TWO  SEP ItONS
PREACHED BEFORE TIET
TWaENTYEIGHTITH CONGREGATIONAL SOCIETY
IN  BOSTON,
ON THE 1 -TH AND 21ST oF NOVEIBEMiR 1.852,
ON LEAVING THIEIR OLD AND ENTERItNG A NEW PLACE  0' WOiRSJI1P.
BY THEODORE PARKER,
MIINISTER OF TA'IT SOCIETY.
PHONOGRTAPtICALLY REPORTHI) BD BY 1R[FUPS TLEIGhlTlON.
BOSTON:
CROSBY, NICHOLS, &  COMPANY,
111, WASIIINGTON STREET.
1853.








T.O SERMAONS
PREACHED BEFORE THE
TWENTY-EIGHTH CONGREGATIONAL SOCIETY
IN BOSTON,
ON THE 411TAI AND 21ST OF NOVEMBER, 1852,
ON LEAVING THEIR OLD AND ENTERING A NEW PLACE OF WORSHIPi
BY THEODORE PARKER,
MINISTER OF THAT SOCIETY.
PHIONOGRAPHICALLY REPORTED BY RUFUS LEIGHTON,
BOSTON:
CROSBY, NICHOLS, & COMPANY,
111, WASHINGTON STREET.
1853.




BOSTON:
PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON, SCHOOL-STREET.




SERMON I.
SOME ACCOUNT OF MY MINISTR Y.
ACTS xx. 27.-C" I HAVE NOT SHUNNED TO DECLARE UNTO YOU ALL THE COUNSEL
OF GOD."
ON the twenty-second of January, 1845, at a meeting of
gentlemen in Boston, which some of you very well remember, it was " Resolved, that the Rev. Theodore Parker shall
have a chance to be heard in Boston."
That resolution has been abundantly backed up by action; and I have had "a chance to be heard."  And that
is not all: I have had a long and patient and nrost faithful and abundant hearing. No man in the last eight years
in New England has had so much. I mean to say, no
minister in New England has done so much preaching, or
had so much hearing. This is the result of your resolution,
and your attempts to make your thought a thing.
As this seems likely to be the last time I shall stand within
these walls, it is not improper that I should give some little
account of my stewardship whilst here; and therefore you
will pardon me if I speak considerably of myself; —a subject which has been before you a long time, very much in
your eye, and I think also very much in your heart.
I must, in advance, ask your; indulgence for the character
of this sermon. I have but just returned from an expe



dition to Ohio, to lecture and to preach; whither I went
weary and not well, and whence I have returned still more
weary and no better. It is scarcely more than twentyfour hours since I came back, and accordingly but a very
brief time has been allowed me for the composition of this
sermon. For its manner and its matter, its substance and
its form, therefore, I must ask your indulgence.
When I spoke to you for the first time on that dark,
rainy Sunday, on the 16th of February, 1845, I had recently
returned from Europe. I had enjoyed a whole year of
leisure: it was the first and last I have ever had. I had
employed that time in studying the people and institutions
of Western Europe; their social, academical, political, and
ecclesiastical institutions. And that leisure gave me an
opportunity to pause, and review my scheme of philosophy
and theology; to compare my own system with that of
eminent men, as well living as dead, in all parts of Europe,
and see how that scheme would fit the.wants of Christendom, Protestant and Catholic. It was a very fortunate
thing that at the age of three and thirty I was enabled to
pause, and study myself anew; to re-examine what I had
left behind me, and recast my plans for what of life might
yet remain.
You remember, when you first asked me to come here
and preach, I doubted and hesitated, and at first said, No;
for I distrusted my own ability to make my idea welcome
at that time to any large body of' men. In the country I
had a small parish, very dear to me still, wherein I knew
every man, woman, and child, and was well known to them:
I knew the thoughts of such as had the habit of thinking.
Some of them accepted my conclusions because they had
entertained ideas like them before I did, perhaps before I was
born. Others tolerated the doctrine because thev liked the




man and the doctrine seemed part of him, and, if they took
my ideas at all, took them for my sake. You, who knew
little of me, must know the doctrine before you could know
the man; and, as you would know the doctrine only as I
had power to set it forth in speech, I doubted if I should
make it welcome. I had no doubt of the truth of my idea;
none of its ultimate triumph. I felt certain that one day it
would be "a flame in all men's hearts."  I doubted only
of its immediate success in my hands.
Some of you had not a very clear notion of my programme of principles. Most of you knew this,-that a
strong effort was making to exclude me from the pulpits
of New England; not on account of any charge brought
against my character, but simply on account of the ideas
which I presented; ideas which, as I claimed, were bottomed on the nature of man and the nature of God: my
opponents claimed that they were not bottomed on the
Bible. You thought that my doctrine was not fairly and
scientifically met; that an attempt was making, not to put
it down by reason, but to howl it down by force of ecclesiastical shouting; and that was true. And so you passed
a resolve that Mr. Parker should have c4a chance to be
heard in Boston," because he had not a chance to be heard
anywhere else, in a pulpit, except in the little village of
West Roxbury.
It was a great principle, certainly, which was at stake; the
great Protestant principle of free Individuality of Thought
in Matters of Religion.  And that, with most of you,
was stronger than a belief in my peculiar opinions; far
stronger than any personal fondness for me. Therefore your
resolution was bottomed on a great idea.
My scheme of theology is very briefly told. There are
three great doctrines in it, relating to the Idea of God, the




Idea of Man, and of the Connection or Relation between
God and Man.
First, of the Idea of God. I have taught the Infinite
Perfection of God; that in God there are united all conceivable perfections,-the perfection of being, which is
self-existence; the perfection of power, almightiness; the
perfection of wisdom, all-knowingness; the perfection of
conscience, all-righteousness; the perfection of the affections, all-lovingness; and the perfection of soul, all-holiness;
-that He is perfect Cause of all that He creates, making
every thing of perfect material, from a perfect motive, for a
perfect purpose, as a perfect means; -that He is perfect
Providence also, and has arranged all things in his creation
so that no ultimate and absolute evil shall befall any thing
that he has made; -that, in the material world, all is
order without freedom, for a perfect end; and in the human
world, the contingent forces of human freedom are perfectly
known by God at the moment of creation, and so balanced
together that they shall work out a perfect blessedness for
each and for all his children.
That is my idea of God, and it is the foundation of all
my preaching. It is the one idea in which I differ from the
antichristian sects, and from every Christian sect. I know
of no Christian or antichristian sect which really believes
in the infinite God. If the infinity of God appears in their
synthetic definition of Deity, it is straightway brought to
nothing in their analytic description of the divine character,
and their historic account of his works and purposes.
Then, of the Idea of Man. I have taught that God gave
mankind powers perfectly adapted to the purpose of God;
-— that the body was just what God meant it to be; had
nothing redundant, to be cut off sacramentally; was not deficient in any thing, to be sacramentally agglutinated there



unto;- and that the spirit of man was exactly such a spirit
as the good God meant to make; redundant in nothing,
deficient in nothing; requiring no sacramental amputation
of an old faculty, no sacramental imputation of a new
faculty from another tree;-that the mind and conscience
and heart and soul were exactly adequate to the function
that God meant for them all; that they found their appropriate objects of satisfaction in the world; and as there was
food for the body, - all nature ready to serve it on due
condition,  so there was satisfaction for the spirit, truth
and beauty for the intellect, justice for the conscience;
human beings — lover and maid, husband and wife, kith
and kin, friend and friend, parent and child -for the
affections; and God for the soul; —that man can as
naturally find satisfaction for his soul, which hungers after
the infinite God, as for his heart, which hungers for a human friend, or for his mouth, which hungers for daily bread;
that mankind no more needs to receive a miraculous
revelation of things pertaining to religion than of things
pertaining to housekeeping, agriculture, or manufactures;
for God made the religious faculty as adequate to its function as the practical faculties for theirs.
In the development of man's faculties, I have taught that
there has been a great progress of mankind, — outwardly
shown in the increased power over nature, in the increase
of comfort, art, science, literature; and this progress is just
as obvious in religion as in agriculture or in housekeeping,
The progress in the idea of God is as remarkable as the
progress in building ships; for, indeed, the difference between the popular conception of a jealous and angry God,
who said his first word in the Old Testament, and his last;
word in the New Testament, and who will never speak
again till " the last day," and then only damn to everlasting
ruin the bulk of mankind, - the difference between that
conception aud the idea of the Infinite God is as great as




the difference between the "dug-out" of a Sandwich
Islander and a California clipper, that takes all the airs of
heaven in its broad arms, and skims over the waters with
the speed of wind. I see no limit to this power of progressive development in man; none to man's power of
religious development. The progress did not begin with
Moses, nor end with Jesus. Neither of these great benefactors was a finality in benefaction. This power of growth,
which belongs to human nature, is only definite in the histofical forms already produced, but quite indefinite and
boundless in its capabilities of future expansion.
In the human faculties, this is the order of rank: I have
put the body and all its powers at the bottom of the scale;
and then, of the spiritual powers, I put the intellect the
lowest of all; conscience came next higher; the affections
higher yet; and, highest of all, I have put the religious
faculty. Hence I have always taught that the religious
faculty was the natural ruler in all this commonwealth of
man; yet I would not have it a tyrant, to deprive the mind
or the conscience or the affections of their natural rights.
But the importance of religion, and its commanding power
in every relation of life, that is what I have continually
preached; and some of you will remember that the first
sermon I addressed to you was on this theme, - The Absolute Necessity of Religion for safely conducting the life
of the individual and the life of the state. I dwelt on both
of these points, - religion for the individual, and religion
for the state. You know very well I did not begin too
soon. Yet I did not then foresee that it would soon be denied in America, in Boston, that there was any law higher
than an Act of Congress.
Woman I have always regarded as the equal of man, —
more nicely speaking, the equivalent of man; superior in
some things, inferior in some other: inferior in the lower
qualities, in bulk of body and bulk of brain; superior in the




higher and nicer qualities, in the moral power of conscience, the loving power of affection, the religious power
of the soul; equal, on the whole, and of course entitled to
just the same rights as man; to the same rights of mind,
body, and estate; the same domestic, social, ecclesiastical,
and political rights as man, and only kept from the enjoyment of these by might, not right; yet herself destined one
day to acquire them all. For, as in the development of
man, the lower faculties come out and blossom first, and
as accordingly, in the development of society, those persons
who represent the lower powers first get elevated to prominence; so man, while he is wanting in the superior quality,
possesses brute strength and brute intellect, and in virtue
thereof has had the sway in the world. But as the finer
qualities come later, and the persons who represent those
finer qualities come later into prominence; so womankind
is destined one day to come forth and introduce a better
element into the family, society, politics, and church, and to
bless us far more than the highest of men are yet aware.
Out of that mine the fine gold is to be brought which shall
sanctify the church, and save the state.
That is my idea of man; and you see how widely it
differs from the popular ecclesiastical idea of man.
Then a word for the Idea of the Relation between God
and Man.
I. First, of this on God's part. God is perfect Cause and
perfect Providence, Father and Mother of all men; and He
loves each with all of his Being, all of his almightiness, his
all-knowingness, all-righteousness, all-lovingness, and allholiness. He knew at the beginning all the history of mankind, and of each man, - of Jesus of Nazareth and Judas
Iscariot; and prepared for all, so that a perfect result shall be
worked out at last for each soul. The means for the purposes of God in the human world are the natural powers of
2




10
man, his faculties; those faculties which are fettered by instinct, and those also which are winged by free-will. Hence
while, with my idea of God, I am sure of the end, and have
asked of all men an infinite faith that the result would be
brought out right by the forces of God, —with my idea of
man, I have also pointed out the human means; and, while
I was sure of the end, and called for divine faith, I have
also been sure of the means, and called for human work.
Here are two propositions: first, that God so orders things
in his providence, that a perfect result shall be wrought out
for each; and, second, that He gives a certain amount of
freedom to every man. I believe both of these propositions;
I have presented both as strongly as I could. I do not
mean to say that I have logically reconciled these two propositions, with all their consequences, in my own mind, and
still less to the minds of others. There may seem to be a
contradiction. Perhaps I do not know 1ow to reconcile the
seeming contradiction, and yet believe both propositions.
From this it follows that the history of the world is no
surprise to God; that the vice of a Judas, or the virtue of
a Jesus, is not a surprise to Him. Error and sin are what
stumbling is to the child; accidents of development, which
will in due time be overcome. As the finite mother does
not hate the sound and strong boy, who sometimes stumbles
in learning to walk; does not hate the sound, but weak
boy, who stumbles often; and does not hate the crippled
boy, who stumbles continually, and only stumbles; — but as
she seeks to help and teach all three, so the Infinite Mother
of us all does not hate the well-born, who seldom errs;
does not hate the ill-born, who often transgresses; and
does not hate the moral idiot, even the person that is born
organized for kidnapping; — but will, in the long run of
eternity, bring all these safely home,-the first murderer
and the last kidnapper, both reformed and blessed. Suffering for error and sin is a fact in this world. I make




no doubt it will be a fact in all stages of development in
the next world. But mark this: It is not from the anger
or weakness of God that we suffer; it is for purposes worthy of his perfection and his love. Suffering is not a devil's
malice, but God's medicine.  I can never believe that Evil
is a finality with God.
II. Then see the relation on man's part. Providence is
what God owes to man; and man has an unalienable right
to the infinite providence of God. No sin ever can alienate
and nullify that right. To say that it could, would seem
to me blasphemy against the Most High God; for it would
imply a lack of some element of perfection on God's part;
a lack of power, of wisdom, of justice, of love, or of holiness, - fidelity to Himself. It. would make God finite, and
not infinite.
Religion is what man owes to God, as God owes providence to man. And with me religion is something exceedingly wide, covering the whole surface, and including the
whole depth of human life. The internal part I have
called Piety. By that I mean, speaking synthetically,
the love of God as God, with all the mind and conscience,
heart and soul; speaking analytically, the love of truth
and beauty, with the intellect; the love of justice, with the
conscience; the love of persons, with the affections; the
love of holiness, with the soul: for all these faculties find
in God their perfect Object, -the all-true, all-beautiful,
all-just, all-loving, and all-holy God, the Father and Mother
of all.
The more external part of religion, I have called Morality; that is, keeping all the natural laws which God has
writ for the body and spirit, for mind and conscience and
heart and soul; and I consider that it is just as much a
part of religion to keep every law which God has writ in
our frame, as it is to keep the " Ten Commandments; " and
just as- much our duty to keep the law which He has thus




published in human nature, as if the voice of God spoke
out of heaven, and said, "Thou shalt," and "Thou shalt
not."  Man's consciousness proclaims God's law.  It is
nature on which I have endeavored to bottom my teachings. Of course this morality includes the subordination of
the body to the spirit, and, in the spirit, the subordination
of the lower faculties to the higher; so that the religious
element shall correct the partiality of affection, the coldness of justice, and the shortsightedness of intellectual calculation; and, still more, shall rule and keep in rank the
appetites of the body. But in this the soul must not be a
tyrant over the body; for, as there is a holy spirit, there is
likewise a holy flesh. All its natural appetites are sacred;
and the religious faculty is not to domineer over the mind,
nor over the conscience, nor over the affections of man.
All these powers are to be coordinated into one great harmony, where the parts are not sacrificed to the whole, nor
the whole to any one part. So, in short, man's religious
duty is to serve God by the normal use, development, and
enjoyment of every limb of the body, every faculty of the
spirit, every particle of power which we progressively acquire and possess over matter or over man.
The ordinances of that religion are, inwardly, prayer of
penitence and aspiration, the joy and delight in God and
his gifts; and, outwardly, they are the daily works of life,
by fire-side and street-side and field-side, — "the charities
that soothe and heal and bless." These are the ordinances,
and I know no other.
Of course, to determine the religiousness of a man, the
question is not merely — What does he believe? butHas he been faithful to himself in coming to his belief?
It may be possible that a man comes to the conviction of
Atheism, but yet has been faithful to himself. It may be
that the man believes the highest words taught by Jesus,
and yet has been faithless to himself. It is a fact which




13
deserves to be held up everlastingly before men, that religion begins in faithfulness to yourself. I have known men
whom the world called Infidels, and mocked at, who yet
were faithful among the faithfulest.  Their intellectual
conclusions I would have trodden under my feet; but their
faithfulness I would fall on my knees to do honor to.
Then the question is not how a man dies, but how he
lives. It is very easy for a dying man to be opiated by
the doctor and minister to such a degree that his mouth
shall utter any thing you will; and then, though he was
the most hardened of wretches, you shall say " he died a
saint "! The common notion of the value of a little snivelling and whimpering on a death-bed is too dangerous, as
well as too poor, to be taught for science in the midst of
the nineteenth century.
I have taken it for granted also, that religion gave to
men the highest) dearest, and deepest of all enjoyments
and delights; that it beautified every relation in human life,
and shed the light of heaven into the very humblest house,
into the lowliest heart, and cheered and soothed and blessed
the very hardest lot and the most cruel fate in mortal life.
This is not only my word, but your hearts bear witness to
the truth of that teaching; and all human history will
tell the same thing.
These have been the chief doctrines that 1 have set forth
in a thousand forms. You see at once how very widely
this differs from the common scheme of theology in which
all of us were born and bred. There is a vast difference in
the Idea of God, of Man, and of the Relation between the
two.
Of course I do not believe in a devil, eternal torment,
nor in a particle of absolute evil in God's world or in God.
I do not believe there ever was a miracle, or ever will be:




14
everywhere I find law, -the constant mode of operation
of the infinite God. I do not believe in the miraculous
inspiration of the Old Testament or the New Testament,
I do not believe that the Old Testament was God's first
word, nor the New Testament his last. The Scriptures are
no finality to me. Inspiration is a perpetual fact. Prophets
and Apostles did not monopolize the Father: He inspires
men to-day as much as heretofore. In nature, also, God
speaks for ever. Are not these flowers new words of God?
Are not the fossils underneath our feet, hundreds of miles
thick, old words of God, spoken millions of millions of years
before Moses began to be?
I do not believe the miraculous origin of the Hebrew
Church, or the -Buddhist Church, or the Christian Church;
nor the miraculous character of Jesus. I take not the Bible
for my master, nor yet the church; nor even Jesus of Nazareth for my master. I feel not at all bound to believe what
the church says is true, nor what any writer in the Old or
New Testament declares true; and I am ready to believe
that Jesus taught, as I think, eternal torment, the existence
of a devil, and that he himself should ere long come back in
the clouds of heaven. I do not accept these things on his
authority. I try all things by the human faculties; intellectual things by the intellect, moral things by the conscience, affectional things by the affections, and religious
things by the soul. Has God given us any thing better
than our nature?  How can we serve Him and his purposes but by its normal use?
But, at the same time, I reverence the Christian Church
for the great good it has done for mankind; I reverence the
Mahometan Church for the good it has done, - a far less
good. I reverence the Scriptures for every word of truth
they teach; and they are crowded with truth and beauty,
from end to end. Above all men do I bow my face before
that august personage, Jesus of Nazareth, who-,,seems to




have had the strength of man and the softness of woman,
- man's mighty, wide-grasping, reasoning, calculating, and
poetic mind; and woman's conscience, woman's heart, and
woman's faith in God. He is my best historic ideal. of
human greatness; not without errors, not without the stain
of his times, and, I presume, of course not without sins;
for men without sins exist in the dreams of girls, not in
real fact: you never saw such a one, nor I, and we never
shall. But Jesus of Nazareth is my best historic ideal of
a religious man, and revolutionizes the vulgar conception
of human greatness. What are your Caesars, Alexanders,
Cromwells, Napoleons, Bacons, and Leibnitz and Kant
and Shakspeare and Milton even, - men of immense brain
and will, - what are they all to this person of large and
delicate intellect, of a great conscience, and heart and soul
far mightier yet?
With such ideas of man, of God, and of the relation
between them, how all things must look from my point of
view! I cannot praise a man because he is rich. While I
deplore the vulgar rage for wealth, and warn men against
the popular lust of gold, which makes money the tri-une
deity of so many men, I yet see the function of riches, and
have probably preached in favor of national and individual
accumulation thereof more than any other man in all
New England, for I see the necessity of a material basis
for the spiritual development of man; but I never honor a
live man because he is rich, and should not think of ascribing to a dead one all the Christian virtues because he
died with a large estate, and his faith, hope, and charity
were only faith in money, hope for money, and love of
money. I should not think such a man entitled to the praise
of all the Christian virtues.
And again, I should never praise or honor a man simply
because he had a great office, nor because he had the praise




16
of men; nor should I praise and honor a manll because
he had the greatest intellect in the world, and the widest
culture of that intellect. I should take the intellect for
what it was worth; but I should honor the just conscience
of a man that carried a hod up the tallest ladder in Boston;
I should honor the loving heart of a girl that went without
her dinner to feed a poor boy; the faith in God which
made a poor woman faithful to every daily duty, while
poverty and sickness stared her in the face, and a drunken
husband smote her in the heart, - a faith which conquered
despair, and still kept living on. I should honor any one
of these things more than the intellect of Coesar and Bacon
and Hannibal all united into one: and you see why;
because I put intellect at the bottom of the scale, and these
higher faculties at the other end.
I put small value on the common "signs of religion."
Church-going is not morality: it is compliance with common custom. It may be grievous self-denial, and often is.
Reading the Bible daily or weekly is not piety: it may
help to it. The " sacraments " are no signs of religion to
me: they are dispensations of water, of wine, of bread,
and no more. I do not think a few hours of crying on a
sick-bed proves that a notorious miser or voluptuary, a hard,
worldly fellow, for fifty years, has been a saint all that time,
any more than one mild day in March proves that there
was no ice in Labrador all winter.
With such views, you see in what esteem I must be held
by society, church, and state. I cannot be otherwise than
hated.. This is the necessity of my position, - that I must
be hated; and, accordingly, I believe there is no living
man in America that is so widely, abundantly, and deeply
hated as I have been, and still continue to be. In the last
twelve years, I fear there has been more ecclesiastical




17
preaching in the United States against me than against war
and slavery. Those that hate any particular set of reformers hate me because I am with that particular set, with each
and with all. I do not blame men for this; not so much
as some others have done on my account. I pity very much
more than I blame; not with the pity of contempt, I hope,
but with the pity of appreciation, and with the pity of love.
I see in the circumstances of men very much to palliate
the offences of their character; and I long ago learned not
to hate men who hated ine. It was not hard to learn; I
began early, — I had a mother who taught me.
You know the actual condition of the American Church,
that it has a theology which cannot stand the test of reason; and accordingly it very wisely resolved to throw reason
overboard before it began its voyage. You know that all
Christendom, with a small exception, professes a belief in
the devil, in eternal torment; and, of course, all Christendom, with scarce any exception, professes a belief in a God
who has those qualities which created a devil and eternal
torment.
You know the morality of the American Church. The
clergy are a body of kindly and charitable men. Some
virtues, which are not very easy to possess, they have inj
advance of any other class of men amongst us. They are
the virtues which belong to their position. I believe they
are all, as a body, a good deal better than their creed. I
know men often say a man is not so good as his creed.
I never knew a minister who was half so bad as Calvinism.
I surely have no prejudice against John Calvin, when I say
he was an uncommonly hard man, with a great head and
a rigorous conscience; but John Calvin himself was a
great deal better than the Calvinistic idea of God. I should
give up in despair with that idea of God: I should not
cast myself on his mercy, for there would be no mercy ill
Him.
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18
But the preaching of the churches is not adapted to produce the higher kinds of morality. Certain humble but
needful forms of morality the church helps, and very much
indeed.  On the whole, it blocks the wheels of society
backwards, so that society does not run down hill; but, on
the other hand, it blocks them forward, so that it is harder
to get up; and, while you must run over the church to get
far down hill, you must also run over it to get up. It
favors certain lower things of morality: higher things it
hinders.
Here are two great forms of vice, — natural forms.
One comes from the period of passion; and, when it is fully
ripe, it is the vice of the Debauchee: the other comes
from the period of calculation; and, when it is fully rotten,
it is the sin of the Hunker.*  Now, the churches are not
very severe on the first kind of vice. They are very severe
on unpopular degrees of it, not on the popular degree.
They do service, however, in checking the unpopular degree.
But the sin of the Hunkers, I think, the churches uniformly
uphold and support. The popular sins of calculation are
pretty sure to get the support of the pulpit on their side.
Why so? They can pay for it in money and in praise.
I know but few exceptions to that rule.
Then there are certain other merely ecclesiastical vices,
mere conventional vices; not sins, not transgressions of any
natural law. These the churches regard as great sins.
Such are doubt and disbelief of ecclesiastical doctrine; new
glect of ecclesiastical ordinances, -.,of the " Sabbath-day,"
as it is called; neglect of the great bodily sacrament,
church-going, and the like. All these offences the churches
preach against with great power.
Accordingly the churches hinder the highest morality,
favor the lower. The highest morality is thought superflu* I do not use this wrd in its politioal sense, but to denote a man thoroughly
selfish on calculation.




19
ous in society, contemptible in politics, and an abomination
in the church.
Just now, I learned through the newspapers that John
Wesley's pulpit has been brought to America, and it is
thought a great gain. But if John Wesley's voice, declaring aloud that slavery is " the sum of all villanies," were
to be brought, it would presently be excommunicated
from the Methodist Church. I understand that the chair
in which the " Shepherd of Salisbury Plains" once sat has
likewise arrived in America; and the tub, I think it is,
which belonged to the " Dairyman's Daughter," has also
immigrated; and these will be thought much more valuable
ecclesiastical furniture than the piety of the Shepherd of
Salisbury Plains, and the self-denial of the Dairyman's
Daughter. It is popular to baptize babies in water from
the Jordan; unpopular to baptize men with the spirit of
Jesus, and with fire from the Holy Ghost.
My preaching has been mainly positive, of truth and
duty in their application to life; but sometimes negative
and critical, even militant. This was unavoidable; for I
must show how my scheme would work when brought face
to face with the church, society, and the state.
So I have sometimes preached against the evil doctrines
of the Popular Theology; its false idea of God, of man,
and of religion. This popular theology contains many excellent things: but its false things, taken as a whole, are
the greatest curse of the nation; a greater curse than drunkenness, than the corruption of political parties, greater than
slavery. False theology stands in the way of every reform.
Would you reform the criminal, — along comes theology,
with its "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his
blood be shed." Would you reform the church, —men say,
*" You must listen to the church, but not reform it; it must




20
reform-you, and, not you it." Would you elevate woman to
her rights, - popular theology quotes St. Paul till you are
almost sick of: his name. Would you refuse obedience to
a wicked law, and quote Jesus, and every great martyr from
the beginning of the world, — popular theology meets you
with " Whoso resisteth the powers that be, resisteth the
ordinance of God." If you wish to abolish slavery, - ministers come out'with the old story of Ham and Noah, and
justify American bondage on an old mythology, writ three
thousand years ago, nobody knows where, nobody knows
by whom, nobody knows for what purpose. All the garments possessed by the children of Shem and Japheth are
too scant to hide the shame of the popular theology. This
false theology at this day bears the same relation to human
progress, that Heathenism and Judaism bore in the first
and second and. third and fourth centuries after Christ. I
confess, that, while I respect the clergy as much as any
class of men, I hate the false ideas of the popular theology,
and hate them with my body and with my spirit, with my
mind and my conscience, with my heart and my soul; and
I hate nothing so bad as I hate the false ideas of the popular theology. They are the greatest curse of this nation.
Then I have preached against Slavery; and to me
slavery appears in two views. First, it is a Measure to be
looked on as a part of the national housekeeping. We
are to ask if it will pay; what its effect will -be on the
material earnings of the nation.' And when we propose to
extend slavery to a new territory, this is -the question:
Will you have slavery, and your land worth five dollars an
acre, as in South Carolina; or will you have freedom, and
your land worth thirty dollars an acre, as in Massachusetts?
VWill you have slavery, and the average earnings of all the
people one dollar a week; or freedom, and the average
earnings four dollars a week? Will you have slavery,
and the worst cultivated lands, the rudest houses, and the




poorest towns; or will you have freedom, and the nicest
agriculture, the best manufactures, the richest houses, and
the most sumptuous towns? Looking at it barely as
a part of housekeeping, if I were a monarch, I should not
like to say to California, Texas, and New Mexico: " You
might have institutions that would make your land worth
thirty dollars an acre, and enable your people to earn four
dollars- a week; but you shall have institutions that will
make your land worth five dollars an acre, and the average
earnings of the people one dollar a week." I like money
too well to take off three dollars from every four that might
be earned, and twenty-five dollars from every acre of land
worth thirty. I should think twice, if I were the President
of the United States, before I did any thing to bring about
that result.
That is not all. Slavery is a Principle, to be looked on
as a part of our national religion: for our actions are our
worship of God, if pious; of the " devil," if impious. It is
to be estimated by its conformity to natural law. From
my point of view, it is against all natural right, all natural
religion, and is, as John Wesley said, "the sum  of all
villanies." When the question comes up, Shall we intro.
duce slavery into a new territory? this is the question to
be asked, Shall the laboring population be reduced to the
legal rank of cattle; bought, bred, branded, as cattle? Shall
the husband have no right to his wife's society? Shall the
maiden have no protection for her own virtue?  Shall
the wife be torn from her husband? Shall a mother be
forced to cut the throats of four of her children, or else see
them sold into slavery?  a case that has actually happened.
If I were a monarch, I should not like to levy such a tax
on any people under my dominion. If I were President of
the United States, I should not like to say to California,
New Mexico, or old Mexico, "I intend to reduce you to
that position;" and I think if I did, and stood up before




22
you afterwards, you would have something to say about
it. I should not like to do this for the sake of being President of the United States.
Now, I must confess that I hate slavery; and I do not
hate it any the less since it has become so popular in Boss
ton, andj after a belief in the finality of the Compromise
Measures, has been made the sine qua non of a man's social,
political, and ecclesiastical respectability. I hated it always,
and hate it all the worse to-day for what it has done.
Then I have preached against Oppression in every form;
the tyranny of man over woman; of popular opinion over
the individual reason, consciences and soul. I have preached
against the tyranny of public law, when the law was
wicked. Standing in a pulpit, preaching in the name of
God, could I call on you to blaspheme the name of God for
the sake of obeying a wicked statute that men had made?
When I do thatj may my right arm drop from my shoulder,
and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth! I have
preached against the tyranny which takes advantage of
men's misfortunes, and with the sponge of illegal usury
sucks up the earnings of honest men; against the tyranny
of the few over the many in Europe, and of the many
over the few in America. I love freedom of thought and
of action; and I claim for every man the right to think, not
as I do, but as he must or may.
Then I have preached against Intemperance, against
making rum, selling rum, and drinking rum. The evil of
intemperance has been under my eyes every Sundays
There is not a man before me, not a woman before met
not a girl or boy before me, but has lost some dear and
valued relative, within not many years, slain by this monster, which poisons the body of America. The poor men
that I feed have been made paupers by rum; of the funerals that I attend, rum, with its harsh; hammer, has often
nailed down the coffin-lid; and, of the Ynmarriages that I




23
have helped to solemnize, how often has the wife been left
worse than a widow! Since intemperance has become so
popular in Boston; since it has got the mayor and aldermen on its side, and while every thirty-fifth voter in Boston
is a licensed seller of rum; when it is invested with such
strength, and gets possession of the House of Representatives, - I have preached against it all the more. I know,
from the little town where I was born, as well as this large
one, what a curse and blight drunkenness is.
Then I have preached against War; and I suppose, before long, I shall have a new occasion to lift up my voice
against it once more.
Now, with such ideas, and such a style of preaching,
I could not be popular. Hated I must needs be. How
could it be otherwise?  Men that knew no God but a
jealous God; no human nature but total depravity; no religion but the ordinances of baptism, the Lord's Supper,
and reverence for ancient words of holy men, and the like;
no truth but public opinion; no justice but public law; no
earthly good above respectability, - they must needs hate
me, and I do not wonder at it. I fear there is not a theological newspaper in the land that has not delivered its
shot in my face. You know how the pulpits, at various
times, have rung out with indignation against me, and
what names you and I have been called.
Well, I have not yet fired a shot in my own defence.
Not one. I have replied to no attack, to no calumny. I
have had too much else to do. In comparison with the
idea that I endeavor to set forth, I am nothing, and may go
to the ground, so that the truth goes on.
When I first came to stand in this place, many of my
Unitarian brethren of the city, and elsewhere, complained
publicly and privately, that they were held responsible for
my theological opinions, which they did not share; and that




24
they had no opportunity to place themselves right before
the public. To give them an opportunity and occasion for
developing the theological antithesis betwixt their doctrines
and my own, and to let the public see in what things they
all agreed, and in what they unitedly differed from me, I
published "a Letter to the Boston Association of Congregational Ministers, touching certain Matters of their Theology." But, alas! they have not answered the letter, nor
informed the public of the things in which they all agree
with each other, and wherein they all differ from me.
Men predicted our defeat. I believe, six months was the
longest space allotted to us to live and repent. That was
the extent of our " mortal probation."  We ought not to
think harshly of men for this. I suppose they did the best
they could with their light. But we went on, and continued
to live. It is a little curious to notice the reasons that were
assigned, by the press and the pulpit, for the audience that
came together. For the first six months, I took pains to
collect the opinions of the theological press and pulpit. I
would say, that, with that exception, I have seldom read
the various denunciations which have been written against
you and me, and which have been sent, I hope with the
best intentions, from all parts of the United States. When
I have received them, and seen their character from a line
or two, - and the postage was seldom paid,@- I have immediately put them in the safest of all places, - committed
them to the flames. But, for this period of six months,
during which our ecclesiastical existence was likely to continue, I inquired what the opinions of the press and pulpit
were.
The first reason assigned for the audience coming together was this: They came from vain curiosity, having itching ears to hear " what this babbler sayeth."
* Here I must make one exception. Abusive letters from South Carolina have
been uniformly post-paid.




Then it was said men came here because I taught utter
irreligion, blank immorality; that I had no love of God, no
fear of God, no love of man; and that you thought, if you
could get rid of your conscience and soul, and trample
immortality under foot, and were satisfied there was no
God, you should have a very nice time of it here and hereafter. Men read history very poorly. It is not men who
falsify the word of God that are ever popular with the
great mass of men. Never, never! Not so. The strictest,
hardest preacher draws crowds of men together, when he
speaks in the name of religion and God's higher law; but
eloquent Voltaire gets most of his admirers of scoffing
among the cultivated, the refined, and the rich: Atheism
is not democratic.
Then it was declared that I was a shrewd, practical man,
perfectly "well posted up" in every thing that, took place;
knew how to make investments, and get very large returns:
unluckily, it has not been for myself that this has been
true. And it was said that I collected large-headed, practical men to hear me, and that you were a " boisterous assembly."
Then, that I was a learned man, and gave learned
discourses on ecclesiastical history or political history, —
things that have not been found very attractive in the
churches hitherto.
Then again, that I was a philosopher, with a wise head,
and taught men theological metaphysics; and so a large
company of men seemed all at once smitten with a panic for
metaphysics and abstract preaching. It was never so before.
Then it was reported that I was a witty man, and shot
nicely feathered arrows very deftly into the mark; and that
men came to attend the sharp-shooting of a wit.
Then there was an eighth thing,- that I was an eloquent
man; and I remember certain diatribes against the folly of
filling churches with eloquence,
4




26
Then again, it was charged against me that I was a philanthropist, and taught the love of men, but did not teach
at all the love of God; and that men really loved to love
one another, and so came.
Then it was thought that I was a sentimentalist, and
tickled the ears of "weak women," who came to delight
themselves, and be filled full of poetry and love.
The real thing they did not seem to hit; that I preached
an idea of God, of man, and of religion, which commended
itself to the nature of mankind. From the churches in
general, I expected little; but I have found much deep and
real kindness from fellow-ministers of all denominations, —
Unitarian, Universalist, Baptist, Methodist, Calvinist, and
Christian. On the whole, - I am sorry to say it, - I have
had less friendship shown me by the Unitarian sect in
America, all things considered, than by the other sects. The
heartiest abuse has come from my own brethren, and the
stingiest testimonials for any merit. That was to be expected. I was a Unitarian; that is, I utterly rejected the
Trinitarian theology: I associated chiefly with Unitarian
clergymen. When my theological opinions became known
to the public, some twelve years ago, they were declared
"unsafe" and "dangerous" by the stricter sects. So an
outcry was raised, not only against me, but also against
the Unitarian sect. In self-defence, many Unitarian ministers, who had long been accused of being " hag-ridden by
the orthodox," turned round, and denounced both my opinions and me, sometimes in the bitterest and most cruel
fashion. They said, " He must be put down." They
sought to "silence" me, to exclude me from the journals
and the pulpits of the sect, to dissuade lyceum-committees
from asking me to lecture, and to prevent my speaking in
Boston. Nay, some took pains to prevent my parishioners
at West Roxbury from attending service there; they tried to
hinder booksellers from publishing my works; and I could




27
not find a publisher to put his name to the title-page of
the first edition of my "Discourse of the Transient and
Permanent in Christianity," -the Swedenborgian printers
generously volunteered their name! The commonest courtesies of life were carefully withheld. I was treated like a
leprous Jew. Studious attempts at deliberate insult were
frequently made by Unitarian clergymen. I. soon found,
that, if theological Odium had been legally deprived of the
arrows in its ancient quiver, it had yet lost none of the old
venom from its heart. The Unitarians denied the great
principle they had so manfully contended for, -free spiritual
individuality in religion. I must say, I think they made a
mistake. As a measure, their conduct was inexpedient; as
a principle, it was false and wrong; as priestcraft, it was
impolitic; as ethics, it was wicked: they hurt their own
hand in breaking the Golden Rule over my head. But there
were some very honorable exceptions in the denomination;
men who lost sectarian favor by adhering to a universal
principle of morals; and let me say, that I think no sect
in Christendom would, in such a case, have treated a
"heretic" with so little harshness as the Unitarians have
shown to me. They have at least the tradition of liberality,
which no other sect possesses. In England they have met
my opinions with philosophical fairness, if not with partiality, and treated me with more consideration and esteem
than I ever ventured to claim for myself.
All over the land I have found kindly and warm-hearted
men and women, who have shed their dew-drop of sympathy
upon me, just when my flower hung its head and collapsed,
and seemed ready to perish. There is one clergyman to
whom I owe an especial obligation. He has often stood
in this place, and, for conscience' sake, has made greater
and more difficult sacrifices than I. He began as an evangelist to the poor of Boston; carrying them the body's
bread in his left hand, and Heaven's own manna in his




28
right; and he now sheds broader charity fronm the same
noble and generous heart. " A friend in need is a friend
indeed;" and, if his face were not before me at this moment, I should say what his modesty would be pained to
hear; but it is what none of you need to be told.'
It is eight years since first we came together; and that
is a long time in American history. America has gained
four new States in that time; a territory bigger than the
old thirteen; and got all the new country by wickedness.
We have spread slavery anew over a country larger than
the empire of France; have fought the Mexican war, so
notorious for its wickedness. We have seen both political
parties become the tools of slavery; the Democratic perhaps a little worse than the Whig. We have seen the
Fugitive Slave Bill welcomed in Boston, a salute of one
hundred guns fired to honor its passage; and a man kidnapped out of the birthplace of Samuel Adams, to the delight of the controlling men thereof!  You and I have
repeatedly trangressed the laws of the land, in order to
hinder " Unitarian Christians" of Boston, supported by
their clergy, from sending our fellow-worshippers into the
most hideous slavery in the world*
Great men have died, - Jackson, Adams, Taylor, Calhoun, Clay, Webster. What changes have taken place in
Europe in this brief eight years! The old Pope has died.
The new Pope promised to be a philanthropist, and turned
out what we now see.  All of royalty, all of the king,
"was carried out from Paris in a single street-cab;" and,
a few days later, Napoleon the Little came in, furnished
with nothing but "s a tame eagle and a pocketful of debts."
We have seen France rise up to the highest point of sublimity, and declare government to be founded on the
* If this sermon should fall into the hands of a stranger, he may be glad to know
that I refer to the Rev. JoBN T. SARGEXT.




29
unchanging law of God; and the same France, with
scarcely the firing of a. musket, drop down to the bottom
of the ridiculous, and become the slave of the stupidest and
vulgarest even of vulgar kings. We have'seen all Western
Europe convulsed with revolutions; the hope of political
freedom brightening in men's hearts; and now see a
heavier despotism as the present result of the defeated
effort. Kossuth is an exile; and a ruined debauchee is
the " imperial representative of morality" on the throne of
Saint Louis.
I have been your minister almost eight years. Some of
our members have withdrawn, and walk no more with us.
I trust they were true to their conscience, and went where
wiser and abler and better men- can feed their souls as I
cannot. I have never thought it a religious duty for any
man to listen to my poor words; how poor nobody knows
so well as I.
In myself there are many things which I lament. It has
been a great grief to me, as I have looked upon your faces,
that I was no worthier to speak to you; that I had not a
larger intellectual power, by birth and culture, to honor the
ideas withal; and, still more, that, in conscience and heart
and soul, I was so poor.
One thing in my ministry has troubled me a good deal.
Coming from a little country parish, with the habits of a
country minister; knowing every man, woman, and child
therein; knowing the thoughts of all that had any thoughts,
and the doubts of such as had strength to raise a doubt, -
I have found it, painful to preach to men whom I did not
know in the intimacy of private life. For the future, I
hope it will be possible for me to know you better, and
more intimately in your homes.
I must have committed many errors. When an old
man, I trust I shall see them, and sometime point them




30
out, that others may be warned by my follies. You
must know my character better than I know it.  My
private actions I know best; but you see me in joy and
sorrow, in indignation and penitence, in sermon and in
prayer, when there is no concealment in a man's face.
Hold a medal, worn smooth, before the fire, and the old
stamp comes out as before. Concealment lifts her veil before
any strong emotion which renews the face. You must
know me better than I know myself. I also know you. I
have tasted your kindness in public and private; not only
from women, - who have always shown the readiest sympathy for a new religious development, from the time when
Pharaoh's daughter drew a slave's child out of the Nile, to
that day when a woman poured the box of ointment over
the head of Jesus, —but also from men; not only from
young men, but from those whose heads have blossomed
anew with the venerable flowers of age.
You, my friends, have been patient with my weaknesses,
kind and affectionate.  I think no man ever had truer,
warmer, or more loving friends. As I have looked round
on your faces, before the commencement of service; as
I have sat and seen the young and the old, the rich and
the poor, the joyous and the sad, come together; as I have
gathered up the outward elements of my morning prayer
from the various faces and dissimilar histories, which, at a
single glance, stood before me,- my friends, I have thanked
my God it was my lot to stand here; and yet have reproached myself again and again, that I was no worthier
of the trust, and have asked before God, "Who is sufficient
for these things? "
I know how often I must have wounded your feelings,
in speaking of the political conduct of America; for I have
endeavored to honor what was right, and expose to censure
what was wrong, in both parties, and in the third party
during its existence. I have not passed over the sins of




31
trade. I have preached on all the exciting and agitating
topics of the day. I wonder not that some friends were
offended. I only wonder that such a multitude has still
continued to listen. Verily, there is little to attract you
in these surroundings: public opinion pronounced it infamous to be here. It was the Ideas of Absolute Religion
that drew you here through ill report. The highest and
the best things I have had to offer, have always found the
warmest welcome in your heart.
We must bid farewell to these old walls. They have not
been very comfortable. All the elements have been hostile.
The winter's cold has chilled us; the summer's heat has
burned us; the air has often been poisoned with contaminations, a whole week long in collecting; and the element
of earth, the dirt, that was everywhere. As I have stood
here, I have often seen the spangles of opera-dancers, who
beguiled the time the night before, lying on the floor beside me; anid have picked them up in imagination, and
woven them into my sermon and psalm and prayer. The
associations commonly connected with this hall have not
been of the most agreeable character. Dancing monkeys,
and " Ethiopian Serenaders " making vulgar merriment out
of the ignorance and the wretchedness of the American
slave, have occupied this spot during the week, and left their
marks, their instruments, and their breath, behind them on
the Sunday. Could we complain of such things? I have
thought we were very well provided for, and have given God
thanks for these old, but spacious walls. The early Christians worshipped in caverns of the ground. In the tombs of
dead men did the only live religion find its dwelling-place
at Rome. The star of Christianity "first stood still over a
stable "! These old walls will always be dear and sacred
to me. Even the weather-stains thereon are to me more
sacred than the pictures which the genius of Angelo painted
in the Sistine Chapel, or those with which Raphael adorned




the Vatican. To me they are associated with some of the
holiest aspirations and devoutest hours of my mortal life,
and with the faces which welcomed every noble word I ever
learned to speak.
Well, we must bid them farewell. Yonder clock will no
more remind me how long I have trespassed on your patience, when your faces tell no such tale. We will bid
these old walls, these dusty lights, farewell. Our old companion, the organ, has gone before us; and again shall we
hear its voice.
But what have I been to you in all this time? You
have lent me your ears: I have taken your hearts too, I
believe. But let me ask this of you: Have I done you
good, or have I done you harm? Have I taught you, and
helped you, to reverence God the more; to havie a firmer and
heartier faith in Him; to love Him the deeper, and keep
his laws the better; to love man the more? If so, then indeed has my work been blessed, and I have been a minister
to you. But, if it has not been so; if your reverence and
faith in God grow cold under my preaching, and your zeal
for man dwindles and passes away, - then turn off from
me, and leave me to the cold gilding and empty magnificence of our new place of worship; and go you and seek
some other, who, with a loftier aspiring mind, shall point
upwards towards God, and, with a holier heart, shall bid
you love Him. But, above all things, let me entreat you
that no reverence for me shall ever blind your eyes to any
fault of mine, to any error of doctrine. If there are sins
in my life, copy them not. Remember them at first, drop
the tear of charity on them, and blot them out.




SERMON IL
OF TIHE POSITION AND DUTY 0F A iMIlNISTERg
2 TIMOTHY i. 12. -('-I KNOW WHO I HATE BBELIEYEDfi'
IN the development of mankind, all the great desires get
some instrument to help achieve their end - a machine for
the private hand, an institution for the mind and conscience, the heart and soul, of millions of men. Thus all
the great desires, great duties, great rights, become organized in human history; provided with some instrument to
reach out and achieve their end. This is true of the finite
desires; true also of the infinite.
Man would be fed and clothed: behold the tools of agriculture and the arts, —the plough and the factory. He
would be housed and comforted: behold the hamlet and
the town. Man and maid would love one another: see
the home and the family, —the instrument of their love.
Thousands want mutual succor: there is society, with its
neighborly charities, and duties every day. Millions of
men ask defence, guidance, unity of action: behold the
state, with its constitutions and its laws, its officers and all
its array of political means. These are finite; a lengthening of the arm, a widening of the understanding; tools
for the affections and the heart. Thereby I lay hold of
6




34
matter and lay hold of man, and get the uses of the material world and of my brother-men.
These are finite, for to-day. But the same rule applies
to the infinite desires.  Man would orient himself before
his God; and hence, alongside of the field and the factory,
in the midst of the hamlet and the town, beside the State
House and the Market House, there rises up the Church,
its finger pointing to the sky. This is to represent to man
the infinite desire, infinite duty, infinite right. Thereby
mankind would avail itself of the forces of God, and be at
home in His world. Man is so much body, that the mouth
goes always: he never forgets to build and plant. But the
body is so full of soul, that no generation ever loses sight
of God. In this ship of the body, cruising oft in many an
unholy enterprise, standing off and standing on, tacking
and veering with the shifting wind of circumstance and
time, there is yet a little needle that points up, which has
its dip and variations;
"But, though it trembles as it lowly lies,
Points to the light that changes not, in heaven."
Man must have his institution for the divine side of him,
and hence comes the church. Man has a priest before he
has a king; and the progress in his idea of priest marks
the continual advance of the human race.
The minister is to serve the infinite duties of man, minister to his infinite rights; and is to betake himself to the
work of religion, as the farmer to agriculture, the housewright to building. But his function will depend on his
idea of religion, of what religion is; that on his idea of
God, of what God is.
Now, in all the great historical forms of religion, both
before and after Christ, priest and people have regarded
God as imperfect in power, in wisdom, in justice, in love,
or in holiness; as a finite God, and often with a dark




35
background of evil to Him.' Therefore, while they have
worshipped before the Father, they have trembled before the
devil, and deemed the devil mightier than God. Hence
religion has been thought the service of an imperfect God,
and of course a service with only a part of the faculties of
man; those faculties not in their perfect action, but in their
partial development and play.
Thus the function of the minister has been a very different thing in different ages of mankind. Let me sum up
all these in three great forms.
I. First, the priest was to appease tile Wrath of God.
He was to stand between offended God and offending man,
to propitiate God and appease Him, to make Him humane.
The priest was a special mediator between God on the
one side, and man on the other; and it was taught that
God would not listen to Silas and Daniel: He would hear
the word of Abner. So Abner must propitiate the Deity
for Silas and Daniel.
The priest attempts this, first, by sacrifice, which the
offending offers to the Offended; and the sacrifice is an
atonement, a peace-offering, a bribe to God to buy off his
anger. Next, he attempts it by prayers, which, it is thought,
alter the mind of God and his purpose; for the priest is
supposed to be more humane than the God who made
humanity. But God, it is thought, will not hear the prayer
of the profane people, nor accept their sacrifice; only that
of the sacred priest.
This, then, was the function of the Heathen and Hebrew
priest for a long time. Without sacrifice by the priest's
hand, there was no salvation. That was the rule. " Come
not empty-handed before the Lord," says the priest, " else
He will turn you off."  Then, the offering of sacrifice was
thought to be religion, and the priest's function was to offer
it. That is the rudest form.




36
II. Next, the function of the priest is to reconcile the
offended God to offending men by ritual action, and then
to communicate Salvation to Men by outward Means, --
baptism, penitence, communion, absolution, extreme unction, and the like. Here the priest is no longer merely
a sacrificer: he is a communicator of salvation already
achieved. He does not make a new deposit of salvation,
but only draws on the established fund. That is the chief
function of the Catholic priest at this day. But still, like
the Hebrew and Heathen priests, he makes " intercession
with God" for the living and the dead. " Out of the range
of the sacraments of the church," says he, " there is no salvation: the wrath of God will eat you up." The Catholic
priest does not make a new and original sacrifice; for the
one great sacrifice has been made once for all, and God has
been appeased towards mankind in general.- But the priest
is to take this great sacrifice, and therewith redeem this and
the other particular man; communicating to individuals
the general salvation which Christ has wrought. With the
Catholic, therefore, to take the sacraments is thought to be
religion, and the great thing of religion.
III. Then, as a third thing, the priest aims to communicate and explain a Miraculous Revelation of the Will of
God; and the worshippers are to believe that miraculous
revelation of the will of God, and have faith in it. That is
the only means of salvation with them. So, in this third
form, to take the Scriptures and believe them is thought to
be religion. This is the chief official function of the Protestant priest, - to communicate and explain the Scriptures;
and all the theological seminaries in the Protestant world
for the education of clergymen are established chiefly for
that function, — to teach the young man to communicate
and explain the Scriptures to mankind; for the belief in
them is thought to be religion. Chillingworth, two hundred




37
years ago, said, 1" The Bible is the religion of Protestants;"
and meant, To believe the Bible is the religion of Protestants. And that is what is meant by salvation by faith.
The line of historical continuity is never broke. The
Catholic priest, like the Hebrew  and the Heathen, still
claims to alter the mind of God by "intercession."  The
Protestant priest, like the Catholic, still claims to communicate salvation by the "sacraments," in the waters of
baptism, or the bread and wine of communion; and to
change the purposes of God, by prayer for rain in time of
drought, for health in time of pestilence. However, the
chief function of the Protestant priest is to communicate
and explain the Scriptures; for he says, " Out of the range
of belief in Scripture there is no salvation."
Say the Heathen and Hebrew priests, " Offer the sacrifice,
and be saved." Says the' Catholic priest, " Accept the
sacrament, and be saved."  Says the Protestant priest,
" Believe the Scriptures, and be saved." That has been, or
still is, the official function of these three classes of ministers in sacred things. They represent the three successive
ideas of religion which have appeared in the Heathen
and Hebrew church, in the Catholic church, and lastly in
the Protestant church.
But at this day, in all the forms of religion which belong
to the two leading races of mankind, the Caucasian and the
Mongolian, - comprising the Hebrew, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, Christian, and Mahometan,- the priest has got an
exceptional function. That has come upon him by accident, as it were, in the progress of man, -a human accident, for there are no divine ones; God lets nothing slip
unawares from his pen: there are no accidents in his world.
And that function is, to promote religion; to promote plain
piety and plain morality; to promote the love of God and
the love of man.




38
This, I say, is exceptional. It is only a subsidiary part
of the function, even of the Protestant minister. True,
throughout all Christendom the priest demands righteousness. But mark this: He demands it as a measure convenient for present expediency, not as a principle necessary to
eternal salvation. This exceptional function is more important with the Catholic than it was with the Heathen or
Hebrew; more important with the Protestant than it is
with the Catholic. Still, it is subsidiary; and it is thought
that the sin of a whole life, however wicked, may be wiped
out all at once, if, on his death-bed, a man repeats a few
passages of Scripture, and declares his faith in the redemption of Christ, and a belief in the words of the Bible. A
mall so base as Aaron Burr - the most dreadful specimen
of human depravity that America has yet produced, so far as
I know - might have left an unblemished reputation for
Christianity, if, a few weeks before he died, he had confessed his belief in every word between the lids of this
Bible, had declared that he had no confidence in human
virtue, hoped for salvation only through Christ, and if he
had taken the communion at a priest's hand. That would
have given him a better reputation in the churches than the
noble career of Washington, and the long, philanthropic,
and almost unspotted life of Franklin.
I say this is subsidiary. The Protestant priest does not
rely on it as his main work; and, in proof of success, I
have seldom known a minister point to the morality of his
parish, - not a drunkard in it, not a licentious man, not a
dishonest man, in it. I have seldom known him refer even
to the comfort of his parish, —pauperism gone, all active,
doing well, and well to do. He tells you of the number
that he has admitted to the "Christian communion," of
those that he has "' sprinkled " with the waters of baptism;
not the souls that he has baptized with the Holy Ghost and
its beauteous fire. Men wish to prove that the Americans




39
are a " Christian people," a "religious people:" they tell
the number of Bibles there are in the land; the number of
churches that point their finger with such beau'ty to the
sky; they never tell of the good deeds of the nation; of
its institutions, of its ideas, its sentiments. And, when an
outcry is made against the advance of " Infidelity," nobody
quotes the three millions of slaves, the political corruption
of the rulers, the venality of the courts, the disposition to
plunder other nations; nobody speaks of intemperance and
licentiousness, and dishonesty in trade: they only say that
some man denies total depravity, or the fall, or the miracles, or the existence of a devil, and thinks he is " wiser than
the Bible." Anywhere in Christendom it would be deemed
a heresy against all Christendom to say that human nature
was sufficient for human history, and had turned out on
trial just as God meant it should turn out on trial; and
that a man's salvation was his character, his heart, and
his life.
If we start with the idea that God is infinitely perfect
in power, in wisdom, in justice, and in love and holiness,then the function of the minister is not to appease the
wrath of God by sacrifice and intercession; not to communicate miraculous salvation, not even to communicate
a miraculous revelation: it will be to promote absolute
religion amongst mankind.
He will start with three facts: First, with the infinite
perfection of the dear God; next, with human nature,
which God made as a perfect mneans to his perfect end, —
human nature developed thus far in its history; and, as a
third thing, with the material universe, - the ground under
our feet and the heavens over our head; and he will take
the universe, the world of matter and the world of man,
as the revelation of the infinite God.




40
Then, I say, the function of the minister will be to teach
and promote the religion of human nature in all its parts.
He will aim to teach, first, Natural Piety, the subjective service of God, the internal worship. I mean the love of God
with mind and conscience and heart and soul; in the intellectual form, the love of every truth and every beauty;
in the moral form, the love of justice; in the affectional
form, the love of God as love; and the love of God also
as holiness: to say it in a word, the love of the God of
infinite wisdom, justice, love, and holiness, — the perfect
God, the infinite Object, adequate to satisfy every spiritual
desire of man.
Then he must aim to teach Natural Morality, the objective worship of God, which is the outward service. That is,
the keeping of all the laws of the body and spirit of man;
service by every limb of the body, every faculty of the
spirit, and every power which we possess over matter or
over men.
The minister is to show what this piety and morality
demand, -in the form, first, of individual life; then in the
form of domestic life; then of social, political, ecclesiastical, and general human life. He is to show how this
religion will look in the person of a man, in a family,
community, church, nation, and world. That is his function.
He is not to humanize God, but to humanize men; not to
appease the wrath of God,- there is no such thing; not
to communicate a mysterious salvation from an imaginary
devil in another world; but, in this life, to help men get
a real salvation from want, from ignorance, folly, impiety,
immorality, oppression, and every form of sin. He is to
teach man to save himself by his character and his life;
not to lean on another arm. His function is not to communicate and explain a miraculous revelation. He knows
revelation only by constant modes of operation; by law,




41
not against law; revelation in. this universe of matter and
in this greater universe of man, not revelation by miracle.
What is the exceptional function of the Heathen, the Hebrew, the Catholic, and the Protestant priest, is the instantial and only function of the minister of the infinite God,
who would teach the absolute religion.
Well, this minister must have regard to man in his nature as body and as spirit. Natural religion, - why, it is
for this life as well as the life to come. It is but part of the
function of religion to save me for the next world: I must
be saved for this. He is to teach men to subordinate the
body to the spirit, but to give the body its due; to subordinate the lower desires to the higher; all finite desires, duties, and rights, to the infinite desire, duty, and right; but
to do this so that no one faculty shall tyrannize over any
other, but that a man shall be the harmony which God
meant him to be. He is to see to it that every one is faithful to his own individual character, and takes no man for
master; everybody for teacher who can serve and teach;
nobody for master barely to command. And, while he
insists on individuality of life, he must also remember that
the individual is for the family, that for the community, the
community for the nation, and the nation for mankind; and
that all of these must be harmoniously developed together.
Thus the partiality of friendship, of connubial or parental
love, the narrowness of the clan, neighborhood, or country,
he is to, correct by that universal philanthropy which takes
in neighborhood, nation, and all mankind.
He is to remember, also, the immortal life of man, and
to shed the light of eternity into man's consciousness, in the
hour of passion, and in the more dangerous, long, cold, clear
day of ambition. In the hour of distress and dreadful peril,
he is to help men to that faith in God which gives stillness
in every storm. He is to help them overcome this puerile
fear of death, and to translate their fear of God into love
6




for Him, — into perfect, blameless, absolute trust in the
Father; and he is to bring the light of all this beneficence
upon men in the season of peril, and in the dreadful hour of
mortal bereavement, when father and mother and child
and wife gather blackness in the countenance, and pass
away. Over the gate of death he is to arch the rainbow of
everlasting life, and bid men walk through unabashed, and
not ashamed. He is to promote the sentiment of religion,
as a feeling of dependence on God, obligation to God, trust
in God, and love for God; of ultimate dependence on His
providence, unalienable obligation to keep His law, absolute
trust in His protection, and a perfect and complete faith
in His infinite perfection.
Then he is to promote the practice of this religion, so
that what at first is an instinctive feeling shall be next a
conscious idea of this ultimate dependence, unalienable
obligation, absolute trust, and perfect and complete' love;
he is to promote the application of this consciousness of
religion to all the departments of human life, -individual,
domestic, social, national, and universal. Of all doctrines he
is to ask, Are they true? of all statutes, Are they just? of
all conduct, Is it manly, loving, and kind? of all things, -
institutions, thoughts, and persons, Are they conformable to
the nature of mankind, and to the will of God? So his
aim must be to make all men perfect men; to do this first
to his own little congregation, and next to all mankind.
Now, this cannot be done abstractly. Man is a body as
well as a spirit. In a material world, by means of material things, must he work out his spiritual problems.
The soul is a soul in the flesh, and the eternal duties of
life bear hard on the transient interests of to-day.
Man's character is always the result of two forces, - the
immortal spirit within him, and the transient circumstances
about him. The minister is to know, that nine persons out
of ten have their character much influenced by the cir



43
cumstances about them; and. he is to see to it that those
circumstances are good. Thus, the abstract work of promoting religion, and helping to form the character of the
people, brings the minister into contact with the material
forces of the world.
It is idle to say the minister must not meddle with practical things.  If the sun is to shine in heaven, it must
shine into the street, and the shop, and the cellar; it must
burnish with lovely light a filing of gold in the jeweller's
shop, and it must illuminate the straggling straw in a
farmer's yard. And just so religion, which communes
with God with one hand, must lay the other on every
human relation. So you see the relation which the minister must sustain to the great works of man, to political
and commercial activity, to literature, and to society in
general.
The State is a machine to work for the advantage of
a special nation, for its material welfare, alone, by means
of certain restricted sentiments and ideas limited to that
work, written in a Constitution, which is the norm of the
statutes; by means of statute-laws, which are the norm of
domestic and social conduct. So the Legislature makes
statutes for the material welfare of the majority of that
nation; the Judiciary decides that the statutes conform
to the Constitution; the Executive enforces the statutes,
and the people obey. When the State has done this, it
has done every thing which its idea demands of it at the
present day.
Now, the minister is to represent, not America, not England, not France alone, but the human nature of all mankind; and see that his nation harms no other nation; that
the majority hinders no minority, however small; that it
brings the weight of its foot upon no single man, however
little. He must see that the material comfort of to-day is
not got at the cost of man's spiritual welfare for to-day,




44
to-morrow, and eternity. So he is to try every statute of
men by the law of God; the Constitution of America by
the Constitution of the universe.  National measures he
must try by universal principles; and if a measure does not
square with the abstract true and the abstract right, does
not conform to the will and the law of God, - then he
must cry out, " Away with it! " Statesmen look at political economy; and they ask of each measure, " Will it
pay, here and now-?" The minister must look for political
morality, and ask, " Is it right in the eyes of God?"  So
you see that at once the pulpit becomes a very near neighbour to the state-house; and the minister must have an
eye to correct and guide the politicians. He must warn
men to keep laws that are just, warn them to break laws
that are wicked; and, as they reverence the dear God, never
to bow before an idol of statesmen or the State.
Then he must have an eye to the business of the nation;
and, while the trader asks only, "' What merchandise can
we make?" the minister must also ask, " What men shall
we become?"  Both the politician and the merchant are
wont to use men as mere tools, for the purposes of politics and trade, heedless of what comes, by such conduct,
to their human instruments. The minister is to see to it,
that man is never subordinated to money, morality never
put beneath expediency, nor eternity sacrificed to to-day.
The slave-trade was once exceedingly profitable to Newport and Liverpool, and was most eminently "respectable." But the minister is to ask for its effects on men;
the men that traffic, and the trafficked men. Once it was
as disreputable in a certain church in this city to preach
against slave-buying in Guinea and slave-selling in Cuba,
as it is now to preach against slave-taking in Boston or
New Orleans. The spirit of modern commerce is sometimes as hostile to the higher welfare of the people as the




45
spirit of ancient war: both, Old and New England have
abundantly proved this in the present century.
The minister is to look also at the character of Literature; to warn men of the bad, and guide them to the good.
At this day the power of the press is exceedingly great for
good or for evil. In America, thank God, it is a free press;
and no wicked censor lays his hand on any writer's page.
See what a great expansion the press has got. What was
a private thought one night in a senator's heart, is the next
day a printed page, spread before the eyes of a million
men. The press is an irresponsible power, and needs all
the more to be looked after; and who is there to look after
it, if not the minister that reverences the great God?
Then the minister is to study nicely the General Conduct
of society, and seek to guide men from mere desire to the
solemn counsels of duty; to check the redundance of appetite in the period of passion, and the redundance of ambition in the more dangerous period of calculation; to guard
men against sudden gusts of popular frenzy.
The great concerns of Education come also beneath the
minister's eye; and, while the press, business, and politics
keep the lower understanding intensely active and excessively developed, he is to guide men to the culture of
reason, imagination, conscience, the affections, and the
soul; is to show them a truth that is far above the Forum
and the Market's din; is to lead them to justice and to
love, and to enchant their eyes with the beauty of the infinite God. The minister of absolute religion must be the
schoolmaster for the loftier intellect and the conscience;
the teacher of a philanthropy that knows no distinction of
color or of race; the teacher of a faith in God which never
shrinks from obedience to his law.




46
In society, as yet, there is still a large mass of Heathenism, — I mean of scorn for that which is spiritual in the
body, and immortal in the soul; I mean a contempt for
the feeble, hatred for the unpopular transgressor, a contempt
for justice, a truckling to expediency, and a cringing to
men of large understanding and colossal'wickedness.
Hence, in the nation there is a perishing class three and
thirty hundred thousand strong, held as slaves. In all our
great cities, there is another perishing class, goaded by
poverty, oppressed by crime. The minister is to be an
especial guardian and benefactor of the neglected, the oppressed, the poor; eyes to the ignorant, and conscience and
self-respect to the criminal. He is not to represent merely
the gallows and the jail: he is to represent the spirit of
the man who " came to save that which was lost," and the
infinite goodness of God, who sends this sunlight on you
and me, as well as on better men.
Then, in all our great cities, there is one deep and dark
and ghastly pit of corruption, whereinto, from all New
England's hills, there flows down what was once as fair
and as pure and as virgin fresh as the breath of maiden
morn.  It is the standing monument which shows the
actual position of woman in modern society; that men
regard her as the vehicle of their comfort and the instrument of their lust, - not a person, only a thing! The minister, remembering who it was that drew Moses out of
the river Nile, and who washed the feet of one greater than
Moses with her own tears, and wiped them with her hair,
must not forget this crime, its consequences, which contaminate society, and its cause afar off,  contempt and
scorn for woman: that is its cause.
In all this, you see how different is the position and function of the minister of absolute religion from that of the




47
mere priest. In Russia, the few hold down the many, and
the priest says nothing against it.  He is there only to
appease God, to administer salvation, to communicate
Scripture; not to teach morality and piety. In America,
the many hold down the few, - the twenty millions chain
the three; and the priest says nothing against it. What
does he care? He goes on appeasing the wrath of God,
administering salvation, explaining and communicating
Scripture, and turns round and says: "This is all just
as it should be, a part of the revelation, salvation, and sacraments too; come unto me, and believe, and be baptized
with water."  But the minister of absolute religion is to
hold a different talk. He is to say:" "My brethren, hold
there! Stop your appeasing of God! -- wait till God is
angry. Stop your imputing of righteousness! There is no
salvation in that. Stop your outcry of' Believe, believe,
believe!'  Turn round, and put an end to this hateful
oppression, and tread it under your feet; and then come
before your God with clean hands, and offer your gift.
That is your sacrifice."
Warlike David plunders Uriah of the one lamb that lay
all night in his bosom; then slays the injured man with the
sword of the children of Ammon. The priest knows it all,
and says against it not a single word; but he slays his bullocks, and offers his goats and his turtle-doves, and makes his
sacrifices, and spreads out his hands and says, 6 "Save us,
good Lord! David is a man after the Lord's own heart."
No word touches the heart of the king under his royal robe.
But there comes forth a plain man, not a priest, nay, a
prophet: he points the finger, with his " Thou art the
man!" and the penitent king lies prostrate and weeping in
the dust.
A man of great intellect leads off the people: city by
city they go over. All the priests cry out, " Let us do as
we list." "There is no Higher Law!' "I will send back




48
my own brother." Then it is for the minister to speak, -
words tender if he can, but, at all events, words that are
true, words that are just.
Just now the American Esau is hungry again. The Cuban pottage is savory. " Feed me," cries he; " for I am
faint." " Eat, O Esau! " says the tempter, " rough and hairy,
and tired with hunting gold in California, and negroes in
New England. Eat of this, O American Esau! and be
glad. There is no God!"  But the minister is to say:
" American Esau, wilt thou sell thy birthright of unalienable
justice? Thou sell that! Dost not thou remember the
Eye which never slumbers nor sleeps?"
This, my friends, is the function of the minister. Well,
has he Means adequate to his work? They are only his
gifts by nature, and his subsequent attainments; his power
of wisdom and justice, his power of love, and his power of
religion; that is all; nothing more than that, with his power
of speech to bring it to the heart of men. But he has for
ally the human nature which is in all men, which loves the
true and the just, loves man and loves God. He has all
the forces of the universe to help him just so far as he is on
the side of truth and right; for all history is only a large
showing, that "the way of the transgressor is hard;" and
4' the path of the righteous shineth more and more unto the
perfect day."  There are the august faces of noble men,
who made the world loftier by their holiness, their philanthropy, and their faith in God. There are the prophets
and apostles; that Moses whom a woman drew out from
the waters; this greater than Moses, whose feet a penitent
sinner washed with her tears. There are the blessed words
in this book, fragrant all over with beauty and with trust in
God. There are the words in every wise book. And, if the
minister is strong enough, the ground under his feet is his
ally; and the heavens over his head, —they also are his




49
help; they both shall mingle in his sermon, as these flowers
at my side mingle their beauty in this cup.
Then there are living men and women about him ready
to help. Some of them will teach him new piety and new
morality. There are great teachers thereof abroad in the
world at this day; there are others equally far-sighted in the
stillness of many a home. Helpers for a religious work -
they are everywhere. Soon as the trumpet gives a not
uncertain sound, they set themselves in order, and are ready
for the battle. The noblest men of the times come round
to the side of truth and right; and, when the hands of Moses
hang heavy, men and women hold them up, till the sun
goes down, and the sky flames with victory.
The minister has a most excellent position. It is so
partly by old custom. Rest on Sunday, and the institution
of preaching, are two habits exceedingly needful at this
day, and of great advantage, if wisely used. But his position is great also by its nature; for the minister is to
preach on themes most concerning to all, - on the conduct
of life, its final destination; is to appeal to what is deepest,
dearest, truest, and what is divinest too, in mortal or immortal man.
The most cultivated class care little for piety; but, with
the mass of men, religion has always been a matter the most
concerning of all their concerns. So no earnest man ever
spoke in vain. John the Baptist, Jesus of Nazareth, peasant
Luther, hardy Latimer, courtly Fenelon, and accomplished
Bossuet, when they speak, draw crowds from earth, and
the humblest sinner looks up and aspires towards God.
Men in our day forget the power of the pulpit, they see so
few examples thereof. They know that bodily force is
power; that money, office, a place in the Senate, is power;
they forget that the pulpit is power; that truth, justice,
and love, are power; that knowledge of God and faith in
Him are the most powerful of all powers,
7




50
The churches decline. All over New England they decline. They cannot draw the rich, nor drive the poor, as
once they did of old. Why is it so? They have an idea
which is behind the age; a theology that did very well for
the seventeenth century, but is feeble in the nineteenth.
Their science is not good science; you must take it on
faith, not knowledge: it does not represent a fact. Their
history is not good history: it does not represent man,
but old dreams of miracles. They have an idea of God
which is not adequate to the purposes of science or phi —
lanthropy, and yet more valueless for the purposes of piety.
Hence men of science turn off with contempt from the
God of the popular theology; the philanthropists can only
loathe a Deity who dooms mankind to torture. And will
you ask deeply pious men to love the popular idea of God?
Here are in Boston a hundred ministers: you would hardly
know it except by the calendar. Many of them are good,
kind, well-conducted, well-mannered men, with rather less
than the average of selfishness, and rather more than the
average of charity. But how little do they bring to pass?
Drunkenness reels through all the streets, and shakes their
pulpit: the Bible rocks; but they have nrthing to say,
though it rock over. The kidnapper seizes his prey, and
they have excuses for the stealer of men, but cannot put
up a prayer for his victim; nay, would drive the fugitive
from their own door. What is the reason? Blame them
not. They are ordained to appease the wrath of God, to
administer salvation in wine or water, to communicate and
explain a miraculous revelation. They do not think that
religion is piety and morality: it is belief in the Scriptures;
compliance with the ritual. This is the cause which paralyzes the churches of New England and all the North.
The clergy are better than their creed. But who can work
well with a poor tool?




51
Well, my friends, it is to this pulpit that I have come.
This is my function, such are my means.  There was
never such a time for preaching as this nineteenth century, - so full of vigor, enterprise, activity; so full of
hardy-headed men. There was never such a time to speak
in, such a people to speak to. In no country could I have
so fair " a chance to be heard" as you have given me.
There is nothing between me and my God; only my
folly, my prejudice, my pride, my passion, and my sin. I
may get all of truth, of justice, of love, of faith in God,
which the dear Father has treasured up for eternity, age
after age. "Fear not, my son," says the Father: "thou
shalt have whatsoever thou canst take."  And there
is nothing betwixt me and the twenty-three millions of
America, or the two hundred and sixty millions of Christendom; nothing but my cowardice, my folly, my selfishness, and my sin; my poverty of spirit, and my poverty of
speech. I am free to speak, you are free to hear; to gather
the good into vessels, and cast the bad away. If old
churches do not suit us, there is all the continent to build
new ones on, all the firmament to build into. A good
word flies swift and far. There is attraction for it in human hearts. Truth, justice, religion, and humanity, — how
we all love them! Every day gives witness how dear they
are to the hungry heart of man. Able men make a wicked
statute, wicked judges violate the Constitution, and defile
the great charter of human liberty with ungodly hoofs; but
very seldom can they get the statute executed. " Keep it,"
says the priest: "there is no Higher Law!" The preaching comes to nothing; but a modest woman writes a little
book - a great book: pardon me for calling it a little book
- showing the wickedness of the law which men aim to
enforce, and in thrice three months there are four hundred
thousand copies of it in the bosom of the American and the




52
British England; and it has become a flame in the heart of
Christendom, that will not pass away.
Tell me of the foolishness of preaching! I have no confidence in foolish preaching; but I have an unbounded
confidence in wise preaching, -in preaching truth, justice,
holiness, and love; in preaching natural piety and natural
morality. Only let the minister have a true idea of God
such as men need, and of religion such as we want, and
there was never such a time for preaching, for religious
power. Let me pray the people's prayer of righteousness,
of faith in man, in God; and I have no fear that the devil
shall execute his 1" Lower Law."
There was never such a nation to preach to. Look at
the vigor of America; only in her third century yet, and
there are three and twenty millions of us in the family,
and such a homestead as never lay out of doors before.
Look at her riches, - her corn, cattle, houses, shops, factories, ships, towns; her freedom here at the North, - at the
South it is not America: it is Turkey in Asia moved over.
Look at the schools, colleges, libraries, lyceums. The
world never saw such a population; so rich, vigorous, welleducated, so fearless, so free, and yet so young. I know
America very well. I know her faults: I have never spared
them, nor never will. I have great faith in America; in
the American idea; in the ideal of our government, — a
government of all the people, by all the people, for all the
people; a government to serve the unalienable rights of
man; government according to the law of God, and His
constitution of the universe. To the power of numbers, of
money, of industry, and invention, I will ask the nation
to add the power of justice, of love, of faith in God and
in the natural law of God. Then we might surpass the
other nations, not only in vulgar numbers and vulgar gold,
but in righteousness, which the good God asks of us. I
have confidence in America. I do not believe that Arneri



53
can Democracy is always to be Satanic, and never celestial.
I do not believe in the Democracy that swears and swaggers, that invades Mexico and Cuba, and mocks at every
" Higher Law" which is above the passions of the mob.
I know America better. The Democracy of the New Testament, of the Lord's Prayer, " Forgive as we forgive;"
the Democracy of the Beatitudes, -that shall one day be
a "kingdom come."  I have confidence in America, because I have confidence in man and confidence in God;
for He knew what He did when He made the world, and
made human nature sufficient for human history and its
own salvation.
I say I have great faith in preaching; faith that a religious sentiment, a religious idea, will revolutionize the
world to beauty, holiness, peace, and love. Pardon me,
my friends, if I say I have faith in my own preaching; faith
that even I shall not speak in vain. You have taught me
that. You have taught me to have a good deal of faith in
my own preaching; for it is your love of the idea which I
have set before you, that has brought you together week
after week, and now it has come to be year after year, in
the midst of evil report -it was never good report. It was
not your love for me: I am glad it was not. It was your
love for my idea of man, of God, and of religion. I have
faith in preaching, and you have given me reason to have
that faith.
I well know the difficulty in the way of the religious
development of America, of New England, of Boston.
Look around, and see what blocks the wheels forward;
how strong unrighteousness appears; how old it is, how
ancient and honorable. But I am too old to be scared. I
have seen too much ever to despair. The history of the
world, -why, it is the story of the perpetual triumph of
truth over error, of justice over wrong, of love against hate,
of faith in God victorious over every thing which resists his




54
law. Is there no lesson in the life of that dear and crucified
one? Eighteen hundred years ago, his voice began to cry
to us; and now it has got the ear of the world.  Each
Christian sect has some truth the others have not: all have
earnest and holy-hearted men, sectarian in their creed, but
catholic in character, waiting for the consolation, and seeking to be men.
I may have an easy life, — I should like it very well: a
good reputation, -it would be quite delightful. I love the
praise of men, -perhaps no man better. But I may have
a hard life, a bad name in society, in the state, and a
hateful name in all the churches of Christendom. My
brothers and sisters, that is a very small thing to me, compared with the glorious gladness of telling men the whole
truth, and the whole justice, and the whole love of religion.
Before me pass the whirlwind of society, the earthquake
of the state, and the fire of the church; but through the
storm, and the earthquake's crash, and the hiss of the fire,
there comes the still small voice of reason, of conscience, of
love, and of faith; and that is the voice of God.  Those
things shall perish, but this shall endure when the heavens
have faded, as these poor flowers shall vanish away.
I am astonished, my friends, that men come to hear me
speak; not at all amazed at the evil name which attends
me everywhere. I am  much more astonished that you
came, and still come, and will not believe such evil things.
In the dark hall which we left but a week ago, which has
now become a brilliant spot in my memory, all the elements were against us: here they are in our favor. Here
is clear air in our mouths, here is beauty about us on
every side. The sacrament is administered to our eyes: O
God, that I could administer such a sacrament of beauty
also to your ear, and through it to your heart!
Bear with me and pardon me when I say that I fear
that, of the many persons whom curiosity has brought hither




55
to-day to behold the beauty of these walls, I cannot expect
to gather more than a handful in my arms. Standing in
this large expanse, with this crowd on every side, around
and above me, I feel my weakness more than I have felt
it ever before. If my word can reach a few earnest and
holy hearts, and appear in their lives, then I thank my
God that the word has come to me, and will try not to be
faithless, but to be true.
I know my imperfections, my follies, my faults, my sins;
how slenderly I am furnished for the functions I assume.
You do not ask that I should preach to you of that. You
would all rather that I should preach thereof to myself,
when there is no presence but the Unslumbering Eye which
searches the heart of man.
If you lend me your ears, I shall doubtless take your hearts
too. That I may not lead you into any wrong, let me
warn you of this. Never violate the sacredness of your
individual self-respect. Be true to your own mind and
conscience, your heart and your soul. So only can you be
true to God.
You and I may perish. Temptation, which has been too
strong for thousands of stronger men, may be too great
for me; I may prove false to my own idea of religion and of
duty; the gold of commerce may buy me, as it has bought
richer men; the love of the praise of men may seduce
me; or the fear of men may deter my coward voice, and I
may be swept off in the earthquake, in the storm, or in the
fire, and prove false to that still small voice. If it shall ever
be so, still the great ideas which I have set forth, of man,
of God, of religion, - they will endure, and one day will be
" a flame in the heart of all mankind." To-day! why,
my friends, eternity is all around to-day, and we can step
but towards that. A truth of the mind, of the conscience,
of the heart, or the soul, -it is the will of God; and the
omnipotence of God is pledged for the achievement of that




56
will. Eternity is the lifetime of Truth. As the forces of
matter, of necessity, obey the laws of gravitation; so the
forces of man must, consciously and by our volition, obey
the infinite will of God. Out of this absolute religion,
which I so dimly see, -and it is only the dimness of the
beginning of twilight which I see, and which I dimly
preach, —there shall rise up one day men with the intellect of an Aristotle and the heart of a Jesus, and with the
beauty of life which belongs to man; there shall rise up
full-grown and manly men, womanly women, attaining
the loveliness of their estate; there shall be families, communities, and nations, ay, and a great world also, wherein
the will of God is the law, and the children of God have
come of age and taken possession. God's thought must
be a human thing, and the religion of human nature get
incarnated in men, families, communities, nations, and the
world.
Can you and I do any thing for that? Each of us can
take this great idea, and change it into daily life. That
is the religion which God asks, the sacrament in which
He communes, the sacrifice which He accepts.