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Panohlets Religious Sermons v. 11
Contents
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GOD IN CIVIL GOVERNMENT,
. . 37/?
****
A DIS GOURSE
PREACHED IN THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH,
, NEW ALBANY, Nov. 27, 1s 62,
S
BY THE
R E. W. J O H. N. G. A T T E R B U R Y,
Pastor of the 2d Presbyterian Church.
NEW ALBANY:
GEORGI, R, BEACH, PRINTER, CORNER of MAIN AND STATE STRMETs,
1862.
| 6 ||
C O R. R. E S P O N D E N C E.
NEw ALBANY, Nov. 28, 1852.
REv. J. G. ATTERBURY, -
Pastor 2d Presbyterian Church,
Dear Sir:-Being desirous that the discourse delivered by you in the First
Presbyterian Church in this city, on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 27, should be
placed within the reach of our entire community, we respectfully request you
to furnish us with a copy of it for publication, at as early a day as eonvenient,
- Very Respectfully,
Your Friends,
SILAS C. DAY, J. R. SHIELDS,
WM. B. CRISLER, S. S. POTTER,
C. HUTCHINSON, JO’S LOUGHMILLER,
W. S. CULBERTSON, WM. A. SCRIBNER,
S. A. McCLUNG, D. HEDDEN,
J. J. BROWN, GEO. A. BICKNELL, SR.
EDW. H. MANN, WALTER MANN,
JAMES BROOKS, E. JAMES PURIDY.
ee’’’
-- _*"
- NEw ALBANY, Dec. 5, 1862.
Gentlemen:— -
Your note, requesting for publication a copy of the discourse delivered
by me on Thanksgiving Day, was handed me on the 1st inst. Pressing engage-
ments have hitherto hindered my transcribing it for the press. It was preached
with the single aim of cultivating the conscience of the people on the matters
of which it treats. I yield it now to your request in the hope that it may be
further serviceable to the same end. This I do the more confidently that it
meets the approval of so many gentlemen whose judgment I must respect.
Most respectfully your Friend
and obedient servant,
JOHN G. ATTERBURY.
To Messrs. Silas C. Day, W. S. Culbertson, J. J. Brown, and others, and
Rev. Messrs. Hutchinson, Crisler, Potter, and Purdy.
GOD IN CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
ROMANs XIV.-1 v., m.c.—“There is no power but of God.”
A peculiar responsibility attends the utterances of the public
speaker in the times on which we are fallen. We are in a crisis
of our national life, such as certainly no one of us now living, has
ever witnessed. Our nation is in throes—in the anguish of a
struggle on which a higher life is dependent, or decadence. The
history of the world presents no spectacle like it. Other states
have had their life-struggles, issuing in regeneration or decay;
which, to them were crises of as much interest as our own is to us.
They were issues, too, running into the course of the world’s histo-
ry—for what does not, under the profound arrangements of an in-
finitely wise providence? But never before has a state been called
to meet a life-struggle, so directly and intimately involving the
hopes of the world. Touched in so many points of private and in-
dividual concern, but of transient importance, such as property,
comforts, life, we are not fully awake to the magnitude of the crisis
in its public aspects, as trying some of the great problems of the
race. We are prone to look upon it as an affair of our own, of this
people and this generation. But God has called us to a higher part.
We are set upon the world’s theatre, we are acting in view of the
ages, and for the ages, tºº.
At such a period he, who addresses his fellow-men, needs to
consider his words. This is no time for trifling, for pretty senti-
ments, for pleasing eloquence. The course and conflict of arms is
in our ears, and before our eyes, and it holds our excited attention.
4
But back of this, and more vital than this, though less patent to
observation, is the course and conflict of opinion. It is because
of this course and conflict of opinion, not merely between party
and party, or man and man, but in the thoughts and convic-
tions of each man’s mind, the result of which more than the other
is to determine our destiny, that I feel a peculiar responsibility on
this occasion. What I shall say may have power to control the
views of some of you. It is for this purpose, certainly, that I speak.
But I am, therefore, deeply concerned that what I say should be
according to God’s word. I speak, of course, to the present
condition of our country, for to what else should one speak at such
a time as this? But I speak in God’s name, as his minister. My
aim is first to exhibit an important bible doctrine: and second to
indicate some of its relations to our public interests.
I. Let me them in the first place exhibit a bible doctrine. This
is God in civil government. It is announced in our text: “There is
no power but of God.” It is further defined in the clauses which
follow. “The powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever,
therefore, resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God: and
they that resist shall receive to themselves dammation. For rulers
are not a terror to good works but to the evil. Wilt thou then be
afraid of the power Do that which is good and thou shalt have
praise of the same. For he is the minister of God to thee for good.
But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid: for he beareth not the
sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute
wrath upon him that doeth evil, Wherefore ye must needs be
subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. For this
cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers attending
continually upon this very thing.”
“There is no power but of God.” The term “power” is here
used collectively. It denotes government, rule, including superior
and inferior magistrates—all the organs of government. Govern-
ment is the rightful control of one being over another in the
administration of law, addressed to his sense of duty. Its radical
idea is authority. Authority is the attribute of an author. Now
authority, absolute and original, can reside only with God, the
author of all creatures, and hence the author of all laws by which
creatures are governed. Any authority in man, to be legitimate,
must be derived from God. There can be no rightful government
but in or under him. Whatever rule is asserted by one creature
over another that is not derived from God, representative of and
subordinate to the divine rule, is usurpatory, whether by a parent
over the child, by a master over the servant, or by a magistrate over
the citizen. It carries no obligation to obey. It is binding only as
force binds the body. It has no hold on the conscience. All
theories of human government, which ignore the divine authority,
are involved in inextricable logical difficulties and absurdities. If
God himself is not the Supreme governor in the state; if he has not
ordained government ; if human government is not representative
of the divine, i. e., God’s government administered by man; then
there is no government, there can be no government among men—
for rightfulness is an element in the very definition of government:
then authority is a term having no business in the language of men,
for it represents an idea having no place in human society. But if
authority belongs to God as author, then it follows the creature
everywhere, at all times, in all circumstances of his existence,
whether in heaven, on earth, or in hell. It binds the creature in
every possible or conceivable relation. Hence this human govern-
ment, whether of the family or the state, has not a separate and
original fountain of authority, but is merely a part of God’s provi-
dential government. It is his way of controlling the race in their
social relations during the temporary period of their probation, by
which he restrains and hedges up the evil, and facilitates the
development of the good. -
Further, if it be acknowledged that authority belongs originally
to God, then I ask where has he parted with that portion of it
which pertains to man in this life, or in the domestic, social and
civil relations of this life? Search the scriptures; do they afford a
single passage that affirms or implies it? Or if the scriptures are
not conclusive with any one, where in reason can you find evidence
of it? What view can you take of God, or man, which justifies the
theory of such a surrender by God of his authority? Deny God,
you do indeed then extinguish the divine authority in the state;
but at the same time you extinguish all authority, and leave man
lawless. For as we have shown, authority comes from God or it
6
comes not at all. Then as a parent I have no authority over my
child, and as a man I recognise no authority of my fellow man over
me. Coercion there may be, but no authority.
But there is a particular aspect of the subject, which needs to be
separately attended to, though involved in what has been already
stated. Civil government not merely derives its authority from
God, but it represents God’s authority. It is a superficial view of
the teaching of the scripture on this matter, which understands it
as amounting just to this, viz: that it is agreeable to God’s will
that there should be civil government; and that he has a providence
in the world, so that it results in a sense from his will that certain
forms of government prevail, and that certain individuals administer
them. All this is true, but it is not all the truth which the
bible teaches. It indeed declares that “he removeth kings and
setteth up kings:” but it declares much more. Nay this is not the
particular truth which our text inculcates; but a far more vital one
for us at this time to apprehend—not that he is king-maker, but
that he is king: not that government is ordained by God, but for
God. It is God’s ordinance as that in and through which he himself
exerts his sovereign authority. He ordains it, not as the architect,
who builds a house for another to occupy and then is done with it;
but as the proprietor, who builds a house, by whatever agencies, for
his own occupancy. In both senses indeed God builds this house;
but it is the last sense which is designed to be laid upon our con-
science by the apostle in the text. You will perceive this more
clearly in the further unfolding of his thought in the context.
Thus in the 4th vs. “For he is the minister of God to thee for
good.” Again, “For he is the minister of God, a revenger to
execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.” So also in the 6th vs.
“For this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers
attending continually upon this very thing.” This is saying
explicitly that the ruler is not ruling on his own account, nor in
his own right, nor as the servant of men, but as the servant of
God.
The sanctity of government, then, its authority over the
conscience, consists in this, that God has ordained it and that it
is the organ through which he represents himself and his author-
ity to men in the relations of civil society. The civil ruler, from
7
the highest in rank to the lowest local magistrate is God’s vice-
gerent, in his legitimate sphere, invested with the sanctities and
responsibilities of a divine commission. What he does legitimately,
is done in the name of God, by the authority of God, for the
service of God.
II. The doctrine, which I have in this imperfect way exhibited,
involves various inferences and conclusions, some of them bearing
vitally on our relations and duties in the present crisis of our
country’s history. -
1. If the power is of God, then some of our popular phrases
are unsound, or at least very ambiguous and very unsafe. In the
good providence of God, we are favored with what are called
free institutions: that is to say, the people are permitted to choose
their rulers and legislators. Hence have arisen certain phrases
representing political ideas, such as these: “The people are sove-
reign :” “the magistrates are but the servants of the people:”
“Rulers are responsible to the people:” “the people are self-
governed.” Such phrases, taken in a very qualified sense, may
convey correct thought. But in their current use by politicians
and partizan papers, for the flattery of the people, they are es-
sentially false. Thus, as touching the alleged sovereignty of the
people; the fountain of law, the source of authority is not with
the people. Each one of them individually is a subject of God
in his civil relations, and by what process of logic can they
collectively become sovereign in the state? Again, if the people
are sovereign who are the subjects? Besides, God has not
conceded to man the right to rule himself. So again magistrates,
though constituted for the benefit of the people and not their
own advantage, are yet not the servants of the people, but
God’s servants. They are above the people, not below them.
Though designated for their trust by the people themselves,
they yet receive their commission from above. It is God’s
authority and not the people's authority, which they exercise.
Hence also their responsibility is strictly to God himself. They
may meet the displeasure of the people for their want of wisdom
or faithfulness in office; or they may meet the people's displeasure
for their very fidelity in office; but proper responsibility is to
him whose commission they hold—their account is to be adjusted
with God, whom they represent. The practical evil of these
current phrases is that the popular heart is filled with pride, and
an idol is elevated in the place of Jehovah. Rulers are subject
to contempt as the mere creatures of the people—for the maker may
surely despise the thing his hand has formed ! Laws, if they
are but the expression of the popular will, may be disregarded
at the popular caprice. And Jehovah, who aims to hold him-
self before the consciences of men in the presence of laws and
magistrates, is lost sight of and forgotten. In these very things
we may trace many of the sources of our present troubles. The
roots of this rebellion lie in the doctrine of popular sovereignty.
2. Again, if the power is of God, then resistance of law is sin:
rebellion is crime against God. I have no occasion here to con-
sider questions connected with unrighteous and oppressive laws,
and a tyrannical administration of government. God has not
commissioned rulers to enact unrighteous and oppressive laws,
nor clothed them with despotic power. When legislators depart
from the principles of righteousness, and equity, and benevolence,
they go beyond their commission, as truly as a sheriff, who, com-
missioned to summon a witness, imprisons him as a criminal. Their
authority, pro hac vice, is null. Of the right and duty of the
citizen in such a case it is not necessary for me here to speak,
though the line may be drawn in the light of the bible in per-
fect harmony with the doctrine of our text. It is enough for
me, now and here, to speak of the case of a legitimate government
acting in a legitimate way, administering laws framed, with
whatever imperfections of human wisdom, for the common good.
They who resist the law, who set themselves against the author-
ity of the government—whether they be few or many, whether
scattered through the whole population, or moving in great
masses and sections—lift their hands against God; put themselves
in an attitude of rebellion against the majesty of heaven.
3. If the power is of God, then the enforcement of law and
the suppression of rebellion is a sacred duty. It is not a question
of expediency or interest, but an imperative transcendent obligation,
the neglect of which is the highest political crime. Voluntary
submission to rebellion by the state is indeed felo de se—self
destruction. But it is vastly more, it is faithlessness to a divine
trust; it is an apostacy. The question was formerly asked, and
freely, in respect to the rebellious portion of our population, and
it is still sometimes timidly put: “Would it not be better to let
them go peaceably than to contend with them? Had we not better
consent to form separate nations than to suffer the incalculable
miseries of a war, even though in the end we should succeed in
compelling them to submit to a government which they hate?”
The reply commonly given is derived from the supposed necessities
of our geographical, social, commercial conditions, indicating the
impossibility of a continued separation without constant strife.
Whatever weight there may be in considerations of this sort, our
doctrine presents an answer of a more decisive kind. We have not
the right to let them go in the way they seek. We have not the
right to suffer rebellion. It is not a part of the trust committed to
the state. God has not seen fit to confer on the state, or the rulers
of the state, the prerogative or discretion under which they may
consent to rebellion. Government is his ordinance, remember, not
ours. He has appointed rulers to enforce authority, not to dishonor
and destroy it. Rulers undoubtedly have a large discretion in the
discharge of government, but exclusively in the use of means to the
end. The end itself is fixed as the throne of Jehovah. It is the
governing of the people by the ministry of law. This plan, howev-
er, involves the end itself, and defeats the end. It tramples on
government. It casts away law. It may be in the discretion of
the rulers and people to divide the state and separate its parts into
distinct and independent political communities, in any manner con-
sistent with the sanctity of authority. But to consent to a violent
separation by secession or rebellion is to consent to the overturning
of government. It is to put contempt on law and to dishonor au-
thority. It strikes a blow at the very throne of Jehovah. For
this he has given no warrant. He does not himself consent to re-
bellion in all his universe, and of course does not empower his
representatives to do it.
It is highly important my friends that we entertain christian and
O -
A-l
10
scriptural ideas just here. For with the loose notions prevailing—
notions essentially infidel—we cannot properly appreciate our
duties in this terrible crisis. If it is a mere matter of expediency,
a question of advantage, whether we carry through this struggle
with rebellion, then we lose the right arm of our strength in
doing and bearing all that the struggle demands. I mean the
conscience of the people—the sense of duty. Then we leave open
a door for suggestions of compromise, for patching up a peace
where there is no peace; a compromise in which right and wrong
are unconsidered: when we shall enter upon a course of decadence,
hastened by the displeasure of God: when the authority of law
being stifled in the public conscience, the people shall be controlled
only by military force: when new exactions calling for new con-
cessions, the reins of our destiny shall be in the hands of the most
unscrupulous and tumultuous, until anarchy shall introduce chaos,
out of which omnipotence alone may bring a new creation.
What then is the duty of the rulers of our nation? What is the
duty of the people in their place? To listen to no words of com-
promise, to no terms of peace, until the awful majesty of the divine
authority in government is vindicated by unqualified submission.
Coercion' It used to be asked with affected amazement, would
you coerce millions of people? Yes! God’s authority settles
it for us. Yes! Coerce, as you would a froward child. Coerce,
as you would the riotous rowdies of the town. Coerce until there
is submission. Coerce with all the force that God puts at your
control. Coerce—“break them with a rod of iron,” as Jehovah
himself declares he will do with rebels, until they are instructed
and cast away their rebellion. It may indeed be the divine will,
in his hot displeasure with us for our sins as a people, that we
shall fail in this struggle. His providence may yet indicate his
will to us, as his prophet of old did to the Jews, when he
gave them into captivity, saying, “Bring your necks under the yoke
of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people and live.”
But only then, when God shall clearly indicate his will that we
should submit and suffer the triumph of rebellion, only then can
we do it and live.
4, If the power is of God, then the written constitution of a
11
state is not the only measure of the duty and responsibility of rulers.
That would assume that the people originate government, and de-
termine its compass and ends. The constitution can only determine
what God permits man to determine for himself, the ways and
means. There are things about government which God has himself
ordered, and which pertain, by the divine constitution, to every
state, whether recognized in the written constitution or not. Such
are the punishment of evil-doers, the suppression of crime, of
rebellion. This involves self-preservation. When the constitution
does not provide means, the government must find means or make
means. This was recognized by the moral instincts of the people
when they justified and encouraged our rulers in extra-constitu-
tional measures, at the beginning of this crisis, for meeting the
fearful responsibilities cast upon them.
5. If the power is of God, then it is easy to discern the important
bearing which the course of government, in dealing with this
rebellion, must have on the morals of the people. I presume no
one would hesitate to admit that nothing is so vital to the interests
of a state as the morals of its people. No accumulations of wealth
by successful agriculture, manufactures, commerce; no rapid swel-
ling of its population by natural increase and immigration; no
glory from its arts and arms and successful diplomacy can com—
pensate for the depravation of the moral tone of the nation. But
the key of the morals of any people is in the authority of law over
the conscience. The triumph of rebellion against the government
would be an example to all our youth of successful crime: and, if
consented to by the state, would be an encouragement to lawlessness.
It would reach down through all the relations of life. Public trusts
would be more frequently than ever perverted to peculation and
sinister ends. Banks and counting rooms would multiply their
records of embezzlements. The wholesome restraints of parental
authority would meet with more violent resistance; and our muni–
cipalities present yet oftener the mortifying spectacle of unrestrained
mobs. But let the nation persevere in its work of maintaining the
authority of government over those who have endeavored to cast its
bands from them, and successfully persevere, and you give a lesson
to our youth, worth the cost, of the immaculate sanctity of law :
12
you tone up the conscience of the people, making it a vigorous
executive of law: you stay the power of evil over the weak natures
of men: you will have more faithful magistrates, fewer frauds in
commercial transactions, less frequent reports of embezzlements in
monied institutions: your cities will be less troubled with riots:
your families will be more easily governed: men will be assisted
in their resistance of temptation, and the claims of God as they are
represented in the gospel of Jesus Christ, and urged from the sacred
desk, will meet more general and prompt compliance.
6. And here I deem it of importance to notice that the bible
doctrine of God in government bears equally upon the responsibility
of local magistrates. All hesitation or neglect by local magistrates
to repress and punish by all available means, riot, rowdyism, vio-
lence, such as our cities too frequently suffer, is gross violation of
official trust. It is infidelity to God whose authority they repre-
sent, as well as injurious to the community. Whether they are
restrained by fear or a still baser motive in the hope of favor in
future elections, they are deserving of reprobation. They should
abandon their stations to men who have courage enough and hon-
esty enough to do their duty. Such an instance of unrepressed riot,
and unpunished rioters, as our own city witnessed the past summer,
to its wide-spread infamy, does a terrible work of depravation on
the minds of our youth all too prone to lawlessness and crime.
7. The doctrine of God in government instructs us in the limits
of legislation. The divine will, as far as it may be ascertained,
must be the guide in all rightfull legislation. Laws contrary to
God’s will it is not competent for legislators to enact. In such
laws they transcend their commission, and cannot bind the con-
science. There are two sources through which the divine will is
manifested to the legislator, namely, the divine word and the di-
vine character. In his word God has been pleased to give some
specific enactments which bind men in all their social and civil
relations, and which the human legislator is absolutely bound to
respect. Such are the several commandments of the decalogue.
Such, too, is the law of monogamy, the union of one man and one
woman in marriage—and this marriage not a temporary associa-
13
tion, but a life union terminable only by the death of one of the
parties. Hence no human legislation can make it lawful for a man
to have two wives, or for parties united in marriage to separate
again. As the legislature is the mere organ of God, it can of course
have no power of legislation but what he himself gives it. Hence
all legislation in conflict with his word is inoperative on the con-
science and leaves untouched the responsibility of the subject.
But the divine character also discloses the divine will, and be-
comes a guide to human legislation. The divine government is
an expression of the divine character, and is benevolent. Civil
government, as representative of the divine, must be benevolent.
It must seek the good of all. It must aim at doing and enforcing
righteousness. It must not practice or suffer oppression. All
legislation which conflicts with the benevolence and righteousness
of God’s character, is a palpable repudiation of the divine authority,
and a perversion of the institution of government.
8. Closely connected with the last inference is another lesson
which it seems to me important to state. That the power is of God
furnishes an ample explanation of many of the divine judgments
with states as such. When he confers a trust he holds to respon-
sibility. When a government proves faithless he will trouble it for
correction, or destroy it altogether. He will take the kingdom and
give it to another more worthy. It would seem clearly to result
from the doctrine exhibited that a government incurs the divine dis-
pleasure: 1. when it ignores the divine supremacy, assuming an
indepenent authority, or deriving it from men: 2. When they re-
pudiate his authority by acts contrary to the divine word or the
divine character: 3. when they suffer the prevalence of Wrong
and oppression, through imbecility or corruption.
We might trace in these the occasion of our present disasters. It
cannot but be noticed how widely these distresses differ from others
which we have before been called to suffer. Famine, pestilence,
hard times have at different periods, afflicted us, whereby God was
rebuking the pride, and covetousness, and irreligion, and vices of
the people. But the government, as such, was untouched. The
present distress, however, is a peril of the government, in which its
very life is put at hazard. People as well as rulers suffer indeed,
14
because with us the people sustain a very intimate relation with the
government, and have a large share of responsibility for its omissions
and commissions. Here it would seem, that God is correcting not
so much the individual sins of the people, as their political and
govermental offences.
I should not be justified, after having held your attention so long,
in going into detail on this matter. We might indeed discern to how
great degree God’s supremacy is ignored in the state through the
influence of those political maxims, which I have before spoken of,
and the operation of a wide-spread, rampant infidelity. We might
discern a want of respect for God’s own legislation in the counten-
ance given by the authorities of the nation for so long a time to a
monstrous and gross polygamy in one of our great territories; and
in the abominable divorce laws enacted in so many of the particular
states, in contempt of the sanctity of marriage as God has ordained
it, reducing it to a mere cohabitation of convenience, by making
it virtually terminable at the pleasure of the parties. We might point
to the pusillanimous consent of our national government to the enor-
mous wrong perpetrated by the people and authorities of Georgia
in the robbery and expulsion of the Cherokees from their homes and
territory, when the Supreme Court abundantly vindicated their
rights, but the government through imbecility and for peace, refus-
ed them its protection. And whose thought, in all this assembly,
does not at this time anbidden, revert to the oppression of the entire
Africen race in our land, bond and free, north and south, as involv-
ing us as a nation in the divine displeasure, and subjecting us to the
divine judgments. The position of this race among us is so pecu-
liar that I need not discriminate between the acts of the national
and state governments ahd the popular attitude towards them.
These are parts and parcels of one great wrong. Standing here on free
soil, I am less concerned to point to the cruel laws of the south, than
I am to the cruel contempt of the people and laws of the north.
Many seem to associate all oppression with the south. But with-
out the law of slavery have we not the spirit of it in the manner in
which the blacks are treated? Is not the policy pursued by us in
reference to them one of cruel selfishness, of unchristian indiffer-
ence to their interests 7 Is not the question, what shall be done
with them, exclusively a question of what is best for the white
15
race, and not at all what is best and just for them 7 How many
advocates are there for the liberation of the slave, not because they
love the slave but because they hate the master? Is not the very
Question now so deeply agitated as to the policy to be adopted
towards the slave, confessedly one of mere policy, avowedly ignor-
ing every element of justice or benevolence towards them? Is not
the cry for emancipation which rings through the north, and for
the use of the negro in the war, attended with tokens of contempt
for the negro 2 Is not the legislative policy of some of our free
states, our own among the number, that of heartless indifference
to their interests 2 Do not the recent anti-negro riots in several
of our northern cities, such as that whose disgrace we feel, indicate
a wide-spread contempt and hatred, which constitute the bitterest
oppression ? Why, when a colored man commits a crime, or is
guilty of an insolence, do we charge the whole race with it; and
the papers of the country report it with scathing comments—a
peculiar enormity because committed by a negro 7 As when one
dog runs rabid and bites we fall to killing the whole race of dogs.
These things are tokens of a wide-spread and deep seated aversion
and contempt towards the African race, the most galling oppres-
sion that one people can practice on another. How can we bow
before God and ask him to deliver us from the oppression of a
wicked rebellion, when we have oppression in our hearts towards
the poor in our own midst How can we appeal to the air of free-
dom and benevolence, the recognition of the common brotherhood of
man, in our constitution, when we are violating it in our treat-
ment of the colored race? It will not be enough that we are ed-
ucated, as the phrase is, up to emancipation, if we have the spirit
of oppression for the emancipated. It is not enough that in our
desperate straits, we come to be willing to use the negro. We
must learn to love the negro. If we would have God’s favor with
us as a nation we must be right. To be right we must do right.
Right does not depend on color. God is no respecter of persons
or races. He has made all of one blood, and he seeks the good
of all. And we must seek the good of all within our province.
It is for this God has constituted the state and ordained government.
To please him by doing right it is not emancipation we want, so
much as a right and benevolent spirit towards the African race,
16
slave and not slave. This spirit will easily and wisely regulate
matters of emancipation, and will restore to a recognized sense of
manhood the multitudes now withering and groaning under the
white man’s contempt.
Brethren we have been summoned to-day by the chief magis-
trate of this commonwealth to give thanks to Almighty God for
our providential mercies. At any time one of the most appro-
priate exercises of such an occasion is an inquiry into his will,
that we may conform ourselves to it. The circumstances surround-
ing us at present make this peculiarly imperative. Our mercies,
great, numerous, and undeserved, are yet shrouded and overhung
with appalling afflictions. The wail of distress rises and swells
over our land. The roar of artillery and the shouts of contending
hosts shake the very heavens, bearing not only the carnage of
combatants but the desolation of countless households, and putting
in peril the institutions upon which the eyes of the oppressed from
the ends of the earth have hitherto been turned with hope. These
things witness of wrath. If I am correct in my views, they are
divine judgments. They express the displeasure of God with us
as a nation. They are the rebukes of a sovereign inflicted on his
subjects for disloyalty to him in their civil relations. They call for
repentance. The repentance we need is a recognition of the divine
supremacy in the state; and a proper regard to the relations and
duties which such supremacy involves. Let us, who are here this
morning, receive the truth in simplicity, yielding our opinions and
conduct to its control. And let us invoke the God of mercies
through our Lord Jesus Christ, that he would graciously incline
the hearts of our whole people to see and confess their sins against
him in this relation, that so his saving health may be known among
us, and gentle peace with her blessed influence may settle upon
the land, and schism and rebellion being forever put away, the
north and the South may sit together again in unity and fraternal
concord.
. GODS FAITHFULNESS IN HIS PEOPLE'S PROSPERITY:
A DISC OD R SE
PREACHED IN THE
SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH,
OF NEW AL BANY,
SUNDAY, Nov. 6, 1853,
ON THE
000ASION OF THE DISMISSION OF A PORTION OF THER MEMBERS
FOR A.
COLONY CHURCH.
BY
R.E. W. J O HN G. ATTER BURY,
PASTOR OF THE CHURCH.
*****
PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE MEMBERS OF THE SECOND AND
THIRD PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES.
NEW ALBANY, IND.:
J. B. NO R. MAN, PR IN TER.
1853.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
Early in the past summer it became the general conviction of the officers and members of
the Second Presbyterian Church of New Albany that it was their duty to make a contribution
to the evangelical instrumentalities of the city. The Lord had greatly prospered them in
giving large accessions to their numbers, and increase of their means. The population of the
place was enlarging beyond the measure of church accommodation. An entirely new suburb
in the north-east section was rapidly filling up, in which there was no house of worship. An
eligible lot in that quarter had recently been donated to them by the heirs of the late Judge
Conner, in fulfillment of an intention of their venerable father. The money was promptly
subscribed to build a house upon this lot, and its erection at once begun. As the completion
drew nigh, the Pastor and Session made application to the Presbytery for the appointment of
a Committee to constitute a new church of such of their members as might volunteer for
that purpose. Up to this time it was not known who would offer themselves for this enter-
prise, with the exception of one or two persons who had early agreed to lead in it. A natural
reluctance was felt by the members to leave the fellowship with which they were so pleas-
antly connected, and the pastor under whose ministration they were sitting. The obligation
of the church to colonize was obvious enough, but not so the obligation of any particular
persons to go offin execution of the enterprise. Necessarily it was left to individual sense of
duty. On the evening of Monday, the 31st of October, a meeting was called in the lecture
room of those who were willing to unite in the organization of a colony church, at which
time twenty-four persons, members of the second church, (ten males and fourteen females)
offered themselvcs; who having received proper certificates of dismission were thereupon
formally constituted a separate church, under the name of “The Third Presbyterian Church
of New Albany.” It appearing in the course of the week that these brethren would not
occupy the new house on the following Sabbath, as was expected, the pastor took occasion
to prepare and preach the following discourse before the whole body as they worshipped
together for the last time before their separation. The interest awakened by its delivery,
under the circumstances, was such, that its publication was called for by the members.
Though a hasty production, prepared on the spur of the occasion to improve an unexpected
opportunity, the pastor consented, with the hope that it might contribute to perpetuate the
happy feelings under which the division had taken place, and to strengthen the bond of
union between the two churches in time to come.
DISC O U R SIE.
Gen. 32: 10. “I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which
thou hast she wod unto thy servant: for with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I
am become two bands.”
The interesting story of the patriarch Jacob is familiar to you all.
He was a remarkable man, not so much in his native attributes, or
even the historic incidents of his life, as in his peculiar relations to
the Divine plan. He was a chosen vessel of mercy. He was made
remarkable in the soverign election of God, both by mercies directed
to him as their object, and by him, as an instrument, to the human
race. There are a few men, as there are a few events, in history,
which become more conspicuous with the advance of time. Their
importance in the great system of Providence—their relations to the
general interests of the race—come to be seen only as the system
of Providence is more fully unfolded, and the story of the race is
studied in a wider reach of history. When in thought we transfer
ourselves back many ages in the past, and follow Jacob through the
interesting incidents of his life, we are astonished at the Divine con-
descension in so leading him by the hand, and we admire him as
the hero of a charming story. But looking up to him from our
present point, low down in the course of ages, we more admire the
goodness and wisdom of God in choosing him as an instrument of
blessing the world; and we think of Jacob not chiefly as blessed,
but as one in whom “all the families of the earth are blessed.”
Twenty years previous to the time that we now find him on the
banks of the Jaabbok, he went out an exile from his father's house,
4
his natural home, in consequence of domestic variance. He de-
parted without so much as a single attendant, and entirely unpro-
vided—upon a journey of more than four hundred miles through a
wild and inhospitable region—a journey that would have been
formidable from the length and dangers of it in the most favorable
circumstances. His destitute condition is expressed by his simple
language “With my staff I passed over this Jordan.” Nothing could
be more desolate or unpromising than Jacob’s condition at that time.
Leaving his natural friends and protectors; entering upon the wide
and dangerous world; his only possession the staff which supported
him in his flight; oppressed in, his spirit, and compelled to seek
from the Invisible that succor which failed him among all things
visible. But now after twenty years, we find him approaching this
same Jordan, returning to his kindred with the retinue of a prince,
having “oxen and asses, and flocks, and men-servants, and women-
servants,” and wives and children. So numerous were his posses-
sions, and so large the company of his retainers, that for conveni-
ence and security, in view of the dangers of the route, it became
necessary to divide them into two bands. “With my staff I passed
over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands.” Though he went
forth alone, he took resources with him in the favor and promise of
Jehovah. At his very going out, in the darkest hour of his history,
the Lord met him, and renewed with him the covenant which
he had before made with his father Isaac, and his grandfather
Abraham, and engaged to bring him back to his native land and
his father's house in peace. And as he now contemplates the proofs
of God’s faithfulness and favor in the two bands (each of them
worthy of an oriental chief) that acknowledged him as prince, his
heart is affected with the sight, and he gives expression in the words
of the text, “I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of
all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant.” He calls all
his prosperity by the name of “mercies.” His deliverances, his suc-
cessful accumulations of property, his wives, his children, his
honors, his power, were all mercies from God, things of which he
was entirely unworthy. And he calls them “truth,” i. e. they were
given according to promise, in covenant faithfulness; and he was
not worthy that God should do for him, just as he had promised
he would do. “And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham
and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me, return
unto thy country and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee;
5
I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth
which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed
over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands.”
There is that, brethren, in our circumstances this day, which
renders the language of the patriarch appropriate to ourselves as
a church, and draws from his case materials for our own instruction.
We are now “become two bands.” Two churches, that have
hitherto been one, are worshipping together this day for the first
and last time ere they separate to their respective fields. Since
the last Sabbath, a portion of your number have solemnly cove-
nanted to walk together, and labor together, as a separate church
of Jesus Christ, and henceforth will not form a constituent part
of this congregation. There are some present, I doubt not, who,
as they remember the origin of this church and review its history
in thought, feel the significance of the language “With my staff I
passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands.” And
I trust also, the swelling of humble gratitude prompts them to ex-
claim with the venerable Jacob, “We are not worthy of the least of
all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto
thy servants.” God’s favor and faithfulness have been so conspic-
uous in the history of this church, that it would be an obvious incon-
sistency not to commemorate them on such an occasion. And the
occurrence itself is of so pregnant a character—not perhaps as
estimated by sense but as viewed by faith—that it well deserves to
arrest our attention. -
In the consideration of this subject we are called to speak—
1.—OF WEAKNESS.—
The history which Jacob reviews in the text was most unprom-
ising in its beginning. He had come out from his home poor and
friendless. An unknown land, a strange people, untried scenes,
and a darkly curtained future were before him. He had nothing
to encourage him but the presence of God. Every thing was dark
to sight. He could only advance by faith. But taking hold of the
covenant he went courageously forward.
Sixteen years since this church began its distinctive history,
with little that was promising or inviting in human judgment. The
feeble band came out from the parent church under the influence
of domestic alienation, bringing with them little else but faith in
God and devotion to principle. They were mostly poor in this
world’s goods, but some of them, we believe, were rich in faith and
6
heirs of the promises. They brought with them little social influ-
ence. They had none of that prestige, whose power is felt in
churches as in all other societes. All this they left behind. They
were viewed as an insignificant band, not so much for number as
position; and little was anticipated for them but a struggling ex-
istence. They had nothing visible to show which could justify the
expectation of a career of prosperity. “With their staff they went
over this Jordan.” And as Jacob, under a sense of his weakness,
began his journey by erecting a pillar at Bethel and formally con-
secrated himself to Jehovah, “taking the Lord to be his God,” and
invoking his blessing, so this church, immediately on their exodus,
(as I find by the record) observed a day of special fasting and prayer,
devoting themselves anew to the service of the Lord, solemnly
taking Him to be their God, and imploring his guidance and bless-
ing in all their way. And we can easily conceive that it was, as
the minute reads, “a season of interest to those that waited on the
Lord.” There are those present this morning who well remember
the day at “Luz,” and the vows then made before the Lord.
But it is our privilege to speak— -
2.—OF STRENGTH..—
The mercy of God was most signally manifest in the condition of
Jacob returning as contrasted with Jacob going out. “With my
staff I passed over this Jordan and now I am become two bands.”
It was the result of the Divine favor. It was God’s blessing upon
him. It did not come by natural means merely, through his pru-
dence and industry. It was undeserved, and unexpected even by
his faith. He trusted in the Lord, and the Lord rewarded his faith.
Jacob clave unto God, and He who “setteth the solitary in families”
surrounded Jacob with children and flocks.
The history of this church hitherto is equally significant of the
divine blessing. It went out a small band, poor and depressed.
But it went out trusting in God, and God has manifested his favor
for it in a remarkable manner; and to-day it is “two bands;” not
divided by strife or alienation, but separated in love. Every step
and turn in its history has been attended with striking tokens of
Divine favor. It has waxed strong unexpectedly each year. Crises
that threatened it with disasters have been over-ruled for its pros-
perity. The spirit of the Lord has been poured out upon it repeat-
edly, and multitudes have been added by conversion from the world.
Multitudes of others from churches abroad and at home have united
7
themselves with its interests, believing “that God is in them of a
truth.” At this time, after all the removals and deaths, and dimi-
nutions that spring from the various causes of change incident to
human society, it numbers over three hundred members. It has
been blessed with a good measure of that spirit of “love one to
another,” which the great Head of the church has enjoined upon His
disciples, and which he alone can give them. The Lord has given
it for officers, wise, prudent, godly, and faithful men. Each suc-
ceeding pastor has brought some spiritual gift. Although its several
successive mininisters have differed in their gifts and characteristics,
yet something has been added by each one in his turn to the spiritual
wealth of the church, in a striking manner. And the last and least
worthy of them all, indeed not worthy to be a servant of Christ, has
not been sent, we trust, entirely in vain or without advantage.
While God has watered the church with spiritual influences,
renewing their strength, reviving from time to time their graces,
and converting sinners, through their instrumentality, he has like-
wise added largely to their pecuniary strength, and given them a
greatly increased power of influence in all the avenues of life. Its
liberal minded members have generally been prospered in their
business. And this beautiful and costly structure, in which we are
worshipping this morning, is an unconscious expression both of the
public spirit and the pecuniary resources, which God has bestowed
upon this church. And now we think we can say that it exerts an
influence for good in all the different walks of business and social
life, equal to that of any church in the city; an influence which,
though far from being all that it should be, is yet, on the whole,
Christian, scriptural, conservative.
We say not these things in the way of boasting, but we bring
them to your attention as facts calling for grateful acknowledgment,
We do it, that like Jacob we may as a church bow ourselves before
the Most High and say in the sincerity of our hearts, “We are not
worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which
thou hast shewed unto thy servants.” - -
These particulars of prosperity are not to be viewed as the natural
results of any superior merit in the church—its members, officers,
or ministers. They are God’s distinguishing mercies to the church.
They are God's faithfulness to his promises. The church has trusted
in the Lord, followed his counsels, relied upon his covenant; and
God has done, just as he always does, “shewed truth” unto his ser-
8
vants—remembered to do just as he said he would do. And here,
brethren, let us set up our Eébenezer, for “hitherto hath the Lord
helped us.”
And now let me speak—
3.—OF THE DIVISION.—
“And now I am become two bands.” Jacob “divided the people
that was with him, and the flocks, and herds, and the camels into
two bands,” from considerations of prudence and expediency. It
was not that he had lost his attachment to one part of his family,
or had lost his value for one part of his possessions. He acted
from a regard to the interests of the whole. He was identified with
each. Each band was equally dear to him, equally related to him.
His language expresses this; “and now I am become two bands;”
each was of Jacob, and Jacob was in each.
The immediate occasion of the division was in the apprehension
of danger from the wrath of Esau. Yet the necessity for that step
grew out of his very prosperity. It lay in the fact that his house-
hold and possessions had now become too numerous to be managed
successfully, under the circumstances, in one band. It is a necessity
felt by all large and wealthy caravans traveling the desert, in view
of attacks from robbers. Had his possessions been smaller and
his retainers fewer in number, the opportunity for such a policy
would not have existed.
In like manner, the separation of this church into two bands is
not because of a division of interests, much less by opposition of
interests. We thank God that it is not brought about by variances,
or emulations, or strifes. We thank God that the language of the
patriarch can be truly accommodated to ourselves, and we can say
“We we a two bands;” that though two we are one; that the unity
and community of the body are not lost in the act or by the spirit
of the division. We thank God that though separated into two
bands, it is two bands of brethren—that each is of Jacob and Jacob
is in each.
Is it asked, then why the division? Why not remain together
in one body? I answer, because God has so greatly prospered
and enlarged us that it is become expedient for the spiritual
interests of the whole and all its parts to divide the body. I
answer again, because by a division we can hope to accomplish
more in behalf of the great object for which God has established
a church in the world and has so greatly prospered this particular
congregation.
9
1. I say it is expedient for the spiritual interests of the whole
body that it be divided into two bands. A church that is full and
complete is exposed to peculiar perils, such as pride, spiritual
sloth, worldly-mindedness. It is ordinarily less able to contend
against the spirit of the world and the devil. The Christian graces
require to be constantly exercised in order to their being kept
polished and vigorous; and Christian men, like natural men, often
need the spur of necessity to arouse their energies and keep
their faculties in action. It is while a church is seeking to enlarge
herself and fill np her vacant ranks—while the common burden is
yet enough to require every member to stand up in his place, and
individual responsibility is realized, that usually the best type of
piety and the most public spirit are witnessed. It is then that some-
thing is found for all to do who have any disposition to work. A
full church gives opportunity for too many drones—and so long as
there is a place for drones, drones will be made. The Christian
man, or the Christian church, that loses the active aggressive atti-
tude, declines much in the tone and vigor of piety. Religion in its
nature is not private, selfish, or exclusive, but public spirited and
benevolent. The Christian life is chiefly in the doing good after
the manner of Christ. If it suspends its active benevolence; if it
ceases to look out for other's interests, and confines itself to pluming
its own feathers, to dressing its own graces, it languishes at once.
This division then is expedient because it gives more work for the
hands of all our members; because it sets open a wide field for the
development of Christian benevolence and the active graces.
2. But again. More can be accomplished by the body divided
in the furtherance of the great object for which God has established
a church in the earth. And here, I trust, has been found the chief
consideration that has induced the division. We think we can do
more in two bands for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
God is giving great prosperity to this city. He is sending in a large
population. He is enlarging its business. Opportunities for money-
getting, and success in money-getting, are having their natural in-
fluence to stimulate covetousness and selfishnesss, and to give
the world increased power over the habits and the souls of the
people. But this people and this prosperity, and all the growing
business and wealth of this community, must be sanctified to the
Lord. To secure this end is the great work before the churches of
Jesus Christ in this city, They must multiply their points of
10
contact and influence with the public. They must increase their
enterprise and activity, individual and collective. They must give
themselves more wholly to the work. As one of the churches
placed amidst these responsibilities, we wish to be found faithful.
By separating into two bands we hope to do more good. We can
spread the gospel over a larger surface; we can find more points
of contact with the public conscience and do more towards bring-
ing it into the obedience of the gospel. Is it said it will require
more labor and time to carry on two churches with separate ma-
chniery? Well, our hands and our hearts, and all our faculties
are the Lord's, given us to do good with, and he demands a right
use of them. Is it said it will cost more money to sustain two
separate churches? Well, all the money is the Lord's, and he
has given it to his people for gospel ends. Such are the legiti-
mate uses for which God, in his good providence, gave being to
money—more legitimate even than to make roads and bridges
and sustain government. No man can withhold money from such
uses without sinning against God and robbing him of his own.
And I may add, there is no such wise economy of labor and
capital, in view of all the interests of the city, as their applica-
tion, in the largest measure necessary, to the sustentation of all
the machinery of evangelical Christianity.
We reply, then, to the inquiry, why this division of the church
when this house will hold all that belong to us, that we divide
to promote the sanctification of our members by promoting their
activity; we divide with the aim to bless the city in which we
dwell by doing more to sanctify its beating heart to the Lord,
and to secure the conversion of the thronging multitudes that are
hasting to the judgment of the great day. It is not enough that
our pews are occupied and that our own families are furnished
with full gospel privileges, when there are so many outside un-
provided with the same, and every week is bringing into the city
more families for whom church accommodation is required. We
divide that room may be made in this house for some of them
to whom it will be convenient to worship here; and that another
sanctuary may be opened which we trust will soon be filled with
earnest worshippers, who love the gospel, and can appreciate the
consistent doctrines and scriptural order of our Presbyterian
church. And with the blessing of God upon this enterprise, and
his continued favor to this church, we trust the time is not far
11
distant when we shall be able to make another contribution to
the religious wants of the city, and we become three bands instead
of two. -
We come now to speak—
4. OF PRAYER.—
The circumstances that gave occasion to the separation of
Jacob's household and flocks into two bands, led him to resort to
earnest protracted prayer. He did not rest satisfied with the adop-
tion of a prudent policy. He looked to God for succor. He knew
that his best policy was to put his case into God’s hands. With his
language of thanksgiving to the Lord for his wealth, he united the
expression of his consciousness that his prosperity was liable to be
subverted in a day; and that he who gave must also preserve. It
would seem that Jacob spent a considerable part of the night pre-
vious to his meeting Esau in earnest supplication; and he received
an immediate and abundant recompense. God heard his prayers.
The dangers presently vanished. His enemies were made to be at
peace with him, and he advanced in security to his journey’s end.
And now, brethren, this time should be an occasion of much
prayer and supplication in the spirit on the part of us all. We
are two bands, and each has peculiar exigencies to meet, and each
needs succor from the Lord who has hitherto helped. We that re-
main need grace that we may unselfishly part with those who go
out; that we may rejoice in the sacrifice we make of dear brethren
for Christ's sake; and that in parting with those who have hitherto
helped us with their labors and prayers we may not be too much
weakened for the service of the gospel. And you that go out need
grace that you may cheerfully enter on your mission of love, and be
qualified by the power of the Holy Ghost for your service, and that
you may be rewarded by a large ingathering to Christ.
Be assured, brethren, that in extending our sphere of aggression
on the kingdom of darkness, the sphere of resistance and reaction
against us will also be extended. The Prince of this world will not
look passively on our movements. His malignity will be excited
against us, and his resources rallied to our injury. Be assured,
brethren, that in this special enterprise for the cause of Christ, we
shall need the special protection and favor of Heaven; and we
should be conscious of the fact. In every warfare, the occasions of
peculiar service to the cause for which men fight, are the occasions
12
of peculiar peril. And we have every reason to believe that in
religion, the great advances in personal holiness, and the great
services of the church for Christ, are connected with great conflicts
with Satan, and with all the perils that an assault by so mighty and
so subtile and so malignant an adversary connot fail to carry. Let
then, dear brethren, this be a time of prayer with us all, that the
great Head of the church would have us in his keeping; that he
would save us while we serve him. Let our prayers be of that
wrestling kind which shall prevail. The God of Jacob will even
now suffer himself to be overcome by his praying people, and “no
good thing will he withhold from them.” He will arm them for the
conflicts that await them. The greatness of their extremity will
be but the occasion of the more signal display of his power and
love in their support and deliverance; and they shall certainly
prove “more than conquerer through him that loved them.”
And now let me add some further remarks, by way of improve-
ment of this subject and occasion:
1. We must not fail distinctly to observe the evidence with
which we are favored of God’s faithfulness to his covenant engage-
ments, and the encouragement hence given for men always to trust
in the Lord. We have seen this illustrated in the history of Jacob.
God made large promises to him. But he did all he promised—
more than his servant expected. Jacob never looked to him for
counsel, for deliverance, for a blessing, and plead the covenant
but Jehovah heard him, and granted his desire. So strikingly is
this illustrated in all his history, that “the God of Jacob” has passed
into a proverb for a covenant keeping God. We have seen the
same thing illustrated in the history of this church. Every period
of particular advance and prosperity has been accompanied by a
general laying hold upon the promises, a pleading with Him “for
His mercy and His truth’s sake.” And the blessing has ever been
greater than the faith of his people in asking. Thus it is always.
The case has never occurred of an individual that believed God,
and entered into covenant with him as Jacob did, and then walked
by that covenant as Jacob did, who found him to fail in one particu-
13
lar. And why should it not be so. Our God is unchangeable, and
his word cannot fail.
“Engraved as in eternal brass
The mighty promise shines,
Nor can the powers of darkness raze
Those cverlasting lines.
His word of grace is sure and strong
As that which built the skies ;
The voice that rolls the stars along
Speaks all the promises.”—[WATTs.]
“Those that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which can-
not be removed, but abideth forever. As the mountains are round
about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from
henceforth even forever.” My hearers take him for your God,
and trust in him. This God of Jacob will be your God if you
will accept him. Take him. You will find him a never failing
refuge in time of trouble. -
And, dear brethren, let our past experience of his faithfulness
encourage us to use him still further. Has he heard our prayers in
time past for the out-pouring of his spirit, and blessed us with
salvation, and shall we doubt him in time to come or hesitate to
call upon him again P -
2. Let us admire the wisdom of God in the way he fulfills his
eternal purposes of mercy towards his chosen people. Jacob's
prosperity was preceded by a term of weakness and distress. And
who can doubt that the exile of Jacob from his father's house, his
solitary flight, his oppression of spirit, were necessary and wise
processes of fitting him for his future enlargement. While God’s
scheme was antecedent and independent of Jacob's faith and obe-
dience, yet it involved just that faith and obedience. God would
bestow unprecedented blessings upon Jacob, but it should be upon
Jacob trusting and submissive. And how manifest is it that his
distress at the beginning brought him to that humble position
before God necessary to his prosperity. If Jacob had been a con-
verted man before the night at Luz (which may be doubted) cer-
tainly the consecration of himself to God became more positive,
and an advance was given to his sanctification which was needed
to prepare him for the more striking mercies of Providence. His
subsequent trials all contribute to the same result. And now Jacob
could receive children and flocks and servants and honors, and
bear them thankfully and humbly, and give God the glory. God
first chose Jacob; then cleansed the vessel; then filled it with his
14
mercies. And just so in the history of this church, it can hardly
be doubted that the providence by which it was led out of the
parent society, its poverty, the contempt it suffered, were all
adapted to prepare it for the prosperity designed. Who can doubt
that the sanctification of the church, the conversion of souls through
its instrumentality, and its general usefulness, were all advanced
by its period of weakness? Thus God continually makes men
small before he enlarges them ; he convicts and humbles ere he
pardons and exalts—that the glory may be of God and not of man.
It is no evidence against God’s favor for us that we are brought low.
His word is sure, and may be trusted though outward signs look
forbidding.
“Judge not the Lord by feeble sense
But trust him for his grace ;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.”—ſ CowPER.]
3. Let me add a few words in reference to our separation. We
are now “become two bands,” each henceforth having its distinct
and separate field. Let there be no strife between us, for we are
brethren. Let us not forget that though two bands we are of one
family. Our strength will be found in our affectionate oneness.
Though our specific fields are separate, the interests we prosecute
are identical. We regard you who go out, not as expatriating
yourselves, not as becoming aliens, not as occupying a position of
rivalry; but as going forth in the name of the whole church to do
a work which the Lord has called upon his church to do. It is
menticned in the history of the church at Antioch that “As they
ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, separate me
Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have sent them.”
And the church promptly gave up these brethren and sent them
away on their missionary field. So do we, the pastor and officers
and members of this church feel, that in obedience to the voice
of God, speaking to us in his providence, we have separated you,
dear brethren, and now send you away, to the work whereunto you
are called. It will ever appear upon the records of our presbytery,
that, at the instance of the pastor and session of this church, their
committee was appointed to organize this band. It was not because
we do not love you, and value your communion and help. The
church at Antioch knew too well the the worth of Barnabas and
Saul, not to desire their continuance, or to part with them without
pain; but they rejoiced to part with dear members for Christ's sake.
15
And it gives us pain this day to think that we are looking upon your
faces as a part of us for the last time. It is painful more than
words can express, to part with those “with whom we have so
often gone up to the house of God in company and taken sweet
counsel together”—whose prayers, and whose labors, and whose
sympathies, we have felt in helping our weakness, and sustaining
our trials, and aiding our Christian life. Every where, at every step
we shall be reminded of our loss—in the sanctuary, in the Sabbath
school, in the prayer meeting, in the session meeting, we shall feel
that our counsellors, our sympathisers, our tried helpers, are no
longer with us. And yet we do not regret the step. We trust,
painful as it is to us all, that we love Christ enough, and love his
cause enough, to make the sacrifice freely, and be thankful for the
privilege of making it. Only let us remember that we are brethren;
and let their be no jealousies and no variances between us. Your
work is our work—your cause is our cause. We shall rejoice in
your prosperity as our own, as the mother rejoices in her daughter.
You can do no service for Christ; you can make no aggressions
upon Satan's kingdom; you can gather no souls to the Saviour, in
which we will not rejoice with you. And “though we shall be absent
from you in the flesh, yet will we be with you in spirit, joying and
beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.”
You remember how we are told by Joshua, that when the work of
the conquest of the land on the West side of Jordan was mainly
accomplished, and it became no longer necessary for the whole
family of Israel to remain together, but the two and a half tribes
passed over to their separate field on the East of Jordan, that an
altar of stone was erected, which they called “Ed,” at the crossing
place of the river, which should be an altar of witness to all genera-
tions, that they on the East side were of the same family with those
on the West; that they had a common interest in the God of Israel,
and in the house of the Lord, and in all the inheritance of Jacob ;
that the children of the nine tribes and a half might not say unto
the children of the two tribes and a half in time to come “Ye have
no part in the Lord.” Brethren, let this morning's service be our
“Ed”—an altar of witness between us this day and for all time, that
it may be known we are one people, that we have one inheritance.
And let me, your pastor, now no longer your pastor, exhort you
to walk in love—in fidelity to your covenant duties. Your covenant
to walk together is a covenant with God. God's blessing can be
16
expected only in connection with faithfulness to your covenant
vows. Trust in Jacob's God—your covenant God, for success, and
be not doubtful nor unbelieving. The prayers of your brethren
will follow you. Let your prayers also ascend for those you leave
behind. And now, brethren, farewell. I commend you to Him
“that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you fault-
less before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.”
And “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the
dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through
the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every
good work, to do His will, working in you that which is well-
pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for
ever and ever. Amen.”
THE ANDOWER BOTTLE'S BURST
A SERMON IN WEST CHURCH
SUNDAY, APRIL 30, 1882
Jr. fºx
IB Y \, \ ^*.
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CºA, BARTOL
BOSTON
A. WILLIAMS & CO., 283 WASHINGTON STREET
I882
Press of GEO. H. ELLIS, 141 Franklin Street
THE ANDOWER BOTTLE'S BURST.
“The new wine doth burst the bottles.”—MARK ii., 22.
OF what is this the age 2 Among other things, of explo-
sions. The mark of Christ's teaching is, from a very prac-
tical question or trivial circumstance, to rise to and set forth
some general truth ; and any minister who should illustrate
his theme now as plainly or bluntly as he did from the yeast
in the meal or ferment in the wine-sack, going to kitchen
and cellar for a case or image, would by well-dressed society
in the pew be charged with vulgarity, indecency, and slang
in the desk.
But I must not shrink from the risk of offending a squeam-
ish or dainty and delicate taste by following my Master's
method and expounding his figurative sense. He mixed
clay with his spittle to anoint the eyes of the blind; and
in the unction of our preaching, if it is to be effective, must
be somewhat homely and common, if not coarse.
There is meaning in every explosion of an engine, cannon,
in a mine, earthquake, volcano, river-ice, or bursting of old
bottles, whose sound from a theological seminary that has
stood for three-quarters of a century now stuns our ears and
fills the land, to repeat the lesson of our text that truth or
duty, feasting or fasting, any doctrine or idea has no per-
manent form, cannot be embodied forever in any verbal or
ritual shape. Creed, Prayer-Book, Bible, may be stereo-
typed ; but no plates from the foundry can stereotype the
Word of God. This principle, affirmed by Jesus, eternal
before and after him in itself, was not perceived by those
pious founders who endowed Andover with salaries, on
condition that the chairs should be held only by professors
swearing for all time to certain dogmatic statements about
4
a trinity in the godhead, total human depravity, arbitrary
election, vicarious atonement and everlasting doom in a fiery
lake, which in such air-tight, steam-proof, hard-shell, hide-
bound, iron-clad style they laid down ; and the burning
problem is whether incumbents, who cannot according to
the ancient constructions take the prescribed vows, shall
draw the money. The movement party say, Yes, because
in the promise is a clause that the promisor will maintain
the aforesaid specific articles after “the best light” God
shall give. But this allows no liberty to change the articles,
any more than letting on more gas or sunshine into a street
or room would entitle us to destroy the furniture or building
which it is the only object of the illumination to protect,
rescue from prowling robbers, and preserve.
If the time comes in a system of belief, as it may in
a dwelling or town, to tear down and demolish, to open
broader avenues and obliterate choking and crooked ways,
then honestly say so, and go might and main to work ; but
do not pretend the former lanes and structures are perfect,
and you only in your alterations propose to beautify and
adorn. Religious faith is not a formal, but living, growing,
swelling, and everlasting thing, requiring to be clothed anew
like a tree or the human body as from the cradle it waxes;
and the attempt to hold it in exact formularies of profes-
sion or observance is as foolish as to try to squeeze back the
oak to an acorn or the man into the baby's crib. When an
adult can wear the infant's swaddling-clothes or be tied to
the mother's apron-strings, then the Church or Christendom,
nineteen hundred years old, may consent to be reduced to
an Epistle to the Hebrews or replanted in a Jewish pot.
What is the pith of the parable but that the bottle is not
the wine which it is precious to contain while it can 2 And
what is the bottle, in the Lord's understanding, but the
verbal phrase or ritual ceremony in any place, for the time
being, it is guarded by and expressed ?
This is true of the Scriptural canon. How much more of
the denominational creed The Andover, like any church
charter, is, in all its provisions, nothing but bottle or a row
5
of bottles, disastrously by its ordainers and heirs confounded
with the contents; and a thirsty soul verily might as soon
refresh itself with a dry skin, apple-paring, cocoanut shell,
husk, chaff, or empty cup on the shelf as with the logical
terms it is defined in. The Psalmist David, feeling partic-
ularly languid at a certain time, compares himself to an old
leather bottle in the smoke, hung up within reach of the
heat from the fire, dry, wrinkled, and without a drop of juice;
and truly that is the actual condition of some of those an-
tique phrases or notions about decrees and forensic arrange-
ments, in which God drives such a hard bargain with his
Son, who must pay for and buy off his brethren, the same
Father's own children, with blood. How lank and scorched
"they have become! As easy to press out drink from a
drum-head, or the parchment such conceits were printed on,
or from hard, curled bits of Orange-peel on the pavement as
from the so-called, antiquated, ever-varied, shrinking, and
riddled schemes of Salvation or redeeming plans. And the
expositors— God forgive me and them — often by dint of
their consumptive doctrine seem as wizened and rent, as
withered, like Macbeth's witches on the blasted heath, as
what they preach ; and any endeavor to revive such concep-
tions reminds one of the medical practice of infusing blood,
as a last, forlorn remedy and possible chance, into some far-
gone, dying patient's veins. “By this time, he is offensive,
having been dead four days,” was the objection to thinking
Lazarus could be raised. But his prospect was much
brighter than that of the Westminster catechism, Connecti-
cut laws, half-way covenants, or the New England primer I
read and recited, as a not very welcome or rational task,
when I was a boy.
Surely, my sympathies at present are with the party of
progress in the Orthodox Church and the Andover School.
But, on the record, they appear so wrong that I must more
honor the stationary, conservative side, represented by the
Congregationalist newspaper, if it be sincere. It seems a
position so futile and inconsistent, this labor of the ingen-
ious radicals to reconcile the advance of thought with the
6
rigid, obsolete rules | As well harmonize the sixty-mile-wide
river Mississippi with the broken levees above its mouth,
with the overthrown jetties, dislodged dykes, banks under-
mined, dissolved into mud, and deposited in the Gulf, while
the rampant, roaring, foaming stream abolishes old territory,
and cuts new channels for itself. What council or synod
can bring back and rein in that river of God, whose course
is in the bed of the human soul?
The bottles or sacks of the once well-established New
England faith — the five points one blasphemy — have been
growing old and worn indeed, and the once firm and stalwart
faith they held has been oozing out of every seam and pore.
People refused to be frightened any longer with hell or
Hades, or to believe that the dear dead were indeed under
ground, all waiting, in the decent, Seemly order becoming to
corpses, for the resurrection-trump. All would have been
well, if the leather-like receptacles had been left leisurely to
leak away and become void. But when they were patched
and made tight, like Old boilers, and the vacuum in them re-
plenished with the new spirit of the age and modern thought,
how else but weak and rotten and bursting, to waste the
lively contents, could we expect them to be 2 Too much for
the old bottles is the high-proof new wine. High time to
cease from the worship of bottles | God is the fountain, the
communicator; but our own thoughts, not any words, are
what he imparts. So Jesus wrote nothing, left only his voice
in the air, which has resounded with, it ever since. God is
the Judge, but his bar is reared on no ground or platform in
earth or heaven : it stands in the human mind. And what-
ever theory cannot abide the arbitrament of reason and con-
science there must be brought in guilty or go by default, say
whatever document, instrument, or prophet will.
This is an age of exploding and explosions. How many
a bottle, besides those leathern ones made of the skin of kid,
goat, and Ox, the nozzle being through the neck or one of
the paws, is bursting around us, and ought to burst; for it
never held a thoroughly wholesome draught. As many a
flask has been filled with what, despite the labels, never
7
grew in Oporto, Madeira, Burgundy, or Tokay, or even any
vineyard on the Ohio or the Rhine, but is some vile com-
pound of logwood and Sulphur, mixture of poor alcohol and
Oxalic acid, or is whiskey that rots one's inside, as they say
at the South, so some specimens of theology are so veno-
mously strong they must, if actually taken down, eat their
way speedily through the coating of any stomach. The
human organ has grown delicate and less ostrich-like to dis-
pose of aquafortis or of dirt and stones. It saves itself by
throwing the tough morsels and wretched, poisonous po-
tions up. It is the black vomit !
But why not approve of and encourage those who would,
by any way of compromise or a smoothing-plane, soften the
wonted, inveterate modes of belief and custom, Congrega-
tional, Episcopal, Romish,_ such as ransom by a Saviour's
blood, and construe eternal as temporary punishment, and
resurrection of the body as meaning, after all, only a glori-
fied celestial form 2 My friends, I am not a born belligerent.
I came, like Paul, of the most straitest sect. My pleasure
is not to be an iconoclast. I prefer proclaiming God to
breaking idols. I like the company of the Prince of Peace
rather than that of quarrellers and combatants in the Church
militant. As far as possible, instead of assailing error, I
would pronounce positive truth. If only these mistaken
figments of theology would be so kind as to crack and fall
off naturally, as the outer bark does from the expanding
wood in the forest, or as the dead particles invisibly exfoli-
ate and drop from the live skin, we could let the ecclesias-
tical impositions and superstitions take care of, exclude and
bury themselves. But, on the contrary, they stick and
Cramp. They become cages and jails, bottles that hold and
pour out mischief long before they burst. They diffuse in-
tolerable odors when they are uncorked. So they must and
had better be denounced, condemned, flung away as the off-
scouring into the great ash-heap of the world,— the valley
of Hinnom, outside the gate, appointed for piles of Outcast,
useless things to be consumed. Pardon me! Such is how
much of the stock and staple of the popular pulpit and most
8
crowded churches, according to the late census, whatever
that may mean. And therefore, because it is more candid,
it is well to make a square issue and clean sweep with what
is evil and absurd in so-called religious ministrations than
to evade, explain, and explain away, as the proverbial jack-
knife and stocking had their several parts renewed, till not
a joint or stitch of the original material or apparatus
remained, or as a clever juggler persuades us the watch is
whole and ticking to keep good time, which a moment be-
fore he crushed to pieces under his heel or pounded in his
hat. Why annul the original with a new sense 2
Genuine, Simon-pure Calvinism is not liberal Christi-
anity, unity and trinity not one faith, nor pope and bishop
believers in Congregational freedom. One thing, style,
view, or treatment, is truer than another. One thing is not
another thing, everything, and all things by turns; for “God
is not the author of confusion,” and he likes not the con-
founding of any bottle with its contents. The great, crying
sin in the Church is of hypocrisy; that is of coming under
a cloak of charity, the guise of benevolence, to compound,
to accommodate, postpone conviction to conformity, a proc-
ess as vain as it is bad, when our speech or act derives all
its power over others from our being really convinced our-
selves. We hear of adjusters and readjusters in Virginia
politics. Alas! are they not at least one-half of the theolo-
gians, too w
Therefore, however reluctant to grieve friends, I must
reckon it a false and hurtful claim that the Andover stand-
ards should admit the new conceptions as compatible with
the donor's views or capable of being built on their founda-
tions. No : they must have a new base. Yet the difficulty
is not peculiar to the Orthodoxy, so fast becoming a house
divided against itself. It is shared in lighter measure by
the Unitarians, too, so far as they make verbal expression,
figure, dogma, miracle, in the Bible or out of it, instead of
thought and love, free and pure as the Master's, their bond.
There is no safe, impregnable fort but in signing and swear-
ing off from “the letter that killeth,” and pledging ourselves
9
to “the spirit which giveth life” and cannot be held in any
bottle it will not burst, but will enlighten and inspire for
faith and duty whoever himself waits and prays and is will-
ing to suffer and work. -
O my brethren, who fight for that particular bottle
ticketed Endless Hel/-fire, as in Faust flame rushed from
the students' gimlet where Mephistopheles led, why repeat
and echo that clause so misconstrued in the New Testa-
ment, and quoted wrongly by millions for ages, when it
means spiritual pruning, not a horrible doom 2 Why are
sheep made to run and leap through the same hole or gap in
the wall, but to teach men, for very ridicule, they should not
be such a flock 2 Why do parrots din out their exact liturgy
in a few unvarying vocables, but to warn men against doing
in their collects likewise 2 Parrots learn to scold and swear
with as little sense as they whine and coo and coax. And,
when the preachers deal out damnation in identical doses of
uniform speech, they seem to me to swear and scold in the
same unmeaning way; and when they articulate and harp
out the monotony of their fac-simile heaven, described in all
their prophecies as precisely as one picture or engraving
resembles another and a thousand others, in the same pho-
tographic or heliotype process, they remind me still of the
gray or yellow feathered birds that mock us from their
perch, and should shame us out of stupidity and self-
mimicry as great as their own. O man of God, be no
such repeater, but tell us what you think of earthly duty,
the divine being, the immortal life Then, we shall be re-
freshed in your speech.
But, as the bottles at last burst, and the ranks break, and
on the consecrated ground yonder no Rip Van Winkle rises
from a sleep of thrice twenty years to preach the unquench-
able lake, what shall be done with the dollars shut up and
devoted to that purpose and on that spot ? For a pecuniary
consideration shall the clerical conscience be sold, or the
law hunt up the heirs to whom this worldly riches should
revert They who touch a cent violating the terms cannot
be afraid of ghosts below or recording and accusing angels
IO
beyond; and I think a judicial decision should be frankly
invoked in the case, in order to fend off the sentence at the
final bar of whatever is real in the torments maintained to
be in store. If, with an amazed philosophic Curiosity, you
inquire how such a tenet as Jonathan Edwards's “Sinners
in the hands of an angry God” could ever have been pro-
claimed to scare our ancestry and puzzle their sons, the
answer may be that the mental swallow of those venerable
sires was probably never quite large enough to take it in
It was like medicine the good mother provides in ample
quantity with her cup and spoon, having learned from expe-
rience that in the struggle and shutting of the mouth by
her child, acting wiser than he knows, most of it will be
spilled. It is impossible the human imagination should real-
ize that eternal misery which the pulpit has toiled to paint,
and which nobody in Massachusetts, intelligent enough for
an Andover chair, can be hired to enjoin or indorse, unless
he covet the worldly remuneration sufficiently to reconcile
his moral sense to perform the unholy and disagreeable job.
We think the cause of temperance gains. The drunkard
is not so common as once. Is it not time to cease from
that other intoxication for which the threat of boundless
woe furnished the liquor and cruel priests with “wine of
abomination” mixed the bowl 2 A homoeopathic potion
will answer now ! To smell the vial millions have tried to
drink will be more than enough. “You may go to hell,”
said a preacher to my friend, “spite of your fine mansion
on this rocky height.” “Then I shall go in at once for
improvements,” he replied. “This hill was hell when I came
here.” Truly, the infernal, like other pits, has been searched
and scooped and found not bottomless, there being, to the
mind of man, to our thought nothing, no pain or sin infinite,
only the love of God and flow of his mercy in his children's
Souls.
O clergy and O laity, heed Christ's word All the wine
is not old ; and much of it that is so is not good, but sour,
pricked, unfit to drink, muddy in the dregs and on the lees.
All the world's vineyards are maturing more. The Bible is
I f
but a temporary provision and magazine. Rather let me
say, a reservoir or elevated basin of supply for a purer, more
wholesome element of water from the clouds and the sea;
or, if you hold to the figure of my text, wine is to be taken
in moderation, Sparing the drops to our need. And so, as
we tread and trudge over the often rough, stony, and dusty
highway which duty makes life, ecstasies can be but occa-
sional. The world itself, that is the field, of our task, is
more than any book the teacher of truth, in two great
lessons from the material globe and the conscious soul.
Europe is becoming America's watering-place and vaca-
tion-tour. 'Tis trip enough for me to behold the dawn, the
tide, the punctual grass, the stars. The greater fondness
and more abounding use for flowers show increasing human
love and sense of the divine. Every trifle leads to God
and heaven. I cannot see a straw on the stream that
runs from the mountains, or piece of paper in the street
blown by the wind that rose in Oregon, but I am a traveller
without horse or steam. I drink daily from a vessel no art
of man fashioned or filled. My bottle will never burst
Beautiful is this height, and unattainable 2 Not being
pure spirit, are we incapable of such spirituality ? As we
must have a day, place, order, parts of religious service,
Sermon, Song, prayer, so language is indispensable, an
habitual style. And did not Paul, the most free-minded of
the apostles, tell Timothy to hold fast the form of sound
words, and Jesus say, My words shall not pass away even
with the heavens and the earth 2 And do not we, so much
weaker and less able to soar than Jesus and Paul, need
much more to be indulged in drawing from tradition and
memory where we are not inspired 2 Under this plea, Bibli-
olatry is justified, stock phrases are used to excess, cant con-
tinues, and dead or damaged speech unfitly survives |
What an idolater is not only the hand that made the old
fetiches of wood and stone, but also the human tongue !
For the formal worshipper to miss a single expression he
has been wonted to on Sunday is like a bookworm's losing
I 2
a volume from a set, or a housekeeper's parting with a be-
loved dish, precious heirloom, broken or stolen, or a lady
fond of dress having to do without a particular ribbon or a
pin. Can dinner be served save with that cut crystal or
blue plate 2 Is there not a yawning chasm made by what is
borrowed and not returned to the library shelf? Surely,
one cannot appear in company, go to the wedding party, till
the silken scarf or diamond brooch is put on 1 Just so all
the usual clauses must be arranged and remembered, and
in voice how unnatural Sonorously intoned, or there is no
“service ’’; and in the formal church an indictment before
the convention threatens the rector who ventures upon a
syllable of extemporaneous prayer.
To this complexion, Christianity, that outbreak of the
Holy Ghost to shove aside Jewish traditions, in the new
bondage of ceremony, has meagrely and pitifully come.
In their public devotions, the people must have propriety
and decorum, no doubt; but of such slavery no prophet of
old or new dispensation ever was a pattern or set the type.
It is the sacrifice of substance to style; and, if where the
spirit of the Lord is there is liberty, it is the crucifixion of
the Son of God afresh. The rite, the cult, the doctrine,
must be supple, flexible, enlarged with a supplement, cor-
rected from what it untenably assumes, or something will
happen It will burst, as many a bottle of it has for all
thoughtful men and every sensible mind. Soon the priests,
like the Roman augurs, will laugh in each other's faces, if
the farce of a six days’ creation, a simultaneous bodily res-
urrection, as it is emblazoned in the chancel, or a sulphur-
ous, hopeless damnation is kept up. Room, that is the
order, room in the mind's magazine and cellar for the new
wine of modern thought and Science, and a truer under-
standing of the world ! What else was Christ's new wine,
by which the Hebrew bottles were burst, all the threads
parted, and nails flew, of notions about feasting over a coffin
because in the calendar it was a feast-day, and fasting at a
proclamation when the bridegroom was at the door 2 Let
I 3
the Massachusetts Governor have grace and courage next
year to omit from his summons one or two lying words.
Whatever in our usage or vocabulary, at Andover or
Cambridge, cannot stand the strain and ferment of fresh
discovery, of larger ideas and a more vivacious feeling for
nature and God, let it be withdrawn on peril of being torn ;
and whatever is frightened at the ghost of evolution instead
of special creation, let it run ; and whoever fancies that faith
in God must picture him not in his human image, but as a
king apart, let it cease to babble and blaspheme; and who-
ever wants a heaven like a music-hall or palace, with admis-
sion by ticket or card, or a gentleman's club for a select
few, every vulgar sinner forever shut out, let him be sure
‘of one thing, namely, that he is no saint! Shall we never
know what Jesus meant by the wine he would drink new
with his disciples in his Father's kingdom
As crowding to make the old ecclesiastical omnibus re-
ceive the new truth is the vain and wrong thing, Jesus
scores, so the astounding circumstance in the Andover
Board's final refusal to confirm the professor elect or pro-
posed is that they put their negative not on this ground
that he contradicts the creed,— oh, no! for they declare
him sound in the faith, but sentimental in manner and not
clear and profound in thought. A little poetry in him is
the objection, and his imagination is accounted his sin.
Very cunning conclusion | We had thought the creed in
question was made of iron on purpose, that it was a steel
rail which would bear any burden of freight and passengers,
and under fire or frost not give. But, as construed by the
majority of visitors, how it yields and budges, and sways and
warps! Thus by a doctrinal leniency so novel and rare
they would seem to provide for future heresy at Andover to
any extent, if it will but come without sentiment, of which
we had hastily, some of us, supposed religion, especially the
gospel, mainly to consist ! Certainly, no India rubber ever
stretched as the visitors make prison gratings yawn for
easy passage in and out. We have heard of repudiation by
I4.
towns and States, of debts outlawed, and of debtors' oaths
in swearing off from what they owe, but never before of
any such forswearing of divinity and rupture on principle
of ecclesiastical contracts | Verily, the visitors desert, the
custodians betray. My friends, we shall lay our heads
quietly on that pillow, where we shall require no doctor's
opiate to induce sleep, in proportion as we are loyal to the
engagements we assume.
Let us leave what we cannot live in, our refuges of lies |
The fish creeps out when its stony chamber becomes too
small ; the lobster, in growing, makes itself a new shell;
the snake sheds its old skin to crumble in the woods, and
puts a gloss on the shining coat, its text; man removes the
rotten sills, lest his dwelling fall, and he builds at his peril
on the path of freshets along the banks of mountain-streams
or on the sides of Vesuvius ; the inhabitants flee from
Herculaneum and Pompeii, and would get out of Sodom
and Gomorrah, if they could, when the fire and lava break
forth or roll down. O makers of narrow creeds, which
no soul can abide in, and O establishers of forms, that
resist the progress of knowledge and reason and thought,
knowledge is not a tank or stagnant pond There is a
freshet of truth, deep and tumultuous against obstacles, a
current of the human mind, an eruption of righteous indig-
nation against inhuman theories, which will sweep off your
little structures and overwhelm your poor conceits. The
burning hell is not for God’s children, but for their works
of folly and sin. “It is time to unload,” said a President of
the United States about the political corruptions. It is
time to slide off, as from a tip-cart, the theological super-
stitions. We shall not thus be left naked, but made more
athletic for our race.
TEI E EN IV E MCIN IS TIE Fr. S.
A SEER M ON
IN

W E S T C H U R O H,
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BY C. A. BARTOL,
ON TIIE
FORTIETH AWWIVERSARY OF HIS ORDINATION.
B O S T O N :
PUBLISHED BY A. WILLIA MS & CO.
283 W A S H IN G T O N S T R E E T.
1 8 7 7.
A SE R M O N.
“And thow shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these
forty years.”— DieuTERONOMY viii, 2.
(Is it a religious duty, then, to recollect the past, which I
have heard some philosophers call a dead weight we drag at
our heels? In no pages is the past deed or word put so oft
and aptly as in those of the transcendental essayist by whom
the past is decried Yes, I shall glorify the past to-day.
I like things with long roots: they have long branches too.
The past, in some sense, is dead. So is the bark of a
tree, nursling in your garden, or California pine; but the
bark, although in the great Sequoia but corky matter a foot
thick, was once of the innermost living substance, which it
alone protects from death still. So, antique tradition is a
safeguard against destruction of all that in the present we
prize. We doubtless have intuitions of truth. He that
gave an eye to the body did not leave it out of the mind.
But experience is preparation and condition of insight, and
experimental science to-day, in matter and spirit, is the re-
dress and balance of that spiritualism which would else
become a ghost-seeing materialism, a will of the wisp, with
all manner of illusions to lead us astray.
As King Saul then bowed himself when the woman with a
familiar spirit brought back dead Samuel to his sight, so I
shall count upon your reverence as, with no witchcraft, I
4 N
present the figures of the past ministers of the West Church,
believing that as was said of old, “ like people, like priest”;
and as the congregation expresses in its choice of a leader
the character he in turn forms or confirms in them, so in its
clergy I shall portray the Society which for history has been
incorporate in no other way.
First, William Hooper, who gathered the West Boston
Church, or for whom it was gathered, in 1737, just one hun-
dred and forty years ago, and who was its minister nine
years. Wishing to seize in each one the salient trait, I
shall call him the Churchman; for he surprised and grieved
his people by suddenly sundering his relation with them,
and, with no warning or explanation, reverting to the
Establishment, leaving his flock in the lurch without a
shepherd, as he sailed for England, I believe, on the Lord's
day. The high-spirited man, whose son was a signer of the
Declaration of American Independence, seems to have been
vexed with a clerical inquisition into his views of the divine
nature as merciful and not vengeful to visit transgressors
with eternal woe. To preach God as eternal avenger he
would not be forced. He thought the Lord's brethren were
harder than the bishops in the House of Lords, and sought
a refuge from the ecclesiatical tyranny of Puritanism in the
Episcopal hierarchy. The little finger of the first was
thicker to him than the loins of the last, and chastisement
with whips preferable to that with scorpions. I doubt not
the Puritanic reign, for severity, was at times somewhat like
that of Rehoboam, and I do not wonder a gentle and noble
soul like Hooper's should have resented it and have fled to
the horns of the ancient altar, – as when Rehoboam and
Jeroboam came with their hard taxes and grim idols, Israel
regretted Solomon. I am only sorry that Hooper, who
does not seem to have been catechized or interfered with in
his liberty by his own people, did not stay and fight it out
5
on the line of his own convictions, and so anticipate for us
the day of redemption from covenants and creeds. They
whom he deserted do not appear to have pursued him with
any syllable of reproach ; perhaps they sympathized with
his ingenuous indignation at being called to book and taken
so roughly to task. But as, with a retrograde movement in
position, however forward in personal freedom, he cast
down his armor and retreated from the field to an inclosed
and impregnable fort of safety where were then no battles
to fight ; and as he was, so far as I know, never much heard
of in any connection again, I must call him, with all his
spirit of frankness and gifts of eloquence, the Churchman.
I cannot get him higher in our gallery than the picture of
the priest, noble and generous as he was.
But to compensate for his failure or withdrawal, a
prophet indeed, a patriot, and a statesman was to come in
the person of Jonathan Mayhew, our Moses in this region,
the prince in power and influence of American divines.
Settled in this ministry in the year 1747, he died in 1766,
in the forty-sixth year of his age, “ of a nervous fever, over-
plied with public energies,” as the inscription runs on the
old engraving, in my possession, of his face. He was
churchman, too, in the sense of loving the church with a
zeal like his Master's for the house of the Lord, with which
he was eaten up ; but the church was no building of brick
and wood, no quiet cathedral to him. It was the church
militant he belonged to, not that of those that be at ease in
Zion. It was the gospel-trumpet he blew to the conflict, and
not a pleasant sound, as of one who could play well on an
instrument.
“Captain or Colonel or Knight-at-arms,”
as in the line of John Milton's sonnet, he seemed. As the
mediaeval monks and crusaders wore steel mail over their
6
frocks, so he was girt in finer panoply for the fray. The artist
has chosen to put his face on the cracked and crumbling walls
as of an ancient temple, with vivacious plants springing out of
the rents of mortared ruin, and under his breast laurel-boughs
in a wreath of bay, with mitre and crosier suspended, as if
cast down beneath, the green and budding sprigs having the
likeness of quills, while on the foundation-stone the large
letters declare him “an assertor of the civil and religious
liberties of his country and mankind.” “The soul is an active
poison,” said the German Novalis: so it worked in his
mortal frame. The sword cut through the scabbard, the
flame burnt up the flesh, as it did Shakespeare's so early,
and many another man's. He was our political genius as
much as Otis or Adams, who knew and owned him for their
peer. He was a martyr and living sacrifice in his own desk
and in the councils of the righteous before Warren fell on
Bunker Hill. He, like David, lay in his bed and meditated
on God in the night watches; and as the brightest thoughts
are said to come on first waking, before the cock crows, and
as Napoleon declared the best éourage was at four o'clock
in the morning, so an idea, like an inspiration from heaven,
flashed on him ere he arose for the communion as one of
the Lord's days was ready to dawn, in June, 1766, only
a few weeks before his death. He was thinking of the com-
munion of the churches, and he wrote at once to Otis of “ the
great use and importance of a communion of the colonies.”
Communion of the churches and communion of the colonies/
Why not? Then was America conceived How the bosom
of time, day by day, grew big with her promise ! Native
land, as a land of freedom, was itself, on these shores, a
conception of religion. “Where the spirit of the Lord is,”
this modern, like the ancient, Paul knew, “there is liberty.”
She herself drew nigh and formed her own image in the
7
heart and brain of a man and a minister in the visions of
the night. She went forth, loving and holy, from the board
of the Lord's supper. She issued — let us not forget it—
from the temple-door to walk large, as the Indian said,
abroad. She was framed in the imagination and virgin
anticipation of a saintly mind before she trod the soil in
actual mien and sober fact. The Spirit of God, that brooded
at first on the waters, also brooded for her over a human
breast. After that, all was but a process of gestation and
birth, a ten years’ labor, till the voice of cannon announced
her from the brain, Minerva-like, in 1776.
Said Louis Kossuth, “I like not to hear Faneuil Hall called
the Cradle of Liberty: it has a savor of mortality.” Could
liberty be born, then, like other mortal things, liberty could
die. But liberty, that never began or was born in this
country, with immortal life and virtue, descended from on
high through the pious musings of a Christian soul; and it
was not she, so much as the love for her, that was to grow in
these United States as in any place of assembly in the old pe-
ninsula it was nursed and rocked. I confess, as the “ May-
flower,” in the little paper drawn up in her cabin, held the
charter of our privilege, – all our constitutions in embryo
and a continent of equity in a written leaf, - so all that was
to follow of resistance to taxation without representation,
and of collisions with British troops in Concord and Lexing-
ton, till independence was secured, lay in Mayhew’s waking
dream. As I seem to hearken to his telling it as he got up
in the morning to commemorate the Lord, I catch a far-off
echo of his voice in the tread of hosts, rattle of musketry,
and clash of swords yet to come ; nor is there aught more
sacred in the Spanish artist Murillo's sublime painting of “The
Conception” than in the first conscious pleading of a people's
claim to exist and the throes of agony in which a new nation
was to be shown among nations on the face of the earth.
8
Our union a century ago, our reunion — God grant it to
endure forever ! — out of the still fresh baptism of blood, was
in the primal germ that Mayhew beheld, planted and tended
till he died. -
Even in his theology, Dr. Mayhew was patriot still,
opposing Episcopacy, not only on grounds of reason,
Scripture, and history, but as itself an ally of the throne.
Truly, he made Hooper's defection more than good ; but his
peculiar originality was in being, as Dr. James Freeman
testifies, “ the first preacher of Unitarianism in Boston and
his religious Society the first Unitarian church,”— Freeman,
himself, well named, taking afterwards the liberty and having
the strength to move King's Chapel clear over from the Trini-
tarian ground, surely lifting and carrying a heavy weight !
Mrs. Wainwright, Dr. Mayhew’s daughter, who had a spirit
akin to his own, affirms that he publicly asserted the unity
of God in many sermons long before, as early as 1753; and
when Dr. Cooper, visiting him on his death-bed, anxiously
inquired if he still retained his religious sentiments, with
a faint expiring pressure he answered, “I hold fast my in-
tegrity and will not let it go,”— as grand and significant a
dying speech as was ever made; for his belief was so vital
that part of his integrity it was.
Next in order comes, in 1767, settled with an ecclesiastical
unanimity which Mayhew did not command, Dr. Simeon
Howard, whom I shall call the Philanthropist, like his
English namesake, although he, too, preached politics, as
Dr. Willard, President of Harvard University, defended
him for doing, after Howard's death; but I think that love
of man, humanity, was his characteristic trait. When, in
1775, the British troops suspect that the handsome steeple
of the West Boston Church had been used for signals to the
Continental soldiers in Cambridge, they razed it to the
ground and turned the building into a barrack; but Howard
9
stood by his charge. As the whirlwind fell, which Mayhew
had done so much to raise, Howard relinquished all claim to
pecuniary support and ferried his Society across the Bay of
Fundy to Nova Scotia. Being himself arrested, taken to
Halifax, and afterwards released, and finding the people of
the territory rebellious and inflammable, he soothed and com-
forted them, as there was no prospect of mending their
affairs. Seeing some young men one day screwing stones
into bundles of hay, he dissuaded them, as he did not think
it right to cheat even the enemies of his country in the
quality of their supplies. By his self-sacrifice for his church
he raised it at length from its depression, and made it one of
the most prosperous in the town, when, had he insisted on
his dues, it would have been destroyed. As, surveying a
portrait, given by an old friend and parishioner, Thomas
IGilby Jones, to what is now my own family, I peruse in it
the meek and gracious features of Howard’s face, I feel it is
all owing to him that I am a minister here and that this
Society still exists.
I come now into the delighted reminiscences of many of
your number, when I name next Dr. Charles Lowell, the
Independent; for though no preacher or disciple was ever
more devout, patriotic, and sympathetic than Lowell, yet
what marked him out from other men in his office was his
personal bearing, of such dignity, and his Christian self-
respect. Nobody ever lived more lowly before God; nobody
ever lived who stood among his fellows more firm on his own
feet. In his human constitution was a poise of grace divine.
It took shape in his beauty of form and feature ; for he was
as handsome a creature as it has been our fortune to see in
flesh and blood. I remember my impression of him, meeting
once Judge Lemuel Shaw in the same eminent company, that
there was no more striking figure than that of Lowell, then
a stranger to me, in the room. Love was incarnate with the
2
10
quick sense of honor in his frame. Fresh in mind is my call
on him, in 1840, on his return from Europe, when his eye
shone to me with such affection across the apartment in his
daughter's house, it seemed as if a sunbeam had burst Sud-
denly in. But no less grand than tender was his mien.
There was iron in his blood, and a granite firmness rang
always through the rare melody of his voice, like a cliff jar-
ring to the mellow surge. Glad to comfort and commune,
he never lost in any fellowship himself; and in the precise
quality of his individuality he stood alone. Even Channing
leaned more than he. His great heart was manned with so
mighty a will that, amid all the stormy sectarian divisions
and dissensions of his day, he never swayed or swung. He
was not willow, but oak. It was a singularity of his convic-
tion and his make, a marvel of separation from party strife,
on which Dr. Channing, in some surprise, to me once re-
marked. At the ordination of Dr. Wisner, at that Old South
Church lately so much in litigation and debate, Lowell hav-
ing been chosen to give the right hand of fellowship to the
candidate, yet at the last moment rejected by the council,
was not driven into any partisan bias even by treatment so
rude. Certainly the test was severe. He never meddled
with others’ prerogatives nor suffered his own to be meddled
with. He was jealous of consociated or associated interfer-
ence, declared that be or his church would not be subject to
human authority or any earthly yoke, “’No, not for an hour.”
His most frequent and importunate warning to me was to
avoid entangling alliances of every denominational sort.
Dr. Freeman said he was the best man that ever lived. His
goodness was so perfect and so great, that he gave to none the
least opportunity to take offence, unless at this majesty of
his religious port; notwithstanding which he was ready,
when reason offered in any matter, to change his course.
When I was ordained, there was a negro-gallery yonder, in
11
the space where the organ now stands, in which the colored
men and women were seen every Sunday perched like crows.
I represented to my colleague my own and some of my
friends' wish to abolish that structure and call our black
fellow-creatures down from the ceiling into the pews. He
resisted my appeal; but some time after, as I called on him
at his house, where he was confined by a lame foot, he said
to me, “I have, in my chamber here, been reflecting on your
request, and am inclined to take your view.” How zealously
anti-slavery indeed he afterwards became, so that an aged
parishioner, in consequence of the reading of an anti-slavery
memorial in this desk, inquired if Dr. Lowell was not
breaking down | Another old worshipper, who, as a me-
chanic, was concerned in the building of the first meeting-
house, when the Africans were invited and descended actu-
ally from the roof to the floor, in unappeasable wrath wholly
withdrew.
Dr. Lowell honored the service of the sanctuary, but had
no liking for extra evening meetings of the revival kind.
“They who attend such,” he said to brethren and sisters,
“ may not go to be seen of men, but they are seen of men,”—
a distinction whose nicety showed how well he could dis-
criminate as well as exhort. The genius in him, which was
manifest in his countenance, manner, and tone, has both
during and after his earthly career been evinced, how con-
spicuously to the country’s honor, in the life and literary
works of his children. gº
Will any of the rising generation, as of that which knew
not Joseph, say I am but acting over again the part of Old
Mortality, of that Joseph Paterson celebrated by Walter
Scott, who in a blue bonnet, on an old white pony and with
a chisel in his hand, in Scotland, went riding among the hills
and heaths to remove the moss and deepen the inscriptions
on the Covenanters' graves? Not quite so ! What matter
12
where the body is laid 2 Our predecessors’ souls are in no
churchyard or grave, but as near as our souls to each other.
So it is if so we feel !
Although this occasion of a forty years’ ministry seems to
be my own, I could not leave out my predecessors; however,
I must ask, for the account of my stewardship, your patience
yet a little while.
If Dr. Lowell was the Independent, who said to me he
approved of humbling one's self before God but not before
men, yet that he had identified himself with his own Society,
while he bent to no dogmatic creed, thinking practice in
religion more important than theory, what shall your fifth
and I trust not last minister be called but a Free Thinker,
— that still odious name, from so richly deserving which all
my troubles have come? On his fiftieth anniversary, Dr.
Lowell could aver, “It has been a ministry without a cloud.”
With how different a fortune I have been obliged to get what
comfort I could out of Christ's saying to his disciples, “Woe
unto you when all men speak well of you !”
It was a cold, blowy, and blustering first of March, 1837,
—just like last Thursday, the centennial-date of the church,
— when I was ordained. All are gone — Lowell, Ware,
Upham, Cunningham — who took in portant part in the
service; and if the gusty wind we fluttered through to
church was prelude of breezy spells in the moral sphere,
were not the bright sun, pure air, and blue heaven calm
over all, warrant, perhaps, of a wholesome agitation ? I was a
born Rationalist, who in all things must see the reason. Ever
since reading Coleridge’s “Aids to Reflection” in my college-
days, and catching up with Channing and Wordsworth in due
time, I was confirmed in the congenital temper of my mind,
which naturally went on in the way of the manifesto, during
and after 1833, in Concord and Boston, modified by com-
mon-sense, but which, whenever I have spoken, has been
13
accepted but in part. I became as impracticable as my
predecessor was erect and upright. The chief measure to
which by the mood of my philosophy I was compelled, was
to take up the line betwixt the congregation and the church,
to which my senior colleague consented only because else
my pastorate would have ceased ; and for which some of my
clerical brethren said, if I persisted, I should be pursued to
the end. Indeed, I had some rather rude rebuffs from my
own friends; and an old parishioner affirmed I was going to
destroy the Unitarian denomination ; to which another re-
plied, in substance, though this is my phrase, It must be a
card-castle indeed, could it be pulled down so by me !
Dividing a religious assembly into two classes, and making
the benediction the sword, seemed to me unscriptural, un-
christian, and unreasonable alike. But I think Parker him-
self encountered no fiercer whirlwind, while it lasted, than I
did. It sank, however, as suddenly as it rose. It was like
the rapid discharge of guns by the flying-artillery on the
common. Nobody was killed ; and when the bellowing had
stopped, scarce a bit of burnt wadding was by any wayfarer
to be picked up. The old fashion none now wish to restore.
When, later, it was proposed to gather the somewhat open
and loose Unitarianism of the country into a stricter bond of
doctrine and form, and we were invited to send delegates to
New York authorized to represent our convictions and pledged
to pay great respect to the convention there called, I resented
the summons as an assault on the Christian privilege and
local liberty of the church ; and a year or two after, in
1867, on my thirtieth anniversary, I preached a discourse
justifying my stand, the occasion being thought of sufficient
moment to request a meeting after service of the whole
Society. Under the lead of Charles G. Loring, who, as
friend and Sunday-school superintendent, had served it as
effectually as any of its clergy, and who told me he thought
14
the soul and not the book was the source of inspiration, the
position was unanimously vindicated which I had assumed.
I had, previously, while this denominational drum-beat re-
sounded, called a meeting for comparing notes, as the Romans
in some crises met, that the republic might receive no harm, at
my house, which thus became the birthplace of the radical
clubs so called, which have been such valuable instruments
of ecclesiastical emancipation since. All the Unitarians
afterwards repudiated and dropped the original stringency
of any Episcopizing plan, although they must remember,
with some shame, what narrow literal propositions for union
against heresy were, at the hands of now no longer trusted
but apostate leaders, in some of the synods made. Dr.
James Walker, in his latter days a conservative man, occu-
pying, in his own expression to me, the left-centre between
the two wings of the liberal body, told me I had the history
of my own church on my side; I had also its concurrent
vote. Strangely enough, as you may think it, although in
some sort à parent, I have never been a member of any
radical or free religious club. Host and speaker and some-
time presiding moderator I have been, but not committed to
any organization or responsible for its positions or acts, as I
have no more received than I originated many of the views
and judgments that have passed under such names.
Maintaining the Supremacy of spirit, I have never been anti-
Christian or unchristian, although he, from whom the staple
of these phrases came, ere he died, left the door wide open
for all to be extra-Christian who can. “Room for talent,”
cried Napoleon. Place, I say, for honesty and free thought !
Policy leads to diplomacy, and diplomacy to duplicity, and
duplicity to death. My amazement, my mortification has
been to see how many religious people would tell benevolent
lies It is a sin or disease in the scandals of our day, from
which it will, despite the loudest revivals, take a generation
\
15
for orthodoxy to recover; and from which it concerns the
health of Christianity to be thoroughly washed, else Chris-
tianity itself would die. - -
Pardon for once my length. It is said the preacher has
this advantage, that nobody on the spot can reply. But in
revenge there is no such butt of criticism as he, – sometimes
as a deep and salutary probe ; sometimes, as that same wise
Walker said, a small criticism of his appearance and manner
and the tie and color of his cravat. Yet I remember one
sentence of my own Portland pastor, Ichabod Nichols, in his
address to the Boston clergy, = that from unfair or petty stric-
tures the minister must retire to the dignity of his own per-
suasions and the security of self-respect. Whoever tramples
on them, let him value his pearls. I am a veteran so scarred
I am now not sensitive to blows, however people think my
feelings are hurt.
I must not omit our relation to the country in the crisis of
its fortunes and its agony of civil war. Not one of my fore-
runners, Hooper, Mayhew, Howard, Lowell, but must have
smiled and almost wept with joy in heaven at your fidelity
to their lessons when the test hour of practice had in-
deed come. “He shall see of the travail of his soul and
shall be satisfied,” saith Isaiah of the coming man and
Messiah, to save the nation, in prophecy dimly discerned.
O pure and fiery heart of our great political Messiah, a cen-
tury and a quarter ago, a John Brown of thy time, and no
lover of chains for body or mind, though bearing Jonathan
for thy gentle name, wast thou not pleased with thy own
church, to thy successors sacredly bequeathed, when it sent
more than seventy men to the front in the ordeal of battle to
settle this question betwixt bondage and unfettered limbs 2
At last was not what was needful to thy felicity, among
the angels, supplied from the earth 2 Surely no crown on
thy head and no palm in thy hand, so long celestially held
16
and worn amid the seraphim, could be such delight to one of
thy motive and mould as this prevalence of the nation thou
didst toil for and labor with, when at length it conquered,
because it was purged; and the parturition of freedom, it
takes ages to accomplish, came to pass.
If an again threatening peril to the State in a sorely con-
tested election has been escaped, perhaps to the former
faithfulness and present intercession of ascended patriots it is
due. If there be “joy in heaven over one sinner that repent-
eth,” how much more when that sinner is a repentant land
O fathers that sent your sons to the field, O mothers that
bore them in pain, O maidens or wives that loved them
more than yourselves, mourn not that they ransomed with
their blood the common mother of us all !
Welcome, unanimous at last, to the old warriors and wit-
nesses, with Garrison, their leader and head. More fortunate
he than Warren that fell on Bunker Hill, or than Lafayette
whom Webster also apostrophized; for his eyes behold a
greater victory in a battle he waged without the sword, and
by suffering and sacrifice won. His service to his country
and his race, no monument — far off still be the day of its
erection 1 — can ever tell. He is historical while he lives.
May he yet continue to forward every good though struggling
cause, of temperance and universal right, with his word of
mighty aid, even as he joins in and honors our commemora-
tion of departed worthies to-day !
I also have had my light and little cross to bear. For a
number of years I was a sort of alien and exile from the
commonwealth of our Israel. Exchanges in Unitarian and
Universalist pulpits were refused me. Now I am cor-
dially asked to the conference, convention, association,
ordination, – not because I have gone back or stopped, but
the World forward I am warmly congratulated on being an
17
affirmative preacher at last. When have I ever been anything
else? I see some yet, as heretofore, carrying denial beyond
me and speculation apparently to excess; but where once I
ran alone in dangerous but not barren places, I am in good
and growing company. One thing let me say, my mouth has
never been shut here. What I could not speak without
rebuke and official scoring on a Free Religious platform, you
patiently heard. This, more than any come-outer club or
hall, has been to me the banner-place for free discussion,
however you may have thought, in regard to the great nine-
teenth-century offence and ecclesiastical volcano, or any
other matter, that I was too confident in my judgment,
insisted too much on Christian and clerical purity, or
exaggerated my theme. Wait the record of the providential
iron pen, –that the Orthodox church, unable to grapple with
guilt, has lost for ages some moral repute - -
Will my people and my friends, thousand-fold more than
I can cover with that first dear name, pardon and bear with,
or at least tolerate, references which I alone, at the bar of
God and history, must answer for on a subject than which
none has ever rested on my mind with a more painful
weight, impute to me whoso will, imprudence, impropriety,
and wrong? I know how many there still appear to be to
whom no sin has been in this matter proven in any quarter on
either side, or who possibly regard as venial conduct medically
affirmed to be a greater curse to the human constitution than
intemperance, so called. Some hate the names worse than
the evil things denominated, and must wish to expurgate
the Bible as well as the minister's discourse. To them all
this continental and cosmopolite stir is a senseless pother
about what may turn out pure innocence after all. There
are also those who seem to think it a mere matter of choice
with the preacher what he shall say or omit ! If he be silent,
it is his wisdom; or if he speak, his whim. If he persist in
3.
18
his message, they have no better name for him than stub-
born; if, Jonah-like, he waive the Lord's bidding, he is just
the priest a majority of the sensible ones want.
But I am that unhappy man John Milton speaks of, with
whom, when the Spirit orders, there is no option whether or
not to raise a dolorous blast. I am that watchman on the
walls of whom the Hebrew prophet declares if he blow not
the trumpet the blood of the slain will be required at his
hands, and who sees so very many exposed to peril in a
war more terrible than was ever waged with the sword; and
if any, even of my beloved, fancy some huge ecclesiastical
iniquity to be but as a stain that can be wiped from the floor,
to me it is rather like the unwashable spot in a Holyrood
Palace, to remove which the substance must be destroyed
through which it strikes. Even a religion—call it Christian, if
you will — that should endure and be saturated with it must
give way. With naught but kindness for all persons, I must
mix faithfulness in every righteous task; so, only to the
Christianity I am set and expected to hold forth, I am a
true friend; and whatever may become of any orthodoxy or
heresy or church, in the battle for truth and sanctity I must
not faint or turn back. I received from New York, in return
for public words, vague, vindictive, anonymous insinuations, to
which I made no answer at the time. My only reply now is to
adjure any man, woman, or child, in the body or out, whom I
ever in any way have wronged or hurt, by their voice or letter,
by telegraph or telephone, through any medium from earth,
or heaven, or hell, to speak. No slander against your minis-
ter has credit with his flock. What love and trušt I have
had from you, my friends, and have returned the same ! I
have not sought what is called distinguished society: yours
has been enough. I have found that of the sick and sad
and dead the most instructive and luminous, cheering and
profitable, on earth. I have denounced , hypocrisy in the
19
community, the pulpit, and the press. If I have gone too
far, lay it not to me, but to the demon that drove me, – a
demon, I trust, not wholly bad.
I find myself to-day the oldest minister by settlement in
Boston, in a parish with the sole charge. Have I stayed too
long? I am informed by a wise doctor, who has been often
consulted by superannuated officers, that to such a question
no corporation, however religious, ever gave or will ever
give a sincere reply. I must not be an incumbrance; yet
I would not inflict a ghastly wound by too suddenly cut-
ting the tie. To your sincerity have I not a righteous claim,
in my own 2 I shall be injured and ungratefully treated if
allowed to remain as on my own account, instead of yours.
I hereby release you from all obligation, and remand my
office into your hands. I request a reduction of my salary
for whatever period I may remain. I have no longer for you
plans of my own. I shall yield to any proposals for the
preservation and future prosperity of the church — the only
one surviving its fellows in this quarter of the town—
which, at your annual meeting, you may make.
O my supporters, stanch and steadfast, women almost
more than men, members of this church, if thwart or hurt
to any one of you has ever come from me, it was not of my
will ! It was against my will ! The madness has been not
in my temper, but my thought. Sacrifice for an idea, more
than for any body, is to me the noblest of passions. When
the idea comes, if it be genuine, wife or child, pewholder or
friend, must not stand in the way. Lo! it takes us like tools
for its ends. It alone is divine. It is God in the human
soul. It is the stone Jesus spoke of, to fall on which is to
be broken, and to have it fall on one, to be ground to pow-
der 1 I am glad, I am proud, I thank you and God to-day,
that the records of your church, for a hundred and forty
years, contain no attempt at its hindrance, but encouragement
only, in any of its servants and devotees.
' 20
Will you, of this audience, please accept my clerical por-
trait-gallery as a memorial of this day ? May I say my
free-thinking has never hindered my familiar visiting? I
have stood over a thousand coffins and by many thousand
beds of disease, yet I have been with Jesus in the wilder-
ness, and Paul in Arabia, and John the Baptist in the desert,
and John the Evangelist in Patmos, and Elijah with the
ravens and in the chariot of fire.
The spirit drives me from the throng;
Dear is my thought, it holds me long :
The spirit draws me back again, –
l)earer I find my fellow-men.
Yes, dearer for all my thinking and knowing ! Let God in
his goodness permit me to live with my kind. I ask of him
no lot, here or hereafter, different from that of my race. If
the most of men are going to hell, in this respect at least
let me go with the majority Somehow, somewhere, some
time, we shall be together; for we live in a universe.
I am sure to say what somebody will not like In
theology I have taught you not to depend wholly on texts
or interpretations. What have we in the canon but a few
sketches of God’s great portfolio 2 What is Christ but the
flower of humanity and blossom of divinity, at once de-
scending from above and rising from the dust, restoring the
Father's image and gracing the family-tree, Son of God and
Son of man, interchangeable terms of identical sense, not
two natures or a double, which were the devil, but, diversely
viewed and denominated, one and the same !
But I have not been an expounder of dogma. What I
know of religion is mainly from three sources: nature,
human nature, and the divine nature, shown first of all and
most of all in the moral sentiment of man; and I have
lamented that the popular schemes, on false principles, not
only neglect but disparage and despise them all, to the great
loss both of sound knowledge and a pure life.
21
But I have not only reasoned with you about theology,
the science of God: I have been familiarly and daily with
unstinted affection under your roofs.
Being fearful lest my tendency from my cradle to muse, to
see visions, and dream dreams, to have, as David so greatly
said, “the Lord light my candle,” and to turn the planet into
my closet with him, might prevent my calling often, as did the
man whose associate I was, on the people, I bound myself at
the outset by a voluntary and mechanical rule — although my
intercourse with you has itself never been mechanical — that
I would make at least twelve visits in your houses every
week. Often I made twice and thrice and quadruple that
number in fact. If "sick and ye visited me” opens the door
to heaven, some are there who will let me in
It is the Fourth of March. Our celebration synchronizes
with that of civil peace and order in Congressional deciding
of the vexed question of the Presidency of the land, which,
since Richmond fell, is the greatest of our events. Let none
of either party indulge any sentiment above or other than
gratitude for deliverance from a danger that might have
become more terrible than secession itself. Democrat or
Republican will have justice at last. Let them as patriots
unite God grant the civil sword rest henceforth forever in
its sheath. God bless the outgoing President, and the incom-
ing administration, for his people's good l God help us all,
at whatever post he sets us, to discharge our duty; and in
this world, which is such a dissolving view, as one after
another of our beloved goes from our sight, may they leave,
from their love and faithfulness, no shadow, but sunshine,
behind Meantime on us, as once on them, necessity is
laid; and, though the gospel be glad tidings, woe will be
unless we preach and hear.
T H E T R I A L BY FIR. E.
A S E R M ON
WEST CHURCH, BOSTON,
SUNDAY, Nov. 17, 1872.
-->
-\ . SS -
jº.
BY C. A. BARTOL.
B O S T O N :
ALFRED MUDGE & son, PRINTERS, No. 84 SCHOOL STREET.
1872.
A S E H M O N,
By C. A. BARTOL, in the West Church, Sunday, Wovem-
ber 17, 1872.
“Wherefore should this city be laid waste?” JEREMIAII Xxvii. 17.
WHAT does it mean? Inquiry into the origin of
evil is valuable to learn its purpose and use. Our
help in any trouble is some theory or thought by
which we understand, interpret, and, as we say, recon-
cile ovents. The hardest shell melts in the chemist’s
blow-pipe; is there any mental process to reduce evil
so that nothing of it is left? In distress which made
liſe a burden, I became aware I was not one, but two;
could escape from the suffering into a higher self, to
survey my own condition; could identify myself with
God, take his part against myself, view my calamity
as he the appointer did; and in that state of contem-
plation had no pain. We complain in our calamity
that everything else in the course of nature goes on
and takes no heed. For that rather give thanks and
rejoice! That undisturbed order, infinite calm of the
creation, is our only refuge from disaster and disease.
If the serenity of the universe were involved in my
discomposure, the stars thrown from their orbits be-
cause an engine is off the track, and God were wasted
in sympathy on my misfortune, there were irreparable
harm. Doubtless the angels feel for us ; but let them
not be spent in our disorders and griefs; for then we
could not flee to them at their shining posts for relief.
4.
The wise mother does not humor her child; stoops
not into its little miseries, but resists the contagion of
its fretfulness, and with the power of her tranquillity
uplifts it till its vexations are forgotten and the tears
dry on its lids. This alterative of another higher
mood, this sublime sun-like attraction in all our per-
turbations, we need. Doubtless we crave and have,
in our sorrow and extremity, a fellow-feeling from
without. The evangelist tells us, at the crucifixion
darkness for hours was over the land. When Crom-
well was dying, a furious storm shook all the win-
dows of London. Prometheus chained calls on the
Daughters of Ocean to come to him as consolers.
Ring Lear begs solace from the heavens because they
too, like him, are old. We would all faintinge the sky
with the color of our situation. Well for us that its
eternal boundless blue remains with its complemen-
tary hue to offset and relieve every dark tragic hint
of our lives! As last Sunday I walked from the fixed
bayonets, away from the desolate scene of the half-
ruined town, the quiet light around and above seemed
a mockery. Burns asks, how the birds could sing, or
the “Banks and Braes of Bonny Doon " could bloom
over the wretchedness of the betrayed and abandoned?
How lucky for the poor, deserted maiden whose story
makes the pathos of his song, that they could ! Were
the fields also wilted, and the birds, for compassion,
dumb, the devastation were complete; the horns to
grasp of the altar broken, the high tower fallen, the
citadel of the soul gone. Theology “babbles of a
suffering God.” O Lord, descend into my pit without
leaving thy own station; stay not with me in my
affliction, but raise me up!
The objection that the world does not care for my
5.
misfortune is the recommendation and glory of the
world. Let not all go to wreck, because my little
bark does! The conflagration, to those in the midst
of it, whose substance was vanishing in Smoke, was a
terrible blow. The peaceful night, the cold splendor
of the wheeling orbs, seemed an insult. The sun rose
and looked down unconcerned on the ravage that
rent the city asunder, riches by the hundred million
going down the throat of flame. But it was no
taunt, though the sun changed not a jot the line or rate
of his circuit, and set on ashes and tears. It said, all
is not lost. What a little thing your trouble is in the
infinity of good! A few devastated acres, a blazing
planet, a solar system tending, as astronomy says, to
find at last its grave in the cradle from which it sprung,
is nought to the immense order. Bless the Blessed
for the idea of Being without limit, and beatitude to
Swallow all pangs!
It may appear not heartless to note some benefits of
a visitation so awful as we have just met. First, the
mental stimulus of such a spectacle. The power teaches
not only by routine, which we might become inert
in, but breaks our habit with revelations, out of the
way, that start us from our stupor and set us think-
ing, in atonement of our annoyance and loss. A Lis-
bon earthquake, a Vesuvius eruption, an East Indian
cyclone or West Indian tidal wave, an overflowing
river Seine, that has not learned, as Louis Napoleon
said it must, any respect for science; a new comet, or
uncalculated eclipse, a conflagration in which riches
take wings of fire to flee away, - with all its
dreadful fury of tossing and foundering ships, build-
ings swept whirling to destruction, or burnt like a
shaving, life devoured and territory scorched, – has
6
this recompense, that it wakes us to reflection. The
world is a chain of cause and effect; a universe, but
not a uniform; a course, but not a routine; a road,
but not a rut; and the variety of its order, the length
of tether without breaking bounds it can spring to,
its combining of the lawful with the unprecedented,
its intellectual sting, the Zest of endless curiosity,
and makes every man and child an explorer and dis-
coverer, a Newton, a Columbus, on a little scale;
and when it is the power of destruction that is set
free, such is the predestined, inworking statute of
beauty, that every horror, whirlwind, surge, volcano,
storm, conflagration, death, has some charm; is clad
in splendor, and moves with lines of terrible grace,
wiling us out of the mischief it inflicts. It is a token
of the soul's pre-existence and immortality that it
can behold without flinching any ruin. “ This is all
my property, now,” said with a smile a man who had
lost his hundred thousand dollars in an hour, show-
ing a little tin box in his hand. In the shock of
privation from sudden overwhelming is a curious
transport, the ecstasy of a soul above disturbance,
that flings its gauntlet at fate. It hopes when all is
over, sings Miserere from the pit, loves till all the
seas go dry, sits “ above the ruinable skies’ with
God in his chariot. - -
“Those storms must shake the Almighty's seat,
That Violate the Saint’s retreat.”
Note people's admiration, as they tell the tale of the
disaster that involved them, of the power of the flame
to turn granite to powder and marble to chalk; and
to melt huge columns like dripping candles! There
was a certain glory in that dome of fire, ruddy at
7
night as an Aurora shifting eastward, rolling up the
Crimson clouds that turned to gloomy phantoms
in the morning light, lighting the gas from the broken
pipes to keep up the awful illumination, which news-
papers were read by at twenty miles’ distance,
visible by reflection three hundred and twenty-five
miles at sea, and a hundred miles along the coast,
therefore higher, to command such a horizon, than
Mount Washington, — as it were another Sinai of
thunder and lightning to proclaim an unheeded law.
For our calamity is our penalty, a fine we pay, long
ago predicted to our inflammable architecture by
prophets of combustion, yet defied by greed of rapid
gain, but coming to pass as naturally in the high
tinder-boxes ranged close together out of reach of
engines, as when you drill a hole and put in the charge
and light the fuse, or lay the train, the blast follows.
Providence? no, improvidence; and providence only
as execution of the law which breaks us when we
pretend to break it. By our punishment may pri-
vate enterprise and municipal wisdom be inspired to
substitute for the narrow, crooked streets, tarred
wooden tops and communicating beams of long
blocks, structures more costly perhaps, and yielding
less dividends of rent and accumulation by trade, but a
safer if slower success | Such the universal prayer.
What is the matter? Striking for higher interest
and for awhile getting the extraordinary rates,— that
is the matter with us. We have risked disobedience
for pelf, and been caught, truants from the school of
the divine decrees, laying on God our accountability,
scolding him for the chastisement he for our good
could not forbear. Let us know he stands not on
compliments; is without ceremony.
8
It must be added, with all tender sympathy for
the hard-pressed, devoted workers, there was no mas-
tery of the situation; and we learn the importance of
a man in office, not only to make a speech, grace a
festive occasion, or secure a political election, but to
meet an emergency which requires genius for action
and despotic will. When the elements are unloosed
from the deeps of nature, or human passion, when
the mob roars, or the fire, we want more than a
painted figure-head of the ship; a man at the helm,
not shaking in his shoes, to take the responsibility,
like Jackson, Sherman, Sheridan, Grant; get and
use the ammunition, or send the sappers and miners
in season, raze or blow up one building and save a
hundred, not wait half an hour till the seven times
heated furnace has made a vortex, turned the calm
air to a tornado, to fan and feed its own fury with
oxygen rushing from every point of the compass to
its support, to turn water into fuel, career with
the direction of the current and eat into the
teeth of the wind; and raised to its own highest
power, to collapse with miraculous clutch a stone
building in a moment; and if instead of the favoring
auspices there had been a freezing gale, might have
laid the city low. Then the hose but spits in a fur-
nace, and powder is in vain. Not for lack of fit folk
for any exigency we suffer. There are a hundred
men at the head of as many corporations or busi-
ness enterprises, any one of whom were competent
to the surprise of necessity sprung upon us with
nobody in the gap; but they have more serious con-
cerns to attend to; to rule a city, save under some
Quincy, Eliot, or Norcross, is matter of form. In-
tegrity and ability, that will not stoop to acts of popu-
9
larity, we cannot choose. But, in the hour of need,
of what use is the aspirant, wire-pulled by party-
management into his place? A wayfaring man,
though he be a fool, may indubitably err. Friends,
we must get over this disgust at politics, which sinks
office to such level of selfish seeking that Abraham
Lincoln, having the small-pox, said, “Let all come;
I have got something I can give everybody now!”
Universal suffrage, degenerating into caucus domina-
tion, and dispensing rewards of patronage for parti-
San Service, will land us in ruin, unless native talent
and natural leadership leap to the front and deter-
mine the line of conduct; and if public spirit suffice
not to prompt such noble ministry, and poor pay
deter those who cannot sacrifice individual and do-
mestic prosperity to the civil welfare, what cheap
economy to give princely salaries, but small per cent
on the millions now forever engulfed Our penny
wisdom, is pound folly. Our usury has to disgorge.
Our plan of satisfying philanthropy and drunken,
gambling, profligate, licentiousness at the same time,
by getting a law passed which we elect mayors and
sheriffs to defeat, leaving legislatures to laugh in
their sleeve, and representatives to escape unpopular-
ity by perjury, does not work. Looking at a wrong
date on a coffin-lid, a man said, “ Shut it up, lower
it into the ground: ’tis of no consequence!” Not
SO of a law which should be not a dead letter, but a
living force.
By the light of this fire, we can see farther than
Portland or New Hampshire, or the blue water of the
open sea, and read deeper things than a newspaper
On the Cape. Roughs, thieves, incendiaries at the
spot as if the outward hell matched the inward one of
10
their heart, shows that the fire-fiend we have to fear
is no caloric in earth or air, but human hatred, ava-
rice, revenge; the flame we saw is but a candle of the
Lord, to show the worse, not so easily extinguished
conflagration of crime. We think too lightly of it. The
vice of our politics, civility, philanthropy is to forgive
it too easily. We let it off. We pardon it out. Not
punishment or retribution is our word, but reform.
But our humanity is inhumanity. The moral nerve
is gone out of our discipline. After such a catastrophe
as has now befallen, what do we hear but, We don’t
want to blame anybody, we run only into compli-
ments and congratulations. But we do not imitate
the Lord. He is no sentimentalist or flatterer. He
reforms sinners, not with his tears and regrets, but
bitter strokes of their spirit and flesh. He loves ; but
his love, like all real love, takes the shape of justice.
His benefit is to cleanse, his blessing is truth. The
soldier, with shouldered arms, paces our streets, and
guards the cinders of our recent wealth. We must
have him as a more frequent, familiar figure, or surer
defence. Impunity of transgression is our curse, -
with several scores of murderers awaiting trial in New
York. Offences, which equity cannot reach, are the
Mansard roofs of American society; rings and con-
spiracies of iniquity, the party walls by which direr
destruction than of Portland, Chicago, or Boston,
threatens the commonwealth. The fire is but a figure!
Plunder is routed in New York, to reappear in Phila-
delphia. Dig deep into any municipality; and corrup–
tion, venality, turning of public property to private
gain, are revealed. The Roman eagles scented the
carcass of Jerusalem; our vultures are at hand, or
turkey-buzzards, such as burden the air and sail
11
slowly, stooping to waddle over the ground after
every dead creature in the pine barrens of the south.
Every species of wrong-doing has its facility. If a
man or woman wants to kill somebody, they go and
do it. “ Murder will out?” No, not now, not any
longer; or, if out, not convicted, or its sentence
commuted. Nobody shall serve on the jury but
such as the challenge proves to be idiots, that have
read no papers or placard, and formed no opinion of
flagrant acts; that is, have no sense or conscience.
Let us not call Rome “the scarlet woman" any
longer, when those of the sex in New York in the
name of reason groan over the violation of liberty
in their persons which forbids their freedom to
blacken purity with vile accusations, while venting
licentious doctrines, nothing but whose unlikelihood
to prevail, Sapping the foundations of sanctity, could
give their doors a passover from the police. Fire,
indeed, that destroys shops and goods! Let us be-
ware the nether flame “that is not quenched,” against
which engines and explosions are vainl
In the blackened remains yonder, we not only
perceive human negligence, but decipher the name of
God. Atheism the lesson of disaster? No, the dis-
aster reminds us One is, whom we forgot! A relig-
ious person, deploring the fate of the Joyce children,
wondering how such terror could be, an unbeliever
scornfully said, - “Yes, and with your great police-
man of a God all the time standing by l’ But God,
though all-seeing, is not a policeman. His office, or
nature, is no mechanical forcing of right or prevent-
ing of wrong. Error and sin are swept into his edu-
cation. But they cease not to be error and sin
because he converts them into better than Sunday
12
school teachers; for our contented optimism, how-
ever it insist and prove all must be for the best, can
invent no dentistry to hinder the gnashing, or draw
the teeth of remorse. We cannot leave the world,
back out of being, or escape God; whether taught
and saved in the way of his commands, or the long,
rough path of our own waywardness, is for us to de-
cide; and no philosophy, take in all the facts as it will,
can excuse or felicitate our faults.
Goethe says, “The heavenly powers are known
only to the long weary on their beds.” We shall
find them at our wit’s end, and lose them in our
worldly success. When David’s “ tears were his
meat night and day,” his foes begged the informa-
tion he was never so able to afford, – “Where is thy
God?” O, tried and dejected soul, you are the last
to question him! The telegraph of faith tingles with
its despatch of just sentence in the wounded heart.
“The Lord was mot in the fire; ” it burnt not him or
his; it was in him, his rod to chasten, and broom of
house-cleaning; we were getting proud and impure;
we saw the cities of the plain and blazing brimstone
afar off through the telescope of our prayer-book and
Bible; and shuddered theoretically at Sodom and
Gomorrah, as though Boston could send no delegate
or representative like theirs to the general court; we
accept and print now the compliment of a famous
preacher, who ridicules the idea of the fire being a
judgment, as if any act were exempt from the travel-
ling tribunal in its universal circuit, at whose assizes
our avarice and vanity are brought to stand. “Would
I were under that cloak,” said an enraptured Puritan
maiden, as Fechter went through the fine motions of
putting it on the character in the play: “not very
13
puritanic,” as the actor afterwards remarked. Beware,
lest, being rid of the superstition and intolerance, we
lose the Pilgrim worth!
The decrees, as in the old theology they were
called, are not doomings but benedictions. The quick
sympathy, that flies to our distress from sister-towns,
seat of government, and foreign parts, with offers
of aid, more than we can accept, is a sign of the
grace that is making human society a church. The
courage, that sings and smiles undaunted over the
yawning grave of so much wealth, wards off from
the centre the blow that has but grazed the skin.
All is not lost? Nothing is lost. Everything is left.
What can be annihilated or consumed? We shall be
stronger for the stroke which has but taken one year's
earnings, a tax for our good. In two years we shall
be whole; in five years in our wiser building we shall
count this clearing with flame a blessing; in ten years
everybody will be glad. Things have gone in smoke
that cannot be restored; not only walls of wood
and stone, and necessaries of clothing and food, but
gems of price, vessels of skill, pictures past any rates
of value. But beauty is not burnt; it is asbestos;
through a purpose purified, an imagination holier
for the scourge, as through an open door, window or
sluice-way, it will shine and flow, and enter for new
and larger refreshment, in vision and visitation. In
all that desert of broken pillars, reeking embers and
ragged chambers, upturned or leaning to the base,
Providence has made no mistake; but drawn marks
more exact to its design than any architect’s pencil,
or surveyor's rod and chain. On the edge of desola-
tion the next day, after a short pause of astonishment,
the Old South clock ticked and struck accurate as
14
ever in the tower that overlooked the Revolution and
summoned to loyalty in the civil war; and in a
room proof against the elemental rage, at the core of
combustion, hangs on even hinges a glazed door
without seam or rent. Ilaw remains so to advertise
itself; and to a discerning eye, the order is as perfect
through all the ghastly scene around. To the con-
flagration, last Sunday, all Boston, as one congregation
went to church; as on a former day of alarm from the
front of battle, we made a Sabbath for the soldiers
with our supplies. When the Lord preaches, who of
his ministers shall change the subject or interrupt?
He “is in his holy temple, let all the earth keep
silence before him!” No God in such catastrophes?
No God without them! A certain disease puts a
false image of flies in the air; fire-fiend, what is that
but our transformed coveting? No matter of judg-
ment or sin at all? Possibly we are sinners, though
not above all that dwell in America. High buildings
in narrow streets, and work, such as Thomas Carlyle
calls “cheap and nasty,” for swifter gain, are sins.
Larger interest and less security is the law, which
a man may even live in Boston yet break in his fac-
tories, rents and trade, as well as sums of money at
usury. An inquest is called for: let it be not only
on our servants, to seize any careless, incompetent
official for Our scape-goat, but on Ourselves and the
riches we have heaped up too fast. Seventy millions
increased valuation in one year is too much, must be
unsound: the excessive ratio, without right basis, is
subject to heavy reduction, endures the dreadful fire.
They who build on the sides of Vesuvius, by the low
banks of the Po, or boom in a million logs on the
freshet-torn Androscoggin or Penobscot, run a risk
15
and catch mischief; and wiseacres, who predict their
losses, are overtaken for as evident mistakes. Every-
thing material is moral; all outward privation comes
back at last to some infraction of the law; only our
self-righteousness appropriates others’ acquittal of
us for Our fault, unpopular as the saying may be
even from a lenient judge unused to be hard on his
fellows. Boston admires Boston; she is worthy the
admiration she wins from those she bore not, in
her borders or far away. She gets up quick from
her fall, rubs her robes, professes she is not hurt,
makes nobly light of and laughs at her hoist to the
ground; says she is no beggar, and wants to refuse
the alms, like a prince she has bestowed; a grand
temper not unbecoming, but to be prized as one of
the pillars of virtue. It is more blessed to give than
to receive; but it is as gracious to receive as to give;
at least, sympathy expressing the fraternity of distant
communities and promoting a common humanity; else
by our downfall we should seem not humbled enough.
Lowly let us own the unmeritorious causes of our
drawback; and that we have partly ourselves to blame
if the monstrous exaggeration of our distress bring
unwelcome bounty. With wisdom and equity, and our
proverbial industry, how soon the city shall rise, to
avoid former errors, and vindicate her character from
all taint of excess, avarice, or conceit!
So Boston will be Boston still, judged, like all,
yet released; served in damages, but discharged; left
intact and entire, not burnt but purged; for Boston is
not a bit of wood or stone, or bale of goods. She comes
unsinged like the men out of the furnace, without
the smell of fire on her moral substance, more than
ever, in the traits and accomplishments of her Old
16
citizenship's dignity and joy. She refuses not fel-
lowship and aid; but her honor was touched by a
contribution-box officially carried through the land.
She cannot accept gifts on extravagant apprehen-
sions of her wants. Her poor are her children, of
whom, without assistance, she can take care. She
can retrench something of gay dress and costly pleas-
ure; put off silk and satin, wear calico, do with less
wine and beer and tobacco; but one luxury she can-
not sell for charity, or any-wise dispense with, her
own self-respect. Feeling in her heart tenderly the
fine net-work of sympathy with sister-cities, beneath
all muscular competition, like the nervous system in
the human frame, yet she asks but little time, a
twelve-month or two, to be on her own feet, whole
and strong again. Rush not, O rivals in commerce,
to take any mean advantage of her for awhile inter-
rupted business career. Give her the fair and gener-
ous chance! Like old Paul to Philemon, she might
say something of her municipal juniors’ debt; but
what she has given, to Chicago, to the West and
South, she cannot take back. If any of her rich
sons are moved, of their own accord, to endow at
home or plant and propagate abroad her good insti-
tutions; if any children of old Harvard will instantly
restore the funds, on which for subsistence the college
depends, such action will earn her thanks. Boston,
for her part, will mend her ways, sanely preparing
and providing for days and needs to come. The
vessel was not quite well managed or rightly rigged.
Some sails and spars are gone; but the masts stand,
the hull is sound, the canvas draws, there is no mutiny
in the crew; only the steerage wants some repair.
Man the quarter-deck, officer ably every post, she
will win the port.
Jº 3mmºist pisign ºf 60.
S E R M ON
PREACHED IN THE WEST CHURCH,
IBY
vº-
- Y .
. . y -, * *.
C. A. B A R To L.
[Reprinted from the “Monthly Religious Magazine.”]
B O S T O N :
WALKER, WISE, AND COMPANY.,
245 WASHINGTON STREET.
1 8 6 ().
University Press, Cambridge:
Printed by Welch, Bigelow, and Company.
S E R M O N.
REV. 4, 2: —“And immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was set in
heaven, and one sat on the throne.”
You will bear me witness, that I seldom preach what is
called a doctrinal sermon. If I do it to-day, it is because
I think it seasonable and useful in the aspects of the
times. “I was in the Spirit immediately,” says the writer
of this book. Whoever he was, he certainly was an in-
spired man, if anybody ever was inspired, or if a divine-
ly exalted heart and sanctified imagination be essentially
what by inspiration we mean. —“Immediately I was in
the Spirit.”
But this statement does not fall in with most of the
thinking and the popular theology of our day. If we were
asked what substantive word of general meaning recurs
most frequently in the human speech of this age, we should
answer, It is the word, of precisely contrary signification,
Medium. This is a material word in Natural Philosophy.
Through what medium, light or air, solid or fluid, electric or
magnetic, was an observation made, a result reached, a dis-
covery confirmed ? It is a sentimental word in society.
Through what medium did the acquaintance, introduction,
message, or letter come? It is a word, sometimes very spir-
itual and sometimes very gross, in religion. By what
mediation, personal, ecclesiastical, or dogmatic shall the
soul of man behold, arrive at, and know God?
4
This last is the most important question that can be
asked. Tuet me, in answer to it, maintain, by the warrant of
reason and all Scripture, as well as of our text, the possibil-
ity and reality of an interior and immediate acquaintance
with God. That the soul has momentous mediate or indi-
rect relations to its Author, through nature and history,
through Christ and the Church and all living humanity, I
do not deny, but gladly and gratefully own. But that in
nature and the Church, in the flood of events and the host
of persons, the soul of every one has or may have an imme-
diate relation also to the Most High, I both affirm in the
light of truth, and I might cite the loftiest experience, the
most ecstatic piety, blessed living and triumphant dying, in
proof. Of all the literature, however, in which such things
have been recorded, excepting only the Gospels, and perhaps
some of the Psalms, the Book of Revelation stands at the
head. The author of the Revelation asserts his direct heav-
enly vision. In this immediate opening on his intuitive
mind, what did he see ? Here certainly is the decisive
point, conclusive of all controversy about the Godhead.
When all was clear in a blaze of light, through all height
and breadth of perception and prospect, what did he see ?
A throne, and One sitting on it. There was no Trinity,
then, when the sky was uncapped, and the doors flung
wide from the mansions of glory, and the very constitution
of the heavenly hierarchy unveiled. The Greek pronoun
used allows nothing' but unity. There was no third or
second person visible in the Supreme seat disclosed to the
prophet's eye.
It was not because he did not see what there was to
be seen. Certainly no believer in the Book and its infalli-
bility can take that ground. It was not because the Sup-
posed second person in the Godhead was absent at the
time, on earth and in the flesh. Long before, the Saviour
of the world had risen and ascended ; and, as we learn
elsewhere in this very book, he was actually in heaven
5
receiving homage as the Lamb and Son of God, but not as
the absolute, all-perfect, and eternal One. As to the third
person in the Trinitarian Godhead, not only did none such
occupy the throne of the universe, thus made apparent to
the great seer who is supposed to have had his earthly
observatory of heavenly things in the isle called Patmos;
but none such, as a third person, was visible, or anywhere
eactant, in the scene of supernal splendor described. The
Spirit, to this sublime scribe of the Apocalypse, came not as
a person at all. It was a presence, that encompassed him.
It was an air he breathed. It was a power he was in. It
was an effluence, of God himself, who sat on the throne,
the object of his sight, yet moreover passing to and beyond
with measureless and infinite reach, to fold him as the sub-
ject of eternal and incomprehensible love.
Nor was this any peculiarity of John. Whenever there is
the same immediate vision, the same thing will of course
inevitably be seen, namely, the unity of God. Such a po-
sition, however, may by some be called in question. Trini.
tarians, formalists, theologians, and ecclesiastics in general
may deny it. They may say, John, with his inspired imagi-
nation, could have this glimpse of the essential oneness of
Deity. Paul and Peter in their apostleship could have it.
David, celestially smitten to sing and sweep his harp-strings,
could have it. Isaiah and Jeremiah, with their burdens of
predictions and lamentations specially laid upon them, could
have it. Moses, raised up among the Hebrews for a leader
of the people, and a herald and ante-type of the Messiah to
come, could have it. That Messiah, when he came, could
have it in immeasurable view. But common and uninspired
mortals can have it no more. The human soul — that, on
earth, depraved and degraded thing — cannot have it. Im-
mediate spiritual communion of inward joy with God is a
possibility no longer. The vision of God in any way is a
historic fact alone. It is a record in certain documents.
It is an antiquity which scholarship has transported to us
1 *
6
over the tide of thousands of years. So the Protestants
will tell us. The Romanists in turn declare, it is a limited
fund, of which this great corporation of theirs in the Church
is exclusive trustee. Although the immediate vision, where
that is possible, may be of unity, yet for common men, for
the mass of men, it is pronounced impossible. We are
dependent on a medium; and that dogmatic, ecclesiastic
medium certainly teaches a trinity. Nay, in man's inabil-
ity to realize unity, the trinity is a device of mercy to give
him a practical understanding of God.
It has come to this, then, has it? to this pass, our misera-
ble polemics, as the result of ages of argument, have brought
us, that we can have no direct feeling of God! Mankind,
his own children, can have no feeling of their Father! The
human Soul, his offspring, cannot lean on his bosom and be
sensible of the love and wisdom of which it was begotten
and born 1. Paul was not right when he said, that in him
we live, and move, and have our being. The Inspirer is
gone. Inspiration is dead and buried. About forty men in
all, since the foundation of the world, have been inspired, – to
speak and write the Bible, – but of others none ! Nay, -
knowing God in my own breast, beholding others around
me that thus know him in his essence and unity, and reading
in the Bible countless affirmations of our power to appre-
hend the one infinite reality, - while every moral creature
of necessity affirms and takes this power for granted in
every word and act and inward motion of prayer, — I will
not deign to stoop from the height and clearness of such
knowledge, to refute the contrary assumption. It is absurd,
irrational, and on the face of it self-refuted.
Besides, observe to what wretched consequence it leads,
of shutting us up in unavoidable illusion | If John saw that
One, without distinction of persons, was on the throne, such
at any rate must be the fact in this case of divinity, as
Trinitarians themselves must admit, whether we can see
it to be the fact or not. If, on account of our weakness
7
and sin, we must see the Divinity threefold, then all is,
we must see it as it is not in fact. We must see double,
as we say, or treble, as a jaundiced, distorted eye does,
when there is but a single object. If God is revealed
as threefold, he is revealed as he is not in fact, that is,
he is revealed untruly, in accommodation to the weak
and guilty human mind. Many theologians boldly take
this ground, that we cannot see God as he is, but only
under some disguise or false appearance, as we see the
sun through a cloud or piece of smoked glass, or as a
mock-sun is painted in faint watery reflection and rep-
etition through the mist on the horizon of the earth.
To this I put but one question in reply. Is such a
lying communication to be ascribed to the Source of all
mercy and truth ? No! otherwise indeed he communi-
cates the truth of the unity in which he sits on his throne !
Throne, as you know, in the symbolism of the Scriptures,
means supremacy. Here, them, in one text, we have the
two ideas of supremacy and unity as constituting the Di-
vine nature. Indeed, the Trinity of three equal persons,
first, second, and third, in the Godhead, is self-contradic-
tory. The second person cannot be equal to the first.
In the very order assumed for it of being second and secon-
dary, it is of course inferior and derived. That there are
three great names, heavenly offices and influences, reason ad-
mits as freely as Scripture declares. But the co-equally per-
sonal Trinity of the creeds, in any statement of it ever made,
thus, like a shell with an explosive mixture inside, is blown
to atoms on the way by what itself contains. The second
cannot be the causative, commencing, and creating force,
but must itself be dependent thereon. In truth both learn-
ing and genius are well aware that the Trinity is not an
original inspiration of the soul, or teaching of any divine
prophet, or belief of the first centuries of our religion, but
the ecclesiastical invention and prudential metaphysical
construction of a later age.
8
But to any one who disputes these points, and also
denies the immediate vision which patriarchs and proph-
ets, Psalmist and Apostle, affirm, and every holy soul has
had, - to any one who sees no sense in Christ's own
declaration, that “the pure in heart shall see God,”— I shall
reply, furthermore, that the vision of him through any true
medium or mediator is the vision of his unity still. It is
only when the medium or mediator is allowed to become
a substitute for the object which its only business is to
disclose, that any doubleness in our conception is intro-
duced. If we choose to make the medium or mediator
another deity equal with the original one whom it but pro-
poses to show, then we have two gods, three gods, as many
gods as there are mediums or mediators; and we may wor-
ship, as Romanists and Romanizing people do, the Child
and the Virgin, the Host and the saints. But we can do it
only by violating, and just in proportion as we violate, not
only the soul's immediate relation to God, but also the
very office for which a medium or mediator exists. What
is that office 2 Never to be itself a finality! Not to be
opaque at all, or ever to stand distinctly between to stop
our vision! It self-destructively would lose and abolish
thus its one quality, which is simply to manifest what is
beyond itself. This, according to its truth or perfection,
it always does. º
Do you query as to this position ? I need only refer to fa-
miliar earthly illustrations to prove it. Glass is an ordinary
material medium. But two persons on an evening walk
through a neighboring street see in the entry of a dwelling-
house a light burn so clear, they cannot decide whether there
be any glass betwixt it and their eyes. The glass, like a good
medium, indeed, makes nothing of itself, and disappears. I
saw a diamond, glued to the under side of the top of a jewel-
ler's case, yet through the transparent partition shining so
clear, that a thief, passing by, might be tempted to try to seize
it, it so manifestly seemed to be on the outside. The medi-
9
um did its work so completely as utterly to vanish away. Air
is a medium. I stood some years ago, in Switzerland, on the
Wengern Alp, and gazed over at the Jungfrau, looking like
the snowy vertex of the sky, being nearly three miles above
the level of the sea. Its distance from me seemed horizon-
tally but an arrow's flight, though it was ten miles off, so
fine and modest a medium the clear air was to make the
mountain known. I walked in a hollow of some hills,
after a snow-patch, to which I imagined a few steps would
fetch me, to quench the thirst occasioned by a very long and
laborious ascent; but, after I had discovered and begun to
seek it with a half-hour's fatiguing jaunt, the snow-patch
still kept me at bay with its far-off glittering crystals of
frost, so spotless was the medium of the atmosphere through
which it was beheld.
When, too, the medium is one of organized life, we
have evidence to the same result. The face of a man is
the medium of his soul. But when, by the working of a
noble soul, it has been wrought and transformed into a
faultless medium, we do not much peruse the separate
features, – face, forehead, and mouth, – or dwell on the
fleshly substance and shape; but, through all that is ex-
ternal and material, the inner power, thought, and love of
our admired and endeared ones pass into our own bosoms.
This explains the fact, that intimate lovers and kindred
cannot, even so well as comparative strangers to them
may, describe each other's physical characteristics. Two
warm friends of a man once disputed, and were unable to
decide, on a matter so obvious as the color of his eyes.
It was, of course, because his eyes, faithful mediums, as
God meant they should be, had done nothing for his friends
but to convey his heart and mind. What did it matter
whether they were blue or gray or black? We speak of
the qualities of a voice, — of a sweet, rich, loud, mellow
voice. I hope it is not in poor taste or a heresy to say so;
but it is a bad voice that draws attention to itself, though
10
its tones were as delicious ear-drink as can come from an
organ or Æolian harp. The best voice is that which most
disappears and is consumed in its meaning, and which
you cannot remember or even hear in any separate sound,
save as a pure and perfect medium of the sentiment or
idea it would express. So of all mediums. The imper-
fection of the medium is what the so-called school of Spirit-
ualists at the present day complain of, in the communi-
cations from “the unseen land they profess to receive.
So of the great and truly perfect Mediator between God
and man. The office, the glory, of Jesus Christ is not to
be part of a Trinity, second person in a Godhead, but to
be a medium to show God himself, to bring him near, to
break down all walls that had intervened, never by any
means to make or be a new wall, and no wise to eclipse
the Almighty Friend with his own personality, but just to
let the absolute Being and Glory, in its own wonderful
unity, through. In one word, the Mediator discharges
and fulfils his work when he sinks from sight and draws
us into immediate view of our God and Father, such as
elevated and blessed the inspired penman of our text. So
then we end where, in this discouse, we began. Mediate
knowledge of God concludes in immediate, and both in
unity.
We may doubtless properly consider Jesus Christ, in
his own life and character, as an individual being by him-
self; but in his capacity as Mediator, that is, his highest
capacity, his charm, his beauty, his excellency is, by what-
ever he does and says, to acquaint us with Him that sent
him. So of all things which are mediums or mediations
to us of the Divine. As the sweet singer, Herbert, tells
us, -
“A man that looks on glass,
On it may stay his eye;
Or, if he pleaseth, through it pass,
And then the heaven espy.
11
So we may look on or through Jesus Christ. He is the
glass of God. All the objects of nature — stones, trees,
stars, and animals — may be studied in themselves for
their particular attributes. But when to the true, that is,
lowly and reverent, man of science, as he studies them,
appears the consistent plan, on which throughout the cre-
ation is made, suddenly the whole manifold existence,
organized and inorganic, becomes a transparency for the
being and unity of God. The mediation leads to imme-
diate view, and that contemplates always and only One.
So Kepler, the great astronomer, declares that through
the maze of systems, vanishing like a cloud, he saw God
passing by, making him the observer stand in wonder
mute and still. In that vision was no trinity, but unity
alone. -
Not the knowing head alone, but the feeling heart, de-
mands oneness in the object of its highest worship and love.
When we are stirred with gratitude, when we are kindled
with spiritual affection, or straitened in our sore need,
while what is most precious to our eyesight is lowered
into the grave, we want but One. We go and can go to
but one Deliverer, Benefactor, and all-sufficient Friend. All
about twos and threes, trigonometrical modes and persons,
confuses us. God can be put into no such logical pound
with triangular fence. As Luther sees Melancthon sick
and ready to die, he turns to the window and clasps his
hands in prayer. The attendant physician, the kneeling
and weeping friends, the room and furniture, are lost to
his sight. He looks up and pours out the most fervent
prayer, crying, “Our Lord God!” for the recovery of his
friend. No threefold conception of the Deity is in his
mind. That is forgotten, left behind in the creeds of
synods and the speculations of the schools. He is a Unita-
rian then and there three centuries ago, as John was nine-
teen centuries ago, and, in all he says afterwards about
the merciful answer to his request, recognizes only the
12
One Source of all pity and love. Even the adorer of Christ
is, while adoring, perforce a Unitarian, for in his adoration
he makes him to be the only God.
As the head, in the clear light and before the open win-
dows of the universe, can own but one Creator; and as the
heart can love and adore but one Father; so the conscience
and will, too, in all their work of duty, can see, in the
Apostle's phrase, but one Lawgiver. All science and ex-
perience, spite of huge ranks behind in darkness still, mar-
shal the van to this result. Moral obligation, progressive
knowledge, and holy, unbounded love, in the mind and
breast and life of man, thus accept and confirm the report
of that sky-piercing gazer from the rocky isle in the AEgean
Sea, of One sitting on the throne. May they prevail to form
in us sometimes the state of mind represented by that
modern poet of spiritual truth, Wordsworth, in his book
of “The Wanderer”: —
“In such access of mind, in such high hour
Of visitation from the living God,
Thought was not; in enjoyment it expired.
No thanks he breathed, he proffered no request;
Rapt into still communion that transcends
The imperfect offices of prayer and praise,
His mind was a thanksgiving to the Power
That made him; it was blessedness and love.”
MUSIC IN RELIGION.
ſ
BY
Nº” º
CŞ A. BART O L.
BOSTON :
PRESS OF GEO. H. ELLIS, 141 FRANKLIN STREET.
I88I.
2-4,
S E R M O N .
I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps; and they sang a new
song.— REV. XIv., 23.
God exists as a harmony of attributes: heaven is a chorus
of angels, which, in exalted thought and feeling, we belong
to, however but occasional be the lift. Francis Wayland said
of Daniel Webster, there was more music in him than he
made. A great musician, lately attending on our service,
said the utterance from the pulpit had all the marks, pitch,
key-note, and tone of a musical performance. Not a sing-
song, I trust. I remember that a remarkable preacher of
our time and country, who was accustomed in former days
to stay at my house, used to repeat his discourse aloud on
Sunday morning in his chamber, before going, as he said,
to sing it in church. I understand it to be the doctrine of
Richard Wagner, the extraordinary modern German com-
poser, that musical tones are secondary to ideas and situ-
ations, and should be the vehicle of thought and truth, and
that “the music of the future * will more and more have
this spiritual, dramatic, and instructive stamp, which some
at least of the music of the past has had. No music will
ever reach its complete dignity and perform its office till it
becomes more than an amusement, recreation, and pastime
for weary hours, or the luxury of a few, and is administered
for the elevation of the many and information of all.
Especially in religion should the music not be confined
to the organ-loft or be all in the choir, but sound in every
syllable of prayer or sermon or Scripture from the desk and
pervade as an atmosphere the congregation. For religion
in its nature is, as I judge, less a form, catechism, or creed
4 MUSIC IN RELIGION.
than a song. Let us have a larger conception of music and
the muse. There are not only “Songs without Words,” like
Mendelssohn's, but songs not set to any tune or score as yet
on record in the singing-books.
“How sweetly flowed the gospel's sound
From lips of gentleness and grace,
When listening thousands gathered round,
And joy and reverence filled the place l’”
He can have no ear, as the musicians call it, who does not
detect the musical quality in all Christ's teachings, parables,
and prayers; nor is there one single sentiment, of all those of
which true religion, in any mode or age, is constituted and
composed, that does not strike some string on the harp of
the human heart to wake a vibration of harmony; neither is
there a good, pious, humane feeling that thrills not the key-
board in the bosom, and takes not some melody for its ex-
pression. Love sings, faith sings, hope sings, reverence
sings, joy sings, Sorrow sings, with cordial suspicion and
sure foresight of being turned into joy. I like to hear any-
body hum or whistle over the daily work or stint, the ham-
mer, windlass, spade, oar, or household task.
“Rings on her fingers, and bells on her toes,
She makes music wherever she goes,”
is one pretty nursery-rhyme. But there is no need of rings or
bells on one who, like the angel that visited Abou Ben Ad-
hem, has
“A look made all of sweet accord,”
who has concord in the features, manners, motions, and gest-
ures una Wares,-
“Beauty born of murmuring sound
Shall pass into her face.”
So I conclude that critics of Christianity are superficial,
who stop with examining its doctrines and legends or facts.
It is far more, even an angelic song of divine love and
mercy out of the sky; and Jesus, its author, is a poet and
singer too. Did he descend from David, as the genealogical
MUSIC IN BELIGION. 5
tables of the Evangelists say? Then David's harp came
down to him as an heirloom, though he wrote no psalms, and
the great temple was mostly taken from, or shut to, him by
Pharisee hands. The music of his sacred concert is in the
rhythm of all the sentences from his lips, which no transla-
tion from Hebrew or Syriac into any other tongue or dialect
on the earth can quite smother or untune. The so-called
Radicalism or Free Religion of our day may see cause to
break with or refuse to unfold Christianity; but it will
never be able to plant a church on criticism, on comparative
mythology, on science of the understanding, or even on
exposition of the natural laws alone. To be instituted, it
must sing. It will halt and scatter unless and until it can
invent a new song or religious poem, in addition to the
Hebrew and Hindu ones, to touch and draw the affections
as well as satisfy the clear intelligence or reason of that
human soul which must have more than metaphysical phi-
losophy, even hymns and chants, for its food, salvation, fru-
ition, and charm.
But, observe, music is not spent and exhausted in sound.
There is, as the ancients imagined, and as Shakespeare
wrote, a music of the spheres, in which joins “the smallest
orb"; although we cannot hear it while closed in with “this
muddy vesture of decay,” in our fleshly frame. In the New
Testament, and in the Old, spite of the Jewish ceremonial
or works of the Law, we have less a system of doctrine to
be labelled and articled than a sentiment to be sung.
Were I advocating the claim of music as an art, I could
show, above the sense of hearing, its ideal worth. I should
say it appeals to faculty or sensibility deeper than thinking,
and prior to all reflection, of the human mind; that it has
for its inexhaustible theme that love and wisdom of God
which made and peopled the world; that it is itself, without
or before specified points of belief, a revelation of the infinite
benignity and pity, and a sure prophecy that such dispositions
in the Father toward his children will never fail. For why
is it that the infinitesimally minute grains of wood, metal,
and cord, as Egypt, Greece, and Judea ages before our era
6 MUSIC IN EELIGION.
learned, have in them, finer than microscopic make, this
peculiar arrangement of particles to convey and telephone
from the depths of nature such delicious, entrancing notes, .
if it be not, from under and beneath all violence of storm,
earthquake, volcano, and whirlwind, to hint a kind and gra-
cious temper to his offspring of the wonderful and incompre-
hensible Original that ordains and disposes all. “Intense
light will make any object beautiful,” and the right touch
will make it musical — why? Refute or demonstrate what
your dry logic may or can, I must take music for proof, and
all the evidence I want, of goodness akin to and greater
than I or any companion by my side can personally feel,-
goodness alive at the creation's profound centre and ever-
heaving heart. The universe is a symphony, else none could
have been written by Beethoven or Mozart. These prophets
of resonance overhear, transcribe — and, for the orchestral
instruments, execute — bits and snatches of the greater eter-
nal composition of God. Discords are shallow and passing:
all true words are in unison. In the Chinese Books of His-
tory, it is written that music was invented for the praise of
Shangte, the Supreme One. Does it not exist to disclose
him, too?
But what notes have I tried, in my speech here, to touch
for you? My friends, I have the past week been looking
back and listening to get some echo from the strings I have
been harping on for forty-four years. You know in music
there is a certain recurrence of the air in what we call vari-
ations. There is, as on the piano, a recital which has been
used to satirize such persons as repeat, in discourse or con-
versation, too often their familiar and “thrice-told tale.”
“Still harping on my daughter,” says Polonius of Hamlet's
dwelling on his passion for Ophelia. Such uses of the word
are without number in poetry and prose. But, though me-
chanical repetition of empty words is ridiculous and avails
not, but rather injures and offends, there are ideas that can-
not be recited too frequently or dwelt on too much. We
read again and again, in the Bible, that the old prophets
came with harps to aid their lessons. The parallelisms of
MUSIC IN BELIGION. 7
the Psalms, the rhymes and refrains of modern poetry, the
returns of the same note or musical interval in a merry
catch or a dirge, produce or increase, never dilute or let down,
the effect. The first, third, and fifth are harmonic notes; and
I find three things for the chord of my preaching or speak-
ing here, three fundamentals on which I have laid the stress,
and every one of them leading to its several crises among us;
namely, Theological Sincerity, Ecclesiastical Spirituality, and
Moral Purity,+ a sort of counterpoint, note against note,
of mutually essential parts. You will remember that, under
the first head, I maintained long ago that Christianity, as a
life and growth in the world, does not depend on the literal
verity of all the fables in the Old Book or myths and mira-
cles in the New ; under the second, that the ritual is the
inferior and accidental part of our religion, and the Lord’s
Supper, as a means of grace, on a level with any other ob-
servance or portion of worship, to be used or not according
as it may be found edifying and useful; under the third,
that sanctity, righteous control of sense and appetite, is an
indispensable qualification for lay or clerical membership in
the church. How simple a thing here, indeed, religion has
been l But all these movements have provoked or been
attended with disturbance and lively commotion, though not
serious separation, in the society or parish. Yet, so vitally
have we agreed, there has been no strife more lasting or
fatal than the fight of the flying artillery on the Common,
in all whose noisy hurry nobody is killed, and there is no
discharge of a deadly ball. No dissension or dissonance
among us but has been like those discords in music which
are said to emphasize and intensify the ground harmony, and
usher in victorious peace. None of the positions I have
held, can I honestly repent of or regret. But has my man-
ning or maintenance of them been such as to bear the musi-
cal test ? Have I not harped on some things harshly, and,
with over-pointed illustration, insisted or persisted wilfully
and too much 7 Everybody credits himself with superabun-
dant reason: nobody, you or I, charges himself with super-
fluous will. If you say the last has been my sin, I will not
8 MUSIC IN FELIGION.
defend myself, but bow my head. Convict me of a false
accent, and I confess and submit. I must abide the test and
touchstone which I invoke and apply. But, of the Infinite
Harmony, have we not had a reverberation too 7 Has my
prayer or sermon had no savor of a song? Says the Psalm-
ist: “I will incline mine ear to a parable or poem. I will
open my dark saying or song upon the harp.” My teaching
is vain, if it lack this trait. Religion is not a dull, prosy,
trudging, and groaning thing, but gospel, good news, the
spell of God, a hosanna in the temple, Miriam's song of
deliverance at the Red Sea, the timbrel and dance of the
soul; and it is not inculcated, if it be not played and sung.
It is a promise which can have its score of harmony, not a
threat which rattles and vomits convulsively from the throat.
Therefore, Calvinism is irreligious; for there is no music in
its decrees of doom. It can be shouted and hallooed ; but
who could ever sing of arbitrary election, partial preordi-
nation, total corruption, and everlasting woe 2 These things
would prostitute and debase any notes. But redeeming
mercy, from which none are finally and forever shut, that
strain is for the harp and for that organ which is combi-
nation of all musical instruments in one,—for the living
organ, too, of the human voice. I like that line, “the uni-
versal hymn.” There are voices whose intonation, more
than any labored argument, persuades me of God and im-
mortality. Go to the concert yonder, who will: let me
hear at home or abroad a certain voice, that sum and
source and concentration of music, a concert all the time,
which no voa humana stop can copy or imitate ; for in it
all the pipes and strings are found, with the wind and air
of the Holy Spirit to inbreathe and attune. Speak again,
I say to the man or woman. I am not hearkening to
your statements, opinions, or views, but to your voice
All divine truth for me is in its loving and tender tones,
as Michel Angelo put all history and poetry into his mar-
vellous forms. It has or implies all the knowledge of God
or heaven I seek. It is the product and voucher of realities
and convictions that cannot die ; and I can never be an
MUSIC IN BELIGION. 9
infidel while it wakes and sounds. It is more than a
whole course of lectures, however eloquent, at the Insti-
tute, on the foundations of the Christian faith. It is lit-
erally true of some that their voice is music, from such
depth of goodness and gladness it comes.
Is this more the sentimental than that sober judgment
which must set forth retribution with its solemn laws? I
answer, it is the law of love. In all nature, the grand-
est and loudest are also the softest sounds,-- the rolling
thunder and the mellow surge of the sea along all its
shores and around all its capes, while the tearing claps,
sharp gusts, and the chop waves are in comparison super-
ficial and short, an irritable fibre or skin, as it were the
scolding and ill-temper of the ocean and of the cloud, to
satirize the wrinkles of our peevishness and outbursts of
Our rage, which can only jangle and distort. We cannot
disguise our speech. If every human face is an epistle,
testament, apocalypse, it has a supplement, codicil, and
audible postscript in the voice, not only an index of
nature, but metre of character, the whole gamut of feel-
ing, by turns a flute, trumpet, bassoon, or violin, according
to the inward affection and design. Dr. Channing told me
that, during his ministry, new tones had been developed in
his voice. They came not from the larynx, head, or chest
alone: they were deeper than the organism, in the ever
more-adoring and philanthropic soul. Your voice will
justify you or betray.
There are diverse styles; and it is not martial music,
since the war was over, that in these courts you hear. I
have never drummed you to church. Drum and fife are not
my chosen types. I am not here to praise or defend my
manner, but only to recall or describe. I shall take sides
with any whom it may not have pleased I do not like my-
self very well. Much in myself I am affronted with and
disapprove. Censures of my own character or course I echo
and applaud. Desertions of me or of my ways I cannot
blame. I rejoice in my lovers, welcome strangers, and
pardon absentees. These are true notes, and a false one
10 MUSIC IN RELIGION.
it is not my business to make or strike. Those who re-
spect me, I fondly hope are not wrong. Those who neglect
or forsake, I grievously fear may be right. For so grave are
my objections to myself that I preach to and wound myself
always before I preach to or wound you; and, in this first
preaching to an audience of one, preacher and hearer the
same, I make many quite personal and I hope not wholly
unprofitable remarks | But I can, at least, ask you to like,
if not me or my way, what I like, however badly, as is said
of a poor concert, the pieces go. The aforesaid sincerity,
spirituality, and purity, I entreat you to practise and ad-
mire. All hypocrisy is satanic ; formalism in worship is
the demoniacal possession of our time; intemperance and
profligacy are a perpetual menace and offence.
I will not say there are no violations of this morally mu-
sical taste, trials in the pastoral office and calling, not a few,
severe and sore, no direct history of which, as they are scarce
worth relating, I shall ever tell. But they are more than
recompensed by its superabounding privileges; and your
minister is a contented man, blessed in his work. If any
other has more or better friends, he is too happy.
But if I have trusted you, and you confided in me, the
bond has been in that Christianity which, say what scorners
will, is a gracious dispensation, and not a curse, which began
with a song and ended with a hymn. Surely, Mark or John
would have recorded those verses of vocal music at that trans-
formation of the passover, near the Mount of Olives, could they
have foreseen how they would have been treasured through-
out Christendom, and at every Last Supper sung again.
Here I rest my case. My plea is that I have tried to
present religion as something not only to warn and com-
mand, but also to console, encourage, and cheer, a hallelujah
chorus, a hymn, like the old angelic annunciation, over and
down through the often cloudy atmosphere of this shifting
and tempestuous world. This is all. There is here no out-
ward architectural or other showy lure. We have no attrac-
tion but the declaration of this liberal, which is the orthodox,
faith. Our antique, rusty, and time-stained building is now
MUSIC IN RELIGION. 11
in an abandoned quarter of the town. The population, once
a solid square, pressing on these precincts, leaves but thin
lines of residence, and has on every side given way. It has
come, in the space we cover, to be the “time of the disper-
sion ” for us. The home-premises which furnish our audi-
ence reach from Brookline to Somerville, from Waltham to
Winchester and Savin Hill, and out through all the streets
and circles of the town. We are an often large gathering,
not a swarm. I have been repeatedly advised to favor a
ritual or liturgical service, to draw and hold a more con-
stantly full occupancy, rain or shine, of the pews. I see
how popular this procedure is. But prayers, verbally re-
peated and responded to in stereotyped phrase, so hurt my
religious feelings that, were a disposition possible to adopt
them in our ranks, I should be constrained to resign my
place. I never listen to a long liturgy of dead men's
prayers, but I seem to be attending the funeral of God, and
to hear the priest say, Peace to his ashes /
We march under the banners of no sect, nor does any
denomination enroll us on its list. But with Congregation-
alism we live or die; and for the cause of lawful thinking
as well as of unsurpassed liberty of thought, with all its
precious fruits, this West Church has not, for near a cen-
tury and a half, testified in vain. Only a gray-headed hand-
ful in this numerous company is the remnant of the former
successive hosts I behold and bear in mind. I stand among
spirits unseen. I walk among ghosts. I feel almost like
that solitary survivor of a Grecian battle, who had a doubt-
ful welcome within the city-walls, because he had not laid
down or lost his life, with the rest of the army, on the
bloody, awfully quiet field. How vacant, while occupied,
is the space | Lowell, Ware, Upham, Cunningham, all are
gone who greeted my ordination and required my vows.
The assembly is of spectres vanished away. I creep out
of the ark like Noah on the strand of Ararat, after the
flood. Is it “The Lay of the Last Minstrel”? There is
no last one. Yet fresh in my recollection is that bright and
blustering first day of March, 1837, when I stood for con-
12 MUSIC IN IRELIGION.
secration on this spot. Three members of my own family,
one of whom survives, came from Portland in the mail-
stage, there being no railway then, starting before day-
break and arriving near midnight, having been overset
three times in the snow on the way. What thousands of
mortal pilgrims have disappeared that once trod these aisles
Where they are is beauty, music, loyalty, and love. Do we
survive them, or they us and death? The question is an-
swered, not in the knowledge of our senses, but in the
inspiration of our song.
T H. H. W. A. F. C. L. O TU D .
A S E R M O N
WEST CHURCH, BOSTON,
SUNDAY, Nov. 24, 1873.
, ke
- A -
FE * , . "
- º º -
BY C. A. B A R TOL
R O S T O N :
A. WILLIAMS & CO., 135 WASHINGTON STREET
| 8 7 3.
A SERMON.
“Righteousness eacalteth a nation.” – PROVERBs Xiv. 34.
So Hebrew wisdom conceived of a nation or people, not as
separate individuals, but one social and political person, as
a compound battery is one by communication of the galvanic
fluid through many distinct jars.
How truly every nation that has a name on the globe is
such a definite, living, self-conscious body, -England feeling
a stain on her honor as a wound, as a man would ; Germany
gathering her clans, long-scattered members, proudly under
rule of one heart and brain; France paying her indemnity
and nursing her revenge ; Russia and Austria, like the eagle
and bear in their emblems, jealously claiming whatever in any
old title is put down ; America fusing into unity the disu-
nited States. We remember the miraculous swiftness for
intelligence of events, without newspaper or telegraph or
railway, among the black race during the rebel war. It was
because the black race, on the question of freedom and their
civil rights, were from the Potomac to the Red River as one
Ill&D.
So a country, our country like any other, may be virtuous
or wicked, right or wrong; and patriotism may be a grace,
or also a vice if we encourage or abet the wrong, it being part
4
of self-examination and taking spiritual stock to find out our
share in the common temper and aim. Just now there is a
popular stir felt by us all, as boats feel a swell of the sea,
towards Cuba, -an island still held by Spain,_in consequence
of the capture and massacre of a crew sailing under the
American flag; and what notice to take of the atrocity is
the point to which the deliberations of the government and
the passions of the land, blowing like the late hurricane,
converge. -
Can the affair be settled and the agitation composed by
peaceful debate 2 or shall we be driven to the last resort of
ambitious kings and aggrieved tribes 2
I propose some reasons against the arbitrament of the sword,
the dread conclusion that ends no matter of moral argument, —
the at best rough and ragged justice of war.
First, that it is a brutal and barbarous court of decision none
can deny. Our organic combativeness, serve whatever useful
and necessary purpose it may, is the remnant of the beast in us,
while we have got rid of his actual claws and horns and shaggy
hide; and it would seem our animal descent has a proof, inde-
pendent of the naturalist's research, in the same dispositions
which we indulge. The bestial propensities are no fossils.
We do not have to hunt them up in caves of the earth
They are not missing links in that imperfect record of the
lower creatures mounting to mankind. They are alive, ever
ready to spring at the base of our brain.
They plant their battery inside the human skull; and all
the blazing ordnance in the field of battle borrows their fire.
5
The cannon is our claw; a gun is our horn; a pack of artil-
lery our yell and howl; levelled muskets, pointed bayonets,
drawn sabres, the teeth we show and bite with. What deni-
zen of desert or jungle can push so fierce, tear so deep, gore so
sharp, clench so hard P. Our nails are worse to rend and poison
than any old bony excrescences from which they come. In
fight we rise not to the angel; we revert to the brute. As
essences and extracts are made of vegetable substances, all
the wild inhabitants, our ancestors, seem packed away, to
come forth on occasion, in our constitution. They are not
confined yonder, in bars and wires; we are their living cage
But this combustible deposit from Saurian monsters in
the human head is no essential evil. It has a wise de-
sign and just occasion to break forth ; only be conscience
and reason in command A shrewd old Boston lawyer told
a young enthusiast for peace, he might as well undertake to
put down thunder and lightning as war; and now, thirty years
after, the great German free-thinker, Dr. Strauss, uses the
same figure. My friend, in the same view, seeing that the
women were summoned to a world’s convention to make peace,
wondered how much they would make. Yet let me say the
frequency and violence of thunder and lightning depend on
the climate, the amount of corruption in the air, generated
by tropic heats more than temperate zones; and protestation
against causeless and unjustifiable wars of aggression, con-
quest, and wanton rebellion, are among the means by which
the moral and political foulness may be reduced without the
dreadful flashes and destroying bolts. When, a century ago,
6
British oppression and taxation without representation could
no longer be borne, there was providential ground for war.
In time of nullification and secession in our own day, when
the slaveholders' guns were turned against our own forts, war
became necessary to national existence, and what is necessary
is divine.
But what occasion of war have we now 2 None that will
stand the test of righteous judgment or religious truth.
By the voluntarios in Cuba, the bloody janizaries that as-
sume in the premises without proper authority to act for Spain,
an inhuman massacre has been perpetrated, and deserves to
be rebuked by all the humanity, organized or private, in the
world; but for two nations to continue and institute massacre:
on the great scale of battle, and dye the sea and stain the
land with gore, were a sorry cure.
But our FLAG, - has not that been insulted in the capture
of the “Virginius” sailing under it with American papers in due
form, and executiou at the drum-head of her crew 7 Shall
we not avenge the affront, as the shrieks in the New York
meeting, the screams of war, WAR, demand l Certainly not,
till we know more clearly what title that vessel had to our
flag. “Shoot the man,” well said General Dix, in our great
insurrection, “ who hauls it down.”
But the man that drags it through the dirt, after any vile
errand, into any illicit enterprise, equally deserves to be shot.
We must understand what our flag is made to cover before
we are so eager to punish its subjection to formal disrespect.
What is the flag” A piece of cloth P Bunting is cheap !
7
You can buy white and red colors easy Are the Stars and
Stripes so much woven wool and dye-stuff P
The hoisting of a banner at mast-head, as all naval history
shows, no more surely signifies a lawful purpose or patriotic
intent than wrapping it round a coffin is a certificate of
honor without spot for the soldier that lies within. He may
have been an unblemished sacrifice, or a secret traitor or
mercenary tool. A flag may be a forgery, as you know the
signet of a king has not seldom been stolen for a false seal.
The ship, flying our flag in the breeze, is part of our soil,
we say, sacred from molestation by any foreign hand. But
soiling our flag can sanctify iniquity neither on firm ground
nor tossing deck. If our flag covers that, so much the worse
for the flag | If, where the flag goes, the nation goes, the
nation may be led anywhere by the nose. -
Now no one pretends that the flag in this case was raised
over any undertaking authorized by the government of the
United States, or in the ordinary transactions of trade, or
amenably to the statutes of the land; but for the shield of a
filibustering expedition, to lend a hand to the Cuban insur-
gents against the Spanish rule.
Their rising in that beautiful island, queen of the Antilles,
one of a flock that beat for admission at our windows like
frightened doves, may be a noble act, and command our sym-
pathy and whatever material aid any one can fitly render.
But the men that launch forth to take part in it, with their
arms and ammunition, go at their peril, run their risk, take
their lives in their hand, and leave their citizenship behind
8
They are not our accredited representatives, or agents, wo
are under any political or international obligation to protect.
We may admire their spirit, honor their errand, imitate if we
will their example, cry out before high heaven when they be-
come victims of a ferocity beyond our reach, and stir up at
home or abroad a feeling of indignation against their murderous
taking-off; but, nevertheless, they laid aside their passport,
and forfeited its guard in their deed, which their execution-
ers call piracy, and we must confess is privateering, though
for an object that makes them martyrs of freedom ; and I,
for one, thank the great Massachusetts Senator for the letter,
in the hot assembly, furnishing no fuel for its flame; although
we cannot quite parallel the “Virginius” with the “Alabama’’
sent out in aid of slavery and of the acknowledged belligerent
right of a slave power; and the technical case is with us for
the former vessel, taken on the high seas, having committed
no hostile act, but with intent to aid a chronic insurrection
in favor of liberty. Yet, with a Christian nation, no techni-
cality can be a ground for war, whatever reason for atone-
ment and reparation. Besides, how we differ, and our prints
and publicists dispute whether the “Virginius” were properly
registered with authentic papers, as a national merchant-
man; and none pretend she was authorized as a privateer |
Shall we go to war against the Spanish construction on a
difference of opinion among ourselves? When the scale hung
even between the North and the South, should we have suf-
fered a Spanish cruiser to land recruits for the enemy? I
think there would have been a “Tornado” after her very quick |
9
How slowly we yielded our title to the capture of Mason and
Slidell, the confederate emissaries, who were going away I
The crew of the “Virginius” danced and sang on board, at
Kingston in Jamaica, before sailing for Cuba, and did not
think the play would become a tragedy, as Byron writes how
the roar of the cannon broke in on the ball at “Belgium's
capital” before the battle of Waterloo.
But shall not that butchery by the Spanish volunteers
be avenged? How avenged 7 With war 7 Will you bring
a pail of blood to wash out a spot on the floor? Will
a hundred thousand unoffending lives be a meet sacrifice
to vindicate and redeem a hundred? Would the end be
achieved, when our armed intervention were so likely to
unseat the noble President Castelar, and restore despotism,
that the violence of the Cuban volunteers is suspected of
being a trick with that design?
Moreover, if a nation or people have an individual or per-
sonal character, as, under the name of Israel, the Jews had
with the Lord in the Old Testament, then it is bound to
some virtue and honor in its conduct; and is vengeance the
virtue whose blazon its escutcheon is to bear? Rufus Choate
said, for a nation, prudence is the prince of the virtues. May
we not add patience, in making out the list 7 Is a great coun-
try to be excused more than a great man from forbearance
and long suffering as a becoming quality? I suppose we
should be most ashamed at any taunt of lacking courage;
proudest of being high-spirited and quick to resent an in-
sult. I am afraid we are not apt to be mortified or peni-
2
10
tent for that sin of covetousness so emphatically, in every
enumerated or possible manifestation, forbidden in the dec-
alogue ; for do we not covet our neighbor's goods in that
chief island of the West India group, whose beauty ages of
tyranny have not stained, whose fertility the destitution of
inveterate slavery has not been able to destroy 2 We want
to pull and pluck from the tree what will at length fall like
a ripe pear into our hand ; and this motive of territorial ac-
quisition, which actuated the South, wishing to maintain her
system of bondage, stirs under all our profession, however
genuine, of sympathy with the Cuban patriots in the struggle
for freedom, which we pray God to bless. But do we not
owe some sympathy to Spain, their mother-land, striving to
be a republic, lifting her head out of the pit into which by
old avarice and selfish aggrandizement she has been plunged ?
Might not American generosity to an infantile, yet hopeful
effort after institutions like our own be, and by the world be
accepted, for no sacrifice of real dignity, touched though it is
by injury no ability apparently exists immediately to re-
pair? Magnanimity is graceful and sublime as a private trait.
Is it conspicuously displayed by a nation hastily seizing an
opportunity for combat with a weaker sister, because our
generals, congressional orators, and commander-in-chief are
reported to affirm we are in a condition successfully to cope
with and inevitably at last subdue her, annexing the colony at
leisure, like a thief in a jeweler's shop, putting the Caribbean
gem in our pocket, and fattening our exchequer with the im-
mense profits of all the sugar and tobacco her plantations
can produce 2
11
Righteousness exalteth a nation,-any body of men. I have
noticed that railways, cities, towns, churches, can, without
compunction, in pride of accumulated strength, can act more
meanly than private persons ! I suppose it is because “cor-
porations have no soul”; or their dealings have given rise to
the proverb that they have none; or their affairs, about which
questions arise, fall into the hands of small-minded and jeal-
ous representatives, who only voice the insolence and envy of
those for whom they speak. So an alderman can insult a
common citizen with impunity; and there shall be no redress,
because the alderman stands for the metropolis, and the citi-
zen only for his own property or house ! Thus it is that
mighty nations, England with Denmark, Austria with Hun-
gary, Russia with Poland, let us not have to add, America
with Spain, play on occasion such contemptible parts; they
think themselves, so high and mighty, exonerated from the
laws of truth and equity binding on single men. But God
will not exonerate them ; history will not exonerate ; and
Spain, in her long degradation, has herself suffered the retri-
bution, from which no wrong-doing, on a scale however large,
is excused. Let us honor the Cuban rebels | They circulate
our spiritual blood. They are our and our father's kith and
kin, – no such rebels as slavery breeds. Their aim, their
endurance, their rising to renewed effort out of a thousand
martyrdoms, their retreat to their mountain fortresses to sally
forth untired, kindling what the despots seek to quench with
their blood, is an omen of triumphant attainment, which
Heaven grant, however long delayed Let us help them
12
with our fellowship in the spirit, our aspirations and prayers;
and, if that be hailed with sarcasm as an impotent word, with
whatever substantial tokens we justly may ; but not with
greed or falsehood or violations of international law. If
we want to fight with Spain when she is weak, and, on infi-
nitely more grievous occasion, not with England because she
was strong, it shows we are a bully folk, and not a brave one.
It is a reason against war, that it rouses the murderous
appetite we want to keep as much possible asleep in its den
and lair at the bottom of the human head. Woe to him that
stirs it from its couch ! It is an impression among the com-
mon people, who are wiser than the scholars, that even from
our last war, with all its noble incentives and inevitable
career, has sprung in part the tendency — a long fiery comet,
tail and train — to violence which disgraces the land, engages
the criminal courts, and, exciting a thirst for war, wakens
the fierce inclination into greater activity. It is sowing
dragon's teeth, for a crop by and by.
Once more : if encouraging contention is against character,
it is also poor economy. Certain kinds of industry it pro-
motes; but not the wealth-producing sort. Some people got
rich out of our other quarrel, at the cost of general poverty and
unpaid debt, a suspension of specie payment, a ruinous expan-
sion of credit, a launching into unremunerative enterprise, a
chronic insolvency; a sound basis of business yet to be post-
poned how long ! Shall we dilute our money and involve
our finances still further ? Already our preparations have
drawn us into ten or twelve millions of expense. Should
13
the trouble go on, how the hammers will be heard in the
navy-yards, the spindles buzz in the mills, the grain from the
West pour into and out of the elevators, to meet the contin-
gencies of strife So money will seem to be plenty, because
a great deal will have to be disbursed, changing hands; but
all will be for consumption, and not creation of value. Spoiled
children of Providence, what cause have we to complain of
distress and stinted fortunes, when we are so lavish in luxury
and show? We will not bear any ridicule of the narcotics
that so terribly bleed our purse, or any prohibition of the
rum that burns up our frame; and half of us seem ready for
that intoxicant of battle which wastes the social organism,
and that narcotic of shot-wounds and sword-cuts that would
lay thousands of our sons, as some that listen to me know
how well, to rest indeed, as a soporific for the last sleep !
Yet we complain to the Lord of our scant means, and
wonder how through the cold season it will be with the poor.
Well, with winter and war, how will it be 7 Who is really
interested to maintain, but the military contractors and offi-
cers who have a taste for, the fray ? In the play of “Measure
for Measure,” Shakespeare makes one of his gentlemen say,
“There’s not a soldier of us all, that, in the thanksgiving
before meat, doth relish the petition well that prays for
peace.” But I relish it well, and conjure you with me most
fervently to put it up ! -
But it is our manifest destiny to absorb Cuba and St.
Domingo, and the whole brood of islands at the mouth of the
Gulf, that have lighted like wild ducks in the water, or have
14
anchored like a fugitive flotilla at our side 2 If it is destiny,
we need not help it with our will, or thrust our untimely
finger in. Destiny will take care of itself. The ark of the
Lord, in its progress, needs no steadying at any Uzziah's
hands.
So far as we can fairly extend through the world our work
of liberation from bonds of slavery, we shall have his bles-
sing, of honor greater than if Canada and Cuba, in addition
to Louisiana, Texas, and California, were joined to our do-
main. If the Monroe doctrine can be applied to forbid the
perpetuation of bondage in the western hemisphere, Heaven
will smile.
Meantime, let events ripen other communities for association
with us, while we forbear hankering after any Naboth's vine-
yard. A griping digestion will come from grasping, like
big boys that rob the orchard, green apples to devour;
and Cuba is a green apple yet ! “I am for peace.” As David
said, “Blessed are the peace-makers”; that benediction
of the Master, were we not false disciples to miss?
We keep explosives in a safe place. Let us hold stricter
watch over this more dangerous ammunition in the brain,
nor trust our combustibles in rash or reckless hands. The
license over the door to sell gunpowder, we should withdraw
from any imprudent or treacherous charge. Let us not confide
in the demagogues who stir up strife, such as some whom
I could name !
If it be said that, on the principle of personal character in
a people, one community should love another, and a nation
15
like ours is bound to act in behalf of whoever is struggling
for freedom, the answer is, When the nation, as such, through
its constituted authority so proceeds, its protection may be
expected by the agents it employs | But any individuals
assuming to be agents, on their own motion, must be under-
stood as manifesting their particular affection, and not the
organic regard of the whole. In such advances lie the
grandeurs of heroism; and they who make them, if in no
quixotic or fruitless enterprises, may win crowns of martyrs,
and wear palms of the saints. They transcend the guidance
of statutes, which but reflect a borrowed light, to walk amid
the splendors of the higher law. No nation or institution
can keep up with them, but only at long intervals follow
after their strides. They appeal to no code; they invoke
no human defence; they look up to no earthly banner. God
is their shield ! They refer themselves to his bar. The
justification they may get in no lower court, they receive
in his present witness and final award. By that verdict,
of which no mortal government can be minister or sentinel,
men and nations in time or eternity must abide.
7
THE TEMPLE AND THE CHURCH
- * zº 7. / 2
2A ſplea for Christian limity
…~~~
THE SERMON
PREACHED AT THE OPENING OF
THE ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE DIOCESE OF NEW YORK
BY THE
REV. CLARENCE BUEL, M.A.
SEPT. 28TH, 1887
PRINTED FOR THE CONVENTION
NEW YORK g
PRESS OF J. J. LITTLE & CO.
10 TO 20 ASTOR PLACE
1887
EXTRACT FROM THE JOURNAL OF CONVENTION.
“The Rev. W. R. HUNTINGTON, D.D., offered the following
Resolution, which was adopted:
“Resolved, That the thanks of this Convention be tendered to
the Rev. CLARENCE BUEL for the Sermon preached by him
at the opening of this Session, and that 1,500 copies be
printed for distribution in the Diocese.”
Attest :
THos. R. HARRIS,
Secretary of Convention.
SERMON.
“Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the chil-
dren of the captivity builded the Temple unto the lord God of Israel; then
they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them,
Let us build with you ; for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto
Him since the days of Esar-hadden, king of Assur, which brought us up
hither. But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the chief of the fathers
of Israel, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house
unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Israel,
as King Cyrus the King of Persia hath commanded us.”—EZRA, Chapter IV.,
verses 1, 2, and 3.
BELIEVING with Saint Paul that as with the journey of Israel
through the wilderness, so too all the events in their history “are
written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are
come,” I have selected that portion of Holy Scripture which re-
lates to the rebuilding of the Temple as the suggestion for a dis-
course which will have reference to the re-uniting of the Church of
Christ “in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth
unto an holy temple in the Lord.”
But these verses which tell of treachery resisted only to encounter
open animosity, wherein and how do they apply to the great prob-
lem now before Christendom as to what can be done toward restor-
ing that primitive unity which was once recognized as a distinguish-
ing badge of the Church of Christ?
For at the time when it was said, even by their adversaries, “See
how these Christians love one another,” the historian of the Church
was able to write also that “they continued steadfastly in the apos-
tles’ doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in
prayers.”
See, however, if the light of Jewish history as connected with
their temple, the visible centre of religious unity, does not tend
to point out failures which have been made and mistakes which must
be corrected before we can hope to see again that organic unity in
the Church of God for which so many, in all of its branches, long
and pray.
Three several temples arose to crown the sacred mount between
the period of their entry into the Holy Land and the final destruc-
tion of their city under the Roman conqueror, unless that which is
4
known as Herod's may be regarded as rather a restoration and mag-
nificent enlargement of the one to which our text refers.
But whereas the original temple of Solomon, although inferior
in outward grandeur to the splendid structure erected by Herod, was
yet more perfectly fitted in all its appointments for the more
complete service of an undivided church, so too was its erection due
to the hearty co-operation of each and every tribe in the undivided
nation.
Nay, such was the zeal of the king and his people, that they not
only vied with each other as to how much each could contribute,
but when, as in the case of Hiram and others, assistance was tendered
by friendly allies, not of the circumcision, it was gratefully received
and generously rewarded. How sadly, alas! did that nation after-
wards deteriorate as the result of centuries in which they griev-
ously tried the patience of their God g
Among other things, under later rabbinical training, such a
spirit of bitter intolerance was developed as reached at last a degree
of self-righteous pride which made them alike blasphemous towards
God, and offensive beyond endurance to all of every other race with
whom they came in contact.
While then we do not at all wonder that they declined the
treacherous offer of their adversaries as recorded by Ezra, we can-
not fail to see how much of this animosity was due to the contemptu-
ous attitude which they themselves had taken towards all who were
not of the chosen race. Nor can we help contrasting the kindly rela-
tions which prevailed between the united Theocracy under Solomon
and its immediate neighbors of Tyre and Sidon, with the contempt
afterwards manifested by the haughty dwellers in Judea towards the
hated Samaritans, and even to their humbler brethren of Galilee.
And we are also compelled to note that this overbearing temper
became ever more and more offensive in proportion to their loss of
tribal unity and of all the importance which they ever possessed as
one among the nations of the earth.
But the same intolerant spirit which could thus repel the
advances alike of friend and foe, sank lower yet until as the cem-
turies rolled by, the little remnant of a once-powerful nation was
content to glory in a temple which came to them, not as the result
of their own generous contributions, but as a monument to the
pride and ambition of the cruel tyrant who built it through exac-
tions wrung from the people over whom he ruled, by the favor of
Tºome, with a sceptre of iron. Yet in the providence of God this
5
temple of Herod, though built to perpetuate human glory, and
devoted to a service which, like the structure itself, was one of out-
ward magnificence rather than of inward and spiritual beauty, was
to be consecrated with such a blessed holiness of Presence as should
cause it to be reverenced, even in its ruins, far beyond aught
which that of Solomon had ever received. For although the glori-
ous Presence which filled the first temple at its dedication was well-
nigh overpowering in awful grandeur, yet how far was it transcend-
ed by the incarnate Presence of Him who said within its sacred pre-
cincts, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations!”
And so in a far different sense from that applied to it by Jewish
Rabbis, we think of it and reverence it as the greater temple of the
twain. f t-
But bear with me now if at this point I ask you to turn, not so
abruptly as it may seem, to another declaration from the same
Divine source, which is to be placed in sharp contrast with this
answer of the Jews as given in our text.
For it was made under circumstances in which may be traced
Something of a resemblance to, and was in answer to a spirit not al-
together unlike, that which animated the workers under Ezra the
priest. -
“Forbid him not, for he that is not against us is for us.”
And in connection with this I would also ask you to consider
that other declaration from the same gracious lips. “He that is
not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me scat-
tereth.” -
For though spoken at different times and under widely different
circumstances, these two solemn utterances have a close relation
which may not be disregarded without losing much of their force.
At the time of making the latter declaration our Lord Himself
was casting out a devil, and to the sneering objections of those who
would not see in it an evidence of His Divine Power, He said in
words of deepest warning, applying now as then to all shades of op-
position, “He that is not with me is against me.”
In the other instance, a man who was not in company with the
disciples was doing, in the name of Christ, the very same work, and
to the jealous demand of His followers that their Master should for-
bid him, because, as they said, “He followeth not with us,” the
very significant reply was made: “Forbid him not, for he that is
not against us is for us.” -
Here, then, let me entreat you to observe the very striking dif-
6
ference in the words employed by our Ilord to distinguish between
those who in the one case were to be reckoned among His enemies,
and in the other to be treated as His friends. For it is well worthy
of remark that whereas a failure to be with Christ Himself in His
own blessed person is that which can alone constitute an enemy to
Him, so, too, not to be against His disciples and followers in their
blessed work (which can alone be said of one who is in truth with
Christ Himself), is also to be for them. In the words of the learned
Edersheim in his great work on “The Life and Times of Jesus the
Messiah,” the distinction lies chiefly in this : “In the one case it is
not against the disciples in their work, while in the other it is not
with Christ. A man who did what he could with such knowledge
of Christ as he possessed, even although he did not absolutely follow
with them, was not against them. . . . Quite otherwise was it
as regarded the relation of a person to the Christ Himself. There
neutrality was impossible. And that which was not with Christ, by
this very fact was against Him. The lesson is of the most deep
reaching character, and the distinction, alas! still overlooked——per-
haps because ours is too often the spirit of those who journeyed to
Capernaum.” -
“Not that it is unimportant to follow with the disciples, but
that it is not ours to forbid any work done, however imperfectly, in
His name; and that only one question is really vital; whether or
not a man is decidedly with Christ.” (EDERSHEIM, Vol. II., page
118.)
Can I be wrong in asserting that this is the one only true starting
point from which to put forth any promising efforts for the restora-
tion of unity to the distracted estate of Christendom, and to bring
it again into the perfect organism of the one Complete Body which
is the living Church of Christ 2
Yet in this very matter of obedience to our Lord’s twofold
utterance have we ourselves always kept clear the distinction which
has been so plainly set forth 2 Remember, He did not say to His
disciples, “He that is not with you is against you,” but only (accord-
ing to the better rendering of the passage), “He that is not against
you is for you.” But in overlooking this distinction have we not
sometimes thought and acted as if it were “us” or “you” instead
of “me” of whom Christ Himself declared, “He that is not with
is against, and he that gathereth not with, scattereth.” To repeat
again the words of the learned writer just before cited: “Not that
it is unimportant to follow with the disciples but that it is not ours
7
to forbid any work done, however imperfectly, in His name, and that
it is after all most vital to inquire, as to individuals or bodies of
believers whether they are “decidedly with Christ.”
We are, as we know full well, like one possessing a treasure of
the utmost value, which we do not propose either to sacrifice or sur-
render. Yet we hold it not as greedy misers, to be stored away and
hidden out of sight, but like the possessors of something which if
only known and appreciated would be of the greatest blessing to
our fellow men, and so we hold it in the very spirit of those distin-
guished scientists who having made a great discovery are only anxious
that its benefits shall be enjoyed by all the world, But, alas !
such is the perverseness of human nature, and such the force of
long habit that the great majority of mankind prefer to go on in
their old ways rather than even take the trouble to examine the
claims of the older and better way which is now made known to
them. We tell them that it is something which their forefathers
once had and would have died to defend. It became corrupted indeed,
and overgrown with much that was evil, until at length the spirit of
reform became so strong that, as the only apparent way of remov-
ing the evil, they laid the axe at the root of the tree upon which it
had gathered and cut it with one fell blow to the ground. But we
tell them, also, that in the providence of God there were elsewhere
those who were enabled to proceed more carefully in the great work
of redressing evil, and that thus they have preserved and handed
down the venerable growth of ages, all cleansed and freed from the
cankering corruption with which it had been infected. And now
we say to them: “Come and receive from us these grafts of the
original planting, and while retaining all that is good in the growth
of more recent years, connect them through us with all which the
ages have handed down, hallowed by associations with the past and
springing from the very seed which was planted at the beginning.”
For is it not just this which we say to our Christian brethren
of other names when we ask them to come and receive from
us, not an increase of holiness, or zeal, or devotion to the Divine
Master, but simply the restoration of Apostolic order and fellow-
ship, and with it the removal of the most grievous scandal and
offence to all those who stand aloof and point at the divisions which
now mar the face of Christendom P
For that these divisions are a scandal and offence, who that sees
or reads can doubt P I would refer you on this point to that some-
what remarkable article which appeared last month in the Worth
8
American Review, “Why I am a Heathen,” not as asking you to
believe that one half of its allegations against Christianity have any
solid foundation, but only as one which presents strongly the diffi-
culties which would be suggested to any intelligent heathem, who,
in surrendering his own traditional religion, should also have to de-
cide as to which among the many bodies of professing Christians
he should finally join. *
And I cite it furthermore as sufficient to convince any one who
needs testimony beyond that of his own senses that the existence of
these divisions in Christendom is neither in accordance with the
will of God nor compatible with the most favorable prosecution of
the work which Christ hath committed to His Church : “That the
kingdoms of this world may become the kingdoms of our Lord and
of His Christ.” -
For these divisions, it is simply logical to say, are either essential
or non-essential. If the latter, then, in view of the evils growing
out of them, and of their manifest injury to the cause of Christ, it is
simply sinful to foster and continue them. *
If, however, they are essential, then it is plainly the duty of all
those who are seeking to do Christ's work in truth to find where
the error lies, and at any Sacrifice to aid in removing it.
Just here, however, it seems in order to say that the difficulties
which now tend to perpetuate the divisions of Christendom may all
be resolved into two classes, that is to say: First, as they arise from
definitions of dogma, and second, as they relate to churchly order
and discipline. -
The former may not certainly be ignored, for that would be a
poor and worthless unity indeed which tolerated irreconcilable dif-
ferences on vital points of Christian faith. But it is yet humbly
submitted that differences of the former class would present the
least of all the difficulties to a reunion of Christendom.
For while we might, perhaps, even hope for such explanations and
limitations as would offer a possibility of concord, even with Rome
herself, on points of dogmatic faith, there could surely be no insur-
mountable bar to unity with other bodies of Christian believers if
these were the only points to be reconciled before consenting to dwell
together as brethren in one household.
For if only there be secured the essential doctrines of “the faith
once delivered to the saints,” then surely the Church of Christ
ought to be great enough to find room for all other differences—
theoretical or practical—existing between its several branches.
9
Coming, then, directly to the other question of churchly order and
discipline, as viewed from the standpoint of our own position as an in-
tegral branch of the Catholic Church, let us consider with all serious-
ness (1), what is the position in which we stand related to our Chris-
tian brethren of other names; (2), what is the hope of reaching any
terms of concord with them, and (3), what, in view of its unspeak-
able importance, is plainly the course which it is alike our duty and
interest to pursue. And here at the outset we may put aside as
utterly hopeless and visionary the thought of any concord with Rome
until such time as some future General Council shall so modify her
most recent action (a process which Roman theologians by no means
disclaim) as to remove the barrier which now exists between us.
For as it stands at present Rome is in the very position of
the Jewish Church in the time of Ezra, nay, even in the more
degenerate days of Herod, in that her arrogance of assertion and
denunciation has developed just in proportion to her loss of actual
strength and comprehensive unity. And so to all the overtures
which have been made she has returned, in the spirit of those ancient
Jews, the haughty reply: “Ye have nothing to do with us,” adding
in words more obnoxious still, “ and we will have nothing to do with
you.” - -
We turn, then, sadly from this unpromising direction, and lay-
ing aside for the present the far more hopeful prospect of unity
with the great Oriental Church, we address ourselves earnestly to
the more practical question of our relations with the other Christian
bodies by whom we are here at home surrounded. Brethren, I will
not disguise from you the conviction to which my own mind has
been forced, under somewhat favorable opportunities for reaching
it, that they do not, either collectively or individually, appreciate
the evils of division or long for a restoration of organic unity to
anything like the degree in which they are felt and longed for by
ourselves. They have responded, indeed, in terms of varying appro-
bation, to the fraternal appeal which went forth from our House of
Bishops; and as representative individuals they do not hesitate to
admit the great advantage of Christian unity, if only it could be had.
But they have no thought of making sacrifices at all commensurate
with those which we are prepared to offer for the purpose of secur-
ing it. Nor do the evils of division take that place in their estimate
of the Church’s present trials which it occupies with ourselves. Yet
for this blindness of vision and error of judgment are we ourselves,
however, entirely free from blame. Remember, I entreat you, that
10
the Episcopate had changed most sadly from its primitive institu-
tion down to the time when they deemed it necessary to break away
from it as the only means of purifying the Church,
Think, too, how the priesthood had risen in arrogance just in
the degree in which it had sunk in ignorance. And then how the
Diaconate had so entirely lost the whole idea of its original creation
that it may be fairly said to have been given up, in all but name,
as a distinct order in the Church.
Consider, moreover, how in the ages of growing degeneracy, new
titles and orders, secular and monastic, had almost crowded out
those of original institution; how form and ceremony had taken
the place of earnest zeal in the Christian life; how the Word of
God had been so hidden away as to be quite withdrawn from
general use. And how with all this the function of preaching had
been well-nigh surrendered as a recognized part of pastoral work.
Consider, moreover, that with the reformation of much that was
evil, and the restoration of much that had been lost, came also that
breaking away from apostolic and primitive order which, though
at the time deemed a sad necessity, has since grown up into orderly
and well-established systems, and then ask yourselves the ques-
tion whether, in view of this alone, difficulties do not seem to arise
in the way of return which appear almost insurmountable. But
what if in the three or four centuries which have since elapsed there
has been a great deal to aggravate and increase hostility to the old
order of things in the government of the Church? What if, in the
mother country, especially, there was a long course of legislation
which was aggravating and oppressive to the last degree ? What if
a sort of stigma was implied in the very names by which our dis-
senting brethren were called * What if the Episcopate was asso-
ciated in the minds of the people with an immense amount of pomp
and ceremony, and also with much that was actually oppressive P
And what if, under the influence of antagonism thus engendered,
the dissentient bodies of Christians came over to, and sought refuge
on, these far-distant shores? Would it not have been something
very surprising if they had not brought with them a deep-seated
aversion to all that savored of prelacy, as they had come to regard
it P And would not the very names of bishop and priest be to them
a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence P Nay, is it very sur-
prising that, however unjustly, the spirit of retaliation should have
vented itself far beyond the limit of redress? We all know how it
was that in some parts of our land the Church was suffered to exist
11
more by tolerance than by legal right. And so in view of its early
experience, that which was felt to have been its greatest deprivation,
in the want of resident bishops, was, perhaps, after all, its best pro-
tection.
Thank God the time of such suspicion and hatred has long since
passed away, and now to-day, instead of being designated as rags of
Popery, her sober and beautiful ways have been largely adopted by
multitudes of our Christian brethren whose modes of worship she
has greatly influenced and improved *
In all this we ought to see much that is full of great encourage-
ment; for it is certainly not a little gain to have reached a point
where, instead of suspicion, our Christian brethren look upon us
with favor, and point to much in our ways which they would gladly
See adopted by themselves. But, unless I greatly err, we ought also
to see in it a clear indication of the course to be pursued in order
to the development of this growing sympathy into a concord which
shall be not only real but visible.
And herein, first of all, they need to be educated to a deeper
realization of their one great loss, and to a more earnest longing for
that which, under God, it is in our power to supply. But how shall
this be done * Not surely by standing aloof and saying to them,
“Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God.”
Nay, “Master, forbid them, for they follow not with us,” For who
dares to say this of those brethren who in piety and love for Christ,
and especially in missionary efforts for conversion of the heathen,
so often put us to shame? Or who will venture to assert that be-
cause they follow not with us they are not still with Christ and
doing His blessed work with all commendable zeal P Shall we not,
then, gladly recognize all this, and instead of continuing to em-
phasize differences, shall we not rather seek to trace out every point
of concord in all our work for the one common Master P
For in so far, at least, as we are all with Him, we cannot, in spite
of all our differences, be like a kingdom divided against itself. Nay,
if we will only see it, we have a great deal in common in our love
and work for Christ, and there is surely a broad field of practical
Christian charity here at home in which we can meet and work to-
gether. There are these great problems of wealth and poverty to
be adjusted——these claims of capital and labor to be reconciled—
this growing danger of organized lawlessness to be resisted, and,
perhaps more than all, the fearful curse of intemperance mingled
with and aggravating every other social evil which we are called
\ . 12.
on to encounter. And with regard to all this, and much more which
might be mentioned, there is a loud call for all the followers of
Christ to stand shoulder to shoulder and work together with one
united mind and will. * *
Moreover, in the matter of expounding the word of God, are we
quite sure that the grace of Holy Orders is essential to qualify any
true and faithful believer to proclaim the blessed gospel of life 2
Do we not recognize the zeal and ability of learned and devoted
laymen in this matter, and is there not a growing feeling that there
are many among them to whom we would gladly listen as they speak
from the heart the wonderful message of grace P Is, then, I ask
again, any ordination whatever absolutely necessary (however desir-
able it may be), in order that godly and learned disciples of Christ
should be able to declare, to the edification of others, what God
hath done for their souls P For if it be so in truth, then surely we
have drawn the lines far more closely than was done by the primi-
tive Church, and certainly far more closely than they were drawn in
the ancient Church of Israel. For just on this point I beg leave to
quote again from the learned writer before cited, the following lan-
guage in relation to the service of the synagogue: “Neither the
leader of the devotions, nor the mathurgeman, nor yet the preacher
required ordination. That was reserved for the rule of the congre-
gation, whether in legislation or administration, doctrine or disci-
pline. The only points required in the preacher were the necessary
qualifications, both mental and moral. That this practice and the
absolute liberty of teaching subject to the authority of the chief
ruler of the synagogue, formed important links in the Christianiza-
tion of the world, is another evidence of that wonder-working rule
of God which brings out marvellous results through the orderly and
natural succession of events—-nay, orders these means with a view
to their ultimate issue.” (EDERSHEIM, Vol. I., pp. 445 and 446.)
Powerful words these, my brethren, not only to show what was
the practice of the primitive Church as the legitimate successor to
the ancient Church of God, but most weighty, also, as showing
what was the practice in that ancient Church of Israel at the very
time when our Lord gave it the sanction of His own blessed Pres-
ence and gracious participation. If, then, we would win those
Christian brethren who now stand apart from us to a realizing sense
of their one great loss, and to a true appreciation of that whole
sacramental system which they now so greatly undervalue, how shall
it be so hopefully attempted as by drawing closer together on all
13
those other points wherein we are most nearly at one P Nay, how
can the initiatory steps be so well taken as by distinguishing most
carefully between those functions which are essentially priestly in
the sacred ministry, and those which are shared (to a certain extent
at least) by all who may be otherwise qualified to exercise them in
the whole estate of Christendom.
And among the latter, it is humbly submitted, may be placed,
under proper qualifications and limitations, the privilege of expound-
ing and teaching the blessed word of God.
If, then, we are prepared to recognize in others besides the or-
dained ministry of the Church those who are learned and godly
teachers of the word—if we see in them zealous and efficient co-
laborers in the broad fields of practical Christian charity, and if in
Some such way as a wise and loving spirit might devise we could
only make it possible to draw nearer to them and have them draw
nearer to us on the lines of Christian fellowship thus before indi-
cated, we should surely be doing much to beget on the part of these
our brethren the desire for very much more.
For then, indeed, when we had gone to the utmost limit in
our deep longing for Christian unity, we should still reach a point
beyond which we could go no further without surrendering that
which we hold to be all essential in the order and discipline of the
Church. But then, having stretched out our hand so far, it would
call most loudly on those to whom it was extended to reach out and
grasp it. For even though thus much should be granted to those
upon whom no hands had been laid in churchly ordination, yet be-
yond this would still be the chancel and the altar. And to this
none could approach in the way of priestly administration other
than those who were thereto lawfully called and appointed. Surely
nothing could so emphasize this distinction nor lead to such hopeful
inquiry in regard to its meaning as just the spirit which would lead
us to go to the farthest limit in conceding all except just that one
thing which we have no power to yield. For in recognizing all
which we hold in common with others, and giving credit for all in
which they may even excel us, we thus recognize them as being
with Christ, even though they follow not with us. And thus meet-
ing them in the very mind of Christ, we shall most surely all be
found in that spirit of brotherly love which will make it least diffi-
cult on the one side to acknowledge a great want, and on the other
to avoid all needless difficulties in the way of making it good.
But it is time that these considerations, which have been already
14
too much prolonged, should be brought to a close. Whether they
contain aught which is deserving of serious attention is for those
to whom they are addressed to decide.
But it is also for them to consider whether there is anything in
them which applies especially to the Church in our own well-favored
diocese, and to the great work wherein, under God, she may be al-
lowed to take a leading part. To my own mind it seems very clear
that yet unmeasured possibilities are opening out before us, and
that those will enjoy a great privilege who, in the coming years,
shall be permitted to find their sphere of work within her borders.
Saving the presence of one to whom anything like personal praise
would be an offence, I would not hesitate to express my firm belief
that nothing has been more happy than the influence of his gener-
ous Christian sympathy in relieving from all unnecessary sharpness
the lines of separation between our own and other communions in
this great city and diocese. Long may that influence continue and
increase, and with the divine blessing resting upon it, may it so
reach the hearts and minds of those, who though not following with
us are yet with our one common Lord, that instead of making offers
only to ensnare, they may come and say to us in the like spirit of
large Christian charity : “Brethren, ye have entered upon a great
and arduous work to the glory of the same God whom we also love
and worship. We pray you let us come and build with you, for we
seek your God as ye do.”
And be it ours not to repel, but to accept and reward in the very
spirit of generosity with which King Solomon welcomed and repaid
the service of his brother, King of Tyre.
Thus, then, as we build our sanctuaries for the Lord—whether
grand cathedral or lowly parish church—may they become each and
all, not only visible expressions of a truly Apostolic Episcopate and
recognized centres of earnest work for Christ, but also welcome
spiritual homes for all who will accept them as being none other
than “the house of God, none other than the gate of Heaven.”
Let us remember, too, that he who called the ancient temple of
Jerusalem “the house of prayer for all nations” spake also of an-
other temple which should be reared, even though that magnificent
structure should belaid in ruins. And So we build our material temples,
which are subject to decay, and consecrate them to the Lord of Life,
in the full comfort of that precious hope which His glorious promise
hath made forever sure. In this hope let us begin and carry on the
great work which now demands our earnest and united action, until
15
that which already exists in the faith of its certain consummation
shall, in the form of a noble cathedral, receive its solemn consecra-
tion as a glorious Christian temple of the Lord.
And then, as the years roll on until it shall become venerable
with age, it shall all, in every part, from its foundation to the cross
on its spire, be inwrought with the endless lives of multitudes which
shall be built in as lively stones in the true temple of our God, “the
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
— — —--> O-º--———
s E H M O N
*--- BY -
(A
REV. ELISH? E. CASTER,
Pastor of the Jefferson Avenue M. E. Church,
"THE GOVERNMENT OF CHRIST"
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H. e y. J O H. N. P. SC O TT, Ed it or,
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DETROIT, MICH.
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Wol. 2, SEPTEMBER, 1873, No. 1.
THE GOVERNMENT OF C#f IST :
ITS NATURE, PROGRESSIVENESS AND PERFETUITY.
A S THE TER, TNAL C INT
REV E L IS H. A. E. C. A S T E R,
Pastor of the Jefferson Avenue M, E, Church,
ISAIAH ix. 7 : —Of the increase of His government and peace, there shall
be no end.
The one great theme of this wonderful Bible, is Jesus. “To
Him gave all the prophets witness.” Of Him all the evangelists
and apostles bear testimony. He is the scope of the whole. Take
Him and the Salvation. He has promised from it, and very little
remains to enlist our admiration or challenge our belief. In Setting
forth His marvelous character, it displays a wealth of appellation
really astonishing — not fewer than one hundred and thirty
These titles include every possible quality of excellence, from
the almightiness that speaks worlds, into being by the simple
word of His power, to the spotless innocence of the Babe of
Bethlehem. From the born King who rules by divine right, to
the Man of Sorrows, obedient to law, groaning on Calvary.
From Immanuel, (God with us,) forgiving iniquity, transgres-
sion and sin, to the atoning Lamb, giving Himself a sacrifice in
death, to open a new and living way of approach to the throne
//

2 THE DETROIT PULP IT.
of mercy. In our text. He is brought before us in the character
of Governor.
We stop not now to speak of Him as the Creator and Con-
Server of the material universe, over which He exercises absolute
control, and under whose government the millions of worlds
that are scattered throughout immensity move with the same
unerring regularity and tremendous velocity that marked them
When first flung from His creative hand, but, rather, let us con-
template Him as a governor ruling over a spiritual realm, in the
hearts and affections of men, in which His royal power is exer-
cised for the advantage of all.
The foundation of the kingdom of Christ was laid in Old
Testament times. The first Messianic promise is found in one
of its early chapters, and was proclaimed almost simultaneously
with the fall; but it was only a promise, and ages of tumult and
darkness swept by before the angels were permitted to sing its
fulfillment in the advent of the promised Seed – “Unto you is
born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ
the Lord.” But during this vast interem, the prophets, by their
sublime predictions, prevented the world from losing sight of the
promised Deliverer. Outside of that divinely inspired succession
which swept down from Adam to Christ, and the families with
which they were related, there were, indeed, doubt and confusion;
insomuch, that nearly all the objects and phenomena in the visi-
ble world were regarded as preternatural and endowed with
divinity. All nature teemed with fetiches, and resounded with
oracular communications. And, hence, worship was paid to vis-
ible and tangible objects instead of the spiritual and unseen God.
The good received was traced no higher than the instrument or
channel through which it was given, and so rest was sought in
second causes instead of the Eternal, First Cause.
But this primitive polytheism was swept away in the deluge,
and monotheism was again Supreme, but did not long maintain
its supremacy. The one Supreme Being must have qualities or
attributes, and each attribute must be the Supreme Being, as
each required all the rest to complete the idea of such a being.
Each attributal manifestation was, therefore, a divinity, and the
result was as before — “gods many and lords many.” The sun,
the moon, the stars, and almost every thing in the animal and
vegetable world, together with reptiles, insects, birds, creatures
THE GOVERNMENT OF CHRIST. 3.
real and imaginary were deified, till the gardens, the fields, the
forests, the earth and the heavens were full of the objects of a
false and superstitious worship. Greece alone multiplied her
gods to thirty thousand. Rome incorporated with her own those
of the conquered nations and provinces which submitted to her
arms, ’till the number of them could scarcely be told. The gods
of Egypt were numerous, groveling and contemptible. Canaan
itself was full of heathenism.
'And such was the moral condition of the world when the
period spoken of in the Scriptures as the fullness of time, arrived.
Every thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God
had been swept away once, and now, again, all false religions
were to receive a death wound. Once more God was about to
avenge His injured character, and expose the utter ignorance of
idolatry, not by deluge, conflagration or sword, but by the intro-
duction of a dispensation, in the light of which, not only all
false religions, but the symbolical rites of the Mosaic institute
also, should fade away in the soft and mellow light of the rising
morning, -
Two great sections of time had been marked on the chart of
God’s sublime purposes, one past and the other measured up to.
The time is full! The rallying point for the faith and hope of
all ages is reached The true propitiation is presented—the
powerful advocate with God, the friend of man, Jesus the Sav-
iour comes / The uplifted arm of Infinity throws wide the prison
doors, proclaims liberty to a world’s captives, and the deep and
pressing want of humanity is met. . -
And now, the bright dawn of that far-distant period which
the prophets saw glimmering through ages of darkness having
arrived, Jesus, the governor of prophecy, becomes the center of a
large circle of supernatural things. If there was a confluence of
fitness for His appearance at the actual fullness of the time,
So there was a concentration of marvels in and around His birth,
and life, and death, which proclaimed Him the long expected
One. See how the tense of the moral world is now changed.
Ineffable light floods the mansions of glory, and there is “a rustl-
ing of white robes!” A tremor goes through the trembling
gates of hell and the spoiling of principalities and powers begins
—begins, and continues. Eighteen centuries glide by, and we
find ourselves to-day sweeping along under full sail, with great
4 THE DETRo1T PULPIT.
hopes and assuring promises that the government of Christ shall
ere long become universal, and opposing powers be destroyed.
Having said thus much introductively, let us now note three
things specified in the text as distinguishing the kingdom or
government of Christ : Its nature, its progressiveness, its perpe-
tuity.
I. NATURE :
As to its nature, it is said to be peace. In the preceding con-
text, Christ is called the “Prince of Peace; ” that is, the author
and dispenser of peace, He who rules by peace, and whose gov-
ernment always tends to increase and perfection.
But let us not mistake here. The government of Christ is
not so pacific as to be in accord and at peace with sin. He came
into this world to antagonize sin, to invade its domain and wage
an uncompromising warfare against it. Devils knew this. They
did not essay to dispute it. They only complained that Jesus
had, according to their chronology, made a mistake and invaded
their dominions before the proper time – “What have we to do
With thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to tor-
ment us before the time 2 °
The government of Christ is said to be peace, because He
takes from human hearts the disquieting and disturbing element,
sin, and imparts “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy
Ghost.” }
See how this is illustrated in the individual case: Here is a
man whose character is the antithesis of every virtuous quality
—drunken, profane, pugilistic, libidinous, “full of all subtlety
and mischief, a child of the devil, an enemy of all righteous-
mess”— the Saviour comes and lays claim to his heart. But the
forces that have usurped control of that heart and ruled and gov-
erned it so long, can’t brook to be dispossessed, and they will
contest the title of the new claimant. The contest begins, the
struggle is protracted, the issue at first hangs in doubt, but Jesus
the Conqueror at length triumphs! wins the victory ! wins under
the battle-cry — “first pure, then peaceable !” And this, breth-
ren, is the first and only condition of peace under the govern-
ment of Christ. He does not come with “confused noise of the
warrior and garments rolled in blood,” but He does come “with
burning and fuel of fire.”
If this be true of individuals, it is also true of nations.
THE GovKRNMENT OF CHRIST. 5
Christ purposes, for example, to set up His government in Rome.
To do this He commissions His ministers and sends them forth
with terms of peace. There is not a condition but will prove
advantageous to the empire. But the imperials see in them
naught but the subversion of their own cherished and time-hon-
ored constitution and rites, and so they draw the thirsty blade
and behead Paul, they seize Peter and nail him to the cross, they
lay hold on John and plunge him into boiling oil, and send
others away bruised and bleeding. But the seed is sown, the
work is begun, the fire is kindled, imperial edicts cannot quench
it, and ere three centuries pass by, Rome is taken, and an empire
embracing one hundred and twenty million souls submits to the
government of Christ'
The gospel is seldom permitted to take peaceable possession
of new territory. “The heathen rage, and the people imagine a
vain thing. The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rul-
ers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His
annointed, saying, let us break their bands asunder, and cast
away their cords from us.” Priest-ridden and Papal-cursed
Mexico is saying so now. But our King is on the Holy Hill of
Zion, and the land of the Montezumas shall be His, despite the
rage of devils, the bulls of popes, and the envy of priests!
II. PROGRESSIVENESS:
The Second distinguishing feature of Christ's government, is
its progressiveness. “Of the increase of His government and
peace there shall be no end.” This brings us face to face with
the exultant shout of the enemies of the Cross, that the religion
of Jesus has proved a failure | Let us dwell here for a little
time. -
The prophecies that are Messianic are peculiar and distinct-
ive in their character. While they cover a vast field, even from
fall to judgment day, they are not in the order of a connected
series, but are found in detached portions, and yet so manifestly
related in spirit and design, as to constitute a harmonious whole.
For example, in one place Christ's incarnation is foretold; in
another, the place of His birth; in still another, the object of His
advent; then the manner of His death, His resurrection and
ascension ; and, finally, the call of the Gentiles, and the assur-
ance of the wide diffusion and ultimate triumph of His gospel.
The last of these is set forth with especial clearness in both the
6 THE DETROIT PULPIT.
Old and New Testaments. Daniel proclaims it under the mixed
figure of a stone-kingdom and a mountain-kingdom, or a stone
disengaged from the mountain side, and rolling on with acceler-
ated velocity’till it becomes a great mountain, filling the whole
earth. And towards the close of the Apocalypse, great voices in
heaven are heard proclaiming — “the kingdoms of this world
are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.”
When Christ entered upon His great missionary work, the
work of converting a world, He associated with himself twelve
men as helpers in the vast undertaking. From this small and
Seemingly insignificant beginning, His kingdom advanced tri-
umphantly to the sublimest conquests, ’till its ranks were filled
with both Jews and Gentiles, and a shock of moral power went
through the heathen world that shook it to its foundation.
A half century now glides by ; the Governor of the new
kingdom has been put to death, His chosen twelve have all fin-
ished their course — nearly all of them martyrs to the faith they
consecrated their lives to disseminate. And now that the leaders
are gone, and the young kingdom is deprived of the heaven-
inspired zeal of its founders, will it not falter and die? Run
along to the close of the first century and listen, and you will
hear an emphatic NO from the multitudes who by God’s grace
are born again and sing redeeming love, – the original twelve
have become a great multitude, five hundred"thousand strong!
And now, the centuries come and go. At times the progress
of the kingdom is arrested in its course, and its grand operations
well nigh suspended; but, as the moving waters of the mighty
river gather increased force when resisted, and, in their rising,
sweep away the obstructions that impede them, so it takes on
accumulated strength when opposed, and, carrying away every
barrier, makes headway against earth and hell.
But what of the nineteenth century P What of the moral
outlook to-day ? Gloomy, say some ; cheering, say we. Cheer-
ing, from the fact that there was never a time, from the incep-
tion of Christianity to the present hour, when it gave so much
visible promise of becoming universal, as it does now. There
was never a time when the social, civil, and moral world was so
penetrated with religious inquiry as it is now. We do not mean
that every inquiry is in the spirit of credence, much of it comes
of pre-induced skepticism and downright infidelity, but even
THE GovKRNMENT OF CHRIST. 7
this shall inure to the benefit of Christianity, for the Infinite
God has a way of putting even the enemies of His Son under
tribute to His kingdom. See this illustrated:
Herod, Christ's first enemy among men, inspired by demon
hate, essays to crush his supposed rival, and so cuts a gap two
Ayears wide among the innocents of Palestine; but in doing his
bloody work, he, unconsciously, becomes an instrument in the
fulfillment of prophecy: “A voice was heard in Ramah, lamen-
tation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children.”
Voltaire may set up his Genevan press, and avow his purpose
to undermine in thirty-three days the kingdom which Christ was
thirty-three years in establishing; but the failure shall be most
sublime, and the press shall be made to print Bibles—the laws
by which that kingdom is governed.
Thomas Paine may sport with the sacred name of Him who
died for the world, Smack Satisfaction from scoff and blasphemy,
and launch the “Age of Reason’ against the Bible and Christ's
religion; but the daring impiety shall arouse a Sturdy old
English prelate across the ocean, and from his furbished pen shall
come an antidote in the form of “Watson's Apology,” which
shall be greater in blessing than that in cursing. -
Stephen Girard, the French infidel, may found a great col-
lege in Philadelphia, and in the bequest provide for the exclusion
of all clergymen as instructors, or visitors even, intending there-
by to ostracize Christianity from it; but christian laymen, with
hearts touched with heaven’s own fire, shall teach Christianity,
sing the songs of Zion, read the Bible and offer prayers within
its walls daily for fifty years. Men may try to limit the Holy
One of Israel, and shut Him out of the department of means,
but He will be seen in overruling results, and putting them under
tribute to the increasing government of His Son.
If we trace this thought a little farther, we shall be still more
gratified to find that not only individuals, against their will,
have been employed His counsel to fulfill, but that other things
in the opposing world have been made to
“Pull at Christ's triumphal car.”
See how cruel war has been overruled in the interests of Christ-
ianity. In 1839 the British, solely from mercenary considera-
tions, flood China with opium from India. Against this wick-
8 THE DETROIT PULP IT.
edness the Chinese demur. War ensues. And in the final peace
treaty the Almighty is seen to be chief arbiter, throwing open
the gates of the “Flowery Kingdom’ to the elevating influ-
ences of the religion of Jesus, and so directing a blow against
hoary Confucianism.
Previously to the Crimean war, the Ottoman empire was
practically shut up to Moslemism alone, and if a Mohammedan
of Turkish birth became a Christian, he incurred the liability of
being put to death. But God had a time and a way for over-
throwing this hateful tyranny, and proclaiming to forty millions
of enslaved and misguided souls, the freest religious toleration.
See how He did this: There were found among her subjects in
European Turkey, those who adhered to the Greek Church, and
a handful of the same faith in Asiatic Turkey. Over these the
Czar Nicholas claimed a protectorate. This led Turkey to declare
war against Russia; but finding herself unable to cope with this
mighty power, she was forced into an alliance with England,
France and Sardinia. Russia was beaten; but when the smoke
of battle had cleared away, Islamism was found to have received
a mortal wound, and the crescent was at half-mast. And so the
Sultan by royal decree gave all persons in his dominions of what-
ever birth, equal rights and justice, and liberty to embrace what-
ever religion they chose / And So, through the clashing of arms
the head of the Moslem power was compelled to open a wide
door to the all-conquering Saviour.
Italy is bigoted, cruel and intolerant, ruled in the interests of
the Papacy. But yonder in Nice a babe is born who shall assist
in breaking the Temporal Power, in forming a United Italy, in
making Victor Emanuel the Soverign of twenty millions of peo-
ple, and in giving Rome itself a moral shock that shall end in
the abolition of Religious Corporations, and in 1873, give to the
seven-hilled city alone fourteen Protestant congregations, and the
five hundred thousand priests that have hung like an incubus
upon the progressive energies of the nation, shall find other
work to do.
Turn from Italy and Garibaldi and take only a glance at our
own country. For more than two hundred years the Almighty
was virtually bolted out of a part of this nation. In kindness
and in forbearing love He knocked long for admittance, but this
was only made an encouragement to sin more and more. His
THE Gover NMENT of CHRIST. 9
embassadors from the North were hanged, or whipped and sent
across the line. The sovereignty of the States was proclaimed,
the Confederacy formed, the cannon unlimbered and the sword
drawn; but above the wild sea of human passion, and the dark
Workings of subtle policy and ambition, was an unseen, Almighty
presence, molding and fashioning a higher and purer national
life.
And so when the hoarse voice of the cannon was heard,
instead of announcing the shadows gone down in the dial of
Ahaz, and the sun eclipsed at high noon, it pealed out a merry
anthem of “liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison
to them that were bound.” And so rebellion was harnessed for
the increase of Christ’s government! .*
But let us now turn away from war and scenes of bloody
strife, and look for a moment at the trade and commerce of the
World, at the arts and Sciences, at the inventions of men, and see
how they all go hand in hand with Christianity to win to Christ
the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession. They are
the fore-chariots of His train, “breaking down the barriers,
driving back the sullen bolts to the gateway of nations, opening
wide doors to the gospel and the heralds of salvation.”
Encouraged by the hope, and lured by the prospect of gain,
the merchant sends his Strong-bottomed ship seaward to traffic
with the nations afar off. This furnishes means of transporta-
tion and travel, and so the Church, instead of building ships of
her own at great expense, employs these merchantmen to carry
her missionaries, and so bear to those nations the unsearchable
riches of Christ. It augurs much for the success of the gospel
that the ships of the rivers, and lakes, and seas are under com-
mission and in the employ of the government of the Son of God.
Science has laid hold on the most dreadful of God’s elements,
and turned the lightning into a whispering medium between the
ends of the earth, putting it into service for Christ and truth.
The wires over which it flies, span the continents and underlie
the oceans. They stretch along within speaking distance of old
Hermon and the Mount of Beattitudes. They put us in daily
communication with the Orient, while a thousand stations, with
batteries all surcharged and tremulous, are only waiting to flash
the joyful tidings the world around — “now is salvation come
and the tabernacle of God is with men.” But this is not all.
10 THE DETROIT PULP IT.
f
Progress does not end with the click of the telegraphic instru-
ment. We see the earth mapped off with railroads, over which
\the ponderous train flies with startling velocity, and with a
prophecy of good. The whistle of the locomotive has already
troubled Mormondom, and its bell tolled the death-knell of
polygamy in the great Valley of the West. It has excited India,
startled Egypt, aroused Japan, and now, the land where Nebu-
chadnezzar dreamed and Cyrus fought, awakes from its long
night of sleep to hear and welcome its on-coming sound. The
late visit of the Shah to Western Europe forshadows a better
life for Persia. The wail of distress that so recently went up
from the famishing multitudes of that Moslem-cursed land,
caused such an inflow of Christian sympathy and benevolence as
astonished the half-civilized autocrat, and sent him out in Search
of the civilization lying back of such disinterested magnanimity.
And now we are told that he has granted Baron Reuter and his
associates the privilege of building railways with aid from the
State; to construct canals, reservoirs, wells and waterWorks; to
utilize the forests; to work the mines, and to farm the revenues.
The government guarantees the interest upon a loan of thirty
million dollars for carrying out these enterprises. All this is
progress, a sort of John the Baptist, going before to prepare the
way of the Lord. Persia shall yet be renewed and redeemed, and
the steam engine will be one of its renovating agencies.
Let us now glance for a moment at the actual numerical
increase of Christ's government from its inception to the present
time, as given by those who have carefully written its history
and progress. Measure off the ages into sections of centuries,
and then begin the count—500,000 converts at the close of the
first century; 15,000,000 at the close of the fifth ; 50,000,000 at
the close of the tenth ; 100,000,000 at the close of the fifteenth ;
200,000,000 at the close of the eighteenth; and now, a little past
the noon of the nineteenth century, we are told that 335,000,000
answer to the Christian roll call. This is increase, And in the
light of these facts, so full of thrilling interest and inspiring
confidence, let confusion tinge the cheek of him who shall pre-
sume to stand up and pronounce Christianity a failure!
But if we wish to be a little more specific still, and inquire
after the success or failure of Modern Missions, we shall find
very much to cheer and encourage our hearts. I glean a few
THE Gover NMENT OF CHRIST. 11
facts of interest from a recent statement by the Rev. Geo. Hood
published in Home and Abroad, and re-published by Dr. Curry
in the Christian Advocate. The writer claims that during the
past ten years the foreign field has yielded more converts in pro-
portion to the labor expended, than the home field. In more
than three hundred islands of the Pacific, in Northern Turkey,
in Hindostan, in Burmah, in China, in Africa, multitudes have
been won to Christ. It is claimed that the largest church in the
world, numbering four thousand five hundred members, is in
Hilo, on the island of Hawaii, not yet fifty years removed from
the most debased Savagism. In the South Pacific nearly one
hundred thousand Fijians gather regularly for Sabbath worship,
who, within a score of years feasted on human flesh. In Mada-
gascar alone, during the past, two years, two hundred thousand
persons have made a profession of Christianity.
Truly, this is SUCCESS; and if we do not misread the signs
of the times, another decade will bring greater triumphs still.
See On the hill-tops of heathendom — in India, and countries
adjacent, in China and Japan, in the island groups of the oceans,
in the West Indies and in Africa, in South America and among
the Forest Tribes of the North — there stand to-day nineteen
hundred European and American missionaries, publishing peace,
and ready to shout to Christ's heathen inheritance: “Alleluia,
for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth !”
“Even so, Lord Jesus, come !
Roll back thy heavens and come !
O Saviour, unto whom all things are given,
Come with thy voice of love and claim thine own
O come and call thy sheep from off the wild !
Take for thine own, the kingdoms of the world !
O quickly haste to come—we wait for Thee /"
III. PERPETUITY.
There is but a single other thought, and that shall be briefly
expressed — the perpetuity of Christ's government. “Of the
increase of His government and peace there shall be n0 end.”
In the second chapter of Daniel, where the Almighty draws
aside the curtain and shows the prophet the new government
springing up in the midst of other kingdoms, it is said that, “In
the days of these kings,”—referring mºre especially to the Roman
power, and to the neighboring governments that should be
brought under tribute to that power by the prowess of her arms
– “In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a
kingdom that shall never be destroyed , and the kingdom shall
not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and con-
sume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.” Every pre-
12 THE DETRO IT PULP IT.
christian dispensation supposed another by which it was to be
succeeded; but this shall never change while Sun and moon
endure. Its governor is the immutable Christ — “the same yes-
terday, to-day, and forever.” He reigns on the Holy Hill of Zion.
Under His leadership His servants shell take the world. His
government shall pervade every other government; “it shall be
the basis of every code of laws; it shall be professed by every
people of the earth, ‘the Gentiles shall come to its light, and
kings to the brightness of its rising;' the whole earth shall be
subdued by its influence, and the whole world shall be filled with
its glory.” The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it, and He will
bring it to pass.
But it seems to me that we do not get the full meaning and
force of the text if we limit its scope to time. The increasing
peace and happiness of the subjects of Christ's kingdom are to
continue throughout eternity. The mediatorial kingdom may
be delivered up to God the Father, but the glory both of the
Redeemer and of the redeemed shall continue eternally. “For
the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them,
and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters.” The remote
periods of eternity may circle away, but the attractive power of
Christ over souls redeemed and saved by His blood, shall be an
increasing power, His glory shall be seen and admired more and
more as the cycles come and go.—“Of the increase of His gov-
ernment and peace there shall be NO END.” Then
“Hasten, mortals, to adore Him ;
Learn His name and taste His joy;
Till in heaven ye sing before Him,
Glory be to God Most High l’”
JEFFERSON AVENUE M. E. CHURCH,
Cormer Jefferson and St. Aubim Aves.
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/2
QBut 650 in g to the father:
S E R M ON
PREACHED IN FIRST CHURCH, BOSTON,
By RUFUS ELLIS,
M IN ISTER OF THE CON GREGATION,
SUNDAY, MARCH 11, 1883.
CAMBRIDGE:
J O H N WILSON AND SO N.
Cănişersity, 43rºg3.
1883.
NATHANIEL THAYER.
Born IN LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS, SEPTEMBER 11, 1808.
DIED IN BOSTON, MARCH 7, 1883.
S E R M O N.
“IF YE LovED ME YE WOULD REJOICE BECAUSE I SAID, I Go TO
MY FATHER.”—John's Gospel, xiv. 28.
THERE is a simplicity in this language of Jesus, as in
the words of a child, which is very touching and in-
structive. In contrast with it, much of our speech
concerning our going away from earth is formal and
meaningless. They who really loved their Master
should be glad to hear Him speak of dying, because
the world to come would be, even more than this,
His Father's world,—better and fairer for the increase
it should bring Him of that joy in God which had
made the years of His mortality so blessed. As He
tells us in another place, it would be an ascending,
a rising into a diviner life, an entrance into heaven
and the heaven of heavens,—even for Him, the child's
going home. Now of this Home with God, with all
its great expectations, we are permitted to say that
it is ours as well as His; and upon this Home which
is ours as well as His, these words of our text, so
few and simple, cast a flood of light. It is sometimes
4
said, almost in a tone of complaint, that the Teacher
is very sparing in His disclosures concerning the life
beyond the grave; and it is true, if we would have
time and place, pictures and occupations, – what
are called, indeed, heavenly relations, but are rather
the renewals of the conditions of our earthly life, – a
literal resurrection of this body, and a reconstruction
of this planet.to be the body's home. We have, it
is most true, nothing of the sort, which we can claim
as His : for we must not cut to the quick phrases
which were borrowed from the common speech of
the people; and we must not take to the letter what
was spoken in a figure, — as if it were really meant
that some are to enter into heaven with one hand
and one eye, as if these were to sit at feasts, and
those were to burn in fire. Such picture-language
must take on a spiritual and moral interpretation,
and can have no other validity; and we may fairly
conclude that it would be mischievous for us to be told
—if it were possible for us to hear — in advance the
conditions of man's life beyond the grave. One world
at a time is God’s method with us. And yet, on the
other hand, the revelation which Jesus brings us is
the very gospel of a life to come, -at once the assured
reality of this life, and the singular blessing which is
bound up with it. He goes to the very heart of the
matter; and, with lips that utter no uncertain sound,
in telling us one thing He tells us all things. Unlike
5
too many religious teachers, He does not feed our
hopes upon what are only imaginations, but He puts
beyond all doubt the one thing that we need to
know. He tells us that to die is gain; gain, because
to die is to live unto God, in that world to come, in
some grander fashion than is possible here on earth
even for the wisest and the best, — yes, even for
Elect of God.
To Jesus the life to come is as certain as the death
through which we enter into it. So deep was He in
this persuasion, that He not only declared but was
the Resurrection and the Life. Between the life to
come, as He conceived of it, and the life which He
was then living on earth, there would be no interval.
Even before the grave opens to receive our dust, we
are transfigured and translated, and pass through the
gate of heaven. “ To-day shalt thou be with me in
Paradise” were His words to the poor penitent at
His side, as He hung there upon the cross, in the
most solemn moments of His life. And how clear
He is, that this sure life shall be a grander life, – that
it shall be gain unspeakable for Him to die, – and
how clear as to what the gain shall be. It has been
well said that “in the Christian doctrine of a future
state we have this remarkable conjunction, that the
real belief in the doctrine goes together with and is
fastened to the moral sublimity of the state. In the
Pagan doctrine both of these were absent: the life
6
itself was poor, shadowy, and sepulchral on the one
hand; and the belief in it was feeble and volatile on
the other. In the Christian doctrine both are present
together, — the glorious nature of the life itself, and
the reality of the belief in it. No ground lays firm
hold on our minds for a continuation of existence at
all, except such a ground as makes that continuation
an ascent. The prolongation of it and the rise in the
scale go together, because the true belief is, in its
very nature, an aspiration, and not a mere level ex-
pectation of the mind; and therefore, while a low
eternity obtained no credit, the Gospel doctrine in-
spired a strong conviction, because it dared to intro-
duce the element of glory into the destiny of man.” "
And so He, who alone was found sinless amongst men,
spake, as never man has spoken before or since, touch-
ing life and immortality. Compare His words with
other last words, – sweet and hopeful and blessed too,
and not to be cheapened, and yet nowise so clear and
strong and divine and inspiring as His, - the words
not of one like Jesus, on His way to die in the very
flower of His manhood and on the very threshold of
His purpose, but of a man worn with age and gray-
headed — the martyr Socrates, his best days ended
and his work done. “There is great reason,” he
says, with his characteristic caution, “to hope that
death is a good: and be of good cheer about it, O
1 Sermon on “Eternal Life,” by the late Canon Mozley.
7
judges, and know this of a truth, that no evil can
happen to a good man, either in life or after death;”
but he adds, even more cautiously, as his very last
word: “The hour of departure has arrived, and we
go our ways, I to die and you to live. Which is bet-
ter, God only knows.” God be thanked for him who
died in Athens, for he was of the truth, – one of those
prophets who desired to see and hear the things
which the disciples of Jesus saw and heard, but saw
and heard them not, — one who helped man to live
more manlike ; but all the more let us bow the knee
unto the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
in whom the Divine Fulness was pleased to dwell,
that, for the joy which was set before Him, He endured
the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the
right hand of the throne of God, that in Him the whole
family in heaven and earth might be named, and
small and great be of one household,—that He might
be the Father's Son and our Brother, to tread for us
the path of struggle and prayer, and bring us in this
world, and in the world to come, nearer to His God
and our God
By all means, my friends, take note that in this
teaching of Jesus concerning the mysteries beyond
our dust, the whole emphasis rests upon things
spiritual and moral, and therefore real and universal.
There are scarcely any other positive and characteristic
elements in His doctrine of immortality; so that some
8
have even been misled to say that only the righteous
are, or can be, immortal. How could it be otherwise
in the Lord's teaching, seeing that to Christ, and all
true Christians, life is not worth living, here or any-
where, save as it centres in Him “whose word is
truth, whose name is love.” Failing this, its root is as
rottenness, and its blossom must go up as dust. “My
meat,” He said, “is to do the will of Him that sent
me, and to finish His work. . . . Seek ye first the
kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all
these things shall be added unto you.” And so, as
He looks forward and upward, His eager interest,
expectation, and promise are purely religious. He
makes no mention whatever of so many things which
engage our minds and hearts in this life, and are the
ministers and occasions of so much pure and profita-
ble delight and longing. He does not ask, with the
great Gentile teacher, “What would not a man give
if he might converse with Orpheus and Musaeus and
Hesiod and Homer ?”— not because these glories
and excellencies and wonders of science and poetry
and art have no part in our real and abiding and
eternal life, not because we do not crave immortality
for all the great and good that we have ever known
or heard of; but because holy love, which is God,
must come first, and we must be born into it, at
all temporary costs and sacrifices — even of things
in themselves precious, and which the Father will
surely add as needful. For not a few who have
believed in the life to come, this life has had no moral
significance whatever; to Jesus, as we may almost
say, it had no other significance. He is simply silent
as to all else; for He knew that he who hath the
perfect God hath all, and that without love the wis-
est as well as the simplest, the king and the beggar,
are counted dead before Him. . It is the life of God
in us which is eternal, and gives the Law to all living ;
by which alone, here and hereafter, with steady
increase of divine opportunity, the child of God
blessed issues
mounts upward to his appointed ends,
of all that is good and beautiful and glorious on earth
and in heaven. So we believe in the life of the
world to come, and look forward to it, not with vague
wonder and amazement, but in hope as to a better
world, a world of compensations and comforts and
grander opportunities, – just so far as we believe in
God, and live upon His gifts, and look forward to His
promises, as Jesus believed and lived and looked for-
ward. It is a part of our endless expectation in Him.
The nearer we can come to Him here, the nearer shall
we be to Him there ; and the more unhesitatingly
shall we declare that in that other world much which
here has been failure shall be success, and many who
seemed to have been forever banished shall be re-
stored to the Home of the Father, that there may be
joy in the presence of the angels of God.
I0
“If ye loved me ye would rejoice.” They are
words of truth, and yet it must be confessed that it
is a very high strain. They did love Him, but hardly
in that wise. It is not easy so to love ; “Nature
will have her right.” How can we fail, even because
of our love, to think more of our loss than of their
gain who have gone the way of all the earth, – even
though feebleness has become strength, and sickness
health, and age immortal youth and fresh opportu-
nity | The heavens have indeed been opened above
our graves, and more than ever are we encouraged
to believe that, when the dust returns to the earth
as it was, the spirit returns to God who gave it; but
so long as the generations of men come and go there
will be a time to mourn, as we linger in the light of
lives which once illumined all our days, and recall
those whose strength has been so largely shared
with us that we cannot bear to part with it, though
for them it had long been labor and sorrow. There
are those whose going away from us must not fail of
a commemorative word.
I am sure that such a departure is near your minds
and hearts to-day; and for you, as for myself, you
would have me say that it was an auspicious day
for our church when, some twenty-five years ago,
Nathaniel Thayer came to worship with this congre-
gation in the Chauncy Place Meeting-house. A de-
scendant in direct line from our famous John Cotton,
11
himself a clergyman's grandson, son also of one of
the most honored ministers of our Commonwealth
and Congregational body, our fellow-worshipper
brought with him a reverent spirit, a sincere loyalty
to Christian institutions and usages, and, withal, a
mind to do his full part in the work of a religious
society. Open-hearted and open-handed, he had —
as the true son of his father, who was quite as good a
layman as clergyman — a very lively sense of what
a minister needs, and of what the parish needs from
one who would help and not hinder, by word and
look, by speech and silence, by presence and by
absence. Characteristically an affectionate man, it
was easy and natural for him to make the church
porch another household with his bright face, his
cordial greeting, — yes, his ringing laughter. You
could rely upon him for charitable judgments, and
those passing words of inborn friendliness which do
more to bind a congregation together than whole
columns of set speeches and whole days of formal
visits and long evenings of parish sociables. He
was good on common occasions, and when unevent-
ful days betray the worshippers into routines and
monotony, and tempt us to carelessness and indif-
ference, and simply because there is no crisis in our
affairs, things may go by default; but he was at his
best when the work became pressing, and if at
any time — as once with us — there seemed to be a
12
threatening of catastrophe, his fidelity and good
judgment and exceeding liberality left nothing to be
desired. I am sure that many men and women, old
members of the Society and new-comers, who, ac-
cording to their ability, and beyond their ability,
have contributed to the large cost of this new house
of worship, will say that I am only rendering honor
to whom honor is due, when I place Mr. Thayer first
amongst those — his peers — to whose free gifts our
congregation and our city owe this beautiful place
of prayer. Too costly, does any one say? Hardly,
if the men and women who shared the cost were
glad to spend upon a consecrated building what so
many lavish upon things which are ugly and useless,
or worse, – or are at best the toys of the moment.
Why should we find fault, as some do, when we are
allowed to enter into the gifts of a former generation,
and are encompassed by beauty for which others
have paid the price? We owe our success in that
always difficult passage, from an old to a new house of
worship, more to Nathaniel Thayer than to any other
person. He was happily able to bear the burden;
but, as you know, the willingness to stand up under
such loads is often in inverse proportion to the abil-
ity. Long months, during which the society was at
once occupying the old and building the new church,
could hardly have been outlived if our friend had
not assumed, for the time, the whole charge of the
\
18
work, and that without the slightest security for
repayment. And here a temperament sanguine to
a fault stood him in good stead, and especially made
up what was lacking in this way to your minister.
He carried about with him at that time some figures,
which he offered to the doubtful as a demonstration
of success. I must allow that his arithmetic rather
silenced than satisfied me. It was because he failed to
put on the paper—though it was more or less con-
sciously present to his thought, as amongst the possi-
bilities of the future—the princely contribution which
in due time would set the matter at rest. Had he
been a less generous, or even a more cautious Iman,
our over-venturesome undertaking — which, it should
be added, was no pet project of his— might have
utterly failed. And this is only a single illustration
of his sense of the responsibilities of wealth, and his
recognition of the claims of ideal things, living insti-
tutions, upon the living generation. The story of
education and science east and west, of the New
England town library, of hospitals for men and
women and little children, of the numberless public
provisions for the unfortunate, – yes, if to reveal that
were becoming, of many a private scholar, – cannot
be told without the constant recurrence of this name.
He helped largely to establish and strengthen what
may be called a custom and usage of giving — one
of the most reassuring characteristics of an age which
14
has so increased in goods, and been under such strong
temptation to a selfish luxury. In every charitable
enterprise we instinctively turned to him amongst
the first, and fell back upon him again amongst the
last; and he gave not grudgingly or of necessity,
but as one of those cheerful givers whom the Lord
loves. And those of us who are no longer young,
and look back with fond remembrances to the sim-
plicities of our childhood, were glad to note our
friend’s persistency in the plain ways of our fathers,
— the homely fashions of the old village and the old
town, the quiet equipage, and the entire absence
of all ostentation, and of everything airy and pre-
tentious. We have great need of such examples to
bind together all sorts and conditions of men, to
anticipate and prevent social antagonisms, and to
make it impossible for us to divide a great common-
wealth into jealous and conflicting classes of rich and
poor, fashionable and unfashionable. Where the
need is so great and the peril even is so imminent,
we may count upon an answering supply; and we
will seek to be grateful for the past, rather than in-
dulge anxieties for the future. It may be that our
New England communities — especially our religious
congregations — are passing through changes which
will bring to the front a new order of citizenship and
churchmanship; but it does not yet appear what new
supports are to supply the places of the old pillars,
15
and we can only say, as the gray head is laid low
and the blossom of youth perisheth, “All are in the
hands of God.” Let us say it with an unfailing
gratitude and an unfaltering trust'
Yes, God is our refuge and strength for years to
come and works to be finished on earth; and His life
in us alone makes our immortality more than a con-
tinuation of life, – even a glorious ascent to Him who
is our home and the home of that great human
society, which, as it once bore the image of the earthy,
now and evermore bears the image of the heavenly.
We too, like the great Forerunner, go forth from
the Father and come into the world ; and we too
shall leave the world and go unto the Father, — from
first to last, consciously or unconsciously, the chil-
dren of the Heavenly King. Live at your noblest
and your best, to minister, and not to be ministered
unto; come to yourselves from all your dreams of
worldliness; and then, to be what you are shall be the
earnest of what you are to become, – the best evi-
dence that a blessed immortality is your portion, and
that for you to die is gain.
A
S E R M 0 N,
PREACHED IN THE FIRST CHURCH, CONCORD,
NOVEMBER 9TH, 1856,
BEING THE SUNDAY SUCCEEDING THE DEATH
OF
HON. SAMUEL HOAR, L.L. D.,
BY THE PASTOR,
BARZILL AI FR0s T.
PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.
CONCORD :
BENJAMIN TOLMAN, PRINTER.
1856.
NOTE.
This sermon was prepared in haste, in the common course of pro-
fessional duty, without a thought of publication. A sudden departure
on a long journey in quest of health, has prevented me from revising
and enlarging it. It is therefore to be regarded as a hasty tribute to
a great and good man, rather than as a complete view of his character.
The glance at his benevolent labors toward the close of life is partic-
ularly defective. The amount and variety of his labors and contribu-
tions in every cause of religious and philanthropic benevolence, to
which he devoted his whole time and talents with Apostolic zeal for
the last twenty years, are unequalled, I think, by those of any indi-
vidual in the Commonwealth, within that time, if not from its foun-
dation. If written out, their history would be a most instructive
chapter in Christian philanthropy.
THE AUTHOR.
H 0 N. SAMU E L H 0 A R .
Psalms, 37,-37-Mark the perfect man and behold the upright;
for the end of that man is peace.
If we speak of absolute perfection, there has been
but one being in our world, probably, who, possessing
our mortal nature, and tempted as we are, was yet
without sin. The word thaum in Hebrew, translated
“ perfect” in English, sometimes means innocent,
pure-minded. It is translated into the Greek of the
Septnagint by “akakia,” which has this meaning.
But in Hebrew, it also has the meaning of whole,
entire. This is, doubtless, the meaning of the text.
It means a whole man ; a true man. But the word
whole is more expressive. The whole man is one
whose entire manhood is complete.
His intellect, in the first place, is perfectly balanced
and fully developed. The judgment is not dazzled by
the imagination, nor the imagination subjugated by the
judgment. The analytic power is not buried in ab-
stractions, unmindful of facts; nor the practical en-
slaved by facts, without seeing the law that connects
them. One, however eminent in either of these
6
faculties, as a practical man, a philosopher, a poet, is
only the fragment of a man. The whole intellect
does not mistake the facts of man's creating, for God's
facts; nor man’s abstractions for God’s laws; nor
man's fancies, however gorgeous with kaleidescope
beauties, for the harmony and beauty of God’s crea-
tion. It sees things as they are, in their reality,+in
their harmony, in their beauty. Judgment, reason-
ing, imagination, are united in the same act. Fact,
philosophy, poetry, are one. It consists in seeing
things as God has made them.
The whole man has, in the next place, conscience,
—conscience supreme over all other faculties. This
is its rightful position in our constitution, as Bishop
Butler has so clearly shown. He who allows any fa-
culty or desire to prevail over the authority of con-
science is a rebel against his own nature, as well as
against God’s moral judgment. The true man obeys
conscience under all circumstances. Whether mak-
ing or administering laws; whether adopting a nation-
al policy, or transacting a private business; whether
acting with princes or peasants, with adults or chil-
dren, the first and only question is, “is it right?”
This decided, wealth, party, flattery, frowns, weigh
not a feather.
“Nor number, nor example, with him wrought,
To Swerve from truth, or change his constant mind.”
His independence, impartiality, dignity, are as much
above the mere tactitian, as the everlasting hills are
above the petty structures of man that rise and vanish
like bubbles at their base.
Again, the whole man has all the human affections
7
in their depth and sweetness. There is a greatness,
that looks upon tenderness as a womanly weakness,
But this is the quality of those who are only gigantic
fragments of a man—the practical man, who is only
a hand; the intellectual man, who is all eye; the artist,
who is a mere daguerreotype lens through which na-
ture shines upon the canvass. But, in the whole man,
the heart holds no subordinate place. It is not a su-
perficial sensibility,+the shallow pool that changes
with every change of temperature. The well is deep,
and water is not drawn except by an adequate agency;
and then, to the parched lips of want, trial, and sorrow,
it has a coolness and Sweetness, enhanced by the
depth of the source from which it comes. All hearts,
from the king to the beggar, from the strong man to
the child, thirst for this love. It flows out in be-
nevolent acts, in tender compassion, in generous sym-
pathy, in sweet affection. In these last qualities it is
more precious than gold, better than talents, higher
than power. In the whole man the heart holds no in-
ferior place. The highest being in the universe is
Love, in his very essence, and his brightest represen-
tative on earth had a fulness and tenderness of love,
pervading his every word and act, such as no mortal
man has yet shown.
Such is the true man, the whole man,—the best of
heaven's gifts to this lower world,—a gift including,
O! how many other precious gifts'
Few men in our Commonwealth or country, have
approached this standard of a whole man, more nearly
than our venerated and beloved towns-man, parish-
ioner, and friend, whom God has just taken unto
himself. Not for his sake, but our own, would we
8
seek to treasure up the lessons and influences which
such a life imparts. He has gone beyond the reach of
our poor judgments. And if he had not, his modest
nature would be pained by any words that look like
praise. Perhaps his family may have the same feel-
ings. But this should not deprive us of the religious
improvement of such a life and character.
History is said to be philosophy teaching by exam-
ple. Biography is certainly, in the lives of the good,
philosophy, humanity, and Christianity, teaching by
living examples. God's great teachers to men are,
his wise and good servants.
“Lives of great men all remind us
We may make our lives sublime.”
Christ said, “This l have done for an example un-
to you, that you should do as I have done.” Paul
said, in reference to ancient worthies, “Whatsoever
things were written aforetime were written for our
learning.” To that end were written the life of Christ,
the Acts of the Apostles, the lives of the good. But
the profit we derive from them, will depend on our
estimate of their worth, our love of their excellence,
and our steadfast following in their foot-steps.
The best general statement in regard to Mr. Hoar
is, that he was a whole man. The word integrity,
comes from integer, meaning, one, or whole. It is
generally applied to the moral nature, but may, with
equal propriety, be applied to every department of hu-
Iman nature.
Mr. Hoar had, in the first place, an integrity of the
intellect—not one or two shining special faculties, to
make a reputation—but a balance of faculties, and a
harmony of development. He had a fine analytic
9
power. Few men could so brush-away the rubbish,
and go directly to the root of a question, from which
the whole issue sprang, and fix more steadily upon it
his own mind and the minds of others, until it stood
out clear and solid to the view of all. This is what
gave him his power with a court and jury. This is
what made him such an excellent presiding officer
over great assemblies. At the World’s Temperance
Convention in New York, after half of a day had
been wasted and the vast assembly had become ex-
cited and confused with irrelevent questions, and there
was danger that another day would be wasted, he arose,
and in a few simple words showed what was the great
question before them, and how irrelevent every thing
else, and the Babel confusion was stilled, and by a
nearly unanimous vote the assembly proceeded to the
question which they had come from the ends of the
earth to consider.
It was this analytic power that made him such an
excellent adviser in perplexed and difficult questions.
This is one of the highest attributes of mind, and has
given to the great in every science and profession
their power.
His reasoning power was also good. Few men
could see more clearly the strong connexions,—the
iron links of truth; and few could so follow its thread,
amidst the labyrinths of error, and the dust of acciden-
tal associations, until it led him out into the light of a
just conclusion. What he saw, he saw clearly, and
he never let go a good hold until he saw a better.
There were few men upon whom it was more difficult
to impose bad logic, false rhetoric, or factitious as-
sociations of ideas. And he was far above the usual
2
10
temptation of his profession to impose them on others.
Mr. Hoar was remarkable for judgment. He was
pre-eminently a man of understanding. This is the
practical faculty. It sees the fitness and propriety
of things under existing circumstances. This saved
him from wrong decisions and false positions through
life. It enabled him, when people sought advice in
difficulty, as so many did from him, to point out the
course which proved so generally the true and safe
one. And in town meeting, and lyceum, and tem-
perance, and other meetings, when a measure of
doubtful expediency or propriety was proposed, how
often did he arise, and with his calm wisdom sáve the
assembly from impending mortification and folly!
How many neighbors and friends have been saved
from mistakes and rescued from positions of mortifi-
cation and censure by his judgment!
He had little of what is called imagination, that is
to say, the creative faculty. But he had a fine ap-
preciation of natural beauty. He could not draw a
fancy sketch of a child. But no one saw or admired
more the beauty and sweetness of a real child. He
was not gifted in creating flowers of rhetoric or poetry.
But few had more admiration of flowers of God’s
make. He could not make fancy sketches of roman-
tic characters, but of the beauty of a true, generous,
noble act or Soul, few had a quicker sense or keener
relish. And there is a poetry, I think the highest, in
natural beauty, and the beauty of truth and loveliness.
Few had a better perception or a deeper love for
these.
And what was best, in him all these powers were
finely balanced. The analytic power never lost sight
11
of its facts, nor the judgment of its principles. The
reasoning faculty was never dazzled by the imagina-
tion, nor the beauty and aroma of truth withered up
in a dry logic. Surely he had what may be called the
integrity of the intellect.
In an eminent degree he had the integrity of the
moral nature. In him conscience had its rightful su-
premacy. Strong by nature, and strengthened by
early culture and a life of discipline, it had become
“a law of God after the inner man,” before which
every passion, and taste and habit bowed implicitly.
He was eminently a just man. What is right, was his
first enquiry, and the turning point of his decision in
all transactions, and in all relations. This gave him
that sacred regard for the rights of all,—of the poor,
of the colored, of the child as well as of the great.
And this was not confined to the rights of pro-
perty, as is so common. It extended equally to
the rights of conscience, the rights of judgment, the
rights of personal respect. He would not invade
the right of a child to his independent thought and
feeling. He was peculiarly tender of the rights
of children as well as of all classes of the weak
and defenceless. There was a certain rectitude
pervading his whole mind; a truthfulness, a justice
and uprightness. In this comprehensive sense of
righteousness, is the saying so widely renowned, .
“An honest man's the noblest work of God.” In
this high sense he was an honest man, a just man,
a righteous man. Such was the integrity of his
moral nature.
With all his calm and seemingly staid manner he
had the integrity of a manly heart. He had not
12
strong gushes of feeling for a few favorites, and a
cold selfishness for every body else. His affections
did not burst out only on great occasions and lie dor-
mant all the rest of the time beneath the crust of in-
difference. But it was a central warmth of the heart,
a natural, equable, all pervading. His speech, digni-
fied, grave, was yet genial with the glow of kindness.
His manners, so guarded and stately, might have been
formal if they had not been natural and graceful
through true kindness. No woman could speak to a
little child in the street with more gentleness. His
acts of benevolence, of which he seemed to think so
little on his own part, had a deliberate and thoughtful
regard for others that could spring only from a true
heart. His friendships, so void of profession and flat-
tery, scarcely different in manner from ordinary rela-
tions, had yet a genial warmth, like that of the earth in
spring, which you can scarcely feel when you lay your
hands on it, but it causes the seeds to germinate and the
buds to swell. What tenderness and strength must that
love have in the nearer relations, when, after more
than forty years, the subjects of it cannot remember
that he ever uttered a hasty or hard word. A love
and kindness that could so subdue the selfish emotions,
triumph over the vexations of life, give gentleness to
the manners, softness to the tones, kindness to the
friendships, tenderness to the holier relations, could
spring only from a full, tender, manly heart. In the
generous sense of that popular expression, he was
“whole-hearted.”
Sir James McIntosh has said, “Wirtue is the state of
a just, prudent, firm, and temperate mind. Religion
is the whole of those sentiments which such a mind
13
feels towards an infinitely perfect Being.” This is
so. And from this we may learn the character of
Mr. Hoar's religion. It was the homage and service
of the intellect, of the conscience and of the heart.
It was eminently rational, purely moral, deeply devout.
It dealt justly, loved mercy, and walked humbly with
God. With his eminent gifts, associated with the best
minds of the country, and as the result of a long and
careful investigation, he settled down firmly on the
doctrines of the Unitarian faith. But he had a strong
sympathy for those in our body, who are striving to
attain a deeper faith and piety in our views and prac-
tice. While he rejected the moral and metaphysical
theories of Calvinism, he earnestly sought to compre-
hend and appreciate the great spiritual truths that un-
derlie those doctrines and give them their vitality and
power. These truths he believed to be better repre-
sented by Unitarian doctrines truly appreciated. He
dwelt upon no thought with greater frequency and
fervency in later years, than the sad disparity between
the principles and professions of Christians and their
practice. But I must not enlarge.
Such was the citizen, parishioner, friend, who has
left us. He was indeed a whole man. He had a
completeness of the intellect, of the moral nature, of
the heart, developed harmoniously by a careful disci-
pline and consecrated to the service of his race and
his God.
He has lived fifty-one years last September in this
town. And what an influence in all its interests has
he exerted upon it! Nearly all the present inhabi-
tants have come into the world or into town since
he came. And yet so permanent is our population
14
that not a few can speak of his first professional ef.
fort, in the hall of the old hotel, and the admiration and
expectation it excited, as if it were but of yesterday.
I have never heard one individual speak of one wrong
act or word of his during all that half century. This is
the more remarkable as he carried such an active, con-
trolling agency into the affairs of the town. Every in-
terest of the town and religious society has been dear
to him, and received his generous support. In town
meeting how much has his calm wisdom done to pre-
serve harmony In every measure for the interest
and honor of the town he has encouraged the largest
expenditure. The cause of Education has received
his warmest support. It is owing more to him than
any other man, that the appropriations for schools
have gone up in twenty years from fifteen hundred to
over three thousand dollars. You will all remember
with what eloquence he advocated an increase of
appropriation on One occasion, saying, “I would
rather wear my coat until it is thread-bare, than that
the children should want the means of education.”
Although advanced in years and honors, he entered
into the duties of the school committee like a young
man. And at the close, when one spoke of the diffi-
culties of the office, he said: “I cannot well con-
ceive of anything more pleasant than our duties and
intercourse have been.”
In the Temperance reform he has been one of the
principal forces. From the meetings he was rarely
absent. To the cause he poured out his money like
water. How often, in storm and darkness, in Snow
and mire, has he walked to the remotest school house
to plead with the fallen and tempted to turn and live.
15
And what a change of habits! From a consumption
of seven hogsheads of intoxicating liquors, a week,
and the habitual use of it by nearly every adult person
in town, and the estimated number of sixty drunkards,
mostly heads of families, how little is now consumed !
how few inebriates . They who turn many to right-
eousness shall shine as the brightness of the firmament,
and as the stars. Surely Mr. Hoar must have many
jewels in his crown of those saved by his faithfulness.
In this church and society, in half a century, what
an influence he has exerted In his pew, constant as
the Sabbath returned, a reverent worshipper, and a
most appreciative listener, the sanctuary seemed holier
and the pulpit stronger for his presence. It has been
said he never heard a sermon which he did not think
a good one. The truth is, if there was but one corn
of wheat amidst whatever chaff, it would fall into his
good and honest heart and bring forth fruit. How
much wiser, than to amuse one’s self by blowing about
the chaff with the winds of criticism, unmindful of
the grain, although but a single kernel. He was ever
the warm personal friend of the clergyman, and O !
how kind, disinterested, delicate that friendship ! He
brought the same watchful care and sympathy to the
interest of the parish as to his domestic concerns. On
all the counsels, measures, and interest of this religious
society for half a century he has stamped his wisdom,
his liberality, his faith, and reverent spirit.
In the Sabbath School his services have been in-
valuable. From its commencement, through all the
long years and changing fortunes, it has received his
warm support, and most of the time his devoted ser-
vices as teacher or superintendent. Scarcely has he
16
*r
been absent from a Sabbath School or teacher's meet-
ing. For years he has had large advanced classes,
mostly females. How many wives and mothers are
now nobler, and discharging their duties better for his
instructions and influence. But he was ever ready to
take the youngest classes with equal interest. A few
years ago a pupil of his, a little boy, who had a no-
bility of soul in the midst of poverty, was drowned in
Concord river. The night before, as he sat in his
humble home, as if touched by some angel influence
to prepare him for Heaven, he spoke tenderly to his
poor widowed mother of her kindness, of what he
meant to do for her when he was a man, of his noble
plans of life. And then he turned to speak affection-
ately and reverently of his Sunday School teacher, as
if instinctively conscious of the source whence he
derived his holy thoughts. This illustrates the kind
of influence he exerted. O ! faithful servant of
Christ, long watchful, tender feeder of his lambs, how
can we do without thee in our Sunday School
Mr. Hoar's influence was very great in the Com-
monwealth and the community. In early life he
steadily declined being a candidate for office. Still
he was sometimes prevailed on to accept it. He was
a member of the Convention to revise the Constitu-
tion in 1820.
He was a representative in the twenty-fourth Con-
gress, and was three times a State Senator. In 1844,
when some one of great wisdom and weight of char-
acter, as well as professional eminence, was wanted
to go to South Carolina to test the constitutionality
of the laws, which there involved the personal rights
of colored seamen, the Governor, with the advice of
17 wº
the Council, fixed upon him. And how nobly he per-
formed that dangerous duty, and how unworthily the
State requited those services, posterity will bear wit-
ness, when the spirit of the Pilgrims and Revolution-
ary Fathers is rekindled in Massachusetts. He was
twice Councillor; and in 1850, he was representa-
tive of this town in the General Court. By his influ-
once the Courts were retained here, and the rank of
Concord, as a shire-town, has still been preserved.
In 1842, he was the agent of Massachusetts, com-
missioned to protect the interests of the Seneca In-
dians, in the negotiation of a treaty by which they sold
their lands. The consent of this Commonwealth was
necessary to the validity of the treaty and sale, and
his honorable trust was discharged with watchful and
scrupulous fidelity.
In all these public duties, whether State or nation-
al, he was ever a man of peace, the steadfast friend
of liberty, a lover, of justice. While he rejoiced in
the advancement of his country, he ever gave his
voice and vote against her unholy aggressions upon
the poor Indian, the down-trodden African, the out-
raged Mexican. And next to the welfare of his fam-
ily, his deepest anxiety in leaving the world was for
the cause of liberty in this country; especially, lest
the free settlers in Kansas, and all the millions that are
to be there, should be handed over to the degradation
and wretchedness of slavery.
After retiring from professional life, nearly twenty
years ago, he devoted himself almost entirely, with all
his professional knowledge, ripened powers, and large
contributions, to Christian Benevolence. Peace, Col-
onization, Temperance, Bible, Sunday School, Edu-
3
18
cational Societies, have all received his liberal contri-
bution and unwearied support as officer and member.
His private charities have been as abundant as his
public. And the manner was as generous as the
amount. When I apologized for calling too frequent-
ly for contributions, he would say, “I am obliged to
you for doing my duty. It is as much my work as
yours.” How appropriate and beautiful a close to a
Christian life, these eighteen last years of benevolent
activity! How narrow and selfish the “ otium cum
dignitate” of the philosopher, the learned leisure of
the retired scholar, the luxurious ease of the rich and
the professional man in retirement, compared with
his calm, cheerful, honored devotion to humanity and
Christ |
And now, faithful parishioner, citizen, neighbor,
Sunday School teacher, how can we give thee up !
Devoted friend, tender husband and father, how can
we say farewell! Thy venerable form and noble
character, identified for fifty years with every object and
scene of this ancient town, shall still blend with them
and make the elms of our streets more venerable, invest
our hill-tops with a calmer beauty, our groves and
waters with a more winning loveliness. They shall
give to our schools a higher dignity, to the Sunday
School a nobler aim, to the sanctuary more re-
werence, to the table of Christ a nearer sense of his
presence Faithful parishioner, dear friend, servant
of Christ, farewell ! Earth is better that thou hast
lived. Heaven shall gain by thy presenceſ
19
SA MUEL H O AR,
Son of SAMUEL and SUSANNAH. Hoar ;
Born in Lincoln, May 18, 1778;
Graduated at Harvard College, 1802;
A private tutor in Virginia, 1802 to 1804;
Studied law with the Hon. ARTEMAS WARD, afterward Chief Jus-
tice of the Court of Common Pleas, in Charlestown;
Admitted to the bar in September, 1805, and came to Concord and
opened an office for the practice of law in the same month;
Married to SARAH, youngest child of RogBR SHERMAN, of Connec-
ticut, at New Haven, Oct. 13, 1812;
A member of the Convention to revise the Constitution of Massachu-
setts, in 1820;
A State Senator in 1825, 1832, 1833;
Representative in the 24th Congress, 1835–1837;
Received the degree of L.L. D., at Cambridge, 1838;
Agent of Massachusetts to protect the interests of the Seneca Indians
in the sale of their lands, in 1842;
Commissioned as the agent of Massachusetts at the port of Charles-
ton, South Carolina, to test the constitutionality of the laws for the
imprisonment of colored seamen, citizens of Massachusetts, Oct.
11, 1844; aſ
Expelled by violence from that city and State, Dec. 6, 1844; , 9, .
Member of the Council, 1845, 1846;
Representative from Concord to the General Court, in 1850;
One of the Overseers of Harvard University;
One of the Trustees of the School for Idiotic and Feeble-minded
Youth.
20
Member or officer of the following Societies:–
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences;
The Massachusetts Historical Society;
The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Indians and
others, in North America;
The American Unitarian Association;
The Colonization Society;
The Bible Society;
The Massachusetts and Middlesex Sunday School Societies;
The Massachusetts and American Peace Societies;
The Massachusetts Temperance Society; -
The Concord Social Circle.
/4
P L E A FOR IN C R EA S E D M E A NS OF EDU CAT I O N.
*g
2 y 3 / 3
S E R M 0 N,
PREACHED AT BRISTOL, CONN., ON THE DAY OF
ANNUAL FAST, 1852.
BY WILLIAM H. G 00 DRICH,
PASTOR OF THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
PUBLISHED BY R.E QUEST.
-** ^*
NEW HAVEN :
P R IN T E D B Y J. H. B E N H A M .
...” 1852.
º
S E R M O N.
tº ºs º ºs º ºs ºs e º sº sº * * * * * * * * * *
ISA IA H XXXIII: 6.
WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE SHALL BE THE STABILITY OF THY TIMES,
WE are accustomed, as a people, to rejoice in our
prečminent advantages. We are flushed with the
consciousness of high position and of great endow-
ments. We find ourselves as citizens and as Chris-
tians in the peaceful enjoyment of institutions after
which other nations are sighing and striving in vain.
We of New England especially, not to say Connecti-
cut, are apt to regard. Our privileges with a generous.
satisfaction, and to esteem ourselves favored above.
all other lands. Nor do we, in this, at all exaggerate
the distinguishing mercy of God. But it is well, that
among the other legacies which have come down to
us from our fathers, we have this day, on which to
review our privileges in another light than that of self-
congratulation—a day on which we look beyond our
blessings to the responsibilities they bring—a day when
we solemnly pause to ask how we are profiting by this
trust, to humble ourselves for every abuse of our priv-
ileges, and to plead for the continuance of that divine fa-
vor, without which we should hasten to swift destruction.
These institutions, which are our richest heritage,
are not indestructible, nor are they complete. They
are rather the germs of future development. Nor
will they grow up into strength and greatness by any
inherent necessity of their own. They must be cher-
(4)
ished and transmitted from one generation to another,
They must be enlarged and invigorated as the times
may demand. They will work out for us the good
they promise, only as we foster them with something
of the same self-denial which it cost to plant them.
Far better would it be for us all, if we were less proud
of our institutions and more diligent to improve them;
if, while we honor our fathers, we could also engraft
their spirit on our times. On such a day as this, do
we not seem almost to behold the venerable found-
ers of our State, overlooking our assemblies : Do we
not seem to hear their voice calling us to account to
them and to God, for the heritage which they left us?
It were easy in the review of the year past, to find
many topics suited to humble and drive us to the throne
of grace; but there is one subject, to which I would
now draw your attention,--a subject of the deepest
importance to our whole commonwealth, and espe-
cially to our town, and one which calls for more liber-
al and energetic action. I refer to AN IMPROVEMENT
IN THE MEANS OF PUBLIC EDUCATION,
The time was when Connecticut had in this respect
a proud preéminence. Her’s was the first government
in the world which provided for the education of the
whole community. The common school system of
this State was a new and onward step in the history of
civilization. It called forth the applause of the wise
and good in all lands. It silenced much ridicule from
older nations, and furnished an unanswerable argument
for the well-working of our government. It gave a
marked impulse to the intelligence of the age. Other
States, and even distant nations, seized upon the idea
and engrafted our system upon their institutions. For
all this, Connecticut deserves honor. But where is
(5)
she now 7 What advance has she made on the scheme
she originated ? How have her sons improved this
legacy of former generations ! To our shame be it
spoken, others are leaving us far behind in this great
enterprise. Cross the boundaries of the State in any
direction, and you will find this subject pursued with
wisdom and energy, and engrossing a large share of
public attention. You see the system of common
Schools ripening from year to year under a wise and
liberal legislation, and yielding richer and still richer
fruits. You see the community imbued with some-
thing of the self-sacrificing spirit of other days, and
willingly taxing themselves to an amount far greater
than all their permanent funds produce. You see a
system of High Schools springing up in the larger
towns and villages, bringing within the reach of all
the young, the children of poor and rich alike, the
opportunities of a higher education. You see the
unsightly and uncomfortable school-houses, whose
slender provisions for the scholar's good, provoked him
to rudeness of behavior, rapidly giving place to plain
but tasteful buildings, whose neatness and comfort fur-
nish a motive to propriety of conduct, which children
especially know how to feel. You see this interest
in the welfare of the young, already repaid by the
growth of general intelligence and the higher estimate
they put upon knowledge. Return now to Connec-
ticut, and what do you find 2 Do you not find the
school system substantially where it was twenty years
ago 7 Our State has advanced greatly in enterprise,
new springs of wealth are opened, and business is ex-
panding on every side. The ruder dwellings of other
generations are being replaced by houses framed by
modern taste and furnished with modern conveniences.
Private interest and private comfort are keeping pace
with the age : but all these channels of prosperity
are flowing by the school house and leaving it in its
antiquated state. The hand of improvement may
be stretched out to it for a moment, but is not put
heartily to work. The state of the School Fund is
watched with much more jealousy than the state of
the schools. Instead of enlarging the provisions of
our system to meet the demands of a growing popu-
lation and an advancing intelligence ; instead of ma-
king the business of the teacher, by liberal compen-
sation, desirable and permanent; we are eking out
our dividends from the fund with the least possible
addition from our resources. High Schools, open to
the public, we have none in the State, save in two of
our cities and in three of our towns.” Our academies
are few of them on the secure basis of an ample endow-
ment, and they of course are not free to the poor.
Such is a true picture of the position which our
State occupies in the field of education. Here and
there may be found exceptions to this contrast, but
they are very rare. These proofs of apathy and con-
tent with our old system characterize the State, and
are found in some of its best portions. We want, as a
community, that general liberality and that warm-
hearted interest in promoting education which so
uniformly stimulate the young with new zeal for self-
improvement. We have been for years falling be-,
hind our sister States in the culture of this great ele-
ment of national prosperity and power.
These truths are certainly not the most agreeable.
Considered in their relations and consequences they
* Naugatuck has also just decided on the establishment of a High School.
(7)
are humbling. But it is better that we should honestly
look at them among ourselves, than leave them to be
forced upon us by the contemptuous remarks of oth-
ers. Already our ancient honors are tarnished before
the world. We have it on the authority of one who
has had opportunities for an unbiased judgment, and
who is himself a son of Connecticut, “It is the gene-
ral opinion out of Connecticut, that she is doing little
or nothing for the improvement of education; and,
whereas, a few years since her name was mentioned
in connection with common schools with honor only,
it is now, in this connection, coupled with expressions
of doubt and regret, and that by wise and sober men.
The School Fund is quoted every where—we venture
to say it is quoted in every other State in the Union
—as a warning and example to deter them from giv-
ing the proceeds of their funds except only on the
condition, that those who receive shall themselves
raise as much as they take. Those who go from
other States into Connecticut, can hardly credit the
testimony of their senses when they witness the ap-
athy that prevails. Every newspaper and lecturer
out of Connecticut, high and low, ignorant and know-
ing, sneers at the Connecticut School Fund and the
present condition of Connecticut schools.”
It is probable that as a people we have been alto-
gether unaware of this state of things. The great
body of our inhabitants have had no opportunity to
know their own relative position on this subject.
Perhaps even now we may be slow to believe it. But
* See the admirable Prize Essay by Prof. Porter of Yale College on the “Ne-
cessity and means of improving the Common Schools of Connecticut;” from
which, as well as from Henry Barnard, Esq., State Superintendent of Schools,
the preliminary facts in this discourse have been derived.
(s)
facts do not lie. Look then at the comparative ea:-
penditure between this and other New England
States for the purposes of education. This is a fair
and sober test. You always judge of the value which
men set on any good, by the amount they are willing
to pay for it. The School Fund of Connecticut now
divides at the rate of one dollar and forty cents for
each child between the ages of four and sixteen.
This is substantially all we pay for the teaching of
our public schools, except a small sum accruing from
the town deposit fund, and part of which is generally
used to defray incidental expenses. There is no
State tax whatever, and in only two Societies and
ten single Districts, is a small property tax collected,
not amounting in all to more than $18,000, or twenty
cents to each scholar. In Massachusetts, the School
Fund does comparatively little : it produces only about
$45,000; while there is annually raised in towns by
tax for the wages of teachers, board and fuel $915,000,
to which are added voluntary contributions to the
value of $40,000. Though the law requires a town
to raise by tax only $1.50, for each child between
five and fifteen, such is their interest in education
that they do actually raise on an average $4.70. Thus
they tax themselves for the teaching of each scholar
Over and above what they receive from the School
Fund, more than double what we pay from all sources.
Many towns go much higher. One town raises $7.64
for each child. Another unpretending town on Cape
Cod, over $5.00. The average tax then in Massa-
chusetts is $4.70, the average in Connecticut is barely
twenty cents; and the town which raises least of any
in that State, raises by tax alone, $1.44, or four cents
more than each child in Connecticut receives from the
(9)
School Fund. In New York, where the School Fund,
including that portion of the surplus revenue appro-
priated to schools, is $6,000,000, the towns are re-
quired, in order to share its proceeds, to raise by tax,
$800,000, or a dollar for every child between four and
sixteen. In fact they raise much more, and the
amount voluntarily levied has four-folded within ten
years. Rhode Island, besides having more than doub-
led the State appropriation, requires her towns to
raise one-third as much as they receive, and they
actually raise by tax alone at the rate of $2.00 for
every scholar. In Maine, the tax is forty cents, not
on every scholar, but on every inhabitant, a propor-
tion greater than in any other State.*
Here then we find the States around us actually
expending nearly three times as much as we do for
the education of every scholar; and that, when it
costs them annually, by taxation, from ten to twenty
times as much as it costs us. Yet this is cheerfully
raised. The requisitions of the law are outrun in
their eagerness to provide the best means of public
education. You will there see towns taxing them-
selves nearly a dollar for every man, woman and child
in their borders, in order to put their schools on the
best basis: and you will see movements of this kind
seconded by those who have the most to pay, and
those whose children are beyond the age at which
they could benefit by the appropriation.f
*mºsº
* These facts, which differ somewhat from those stated in the delivery of the
discourse, are of more recent date, and exhibit a greater contrast between us and
other States in the means of education.
+ See Prize Essay.
2
(10)
All this, be it observed, is exclusive of what has
been raised for the repair or replacement of school
houses. In Massachusetts, more than $600,000 has
been spent within ten years for this object; and in
Rhode Island more than $200,000. And now what is
the result of this expenditure ? No one can look into
the reports of School Visitors in those States, and
compare them with our own for years past, without
reading at a glance the great difference. The one
speaks the language of progress and hope. They tell
of schools steadily maintained and fully attended.
They testify to the warm interest of parents and of
the community, and of a corresponding interest and
ardor in the young. They exhibit a large number of
High Schools at which the poorest are enjoying advan-
tages not to be surpassed by those of the wealthy.
The other give one uniform and desponding confes-
sion in respect to the apathy which prevails. They
mention particular defects and suggest some remedies,
but the want of public interest is uniformly referred
to as the worst and most disheartening evil. And
what wonder 2 In the one case the community are
paying liberally for the education of their children,
and they want and will have the best. In the other
it costs little and is little prized.
My hearers, these are facts that deserve our sober
consideration. They are facts which are not to be
gainsayed. They are facts which ought to be carried
home to every dwelling in the State. They are facts
whose fruits already appear in our communities, and
if a generation is suffered to pass with no change in
these particulars, Connecticut will comparatively go
down in general intelligence. In political influence
we expect to decline. But we have hitherto wielded
(11)
another influence—an influence which we can not sur-
render without weakness and dishonor. Knowledge
is power. Wisdom and knowledge are ultimately to
be the stability of our times. If we suffer our pre-
eminence in this respect to be taken from us, then are
we weak indeed. If the young in this State are, in
time to come, to enjoy advantages of early training,
only half or one-third as great as the young around
us, then farewell future honor, farewell self-respect,
farewell the rich rewards of large intelligence and
well-cultured mind. The age passes us by, and we
who have led the way, and who have still the first
advantages for success, are distanced in the race and
stripped of our crown. -->
Is this to be 1 I will not believe it. The people
of this State, though slow to move, are a people open
to reason, and steadfast when convinced. Let but
. facts be brought home. Let them be honestly looked
at, and the State will be aroused, and again take her
place, where she has a right to stand, foremost in the
advancement of public education. Already has atten-
tion been called to this subject. Already has an enact-
ment been proposed, which, when passed, will give a
new impulse to this great public interest. But in this
matter, we must not wait the uncertainties of legis-
lation. Important as that is, it is the awakened zeal
and willing efforts of the people which are to be the
pledge of advancement. Instead of waiting for new
enactments, we must ourselves stimulate the laws.
We must anticipate them or supply their place by our
whole-heartedness and decision. Especially ought we
to act promptly in some manner, to secure a liberal
provision for a higher order of public instruction.
This is the point in which, as a State, we are most de-
(12)
ficient. We have Schools and we have Colleges, but
we have nothing, save the fluctuating efforts of private
enterprise between. Does not this subject need to be
taken up among us with new impulse and prosecuted
with new vigor? A teacher, if competent and faithful,
a few individuals, heartily engaged, can indeed accom-
plish something. But let the community be aroused;
let them feel the value of possessing a school of a high
order; let them shut out from the enterprise every
narrow local feeling, and instead of a few bent on self-
improvement, we shall shortly see the fruit of such
efforts in a wider thirst for knowledge, a purer and
more elevated taste, and a constant increase of intel-
lectual culture.
Let me then dwell for a few moments on the value
of these higher provisions of education to the com-
munity. ~
And first, they are necessary to discover and call
forth the latent talent of the young. The wealth of
New England is in her mind; and her true economy,
not to say her duty, is to give full scope to the native
powers which lie within her sons. No one who ob-
serves society but must be convinced, that a large
portion of genuine talent is lost, or worse than lost,
for the want of just this aid for which we plead. A
community can never know what talent lies hid in its
youth, till it has put within their reach something more
than the mere rudiments of education. Here and
there indeed a single mind may force its way upward
into a full development by its own inherent strength,
or by the aid of casual advantages; but for one,
which is thus discovered, there lie many, instinct
with high capacities of good to man, still inert and
unawakened. The language of the British poet,
(13)
through so often quoted, is still beautiful, and con-
tains a profound truth as well as beauty, when applied
to many a mind in our communities.
“The applause of listening senates to command,
The threats of pain and ruin to despise,
To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,
And read their history in a nation's eyes,
Their lot forbade—
For Knowledge to their eyes, her ample page,
Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unfold.
Chill Penury repressed their noble rage
And froze the genial current of their soul.”
Yes, my hearers, even with all our advantages there
is still a great waste among us of talent and of men-
tal power. Our present system of public education,
limited almost entirely to primary schools, leaves this
great work just where it needs to be prosecuted with
the most earnestness; it leaves it just in time to for-
feit the best success. It stops short of the demands
of our times for growing intelligence and well fur-
nished mind. It provides the bare rudiments of
knowledge, but it does not discover talent, it does not
stimulate to industry, it does not encourage to higher
attainments, it does not inspire with the consciousness
of elevated powers.
The schools in their present state can not provide
the variety of discipline and culture which the differ-
ence in the scholars' age demands. They are not at-
tractive to the older pupil. Instead of bearing him
forward steadily from stage to stage of knowledge,
they leave him just at the most critical period in his
education, open to the reaction of idleness, and usually
without having aroused in him a vigorous taste for
self-improvement. Why is it that towns in New
England, seemingly alike, so often yield such different
contributions of talent and activity to the State 2
(14)
Why is it that from some one secluded and unpre-
tending village, there have not unfrequently gone forth
in a single generation a surprising number of pow-
erful and useful minds ! Search into its history and
you will find that at some time the public spirit, either
of the community or of individuals, has there provided
superior means of education for the young, and so de-
veloped talent which else had slumbered in neglect.
There was a spirit in advance of the age, and it is re-
warded by furnishing to the age its leaders. It is
such a spirit which is beginning on a larger scale to
animate the States around us, and which is now call-
ing loudly for our imitation. Let this wise zeal pos-
sess us, and a generation will not pass before we shall
have laid open to the world a vast increase of intel-
lectual strength and energy. Wisdom and knowledge
will indeed prove the stability of our times. -
But in the second place, better means of general
education are needed to refine and elevate the com-
munity and to counteract a propensity to low tastes
and habits. It is a truth which needs no argument,
that knowledge of the right sort, always tends to lib-
eralize and exalt the mind. A smattering of informa-
tion may, indeed, be coupled with mean views and a
sordid character. But an education which is thor-
ough as far as it goes, and which goes far enough to
meet the wants of the age in intelligence, has of it-
self no inclination towards vice,—it is a strong safe-
guard of character. Call forth in any youth a hearty
love of information, throw open before him attractive
means of self-improvement, and you have counter-
acted in him a thousand tendencies to evil, and deliv-
ered him from a thousand snares. Knowledge earned
by effort produces self-respect, and it is the absence
(15)
of self-respect which is a chief source of ruin to the
young. The very consciousness of mental growth
gives a certain dignity and balance to character. It
sheds a softening influence over society; it insensibly
moderates passion and corrects prejudice; it brings
out the more generous traits of feeling. It is a strik-
ing evidence of this influence of general knowledge,
that the original meaning of the term from which we
derive our word humanity, was exactly a cultivated
intelligence. It is an influence which ultimately per-
vades an entire community, elevating even those who
do not personally share in it; and when sanctified by
a religious sentiment, it presents the germ, at least, of
the happiest and purest social condition. But aside
from the direct influence of better means of educa-
tion, in elevating the community, they are necessary
as a defense against vice. Vice is progressive. It
always keeps pace with the times. Vice too has her
schools of every grade, and her teachers for every
age. We know where they congregate. We know
with what appetite and zeal a vicious education is
pursued. We know that it never stops with mere ru-
diments, but is ever disclosing a more baleful knowl-
edge, and stimulating to a grosser and more impure
taste. We know with what sagacity and skill vice
adapts her literature to the age and to the individual
mind. We know how lavishly she spends in order to
make her lessons attractive. We know that she
gathers her victims most rapidly from among the va-
cant, the idle, the unthinking : and we know what
rapid precocity in sin she often develops in her schol-
ars. Vice then must be met by the power of a pure
education. It must be shamed down by a community
resolved that better lessons shall be taught. It must
( 16)
be outbid by a liberality greater than its own. Chil-
dren must be made to see by example, as well as pre-
cept, that there are better tastes, purer pleasures,
more honorable enjoyments. Their minds must be
pre-occupied by habits of thought and self-discipline.
All this may not be accomplished in a day, but it can
be done. It has been done. More than one commu-
nity has been thus purified in a great measure by the
benign influences of a better education. Show me,
where you will, a town in which a school of a higher
order has been for years sustained with interest and
zeal, and I will show you one where virtue has a
stronghold; I will show you a community not genteel
perhaps, but refined and intelligent; a community in
which the young have conceived a distaste for va-
grant habits and vicious indulgence.
This leads me to remark, in the third place, that
the possession of ample means of education gives
to a place character and influence abroad. The
town where education has performed its elevating
and refining office always has an additional weight
of influence. The sons and daughters which it sends
forth, carry with them in their character a good report
of their nativity, and there always remain at home
a large proportion of intelligent and thoughtful men.
Such a community respects itself and commands the
respect of others. It is looked up to by neighbor-
hoods around. Instead of sending forth its youth to
be educated away from home, and often to be aliena-
ted in interest from their own town, it is itself a cen-
ter of instruction. It gathers within itself the young
of surrounding communities, and molds their mind.
Such a place, too, draws to it valuable inhabitants.
The fact that education is prized by its citizens and
(17)
well sustained, makes it desirable as a residence; and
men once established amid such privileges are slow to
relinquish them. The population becomes more and
more stable under these influences, and there is no
draining off of capital and talent by a sort of period-
ical emigration. The power of this generous interest
in public education to build up a town in wealth and
importance, is incomparably greater than we are apt
to suppose. It acts gradually, at first imperceptibly,
but with sure and permanent effect, to advance every
interest of society, and to enrich the very soil itself.
I could point you to a small town in Massachusetts,
which thirty years ago was little more than an agri-
cultural village. A single individual, of limited means
but of large views, made that place his residence. He
interested himself at once in the cause of education
in the town. He lectured on the subject. He reached
the good sense of the people. They united to estab-
lish an academy of the first order. The town rapidly
advanced in consideration. It became the resort of
scholars from a wide circle of country around. It was
soon prized as a place of residence, and in twenty
years the property of the town had six-folded in value.
The academy has since grown into a college, and is
educating hundreds of the choicest minds of the
State. How much will that town have reason forever
to rejoice in the interest taken by NoAH WEBSTER
in its educational concerns. I might point to results
similar in Westfield, in South Hadley, in Easthamp-
ton, and many other towns which have owed a chief
part of their consideration and prosperity, to their en-
terprise in providing means for good education. The
case is yet to be found where a cordial and persever-
ing effort for this object on the part of any commu-
3
( 18)
nity has not resulted in large returns of increased in-
fluence and in tangible and solid benefit.
In the fourth place, the education for which we
plead greatly strengthens the institutions of religion
and the means of grace. The fountains of knowl-
edge in this land are Christian. Intelligence is iden-
tified with a cordial zeal for the ordinances of the
gospel. The best qualified teachers are often per-
sons of piety, and at all events of decided reverence
for sacred things. A thoroughly good school is, in a
large majority of cases, under gospel influences, and
some of the purest and most blessed illustrations of
reviving grace ever known, have been under the wise
and watchful care of teachers of the young. As a
general fact also, true knowledge contributes to the
power of religious truth. There is no greater false-
hood on record than the adage, that ignorance is
the mother of devotion. Knowledge may indeed be
abused, but as the kingdom of Christ advances on
earth, science and religion are more united in sympa-
thy and in aim. The great essentials of piety may
indeed be possessed by the humblest understanding,
and the scarcely enlightened heathen may do some-
thing for his Lord. But every addition of intelligence
in a Christian community, is so much added to the
moral power of the gospel. Especially is this true in
New England. It is the characteristic of our form of
religion, that it addresses itself chiefly to the reason
and understanding. It is a religion for thinking men;
and those who are best informed, those whose minds
are early disciplined to something of reflection, have
always the advantage. They are more interested in
the study of Scripture. They are more interested in
the preaching of the word. They do not merely
(19)
catch here and there an idea, but they attend steadily.
They appreciate reasoning. They follow consecu-
tive thought. The youth who lolls with a listless air
or vacant smirking face, in the house of God, is not
the youth whose mind has been aroused to feel its
own power or to thirst for information.
Even the plain substantial truths of the gospel,
which are the real staple of preaching, come with
greater vivacity of impression to minds trained to ac-
tivity and intelligence. It is this characteristic of
New England which has given to religion here its
prečminent advantage ; and if this high blessing of a
pervading religious sentiment is to continue, it will be
in no small measure because, in every generation
and with every advancement of the age, she still re-
tains her superior intelligence. It is no insignificant
fact, that the purest and most fruitful works of grace
appear in the most enlightened portions of our land;
nay, that they bless most abundantly our seats of
learning and our communities where the young are
gathered for instruction. It is a token from on high,
that God purposes that wisdom and knowledge shall,
in the highest sense, be the stability of our times.
I have thus set before you some truths which, as
citizens of Connecticut, it is not pleasant to hear. I
have also endeavored to present some considerations
more especially applicable to the interests of educa-
tion in our own community. It does not become us
to fold our hands in the face of such truths, or to be
indifferent to such advantages. We can not escape
their bearing. Such facts as I have presented in re-
gard to our State, travel fast to their consequences, and
if we will not meet them, they will certainly overtake
(20)
us. It is not what we are, so much as what we are
not and what we ought to be, that calls for our sober
attention. It is what we are in danger of becoming
compared with other States and other communities.
In the cause of education, not to advance is to go back.
It may take a generation to bring out the full evil of
neglect, but then too it will take a generation, yes,
more than one generation, to repair it. We need to
take up this matter betimes, and we can easily place
and keep ourselves beside the first States and commu-
nities in the land. We need to be like “the men of
Isachar, who were men that had understanding of the
times to know what Israel ought to do.”
There are certainly difficulties in the way of our attain-
ing all we need. So there are in every State and every
town. Probably every individual among us could lay
the blame in this matter on some one else, or on really
existing circumstances. But after all, is not the great
obstacle our own general apathy—the low value we
set on these advantages—compared with other com-
munities : Where there is a will there is a way: and
if, as a people, we were determined that our children
should enjoy that full and intelligent training which
other communities are beginning to bestow on theirs,
who doubts that the thing would be accomplished ?
My hearers, we stand in no ordinary place of re-
sponsibility. Where is the community to which the
rich privileges of advancing education should so ap-
propriately belong as to this ' Where would an en-
terprise for ample public education find a nobler scope
or bring a richer return ? Where could such an effort
be taken up to greater advantage or with more cheer-
ing promise ? Neglect has not yet gone far enough
to extinguish the hope of speedy success. The gen-
(21),
eration now on the stage, are a generation of thinking
men. We have here the stability of the agricultural
community combined with the versatility and enter-
prise of a manufacturing people. We have but a
small admixture of foreign population, and that gene-
rally of the best sort. We have a large body of youth
who are soon to give their character to this place, or to
go forth to exert elsewhere the powers which they are
maturing here. There are those among them who feel
a true self-respect, a thirst for knowledge,_a desire
of self-improvement. There are those who wish to
stand abreast of the progress of society anywhere.
They deserve our hearty respect, and the right hand
of our sympathy. There are those who are endeav-
oring to promote the intelligence of the young. There
is, if I mistake not, some indication of awakened inter-
est in matters which concern the public good, and I
would believe of larger sympathies and more generous
views of public duty.
Let us, then, rouse to some strong and persevering
effort in this great concern. We have waited as long
as is safe. Every moment of inactivity is time irre-
coverably lost. There is a generation of children
rapidly advancing to the turning point of youth. They
are children whom you love, whom any man with a
whole heart must love, must feel are the true wealth
of this people. If they are not educated as our times
demand, to intelligence and virtue, they will be educa-
ted to selfishness, perhaps to vice. If purer and higher
tastes are not awakened in them, and paths of knowl-
edge opened to them, low tastes will grow rank in the
soil of an evil heart, and they will find an easy passage
to paths of sin. Let us then move in this matter.
Let us look abroad and be willing to learn of others.
(22 )
Let us seek and diffuse information on this subject.
Let us shake off every narrow feeling and place our
community where it ought to stand. The question
before us, my hearers, is not a narrow one. The spirit
we need does not ask, How will such an effort profit
me, but what will it do for all ? How will it tell on
coming generations 7 on the morals of the com-
munity? on the interests of Christ's kingdom ? The
call in our days is for men of talent and influence who
are also pure men, high minded men, men who love
the truth. The infidelity of our day is a learned infi-
delity, and we want a system of education which shall
furnish a larger supply of youth to our colleges, and
which shall raise up a community constantly advanc-
ing in intelligence. Each one of us, whether he feels
it or not, has a personal interest in the better educa-
tion of the young, and a personal duty in promoting
it. He can not do nothing and do right. We are not
mere units in the world ; we are citizens and mem-
bers of society. We owe to social order and to the
state, under God, the chief blessings we enjoy, and
we are bound to labor for their best maintenance.
Whether we have children to be educated or not, we
are interested in the welfare of every child in that
community whose bonds encircle us, and in that State
whose protection we share. The very theory and
spirit of the state is the subordination of self-interest
to the equal good of all; as it is the spirit of religion,
“Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law
of Christ.” It is right that those who are most en-
dowed with means, whether they are to receive any
immediate benefit or not, should contribute their full
share to this object, as they must to any other object
of public strength and security. “Nothing to do with
(23)
this matter, because others will profit more than wel"
Let us carry that language to our closets and see how
it sounds in the ears of conscience and of God. Such
a spirit is not republican, it is not Christian. We feel
it our duty—werejoice to open our hands and our hearts
for the destitute of other lands. In the islands of the
sea, amid the groves of India, on the plains of Persia,
stand seminaries and academies, planted by our efforts.
There skill and taste, and energetic piety, are working
for us to furnish unknown youth with a higher educa-
tion, and to open to heathen talent the treasures of our
best knowledge; and the marked blessing of God on
these labors, testifies to their wisdom. All this we
ought to do, but not to leave the other undone. We
ought to cherish an equal—a greater zeal for the ele-
vation of our own communities and the training of
our own youth.
Do you wish then to retain in this State and com-
munity its best talent and enterprise ? Do you wish
it to be pervaded with pure and virtuous sentiment 7
Do you wish to create for yourselves and leave to those
who follow you, an atmosphere of growing intelligence
and reverence for religion ? Do you wish to leave an
honored name to other days 2 Do you wish, that out
of this place shall hereafter rise men of high purposes
and well furnished minds, to wield a broad influence
for the good of society and the advancement of reli-
gion ? Do you wish that it should be said of such
and such a man, he was born here, and here received
his first and most effectual impulses for good 2 Then
away discouragement—away doubt : and come high
determination, come the deliberate and united resolve,
that this place, at least, shall be provided, and that
without delay, with means of education, ample, attrac-
(24)
tive, and of that higher order which the age requires.
And for the State, for Connecticut, let her not want
our efforts as citizens, or our prayers as Christians.
She must not linger in the rear. To close, in the
words of one of her gifted sons:
“We have seen the trim and noble ship, manned
by a skillful crew, open the passage through an un-
known and dangerous strait, and gallantly lead the
way for a timid and creeping fleet, into a secure and
long desired haven. We have seen her pass every
shoal but the last, but just as she doubles its treach-
erous point, she grounds for an instant, and the cry is
from the fleet, she will be stranded there ! They make
all haste to rush past her. In their cry of exultation
they forget all her guidance in the past. Shall she
then be stranded, who has guided so many vessels to
so noble a port 2 Shall her last service be to lie on
the quicksands, a decaying hulk, deserted and useless,
except as a beacon to show the shoal on which she
struck 2 Shall she be stranded ? No, no ! A thou-
sand times, No! Let the cry then be, Connecticut
first to lead the way, and foremost forever !”
* Prof. Porter's Prize Essay.
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BOSTON, MASS
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REW, FREDERICK A. NOBLE, D. D.,
Of the Union Park Congregational Church, Chicago, /ſ/.
C H I C A G O
AMESON & MoRSE, PRINTERs, 162-4 CLARK ST,
*
1885.
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Nº. º.º.'''SS/2, Sºhºls, 1884.5
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EXPLANATION, *
Places occupied by the New West Commission. The Academy, Salt Lake.
New West Commission Academies, Pilgrim, --
--------- - ..". Mormon Settlementº, Indian Reservations. Burlington --
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Chark & Longley, Printers, Chicago, fºr.
































THE NEW WEST EDUCATION COMMISSION
The schools of the Commission, both in
Utah and New Mexico, are prosperous with-
out precedent in the history of the society.
The numbers in attendance are large; the in-
terest generally prevalent in them is intense;
many parents at first hostile to them are pro-
nounced friends; even Mormon officials are
among their patrons, and Sabbath schools con-
nected with them are exerting a wide in-
fluence.
These schools are the starting points and
chief factors of a marked change in public
sentimentin Utah. The recent flight of polyga-
mists illustrates not only a fear of the law,
but a sense of increasing insecurity touching
the hold of the system upon its adherents.
Towns once united, without an apostate, a
doubter or a lukewarm believer, are now
divided. New forces are at work in them.
A generation knowing nothing of Joseph
Smith, not yet indoctrinated in Mormontenets,
and highly susceptible to outside influences,
is rising, and these schools furnish just the
incentives and advantages it needs and desires.
The public, however, should not be deceived
regarding the designs of the polygamists.
Though now hiding from the officers of the
law, they are neither penitent nor discouraged.
Polygamy will not be relinquished, . It
will rather be a clandestine institution
and become more corrupting, pestilent
and malignant than ever, By separating
their polygamous households and removing
the divided portions some distance from each
other, not a few of the leaders are already pre-
pared to veil their criminality. This policy will
doubtless be steadily and stealthily pursued:
Acquiescence in the law will be feigned until
the territory shall become a state, when the
disguise will be thrown off and the hideous
evil will reassert its power. The only way
to defeat the scheme will be to flood the
territory with light, and especially to so
train the children that the system will
find among the native born people of Utah
itself, an enemy competent to throttle it.
The hope of every section is in its young
people, and to instruct aright those of Utah
is to destroy polygamy, dissipate Mormon
Superstition, build Christian churches and
save the territory.
The work needs, deserves and must have
money. All liabilities for the year must be
lmet. Larger plans for the coming year must
be laid. Numerous important towns are open,
while the work in those already occupied
should be strengthened. The success with
which the movement has been crowned justi-
fies its emphatic appeal for funds. Verily, the
Lord is in it.
Churches that have not taken a contribution
for it are earnestly desired to do so, and indi-
viduals who are asking where a few hundreds
or a few thousands can help forward a work
of great intrinsic importance, and one thor-
Oughly patriotic and Christian, are invited
immediately to replenish our sadly depleted
treasury. Address either
REV. CIIARLEs R. BLISS,
112 W. Washington St., Chicago,
or, REV. A. E. WINSHIP,
6 Conſ/regational House, Boston,
and especially,
MR. W. H. HUBBARD, Treas.,
438 La Salle Ave., Chicago.
Chicago, May 1, 1885.
/3-
The Neel in he ºl.
Willisimshº'similieſtselligency
Of the New West.
A DISCOURSE DELIVERED
THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH
BOSTON, MASS.,
SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 24, 1885,
REV. FREDERICK A NOBLE, D, D,
Of the Union Park Congregational Church, Chicago, ///,
C H I C A G O :
JAMESON & MoRSE, PRINTERs, 162–4 CLARK ST,
1885.
THE NEED AND THE WALUE OF CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS IN
THE PRESENT EXIGENCY OF THE NEW WEST.
“Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth truth may
enter in.”—Is., xxvi : 2.
For the first time within a period of almost half a century it is
possible to advance to the discussion of the Mormon problem with the
Mormon leaders at a serious disadvantage. Smitten, confused, scat-
tered, it is simple truth to affirm that Taylor and Cannon and Smith,
and their associates in the management of what, with an audacity and
a mockery truly phenomenal, they have been pleased to call “The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints,” are sorely puzzled.
Obstacles in the way, embarrassments unexpected, serious reverses,
are not new experiences to these people. At Kirtland, Ohio, at Inde-
pendence, Missouri, at Nauvoo, Illinois, their mettle was put to the
test; and like brave men, whom fanatics and charlatans not unfre-
quently resemble, they proved equal to the emergency. There are few
stories in history more marked with foresight, with patient determina-
tion and endurance, with indomitable pluck, than the migration, forty
years ago, of these deluded adherents of a False Prophet, under the
direction of Brigham Young, from the Mississippi river, over prairies,
across trackless deserts, through mountain passes, haunted by wild
beasts and wild Indians, fifteen hundred miles away, to the great Salt
Lake valley. For more than two score years neither opposition nor
disaster was permitted to overcome their faith, or subdue their cour-
age, or abate their zeal. With each fresh difficulty they were ready
with some fresh expedient, and trials were the stairways along which
they climbed, year by year, to new heights of wealth and power. In
a good cause nothing could have been more admirable than their
steadfastness of aim, their fertility of resource, and their tenacity of
grip.
But a change has taken place. Agitation has begun to bear its
fruits. Public sentiment, public condemnation, has at length crystal-
lized into law, and after decades of discussion, and protest, and abor-
4
tive effort, and wearisome waiting, on the part of good citizens, these
polygamous criminals, like other wrong-doers, are forced to bow in
acknowledgment of the authority of the Nation, and to take their
places and answer for their misdeeds at the bar of justice. It is a
sight at once novel and refreshing to see these haughty leaders in the
hands of United States marshals, face to face with judges whom they º
can neither intimidate nor bribe, with juries who can be trusted to
render verdicts according to the facts to pass upon their cases, and
going out from trials in which their guilt has been established under
sentence of fine and imprisonment; or escaping all this by hiding in
garrets and cellars and cabins, or skulking away in women's garb,
under the shelter of the midnight darkness. -
It is well known that the head officials of the Mormon church did
not dare to hold their recent Annual Conference at Salt Lake City,
where they have been accustomed to hold it, and where there are abun-
dant accommodations; but called it at Logan, far up on the northern
border of Utah. It is further known that not one member of the
First Presidency thought it prudent to show himself at the gathering.
From their secret retreat Taylor and Cannon fulminated an epistle of
explanation and apology, full, so far as form of expression goes, of
the old tone of resolution and confidence, but evidently dictated by a
feeling of much uncertainty and alarm. Their attitude, even the sim-
plest of the Saints must have seen, was not in keeping with their
great swelling words.
Up to date, as the facts are gathered from several careful corre-
spondents on the ground, not far from one hundred indictments have
been found against polygamists. Fifteen of these, including three
bishops, were in Arizona. Seven were convicted. Of these seven,
three were sent to Detroit, Michigan, for an imprisonment of three and
a half years and $500 fine. Four plead guilty and were sent to
prison—two for six months and $500 fine, and two for three months
and no fine. A number of these indictments were found in Idaho,
and there have been several cases of conviction in that Territory. Many
more cases are under investigation.
In Utah there are three judicial districts. In the Ogden district
the court is in session this month; and while it is too early to give
details, a large number of prosecutions and convictions are anticipated.
Ogden, like Salt Lake City, is one of the centers of Mormon influence
and power. In the Beaver district, indictments have been found in
something like a dozen cases. In the Salt Lake City district over
5
thirty persons have been arraigned for crimes growing out of polyg-
amy. Quite a number of them have been convicted, and have been
sentenced to the full extent of the law. The District Attorney, residing
at Salt Lake City, estimates that from 600 to 700 persons have fled
from the Territory, either to avoid prosecution or to escape giving
damaging testimony on the witness-stand.
What a change from the time when Brigham Young was Governor
of the Territory by appointment of the President of the United States!
To add to the consternation of this hierarchy which for years now has
been taunting and defying the civil powers of the land, the Supreme
Court has set its seal to the constitutionality of the law and the pro-
ceedings under which these indictments have been found and these
convictions have been secured. They are fairly in the grip of the law,
and the thus far-and-no-farther of the Nation lies across their path.
Let God be praised for so much of result. Let all be praised,
whether legislators, or governors, or attorneys, or judges, or juries, or
editors, or platform speakers, or ministers, or loving and faithful teach-
ers whose words have helped to diffuse light and to swell the tide of
public indignation, or whoever has had any share—even the least—
in bringing about this new and hopeful state of things. It is some-
thing for which to be devoutly grateful. *
But is the problem altogether solved? Have we reached the end
of the business? Or have we reached a point where the end is assured?
Far from it. No mistake, indeed, could be more fatal than folding
our hands and settling back into this easy and delightful confidence.
It is no ordinary foe, this with which we deal. A more determined, a
more bitter, a more unscrupulous body of men does not exist on the
face of the globe than the leading officials of the Mormon hierarchy.
Their whole past shows that they have no regard for the Sacredness of
an oath. Their whole past shows, too, that they have not a single drop
of patriotic blood in their veins. They hate the Government. They
hate the flag which symbolizes the majesty and power of the Govern-
ment. They hate the representatives of our national sovereignty. With-
out any loyalty in their hearts to the Republic; without any pride in
our magnificent history; without any glow of interest in the hopes we
cherish for the future, they bow in submission to magistrates and laws
only when compelled to do so.
The claim is put forth by Mormon newspapers, and by Mormon
delegates speaking in the name of the Mormon people, that they are a
law-abiding community, and that prosecutions against them under the
6
Edmunds statute ought to be suspended, on the ground that they
entered into polygamous relations before those relations were declared
obnoxious and criminal. These are points made in the appeal of the
Mormons to the President : e
“We protest against the breaking up of family relations formed
previous to the passage of the Edmunds law, and the depriving of
women and children of the support and protection of their husbands
and fathers.”
“We protest against the prosecution of persons, many of whom
are aged and infirm, who entered into plural marriage before it was
declared a crime, and have never violated any law.”
This is the assumption. Instead of being supported by the facts,
it is a bare-faced falsehood. There has never been a plural marriage
contracted in Utah, nor for more than twenty years, at any rate, in
any Territory of the United States, which was not in direct and
flagrant violation of law.
When the Mormons first entered Utah, it was a part of Mexico.
The laws of Mexico were in operation. Those laws were just as une-
quivocal and specific, in opposition to polygamy, as the laws of Illinois
or Massachusetts. Those laws, too, remained in force, notwithstanding
the transfer of general allegiance, until they were displaced by other
enactments on the same subject. In 1858, Judge Eckles, Chief Jus-
tice of the Territory, charged a grand jury as follows:
“It is well known that all the inhabited portion of this Territory
was acquired by treaty from Mexico. By the law of Mexico polygamy
was prohibited in this country, and the municipal law in this respect
remained unaltered by its cession to the United States. Has it been
altered since we acquired it? After a most diligent search and inquiry
we have not been able to find that any such change has been made,
and, presuming that this law remained unchanged by legislation, all
marriages after the first, by this law, are illegal and void.”
But in 1862—not three years ago, but twenty-three—the Congress
of the United States passed the following law:
“Every person having a husband, or a wife living, who marries an-
other, whether married or single, in a Territory, is guilty of bigamy,
and shall be punished by fine and imprisonment.”
In face of facts like these, what becomes of Mormon pretensions to
innocency? What of charges that the Edmunds law has made a new
crime, and surprised a great number of well-intentioned people, who
) 7
never so much as dreamed they were doing anything wrong by a little
Superfluous marrying? From the outset, these polygamous Mormons
have been law-breakers, determined, unscrupulous. They cannot be
trusted. The end is not yet.
Arrested in their career by the unexpected and unprecedented en-
forcement of the statutes against their crimes, several courses are open
to the Mormons. g -
They may leave the country in a body. There is no doubt that their
exploring agents have lately visited Mexico to look over the ground
with a view to some such contingency as has arisen. The freshest
word from the authorities of Mexico is, that the Mormons may make
their home within their borders, if they wish,_only they must obey
the laws. But these people will hardly migrate on any large scale.
There are too many of them, and they have too much property in the
form of fixed capital—houses, stores, mills, and cultivated lands.
They may receive another revelation, suggesting to them the pro-
priety of Suspending, for the present at least, any further indulgence
in plural marriages. As I happen to know, they have been strongly
advised to this course by eminent men. Even the intimation of such
a possibility seems like carrying the devil's diplomacy into sacred
affairs, or affairs which ought to be Sacred, and beyond the foresight
and manipulation of any human skill; but it is not to be forgotten
that the Priests and Prophets of the Latter-Day Saints have always
had revelations just when they wanted them. It is not at all strange,
therefore, that shrewd politicians should have seen this way out of the
difficulty, and should have been kind enough to bring it to their atten-
tion. Some admissions, made by partisan advocates in recent defences
of polygamy—such as the equality in the numbers of the sexes, which
would seem to be Nature's protest against plural marriages, and the
fact, as they claim, that only one in fifty of the male Mormons of mar-
riageable age is living in polygamous relations—look not a little as
though the policy of abandoning the miserable institution were really
up for discussion amongst the leaders. This, however, will not be the
immediate outcome.
What the Mormons probably will do, will be to make a combined
and strenuous effort to secure, at the earliest possible moment, the
admission of Utah as a State. This is clearly foreshadowed in the list
of grievances recited to Mr. Cleveland at Washington:
“We protest against a continuance of Territorial bondage, sub-
versive of the rights of freemen, and contrary to the spirit of American
institutions.”
8
That is the peril which confronts us in the near future — a com-
munity committed by its doctrines, and practices and traditions, to
polygamy, and dominated by a cunning and ambitious hierarchy, wel-
comed into the Union, and entrenched in all the prerogatives which
belong to a separate and independent Commonwealth. Looked at
from the moral stand-point, this seems at once monstrous and impos-
sible. Looked at from the stand-point of national reputation—the
good opinion in which it ought to be the aspiration of every nation of
intelligence and character to be held by the other nations of eminence
in the earth—one would say the very suggestion of this step is enough
to stir indignation everywhere, and bring down upon it the united op-
position of the people. But the exigencies of party are always po-
tent factors in the solution of public questions. When we stop to
consider on which side the political sympathies of the Mormon leaders
and their adherents have always been; and when we consider further
how evenly-balanced the United States Senate is, and how important
two votes, on one side or the other, are likely to be in that body
for some time to come —it is easy to see what a bribe Utah holds
in her hand when she knocks at the door of Congress, and pleads
for the rights and dignity of state-hood. Only a little longer will
it be possible to keep Dakota from advancing to the place to which
she is entitled. When Dakota is permitted to come in and join hands
with Minnesota, and Iowa, and Ohio and New York, in the exercise of
an independent sovereignty, let all patriots, and all lovers of sweet
homes and social cleanliness, be on the watch, lest the door of admis-
sion be opened so wide that, along with Dakota, Utah walk in also.
That is the scheme which is in the political air. All the signs and all
the probabilities point to an attempt in this direction. There is the
more ground for apprehending the success of the scheme, because, in
addition to party exigencies, there are always so many men in legisla-
tive bodies who are practically indifferent to the moral aspect of public
questions, and who, therefore, can be easily influenced by those whose
chief skill lies in the sphere of manipulating affairs for party ad-
vantage.
There will be the cry, on the part of the Mormon leaders, of persecu-
tion, in order to confuse the real issue in the minds of the people, and.
to secure popular sympathy. There will be a concerted endeavor to
weld all who hold the Mormon faith into a closer unity, and to make
them more and more determined in adherence to their peculiar dog-
mas and practices. To this end, sermons, editorials, letters, incendiary
9
appeals to the masses, mob violence, if deemed necessary, petitions
and protests laid at the feet of the supreme authorities of the land,
technical evasions and defences before the courts, perjury, the spirit of
bravado which stands up and dares juries and judges to do their worst,
concealment and flight, when these can be made to seem shrewd
manoeuvers for, baffling marshals and prosecuting attorneys, the direst
castigations which can be inflicted by sharp newspaper thrusts and
social ostracism, visited on those who confess and yield too easily, and
whatever else will tend to keep the Saints in heart and inflame their
fanaticism, will be brought into requisition. There will be a strong
movement to displace the present energetic, and courageous, and
straight-forward officials of the Territory, with men more indulgent to
Mormon crimes, and more responsive to the peculiar inflences which
shut eyes to the violations of law.
But the objective point of it all will be the admission of Utah as a
State. From the hour that takes place, polygamists will have their
own way. They will flock into Utah from all quarters. They will
make their own laws. They will have their own officials. The Hier-
archy will rule supreme. With these conditions brought about, and
Mormonism sheltered under State rights, he must be a very wise man,
in his own conceit, who thinks he can see a near and peaceable end of
the shame and abomination of polygamy.
Supposing, however, that the polygamous element of the Mormon
question were effectually eliminated, and that we were to hear nothing
more about it, except as an unsavory reminiscence—what then?
There would still be a condition of affairs in Utah, and in the adja-
cent Territories, which might well occasion solicitude, and which
would surely call for the utmost exertion in order to prepare the peo-
ple living there for the high functions of American citizenship.
A gentleman residing in Utah, and of sufficient intelligence and
position and character to entitle his words to the highest consideration,
has just written me as follows:
“From a letter recently received from the East it would seem that
some of our friends there think the whole problem is now being finally
settled by the courts, and that no further missionary efforts need to be
made. What an error! Comparatively speaking, polygamy is not
yet touched, and even if it were wholly stopped, the ‘Mormon King-
dom,’ as an ecclesiastical organization, would be just as strong and
just as treasonable. Moreover, if—if-the Mormon hierarchy could
be demoralized and routed, what a dense mass of ignorance would yet
10
remain to be reached and moulded by Christian workers. Whatever
may happen, therefore, there can be no doubt that for the next twenty
years there will be need of all the foresight and all the sacrifices good.
men and good women can bring into exercise to Save these Mormon
communities to intelligence and righteousness.” -
It must be borne in mind that the Mormons have been recruited
from a great many different nationalities. Thousands of them speak
only in foreign tongues. Simple-minded, industrious, economical,
trained to hardship, with not a little of rude force, yet gathered from
mining regions, and peasant classes, and from sections of society both
in the Old World and in the New, where there is hardly anything of
even the most rudimentary culture, it goes without saying that the
large majority of Latter-Day Saints are at the bottom in the matter of
mental and moral and spiritual discipline. Their schools do little for
them, and even the little good they do receive from such instruction
as is provided for them by the Mormon authorities is mingled with
much harm. Mormon preaching is of the same order. Much of it is
coarse and debasing. Still more of it is utterly misleading.
In short, here is a vast body of our fellow-citizens to be weaned
from their false notions and their fanaticism and their hate, and to be
made acquainted with the truth; to be taken patiently and lovingly in
hand, and lifted into a worthy manhood and womanhood.
If we step across the border from Utah into New Mexico, we
straightway encounter a condition of things hardly less appalling. If
there is little of polygamous Mormonism, there is yet ignorance of the
densest sort, and unblushing immorality, and a sweep and sway of
Superstition utterly beyond the comprehension of one who has not
witnessed the manifestation of it with his own eyes.
Birge Harrison, in a recent article in Harper's Monthly, uses this
language: “Nowhere in the world is superstition more rife, and igno-
rance more dense than here.” In illustration he cites the result of a
popular vote taken some years ago in two of the counties of the Ter-
ritory on the question of public schools. “The Assembly at Santa
Fe,” he says, “passed a bill giving to each county the option of having
public schools. The question was decided by ballot, the result in two
of the principal counties being as follows: Taos county—for, 8;
against, 2,150. Rio Arriba county—for, 19; against, 1,928.”
There has been an improvement, in some sections, since that vote
was taken, but not much. Moneys raised and expended for public
school purposes are turned almost wholly to the advantage of priest
11
and church. In a conference held last May with a number of the
leading citizens of Albuquerque, I was told that the funds secured by
taxation for common school objects in their community were spent in a
remote corner of the county where not a particle of the benefit could
accrue to the children of those whose property bore the burden of the
levy. The authorities were the creatures of the priests, and did their
bidding.
These facts have an immensely increased significance when it is
remembered that, according to the last census, of the population of
New Mexico who had then reached the age of ten years and upwards,
a little more than 60 per cent. could not read, and fully 65 per cent.
could not write. It is no wonder the people are under the control of
priestly demagogues and are easily led to their own hurt.
The author just named finds another evidence of the superstition
which largely dominates the masses of New Mexico and checks their
advance, in the existence of what he calls “the strange and secret
order of the Penitentes. This society numbers 20,000, and,” so the
writer of the Monthly article adds, “until it is crushed out it will
remain an effectual barrier to the progress of morality and good order
in New Mexico.” “As they are mutually sworn,” quoting another
sentence, “to assist one another, even to the extent of perjury, it will
readily be seen what a formidable hydra the New Mexico judges have
to deal with.” These Penitentes were organized on the basis of the
dogma that no sin could be forgiven without confession and expiation.
They have swung around now to the theory that no sin can be so great
but that a sufficient expiation will purge it away. The paragraph in
the article which describes the cruel tortures these misguided votaries
of the faith inflict on themselves is not overdrawn. The humiliation
and pangs to which they subject their bodies in the attempt to purge
away sin are simply horrible. s
“The public services of expiation are held once a year, in Holy-
week. There is never any lack of expiants. An image of the Virgin
is placed in the center of the church, or in the campo Santo before it,
and the ground for many yards in front of it is strewn knee-deep with
cactus, whose poisonous spires will sometimes pierce the heaviest Soled
shoe. Through this bed of living thorns the Penitentes march with
naked feet, or crawl along on bare knees, calling piteously the while
to the Virgin for forgiveness of their sins. As if this were not sufficient,
they scourge themselves with great bunches of cactus tied together on
a thong, and slash themselves with knives. The natural result of
12
these horrible exercises is a death now and then, and many maimed
and pitiable creatures who drag out a miserable existence for the
remainder of their days.”
To the same effect, and still more graphic, is the account of these
religious austerities given by one of our New West teachers as they
were forced upon her observation during the Holy-week of this very
year :
“The penitents performed their revolting rites in the avenue just
opposite my room, so that I could not do otherwise than see and hear
them. They erected a cross about a half mile from the house, and to
this each one in turn made a pilgrimage. They were masked, nude
to the waist, and upon their ankles were iron chains so heavy that they
could not lift their feet. Their backs were covered with wounds and
blood, while on the shoulders of each was borne a cross, ten by five
feet, the arms of which were not less than six inches in diameter.
When they were about a rod from their destination their burden was
lifted, and the remainder of the distance was made on their knees, with
their faces in the dust. At the cross stood a man dressed in black
from head to foot, holding a small crucifix in his hand. He bent and
spoke to the penitent, the purport of which I imagined was absolution
and blessing. They went backwards and again took up the cross, but
when they reached the house they acted as if more dead than alive.”
These are facts, not of some long-gone yesterday, but of to-day.
They are facts, not of Old Mexico, or of Spain, but of America. In a
little while a vote in the hands of these men will mean all it means in
the hands of a Professor in Harvard College.
Looking, then, at Utah in the most hopeful way in which we can
picture it to our thought, and looking at New Mexico just as unpreju-
diced eyes see it, do we not have a state of affairs fitted at once to
excite our compassion, to arouse our zeal, and to put us on our guard
against great possible harm to the Nation in the future?
Remember that these two territories are in themselves vast empires.
Utah is as large as all New England, with almost one-half of New
York added. New Mexico is as large as all New England, and if all
New York and New Jersey besides be added, there will still be enough
left to duplicate Connecticut. These broad realms are peopled with
men and women, many of whom have but a poor conception of the
significance of life, and but little fitness for the responsibilities of life,
and nearly all of whom have the least possible sympathy with Ameri-
can ideas and American institutions.
13
Now, through what agencies and by what methods shall we reach
these communities and transform them so that the light shall be sweet
to them, and the truth welcome, and it shall be the honest and earnest
aspiration of vast majorities of them at any rate to walk in the ways
of love and righteousness, and a real loyalty to God?
The answer is at hand. Experience has already furnished the
reply. In some form of presentation and pressure it is the Gospel, of
course. There is no regeneration for humanity save through the Christ.
The truth as it is in Jesus, accepted and followed, conditions all
New Jerusalems. Whether in Utah or Turkey, whether in New Mex-
ico or Old Mexico, or Old Spain, or India, or China, or Africa, if men
are to be lifted to higher levels of manhood, if homes are to be perma-
nently sweetened, if social order is to be permanently established, and
all the interests of men are té receive upward impulse, and lives and
customs and institutions and activities are to be swept into line with
the best things of the best civilization the world has yet known, it must
be through the renewing power of the faith of the Son of God. Not
art, not trade and commerce, not business interchanges, not telegraphs
and railroads and newspapers and libraries, valuable as all these things
are, but the Everlasting Gospel.
But there is more than one way of preaching the Gospel of Christ.
There is the way of the pulpit. There is the way of the newspaper and
the tract. There is the way of personal intercourse, and of lives whose
sweetness and consistency and rare devotion spell out the Name of
Jesus. There is the way, Sanctified and blessed of all time, of the ten-
der voice of the mother. It has been demonstrated beyond any possi-
bility of cavil, by years of successful effort, that the way to reach these
people in Utah and New Mexico, and bring them under the power of
the truth, make them feel that the truth is the truth, and will help
them in their individual lives and in their homes, and in all relations,
is the Christian School.
To thoughtful minds the School would be suggested at once by this
dense ignorance of which mention has been made. To those who have
had much experience in trying to modify the settled opinions and con-
victions of whole communities, and to impart to them new views, and
to inspire them with new aims, it is just as evident that the hopeful
sphere of endeavor is not the adult population, but the children. The
Christian School is the sign in which to conquer.
The Year Book does not show any very remarkable headway made
by our Congregational Body in planting churches in the Territories
14
under consideration. Utah reports three Congregational Churches with
a total membership of 207; New Mexico reports three with a total
membership of 57. There is very little in that to excite denomina-
tional pride, or to stir up sectarian envy. But as a matter of fact, so
far as my knowledge goes, only two of these churches, or, at most,
three, would have been at all possible without the previous work of the
Christian Schools. On the contrary, these Christian Schools have been
uniformly successful in reaching the communities in which they have
been located, and in conciliating their favor, and in opening the way
to better things. Or, if there has been any break in the uniformity of
the success, the failure has been confined to a single instance.
There are more missionaries laboring in Utah and New Mexico
than the statistics just recited would seem to indicate. At least six
are doing efficient service in towns and villages and sparsely settled
places in Utah, where the interest is not yet sufficiently advanced to
warrant the organization of churches. There are some such in New
Mexico. But the reaping of these Christian Preachers, in so far as
they are able to reap, is in fields plowed and sown by the Christian
Teachers. None would be more ready than these ministers themselves
to acknowledge the truth of what is here asserted. A little child shall
lead them. In the conquest of ignorance and prejudice and alienation
and sin, as they exist in these great Territories, we move forward to
victory when we rally the children to our standard.
This is not a new discovery, nor is the attempt to lay stress on the
School as a means of propagating ideas and influencing character a
new policy. This is just what the Catholic priests are doing in New
Mexico when they insist on Schools in which all the instruction shall
be clustered about their peculiar church dogmas. This is just what
the Mormon priests are doing in Utah—trying to hold the next gene-
ration and the generations to come in fidelity to their articles of faith,
and to their domestic and Social usages, by pre-occupying the minds of
the children, and indoctrinating them with their crude oriental notions.
In a discourse delivered in the Tabernacle at Ogden last January,
when he was doing more public speaking than he is doing just now,
George Q. Cannon used the following language : “For many years,
while laboring in the ministry abroad, I saw how small was the amount
of fruit resulting from the labors of myself and other elders; that we
labored sometimes for years and were only able to bring into the
Church a comparative few; and then, out of those that were converted
and brought into the Church there was a large percentage who did not
15
remain, but who lost the faith and fell away. I became convinced, in
my mind, that more satisfactory results and a larger amount of fruit
could be obtained by devoting attention to the cultivation of our chil-
dren, and for years before I had the opportunity, I had resolved, in my
own mind, that if I were ever permitted to remain at home long enough
I would devote attention to the cultivation of the young. I think,” he
adds, “that what has been done in this direction has amply rewarded
every man and woman who has taken interest in this course.”
The simple truth is that the importance of securing the ear of the
young is coming to be everywhere recognized more and more. The
decisive effect of early instruction on opinion and character is a fact
settled and confirmed by ages of experience. Secularists, Catholics,
Greeks, Buddhists, Mohammedans, as well as earnest and far-seeing
Protestants, know that if they would make advances, or even hold their
own, they must instruct the children, and enthuse them with the ideas
they severally cherish.
When Macaulay went to India as a member of the Supreme Coun-
cil, he saw at once that the strategic point was the school. If the
school system of India could be reconstructed, and the extravagant and
puerile myths with which the minds of the young had been crammed,
century after century, could be relegated to the darkness out of which
they had been born, and the English language, informed with English
conceptions, and alive in every sentence with regenerating opinions,
could be systematically taught, India would grow, and in time the
thought and feeling and life of India would fall into accord, not alone
with the dominant nation, but with the Nineteenth Century. Events
have demonstrated the profound wisdom of the scheme.
Two hundred and fifty years before Macaulay was born John Knox
had made the same discovery of the need and efficiency of the School.
He pressed the Kirk, at his own expense, to plant a school in every
parish of Scotland. The dauntless men who had followed Knox in his
terrific conflicts with Rome fell in with his views, and, subsequently,
with what result the world knows, schools, to be jointly supported
by parishes and the parents of the children instructed, were everywhere
established by law.
But why go abroad for examples? What were the bed-rock ideas
of early New England society? First of all there was the idea of lib-
erty—liberty to think, liberty to speak, liberty to act. But within this
larger thought or sphere of liberty, what? There were these three:
The Christian home, the Christian Church, the Christian School. Out
16
of these was to come the Christian State. How marked at the outset
was regard for the school. How pathetic, at once, and how inspiring,
the story which traces the history of the endeavors of our fathers to
lay the foundations of instruction for the succeeding generations of this
land. For more than two centuries and a half New England has been
laying accent on the school. Nor is it, in my judgment, too much to
say that New England Congregationalists have never had an equal
amongst the religious bodies, unless it be the Scotch Presbyterians
just referred to, in the intelligent interest they have taken in pushing
the learning which has Christian nurture at its core. When the sons
and daughters of the New England faith set their faces westward, as
by instinct they take their schools with them; and to-day, from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, all across these mighty States of ours, one can
trace the path of Congregationalism by the schools which have been
planted along the way—the Theological schools, the colleges, the
academies, the seminaries, and in the public sentiment created in
behalf of general and wholesome instruction for all.
Nearly all of our great missionary organizations recognize the neces-
sity of the policy which makes the Christian School one of the leading
evângelistic agencies. It is not thought possible, either at home or
abroad, to register any permanent success without schools.
According to the last Annual Report, the American Missionary
Association shows a total of 65 schools in the South. Of these, 8
are chartered institutions; 14 normal and graded; and 48 common
schools. For these schools they have 319 teachers, and through them
they reach about 10,000 pupils. Their missionaries, male and female,
are only 104. Among the Indians the Association has 4 churches
and 9 schools; 5 missionaries and 21 teachers. The work amongst
the Chinese is confined exclusively to schools, and the statistics
give them 15 schools and 27 teachers. It requires no estimate to
see how large a proportion of the receipts of the Association must
go to the support of the school work. The wisdom of the policy is be-
yond any question.
Just as soon as he can, the Missionary of the American Board
avails himself of the advantages of the school. He invokes the aid of
the school. He works through the instrumentality of the school. He
multiplies his resources and extends his influence by means of the
school. He lays broad and deep the foundations of the Christian
religion in the Christian School. In the Report made at Columbus, I
find the total force of American laborers, “not including those still
17
supported at the Sandwich Islands,” under the Commission of the
Board, to be 418. Of this number, 151 are ordained ministers; 10
are physicians; 245 are women, wives of the ordained ministers, and
other single women. There are a few others, not classified. In the
line of Native laborers, there are 142 pastors, 862 preachers, 1,010
teachers. The whole number of laborers, American and Native, in-
cluding 807 helpers, is 2,284. About half of the whole force, accord-
ing to these tables, falls under the head of teachers. The churches
under the care of the Board number 292. The schools swell to a total
of 913. There are 50 Colleges and High Schools; there are 38 Girls’
Boarding Schools; there are 825 Common Schools. This is the wis-
dom which an experience of seventy-five years has ripened. The hour
never will strike which will see that policy reversed. If we want the
Tomorrow of Japan, or Turkey, or any other land, we must lay our
hands on the children of Today, and mould them to the pattern of our
ideals.
In seizing upon the young, therefore, and pushing Christian
Schools, we are in the line of the spirit of the age, and are doing
what everybody else in similar spheres, and with similar aims, sees to
be absolutely necessary to success. Christian Schools—not narrow,
sectarian schools, but Christian Schools—schools, that is, in which
the teacher, man or woman, stands forth as a practical illustration of
what it is to have in one the mind of Christ; schools in which all the
knowledge imparted gets somehow warmed and perfumed with the
divine knowledge of the Son of Man; schools in which the educating
or drawing out of the mind is steadily towards the light which falls
in on the soul from the face of the Father; schools, in which every
fact considered comes to have written on it, in letters which even the
dullest pupil can read at length, the sacred name of God, are every-
where the open doors to better things. They are clearly so — demon-
strably so — in the Territories of our great New West.
When in Salt Lake City, a year ago, I visited all the schools
of the various religious denominations, with the exception of the
Baptists, which had been in operation only a couple of years. The
Episcopalians were first on the ground; and as they have had an ex-
perience with successive classes in their institution which might enable
them to arrive at facts of significance bearing on the permanent
outcome of their work on the pupils, I asked the Rev. Mr. Miller, who
is at the head of the school, to look back over their records, and see,
as far as the matter might be traced, what their eighteen years of in-
18
struction would show, with a view to putting the result in my hands.
Not long ago, the following communication from Mr. Miller was sub-
mitted to me: “St. Mark's School has enrolled, since its origin in
1867, pupils to the number of 2,675. Of these, 2,138 are of Mormon
parentage—79 per cent. of the whole. Out of the 2,138, 485, or 22
per cent., have become identified, themselves, with our Church by bap-
tism on Confession. Of course, some of them have passed out of our
knowledge, and out of the range of our influence. There are some,
too, who show no outward interest in religion or the Church. But we
have never known an instance of a pupil who had been with us three
years..ever going back to Mormonism. It would be impossible to tell
how many of the parents of these 2,188 are Mormons, and how many.
are apostates; probably the latter would number two-thirds or more.
We have educated 27 Teachers from Mormon families, who are now
communicants. We have 4 young men, originally Mormons, now
in preparation for the Ministry.”
Prof. Benner, who is in charge of our own Academy at Salt Lake
City, writes from a more limited experience; but his conclusions are
to the same effect:
“The entire number enrolled in the Academy and its preparatory
School, during the past seven years, is 660. Of these, 290 have been,
or are now, connected with our Sunday Schools; and 51 are church-
members. Of the 660 on our lists, 302 have been children of Mor-
mon or apostate parents. Those who have come to us from Mormon
circles have experienced one of two changes; either their Mormonism
has come to be so much modified as to render it harmless, or it has
been quite obliterated. Among all, parents and children, suspicions
they may have cherished towards Evangelical Christianity have disap-
peared; kindlier sentiments prevail; many have joined the Church, and
more are ripe for it.”
The words with which Prof. Benner closes his letter are significant
in their bearing on a point made a little back. Those who are in a
position to judge of the Mormon question from the inside—from what
they actually See and know—have but one opinion. The words are:
“Many years, no doubt, will be required to lift a population so mis-
led into Christian views and practices. The prosecution and punish-
ment of a few polygamists, or even the entire suppression of polygamy,
would leave essentially the same work to be done by Christian hearts
and hands. Law has never had accorded to it here in Utah so much
reverence as now; but I see the same propensity to lawlessness in the
19
people as formerly. That can only be reached by the Churches and
Schools. To do all which needs to be done here, let who will think to
the contrary, will take a good while, much hard work, many prayers,
and a great deal of money.” *
If anything can be proved, I am sure every intelligent man
will justify me in saying that the need and value of Christian Schools
in the great New West is clearly shown.
Here, then, is a work to be done,—a great and pressing work.
Here is a method of doing it, a method simple, practicable, and of
unquestionable efficiency. The needs, as outlined in an unembel-
lished statement of the facts of the case, make their own appeal. Utah
cries aloud, and New Mexico cries aloud, albeit unconsciously, to all
lovers of their kind, to all true patriots, to all who wish to see the
Kingdom of God advanced in the Earth, to render assistance in
their fierce struggles with darkness, and degradation and sin. The
task imposed, by the condition of things in these Territories, is not for
the few alone, but the many. It is not for any one section; but for all
sections. East and West must join hands in the holy work of Saving ,
these communities. - -
It has been intimated occasionally that inasmuch as the New West
Education Commission originated in Chicago, Chicago ought to take
care of it. This would be neither wise nor equitable nor possible.
It would not be wise. The attempt to carry out any such suggestion
would involve lessening or altogether withdrawing interest from causes
which no church can afford to drop out of sight. For instance, would
it be well for the members of our churches in the West to take less
interest than they do in Foreign Missions? Such a policy would be
simply suicidal. We are doing all we can to develop and foster inter-
est in far-away lands. To say nothing of other considerations, the
welfare of our membership demands it. Can we afford to keep back
any contributions we are able to make in aid of the work in the South?
So long as illiteracy and immorality and inexperience in self-control
and in the conduct of public affairs hold in them a menace to the
Republic there will be men who cannot and who ought not to be dis-
suaded from doing what they may to establish Christian institutions
for the colored millions of America. It is the same with Home Mis-
sions, Church Building, Sabbath Schools, and all the other benevolent
activities in which the East and the West, the North and the South,
have a common responsibility. It is as essential to the churches in
Chicago as in Boston that they be not narrow. The field is the world.
20
All churches ought to be trained to that view. It can be done only by
placing before them, and persistently keeping before them, objects
which lead their thoughts and sympathies and prayers out to the ends
of the earth.
It would not be equitable. People sometimes seem to think that
Chicago is right under the eaves of Utah and New Mexico, and that
the schools which the Commission is establishing in those Territories
are fairly within the suburbs of what her own citizens, at any rate, are
fond of calling “the great Metropolis of the Interior.” But the near-
est school the Commission has to Chicago is more than 1,100 miles
away, while much the larger number are more than 1,500 miles beyond
the city in which the Commission is located. A sweep of suburb
which would include Ogden and Las Vegas would take in Boston. It
may be doubted whether Boston is quite ready to be reckoned a suburb
of Chicago, though the old Puritan City seems to be doing the best she
can to imitate Chicago in the manner of men she is coming to entrust
with the management of her municipal affairs.
In justice still another word ought to be said. From a financial
point of view Boston has vastly more at stake than Chicago. For
illustration take the very regions in which we are carrying on
our school operations. The northern portion of the field in which
we work is tapped by the Union Pacific Railroad. That is largely
a Boston property. We send many of our teachers out to their
destination over the line of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy
road. That is a Boston property. Every school we have in New
Mexico is on the line of the Atchison road. That, again, is a Boston
property. If the pecuniary interests at stake were to have anything to
do in measuring obligations, and if the pecuniary advantages were to
be permitted to play any part in arousing zeal and quickening energy
in a work like this, the East might be expected to lead in efforts to
redeem these great Territories.
The case becomes much stronger when it is added that the whole
region of which Chicago is the center, is still largely tributary to the
region of which Boston is the center. Chicago does not yet own itself.
It will some day, but the day is not yet. The people of the West are
still under large money obligations to the capitalists of the East.
Dividends on stocks, rents for stores and houses, interest on loans,
profits from landed investments and from manufacturing establish-
ments, are drained off in large amounts every year to the East. This
diminishes, by so much, the capacity of Western men to aid benev-
21
olent objects, and to build up educational and Christian institutions.
If men do not have money they cannot give it—that is, honest men
cannot. The simple fact is, there is not a State in the West which is
not kept under constant strain with its own Home Missionary respon-
sibilities. It is amazing how much is often done with so small
I'êSOUITCéS. *
It is not possible for Chicago to do this work alone, even were it
deemed wise and equitable to turn it over to her hands. At a religious
gathering held last month, in connection with the closing exercises of
the Chicago Theological Seminary, touching reference was made by
one of the professors to the munificent gifts of a single man, whom
he named, to the Seminary in a trying time in its experience. A
tender regret was expressed that he was not there to receive the grate-
ful acknowledgments of the assembled company. Unexpectedly he was
present. After repeated calls he arose in his place and stood before us
all. His presence was profoundly significant. It meant more than
anybody thought at the moment. That good man— Deacon PHILO
CARPENTER—assisted at the formation of the first Sunday School ever
organized in Chicago. He had part in the organization of the first
church in Chicago. Yet he did not set foot within the bounds of what is
now the city till he was past 30 years of age; and when he began
business the people were less than five hundred. To-day that
same man is living, and Chicago enrolls more than 600,000 inhab-
itants. That astonishing growth has all been covered by what may be
called the business career of one man's life. From bottom to top, and
the bottom was a good way down when they began at it, Chicago has
been built within that period. It is the work, substantially, of a single
generation. Or, to turn it about, a single generation has had all that
work to do. Men who have such tremendous obligations thrust upon
them in quick succession—the building of roads, wharves, docks, ships,
railroads, residences, stores, factories, mills, hospitals, asylums,
retreats, libraries, galleries, halls, churches, public buildings—every-
thing which belongs to the appointment of a great, modern city, are
hardly in condition, many of them, to spring forward to large benevo-
lence for the benefit of localities hundreds of miles away. It takes
time to ripen men, and especially communities of men, into the habit
of large and prompt giving. It takes time to gather the surplus out of
which large gifts can be made.
This is not all of it. Every year our population increases to the
number of 35,000. That is a little more than the whole city of Port-
22
land. It is as though a city, larger than the largest city in Maine, was
poured in upon us every twelve months. Call to mind the religious
privileges which the people of Portland consider necessary to their
moral and spiritual welfare. They have Catholic Churches, Episco-
palian, Unitarian, Swedenborgian, Methodist, Baptist, Congregational
and I know not what others. There are, at least, eight Congregational
Churches in that single city. Recently, thinking there were not enough
churches in the city for the good of the people, or fearing that the right
kind of nourishment might not be supplied by those already in exist-
ence, the Presbyterians have started a church. But these 35,000 who
come annually to us in Chicago care little for churches. They come
from Ireland, from Bohemia, from Germany, from Norway and Sweden,
from everywhere; and they bring with them all sorts of ideas and cus-
toms except those which hold them in loyalty to Jesus Christ. The
task they impose upon us, is not only to gather them into Sabbath
Schools, and to build missions and churches for their accommodation,
but to win them to the love of religious institutions. Not a few of
them are open atheists and nihilists. Very few of them care anything
for Christian truth. In the whole round of problems growing out of an
aggressive Christianity, nothing baffles me, nothing appalls me, like
the problem of the irreligious masses of Chicago. When one mass of
35,000 are provided for we have to turn right about and do the same
thing over again. This work has to be done each succeeding year.
Pause for a moment, however, and see just what our Congrega-
tional churches are doing. There are twenty Congregational churches
in Chicago. Just ten of these are self-supporting. In connection with
these ten self-supporting churches we have sixteen Mission Sunday-
schools and Branches. For the year ending March 31, 1885, the four
strongest of our churches—Plymouth, New England, Union Park, and
the First—gave for benevolent objects $74,774.99. For all pur-
poses these churches gave $127,401.39. The resident membership of
the four is 3,175. That gives $23.54 from each resident member for
benevolent objects. It gives us $40.12 from each resident member for
all church purposes. One of these churches cares for two missions,
and employs a minister for each. Another of them has two missions—
a German and an English—and employs a minister who is able to
serve both nationalities. A third has two missions, though it is
aided by the City Missionary Society in conducting one of them. The
fourth in the list has three Branches, and employs a minister for each
of them, besides taking on itself the burden of two missions. Three
28
of these churches erected mission buildings last year, only one of
them—even if there was one—costing less than $10,000.
Whatever else may be said, the Congregational churches of Chicago
are not sitting down and folding their hands and letting the case go by
default. They are doing what they can to meet the obligations, both
at home and abroad, which God in His providence is thrusting upon
them, and upon us all. There is no lack of appreciation of the mag-
nificent service the East has rendered the West. There is no disposi-
tion in the West to lie down on the East. At the same time Chicago
cannot take the whole responsibility, nor bear the entire burden, even
with all the help the whole Interior can supply, of a work so great, so
important, and so pressing, as this of planting and sustaining Christian
Schools in the vast Territories of the New West.
But why multiply arguments? As has been said, the service to be
rendered is a service for all. No man in the whole length and breadth
of the Republic can withhold his aid, and say, I have no part nor lot
in the matter. The perilis common. The obligation is common. We
are all of us the followers of a common Master. We are all the citizens
of a common country. We go up or we go down together. Degradation
in the South results in degradation in the North. Superstition, crime,
alienation, disloyalty in the West tax the East, and tend to under-
mine the whole vast fabric of the Nation. If we are to Save America
to the future; if we are to bind all sections together, in the bonds of a
common faith, and a common reverence for truth and righteousness;
if we are not merely to conserve what we have, but to advance the nation
to a higher level of moral and spiritual life, so that there shall be
elements in us clearly prophetic of the time when the Kingdoms of this
Earth shall be the Kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ, every heart
must bow in prayer for the glad consummation, and every hand must
lend its help, and each see to it that his effort is limited only by his
ability. It is a great and sacred trust which is committed to us, as the
heirs of our pious and patriotic fathers. To stand still, and do noth-
ing, is to be disloyal to country. Not to be quick to embrace every
opportunity which opens, and to help in all possible ways, is to be
disobedient to God.
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CU I BON O 2
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At the unanimous request of the Semi-Annual Missionary
Convocation, holden at Ionia, Mich., the Rev. Dr. Pitkin kindly
consented to permit this sermon to be printed as a tract
for diocesan distribution, in order to impart information, to arouse
enthusiasm in this branch of Church work.
SERMON.
Romans, CHAP. 16, VERSEs 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 15 : .
“I commend unto you Phebe, our sister, which is a servant of the church
which is in Cench rea; that ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, and that
ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you; for she hath been a
succorer of many, and of myself also. -
“Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus; who have for my life
laid down their own mecks; unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the
churches of the Gentiles. Greet Mary who bestowed much labor upon us. Salute
Fhilologus, and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympus and all the saints. "
The work of the Woman's Auxiliary in the Church is in
accordance with the spirit of the age, Women in these days are
coming to the front; they are filling places of prominence, they are
taking positions which were thought, a few years since, to belong
exclusively to men. Already they have found their way into our
most advanced colleges; they have their diplomas from our highest
and best schools of professional training; they are to-day pleading
causes at the bar and even preaching from the pulpit ; they are at
the bedside of the sick, not as skilled nurses only, but as accom-
plished physicians.
You will please notice I am thus far simply stating facts,
without expressing an opinion respecting them. Whatever we
may think of their practical effect, the facts are beyond dispute.
There is a very strong assertion, in our day, of what are called
“Woman's Rights. " There is no doubt that much of the talk and
the writing on the subject is not very wise; but the best thing
about the matter is, that it is passing from the region of speculation,
and theory, to that of action. Women are not only claiming the
right to do, but are doing. This seems to me to be a healthy state
of things; it makes the movement practical and real, gives it
dignity and strength, and saves it, in my judgement, from essential
QI’l’OI’. - -
Now it could hardly be otherwise than that religion should
have a share in this great movement of the age. Religion has
6)
<-l
always interested women more than it has men. Women are not
naturally skeptics; they are not scoffers, a skeptical and certainly
a scoffing woman is a kind of monster. Women, as a class, are
religiously disposed, and moreover they are conservative; they love
home, they love peace and order, and there seems to be a certain
instinct in their nature which teaches them to find in religion,
which they love for its own sake, their own sure protection against
anarchy and chaos, against the dominion of brute force. I think
that religion will gain more than anything else by this new
development of “woman's work, ”—more than art, more than
science, more than law, more even than medicine. The field of
religion is woman's natural sphere of influence where she can best
exercise her gifts. - - *
It is one among the many signs of a new life that has arisen
within our branch of the Church Catholic, that she has been quick
to see, and quick to utilize the new force that marks the age.
There was a time, and it has not yet wholly passed away, when
our Church was chiefly known for its intense conservatism. We
are still conservative, as we ought to be ; for there is much entrusted
to us which we should guard and keep, viz., “the old faith of the
gospel, and the old traditions of religion that are enshrined in holy
rite and service; ” but a living Church will do more than conserve
the faith and the Order of religion. It will use these gifts of God
for his glory, and for the best interests of man. And I think that
we are coming at last to use the gifts of God as we certainly did
not use them in the past. The Church has taken in our day an
advanced position. -
The actual movement of the Church at any period is some-
thing like the movement of the heavenly bodies in the solar system.
As the latter is the resultant of two forces, viz., the centrifugal
and the centripetal force, the first giving the impetus, and the
second the direction, so the former is the resultant of two forces,
viz., the progressive force and the conservative, the first creating
activity, the second giving steadiness and safety. The first may
be represented by the winds which fill the sails of the ship, the
second by the ballast and the precious cargo, which, sinking the
vessel in the water, enable it to hold the sails up to the wind and
thus really contribute to its speed. The two forces ought to act in
harmony, and commonly they do, for each is essential to the other ;
but, for a period, one or the other may be in the ascendant, and
then commonly there comes a re-adjustment. For many years
with us conservatism ruled supreme. At present, as it seems to
3
me;-you will bear in mind, I am expressing an individual opinion,
—the progressives have the field of action, and they certainly are
showing wonderful activity, so that we conservatives, who are
perhaps maturally timid, are frequently extremely anxious lest
something should go wrong. I think, however, no one need greatly
fear; the old leaven of conservatism is still very strong among us.
Now this new life of the Church which shows itself on every
side in varied forms of power, is perhaps in nothing more con-
spicuous than in the way it has seized upon and utilized the
movement of the age in regard to woman's work. It is surprising
how much has been accomplished during the last twenty years.
We have now, in fact, an order of deaconesses which has received
the sanction and approval of the Church in general convention.
Women are at this time laboring in parishes, who have been set
apart by Bishops in a special service, for their work. The last
report that I have seen showed thirty-four deaconesses, belonging
to four orders, working in five dioceses. *
We have also sisterhoods, i. e., Organized bodies of women,
living together in communities in religious houses, with a particular
dress, and with special rules that separate them from others.
There are some twelve organizations of this kind in eighteen
dioceses, north and south, all acting with the approval and under
the direction of the Bishop of the diocese in which they reside.
Some of these are very strong. The sisterhood of St. Mary, for
instance, has fifty professed sisters, with about one hundred
assistants. It is working in three dioceses, in New York, Tennessee,
and Wisconsin, and it has twelve large establishments, schools,
hospitals, infirmaries, houses of mercy, reformatories, and the like.
And now, in the same line of activity comes “THE WOMAN's
AUXILIARY,” which has invited me to speak in its behalf and to plead
its cause to-night; and the first point I make for it is this, that it
is turning the new movement of the age, which shows itself in
varied forms of activity, to the highest and best use, viz., to the
glory of God, and to the chief end of man.
The history of this movement is instructive. It began in the
Church some twenty years ago. During the session of general
convention in 1862, on motion of Bishop Stevens, of Pennsylvania,
it was “Resolved, that a committee of three Bishops be appointed
by this house to consider and report upon the subject of the best
manner of calling out more fully and incorporating more formally,
in the working economy of the Church, the services of women
whose hearts God has moved to devote themselves to works of
4.
piety and charity; that said report be made to this house at the
next triennial convention.” The committee, taking the matter in
hand, reported at the succeeding general convention in 1865,
“that the subject-matter was of such great importance and involved
the gathering up of such a variety of fact and experience, in
different lands and under various organizations, that they were
not prepared to lay before the convention any plan upon which
they would desire definite legislation;” and, therefore, they asked
to be continued. The truth is, that during the three years sister-
hoods already organized and in full working power were knocking
at the door and pleading for admission, and deaconesses were
humbly asking for an opportunity of showing what they could do
for the honor of the Master and the glory of the cause. Three
years later, in the session of 1868, the subject took the form of a
general and carefully worded commendation of a training house
for female teachers and of sisterhoods, who should be bound for
definite periods for special work. Also, in the next general
convention in 1871, the subject of “trained Christian women,
working in parishes, in Church homes, and in religious houses”
under proper safe-guards, and without irrevocable' vows, was
considered and reported upon favorably. - -
Meanwhile, this same subject had been introduced into the
discussions of the Board of Missions. In 1869 it was “Resolved,
that a committee of this board be appointed to report at the next
annual meeting, on the subject of the organized services of women
as a most important feature of missionary work.” In 1870, it was
“Resolved, that a committee of Bishops, clergy and laity be
appointed, whose duty it should be to consider and report to the
next meeting of the board, the best means of associating the
organized or individual efforts of women, with the missionary and
educational work of the Church.” The very wording of this
resolution shows that there had already grown up, within the
borders of the Church, organized bodies of women working for
Christ and his cause, which the missionary board desired to
incorporate into their scheme of ope rations. During the meeting
of 1871, it being a triennial meeting of the board, a very full and
elaborate report was made on the whole subject of “woman's work
in the Church,” which, however, like all preceding movements in
this direction, ran, as it would seem inevitably, in the channel
which the times had prepared. Summarizing the experience of
England and Germany and our own country, the committee speak
with no uncertain tones of the work of “women set apart and
5
consecrated to the service of God, as deaconesses, or as associated
sisters;” and they say, “If the Church believes in organized sister-
hoods or associations of women, as wise and efficient instrumental-
ities for doing the Master's work, in the name of that Master, let
us not hesitate to use them.” The chairman of the committee that,
made this report was the Bishop of Long Island, and the report
bears undoubted marks of his strong hand. The report closes with
three resolutions: the first, substantially, in favor of sisterhoods;
the second, of deaconesses; and the third, of a general Woman's
Auxiliary Society. -
From this brief statement it appears that the Woman's
Auxiliary came into working order in the Church, as a part only,
and a very small part, of a much greater movement which involves.
changes in our whole practical economy. The truth is, we have
now, as the actual result of the resolution introduced by Bishop
Stevens twenty years ago, first, a distinct order of deaconesses :
Secondly, sisterhoods living in religious houses, and doing special
work; and thirdly, a body of women, working in parishes over the
whole land all under one head, “a woman at the office of the
general Board of Missions in New York.”
This is a pretty positive step in advance for a Church so
intensely conservative as ours has always been ; and a peculiarity
of the matter is that some of us who are conservatives and who
have used for years the old formula, “No man, having tasted old
wine, straightway desireth new ; for he saith, the old is better, "-as
if these words, in the sense we understood them, contained the very
essence of all practical wisdom, are perfectly content with the new
order of things, and willing that the progressives in the Church
should show us a more excellent way. .
Eleven years ago, in 1872, the Woman's Auxiliary began
its work. At first, of course, it was very small, but it grew year by
year; and in 1880 it reported 650 parish branches in 39 dioceses and
one missionary jurisdiction, the majority of them being organized
into 20 diocesan branches. It also reported contributions of money
and material, amounting to seven hundred and eighty thousand
dollars. This includes an offering of more than fifty thousand
dollars by the Mexican League, an association of women organized
in 1876, under the auspices of the Bishops of the Mexican Commis-
sion, which in 1877 became auxiliary to the Domestic and Foreign
Missionary Society. I have not seen the last reports, but they show
a contribution in money and materials of something more than one
million of dollars.
6
It seems needless, after this showing in round numbers what
the Woman's Auxiliary has actually done during the last eleven
years, to say anything in commendation of it. The facts speak for
themselves. I would only say in this connection, that in my
judgment, the parishes throughout the land that have been
engaged in this good work, have received as much as they have
given, and that the return to them in the increased life of their own
parochial organizations, from their connection with this great body
of working women in the Church, has been more than an equiva-
lent for all that they have contributed.
One of the great difficulties to be met in parish work, especi-
ally in the country, is the isolation of the parish. It stands by
itself; it is cut off from the sympathy and help of others like-
minded, and who are engaged in similar works. Things are apt in
such a state of affairs to stagnate and decline. This difficulty is
met and overcome, in part at least, by Organization. Let a paro-
chial working society form part of a diocesan organization, and let
this diocesan body be connected with a larger body having a central
head, a body that can stretch out its arms so as to embrace large
portions of the earth ; let there be the stimulus coming from
successful ventures or so that the failures in one part are met by
triumphs in another, in such a case, every member in the feeblest
and remotest parish feels the encouragement, and is nerved to
renewed effort by the fact that it is part of a great army that is
moving on, conquering and taking possession of the earth. If
there be in any parish within the diocese a languishing band
of workers, the surest and the quickest Way, in my judgment,
to revive its interest would be to join this association and so to
partake of the life that is beating at the great centers of action.
And here I would humbly venture on a word of caution.
The Woman's Auxiliary was formed by the general Missionary
Board; it was formed to be auxiliary to that ; it must be general
and not diocesan. Loyalty demands fidelity to its own head, and
to the body of which it forms a part. It must not sink itself into a
merely diocesan instrument. -
As the parochial society should not narrow itself down to its
own parish, so the diocesan body should not be so occupied with the
work within the limits of the diocese as to forget its relations to
the whole Church, with its associated dioceses covering the whole
land. The Woman's Auxiliary is such a serviceable body, with the
organization ever ready for work, that it is liable, at all times, to
be called upon for special service within the diocese; and I do not
*
7
say that it may not undertake and perform such special service,
but only that it must not forget its broader, true relation.
Such a caution may not be necessary here, but I am speaking
now in behalf of one of the noblest women in the Church, the
actual originator of this great scheme, with whom it existed, first
as a thought, then as an object of desire and hope, and whose
personal efforts made it a success, who now from the center of
influence in New York, keeps alive the spirit by which it is at this
time blessing the whole land.
I referred, in opening, to the work of the Woman's Auxiliary
as something in accordance with the spirit of the age, but it is also
a return to Apostolic usage. The last chapter of the epistle to the
Romans shows the Christian women of the Imperial City in very
prominent positions. They filled places of influence and of activity
in the Church, and Phebe, the Greek, -Phebe of Cench rea, which
was a seaport of the great city of Corinth, actually held an office
in the Church. She is called in our English Bibles, “a servant of
the Church in Cench rea.” The word which is translated servant
is in the Greek deaconess; it is the same word, which, in the
Apostolical constitutions, is applied to women holding official posi-
tions in the Church. In the age succeeding the apostles, women,
without a doubt, were office-bearers in the Church. The fact that
Phebe was sent on a long journey—a very long journey for those
days—from Cenchrea to Rome on business, evidently of the Church,
for which she is commended to the Christians of that city, shows
that she held a place of responsibility; and because she had been a
succorer of many and of the Apostle Paul himself, therefore were
they of Rome to help her in “whatever business she had need of
them.” St. Paul, who was in Corinth on his third missionary
journey, took occasion of this journey of Phebe from Cench rea to
Rome, to send by her a letter. And what a letter it was Phebe
actually carried to that great city St. Paul's marvelous Epistle to the
Romans; It is possible that Phebe did not know what she was carry-
ing, and it is likely that she little dreamed that the message which
she bore to the city of Rome, was one which the world, age after
age, would ponder over and comment upon, and dispute about, and
endeavor to explain. Perhaps St. Paul read the letter to its bearer
before she started on her journey, and I have often thought of
Phebe, the deaconess, asking herself over and over again as she
traveled slowly onward toward Rome, what the Apostle could
have meant by this passage or that passage “hard to be under-
stood;’ which even Peter the Apostle, who is claimed to be “the
8
head of the infallibles” of our own day, found hard to be under-
stood ; and at last giving the whole matter up and turning her
attention to the practical affairs with which she was familiar, to
matters of business which were taking her to Rome, as if these
after all were the only things which she must absolutely understand.
Phebe the deaconess reached the Imperial City; for the letter
reached its destination, and that is the reason that we have it in
our Bibles to-day. And when she went about her business, what a
noble “Woman's Auxiliary” she found there to welcome her and
to help on her work | Priscilla, and Mary, and Junia, and the
sister of Nereus, and Julia, worthy successors of the women who
followed Jesus and ministered to him of their substance; Salome,
and the three Mary's, and Susanna, and Joannah, wife of Chuza,
Herod's steward. And the work these women did in Rome was
just as necessary in its place, and just as really a part of the
economy of God, as the work of the Apostle Paul in setting forth
as he did in his Epistle to the Romans, the great scheme of Divine
Providence and grace whereby gospel was to take the place of law
and the fall of the Jewish nation was to be the riches of the world.
It may be that Phebe read to these women of Rome St. Paul's
Epistle to the Romans, and if they understood it in the fullness of
its meaning, I think they were the first and the last women in the
Church that ever did; but the business that brought Phebe to their
city—there is no doubt they fully understood that, and they could
render her efficient help. It may be that in the work of these
Roman women were the foundations laid of those noble charities of
Christian Rome, which have blessed the centuries of Christendom,
and have been, age after age, the admiration of the world. It is
this kind of work that is continually blessing every age. I suppose
there will never be an end of arguing and disputing about the
highest mysteries of human life, the relation of the present to the
future, of the body to the soul, of man to God, what life actually is,
and what death actually is. Men will go on attacking and defend-
ing the Christian religion, preaching learned sermons, writing
learned essays, publishing elaborate arguments on the one side or
the other of the disputed points in faith or worship, in doctrine or
in ritual. We are living in an age of intense intellectual activity
and spiritual force. I think that, in a certain sense, it is free to
any man or woman to enter into or to decline taking any part in
the controversies of the day which touch the very fundamentals of
religion; but of one thing I am very sure, viz., that the practical
work undertaken by the women in this age and which marks this
9
period of the Church's activity and power, the schools for the poor
colored children at the South, the hospitals, the houses of mercy,
the reformatories in our great cities under the direction of women
consecrated to religion as applied to the wretched and outcast-
these will remain as monuments of Christian beneficence, witness-
ing to Jesus in his love for the bodies as well as for the souls of
men, will remain as forces in the social life of man, when every
controversy of the present age has passed into hopeless oblivion.
| THE ENI).
—4 - a -
- - ºr-
Miss Fanny E. Adams, President of the Michigan Branch of the “Woman's
Auxiliary, ” asks permission to supplement Dr. Pitkins' sermon with the following
appendix, which permission is cheerfully accorded. - SIDNEY CORIBETT.
It seems only necessary to glance at the Annual Reports of the Woman’s
Auxiliary to prove that concentration and organization are as essential to success
in Woman's Work, as in any other department of usefulness within the borders of the
Church. Although many parishes may possess active, earnest missionary workers,
and in the end may accomplish some very good results, still the strength that comes
from co-operation with many others—the union of many hearts and hands in one
great object—must produce far greater results. And it is because that in the
summary of work during the past three years the Woman’s Auxiliary to the Board of
Missions can tell of hundreds of thousands of dollars given and expended by the
women throughout the United States; and the diocese of Michigan through her
organized Branch can count her thousands of dollars contributed by the women with-
in the limits of our own State, that I, in writing in behalf of the Michigan Branch of
the Woman’s Auxiliary, would urge every parish society to unite themselves with
the diocesan organization, and would also request the rectors of parishes or mission
stations to bring before their congregations the advisability of extending their useful-
ness, and doing their share—be it great or small—of the general missionory work of
the Church. `s
And again, in parishcs and mission stations where as yet no organized society
exists, are there not generally two or three devoted women to be found who will be
ready to interest themselves and others in doing good, and by reading and circulating
missionary intelligence, prove themselves to be examples to those about them :
Nome of us are so poor and weak that we cannot find some work to do for others;
and in helping our weaker brethren, will find our own hands upheld. :
May I not urge, in the name of the Great Head of the Church, that every woman
in our diocese who is a baptized member of the Church, will be willing and anxious
to connect herself with the diocesan branch, and will use her influence either to form a
parochial Society, or to urge the one already existing into membership with the
organization. Its officers are appointed by the Bishop of the diocese, and it is his
earnest wish that a general co-operation may be effected, and that eventually every
parish society in our diocese, from the richest and strongest to the poorest and
weakest, may be working in full harmony, with a clear and intelligent understanding
of the work and means required, and of the great benefits secured by such a union.
If this very insufficient appeal may have awakened an interest in any of my
co-workers in the Church, and any further information as to the organization, mem-
bership, etc., be required, will they not correspond with me, and learn all that is
necessary for co-operation in this good work :
FANNY E, ADAMS,
I’res. Mich. Branch Woman's Awa'iliary.
Address, 207 E. Larmed St., Detroit.
ANNIVERSARY SERMON
BEFORE THE
BRAINERD EVANGELICAL SOCIETY
OF
LA FAYETTE COLLEGE,
JULY 28TH, 1867.
RY
REW. T. H. ROBINSON,
PASTOR OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, HARRISBURG, PA.
PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY.
E A S T O N , PA.
1867.
LAFAYETTE College, EASTON, PENN’A,
September 21st, 1867.
REv. T. H. Robinson,
J)ear Sir:
In accordance with a resolution of the Brainerd Evangelical Society of Lafayette
College, we would most respectfully request for publication the manuscript of your
sermon delivered before the Society at the late commencement.
Very respectfully yours,
GEORGE E. Jones,
W. Q. Scott,
H. D. TATE,
Committee.
A N N IW E R S A. R. Y S E R M O N.
—sº ałº-
—-- ~Twº—
I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God
abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.—1 JoHN ii. 14. ,
BRETHREN of the Brainerd Evangelical Society:-Called by your
courtesy to the duty now before me, I find myself on a spot sacred
by its memories and its connection with names that are dear to the
American Church. Nor can I forget that these sacred memories
were most touchingly revived and deepened, when, at your last
anniversary, by the peculiar providence of God, that gifted and
Sainted servant of Christ, Thomas Brainerd, appeared before you,
and with a trembling frame and an enfeebled voice, performed here
the last public service of a life eminent for its usefulness and
honored with an unwonted share of the truest success.” It will be
no slight advantage to yourselves, if you may link your daily
thoughts, and Sanctify your daily studies, and shape your coming
lives with reminiscences of three men so rare in piety and true
consecration to Christ, as David, John, and Thomas Brainerd; and
I shall be more than satisfied, if by my words I may incite any
* It is a singular and affecting providence, that the last sermon of Dr. Brainerd
should have been preached on the very ground hallowed by the missionary labors of
his illustrious kinsman, and before a society of the college students bearing the
name of BRAINERD, and organized with the view of promoting a missionary spirit
in the college. If the devoted congregation of the “Old Pine Street Church” must
have been denied the privilege of hearing Dr. Brainerd’s last words from the pulpit,
they could not desire a more fitting time and place for them to have been spoken;
and not only to them but to all the many friends of this honored and beloved ser-
want of Christ, the BRAINERD SocIETY OF LAFAYETTE College will be an object
even of greater interest than heretofore.
It seems highly appropriate to connect with the anniversary exercises of this
year, some permanent record of Dr. Brainerd’s life and character. Such a notice
will be found appended to this discourse.
6
of you to emulate the apostolic zeal of the first, the patient, faith-
ful toil of the second, and the glowing, consecrated speech of the
third of these noble men.
In that passage from the writings of the Apostle John, which
stands as the text of my discourse, he is addressing the young men
of the church. He applies to them what is especially adapted to
their age. The consciousness of strength is natural to youth. The
restless pulse of youthful blood, the tireless energy of young
sinews, the stir of fresh thoughts, and the spirit of hopefulness so
natural to youth, all conspire to beget and to maintain this con-
Sciousness.
Youth is formed for conflict. We go to its ranks to find bold
champions for every field of strife, physical or spiritual. Christian
old age grows calm and settled as the result of its repeated victo-
ries over evil, its longer intimacy with the sources of spiritual
power and its higher developments of Christian life. In childhood
the germs of evil in our fallen nature slumber undeveloped. It is
the age of unconscious innocence, and childlike faith. The elements
of inward conflict are quiet, and the strife of outward evil does not
disturb. Youth is the period of awakening. The two-fold law of
man's nature appears. Desires and passions claim the mastery
over the higher rule of the spirit. The earlier simple and child-
like faith is called in question. The hitherto unconscious and con-
cealed discord between the lower and the higher elements of a
man's being is revealed, and with it comes the knowledge of out-
ward friends and foes, the claims of God and the demands of the
world, the warfare between light and darkness, truth and error.
In all this conflict, internal and external, the Christian youth must
engage, and through conflict reach the calm and assured peace of
Christian age, the second childhood of the Christian soul. Called
in the freshness of its power to such a conflict, it must not shun
the strife. Nor is it disposed to do so. The new sense of power
awakens self-confidence, a conscious ability to meet all dangers, to
overcome all difficulties and triumph over all enemies in one's own
strength. In every age opening manhood has been invested with
charms that called forth admiration and love. The undefined hopes
and promises of the future that lies before youth, the dawning
strength of intellect, the bound and flow of the passions, the
exchange of parental authority and guidance for a new and free
activity, bounded only by his own choice, the sense of freedom and
7
personal power, of something to be achieved by and for one's self,
these all touch the pride of the youthful breast. The possibilities
of noble or of ignoble work are little noted. The peril of losing by
ruinous self-indulgence or by selfish ambition, what might be gained
by happy self-sacrifice for right and truth, and human good, is
unheeded. The danger of developing into faculties of evil the
powers that should be trained to beneficent action, is overlooked.
The Apostle, directed by a higher inspiration, and knowing that
self-confidence, unsustained by strength from a higher source, would
Soon fail in the conflicts of life, and be put to shame, directed the
Christian young men of his time to another ground of confidence,
and another source of strength than the consciousness of their own
powers. Ye are strong. Ye have overcome. Ye have already
conquered the wicked one. But not with your own weak powers,
not in reliance upon your own strength. It is because the word
of God abideth in you, the written Word and the Living Word.
That Divine seed is the germ of all victories. Fast rooted in your
hearts by an abiding trust, in its vitalizing power lie the strength
and life of your spirits. Through faith in the Redeemer, the
Living Word within you, and through fellowship with him you
appropriate his strength. He lives, He strives, and conquers in
you; ye live, and strive, and conquer as the instruments of Him,
..who is ever going forth, conquering and to conquer. -
The proposition which I bring before you for argument and illus-
tration is this: The personal force by which we can most effectually
lay hold of and bless our age, is moral power, the power of a life
and a character, the power of good and great purposes, nourished
on the indwelling word of God, and manifested in unselfish, Christ-
like love.
In all ages men have been dazzled and enchanted by power. It
has been one of their chief ambitions to gain and to wield it.
Power will intoxicate the best hearts. No man is wise enough nor
good enough to be trusted with an unlimited amount of it.
Feebleness has no beauty. It extorts no admiration. There is
Something grand in the might of the Sea as it sweeps from pole to
pole; in the march of the hurricane; in the shock of armies, and
in the will of the generals who direct them. But there is some-
thing grander in the intellectual power that builds up systems of
human knowledge, and something yet surpassing in that moral and
spiritual power that resists evil, that overcomes temptations, that
8.
contends with mighty invisible wickednesses, abides incorruptible
amid all allurements, and maintains its fealty to truth and goodness
and God against all antagonism. - t
All power is of God. “Wisdom and might are His.” “The
strength of the hills is His also.” Upon us, his reasoning creatures,
He bestows power only for beneficent ends. To bring forth the
hiding of power God has put within us, in personal development
and general blessing, is the end of human life as a whole. And
varied as are the forms of nature, so varied are His gifts of power
to men. To one He has given the genius of invention, to another
the spirit of discovery, to another the skill of the artist or the
sculptor, to another the enthusiasm of the poet, or the enchant-
ment of the singer; to yet another the gift of the orator, or the wis-
dom of a statesman; but beyond all these, and beyond all the other
forms of power by which mankind have been dazzled in different
ages, physical courage and prowess, the power derived from ances-
tral blood, and rank, the power of wealth and position, the power of
learning and intellect, -beyond all these, greater and holier than
they all, is the power of spiritual character, of high moral aims, of
a life consecrated to truth, in harmony with God, and thus avail-
ing itself of the “might of God's power.”
The heart of man must be the home and seat of this power. The
individual heart must yield itself to the control of spiritual truth,
must be purified by it and nourished upon it, must come into sym-
pathy with the God of truth, and throb in every pulse with the
pure emotions that fill the bosom of God.
There is a certain grandeur and nobility about the heroes of a
barbaric age, who proved their power by physical combats. The
spirit of our latest civilization feels a degree of reverence for the
mighty hunters and warriors immortalized by Homer. We yield
an involuntary deference to those who inherit the dignities and
rank of a long line of buried sires. It is well nigh vain to argue
against the love and the pursuit of riches, the hungering more and
more after the largest attainments of it; vain to tell men how it
engenders selfishness, how it eats manliness out of the spirit, how
it poisons society and corrupts the nerves and sinews of state; vain
to remind them that it can purchase nothing that is spiritual and
invisible, can give no peace, no Sweet content, no purity, no favor
of the Divine; for do they not see how it purchases everything sen-
sual and visible, how it opens the channels to power and office, how
9
men bow before its presence, and what gratifications of will and
pride and high-mindedness, of display and luxury and every passion,
it affords? There is a glory and a power too about a merely intel-
lectual life, that may easily make its possession an idolatry. The
men who sway the world's thinking and give shape to the world's
opinions; the men who teach in its schools of philosophy, who mould
the statesmanship and diplomacy of the nations, whose decisions
guide the courts of law, whose adventurous spirit continually
increases the domains of knowledge, these are men of power. Their
force is permanent and far-reaching. Their monuments are stately
and enduring. There is power, vast power in intellect, power
that lives and rules, never itself seeing death. The generations of
men have been ruled by the men who were mightier and subtler in
thought than they. -
But all these forms of power may be utterly corrupted and per-
verted by that which shall make them engineries of evil and powers
of cursing. The taint of personal selfishness and personal ambition
may deprave them. Personal ambition is always shorn of the
highest kind of power. Selfishness cannot ally itself with God and
truth and love. It must be invaded and broken up. It cannot by
any possibility league itself with any lasting and beneficent personal
influence. It is the first requisite of Christian discipleship, that
self shall be slain. It is the end and reward of Christian, of spi-
ritual power, to rule. Self must die in us, if we are to bless men
and serve God, and sit ourselves on the thrones of the future. The
knee must bend no more to it. The hands must toil no more for it.
The heart must no longer be taken up with its own sorrows and
rejoicings. The condition is imperative. It is not simply a demand
of the gospel and of Christ, who knows best what our nature needs
for its development, but a demand of reason. That man who toils
for his family is greater and more powerful than he who toils and
hoards for self. It always enlarges and strengthens a man to go
beyond himself. And nothing so destroys selfishness as does the
kindling the new regenerate life, God's life, in the human Soul.
The great preacher of the Scottish Church has told us in eloquent
words of the expulsive power of a new affection. When this new
affection for God and man is born within, it confers a vital and
enduring power, that must by the very force of its nature imitate
the life of God in acts of beneficence and unselfish love. Moral
power is inconsistent with self-indulgence, nor does it stand in any
10
compromise of good with evil. The keen-eyed world may grasp
after its own. It may insist upon the harmlessness of its pleasures,
and the righteousness of its ways. It may resent interference with its
pursuits, and call the strictness of religious men puritanic and hurt-
ful, but let any teacher of religion go into the world and endorse its
rules, put himself at its head and seek to lead it in its own chosen
paths and make religion consistent with its pursuits and its princi-
ples, and he will be trodden down by scornful feet, and his religion
be a derision and a weakness; while he who unreservedly asserts
the high claims of God against the world, who stands aloof and
apart from it, high and pure, denying Self as Jesus did, vindicating
by his own life the lofty morality of Christian teaching and the
supreme demands of a holy God, will receive the inward homage of
the world's conscience. It will bow to the power and authority of
Such an example. - To
If a man would wield moral power he must possess its elements
and use its weapons. The law of unselfish living must be enthroned
in the heart, and be manifested in the life. There must be per-
sonal purity and integrity within, and a fair and spotless character
without. The deep foundations of character, and beneficent moral
power lie altogether out of sight. They are planted, broad and
massive, in the principles and dispositions of the inner man.
Thence, slowly, stone by stone, the rising walls go up, each day
building something, each act of life adding something of strength
and beauty or something of deformity and weakness to the Super-
structure. All private and personal acts, all that are domestic and
social, all that are public and official, all the deeds and spirit of our
life join in adding stone to stone. Every false thing, every unclean
or dishonest thing, every deed of selfish trickery, every intrigue
for mere personal advantage, all arts and policies and unworthy
evasions of the truth, that may be deemed allowable by those who
plunge into the rivalries and counter-plottings of the World, all
these bring their false and worthless material and build it into the
character. He who would build up in himself a citadel of the best
and purest personal power, has set himself at a work in which there
must be the most careful painstaking and inspection. There must
be a keen watchfulness over the inner and the outer man. It is a
perpetual Self-discipline, the forming, shaping, and moulding of self,
this spiritual and immortal self. It is a schooling of ourselves in
divine truth, a subduing and destroying the base part of self and
11
nourishing the divine part, it is bringing our plans, tempers,
thoughts, motives, our very souls into the fire of God's truth, and
keeping them there till they are melted, and the dross is con-
Sumed. “I have written unto you, young men, because the word
of God abideth in you.”
It is the distinction of moral life that it is capable of “looking
before and after.” It is under a rule. It has an aim. It is
directed toward an end. Mere animal life is but an incessant
activity, and nothing more. It is governed by no idea. It has no
interior drama like human life. It never pauses for reflection. It
has neither purpose nor character. Human life alone on earth
attains the glory of an aim.
Our life is moulded largely by that at which we aim. The
higher and purer the end set before us, the more will a man gather
into himself the resources of strength. It is a characteristic also of
all moral aims that they are higher in thought and purpose, and
purer in principle, than we ever reach in fact and practice and so
are ever drawing us onward and upward. It is the boast of
Christianity that it sets before man the only perfect ideal of life,
but it is an ideal that cannot be attained by the unaided human
powers. Our weakness must be re-inforced by a living Divine
agency, a loving and personal Will in converse with our feeble will,
healing and helping our infirmities, educating, inspiring and moving
us. It is true of this moral power in us, as of every power, that it
becomes effective by use. It must manifest itself in action. Only
SO can it prolong its existence. The physical hero who should
cease all bodily discipline and activity would soon find his well-knit
frame and sinewy limbs and goodly proportions, withering into very
feebleness under his eyes. Activity is the proof and the tenure of
power. It is not enough to have right principles, there must be
right action. It is not enough to be true at heart, to have re-
Sources of moral power within, if there be no engagement in noble
work. Power will stifle and perish under such regimen. It can-
not survive its disuse. There is nothing so restless and assertive
as moral influence. It cannot be hid. It is like light hunting its
way through every crevice. It is like heat melting the heart of an
iceberg. It is like the love of God, unwearied, exhaustless. It
must speak and act. It must bless and do good. It must over-
come evil and work righteousness. It is its meat and drink, its
very life to be active—to do, like the great Redeemer, the Father's
12.
business. It is like a talent that must be put out at usury, that it
may bring in its increase. They who would retain and accumulate
personal force and influence, must use it in the attainment of high
and noble ends.
As to the particular ways in which this personal moral force of a
man shall act upon human interest and in human Society,+where
a man shall labor, is really a far less important matter than that
he shall first settle the principles by which he will be guided, and
the end to which he will consecrate himself. There is no one royal
sphere of labor in which the Christian ideal of life can be realized.
The world is a great work-shop, and the tasks in it are multiform.
As we stand at its threshold, about to enter and take our part, it is
often a serious question what part we shall take. Every earnest
man seeks some definite work. The duty of work—of every man
to his own work—is urgent and universal. It is well to take up
this yoke in our youth. God expects every man to do his duty.
By a divine law he has immutably joined happiness and activity,
and made idleness an intolerable burden to every healthy nature.
There is no legitimate room in the world for idlers. Inaction has
no rewards. It is no question of choice, but of sheer necessity, that
we have our work to do. Life must be filled up with it. What
form that work shall outwardly assume, matters not greatly. If
the purpose to use all power, and to employ every talent, and every
opportunity for moral ends exists, we shall find that there is a
sacredness about all honest work. The aim imparts honor. The
qualities and spirit of the workman himself are higher and worthier
than the calling or profession in which he may spend his days.
The field of human activity opens up in every direction. All forms
of honest toil are rising in value and worth. There are some pur-
suits among men that society has been wont to dignify with the
name of “the Professions,” such as those of the Christian minister,
the professional teacher in School and college, the jurist, lawyer,
and physician. These, when rightly pursued, demand more of
intellectual effort than many other of the Occupations of men, and
so seem to be the more honorable. But by that vast revolution
that is changing the idea of society and clearing the pathway of the
worker, dignifying all honest toil, and lifting year by year more of
the trades into the professions, men are learning to be ashamed of
no work that gives them independence and enables them to be a
blessing. It is not the form of work we do, it is not any special act
13
we perform, but the spirit with which we do it, the skill and
excellence we bring to it, and the end for which we do it, that
measures the real worth of the deed. There may be less of real
nobility in inditing a learned paper on law, or uttering a great
oration, than in wielding a hammer or handling a plough. In the
highest market a handicraft, worthily pursued, wins more honour
and respect than the noblest profession degraded by the incapacity
of him who fills it. The field of choice where our powers shall
operate is wide and open for our entrance.
There must be merchants and bankers and engineers. There
must be the men of the various crafts and trades. There must be
the tillers of the soil and the rapidly increasing class of mechanical
men who fill the manufactories of the land. But whatever that
may be to which our bent of mind, our faculties, the calls of Society,
the promises of success, and the providence of God may call us, if
it be simply work that must be done, and work that we can do bet-
ter than something else, then all that is needed to make us influen-
tial and honorable in it, is to bring into it the qualities of a pure
heart, a conscientious will, a steady, faithful, fervent energy, and a
ruling purpose to honor God and do good. To such an one, no
matter how lowly his calling may be, the avenues of usefulness are
always flung Open, and the weapons of influence are at hand. If
heart and will are redeemed from the grasp of selfishness, and ani-
mated by that law of love and blessing which is our highest expres-
sion for God—“God is love”—there will be opened gates of oppor-
tunity on every hand. Everything seems possible to him who wills
it. Enthusiasm and energy in work, when sanctified by a noble
end, more frequently carry the day than mere talents and acquire-
ments. There are few things more beautiful than the calm and
resolute progress and the beneficent power of an earnest spirit.
The irresolute fall prostrate and helpless before difficulties. The
resolute and earnest make them the stepping-stones of a higher
triumph. The hasty garlands of genius fade away. The labors of
the faithful and earnest meet a perpetual reward, and find continual
channels. Set a stream in motion from some inexhaustible foun-
tain among the hills, and mark how the rills dispart themselves as
the flowing waters seek the opened and waiting channels of the
valley. They go everywhere. They drop into the dry crevices of
the rocks; they fill up every depression with their crystal fluid;
every old furrow becomes a running brook; they stop on their way
14
and spread out into little lakes; they work about the roots of the
thirsting trees; they go everywhere that sheer necessity does not
forbid, carrying everywhere greenness and life, making flowers bud
and bloom along their banks, covering the meadows with grasses,
reviving the leaves of the drooping trees, filling nature and man
with the spirit of gladness.
It is an image of the restless energy and the beneficent power of
a Christ-like soul. We need something to stir our dead affections,
something to draw us out of ourselves as a centre and an end. We
need a strong and constant working force within us, that shall
grapple and hold us in the right course, in spite of our sloth and
sin, that will keep us to duty with all the power of necessity, but
also with all the grandeur of choice. The mass of misery and evil
in the world around us, and the evil of our own hearts will yield
to the power of no ordinary spiritual life and strength. If our
faith is “the victory that overcometh the world,” and not the
beaten foe that flies before it, it must be the “faith which worketh
by love.” Even that lower affection of love whose whole sphere of
purpose and action is amid earthly things, works long and well and
accomplishes great things. There is a love, unborn of the spirit of
God, that beautifies and guards many an unchristian home. There
is a love that leads the unspiritual, the irreligious, to freely jeopard
life and limb for country's sake. There is a love of man, a philan-
thropy apart from the church and even apart from the Bible, whose
noble sacrifices for humanity must not be despised. But the love
that will abide, that will surmount all obstacles, that will reach
through life, that will be patient, firm, persistent, humble, must be
born of the Spirit of God, and must have Christ's love as its grand
model, and Christ himself as its permanent and supreme object.
Let this love endow the spirit of a man, and it matters not how
poor in material wealth he may be, how unintellectual his labor,
how limited his range, how low the place in which he stands may
be in the eyes of the world, he will yet be kin to the highest spirits
of Heaven, will share in their power, and like them, will find work
for his loving and restless activity. His love will find good to do
on every hand. If it can do no more, it will pick up the fallen
child, set him on his feet and brush away his tears. If it can do
nothing else, it will be feet to the lame, it will give a gentle answer
to the ignorant, it will carry Christ's word of invitation to the
weary out into the dusty lanes and highways. In the hovels of
15
the poor it will share its crust with the hungry. In the homes of
the needy and in the cell of the prisoner it will speak winning
words of kindness. To the degraded and the enslaved it will bring
the inspiration of hope. Wherever man sighs and groans it will find
an object and a place for its activities, a soul to be cheered by its
Smile, a bowed one whose burden it may bear.
Christian men, men of restless energy in their professions, the
sworn followers of Him who wearied himself in ways of goodness,
Christian young men who will rise and be successful in the sphere
of secular life to which they are turning, stand in the Church of
Christ and are unable to see any sphere where they may speak or
act for Him who has given them the hope of heaven and salvation.
But life is full of opportunities and demands to the earnest spirit.
Beyond the outward which ever appeals for help, there is a relief
for man which goes deeper and lies in the power of every man to
bring. There are kind warnings to be uttered to the heedless.
There is strength to be brought to them that are weak and hardly
beset. They who stand wavering between virtue and vice need to
be drawn to a holy and loyal choice of goodness. They who are
timid and yielding before the allurements of evil and the cry of
their own passions, need to be reinforced by the counsel and sym-
pathy of one that is stronger than they. There are the reckless,
whom we may grasp with a strong hand, and the desperate, across
whose paths we may fling ourselves in our urgency for their Salva-
tion. Delicately, thoughtfully, prayerfully, may every Christian
young man, having won his own victory by that faith which over-
cometh the world, take the place to which God calls him—that of
his brother's keeper. There are those by your very side, over
whose words and deeds and company you may watch with all the
solicitude of a brother's care. You may let your heart go out to
them. You may make their spiritual interests your special guard-
ianship. You may set yourself in a hundred ways to compass
their good. Your love may follow them, surround them in their
business, dissuade them from error and vice, beguile them to noble
and worthy pleasures, draw them by the power of a personal
friendship into the paths of sobriety, purity and virtue, and gird
them around with bands of loving restraint, like the arms of invisi-
ble angels.
But this moral force of love will not be satisfied with merely
doing what is thrown in its way. It will create opportunities and
16
open channels for itself. It will seek spheres of labor. It will ask
the great Master for employment. "It will search out those who
need its ministries, hunting up the tempted, going out into lanes of
want and poverty, to the children of vice and destitution, and deem-
ing it no unworthy work for the highest talent to bring such into
the ways of virtue, and no ignoble use of the highest knowledge to
cast a ray of light into the most benighted mind. I know not
what Christ-like love will not do to bring man to Christ and Christ
to man. It will count it no humility to speak words of tenderness
to the lowliest, to carry cleanliness to homes of filth, to light fires
of content on the hearthstone of poverty, to lift up the fallen, with
its great pity. It will stand hand to hand, and shoulder to shoul-
der, with all who are serving the same Master, bend with them at
the same altar, rise and go forth with them to the march and the
conflict. It will count nothing that it can do for the glory of God
or the good of man to be unworthy of its endeavors. Love is tire-
less, indefatigable, deep, genial, mighty, safe. Wherever man
sighs and groans there it finds its object, and room for its activi-
ties. It outlives all things else, reaches through life, works down
out of the sight of men, caring chiefly to commend itself to God.
Let such a spirit fill the breast of young men, and they will be
men of power. They will be clothed with it as with a garment.
Their presence will be felt in the Church. It will be acknowledged
in the community. The tempted will call to them. The ignorant
and feeble will flee to them. Wickedness itself will recognize and
honor them. Their influence will be real, efficient, fruitful, tireless,
constant, an image of that power that wings the angels in their
flights, and of that higher, uncreated love, that goes forth from age
to age, from the bosom of God in benefactions upon the unthankful
and the evil. Their very presence inspires right and rebukes
wrong. Their spirit quickens all languid and aimless Souls. Men
depend upon them for every good work, and count on them in every
conflict with evil. They are pillars of hope for the harassed to flee
to, depositaries of help for the heavy laden. Society builds upon
them. The Church builds upon them. Their age confesses them
as the vital forces of their time.
It may be thought I am speaking of great men, the confessed
leaders in the moral world, or that I unduly magnify Christian
power. It is not so. It has not been great talents and powers of
intellect that have been bringing harmony into our disordered
17
world. It has been the power of the feeble. It has been that
leaven of the gospel which has been working well-nigh unobserved,
and altogether unhonored, in the humble, tranquil, obscure, but
active virtues of the faithful, who, diffused through society have
struggled by their prayers, and examples, and lowly labors, to stem
the general depravity, and by the sweet light of their godliness to
allure, here and there, Souls to virtue and to, Christ.
The work I set before you, Brethren of the Brainerd Society,
may look neither great nor winning to the eye of sense, and yet it
is the way by which you are to move and bless your time, by
which you will take the deepest and strongest hold upon it. I
Set before you nothing that will fire the passions of the sensual, or
the ambition of the worldly, but, Oh! I do bring the Christly ideal
of life—a life, not of poetic self-culture, that seeks only a selfish and
Sensuous enjoyment; nor a life of worldly aims, wild, tumultuous,
restless, like the sea; but a life born and nurtured of the Spirit of
Christ; based primarily on love to Him; a life in God, in commu-
nion with the Highest; a life so near that great Presence of holi-
ness and help, that it is ever humble, pure, and self-denying, yet
strong, cheerful, and heroic. When Christ by his own quickening
Spirit enters and dwells within us, kindling our love in his silent but
efficacious way, stirring up our hopes, and inspiring a true ambition,
Our mortal power of doing and of suffering is increased tenfold.
As it is the loftiest ideal of human life to be like Him “who went
about continually doing good,” so the mightiest working force in
the human Soul is that love to Christ, and to man for Christ's sake,
whose beginnings are planted in us by our regeneration. Better,
stronger than any mere dream of inflexible law, is this great con-
straint laid on the free and loving heart. I would that the quick,
warm, passionale sympathies of your youth glowed with the central
fires of such a hidden life. I would that the hopefulness of your spirits,
the Zest, and energy, the adventurous heroism of your courage, and
all the might of your impulses might be sanctified and guided by
this Christian ideal of life. It may appear like a day-dream to set
before you such an end and aim—a life consecrated to Christ,
devoid of Self-seeking, emulous only of well-doing; but here is the
path of our truest ambition. Everything beneath this is ignoble
and unworthy of us. What we do effectively and well on the earth,
what we do that shall conspire with the doings of heaven in spirit
and effect, what we do that shall outlive ourselves in permanent
2
18
blessing, must be done from motives that lift us out of the narrow-
ness of all low and selfish aiming, into a new life that in its degree
fairly represents the life of our Great Master. We shall walk in
paths of the highest and most permanent success, we shall be men
of power, acknowledged of God, and confessed of men, when the love
that is ever ready to help and reinforce our weakness has been
welcomed from above and made the abiding guest of our souls.
I have been asking you, Brethren of the Society, to cast away
from your thoughts of the life before you all calculations of personal
interest. It may seem wholly incongruous now to speak of the
rewards of such a life, as if you needed any incentive. But I shall
make no appeal to selfishness. The highest life is free from it, and
by its very freedom is rewarded. Duty is a noble word. The
demands of conscience are imperative and just. The word of God
speaks with the highest authority to a loyal nature. There is a
nobleness in right-doing and an inherent meanness in Wrong-doing.
It is a noble thing to set duty and right before us as the law and
the motive of life. All honor to those who are moved by a high
sense of duty, who obey conscience, who keep God's commandments,
who hate evil, love goodness, avoid fraud, injustice, anger, and all
evil passions, who do good, suffer wrong patiently, and practise all
seemly and excellent virtues, because it is right to do so. It is a
lofty life, that out of the sense of duty to God and to man, the love
of truth and the desire for personal integrity, seeks always to do
the right thing, at the right time, and in the right way. Some of
the noblest forms of moral life are moulded by this conscientious
regard to duty.
Dut I show you “a more excellent way.” The loftiest motive
and the highest reward for doing anything in any sphere of life, is
the joy and the love of doing it. Aside from all the recompense of
the future, whose certainty is beyond all cavil, there is a present
pleasure in all well-doing. The health, the harmony, and the
reward of the soul are inseparably connected with the exercise of
its own virtues. It is the very substance and reality of enjoyment,
when the heart is so attuned to goodness, that the virtues are at
home in it. The very beaming that plays on the human counte-
nance when doing a deed of kindness, tells of the lighting up of
pleasures and unfathomed joys in the heart. How winsome the
genial glow in the eye of charity | What soft Sunbeams in the face
of the forgiving and large-hearted! We are instinctively sure that
19
they dwell amid the very elements of cheerfulness, and that their
inmost spirits are in the happiest mood. They who let “mercy tri-
umph over judgment,” who in their generousness forgive great
wrongs, who ever return good for evil, in the joy and triumph of
such moments have an ample reward. There is not a single virtue
of the unselfish life, that in its very exercise does not bless him
who possesses it. What calmness there is in impartial justice!
What serenity there is in truthfulness! What a felt and native
dignity there is in personal honor! What security and peace there
is in the humble and gentle spirit! What cheerfulness in good-
ness! What transparency and beauty in the very face of one in
whose soul purity reigns! As when the eye is regaled by some
scene of marvellous loveliness in nature, or the ear is enchanted by
some melody of ravishing sound, the Soul at Once in the very sight
and hearing feels the joy, so is it, in a virtuous and consecrated
life. The exercise of its goodness gives a perpetual reward.
In every sphere of toil, the toiler well knows the distinction
between a love of the work and a love of the recompense that fol-
lows it, between the strength of a present joy and the hope of the
most assured future good. To one, his toil may be a perpetual task
and drudgery, its very achievement stamped with no seals of vic-
tory; another may find in the very work itself an abiding reward
and triumph. To him who works for hire, it would be deemed a
strange proposal, if on inquiring for the reward of his services, he
were to be told, it was simply more work, larger tasks, that the
better he did his allotted task, the more would his master put into
his hands to do. Yet this would be the exact reward for him who
worked because he loved the work itself. It would be his highest
reward, and the one he would most covet. All sublime sacrifices
of man for man, of self for Country, of things visible for things
spiritual, stand out clear of all Sordid calculations of reward. The
patriotism that faces death for preferment or for a monument, is
spoiled by an ineradicable taint of self. The man who plays the
hero for pay, has none of the heroic in him. The martyr who
goes to the stake for the acclamations of the church or for the dubious
honors of Saintship, strikes his name from the roll of true confes-
sors. All truest and noblest things are done, not at outward
demand, but at the inward summons of the heart. There are no
such rewards for love, as the lavish outflowing of its own wealth.
There is no recompense for the affection that twines a child's heart
20
about its mother's neck, but to let it love on, and no pay for the
love of a mother that outwatches the patient stars over her child's
pain or her child's sin, but to love and watch on. That heroic
humanity that stands with crisping hands and blistered face, at the
helm of a burning ship till all the passengers are safe, then sinks
into the flames, cannot be rewarded by the acclamations of the
saved. It has its recompense in its own nobleness! Greatest deeds
are never done with an eye to the consideration. Our purest hap-
piness is not that which we work for, but that which we work from.
The friendship that is bought in the market is not worth half the
price we pay for it. The love that is sold in the shambles is a base
counterfeit of the true. We cannot do good for effect, nor love
piety for its rewards. It must be loved for itself. Virtue is its
own immortalizer. It must be the Christ within us who lifts us
out of our narrowness and sin into the peace and victory of a
divine life. God would have his servants feel that in the life to
which he calls them, there is a charm, a fascination and a glory to
every willing mind, a present heaven. “A righteous man is satis-
fied from himself,” said the wise man of old; and the Great Teacher
has reiterated the lesson in the records of his own experience. “It
is my meat and my drink to do my Father's business.”
It is reward enough for all who toil for God, to find more to do
for his glory. When we cease to calculate what shall be the pay
of obedience, when we cease to think of, or care for our own happi-
ness as the end of life, when we pass beyond the region of mere
duty and of stern conscience as our guide to it, and drawn by the
manifestation of excellence and of mercy, of sacrifice and of love,
God has given us in the reconciling and suffering Saviour, we give
up our hearts in frank and generous devotion, obeying, because we
love to obey, serving from the necessity of a sweet constraint, low-
ing God because we cannot help it, and would not if we could, then
do we reach something of a true, victorious, Christian life. When
the heart goes into our Service, uncalculating and ungrudging, when
we love and do good, and bless and lend, hoping for nothing again,
finding an inspiration of deep joy in the very deed, we rise to the
Christly standard of living.
We get our best rewards in kind—in the growth and fulness and
beauty of our own virtues and graces. Love, for its reward, has
the channels of its benefactions deepened. Purity becomes purer
and more heavenly. Faith gains a clearer, broader vision. Hope
21
expands into assurance. Courage grows invincible. Gentleness
puts on the might of heroism. Charity becomes Christlike in its
breadth. -
We talk of the crowns of paradise. They are not made of silver
and gold. We speak of the harps of heaven. They are not such
as answer to the touch of the fingers. The virtues of the ransomed
spirit will constitute its crown and glory. It is a moral splendor
that lights up the sky of the eternal world. It is the play of per-
fected virtues that makes the music of the heavenly spheres. It is
felt pleasure in goodness that constitutes the happiness of the
immortals. The essence of Heaven's blessedness is no sitting on
golden thrones of authority or wearing coronets of rank, but it is
in being good, in giving love, in ceaseless benefactions. And so
too, for Our life on earth, we reach its highest attainments when
Casting out of our thoughts all low, mercenary bargaining for
reward, all the Sordidness of hire and wages, and calling to mind
God's unconditional gift of heaven, and what is richer and costlier
than heaven, the free gift of his own beloved Son, to all who will
accept Him; we also seek to imitate this broad charity and love of
God to us, by loving our fellow-men for their own sake, by practis-
ing all virtues because we love all virtues, by doing good out of the
constraint of our own goodness, by loving and serving God, not for
the sake of winning heaven nor of escaping hell, but because his
love and service are a rich and present reward. If our “faith is
the victory that overcomes the world,” and not the beaten foe that
flies before it; if we are to exert a controlling influence upon human
interests, and human destinies, we must acquire the power of loving
and using truth, the power to make right and justice and goodness
look sacred in the eyes of men, the power to make them rule over
the hearts of men, the power to glow and shed on all around us
that love which first bows loyally to the claims of God, and then
unselfishly cares for the claims of all his creatures. It is a power
which touches nothing material. It is not dependent on the grasp
of the intellect. It has no visible sceptre. It wields no visible
weapons. It dwells in the breast. It brings all the thoughts of
the intellect, all the purposes of the will, all the powers of the heart,
all the silver and gold of God's bestowment, all advantages of posi-
tion, and baptizing them in Christ's name, sends them forth into
all the channels where want and woe and sin are waiting for a
healing ministry.
22
I am free and confident in coming to you, my Brethren of the
Brainerd Society, with my message; to you, in whom is the
strength of youth, in whom is yet the undimmed eye, and the
elastic tread, the sinewy vigor of body, the quickness of mind, and
the hopefulness of spirit with which God endows and enriches our
earlier days, and in His name, to lay upon you the command,
rise above worldliness, forsake sinful passion, let go all earthly
prizes, forego all selfish aims, strike for spiritual and eternal things,
live and work for your kind, for souls, for God. Turn away from
no channel, however humble. Let the divine ideal of life draw
you on. Let love of the Highest One, and of all good things, and
all good beings in Him fill your heart—let it touch your lips as a
live coal from off God's altar; let it impel you in every round of
duty; let it give an up-lift to every secular pursuit; let it breathe
in all your daily life. Whatever else may be doubtful to you, let
it not be doubtful that purity, and love, and unselfishness, and sacri-
fice for human good and work done for Christ, will be a present
reward, and that from the fulness of present blessing, you can pass
hopefully to meet in another world the results of all earthly labor.
Our work here, in its highest and most permanent success, is but
preparatory to that of etermity. We learn here the lessons and
receive the discipline for the great hereafter. The threads of our
moral history run on, through the darkness of the grave, out into
the world beyond, and nothing will make that future glorious for
us, but embracing now the light and love our heavenly Father sheds
on us, and giving ourselves up to Christ our Saviour and Master
to do unceasingly His work,
IN MEMORIA M.
Dr. BRAINERD was born June 17, 1804, at Leyden, N. Y. When he
Was about twenty-one years of age he made a profession of religion, and
abandoning the study of law, in which he was at that time engaged,
he entered the Andover Theological Seminary, and after completing a full
course of study was licensed to preach the gospel by the Third Presby-
tery of New York, in 1831.
His first pastoral charge was at Cincinnati, where he was for two years
settled over the Fourth Presbyterian Church. He was then for nearly
four years editor of the Cincinnati Journal. In the early part of 1837 he
was installed pastor of the “Old Pine Street Church’” Philadelphia, where
he remained till his death, which occurred August 22d, 1866, at Scranton,
Pa., while on a visit to his daughter.
Dr. Brainerd’s last sermon to his own people was preached July 8,
1866. The text was, “Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is
far spent.” Luke xxiv. 29. The sermon before the Brainerd Evangelical
Society, which was the last he ever preached, was delivered during the
exercises at the College Commencement, July 22d, 1866. The text was
“Let no man despise thy youth.” 1 Tim. iv. 12.
When Dr. Brainerd was invited to preach at the College, he at first
hesitated, not only on account of the feeble state of his health, but as he
said, from a reluctance he had always felt to meet the excitement of the
large crowds that usually gather upon anniversary occasions. But all the
circumstances of the present case appealed so strongly to his feelings,
that he finally consented. The neighborhood of the college was one of
the missionary stations of his kinsman; the sermon was to be delivered in
the BRAINERD Church; and the College Society, adopting the name of the
Sainted missionary, had been instrumental in largely promoting the spirit
of missions among the students. It is an interesting fact that a pamphlet
published at Easton so early as 1835 (nine years after the college was
chartered) and which sets forth the views of its founders, makes the mis-
sionary work a prominent ground of appeal, even to the general public, in
behalf of the Institution. The caption of the “Ninth Essay ” is, “This
24
plan (of the college) appears profitable, necessary, and adapted to the prepara-
tion of Christian ministers, and especially MISSIONARIES.” The writer
urges withearnestness this proposition; “that the MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE
is the main business of the Church is a doctrine now distinctly understood.
For this is she constituted an EDUCATION SOCIETY.” It may be added in
this connection that Lafayette College has furnished to the Christian
ministry a very large proportion of its graduates, and the influence of the
Brainerd Society is seen in the number of devoted men who have conse-
crated themselves to the work of Foreign Missions. One of them was a
native Hindoo, Ishwari Das, who returned to India and recently received
two prizes from the government for essays relating to some reforms
proposed by the authorities. Those two missionaries, alike beloved and
honored, Messrs. Janvier and Loewenthall, whose cruel deaths are so well
remembered by the church, were students at Lafayette. Mr. Loewenthall,
who was the son of a Jewish Rabbi in Poland, had for his room-mate
while at Lafayette, the Rev. Victor Herschell, one of five sons of a Jewish
Rabbi, in Germany, all of whom became ministers of the gospel. It is a
further coincidence in the history of these two Israelites, that about the
same time the former was murdered in India, the latter also sealed his
testimony to the Faith in blood—having perished in the massacre at
Jamaica, where he was the pastor of a church gathered largely by his
missionary labors. “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”
When Dr. Brainerd arrived in Easton, the day before the anniversary
exercises, he took the greatest pleasure in hearing of the work of the
Society, and in visiting the places which tradition has connected with
the labors of Brainerd. Associated with him in the missionary work
of this neighborhood were other beloved men, of whom the Doctor loved to
talk. The main station of Count Zinzendorf was but twelve miles distant,
and from the College cupola can be seen the little village of Nazareth,
where Whitefield laid the foundations of an orphan asylum—afterwards
completed by the Moravians for their theological seminary—but still
known as the “Whitefield House.” During the delivery of his sermon the
Doctor more than once, upon the inspiration of the moment, left his manu-
script to speak of these devoted and useful men, especially of David
Brainerd, who, he said, (as illustrating his text), “was but twenty-eight
years of age when he preached at the Forks of the Delaware in Indian
wigwams, and whose whole life's work was done at thirty
It is scarcely necessary to say, that the church was crowded by an eager
and attentive audience, and that Dr. Brainerd’s sermon was listened to
with delight and profit; but none thought that the occasion would ever
after be recalled by them with a yet deeper interest, from its being the last -
message this honored servant of Christ would deliver from the pulpit.
The death of Dr. Brainerd called forth many notices of his life and
25
character, which were published in the various religious journals, not only
in this country, but also in England. Among the most gratifying were the
tributes paid to his worth by brethren in the other denominations. The
editor of the Lutheran Observer, Philadelphia, in an extended notice of Dr.
Brainerd, published February 1st, 1867, says: “There are few people in
this city to whom he was not known, and by all was he admired and
esteemed, as a gifted and eloquent preacher, a laborious and self-denying
pastor, a sincere and steadfast friend, a true and devoted patriot, a genial,
kind-hcarted, public-spirited, Christian gentleman. Than he, the Presby-
terian Church never had a warmer or more efficient friend, and yet his
denominational attachment happily never dwarfed him into a bigot, nor
circumscribed his sympathies within the domain of a selfish and little-
minded sectarianism. Christians of all denominations loved him, for he
fraternized with all, loving his own Church none the less. Of the great
Union prayer-meetings, held at Jayne's Hall and other localities of blessed
memory, his was long an accredited master-mind. Often, when addressing
these popular Christian assemblies, as he alone could address them, did his
face shine, like that of Moses after his descent from the mount, with the
reflected glory of God, and yet “he himself wist not that it shone,' for he
Was as humble as he was great, and only great because he was humble.
We have never known a wiser man—one whose speech was habitually so
characterized by the soundest judgment, safest counsel, and sweetest temper.
Both in his method of thought and expression he was singularly original,
evolving from his well-stored mind new and striking ideas, when others
thought they had exhausted the subject. His originality, too, was never
feigned; but always natural as the blowing of the wind, or the sports of a
little child. For more than twenty years was it our privilege to share the
Doctor's personal intimacy, and never did we prize human friendship more,
or more deeply mourn its severance by the hand of death.”
Although Dr. Brainerd was for so short a time the pastor of the Fourth
Church, Cincinnati, the following extract from an article in the Cincinnati
Berald will show how precious his memory is to those who knew him there
in his early life:
“Cincinnati's interest in this noble Christian life finds its origin in these
same pastoral qualifications which, in their incipiency bore fair fruits in
the old Fourth Church, which still stands on the hill-side in the suburb of
Fulton. This church was feeble and poor—the congregation a mere hand-
ful—and Dr. Brainerd was with them but two years. Yet there are to-day,
on the banks of the Ohio and elsewhere, scores of men and women who are
among the most faithful workers in the Master's vineyard, who date their in-
spiration to the Fourth Church of Cincinnati and its faithful pastor. He never
forgot them. When he visited Cincinnati, the churches of the city rarely
knew of his presence, but he called upon each member of the old families
26
within reach, and never omitted to stand upon the steps of his ‘first church,”
and when access was possible, entered his old pulpit for a few moments,
the better to recall the past. This love for Cincinnati did not wane in
his latest years. Over the vicissitudes of Christ's kingdom there his tears
often fell, for through the Herald, and otherwise, he kept himself in close
sympathy with its life. Cincinnati friends were welcomed to his fireside,
and if of the Fourth Church, he would sometimes get out a little old note-
book belonging to the early time, for the purpose of talking over and in-
quiring after the people of long ago. Many of these people upon whom he
bestowed remembrance were, when he knew them, laborers in the rolling
mills and ship-yards of Fulton; poor women who toiled by the day to Sup-
port their families, or young boys who worked for their scanty bread.”
The same writer declares that this Christ-like trait of preaching the
Gospel to the poor was characteristic of Dr. Brainerd through all his min-
istry, and was beautifully revealed among the mines at Scranton where
he spent the last few weeks of his life. He says, “During his month at
Scranton his most enjoyed recreation was to go at noon-time and sit with
the begrimed and ignorant miners when they came out of the pits to eat
their lunch. Going among them, he would inquire, in his pleasant way,
whether there was not room on their plank for another man to sit. They
would crowd together and make room for him—and sitting among them
he would talk, while they ate, of their homes across the ocean, of their
families, their personal habits—and doubtless of the better country; they,
the while, not knowing who he was. Leaving them when the signal for
return to work was sounded, they would call after him familiarly, express-
ing in their rude speech the honest wish that he would come again.”
It was, of course, in Philadelphia that Dr. Brainerd was best known, and
therefore most loved and honored. The following description is from the
pen of one who knew him intimately for many years, the Rev. Daniel
March, D.D., pastor of the Clinton Street Church, Philadelphia. It was
read, by request, before the congregation of the Old Pine Street Church,
and afterwards published in the American Presbyterian.
“I shall always remember Dr. Brainerd as a man of genial spirits, pleasant
address, and hopeful temperament. I met him in all places; quite as
often in the street as anywhere else—he generally on horseback, and I as
generally on foot. He never would let himself pass without riding up to
the curb-stone and dropping a good-humored word, which made the walk
seem pleasanter to me for several squares after he was out of sight.
I never knew him to speak in a public meeting, large or small, religious
or secular, without diffusing a glow of kindly feeling through the audience,
and disposing every heart to respond to the sentiments and sympathies of
our common humanity. The great burdens of life were as heavy on him
27
as on the rest of us, but he had the happy faculty of bearing them him-
self, and helping others to bear them, with so much geniality, buoyancy
and hopefulness, as to take away half their weight. He supported his
own burden of care and responsibility with a good-humored and elastic
spirit, knowing that the strain upon the carriage, and the friction on the
wheels are less when the load rests upon springs.
In our Ministers' Meeting, in our consultations upon the common good
of all our churches, in our efforts to raise money, or to relieve difficulties,
or to start new enterprises, we always looked to him for an apt remark, or
a telling illustration, or a “little story,” that would make the task before
us seem lighter, and bring its accomplishment within the range of our
hopes. His playfulness always had a serious and practical turn. If he
cast the pleasant light of humor upon our most thoughtful deliberations, it
was only to scatter the shades of doubt and fear, and make the path of duty
plain. And it was a very great matter for us all to have a man among us
of large experience, of earnest purpose, and of practical judgment, who
could help us over the hard places with a touch of humor, and scatter the
clouds of despondency by a cheerful glance at better things to come.
Dr. Brainerd excelled greatly in his ready adaptation to times and cir-
cumstances. He had the happy art of putting things in their right place,
giving to every occasion its full and fit expression. Belonging to a profes-
sion which, by instinct, usage and education, clings to stately ceremonies
and established forms, he could step out of the old track with the grace of
propriety and the ease of unconscious adaptation. He could preach the
Gospel with tenderness and solemnity, in the church, in a market-house,
and in the open air. He could command the attention of citizens and
soldiers, in saloons and hospitals, in public streets and crowded squares, in
camp and on shipboard. He could preside with equal propriety over a
General Assembly, a Presbytery, or a prayer-meeting. He could make
himself heard and respected by the rich in their parlors and counting-
houses, and by the poor in their cheerless homes and lowly occupations.
In times of trouble and danger, when the cloud of national calamity hung
thick and dark over us all, he was a safe man to soothe the general alarm,
a brave man to meet the coming peril, a tender-hearted man to utter the
public sorrow. In times of joy and triumph, none rose with a more ex-
ultant and childlike joy upon the waves of public gratulation, none could
speak the common gladness, better than he. He had a quick sensibility
to catch the spirit of any occasion, and a ready tact to meet its demands.
Men who scoffed at religion, and made light of all sacred things, were not
likely to go unrebuked from his presence. The cultivated skeptic, and the
rude blasphemer found that in assailing him they had something more vital
and human than a walking book or an official gown to contend with. He
had a peculiar skill in setting the troubled and doubting in a position to
28
see the light which their fears had hidden from their eyes. In his quick
and unceremonial adaptation to all times and persons and circumstances,
he was like the Divine Preacher, who proclaimed the word of life in the
Synagogue and by the seaside; in the streets, on the mountains, and in de-
Sert places; in private homes, in the marts of business, and by the wayside;
and always speaking with equal earnestness and propriety, whether con-
versing with a single listener or addressing assembled thousands.
Dr. Brainerd judged wisely what he could do, and he did it well. He
chose the place and mode of action in which his powers could work most
easily, and he did the task the better and with the less strain and friction,
because he had discretion, and self-command enough to give his strength to
that which he could do best. Rejoicing that others possessed endowments
and opportunities not given to him, he improved his own proper gift so
well as to take a front rank with all who live to instruct and improve man-
kind. The world loses much talent and effort for good, just because many
fail to find the secret of their greatest strength, or, having found it, they
are not content to do that which they can do best. And hence we have
many unmanly complaints from those, who excuse themselves for failure,
by saying that, in some other position or profession, they could easily have
become greater and better men.
Dr. Brainerd was himself greater than his best performance. However
well he may have acquitted himself on any occasion, he left the impression
that he had more forces in reserve than he had brought into the field of
action. No one act or service of his seemed to have exhausted his capacity
to do more and better. This impression was undoubtedly due to the force
of character by which he controlled the convictions and stimulated the
expectations of others, whenever they came under the influence of his clear
mind and commanding will. No written composition, no reported speech
of his, no partial estimates of friends even, could have told a stranger how
much of a man he was in his living presence, and in his power to quicken
and control other minds. He was not unmanned or paralyzed by great
responsibilities, or unexpected circumstances, or by the overpowering in-
fluence of strong character and great reputation in others. He rose to the
demand of the occasion, and he met it easily, by looking through the glare
and parade and mystery directly to the simple and practical elements of
any question or duty. He could separate the practical and sure from the
mystical and uncertain, and he would never allow the dreams and subtle-
ties of idle speculation to impair the force of settled opinions and daily
duties. In climbing up the steep of the heavenly hill, he chose to keep the
tried and safe path, and he was not embarrassed or hindered in his course,
because, when he looked over the precipice, he could not see the bottom
of the abyss, or, when he looked up he could not measure the whole length
of the path by which he was journeying. And he showed his peculiar
29
manliness and force of character, by imparting to others the feeling of
safety and self-possession which steadied his own mind.
Dr. Brainerd dwelt upon the plain and practical elements of truth. He
believed that the Gospel is its own best witness, and that the preacher
should show his fitness for his work by presenting truth in such a form as
to be understood and appreciated by all candid and attentive listeners. He
believed that the most essential truths are most easily understood, and that
the clear and distinctive doctrines of the Gospel are so immeasurably im-
portant that the minister of Christ can have little time for the embellish-
ments of fancy, or the mists of speculation. He made people understand
that he had opinions and principles, and good reasons for holding them,
and that when he spoke, it was not simply to supply a pleasant entertain-
ment for the hour, but to show that all have something infinitely important
both to believe and to do. He put forth his appeals and instructions in
such clear, practical, every-day forms, that common minds grasped the full
scope of his meaning, and the careless and the cavilling were made to feel
that in opposing or neglecting the claims of religion, they must slight the
lessons of their own experience and the deepest wants of their own nature.
He clothed the great spiritual truths of divine revelation in such a human
and homelike dress, that they could be received and recognized in the busy
street as well as in the sanctuary.
Dr. Brainerd had full faith in the capacity of the Gospel to supply the
chief elements of progress, in all states of human society, and to answer all
forms of unbelief. He was not afraid that any real discoveries in science
would impair the authority of divine revelation. If the philosophers do
not agree with Moses, it will be found in the end to be only the worse for
the philosophers, not to the discredit of Moses. And he was not very
much troubled, if ingenious and sceptical men could devise objections,
which, for a time, seemed hard to answer. Every new phase of unbelief
will have its day, but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And Dr.
Brainerd kept himself up abreast of all the progress of the age, by keeping
himself in sympathy with that revealed truth, which is the chief element
of progress in all ages. He fully believed in the power of Christianity to
sustain itself against the most severe and subtle scepticism, and to vindi-
cate its divine origin, both by reasoning and by experiment, before all the
world.
Dr. Brainerd could advance with the real advance of the age, and he
could adapt himself easily to the changing circumstances of society and the
world. He kept even pace with the time, and refused to grow old, in feel-
ing and spirit, while the years of toil and suffering were growing heavy
upon his shoulders. He never fell into the habit of thinking that truth
and virtue were fast leaving the earth, that all changes were for the worse,
and that things were a great deal better in the world when he was young.
80
He always liked to class himself among the young men, and he was sure to
show so much buoyancy, hopefulness and adaptation, as to make the young
men feel at home in his company.
He respected the wisdom, the virtue and precedents of the past, and yet
he felt called upon to use them all, in attaining a sounder wisdom and
loftier virtue.
When the form or issue of great questions of principle or duty changed,
he was quick to meet the new demand. He was not the man to spend his
strength in fighting over an old battle, when there was no longer any de-
mand for the conflict.
Dr. Brainerd was truly and conscientiously denominational in his prin-
ciples and preferences, and yet he was liberal and conciliatory towards all.
We had no truer man to rely upon, when the Order, the doctrine, the good
name and the associated interests of our own churches were to be main-
tained; and when the fit occasion came to forget all denominational differ-
ences, and unite in common efforts and supplications for the growth and
harmony of all Churches alike, none could cause all hearts to flow forth in
common sympathies and efforts more happily than he. No minister in the
city had a larger personal acquaintance with ministers and laymen outside
of his own denomination, and none would have received a more ready wel-
come to other pulpits, no one would have been more sure to speak kindly
and acceptable words, whatever sect or class of Christians he might ad-
dress. And yet he was wise and hearty in giving the great strength of his
life and labor to the upbuilding of his own denomination. It is for the
interest of the one universal Church, that every branch shall be united and
strong, and any minister's life will be worth most to the cause of Christ,
when he works most freely and earnestly in the way of his own choice, and
with such forms and instrumentalities as he can use best. Christianity is
scandalized in the eyes of the world, not by the existence of different de-
nominations, but by the unchristian mode in which they treat each other.
Dr. Brainerd labored cheerfully and uncomplainingly for a whole genera-
tion in his chosen profession, and found in the work of the ministry his
exceeding great reward. He expressed no regret that he had abandoned
other pursuits, or that he saw others making themselves rich, while he,
with greater effort, ability and sacrifice, must live and die poor. He felt
rich in his own heart and life, if he could lead others to lay up for them-
selves imperishable treasures in heaven. In thirty years’ time, he passed
through many vicissitudes of trial, difficulty and discouragement, as well as
of toil, hope and success; but in them all, he bore himself honorably and
bravely, and in the darkest days, he had grace given him for his own neces-
sities, and a reserve of faith and cheerfulness with which to strengthen his
brethren. He bore up under great bodily infirmities, and worked on hope-
fully and successfully, while daily expecting the end, anxious only to be
31
found at his post when the Master came. His unsteady hand and faltering
step indicated no abatement of high purpose and firm resolution to carry his
burden till the Master bid him lay it down. And so he went on his way,
bearing his own sorrows lightly, that he might comfort others in their afflic-
tion, living upon a bare competence that he might enrich others with the
resources of his gifted mind and chastened heart, forgetting his own dis-
couragements that he might cheer others in their despondency, hoping all
things, believing all things, enduring all things, if by any means he might
save some.”
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THE NATION'S BLESSING
—is–
. . . A SERMON PREACHED IN THE
Øouth Presbyterian (ſhurch of £3rooklyn,
BY THE PASTOR
REV. SAMUEL T, SPEAR, D. D.
NOVEMBER 27TH, 1862.
BROOKLYN :
WM. W. ROSE, BOOKSELLER AND PRINTER,
142 A T L A NT I C S T R EET. §)
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1862. *S*).
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THE NATION'S BLESSING IN TRIAL,
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“O, COME, LET US SING UNTO THE LORD : LET Us MAKE A Joy FUL
No1SE TO THE ROCK OF OUR SALVATION. LET US COME BEFORE HIS
PRESENCE WITH THANKSGIVING, AND MAKE A Joy FUL NOISE UNTO HIM
wiTH PSALMs.”—Ps. 95 :: 1–2.
In many respects the present is a dark and gloomy hour.
As a people, we are in the midst of a terrible civil war, waged
between those who but yesterday were members of the same po-
litical family. In the number of combatants, in the territory
over which it extends, in the skill and energy applied to its
prosecution, in the loss of human life, in the causes which have
produced it, and in the questions which hang upon it for their
solution, this war is one of the most extraordinary military strug-
gles, to be found in the history of man. At such a time, it would
seem specially appropriate to come before God with fasting, hu-
miliation, and prayer, that a gracious Providence might inter-
pose and arrest the deadly contest: and yet the appointment by
which we are convened, has recommended us to observe this day
in thanksgiving and praise. If we have had trials and sorrows,
we have also had mercies. The common mercies of Providence
we have all enjoyed. Trusting that we shall not forget to thank
God for our daily comforts, our family blessings, our spiritual
privileges, and heavenly hopes, I propose to inquire whether we
may not as citizens, patriots, philanthropists, and Christians, see
the good hand of the Lord in the very trials, which constitute
our national affliction. I ask you to reflect,
FIRST, UPON THE POLITICAL AND MORAL CHARACTER OF OUR CAUSE.
—The Government has drawn the sword to defend the life of the
nation against the most atrocious rebellion the world ever saw.
It is contending with anarchists and traitors. Its foes are trai-
tors. Treason, on their part, and devotion to the Constitution
and the Government erected under it, on ours, form the political
2 THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL.
and moral contrasts of this great struggle. Traitors claim the
right to dismember this nation at their pleasure, to secede from
it, and erect another within its territorial limits. To repel and
utterly blast this attempt to introduce the infamous doctrines of
free love and divorce into the code of nations, is the righteous
object for which the Government has taken up arms in its own
defense. There is hence a great political and moral principle
at stake in this contest: and to cry peace, without any regard to
this principle, is either a weakness of feeling, or the very next
thing to treason itself. To surrender to an armed rebellion with-
out an effort to crush it, would be a delinquency, alike condemn-
ed by the laws of God. and the reason of man. Peace on such
terms is not desirable. I do not rejoice in the necessity of fight-
ing: but the necessity being upon us, then I do bless God, that
we can appeal to our own consciences, to the moral sense of man-
kind, and to the Searcher of all hearts, in respect to the equity of
the principle for which we contend. I believe in the righteous-
ness of our cause, and also in the duty of doing our utmost to
maintain it, as truly as I believe in the existence of God. Morally
considered, we are not at liberty to be indifferent. We are bound
before God as well as man, to be heartily loyal. Complicity with
treason in such a struggle, is sin.
Special force is given to these thoughts when we remember,
that the Government of these United States is not despotic and
oppressive, but built on the broad foundation of Human Rights.
I know that the institution of slavery exists within its bosom, that
it did so exist when the Union was formed, and that the Fathers
who adopted the Constitution, did incidentally recognize it as a
local institution of the States, providing for the rendition of fugi-
tive slaves, and also granting an increased representation to the
Slave States in the lower House of Congress on account of their
slave population. I know also that the Southern people, especi-
ally within the last thirty years, pleading what they call their
constitutional rights on this subject, have become exceedingly
extravagant and unreasonable in their claims upon the general
Government, and that for the most part they have succeeded in
these claims, largely controlling the national administration, and
making or unmaking compromises very much at their own dis-
THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL. - 8
cretion. Looking at a very large class of facts as they lie in our
past history, one might almost suppose that this Government was
created to be the guardian-angel of the extension and perpetuity
of slavery. That it has been sadly perverted to these ends, is an
unquestionable fact.
And yet the Revolutionary Fathers had in view no such result,
and meant no such thing. The slavery then existing they de-
plored and condemned as a social, political, and moral evil, which,
as they believed, would soon pass away, and leave liberty regu-
lated by just and equal laws, as the blessing and inheritance of
all the people. Such men as Madison, John Jay, Dr. Franklin,
Jefferson, John Adams, Washington, indeed most of the public
men of the Revolutionary age, very freely expressed their hatred
of slavery, and advocated its early abolition. It is true, that
yielding to the necessities of the hour, and desiring to secure the
co-operation of all the States in the formation of the Union, they
made compromises with this institution; and it is just as true,
that they honestly supposed, that in a few years the system would
disappear by a process of natural decay. Hence Madison was
not willing to have the word slave inserted in the Constitution, to
disgrace that noble charter of human liberty with the chattel-doc-
trine of property in man. The ordinance of 1787, prohibiting
slavery in the North Western Territory, gave expression to the
same idea and the same feeling. The spirit and purpose of our
ancestors are among the most obvious facts of history. One great
object of their labors, as they expressly said, was to “secure the
blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity”—that liberty
which recognizes as a fundamental idea, the fact “that all men
are created equal,” “endowed by their Creator with certain ina-
lienable rights,” among which “are life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness.”
“The true and real life of a nation is the political idea,” or
ădeas “upon which it is based. The ideas of our government are
Liberty and Unity:”—Liberty, as the gift of God to the indivi-
dual man, subject in civil society to those legal directions and re-
straints which are necessary to guard it against injury and abuse:
—Unity, cementing and binding together all the people as one
grand organism of social and political life. To realize these ideas
4 THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL.
in a practical form, the Constitution creates a nation by the
self-directed action of the people, whose legally expressed will is
the supreme law of the land. It provides the several depart-
ments of Government, making them directly or indirectly de-
pendent upon the people, thus giving free scope to the principle
of popular representation. It invests the national will with the
prerogatives of sovereignty, so limiting and qualifying what are
called State Rights as to preserve the nationality of the whole
people, considered as one, and but one political society existing
under a common Government. Too much cannot be said in
praise of this Constitution. It has fewer faults and more ex-
cellences than any other instrument of the kind ever made by
man. The Union under it has been prolific of countless benefits.
The modern pretense of Southern politicians, that it has proved a
system of aggression upon Southern rights, is utterly false. True,
the Free States have advanced much more rapidly than the Slave
States, outgrowing them in population and wealth: but this is
the natural and necessary consequence of the difference between
the two forms of society. All the New England States put togeth-
er, are but a trifle larger than the single State of Virginia: the lat-
ter was first in the time of settlement: her climate is most invit-
ing, and her natural elements of wealth, almost boundless: her
position too is central: yet on account of her free institutions,
New England has left Virginia very far in the rear, wedded to her
system of slavery and its curses, proving by the laws of political
economy, that while righteousness exalteth a nation, sin is always
a reproach to any people.
If then we must fight for our Constitution, I thank God that we
are fighting on the side of liberty. This great nation infamously
attacked by a most wanton treason, is striving not only to pre-
serve its flag and its unity, but also to preserve the interests of
liberty and justice. We are solving not only for ourselves, but
also for the world, through all coming time, the problem of rep-
resentative self-government. And whether we consider the prin-
ciple of nationality, or the qualities of that nationality providen-
tially committed to our keeping, we should be an ignoble peo-
ple, unworthy of our inheritance, and unfaithful to duty, if we
consented to the demands of this outrageous treason. Those who
THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL. 5
want peace upon any terms, and even pray God to give us peace
without reference to the principles involved in a just peace, or
who would be willing to settle this controversy by a miserable
compromise, that would simply transfer the difficulty to a future
age, seem to me very deficient in their views of the crisis. I
want no such peace, and no such compromise. I am satisfied with
the Constitution as it is. It is the charter of liberty, and not of
despotism: as the bond of Union, it is the central orb of our po-
litical system; and I go for maintaining it at whatever cost. If
this orb of day sink into darkness, especially to give place to a
most unrighteous despotism, I know not where, or when freedom
can ever again safely build her altars. As it seems to me, the
last hope of free institutions would perish from the world, if we
fail in this struggle. I dread war, but I dread this more.
I NAME, SECONDLY, OUR NATIONAL PRESERVATION AND SUCCESS
THUS FAR IN THIS CONTEST.-We still have a country and a Govern-
ment. We are not yet dead. I very much doubt whether there
is a monarchy in Europe, that could survive such a rebellion for
three months.
In the commencement, all the advantages were on the side
of the insurgents. For years they had been preparing for this
struggle, while the Northern people dreaming of no such crisis,
were folding their arms in quiet security. Look carefully at the
facts:—see the late President as imbecile as a little child, sur-
rounded by a Cabinet, at least half of whom were traitors and
perjured villians, plotting to destroy the very Government they
were sworn to support:-look into the National Congress swarm-
ing with traitors, belching out the angry fires of treason, without
fear or restraint—: see how traitors had plundered the national
treasury, scattered the navy to the four quarters of the globe,
organized and even drilled many of their regiments, and distrib-
uted the public arms in the Southern States:—witness the Gen-
erals and under-officers of Government marching by scores into
the ranks of treason:—see the almost total want of an army to
be at once called into the public service:–see the wide extent
of this foul conspiracy, reaching all through the Slave States, and
patronized by the officers of State Government:-study well too
the strange attitude of the Northern mind, just passing out of a

6 THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL.
severe political strife with all the heart-burnings incident to such
a contest, the vanquished charging the fault upon the victors, a
portion of the secular press actually shouting in triumph over
the secession of States, not a few people sympathizing with this
wickedness, patriots and honest men standing aghast, for the
moment paralyzed, hoping and fearing, looking around for com-
promises, not at all perceiving the tremendous magnitude of the
scene before them, and having no great leader like a Webster, a
Jackson, or a Clay, with grasp of thought and words of fire to
move the public heart:—I say, look at these facts as they rolled
along in rapid succession; and really it would seem as if all were
lost, and the knell of our nationality sounding. Tell me what
Government on earth but this, under like disadvantages, could
have escaped a total wreck. It is a marvel of Providence that
we were saved at all.
And how were we saved at this critical moment? Not by
the Peace Congress that met in Washington: not by the speeches
of our representatives and senators in Congress: not by the me-
diation of the Border States: but by the wonderful providence
of God, in some respects holding back the rebels and delaying
their plans, and in others, so guiding our President in the early
stages of his administration that when the moment came for him
to sound the note of alarm, twenty millions of people, receiving
into their bosoms one of those sudden and mighty regenerations
of public feeling that does the work of centuries in a day, awoke
from their lethargy, and sprang to the resgue, as if by the call
of God. The people burning with a rºhteous indignation, felt
the providential inspiration of the hour, and under God saved
the country. God’s providence so ordered events, that loyal and
patriotic hearts were moved in season. He taught us at the mo-
ment, as he has been since teaching us, that the work before us
demands the very best qualities of the man, and the truest steel
of the genuine patriot. Let God be praised that the country
and the Constitution were not lost in the very outset of the
struggle. We were just saved from a violent revolution. The
South calculating upon a divided North, expected great aid from
this source; and at one time it seemed more than possible that
we might have civil war on Northern soil.
THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL. 7
Delivering us from this our earliest and greatest danger,
Providence has smiled upon our efforts to a far greater extent
than perhaps we appreciate. If we complain that more has not
been done, it may be well to see what has been done. We cer-
tainly have retained Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri,
and Western Virginia, all of which would have been swept into
this whirlpool of secession but for the presence and activity of
the Federal forces, thereby greatly increasing the difficulties of
our position. We have maintained along a sea-coast of several
thousand miles, a very effective blockade, as proven by its con-
sequences upon the manufacturing interests of Europe. We have
made vast military preparations for the public defense by both
land and sea. We have paid the entire expenditure without
borrowing a single dollar from any foreign country. It is true,
that the rebels have also increased their forces; yet in doing this
they have about exhausted their fighting population; they can-
not bring many more men into the field, having already done
their very best; whereas the loyal States, having for a time play-
ed the game of war in the hope of avoiding its greatest severity,
are now prepared to sweep down upon them with fleets and ar-
mies that must be irresistible. No nation of ancient or modern
times ever presented such a tremendous array of force, as that
which is now at the disposal of the Government. Nothing but
the most astounding inactivity and mismanagement, can prevent
its success. We now understand the foe. We now see what we
have to do, and are amply prepared to do it.
Moreover, in respect to the question of actual victories, the
advantage has been decidedly on the side of the Government.
True, we failed at Bull Run, and before Richmond, and recently
in the neighborhood of Washington; but we did not fail at Hat-
teras Inlet, at Port. Royal, at Roanoke Island, at Newbern, at
Fort Macon, at Fort Pulaski, at "Fort Henry, at Fort Donelson,
at Somerset, at Shiloh, at Corinth, at Pea Ridge, at Memphis, at
New Madrid, at Island No. Ten, at Norfolk, at New Orleans, and
more recently in Maryland. We have gained more victories
than we have lost, three to one. We have captured and paroled
more prisoners of war than the rebels. We have taken from
them a large number of important positions, which they had
8 THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL.
gained, not by fighting, but by treason; and no position of any
consequence, once recovered from them, is now in their hands.
They now occupy very much less territory than they did in the
outset. While they have not been able to carry the war into
the loyal States, we have possession of very important points in
every disloyal State. The Mississippi River, with the exception
of a single point, is in our hands; and soon the whole of it will
be. The rebels can show no such record of facts. Richmond,
Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, and Vicksburgh, are their only
remaining strongholds; and these we shall capture in due season.
Our great lack hitherto has not been a want of men or means,
but a want of energy in using them; and while I am not dispos-
ed to be either a croaker or a fault-finder, I am more than will-
ing that the Government should be instructed by its own failures.
The President has doubtless by this time learnt, what we have
all equally learnt, that a war-policy is the only policy that can
save the nation.
Looking at these facts, I suggest that as patriots and Chris-
tians, we have ample occasion to thank God for the favors of his
good providence thus far, and take courage for the future.
Though not at the end of the war, we have gained much. We
are not by any means, as some seem to think, where we were a
year ago. Believing our cause to be just, we have appealed to
the God of providence; we have besought him to make our cause
his care; we have prayed for the President, for his Cabinet, for
the National Congress, for the Generals and the soldiers; and I
submit that what has been done through these agencies, even if
not all that could have been done, is quite sufficient to make us
a grateful people. If there are dark sides to the past and the
present, there are also bright sides; and while we may not over-
look the former, we should be very careful not to forget the latter.
I MENTION, THIRDLY, THE GENERAL CHASTISEMENT OF THIS WAR
As WELL AS THE DISCIPLINE OF OUR DEFEATS AND DELAYS.—Some-
times, as with the individual, so with the nation, the very best
lessons of life are taught, and the highest virtues cultivated, in
the midst of the severest adversity. Prosperity often generates
vices which nothing but adversity can cure. When God’s judg-
ments are abroad in the land, the people have a signal opportu-
THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL. 9
nity to learn righteousness. The immutable problems of morality
and right then make their appearance, and often enter as facts into
the bosom of history. - -
The Pulpit and the Religious Press have descanted at large
upon the sins of the American people, as sustaining a moral con-
nection with the evils which we now suffer. This is just and
proper. It is not mere cant to say, that this war is the rod of
God for the punishment and correction of a guilty people. We
have sinned in various ways, and for all our sins deserve the di-
vine displeasure; and yet I cannot conceal from myself, or with-
out the grossest hypocrisy attempt to conceal from you, the fact
that the sin of human bondage is palpably and unmistakably the
great evil, which as a cause, underlies this war. How any one
can fail to see this, is to me a marvel. A man can say, that
slavery has nothing to do with this war; and so he can say that
the sun does not shine when millions of eyes attest the fact. For
what was it that the South threatened to secede in the event of
Mr. Lincoln's election? Slavery. For what did they make the
same threat at the time the Missouri Compromise was adopted?
Slavery. What has been the subject of their persistent agitation
for the last forty years? Slavery. What has been the great point
of conflict between the North and the South during the whole
history of the Government? Slavery. For what have compro-
mises been made? Slavery. To what did Mr. Crittenden's pro-
posed compromise refer? Slavery. What was the subject which
the Peace Congrees met to consider and adjust? Slavery. What
was the matter of constant debate in both Houses of Congress
during the winter of 1860 and ’61? Slavery. What was the
ground upon which the State Conventions based their acts of se-
cession? Slavery. What is the main point of difference between
the Constitution of the United States and that of the so-called
Confederate States? Slavery. What was the reason with which
the Southern heart was fired, and the people precipitated into
this rebellion? Slavery. Who are the aiders and abettors of
this rebellion? Slaveholders. Who started it? Slaveholders.
Whence came it? From the land of Slavery. It is astonishing,
that any one, with such a cloud of facts before him, all pointing
in one direction, can fail to see the cause, the great and overruling
10 THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL.
cause, of this wicked rebellion. Southern politicians, leaders, and
conspirators, with slavery as the basis of action, were determined
to rule the nation, or break up the Union, and when the election
of Mr. Lincoln indicated that they could nºt, as hitherto, rule,
then they resorted to secession. Neither the Abolitionists, nor
the Republican Party, nor any body else but themselves, can be
justly held responsible for this work of death. It is their work,
self-prompted, and without any sufficient occasion, except in the
desire to perpetuate and extend the institution of slavery.
Mr. Stephens, the Vice President of the Confederate States,
alluding to slavery, expressly says:–“This was the immediate
cause of the late rupture and the present revolution.” Speaking
to Southern men and slaveholders, he had no hesitation in stating
the true cause of the rupture. He knew what it was; and he
knew that they knew it. -
The Richmond Egaminer, in a recent article discussing the
idea of a forced conscription of slaves for purposes of labor, holds
the following language: “As the war originated and is carried
on in great part for the defense of the slaveholder in his property,
rights, and the perpetuation of the institution, he ought to be
first and foremost in aiding, by every means in his power, the
triumph and success of our arms. The slaveholder ought to re-
member, that for every negro he thus furnishes, he puts a soldier
in the ranks.” The Southern people understand such logic.
Well did the Wew York Observer, quoting the above confession,
add the following withering comment:—“In the annals of hu-
man crime, dark and bloody as they are, we note no avowal
more unblushing and barbarous, none that so utterly ignores
the character and obligations of Christian civilization and com-
mon humanity, none that so stamps a war with all the attributes
of sin and shame to be borne in ages of history by those who
begun and carried it on for such a purpose.”
We do not then mis-state the facts of the case, or misrepresent
the men, when we trace this war to slavery. Slavery began the
war, and slavery is now pursuing it. It is the slaveholders' re-
bellion, plotted by conspirators ambitious for control, and using
this institution as the means of gaining their end. But for slave-
ry there would have been no rebellion. The fault is not in the
THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL. 11
North, but in the South. The discussions of the subject by North-
ern men, their earnest and manly protest against the extension
of slavery, their unwillingness to have the policy of slavery rule
the land, even the severe denunciations used by the most extreme
Abolitionists, these and the like facts are in no just and proper
sense the cause of this war. The real cause lies in the men who
began it, in the purposes and motives which draw their life from
the institution of slavery. And now all the people, North and
South, are suffering the dire calamities of war on account of this
evil. Long ago we ought to have met the question like states.
men, freemen, and Christians; but we did not, deeming it better
to patch up momentary compromises, which, as the sequel has
sadly proved, did not cure the evil, or avert the real danger.
This has been our mistake and our folly; since the passage of the
ordinance of 1787, the nation seems to have forgotten that slave-
ry is a great moral wrong; it has bargained and bartered over
this evil; and for this we are now feeling the chastening rod of
God. I would not pray for war as a means of grace; yet when
it comes, I think it well to trace its moral connections, to repent
of the sin which has occasioned it, to be instructed by it, to listen
to the voice of God in it, to remember that justice and judgment
are the habitation of his throne, and gratefully accept the bless-
ing which, through such a tremendous affliction, he designs to
convey. We ought thoroughly to wash our hands from all com-
plicity with this evil, and do what we can to remove it from the
land. If slavery be the evil for which God is "chastening us,
then his Providence points us to freedom as the moral remedy.
We shall be wise to look in the direction of the evil. There the
finger of Providence points; and we may be sure that we can
make no false issue with Providence.
So also our defeats and delays, while seeming to be disasters,
were perhaps necessary as a suitable moral discipline. The pub-
lic mind, twelve months ago, was not in a right posture to turn
victory to the ends of righteousness. The nation had not suffered
enough, or thought enough upon the momentous questions of this
age, to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before God. We
have been slowly learning, as I trust we shall continue to learn,
that if we wish to preserve our nationality and transmit to our
12. THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL.
children a solid and enduring peace, we must rid ourselves of
that which is the great cause of our present troubles. “Peace,”
says Napoleon, writing from Germany to his brother Joseph who
was anxious for peace, “is a word that means nothing. It is the
conditions of peace that are all.” If duly humbled and penitent,
we at length make peace on the right conditions, the historian in
after-ages, when writing up the events of this hour, free from the
passions and excitements of the existing struggle, will point to a
people chastened and disciplined by the God of providence, that
purity and justice might become the laws of their national life.
I am anxious for peace, but I am more anxious in respect to the
principles involved in that peace. I want the Constitution as it
is, in the letter and spirit of its true meaning, to be the basis of
peace. Nothing is clearer than that we can have no safe and
honorable peace that we do not ourselves dictate: there is some-
where an Austerlitz between us and the peace we are seeking;
and hoping that we shall find it in due season, I accept the chas-
tisement and discipline, the taxation and disappointment of our
delays, not as pure and unmixed evils, but as providentially con-
nected with our highest future good. I am not a prophet; yet if I
were to make a guess into the future, I should be inclined to take
this view. At any rate, it is to me a bow of promise, and hence
of cheerful hope. I think I see God behind this scene, “setting
in array the forces of thought and principle,” and preparing a na-
tion for his own glory. I think I see a providential and moral
strategy behind’ “all the outward equipage and muniments of
visible war,” that in final results will be more beneficent than
the mere victory of arms. Providence will win in this terrible
contest, and posterity rejoice.
I NAME, FourTHLY, THE PRESENT Prospect THAT PROVIDENCE
MEANS TO ELIMINATE THE INSTITUTION OF SLAVERY FROM our Politi-
CAL SYSTEM.–I have recently taken some pains to inform myself
in respect to the history of the Slave-Power in this country; and
I declare to you, that the investigation has greatly increased my
desire that this Power might come to an end.
By the Slave-Power I mean mainly the social and political
influence of the large slaveholders, especially those of the Cal-
houn school, now numbering perhaps not more than one hun-
THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL. 13
dred thousand persons in a population of more than thirty mil-
lions. This Power once comparatively insignificant, is actuated
by a class of ideas and interests, that not only unify its purposes,
but instinctively inspire it with the claim of ascendency. It is a
solid and compact power. Yielding to the economic necessities
which arise from the exhaustion of the soil by slave-culture, it
wants territory for expansion. Moved by the habits of feeling
which are inherent in its very nature, it wants Slave-States added
to the Union, as the means of maintaining its political control.
Like all oligarchies, it is anxious to secure governmental power.
Its history in this country has been one of constant aggression
and advancement, especially within the last thirty years. It
forms the landed aristocracy of the South, rules in the politics
and social ideas of the Southern people, and for a long period,
strange as it may seem, has held almost an absolute mastery over
the Federal Government. By reason of the staples which it pro-
duces, and the market it furnishes for Northern trade, it has
identified with itself the selfish interests of commerce. Through
the medium of the inter-State slave trade, the statistics of which
are shocking to the feelings of humanity, it has firmly united the
Border Slave States and the Cotton States in a common policy.
Slavery would not be profitable in the former but for the domes-
tic slave trade. For years Virginia has pursued the infamous
business of raising slaves to supply the more Southern market.
Though this has been to her a great source of revenue, every
right-minded man must look upon the whole thing with the most
perfect disgust and abhorrence. jº
To please and conciliate the slave interest, particularly in
South Carolina and Georgia, the former of which States has been
a hot-bed of treason during nearly the whole history of the Gov-
ernment, the framers of the Constitution reluctantly gave their
consent to the continuance of the foreign slave trade for a period
of twenty years, a trade now declared to be piracy punishable
with death. It doubtless seemed to them wise as a compromise
to settle the vexed question, and bring these States into the
Union:-yet, alas! the bitter experience of this country has ful-
ly shown, that all efforts to satisfy the spirit of slavery by con-
cessions, only increase and intensify its demands. No student of
14 THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL.
our political history can fail to see this truth. It would have
been far better, if the Fathers fresh from the Revolution, and
breathing the warm inspirations of freedom, had stood firmly to
its principles, even if the formation of the Union had been de-
layed for a time.
The territorial expansion of slavery under the lead of the
Slave-Power, since the adoption of the Constitution, is a most
alarming fact. Kentucky in 1792, Tennessee in 1796, Mississip-
pi in 1817, and Alabama in 1819, came into the Union as Slave
States, being formed out of our original territory, thus enlarging
the domain of slavery, and increasing the political strength of the
Slave-Power. In 1803, the Government purchased of France the
territory of Louisiana, paying for it $15,000,000; and in 1819, it
bought Florida of Spain, paying $5,000,000. Out of this terri-
tory Slave States were formed and admitted in the Union:—Lou-
isiana, in 1812:-Arkansas, in 1836:—and Florida, in 1845.
During the Congress of 1819 and '20, occurred the memora-
ble contest in respect to Missouri, another Slave State, formed
out of the Louisiana purchase. At this time, the Free States be-
came thoroughly alarmed at the dangerous progress of slavery;
yet the Slave-Power, true to its instincts, insisted that Missouri
should come in as a Slave State, threatening to dissolve the Union
if its demands were not granted; and after a severe struggle, free-
dom yielded, and slavery triumphed. Thus we have eight Slave
States added, four out of original territory, and four out of ac-
quired, swelling the tide of this strange Power.
But this is not enough. Mexico, of which Texas was a part,
having achieved her independence, abolished slavery in 1829.
Almost immediately the Slave-Power cast its eager eye upon
Texas as a territorial prize too valuable to be lost. The first
plan was to purchase Texas of Mexico; and when this failed,
came the effort to get possession of the country, first, by emigra-
tion, and then by revolution. Citizens of the United States
wrested Texas from Mexico, and devoted it to the extension of
slavery. This point being gained, the next thing was to annex
Texas to this country; and this was surreptitiously accomplished
by a joint resolution of both Houses of Congress in 1845, with a
stipulation for dividing it, if necessary, into five States. Here
THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL. 15
is another State that may be divided into several others, added
to the Slave-Power.
But again this is not enough. Soon we are involved in the
Mexican war, resulting in another large acquisition of territory.
The Slave-Power meant to have California and New Mexico;
but being disappointed by the unexpected rush of free emigra-
tion into the former, it resisted the admission of California as a
Free State; and this led to the celebrated compromises of 1850,
then proclaimed to be a final settlement of the question of
slavery.
The question, however, did not stay settled. In 1854 it was
opened again by the repeal of the Missouri-compromise for the
express purpose of providing for the introduction of slavery into
Kansas; and following this we have the tremendous struggle of the
slave-interest to force a slave-constitution upon an unwilling peo-
ple, actually compelling them to take up arms in their own de-
fense. Every possible effort was made to keep Kansas as a Free
State, out of the Union. You are all familiar with the history.
About this time, this most extraordinary and dangerous Pow-
er makes the discovery, that slave-property like any other prop-
erty, has a right, under the Constitution, to go into the Federal
territories and there be protected by national law; and in the
famous Dred Scott case, it gained from the Supreme Court an
extra-judicial declaration of this doctrine, contrary to all the an-
tecedents of our political history. . Carrying this new doctrine
into the politics of the South, the prominent leaders of this Pow-
er, at the last Presidential election, repudiated Mr. Douglas with
his political friends at the North, and nominated a man who has
since proved himself a traitor, because Mr. Douglas would not
adopt this extreme Southern view in respect to the rights of sla-
very. When the nation had declared its will in the election of
Mr. Lincoln, these same men began the work of secession, and
precipitated the country into all the the calamities and horrors
of war.
Under the general law, that one's moral instincts will rule
his practice, or his practice modify and change his instincts, these
men now startle the moral sense of the world with the bold pro-
position, that slavery is essentially a beneficent system, the nor-
16 THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL.
mal state of negro-life, that for which God made the black man,
divine in its sanctions, and that the special mission of the South
is to preservé this institution and extend it as far as possible.
Politicians, and to a very large extent Southern Christians, have
- adopted this view. This doctrine was boldly asserted by Mr.
Stephens in his speech at Atlanta. The Richmond Enquirer
goes even farther than this. “Hitherto the defense of slavery,”
says the Enquirer, “has encountered great difficulties, because its
apologists (for they were merely apologists) stopped half way.
They confined the defense of slavery to negro-slavery alone, aban-
doning the principle of slavery, and admitting that every other
form of slavery was wrong. Now, the line of defense is chang-
ed: the South maintains that slavery is just, natural, and neces-
sary, and that it does not depend on the difference of complex-
tons.” This is admirably consistent, for if negro-slavery is right,
then all slavery is right. The question of color has nothing to
do with the character of the institution. The South are making
rapid progress in the wrong direction, claiming that capital in-
vested in the ruling class, should own labor, and hence govern it
by an absolute authority. This is the political and social Para-
dise, towards which the Southern people are marching.
Though the population of the slave States is, and for a long
time has been, much less than that of the Free States, a major-
ity of the Presidents, of Cabinet Ministers, of the members of
the Supreme Court, of Army and Navy appointments, have been
Southern men, most of them known to be publicly committed to
the interests of slavery. Southern men, in number out of all
proportion to the population of the Slave States as compared
with that of the Free, have filled the places of honor, enjoyed
the patronage of the Government, and fixed its policy. North-
ern men have been compelled to make their obeisance to the
Slave-Power, and swear upon its altars, in order to avoid being
proscribed by Southern politicians. Let a Northern man be
even suspected of not being true to the slave-interest, and he at
once lost caste with the South.
Such are some of the facts, not all of them, but merely
some of them,-marking the career of the Slave-Power in this
country, which truthful history submits to the inspection of a
THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL. 17
candid world. Let me add, that they are just such facts as mat-
urally and necessarily spring from the tendencies and influences
of slave-society, when attempting to run the race with that
order of civilization which prevails in free society. The two
systems are essentially antagonistical. They never were harmon-
ized, and they never can be. The effort to do it in this country,
has proved a failure. Between them there is, always has been,
and always will be, an “irrepressible conflict.” You may
proclaim a truce to this conflict by a compromise; but the quar-
rel will break out again, and keep breaking out till one or the
other system reigns with undisputed ascendency. It is not so
much in the men who are parties to it, as it is in the principles
and different ends by which they are actuated. No political
bonds, without incessant strife, can hold together such conflicting
elements. Long before modern Abolitionists were known, this
conflict was going on; and it will continue till either freedom or
slavery dies. It made its appearance in the Federal Conven-
tion that drafted the Constitution; and ever since that day
nothing has sufficed to heal the difficulty. We have had as good
compromisers as the world ever saw; and every one of them has
failed of success. Where nature makes a discord, no human
power can make a harmony. *
It is no just answer to this sketch of the progress and de-
mands of the Slave-Power, to say that the Free States have also
increased in number and population. This growth of freedom
in the removal of slavery from the Northern States, and in the
addition of new Free States, is simply carrying out the princi-
ples upon which this Government was founded. Freedom is the
natural and proper destiny of the American people, to which
they stand committed before God and man; and all progress in
this direction is in exact accordance with the very genius of our
social and political life. It is not so with slavery. Slavery is a
social and political disease, hostile to the first principles of Re-
publican democracy; and hence its growth is just so much added
to the original difficulty. * ge
Now, in view of the facts thus presented, I sincerely thank
God for whatever there is of prospect, that one of the conse-
18 THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL.
quences of this war will be the downfall of the Slave-Power,
and of the system on which it rests. It is quite time that such
a power should come to an end. It has already ruled too long
for the good of the people. In"the language of Professor Cairnes,
“it forms, as it seems to me, one of the most striking and alarm-
ing episodes in modern history.” He speaks of it “as the most
formidable antagonist to civilized progress which has appeared
for many centuries, representing a system of society at once re-
trograde and aggressive, a system which containing within it
no germs from which improvement can spring, gravitates inev-
itably towards barbarism, while it is impelled by exigencies in-
herent in its position and circumstances to a constant extension
of its territorial domain.” He says:—“From the year 1819
down to the present time, the history of the United States has
been one record of aggressions by the Slave-Power, feebly, and
almost always unsuccessfully, resisted by the Northern States,
and culminating in the present war.” Such is the estimate of a
profound philosopher, looking at our past and present from the
other side of the water. Thank God for the hope, that our fu-
ture will be different | .
The Government released from the predominant influences of
slavery, has already done some good things in the right direction;
and I trust that it will do more in the same direction. It has
abolished slavery in the District of Columbia. It has by law in-
terdicted the existence of this institution in the national territo-
ries. It has made a treaty with England, contemplating more
vigorous efforts for the suppression of the foreign slave-trade.
It has recognized the national character of Liberia and Hayti,
and entered into diplomatic relations with these Governments.
It has applied its strong arm to the slave-trader, giving all the
people practical notice that it means to execute the law against
this class of offenders. These are steps in the right direction,
showing that the principles of freedom now rule at Washington.
The people of Missouri, too, show by their recent election, that
they have caught the inspiration of freedom. A majority of
their next Legislature, and at least four of their Representatives
in the next Congress, are emancipationists, having been elected
on this distinctive principle. Missouri has received an awful
THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL. 19
lesson from this war, and seems inclined to profit by it. West-
ern Virginina will naturally range herself in the same line. In
the Border States, slavery has already been so demoralized, to
use the military phrase, as to lose very much of its value, com-
pactness and strength. The system is shaken and shaking under
the tread of contending legions. The war has unsettled its foun-
dations, lessened its profits, and made it insecure. These States
will soon find it for their interests, as it is clearly their duty, to
detach themselves from this falling and fading system of evil.
Every hour that the strife goes on, increases the certainty that
this must be the final result. -
As I have no doubt, the Federal Government would be very
glad to have the rebels lay down their arms; but I see no hope,
not even the faintest, that the leaders of this rebellion have the
least idea of doing this thing. If you call a Federal Convention
to remodel the Constitution, they will be no parties to it. They
do not mean to compromise this matter at all. They mean to
fight it out. They utterly scout the idea of returning to the Union
upon any terms. The Richmond Eſcaminer, in a recent article,
giving up all hope of intervention by England, remarks:—“We
are told to beat the North, or submit. We may do the first of
these things; but if we cannot, we never will do the last. Im-
portant as it is, this event does not change the position or pur-
pose of the South the breadth of a hair.” Those compromisers
who are going to settle this difficulty for us, as they say, would
do well to remember, that those who constitute the life and soul,
the working brains, of this rebellion, want no compromise. Stead-
fastly, with a persistence that in a good cause would deserve our
admiration, do they assert that they will never come back into
the Union, or consent to a peace not based on Disunion. When
Henry May went to Richmond as a kind of volunteer peace-
maker, he was distinctly told that if he were to present them a
blank sheet of paper, with the full permission to write their own
terms of reconciliation, they would utterly reject it. The Zeich-
mond Dispatch, of Nov. 10th, in an article on “the elections of
Yankeedom,” says that “the old flag is the most detested of sym-
bols to the whole body of Southern society.” It calls the Ameri-
can Eagle a “Yankee buzzard,” and declares that “if slavery
$
20 THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL.
were legalized in every State, the South would never accept the
condition for a return to the land of bondage.”
It is hence a plain matter of fact, and we may as well see it first .
as last,--that we must positively conquer the rebels, and coerce
them into subjection to the Federal authority, as the only possi-
ble means of restoring the Union. If we cannot do this, we can-
not gain the end; and if this will not gain it, nothing else will.
I think we may set our hearts at rest on this point. And in or-
der to this end, it is becoming increasingly obvious every day
that if we really mean to conquer the rebels, we must strike at
their system of slavery, it being one of their strongholds; and
make the slave-population our friends, using them and protect-
ing them as such, as fast as we can reach them. We must cease
to regard the people in the rebellious States as slaves and masters,
and simply view them as enemies or friends.
Instructed by the course of events, and acting upon this theo-
ry, the President, who by the Constitution is the “Commander-
in-Chief of the Army and Navy,” and to whom is hence intrusted
the direction of the military force of the nation in the time of
war, has issued his Proclamation of Emancipation as one branch
of his war-policy, giving the rebels ample time in which to lay
down their arms, yet threatening them with its execution, if they
persist in resisting the authority of the Government. This mea-
sure has been the subject of much careful and anxious thought on
the part of the President; and it deserves the careful considera-
tion of the people.
It should be noted in the outset, that this Proclamation is
aimed, not at peaceful and law-abiding citizens, not at those who
are living under the Constitution and recognize its authority, but
at rebellious communities, including those States and portions of
States that are in armed rebellion against the Federal Govern-
ment. This is the attitude of their State authorities. The whole
power of these communities is now wielded for the destruction
of the Government. The slaves, irrespective of their own choice,
to all intents and purposes form a part of this power, as really 2S
the soldiers in the field. In their present position, they are
practically our enemies, as truly as their masters.
As to the utility of emancipation, considered as a war-mea-
THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL, 21
sure, the President surrounded by his Cabinet, is in a better pos-
ition to judge than any private citizen can possibly be. He has
long pondered the question; and however wise we may think
ourselves, “on this subject the President must be wiser, or all
the rules of probability fail,” Of course it offends the rebels;
yet they show conclusively by their own action, that they regard
it as increasing the difficulties of their position. They are al-
ready running off their slaves farther South; and when the Pro-
clamation shall reach the ear of the slave-population, as it most
certainly will, it will inspire them with the hope of liberty, make
them the friends of the Union, dispose them to escape from their
masters, and very likely compel them to withdraw a portion of
their forces to guard themselves against this cause of danger. So
far as the measure goes, it must act adversely to the rebellion,
and favorably to the Union. It must in various ways co-operate
with the army. While I am no strategist, I have common sense
enough to see this fact. I can readily see, that an army of inva-
Sãon treading the soil of slavery, and fighting on that soil, can
and must derive very great advantages from the fact that it is
also an army of emancipation. The slaves can and will fight for
our cause, if we choose thus to use them. Some of them fought
in the last war with England; and some of them, in the Revolu- .
tionary War. Why we should decline their services, especially
when the rebels are using them for war-purposes, is more than I
C2, Il S@é.
We have strangely overlooked the fact, that the slave-popu-
lation forms a prodigious power either for or against us in this
struggle, and that it will be one or the other according as we
treat that population. It is indeed a very serious question, whe-
ther we can conquer the South at all, if the slaves are practically
arrayed against us. In 1860, the number of white males between
the ages of 18 and 45, was about 4,000,000, for the loyal States,
and 1,300,000 for the disloyal States. In the latter of these States
you have about 3,500,000 slaves, of whom two millions may be
estimated as laborers. From these laborers deduct 300,000 em-
ployed in domestic service; and this leaves 1,700,000 plantation
hands engaged in tilling the soil and furnishing the productions
necessary for the support of the army, and hence actually work-
22 THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL.
$.
ing in the cause of the rebellion. Add this 1,700,000 slaves to
the 1,300,000 whites between the ages of 18 and 45, and you
have a military and producing force of 3,000,000 in the disloyal
States opposed to one of 4,000,000 in the loyal. This makes the
struggle, as to the question of numbers, very much nearer one of
equality than we have been wont to imagine. Transfer the slave-
population to our side: adopt a policy which may and must, to
a very considerable extent, accomplish this result; make the ne-
gro loyal to the Union rather than to his master: and by the sim-
plest rules of arithmetic, you will so much weaken the rebellion,
and strengthen the cause of the Union. Decline this policy; and
you are doing the very thing that will best please the rebels, since
it leaves the slaves as so many human beings to be employed by
them for their own purposes. If this be good sense, I confess
that I cannot see it. Are we so prejudiced against black men,
that we propose to have our sons, and brothers, and fathers, by
the thousands and tens of thousands, killed on the field of battle,
rather than have our cause served by black men? This is paying
a large penalty for prejudice. The South are guilty of no such
folly. -
Let it be borne in mind too, that if we mean to withdraw the
slaves from the service of the rebels, and enlist them in our be-
half, it must be done by the proclamation of freedom. There is
no other way to gain the end. They are persons—human
beings, and not passive things to be taken away by force,—to
whom the prospect of freedom will be a motive of action. If we
repel them, or refuse to make any appeal that can reach them
and influence their action, they will remain just where they are,
serving their masters, and serving the rebellion, and thus pro-
tracting the war for an indefinite period. Their number is so
great as to make their position a question of very serious mo-
ment. :
Some people who are quite apt to see a ghost whenever the
word slavery is mentioned, think that the President should have
done this thing, and not said it, How can he do it without say-
ing it? Saying it is the effective way of doing it. If he wishes
to enlist these people in the cause of the Union, he must tell
them so, and upon what terms; and this is just what he has done
THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL. 23
in the Proclamation. It is for their hearing as well as that of
their masters.
Some also are solicitous lest a servile insurrection may result
from the Proclamation. Of this there is no prospect; and if
it should occur, the fault will be wholly with the rebels. An
insurrection of white men against the rebel-Government we
should welcome and foster, as so much gain to the Union cause;
and I am not able to see why a needful war-measure to conquer
the rebellion should be ommitted, simply because black men
may possibly take it into their heads to fight for their own liber-
ty. We have tried war on peace principles quite long enough.
Some also object because the Proclamation is not distinctively
anti-slavery. To this I reply, that whatever may be the Pres-
ident's moral convictions, he could not as a military commander,
make this a primary feature. His object is to conquer the re-
bellion and restore the Union: and as a means to this end, h
resorts to emancipation in the rebellious States. -
Some persons doubt the constitutionality of the act, confound-
ing, as I humbly conceive, questions that differ most essentially.
Has the President, in the time of peace, the civil or administra-
tive right under the Constitution to adopt such a measure? .
Clearly not. Has he as the “Commander-in-Chief of the Army
and Navy,” in the time of war, and for the purpose of weaken-
ing and destroying the enemy, the right to abolish slavery in
the rebel-States? Undoubtedly. He has a right to do anything
and everything, not contrary to the usages of civilized warfare,
that may be necessary to the end. The Constitution makes him
the “Commander-in-Chief;” it puts into his hands the entire
military power of the nation; but it does not prescribe to him the
way, as it plainly could not, in which he shall subdue the enemy.
This he must determine for himself in the exercise of his best
discretion, subject only to those limitations which are recognized
among civilized communities. “No rebel has any right” of ei-
ther property or life, “a regard to which should weaken or ob-
struct any military measure needed to subdue the rebellion.”
For this purpose the “Commander-in-Chief” has as much right
to emancipate the slaves in the rebellious States, as he would
have to drill a regiment of bombard a city. The one is just as
24 THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL.
constitutional as the other; and both as war-measures, are mat-
ters for his discretion. The slaves are a portion of the Southern
people. If regarded as the property of rebels, the Government
has the same right to seize and use them for its own purposes,
that it would have to seize and use their horses or any other prop-
erty. If regarded as persons, then the Government has a right
to detach them from the interests of the rebellion, to secure
their services, and take any measures necessary to these ends.
Such a war-policy in order to be effective, must act upon the
rebellious communities as a whole. It plainly cannot institute
courts of inquiry in these communities, to determine who are
rebels and who are not. If there be loyal persons there who suffer
from the loss of their slaves in consequence of this measure, this is
the misfortune of their position; and they must look to the Govern-
ment to do them justice afterwards. A great military necessity
cannot stop on their account, especially while the Government
has no practical evidence that there are any such persons. “Indi-
vidual justice” applicable to such cases, “must wait for calmer
times.” - -
But does not the Proclamation undertake to repeal the laws
of the Slave States now in rebellion? Not at all. It says no-
thing about those laws. It leaves them where they are, in the
statute-book. Under the pressure of a military necessity, it sim-
ply removes the slave from under those laws; and so far as it
goes into effect, makes him a freed-man. It deals not with the
laws, but with the specific person or persons who are held as
slaves. In time of war, the military power suspends the action
of civil law, upon urgent necessity. It seizes the property of the
enemy, and applies it to its own uses. So in this case, the Pres-
ident adopts a policy, by which he hopes to secure and appro-
priate to the benefit of the Government that which the rebels
call property, and which they are using with great effect against
the Government. In doing this he does not annul or repeal a
single law of any Slave State. No such power is assumed. In-
deed, if every one of the slaves were actually to gain his freedom,
the laws themselves in regard to slavery in the rebellious States
would still remain, just as the laws in regard to any other kind
of property. Suppose, the President bould, and should, for mil-
THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL. 25
itary purposes, seize nine-tenths of the horses of the rebels, would
any man pretend that this is a repeal of State laws in regard to
horses? True, the horses under the rights of war would pass
into the service of the Government; yet the laws of the State
would not be repealed. They would afford no protection, for the
time being, against the right of seizure; and this is but the com-
mon incident of war, following from the general right to disable
an enemy. Suppose, the President selects a policy adapted to
take away the slaves from the enemy, on the same theory, and
under the same rights of war, that would justify him in taking
his horses, will any one say that this annuls or repeals the laws
of slavery' True, the slaves are gone in this case, and so were
the horses in the other; and if both are regarded as property,
then the President's right to take either or both, for military
purposes, is abundantly recognized by the laws of war. He does
not repeal State laws in the one case any more than he does in
the other; and in neither does he repeal them.
How will the Courts decide this constitutional question?
They will not decide it at all until they reach it; and they cer-
tainly will not reach it until the rebellion is subdued. The ques-
tion is not now in the Courts, and will not be until after the
President has done his work. As to what they will then do, we
must wait for time to supply the answer. They certainly cannot
remand back to the condition of slavery those who have actually
acquired their freedom under the Proclamation, any more than
they can return to the rebels property which has been seized and
confiscated by the Government. The status of freedom being
once acquired, is fixed. The slave ceases to be an article of prop-
erty, and becomes a man, whom no existing law can return to
bondage. The Courts cannot, either during the war or after it,
reverse the actual consequences that arise from the Proclama-
tion. If one half, or even the whole of the slave-population be-
come free, then they must remain free. They are no longer the
subjects of slave-laws, any more than any other free persons.
The Courts must therefore recognize that status in which the
Proclamation has actually placed them, and which the President
pledges the executive government of the United States to main-
tain. True, this status grows out of a military act in the first in-
26 THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL.
stance; and so does the seizure and resulting title of any other
species of rebel-property grow out of a military act. The Gov-
ernment might, if carrying out the theory of slavery, treat the
slaves coming into its possession as property, and sell them, just
as it would have the right to hold or sell the horses of rebels;
and if so, then it may also give them their freedom, which is the
theory of the President's Proclamation.
How far then will the Proclamation be likely to go in the
direction of freedom ? How much will it actually accomplish in
this respect? It will at least be of as much service to the cause
of freedom, as it is to that of the Union. Every slave that it
takes from the rebels, and places on the side of the Union, it will
consecrate to freedom. This we think, may be regarded as a
fixed fact. “The slave” says an able writer on this point,
“whom we capture as property, is, after his capture and the trans-
fer to himself of all the captured title of his master, no longer
a chattel, but a man, insusceptible of recapture, except as a
prisoner of war, entitled to all the rights and privileges of such
persons.” The capture forever extinguishes the master's title,
and devotes the slave to freedom. By his own act in escaping
from the master, and under the Proclamation making himself an
ally of the Union, he does that which is equivalent to a capture.
He captures himself, and forever becomes a freeman. The Pro-
clamation as adressed to the masters, furnishes a motive for them
to discontinue this wicked rebellion: but if they will not heed
it, then it invites the slaves to become our allies with the pro-
mise of freedom, pledging the Government to “maintain” this
freedom, and also to do “no act or acts” to hinder “any efforts
they may make for their actual freedom.” Already, without
any such pledge, thousands of slaves have fled from their
masters; and more would have done so, if the policy of the Gov-
ernment had been different. General Butler designated them as
contraband of war-persons indeed, yet claimed by their masters
as property. When the new policy shall go into effect, following
in the line of the army, and penetrating into the heart of the rebel-
lious States, these so called contrabands will be greatly increased.
The prospect, moreover, is that the leaders of the rebellion,
having staked everything upon their own success, will continue
THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL. 27
the fight, till the Southern people are desolated and blasted as
perhaps no other people ever were in the history of man. If
they persevere as they seem fully determined to do, and the
Government shall also persevere as it certainly must, then there
will not be much left of slavery at the end of this contest. The
war provoked by it, will prove its ruin, sweeping it away in the
wake of that general destruction that must overtake Southern
Society. Its power will be so broken and scattered, that what is
left of it, will hardly be worth keeping.
This reasoning goes upon the supposition, that the struggle is
to be one of very great severity; and unless the loyal States re-
cede from their present position, and consent to a dismember-
ment of the nation, of which there is no prospect, then, judging
from the temper of the South, we must conclude that just
such a struggle is before us. The conditions upon which the
contending parties are willing to make peace, are so essentially
different, that nothing but the most absolute conquest, on the one
side or the other, can ever bring peace. The Government will
not yield to the demands of the rebels, and they will not yield
to the demands of the Government; and hence the sword must
settle the controversy. As I have no doubt, we shall conquer
them in the end; but I see no prospect of this result until they
feel the extremest desolations of war, carrying away slavery and
almost everything else in its train, and placing Southern society
on a new basis. This, while breaking down the rebellion, will
be very sure to widen the area of freedom. Once relieved from
bondage and tasting the sweets of liberty, the slave population
cannot be reduced to their former condition. The now ruling
class will be compelled to accept this result.
So far then as the Constitution is concerned, we see no just
ground of complaint with either the Proclamation itself, or the
freedom which, in connection with the war, is likely to grow out
of it. If the public mind had not been so long misguided on
the slavery-question, the President's policy would have been
welcomed with universal acclaim. It is a noticeable fact, that
loyal Southern men do not complain of this policy.
Colonel Hamilton says:–“Yes, I accept the President's Pro-
clamation, and I hail it with gratitude and joy.”
28 THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL.
Ex-Secretary Holt, of Kentucky, who ought to be very good
authority with all loyal people, in a recent letter, thus writes:–
“My faith in all this matter is simple and briefly stated. It is
this:—For all things that are for the Union—against all things
that are against it.” “No human institution, no earthly interest,
shall ever by me be weighed in the scales against the life of
my country.” “Is it not childish prattle to say, that the
South can claim to be at the same moment the protege and the
destroyer of the Constitution? Does it not require an audacity
absolutely satanic, to insist that the beneficent provisions of that
hallowed instrument shall be secured to States and people who
are spurning and spitting upon its authority, and who are lead-
ing forward vast armies to overwhelm it, and with it the homes
and hopes of all who are rallying in its defense?” “War, cer-
tainly one like this, in self defense, is clearly constitutional;
but if such a war has its restraints, it has also its rights and du-
ties, prominent among which is the right and duty of weakening
the enemy by all possible means, and thus abridging the san-
guinary conflict.” “The Constitution is the charter of national
life, and not of national death.” I commend these earnest and
patriotic words to those, who fear lest the President's Proclama-
tion may have transcended the Constitution.
It cannot be too strongly impressed upon our minds, that the
Government in this war, is dealing with rebellious communities,
with “States and people who are spurning and spitting” upon the
authority of the Constitution. It is not now a mob overcoming
the State authorities. It is an organized rebellion, having all the
forms of a political society. The States as such, with all the
machinery of government, legislative, executive, and judicial, are
in rebellion against the United States. The people, whether con-
sidered as individuals or political Societies, are in the same posture.
Practically there is no loyalty in these rebellious States. The
loyalty of individuals, however real as a personal sentiment, has
no effective being. It amounts to nothing. It at present fur-
nishes no basis on which to build. Such is very clearly the
state of the facts; and with these facts as they are, the Govern-
ment has to deal. -
What then becomes of the doctrine of State Rights, as limit-
THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL. 29
ing or restraining the legislative and executive action of the Gov-
ernment against States in rebellion? Are there any such rights
known to the Constitution? Has a State any constitutional and
legal status, except as a member of the Federal Union? Is it a
State at all in the constitutional sense, when the whole machin-
ery of State-Government, and practically the whole body of the
people, are not only out of the Union, but actually making war
upon it? It surely is in no position to make an appeal to consti-
tutional rights; whatever rights it had, are forfeited by its own
acts; and in attempting to conquer such a State and such a people,
provided the conquest itself be constitutional, the Government
may resort to any and every measure not inconsistent with civ-
ilized warfare. The Constitution clearly authorizes the conquest;
and the code of war defines the method. The Government may
annihilate the State, remodel it, change its boundary-lines, burn
down its cities, hang its State officers, place it under martial law,
alter its institutions, or do anything else, necessary to conquest,
and compatible with the code of war. We have no precedents
in our own history as to the method of dealing with such a case;
the Constitution furnishes no description of the method; it sim-
ply bestows upon Congress the power “to provide for calling
forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress in-
surrections, and repel invasions,” making the President the “Com-
mander-in-Chief” of the militia when so called forth; and then
leaves the method with the National Congress and the Executive.
Their business is to suppress the insurrection by force, doing
whatever may be necessary to the end. In doing this they are
not bound to consult either the laws or the institutions of a re-
bellious State. They are not bound to execute those laws. Their
work is conquest: this is the necessity and duty of the hour; and
whatever, not repugnant to the laws of civilized nations, will
contribute to this end, may be done.
In the commencement of this struggle, the Northern people
and the Government also, assuming the existence of a large and
powerful element of loyalty in the South, were anxious to treat
the rebellious States, so far as possible, as if they were practi-
cally in the Union, and therefore entitled to the privileges secur-
ed by the Constitution. Now, whatever we may say as to the
30 THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL.
legal invalidity of secession, as a matter of fact these States are
owt of the Union; they are represented in another government,
and that government is making war upon the United States.
These are the stern facts of the case; and with them we have to
deal without any precedent for our guide, except that furnished
by the usages of war. The doctrine of State-Rights as existing
under the Constitution, does not meet the case. It neither defines
the method of conquest, nor that of restoring the Union after
the conquest is gained. Those who continue to shout this doc-
trine, interpreting it as they do in times of peace, have a very
beautiful idea; but the misfortune is, that it has no practical appli-
cation to the matter in hand. What are they pleading for? The
State-Rights of rebellious States. Are there any such rights
known to the Constitution? Especially, are these rights such as
to hold back the Government from any measure necessary to
subdue the rebellion? If so, we had better abandon the whole
theory of coercion at once, and let the rebels go. As traitors to
the sovereign authority, they surely cannot claim the rights of
loyal citizens. Viewed in this character, they have the right to
be “constitutionally hung.” As belligerents, they have only the
rights incident to war. Hence the plea of State-Rights urged in
behalf of rebellious States, has no foundation in the Constitution.
There is not a sentence in that sacred charter to support the idea.
Those who urge it, either misapprehend the facts, or are in sym-
pathy with traitors.
There is another constitutional question, not involved in the
President's Proclamation, yet very strongly suggested by the ex-
igencies and revelations of this war. Perhaps the people will
have to consider it before we reach the end of the pending strug-
gle. It is this:—Has the Government of the United States,
the occasion imperatively requiring it as a means of self-preser-
vation—the right to abolish slavery in all the Slave States? It
is a first truth, that every nation has a right to exist, and do what-
ever may be necessary to secure its own safety; and if it be a
fact, as the events of this war seem to show, that the existence
and safety of this nation require the removal of slavery, why
may it not interpose its power and effect this removal? Why
may it not, by law and executive action, confiscate and set free all
THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL. 3];
the slaves that belong to rebels? This if carried into effect, would
at once remove the largest part of the evil. In respect to loyal
slaveholders, the Government would, according to the Fifth Ar-
ticle of the Amendments to the Constitution, be bound to render
a just compensation. Slaves are their private property in law;
and if taken from them to secure the public safety, then they
would be entitled to compensation. They would thus receive an
equivalent for their loss, and hence suffer no wrong. That pri-
vate property may be taken for the public good, is implied in
the very article which requires a “just compensation” when it is
taken. Slave-property is no more sacred in the right of tenure
against an imperative public necessity, than any other property,
If the Government may take the land of the master, paying him
for it, why may it not also take the slave upon the same theory?
If the public authority may destroy a building to arrest a con-
flagration that threatens to burn down a city, why may not the
nation destroy that which perils its very life, dealing with trai-
tors by confiscation, and with loyal slaveholders by a “just com-
pensation?” -
The whole question, as it seems to me, is mainly one of fact:-
Can the nation conquer the rebellion, and restore peace to the
land, without removing slavery? If it cannot, then unless the
Constitution be a charter of “national death,” the legislative
sovereignty of the nation must be competent to the removal of
slavery. The President's plan of inviting the Slave States to
unite with the General Government for this purpose, is good so
far as it goes; it may be sufficient; it may be the very best way
of reaching the end; yet the progress of events may compel both
Government and people to march squarely up to the question
of general emancipation throughout all the Slave States, adopt-
ing the theory of confiscation for rebels, and that of compensa-
tion for loyal slave-holders. We have not yet seen the end of
this war by any means; nor can we to-day tell, what we shall
have to do before we reach the end. I am strongly inclined to
think, that a general breaking up of the whole slave-system, in
connection with the war, as a part of its history, and as a mea-
sure of war, will be found the shortest and surest road to the end.
I do not see much prospect of final victory, and none of perma-
32 THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL.
ment peace, without this result. Clear am I that the great polit-
ical and moral benefit of this appalling struggle will be lost, un-
less we rid the land of slavery. I go for the Union even with
slavery, though not because of it; and I certainly go for it with-
out slavery. I am for maintaining the integrity of the Union
without any conditions; I believe in unconditional loyalty; yet
it does seem to me, that one great purpose of Providence in this
war is to blast and destroy the system of slavery, by delivering
the rebels over to a most infuriated madness on the one hand,
and on the other, compelling the loyal people, by the actual ne-
cessities of their position, to apply their hand to the work. We
shall have to do more than simply say:—“Let slavery die, if ne-
cessary to save the Union.” We shall have to say:-‘Let sla-
very die.” .
Greatly, very greatly, should I have preferred the gradual
removal of this evil without the terrible ordeal of war, believing
this to be best for all classes; but if this institution shall now
perish, or so far perish that its final death will be near at
hand, under the terrible arbitrations of war, it will not be the
first instance in the history of the world in which the sword has
accomplished a like result. It seems to be the order of Pro-
vidence that slavery shall at length die, peaceably if it will,
violently if it decline the peaceful method. And if a sovereign
and righteous Providence shall appoint this result, and thus
purify our political system, as one of the effects of this war, I
shall thank God for it. It will, in my judgment, be the be-
ginning of brighter hopes and better days in this land. I do
not rejoice in the war, or in the afflictions and sufferings of the
people, or in the madness of the rebels; but if this be pro-
videntially the painful birth of liberty to all the people, then in
the result gained I do most devoutly rejoice, and that too, not
merely for the sake of the black man, but equally for the sake
of the white man. The blessing will fall on both. In every
point of light, slavery is a great curse to both. While it
degrades and oppresses the victim, it demoralizes the ruling
class. It generates its own peculiar vices; makes the South
poor; impoverishes the land; limits the modes of industry;
places the ban of dishonor upon labor, and justly exposes the
THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL. 33
nation to the reproach of the civilized world. Such a system
ought to die; it ought not to be anywhere, especially in this
land of professed liberty; and sincerely do I bless God for what-
ever there is of prospect, that its dying day is near at hand.
Before this war began it seemed strong, proud, and defiant; the
philanthropist could see nothing indicating its early downfall;
the moral remonstrance of Christian argument and appeal
scarcely reached its ear; the Northern people had no idea of
politically interfering with it as a local institution of the Slave
States; they were willing to abide by the compromises, and
pledges of the Constitution: yet now, contrary to the designs and
expectations of the rebels, this odious system has received, and
is receiving, such severe and heavy blows as to form a reason-
able prophecy of approaching death.
I NAME, FINALLY, THE GLORIOUS PROSPECTS OF THIS NATION IN
THE FUTURE, IF wº ARE SUCCESSFUL IN THIS CONTEST-Every-
thing depends on the question of victory. If we fail, the nation
is dismembered, and the country politically ruined. If we get
discouraged, and stop mid-way in the effort, we shall have rolled
up an enormous public debt and sacrificed thousands of lives
for no purpose. If we are defeated, the South will be trium-
phant, coming out of the struggle with the advantages, prestige,
and imperious bearing of victory, and withal claiming the
victor’s right to dictate the terms upon which peace shall be
made. We shall then have at least two nations on this Conti-
nent, so diverse in their policy, and naturally so hostile, that all
hopes of permanent peace will be at an end. We shall have, in
immediate contact with us, a great slave-empire, flushed with
victory, ambitious to extend its dominion far and wide, deter-
mined to make itself a great military power, and amply proving
its capacity to do this by having triumphed over the armies of
the Union. We should be constantly quarreling with such a
neighbour. A precedent, moreover, would be established in
favor of secession, that would open the way for other revolu-
tions. The Western States, now so loyal, would be very likely
to set up for themselves, or drawn by the attraction of their own
interests, at length affiliate with the Southern Confederacy. The
Southern people would then become the ruling people, and if
34 THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL.
inspired by their present instincts, spread the institution of
slavery over a large portion of this Continent. They would be
a fighting people. Mexico would fall into their hands. The
Pacific States would go with them, or detaching themselves from
us, form an independent nationality. Our position among the
nations of the earth would be entirely altered. We should no
longer be the Great Republic. We should be the prey of our
mutual animosities, and also of the intrigues and selfish designs
of despots in the old world, having but little security at home,
and less credit abroad. Our commerce would languish, and our
rapidly growing cities sink into decay. Thus disintegrated, we
should either repudiate our public debt, or be crushed to the
earth under its weight. Such is the disheartening and even
appalling picture set before us, if we fail. Let those, if any
there be, who are willing to relinquish the struggle on account
of its present sacrifices, and yield to the demands of the South,
duly count the cost of the failure. Let those who prophesy
failure, and seem half-willing to have events confirm the truth
of the prophecy, estimate, if they can, the length and breadth,
the height and depth of the disaster involved in the meaning of
this word. Individual men die, and their places are speedily fill-
ed by others; but when a nation like that of the United States
shall perish, proving the greatness and glory of its life in a short
career, and also by its death proving its incapacity for permanent
life, where, on what shores, by the agency of what men, shall
the like be ever again reproduced? If the Republican principle
committed to our hands, cannot stand the test of time, and
triumph over rebellion,--if more than twenty millions of people
cannot conquer eight millions, half of whom are slaves, and will
be our friends if we have the wisdom to make them such,--if
with all our advantages we have not manhood, and energy, and
endurance enough for this purpose, if this be so, then I have
greatly mistaken the character of the Northern people. I shall
believe such a disgraceful fact when I see it, and not till then.
We may be less excitable and mercurial than the South, and hence
may not move quite as rapidly; yet the sober, solid, patriotic
sense of the Northern mind never will, and never can settle down
upon the doctrine of failure, We cannot afford to fail.
THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL. 35
If, on the other hand, we win and establish a righteous
peace, then no other nation on earth has before it such a bril-
liant future. I am quite aware that it will take time and a great
amount of wisdom to reconstruct the Union after victory is
gained; and moreover, at present, certainly until we better
know precisely what the difficulties are, we cannot fix upon any
specific programme of measures. We must deal with the case
as it presents itself. If we can conquer the rebels, we can find
the ways and means of managing them afterwards. The con-
quest will break up their armies, exhaust their power, destroy
the influence of their leaders, place them in the hands of the
Federal Government, and compel them to accept such terms as
the Government may choose to dictate. If the system of sla-
very shall be overthrown, the present ruling class will lose their
power; the non-slaveholding whites, numerically the largest por-
tion of the people, will acquire a new importance in the general
economy of Southern life; and very likely there will be a large
emigration of Northern free labor into the Southern States.
Military subjection, undoubtedly necessary in the first instance,
will gradually do its work, and give place to a different order of
things. New ideas, new men, new institutions, and new modes
of industry will take possession of the South. Southern society
will itself be reconstructed, and enter upon a new style of life;
and this, as I fondly believe, will, in due season, bring about
the reconstruction of the Union. All political societies, how-
ever violent their passions for the moment, at last yield to
their interests and their necessities; this is their history, and I
do not anticipate that the South either will or can be an excep-
tion to this rule. Conquer them : hold possession of their ports
of entry: command their rivers with your gunboats: release
the masses of the common people from a despotism that now
overhangs them like a cloud of death: break down the Slave-
Power: show to the non-slaveholding whites, that their interests
lie with the Union, and the principles of a free democracy,
rather than with an aristocracy of landlords: send into the
South a powerful current of Northern emigration: give to the
millions of slaves, nearly half of the whole population, a chance
to do something for their humanity; and at no distant period,
36 THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL.
a reconstructed Union will be the result, resting, as I believe,
on a much firmer basis than ever before. I believe this the
shortest and surest way to the end. -
This point being gained, or in a good way of being gained,
we then enter upon a new career as a nation. We shall have
demonstrated to ourselves, and to all the world, the reality of
our national life, proving that we are, and are to be, one people,
from the Canadas to the Gulf of Mexico, and so proving it that
no earthly power will be likely again to call it in question. We
shall have demonstrated our capacity to conquer the greatest
rebellion known in the history of man, and thus shown that
Republican self-government stretching over the length and
breadth of a Continent, is no failure. In the very process of
doing this, we shall have acquired those elements of character,
those habits of mind, that military experience, and those mili-
tary preparations, which secure respect among the nations of
the earth. It will be well understood that we are a strong
people, and that no nation can expect to trespass upon our rights
with impunity. We shall at once be a first class nation, whose
ability to defend its rights will protect it against injury. Eng-
land, whose policy towards this country, during this contest, has
been unnatural, unkind, and ineffably mean, will learn, possibly
by a dear bought experience, that this Western Republic is not
going to die, either to gratify the jealousy and hatred, or fulfill
the evil prophecies, of a self-conceited and heartless aristocracy.
Our success will speedily and wonderfully improve the national
manners of England. Like most other nations, she respects
power; and she will find power here to respect. The theory so
common among despots, that a Republican Government resting
upon the broad shoulders of the people, cannot be a great mili-
tary and naval power, will, by our success, receive a most
signal rebuke. We shall prove the error by the demonstration
of fact. -
We shall also have settled the long standing quarrel on this
Continent between freedom and slavery, superseding the necessi-
ty for compromises, restoring our national life to its normal con-
dition, removing, as I hope, the apple of discord from the land,
making ourselves politically a homogeneous people, and proving
THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL. 37
by the practical test of war, as we have already done by that of
peace, that society organized on the basis of free labor, is vastly
superior to one organized on the opposite basis. This single re-
sult if gained, will be politically, socially, economically, and
morally, a very large compensation for the cost and sacrifices
incident to this war. Ever since the Union was formed, we
have been drifting towards the present crisis; in other days
wise and good men have seen it and feared it, and done what
they could to avoid it: during the administration of General
Jackson the heavens gathered blackness over our heads; and
and but for his great promptitude, we should then have been in-
volved in a civil war. Ever since that day, the current has been
setting in the direction of a rupture between the North and
South ; Southern policy, under the management of the Slave
Power, has been steadily advancing in its demands: the North
has from time to time yielded to these demands: at length the
rupture has come: the crisis is upon us; and if we can now
settle the questions which have led to this crisis, and which we
must settle in order to avoid a like one in the future, we shall
have done a work as important as any ever committed to any
generation of men. In this aspect of the case we are living in a
glorious age. -
Laying down the sword under these auspices, and resuming
the peaceful industries of life, we shall, in a comparatively short
time, repair the damages of the mighty struggle, and spread our-
selves out in a career of agricultural, mechanical, and commer-
cial activity, that must make us the great nation of the future.
We are the right kind of people to do this work. We have a
territory, whose vast amplitude and natural wealth furnish the
physical conditions of success. Our religion has a tendency to
elevate and energize the public character, filling the intellect with
the inspiration of great ideas, and moving the heart with the
most sacred impulses of feeling. Our duplicate system of Gov-
ernment, Federal and State, the one national, and the other
local,—is eminently suited to extend its broad banner over a
whole Continent. Like the solar system, it has a central sun
with revolving planets, whose smaller movements lie within the
comprehensive orbit of the nation’s life. Our growth of popu-
lation, rising in three-quarters of a century from three millions
38 THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL.
to more than thirty, will, at this rate, in another equal period,
present the spectacle of a people, not only numerically greater
than any nation in Europe, but nearly equal to the present pop-
ulation of all the European nations put together. Most of these
nations grow very slowly; some of them, not at all; whereas we,
a young and thrifty people, have scarcely passed the gristle of
this process. England is about as much of a man as she is likely
to be for a long time to come. She has not, and she cannot have,
the elements of growth which exist in the greatest abundance
here. She does not to-day feed her own population; and but
for her commerce, England would soon starve. We can live
without England very much better than she can live without us.
She wants our breadstuffs quite as much as our cotton.
Let us then go on under the well tested principle of E Plur-
&bus Unum); let all parts recognize one, and but one Political
Centre; let us be content to be American citizens; let us now
save ourselves from being denationalized and disintegrated into
hostile fragments; let us explode the barbarous dream of a slave-
empire; let us make the institutions of liberty the universal
breath and soul of our national life; let us as a great and grow-
ing people, go forth to the work of existence in the fear and
worship of the true God, building our churches at home, and send-
ing the light of Christian truth to the ends of the earth:-let us do
these things, and our future will be immeasurably more glorious
than our past. Let us fail, and we shall prove ourselves a people
unfit to command a great destiny. When I think of this future
as it will be, if we now triumph, in contrast with what it must
be if we fail, all the feelings of my heart are kindled into a flame
of patriotic, and I hope, Christian ardor. Fail! Speak that
word in the ear of dotards and cowards. It has no place in my
vocabulary. We must succeed. Success is our duty. The God
of order and law as well as of liberty and justice, commands us
to succeed. Unborn generations are waiting to reap the blessings
of our success. Trusting in God, and in our own right arms,
succeed we can, and succeed we will. If the rebels are in ear-
nest, we will be in earnest. This, in a word, is my doctrine for
the American people:—REBELLION SHALL SUBMIT TO THE AU-
THORITY OF THE NATIONAL GovKRNMENT, OR ITS AGENTS SHALL
PERISH BY THE sword.
THE NATION's BLESSING IN TRIAL. 39
I have thus, my brethren, opened my whole heart to you on
this subject. I might have discussed other themes; a Thanks-
giving service is very suggestive; yet I have felt that at this
time it was due to you, and due to the God of truth, to consider
those subjects to which the finger of Providence is pointing.
In the war which is upon us, and from which we so deeply suf.
fer, I have sought to find some things to comfort and cheer the
patriot and the Christian. The points to which I have referred,
furnish to me the great relief of thought as I ponder upon this
present scene of blood. But for them I should look upon the
scene with unmingled detestation and horror. War is indeed a
most dreadful work. There is a awful wrong somewhere. In
most cases both of the belligerents are guilty before God. In
this case, however, I have no hesitation in saying, that the
wrong, thes in, the guilt, and the unparalleled criminality, belong
wholly to the rebels. They began the war without provocation,
without excuse, and for a purpose as wicked as any that ever
actuated the human heart. They have imposed upon the
nation the absolute necessity of fighting, as the only means of
escaping its own death. In these circumstances, I say frankly
that my voice is for war, persistent, energetic, unrelenting, until
this rebellion is entirely subdued. As between war and national
death, I choose the former, deeming it on the score of conse-
quences the least of two evils, and in its moral relations, an
obvious duty. Consoled and comforted by the considerations
which have been adduced in this sermon, I exhort you to
stand firmly in your places, to entertain no idea of defeat, to
accept of no inglorious compromise, and steadily, with an un-
flinching heroism, pursue the struggle, till victory and peace
shall gladden the land, and bless the world. May a gracious
Providence be propitious, while a loyal people leaning upon his
arm, and invoking his favor, perform the duties which belong to
the crisis and the hour ! May the God of justice and order,
purity and peace, re-establish harmony in our borders, by his
wonderful providence causing the wrath of man to praise him
May the principles of liberty, based on the inalienable Rights
of man, and deeply rooted in the soil of the public conscience,
become the blessing and the comfort of all the people !
º
A N E W S O N G :
THE MARVELOUS WORKS OF GOD,
IN BE HALIY OF THE AM 15 RICAN PEOPLE,
º
Ghanksgiving sermom,
DELIVERE O IN THE
THIRD STREET PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, DAYTON, OHIO,
ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26th, 1863.
Aliac natioues servitutem pati possunt ; populi Romani est propria libertas.-Cicero.
BY REV. S. G. SPEES, D.D.
PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE CONGREGATION.
ID AY TO N, O H I O :
pr1NTED AT TIID JOURNAL DAILY AND WEEISLY DOOR AND JOB R00MB,
1863,

S E ER M O N .
PsALM 98: i. O sing unto the Lord a new song; for he hath done marvelous things;
his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the Yictory.
The psalm before us is composed of three stanzas of three verses
each. The first of them announces the subject of praise, viz.: The
marvelous deeds of the Most High in behalf of the church and Com-
monwealth of Israel. The second prescribes the manner in which
this praise shall be rendered, viz.: With songs of thanksgiving,
accompanied with instrumental music. The third defines the extent
to which men shall engage in this work of praise. It shall be
world-wide, universal.
The subject of this psalm is the subject of my remarks—the
wonderful works of God in behalf of the American people during
the year now drawing to a close.
When the first rude experiments in the beautiful art of photo-
graphy were made by such men as Dr. Priestly and the Sweedish
philosopher, Scheele, little did they dream of the perfection to which
it was destined to be carried. And could Daguerre himself now visit
the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, he would be as much sur-
prised and delighted as when, for the first time, he fixed the wished
for image in the chamber of his camera obscura, Till of late, objects
4
only near at hand could be painted by the agency of the sun on the
receiving surface. But Dr. Draper of the Institute just named, has
achieved a new conqest in the heliographic art. He has brought
down one of the heavenly bodies into the chamber of his camera. He
has taken a picture of the moon walking in her brightness, and on so
large a scale too, as to give us a tolerable idea of the features of her
beautiful countenance. In fine he has established the art of Celestial
Photography.
If now by some mystic art corresponding to this, there could be
daguerreotyped before our eyes the events of the past year, standing
before the picture I should say: There is my sermon. There is the
argument of the New Song of which my text speaks. Jt was while
looking at this picture that our honored Chief Magistrate sent forth
his call for a National Thanksgiving—a call which will be re-
sponded to from the Atlantic to the Pacific. And I have no doubt
that this sacred festival will be like that in the eighteenth year of King
Josiah’s reign, of which it is said : “There was no passover like
to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither
did all the Kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept,”
Standing in the midst of the great national events now transpir-
ing ; feeling the tremor of the majestic footsteps of the Almighty
among us, it would argue little less than a criminal insensibility to
them, not to make them the subject of comment on a day like this.
The present year of grace will be one on which the future historian
will lavish the eloquence of his pen, and the future antiquarian
his most diligent researches. It will be regarded as a year in which
the race made one of its grandest strides toward a perfected christian
civilization. In historical importance it will rank with that which
gave birth to the Republic. It will rank with that of the Revolution
5
of I688, which gave England constitutional liberty in the place of
absolutism. It will rank with 1836, which placed the crown and
parliament, and people of Great Britain in their undivided strength,
on the side of human freedom. It will rank with 1647, which gave ‘. .
to Europe the treaty of Westphalia, the untrammeled supremacy of
conscience over bigoted tyranny and physical force. Going back
3354 years, it will rank with that which heard sung the emancipation
song of the Israelites, on the shore of the Red Sea, towards the sun-
rising.
In the first place it has come to pass since our last thanksgiving
day that neither the American Government, nor the American
church, nor the American press, nor the American people, are a
power for the protection of African slavery. They have been emanci-
pated, and in a wonderful manner, from what may be called a consti-
tutional thraldom. Hitherto, under the fundamental law of the land,
they were bound by the obligations of citizenship to defend the slave-
holding States in their slaveholding rights, because they were politi-
cally obliged to defend those States with their slaveholding municipal
laws. And with what fidelity have they done it. No other interest
has been so cared for. Agriculture, commerce, public improvements,
manufactures, education, have had no such protection as this one
single interest. It has made our presidents, appointed our cabinets
and foreign ambassadors ; elected our congresses packed our Supreme
Court, and given shape and color to our national policy. It has suborned
the press. It has shaken its menacing finger at our pulpits, tyran-
nized over our people, seowled and hissed in our ecclesiastical assem-
blies, raised every storm which has threatened to wreck the ship of
state. At length it took the attitude of a public enemy. It drew
the sword. It bade deſiance to the government. By that act it dis-
6
charged both government and people from all obligation to shield it,
and made it their duty, instead thereof, Hercules like, to strangle the
dydra-headed monster that sought their life. This is the Lord’s
doings and it is marvelous in our eyes.
The events of the past year have settled also the question that the
policy, the power and the sympathy of the American Government,
and the American people, are henceforth to be on the side of human
rights and universal freedom. We are thus brought into harmony
with Christ, whose religion teaches us that it is God-like to take part
with the weak against the strong, with the oppressed against the
oppressor, with liberty against every form of despotism. The in-
stincts of the American people have been right from the beginning.
It was so with the fathers. “The spirit of the colonies, says Bancroft,
5 3
demanded freedom from the beginning.” How could it be otherwise ?
This republic was born of oppression. Its corner stone was not com-
merce, but conscience, religion. It was with blood boiling with indig-
nation at the heartless exactions of tyranny, and with altar-candles
lit at Smithfield fires, that its founders came hither to establish an
asylum for the oppressed, and a sanctuary for the conscience. The
motto on their ensign was, GoD AND LIBERTY. How then could their
instincts be otherwise than on the side of freedom. So has it been
f
over since. So is it now. Anomolous as it may seem, so is it with
the very men who are baptising the American soil with blood in
defence of African slavery. But there has been a let to these noble
instincts. The institution of slavery, introduced into the colonies, fos-
tered by cupidity, protected by municipal law, interwoven with the or-
ganic life of the nation, has held its real principles in abeyance. The
instincts of freedom have been smothered by deference to guaranteed
rights, the love of order and peace, and by a fraternal regard to the
7
slaveholding citizens of the South. But now an all-wise God has
taken off that pressure. It has been done by the act of the slave-
holding States themselves, Treason has no rights under the Con-
stitution. Armed rebellion appeals to the laws of war. It renounces
constitutional protection. And now this pressure being removed,
how the heart and the head of the American people are speaking out.
By the immortal proclamation of their President, by the ballot-box,
by the press, by the pulpit, by their national legislature, by their
foreign ambassadors, they are declaring that from this time forth and
forever more they are on the side of freedom. Their complicity with
slavery is at an end. They are done with it. A free soil, free labor,
and a free people, is now their motto Live we must. If it cannot
be with slavery, then at its cost. Never since the world began, not
even in Great Britain in the memorable struggle thirty years ago, has
a nation declared itself in sublimer tones than has this nation in its
recent elections—our own the banner State. They have said to
African slavery as that gifted woman, Mrs. Browning, says to the
gods of the Pantheon,
Get to dust. * * * *
By a common doom and track,
Let no Schiller, from the portals
Of that Hades, call you back,
Or instruct us to weep all
At your antique funeral,
By your beauty, which confesses
Some chief Beauty conquering you—
By our grand heroic guesses,
Through your falsehood, at the true,
We will weep not * * * *
8
Earth outgrows the mythic fancies,
Sung beside her in her youth ;
And those debonaire romances,
Sound but dull compared with truth.
Phoebus' chariot-course is run ;
Look up, Poets, to the sun.
What a change within the memory of the children before me.
What a revolution Great ànd marvelous are thy works, Lord
God Almighty. Just and true are thy ways, thou king of saints.
Another great question has been settled since our last thanksgiving
anniversary. It relates to the manner in which the system of Ameri-
can slavery is to be brought to an end. This has been the problem
of problems. No one of ordinary reflection has been foolish enough
to imagine that negro slavery was to be perpetuated in this country.
Whether at war or not with the letter of the immortal Declaration of
Independence, it is at war with the spirit of that instrument. It is
at war with the genius of our institutions, and with the conscience of
the American people. It is at war with the highest good of the
nation as an agricultural, manufacturing and commercial nation. It
has been the great corruptor of the national morality. It is at war
with the very nature of a democratic government, and so at war with
it that one or the other must die. It is at war with the Christian
civilization of the age. Such is the spirit of that civilization that it
is lifting up the masses, holding in check irresponsible power, equal-
izingWhe conditions of society, defining and defending human rights,
proclaiming liberty to the captive. Out of this civilization have
sprung the wars and revolutions of Europe ever since the Refor-
mation,
6
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vious quo.15 oun ‘ioned outtuq motº oq, St. Soranguao out, ušnough
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spil oxſºn put ashp ou? o, up oxIII]s [[,0A ‘pooſa Jo suoj spun uſu
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10
A unanimity, a compactness, and a solidity have been given to the
Republic which it has never had before. The forces at work among
us hitherto have been centrifugal, not centripetal, making us hang
loosely together. The clashing interests of trade and commerce,
sectional jealousies and rivalries, the infusion of a large foreign
element, and above all the debauching and disintegrating influence of
slavery, have prevented organic consolidation. There needed to be a
smelting process. There needed to be something to call up from the
depths of our hearts the love of country and to force that love into
united action. There needed to be something to check our selfishness
and vanity, ennoble our ambition, and show us our power. This has
been done. Rebellion, on a gigantic scale, put in jeopardy the life of
the Republic. Clear headed and loyal hearted the people saw it. It
thrilled them to the core What the old flag to be rent and trailed
in the dust 2 What the old constitution, under which we have
been so happy and prosperous, to be overthrown, and the old Union
dissolved 2 What the great free people of the North to bow down
and kiss the dust at the instance of a few ambitious, insolent con-
spirators ? What a slave oligarchy to become the rulers of this
western continent 2 Never. This was what brought them together,
compacted them, made them all but as one man. They looked each
other in the face and said : Are you for the country 2 Give me
your hand. Away with all shibboleths Are you for the Union ?
So am I. Lºve the Republic, And so like a ship’s crew in a storm,
they were all of one mind, a few excepted. They understood the
grandeur of the hour, and rose to it. Leaving the plow to rust in the
furrow, the warp to rot in the loom, they rushed to the rescue, heroic
mothers and wives saying—Go, for your country calls. Their single
purpose to crush rebellion. God’s purpose more and greater, to give
11
compactness to the nation, purify its heart, pour new life on its
springs of action, put an end to the blighting curse of slavery, and
to make the aureola around its head bright as noonday. Not unto
us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory. We are thy
clay, thou art our poſter. Let thy wheel turn, thy fingers mould ns.
Another marvelous deed has been accomplished, or rather has begun
to be accomplished during the past year. Just after my last thanks-
giving sermon I wrote down on a piece of paper and hung up before
me a subject for my present thanksgiving discourse. It was -—
Public morals, the morals of the government, of the church, of the
nation. The holy God has had his eye on the same thing, and is
doing it in a way marvelous to behold. The Republic of the United
States, like every other nation, has had to contend with many demor-
alizing influences. Commerce, wealth, popular clºti ons, executive
patronage, national ambition, are all sources of corruption. Men left
to act under these forces are swept from the moorings of virtue. They
become a seed of evil doors. But when the real history of the last
half century comes to be written—if ever it be written—it will be
seen that we have been preyed upon by one demoralizing power more
blighting than all others combined. It has been like an epidemic
sickness, a leprosy on the heart of the nation. I am not speaking
now of the corrupting influences of slavery on the private morals of
the South, of plantation brothels, and palatial harems. I am speak-
ing of its influence on public morals. And what I say is that it has
been a rottenness in our bones. A system founded on injustice and
inhumanity and perpetuated by cupidity and lust, lays the axe at the
very root of morality. It has bought and sold our presidents. It
has packed our Supreme Court, appointed our cabinet officers,
elected our federal law givers, bribed our legislation, dictated our
12
national policy. It has stood up against the right of petition. It
has withstood freedom of speech, and camed it in the federal Capitol.
It has sectionalized our nationallegislation, dwarfing down patriotism
to vassalage to itself. It has brought its home-born licenciousness
to the seat of government, and rising in the mºrning from its lecher-
ous bed it has swaggered into the Capitol to bully and brow-beat
senators and the representatives of a great free people. It has de-
bauched the national conscience. It has subsidized the press, O]”
hissed its outspoken honesty. It has rent in twain the church. It
has gone into the pulpit and made Christ preach, not a gospel of
freedom, but a gospel of hopeless bondage. Its angels of mercy have
been trained bloodhounds and more cruel taskmasters. Its New
Testament has been—“ There are slave races, born to serve, master
races born to govern.”—Richmond Evaminer. To crown its infamy
it has laid its sacrilegious hands on the pillars of the Republic, and
would lay in ruins the temple of liberty. --
But in his own time and way God is delivering us from this
pestiferous power of corruption. He means by it that we shall be a
better, holier people. We praise his name for it. Talk to me of
the demoralizing and infidelizing power of war 2 The morals of the t
camp are spotless compared with those of the plantation. Thanks he
to God, slavery will make no more presidents, appoint no more cali-
nets and judges, insult no more Senators, bribe no more representa-
tives and presses, silence no more pulpits, preach no more a gospel
of oppression, “Pan, Pan is dead.” Now our public men may be
patriots without danger to their prospects, and legislate for the Re-
public without being menaced by the duelist.
I must bring before you another of the imarvelous things which the
God of this nation has accomplished in its behalf within the past
twelve months. I refer to the great moral victory which, during that
time has been gained over the existing rebellion. Physical victories
are the work of a day. Moral victories are the work of time. Ideas
are of slow growth. N ow strange as it may seem, till of late, the
preponderence of feeling abroad has been against us. There has been
but here and there a heroic John Bright or Goldwin Smith, to send
us a cheering word. In like manner at home, discordant notes have
struck the ears of the defenders of the Union. I will not say by what
hallucinations, or prejudices, or jealousies this state of things was
brought about. So it was. This was a part of the trial of our faith
and patience. But how does the reckoning stand to-day ? How
does it stand at home? As Atlantic granduer to a stagnant pool;
as the voice of thunders to the singing of the grasshopper, so is the
voice of the people sustaining the present policy of the government,
to that lifted up against it. And how does the reckoning stand on the
other side of the Atlantic? To borrow Dean Swift’s words, no more
“Fleet and gibe and laugh and flout.” No more compating our
gallant and victorious legions to Jack Falstaff's ragged regiment.
The national honor and the national prowess stand vindicated.
Never the Republic so revered and feared as to-day, never towering in
such solitary grandeur. More than this, Kings, Lords and Com-
mons are whispering to each other—Republics can stand—they can
adjust themselves to wars and revolutions, and outride them. More
than this—the heart-felt sympathy of the civilized world is with us.
The justice of our cause is recognized. So is the intolerable enormity
of that for which the South has appealed to arms, a despotic oli-
garchy based on property in man. Satan-like, incarnate in a befit-
ting toad, its pseudo-aunbassadors are whispering their incantations
in the ears of foreign courts and kings. But in scripture phrase they
14
will not harken to the voice of the charmers, charming never so wisely.
Their cause has gone to the tomb of the Capulets. At the bar of the
existing civilization they cannot plead it successfully. It is worse
than the feudalism of the middle ages, and no more can it stand before
the christianity of the age than Dagon could stand before the ark of
the Lord. This then is what we would say—Morally the rebellion is
crushed, and no stronger pledge can we have that, in due time, it
will be crushed physically. War to be successful must have a back
ground of popular favor.
To the great mercy of which I have just spoken must be added
still another—the victories in the field won by our. gallant armies
during the past year. I need not name them, Gettysburg, Stone
River, Wicksburg, Port Hudson. Already they are a part of history,
and so long as consummate generalship, heroic valor, and self-sacri.
ficing devotion to country shall be admired, they will be the nation’s
pride, the orator's eulogium and the poet’s song. Hence it is that
this day of praise finds the American people not desponding but
cheerful, hopeful, not humiliated by defeat, but standing with lifted
brow in the consciousness of their strength ; not doubting or faulter-
ing, but confident in Him whose is the majesty and the victory.
They know that this fierce storm will ere long pass away, the temple
gates of Janus be closed, and peace Smile again on a free and undi-
vided nation. Then what a future for the Republic. I am dazzled
at the prospect, not made van by it, but solemn. 1 See the future
in the present. A gravity and dignity of mational character never
felt before, a purer public morality, a truer, more sincere patriotism,
a policy not sectionalized, but broad as the continent, an unt ram-
meled press, a pulpit free to—
15
Sing the truth out fair and full,
And secure God’s Beautiful.
a holier church, a commerce and a navy such as never before swept
the seas, resources of wealth, under ground and above ground, literally
inexhaustable, and the great principle of free labor blessing our broad
acres, what strides shall we make in all that constitutes the greatness
and happiness of a nation. Fall short we may of universal empire
on this western continent. But it will be because such a thing is
impossible in the very nature of things.
Such is a faint sketch of some of those marvelous things which a
merciful God has wrought in our behalf during the year now drawing
to a close, The picture would be too incomplete did we not advert
for a moment to the instruments he has employed in accomplishing
them. I do it with no partisan spirit. I do it not even as an
American citizen, but as one appointed so to interpret God’s provi-
dences as to inspire your hearte with reverence and gratitude, and
your lips with praise.
Cam any one be so blind as not to see the divine goodness in raising
up that homest, wise, sagacious, heroic, God-fearing philanthropist,
patriot, statesman, magistrate now presiding over the destinies of the
nation ? Grasping the helm of state with an untrembling hand ;
with an eye only to the good of his country : understanding the ac-
count he will be called to render to postcrity and his final Judge ;
grapling with the intuitions of genius, with all the perplexing
problems of a revolutionary period ; with a heart alive to the best
interests of every class of society ; Serene amid the storm as true
greatness always is, rising without effort to the grandeur of the hour ;
is he not, like the Father of his country, one of the few, scattered
along the ages, raised up by a merciful God, to mark the epochs of
9I
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ano uſ ow peo ongoſſi u ºut AA & copiouv Jo uouOAA out Jo Kus on
3uſunou oAUUII Iſutis put toilout V Jo Kulit, ou, Jo Snu1 XIgods III buS
puplutº III Jo UOI]t:100Xo out on
dn bIoII og IIIA (1100 put ‘Tºmbo ºnoqū SI AAIUUUInt[III ou Sosto U100 UI
'uonnoAoû oun 5uſ inp quoquilt, AA oun uſ poliouout squ's nostid
tou!o put: . . Kostoſ. pUC) out, ,, Jo loſoluoluo ouſ, St. XIstº outs out
&
upontu ULIojiod IIIA ‘UOSIId ºut uſ Kuloua out Jo pubtſ out ºf poa I900.
oAbū stopſos quuLIbá Ino quounton [n]ooglösſp out proool quoubtſ
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utosſ.Id puouTuloſ I quu? 04 IIIA q “[n]ujuy out Jo U000IN tº “soullus
jo ouſtus tº 90 Iluus O.Ioun “uoul [GAoſ Áq poll od on ouoo ‘uostol, Ád
populoosop Aou [ios utoſlouw Jo solou Aoy oun uou.A ‘JI puy ºuſläIId
oul Josdoshoo) oun puoq IIIA pHoax 5uriſulpt up put uoſhuu [n]
-o]t is tº uolu A on soullus ou" on IIIA ‘puop ou. Jo poolq ou', ‘āuſAII out
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‘ouopu 5.InqsAnnoy) joN 'Iºnidsou out Jo Sunuouſ 5uſiošull out “onºuq
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‘Kulsupuſ Jo shins ind ou? utoly puu Tuoluougol Jo soubtſ tuol) ouo:3
1suſ, '5unuopu A Kinugu dumpſ, put [Igou os oiu Koun osnto our
jo Kuniow : oppid 5uſinxo unſa ulou? souaºua, put utoq, pontolo set
quun uomºu ou" Jo Kunloa joſuſ)-uſ-iopuuuuuuo O Iſou, Jo Kunio/A oil;
Koun houn 5ul Kus Aldus Aquuun AAuu put Kulu quun jo Muſun I quil A
uo.K on ssold Ya tonnoq I uto puw 'pubtuutoo syll Jo Aulio A &Atſu put:
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‘ptºo.IQū Oottompuſ put;
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17
\
patriot cause, of their pecking the flints of the old muskets to be borne
on the shoulders of husbands and sons, of their self-denial and industry
in providing comforts for the soldier and the soldier’s family. No
less glowing with praise will be the page on which will be recorded
the noble deeds of the women of this generation. • Not they alone
who are like ministering angels in our hospitals will be remembered.
No less will their memories be blessed, whose busy fingers are dis-
tributing bread to the soldier’s wife and children, and gathering com-
forts and luxuries for the wounded and the sick. These are the true
Samaritans; the true sisters of charity. For their labors of love
may Heaven reward them a thousand fold.
It was while taking some such survey as the one I have taken that
the President of the United States, in his Proclamation, wrote as fol-
los : “No human council has devised, nor hath any mortal worked
out these great things. They are the precious gifts of the Most High
God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, has, never-
theless remembered mercy.” To this the heart of the American peo-
ple is responding to-day. Nor will they forget the other good and
perfect gifts which have come down to them from the Father of
mercies. As they gather around table and fireside, or kneel at the
family altar, they will think of “fruitful fields and healthful skies.”
“Thou crownest the year with thy goodness, they will say : Thy
paths drop fatness. They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness
and the little hills rejoice on every side. The pastures are clothed
with flocks; the valleys also are covered with corn ; they shout for joy,
they also sing.” Nor will they forget that: “In the midst of a civil
war of unequaled magnitude and severity ;” “ the national defense
has not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship.” They can not be,
they are not insensible to the wonderful fact that while so large a part
18
of this Republic is desolated and impoverished with war, they have
been blessed with abounding prosperity, making it seem as if the
wealth they are lavishing on their country, had only augmented their
wealth at home. And though in many a sad group the dead soldier
boy will claim a tribute of tears, and many a noble husband, filling a
patriot martyr’s grave, will come up for affectionate remembrance, yet
will all join their voices in the words of the text : O sing unto the
Lord a new song for he hath done marvelous things : his right hand
and his holy arm hath gotten him the victory. To His name be
glory, world without end.
Give thanks, all ye people, give thanks to the Lord,
Alleluias of freedom, with joyful accord;
Let the East and the West, North and South roll along,
Sea, mountain, and prairie, one Thanksgiving Song.
For the sunshine and rainfall enriching again
Our acres in myriads, with treasures of grain;
For the Earth, still unloading her manifold wealth,
For the skies, beaming vigor, the winds breathing health :
For the Nation's wide table, o'erflowingly spread,
Where the many have feasted and all have been fed,
With no bondage their God-given rights to enthrall,
But Liberty guarded by Justice for all.
In the realms of the Anvil, the Loom and the Plow,
Whose the mines and the fields, to Him gratefully bow;
His the flocks and the herds, sing ye hill sides and vales;
On His Ocean domains chant his name with the gales.
19
of commerce and traffic, ye princes, behold
Your riches from Him Whose the silver and gold,
Happier children of Labor, true lords of the soil;
Bless the Great Master-Workman, who blesseth your toil.
Brave men of our forces, Life-guard of our coasts,
To your Leader be loyal, Jehovah of Hosts:
Glow the Stars and the Stripes—aye with victory bright,
Reflecting His Glory, He crowneth the right.
Nor shall ye through our borders, ye stricken of heart,
Only wailing your dead, in the joy have no part :
iod's solace be yours, and for you there shall flow
All that honor and sympathy's giſts can bestow,
In the Domes of Messiah—ye worshipping throngs,
Solemn litanies mingle with jubilant songs;
The Ruler of Nations beseeching to spare,
And our Empire still keep the elect of His care.
Our gilt and transgressions remember no more;
Peace, Lord righteous Peace, of Thy gift we implore,
And the Banner of Union restored by Thy Hand,
Be the Banner of Freedom o'er All in the Land, *
*The President's Hymn.
2 &
PLEASELEND.
§tletropolitan Jabermatic pulpit.

THE GREATEST EXETIBITION OF THE A.G.E.
A sºn
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD's-DAY, MAY 7TH, 1893,
- ºf DELIVERED BY
§ yº 8.jº
C. H. SPURGE ON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON,
On Lord’s-day Evening, May 5th, 1889.
“For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death
till he come.”—1 Corinthians xi. 26.
FIRST, let me say that the Lord's Supper is nothing to us unless we
partake of it as spiritual persons in a spiritual way. We must
understand what we are doing in coming to the communion table;
the mere mechanical celebration will be vanity; it may even be a sin.
To observe this ordinance aright, you must bring your mind in an
awakened state, you must come with holy faith, and love, and con-
centrated thought. I do pray that we may so come to-night. I know
how Emechanical we all get. We even stand up and sing, and often-
times we forget what we are singing while the sounds issue from our
lips. We cover our eyes in prayer, but we do not always pray. There
is such a thing as preaching from the mouth outward, instead of
speaking from the heart; and I believe there is a kind of hearing
which is dreadfully superficial, and can do the hearer no good. Now,
if you come to the supper to-night, bring your hearts with you; and
if your hearts are warm with love to Christ, desire to have them yet
fuller of love to your Lord. I remember reading of a Mr. Welch, a
very devout minister of the gospel in Suffolk, who was found weeping
one day; and when he was asked by a brother minister why he wept,
he said it was because he could love Christ more than he did. That
was a very good reason for weeping. Now, let us love our Lord much
to-night; and if we cannot feel the glow of love as we wish to feel it,
let us weep to think that it is so. May the Spirit of God come and
put life into our communion, that every child of God here may have
real fellowship with Christ in the breaking of bread
TEut now, let us get to our work. The Lord's Supper, dear friends,
is first of all a memorial. “This do in remembrance of me.” It is
intended to keep alive in our own hearts, and in the mainds of others,
the wondrous fact that the Son of God was here among-men, and laid
No. 2,307.
218 METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT.
down his life a sacrifice for sin. It is well known that a custom, a
rite, a festival, has a very great historical power to keep up in the
minds of men the recollection of a fact; and our Lord has selected this
common meal, this supper, as a method by which men should be made
to know to the very end of time that he died. There can be no doubt
about the death of Christ, because through long ages all history bears
record that Christian men and women have met together, and have
eaten bread, and have drunk wine, to keep up the memory of his
sufferings and death. This is better than if there had been a statue
erected, or than if a document had been written, or than if a brass
tablet had been inscribed. We are not without memorials of other
sorts; especially we are not without books; but this perpetually
celebrated feast, kept up without cessation, kept up in every country on
the face of the earth, is one of the very best memorials that the death
of Christ can have. All of you who come to the table to-night will
be helping to keep alive in the memory of men the great fact that Jesus
died. -
But the Lord's supper is more than a memorial, it is a fellowship, a
communion. Those who eat of this bread, spiritually understanding
what they do, those who drink of this cup, entering into the real
meaning of that reception of the wine, do therein receive Christ
spiritually into their hearts. Their heart, soul, mind feeds upon Christ
himself, and upon what Christ has done. We do not merely record
the fact, but we enjoy the result of it. We do not merely say that
Christ died; but we desire to die with him, and to live only as the
result of his having died. We take scot and lot with Christ as we
come to the table. We say deliberately, “Thine are we, thou Son of
God, and all that we have; and thou art ours, and in testimony thereof
we eat this bread, and we drink of this cup, to show that we are one
with thyself, partners with thee in this great fellowship of love.”
Well, now, if you want a permanent memorial, and a perpetual
means of fellowship, it will be wise to have a rite or ceremony in which
there shall also be a likeness to the fact that has to be remembered.
This supper is therefore an exhibition, a showing, a setting forth, a
proclamation of the death of Christ. That you may remember that
Jesus died, there is something here that bears a resemblance to his
death. That you may the better have fellowship with him in his
death, here is something which is a vivid picture of that death, and
which will help to bring it more clearly before your mind’s eye. That
is the subject for to-night's meditation,-this supper as a showing
forth, an exhibition of Christ's death “till he come.”
In speaking of this exhibition, this showing forth, we will consider,
first, what it shows; secondly, how it shows it; and thirdly, how long it
ts to show it.
I. Thinking of this supper, that we are about to celebrate, we will
consider, first, WHAT IT SHows. “As often as ye eat this bread, and
drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death.”
Brethren, to-night, we are to show, to exhibit, to demonstrate, to
set forth, to symbolize, to represent, to picture the death of Christ.
He lived, or he could not have died; that fact is, therefore, included
in our confession of faith. But the point we specially set forth is this,
THE GREATEST EXIIIBITION OF THE A.G.E. 219
that he died, he who was born at Bethlehem, the Son of Mary, and
who lived here on earth, being also the Son of God, in due time died,
he gave his life a ransom for many. Why do we record that fact? To
my intense grief, I have heard it said, even among a certain class of
preachers, that we dwell too much upon the death of Christ. They ask
why we do not talk more about his life. The death of a man, they
say, is not so important, by a great many degrees, as his life. The
TIOrd have mercy upon the miserable and ignorant men who talk in
that fashion' But we have a reason for making so much of Christ’s
death. The Lord has instituted no memorial of his life, the memorial
that he has instituted is to keep before his people the perpetual
remembrance of his death. And why is that the case?
I take it, because this is the very heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The doctrine that he died, “the Just for the unjust, that he might
bring us to God,” is essential to the gospel. Leave out the vicarious
sacrifice unto death, and you have left out the life of the gospel of
Jesus Christ. There are some truths which ought to be preached in
due proportion with other truths; but if they are not preached, souls
may be saved; but this is a truth which must be preached, and if it
be left out, souls will not be saved. I should have more hope of the
Salvation of a man hearing a Romish priest, with all his superstition,
if he preached the death of Christ, than I should of one hearing a
Unitarian, with all his intelligence, if he left out the doctrine of the
atoning blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. “The blood is the life
thereof.” “Without shedding of blood is no remission.” Because
the death of Christ is the life of the gospel, therefore it is that there
is an ordinance to set forth that death “till he come.”
And this is the more so, in the next place, because this is the point
where the gospel is always being assailed. You shall find, in almost every
controversy, that the fight thickens about the cross. It is around the
standard that the foemen cluster. There the sword rings upon the
armour, there the loudest shout is heard, there you see the garment
rolled in blood. So the cross, the cross is the standard of our Christ-
ianity. Round the atoning sacrifice the controversialists gather. They
think they are aiming at other things; but the real password is,
“Fight neither with small nor great, save only with the Divine Sub-
stitute for men.” If they could once get rid of the doctrine of the
atoning sacrifice, they would destroy that which is the greatest tower
of strength to the gospel of Christ; but, thank God, they cannot get
rid of the cross | We can still sing,-
“The cross it standeth fast,
Hallelujah!
Defying every blast,
Hallelujah !
The winds of hell have blown,
The world its hate hath shown,
Yet it is not o'erthrown.
Hallelujah for the cross
It shall never suffer loss ''
Therefore, set forth the atoning sacrifice of Christ, brethren, in this
ordinance, “till he come.” .
220 METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT.
So well does this supper set forth the death of Christin that respect,
that it has been argued by some brethren that, if a man comes to the
communion table, unless he is a great liar, he has already made a con-
fession of faith in Christ. I will not go that length; but there is a
good deal of truth in the argument. If you truly eat and drink of
this supper, you must believe in the atoning sacrifice; you come here
under false pretences if you are not a believer in that; for, at the
institution of this supper, the Saviour said, “This is my blood of the
new testament (or covenant) which is shed for many for the remission
of sins.” The pardon of sin must be by the shedding of the blood of
Christ; and if you reject the blood of Christ, you have rejected the
true meaning of this supper, and certainly you cannot come here with
a clear conscience. This supper, then, sets forth the great fact that
Jesus died; and it is ordained to set that death forth because it is
essential to the gospel, and because it is the point which is most
fiercely attacked.
And you will notice, brethren, according to our text, that this show-
*ng of the death of Christ is to be kept up through every age “till he come.”
It will not be wanted after the coming of Christ, for reasons which we
will speak of by-and-by; but until then it will always be wanted.
Shall I always have to preach the doctrine of atonement 2 Yes, always.
Shall we always have to set Christ forth evidently crucified among
men 2 Yes, always. First, because we always need to have this truth
set forth. You and I, who are firm believers in this glorious truth,
yet cannot too often think upon it. I love to come every Lord’s-day
to the communion table; I should be very sorry to come only once a
month, or, as some do, only once a year. I could not afford to come
as seldom as that. I need to be reminded, forcibly reminded, of my
dear Lord and Master very often. We do so soon forget, and our un-
loving hearts so soon grow cold. How is it with you, my brethren?
I know that it is thus with me. I sing sometimes,<-
“Gethsemane, can I forget P
Or there thy conflict see,
Thine agony and bloody sweat,
And not remember Thee ”
But that is the point of my argument. We need to go often to Geth-
semane, and there see our Lord's agony and bloody sweat, that we
may remember him. I suppose that, until we see his face, we shall
never have one communion too many, and we shall never have a
thought of Christ that is superfluous. Nay, banish all poetic thought
rather than that I should lose a thought of him. Begone the most
delightful classical expression, and the most charming thoughts of
philosophers, if they would push out one thought of Jesus; for
thoughts of Christ are golden thoughts, and thoughts of other things,
however burnished by the wit and genius of men, are but poor metal
compared with thoughts of Jesus. We need this supper for ourselves,
brethren, and we should partake of it often, for that is what is meant
by our Lord’s words, “As oft as ye drink it.” We need that often
we should eat this bread, and drink this cup, and show his death for
cºur own sins.
TEIE GREATEST EXEIIBITION OF THIE AGE. 221
But this supper is as much needed for the sake of others. We are
to show Christ's death that others may know about it, that others may
be impressed by it, that others may be saved by it. I sometimes
wonder, when I am talking to you upon this theme, that I do not
preach much better; and yet, when I have done, I say to myself,
“Well, how cañ there be anything better if one only tells the tale
truly 2” That God came here in human flesh, and for our sins did
serve, did die, that he bore the vengeance due to our guilt, the punish-
ment which our transgressions had incurred, brethren, that is poetry.
It is essential poetry, even though I only put it into a child's speech.
It wants no garnishing. The face of perfect beauty must not be
touched with Jezebel’s paints; and all the garnishing of eloquence
that can be brought to such a fact as this is unnecessary, meretricious,
and degrading. Oh, hear you the tale, and then, as you come to the
table, remember what it is that you set forth, and say to yourself, “I
am, by this action, telling a story more wonderful than all the histories
of men put together. I am showing to those who look on something
which angels desire to look into, which the most wonderful intelligences
will, throughout all the ages, study with ever-growing wonder and
delight—God Incarnate, suffering in the sinner's stead.” Show that
forth, brethren, for it is worth the showing.
II. But now, secondly, having mentioned what it is that this supper
shows, let me prove to you. How IT SHOws IT.
It does so, first, very instructively in the emblems themselves. We want
to tell men and to tell our own hearts that Jesus died. Well, see, here
is bread; mark you, not a wafer, but a piece of household bread.
And here is wine in a cup; not wine and water, but the true juice of
the grape, which our Lord called “the fruit of the vine.” What then?
Here are bread and the fruit of the vine, separately. Bread, repre-
senting the flesh of Christ, has a million sermons in it. Shall I tell
you its story? It was a grain of wheat, they threw it into the ground,
they buried it beneath the clods, it lay there exposed to winter's cold.
It sprang up, and many a frost nipped it in the green blade; but
there came spring weather, and Summertide, and the wheat grew and
grew on till it turned into the yellow golden grain. See, they come
along with a sharp sickle, and cut it down; it must feel the keen edge.
After cutting it down, they take it away in sheaves. They spread it
out upon the barn floor. Here are flails, which come hammering down
upon it,-in those olden times they did use flails. Now they beat
out the grain from the ear; and now, when they have all the grain
separated from the straw, it must be winnowed, and the chaff must be
blown away. Then they take this corn, and put it between two stones,
and grind it. Woe unto thee, O grain, thou art ground into the finest
flour! But it has not finished its history of suffering yet. When well
ground, and separated from the bran, it is taken, and a woman kneads
it with all her might, and makes it into dough. Nor is its suffering
ended yet, for she thrusts it into the oven. Now does it feel the heat
of the fire; and when the loaf is taken out of the oven, it is cut, or
broken, and devoured. It is a story of suffering from the beginning
to the end. Now take that cup, and look into its ruddy depths. Do
you see that vine yonder? You expected to find it festooned on trellis-
222 METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT.
work, a lovely object; but looking at it in the winter and spring, you
say to yourself, “Is that a vine 2 It looks like an old, dead stick left
in the ground.” Yes, it has been cut down. Did you not see the
pruner's knife 2 How sharply he cut ! “Surely,” you said, “he is
Rilling that vine.” No, vines are made to bear much fruit by being
closely cut and pruned. But now it is summer, and in the early
months of autumn the vine is loaded with red grapes; and those grapes
must be taken off the vine, and severed from the branch. Seo,
they are throwing them into the wine-press, heaps upon heaps; look
how they are piled up ! And what happens now 2 Men leap in upon
them, and with their feet they tread the grapes. The blood of the
grape runs out of the wine-press, red like ruddy gore. This is the
history of the wine of which you drink, and so it comes to you. And,
oh, I need not tell you of your Lord, how he was thrown into the
wine-press, and how he suffered even unto death ! These elements of
bread and wine are stories to you, and emblems of suffering. You
notice, too, that these emblems are separate. If I were to take the
bread, and crumble it into the cup, and then pass it to you that you
might drink of that curious mixture, you would not celebrate the
Lord’s death at all. It would not be possible, for it is the body with
the blood separated from it that sets forth death. While the blood is
in the veins, you have life; but when the blood is drawn away from
the body, which is set forth to you in the pure white bread and in
the red juice of the grape, then you have the picture of death; and
in that way you show Christ's sufferings and death in the celebration
of this supper. So much I have, I hope, made plain enough for all
to understand.
Now notice the manner of the use of these two elements, for the manner
of their use vividly shows Christ's death. I think it is in the Church
Catechism that we are taught that the word “sacrament” means “an
outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.” That
definition will do for this ordinance, which is the outward and visible
sign of an inward and spiritual grace.
It is very remarkable how the emblems before us appeal to our
various senses. Notice, first, the Saviour took the bread and the cup.
You see them ; they are before you, you can see them. After he had
blessed them, he said, “Take.” Did you ever see, in a very Ritualistic
church, that little game played by the priest with his napkin held out
under the chin of the communicant, and telling him to open his
mouth, and popping the wafer in 2 This is not eating the Lord’s
Supper, for the command at the institution of the Lord’s supper was,
“Take, eat.” It is essential that you take it in your hand. “Take,
eat.” So there is another sense that is affected in this sacred exercise,
that is, the sense of touch. Jesus took the bread, and brake it, and
gave it to the disciples, that they might employ the second sense.
They had seen, now they touched. “Take, eat,” said the Lord; and
they held it in their hands. But never do you have the Lord’s supper
without an appeal to the ear, for he said, “This is my body.” When-
ever we break this bread, we say the same, “This bread is Christ's
body,” so there is an appeal to the ear. You put the bread and the
wine into your mouth; there comes in your fourth sense, your taste, so
TI’ſ E GREATEST EXHIBITION OF TEEE A.G.E. 223
that four senses are made to assist you in realizing that Christ did
really die, that his death is no dream, no fiction. It is not merely a
man in a book, but a living man who died, a real man who poured out
his life unto death for you. I have said that four senses are appealed
to ; but I might add the sense of smell also. There is an old proverb,
“Nothing Smells so sweet as bread; ” and to a hungry man there is
nothing so refreshing as the presence of bread which regales the nostril.
The Lord has given us an ordinance here in which he brings our body
to support our soul, and to render vivid to our mind by at least four,
if not all of our five senses, this most blessed fact, that Jesus Christ,
the Son of Mary and the Son of God, did really lay down his life a
Sacrifice for us.
But now I remind you of another thing. We show the death of
Christ, in the next place, by the mode of the disposal of this bread and this
wine, for these elements go into our bodies. They are received into the
inner man, and are digested and assimilated there, and taken up into
our system, to build us up ; and herein we teach that Christ, dying for
us, is to be received by faith into the heart. We are to believe in that
death as being for us. We are to appropriate it as our own; we are
to trust in it; we are to live upon it. It is to become part and parcel
of our spiritual nature, and we are to be built up thereby, for Christ's
death on the cross saves nobody to whom Christ does not come into
the heart. If thou dost not believe, even Christ lifted up between
earth and heaven will not save thee. “As many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the sons of God.” But without
receiving him, Christ is dead in vain sofar as thou art concerned. Thou
hast no part nor lot in this matter. This fact, I say, we set forth by
the method of the disposal of the emblems.
And now, carefully note that the spirit of this ordinance also is very
*nstructive. How does it begin? Jesus takes bread, and blesses it.
In other words, he gives thanks. It is very usual to call this ordinance
the Eucharist, or, the giving of thanks. That is the spirit of it; it is
all through a giving of thanks. Now, mark you, there is no reason
to give thanks for the death of Christ unless it was an atoning death,
and an expiation for sin. I should regret, infinitely regret, that a
good man should die as Jesus died unless there was an end to be
accomplished by it worthy of that death. The end of Christ's death
was that, dying for us, by the shedding of his blood, there might be
remission of sins; and for that we may well give thanks. The com-
lmunion begins with thanksgiving, but how does it continue 2 It
continues by our sitting at ease. There are some who think that, to kneel
at the communion is the most reverent posture. So it is, and I doubt not
that God accepts their reverence; but it is a most unscriptural posture.
There is more presumption than reverence in it, for to alter the ordin-
ance of Christ even on the pretence of reverence is not justifiable.
When our Lord first of all instituted the supper, they did not sit down
as We do, but they reclined as the Orientals still do, at their ease, so
much at their ease that the head of John was on the breast of Jesus.
Icannot conceive anything more exactly the opposite of coming up to an
altar rail, and kneeling down, than this reclining upon couches with
your head upon your next neighbour's bosom. The factis, that it meant
224 METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT.
ease, it meant rest; and that is what the posture which we take up
should mean. Our nearest approach to that which can be tolerated in
our western clime is to sit as much as you can at ease, as a person in
this country does at a banquet, as near an approach as possible to the
method of the Oriental at his banquet. That is how the feast goes on ;
it began with a blessing, it proceeds with a restful posture. How does
it end ? After supper they sang a hymn. It was not a dirge, it was
not funereal; they celebrated the death of Christ, but not with
funereal rites. They sang a hymn, it was joyous, probably part of
the great Hallel of the Jewish Passover. This indicates to us, and
we set it forth, that the death of Christ is now a joyous event; that
to the whole of his people it is not a thing to sigh over; but that,
believing in Christ, it is a thing to thank God for, to be at ease about,
and to sing over; and we set that forth by the manner in which we
partake of this supper.
One thing more we set forth. The persons who come to the table must
be, according to Christ's rule, believers in him. They, and they only, have
a right to eat of this feast. Others eat and drink unworthily, and drink
and eat condemnation to themselves. We do, therefore, say, albeit
that there is no limit to the value of the sacrifice of Christ (that were
inconceivable), yet he had a special object in it, and he died for a
special people, which people are known by their being led to believe
in him, to unite with him in a distinct affiance by trusting in him.
Not for you all will this avail; but for all of you that believe,
for so it is written, “For God so loved the world,” so much and no
more, “that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,”—a universality
which, nevertheless, has a speciality hidden in its inner self. Believe
this, or else this death is not for thee. Trust Christ, or else thou shalt
have no share in the blessings which his death has purchased. And
we set that forth when, gathering at the table, we come as believers;
but we are obliged to tell others that, if they are not believers, they
must not come : they have no right to come.
III. My time has nearly gone, and therefore I must finish with the
third point. We have seen what this supper shows, and how it shows
it ; now we are to consider How LoNG IT IS To SHow IT.
I have tried, as best I could, in a very simple way, to show how
this supper does symbolize and set forth the death of Christ. How
long are we to do it? “Till he come.” Well, now, what does that
teach us? When Jesus comes, we are to leave off observing the Lord's
supper, but not till he comes.
It teaches us, then, that there will always be a value in Christ's wondrous
death. God would not have us set forth a thing that is done with, a
sucked orange, a mere shell out of which the seed is gone. If the
death of Christ were not abundantly efficacious still, he would not have
us set it forth. But to-night we can sing, with as much meaning and
force as ever we could,—
“Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power,
Till all the ransom'd Church of God
Be saved to sin no more.”
TIIE GIREATEST EXEIIBITION OF THE AGE. 225
It is nearly nineteen hundred years since Jesus was here, and yet his
blood is still powerful, his death can still take away sin. Come and
tryit to-night, some of you who have never believed in him ; to-night,
I say, at the close of this—
“Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright,
The bridal of the earth and sky.”
Come now, to-night, and yield thyself to the Lamb of God, and wash
thee in his precious blood, and thou shalt be whiter than snow. That
communion table is just now covered with a white cloth; but when it
is uncovered, and you see the bread and the wine, they will say to you,
“The atonement is still existing, it is still efficacious, it is still full of
power.” We celebrate the ordinance because Christ's death is still
available for all who trust to it.
The next thing is, dear friends, that by saying that we will partake
of this supper till Christ comes, we set forth our belief in the perpetuity
of this ordinance until the influence of Christ's death shall have been infallibly
secured. We are now in a world where men forget; and as long as we
are in such a world, we must keep this sign-post, this direction to those
who want to journey to heaven. We must never take this sign-post
down till there will be no need of it because Christ will have come ;
and when he shall have come, beloved, we shall not then forget his
death. When he shall come, do not think that we shall give up the
Lord's Supper because we give up thinking of him. Nay, we shall
give it up because we shall then never give up thinking of him. He
will be present with us; and he being present with us, we shall not
need the help which now our weakness requires.
So then, in closing, I say to you that this supper is a window, a
window of agate, and the outlook of this supper is the Second Coming of
the Lord from heaven. This supper is also a gate of carbuncle, and
through this gate we are to watch for the return of the Lord Jesus
Christ from the throne of his glory to this earth. The Lord shall come.
As surely as we are sitting here in this house, so surely will he, before
long, appear a second time on earth, “without sin, unto salvation”;
and we mean to keep up this feast “till he come.”
“See, the feast of love is spread;
Drink the wine, and break the bread:
Sweet memorials, till the Lord
Call us round his heavenly board.
Some from earth, from glory some,
Severed only ‘Till he come !’”
Could you keep on feasting “till he come”, my unsaved hearer? I
think that you had better weep and mourn, repent and believe, and so
get ready for his appearance. But those who are ready may just keep
on feasting upon him, and rejoicing in him, till he puts in his
last and glorious appearance. God help us to continue so, for Jesus'
sake! Amen.
226 METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT,
l
3.xpt.gition fig (T. #. $purgeon.
JOHN XVI. 1–20.
This chapter contains some of the most precious words that the Lord
Jesus uttered before he died upon the cross.
Verse 1. These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be
offended.
Or, as the Revised Version translates it, “be made to stumble.” Christ
would not have his children stumble. There is an offence of the cross, but
he would not have us needlessly offended. How careful is our dear Saviour
not to give us offence | We ought to be very careful not to offend him;
but what condescension it is on his part that he should be careful of
offending us, or of permitting us to be offended, or made to stumble.
2. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that
whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
Can you remain faithful to your Master then, when you lose your position,
or your character, or men put you out of the synagogue P When you nearly
lose life itself, and when they shall think they are doing God’s service by
seeking to kill you, can you stand true to Christ then P. The Master knew
that days of bitter persecution would soon come upon his followers, so he
strengthened them against those evil times that were approaching.
3. And these things will they do winto you, because they have not known the
Father, nor me.
It is ignorance that makes men hate God’s people and his Son : “They
have not known the Father, nor me.” Truly did Paul say, “I did it
ignorantly in unbelief; ” and for such persecutors there is full and free
forgiveness. When they turn unto the Lord, even this sin shall be forgiven
them ; but they will not forgive themselves for having committed it; and,
like Paul, they will count themselves the chief of sinners because they
persecuted the Church of God.
4. But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may
remember that I told you of them.
“You will then see my foresight, my care for you, my prophetic power.
To be forewarned is to be forearmed. You will not be taken by surprise.”
If any of you who have lately been converted should meet with great
opposition, do not be surprised ; Jesus has told you to expect it ; and
if the fire should get seven times hotter, count it no strange thing that the
fiery trial has happened unto you. It has happened unto others before you,
and will happen to others after you ; therefore be prepared for it.
4. And these things I said 70t wnto you at the beginning, because I was
with you.
“While I was with you, you could run to me, and tell me all about your
trials and difficulties. If anybody was hard with you, I could come to your
help, and comfort you. You did not need to know these things before, so I
did not tell you of them. You do need to know them now, and now I tell
you of them.”
5. But now I go my away to him that sent me;
Christ was going to the cross, and to the grave, and afterwards to heaven.
5. And none of you asketh me, Whither goest thow 3
For want of asking that question, Christ's disciples were full of grief.
Sometimes we do not ask enough questions. We ask too many questions
of doubt; it would be well if we were to ask a few more questions of
believing curiosity. There are some things that we ought to wish to know ;
and Christ encourages his people to come to him for information.
/
EXPOSITION, 227
6. But...because I have said these things writo you, Sorrow hath filled your
heart.
When a poor Christian friend is dying, you are full of sorrow because he
is going away from you. Why do you not ask whither he is going P. If he
is going home to heaven and to glory, why, then be comforted about him ;
you have no cause for distress on his account.
7. Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is eaſpedient for you that I go away :
“It is better for you that I should be absent than that I should be present.”
Their Lord was their joy, their Leader, their Teacher, their Comforter. He
is going away, and he tells them that his absence will be a gain to them.
“It is expedient for you that I go away.”
7. For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; but if I
depart, I will send him writo you.
Now, it is better for us to have the Comforter than to have Christ here in
bodily presence; for if Christ were here to-night, in this Tabernacle, where
could we put him so as to be equally near each one of us?' I should certainly
want him up here on the platform; and you, up there in the top gallery,
would say, “Well, we are a long way off; why should he not come up
here P” You see, if it is bodily presence that is enjoyed, some must be
near, and some must be far off; but now that Christ has gone up to heaven,
his Spirit is here. Where is that Spirit P. On the platform, I hope, and
everywhere else. Any of you who desire it may have the Holy Spirit's
presence. The Lord says, “I will put my Spirit within you.” Better than
the bodily presence of Christ is the real, though spiritual, presence of the
Boly Ghost.
8. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteous-
ncSs, and of judgment:
What, a Comforter reprove P Yes. The Holy Spirit never comforts till
he has reproved. There must be a reproof of sin before there can be com-
fort in Christ. And while the Spirit comforts Saints, he reproves the world.
9. Of sin, because they believe not on me;
The greatest sin in all the world is, not believing on Jesus. Our Lord did
not say, “Of sin, because of the evil of drunkenness.”. That is a great sin,
a cursed sin, and there are other great, sins; but Christ said, “Of sin,
because they believe not on me.” That is the root sin, the foundation sin,
the sin that keeps a man in his sin.
10. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye 8ee me no more;
It is God's righteousness that takes Christ up to heaven. He has been
here; he has lived a perfect life; he has died a sacrificial death ; and God
has shown his acceptance of him, for he has gone to his reward.
11. Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.
When Christ came here, there was a crisis, a judgment; and sin was
judged and condemned; and the prince of the world, the chief sinner in the
world, received his death-blow: “the prince of this world is judged.”
12. I have yet many things to say writo you, but ye cannot bear them now.
See how Christ teaches us slowly, wisely, prudently. There are some
things which some of you young Christians do not know ; you could not
bear them if you did know them. You shall know them when you can
bear them. A man with a doctrine that he cannot handle is often like a
child with a tough piece of meat which he cannot bite, . Give the child
milk, or the crumb of the loaf. Do not put crusts into his mouth till he
has teeth to bite them; do not give him meat till he can digest it. See the
gentle Saviour's way of imparting instruction. He teaches us much, but
not too much at a time.
228 METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULP [T.
13. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all
truth : for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that
shall he speak : and he will shew you things to come. a
See, my dear brethren in the ministry, how little store the Holy Ghost
sets by originality. We have men nowadays straining to be original.
Strain the other way, for listen, “He shall not speak of himself,”—not
even the Holy Ghost,-‘‘He shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he
shall hear, that shall he speak.” He is the Repeater of the Father's mes-
sage, not the inventor of his own. So let it be with us ministers. We are not to
make up a gospel as we go along, as I have heard some say. We are not
to shape it to the times in which we live, and suit it to the Qongregations
to which we speak. God forbid! Let this be true of every one of us, “He
shałl not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he
speak.”
14. He shall glorify me :
The Holy Ghost does that ; therefore, surely we, who are the preachers
of the gospel, should aim at the same object: “He shall glorify me.” . It
should be our one desire to magnify and glorify our Lord Jesus Christ.
14–16. For he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it wnto you. All
things that the Father hath are mine : therefore said I, that he shall take of
mine, and shall shew it unto you. A little while, and ye shall not see me; and
again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.
That was a very simple statement, every Sunday-scholar understands it
now ; but the twelve apostles did not understand it when they heard it.
17, 18. Then said some of his disciples among themselves, What is this that
he saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little
while, and ye shall see me : and, Because I go to the Father ? They said there-
fore, What is this that he saith, A little while 2 we cannot tell what he saith.
They said this “among themselves.” This was not a wise course, for
what can ignorance learn of ignorance P Here were disciples questioning
one another; none of them knew anything, and yet they were trying to
teach one another. If they had all gone to their Master, how much more
quickly would they have understood his words ! Take everything to Jesus.
Try everything by the Word of God. Do not believe what you hear be-
cause I say it, or because somebody else says it. Go to the Word of God
to learn what you need to know, and to the Spirit of God to teach you the
meaning of what you read.
19, 20. Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and Said unto
them, Do ye enquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye
shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me? Verily, verily,
I Say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament,
Christ would die; he would go away and be unseen. On the cross he
would depart out of this life; in the tomb he would be hidden from his
disciples: “Ye shall weep and lament.”
20. But the world shall rejoice:
But not for long; the world's joy at Christ's death was soon over.
20. And ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.
I think we may leave off our reading at this verse, with these words to
flavour our mouth all this week: “Your sorrow shall be turned into joy.”
God grant that it may be so with many here present, for Christ's sake
Amen.
HYMNS FROM “OUR Own HYMN Book”–282, 820, 802.
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