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Reprint and digital file September 8, 2002.

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The distinction of tribe has no place in the empire of letters. Liberal pursuits create a brotherhood, and link together men of every nation. And if an influence thus cementing is put forth by the culture of mind, and the extension of knowledge, a yet higher measure of power, exerted in the same direction, may be claimed for our holy religion. Deriving her doctrines and precepts, her hopes and impulses from the one revelation, she encircles her votaries by a chain of hallowed and fraternal affection.

I make no apology, therefore, for appearing here to-day. Although in some sense a stranger, an alien, and a foreigner, our mutual relationship vindicates me from the charge of presumption in having complied with the kind invitation of the Theological Society of this University to take my humble part in the exercises of an Anniversary day. Indeed the sense is very limited in which Jam willing to admit the position of an alien. True, I am not an American either by birth, naturalization, or citizenship; I come not up to-day, to my own Alma Mater. I first drew breath on that wonderful little island that hangs on the Western margin of the Old World. My Alma Mater rears her time honored walls and grey turrets in the land of chivalry and of song, the land whose "everlasting hills" centuries by-gone, echoed the hymn of praise to Israel’s God. But am not I to-day among the offspring of the same ancestry? Speak we not the same mother tongue? Is not this also Anglo Saxondom? Are not the records of England’s dynasties, of her progress, of her achievements, of her glory,

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or many centuries, as much yours’ as they are ours’? Is not the history one? Does not New England, especially, spring from the finest portion of the old English stock—from men of high principle, lofty purpose, and mighty in their generation? Hath there not ever been intercommunion of thought between us; literature, science, Theology in common? Turn whichever way we will, the distinct impress of our brotherhood appears. Let the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes hang enfolded together before the nations, with the motto " Unitas" above them, and the prayer "Esto perpetua" written beneath.

Coming up, in these circumstances, to an Anniversary celebration of one of the oldest Colleges in New England, the mind is turned, not unnaturally to the powerful influence which its successive Alumni must exert upon their country and on the world. Educated mind places its impress on a generation. It is God’s will that every where intellect shall control and triumph over mere force. It is a suitable homage which matter yields to spirit. It is not less for the benefit of Society than for the divine glory, that, of all the influences that can be brought permanently to affect mankind, that of cultivated intellect and affections is the most powerful. It may be disliked, resisted, even denounced, but in spite of all, it is felt; nor can its revilers themselves escape its magic spell. Reverence must be paid to the spiritual and good, even though it be exacted from those who are evil. Accordingly, the members of this Society, if true to their vocation and allegiances cannot move through life in vain. Going forth into various parts of this great country, they must give impulse and direction to many minds. Dwelling in the midst of their brethren, they cannot do otherwise than put forth great moral power. Into a position of high responsibility their intellectual culture and furniture, hath placed them, and it is of no little moment that they who are soon to leave these halls of learning, should not merely apprehend, but also deeply feel their accountableness. And perhaps a stranger-brother, who can only be an observer of your position, may, without presumption help in the formation of a correct estimate by inviting your attention to the fact, that our world may legitimately expect much from the American Church.

It may be worth our while to note at the outset what is meant by the American Church. We are to-day amid associations and institutions that render explanation easy. New England’s idea of Church has Bible simplicity about it. There is pictured forth the gathered assembly of the devout engaged in earnest worship of the Triune Jehovah through the Great Mediator. The rites of that worship are simple and unpretending. There is no vain show. No pompous ceremonial. The idea does not include a cumbrous hierarchy of many orders rising one above another to the throne of an Archbishop or to the Chair of the Fisherman; nor does it know any thing of strong and high lines of circumvallation, which, like the great wall of China, shut out from the Church and from God’s covenant mercies all non-conformists, as outside barbarians. The ancient and true idea, indigenous in this land, excludes all this, and sympathizes with the definition that the American church means American Christianity in its vitality and power, the religion of the intellect and of the affections, the faith once delivered to the saints. Or more accurately, it means the adherents to the religion of Jesus Christ as a Divine Savior, crucified for sin, and "made of God unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption," the religion of a "new heart," a "right spirit," and of holiness in walk and conversation. The American Church contains every man and woman of this character, in the American States, however ecclesiastically associated, and it contains no other.

From this Church the world’s people are entitled to expect much enlightenment and amelioration. Without presumption they may look to this agency for a needed blessing. But in order to a correct apprehension of the matter, attention must be given to an indispensable preliminary. There can be no intelligent devotement, nor can there be framed and put into operation right plans, without some estimate of what has to be done in our world. Little is accomplished by fitful efforts,

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made at random, and without reference to "an expected end." The issue must be regarded. The mind needs familiarity with ultimate results. Mere time-servers labor in vain in this sphere. The work is not to be attempted by your men of the present hour and of expediency, who trim their bark so as to sail before every breeze that blows, most solemnly eschewing the labor and inconvenience of beating up against wind and tide for the one and only real haven.

Now thoughtful minds can hardly fail to admit, that neither is the present condition of our world, nor was any past state since the entrance of evil into it, such as can be regarded with complacency, or as satisfactory to benevolent aspirations. It is manifestly capable of something higher. Retaining still the faint impress of its original greatness and purity, it suggests the possibility of nobler issues. In connection with the divine plan of mercy, it contains elements of grandeur that have only to be developed, and harmonized, and above all purified from corrupt admixture, to form a constellation that shall shine with unlooked-for splendor. The song is now applicable. "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty, Just and True are thy ways thou King of Saints." Some of these precious elements have for ages been hidden under a cloud, and their glory buried amid rubbish by the agency of sin; but they are there nevertheless in all their unchanged and unchanging excellence—they only wait to have free course, and to be glorified. And the hour of their unfolding approaches. They must shine forth. The glory of the Great Lord demands it. He who made these heavens and this earth with all that in them is, is not on this arena to be foiled and baffled in the achievement of his benevolent purpose. "As I live, saith Jehovah, the whole earth shall be filled with my glory." Light, liberty, moral purity, social happiness shall supersede the long reign of darkness, slavery, wickedness and wretchedness. However long it tarry, and with whatever gloom the intermediate scene is invested, the time of deliverance must come. The presages of Providence with their uplifted finger, the scroll of prophecy with its mystic indications, and the glory of

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the Great Lord of all in its obvious exigencies unitedly point to this issue, and proclaim its certain realization. His "will shall be done on earth, even as it is done in heaven."

That earth has a prospect thus bright few instructed Christians are disposed to question, but there is less unity of sentiment on the subject of agency and instrumentality. The verdicts especially on the latter point are many and various. Honest but misjudging men have from time to time put forth each one his panacea, until failure hath shamed them out of countenance. Meanwhile the evil and designing have supplied abundance of shifts and nostrums to impose on the unwary. From one or other of these sources the public mind is seldom without some appeal in favor of a specific cure for a world’s maladies. We meet here, however, on higher ground. Our united conviction is, that this work of right belongs to the Most High, and that he alone can do it. We believe that he will carry forward and consummate his glorious purpose of love by the gospel of salvation proclaimed by human instruments. It is not unknown that good and earnest men who have studied prophetic scripture in ignorance of the Apostolic axiom of exegesis, that "no prophecy of the Scripture is of self-interpretation," have doubted and do now doubt at this point. They understand the gospel as containing one message, having little of the aspect of good tidings in it, namely, that it shall fail, as proclaimed by regenerate man, to secure general attention and to bless the world with light and peace. Their expectations of happy result are confined to the coming of the Just One, the second coming of our Lord. Until then, according to them, matters will, in the aggregate, become worse and worse.

Without at present attempting to separate truth from error in this imperfectly adjusted scheme, it is needful to notice it, only as it conflicts with our views of the divinely appointed instrumentality in the renovation of the world. Now if we turn for instruction on this subject, to all the past, its voice presents an unbroken testimony that God has ever enlightened man by revealed truth propagated by human agency. Let the mind

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of the inquirer get below the surface, and he will find that missions of light and benevolence were characteristics of all the economies. Enoch prophesied, and Noah preached. Abraham carried the divine light to the tribes with which he came into contact during his wandering pilgrimage. Joseph and Israel taught Egypt the knowledge of God. "Burdens" and messages were sent to Tyre, to Nineveh, and to Babylon. When Israel sinned, the name of God was blasphemed among the heathen because of them. The Jewish temple was a house of prayer as well for the stranger, as for the child; it was for all nations. Of the present dispensation such missions are among the most prominent marks. Explicit injunction requires the Church to "go forth into all the world, and to preach the gospel to every creature." Explicit promise hath rendered certain the blessing. "Lo I am with you alway, even to the end of the world." The Redeemer himself, though he gloriously appeared to the vindictive Saul of Tarsus, did not personally instruct him "what he should do to be saved, but having convinced and humbled him, he sent Ananias to teach him the way of life. The Angel who was sent to Cornelius, did not himself preach Christ to the devout centurion, but enjoined him to send for Peter, who would tell him words whereby he should be saved. Thus taught, we may not look for new arrangements, nor expect the world to be brought to Jesus apart from the gospel and human agency in its proclamation.

We might, if needful adopt sundry admissions without prejudice to this conclusion. It might be granted that advance in evangelization is slow, toilsome, and imperfect; and that the marvellous changes and progress in science and art, have not, in the present day, a parallel in the triumphs of’ religion. We might admit that the immediate result of shaking down the effete superstitions of paganism and imposture, is the introduction of a reacting scepticism, rather than of a powerful evangelicism. The acknowledgment might be further made that our civilization and learning, our science and progress are grievously associated with accumulations of vice—hidden, fearful vice, vice in many heaps, enough to make the very heavens

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blush with shame. Yet the assured promise of the Most High gives a confidence of a favorable issue that prevails over all present discouragement. Supposing that we grant the fact that systems of error are more than usually rife at this present in Christendom, and that there is, in the extremities of his dominion, a revival of energy in "the Man of Sin" with his attendant superstitions, and assumption of sacerdotal power; and that we recognize a further fact that the Kings of the earth, the Governments of the nations are giving their power to the beast, while the tendencies of political partizanship—of Legislation—of Literature, and of the influence of Mammon, are in the same evil direction. Let the probability be conceded that there is now in progress a general gathering together of all the agencies of evil, under the masterly generalship of the Prince of the power of the air, environed with the pomp and circumstance of such a war, and gilded with whatever can fascinate the carnal mind; and that on the other hand the Lord is gradually assembling his little band of "the called, chosen and faithful," his Gideon’s three hundred, and they far from replete with energy and courage; admit all this, and that the victory will be gained amid some special and grand manifestations of Messiah’s power—" the Spirit of his mouth, and the brightness of His coming ;" still we discover no corner in all this in which a suspicion may lodge that human instruments will be dispensed with, and that until the end of all things the Church will not be the grand instrument in blessing the world. In judging of the present we are not to forget that, if achievements are few, the necessary work of preparation is advancing with rapid strides. Obstacles are being removed, and error is confuted; the seed of divine truth is scattered with a liberal hand among the nations. New and far higher thoughts have place in the many who long sat in darkness. Hills are levelled, values are raised, stones are gathered out, and the highway for our God is preparing. Yet all this constantly involves the action of human agency. The work is performed by sanctified humanity. It is God’s will to carry out his plans in our world by such instruments. He hath

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pointed His chosen ones to be the salt of the earth. The hopes of man in time and for eternity, are linked with the efficiency of the Church.

What then may humanity rightfully anticipate from the American Church in this grand system of amelioration? Do the high places of the field belong to these legions, or must they take a lower place? Ought this agency to do much in this work of benevolence, or may it be content with a small part? These questions can only be answered by an estimate of her advantages of character and position; if they are great, the responsibility associated with them is vast, and the measure of the claim on the part of the world’s people on the energy and devotedness of the American Church is of parallel amount. This estimate is fair. We all admit the equity of such reckoning.

We place in the estimate of these advantages certain valuable characteristics of race. It may be doubted if the whole philosophy of that marvellous diversity existing in the physical and intellectual attributes of the several tribes of mankind has yet been given to us. The subject has many points of deep interest to an earnest inquirer. Extended investigation would be required in pursuing it, hut there can be no doubt that it contains lessons of great value. Amid all existing diversities, it is pleasant to know, that there is no race on earth incapable of improvement; not one that may not be elevated and blessed through the agency of divine truth. However degenerate it may he, the sane intellect will expand under the influence of this culture. But there are men, and there are races of mental grasp and stamina far superior to others. Not only does a generation of them start, in their upward course from a higher platform, and amid a purer atmosphere than their contemporaries reach; but they have greater strength to toil at the ascent, indomitable energy and perseverance to climb the mountain ridge. This distinction is marked in any contrast that may be drawn between Occidental and Oriental mind. The restless and untiring progress of the former in the modes of thought and in their personal and social habits,

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as compared with the stereotyped uniformity of these in the latter class, (reminding one of scenes two or three score of centuties by-gone,) irresistibly suggest a wide diversity in the elementary mental characteristics of the respective races.

This granted, it hardly admits of question whether their be a race on earth equal in all respects to the Anglo Saxon—a race having so many elements of power, and putting forth in its modern development, efforts in improvement so gigantic. Anciently those free-booters of the sea were a daring and wonderful people. The British Celt had no power to withstand them. In their own Germany they had an unconquerable attachment to personal independence and freedom. "Their institutions were not the most favorable for the exercise of the strength of a nation against the enemy. But it gives a strong and self-dependent mind to the individual man, to find himself sole lord and master upon his own property, and knowing that it is his own power that must protect wife and child." They placed themselves only during the wars under the leadership of dukes, who afterwards immediately withdrew into the ranks of nobility. In times of peace they legislated by representation, ever preserving their personal freedom with vigilant care. They formed an important part of that cluster of Northmen which the prophetic eye of Tacitus saw would come from their dark and sombre forests with their primitive., unenervated energy to remodel the older nations. Founding Kingdoms in England, their innate love of freedom and self-government appear in the arrangements of their heptarchy and in the limited powers of their rulers. He only who gained distinction by valor or virtue was acknowledged Bretwalda; that supreme dignity descended not from sire to son. They had in their temperament—or they had acquired from their climate, their necessities, their institutions, and their training, all the elements of power and progress. We have a noble specimen of an Anglo Saxon of that early age, in the per son of the high-minded, brave, and polished Alfred. There have been admixtures of the Dane and the Norman, and as usual, improvement followed, but we cannot fail to perceive

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that the modern Saxon, with superior refinement, retains everywhere the energy, the love of freedom, and the indomitable courage and perseverance of the ancient. Its intellect is enterprizing, restless, mighty. Instead of looking back to the fathers, and after the manner of the Orientals forming itself slavishly on the model of the past, its distinguishing characteristic is to look forward and to press onward. In its grasp, old discoveries become the basis of new ones. It advances from truth to truth, connecting them by a succession of links into a great chain of knowledge destined to encircle and bind together all things. How marvellous have been its achievements already! What power! what ingenuity! what enterprize has it exhibited! What vast extent of dominion and influence hath it gained! These people have no stand still. Their Colonies and Commerce encompass the globe, and stud with their ships its every sea. Their diplomacy is active in every nation under heaven, nor is there an inhabited spot of earth in which their influence is unfelt. This is a race that may act upon and bless the world. It has power.

Such, however, is only a preliminary advantage, for the mind of such a people may be improved. It is an incarnation of energy, and can therefore be stirred, and moulded, and advanced. It is not inert, cold, motionless, but it is alive to impressions, susceptible of impulse, its soul is of quick perceptions, its heart of fine sensibilities. Let high moral influence be brought to act upon it, and there are speedily nobler forms of development.

We place therefore in our estimate the advantages derived from the admixture of certain religious elements. Because of the supremacy of its considerations, and of the interests involved in it, Religion, when unfolded to the ardent mind, must ever produce striking effects in moulding its character and guiding its movements; while, at the same time, religious manifestations will invariably receive a color and impress from the original texture of the mind in which it dwells. It may not be an easy task to trace these reciprocal influences upon the Saxons on the one hand, and the Normans on the other,

but perhaps the averment may be hazarded, that priestly despotism was more easily maintained among the latter than the former, and that the Normans themselves coming to England were taught lessons of self-reliance, and direct responsibility to God. However this may be, we early find in our fatherland a religious element, adverse to the reigning superstition, of manly form and of great force. The Lollards were its manifestation. We admit that it had being and influence in foreign countries. John Huss and Jerome of Prague are heroes of renown. Bohemia and Poland were then instinct with a spirit of inquiry and expostulation. The Albigenses and the refugees of the valleys of Piedmont shall be had in everlasting remembrance. But surely our Wickhiffe and his English fellow-reformers may be regarded as at least equal in efficiency. That noble confessor, armed with the word of God, cried aloud of truth and righteousness and the nations heard. Great was the wrath of the mendicant hordes of Rome who came up like swarms of locusts upon the land, but that wrath availed not. There stood that devout and calumniated priest, looking from his open Bible to society around him, and from society back to his Bible again, and at every glance between the fair face of the one, and the foul face of the other, he grew more earnest, more indignant, more out-spoken against those friars who "visiten rich men and by hypocrisy getten falsely their alms, and withdraw from poor men: * * * * *

those friars who be worse enemies and slayers of man’s soul than is the cruel fiend of hell himself; for they under the habit of holiness, lead men and nourish them in sins; and be special helpers of the fiend to strangle men’s souls." A caustic testimony, yet true,—but although true, to bear it in those days a most perilous thing. The man who could do so undaunted and unshaken, had a stout heart, and indicated the fortitude of a martyr. Such was not only Wickliffe, but also many of those of whose sufferings the tower of Lambeth Palace might tell sad tales. A powerful leaven was thus cast into the national mind. Its depths were stirred; thought was awakened, conscience was enlightened, men "stood before the

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Lord." These men dug up literature from its entombment, and gave it rightful rank. True religion was placed on the strictest ground of private responsibility and judgment. The desire and the capacity for knowledge were aroused and stimulated. Some of the effects of this movement are seen in the writings of Chaucer, probably Wickliffe’s fellow-student at Oxford. He was a man of extensive culture for that age—a keen and original thinker—a true poet, whose feelings were healthy and genial, and whose aspirations were all for social progress, and the diffusion of sound opinion. Although many of his days were spent amid the luxuries of Court, he yet had deep feelings in common with the Anglo-Saxon soul, depressed as it had been by the Norman conquest. The assertion of Foxe may be admitted to be an exaggeration, that Chaucer was "a right Wicklivian," without prejudice to the conclusion that the sound views of the priest exerted an influence on that poetic temperament. He was an antagonist of the corrupt Roman system, and doubtless sympathized in his own way, with such ideas and efforts as proceeded from his more devout and earnest contemporary.

Assuredly there was greatness of soul in these same Lollards, and the thing they testified still greatened them. It was a rebuke of tyranny and a vindication of the rights of conscience. There had been nothing like it since the days of primitive confessors. Its theology was clear, pure, manly; "a sun-burst of evangelic light upon the nations.". Its spirit was unconquerable. These men knew their danger, and they braved it. Loving the cause of truth, they were faithful unto death. Nor were there lacking elements of power in their very humor and mirthfulness. It was the freedom of the mind at ease, certain of its position. It boded cheerfulness and hope. It exposed sophism, and laughed at the arrogance of the foe. The quaintly playful conceit, proclaimed a fearless courage,—-it was as "mirth before battle,"—" a song in the night." Such men fixed their impress on their generation, and prepared the nation’s mind for a future unfolding of another element, we must notice. I mean the Puritan.

Puritanism was in its whole soul Protestant against Rome. Hitherto the desire was that Rome should reform itself. This was the primary wish of that great Saxon Reformer whose character it is difficult to contemplate without mingling ideas of the superhuman, which need chastening. Lord Bacon said of him, "Martin Luther finding his own solitude, being no ways aided by the opinions of his own time, was enforced to awake all antiquity and to call former times to his succor, to make a party against the present lime." Still he made that party for reformation, not, for secession. He proclaimed great truths, bringing them out from that heap of rubbish in which Rome had buried them. Those truths he thundered through Europe with homely but earnest eloquence, he gave the Bible to his nation, and vindicated its claim as the supreme arbiter. He seems ever to have exemplified the motto "Fiat justitia, ruat coelum." His influence was perhaps no where greater than on the British mind. The depths of that mighty and ardent soul were stirred, so that the commotion could not be quieted. ‘Tis true our Eighth Henry having won from the Vatican the title of "Defender of the Faith," turned against the Pontiff, and renounced his supremacy, but it was only to assume that attitude himself, and to enter upon a course which issued in the establishment of a hierarchy and of forms, as near akin to those of Rome as was practicable. The great principles which Luther had enunciated lay, however, in the minds of many, and worked powerfully there; and as a consequence they could not brook such control. To them it seemed plain that Rome was hopelessly apostate, and that it was befitting to cast off her impress, and to blot out her footprints. Not so, however, did kingly and priestly policy order matters; it was favorable to their retention. Terms were therefore imposed, requirements were obtruded, beyond their capacity of endurance. They loved their country, and cherished its honor; they would have England at the head of the world’s Protestantism. But they would not have conscience trammelled,—its freedom was dearer to them than life. They could permit no one to stand between God and their direct

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responsibility to Him. To Caesar ever ready to render the things belonging to him, they were determined to render to none other than God, the things belonging to Him—the homage of the conscience, and the service of the affections. Their learning was polite as it was profound—they meddled with all knowledge. Their morality was pure; and if sometimes it appeared cast in a mould of stern aspect, it was but apparent, for it lodged in a heart, full of tenderness and sensibility. Their courage has never been impeached. The Puritan soul was dauntless; whether in the tented field, or in the Confessor’ s fire, it knew no fear. "Strong in the Lord and in the power of his might," it could not fail of ultimate victory. And who can measure the blessing conferred? The historian Hume, infidel though he was, and a cordial hater of these strait-laced ones, yet is forced to confess—" So absolute was the authority of the Crown, that the precious spark of liberty had been kindled and was preserved by the Puritans alone, and it was to this sect the English owe the whole freedom of their constitution." "Anima mea sit cum Puritanis Anglicanis," exclaimed the learned, but time-serving Erasmus. It has been happily said, " If there be a category of glorious ideas and principles this name represents it. If there be a song of freedom, this sound is its chord."

Such is our lineage. This history belongs to you and to us. We have the noble parentage in common. A more special non-conformist element might be noted more at length, did our limits allow, and we might also point out, as running parallel with Lollardism, Puritanism, and non-conformity, an element not noisy in its working, but marvellously potent, I mean Independency. They who exemplified it fixed their faith no otherwise than in the word of God. They troubled their opponents with the question "What saith the scripture? They were willing to learn, never supposing their view of it final. One of the sort, an ornament of the order, whose name must be in New England "as ointment poured forth," JOHN ROBINSON, said, while the May-flower was rocking off Delfthaven, "For my part, I cannot sufficiently bewail the

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condition of the Reformed Churches who are come to a period in religion, and will go, at present, no farther than the instruments of their reformation. . . . This is a misery much to be lamented, for though they were burning and shining lights in their times, yet they penetrated not into the whole counsel of God, but, were they now living, would be as willing to embrace further light, as that which they first received. I beseech you remember, it is an article of your church covenant, that you be ready to receive whatever truth shall be made known to you from the word of God." But while these men adjured only by the Bible, they did not pervert that profession, as some have done since, as a mask to cover all that is unsettled and untrue in speculation. They held fast "the faith once delivered to the saints."

With wonderful admixtures like these, of which no parallel is furnished in the history of man, was your race constituted and transferred to these western shores. It is matter of rejoicing to know that some of that generation remained behind; men of like mould, brethren in character and sentiment; so that the two branches of the one race have been since then running onward on either side the mighty ocean. In both quarters it hath contended with difficulties, and met many and unlooked for obstacles, but these things which try men’s souls, also nerve and invigorate them. Nothing great was ever achieved without conflict; and greatness of character is obtainable only through a process of painful effort and trial.

In addition to these characteristics of race, we have to place among your advantages, the character and extent of the English language and literature. How striking and instructive this fact, as an arrangement of Divine Providence. The people having the highest natural qualities, and in possession either by actual rule, or powerful influence of so large a portion of the earth, not only speak a language of remarkable copiousness and capacity of enlargement, but have in that language more stores of science, literature, truth than can be found in all the other tongues of mankind. This point appears with special prominence in respect of religious truth.

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What vast stores of biblical interpretation and illustration are accumulated in our language. What treasures of theology both doctrinal and practical! Nor is this progress at all arrested. Hundreds of presses are ever at work, adding to these stores, and diffusing truth. The precious waters of life flow through innumerable conduits to irrigate the moral desert. Nor may we omit in the estimate of advantage the wondrous cheapness of the productions of the press. Our fathers were wont to pay a considerable sum for one copy of the inspired oracles. A laborer might have wrought hard for weeks without obtaining sufficient wages to pay for that Volume. But now a single day’s hire would purchase two or three copies. It is a very noticeable consideration that one day’s labor of a mechanic will supply him with a standard volume of most precious thoughts, the offspring of cultivated intellect and prolonged study, baptized with influence from on high. Let this advantage be thoroughly used and what changes it must work. It will repress sensuality, elevate mind, enthrone and aggrandize truth. It must prove a mighty weapon of attack against the strong-holds of the enemy. We see only the beginning of the end. This language is rapidly spreading over all the face of the earth. The North American continent with its prospective hundreds of millions is destined to speak no other. Wherever the tread of the British Lion is felt, or the flight of the American Eagle is seen, the English language will be studied, and will triumph! Translations of a few works into the vernacular of the nations, only hastens this consummation; for thirst for knowledge thus excited in the native mind, can be satisfied only by the production of stores found nowhere else than in our tongue, which therefore they must acquire. Thus we have a literature, cheap, rich in truth, and in a language soon to be almost universal. But alas! On every canvass upon which humanity is portrayed there is a dark shade, and there is one here. A licentious press sends forth the waters of death. Cheap literature is often little else than cheap poison. Readers misuse their precious gift, as writers wickedly prostitute the talents they possess to do the work of

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Satan. Innumerable minds are injured and hearts are hardened by this pestiferous agency. It is as the sting of the serpent, as the breath of pestilence. The novice, thirsting for information and the pleasurable excitement attendant on searching for and obtaining it, seizes the attractive pamphlet or volume and greedily devours it. Excitement must be maintained and the new taste must be gratified. Volume follows volume until the very fountains of sensibility are poisoned, and there is produced an entire wreck of sound principle. This is for a lamentation and shall be for a lamentation. It is a fearful obstacle in the way of healthful progress, which must be met and overcome. And so it shall be! The progress of evangelic truth will raise the tone of public sentiment, impart dignity to the mind, and will at length become sufficiently mighty to cast indignantly from the public bosom this deadly incubus.

That evangelic truth you have in large measure, a fact which we place among your advantages. It is not easy to estimate the value or the power of this heaven-appointed instrument, for the renovation of man. In some countries where science hath built her temples, and literature hath shed its benignant influence, this blessed sun-light is little enjoyed. Germany overrun with rationalism and transcendentalism, where not under the dominion of the Beast, hath but few verdant spots in which the evangelic fruit is found. France with her state-paid formal Protestantism, and her rampant Romanism, though awaking in many places to the truth, hath yet but little scriptural light. Wherever we turn, away from Great Britain, these American States, and their mission-fields throughout the world, evangelicism hath hardly a name or a place. And yet, it must not be forgotten, in this very thing lies salvation! Where are the hopes of man as a sinner, out of the cross of Christ? What can redeem us from destruction and crown us with loving kindness and tender mercies, apart from this honorable channel for the forth-flowing of infinite love? What can allure the human heart to God—where is to be found a principle that can harmonize the powers of our soul, in their

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working, with the will of God and our highest good; other than the love of Jehovah as displayed in the gift, the sufferings, the death of His fellow, the blessed Messiah? This only is the power of God unto the salvation of every believer. Herein lies the might of the Christian system. Evangelicism alone can renovate and save man.

Thus far we have considered advantages which you have in common with us; our attention must now be turned to some of a special nature; not a common, but emphatically your inheritance. Your seats of learning offer to view a peculiarly favorable aspect in respect of high moral and evangelical influence. In the old world, if their character be otherwise than negative, it is usually adverse to the progress of true religion. Universities on the continent of Europe are either under Romish paralysis, or riot in a species of mystic infidelity. They mostly know nothing of the truth as it is in Jesus. In regard to England’s ancient seats of learning, no well-informed person would think of looking for any evangelic influence there. In Scotland, the frigidity induced by an established church has too much affected its halls of science to allow of much evangelic power there. The ideas are not obtruded. Young men may pass through them without knowing what they are. The position of religious parties seems to render it necessary that religion should be taught rather elsewhere than in the College. Now unless I am misinformed, all your prosperous colleges, or nearly so, are presided over and taught by sound christian, Evangelic men: the influence is in favor of the religion of Jesus. Even have we heard of the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit once and again in your seats of learning, and of the hearty consecration of many cultivated minds to the service of the Savior. Among us such an event would be scarcely less a marvel than the standing still of the sun; it would be indeed an unwonted visitation. Now, this is an immense advantage, only appreciable by the enlightened christian. It may be, but on this point we should be unwilling to affirm, that the higher forms of scholarship are less known in this than in some older countries

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Your circumstances are unfavorable to plodding toil. Your youth is forward, early brought out into active life, and by the pervading spirit of the community, taught to consider energy and enterprize superior, as a characteristic, to patient and laborious exertion. It may be, therefore, that as demand induces supply, the lack of it leaves you destitute of some of the literary advantages found in the more ancient Universities of Europe. And yet, valuable as is sound learning, highly to be prized as is ripe scholarship, and important as it is to the general community that some of its choicest spirits should be entirely devoted to letters; still, so momentous to human welfare, in all its ramifications, is the Evangelic element, that in its possession you have the decided advantage. Besides, there have been raised up among you some burning and shining lights, who have been a blessing to their generation; and that firmament may speedily shine with yet other constellations.

This land bath a great advantage in that its church is not trammelled by connection with the State. To lean on the arm of the civil power has always enfeebled the visible bride of Christ. Her rightful Lord hath said, "My kingdom is not of this world." It suffers damage whenever the rule is disregarded. Whether the State connects itself with the Popery of Spain, the Anglicanism of Oxford, the Socinianism of Geneva,. or the Liberalism so called of some other of the Swiss Cantons, it does only mischief. The connection robs truth of its armor, and it bolsters up error. It creates besides an artificial status of the recognized clergy, to the prejudice of those who will not touch the unclean thing. While it combines good men and bad men in an unnatural juxta-position as members of the same establishment, it entirely separates the men of piety within, from those without its pale. It rears a wall of exclusiveness, self-interest and pride between Evangelicism in the Established Church, (where it is found) and Evangelicism without that Church, so that only here and there a choice spirit is found to climb over to the other side, that he may shake hands with his fellows there. The further mournful tendency is inherent in the system, to create an unregenerate and time-

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serving ministry, who seek the sacred office "for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread," or as a genteel profession; without any enlightened care for the souls committed to their charge.

This barrier away, and those arising from time-honored feudal institutions, you are enabled to put into full trial the amazing power of Voluntary Associations. This principle was one of those rudiments enshrined in Christianity that was not known to our fathers. They failed to discover that, what isolated individuals could not attempt, the combined many were able to achieve. But now the community is taught to join hands in labor, and when they do so there is hardly a limit to their effectiveness. In these associations appears the spirit of the age; they cherish the stirring, energizing, living Christianity which the times demand; and they do marvels. The process is somewhat unfavorable to the coming forth of great lights into prominent view, but the combination of many individuals, each one improved, has more aggregate power, the sum of brilliance is greater. "The quantity of the electric fluid may be collected by the larger, though the fewer plates; but these must be multiplied, however reduced, if we would produce its intensity." In the cause of Christian Missions, for example, isolated greatness, individual power, could have done little else than cherish and express desire. The chariot could be moved along only by the combined many; the cause can flourish and live only "in the multitude of them that believe." Now whatever may be the power inherent in the associative principle, you have the opportunity of testing it to the utmost. Neither State-craft, nor priest-craft need lie in your way. You have free course.

But are there no perils in this working? If there be no check, is there not likelihood of serious evils resulting from the full operation of this principle? It must in truth be admitted that there is danger, and that without the constant check of high moral control, or else the marked interpositions of God’s Providence, men would run riot in their working of this agency. There is liability to mischief in two directions.

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Associations must, in the nature of things have officers and official management. Certain persons must be at the helm. The combined many must be organized, and act through an executive. Hence in proportion to the size of the combination is the amount of power entrusted to those who work its machinery. Now so long as human nature is fond of power, and of having its own way, and so long as even sanctified humanity is not devoid of this tendency, there lies danger in this quarter. Nothing short of the exaction of a most rigid responsibility, and of requiring work to be adjusted and performed not in secret conclave, but in the light of day, can prevent evils in this quarter. It is by no means needful to suppose corrupt motives, in the minds of administrators; they often act with the very best intentions, and yet the power of the combined many which they wield, is perverted. The evil is however not a necessary adjunct of the principle; that may be worked in perfect safety.

The other direction in which we find liability to abuse, is the crippling of individual freedom. Combined opinion and sentiment may mount the throne of tyranny. All despotisms are not in single hands. Impatient of contradiction, and annoyed at opposition, the earnest multitude sometimes forget individual rights, and put down the man who has the honesty and courage to be singular. He is made the butt of ridicule, the finger of scorn is pointed at him, or he is indignantly denounced. Flaws in his character are searched for, or imagined, and his good name is destroyed. The scourge of unpopularity is laid heavily upon him, while he is literally gibbetted before the public eye for the simple crime of daring to think for himself and to avow his convictions. And all this is done in the sacred name of freedom, and professedly at her shrine. A so called, and even noisily announced Liberalism, is often the greatest sinner in this department. This course is not only in itself, an outrage and a wrong, but the event will shew that the sin is retributively visited on the community in which it has existence. For it cripples and prevents mental progress. If you repress the movements, and put down

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even the erratic course of individual mind, a grievous mischief is inflicted on your generation. It has been said that the times make the man, and that he is the creature of circumstances. It is hoped that this is still an open question, for we demur to the proposition. That the times furnish the occasions of trial and of progress is freely admitted, but a more accurate analysis will show that man himself impresses and moulds the times in which he lives. The influence is more powerful from him upon them, than from them upon him. The age in its circumstances may often arouse and unfold a peculiar energy in its master spirits, but there is always found in them an original greatness. Intellect sways the force of circumstances Such men are standard bearers, they go before their fellows. They avail themselves of concurring events, and, having the mastery, they mould them to their ruling purpose. No generation advances of itself. A tame monotony leaves the many what their fathers were. The army may be large, well-appointed, and thoroughly drilled, but it will lie in the camp inert, until the genius and energy of the commander call it to action and lead it on to victory. Some restless soul denounces an unsound principle, or strikes out a vital truth; at first it startles and perhaps offends, but ultimately it impresses and moves a nation. Now all intolerance of individual sentiment out of the usual line of theory and in opposition to that of the multitude, is so far to prevent the rising up of such men. Many of the great and good, who have stirring and noble thoughts, shrink from the storm of obloquy and abuse which their avowal would create where the opinion of the many is a tyrant, and these thoughts are therefore lost to their generation. We plead for freedom of mind. You are not fettered by aristocratic influences. Your institutions and external arrangements are favorable to such liberty, so that if true to yourselves, to your country, and to the world, it can be maintained. You may habitually recognize and defend individual right of opinion. We plead then for freedom of mind.

Other advantages of your position as American Christians will readily suggest themselves to the thoughtful mind. Time admits not that we should now advert to them. Such privileges impart a deep responsibility, and indicate a high vocation.

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There is a principle, in Christianity applicable at this point, which perpetually elevates the standard of personal obligation. It requires us to walk worthy of our vocation,— of God,—and of the blessings he imparts. It is a standard that covers all definition and detail and then rises above them. A simple illustration will unfold our meaning. A Parent may enact a code of laws for his children rich in principle and in detail. He may publish that code and command observance. The whole matter is defined and rigid, and obedience will issue happily. But let that Parent be one of unparalleled benignity and excellence, and calling his children before him we shall suppose him to sum up his requirements thus: "Walk worthy of me as your parent, and of your position as my children." Would not this include every detail of requirement and a range of affection and duty which definition could not reach. We all feel that it would. And then in proportion as the children’s views of their Parent’s excellencies enlarged, and as they understood better what he had done for them, there would be obvious increase of meaning in the command to walk worthy of all these. So when, in the matter of our responsibility to God, this principle requires us to walk worthy of the Lord and of his grace, there is a summing up, required,, of what He is, and what He has done for us; and as our views of these enlarge and expand, it continues to mean more and more to walk worthy of such a position and such blessings. It is enough in application of this principle now to say, You are called upon to walk worthy of this glorious ancestry—of these choice blessings—and of that Great and Blessed God who hat/i thus so richly endowed you. Be assured that mediocrity will not do: You must proceed on a high platform. Your vocation cannot be fulfilled unless you are under a governing impulse, a ruling passion to bless the world. Our divine Master came to seek and to save the lost. This was his ruling passion to which he made everything subordinate and auxiliary.. He could do it in a way we cannot, but within the range of our agency he requires us to

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imitate him, so that every sentiment of gratitude to him, and every noble aspiration, demand of you this course.

My purpose in these remarks has been rather to call attention to the altitude of your position, and the largeness of the claim upon you, than to enter into details of the manner in which you may be a blessing to mankind. This point suggests itself continually to enlightened benevolence, as God, in his providence opens out the several paths of usefulness.

But we may not omit to note the vast importance of diligent care for your own country. This might be urged on the simple ground of a comprehensive benevolence. True charity begins, though it does not end at home. We have no sympathy with certain modern theories of social renovation, which decry special affection, and laud to the heavens catholic love—which would get rid of the domestic relation as selfish and constrained, in order to dwell in an universal brotherhood on a common stock. The philosophy of these systems is baseless, for the order of nature is to proceed from special to general, from the particular to the universal. They have the highest measure of catholic love who cherish most sacredly domestic and special affections. Knowledge is based on details, it rises to general conclusions. Nations are made up of cities, of hamlets, of families, the latter lying at the foundation of all. Special affection for one’s household creates a sympathetic interest in neighboring households, and expands into love of city, of county, of country. The special affection a soldier bath to his Regiment, the pride he feels in its well-worn colors, instead of lessening his attachment to the entire army and to the country, induces greater zeal in the general cause. There is a gathering of energy in this special love, that ultimately expends itself in catholic effort. In this view American Christians may be entreated to care for their country, that they may be more effective in zealous toil for man.

Another inducement may be suggested. This land is the theatre of a grand experiment tried in the face of the nations, whether men are capable of self-government, and whether

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true religion can flourish and exert its moulding and controlling influence unsustained by the buttresses of a civil establishment. The world’s people are looking on with envious gaze. Despotism would rejoice in your failure, and then it would roll backward the car of freedom. No more effectual damage could be done to the cause of human progress and amelioration than by the deterioration of this nation’s character. That you are in the midst of perils is beyond a doubt. The extraordinary influx of the European people, and often not by any means their best classes, is matter for serious reflection. Superstition and vice are largely imported. The votaries of Rome come among you in immense crowds. This may be turned to good; they may come here to be freed from their trammels, and to rejoice in the liberty wherewith Christ makes free. The might of the Evangelical element may be unfolded on this broad arena, not only in preserving and extending a nation’s piety among its own people, but in transforming into harmony with the spiritual aggregate, the multitudes that come to dwell with them. At the same time there is danger that even your free institutions in these unlooked for circumstances may be turned against you. Your only safety under God lies in the elevation of these masses. The older nations are differently placed. The Colonies of England have no voice in Imperial Counsels; as a consequence the gathering of millions under her sway does not affect her legislation at home. But whatever you receive or conquer is incorporated with yourself, and becomes a part of the source of power. All this people obtain a voice in your national counsels. The very peril hence arising is an argument for giving earnest heed to the welfare of your own country. Its thorough Evangelism by an enlightened ministry, the training of the national mind in all right sentiments, and, with emphasis, the sanctification of the press, axe points of incalculable moment to you.

There is a topic which cannot be avoided in an estimate of your advantages and of your influence upon the world, but

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which is nevertheless of peculiar delicacy. In adverting to it, I would not forget the courtesies due to the assembly and the occasion. Besides it is not forgotten who inflicted the evil of slavery upon this fair nation, nor do we suppose that New England can be otherwise than opposed to the entire system. It is not the province of a stranger either to denounce or to instruct on a point like this, but in this presence it will not he offensive to say, that if everywhere the system of slavery is bad, in this land and amid your institutions it is doubly, fearfully bad, reminding one ever of the oft quoted line of Virgil, "Monstrurn, horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen ademptum."

You regard it as a foul incubus of which it is needful that you should be rid. It is hoped that determined, unconquerable opposition will be manifested by the American Church, to all extension of the system. Let a cordon sanitaire be drawn around it, that its pestiferous influence may not get outside its own circle. If you cannot destroy it from without, let it destroy itself within. Encircle it by the fires of true freedom, and if there be no other way of putting to death the scorpion, it will he forced to plant its sting in its own vitals.

In bringing these observations to a close, a word or two may be addressed specially to those members of the Society who are now going forth into the wide field of active life. It was a beautiful description of holy activity which the Apostle gave to a Jewish auditory in a sentence concerning David. "For David after having served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep. The phrase "served his own generation," is figurative, meaning "a rower," its prefix, points to an "under rower" in a vessel, or rather denotes to row from beneath, in the lowest tier of the galley. The description compares one’s own generation to some stately bark, it may be the ancient triereme, with lofty deck and tackling, its prow still plunging forward, impelled and directed by the men of toil within. This seems also to have been the idea of John Owen, in the memorable expression to Fleetwood

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the day prior to his death. "I am leaving the ship of the Church in a great storm; but while the great Pilot is in it, the loss of a poor under-rower will be inconsiderable." Now there are not a few on board this bark of our generation, who certainly do not toil at the oars. They care not for progress, or for the general good. They have a ruling passion, but it is not the love of God and of men. Self is their Alpha and Omega. "Their hearts are exercised with covetous practices." They would quit the general vessel and launch their petty skiff, to pursue their creeping path, adventuring nothing, nor aiming to reach any worthy haven. Without sympathy in the welfare of their fellows, they cling to the interests peculiarly their own, and find at length that they have missed their aim and lost all. The world’s sea is strewed with these little wrecks. Let your course present to view a noble contrast. Be rowers in the goodly bark of our own generation. We can have no pretension to withdraw from this toil. It is our true vocation. We are actors rather than observers, or if observers, actors too. Our stake is in our generation. We are on board. Skill, energy, devotedness are only befitting our position. The children of Issachar in the days of the Royal Psalmist, who are described as having "understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do," were not merely men of speculation and research, they toiled, and as a consequence "all their brethren were at their commandment." So great was their influence, and so indomitable their energy, that the whole tribe yielded to their leadership, and went to Hebron, to hail David as King. Wise men are men of their age, mixing in it, working with it, yet pointing to higher things and inciting to something better than itself. We may not expect that the characteristics of our times, will always meet our wishes or favor our plans. The sea is not ever smooth, nor are currents and tides always propitious. Very pleasant it is to work under the impulse of success and hope; but it is nobler far to toil for the repair of failures, and the removal of difficulties. The thing to be done is not always popular. Truth

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is not at once seen in its force and beauty, and it sometimes meets with interested opposition. Witnesses have often to prophecy in sackcloth, for they "torment them that dwell on the earth." To testify of the world that its deeds are evil, is to bear witness emphatically, against those forms of evil which are rife in one’s generation. It were safe and prudent in this century and in this land to denounce the evil of gladiatorial shows, or of cannibalism, but it would be no very good evidence of a divine vocation. If called then to protest, we must needs protest without shrinking, certain that truth can afford to " bide its time," and must prevail. No godly effort is lost. No true service miscarries. Our work is with our God. Toil, then, toil at the oars, that the stately bark of our generation may have a prosperous voyage by the will of God, and may in safety and with proud-bearing, reach its peaceful haven, laden with blessings for coming ages.