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 Obstacles mid the Encouniscinciits 
 
 MISSIONARY EFFORT, 
 
 IN THE 
 
 ANCIENT AND MODERN CHURCH. 
 
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 I 
 
 A LECTURE DELIVERED BEFORE THE BOSTON YOUNG MEN’S SOCIETY .-‘A; 
 FOR THE DIFFUSION OF MISSIONARY KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 SAMUEL W.JHS 
 
 West Bloomfield, New Jersey. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
THE 
 
 Obstacles and the Encouragements 
 
 TO 
 
 MISSIONARY EFFORT, 
 
 IN THE 
 
 ANCIENT AND MODERN CHURCH. 
 
 A LECTURE DELIVERED BEFORE THE BOSTON YOUNG MEN’S SOCIETY 
 FOR DIFFUSING MISSIONARY KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 BY SAMUEL W. FISHER, 
 
 West Bloomfield, New Jersey. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 TAPPAN AND DENNET. 
 
 M DCCC XLII. 
 
This address was originally prepared for the Society of Inquiry of the 
 Union Theological Seminary, New York, and delivered before that Society 
 at its last Anniversary. It has since been somewhat modified, and de- 
 livered before the Boston Young Men’s Society for Diffusing Missionary 
 Knowledge. It is now published, with the consent of the Committee of 
 Publication of the Society of Inquiry, in the more complete form in which 
 it was delivered, before the Society for Diffusing Missionary Knowledge. 
 
 WM. WHITE & H. P. LEWIS, 
 PRINTERS, 
 
 OVER BOSTON TYPE FOUNDRY, SPRING LANE. 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 At the first promulgation of a system of opin- 
 ions, that is designed vitally to affect the character 
 and happiness of vast multitudes, there is usually 
 room for much uncertainty, doubt, and unbelief. 
 Its power to effect the objects, for which it is pro- 
 mulged, is yet to be tested. However fair in the- 
 ory, it may yet be found, like thousands of other 
 systems of faith, utterly defective in its practical 
 working. But where time has evinced its capac- 
 ity to accomplish results of the noblest character ; 
 when success has given to that, which was once a 
 theory, all the certainty of a law of nature ; then 
 the season for doubt is past ; then, when the 
 capacity to overcome obstacles has been fairly 
 developed, faith, unappalled by the presence of 
 stupendous difficulties, rises into the calm confi- 
 dence of perfect assurance. To this stage in her 
 progress has Christianity attained. The conver- 
 sion of the world, the grand object which it pro- 
 
4 
 
 poses, is not a problem to be solved by future 
 success. Religion has already evinced its capac- 
 ity to effect so vast a work ; it is not a novelty, 
 thrown as a meteor upon the world. We are not 
 launching, Columbus-like, on an unknown sea, 
 in search of an unknown land. Our faith is one 
 of centuries. It has passed through trials of 
 the severest character, and come out of them 
 unscathed. It has effected great things. Its tri- 
 umphs stand out on the records of the world, like 
 a succession of splendid miracles. The early 
 history of Christianity, anterior to the full devel- 
 opment of the papacy, rouses the soul like a 
 clarion. 
 
 In judging, however, of the church, as it existed 
 at that day, we are frequently subject to an illu- 
 sion of the most discouraging character. Distance 
 contracts ages to a point. The bold and splendid 
 results are seen, while the means, by which they 
 were attained, are either wholly overlooked, or 
 regarded as supernatural, and beyond the reach of 
 the present age. We see the disciples battling 
 with Judaism, and hear the cries of dying martyrs; 
 we see in motion the machinery of gifts miracu- 
 lous and wbnderful ; presently the shoutings of 
 victory swell upon the ear, and the empire is the 
 home of our faith. But we forget the ages of toil 
 that elapsed ere that grand event was reached ; 
 we overlook the ten thousand humble instrumen- 
 talities, — such as the meanest Christian may wield 
 at this day, — through which the victory was main- 
 
ly achieved. The splendor of apostolic gifts, 
 which in fact continued only for a brief period, 
 seems to rest upon the church during the time of 
 her travail ; while the faith, the patience, the sim- 
 ple preaching of the Gospel, the toil that knew 
 no weariness, and the love that never faltered, 
 through which the work was actually consummat- 
 ed, are either not regarded at all, or considered 
 to be light-armed auxiliaries to the solid phalanx 
 of apostolic powers. As the natural result of 
 such impressions, there exists an opinion that the 
 first three centuries of Christianity constituted its 
 golden age; that the Church was then in posses- 
 sion of resources vastly more effective than those 
 now in her hands ; and that the obstacles which 
 then opposed her progress, were neither so great 
 in themselves, nor so numerous as those which 
 exist at the present day. That such an opinion 
 is not, in every respect, warranted by the facts, 
 Ave think can easily be shown. This will be mani- 
 fest from an attentive comparison of the obstacles 
 to the success of the Gospel in these different periods, 
 and the means possessed by the Church for over- 
 coming them. 
 
 In prosecuting this comparison, it will only be 
 necessary to allude to that deep-seated depravity, 
 which constitutes in itself the greatest obstacle to 
 the advance of the Gospel. This force of evil has 
 lived and worked in every period of man’s history. 
 Time, that changes and modifies all else, has 
 wrought no change here. It pervades all hu- 
 
6 
 
 man society ; it tenants the rude hut of the 
 savage ; it dwells amid the groves of science 
 and the palaces of art; nor is it wholly absent 
 from the temples and the altars of a Christian 
 people. It gives to error its force, to supersti- 
 tion its perpetuity, to all the influences hostile to 
 Christianity, their living vigor. It is peculiar to 
 no age, to no people, to no clime. In it religion 
 expects ever to find a foe unconquerable as death, 
 and immortal as time. 
 
 It is equally unnecessary for me to dwell on 
 that spiritual organization — mysterious to the 
 Christian, the theme of ridicule to the world — 
 which the Scriptures announce to us as most pow- 
 erful in giving scope to human depravity, and in 
 wielding the forces of evil against the cross. In 
 common with the ancient Christian, we fight with 
 principalities and powers in high places, and un- 
 til the mighty angel shall descend, to bind the 
 prince and scatter his legions, the Church must 
 expect to meet now, as in apostolic times, forces 
 equipped, organized, and led on, by a chief who 
 once shone the morning star of heaven’s intelli- 
 gences. 
 
 The power of the Gospel to surmount these 
 prime obstacles has always been the same. The 
 agency of the Spirit and the Gospel are ever with 
 her. And I dismiss this point with the remark, 
 that, as the miracle-working power, in all pro- 
 bability, did not pass far if at all beyond the age 
 of the apostles, the early Church, for the last 
 
7 
 
 two hundred years of its fierce and bloody strug- 
 gle, was thrown upon precisely the same re- 
 sources, with those now possessed by the modern 
 Church — the common influences of the Spirit 
 enforcing the Gospel. 
 
 Let us now compare the relative situation of 
 the Church to the governments of the world, 
 during the first three centuries of her existence, 
 and at the present time. In looking back upon 
 the ancient Church, we are at once struck by the 
 fact, that she had to do mainly with one immense 
 government. While it is possible that her mis- 
 sionaries may have passed the Euphrates or even 
 the Indus, it is certain that the Roman empire 
 was their great field of conflict. That empire 
 was now in the zenith of her glory. Its bounda- 
 ries swept around all the mighty kingdoms that 
 live in the ancient records of our race. Her 
 eagle, in its immense gyrations, spread its wing 
 over the civilized world. The empires of an- 
 tiquity, the world of knowledge and of civiliza- 
 tion, all lay panting beneath the foot of Rome. 
 
 At this period of her history, the power of the 
 empire had in reality passed away from the Senate. 
 It was all concentred in a single arm. A single 
 mind directed the movements of this huge gov- 
 ernment ; a single hand wielded the energies of 
 the millions that paid tribute to Rome. So per- 
 fect was this power, the slightest whisper of that 
 mind could be heard in the remotest corner of 
 the empire ; the wave of that hand was instantly 
 
8 
 
 seen and felt in the forests of Britain, on the 
 sands of Libya, and along the banks of the Eu- 
 phrates. The mighty despot reached forth ten 
 thousand arms to execute his imperial will. The 
 engines of his power were set up in every prov- 
 ince, in every city, in every sequestered vale of 
 human habitation. While, to curb the lawless- 
 ness of such colossal greatness, the moral power 
 of the opinion of the world, which now operates 
 so effectually upon the proudest thrones, had then 
 no force. From the decree of this tremendous 
 despotism there was no appeal, save to the high 
 chancery of heaven. 
 
 It was in the bosom of such an empire that 
 Christianity arose. For the first few years, it 
 was suffered to work its way silently and freely. 
 Rome as yet understood not its character. To 
 her it was but one of a thousand religions. Tibe- 
 rius does not hesitate to provide a niche in the 
 Pantheon for Jesus Christ. The opposition it 
 encountered, sprang from the Jew, the Pagan 
 priest and philosopher, rather than from the im- 
 perial government. It was not long, however, 
 before the clamors of the idolatrous multitude 
 entered the palace of the Caesars. Whatever 
 may have been the proximate causes, which at 
 particular seasons kindled the fires of persecution, 
 the grand cause of their existence is obvious. It 
 consisted in the total opposition existing between 
 the principles of Christianity, and the worship, 
 the customs, the character of the influential por- 
 
9 
 
 tion of the empire. Christianity undeified their 
 gods, dashed down their idols, overturned their 
 altars, anathematized their priests, and cast con- 
 tempt on whatever was most sacred, most ancient, 
 most admired. Then began to lower those storms, 
 which, with some short intervals of repose, for two 
 hundred and fifty years, Hashed and thundered 
 along the Christian’s path. From these, escape 
 was impossible. Should the unhappy victim re- 
 tire into some remote corner of the empire? But 
 the edict of destruction had anticipated his flight, 
 and where he hoped for safety, he met the iron 
 grasp of a Roman prefect. Wherever the Christ- 
 ian turned, the same dark form Avas frowning 
 upon him ; the cries of martyrs, mingled Avith the 
 shouts of the amphitheatre, ever rang in his ear. 
 There Avas, then, no sacred home of freedom to 
 which the oppressed might flee. The world Avas 
 one vast empire, and the tremendous enginery of 
 its power Avas everyAvhere in motion, for nearly 
 three centuries, to uproot the cross. Such Avas 
 the nature of that governmental opposition, against 
 Avhich the feeble band of early Christians fought, 
 and over Avhich they triumphed. 
 
 Compare Avith this the situation of our modern 
 Church. The civilized Avorld is iioav divided 
 into a number of independent sovereignties. Of 
 these, several are on the side of Protestant Christ- 
 ianity. And Avhen I say they are on the side of 
 true Christianity, it is meant either that their 
 governments explicitly recognise it as the relig- 
 2 
 
10 
 
 ion of the state, as in England, or that the great 
 mass of those, who create the government, and 
 of those who constitute it, are avowedly believers 
 in the Christian revelation. Of these nations, 
 Great Britain and the United States are the 
 most powerful, and most decidedly influential, in 
 promoting the evangelization of the world. They 
 embosom the wealth and the piety which are to 
 carry the Gospel to every land, and resusitate the 
 half extinguished fires of true religion on the 
 altars of nominal Christendom. In general in- 
 fluence upon the world at large, no other nation 
 can come into comparison with them. The com- 
 merce of the world, now one of the most effective 
 chains of brotherhood, and destined to exert a 
 mighty influence in the overthrow of supersti- 
 tion, barbarism, and ignorance, is in their hands. 
 Their fleets are in every sea ; their warehouses 
 in every port ; their representatives are found 
 wherever there is wealth to be gathered, or a 
 government to be influenced by their presence. 
 
 Nor is this all. Millions of the heathen world 
 are directly subject to one of these governments. 
 Great Britain, for the last tAvo hundred years, 
 has been advancing in the career of conquest, un- 
 til her subjects have multiplied from a dozen to 
 more than a hundred and fifty millions ; her pos- 
 sessions have expanded from that little central 
 isle until they gird the globe ; and, from holding 
 as a feudal lord the throne of England, she has 
 placed her foot upon the neck of empires vast, 
 
11 
 
 populous, and ancient. But yesterday, you heard 
 the roar of her cannon before Beyrout ; and every 
 breeze that sweeps westward, bears to us the 
 thundering of her artillery upon the commercial 
 metropolis of China. 
 
 The effect of this general influence, we doubt 
 not, is greatly to the advantage of Christianity. 
 That this happy result has been diminished by 
 the presence of great evils, is not to be denied. 
 Commerce, mainly employing as its instruments, 
 those who have no sympathy with the religion of 
 the cross ; conquests originating in an all-grasping 
 avarice or ambition ; won by the sacrifice of holo- 
 causts of human victims on the altar of war; and 
 maintained by a system of oppression, which de- 
 liberately weighs the happiness of millions of 
 immortal minds in the balance with gold, all 
 tend, in some respects, to weaken the influence of 
 Christianity on the conscience of the Pagan. Yet, 
 in spite of these counteracting causes, there has 
 gone forth, and is going forth, from this very 
 commerce, and these vast conquests, an influence 
 which is destined, we believe, to revolutionize 
 the world. Already have they brought whole 
 nations, while they feel the force of our arms, to 
 respect our religion. They have opened more 
 extensive fields of labor before the missionaries, 
 and they have also given them security, so that 
 the name of either an Englishman or an Ameri- 
 can, has been a charm more potent than was 
 anciently that of a Roman citizen. 
 
12 
 
 Casting our eyes beyond the governments di- 
 rectly under the control of Protestant influence, 
 we see a number of states, nominally Christian, 
 yet so sunk in gross superstition as to possess little 
 of Christianity besides the name. 
 
 In respect to most of them, one fact is worthy 
 of our notice. The principles of Christian tole- 
 ration are working their way into their courts, 
 and modifying the whole machinery of their 
 governments. Nations, which a century ago, 
 expelled Protestantism from their shores, now 
 receive it with open arms, or suffer it to carry 
 forward its peaceful work unchecked. The spec- 
 tacle of religious persecution in any country, no 
 matter what may be the sufferer’s faith, now in- 
 terests and arouses the civilized world. That 
 which, a few years ago, was made a part of the 
 ordinary business of some governments, would 
 now outrage the moral feelings of civilized soci- 
 ety. Austria cannot even exile her inquiring 
 peasantry, far less torture them at the rack, or 
 burn them at the stake ; nay, even despotic Tur- 
 key may not bastinado a poor Jew, on account of 
 his faith, without calling forth indignant remon- 
 strance, long and loud, from every part of Chris- 
 tendom. To this great end also have those polit- 
 ical revolutions been working, which of late have 
 shaken so many thrones, and burst so many chains. 
 While they have given to subjects a higher polit- 
 ical importance, they have infused into proud 
 rulers a salutary caution how they tread upon 
 
13 
 
 those most sacred jewels of liberty — the rights 
 of conscience. 
 
 In this steady advance of the principles of tole- 
 ration among civilized states, Christianity has rea- 
 son for present joy and future hope ; for the 
 prevalence of such opinions is both the sign of 
 the silent influence she has already gained, and 
 the foundation on which she can proceed to re- 
 build her decaying temples, and reopen her smoul- 
 dering fires, among the nations only nominally 
 her friends. What, I ask, has created this power 
 of public opinion, before which the sceptres of 
 kings are lowered ? What has brought it about 
 that governments, whose grand argument was the 
 sword in every contest of right, are now compelled 
 to respect the opinion of the great family of Christ- 
 ian states? JN T either the increased facilities of 
 national intercourse, nor the progress of civiliza- 
 tion, nor the terrific march of revolution, alone or 
 combined, could have effected it, had not a purer 
 Christianity, breathed around the loftiest thrones 
 the mild spirit of religion, inspiring a state of 
 public feeling in which might can no longer pass 
 as the synonyme of right, brute force as the 
 strongest argument of justice. 
 
 Under these better influences, the most bigoted 
 governments are relaxing the strictness of their 
 ecclesiastical regimen. Spain, proud and lordly 
 in her rags, whose bigotry reared and perfected 
 the horrid Inquisition, whose fields w r ere fertilized 
 by the ashes, and her broad rivers dyed with the 
 blood of innumerable martyrs, Avhose records are 
 
14 
 
 a history of intolerance, written in characters of 
 blood and fire, and over whom, as the result of 
 that stern bigotry, there have brooded centuries 
 of dense darkness, — even she has at last burst 
 her chains. The Bible is read on her sunny hills; 
 a highway, broad and free, is rising for the chariot 
 of the Prince of peace. 
 
 If now we bring into view the Pagan and Mu- 
 hammedon world, the same great fact, with an 
 occasional exception, is proved to be true. Gov- 
 ernmental opposition is gradually relaxing its 
 strictness under the general influence of the civil- 
 ized. Egypt and the wide dependencies of Tur- 
 key are opening their ports to the Christian 
 missionary. Nor should we be surprised were 
 the decree of death, fulminated by the Koran 
 against the apostate from Islamism, ere long to 
 become a dead statute into which no earthly 
 power dare breathe life. The sceptre of Protes- 
 tant England stretches over a hundred millions 
 of the worshippers of Brahma. From the Ganges 
 to the Indus, from Travaneore to Cashmere, that 
 vast, populous, ancient land, crowded with vil- 
 lages, teeming with a luxuriant vegetation, is 
 open to correct religious influences. Beyond it 
 is China ; an empire which no Christian can con- 
 template in the greatness of its extent, its high 
 antiquity, the immense masses of immortal beings 
 that swarm in its cities and darken its waters, and 
 in that stubborn exclusion, mingled with affected 
 contempt, of all those foreign influences which 
 
15 
 
 might work out the elevation and salvation of 
 the people, without being moved to wonder, to 
 pity, and almost to despair. 
 
 Even here, however, are the dawnings of better 
 days. Around that vast empire there are cluster- 
 ing mighty influences, from all quarters of the 
 globe, which, like the atmosphere, she cannot ex- 
 clude, and before which her iron institutions must 
 ere long he greatly modified, or crumble to utter 
 ruin. It is impossible for the utmost power of the 
 mightiest human will to give eternity to such in- 
 stitutions, when the whole world is rushing by 
 them in a swift and broad tide of improvement. 
 Yield they must to the accumulating pressure. 
 Her only hope, for the perpetuity of her present 
 institutions, is a wall of entire non-intercourse 
 with the whole world ; higher, broader, more im- 
 passable than that monument of industrious folly 
 reared against the Tartar horde, while millions 
 of her people, beyond her control, are subject to 
 the influence of Christianity ; while she, herself, 
 is encompassed with the commerce of civilized 
 states ; and while she is obliged occasionally to 
 quail before the barbarian power, so long will she 
 be exposed to a revolution, which will shake her 
 government to the ground. Nor need we wait 
 long for decided changes in her policy. Let the 
 influences which but recently have begun to sur- 
 round her, operate with constantly increasing 
 force for less than half a century, and we shall not 
 want the pen of heaven- wrapt Isaiah to predict the 
 fall of this greater Babjdon. 
 
16 
 
 In whatever light, therefore, we compare the 
 situation of Christianity, in respect to the govern- 
 ments of the world at the present time, with that 
 of the first ages of the Church, we find every 
 thing to encourage us. Here she has gained 
 vastly in the struggle of eighteen hundred years. 
 We have come out of the caves and forests where 
 the ancients were hunted. The mightiest gov- 
 ernments are ours. Even the progress of free 
 institutions, the political convulsions and the wide- 
 spread revolutions, which are giving freedom to 
 rising humanity, are either bearing onward the 
 car of life, or rearing up broad highways, on 
 which it may roll over the world. 
 
 Our next point of comparison, between the 
 ancient and modern Church, respects the systems 
 of religion they have respectively to encounter. 
 Two large and ancient religions, the one of the 
 Jew, the other of the Pagan, in the days of early 
 Christianity, as now, resisted the advance of the 
 Gospel, with an uncompromising and vigorous 
 hostility. The Jew was the first great opponent 
 of the cross. The early propagators of our faith, 
 struck at this system with far greater success than 
 has the Church since that period. The very 
 origin of Christianity then gave it a power the 
 course of time has partially destroyed. It sprang 
 out of the bosom of Israel ; it grew up beside 
 their altar and their temple ; its most thrilling 
 scenes were enacted on that sacred soil, bedewed 
 with the tears and blood of the faithful, vocal 
 
17 
 
 with the inspirations of holy seers, hallowed by 
 the flaming shekinah, the splendid worship, the 
 visible foot-prints of the dread Jehovah impressed 
 on every hill and vale. It was not a foreign relig- 
 ion. It was the offspring of their own worship, 
 the fulfillment of their prophecies, the grand 
 and crowning scene toward which for ages their 
 hopes, their prayers, their joys, their bloody wor- 
 ship, had all been pointing. The prime actor in 
 it was of the kingly house of David. Its great 
 apostles were sons of Abraham. To the Jew, in 
 whose veins flowed the blood of their illustrious 
 sire, with Avhom they Avorshipped at the same 
 altar, breathing Avith them from childhood’s hour 
 the inspiration of their glorious history, they 
 could preach of the Messiah Avith a force hardly 
 to be reached by the Church at this day. Christ- 
 ianity has passed aAvay from the country and the 
 nation of its earliest love. Its dAvelling-place is 
 Avith the Gentile, Avho for centuries has ground 
 the outcast and saddened Israelite beneath the 
 iron heel of a despotic poAver. In the vieAV of 
 that doAvn-trodden nation, all the prejudices of an 
 abhorred, a foreign superstition, cluster around 
 the Christian religion. 
 
 There Avas much, also, in the time when 
 Christianity first arose, that then gave it poAver 
 over this race. It appeared at a time Avhen the 
 lines of a long series of most splendid prophecies, 
 Avhich for ages had been converging, seemed to 
 have reached the point of fulfillment. The poAver 
 3 
 
18 
 
 of Rome hung over the sacred land, and they 
 knew not how soon its black, dense clouds would 
 pour down their sheets of flame. The bosom of 
 the nation, as of one man, throbbed with intense 
 expectation of the speedy manifestation of the 
 great Deliverer. And when Christianity arose, 
 it found a mighty advocate in these powerful sym- 
 pathies and exciting hopes of the people. It 
 carried with it all the authority of prophecy, such 
 as then lived in the hearts, glowed on the lips, 
 pervaded the worship, and moulded the character 
 of the entire race. Christ stood before them as 
 the fulfillment of this prophecy ; and though his 
 lowly condition corresponded not w ith their lofty 
 expectations, yet every argument he urged in 
 demonstration of his Messiahship, came home to 
 their hearts enforced by all the associations of 
 their youth and manhood. Their ancient proph- 
 ets seemed to descend from their high abode to 
 bear their testimony to, and shed their homage 
 around, this illustrious being. But with that age, 
 these feelings have passed away. From earliest 
 infancy the Jew has been taught to execrate the 
 Christian’s faith, and the anathemas under w hose 
 intolerable burden he has groaned have given 
 force to the lesson. For centuries, the ingenuity 
 of wit, the refinements of sophistry, the parade of 
 learning, and the force of authority, have been 
 combined to bring into contempt the Christian 
 interpretation of Messianic prophecies. And, 
 while under the tuition of patriarchs and rabbis. 
 
19 
 
 of the Talmud and Gemara, he has become versed 
 in the tactics of evasion and subterfuge, at the 
 same time the entire force of his education steels 
 his bosom against the religion of the Nazarine. 
 
 In some respects, however, the modern Church 
 occupies a position of influence over this people, 
 above that of the ancient. This very dispersion, 
 this outpouring of the long gathering flood, that 
 swept them from Judea and strewed them in 
 wrecks on every shore, was minutely described 
 in the sacred records three thousand years ago. 
 On the pages of the New Testament the same 
 dark events are foretold with equal distinctness. 
 The Christian Church, in her efforts for the 
 conversion of Israel, proceeds upon the firm 
 foundation of prophecy fulfilled, such as affords 
 the most indubitable evidence of the divine 
 origin of our faith. Other circumstances com- 
 bine to heighten the force of this argument. 
 The lengthened darkness of that night, which, in 
 fulfillment of these prophetic denunciations, has 
 brooded over this nation for nearly two thousand 
 years, has not been without its influence for good. 
 As meteor after meteor has flashed across the sky 
 and disappeared, leaving only increasing dark- 
 ness ; as prophet after prophet has reared the 
 standard of Messiah, only to have it lowered in 
 blood and shame, so the hopes of this people 
 have been often raised, only to be dashed to the 
 earth. No star of Bethlehem cheers the hearts 
 of these anxious watchers. Hope is retiring be- 
 fore the increasing darkness of this starless night. 
 
20 
 
 Prophecy, such as Christianity authorizes, so sad- 
 ly, so sternly fulfilled, is sadly working in multi- 
 tude, the fearfully joyful conviction, that Jesus of 
 Nazareth is their long expected Messiah. Thus 
 time itself is elaborating an argument, of all others 
 the most powerful, to dispel those bright illusions 
 by which the Jew is blinded to the glory of the 
 cross. 
 
 The other great opponent of Christianity was 
 the Pagan. The conflict with Paganism, as it 
 then existed under the forms of Atheism, Pan- 
 theism, and Pollytheism, convulsed the whole 
 Roman empire. It was then in its manhood. 
 Poetry praised it ; philosophy smiled upon it ; the 
 populace adored it ; and the entire force of the 
 state was enlisted in its defence. No circum- 
 stance was wanting that could contribute to en- 
 hance the formidable opposition it made to the 
 cross. It was then in the full maturity of its 
 strength ; the passions of the great, the wisdom 
 of the learned, the prejudices of the vulgar, with 
 the immense power of that vast state, constituted 
 the wall of its defence. Yet so mightily did the 
 truth of Christ work, that, in less than three cen- 
 turies, it set at defiance the omnipotence of Rome, 
 won the emperor, and swept away the worship of 
 the ancient gods. The huge and massive super- 
 stition crumbled down before the influence of 
 Christian truth. 
 
 At this day more than half the human family 
 are the devotees of the rudest forms of Paganism ; 
 
21 
 
 while here, at home, beside the very altars of a 
 Christian people, there is springing up a refined 
 Paganism, beautiful as poetry, profound as mysti- 
 cism, and corrupt as the most depraved movings 
 of the human heart. This hybrid issue of a spu- 
 rious philosophy and a degenerate Christianity, 
 after having poisoned the life-blood of one Christ- 
 ian nation, has crossed the ocean to seek the 
 religious empire of this new w r orld. But in this 
 conflict, though it be with new and varied forms 
 of this old error, the Church occupies a position 
 far above that from which she waged >var with 
 the Paganism of Rome. Her w eapons of offence 
 and defence, have been accumulating for eighteen 
 centuries. They are wielded by the strength in- 
 spired in a thousand victories, with the science 
 gained in the war of ages. 
 
 Such were the two great systems of religion 
 by which Christianity was then opposed. But, at 
 the present day, she has to meet not only these, 
 but other religions, the growth of subsequent 
 ages, framed for dominion, large in resources, and 
 bitter in hostility to the cross. 
 
 In the opening of the seventh century, there 
 sprang up, amidst the deserts of Arabia, a system 
 of religion which, from that day to this, has pre- 
 sented one of the most formidable obstacles to 
 the advance of Christianity. Its theology is one 
 bold, grand truth, enforcing an equally bold lie. 
 “ There is but one God .” This Avas the thunder- 
 bolt Muhammed hurled among the idols of Mec- 
 
22 
 
 ca. “ Muhammed is his prophet.” This was the 
 imposition which gave to this truth the demon- 
 stration of the sword. Here has ever been the 
 great secret of Muhammed’s success. He was a 
 prophet, through whom heaven blazed forth its 
 revelations to an idolatrous world. He was a 
 chieftain, commissioned to enforce the will of 
 heaven bj the terror of arms. In establishing 
 his system, he brought to his aid two of the most 
 powerful and most permanent passions of our na- 
 ture. He roused the ardor of war ; he awoke the 
 enthusiasm of religion ; and, as if to ensure the 
 perpetuity of their union, he consecrated the first, 
 by the authority of the second, and gathered 
 around the unholy alliance all the attractions of 
 sensuality and ambition. Inspired by such a re- 
 ligion, it is not a matter of wonder, that the fiery 
 Saracen, sweeping in a whirlwind over western 
 Asia, over Africa and Spain, should have dashed 
 down the Pagan’s idols, trodden in scorn upon the 
 corrupt institutions of a degenerate Christianity, 
 and ended by the establishment of one of the most 
 powerful dynasties that ever swayed the sceptre 
 of dominion. 
 
 The situation of this system of religion, which, 
 but a few centuries ago, shook the mightiest 
 thrones in Europe to their base, is full of encour- 
 agement to the Christian. Its youth has gone ; 
 the signs of decrepid age mark all its movements. 
 The empire shrunk to a tenth of its former ex- 
 tent — rebel provinces resisting successfully the 
 
23 
 
 power of the Sultan, — state after state in quick 
 succession assuming an attitude of independence, 
 while the proud son of Othnian is forced to 
 crouch before Christian sovereigns, a royal beg- 
 gar for the political existence of his people. 
 
 Other nations around, and mingled with this 
 race, are rapidly advancing in science and power ; 
 the Greek, the Jew, the Arminian,are daily rising 
 in intelligence. Muhammedanism alone is sink- 
 ing into an atrophy. Her efforts to rise, are the 
 struggles of a man in a morass, which serve only 
 to show her own impotence and the impossibility 
 of her rescue by foreign hands. Unlike Christ- 
 ianity, which, in the sixteenth century, — when 
 the world was breaking loose from her intellect- 
 ual bondage, — with the giant vigor of youth shook 
 off the incumbent mass of superstition, and took 
 the lead of science in the disinthrallment of the 
 human mind, — Islamism embosoms no elements 
 of revivification. Its religion and its customs are 
 all stereotyped after the pattern of the days of 
 darkness. And as the courage, the enthusiasm, 
 the hardihood of its mountain and desert nour- 
 ished youth, vanish under the influence of luxury 
 and repose, there remains no vital force to rebuild 
 her mouldering walls, to prop her falling but- 
 tresses, to hold her up in the struggle for advance- 
 ment with the great powers of Christendom. 
 
 Muhammedanism is thus retiring before the 
 onward march of the civilized world. Change 
 she cannot without outraging the piety of every 
 
24 
 
 true Mussulman; for her religion forbids those 
 changes of government and manners which are 
 necessary to her advancement. If she clings to 
 her ecclesiastical polity, her political damnation 
 is inevitable. If, breaking away from these tram- 
 mels, she launches forth upon the wild sea of po- 
 litical experiment, then her religion must foun- 
 der and go down forever. How* long it will be 
 before the cannon which have desolated the fair- 
 est towns of Syria, and curbed the iron spirit of 
 the rebel Pacha, shall be pointed at the seraglio 
 of the Sultan, man cannot predict. But the voice 
 of Providence, borne to us on every breeze, de- 
 clares that the decree against this once terrible 
 power has gone forth. The allied power of all 
 Europe may retard, but it cannot stop the de- 
 scending bolt. The haughty and cruel Ottoman, 
 whose tread of death has crushed the minds and 
 hearts of millions, whose sway has consigned to 
 solitude and decay the garden spots of earth, 
 whose presence is a moral upas beneath which 
 science dies, and the living vigor of the immortal 
 spirit withers, that power which has sought only 
 to enslave, never to deliver; to destroy, never to 
 build up; is hastening to dissolution. And when 
 the empire of Othman falls, when once the 
 throne of the Sultan, like that of the Caliph, 
 crumbles, then assuredly cometh the jubilee of 
 Christianity over prostrate Islamism. Far and 
 wide as the religion of Muhammed is diffused, its 
 professors, from every quarter of the globe, from 
 
25 
 
 the sands of Ethiopia, the mountains of Tartary, 
 and the distant shores of China, all turn their 
 eyes with anxious gaze to Constantinople, as the 
 last refuge of their faith. When once the stone 
 cut out from the mountain without hands, shall 
 strike this collossus, when once its mosques shall 
 echo to the voice of Christian worshippers, the 
 death knell of Islamism will be sounded over the 
 earth. Not more surely will the arch fall whose 
 key-stone is rent away, than will this huge edi- 
 fice of religious imposture tumble into ruins, 
 when once the empire of the Turk is overturned. 
 It was the Turk who came to the succor of this 
 religion, when the dynasty of the Caliphs was in 
 ruins at his feet. This young, bold, hardy race 
 of Tartars, infused new life into the religion of 
 the conquered Saracen, when it was rapidly tend- 
 ing to decay. And as the Sultan falls into the 
 same grave his ancestors dug for the Caliph, w'hat 
 new power will arise to bid the decaying tree 
 flourish green again over their sepulchres'? 
 
 About the same period in which Muhammed 
 appeared, another religious system, equally cor- 
 rupt and still more formidable to true Christian- 
 ity, sprang up in her bosom. The influences 
 which originated the Papacy had been operating 
 since apostolic days. But amidst the fire and the 
 sword of persecution, the system could not reach 
 its full development. It waited for the installa- 
 tion of Christianity as the state religion of the 
 civilized world. That great event gave to the 
 4 
 
26 
 
 Church splendid temples for its worship, princely 
 wealth and power for its ministers. Amidst the 
 sudden splendor that encompassed her, as she 
 emerged from the caverns and the lairs whither 
 persecution had driven her, ambition, lordly, cor- 
 rupt, and all grasping, wove that triple crown, 
 which, within little more than a century, pressed 
 the brow of the bishop of Rome, and before which 
 the crowns of Europe’s proudest sovereigns have 
 often been lowered. I need not dwell upon the 
 character of this spiritual despotism. Suffice it 
 here to remark, that of all the forces of evil 
 arrayed against the early Church, not one can be 
 compared with this. 
 
 Yet, with this terrible power, Christianity has 
 already fought, under circumstances the most un- 
 favorable to success, and triumphed. The same 
 weapons which then won the victory, are now in 
 our hands ; the energy, which then shook down 
 so many pillars of this vast structure, still lives to 
 carry onward the work of reformation. Nor is it 
 true, as it has been asserted, that the relative 
 positions of Protestant Christianity and the Pa- 
 pacy, are nearly the same as they were left by 
 the Reformation. It may be true that the Pope 
 wields a sceptre over as many millions now, as he 
 did then ; but who is ignorant of the fact, that 
 this power is, in many cases, little more than 
 nominal. Slowly, indeed, as moral forces usually 
 work, until they reach the crisis of sudden devel- 
 opment, but no less surely has the spiritual des- 
 
27 
 
 potism of Rome been losing its hold upon the 
 conscience of mankind. Government after gov- 
 ernment lias broken its political power, until the 
 old man on the Tiber has become an enthroned 
 cypher, amidst the gigantic powers of Europe. 
 Nor is it a small matter in our favor, that this re- 
 ligion, ever clinging to the thrones of despotism 
 and courting their darkness, is failing before the 
 march of revolution and the progress of free prin- 
 ciples. The advance of human society is against 
 the power which reached its giant height only 
 amidst the darkness of the middle ages. Hence 
 it is, that the states of South America throw off 
 the tyrant, they grow weary of this religion. 
 Hence, in every part of the world, where the 
 principles of liberty and the elements of science 
 are the common property of the people, this sys- 
 tem makes no advance. True it is, that in both this 
 land and in that of our fathers, it has exhibited, 
 within the last few years, an unwonted vigor. 
 But what religion ever yet died without exhib- 
 iting signs of returning animation ? The wick, 
 just ready to expire, flashes up for an instant with 
 singular brightness ; the body, from which life is 
 fast departing, is convulsed to its extremities ere 
 the fainting heart ceases to beat. Muhammedan- 
 ism itself, now’ that its death knell is about to be 
 rung, is going forth on missions of propagandism 
 to central Africa. And can any one suppose, 
 that a religious despotism of this tremendous 
 power, will die as an infant falls asleep, and not 
 
28 
 
 as a giant tosses and heaves his unwieldy frame, 
 before his cry of agony is hushed forever? 
 
 In concluding this comparison of the religious 
 influences hostile to the ancient and modern 
 church, it is necessary to notice the opposition of 
 infidelity and erroneous forms of Christian doc- 
 trine. In the first ages of Christianity, the great 
 conflict was with Paganism. A system which de- 
 nied the truth of Christianity, of Paganism, and of 
 Judaism, which, while it trod upon the Bible, 
 laughed at the rites of the Pantheon, existed in- 
 deed ; but it was an esoteric doctrine, hidden 
 within the groves of the philosopher and the 
 cloister of the priest. That bold and shameless 
 infidelity, which since the reformation has strug- 
 gled so fiercely to sweep Christianity from the 
 earth, had not yet appeared. It was the offspring 
 of a later age. The mental agitations, the amaz- 
 ing intellectual activity, to which the efforts of 
 the reformers in leaving off the superstitions of 
 Home had given birth, in connexion with the 
 frightful licentiousness engendered by the opera- 
 tion for centuries of a corrupt religion, quickened 
 into life, and gave character and force to the delu- 
 sion of modern infidelity. The influence of the 
 Reformation, in awakening the intellect, extended 
 far beyond the counteracting influence of its doc- 
 trines. The public mind Avas everywhere aroused 
 by the exciting nature of the contest. The old 
 channels of thought were forsaken, the old land- 
 marks of doctrine swept away, and the great deep 
 
29 
 
 was broken up. Nor is it a matter of surprise 
 that, in countries where the truths of the Refor- 
 mation were not suffered to root themselves, or 
 where they could grow only in the hot-house of 
 state patronage, infidelity should have reached up 
 to so lofty a height. 
 
 With this fierce, proud and malignant opponent, 
 Christianity has been obliged to grapple in cir- 
 cumstances, than which none could be more fa- 
 vorable for the total rout of her forces. Against 
 her, were arrayed the highest powers of wit and 
 science. Heaven suffered minds of the first order 
 to waste their energies in the support of this ne- 
 gation of truth. There is scarcely a single de- 
 partment of intellectual labor, in which infidelity 
 has not had distinguished advocates. It has gone 
 down into the subterranean depths of metaphy- 
 sics, and labored with the energy of a Hume 
 to upheave the foundations of human belief. It 
 has traversed the sunny fields of literature, and 
 breathed its poison on the page of history. It has 
 ascended the rostrum of the statesman, and in the 
 costume of liberty has employed the force of elo- 
 quence to subvert the noble truths of Christian 
 freedom. It has sat on the high places of sacred 
 literature, corrupting the fountains of religious in- 
 fluence, and prostituting the acquisitions of learn- 
 ing to the horrid work of debauching the teach- 
 ers of men. It has even gone up into the pulpit, 
 and wielded the heavenly sympathies, attractions, 
 and powers, of that sacred place, against the life 
 
30 
 
 of that religion which gave them existence. TSot 
 satisfied with this wide range of effort, it has de- 
 scended into the styes of human corruption, and 
 there, by ribaldry, by falsehood, by pandering to 
 all the licentious desires of man, it has toiled with 
 insane energy to shut the door of reformation 
 upon the criminal, and extinguish forever the still 
 glimmering spark of hope in the breast of the 
 abandoned. 
 
 In conducting these wide spread operations, it 
 brought to its aid all the then present and well 
 remembered corruptions of a most degenerate 
 Christianity. The infidel wielded the corrup- 
 tions of the Church against the very life of the 
 Church. The pride of the hierarchy, the licen- 
 tiousness of the priesthood, the bigoted ignorance 
 of churchmen, the blood of heroic martyrs, and 
 the contemptible fooleries by which the multi- 
 tude were deluded, which had defiled the his- 
 tory of the Church for centuries, gave to a keen- 
 sighted infidelity an immense advantage over its 
 opponent. The former boasted of its tendency 
 to disenthrall the mind ; it was about to introduce 
 the jubilee of knowledge, refinement, liberty, 
 and equality. The latter, wherever it turned, 
 was met by the hideous form of that corruption 
 which had preyed for ages upon the peace, mo- 
 rality, and liberties of men. The tendencies of 
 the former were not yet fully developed. It had 
 not yet enjoyed space and opportunity for the 
 manifestation of its character. The latter, for a 
 
31 
 
 cycle of years, had been the dominant religion of 
 Europe, and partially' of Asia and Africa. Around 
 the former clustered all the attractions of novelty, 
 and large hope ; around the latter, the damning 
 persecutions, corruptions, hypocrisies, and failures 
 of centuries. Under such circumstances the con- 
 flict began, and with such weapons it was carried 
 forward. 
 
 For a time these vast efforts portended the ruin 
 of the Christian cause. But it was only for a 
 brief season. These hordes of the infidel rav- 
 aged, but they did not conquer ; they passed over 
 the land with fire and sword ; but they roused 
 the ardor of Christian zeal. They taught the 
 Christian the discipline of their arms. Momen- 
 tary defeat became the means of the more com- 
 plete and permanent triumph of the cross. A 
 thousand intellects concentred their keen vision 
 upon the evidences of Christianity. The fields 
 of sacred history and science were trodden in 
 every part by men of robust understanding, 
 boundless learning, and profound judgment. With 
 infinite toil, with inexhaustible patience, with su- 
 perhuman energy, they labored at the defence of 
 our faith. Around Christianity they reared bul- 
 warks, high, massive, impregnable to the assaults 
 of irreligion. They did still more than this ; 
 they entered the domains of the infidel. History 
 w r as met by history, philosophy by philosophy, 
 research by still deeper research. At every step 
 the arms of infidelity were turned against itself. 
 
32 
 
 Meanwhile the mask fell from this mockery of 
 religion. It stood forth disclosed in its naked 
 ugliness before the world. Heaven suffered it 
 to occupy a noble theatre on which to act out its 
 true character in the view of all coming time. 
 From that scene of raging passion, wild uproar, 
 legalized hate, lust and butchery, I need not draw 
 the veil. The memory of that time fills the soul 
 with horror. That scene inspired courage into 
 the Christian, while it covered the face of the in- 
 fidel with paleness. His chosen vantage ground 
 was wrested from him. Where are now the 
 boasts, the jubilations, the paeans of triumph in 
 anticipation of the speedy fall of Christianity, 
 which then deafened the ear of heaven ? Where 
 is now that host of philosophers, w its, poets, his- 
 torians, statesmen and crowned heads, which lit- 
 tle more than half a century ago licked the dust 
 trodden by the feet of the strumpet goddess of 
 infidelity? The song of triumph has ceased; the 
 loud huzzas are hushed. The swellings of that 
 wretched atheism, instead of 'engulphing, have 
 borne the ark of Christian truth high on the 
 solid earth. Doubtless this opponent will still 
 continue to resist the advance of the cross. We 
 know not, indeed, but that he is even now sum- 
 moning his energies for another fearful struggle. 
 Nor is it improbable that with him, Christianity 
 is destined to grapple most vigorously in the con- 
 flict which is to chain the prince of darkness and 
 usher in the millenial morn. Yet she fights with 
 
an oft conquered foe; around her are the trophies 
 of victory and the impregnable defences of our 
 faith. The Church has reached a position which 
 commands the entire field. 
 
 In addition to this great obstacle, Christianity 
 has to contend with others, springing up in her 
 own ranks. There is, in the breast of the impen- 
 itent, a spirit hostile to the humiliating truths of 
 the Cospel, while at the same time conscience, 
 unable to find repose in a system of barren nega- 
 tions, impels to the adoption of correct religious 
 principles. To satisfy the demands of conscience, 
 the costume of religion is preserved ; to gratify 
 the spirit of infidelity, the life of religion is re- 
 fined away. To the joint influence of these forces, 
 is mainly due the production of numerous errors, 
 adorned, outwardly, with the blazonings of true 
 religion, but. exhibiting, to the attentive observer, 
 only an emasculated Christianity. 
 
 It is not to be denied that the early Church was 
 greatly injured by the prevalence of numerous 
 forms of error among her own disciples. Aside 
 from the causes already assigned, which had pe- 
 culiar force over minds wholly strangers to gen- 
 uine piety, there were others which operated to 
 lead astray the truly pious. It was an age of 
 much popular ignorance. With the excepton of 
 the Greek and the Jew, the great mass of the peo- 
 ple dwelt on the confines of barbarism and civiliza- 
 tion. In such circumstances, it was to be expect- 
 ed that error w r ould spring up, even under the 
 5 
 
34 
 
 preaching of the most enlightened and cautious 
 teachers. But, besides the general ignorance of 
 the people, their best educated and most intelli- 
 gent instructors were, in many instances, imbued 
 with a philosophy as unlike that of the Cross, as 
 paganism is unlike the law of Moses. The influ- 
 ence of this false philosophy was deplorably bad. 
 The ignorance of a people unaccustomed to draw 
 nice moral distinctions, and the scarcity of the 
 Word, under the slow transcriptions of the scribe, 
 gave full scope to the workings of this philoso- 
 phy. The results are everywhere visible in the 
 errors which mar almost every page of the early 
 and subsequent history of the Church. Nor is it 
 extravagant to affirm that these, almost as much 
 as the power of heathenism itself, clogged the 
 chariot wheels of salvation. If the battle-axe of 
 a pagan Celsus now and then dashed an embrasure, 
 the weapons of a philosophic Origen were fire- 
 brands scattered within the sacred city. 
 
 In the conflict with errors of this character, 
 the modern Church has, in some' respects, the ad- 
 vantage over the ancient. The mental collisions, 
 and accumulated research, of eighteen hundred 
 years, have given greater definiteness both to the 
 views of truth, and the perceptions of error. 
 While it is undoubtedly true that the early Christ- 
 ians seized hold of the grand truths of the Gospel, 
 it is no less true that the system of truth it em- 
 bodied was but dimly apprehended. The minor 
 points of doctrine, the relation of the different 
 
35 
 
 parts of the system to each other, were not under- 
 stood. The main points of a system may be easily 
 apprehended, while their relations to each other 
 may demand the investigations of centuries fully 
 to unfold them. It is here that there is room for 
 advancement in the knowledge of Christianity ; 
 science cannot, indeed, better the Bible, but it 
 may aid us in bringing out what is in the Bible. 
 It cannot prune and alter, and modify, and prac- 
 tically annihilate any of the truths actually to be 
 found therein ; but it may contribute to the more 
 perfect development of their relations to each 
 other. Without arrogance, no one can affirm that, 
 in the mode of interpreting the sacred Oracles, 
 he has reached perfection in theory and in prac- 
 tice. Far less can this be asserted of the ancients. 
 We know that some of the principles on which 
 they reasoned are false. Nor is it too much to 
 say that, in this respect, there has been a great 
 advance since the days of the Fathers. Indeed, 
 the circumstances of the early Church were, in 
 the main, unfavorable to the profound investiga- 
 tion and calm discussion of the minor truths. It 
 was an age of persecution, when men were oblig- 
 ed to cling to the strong points of truth. It was 
 an age of missionary action, when the energies of 
 the church were mainly directed to the propaga- 
 tion of the Gospel. There was little opportunity 
 for quiet meditation, except in the cell of the 
 monk, and the cave of the hermit, to which the 
 latter part of this period gave rise. 
 
36 
 
 In addition to the advantages enjoyed by the 
 modern Church, in more definite perceptions of 
 the system of truth, there is a familiarity with the 
 character and workings of error, which enables 
 her to devise and execute the measures necessary 
 for its overthrow. The incessant warfare with 
 it, in which she has so long been engaged, has 
 given her a keen perception of its multiform 
 character and protean aspect ; an experimental 
 acquaintance with the operations by which it is 
 ever attempting to subvert the truth. It w ould 
 be passing beyond the limits of rational conjecture 
 to assert, with one of the most original waiters of 
 this age, that the fields of error have all been 
 sown, the harvest reaped, and that, for the future, 
 it can only re-produce antiquated and exposed 
 dogmas. It is not improbable that such vast sys- 
 tems of imposture, as that of the papacy, have all 
 appeared. In this late age of the world, it seems 
 hardly probable that other systems w ill arise to 
 rival the deadly influence of this. Such elaborate 
 and systematised errors are the' result of the si- 
 lent workings of centuries ; their power is only 
 overthrown after ages of conflict. But with this 
 exception, as society advances, as the relations of 
 the different parts of truth become more fully de- 
 veloped, as each age bears an impress peculiar 
 to itself, we must expect that error will throw off 
 its antiquated costume and adapt itself to t lie char- 
 acter of the times. It is always one in essence ; 
 diversified in its manifestations, as the firmament ; 
 
37 
 
 yet, even on this supposition, the knowledge 
 possessed by the Church, of the past appearances 
 and operations of error, is of immense advantage. 
 The mind of the Church has been disciplined to 
 a rapid detection of the advance of error and the 
 means best adapted to meet it. The past lias 
 made her wary, deliberate, skillful. 
 
 The only remaining point of comparison, be- 
 tween the ancient and modern Church, which I 
 shall notice, is the literature of their respective 
 times. When Christianity arose, the science of 
 the world was in the hands of its opponents. The 
 canonized shades of Plato and Aristotle frowned 
 upon it ; the eagle-eyed philosophy of Greece, 
 which then swayed the sceptre of science, des- 
 pised the Gospel as the babblings of insanity. 
 While a Tacitus, and a Juvenal, could turn away 
 from it with the contemptuous exclamation — “ An 
 execrable superstition.” The great masters in 
 the realm of literature, the minds disciplined to 
 thought, and rich in human lore, the philosophic 
 historian, the brilliant poet, the astute dialec- 
 tician, the powerful advocate, the large minded 
 statesman, with scarcely a single exception, out 
 of Judea, poured their fire upon the fisherman of 
 Galilee. 
 
 Look now abroad upon the domain of the heath- 
 en world ! The orbs of its pagan glory have all 
 set ; the very stars which, in such luminous con- 
 stellations, then flamed in the firmament, have all 
 gone down to rise, in fresh, undying radiance, 
 
38 
 
 upon the institutions of a Christian people. There 
 is darkness settling, like a pall, over the wide 
 pagan land. While around the Cross is gathered 
 the mind, the knowledge, the intellectual enter- 
 prise of the world. It is not asserted, indeed, 
 that men of science are uniformly Christian in 
 their convictions, or their practice. Yet it is true 
 that Christianity embosoms the multitude of those 
 who are carrying forward, with indomitable vigor, 
 the triumphs of mind ; she breathes into them 
 the spirit of inquiry ; she calls them from airy 
 and evanescent dreams, to the practical, the real, 
 the true. On her history, time is continually 
 engraving, with a vividness that shall defy the 
 the laspe of ages, names as bright, as radiant, as 
 powerful, in the influence they gave to the ad- 
 vance of truth, as any to be found in the scroll of 
 this world’s record. Nor is this all the truth. 
 She seizes hold of, and appropriates to the ad- 
 vance of her own great objects, the discoveries, 
 the toils of her most bitter foes. She domesticates 
 the gifted minds of pagan Greece and Rome, in 
 the groves of her academies and the halls of her 
 colleges. She wrests from the hands of infidelity, 
 the weapons for which it has toiled, with wonder- 
 ful patience, amidst the mausoleums of Egypt’s 
 grandeur and Egypt’s fame, and plants them as 
 buttresses around the truth of God. Go, single out 
 the warrior champion of infidelity, a Voltaire, a 
 Hume, a Diderot, a Gibbon ; and I will show you 
 one from the triumphs of whose genius Christian- 
 
39 
 
 ity has gathered, and is gathering, the materials 
 of science, wherewith to swell her last great tri- 
 umph over the downfall of error throughout the 
 world. She fears not the development of truth, 
 or the march of science. While Home threatens 
 Copernicus, and imprisons Galileo, she cheers on 
 her Bacon, rejoices in the triumphs of her New- 
 ton, and with a force, as gentle as it is irresistible, 
 compels the votary of science to bring his offer- 
 ing to her shrine. She believes that all truth is one 
 in its source, harmonious in its relations, and one 
 in its end. The progress of true learning, she re- 
 gards as in perfect harmony with that of true re- 
 ligion. In the widening circle of science, she be- 
 holds a wider field for the triumphs of the Cross. 
 Hence it is that, standing on the mount of truth, 
 the science of the world becomes her servitor. 
 
 The advantage we enjoy, in this respect, above 
 the ancient Church, is obvious. We are qualified 
 to be the teachers of the heathen world in sci- 
 ence, as well as in religion. The learning of the 
 mass of the followers of Muhammed, is limited 
 to the raphsodies of the Koran ; for the light that 
 shone around the palaces of the Moor in Spain, 
 had gone out long before he was swept from her 
 shore. And, aside from the flickering flame that 
 may yet burn in Arabia the Happy, the entire 
 science of that religious imposture would not equal 
 that of a Christian schoolboy. As for the heathen 
 world at large, it has done nothing, for ages, but 
 stereotype the errors of its antiquity. Mind is 
 
40 
 
 stagnant. The mental vigor which marked the 
 ages of Plato and Cicero, is nowhere to be found. 
 There is no bursting away from the eternal round 
 of hoary puerilities and childish superstitions. But 
 the grand fact, here to be noticed as most favora- 
 able to the success of Christianity, is that their 
 systems of science are all interlocked with those 
 of religion. The explosion of their systems of 
 learning must rend their systems of faith. And as 
 our schools, with the miracle-worker of the mod- 
 ern Church, the press, upheaves the absurdities 
 which constitute their literature, the towering fab- 
 ric of superstition, reared upon it, must come 
 down. 
 
 I have thus taken a hurried view of some of the 
 principal forces arrayed against the ancient and 
 modern Church, in connection with the resources 
 in their possession to overcome them. With these 
 facts before us, who, in order to secure the ulti- 
 mate and most enlarged success of missionary ef- 
 fort, could wish to place the Church in the posi- 
 tion she occupied when Stephen harangued the 
 Sanhedrim ; Avhen Paul preached to the most in- 
 telligent of the pagans, from the steps of the Areo- 
 pagus, amidst the temples, the altars, the statues, 
 the splendid monuments of Grecian prowess, piety 
 and science — beneath the shade of Nero’s palace, 
 in view of the Coliseum, crowded with ils scores 
 of thousands of the most enlightened and refined of 
 Roman citizens, gloating over the dying agonies 
 of his noble coadjutors, and at the heart of that 
 
41 
 
 colossal empire, whose shadow darkened not only 
 over the whole civilized, hut of vast portions of 
 the barbarian world? To effect such a change 
 in the position of the modern Church, would be to 
 transfer the mind, the intellectual enterprise of 
 the world, from her friends to her opponents — 
 to blot out all that advance of science which has 
 given such tremendous power to Christianity, over 
 the absurd systems of heathen literature — to an- 
 nihilate the press, thereby sweeping away the 
 multiplied facilities, of this age, for the diffusion of 
 truth, the overthrow of error, and bringing back 
 upon the Church the night when the simple word 
 of God, the world’s great conservator, was depend- 
 ant upon the slow pen of the scribe for multipli- 
 cation, at the cost of a rich man’s fortune, and 
 the gains of a poor man’s life — to break up the 
 mighty chains of commere, foundering your ships, 
 blowing up your steamers, giving back the needle 
 to the mine, and the ocean to its old masters, the 
 unblessing winds and storms — to consolidate the 
 various nations of the world, whose very rivalry 
 and jarrings are hastening the political emancipa- 
 tion of man, into one vast despotism ; its energies 
 swayed by one mind, and that mind filled with 
 exterminating rage toward the Christian Church. 
 But I need not complete the picture. It is enough 
 for us to know that there is little in early Christ- 
 ianity, of which we regret the loss ; that there is 
 nothing in present difficulties, to appall ; and we 
 have everything necessary, in the outward cir- 
 6 
 
42 
 
 cumstances of the Church, both to inspire hope 
 and check presumption. There is but one thing 
 wanting, at this day, in connection with these ad- 
 vantages, which the ancient Church possessed in 
 a most remarkable degree, to ensure the most 
 rapid, wide-spread, and permanent success — I re- 
 fer to the devotion, the faith, the zeal, with which 
 the Church herself should engage in this work. 
 It is true, and it is a truth to be deeply ponder- 
 ed by men of enlarged minds, who may be skep- 
 tical respecting the ultimate triumph of our re- 
 ligion, that in no period of the world’s history, 
 has there existed a greater amount of intelligent, 
 well-balanced, devoted piety, than in this age. 
 With all the corruptions in doctrine, and extrav- 
 agance in measures, of this day, before us, the as- 
 sertion is hazarded, that religion has never, on the 
 whole, embraced less of fanatacism, more of intel- 
 ligence, wealth, and enterprise, than at this mo- 
 ment. Let the Church, then, but awake to the 
 vigorous prosecution of the great object before 
 her, and, imitating the self-consecration of the 
 early Christians, throw herself into this great en- 
 terprize, with all her vast resources, the energy, 
 divine and resistless, will be infused into her ex- 
 ertions, and the day of triumph will quickly 
 come. In the formation of this association, as 
 well is in the marshalling of the Christian host, 
 abroad through the world, I behold the sign of 
 the rise of that spirit which, when it shall gen- 
 erally fill the heart, and waken the zeal of the re- 
 
43 
 
 newed on earth, will level alike the throne of the 
 despot, and the time-cemented superstitions to 
 which they cling ; before which the Crescent will 
 wane into darkness, the funeral pile, and bloody 
 idols of the Hindoo, llee away ; the intolerance, 
 the corruptions, the fierce contentions of nominal 
 Christendom, vanish, while the song of redemp- 
 tion, which it first breathed forth on the plains of 
 Bethlehem, will sw ell up, in grand chorus, from 
 every altar and temple, every cottage and palace, 
 every hill and vale. The voices of ten thousand 
 new-born sons of Zion fall upon my ear from the 
 isles of the Pacific, and the shores of India. Hail 
 them as the prelude of that universal anthem, 
 which will enwrap the world, when the Gospel 
 shall illumine every dwelling, and kindle the fire 
 of a pure religion on every altar, and in every 
 heart beneath the whole heaven. 
 
' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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