 
 incidents and reminiscences by the hour. 
 
 The room in which Lillie Fletcher died was the 
 gate to heaven. It seemed as though she no longer 
 belonged to the earth, but was speaking to us from 
 the portals of the New Jerusalem, having already seen 
 its glories, and being no stranger to its experiences. 
 
 If ever there was a cool, clear intellect, it was the 
 intellect of Jane Porter. As she lay dying, the very 
 exquisite essence of the promises of God seemed to 
 be filling her soul. She felt the dew from the everlast- 
 ing mountains falling upon her. She calmly watched 
 
FAREWELI. SERMON. 347 
 
 the symptoms of approaching death. " There," said 
 she, *' is the rattle in my throat. I shall not be able 
 to talk much more." The room growing dark to her, 
 she remarked that the lamp had gone out, but when 
 told that it was still burning, she said : " Then my 
 sight is gone. Lay my hands across my breast, and 
 stand around me and see how a Christian can die. 
 Death is not like what I thought it was at all. I 
 thought it was painful, but there is no pain. I 
 thought it was cold, but it is not. It is but a step." 
 This was not fanaticism or enthusiasm, it was calm, 
 clear, strong faith, looking up through the pearly 
 gates. Her mind was intensely active to the last, and 
 was perfectly unclouded. It was a beautiful and 
 triumphant death. 
 
 One Sabbath night after services I went, in a drench- 
 ing rain, to see, for the last time, old Mrs. Alexander. 
 In the beginning of her sickness she had spoken to 
 me of her being "down in the ashes," but then she 
 was in the land of Beulah — on the mountain of myrrh 
 and the hill of frankincense. To the question as to 
 whether she was suffering, she replied : " Oh, no ! Oh, 
 no ! " with an emphasis and an intonation as much as 
 to say, " It is impossible for me to suffer. This is 
 heaven ! " Her five sons, her daughter and her son- 
 in-law — all good singers — joined in singing her favorite 
 hymns, she participating as long as her strength lasted. 
 The room was filled with melody, and thus she went 
 up singing to the gates of glory. 
 
 Fannie Black was not only willing to die, but had a 
 great longing to depart and be with Christ. She said : 
 " I have not the slightest desire to get better. I am 
 just waiting till Jesus calls me. I only want to be 
 
34^ OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 with Jesus." Then tenderly putting her hand on her 
 mother's cheek, and looking at her sister Blanche, she 
 said : '' Dear mother and dear sister, much as I love 
 you, I do not want to stay with you any longer. I 
 only want to be with Jesus. You must give me up. I 
 have arranged all my earthly affairs. I leave my 
 child, but I have not a care. I only want to be with 
 Jesus. I haven't breath, or I would praise him all 
 the time here — all the time, if I had breath." When 
 she could no longer talk, her countenance would be 
 lighted up with smiles of wonderful sweetness in 
 response to the precious truths and promises of the 
 Word of God. Her face shone as though it had been 
 the face of an angel. 
 
 Thus the Great Shepherd has left his record all 
 through this congregation, and in no single instance 
 has he proved faithless or abandoned his people in 
 the hour of trial. Through the valley of the shadow 
 of death he has been with them, his rod and his staff 
 have comforted them. 
 
 III. As the charter of right, and of privilege, and 
 of salvation, you have the blood of the everlasting 
 covenant. 
 
 Redemption is not a new idea nor an untried expe- 
 dient ; but it was devised by infinite wisdom, was 
 executed by infinite power, and is secured, at every 
 step and at every point, by eternal covenant. 
 
 God made a covenant with Israel at Sinai, which 
 was solemnly ratified by the sprinkling of sacrificial 
 blood upon the people. Thus they became His cove- 
 nant people. He became their God, and led them 
 and protected them, and saw that their clothes waxed 
 not old upon them, and that their shoes waxed not 
 
FAREWELL SERMON. 349 
 
 old upon their feet. " He kept them as the apple of 
 his eye." '' He made them to suck honey out of 
 the rock, and fed them with the fat of the kidneys 
 of wheat." Under the new order the people of God 
 are sprinkled with the blood of Jesus, and thus they 
 become his covenant people and he becomes their 
 covenant God. Will he be any more slack in fulfill- 
 ing the conditions of this new covenant than he was 
 in fulfilling the conditions of the old ? " Honey 
 from the rock " and the '' fat of the kidneys of wheat " 
 but faintly symbolize the richness and fulness of the 
 spiritual blessings which God has in store for his 
 people. Has he ever proved faithless to a single 
 pledge ? The blood of Christ guarantees every 
 promise, from that which secures the bread which 
 shall be given and the waters that are sure, to that 
 which opens the gates of the eternal city, and puts a 
 palm in every victor hand and a crown on every victor 
 brow. We pray to and we work for a God who is 
 faithful to his promises. 
 
 The session of this church would be worse than 
 infidels if they did not believe in the efficacy of prayer. 
 There have been many wonderful instances of direct 
 answers from heaven. When I returned from Europe 
 the first time, on the first Sabbath that I preached, 
 as I remember, I was surprised to see Dr. George 
 McCook, Sr., enter the church. He sat just there. 
 You all knew him. Who in this city did not know 
 him ? You know the kind of a man he had been. He 
 was a good and an eminent citizen, a man of great 
 intellect and of prodigious force of character, yet, in 
 respect of religion, he had been careless and reckless 
 and had grown old and gray-headed in sin and rebel- 
 
350 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 lion against God. He was at that time nearly eighty 
 years of age. On that Sabbath day, or a few Sabbath 
 days after, as I walked down the aisle at the close of 
 the service, one of the elders proposed a concert 
 of prayer in the session for the conversion of Dr. 
 McCook. In a few weeks afterward this man was 
 preaching the Gospel in the lecture room with the 
 fervor of an apostle and with the simplicity of a little 
 child. He was an illustrious trophy of redeeming 
 grace, and oh ! how he magnified that grace which 
 could save an old and hardened sinner like him. 
 Two years afterward I visited him when on his death- 
 bed in New Lisbon, O. Although weak in body, 
 his mind was strong and clear, and his spirit was 
 rejoicing in the glorious Gospel of the Son of God, 
 and I have no more doubt than I have of my own 
 existence that his ransomed spirit is before the eter- 
 nal throne this morning singing praises to the Great 
 Shepherd of the sheep. This is but one instance. I 
 could relate reminiscences of this kind by the hour. 
 God is a faithful God, a God who answers prayer, 
 who has answered prayer, and who will answer prayer 
 in all succeeding ages. 
 
 IV. Perfection in every good work should be the 
 aim of each human life. 
 
 In all living things there is movement. The Chris- 
 tian cannot be stationary. Where there is spiritual 
 life there will be spiritual growth and spiritual prog- 
 ress, and the standard is perfection. 
 
 Three things are necessary to the health and growth 
 of the body — food, air, and exercise. Corresponding 
 to these in the spiritual sphere are knowledge, prayer 
 and activity. The Word of God furnishes spiritual 
 
FAREWELL SERMON. 351 
 
 food, prayer is the breath of the Christian, and work 
 for the Master develops the powers. Where these 
 cease with respect to a Christian, he ceases to grow ; 
 and when they cease with respect to a church, it ceases 
 to grow. Do not forget, my brethren, that the mo- 
 ment you cease to think of and to work for others, 
 that moment you begin to die. Keep your beneficent 
 agencies therefore in vigorous operation. Do not 
 attempt to confine your Hfe within your own circle. 
 I know that in the judgement of some I have spent 
 too much time in preaching on benevolence and 
 beneficence ; but in looking back over the past I am 
 satisfied that I have not preached on these subjects 
 enough. This church has been blessed because it 
 has cultivated the grace of giving. Its quickened 
 and developed spiritual power has manifested itself 
 in various agencies and organizations for Christian 
 activity, such as the Woman's Foreign Missionary 
 Society, the Woman's Home Missionary Society, the 
 Young Ladies' Missionary Society, the Woman's 
 Prayer Meeting, the Young Men's Prayer Meeting, 
 the Young Men's Christian Association, and the Mis- 
 sion Sabbath School. These all have been organized 
 within the last fifteen years, and they have been a 
 source of untold blessing and power to this congre- 
 gation. Do not let them die. Cherish them. Watch 
 over them, for so long as these organizations have life 
 in them you will have life in the church itself. 
 
 Do not forget ordinary duties. Do not neglect the 
 regular Sabbath services, nor any part of them. Do 
 not forget the Wednesday evening prayer meeting. 
 Do not suppose that by doing some great thing once 
 in a while you can condone for your neglect of these 
 
352 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 ordinary weekly duties. The power and efficiency of 
 a church depend largely upon the interest that is 
 taken in these meetings and exercises. Be regular in 
 your attendance at all the services, and be there 
 punctually. There is no excuse for being late at 
 church. There is one fact which I mention here with 
 some pride and complacency ; and that is that in the 
 past fifteen years I was never late at a single meet- 
 ing of any kind except once. This morning fifteen 
 years ago I came in a buggy, over very rough roads, 
 from Sewickleyville, twelve miles away, and I was a 
 few minutes behind time, but never afterward. It is 
 easier to be punctual than to be tardy. Cultivate this 
 virtue. The aim of the Christian is a high and noble 
 one. It is no less than perfection in every good work. 
 Let this aim be yours. In all our efforts we have as 
 an unfailing source the infinite sufficiency of Christ. 
 
 ''When I am weak then ami strong," This was 
 the experience of the apostle, and the conditions of 
 Christian experience have not changed in these eigh- 
 teen hundred years. We are earthen vessels, but we 
 can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth 
 us. Attempt nothing in your own strength. It is the 
 privilege of the believer always to lean upon the 
 omnipotence of the Son of God, and this omnipotence 
 he finds available in all crises and emergencies, and 
 finds it adequate to all necessities. The presence of 
 Jesus can make a pile of blazing fagots a bed of roses, 
 and " a prison a palace, a garden of pleasures, a field, 
 an orchard of delights." Dear old Samuel Ruther- 
 ford used to say : " I am taught in this ill weather to 
 go on the lee side of Christ, and put him in between 
 me and the storm." So you can always put Christ 
 
FAREWELL SERMON. 353 
 
 between you and the storm. Live, work, fight, and 
 suffer through Jesus Christ. Without him your 
 strength is as brittle as rotten stubble ; without him 
 your good resolutions are as weak as the smoking 
 flax. In the humble and faithful discharge of duty 
 we are always helped. When I have leaned on God 
 in my weakness I have never been deserted ; but 
 when I have trusted to my own wisdom and strength I 
 have always been discomfited. I have come into this 
 pulpit more than once without either text or sermon, 
 but if I came in the right spirit I was always carried 
 through, whereas, if I trusted to finely elaborated 
 trains of thought, I proceeded as heavily as the wheel- 
 less chariots of Pharaoh in the Red Sea. The years 
 in which my preaching was most extemporaneous, and 
 according to my own judgment and criticism most 
 worthless, were the years in which we reaped the 
 richest harvests ; while the year in which I preached 
 the most elaborate sermons during my ministry here 
 was the year in which there were fewer additions to 
 the church than in any other in all the fifteen. 
 When I was best prepared intellectually, I ordinarily 
 preached the worst. When I have preached with 
 some kind of intellectual complacency I have never 
 heard that any good came of it, but when I have so 
 preached that I was ashamed to face the congrega- 
 tion in pronouncing the benediction, I have heard of 
 souls being converted and comforted by the sermons. 
 "When we are weak then are we strong." 
 
 VI. The end of all is the glory of Christ. 
 
 The Christian labors for no mere secular ends, nor 
 for results which are uncertain or perishable. Riches 
 dissolve like snow, empires crumble, but every par- 
 
354 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 tide of true Christian work goes into the imperishable 
 results of the economy and kingdom of Christ, and 
 consequently cannot be lost. Nothing of this kind 
 can ever be lost. The desires and aspirations of the 
 Christian are for the glory of Christ, and his labors go 
 in along with the work of the Master to contribute to 
 the supreme end. This furnishes a motive and an 
 aim worthy of a rational immortal creature. If you 
 give your time and your effort to mere temporal 
 schemes you spend your life upon that which sooner 
 or later, and probably very soon, will crumble to 
 nothingness ; but if you put your work and your 
 prayers into spiritual enterprises, you contribute to that 
 which is imperishable. 
 
 There was a young man in this church who became 
 dissipated, was cast out of the membership, broke his 
 young wife's heart and sent her to a premature grave, 
 spent all he had, and through his debaucheries ruined 
 his physical constitution. He set himself deliberately 
 to lead a fast life and to see what was in it. I sat by 
 his cot in one of the public hospitals of this city as he 
 was wasting away in consumption, and in tones that 
 thrilled along every fibre he told how he had tried sin 
 and carnal pleasure and had found them a cheat, a 
 hollow cheat! How he had been defrauded of his 
 life, how Satan had decoyed him by his promises of 
 pleasure, and how all these promises had proved 
 utterly hollow and false ! He always returned to this 
 idea that he had played a game with Satan, but that 
 he had been overreached, overmatched, deceived, and 
 made a laughing-stock for devils. So will it be with 
 everyone who rejects Christ for the sinful pleasures of 
 this world. I speak to young men'this morning whose 
 
FAREWELL SERMON. 355 
 
 feet are planted in the very path in which this young 
 man went, and sooner or later, that path will lead to 
 the same bitter experience. Young men, do not let 
 the devil, by his lies, cheat you out of your lives, your 
 happiness, your souls. Consecrate yourselves to 
 Christ, and let your lives be a perpetual rendering of 
 the doxology : " To Him be glory for ever and ever." 
 
 Fifteen years ago this morning I began my ministry 
 here by preaching on Rev. i. 5, 6, *' And from Jesus 
 Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first be- 
 gotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the 
 earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from 
 our sins in his own blood, 
 
 " And hath made us kings and priests unto God 
 and his Father ; to him be glory and dominion for 
 ever and ever. Amen." 
 
 Thus I began my ministry here, and thus by the 
 grace of God I have continued even unto this day. 
 The prophethood, the priesthood, the knightship, and 
 glory of Christ, and the glory resulting to his people 
 through these offices, these have been the themes of 
 this pulpit. I have not preached to tickle itching 
 ears, or to produce popular sensations. I have not 
 gone to the columns of the daily newspapers or to 
 ^sop's Fables for texts, nor have I gone to old 
 almanacs for illustrations. I have had always enough, 
 both of subjects and of matter, in the Bible. To-day 
 I look over my course in this respect with ineffable 
 satisfaction. The experience of the past fifteen years 
 in this church proves that people will come to hear 
 the plain, simple Gospel, and that an interest can be* 
 sustained without clap-trap and demagogism. If 
 sinners have been converted and believers have been 
 
356 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 fed and comforted and strengthened, the result aimed 
 at here has been accomplished. 
 
 It is not Strange that I should have an interest in 
 this church. Here I labored as a Sabbath-school 
 teacher during my course in the Theological Seminary. 
 Here my deceased brother spent the one-half of his 
 ministry. Innumerable ties bind me here. These are 
 strengthened by a thousand tender memories and asso- 
 ciations, and only a clear and imperative call of duty 
 compels me to sever them. They will be severed, how- 
 ever, only in an official sense. In reality f trust they 
 shall never be broken. I have given the best years of 
 my life without stint to this church, and I do not regret 
 any toil that I have endured or any sacrifices that I 
 have made for its sake. The work has been its own 
 reward and has paid me a thousand-fold. I have 
 enjoyed preaching the Gospel here as I never expect 
 to enjoy anything again. The happiest hours of my 
 life have been spent in this pulpit and in the little 
 pulpit downstairs, and in my intercourse with the 
 elders, officers, and members of this congregation. 
 
 But these years are gone and their record is made 
 up. What years they have been ! What changes, what 
 revolutions, have taken piece ! What thrilling his- 
 tories have been enacted ! Fifteen years ago Louis 
 Napoleon was the arbiter of Europe. His nod or his 
 frown convulsed Cabinets and Senates. We have 
 seen him a prisoner and an exile. Fifteen years ago 
 Prussia was scarcely a third-rate power in Europe. 
 Now, under the' lead of Prussia, Germany is consoli- 
 dated into a mighty empire. Fifteen years ago French 
 bayonets propped up the tottering temporal power of 
 the Pope. Now the Pope has no temporal power. Fif- 
 
FAREWELL SERMON. 357 
 
 teen years ago there were Jour millions of slaves in 
 this country. Now there is not one. Fifteen years 
 ago the great Civil War was just beginning. During 
 these eventful years we have worked and prayed and 
 wept together. On a Sabbath morning came the news 
 of the battle of Fredericksburg. On a Sabbath morn- 
 ing came the first uncertain tidings of the battle of 
 Gettysburg, On a Sabbath night, just after service, all 
 the bells of both cities began to ring. It was thought 
 by many to be an alarm of fire, but it was the announce- 
 ment of the surrender of Lee. On the next Sabbath 
 morning I came through a sobbing congregation to 
 a pulpit heavily draped in black. President Lincoln 
 had been assassinated. During all those awful years, 
 the memory of which comes over us as a horrid night- 
 mare, we prayed and wept and hoped and sorrowed 
 together ; and I reckon it not the least of the mercies 
 of God toward us that we were carried through these 
 fearful crises without any schism. So far as I know 
 only one man ever left this church because of any 
 utterances from the pulpit, and you know whether or 
 not this pulpit has been muzzled. These have been 
 wonderful years and have been full of peril and of 
 trial, but in every emergency we have been enabled to 
 say Jehovah jireh^ and at the close of every year and 
 epoch we set up our Ebenezer. 
 
 At our first communion Robert Scott — of blessed 
 memory — handed me an envelope containing a list of 
 those who had been added to the church. I put it away 
 carefully and ever since I have preserved these lists in 
 the same manner. There are sixty-two of them, one for 
 each communion. There has not been a single commun- 
 ion without additions to the church, and but three at 
 
358 OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. 
 
 which there were no additions by profession of faith. 
 What a history these lists represent ! How hearts have 
 throbbed and swelled as they were read ! 
 
 I shall never cease to thank God that He has per- 
 mitted me for fifteen years to proclaim " the unsearch- 
 able riches of Christ " in this pulpit. I should rather 
 have done that than to have governed an empire for 
 the same length of time. Some upon whose foreheads 
 I put the water of baptism in infancy have been 
 admitted to sealing ordinances. We have much for 
 which we ought to be thankful. Let us not be for- 
 getful of our mercies. I do not wish to make you 
 sad, but if I were to open the flood-gates of memory 
 I could stand here by the hour and call up reminis- 
 cences which would make us all weep. But I do not 
 wish to send you a\vay sorrowful ; I would rather 
 send you away happy and rejoicing. I am thankful 
 for the past, and I commend you to the God of peace 
 for the future. 
 
 My work as pastor is done. It has been full of im- 
 perfections, but I can truly say that it has been sincere 
 and earnest. I have not sought yours but you. I 
 have not coveted filthy lucre. I have labored for the 
 good and for the advancement of this church. I leave 
 without a particle of ill-feeling toward any member of 
 the congregation, or toward anyone who ever has 
 been a member of it. If I have injured anyone in 
 thought, word, or deed, I humbly beg pardon. 
 
 And now I must hasten to a close. The hour has 
 come which separates us as pastor and people. With 
 the tenderest memories of the dead — what a host of 
 them ! how I miss them ! all around through the con- 
 gregation I see their faces, I hear their voices, I feel 
 
FAREWELL SERMON. 359 
 
 the pressure of their hands — with the tenderest memo- 
 ries of them, with the sincerest esteem and affection 
 for all the living, and with the most earnest prayers 
 for your present and eternal welfare, from my heart 
 of heart I say the final word, Farewell, and God bless 
 you. Amen and amen. 
 
 THE END. 
 
I 
 
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