REFLECTIONS
ON THE
GOODNESS OF GOD
TO A
NATION THREE SCORE AND TEN YEARS OLD:
A SERMON
PREACHED IN THE
FOURTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ALBANY,
ON
THANKSGIVING DAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1853.
BY HENRY MANDEVILLE, D. D.
PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.
ALBANY:
FISK & LITTLE, 82 STATE STREET.
1853.




MUNSELL, PRINTER,
ALBANY.




SE RI1   ()N.
Many, 0 Lord nmy God, are thy wonderfiI works which thou hast!lote, alld thy thoulghts which are to uIs-ward: they can not be
reckoned up ill order unito thee; it' I woid (leclare andIt speak of
theum, they are more than can be iullnllered.-PSALMS. xl, 5.
We are by no means sure that the Psalmist,
in this passage, has reference merely to those
works and thoughts which place in our possession what we usually call blessings; that
is, things agreeable in their nature, and associated in our minds with enjoyment. He calls
them  wonderfiul; but this is an attribute which
may be ascribed to judgment as well as mnercy;
and to judgment, moreover, whether it be
mere chastisement, designed to reform, and be
in the end a benefit, or irretrievable overthrow:
to correct and bring smiles at last where lids are
moistened, and cheeks arc channeled by tears,
or to punish with ruin dire. When God removed
Joseph, through the enmity of his brethren,
from the embraces of his father, Jacob, by




whom he was so dearly loved, and consigned
him to slavery in Egypt, neither the son nor the
father called the dispensation a blessing; and
yet it was very wonderful. The detention of
the Israelites in the wilderness Ibrty years before they were permitted to enter the land of
Canaan, was not deemed by them a blessing;
yet, considering all the circumstances, it was
very wonderftll; and the overthrow of Jerusalem  and the consequent dispersion of the
Jews - a retributive and not a corrective judgment-was far from being regarded by its
unhappy victims as a blessing; yet all who
have read Josephus, will pronounce it wonderful in no ordinary degree; wonderful in fact,
and wonderful as a fulfillmentof prophecy. In
fine, in view of these and other judgments, as
well as blessings properly so called, the Psalmist
might say justly, " Many, O Lord my God, are
thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and
thy thoughts which are to us-ward."
The text, however, contains one remark,
repeated with variation, which presents the
stronger reason to believe that mercies rather
than judgments are referred to by the sadred
writer. "They can not be reckoned up in order
unto thee," hle observes: "if I would declare




5
and speak of them, they are more than can be
numbered." Of judgments this can scarcely be
said. Blessed be God! much of suffering as
there may be in the world, it is the exception,
not the rule. Men doubtless exist or have existed, whose pains through life exceeded their
pleasures; but take the sum of mankind, take
ninety-nine hundredths of' men, and the judgments to whiz.h they are subjected, are few and
may easily be numbered; while they enjoy
blessings of which the totality exceeds their
power of computation. Such is the goodness
of our God even to a world of sinners; and in
view of it, we realize the truth of the sentiment,
which is certainly the sentiment of the scriptures, whether expressed there in definite terms
or not, that punishment is his strange work.
Giving due weight to this consideration, we
may be permitted to assume that blessings and
not evils, mercies and not judgments, were in
the mind of the Psalmist when he penned our
text: "Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful
works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts
which are to us-ward: they can not be reckoned up in order unto thee; if I will declare
and speak of them, they are more than can be
numbered."




6
Understanding the sacred writer then in this
sense, the text seems to us to express, gratefully
and devotionally, a truth which few who hear us
to-day can fail to perceive, applies with as much
force to the people of this state and nation, as
to the Psalmist and his countrymen, or to any
other people that ever lived on the surface of
this globe; and if bent to-day, as surely we
should be, on making adequate acknowledgment of our obligations to a benignant and
beneficent Deity in our state and national
capacity, we can do no better than appropriate
the truth, and employ the words which fall so
sweetly upon the ear from the lips of the son of
Jesse in the passage before us. To do this intelligently, let us consider, 1st, the wonderful
works of God to us-ward: 2d, his thoughts.
Our particular aim under both of these heads
will be to impress you with their incalculable
number.
I. The wonderful works of God to us-ward.
To aid us in forming at least a feeble conception of these, we ask your attention briefly
to a few points of contrast between our condition as a nation at tne present moment and
that in which we were left by the successfil




7
achievement of our independence of British
dominion in 1783, just seventy years ago.
1. Consider the difference in the extent of
our territory at these two periods. The whole
domain of the United States, or rather of the
United Colonies, inhabited and uninhabited,
in 1773, was bounded by the Atlantic shore
on the east, by the southern line of G-eorgia
on the south, extending to the Mississippi;
by the Mississippi on the west, and by the
lakes and British provinces on the north. In
1853, while the man vet lives who heard the
proclamation of peace which closed the revol-utionary war, these boundaries have been
pushed at the south to the gulf of Mexico, and
on the west through latitudes that include the
fountains and the mouths of the Mississippi,
to the Pacific Ocean. Ample as our territories
were at the beginning of the seventy years
which have now passed by, we find them, at the
end of this period, speaking with sufficient
accuracy, doubled. To say that this is wonderful, is to say too little: it is unparalleled in
the history of the world. God hath not dealt so
with any nation. Is it an unparalleled wonder
as a mercy or a judgment? Men have not been
wanting who deemed it the latter; who re



8
garded such an accession of territory rather as
a curse than a blessing. But their views, we
conceive, were very narrow. It is much the
same both with men and nations. If you saw
a man who began the world, destitute of all
capital except his wit and hands, in the unincumbered possession of twenty-five acres of
land in ten years, and of fifty in twenty years,
you would very justly regard the facts as conclusive evidence of his prosperity; of God's
blessing upon his labor. No man who makes
such accessions to his property, by which he
can command the necessaries and comforts of
life in abundance, will be regarded as unfortunate; no man whose gains are such will be
deemed an object of divine displeasure. Just
so with a nation. Increase of territory is evidence of prosperity and progress. No stationary
people, still more, no sinking people, enlarge
their domain. Rather they gradually lose what
they have, like a man going down in the world,
until at length, mere paupers, they live on the
crumbs which fall from the table of their more
enterprising and prosperous neighbors.
With this simple, common-sense view of the
relation to our national welfare, of this large
accession to the extent of our territory, we con



9
tent ourselves. To proceed fihrther and show
how it keeps down the price of land in the more
densely populated portion of the country, and
increases the price of labor, and thus ftvors the
elevation and happiness of the poor; how it
offers a cheap homestead to every man who has
virtue, industry and economy, and thus tenders
a premium for these traits; how it stimulates
labor in every branch of business; how it augments the resources and multiplies the markets
of manufactures, agriculture and commerce;
how it provides areas, vast and magnificent, for
the foundations of free states, and invites the
immigration of strong men, and much wealth
from the old world-to show all this, as we
might, would leave us time for the consideration of no other topic. We must dismiss it,
therefore, to your own reflections; not forgetting, however, that this is the wonderful work
of God.
2. We ask you to consider the contrast in
population presented by the beginning and the
end of the period to which we have referred.
When the war of the revolution closed, our
whole population comprised only three millions
of souls, including slaves then held in every state
in the union. The census of 1850 declares an.2




10
aggregate of' twenty-three millions, and a fraction over; and at the present moment it unquestionably exceeds twenty-five millions. In
seventy years a difference of twenty-two millions! In seventy years only! It is absolutely
amazing. Language is scarcely adequate to
describe it; nay, the imagination itself is
troubled to conceive it. It is miraculous; as if
the prophet's rod had struck the solitudes of this
continent, and men had sprung from the soil of
rallies and hill sides and prairies, every where,
as waters gushed in the wilderness from the
rock. It is a wonderful work of God! and
what is the significance of it? Is it a mercy
or a judgment? Of all the evidences of a prosperous country, of God's blessing on a country,
an increasing population is the most decisive;
and equally decisive is a diminishing population
of its decline. When men grow scarce, you
may depend upon it, labor meets no recompence
and food grows scarce, and misery augments
apace. On the other hand, if population is on
the advance, you may be sure that labor is duly
rewarded, that food is abundant, and that the
people are in circumstances of comfort and
happiness; and the more rapidly it advances,
the stronger is the inference to be drawn from




11
it on these and other points. What then, we
again ask, is the significance of our unexampled
increase of' population, in seventy years, fiom
three millions to twenty-five millions of human
beings within our territorial limits'!? A wonderfill work of divine beneficence equally unexampled. It speaks of plenty at every man's
door; the most ample return to labor; bountifiIl
harvests, happy homes: all, in a word, that can
make a land desirable to live in, and all in a
degree, that makes that land the dearest on
earth to the native, and the most inviting to the
hapless stranger, who, without being either a
disobedient son or a prodigal, with every generous emotion of a man swelling, and every
capacity of a man dwelling in his stalwart
frame, and without leaving the shadow of' his
father's house, would fain eat husks with swine,
and yet no man gives to him; tyranny deprives
him. even of this! But a rapidly increasing
population is not merely an index of prosperity;
it is prosperity itself; not merely is it evidence
of God's wonderful work; it is God's wonderful
work. Men constitute the state; men are its
power, its wisdom, its goodness, and achievement; and that nation which has most of them
in its quiver, and most rapidly produces them,




12
is, other thing,: being equal, most blest. If so,
where is the nation on earth, when has one
existed, more blest than ours, whose simple
history of seventy years, by the wonderful providence of God, is the magnificent vision of the
prophet: "A little one has become a thousand,
and a small one a strongs nation?"
3. Again, we should consider the contrast
presented by the wealth and power of the country at the beginning and end of these seventy
years, the usual limits of a human life. Our
domestic and foreign commerce, in 1783, deserves scarcely to be mentioned; our manufactures comprised only home-spun and homewrought products for daily and necessary use;
and our agricultural labor seldom produced a
supply exceeding the home demand. In fact,
except in the virtues, in.strong hands, strong
hearts, and a sleepless enterprise, we were poor;
so poor that, a short time previous, we had been
obliged to go about Europe, almost in vain, begging to obtain a paltry sum to carry us forward
in the war. How magical the change in seventy
years! Our commerce floating on every sea;
our mariners counted by hundreds of'thousands;
our exports and imports together, if we recollect
rightly, between four and five hundred millions




13
annually; our tonnage employed nearly, if not
quite equal to —perhaps exceeding —that of
England, the greatest commercial empire the
world has known; our coasting and internal
trade unexampled any where; our manufictures, in numerous branches of industry, fhr
exceeding the wants of our twenty-five millions
of people; our agriculture with a capacity to
supply the wants not only of our own people
but of Europe; the wilderness converted into
a cultivated garden, and incalculable mines of
treasure laid bare beneath the teemnllg soil!
It is wonderful, and, we may justly exclaim,
what hath God wrought! wrought within the
limits of the life, by no means prolonged, of a
single man!
4. The contrast in education and religion is
equally striking.* The problem of every year,
from the close of' the revolutionary war to the
present time, has been how to make the provision for these objects keep pace with the prodigious annual increase of our population; and,
considering that the provision for both must
be voluntary, the problem is one which from
time to time has filled many a patriotic and
pious breast with profound anxiety. And what
* I should rather, perhaps, say here, the resernblatnce.




1-4
is the result which we are this day permitted
to contemplate? Simply this; that our twentyfive millions of population are better educated,
and more amply provided with the means of
grace — with churches, ministers and Bibles,
and other sacred instrumentalities - than were
the three millions that emerged from the conflict of the revolution. There are proportionally fewer persons who can not read and write,
and there is less religious destitution; while
the state of opinion on both of these subjects -
the degree of importance attached to both, and
the degree of attention given to both -offer to
our gratified gaze ani almost infinite advance
upon those of 1783. Among all the spectacles
presented by this world since the morning of
time, there is none to equal in grandeur, this!
It is the most wonderful work of the ages; the
most wonderful, with a national aspect, of God!
Much has been said in Europe and much continues to be said, about the inefficiency of our
voluntary system; but we wish they could
show any thing as efficient by one-half. A
system that provides an adequate, or even an
approximately adequate, educational and religious supply for a nation doubling in population
every twenty-five years, and at the end of




15
seventy years provides a better supply fbr
twenty-five millions of men, than at its beginning for three millions —such a system achieving such results, needs neither vindication nor
eulogy. Its superiority to every other is as
obvious as the grandeur of its efficiency is impressive.
5. The only other contrast to which we ask
your attention, is that which may be observed
between our present rank among the nations
of the earth and our influence upon them, and
our rank and influence at the period to which
we have so often referred. Then, feeble as infancy, now strong as manhood; then despised,
now feared; then abused, now fawned upon
and flattered: then plundered with impunity,
now able to extort justice and receiving it;
then influential only as a principle at war with
the despotisms of the old world, now towering
and casting our spell as a mighty empire; intimidating the tyrants we could once only hate,
and delivering the oppressed we could once
only pity.  This, too, is a wonderfuil work
of God to us-ward. The change from the past
to the present, is indeed so wonderful that we
can scarcely deem it real. Could the man who
died in 1783 rise from the grave in 1853, he




16
would be stupified by the spectacle of' a nation
awing the monarchies which, when he closed
his eyes upon this sublunar scene, contemptuously ignored its existence or trampled it under fbot.
But we can not dwell longer on these contrasts, though intensely interesting, and on a day
like this, set apart for thanksgiving, singularly
appropriate themes of thought. We dismiss
them with two remarks.
in the first place, we have touched only on the
generic wonderful works of God to us-ward;
the grand comprehensive results. Should we
descend to the specific, then, indeed, you would
appreciate the truthfulness of the Psalmist in
my text: "Many, O Lord my God, are thy
wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy
thoughts which are to us-ward: they can not
be reckoned up in order unto thee; if I should
declare and speak of them, they are more than
can be numbered."  What an incalculable
number of subordinate works, individually
wonderful, have contributed to the general and
magnificent results we have briefly noticed!
A few of these, just sufficient to send your
thoughts in the right direction, may be profitably adverted to. And preeminent among them




17
were the framing and adoption, as fundamental
law, of our federal constitution; to which, under God, we may trace most of the prosperous
fortunes we now enjoy. Next in importance to
this wonder of the world, is the long train and
succession of virtuous, wise and patriotic statesmen, who have graced the councils, and shed
lustre on the name of our common country:
next the tremendous'wars in Europe, which,
extending from the close of the revolution to
the fifteenth year of the present century, preserved us from serious molestation during the
most critical period of our national growth, and
at the same time, by their influence on our
manufactures, agriculture and commerce, provided the aliment of' growth. These, coupled
with the sagacious policy, first advised and
enforced by Washington, and afterwards sustained by his successors, of standing aloof from
the complications of European politics —coupled also with the contrast presented to this old
world scene of turmoil and misery by our secure
and prosperous condition, endearing, as it did,
our country and its institutions to the common
heart —exerted a prodigious influence on the
formation of our national character and the
development of our, atitonal resources. Next,
3




18
we may gratefully notice the stream, constantly
flowing hither from abroad, of wealth, but in
the main, of strong men to make precisely that
contribution to the industrial pursuits of the
nation which its progress required. Then we
must not forget the fortunate concurrence of
events which led to our successive acquisitions of territory, to which we have already
adverted; nor still less, the indefatigable attention given by our people generally to the cause
of education, and by the church to the cause
of religion; the one, the base of calculating
activity and broad enterprise; and the other,
their safeguard against perversion. Finally,
descending to works less imposing perhaps, but
scarcely less powerful in their influence on our
progress, there are the cotton-gin, the steam
engine, the steam boat, the steam ship, the rail
road, the magnetic telegraph, and other instrumentalities innumerable, all wonderful, literally
wonderful, combining to work out the astonishing destiny, surmised, but yet unrevealed, to
which we have so far advanced. "They can
not be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I
should declare and speak of them, they are more
than can be numbered."
In the second place, the extraordinary blessings




19
of the current year, for which we have met this
morning in the house of God, to give thanks,
though themselves wonderful, are obviously the
outgrowth and accumulated fruits of the past
wonderful works of God, principal and subordinate; and this fact we should not forget. Reason
and religion alike teach us to recognize it on a
day consecrated to gratitude. Let us thank God
for the inheritance as well as the possession.
This ample domain, these happy homes, these
harvests, these prosperous manufactures, these
fleets and argosies, this wealth, this power, this
national aggrandizement, rising upon the base
of unsurpassed, nay, unequalled physical, moral,
infellectual, and religious advantages, -- are
mainly the fruits of the wonderful works of God,
in time past. With reference to most of them,
we shall express all, when we give thanks that
we have been permitted to enjoy them still during an other year.
Some specialities there are, however, peculiar
to the present year, which we should not overlook. We should not overlook the fact, that,
by the gracious interposition of God, we have
escaped the very serious hazard of a financial
crisis. We may not have even yet wholly
escaped it; but the times wear a more favor



20
able aspect, and we may hope the danger is
now passed: a danger, the magnitude of which,
they only can estimate, whose memory can
recall the events of thirty-seven. We should
not overlook the fact, that the past year has
disclosed sufficient virtue and patriotism in the
people of this state, to put down the audacious
attempt of Papacy, to overthrow our educational
system, and to change the tenure of church
property. God grant they may never succeed.
We should not forget, that during the past
year the cause of temperance has gained unexampled success, in our own noble and timehonored commonwealth. The passage of the
Maine Law is now, blessed be God, an almost
absolute certainty. At least, it would seem that
nothing but unpricipled infidelity to pledges,
given by senators and assembly-men elected,
can deprive the people of its incalculable
benefits. Finally, for we care not to exhaust
the subject, we should not overlook the fact,
that, as a denomination of Christians, we have
been particularly favored of heaven. In unity,
strength, enterprise, and appreciation, we are
far in advance of our position last year. The
church has emphatically awaked and put on
her beautiful garments; and with God's bless



21
ing upon the future, we may hope she will
shine; her light being come and the glory of
the Lord being risen upon her.
With these remarks we dismiss from our immediate attention the wonderful works, and turn
II. To the thoughts of God to us-ward.
The propriety of making this a subject of
particular consideration to day, or indeed at any
time, if we would form a just conception of our
indebtedness to a benignant Deity, will be apparent, when we reflect that every work of God
is a simple result; and, however numerous such
works may be or wonderful, they but imperfectly
declare the sum of the divine cares for our prosperity and happiness. David understood this;
and hence he adds, "And thy thoughts, which
are to us-ward;" and it may be doubted, whether
the language which follows, "They can not be
reckoned up in order before thee; if I should
declare and speak of them, they are more than
can be numbered" —does not refer to these
thoughts exclusively. Be this, however, as it
may, the thoughts of God to us-ward are incalculably more numerous than his works. Let us
consult our own human experience. Consider
any given work of man; a steam engine, for example, or a cotton gin. As the former stands




22
before you, you perceive the embodiment of one
general thought, and one only; the application
of steam as a propelling power. But how many
thoughts of the inventor were expended on that
engine, before it assumed the shape it has, and
realised the purpose which it was intended to
subserve! The work is one, but the thoughts
which produced it, can not be reckoned up
in order unto us; if we should declare and
speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. Take another example: the successive
works of an affectionate father, which bless
the infancy and the advancing years of the
blooming family around him. It is not impossible that you may be able to number these;
you may ascertain if you count them, that
they are a hundred, or five hundred, or a
thousand, or a hundred thousand.  Never
mind the number; they are ascertainable and
ascertained. But now sit down and count, if
you can, the loving and anxious thoughts of
which each of these works is the index and
exponent; those thoughts that kept him wakeful when he laid his head upon his pillow at
night; that entered into his dreams while he
slept; that woke with him in the morning;
that went with him to his daily toils in the




23
office, the shop, the market, or the fields; that
sweetened or disturbed those toils while he
pursued them; that came back with him again
to his fire-side, and that again followed him to
his pillow: can you count these? As well
count the visible and invisible stars of heaven,
or the sands upon the sea-shore side. They
call not be reckoned up in order; if we should
declare and speak of them, they are more than
can be numbered. If the child should measure
his gratitude by what he actually receives from
his parents, by what assumes the definite form
of works, howe ver wonderful, how unjust would
he be to the beneficent guardians of his growing years!
Thus with God. His wonderful works to
us-ward bear no assignable proportion to his
thoughts to us-ward: his thoughts providential
for our temporal felicity, and his thoughts compassionate and gracious, for our spiritual and
eternal happiness. Many as the former may
be, the latter exceed them in number, as the
infinite exceeds the finite.  And will our
thanksgiving to-day be adequate if we remember only his wonderful works? 0, no, no. Let
us also remember how great is the sum of his
thoughts to us-ward; those thoughts, so loving,




24
and so full of care for us, which remain unspoken in the breast of a paternal Deity; the
countless antecedents of his wonderful works.
Let us remember them not merely, but endeavor
to appreciate both works and thoughts, and feel
the entire force of the obligation they impose
on gratefully responsive natures, to love and
obey and adore.
So doing, we observe in conclusion, we may
hope that the same kind Providence which
cradled our infancy, and fostered our growth,
which has made our progress hitherto just
cause of astonishment to ourselves and to the
world, will still guide us at the same rapid pace
to the exalted destiny foreshadowed by the prophetic past. What that destiny, ultimate and
far away in the dim future, may be, what
its grandeurs, its glory, we know not. But this
we do know: that if faithful to our great trust
as Americans and Christians, if we recognize
God as the author and giver of our advancing
greatness, humbly serve him, and make education and religion walk always abreast with
population, enterprise, wealth and power, our
progress will have no end. Of this, we are as
sure as we are of the sun's progress to the meridian. On the other hand, we are just as sure




26
that, if unfaithful to God and truth, education
and religion, our progress will be arrested. The
heavens that now smile upon us will brood
with storms; and the very greatness that
should have led us to repentance and made us
good, will story the monument perpetuating
the memory of our wickedness and untimely
fall.
















REFLECTIONS
ON THE
GOODNESS OF GOD
TO A
NATION THREE SCORE AND TEN YEARS OLD:
A SERMON
PREACHED IN THE
FOURTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ALBANY,
ON
THANKSGIVING DAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1853.
BY HENRY MANDEVILLE, D. D.
PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.
ALBANY:
FISK & LITTLE, 82 STATE STREET.
1853.