"LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. ■ ^opansM ||o I MISCELLANEOUS SERMONS OF THE LATE REV. PROF. ELEAZAR T. FITCH, D.D. Jxtst Series. o,L. 4 1 SERMONS. PRACTICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE, PREACHED IN THE PULPIT OF YALE COLLEGE. BY REV. ELEAZAR T. FITCH, D.D., Livingston Professor of Divinity from 1817 to 1852. -He being dead yet speaketh. NEW HAVEN. JUDD AND WHITE 1871. -2^72 35 Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1871, BY LUCIUS W. FITCH, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. PRESS Of TUTTLE, MOREHOUSE 8. TAYLOR, NEW HAVEN, CONfc. PREFACE. This volume is issued in response to the urgent request of a number of my father's friends and admirers ; and its publication is doubtless looked for by many others. The sermons selected are such as, from the subjects and the mode of their treatment, were quite generally valued at the time of their delivery. And accordingly it appears eminently appropriate to commit them to the press ; not only for the sake of those persons, among whose most sacred memories their words yet linger, and who will greet them as long absent friends, returned again ; but also, that productions, thus proved by the concurring opinions of so many competent judges to possess the elements of a permanent influence, may reach a wider public, and accomplish larger results of good. It may be proper to observe, that the selection is based chiefly, upon the special mention of particular sermons in cordial and encouraging letters of friends, received since my father's death, or upon the sugges- tions of judicious advisors at hand. Should this volume be favorably received, I may follow it with another series of the same general character. LUCIUS W. FITCH. New Haven, July, 1871. CONTENTS. The Word of God the Guide to Happiness in this Life. A Bac- calaureate Sermon. [1826] 1 The Evil of Sophistry on Moral Subjects. - [1846] 17 The Destructive Influence of the Transgressor in a College. [1827] 33 The Good Portion that is Never Taken Away. - [1831] 49 The Power of Trust in God to establish the Heart against the Force of Evil. -___-__ [1840] 67 The Trial of Abraham. -------- [1846] 85 The Privilege of Union to God and his People, chosen. - [1835] 105 Raising from the Dead the Son of the Widow at Nain. - - [1846] 119 The Scene of the Transfiguration. - [ T 84o] 133 The Ignorance of Man respecting the Good or Evil of his Tem- poral Lot. A Baccalaureate Sermon. - [1845] 149 No Continuing City here. _______ [1821] 161 On Seeking a Continuing City to come. - [1821] 175 Christ Precious to Believers. ______ [1816] 189 No Order in the Grave ; or, The Wisdom of God in the manner of executing Temporal Death. - ^840] 201 The Death of John the Baptist. - [1846] 217 The Righteous in their Immortality to live within the Scenes of a Material Universe. [1840] 235 Vlll. The Purchase of the Truth. A Baccalaureate Sermon. - [1846] 255 No Refuge from Condemnation but Christ. - - - [1831] 271 The Duty of reproving the Works of Darkness in Sinners. [1824] 289 The Cause of Jehovah against Baal, tried before Israel at the Altar of Sacrifice. ------- [1846] 299 The Ascension of Jesus. _.__--_ [1846] 319 The Wisdom of God in the Appointment of Death to our Race. [1839] 335 Worshiping God in the Beauty of Holiness. - [1847] 353 GOD'S WORD MAN'S CHIEF JOY IN THIS PRES- ENT TIME. [A BACCALAUREATE SERMON.] PSALM CXIX : 54. Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. From the lives of others we may derive lessons of prac- tical wisdom at the very commencement of our own. While yet the morning of youth is beaming on us, and we are looking forward to a long day of anxiety and toil on the earth, we may hear from the lips of the aged the recital of their experience, or read in the volumes of the dead their yet surviving testimony ; warning us of the dangers we are to shun, and pointing out to us the true paths of peace and prosperity. I have now read to you the testimony of a pious mon- arch in Israel, respecting his own life, which he recorded, for the praise of Jehovah and for the benefit of succeeding generations ; in which you hear the voice of experience, testifying to you the sotirces of happiness which exist for the consolation of man amidst the mutabilities of the pres- ent world. This monarch, near the close of his eventful life (as it has been generally supposed), surveys the past ; recalls the events of fleeting years through which he has journeyed, — a stranger on a pilgrimage in the earth ; re- counts the days of affliction and prosperity that have rolled over him ; and, in grateful acknowledgment, testi- fies unto God that his statutes have illuminated his dwell- ing with its brightest joys and consolations, which, in days of prosperity were prized by him beyond " thou- sands of gold and silver ;" and without which, in days of darkness, he " had perished in his afflictions;" which had ever afforded him themes of grateful meditation ; 2 God's Word Man s Chief Joy in this Present Time. guided him in the conduct of life ; inspired his confidence and hope ; rapt his spirit in the composition of devotional songs ; and caused his tabernacle to resound with the glad voice of praise and joy: — " Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage." The experi- ence of the Psalmist, to which he has testified in this declaration affords to all, this salutary lesson for the reg- ulation of their lives : — that THE WORD OF God IS THE ONLY GUIDE TO TRUE HAPPINESS AMID THE CHANGES OF THIS WORLD. In inculcating this truth, I purpose to consider, partic- ularly, some of the sources of joy which the word of God offers to man amid the changes of this life. This train of remark may serve at once to show us on what the happy experience of David was founded, and how we are to transfuse the same experience into our own lives. In order, then, to set before you the fountains of joy which the statutes of Jehovah open to man in this life, I remark, I. That, amid all the changes of time, they present to his meditations the same God of unclouded excellence. Man is a contemplative being ; but in his busy contem- plation he finds no resting place within the limits of created things. He surveys, indeed, with pleasure, the wonders of creation which surround him ; he explores with delighted vision and study, the world of his habita- tion and the worlds which glitter upon him from the firmament ; but from all these lower objects of creation, his mind instinctively rises to that Eternal Spirit from whom they proceeded, who guides all by his wisdom and hath established over all his throne in the heavens. I say, ijistinctively, — for the disruption of his soul from God, which afflicts fallen man, is a strange violence done to his nature. Now it is the statutes and testimonies of Jehovah, which present to the contemplations of man the brightest exhi- bitions of his infinite glory. While we gaze on the aston- ishing exhibitions of his power and intelligence which meet us from the works of his creation and providence, God's Word Man s Chief Joy in this Present Time. his word comes to address us more fully ; to explain his designs ; and to make known, beyond a doubt, the attri- butes of his will. Benevolence, righteousness, mercy, truth, in one unclouded sun of glory, beam upon us from his throne ; and assure us of his perfect claims to the ven- eration, homage, praise, obedience, and confidence of all on earth and in heaven. In the law which he has ordained for his moral kingdom, in conformity to which he con- ducts all his works of providence, government, and re- demption, we read his heart of benevolence ; and find him a being worthy to be contemplated with supreme delight during every stage of our endless existence, — a being with whom the spirit can hold a communion in intelligence and love, forever improving and brightening. What a fountain of joy is here opened to man amid the changes of time ! Whatever events betide him, from the mount of prosperity or the vale of sorrow and trial, he may look up alike to the unclouded excellence of his God and King. Leaving out of view his own humble interests, he may look to him who is unchangeably glorious on the throne, conducting all things with a goodness, righteous- ness, and purity forever untarnished, and, absorbed with delightful contemplations, be lost, as it were, in the glory of his Maker. Whether the cup of joy or affliction be administered to him, he opens the statutes of Jehovah and sees the same God of Glory on the throne, worthy as ever to be loved and praised by his creatures ; and he can mingle with every blessing and trial of his earthly lot, as did David, the song of praise : " the Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice." Man, I say, may derive this joy from the statutes of the Lord. They place before his meditations, the un- changing and untarnished excellence of his King ; and assure him, beyond all the darkness and doubts that might otherwise hang over this life's pilgrimage, that God is just and good and pure, in all his doings in his kingdom. How much joy and peace and consolation, derived from this source, have cheered and brightened this vale of tears is fully known only to the eye of Omniscience. But God's Word, Man s Chief Joy in this Present Time. if you would learn its exalted nature, go to David, Isaiah, Paul; Newton, Bacon, Locke, Hale, Edwards; rapt with the inspiring contemplation : and see what themes have illuminated and expanded their minds beyond all the dis- coveries of the heathen, and which have mingled with their earthly lot the joys of brighter worlds ! The lan- guage of one is the language of all : " O how love I thy law, it is my meditation all the day." Another fountain of joy opened to man by the statutes of Jehovah, I mention, II. That amid all the changes of time, they administer to him one perfect rule of action. Man is an active being ; formed to resolve and execute, and to affect himself and others by the course of his con- duct. But in his conduct he finds not his rest in attempt- ing to please himself and his fellow-beings merely. In order to his highest happiness he needs to commence and terminate his activity in God, the fountain of all being ; to be directed and quickened by the authority of that wise and perfect Being who watches over his own glory and the good of his kingdom with ceaseless care, and to be employed in fulfilling the plans of his goodness and mercy. Now it is through his statutes that he uses his wisdom and authority in guiding the conduct of men ; and that he employs them as his servants in executing the works- of his benevolence. These statutes comprise every re- quirement of men in one grand, perfect and unchangeable law of doing good, — in glorifying the Creator, and in blessing mankind. In this law, the activity of man is directed by the Best of Beings to the best of ends. To- wards God it is the reverence, homage, worship, obedi- ence, gratitude, trust, of perfect love ; and towards man, the justice, truth, compassion, long suffering, meekness, forgiveness of perfect love, — the perfect precept that sweetly binds the soul to moral purity, — perfection in seeking the glory of God and the welfare of his kingdom : and it is a law to inspire joy in the obedient during the ages oi an endless existence. God's Word Man s Chief Joy in this Present Time. 5 Here then is an unfailing fountain of joy opened to man during the changes of this pilgrimage! Jehovah under- takes by his statutes to guide him in the paths of right- eousness. On the basis of these statutes man may be- come his servant, and attempt, through every scene of this life, to follow the will of his Lord ! Whatever provi- dences betide him (in this mutable state,) here may he gather the peace of those who love the Lord and his kingdom. Though in the actions of life he should not attain a perfect conformity to the will of his Father in Heaven, yet he would not have that will any the less perfect, less pure, or less holy. It is its unchangeable perfection and purity that renders it desirable and trans- forming ; which, while it humbles him for every failure, sweetly keeps him to exalted aims and purposes worthy of immortality. And if, in this changing state, this pil- grimage of life, the events which befall him, seem joyous or grievous, he still sees Jehovah by the quickening in- fluence of a perfect law of action, conducting him to the peace and purity of the undenled in heart ! Oh it is a joy beyond the reach of the agitations of this world, which the obedient gathers from following the law of his God ! In secret it is the consciousness of holy purpose and filial communion, which awaits the soul in friendliness to Jehovah and his cause, and which no storms from without can assail: in public, it is the effort of holy pur- pose, which allays the miseries, calms the contentions, and heals the moral maladies of this guilty world ; and which spreads around it the peace and serenity of a new creation. Wherever he goes, and whatever befalls him, the stat- utes of the Lord invariably direct, quicken, and support him in this peaceful course of action. They would ele- vate him above the covetousness, lust, pride, rancor, jealousies, rivalries, of this sinful world, to the peace of holiness and purity and love ; and while the days of his pilgrimage are blessed with these quickening and puri- fying statutes of the Lord, he unites in the joy and song of the psalmist: " Thy testimonies that thou hast com- 6 God's Word Man s Chief Joy in this Present Time. manded are righteous and very faithful. Thy word is very pure, therefore thy servant loveth it." Another source of joy which the statutes of the Lord offer to man, and one which springs only from these, I mention, III. That amid all the changes of time, they administer to him the same perfect assurances of divine favor. Man is a dependent being, affected in his welfare by the feelings and conduct of others, and most of all by the feelings and conduct of Jehovah. His personal interests as a dependent being are all cast upon God, who if he favor, or frown, carries the weight of all creation, and providence, with him, to attest his kindness or his indig- nation. Now in his testimonies, this glorious Being has put into our hands the solemn assurances of his favor towards offending man. Though our apostasy had provoked his just indignation, and might have separated him at hope- less distance from us forever, yet in the benignity of his grace he has here given us assurances, strong as his own oath, and the humiliations of his Son, that he is ready to be reconciled to us and with more than parental care to manage for us all our interests. We here read the cove- nant of his mercy and care ; assured that we shall find in him a Helper ready to uphold and guard and guide us in the steps of this pilgrimage. Here is the basis of firm confidence. These assurances lead man to the joy of reconciliation with God. With a conscience burdened with the appre- hensions of guilt he is ready to distrust his Maker, and cling to his rebellion : and it is only on the firm assurances of his published word, that he can believe, and enter into the joys of reconciliation. These assurances encourage him to seek continually the blessing of God. On the basis of these he bows his knees in humble and suppliant confidence before the Father of Mercies ; and founds the expectation of that grace which is sufficient for him in all the circumstances of this life. God's Word Man s Chief Joy in this Present Time. 7 The joy derived from the personal friendship of God is thus communicated to the soul. Here the assurances ever stand written, and unchanged, in all their length and breadth of love. His Almighty Finger has engraven the engagements on everlasting tablets. They are faith- ful and unfailing promises. Here then we may build our faith unmoved ; revive it when it decays ; strengthen it when feeble; and sustain it through every change of an outward providence. And what a fountain of joy is this, to see through every external change, the changeless eve and front of love still beaming on us from the heavens. To know that what- ever untoward circumstances may come upon us from his providence, or whatever griefs men may occasion us, he still maintains, beyond these clouds of sorrow, a heart to do us good, and is ready to be sought of us in all our necessities. Through all the changes of this state, weak, erring, sinful, and dependent man thus descries the same unclouded throne of grace open for his resort ; and in the strength of faith in the promises, may visit that throne with his wants, as did David : " Thou art my hiding place and my shield. I hope in thy word." One other source of joy which the statutes of the Lord present to man, and which he can gather from ho other source, I mention only, IV. That, amid all the changes of this life, they admin- ister to him the hope of a nobler existence in eternity. Man is an immortal being, sojourning on the earth but a transitory season, ere he enters on an eternal dwelling. With the mind of an immortal, he instinctively looks for that permanent good which can come only from him who is on the throne of immensity and eternity. He will, now and then, even in his farthest alienation from Jehovah and his busiest devotion to the world, feel the impulses and desires of an immortal spirit within him panting after the nobler and more substantial joys of immortality. The wants of man as an immortal being, Jehovah has consulted in his testimonies. Here he testifies, in a voice that puts to rest the agitations of doubt and unbelief, that 8 God's Word Man s Chief Joy in this Present Time. the kingdom of holy subjects which he is rearing will share in the vision of his glories, the cheerful obedience of his commands, and the light of his favoring love, for eternal ages before his throne. The joys which his word administers to his servants on earth, the same word as- sures them shall be perfected and continued forever be- yond the grave. And it sets before man a practicable way of obtaining this nobler state. Here he pledges his own grace, in a method of effectual redemption through Christ, to lead and uphold those, who cordially seek him, through the snares of this life, to justify and accept them in the day of final trial, and to elevate them to the crowns and the thrones of the righteous in his kingdom. Now it is on this word alone, assuring him of the tri- umphs of Christianity and of the unfailing love of God, that man founds the cheering hope of a glorious immor- tality. And he who, guided by this word, delights in meditating on the glory of God, in following his com- mandments of purity and in seeking his favor, is prepared to feel the inspiring joys of such a hope. And how suited to administer to him consolation and joy, amid all the changes of this life, is such a hope ! All that is afflictive, all that seems untoward here, are but the trials of a short pilgrimage, and all beyond is one eternal day. Whatever events befall him here, whether his paths be lighted with prosperity or shaded with ad- versity, the statutes of the Lord direct him to look be- yond them all to the glories of immortality. This hope sustains, comforts, elevates ; lightens and alleviates the woes of earth ; purifies and enhances its joys. From life it removes its disappointments ; and from death extracts its sting. Man stands forth rejoicing in the liberty where- with God hath made him free. Disenthralled from the fetters and bondage of sin, and led forth by his Saviour from the prison-house of eternal death into the glorious light of day, he breathes the air of immortality ; and even while he walks this earth, he is enrolled a denizen of the Heavenly Jerusalem, and claims a kindred with the saints and a fellowship with angels in the transports of the God's Word Man s Chief Joy in this Present Time. skies. The testimonies of the Lord have enkindled within him these glowing- hopes. They have introduced into the house of his pilgrimage these songs of immortals. In days of health, vigor and activity, when his dwelling on earth seems most fixed and durable, he repairs continually to these walls of salvation for his sweetest hopes ; and when he stands on the verge of life — his heart and flesh failing him — he leans upon the ark of the covenant and the word of the testimony ; and as the shadows of death thicken around him, with the last ray of feeling he breathes out his soul unto God : " Let thy mercies come unto me, O God, even thy salvation, according to thy word. So shall I keep thy law continually, forever and ever." I have attempted, my brethren, to set before you the Scriptures as the only guide to true happiness amid the changes of this world ; and have illustrated the truth, by showing that they administer to man through all the events of this life an exhaustless theme of cheering meditation, a per- manent law of beneficent action, a fixed basis of confi- dence in God, a firm ground of hope. Your attention is now invited to a few remarks sug- gested by the subject of our present meditations. i. We see how far the Scriptures elevate man above the changes of time. The changes to which man is subject in this life are many and great : changes in condition, in station, in pos- sessions, in friends, in prospects, in health, in enjoyments. If the sun of prosperity gild his skies to-day, the clouds of adversity may obscure them on the morrow. To-day the son of Jesse is exalted from the sheep-cote and anointed on Hebron king of Israel amid the transports of his people ; to-morrow his rebellious son rends from him the kingdom and the hearts of the people, and he retires from the sacred city, ascending Olivet with a few adhe- rents, destitute, barefoot, and weeping. Nothing here is permanent ; nothing stable and sure. The mutabilities of this world have ever agitated the minds of men. Nor has man, unguided of God, relying on his own wisdom, ever been able to exalt himself in his feelings above these 3 io God's Word Man s Chief Joy in this Present Time. changes, or to rise above the wide spreading curse that afflicts and desolates humanity. The thoughts of the wise have been vain, the counsels of the prudent foolish. What can the boasted light of heathenism do for me ? One sage would make me a Stoic, and attempt to soothe the ills of this life by rendering me insensible to both the good and ill. But instead of leading me to some perma- nent good that might cheer me amid the trials of this state, he has cruelly told me to relinquish the hope of every good, to attempt the spiritual suicide of extinguish- ing all my sensibilities and retiring in apathy from all the glories of God's creation. Another would make me an Epicure : and tell me to seize each joy that meets me, and revel while I can in all the delights of sense, and blot the future from my thoughts. But while I gather around me the pipe, the tabret, the harp, the dance, the feast, the wine, and fill my senses with the delights of earth in a day of worldly prosperity, I cannot annihilate the morrow nor the evils that may come with it, and when the days of calamity come, all my good is gone and my griefs are insupport- able. I asked for something that would exalt me above these changes, and he sets me on the vain attempt of an- nihilating the evil. Another would make me an Ascetic : and by self-im- posed privations and self-inflicted tortures, attempt to purchase, beyond this life, some high gradation in glory. But he denies me even the little good that beams upon me in this world, and gives me no security that I shall not be disappointed in my hopes of good hereafter. From a land where some peace and sunshine dwells, he has embarked me on a rough and tempestuous ocean without assurance that I shall ever reach a happier shore. But when from the darkness of this world, I turn to the testimonies of the Lord, I see a God illuminating this world with the radiance of his glory, employing me as his servant in labors of beneficence and purity and peace, attending my paths with the guardianship of his Almighty Grace, and pouring into my breast the joys of immortality. God^s Word Mans Chief Jov in this Present Time. II Here Jehovah descends to transfuse into the cup of mor- tals the joys of paradise. These testimonies exalt man above the mutabilities of this state by yielding him a good, great in itself and abiding : a good which far tran- scends the joys of time, and which remains the same rich fountain to cheer and to sooth in days of the greatest worldly affliction. It is here that the good man ascends the mount of converse with God, — high above the storms and tempests which desolate the world below, — where all is sunshine and eternal peace. And while he looks down on a ' world that is to pass away with all the lusts thereof,' he knows that his joys have the firm footing of immortal- ity, and that 'he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.' 2. We see how the Scriptures combine the peace of man on earth with his welfare in eternity. They who are of sensual and earthly mind, often think that the joys of the future world demand the sacrifice of all true happiness in this life. The reason of their judg- ment is easily seen in their own supreme attachment to the joys of time and inexperience of the joys of the soul that is united to its God. But the testimonies of the Lord require not the relin- quishment of any real good. They demand indeed the relinquishment of a supreme and absorbing regard to the things of this world ; but it is that man may participate in a good immensely greater and more enduring. They would lead him from the objects of creation, amid which his errant and rebellious soul has been wandering in dis- appointment and grief, for its good back again to its Crea- tor and Shepherd to receive in his returning favor and presence and his holy service the high joys for which it instinctively pants. This, to an erring soul, is the joy of redemption ; a welcome to the friendship of God and a place in his household to cheer the days of his pilgrimage below and to last through the coming ages of eternity. Here then, at the sacred oracles, the heavenly art is learned of com- bining the happiness of time with that of eternity. The 12 God^s Word Man s Chief Joy in this Present Time. joys which these testimonies inspire, are the very joys of heaven. They mingle that world with ours. They con- nect its happy family with the family of the saints. They inspire in the redeemed soul in the house of this pilgrim- age, those songs of redemption which are struck but with higher rapture in the realms of everlasting day. This life is rendered the dawn of heaven ; its paths a happy pilgrimage to the world of glory. 3. Finally, we learn the duty of depending for our well being in this life on the published word of God. The testimony of David is the testimony of the whole host of the faithful who have walked before us in the counsels of the Lord — that these statutes have yielded them the sweetest joys and consolations which they have experienced in this pilgrimage. They open before us, my brethren, the same fountains of joy that they have done to others — the same ennobling views of divine glory — the same converting and purifying precepts — the same assurance of assisting grace — the same path to immortal blessedness. But in order to reap this joy, we must in faith repair to these sacred fountains. We must accept the good which they tender us for an inheritance. We must meditate on that glory of God, and walk in the precepts of that law, and bow before that throne of grace, and make sure that calling to eternal life, which are revealed to us on their pages. Are nof the joys which they are ever ready to adminis- ter to us then, sufficient to claim this from us as our sacred duty ? And do we not need, amid the trials and changes that await us in this uncertain state, to be guided by the unerring testimonies of our God ? This duty, however, I would on the present occasion more especially commend to the attention of those of us who are now to leave these walks of science, and soon to enter upon the vicissitudes and changes of active live. My Friends, — this life the Psalmist has expressively termed a pilgrimage. You have just commenced the ex- istence of intelligent, active, dependent and immortal God's Word Mail s Chief Joy in this Present Time. 13 beings under the dominion of Jehovah. He has placed you in this world but for a transitory season on trial for eternity. You are strangers in the earth. Its fleeting joys and sorrows are but the rapid incidents of a journey to the everlasting world. The past — how like a dream appear its fleeting changes now, from cradled infancy to this eventful hour of manhood ! The future — its uncer- tain joys and sorrows will soon be past, and on the con- fines of eternity the whole will appear indeed the pilgrim- age of strangers here. To render your course in this short life truly happy and prosperous, you need a good that is above earth's changes, enduring as eternity ; and this good is brought near you and offered you in the testimonies of the Lord. Go then in every scene of this short pilgrimage, and meet him at his holy oracles. Repair constantly to these fountains of knowledge, holiness, grace, and immortality. Here you may establish and cultivate a friendship with the High and Holy One, that shall be in days of pros- perity your highest joy, and the solace of your hearts in the darkest days of affliction. The time is now at hand when you will be called to act your parts in life alone. Away from your parental homes and the guides of earlier years, you are to contend singly with the duties, temptations and afflictions of the present state. And to whom or to what as you turn to us the eye and press the hand, in parting affection, can we better commend you than to God and to that word of his grace which is able to build you up in holiness here, and to give you an inheritance among the sanctified in the world of glory ? Have you already felt the power of this word to draw you near the Lord, and do you at this hour feel the sacred impulse of that faith that casts all its cares for time and eternity upon his grace ? Go forth, ye servants of the living God, go forth at his call, in peace. Your confidence is founded on the Rock of Ages, and will abide, unmoved, the storms of earth. The counsels of the Lord will guide, 14 God's Word.Mans Chief Joy in this Present Time protect and bless you ; and yield you many a song of praise while on your way to join the fellowship and higher joys of immortals! Or are you still estranged from God ? Seek you no higher joys than can be gathered in this short pilgrimage, and in the objects of this transitory world ? Shall those immortal spirits of yours, cultivated and refined by sci- ence, turn aw r ay from the themes that employ the highest and holiest of the creation? the laws that purify and exalt them ? the favor that guides the humble to their joys? Come then, ye unhappy aliens from Jehovah, and at this hour, around the ark of his covenant, on the basis of his offers, settle your controversy with your Maker. Establish with him the peace of an endless reconciliation. Shall not the grace that calls you, touch and move your hearts? You have heard of the stubborn son, perhaps, whom neither the bonds of parental nor fraternal love could restrain from his froward purpose ; who left in alienation the home of his earlier years ; who, when on the billowy deep, or in some foreign clime, he was surveying his little stores, cast his eye on some memorial of a mother's or a sister's undying affection, and conscience awoke ; his heart relented ; the expiring rays of filial feeling were re-kin- dled in his bosom ; and he returned in dutifulness to the once agonized but now overjoyed family. And is it not so with erring man ? Is he not roving in alienation from Jehovah and his holy family, in quest of some portion among the distant objects of his creation? And, as in grief and disappointment and shame he surveys the emp- tiness of the good he finds in this estrangement, amid the memorials of heavenly affection that yet surround him the ark of the covenant meets his eye — over which the angels bend in admiration — containing the archives of a Savior's love, the love that through humiliations and tears and groans invites him back to the happy family of God. Conscience awakes ; his heart relents ; he drops his idols ; he submits to God, and seeks through the pilgrim- God's Word Man s Chief Joy in this Present Time. 15 age of life the world of his presence. And all heaven joys over his return. O may this heavenly influence reach and subdue your hearts ! My Friends, whatever purposes you entertain in your hearts respecting the future, I have presented to you the only path to true prosperity in this life and beyond the grave. And now, in view of the vicissitudes of this pil- grimage and the unchanging states of happiness and misery that lie beyond the grave, we commend you to God and the word of his grace, while we affectionately bid you, Farewell. THE EVIL OF SOPHISTRY ON MORAL SUBJECTS. ISAIAH V: 20. Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil. One of the artifices by which the grand adversary deceives mankind, is that of calling things by wrong names; and, as it is his grand design to keep up the empire of sin in the world, he does this more especially b} 7 reversing the names of moral good and evil. For he knows that, as Eve in Paradise, his first victim, had, — so all her fallen posterity have, such an innate sense of the beaut} 7 of virtue and the deformity of sin, that he must needs put on the form of an angel of light and deceive them by names of virtue to gain a conquest. To many the artifice might seem very shallow and little likely to deceive. For, say the) 7 , is not holiness as distinct from sin, — benevolence as distinct from selfish- ness, as light is from darkness ; and can any one possibly mistake things in their nature so opposite on account of any misrepresentation or misnomer? But it is not holi- ness and sin in the general and abstract to which he directly applies the artifice, or in which he attempts to deceive men. These he leaves untouched by any direct assault. It is enough for his purpose to assail them in the concrete and merely accidental forms which the} 7 assume in conduct, in action. He did not attack Eve on the general notions she entertained of holiness and obedience to God, and attempt at once to subvert these ideas by an exchange of names. That were but to strip himself of his mask, to throw off his robes of light, and appear before Eve the fiend of darkness without ability more to deceive. No. He converses simply about a 4 1 8 Evil of Sophistry on Mora/ Subjects. given conduct — the act of eating a particular fruit in the garden. Now, as that external act itself seems not in its own nature holiness or sin, independent of its connections with other things, the field is open for his artifice to pre- sent that specific action as connected with high and holy ends — with good rather than evil. And so he does. He represents it by his plausible and fair speeches as desira- ble to render her w r ise in knowledge and virtue. He thus surnames the evil good and the artifice succeeds. Now, as it is true of the great adversary and tempter, so is it true of all who are enlisted in his work on earth and are sustaining his empire of sin, that one of the most effectual weapons they wield is that of attaching by sophistical reasoning and argument wrong names to con- duct, and thus subverting to common minds its proper moral classification, calling what is evil good and what is good evil. The text denounces a woe on all who originate by their sophistry, or give currency by their consent to, this mis- representation of the names of moral qualities by which those which are morally evil are classed with the good, and the morally good with the evil. In order to set forth to you the grounds of such a denunciation, I will present the evil done by him who gives currency in society to this misapplication of terms on moral subjects. To this end I will attempt to show — I. That all conduct has its classification into moral good and evil before God, according to its tendency, which classification is unchangeable : and II. That notwithstanding this, the wrong names which are applied to it exert a powerful influence to deceive men, and thereby as a consequence to effect vast evil. i. In the first place, then, all conduct has its classifica- tion into the morally good or the morally evil before God, according to its tendency, which classification is un- changeable. By this proposition, I mean that all the conduct of man in the circumstances in which it is performed, is neces- sarily clothed with the attributes of moral good or moral Evil of Sophistry on Moral Subjects. 19 evil, and takes its rank accordingly in the view of God. The same specific action outwardly, may be either inno- cent or constitute a crime, according- to the particular circumstances and conditions in which it takes place. As for instance, the taking the life of a man, if the act of the proper officer and done in the execution of a proper judicial sentence, may be innocent ; while the taking of it, if by the act of a private individual, and done to advance his own personal ends, would constitute the crime of murder. But though a specific act in different circumstances and under different conditions, may vary in moral quality ; what I mean to assert is, that conduct is always so related and conditioned that it must have a moral character of some kind attached to it, and that, where the attendant circumstances and conditions are the same, it must always have the same character. That conduct must always have moral character of some kind, is evident for two reasons : one, that all con- duct must have its general tendency to good or evil ; the other, that the law of God takes cognizance of man in all his conduct. All conduct must have its general tendency to good or evil. For man always has some ends of good or evil in view when acting, which lie beyond the action itself. He never acts for nothing, however near his actions seem at times to terminate in it. He has some design, some end in view, some object on which his heart is set, some motive for his conduct. And every such intention proves that the act itself, whether he rightly interpret it or not, must redound either most to himself alone or most to the general good ; it must be either selfish or benevolent ; either morally evil or good. It is evident also that all conduct must have moral character of some kind attached to it, because the lazv of God takes cognizance of man in all his conduct. His law, we know from its general tenor as requiring the whole heart and strength, and from the interpretations of it in its application to the specific circumstances of the life, is so exceeding broad as to reach to every action, requiring 20 Evil of Sophistry on Moral Subjects. man in each thing he does to do what redounds to the honor of God ; and constituting him responsible at the day of judgment for all his deeds done in the bod)*. Every act, therefore, must not only be in its own nature and its necessary tendency benevolent or selfish, but must be one of obedience or disobedience to the lawgiver, and consequently in this relation morally good or evil. But not only must every action have moral character of some kind attached to it, as appears from these consid- erations, but also the same species of action, where the attendant circumstances and conditions are the same, must always have the same moral character. For the tendency of the action is the same, and by its real and true tenden- cy to natural good or evil is it classed in the law as right or wrong. The general tendency of the same action per- formed in the same circumstances and under the same conditions, must always be the same invariably, whether it be to the side of good or evil. For this is but repeat- ing, in another form, the plain axiom that like causes produce like effects. For example, if to take or to use an article that belongs to a neighbor, without his consent, tends to injure him and to encourage such injuries in the community, then to take or use an article at any other time when the same conditions exist, viz : that it belongs to a neighbor and his consent is not given, has just and precisely the same tendency. And as is the tendency of an action to good or evil, so is it ever to be classed in morals as right or wrong. That which tends to good is invariably right in form and can never in itself be wrong, whatever be the character of the actor; and that which tends to evil is invariably wrong, and can never be made right by any force of character in the actor. On these principles which determine what species of actions in the abstract men ought to pursue and what they ought to avoid, moralists have proceeded in classing various spe- cific actions with their limitation and conditions under the names of virtues and sins; the scriptures too have presented to us on such grounds and upon the au- thority of God, a great list of specific actions as right Evil of Sophistry on Moral Subjects. 21 or wrong in their own nature and tendency — as com- mended or disapproved in his sight. The names are given, and that species of action to which the name attaches, stands forever on the moral list as he has him- self enrolled it among the things which are right or are wrong. And this classification I said is unchangeable. When- ever a being does an act which in its kind and circum- stances classes it under any of the names attached to the specific forms of moral evil, the name and the odium of the name attaches to it forever in the court of conscience and of heaven. If it is theft, if it is lying, if it is slander, if it is oppression, if it is any other species of sin, the indictment is made out in that form ; and the proof of the specific kind of action taking place in those circumstances which bring it within the limits and conditions of the statute, is enough to establish the verdict of guilty. Nor can the indicted criminal plead that the opinions of man- kind varied from the statute book, or that his own opinion differed, or that, like Eve intending to gain wisdom, he intended anything good. He is bound by law in the court of conscience and heaven — his voluntary commis- sion of what was prohibited in the statute book, and pro- hibited as a thing necessarily tending to evil, is enough to sweep away, as vain, all those flatteries of a surrounding world or of his own heart which, in the day of temptation deceived him, and emboldened him to the crime. But I proceed to show, 2. That notwithstanding this eternal distinction in the court of conscience and heaven of actions into morally good and evil according to their tendency, the wrong names which are given them exert a powerful influence to deceive man and thereby as a consequence work out vast evil. To set the truth of this proposition more clearly before you, I will present to you the origin of the misapplication of terms, which is made among men on the subject of morals, the great influence these misapplied terms have to deceive men, and the vast evils which are consequently effected by it in the world. 22 Evil of Sophistry on Moral Subjects. The origin of that gross perversion of terms in the world which represents evil as good and good as evil, lies in that spirit of libertinism which is natural to the heart of man. Man does not well brook the restraints of a pure and sound morality. His own nature furnishes a con- science, and revelation presents a God, enacting a strict, unpliable, unchangeable code of morals ; before which man must bow with willing submission and conformity, or be crushed in anger. Before the list of duties and sins presented in this unmitigated code, sin trembles and fears to advance ; and its libertine spirit seeks to hold up another and more accommodating list before its eyes. The more to sustain itself in a world where the light of the true code is still shining, it seeks to advocate its own perversions before men, and, by arraying around it a party of adherents with their countenance and protection, thus to entrench itself in a kingdom of darkness, too deep, if possible, to be penetrated by any rays from the kingdom of light. Here then this libertine spirit, instigated to such boldness no doubt by the grand adversary, enlists her public advocate. She has now a tongue to speak and a plea to make in the world. And that advocate she intro- duces into society under the different characters of the proud sophist and the vulgar scoffer. The proud sophist miscalls evil good and good evil by his perverted and false reasonings. He takes the more elevated stand in society of the eloquent reasoner : and from his more lofty station looks down with pride on the vulgar crowds he would gain over to his conclusions and attach to his standard. He discourses, back, of the great principles which lie at the foundation of morals. He argues against Christianity with its revelations, or against the eternal sanctions of the righteous government of God, or against the being of God himself, the grand support of morality, or else against some of those principles which are essential in themselves to a sound code of morals. The name he would affix to any species of action is not directly advanced, but follows rather as a conclusion from the fine web he spins of sophistical reasoning and casuistry. Evil of Sophistry on Moral Subjects. 23 He is not willing that an action and the moral classifica- tion made of it in the Scriptures should pass for its worth. His common sense and that of the world might see too clearly that the name and the thing correspond. By go- ing back therefore to take up and sustain some false prin- ciple, or by starting with a correct principle and moving forward on a false track, things in his view have come in the result to change sides. Though the same titles of virtue and sin remain to head the two lists, the actions enumerated in the lists are wonderfully revolutionized by the process. The old-fashioned sins enumerated in the Bible have disappeared as mere foibles or are gilded over as virtues. Its old-fashioned virtues have faded away as weaknesses or are blackened over as sins. To the sophist in this work of moral perversion, suc- ceeds the vulgar scoffer. He acts in society the double part of the flatterer and the scorner. Taking the conclu- sions that, are furnished to his hand by the sophist, he goes forth in society with the signals and watchwords of his leader and party, applying titles of flattery furnished him for the wicked and of scorn for the godly. He is the flatterer of the wicked. He seeks to soothe their disturbed spirits with the smiles of commendation, and to blind their eyes with the glare of great swelling words of vanity applied to their conduct. Their unbelief in God and his word he calls, perchance, the triumph of reason over prejudice, their impiety a spirit of lofty inde- pendence ; their sins and lusts the dictates of a true, large and free nature ; their indifference to the sins and im- pieties of the world around them, a generous liberality to those who differ from them in opinion ; and their servility to him and his flatteries, the offerings and evidences of a good heart : names properly used to signify things which are good, but applied by him to things which are evil. He is the scorner of the godly. In his quiver are the arrows of detraction. They are tipped with the venom of scorn. They are shot w T ith the laugh of boasted triumph. For their firm belief in the word of God, he derides the godly as weak and prejudiced enthusiasts ; 24 Evil of Sophistry on Moral Subjects. their calm and serious frame of devotion to God with its full and tranquilizing joys, of which he knows nothing, he scouts as mere gloom and melanchoty ; their deep rever- ence of God and holy fear of sin, is entitled, in his vocab- ulary, dark and harrowing superstition : their strict obedience to the scriptural precepts of morality, black- ened as the bondage of Pharasaical austerity and hypoc- risy ; their zeal for the progress of divine truth and the reformation of mankind, stigmatized as narrow-minded bigotry, or blind fanaticism : and their faithfulness in reproving him for his sin, resented as the venting of a spiteful and malicious heart : — names which signify evil things, but applied by him to good. Such then are the arts of misrepresentation used in the world on the subject of morals : used to a greater or less extent in every age and country — arts, which every one must expect to meet ; a trial which every one must en- counter. The great power of this misrepresentation to deceive mankind, we are now to consider. That there is in this artifice great power to deceive will appear from facts, and from the nature of the case. Facts abundantly show us the power of falsehood to deceive. Every day presents us with the spectacle of its sad victims. Men are daily carrying on the work of re- presenting the good as evil and the evil as good, and their arts of persuasion too often succeed. Men are thus deceived and defrauded out of everything good. They are deceived and betrayed into everything evil. There are commercial cheats and those who believe them ; social cheats and those who believe them ; political cheats, and, worse than all moral and religious cheats, with their believers and followers. None stifles his con- science and turns knave, but is sure to make some his dupes. Nothing more fully attests the power of the deception used in the world than this its success. Its success began even in paradise ; it has gone forward to this day, and so it will continue, we have reason to fear, till the whole process is arrested and broken up by the trump of the Archangel and the appearance of the Final Judge. Evil of Sophistry on Moral Subjects. 2$ But the influence it exerts with respect to moral good and evil among men will be better understood if we ex- amine the nature of the case — that while the arts of deception which we have been considering are well adapted to have influence upon men, men on the other hand are greatly exposed to their power by their weak- ness, their ignorance, their inconsideration, and, more than all, by their inclinations. The arts of deception we have considered are such in kind as are well adapted to have influence upon man. A fellow being like ourselves on the stage of life with us, having the same great interests at stake, in time and eter- nity, appears the champion of what he calls good, the opposer of what he calls evil : himself so much the dupe of Satan as to believe in the false cause he advocates. He (or she, for in these last days we have seen even woman to head the band of the scoffers) stands up before us with the attributes of apparent wisdom and philanthropy to command respect and attention. He speaks with an im- passioned earnestness, involving himself and his eternal interests in the cause. Attention is summoned. Decision is called for. His net is cast over and around many minds, and his proselytes stand ready to drag it on shore. They go forth to secure decision and consent ; to gain an open avowal from the consenting ; to bind them, by pub- lic committal, to their own ranks. They take up the terms and cant phrases that embody the results of their leader's arguments. He has coined for them some word that in their mouth covers up sophistry : a word that shuts out argument : a word that is the badge of honor in their ranks : a word that is flatteringly offered to the acceptance of the hesitating with a smile of offered friendship. Will he accept it, is the demand : yes, or no ? If still hesitating, they are ready to ply him with the alternative their leader has furnished them in the false phrase by which he has blackened the cause of good. It is presented as a thing of scorn in their ranks. It is tossed at him with an air and frown betoken- ing triumphant contempt for the one who should accept 5 26 Evil of Sophistry on Moral Subjects. it, with the demand, Will you take that? Assailed by such arts and weapons of sophistry, surely it would require firmness in man to withstand them. But the art of false persuasion appears greater still in degree when it is considered relatively as bearing on the weakness of man. Man is exposed by his ignorance. Men begin their existence as babes ; and often, in the moral sense, they never advance beyond childhood : not having their moral senses exercised, by reason of use, clearly to discern good and evil. They have very little acquaintance with the system of practical ethics given in the Bible, with its limits and grounds. They know them, as they do most of their fellow men, by name only. They are far better acquainted with the desires of their own hearts, and with the objects of the present world. They know more of the relation of their actions to things which are temporal than the relations they bear to the unseen God and the issues they are to have in an unseen eternity. But again, men, whatever is their knowledge, are incon- siderate. They are inconsiderate about preparing them- selves for the onsets of temptation. They are hesitating and wavering on the point of any fixed principles that would arm them with strength. They do not take it into con- sideration and decide, whether they will accept from God the Saviour, the armor which he offers them in his word by which they might be able to withstand all the wiles of the adversary. And as they are not fixed, trusting in God, they are exposed to put too much trust in man. And when the hour of assault is come, they are still incon- siderate. They take into consideration indeed the whole that is offered them in the temptation ; but, in that hour of their utmost need, how often do they fail to take into consideration the counsels and persuasions that are offered them to the contrary in the word of God; and to make up their minds at once to follow a faithful Creator and reject their tempter. How, then, with no consideration to meet and with none to repel their tempter, can it be expected they would escape ? Evil of Sophistry on Moral Subjects. 27 But still again, and worse than all, men are inclined at heart to welcome their tempter. Their hearts are not set right about good and evil. Their estimates of temporal good and evil are higher than their estimates of spiritual and eternal. They love and fear the one more than they love and fear the other. By this strange perversion of feel- ing, their real and worst enemies come to appear in their view as their friends, and their real and best friends to ap- pear as their enemies. Their tempters are soothing flatterers who exact no change, who impose no cost of reformation and self-denial : while God and the good are severe re- provers that in their faithful love exact both. Is it strange that they whose hearts are thus perversely inclined should say. Prophecy unto us deceits, speak smooth things, cause the holy One of Israel to cease from before us ;— that they should be ready to turn the eye and ear away from God and open them both to their tempters ? Is it strange then that men, amid all the spiritual ignor- ance they suffer themselves to remain in, which seems hardly competent even to say which be the first principles of the oracles of God ; — that men, too inconsiderate even to decide whether they shall trust in God or men mOst, and thus ready to exalt men over all on the throne of their feeble reason ; that men so in love with the world and estranged from God in their hearts, as to fear the costs and self-denials of religion more than the pains of eternal damnation ; should be carried away by the decep- tive arts of the ungodly wise men and disputers of this world, when pressed with all their sophistry and assailed by the clamors, the boasts and the scorns of their adher- ents? Is it strange that they should come to believe a lie, when it is so acceptable and so strongly enforced— that they should commit themselves, enroll with the party, and unite with them thenceforth in calling evil good and good evil ? We come now to consider the vast evils which are effected by this process of deception in the world. 28 Evil of Sophistry on Moral Subjects. Its evil consequences are to be judged of by their nature and extent. Their nature is unfolded in the fact that the distinction between moral good and evil which God has proclaimed to his creatures — a distinction forever true and unchange- able — is made by him the basis on which he reposes his own honor as the Ruler of the Universe ; on which he establishes the peace and joy of his kingdom ; on which he secures the salvation of souls. Against all these high and endless interests therefore, the blow is leveled which seeks to destroy that distinction between moral good and evil which is the foundation on which they all rest. He, therefore, who aims to pervert the distinctions between good and evil, does injustice to God, to the interests of society, and the spiritual welfare of indi- viduals, and the more and farther he prevails, the wider is the extent of the mischief. He does injustice to God. His great name is dis- honored and blasphemed as the author of falsehood and confusion: his government, with its laws and sanctions, is rebelled against and invaded : the kingdom of light and holiness and peace which his grace has set up among us by his Son in the midst of our rebellions, is hindered in its progress. He does injury to society. The foundations of its security are shaken. Rapine, lust, fraud, deceit, violence, are sent forth by him to fatten on their spoils ; and justice, integrity, truth, the fear of God, are hunted and cried down as enemies : till lands, fitted to rejoice as the garden of God, are desolate ; and heaven weeps, and earth mourns, over innocence slain and equity prostrate. He does injury to the spiritual welfare of individuals. He meets the ignorant, inconsiderate, worldly wanderer from God whom a Saviour is inviting back to forgiveness and to rest. He commits him, and enrolls him, the son of perdition. A lie is received, and grasped in his right hand as his treasure and defense. His way to destruc- tion is made easy and sure. Onward he goes to the gates of death. He dies an outcast from God. The pangs of a Evil of Sophistry on Moral Subjects. 29 just condemnation seize upon his soul. He finds out the cheat too late ; deceived by false names of virtue and of evil, he is forever fallen. O, that any, charmed by false names of wisdom, should forever part with the substance ; that any for fear of being called fools in the scoffs of the ungodly, should make themselves such in reality to all eternity ! To how wide an extent this mischief is carried on in our world may be seen by a survey of the kingdom of darkness : a kingdom which has its oldest and firmest seat in the lands of idolatry, which extends over the adherents of the false prophet, and embraces all within the light of Christian lands who retain the mark and the practices and worship the images of the great Beast of Idolatry in the earth — a kingdom built on error — sustained by sophistry and deception — in which evil is called good and good evil. What hecatombs of ruined men, of ruined nations, lie before us : whom Satan the god of this world hath blinded and deceived in person and by his emissaries, and whom he will continue to deceive till Christ shall come, in the brightness of his spiritual dominion over all, to drive him away and enchain him, that he go out to deceive the nations no more. I have thus set before you, as I intended, the ground of the woe denounced against him who calls evil good and good evil — that the distinction between moral good and evil, set up by the Creator being founded in the necessary tendency they have to promote the natural good and evil of beings, is in its own nature true and unchangeable ; and that the wrong names and sophistical reasonings set up by men which confound this distinction have yet great power to deceive and as a consequence work vast evil. The use which I would make of the subject as I con- clude, is that of caution against deceiving and being deceived, against employing the arts of deception and falling under their power. We have been looking on the world abroad to examine the operations of deceit that are in it in reference to moral subjects, and to behold the vast evils it works 3