ftABiBS 
 
 \r\ 
 
 ^Pl 
 
 
 - 
 
 Ami 
 
 
 tf» 
 
 fe 
 
 **/*■*. 
 
 .^A;£f' 
 
 ^M 
 
 > * - 
 
 yi^w&Kwd 
 
 
 ,£/V^i^/*\ 
 
 
 IAAaaA SmBF* 
 

 
 
 
 I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 FORCE COLLECTION.] 
 
 * 
 
 (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. | 
 
 mm 
 
I*|j3 
 
 ffm 
 
 
 KKoFnl nfM 
 
 
 mm rw ia>' 
 
 Fiji 
 
 
 
 
 BbwI -m| jm^m 
 
 1/. '■M|#T\ 
 
 Hk 
 
 
 
 ■y2Bf o .tat j\|« « 
 
 »<IR^firl 
 
 
 
 
 K:J 
 
 ■l if ww^lt/Wniiilp 
 
 ^iifl^lmif '' .'■ A 
 
 HKwJUHe 
 
 
 Eiiy^A i*H^ 
 
 
 
 
 f^J*JJ^Bs 
 
 vmrni 
 
 ii(\ 
 
NATIONAL CHARACTER 
 
 THANKSGIVING DISCOURSE 
 
 DELIVERED NOVEMBER 15th, 1855, 
 
 IN THE 
 
 Jftaitfelin Bttttt Jrtslnjhmit Cjnutjr, 
 
 BY THE PASTOR, 
 
 
 REV. N. C.BURT, 
 
 
 
 1 ! 
 p. 
 ^ of Washing * 
 
 BALTIMORE! 
 
 
 PRINTED BY JOHN D. 
 
 TOY. 
 
 1855. 
 
 
* 4 %i 
 
Baltimore, November 17, 1S55. 
 Rev. N. C. Burt, 
 
 Pastor of Franklin Street Presbyterian Church: 
 Dear Sir — We earnestly solicit a copy of the Discourse delivered by you on 
 Thanksgiving- day, for publication. 
 
 With great respect, yours, &c. 
 
 George S. Gibson. 
 R. K. Hawley. 
 J. Henry Stickney. 
 I. C. Canfield. 
 Horace W. Taylor. 
 Jos. B. Fenby. 
 S. Patterson. 
 
 C. D. CuLBERTSON. 
 
 R. H. Humphreys. 
 Henry D. Harvey. 
 David Ferguson. 
 John Bigham. 
 E. S. Allnutt. 
 Chas. U. Stobie. 
 H. W. Hayden. 
 Hiram Woods. 
 Geo. W. Uhler. 
 E. B. Baebitt. 
 Ashur Clarke. 
 M. M. Bigham. 
 Wm. L. McCormick. 
 Jno. Barber. 
 Algernon R. Wood. 
 Alexander Close. 
 John R. Cole. 
 M. Shaw. 
 A. Coulter. 
 J. Perkins Fleming. 
 James V. D. Stewart. 
 Joel N. Blake. 
 J. Henry Giese. 
 W. E. Barber. 
 Robert Busby. 
 
 John S. McKim. 
 J. Dean Smith. 
 David S. Courtenay. 
 Wm. R. Seevers. 
 S. A. Leakin. 
 Patrick Gieson. 
 J. P. Polk. 
 William White. 
 Geo. W. Bradford. 
 Edward Duffy. 
 Thos. H. Quinan. 
 Samuel W. Barber. 
 Matthew Horn. 
 Morgan. Coleman. 
 Stephen Williams. 
 James Wilson, Howard-St. 
 J. H. Patterson. 
 Lancaster Ould. 
 Geo. C Morton. 
 Geo. Ross Veazey. 
 Daniel Holliday. 
 
 D. H. Blanchard. 
 
 E. H. Thomson. 
 W. J. Dickey. 
 John P. Coulter. 
 Alex. E. Brown. 
 H. C. Reed. 
 Cornelius E. Beatty. 
 John T. Dick. 
 
 Wm. H. Brown. 
 R. H. Pennington. 
 John P. Richardson. 
 Robert Leslie. 
 
Baltimore, November 25, 1855. 
 Gentlemen — The request for a copy of my Thanksgiving" Discourse, so 
 generally made, I cannot refuse. The manuscript is herewith placed at your 
 disposal. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 N. C. BURT. 
 
 Dr. G. S. Gibson. 
 
 R. K. Hawley, Esq. 
 
 J. Henry Stickney, Esq. and others. 
 
DISCOURSE. 
 
 Psalm 33: 12.— Blessed is the Nation whose God is the Lord. 
 
 We have met to-day, at the call of the Governor of 
 this Commonwealth, to render thanks to the Supreme 
 Governor of the world for his mercies granted us during 
 the past year. Surely we have abundant cause for thanks- 
 giviug. In the present instance, our annual festival not 
 only calls us to recognize the common bounties of God's 
 providence most richly bestowed, but also affords a most 
 suitable opportunity for rendering special offerings of 
 gratitude for our happy exemption from that pestilence, 
 which, for months just past, lifted its frowning clouds in 
 our near horizon, and committed its devastations on our 
 very borders, — a pestilence which, if God had permitted 
 it to march upon our City and to do a like deadly work 
 amidst our population, would now be exulting over as 
 many slain victims from among us, as there are persons 
 now assembled in all our Churches for this thanksgiving 
 service. Let us give hearty thanks for this distinguishing 
 sparing goodness. 
 
6 
 
 Being called together by our civil authorities, and that 
 to recognize the hand of God over us as a people, the 
 occasion is suitable for considering the general subject of 
 National Character, and in connection with it, the duties 
 and destinies of our own nation. 
 
 What now, to begin at the beginning, is the proper 
 idea of a nation? The idea is a complex one, involving, 
 to a greater or less extent, the ideas of community of 
 birth, community of language, occupation of the same 
 territory, citizenship under the same government. 
 
 The ivord nation signifies a body of men descended 
 from the same progenitor, — those having community of 
 birth. We may, from the sense of the word, call the 
 Jews a nation, though using a diversity of languages, 
 and though scattered over the earth, without distinct 
 territory or separate government. 
 
 Community of language commonly follows upon com- 
 munity of birth. Yet community of language does not 
 of itself determine or secure nationality. The English 
 and ourselves speak the same language, yet are distinct 
 nations. The Swiss are one nation, yet speak some of 
 them French, others German, others Italian. 
 
 Occupation of the same territory is not essential to 
 nationality. Not only may a nation be scattered, — its 
 parts dwelling in several lands, — as in the case of the 
 Jews, but a nation may migrate in a body and preserve 
 its national character in transit, or it may have no fixed 
 territorial abode whatever. The Tartars and the Arabs 
 
are nations ever in motion, and held but the most loosely 
 by any tenure of soil. 
 
 And even citizenship under the same government, does 
 not of itself exhaust the idea of a nation. Kussia may 
 be said to include many nations under her sway. 
 
 Yet the ideas of race, language, country and govern- 
 ment, all enter into, and with greater or less distinctness, 
 and to a greater or less extent, constitute the general 
 idea of a nation. The French have in general the same 
 origin: they speak the same language: they possess a 
 definite territory: they live under one government. They 
 are of Gallic origin: we call their language French: their 
 home is France: they are the subjects of Napoleon. 
 
 These several ideas of a nation do not, however, seem 
 to be equally essential. It is in the idea of Government, 
 the idea of the State, in which an associated body of men 
 rises to view as a personality, and as a sovereign power, 
 clothed with divine privileges and prerogatives, subsisting 
 for high moral ends, dispensing justice amongst its own 
 citizens in the name of God, and treating with other 
 States as responsible persons like itself, with whom it 
 dwells as in a family of nations to possess the earth; — it 
 is in this idea that the ideas of community of origin and 
 of language, and occupation of the same territory, merge 
 themselves as subordinate or accidental, and that our view 
 of a nation is most satisfactory and complete. 
 
 The functions of supreme government are rarely exer- 
 cised over a very small body of men, And nations need 
 
8 
 
 to be of some magnitude to realize the benefits of national 
 existence. A nation, just in virtue of its national consti- 
 tution, is in a measure separated from the rest of man- 
 kind. It has an existence by itself. It ought, then, to 
 have a completeness in itself. It should be made up of 
 so many and such variety of parts, that these parts in 
 their inter-action, may produce a sufficient life. Its 
 classes of citizens and their occupations, should be so 
 diversified and numerous, that in the mutual dependence 
 and support, -the highest possible benefit may result. 
 Size has to do materially with the idea of a nation. 
 This, indeed, makes all the difference between a family 
 and a nation, if only sovereign prerogatives be conceded 
 to the family, as was done in patriarchal times. It is in 
 the life of the State rather than that of the family, that 
 we have civilization. The very word civilization implies 
 this — civis, being a citizen, and civitas, a State. 
 
 The importance of national relations may be seen in 
 the consideration of the nature of history. "What is 
 history? Is it a collection of the biographies of individual 
 men? We do not, as a fact, give to such collection the 
 name of history. History has been called "the biography 
 of society. " But of society founded upon what basis, 
 working by what agencies, involving what interests, pro- 
 posing what ends? Not surely voluntary associations, 
 formed for the promotion of the arts, or commerce, or 
 philosophy, or benevolent undertakings. Such associa- 
 tions are too limited in the numbers which belong to them, 
 
too narrow and partial in the ends they propose and the 
 means they use, to justify us in calling their biography 
 history. We must find a society which, as nearly as 
 possible, shall comprehend in its members the entire 
 human race, command in its workings all human en- 
 ergies, involve in its consideration all human interests; 
 the biography of such a society we may call history. 
 Such a society we find in the State. And it is because 
 the whole human race is gathered into nations; it is be- 
 cause the State proposes as its true object the highest 
 good of all its citizens; and especially is it because the 
 State as a sovereign power, not only holds the persons 
 and property of its citizens at its disposal, but deals with 
 its citizens and with all mankind as moral beings, and as 
 itself a moral person responsible to God, — being a sov- 
 ereign only as his minister; — it is because of all this, that 
 we give the name history to the biography of nations 
 rather than to that of any other society. And the idea 
 of history generally accepted is this, — it is a record of 
 the changes which come over the aspect and fortunes 
 of nations, in their self-development and their mutual 
 intercourse.* 
 
 * See Dr. Arnold's "Lectures on Modern History." The above statement is 
 correct, so long as we take a merely natural view of mankind — so long as we 
 view men merely in their moral relations. Viewing men by the light of reve- 
 lation and in relations more strictly religious, Church-biography would still 
 better deserve the name of history. But for some reason, these religious rela- 
 tions are not commonly recognized in their importance. Like the historian, 
 the moral philosopher commonly ignores man's lapsed condition, and all the 
 
10 
 
 The highest truth of history is unquestionably the 
 Providence of God. Now, it gives us a most impressive 
 view of the importance of national relations, when we 
 consider the Bible representation of nations as the great 
 agents of God's Providence. The Assyrian nation sent 
 against the people of Israel is "the rod of his anger" and 
 u the staff of his indignation." Said God to his ancient 
 people, "I will bring a nation on you from far, house 
 of Israel." Gocl of old sent his prophets to this nation 
 and that; Elijah to Israel, Jeremiah to Judah, Jonah to 
 Assyria. 
 
 Moreover, the Bible recognizes the importance of na- 
 tional relations in the position it assigns to nations in the 
 historic and prophetic development of the plan for man's 
 redemption. Before the advent of our Saviour, God was 
 in covenant with a nation. To conserve the true religion 
 amidst the corruptions which a second time were coming 
 over the whole earth, God took Abraham and his family 
 
 great truths which distinguish supernatural religion. See Wardlaw's "Chris- 
 tian Ethics." 
 
 It ought also to be observed that human governments, at the best, are obliged 
 to leave many interests of their citizens uncared for, or to be cared for by 
 other agents than their own; also, that human governments are often corrupt 
 and fail to discharge their proper functions. Hence, the historian needs the 
 supplement of individual biographies, and transactions of voluntary societies, 
 and pictures of domestic and social life, in order to a full representation of his 
 subject. Who would dispense with the Book of Ruth in the Old Testament 
 history, or with Macaulay's picture of England in 1685 in his English 
 history? 
 
11 
 
 into special relations to himself. Yet God did not see fit 
 to keep these special relations confined to a single family 
 in successive generations. It entered directly into his 
 plan, to make of this chosen family a nation, to set them 
 in a land of their own, to give them a government of 
 their own, to place them amidst the other nations of the 
 earth. The influence of a nation was required to prepare 
 the world for the coming of Messiah. So also in prophecy. 
 Whatever may he thought of the heasts of the Kevelation, 
 with their heads and horns, the heasts of Daniel are dis- 
 tinctly stated to he ' 'Kingdoms upon Earth." They are 
 States and Empires. It is, moreover, a kingdom which 
 the Lord God will set up upon earth, which, as a little 
 stone cut out of the mountain, shall smite and hreak and 
 crush the kingdoms of earth, and itself occupy their 
 place. u The saints of the Most High shall take the 
 kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever." 
 
 With this consideration of the idea of a nation, and of 
 the importance of national relations, let us now, turning 
 and heholding the race of men dwelling together in a 
 family of nations, ask more particularly after their duties 
 and destinies. 
 
 I. The State has a religious character. Nations derive 
 their existence as such from God. The State is of divine 
 institution. It enjoys and exercises divine prerogatives. 
 It is hence under duty to God; it has herein a religious 
 character. 
 
12 
 
 I do not propose to argue the question of the nature 
 of civil government. I will not undertake to show that 
 the theory of a social compact — the theory that all just 
 powers of government are derived from the people, who 
 voluntarily yield them up and consent to their exercise — 
 that this theory is false. Enough for me — enough for 
 you, I presume, — that it is unscriptural and infidel. 
 Enough for us that the Scriptures say, "The powers 
 that he are ordained of God," and the civil ruler is "the 
 minister of God." I do not deny, — the Scriptures do 
 not deny — the distinction hetween things civil and things 
 religious. The Christian does not demand that the State 
 shall he a theocracy. The State and the Church has each 
 its appropriate end and sphere. The prime end of the 
 State is the dispensing of justice, the protecting of its 
 citizens, and the securing hy agriculture and commerce 
 and the arts, and hy the intelligence and virtue of its 
 citizens, of the general welfare. The prime end of the 
 Church, so far as man is concerned, is the promotion of 
 his spiritual and eternal good, through the agency of the 
 Scriptures of revealed truth. The sphere of the one is 
 the affairs of this life, — that of the other, the affairs of 
 the life to come. Yet the State and the Church are not 
 wholly separated and absolutely independent; and neither 
 is independent of God. 
 
 Again: Man in his entirety, is a religious being, and 
 must carry his religion with him into all his relations. 
 He is a religious citizen; so that not only is government 
 
13 
 
 instituted by God and to be administered in his name, 
 and is therefore religious, but being administered by men 
 and upon men, who themselves are under responsibility to 
 God, it is therefore again religious. 
 
 And again: Although the prime end of the State be 
 the promotion of man's temporal welfare, and that of the 
 Church, the promotion of his spiritual welfare, and al- 
 though the prime sphere of the State be the things of the 
 present life, and that of the Church those of the life to 
 come, yet things temporal and things spiritual, and the 
 things of the present life and those of the life to come, 
 have most intimate and important connections. The 
 spiritual welfare tells upon the temporal, and the life to 
 come is but the issue and result of the present life. 
 Here, once more, is the State seen to have a religious 
 character. All this admits of abundant proof and illus- 
 tration. 
 
 The State, then, has a character directly religious, due 
 to its origin and nature, as instituted by God for doing 
 his ministry with men. Hence, its laws should be 
 founded on the highest views of the divine will ascer- 
 tainable. It should enact that alone to be crime which 
 God pronounces to be sin. And -again, the State has a 
 character indirectly religious, in view of the fact, that it 
 is administered by and upon those who are under reli- 
 gious obligations, and in view of the fact that religion 
 has material connection with that public welfare which 
 it is the design and duty of the State to promote. The 
 3 
 
14 
 
 State must, on the one hand, respect the conscience of its 
 citizens, leaving them free in religious opinions and 
 practices; and yet, on the other hand, it must seek to 
 promote the interests of true religion, with whose pros- 
 perity the public welfare is vitally connected. 
 
 It belongs to our government, my hearers, to conform 
 its legislation to the principles of the Bible, and to im- 
 pose its penalties for violated law, on the authority and 
 with the sanction of the God of the Bible: and it belongs 
 to our government, while indulging the largest and most 
 liberal toleration of religious opinions and practices, still 
 to seek the diffusion and establishment of Christianity 
 throughout the length and breadth of our land. It is 
 right that our government enforces, to a good degree, 
 the observance of the Christian Sabbath. It is demanded 
 that such observance be enforced in still larger degree. 
 Our government, if it be bound to afford an education to 
 the children of its citizens at all, is bound to give them 
 a Christian education. The Bible should be in all our 
 Public Schools. Chaplains should be provided for all 
 State institutions, as they are for the Army and Navy. 
 
 I know, indeed, that these views, when fully expressed, 
 are not generally conceded. Many seem to think that 
 government has no proper connection with religion. The 
 cry of Church and State — of the invasion of religious 
 rights — is raised against these views.* But not only has 
 
 * See Congressional Reports — Col. R. M. Johnson on Sunday Mails, and 
 Mr. Petit on Chaplains to Congress. Of course, in practically meeting and 
 
15 
 
 government a necessary connection with religion, but 
 what may seem still more objectionable, the freest gov- 
 ernment must have reference, in its laws and institutions, 
 to some form of religion, as that held by the great body 
 of its citizens: and it is a mistake, as egregious as it is 
 frequent, which supposes that because our Federal Con- 
 stitution prescribes no religion as that of this country, 
 and unites the government to no Church, our country is 
 therefore as much Pagan or Infidel as it is Christian. 
 The Constitution and the legislation of our country pre- 
 suppose and take for granted, if they do not distinctly 
 affirm, that Bible Christianity is the religion of this 
 country. And they must do so, in order that this be a 
 free government, since the great body of our people are 
 believers in this religion. The President of the United 
 States, standing in the portico of the Capitol, before the 
 face of heaven and in view of the assembled people, 
 swears upon the Bible to support the Constitution. The 
 great functions of government cease to be exercised 
 among us when the morning of the Christian Sabbath 
 dawns. The Executive closes his mansion, Congress va- 
 cates its halls, the judge comes down from his bench; — 
 
 adjusting the two claims upon the government, first to respect the conscience 
 of its citizens, and secondly, to promote the interests of religion, great diver- 
 sity of opinion may exist even among those who hold to the same principles. 
 There is room for a variety of prudential considerations. Yet the principles 
 above expressed are discarded in the documents referred to, as they very often 
 are elsewhere. 
 
16 
 
 all pause and wait through the day of which the God 
 of the Bible and the Lord our Saviour has said — it is 
 mine. How solemn the testimony, and how frequently 
 recurring, that this is a Christian nation. 
 
 And w T hose rights are invaded by this observance of 
 the Christian religion? The Jew's? Why he can observe 
 his Sabbath on Saturday, and the law will protect him in 
 the observance. None shall molest or make him afraid. 
 The infidel's? It may be that he is put to inconvenience. 
 He cannot have his cause tried in Court; he cannot lay 
 his petition before Congress or the Executive; he may not 
 be able to procure his letters from the Post Office: but is 
 this an invasion of his rights? Who has the right to 
 compel the judge to violate the Sabbath by trying his 
 cause, or the mail-carrier or post master by delivering 
 his letters? Would not the non-observance of the Sab- 
 bath by the government operate at once to close the doors 
 of office against four-fifths of our conscientious citizens? 
 For the very reason, then, that the body of our people 
 are Christians^ our government does and must, as a free 
 government, respect the Christian religion; and further- 
 more, because this religion is, as we know, the true reli- 
 gion of G-od, and its influence most happy in. sustaining 
 a free government, the State is bound not simply coldly 
 to protect it in common with all forms of religion, but 
 warmly to foster it as its own chosen religion. 
 
 It would not be well longer to dwell on this topic. It 
 may only be added that while the understanding of this 
 
17 
 
 subject is of the very first consequence to us as a nation, 
 there is no subject of general interest which seems to 
 be so little understood.* 
 
 Nations of necessity have a religious character. The 
 civil government is of God's ordination, and does God's 
 ministry. The civil government is administered by and 
 upon men who are religious beings, who cannot under 
 any circumstances divest themselves of their religious 
 character. The prevalence of true religion amongst its 
 citizens, is of the highest advantage to the State. 
 
 Every nation has its God or its gods. "Blessed is the 
 nation whose God is the Lord." Blessed is America so 
 long as a pure, scriptural Christianity stimulates and 
 governs its public life. 
 
 It may be mentioned, but need not be discussed as 
 a distinct topic, although its full consideration would 
 greatly enforce the views just presented, that, as a matter 
 of fact, God does regard nations as responsible persons, 
 and does hold them in strict account to himself. The 
 highest truth of universal history being the universal 
 and comprehending providence of God, and the great 
 factors of history being the nations of mankind, and the 
 personal and responsible character of nations continuing 
 only in this life and obtaining God's full judgment of 
 
 * A volume entitled "The Position of Christianity in the United States," by 
 Stephen Colwell, Esq. of Philadelphia, deserves the attentive and serious 
 perusal of every American citizen. 
 
18 
 
 mercy or wrath during the time of their present continu- 
 ance, the historic page, recording the majestic movements 
 of empires in their rise and fall, becomes unspeakably 
 sublime as the record of the Almighty's manifested char- 
 acter, smiling and blessing in their righteous prosperity, 
 and frowning and overthrowing in their guilty doom. 
 
 II. But let us pass to another view of nations. The 
 race of men we behold in a family of nations. We may 
 consider the relations of these nations one to another. 
 
 I use the word family in reference to nations, to indi- 
 cate at once, at the outset, and as fully as possible, their 
 true relations. Nations are most closely and most ten- 
 derly related. Their relation is one of blood, and their 
 one parent is God. u He hath made of one blood all na- 
 tions of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth, 
 and hath determined the times before appointed and the 
 bounds of their habitation. " Each nation has a certain 
 completeness in itself, yet it is but a partial completeness. 
 Nations are still connected. They are dependent on one 
 another. They are under obligations to one another. 
 They are alike and together bound to the same God. 
 They are a brotherhood before God their common Father. 
 Patriotism has its limits, and philanthropy, its appro- 
 priate and transcendent sphere. 
 
 See the physical dependence of nations. Does not 
 every nation on the face of the earth contribute to the 
 conveniences and comforts and luxuries, not to say the 
 
19 
 
 necessities of our every-day life? And do we not, as a 
 nation, contribute something for the physical well-being 
 of every nation in turn? What mean these thousand 
 ships, at all times and in all directions traversing the 
 main? Are they not all hastening on the wings of the 
 wind, with their precious burdens, to do the ministries of 
 nations one toward another? All commerce is significant, 
 first of all, of national interdependence. 
 
 This mutual dependence in things physical is, however, 
 but an image of a higher dependence. What is civiliza- 
 tion? Is it the culture of the national life? Yet how is 
 national life cultivated? Is it by self-effort only, put 
 forth from a stimulus self-begotten? Or is not civiliza- 
 tion, like the education of the individual, in some measure 
 dependent on the efforts of others? Must there not be 
 an outward contact, and a stimulus provoked by such 
 contact? Turn a child into the woods, and let him grow 
 up to manhood without the society or the sight of his 
 fellow-men. Where is his self-culture? He is a wild 
 man of the woods; he is a barbarian. So nations need 
 the stimulus which comes from a contact with their fel- 
 low nations; and that, not only that they may advance 
 in civilization, but even that they may save themselves 
 from going down into barbarism. See China, the largest 
 empire of men, yet separated from its neighbors by a stone 
 wall. See Hindostan, insulated by surrounding seas and 
 mountains, and destitute of commerce for many hundred 
 years. See Africa, secluded from all the world by its 
 
20 
 
 miasmatic regions and its fever-bouncl coasts, 
 stereotyped character! What stagnant life! What hope- 
 less barbarism! Interchange of thought among the na- 
 tions ,, — communication of the products of art and liter- 
 ature, and of the discoveries of science; — this is requisite 
 for the welfare of nations. 
 
 It would easily follow from this mutual dependence of 
 nations, even if it did not come to us in a more direct 
 way, that the intercommunion of nations should be 
 guided and governed by religious principles, and for the 
 end of highest mutual spiritual benefit. Nay, the state- 
 ment may be made thus, in reference to us who know 
 what true religion is, and who are bound to go according 
 to the light we possess, and not according to the darkness 
 of others, — that the intercommunion of nations should 
 be conducted on Christian principles, and for the end of 
 the diffusion and establishment of the Gospel of Christ. 
 
 Blessed is the nation whose God being the Lord, who, 
 as the first-born, and fullest-grown, and highest-favored, 
 in the Lord's family of nations, becomes the loving in- 
 structor and helper of the younger brethren. 
 
 Looking this day upon the brotherhood of nations, we 
 behold one sight which might excite our joyful hope, 
 were it not for another closely connected with it, which 
 must excite our astonishment and sorrow. We behold, 
 on the one hand, the nations of the earth brought into 
 close proximity and to the possibility of easy friendship, 
 by the many physical improvements of the age. These 
 
21 
 
 improvements, as we see, are made and first used by 
 enlightened and Christian nations, — and we are encour- 
 aged to ask, shall not these improvements he the chan- 
 nels and vehicles for conveying to all nations the influ- 
 ences of the gospel? In this bringing of the ends of the 
 earth together, by those whose great glory is their pos- 
 session of the knowledge of God's salvation, shall not "all 
 the ends of the earth," through their agency, speedily 
 be brought "'to see the salvation of God?" But alas! 
 The ardency of our hopes is quenched, when we behold 
 this day the most enlightened and powerful and happy 
 of the whole brotherhood of nations, whose great tie is 
 that of natural and Christian love, and whose great duty 
 is to strengthen the cords of love amongst all their 
 brotherhood, — when we behold these nations, submitting 
 themselves to the demon of national hatred and revenge, 
 employing the agencies which should convey the gospel 
 of peace to all mankind, in transporting the munitions of 
 war, and then putting forth all their skill and energies 
 in planning and executing, with the aids of the most 
 matured science, and by means of the most ingenious and 
 mighty enginery, the devilish work of national desolation 
 and destruction. 
 
 Can we, my hearers, conceive of a higher and more 
 horrid contradiction of the whole spirit of our religion 
 than a national war? And can there be anything more 
 discouraging to him who hopes for the speedy diffusion 
 of the Gospel amidst the nations, than the contemplation 
 4 
 
22 
 
 of the present war, — a war not only waged by nations 
 the most Christian, but a war involving no principle, 
 and devoid of all glory, — a war stamped in its every 
 feature, and chargeable at its every step, with the attri- 
 bute and the crime of murder. 
 
 when shall war be recognized in • its brutality and 
 fiendishness and hellish horrors? When shall patriotism 
 separate itself from a proud ambition and a cruel revenge, 
 and become the loving handmaid of a pure philanthropy? 
 When shall Christian nations become capable of a Chris- 
 tian transaction? Must "the sword devour forever?" 
 
 III. We may not omit on such an occasion, and with 
 such a subject before us, to speak of the destiny of our 
 own nation. 
 
 It would seem from many considerations often pre- 
 sented, that God intends great things for us as a nation.' 
 The time and circumstances of the original settlement of 
 our country, and the character of the original settlers, is 
 regarded as one indication of promise. How long God 
 kept this continent concealed from the view of the civil- 
 ized world! And, when it was discovered, how long he 
 kept back the nations from its successful settlement! Not 
 until the Protestant Keformation had wrought its great 
 results^ and nations were prepared for the work under its 
 tuition, did God begin to people this country; — and even 
 then, it wj,s a i 'winnowed seed" which he planted here. 
 Men tried in the fires of persecution, and strong in the 
 
23 
 
 love of God and the desire of liberty, laid the founda- 
 tions of our republic. Is not this peculiar beginning 
 prophetic of a glorious consummation? 
 
 Our past experience and present condition seem to 
 confirm the tokens of our auspicious beginning. Colo- 
 nial dependence has given way to National independence. 
 Thirteen States have increased to thirty-one. Three mil- 
 lions of people have increased to thirty. Immense forests 
 have been subdued^and the soil yields supplies for the 
 famishing of other lands. Great manufactories crowd 
 our rivers and darken our towns. Our commerce whitens 
 every sea and swarms in every port. Our people are 
 intelligent, and virtuous, and happy beyond all example. 
 Our government is strong and efficient. What is needed 
 to make our destiny glorious, but just to go on in the way 
 that we have come? 
 
 Then see the prospect which invites us on. Vast ter- 
 ritories are still unoccupied. What shall prevent the 
 flood of population from pouring westward and overflow- 
 ing these territories? Our internal resources have only 
 begun to be developed. What shall prevent their utmost 
 and magnificent development? The commerce of the 
 Pacific waits to be ours. How long till Pacific rail- 
 roads shall bind our eastern and western coasts together, 
 and our country, standing in the midst of the earth and 
 reaching out its arms on either hand, clasp the entire 
 sphere in its embrace? ~ Our country is in the dew of its 
 rejoicing youth, and has but the dimmest consciousness 
 
24 
 
 and dream of its own strength, and who can predict the 
 glory of its manhood, when in the fullest self-conscious- 
 ness, it shall exert to the utmost its matured and mighty 
 energies? 
 
 Thus are we accustomed to talk. Our destiny is mani- 
 fest — our glory is inevitahle. It is pleasant to talk thus, 
 and it is unpleasant to talk otherwise. Yet we ought to 
 desire to see and know the truth. Self-flattery is an 
 odious folly. Is our destiny, thefc manifest? Is our 
 glory inevitahle? Has G-od so conspicuous!/ favored us 
 that he cannot but continue to bless? Ah! It is our 
 self-flattery and odious folly to think so. 
 
 We need not look again, to our history or our prospects, 
 to gather evidences of a different destiny, although such 
 evidences might not be wanting. Yes, we might find 
 the evidences which, duly weighed, would make us shud- 
 der in view of our possible or probable future. We might 
 come to think it very problematical whettier our country 
 has sufficient vital force to work into good American citi- 
 zens the hordes of infidels, paupers, criminals, cast upon 
 our shores from the nations of the old world: — whether 
 our country has sufficient wisdom to guide its own vexed 
 domestic questions to a proper and satisfactory issue, and 
 to balance and regulate the rival and numberless in- 
 terests of a country widening indefinitely in extent;^— 
 whether — but no, we do not need thus to forecast the 
 future to ascertain our probable destiny. We may de- 
 termine the question by the teaching of God's word. 
 
25 
 
 "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord." And 
 blessed is that nation alone. Here is the solution of the 
 question of our destiny. It is in making the Lord the 
 God of our country, that we are safe — that we are pros- 
 perous — that our glorious destiny becomes inevitable. 
 Our destiny is left to ourselves. The means of its 
 glory are placed in our hands. We may use them or 
 not, as we will. 
 
 And now, I utter it to you, my hearers and fellow- 
 citizens, as the solemn testimony of the Lord our God, 
 that so surely as ignorance and moral corruption and 
 lust of power, become generally prevalent, and popery and 
 infidelity attain the supremacy among us, it matters not 
 at all that we have had a ballot-box, and a free press, 
 and free schools, and the whole circle of liberal institu- 
 tions, — these will become but the insignia of our shame; 
 it matters not that we have had a boundless territory, 
 and a teeming soil, and mighty cities, and universal 
 commerce, — the grass will grow again on our prairies, — 
 the red man return to his forsaken forests, — our cities be- 
 come black with desolation, and the sails of our commerce 
 be rent on the seas, or the hulks of our commerce rot 
 at our wharves; it matters not that God has been wonder- 
 fully gracious to us as a nation, — the more wonderful the 
 grace, the deeper the insult and crime of our despising 
 it, and the deeper our doom; — this, this is our manifest 
 destiny. 
 
26 
 
 And it is only as America teaches her children to fear 
 God and do their duty; it is only as our virtuous citizen- 
 ship escape from the chains of corrupt party and procure 
 for themselves a fair representation in the offices of gov- 
 ernment — exerting themselves for the purification of cor- 
 rupt men, rather than for the promotion of their evil de- 
 signs; it is 3 in a word, only as the power of our blessed 
 religion shall go out from the hearts of the truly pious 
 in our land, leavening the mass of the population and 
 bringing them under its sway; — it is only as we truly 
 make the Lord our country's God, that we can hope to 
 be blessed, and can, with any just confidence, await our 
 country's future glory. 
 
 £Teed I, my hearers, deduce and enforce the exhorta- 
 tions of this subject? Or do they not lie upon its surface, 
 and do they not make their own appeal to every patriot's 
 and Christian's heart? 
 
 The God of nations, looking forth upon our happy land 
 this day, may be conceived as breathing the benevolent 
 desire once expressed in behalf of his ancient people, "0 
 that there were such an heart in them, that they would 
 fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that 
 it might be well with them and with their children 
 forever." 
 
27 
 
 N. B. In the delivery of the foregoing discourse, 
 the following remarks were interjected near the com- 
 mencement: 
 
 "Permit me to state to you my conviction, that desira- 
 ble as it is that days of religious observance be appointed 
 by our civil authorities, the regular appointment of an- 
 nual fast-days or thanksgivings, will not secure for any 
 long period a general and hearty observance. I should 
 much prefer the appointment by our civil authorities of 
 a fast-day, in view of any public calamity impending or 
 experienced, or of a day of thanksgiving, in view of 
 deliver ence or exemption from such calamity. In such 
 case we might hope that the day would secure a suitable 
 and profitable observance/ ' 
 
 It is the writer's apprehension that days of special 
 religious observance occurring at regular intervals^ and 
 hence occurring, oftentimes, when there is no special 
 providential call for a religious service, and being desti- 
 tute of the binding obligation a divine appointment, 
 will degenerate into mere holidays; and in his opinion, 
 the providential call ought to guide our rulers in the 
 designation of times of special religious observance; 
 so that when we fast, we do so in direct view of special 
 calamity, and when we render thanks, we do so for 
 special mercies actually experienced. The thanksgiving 
 of last year occurred at a time of most trying financial 
 embarrassment, at the close of a season remarkable for 
 
28 
 
 its drought and meagre harvests , and for the prevalence 
 of disease and the destruction of property by land and 
 sea. Surely, God called us then to humble ourselves 
 and fast, rather than to rejoice and give thanks, and a 
 thanksgiving service was appropriate only for the reason 
 that Grod always deals with us better than we deserve. 
 We need the evident appropriateness of the service to 
 secure its continued and suitable observance. Who does 
 not remember the appointment by our national Execu- 
 tive, some years since, of a day of national humiliation, 
 when a visitation of the cholera was threatened? And 
 how solemn and affecting the service of that day through- 
 out the land! In New England, the regular, annual 
 thanksgiving preserves its sacredness through customs 
 and associations, which were established in the very in- 
 fancy of the country, and which have grown up with 
 it, — customs and associations, which cannot elsewhere be 
 created. 
 


 iVmm 
 
 \t ' V •'■L\ ft IHiH; 
 
 B 
 
 ■41% ^j 
 
 A \ 
 
 
 A^M^M 
 
 ^mbmm 
 
 IPPw 
 
 
 *^IAi^ . h 
 
 
 
 A ' A 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 tSVJW 
 
. 
 
 i » 1 
 
 rA. !V 
 
 
 *Mtt w/ 
 
 
 &5* 
 
 
 .(}i« 
 
 w^MwMm 
 
 
 R'ii 
 
 
 ii 
 
 rfSVJSiC* 
 
 ■ 
 
 Sl532ffl'w%B 
 
 
 •N pi U 5 
 
 
A Afi.< LIBRARY 
 
 ffi 021 064 086 1 
 
 av ^mASwaaOiMw a t A