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1é52.

A BY SAMUEL HARRIS,

PASTOR or rm-IR soumxi CIIURCII IN PITTSFIELD.

W M H M U G II-II--II-a-ulna-In-Inna-um:-nun-nun-uaaannnu-urn-u-an

PITTSFIELDR
PRINTED BY W. 1). AXTELL.;.
  1852.

REV. S. I'IARRIS:
Dear Six‘,--

The u11de1'signed, hm7i11.g been much
gratified with the Sem1011 tileliverecl by you, last Szzbbf-.Lt11
1n01"11i11.g;, July 4th, and believing tlmt its pub1ic2xti011
will be productive of good, 11e1‘eby request a copy for the

press. A Respectfully youre,

WM. HUBBARD, W. H. TYLER,
CHAUNCEY CLARK, V C. T. FENN,

E. M. LANDERS, ‘ JOSIAH CARTER,
LEVI BEEBE, JAMES H. DUNHAM,
'_I.‘.M.1ROBERTS, AMOS BARNES,

W, M. WALKER, P. L. PAGE,

E. H. DODGE, C. B. GOLDEN, e

W. S. HOWARD, SAM’L M. COOLEY‘,
JASON PARSONS, AARON CLOUGH,

H. P. BARNES, 1+3. DUNHAM, A
BIIRAM HEATON, A 1.=II«3MAN HUMPPIREY,
N. J. WILSON. A JONATHAN TENNEY,

Piztgfleld, July 9, 1852.

MICAH, VI. 8.---—-~I~IE IIATH SHOWED THEE, OH MAN, WHAT IS

» GOOD; AND WHAT DOTII THE LORD REQUIRE oE THEE BUT

To Do JUSTLY, AND TO LovE MERCY, AND TO WALK I-IUMBLY
WITH THY Goo.

We are assembled this morning on the anniversary
of the .nation’s birth. There is a significance in the un-
wonted stillness of the day. There is an impressive beauty
in the spectacle of this nation hushing the usual demon-

. strations of the public joy, and in silence doing reverence

to the religion of Christ. Happy is that people Whose
early history is the history of noble principles, vindicated

by noble deeds, and embodied in noble institutions. It 

fitting that such a history should be perpetuated by solemn
commemorations, that its healthy vigor may brace the virtue
of all succeeding generations. And now that this anni-
versary has fallen on the Sabbath, there is nothing in it so
disagreeing with the sacredness of the day, that we must
exclude the remembrance of it from the solemnities of our
public worship. American patriotism is emphatically the
daughter of religion. It is fitting, when this anniversary
returns, that the daughter should not despise the mother,
nor the mother disown her child. On this day, consecrated
to both, let them approach together to the altar of God 5
let patriotism utter the language of devotion and the vows
of obedience to God in which her early years were trained;

let religionreiterate the principles of God’s eternal truth, .

by which of old she schooled our infant patriotism to deeds
of greatness.

(3 rrin MAXIM nor. TIIE (mixes.

With reference, therefore, to what is suited to the day, I
have selected the text. as exhibiting the three grand pillars
of liberty and popular advancement——-justice, and benevo-
lence of man towards man, reverence or piety towards God. 

It is natural to ‘consider the text as referring to individ-
uals rather than to states. Thus considered, it is one of
those comprehensive sentences, which inspiration alone can
indite, comprising the whole compass of God’s requirements,
and exhibiting the three essentials of human perfection and‘
welfare. But the welfare of nations and of individuals de-
pend on essentially the same principles——the three great
principles recognized in the text, justice, benevolence, piety.
These are essential to the salvation of individuals; they
are equally essential to the salvation of states.

There is a motto, originated in continental Europe,
but gradually coming to be recognized universally as the
accepted motto of popular progress; it is----—~“ LIBERTY,
EQUALITY, FRATERNITY.” There is much that is true and
noble in this motto; its acceptance among the masses, as
the expression of their sentiments andaims, is a proof of
advancement, and a signal, practical result of Christianity.
It is probable, however, that the meaning attached to it, so
far as it is accepted by the American mind, is more elevated
and more penetrated by the spirit of Christianity, than the
meaning which it conveys t.o Europeans. Yet I cannot
accept it as the motto of the great struggle for human
rights. It is lacking in truthfulness, it is lacking in com-

I prehensiveness, it is lacking in power. I hold up in its

stead, the trio of principles which God has grouped together
—--—-—- J USTICE, BENEVOLENCE, PIETY. This has a comprehensive-
ness and power not to be found in that maxim of human
origin. “ I claim that that maxim be set asideas essentially
incomplete, inefficient and unsafe 3 that the nations instead
concentrate their enthusiasm and obedience on this inspired

run MAXIIVI gen THE ’l‘IlV:[ES. 7

motto -—--JUSTICE, BENEVOLENCE, Prnrv, as the watchword of
their progress, as the only guide to liberty and greatness.

This claim is based on the following reasons:

I. The maxim, “ Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,” and the
popular movement of which it is the exponent, direct human
endeavor to a wrong end. It aims too exclusively at chang-
ing forms of government and establishing republican in-
stitutions. ”

Forms of government are not like garments, cut out and _\

put upon the nations, and changed at will; they are the
growth and outward development of the nation’s life and
character. As the oyster, from the living action of its own
body, forms its covering of shell, and the bird its covering
of feathers, and the beast of hair, so each nation by its own
growth, surrounds itself with the peculiar usages and insti-
tutions of its own government. None but usages and in-
stitutions thus growing out of the living growth of the
nation can be either comfortable or durable.

You may test the truth of this assertion by bringing it
home to yourselves. This nation has grown into a confed-
erated republic. Should it be attempted to blot out the
state lines and make the nation a consolidated democracy,
it would be impossible to accomplish it. It would be crush-—
ing out of shape the living growth of centuries. What is
true of this nation is equally true of all. There are ancient
lines of demarcation, ancient privileges and usages, ancient
courts and assemblies, and modes of administration, which
have grown up with the growth of the people and cannot
be set aside. Suddenly to change them would be fatal. ‘A
T Therefore it is perfectly idle to aim mainly to change the
forms of government. You may tear off an oyster’s shell,
but the creature will not therefore soar a like abird; and
yourmay tear off from Russia or Turkey the rough despo-
tism that binds and crushes those nations 5 yet they will not

8 THE MAXIM FOR THE TIMES.

soar, like Americas eagle, toward the sun. You may fur-
nish those nations with the best republican constitution,
just as you may tie wings to a man; yet the nations will
be no more benefited by the constitution than the man by
his wings; for, in order to be used to profit, both the con-
stitution and the wings must be the growth of the body
that uses them. It is not possible, in the nature of things,
that either the one or the other should be manufactured to
order. There maybe changes; revolutions even; as ani-
mals throw off the old slough--—- moult the old covering.
But the change itself must be the product of the na-
tion’s own life and growth.

History verifies this. Written constitutions, though
written by the wisest statesmen, and conformed to the prin-
ciples of the science of government, have almost always
proved failures. The constitution of the United States is
an exception; probably the only exception worthy of notice.
It has stood, while others perished in the year that gave
them birth, because it attempts nothing but to embody the

‘ very rights, usages and forms into which the colonies had

grown up, and which were already in existence, as the pro-
duct of the nation’s life. Every studentof history knows

that the changes introduced were few and unimportant,

compared with the grand features of our civil institutions
which had been the same before the Revolution. ‘

Hence the grand aim of human endeavor is not to change

existing forms of government, but ‘to invigorate and direct ‘

the growth of the national character. Here is the superior
wisdom of that divine plan of which the text is the expo-
nent ; it expends itself directly and entirely on the char-
acterof the people; and leaves that character, developed

in justice, benevolence and piety, to unfold into outward

institutions fitting to itself.

THE MAXIM A Fox THE TIMES. 9

II. The popular movement of which the maxim, “ Lib- .

erty, Equality, Fraternity,” is the exponent, is deficient in

A icomprehensivenessfit

The interests and actions of men, so far as this life is
concerned, are at present flowing chiefly in two channels,
both broad and deep. One includes political affairs and the
struggles for universal freedom. The other includes com-
merce, manufactures, inventions, and all the intense activity
concentrated on the pursuit of gain. The popular maxim
of the day takes note only of the former of these; as to
the latter, this maxim offers absolutely nothing to restrain
ordirect this mighty rush of action. Covetousness may

glow like a torrid sun 5 the whole heart of the community ,

may be as ashes beneath the unmitigated heat, every gen-
erous impulse may curl and wither like leaves in a
drought; social and domestic life may lie a burning desert
of selfishness; but in that maxim, and the movement of

“which it is the exponent, there is not even a recognition of

of this danger, much less a remedy for it. But when the
divine law is obeyed, justice, benevolence and piety flow
like perennial fountains, and the desert rejoices and blos-«
some as the rose. It sweeps over the entire breadth of
human interests, and furnishes the elements of excellence
and happiness in all. A

Ill. The popular maxim in question is deficient in power.
It strikes no principles of action powerful enough to secure

and sustain the liberty and advancement of mankind.

It places, as its first reliance, the love of liberty. T The
divine motto places foremost the sentiment of justice. A
. By justice is meant, not merely common honesty, which

restrains. a man from robbery and fraud; but rather a

sacred regardto the right; an adamantine rectitude,which

3* This head was omitted in the delivery, on account of the want of time. i

2

10 run MAXIM roa run TIMES.

respects and vindicates all human rights 5 to which the
right is dearer than life, and the Wrong is more hateful than
death. This trait was preeminent in the old Puritans. Ex.-
isting alone, unadorned with the softer graces of the Chris-
tian character, it presents the appearance of sternness
and roughness, like the granite mountains, before their pre-
cipitous and rugged sides arecovered and rounded with soil
and adorned with verdure. But it is laid down by God as
the deepest basis of national character, the rocky founda
tion on which national excellence and happiness must be
built.   A

The love of liberty -is ineflicient and unsafe in contrast
with this. It is a wild and savage principle, originating
in the savage state, and existing there probably in its

greatest power. Even lions and tigers share it with man,

Impelling the soul with the fiery energy of a mere im-
pulse, and void of the stability of rational and conscien-
tious conviction, it is too unstable to be the foundation of
a nation’s greatness. Retaining the Wild capriciousness of
its savage origin and needing itself to be controlled and

guided by the stern hand of principle, it cannot safely be

the regulator and guide of great enterprises for human
welfare. Being the growth of the natural heart, and flour-—
ishing side by side with the vilest passions, vvithoutthe
remotest tendency to restrain them, it can never develop a

virtuous character, or restrain the elements of vice. Aim» A

ing at nothing beyond personal freedom, it gives no hint of
that grand doctrine which lies at the foundation of all val-
uable struggles for human liberty---the doctrine of the
inalienable rights of man. i
Accordingly the history of this principle exhibitsits in-
efficiency, or else an efficiency vvhich is destructive.
It impels men no further than to secure their own rights.

THE MAXIM FOR THE TIMES. 

If the individual whom it animates is himself free from
oppression, if his gains are sure and his privileges una..
bridged, the love of liberty has nothing to say of the
wrongs of others ; it has no voice to rouse that comfortable
and prosperous man to vindicate the rights of the oppressed_
If it is an order of nobility whom it animates, it carries
them no farther than to secure the privileges of their own
order. If it animates a single race in a nation where there
are different races, it utters no plea for the enslaved of an-
other race, whose wrongs abridge not the privileges or min.
i-ster to the gains of the free. The love of liberty awakens
no enthusiasm for the rights of universal man.

It does not even restrain those wl1om it animates from
being themselves oppressors. Impelling men to seek only
their own rights, instead of restraining oppression it rather
prompts them to it, if by it they can enlarge the privileges
of their own freedom. Hence the anomaly always appearing
in history-——---nations the most free, themselves holding slaves.

N or is it any preventive of tyranny in the government 5
nay, if unrestrained by any purer sentiment, it naturally

tends to tyranny. When a people, animated by this wild ‘

impulse, have overthrown and executed their ancient rulers
and established a popular government, if that people are
reckless of the moral principles which God has given for
the control of the love of liberty, and if the agents whom
they have appointed to administer the government are like
the people, the result will be a tyranny the most searching
of which it is possible to conceive ; it is in fact the tyranny
of a mob, passed through the forms of law.   Unrestrained
by thesense of responsibility, which is lost when men act

in masses, unrestrained by the fear of‘ the people, which is

always a check on the individual despot, acting under con-
trol of a blind and instinctive impulse, such a tyranny will

12 ‘ THE MAXIM ron THE TIMES.

be terrific beyond all others. It will sweep away the
rights of private property; it will penetrate with its lev-
eling regulations into the intimacies of the family, and the
courtesies of social life; it will inflict its vengeance with
indiscriminateness and barbarity unparalleled. A

l The insurrections and revolutions for the achievement of
liberty Which have been originated and guided by this im-
pulse, have been rasl1 in their" inception, anarchical and
fanatical in their aims, brutal and desolating in their exe-

cution, disastrous in their results; preparing the people

gladly to take refuge from the confusion in the quiet of

the most absolute despotism. \
The national character, of Which the love of liberty is
the noblest and the forming principle, is degraded and

. vicious, Whether in the vvigvvamrof the untameable savage,

or in the brutality and atheism of a heartless civilization.

Utterly inadequate, therefore, is this principle to effect
the. advancement of mankind 5 utterly’ unworthy to be set
forth as the foremost and controlling principle in the great
strugglerfor the rightsand Welfare of man. Instead of it

God names first the sentiment of justice, as the foundation ~ V

of all human advancement-—-—-~a sentiment Which exerts its
strength only where the moral nature is already purified
and developed; which, without the capriciousness of an
impulse, is fortified by the convictions of reason and con-
science, and imbedded, like Grod’s ovvn throne, in the eternal
distinction of right and wrong i; which, in its very nature
devoted to the right and opposed to the Wrong, can develop
only a national character of inflexible and heroic recti-
tude 5 Which, looking immeasurably beyond merely personal
liberty, proclaims the sublime and comprehensive truth that

K“ all men are endowed by their Creator, with inalienable

rights,” repels those Whose hearts it sways from oppressing

it

rue MAXIM non rule TIMES. , 13

as strongly as from being oppressed, and pledges them to
respect and to vindicate the rights of man ; which, suppres-
sing all that is anarchical and fanatical, imbues the people
with the spirit of moderation and rectitude, and makeslib-
erty permanent under well ordered and righteous govern-
ment. It is a sentiment, both in its character and results
as different from the natural love of liberty, as heaven is
different from earth. a  y ,

The second principle recognized in our inspired motto,
is mercy; or, as it may be more generally stated, benevo--.
lence. . j _

Here, as elsewhere, the text sweeps beyond the circle" of

government and political interests, and covers the whole.

domain of human life. Abstracting all that Christianity
has done, we may still have a civilization carried to a high
degree of refinement. If new We contrast this civilization
with Christianity, the difference is this :, the central prin-
ciple of civilization is selfishness; the central principle of
Christianity is love. Civilization accomplishes its benefi-
cent results by directing and regulating selfishness 3 it
stimulates it to endeavor in accumulating facilities and
comforts; it sets one form of selfishness as a check on
another,-, it balances one selfish passion against another;

and wonderful and even beautiful is the product thus ob- A

tained. Christianity proceeds on a totally different plan;
it introduces a new principle of action-—--—-love; and with
this new central spring of action, it builds anew and supee
rior character. A i r ; l A A  . 3, 

It would lead very far to follow outthis thought. i I ap-,
ply it to the single point of man’s political interest. yr ,A

grand defect in the popular movements of the day,a grand,

hinderance to the happy workings of free. institutions, is
the s~elfishnes,;se of the people. i i by , . _

14 TI-1E MAXIM nor. THE muss.

, We have, indeed, in the center of the popular maxim,
the Word 5‘ Equality.” But it is equality set forth as an
end, not as an expression of a sentiment of the heart, the
universal love, by which alone all the equality possible to
men is to be realized. In fact it conveys to the great
masses no idea but that of equality as an end to be sought
selfishly. Therefore, so soon as the people, animated by

this maxim, get power into their hands, we see them rushing‘

into some Red Republican scheme of compelling govern-
ment to be the grand employer and pay master of the
citizens, into Socialism, Agrarianism, and other insane
schemes of making every man rich by the action of the
state.

We have, also, the Word “ Fraternity.” This is capable
of being interpreted as synonymous with the inspired dec-
laration, T“ God hath made of one blood all nations of men.”
This is the sublime meaning Which, to the minds ‘of many
Who use it, it more or less distinctly conveys. But the
meaning is Widely different when the Word is interpreted
by the use which has actually been made of it. From the
days of French Propagandism, when the armies of the re-
public extended republicanism at the point of the bayonet,
and ended by subjugating a great part of Europe to the
Emperor of the French, down to the attempt of desperadoes
in our own republic to “extend the area of freedom” to a‘
neighboring island, the practical interpretation of this “Fra-
ternity” has been only the expression of a grasping desire
of extending liberty and aggrandizement for self---frater-
nizing the nations by subjugating them. i ~

In manifold ways selfishness presents itself as a grand
hinderance to the political Welfare of men. it It is this which
has led so many generals who T have fought the battles of
liberty, to usurp the throne 5 it which perverts the love of

THE MAXIM iron THE TIMES. 15

country into personal ambition, which makes the political
world the arena of the demagogue rather than of the patriot,
and politics an unworthy exhibition of rivalry, intrigue and
faction. T

The divine motto strikes at the root of this selfishness 3
it demands that the spirit of liberty be controlled by he-
nevolence ; that the leaders of the public mind rise above
low and selfish ends 5 that the heart of the people be
trained to that benevolence which in reality as well as in
profession, will seek the good of the country above personal
aggrandizement, and which is the spring of the loftiest he-
roism. gv '
The third sentiment propounded in the text, is Reverence
or piety towards God. ,
T In truth the authority of government rests on the "au-
thority of God. i The reason why we are bound to obey
rulers is, that God has given them authority to rule. “There
is no power but of God 5 the powers that be are ordained
of God.” The power that ordains, must be higher than
that which is ordained. This the very oath of office rec-
ognizes, which has no meaning, except as it recognizes the
higher law of God,fronE1 which government itself derives
its authority and to which the officer appeals in pledge of

his fidelity. Therefore the attempt to convince the people

that there is no law liigherthan the constitution and laws
of man, is an attempt in suicidal blindness" to destroy the
very foundation on which all the authority of government
rests. Once make the people thoroughly believe that there
is no law higher than human enactments, and you have

‘ stripped government of its claims to obedience derived from

God, and left it with nothing on which to base its author-
ity but the capricea of the governed themselves; = You
have degraded government to be the organtof the  mob.

, 16 run MAXIM non ran rnvnrs.

Instead of insuring obedience to all its enactments, you
have destroyed all obligation to obedience to any. This is
a sufficient reason why the people must be imbued with
reverence for God. i
There are other reasons. Says Dr. Channing :—-—“ Few
men suspect the extent of the support given by religion to

every virtue. No man, perhaps, is aware how much our
‘moral and social sentiments are fed from this fountain ; how

powerless conscience would become Without the belief of
a God; how palsied would be human benevolence were
there not the sense of a higher benevolenceto quicken and
sustain it; how suddenly the Whole social fabric would
quake, and with what a fearful crash it would sink into
hopeless ruin, were the ideas of a Supreme Being, of ac-«
countableness and of a future life to be hopelessly erased
from every mind. And let men thoroughly‘ believe that

« they are the work and sport of chance; that no superior

intelligence concerns itself in human affairs; that all their
improvements perish forever at death; that the Weak have
no guardian, and the injured no r avenger; that there is no
recompense to sacrifices for tuprightness and the public
good; that an oath is unheard in heaven; that secret
crimes have no witness but the perpetrator ; that human

existence has no purpose, and human virtue no unfailing

friend; that this brief life is everything to us, and death
is total, everlasting extinction; oncelet them thoroughly

abandon religion; and who can describe or conceive the

extent of the desolation that would follow ?” . _
And because the very foundation of government is in

the authority of God, and reverence for him is the life of l

national virtue, every movement, which is to achieve aught

of ‘permanent value for popular progress, must be founded ;

in the fear, of God. It has been so in those nations that

rnnlmaxnvr non THE rmns. 17

l have achieved the most for stable and well-ordered liberty,

especially in our own.

While We this day honor the memory of those who toiled
for civil liberty, we may not forget the greater Work of
those—-—-the reformers, the defenders, the martyrs of the
Christian faith ---=~ vvl1o laid the grand truths of the gospel,

those massive but precious stones which are the foundations

of the N ew Jerusalem, as also the precious and imperishable
foundations of our civil liberty and national greatness. A

“ Ungrateful country, if thou ae’er forget
The sons who for thy civil rights have bled.

are  seat: at at

p  But these had fallen for profitless regret, ,
if ‘Hadnot the holy‘ church her champions bred,
r And claims from other worlds inspirited i
The star of liberty ‘to rise. Nor yet
(Grave this within thy heart) if spiritual things
Be lost through apathy, or scorn, or fear,
Shalt thou thy humbler franchises support,
However hardly Won or justly dear.
What came from heaven to heaven by nature clings, ‘
Andvif dissevercdi thence, its course is short.” f
a V Wordazvorth.

it The subject demands an application to the present cir-
cumstances of the country. We are told every four years
that the salvation of the country depends on electing this

. orthat man to the Presidency. It does depend on having A

the population controlled} by the three principles of the

text; so long as these control the great majority, it is not

in the power of human villainy to overturn our government,

ourfreedom or our prosperity. The only real danger is

that these principles will less and less influence. the people,
, 3 A

18 TI-IE MAXIM F€)Bi THE "r1M,Es.,

and that the career of this nation, coinnienoed more entirely‘
llllml tllétt of any other nation, in a sacred regard to human
rights and in the fear of God, degenerate into more ambition
and selfishness. There is danger that the very action of
the people in electing their chief A magistratebe such as to
hasten this degeneracy. Let me admonish you, then, that
ill all 370111‘ acts and Words during this opening conflict, you
S8»C1‘9d1Y Tegarcl the requirements of justice, benevolence and
piety, and maintain their influence in the community. As
Citizens Ofa free republic you have responsibilities which you
are not at liberty to lay aside. If you have the right to vote,
37011 C€m110‘E escape the 1*esponsibilities which that right impo—-
868- In determining for whom to vote, you are not to decide
from motives of personal interest, from the hope of oifice for
yourself or your friends, from the desire to thwart an en-
emy or a rival; nor may you sink your individual respon-
sibility 111 the decision of a party; but you are to. determine
370111" V0159: 1*eg;arding your accountability to Grod, and under
0011t1"01 Of the principles of justice, benevolence jand piety.

‘A1101 in tile Whole controversynopw opening, you have duties

Mid 1‘9S13011Sibi.lities which youhave no riglit to avoid. You
are 190111161 to resist the pernicious influences attending these

°0flfl-W53: Which make each presidential election a source of r

001"1"l1l3l3i011» and of weakness to the moral strength of the

i118-131011. You are forbidden by the principles of justice and
,,10V@3JI1ClPietyto circulate slander, and to make yourselves
A  thee V5Bhi016 of lies ; you are forbidden to foment or indulge

011V)’; hfliiifed, ean«g*er,"7or to allow yourselves to become 
V‘01V3d in qi1a1‘rels, bitter vvhrds, or strife _; A you are foArbiden
to g‘<1’111b19:l»sa.ndr bet on elections that disgusting practice
which puts the election of the President one level with at

V 1101"S6‘"1‘5'»°‘33 you ar iforbiddenito layaside your moral prin;~

€iP19S:l30 say that all is fair «politics, Arte snow your-4

THE MAXIM ron run mine. 19

selves, for the advancement of a “party, to say or do aught
which you would deem it dishonorable or dishonest to say
or do for the advancement of private interests; You are

also required to be careful of your religion. Christians, in

times of political era-zcitemeiit, are in , danger of neglecting
their closets, losing the tenderness of their interest in Christ,
and finally of being betrayed into unseemly words or deeds.
Was there ever such an election in which the church of
Christ was not wounded ‘E Ye members of Christ’s church,

I charge you, as you fear God, as you love the Lord who r

bought you, as you love the church which he has purchased
with his blood, that you watch and pray that you enter
not into te1nptation,that you see to it, whatever other in-
terest may suffer, that the church of Christ receive ;no det-
riment. Ina ‘word, during all this contest, take heed that
you do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.
To impair the hold which these principles have on the p1ti’~

l he mind is doing a greater injury than can be done -—-the.~:~*.e

principles unin1paired---——-by electing any political opponent,

It only remains to use the truth which has been ‘set fortl
in correcting a prevalent and dangerous mistalce --——the
mistake that this nation’s past greatness is owing to the
love of liberty. When we commemorate in solemn assem-
blies the birth day of independence, what do we hear but

leulogies of liberty? iAnd to what but the love of liberty

is our greatness ascribed? My hearers, it was not the

love of liberty which laid the foundation and built the super— 

structure of this nation’s growth; it was the sentiment of
justice, the sacred regard to the rights of man, founded on
and consolidated by an awful reverence for God. Alloui

i history proves this assertion. It was not the love of 

which broughtthe Puritans to New England, the Irlugtieuots
to~Carolina; it was religion. It was not the loveof liberty

l

20 THE MAXIM FOR THE TIMES.

which Was the distinguishing glory of the American Rev-
olution. Liberty the colonies always had. The encroach-
ments of the mother country they always resisted. The
personal immunities and privileges of Americans were in-

creased by the Revolution in but few and unimportant

particulars. That struggle gained us independence, not
liberty. The animating principle of that War was a regard
to human rights, far broader and nobler than a mere love
of liberty. It is the distinguishing glory of that struggle
that it was the period in the World’s history in which was
first proclaimed the doctrine of human rights -—-—-—not the
grant of sovereigns, but the birth-right of all men, the in-
alienable gift an.d endowment of the eternal God,----—-that
this sublime truth was then set forth as the foundation of
the state, and the nation’s life, fortune, and sacred honor
pledged to maintain it.

Let us then cease to fill our mouths with eulogies of civil
liberty, as if it were the great end of human endeavor ;, or
of the love of liberty, as if it had been the main-spring of
our history, and is to be our guide to greater blessedness.
The Bible is of all books the most favorable to liberty ; it
is the book, the circulation of which is most dreaded by
hierarchs and tyrants. But the Bible is not filled with
eulogies of liberty; it appeals not to the love of liberty.

It directs attention to duties and obligations 3 to the right a

and the Wrong of human actions; to the great principles

‘ of eternal truth which are alone the guides to blessedness.

It does not direct your attention very prominently even to
your own rights, but rather to your duties. Rights and
duties are alwas correlatives.“ A. right always implies its
corresponding duty. Fear example,if the parent has a right
to the child’s obedience, there must be the correlative duty
at‘ the child to obeythe parent. So always-a right of mine

mun MAXIM FOR THE TIMES.’ 21

implies duties of others to me; a right of others implies
duties of mine to them. Men dwell on their own rights
and on, others’ duties. The Bible teaches us to dwell on
our duties and others’ rights. Let us imitate this divine
wisdom ; i let us cease to value liberty above rectitude ; let
us seek to expect more from the love of liberty than from
the love of rectitude , let us suppress something of’ our
boastfulness ; let us dwell with more frequency, with more
solemn earnestness on our obligations,“ on those grand prin-
ciples of justice, mercy and piety which were laid as the
foundations of our nation’s greatness.

Happy for us that it was so. As we go back among the
historical recollections of our country, happy is it that this
national anniversary is a commemoration, not of bloody
battles, but of the solemn adoption and promulgation of
the great dostrine of the rights of man -—-—the solemn ush-—
ering in of an era in the world’s advancement. Happy for
us that the spots encircled in the nation’s memory and love,
to which we wend our pilgrim steps, are not scenes of blood-
shed, but places like Mt. Vernon, Plymouth Rock, Faneuil
Hall in Boston, and Independence Hall in Philadelphia --A;
places hallowed by the utterance and vindication of great
truths, sacred with recollections which throng around the
memory of this young, but gigantic and wayward nation,
purifying, ennobling, subduing as the memory of a mother’s
prayers, a father’s counsels, to guide these glowing energies
to the right, the true, the good.

By all these hallowed memories of the past, as well as by
the authority of God’s word, I claim that your eulogiums
on this day of triumph be, not of the love of liberty, which
we share with savages and brutes, but of justice, mercy,
and piety; that your enthusiasm cluster around these as
the element of your nation’s liberty and greatness; and

22 THE MAXIM FOR THE TIMES.

that these principles, which guided your fathers in laying
the foundations of the state, guide your endeavors to real-
ize for the nation a yet greater future. A yet greater
future ----for, in order that this nation may attain to great-
ness unparalleled, that, with peace and plenty within her
borders, she be blessed till time shall end, and that, distin-
guished among all people, she by a peaceful, but resistless
influence, extend liberty, intelligence and goodness through

the earth --- that she may realize this glorious destiny, What l

doth the Lord require, but that you and all her citizens do
justly, love mercy, and Walk humbly with your God ‘.9