PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 Shelf.... 
 
 BX 9479 .P3 B42 1865 
 Hildebrand, 1814-1903. 
 Life and character of J 
 van der Palm . . 
 
 H. 
 
■ 
 
 ■ I ■ 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 OP 
 
 J. H. VAN DER PALM, D. D., 
 
 PROFESSOR OF ORIENTAL LANGUAGES AND ANTIQUITIES ; 
 
 ALSO OF SACRED POETRY AND ELOQUENCE IN THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF LEYDEN. 
 
 SKETCHED BY NICOLAAS 
 
 iiEETS, D.D. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE DUTCH 
 
 By J. P. WESTERVELT. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY HURD AND HOUGHTON. 
 
 BOSTON: E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY. 
 
 1865. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by 
 
 Hurd and Houghton", 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New 
 
 York. 
 
 RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: 
 
 STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY 
 
 H. 0. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 FAGS 
 
 Dedication vii 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 1763-1778. 
 
 Father. — Mother. — Grandmother. — At the Erasmian School. 
 Health. — General Favorite. — Enters the University. 
 
 — Superior Preparation 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 1778-1784. 
 
 University. —Professors. — H. A. Schultens. — Testimonial of 
 the Theological Faculty. — College Life. — Orations. — 
 Friendships. — Bilderdijk. — E. Kist. — Mutual Improve- 
 ment. — Recreations. — Oriental Studies. — Modern Reading. 
 — Ecclesiastes. — Eloquence. — Poetic Talent. — Poetic 
 Taste 8 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 1784-1795. 
 
 Licensure and Settlement. — Marriage. — Lingen. — Leaves 
 Maartensdijk. — Refuses to Return. — Regret of Friends. — 
 Subsequent Visits. — Correspondence with Schultens. — 
 Lord van de Perre. — Call to Vlissingen .... 29 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 1795-1806. 
 
 Political Revolution. — Middelburg Revolution. — Retires from 
 Political Life. — Professor of Oriental Languages. — Rector 
 of the University. — Eloquence. — Minister of National 
 
IV CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOK 
 
 Education. — Member of Council of Internal Affairs. — 
 Schimmelpenninck. —Final Leave of Political Life. —Liter- 
 ary Labors. — Declines tbe King's Proposals. — Loyalty . 45 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 1800-1838. 
 
 A Sage. — Professor of Sacred Poetry and Eloquence. — Uni- 
 versity Preacher. — His Delivery. — Professor of Oriental 
 Languages and Antiquities. — In the Lecture-room. — Out 
 of the Lecture -room. — Hendrik Albert. — Rector. — Resig- 
 nation as Preacher '*> 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 1806-1839. 
 
 Great Vocation. — Sermons. — Solomon. — Commentary for 
 Youth. — Historical and Rhetorical Memorial. — Translation 
 of the Bible. — Manuscript. — Orations and Essays. — Solo- 
 mon. — Study 
 
 CHAPTER VH. 
 
 1840. 
 
 Popularity. — Celebrity. — Humility. — In the Social Circle. 
 — Hospitality. — Oosterhof. — In the Domestic Circle. — 
 Silver Wedding. — Character. — Christian Character. — Dy- 
 ing Testimony. — Death. — Funeral 106 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 88 
 
 Conclusion of an Oration : De eo, etc. 125 
 
 Testimonial of the Theological Faculty I 25 
 
 Professorial Certificates 12" 
 
 Extract from an Oration : De liberali Theologo . • • 128 
 
 Poetic Effusion of Bilderdijk 129 
 
 Van der Palm's Poetry 13 
 
 Letter to M. C. van Hall 13i 
 
CONTENTS. V 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Letter of Van der Palm, declining the Call to Vlissingen . 134 
 
 Acceptance of the Professorship in the University . . . 136 
 
 Extract from an Address of the Agent of National Education . 137 
 
 Letter of Prof. Van der Palm to King Louis .... 139 
 Address of Van der Palm to his Pupils after the Death of his Son, 
 
 Hendrik Albert 143 
 
 Prospectus of the Translation of the Bible 144 
 
 Letter of Dr. C W. K. van Kaathoven 148 
 
 Funeral Addresses 156 
 
 Likeness 162 
 
 Children of J. H. van der Palm 163 
 
 Memberships 164 
 
 Works 164 
 
 Articles relative to Van der Palm 172 
 
 SERMONS. 
 
 SERMON I. 
 The Gospel the Greatest Treasure. Matt. xiii. 44-46 . . 177 
 
 SERMON II. 
 The Raising of the Young Man at Nain. Luke vii. 11-16 . . 200 
 
 SERMON III. 
 Complete Redemption in Jesus Christ. 1 Cor. i. 30 . . 222 
 
 SERMON IV. 
 Necessity of Divine Grace to change the Heart. John vi. 44 . 240 
 
 SERMON V. 
 Jesus' Passion. John i. 29 ^ 264 
 
 SERMON VI. 
 Jesus, the Light of the World. John viii. 12 ... 290 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 Love to Jesus. 1 Pet. i. 8 311 
 
Vi CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON VIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Patriotism, a Duty of Religion. Ps. cxxii 335 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 Devout Contemplation of the Rainbow. Ps. lxxxix. 37 . . 360 
 
 SERMON X. 
 Acquiescence in the Will and Government of God. Ps. xxxix. 9 382 
 
TO THE 
 
 MOST NOBLE AND EQUITABLE LORD, 
 
 HENMCUS VAN ROUEN, 
 
 KNIGHT, COUNCILLOR OF STATE, ETC. 
 
 Right Honorable and Noble Sir : — You 
 have here the sketch of the life and character of 
 a man, dear to yon and to me, executed according 
 to the best of my ability. Encouraged and assisted 
 by you, I have been enabled to complete the work ; 
 and it is my happiness to know that it meets your 
 approbation. To you I dedicate it with a grateful 
 heart, and with the full persuasion that without 
 your friendly assistance I should have been made 
 but too sadly sensible of how great a presumption 
 I had been guilty in lending an ear to the friendly 
 solicitations of those whose decided wish it seemed 
 to be that I should do myself the honor of appear- 
 ing as biographer of Van der Palm. The difficul- 
 ties connected with such an undertaking were con- 
 siderable, and the responsibility was great ; but a 
 voice within pleaded in behalf of the friendly in- 
 vitations which I had received ; and the task had 
 for me too many attractions to permit me to decline 
 
Vlll DEDICATION. 
 
 it because of its difficulty. Yet I should not for 
 a moment have thought of assuming it, had a 
 work been demanded of me in which I should be 
 expected to give an estimate of the merits of the 
 deceased as a scholar, an orator, and a writer ; 
 if anything, indeed, had been desired of me, that 
 would necessarily resemble a eulogy. But to write 
 a simple, unadorned narrative of the occurrences 
 and vicissitudes of his long and important life ; to 
 compose from hia numerous papers an account of 
 what he aimed at and afc.iiipli-.ln-d during tli 
 different periods : and to impart life to the whole 
 by giving as visible a representation as possible of 
 his image, as it appeared to me, who had stood in 
 so intimate relation to him, and who for Bix years 
 had enjoyed the opportunity of so closely observ- 
 ing him: this I regarded as not altogether abo 
 and bevond the reach of my youthful powers. 
 
 In addition to the still very vivid recollection of 
 all that I had heard from the mouth of the deceased 
 himself, and a great multitude of his letters and 
 private papers, I enjoyed the invaluable privilege of 
 continuing to be as it were Burrounded by his dear- 
 est relatives, wdio w r ere not only able to give me 
 all the information that I might desire concerning 
 many facts and circumstances, but to the test of 
 whose judgment I could submit all my views re- 
 specting the character which I undertook to sketch. 
 
DEDICATION. ix 
 
 And among these I am greatly indebted to the 
 amiable and gifted woman whom to call my mother- 
 in-law I as truly esteem an honor as I do to have 
 been a friend and favorite of Van der Palm: a 
 woman, who not only so well knew and penetrated 
 her illustrious father, but in whose excellent spirit 
 so very much of his is mirrored, and the features 
 of whose countenance make you involuntarily think 
 of his ; so that Van der Palm cannot be said to 
 have entirely died, so long as this his daughter lives. 
 And what neither she, nor any of his children could 
 communicate, as pertaining to earlier times, or too 
 far removed from the domestic circle, for that I 
 might certainly to some extent depend on the. kind- 
 ness of the few oldest friends of the deceased, who, 
 by the good pleasure of the Lord, were permitted 
 to survive him. Among these, Most Noble Lord, 
 you were the first. It was not unknown to me, that, 
 on the 16th of September, 1828, when as yet I knew 
 only the great name and excellent writings of the 
 peerless man, you were permitted to celebrate with 
 him the fiftieth anniversary of the day on which you 
 first met each other at Valckenaar's lecture, to form 
 a friendship, cordial, sincere, and confidential, — a 
 friendship, which, through all the vicissitudes of 
 events, has remained the same, because it was as 
 incapable of becoming more intimate as of being 
 impaired. For ten successive years that affecting 
 
X DEDICATION. 
 
 festival was repeated ; in the eleventh the indica- 
 tions of that which, alas ! was a year later to occur, 
 were too decisive to permit any thought of such a 
 celebration to be entertained. And when of the 
 twelfth the 16th of September dawned, your old 
 faithful friend and fellow-traveller through this 
 world had been already eight days numbered with 
 the precious dead whom you lament. To you he 
 had said, " I go hence in peace ; " and your reply 
 had been, " Go, Palm I go in peace." Such had 
 been the will of the Lord. With meat confidence 
 I applied to you. A bosom friend of Van der Palm 
 could not be a stranger to his benevolence ; and an 
 offering of some pains and labor would be gladly 
 made by an intimate friend to the shade of Van der 
 Palm. But you were not only his bosom friend. 
 You were Henricus van Roijen, of whose readiness 
 to assist no one doubts who is at all acquainted 
 with him. And if that which I was obliged to ask 
 of you seemed a laborious task for a man at the 
 advanced age of eighty-one, even at that venerable 
 period of life you were still as ever " the vigorous 
 Van Roijen," as your friend Van der Palm was for 
 twenty years accustomed to designate you. But 
 your kindness surpassed my highest expectations. 
 Not only did you manifest an entire willingness to 
 remove as far as possible all difficulties pertaining 
 to earlier periods with which I might meet, but 
 
DEDICATION. XI 
 
 you took the pains to prepare for me a connected 
 review of those periods : a review which shed light 
 upon the numerous papers at my service, and which 
 I could make the foundation of the first pages of 
 my work ; a review, bearing evidence of a clearness 
 of intellect and an accuracy of memory which put 
 my youth to shame. But this is not all for which 
 I am indebted to you. It was you, who, from the 
 beginning and during all the time that I, in the 
 midst of manifold and important employments of 
 my enviable office, have been engaged in this 
 pleasant task, strengthened me by your kindness, 
 and whose continual encouragements were to me 
 a counterpoise against the depressing thoughts, oc- 
 casioned partly by the importance of the undertak- 
 ing, and partly by the expectations entertained by 
 so many cultivated minds. For this much love and 
 gratitude are due you, though I know that you will 
 hardly permit yourself to think that you have laid 
 me under such obligations. 
 
 With my obligations to the Rev. Teissedre l'Ange, 
 you are acquainted. Next to yours, the services 
 of this excellent friend of the deceased were the 
 most important. You can perceive of how great 
 advantage to me must have been his short, clear, 
 pithy communications and friendly suggestions. 
 Happy should I be, if that which in these pages is 
 exclusively mine more nearly answered to the as- 
 
xii DEDICATION. 
 
 sistance which I have received. Yet whatever may- 
 be the defects of my work, I have your assurance 
 that your great, your amiable friend, whose image 
 is so vividly impressed on your heart, has been 
 drawn to the life. Accept, then, the portraiture 
 which the youngest friend of Van der Palm presents 
 to his oldest. May the Lord, during all the time 
 allotted you to survive him, crown you with his 
 richest blessings, and grant you through his grace a 
 blissful reunion. 
 
 With sentiments of the highest esteem, I am, 
 Right Honorable and Noble Sir, 
 
 Your obedient servant and friend, 
 Nicolaas Beets. 
 
 Heemstede, Dec. 8, 1841. 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The man whose life and character we undertake 
 to sketch, was born in Rotterdam, the 17th of July, 
 1763. His father, Cornelis x van der Palm, kept 
 there, and afterwards at Delfthaven, a very flourish- 
 ing and respectable Dutch and French boarding- 
 school. 2 He was a man of virtue, intelligence, and 
 refinement, possessed of much ability and learning ; 
 for his time, a very accomplished linguist, and not an 
 unsuccessful poet. As such, he obtained, in those 
 days of poetic societies, several coronations. He 
 was himself one of the founders of the Rotterdam 
 Society, having for its motto, Studium scientiarum 
 genetrix, of which his son was made a member at 
 the age of seventeen, and six years after an honorary 
 member. Van der Palm always spoke of his father, 
 not only with the highest respect, but also with the 
 greatest delight. His image was constantly before 
 his mind, when, as Superintendent of Education, he 
 
 1 He was very much inclined to write Kornelis. 
 
 2 When by euphemism mention was sometimes made to him of his 
 father's " Institute," the humble man, who was never ashamed of his 
 plebeian descent, used by way of correction to reply, " It was then 
 called a school." 
 
 1 
 
2 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 laid the foundation of the improved school system ; 
 and what he had seen in his father's school he was 
 accustomed to commend to the school inspectors as 
 worthy of imitation. 1 To the last of his life he fre- 
 quently indulged with evident satisfaction in remi- 
 niscences and accounts respecting him; on which 
 occasions it always appeared that his father had 
 been a very cheerful and social man, full of natural 
 humor and sprightly repartee, whose society, being 
 very agreeable, was sought by his friends ; and that 
 in these respects also he had exercised the greatest 
 influence in forming his son, who resembled him in 
 several respects, especially in external appearance 
 and bodily frame. 
 
 The name of Van der Palm's mother was Mach- 
 teld van Tonsbergen. She was, as the name indi- 
 cates, of an honorable family, and numbered among 
 her actual ancestors a Knight of Malta, who had 
 released himself from his vow. She was a genuine 
 specimen of the Dutch female character of the olden 
 style : domestic, active, very pious. She survived 
 her husband several years, and ended her days un- 
 der the roof of her son Johannes Henricus, after 
 having outlived many of her children. 2 With pecu- 
 liar tenderness and no little maternal pride did she 
 love this her eminent son ; and such was his tender 
 regard for her, that with this worthy woman the 
 
 1 See this particular in the article of Prof. J. Kops, Messenger of 
 Arts and Literature, 1841, No. 31. 
 
 2 Van der Palm had six brothers and one sister, (married to a Mr. 
 Shernikau,) who all preceded him to the grave. One of them, Chris- 
 tian van der Palm,) was a physician, and died in Middelburg, where 
 he was highly esteemed for his skill, shrewdness, and experience. 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 3 
 
 recollection of her motherly cares had entirely given 
 place to thankfulness for his filial fidelity, and the 
 mother died in the full conviction of being in all 
 respects under obligations to the son ; which sense 
 of gratitude she expressed with very touching sim- 
 plicity in her last will, whilst commending her chil- 
 dren to the grace of God. 
 
 To the friendly images of his childhood, around 
 which his thoughts fondly lingered, belonged that 
 of a grandmother, whom he always represented as 
 a very clever, well-read woman, pious, and well 
 versed in the Word of God, whose special favorite 
 he was, and who taught him upon her knee to read 
 well before he was three years old, and made him 
 familiar with sacred history and many a spiritual 
 song. She lived entirely in the Bible, and took 
 great pleasure, according to the taste of that time, 
 in applying whatever was biblical to the occurrences 
 of daily life. 
 
 Even before the birth of this grandson, she had 
 desired to have him called Naphtali, for, said she, 
 he will give goodly words (Gen. xlix. 21). His 
 parents had thought otherwise ; and when four days 
 old, (according to the custom of that time, which 
 allowed no Sabbath to pass by,) he was baptized, 
 and named Johannes Henricus. Grandmother's 
 prediction was, however, abundantly confirmed, — 
 " although," Van der Palm used to say, " the trans- 
 lation will not hold." After having been sufficiently 
 instructed in his father's school, he exchanged that 
 at the age of ten for the Erasmian, of which Jaco- 
 bus Henricus Dreux was at that time Rector. There 
 
4 LIFE OF VAX DER PALM. 
 
 he made very rapid progress, and quickly outstripped 
 all his schoolmates : as may also appear from the 
 costly and always first prizes which he received. 
 The accompanying testimonials he carefully pre- 
 served through life, together with two school ora- 
 tions delivered by him, which I deem worthy of 
 mention. The one is, "In Laudem Diligentia? et 
 Yituperium Ignaviae " (In Praise of Diligence and 
 Reproof of Idleness) ; the other, " De eo quod optan- 
 dum est ex sententia Juvenalis ; sive de Sana Mente 
 in Corpore Sano " (On that which according to Ju- 
 venal is desirable : a Sound Mind in a Sound Body). 
 As to the first subject, out of the abundance of 
 his heart the boy could have uttered nothing upon 
 which the laborious man did not each day of his 
 life set his seal ; and in the choice of the other, we 
 see that a favorite idea of his entire life was already 
 entertained at that early age. Health was, with Van 
 der Palm, always the most welcome emblem of all 
 that was good, and in human sense perfect, — of the 
 normal condition of a noble soul and a clear head. 
 Health was the name which he preferred to give to 
 that beautiful proportion and harmony between all 
 the endowments of the intellect and the heart which 
 should appear in conduct, discourse, and writing. 
 And what he, with Juvenal, desired, when he was 
 but a youth, he possessed in the largest measure 
 during his whole life. An active, well-built, and 
 vigorous man, he lived more than seventy years in 
 the enjoyment of excellent health ; and the long- 
 continued sufferings of the last year of his life are 
 to be ascribed rather to the prolonged resistance of 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 5 
 
 his system, than to its gradual enervation or its con- 
 stant discomposure in the course of his life. Very 
 seldom indeed was he discomposed ; never did the 
 most arduous labor fatigue him. And that regular, 
 unrestrained harmony, subsisting between the organs 
 of his body, which was so very seldom marred, 
 that uninterrupted equality, clearness, and compos- 
 ure of his system, were beautifully and charmingly 
 expressed in his equal, clear, and tranquil disposi- 
 tion ; in that gentle evenness which so very rarely 
 forsook him ; in that exemplary tranquillity which 
 even in the severest trials of his life either remained 
 unimpaired or was speedily and at once restored 
 after a momentary shock ; — all these properties of 
 mind and body were clearly and strikingly mirrored 
 forth in the ease with which he began, prosecuted, 
 and completed his labor, and no less in the fruits of 
 the same ; in the perspicuity, regularity, freshness, 
 and all the harmony of his writings, in which we 
 admire so much energy without exertion, which 
 may be regarded as the proper character of health. 1 
 However difficult it may be for a ready, docile 
 boy, excelling all his companions, and therefore likely 
 to be put forward by all his teachers, to be agree- 
 able to his schoolfellows and continue in the enjoy- 
 ment of their love, Van der Palm was and continued 
 so in the highest degree. And at this no one will 
 be astonished, of all who knew him at whatever 
 period of his life, and even when enjoying the high- 
 est position to which he attained. For not only did 
 Van der Palm soften the lustre of his manifold gifts 
 
 1 The conclusion of the oration, De eo, etc., is given in the Appendix. 
 
6 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 by an amiable humility ; he had more than this. 
 To him belonged in the highest degree an innate 
 sense of delicacy, which never permitted him in any 
 way to set his eminent advantages over against those 
 of others, whoever they might be, and by which he 
 not only knew how to adjust all inequality between 
 himself and his inferiors, but even to efface the idea 
 of it from their minds. And this was blended with 
 such a natural simplicity in all his manners and 
 words, that it was impossible not to forget his great- 
 ness in presence of his amiableness. It was thus, 
 and by honoring in every one with the greatest open- 
 heartedness that which was relatively good and 
 excellent, that he maintained himself in just that 
 superiority which in another character and with a 
 different tone — such is the weakness of the human 
 heart — would not perhaps have been willingly en- 
 dured. 
 
 Having already in his fifteenth year completed his 
 course in the Erasmian School, Van der Palm was 
 received into the University under highly raised ex- 
 pectation and with extraordinary praise. To this re- 
 sult his intelligent and far-seeing father had directed 
 his entire education. Far from laying him under 
 stricter bonds than were necessary, and which, when 
 once and suddenlv relaxed, so often draw after them 
 the saddest consequences, he had, however, guided 
 and prepared him entirely under his own eye. 
 Though he was already established at Delfthaven, 
 when his son attended school in Rotterdam, the 
 proximity of the two cities permitted the latter to 
 return between school-hours to the parental roof. 
 
LIFE OF VAST DER PALM. 7 
 
 During all this time, friends of his father were not 
 wanting who interested themselves in his welfare. 
 Among these were two ministers, Porjeere, 1 poet- 
 laureate of that time, and Bussingh, a very worthy, 
 well-read, and universally beloved man, with whose 
 son Van der Palm attended school, and whose daugh- 
 ter he subsequently married. Respecting this min- 
 ister 2 of the gospel, I find, after the first of the 
 above - mentioned school orations, certain Latin 
 verses, which clearly evince that he was greatly 
 pleased with both father and son. Van der Palm 
 was, moreover, from his earliest youth, a favorite 
 with Mr. Persoons, a grave and intelligent man, 
 merchant and manufacturer at Delfthaven, to whose 
 house he, in company with his father, frequently re- 
 sorted. Especially was this the case with respect to 
 the physician Servaas, a literary man, possessing a 
 cultivated and philosophic mind, from whom Van 
 der Palm ever testified that he had learned much, 
 to whom he felt himself greatly indebted, and for 
 whom he entertained a high regard. These literary 
 men he was accustomed to see frequently, and to visit 
 during his summer vacations, which he always spent 
 at Delfthaven. This intercourse with men of diver- 
 sified character contributed much to his early train- 
 ing, and to that superior preparation with which, in 
 spite of his extreme youth, he entered upon his col- 
 legiate course, and by means of which he so quickly 
 
 1 Olivier Porjeere, afterwards called to Alkmaar, 
 
 2 Jan Willem Bussingh. He died in the year 1782. A collection 
 of poems on occasion of his death is still extant, in which is one from. 
 Kornelis van der Palm, and another from J. H. van der Falm. In the 
 latter are several clever lines. 
 
8 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 attracted the attention of many, among whom were 
 not a few of the Professors. The government of 
 Rotterdam conferred on him a place in the Theo- 
 logical and Literary States-College, a regulation for 
 the benefit of students not possessing ample means, 
 but worthy of distinction ; and he repaired to Ley- 
 den towards the close of the long vacation in the 
 year 1778, only fifteen years old, but as to mind and 
 body far in advance of his age, (he had nearly at- 
 tained his full growth,) and filled with a noble zeal. 
 On the 16th of September, he began his University 
 course by listening to the great Valckenaar, on 
 Luke's second book, the Acts of the Apostles. 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The years spent by Van der Palm at the Univer- 
 sity of Leyden fell in one of the most flourishing 
 periods of that institution. Three years before his 
 matriculation, the bi-centenary of its existence had 
 been magnificently celebrated. The recollection of 
 its foundation and princely founder, joined to the 
 remembrance of the ancient famous occurrences 
 which gave rise to its establishment ; the rapid but 
 deliberate review of its history, which brought be- 
 fore the mind such an extensive and estimable series 
 of great men as had ever been its ornaments ; — all 
 this gave a new stimulus to resort to this seat of 
 learning. The professorial chairs were filled by the 
 most celebrated men in all departments of knowl- 
 edge and science. Besides not a few English, the 
 concourse of Netherland youth was greater than 
 ever ; and of these were formed in that period a 
 great multitude of men who were destined to be- 
 come eminent in every branch of learning and lit- 
 erature, and to be in different relations ornaments to 
 Church and State. Among these, without contra- 
 diction of any, Van der Palm was to occupy a most 
 prominent position ; and of this his first instructors, 
 Valckenaar, Ruhnkenius, Van de Wijnpersse, and 
 especially Hendrik Albert Schultens, were quickly 
 
10 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 convinced. To the instruction of these lights, which 
 he improved with the greatest conscientiousness and 
 with the most ardent zeal, was soon added that of 
 Pestel, to whose lectures on the fundamenta juris- 
 prudentice naturalis he attached great importance ; 
 so much so as to take an active part in the public 
 defences, made in the presence of this professor, of 
 theses drawn from that department, in which the 
 shrewdness of his questions, and the appropriateness 
 of his answers, given in pure and flowing Latin, 
 attracted the attention of all. In theology he 
 afterwards heard Hollebeek, the reformer of the 
 Netherland style of preaching, Gillissen, Scholten, 
 Boers, and Rietveld ; to the lectures of the last 
 mentioned he seems to have applied himself with 
 special diligence. He did not, in the course of his 
 studies, actually make choice of any theological 
 party, though he seems to have inclined towards 
 the Leyden Cocceian. 1 
 
 Of all these instructors none certainly was dearer 
 to him than the great, the amiable Schultens, the 
 concise delineation of whose character, by the excel- 
 lent Wijttenbach, I cannot refrain from inserting 
 here, as of the man who exerted so extraordinary 
 
 1 This appeared when, in 1791, it was in contemplation to call him to 
 Kissingen, where at that time of the five preachers, two Voetian, two 
 Cocceian, and one Lampiau were required. One of the Cocceian pul- 
 pits was vacant, and Prof. Broerius Broes wrote, in reply to inquiries 
 made respecting Van der Palm, the following: "As respects party or 
 fraternity I have every reason to think that he belongs to the Leyden 
 Cocceian, and I know that he devoted special attention to the lec- 
 tures of the blessed Rietveld." See in the Appendix a small frag- 
 ment of a short discourse delivered by him when a student before 
 the University. 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. H 
 
 an influence in forming Van der Palm, and that not 
 merely in the scientific. " Schultens had received 
 from nature the rare gift of appearing to be what 
 he really was. Uprightness of heart, greatness of 
 mind, and benevolence were expressed in his coun- 
 tenance ; yea, all that is praiseworthy. His bear- 
 ing, gestures, movements, were most graceful. Add 
 to this the finest perception of the beautiful and the 
 true, an uncommon familiarity and affability, and 
 the greatest agreeableness of speech and expression ; 
 and all this entirely natural, without the least affec- 
 tation. Few therefore were, whether teaching or 
 speaking, listened to with greater pleasure, or with 
 greater confidence in their ability ; and few there 
 were whose society and intercourse were more 
 sought in social fife." 1 
 
 Thev who have known Van der Palm, know that 
 in him most of the lineaments of this portraiture 
 were reproduced. Schultens was indeed not only 
 his favorite instructor, who imbued him with that 
 genuine taste for Oriental languages and literature 
 which was so peculiar to him, but he was also the 
 
 1 " Raro quodam naturae munere, siraul habebat utrumque illud 
 elvac kcic donelv. In vultu et oculis expressa erat animi probitas, niag- 
 donitu, benevolentia, et nullius non virtutis significatio : habitus, ges- 
 tus, motus, plurimum habebat decoris. Accedebat acerrimus pulchri 
 verique sensus, mira comitas et affabilitas, nee minor sermonis orisque 
 commendatio ; omnia a natura tributa, nil studio qusesituni. Igitur 
 pauci fuerunt, qui vel docentes, vel dicentes, majore cum voluptate et 
 facultatis opinione audirentur : pauci quorum privatim sodalitas et con- 
 suetudo vulgo magis expeteretur." — Wyttenbachius in vita Ruhnkenii, 
 p. 208, and in the edition of Bergmanni, p. 237. Most worthy of pe- 
 rusal is the admirable eulogy on H. A. Schultens by Jacobus Kante- 
 laar, — a discourse, many a page of which can be entirely applied to 
 Van der Palm, and many a page of which Van der Palm would not 
 have been ashamed to have written himself. 
 
12 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 man after whom he entirely formed himself; the 
 man to whom he was indebted for that hi^h refine- 
 ment 1 by which he was so peculiarly distinguished ; 
 the man whom he proposed to himself as his model 
 in all things, and whose entire being he endeavored 
 to express in his own, when he was afterwards called 
 to fill the same professorial chair himself. 
 
 The imao-e of Schultens lived in his heart durino- 
 the whole of his I0112; life. His name sounds through 
 all his writings; he denominates it a name "which 
 humanity in its highest nobility claims as its own." 2 
 After Schultens he named one of his sons ; and of 
 Schultens he spoke, as long as his strength permitted 
 him to speak of any one, and his spirit roamed 
 through the past. How high this man placed the 
 youthful Van der Palm we can easily conceive, if 
 we can represent to ourselves how agreeable it is 
 to exercise influence over a gifted youth, to infuse 
 our spirit into a susceptible breast, and to see our 
 youth renewed as it were in another. He was the 
 apple of his eye, his glory, his hope. He saw him 
 daily at his own house, and saw no one more gladly ; 
 and when, after five years' instruction and inter- 
 course, he parted with his beloved pupil, his eye fol- 
 lowed him in his course, and up to his death he 
 cherished him in his heart. 3 
 
 I have before me, in their own handwriting, the 
 
 1 " We went together to the beloved house of our great and never- 
 to-be-forgotten Schultens, to gather up lessons on the knowledge of the 
 world, and on polite intercourse." — Dedication of the second volume of 
 his sermons to E. Kist. 
 
 2 "Discourse in Commemoration of College Life," Essays, Discourses, 
 and Scattered Writings, vol. iv. 
 
 3 Schultens died Aug. 12th, 1793. 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 13 
 
 testimonials given to Van cler Palm when leaving 
 the institution, by most of the Professors from 
 whom he had, during his curriculum, received in- 
 struction, — by Schultens, by Valckenaar, by Ruhn- 
 kenius, by Van der Wijnpersse, and by the combined 
 theological faculty. 
 
 They vie with one another to find terms by which 
 to express the praise due, according to their unani- 
 mous judgment, to this excellent youth. " It does 
 not often happen," — this testimony is given by the 
 faculty, — " that we send forth from our seminary 
 youth so thoroughly versed in all polite literature 
 as Johannes Henricus van der Palm, and who in 
 addition to this have made such important advances 
 in sacred learning. The eminent gifts allotted him 
 by the Almighty have been, during the course of 
 his studies, improved by him with the greatest zeal. 
 All the instructors in this institution whose lectures 
 he has attended (and he has neglected none that it 
 was his duty to attend) have furnished him with 
 very honorable testimonials. So far as it concerns 
 us, he so greatly excelled among our hearers, that 
 neither in the answering of our questions, nor in 
 disputation, nor in preaching, did any surpass him. 
 And as all these excellences have been graced by a 
 consistent deportment, we the more strongly com- 
 mend this excellent youth, who seems to have already 
 carried the matter so far as to surpass his most for- 
 midable rival, — the high expectations entertained 
 of him by others." * 
 
 In this learned youth, as is apparent from this 
 1 See the Latin testimonial entire in the Appendix. 
 
14 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 testimony, purity of morals was sweetly blended 
 with eminent endowments. " Of his collegiate 
 life," writes a contemporary, to whom we are 
 chiefly indebted for communications relating to this 
 early period, " it can in general and with truth be 
 said, that during it he exhibited a consistent whole 
 of rare qualities, eminent zeal, agreeable intercourse, 
 virtuous conduct, and a character by which he won 
 the hearts of all who enjoyed his acquaintance and 
 society. At the same time, he gave evidences of 
 those gifts and powers of mind which by constant 
 culture were carried to so great perfection, and 
 which enabled him, even to old age, to maintain the 
 high position attained by him when in the full ma- 
 turity of his powers. But what shall I say more 
 of his collegiate life? I cannot do better than to 
 refer to his well-known anniversary oration in com- 
 memoration of college life, 1 in which, in language 
 well chosen and worthy of himself, he has delin- 
 eated that life, as it should be, and as it is in the 
 case of virtuous and noble-minded youth. It is only 
 necessary to substitute, in place of the general appel- 
 lation, the name of the orator ; for such was the life 
 which he spent at the University." And, without 
 doubt, whoever reads this discourse with any knowl- 
 edge of human nature cannot fail to recognize in it 
 the fruit of a calm recollection of a happy period, en- 
 joyed to its full extent, — a recollection, not marred 
 by accusations of conscience, because of the neglect 
 of any duty. An equally great orator, but whose 
 past had not been so clear and pleasant, would per- 
 
 1 Essays, Orations, and Scattered Writings, vol. iv. 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 15 
 
 haps have attempted to give a more glowing descrip- 
 tion of college life than he had himself enjoyed; 
 but it would probably betray signs of being over- 
 drawn, and it would certainly lack many small 
 strokes and touches which can proceed only from 
 the heart, and which set the seal of artless truth 
 upon that of Van der Palm. And what can be said 
 of this oration is equally applicable to all his others. 
 The secret of their perspicuity, naturalness, and 
 completeness lies in this, that the author always 
 found in himself the fruitful source of his represen- 
 tations, and so always stood upon ground with 
 which he was, comparatively speaking, • perfectly 
 acquainted, and upon which he felt himself at home. 
 Certainly, of all who were present at that festal 
 commemoration, there was no one better fitted, or 
 to whom it more properly belonged, to guide the 
 current of thought and feeling ; no one who could 
 do it with a more tranquil mind and a more cheer- 
 ful self-consciousness ; no one to whom with united 
 voice this task would be more cheerfully assigned, 
 than to a man to whom already at the University 
 his contemporaries were pointed as to a model, and 
 who had completely maintained, with successive 
 generations, the good name acquired by him as a 
 student. 
 
 Manifold were the relations of friendship formed 
 by Van der Palm at the University. At that time 
 the different faculties were intimately connected 
 with one another, and hence the mutual intercourse 
 was very lively and important. This was the nat- 
 ural consequence of the great number of eminent 
 
16 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 youth which each department of science numbered 
 amoncr its cultivators. These ever sought one an- 
 other with all the attractive force which extraordi- 
 nary intellects usually exert upon one another, and 
 there was none of them to whom Van der Palm was 
 not acceptable. Schimmelpenninck, Brugmans, 
 Nieuwland, Bilderdijk, were all his friends. To 
 how great a degree the last was so, despite the dif- 
 ference of historical and political views which even 
 then in some measure divided them, may be seen 
 from his poetical lines in the album of Van der 
 Palm, 1 and from the verse of the latter after the 
 one hundred and five theses, upon whose public de- 
 fence Bilderdijk was promoted to Doctor in both 
 laws. They saw each other almost daily. Bilder- 
 dijk was several years older, and Van der Palm 
 gladly allowed himself to be instructed b}^ him out 
 of the vast fund of general knowledge which even 
 then he already possessed. These two young men, 
 who were destined to introduce and to govern an 
 entirely new era in Dutch prose and poetry, heard 
 each other, exercised each other, loved each other, 
 felt that they were worthy of each other. 2 They 
 seemed destined to enter upon the path of fame with 
 clasped hands, and to walk together to the end. It 
 would have been a beautiful incident in the history 
 of our national literature. But they who were well 
 acquainted with both, might even then have per- 
 ceived that they were not sufficiently adapted to each 
 
 1 See Appendix. 
 
 2 " . . . . misschien was Van der Palm 
 
 Een Bilderdijk niet gantsch onwaardig . . . . " 
 
 says Van der Palm, after the theses of B. 1782. 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 17 
 
 other to maintain a permanent friendship: the differ- 
 ence in their disposition, character, and efforts was 
 too great. This difference did not indeed interrupt 
 their good understanding during the period of spec- 
 ulative student-life, but would necessarily give rise to 
 collisions in practical life. Yan der Palm sedate, 
 moderate, gentle, equanimous, prudent almost to 
 reserve ; Bilderdijk impulsive in the extreme, ener- 
 getic, capricious, courageous even to excess. Van 
 der Palm modest, loving and revering his fellow- 
 men, not always free from the suspicion of being 
 influenced by the fear of man ; Bilderdijk haughty, 
 positive, and struggling with a sombre misanthropy. 
 Van der Palm pliable, sometimes bordering on weak- 
 ness ; Bilderdijk steadfast, not without headiness. 
 In the domain of science, Van der Palm investigat- 
 ing, Bilderdijk discovering ; Van der Palm apply- 
 ing, Bilderdijk speculating ; Van der Palm accu- 
 rate and regular, Bilderdijk inconstant, undertaking 
 everything simultaneously, and paradoxical ; Van 
 der Palm renovating the old, Bilderdijk here pur- 
 suing the new, there obtruding without qualification 
 the old ; Van der Palm pleading for his opinion, 
 Bilderdijk contending for his. 
 
 Add to this the distinction of political party and 
 the difference in Providential allotments. Van der 
 Palm blessed with health, prosperity, domestic hap- 
 piness ; loved, honored, flattered, ascending from 
 step to step without contradiction of any ; Bilderdijk 
 sickly, unhappy in his marriage, 1 in his offspring, 2 
 
 1 His first marriage. 
 
 2 Most of his children died young. — Tr. 
 
18 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 vexed on every side, misapprehended, necessitous, 
 grieved by one disappointment after another. These 
 things necessarily separated those who were so in- 
 wardly united ; — separated them despite the esteem 
 which they cherished for each other's gifts and 
 greatness, which induced them, after an intervening 
 coolness or actual breach, to extend to each other 
 the hand of reconciliation, which, alas ! could not 
 be of long continuance. To these causes is to be 
 ascribed their inability to forgive each other's in- 
 firmities. Public sentiment, which had throughout 
 shown itself partial to Van der Palm, seemed, in the 
 closing period of their lives, disposed to restore to 
 Bilderdijk the share in its favors which it had so 
 long withheld ; the Society of Literature united 
 their names by conferring on them an honor in 
 which no one else might participate ; but their 
 hearts were estranged from each other, and nothing 
 but death could unite them. 
 
 As to Van der Palm, he spoke to the last with 
 great respect of Bilderdijk's excellent gifts ; he tes- 
 tified " that he esteemed him far above himself," 
 and gladly forgave him all the injury that he had 
 done him. 
 
 Among the special and most intimate friends of 
 Van der Palm, besides his earliest friend, Jan Wil- 
 lem Bussingh, already mentioned, were Henricus 
 van Roijen, Jacobus Kantelaar, Cornelis Fransen 
 van Eck, Jacobus van Heusden, Johannes Stolk, 
 Thomas Hoog, and particularly Ewaldus Kist. 
 How much he was attached to the last appears 
 from the Dedication of the second volume of his 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 19 
 
 Sermons, in which he recalls with the greatest de- 
 light the six years spent in daily intercourse with 
 this friend. He not only mentions there that they 
 " as an inseparable pair were accustomed to walk 
 together the streets of Leyden and its circumjacent 
 lanes, and were in all things each other's confi- 
 dants," but he also makes the remarkable acknowl- 
 edgment, that, in the matter of internal as well as 
 of external eloquence, he felt himself under the 
 greatest obligations to him ; as he had made him 
 his model, and endeavored to make himself master 
 of his style and manner, " in the hope," says he, 
 " that, if I had once acquired these, I should, by the 
 peculiar hue of my imagination and manner of view- 
 ing things, be able to impart to them an air of 
 diversity and originality. Other examples indeed 
 were not wanting of a worthy and intelligent pulpit 
 delivery, but yours, as being that of my friend and 
 companion in the same arena, wrought most power- 
 fully on my spirit ; it was naturally most to my 
 youthful taste ; it was in my immediate vicinity, 
 and not placed at that distance occasioned by more 
 advanced years and longer practice. And this, my 
 friend," continues he, " is not the only fruit that I 
 reaped from our collegiate intercourse : we strength- 
 ened each other in our taste for, and knowledge of 
 the best Greek and Latin writers ; we stimulated 
 each other in our diligent study of the speculative 
 parts of Philosophy ; we roamed together through 
 the fields of Theology, rejected, again accepted, and 
 formed for ourselves those fixed principles which to 
 this moment have not failed us ; together we chose 
 
20 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 our modern reading, and by no means neglected this 
 means of enriching our minds ; and we went togeth- 
 er to the beloved house of our great and never- 
 to-be-forgotten Schultens, to gather up lessons on 
 the knowledge of the world and on polite inter- 
 course. But whilst all these advantages were nat- 
 
 S3 
 
 urally reciprocal, there is one thing for which I 
 am wholly indebted to you, without knowing that 
 I have ever rendered you an equivalent for it. I 
 mean the refinement and elevation of my taste by 
 the influence of music. Still, it seems to me, I am 
 seated in my apartment, and the transporting tones 
 of your harpsichord are sounding in my ears ; still, 
 it seems to me, I close my books, leave my room, 
 go to yours, give you a wink as I enter, to proceed 
 undisturbed, place myself behind you, turn over for 
 you the pages of your music, and leave you not, till 
 the concert of Jourdany or Bach has been played 
 to its close, and, attuned to the perception and ap- 
 preciation of the humane and the beautiful, I return 
 to my old books, to search in them especially for 
 what is humane and beautiful in sentiment and ex- 
 pression." 1 
 
 i The friendship subsisting between him and Ewaldus Kist was never 
 impaired ; and in the matter of sacred eloquence Kist remained the man 
 after his heart, the only pulpit orator of whom he always spoke with 
 his peculiar enthusiasm. " His sermons alone on the Perfections of 
 God," he more than once observed, " place him at the head of all the 
 pulpit orators of Holland." Gladly would he have seen him occupy- 
 ing a chair beside him in the University; but strong attachment to the 
 pastoral office withheld Kist from accepting such an appointment. 
 
 Affecting was the feeling which Van der Palm always cherished for 
 this friend of his youth, and forcibly was it expressed in the beautiful 
 sermon, which, after his friend's death, he preached at the ordination 
 of his son. Essays, Discourses, and Scattered Writings. On this and 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 21 
 
 With Ewaldus Kist and a few of the other friends 
 above mentioned Van der Palm held a stated weekly 
 conference, in which each in his turn read a compo- 
 sition of his own, and in which the criticism, both 
 on that which had been read and on what might be 
 further discussed, was free and informal. 1 In these 
 and other meetings Van der Palm was always the 
 desired, always the welcome, seldom the absent 
 companion. He always had something important, 
 something instructive, something ingenious, some- 
 thing apropos. He was then already distinguished 
 for setting a subject in its clearest light, leading you 
 to the simplest view of it. Never did they separate 
 dissatisfied. He was the delight, the soul, and the 
 life of the social circle ; and they ever had in his 
 company provision made for study, knowledge, men- 
 tal improvement. In addition to this he contributed 
 not a little to the increase of hilarity. And in all 
 these things his disposition, character, and genius 
 enabled him always to preserve the just mean be- 
 tween too little and too much. 
 
 The youthful Van der Palm was lively, fond 
 of visiting, of walking, of bodily exercises, of the 
 theatre, 2 of sports, and especially of playing at golf, 
 
 similar occasions, one was at a loss which most to admire in him, on 
 the one hand, the restraining of his feelings, or on the other, the 
 manner in which he gave expression to them. The one as well as the 
 other was done with the most striking simplicity, and with that mod- 
 eration which is characteristic of the great man. 
 
 1 To this company also belonged Mr. G. J. Loncq, not a student, 
 but a skilful, prosperous manufacturer in Leyden, an intelligent and 
 studious man, known as a poet. A poem of Van der Palm addressed 
 to this gentleman is still extant, bearing date 1781. 
 
 a He resorted to it, so far as the opportunity was afforded in Leyden, 
 
22 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 which he did almost daily, and at which he was 
 very expert. 1 Though he knew how to allow him- 
 self abundant time for these pleasures, he did not 
 however, on their account, neglect his studies. 
 
 " It was frequently matter of surprise," he used 
 to tell me, " that I was seen playing the whole after- 
 noon at golf in the Fountain, and in the evening at 
 ombre, and yet was prepared the next morning to 
 answer promptly on all the lectures ; but it was not 
 known that at three o'clock in the morning I was 
 already washing myself in the States- basin, as the 
 States-College was called. However," added he, 
 " in my first year I did not signify much ; but then 
 Schultens took an interest in me, and I thought : 
 Wait, Professor, you shall derive pleasure from it." 
 
 It is indeed incomprehensible how much thorough 
 
 somewhat frequently, especially when the great Corver was still on the 
 stage. He testified that he, in the part of the Notary in The Indigent 
 of Mercier, first caused him to feel the nature of external eloquence, 
 the idea of which was afterwards fully developed in him by Bellamy. 
 (See " Recollections of Bellamy," Essays, Discourses, and Scattered 
 Writings, iii. 227.) Subsequently, he carefully availed himself of the 
 talent of Mrs. Wattier-Ziezenis and Ward Bingley. His object was to 
 make himself acquainted with the gifts of all, and to render them con- 
 ducive to the improvement of his own delivery. And how well he suc- 
 ceeded in doing this, with the exclusion of everything suited only to 
 the stage, every one knows who has witnessed his pulpit performances. 
 1 Fondness for social recreations continued with Van der Palm even 
 to advanced age, and it was doubtless very beneficial to him both as 
 to mind and body. He was particularly fond of relaxing himself by 
 (sedate) card-playing, especially ombre, whist, and tre-sept, in which 
 plays he was eminently skilled. The first he played in the family cir- 
 cle almost every winter evening after leaving his stud}-, though sel- 
 dom much longer than half an hour. He regarded the play, " used as 
 a moderate and not too long continued recreation, as neither unbecom- 
 ing nor entirely useless." Satomo, ii. 319; on occasion of his treating 
 of evil-speaking. 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 23 
 
 study Van der Palm accomplished at the University 
 in the early summer mornings and long winter 
 evenings of the six years which he spent there ; 
 what an amount of reading he performed, and that 
 not cursorily, but penetrating to the pith and mar- 
 row of the subjects. On Oriental languages and lit- 
 erature, his principal study, he read all the ancient 
 and modern authors. The Schultenses, his favor- 
 ites, lay ever at hand. Michaelis, Lowth, Dathe, 
 Herder, were his most confidential friends. How 
 highly he esteemed the last appears from his writ- 
 ings. He assiduously perused the Greek and Latin 
 classics, and with what fruit is, among others, shown 
 by his Memorial of the Restoration of the Nether- 
 lands, so entirely in the spirit of Sallust, and yet so 
 entirely original and Dutch. Modern literature, 
 we saw it recorded in his own recollections of Kist, 
 he by no means neglected, especially the study of 
 our national language and literature, early inculcated 
 on him by his gifted father. With the best French 
 writers he was familiar, and of the Germans he read 
 Kleist, Haller, and Klopstock. With the rest he 
 first became acquainted at a later period under the 
 guidance of Bellamy, who knew how to inspire him 
 with a predilection for Holty, which he ever after 
 retained. Of the English he preferred the humor- 
 ists, _ Swift, Smollett, Fielding, especially Sterne. 
 There was also in his own nature a humorous ele- 
 ment, which even in old age was still very apparent 
 in his relations and conversations, and also here and 
 there in his writings directed the mode of expression. 
 " Tristram Shandy" was his favorite at the Univer- 
 
24 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 sity, and remained so to his hoary days. He used to 
 read a page or two in it, or in the " Mille et Une," 
 almost daily before his siesta. 
 
 What is called plodding was never his case. 
 Quickness, ease in acquiring, a rapid glance and a 
 tact not to be deceived, exempted him from shut- 
 ting himself up in his study, buried among folios. 
 Hence he never became a disagreeable bookworm. 
 He had no distractions, nor did he bring the con- 
 tents of books or the wrinkles of painful study with 
 him into social life. As a student mutual study was 
 very agreeable to him. With a couple of select 
 friends, to study together at the tea-table a lecture to 
 which they had listened, in order that they might 
 the next day answer on it more readily, was very 
 much to his mind ; and for those who were of this 
 triumvirate (Van Roijen and Kist) this was, espe- 
 cially by means of his presence, and as it were un- 
 der his presidency, very instructive. 
 
 In this and similar ways Van der Palm pursued 
 his studies. When he approached Theology proper, 
 he did not allow his Oriental studies to repose, but 
 prosecuted them zealously under the guidance and in 
 the enjoyment of daily intercourse with Schultens. 
 About this time he began the first work with which 
 he was to appear before the public, — the " Philo- 
 logical and Critical Elucidation of Ecclesiastes." He 
 completed it at the close of the year 1783, and de- 
 fended it publicly the 81st of January of the follow- 
 ing year, under the presidency of his beloved teacher, 
 and in presence of a great concourse. Van der 
 Palm spoke to me more than once of this defence, 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 25 
 
 and used to say : " It was indeed somewhat pre- 
 sumptuous in me, as I had only the Hebrew codex 
 before me ; but happily it succeeded well. Schul- 
 tens had previously said : ' If it passes off well, you 
 shall have Madeira ; if only tolerably, nothing but 
 coffee.' But when we returned home together, he 
 called simultaneously for coffee, Madeira, ratafia, 
 and all kinds of liquor. He testified that I had not 
 made a single mistake." This little anecdote, as 
 related to me by Van der Palm, is communicated, 
 principally, to show his resemblance to Schultens. 
 For what is here related by him of Schultens is so 
 entirely in his own spirit, that no one who has had 
 intercourse with Van der Palm would be surprised, 
 had he in like circumstances conducted himself in 
 precisely the same way towards one of his own 
 favorite pupils. His manner of intimating his appro- 
 bation and delight in a degree highly honoring, and 
 at the same time in a way unaffected and cordial, 
 without ever praising to the face, was most happy 
 and truly admirable. 
 
 The first production of Van der Palm excited gen- 
 eral admiration. It afforded evidence not only of 
 his acute intellect, but also of his independent judg- 
 ment, (as he had ventured to differ on some points 
 even from Schultens,) and of the rarest learning 
 for one at his period of life. It established his rep- 
 utation as an Orientalist both at home and abroad, 
 and is still regarded as one of the best works on its 
 subject. 1 
 
 1 In most of the testimonials which Van der Palm carried with him 
 from the University, it is alluded to with high praise. Kuhnkenius 
 
26 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 Meanwhile the time had arrived for Van der Palm 
 to begin to give proof of that eloquence which, 
 during half a century, has enjoyed the almost undi- 
 vided admiration of our nation. He preached two 
 or three trial sermons. The result of the first was, 
 according to the assurance of contemporaries, a gen- 
 eral consternation among the theological students. 
 Great was the interest felt to hear him at each suc- 
 cessive time ; but however high expectations were 
 raised, they were still surpassed, both by the beau- 
 tiful assemblage of his external gifts, melodious 
 voice, bearing, and gestures, and by what was at 
 that time especially worthy of admiration, the beauty 
 of the style, the simplicity and captivating power 
 of presentation, and the appropriate and edifying 
 treatment. The seats were crowded, even more 
 than at an ordinary church service. The so-called 
 crisis of the professors was approbation, praise, and 
 encouragement ; and whoever had ears to hear, could 
 predict the future great orator. 
 
 It is worthy of notice that this eloquence was, 
 as it were, grafted on the decapitated trunk of poe- 
 try, for which Van der Palm had a happy talent ; 
 many verses were composed by him, especially while 
 a student. In the collections of the society Kunst 
 wordt door Arbeid verkregen 1 proofs of it are found. 
 From this society, and also from the one having for 
 its motto, Kunstliefde spaart geen vlijt, 2 he received 
 
 denominates it a " praeclarum libellum, in quo omnes qui de his rebus 
 judicare possunt et ingenium auctoris et eruditionem admirantur; " 
 the theological faculty : " coruplura non iugenii modo sed etiam eru- 
 ditionis documenta continens ; " Schultens: " doctum specimen." 
 
 1 " Skill is acquired by practice." 
 
 2 " Devotion to art spares no pains." 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 27 
 
 a gold medal : 1 from the former for his lyric, " War ; " 
 from the latter for his poem, "Christ transfigured on 
 the Mount." In them are found very beautiful coup- 
 lets. 2 An entire portfolio of verses from his hand 
 lies before me. They are mostly in an erotic strain, 
 in the manner of his time, a mixture of the classical 
 with the sentimental ; and in this he succeeded as 
 well at least as most of his contemporaries. To their 
 rhymeless verses he had an aversion. From this 
 art, however, he quickly withdrew, 3 with the con- 
 viction that poetry was not his forte, and that its 
 cultivation would be prejudicial to that of eloquence. 4 
 To this he consecrated all his powers, 5 with the sac- 
 rifice of poetry, in which he had already begun to 
 acquire distinction. Still it was doubtless of im- 
 portance to his prose, that he had cursorily passed 
 through the poetic school. The laws of euphony, 
 with which the writing of verses had made him famil- 
 iar, were happily applied by him to the rhythm of 
 his style, whilst he always knew how to avoid every- 
 thing calculated to remind one of the peculiar tone 
 of poetry. It was therefore never a matter of re- 
 gret to him that he had composed verses, and he 
 
 1 With regard to these triumphs Van der Palm was always eminently 
 humble. " I had those medals melted over as gifts for my children at 
 my silver wedding," said he ; " but I was not entitled to them. It was 
 then no very difficult matter." 
 
 2 See the Appendix. 
 
 8 His last verses were, I believe, composed at Maartensdijk. 
 
 4 See his " Discourse on Self-Knowledge, " Essays, Discourses, and 
 Scattered Writings, iv. 156. " Nothing prevents from being at the same 
 time poet and orator; but to be both, without the one prejudicing the 
 other, we regard as at least questionable, if not as improbable," etc. 
 etc. 
 
 4 Dedication to E. Kist in the second volume of his sermons. . 
 
28 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 regarded it of much importance to him that he had 
 become conscious of his own poetic talent. It was 
 also eminently serviceable to him in his translations 
 of the Bible. In the preface of his work on Isaiah 
 he says : " Had I never felt that fire kindled within 
 me, had I been an entire stranger to the language of 
 ecstasy, I should never have ventured on the trans- 
 lation of such a poet as Isaiah." His exquisite 
 poetic sensibility, and his pure poetic taste, are 
 abundantly proved both by this work, and by the 
 aesthetic contemplations scattered with no sparing 
 hand through all his works, and which he frequently 
 could not exclude even from his sermons. He was 
 in this respect entirely formed at a very early period 
 of life. When not yet twenty-three years of age, he 
 wrote a letter to Maurits Cornelis van Hall, criti- 
 cising a poem which had been sent to him by this 
 friend, who was then but a youthful poet, in which 
 are expressed the same fundamental rules which he 
 subsequently on various occasions enforced with all 
 the power of his eloquence, and which he observed 
 in all his own works. 1 
 
 1 A copy of this letter has, by the kindness of Mr. Van Hall, been 
 placed at my disposal, and it is consequently found in the Appendix. 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 29 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 On the 5th of January 1784, Van der Palm pro- 
 cured his dismission from the States-College, and on 
 the 1st of November following, he, together with J. J. 
 van Steenbergen, and J. Stolk, his former schoolfellow 
 and faithful University friend, was, after previous ex- 
 amination, received as candidate by the Classis of 
 Leyden and the Lower Rhine. In consequence of his 
 youth, being only twenty-one years of age, he could 
 not, despite the great number of vacancies, be lo- 
 cated in the province of Holland. In the diocese of 
 Utrecht the regulations respecting this matter were 
 of a more liberal character, and on the 13th of De- 
 cember of the same year, out of a nomination of six 
 persons, among whom he occupied the fourth place, 
 he was, by the consistory of the church in Maartens- 
 dijk, a village between four and five miles distant 
 from Utrecht, unanimously chosen to be their pastor 
 and teacher. This speedy success was, however, but 
 half welcome, as he had another post in view, to 
 which in all probability he would be appointed, and 
 which seemed to him more desirable. 1 The consent 
 of the provincial States followed the next day, and 
 very soon after the approbation of the Classis of 
 
 1 " Recollections of Bellamy," Essays, Discourses, and Scattered 
 Writings, iii. 235, 236. 
 
30 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 Amersfoort, before which his final examination was 
 completed the 9th of March, 1785, upon which he 
 was introduced to the congregation, and the 28th of 
 March, second day of Easter, was fixed for his or- 
 dination. This service was at the appointed time 
 performed by Professor Boers, of Leyden, with the 
 greatest satisfaction, as was to be expected from his 
 strong attachment. His text was Mark xvi. 15 : 
 u Preach the gospel to every creature ; " and in the 
 afternoon the young minister delivered his inaugural 
 from 2 Cor. iv. 5 : " We preach not ourselves, but 
 Christ Jesus the Lord." He repaired to the par- 
 sonage with his only sister Helena, with whom he oc- 
 cupied it for some time ; but on the 14th of Novem- 
 ber, 1786, he entered into the marriage relation with 
 Miss Alida Bussingh, the daughter of his deceased 
 paternal friend, the Delfthaven minister : a young, 
 lovely, eminently beautiful and graceful woman, who 
 was devotedly attached to him, and with whom he 
 lived forty-nine years in the enjoyment of the highest 
 connubial felicity. 
 
 The young minister enjoyed in this charge the 
 highest esteem and love. " The people had much 
 patience with me," he used to say. His preaching 
 was listened to with the greatest satisfaction. From 
 Utrecht the people came very frequently to hear 
 him, especially the students of the University. The 
 sermons of that period which have been preserved, 
 are in an entirely different form from those which 
 he subsequently gave to the public. They are 
 longer, and in them more time is given to exposi- 
 tion than in the latter. But they are equally dis- 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 31 
 
 tinguished for beauty of language and felicity of 
 expression, and especially for a conscientious and 
 an open avowal of the doctrines of our national 
 Reformed Church. With respect to eloquence, a 
 very great difference exists between the last of his 
 discourses at Maartensdijk and the first of his pub- 
 lished sermons. 
 
 In one thing the youthful minister felt himself 
 deficient, and that too a very important, perhaps the 
 most important part of the gospel ministry, — the 
 pastoral work. " In all uprightness," he subse- 
 quently wrote (1791) to a friend, " it is not my 
 case, I venture to say it is not my gift ; and I never 
 succeeded in it." 
 
 Meantime he was not permitted to remain long 
 in this quiet village, in the exercise of his peaceful 
 and most happy ministry. As early as the 17th of 
 March, 1786, he received a letter from Schultens, 
 written to ascertain whether he would be disposed to 
 accept an appointment as Professor of Theology and 
 Oriental Languages at Lingen. " The post," wrote 
 Schultens, " is not in itself unpleasant ; the remu- 
 neration tolerably large (1000 florins) ; but the place 
 is no way attractive. Moreover, it is not a theatre 
 worthy of your merits, and upon it, however, 
 you run the risk of being obliged to spend, if not 
 your whole life, at least a great part of it. I rejoice 
 that your merits are already beginning to be appre- 
 ciated, and I heartily wish that they may be speedily 
 acknowledged in a still more illustrious manner." 
 "Whether this appointment was declined by Van der 
 Palm, or whether the matter was never carried so 
 
32 LIFE OF VAN" DER PALM. 
 
 far, I do not know ; but Providence had determined 
 that he should leave this peaceful village in a differ- 
 ent way, and move successively in spheres of increas- 
 ing honor and usefulness, which were all to con- 
 tribute to make him the highly accomplished man 
 that it was necessary for him to be, in order to stand 
 at the head of the literati of his country. Provi- 
 dence employed for this purpose the misfortunes of 
 his country, and his own errors. 
 
 Van der Palm had been educated in the views 
 of the so-called patriotic party, and most of his Uni- 
 versity friends (with exception, certainly, of Buss- 
 ingh and Bilderdijk, who were strongly opposed) 
 were attached to it. So also his paternal friend, 
 Hendrik Albert Schultens. His location in the 
 diocese of Utrecht had brought him into acquaint- 
 ance and intimate relation with Zelandus (Bellamy), 
 and this friendship had fanned his excited enthu- 
 siasm into a great flame. The youthful minister, 
 full of zeal for that which he esteemed the good 
 cause, attached great importance to all that was 
 planned and done to promote it ; he even went so 
 far as to participate in the military exercises of the 
 citizens, which he vindicated from the pulpit, though 
 his course was severely censured by persons of greater 
 discretion, or who were attached to a different party. 
 This continued till the invasion of the Prussians, in 
 September, 1787, when Van der Palm, fearing to be 
 plundered, and dreading the hatred not so much of 
 the inhabitants of Maartensdijk, as of those of the 
 neighboring Bunschoten, who seem to have been 
 very much prejudiced against him, thought it advis- 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 33 
 
 able for him to depart with his young wife, which 
 he did without the previous knowledge of any, and 
 in the most unexpected manner. He withdrew on 
 Sabbath, the 16th of that month, after having 
 preached in the afternoon on the fifty-first Lord's 
 Day of the Heidelberg Catechism, which he did in- 
 stead of appearing as usual at the place of military 
 exercises. He took his departure very precipitately, 
 leaving behind him all his effects. He repaired 
 with his wife to the house of her brother, J. W. 
 Bussingh, then minister at Monster. In vain did 
 his friends in the congregation urge him to return, 
 assuring him in their letters that he would be in 
 no danger at Maartensdijk, and that " he had been 
 unnecessarily alarmed by false rumors of danger, 
 whilst the congregation were only lamenting their 
 destitute condition in being deprived of their pastor." 
 Others, who were more prudent, did not advise his 
 immediate return. His purpose was formed, and 
 October 30th, 1787, he requested his dismission, 
 having previously recommended to the Classis to 
 make provision for supplying the pulpit. 1 His dis- 
 mission was granted a few days after (November 
 4th) by the consistory of the church. To no pur- 
 pose was letter after letter written to him by his 
 ministerial brethren, who cordially loved him ; in 
 vain did the Classis delay the matter by pretending 
 a difficulty on the ground that his request was made 
 
 1 To a certain person at Maartensdijk he wrote: " Not that I fear for 
 ray safety, — it is perhaps at present everywhere equally safe, — and 
 not more so here than elsewhere; but to be the object of insult, of 
 ridicule, of humiliating sympathy, and so to exercise my ministry with 
 no heart or pleasure, — this would be to me an inexpressible grief." 
 3 
 
34 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 without sufficient cause ; fruitless was the attempt 
 of the Synod to dissuade him from his purpose : he 
 persevered ; and on the 12th of March of the fol- 
 lowing year he received from the Classis his dismis- 
 sion in due form, with the assurance of their sincere 
 regret, and their unfeigned thankfulness " for his 
 past services and intercourse, and of their hearty 
 prayer to Almighty God, that he would incline 
 him to consecrate his excellent gifts to the exten- 
 sion of the Redeemer's kingdom, and to the edifi- 
 cation of his people, and that he would crown all 
 his efforts with the richest of his blessings." 
 
 This is all that we are able to communicate re- 
 specting an occurrence in Van der Palm's life, of 
 which he spoke reluctantly, and in which none of 
 his friends participated. It excited heartfelt regret 1 
 in all who were interested in his welfare, and it cost 
 him, undoubtedly, a severe struggle to tear himself 
 away from his beloved flock, but especially from the 
 work of the ministry. At a later period, when 
 professor at Ley den, he frequently visited Maartens- 
 dijk. The opportunity for doing so occurred nat- 
 urally and repeatedly, as he was accustomed for 
 several years to spend the greater part of the Uni- 
 versity vacation at the villa Pijnenburg, in the fam- 
 ily of his relative, Lord Tetterode, where he most 
 
 1 On occasion of his call to Vlissingen (1791), Prof. Boers wrote thus: 
 "Very deeply has it affected me that he (Van der Palm), by a concur- 
 rence of circumstances, has been laid under the necessity of discontin- 
 uing his ministry, — a man who, by his extensive learning, sound 
 judgment, delicate taste, excellent preaching gifts, attachment to the 
 doctrines of our church, and especially by his peaceable disposition and 
 genuine piety, is so eminently fitted to be useful in the promotion of 
 the kingdom of Jesus Christ." 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 35 
 
 fondly pursued his studies in undisturbed retirement, 
 and where he began and completed many of his 
 writings. 1 
 
 Pijnenburg lay at the foot of the village De 
 Vuursche, in the vicinity of Maartensdijk. It was 
 therefore very gratifying to him, in the year 1811, 
 to be solicited by the minister of his former charge 
 to occupy his pulpit, which he did August 4th of 
 the same year. His text was 1 John ii. 12 : "I write 
 unto you, little children, because your sins are for- 
 given you for his name's sake." In his preliminary 
 remarks, with his peculiar tact and ability, he con- 
 nected the treatment of his subject with his last 
 sermon, in the year 1787, on the petition : " For- 
 give us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." Was 
 it surprising that by this unaffected and striking 
 reminiscence he won the hearts of all? 2 
 
 Having taken his dismission as minister at Maar- 
 tensdijk, Van der Palm remained for a time at the 
 house of his brother-in-law at Monster, in some 
 degree of uncertainty as to what he should under- 
 take. In a letter written at a later period, he says, 
 "a thousand resolutions were hastily formed," one 
 of which was to repair to Leyden and commence 
 the study of medicine, a department to which he 
 always attached great importance. Still he would 
 
 1 See Essays, Discourses, and Scattered Writings, vol. i., in the Ded- 
 ication to Mr. Lublink. 
 
 2 This sermon is found in the first volume of the series, each of 
 which contains six discourses. Van der Palm visited Maartensdijk for 
 the last time in 1837. In the garden of the parsonage a morel-tree 
 was pointed out to him, which had been planted by his own hand. 
 
86 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 probably, according to his own later testimony, have 
 returned to Maartensdijk at the solicitation of the 
 congregation and the Classis, had not a proposition 
 intervened, which providentially separated him from 
 the public service of the Church. Whilst at Mon- 
 ster, in a. state of irresolution, he opened a corre- 
 spondence with Schultens, to whom the opportunity 
 was unexpectedly afforded of opening up to him a 
 new prospect. A gentleman by the name of Frem- 
 ery, then residing in Haarlem, but of Zealand de- 
 scent, had inquired of Schultens whether Mr. Wel- 
 dijk, one of his former pupils and a contemporary 
 of Van der Palm, would be inclined to take up his 
 residence with Lord Johan Adriaan van de Perre, of 
 Nieuwerve, " a man of large estate and a great 
 amateur, as librarian, overseer of a rich cabinet, etc., 
 and at the same time as company for him." Some 
 time after, Schultens wrote thus to Van der Palm : 
 " This proposition, as made by this gentleman, 
 seemed in all respects so acceptable, that when 
 it was declined by Mr. Weldijk, who could not 
 consent to relinquish the pulpit, I did not hesi- 
 tate for a moment to recommend you as perfectly 
 adapted to the situation." He invited him, there- 
 fore, to make him a visit for the purpose of convers- 
 ing more freely on the subject, and he subsequently 
 advised him to seek an interview with Mr. Fremery 
 in Haarlem ; and the result of this journey and mu- 
 tual conference was, that Van de Perre and Van der 
 Palm, in the month of December, entered into an 
 agreement, which was to take effect on the 1st of 
 January of the following year. 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 37 
 
 Jolian Adriaan van de Perre, Lord of Nieuwerve, 
 formerly representative of his Royal Highness, the 
 Prince hereditary Stadtholder, lived, as first noble- 
 man of Zealand, in great esteem and honor in Mid- 
 delburg ; having resigned his public offices, and 
 reposing as a private citizen in the bosom of science. 
 He is described by Van der Palm, " in one of the 
 favorite productions of his youth," ! as a man of 
 eminent piety, philanthropy, knowledge, and ability, 
 excelling in all public and private virtues. Next to 
 the honor of God, he had nothing so much at heart 
 as the diffusion of sound knowledge and genuine re- 
 finement among all classes, and he felt constrained 
 to devote himself to the promotion of this object. 
 For this purpose an institution had been founded by 
 him in Middelburg, bearing the name of the Mid- 
 delburg Museum, and designed to combine in itself 
 whatever might contribute " to elevate the citizens, 
 to enlighten the mass of the people, and, by refining 
 their taste and ennobling their minds, to render 
 more important the sphere of their activity." The 
 great object which he had in view he hoped to be 
 able to attain by having the Middelburg youth 
 educated by more competent and more experienced 
 instructors, and by diffusing so far as possible and 
 propagating the knowledge of the most useful sci- 
 ences among persons in early life, and also among 
 those of more advanced age. He desired, therefore, 
 to procure a man sufficiently skilled in the necessary 
 sciences, full of zeal for their diffusion, and qualified 
 
 1 "Eulogy on Lord J. A. van de Perre," Essays, Discourses, and 
 Scattered Writings, vol. i. See the Preface. 
 
38 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 to communicate instruction in them in an attractive 
 manner. Such a person, placed at the head of this 
 institution, with some honorable title, was to reside 
 in the Museum, and give regular lectures, without 
 being restricted as to the precise method to be 
 adopted, but bound never to inculcate any senti- 
 ments subversive of the confirmed and restored 
 constitution of the republic. 
 
 Such was the generous plan of Lord van de 
 Perre, briefly sketched by Van der Palm in his 
 eulogy on his benefactor. The only difficulty 
 which presented itself was to procure the neces- 
 sary means to compensate the overseer of the Mu- 
 seum, and these he agreed to furnish himself until 
 provision should be made in some other way. For 
 this purpose he was willing, could a suitable person 
 be found, to enter into such an arrangement with 
 him as would afford him an opportunity of placing 
 himself in a favorable light before the general di- 
 rectors of the Museum. He therefore offered to 
 such a person an annual stipend of one thousand 
 florins, besides a residence free, and required in re- 
 turn the following services : " To assist him at all 
 suitable times in the prosecution of his studies, and 
 in all such scientific investigations as they were com- 
 petent to make ; to have the oversight of his library, 
 cabinet, and curiosities ; the direction of his chari- 
 ties to the necessitous, and the charge of his private 
 expenditures, when travelling together ; to conduct 
 his domestic religious exercises twice a day, at ap- 
 pointed hours, which were to consist of a prayer, 
 the reading of a portion of Scripture, accompanied 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 39 
 
 by a brief exposition, and the singing of a psalm 
 or hymn, in the presence of the whole family, on 
 which occasion Van de Perre desired that every one 
 in his employ should be exhorted to the faithful per- 
 formance of his duties ; finally, whenever Lord van 
 de Perre should be providentially prevented from 
 attending public worship on the Sabbath or on the 
 usual festival days, this loss should be so far as pos- 
 sible compensated by a short sermon or edifying 
 lecture." 
 
 Such were the duties which Van der Palm gladly 
 consented to perform, and which were prescribed in 
 so delicate and honorable a manner, and their per- 
 formance rendered so easy, that for the sake of them 
 he manifested a readiness to be entirely released 
 from the obligations which still bound him to his 
 former ministry, a readiness to carry out to the 
 best of his ability the -views of Van de Perre. The 
 more extended plan, with reference to which the 
 Zealand nobleman entered into this arrangement, 
 was never carried into execution, but to it Van der 
 Palm owed, according to his own testimony, two of 
 the happiest years of his life. Having tarried some 
 time at Delfthaven with his parents, he departed in 
 the spring of 1788, with his spouse, to enter upon 
 the duties that awaited him in Middelburg. Next 
 to the splendid mansion of Lord van de Perre, he 
 found a house and garden in readiness, and pro- 
 vided with necessaries. 
 
 His marriage had not yet been blessed with chil- 
 dren. With the greatest zeal he entered on his 
 domestic career, amid a hundred delicate attentions 
 
40 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 on the part of his patron. The summer was spent 
 by the family at the country-seat Westhoven, situ- 
 ated on the west side of the charming island of 
 Walcheren ; about three quarters of a mile from 
 there the attractive Duinviiet was pointed out to 
 Van der Palm as a residence for himself and family. 
 Besides the customary religious exercises, main- 
 tained there as well as in Middelburg, Van der 
 Palm held every Sabbath, late in the afternoon, (so 
 as not to interfere with the afternoon service in the 
 church,) a regular church service. For this pur- 
 pose a spacious hall was set apart as a sort of chapel, 
 and furnished with the necessary apparatus, even to 
 an organ. It was sufficiently large to accommodate 
 not only the entire family, but also a considerable 
 number of persons from such of the neighboring 
 villas as had access to it, by whom this privilege 
 was highly appreciated. 
 
 Van de Perre and Van der Palm were fitted not 
 only to be mutually useful, but also to be mutually 
 agreeable in the highest degree ; capable of appre- 
 ciating and loving each other. Hence their recipro- 
 cal attachment increased daily; and Madame van de 
 Perre participated in it with the greatest cordiality. 
 To his friendship for him, whom he fondly styled 
 his benefactor, Van der Palm has reared an endur- 
 ing monument in the eulogy which the Zealand 
 Society at Vlissingen desired of him, after the 
 death of the w r orthy nobleman, and to which we 
 have already several times alluded. He thus en- 
 joyed the sweet satisfaction of being able to confer 
 immortality on a name which he never uttered but 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 41 
 
 with the greatest respect and the most cordial affec- 
 tion, and which was ever embalmed in his grateful 
 heart. The silhouette of the virtuous nobleman 
 always hung in the study of his favorite, opposite 
 his seat ; and to the close of his life he delighted to 
 speak of the kindnesses, the friendly attentions, the 
 estimableness of Van de Perre, and of the happiness 
 enjoyed in his domestic circle. 
 
 The studies of this intelligent man took a wide 
 range, as is very apparent from the eulogy. The 
 young theologian and cultivator both of Oriental 
 and Occidental letters, found himself in a domain 
 which was to some extent entirely new. With 
 that ready and versatile talent for which he was so 
 remarkable, and which was rendered the more val- 
 uable by his happy power of collecting and concen- 
 trating all the energies of his mind on the object 
 demanding his present attention, Van der Palm now 
 applied himself to those sciences which constituted 
 Lord van de Perre's favorite study, — physics and 
 everything pertaining to it. How conducive this 
 digression must have been to the increase of that 
 general knowledge which appears in all his writ- 
 ings, may be easily comprehended. But his situa- 
 tion yielded him still another advantage. In the 
 house of the nobleman he became familiar with the 
 tone of the great world, which he subsequently, 
 when the occasion required, could so perfectly as- 
 sume without any appearance of affectation, and 
 which was very serviceable to him, especially in his 
 political career. The nature of his principal and 
 most sacred employment, however, confined him 
 
42 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 chiefly to his favorite studies. The obligation to 
 expound the Scriptures as a part of the family de- 
 votions, naturally gave him the opportunity of per- 
 fecting himself in the department of exegesis, and 
 of subjecting various books of the Bible to a regular 
 and critical investigation ; whilst at the same time 
 it was admirably fitted to make him practically ac- 
 quainted with the requirements of a popular exposi- 
 tion of the Bible, and it laid him under a special 
 necessity of cultivating his talent in this direction. 
 It was not long before the public shared in the fruit 
 of these exercises, by the publication of " Certain 
 Songs of David," in the year 1791, after the death 
 of Lord van de Perre, dedicated to the dowager ; 1 
 a work which was pervaded by the spirit and taste 
 of Schultens. 2 Here he also laid the foundation for 
 his work on Isaiah, published several years later, 
 and in general for his gigantic work, the translation 
 of the Bible, chiefly, however, with respect to the 
 books of the Old Testament. 
 
 But the pleasures derived from religion and sci- 
 ence which Van de Perre and Van der Palm en- 
 joyed together, were of short continuance. The 
 worthy Zealander died on the 8th of April, 1790 ; 
 but Van der Palm, at her urgent solicitation, re- 
 
 1 A second edition, to which were added "All the Songs of Asaph," 
 was issued in Leyden, in the year 1815. 
 
 2 " To transfer the exact interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures from 
 the schools of the learned, to which it had' thus far been exclusively 
 confined, to the general use of all intelligent readers in our fatherland, 
 and to make the Hebrew poets, to the perusal of whom all who were 
 not Oriental scholars were previously more averse, the favorite reading 
 of the man of taste and the sensitive artist." — Jacobus Kantelaar's 
 Eulogy on H. A. Schultens. Amsterdam, 1794. 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 43 
 
 mained with the lady dowager Jacoba, whose 
 maiden name was Van den Brande, to the time of 
 her decease, which occurred August 14th, 1794. 
 How dear, I may say sacred, this relation was to 
 him, appeared, when, called, in August, 1791, to 
 the office of pastor and teacher at Vlissingen, he 
 was urged to the acceptance of the call by the best 
 portion of the congregation and by his dearest 
 friends, with all the persuasives in their power. 
 After a " long-continued, calm, and very conscien- 
 tious consideration," he declined the call, fully con- 
 vinced that he owed this 'to Lady van de Perre, to 
 virtue, and to God. To one of his friends he wrote : 
 " This sacrifice I have made, not so much to a 
 woman as to my duty with respect to her, to virtue, 
 and, as I fully believe, to the calling of Providence. 
 Where I am I was placed by a special Providence ; 
 by a special direction I relinquished my public min- 
 istry ; at my present post I have never experienced 
 anything but approbation and satisfaction ; even the 
 death of Lord van de Perre, which, it might have 
 been expected, would dissolve our relations, has not 
 produced this effect ; my zeal is constantly increased, 
 and I thank my God, who has never permitted me 
 to labor with so much profit, illumination, and daily 
 progress as during the last three years. Should I 
 then presently regard the first call that is presented, 
 however honorable it may be, as a voice from Heav- 
 en, without feeling that inward constraint to it, by 
 which God conducts man as w T ith his own hand to 
 his vocation, and which we are assured he will not 
 withhold from him w r ho desires to walk confidingly 
 
44 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 in his way? May not God have designed some- 
 thing else by this call than actually to call me? 
 God's ways, my friend, are not as our ways ; we 
 must await the issue." * 
 
 After the death of the lady dowager, being thus 
 again out of employment, Van der Palm presently 
 devised means by which to provide for his future 
 subsistence, and prosecuted with zeal his studies 
 and the labors which he had previously commenced. 
 Though his modesty may have raised an opposing 
 voice, yet the prospect of receiving an appointment 
 to a professorship of Oriental languages and litera- 
 ture in one of our Universities could hardly have 
 failed to present itself to his mind as not improba- 
 ble ; — when he was borne away more powerfully 
 than before by the current of political events. 
 
 l See the Appendix. 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 45 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The year 1795, of sad memory, brought with it 
 the political revolution which had been in course 
 of preparation since 1787. The principles of lib- 
 erty, equality, and popular sovereignty, on which 
 the French revolution was based, had struck deep 
 root among the patriotic party in this country. The 
 bitter fruits which the tree of liberty had already 
 borne in France were very imperfectly known, as 
 during two full years direct communications had 
 been almost entirely suspended, and the saddest 
 things in the accounts received were generally re- 
 garded as the inventions of an odious party. It is 
 now, after the experience of so many years, almost 
 incredible that the most extravagant opinions and 
 speculations should find favor with the shrewdest 
 and most intelligent men among our sedate coun- 
 trymen ; but their infatuation was a part of the Di- 
 vine plan. For it was to be by means of such a 
 fever that the richest country in the world, brought 
 to the verge of destruction, drained of its resources, 
 and chastised by the hand of its powerful oppressor, 
 should forget its unhappy dissensions, which had 
 not ceased secretly or openly to distract it from the 
 first moment of its independent existence. 
 
46 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 It becomes us, who have been permitted to derive 
 advantage from the painful lesson of history, to ex- 
 ercise charity in judging, and to view things from 
 the stand-point of those days, in which an entirely 
 different atmosphere was inhaled from that by 
 which we are surrounded. And if we keep in 
 mind that the old leaven has not yet been entirely 
 purged out, that Europe still suffers from the con- 
 sequences of the malady which in that unhappy 
 period threatened its utter prostration, we shall 
 readily perceive how intoxicating must have been 
 the cup, whose contents had not yet been attem- 
 pered by time, not yet counteracted by the worm- 
 wood of humiliating experience. 
 
 With the retrospective view which Van der Palm 
 took of this period of our history, every one is ac- 
 quainted who has read his writings. He did not 
 hesitate to denominate it our erring period, and to 
 lament it deeply and unfeignedly. Sincerely did he 
 rejoice in the renewal of our national existence, and 
 the restoration of authority to the House of Orange, 
 when " the same crucible had refined all, the course 
 of events eradicated errors, the spirit of the times 
 effected an approximation of sentiments, without 
 which the fire of discord might be buried in the 
 ashes, but could not be extinguished." x With the 
 most benevolent zeal, he ever besought the nation 
 henceforth to efface every semblance of mutual dis- 
 trust, and to cause the angel of unity to abide with 
 
 1 Discourse commemorating the Restoration of the Netherlands, 1st edi- 
 tion, p. 149, et seq. See also National Utterances, especially the " Ora- 
 tion at the Centennial Celebration of Leyden's Relief," etc., Essays 
 Discourses, and Scattered Writings, ii. 203 ; iv. 288-294. 
 
LIFE OF VAST DER PALM. 47 
 
 them at whatever cost; inculcating oblivion of 
 hatred, suspicion, and misapprehension. 
 
 In a similar spirit would we review the course 
 pursued by Van der Palm. After his frank confes- 
 sion, after extending the fraternal hand in a knightly 
 spirit to the triumphant party, in whose victory he 
 with the whole nation learned to rejoice, the ques- 
 tion should no longer be, how he could have ad- 
 hered to different principles, but how he conducted 
 himself in accordance with those principles, during 
 the time of their ascendency ; and this view of him, 
 so far from excluding him, on a closer inspection, 
 from the general amnesty, cheerfully extended to 
 the men of '95, will add new leaves to the garland 
 which at some future time a worthy eulogist may 
 wreathe to his memory. All that we shall attempt 
 will be simply to follow the course of events, and to 
 designate the position which, in their progress, he 
 occupied, according to the testimony of a respecta- 
 ble eye-witness. 
 
 Towards the close of January, 1795, French 
 commissaries came to demand the surrender of the 
 island of Walcheren. On the 4th of February 
 came General Moreau. But little choice remained. 
 The revolution was actually effected. Honorable 
 and estimable citizens perceived, that, if measures 
 were to be taken to prevent excesses, as on occasion 
 of the Orange revolution in 1787, many depreda- 
 tions had been committed in Zealand, and hence 
 there was every reason to apprehend retaliations; 
 if they were not to submit to the domination of the 
 French, or to the dictation of functionaries, sent 
 
48 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 from Holland, of ultra-revolutionary sentiments, it 
 was high time for them to take the matter into their 
 own hand. Van der Palm shared in this sentiment. 
 But certainly the duty of placing himself foremost 
 in carrying out these views did not manifestly de- 
 volve on him, inasmuch as he was a clergyman, and 
 a stranger in Zealand. Yet as to the first, he was 
 free from all ministerial engagements, and to his 
 active disposition there must have been at that 
 moment something very attractive in the useful em- 
 ployment of his talents ; and as to the second, oppo- 
 sition to sectional distinctions was one of his princi- 
 ples. Perhaps, too, he was regarded with greater 
 favor by the patriots of Middelburg, for the very 
 reason that he was less encumbered by all such 
 local and personal considerations as had hitherto 
 withheld them from placing themselves in the fore- 
 ground. His connection, indeed, of so tender a 
 nature and of several years' continuance with an 
 aristocratic family, though now dissolved, must 
 have caused him to foresee difficulties, as he could 
 hardly fail to be occasionally placed in direct oppo- 
 sition to the interests of its relatives, as actually 
 proved to be the case ; but those ties had been 
 wholly of a personal nature, and as such severed by 
 death, whilst the family had taken no pains, after 
 the death of the lady dowager, to treat with the 
 utmost delicacy the favorite of the house, who, in 
 their view, had enjoyed rather too many advan- 
 tages. But if Van der Palm was upright in the 
 matter ; if he truly desired, to the best of his 
 knowledge and ability, to serve his country, such 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 49 
 
 an apprehension neither could nor should deter him, 
 nor cause him to recede from the path on which he 
 had entered. He accordingly placed himself, with 
 two of his friends, likewise men of integrity and of 
 more than ordinary ability at the head of the move- 
 ment ; and on the 7th of February he was the first 
 to appear before an appointed meeting of respecta- 
 ble citizens of Middelburg, and addressed them in 
 the spirit in which he also composed the proclama- 
 tion which was published on the 10th of February, 
 and in which the aforesaid reasons for reaulatino- a 
 necessary revolution were exhibited. 
 
 In pursuance of his proclamation, the existing 
 government was, a few days after, dissolved in the 
 most courteous, gentle, and quiet manner, and 
 twenty-five new members of government appointed. 
 Among these was Van der Palm, and as such he 
 was quickly despatched to the meeting of the Pro- 
 visional Representatives. His praise was soon pro- 
 claimed by the old members and by the secretary 
 De Beveren, who had gone with the revolution. In 
 connection with prudence and considerateness he 
 manifested that great ability in mastering subjects 
 which so eminently distinguished him in every situ- 
 ation ; his addresses were clear, definite, moderate, 
 but, at the same time, firm ; he was ever ready to 
 assist in preparing important documents, in writing 
 letters, and in drafting resolutions ; and he was un- 
 commonly dexterous in bringing forward concilia- 
 tory measures. Both among the representatives 
 and in the Council he quickly took his true position, 
 manifesting his attachment to the interests of the 
 
50 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 nation, viewed as a whole, in opposition to those 
 which were sectional or federal. The meeting of 
 the States- General he did not attend. 
 
 The less agreeable work, especially that of con- 
 stantly interposing to keep the French in check, he 
 knew how to avoid with his usual tact and, on such 
 points, refined egotism. He did not at the time 
 speak their language with fluency ; and as he could 
 never endure the thought of acting a subordinate 
 part, he had no more to do with them than was 
 absolutely necessary. He also quickly penetrated 
 their true designs ; hence, in negotiations with them, 
 or in consultation on important propositions made 
 by them, he rather sided with those who timidly 
 started objections, than with those who were dis- 
 posed to move forward rapidly. 
 
 With all his humility and modesty, there was in 
 the character of Van der Palm that measure of self- 
 esteem which led him to regard the highest position 
 as within his reach, and which enabled him in the 
 most elevated situations to conduct himself with a 
 correspondent dignity. The facile princess, which 
 in all the spheres in which he moved had always 
 been his lot, did not make him in the least con- 
 ceited, but it was agreeable to him, and at last so 
 customary, that it became, perhaps, a necessity. 
 He never manifested the least arrogance in his in- 
 tercourse with his inferiors, but the idea of superiors 
 or equals was to him somewhat unpalatable. This 
 trait of his character did not perhaps remain entirely 
 concealed in the part which he took in the Middel- 
 burg revolution ; but from all desire of gold or ad- 
 
LIFE OF VAN DEE PALM. 51 
 
 vantage of any kind he seemed to be entirely free. 
 Moderation was his watchword, and whatever to 
 the contrary may have been circulated to his preju- 
 dice, he applied chiefly to the removal of officials, 1 
 upon which the ultras, who were anxious to secure 
 the posts for themselves, were constantly insisting. 
 For himself he desired nothing of the kind ; and 
 when called to leave his post, after discharging its 
 duties for nearly a year, he retired uncontaminated, 
 carrying with him, if not the favor of the opposite 
 party, at least their esteem. He had executed many 
 important commissions, having for their object the 
 internal welfare of city and province, and had also 
 interested himself in behalf of the Middelburg 
 school system. 
 
 Two orations delivered by Van der Palm in the 
 course of that year are before the public : one of 
 them delivered in the East church, by direction of 
 the municipal council, at the beginning of the revo- 
 lution and under the influence of a great excitement, 
 the argument of which is : " Would we be prosper- 
 ous, it becomes us first of all to be thankful ; " the 
 other on Popularity, in which he exhibits its value 
 and worthlessness with justness, and, for those days, 
 with boldness. He moreover contributed much to 
 a weekly, bearing the name of " The Friend of the 
 People," designed to direct public sentiment. 
 
 The Oriental muses now recalled Van der Palm 
 
 1 1 found among his papers of that period the draft of an address to 
 the college of representatives, written by him in the name of the com- 
 mittee of investigation, of which he was a member, which discusses 
 this point with the utmost composure and mildness. 
 
52 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 to their domain. In the beginning of the year 
 1796 a second effort was made to call him to Lin- 
 gen, as preacher and professor in place of the late 
 Hajo Mensonides ; but, probably mindful of the ad- 
 vice of Schultens, he declined this proposal. Soon 
 after he was called to fill the professorial chair of 
 Schultens, made vacant by the suspension of Pro- 
 fessor Rau, and declined by Professor Muntinghe. 
 This call was made on him in the month of May. 
 To the curators he wrote thus in reply : — 
 
 " Your letter, informing me of my appointment 
 to the Professorship of Oriental Languages and An- 
 tiquities in the University of Ley den, has been 
 received, and it imparts to me as great pleasure as 
 the importance of the station and the consciousness 
 of my slender abilities permit me to experience. 
 
 " From the time that I first applied myself to 
 these branches of learning, I have felt that nothing 
 would be more agreeable than to devote to them 
 my whole time and attention, and nothing have I 
 regarded as more desirable than to be engaged in 
 imparting the knowledge of them to others ; yet I 
 have never allowed myself to cherish the hope of 
 ever occupying, in this department, so honorable a 
 position, nor have I as yet been so situated as to 
 enable me to regulate all my studies with reference 
 to such an object. 
 
 " Yet I am not deterred by this consideration, 
 though most weighty, nor by others of perhaps 
 equal weight, from cheerfully and gratefully accept- 
 ing the appointment, and assuming the responsibili- 
 ties which it imposes ; and it will be my endeavor, 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 53 
 
 as an alumnus of the Schultensian school, and an 
 intimate friend of the most excellent Hendrik Albert, 
 to exhibit at least a faint resemblance of him, (for 
 to cherish a desire to equal him may be presumptu- 
 ous,) and by indefatigable labor and close applica- 
 tion of mind to supply what is lacking in genius 
 and learning;. Farewell." 1 
 
 The office which had been conferred on him he 
 assumed the 11th of June, 1796, with a discourse 
 " De Litteris Hebraicis exornandis." Two years 
 later he was invested with the rectorate of the Uni- 
 versity, and resigned it, February 8th, 1799, in the 
 usual manner, with an oration " De Mohammede 
 Religionis Islamiticse et Imperii Saracenici Condi- 
 tore " (Mahomet, the Founder of the Islam Relig- 
 ion and the Saracen Empire). By this discourse he 
 produced in the auditory of the University a general 
 sensation, both by the choiceness of his language 
 and the extraordinary impressiveness of his delivery. 
 Most striking was his eloquence when he employed 
 it to set forth the eloquence of Mahomet, and on 
 that occasion related the anecdote of Omar, who, 
 having girded on his sword to bathe it in Mahomet's 
 blood, finally fell at his feet, acknowledging him as 
 Allah's great prophet. With rapture his hearers 
 eyed one another, amazed at the extraordinary gift 
 of the peerless orator. 2 
 
 1 See the original in the Appendix. 
 
 2 The discourse De Litteris Hebraicis exornandis is not published; 
 as also that on Mahomet. (See the preface to Van der Palm's third 
 oration, De Oratore Sacro.) The latter, however, partly rewrought, 
 and in part faithfully translated, is found in the first volume of his Es- 
 says, Discourses, and Scattered Wi'itings, in two discourses, from page 
 
54 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 From this period (1796) dates among Van der 
 Palm's works a discourse at the Christmas festival, 
 observed with song and music in the Highland 
 Church in Le} r den, 1 in which, it seems to me, he 
 has practically shown the full extent to which, in 
 his judgment, eloquence may proceed, without in- 
 vading the domain of poetry. Moreover, the prep- 
 aration of his lectures, and the exertions necessary 
 to make him again perfectly familiar with his stud- 
 ies in all the subdivisions of the department to 
 which his inclination and profession had again called 
 him, rendered it impossible for him to be otherwise 
 actively employed in promoting the general good, 
 or in extending the fame of Dutch learning ; and 
 when the principal difficulties which he had to en- 
 counter were, perhaps, overcome, his services were 
 again, though in a different manner, required by his 
 country. 
 
 The executive government of the Batavian re- 
 public appointed, under the title of Agents, eight 
 men, who distributed among themselves the various 
 branches of internal administration. They were 
 what are now called the ministers of the different 
 departments, yet amenable only to the executive 
 government. Among these agencies there was one 
 of National Education, and to its administration 
 were brought all matters pertaining to instruction, 
 sciences, and arts, and in general whatever could 
 exert any influence on the morals of the people. 
 
 120 to 182. The anecdote of Omar, literally translated, occurs on 
 pages 177, 178. 
 
 l Essays, Discoiwses, and Scattered Writings, i. 227. 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 55 
 
 To this office Van der Palm was called, in April, 
 1799, amid great applause of many correct thinkers 
 in the land ; and he accepted that important post, on 
 condition of being permitted at any time to resume 
 the professorship, which he reluctantly sacrificed 
 to it. To this the curators of the University gra- 
 ciously consented, " most highly extolling the happy 
 choice which the executive government had made 
 in selecting Professor van der Palm, from whose 
 eminent abilities and universally known qualifica- 
 tions for the promotion of learning and the ad- 
 vancement of arts and sciences, as also for training 
 the national spirit to the practice of the noblest vir- 
 tues, the Batavian nation had already been led to 
 entertain the highest expectations." He retired 
 accordingly to the Hague, but came, till the long 
 vacation, on certain days of the week, to give lec- 
 tures in Ley den, in order to complete the work un- 
 dertaken with his students for that term. 
 
 Friends of Van der Palm were not wanting, how- 
 ever, who, from the interest which they felt in the 
 cause of letters, or in the welfare of Van der Palm 
 himself, were dubious as to the choice made by the 
 government. Many supposed that he would not be 
 in his proper sphere, and that all the good which he 
 might accomplish in a political career could never 
 counterbalance the services which Church and Uni- 
 versity had a right to expect from him. 1 But he 
 regarded the proper observance of the high trust 
 which had been committed to him of greater im- 
 
 1 Respecting this matter, see the letter written by Van der Palm at a 
 later period to Louis Bonaparte, which is found in the Appendix. 
 
56 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 portance to the welfare of his country than the 
 flourishing of his beloved Oriental literature ; for it 
 involved in it the improvement of primary instruc- 
 tion, then in so sad a condition, and which, so much 
 more than the higher, constitutes the vital strength 
 of the country. 1 In addition to this he was chiefly 
 influenced by the fear that this important agency 
 might fall into improper hands, and become the prey 
 of some hot-headed zealot, more disposed to break 
 down than to build up. 
 
 It was in this hicrh relation that Van der Palm 
 was a second time to manifest his very extraordi- 
 nary ability to reconnoitre, as with a single glance 
 of his eye, the ground on which he was placed ; to 
 assume by a single turn the bearing which befitted 
 him, and by a moment's reflection to comprehend 
 all the means which could be rendered available. 
 The dexterity with which he could manage affairs 
 the most dissimilar, and which had excited the 
 admiration of his political friends in Zealand, was 
 here to appear on a more extensive scale. It was 
 also quickly perceived at the Hague that the accom- 
 plished Orientalist, theologian, and orator had been 
 born a statesman ; and this was apparent not only 
 from the manner in which he managed affairs, pre- 
 sided at meetings, granted audiences, spoke, or kept 
 
 1 Respecting this point he wrote thus to the celebrated French Ori- 
 entalist, Silvestre de Sacy, with whom he held an epistolary correspond- 
 ence: "In ilia enim institutionis parte emendanda, quam elementarem 
 vocant, primam operam collocandam putavi, siquidem emolumenta 
 publice et privatim inde speranda, et reliqua rei litterarise commoda, et 
 magnorum cum exhaustse reipublicae tenuitate parum congruentium 
 moliminum gloriam longe mini viderentur superare." 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 57 
 
 silence, but from his entire bearing and demeanor. 
 Without losing anything of his habitual amiableness 
 and that agreeable negligence on which he always 
 set so high a value, he was always and everywhere, 
 even with respect to his most confidential friends, 
 whilst he spoke or acted in his official capacity, en- 
 tirely the minister, irresistibly maintaining his dis- 
 tance, though one knew not by what means. In a 
 moment he was master of the entire vocabulary of 
 the various branches of his administration, and un- 
 derstood all the requirements of a ministerial bureau. 
 He secured in an eminent degree the affection of all 
 his colleagues. His zeal was as great as his ability, 
 and it was his sincere endeavor to render his coun- 
 try in this relation all those services which the 
 beautiful combination of his rich endowments quali- 
 fied him to perform. It is only to be regretted that 
 the circumstances of the time, and the confusion, 
 uncertainty, and unpleasantness connected with 
 them, prevented him from effecting all the good 
 which, in a more flourishing period, and with 
 greater encouragement and cooperation, he would 
 have felt himself capable of accomplishing. The 
 extent of his task, and what he aimed at in under- 
 taking it, are clearly sketched in a letter, written by 
 Van der Palm at the beginning of his agency (June 
 26th, 1799) to an estimable fellow-citizen ; and I 
 cannot, I think, do a better service to the readers 
 of this biographical sketch, than to insert here the 
 most important part of it : — 
 
 " When I accepted the Agency of National Edu- 
 cation, one of the principal considerations which 
 
58 LIFE OF VAX DER PALM. 
 
 induced me not to evince an absolute unwillingness 
 was the conviction that in this office very great in- 
 jury could be inflicted on the national culture and 
 morals, by rash measures and widely extended plans, 
 based rather on the principles of a certain philos- 
 ophy of the day than on a knowledge of human 
 nature and true philanthropy, and the fear that 
 this post might finally fall into wholly incompetent 
 hands, should the sentiment gain ground that every 
 good citizen must withdraw from the higher offices 
 until he should be unworthily constrained to their 
 acceptance, or, as the phrase is, until his services 
 should be in demand. I was conscious that among 
 my infirmities was not to be numbered, at least as 
 chief, the disposition to devise extravagant plans, or, 
 having devised them, to execute them at all hazards, 
 directing and accommodating everything to them ; 
 and it was almost my highest ambition in this deli- 
 cate and onerous office simply to inflict no injury, 
 not to wound the venerable national character, not 
 to offend the indescribably deep - rooted national 
 feelino- of individual freedom, and to remove from 
 the minds of many excellent persons the suspicion 
 that this Agency of National Education was designed 
 to undermine the influence of the Christian religion, 
 and as far as possible to Frenchify our simple, in- 
 flexible nation. Should I have prevented this kind 
 of evil, and should the. agency have been in my 
 hands neither a scourge with which to lacerate 
 the upright heart of the simple, nor a means of 
 causing the general discontent to rise to its highest 
 pitch, then I flattered myself that I should at least 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 59 
 
 have accomplished some relative good ; and this I 
 supposed myself in a condition to effect. 
 
 " But I will not dissemble, that my expectations, 
 at first so moderate, were subsequently enlarged ; 
 and, if they now exceed the limits of my abilities, 
 it is chiefly due to you, Sir, and to other worthy 
 men, who thought me capable of something more. 
 
 " In the matter of national instruction, I flatter 
 myself that important improvements can not only 
 be devised, but may also be effected, principally by 
 avoiding two mistakes : the first, that of sacrificing 
 to some ideal of imaginary perfection the real, but 
 less brilliant improvements which it is possible to 
 make (a principle that would probably admit of a 
 wider application) ; the other, that of losing the 
 good which is actually attainable, by desiring too 
 much of it at once. Such shall be the rule of my 
 activities in this matter, and from it I venture to 
 promise myself something. 
 
 " In the extended department which has for its 
 object the practice of medicine in its entire compass, 
 and in which so many glaring defects, chiefly in the 
 rural districts, exist, I have the good-will of many 
 respectable men in this science, and their promised 
 assistance and illumination, on which, in the devis- 
 ing of measures relative to this matter, I shall be 
 able and obliged to rely ; whilst, in the choice of 
 the same, I hope to keep in view the required cir- 
 cumspection and considerateness ; and I shall take 
 special pains that I, who am ex officio under obliga- 
 tion to assist in removing empiricism, do not draw 
 upon myself, though in a different sense, the same 
 opprobrious epithet. 
 
60 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 " The flourishing of arts and sciences, likewise an 
 object of my care, is perhaps too dependent on cir- 
 cumstances, chiefly on those of external prosperity 
 and ease, and is perhaps from its very nature also 
 too free, or shall I say too capricious a matter, to 
 allow me to promise myself that great good will 
 result from my exertions in this direction, much less 
 a golden age. Should I have the happiness of be- 
 coming acquainted with meritorious men who need 
 encouragement, with opening intellects which need 
 development, and should I be able in my relation 
 to be serviceable to both, I shall esteem this a more 
 real good than to give existence to brilliant institu- 
 tions in our fatherland. 
 
 " And finally, to come to the principal subject of 
 your letter, the improvement of morals and the re- 
 production of our lost national character, I will 
 not conceal from you, worthy fellow-citizen, that 
 the expectations which you entertain of my efforts 
 in this direction have already occasioned me many 
 a desponding hour, as I have too much reason to 
 fear that I shall not be able to meet them. My 
 heart bears witness to the uprightness of this dec- 
 laration, and that I, alas ! lack too many of the 
 qualifications most necessary to a censor of the 
 nation. Meanwhile I shall not despair ; your assur- 
 ances respecting the disposition of many inspire me 
 w T ith courage ; our government, I believe with 
 you, is well disposed, and will cheerfully cooperate ; 
 and our national character is not yet entirely degen- 
 erated ; — there is still, thanks to Heaven, a wide 
 difference between Batavian and Punic faith ! But 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 61 
 
 if, in any part of my work, besides the assistance 
 and favorable cooperation of Providence, I need 
 also advice and information from true patriots, who 
 know and love their country, who unite disinterest- 
 edness to mature reflection, I certainly do in this." 
 
 Thus far the Agent himself. With such purposes 
 and prospects he proceeded on the busy and in many 
 respects obstructed path of his new vocation. Fore- 
 most in his estimation was the improvement of the 
 school system. It had long been with him a favor- 
 ite idea. Son of a competent instructor, who was 
 likewise author of a prize essay on school improve- 
 ment, to which, in the year 1782, was awarded the 
 gold medal by the Zealand Society, and who had 
 regulated his own school in entire accordance with 
 the principles advocated in this essay, with whom 
 Van cler Palm had seen what pertained to a well- 
 regulated school, he had certainly also, from his 
 earliest youth, heard complaints respecting the de- 
 fective laws of his country in behalf of this most 
 important interest, and to him those defects had 
 been exhibited. His arrangement with Lord van 
 de Perre contemplated that he should be actively 
 engaged in improving the Micldelburg schools ; with 
 the Zealand nobleman also he must have frequently 
 deliberated on this subject. During his political 
 relation in Zealand he deeply interested himself in 
 this matter ; and I find among his papers a draft 
 from his own hand for the regulation of the Mid- 
 delburg school system. Also in Leyden he had 
 already been induced to take a seat with the exist- 
 ing school commission. Called now to make a gen- 
 
62 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 eral application of all the wisdom and experience 
 acquired by him in this matter, the entire renova- 
 tion of primary instruction was the fruit. Under 
 the administration of Van der Palm, by his genius 
 and vio-or of mind, was laid the foundation of that 
 school system which, though not yet perfected, has 
 attracted, however, in so high a degree the admiration 
 of foreign nations, and elicited the high and well- 
 known encomiums, first of Cuvier, and subsequently 
 of Cousin. According to the principles and prep- 
 arations of Van der Palm, under the pensionary 
 Schimmelpenninck, the law of 1806 was prepared, 
 with the regulations afterwards prescribed and in- 
 troduced ; and these continued not only under the 
 French regency, but have remained in force up to 
 the present time. " The improved school system," 
 says a competent writer, 1 " was the last gift of the 
 Dutch Republic to the world." The condition in 
 which Van der Palm found the schools, when he en- 
 tered on his duties, he has himself vividly portrayed 
 in his address to the first assembly of school inspect- 
 ors appointed by him, convened in 1801, in which 
 he alludes to the stable of Augias, for whose purifi- 
 cation truly Herculean courage and strength were 
 required. 2 
 
 1 Van Kampen. 
 
 2 As this address is, perhaps, not very generally in the hands of my 
 readers, I shall not, I think, disoblige them by inserting an extract 
 from it in the Appendix. To Monsieur Silvestre de Sacy he wrote as 
 follows respecting the laborious nature of this task: " Quantum autem 
 indagationis accurate, quantum meditationis assiduae, istud laboris ple- 
 nissimum opus requirat, quamque difficile sit illud ita persequi ut neque 
 conditionis reipublicae, neque difficultatum subinde enascentium, neque 
 adjumentorum quae extant, nee diversitatis ingeniorum locorumve ra- 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 63 
 
 The improvement of medical practice by means 
 of better governmental regulations, was, according 
 to his previous purpose, an object to which he de- 
 voted special attention. As commissary in this 
 department he appointed Dr. J. van Heekeren, a 
 young but eminently competent and meritorious 
 man, 1 by whose cooperation the Agent himself 
 quickly became familiar in its. entire range with 
 this department of public administration. To these 
 exertions is due the regulation, contained in the 
 ordinances of the government of the Batavian Re- 
 public of March 20th, 1804, which constitutes the 
 unaltered foundation of all the regulations subse- 
 quently made up to the present time, and the excel- 
 lence of which has been so evidently confirmed by 
 experience. 
 
 The Agent was explicitly charged in his commis- 
 sion with the care of introducing a uniform spelling 
 of our mother-tongue, the regulation of which was 
 generally felt to be a necessity, and for which the 
 Society for Public Utility had already made prepa- 
 rations. The Agent assumed the whole management 
 of this matter ; and the result of his efforts and con- 
 sultations with certain other philologists was, in the 
 department of grammar, the work of Dr. Wei- 
 land; and in that of orthography, the treatise of Pro- 
 fessor Siegenbeek, prepared entirely under his own 
 eye : a treatise which secured in a very high degree 
 the approbation of the public, and is still regarded 
 
 tionem negligas, repetiti magnorum inter vestrates virorum et haud 
 raro irriti conatus satis superque demonstrant.'" 
 
 1 Respecting this physician, see Van der Palm's Incidents in the 
 Life of J. van Heekeren, in the Medical Magazine, vol. ii. 2d article. 
 
64 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 as our code in spelling. 1 Whatever criticisms may 
 have been made on this code, and however much 
 certain philologists may have supposed themselves 
 not obliged to conform to it, in a time in which, in 
 the matter of orthography, an irregularity pre- 
 vailed of which, in consequence of the little read- 
 in cr matter which the national literature of that 
 period furnishes for readers of the present day, we 
 can scarcely form an idea, but which, chiefly in the 
 schools and public bureaus, produced the greatest 
 confusion, the plan was a benefit to the country, 
 and the execution of it, especially in view of the 
 state of the times, a most meritorious work, to which 
 we would not have injustice done, though the record 
 of our encomium affords evidence of disobedience to 
 many of its precepts. 2 
 
 These are a few of the many obligations under 
 which the great man laid his country during the 
 short period of his agency. It is truly surprising 
 how much, during the year and a half that he filled 
 this post, was accomplished and begun by him, in 
 the midst of all the difficulties and obstacles which 
 were laid in his way, and the numerous trouble- 
 
 1 For the history of the uniformity introduced, see the preface of 
 Siegenbeek to his treatise, (1804,) and Van der Palm's epistolary pref- 
 ace to a pamphlet subsequently published by Prof. Siegenbeek. Van 
 der Palm was always a strenuous supporter of the spelling sanctioned 
 by Siegenbeek, with reservation, however, of many liberties for him- 
 self, chiefly such as were required by the rhythmus of his style. His 
 philological attainments were very extensive, but he did not from choice 
 carry his investigations into the more recondite parts of etymology. 
 
 2 Respecting this point, (si tanti est,) see my views in the article, 
 Adulteration of Language and Spelling, placed in The Guide, 1840, 
 No. 6. 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 65 
 
 * 
 
 some solicitations with which he was daily har- 
 assed. 1 
 
 The Agency of National Education terminated in 
 December, 1801, in consequence of the constitution 
 being again changed, which was notified the 16th 
 of October. In accordance with this, the govern- 
 ment appointed a council of internal affairs, 2 con- 
 sisting of three members, who acted alternately as 
 president : Messrs. Van der Palm, De Kruif, and Le- 
 mans ; and a secretary, Mr. C. J. Wenckebach, still 
 living, who, as adviser to the council, has, to an 
 advanced age, been useful to his country in the 
 department of internal affairs. This council, after 
 the agencies had been annulled, actually began its 
 efforts ; and Van der Palm, under a new title and 
 in a somewhat modified relation, prosecuted yet 
 four years his praiseworthy labors in behalf of his 
 country. It was as member of the council of in- 
 ternal affairs that he was enabled more fully to 
 develop and execute his plans for the improve- 
 ment of primary instruction, the introduction of a 
 uniform spelling, and the proper regulation of 
 medical practice ; whilst he again showed that he 
 
 1 After the demission of the agent Goldberg, (in October, 1801,) his 
 agency was for two months burdened with the management of the 
 financial affairs of the department of economy. 
 
 2 The new constitution, accepted in the month of October, and pro- 
 claimed on the 17th, by its 32d article directed, that, to the government 
 thereby appointed, besides a general secretary, should be added a secre- 
 tary of state for foreign affairs, and three secretaries of state, as for 
 marine, war on land, and internal affairs ; or, at the option of the gov- 
 ernment, for each of the three last mentioned a council of not more than 
 three members, and a council of finance of three members, with a treas- 
 urer-general. The government chose, in place of the three mentioned 
 secretaries of state, a council of three persons for each of the three de- 
 partments. 
 
QQ LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 was not embarrassed 1 by the new difficulties to be 
 encountered in his more extended sphere of action. 
 
 In 1805, this new constitution was superseded by 
 that at the head of which was placed Schimmel- 
 penninck, Van der Palm's University friend, and, as 
 statesman, peculiarly the man after his heart. 2 The 
 council of internal affairs was dissolved in conse- 
 quence of the appointment of a secretary of state 
 for that department. Van der Palm was for some 
 time undecided as to the course for him to pursue. 
 The office of secretary of state he did not desire. 
 He knew that there were those who would reluc- 
 tantly see him occupying that position, and he per- 
 ceived, that, even if no measures should be taken to 
 supplant him, sufficient had already been done by 
 them to prevent him from discharging its duties 
 with acceptance and advantage. His return to 
 Leyden had also its difficulties. Rau filled the pro- 
 fessorship of Oriental letters, and Van der Palm 
 foresaw an unpleasant emulation. The administra- 
 tion of internal affairs had also acquired a certain 
 attractiveness. He wrote at the time to a friend : 3 
 " Voluntarily and involuntarily, I had gradually 
 become attached to it ; I felt, too, that the cultiva- 
 
 1 Among others has always been celebrated for its excellence a 
 report prepared by Van der Palm relative to the rights of the nobility, 
 respecting which it was universally admitted, even by the parties in- 
 terested, that there was no state paper then extant in which the sub- 
 ject was so thoroughly discussed as in this. 
 
 2 At a later period he also speaks of him, in the preface to his Essays, 
 Discourses, and Scattered Writings, with the highest respect, as the 
 noble man who, deprived of the use of his eyes, no longer needs ex- 
 ternal objects in order to occupy his incomparable mind. 
 
 3 April 6th, 1805, to Mr. S. Dassevael, who, in these painful vacil- 
 lations, showed himself an upright and loyal friend of Van der Palm. 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 67 
 
 tion of this department, in this country, and in the 
 circumstances of these times, did not very far tran- 
 scend my powers, and I finally imagined that I was 
 not useless, and that I might still be able to effect 
 some further good. Such were my views of my 
 office, when I labored for a government in whose 
 employ no effectual support, little encouragement, 
 was experienced, and in which want of fixed princi- 
 ples, at least in this department, and an undue re- 
 gard to personal considerations, rendered uncertain 
 the issue of all that was undertaken. How great 
 my attachment to my office might have been, under 
 a more energetic, united, worthy government, in- 
 spiring at the same time greater attachment and 
 respect, it is not for me to determine ; how much 
 greater zeal and activity I should then have been 
 able to exhibit, I have sometimes indeed ventured 
 to conjecture, when this prospect opened up to my 
 view." 
 
 In this uncertainty the pensionary himself de- 
 cided the matter for him ; he seemed to regard it 
 for Van der Palm's own interest not to be placed at 
 this time in the foreground, and directed that he 
 should be informed of this, with the assurance of 
 his high esteem for his person and character, and of 
 his unbounded respect for his extraordinary endow- 
 ments. His purpose was now taken. " The esteem 
 of Schimmelpenninck, and his estimate of my mean 
 talents, are peculiarly gratifying to me ; the assur- 
 ance of this is worth more to me than a high posi- 
 tion, even though I might suppose myself in some 
 degree entitled to it. His regard for me comprises 
 
68 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 in it all that I desire ; and no thought is more odious 
 to me than that of impeding in any degree the exe- 
 cution of his good and beneficent designs, or of 
 „ proving an occasion of preventing him from effect- 
 ing all the real good which the nation expects from 
 him, and in which my best wishes, and, so far as 
 my sphere of action will permit, my zealous cooper- 
 ation shall ever attend him." 
 
 His residence at the Hague was, however, pro- 
 longed till in the following year, where, under the 
 administration of Schimmelpenninck, he was fa- 
 vored with various honorable appointments. 1 At 
 his own request he was then released from all polit- 
 ical relations, and, laden with presents by the noble- 
 minded pensionary, he returned to Leyden to re- 
 sume his professorship. With calm self-satisfaction 
 he looked back upon his political career, now for- 
 ever renounced, conscious that he had exerted all 
 his powers and gifts to administer the affairs in- 
 trusted to him with exactness, regularity, and prompt- 
 ness ; that he had given no one just cause of com- 
 plaint, but had done every one all the service in his 
 power, and had laid the foundation for a number 
 of useful institutions, which were destined to be 
 transmitted to posterity. 
 
 During his political career, Van der Palm had on 
 various occasions manifested his magnificent elo- 
 quence, the proofs of which have been given to the 
 world through the press. First of all he ascended 
 
 1 He was appointed secretary of a political commission, consisting 
 of Messrs. Van der Kasteele, Wieners, and Six; commissary of the 
 work of the Nat. Library; etc. 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 69 
 
 the pulpit at the Hague, by order of the govern- 
 ment, on the day of the national festival, (Decem- 
 ber 19th, 1799,) celebrated on occasion of the with- 
 drawal of the English and Russians from North 
 Holland. Twice he delivered a short discourse in 
 the general convention of school inspectors, over 
 which he presided the first time as agent, the second 
 as member of the council of internal affairs. He 
 was also heard more than once in the Hague de- 
 partment of the Society for Public Utility, in which 
 he delivered his discourses " On General Benevo- 
 lence " and " On Self-Love." 1 His Oriental studies, 
 too, did not wholly repose. " In the latter half of 
 the year 1804, when the existing order of things in 
 the commonwealth was gradually tending to disso- 
 lution, in consequence of which he experienced a 
 perceptible diminution of business, and when the 
 constantly increasing public misfortune caused every 
 lover of his country to fix his eye with pleasure on 
 other objects, which offered more consolation and 
 calmer prospects," he felt himself irresistibly con- 
 strained to complete a work, begun when in Zea- 
 land, — the translation and exposition of the prophet 
 Isaiah. This work made its appearance in 1805, 
 and convinced the world that the Orientalist had not 
 reposed in the statesman. 
 
 Great, meanwhile, were the joy and approbation 
 with which Van der Palm was greeted on his re- 
 turn to the bosom of letters and to the ecclesiastical 
 chair to resume with zeal his earlier task. Now it 
 
 1 Both are found in the first volume of his Essays, Discourses, and 
 Scattered Writings. 
 
70 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 was more apparent than ever with how great reluc- 
 tance the public had seen him in other relations, 
 and which had rendered them incapable of viewing 
 without prejudice the good which he effected. To 
 King Louis he subsequently wrote : " Since I have 
 been released from my political relations, and have 
 resumed my functions as professor, especially since 
 I have testified by my acts that I had not forever 
 abandoned the pulpit, nothing is to be compared 
 with the general approbation, I may say universal 
 applause, which is lavished on me from all quarters, 
 as would be done to one who had returned to the 
 path of duty after having long gone astray." 
 
 When, therefore, this prince desired again to make 
 use of his eminent gifts, he persisted with immov- 
 able steadfastness in declining; an office which was 
 incompatible with the exercise of his professorship ; 
 the evidence of this I found among his papers in a 
 copy of the letter from which the above extract has 
 been made, and which I deem sufficiently important 
 to be placed entire in the Appendix to this biograph- 
 ical sketch, as a beautiful contribution to Van der 
 Palm's intelligent mode of thinking and acting, 
 and at the same time of his delicacy in presenting 
 his own interests. How little the noble-minded 
 Louis was disposed to misinterpret this refusal pres- 
 ently appeared when he constituted him Knight, and, 
 after the death of Rau, orator of the Order of 
 Union, to which office he annexed an annual pen- 
 sion of twelve hundred florins. To this appoint- 
 ment our Dutch prose is indebted for two eminent 
 discourses, in which the characters of several 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 71 
 
 worthy patriots have been drawn as to their prin- 
 cipal features in the liveliest colors, and are thus 
 preserved to be transmitted to distant posterity. 1 
 
 Subsequently Van der Palm did not engage in 
 politics further than became him as a good citizen, 
 feeling the deepest interest in the welfare of his 
 country, and as a writer, to excite and maintain a 
 good spirit among his fellow-citizens. We have 
 already intimated, and it is manifest in his writings, 
 how heartily he, after all the miseries that our 
 country had experienced since the calamitous year 
 1795, rejoiced in the revolution of 1813, and at- 
 tached himself, with the entire nation, fully and sin- 
 cerely to the sovereignty of the House of Orange. 
 Of this his patriotic utterance in 1813, his religious 
 observation of the joyful prospects of the Nether- 
 lands, his poetic effusion, " The Peace of Europe," 
 in 1814, his sermon to excite Christian heroism 2 in 
 1815, and in 1816 his Memorial of the Restoration 
 of the Netherlands, furnish abundant proofs. 
 
 As a loyal, quiet, and contented subject and citi- 
 zen, he lived in the midst of his literary occupations, 
 contributing to the good of his country from the 
 abundant stores of his knowledge, cherishing no 
 wish above or beyond the sphere in which he moved. 
 Of his participation in the great political events of 
 the past, or of the high position which he had occu- 
 
 1 They are found in the following works: The Festival of the Order 
 of the Union, observed in Amsterdam, April 25th, 1808. Amsterdam. 
 Memorials of the Royal Order of the Union for the years 1807, 1808, 
 and 1809. Amsterdam, 1810. 
 
 2 These are all to be found in the second volume of his Essays, Dis- 
 courses, and Scattered Writings, pp. 191-342. 
 
72 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 pied, he very seldom spoke. 1 He followed indeed, 
 to the close of his life, the history of the day, and 
 kept himself well informed of all that was taking 
 place in our quarter of the globe, and in the civil- 
 ized portions of the others ; no word uttered in the 
 council chambers of the nation escaped him, but he 
 refrained from a free expression of his views respect- 
 ing it, and in the complaints of the discontented he 
 never openly participated. This much is certain, 
 that in his later years he might sooner have been 
 seduced to give his adhesion to a rigid monarchism 
 than to any semblance of democracy. 
 
 1 Of his agency he spoke only in these terms : " "When I was at the 
 Hague." 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 73 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Thus amid various vicissitudes forty-three years 
 of his life had passed away. From the quiet vil- 
 lage, where as shepherd of souls he was charged with 
 the highest interests of an humble country congre- 
 gation, we have seen his sphere of action limited to 
 a single honorable family. Proceeding thence, we 
 have seen him, in some respects uncalled, taking his 
 place among the regents of his country, whence sci- 
 ence recalled him to fill a professor's chair. Not 
 long, however, is he permitted thus to maintain her 
 interests. His country places him at the head of 
 the department to which is intrusted the care of its 
 educational interests. In all this he is actuated, 
 less by a becoming ambition, than by an ardent de- 
 sire to be useful to his country. On the improve- 
 ment of primary instruction we see his attention 
 constantly fixed. Hitherto it has seemed to be the 
 great task of this son of an instructor. In all these 
 different spheres his oratorical powers are brilliantly 
 displayed. In all these various ways Providence 
 exercises his gifts and powers, and combines them so 
 as to form that perfect whole which must place him 
 at the head of all scholars, as more than a scholar, — 
 as a sage, who is not only acquainted with books, 
 but with men, understanding human nature in all 
 
74 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 its phases, practically acquainted with the affairs of 
 life, and who, having pondered the great problems 
 of human existence, has formed his own conclusions 
 respecting them. As such he returns, in the vigor 
 of manhood, to the temple of science, and from that 
 moment opens that period of long-continued fame 
 and honor which it pleased Providence to permit 
 him and his country to enjoy. We shall now 
 endeavor to take a review of it ; and in doing so, 
 we shall abandon the chronological order which we 
 have hitherto observed in this biographical sketch. 
 
 Most happy did Van der Palm feel in returning 
 to Leyden and in resuming his earlier labor. Rau 
 had succeeded him as Professor of Oriental Lan- 
 guages, having added this to his professorship of 
 Sacred Poetry and Eloquence. With him Van der 
 Palm made an amicable arrangement, by which he 
 himself took the chair of Sacred Poetry and Elo- 
 quence. He did this the 20th of September, 180G, 
 with a discourse " De Oratore Sacro Litterarum 
 Divinarum Interprete " 1 (On the Sacred Orator, an 
 Expositor of the Holy Scriptures). 
 
 i This was printed in 1806. "In it he marked out for the ministers 
 of religion the only way by which they can attain the high and holy 
 end of sacred eloquence; the way, in which, as formerly, so especially 
 afterwards, he preceded them in the most illustrious manner. In his 
 lectures on sacred eloquence he expanded the hints and instructions 
 contained in this discourse, illustrated them by well-selected examples, 
 and thus gave his hearers a text-book of sacred eloquence, which, it is 
 greatly to be lamented, has been confined to the circle of his pupils. 
 Sometimes he varied those lectures, by expounding for the benefit of 
 his hearers, in his peculiarly rich, tasteful, and felicitous manner, por- 
 tions of the Holy Scriptures, with a special view to the use to be made 
 of them by the sacred orator. I may mention for example the princi- 
 pal parables of the Saviour, respecting which it were also to be desired, 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 75 
 
 His lectures were the expansion and fuller devel- 
 opment of the principles inculcated in this discourse ; 
 and the practical application of them soon produced 
 a general sensation in Ley den, when, in 1807, he 
 was appointed University Preacher, 1 and from time 
 to time delivered that long series of sermons which 
 were successively given to the public in his three 
 volumes of " Sermons," in his series of ten volumes 
 containing each six sermons, and in that of eleven 
 volumes containing ten each ; and as they had been 
 regularly listened to by an extraordinary concourse, 2 
 so they were everywhere read and re-read with the 
 highest approbation. 3 In the delivery of them everv- 
 
 that his more copious illustrations of them had not remained the pre- 
 cious possession of his private hearers." — Prof. Siegenbeek's Tribute 
 to the Memory of J. H. van der Palm, p. 9. Subsequently, when again 
 filling the chair of Professor of Oriental Letters and Antiquities, Van 
 der Palm sometimes gave a single course on eloquence. The last in 
 the University year 1831-1832. 
 
 1 This appointment was annulled in 1815, when by the law on higher 
 instruction (Art. 63) the office of Preacher to the University was con- 
 ferred only on the theological professors. But in 1821 Prof, van Voorst, 
 in consequence of the decease of Wijttenbach promoted to the post of 
 first librarian of the University, requested to be released from his ob- 
 ligations as University Preacher. Van der Palm was appointed in his 
 place; and after some negotiation, caused by the multiplicity of his 
 labors, (he was already engaged on his translation of the Bible,) he con- 
 sented to accept it. 
 
 2 There was perhaps then, and then only, some diminution of inter- 
 est when he treated consecutively of the life of Paul, — an evidence of 
 the aversion of many to know beforehand with what the speaker will 
 entertain them. 
 
 3 Several of the volumes reached the fourth edition, and simply the 
 very great accumulation of them rendered the reprinting of them 
 unnecessary. The ample subscription for the new edition of all the ser- 
 mons, in sixteen volumes, evinces, however, that in spite of the great 
 number of copies in circulation, the public was not yet satisfied. 
 Among his sermons he took special satisfaction in that on the Saviour 
 washing the feet of his disciples. Among them were some that no 
 longer pleased him. 
 
76 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 thing combined to captivate the hearer, and cause 
 him, as it were, to hang on the orator's lips. Van 
 der Palm ascended the pulpit with dignity, without 
 any affectation, with a most simple expression of be- 
 nignity on his countenance. He placed himself very 
 much at his ease in the pulpit, without hurried n ess, 
 with no ado in adjusting himself, without anything 
 in the least repulsive. His tall and erect frame, and 
 the beautiful lineaments of his countenance, irresist- 
 ibly inspired his hearers with awe. He had neither 
 the high forehead nor the sparkling eye which are 
 wont to contribute so much to the power of elo- 
 quence ; but his was of such a nature that an amia- 
 ble countenance and a gentle look befitted it. With 
 him everything was in harmony. His voice was 
 not heavy, not deep, but inconceivably flexible, 
 euphonious, musical, and so clear and audible that 
 even in the largest and worst-constructed churches 
 no word was anywhere lost. Yet he made no great 
 exertion to make himself heard, but spoke in a 
 rather gentle tone, yet with clear and forcible dis- 
 tinction of the sounds, and without obscuring a 
 word, or even the termination of a word. He pos- 
 sessed in the highest degree the faculty with the 
 first and gentlest use of his voice to command 
 silence in the largest assemblies. His pronuncia- 
 tion of our language was most agreeable, and in all 
 respects exemplary. The distinction between the 
 lono- and short vowels, and all the modifications 
 which they undergo in enunciation, not to be rep- 
 resented by writing, were with him audible and 
 entirely natural. The true pronunciation of the r 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 77 
 
 he had not ; but something that was more pleasant 
 than that, — a gentle lisping reminding one of the 
 sound of the turtle-dove ; he did not give the s its 
 sibilant sound, but prolonged it rather more than is 
 usually done. The idea of giving all the written 
 letters a measured pronunciation, of sounding the 
 n at the end of the termination en, (except before 
 a vowel,) of prolonging the i in syllables in which 
 it is nothing more than a sJiwa, of pronouncing the 
 ng and sell in a way grating to the ear of every 
 Hollander, was never entertained by him. He read 
 his sermon, but without difficulty, after having stud- 
 ied it well, and written it distinctly. 1 In his ges- 
 tures he was extremely simple and moderate. The 
 theatrical was with him absolutely excluded. It 
 sometimes seemed to his hearers that nothing ex- 
 traordinary was to be perceived in his delivery ; yet 
 it was at the same time inimitable, and just for that 
 very reason inimitable, because art was entirely 
 concealed, and nothing seemed to be done for effect, 
 nor was there any appearance of making an effort, — 
 because all that pertained to it formed a perfect and 
 proportionate whole. It was of such a nature as to 
 be able to maintain itself long in the general esteem, 
 
 1 He lacked but little of knowing it by beart, so much pains did he 
 take to make bimself familiar with his manuscript. Yet he read it 
 all, and frequently even his prayers. Of speaking extemporaneously 
 he had an unconquerable dread. Even the most insignificant thing, 
 which was to be said by him in more than an ordinary way, he wrote 
 first, and if an address were unexpectedly demanded of him, he 
 showed himself very ill at ease, — a peculiarity the more surprising in 
 a man who in conversation could express himself with so much ease, 
 perspicuity, regularity, and acceptableness. But it is sometimes embar- 
 rassing to be always obliged to keep up a great reputation. 
 
78 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 which it actually enjoyed to his old age. His last 
 sermon he delivered on the loth of March, 1886, 1 
 in the Highland church, still entirely in his peculiar 
 way, and understood by all. The pleasantness, soft- 
 ness, and melodiousness of his voice were preserved 
 even to the close of his life. 
 
 Towards the close of the year 1807 Rau died, 
 also by Van der Palm so eloquently lamented ; 
 and now the professorship of Oriental Letters and 
 Antiquities was anew conferred on him, and with it 
 his taste for these studies and his devotion to them 
 were again revived. He was now the only Oriental- 
 ist in Leyden ; and it was chiefly during this period 
 that he occupied himself with these studies for their 
 own sake. The unfavorable circumstances of the 
 times subsequently abated his ardor, and the entirely 
 new era in that department, by which the Schulten- 
 sian principles gave place to higher, induced him to 
 abandon their further prosecution. Van der Palm 
 was not fond of the more profound, philosophical 
 study of language, and linguistics had for him no 
 
 i The impression -which this sermon made on me, chiefly with respect 
 to its delivery, I And in my journal of that date, kept whilst at the 
 University; and I communicate the passage, carelessly written as it is: 
 " Heard a genuine masterpiece of Van der Palm (' Ye daughters of Je- 
 rusalem,' etc.)- Never have I heard him speak so. His delivery was 
 uncommonly energetic and powerful. And again the triumph of sim- 
 plicity. We young men in the matter of external eloquence are all 
 on the wrong track, — that of empiricism. But we must avail ourselves 
 of its aid, because we are onty half artists. Our simplicity would fail 
 to do justice to the sense, and be unimpressive. One must be Van der 
 Palm ; one cannot resemble him." 
 
 He delivered no farewell discourse. He did not hold to solemnities, 
 in which his own person must occupy the foreground. He once re- 
 marked that his life had been too checkered. 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 79 
 
 attractiveness. He prized the knowledge of differ- 
 ent languages f or the books that were written in 
 them, and studied them as much as was necessary 
 to enable him thoroughly to understand them, and 
 clearly to explain them to others. 
 
 As professor in the Oriental department, he gave 
 principally three lectures of general utility : on 
 Hebrew grammar, Hebrew antiquities, and the 
 philologico-critical investigation of the books of the 
 Old Testament. 1 In the last named shone forth 
 resplenclently his genuine Oriental spirit, his delicate 
 and poetic taste, and the entire excellence of his 
 rare gifts. When he was in his prime, the seats 
 were crowded. He selected chiefly the most beau- 
 tiful poetic pieces from the sacred collection, and 
 shrunk not from the most difficult. One year he 
 investigated a couple of choice Psalms from David ; 
 another, certain of the most excellent chapters from 
 the Book of Job, to which he was specially attached ; 
 a third, the charming Song of Songs ; a fourth, some 
 of the most transporting songs of the Prophets. He 
 began w T ith a review of the entire passage, looking 
 at it chiefly from an aesthetic point of view ; and in 
 doing this he placed his hearers just at that stand- 
 
 1 As long as he stood alone in the Oriental department, he held an- 
 nually from six to eight different courses, among which were several 
 favorite lectures, as Lectiones CoranicEe, Oratory, etc. He also pre- 
 sided from time to time at public defences of theses pertaining to Orien- 
 tal letters; at least in the years 1809, 1810. Also in 1797, 1799 he had 
 been thus engaged. In 1817 came Hamaker, in conjunction with 
 whom he subsequently by turns lectured on Hebrew grammar, resign- 
 ing entirely to him the Arabic. Hamaker was succeeded by Weyers. 
 The philologico-critical remained exclusively the domain of Van der 
 Palm, until released from it by Prof. Rutgers. 
 
80 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 point from which all its beauties might be clearly 
 perceived, and where he could thoroughly imbue 
 them with the spirit of the writer. Upon this fol- 
 lowed the grammatical and philologico-critical anal- 
 ysis. Towards the close of each exercise he gave 
 some annotations in writing. It was not of unfre- 
 quent occurrence, that he, either for the purpose 
 of more clearly exhibiting its aesthetic value, or of 
 elucidating the expressions employed, quoted pas- 
 sages from Greek and Latin poets, or certain lines 
 from Bilderdijk. The recitation of these afforded a 
 delightful entertainment to his hearers. 1 The Latin 
 he spoke with readiness, ease, purity, and simplicity. 
 Even in speaking Latin his own style was to be 
 recognized. The pleasantness of his voice and 
 speech, and the urbanity of his manners, rendered 
 all his lessons acceptable. He also took pains, or 
 rather it was altogether natural to him, to make 
 everything agreeable and entertaining, — following 
 in this the example of his beloved Schultens, 2 — 
 even his drier course on antiquities, and that on 
 
 1 In his later years this privilege was less frequent!}- enjoyed by his 
 hearers. Seldom did he recite any portion of a favorite poem. I 
 heard him, however, several times recite the brilliant couplets from Bil- 
 derdijk's Ode to Xapoleon, — that which begins: " Waar zijn wij ? bij 
 Sabeaas stammen," etc., with the following; and a poetic personifica- 
 tion of winter, likewise from Bilderdijk, in repeating which he became 
 very animated. I never heard him recite anything of any consider- 
 able length. 
 
 2 " And this instruction in the first principles, which in itself is so 
 dry, and often so dryly imparted, that lively young men frequently, 
 even at the very outset, abandon this course, Schultens, always the 
 agreeable man, even when teaching Hebrew letters and vowel points, 
 knew how to render pleasant, so that his lectures were desired with the 
 same eagerness as a festive entertainment." — Kantelaar, Eubgy on H. 
 A. Schultens, p. 26. 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 81 
 
 Hebrew grammar, which he has somewhere denom- 
 inated a thorn-bush. 1 But even these thorns bore 
 flowers. He did not disguise from himself that youno- 
 men, at the period of life in which they came to him, 
 were, in general, wholly unprepared for Oriental 
 learning, and had a natural dread of the rudiments 
 of an entirely strange language. Nor did he per- 
 suade himself that all his auditors would be capable 
 of following him, if, to impart life and interest to these 
 elementary instructions, he should dive into philo- 
 sophical contemplations. But he secured the atten- 
 tion of his pupils by the ease, and, if I may so speak, 
 by the friendship with which he imparted his instruc- 
 tions ; interspersing short but striking observations 
 and unexpected comparisons from the languages with 
 which they were acquainted, and introducing now 
 and then a short anecdote, calculated to relax the 
 mind. He knew how to impart to the lecture-room 
 an air of sociability. To this his serene, mild phys- 
 iognomy contributed not a little. One was irresist- 
 ibly drawn to him. In addition to this he treated, 
 even to the latest period of his life, an audience of 
 students with the greatest courtesy. He was very 
 punctual in opening and closing, very moderate and 
 regular in dictating, and in receiving their responses, 
 anticipating, easy, gladly sparing them all from 
 making an indifferent figure. 2 
 
 And out of the lecture-room ! Never certainly 
 has any university enjoyed the services of a pro- 
 
 1 Eulogy on Lord van de Perre. 
 
 2 Respecting the methodus docendi pursued by Van der Palm, com- 
 pare Prof, van Hengel's Meritorum «/*»• E 01 - v. d. Palm Commemoratio 
 Brevis, pp. 17, 18. 
 
82 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 fessor who manifested so much friendliness and cord- 
 iality to his pupils, and to students in general. All 
 that was possible he did, if they placed themselves at 
 all in his way, to encourage them in their studies ; to 
 honor them for whatever good they possessed, and 
 in every way to manifest his interest in them ; to 
 render them all the assistance in his power. It 
 was only necessary that there should be something 
 to recommend a young man, — it might be that his 
 name was dear to Van der Palm, as being that of 
 an old University friend or former pupil ; or it 
 might be his eminent ability, or his great desire to 
 learn ; or some innate quality of the heart, or nat- 
 ural endowment of the mind ; or his faithful atten- 
 dance on the lectures, his modesty and agreeable- 
 ness in social intercourse, — to awaken the interest 
 and secure the prepossession of the kind-hearted 
 and benevolent man. And if one really pleased him, 
 then he was invited to his house, entertained, 
 treated with every attention, and, having passed 
 through all the successive stages of friendly interest, 
 he was finally regarded as one of the family. Then 
 Van der Palm knew how to convert the awe that 
 was felt into love, and to efface every impression 
 besides that of his never-to-be-forgotten friendliness ; 
 so that it was almost necessary to open one's books 
 to be fully penetrated with a sense of his greatness, 
 and to wonder anew at one's familiarity with the 
 excellent man. And if a student showed himself 
 worthy of his love, and continued to do so, then he 
 neglected no opportunity of manifesting to him and 
 to others how highly he esteemed him. If the 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 83 
 
 friendship grew to this degree of intimacy, then 
 vast instruction was to be gained from him. Not 
 that he out of the lecture-room ever placed himself 
 determinately in the instructor's chair, or betrayed 
 any effort to render his conversation interesting, 
 useful, instructive. But never did he neglect the 
 opportunity to give a salutary and impressive hint 
 relative to study and taste, especially to conduct, 
 deportment in society, and the true wisdom of life. 
 However carelessly these hints were thrown out, 
 they could not possibly escape the notice of those 
 who were desirous of improvement. 
 
 The number of students who feel themselves 
 under obligations to Van der Palm is great. There 
 were none among all his pupils, to whom, if they 
 desired it and were worthy of it, he did not show 
 himself the benevolent man, in every respect, even 
 with regard to difficulties which he could relieve by 
 abating, or remitting lecture-fees, or if they needed 
 encouragement in passing through their examina- 
 tions, or his influence in procuring a situation cor- 
 respondent with their merits. During the many 
 years that he filled the professorial chair in Ley- 
 den, even to his death, he always had about him a 
 successive circle of intimates, who saw and heard 
 him in all his amiableness and real greatness, and 
 whose memories will not only confirm what is said 
 in these pages, but will also supply what is lacking. 
 So far as I am concerned, I have great reason to 
 fear that far too little has been said, either to give 
 a distinct and true delineation of his character, or 
 to meet the demands of personal gratitude. 
 
84 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 But why does the difficult task of preparing this 
 biographical sketch devolve upon me ? Why did it 
 not please Providence to permit the noble Van der 
 Palm to leave one of his four sons behind him, who, 
 resembling him in disposition, formed by him from 
 childhood, might have been able to perform it more 
 worthily, and entirely in his spirit ? Such was not 
 the Divine will. Once, indeed, it seemed as if this 
 might be the case. The worthy man had lost two 
 sons at a very early age ; the third had perished 
 in the terrible calamity that befell Leyden, in the 
 year 1807, under the falling beam of a school edi- 
 fice ; x but the fourth had been rescued from the 
 burning ruins of another school, to be for a time 
 the delight of his life, but, alas ! not the stay of 
 his old ao;e. It was the one whom he had named 
 Hendrik Albert Schultens, from gratitude to that 
 great man and respect for his memory. He had 
 already reached his eighteenth year, and was full 
 grown ; he had always been the joy of his parents, 
 because of the simplicity of his character and the 
 purity of his morals. Never had he caused them 
 any grief whatever, and enviable are the encomi- 
 ums bestowed on him by his afflicted father. He 
 already enjoyed the satisfaction of numbering him 
 among his pupils, as he had consecrated himself to 
 the cultivation of letters and theology ; and not 
 only of numbering him among them, but of seeing 
 him distinguish himself. Then, by a violent ner- 
 
 1 The first was still-born, May 4th, 1789. The second died before his 
 baptism, in November, 1797. The third, who, with another child, per- 
 ished in the school of the Widow Schneither by the falling of a beam, 
 in the year 1807, was bora November 28th, 1798, and was thus nine 
 years old. 
 
LIFE OF VAN DEE PALM. 85 
 
 vous fever, lie was snatched away within nine days. 1 
 It was a very sore trial. But it was this which 
 placed all the greatness and inward piety of Van 
 der Palm's soul in a glorious light. During the 
 sickness of the beloved of his heart, and as the dan- 
 gerous symptoms increased, he was agitated, per- 
 plexed ; whilst he was dying, he suffered incon- 
 ceivably. Strength failed him to be present at his 
 last gasp. But as soon as the dear son had breathed 
 his last, the father was seen to return to his death- 
 bed another man, all composure and Christian sub- 
 mission. He kneeled beside the corpse and uttered 
 the words of Job : " The Lord gave, and the Lord 
 hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the 
 Lord." The Lord strengthened him. He com- 
 forted himself with the consolation of the gospel, in 
 the humble confidence that God had taken his dear 
 child to himself because of the merits of his Son, 
 and washed in his blood. " Perhaps," said he, " the 
 measure of my earthly felicity, even now, with and 
 after his loss, greater than I can acknowledge by the 
 most fervent gratitude, would have been too great 
 for the lot of a mortal." In this frame of mind he 
 buried him in Katwijk's down, and the bereaved 
 father soon obtained strength to resume his labors. 
 Presently appeared the ninth volume of his " Bible 
 for Youth," with a preface, written December 4th, 
 1819, and thus scarcely three weeks after the death 
 of his son, in which he erected to him a monument, 
 in such a manner as Van der Palm could do it. 2 
 
 1 November 14th, 1819. 
 
 2 See the preface, in which the character and capacity of the distin- 
 
86 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 Still, this wound always continued to bleed. With 
 an affecting tenderness he cherished the memory of 
 him who had fallen asleep, and preserved all the 
 small articles that had belonged to him with the ut- 
 most care. This affliction was without doubt the 
 greatest and most painful of his whole life. I have 
 always imagined that in his love for the young 
 there was a silent honoring of the memory of his 
 beloved Hendrik. 
 
 In the University year 1818-1819, Van der 
 Palm rilled the office of Rector. He was not happy 
 in it, as just in that period the disputes of the 
 students were revived, relative to that perpetual 
 apple of discord, the initiation. This drew him 
 into verv disagreeable, long-continued, and in real- 
 ity insignificant negotiations, which, in connection 
 with his manifold official and other employments, 
 were too oppressive to him. He resigned the rec- 
 torate with a discourse " De Imperatore Ali Abu- 
 Talebi filio, Saracen orum Principum maximo " (On 
 Ali the son of Abu-Talebi, greatest of the Sara- 
 cen Princes). 1 
 
 guished youth are fully sketched. In this great loss experienced by 
 Van der Palm, the whole country, it may be said, deeply participated. 
 A small collection of verses on occasion of the funeral of Hendrik 
 Albert, was printed for the friends. In the Appendix I communicate 
 the address with which Van der Palm after this loss reopened his 
 lectures. 
 
 1 This discourse has been published. Beautiful and entirely in the 
 spirit of Van der Palm is the manner in which, in addressing the stu- 
 dents, he makes mention of their strifes, without making more of them 
 than he deems compatible with his dignity. " Postremo vos mihi com- 
 pellandi estis, Ornatissimi juvenes! in quibus maxima est et esse 
 debet Academise gloria. Quam bonesta sit inter vos studiorum 
 aemulatio, mox apparebit, cum septem e vobis in literario certamine 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 87 
 
 In the year 1833, having attained the age of 
 seventy, he was, as was due him, declared Emeritus, 
 but still continued his lectures, which, by an arrange- 
 ment with Professor Hamaker, had already experi- 
 enced some diminution. Three years later, weighed 
 down by the loss of an eminently beloved daughter, 1 
 who supplied to him the place of his consort, who died 
 the year before, by the advice of kind friends, he de- 
 termined to resign the office of University preacher, 
 "which," he wrote to the Curators, "is too onerous 
 for me. Relieved of this burden, it will be more 
 practicable for me to continue my remaining labor, 
 and my lectures, indicated in the series lectionum, 
 with all the fidelity and zeal of which I shall be 
 capable." These he continued till 1838, when Pro- 
 fessor Rutgers relieved him of the last labor which 
 he performed for the benefit of the youth of the 
 University. And however much he needed rest, 
 yet the relinquishment of his work cost him an 
 inward struggle. 
 
 victoribus pnemia distribuam. Sed certo scid neminem esse in hoc 
 Professorum ordine, qui non quisque plurimos hie cernat discipulos 
 quovis doctrinse prsemio dignos: mihi certe ea contingit voluptas felici- 
 tasque. Macti igitur estote virtute atque eruditione. Nullaque porro, 
 nulla umquam inter vos intercedat, prceterquam de doctrince honore cou- 
 certatio ! " 
 
 i Elizabeth Henriette van der Palm, a highly gifted and virtuous 
 woman, possessed of great wit, died June 26th, 1836, at the age of forty- 
 two. 
 
88 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 During the whole period which we have now 
 reviewed with respect to Van der Palm's labors as 
 Professor, not only did the students, not only did 
 the University circle, reap the fruits of his untiring 
 zeal and rarely equalled gifts, the public also shared 
 in them, and enjoyed them abundantly. It was not 
 Van der Palm's ambition to shine by his writings 
 in the select and exclusive circle of the strictly 
 learned world, and to astonish it from time to time 
 by new proofs of profound study. It was his desire 
 to apply the knowledge acquired by him to the pro- 
 motion of the general good. For the attainment 
 of such an object he possessed in his eminent and 
 varied qualifications more ample resources than any 
 other person ; here lay his talent and strength ; for 
 this his whole training and education had served to 
 fit him. He understood perfectly the wants, the 
 taste, and the language of his nation. He knew 
 how to provide for the first, to direct the second, 
 and to impart to the last entirely new attractions. 
 To attach his countrymen to their God and their 
 duty ; to elucidate the sacred Oracles, and to pro- 
 mote the reading of them, in a period in which men 
 were becoming estranged from them ; to exhibit a 
 pure and lovely code of morals, and to render it 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 89 
 
 attractive by the manner in which it was presented ; 
 to excite and direct patriotic sentiments ; to purify 
 and refine the taste for the beautiful ; — these were 
 the objects which he felt himself called and qualified 
 to advance ; all his studies, all his experiences, all 
 his reflections, he desired to place under contribu- 
 tion for the promotion of these objects ; but always 
 with concealment of all learning, with entire free- 
 dom from egotism. Little as embellishment of style 
 and profusion of rhetorical figures are to be met 
 with in his works, just as little is concession to be 
 found to the ostentation of learning or the abstruse- 
 ness of philosophy. They do not seem to have been 
 written in the seclusion of the study ; only the 
 scholar and the philosopher look through the friend- 
 ly veil and recognize their master. 
 
 The first gift which (besides the edition of his 
 sermons) his country received from Van der Palm, 
 after he had returned from his political career, was 
 his " Solomon," a moral weekly, for which the prov- 
 erbs of the wise king served as the guiding thread, 
 and in which their aesthetic and exegetical contem- 
 plation go hand in hand with their practical applica- 
 tion. For a long time he had bestowed his Unguis- 
 tic and literary labor on that book of the Bible ; 
 now the fruit of it was offered to the public in a 
 manner which elicited general interest and secured 
 great approbation. Three hundred and nineteen 
 essays followed each other in succession, and were 
 read with the greatest avidity. They constitute 
 seven volumes of ordinary size, of which two large 
 editions have been subsequently issued. The author 
 
90 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 commenced in the year 1808 with the tenth chapter, 
 and concluded in 1816 with the sixteenth verse of 
 the twenty-second chapter, with the welcome prom- 
 ise of " returning in process of time to what still 
 remained of the Book of Proverbs, and leaving 
 nothing untouched of this excellent memorial of an- 
 tiquity." In the preface to the second edition, he 
 speaks of his " Solomon " as being the one for which 
 he had the most heart of any of his works. And 
 this preference is to be ascribed to its diverse and 
 numerous tendencies, which gave him opportunity 
 for the richest variety ; to the inconceivable labor 
 bestowed on its substratum, the exegesis ; and to the 
 pleasure and satisfaction it afforded him. The ex- 
 quisite practical wisdom, and the profound knowl- 
 edge of men and manners, which are apparent on 
 every page, have always excited great admiration ; 
 and it is especially in reading this work that one 
 congratulates himself on the various vicissitudes in 
 the writer's career. 
 
 In the year 1811, whilst still occupied with " Sol- 
 omon," he commenced a new work, which, during a 
 series of twenty-three years, he completed in twenty- 
 four volumes, — his running commentary on the 
 Bible for the benefit of the young. He always 
 took a deep interest in the young, and to the pro- 
 motion of their improvement he repeatedly directed 
 his efforts. " To the inhabitants of his native city 
 Rotterdam, in the midst of whom he had passed 
 the years of his earliest youth, he dedicated this 
 work as a token of grateful remembrance and sin- 
 cere affection." When he began this work, he had 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 91 
 
 readers of from twelve to fifteen years of age in his 
 eye ; but as he pursued his way he in some degree 
 lost sight of them, which he atones for in the pref- 
 ace to the last volume by saying, that, as he contin- 
 ued to write, he regarded his readers as gradually 
 growing up. 1 It is certain that not one of his 
 works has been so great a favorite with old and 
 young as this " Bible for Youth," which has been 
 repeatedly reprinted, and may still be said to be 
 constantly passing through the press. 
 
 Of an entirely different nature was the work 
 with which Van der Palm in the year 1816 — and 
 thus whilst " Solomon " was hardly completed, and 
 the " Bible for Youth " already begun — surprised 
 his country : the " Historical and Rhetorical Memo- 
 rial of the Restoration of the Netherlands." To the 
 Admiral van Kinsbergen belongs the honor of having 
 elicited for Dutch prose this its masterpiece. The 
 aged seaman, burning for the fame of his country, 
 had in 1815 publicly invited the Dutch orators, poets, 
 and painters, each in their w T ay, to immortalize, for 
 the benefit of posterity, our deliverance from the 
 domination of Napoleon. For this purpose he offered 
 valuable premiums, of which the first was designed 
 for a historical and rhetorical memorial of this event, 
 in the taste of the ancients, especially in that of 
 Sallust. He named, as a committee of aw r ard, 
 Messrs. H. C. Cras, D. Hooft, D. J. van Lennep, 
 and M. C. van Hall, who were also, in case of a 
 successful issue, to have charge of its publication. 2 
 
 1 Bible for Youth, vol. xxiv. pp. 5-7. 
 
 2 See Life of Admiral Van Kinsbergen, by M. C. van Hall. Amst. 
 1841, p. 248, et seq. 
 
92 LIFE OF VAX DER PALM. 
 
 Among the articles sent in the prize was awarded 
 to that of Van der Palm by all the judges ap- 
 pointed by Van Kinsbergen, upon which decision 
 all who have a perception of the beautiful and a 
 relish for it have set their seal. In the bea-innino- 
 of June, 1816, Professor Cras informed him of this 
 triumph, " If," said he, " it be properly a triumph 
 for him who has long by universal consent occupied 
 the place of coryphceus" Previous to its publica- 
 tion, Van der Palm was enabled in many respects 
 to improve this production, as time was gladly 
 allowed him to obtain more accurate information 
 respecting many points of the history. Messrs. Van 
 Hall, Walraven, Cras, Van Limburg Stirum, and 
 Falck favored him with their observations. The 
 last-named, at Van der Palm's request, carefully 
 examined the entire manuscript, and communicated 
 to him a great number of acute observations, of 
 which the great man in good part thankfully availed 
 himself. It appeared in September, 1816, and ex- 
 hibited Van der Palm in all his greatness as prose 
 writer ; imbued with the spirit of the ancients, not 
 their slave ; master of all that is powerful and gen- 
 tle in our mother-tongue. The portraitures of the 
 persons acting a conspicuous part in that important 
 moment of our history, for instance, those of Van 
 Kemper and Van Hogendorp, above all, the delin- 
 eation of Napoleon's character, excited great admira- 
 tion. The condition prescribed by Van Kinsbergen, 
 that the desired article should not have a tendency 
 to revive, but much rather to fraternize the old fac- 
 tions, was fully met. 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 93 
 
 * 
 
 From that moment it was a favorite idea of Cras 
 that Van der Palm, having succeeded so well in this 
 tableau from our contemporaneous, should treat in a 
 similar manner some portion of our earlier history, 
 and he frequently alluded to it in his letters. To 
 hints of this kind, however, the great writer never 
 gave ear ; the Memorial of the Restoration of 
 the Netherlands must stand alone, unequalled. He 
 knew well how hazardous would be the attempt, if 
 not to surpass, at least to equal himself. He had, 
 moreover, during his whole life proposed to himself 
 another task, which he now prepared to undertake, — 
 a renovated translation of all the books of the Old 
 and the New Testament. 
 
 Courage was certainly needed for such an under- 
 taking at the age of fifty-five, but the full maturity 
 of that age seemed to him to be a requirement for 
 such a work. That which he desired to bring to- 
 gether for the explication and elucidation of the 
 Book of books must be the fruit of the labor of a 
 whole life ; of all that his vocation had required 
 him to investigate, and of all the useful and impor- 
 tant information which he had been able to collect 
 in the various circumstances of his life. 1 " Famil- 
 iarity with the Oriental mode of thought and ex- 
 pression, prevailing equally in both portions of the 
 Bible, and with the languages in which both are 
 written ; a certain ease in placing myself in the 
 sense and style of the biblical writers, and the con- 
 sciousness that I aim at delivering nothing of my 
 
 1 See the Dedication to his Majesty the King, placed before the 
 work. 
 
94 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 own, nothing but the Word of God, but above all, 
 reliance on the assistance of the Almighty, moved 
 by whose Spirit the holy men spake, are the 
 grounds on which I boldly undertake this great 
 work, and dare expect that all who are acquainted 
 w T ith me and my writings will aid in the furtherance 
 of my object." 1 Its execution, he foresaw, would, at 
 least for the first three years, require a great sacri- 
 fice of time and pleasure ; but if permitted to rejoice 
 in the continuance of health and strength of body 
 and mind, he regarded it with tranquil assurance as 
 practicable, and if successful the satisfaction and ad- 
 vantage would richly repay what he had expended 
 on it. 2 
 
 The prospectus appeared in 1817, and the sub- 
 scription opened was soon graced with a list of two 
 thousand names, at the head of which stood those 
 of the princely personages, and in its midst were 
 seen those of the most learned, scientific, and en- 
 lightened men. 3 In 1818 the first portion of it was 
 issued, with a letter to the Synod instead of a pref- 
 ace, in which the principles and views according to 
 which the writer had proceeded were indicated and 
 illustrated. The others followed in 1819, 1820, 1822, 
 1823, and 1825. The whole was thus completed 
 in seven years. In 1829 and 1830, the edition of 
 
 1 Prospectus. 
 
 2 From a familiar letter. 
 
 3 The number of subscribers increased to full 3000. The edition was 
 one of 3387 copies, which were all sold. Of the second edition, in oc- 
 tavo, about 3000 copies have been circulated, and full 1700 of the notes 
 in 8vo. This edition appeared from 1827 to 1830; the notes from 1831 
 to 1835 ; Apocryphal books, 1838. 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 95 
 
 the Apocryphal books of the Old Testament ren- 
 dered the work on that side also complete. 
 
 One is justly amazed at such a gigantic labor, 
 brought to its completion in so short a period, whilst 
 the same man gave seven or eight lectures weekly, 
 and performed all the duties of his professorship ; 
 from 1818 to 1819 also discharged those of the rec- 
 torate ; whilst he preached several times a year, was 
 useful in various relations, and published more than 
 one other work. It is true, much of it had been 
 previously wrought. The plan which he now exe- 
 cuted he had entertained and labored at all his life. 
 He used to say, " I have worked at it forty years, 
 and eight of them like a horse." Ecclesiastes, the 
 entire Psalter, 1 Isaiah, and the greatest part of the 
 Book of Proverbs, were fully prepared. But we 
 should commit a mistake were we to imagine that 
 Van der Palm rested on the fruits of his earlier 
 labor and investigations. He wrote, for instance, to 
 the Synod, on sending in the third portion, " After 
 all the years of labor bestowed on the books of 
 Solomon, I still find so much matter for new inves- 
 tigation that I am obliged to proceed much more 
 slowly than I had anticipated, as I endeavor studi- 
 ously to avoid all precipitation, though sometimes 
 tempted to it." And how powerful must have been 
 the temptation to it with respect to an undertaking 
 in which so great a pecuniary interest was at stake, 
 which, in case he had succumbed before its comple- 
 tion, would have been wholly lost. But just in this 
 natural and acquired serenity of Van der Palm lay 
 
 1 See the preface to the Songs of David and Asaph. 
 
96 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 the possibility of so successfully completing a labor 
 of such formidable extent. A man of the same 
 learning, ability, gifts, and perhaps still more genius, 
 if at the same time of a hasty, impulsive, and ex- 
 citable temperament, would never have been fitted 
 for such a work. For it was a wholly different task 
 to translate the Bible in the nineteenth century from 
 what it was in the sixteenth, when Luther, also un- 
 assisted, took it upon himself. It had now become 
 as much more complicated as it was then grand. 
 
 The family preserve the manuscript of this chief 
 work of the indefatigable writer. The manual 
 labor alone inspires respect. It consists of cer- 
 tain, not books, but reams of paper, in small hand, 
 and very closely written. But this writing fully 
 expresses the nature and disposition of the cele- 
 brated translator. In the beginning, at the close, 
 in the middle, wherever it is opened, everywhere 
 it is perfectly the same, as if, by miracle, it had 
 been written by the same steady hand, with the 
 same pen, on the same day. All the lines are per- 
 fectly straight, all the letters equally clear and dis- 
 tinct ; nowhere a blot, nowhere a spot. From it 
 speaks the man of order, accuracy, and neatness, 
 equally scrupulous about the style of his annotations 
 as about that of the text, and who composed his 
 notes on the Book of Revelation with no less care 
 than those on the Book of Genesis. Extremely sel- 
 dom does the eye rest upon a word crossed ; for it 
 is the manuscript of the considerate Van der Palm, 
 who did not put his pen to paper before he had not 
 only fully matured his thoughts, but also decided on 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 97 
 
 the most appropriate mode of expressing them, and 
 who used to say, u I make the corrections in my 
 head." l 
 
 No one, indeed, was ever better fitted for the per- 
 fect observance of the festina lente than Van der 
 Palm ; — Van der Palm, who never arose with a 
 different countenance on one day from that with 
 which he did on another ; who seated himself every 
 day with the same serenity, with the same comfort, 
 in his easy-chair, and, after the most profound inves- 
 tigation or the most sublime employment, took his 
 place in the family circle or in social gatherings with 
 the same calm and serene countenance, as if noth- 
 ing had been passing in his head ; — Van der Palm, 
 who, as he was disposed to devote all the time at his 
 command to his task, so was never prevented from 
 doing so by bodily or mental indisposition. 
 
 And whatever subject he treated, he maintained 
 the same equanimity. It can be perceived in his 
 style, even where it takes its highest flight and its 
 most rapid course, that the author always holds the 
 reins, and remains completely master of himself; 2 
 and we may rest assured that the pages with respect 
 to which this is the case, have been written under 
 no greater excitement than all the others. As the 
 beautiful Pallas came from Jupiter's brain, com- 
 
 1 Van der Palm never transcribed anything, not even for the press. 
 A clever compositor could set a page from him, of which no revision 
 was necessary, so distinct was the copy. In the lithograph which ac- 
 companies this work is to be seen a fac-simile of a page from the man- 
 uscript of his translation of the Bible. 
 
 2 He frequently said, "A good style must maintain throughout a 
 brisk trot, and be always in a condition to start into a gallop; but must 
 very seldom do it." 
 
 7 
 
98 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 pletely armed, so came upon paper his masterpieces, 
 complete, just as they must remain. He never 
 occupied himself with what is called retouching, not 
 even when a second edition was called for after a 
 lapse of years. His advice to young writers, a hun- 
 dred times repeated, was, " Be careful, I pray you, 
 that what you do be in itself complete, firii, like a 
 marble statue, on whose surface the most delicate 
 touch can discover no inequality." 
 
 In the midst of this amazing industry Van der 
 Palm still found time to extend, in the most irre- 
 proachable manner, his fame as a secular orator. 
 Since 1799, when, by order of the executive gov- 
 ernment, he had delivered his national oration, his 
 fame had been so completely established, he had 
 been in the eyes of the Dutch nation so much the 
 orator par excellence, that on every great occasion 
 no one else was suggested as the speaker of the day. 
 So King Louis had appointed him, in 1808, orator of 
 the order of Union. It was he who, at the time of 
 the calamity by water in 1809, must grace, by his 
 ever-desired eloquence, a musical concert held in 
 Ley den for the benefit of the suffering. 1 When in 
 1823 the tricentenary of the art of printing was to 
 be celebrated, it was deemed necessary to appeal to 
 emulation in order to obtain a poem worthy of the 
 dignity of the occasion ; but for the desired oration 
 no one was thought of but Van der Palm. The fol- 
 lowing year, it must again be he who should, by his 
 
 1 See these and all the other articles named, in the four volumes of 
 Essays, Discourses, and Scattered Writings; the article on Beeckman 
 was published separately, at Leyden. 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 99 
 
 magnificent language, give lustre to the two hundred 
 and fiftieth anniversary of Leyden's deliverance ; and 
 in 1825, as we have previously seen, those who had 
 been his fellow-students at the University, proud of 
 the honor which he conferred on them, assigned to 
 him the task of directing their thoughts and feelings 
 at the important festal commemoration. At an ear- 
 lier period the society Felix Meritis called in the aid 
 of his matchless talent, on occasion of a distribution 
 of prizes to various artists, when he expatiated on the 
 value to be attached to the judgment of posterity ; 
 and in 1824 it demanded of him the sad but pleas- 
 ant duty of honoring with a funeral oration the 
 memory of his highly valued friend Kemper, the 
 delight of all the virtuous in the whole country. In 
 1820 the Leyden division of the Society of Fine 
 Arts and Sciences had asked of him a similar tribute 
 to his beloved Borger ; — no ! he had offered his 
 services, " imagining, that, if the shade of Borger 
 could have been consulted, he would not have de- 
 spised him as his funeral orator, even as he would 
 have preferred no one to Borger." Nor yet in 
 1832, when a gray-headed man of sixty-nine, did 
 he decline the request of the students to pay a trib- 
 ute to their brother who had been slain ; — a tribute 
 more durable than the marble which they had pro- 
 cured to immortalize his name. 1 
 
 In all this, besides that which secured the praise 
 of all, shone forth clearly the great benevolence of 
 
 1 See the Account of the Dedication of the Monument to the Memory 
 of L. J. W. Beeckman, who was slain as volunteer from the Leyden Uni- 
 versity, by J. E. van der Palm. Leyden, 1832. 
 
100 LIFE OF VAX DER PALM. 
 
 Van cler Palm's character, which would have ren- 
 dered it far more difficult for him to decline such 
 invitations than to comply with them in a brilliant 
 manner; the same benevolence, which, when the 
 occasion offered of itself, never permitted him to 
 refuse to ascend the pulpit in veiy many cities of 
 our country, and even in very humble villages, to 
 the no small advantage of the poor of the congre- 
 gation. As often as his membership of various 
 learned societies required him to take his turn as 
 orator, he despised the excuse, of which he might 
 readily have availed himself, drawn from the many 
 important labors which overwhelmed him, and man- 
 ifested an entire readiness to perform his part. The 
 Royal Institute, the Society of Literature, that of 
 the Fine Arts, in various divisions, that for General 
 Utility, Felix Meritis in Amsterdam, Diligentia at 
 the Hague, and others, saw him alternately on their 
 platforms. The subjects which he selected, and his 
 treatment of them, fully portray Van der Palm. 
 Everywhere his exquisite taste, his wisdom and 
 moderation, are apparent. His theory of life and 
 his theory of art are laid down in these discourses ; 
 and in all he presents himself entire, without, how- 
 ever, the least appearance of obtruding himself. 
 Does he sketch " the true nature of eloquence," his 
 oration affords a perfect specimen ; does he praise 
 the " eloquence of Cicero," every one is struck with 
 his own resemblance to Cicero in all that is praise- 
 worthy. Does he, with an appearance of taking it 
 under his protection, pay a just tribute to " medi- 
 ocrity," — perfect in its kind, adapted to time and 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 101 
 
 place, sufficient to its design, not conformed to the 
 prevailing taste, — the writer is heard who has at 
 heart the general improvement, and who, in order 
 to be understood by all, knows how to restrain him- 
 self, to be sparing, to select simple forms of expres- 
 sion. Does he reprimand " contempt and neglect 
 of the rules of art," the right is cheerfully accorded 
 to him who understands the great art of concealing 
 art by means of art ; who has penetrated to the 
 higher politics of art, and knows how to avail him- 
 self of its most subtile wiles, without exciting the 
 least suspicion. Does he point out " certain requi- 
 sites to simplicity of style," it is as if he would 
 exhibit the difficulty and high value of that sim- 
 plicity for which all the world praise him, without 
 the greatest part of his admirers having the least 
 idea that it is anything more than a natural gift, or 
 any suspicion of the perpetual conflict that a man 
 of genius and talents must for its sake maintain with 
 himself. 1 Does he appear to speak " on the influ- 
 ence and value of the external," he has half shown 
 it before he opens his lips, by the pleasing assem- 
 blage of external advantages with which nature has 
 favored him in countenance and form, the propriety 
 of his apparel, to which he pays sufficient attention 
 to avert from him both the appearance of learned 
 negligence and that of vain ostentation, — highly 
 polished in all his manners, dignified, without being 
 
 1 " I am always commended for my simplicity, — my simplicity ! " he 
 once remarked to one of his most confidential friends, after a public 
 prelection which had again abundantly elicited that compliment; "but 
 it is not known how much pains that easy simplicity costs me." 
 
102 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 affected, graceful, without being modish. Does he 
 speak on " sound judgment," never has any one 
 spoken more soundly on it than he, whose eye is so 
 simple, and yet whose glance penetrates so deeply 
 that he can dispense with the whole terminology of 
 abstruse philosophy. 1 And where he indicates and 
 defines the limits of proper "self-love," there he 
 becomes so intimately blended with the characters 
 which he sketches that the nation needs on this 
 point no other delineation of his character than that 
 which he has himself thus given. No less right has 
 he to speak, when he selects for his subject " unity 
 and diversity," 2 — he in whom the richest diversity 
 of gifts produces the most uniform whole ; or when 
 he insists on the " necessity of self-knowledge," 
 especially for the artist, 3 — he whose combined labor 
 so clearly exhibits how well he knew to select just 
 that ground on which he was perfectly at home, 
 with the sacrifice of all by-paths, on which, how- 
 ever, he would have played no wholly subordinate 
 part ; the evidences of which we have seen in the 
 relinquishment of the pleasures and laurels of poe- 
 try, and, at a later period, in retiring from the field 
 
 1 To the philosophic-aesthetic contemplations which had, especially- 
 near the close of his life, become fashionable, he had the greatest aver- 
 sion. " It is too high for me," he frequently said; " I cannot compre- 
 hend all that beauty." 
 
 2 This oration is placed in the Recensent ook der Recensenten, vol. 
 xxiv. art. 2d, (1831,) p. 205. All the others here enumerated are col- 
 lected in four vols. Essays, Discourses, and Scattered Writings. 
 
 3 A young pulpit orator once asked him, whom he would especially 
 advise him to study. Van der Palm answered, " Yourself." But, 
 friendly as he was, he soon relieved the inquirer of the slight embar- 
 rassment in which this unexpected reply had placed him, by adding, 
 " But this is not what you ask. Well, then, Massillon." 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 103 
 
 of Oriental linguistic studies, when they took a di- 
 rection less correspondent with his talent. It was 
 this self-knowledge, also, which inducer 1 him to leave 
 the pulpit before he began to be sus ected of a de- 
 cline, the idea of which always seemed to him intol- 
 erable. His last oration, delivered in the year 1833, 
 had for its subject servile and laudable imitation ; and 
 as he did not publish it, nor evidently set it apart 
 for publication, we must take it for granted that 
 here also his self-knowledge as an artist directed 
 him, and we must guard against the indiscretion of 
 misjudging him in this matter. 
 
 Affecting has always been to me his return to 
 Solomon, after he had completed the great task 
 which he had proposed to himself, had withdrawn 
 for the most part from the great theatre of letters, 
 and prepared himself for repose from the academ- 
 ical and ecclesiastical chair. In the year 1838 he 
 completed, in a volume of moderate size, his treat- 
 ment of the first nine chapters of the Book of Prov- 
 erbs, on a plan somewhat different from that which 
 he had pursued in the volumes previously issued, as 
 was naturally the case from the subjects treated ; and 
 he denominated this work of his already far ad- 
 vanced days, " the fruit of an earnest endeavor still 
 to do some good by means of his writings in the late 
 evening of life, in expectation of the divine bless- 
 ing." The last portion of the Book of Proverbs 
 (from chap. xxii. ver. 17) still remained ; and on 
 this he began his labor in the summer of 1839, but 
 carried it no further than the two essays which it 
 has been my melancholy pleasure to communicate to 
 
104 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 the public, 1 and which " still abundantly evince that 
 the great age of the writer did not becloud his clear 
 intellect, and at the same time that his observant 
 mind continued to the very evening of life to take 
 notice of whatever attracted general attention," 2 and 
 of this he constantly gave the clearest evidences to 
 those by whom he was surrounded. But however 
 clear his intellect remained, his productive power 
 decreased ; and in addition to this, his sight began to 
 fail, and writing, which had so long been easy, 
 finally became difficult. He had, however, become 
 so accustomed to spend the greatest part of the day 
 in his study, that he, as long as he could reach that 
 retreat, remained there from one to eight hours 
 daily, though he could finally do nothing more than 
 read. There he had sat a long lifetime, before a 
 small desk, in an arm-chair which was not the most 
 easy, in the midst of the large library of the Schul- 
 tenses, 3 augmented by his own collection of books. 
 The neatness did not reign here which might have 
 been expected from the owner; but the confusion 
 was occasioned by long and frequent use, and he 
 never found time and opportunity!, nor had he the 
 room necessary, to restore order. At his right hand 
 stood the large fir writing- table, which divided the 
 room in the centre, and on which lay the greatest 
 part of the supellex, the various editions and trans- 
 
 1 Second Sequel on Solomon, by J. H. van der Palm, comprising the 
 last labor of the writer, and the Index. Leuw. 1841. 
 
 2 Preface to the Second Sequel. I designed here specifically the di- 
 gression on mnemonics, anew brought before the public by Montry but 
 a short time previous to the writing of those essays. 
 
 3 He purchased it entire in the year 1794. 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 105 
 
 lations of the Bible, still open. Before him lay for 
 the most part one or more detached leaves from the 
 Hebrew codex, and an octavo Bible by Keur, used 
 by Schultens, and now my property, a gift from 
 his dying hand. Above the hearth hung the sil- 
 houette of Van de Perre. How dear to him was 
 that retreat, and how much it must have cost him, 
 when he was, in the last months of his life, obliged 
 to come to the determination of no longer exerting 
 himself to go thither. Yet such was his strength of 
 mind, so entire was his acquiescence, that no one 
 ever heard him utter a complaint respecting it. But 
 as long as he continued to resort to his study, with- 
 out being able to employ himself as he desired, he 
 was frequently displeased with himself, and he was 
 often seen to come down in the evening, with his 
 candlestick in his hand, as he had been wont to do 
 for half a century, but now with the words of the 
 Preacher on his lips, y^n Dnn ^VpS " I have no 
 pleasure in them." 
 
106 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Van der Palm has somewhere said, " Not al- 
 ways are the living equally unjust in the estimate 
 of the great talents that nourish in the midst of 
 them. How many literary men, how many culti- 
 vators of the fine and imitative arts, have gathered 
 a rich harvest of enjoyment from the esteem, appro- 
 bation, and applause of their contemporaries, suffi- 
 cient to stimulate their zeal and gratify their sense 
 of honor." And certainly the man who uttered 
 these words might include himself in that fortunate 
 number. The honor which he received kept for 
 the most part pace with his merits ; and when these 
 were at the highest point, there was scarcely a man 
 who disputed what belonged to him, — the highest 
 place. His name as an orator has a celebrity among 
 all classes in our nation, such as is perhaps enjoyed 
 only by the name of Vondel as a poet. Having 
 been brought into contact with the most honorable 
 in the land by his earlier relations, and descending 
 to the humblest condition through his works, he was 
 everywhere in honor. There was no society in the 
 University city where he would not have been wel- 
 come without invitation ; no citizen on its streets 
 who did not raise his hat to Mijnheer van der Palm ; 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 107 
 
 no child that knew not his name ; no gray-headed 
 man who did not extend to him the right hand. 
 
 And this universal celebrity and genuine popu- 
 larity found their counterpart in the ascendency 
 which he possessed over the fraternity of the 
 learned, which is often so unfraternal, in which he 
 was by unanimous consent regarded as the first 
 among his compeers. No one secretly or openly 
 disputed the precedency with Van der Palm ; for 
 though one might feel his superiority to him in this 
 department and another in that, all acknowledged 
 in the combination of his gifts and talents so fin- 
 ished a whole, that they permitted him to stand 
 alone on an eminence attained by no other. Of 
 whomsoever one might be emulous, Van der Palm 
 seemed at last above the reach even of jealousy. 
 His superiority in the learned circle that sur- 
 rounded him was like the superiority of a father 
 among his sons, which no one of them envies, but 
 of which every one of them is proud. 
 
 Universal was the homage paid to Van der Palm 
 by men in every department of knowledge. All 
 that used the pen for the public among his col- 
 leagues in Leyden or in other universities, yea, 
 almost in the whole country, laid the fruit of their 
 labor or gifts at his feet ; from the humblest citizen 
 to Count van Hogendorp, from the least poet to 
 Bilderdijk. 1 Every one set a high value on his 
 judgment, his approbation, his observations. The 
 membership of nearly all the learned societies in the 
 
 1 This is to be understood of the period when a good understanding 
 subsisted between Van der Palm and Bilderdijk, up to 1823. 
 
108 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 Netherlands was conferred upon him, and in their 
 meetings his advice and utterances had double 
 weight. The University of Ley den conferred on 
 him in 1812, under the rectorate of Brugmans, the 
 degree of D. D. The Society of Dutch Literature 
 did itself the honor of bestowing on him, in 1830, 
 a gold medal, as one of the two men who had, dur- 
 ing the last half-century, laid Dutch literature under 
 the highest obligations, and eminently enriched it ; 1 
 the other was Bilderdijk. 
 
 He also enjoyed a foreign celebrity. His work 
 on Ecclesiastes had laid the foundation for this. 
 Silvestre de Sacy held with Van der Palm, during 
 his first professorship and subsequently, a learned 
 epistolary correspondence. Professor Bernstein, of 
 Breslau, Rey, of Paris, and many other scholars, sent 
 him, regularly, copies of their writings, accompanied 
 not seldom by the most honoring professions. 2 In 
 1822 he received the diploma as Associe Correspon- 
 dant de la Societe Asiatique a Paris. It was uni- 
 versally known that Van der Palm was one of the 
 coryphaei of our Dutch literature ; and as such he 
 received to a very advanced age the visits of literary 
 strangers. 
 
 When the Royal Institute was founded in 1808, 
 Van der Palm was at once appointed a member by 
 
 1 The medal has on one side the stamp of the Society, and on the 
 other this superscription : 
 
 TRIBUTE 
 
 TO 
 
 J. H. VAN DER PALM 
 
 1830. 
 
 2 Thus Bernstein denominates him, " Virum longe celeberrimum mer- 
 itorum prsestantia illustrissimum, Batavorum principem disertorum." 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 109 
 
 King Louis. In the same year he was also ad- 
 mitted by him to the order of the Union, of which, 
 as we have seen, he was made orator. Napoleon 
 exchanged, in 1812, the decoration of this order for 
 that of La Reunion ; and King William honored him 
 in 1816 with that of the Dutch Lion. 
 
 All this honor was incapable of making any 
 change in Van der Palm's amiable simplicity and 
 modesty. He bore it, indeed, not without a certain 
 loftiness, not without the inward consciousness of 
 not being wholly unworthy of it, not altogether 
 without becoming gradually accustomed to the royal 
 title, that ever sounded in his ears in the kingdom 
 of letters, so that it might have been in some degree 
 unpalatable to have his right to it questioned, and 
 more or less strange towards the last had he been 
 constrained to move in a circle which did not move 
 around him. He knew, as he wrote in 1821 to one 
 of his most valuable friends, that he was one " who 
 in some small degree upheld, according to his ability, 
 the honor of the Dutch language and literature, and 
 who had exerted greater or less influence on the 
 minds of his fellow-citizens." The criticism of 
 his works he confided to very few, but to these 
 unreservedly, and his own view of them was any- 
 thing but that of unlimited satisfaction. Of his 
 friendly delicacy in his treatment of his intellectual 
 inferiors, and his respect for the merits of every one, 
 I have previously had occasion to speak. He 
 repulsed no one by a lofty or magisterial bearing ; 
 he never preached himself; he never quoted him- 
 self. Extremely seldom, perhaps too seldom, did he 
 
110 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 assume a decisive tone ; never did he reject with 
 scorn ; gentleness was blended even with his dis- 
 approbation of the writings of others. All who 
 approached him he rather elevated to an equality 
 with himself than descended to them with an air of 
 superiority. Hence it was that he was not only 
 honored but also loved by all who enjoyed his inti- 
 mate acquaintance. 1 
 
 I still seem to see the venerable, gray -headed 
 man, having just entered into a promiscuous com- 
 pany, with his powdered head somewhat raised, sur- 
 rounded by men of every age, rank, and merit, who 
 each in his turn approach him with the expression 
 of esteem and respect in bearing and tone. For 
 each of them he has something friendly, some- 
 thing cordial, something that imparts pleasure. But 
 whilst they throng around him, his all-surveying 
 eve perceives in the background of the apartment 
 one or another, who, by reason of youth, natural 
 diffidence, or because wholly unacquainted with 
 him, does not venture, at least not immediately, to 
 address him. To such a one he quickly turns, 
 encourages him by his soft eye, and shows him in 
 the first few words that he is not so much of a 
 stranger to him as he may suppose. He knows 
 how to find or make a point of contact, and to 
 introduce speedily a subject of conversation in 
 which the person addressed can appear to advan- 
 
 1 " Senem — omnibus bonis carissimum, quemque nos omnino et ven- 
 erabamur omnes et in oculis veluti ferebamus: " thus denominates him 
 his colleague, the most reverend Clarisse, in his Prologus, quo J is H ci 
 v. d. Palm exemplum futuris theologis ad imitandum projjosuit. Lugd. 
 Bat. 1841. 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. HI 
 
 tage. How amiable he is in addressing the ladies, 
 may be conceived : amiable by his simplicity, unaf- 
 fectedness, ease, and attentive interest to that which 
 lies within their own sphere. The conversation 
 becomes general ; he does not make himself mas- 
 ter of it, and yet he is so irresistibly. He is not 
 only heard, but listened to. His words are soft and 
 melodious ; he speaks appropriately, not measuredly ; 
 courteously, not courtly. All that he says is simple, 
 and yet uncommon ; his justness of expression on 
 all subjects, important or less significant, is striking ; 
 his tone is gentle, cheerful, agreeable to all ; — there 
 is something truly genial in his bearing and in all 
 his movements. Is mutual recreation the object of 
 their coming together, he is not easily allured into 
 the domain of science, nor does he descend to that 
 which is trifling. Or does the conversation take 
 such a turn, he knows how to impart to it in a 
 moment salt and flavor. With everything he has 
 his little reminiscence, his short narrative, commu- 
 nicated with naivete ; and though you may have 
 heard it from him before, as Van der Palm was not 
 exempt from this infirmity of old age, he again 
 extorts from you a smile. Does the conversation 
 take a more important direction, does it relate to 
 more weighty subjects, he speaks with emphasis, 
 but never with rapture ; his words are few, but 
 comprehensive. If the topic of conversation does 
 not please him, he knows how to change it, not so 
 suddenly and abruptly as to cause embarrassment, 
 yet plainly enough to prevent any prolonged resist- 
 ance. The art of remaining silent when he chooses 
 
112 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 to do so, without exciting the semblance of displeas- 
 ure, he understands perfectty. A little less reserved- 
 ness may now and then be demanded of him. Woe 
 to him who would entice him to speak on a point 
 respecting which he has previously determined not 
 to express his views ! A slight mortification it must 
 certainly cost him ; but he presently sympathizes 
 with the sufferer, and heals the wound which he 
 has inflicted. 
 
 Such was Van der Palm, — always, everywhere 
 the model of genuine refinement ; always, every- 
 where the simple, amiable, venerable man. No su- 
 periority of gifts, no abundance of honor and fame, 
 could make him otherwise. 
 
 But not only were honor and fame the fruit of 
 his meritorious and uninterrupted labor. It also 
 yielded him pecuniary advantage. Without for- 
 tune he had entered on his career ; yet also without 
 solicitude, knowing that he had by the goodness of 
 God in his talents a security against want. He 
 attached no special value to wealth, but regarded as 
 a necessity a certain competency, such as he had 
 enjoyed in the highest degree with Lord van de 
 Perre ; and it was fortunate for him that he was 
 not condemned to straightened circumstances. He 
 was a poor financier, did not approve of hoarding 
 up, 1 and was very liberal. He took no pleasure in 
 a magnificent style of living, pomp of furniture, or 
 
 i " The horoscope which I drew when a hoy," he related, " con- 
 tained in it that I should enjoy much, but accumulate little." Extrav- 
 agant statements have been made as to the income which Van der 
 Palm received from his works. It is however certain that it very far 
 exceeded that of any other author in this country. 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. H3 
 
 multitude of servants. He never even possessed a 
 residence of his own in Leyden. But he was not 
 the man to deny himself or his family any lawful 
 pleasure through parsimony. Though extremely 
 temperate in the use of food and drink, (he was 
 fonder of tasting than eating, he used to say,) he 
 liked a good table. He was an exquisite gastro- 
 nome, but still more for others than himself. His 
 hospitality was truly Oriental. All that his house 
 could afford was at the service of each one whom 
 he admitted to it, and he ever sought opportunity of 
 showing some friendly attention. As a host he had 
 no superior ; he consulted the pleasure of all his 
 guests collectively, and of each in particular. His 
 house had a charm for every visitor, and there was 
 no place to which an invitation was more gladly 
 accepted. 
 
 In the year 1821 Van der Palm purchased a small 
 country-seat, under Soeterwoude, outside the Koe- 
 poort ; he called it Oosterhof, not without allusion 
 to his studies. There he spent the fair season. One 
 of the summer-houses belonging; to it he converted 
 into a study. As long as he continued to work at 
 his translation of the Bible and give lectures, he 
 spent the forenoon in his study in the city, but the 
 last part of Solomon he wrote there. A Hebrew 
 Testament, a States Bible, and writing materials 
 were all that was found there. Those who visited 
 him at Oosterhof were not permitted to depart be- 
 fore he had conducted them around his premises, 
 pointing out to them especially his various fruit- 
 trees, as he thought more of fruits than flowers ; 
 
114 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 and he spoke with so much interest of his peaches 
 and melons, and pointed out with so much satisfac- 
 tion a thousand different things in his small pleasure- 
 garden, that his visitors might for a moment imagine 
 that they saw before them a man who devoted all 
 his time to such enjoyments. He was very happy 
 and contented there, and it must have been a great 
 self-denial not to go thither the last summer of his 
 life. Still, respecting this also, not a single complaint 
 was heard from his lips. It was certainly at all 
 times a feast to see Van der Palm, to be received 
 by him, and, what was the same thing, to be treated 
 by him with friendliness. But to see him in the 
 fervor of his domestic life imparted a heart-felt 
 pleasure which no one can fully express. There 
 Van der Palm was first seen in all his amiableness, 
 in the true nobility of his benignant nature. His 
 house was a scene of undisturbed peace, joy, and 
 happiness, and he knew how to imbue with his own 
 spirit all who surrounded him, even to his servants. 
 The rights of each, the pleasures of each, were 
 respected and regarded by him with the utmost 
 care. A most tender husband, he lived wholly in 
 and for his lovely, gentle, pious wife, who, even 
 with less prosperity, would have made the happiness 
 of his life complete. In no one was the paternal 
 character more perfectly expressed ; even without 
 being allied to him by blood, one could hardly 
 refrain from calling him father. Surrounded by his 
 children and grandchildren, he seemed truly a pa- 
 triarch of the olden time ; to promote their happi- 
 ness, to augment their pleasure, to gather them 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 115 
 
 joyous and sportive around him, was the delight of 
 his life. He ever found time in the midst of his 
 most serious employments, yea, during the last 
 years of his life, amid weakness and suffering, to 
 devise plans for their amusement, to rejoice them 
 with presents, to entertain them, and by great and 
 small attentions of every kind to show how largely 
 they shared in the affections of his heart ; to par- 
 ticipate in their pleasures, in their sports, to laugh 
 at their innocent folly, and to take an interest in 
 what they deemed important, though it had become 
 far beneath his attention. To his most advanced 
 age he was never wearied by the pressure, the mer- 
 riment of the young. We have seen him in his 
 seventy-sixth year, in the character of Rector Mag- 
 nificus, with toga and three-cornered hat, participate 
 in the parody of a public promotion, during the 
 week in which I was preparing for my actual pro- 
 motion, and when his house had been opened for all 
 the bustle and trouble incident to such an event, in 
 the case ot a student not wholly without friends and 
 relatives, — gracing our follies and crowning our joy 
 by his unaffected cheerfulness. 1 
 
 Van der Palm was most susceptive of the impres- 
 sion of happiness. With him the emotion of grati- 
 tude, more than any other, manifested itself. It was 
 at a family festival that his joy could be read in his 
 expressive countenance and in his glistening eye, 
 
 1 The last time that he went to the University, and the last public 
 scene at which he was present, was at my promotion. In previously 
 reviewing my dissertation he had still manifested a clearness of intel- 
 lect, a vivacity of mind, and a strength of memory which greatly sur- 
 prised me. 
 
116 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 not seldom moistened with silent tears. Memorable 
 for all his friends who attended it will ever remain 
 the celebration of his silver wedding. 1 In the vigor 
 of his manhood, with his beautiful consort at his 
 side, and surrounded by his blooming offspring, three 
 full-grown daughters, and three younger children, 
 among whom was Henry Albert. There too were 
 his dearest friends, — the vigorous Van Roijen, his 
 oldest University friend, De Kruif, Kemper, and 
 others, — with the flower of the voung men who 
 were accustomed to resort to his house, and among 
 them Borger. He opened the festivities by raising 
 his soul to God in prayer, thanking him " for 
 twenty -five years of connubial blessing and felicity," 
 — a blessing and a felicity of the reality and value 
 of which all were convinced by all that they saw and 
 heard. Another day is present to my mind, when 
 he, late in the evening of his life, exerted himself 
 to solemnize the marriage of two of his grandchil- 
 dren. 2 All that the Lord had left him of his dear 
 offspring, his four daughters and two sons-in-law, 
 were present. Besides the bridal pair, he was sur- 
 rounded by ten of his twenty-four grandchildren. 
 He had now, for the very last time, arrayed himself 
 in the vestments of the ministers of the gospel, in 
 which he had not appeared for the last three years. 
 The undertaking was almost too great for his 
 strength, and he was overpowered by his emotions 
 when he adjured his grandchildren not to forfeit the 
 
 1 November 14th, 1811. 
 
 2 The young nobleman Cornells van Foreest, son of his second 
 daughter, and Johanna Elizabeth Loopuy t, daughter of his first-born ; 
 married in Schiedam, November 28th, 1839. 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 117 
 
 blessing of God. Never, perhaps, was he more 
 eloquent than in that never-to-be-forgotten mo- 
 ment. 
 
 How has the sphere in which we have contem- 
 plated Van der Palm become by degrees circum- 
 scribed ! We began with the admirable scholar, 
 and have concluded with the amiable father of a 
 family. But always, everywhere, was he amiable. 
 The chief trait of his character was love. If any 
 one, he understood, he practised in all relations this 
 Christian virtue in its whole extent. It was not 
 only his constant endeavor to promote the happiness 
 of others, of many, to secure it, to augment it in 
 various ways, and to see that justice was done 
 them ; but he especially exercised himself, with con- 
 siderate scrupulousness, to impair, to becloud no 
 one's happiness, no one's pleasure, by word or look 
 or silence, — a matter often far more difficult, and 
 accompanied with greater self-denial, than the con- 
 ferring of a benefit or the rendering of a service. 
 Charitable in his views of others, and mild in his 
 utterances respecting them, nothing was so odious 
 to him as suspicion, evil speaking, rash judging. 
 " I only wish that I was more severe towards my- 
 self," he once said to a friend who complimented 
 him on this trait of his character. He was not very 
 easily excited to anger ; and, notwithstanding his lof- 
 tiness, he remained calm under injuries. Very sel- 
 dom in such cases did a hard expression fall from his 
 lips, but when it did, it was very hard, owing to 
 his habitual justness in the choice of his words ; but 
 his countenance and his soul quickly resumed their 
 
118 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 wonted serenity. Every one who applied to him 
 with his wants or interests found him liberal, oblig- 
 ing, ready to assist, at the sacrifice of precious time 
 and cherished pleasures. That he knew how to for- 
 get himself for the happiness of those who were 
 dear to him, my bride and I had the most affecting 
 proof, when, on his last and painful couch, after 
 having for weeks earnestly desired the approach of 
 death, he suppressed the wish in order to survive a 
 marriage celebration in which he felt the deepest 
 interest, and which, by reason of my call to Heem- 
 stede, could not well be longer deferred. The idea 
 of casting too dark a shadow on our bridal days by 
 his death was more intolerable to him than his 
 severest sufferings. 
 
 And when I reflect on the last days of that im- 
 portant life, and remember that death-bed, then my 
 heart rejoices with an ineffable joy. What are 
 greatness and amiableness, unless sanctified by that 
 high principle which is of God ? What is virtue, 
 if it spring not from faith as its root ? That Van 
 der Palm was a godly man, desired to conform his 
 life to the precepts of Christianity, and sought the 
 consolation of his heart in the comfort which it 
 affords, his whole past life had testified ; that he 
 confessed Christ as the only name under heaven 
 by which we must be saved, his writings, his 
 mouth, had proclaimed ; but with all this some of 
 his best friends had always desired that in his daily 
 life also he should more distinctly and more fre- 
 quently testify to those around him the precious- 
 ness of this conviction, that he might more heartily, 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 119 
 
 more loudly glory in this precious belief, with appli- 
 cation to himself, to his prospects and expectations. 
 But seldom did he reveal the thoughts of his heart on 
 this point. Let no one judge him in this matter. 
 There are some who cannot refrain from exhibiting 
 their dearest treasure with rapture ; there are others 
 who lock it up in the inmost sanctuary of their 
 hearts. To the latter class belonged Van der Palm. 
 Perhaps, — why dissemble it ? — a measure of the 
 fear of man, a little false shame, was mingled with 
 this reticence, the shady side of gentle and amiable 
 characters. Yet if ever the necessity or the cour- 
 age or the strength failed him to glory in his faith, 
 if the most holy and intense exercises of his mind 
 and heart occurred in silence, in the last days of 
 his trial the light, which, through God's grace, 
 burned in his inmost soul, shone forth clearly, to the 
 no small comfort and edification of those by whom 
 he was surrounded. Then was heard from his lips, 
 with the rejection of all comfort, which was some- 
 times offered him in the retrospect of a well-spent 
 life, " I rest on nothing but the free grace of God in 
 Jesus Christ ; Christ is my righteousness." Again, 
 after a dreary night of struggling and conflict, this 
 triumphant language was uttered from the depths 
 of his soul : " I believe that that God whom I have 
 preached, in all his greatness, wisdom, power, and 
 love, will be gracious to us sinners for the sake of 
 Christ Jesus, and that we can be saved only by faith 
 in him." 
 
 Thus strengthened in spirit, and with his eye on 
 the cross of Christ, he prepared for his lingering 
 
120 LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 death, saying, " My hope is in the Lord Jesus ; I 
 go hence in peace." His patience was exemplary, 
 though sometimes, overcome by the severity of his 
 sufferings, he would exclaim, " Painful, painful way 
 to the grave. Oh that the end were come ! " But 
 soon again such expressions as these were heard from 
 his lips : "I did, indeed, desire to be permitted to 
 commend my soul to God, thanking him for the 
 blessings which I have experienced. He has always 
 led me in so friendly a manner ; and should I not 
 now regard it as kindly ordered that the hour of my 
 departure is so trying ? My Father ! let Job be 
 tried to the end." 
 
 Amiable to the last, he frequently employed the 
 little strength that remained to him for speaking in 
 recounting the mercies which he experienced, or in 
 commending his " faithful children, who were so 
 solicitously attentive to his comfort, and endured 
 their privations with so much cheerfulness." The 
 clearness of his intellect did not fail, except in the 
 condition between waking and sleeping, which some- 
 times continued long. Not seldom did he surprise 
 his family with a question which showed how many 
 recollections of every kind occupied him, and that 
 he could continue to think deeply on what was said 
 or done in his presence. A short prayer, or gentle 
 sigh, was often heard from his lips, when he was 
 thought to be slumbering ; and to the verv last 
 he retained that justness in the choice of his expres- 
 sions which had characterized all that he uttered. 
 Fourteen days before his death, my bride and 1 
 kneeled by his couch. He laid his hands on our 
 
LIFE OF VAN DER PALM. 121 
 
 heads, and with a low, faltering voice, often difficult 
 to be understood, he pronounced upon us an ex- 
 tended benediction, the eloquent words of which 
 will never cease to resound in our hearts. They 
 were the last that I heard from his lips. On the 
 8th of September, calmly and gently, without ap- 
 parent distress, he fell asleep in the arms of three 
 of his daughters, after a suffering of some months 
 and a confinement to his bed of several weeks. A 
 violent fever, respecting which, when it set in, he 
 had remarked, " this will be my last conflict," pre- 
 ceded his almost imperceptible dissolution. 1 
 
 Four days after, the precious remains of the esti- 
 mable and beloved man were interred in Katwijk's 
 down, where, by the ashes of his wife, son, and 
 daughter, as he had always said, " there still remained 
 a place for him." His two sons-in-law and three of 
 his grandsons followed the corpse to its resting-place. 
 Professor van Hengel had requested the privilege of 
 saying a few words at his grave. Rev. J. Dermout 
 followed him, 2 surrounded by a large circle of friends 
 and admirers of the deceased, of different ranks and 
 ages. When we returned from the cemetery, I cast 
 a look on the boundless main, adumbration of that 
 eternity into which Johannes Henricus van der 
 Palm had entered. 
 
 1 A most important account of the nature of Van der Palm's consti- 
 tution, sickness, and death, from the hand of his physician, Dr. Van 
 Kaathoven, the reader will find in the Appendix. 
 
 2 The short addresses of these gentlemen, as also the words pro- 
 nounced by Rev. Van der Boon Mesch on their return to the house of 
 mourning, are placed in the Appendix. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 SCHOOL ORATION. 
 
 CONCLUSION OF A SHORT ORATION, " DE EO QUOD OPTAN- 
 DUM EST EX SENTENTIA JUVENALIS ; SIVE DE SANA 
 MENTE IN CORPORE SANO," DELIVERED BY VAN DER 
 PALM AT THE ERASMIAN SCHOOL IN ROTTERDAM. 
 
 Nos potissimum, optirni, carissimique commilitones, nos 
 jam a primo hoc aetatis nostrae limine pergamus, uti insti- 
 tuimus, graviter laborioseque mentes nostras literarum 
 excolere studiis. Praestemus nos divino hoc sanse mentis, 
 sanique corporis munere non indignos ; sic nee curas, 
 sumtus, spes, et vota parentum nostrorum fallemus, sic 
 nee laborem magistrorum frustremus, sic regiam hanc in 
 terris viam calcantes patriae evademus haud inutiles, et 
 superaddito aeternae salutis studio, quod nee Juvenales 
 docent, nee fictitius suggerit Apollo Delphicus, sed ipsius 
 Dei sermo ac spiritus, ad sempiterna apud Deum menti- 
 bus corporibusque sanis ac beatis carpenda gaudia con- 
 formabimur, quando eo perveniemus, ubi piorum votorum 
 erit plenum supplementum, plena consummatio, et gratuita 
 merces. 
 
 TESTIMONIAL OF THE THEOLOGICAL FACULTY. 
 
 [L. S.] 
 
 Non saepe contingit, ut ex disciplina nostra dimittamus 
 juvenes omni liberali doctrina adeo politos, ut est Joannes 
 
126 APPENDIX. 
 
 Henricus van der Palm Eoterodamensis, quique tantos 
 etiam in diviniore scientia progressus facerint. Quas 
 accepit a Deo prseclaras animi dotes, eas in cursu studio- 
 rum excoluit diligentissime. Testimoniis perquam hono- 
 rificis eum ornarunt omnes hujus academiae Doctores, 
 quos audivit, et audivit omnes quos debuit. In Orientali- 
 bus literis quantum profecerit, declarat editus libellus, quo 
 Salomonis Ecclesiasten explicavit, complura non ingenii 
 modo sed etiam eruditionis documenta continens. Nostros 
 inter auditores ita excelluit, ut sive responderet ad inter- 
 rogata, sive disputaret, sive concionaretur, neminem ex 
 sociis superiorem liaberet. Quum haec decoraverit integ- 
 ritas vitoe, majorem in modum omnibus commendamus 
 Juvenem excellentera, qui jam id agere nobis videtur, ut 
 gravem illam adversariam, quam concitavit, maximam sui 
 expectationem, etiam vincat. Precamur Deum ut pros- 
 peret ei proposita, eorumque successibus velit et ipsum 
 beare, et commodum sanctae civitatis augere. Dabamus 
 Lugduni Batavorum nonis Octobris anno 1784. 
 
 [l. s.] Ewaldus Hollebeek, Th. Doct. et Prof. 0. 
 
 iEGiDius Gillissen, SS. Th. Doct. et Prof, 
 fac. h. t. dec. 
 
 Carolus Boers, SS. Th. Doct. et Prof. 
 
 Broerius Broes, SS. Th. Doct. et Prof. 
 
 PROFESSORIAL CERTIFICATES. 
 
 Eximius Juvenis J. H. van der Palm ea nobis dedit 
 per aliquot annos, quibus in hac Academia studiis severi- 
 oribus magna cum laude invigilavit, ingenii sui felicissimi 
 peregregia specimina ut aliorum vix indigere videatur 
 testimonio. Quando tamen mori recepto obsecundare 
 voluit, testor equidem ex animi sententia : ilium meis etiam 
 
APPENDIX. 127 
 
 in Novum Foedus lectionibus domesticis docilem inter- 
 fuisse et modestum ; suaeque in Graecis, Latinis, atque 
 Orientalibus Uteris minime vulgaris peritiaa documenta 
 exhibuisse a paucis in ista setate exspectanda. 
 Scribebam D. IV. Oct. 1784. 
 
 [l. s.] L. C. Valckenaar. 
 
 Juvenis eximius, Job. Henr. van der Palm, Roterodamo- 
 Batavus a me petiit, ut sibi studii in bumaniores literas 
 collati testimonium darem. Sed ille nibil indiget vocis 
 nostras pragconio, cum testem baud paulo locupletiorem 
 citare possit pragclarum libellum a se editum, in quo 
 omnes, qui de bis rebus judicare possunt, et ingenium 
 auctoris, et eruditionem admirantur. Nos vota facimus, 
 ut juveni tam docto res secundissimae cum longa vita con- 
 tingant. Leidae d. 6 Octobr. 1784. 
 
 [l. s.] David Ruhnkenius. 
 
 DIONYSIUS VAN DE WIJNPERSSE, A. L. M. PHIL. DOCT. ET 
 PROF. L. S. P. 
 
 Juvenis egregius, Jobannes Henricus van der Palm, 
 Roterodamensis, praster ceteras disciplinas Tbeologo pro- 
 ficuas, pbilosophicis quoque studium haud poenitendum 
 dicavit. Me praeceptore usus, per biennium Arti Logicas, 
 pariter Metaphysicis, unum quoque per annum doctrinae 
 morali officiorum, talem dicavit operam, ut adsiduitatem, 
 discendi ardorem, haud exiles etiam profectus et eximias 
 ingenii vires, admodum mihi multisque modis probaverit. 
 Quod superest, ut generosa ejus conamina favore suo 
 atque auxilio, ad multum rei Christianas emolumentum, 
 Deus prosperet, adprecor. Vale ! 
 
 Dabam Lugduni Batav. prid. non. Oct. 1784. 
 
128 APPENDIX. 
 
 Johannes Henricus van der Palm Theolooiae stu- 
 diosus, per quinquennium in disciplina mea versatus, 
 cum a me petat industrial, diligentiaeque testimonium, 
 huic quidem consuetudini Academics difficile esse sentio 
 ita nunc obtemperare, ut ne pro rei veritate parum, pro 
 mea autem erga ilium animi propensione nimium dixisse 
 videar. Quare abstinebo omni commendatione, proesertim 
 cum verbis non opus sit, ubi adsunt rerum testimonia. 
 Meam enim qualemcunque commendationem longe su- 
 perat publica laus, quam adeptus est docto specimine 
 suorum in literis Orientalibus et exegesi sacra profectuum ; 
 nee minor omnium quotquot eum norunt de proeclaris ejus 
 animi dotibus existimatio. Deum precor ut hunc tarn 
 eximium Juvenem, in quo tanta est Ecclesia? Batavoe spes, 
 diu conservet, omnique fortunarum genere cumulatissime 
 beet. Scripsi Lugd. Bat. D. 4 Octobris, 1784. 
 
 [l. s.] Henricus Albertus Schultens, 
 
 A. M. L. L. 0. 0. et Ant. Jud. Prof. 
 
 LIBERALIS THEOLOGUS. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM A SHORT ORATION " DE LIBERALI THE- 
 OLOGO," DELIVERED BY THE STUDENT VAN DER 
 PALM, AT THE OPENING OF A PUBLIC DISPUTATION 
 UNDER PROF. HOLLEBEEK. 
 
 Ne quis tamen, falsa abreptus opinione, orthodoxos 
 tantum illos habeat, qui repetita quovis loco ac tempore 
 suae orthodoxias ostentatione cuivis fastidium, nonnullis 
 etiam commiserationem creant, qui dogmata vocant capi- 
 talia, qua? si bene spectentur, ad quaestiones vel exegeti- 
 cas, vel omnino problematicas referri debent, qui veritatem 
 secus sentientium ore prolatam in mendacium abire putent, 
 qui denique suum captum tamquam omnis orthodoxiae 
 normam habentes, hasreticos appellant, quotquot in ipso- 
 
APPENDIX. 129 
 
 A 
 
 rum placita nolint jurare. Illud semper est veritati pro- 
 prium, ut sua simplicitate et admirabili quadam suavitate 
 animos mentesque perraulceat, neque hujusmodi indigeat 
 patronis. 
 
 Liberalis autcm Theologus, suae semper imbecillitatis 
 sibi conscius, suis diffidit viribus, neque suam aliis sen- 
 tentiam obtrudere elaborat, et dissentientes amice tolerat, 
 audit, et ex ipso dissensu maximam subinde capit utili- 
 tatem : quotiescunque vero eo deventum est, ut Veritas 
 egeat defensore, se ardentissimum ostendit ejus propugna- 
 torem, ardentissimum scilicet, si flagrantem ejus pro 
 veritate ardorem consideres ; sin animum spectes, hie ab 
 odiis rixisque et conviciis omnium est alienissimus ; 
 blanda igitur elocutione placidoque vultu iras adversario- 
 rum sedare incipit, mox sedata, ipsorum mentes argumen- 
 torum pondere magis quam crassa multitudine de errore 
 suo convincit, vel si in eo perseverent, divinoa commendat 
 gratise ac benignitati. Salutis autem Ecclesias ut est 
 amantissimus, ita quibus earn remediis adjuvare enititur, 
 atque aliquam suas fortunes jacturam facere non dubitat, 
 si Ecclesiae sit profuturum, quam cum duabus maxime 
 partibus agitatam cernit ac distractam (de nostro coetu 
 loquor A. H.) alterutram suo suffragio corroborare pror- 
 sus recusat. Amicus enim ipsi Coccejus, amicus Voetius, 
 magis arnica charitas et mutua fratrum concordia. 
 
 POETIC EFFUSION OF BILDERDIJK. 
 
 IN THE ALBUM OF J. H. VAN DER PALM. 
 
 Waar 't warm gevoel van 't hart in staat zich meetedeelen 
 
 Aan 't levenloos papier, 
 Geen naam van Van der Palm zou in mijn trekken spelen, 
 
 Of 't blad smolt weg in vier. 
 9 
 
130 APPENDIX. 
 
 't Smolt weg, gelijk mijn oog tot tranen waant te vloeien, 
 
 Als 't denkbeeld van uw trouw 
 Mijn borst van dankbre zucht voor uw belang doet gloeien, 
 
 't Geen ik voor 't mijne hou. 
 Wanneer ik in mijn hart het uwe waan te voelen 
 
 Voor deugd en maatschappy, 
 Voor God, voor Vaderland, en 't edelste bedoelen 
 
 Waar 't hart voor vatbaar zij, — 
 Wanneer ik 't voor de kracht der vriendschap voele aan 't 
 branden, 
 
 En hevig aangedaan, 
 Door d' engsten strik geklemd in heur gewijde banden 
 
 Van vreugde aamechtijj slaan. 
 Dan schreie ik, gantsch vervoerd, en als mij zelv' onttogen 
 
 Der Godheid staamlend aan : 
 " Gij schonkt me in dozen vriend, weldadig Alvermogen, 
 Het allerhoosste goed een* stervlino; toe te staan ! " 
 
 © © © 
 
 Kniedicht. Semper idem. 
 
 T , t _ Qa BlLDERDIJK. 
 
 Leyaen, 1782. 
 
 VAN DER PALM'S POETRY. 
 
 A PAIR OF COUPLETS FROM THE POEM OF THE STUDENT 
 VAN DER PALM, WHICH, IN 1784, RECEIVED THE GOLD 
 MEDAL FROM THE SOCIETY KUNSTLIEFDE SPAART 
 GEEN VLIJT. 
 
 Coupl. 4. 
 
 Hef Sinai, uw kruin ter wolken, 
 
 Geduchte schouwplaats van Gods eer ! 
 Voor 't siddrend oog van Jacobs volken 
 
 Zeeg de Almagt dondrende op u neer. 
 Uw onverurikbre pijlers torschten 
 Het drukkend wigt des weereldvorsten, 
 
 Voor wien gansch Isrel bevend vliedt : 
 De bliksem deed uw heuvlen branden, 
 Verzengde uw loeijende ingewanden, 
 
 En Horeb trilt maar wankelt niet. 
 
APPENDIX. 131 
 
 Coupl. 7. 
 
 O Simon, Zebedeus loten ! 
 
 Hoe ! sluimert ge in het stof der aard ? 
 Is dit, verblinde tochtgenooten, 
 
 Is dit een hulde, uw Koning waard ? 
 Kunt gij geen uur met Jesus waken, 
 Als Gods geduchte toorn aan 't blaken, 
 
 In hem uw schulden straf bereidt, 
 Sluit laffe rust uw oogenleden, 
 Als Jesus worstelt in gebeden, 
 
 Ontwaakt dan voor zijn heerlijkheid ! 
 
 LETTER TO M. C. VAN HALL. 
 
 LETTER OF REV. J. H. VAN DER PALM, MINISTER AT 
 MAARTENSDIJK, TO MR. MAURITS CORNELIS VAN 
 HALL.l 
 
 Noble Sir and Friend, — Pardon me, that I have 
 not sooner complied with a request, so honoring to me ; 
 the time for it has absolutely failed me, and you know, 
 Sir, that one is not in all circumstances prepared to crit- 
 icise a poem. Were it not that I shall be obliged to be 
 away from home for some time, I should take the liberty 
 
 1 The subject of this letter is a poem of Mr. Van Hall, composed on 
 occasion of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the University 
 of Utrecht, which, rewrought according to the hints of Van der Palm, 
 subsequently made its appearance in a work published by Mr. De 
 Vries, entitled, An Account of the Festal Solemnities. Mr. Van Hall, 
 who enjoyed the rare privilege of being also permitted to celebrate, in 
 verse, the bicentenary of the University, makes mention of this youth- 
 ful production in the dedication of his Cantate, where he sings : 
 
 Ala 't lisplen van de teedre blaren 
 
 Van de eerste lentezon omstraald, 
 Verzwond het lied, dat Tan mijn snaren 
 Vermetel klonk voor vijftig jaren, 
 
 Ennooit door de echo's werd herhaald. 
 
132 APPENDIX. 
 
 of keeping it still longer ; for hitherto I am not in a con- 
 dition to communicate to you anything more than general 
 observations on it. 
 
 Permit me, then, to inquire, if you have not neglected 
 to form a certain plan, or rather to choose a fixed point 
 of view, with reference to which the thoughts, images, 
 and expressions might be disposed in a regular order. 
 You will permit me to observe, that I do not intend that 
 stiff, measured tread by which each couplet stands in an 
 analytic connection with all that precedes and follows. 
 In all that pertains to taste, I am as much in favor as any 
 of the spirit of freedom ; but the principle of order is no 
 less deeply inwrought in the constitution of the mind, and 
 identified with it. With the least confusion we lose our- 
 selves ; and it is always unpleasant, when on a journey, 
 to lose the road. 
 
 It strikes me, Sir, that many of the beautiful passages 
 in your poem would have been placed in a more advan- 
 tageous light, had you not here and there lost sight of this 
 unity of design. If I mistake not, this natural, unarti- 
 ficial, and as it were unobserved order, placing and unity, 
 is, next to the novelty and richness of the thoughts, the 
 principal requirement, and sustains in a good poem the 
 enthusiastic ardor, which would otherwise weary both 
 poet and reader, and would itself finally become ex- 
 hausted and powerless. 
 
 Have you not also, Sir, in a few places, expressed 
 yourself with some degree of obscurity ? Perspicuity 
 should always be the first object of attention ; for without 
 this all is fruitless, and at least very wearisome. You 
 have here and there availed yourself of circumlocution, 
 but, as it seems to me, not with sufficient clearness. The 
 periphrase by which you express the violence done to 
 conscience is chargeable with this fault, and still more so 
 is that in which you speak of the solemn promotion with 
 
APPENDIX. 133 
 
 the cap, though this is somewhat difficult to express in 
 poetic measure. It is not sufficient, my friend, that the 
 reader be able to conjecture and guess our meaning ; it 
 must be placed vividly before him ; our language must be 
 the faithful exponent of our heart ; and even allegory 
 and other language of imagery must as little conflict with 
 perspicuity as the construction and the choice of words. 
 If you had your eye, p. 7, c. 2, at the close on Bellamy, 
 then you should have expressed yourself with greater 
 clearness ; if you had not, I still think that he might fill 
 an important place in a festive song. 
 
 All appearance of art, all that is affected, and so de- 
 viates from nature, produces in works of taste no good 
 effect ; this is true in general, and nowhere is it more 
 palpable than in rhyme. I am far, however, from con- 
 demning this ; it may be, especially in a lyric, made to 
 contribute much to luxuriant beauty and harmony ; but 
 it must not be allowed to give an affected turn to the 
 thoughts or the construction, otherwise the art is apparent 
 and the weakness of the poet is exposed. Should you be 
 obliged to spend an hour or two, you must not relinquish 
 it till all the words seem to have been naturally sug- 
 gested, — ce qui est le plus naturel est souvent le plus 
 recherche. Horace, in his " Ars Poetica," which is indis- 
 pensable to the poet and the man of taste, gives good 
 instructions respecting this matter. But, Sir, am I mis- 
 taken, or have you not in this poem sometimes, for the 
 sake of the rhyme, said what you would otherwise have 
 omitted, or expressed yourself with less accuracy than 
 you would otherwise have done ? Would you, for in- 
 stance, b. 5, p. 2, have denominated God the source of 
 light and darkness, whereas God certainly is the Father 
 of lights, in whom there is no darkness ? Moreover, the 
 opening seems to me somewhat faint, and those Psalms 
 are a hindrance to me. Might it not be expressed thus ? 
 
134 APPENDIX. 
 
 Mijn lier, omkranst met frissche palmen, 
 Herhaalt den toon der jubelgalmen 
 
 Als de Echo 't blij gejuich der vreugd — 
 Zij trilt alree — mijn vingren beven — 
 Wiens cither zou geen klanken geven 
 
 Op 't feest van wetenschap en deugd ? 
 
 Consider, Sir, if p. 7, 1. 4, can be maintained ? When a 
 god appears on the stage, says Horace, " dignus sit 
 vindice nodus ; " but certainly the crushing of thorns (an 
 expression, too, not very appropriate) is rather too insig- 
 nificant for the hand of God. 
 
 I regret, Sir, that my time forbids me to enter further 
 into particulars. I should otherwise gladly converse 
 with you on other passages, some excellent, others weak, 
 in your poem. Excuse, meanwhile, my freedom ; mu- 
 tual improvement should always be our object ; and he 
 who suffers us to retain our faults, when he could assist 
 in removing them, certainly does us very little service. 1 
 Be so kind as to give my regards to your family, and be 
 assured that I am, T. T. V. d. Palm. 
 
 M.dijk, July 31st, 1786. 
 
 LETTER TO THE CHURCH OF VLISSINGEN. 
 
 VAN DER PALM'S LETTER, WRITTEN IN 1791, IN WHICH 
 HE DECLINED THE CALL TO BECOME PASTOR AND 
 TEACHER AT VLISSINGEN. 
 
 Noble and Venerable Sirs, — As I am now pre- 
 pared, after a serious and conscientious consideration, to 
 communicate to you my decision with reference to the 
 
 1 M. C. van Hall, to whom this letter was written, was born in 1767, 
 and consequently was only about nineteen years old, when he received 
 this faithful letter from his friend. He lived to a great age, and attained 
 to great eminence as a jurist, orator, and poet. His works are numer- 
 ous. — Tr. 
 
APPENDIX. 135 
 
 call made on me in your meeting of the fourteenth instant, 
 I have the honor, in the discharge of this duty, to render 
 to you my most humble and hearty thanks for the grat- 
 ifying preference which you have manifested for my 
 person and services, whilst it is to me matter of sincere 
 re°ret, that, by virtue of my relations, I cannot attach 
 myself to the honorable congregation of Vlissengen in 
 the close bonds of the pastoral relation, and I therefore 
 feel constrained to decline this call. Had I felt liberty 
 of conscience to release myself from my present engage- 
 ments ; had not my sense of what gratitude and gener- 
 osity demand of me uttered its opposing voice ; had not 
 the will of the Ruler of the universe, who directs the 
 inclinations of all men as it pleases him, after an exam- 
 ination made in a dependent and prayerful spirit, clearly 
 and indisputably opposed itself to the execution of my 
 previously formed purpose, — neither the pleasures nor 
 advantages connected with my present position, nor the 
 prospect of the burdens which the public ministry of the 
 gospel necessarily imposes, would, as I humbly trust, 
 have prevented me from cheerfully complying with your 
 wishes and those of the congregation intrusted to your 
 care. No inferior considerations could have induced me 
 to continue to confine my labor, in the service of my Lord 
 and Saviour, chiefly to the domestic circle. I should have 
 esteemed it an honor, had I been permitted to become 
 your pastor ; and I regard it as a more elevated position 
 than I had reason to expect. For this expression of your 
 regard, I shall ever cherish a lively gratitude and a sin- 
 cere affection ; and nothing will afford me greater pleasure 
 than to be able in all situations to show how greatly I 
 feel obliged and attached to the congregation of Vlissen- 
 gen and its officers. 
 
 My prayer to the great King of his church is, that he 
 will speedily fill the existing vacancy with a man after 
 
136 APPENDIX. 
 
 his own heart, and after the hearts of those who love him 
 in sincerity ; that he will enable you to execute this 
 his gracious counsel, imparting abundantly to you and 
 the congregation the spirit of wisdom and illumination, 
 and favoring you in your persons and important relations 
 with the tokens of his divine friendship and protection, 
 make you happy in time and eternity. 
 
 I have the honor with all respect to be, etc. 
 
 TO THE CURATORS OF LEYDEN UNIVERSIY. 
 
 ACCEPTANCE OF THE APPOINTMENT AS PROFESSOR IN 
 THE LEYDEN UNIVERSITY, 1706. 
 
 Litteras vestras, per quas Linguarum Antiquita- 
 tumque Orientalium in Academia Lugduno-Batava docen- 
 darum provinciam ad me detulistis, tanta cum animi 
 voluptate accepi, quantam capere sinunt cum muneris 
 gravitas, turn tenuitatis virium mearum conscientia. 
 
 Quamvis enim a primo inde tempore quo in his Uteris 
 operam meam collocavi, nihil antiquius habuerim, quam 
 in iis omne studium tempusque meum consumere, nihil 
 autem duxerim optabilius, quam ad istarum litterarum 
 cognitionem, quae ferat, viam aliis praire, nullam tamen 
 unquam potui de prascipuis in hoc genere partibus ali- 
 quando sustinendis, sive spem alere, sive expectationem 
 concipere, necdum omne studium secundum tale consilium 
 instituere. 
 
 Qua quidem ratione, quantumvis gravissima, accedenti- 
 bus insuper aliis, non minoris fortasse ponderis, tamen 
 non adeo deterreor, quin ornatissimum a vobis in me col- 
 latum munus lubenter et gratus accipiam, ac quod unice 
 a me postulari potest, spondeam recipiamque, me Schul- 
 tensianas discipline alumnum, atque optimi Henrici Al- 
 berti quondam familiarem, (cum tanti Viri laudes cequare 
 
APPENDIX. 137 
 
 velle temerarium sit,) aliquam ejus veluti umbram expri- 
 mere conaturum, et quod ingenii aut doctrinse deest, in- 
 defesso labore atque animi intentione compensaturum. 
 Valete. 
 
 ADDRESS TO THE SCHOOL INSPECTORS. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM THE ADDRESS OF THE AGENT OF EDU- 
 CATION IN THE FIRST ASSEMBLY OF SCHOOL INSPECT- 
 ORS, IN THE YEAR 1801. 
 
 Indeed, wherever I turn my eyes, I discover nothing 
 but difficulties, so great in number and importance that 
 one is tempted to overlook the encouragements that still 
 exist, and is in danger of becoming unsusceptible of their 
 influence. In the instruction of the schools not only here 
 and there is something to be rectified, but everything, one 
 thing more leprous than another, is to be restored and 
 renewed. The instructors of youth, through want of ade- 
 quate encouragement, by the extinction of all emulation, 
 from defectiveness of training, and still more in conse- 
 quence of embarrassment and poverty sunk into a state 
 of deep humiliation, have no idea of the nature and im- 
 portance of their vocation, and regard the man who would 
 elevate them to their proper position as an odious inno- 
 vator, who would sacrifice them to his capricious will, and 
 deprive them of the rest that might otherwise remain to 
 them during their worn-out lives. The mode of instruc- 
 tion prevalent in the schools is servile and mechanical, 
 adapted not to excite in the breasts of the children a de- 
 sire of learning, but to extinguish it ; not to develop their 
 mental powers, but to blunt them for the remainder of 
 their lives ; not to fill their memories with the knowledge 
 of useful things, but with confused sounds. This mode of 
 instruction has, however, as its zealous supporters, the 
 countless multitude of those who cling tenaciously to 
 
138 APPENDIX. 
 
 what is old, and regard as a crime the desire of bein^ 
 wiser than their fathers ; the text-books of the schools, 
 useless as to the purpose which they should subserve, un- 
 interesting and prolix, have, however, by reason of their 
 contents and origin, a venerable appearance in the eyes 
 of many, who regard it as no less than sacrilege to dis- 
 card these and substitute others in their place. Among 
 the parents we meet with extreme indifference as to the 
 training of their offspring, in their minds the grossest 
 prejudices, and in their families all the consequences of a 
 neglected education ; in church sessions a spirit of oppo- 
 sition, as quickly as the care of important matters, which 
 it is impossible for them to manage, is withdrawn from 
 their authority ; in the clergy, dependence, timidity, or 
 bigotry, all equally fatal to the reformation of the schools, 
 — of the schools, whose locality alone not unfrequently 
 presents an insuperable obstacle to their most necessary 
 improvement. Add to this the effects of civil and relig- 
 ious factions, and the alienations which they engender ; 
 the almost general discontent, arising from the calamity 
 of the times still more than from the essential defects 
 of our form of government ; and the state of the public 
 treasury, which, exhausted by an amazingly expensive 
 land force, and by the national debt, which has increased 
 far beyond our ability, can offer no effectual assistance 
 by which otherwise the greatest and most numerous 
 grievances might perhaps be alleviated. "With what pros- 
 pect, might one well exclaim, with what prospect at all 
 favorable can one undertake the work of school improve- 
 ment, or comfort himself in the ungrateful office of in- 
 spector of schools ? What Hercules will lead the stream 
 to cleanse these stables of Augias, and disinfect the pol- 
 luted air of its pestilential breath ? 
 
APPENDIX. 139 
 
 LETTER TO KING LOUIS. 
 
 LETTER OF PROFESSOR VAN DER PALM TO KING LOUIS. 
 
 Sire ! — Encore penetre de l'accueil, plein de bonte, 
 que V. M. a daigne me faire, j'ose Lui mettre sous les 
 yeux le resultat de mes reflexions sur la matiere impor- 
 tante dont Elle a bien voulu m'entretenir, et sur les pro- 
 positions dont je me vois honore de Sa part. 
 
 Je coinmencerai, Sire ! par declarer avec toute la sin- 
 cerite et franchise dont je me sens capable, que rien ne 
 contribueroit tant a mon bonheur, que de pouvoir reraplir 
 en quelque maniere les vues bienfaisantes de V. M., et 
 justifier en meme temps l'opinion favorable et les senti- 
 ments de con fiance qu'Elle a daigne manifester a mon 
 egard. Je dirai encore, et j'espere que ce n'est pas une 
 vaine presomption, que je ne crois pas etre le dernier de 
 ceux qui pourroient repondre aux intentions de V. M., et 
 qu'un zele ardent a La servir et a etre utile a mon pays 
 suppleeroient en partie a ce qui me manque en talens et 
 en connoissances. 
 
 Mais, Sire ! s'il m'est permis d'envisager la chose d'un 
 autre cote, et de la presenter sous un autre point de vue, 
 quand je me demande a moi meme, si je suis libre de 
 quitter les fonctions de mon professorat ; si je puis m'y 
 resoudre, sans avoir a craindre que ma conduite soit bla- 
 mee et condamnee d'une voix generale, et sans detruire 
 par-la meme l'effet des vues salutaires que V. M. s'est 
 proposees ; je vois s'elever une difficulty que me parait 
 insurmontable, de sorte que, si je ne puis satisfaire au but 
 de V. M. sans cesser de remplir les fonctions de mon etat 
 actuel, alors, Sire ! tout ce que je dois, je ne dirai pas a 
 moi meme, au prix que j'attache a une reputation, plus 
 grande, peut etre, que je n'ai pu la meriter, mais ce que 
 je dois a mon devoir, a mon devouement au service de 
 mon Souverain, a mon amour pour Sa gloire, tout enfin 
 
140 APPENDIX. 
 
 m'oblige a implorer la bonte equitable de V. M., pour 
 qu'Elle n'insiste pas a me faire sortir d'une carriere que, 
 suivant l'opinion generale, je n'aurois du quitter jamais. 
 Quand j'abandonnois, il y a neuf ans, ma place de Pro- 
 fesseur, avec des vues, que je croyois pures et louables, 
 uniquement pour etre utile a l'instruction publique, et 
 pour prevenir que ce departement ne fut confie a quelque 
 tete cliaude, portee a la disorganisation, cela n'a pu em- 
 pecher que cette demarche ne fut hautement desapprouvee 
 par ceux meme qui ne me vouloient que du bien. Quand, 
 dans ma qualite d' Agent d'Education Nationale, et apres 
 la suppression de ce ministere comme Membre du Conseil 
 de l'lnterieur, j'ai employe le peu de talens que je pos- 
 sedois a traiter les affaires exactement, avec regularity et 
 promptitude ; quand j'ai tache de ne donner a personne un 
 juste sujet de se plaindre, et de rendre a chaqu'un les 
 services qui dependoient de moi ; quand j'ai donne l'ex- 
 istence a des etablissemens qui ont ete juges dignes 
 d'etre conserves sous le regne de V. M. : tout le monde 
 pourtant n'a cesse de se recrier d'une unanime, que je 
 n'etois pas a ma place, et que tout ce que je pouvois faire 
 de mieux dans une carriere politique ne sauroit ni egaler 
 les services que les lettres et la religion avoient droit 
 d'attendre de moi, ni effacer le scandale d'avoir trahi des 
 interets et des devoirs sacres. 
 
 D'un autre cote, Sire ! apres que je n'ai plus ete em- 
 ploye en politique, et que j'ai repris mes fonctions de pro- 
 fesseur ; surtout apres que j'ai temoigne par des faits, que 
 je n'avois pas quitte pour toujours la chaire ecclesias- 
 tique ; rien ne peut etre compare a 1'approbation generale, 
 meme aux applaudissemens universels, qui me sont pro- 
 digues de toute part, comme on les prodigueroit a quelqu'un 
 qu'on voit revenir d'un long egarement. 
 
 Je suppose pour un moment, Sire, que ce que je viens 
 d'avancer ne soit que l'effet du prejuge, quoique ma con- 
 
APPENDIX. 141 
 
 science ne me permette pas de le considerer tout a fait 
 comme tel ; mais, si je ne rae trompe, ce prejuge seul 
 suffiroit pour rendre inutiles tous mes efforts a influer 
 d'une maniere plus ou moins marquee sur l'opinion pub- 
 lique ; il suffiroit pour les faire placer dans un jour 
 de.-avantageux, comme n'ayant pas pour but principal le 
 desir de servir mon Roi et mon pays, mais comme etant 
 decoules de la source impure d'un sordide interet, ou 
 d'une ambition deplacee, et tendroit ainsi a aneantir tout 
 l'effet du plan que la sagesse, et le besoin de se voir 
 toujours aime davantage par ses sujets, ont inspirer a un 
 Monarque genereux et eclaire. 
 
 J'ose done conclure, me confiant, Sire ! sur la bonte, 
 sur l'equite, et sur les lumieres qui caracterisent toutes 
 les dispositions de V. M., que, si le poste auquel Elle a 
 eu la bonte de me destiner, entraineroit pour moi la ne- 
 cessite de quitter mes fonctions de professeur et de predi- 
 cates, il s'y opposeroient des obstacles invincibles, et que 
 V. M. ne tireroit de mes foibles talens aucun parti con- 
 siderable dans un emploi ou je ne pourrois repondre a la 
 gloire et a Tutilite de Ses projets, par ce qu'il me seroit 
 impossible de satisfaire a un public dont je ne serois pas 
 en etat de dissiper les preventions. 
 
 Mais s'il pouvait se trouver un moyen d'unir l'execu- 
 tion des desseins de V. M., soit en entier, soit pour la 
 plus grande et principale partie, avec l'exercice continuel 
 de mes fonctions actuelles ; alors, Sire ! j'oserois me flat- 
 ter, que la plus grande difficulte seroit levee, et que le 
 public, ne me voyant pas coupable, pour ainsi dire, du 
 crime de desertion, et sachant que mes facultes et mes 
 etudes ne se sont jamais bornees aux objets de ma pro- 
 fession speciale, jugeroit mon travail avec plus d'equite 
 et d'indulgence, qu'il le regarderoit comme un moyen 
 honnete d'ameliorer le sort de ma famille, et prendroit ma 
 fidelite a mes engagemens anterieurs pour un gage certain 
 
142 APPENDIX. 
 
 de la purete et de la droiture de mes intentions a sacrifier 
 tout le temps qui me reste de mes occupations ordinaires 
 au service de V. M., c'est a dire au bonheur de Ses 
 sujets. 
 
 C'est avec une satisfaction tres reelle, Sire ! que je 
 crois pouvoir representer a V. M. une telle union comme 
 nullement impracticable. Mes fonctions de professeur 
 me laissent du temps pour vaquer a d'autres travaux, 
 dont le fruit a supplee jusqu'ici a la modicite de mes ap- 
 pointemens et aux besoins d'une famille nombreuse ; les 
 vacances acaderaiques sont longues et frequentes ; et 
 l'usage s'est introduit parmi nous, que les lecons ordi- 
 naires ne se tiennent que pendant quatre jours de la 
 semaine. A ces considerations, Sire ! je pourrois en 
 ajouter d'autres, que je suis pret a developper plus am- 
 plement, et a les mettre sous les yeux de V. M., si j'ose 
 me flatter d'avoir pu reussir k faire agreer par Elle l'id^e 
 generate que j'ai pris la liberty de mettre en avant, et h 
 la realisation de laquelle je me trouverois en dtat de 
 prouver, jusqu'ou le desir de meViter l'approbation de 
 V. M. seroit capable d'animer mon zele, et d'enflamer 
 mon ardeur, a remplir Ses sages et salutaires desseins. 
 
 Toutefois, Sire ! je prie V. M. de vouloir regarder avec 
 indulgence la simplicite ingenue et franche qui m'a inspire* 
 le courage de Lui ecrire, et qu'Elle daigne accueillir les 
 hommages du parfait devouement, etc. 
 
APPENDIX. 143 
 
 ADDRESS OF VAN DER PALM TO HIS PUPILS. 
 
 ADDRESS OF VAN DER PALM TO HIS PUPILS AT THE RE- 
 OPENING OF HIS LECTURES AFTER THE DEATH OF 
 HIS SON HENDRIK ALBERT (DECEASED NOV. 14TH, 
 1819). 
 
 Vacuum cerno locum Henrici mei, commilitonis, amici 
 vestri, filiorum optimi ! Ad cujus noraen ita me intimis 
 visceribus commoveri sentio, ut verba desint, quibus pa- 
 terni doloris acerbitatem aliquo modo significem. Novis- 
 tis candid um pectus, novistis amabilem, quae in eo erat, 
 naturae simplicitatem, humanitatem, facilitatem, morum 
 honestatem, probitatem, castitatem ! Testor vos omnes, 
 ecquis vestrum sit cui unquam re vel facto nocuerit, do- 
 lorem suscitaverit, quid ? molestus fuerit ! Immo cum 
 erga neminem vestrum ne minimam quidem odii, invidiae, 
 simultatis umbram fovebat, turn plurimos fraterno amore 
 cornplexus est, atque ut quisque vestrum moribus, ingenio, 
 studiis, maxime excelleret, ita impensius vos dilexit, in 
 sinu gessit vestramque societatem appetivit, quippe vobis- 
 cum intima animorum cognatione continebatur. Aman- 
 tior eo Alius, pietate erga parentes (quos habuit quidem 
 facillimos, sed quorum indulgentia, sive ad cupiditatem, 
 sive ad dissolutionem nullo tempore abusus est), pietate 
 inquam, et obsequio insignior, erga suos officiosior, nullus 
 unquam extitit. Quod non verbis testificabatur, nam in 
 lis quae ad officii sanctitatem pertinent, non solebat multis 
 verbis uti, iisque omnino perpaucis, prasterquam in ho- 
 nesta amicorum confabulatione, sed per omnem vitae cur- 
 sum vitae institutione declaravit. Quae cum considero, 
 atque perpendo mecum, ut non bonarum tantum littera- 
 rum, sed omnis boni, pulchri et honesti, ut sincero religio- 
 nis amore flagraverit, equidem confido, Patrem coelestem 
 eum ex hujus vitae aerumnis et illecebris eripere voluisse, 
 
144 APPENDIX. 
 
 ut integer et intactus ad se avolaret, amicis exemplo et 
 admonitioni, ne nimium humanis rebus fiderent, corpusque 
 et animum illibatura eonservarent. Atque vos, amici ejus 
 et commilitones, quibus pro egregiae amicitia3 vestrae erga 
 defunctum meum demonstratione quantas gratias habeam 
 dicere non possum ; vos inquam, per sanctos ejus manes 
 obsecro atque obtestor, ut hunc egregium ex filii mei fato 
 percipiendum fructum vobis perire non patiamini. 
 
 PROSPECTUS. 
 
 (1817.) PROSPECTUS OF THE TRANSLATION OF THE 
 
 BIBLE. 
 
 The laudable desire to promote the circulation of the 
 Bible, and to place it, in all countries and languages, 
 within the reach of every one desirous of possessing it : 
 this praiseworthy desire, not gradually awakened, but 
 suddenly excited and raised at once to an unprecedented 
 height, must naturally give rise to the idea of attempting 
 to promote the advantageous use and reading of the Bible 
 in Christian families. 
 
 But few can read it in the original languages ; and 
 we may say of nearly all, that the Bible exists for them 
 only in translations ; on the fidelity, perspicuity, and 
 appropriate style of which thus depends a great part of 
 the profit and real edification which they derive from the 
 reading of this book. 
 
 In all Christian, certainly in all Protestant countries, 
 there exists one such translation in the language of the 
 people, which, invested with the authority of the Church, 
 is in the hands of every one, and is therefore regarded as 
 comprising the Word of God as accurately translated as 
 human fallibility permits in a work so difficult. 
 
 Among these translations of the Bible, invested with 
 
APPENDIX. 145 
 
 ecclesiastical authority, our ordinary Dutch, called the 
 States' translation, holds a respectable rank. The learn- 
 ing, the carefulness, and scrupulous fidelity of the trans- 
 lators have corroborated this authority, and for nearly 
 two centuries remarkably promoted the general introduc- 
 tion of that translation. 
 
 But since that translation was made two centuries have 
 elapsed. During this long lapse of time the usages of the 
 Dutch language have undergone remarkable changes ; 
 much that was then clear, is now obscure ; much that 
 then gave umbrage to none, has now become offensive, 
 and occasion has even been taken from it for ridicule. 
 But this is not all, and might with little pains be reme- 
 died. But during these two centuries such remarkable 
 advances have been made in the knowledge of the Ori- 
 ental languages, countries, and manners, on which alone 
 can rest a good translation of the Bible, as well of the 
 New as of the Old Testament, that an entirely new light 
 has arisen upon this science, an entire reformation has 
 been effected in it, and our ancient, learned, and pious 
 translators themselves, could they arise from their graves, 
 would doubtless express the wish, that their earlier labor 
 might be purified by this modern learning, and enriched 
 with it. 
 
 And to this a new translation must be limited, that is 
 to be placed beside the one now in use, or substituted for 
 it. There is in the tone of this last so much that is 
 touching and solemn, so much that is serious and devout 
 it adheres with such reverential scrupulousness to the 
 original, that we have no difficulty in persuading our- 
 selves that we have before us Oracles, no human book, 
 but Divine instruction. 
 
 If now we depart too far from this, if the new trans- 
 lation has a modern aspect, the style of an ordinary book, 
 10 
 
146 APPENDIX. 
 
 and if in it the high and divine tone of the original is no 
 longer heard, then it is difficult for one to realize that he 
 is reading the Bible, the Word of God ; the same Bible 
 to the reading of which for edification the Christianly 
 educated Protestant has been accustomed from his youth, 
 and with passages or texts from which he has confirmed 
 his confession of faith. It is chiefly in this respect that 
 the more modern translations of the Bible, in our and 
 other languages, fall short in that which is required for 
 daily edifying reading of the Bible in Christian families. 
 
 And yet our old translation has also in many respects 
 ceased to be so ; the remarkable decline in the family 
 reading of the Bible is in great measure to be ascribed to 
 this, that people are no longer satisfied with simply read- 
 ing the Bible without understanding it ; in reading which 
 one is now constantly at a loss ; now umbrage is taken at 
 the style, then the meaning is with difficulty apprehended ; 
 and the book is frequently closed in despair, at the most 
 beautiful and instructive portions, especially of the Old 
 Testament. 
 
 In consequence of this I have long entertained the idea 
 of undertaking, not an entirely new translation of the 
 Bible, but an improvement of the present translation ; * 
 retaining its excellent tone, its fidelity, and scrupulous- 
 ness, also its Oriental phrases, but made sufficiently intel- 
 ligible to the Occidental reader. Moreover, applying the 
 more modern discoveries of philology with understanding 
 and moderation ; with no thirst for novelty, or ambition 
 to shine by means of translations of my own ; always, 
 where perspicuity and fidelity will permit, preferring to 
 
 * See ISTos. 277 and 278 of my Solomon. The question is there pro- 
 posed and left for consideration, whether a new translation of the Bible, 
 made by ecclesiastical authority, be a desideratum. A good transla- 
 tion for the family would greatly relieve this want, if it exist, and per- 
 haps fully meet it. 
 
APPENDIX. 147 
 
 abide by the ordinary text ; without permitting myself to 
 be borne away, either by the sometimes too faint and 
 cold, or by the sometimes too ardent and wild spirit of 
 our age ; with philological, with Oriental, above all with 
 religious sensibility. Though deeply sensible of the mag- 
 nitude of this labor, I have felt constrained to undertake 
 it, whilst my years and my powers of mind and body 
 permit it ; the full maturity of which seems to me a requi- 
 site to the work. Familiarity with the Oriental mode of 
 thought and expression, prevailing equally in both por- 
 tions of the Bible, and with the languages in which both 
 are written ; a certain ease in placing myself in the sense 
 and style of the biblical writers, and the consciousness 
 that I aim at delivering nothing of my own, nothing but 
 the word of God ; but above all, reliance on the assistance 
 of the Almighty, moved by whose Spirit the holy men 
 spake, — are the grounds on which I boldly undertake this 
 great work, and dare expect that all who are acquainted 
 with me and my writings, will aid in the furtherance of 
 my object. 
 
 I enter on this work alone, because, from its nature, as 
 set forth above, it hardly admits of being a joint produc- 
 tion of several laborers ; such a course has its peculiar 
 difficulties, and would deprive my fellow-laborers of too 
 many years of their valuable lives. Though not pre- 
 sumptuous enough to compare myself, even at a distance, 
 with Luther, I may however add, that this great man, 
 provided with very slender helps for translating the Bible, 
 yet was for his time eminently successful in it, because 
 he understood Bible language and Bible sense. 
 
 Great preparations often lead to very insignificant re- 
 sult?, and objects of the greatest importance are secured 
 by feeble means. However this may be, it may be safely 
 affirmed that he who desires a translation of the Bible 
 
148 APPENDIX. 
 
 which satisfies all, and in which the sense of all difficult 
 passages is so expressed as to admit of no dispute on the 
 part of linguists, desires an impossibility ; desires that 
 which cannot at least be attained by joint labor, and that 
 which, in a book that is designed to be an object of per- 
 petual investigation, must perhaps never be fully attained. 
 Let it not, however, be thought that I shall leave any 
 efforts untried to secure, in order to the greater perfec- 
 tion of my work, the counsel, the aid, and the views of 
 the principal linguists and biblical scholars in our coun- 
 try ; I hereby invite them, and promise to make use of 
 their labor, not only with gratitude and honorable mention, 
 but also in other ways to their pleasure and satisfaction. 
 Finally, the nature and expensiveness of this undertaking 
 render it absolutely necessary that it be done by subscrip- 
 tion. 
 
 LETTER OF DR. VAN KAATHOVEN. 
 
 LETTER OF DR. C. W. K. VAN KAATHOVEN TO THE 
 WRITER, RESPECTING VAN DER PALM'S CONSTITU- 
 TION, SICKNESS, AND DEATH. 
 
 There are few cases of sickness the particulars of 
 which I so distinctly remember as those of the worthy 
 deceased ; for it was not obscure in its nature, or doubtful 
 in its development, and its termination confirmed the pre- 
 diction. But there is also no case of sickness the treat- 
 ment of which is more vividly impressed on my memory 
 than that, with which was connected so much that was 
 useful and pleasant, as well as difficult and unpleasant. 
 It was not encouraging to hear him, whom we and so 
 many others would gladly have retained, for whom we 
 were willing to vie with each other in making trial of 
 every means that might alleviate his sufferings, after long- 
 
APPENDIX. 149 
 
 continued fruitless efforts for this purpose, after a patient 
 and faithful following of the prescriptions, finally pro- 
 nounce the sentence : " How very poor is your art ! " He 
 was too kind not to ascribe this impotence to the art, 
 rather than to him who practised it ; and as if to compen- 
 sate for its unpleasantness, he added : " But you are 
 faithful, and I ought not to forget that the lingering death 
 of old age is a continued suffering, as long as the spirit, 
 retaining its consciousness, remains united to the body." 
 If it were not too vain in me, I should now, as I fre- 
 quently did then, compare my trying situation of being 
 willing but not able to help, to that of Zimmermann at the 
 sick-bed of Frederick the Second. Like him, I stood 
 there in my professional character in the presence of a 
 great man of comprehensive knowledge, who well knew 
 the limits of our knowledge and skill, what we could 
 cure or only mitigate, and that in practice everything de- 
 pends on the principles of our art being applied with 
 sound judgment. By this therefore he tested every 
 remedy prescribed, and the explication of his condition. 
 It was not always easy in the treatment of his disease to 
 proceed in the chosen way, when he, with the authority 
 of an experienced traveller, pointed out now this, then 
 that way, by which the desired end might be more 
 speedily attained. Courage was required to maintain 
 one's position against him, when he, who had been accus- 
 tomed as a master to treat and direct the subject which 
 he had selected, weary of this fluctuation, seemed, by 
 wishing to do nothing or too much, to long for shipwreck 
 and storm, because the long-continued fluctuation, without 
 prospect of a speedy determination, seemed to him intol- 
 erable, without rest or relief, inexplicable. Then it was 
 often difficult for me not to concede too much, but to 
 remain steadfast in the faithful care of that which was 
 
150 APPENDIX. 
 
 intrusted to me, and not to give it up, till the strength of 
 the elements should submerge the shattered bark. Such 
 was my condition in presence of the man whom you as 
 well as I have seen suffer, and you will not have for- 
 gotten how difficult was that position. To you, who are 
 charged with the task of writing his life, it may not per- 
 haps be a matter of indifference to know what were the 
 thoughts and contemplations that arose in my mind by 
 the sick-bed of him whom w T e honored for his great mind, 
 but also loved for his gentle disposition. So much, indeed, 
 that lies concealed in a man, reveals itself to the physi- 
 cian, and can perhaps by him alone be judged of justly, 
 and so with proper allowance. For even the great Van 
 der Palm was, during his sickness, often in such a frame 
 of mind as is every mortal that suffers long. 
 
 During the long time that I was Van der Palm's family 
 physician, he was seldom sick. With the exception of a 
 troublesome alvus, he was exempt from those diseases of 
 the learned, which, proceeding from a sedentary life, so 
 often mar the serenity and contentment of old age. I 
 remember that, at an earlier period, speaking on the value 
 of the pulse in judging of diseases, he remarked to me 
 that one could enjoy health with an intermittent pulse ; 
 and when I examined his, I found it, as I did most com- 
 monly afterwards, very irregular and quick. Notwith- 
 standing this phenomenon, he might, though debilitated by 
 age, be regarded as healthy even to the last years of his 
 life, and, although the body tottered, although the hand 
 trembled, the mind remained clear and energetic ; it 
 seemed as if the organs alone were unwilling or unable 
 to obey, as formerly, that powerful intellect. The first 
 sign of disease revealed itself by restlessness during the 
 night; this was frequently passed by him in sleepless- 
 ness ; and it seemed to be due in part to the more hori- 
 
APPENDIX. 151 
 
 zontal position in bed, as the noonday nap was often 
 refreshing, and this was taken in a chair. This want of 
 rest occasioned weariness during the day ; the digestion 
 of the food became more difficult ; and yet it was in this 
 feeble condition that he, in the summer of 1839, at his 
 villa, began the second sequel to his u Solomon." But 
 after that, and especially in the beginning of 1840, the 
 difficulties of the night increased ; sleeplessness was ac- 
 companied by distress, and from these and other symp- 
 toms it quickly appeared that the circulation of the blood 
 was impeded. My previous opinion, founded on the 
 irregularity of the pulse, that the cause of these distresses 
 was°to be sought, not in the lungs, not, as he himself sup- 
 posed, in the ossification of the cartilaginous portion of 
 the ribs, which were in consequence prevented from ex- 
 panding and contracting, but in a morbid enlargement of 
 the heart, or in the ossification of the arteries, was con- 
 firmed by increasing phenomena, peculiar to this disease ; 
 by the effect of the so-called juvantia et nocentia. Opium, 
 respecting which one of the greatest physicians testifies, 
 that, if he could not employ it in pectoral diseases, he 
 should be unwilling to be a practitioner, and which 
 seemed to be indicated as the proper remedy for sleep- 
 lessness, afforded here, as in similar diseases of the heart, 
 but little alleviation ; large doses stupefied, but on awak- 
 ing the distress was greater than when it had not been 
 taken; so that we were obliged to desist from its con- 
 tinued use. Digitalis, which operates like opium in dis- 
 eases of the heart, was not without its kindly influence ; 
 but, as my friend De Kruyff said, that it is not difficult to 
 make indications, and to find indicate, but that it is the 
 counter-indications which often disappoint us, so it was 
 here : whatever corrigenda were tried, none were able to 
 ward off the detrimental operation on the stomach and uri- 
 
152 APPENDIX. 
 
 nary canals, or to cause it to cease, when this remedy had 
 been for any length of time employed. Want of nour- 
 ishment was quickly followed by an acridness of the hu- 
 mors, and after that by an obstinate thrush, which ex- 
 tended to the stomach and bowels. The principal indica- 
 tion was the indicatio vitalis. Cortex Peruv. could not 
 be borne ; a decoctum album could not, when taken in 
 sufficient quantity ; it was only dainty bits, as of fruits, 
 that could revive the sufferer, and yield relief from an 
 insufferable thirst. My inquiry as to his condition, when 
 I visited him in the morning, was rarely otherwise 
 answered than by the plaintive exclamation that he had 
 been very much oppressed during the night. In that 
 half sleeping and waking condition his mind was often 
 harassed by thoughts of a religious or scientific nature, 
 which greatly exhausted him. Now they were ideas 
 which had just arisen in his mind, and which he had 
 with difficulty suppressed ; then they were recollections 
 of an earlier period, which on awaking he desired to pur- 
 sue, having relation to opinions of exegesis and exposi- 
 tion for which he desired the assistance of others, to 
 examine the authors on these points ; so that these 
 dreams often possessed coherence and significance, and 
 bore testimony to the clearness of his intellect. We have 
 frequently seen how his mind was aroused, when a word 
 that was uttered, or a movement around him, attracted his 
 attention, when we supposed that he was slumbering in 
 his chair ; how he then raised himself up to express his 
 opinion on the occurrences of the day, on that which was 
 communicated or read to him ; and how he expressed his 
 views respecting them with a positiveness and authorita- 
 tiveness which he otherwise rarely employed in speaking 
 of things, still more rarely when speaking of persons. It 
 was sad to see him, though his mind remained so clear, 
 
APPENDIX. 153 
 
 daily becoming more and more helpless, so that finally he 
 could no longer leave his bed, which was not for him, as 
 it is for so many sufferers, a place of rest, but which he 
 previously so often desired to exchange for his easy-chair, 
 in order to get some relief. It was affecting, when he 
 counted the days of the week, to hear him anxiously 
 inquire, " When shall I be released from my sufferings ? " 
 and during the last week he said, " Now I hope on the 
 following Sabbath to keep Sabbath in heaven." To the 
 physician, who could not afford relief, it was torturing to 
 witness the sufferings ; to the relatives it was painful to 
 behold, and difficult for them to believe that these suffer- 
 ings were not so severe as they might be ; one must 
 indeed have attended the sick and dying bed of many 
 others, to know how much more eligible these were than 
 those which so often fall to the lot of persons afflicted with 
 this or similar diseases, where these sufferings are fre- 
 quently aggravated by dropsy, gangrcena ex decubitu ; one 
 must have seen the scholar becoming childish, when all 
 that is intellectual in man is debased to the animal, to 
 regard such sufferings as those of Van der Palm, if not 
 for him, at least for his relatives, as worthy of him. Van 
 der Palm's sickness was the suffering and decline of the 
 physical constitution, whilst the psyche remained healthy ; 
 or rather, the system of reproduction was disturbed, but 
 the cerebral system, the principal organ by which the 
 soul communicates itself to us, remained clear. His soul, 
 which was tranquil and full of confidence, could hereby 
 communicate itself freely and without embarrassment, so 
 far as the strength of the tissue permitted, to those by 
 whom he was surrounded, and who always set a high 
 value on the utterances of his love. While others, still 
 corporeally strong, were dead intellectually, his mind re- 
 mained in health, even with the increasing decline of the 
 
154 APPENDIX. 
 
 vegetative life. Energetic and natural were consequently, 
 even to the last, the expressions with which he described 
 his condition, his sensations, his thoughts ; and I remember 
 many of them which were subsequently of use to me. 
 Death finally came, preceded by a remarkable phenome- 
 non, — a fever, resembling in violence what is observed in a 
 strong constitution. During his sickness I had discovered 
 no febrile action ; the result was a clouding of the intel- 
 lect, after that he, when it set in, had said : " This will 
 be my last conflict ; " the lungs, exhausted by this rapid 
 motion without proportionate conveyance of blood, were 
 enfeebled ; and his end was so gentle, his breathing 
 slowly becoming fainter and fainter, we were obliged to 
 listen after its cessation, to become convinced of his death. 
 He had intimated to me, that, if I thought an examina- 
 tion after his death would shed any light on his disease, 
 or if for other reasons I desired it, I should be allowed to 
 make a post mortem examination ; and I requested per- 
 mission of his 'relatives, who did not refuse their consent. 
 It was made by Professor Broers ; and the investigation 
 proved that we had not been wholly mistaken in the 
 diagnosis of his complaint. An osseous induration of the 
 aorta, where it leaves the heart, an expansion and soft- 
 ening of the right heart, were the signs which explained 
 his sickness and incurable sufferings. The so-called neg- 
 ative proofs also confirmed the diagnosis, as we found, 
 neither in the pericardium nor in the cavity of the chest, 
 more than the usual quantity of serum ; the tissue of the 
 lungs was in a healthful condition, and thus to a suffering 
 of these organs, commonly denominated angina pectoris, 
 could not be ascribed the cause of his distresses. 
 
 Is the inquiry made, what were the remote causes 
 which laid the foundation for this disease in the case of 
 Van der Palm ? The principal ones enumerated by 
 
APPENDIX. 155 
 
 writers of authority are violent passions, care and anxi- 
 ety, an irregular mode of life ; and of all these we discover 
 none in his life. Even under sore bereavements or great 
 disappointments he was tranquil, not only in the view of 
 the world, but also in his domestic circle ; though not ex- 
 empted from calamities, his lot in life was prosperous and 
 happy ; he was esteemed and loved ; and that he was 
 temperate his family knew, and his guests could testify, 
 when, sitting with him at the richly furnished table, they 
 were allured to ample enjoyment rather by his hearty 
 encouragement and friendly persuasion than by his own 
 example. The cause I should rather seek in the nature 
 of his occupations. Always of a clear head, it was easy 
 for him to occupy himself wholly, without diversion, with 
 the subject on which he wished to reflect, so that with re- 
 spect to all things he was there in mind, wherever he found 
 himself in body, — as well when engaged in innocent 
 amusement or in promiscuous society as in the profounclest 
 study in private ; but by this very means the exertion 
 was the greater ; and when it is considered of what na- 
 ture were the subjects which he treated, and how much 
 his feelings must have been enlisted, to enable him to 
 express what he has left us in his writings, then I can 
 easily conceive that the corporeal heart must often have 
 been in violent motion, as the heart of the soul was more 
 powerfully moved ; that the circulation must have been 
 accelerated or retarded, as the mind was absorbed in ani- 
 mating or depressing contemplations. I remember that 
 he, however exercised and prepared, always regarded 
 with anxiety the day on which he was to preach ; and 
 when every one thought that he had determined too early 
 to desist from preaching, this determination was the result 
 of self-knowledge. He felt, that, although he still pos- 
 sessed the ability to compose a discourse, with all the 
 
156 APPENDIX. 
 
 glow and warmth of earlier times, the performance would 
 not be as he desired ; he no longer confided in his ability 
 to remain master of his emotions in its delivery ; and it 
 was as if the strength of the organic disease had devel- 
 oped itself to such a degree that it could no longer be 
 controlled by the mind. To Van der Palm, whose hu- 
 mility was not artificial, but who, in estimating his gifts, 
 judged of them as if they were not his own. it was not 
 so difficult to withdraw from the applauding admiration 
 to which he was accustomed, when he felt that his power 
 of delivery was impaired. Hence he did not survive his 
 fame, but preserved it in all its inimitable originality. It 
 was during the last days of his life that he, alluding to the 
 nature of his disease, facetiously remarked : " And now it 
 is still said, at the close of my life, that my heart is not 
 right ! " etc. 
 
 FUNERAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR VAN HENGEL. 
 
 And Van der Palm, too, must die ! Already we stand 
 here by his coffin, whilst the sad tidings are spreading far 
 and wide through the provinces of our country, and great 
 and small, learned and unlearned, are lamenting his death ! 
 We have lost a man, such as but seldom appears in the 
 world, — great as a professor in the University, great as an 
 expositor of the Bible, great as an orator ; and at the 
 same time amiable as a man, humble and modest as a. 
 minister of Christ. What he was before God, was testi- 
 fied to the last by those days and weeks and months of 
 trial into which he was brought, that he might become 
 more and more closely united to heaven. To speak of 
 him now as he deserves, I regard as far above my pow- 
 ers ; but more than forty years ago I sat under his 
 
APPENDIX. 157 
 
 instructions, and hung on his lips, and gathered stores of 
 knowledge from him, to which I was more indebted than 
 I can acknowledge, even then, when, called to Leyden 
 as professor in the University, I stood at his side .... 
 Supply for yourselves what I cannot express, ye, his dear 
 relatives, pupils, colleagues, friends. But words certainly 
 fail you too, to express the feelings of your heart at this 
 moment. You feel the unspeakableness of the loss which 
 the Church, the country, which you, have sustained. But 
 you fervently rejoice, that what we see before us are 
 only the material remains, enclosed in a narrow casement 
 of wood. Himself we follow in imagination into those 
 regions whence we hear it proclaimed to us : Blessed are 
 the dead who die in the Lord ! Thither his works follow 
 him, however small and insignificant they were in his own 
 eyes. And to the world, from which he has departed, he 
 will continue to speak, as long as there shall be a pos- 
 terity that appreciates such a gift of Providence. 
 
 Approach gently, ye bearers, take the coffin, lower it 
 into the grave, cover the corpse with dust, as it was 
 formed of the dust and to dust must return ! 
 
 The last duty which we owed to the remains of the 
 man never to be forgotten, has now been performed. To 
 thee, Katwijk's solitary down, it is now intrusted, to pre- 
 serve it from the waves of the sea ! If thou know not 
 whom thou hast hidden in thy bosom, it shall be told thee 
 a thousand times by the stranger, when he walks through 
 this quiet resting-place of the dead. Thou wilt not how- 
 ever hear it, dear Van der Palm, whilst thy bones repose 
 beside those of thy colleagues, friends, tender relatives ! 
 Yet thou needest to hear nothing more of what pertains 
 to a world in which thou hast ceased to be a citizen. Thy 
 
158 APPENDIX. 
 
 death, we believe it, thy death was a transition to those 
 higher spheres, in which the love of God, proclaimed by 
 thee here below, is now enjoyed by thee in its fulness. 
 There thou livest immortal ; but, though thou hast left 
 us, thou art also immortal on earth. Repose quietly now 
 on thy couch, having finished thy great task ! Sleep 
 gently, noble man ! We part from thy bones, till we also 
 are borne to the kingdom of the dead ; but we part in the 
 hope of a better life. There shall we, if God hear our 
 prayer, meet thee far more glorious than thou wast here, 
 and rejoice with thee, after that we, animated by thy 
 word and thy example, have followed Him, who can 
 never be sufficiently praised, who worked while it was 
 day, whom we also desire to see as our Redeemer and 
 Saviour, as we trust that he is noAV seen by thee. 
 
 ADDRESS OF REV. J. DERMOUT. 
 
 Think it not strange that the highly esteemed col- 
 league is succeeded by a so much younger, but equally 
 grateful pupil. For the relatives and friends of the cele- 
 brated man, whom we all honored, desired also to hear 
 the expression of their own sentiments at the grave of 
 the amiable and never-to-be-forgotten man, whom they in 
 different relations so fervently loved. His image is viv- 
 idly before us in all that he performed and achieved that 
 was good and beautiful and great, in his unsurpassed 
 merits, in his imperishable fame ; but only to mention 
 these on the holy place, where greatness and fame dis- 
 appear ; only to think of his great name, though that will 
 be immortal, — of his public life and works, though the 
 fruits of these shall be reaped by remote posterity ; — 
 from simply doing this he would himself prohibit us, 
 could he still address us, who set us an example of hum- 
 
APPENDIX. 159 
 
 ble modesty, and departed as the humble servant of his 
 Lord. Here, where also love abides, let the hearts of 
 those speak whom he loved, and in whose heart he will 
 ever be embalmed. From the fulness of our hearts we 
 here speak of what we shall miss in his intercourse, his 
 cares, his cordial affection descending and communicating 
 itself to us ; of what we were permitted to enjoy to the 
 last, and which we cannot yet resign without emotion. 
 Did he live long for his country and posterity, for the 
 Church and the University, we should almost say his life 
 was far too short to satisfy the desires of our hearts. Our 
 loss of his love can least of all, can never be compen- 
 sated. In your name I say it, who are here present of his 
 pupils, who will ever esteem it a high honor to have been 
 instructed in his school, but a still greater honor that he 
 never forgot you, so fondly denominated you his friends, 
 and continued to embrace you with paternal care. You 
 say it with me, very learned men, who stood at his side, 
 and experienced that your honor and your pleasure were 
 as dear to him as his own. Your grief testifies it, friends 
 of his house, by whom he permitted himself to be so en- 
 tirely known in his amiableness towards all, to mingle with 
 whom was his recreation, his pleasure, his life. You 
 above all think of it now, his kinsmen, sons-in-law, and 
 grandsons, to whom he so cheerfully gave the dearest 
 that he had to give, in whose circle and family he in 
 truth lived and manifested himself in his own greatness, 
 in humble and lovely humanity, seeking in love pure 
 pleasure, by means of love diffusing cheerfulness and 
 happiness. If it belong to his family rightly to have 
 known and loved him, this is our honor and our incom- 
 parable privilege; this his memory makes his grave to 
 us so sacred and so dear ! 
 
 And do we see him, after a long and useful life, trans- 
 
160 APPENDIX. 
 
 ferred to a higher sphere, our love dares hardly lament 
 our loss, which is his unspeakable and eternal gain. We 
 bring his material remains to the place which he so 
 fondly represented to himself, towards which he looked 
 with languishing eyes, much tried and wearied with con- 
 flict, but thankful, submissive, hoping to the end. This 
 is the sacred resting-place which he selected for himself 
 more than twenty years ago ; when several of you, with 
 me, saw him weep here tears of indescribable grief and 
 bitter anguish of heart. Hither, where he had collected 
 the dust of his family, of an only son, of a devoted wife, 
 of the daughter who was the stay of his old age, his 
 strongest aspirations constantly tended, when obliged to 
 bend under the storms of life. Oh, we remember that his 
 severest trials were experienced in those whom he so ten- 
 derly loved ! And we do not complain that he desired to 
 leave us, to be reunited to those who had been his, and to 
 whom his heart continued to cleave. We rather repre- 
 sent to ourselves the blessedness which he now enjoys in 
 them and with them. Yea, our sanctified imagination 
 represents him to us as being raised above this grave, 
 with them seeing the Lord, whom he had not beheld, but 
 in whom he so filially confided, whom he so highly honored, 
 so fervently loved. His voice comes as for the last time 
 to us, saying : " Remember how I have "preached him as 
 the precious Redeemer, the mighty Prince of life ; how I 
 have glorified him in death as the source of all grace. 
 He is faithful ; his reward is in his hand ; I have entered 
 into the joy of my Lord ! " 
 
 We leave his dust in the guardian care of the Almighty. 
 We go hence to honor his name, to preserve sacred the 
 relation in which we stood to him, to remember his love, 
 to walk in his faith and his hope. We desire also so to 
 die and to be buried, not indeed to be all so highly re- 
 
APPENDIX. 161 
 
 nowned, but to be equally loved and lamented. May his 
 most precious legacy to us be his spirit, which, resting 
 upon us, shall distinguish us as his true disciples, friends, 
 and sons. Learning of him to love God and man, and 
 having his amiableness impressed upon us, may we cher- 
 ish an ardent desire to see him again, and with him to 
 live to Jesus Christ, the source of his love, the object of 
 his hope ! 
 
 ADDRESS OF REV. A. L. VAN DER BOON MESCH TO THE 
 DAUGHTERS OF THE DECEASED. 
 
 We have just returned from the grave, having con- 
 signed the mortal remains of the precious man to its silent 
 abode. Could you have witnessed *the impressive so- 
 lemnity, beheld the countenances of all who were present, 
 heard the outpouring of the moved and smitten heart ; 
 could you have read the souls of speakers and hearers, 
 and penetrated their inward emotions and sentiments, — 
 you would have been greatly strengthened and confirmed 
 in your conviction that your beloved husbands and your 
 beloved sons, that we who as his familiar friends with 
 them followed his corpse, that his very learned colleagues, 
 men celebrated in different departments of knowledge, 
 that the worthy ministers of God's holy Word, that the 
 noble youth of this University, that the whole assembled 
 multitude, highly esteemed, loved, and honored your ven- 
 erated father. 
 
 Is it to you in your sorrow a sustaining thought that his 
 dust is with that of those who have previously died, whom 
 you can never forget, preserved in the same cemetery in 
 Katwijk's down ; a more sublime comfort the gospel of 
 immortality pours into your hearts, by the assurance that 
 your dead, who have died in the Lord, are blessed, and 
 that their souls, redeemed by Jesus Christ, are united in 
 11 
 
162 APPENDIX. 
 
 heaven. How will your beatified father thank the God 
 of love for the love you have borne him, for the joy you 
 have imparted to him, for the interest, care, and fidelity 
 you have shown him, especially during the painful and 
 dreary days and nights, weeks and months of his trial 
 and suffering. How ardently will he, before the throne 
 of the Redeemer, desire for you, that you, having trav- 
 elled the way of faith, of love, and hope, after longer or 
 shorter separation, may be received into the regions of 
 indescribably glorious reunion. 
 
 With Christ, who is the resurrection and the life, in 
 your hearts, and humbly looking up to God for his pater- 
 nal assistance, it will be your earnest endeavor to fulfil 
 this wish of heavenly love. With the striking image 1 
 of the venerated man before our eyes, we all solemnly 
 testify that it shall be, in the strength of our God, our 
 governing purpose and diligent endeavor. 
 
 Thus shall we show that we gratefully love him, and 
 worthily honor his memory. Then, through the riches 
 of divine grace, we shall finally be received where he is, 
 to rejoice eternally with him in the house of our Heavenly 
 Father. 
 
 THE LIKENESS. 
 
 The likeness which adorns this biographical sketch was 
 taken by Mr. Lange from the excellent engraving of his 
 father-in-law, Velin, issued in 1827, in quarto, by the pub- 
 lishers of this work. That engraving was made after a 
 full-length portrait, painted, in 1826, by the accomplished 
 Hodges. Van der Palm was then sixty-three years old, 
 and thus in the fairest period of his declining life. The 
 likeness leaves nothing to be desired. A well-executed 
 
 1 The -well-known portrait of the deceased, so exactly resembling 
 him, hung in the apartment. 
 
APPENDIX. 163 
 
 copy of this portrait has been presented by the family to 
 the Leyden University, which is placed in the senate 
 chamber. Such alteration only is made in the costume 
 as that location rendered necessary. There exists still 
 another portrait of Van der Palm as Council of Internal 
 Affairs, painted by Smith ; and one at the age of fifty- 
 eight, by Davidson. The last is less happily executed. 
 
 VAN DER PALM'S CHILDREN. 
 
 CHILDREN OF J. H. VAN DER PALM AND ALIDA BUSS- 
 
 INGH. 1 
 
 A son, still-born, May 4th, 1789. 
 
 Cornelia Mathilda, wife of Mr. P. Loopuyt, in Schie- 
 dam. 
 
 Jacoba Elizabeth, (named Jacoba after Lady van 
 de Perre,) now dowager of the young nobleman D. van 
 Foreest, Lord of Schorel, etc., Member of the States- 
 General, etc., who died in Alkmaar in 1833. Her third 
 son, Johannes Henricus, bears, with that of Van Foreest, 
 the name of Van der Palm. 
 
 Elizabeth Henriette, born February 21st, 1794, de- 
 ceased June 26th, 1836. 
 
 A son, born November 8th, 1797, died unbaptized in 
 November of the same year. 
 
 Jan Willem, born November 28th, 1798, perished in 
 the calamity of Leyden, January 12th, 1807. 
 
 Hendrik Albert, so named after Schultens, born April 
 8th, 1802, deceased November 14th, 1819. 
 
 Adelaide Louise, wife of Lord G. Andre de la Porte, 
 in Arnhem. 
 
 Anna Catharina. 
 
 i Faithful to the ancient custom of his country, Van der Palm re- 
 corded their names and birthdays in his large folio Bible. 
 
164 APPENDIX. 
 
 MEMBERSHIPS. 
 
 Van der Palm, besides being a member of the second 
 class of the Royal Netherland Institute, was successively 
 member, honorary, or corresponding member of the fol- 
 lowing societies and fraternities : Studium Scientiarum 
 Genetrix in Rotterdam, Zealand Society of Sciences in 
 Vlissingen, Batavian Society of Experimental Philosophy 
 in Rotterdam, Society for the Study of Experimental Phi- 
 losophy at the Hague, Holland Society of Sciences in 
 Haarlem, Batavian Society of Philology and Poetry, So- 
 ciety of Dutch Literature in Leyden, Diligentia in Gra- 
 venhage, Diversity and Agreement in Rotterdam, Doctrina 
 et Amicitia in Amsterdam, Felix Meritis in Amsterdam, 
 Holland Society of Fine Arts and Sciences, Academie 
 Royale des Beaux Arts d'Anvers, Royal Society of Na- 
 tional Language and Literature in Bruges, Royal Society 
 of Language and Poetry in Antwerp, Royal Society 
 Concordia in Brussels, Society of Dutch Language and 
 Literature in Ghent, Societe Asiatique a Paris, Royal 
 Academy of Imitative Arts in Amsterdam, Dutch Lan- 
 guage and Literature in St. Nicolaes, Royal Academy of 
 Imitative Arts in Antwerp, Hague Society for the De- 
 fence of Revealed Religion, Society for the Benefit of 
 the Public, Scientific Fraternity in Batavia. 
 
 WORKS OF VAN DER PALM. 
 
 VAN DER PALM'S WORKS. 
 
 1784. Ecclesiastes Philologice et Critice Illustratus. 
 Lugd.-Bat. 8vo. 
 
 1791. Certain Songs of David. Middelburg and Dor- 
 drecht. Of this there was in 1815 a second edition, 
 
APPENDIX. 165 
 
 with the addition of All the Songs of Asaph. Ley- 
 den. 8vo. 
 1796. Thanksgiving Address, delivered in the East 
 Church in Middelburg, at the Festival of the Alliance 
 of the French and Dutch Republics, by order of the 
 Municipality of the same City. Middelburg. 8vo. 
 No. 20 of " The Friend of the People." 
 " Oration on Popularity, delivered before the Patri- 
 otic Society in Middelburg. Middelburg. 8vo. No. 
 37 of " The Friend of the People." 
 
 1800. Oration on occasion of the National Festival, De- 
 cember 19th, 1799, in name and on account of the 
 Executive Government of the Batavian Republic, 
 delivered at the Hague, by the Minister of National 
 Education. Gravenhage. 8vo. 
 
 1801. Address of the Minister of National Education, at 
 the Opening of the Convention of School Superin- 
 tendents, July 16th, 1801. Gravenhage. 8vo. 
 
 1803. Address of the President J. H. van der Palm, at 
 the Opening of the Assembly of Deputies from the 
 Departmental School Directories, September 22d, 
 1803. Gravenhage. 8vo. 
 
 1805. Isaiah, translated and elucidated. 3 vols. Gra- 
 venhage. 8vo. Second edition. Rotterdam. 1841. 
 
 1806. Oratio inauguralis de Oratore Sacro, Litterarum 
 Divinarum Interprete. Lugd.-Bat. Quarto. 
 
 1807. The Council of the City of Leyden to the Inhab- 
 itants of the Kingdom of Holland, respecting the 
 Calamity of January 12th, 1807. Fol. 
 
 1808. Oration at the Festival of the Order of the Union, 
 April 25th, 1808; occurring in the work entitled: 
 Festival of the Order of the Union. Amsterdam. 
 8vo. And again, with the 
 
 1809. Oration at the Festival of the Order of the Union, 
 
166 APPENDIX. 
 
 September 4th, 1809, in : Records of the Royal Order 
 of the Union, for the years 1807, 1808, and 1809. 
 Amsterdam. 8vo. Both these works seem to have 
 been prepared under Van der Palm's eye. 
 
 1808-9. Sermons. 3 vols. 8vo. Reprinted in . 
 
 Amsterdam. Reprinted again in 1824. Dordrecht. 
 1808-16. Solomon. 6 vols. Comprising the Exposition 
 of Proverbs x.-xxii. 16. Amsterdam. 8vo. Re- 
 printed 1821-1824. Gravenhage. And printed the 
 third time in 7 vols. 1834, 1835. Leeuwarden. 
 1810, 1818, 1824, 1829. Essays, Discourses, and Scat- 
 tered Writings. 4 vols. Amsterdam. 8vo. 
 
 Vol. I. On David, contemplated principally as a 
 Poet. 
 
 On the True Nature of Eloquence. 
 
 Certain Poetic Descriptions of Nature from the 
 Book of Job. 
 
 On Mahomet, two Orations, drawn from the Au- 
 thor's Latin Oration De Mohammede, delivered in 
 Ley den in the year 1798, and not published. 
 
 On General Benevolence. 
 
 On Self-love. 
 
 On occasion of a Musical Concert at Christmas. 
 
 On occasion of a Musical Concert for the Benefit 
 of those who suffered from the Inundation. 
 
 Eulogy on Lord J. A. van der Perre. (Previ- 
 ously published separately. Middelburg. 1792. 8vo.) 
 
 Vol. II. On the Eloquence of Cicero. 
 
 On Arabic Poetry. 
 
 On the Design and Excellence of the Book of Job. 
 
 On the Judgment of Posterity. (Of this oration 
 there is an edition with an English translation by B. 
 S. Naylor on the opposite page. Amsterdam. 1837. 
 8vo.) 
 
APPENDIX. 167 
 
 Patriotic Utterances. (Previously published sep- 
 arately. Leyden. 1813. 8vo.) 
 
 Joyful Prospects of the Netherlands. (Previously 
 published separately. Leyden. 1813. 8vo.) 
 
 The Peace of Europe. (Previously published 
 separately. Leyden. 1814. 8vo.) 
 
 Christian Exhortation to Heroism. (Previously 
 published separately. Leyden. 1815. 8vo.) 
 
 Vol. III. Treatise on the Koran. 
 
 Oration in Commemoration of E. A. Borger. (Pre- 
 viously published separately with a poem of Tollens. 
 Leyden. 1821. 8vo.) 
 
 Oration on the Contempt or Neglect of the Rules of 
 Art. (Previously printed in the Report of the Second 
 Class of the Royal Netherland Institute. Amster- 
 dam. 1820. 4to.) 
 
 Oration on Mediocrity. (Previously printed in the 
 Works of the Holland Society of Fine Arts and 
 Sciences. Vol. v. art. 2. Leyden. 1823. 8vo.) 
 
 Essay on Sound Judgment. 
 
 My Recollections of J. Bellamy. (Previously pub- 
 lished in : Monument to J. Bellamy, published by W. 
 A. Ockerse and A. Kleyn, geb. Ockerse. Haarlem. 
 1822. 8vo.) 
 
 Oration at the Fourth Centennial Festival of the 
 Discovery of the Art of Printing in Haarlem. (Pre- 
 viously published separately. Haarlem. 1823. 8vo. 
 And placed in the Memorial of that festival. Haar- 
 lem. 1824. 8vo.) 
 
 Sermon at the Ordination of J. E. Kist. 
 
 Vol. IV. Second Essay on the Design and Excel- 
 lence of the Book of Job. 
 
 On the Influence of the External, etc. 
 
 On Certain Characteristics and Requirements of 
 Simplicity of Style. 
 
168 APPENDIX. 
 
 On Self-knowledge. (Previously printed in the 
 Works of the Holland Society of Fine Arts and Sci- 
 ences. Vol. viii. art. 1. Leyden. 1829. 8vo.) 
 
 Funeral Discourse on J. M. Kemper. (Previously 
 printed in : Kemper commemorated by H. H. Klijn, 
 J. H. van der Palm, and B. Klijn, Bz. Amsterdam. 
 8vo.) A French translation of this discourse by V. 
 Deflinne appeared. Tournay. 1825. 8vo. 
 
 At the Celebration of the 250th Anniversary of 
 Leyden's Relief. (Previously published separately. 
 Leyden. 1824. 8vo.) 
 
 For the Religious Preparation for the Celebration 
 of the University Jubilee. (Previously published 
 separately. Leyden. 1825. 8vo.) 
 
 Reminiscence of the Time spent in the University, 
 delivered at a Festal Celebration. (Previously pub- 
 lished separately. Leyden. 1828. 8vo.) 
 1811-1822. Ten series of Sermons of six each. Leyden. 
 
 8vo. 
 1811-1834. Bible for Youth. 24 vols. Leyden. 12mo. 
 Constantly reprinted. 
 
 In school form in 12 vols. 1835-1837. Leyden. 
 
 A German translation of the first volume appeared, 
 bearing the title : Ueber die Mosa'ische Erziihlung von 
 der Schopfung der Welt und dem Falle des Men- 
 schen, iibersetzt von A. von der Kuhlen. Wesel. 
 1831. 12mo. 
 181b. Historical and Oratorical Memorial of the Restora- 
 tion of the Netherlands. Amsterdam. 8vo. Pub- 
 lished in postal form. 1828. Amsterdam. 
 1819. Oratio de Imperatore Ali, Abu-Talebi Filio, Sarace- 
 
 norum Principum Maximo. Lugd.-Bat. 4to. 
 1818, 1819, 1820, 1822, 1823, 1825, 1829, 1830. Bible; 
 all the Books of the Old and New Testament, to* 
 
APPENDIX. 1^9 
 
 • gether with the Apochryphal Books of the Old Testa- 
 ment, in 8 parts. Leyden. 4to. (Exhausted.) 
 1827-1830. The Bible. Leyden. 8vo. 
 1831-1835. Annotations on the Bible. Leyden. 8vo. 
 1838. Apocryphal Books of the Old Testament, with an- 
 notations. Leyden. 8vo. 
 
 1823-1836. Eleven series of Sermons, of ten each. 
 Leyden. 8vo. The Sermons, the ten series of Ser- 
 mons of six each, and the eleven series of Sermons 
 of ten each, several volumes of which have been 
 repeatedly reprinted, are in course of republication 
 with the title of: All the Sermons of J. H. van der 
 Palm. Leeuwarden. The first volume has already 
 made its appearance. They have been arranged by 
 Van der Palm himself in a certain order ; and in this 
 edition is also found the sermon contained in the col- 
 lection published in 1831 by the University Preachers 
 of the whole country, as also two unpublished ser- 
 mons preserved and designed by himself for this 
 object, making in all two hundred. 
 
 1826. Sermon on Genesis xli. 51. Delivered on the 
 day for Thanksgiving and Prayer of that year. Ley- 
 den. 8vo. 
 
 1832. Account of the Dedication of the Monument to 
 the Memory of L. J. W. Beeckman, slain as Volun- 
 teer of the Leyden University. Leyden. 8vo. 
 
 1838. Sequel to Solomon, comprising the first nine chap- 
 ters of the Book of Proverbs. Leeuwarden. 8vo. 
 
 1841. Second Sequel to Solomon, comprising the last 
 labor of the Writer. With the Index. Leeuwarden. 
 8vo. Published after the death of the Author, with 
 a preface by Nicolaas Beets. 
 
 The whole work is thus complete in 9 vols., with 
 the title : Solomon, by J. H. van der Palm. 3d Edi- 
 tion. Leeuwarden. 
 
170 APPENDIX. 
 
 FUGITIVE ARTICLES FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION. 
 
 . Filial Duty. Poem on occasion of the Silver 
 
 Wedding of his parents. 
 
 1781. Welcome to G. J. Loncq. Poem. 8vo. 
 
 1782. War. Poem to which the premium was awarded 
 by the society Kunst wordt door Arbeid verkregen. 
 In the Works of that Society. Vol. v. It is also 
 printed separately. 8vo. 
 
 " Poem, placed after the " Specimen Inaugurate, 
 exhibens Theses Aliquot," etc. By Willem Bilder- 
 djik. Leyden. 4to. Also separate impressions, with 
 other poems on that occasion. 8vo. 
 
 " Funeral Hymn on Rev. J. W. Bussingh, in a small 
 collection on his funeral. Leyden. 8vo. 
 
 1783. The Leyden Orphans to the Leyden Militia. 
 Poem. Leyden. 8vo. 
 
 " Beneficence. Poem in the Works of the society 
 Kunst wordt door Arbeid verkregen. Vol. iv. 8vo. 
 
 1784. Transfiguration of Christ on the Mount. Poem to 
 which was awarded the premium by the society 
 Kunstliefde spaart geen vlijt, 1783. Printed in its 
 Works (vol. x.), 1 and also separately. 8vo. 
 
 1786. In Memory of S. Hoek. Poem. 8vo. 
 
 1787. Ode to Virtue. Works of the society Kunst 
 wordt door Arbeid verkregen. Vol. v. 8vo. 
 
 1795, 1796. Certain numbers of "The Friend of the 
 
 People." Weekly, published in Middelburg. 8vo. 
 1795. Proclamation of the Free People of Middelburg to 
 their Fellow- Citizens, February 10th, 1795. " Mid- 
 delburg Courant." Fol. 
 " Address, delivered in February, 1795, as President 
 
 1 Remarkable is the prediction of J. van Spaan, when presenting 
 him the medal, August 7th, 1784. See Works of the society, vol. x. 
 p. 119. 
 
APPENDIX. 171 
 
 of the Electors, to the Representatives of the People 
 in Middelburg. "Sequel to Wagenaar," xxix. 120- 
 122. " Annals of the Batavian Republic," ii. 226. 
 
 1803. Incidents in the Life of Dr. J. van Heekeren. 
 " Medical Magazine." Vol. ii. art. 2. 8vo. 
 
 1831. Essay on Unity and Diversity. " Recensent ook 
 der Recensenten." Vol. xxiv. art. 2. 8vo. 
 
 1831. Sermon on Rom. xi. 36. " Sermons relative to the 
 Latest Circumstances of our Country, by the United 
 University Preachers of the Netherlands." Utrecht. 
 8vo. This sermon will be included in the edition of 
 All the Sermons of J. H. van der Palm. Leeu- 
 warden. See above. 
 
 PREFACES. 
 
 1790. To the Oration, translated by him, of W. Kist, on 
 the Study of the Ancient Writers as a Source of Sub- 
 stantial Enjoyment. Middelburg and Dordrecht. 8vo. 
 
 1806. To the Text-book of Obstetrics, by H. A. Bake. 
 Leyden. 8vo. 
 
 1815. To the Twenty-five Years' Official Service of T. 
 Dassevael, May 18th, 1815. 8vo. 
 
 1820. To the translation of Helon's Pilgrimage, by F. 
 Strauss. Amsterdam. 8vo. In this preface Van 
 der Palm makes mention of a design entertained by 
 him of composing a similar work. 1 
 
 1 " A distinguished personage of the suite of the Queen of Sheba 
 should have been my Anacharsis. He could describe the political and 
 religious condition of the Israelites under the magnificent reign of Sol- 
 omon; he could fully inform himself of all that was memorable in their 
 earlier history, survive Solomon himself, be a witness of the rending of 
 the nation into two kingdoms, and predict not a little of what must sub- 
 sequently occur; whilst finally a supplement might comprise the rest, 
 to the time that they were carried away by Nebuchadnezzar." 
 
172 APPENDIX. 
 
 1821. To the second volume of Sermons by E. A. Bor- 
 ger. Gravenhage. 8vo. 
 
 1827. To the Prize Essay respecting the Life and Merits 
 of C. Brunings, by F. W. Conrad. Gravenhage. 
 4to. 
 " Letter to M. Siegenbeek, inserted in his Philologi- 
 cal Observations. Haarlem. 8vo. 
 
 1829. To the Manual of Biblical History, by H. van 
 Heyningen, Minister in Rijswijk, with plates. Gra- 
 venhage and Rotterdam. 4to. 
 
 1840. Testimonial to the Bible Atlas of Rev. G. H. van 
 Senden. Leyden. 4to. 
 
 ARTICLES RELATING TO VAN DER PALM. 
 
 L840. M. Siegenbeek : Tribute to the Memory of Jo- 
 hannes Henricus van der Palm. Leyden. 8vo. 
 
 " B. ter Haar : Poetic Lines on Occasion of the Death 
 of Professor J. H. van der Palm. Leyden. 8vo. 
 
 " C. van Epen : Flowers on the Grave of J. H. van 
 der Palm. Maastricht. 8vo. 
 1841. W. A. van Hengel : Meritorum J is - H ci van der 
 Palm Commemoratio Brevis. Lugd.-Bat. 8vo. 
 
 " J° Clarisse : Prologus quo Scholas Theologicas A - 
 1840-1841 habendas Auspicaturus Johannis Henrici 
 van der Palm Exemplum Auditoribus, Futuris The- 
 ologis, ad imitandum proposuit. Lugd.-Bat. 8vo. 
 
 " H. F. T. Fockens : J. H. van der Palm Portrayed 
 as an Expositor of the Bible, as an Orator, and 
 Writer. Leyden. 8vo. 
 
 See further, respecting Van der Palm, an article (of 
 Mr. G. van Lennep) in Galerie des Contemporains, t. 
 vii. pp. 359, 360 ; in Le Protestant, (periodical edited 
 
APPENDIX. 173 
 
 by A. Coquerel,) l e ann. No. 15 ; in the Quarterly 
 Magazine and Review, July, 1832, (translation of the 
 preceding); in Th. Fliedner's Collectenreise, two arts. 
 454-468 and 517-521 ; in the Literary Messenger, 
 1840, No. 41, and 1841, No. 2, (the last article by 
 Professor J. Kops) ; a short Address of Professor J. 
 Bake to the Leyden division of the Society of Fine 
 Arts and Sciences, after Van der Palm's decease, 
 (printed for private circulation) ; the Oratio Recto- 
 ralis of Professor Thorbecke de S. Slingelandtio, 
 (1841,) pp. 31-33 ; Professor Siegenbeek's notice in 
 the Acts of the Society of Dutch Literature, 1840, pp. 
 14-16; History of the Leyden University, by the 
 same, vol. ii., Supplement and Appendix, pp. 238, 
 239 ; Van Kampen's History of Dutch Literature, 3d 
 article, 1835, pp. 148-262 ; and his History of Mod- 
 ern Literature, vol. iv. pp. 529, 530, 534, and 536 ; 
 Ypey and Dermout, History of the Dutch Reformed 
 Church, vol. iv. pp. 307, 308, and the note ; and 
 others. 
 
SERMONS 
 
 OP 
 
 J. H. VAN DER PALM, D.D., 
 
 PROFESSOR OF ORIENTAL LANGUAGES AND ANTIQUITIES; ALSO OF 
 
 SACRED POETRY AND ELOQUENCE IN THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF LEYDEN. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE DUTCH 
 
 BY 
 
 J. P. WESTERVELT. 
 
SERMONS. 
 
 SERMON I. 
 THE GOSPEL THE GREATEST TREASURE. 
 
 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in afield; 
 the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth 
 and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. 
 
 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant-man seeking 
 goodly pearls : 
 
 "Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all 
 that he had, and bought it. — Matt. xiii. 44-46. 
 
 Few there are amono* men who would not esteem 
 themselves happy, if they but knew how to estimate 
 properly their privileges. Hardly any condition in 
 life is so devoid of advantages, of advantages appro- 
 priate to itself, but that to him who is acquainted 
 with them, and makes a thankful use of them, there 
 are a thousand reasons why he should acquiesce in 
 his lot, be contented and happy. But such is the 
 perversity of man, what lies before us, and we can 
 obtain by simply stretching out our hand after it, 
 that we esteem hardly worth possessing ; whilst that 
 which is placed beyond our reach often seems to us 
 the only thing desirable, the only thing that contains 
 happiness in it. What we have, becomes by custom 
 and daily use indifferent to us ; what we have not, 
 
 our imagination attires before us in brilliant hues; 
 12 
 
178 SERMONS. 
 
 and we always think our privations greater than 
 our enjoyments. To oppose this perversity in us, 
 and, if possible, to overcome it, is life's true wisdom. 
 Every morning and evening to make by ourselves 
 an enumeration of the favors in which we share, 
 beginning with life and the treasure of health, run- 
 ning through the circle of our professional or do- 
 mestic employments, of our kindred and relations, 
 and thence ascending to that which can fully meet 
 the wants of our rational souls, susceptible of eternal 
 felicity, — this is the means to make us contented 
 with God's allotments, the true secret of feeling our- 
 selves happy in all the inconstancies of the world. 
 
 It is these last, the spiritual blessings above all, 
 and their high value, with which I would this hour 
 occupy your attention. We can all possess them, 
 and none can prevent us, if we are desirous of be- 
 coming partakers of them. Whatever earth may 
 give or deny us, heaven is equally offered to us all. 
 We possess a gospel of salvation, — we all, without 
 distinction of rank, or abilities, or temporal fortune. 
 And many of us complain still, and wish for more, 
 and dispute about their lot. Is it not because they 
 know not the treasure that is dispensed to them by 
 the liberal hand of a Father, nor the exceeding 
 power and riches of the blessings of that heavenly 
 kingdom which Jesus has revealed to us and pro- 
 cured for us at the expense of his blood ? It is my 
 design in this discourse to unfold to you, accord- 
 ing to my ability, that rich treasure, for the exciting 
 of the desire of us all, and that we may thankfully 
 glorify God for his great grace to us. May my 
 
SERMONS. 179 
 
 words be profitable to you, and acceptable to him. 
 Amen. 
 
 All the parables of Jesus contain an appropriate 
 and sublime instruction ; and they are moreover pre- 
 sented in a way that rivets the attention, sharpens 
 the intellect, and raises the interest to the highest 
 point. If this be still perceptible and sensible to us, 
 my hearers, living at the distance of so many cen- 
 turies from the Divine teacher, reading his words in 
 another language than that in which they were 
 uttered, and not familiarly acquainted with many 
 particulars relative to the manners and national 
 character of his hearers, whence he usually bor- 
 rowed his images and modes of expression, — if this, 
 I say, is still so perceptible and sensible to us, how 
 must it then have been to his contemporaries and 
 countrymen, who, in addition to this, had also the 
 expression of the voice, countenance, and gestures 
 of Him into whose lips grace was poured ! 
 
 It is however indubitable, and the more we con- 
 fine our attention to it the more are we confirmed 
 in it ; all the presentations of Jesus have an Ori- 
 ental hue and glow, and in the measure in which 
 we are able to enter into the entire mode of thought 
 of his pupils, in that measure has his instruction a 
 more pleasing aspect, and makes a more powerful 
 impression on our hearts. It is adapted to all times 
 and countries and necessities ; but so that they con- 
 stantly pluck from it the richest and most agreeable 
 fruits who read and hear it as if they were sitting 
 at the feet of the great Master on the mountains of 
 Galilee and Samaria, on the strand at Capernaum, 
 or at Bethany and in the temple at Jerusalem 
 
180 SERMONS. 
 
 The two parables presented will also serve as evi- 
 dence of this, whilst they will give us occasion to 
 reflect reverently and devoutly on the inestimable 
 value of Jesus' doctrine and kingdom. 
 
 I. I will, first, endeavor to explain both these 
 parables, according to the meaning and intention of 
 Jesus ; 
 
 II. Secondly, present to you the instruction con- 
 tained in them, in its truth and importance ; and 
 so conclude my discourse with a few admonitions 
 and exhortations. 
 
 I. Both the parables have evidently the same de- 
 sign, and should therefore be also treated by us 
 simultaneously ; also the two images which the 
 Saviour employs as an allegorizing of his doctrine 
 — that of the treasure in the field, and that of the 
 costly pearl — have great affinity to each other. 
 That the Saviour here uses two parables instead of 
 one, only indicates to us the riches of his imagina- 
 tion, and the importance that he attaches to his pres- 
 ent instruction, so that he, by repetition and diver- 
 sity of sensible representations, would imprint it on 
 the heart and memory of his hearers. Is one, how- 
 ever, disposed to make a distinction between the two 
 parables, it can with some be placed in this, that 
 the treasure in the field was found accidentally, the 
 pearl only after zealous and intentional seeking ; but 
 we should fear even thus to manifest more subtilty 
 than natural simplicity of criticism. It also makes 
 not the least difference, that in the first parable the 
 kingdom of heaven is compared to the treasure 
 found, in the second to the merchant, the finder of 
 
SERMONS. 181 
 
 the pearl. Jesus could just as well, by reversing 
 the order, have said : the kingdom of heaven is like 
 unto a man who found in a field a hidden treasure ; 
 it is like a pearl of great value, which a merchant 
 found. In a free style and method of teaching, the 
 one signified just the same as the other ; the two 
 representations might be at will exchanged for each 
 other ; it would ever be the hidden treasure, the 
 costly pearl, on which all would depend. 
 
 In the explanation of every parable, we must first 
 attend to that which constitutes its subject, and 
 afterwards to the instruction conveyed to us by the 
 comparison. The subject of both the parables is 
 the kingdom of heaven, — an expression very common 
 in the mouth of Jesus, by which he designated either 
 the doctrine, or the blessings, or the future fortunes 
 of his spiritual kingdom, or the duties and qualities 
 of its citizens and subjects. All these ideas are 
 allied to each other ; they belong to one great 
 whole ; and a sound exegesis often requires us not 
 to confine ourselves exclusively to one of them, but 
 to take several together, and to give to the phrase 
 now an ampler, then a more restricted signification. 
 The idea of Jesus' doctrine is hardly to be sepa- 
 rated from that of the salutary fruits of that doctrine ; 
 and it is, conversely, the blessings of Jesus' kingdom 
 which include in them as conditions the knowledge 
 and practice of its laws and requirements. In what 
 sense Jesus would have the words kingdom of heaven 
 understood, must, in every place where he employs 
 them, be determined by an unbiased judgment from 
 the connection in which they occur. And when we 
 
182 SERMONS. 
 
 then look for that which is most appropriate to the 
 contents of both these parables, and most agreeable 
 to the nature of the emblems here employed, then 
 are we at last restricted to evangelical truth, with 
 its promises and prospects ; to the doctrine of Jesus, 
 with its salutary consequences to every one that be- 
 lieves and confesses it. 
 
 The Jews expected a kingdom of God on earth 
 as the fulfilment of the great promises made to their 
 fathers. Jesus teaches them everywhere that this 
 kingdom of God must come principally in their 
 hearts. He declares himself to be sent of God to 
 reveal it to them ; and begins and ends with calling 
 them to repentance, with making God known to 
 them in his being and perfections, and with an- 
 nouncing to them forgiveness of sins and eternal 
 blessedness. He who accepted this his preaching, 
 and humbly acquiesced in it, possessed the kingdom 
 of heaven; to him belonged all the lessons pre- 
 scribed by him to the citizens of that kingdom ; he 
 was partaker of all the privileges with which God 
 graciously intended to favor in the Messiah the pos- 
 terity of the patriarchs ; subject of a dominion 
 which from its nature must endure forever, and ex- 
 tend over the whole earth. This is the kingdom of 
 heaven according to the general representation of 
 the Saviour in the Scriptures of his ambassadors ; 
 and when we see this kingdom of heaven compared 
 to a treasure, to a precious stone, does not a just 
 and impartial appreciation of truth confirm us in 
 what we have already said, that we must under- 
 stand by it evangelical truth, with its promises and 
 
SERMONS. 183 
 
 prospects, the doctrine of Jesus, with its salutary 
 consequences to every one that believes and con- 
 fesses it ? Whether the Jews immediately under- 
 stood it thus, I dare not decide ; but it was the design 
 of Jesus, with these and other parables, to make 
 them so understand it. 
 
 This kingdom of heaven, says Jesus, is like a treas- 
 ure hid in a field, which, when a man has found, he 
 hideth, etc. Many expositors have remarked, that 
 in a country which has frequently been a prey to 
 the desolations of war, and from which the wealthy 
 inhabitants, through fear of the sword and servitude, 
 have been obliged to flee, without having opportu- 
 nity to take their treasures and precious things with 
 them, — that in such a land as Palestine was, it might 
 happen that here or there treasures lay buried in 
 the ground, which were no longer any one's prop- 
 erty, because the former possessors had perished in 
 their flight or in their exile, — because they had left 
 no evidence behind, what or where their property 
 was, and no claimant or heir could be discovered. 
 By this observation is the honor of the parable on 
 the side of probability maintained. The same ex- 
 positors also direct our attention to the different 
 claims, which, according to diverse legislations, had 
 place in respect of such goods or treasures when 
 found. According to some, they were for the finder; 
 according to others, for the owner of the ground in 
 which they were found ; according to others, again, 
 for each the exact half; according to others, finally, 
 for neither of the two, but for the State. From the 
 relation in this parable, they conclude, that, accord- 
 
184 SERMONS. 
 
 ing to Jewish usage, the property belonged to 
 the finder, since the purchase of the field by him 
 must be regarded simply as an act of prudence, not 
 as a transaction by which he would secretly and in 
 bad faith make himself master of what he knew to 
 be another's possession. We commend all these 
 observations, and will not contradict them. But 
 they do not once occur to us when we are accus- 
 tomed to read Oriental tales, and as the Jews, 
 contemporaries of Jesus, have filled our minds with 
 the ideas contained in them. How often do we find 
 mention made in them of hidden treasures, and of 
 the finding of the same ; even in the Proverbs of 
 Solomon allusion is already here and there made to 
 it. Would they represent any one above measure 
 favored by Providence, or by such beings as had 
 power to dispense the riches of earth, they made 
 him find a treasure, and portrayed him as thereby 
 the happiest of mortals. Who knows how many 
 there were among the hearers of Jesus, composed in 
 great part of plain people, who had often thought 
 with themselves, or even indeed, on the hearing of 
 such tales, said to one another : Oh that we also 
 might here or there find such a treasure ! then 
 should we no longer be obliged to care, nor to toil ! 
 then would our happiness be certain, complete ! 
 To such men Jesus spake this parable, and can it be 
 doubtful to you how it was understood by them ? 
 Come, let us transform it into a small narrative, 
 such as there are many in circulation among the 
 Orientals, and you will in some measure feel the 
 propriety of its representation. 
 
SERMONS. 185 
 
 A certain man went, on a time, to take a solitary 
 walk over a distant, ill- cultivated field. Acciden- 
 tally he fixed his eye on a waste spot that lay wholly 
 neglected, where some stones, overgrown with 
 moss, lay half scattered, half heaped up. Thought- 
 lessly, or from curiosity, he removes those stones 
 from one another, and finds that those lying deeper 
 are placed together with more order and design. 
 He now sets himself to remove them out of the 
 way, descends deeper and deeper, and finally per- 
 ceives a large stone, which evidently covers an 
 opening. He raises it, and sees the entrance to a 
 spacious cellar, descends by a staircase into it, and 
 finds himself suddenly surrounded with vases and 
 pots and purses full of gold coins, — an immense 
 treasure, to be envied even by princes. What a 
 discovery ! What a joy ! He is lost in rapture ; no 
 one's happiness is to be compared with his ! But in 
 the excess of his joy he does not, however, forget to 
 secure that wealth. He hid it, says the parable ; he 
 closed again the depository, and restored everything 
 to the state in which it had been, that no one could 
 perceive that any search had here been made. To 
 his secure possession of the treasure it was above all 
 necessary that he should be owner of the field. 
 Then he need not continually go thither, and each 
 time return laden ; which, however secretly he 
 managed it, might create surprise ; and should the 
 proprietor of the field once discover the secret, then 
 would he indeed prevent his return. He resolves, 
 therefore, to purchase that field, cost it ever so much, 
 for there lies infinitely more in it than he shall give 
 
186 SERMONS. 
 
 for it. Whatever he has of value or costliness he 
 converts into money, and so offers for the field a 
 price which is accepted. Now he is undisturbed 
 possessor of the royal treasure, and there is no end to 
 his joy, for there is no end to his fruition ! 
 
 Such a treasure, says Jesus, is the kingdom of 
 heaven ; so unspeakably, immeasurably happy is he 
 who finds it ! 
 
 The second parable, also, is wholly Oriental. The 
 traffic in jewels is there principally carried on by 
 travelling merchants, who seek them everywhere, 
 especially in the bazaars of large cities ; buying 
 them here, in order to exchange them elsewhere, 
 and principally to sell them again with great gain at 
 the courts of princes. This last is often too much 
 lost sight of in the explication of this parable ; as 
 if the design of the buyer of the costly pearl, or 
 rather, in general, of the invaluable precious stone, 
 had been to keep it in his possession and preserve it 
 for himself. But does not Jesus himself call him a 
 merchant ? and were not pearls, jewels, on that ac- 
 count, the objects of his desire, because they were 
 the commodities in which he trafficked ? Let us 
 imagine such a trader, prosecuting his business with 
 knowledge and skill ; and looking for the opportu- 
 nity, by a great and advantageous purchase, to 
 make his fortune in trade. A pearl, a jewel, is 
 offered him, whose like in size, in weight, in purity, 
 and lustre he never beheld. Could he become pos- 
 sessor of it, his fortune would be made, for emper- 
 ors and kings would dispute with each other the 
 happiness of enriching with it their cabinets. If 
 
SERMONS. 187 
 
 there is a possibility of his purchasing that magnifi- 
 cent diamond and behold there is a possi- 
 bility ! The price that is demanded for it does not 
 exceed his ability. He sells his remaining jewels 
 and whatever other valuables he possesses, and the 
 magnificent stone becomes his. What prerogative, 
 what rare chance, to have found it ! to have been 
 just there where it was, where it was offered 
 him, where he could become possessed of that inval- 
 uable jewel, for which perhaps one might in vain 
 have travelled half round the world ! His roamings 
 and cares are now at an end ; the treasures of princes 
 are open to him ; what he demands will be gladly 
 paid him for such a royal luxury ; his wealth is 
 immense ! 
 
 Such a jewel, says Jesus, is the kingdom of 
 heaven ; so happy is he who has found it ! 
 
 The literal meaning of the parables has, I trust, 
 been sufficiently explained. Perhaps it surprises 
 some of you that I have not dwelt more on the 
 sellino; of all for the attainment of the offered treas- 
 ures, as intimating the difficult sacrifices to which 
 we must submit for the possession of the heavenly 
 kingdom. But indeed this portion of the parable 
 seems to belong more to its ornament than its be- 
 ing ; though elsewhere Jesus demanded no insignifi- 
 cant self-denials of them who would become par- 
 takers of his kingdom. For no proper sacrifices are 
 here spoken of ; or can it bear that name, when we 
 expend money to gain money ? when a merchant, 
 to secure a great advantage, sells or mortgages his 
 property ? These particulars serve only to indicate 
 
188 SERMONS. 
 
 the great desirableness and the unlimited value of 
 the treasures with which the kingdom of heaven is 
 here compared. 
 
 Thus the instruction of Jesus, conveyed by these 
 parables, beams forth of itself to our view : it con- 
 cerns the inestimable, incalculable value of the doc- 
 trine which he had brought with him from heaven, 
 in order to make all who believed and practised it 
 capable of endless felicity and partakers of it. 
 
 II. To present to you this instruction in its truth 
 and importance must be the argument of the second 
 part of my discourse. 
 
 I shall to that end cause you to contemplate the 
 gospel, partnership in the kingdom of God founded 
 by Jesus, first in its proper, intrinsic value, and 
 afterwards in its relative value, by comparing it 
 with the treasures and precious things of earth. I 
 shall thus, as you see, conduct you along very com- 
 mon and much - trodden paths ; repeat what you 
 have heard hundreds and thousands of times, but 
 never will hear or can hear sufficiently. For if you 
 hear gladly what is said to you of the infinite value 
 of the gospel, then is it to you an inexhaustible 
 fountain of joy and comfort, which you desire to 
 see continually opened to you anew ; and if you do 
 not, even after these hundred and thousandfold pres- 
 entations, yet feel the happiness of the friends and 
 disciples of Jesus, then it may and must still be 
 hundreds and thousands of times earnestly com- 
 mended to you, that you may finally see and ac- 
 knowledge to how great grace you are called by 
 God in Jesus Christ. 
 
SERMONS. 189 
 
 The intrinsic value of the doctrine of salvation 
 manifests itself in the knowledge which it commu- 
 nicates, in the performances that it prescribes, and 
 in the prospects which it opens to us. Permit me 
 to entertain you simply with a word respecting 
 each. 
 
 No man hath seen God at any time ; the only he- 
 gotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath 
 declared him. This is the summary of the gospel 
 in respect of the knowledge that it imparts to us. 
 Yes, my beloved, hereby we know who God is, 
 what God is for us. The shrewdest heads of the 
 heathen world, to whose extensive knowledge, to 
 whose subtile intellect, to whose exquisite taste, we 
 admiringly do homage as often as we read their 
 writings, knew not so much of that infinite Being as 
 the simple instruction of Jesus makes known to us 
 all. We hear them whispering to their intimate 
 friends, in profound confidence, as the acme of hu- 
 man knowledge, as a sublime mystery, what we, 
 according to the revelation of Jesus, inculcate on 
 our children : that God is one, Almighty, Wise, 
 Merciful, Supreme Lord and Governor of all. 
 Whatever errors might also adhere to the Jews of 
 his time respecting God's being and will, respecting 
 preference of nations, of times or places of worship, 
 he has dispelled them all. Where do you find the 
 holiness of the Supreme Being, without which it is 
 impossible for us to conceive of a God that is truly 
 God, — Where do you find it portrayed in such purity, 
 and in a way to inspire such respect, as in the teach- 
 ings of Jesus ? and where the possibility revealed of 
 
190 SERMONS. 
 
 approaching that immaculate and terrible One with 
 confidence ? That God governs all, has events, 
 accidents, vicissitudes, in his hand, — it is much to 
 acknowledge and confess this : but that He whom 
 the heaven of heavens cannot contain, also takes 
 notice of the most insignificant concerns of his 
 creatures, works everywhere, and cares and watches, 
 feeds, the fowls of heaven, attires the flowers of the 
 field, and numbers the hairs of our head, — how could 
 we ever have brought our hearts to believe this, if 
 Jesus had not said it and assured us of it ? That 
 God is rich in love, gladly and liberally bestows 
 favors, and that the earth is full of his goodness, — 
 who would dare question this, in view of his daily 
 experience of God's manifold blessings ? That God 
 will not deal with us according to our sins, that 
 God will not exact of us, impure and ungrateful, all 
 the demands of his strict justice, — if we cherished no 
 hope of this, how unhappy should we feel ourselves, 
 unless our heart were closed to all reflection ! But 
 that God is a Father, — no Father in name and sem- 
 blance, but with all that cordiality and tenderness 
 and extent of the relation with which we also em- 
 brace our dear children ; yes, more cordial, tender, 
 affectionate than earthly fathers or mothers can be ! 
 - — that the holy Judge of all the earth can and will 
 forgive all, even the offences that we have com- 
 mitted to the dishonor of his majesty, and in con- 
 tempt of his love, and yet remains the holy and 
 just, though He grants to sinners his highest favor 
 and delight, — that we could not know, had not Je- 
 sus revealed it ! It were impossible to believe that, 
 
SERMONS. 191 
 
 had not lie who revealed it come from heaven ; had 
 he not seen the Father, were he not the only be- 
 gotten Son, the image of the Father. This, my 
 hearers, is the treasure of knowledge that the gos- 
 pel contains, — knowledge of God, beholding of God | 
 The requirements of the gospel also insure to us 
 its infinite value. All that is pure, all that is lovely, 
 all that is useful, all that is honest and of good 
 report, all that, and that alone, is prescribed by it. 
 No prejudice, no arrogance, no narrow-mindedness, 
 no misanthropy or national hatred, the traces of 
 which, even in the purest systems of Jewish and 
 heathen morality, were so abundantly at hand, — 
 none of all these defile the sublime code of Christian- 
 ity. He who will walk holily and unblamably, who 
 is concerned to always maintain a conscience void of 
 offence towards God and man, he who will be 
 happy in the practice of virtue, finds here the path 
 for his feet delineated with infallible marks. No 
 calumny nor malevolence has ever been able to im- 
 pute a blemish to this model of the highest perfec- 
 tion ; it is the law of God and nature itself; it is 
 the perfect law of the Lord ! And these precepts, 
 my beloved, have not the tone of cold, proud phi- 
 losophy, obscure, abstract, always magisterial ; no ! 
 they come from the heart, and they speak to the 
 heart ; they all, all resolve themselves in a word of 
 heavenly sound and heavenly signification, — in the 
 one word love ! Love to God and love to men, this 
 is the fulfilling of the whole law ; this is the uni- 
 versal fundamental principle of morality, so anx- 
 iously sought by the wise of all ages, so easily 
 
192 SERMONS. 
 
 found by him who was in the bosom of the Father, 
 for God is love ! Or do you perhaps imagine that 
 the requirements and instructions of the gospel 
 are only adapted to work in a small sphere, com- 
 mendable perhaps for families, but contracted, and 
 powerless to enlighten and to direct the interests 
 and passions of States and societies ; you are mis- 
 taken ! The happiness of the world depends on the 
 performance of them, and the neglect of them casts 
 nations as well as houses and families into abase- 
 ment and misery ! What examples of it have we 
 seen in our days ; and how illustrious is the testi- 
 mony publicly given in honor of the gospel by the 
 most powerful monarchs of Europe : that they 
 know no more effectual means to insure the happi- 
 ness of their people, to insure the quiet of the 
 world and permanent peace to it, than to erect a 
 common Christian alliance, and to promise and ad- 
 jure each other to accept the fundamental princi- 
 ples of the gospel as the rule of their actions ! * 
 
 Need I finally speak of the prospects of the gos- 
 pel, in order to make you acknowledge the inestima- 
 bleness of the treasure contained in it ? 
 
 However charming may be the prospect which 
 prosperity and abundance and fulfilment of our 
 earthly wishes offer us over the course of our pres- 
 ent life, it always terminates, however, on a dark 
 and dismal background, from which we turn our 
 eyes away with shuddering, and yet towards which 
 we can never cease to continually turn them anew. 
 Could we take a view beyond the gloomy back- 
 
 1 This sermon was delivered in the year 1816. 
 
SERMONS. 193 
 
 ground of death, saw we on the other side of the 
 grave new life, a new fatherland, new relations, 
 new enjoyments, then first could we perform this 
 our short journey of life without solicitude and 
 with gladness ; without constantly looking back at 
 the enemy that everywhere closely pursues us to 
 strike us down unexpectedly, and who, as long as 
 he still spares us, snatches away now this, then that 
 one of our dear companions and fellow-travellers. 
 Where do you find that treasure of tranquillity, of 
 consolation, of joy, as in the gospel ? The gospel is 
 immortality, — is more than immortality, is hope of 
 salvation ! What the philosopher conjectures, and 
 with exertion of the noblest powers of mind, along 
 an obscure way of profound reasoning, hardly car- 
 ries to the point of probability, whilst another, 
 styling himself a still greater philosopher, over- 
 throws all his fundamental principles, — what the 
 virtuous of all ao;es only dared wish, — for which 
 the necessity of virtuous souls constantly longed, — 
 that the gospel places, and the gospel alone, in the 
 clearness of meridian day. Certainly, to be able to 
 believe, without doubt, that the inhabitant of this 
 cold, lifeless clod still lives, hovering around in a 
 new sphere, though by none ever seen ; or that this 
 dust, that moulders and blows away, is the seed of 
 a new and celestial planting; or, what seems to 
 transcend all belief, that a life, defiled and dishon- 
 ored by us, thousands and thousands of times for- 
 feited, shall not be taken from us, but the punish- 
 ment of death be revoked and abolished ; — for this 
 no mere inferences, no imposing speculations of the 
 
 13 
 
194 SERMONS. 
 
 intellect were sufficient. An ambassador from 
 heaven must on the part of God make it known to 
 us ; He who was himself the resurrection and the 
 life must assure us of it ; he must by his death 
 overcome death, and, coming forth from the grave, 
 publicly triumph over that bitterest of our foes ! 
 
 These, my beloved, are the treasures contained in 
 the knowledge, in the requirements and promises 
 of the gospel, unfolded to you in few particulars ; 
 for he who would speak of them as they merit, 
 would find no end to his discourse. Certainly no 
 treasures of gold or silver, of pearls or precious 
 stones. But should these last be the only treasures 
 laid up for us ? Should we only be able to be rich 
 as to the body, to clothe us, to feed, to adorn, to 
 satisfy with sensual enjoyment ? and should that 
 better part of us, without which we are no more 
 than the beasts of the field, be unable to have pos- 
 sessions, in order to adorn, to ennoble, or to refresh 
 it with pure pleasures ? Yes ! there are spiritual as 
 well as corporeal treasures ; and the kingdoms of 
 the earth contain none greater or better than those 
 which the kingdom of heaven reserves for us. Let 
 us place them for a moment beside each other, that 
 the instruction of our Lord in these parables may 
 still more appear to us to be truth and wisdom. 
 
 The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure found ; 
 it is like a precious stone, whose value cannot be 
 reckoned. What does this signify, is like? Cer- 
 tainly, that both are at least of equal value ; that 
 the possession of the one need not yield to that of 
 the other. And how do vou regard these utter- 
 
SERMONS. 195 
 
 ances, my hearers ? Is it not so : as imagery, as 
 poetic or rhetoric flowers, as fine sayings, perhaps as 
 Oriental hyperbole ? 
 
 Yes ! evangelical truth, with its promises and ex- 
 pectations, is a great benefit ; we should not willingly 
 miss it. But yet to have abundance of money and 
 property, with all the distinction attached to the 
 condition of the rich, who do or omit what they 
 please, need stand in awe of none, and whose wishes 
 are anticipated by all ; this is surely more desirable, 
 more attractive. The former is common to so many, 
 to almost all ; but the latter is a peculiar privilege, 
 enjoyed by only a few highly favored ones. The 
 man who explains to me the mysteries of God's 
 kingdom, and offers its blessings, is welcome to me ; 
 but he who should say : Go with me ; in yonder 
 field lies a treasure concealed ; we will descend into 
 the hidden depository and carry away with us 
 whole loads of gold and silver ! — he who should 
 speak thus, and do what he said, would surely bring 
 me more joyful tidings, should find me readier 
 to do for it what he required, and to perform the 
 conditions which he imposed, though they should be 
 above measure hard and heavy. Let us then rather 
 make no comparisons ; let us not detract from the 
 value of the heavenly blessings ; but as long as we 
 are on earth, the earthly will profit us more. Such 
 is the language of the world ; not that of the worst 
 and vilest of the world, but of those who, even 
 above others, call themselves rational, call them- 
 selves men who understand their interest. Let us 
 then see, from near by, wherein consists that great 
 
196 SERMONS. 
 
 value of earthly treasures, and whether they deserve 
 to be so highly 'extolled. 
 
 First, we can possess them, without having any 
 enjoyment from them ; for we lack appetite or 
 health, or a hidden grief gnaws at our heart, or 
 we can obtain everything besides the very one that 
 is the object of our most fervent desire, and, in the 
 midst of luxury and plenty, we see and feel our- 
 selves poor ! Secondly, they who possess them 
 have generally the least enjoyment from them. 
 Follow in your thoughts the number of the rich, 
 and judge if your experience does not confirm this. 
 Here, the heart is closed by covetousness, and the 
 man misses as well what he has as what he has not. 
 There, the desire is the more inflamed by the posses- 
 sion, and the man spares through fear of not yet 
 having enough. Yonder men loathe their enjoy- 
 ments, that can be too easily obtained, and find no 
 relish in all the things on account of which alone 
 others would desire to be rich. Or has a man, 
 thirdly, the rare fortune to be with the possession 
 also susceptible of the enjoyment, oh, on what a 
 perilous, slippery path is he then placed, to surren- 
 der himself to intemperance and licentiousness ; to 
 live only for pleasure and sensuality, and to make 
 of his belly a God ; to see all good impressions 
 choked amid the weeds of fleshly lust ! Finally, 
 earthly treasures profit us least when we most need 
 profit from them. "When we lie stretched on a 
 painful sick-bed, when domestic affliction pierces 
 our heart, when our dearest pledges are torn from 
 us, when death looks in at our windows, — what are 
 
SERMONS. 197 
 
 then gold and precious stones in our eyes, since we 
 envy the lot of the poor day - laborer, who, with 
 sound limbs, enjoys the precious light of life, and has 
 no care save for his daily bread ? In one word, 
 could we go round to every dwelling, and spy the 
 inside of the families, to see where the greatest 
 serenity, contentment, the greatest and best enjoy- 
 ment of life were found, would it indeed be in the 
 mansions of the rich where we should see it ? The 
 response to this question I leave, my hearers, to 
 yourselves. 
 
 Do you think that I have too greatly detracted 
 from the value of earthly riches ? it is because their 
 value is generally too highly extolled and exagger- 
 ated. Let him on whom they are bestowed by the 
 hand of God, or who gathers them as the fruits of 
 his honest industry, enjoy thankfully what he can 
 or may enjoy of them, and strive above all to be 
 also rich in God ! But he serves Mammon, whose 
 thoughts and desires, whose restless chase and en- 
 deavor, are simply to gather money and property ; 
 him I denominate a poor, unhappy slave ! 
 
 Fix now your eyes on the treasures of the heav- 
 enly kingdom, righteousness, peace, and joy in the 
 Holy Ghost ; knowledge, virtue, and blessedness 
 through Jesus Christ ! Consider what enjoyment 
 you can have from those blessings, in youth and old 
 age, in occupation and rest, in joy and sorrow, in 
 life and death ! Does there indeed lie concealed in 
 the bowels of the earth, or in the depths of the sea, 
 a treasure that is to be esteemed above this, that is 
 to be placed in competition with this ? Where is 
 
198 SERMONS. 
 
 the jewel, though destined to adorn the crown or 
 sceptre of a monarch, that can be sold so dear, for 
 which so much is to be demanded ? Oh happy they 
 who have found that heavenly treasure, that celes- 
 tial pearl ! No lack nor care have they any more 
 to fear ; all their wants, the purest desires of their 
 souls, shall be supplied and satisfied. Seek that 
 treasure, that pearl, my beloved ; though they 
 should cost you gold and pearls, you could not pay 
 too high a price for them ! But they lie before you ; 
 and at your request they will certainly become 
 yours, from Him who in his Son will bestow on you 
 the entire riches of his love and deity ! Seek that 
 treasure, that pearl ; for you cannot dispense with 
 them. Earthly treasures you can dispense with ; 
 many are without them, and are happy in moderate, 
 and even in straitened circumstances. Earthly 
 treasures we must leave behind, when we all, equally 
 poor and naked, sink in the dark grave. But the 
 blessings of God's kingdom we cannot dispense with ; 
 however we may conceal it from ourselves and 
 others, disguise and endeavor to forget it in the 
 diversions of the world, we cannot be without 
 them without becoming wretched and miserable. 
 What a life is it never to think of God, not to 
 thank him for his benefits, never to dare descend 
 into one's own heart, without peace of mind, in 
 fear of death and eternity ! What a life, on the 
 contrary, to live in nearness to the heavenly Father, 
 reverently to follow the course of his love, to lose 
 one's self in the riches of his compassions in Christ 
 Jesus ! cheerful, genial, as an honor to society, as a 
 
SERMONS. 199 
 
 blessing to humanity ; tranquil in God, whatever the 
 fickleness of the world may produce, and on the 
 approach of the dying hour laying himself down 
 confidently, like the wearied traveller on his couch, 
 awaiting a joyful morning ! This is to be rich ; this 
 is to possess treasures ! What worldly good can be 
 compared with this? This is the kingdom of 
 heaven, my beloved, revealed and founded by 
 Jesus ; this is the gospel of salvation ! Esteem 
 yourselves, then, rich and happy when you have 
 found it, and, whatever befall you, never complain of 
 your lot. Esteem yourselves rich and happy with 
 such a gospel ; what can you not dispense with 
 having such a possession ? what can you not bear 
 for such a recompense ? And what you now enjoy 
 is only a faint foretaste of what shall be granted you 
 from the full riches of your Lord, when his king- 
 dom shall be revealed in glory ! Amen. 
 
200 SERMONS. 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 THE RAISING OF THE YOUNG MAN AT 
 
 NAIN. 
 
 And it came to pass the day after, that he went into a city called 
 Nam: and many of his disciples went with him, and much people. 
 
 Now, when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a 
 dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: 
 and much people of the city was with her. 
 
 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said 
 unto her, Weep not. 
 
 And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood 
 still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. 
 
 And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak: and he deliv- 
 ered him to his mother. 
 
 And there came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a 
 great prophet is risen up among us ; and, That God hath visited his 
 people. — Luke vii. 11-16. 
 
 There is between the deeds of Jesus, during his 
 walk on earth, and the works of God, who sent 
 him, a certain unmistakable feature of resemblance ; 
 such as that between the Heavenly Father and the 
 only begotten Son must naturally be. As soon as 
 we cast our eye on any part of the extensive crea- 
 tion, our attention is at once arrested by one or 
 other perfection of the great Creator, shining forth 
 therein ; but on each renewed contemplation we find 
 more and successively more of these perfections 
 revealed in every object. Where we first noticed 
 only beauty, we presently find also just placing, 
 afterwards utility, matchless skill ; till wisdom, good- 
 
SERMONS. 201 
 
 ness, and power, uniting before our enraptured con- 
 templation, wholly penetrate us with the idea of end- 
 less magnificence. Not otherwise is it with us, my 
 hearers, when we fix our attention on all that Jesus 
 performed in this world. Every attentive person 
 presently sees, in each of his acts, now a trait of his 
 heavenly character, then a wise and sublime design, 
 presently an evidence of his incomparable greatness, 
 or a preparation of successively more momentous 
 events, a brilliant development of the hidden pur- 
 pose of his mission. And when all this has been 
 step by step disclosed to us, and we now think we 
 know and penetrate all the designs and all the attri- 
 butes of his deeds, there still remains, for every 
 renewed meditation, more to be noticed and more 
 to be admired ! Let no one think that this is boast- 
 ing, or a consequence of foolish prepossession. No, 
 let us carefully observe every one of Jesus' acts ; let 
 us endeavor to penetrate his meaning and to read 
 his heart ; let us follow him thus on his walk, from 
 the time that he humbly and beneficently began his 
 course, till he painfully but gloriously finished it ; 
 and at each successive step it will become clearer to 
 us that he who had seen him had also seen the 
 Father, that God can be known in the face of his 
 Son ! 
 
 We have now before us one of the most momen- 
 tous acts of Jesus during his prophetic mission, — the 
 raising of a dead man, who was the only son of a 
 widow. And who does not at once see therein the 
 expanded and sublime philanthropy of our compas- 
 sionate Saviour? Who not the unlimited power 
 
202 SERMONS. 
 
 with which he was invested ? Who not the con- 
 firmation of the glorious title which he gave him- 
 self, that he was the resurrection and the life ? 
 Who, finally, recognizes not in this philanthropic, 
 mighty conqueror of death and the grave, the only 
 and sufficient Redeemer of mankind? These par- 
 ticulars I would in this hour briefly unfold to you, 
 after having with few words illustrated the narrative 
 of the event. 
 
 Thou, Lord Jesus, Son and image of him whom 
 we adore as our God and our Father, give us to 
 understand and to feel something of thy heavenly 
 mind, that we, revering thee, and believing in thee, 
 may thus also, as thou hast promised thy friends, be 
 raised up b} r thee at the last day. Amen ! 
 
 I. I must then, in the first place, explain in few 
 words the account of the occurrence ; if it may be 
 called explanation, that I briefly mention some small 
 particulars passed over by the evangelist ; unfold 
 somewhat more fully others, only just touched on 
 by him ; and place you and myself in that frame of 
 mind which the nature of this affecting occurrence, 
 and the simple, beautiful style of Luke, must cause 
 to be produced in us. 
 
 In the province of Galilee, not far from the cele- 
 brated Tabor, at the foot of the little Hermon, lay 
 the small city Nain, in whose vicinity the miracle 
 was performed, which we are now going to contem- 
 plate together. Thither Jesus had directed his 
 steps from Capernaum, where, the day before, with- 
 out touching him, or even seeing him, he had, by 
 the single word of his will, healed the servant of a 
 
SERMONS. 203 
 
 Roman centurion of a mortal sickness. This occur- 
 rence had made a deep impression of amazement 
 and interest in the wonder-working prophet ; and it 
 was therefore not strange, when he was, the day fol- 
 lowing, seen withdrawing with his disciples from the 
 city, that besides these also much people went with 
 Mm. 
 
 I seem to see this numerous company proceeding 
 in a stately manner through the magnificent district. 
 Jesus is accessible to each, affable to all. Now he 
 converses with his disciples ; then he answers the 
 questions of some from among the multitude ; and, 
 when these are of particular moment, or are brought 
 to him in the name of many, he beckons to them to 
 keep silence, or commands all to be seated around 
 him, and, standing in their midst, he speaks to them 
 of the things of his kingdom. 
 
 Thus slowly advancing, they were not far from 
 the gate of Nain, when they were met by another 
 multitude from the city. From the profound still- 
 ness and dejection that reigned among them, and 
 from the lamentations of some, it was quickly per- 
 ceived that they accompanied a funeral procession. 
 Presently the bier was also seen, and the dead lying 
 thereon, and beside it a disconsolate woman, whose 
 profound grief seemed to break the hearts of all 
 present. Inquiry was made, and it was soon ascer- 
 tained that the dead was an only son of his mother, 
 and that the mother was a widow. What an affect- 
 ing death. An only child of his mother, in whom 
 were united all her worldly prospects of joy and 
 pleasure, and with whom she had lost all ! Of this 
 
204 SERMONS. 
 
 I say no more ; the unutterable woe and oppression 
 of the maternal heart can be expressed by no lan- 
 guage ! And this mother was a widow. She had 
 no husband to comfort her ; the last of love's ten- 
 derest ties had now been severed, and she must sur- 
 vive all her grief ! The child, that must be to her 
 at once husband and son, the stay of her declining 
 years, perhaps her only security against an indigent 
 old age, she accompanied with her tears to the 
 grave ; and cherished, it may be, the secret wish 
 that soon the same earth might cover her and her 
 darlino- ! 
 
 It will not now surprise you, my hearers, that 
 there was so great a multitude out of the city with 
 her. For we must confess, to the honor of our na- 
 ture, that sensibility and sympathy can yet warm 
 our bosom, and that often the loud laughter of joy 
 has less attraction for us than to shed tears with the 
 unhappy. But we may also safely conclude from 
 this general mourning that both mother and son 
 were numbered among the virtuous of the city ; for 
 had the widow been a degenerate mother, or the son 
 a base child, his corpse would have been borne to 
 the grave unattended and unlamented ! 
 
 Thus far have I been able, my hearers, by ampli- 
 fication, or unfolding, to bring the account of Luke 
 somewhat nearer to your imagination. But now 
 that the evangelist is going to exhibit to us Jesus in 
 the midst of this multitude, beside the funeral bier, 
 between the mother and the dead, — what he, the 
 only Jesus, felt and performed by it, and how he, by 
 the utterance of a few words, converted this scene 
 
SERMONS. 205 
 
 of affliction and mourning into a spectacle of amaze- 
 ment and rapture, — now, I feel that courage and 
 strength fail me, and that nothing else is left for me 
 than to give you a more vivid conception of the 
 beauty, the force, the majesty, of the words em- 
 ployed by Luke. 
 
 Or can I draw the deep and hearty feeling which 
 penetrated the soul of Jesus, at the sight of the dis- 
 consolate mother, more emphatically and visibly 
 than with these words : and ivhen the Lord saw her, 
 he had compassion on her? or, according to the let- 
 ter of the original, he felt his boivels yearn over her ! 
 He, the Lord ! in whose human feelings even shone 
 forth in an inexpressible manner that he was the 
 Lord of glory ! Shall I drown in a flood of many 
 others the two words, weep not, which he addressed 
 to the woman, being the only ones which he now 
 would and could utter ? Yes, could I portray with 
 what an expression of countenance and bearing he 
 approached her, with what a deeply moved tone of 
 tenderness and comfort, inspiring faith and confi- 
 dence, he uttered this weep not, then certainly you 
 would not impute it to me for evil, if I knew how 
 to say much on this little. But the disciples them- 
 selves, who saw and heard him, never ventured to 
 give us a description of all this ; and let then the 
 knowledge thereof be reserved for us, till we also 
 shall see him in the midst of his friends and re- 
 deemed ! 
 
 If the description of how Jesus was affected at 
 the sight of the heart-breaking sorrow of the mother 
 is inimitable in the expression of feeling and truth, 
 
206 SERMONS. 
 
 not less so is the majesty with which the miracle is 
 related. And he came, thus we read, and touched 
 the bier : the bearers understood that signal, and 
 stood reverently still ; for that the great prophet, 
 who otherwise meddled with no one's affairs, and 
 let the dead bury their dead, in such a mysterious, 
 imperative manner touched the funeral bier, — this 
 of itself excited a dark presentiment that something 
 wonderful would happen, that perhaps the spirit 
 and power of Elias would manifest themselves in 
 him ! 
 
 Young man, I say unto thee, Arise ! Imagine 
 these words uttered, as alone the Son and the image 
 of God could utter them ! As he must have ut- 
 tered them at the moment that the thought, / am 
 the resurrection and the life, filled his whole soul. 
 Young man, I say unto thee, Arise! What myste- 
 rious words : thou dead, I command thee, live ! But 
 still more wonderful, the dead hears that voice and 
 revives ! The fettered animal spirits are again 
 loosened ; the heart beats, the coagulated blood 
 again flows ; the color returns to the cheeks, the 
 soul to its forsaken habitation ; and the dead, but 
 now reviving, sits up, raised up by the hand of 
 Jesus ! Who is he, pray, whose voice sounds even 
 into the kingdom of the dead ? And this was no 
 imagination, no illusion of the senses. The young 
 man presently showed the most evident signs of life, 
 and began to speak. God's spirit, my hearers, com- 
 municates to us in his Word no particulars of mere 
 curiosity. How gladly would we otherwise know 
 the first stammering words of the young man, awak- 
 
SERMONS. 207 
 
 ing on a death-bier, amid the concomitants of a 
 funeral solemnity, and at the hand of Jesus ! How 
 gladly should we see this, and the sweet confusion 
 of his senses, and the affecting surprise of the 
 mother, described by the pen of a Luke ! Perhaps 
 we shall feel something of all this when we also, at 
 the last of the days, shall awake from the sleep of 
 death, and see our brethren arise beside us ! 
 
 One more act of silent greatness did Jesus add to 
 the preceding miracle. He himself conducted the 
 young man from the bier to his mother. The evan- 
 gelist says : he gave him to his mother. Certainly, 
 she now received her child from Jesus, as a gift 
 from his hand ! That she did not speak, that trans- 
 port held her tongue fettered, that she, with the 
 youth at her bosom, adoringly fell down before Je- 
 sus, and felt more than ever a human tongue will be 
 able to express, Luke needed not to mention. But 
 Jesus also probably did not now speak ; great and 
 unspeakable, divine and human sentiments pene- 
 trated him ; and all his acts, his countenance, his 
 bearing, his silence even was expressive ! 
 
 What impression this amazing occurrence made 
 on the bystanders is communicated to us at the close 
 of this account. And there came a fear on all : and 
 they glorified Gfod, saying, That a great prophet is 
 risen up among us ; and, Tliat G-od hath visited his 
 people ! Of many of Jesus' miracles it is mentioned 
 to us that they produced a different effect on dif- 
 ferent ones of the beholders ; and, whilst some re- 
 garded the authority of his heavenly mission thereby 
 incontrovertibly established, that others doubted, 
 
208 SERMONS. 
 
 contradicted, suspected deceit and sorcery, or could 
 not believe, because they would not believe. But 
 of this miracle we read that it made on all present 
 one and the same impression, of reverential awe and 
 God-glorifying acknowledgment of Jesus' worth 
 and greatness. And indeed all was here so dis- 
 posed that even the most obstinate Pharisee, at this 
 moment, could not divest himself of these devout 
 sentiments, and was in spite of himself constrained 
 to unite his voice with that of the applauding mul- 
 titude. In a slow and stately manner, Jesus, with 
 his company, was approaching the city, when sud- 
 denly the sight of a funeral procession, the corpse 
 of a young man, a weeping multitude, a sobbing 
 widow, brought them to a stand. They see how 
 Jesus is overtaken and disquieted by sudden emo- 
 tion ; presently his countenance and bearing are 
 restored, and exhibit an inimitable majesty ; he 
 commands, and the dead rises up, speaks, and falls 
 into the arms of his mother ! No ! here could be 
 no collusion ; here no deception nor sorcery ; here 
 no base design nor illusion of the senses could have 
 place ; nor even the suspicion thereof arise in any ; 
 fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying : 
 A prophet, a great prophet, has arisen among us, 
 and God, who seemed to have forsaken his people, 
 by withholding from us so many ages long his mes- 
 sengers, God has visited his people ! I have felt the 
 more constrained to notice this, because we are now, 
 alas, obliged to confirm the genuineness of such 
 accounts by internal marks of sincerity, and to vin- 
 dicate even Jesus from the cowardly accusation, as 
 
SERMONS. 209 
 
 if he by vain tricks knew how to mislead the multi- 
 tude. Respecting this I shall not now spend any 
 more words, but at once pass over, to cause you, 
 
 II. In the second place, to revere, in this mar- 
 vellous scene, Jesus, the greatest philanthropist; 
 Jesus, invested with unlimited power ; Jesus, the 
 resurrection and the life; Jesus, the Redeemer of 
 mankind. I shall, however, comprise all this in a 
 narrow compass, and endeavor to bring these scat- 
 tered traits so near to each other that the unity of 
 the heavenly image be not lost. 
 
 To estimate the philanthropy of Jesus, as it shone 
 forth in this occurrence, at its true value, we must 
 contemplate it as having flowed from a sympathiz- 
 ing heart, as practised from noble principles, and as 
 exercised in an inimitable manner. 
 
 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on 
 her. It was, then, the anguish alone of the incon- 
 solable mother, it was Jesus' friendly participation 
 in that anguish, that induced him to work this mir- 
 acle. At the sight of it his bowels were deeply 
 moved within him, and his emotion became too 
 powerful for him. He therefore turns at once to 
 the woman, and can hardly utter the words, Weep 
 not ; and when he had raised the youth up from the 
 bier, he goes towards her, and restores her child to 
 her. Jesus, who knows that all earthly losses are 
 simply separations for a time, that we must contem- 
 plate them in the light of the future life, and mod- 
 erate our grief, cannot, however, bear the idea of 
 seeing a feeble woman, at the grave of her only son, 
 choked with grief ! Jesus, who knows the insignifi- 
 
 14 
 
210 SERMONS. 
 
 cance and unworthiness of mortals, and knows that 
 they have justly deserved even the most grievous 
 calamities, is not, however, proof against the tears 
 of maternal anguish. Where he sees them flow, 
 though it must cost him the highest proof of his 
 power, he will stop that flood of tears ! What an 
 example of sincere and active sensibility ! Woe to 
 him who stops his ears and closes his heart to the 
 unfortunate. Jesus will be his Judge ! 
 
 To do good is the great vocation of our humanity. 
 To gladden the sorrowful, to deliver the unfortunate 
 out of distress and trouble, to scatter blessings and 
 diffuse happiness around us, and in doing this to be 
 satisfied with the consciousness of doing our duty 
 and the will of God, without aiming at reward or 
 honor from men, — this we call to do good from no- 
 ble principles ; and this is also the striking charac- 
 teristic of all the good that Jesus performed. Had 
 he by his miracles aimed at bringing himself into 
 esteem and credit, securing fame or wealth, what an 
 entirely different course must he then have pursued. 
 You see him not at the sick-beds of the Jewish 
 magnates, by miraculous cures soliciting remunera- 
 tion or applause. Who knows how many of them, 
 in the time of his travels, had lost an only or be- 
 loved child, which they would gladly, with the half 
 of their treasures, have purchased back from him ; 
 yet he passes their dwellings by, and has not even a 
 sign to make them ashamed. But does he see an 
 unfortunate widow, who with her only child has lost 
 all, who now supposes herself forsaken of God and 
 man, and knows no other refuge than the hospitable 
 
SERMONS. 211 
 
 grave, whither she attends the precious corpse, pres- 
 ently he feels himself subdued and overcome by 
 commiseration of humanity ; he feels an irresistible 
 impulse to set at work all the power granted him, 
 and rather to loosen the bands of death than do vio- 
 lence to his inward feeling for the holiest ties of 
 nature ! This, my beloved, I call doing good from 
 noble principles ! 
 
 And would you see your admiration of his love 
 rise still higher ; behold, then, in what a silent and 
 sublime manner he exercises his beneficence. The 
 account of Luke is, in the representation of this, 
 beautiful and inimitable. How little does Jesus 
 say ; how he does all that he does without ostenta- 
 tion and without preparation ! Weep not, is all that 
 he says to the mother, and he tells her not what will 
 happen. He demands not that the bearers stand 
 still, but touches the bier. The entire miracle con- 
 sists in the words : Young man, arise ! He raises 
 him up, leads him to his mother, and therewith has- 
 tens away, to avoid all adulation and all thanks. 
 Thus, thus, must we be philanthropic, to secure 
 approbation with God ! 
 
 But the Saviour felt not only the mother's grief; 
 in her joy he would also share, and enjoy her look 
 of transport. Therefore he himself restored her son 
 to her, as an evidence that he had raised him up for 
 her sake, and in order to lay upon her an eternal 
 obligation. Who does not gratefully acknowledge 
 the value of this participation of our Redeemer in 
 the suffering and in the joy of his brethren ? Surely, 
 we have a merciful Hip'h Priest ! He feels all the 
 
 D 
 
212 SERMONS. 
 
 burdens of the oppressed heart ; he delights in the 
 gladness of every one of his redeemed ; and we 
 bear, as Christians, the name of the greatest philan- 
 thropist. 
 
 When we thus, my hearers, pay our homage to 
 the goodness and philanthropy of Jesus, we must at 
 the same time raise our respect for him higher ; for 
 the raising of a dead man is a benefit that far tran- 
 scends human ability, and we must thus with rever- 
 ence notice here the unlimited potver granted him. 
 
 I speak with premeditation of the unlimited power 
 granted him, and not of his divine omnipotence. 
 For though for the performance of wonders such as 
 Jesus did, no less power were required than that of 
 the Creator of entire nature, we know that the Al- 
 mighty often exercised this miraculous power through 
 men ; and at their word, by their intervention, allowed 
 the most amazing signs to occur ; so that formerly 
 Zarephath and Shunem were witnesses of the same 
 astounding miracle as Nain and Bethany. And this 
 was, also the effect that it had on the bystanders. 
 They said not, God has appeared in our midst ; but, 
 A great prophet is risen up among us, and God 
 hath visited his people. 
 
 We should however mistake, my hearers, if we 
 should hence conclude that Jesus, in the perform- 
 ance of his miracles, did not show himself as more 
 and higher than prophet and messenger of his heav- 
 enly Father. For the prophets ascribed not to them- 
 selves such a power as Jesus ascribed to himself ; 
 and if they also performed miracles, they did it not as 
 Jesus did. Who of those ancient men of God ever 
 
SERMONS. 213 
 
 said of himself, Before Abraham was, I am, or 
 styled himself greater than Solomon ? Read their 
 oracles ; with what a timid scrupulousness do you 
 find the words, Thus hath the Lord spoken unto 
 me, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, repeated 
 at the beginning and the end of each sentence. 
 Whilst Jesus represented himself as having with 
 his doctrine descended from heaven, and whose 
 authoritative declaration, Verily, I say unto you, 
 must cause all doubting to cease. None of the 
 prophets ever presumed to forgive sin ; and though 
 their confidence in God and their love to God 
 had no limits, they did not, however, call Him 
 their own father, nor say, My Father worheth hith- 
 erto, and I work ; I and my Father are one. If, 
 then, miracles must serve to confirm the authority 
 of the miracle-worker, and to make it for every one 
 undeniable that he was what he professed to be, can 
 we deny that the miracles of Jesus stand in insep- 
 arable connection with the incomprehensible dignity 
 of his person, and the unlimited power attached 
 thereto ? 
 
 And to this corresponds also the manner in which 
 he performed these acts of heavenly authority ; so 
 as they were not performed by any of the earlier 
 messengers of God, not even by a Moses, nor an 
 Elias. Compare the raising of the widow's child at 
 Zarephath, — for that of the son of the Shunamite by 
 Elisha can still less come into consideration here, — 
 compare this greatest of Elijah's miracles with what 
 you see take place at Nain, and you will see that 
 they, as evidences of power and authority granted 
 
214 SERMONS. 
 
 to a man, cannot be compared with one another. 
 Elijah shuts himself up with the dead, prays fer- 
 vently, stretches himself upon the corpse, till he 
 finally perceives life returning into it. But Jesus 
 speaks and acts as the Almighty God himself, visi- 
 bly walking about on earth, would have spoken and 
 acted. He pra}*s not, but he himself commands ; he 
 awaits no higher influence, but he resolves and 
 does what wells up from his heart. As he commands 
 the woman that she shall cease her weeping, so he 
 commands also the dead that he shall arise ; and as 
 the bearers obey his signal, the dead also obeys his 
 command ! Everything is astonished, amazed, agi- 
 tated, because all nature reveres him, and death and 
 life are at his service ! I admit he did not always 
 perform his miracles in such a sublime and majestic 
 manner, because the multitude could not endure 
 that heavenly splendor, and he had a career of hu- 
 miliation to finish. But here it is as if he, sur- 
 prised and overcome by the tenderest affection, 
 shows himself wholly as he is, and sets aside all 
 other considerations, in order simply to help and to 
 deliver, as God alone, as alone the Son of God can 
 help and deliver. 
 
 The Son of God ; yes, my beloved, it is this to 
 which we must adhere when we would in any meas- 
 ure represent to ourselves that union of the divine 
 and human which manifested itself so resplendently 
 but mysteriously in Jesus. And should we then 
 esteem the servant equal with the Son ? Let then 
 the Son have received all his power from the Father, 
 and without the Father be able to do nothing ; yet 
 
SERMONS. 215 
 
 lie as Son commands in the great paternal house, 
 and all things are for the Father's sake subject to 
 him. Dispenser of the paternal favors, heir and 
 partaker of the paternal honor, he is the effulgence 
 of the Father's glory, and the express image of his 
 person ! * 
 
 But if this miracle is important to us, in order to 
 assure us of the divine dignity of our Saviour, it is 
 not less so, when we bring it into connection with 
 the hope of our future resurrection, and so revere in 
 it Jesus as the resurrection and the life. 
 
 I am the resurrection and the life. This remark- 
 able saying of Jesus himself became still more so 
 by that which he subjoined to it : he that believeth in 
 me, though he were dead, yet shall he live ; and be- 
 came so most of all by the occasion on which he 
 uttered it, for he was then on his way to raise Laz- 
 arus his friend ! We may not, then, overlook the 
 connection that there is between Jesus' miraculous 
 raising of the dead and his consolatory promise : he 
 that cometh to me and believeth in me, I will raise 
 him up at the last day. 
 
 The belief of a blessed immortality is, according 
 to the entire doctrine of Jesus and his apostles, 
 most closely connected with the belief of a future 
 resurrection. The comfort of the gospel is not sat- 
 isfied in translating us into an unknown kingdom of 
 spirits ; but promises us also that we shall live again, 
 and that the marvellous structure of the human 
 body is therefore alone destroyed and dissolved, that 
 it, enriched with new, and to us unknown, perfec- 
 
 1 Zdfstandiyheid, — self-existence. 
 
216 SERMONS. 
 
 tions, may rise again as from its ashes, and awake 
 to immortality and glory ! This doctrine was the 
 soul of Jesus' entire preaching, on which he fixed 
 all the prospects of his attendants and disciples, and 
 for which he required of them that they should be 
 faithful to him even unto death. And the an- 
 nouncer of this doctrine not only confirms his heav- 
 enly authority by other amazing signs, he not only 
 recalls the sick to health, but also the dead to life, 
 and thus shows himself possessed of power to wrest 
 from the grave its prey. Shall we refuse belief to 
 this Prophet, when he reveals to us this doctrine, in 
 order to acknowledge no other authority than that 
 of our shallow penetration ? No, we impose silence 
 on the presumptuous reflections of our deceptive 
 intellect. We revere the wonders of God's coun- 
 sel, brought to light by Jesus, and say to him : Yes, 
 Jesus, thou art the resurrection and the life ! 
 
 Yet we need not dissemble it, that the belief of 
 our future resurrection is a great belief; and that 
 the possibility of a resurrection of this body, when 
 we at the same time endeavor to represent to our- 
 selves the manner of it, appears to us doubtful, and 
 wellnicrh inconceivable. But how much is there in 
 the natural and moral kingdom of God that seems 
 to us impossible and inconceivable ! To somewhat 
 assist us, however, even in this, God has by his en- 
 voys caused the dead to be recalled to life ; and all 
 who, at their bidding, above all, they who arose from 
 the dead at the voice of Jesus, stand as so many 
 proofs of the possibility of our resurrection. It is 
 true, the bodies of those dead had not yet passed 
 
SERMONS. 217 
 
 into a state of putrefaction and dissolution ; but the 
 spark of life was however extinguished, and the 
 whole animal economy had been brought into that 
 state of which the putrefaction and dissolution must 
 be the inevitable consequence. In our view it may 
 differ to cause such a corpse, or one whose parts 
 are already mouldered or dispersed, scattered hither 
 and thither, or mingled with others, to revive ; be- 
 fore the will and the power of God this difference 
 vanishes, and the same voice of Jesus, that said to 
 the young man, Arise ! can also collect the dust that 
 has been scattered for ages, and cause man to rise 
 again from his ashes. Yes, Jesus, thou art the resur- 
 rection and the life. Did this appear here at Nain, 
 and afterwards at Capernaum and Bethany ; so shall 
 it also appear at the last of the days, when all graves 
 shall be opened, and the trump of the archangel 
 shall vibrate through the air, to assemble us before 
 the tribunal of thee, our Lord ! 
 
 When we now, my hearers, combine the three 
 particulars already developed : that Jesus possessed 
 an unbounded love to men ; that Jesus was invested 
 with unlimited power ; that even death and the grave 
 were subject to him ; does not then the fourth, that 
 he was the Redeemer of men, naturally and of itself 
 flow from thence ? I might communicate to you 
 much respecting this, and much that is important ; but 
 I shall continue to study the same brevity, and shall 
 at the same time conclude the consideration of this 
 last particular with certain admonitions and exhorta- 
 tions applicable thereto. 
 
 The truth that Jesus Christ has reconciled us to 
 
218 SERMONS. 
 
 God, procured the forgiveness of our sins, and be- 
 come to us a cause of eternal blessedness, — this truth, 
 and faith in the same, rest principally on the con- 
 templation of his death, and on the utterances of the 
 envoys furnished by him and filled with his Spirit, 
 who have infallibly pointed out to us the immovable 
 connection between that death and the salvation of 
 mankind. But these proofs I may not now enu- 
 merate, and I must only enable you to feel how 
 much strength they receive from an attentive and 
 serious consideration of what Jesus, before he poured 
 out his soul in this death, manifested of his will, 
 power, and character. Yes, thus to offer himself 
 as a voluntary sacrifice for the guilty, required a 
 matchless philanthropy. But can you conceive of 
 it as more fervent, purer, and more heavenly, than 
 we have been permitted to admire it in Jesus ? To 
 make all mankind happy, and to exclude none from 
 that blessing save him who by wilful blindness ex- 
 cludes himself; to found, to govern, to defend an 
 entire kingdom of virtue and happiness over the 
 whole earth, and to form every one of its citizens 
 for heaven; — where do we find the limits of the 
 power and greatness required for the execution of 
 such a plan ? But he, who here below, going about 
 in the form of a servant, was already invested with 
 such marvellous power, what must not his majesty 
 and glory be, now that he as Lord and King is 
 seated at the right hand of his Father in the heav- 
 ens ! If the Son of the eternal Father was so full 
 of love for guilty and lost mortals, so greatly con- 
 cerned in their grief, and so ready to help and 
 
SERMONS. 219 
 
 gladden them, can we then doubt whether the 
 Father also loves mankind, and will bestow eternal 
 life on the redeemed of his Son ? 
 
 And here, my beloved, here, yet another thought 
 arises in my mind. Why were, I pray, all the 
 wonders of Jesus' benefits shown to the unfortunate, 
 cures of sicknesses and diseases, that threatened or 
 made miserable the life of the sufferers ? Might 
 he not also have designed thereby to show that there 
 was no grief or pain from which he could not de- 
 liver ? That, whatever consequences also flowed 
 from the wretched state of sin, he could remove and 
 cure them all ? That he who could say to the par- 
 alytic, Take up thy bed, and ivalJc, had also power 
 to say to him, Be of good cheer, thy si?is are forgiven 
 thee? 
 
 And if we may suspect this design in the restora- 
 tion of the sick, how much more in the raising of 
 the dead. Death was the punishment threatened 
 in the morning of the world against sin, and exe- 
 cuted with inexorable severity. Death is the image 
 of all calamities and miseries which are the conse- 
 quences of God's lost favor, as the whole idea of 
 felicity and salvation is comprised in the one word 
 life. If, then, Jesus had power to unloose the bands 
 of death ; to snatch from him, who had the power 
 of death, his prey, and to bestow again on the de- 
 ceased the lost and forfeited life ; can we then doubt 
 whether he is the Redeemer, who saves us from 
 our sins ; who cancelled for us the sentence of 
 death, and, having nailed the handwriting of our 
 sins to his cross, was raised from the dead for 
 
220 SERMONS. 
 
 us, that we should live and reign with him for- 
 ever ? 
 
 If we, then, my brethren and sisters, have such a 
 merciful and faithful High Priest, in the things that 
 pertain to God, to expiate the sins of the world, 
 let us, with humble acknowledgment of the privi- 
 lege conferred on us, as his zealous followers and 
 friends, cherish love for his great amiability ; pay 
 respect and homage to his heavenly greatness ; rev- 
 erently confide in his grace and redemption, rejoic- 
 ing in the hope of salvation, in the day of the reve- 
 lation of his coming. But for this it is not enough 
 that we, like the multitude of his contemporaries, 
 glorify God with our lips, who hath also for us 
 raised up such a great prophet. If we devote not 
 our hearts undividedly to him, for our deficiencies 
 and transgressions seek in the inward emotions of 
 his pity pardon and remission, and invoke his mirac- 
 ulous power to cleanse our hearts, to renew them, 
 and to excite in us a new life of faith and thankful- 
 ness ; if we seek and hope for less than this from 
 him, then will the impression, which we now per- 
 haps feel of his worth and divinity, soon pass away ; 
 and whilst we, amid the cares or diversions of the 
 world, forget and disown him, death will perhaps 
 overtake us, and unexpectedly put an end to this 
 time of forbearance and preparation ! We are all 
 indeed approaching that boundary of our earthly 
 life, and no one knows how many or few paces he 
 is still distant from it ! Even the youth we see 
 lying on the funeral bier, and borne to the grave by 
 them whom he hoped to survive many years. The 
 
SERMONS 221 
 
 mother laments as well her son as the child his 
 parents ; and no youth nor vigor avails, when the 
 hour of our citation strikes. Let it then strike ear- 
 lier or later, arrive unexpectedly or longer foreseen, 
 if we have loved Jesus and known him in the 
 power of his coming, he will also be with his grace 
 and consolation near us in the fearful conflict of 
 death ; his angel shall watch over our dust, and he 
 will raise us up at the last day. Oh, joyful assur- 
 ance, with which we can tranquilly enter this 
 dark valley, and receive with resignation the part- 
 ing kiss of our dearest pledges, in the hope of a 
 blissful reunion ! Or if we have already seen them 
 go before us, and bedewed their precious remains 
 with our tears, with what a brightened eye can we 
 gaze after them, hoping to receive them, once and 
 forever, from the hand of Jesus ! 
 
 Merciful and faithful High Priest of our profes- 
 sion, initiate us into this lively and infallible hope ! 
 Sprinkle us to this end with thy precious blood, the 
 blood of the better covenant ; and dwell in us with 
 thy spirit, the spirit of love and of mercy, that shall 
 rejoice against judgment ! Amen. 
 
222 SERMONS. 
 
 SERMON in. 
 
 COMPLETE REDEMPTION IN JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us 
 wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. — 
 1 Cor. i. 30. 
 
 It is my purpose to address you this morning on 
 a subject which is at all times and even above all 
 others worthy of our attentive consideration and 
 serious reflection, but now especially deserves to 
 occupy us, as the customary passion-preaching will 
 be resumed among us this evening, from which it 
 will appear, in a number of striking and affect- 
 ing particulars, how much it cost the great suf- 
 ferer to redeem us from the guilt and punish- 
 ment of sin, when he became obedient to his 
 Father, even to the death of the cross. I will 
 therefore speak to you on the greatness and value 
 of the merits of Jesus in relation to the human race, 
 and our obligation thence arising to the eternal 
 Father, who gave his Son for us. Let us prepare 
 ourselves for this meditation by humble and filial 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 Father in heaven ! Father of all thy creatures ! 
 Father in Christ Jesus of all who confess his name 
 and who are disposed to serve thee in uprightness 
 
SERMONS. 223 
 
 of heart ! We appear before thee with humble 
 thanksgiving for all the good which we have again 
 received from thee, of which all the days of our 
 life, and also the week which we have been per- 
 mitted to bring to a close, bear witness ; we are 
 less than all the mercies and all the truth which 
 thou showest unto us. Thy favor reacheth unto 
 heaven, therefore the children of men take refuge 
 under the shadow of thy wings. But of all thy 
 gifts and favors this is the greatest, that Thou hast 
 given thy Son for us, that whosoever believeth in 
 him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 
 That thou didst send him into the world, not only 
 by his doctrine and his walk to be the light of the 
 world, but also to make atonement for our sins by 
 his blood ; to fill by his sufferings and death the 
 chasm which separated the fallen posterity of Adam 
 from thee ; to give us again an interest in thy for- 
 feited favor ; and to be for us all that we need for 
 time and eternity, in order that we may enjoy tran- 
 quillity, comfort, and happiness. We shall now again 
 continue, in our religious gatherings, to employ 
 our minds with the history of his last hours, when 
 he was led as a lamb to the slaughter, to take away 
 the sins of the world. Oh, that these meditations 
 may be to us all sacred and precious ! that they 
 may, however oft repeated, be to us ever welcome 
 and ever new, that we may never grow weary of 
 following him constantly from step to step on his 
 way to Golgotha, where he offered to thee the 
 oblation of the most perfect obedience for our eter- 
 nal salvation. 
 
224 SERMONS. 
 
 To this end impress on our hearts what we should 
 be without him, the only Saviour ; what we are 
 and can become through him, who of thee is made 
 unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctifica- 
 tion and redemption. On these things would we 
 meditate at this time ; may our meditation be ac- 
 ceptable to thee, and prove a rich blessing to us 
 all ! Grant us now the influence of thy Holy 
 Spirit, that speaker and hearers may be animated 
 by the same, and the congregation receive the 
 word in meekness and fear, to the exciting of sin- 
 cere desires after thy salvation, to the strengthen- 
 ing and confirmation of the faith of all who love 
 thee and thy Son in sincerity. Our Father, etc. 
 
 This first chapter of Paul's First Epistle to the 
 Corinthians may also be numbered among the ex- 
 amples of the unfettered style which the apostle 
 for the most part employs in the writing of his Epis- 
 tles ; in which the ideas follow each other, as the 
 one flows out of the other, without a plan formed 
 according to the rules of art, or a premeditated 
 linking together of the subjects to be presented. 
 So we hear him, after having condemned as un- 
 christian the factions which had arisen in the Cor- 
 inthian church, speak of his call to preach the 
 gospel, with the laying aside of all human wisdom ; 
 intending by this the embellishment, the ostentation, 
 and the subtilty of the rhetoric which prevailed at 
 that time among the Greeks. This gives him occa- 
 sion for that beautiful contrast between wisdom and 
 folly, strength and weakness, as they appear to God 
 
SERMONS. 225 
 
 or to men ; in order to vindicate by this means the 
 simplicity of his gospel preaching as that by which 
 the vanity of all human science and power must be 
 exposed. This leads him to cast his eye again on 
 the external condition of the Corinthian church, the 
 greatest part of whom excelled neither in knowl- 
 edge nor in power or wealth ; wherefore they 
 could not glory nor ascribe it to their own worthi- 
 ness, but must render the thanks to God alone, 
 that they had been made partakers of all the bene- 
 fits procured by Christ. Which last the Apostle 
 thus expresses in my text: Of him are ye in 
 Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, 
 and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemp- 
 tion. 
 
 I have selected this text, in order to discourse to 
 you respecting Jesus as the divinely given, com- 
 plete, and sufficient Redeemer of mankind, in whom 
 we possess all that we need for our moral perfec- 
 tion and our blessedness. 
 
 I. For this purpose I will, first, in pursuance of 
 the words of the text, exhibit to you the great ben- 
 efits which God has bestowed on us in and through 
 Jesus ; 
 
 II. Endeavor, in the second place, to show that 
 we need nothing more, but also nothing less than 
 these, for our moral perfection and felicity ; 
 
 III. In order, finally, with few words, to excite 
 you to gratitude to God, to whom we are indebted 
 for this most transcendent of all the manifestations 
 of his favor. 
 
 I. In the words of the text what first of all 
 
 15 
 
226 SERMONS. 
 
 strikes us is the brevity and energy of the apos- 
 tolic mode of speech in the expression, Of Him are 
 ye in Christ Jesus. Do you inquire of certain mod- 
 ern expositors the meaning of these words, they 
 will tell you that they signify : by the favor of 
 God you are instructed in the doctrines of Chris- 
 tianity ; and thus for a sublime and emphatic utter- 
 ance, they substitute a phrase faint, general, and of 
 far too little significance. To be in Christ is an 
 expression that is very common to Paul, and indi- 
 cates such a union of believers with Christ, as by 
 which all that is his has also, as it were, become 
 theirs, and they, as he elsewhere expresses it, have 
 died, are risen and glorified with him. The inti- 
 mate and undivided community of all, that Jesus, 
 by his coming into the world, by his sufferings and 
 exaltation, has procured, is therefore intimated by it 
 in a manner that must lose in propriety and force 
 by every other formula of expression. Do you 
 now ask to what it is due that the believers in 
 Corinth and elsewhere enjoyed this most extensive 
 participation in the merits of Jesus ? The Apostle 
 tells us again, with very comprehensive brevity : it 
 is of Sim, of God ! by which not only is all per- 
 sonal worth on the part of man excluded, but, as 
 water wells up from a fountain, so also to God's 
 gracious appointment alone is ascribed the appli- 
 cation of all the salvation procured by Jesus. So 
 much, my hearers, is included in the words: Of 
 Him are ye in Christ Jesus. 
 
 The Apostle, now so entirely filled with the high 
 and divine value of his gospel preaching, cannot 
 
SERMONS. 227 
 
 make mention ot the privilege of being in Christ 
 Jesus, without expatiating on the greatness of this 
 privilege, and more fully indicating what is included 
 in it : ivho, he continues, namely, Christ Jesus, is made 
 of God unto us tvisdom, and righteousness, and sanc- 
 tification, and redemption. We find here four words 
 employed : wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and 
 redemption, whose literal signification we must 
 first limit, in order afterward to examine how Jesus 
 is made all this to us of God. 
 
 First, tvisdom. To this word, used in this chap- 
 ter, in different senses, according to the different de- 
 sign of the Apostle, we can, in this connection, give 
 no other signification than that of illumination of 
 the understanding, not for the acquisition of the 
 knowledge of things pertaining to this life, which 
 cannot here come into consideration, but for the 
 attainment of that which has respect to our relation 
 to God, the knowledge of ourselves and our duty. 
 It is, in a word, Christian, evangelical wisdom, which 
 here alone can be intended by Paul. The word 
 immediately following is righteousness, which by 
 some is taken in the sense of the practice of virtue. 
 And indeed it must be acknowledged that this in- 
 terpretation encounters no philological difficulty, as 
 appears from almost all those passages where the 
 same word is rendered by our translators righteous- 
 ness or justice. In this place, however, the only 
 appropriate one is that of pardon of sin, or right- 
 eousness before God; as sanctification, that is, the 
 sincere disposition to practise what is good and 
 well-pleasing to God, is mentioned in the third 
 
228 SERMONS. * 
 
 place. But in what sense must we here under- 
 stand the word redemption, which closes this enu- 
 meration ? It signifies, properly, deliverance by the 
 payment of a ransom, by which the captive is re- 
 leased from his fetters ; by which the slave is again 
 restored to freedom ; and seems, in this connection, 
 to be used by the Apostle to designate that all-sur- 
 passing measure of blessedness, that high state of 
 felicity, which is the portion of those to whom 
 Jesus is of God made wisdom, righteousness, and 
 sanctification ; as if he had said : and thereby re- 
 demption, deliverance from all misery, and enjoy- 
 ment of the highest felicity. 
 
 Behold, my hearers, what Jesus, according to 
 the plan of divine wisdom and love, has become to 
 all, who of God are in him : a cause and means of 
 true illumination of the understanding, of reconcil- 
 iation and favor with God, of purification of the 
 soul, and by all this of possession of eternal life ; 
 such a powerfully operating cause, such an infalli- 
 ble means, as if he were himself our wisdom, our 
 righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption. 
 To this end, therefore, was he sent by the Father 
 into the world, and took upon him the form of a 
 servant. For this purpose did he, the only begot- 
 ten Son who was in the bosom of the Father, 
 declare God unto us, whom no man had seen or 
 could see. 
 
 For this purpose he sojourned among men as the 
 light of the world ; by his doctrine and miracles 
 caused the truth to triumph over superstition and 
 error ; pointed out to man his high vocation, and 
 
SERMONS. 229 
 
 brought life and immortality to light. With this 
 design he became obedient to his Father even unto 
 death, in order by his bitter sufferings and ignomin- 
 ious death to make atonement for our sins by his 
 blood, and by one offering to perfect forever them 
 that are sanctified. For this purpose he procured 
 the Spirit of holiness to form hearts for his tem- 
 ples by faith, by gratitude and love, to purify unto 
 himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. 
 And by thus going about as our heavenly Teacher, 
 by thus standing at the tribunal of God for us, by 
 thus animating us with his own spirit to aid us in 
 our conflict with sins of heart and life, and to make 
 the way of godliness attractive and easy to us ; 
 thereby he has redeemed us from destruction and 
 misery, and assigned us our part in the inheritance 
 of the saints in light ! What great, what excellent 
 and inestimable benefits has God thus, in and with 
 Jesus, bestowed upon us, and which are comprised 
 in this : that he of God is made unto us wisdom, 
 righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. 
 
 II. The second part of my discourse is designed 
 to show, that we need nothing more, but also 
 nothing less, than these for our perfection and hap- 
 piness, and thus to cause you to revere in Jesus 
 the divinely given, complete, and sufficient Saviour 
 of mankind. 
 
 I know, my hearers, that I speak to sensual 
 men, as well by their body allied to the material as 
 by their soul to the spirit world. Also as sensuous 
 beings we have our necessities ; there exists for us 
 pleasure or pain, enjoyment or want, and — why 
 
230 SERMONS. 
 
 should we not name it ? — happiness or unhappiness. 
 Yet to this happiness, which is inconstant in its 
 nature, dependent on circumstances, subject to vicis- 
 situdes, and which must certainly once fail us for- 
 ever, — to this happiness or unhappiness the benefits 
 procured by Christ stand in no relation save that 
 they exhibit the value or worthlessness thereof, 
 enhance the enjoyment of the former, and render 
 the latter more endurable. Christianity places man 
 on a far more elevated stand-point, and regards him 
 not only as susceptible of more certain and purer 
 pleasures, of which he is not to be deprived by time 
 or chance, the fountain of which arises within him- 
 self and flows beyond the grave in a life of immor- 
 tality, but regards him also as above all other 
 things needing those pleasures and that spiritual 
 bliss, as without them, with all the enjoyment and 
 luxury of the world, unhappy ; and ascribes to him 
 no true happiness but that which is inseparably 
 connected with moral perfection and ennobling of 
 the mind. But in order to attain this blessedness, — 
 I need not demonstrate to you now that it is the 
 only true : you are Christians and have often heard 
 it, and have been frequently constrained against 
 your will to acknowledge it, — in order to attain this 
 felicity, you need nothing more than that which 
 Christ Jesus has become for you. Or do you sup- 
 pose that for its attainment something else or more 
 is required than an enlightened mind, a pacified 
 conscience, and a purified heart ? Let your thoughts 
 freely take the entire circuit of your spiritual ne- 
 cessities ; demand of yourselves what suffices you 
 
SERMONS. 231 
 
 now and forever, as rational beings susceptible of 
 higher enjoyment ; and no other answer can be re- 
 turned than this, — an enlightened mind, a pacified 
 conscience, and a purified heart ! 
 
 Jesus Christ is made to us of God wisdom. We 
 do not all possess the same mental powers ; we are 
 not all placed in the same situation to improve or 
 enrich them. There are many who by the allot- 
 ment of their birth, by external circumstances, or 
 by their own capacity, seem to be limited to a con- 
 tracted measure of knowledge ; but yet there is 
 learning, that lies within the reach of all ; and this 
 is just the most important and indispensable ; it is 
 that, the attainment of which is accompanied with 
 the sweetest satisfaction, and causes the clearest 
 light to arise in the soul. He who is instructed in 
 the school of Jesus, — and in this school all pupils are 
 received, even those who are not admitted into the 
 school of human wisdom, — he who is taught in the 
 school of Jesus, learns there to know God in the 
 sublimest and most amiable, and at the same time 
 in the most simple light, as if the eternal Being 
 descended to the level of each one's capacity. He 
 does not fully comprehend the deep things of God, 
 but he knows what God is and will be for him ; 
 what he must be for God, what God will have him 
 become and be ! He who possesses this knowledge 
 is rich, though he be unlettered and not versed in 
 human science ; he who lacks or contemns this 
 knowledge is poor, though he may have discovered 
 the secrets of nature and calculated the course of 
 the stars ; and even though the disciples of Jesus' 
 
232 SERMONS. 
 
 school should, through the conceit of the worldly 
 wise, be denominated fools and weak, the Apostle 
 has declared, The foolishness of God is wiser than 
 men ; and the weakness of God is stronger than men : 
 Jesus Christ, and he alone, is made to us of God 
 wisdom ! 
 
 But also righteousness, pardon of guilt. A con- 
 science at ease before men is a great treasure, but 
 infinitely greater a conscience at ease before God ! 
 Are there those who seem to fear no heavenly 
 Judge of their actions ; they are such as are lamen- 
 tably deceived, whose eyes will too late be opened. 
 The history of mankind in all ages can testify — and 
 thousands of cruel propitiatory and bloody offer- 
 ings of human victims confirm it — how high a value 
 peace of conscience has for the child of Adam 
 sunk in the guilt of sin. But no penances, how- 
 ever severe, no offerings, how oft soever repeated, 
 can pacify the troubled conscience ; and the hope 
 based on mercy cannot banish from the heart the 
 dread of righteous retribution. But Jesus Christ 
 is made to us of God righteousness ; he brought 
 with him from heaven the letter of our acquittal 
 from guilt ; he preached to us with heavenly au- 
 thority a forgiving Father in heaven ; he himself 
 became security for it with his blood. He himself 
 atoned for our guilt on Golgotha, and the Father 
 accepted that offering of eternal reconciliation, when 
 He raised him from the dead and glorified him at 
 his right hand. Oh most excellent of all privileges ! 
 Oh greatest of all benefits, procured for us by Jesus ! 
 He is made to us of God righteousness ! Who shall 
 
SERMONS. 233 
 
 lay anything to the charge of God's elect ? There is 
 therefore now no condemnation to them which are in 
 Christ Jesus ! 
 
 There is no condemnation to them which are in 
 Christ Jesus ; so spake the same Apostle ; but he 
 immediately adds, who walk not after the flesh, but 
 after the Spirit. And also in an ancient poet we 
 read : ivith Him is forgiveness, that he may be 
 feared. If, therefore, Jesus would be to us a com- 
 plete Saviour, he must also be made to us of Cod 
 sanctification. It is sin which destroys peace of 
 mind ; it is the depravity of our nature that makes 
 us unsusceptible of true enjoyment of soul ; and its 
 eradication, though only incipient, is the condition 
 of our happiness. Without holiness no man can see 
 Cod. In all ages teachers of morals have not 
 been wanting who commended virtue, and ex- 
 hibited the practice of it in all its amiableness and 
 necessity ; but their words, however elegant and 
 well chosen, did not penetrate to the heart, and 
 their motives were too weak to overcome the resist- 
 ance of depravity. There is nothing that can 
 exert that power but faith alone ; faith, which the 
 Holy Spirit, whom Jesus also procured, works by 
 the word of the gospel in the heart, and causes to 
 become a living principle of volition and action. 
 That faith kindles a flame of love and gratitude to 
 God and the Redeemer, and refines and purifies the 
 soul ; that faith introduces us into a new society, 
 a society of the blessed ; that faith constitutes us 
 citizens of heaven, to whom this earth is a foreign 
 land, and whose fatherland is above in the regions 
 
234 SERMONS. 
 
 of light : Christ Jesus is made to us of God sanc- 
 tijication ! 
 
 So much, my hearers, do we owe to Jesus, who 
 of God are in him : illumination of the mind, peace 
 of conscience, and purification of the soul. Great 
 and inestimable benefits, even when each is viewed 
 by itself; but he who possesses them combined, 
 what a treasure lias fallen to his share ! Yea, of 
 him it can in truth be said, that Christ Jesus has 
 also been made to him redemption. Raised above 
 the vicissitudes of the world, though he feel the 
 pressure of calamities, his spirit hovers in higher 
 and freer spheres ; meditation on his privileges 
 causes him to bathe in a stream of pure pleasure, 
 the fountain of which w r ells up out of his own 
 heart, and at the end of his earthly course he sees 
 the crown of glory glittering. Surely he to whom 
 Jesus is made of God wisdom, righteousness, and 
 sanctification, needs nothing more for his perfection 
 here below, and his felicity hereafter. To him 
 Christ Jesus is also become redemption ! 
 
 Yet however great and excellent this may be, we 
 need nothing less, in order that we may be truly said 
 to be redeemed by Jesus. There subsists between 
 these benefits such an inseparable connection that 
 he who should lack one of them would also be in 
 great measure, if not wholly, deprived of the en- 
 joyment of the others. Deprive the Christian of 
 that which Paul here denominates wisdom, and 
 which w T e, in sound language, should style genuine 
 evangelical knowledge, — knowledge of the Divine 
 Being, as it has been declared unto us by Jesus, 
 
SERMONS. 235 
 
 knowledge of the doctrine of grace and of the doc- 
 trine of godliness, or, as the Apostle elsewhere 
 expresses it, light of the knowledge of the glory of 
 God in the face of Jesus Christ, — and you close to 
 him not only the fountain of his purest pleasures, 
 but you deprive him also of the ground on which 
 rests his hope of forgiveness, and the law of love to 
 God and his neighbor is to him a sealed book. 
 That a quiet conscience before God, produced by 
 the consciousness of acquittal in the divine court, is 
 the most indispensable of all blessings, and that, 
 without this, all that is termed happiness is nothing 
 more than a momentary illusion, a flattering dream, 
 the awaking from which may be terrible, will not be 
 readily denied by any ; and him who should, who 
 imagines that he does not need the righteousness 
 procured by Jesus, we leave to enjoy his sad mis- 
 conception, but in his supposed rest of soul we 
 desire not to share. Yet this full persuasion of for- 
 giveness, if it were not accompanied by sanctifica- 
 tion, if it were not, through faith, the source of 
 sanctification, — what must become of Christian so- 
 ciety? Redeemed ones without thankfulness, ben- 
 eficiaries without love, children of God without 
 obedience, vice encouraged by impunity ; and here- 
 after, instead of a Church without spot or wrinkle, 
 a heaven peopled with unclean sinners. Wisdom, 
 righteousness, sanctification; no, not one of them 
 can be dispensed with ! He who would break this 
 beautiful bond would be guilty of laying sacrile- 
 gious hands on that which God hath joined together. 
 Oh how happy he to whom Jesus is made all this 
 
236 SERMONS. 
 
 of God ! He walks in the light of the Lord, in 
 familiarity with his Heavenly Father, whom to 
 know, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent, is to 
 him eternal life. Humbly relying on the grace 
 which has pitied him, a sinner exposed to death, he 
 advances with uplifted head towards eternity and 
 that heaven for an abode in which he here pre- 
 pares himself by faith, by pleasing God, and by 
 being a blessing to society. Surely, he needs 
 nothing more for his perfection and blessedness ; 
 surely redemption, eternal emancipation, has be- 
 come his portion ! 
 
 III. For so great manifestations of favor we owe 
 gratitude to God, and to this I would now in con- 
 clusion incite you. 
 
 Of him, says the Apostle, are ye in Christ Jesus ; 
 and indeed no one but God has devised and ex- 
 hibited this salvation. Such a way of deliverance 
 as has been opened in Jesus Christ never entered 
 into the thoughts of any mortal ; only from the 
 revelation of God do we know his eternal plan to 
 save sinning mankind. Such a way of deliverance, 
 in which the supplying of all our wants of mind, 
 heart, and conscience, flows together as to one centre, 
 fell not within the reach of a human intellect, and 
 transcends even the boldest wishes that one could 
 ever have entertained. Thanks be rendered then 
 to Him, our Father in heaven, who devised it, who 
 ordained it, who made it known to us, who gave 
 his only begotten Son to make us partakers of it ! 
 
 And what shall we render him for it? What 
 other thanks, than that which alone and above all 
 
SERMONS. 237 
 
 others he demands for all his benefits ? that we, 
 conformably to his design, make use of it ; that we 
 strive, as Paul terms it, to be in Christ Jesus. And 
 do you know, do you feel, my hearers, what this 
 involves ? To be admitted into his Church, to be 
 confessors of his name, to listen to the instruction 
 of his Word, and to assist at the table of his cove- 
 nant in proclaiming his death ? All this, most cer- 
 tainly ; and unhappy he who sets no value on these 
 outward proofs that we acknowledge Jesus as our 
 Lord, or arbitrarily dispenses with them. But un- 
 happy also he who contents himself with these, 
 and thinks that hereby he has already entered into 
 that intimate fellowship with Jesus which the 
 Apostle here intends by his forcible expression. 
 No ; cordial interest, joy in God, surrender of the 
 soul, and readiness to contend against sin, and as 
 the redeemed of the Lord, constrained by gratitude 
 and love, to walk in a manner pleasing to God, — is 
 this mind in you, my beloved, then are you in 
 Christ Jesus, and then has he also been made for 
 you all that you need for the illumination of the 
 mind, for peace of conscience, for purification of 
 the soul, for your happiness for time and eternity. 
 
 Does this lot seem desirable to you ? and oh that 
 the desires of all might be directed towards it ! 
 Permit me, then, once more to direct your attention 
 to the nature and value of those blessings which 
 Jesus has procured for us, as he has been made to 
 us of God wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification. 
 
 Wisdom, enlightening of the mind by the knowl- 
 edge of the gospel. Human sciences should not 
 
238 SERMONS. 
 
 be lightly esteemed by us ; they enrich and adorn 
 the mind, and contribute much that is pleasant and 
 useful to public and social life. But they are not 
 accessible to all, and they do not satisfy all the 
 demands of the heart needing happiness. Knowl- 
 edge of God, in all his adorable greatness, in all his 
 condescending goodness, in all that he can be and 
 will be for men, for sinners ; yea, by these things 
 do we live, and in all these is the life of our spirit ! 
 Let us rejoice that we may derive this knowledge 
 from the only pure source, the Word of God and 
 the revelation of the gospel ; that we are no longer 
 shackled by the fetters of human authority, but 
 may ascertain for ourselves what is the good and 
 acceptable will of God. Let this, therefore, be our 
 delightful and favorite employment ; let this be the 
 genuine evidence of our gratitude to God, that 
 Jesus is of him made unto us wisdom. 
 
 Let then also his righteousness, the forgiveness of 
 sin procured by him, procured by the oblation of 
 his obedience unto death, be the only ground of the 
 confidence, of the undisturbed peace of conscience, 
 with which we await the acquittal of the heavenly 
 Judge ; with rejection of all personal worthiness, 
 of foolish or superstitious penances, in humble 
 dependence on God's grace in Christ. We are 
 now again expecting to meditate in our religious 
 meetings on the sufferings of this only Redeemer, 
 and what it cost him to interpose in our behalf, and 
 to make atonement for our sins by his blood. May 
 the image of him in his deep humiliation be by 
 this means revived in our memory and deeply im- 
 
SERMONS. 239 
 
 printed on our hearts; and may our silent grief, 
 and the sense of our great obligations to the Pre- 
 server of our souls, as we again transport ourselves 
 to the sad and painful hours of his sufferings, be the 
 pledge of our gratitude to God, that he of him has 
 been made unto us righteousness ! 
 
 Then, my hearers, then will he also be to us 
 sanctification. As we see him wrestling in Geth- 
 semane, see him reviled and abused before the san- 
 guinary council of the Jews, and see him die on 
 Golgotha ; oh, as then hatred against sin rises in 
 us, and faith says to us : For me also has he en- 
 dured all this ! whose heart is so cold as not by such 
 scenes to be inflamed with love, and to swear at the 
 foot of his cross to live for him who died for us ? 
 Oh, that this disposition might be produced, or 
 more and more excited, and more and more deeply 
 rooted in us all, by the renewed preaching of Jesus' 
 sufferings ! Thus would he also have become to us 
 redemption ; thus should we belong to those elect of 
 Grod, against whom no accusation can be brought; 
 and our gratitude to Him of whom we are in Christ 
 Jesus, begun here below, will be there completed, 
 where we shall behold him in glory ! Amen. 
 
240 SERMONS. 
 
 SERMON IV. 
 
 NECESSITY OF DIVINE GRACE TO CHANGE 
 THE HEART. 
 
 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me 
 draw him. — John vi. 44. 
 
 To us weak, dependent mortals, no truth is more 
 comforting and encouraging than this, that our lot 
 is in the hands of the wise and merciful God. 
 With the conviction of this we bear patiently ca- 
 lamity and injury, because we know that they are 
 allotted us by the hand of a Father. With the 
 conviction of this the enjoyment of prosperity is 
 doubly sweet to us, for we know that a paternal 
 hand has extended to us the cup of joy. With the 
 conviction of this our prospect of the future is clear 
 and ample, for we know that nothing can come 
 upon us but what the will of a Father has ap- 
 pointed us. But under no other aspect is this truth 
 exhibited in such a gladdening and transporting 
 light, as that in which it gives us the assurance 
 that we can desire nothing that pertains to our real 
 happiness, from that fatherly hand and that fatherly 
 will, which we shall not certainly, certainly receive ! 
 Our foolish and inconsiderate wishes for earthly 
 blessing, for gratification of the senses and accom- 
 plishment of our earthly plans, may for our good 
 
SERMONS. 241 
 
 be thousands and thousands of times frustrated ; 
 but what we may need, to be faithful to our duty 
 here below, to fulfil our great destination, to be- 
 come capable of the blessedness of heaven, if we 
 desire it of our heavenly Father, it shall be given 
 us by him, who giveth liberally and possesses 
 superabundance of gifts. And when this doctrine 
 is revealed to us in the gospel, when it is there 
 exhibited to us in this light, when we hear from 
 the lips of Jesus and his Apostles that all the 
 good that is in us is a gift of divine love by the 
 working of his Spirit, then will we certainly not 
 inquire whether we may not be able to dispense 
 even with this divine grace, and this working of his 
 Spirit ; whether we may not, with the employment 
 of all our own powers, be sufficient to ourselves, and 
 have need of no higher light than the torch of our 
 own reason and knowledge. No ! rather will we 
 cheerfully resign the improvement, the purification, 
 the renovation of our hearts to Him to whom this 
 work is infinitely better intrusted than to us. 
 Rather will we, where the eternal Source of truth 
 and blessedness flows for us, be watered from it, 
 than from the scanty rills of our finiteness and 
 weakness. Thus shall we see the heaviest burden 
 removed from our shoulders by our God himself, 
 and, glorying in our lot, call to one another : Come, 
 let us work out our salvation with fear and trem- 
 bling ; for it is God that ivorketh in us both to will 
 and to do of his good pleasure. 
 
 To excite you to such sentiments, my hearers, 
 have I selected the words of my text, with the in- 
 tention, — 
 
 16 
 
242 SERMONS. 
 
 I. After having previously unfolded and eluci- 
 dated them, — 
 
 II. To preach to you, in its true and comforting 
 light, the doctrine of the necessity of the coopera- 
 tion of divine grace, for the illumination and reno- 
 vation of our hearts. 
 
 Bless to this end our meditation, heavenly Father, 
 who hast sent thy Son into the world to seek and 
 to save that which was lost. Draw us to him bv 
 thy divine power, that we may here below spread 
 abroad thine and his honor with words and deeds ; 
 and raised up by him at the last day, may there- 
 after praise and glorify thee forever. Amen. 
 
 I. When we view the words read in their connec- 
 tion, we perceive that they contain the explanation 
 of a phenomenon which is spoken of in what pre- 
 cedes. Jesus, complaining of the unbelief of the 
 Jews, notwithstanding the great and incontestable 
 miracles that he performed, had deemed it advisa- 
 ble to reveal clearly to the multitude the exalted 
 nature of his descent and mission. He says of 
 himself that he came down from heaven ; he de- 
 nominates those who believe in him, his property, 
 given him by the Father, and promises them eter- 
 nal life ; promises them that he ivill raise them up 
 at the last day. You read this principally in the 
 thirty-eighth and two following verses. Upon this 
 the Jews begin to mutter and murmur among 
 themselves, saying : Is not this Jesus, the son of 
 Joseph, whose father and mother we know ? how is it 
 then that he saith, I came down from heaven f 
 Jesus, knowing their thoughts and their secret con- 
 
SERMONS. 243 
 
 versations, answers them: Murmur not among 
 yourselves. No man can come to me, except the 
 Father which hath sent me draw him. In like 
 manner we hear him, in the sequel of this chapter, 
 reassert his heavenly descent, the saving power 
 of his mission and doctrine, in sublime but em- 
 blematic terms ; and as his hearers began again to 
 murmur at these things, and to say, as we read in 
 the sixtieth verse, This is a hard saying, who can 
 hear it ? he says, after some further preliminary re- 
 marks, in the sixty-fifth verse again : Therefore said 
 I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it 
 were given unto him of my Father. And the effect 
 of this was, that many of those hearers and disci- 
 ples forsook him, and walked no more with him. 
 Hence you see, my hearers, that we cannot give to 
 these words, come to Jesus, and be draivn by the 
 Father, an arbitrary sense, nor one equally feeble 
 and general, as if they had been uttered by Jesus 
 on an indifferent or on every occasion. Let us 
 endeavor in this to discharge the duty of impar- 
 tiality, and of sound biblical interpretation, and let 
 us consider each of these phrases separately. 
 
 No man can come to me, — how ? there came 
 to Jesus daily thousands of hearers and pupils. 
 Through no city, no village or borough did he pass, 
 but all ran out to him ; men forgot their calling and 
 employments, to meet with this singular man ; the 
 concourse was often so great that one could not 
 get near him ; and they thought themselves fortu- 
 nate to be able to press so far through the multi- 
 tude as to be able to see or hear him. None of 
 
244 SERMONS. 
 
 you will suppose that all these were drawn by the 
 Father to Jesus ; and that this therefore is what is 
 here denominated by Jesus a coming to him. Let 
 us distinguish this great company into certain 
 classes, that we may know which is here intended 
 by the Saviour, when he speaks of coming to him. 
 
 With some it was curiosity alone which incited 
 them to help enlarge the number of Jesus' fol- 
 lowers. The Prophet of Nazareth was the subject 
 of all conversations, above all in the region of 
 Galilee, where he now abode. As the multitude 
 hasten to see a strange sight, so men rushed, to be 
 also able to say, I have seen and heard him who 
 creates such a sensation, causes so much talk about 
 himself. But the natural consequence of this was, 
 that, having satisfied their curiosity, they again left 
 him ; the one with public eulogy on what he had 
 seen or heard, the other not dissembling that he had 
 expected something else. It was certainly not these 
 whose coming to Jesus was intended by him, but 
 such as came to him to remain with him. 
 
 There were then also others who sought to de- 
 rive a more real advantage from his intercourse 
 and instruction. They left not his side for a con- 
 siderable time, but followed him as belonging to 
 his school, and, as it is here and elsewhere denomi- 
 nated, they ivalked with him. But this lasted only 
 till they were offended at his words. When they 
 heard him advance ideas conflicting with their 
 notions of the Messiah's kingdom, or which they 
 could not reconcile with what they thought they 
 knew of his person and descent; when they saw 
 
SERMONS. 245 
 
 their old prejudices assailed, or wholly different pros- 
 pects opened to them than they had expected or 
 hoped, then they said, This is a hard saying ; who 
 can hear it? And gradually they were seen, one 
 sooner, another later, disappearing from the suite of 
 Jesus. That these also were not intended by him 
 the connection itself of our text may teach us ; for 
 it is these of whom he says, that they could not 
 come to him, because they were not drawn by the 
 Father. 
 
 In nearly the same class we must place a third 
 sort, who might perhaps have allowed themselves to 
 be pleased with the doctrine and prospects exhib- 
 ited to them by Jesus, but who, at the bare mention 
 of the sacrifices which he required of them, present- 
 ly drew back, and would not on those terms remain 
 his disciples. He required some to relinquish their 
 property, others their calling and relations, others 
 to leave father and mother and kindred to follow 
 him. And when they, disinclined to comply with 
 that demand, went away either grieved or indig- 
 nant, they certainly also showed that they had only 
 in appearance belonged to the genuine disciples of 
 Jesus. 
 
 In the sense, therefore, in which Jesus here makes 
 mention of coming to him, we can apply this saying 
 only to those who steadfastly adhered to him, with- 
 out deserting him ; who, neither offended at his 
 doctrine nor deterred by his exactions, were and 
 continued faithful to him ; whose heart was attached 
 to him with inward love and veneration, and who 
 were ready to sacrifice whatever was dearest to 
 
246 SERMONS. 
 
 them for the promise of his heavenly kingdom. Try 
 it, whether you can give a weaker sense than this 
 to the words of Jesus, and you will find that no 
 other, I will not say satisfies the comprehensiveness 
 and emphasis of the phrase, but answers to what 
 the Saviour can have intended, when he at this 
 moment and at this point in the argument said to 
 these men : No man can come to me. 
 
 The second phrase which we must explain is 
 this : except the Father which hath sent me draw 
 him. You see that the expression is figurative ; 
 so was also the first, coming to Jesus, and to this 
 the second very justly and accurately corresponds. 
 Drawing supposes a certain constraint. Him who 
 cannot come, we carry ; him who will not come, 
 or at least of himself would not come, we draw. 
 It speaks however for itself, that we must explain 
 this drawing, this constraint, in a sound sense, so 
 as rational creatures, possessed of free agency, can 
 be draivn, constrained, to do or to omit what is 
 properly left to their own choice. This constraint 
 is that of persuasion ; and that Jesus would not be 
 otherwise understood, appears from the explanation 
 which he gives himself, at the close of the follow- 
 ing verse : Every man therefore that hath heard, and 
 hath learned of the Father, cometh unto one. To this 
 corresponds also, what we have already adduced 
 from the sixty-fifth verse, where Jesus exchanges 
 his declaration, except the Father ivhich hath sent 
 me draw him, for this homogeneous expression, ex- 
 cept it were given unto him of my Father. 
 
 And what apprehension must we have of this 
 
SERMONS. 247 
 
 divine persuasion, without which no man can, in the 
 sense here intended by Jesus, come to him. Come, 
 let us again cast our eye on those to whom Jesus 
 here spoke, that we may judge whether we must 
 give his words a general or determinate, a weak or 
 strong sense. 
 
 Jesus spoke to men who had and read the 
 writings of Moses and the prophets, and to whom, 
 therefore, the needed light of revelation was not 
 wanting, to recognize him in his Messianic worth. 
 He spoke to men among whom John the Baptist 
 had preached ; to whom this zealous preacher of 
 repentance had, in words full of strength and fire, 
 exhibited the spiritual nature and the spiritual 
 privileges of Messiah's kingdom. He spoke to men 
 whom he had himself taught and instructed ; he, 
 the mouth of truth, preaching as none could preach ; 
 speaking as no man had ever yet spoken ; confirm- 
 ing his doctrine by signs of the most indubitable 
 divine authority, of which they had only the day 
 before been themselves witnesses, when with a few 
 loaves and fishes he had satisfied a company of 
 thousands. And when these men, notwithstanding 
 all that power of the doctrine, and all that evidence 
 of the signs, will not believe in him, call in question 
 his heavenly descent, and are offended at the sub- 
 limity of his testimony, then he accounts for this 
 incredible phenomenon by saying that they came 
 not to him, because they were not draivn by the 
 Father, What then, I pray, can this higher per- 
 suasion of the Father be? It consists not in the 
 gift of the divine revelation, or all who now heard 
 
248 SERMONS. 
 
 Jesus were drawn by the Father. It consists no' 
 in the preaching of the word of the kingdom, for 
 who of all that were present at this utterance was 
 excluded from it ? It was not comprehended in 
 the preaching of the greatest Teacher of righteous- 
 ness that was ever sent to mankind. What, then, 
 is this efficacious divine persuasion ? What else can 
 it be, than the bestowment of the capacity to feel 
 all the force of that word of revelation, of that 
 preaching of the messengers of salvation ? A power, 
 an influence, a rational violence, exercised on our 
 souls to overcome all resistance, to remove all diffi- 
 culties, and to make the greatest sacrifices seem 
 insignificant in comparison with the good that is 
 promised us ! A heavenly light in our hearts, be- 
 fore which the illusion of our senses vanishes, and 
 all that pertains to our destination and our blessed- 
 ness is exhibited to us in a clear and unclouded 
 day ! By which we accept all that we know to be 
 of God ! By which we take upon us what with- 
 out God we should not be able to perform ! A 
 special, exclusive favor ; but which, because it is a 
 favor from God, can by none be in vain desired ! 
 Of the want of which no one can complain, because 
 it is withheld from none but him by whom it is 
 despised ! Pardon me, my hearers, that I cannot 
 here speak with greater clearness and definiteness ; 
 for we wander here in the secrets of human nature, 
 in the enigmas of the human heart and under- 
 standing. Penetrate these enigmas we cannot, 
 even though we should by philosophical bombast 
 assume the appearance of it ; we shall, perhaps, 
 
SERMONS. 249 
 
 in the sequel of this discourse learn to know some- 
 thing more of their nature and impenetrability. 
 
 It is sufficient for me at present, if I have been 
 able, from the words of Jesus, to make vou feel the 
 necessity of the cooperation of olivine grace for the 
 illumination and renovation of our hearts ; or, to 
 adopt the words of Jesus, the necessity of being 
 persuaded and drawn hy God, if we shall, in the 
 true sense of these words, come to Jesus. 
 
 II. To announce the truth and consolatory 
 nature of this doctrine was what I had proposed 
 to myself in the second part of my discourse. 
 
 The truth of this doctrine ! But think not, how- 
 ever, that I have appeared in this place to discuss a 
 disputed article of faith, or to entertain you with 
 barren speculation. If the doctrine which I would 
 unfold to you could not be placed in such a light 
 that it, far from kindling the fire of discord among 
 brethren, should gloriously manifest its influence on 
 human virtue and happiness, I should certainly have 
 spared you from its consideration. Hear me, then, 
 with indulgence and an unbiased judgment, whilst 
 I dwell for a few moments on the necessity of 
 divine grace for the persuasion of our hearts, and 
 the mode of its operation. 
 
 The representation of Jesus in this passage is 
 wholly in the style, the tone, and manner of the 
 biblical revelation. In it all the good that we 
 possess is regarded as a gift from God ; not onlv 
 that which comes to us from without, but also that 
 which to outward appearance is due only to our- 
 selves. Has any one by application and industry 
 
250 SERMONS. 
 
 become prosperous, it is God who has blessed his 
 zeal, and granted him prosperity. It is the Spirit 
 of Jehovah who dwelt in Bezaleel and Aholiab, 
 when they skilfully prepared the furniture of the 
 tabernacle. When Solomon strives for prudence 
 and conduct to govern intelligently and justly the 
 kino-dom of his father, then he desires that wisdom 
 of God. And when the prophets predict to their 
 people a time in which they shall, by the observ- 
 ance of Jehovah's commands, efface their former 
 unfaithfulness, then they say, that God shall write 
 his law on their hearts, that they shall all be taught 
 of the Lord. 
 
 And this representation, so simple and childlike, 
 how does it harmonize with our inward sense of de- 
 pendence, and with the extended jurisdiction which 
 God exercises over his creatures. Behold him to 
 whom God has given treasures and abundance, but 
 he has not with them given him precious health. 
 Behold him to whom with his wealth vigorous 
 bodily powers are not wanting, but he lacks a heart 
 to enjoy, to employ his earthly blessing for the ad- 
 vantage of himself and others. And he who has 
 received both wealth and health, and a heart formed 
 for enjoyment, should he not for all these gifts as 
 much, and for one of them not less than for the 
 others, owe gratitude to God ? Or should the last, 
 the capacity for enjoyment, certainly the greatest of 
 them all, be due to himself alone ? The gospel is 
 the most precious of the gifts and bestowments of 
 divine Providence ; yet how many are destitute of 
 it ; and they who possess it, from whom have they 
 
SERMONS. 251 
 
 received this possession ? How many who possess 
 it reject it with contempt ! And they who esteem 
 and respect it, from whom have they received that 
 esteem and respect for it ? How many who esteem 
 and respect it, and yet experience not its entire 
 saving influence on their heart and their life ! And 
 they to whom this greatest happiness, of which we 
 mortals are capable, has been allotted, should they 
 therein recognize no gift of God, no effect of his 
 love, but owe the thanks for it to themselves alone ? 
 Oh, ask them, and who but they are competent to 
 answer this question? Ask them whose heart is 
 enlightened, purified, and blessed by the revelation 
 of the gospel, and you will hear their lips over- 
 flow with gratitude, and with the praise of their 
 merciful heavenly Father, who has given unto them 
 the spirit of ivisdom and revelation in the knowledge 
 of him, namely, enlightened eyes of the under- 
 standing. 
 
 In this manner, my hearers, is the doctrine of 
 divine grace interwoven and most intimately blend- 
 ed with the whole idea of our human relation to the 
 high and holy and gracious Supreme Being. In 
 this light is it exhibited to us by the writers of the 
 invaluable Bible. Not to introduce vain disputes 
 respecting man's ability or inability ; but from our 
 grateful feeling for all the benefits that we receive 
 from our supreme Benefactor not to exclude this 
 eminent benefit, that we believe in Christ. To 
 cause us with delight and courage to undertake the 
 work of our improvement and sanctification, know- 
 ing from what a source we can draw help and 
 
252 SERMONS. 
 
 strength. To cause our prayers and thanksgiving 
 for all our spiritual blessings to ascend continually 
 to the Father of lights, from whom alone all good 
 and perfect gifts descend in rich profusion. 
 
 But you desire that I should speak to you more 
 definitely on this necessity of a higher, divine per- 
 suasion, and in doing so to take into view our 
 natural and moral constitution ; and I feel that I, 
 though hesitating, like one who is about to enter a 
 dark labyrinth, must, yet with moderation, satisfy 
 your desire. 
 
 We are rational creatures. This truth stands 
 like a beacon, of which we must never lose sight 
 on the sea of this hazardous investigation. It is 
 our glory and the glory of our Maker ; and what is 
 conflicting with it we reject, as unworthy of him 
 and of us. 
 
 We are, as rational creatures, capable of con- 
 viction. We feel the force of motives, which are 
 presented to us, to bend our will, whether these 
 motives are derived from our sense of truth, or of 
 propriety, or of well - comprehended self- interest. 
 We hear and apprehend them, and allow ourselves 
 to be persuaded by them ; to choose that which we 
 first rejected, to approve what we first condemned, 
 to do what we formerly omitted, and to omit what 
 we formerly did. This is our rationality ! This is 
 our freedom ! 
 
 The gospel of Christ is rich in such motives, for 
 the bending of our will ; yea, where do we find 
 motives that can be compared to these ? Do we 
 consult our sense of truth, here eternal Truth it- 
 
SERMONS. 253 
 
 self speaks ! Do we consult our moral sense, here 
 speaks the source of all that is holy and good ! Do 
 we consult our self-interest, here we are urged by 
 hope and by fear both, by promises and by threat- 
 enings ; here is presented to us for transient, imper- 
 ishable good, for temporal, eternal weal or woe. 
 Here we hear the terror of the Lord warn us, the 
 love of the All - merciful invite us ! Here every- 
 thing is united to reach our heart, to move and to 
 melt our heart. And if the motives of this gospel 
 exerted no power over us, then should we possess 
 no rational nature. 
 
 Who is there, also, that knows this gospel and 
 hears the preaching of it, who has not by means 
 of it felt a salutary emotion arise within, and been 
 penetrated with the necessity of devoting himself 
 wholly to that gospel ? Never were seen such • 
 striking effects of it as when Jesus went about on 
 this earth, and announced the doctrine of the king- 
 dom with all-captivating persuasion. Then thou- 
 sands were seen who hung upon his lips. Here 
 was heard, Is not this truly the Prophet ? Yonder 
 the exclamation, Never man spake like this man ! 
 There it was eagerly asked, What must I do to 
 enter into the kingdom of heaven ? Innumerable 
 trophies were daily erected, which confirmed, to 
 the honor of man's rationality, the persuasive force 
 of the doctrine, and the convincing power of the 
 Teacher. 
 
 But of these thousands, how few remained faith- 
 ful to Jesus. How many, who returned to their 
 homes and forgot his word. How many, who at 
 
254 SERMONS. 
 
 first heard him with applause, and were afterwards 
 offended at him. And what was it but this phe- 
 nomenon that made him say : No man can come to 
 me, except the Father tvhich hath sent me draw him ; 
 which made him denominate the small company of 
 those who remained steadfast at his side, given of 
 his Father ? 
 
 Whence this conflict and contradiction of man 
 with himself, seeing and approving the better, and 
 pursuing the evil, though he condemns it ? Come, 
 let us venture yet a single step further into this 
 labyrinth of the human heart. 
 
 If the requisitions of the gospel were limited to 
 a single act, to the choice of a single moment, to a 
 single costly sacrifice, which left nothing more after 
 that for us to do, if we, rising up from the hearing 
 of the word, could presently by a single perform- 
 ance have satisfied its demands, how many trophies 
 should we yet even now see daily rising to the 
 honor of evangelical persuasion ! More than ever 
 the eloquence of the ancient orators reared for 
 them, when they caused a popular assembly to re- 
 solve on peace or war, or moulded at will the 
 hearts of counsellors and judges like wax. 
 
 But the acceptance of the gospel, the coming to 
 Jesus intended by him, concerns the choice for an 
 entire life. Not one, but thousands of acts ; not 
 one, but thousands of sacrifices. It concerns a 
 fixed principle for the regulation of our thoughts 
 and actions ; a disposition of heart, which each day 
 and each hour must manifest its influence, and of 
 the sensuous man form a citizen of heaven here on 
 
SERMONS. 255 
 
 earth. And now, the effect of the doctrine and 
 preaching of the gospel, judged of according to 
 this standard, you can more easily number its tro- 
 phies, and you compare the little flock of those 
 who continued with Jesus with the numerous 
 throng of those who forsook him. Oh, he who 
 should be called to preach the word of Jesus only 
 to sick-beds and death-beds, how many triumphs 
 for the Christian faith would he enumerate ; but 
 when the pangs of the death-bed were recalled, 
 how would his imaginary laurels wither ! 
 
 Where the choice of an entire life is demanded, 
 there arises a conflict against which the conviction 
 of a moment is not proof. Here it has to struggle 
 with the forgetfulness of the hearer, and with the 
 weakness of a memory that retains only what it 
 most desires to retain. Here it has to struggle 
 with diversion and business, by which the liveliest 
 impressions are gradually effaced ; with considera- 
 tions and difficulties, and evasions without number, 
 to which men arbitrarily ascribe power and influ- 
 ence. Here it has to struggle with the ruinous 
 spirit of procrastination, by which we would still do 
 to-day what pleases us, to do to-morrow what we 
 feel must be done ; whilst this to-day, also to-mor- 
 row, and always, always remains to-day, and the 
 morrow is deferred till it is too late ! 
 
 And whence proceed, my hearers, this forgetful- 
 ness and effacing of first impressions, and counter- 
 considerations, and desire to procrastinate, but from 
 this, that there is still a greater and mightier foe 
 that must first be overcome, before we make an 
 
256 SERMONS. 
 
 entire surrender of ourselves to the power of the 
 gospel? Our acquired habits, customs, and mode 
 of life, our pleasure and taste, all stimulate us to 
 diversion, to enjoyment of the present life, to care- 
 fulness for it, and carelessness about the future ! 
 All that resistance the word of the gospel must 
 overcome ; and, alas, it succumbs under all that op- 
 position ; it succumbed under it even when Jesus 
 preached ! No, that word lacks no force of per- 
 suasion ; but our heart, entangled in the wiles of 
 seduction, of sensuality, and of carelessness, lacks 
 the capacity to feel that persuasive force so deeply 
 as to enable it to triumph over all obstacles. And 
 so we continue, with all our conviction of the truth, 
 still pursuing that which we know to be imposition 
 and deceit ; with all our inward sense of that which 
 is better and more excellent, still cleaving to that 
 which is evil and to be rejected ; — yea, with heav- 
 enly good in view, walking in the paths of perdi- 
 tion ! 
 
 This is that aversion, that unwillingness, that 
 offence at the word of the gospel, which, were it 
 a matter dependent on a single moment of good 
 disposition, might be overcome by the force and 
 pressure of motives ; but which, since it concerns 
 an entire change of disposition, life, and walk, drown 
 the voice of reason and conscience within us, and 
 keep us at a distance from Jesus ; or, if we have 
 for a time chosen the side of Jesus, presently bear 
 us away again in the path of seduction, unless we 
 are drawn to him by the Father. 
 
 And what is that high, divine persuasion for 
 
SERMONS. 257 
 
 them who are made partakers of this benefit? 
 What is the manner of working of that divine 
 irrace by which the weak and seducible heart is 
 constrained to come to Jesus, and to remain with 
 Jesus ? Respecting this also I must speak to you ; 
 but if with timidity and reluctance I have entered 
 with you into the hiding-places of man's enigmatical 
 mind, with how much profounder and more rev- 
 erential awe must I speak to you on the hidden 
 operations of the eternal Spirit on the understanding 
 and will of his rational creatures ; and I must care- 
 fully avoid attempting to fathom depths which 
 even the wisdom of angels cannot penetrate ! 
 
 Or should this working be impossible ? Should 
 He whose breath animates all, who lives and works 
 in all that lives and is ; by whose power not only 
 the great wheels of creation are brought and kept 
 in motion, but also the most minute particle of 
 dust exists that floats in space or flies up before 
 the foot of the traveller; — should the heart of 
 man alone be inaccessible to him, and what passes 
 there, what is devised or cherished, be withdrawn 
 from his control and influence ? Well, let us con- 
 tradict, then, the testimony of the sacred writers, 
 and let us pronounce it false when they say, A 
 man's heart deviseth his way : but the Lord directeth 
 his steps. The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, 
 as the rivers of water : he turneth it whithersoever he 
 will. Let us account for all the phenomena which 
 our own reflection will point out to us in abundance 
 in the history of our own heart. Let us exclude 
 God from the emotions of our mind, from our re- 
 
 17 
 
258 SERMONS. 
 
 flections and deliberations, from so many a thought 
 which as a clear ray of wisdom or knowledge has 
 penetrated our bosom, though we could not appre- 
 hend its source. Let us make our soul a field in 
 which nothing grows save what we have ourselves 
 sowed in it. Alas, is it thus that we shall main- 
 tain the excellence of our human nature, by cut- 
 ting it off from communion with the source of light, 
 of wisdom and holiness, and denying it the enjoy- 
 ment of being refreshed and watered from the 
 ocean of infinite perfection itself? 
 
 Yes, there is a higher power of divine persua- 
 sion, or a link is wanting in the chain of relations 
 between feeble man and the God of love ! And 
 though we cannot investigate its working, we know 
 it by its consequences, and enjoy its fruits. Or 
 should we refuse to take our necessary food, be- 
 cause we know not how it is formed in the stalk 
 and ear? Should we refuse to move our limbs, 
 because we do not know how the working of our 
 will brings the heavy mass into motion ? Let us 
 adore Him who conceals from the eye of our mind 
 what he reveals to the feeling of our hearts, and 
 requires us not to trace him in his footsteps, but to 
 enjoy his gifts, and by means of them to be happy. 
 
 Let us, however, remove from this idea of divine 
 grace, powerfully drawing to the fellowship of 
 Jesus, — let us remove from it all absurdity, and all 
 that can be detrimental to the honor of the gospel. 
 They are no new motives, outside of that only and 
 eternal Word of the gospel, by which this higher 
 persuasion is effected ; for there is no power, no 
 
SERMONS. 259 
 
 light, no good, which is not included in that gospel ; 
 but it is the influence of its promises and prospects, 
 of which our hearts are made susceptible, it is the 
 acceptance of that gospel, to which we are moved 
 and constrained. Hence the emblematic phrases 
 employed, to exhibit this benefit, in the writings 
 of the New Testament. That the seed of the Word 
 bear fruit in us, it must fall in a prepared soil 
 adapted to receive, to cherish, to cause it to take 
 root and ripen. To feel the influence of the light 
 of truth, our eye must be adapted to catch its rays, 
 to collect them, and to reflect its heavenly image. 
 And what can it profit us that the meridian sun 
 shines clearly without, as long as the obstacle is not 
 removed that hinders us from beholding its cherish- 
 ing brightness ? 
 
 Let us also remove from this idea of divine grace, 
 powerfully drawing to the fellowship of Jesus, all 
 that would be injurious to the honor of our nature ; 
 all that can be denominated compulsion ; all that is 
 mechanical, and not compatible with the disposition 
 of a mind that acknowledges and embraces the 
 truth. Let us, then, not tarnish this heavenly doc- 
 trine by any confused notions of enthusiasm, but 
 let us acknowledge in the human heart the paternal 
 voice of a heavenly Guide, who causes us here to 
 take notice, there recalls to mind, yonder preserves 
 what might easily be lost ; and who, though he is 
 wanting in no power to strike a raging Saul to the 
 earth, and make him inquire, Lord, what wilt thou 
 have me to do f also by gentle, continued, constantly 
 advancing and continually stronger conviction, 
 
260 SERMONS. 
 
 gives entrance to the gospel of his Son, and makes 
 the ways of his adorable providence subservient to 
 this sublime and glorious end. 
 
 The ways of his providence ; yes, my hearers, 
 and if we can anywhere investigate the operations 
 of his grace, it is certainly here. Or is not the in- 
 fluence of all that we read or hear dependent, in 
 conformity with our rational nature, on the state 
 of heart with which we read or hear it? And 
 is not the state of our hearts determined by the 
 concurrence of the circumstances in which we are 
 placed, and which we sometimes notice, but often, 
 perplexed by the multitude of daily vicissitudes, 
 overlook ? But they are not lost, and each of them 
 can leave deep traces in the heart. Here a blessing 
 falls to our lot, in which we cannot overlook the 
 hand of our heavenly Benefactor ; and at the same 
 time we hear the obedience of faith laid upon us as 
 a duty of gratitude. There a sharp arrow of pain 
 smites us ; but it is that our wounded mind may be 
 more susceptible of the balsamic comfort of the gos- 
 pel. Everything is torn from us that we may find 
 all in God. And so the Almighty and All-gracious 
 One can mould and bend and form our hearts ; now 
 lift up, then cast down, then make tender and sus- 
 ceptible of ineffaceable impressions ; and thus per- 
 suade and draw us, as rational creatures, and yet 
 with irresistible power, in order that we may come 
 to Jesus, and through Jesus be saved. 
 
 The truth now unfolded I must in the conclusion 
 of this discourse present to you in its consolatory 
 nature. And am I mistaken, my hearers, or have 
 
SERMONS. 261 
 
 you already perceived, that, though it has given 
 occasion for many useless subtilties, yet it was not 
 for such purpose revealed ; not that it might serve 
 as a pretext to sin the more freely and carelessly, 
 but to wrest from us that vain pretext, even by the 
 daily apprehension of our weakness and perverse- 
 ness ; to serve as a support to every genuine and 
 humble attempt to practise virtue, and to remove out 
 of the way all obstacles in our pathway to heaven ? 
 
 We are, it is true, according to this doctrine, in 
 the attainment of our highest destiny, in the ad- 
 vancement of our highest happiness, dependent on 
 God. But when and wherein are we not depend- 
 ent on God, though our foolish imagination tells 
 us that we are lords of our own destiny ? And is 
 it, then, such a misfortune to be dependent on God ? 
 On a Being whose wisdom, power, and goodness 
 have no bounds ; whose immaculate irreprehensi- 
 bleness, whose majesty and glory, transcend all our 
 ideas ? No ! whoever may deem it desirable, with 
 the measure of his powers and abilities, to be left 
 to himself in this world, we rejoice that we are 
 entirely in thy hand, gracious, wise, and mighty 
 heavenly Father ; and that thou wilt not only 
 regulate all the insignificant events of our earthly 
 life, but that thou wilt also, according to thine 
 own counsel and plan, and by the working of thine 
 own heavenly power, conduct us to eternal blessed- 
 ness ! 
 
 But why do I speak of our dependence ? God 
 himself has been pleased, in the bestowment of the 
 greatest gifts and blessings, to make himself depend- 
 
262 SERMONS. 
 
 ent on us. To our sincere desire to be saved, and, 
 as redeemed, to live to the honor of our God and 
 Saviour ; to our serious and continual prayer to be 
 enlightened, strengthened, persuaded, and drawn, 
 God has joined the workings of the power of his 
 grace, the fulfilling of our desire, and the hearing 
 of our prayer. Let us then not make the wisdom 
 of God foolishness by our speculations. Even were 
 the dividing line between human and divine will- 
 ing and working revealed to us from heaven, what 
 should we then know more and better than we are 
 now convinced of, that everything that is wanting 
 to us is to be richly found in God, and that the 
 gospel of his Son, applied to the heart by his 
 Spirit, is the power of God unto salvation to every 
 one that believeth ? 
 
 Do you know a more consolatory doctrine than 
 this, my beloved, by which all difficulties, scruples, 
 doubts, and questionings are at once removed, and 
 nothing hinders us from undertaking the work of 
 our salvation with courage, prosecuting it with 
 energy, and finishing it gloriously ? Yes ! it is a 
 hazardous work, when we look at ourselves, and at 
 the depravity that dwells in us. We, weak, sensu- 
 ous, proud, and easily seduced creatures, we are 
 called by the gospel to fight against fleshly lust and 
 inclination ; to mind the things which are above in 
 heaven, and not those which are beneath on earth ; 
 to walk in lowliness and humility, each esteeming 
 his brother more excellent than himself; to arm 
 ourselves against all temptations with the armor of 
 faith ; to live temperately, justly, unblamably, to 
 
SERMONS. 263 
 
 the honor of the gospel of our confession, as those 
 who are called to the fellowship of God and his 
 Son ! Who is sufficient for these things, and 
 whose heart does not fail when he compares a 
 labor so arduous with powers so mean ? But He 
 that calls is faithful, and is able to build us up and 
 give us an inheritance among them that are sancti- 
 fied. Why do you then seek to excuse yourselves, 
 ye unwilling ones ? Why stand ye at a distance, 
 ye fearful ones ? Why has your zeal abated, ye 
 who once gave your heart to Jesus ? Cast away 
 those vain excuses, ye unwilling ones, and be not 
 lost, whilst everything calls you to salvation. 
 Take courage, ye fearful ones, and look not at 
 yourselves, but at the chief Shepherd of your souls 
 unto salvation. Lift up the hands which hang 
 down, and the feeble knees, ye who abate your zeal, 
 as if ye had left your first love, and look to the 
 Author and Finisher of your faith. And whoever 
 you may be that hear me to-day, stay not away 
 and go not back, whilst Jesus invites you to come 
 to him ! He points you to the all-sufficiency of his 
 heavenly Father to supply all your wants. Ask of 
 him and he will not send you empty away. He 
 will give you his Spirit not with measure. He will 
 fill all your treasuries. Amen. 
 
264 SERMONS. 
 
 SERMON V. 
 JESUS' PASSION. 
 
 Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. 
 John i. 29. 
 
 The testimony respecting Jesus, contained in 
 these words, is not only remarkable in itself, but 
 also by reason of the speaker from whose mouth this 
 declaration proceeded. It is John, surnamed the 
 Baptist, a kinsman of Jesus : Elizabeth, his mother, 
 was a cousin of Mary, the mother of the Lord. 
 As soon as Mary had received the divine annun- 
 ciation of her impregnation, she went to visit Eliz- 
 abeth, who was in the sixth month of her preg- 
 nancy, and remained with her till shortly before the 
 time that John was born. Both mothers were in- 
 formed of the appointment and future destination of 
 their children ; both rejoiced in the grace of God, 
 who had not only by a new relation bound them 
 more closely together, but was also pleased to cause 
 the redemption of Israel to proceed from them. It 
 is probable that John and Jesus, of nearly equal age, 
 descended from two families allied to each other by 
 blood and friendship, though in point of residence 
 separated from each other by a considerable dis- 
 tance, yet in their youth and riper years, as well at 
 the feasts as on other occasions, had cultivated their 
 
SERMONS. 265 
 
 mutual knowledge and relation ; above all as they, 
 though different in character and natural disposition, 
 so greatly resembled each other in zeal for God and 
 goodness. 
 
 The parents of John, however, had carefully con- 
 cealed from him, as well the heavenly origin of 
 Jesus, as the exalted dignity w T ith which he, as Re- 
 deemer of the world, must be invested. And we 
 hear him in the immediate sequel of my text declare, 
 that he had not previously known him as the Mes- 
 siah, the Son of God, till he saw the heavens opened 
 and the Spirit of God descending on him. Yet prior 
 to that his esteem for Jesus was so unbounded, that 
 he refused to baptize him, saying, I have need to he 
 baptized of thee ; and only at the urgent solicitation 
 of the latter did he consent to do it. As soon, also, 
 as he had received the desired revelation, it was to 
 him simply as if he saw his own conjecture con- 
 firmed ; and he hesitated not a moment publicly to 
 proclaim Jesus, whose walk and conversation from 
 childhood up he had been able carefully to observe, . 
 and to declare him to be the man, the latchet of 
 ivhose shoes he was not ivorthy to unloose. The tes- 
 timony contained in my text is the testimony of 
 John, not of a stranger who now first, or for only a 
 few days past, knew the singular Nazarene, but of 
 him who had seen him grow up, and become in the 
 domestic circle what he was ; not of a man preju- 
 diced, prepossessed by his own notions, or blinded 
 by affection, but of a venerable prophet, who must 
 himself first receive from God what he proclaimed 
 to others. Him we hear testify of Jesus : Behold 
 
266 SERMONS 
 
 the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the 
 world. 
 
 That John by these words intended to point 
 out Jesus to the multitude as the promised Messiah 
 and tlie Son of God, is sufficiently evident from the 
 sequel of his discourse ; but whence did he borrow 
 these emblematic expressions, and why did he pre- 
 fer the use of them now ? The brief reply to these 
 two questions will comprise all that I now deem 
 necessary for the explication of my text. 
 
 It may be that John, who was preaching and bap- 
 tizing at Bethabara, at one of the principal ferries or 
 fords of the Jordan, now saw a flock of lambs cross- 
 ing that river, which, destined for the sacrificial ser- 
 vice of the temple, were from the country beyond 
 Jordan, rich in cattle, being driven toward Jerusa- 
 lem ; and that he, seeing the attention of his hearers 
 fastened for a moment upon it, transferred their at- 
 tention from it to Jesus, by saying of him, Behold 
 here the true sacrificial lamb ! Behold the lamb of 
 God, which taketh away the sin of the world ! Yet 
 this incident alone, though we should in the silence 
 of history accept it as true, is not sufficient to ex- 
 plain the saying of the Baptist, or to justify the use 
 of his singular words. He has without doubt his 
 eye on something else ; whether on the daily burnt- 
 offering, or on the lamb that was eaten at the Pass- 
 over, or, which seems to me the most probable, — as 
 the soul of John was constantly and wholly filled with 
 Isaiah's predictions, in which the design of his own 
 appearance was so clearly and forcibly announced, 
 on the well-known oracle in which it is said of the 
 
SERMONS. 267 
 
 man on whom the Lord hath laid the iniquity of us 
 all, that he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and 
 as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened 
 not his mouth. We may thus accept the declaration 
 of John as the most concise exposition of that proph- 
 ecy ; as a positive assurance that the whole glorious 
 prediction of which the words quoted constitute a 
 part, has been completely fulfilled in Jesus, the son 
 of Mary. 
 
 Now if this be the simplest and most natural ex- 
 planation of John's words, then we also find in them 
 the reason why he preferred to use these emblem- 
 atic expressions. They point out the Messiah ac- 
 cording to the style of the ancient predictions, and 
 could thus be censured by none, could give offence 
 to none ; they were adapted to awaken the most 
 intense interest in him, and to fasten on him the 
 most fixed attention ; and they at the same time 
 assailed in the most vital point those prejudices 
 which stood most in the way of the blessed designs 
 of Jesus' coming into the world. All that was 
 found in the ancient prophecies of the splendor 
 that should surround the Messiah's kingdom, of its 
 triumph over its enemies, and the happiness of the 
 beloved people under his reign, was received by the 
 Jews of that time with avidity ; and Abraham's 
 degenerate offspring hardly entertained a thought of 
 the greatest blessing of all, which the greatest of 
 Abraham's descendants must bring to all nations 
 of the world. Of all the divine oracles, they now 
 thought the least of those whose fulfilment was 
 nearest at hand ; and whilst they saw him sitting as 
 
268 SERMONS. 
 
 King on David's throne, they forgot that he must be 
 led as a lamb to the slaughter, and that by his stripes 
 they must be healed. Should not, then, the voice of 
 him that cried in the wilderness, who must prepare 
 the way of the Redeemer, endeavor to remove the 
 stumbling-block, this rock of offence out of the wav, 
 and thus pave the way in the hearts of his contem- 
 poraries for the blessed one who now came to them 
 in Jehovah's name ? Should, could he then give to 
 this multitude a more appropriate, more forcible tes- 
 timony respecting him, than the affecting and sub- 
 lime utterance which is the subject of our present 
 meditation ? 
 
 Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin 
 of the world. How was thy mind affected, O faith- 
 ful John, when thou gavest utterance to these words? 
 Did thy heart then bleed in the prospect of the bit- 
 ter hour of suffering which was near at hand to the 
 beloved companion of thy youth ; or did thine eye 
 pierce through that cloud, and behold the morning 
 of the accomplished reconciliation, in which thou, 
 as the last and greatest of the ancient prophets, 
 shouldst exult and reign with him? Or were all 
 these emotions now swallowed up in thee, O second 
 Elias, by the burning zeal of thy noble calling, as 
 forerunner of Jesus in his kingdom, to turn the 
 hearts of the fathers unto the children, that he 
 might be received by his people with joyful thanks- 
 giving, yea, with transport ? Alas ! thy endeavor 
 with regard to many who at this time heard thee, 
 proved fruitless, as they did not desire the innocent, 
 humble, patient Lamb of God for their king, and 
 
SERMONS. 269 
 
 who, because they rejected the counsel of God against 
 their own souls, were doomed to be the criminal ex- 
 ecutors of that counsel for others. 
 
 It is not my design, my hearers, to enter more 
 deeply into the explanation of these words, and they 
 do not, indeed, absolutely require it ; for that Lamb 
 of God means the same as Lamb devoted to God or 
 divine Lamb, and that it is the suffering Saviour 
 who by this phrase is exhibited to us, every one of 
 you, even without its being indicated by me, will 
 readily comprehend. Nor yet have I selected these 
 words with the intention of confining myself to 
 their literal import, but of making them the basis 
 of a discourse that I deem appropriate and in some 
 measure demanded of me. 
 
 The history of the sufferings of Jesus, from begin- 
 ning to end, is yearly presented to us in detail at the 
 appointed times in our public religious service. This 
 useful and laudable custom does not however re- 
 move or set aside the obligation of presenting these 
 sufferings, in all their particulars combined, as a 
 whole ; yea, should we neglect to do this, it might 
 become a hindrance to the vivid and all-surpassing 
 salutary contemplation of these most important and 
 most precious of all events. I have resolved, there- 
 fore, on this occasion, to suspend before your eyes a 
 tableau of the last hours of Jesus ; to contemplate him 
 with you from the moment that he was delivered 
 into the power of his enemies till he resigned his 
 spirit on the cross ; and to invite you to this con- 
 templation with the words of John, Behold the Lamb 
 of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. 
 
270 SERMONS. 
 
 When we would reflect on the suffering of Jesus 
 as a whole, three principal subjects claim our special 
 consideration : the circumstances that constitute it, 
 the conduct of the sufferer under these circum- 
 stances, and the salutary effects of this very suffer- 
 ing. I shall therefore exhibit it to you from three 
 different points of view : — 
 
 First, as a melancholy scene of human passions 
 and vices. 
 
 Secondly, as a sublime spectacle of human great- 
 ness. 
 
 Finally, as the cause of all human happiness. 
 
 Sanctify our meditation, O Thou who hast suffered 
 and died for us. Penetrate us by thy Spirit, inflame 
 us with thy love, animate us by the power of thy 
 example, that the fruit of thy sufferings and death 
 may also be the fruit of our devout meditation. 
 Amen ! 
 
 I. Had I determined to exhibit to you the passion 
 of Jesus in all its circumstances, and in connected 
 order, I should have been obliged to devote to it the 
 whole hour of our meeting ; but I should also have 
 been under the necessity of touching on many inci- 
 dents which are not only known to you all, but are 
 vividly impressed on your memory ; and the great 
 importance even of the subject could hardly prevent 
 some of you from feeling that I had robbed you of 
 your time. I have for this reason judged it proper 
 to let you look at this part of my subject from a 
 limited point of view, and to enable you to see and 
 detest in it a complex picture of human passions and 
 perversities. To this end let us fix our attention 
 
SERMONS. 271 
 
 alternately on the Jewish magnates, the Roman gov- 
 ernor, the disciples of Jesus, the executioners of the 
 sentence of death passed against him, and the spec- 
 tators of the same. 
 
 Long since had the enemies of Jesus resolved to 
 effect his death ; and they now only waited till the 
 Passover should have been celebrated, and the mul- 
 titude of foreign Jews have left Jerusalem, to get 
 him by violence into their power. But most unex- 
 pectedly an event occurs which changes the aspect of 
 the affair, and induces them to hasten the accom- 
 plishment of their design. One of the confidential 
 disciples of Jesus proposes to deliver him, unob- 
 served and by night, into their hands, and stipulates 
 to do it for a disgraceful reward, which they gladly 
 consent to give. How greatly, by this offer and 
 by the person who made it, was their inward fear of 
 Jesus diminished, and their hope of a desired issue 
 confirmed ! Everything now depends on caution in 
 undertaking, and promptness in executing ; that the 
 people, perplexed, confused, may have no time for 
 reflection until it be too late, and all retreat im- 
 possible. And in this they acquit themselves with 
 such a hellish dispatch, that, though it was late in 
 the night, whilst all was still in the streets of Jeru- 
 salem, when Jesus was first treacherously seized, by 
 nine o'clock the next morning he was suspended on 
 the cross ! Already is the council assembled, at an 
 unusual place, — the house of the high-priest, — at an 
 unseasonable hour, — in the dead of night, — when 
 Jesus is brought pinioned before them. Already 
 bribed accusers are on hand ; already are the officers 
 
272 SERMONS. 
 
 of justice there, to guard the condemned after the 
 dissolution of the assembly ; and as the pretended 
 administration of justice seems to proceed with too 
 slow a pace, the high-priest suddenly brings it to a 
 close ; he adjures Jesus to confess that he is the 
 Christ, the Son of God, and instantly is heard from 
 the lips of all : He hath blasphemed 6JW, he is guilty 
 of death ! 
 
 After pronouncing this sentence they separate, 
 and many of those judges must in vain have sought 
 sleep upon their beds. But also with the dawning 
 of the day a new assembly is convened in the 
 temple, the sentence that had been pronounced is 
 confirmed, and the sun has hardly diffused its first 
 rays ere they stand with their prisoner at the gate 
 of the governor's palace. And what will they do 
 there ? Seek permission to inflict on a man, who 
 had transgressed the law of the fathers, death 
 according to the sentence of that law ? No ! for 
 this too much preparation is required, too much 
 cooperation of the people, too much time to bury 
 him beneath the heap of stones, and the issue is too 
 hazardous. By Roman authority, by the hand of 
 Roman soldiers, he must undergo a cruel capital pun- 
 ishment. This they demand for him as a mover of 
 sedition, who forbade to pay tribute to Caesar, and 
 usurped the crown himself! Pilate hesitates, but 
 they insist upon it ; Pilate seeks evasions, but they 
 elude them, and do not release him ; Pilate appeals 
 to the people, but the assembled multitude are 
 already instigated against the defenceless prisoner ; 
 they finally triumph over all opposition, and satiate 
 
SERMONS. 273 
 
 their thirst for blood in the murder of that righteous 
 one. 
 
 And whence this infuriated persecution of Jesus ? 
 From wounded self-love, my hearers, from prejudice 
 and pride, but above all from religious hatred. 
 They were esteemed by the people as expounders 
 of the law and guardians of the purity of doctrine ; 
 and Jesus had publicly upbraided them, as being 
 blind leaders of the blind, as having lost the key 
 of knowledge, and as having made true religious 
 knowledge unattainable by means of their traditions. 
 Oh lamentable effects of pretended religious zeal ! 
 But this is not the only instance of the madness 
 of this passion, this not the only innocent blood that 
 it has caused to flow. Distrust every one, my 
 brethren, who persecutes his brother for his re- 
 ligious opinions ! Believe not what he says to you 
 of his desire for God's honor ; and always think, 
 pretended zeal for God's honor nailed Jesus to the 
 cross ! 
 
 But let us cast our eye on Pilate, and the part 
 that he also had in the history of Jesus' sufferings. 
 If it can be said of any historical character, it can- 
 not possibly be fictitious, it is that of this governor 
 to which this remark applies in its full extent. Such 
 a mixture of Roman greatness and degeneracy, of 
 Roman arrogance and cowardice, of shameful vio- 
 lation of right with a residue of Roman justice, of 
 Roman superstition and hatred to the populace, — 
 such a character, always in contradiction to itself, is 
 drawn only by the hand of nature, not by that of 
 the skilful inventor. A more profound contempt 
 
 18 
 
274 SERMONS. 
 
 cannot be cherished or exhibited than Pilate enter- 
 tained for the Jewish magnates ; yet he lends him- 
 self to be the tool to satiate their thirst for blood ! 
 No stronger conviction of one's innocence can be 
 evinced than Pilate did of that of Jesus ; and yet 
 he surrenders him to be crucified ! Greater efforts 
 could hardly be made to rescue Jesus, and at the 
 same time greater cruelties towards him be toler- 
 ated. A dream of his wife terrifies him ; a remark 
 of the Jews causes him to tremble at the thought that 
 he has perhaps before him an offspring of the gods ; 
 and he seeks to deliver himself from that fearful 
 conflict by saying, I ivill cause him to be scourged and 
 released ! Whilst he commands him to be punished 
 with death, he washes his hands in innocence, and 
 avenges himself on the enemies of Jesus, by reproach- 
 ing and humbling them by inscribing his accusa- 
 tion on his cross. Oh enigmas of the human heart ! 
 But, above all, oh adorable conduct of God's provi- 
 dence, that, in the midst of external disgrace, cares 
 for the honor of his holy child Jesus, and causes his 
 innocence to be indisputably exhibited to the eye of 
 all succeeding generations by the very man who 
 involuntarily condemned him, because he feared to 
 lose CaBsar's friendship ! 
 
 It is a sad and humiliating truth, that misfortune, 
 instead of binding men to men, on the contrary 
 separates them from one another, and that the ex- 
 amples are rare of fidelity in friendship when sub- 
 jected to the severest test. But why, alas, must 
 also the disciples of Jesus serve to confirm this 
 melancholv truth? They, who should have been 
 
SERMONS. 275 
 
 wholly penetrated with love, respect, and admira- 
 tion, who had been so near by the spectators of his 
 power and glory, of his unbounded desire to make 
 others, above all to make them, happy ! I censure 
 not in them, that they made no effort to rescue him 
 from the power of his enemies, or to influence the 
 people favorably towards him, for he himself had 
 predicted this hour of suffering as necessary ; but 
 why forsake him? Why not share in his lot, 
 comfort him by their looks, confess him before the 
 council, before Pilate, before the multitude ? gather 
 up at the cross, with weeping, the drops of his blood ? 
 Behold, my hearers, the weak disciples of Jesus, 
 whose courage and strength, afterwards displayed, 
 must now appear not to have been derived from 
 themselves, but from a higher source. I speak not 
 to you of the wretched traitor ; I recall not to your 
 memory the deep fall of the impetuous Peter ; and 
 the rest also you remember. As long as Jesus is 
 still at liberty, they ask, Shall we draw the sword ? 
 but hardly do they see him pinioned, before they 
 disgracefully take to flight : not the fear of sharing 
 their Master's fate, but of being accounted his dis- 
 ciples, influences them ; and as Jesus hangs, a spec- 
 tacle, they, with other acquaintances dispersed 
 among the multitude, stand afar off! Only certain 
 tender-hearted women, with the deeply wounded 
 mother of the Lord at their head, and accompanied 
 by the beloved John, maintain here the honor of 
 humanity, and spread by their virtue at least a few 
 rays of light in this night of extreme darkness. 
 Yet a single word respecting the instruments and 
 
276 SERMONS. 
 
 spectators of Jesus' death. Among the first you 
 find in part disorderly officers of justice, who, instead 
 of treating with indulgence the prisoner committed 
 to their custody, taunt him in the most cruel man- 
 ner, spit upon him, smite him on the face with 
 their fists, and pour reproach and torment upon him 
 like water! in part wanton soldiers, who lacerate 
 his body with stripes, pierce his head with thorns, 
 exhibit him as a mock king, and finally nail his 
 hands and feet to a cross ! You find spectators who 
 delight themselves in his fearful and bitter suffer- 
 ings ; and if it were for David a deadly thrust in 
 his bones when it was said in his misfortune, Where 
 is thy God f how deeply then must it have wounded 
 Jesus to hear : He trusted in God ; let him deliver 
 Mm now. He saved others ; himself he cannot save. 
 But I will not enter more deeply into this ; behold, 
 my beloved, with emotion the fall and corruption of 
 human nature. If it ever appeared that recon- 
 ciliation for sin and renovation of the heart are 
 necessary to be able to see in God the Father of 
 mankind, it appeared in the history, black and ter- 
 rible beyond all conception, of the accomplished 
 reconciliation ! 
 
 II. From this spectacle let us turn our eyes to 
 another and more glorious scene, to the suffering 
 Saviour, and behold in him the true and only example 
 of human greatness. If you had, however, no other 
 idea of human greatness than that which attracts 
 notice and excites astonishment, which consists in 
 brilliant achievements or bold speeches, then would 
 you seek for it in vain in the suffering Jesus ! Humil- 
 
SERMONS. 277 
 
 ity and patience constituted with him its distinctive 
 character ; its essence lay couched in the meaning 
 of this saying to his disciples, when taken prisoner : 
 Tlie cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not 
 drink it ? Yes, his greatness was that of the Lamb 
 of God! 
 
 Obedience to God, and the most perfect submis- 
 sion to God's will, are the virtues which, more than 
 all others, distinguish the last hours of Jesus' life. 
 That he did not avail himself of the power com- 
 mitted to him, of the legions of angels that were at 
 his service, to destroy his enemies, was not the only 
 proof of this obedience ; but he also makes not a 
 single effort to favorably influence or to move to 
 compassion the heart of his judges or of his execu- 
 tioners or of the spectators. When Pilate hesitated, 
 one word from him would perhaps have been suffi- 
 cient to effect his release. Led to Herod, he would 
 without doubt not have fruitlessly invoked the pro- 
 tection of this Galilean prince. Placed next to 
 Barabbas, he had probably only to make his voice 
 heard, in order to see all the crafty designs of his 
 enemies frustrated. But it was his Father's will 
 that this cup should not pass from him, and he drank 
 it to the dregs. Oh matchless patience ! Where do 
 you hear Jesus utter one hard word against his 
 judges, against the people, against his murderers ? 
 He upbraids not the Jews with their abominations, 
 nor Pilate with his cowardice. No word of complaint 
 escapes his lips, not even a solemn avowal of his 
 innocence, nor a vindication of himself before the 
 multitude who jeered at his confidence in God. He 
 
278 SERMONS. 
 
 was condemned as a blasphemer of God, and heard 
 it patiently ; cruelly derided by the refuse of man- 
 kind, and he allowed their waggery to be practised ; 
 he was placed on a par with a miscreant and 
 murderer, and regarded it not ; he was scourged, and 
 as an insurgent slave was nailed to the accursed tree, 
 and he suffered patiently and silently, for it was his 
 Father's will that he should come to this hour. This 
 one idea wholly possessed him ; no torments, no 
 humiliations caused him to waver, and, as a sheep 
 that is led to the slaughter, so he opened not his 
 mouth ! 
 
 It is true, we hear from him on the cross this 
 plaintive exclamation, My God, my God, why hast 
 thou forsaken me? But, my beloved, patience is no 
 insensibility, no hardening of the mind against the 
 sharp sting of pain ; by this moaning complaint of 
 David must be made known to us the full extent of 
 what Jesus now endured ; this piteous plaint could 
 alone describe the death-anguish of him who suffered 
 for the sins of mankind, of the Lamb of God, which 
 took away the sin of the world. 
 
 Virtue, my hearers, is in its essence one ; he 
 whose will is truly united with the will of God, and 
 whose patient submission flows from this source, pos- 
 sesses in the same not only the seed of all other vir- 
 tues, but he also manifests them all in this one. But 
 we are obliged, for the purpose of aiding our con- 
 ception, to distinguish them from each other ; and it 
 is for this reason that we must here also, in order 
 to be able rightly to estimate the greatness of Jesus 
 in his sufferings, attentively and reverently contem- 
 
SERMONS. 279 
 
 plate his p>resence of mind under them, his ivisdom, 
 dignity ■, and philanthropy. 
 
 Presence of mind, wisdom, and dignity are closely 
 allied to each other ; and though to assist your atten- 
 tion I have named them separately, yet to avoid too 
 numerous subdivisions I will treat them conjointly. 
 When we carefully observe the sufferings of Jesus, 
 from the time that he is taken prisoner till his last 
 gasp, there is nothing that so greatly surprises us 
 as the composure and serenity which do not for a 
 moment forsake him. Whilst around him passions 
 of every kind are aroused and lashed into a tempest, 
 whilst he is himself the victim of those excited and 
 raging passions, in his heart alone it remains quiet 
 and serene ; his courage, though not in the least 
 inflamed by resentment, is not, however, extin- 
 guished ; he does not forget himself ; he speaks 
 where speaking, he is silent where silence is best ; 
 and if by each particular of this grievous suffering 
 we demand of ourselves : Could Jesus in this, should 
 he in this have acted otherwise ? then we must can- 
 didly reply : In everything he was irreprehensible 
 and perfect ! When he is silent, no language can 
 express the power of this silence ; when he speaks, 
 conviction or grace streams from his lips, and also in 
 this his suffering he is proved to be the wisdom of 
 God. 
 
 Jesus would not, nor should he, put forth a single 
 effort to effect his release by means which were 
 not prescribed to him by honor and innocence ; but 
 also all those means which honor and innocence 
 prescribed to him, he must employ without devi- 
 
280 SERMONS. 
 
 ating from this slender line on the one side or the 
 other. View, my hearers, from this standpoint, 
 the replies of Jesus, and you will be lost in their 
 profound, considerate wisdom. The high -priest 
 asks him of his disciples and of his doctrine ; why ! 
 was his reply, must then the accused state him- 
 self wherein he, according to the judgment of his 
 judges, may have offended ? I spake openly to the 
 world, ask them ivhich heard me tvhat I have said 
 unto them. Pilate asks him : Art thou the King of 
 the Jews? He answers: thou art governor, and 
 here in Jerusalem to prevent all insurrections ; hast 
 thou perceived anything of a King of the Jews ? 
 Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell 
 it thee of me ? What a noble, genuine simplicity ! 
 But Jesus spoke little during this whole trial, and 
 as remarkable deaths were commonly, and among 
 these also the most remarkable that heathen an- 
 tiquity offers us, distinguished by much speaking, so 
 that of Jesus is distinguished by seriousness and 
 solemnity, by much silence, or by short sayings, but 
 penetrating the wdiole soul. He vindicated him- 
 self at least not more than once against each 
 accusation ; when it was repeated, or when ab- 
 surd things were insultingly said, he was silent. 
 And in this silence we see not only judicious seri- 
 ousness, but great dignity. Yes, my hearers, among 
 all that characterizes human greatness, not the least 
 place is filled by the union of genuine humility with 
 inward consciousness of personal worth ; the main- 
 tenance of manly dignity without any offensive 
 pride. What should Jesus say to despicable men, 
 
SERMONS. 281 
 
 who were, in their hearts, convinced of his inno- 
 cence ; who only sought to ensnare him, or to take 
 occasion from his words for new accusation ? Did 
 they deserve in any other way than by his silence 
 to become ashamed ? Above all, did the low- 
 minded Herod, who, in the calumniated and abused 
 innocence, saw only a tool to gratify his trifling 
 curiosity ; did he deserve that Jesus should speak 
 to him a single word, and should not Jesus also 
 here, by silence, maintain his dignity ? But when 
 this same sublimity of virtue must be manifested 
 by frank confession, we see it no less gloriously 
 exhibited. He does not dissemble that he ascribed 
 to himself royal dignity, but from which the Roman 
 power had nothing to fear, that his kingdom was 
 not of this zvorld ; and when the high-priest ad- 
 jured him by the living God to say whether he were 
 the Christ, the Son of God, he boldly answered, 
 Yes ! and joined with it, for the presumptuous 
 wretch and his partisans, a threatening which 
 would have caused them to fall trembling at his 
 feet had it not been their hour and the poiver of 
 darkness. 
 
 Finally, to true greatness also belongs above all 
 'philanthropy, or let me rather term it humanity ; 
 and see, see in the midst of his sufferings, the heart 
 of Jesus as much opened for his brethren as when 
 he moved in safety among them. The look cast 
 upon Peter when the cock crew showed, already, 
 how he forgot himself for them that were his. 
 Exhausted by tortures, and panting under the bur- 
 den of his cross, what chiefly presents itself to his 
 
282 SERMONS. 
 
 imagination are the terrible calamities which the 
 hardened Jews were bringing upon themselves by 
 his death, and he cries to the weeping women : 
 Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep 
 for yourselves, and for your children. For if they 
 do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in 
 the dry ? While the executioners nail him to the 
 cross, it is as if he sees the lightning of God's jus- 
 tice ready to strike them, and he exclaims : Father, 
 forgive them ; for they knoiv 7iot what they do. A 
 malefactor who is crucified beside him, and whose 
 execution must enhance the disgrace of his, does not 
 fruitlessly invoke his compassion : To-day shalt thou 
 be with me in paradise. Such was the language 
 of him who never suffered any one to depart un- 
 comforted from him, and whose last moments, like 
 his whole life, were grace and love. 
 
 See this beautiful affection of tender humanity 
 shine forth preeminently in the hour of his death, 
 when he fully meets the claims of the holiest of 
 human relations. At the foot of the cross stands 
 his mother, whose soul is now, according to Simeon's 
 prediction, pierced by a sword. What will become 
 of the forsaken, disconsolate one, after the death of 
 her only son ? He sees his beloved John standing 
 beside her: Woman, says lie, behold thy son! And 
 casting his eye on his beloved disciple, he cries to 
 him : Behold thy mother ! and having thus relieved 
 his heart of his filial duty, it is as if with greater 
 composure that he commits his spirit into the hands 
 of his Father. 
 
 But there is still another word uttered on the 
 
SERMONS. 283 
 
 cross, of which, above all, I must make mention. 
 Jesus himself, when he felt his strength fail with 
 the approach of death, caused himself to be re- 
 freshed with the vinegar used on such occasions, 
 that he might proclaim it with louder voice : It 
 is accomplished. Mysterious word ! how can we 
 fathom thy meaning without penetrating more 
 deeply into the mysteries of God's council, re- 
 specting this greatest of all issues revealed to us ? 
 What other explanation of this word is there which 
 does not insult both our understanding and heart, 
 save this alone, by which we regard the sufferings 
 of Jesus as the cause of the happiness of mankind ? 
 
 III. To this, then, let us devote the remaining 
 moments of this hour. 
 
 As often as we see events whose results exceed 
 all our calculation ; above all, when w T e see, with 
 the permission of divine Providence, great and 
 grievous iniquities practised ; yea, the confluence 
 of all circumstances so directed and modified, that 
 only as it favors, such great and grievous iniquities 
 could be committed ; then we may always safely 
 conclude that the government of God, extending 
 to all things, has something great and singular in 
 view ; that God's councils, relative to the salvation 
 of mankind, relative to the consummation and per- 
 fection of his ways and projects, are on the eve of 
 an illustrious development. In this light we must 
 also, above all, place the history of Jesus' sufferings 
 and death. It occurred, it is true, on the small 
 theatre of despised Judea; a single man was the 
 victim of wickedness, and it was begun and finished 
 
284 SERMONS. 
 
 within a few hours ; but this does not prevent it 
 from having been the most important and greatest 
 of all ev T ents. Never has a man lived, — one may 
 freely consult all the histories of the world, — never 
 has a man lived who deserves to be compared to 
 Jesus. Never has there existed an innocence, wis- 
 dom, and greatness like his. Never was innocence 
 in such a manner traduced, derided, and trampled 
 on ; all laws of virtue and humanity so shamefully 
 violated and impaired ; all that can be called cruel 
 or terrible poured upon one head in such measure 
 and without respite ; never did the power of hell 
 triumph with such open contempt of God's holiness 
 and righteousness, as when Jesus died on the cross ! 
 And the only design of this amazing event was to 
 furnish an inimitable example of virtue and patience ? 
 or to confirm a doctrine which needed not this con- 
 firmation, and which, indeed, since Jesus died as a 
 mover of sedition and was not solicited to recant 
 his doctrine, was not confirmed by his death ? And 
 the forcible exclamation, It is accomplished, sig- 
 nified nothing else than It is finished, my sufferings 
 are ended ? No, my hearers, no ; to this end it 
 was not necessary that Herod and Pilate and the 
 Jewish Sanhedrim should conspire against God's 
 holy child Jesus. For this purpose it was not 
 necessary for Jesus to announce this his passion 
 with so much solemnity, to consecrate it by the 
 sacramental cup, and to set the highest value on 
 his obedience to God for the eternal salvation of 
 his people. This obedience to God, even to the 
 most excruciating death, was the offering that he 
 
SERMONS. 285 
 
 brought his Father, because his Father demanded 
 it for the salvation of mankind : he was the lamb 
 of God, which took away the sin of the world. 
 
 We are permitted, my hearers, to form human 
 ideas of sublime and divine things, and by this 
 means to bring God's unsearchable ways, as it were, 
 nearer to the sphere of our apprehension, if only 
 we do not substitute our wisdom for that of God, 
 and beside it despise no higher light. But when 
 we place vividly before our imagination the divine 
 Saviour, in the whole compass of his fearful and 
 excruciating sufferings, and in his inimitable great- 
 ness, innocence, patience, and amiableness under 
 these fearful and excruciating sufferings, does it 
 then indeed sound so strange and enigmatical to 
 us that God is again reconciled to all mankind in 
 him ? That God, for his sake, is willing to forgive 
 all mankind what each has committed ? That he is 
 willing to bestow this forgiveness ' on all who love 
 this Jesus, who swear allegiance and fealty to him 
 as their Lord, who through him alone desire to be 
 acceptable to God, and, tranquilly relying on his 
 merits and promises, draw near to God through 
 him? Can an offering for sin be conceived more 
 worthy of God's holiness, wisdom, and goodness, 
 than this guiltless and spotless offering of God's 
 own and only Son ? But we need not in imagi- 
 nation pause here, since God's Word leads us still 
 deeper into these mysteries ; the necessity of a 
 sacrifice for sin is there exhibited in other and 
 clearer lights. And, indeed, that we without any, 
 without such an intervention, with all our trans- 
 
286 SERMONS. 
 
 gressions and misdeeds, could find acceptance and 
 favor with God, — this may in vain levity be main- 
 tained ; with this one may flatter himself in giddy 
 thoughtlessness, but he to whom the favor of God 
 has become a necessity cannot believe it. Who his 
 own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree. 
 For he hath made him to be a sin-offering for us, 
 who knew no sin ; that ive should become righteousness, 
 innocence before God in him. Who is there that 
 can contemplate the passion of Jesus with this in- 
 fallible exposition in his hand, and not acknowledge 
 it with adoration ? Behold the key of all the pro- 
 found mysteries contained in this divine appoint- 
 ment ; the key of all that Jesus suffered, of all that 
 he uttered before and in his passion, of all that God 
 permitted with reference to him : he was the Lamb 
 of G-od, which took away the sin of the ivorld. 
 
 Behold here also the only explanation of the 
 blessed words uttered on the cross : It is accom- 
 plished. All that Jesus underwent he had himself 
 testified must happen to him. Not only had it been 
 ordained in the council of God what his sufferings 
 must be, to be the ransom for our sins, and when 
 Jesus exclaimed, It is accomplished he knew that 
 the last farthing of our debt had been paid : all that 
 also had been announced before by the Prophets ; 
 the pen of David and Isaiah had, many centuries 
 before, delineated it in all its features ; thousands 
 of bleeding victims and the whole ritual of Moses' 
 typical worship had suspended the tableau of it ; and 
 all that had been predicted, and all that had been 
 typified, had now been fulfilled. Let, then, a thick 
 
SERMONS. 287 
 
 cloud cover Golgotha while the Messiah bears the 
 punishment of our sins ; let the noonday sun refuse 
 to shine on this dismal scene ; let him withhold his 
 burning rays in order not to augment by their glow 
 the anguish and pains of the sufferer ! But hardly 
 has this word, It is accomplished, been proclaimed, 
 ere nature not only, trembling and quaking, reveres 
 this most solemn of all moments, but also the vail 
 of the temple is rent in twain ; that which was 
 hidden is revealed, for the blood of the better cove- 
 nant has been brought into the inaccessible sanc- 
 tuary before God ; and the dead, issuing from their 
 graves, afford demonstrative evidence that life and 
 immortality have been brought to light ! Oh won- 
 der of holiness, wisdom, and unbounded love ! Be- 
 hold it, my friends, and believe ! Behold the Lamb 
 of God, which taheth aivay the sin of the world. 
 
 God was in CJirist, reconciling the world unto 
 himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; 
 and hath committed unto us the ivord of reconcilia- 
 tion. What a charge for us ! What a message 
 for you and us, my hearers ! How shall we ever 
 worthily render honor and thanksgiving to our God 
 and Saviour, that the salvation of our souls and 
 our joyful hope for eternity have been purchased 
 at so dear a price ? In no other way than by be- 
 lieving in the Son, who was delivered for us, that 
 we may thus actually inherit the everlasting life 
 promised us ; in order that we may finally there, 
 where no stain nor imperfection shall any more be 
 found, with the blessed out of all peoples and 
 
288 SERMONS. 
 
 tongues, sing a more worthy song of praise to the 
 Lamb that was slain, and hath washed us in his 
 blood. When I reflect on tlie character and des- 
 tiny of those who, favored with the revelation of 
 the same gospel as we, yet refuse to honor Jesus 
 in his high dignity and merits with respect to man- 
 kind, and even direct all their efforts to snatch from 
 his head the crown which he obtained through so 
 bloody a conflict, then I feel a mingled emotion of 
 terror and compassion filling my heart, and I pray 
 the more fervently to God : Thy kingdom come. 
 But this is not the only offence which you can com- 
 mit against him ; even when you with the conviction 
 of the understanding assent, and with your mouth 
 confess, that he is the Christ, the Son of God, the 
 Mediator between God and men, you may still 
 grievously offend him and lose the benefits of his 
 death ; if you are indifferent about Christ, withhold 
 from him your love, your heart, deny by your deeds 
 the power of his cross to purify from sin, and refuse 
 here on earth to be enrolled as citizens of the king- 
 dom of truth, virtue, and love which he hath 
 founded by his blood, then you may pertain to the 
 external society that bears his name, but let your 
 own conscience decide, can you claim the privileges 
 of his sincere friends and worshippers ? can you 
 boldly look forward to the appearance of him who 
 has said, Not every one that saiih unto me, Lord, 
 Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he 
 that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven f 
 O ye, who, enticed and ensnared by the seduc- 
 tiveness of sin and lust, forget and neglect your 
 
SERMONS. 289 
 
 sacred obligations to the Redeemer of mankind, 
 contemplate the suffering Jesus ; behold what he 
 did for you that you also might have something to 
 devote to him ; hear him as from his cross address- 
 ing you: Me that believeth on the Son hath everlast' 
 ing life : and he that is disobedient to the Son, shall 
 not see life ; but the wrath of God abideth on him. 
 Fall, with humble confession of your guilt, at his 
 feet, and the single word, uttered from the depths 
 of your heart, Lord, remember me also in thy king- 
 dom, shall cause you, too, to receive the answer, In 
 due time shalt thou be with me in paradise. 
 
 Friends of Jesus, to whom he is precious above 
 all that you have or hold dear, behold the cross of 
 your Saviour, that your love may constantly become 
 more lively, efficacious, fervent, and never cool ! 
 With your eye fixed on the cross of Jesus, fight 
 valiantly against sin, and abhor that for which he 
 so painfully atoned ! With your eye fixed on the 
 cross of Jesus, exercise yourselves in every virtue, 
 in all obedience and submission to God, of which 
 he gave so glorious an example ! With your eye 
 fixed on the cross of Jesus, you see the calamities 
 of life approach, all foundations overthrown, and 
 the future overcast with a dark cloud ; but your 
 heart is not disquieted, for suffering with him you 
 shall also with him triumph ! With your eye fixed 
 on the cross of Jesus, resigned you see death draw 
 near, and rejoice to meet him : the Lamb of God 
 has taken aivay the sin of the ivorld, and nothing 
 shall separate me from the love of God, which is in 
 Christ Jesus. Amen. 
 19 
 
290 SERMONS. 
 
 SERMON VI. 
 
 JESUS, THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 
 
 I am the light of the world. — John viii. 12. 
 PRAYER. 
 
 Infinitely wise, Almighty, and merciful God, 
 who dwellest in inaccessible light, who art thyself 
 light and in whom is no darkness, from whom 
 alone cometh down every good gift and every per- 
 fect gift. We thank thee that thou hast exalted 
 us to the rank of rational creatures, who can come 
 to the knowledge of the truth, and by the truth be 
 made free. We thank thee, above all, that in those 
 things which it is most needful for us to know, 
 thou hast not left us without thine own divine 
 instruction ; that thou hast sent thy Son with the 
 word of truth on his lips, with the Spirit of truth 
 within him, as the light of the world, to make 
 known unto us who thou art, what thou wilt be 
 to us, and what thou requirest us to be for thee. 
 This could no one declare to us but he who had 
 heard it of thee, who had seen it with thee ; and 
 therefore didst thou permit him to come to us from 
 heaven, that we, believing in him and relying on 
 his utterances, might have eternal life, by knowing 
 thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom 
 
SERMONS. 291 
 
 thou hast sent. What shall we render unto thee 
 for this the most excellent of all benefits ? Oh, that 
 we might all feel how sacred are our obligations to 
 thee and to him whom thou hast sent, to an- 
 nounce to us the way of salvation, and to open to 
 us that way by his own precious blood, that no 
 guilt and transgression, however great and mani- 
 fold, should necessarily separate us from thee ! 
 Thou requirest only that we neglect not thy love, 
 that we close not our eyes against thy divine light, 
 that we make use of thy benefits and of the salva- 
 tion procured for us, and trifle not away the heaven 
 of eternal glory for transient earthly enjoyment. 
 Gracious God, preserve us from this fate, and 
 grant, that, with salutary impressions, we may re- 
 flect on ourselves and eternal things. Make us to 
 this end attentive to the instruction of thy Son ; 
 cause us to feel all its heavenly power and worth, 
 and grant us the influence of that enlightening and 
 sanctifying Spirit, whom Jesus also procured when 
 he tasted death for us. 
 
 Let our meeting in this place be blessed ; let our 
 attention, and the disposition of our minds, be in- 
 terested, reverential, and elevated, as it becomes 
 Christians who offer homage to their God and Re- 
 deemer. Give the preaching of the Word entrance 
 into our minds ; animate the teacher with holy zeal 
 to instruct, to exhort, and to edify us. Accept with 
 complacency the sacrifice of our prayers, our thanks- 
 giving, and songs of praise ; and hear us, when, with 
 the words of him whom thou hearest always, we 
 say to thee, Our Father, etc. 
 
292 SERMONS. 
 
 I am the light of the world. What a declaration ! 
 Who, what sage of antiquity, ever said this of him- 
 self? Was this no vain assumption ? Or, if he 
 who thus spake was indeed the light of the world, 
 would it not have been better that others should 
 say it of him, than that he should say it of himself? 
 My hearers, he who spoke thus w r as Jesus. He 
 could, he alone might, testify this of himself; the 
 whole argument of my discourse will, I hope, serve 
 as a proof of this. But he must also speak thus ; 
 he, the Messiah, the great and only Redeemer of 
 his people, must make himself known as such. But 
 not as the unhappy nation that dreamed only of 
 external liberation, of prosperity and greatness ; not 
 as it represented to itself this Deliverer. From 
 these earthly thoughts he must, could it be, free 
 them, and carry them up higher, to expect from 
 him, who was promised to the fathers, better than 
 temporal blessings ; to behold in him the author of 
 spiritual and eternal happiness, and this not for them 
 alone, but for all mankind on the whole earth. For 
 this reason he said to them what no one had ever 
 dared, what no one before him could or might say, 
 I am the light of the world. Oh, had they been 
 susceptible of great sentiments, of noble national 
 pride ; had they not rested in superficial views of the 
 ancient predictions, instead of penetrating into their 
 hidden and sublime meaning ; how would this lan- 
 guage have attracted their attention, quickened 
 their interest ; how would such a discourse have 
 enchained them ! But no, blinded men, a Messiah 
 with sword in hand would have been more wel- 
 
SERMONS. 293 
 
 come to them, than he who came with the words of 
 eternal life. 
 
 When Jesus calls himself the light of the world, 
 this declaration has specific reference to him as 
 Teacher, who has irradiated the world with the 
 light of knowledge. Still more specific as religious 
 Teacher, who has with infallible certainty made 
 known the being and perfections of the Infinite, God's 
 will and disposition, man's relation to him, man's 
 hope and expectation from him, as far as human 
 apprehension can reach. Never did Jesus put him- 
 self forward as a teacher of human sciences ; even 
 religious truth was not presented by him as a spec- 
 ulative science, which is only to be comprehended, 
 known, and proved, but as an object of practice, as 
 doctrine of blessedness. For this reason he imme- 
 diately subjoins to this declaration : He that follow- 
 eth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the 
 light of life. To this we are also naturally conducted 
 by the emblem which the Saviour employs, which is 
 derived from the sun, the proper light of the world : 
 what the sun is to the earth, that am I, that is my 
 doctrine to mankind. But is it only the clear, 
 radiating brightness of the sun in which we rejoice ? 
 Is it not also its cherishing warmth ? Is it not also 
 that it is the source of fruitfulness and life ? So the 
 religious truth taught by Jesus is the sunlight for 
 mankind. 
 
 You know, my hearers, there is but one sun for 
 our globe ; so there has also been but one Teacher 
 of religion for mankind such as was Jesus. Far be 
 it from me to bring the doctrine of Jesus into oppo- 
 
294 SERMONS. 
 
 sition to that of the Old Testament, or even to make 
 any comparison to the prejudice of the latter. It is 
 the same light of heavenly revelation that shines in 
 both, simply modified according to the nature and 
 the necessities of the times ; it is the same God 
 who in time 'past spake unto the fathers by the prophets, 
 and who in these last days hath spolten unto us by his 
 Son. To others also I leave it to assert that in the 
 heathen world, on important dogmas of religion, no 
 lioht whatever had arisen, but that in it all remained 
 night and darkness, until the gospel was everywhere 
 preached. But this I assert with boldness, that no 
 teacher has ever so spoken on God and religion, 
 on virtue and human happiness, so intelligibly, so 
 purely, with so much certainty, with so much force 
 of insinuating persuasion, as has been done by Jesus; 
 that all which the greatest sages of antiquity have 
 produced respecting these things is twilight in con- 
 trast with the full noon, yea, differs from it as 
 human from divine doctrine ; and as Jesus publicly 
 said to his countrymen, we can also in the fullest 
 extent say of him, he, and he alone was the light 
 of the tvorld. 
 
 I know, my hearers, that I am speaking to an as- 
 sembly of Christians, for whom it is not necessary 
 formally to prove this ; but to bring it more un- 
 folded in certain particulars before the mind can be 
 of manifold advantage to us, for the strengthening 
 of our faith, for satisfaction to the heart, that sets 
 value on its Christian privileges, and for worthy and 
 social honoring of Him who sent us this Teacher 
 from heaven to make us wise to salvation. Let 
 
SERMONS. 295 
 
 us then apply ourselves to this meditation ; and as it 
 is difficult in treating a subject of so great extent, 
 neither to wander in the multitude of matters nor 
 to lose one's self in digressions, let us, for the guid- 
 ance of our thoughts, avail ourselves of the emblem 
 which Jesus employs, that of the sun, as it, accord- 
 ing to what we have just said, enlightens and 
 cherishes and makes fruitful ; and let us contem- 
 plate the all-surpassing excellence of Jesus' doctrine 
 under these three different aspects, as it is a doc- 
 trine, I. for the understanding; II. for the heart; 
 III. for the life. May it be granted us so to speak 
 and so to hear, that our apprehension may become 
 clearer, our affections purer, and our whole life a 
 sacrifice of thankfulness, pleasing to God. Amen. 
 
 I. First : Jesus was the light of the world, as he 
 alone communicated to mankind that religious knowl- 
 edge which was necessary and satisfactory to the 
 understanding. Let us test this by the four prin- 
 cipal characteristics of such a religious knowledge : 
 completeness, purity, clearness, and certainty. 
 
 Who will not gladly acknowledge that we find 
 in the writings of the ancient philosophers many ex- 
 cellent ideas and glorious utterances respecting the 
 Divine Being, his unity, perfections, supremacy, and 
 government of the world ? respecting the human 
 spirit, its individual existence and working, sublime 
 capacity, and continuance after death, in a life of 
 immortality ? Ideas and utterances, by which they 
 have, in the judgment of all unprejudiced persons, 
 deserved and maintained their reputation for wis- 
 dom. But what is there of all this that is lacking in 
 
296 SEPwMONS. 
 
 the doctrine of Jesus ? What great and sublime 
 idea respecting the Supreme Being and man's des- 
 tination for this or the future life, that is not also 
 found there ? Yea, what is scattered in many 
 writings of different ones of those ancient preachers 
 of wisdom, of different periods of time, we find there 
 together, without missing anything of what is true 
 or important ; so that this doctrine can be styled the 
 summary of all that is good or great, respecting 
 God and man, that has ever proceeded from human 
 lips or pen. Is this much, my hearers, — and that 
 this testimony may be exaggerated can only be said 
 by him who has not even a superficial knowledge 
 of Christianity, — is this much, what then, when 
 everything in which the most perfect doctrine of 
 religion, as it was before Jesus, fell short in connec- 
 tion and completeness, is sought, and not in vain, in 
 his doctrine ? For in it the knowledge of the Most 
 High, and of the rational creature, not merely, as 
 everywhere else, each independent of the other, but 
 above all, and on which alone in religion its value 
 depends, the reciprocal relation between God and 
 man, is exhibited. All that we can and would and 
 must know of God not only, but also of his disposi- 
 tion towards us ; what his wisdom has devised, what 
 his holiness demands, what his goodness promises, 
 what his righteousness gives cause to fear ; all this 
 we find in this doctrine without reserve, without 
 defect or gap, so presented that the understanding 
 can comprehend its connections and relations, and 
 admire the most magnificent whole of divine truths. 
 Where is the sage who so discovered this, revealed 
 
SERMONS. 297 
 
 it to his contemporaries, and founded such a school 
 of genuine and complete religious knowledge ? 
 Show him to me, and I will denominate him the 
 enlightener of the world. 
 
 But a religious system which would enlighten 
 mankind must not only contain truth, yea, the 
 whole truth ; it must also contain nothing but truth, 
 and to its principal characteristics belongs dlso imriiy . 
 I will not, my hearers, insist on the errors of even 
 the best religious systems before the revelation of 
 Jesus' doctrine, though they concerned the most 
 important objects of knowledge, of which it will suf- 
 fice to adduce the differing and confused ideas re- 
 specting the creation or formation of all things, al- 
 though those errors spread a mist over all the truth 
 that may be perceived in their teachings, which 
 causes even the light to become twilight. But of 
 him who would enlighten his countrymen only, not 
 to speak of mankind, of him it may be required 
 not to spare, but to attack, publicly to controvert 
 and eradicate gross misapprehensions dishonoring to 
 God and man. And where were they who dared 
 expose the absurdity of polytheism, the superstition 
 of augury, and the deceit of the oracles, open the 
 eyes of the multitude, and free them from the fetters 
 of priestcraft? No, it was not enough that they 
 ridiculed these things among their friends, if they 
 lacked the courage to defy the danger, or the wis- 
 dom and energy, in spite of the hottest persecution, 
 to plant triumphantly the banner of the truth. Oh, 
 how far behind Jesus do they then stand ; in whose 
 teachings is not onlv found nothing that is false or 
 
298 SERMONS. 
 
 impure, nothing defiled with superstition or popular 
 error, but who also left no false notion, however 
 deeply rooted, untouched ; with the meekness of wis- 
 dom interested himself in the misguided multitude, 
 and unmasked, in the midst of the temple, the se- 
 ducers of the people ; who was willing to sacrifice 
 his life for the truth, and who effaced with his blood 
 the stains that obscured its light ! 
 
 But were it even that the doctrine of religion 
 which was before Jesus had not lacked in com- 
 pleteness and purity, yet it missed that clearness 
 which is required to kindle for the world the light 
 of knowledge. It was almost entirely interwoven 
 in philosophical systems, and comprised and involved 
 in the mutual conflict of the schools ; it was pre- 
 sented, not in the language of daily life, intelligible 
 to all, but in sublime apothegms or profound reason- 
 ings ; to the scholar in his study it might be much ; 
 to those who most need religion it was nothing ; 
 it was sparks that were seen to gleam here and 
 there, no light of truth that could irradiate nations. 
 How elevated above that array of words and that 
 subtile scholasticism is the simple instruction of 
 Jesus, who knew how to reveal the mysteries of 
 God's being in intelligible language, and to elucidate 
 the secrets of the heavenly kingdom by familiar 
 comparisons ; who unfolded the conclusion of ab- 
 stract treatises and the argument of whole volumes 
 in a few distinct words: God is a Spirit, and they 
 that worship him must ivorship him in sjyirit and in 
 truth. Fear not them ivhich hill the body, but are 
 not able to kill the soul ; who was the teacher not 
 
SERMONS. 299 
 
 only of a few select pupils, but of the people, who 
 hung on his lips because no word was lost to them, 
 who by thousands followed him over sea and land, 
 even into the heart of the desert, forgot meat and 
 drink to hear him, and parted from him with the 
 testimony on their lips, Never man spake like this 
 man ! 
 
 Finally, in a doctrine which should contain for 
 all mankind the light of religious knowledge, the 
 principal thing is infallible certainty. But where 
 shall we find this ? With such sages among men, 
 who make their sentiments the standard of truth, 
 and endeavor to confirm those sentiments by co- 
 gency of argument, but whose proofs are contra- 
 dicted by others ; whose systems are exchanged 
 for one another, the one displacing the other ; and 
 they who were deified by their contemporaries are 
 pitied by the next generation for their short-sighted 
 subtlety ? No, the Teacher, who shall be the light 
 of the world, must speak with authority and be able 
 to demand faith in his utterances. No blind faith, 
 which would forbid to examine the authority of the 
 speaker, or to test his sayings by the demands of 
 the understanding, or by the dictate of the moral 
 sense. He must indeed preach as having authority, 
 and not like the scribes ; but his instruction must 
 also bear the internal marks of truth, vindicate it- 
 self to the reason, and commend itself to the con- 
 science. And were not the sublime truths which 
 the philosophers of antiquity announced thus re- 
 vealed to them first in their mysteries with great 
 solemnity, and as secrets, whilst they afterwards 
 
300 SERMONS. 
 
 unfolded them in their writings as the doctrine of 
 wisdom ? But compare now with this authority 
 of mysterious tradition the public and authoritative 
 teaching of Jesus. When he spoke of heavenly 
 things, or on the duty and destination of man, it was 
 as if a mist cleared up before the understanding, 
 a curtain were drawn aside from before the mind, as 
 if one were admitted to the beholding of eternal 
 truth. Corrupt magnates could call his authority 
 into question, because they preferred darkness to 
 light. Scribes and Pharisees he might point to the 
 miracles which he performed ; but for the upright 
 in Israel it was sufficient to hear him to cause them 
 irresistibly to feel : this Teacher is of God ; what 
 he has heard in heaven he announces on earth. 
 Go, my hearers, in thought, back to Palestine as it 
 was eighteen centuries ago, despised and humil- 
 iated, less even by the domination of the Romans, 
 than by blindness, superstition, frivolity of mind, 
 and hypocrisy. In that land and among that peo- 
 ple lives a man in mean condition of life, educated 
 in no school of science, thirty years unnoticed 
 among the rudest portion of his countrymen ; at 
 once he appears as teacher, and all are amazed 
 and struck dumb at his wisdom ; persuasion flows 
 from his lips, whether he purifies the religion of 
 the fathers from errors and exhibits it unadulter- 
 ated and undegenerated, or brings new truths to 
 light, gives an insight into heavenly things, and 
 opens prospects which for ages and generations had 
 been concealed. Whence has the Galilean ac- 
 quired this knowledge, so pure, so sublime, so clear 
 
SERMONS. 301 
 
 and unclouded, which obscures all the light of the 
 ancient sages ? Whence this freedom of soul and 
 sense, to raise himself above prejudice and popular 
 opinion, and to spare no seducers, though they 
 occupy the seat of Moses ? Whence this triumph 
 of pure simplicity, without pomp of words or osten- 
 tation, simply supported by innocence and love ? 
 It was because he came from heaven, and as am- 
 bassador of Him who is the only and eternal source 
 of truth, respecting God and divine things he alone 
 could speak with infallible certainty, because he was 
 the light of the world. 
 
 II. If the doctrine of Jesus be in this respect 
 like the light of the sun, that all mankind need 
 simply open their eyes to be irradiated by it with 
 the light of religious knowledge, it can with equal 
 propriety be compared to it with respect to its 
 cherishing warmth, as it preaches its sublime and 
 consolatory truths, not merely to the intellect, but 
 also to the heart. What a religion for the heart 
 is, needs indeed little but yet some explanation lest 
 we should remain clingino; to mere sounds. It is a 
 religion which is designed not only for thinking, 
 but also for sensitive beings, the belief and prac- 
 tice of which fill the bosom with pure and pleasant 
 emotions, which comforts, which makes thankful 
 and joyful, which teaches how to live and die with 
 composure, in a word, a religion which is at the 
 same time a doctrine of blessedness. I will not, 
 my hearers, compare in this respect the doctrine of 
 Jesus with that of the ancient sages of the world ; 
 the distance here is too great and incalculable. 
 
302 SERMONS. 
 
 Such a comparison, moreover, is not necessary to 
 make it evident and palpable that it alone possesses 
 that all-animating glow which in the moral world, 
 like the sun in the world of nature, imparts to all 
 life and joy. Let us consider this in certain par- 
 ticulars, and for this purpose contemplate the rela- 
 tion of Jesus' doctrine of religion to our external, 
 to our moral condition, and to our expectations for the 
 future. 
 
 We live in a world created by God, where all 
 
 that we see is his property, and all that we enjoy 
 
 his gift. We ourselves are equally dependent on 
 
 him, as all that surrounds us ; it is his breath by 
 
 which we live, and when he withdraws it, then we 
 
 die. Our lot on earth is subject to innumerable 
 
 changes. When we awake in the morning, glad 
 
 and cheerful, we know not whether the evening 
 
 shall not find us plunged into sorrow and weeping. 
 
 Our property, our relatives and dear pledges, the 
 
 welfare of our body and our mind, all are involved 
 
 in this vicissitude. We are in need of all things, 
 
 and there is nothing of which the slightest accident 
 
 cannot deprive us ; yea, in our whole existence 
 
 here below nothing is certain, save only uncertainty. 
 
 Behold our external condition ! Is it possible that 
 
 in such a condition it should be indifferent to our 
 
 heart how we must represent to ourselves that 
 
 powerful Being in whose hand we are, with all 
 
 that is ours and with all that is dear to us ? Him 
 
 who rules the world according to his pleasure, 
 
 and at whose beck everything must stand or 
 
 fall ! Enter the school of Jesus, and there hear by 
 
SERMONS. 303 
 
 what name you may name and address that mighty 
 Being, — it is the name of Father, Father in heaven ! 
 Are you acquainted with a more tender relation 
 than this, more honoring to the insignificant inhab- 
 itant of earth ? Whose heart does not open with 
 gratitude, with the confidence of love, at the mere 
 thought: He who has his seat above clouds and 
 stars, he is my Father! And would a father be 
 father if he cared not for his children ? But of 
 such a care as is the divine care for the children 
 of men, and in connection with that, of such an 
 unlimited dominion as God exercises in the king- 
 dom of nature, in which nothing is too mean for his 
 all-embracing administration, — of that we should 
 have no idea, and we should not dare expect it, 
 if the infallible doctrine of Jesus had not raised 
 it above all doubt. Without the will of Him who 
 causes his sun to rise in the heavens, not even a 
 sparrow falls to the earth; He who causes the 
 stars to revolve in their orbits, feeds also the 
 fowls of heaven out of his storehouses, and clothes 
 the lilies of the field. According to this standard 
 our Lord would have us estimate the care of the 
 heavenly Father for his children; and when he 
 can find words no more to exhibit the illimitable- 
 ness of that care from which nothing, nothing, is 
 excluded, and has recourse to imagery, he then 
 says, even the hairs of your head are all numbered ! 
 What a doctrine of God, the Creator and Ruler 
 of the universe ! No, so does not the sun cherish 
 the earth, as it refreshes the heart of the needy 
 mortal ! 
 
804 SERMONS. 
 
 We are accustomed to separate in our thoughts 
 our external and our moral condition from each other, 
 to aid our contemplation of the whole ; but they are 
 closely united, and, as it were, melted together in us. 
 We should not then have abused this distinction, to 
 place the heavenly Father in such a light, as if the 
 moral character of his children were to him in 
 greater or less degree indifferent ; as if he who 
 causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, 
 viewed both with the same eye ; as if he were 
 like a father that spoils his children by foolish 
 indulgence ; and as if the evil and rebellious child 
 had nothing to fear from him. Alas, we may be 
 quieted by such deceitful representations ; but our 
 conscience rises up against them whenever we 
 seriously reflect on our state before God ; it rises 
 up against them in the hour of death ! Even the 
 love-breathing doctrine of Jesus knows the distinc- 
 tion between righteous and unrighteous, between a 
 time of forbearance and a time of retribution ! We 
 hope, then, as sinners for pardon, for remission of 
 well-deserved punishment, and, if we are not reck- 
 less, on this hope alone depends our peace of mind. 
 
 But wherever we may have sought grounds for 
 this hope, whether in sacrifices and gifts on the 
 altar, or in unwept tears of repentance and fruit- 
 lessly undertaken self - amendment, or with what- 
 ever the deceived heart may have flattered itself, 
 Jesus' doctrine alone has, to the full satisfaction of 
 the mind, shown that the heavenly Father will, that 
 the heavenly Judge can forgive. This is now no bare 
 conjecture, no expectation, which may deceive ; he 
 
SERMONS. 305 
 
 who came from God and was of God has taught 
 us to pray with confidence : Father, forgive us our 
 debts. He has done infinitely more, that he might 
 be the true and alone beneficent light of the world. 
 He has bled as the propitiatory sacrifice for sin, and 
 when about to meet death said, My body is broken for 
 you, and my blood is shed for you. O light, O com- 
 fort and joy for the dejected and disquieted mind, 
 now can we again raise our eyes to heaven, and 
 go with boldness to the throne of the reconciled 
 Father, by faith in the Son, who has paid the ran- 
 som of our souls ! What a doctrine of pardon ! 
 No, so does not the sun cherish the earth, as this 
 doctrine refreshes the heart burdened with guilt ! 
 
 Behold, also, obstacles removed that could obstruct 
 our prospect for the future ; behold heaven opened 
 for the guilty and lost at the end of their earthly 
 course ! In all ages have the good and virtuous 
 among men directed their eyes thither, as to the 
 fatherland of virtue, and contemplated it as the 
 most pleasant of their dreams, that they should 
 some time land there. But the light has arisen, 
 and it is no longer a dream that a rest is prepared 
 for the friend of God. It is no longer speculation 
 of the mind, alas ! so often the sport of illusion ; 
 no reasoning resting on the voice of an inward 
 necessity, which in so many is not heard ; or on the 
 nature of our rational and excellent spirit, of which 
 we know so little ; it is promise of God ! it is 
 announcement from heaven, made by Jesus, pro- 
 cured at the price of his blood, and confirmed by 
 his glorious resurrection from the dead : there 
 
 20 
 
306 SERMONS. 
 
 awaits us an eternal, blessed life beyond the grave ! 
 What that blessedness shall be, how should we be 
 able to comprehend this in this tabernacle of clay ? 
 But what are the images by which it is represented 
 to the pure in heart ? The inheritance of a heav- 
 enly kingdom ; dwelling together in a paternal man- 
 sion above ; one with him who has prepared for 
 
 us our places there, in the beholding of God 
 
 But who can describe the beatific raptures which 
 are promised us by Jesus, when with his own hand 
 he shall conduct us into the heavenly mansion ? 
 What a doctrine of immortality ! No, so can no 
 sunlight cherish the earth, as this doctrine refreshes 
 and blesses the heart loosened from earth ! 
 
 III. I have come to the last part of my discourse. 
 Jesus is the light of the tvorld, because his doctrine 
 not only enlightens the mind and inflames the 
 heart, but also purifies the life ; as the rays of the 
 sun, which illumine and warm the earth, also com- 
 municate to it the blessing of fruitfulness. 
 
 If the doctrine of Jesus enjoined and inculcated 
 no holiness of life, then might it, instead of the light of 
 the world, be denominated the ruin of human society. 
 So many privileges on the one hand, and no obliga- 
 tions on the other, who would not be amazed at 
 such an absurdity ? Peace in life and death, impu- 
 nity before and after death, and with it a life 
 without gratitude or love, irreligious, dissolute, 
 with contempt of the holiest commands, as if there 
 were no God who observed us, as if Jesus had 
 shed his blood to found a kingdom of vice! were 
 there a teacher who preached this, we could not, 
 
SERMONS. 307 
 
 if we would, believe it; were lie to speak the lan- 
 guage of the most seductive eloquence, we should 
 remonstrate with him : You are a liar ! and though 
 he professed to come from heaven, we should an- 
 swer him : You are an ambassador of hell ! No, 
 there is no light of the world without the light of 
 virtue ; thus spake Jesus, when he commanded his 
 followers that they should let their light so shine 
 before men, that they might see their good works, and 
 glorify their Father ivhich is in heaven. 
 
 Systems of morality are not wanting in the 
 writings of the ancient sages, presented in select 
 language, with choice and strength of expression. 
 We do homage to their sentiments as well as to 
 their golden apothegms, and imprint them on our 
 memory as salutary lessons. But the morality of 
 Jesus places us on a much higher stand-point, exalts 
 virtue to holiness, and prescribes the duties which 
 become children of God ! I will not speak of its 
 perfection without needless severity ; of its scru- 
 pulousness without excess ; of its purity without 
 superstition ; of its loveliness, of its grand aim and 
 tendency to form the inhabitant of earth to a 
 citizen of heaven ; of its humanity, and at the same 
 time its divinity ; where should I end, were I to 
 enter into all this ? But this I may not pass over 
 in silence ; who ever so insisted on the practice of 
 those precepts as did Jesus ? He was not merely 
 concerned to express in suitable terms the divine re- 
 quirements of virtue and equity, or to charm and cap- 
 tivate by the beautiful simplicity and striking justness 
 of his utterances ; he would acknowledge no one as 
 
308 SERMONS. 
 
 his pupil who refused to do the will of his heavenly 
 Father ; he excluded from his kingdom those who 
 petulantly neglected the duties of brotherly love. 
 By their fruits ye shall know them, thus he spake : 
 Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ? 
 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit ; every tree 
 that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and 
 cast into the fire. And when he opened his mouth 
 in beatitudes, it was the humble, the meek, the 
 pure in heart who shared in that blessing ! 
 
 I have not yet said all, my hearers; I have not yet 
 said that which, more than anything else, makes the 
 doctrine of Jesus like the fructifying light of the 
 sun. Faith in this doctrine renews the heart, not 
 as by some secret power, attached to it from with- 
 out, but by the argument of that doctrine itself, and 
 the relations in which it places him who has em- 
 braced it with his whole heart. 
 
 How can he call God, not with the lips, but with 
 his heart and in truth, Father, without feeling that 
 the filial duties of love and obedience rest upon him? 
 How rejoice in the friendly guidance of that heav- 
 enly Father, should his conscience say to him : You 
 walk, with heart and soul, in the paths of perdition ? 
 And when the gospel says to him : Thy sins are 
 forgiven, there is no condemnation for thee, heaven 
 awaits thee ! then he should be able to believe this, 
 and his heart at the same time remain cold, and not 
 kindle into the most fervent gratitude to God who 
 ordained this for him, to the Saviour who merited 
 this for him ! that he should not swear the sacred 
 oath : To this God and this Redeemer will I live ! I, 
 
SERMONS. 309 
 
 registered to citizenship in heaven, will walk as a 
 citizen of heaven ! Oh, my beloved, sooner shall all 
 the rays of the sun be unable to pierce the iron 
 crust of the earth, to bring a single grain of corn to 
 maturity, than faith in such a doctrine bear no 
 fruits of righteousness, renew and purify no hearts, 
 and unite no men to God ! 
 
 I have accomplished my task, my hearers, and the 
 doctrine of Jesus, as a doctrine of religion for the 
 mind, the heart, and the life, I have endeavored so 
 to present to you that the conviction might be 
 revived in you : yes, truly he was and is the light of 
 the ivorld! Much I have been obliged to pass by, 
 much I have been able only to touch, that was 
 doubly worthy of a more ample development. Yet 
 I have not spoken to you of the light which this 
 doctrine has already spread over the world, of the 
 incalculable benefits which it has conferred on man- 
 kind ; yet have I not fixed your views on those 
 joyful and glorious times when all nations of the 
 earth shall bask in the brightness and glow of that 
 heavenly light. The moment that remains to me 
 I can only employ to excite you to prize your 
 happiness in being permitted to walk in the light of 
 the ivorld, and to make a thankful use of it. 
 
 Yes, great is the happiness to know infallibly 
 what we are to believe and expect of God ; not to 
 be in these things dependent on human teachings 
 and systems ; not carried about in the whirl of 
 human opinions, which assail and annihilate each 
 other, fix their seat one on the ruins of the other, 
 to be presently thrust from it by another. For not 
 
310 SERMONS. 
 
 for his contemporaries alone did Jesus kindle that 
 light ; and it is not obscured or extinguished by his 
 disappearance from the earth. By his divine Spirit 
 he caused it to shine with equal clearness in the 
 hearts of his confidential pupils ; by them it was 
 spread over the whole earth, and in their writings, 
 as well as in the discourses of their Master, by them 
 faithfully recorded, it shines upon us with unclouded 
 brightness. Let us acknowledge the greatness of 
 this divine gift : let us thank the Father of light for 
 it ; let us pray him continually to uncover our 
 eyes, that we may behold the wonders of his laiv ; and 
 let us feel with emotion and alarm, how great a 
 judgment would befall us should it be said to us : 
 1 will remove the light from thy candlestick! 
 
 And by what shall we better show our gratitude 
 than by making regular and serious use of this great 
 privilege ? By exercising ourselves in the knowl- 
 edge of the revelation of God's grace in Jesus 
 Christ, and by constantly strengthening our faith, 
 and fixing it on the immovable foundation laid in 
 the gospel ? By this, that we guard against follow- 
 ing a deceptive twilight ; that we try the spirits, 
 whether they be of God, and forget not the declara- 
 tion of our Lord : If the light that is in thee be 
 darkness, how great is that darkness ? By this, above 
 all, that we walk as children of the light, hate all 
 evil works of darkness, glorify God by our walk in 
 meekness and fear, and keep our eye fixed on that 
 land of eternal light where shall be no more night, 
 for God shall there be all in all ? Amen. 
 
SERMONS. 311 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 LOVE TO JESUS. 
 
 Whom having not seen, ye love. — 1 Pet. i. 8. 
 
 Among the properties and peculiarities which 
 characterized the doctrine of Jesus and his manner 
 of teaching was one that we meet with in no other 
 teacher, either before or after him ; just as little in 
 those who spake by divine authority and inspira- 
 tion, as in those sages of antiquity who ascribed 
 all their science and knowledge to the light of 
 reason. I mean that Jesus exacted of all who 
 followed him and professed to believe in him, love, 
 love to himself. It is true, if any one deserves love 
 it is he who devotes his whole life to the work of 
 pointing out and commending to others the way of 
 truth and blessedness ; and if there is on earth any 
 remuneration for the cares and sacrifices of a faith- 
 ful teacher, any encouragement to cause him to pro- 
 ceed with unfaltering step in his arduous course, it 
 consists alone in the love of those whom he may 
 have been able to rescue from error, and win for 
 heaven. But he demands not that love, he pre- 
 scribes it not as a duty, he makes it not the touch- 
 stone by which to try the genuineness of the 
 acceptance and the loyalty of adhesion to the 
 
312 SERMONS. 
 
 truth known ; much less does he make it the soul 
 of his teaching, and the highest command for the 
 confessors of his doctrine. And yet this Jesus did 
 repeatedly, undisguisedly, and forcibly ; demanding 
 a love which stood on an equality with that of the 
 most tender relationships, yea, even transcended it : 
 He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not 
 worthy of me. 
 
 On this track he was followed by his Apostles. 
 Everywhere and at all times they made confession 
 of their love to their Lord ; in labors and trials 
 they testified that the love of Christ constrained 
 them; to kindle this pure love in the bosom of the 
 first Christians was their most zealous endeavor ; 
 and it was the greatest encomium which they knew 
 to bestow on their congregations : Ye love Jesus! 
 
 Now if Jesus was not more than Teacher and 
 Ambassador of God, then this sounds strange ; 
 then his claims were extravagant, and the exhor- 
 tations of his disciples reprehensible. So did no 
 Moses, no Samuel, no John the Baptist, in whose 
 mouth was the word of the Lord, and for whom 
 alone they demanded love, loyalty, and obedience. 
 But Jesus was also much more than one of these ; 
 it was an entirely different relation that bound him 
 to all whom he called his ! He was and is worthy 
 of that love ; he knew and knows how to inspire 
 that love ; and love to him, flowing together with 
 love to his heavenly Father, was and is, and will 
 ever remain, the highest and holiest of all moral 
 obligations, the foundation and corner-stone of the 
 kingdom of heaven on earth. 
 
SERMONS. 313 
 
 Herewith would I occupy your attention, in this 
 hour of religious meditation and separation ; for 
 which purpose may the God and Father of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ command the influence of his 
 Holy Spirit, and the blessing of the gospel ! 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 Adorable Supreme Being, source of all that 
 lives and is ! Who can know thee without loving 
 thee ? Who can think of thee without thinking 
 of a Father, a Provider, a Guide on life's journey, 
 a Preserver in perils, a Friend in need, a Rock of 
 immovable confidence ? That thou wast and art ! 
 As such hast thou made thyself known to our 
 understanding and to our heart ; by the light of our 
 innate knowledge, by the word of thy revelation, 
 by the history of all ages, by our own experience. 
 Wherever we turn our eyes, in heaven or on earth, 
 or in the inmost recesses of our own mind, every- 
 where we recognize, in conjunction with thy great- 
 ness, also thy amiableness, and thousands of voices 
 proclaim to us : Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
 with all thy heart, with all thy mind, and all thy 
 strength ! And that no infinite distance between 
 thee, who dwellest in heaven, and us, whose foun- 
 dation is in the dust, should hinder us from conse- 
 crating to thee the most tender affection of our 
 hearts, that we might be able to fasten us still 
 more closely to thee, to bind us still more firmly to 
 thee, thou hast sent thy Son, thy image, in whom 
 the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily, into the 
 world, and caused him to assume our flesh and 
 
314 SERMONS. 
 
 our blood, that thou shouldest become in him vis- 
 ible and palpable to us, and we in the Son should 
 love the Father and rejoice in him with an un- 
 speakable and glorious joy ! 
 
 Adoration and praise be rendered to thee for 
 this great and ineffable grace, for this wonder of 
 thy compassions respecting us ! It is a height 
 which we cannot measure, a depth which we can- 
 not fathom ; we fall on our faces and exclaim in 
 thankful adoration : God is love ! And should we 
 then not honor the Son as we honor the Father, 
 love the Son, as we love the Father, not love and 
 honor the Father in the Son ? Then should we 
 certainly reject the counsel of thy eternal wisdom 
 for our salvation, thy thoughts of peace concerning 
 us, and should forfeit the most blessed of all priv- 
 ileges : behold how great love the Father hath 
 bestowed upon us, that we should be called chil- 
 dren of God ! Ah, were only our hearts more 
 burning in us, as often as we think of him, our 
 Head and our Lord, our Mediator and Advocate 
 with God ! as often as we speak of him who 
 procured life for us by his death ! or when we 
 are called, by word and life, to honor him who 
 has made us partakers of the citizenship of heaven ! 
 Forgive us, heavenly Father, the lukewarmness 
 and insensibility of our hearts, if to this moment 
 we have been destitute of love to Jesus , the cool- 
 ing of our first love, if he has ever been precious to 
 us. Deeply impress our hearts with his unspeak- 
 able amiableness ; revive in us the remembrance of 
 all that he w T as for us and did for us, that with the 
 
SERMONS. 315 
 
 eyes of faith and love we may behold him whom 
 with the eyes of the body we never saw, not fear- 
 ing the glorious appearance of his coming, but 
 desiring to be by and with him, and to see him as 
 he is. 
 
 Grant to this end thy blessing on our religious 
 gathering, and the proclamation of the Word of the 
 everlasting gospel. May love to Jesus animate the 
 words of the teacher, inflame the hearts of his 
 hearers, that both speaker and hearers, partakers 
 of the fruit of the merits of that only Redeemer 
 and Saviour, may stand unblamable before him in 
 that day ! Our Father, etc. 
 
 Respecting the writer of this epistle, the Apostle 
 Peter, his character and his history, I deem it 
 needless to entertain you. You know him, and 
 what in connection with the text read we must 
 more particularly recall concerning him will be 
 mentioned in its proper place. He possessed great 
 authority in the primitive Church of Christ, espe- 
 cially among the converted from among the Jews, 
 as well beyond Palestine as within its bounds, to 
 which the occurrences on the illustrious day of Pen- 
 tecost had readily given occasion. To them, there- 
 fore, this writing is principally directed, and indeed 
 to the dispersed in foreign lands, in Pontus, Galatia, 
 Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia ; he calls them the 
 elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Fa- 
 ther, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedi- 
 ence and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. 
 To Christians already at the outset described by 
 
 4 
 
316 SERMONS. 
 
 him in such terms he must indeed ascribe great 
 privileges and an exalted station in the kingdom 
 of Christ, as we hear him do from the third verse 
 of this chapter to the twelfth inclusive, laying thus 
 a firm foundation on which to build the instructions, 
 exhortations, and consolations which constitute the 
 argument of this whole glorious epistle. In this 
 description of the character and the expectations of 
 all true believers, love to Jesus must also find its 
 place ; wherefore the Apostle in the verse from 
 which my text is taken, makes mention of it as the 
 source of the purest and most blessed joy : Whom 
 having not seen, ye love ; in ivhom, though now ye see 
 him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeak- 
 able, and full of glory. 
 
 The first portion of these words will constitute 
 the particular matter of our present meditation. 
 
 I. I shall, first, not indeed explain the declaration 
 of Peter, for proper explanation it does not need, 
 but yet entertain you briefly on its meaning, its 
 design and force ; 
 
 II. After that I shall, on the nature of love to 
 Jesus ; 
 
 III. And finally, on its importance so endeavor 
 to speak to you, that also our love to that amia- 
 ble one may thereby be fed, cherished, and con- 
 firmed. 
 
 I. Wliom having not seen, ye love. In that part 
 of the epistle to which our text belongs, and 
 indeed throughout this whole composition, reigns 
 not so much an artificial order and premeditated 
 concatenation of ideas as a free outpouring of the 
 
SERMONS. 817 
 
 mind, whereby one gives free course to his emo- 
 tions and allows himself to be borne along on the 
 current of his feelings ; whereby one thought dis- 
 places as it were another, and sometimes a single 
 word is sufficient to give a new turn to the dis- 
 course, to depart from the subject treated of, or to 
 return to it. 
 
 The express mention of Jesus Christ and the 
 revelation of his .glory, in the close of the former 
 verse, could therefore alone be to Peter sufficient 
 occasion to cause to follow immediately upon it : 
 whom having not seen, ye love. 
 
 They to whom Peter wrote this epistle had 
 thus never seen Jesus ; being Jews, they could, how- 
 ever, have seen him at the feasts in Jerusalem ; yet 
 among the dispersed in distant lands were but few 
 whose circumstances would often justify the long 
 absence and the expense which such a journey 
 required : and among those to whom Peter wrote 
 there may perhaps have been some who had beheld 
 the face of Jesus ; but they had not, however, had 
 intercourse with him ; and even these few made no 
 sufficient exception that Peter could not in general 
 have said of all, that they had not seen Jesus. 
 
 That we should love one whom we have never 
 seen can be comprehended, and examples of it are 
 not wanting ; but to do so without knowing him in 
 his qualities and in his relation to us, this is im- 
 possible. The dispersed Christians from among the 
 Jews thus Jcneiv Jesus, from authentic and credible 
 reports ; yea, they possessed of him a knowledge 
 extensive and complete enough to see begotten by 
 
318 SERMONS. 
 
 it an upright, steadfast, and hearty love to him. 
 Very early indeed, writings seem to have been in 
 circulation, which contained in simple narratives 
 the life, the acts, the exit, and the glorification of 
 the Saviour. Matthew, one of the Apostles, him- 
 self wrote, for the service of the primitive Church, 
 such a gospel, in the abridging of which, as well 
 as in the important additions and elucidations which 
 render that small volume invaluable, Peter had 
 perhaps no insignificant part. When Luke re- 
 corded those particulars of Jesus' abode on earth 
 which were held by Christians as perfectly certain, 
 many had already before him taken the same thing 
 in hand ; and there was thus no lack of written 
 sources, invested with sufficient authority, to make 
 Jesus known in all his doing and character, in his 
 passion and in his triumph, in his entire amiability. 
 To this was added the preaching of the Apostles, 
 and of the other disciples, who had daily had inter- 
 course with Jesus, and were chosen by him to bear 
 his name and to promulge his gospel. These men, 
 wholly penetrated and animated with the image of 
 their Lord, and who had received the promise of 
 the Spirit, who would bring all things to their re- 
 membrance which thev had seen and heard, had 
 purposed, among the churches which they visited 
 and founded on their journeys, to know nothing 
 save Christ and him crucified ; of him their lips 
 overflowed ; they spoke of him in the language of 
 the heart, in the language of the purest transport. 
 And is it, then, marvellous that they should kindle 
 in unprejudiced, in truly virtuous minds the same 
 
SERMONS. 319 
 
 glow of love which burned so brightly, so purely, so 
 beneficently in their own bosom ? 
 
 The love to Jesus which Peter ascribes to these 
 Christians needed to be no blind passion, and un- 
 happy he with whom it is this, — a barren shrub, on 
 which no fruit can grow, a shadow without image, 
 a flickering without o-low ! In order to love him 
 whom we have not seen, a still more distinct and 
 perfect knowledge is required than to love him in 
 whose look and intercourse we share. Love does 
 not penetrate so quickly through the ear as through 
 the eye. He whose countenance we behold, whose 
 presence we enjoy, how much more easily does he 
 gain our affection than he of whom we have been 
 apprised by others, who he was, what were his 
 thoughts respecting us, what he did for us. That 
 feeling of relation, of desire, of indispensableness, 
 which alone can be called love, if it shall be truly 
 awakened in us, for one unknown by face to us, 
 perhaps by lands and seas separated from us, how 
 nearly must what is said of him affect us ; how 
 must it touch the most tender chords of our sensi- 
 bility, and with what a firm conviction of truth 
 must we believe and accept all that is related to us 
 of the greatness and goodness of the object of our 
 love, and of its influence on our rest, on our satis- 
 faction, on our happiness ! 
 
 It is then no mean testimony, but great and emi- 
 nent, which Peter gives to the scattered Christians, 
 when, with reference to Jesus, he says of them : 
 whom having not seen, ye love. And, moreover, if 
 anv one knew what love to Jesus was, it was Peter ; 
 
320 SERMONS. 
 
 he, one of the most beloved of the disciples, witness 
 of his Master's transfiguration on Tabor, witness 
 of his agonies in Gethsemane ; who had received 
 and lodged him in his house ; who, where it came 
 to proofs and professions of loyalty and affection, 
 was spokesman for all the others : Lord! to whom 
 shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life; 
 whose very fall, how deep and grievous soever, had 
 proceeded singly from this, that love had made him 
 contemplate that fall as impossible. How must 
 still that voice of his risen Lord, that oft-repeated 
 question, have continually sounded in his ears : 
 Simon, son of Jo?ias, lovest thou me ? whilst his 
 heart could still continually respond to it : Lord, 
 thou know est all things ; thou knowest that Hove thee. 
 When I represent to myself all that could, in the 
 writing of these words, have passed before the mind 
 of the Apostle, then I read, it seems to me, in 
 them : Beloved in Christ, you have not seen him, 
 that only, that holy, that glorious one ! Had it been 
 granted you, like me, to share in his intercourse, 
 in the effusions of his heavenly friendship, oh, you 
 would not have been able to restrain your hearts 
 from attaching themselves to him in the most ten- 
 der affection ; eternally dear and never-to-be-for- 
 gotten would he have become to you as to me ; but 
 even now, praise be to the grace of God, honor 
 be to Christianity, glorified in you, though you have 
 not seen him, yet you love him ! 
 
 What, now, is the nature of that love to Jesus, 
 whom we have not seen ? How is it possible ? how 
 is it begotten? how does it manifest itself? These 
 
SERMONS. 321 
 
 are the things on which we are to meditate in the 
 second part of our discourse, in which I am to speak 
 to you on the nature of love to Jesus. 
 
 Who knows not the agreeable passion of love ? 
 It is different according to the nature of the object 
 about which it is operative ; also different in sin- 
 cerity, in purity and fervency ; but what human 
 bosom is there which has never felt what love is ? 
 It can for wise ends, determined by God, unite 
 itself with the sensations of our sensuous being ; 
 but it is in reality independent of it, and belongs 
 to our spiritual nature, by which we are allied to 
 the angels, to God himself. It belongs to the 
 noblest elements of our spiritual nature, and is the 
 bond which holds together the moral world. With- 
 out it, it is eternal winter, as well in the invisible 
 as in the visible creation. It is the source of our 
 purest pleasures ; it can be the source of an unspeak- 
 able and glorious joy. Love to Jesus is truly, and 
 in the most proper, most natural sense of the word, 
 love : as the friend loves the friend of his heart, as 
 we love a benefactor, as we love whatever is lovely. 
 Are there not among our fellow-men those to whom 
 we feel related as if they were our brothers, though 
 no other consanguinity binds them to us than that 
 we with them have sprung from the same progen- 
 itor of all mankind ? Is not love love's whetstone, 
 and does not our heart open more readily to them 
 in whose heart we know that we have a place ? If 
 he whom we highly value and esteem, desires our 
 friendship, can we withhold it from him ? And 
 of what nature is the engagement arising from 
 
 21 
 
322 SERMONS. 
 
 solemn obligation for important services rendered, 
 for help in need, for preservation of property and 
 life ? Does gratitude in well-constituted hearts 
 work no love ? When, finally, we discover in any 
 one qualities fair and gentle, agreeable and capti- 
 vating, does there not then exist a secret attractive 
 power which makes the refusal of our affection 
 wellnigh impossible ? And when all that has been 
 enumerated, relation, respect, gratitude, amiabil- 
 ity, unite on and in the same object, what love then 
 cannot thence arise, which in sincerity, in purity 
 and steadfastness, finds nowhere its like ? Such 
 is love to Jesus ; we will unfold it to you in certain 
 particulars ; but I must previously limit you to a 
 required qualification, without which the possibility 
 of that love might be doubted. 
 
 We must, for instance, not confound with it the 
 respectful and tender remembrance of one deceased, 
 if we would not indulge in a vain play on words. 
 To the dead, who has been torn from our heart, we 
 pour out our tears, and derive melancholy pleasure 
 from the recollection of what he was to us when 
 with us ; but we miss him ; new reciprocal per- 
 formance of duty and service has come to an end ; 
 or if we can in truth be said to love them at whose 
 graves we weep, and whose will remains ever dear 
 to us, the former pleasant intercourse and com- 
 munion, the life and soul of love, have been cut 
 off. In order, then, to love Jesus as it becomes us, 
 and as is acceptable to him, the belief that Jesus 
 lives must be deeply rooted in our hearts ; that 
 he lives not only as all our dead live, but that he 
 
SERMONS. 323 
 
 lives for us ; that he has not there, where he is, 
 lost his relation to the earth and to his friends on 
 it ; that he accepts the proofs of their aifection, and 
 bestows on them the proofs of his ; that he, exalted 
 to the right hand of his Father in the heavens, is 
 the same that he was when he dwelt here below 
 among men ; that his mediatorial glory and majesty 
 have diminished nothing from his human amiability ; 
 and that we contemplate him as absent only with 
 respect to the body, but as to the spirit present and 
 by us ; hoping and longing and expecting that 
 he will in due time receive us to himself in the 
 mansions of his Father, and that we shall see him 
 as he is. 
 
 As we thus contemplate Jesus, whom we have 
 never seen as one who lives ; who is detained, in- 
 deed, in other regions, but from there takes notice 
 of us, concerns himself about us ; with whom we 
 can daily hold communion through the purest and 
 most tender emotions of our souls, and with whom 
 we hope to be finally united, never to part ; need 
 we then ask, how love to this Jesus is produced in 
 us ? Certainly so as with the Christians to whom 
 Peter wrote. By knowing him in all those rela- 
 tions in which he is dear to us. Our human re- 
 lations are judged to be fainter and weaker, in 
 proportion as they are less exclusive ; and so lowest 
 on the scale of the same stands that of our fellow- 
 man, the participant of our nature. It is, however, 
 a weighty relation, the foundation of all the rest, 
 the source of all duties of love, that God has made 
 of one blood the whole race of men, No ! we 
 
324 SERMONS. 
 
 should not be able to cherish that love for Jesus 
 which we may now bear him, had he not become 
 partaker of our flesh and blood. It is also a sweet 
 and fair emotion to love man in man. It becomes 
 sweeter, fairer, more sublime, in proportion as hu- 
 man excellence is more gloriously displayed in him. 
 As among our kinsmen, among our fellow-citizens 
 or countrymen, among our brethren in the same 
 calling or occupation, we love them most who most 
 honor their race, the place or the land of their 
 abode, their station in the world, so that we may 
 remember them with noble pride ; so none is dearer 
 to us as man than he in whom it appears of what 
 greatness our nature is capable. Alas ! since the 
 mournful fall and the dominion of sin, we have 
 little reason to be elated because of our race ; if 
 not to be ashamed on account of the depth to which 
 it is sunk. But Jesus has by his example brought 
 to pass that we can again raise our head ; in him 
 was manifested our original perfection ; in him it 
 appeared what dispositions, what prospects, what 
 a heaven could lodge in the human bosom ; he has 
 asrain ennobled our nature ! Who is there, then, to 
 whom as man we can bear a like love as to Jesus ? 
 
 Amono- the traces of our excellence which sin 
 has not effaced belongs also this, that true virtue 
 inspires us with an esteem and respect which even 
 the miscreant cannot renounce. That esteem is 
 in the good nearly allied to love ; yea, without it 
 there exists no love that deserves to bear the name. 
 When our understanding applauds the choice of 
 our heart, then first can we undauntedly follow its 
 
SERMONS. 325 
 
 dictate ; and how is true affection inflamed by each 
 well-deserved tribute of praise that is bestowed on 
 its object ? I dare hardly, my hearers, among 
 Christians, who know their Redeemer, speak of 
 him as worthy of esteem ; for he was worthy of 
 much more than this, he was worthy of reverential 
 homage and adoration. Had he borne the image 
 alone of immaculate humanity, I should speak to 
 you of his innocence, of his wisdom and goodness, 
 of his courage and his steadfastness ; how he, always 
 like himself, could challenge even his enemies to 
 point out anything faulty in his life, and extorted 
 from them the testimony : Never man spake like 
 this man. But he bore the image of the invisible 
 God ; as a visible Deity he walked among men ; 
 and they who had eyes to see him as he was, beheld 
 his glory as that of the only begotten of the Father ! 
 And if, then, even that esteem which we feel for 
 weak and imperfect creatures is sufficient to serve 
 as a foundation of the love which we cherish for 
 them, how pure, how constant, how heavenly must 
 not then be that flame which is kindled by such a 
 veneration ! 
 
 But you think, perhaps, that this lofty elevation 
 and divinity of Jesus are prejudicial to affection for 
 him, to familiarity with him, to the outpouring of 
 the heart before him ; but do you then forget how 
 all that brightness of glory manifested itself in him, 
 full of grace and truth ? There may sometimes in 
 him whom we highly esteem, whom we honor as 
 the ornament of his age and his station, even in 
 him who overloads us with benefits and favors, be 
 
326 SERMONS. 
 
 something that repels us as it were from him, and 
 prevents us from giving him our entire confidence. 
 There is yet a particular property which we desig- 
 nate by the general name of amiability, and who 
 was therein ever to be compared with Jesus ? 
 Who was gentle, patient, friendly, indulgent, like 
 him ? — adapting himself to the wants, manners, 
 wishes of all ; all things to all ! Who was so 
 greatly the friend of the unhappy, whom he never 
 repulsed, but comforted, aided, and delivered ? To 
 heal infirmities and diseases was his daily employ- 
 ment ; the couches of the sick and paralytic were 
 the world in which he lived ; to dry tears his 
 highest delight ! Raised above all prejudices of 
 his nation and age, from pure philanthropy inviting 
 to him Samaritans and publicans, sitting at their 
 board ; publicly rewarding the tender homage of 
 a penitent female sinner with forgiveness of sins ! 
 And what was he not to his friends ; to his twelve 
 disciples ; to the Marthas, Marys, and Lazaruses ; 
 to the noble female disciples, who could not leave 
 his side ? He demanded not only the heart of his 
 friends, he gave them also his. He was not blind 
 to their infirmities, and reproved them, but yet main- 
 tained their honor before the multitude. Still we 
 see him, as he washes the feet of his disciples from 
 first to last, and subjoins to Peter, who out of re- 
 spect to him is disposed to refuse : If I wash thee 
 not, thou hast no part with me. Still we hear him, 
 consecrating their remembrance of him with the 
 bread and the cup of the supper ; his farewell dis- 
 course on the way to Gethsemane, full of promises, 
 
SERMONS. 827 
 
 full of consolation, full of professions and demands 
 of friendship ; his prayer, with which he commends 
 them to the keeping and protection of his Heavenly 
 Father ; and how he finally surrenders himself vol- 
 untarily to his enemies, on condition that they will 
 not molest his friends ! What can be denominated 
 amiability, if it be not this ? And as Jesus was on 
 earth, so is he still in heaven ! Who would not 
 desire such a friend as Jesus ; who prefer another 
 to him ? 
 
 And permit me yet to add : Whom would you 
 rather out of gratitude love, to whom would you 
 rather be under obligation than to him ? He has 
 redeemed us from death and recalled us to life ! 
 Such a benefactor we call among our fellow-men 
 the greatest, who delivers us from peril of life, 
 especially if he does this at the peril of his own 
 life. But what preservation of life is this in com- 
 parison with the preservation procured by Jesus ? 
 The preservation of a life that we must certainly 
 lose again, that at furthest can last onlv a few 
 years, that, perhaps, will last only a few months 
 or weeks, and then succumb to a power against 
 which no human help can avail ? Is this a benefit 
 so great that he who conferred it on us becomes 
 thereby alone dear to us and never to be forgotten ; 
 that we cannot hear his name mentioned without 
 our heart beating with emotion ? What can, what 
 must we then not feel for him who has for us de- 
 stroyed death and the fear of death, and brought 
 to pass that he who believes in him shall never die ? 
 I see the condemned malefactor, with tears of love, 
 
328 SERMONS. 
 
 sinking down at the feet of his king, who has ex- 
 tended grace to him, without its costing him more 
 than to subscribe his name to the letter of pardon ; 
 and we, exposed to death and condemnation, we 
 receive forgiveness of a thousand unpardonable 
 crimes from our Heavenly Judge and King through 
 Jesus Christ, who for that placed his life not only 
 in the scale, but sacrificed and poured it out in the 
 most cruel and most disgraceful death, himself 
 bearing the punishment which should procure our 
 peace. And this, this benefactor, so lovely in all 
 his traits and characteristics, our head, our glory, 
 and our crown, God manifested in the flesh, de- 
 mands our love, sets value on our love, loved us 
 first, and desires by his love to make us happy by 
 and with him. I repeat it, need we indeed ask, 
 can we love him ? How is love to him begotten 
 in the heart of his friends ? 
 
 And, finally, how does love to Jesus manifest 
 itself? So, my beloved, as love always manifests 
 itself; inwardly in emotions of the mind, outwardly 
 in words and deeds. But those inward emotions, 
 who has ever been able to describe them ? That 
 tender remembrance, delighting in the silent enu- 
 meration of all that makes the beloved lovely ; in 
 the recollection of all the proofs of his affection ; 
 that fear of displeasing him ; those outgoings of the 
 
 soul ; that longing to be by and with him 
 
 but here all expressions of human speech fail, and 
 though that love also manifests itself outwardly in 
 words, they are simply a faint outline of what is 
 taking place within. Expect there, above all, no 
 
SERMONS. 329 
 
 parade of empty professions, no profanation of the 
 beloved name by unseasonable mention of it ; but 
 respectful, discreet, and yet always warm language 
 of the heart, intelligible and harmonious, however 
 simply expressed, to them who burn with the same 
 love. And who does not know in what deeds it 
 manifests itself? The friend will certainly avoid 
 whatever displeases his friend, endeavor to deserve 
 his esteem, strive after his approbation, laboring with 
 all his abilities to honor the mutual covenant of 
 love. This is indeed the test of true, noble friend- 
 ship, the scale by which to gauge its strength and 
 its steadfastness. And unhappy he who would man- 
 ifest his love to Jesus by other marks than these ; 
 who never made any dedication and surrender of 
 the soul to him ; w T ho never rejoiced in him with 
 an unspeakable and glorious joy ; who does not 
 feel himself blessed when his walk is by his Friend 
 in the heavens ; who never with burning tears 
 lamented the infidelity and the departures of his 
 heart through the seduction of the senses and of 
 concupiscence ; and whose constant prayer is not, 
 Lord, increase in me thy love through faith, that I 
 may bear thy name and become conformed to thy 
 glorious image ! 
 
 III. From what has been said it w T ill already 
 have been apparent to you, my hearers, how great 
 importance we are to attach to love to Jesus, con- 
 cerning which I must yet in the third and last fart 
 of my discourse speak to you, for it is indeed the 
 soul of Christianity, and, as I said at the beginning, 
 the foundation and corner-stone of the kingdom of 
 
830 SERMONS. 
 
 God on earth. A few considerations, which I will 
 in conclusion offer, will be sufficient to place in the 
 light this important truth, and impress it on your 
 minds. 
 
 First, love to Jesus is in its being the same as 
 love to God. The attempt has indeed been often 
 made, to cast a reflection on the homage and affec- 
 tion which all true Christians render to Jesus, 
 their Lord and Head, as if it militated against the 
 exclusive respect which we owe to the only true 
 God. But how little does one know, in making 
 such an impeachment, of the true nature of the 
 gospel ! Yes, how little knowledge does one there- 
 by evince, of what it is truly to honor God ! Or 
 is this something else than to honor the counsel 
 and will of God? When" the Father will be hon- 
 ored and loved in the Son, does it then become us 
 to pronounce this sacrilege, and to reject the ap- 
 pointments of God's eternal wisdom ? Is not the 
 Son, then, the brightness of the Father's glory, the 
 express image of his person ? Woe to him who 
 should be able to forget and banish from his heart 
 the Infinite Creator and Upholder of all tilings, in 
 order to render to another above him his affection 
 and loyalty! Him will the glorified Jesus, in the 
 day of his coming, not acknowledge as his ; he who 
 spake and did all that he spake and did in obe- 
 dience to his Father. But in him we see the Father, 
 the Father's wisdom and power and love. His 
 life is the clearest mirror of God's perfections, and 
 there is no light of the knowledge of the glory of 
 God save in the face of Jesus Christ. Would you 
 
SERMONS. 331 
 
 know what most pleases God of all that we can 
 perform to his honor ; to what he has annexed his 
 greatest and most benign complacency ? It is that 
 we love Jesus. In no other relation than as friends 
 of his Son can he forgive us all things, and open 
 to us his fatherly heart and fatherly house above. 
 Thus, we withhold not then from the Father the 
 love which we give to his Son, but we give it to 
 him as he is most disposed to accept it from us, as 
 only he can accept it from sinners ; and fulfil in 
 the way most becoming, most pleasing to God, the 
 first and great command : TIwu shalt love the Lord 
 thy G-od, and him only shalt thou serve. Secondly, 
 love to Jesus places obedience to God and the ful- 
 filment of our obligation and destination in their 
 fairest and most amiable light. We are indeed so 
 formed, and it belongs in some measure to the 
 nobility of our nature, that we reluctantly yield to 
 compulsion, and that sacrifices, extorted from us by 
 fear or superior power, lose all their value ; but that 
 on the contrary we gladly perform from love what 
 we allow to be wrested from us by no violence. 
 What is possible to men is possible to them by love. 
 What wonders of fidelity are recorded in history 
 which have been performed by consorts for each 
 other, by fathers and mothers for their offspring, 
 by children for their parents, with contempt of all 
 dangers, with renunciation of themselves, of their 
 property and life, simply because they were con- 
 strained by love, which is not to be arrested in its 
 course by mountains, or abysses, or deserts ! And 
 now recollect of what nature love to Jesus can 
 
332 SERMONS. 
 
 and must be. Can anything that he desires, or 
 expects, or commands, be grievous to him in whose 
 heart this love lias been truly shed abroad ? Do 
 you know a more beautiful fundamental law for 
 the kingdom of God than this love, nobler in its 
 nature, more powerful in its operation ? Incited 
 by this love, Peter and his fellow-apostles were 
 seen forsaking all in order to follow Christ ; esteem- 
 ing the reproach of Christ an honor to them ; 
 enduring poverty, stripes, and imprisonment, and 
 willingly sealing their fidelity with their blood. 
 Where this love has taken possession of the heart, 
 there it will be, amid manifold trial and temptation, 
 even in a pathway of life most filled with cares and 
 difficulties, still the language of the last Christian 
 who has contended in these lists, His command- 
 ments are not grievous. 
 
 And this yet the more, my beloved, since, in the 
 third place, love to Jesus must from its nature be a 
 source of sanctification. No ! no true friendship 
 can subsist between the good and the bad, for light 
 has no communion with darkness ! Can you con- 
 ceive of the man before whose eyes the image of 
 the holy Jesus is ever present, and who should not 
 hate sin as a debasement and disgrace and dishonor 
 to his heavenly calling ? Unhappy ye whose hearts 
 cannot yet bear witness that you love Jesus ; is it 
 not because you know and feel that choosing him 
 you would be obliged to bid farewell to your carnal 
 and sensual life ; because you know that there is 
 enmity between Christ and Belial ? And ye who 
 cleave to him, and know no life without him for your 
 
SERMONS. 333 
 
 souls, when is he more precious to you, and when 
 do you take a purer delight in him, than when you 
 are conscious that in meekness, beneficence, and 
 purity you are promoting the glory of God and the 
 good of the community ? Or, reciprocally, when 
 do you form holier resolutions, and wage warfare 
 against the flesh and the world with greater courage 
 and energy, than when in thought you are contin- 
 ually by him, and your relation to him fills your 
 whole soul? Another apostle has said, that when 
 he shall appear ', we shall be like him ; for we shall 
 see him as he is. So is it also with our beholding 
 of him by the eye of faith and love ; it must pro- 
 duce conformity to him. It is impossible to set 
 continually before us with inward complacency and 
 interest so much goodness and greatness without 
 being smitten by it, charmed, inflamed with a noble 
 desire to imitate. Yes, the order of nature and 
 of the human emotions must be overturned and 
 destroyed, if love to Jesus be not the same as love 
 to virtue ! 
 
 Finally, there is no love without desire ; no love 
 to an absent friend without longing to see him and 
 to be by him. Love to Jesus, then, is also immov- 
 able hope of salvation ! Entire Christianity is based 
 on and designed to effect this, that we contemplate 
 the earth as the land of our pilgrimage and heaven 
 as our home. In whom this mind is, he alone walks 
 worthily of the gospel of Christ ; and he who has 
 this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure. 
 By this, then, let us try ourselves whether we pertain 
 to him through love ; and if we cannot give this 
 
334 SERMONS. 
 
 testimony to ourselves, let us attend to our ways, lest 
 in the midst of the diversions or enjoyments or 
 cares of life we fail to secure the greatest and only 
 felicity. But happy, thrice happy, if our treasure 
 is in heaven ; for where our treasure is, there will 
 our heart also be. That treasure is Jesus and love 
 to him ; may he be ours, more precious to us than 
 perishable gold and silver ! May Christ be formed 
 in us ; may we bear his image, that he may ac- 
 knowledge us as his, and when we shall have 
 come thither, whither we are all going, he may say 
 of us to his Father : Father, I will that they also 
 whom thou hast given me be with me where I am. 
 Amen. 
 
SERMONS. 335 
 
 SERMON VIII. 
 PATRIOTISM, A DUTY OF RELIGION. 1 
 
 I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the 
 Lord. 
 
 Our feet shall stand within thy gates, Jerusalem. 
 
 Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together: 
 
 Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony 
 of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. 
 
 For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of 
 David. 
 
 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem : they shall prosper that love thee. 
 
 Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. 
 
 For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be 
 within thee. 
 
 Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good. — 
 Psalm cxxii. 
 
 Who is there among you, my hearers, of what- 
 ever rank or condition he be, who regards with in- 
 difference the events which in these days so sensibly 
 and so nearly affect our land and people ? Who 
 that does not carry about with him wherever he 
 goes the thought of them, and that has not brought 
 it with him even into this house of prayer ? We 
 are apprised of the unheard-of violence with which 
 the fortress is assaulted, the cession of which on 
 honorable conditions is refused us through perfidi- 
 ousness and superior power. We learn with what 
 determined courage it is defended by our country's 
 
 1 Preached December 16th, 1832. 
 
336 SERMONS. 
 
 heroes ; how the blood of many has already flowed 
 in its defence ; and some have even sacrificed their 
 lives in maintaining the cause of justice. We hear 
 it, and our hearts beat restlessly within us ; and did 
 we not look upward to Him who alone directs all 
 the affairs of the world, and whose darkest ways 
 are often the most glorious, we should hardly be 
 able to refrain from complaining and disputing. 
 Whence is this, even in the case of those who 
 neither by pecuniary interests nor by means of 
 dear children or relatives are involved in this con- 
 flict ? Is it not because we feel how dear- to us is 
 our country ; how strong and sacred the bond that 
 binds us to its honor and welfare ? Influenced by 
 this consideration, 1 purpose, during this hour de- 
 voted to religious meditation, to address you, in a 
 manner suited to the object for which we are con- 
 vened, on interest in the welfare of one's country. 
 To this end I have selected matter which will not 
 only give us a ready introduction to it, but which 
 will at the same time afford us an opportunity to 
 delight ourselves in the treasures of God's word, 
 and by this means furnish to burdened minds 
 some moments of agreeable relief from their anx- 
 ious thoughts. 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 God of grace and compassion, who hast com- 
 manded us to love our neighbors as ourselves, and 
 hast so formed us that we can never be happier than 
 when we are making others happier, we thank thee 
 that thou dost again grant us the opportunity to 
 
SERMONS. 337 
 
 come together in thy sanctuary and enjoy the in- 
 struction of thy holy word. We thank thee for this 
 the most excellent of the benefits which we receive 
 from thy liberal hand, and for so many other privi- 
 leges and blessings which fall to our lot as citizens 
 and inhabitants of this good land. We thank thee 
 that we possess a country to which we are bound by 
 the dearest recollections ; recollections of thy care 
 and faithfulness, of the wonders of thy love and 
 power previously displayed for its good ; a country 
 whose liberty, achieved by the courage of our fa- 
 thers, has by them been bequeathed to us as a sa- 
 cred inheritance ; a land where liberty of conscience 
 was procured at the expense of their blood, which 
 thou hast chosen to fix there a seat of thy purified 
 worship, and to cause the light of the gospel to shine 
 in its unsullied brightness. Should not such a coun- 
 try be dear to us for our own and our children's sake, 
 for thy name and thine honor's sake, on account of 
 which thou hast given it to us, and so wonderfully 
 restored it to us when we had forfeited and lost 
 it, and hast hitherto preserved us in the possession 
 of it ? Yea, Lord, we feel with what bonds we are 
 fastened to it ; we bear its interests on our hearts 
 in the perilous condition into which under the di- 
 rection of thy providence it is brought ; in the con- 
 flict between right and despotism in which with 
 thy permission it is involved. And we pray thee 
 graciously to hear all the supplications that from 
 our temples and our closets ascend to thee to de- 
 liver it from its present peril ; to spare the blood of 
 its defenders, to sustain their noble courage, and to 
 
 22 
 
338 SERMONS. 
 
 cause them to keep their eyes fixed on thee, the 
 God of hosts ! To furnish the king whom thou 
 hast granted us in thy favor with thy strength and 
 thy light, that he, to a steadfast perseverance in that 
 which is good, may join that wisdom which may 
 teach him always and in all things to make the best 
 choice for the good of his people. Oh, that our 
 interest in the happiness and honor of our country 
 may ever flow from pure principles, and be more 
 than a mere welling up of inclination and passion ! 
 May it proceed from true love to our brethren and 
 friends, and from a sincere regard for the service 
 and the house of thee, the Lord our God ; and 
 may we each in our sphere, by virtue and purity 
 of morals, by reverential fear of thy name, coop- 
 erate in causing this land of our abode to share in 
 thy continued love and compassion. 
 
 To this end we pray thee to bless our present med- 
 itation, and to grant to speaker and hearers the in- 
 fluence and assistance of thy Spirit. May the word 
 of thy grace diffuse comfort and blessing all around, 
 even to the sick-beds of those who could not come 
 up hither with us, and whom we commend to thee 
 for restoration, for encouragement, and for sanctifi- 
 cation. Accept the oblations of all who are the re- 
 cipients of favor, and may they be acceptable to thee 
 in Christ. Dwell amid our songs of praise ; may our 
 charities be bestowed with a ready mind devoted to 
 thee ; and may our prayers and thanksgiving find 
 acceptance with thee for thy Son's sake. Amen. 
 
 In considering the Psalm that has been read, we 
 
SERMONS. 339 
 
 must place ourselves in the most flourishing times 
 of the Israelitish State. And we do this with no 
 reluctance ; for in days of anxiety and fear, such 
 as at present are ours, such a contemplation may 
 bear us up by reflection on a better past ; it may 
 strengthen us in the present distress, and illumine 
 the eye of our hope as it looks into an uncertain 
 future. The song is in the ordinary editions of the 
 original text ascribed to David ; but their authority 
 is not in this place confirmed by that of the oldest 
 translations. Nor could it have been composed by 
 David ; for during his life, when the ark indeed was 
 on Sion, but the tabernacle and the altar of burnt- 
 offering were at Gibeon, Jerusalem was not yet the 
 place whither the tribes went up to praise the Lord. 
 Nor yet can the origin of the song be placed later 
 than Solomon's reign ; for after his death occurred 
 the disastrous schism by which Israel was divided 
 into two kingdoms, when the tribes no longer went 
 up together to pay their homage to Jehovah on Sion. 
 In a time of prosperity and peace, of fortune and 
 fame, under the government of a wise and powerful 
 king, was this psalm composed and sung ; and its 
 contents are a faithful representation of this illus- 
 trious period of Israelitish history. It bears the 
 title Hammaaloth, and belongs thus to the small 
 collection of fifteen songs, which, on their journey 
 to the great feasts and during the celebration of the 
 same, were sung by the sacred pilgrims. On an- 
 other occasion I shall give you a description of 
 these religious journeys to the temple, and of the 
 holy joy of the Israelites, who, as Isaiah expresses 
 
340 SERMONS. 
 
 it, went with the sound of music to come into the 
 mountain of the Lord, to the rock of Israel. I need 
 not, therefore, suspend at this time before your 
 eyes this charming picture, but only direct you to 
 observe how clearly the song which we now have 
 before us exhibits the object for which it was in- 
 tended, namely, to be sung by the religious travelling 
 company as they were entering within the gates of 
 Jerusalem. The psalm comprises the joy of the 
 travellers on their safe arrival at Jerusalem, their 
 ecstasy as they view the city, which was the seat of 
 government and the place of their common worship, 
 and the outpouring of their fervent prayer for its 
 preservation, prosperity, and welfare, as an emana- 
 tion of blessing from the God of Israel. 
 
 Led to it by the contents of this song, I desire to 
 address you on religious interest in the welfare of 
 our country : a theme which I trust will seem to 
 none of you inappropriate in days such as those 
 in which w^ live, in which the eyes of every true 
 Netherlander are fixed on that which, under the 
 direction of divine Providence, is befalling the be- 
 loved land in which he dwells, or is appointed it 
 in the future. Favor me, then, with an attentive 
 hearing, whilst 
 
 I. In the first place, I attempt to explain the 
 words of the psalm, and enable you to perceive their 
 appropriateness and beauty ; 
 
 II. Secondly, take occasion thence to address you 
 on interest in the welfare of the country as a duty 
 prescribed by religion ; 
 
 III. And, finally, entertain you on the manner 
 
SERMONS. 341 
 
 in which it becomes us to discharge this religious 
 duty. 
 
 I. For the right understanding of the poet's 
 words in this psalm, I must make two preliminary 
 remarks. The first respects the mention of the 
 city Jerusalem^ whose welfare the singers have so 
 much at heart. We must here remember that they 
 were not inhabitants of Jerusalem whom we hear 
 speak or sing, and who express their desires for the 
 welfare of their own city ; but Israelites now come 
 thither from other and distant parts of the land. 
 It is thus not the city viewed by itself as a great, 
 magnificent, populous city that is here intended, 
 but the capital of the kingdom, the seat of supreme 
 authority, whence all commands and appointments 
 for the promotion of the welfare of the whole people 
 proceeded. It is the place of their common worship, 
 where all the tribes assemble to praise their God ; 
 it is the city common to all, and where each found 
 himself as in his own paternal inheritance. It is 
 this Jerusalem which is here celebrated, and the 
 petitions sent up to Heaven for it are poured out 
 for the whole land of Israel. 
 
 A second remark respects the word peace, the 
 principal object of the wishes which are poured out 
 for Jerusalem and the country. We must not here 
 take this word in its restricted signification as the 
 opposite of war, of hatred, or strife, but in the 
 most unrestricted sense, as indicating all manner of 
 prosperity and blessing, all manner of spiritual and 
 corporeal good. Therefore also in the psalm itself 
 the word peace is used interchangeably with pros- 
 
342 SERMONS. 
 
 perity, and the phrase pray for the peace, with seek 
 thy good. And indeed, peace in the State, peace 
 in social intercourse, peace in the domestic circle, 
 is such a most desirable, all-other-surpassing good, 
 that also the highest felicity that can be enjoyed on 
 earth is, in the style of the Bible, indicated by the 
 word peace ; and when the priest pronounced the 
 benediction on the assembled people, he concluded 
 his petitions, as they could ascend no higher, with 
 the wish, Jehovah give thee peace ! 
 
 These things being premised, we can proceed 
 without hindrance in the exposition of the psalm, 
 in which we shall follow in the steps of the singers 
 as they give utterance to their joyful emotions. 
 We hear them speak, now in the singular, then in 
 the plural number, without feeling ourselves obliged 
 to think of different voices relieving each other. 
 Singing in common, they are the same strains which 
 are sung by all, the same sentiments which are ex- 
 pressed as with one voice ! 
 
 I was glad, thus they begin collectively, and each 
 speaking for himself, — / was glad when they said 
 unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. By 
 the divine law given by Moses three great feasts 
 were appointed, and the Israelites were commanded, 
 in order to celebrate them, to come up from all parts 
 of the land to the place where the sanctuary was 
 established, in which God would be served and 
 worshipped by the whole nation collectively. But 
 that law was so beneficent, and at those feasts 
 reigned such a religious, joyous frame of mind, as 
 well by their mutual fraternal intercourse as by 
 
SERMONS. 343 
 
 their participation in the numerous sacrificial re- 
 pasts, that the right-minded Israelite, who could 
 relish true joy, in which spiritual enjoyment was 
 blended with the gratification of the senses, hailed 
 with intense delight the approach of these feasts, 
 and was glad, as often as it was said to him : The 
 time has again come, make ready for the journey ; 
 let us go to the house of the Lord. 
 
 It cannot, however, be denied that the journey 
 was with regard to many, especially to such as were 
 obliged to come from remote parts of the land, at- 
 tended with no inconsiderable difficulties. A march 
 of several days over mountains and hills, and through 
 deep valleys, in the season of the year when by 
 day the sun burned above their heads and rendered 
 them more sensitive to the cold of the nights, sub- 
 jected them to serious inconveniences, which must 
 be encountered and overcome before they reached 
 the place of their destination. But had they once 
 arrived there, had they not only seen the spires of 
 the city of God reflected from the mountains, but 
 did they actually enter within its walls, then they 
 raised a simultaneous shout of joy, and sung to one 
 another : Our feet are standing within thy gates, 
 Jerusalem ! 
 
 To the view of the devout pilgrims Jerusalem 
 now presents itself in all the pomp and splendor of 
 the age of Solomon ; is it strange that the praise 
 of that city which had been the object of their de- 
 sires resounds from the mouths of all ? Jerusalem, 
 thus they sing, is builded as a city that is compact 
 together. So it reads in our translation, but this is 
 
344 SEEMONS. 
 
 certainly far beneath the expression of the original. 
 A better translation of these words is now generally 
 current ; it is this : Jerusalem, thou beautifully built ! 
 a city, where house is joined to house. One imag- 
 ines that he hears a young Israelite, brought up in 
 the quiet country, where he has seen no other than 
 scattered houses, separated from each other by great 
 intervening spaces, and who now, seeing a city before 
 him, where one house joins another and all seem to 
 be simply one edifice, expresses with these words 
 his enraptured surprise. This conception has some- 
 thing attractive, and it has charmed me also by its 
 appearance of agreeable naturalness. It may, how- 
 ever, be doubted whether it equally corresponds 
 with the solemnity of a song composed for a jour- 
 ney, which was to be sung simultaneously by many, 
 and these of every rank and age ; and whether 
 what is further said of Jerusalem breathes this same 
 childlike or rustic simplicity. It might be asked, 
 whether Jerusalem was then the only city which 
 was thus compacted with buildings, and whether 
 the caravan, which had perhaps passed through 
 more than one city, had not met with the same 
 thing elsewhere ? Certain it is, that, to build a city, 
 in the Hebrew language, also conveys the idea of 
 enclosing it with walls and fortifications ; and that 
 the language of ecstasy with which we here meet 
 can also be applied to the invincible strength of the 
 city established by David as the capital of Israel, 
 whose walls and towers had now presented them- 
 selves to the view of the singers : Jerusalem, thou 
 strong fortress ! a city all around enclosed within 
 itself. 
 
SERMONS. 345 
 
 Momentous to the patriot, especially in those 
 times, was the impregnability of the capital city, 
 where in extreme peril everything sought refuge, 
 and whose fall always had as a consequence the 
 subjugation of the whole country. But of no less 
 interest was the sight of Jerusalem, regarded as the 
 seat of the public and common worship among the 
 Israelites : Wliither the tribes go up, thus we read 
 further, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony 
 of Israel ; or rather this is a laiv to Israel, to give 
 thanks unto the name of the Lord. It was a beau- 
 tiful appointment of Israel's divine Law-giver, which 
 required the whole people, at set times of the year, 
 to come together at the same place, with the noble 
 design of unitedly giving thanks to the Lord. Jeho- 
 vah himself fastened the cord which bound them all 
 together. As long as it was not severed by human 
 rashness, — and in those happy times this song still 
 places us, — so long could no disastrous dissension 
 separate the tribes of the Lord from each other, and 
 at the sacrificial repast was heard the song of fra- 
 ternal love : hoiv good and how pleasant it is that 
 they ivho are brethren also dwell together ; there the 
 Lord commands the blessing and life for evermore ! 
 
 Not always had the place of common worship 
 and festal celebration been at the same time the seat 
 of supreme authority. Yea, as long as the taber- 
 nacle, which often changed its place of abode, was 
 the sanctuary of the nation, this had but seldom 
 been the case. Even under the reign f David, 
 whose whole soul glowed with zeal for religion, the 
 ark was indeed on Sion, and songs were daily sung 
 
346 SERMONS. 
 
 there to the honor of Israel's God, but when he 
 desired to build there a temple it was not permitted 
 him, because of all the blood that his hands had 
 shed in war. To a prince of peace God was 
 pleased to assign the work of building him a fixed 
 habitation anions the Israelites ; and first when Sol- 
 onion had ascended the throne was the place whither 
 the tribes went up to give thanks unto the Lord at 
 the same time the royal city where the highest 
 councils held their sessions, whence the prince 
 issued his commands for the universal maintenance 
 of quiet and order, of right and justice, and the 
 pious pilgrims celebrated it in their songs : TJiere 
 are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house 
 of David. 
 
 Thus Jerusalem combined in itself all that was 
 important and dear to the patriotic and devout 
 Israelite. He saw in it the bulwark of the State, 
 the spot where all the tribes were blended into one 
 fraternal people, the place of his festal worship, 
 and the seat of the royal dominion ; he saw in Jeru- 
 salem his whole country. And what right-minded 
 citizen, what rightly disposed worshipper of Jehovah 
 would not feel a deep interest in the welfare and 
 prosperity of the national city of God ? Who 
 would not pour forth the most fervent supplica- 
 tions for its prosperity and all that divine blessing 
 which is expressed by the all-comprehensive word 
 peace ? Hear how our pious travellers to the tem- 
 ple discharge this obligation ; how they excite each 
 other to it saying, Pray for the peace of Jerusalem ! 
 How they esteem the lover of his country alone 
 
SERMONS. 347 
 
 worthy to share in its privileges : They shall prosper, 
 say they, that love thee, Jerusalem ! They wish 
 it at the same time civil and domestic happiness : 
 Peace be in thy fortress, within thy walls, prosperity 
 in thy pala,ces. It is as if we saw the royal city with 
 its proud edifices before us ; but the sight of them 
 excited no envy in the hearts of the simple rustics ; 
 they knew that the streams of abundance and pros- 
 perity flowed under the reign of a Solomon from 
 those palaces into the humble dwelling of the hus- 
 bandman. 
 
 But what especially merits our regard at the close 
 of the psalm is the purity of the sources whence 
 their patriotic sentiments flowed. Why was Jeru- 
 salem so dear to them ? It was because of their 
 countrymen ; they denominate them their friends 
 and brethren ; they recognize no odious distinctions 
 resulting from party spirit ; unity has bound citizen 
 to citizen. For my brethren and companions' sahes 
 I will now, I will ever say, Peace be within thee. 
 It was because the service of Jehovah lay near 
 their heart ; because the preservation of sanctuary, 
 of sacrificial service and festal celebration, the pres- 
 ervation of all their religious privileges, was in- 
 timately connected with that of the country and 
 of Jerusalem ; therefore they supplicated good for 
 country and city from Him who alone was mighty 
 to bestow it, and sought and asked it of the Almighty 
 and All-good, the God of Israel ; and they close 
 their song thus : Because of the house of the Lord 
 our God I ivill seek thy good. 
 
 II. Such, my hearers, are the sentiments ex- 
 
348 SERMONS. 
 
 pressed by these singers in appropriate and elegant 
 terms. When we take into view that thev who 
 thus spoke and sung were travellers to the temple, 
 engaged in the performance of a positive and costly 
 religious duty, then I may certainly take occasion 
 from their words to address you on interest in the 
 welfare of the country, as a duty, prescribed by re- 
 ligion, with which I desired to entertain you in the 
 second part of my discourse. I will exhibit to you 
 that interest under a threefold aspect : first, as a 
 duty of gratitude ; secondly, as a duty of philan- 
 thropy ; thirdly, as a duty of conscientious regard 
 for our eternal interests. That in doing this I shall 
 have my eye specially on our country, and on our 
 interest in the welfare of the Old Netherlands, 
 needs hardly be said. 
 
 I denominated that interest in the first place a 
 duty of gratitude. Do you not suppose, my hearers, 
 that the sight of the flourishing state in which Je- 
 rusalem was found under Solomon's wise reign, the 
 beholding of its high walls and proud palaces and 
 magnificent temple, the wonder of all the East, the 
 enjoyment of a universal prosperity so charmingly 
 portrayed by the historian in these words : And 
 Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his 
 vine and under his fig-tree, from Dan even to Beer- 
 sheba, all the days of Solomon ; do you not suppose 
 that the grateful sense of so many privileges stim- 
 ulated the more the pious visitor of the temple 
 prayerfully to desire the peace of Jerusalem, and 
 would have rendered indifference to the welfare of 
 his country an unpardonable dereliction of duty ? 
 
SERMOXS. 349 
 
 We, my hearers, I acknowledge it, do not live in 
 times such as were those of Solomon's dominion 
 for Israel ; our ancestors, however, once beheld them, 
 when the treasures of the world were poured into 
 the lap of the Netherlands, the remaining fruits of 
 which are still the stay of our national existence. 
 But though our condition now is far less dazzling, 
 and may perhaps in these moments be termed criti- 
 cal, yet we may reckon ourselves among the happy 
 nations of Europe, one of the happy, perhaps of 
 the happiest. Our commerce may no longer be that 
 of former days ; still there are, however, no coasts 
 which are not visited by our keels, and no seas on 
 which our honored flag does not wave. Valuable 
 colonies are still left us, though we have been de- 
 spoiled of others. Does it appear that we must 
 now be the sport of a mischievous state policy, yet 
 from it has arisen a conflict on which the whole civ- 
 ilized world looks with deep interest, in which the 
 old patriotic heroism of the defenders of our rights 
 inspires all with respect and awe for the arms of a 
 people that will not suffer itself to be attacked with 
 impunity on its own soil. Have the Netherlands 
 ever been, since the glorious days of our fathers 
 when they founded the Commonwealth, more than 
 now the object of the esteem, of the admiration 
 of the nations ; and may we not from this promise 
 ourselves in the future salutary fruits, whilst our 
 enemies themselves must be ashamed of the injus- 
 tice done us, and the injury treacherously inflicted 
 on us ? With all this there reigns in the midst 
 of our country undisturbed rest and security ; the 
 
350 SERMONS. 
 
 industrious can earn his bread ; he who possesses 
 abundance can enjoy his abundance ; no part of our 
 country exhibits that melancholy aspect of poverty 
 and wretchedness which elsewhere strikes the eyes 
 of beholders. The heavy burdens which the pres- 
 sure of the times imposes on us are borne, and 
 there is money left with which to supply the wants 
 of the destitute ; money also to replenish the na- 
 tional treasury. Where is there a people that 
 enjoys more true liberty, protected by wise laws, 
 without being exposed to violence or despotism ? 
 And were these Netherlands formerly indeed al- 
 ways distracted by dissensions, rent by factions, 
 has not that disastrous fire been extinguished, and 
 are not our people bound together by the pleasant 
 bond of unity ? and do they not range themselves 
 as one man around the princely stock of a king 
 honored and loved by all, and who as the glory of 
 the princes of Europe receives homage from the 
 lips of all ? And now, my hearers, should not 
 the contemplation of all this good bind us to this 
 fatherland ; bind us to it in gratitude ? from a prin- 
 ciple of gratitude raise to the highest point our 
 interest in its welfare ? Or to whom are we in- 
 debted for all this ? Were we to say to ourselves, 
 our own history of earlier days would belie us. 
 No, to God alone our thanks are due, on whose 
 blessing all depends ! To him, who could kindle 
 and sustain heroic courage in the breast of the de- 
 fenders of the Netherlands ; who preserved us in 
 the possession of what remained to us of ancestral 
 power ; who teaches us to make an intelligent use 
 
SERMONS. 351 
 
 of our liberty in the State ; who brought us into 
 the iron furnace of tyranny, to make us on our de- 
 liverance from it a nation of brethren ; and who 
 has granted us a prince under whose reign the lot 
 of the Netherlands is enviable in the eves of the 
 nations ! Unhappy he who, uninfluenced by grati- 
 tude to God, does not feel himself incited by so 
 many benefits to love this dear land of our nativity, 
 on which the eyes of the Lord are set for good. 
 Whoever may make himself guilty of this ingrati- 
 tude, and sigh and complain, and by the calamities 
 which we must bear close his eyes to the loving- 
 kindnesses of our God, we will, as inhabitants of 
 a land which God still continues to regard with so 
 much favor, pray for the peace of this our Jerusa- 
 lem, and say : They shall prosper that love thee ; 
 and apply to ourselves the words of another poet 
 when he said: If I forget thee, Jerusalem, let my 
 right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remem- 
 ber thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my 
 mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief 
 Joy. 
 
 Interest in the welfare of one's country is, sec- 
 ondly, therefore also a duty prescribed to us by 
 religion, because it is a duty of philanthropy. For 
 love to one's country is certainly not love to that 
 which is insensible or irrational in it, but love to our 
 fellow-citizens, who inhabit with us the same coun- 
 try ; and it is for our brethren and companions 1 sakes 
 that we say to it, Peace be within thee ! 
 
 Among the characteristic traits of our human 
 nature, which are as ineffaceable as some of them 
 
352 ' SERMONS. 
 
 are inexplicable, belongs also that inward affection 
 which each feels for the land of his nativity and 
 abode ; that mysterious bond by which he is fast- 
 ened to it. Who is there that does not feel his 
 heart beat more quickly when its honor or interest 
 or happiness is assailed ? Who does not rejoice in 
 its prosperity and glory, and seem to appropriate 
 to himself a portion of it, though he may only be 
 very remotely involved therein ? Why are now 
 the eyes of us all directed thither where a coura- 
 geous garrison of our country, with a venerable hero 
 at its head, maintains the honor and the rights of 
 the Netherlands, and we sometimes forget all in 
 order to accompany them with our most fervent 
 wishes ? Is this perchance only disguised pride ? 
 But does it become us thus to pass sentence of 
 condemnation, and pronounce that criminal or sinful 
 which has in all ages been regarded most beautiful 
 and noble, and by which the best of men have dis- 
 tinguished themselves from a low and selfish rab- 
 ble? Thanks to God, they constitute but a small 
 portion ! Pride, you say ; but can it then be also 
 called pride when he who in a foreign land meets 
 with one of his own countrymen, whom he never 
 saw and with whom he never had any interest in 
 common, presently feels himself drawn towards 
 him as by an irresistible inclination, and rejoices 
 as if he had found a kinsman, a brother ? No ; this 
 is no pride, no self-interest ; it is a modification of 
 that unlimited law of love which God's own finger 
 has written in the heart of man. We are destined, 
 formed, not to a limited and contracted, but to a 
 
SERMONS. 353 
 
 universal love of man, and to add, as sprung from 
 one blood, as an apostle says, to brotherly love, love 
 to all men. But this love must as from a centre 
 constantly spread further and further ; as a stone, 
 cast into the water, forms first smaller, then larger 
 and constantly larger circles, until they are lost in 
 the general flood. Thus we learn from our earliest 
 childhood to embrace, in a love that is constantly ex- 
 tending, first mother and father, afterwards brothers 
 and sisters, then spouse and children, further kins- 
 men and friends, those with whom we are brought 
 into relation by social intercourse, and finally also 
 all who with us live in one civil society, under the 
 same laws, speak the same language, adhere to 
 the same customs and manners, and acknowledge 
 the same common ancestry ; and, if we be faithful 
 to our original disposition, constantly to approach 
 to that universal brotherhood wherein all that con- 
 cerns humanity also nearly affects us, and we feel 
 the strength of the law prescribed to us by man's 
 greatest friend : All things whatsoever ye would 
 that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. 
 Behold, my hearers, such a link is love to one's 
 country in the great, the sacred chain of general 
 benevolence ; and if love be the soul of all true 
 religion, if love be the fulfilling of the whole divine 
 law, can we then doubt whether interest in the 
 welfare of one's country be a duty prescribed to us 
 by religion ? Do not imagine that God's word has 
 withholden from us examples of it. Think of a 
 Moses, who, when God said to him, I will destroy 
 this ungrateful people and make of thee a greater 
 
 23 
 
354 SERMONS. 
 
 nation than this, desired to live and die with his 
 beloved Israel. Think of a David, who, when the 
 pestilence raged around him, said to God: Lord, 
 smite me and my house ! it is I who have sinned ; 
 but as for these sheep, what have they done ? Or 
 will you in thought ascend higher, hear a Paul say : 
 For I could wish that myself were accursed from 
 Christ, for my brethren, my kinsmen according to 
 the flesh. See our ever - blessed Redeemer shed 
 tears over the fate that awaited his land and people, 
 and hear him, fainting under the burden of his 
 cross, say to the weeping and lamenting women : 
 Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep 
 for yourselves, and for your children. We know, 
 therefore, when we love our country, which contains 
 all that is dear to us, when we love it as the child 
 the mother in whose bosom he was cherished, that 
 we obey the law of love, which is the law of God, 
 and for the sake of our brethren and our friends 
 will we seek the good of the Netherlands. 
 
 But the same is also required, in the third place, 
 by a conscientious regard to our higher and eternal 
 interests. What the poet says in our psalm, Because 
 of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy 
 good, we may also apply to our fatherland. Not so, 
 I admit, as it was in the case of the Israelites, with 
 whom the destruction of city and land and temple 
 carried with it the annihilation of their entire wor- 
 ship. No, the time has come in which neither Geri- 
 zim nor Jerusalem is the place of worship, but all 
 true worshippers can everywhere worship God in 
 spirit and in truth ! Not only here, but elsewhere also 
 
SERMONS. 355 
 
 and in other regions, can we, fearless of accursed 
 constraint of conscience, boldly confess our God and 
 Saviour and the gospel of grace, and live accord- 
 ing to its precepts. But should not, however, this 
 patrimony of our fathers be dear to us above every- 
 thing, because it was so early the seat of a purified 
 religion ; because here the warfare against super- 
 stition was maintained at the expense of life, and 
 so many streams of blood were shed to secure the 
 triumph of truth ? And where even now is the 
 doctrine of the sinner's reconciliation with God, 
 through the blood of Jesus Christ, so generally, so 
 earnestly, so agreeably to the sound apostolic teach- 
 ing, preached and believed and confessed as in 
 this our happy land ? Has it been elsewhere 
 assailed by a dry and jejune naturalism ; it has 
 found here defenders : have the free investigation 
 and exposition of the Bible been abused, to wrest, 
 to falsify the sense of this most precious of all books, 
 and to reason away its mysteries of faith ; here it 
 has been known how to guard against this seduc- 
 tive example, to keep the middle way between li- 
 cense and stubborn rejection of the better, and of 
 the light of the times, — of this our schools and pul- 
 pits can bear witness, — to make the light of the 
 times subserve the preaching of Jesus Christ, as 
 the poiver of God and the wisdom of God. Are 
 there among us those who deny and misinterpret 
 this, because they regard the explanation of God's 
 word as closed for the past two centuries, and hold 
 human utterances for dictates of God's Holy Spirit, 
 we say with Paul : Though some should even preach 
 
356 SERMONS. 
 
 Christ of envy and strife, yet in every way, ivhether 
 in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached; and 
 therein do we rejoice. Should not the land be dear 
 to us where it is no reproach to be named after 
 the name of Jesus ; where the king sets his people 
 an example of respect for all that is holy and divine, 
 of appreciation of the truth which is according to 
 godliness ? the land where the houses of worship 
 stand open for us every Lord's Day, and peace is 
 spoken to our souls in the way of faith, of penitence 
 and conversion ; where we may publicly dedicate 
 our children to God by baptism, may bind ourselves 
 to him by confession of the truth, and in the use 
 of the bread and wine of the Supper show forth 
 the death of our Lord until he come ? Where else 
 should we so enjoy all these things as in this good 
 land ; so many exhortations, admonitions, and con- 
 solations from the glorious gospel of God ; so many 
 voices which proclaim to us, This is the way, walk 
 ye in it ! so many means to our eternal salvation ? 
 Surely, from a regard also to the interests of our 
 immortal souls, will we, above all things, lay to 
 heart the welfare of the Netherlands. Because of 
 the house of the Lord our God ivill we seek our 
 country s good! 
 
 III. I must finally occupy your attention for a few 
 moments on the manner in which it becomes us to 
 discharge this religious duty. I can here be brief, 
 for the principles from which the performance of 
 this duty must flow, point out to us how we must 
 perform it, — by thankfulness, by love, and true 
 religiousness. 
 
SERMONS. 357 
 
 Gratitude, my hearers, such as becomes the pa- 
 triotic Christian, consists not merely in the acknowl- 
 edgment and appreciation of the privileges which 
 we enjoy, but also of those which we have enjoyed, 
 and consequent submission and contentment when 
 deprived of them. Unhappy the man who is in- 
 sensible to the benefits and blessings, which are 
 allotted him, and who never renders thanks to God 
 for them with heart or mouth ! But unhappy also 
 he who, when deprived of them, forgets that he 
 once possessed them, and deports himself as if he 
 had been bereft of that to which he had a legal 
 claim ! Is now, my hearers, our safety, our welfare, 
 our very existence threatened ; do injustice and 
 violence compel us to make sacrifices, sacrifices of 
 property and blood, which we hardly considered as 
 any longer possible ; let us remember the years 
 that are past ; let us remember the joyful and mar- 
 vellous deliverance by which we have again become 
 a free people ; as we remember these things, let us 
 bear with courage and patience what is now laid 
 upon us, and make the words of the sufferer ours : 
 Wliat ! shall we receive good at the hand of God, 
 and shall ive not receive evil ? 
 
 If religious interest in the welfare of the country 
 is enjoined upon us by the law of love, then it must 
 also appear in deeds of love. There are, alas ! men 
 who call themselves patriots, yea, sometimes above 
 others, who, neither in their domestic nor in their 
 social intercourse nor in their relations, afford any 
 evidence that they are animated by the spirit of 
 love. And with such cold, contracted hearts, would 
 
358 SERMONS. 
 
 it be possible for them to bear on their heart the 
 interests of a whole society, and with uprightness 
 to say : For the sake of my brethren and friends 1 
 will say, Peace be within thee? He who truly 
 cherishes love in his inmost soul, and manifests it by 
 doing in his sphere all the good that is in his power, 
 by lightening misfortunes, wiping away tears, suc- 
 coring those who stand in need of assistance or ad- 
 vice or comfort, by cultivating peace and unity, by 
 promoting as well the pleasure and profit of society 
 as by voluntarily opening his hands for the country 
 and its valiant defenders ; he who thus cherishes love 
 in a pure heart, and manifests love from a principle 
 of obedience to the God of love, is the true friend 
 of his people and country ; and where love thus 
 dwells, there God commands the blessing and life for- 
 
 ever more J 
 
 We must, finally, manifest our interest in the wel- 
 fare of our country by true religiousness, and, because 
 of the house of the Lord our God, seek its good. Oh 
 that every citizen of the Netherlands cherished 
 hatred and aversion to those popular vices which 
 are the pest of society, and, more than any foe from 
 without, work or hasten its fall ! That each were 
 careful to lead a pure and blameless life ! That all 
 diligently improved the opportunity of hearing the 
 gospel preached in the house of God, and that it 
 were the language of all : We were glad when they 
 said unto us, Let us go into the house of the Lord ! 
 Let us, in the church and in our houses and 
 closets, heartily send up to God our prayers for the 
 peace of our Jerusalem, and earnestly seek of him 
 
SERMONS. 359 
 
 the good of our land and people. And should we 
 do this from the upright principle of faith in our 
 God and Saviour, we should not only cooperate to 
 the preservation of our country, but also — and God 
 grant that it may be the choice of us all — labor for 
 the preservation of our souls for eternity. Amen. 
 
360 SERMONS. 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 
 DEVOUT CONTEMPLATION OF THE 
 RAINBOW. 
 
 The witness in heaven is faithful. — Psalm Ixxxix. 37. 
 
 There is no spectacle more striking or transport- 
 ing than visible, created nature, which is itself the 
 mother of art, the original image of all that can 
 be called beautiful, from which we cannot deviate 
 without offending unadulterated feeling and uncor- 
 rupted taste. Everywhere this beauty of nature 
 beams in our eyes ; it shines forth in the greatest, 
 and is not excluded from the most insignificant ; 
 from the most brilliant of the celestial luminaries 
 to the dust and the grain of sand under our feet ; 
 from the most magnificent animal frame to the in- 
 sect that we trample on, it is all irreprehensible, 
 inimitable, glorious ! 
 
 And yet we hardly half see this nature when we 
 view it alone as it presents itself to the eye, when 
 we do not in the work recognize the Maker, and 
 the invisible things of G-od are not from the creatures 
 understood and clearly seen, both his eternal power 
 and Godhead. Then it is, with all its motion and 
 life, mournful and dead, less than a cold print, 
 whereby we at least still do homage to the hand 
 that projected and engraved it. But behold we it 
 
SERMONS. 361 
 
 as the product of a wise, beneficent Supreme Power ; 
 as an effect of the highest love, of the highest 
 order, of the highest blessedness, which, itself inde- 
 pendent of the work of its fingers, has impressed 
 on all things the seal of its unbounded perfection, 
 the ineffaceable marks of its eternal power and God- 
 head ; then arises upon all a new, a clear, and joy- 
 ous light ; a sacred fire courses through bosom 
 and veins, and our rapturous contemplation of the 
 beautiful, of transporting nature, becomes grateful 
 adoration of the Father who is in the heavens. 
 
 Also in this respect, for the exciting of this gen- 
 uine, pure, and elevated feeling for nature, the 
 word of God contains for us a treasure of knowl- 
 edge and learning. There is no book in the world 
 that in bold and magnificent, that in true and deeply- 
 felt description of nature can be compared with the 
 Bible. One must never have read the book of Job, 
 nor the most beautiful of the Psalms, and among 
 them the one hundredth and fourth, nor the writ- 
 ings of the Prophets, to be able to call this in 
 question ; yea, all the sacred writings, even those 
 of the New Testament, and the discourses of our 
 Saviour above all, are imbued with this pure feeling 
 for nature. But everywhere it is God who animates 
 it, the Original, the Father of all that exists ; who 
 clothes the fields with verdure, and adorns the flower 
 with its colors ; who with each returning spring 
 renews the face of the earth ; who opens his liberal 
 hand and satisfies every living thing ; to whom the 
 young ravens cry, the young lions roar for food ; 
 by whom the dew and the rain are begotten ; who 
 
362 SERMONS. 
 
 has treasuries of snow and hail ; who directs the 
 hurricanes, gives commandment to the lightnings, 
 and whose voice makes itself heard in the thunder ; 
 who maintains the ordinances of heaven, brings 
 every evening the host of the stars all numbered 
 to view ; and without whose will not a sparrow falls 
 to the earth ! 
 
 Yea, not even to this does the instruction of the 
 biblical revelation confine itself: it teaches us more- 
 over that what God is in the kingdom of nature, 
 that he is in the kingdom of spirits and of grace ; 
 that he governs the visible and the moral world ac- 
 cording to similar laws of wisdom, love, and fidelity, 
 and that we in heaven, earth, and sea, in all that 
 the finger of God's omnipotence has wrought, can, 
 as in a faithful mirror, behold what his rational 
 creatures, for their forming and perfection, for their 
 preparation for a better and eternally blessed life, 
 may hope and expect from him ! 
 
 Of this I would in this hour communicate to you 
 a remarkable proof, and fix your attention on a 
 beautiful and brilliant phenomenon of nature as 
 God's faithful witness in heaven, appointed by him- 
 self as a sign of his forbearance and love, of his 
 unchangeable truth, and how the good word once 
 spoken by him can never fail. Let us prepare our- 
 selves for this meditation by united and solemn 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 O Thou whose glory the heavens declare, whose 
 handywork the firmament proclaims, whose is the 
 earth with all its fulness, the sea with all that is 
 
SERMONS. 363 
 
 therein : yea, thy invisible things, thy eternal, un- 
 created nature is, since the creation of the world, 
 understood and clearly seen from thy creatures, 
 both thy eternal power and Godhead ; and what 
 can be known of thee is revealed and presented 
 to view in thy creatures ! We gaze upon this mag- 
 nificent spectacle of nature, and we adore the great 
 Creator ! Wherever we turn our eyes the magnif- 
 icence of thy works testifies of the majesty of the 
 great Architect ! They are all wonders that we 
 behold, scattered by thy hand with lavish profusion, 
 like dust around us ; and it is not simply the sea 
 that roars to us, each leaflet also rustles to us : 
 Great is our God, and greatly to be praised, and 
 his loving-kindness is to eternity ! Yes, merciful 
 and liberal Heavenly Father, all that magnificence 
 and splendor are not merely an exhibition of un- 
 bounded power and skill : thou hast made them 
 subordinate and subservient to a love and care in 
 which all things share, all things rejoice, all things 
 feel happy. Therefore all nature praises thee, and 
 let all that hath breath praise thee, King of glory ! 
 How happy are we that thou hast given us or- 
 gans of sense which can apprehend all this beauty 
 and glory, and a heart that can feel it ; that thou 
 hast endowed us with rational powers which can 
 rise above the dust and visible things, and from the 
 things made know the Maker ; that thou hast ex- 
 alted us to be interpreters and priests of inanimate 
 and irrational nature, to bring its praise and the 
 offerings of its gratitude before thy throne ! Yea, 
 Lord, we are highly privileged by thee ; a voice 
 
364 SERMONS. 
 
 proclaims it within us, and the word of thy revela- 
 tion confirms it; the material world is a shadow 
 and image of the world of spirits, and what won- 
 ders of wisdom and love the bodily eye sees around 
 it, the eye of the soul beholds them still greater 
 and more adorable, when it observes thy moral 
 government, the ample supply of infinite wants, 
 the ways of thy grace and compassion to reclaim 
 and save a sinning race ; when from the dust we 
 ascend in thought to thy uncreated throne, where 
 the visible and the invisible creation marvellously 
 linked together lose themselves in thee, their eter- 
 nal origin, and all thoughts and all emotions are 
 swallowed up by this one : God is love ! 
 
 We have separated this hour of solemn religious 
 exercise to these sublime contemplations ; elevate 
 and ennoble, cleanse and purify our hearts, that we 
 may spend it to thy honor and to our salvation. 
 Ah ! we feel that it is we who have defiled by our 
 sins thy magnificent creation, we who should have 
 been its crown and glory ; but thine own Son has 
 assumed our nature to reinstate us in our rights and 
 in thy paternal favor ; and as we are now about to 
 lisp with one another respecting thy greatness and 
 goodness visible in nature and grace, behold us in 
 the Son of thy love, the heir of all thy possessions, 
 through whom we have access to thy throne, and 
 full restoration to thy fatherly favor, when we accept 
 him with true faith and love him as our Lord and 
 Saviour. Whereto we pray thee that the word 
 preached may also in this hour be subservient, and 
 thy grace be glorified in the preservation of our 
 souls for eternity. Amen. 
 
SERMONS. 365 
 
 The Psalm to which the words read belong was 
 composed at a time when David's kingdom and 
 royal house were in deep abasement, so that there 
 was fear, certainly according to human prospects, 
 that God's promises relative to the eternal duration 
 of his dominion should in the issue fail. This is 
 the subject which is from the commencement to the 
 close treated in this majestic and affecting song. It 
 begins with the mention of the glorious prospects 
 which God had opened to David his servant and 
 favorite, and the recollection of which incites the 
 poet to a reverential celebration of God's greatness, 
 power, and goodness, and of Israel's privileges as 
 called to know and serve that God and to be his 
 favored people. This portion is, in the twentieth 
 and following verses, succeeded by an ample and 
 poetic paraphrase of the promises themselves which 
 God by the mouth of one of his prophets had made 
 to David, and which are here in their fulness of 
 blessings and infallible certainty exhibited to the 
 thirty-eighth verse. In the remainder of the psalm 
 we find bitter complaints touching the lamentable 
 condition of a throne and race respecting which 
 such precious expectations had been excited, joined 
 to earnest and hearty prayers that God in this ex- 
 tremity would command deliverance and confirm 
 his word that had been given. 
 
 The words of our text thus constitute the con- 
 clusion of the poetic periphrasis of the promise 
 touching David's dominion and its endless dura- 
 tion. The Creator of nature appeals to his works, 
 to their constant order in the midst of continual 
 
366 SERMONS. 
 
 change. He speaks of the resplendent bodies which 
 daily or in ampler periods complete their regular 
 course in the heaven ; and as these, as sun and 
 moon never fail at the appointed time to cherish 
 the earth by day, or by night to dispel the dark- 
 ness, as they shall not cease to make their benign 
 influence felt as long as the globe which we inhabit 
 shall retain its place among the host of creatures, 
 so also should David's house be stable, and shine 
 with continually renewed lustre to the end of the 
 ages : His seed shall endure for ever, and Ids throne 
 as the sun before me. It shall be established for ever 
 as the moon. 
 
 Upon this follows, in my text, And the witness in 
 heaven is faithful. Our translation is in this place 
 not perfectly accurate, by reason of the use of the 
 ambiguous word heaven, by which in the biblical 
 writings also the seat of God's glory is indicated, 
 whilst the word here employed in the original sig- 
 nifies exclusively the shy, the so-called welkin ; let 
 it be read thus : The witness in the clouds is faith- 
 ful ; or rather : The witness in the clouds ivhich is 
 faithful ; the faithful witness in the clouds. 
 
 But what is this faithful witness in the sky ? If 
 witnesses in the plural were here read, we should 
 naturally think of sun and moon both as witnesses 
 called in, as signs for confirmation of the unchange- 
 able faithfulness of God's promises ; though even 
 then the use of the word witnesses, in the significa- 
 tion of confirmatory signs, in this connection at least, 
 would not be without doubt and embarrassment. 
 But now since we meet here with the singular num- 
 
SERMONS. 867 
 
 ber, it is with still greater difficulty that we think 
 of the one or other of these two luminaries. We 
 should then, as is done by most expositors, be obliged 
 to refer it to the moon, which is spoken of imme- 
 diately before ; but is it probable that this with its in- 
 ferior, derived lustre, — that it, and not much rather 
 the sun, should be called in as witness of God's 
 covenant with David ? and that the poet, if any- 
 thing like that had been present to his mind, would 
 not rather by reversing the order have said : His 
 throne shall be before me as the moon ; it shall be 
 established for ever as the sun, which is a faithful 
 witness in the clouds ? But it is in our judgment 
 more than probable that by the faithful witness in 
 the clouds something is understood distinct from sun 
 and moon ; yea, the nature of the phrases, the 
 riches and climax of the poetic assertion, seem to 
 demand something like that, something new, cer- 
 tainly if nature, besides the celestial bodies, offers to 
 us in the clouds a phenomenon sufficiently magnifi- 
 cent to be introduced in connection with the sun 
 and moon, and adapted to inflame the imagination 
 of an Israelitish poet, and to express in this place 
 his sublime conception. And who is there to whom 
 here the bow of the covenant in the clouds is not pres- 
 ently suggested, once appointed by God himself as a 
 witness of the unehancreableness of his loving-kind- 
 ness and of the faithfulness of his promises ? To 
 whom can it seem strange that the sacred poet 
 brings the covenant made with David and the 
 covenant established with Noah into connection 
 with each other, since both contemplated the sal- 
 
368 SERMONS. 
 
 vation of mankind, sealed God's love to mankind ; 
 and that he, speaking of sun and moon as resplen- 
 dent images and signs of the perpetuity of David's 
 throne and kingdom, turns back in thought to that 
 affecting epoch of the renewed and restored earth 
 just issued from the waters of the flood, when God 
 said to Noah, I do set my boiv in the cloud, and it shall 
 be for a token of the covenant between me and the earth ? 
 Age after age had already passed since God had 
 said this, and never had that bow appeared in the 
 aerial canopy but it spoke to the memory of each 
 Israelite : What God promises is true ! Yes, if any- 
 thing that is visible in the heaven deserves to be 
 thus periphrased, it is the rainbow, which in poetic 
 Bible-language may be styled the faithful witness 
 in the clouds. 
 
 Led to it by these words, I desired to devote this 
 hour of common meditation to a devout contem- 
 plation of the rainboiv, especially as it is the pledge 
 of God's love and faithfulness in the fulfilment of 
 the most precious promises made to mankind. 
 
 I. I shall to this end cause you first to contem- 
 plate it as a beautiful and magnificent phenomenon 
 of nature, and at the same time remind you when 
 and how God appointed it as his witness in the 
 clouds ; 
 
 II. And secondly, indicate what devout reflections 
 the contemplation of it, by the light of divine 
 revelation, should cause to arise in our mind. 
 
 I. Never does art more fully display its wealth 
 than when by one cause it produces many distinct 
 effects ; when one simple power, working accord- 
 
SERMONS. 369 
 
 ing to the same laws, without new supply, without 
 greater exertion, causes the production of a series of 
 different and successive phenomena, each of which 
 is worthy to have a separate origin. But if you 
 would see this opulence in all its lustre, in its whole 
 immensity, behold that which is wrought by the 
 skill of nature ; in whose boundless space all, from 
 the most insignificant to the greatest and most 
 astonishing, is governed by one law ; all is brought 
 and kept in station and order, in motion and course, 
 by one cause ; and the celestial spheres revolve in 
 their orbits by the same simple power which causes 
 the ripened fruit to drop from the tree to the earth. 
 And just so it is with the lesser elements of created 
 nature ; each of them, whilst it answers its main 
 design, attains at the same time so many subordinate 
 ends that we nowhere see the limits where its in- 
 fluence ceases. Who dares guess to what the sun, 
 as God's minister, is present in the universe ? But 
 to us it is the source of both light and heat. With- 
 out it, we had in vain received the organ of sight. 
 It attires and colors, it illumines and exhilarates 
 all. Without it, this earth had been covered with 
 an unfruitful ice-crust, and the heaven with a per- 
 petual veil of night. Its cherishing influence, whilst 
 it infuses the fire of life in our veins, foments also 
 the ground which supplies our mouths with bread. 
 And when it thus produces the most different, the 
 most beautiful, or the most salutary effects, at once 
 or by succession, frequently or more rarely, it does 
 not at each time develop new powers, nor is it 
 affected by new impressions, but it simply exerts the 
 
 24 
 
370 SERMONS. 
 
 same innate force on other objects, or develops it 
 under different circumstances. So it is, also, when 
 it presents to our view in the heaven that charm- 
 ing and at the same time magnificent phenomenon 
 which we denominate the rainbow, and which we 
 sometimes behold in the morning in the west, or 
 more frequently in the east when the day declines 
 towards the evening. The sun pursues his apparent 
 course, and diffuses the splendor of his light as on 
 other days ; the firmament of heaven undergoes no 
 change, nor acquires any accession ; but both sun- 
 light and sky come into such a relation to each other 
 that our nerve of vision cannot be affected otherwise 
 than this. When, for instance, at the opening or 
 close of day, the sun, on the opposite side of the 
 heavens, shines on a thin rain-cloud, his rays are 
 thus refracted by the drops, reflected, and again re- 
 fracted, so that they, returning to our eye, exhibit all 
 the colors of the light beside each other in a many- 
 colored band, — a band which appears in a circular 
 form, corresponding to the manner in which the 
 rays are diffused from the body of the sun, whilst 
 we can see only an arc of that circle, whose other 
 part is hidden beneath the horizon. I denominated 
 this phenomenon charming, and at the same time 
 magnificent ; for, though all the colors with which 
 the light attires itself, even the most brilliant of 
 them, are here collected as into a bundle, nothing 
 however dazzles or injures the eye ; by gentle 
 transitions they seem to melt away into each other, 
 and the one to temper the glow of the other. The 
 resplendent aerial form rises majestically as from the 
 
SERMONS. 371 
 
 earth towards heaven, and again bends down benig- 
 nantly towards it. Who ever saw it in its full 
 splendor and was able to turn away his eye from 
 the sight, and continued not to gaze at it with 
 rapture, fastened by a secret attraction, now trans- 
 ported by delightful sensations, then elevated in 
 sublime sentiments ? When the last of the biblical 
 prophets, but in divine transport of spirit to be placed 
 on an equality with the first, when the hoary John 
 in his Revelation, on the track of Ezekiel his pred- 
 ecessor, would give us some idea of the splendor 
 of the uncreated throne, he savs : A rainbow was 
 round about the throne. And we also, when 
 we would represent to ourselves the majesty and 
 glory of the supreme monarch of the whole earth, 
 as they are manifested in bestowing good and 
 imparting happiness, and as they with the pro- 
 foundest reverence inspire at the same time the 
 tenderest love, then we say with Ezekiel : A rain- 
 botv is the glory round about his head; or with 
 John : A rainbow is round about his throne. 
 
 But if ever this magnificent phenomenon appeared 
 lovely and heart-reviving, it was when it was 
 appointed by God for a sign of his covenant with 
 Noah. For more than a year had the only family 
 that was left of mankind been shut up in its floating 
 habitation ; first drifting and tossed on the billows, 
 in which everything had perished, and after that, 
 waiting weeks long for the permission : Go out 
 of the ark, with all that is therein. Thankfully 
 they execute that order, and give again to their im- 
 prisoned foster-children the long -desired freedom. 
 
372 SERMONS. 
 
 There they stand and look around as strangers on the 
 solitary earth. Joy on account of their deliverance 
 is blended with that anxiety of mind which the 
 strangeness of their condition and the recollection 
 of what had taken place must naturally awaken in 
 them. First of all, however, thanks had been 
 rendered to God for their preservation, and to him, 
 who had punished and spared, their lot had been 
 further commended. Thus the day passed, and 
 meanwhile the altar rises under their hands, the 
 sacrifice burns, and prayer ascends with the smoke 
 of the altar to heaven. Jehovah complacently 
 accepted that homage, and descended to comfort his 
 children, to bless them, and set them at rest respect- 
 ing their future lot. " Be fruitful," said he, " and 
 multiply, and replenish the now depopulated earth. 
 I will no more destroy all flesh by the waters of a 
 flood. I will no more curse the whole earth for 
 man's sake. Though the imagination of their 
 hearts continues evil, I will spare and be forbearing. 
 Henceforth seed-time and harvest, and summer and 
 winter, and day and night, shall not cease ! " And 
 whilst the Most High spake thus, the sun in the west 
 had broken through the clouds, and shot his pleasant 
 evening rays on this affecting scene, and drew the 
 magnificent rainbow on the clouded eastern sky. 
 " Behold," thus spake the Heavenly Father, 
 " behold my bow in the clouds ! I appoint it for a 
 sign of the covenant that I make with the earth. 
 When I bring clouds over the earth, and this bow 
 is seen in the clouds, then will I remember my 
 covenant with you, and with every living creature, 
 
SERMONS. 373 
 
 and the waters shall no more become a flood to 
 destroy all flesh." Solicitude must naturally lodge 
 in the heart of the rescued ; what has now happened 
 can easily happen again ; and with every storm, or 
 flood, or shower, they might fear a new overthrow 
 of nature. But God assures them : I will no more 
 destroy all flesh by water ; be at rest, not only with 
 regard to yourselves, but also with regard to the 
 posterity that shall descend from you ; it shall not 
 perish so miserably as the first world. This word 
 of the True One was alone sufficient to relieve his 
 privileged creatures of all anxiety; but he joins to 
 it a sign for confirmation, not for them alone, but 
 also for their descendants, through all successive 
 ages. When they beheld that sign, then it would be 
 as if God each time said to them anew : I will be 
 gracious, and not punish according to desert. I 
 will be forbearing, and preserve you in the dangers 
 that threaten you, that you may honor and love me. 
 I am the Unchangeable One, and what I have once 
 promised I make good forever ; there is the witness 
 of my faithfulness in the clouds ! Yes, that token 
 was the rainbow ; and can you devise another more 
 worthy the choice of the All-wise, All-glorious, and 
 All-merciful One? It would not, it is true, daily 
 present itself to the eye of Noah's family, nor to 
 ours. But seldom should this magnificently arched 
 blending of light and color be witnessed. But also, 
 that which is of daily occurrence ceases finally to 
 affect us, and the rare phenomenon is therefore 
 more adapted to impress our imagination and 
 through it our heart. And as often now, after tem- 
 
374 SERMONS. 
 
 pest or showers of rain, when the air is again broken 
 and passage afforded to the rays of the sun, whilst 
 only a single thin rain-cloud still covers the horizon, 
 as often then as that bow of the covenant adorns 
 the aerial canopy, is it not then to us as if we saw 
 in its form and in its colors the soft reflection of the 
 face of a reconciled Deity ? And could God, if we 
 be permitted to speak thus, from all the riches of his 
 creation, appoint a more sublime and affecting token 
 to proclaim to us as from heaven in sacred hiero- 
 glyphics : I am forbearing and gracious ! I am true 
 and faithful ! That forbearance and grace Noah and 
 his children experienced from the moment that they 
 cultivated and peopled the new earth ; the experi- 
 ence of that truth and faithfulness was above all 
 reserved for later ages, and even for us. More than 
 four thousand years have already elapsed since God 
 spake this word, and had it registered in the records 
 of his heavenly revelation, but it has not yet failed ! 
 Our globe has been exposed to the same devastat- 
 ing powers of nature which once overwhelmed its 
 inhabited ground with the waters, but that overthrow 
 has not again occurred. The race sprung from 
 Noah's children still exists and is spread over all the 
 earth ; still seed-time and harvest, and cold and 
 heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, 
 have not ceased, and shall not cease, while the earth 
 remaineth ! 
 
 II. From what has thus far been said, you have, 
 my hearers, been able sufficiently to perceive how 
 greatly the contemplation of the rainbow is adapted 
 to conduct us to devout meditations, and it is this 
 
SERMONS. 3T5 
 
 to which we have devoted the second part of our 
 discourse. First, It is a beautiful and delightful 
 thought that God cares for mankind, and takes 
 interest in their lot, in the lot of each of us. I 
 know there are men who think that they do not 
 need this thought for their tranquillity in danger, 
 and for their comfort in calamity, and who deem 
 the guardian powers of nature, as they style it, left 
 to itself, sufficient to secure us ; so far, for instance, 
 as we can be secured, and are not obliged to submit 
 to the destiny that rules over us. But to them who 
 shudder at such a tranquillity ; to me, to you all, 
 as I hope, for whom that nature left to its own 
 preserving forces would be no protecting power, if 
 it be anything more than simply a nonentity, an 
 empty sound, a contradiction of sound reason ; to 
 us whom, when we survey the circle of our dear 
 relations, care for the life and happiness of ours, 
 if they were not under higher, wise and loving 
 superintendence, if only blind powers of nature 
 must watch over them, would cause to find no 
 rest by day, and by night no sleep on our couch ; 
 to us, who feel a better disposition in us than to be 
 allied simply to the dust and the world of sense, and 
 whose hearts beat high enough to recognize in an 
 eternal, independent cause of our existence a Father 
 in the heavens, and to feel ourselves the happier in 
 proportion as we stand in closer relation to that 
 holy and glorious One ; to us is each assurance 
 precious, that He who dwells in heaven keeps his 
 eye fixed on us ; that it is not too mean a thing for 
 him to lay our interests to heart ; that without his 
 
376 SERMONS. 
 
 will nothing can harm us or ours ; that the forces 
 of nature, which in so great multitude seem armed 
 against us, and on all sides threaten us, are in his 
 hand and are directed by him ; so that we can 
 serenely look beyond all that might inspire us with 
 care, anxiety, or dread, as if it were not, to keep our 
 eye simply fixed on him in whose hand alone our 
 breath is, with whom are all our ways, and who has 
 said: Iivill not fail thee, and I will not forsake thee. 
 Yes, precious to us is each confirmation of that 
 belief! And when we now behold the rainbow, let 
 us place ourselves in the epoch when God explained 
 himself so benignantly and paternally, and declared 
 .that he would interest himself in the fate of man- 
 kind. They could tranquilly people the earth, their 
 race should be safe under the protection of God ; 
 they could calmly cultivate the earth, it should no 
 more be thus laid waste ; do we not, then, each time 
 receive anew this precious assurance? For that 
 promise of God concerned not Noah and his chil- 
 dren alone, but also and much more the genera- 
 tions following ; that covenant was made with the 
 earth and with mankind. And that God who prom- 
 ised that he would henceforth restrain the floods, 
 did he not thereby at the same time testify that he 
 was also in all other peril of his children mindful of 
 them, and that nothing could befall them save with 
 his permission and by his appointment ? Does it, 
 then, sometimes happen to us, my beloved, that the 
 contemplation of the world's inconstancy, and a thou- 
 sand uncertainties distress our hearts ; or the melan- 
 choly mind indulges anxious thoughts about what 
 
SERMONS. 377 
 
 can happen every hour ; let us then remember how 
 often we have beheld in the clouds the faithful 
 witness of God's fatherly disposition and loving 
 remembrance ; let us then joyously, and free from 
 anxious care, with our head raised towards heaven, 
 pursue life's perilous journey, and cast all our care 
 on Him ivho careth for us. 
 
 Secondly. It is not equally easy for every one 
 thus comforted and encouraged in God, to advance 
 intrepidly against the army of dangers and calami- 
 ties ; not even when sensible signs insure the faith- 
 fulness of God's promises. They above all on whose 
 heart the holiness of the Supreme Being and the 
 sacredness of their obligations press heavily, often 
 find their confidence thereby made to waver, and 
 the very tenderness of their conscience hinders them 
 in regarding themselves so highly favored by God. 
 And indeed, my hearers, who is there that knows 
 his heart and what passes therein, that knows his 
 conduct and acts and what is lacking in them, what 
 in them cannot endure the light ; who that knows 
 God in the purity of his perfections, and what the 
 righteousness of that God demands of him ; who is 
 there whom this consciousness would not often de- 
 prive of freedom to place his lot in the hands of 
 a being ofttimes so little regarded by him, and 
 never served as he should be, did he not moreover 
 know that God as merciful and gracious, forbearing 
 and of great kindness, who deals not with us after 
 our sins, and rewards us not according to our iniqui- 
 ties, who knoweth our frame, and remembereth 
 that w r e are dust ? And now, behold what the bow 
 
378 SERMONS. 
 
 of the covenant in the clouds announces and con- 
 firms to us. Yes, it reminds us indeed of a whole 
 race of men submerged in the floods by the awful 
 ruler of the world ; but it was because of unheard- 
 of abominations, whose propagation and cankerous 
 infection were only to be arrested by such a judg- 
 ment. And now to the rescued remnant, without 
 condition and without limitation, was the promise 
 made : I will no more curse the earth ; I will no 
 more destroy mankind. Yes, it was as if He who 
 knew his creature and what was to be expected 
 of it, would, by a sacred engagement, henceforth 
 deprive himself of the power of being so terrible 
 in his judicial inflictions ; for he said : TJiough the 
 imagination of ynan's heart is still evil from his 
 youth, I will not again smite any more everything 
 living, as I have done. Behold what a God we 
 need, in order that the weak heart, so little proof 
 against the enticements of sin, may not, when it is 
 cast down by the apprehension of guilt, be wholly 
 crushed, nor shut against reliance on, against the 
 consolatory prospect of the protecting care and favor 
 of, the universal Benefactor. Whoever, then, you 
 may be, who in times of need or dismal prospects 
 feel your hope in God abate, through the conscious- 
 ness of numberless departures and great ingratitude ; 
 or who, bowed down under chastisements and 
 calamities, think you feel only the chastising hand 
 of a Judge, and not the healing hand of a Father ; 
 remember how often you have looked upon the 
 ivitness in the clouds, and how its soft, ravishing 
 splendor pictured to you a benignant Deity, disposed 
 
SERMONS. 379 
 
 to pardon, and ever inclined to pity. Before his 
 face stood the progenitors of a new race, that would 
 quickly pollute itself with new transgressions, and 
 practise all those iniquities of which already more 
 than forty centuries make such lamentable mention ; 
 he knew it, for he knew the evil of the imagination 
 of the human heart ; and yet he said : When this 
 bow shall be in the clouds, then will I look upon it, 
 and remember the everlasting covenant that I have 
 made with all flesh. 
 
 But think not, and let this be my third observa- 
 tion, that the covenant made with Noah, of which 
 the rainbow was the established token, and whose 
 compass embraced the whole earthly creation, — that 
 this covenant comprised merely external, and not 
 also spiritual good for all that were capable of more 
 than earthly happiness and earthly perfection. No, 
 so contracted are not the utterances of divine love ; 
 and when he promises to preserve mankind from 
 destruction, then there is no blessing in store for 
 them, and no happiness to be expected from it, that 
 is not also included in God's promise. Of that man- 
 kind, that had just been so near its entire destruc- 
 tion, but should henceforth be spared, He should in 
 due time be born who should procure reconciliation 
 and salvation for Adam's and for Noah's posterity ; 
 and because he should proceed from it, therefore 
 could and must that mankind not again be destroyed. 
 Or do you think, my hearers, that this ample extent 
 of the divine promise is not there to be acknowl- 
 edged, where Noah's eye is fixed on the bow of 
 God in the clouds, acknowledge it at least with the 
 
380 SERMONS. 
 
 poet of later ages, when he, speaking of David's 
 throne and David's house, ascribes to it an everlast- 
 ing duration, as truly as there is a faithful witness 
 in the sky. It is that promise of David's eternal 
 dominion, fulfilled in the son of Mary, the Messiah 
 and King glorified through suffering, in which is 
 included more than security against earthly calami- 
 ties and comfort in earthly losses, even deliverance 
 from all misery and the highest blessedness. Oh, if 
 the bow of the covenant, after the terrible flood, 
 was appointed by God for a token that he was 
 again reconciled to the earth, and would not again 
 drown it in the waters, when God established his 
 covenant with David, and thereby appealed to the 
 faithful witness in the clouds, then that same bow 
 became the token, the lovely, radiant image of a much 
 better, of an eternal reconciliation ; of a much better, 
 of an eternal preservation of the otherwise lost man- 
 kind ! When we, then, henceforth behold that bow 
 in the clouds, then it will not only serve as the 
 pledge to us that we with all that is ours, are safe 
 in the hand of a God whose forbearance is greater 
 than all our perversity, but i^ will above all serve 
 as the pledge to us that we are called to the citizen- 
 ship of the eternal divine kingdom of David's son 
 and David's Lord, in order now, under his friendly 
 pastoral staff, to be led through this inconstant life, 
 and afterwards, under his glorious sceptre, to live and 
 reign with him through eternity. Yes, now shall 
 we first in the rainbow see the reflection of the face 
 of a reconciled Deity, and the colors of that bow of 
 light will represent to us forgiveness, grace, mercy, 
 
SERMONS. 381 
 
 love, and peace. It will remind us of the flood, as 
 if all our sins had therein been buried and sunk, and 
 whose antitype, baptism, doth also now save us, not 
 the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the 
 answer of a good conscience toward God, by the 
 resurrection of Jesus Christ. It will proclaim to 
 us God's unchangeable faithfulness, who will as 
 certainly spare us for a blessed future, as he has 
 now so many thousand years spared the race of 
 man on earth. And though that terrible angel 
 should also appear to us who was revealed to John 
 on Patmos, whose right foot was on the sea, and his 
 left foot on the earth, and who sware by him that 
 liveth for ever and ever, that there should be time 
 no longer, we should not fear, for a rainbow was 
 upon his head! Oh, that this blessedness were 
 desirable to us all, that there were only in none 
 of us an incorrigible and impenitent heart ! God 
 of Noah ! God of David ! God and Father of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ ! who hast established thy 
 faithfulness in the heavens, and makest thy prom- 
 ises in Christ yea and amen ! fulfil them also to 
 us all who are here assembled before thy face ! Oh 
 that the sacrifice which we have in this hour 
 kindled to thee, the God of nature and of grace, 
 were acceptable to thee, as was formerly that of the 
 eight rescued souls ! Establish also with us thine 
 everlasting covenant, and say to our souls, You will 
 I not destroy, but save ! Amen. 
 
382 SERMONS. 
 
 SERMON X. 
 
 ACQUIESCENCE IN THE WILL AND 
 GOVERNMENT OF GOD. 
 
 Thou hast done it. — Psax,m xxxix. 9. 
 
 It is natural to us, as rational beings, to trace 
 out the causes of things ; and especially, with refer- 
 ence to what befalls us in our earthly course, be it 
 blessing or misfortune, happiness or misery, to in- 
 quire to what we must ascribe the good, to what 
 impute the evil. Sometimes we think we find that 
 cause in ourselves ; and then we applaud or upbraid 
 ourselves, in proportion as it has gone according to 
 our wish or contrary to it. Sometimes we regard 
 others as the authors of our happiness or unhap- 
 piness, and they become the objects of our gratitude, 
 or of our displeasure and malice. Sometimes also 
 it goes beyond and above all our calculation, and 
 we gaze till we are blind, and dote till we are stupid, 
 in searching whence the felicity or infelicity that 
 we experience has come to us. So we act, and act 
 aoreeablv to our nature, when we regard ourselves 
 only as rational beings ; but do we place ourselves 
 at a higher stand-point, do we regard ourselves as 
 instructed by a divine revelation, then must, then 
 may we not stop at these nearest causes ; but it be- 
 comes us to ascend to the first of them all, and to 
 
SERMONS. 383 
 
 terminate in God, from whose hand alone comes the 
 evil and the good ! That becomes us not only, but 
 it is salutary for us, and a blessed privilege to be 
 permitted to do it ; for thereby we learn to make 
 the blessing tend to our true good, and in affliction 
 and suffering it gives us the best consolation, the 
 only true rest for the dejected heart. 
 
 It was to me a necessity, in the circumstances 
 which have affected me and mine in these days, 1 to 
 speak to you on this subject, and to reflect with you 
 on the grounds of resignation, of courage and hope, 
 especially under the adversities of life, that are 
 couched in the thought, God has done it. Heartily 
 do I wish that there may be few among my hearers 
 to whom this address shall be now more appro- 
 priate than at any other time ; but never, and to 
 none, can it be inappropriate. The bitter cup of 
 divine trial passes round to all ; if we are not obliged 
 to drink it now, we have drunk it, or it will in due 
 time come to us. Let us pray God so to bless our 
 meditation, that it may be, on leaving this house of 
 prayer, the language of every heart : What God has 
 done, or does, is well done. 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 Most powerful, All-wise, and Merciful Supreme 
 Ruler, who dost govern the extensive universe, and 
 embrace in thy care all created things ! We know, 
 and we thank thee that we are assured of it by thine 
 own revelation, that thou hast especially cast an eye 
 
 1 The decease of my worthy son-in-law, D. van Foreest, April 17th, 
 1833. 
 
384 SERMONS. 
 
 of love and pity on the race of men ; that thou wilt 
 be to them a guide on the whole journey of their life, 
 and regulate all their adventures according to thy 
 plan, the design of which is their perfection and their 
 felicity. By this thy gracious appointment we belong 
 to the privileged whom thou hast illumined with the 
 light of thy knowledge, and are permitted now to 
 find ourselves in this place, where we collectively 
 worship thee, bring to thee the tribute of our pray- 
 ers and thanksgiving, and can commend to thee all 
 our interests for time and eternity. Look down com- 
 placently upon us ; be present with thy Spirit in our 
 midst ; and attune our hearts to that true and hum- 
 ble disposition towards thee which teaches us to 
 know and observe thee in all thy ways, and gives 
 thee the honor of all that thou doest for or to us. 
 Yes, Lord, with thee is not only our breath, but 
 with thee are also all our ways. Whether thou 
 causest thy lamp to shine on our path, and dost glad- 
 den us with days wherein thou makest us see good, 
 or all is dark around us, and anguish and fear op- 
 press us, and tears flow from our eyes, it is all of 
 thee ! Whatever may in the course of things coop- 
 erate thereto, to whatever second causes we ascribe 
 it, it all happens with thy permission, under thy 
 direction, according to thy will ! And we, Lord, 
 should we receive good from thy hand, and not evil? 
 we, who have nothing to demand of thee, who have 
 so often abused thy gifts, requited them with ingrat- 
 itude, and not given thee the honor that was due to 
 thee, the Benefactor ! we, who know not what is 
 truly good or evil for us, all the days of this troublous 
 
SERMONS. 385 
 
 life, and ought to rejoice that there is a better and 
 wiser power who appoints all our changes. Oh that 
 none may be found among us who do not acknowl- 
 edge this, who are not penetrated with the liveliest 
 sense of it ! May we all learn to bow to thy high 
 and holy, to thy wise and good will ; even then, 
 when thy ways are not as our ways, and we go 
 bowed down under the suffering that presses upon 
 us ! May we leam to observe carefully thy goings 
 and dealings with us, to trace thy designs in them 
 by the light of thy Word and thy Spirit, and to de- 
 rive instructions from them for an humble and con- 
 scientious walk with thee. Thereto help us with thy 
 grace in Christ Jesus, through and in whom alone 
 thou canst and wilt be to us such a loving Father 
 and guide on our journey, graciously forgiving us 
 our perversities and deviations, and by sorrow and 
 joy, by blessings and chastisements, training us up 
 for a better life, for a life without care and without 
 sin. That grace sanctify our attention in our pres- 
 ent religious convention ; may it strengthen the min- 
 ister of the word ; may it enable him to speak to us 
 a hearty word of excitation, instruction, and con- 
 solation, and form us all to obedient subjects of the 
 kingdom of thy Son, with whose words we say to 
 thee : Our Father, etc. 
 
 T/iou hast done it ! That it is God of whom 
 the composer of this psalm here speaks in the sec- 
 ond person, hardly needs be remarked ; and that 
 he, by that ivhich God had done, understands the 
 circumstances in which he is now placed, and which 
 
 25 
 
386 SERMONS. 
 
 he hereby contemplates, as having come upon him 
 from God, is at once evident from the whole con- 
 tents and tendency of the poem. Those circum- 
 stances were the saddest that had yet happened to 
 David during his calamitous life. It is highly prob- 
 able, indeed, that this psalm belongs to the period 
 of his flight from Absalom. It is the unhappy fa- 
 ther, driven from his royal seat, and his life sought 
 by a degenerate son, that speaks in it. That an- 
 guish was wellnigh intolerable, his heart foamed in 
 him, it burned and glowed within him ; he feared, 
 should he burst out in loud complaints, that his 
 tongue would cause him to sin, therefore he kept his 
 mouth with a bridle, though he must thereby be 
 also silent as to the good that he still experienced in 
 the midst of his lamentable condition, or that glim- 
 mered before him in the future. Finally, however, 
 he could give vent to his feelings, and unchain his 
 tongue, without fear of offending against God or 
 men ; it was when he thought of the short time 
 that he, in his already advanced age, had still to 
 live. But what did he say of himself? That his 
 days were only a handbreadth, and his life was as 
 nothing. Verily, so he proceeds, in the conclusion 
 of the fifth and sixth verses, and how do we daily 
 experience, often with bitter grief of soul, the truth 
 of his saying ! verily every man at his best state 
 is altogether vanity / Surely every man walketh in 
 a vain show : surely they are disquieted in vain : 
 he heapeth up riches, and hnoweih not who shall 
 gather them ! 
 
 In this thought the poet seems to find some relief. 
 
SERMONS. 387 
 
 In the dismal condition in which he found himself, 
 not knowing what he must hope or fear, he can 
 again commend the issue to God : And now, Lord, 
 says he, what is my expectation ? All my hope is in 
 thee. Two things, however, he durst with confidence 
 desire of God : forgiveness of the aggravated guilt 
 by which he knew he had brought this calamity on 
 himself, and not to be made the reproach of a 
 foolish and ungrateful people. Then thus he pro- 
 ceeds in my text: I am silenced, and open not my 
 mouth, for thou hast done it / This was a different 
 silence from that of which the sufferer made men- 
 tion in the beginning of his song : then it foamed 
 and glowed within him, and he feared to give vent, 
 by speaking, to his surcharged grief; here it is the 
 silence of patience, of resignation and submission, 
 produced by the conviction that the calamity, under 
 which he went bowed down, had come upon him 
 by God's appointment ; that it was God's will thus 
 sorely to afflict him, which he expresses with the 
 words : for thou hast done it / 
 
 Not only the good that meets us, but also the 
 evil that assails us, is sent us by the hand of God ; 
 the one, as well as the other, is an effect of the di- 
 rection of Divine Providence respecting us and our 
 lot in the world. This, then, is the truth which we 
 can derive from the words of the text. 
 
 I. I shall first endeavor to unfold it to you in its 
 nature and extent ; 
 
 II. I shall then exhibit it to you under its con- 
 solatory aspect ; and 
 
 III. Finally, in its salutary influence on our dis- 
 
388 SERMONS. 
 
 position and our walk, especially in times of affliction 
 and trial. 
 
 I. I must then, in the first place, endeavor to un- 
 fold to you, in its nature and extent, the truth con- 
 tained in the words : G-od hath done it ! Prove it 
 I shall not, for I speak to hearers who hold the 
 Bible to be a divine revelation ; and wherever it is 
 opened, everywhere we find the doctrine of a par- 
 ticular Providence, from which even the most in- 
 significant accident is not excluded, here established 
 by positive declarations, and there confirmed by 
 striking examples ; so that he who would deny this 
 truth, or even call it in question, can freely lay 
 this book aside, or pronounce its contents chitchat 
 and absurdity. But though it is needless to demon- 
 strate this truth, it is, however, not useless to confine 
 our attention to it, and deliberately consider it in 
 its nature, that is, in its whole relation to us. For 
 it is not always equally evident to our mind ; and 
 with our general acknowledgment of it, we forget 
 but too often to make the application of it to our- 
 selves. 
 
 When all goes according to our wishes, and there 
 are no bands that vex us ; when only slight vexations 
 now and then cloud the sun of our prosperity, and 
 many a joy, even such as we had not dared desire, 
 surprises us ; or when our days roll quietly and 
 pleasurably on, in the undisturbed possession of all 
 that is dear and precious to us in the world ; if our 
 heart be then in the least degree rightly disposed, 
 how gladly do we give God the honor of it ; we 
 see his finger in all that happens to us ; in all that 
 
SERMONS. 389 
 
 concurs to our happiness we see means and instru- 
 ments in his hands, and we so gladly say with the 
 poet : Bless the Lord, my soul, and forget not 
 all his benefits J give thanks unto the Lord; for 
 he is good : for his mercy endureth for ever I But 
 when all is reversed ; when domestic grief gnaws 
 at our life ; when we are overladen with cares and 
 anxieties, under whose weight we fear we shall suc- 
 cumb ; when we are thwarted in our enterprises, 
 disappointed in our desires ; ah ! when our heart is 
 assailed at the most tender point, wounded and 
 crushed, at the loss of that which is dearer to us 
 than our own life, — then we are not so ready to 
 represent to ourselves our lot as an effect of God's 
 wise and beneficent sovereignty. Though this 
 thought is not strange to us, and though we know 
 that we cannot deny it without contradicting our 
 own intelligent conviction, it stands with us as on 
 the background, and is wellnigh swallowed up by 
 the feeling of our grief, or by comparison of our lot 
 with that of others, or by dismal prospects in the 
 future ; we are absorbed in reflection on our lawful 
 cause of mourning, and on that which has given 
 occasion to it ; and it is not with us, what however 
 it ought to be, the uppermost and prevalent idea, 
 God has done it! 
 
 In proportion as the second or proximate causes, 
 to which we think we must ascribe our grief, are 
 known to us with more distinctness and certainty, 
 in that proportion do we wander more in reflecting 
 on it ; and the consideration of our condition, as an 
 appointment of Divine Providence respecting us, 
 
390 SERMONS. 
 
 frequently gives place to the fruitless complaint: 
 had we only been able to foresee this or that cir- 
 cumstance, could we only have averted this or that 
 evil in time, we should not now be involved in the 
 calamity. Who is there, my hearers, that dares 
 haughtily condemn in the suffering this reasoning 
 of human weakness, or call it inexcusable ? But it 
 remains on that account not the less a reasoning of 
 weak human faith. If it is true that everything 
 happens according to God's will and appointment 
 respecting us, and that truth must be with us raised 
 above all question, then those circumstances must 
 not be foreseen, that evil not feared or averted ; and 
 what has happened to us was an indispensable link 
 in the chain of events which God's eternal, univer- 
 sal government had according to his wisdom ap- 
 pointed us. Who can assign the limits of this all- 
 comprehending government ? Even the free 
 actions of men are subject to it ; and not only their 
 good, but also their evil acts, yea, the most criminal 
 and punishable of them, are subservient to the at- 
 tainment of God's secret designs. I might here 
 recall to your memory the history of Joseph and 
 his brethren ; but why need I go further than to 
 the circumstances in which David found himself 
 when he composed this psalm ? To what had he 
 to impute the adversity that now so unrelentingly 
 pursued him ? Dethroned, driven from his imperial 
 seat, wandering as an exile in desert tracts, where 
 the gloomy beating of Hermon's waterfalls seemed 
 to call to him : All thy waves and thy billows are 
 gone over me ! whilst even his friends asked him : 
 
SERMONS. 391 
 
 » 
 
 Where is now thy Cfod ? Who caused him all this ? 
 Surely men, evil men ! An impious son, forgetful 
 of honor and duty, thirsting for the blood of his own 
 father; an ungrateful, fickle, and faithless people; 
 treacherous friends and confederates ; a despicable 
 company of insurgents and rebels, — these were the 
 authors of David's misfortune. And though he 
 knew this, and felt all the afflictiveness of it, yet 
 we hear him say to God : Thou hast done it ! Still 
 more strongly did he express this same sentiment, 
 when he went weeping by the way, and Shimei 
 calumniated and cursed him, then he said : If God 
 has said to him, Curse David, that is, if it w T as God's 
 will to abase me so deeply by means of this mis- 
 creant, who shall then say : Why hast thou done this ? 
 No ! God commands not the evil, though he with- 
 holds not the hand that commits it ; he imposes not 
 bonds on the liberty of the. rational creature ; but 
 the evil perpetrated is not the less on that account 
 under his direction. It effects no mischief, save 
 when God wills that it shall cause vexation and 
 pain ; all its consequences he so directs and regu- 
 lates that his wise and good designs are ultimately 
 accomplished by it. And if the harm done us by 
 men is then only harm when God is pleased by 
 means of it to afflict and try us, how much more 
 when the calamity, without intervention of malev- 
 olence or covetousness or emulation, comes upon 
 us as it were directly from heaven ; when God, the 
 supreme ruler of nature, arms its forces against 
 us to inflict upon us loss or ruin ; when he, the 
 Lord of life and death, snatches from us the pledges 
 
392 SERMONS. 
 
 of our love, and casts us into deep sorrow, so that 
 we can adopt the language of the deserted Naomi : 
 It is the Lord that testifieth against me, and the Al- 
 mighty hath dealt very bitterly iviih me ! Though 
 we do not comprehend God's method of dealing, 
 nor how it is to be harmonized with love to his 
 feeble creatures, and though we ask in the anguish 
 of our soul, Wherefore, wherefore, I pray thee, O 
 Lord ? in the midst of those dark and to us inex- 
 plicable enigmas, no doubt, however, as to the 
 supreme dominion of God may be allowed to rise 
 in our minds, and it must be and remain the lan- 
 guage of our inmost conviction, God hath done it ! 
 
 II. So, my hearers, and to such an unlimited 
 extent must we believe, that not only the good that 
 falls to our lot, but also the evil that grieves us, 
 comes upon us alone by the will of God ; and when 
 we truly believe this, with application to ourselves, 
 then I denominate this truth a consolatory truth. 
 
 Comfort supposes suffering ; and comfort under 
 suffering we term all that makes us bear it more 
 easily, without aversion, and more willingly. But 
 is there indeed a misfortune so grievous that we do 
 not gladly bear it when love and gratitude require 
 us to do so ? Does a mother complain on account 
 of what she must suffer, what she must dispense 
 with, what she must sacrifice, for the child that she 
 cherishes at the breast ? How many miracles of 
 courage and perseverance, of unwavering fidelity in 
 the midst of the severest trials, are recorded in 
 history to the honor of friendship. The recipient 
 of favors, the man rescued from danger, is ready to 
 
SERMONS. 393 
 
 > 
 offer his property and life for his benefactor ; and, 
 
 whatever it may cost him, he hesitates not to make 
 the sacrifice. Behold that wretched man tormented 
 with pain, with mutilated, amputated limbs ; you 
 do not hear him complain, for he has received those 
 wounds for his country, for which he is still ready 
 to shed all his blood. Do you ask, my hearers, to 
 what purpose the enumeration of all this? I ask 
 you in turn : If it is God's will that calls you to 
 suffering, who is he to please whom you suffer and 
 weep ? Who is he, who, for the attainment of his 
 designs, has laid upon you that sore affliction, those 
 oppressive cares, that heart-corroding grief? Is 
 there any one to whom you are more indebted, yea, 
 rather to whom you are indebted for all ? Is there 
 a benefactor who has greater claim on your un- 
 bounded love and gratitude, who is more worthy that 
 you should cheerfully bear for him the heaviest and 
 hardest lot ? Should God speak to you from heaven 
 and say : From your tenderest age I have as a Father 
 cared for you ; I have led you on the whole of life's 
 journey ; in thousands of perils I have preserved 
 you ; when you fell into slumber in the evening, I 
 kept watch by your couch ; when you awoke in the 
 morning, I surrounded you with new blessings ; all 
 that you possess you received from me ; weeks and 
 days, months and years, you have felt yourself hap- 
 py ; who was the cause of all your intellectual and 
 sensual enjoyment ? Now I ask of you a proof of 
 filial gratitude : that you relinquish for me what you 
 would gladly retain ; that you exchange your rest 
 for care and perplexity, your joyous prospects in the 
 
394 SERMONS. 
 
 future for such as are dark and sombre. I know 
 what it costs you ; I see and count your tears ; but I 
 vex and grieve you reluctantly : will you bear all this 
 to please me ? It is I, I, who demand it of you ! 
 Who, my hearers, in whose bosom glows a spark of 
 true gratitude, does not feel himself constrained to 
 respond : Speak, Lord, thy servant, thy handmaid 
 obeys ! Heavenly Father, not my will, but thine be 
 done ! And who, that thus thought and spoke, 
 would not in this very disposition feel a counterpoise 
 to his grief, and raise his eye more serenely towards 
 heaven with the thought, God has done it f 
 
 But that same thought has in it still another 
 source of comfort. No burden is too heavy for us 
 if we do not lack strength to bear it ; or if we, 
 where our ability fails, can reckon on that aid and 
 support which can hold us up and keep us from 
 succumbing- Who can doubt that all we need for 
 this purpose, even under the severest sufferings, is to 
 be found in the most abundant measure in God ? It 
 is certainly he who gives power to the faint, and to 
 them that have no might increases strength. But 
 if it is God that lays the affliction upon us, God 
 who casts us into grief and anxiety, into weeping 
 and mourning, with how great freedom of mind can 
 we then calculate on his assistance in that need, and 
 cast all our care on him, assured that he will care 
 for us. With him is courage to endure the present ; 
 courage to meet the future. With him the tran- 
 quillity of patience and submission, which causes the 
 storm of the passions to subside, produces rest from 
 unrest, and enables us to appreciate the good with 
 
SERMONS. 395 
 
 which every evil that befalls us is tempered. With 
 whom is alleviation, even of the sorest trial, save 
 with him, who smites, and whose hands make whole ; 
 in whose hands are all the vicissitudes of the world, 
 and who has so often commanded an unexpected 
 issue where only a moment before all was dark and 
 dreary ? He who in his misfortune overlooks God, 
 may remain insensible to all this, close his heart to 
 hope and confidence, indulge in weeping and lamen- 
 tation, and take pleasure in conjuring up ghastly 
 images of terror ; wholly different is it in the mind 
 in which the conviction of the divine allotment is 
 prevalent, and an inexhaustible fountain of encour- 
 agement and acquiescence wells up in it from the 
 thought, Crod has done it ! 
 
 And when to all this is united reflection on the 
 high and adorable perfections of that Being who, 
 after having for longer or shorter time exempted us, 
 causes the cup of trial also to come to us : reflection 
 not only on his unlimited power, of which the 
 ancient poets sung : Our God is in heaven, and he 
 doeth ivhatever hepleaseth. He doeth according to his 
 will with the army of heaven, and with the inhabitants 
 of the earth ; and none can stay his hand, or say unto 
 him, What doest thou ? but also reflection on his 
 wisdom, on his love, on his interest in the lot of his 
 creatures, which made the same men of God say : 
 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto 
 such as keep his covenant and his testimonies ; then 
 we feel indeed the affliction that presses upon us, 
 but it has, however, lost that tormenting anguish, 
 that sting of intolerable pain ; the tears we shed 
 
396 SERMONS. 
 
 relieve the heart, and there are also sweet drops 
 mingled with them, by means of the thought, God 
 has done it ! We open the Word of God, and we 
 find it confirmed by striking examples that the 
 suffering of those who hold God in remembrance 
 contains in it a hidden blessing that is often revealed 
 even on this side the grave. We see a whole book 
 devoted to a single sufferer, who, tried to the utmost, 
 deprived of property, of children, of all, sunk into 
 the deepest contempt and pain, had yet not ceased 
 to be an object of the divine love and care. When 
 all grows dark before our eyes, and everything 
 takes place differently from what we had supposed 
 that it would and should occur ; when we should 
 imagine ourselves the unhappy victims of those dark 
 and enigmatical dispensations ; what can then be 
 better fitted to recover us from that frightful whirl- 
 pool of reflections than the thought, But God has 
 certainly done it, and what he does can surely not 
 be otherwise than well done ? Perhaps we shall yet 
 be permitted — who knows how early or late ? — to 
 penetrate something of his wise and good designs 
 respecting us in this way. Now, indeed, this seems 
 impossible, not to be foreseen ; but that which is 
 impossible with men, how often has that appeared to 
 be possible with God ? As misfortune often befalls 
 us when we least expect it, so matter of joy fre- 
 quently surprises us when we imagined it far off; 
 and though it be not altogether as the poet sung ; 
 Weeping lodges in the evening, and in the morning 
 there is shouting, we yet feel refreshed, enlarged, 
 and the future no longer seems to us so dark. But 
 
SERMONS. 397 
 
 should it be that this did not happen to us all the 
 time of our sojourning here below, and were only 
 days of anxiety and months of vexation appointed 
 us, yet the end comes ! If it is true that God has 
 done it, then it must ultimately become clear ; and 
 when we shall have arrived there where is the 
 fatherland of all who have kept God's covenant and 
 his testimonies, where all enigmas shall be cleared 
 up, and where all tears shall be wiped from our 
 eyes, then shall we with joy, with praise and thanks 
 on our lips, looking back on the way, watered with 
 tears, in which we have been led, exclaim, Yes, 
 all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth ! 
 
 III. It remains for me to aid you in contemplat- 
 ing the truth contained in our text as a useful truth, 
 and to speak to you, in conclusion, on its salutary 
 influence on our disposition and our walk, especially 
 in times of affliction and trial. In doing this, three 
 things will claim our attention : it fills us with a 
 sense of our dependence ; it constrains us to inquire 
 into God's intentions respecting us ; and it contains 
 the divine mystery of our education for eternity. 
 First, if we ever feel ourselves dependent beings, it 
 is when we, in all the vicissitudes of life, even in 
 those in which our interest not only, but also our 
 heart is most tenderly concerned, are constrained 
 to acknowledge, God has done it. This sense of 
 dependence, salutary to mortal man, is often in too 
 great danger of being weakened and effaced, when 
 everything turns out according to his previous 
 calculations ; and the good that is allotted him, or 
 the evil that passes him by, seems only the conse- 
 
398 SERMONS. 
 
 quence of his own diligence, forecast, or prudence. 
 But when all falls out otherwise than he had repre- 
 sented to himself, and, with all his skilful manage- 
 ment and the efforts put forth, his fairest expecta- 
 tions vanish in smoke, then he can no longer close 
 his eyes to his own impotence, and the acknowledg- 
 ment, God has done it ! is at the same time that of 
 his entire dependence. This sense of dependence 
 seems painful, and it is so to the proud man, who 
 would so gladly be all to himself ; but it ceases to 
 be so to him who considers what a Being it is to 
 whom he must willingly or unwillingly yield an 
 unconditional submission. A Being who, with 
 unlimited power, also unites in himself unbounded 
 wisdom and goodness ; whose will, whether it har- 
 monize with his, or be in conflict with it, must 
 necessarily be the best ; and on whom to depend is 
 infinitely more desirable than to be left to himself. 
 Then his submission becomes filial and humble ; 
 then it chokes the seeds of that pride which is the 
 root of all evil ; then it fosters that genuine hu- 
 mility, which, having the promise of God's grace, 
 is the mother of the most amiable virtues ; then 
 distrust of self passes over into reliance on God, 
 into cleaving to him as the immovable anchor that 
 fails us in no storm of need or peril ; and oh, happy 
 he with whom it may terminate in being of one will 
 with God ! Blessed fruit of the lively sense of 
 dependence on God ; of the inward, hearty convic- 
 tion, in all that befalls us, be it sweet or bitter : God 
 has done it ! 
 
 Secondly, if all changes of our lot, whether for 
 
SERMONS. 399 
 
 good or for evil, but especially those by which we 
 are hurt, wounded, and crushed, are the work of 
 God, then the attainment of definite designs must 
 be connected therewith, or God's wisdom would 
 deny itself, and an irrational exhibition of power 
 would take its plaee. These designs may partly lie 
 beyond us, and have relation to the general govern- 
 ment of the world ; but they never go so entirely 
 beyond us but that we are also involved in them ; 
 and our private interest, far from conflicting with 
 the general welfare, constitutes a part of it, and is 
 blended with it. This may be a mystery to human 
 penetration ; but the infinite elevation of God's 
 power and love is our security for it. These designs 
 of God in his dispensation toward us we can 
 investigate, and in so far as they affect our real 
 welfare we can know and penetrate them. He who 
 is not a stranger to the history of his own heart can 
 often discover a connection between the disposition 
 of his heart and the events that he meets with 
 from a higher hand, which makes him revere the 
 goings of an adorable Providence, or makes him 
 reflect with shame upon himself. How many a one, 
 when the hand of God rested heavily on him, 
 could perceive in it a fatherly chastisement, to heal 
 him of the perversities that clung to him, and to set 
 his heart free from favorite sins. Another has felt 
 called thereby to new and arduous duties, and with 
 redoubled courage and exertion of his powers to bear 
 the burden of life. And do they who are over- 
 whelmed with care and sorrow of heart belong to 
 the dearest of God's children, then the Most High 
 
400 SERMONS. 
 
 esteems them worthy to put their fidelity and love 
 to him on a trial, in which it is his will that the} 7, 
 should not fail. Happy he, who not only perceives 
 and acknowledges these designs of God with refer- 
 ence to him, but also by God's grace may respond 
 to them ; to him suffering is ho longer suffering, and 
 we may address him in the language of the Apostle : 
 Behold, we count them happy which endiwe. Ye 
 have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the 
 end of the Lord ; that the Lord is very pitiful, and 
 of tender mercy. 
 
 Finally, the truth that all our suffering and joy 
 are dispensed to us by God, contains the secret of 
 our education for eternity. No, this is not our 
 home ; we are destined to another than this earthly 
 life, for which we must during our stay here below 
 acquire the taste and fitness. For this also God 
 will take upon himself the care in respect of all who 
 are willing to surrender themselves to his guidance. 
 This he does not only by the instruction of his word, 
 but also by the ordering of our lot ; so that we now, 
 overcome by his blessings, exclaim : What shall I 
 render unto the Lord ? I will take the cup of salva- 
 tion ; then, humbled by his visitations, say : It is 
 good for me that I have been afflicted. Before I was 
 afflicted I went astray : but noiv have I Jcept thy ivord. 
 Thus will our heavenly Father, both by a feeling of 
 gratitude and by a sense of guilt, along the way of 
 faith in the only and all-sufficient Saviour of our 
 souls, conduct us to that land of rest where no care 
 shall any more oppress, no sorrow or complaint be 
 
SERMONS. 401 
 
 heard; and all who have loved the appearing of 
 their Lord shall joyfully acknowledge that all the 
 suffering of the present time is not to be compared 
 with the glory that shall there be revealed to them ! 
 Amen. 
 
 THE END. 
 
RECOMMENDATIONS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 LIFE AND SERMONS OF J. H. VAN DER, PALM. 
 
 From Rev. Thomas DeWitt, D. D., Neio York, a distinguished Dutch scholar. 
 " There is no name held in high reputation more distinguished than 
 that of Van der Palm, in Holland. He was in the latter part of the 
 last century and the early part of this century, minister and professor 
 at Leyden. He has been termed the Cicero of Holland on account of 
 his pulpit eloquence, and the great purity and finish of his style. A 
 large number of his sermons have been published, as well as other 
 works of a religious and literary character. I have had in my pos- 
 session for some time several volumes of his sermons, and have read 
 them with much interest and pleasure. I am gratified to find that the 
 Rev. Mr. Westervelt proposes to publish a translation of a select 
 number of his sermons, with a sketch of his life, character, and writ- 
 ings. I cordially commend the proposed volume to the patronage of 
 the Christian public." 
 
 ♦ — 
 
 From Rev. Philip Schaff, D. D., Editor of Lang e^s Commentary. 
 " From a hasty perusal of the Life and Character of the late cele- 
 brated Dutch divine and pulpit orator, J. H. van der Palm, D. D., by 
 Dr. Beets, translated from the Dutch, by J. P. Westervelt, I feel no 
 hesitation to express my concurrence in the testimonies of the Rev. Dr. 
 DeWitt, Rev. Profs. H. B. Smith, W. G. T. Shedd, and others, con 
 cerning the high value and interest of this work." 
 
 From Rev. Alexander T. McGill, D. D., Professor in the Princeton Theologi- 
 cal Seminary. 
 
 " The exposition of the text is admirable, and would be a 
 
 model of great value against motto preaching in the modern pulpit. 
 Criticism, in homiletic discourse, seems to have reached its perfection 
 in Van der Palm. The result, and not the process is given, with rare 
 simplicity, fidelity, and beauty. The subject itself is exactly compre 
 hended and well stated. The division is exhaustive, and, for the mosf 
 
part, subservient to perfect unity of impression. The statement of his 
 plan is equally removed from the affectation of concealment on the 
 one hand, and logical parade upon the other. And then the whole 
 discussion has almost everything to make it a faultless model, — order, 
 variety, color, brevity, and practical force. 
 
 " In short, I do not know where you could find, either in ancient or 
 modern language, sermons not yet rendered in English that would be 
 so valuable an acquisition as these, for the purpose of educating our 
 pulpit and benefiting our people." 
 
 From Rev. W. G. T. Shedd, D. D., Professor in the Union Theological Semi- 
 nary, New York. 
 
 " I have examined with much interest the translation of the Life 
 and Sermons of Van der Palm, by Mr. Westervelt. It is a valuable 
 contribution to literary biography and sacred rhetoric. An account of 
 the life and labors of an eminent Dutch preacher and professor has the 
 merit of novelty, and a perusal of the manuscript shows that the 
 work possesses great intrinsic excellence. The translation appears to 
 be done with fidelity and freshness." 
 
 From Rev. Henry B. Smith, D. D., Professor in the Union Theological Semi- 
 nary, New York. 
 
 " Rev. J. P. Westervelt's translation of the Life of Van der Palm 
 and of his selected discourses is a valuable addition to our theological 
 literature. The biography is exceedingly interesting, and gives new 
 information upon the national, social, and academic history of Holland 
 during Van der Palm's career. The sermons of this most eloquent 
 of modern Dutch preachers are worthy of study as models of an ele- 
 vated style of pulpit discourse." 
 
 From Hon. John Rometn Brodhead, LL. D., a distinguished Dutch scholar, 
 
 New York. 
 
 " I have examined your translation of the biography, and of some 
 of the sermons of the great Dutch theologian and scholar Van der 
 Palm, and am impressed by its fidelity and its good style. 
 
 "It was due to the memory of a writer so eminent as Van der 
 Palm in the modern literature of Holland, that his life and his works 
 should be better known to many, who, if they understood the lan- 
 guage, would, no doubt, more justly appreciate the scholarship of the 
 nation which founded New York. 
 
 " In the belief that your work will aid this result, I offer you my 
 best wishes for its success." 
 

 
I 
 
 I 
 
 * ■ ■ 
 
 .«**'