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 PRINCETON, N. J 
 
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 BX 9225 .C7 A3 1853 
 
 Cox, Samuel H. 1793-1880 
 
 Interviews 
 
 Shelf.. 
 
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 IITERVIEWS: 
 
 MEMORABLE AND USEFULi 
 
 FROM DIARY AND MEMORY REPRODUCED. 
 
 BY SAMUEL HANSON^COX, D.D. 
 
 PASTOR OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, BROOKLYN, NEW YORK. 
 
 Yea, let God be true, but every man a liar ; as it is written. — Rom. 3 • 4. 
 Preach the word — instant in season, out of season — they will not endure soumd 
 doctrine— they shall be turned to fables. — 2 Tim. 4 ; 2— J. 
 
 Diversities of gifts, but the same spirit ; is it therefore not of the body ? — 1 Cor. 
 4:15. 
 
 Est modus in rebus ; sunt certi denique fines 
 Quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum. 
 
 Et genus et virtus, nisi cum re, vilior alga est. 
 
 Multa petentibus 
 Desunt multa. Bene est, cui Deus obtulit 
 Parca, quod satis est, manu. — Horace. 
 
 si vera feram, si magna rependam. — Virgil. 
 
 Tl-o-vTo. 5e 5oKtj[xd^eTe* to Ka\ov, Kare^ere. — 1 Tkess. 5 : 21. 
 
 (TT^KCTe iv TTJ TrtcTet, 'ANAPI'ZESQE, KpaTaiZvaOe . ndvTa vfiCiu cv ayiiro 
 
 yii-to-eaj.— 1 Cor. 16: is. 
 
 Under a deep consciousness of their imperfections, this is my encouragement, 
 that there are different relishes in the world ; that something new, or expressed in 
 a difl'erent style and manner, peculiar to the writer himself, may have a greater 
 tendency to inform and impress the readers, than more accurate performances on 
 the same subjects with which they are already acquainted. — Orton. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 329 & 331 PEARL STREET, 
 FRANKLIN SQUARE. 
 
 185 3. 
 
%* The classic reader may perhaps excuse this acknowledged love of mottoes, if 
 good ones, and possibly be so liberal, or so obliging, as to render the little but im- 
 portant monosyllable re central to one of them, in a quasi Christian way — of which 
 its author had no conception, in his piercing and wonted irony, as piety^ durable 
 riches and righteousness, or the authentic hope of salvation consciously radiant in the 
 bosom, the bright and the morning-star ; unless rigorous to insist that there, in plain 
 fact, it merely means monexj, cash, opulence ; since the same author elsewhere des- 
 ignates an almost poverty by vir exigua re. One might be allowed to enhance in- 
 finitely the value of the sentiment, native pagan as it is, by christianiz.ing it, even 
 were we to yield lo the temptation, seriously felt, to substitute sp for r in that bilit- 
 eral word of a justly satirical hexameter line. It would then teach that neither race, 
 though honored in ancestral fame, nor wealth ever so abounding, nor general virtue 
 itself, however coUauded and illustrious of its graceless sort, or all of these in mo- 
 nopoly combined, could ever begin to be a proper substitute, or a tolerable succeda- 
 neum, or a fitting compensation, or, in any sense, a decent apology for one mo- 
 ment, even ill thought, for the divine good, substantial, supreme, eternal ; which is 
 at last identified forever with hope in Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and our 
 Savior. This, in connection with the truth of the Gospel as related to hope, 
 that precious truth in its integrity and its unity preserved, as the only proper medi- 
 um of hope, as God gave it to us — not to alter, but to cherish and obey, to appre- 
 ciate, and enjoy, and difl'use, this is properly the normal sentiment of this volume, 
 as it should be the normal sentiment of every human being I It is for us the nor- 
 mal sentiment of God. 
 
 Et qenus et virtus, nisi cum spe, vilior alga est. 
 
 Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight 
 hundred and fifty-three, by 
 
 Harper & Brothers, 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 INTERVIEWS, 
 
 I. WITH REV. DR. CHALMERS 29 
 
 H. WITH REV. DR. EMMONS 145 
 
 in. WITH JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 213 
 
 IV. WITH TWO PSEUDO-APOSTLES 275 
 
 V WITH A FASHIONABLE LADY AT CALAIS, FRANCE 301 
 
 PRECEDED BY REFLECTIONS MISCELLANEOUS, IN AN INSCRIPTION TO 
 TWELVE KULINO ELDERS IN THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 5 
 
INTERVIEWS. 
 
 INSCRIPTION PRELIMINARY REFLECTIONS. 
 
 To the following named Ruling Elders, in different con- 
 gregations of the Presbyterian Church in the United States 
 of America : 
 Hon. Joseph C. Hornblower, LL.D. Ex- Chief-justice of 
 
 the State of New Jersey, 
 Hon. Daniel Haines, Ex-Governor of the same, 
 Hon. William Jessup, LL.D. Pennsylvania, 
 Hon. William Darling, do. 
 
 Hon. John L. Mason, New York city, 
 Peter Roe, Esq. New York State. 
 Lowell Holbrook, Esq. Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 Fisher Howe, Esq. 
 Hon. Truman Smith, 
 Thomas S. Nelson, Esq. 
 Richard J. Thorne, Esq. 
 John F. Trow, Esq. 
 
 Honored and beloved Brethren : 
 
 Permit the liberty taken by no unfriendly pen, in this ar- 
 ray of your names in the portico of my humble building ; 
 even if it should prove that the vestibule is better than the 
 edifice, to which it ought to be only a fitting introduction. 
 
 My estimate of you as Christians, and as officers in the 
 Church of Christ, is such as to account for the distinction, I 
 hope not inglorious, which I have spontaneously, and with- 
 out all knowledge of your own, ventured to award you. 
 
 This volume I inscribe to you, but dedicate it to God and 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
«» ESTIMATION A JURY. 
 
 our country ; respecting and esteeming you too much to flat- 
 ter you, and myself too much to be self-degraded by the at- 
 tempt. But what is here said will be more acceptable as 
 the fruit of brotherly kindness, saluting you as Americans, 
 as Presbyterians, as ecclesiastical officers iii my own beloved 
 Church, as fellow-Christians, and as personal friends, hon- 
 ored and beloved. 
 
 All the favor I ask of you is, to give my work a fair pe- 
 rusal ; and, if you think it of any value, be its friends, its 
 patrons, if you please, only so far as a sense of duty, and the 
 pleasure of a good conscience, will allow. Be as lenient as 
 you can toward its imperfections and its faults. More I dare 
 not ask or desire — unless it be the boon of your prayers to God 
 for me, that in all I do, in these residuary terms of an ex- 
 tended public life, and in this present enterprise, I may be 
 favored with the incomparable good of his own benediction, 
 however greatly, very greatly, undeserved I 
 
 In this impanneling of a jury — not a coroner's — in the 
 matter, the number twelve was reached -without any partic- 
 ular design — certainly with no reference to the twelve pa- 
 triarchs, or the twelve apostles ; nor to the twice twelve 
 Presbyters, sitting on as many subordinate thrones, round 
 about THE THRONE, clothcd in white raiment, and having 
 on their heads croivns of gold. Other dozens, single and 
 double, recur to my thoughts, by the wonderful law of sug- 
 gestion or association ; but I dismiss them as useless to my 
 purpose, and say, that, viewing you as the honorable repre- 
 sentatives of that general class of my countrymen for whom 
 more especially this is written, I commend the production 
 to your favor, as well as your notice ; in the full persuasion 
 that if, in the main, it wins the approval of such a Bench 
 OF Ruling Elders in the Church, the writer may be much 
 consoled with the hope that its mission and its ministry, in 
 other spheres of our social and even of our national commu- 
 nity, may hereafter prove both acceptable and beneficial. 
 
SELECTION LEVITY OF READERS. 7 
 
 In the preparation of these Interviews I have taken some 
 liberties, and, at the same time, have observed certain neces- 
 sary restraints. While not always the order, and seldom the 
 exact phrases and style of conversation, could be reproduced 
 or remembered, I have endeavored to violate no rule of sub- 
 stantial truth and justice, in the use of my own method, and 
 the costume of my own thoughts, for the most part. Many 
 items and topics are intentionally omitted, as less proper or 
 useful for the public eye. Possibly it were wiser to have 
 omitted more. Of those inserted, I have chiefly regarded use- 
 fulness, and aimed to select the best for my purpose, and to 
 treat them in some historical or natural order ; but to care 
 for substance and principle, more than for form and show. 
 Much on this plan, we know, are written the inspired biog- 
 raphies of the Savior, the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, 
 John ; and also the Acts of the Apostles. The parables of 
 the Savior are of their own class, as apologues, designed to 
 give instruction, without any pretension to historical authen- 
 ticity. 
 
 Where I have given nearly or quite the very words of a 
 speaker, in some express relation or place, the reader will 
 probably be able to identify it, from its emphatic nature and 
 its attending circumstances. 
 
 That the age is given to superficial reading, or rather to 
 pleasure without reading at all, and still less to thinking, 
 were this possible, is generally too obvious for any thing but 
 lamentation and epitaph ! It may be a reason, however, with 
 them that write for the public, why one should aim to take 
 their attention, et utile cum dulci miscere, with the things 
 that interest and amuse, especially if in this way he may 
 hope ultimately to profit them. Reading, and thinking, and 
 praying, in combination, seem indeed to be less characteris- 
 tic even of the good, in our day, than of the fathers of the 
 previous age or century. 
 
 The liberties taken in these writings, describing the inter- 
 
8 A POSSIBILITY MOTIVES. 
 
 VIEWS to which they refer, are chiefly iu the way of ampli- 
 fication, without perversion, or misrepresentation of facts, sen- 
 timents, or characters. Here the writer has to do also with 
 the reader : to prepare his mind gradually and duly to com- 
 prehend the narrative, as well as to come to just conclusions 
 respecting it ; and in all, to set the parts in due array and 
 sequence, for the proper symmetry and eil'ect of the work. 
 
 The selections made, from many, are in obedience at once 
 to the counsels of judicious friends, and to my own judgment 
 in respect to what is interesting and useful. I at first intend- 
 ed to give at large my two interviews with the late eccen- 
 tric and original Edward Irving, of London ; one with a 
 wealthy and learned Jew, of the house of Rothschild, in Ger- 
 many ; one with an intelligent and polished foreigner, a Ro- 
 manist, in a stage-coach, before steam-travel existed between 
 New York and Philadelphia ; one in a rail-car in Western 
 Pennsylvania, with a self-confident and skeptical merchant 
 of Philadelphia, supported by a Jesuit priest of Rome ; and 
 several with men who consulted me on the most interesting 
 topic of all human inquiry — What rmist I do to be saved ? 
 But of these it may here only be said, that the present vol- 
 ume would be sufficiently large without them ; and also that, 
 if the present is well received, and life and health are spared, 
 another volume may be hereafter prepared for the public. 
 
 While the forms and the laws of social intercourse are not 
 to be violated at random, yet thei'e is an excess of etiquette 
 sometimes imposed, at the expense of honesty, to which a 
 Christian must refuse subserviency. In any writing on the 
 subject of religion, if the author ought to remember that thou 
 God scest me, so should he deal honestly with his readers, 
 and have the testi)7io}iy of his conscience for his rejoicing, 
 that in simjMcity and godly sificerity, not icith Jlcshly icis- 
 dom, but by the grace of GOD, he has his conversati&n in 
 the icorld, a?id more abundanthf toward tlieni. I may here 
 remind myself, at least, that there is no reason or sense in at- 
 
0EN8UKE3 WHAT THE WORLD IS. 9 
 
 tempting to propitiate the critics, to favor this or any better 
 production of its class. " To attempt to disarm the severity 
 of criticism by humiliation or entreaty, would be a hopeless 
 task. Waving every apology, the author, therefore, has only 
 to remark, that the motives of a writer must ever remain a 
 secret ; but the tendency of what he writes is capable ol" be- 
 ing ascertained, and is, in reality, the only consideration in 
 which the public are interested."* But how often do the 
 public go a motive-hunting, alike careless and ignorant of the 
 character or tendency of the production I 
 
 If to some my free remarks on several, and even a great 
 variety of topics, and the censures I have felt required bold- 
 ly, but wisely, to utter, should seem to present the work as 
 characteristically a fault-tinder, I only say that it is a very 
 faulty world in which we live ; and how any well-informed 
 writer can deal with it honestly and truthfully, or even with 
 the Church of (jrod, in its present schisms and its manifold 
 imperfections, and not find fault with it, that is, with its 
 constituent population, their manners, their ways, their opin- 
 ions, their maxims, and their practices, I candidly acknowl- 
 edge that I do not know I So far as its character may be 
 deemed polemical, while this is in a qualified sense sincerely 
 regretted, yet, in such a world as this (see 1 John, 5 : 19. 
 18-20) I feel honestly compelled to it. This has been the 
 crushing burden of the man of God in all ages. The tender 
 and refined spirit of the weeping •prophet recoiled from his 
 duties with horror and amazement, and even with extrava- 
 gant expressions of almost disobedience and seemingly im- 
 pious refusal; as the record shows, Jer. 20 : 14-18. 7-13. 
 He exclaims elsewhere. Woe is me, mxj mother, that thou 
 hast home me a man of strife, and a man of contention to 
 the whole earth, 15 : 10. If there exists a frightful contro- 
 versy between the footstool and the throne, between our God 
 and his own human creatures, so that every one of them is 
 * Robert Hall. 
 A2 
 
10 BENEVOLENCE TRUE AND FALSE. 
 
 his enemy by vickccJ trorks, and so continues till, by renew- 
 ing grace, he obeys cordially the Gospel, then — we must 
 testify and defend these positions ; then — God is not more 
 strong than right, and they not more weak than wrong ; then 
 — any religion that denies this is plainly false ; then — to dis- 
 parage the fact, or obscure the doctrine of it, is no more phi- 
 lanthropy than it is piety ; then — the friends of error are the 
 enemies of mankind, and wisely to love a human being im- 
 plies that we fuithl'iilly deal with them in the truth ; then — 
 in doing our duty, with the kindest motives and in the wis- 
 est way, it were no strange thing that we should become 
 specially interested in the richest of the beatitudes spoken by 
 our blessed Savior in his sermon on the Mount. Matthew, 
 5 : 10—12. The world is inimical to God and true religion ; 
 hence the varying systems of falsehood that have been in- 
 vented, because the truth does not suit the world — the truth 
 is not good enough for it I Error or nothing, is practically 
 the motto of the w'orld. Hence we must censure it. There 
 is properly, and safely, and hopefully, no other way. The 
 greatest fault-finder, or reprover, as I should say, that ever 
 spoke of it, or spoke to it, was our blessed Lord and Savior, 
 Jesus Christ himself. To some of his own household he said, 
 The icorld can not hate you, but me it liateth, because I 
 testify of it, tluit the xvorks thereof are evil. And to his 
 own disciples, the apostles of his kingdom : If the ivorhl hate 
 you, ye know that it hated me before it liated you. If ye 
 were of the world, the world would love its own ; but be- 
 cause ye are not of the ivorld, but I have chosen you out of 
 the tcorld, therefore the xvorld hateth you. A few such 
 scriptures as these, and as those I will quote presently, may 
 convince us that one might possibly be both kind and right 
 in such censures ; but the world are not convinced, because 
 they are not ingenuous ; they love not the truth, and they 
 are deceived by the sin they do, to call evil good, and good 
 evil ; to put bitter for stveet, and sweet for bitter, and to 
 
PRAYER IMPARTIALITY. 11 
 
 hold on their erratic and reckless way, with no remorse, no 
 apprehension, no self-examination, no faith in the word of" 
 God, no prayer for Divine illumination, and no sense of their 
 great need of it from HIM, who made for each other both 
 the mind and the Bible, and who knows through his truth 
 how to conciliate the former to the latter, with gladness and 
 sincerity, in his own wonderful salvation, and by his own 
 triumphant grace. 
 
 The other scriptures to which I refer, may all be read in 
 the twenty-eighth of Proverbs ; and however disparaged by 
 the frivolous and the vain, they will by you, my brethren, 
 be appreciated as the truth of the Eternal God. They that 
 forsake the law, jJ7'aise the wicked ; hut such as keep the 
 laiv, contend tcith them. Evil onen tmderstand not judg- 
 ment ; but they that seek the Lord, comparatively, under- 
 stand all things. Better is the poor that walketh in his 
 uprightness, than he that is perverse in his ways, though 
 he be rich. When righteous men do rejoice, there is great 
 glory ; but when the %oicked rise, a man, who is a man, a 
 man of God, is hidden. He that covereth his sins shall 
 not p)rosper ; but ivhoso confesseth, and forsaketh them, shall 
 have mercy. Whoso walketh upriglithj shall be saved; but 
 he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once. To Jiave 
 respect of persons is not good ; because for a piece of bread 
 that man ivill transgress. He that rebuketh a man shall 
 afterivard find more favor than he that flatter eth xvith his 
 tongue. He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool ; but 
 whoso walketh ivisely, he shall be delivered. 
 
 Many religionizers of the present day either desire no food 
 for their souls or their thoughts, in the way of preaching or 
 printing, and so of hearing or reading, or they desire any 
 thing rather than the mind enlightened, rectified, exercised 
 in truth, convinced by evidence, habituated to reason of 
 righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, and edi- 
 fied luminously in the faith of God's elect. They desire to be 
 
12 GLOOM IN RELIGION. 
 
 soothed, charmed, conciliated by something musical, spirited 
 away iVom themselves, and indeed from all the rugged realities 
 of tlie icords of truth and soberness, and by some super-sens- 
 uous, or refined and sensual minstrelsy, to be ecstatically 
 ravished from the consideration of all substances, and facts, 
 and events, and so stealthily serenaded into heaven, or, rather, 
 into a refreshing and sleepy oblivion of all things created 
 and uncreated I This is quietism, or inanition, or spiritual 
 apepsy ; not the way in which the wise virgins in the para- 
 ble forecasted the alarm at midnight, and anticipated with 
 due jireparation, Avith action and energy, the advent of the 
 bridegroom. If such fanciful and fashionable stufi' be piety, 
 then the greatest of all difibrence between classes of men 
 may not appear, or be shown — between the wise and the 
 foolish, the sheep and the goats, the wheat and the chaff, 
 them t/uit arc saved and them that perish. 
 
 In every case, man, that is born of woman, is by nature, 
 as a grand and an awful matter of fact, and hence as a car- 
 dinal principle in religion, so acting wrong, and so needing 
 THE GREAT MORAL CHANGE, in his thoughts and his principles 
 of action — so great his need of this, that the alternative, in 
 every case, is sure to be deceit, deterioration, and perdition. 
 This is the plain truth of the Bible. And shall we seem to 
 blink it, because it is disagreeable to the world of the un- 
 godly ? Hence it is that they tell us how gloomy is religion ' 
 how melancholy it makes them ! they can not endure any 
 thing so doleful ! It gives them " the blues." It actually 
 injures their health. So they insulted Noah, before the flood 
 came and destroyed them all. 
 
 Strange that they must ever confound as one two things 
 of all others in the universe the most contrary and antago- 
 nistic to each other I It is sin that is so gloomy ; and sin 
 IS not religion I If this makes hell, is it the other that 
 makes heaven ? What impious nonsense ! Religion makes 
 heaven, holiness, happiness, and hope. Of its essence God 
 
SENTIMENTAL FALLACIES. 13 
 
 himself is alone the infinite and the perfect impersonation ; 
 and HE is over all, blessed forever. 
 
 There is an element or a leaven of false religion, rampant 
 in some places of our great country, which indeed I view as 
 spiritual poison, fantasy, and death — as infidelity baptized, 
 and, next to popery itself, the master-piece of Satan. I refer 
 -to neology or the rationalistic philosophy, which, for agree- 
 ment with Scripture, is almost as good, but not as honest or as 
 stupid as Islamism ; and for sustaining the hope of immor- 
 tality, about as fit and proper as the location of a massive 
 temple of marble on the summit of a pyramid of sand. And 
 amid the spasms and the inventions of souls, in their deep un- 
 rest, since the impracticable desideratum seems to be to get 
 " a religion that is fiit for gentlemen and for scholars," accord- 
 ing to the detestable King James and his base progeny, we 
 may comcidently observe, that, as it is no part of their wis- 
 dom, or their purpose, or their effort, to obey the gospel, they 
 generally alternate electively between neology and puseyism ; 
 not remarkably pertinacious which to choose, but governed 
 there by circumstances. In either way they manage to escape 
 scriptural regeneration ; and this seems to be their grand 
 policy, their chief desideratum, as it will be also their doom. 
 If it happens to be convenient, since it is worldly respecta- 
 ble, even more, in some circles, oh I Churchism is all at once 
 their divinity, and better men by myriads are organically 
 consigned serenely to the desperation of " uncovenanted mer- 
 cies ;" or, if the convenience appears probably or plainly the 
 other way, they can as easily, with tact, and with some more 
 taking show of philosophy, be neologists or pantheists. In- 
 stantly the Bible becomes a museum of transcendental mys- 
 tifications, and Christ is an ambiguity sublime ; as created 
 only ; or possibly, by hypothesis, ideally, some way, for 
 aught they know or care, uncreated ; as dying for us, some- 
 how, by imprudence or accident, as " he was a young man;" 
 but not, by all means, as being honestly and really the pro- 
 
14 IRRELIGION PRIDE. 
 
 pitiationfor our sins. Thus their Christology is little bet- 
 ter than heathenism in a mist. It is a disgrace to their in- 
 tellectual manhood and their erudite pretensions, as well as to 
 their consistency and moral honesty. In fact, we, who know 
 them, know that they are either infidels, or that, with no 
 more faith than they, all their religious pretension is only 
 contemptible, even as " a religion fit for gentlemen and schol- 
 ars." If a man desires, on the whole, to have a rehgion that 
 he can carry to ruin and despair along with him, let him pre- 
 tend to take that of God, in some strange way, and then 
 change it, and change it, in some other way, till it about suits 
 the heart, that is deceitful above all things, and desperately 
 tricked. And if, on the wisdom and the safety of such a 
 course, " for gentlemen and scholars," he cares to read an 
 inspired commentary, he may easily find one in the New Test- 
 ament ; he may be specially commended to 1 Cor. 1 : 18-31. 
 But if he reads, and honestly digests, especially if he believes 
 what God says to him in that luminous passage — rebuking 
 then and there the heathenistic rationalism of the arrogant 
 Greeks, it may be to him not only an amusing novelty, but 
 the means of the Spirit, used and blessed to his salvation. 
 He will then find the Bible a new book, only because he be- 
 comes a new man ; and many a firmament of glories, in the 
 universe of the new creation, will it open to his wonder, his 
 adoration, and his joy. 
 
 Another powerful element of evil, by which many of our 
 contemporaries are ruined for eternity, is found in religious 
 ignorance or vacuity, mingled with civic and social assump- 
 tion, co-working with pride, in a land where we are all 
 " born equal," and where the illiterate may strut, as well as 
 vote, on the same platform, with intelligence, good-breeding, 
 and piety. Such men are too consequential ever to own, if 
 indeed they know, their want of knowledge, or to learn the 
 value of the learning that others have. They are all for lev- 
 eling downward ; and consider the glorious " aristocracy" of 
 
RIGHT EEAUING. 15 
 
 true religion as an odious monopoly, offensive to their ideas 
 of republican equality. Instead of making themselves like 
 God, they make a God that is like themselves. Hence they 
 hate and discredit the man of Christian piety, not relishing 
 to think that the 7-iglitcous is more excellent than his neigh- 
 bor. And in this connection, there is often seen a reckless 
 vulgarity of sinning, that justly offends God, as well as his 
 people ; and for which, if the sinners that perpetrate and prac- 
 tice it, only knew how much it will cost them in the end, they 
 might, perhaps, be brought to the conclusion that they could 
 ill aflbrd to pay it — nor do they dream how soon, how swift- 
 ly flying on wings of flame, the reckoning-day will overtake 
 them I For all such, if we could procure or provide some 
 instructive and versatile, as well as sound, and thorough, and 
 pungent reading, that might occupy their attention, a good 
 end would be answered. Such reading must be without cant 
 and commonplaces ; without all fanaticism and affectation ; 
 original, natural in manner, manly and true in thought, and 
 so blending the charm of narrative or anecdote, with the les- 
 sons of truth and the maxims of wisdom, as hopefully to pro- 
 pitiate the mind, in order to convince and reform it. He that 
 winneth souls is wise. 
 
 In all my intercourse with men, at home and abroad, I 
 have endeavored, for forty years, to read their characters by 
 their words and actions, especially in the light of divine reve- 
 lation ; and, in a sense subordinate only to the knowledge of 
 God, I concur in the sentiment, That " the proper study of 
 mankind is man." 
 
 What man is, in all his living phases, interests me infi- 
 nitely MORE than the ruins of old castles, and abbeys, and 
 palaces ; than cataracts and natural scenery ; than mausole- 
 ums, and monuments, and pyramids ; than specimens in the 
 fine arts, marble or canvass, or than any other curiosities of na- 
 ture or art, which are all the vogue among the fashionable ; 
 with whom instruction is intolerable, and religion the most 
 
16 OL'R PRESBYTERIAN DISRUPTION. 
 
 melancholy thing in the workl ; who have lime to spend on 
 trilics, and with whom, practically, the greatest trifle is eter- 
 nity. All my own observation here has had, on my own miud, 
 only this two-fold efl'ect — it has grieved and exercised my 
 spirit ; and it has strengthened and edified my faith in the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. I have seen what infidelity is, what her- 
 esy, what indiflerence, and what are all the dazzling honors 
 of ambition, wealth, pride, and fashion. 
 
 In my final interview with Chalmers, that in his study, 
 I had to tell him, as he was urgent to know from me, some- 
 thing, or rather every thing, about our Presbyterian disrup- 
 tion in this country. I, of course, gave him what I think is 
 the truth of the matter ; and in my account of it, I have 
 been careful not to commit him or his judgment on either 
 side, even so much as probably I might in truth and justice 
 lest I should seem to invoke the testimony of the dead, not 
 impartially, to what you think with me, was infallibly the 
 right and the truth, in the portentous strife, and concerning 
 the abominable wickedness and fratricidal perjury of the ex- 
 scinding acts of 1837 and 1838. He seemed grieved that 
 ministers and brethren of a common faith, in substance quite 
 as correct and as unanimous as could rationally be expected 
 in our then great national Presbyterian Church, with all 
 their sectional diversities of education and preference, should 
 so fall out by the iraij, and enact so ferocious a schism, and 
 so great a scandal before the eye of heaven and of earth. 
 Indeed, it had its latent but sure effect to weaken the bonds 
 of our national Union ; and with other analogous examples, 
 ever to be religiously deprecated, of ecclesiastical organiza- 
 tions, so many of them severed in our country, it seemed to 
 say, with horrible encouragement and acclaim, to our political 
 and selfish demagogues, and our Hotspurs of the South and 
 of the North, of the East and of the West — Go it, gentlemen, 
 all of you. We of the Church and the ministry set you the 
 example, foUow it ; split the country ; destroy the nation ; 
 
GOD OVERRULES EVIL. 17 
 
 down with our arch of states ; excision is the way ; revolu- 
 tion is the thing ; I'ury is our cathoHcon ; and self-will our pa- 
 triotism, as well as our piety. We copy the illustrious exam- 
 ple of the legitimate son of the wise King Solomon, the ven- 
 erable exscinder Rehoboam of old ; and if you will only copy 
 ours, we can enact all consequent advantages very similar, in 
 our day, in promoting disruption, apostacy, captivity, and all 
 the other honors and blessings of such salutary "reforms" 
 and necessary revolutions, at Dan and Bethel, among the 
 tribes of Israel. 
 
 Some, indeed, have the coolness to tell us of the good re- 
 sults ; as if these were the vindication of their wickedness ; 
 as if better results might not have been better reached by 
 other and proper means. The argument is, then, as follows : 
 God has overruled all these earthquakes of evil, to accom- 
 plish his own wise and good purposes ; therefore the means 
 were good which we used, because providentially it seems 
 that the results are. It were easy to show, in this work or 
 any other, that such an argument is no better than sophism 
 and impiety — proving nothing, or infinitely too much. The 
 truth, however, is clear ; res ipsa loquitur. God overrules 
 every thing — glory to God alone ! The results of the mur- 
 der of his own dear Son are salvation and glory for ever- 
 more, as all the ransomed of the Lamb shall know and sing 
 in heaven. Were Pontius Pilate, Herod Antipas, the Jew- 
 ish high-priest, the scribes and the elders, the lying witness- 
 es, Barabbas, the blaspheming and impenitent thief, and all 
 the orgies there oithe carnal mind, which is enmity against 
 God, are these, therefore, all innocent, praiseworthy, glo- 
 rious, because they were such exscinders, counselors, helpers, 
 and sub-agents of eternal providence, in this scene of human 
 and infernal darkness, but more of superhuman and celestial 
 light, as appears in the tragedy of the crucifixion I It is not 
 them we thank, or excuse, or palliate, if God should make 
 it all, as he makes all other events, in some way subserve 
 
18 DOCTRINES OF EMMONS. 
 
 the purposes of his eternal wisdom, goodness, and philan- 
 thropy. 
 
 As for Emmonsism, I only say, that it has had a very bad 
 influence, honored and beloved brethren, in several places of 
 our extensive Zion, before we were bisected, and subsequent- 
 ly in both sections of our Presbyterian community, as well as 
 in many other ecclesiastical places of our common country. 
 And it may have indefinitely more. Will you allow me, 
 with entire respect, frankly to say, what some of you, if not 
 all, could well attest with me, that I have known many, or 
 at least several, of your own honored order in the Church, 
 who, as Ruling Elders, have been not tinctured, but pervad- 
 ed and saturated with the system ; and who have thereby 
 shown and experienced its appropriate fmits, in their dry- 
 ness, their hair-splitting and heartless abstractions, their hard- 
 ness of character, their want of Christian sympathy, their 
 waning usefulness, their retrogradation in spiritual fervor, 
 their interest and power in prayer lapsing to apathy or set- 
 tling in antipathy, their losing a good report, and their ulti- 
 mate inanity and unprofitableness, as full of false wisdom — 
 till they became disinterested in every thing good, with a 
 witness. They were not aware of their danger when they 
 began to be taken with the glitter of his theory, with its mar- 
 velous speciousness, with its promise of superior philosophy, 
 with its seeming short-cut road to all religious learning and 
 knowledge ; and when others saw that the Bible itself began 
 to be postponed to the sermons of Emmons, they were not 
 sensible of it. Their indocility, their pufTed-up obstinacy, 
 their sublimated self-complacency, made them quite superior 
 to their own pastors in their assumptions. They came to 
 church, not as worshipers, but as critics. They were cen- 
 sors-general of the ministrj' ; knowing every thing but their 
 own danger, arrogance, and want of true knowledge. All 
 this I have seen, and even felt ; though not much, if at all, 
 in my own pastoral relations. But some of my beloved 
 
STRANGE TESTS. 19 
 
 brethren in the ministry, more in former than in later years, 
 have been cruelly harassed by these governments, that should 
 have been help?,, also, in the Church of God. Some, in our 
 sessions, have — in a few special instances — been like growl- 
 ing lions there, in spite of the better wisdom and the official 
 influence of the pastor, to frighten and scare away the new- 
 bom lambs of Christ, and make it an ordeal of fire in the 
 very threshold of the Church, which the young convert could 
 not attempt or succeed to cross, on account of their search- 
 ing questions, their technical tests, their revolting and shame- 
 ful paradoxes. " Have you any disinterested benevolence ? 
 Is it self that you love ? Are you willing to be damned for 
 the glory of God ? Do you believe that God does all things ? 
 Is this the best possible system ? When were you convert- 
 ed, how, by what means, and are you sure you are convert- 
 ed ? Have you any unconditional submission to God ? Do 
 you love his sovereignty supremely ? Have you thought 
 what it means ' to have a holy willingness to sin ?' Suppose 
 you are one of the non-elect ? If God were to cast you into 
 hell, would you still love him ? Have you renounced all 
 selfishness and all self-love ? Did you ever read Emmons ? 
 Or, do you think you will ever understand any thing till you 
 do ? Or, are you opposed to metaphysics ? Or, do you think 
 there ever will be any millennium, unless they value more 
 and read that great divine ?" 
 
 These are given as real specimens — that have occurred, I 
 know ; not all at once, perhaps, yet in their turns and de- 
 grees, with most exasperating and most culpable reiteration, 
 and habituation, in some places. You perceive that not one 
 word is said in them about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, 
 or coming to him for life, or his offices, his mercy, his king- 
 dom, his condescension, his meekness and gentleness, his of- 
 fers and his promises, his glory, his service, his people, his 
 salvation, or his Bible. No question such as our doctrinal 
 and noble standards would approve, and no allusion to those 
 
20 CHRIST THE HEAD. 
 
 standards ; none to creed, catechism, government, discipline, 
 or directory I 
 
 What right have any of us, his officers, to alter the terms, 
 or embarrass the access of his communion, in the Churcli of 
 Christ ? to require of his disciples M'hat he does not require ? 
 or to reject or harass even him that is weak in the faith, 
 when Christ says, receive him? Just as much right as had 
 the exscinders for their enacted wickedness in the house of 
 God. Just as much right as has the undone hierarchy of 
 Rome, with the papal monstrosity enthroned there, to meta- 
 morphose the Church of God into the congregation of the 
 devil, and to show Christianity in stupendous caricature, as 
 something infinitely dissimilar, and infinitely other than what 
 it is, as God made it. There is no authority, no jurisdic- 
 tion, no headship, rightly in the Church on earth, but that 
 of Christ alone ; which his true ministers and his faithful 
 officers learn that they must declare and administer in his 
 name, as the unaltered will and way of heaven. The Church 
 is Christ's own, and HE alone has the right to make laws 
 in it ; nor is there possibly a principle in the polity of the 
 Church of more fundamental gravity and grandeur than this. 
 We, who rule, ought to know, and digest, and maintain it, in 
 alto relievo, on every tablet or facade of the house of God. 
 It ought to be graven on our hearts ! A departure from this 
 principle, a violation of it, is a growing virus in the Church ; 
 and all history develops it as the pre-eminent mischief of the 
 apostasy of ages, oriental, occidental, and almost ecumenical, 
 in all Christendom. It is the very germ of the myf,tery of 
 iniquity — against which, with due intelligence, we should 
 watch and j)ray, lest we fall into temptation. Every officer 
 of the Church of Christ ought to feel, and digest, and honor 
 it. There is a senatus-consultum of heaven respecting it, 
 somewhat analogous to that of old republican Rome, that so 
 charged the consul to guard the state, at all events, against 
 all detriment — consul videret ut nil detrimenti res- 
 
WISDOM AND TENDERNESS. 21 
 
 FUBLiCA CAPERET. Let US all here be vigilant and energet- 
 ic, glorifying, as we ought, the ubiquity of" Christ, our King, 
 in his own Church ; feeling by faith his ever-presence, as 
 Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for- 
 KVER ; the great God and Savior* of us, without successor, 
 rival, equal, or substitute ; eternally our Head, our Com- 
 mander, our glory, and our salvation. Let others worship 
 the rusty, rotten, ridiculous chain of " succession," and gal- 
 vanize it, till it shakes in all manner of wild contortions, like 
 a floundering corpse on the table of an anatomical theatre — 
 they will get as much life from the one as the other. We 
 repudiate this heathenism that adores relics, and deifies dead 
 men's bones and all uncleanness, while it vacates the gloiy 
 of the living Church, by practically denying the HEADSHIP 
 of the Son of God, and substituting ultimately their own 
 lawn-rigged and mitred selves I Matt. 18 : 20. Nor 
 know I of any part of the ruling or consular function in the 
 Church, pertaining'to your high and honorable office, breth- 
 ren, that requires more wisdom, more tenderness, more sym- 
 pathy, more prayer, or more simple faith in the teaching of 
 the Spirit, than that in which, as coassessors with the pas- 
 tor, the primitive apostolic bishop of the congregation, you 
 examine or admit the candidates that come before the ses- 
 sion, as applicants for the privileges of the Church. Li fact, 
 it is primely the business of the pastor, who is by office re- 
 quired and qualified, better than others, to know both the 
 persons that apply and the questions suitable to address to 
 them. One great duty of the elders is to know their social 
 character ; to ascertain their reputation in the relations of 
 life ; and to report to the pastor if there be any known scan- 
 dal, or let, or hinderance, to their matriculation as members 
 of the Church. 
 
 The great tests of character, as proposed by the system of 
 Emmons, are mainly all uitra-evangehcal, and can be stood 
 * So we render, ai liieram, the original of Tit. 2 : 13. 
 
22 HARD CHARACTERS. 
 
 and endured only by the partisan and the self-deceived. No 
 man on earth has a right to enact or to propose them. God 
 has not required them at our hands. They are inconsistent 
 with what he does require. When men talk o{ U'illing7iess 
 to be damned, in any category or hypothesis, they are, at 
 best, each a prating theological fool ; under sta7iding 
 neither ivhat tliey say, nor ivhereof they affirm. God re- 
 quires us TO BE WILLING TO BE SAVED, cordially willing, by 
 the grace of God, according to the Gospel ; saved from sin 
 and th£ wrath to come, to his own glory in Jesus Christ. 
 The great mischief of the world, in their impenitence, their 
 folly, their blindness, is, that, practically, they are all 
 SO WILLING to be LOST I Any thing for them, any thing 
 but the salvation of God. One of Webster's very proper 
 definitions of disinterestedness is, indifference I a quality in 
 which the world, it is to be hoped, excels infinitely the 
 Church. Reprobates are eternally (disinterested in the sal- 
 vation of Christ, and their indifference or antagony induces 
 it all. The doctrine of damnation is indeed a divine and a 
 solemn reality ; and, as such, fearful, tremendous, and to be 
 vieAved only with religious aw^e and deprecation. Some 
 speculatists talk of it only as theological triflers, hardening 
 their own hearts with the awful truth — and some, without 
 skill, or consideration, or wisdom, and with no tenderness or 
 reverence, dogmatizing their own speculations, most destruc- 
 tively, to the feelings, and the impressions, and the hopes 
 of the inquiring, the recent, and the immature. Such hard- 
 hearted smatterers would ridicule us as old women, and so 
 forth, if our practice among them were to exemplify the 
 words of the sublime apostle, who said. We were gentle 
 amoyig you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children ; so 
 being affectionately desirous of you, tve were ivilling to im- 
 part to you, not the Gospel of God only, but also our own 
 souls, because ye ivere dear to us. This is piety, and this 
 the way to propagate it, which those hardened and frigid 
 
THE KOAD TO HONOR. 23 
 
 partisans neither love nor know. Oh I how desirable, how 
 necessary, how blessed it is, when the session, that is, the 
 pastor and all the ruling elders, act and feel together as 
 one, imbued in common M'ith the wisdom of the Master, and 
 loving tenderly all the flock for the great Shepherd's sake ; 
 all striving together for the faith of the Gosjjel ! It is not 
 in the spirit of complaint at all, as personal to myself, that 
 this is written ; but more or wholly in fraternal sympathy for 
 others. It is my happiness, as a Christian pastor, to be as- 
 sociated with colleagues united and intelligent, and who 
 would abhor the temptation, which has captured some Aveak 
 and vain ones, to make themselves important by making 
 distinguished and protracted perplexity and trouble for others. 
 One elder of the latter description, like a pestilential sheep 
 in the flock, can do more mischief than all the others can 
 ordinarily repair — as self-willed, inflated with his own ideas, 
 inconsiderate of the wisdom of his peers, disrespectful to his 
 pastor, vaunting his own importance, commanding his own 
 precedence, and stealthily usurping power. Humility is dig- 
 nity, the fruit and the evidence of wisdom, the way to real es- 
 teem and honor ; and it confers the best epaulets of office in 
 the Church. Let tcs, therefore, follow after the things that 
 make for 2)eace, a?ul things tuhereivith one viay edify a7i- 
 other. For he that in these things serveth Christ is ac- 
 ceptable to God and ajijJroved of men. 
 
 The oflice you sustain in the Church, dear brethren, with 
 such honor and acceptance, is yet to be better understood, 
 and the faces of elders more honored, in our Church and in 
 our country. We may not write it that the elders have 
 ceased from the gate; yet we hope to record, in our coming 
 history, that there they were increasingly more frequent and 
 more useful, as well as more honorable, in their counsel for 
 the welfare of Jerusalem. In many churches, often the fault 
 of the pastors I dico apcrte, 7ios consulcs desumus .' the office 
 is confused with that of deacons ; both ofl[ices are virtually 
 
24 ELDERS NOT DEACONS. 
 
 exercised by the same incumbent ; sometimes the deacon, by 
 usurpation, is an elder. Sometimes, and oftener, the elder, 
 in the same way, is a deacon. So it ought not to be I Your 
 office is not to seri'e tables, not even the Lord's table I nor 
 to take care of the poor ; nor to assist the bishop in the ad- 
 ministration of either sacrament ; nor to give executive at- 
 tendance and oversight in seating strangers, and managing 
 the incidents of public worship. All this is honorable, but 
 subordinate. It belongs of right to the diaconate. But you 
 are the counselors, the paternal governors of the Church, in 
 conjunction with your moderator and pastor, according to 
 the excellent constitution of our Church, soundly interpreted. 
 Your proper official attributes are mainly resolvable into one 
 — WISDOM. This is the jyrincipal thing. It should be en- 
 lightened, comprehensiA^e, experimental, and mature ; and 
 withal of that kind that comcth from above. James, 3 : 
 13-18. It should deserve and conciliate the confidence both 
 of the ministry and the Church. Its sphere should be wider 
 and more visitorial. Its care of the flock should expatiate pe- 
 culiarly and tenderly toward the lambs. The elders ought 
 to be great helpers both to parents and pastor, in the faith- 
 ful, and the guarded, and the evangelical education of the 
 young. A little system, a little condescension, a little pray- 
 erful and patriarchal oversight, and a little devotion to the 
 work, oh I what good might this efiectuate, to magnify your 
 office, and endear your influence to all the congregation, the 
 heads and the members of all its families. Then they would 
 better love and understand the order — Obey them that Jiave 
 the rule over you, and submit you? selves: for they watch 
 for your souls, as they that 7nust give account; that they 
 •may do it with joy, and not with grief ; for that were 
 unprofitable for you. The account here demonstrably re- 
 fers to that which their elders and pastors shall give of 
 them, as objects of all their official missions ; though often 
 and commonly mistaken to mean the officials themselves, as 
 
ABUSE OF CIVIL FREEDOM. 25 
 
 solemnly accountable in all. I only add, a ruling elder ought 
 to be a good biblical scholar, and well conversant with the 
 whole polity of the Church. 
 
 There is danger in our republican tendencies, of perver- 
 sion, in one of the highest relations of our being. A man 
 may be gi'eat as a patriot and a statesman, and as a 
 scholar, and yet not be a Christian I while our national or 
 political gratitude may proceed to adoration, to apotheosis, 
 to canonization ; only on the ground of his distinguished 
 civic virtues, his public usefulness, or his mihtary success. 
 If we perpetrate this enormity, God will be no party to our 
 error. He has but one way of saving sinners ; and neither 
 Harrison nor Adams, neither Clay nor Washington, neither 
 Moses nor David, neither Daniel nor Paul, could possibly or 
 ever reach heaven in any other way. This is a faithful 
 saying, and worthy of all acceptation ; that is, worthy 
 to be accepted by every one, tliat Christ Jesus came into 
 the world to save sinners ; of whom I am chief. There is 
 ONE MEDIATOR beticecn God and men, the man Christ 
 Jesus ; who gave himself a ransotn for all, a testimony in 
 due time. Neither is there salvation in any other ; 
 
 FOR there is none OTHEFx NAME UNDER HEAVEN, given 
 
 among men, whereby we must he saved. For God so 
 LOVED THE WORLD, that lic gave his only-begotten Son, that 
 whosoever believeth on Him, or trusteth to Him, shoidd not 
 perish, but have everlasting life. 
 
 With these sentiments, simply and sincerely believed, did 
 I converse with President Adams, on the occasion herein 
 recited and described. One reason that I selected and now 
 insert that, refers to other great men of the nation, who may 
 possibly peruse it ; men who are too great to be good, too 
 knowing to learn of Christ, too much themselves like gods, 
 Psalm 82 : 6, to remember that they shall die like men, 
 each of them shall perish like one of the princes — some of 
 them in danger of perishing in a sense supreme and eternal ' 
 
 B 
 
26 GREAT ONES NOT AI.WAYS GOOD. 
 
 I am well aware of the delicacies and the difficulties con- 
 nected with my theme and my publication ; and I have hon- 
 estly tried, as far as I knew how, both to be faithful in the 
 premises, and, if possible, to give no reasonable oflense to 
 any reader. How I may have succeeded, time will show. 
 By no means sanguine, I desire to feel my dependence mainly- 
 on God alone for that blessing which determines all prosper- 
 ity. Excej)t the Lord build the house, theij labor i?i vain 
 that build it. For promotion cometh neither front the East, 
 nor from the West, nm- fro7n the South ; but God is the 
 Judge ; He jnitteth down one, and setteth up another. 
 
 A man who is distinguished in life for his eminent knowl- 
 edge of many great things, may not, therefore, as a matter 
 of course, know equally all other, and some of the greatest 
 things. And yet, from his celebrity, he is often tempted to 
 assume or affect to know every thing. The same sentiment 
 is popular, because its theme is such. Yet of any one thing 
 if he is ignorant, his ignorance in that one particular is none 
 the better, and none the less, but rather seemingly the more, 
 for being associated in the same subject with immense knowl- 
 edge in a thousand other particulars. A learned doctor in 
 divinity once asked me, in reference to the Giant's Cause- 
 way, in Ireland, if it was accurately known by whom, and 
 in what age of the world, it was built there I A respecta- 
 ble lady, to whom I was speaking on the subject of personal 
 religion, and to whom my language more than implying that 
 she was a sinner, took fright, rather than imibrage, as if I 
 knew something of her personal history, conscia facinoris, 
 which she intended to keep a profound secret. Another, a 
 wealthy lady, who kept telling me of her abounding virtues 
 and good works, usque ad iiauseam, and to whom I said, 
 Madam, do you not think that you have some self-righteous- 
 ness in all this ? replied, with a very earnest coinitenance. 
 Ah I sir, I hope 1 have. That's what I Uy for, and am 
 after it, day and night, continually. Alas ! in some sense 
 
HOl'E IN GOD FOR OUR COUNTRY. 27 
 
 she told the trulli ; more truth than she knew. It was solf- 
 righteousness, and not salvation, that she was aCtcr I She 
 was, however, a member of no Church ; and though not so 
 distinguished as Xho fashionable lady at Calais, and possibly 
 more wealthy, it is probable that, like her, her worldly pos- 
 sessions, and, above all, her wondrous quantity ol" seil'-right- 
 eousness, constituted about all her preparation for heaven or 
 fitness for the solemnity of the mortal hour. One of our dis- 
 tinguished governors, in one of the sovereign states of our 
 confederacy, some years since, in his proclamation for annual 
 TiiANKSGiviNa — by the way, a most proper, and in some 
 places A MOST impiously abused observance I — after other 
 things that were better said, exhorted all his constituents, 
 assembled on the appointed day, in their respective houses 
 of public worship, to endeavor to merit y/w?j tJic hand of 
 God a continuance of Jus mercies ! His excellency might 
 just as well, just as practicably, have exhorted and urged 
 them to build a new solar system, and stock it with theolog- 
 ical governors, who know how to " merit mercy !" 
 
 But I have only to conclude this introductory inscription, 
 asking pardon for its length, by congratulating you on the 
 many good things that God's mercy, contrary to our deserts, 
 hath left among us in our land. Each of us may say, with 
 the genuine gratitude of a Christian and the appropriate pi- 
 ety of an American, The Lord is tJie jiortion of mine inher- 
 itance and of my cup ; thoii maintainest my lot. The lines 
 are fallen to me in pleasaiit places; yea, I have a goodly 
 heritage. We have religious liberty, in its fullness and its 
 perfection. We have Bibles, Christians, ministers of Christ, 
 churches, the means of grace, much that is correct and Chris- 
 tian in our public sentiment, and the prospects, under God, 
 as the Great Conservator of our country, the Jehovah 
 Stator of these United States, and the Mighty Guardian 
 of his own cause every where, the prospects, I say, of per- 
 manency, progress, improvement, usefulness, and salvation. 
 Amen — Alleluia ! 
 
HOR^ CHALMERIAN^. 
 
 INTERVIEWS WITH CHALMERS, 
 
 PUBLICAN D PRIVATE; 
 GLASGOW AND EDINBURGH, 1833, 1846. 
 
 A wise man is strong ; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength. — Prov. 24 : 5. 
 He that foUoweth after righteousness and mercy, findeth life, righteousness, and 
 honor. — Prov. 21 : 21. 
 
 The memory of the just is blessed. — Prov. 10 : 7. 
 Integer vitae scelerisque purus. 
 
 .Tustum et tenacem propositi virum 
 Non civium ardor prava jubentium 
 Non v\iltus inslantis tyranni 
 Mente quatit solida. * * 
 
 Si fractus illabitur orbis 
 Impavidum ferient ruins. 
 
 Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit. 
 
 Ergo Quintilium perpetuus sopor 
 Urget ; Cui pudor, et justitine soror 
 Incorrupta fides, nudaque Veritas, 
 
 Quando ullum invenient parem? — Hor. 
 
 (jtavepaOelcrav Se vvv Sia. t^s eTTK^ai'ei'as ToO (TtoT^pos fmiov Irjcrov Xpi(rTou, 
 
 KaTapyq<TavTO'; nev tov OdvaTov. — 2 7Ym. 1 : 10. 
 
KEV. THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D. LLD. 
 
 Human greatness is often — if not always — an equivoque, 
 an ambiguity. It is sometimes an assumption, sometimes a 
 misfortune, sornetimes the creature of circumstances, facti- 
 tious, ostentatious, false. It is sometimes a crime, a fallacy, 
 an impiety. With some men their greatness is in inverse 
 ratio as their proximity ; it requires " distance to lend en- 
 chantment to the view ;" since to be acquainted with them 
 is an effectual cure for the temptation to idolatry. Here a 
 man is a monarch, not because he ever did or ever was any 
 thiiag great, or splendid, or virtuous ; but for several other 
 reasons. He was the child of such parents ; he was older 
 than their other children ; a vacancy occurred in the throne, 
 and he was passively ordained the proper candidate. 
 
 Among the incumbents of the clerical profession greatness 
 is too often the result of no certainly appropriate qualities of 
 its possessor. He was elected in the conclave — either by 
 scrutiny, or by accession, or by acclamation, and, quern cre- 
 ant adorant, he is, presto, the great Father of all Chris- 
 tendom, the Prince of this world, the Prophet of eternity, the 
 Arbiter of human destiny, the Vicar of the Son of God I 
 Or, the premier of Great Britain has named him to the 
 Archbishopric of York or Canterbury, with a stipend of im- 
 perial affluence ; and the Head of the Church there — mascu- 
 line or feminine — has, as a matter of course, confirmed the 
 nomination I Or, an Irish Papist comes to the United States, 
 works at gardening for a while, then takes the chrism of the 
 Popish priesthood, and then, rising on the ppamid by merit 
 or contrivance, he gets at last to be appointed by the pope 
 
32 TRUE GREATNESS. 
 
 to the renowned archprelacy of Basilopolis I with some ex- 
 pectation of the broad brim of a cardinal, with some consid- 
 ered possibility of the tiara itself I 
 
 The greatness of Chajlmers appears only the brighter 
 and the better amid all these meretricious contrasts. He 
 held no office that men invented, or that Pagans envy, or that 
 inonarchs patronize or properly estimate. His fame rested 
 on what he was, and on what he did, and on what he prom- 
 ised, Avith God for his underwriter. His great qualities made 
 ■ his exalted reputation ; and his goodness ripened, and ex- 
 panded, and aggrandized those qualities. His honors in time 
 are only types of what they are in eternity ; his eminence in 
 this world only the shadow of his graduation in that which 
 is to come. A prosperous coup d'etat can make, it seems, an 
 autocrat, or even an emperor ; an incident of party tactics, or 
 a powerful bribe, may instate a pseudo-successor of apostles ; 
 a trifle of any other sort may confer sublunary greatness, in 
 which the possessor is both envied and passive, to say nothing 
 of qualification or desert. The kingdom of heaven, unbor- 
 rowed and unborrowing as the solar hght, rejects and inhibits 
 all worldly conformities, all earthly imitations ; and is only 
 ruined or superseded by their ascendency. Jesus said — Ye 
 know tJiat the pi'inces of tlie stations exercise domitiio?i over 
 them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. 
 
 But IT .SHALL NOT BE SO AMONG YOU : hut whoSOeVBT wUl be 
 
 great a7)io)tg yon , let him beyoicr oninister ; and whosoever 
 loill be chief among you, let him be your servant : eveti as 
 the Son of man came, not to be ministered unto, but to min- 
 ister, and to give his life a ransom for many. 
 
 The astronomical discourses of Chalmers appeared in this 
 country near forty years ago ; and I read them in the fer- 
 vor of my first love. From that period my estimation of their 
 author was deep and high. I went to Scotland, that land 
 of my mother's fathers' sires, with a vivid sense of its many 
 attractions, in September, 1833 ; but no object there attracted 
 
PROVIDENCES STENOCiRAFHY. 33 
 
 me like the person, the rninistralioa, the companionship of 
 Chalmers. To see him, to hear him, to enjoy his society, was 
 number one among my items of desire. The scenery of the 
 Highlands, Roderick Dhu's country and Ellen's Isle, and the 
 lochs, were all vastly httle in comparison. And all this was 
 aggravated by a special cause — it was noiv or never in my 
 apprehension. 
 
 Two events, controlled alone by Providence, arc memora- 
 ble here — one, the way in which I missed the opportunity in 
 London ; another, the strange coincidence by which I hit it in 
 Glasgow and in Edinburgh. 
 
 He was announced to come to London in the summer, and 
 lecture a scries on the " Christian expediency of ecclesiastical 
 establishments." He came, and in his serial, as in his gen- 
 eral ministrations, in the Caledonian chapel, Sidmouth Street, 
 Regent's Park, just vacated by the degradation of poor Irving, 
 was attended by the titled, the noble, and the grand, con- 
 testing in crowds for the privilege. What crested equipages, 
 what pomp and peerage, what nobility and royalty, and in 
 all what pageantry and glory, were there to hear him I I 
 was then on the Continent, and returned just in time to de- 
 siderate his last performance, he having returned to Scotland 
 a few days previous. It was a great, and even a painful pri- 
 vation, then seeming irreparable. However, I was availed 
 of the glowing accounts and narrations of others — and some 
 of his " deliverances" I could read, as the result of that fur- 
 tive and impudent stenography, as Jay denounces and virtu- 
 ally calls it, so common in London and other places, by which 
 certain adepts of the trade take notes, in their own way, of 
 any distinguished or available speaker, from the platform or 
 the pulpit ; and, right or wrong, per fas et nefas, give it to 
 the public in a few hours, and make money by^ hawking it 
 about the streets, while the interest is fresh, or the affair a 
 novelty, whether literary, political, or ecclesiastical. I read 
 and considered a sermon, thus furnished, which was eloquent, 
 
 B 2 
 
34 HEARING CHALMERS. 
 
 not badly reproduced, which interested me, provoked some an- 
 imadversion, and of which I shall speak again — not alone 
 with commendation, great and brilliant, and fervid and good 
 in the main, as it certainly was. 
 
 The other incident was a compensation and a great feli- 
 city. It seems that Chalmers, when he retired from St. 
 John's, Glasgow, made, as I was told, a pact with his peo- 
 ple, that, if they would give him a voice in the selection of 
 his successor, he would visit them at least once a year, spend 
 a Lord's day with them, and assist by collections in accom- 
 plishing the stipend, or something of this sort. When, there- 
 fore, I came by steamer, on Tuesday, September 3, 1833, 
 from Belfast, on the Clyde, to Glasgow, I was informed that 
 Chalmers was there, and was to preach for his former peo- 
 ple next Lord's-day. I was also assured, however, that I 
 stood no chance at all of hearing him ; as crowds challenged 
 the privilege, as the police were to take possession of the 
 doors and passages, and as more than the edifice could con- 
 tain probably had already a ticket or a pledge for the occa- 
 sion. I was at last indebted to my friend, William Collins, 
 Esq. who, as a member and pew-owner, had precedence. 
 We went at an earlier hour than usual ; and then, by dint 
 of physical efibrt as well as courage, he parted the crowd, 
 and I followed, I scarce know how, till, after laborious per- 
 severance, and serving an ejectment on some interlopers in 
 his pew, we found our seats. 
 
 The interval was one of some congratulation and impa- 
 tience. We were then to wait nearly an hour till the time 
 of service. The scene was interesting and peculiar. The 
 house was a perfect jam ; and, as I then perceived, in pew, 
 aisle, and every space-way, these were all filled with the 
 sterner sex alone. It seemed hard to exclude the ladies all 
 from the spiritual feast ; but, as my friend indicated, I soon 
 found that, by an order of arrangement, the galleries were 
 reserved for them, and were all occupied at an earlier hour, 
 
IIIH BROAD SCOTCH. 35 
 
 tlicy havinp: llie first opportunity of entrance. It was well. 
 And yet I felt for the preacher, as the scene might make him 
 sympathetically uneasy, and the air be too soon deoxygenated 
 for the proper exercise of speaking. As soon as they saw the 
 preacher, however, they grew still, 
 
 Conticuere omnes, intentiquc ora tenebant ; 
 and, through the entire performance, their attention was fixed 
 and profound ; though at intervals, when in preaching he 
 paused or ceased for a moment, reclining to recover his 
 strength, there was such a noise of throats, and noses, and 
 kerchiefs, and such a general preparation for another onset 
 of oratory and attention, that the contrast of stillness, when 
 he resumed, was the more observable, especially as it was 
 so promptly restored, and so remarkably perfect. 
 
 As Chalmers entered from the vestry and ascended the 
 pulpit, there was something at once simple and unaflected, 
 on the one hand, and solemn, and engaged, and absorbed, on 
 the other, in his manner and expression. His stature ap 
 peared shorter than I expected; but his countenance, with 
 no glare or ostentation, seemed gathered to a point, in tran- 
 quil but fixed concentration ; as if he had a message to de- 
 liver and a work to do, and as if he would do that, and care 
 for nothing else, on the present occasion. 
 
 When he began to speak, though I had heard of his Fife- 
 shii-e accent, or rather broad Scotch brogue, the sonorous 
 quaintness and earnestness of his voice surprised me. In pray- 
 er, I was sometimes mystified at first, by such expressions 
 sounding as the following : " O Lard, a gude and a biassed 
 thang ut az, to luve and to sarve tha ; and a bettir thang ut 
 az, to san aganst tha. Lard, may ol th' Kraschun grasses 
 ba in us and grow, partakoolyrly the grass of fath." By 
 bettir there, or rather betthei', he meant bitter; though, as 
 he first uttered it, it struck my ear and my soul as terrible 
 or confounding sentiment ! The disciples of Emmons could 
 scarcely go it I Some of his expressions, however, were sim- 
 
36 SPECIMENS. 
 
 pie, filial, and beautiful, as well as touching, in an eminent 
 degree. One I will quote, as I well remember it, in the 
 main : " May our luve lor tha, our Master and Lard, ba true 
 and pramative ; may it ba like that of apowstles and the 
 Kraschuns of the martyr ages ; may wa sarvc tha bakous wa 
 luve tha, and luve tha bakous wa delight to do tha honor." 
 1 give these as the best approximate specimens of his enun- 
 ciation and his utterance that I can recollect or command — 
 certainly from no thought or allowance of caricature, and 
 with a tender demur lest I should seem to disparage him 
 with any reader. His peculiarities soon lost their quality as 
 strange or ungrateful, and became easy and musical, alike to 
 the ear and the mind. The strength and the wealth of his 
 thoughts soon carried us in the wake of his prosperous men- 
 tal navigation, and we all felt the pleasure and the safety 
 of such a helmsman, as we sailed with him, unanimous and 
 happy, with the port of the celestial city almost peering to 
 our view. Indeed, as I became wonted to his voice and his 
 way, they lost all their momentary oflense, and seemed rath- 
 er transmuted, by association, into attractions, and beauties, 
 and hai'mouies of masterly oratory. 
 
 1 will, however, give one more specimen. His pronunci- 
 ation of the word virtue was quite racy and peculiar. Very 
 often the e was continental ; as a in day, and sometimes as 
 a in far. Thus, inculcating the sentiment that we must be 
 justified by grace through faith, and endeavoring to expose 
 and explode the rival sentiment of good works for the basis, 
 he said, disparaging the proud claims of human virtue, speak- 
 ing it with pungency and earnestness, thus — " Varchy az not 
 the price of hivin." And, indeed, his peculiarities of the 
 sort were many and pervading ; but, like others, I observed 
 them only at first, and felt equally that they were both in- 
 corrigible and also respectable, as his, rising in their associa- 
 tions, till entertained with favor and pleasure by his whole 
 audience, though to many of them they were too natural to 
 
SIJPKKIOR TO IT. 37 
 
 be observable ; certainly they were in no sense offensive or 
 disagreeable. But in Edinburgh, where they think the En- 
 glish is spoken as well as written by themselves to perfec- 
 tion, orthoepy and all, some of them all'ect to criticise him 
 for his local vulgarities of pronunciation ; though every schol- 
 ar of them has himself unconsciously some of the accent, by 
 which the ear of an Englishman or an American could in- 
 stantly detect them, though they are all unconscious of the 
 fact ; as one, a native, I think, of Glasgow, said to me, de- 
 nying it, " Why, ya wad na knaw me by my brog, wad ye ?" 
 I felt tempted, in good humor, almost to mock him, and re- 
 ply, " Naw, Sandy, ya'r th' mon far that, ya knaw ; I dinna 
 ken the thang in what yer sain." 
 
 But the way of Chalmers was peculiar, not vulgar ; yet no 
 one could suspect or imagine it from reading his writings ; 
 and he, if not unconscious of it, was not at all embarrassed 
 by it. He was too elevated in all his thoughts for such trifles 
 to affect him. He was really superior alike to the impor- 
 tunity and the impertinence of things inconsiderable and con- 
 temptible. 
 
 It is said, that, conscious of his vocal pecuharities, and 
 viewing thera as much incorrigible, as they were native and 
 vernacular, he rose philosophically above it, esteeming it of 
 no importance, and superinducing an earnest naturalness of 
 manner, prosperous in spite of it, and ever superior to it. 
 Every man should be himself in the pulpit and every where 
 else. As his own countrymen were less conusant or conscious 
 of it, and as, in the ears of others of the great English tongue, 
 one could never fail impressively to observe it, I may assume 
 this as the justification of a friendly pen in the present notice 
 of it. 
 
 His matter, and style, and affluence of thought, especially 
 his eloquence of expression, as a preacher, the world knows ; 
 his manner, as a whole, it is the privilege of only a compar- 
 ative few of his readers to have seen and heard. All these 
 
38 
 
 GREAT PRAISE FRO.M MASON. 
 
 combined make his admirers and eulogists. One compli- 
 ment, uttered by the late Rev. John Mitchel Mason, D.D. of 
 New York, is quite surpassing, if not the greatest ever sin- 
 cerely and spontaneously pronounced on a modern preacher 
 of the Gospel. It Avas certainly sincere, as well as emotional 
 and extemporaneous. That of Louis le Grand to Massillon, 
 though more famed, is certainly inferior. 
 
 Having heard of it in America, I asked a worthy and in- 
 telligent lady in Glasgow, at whose house I was, if she had 
 heard of it ? when she replied— More, sir. I heard the thing 
 Itself. It occurred in my house, and in this room. Dr. Mason 
 was sitting about where you sit, just returned from church ; 
 and I was impatient to hear his opinion of my own honored 
 pastor, for many reasons, as you know ;* and hence I asked 
 him, Avhile he seemed absent as in reverie — Pray, tell me, 
 dear sir, your opinion. What think you of Dr. Chalmers ?' 
 He paused in vacancy, and I repeated the question, when he 
 answered— What I think of him ? very little, madam, I as- 
 sure you ; I think very little of him. I forgot him during the 
 sermon— he forgot himself; he hid himself; and put in the 
 foreground, alone in sight, the Master— the theme— the Gos- 
 pel ; all in the clear light of heaven displayed ; so that I 
 thought of these only— not of him at all. 
 
 She added, what I had also heard from our mutual friend, 
 Bruen, at home, its proper supplement, and what was, with 
 the former, thus happily authenticated. Dr. Mason went in 
 the afternoon or evening, said she, to hear the learned and 
 eloquent Dr. Dick ; but his style was as unlike that of Chal- 
 mers as possible— it was fine, sentimental, soothing, and ele- 
 gant ; as his delivery was soft and gentle, with nothing ag- 
 gressive or exciting in the whole of it. Hence I asked him, 
 in turn, what he thought of our other great preacher ? He 
 replied, Very little, madam. I had no room left in my 
 
 * He was her mother's pastor ; herself a native American, born on 
 Long Island. 
 
HIS SERMON THAT I HEARD. 39 
 
 thoughts for all his feminine luenbrations — I was too full of 
 the manly and the mighty morning services. Indeed", his 
 heavenly sprinklings scarce made a ripple on the surface of 
 the flowing stream of my meditations. Perhaps I did him 
 no justice in the way of proper attention. And yet, how could 
 one be charmed with the flow of purling rivulets, in soft 
 meanders, through meadows of verdure and gardens of spice- 
 ry, with the loud echoes of Niagara still resounding and thun- 
 dering in his ears I 
 
 Mason was a judge — and the same wit from many another 
 would pass for less, justly, with those who knew him as, in 
 his day, without a rival or an equal, the giant pulpit rheto- 
 rician of New York. 
 
 It was a noble and a generous instance of the laudari a 
 laudato, a great preacher praised by a great praised preach- 
 er — and plainly with no envy, no efibrt, no affectation, no sor- 
 did motive ; truth and feeling alone having inspired the bosom 
 of greatness to utter its own revealings, in this and in the for- 
 mer instance. 
 
 But I may tell my own impressions of his sermon. His 
 text was announced, as Hev. 22 : 11. He. that is U7ijust, 
 let him be unjust still ; and he that is filthy, let him be 
 filthy still ; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous 
 still ; and he that is holy, let hitn be holy still. 
 
 The sermon is now before the world, in his published works. 
 Yet I have not seen it there, and the fact may be unreal, 
 though others have reported or suggested it. It was often 
 preached by him ; and has been criticised by many, not with- 
 out favor and laudation. I was sensible to its merits as a 
 whole, as also dazzled with its brilliants. My objections to 
 it were almost instinctive, and chiefly two only. 
 
 First. It was severely topical, not textual, in its total plan 
 and finish. No adequate explanation ; and especially no 
 clear fixing of the point, in reference to sinner or to saint, 
 where the words apply, as beyond it aU must remain so still ; 
 
40 TWO FAULTS IN IT. 
 
 and then each class becomes unalterable. This seemed to 
 me a defect of a grave character. 
 
 Second. He told of the saint as holy and righteous, and 
 of the sinner as filthy and unju&t ; but how a sinner could 
 become a saint, if this indeed were possible, he seemed not 
 to tell us — whereas, this very thing is, in a sermon, certainly 
 in one of this class, a cardinal virtue of a preacher, and nec- 
 essary to the edification of all ordinary hearers. He told us 
 faithfully and well what would become of the sinner, what 
 of the saint, in the coming world ; but as to the material 
 from which saints are made, or that saints by grace accrue 
 from sinners, and that sinners might become saints, and how 
 this could be done, and what hope of such a change there 
 might be for any sinner there, he comparatively told us not : 
 on the contrary, the desperate alternative seemed to be im- 
 plied. If you are filthy, be so still ; if unjust, be so still. Tills, 
 indeed, he meant not ; yet this seemed to be the impression 
 really produced, though perhaps unconsciously, on the mind 
 of the irreligious hearer. The precise opposite of this should 
 have been the luminous and the living consequence. This 
 was the sermon I read in London, and now heard in Glas- 
 gow. My estimate was increasingly the same. It is a great 
 fault or defect, and one which is good against all the sermons 
 I heard in Scotland. They are too abstract, or general, or 
 speculative, or hypothetical, in their statements. To show a 
 sinner, with due energy and directness, that he must become 
 a saint, or pei'ish forever ; that this change is quite practi- 
 cable ; that his own is the responsibility for its occurrence ; 
 that he ought to seek it in the way of God ; that rightly to 
 seek, is surely to find it ; that in the present, not the future 
 world, is all his opportunity ; that now is the accepted time, 
 and there is no 2^<'f'J(>rmance of the doing of it, except on the 
 now principle ; that procrastination is deceit, as well as crime ; 
 that not he for the Spirit, but the Spirit for him, is waiting, 
 saying, To-day, if you will hear his voice, harden not your 
 
HIS GREAT EXCELLENCE. 41 
 
 hearts; that to reject oflered mercy, and to neglect so great 
 salvation, is the most aggravated siu against your own souls, 
 as well as against God ; that this sin leads to all others, and 
 necessitates your doom ; and that the justice of your condem- 
 nation, in all this, will be terribly enhanced, and gloriously 
 illustrated at last, should you, by the sovereign order of His 
 throne, die in your sins, filthy and unjust, with the awful 
 fiat of the text confirmed against you forever : all this, I say, 
 virtually impressed on the mind of the sinner, evinces the 
 KIND of sermons that we ought to preach ; and the type of 
 impression that we ought to make ; and the very scope and 
 drift of the written word, to radiate and seal, as the means 
 of actuating every hearer, practically, to make good his re- 
 treat _/(??• refuge, to lay hold on thehoiJe set before us in the 
 Gospel — to do this, by God's offered help, and to do this 
 while he may, and to do this promptly and sincerely, by the 
 exercise of faith in the testimony of God, corresponding with 
 God, in that obedience of faith, to which the Gospel sum- 
 mons and obligates every rational hearer. He that hath an 
 ear, let him hear ichat the Sinrit saith to the churches. 
 
 It is not for me to praise so great a preacher, and I am far 
 enough from any desire or thought of disparaging him. But 
 in this fraternal censure, while I regret it, I say only what 
 honesty, and a sense of usefulness, alike inspire ; and nothing 
 for the sake of criticism, nothing at all with the least idea of 
 his depreciation. If any man's affluence of fame could bear 
 some animadversion, surely here one need not be afraid to be 
 hearty and truthful, and free in his observations. 
 
 His manner, also, had some faults, if rules or canons are to 
 guide us ; such as Campbell or Whately has with philosophic 
 eminence prescribed. But it had excellences too, such as di- 
 rectness to his object, earnestness, naturalness, symmetry, and 
 bravery evinced, superior to any low consideration, bent only 
 on pleasing the Master and benefiting the people. In a good 
 sense, not in a proud, or a vain, or an affected one, Chalmers 
 
42 UNEXPECTED INVITATION. 
 
 seemed always above his audience, and over them, for good. 
 They were before him, not he before them ; while, as an em- 
 bassador for Christ, he held his court in the sanctuary, and 
 pursued his high negotiations, in the spirit and on the prin- 
 ciples of the commission he held, from so great and so good a 
 Master. 
 
 In the afternoon, he preached from Rom. 7 : 6, and his 
 sermon struck me as less scholastic, as more solid and pas- 
 toral. Its garniture and imagery were less conspicuous, its 
 devotional character more impressive and powerful. Form- 
 alism in the worship of God was shown to be pharisaisra 
 only, matter more than mind, appearance more than reality, 
 and hypocrisy rather than sincerity. He illustrated spiritu- 
 ality as the only philosophy of Avorship, especially in this last 
 and best dispensation under the Messiah ; evincing the glare 
 of the diflerence between service in 7ietvness of spirit, and in 
 the oldness of the letter, and between Saul in his formalities 
 and Paul in his spiritualities. 
 
 After the morning service was concluded, some scenes oc- 
 curred worthy of notice here. It seemed a long time in pros- 
 pect before our turn should come to make our exit, so mass- 
 ive was the crowd in their motion as well as their multitude. 
 "While we waited, and my eye expatiated, front and rear, 
 over the architecture of the edifice, and its slow elapsing ten- 
 antry, outward bound, the beadle of the parish came to our 
 pew, and asked Mr. Collins for me by name. His message 
 was, that Dr. Chalmers desired to see me in the vestry. 
 This truly seemed strange enough. I had letters to him, but 
 had not delivered them, and could not conceive that Dr. 
 Chalmers had ever heard of my existence. The summons, 
 however, was direct, and obedience was any thing but disa- 
 greeable. I was soon in his presence, and in that of some 
 select friends, conversing joyously around him. He greeted 
 me with a natural and generous ardor ; said I was welcome 
 in Scotland, and that he had been looking for me, and dis- 
 
HIS SOCIAL MANNER!?. 43 
 
 covered somehow that I was in Mr. Collins' pew this morn- 
 ing. 
 
 1. I sincerely thank you, Doctor Chalmers; and rejoice 
 much to meet you. But it is a mystery how you could have 
 known any thing about me. 
 
 2. Oh I in several ways, especially as your gude tvijie has 
 made quite a post-office of me. There are several letter^ 
 waiting for you, at No. 3 Forres Street, New City, Edin- 
 burgh ; and when we are both there, I shall see you of morn- 
 ings — mind, you are to come and breakfast with me every 
 morning, regularly, while you stay in Edinburgh, and we 
 shall have many a topic together before you return. I am 
 glad to see you here ; but you seem a younger man than I 
 thought you, from some accounts that I had. 
 
 1. As to your kind invitation, it seems too generous and 
 extensive — my only objection to it. I shall, however, come 
 and see you quite as often as I ought, probably, not to weary 
 you, Prov. 25 : 17, and shall be very happy to let you choose 
 your topics, though mine must be the profit of a listener 
 mainly. 
 
 He then introduced me to Mrs. Chalmers and some others 
 of the company, and was really charming in the good-na- 
 tured ease and Christian frankness of his manners, in the 
 whole interview. When we hear or read at a distance of 
 some distinguished person, and especially if his character wins 
 our homage or deserves our admiration, we almost enact his 
 apotheosis in our imagination, dissociate his fame and his 
 greatness from all the proper trivialities of humanity, and can 
 scarce think that he breathes, eats, sleeps, walks, laughs, and 
 suffers life's infirmities, like other men — especially if he is dis- 
 tinguished of his class, as a monarch or a clergyman I I 
 would here record it, however, as the result of all I have ever 
 seen of Chalmers, that his manners, as perfectly simple and 
 unaffected, and wholly devoid of every appearance of vanity 
 or boasting, were a model of beauty, nobly unbent and charm- 
 
44 A LABORIOUS COMPOSER. 
 
 ing in the relations of private life, as his great qualities ever 
 subsidized our admiration in public. 
 
 About a week afterward, I was in Edinburgh^ by the way 
 of Lochs Lomond, Katrine, Veniiachar, to Stirling, and by the 
 Frith of Forth, and Leith, to that renowned city, the "Ath- 
 ens" of the British islands. There I enjoyed more than I 
 hoped of the personal and even the private society of Chal- 
 mers : breakfasted with him thrice, dined with him once at 
 the house of a common friend, and once — last and best of it 
 — spent an evening, and almost the whole night, with him, 
 at home and alone, except the presence of his eldest daugh- 
 ter,* viewed, in her loveliness, as a rich accession to the 
 circle. 
 
 Chalmers was said to compose with care and pain, or at 
 least with eflbrt and elaborate application ; as in a way ab- 
 solutely extemporaneous, he would seldom venture to do any 
 thing. Hence he would have his hours of study, secluded 
 and inaccessible ; and scarce had any rule of exceptions, for 
 favorites to abuse, and notables by presumption to usurp. 
 As for laborious written preparation, men in any elevated 
 place, and ministers especially, might worse offend by the op- 
 posite quality. He was, as a Christian, profoundly humble ; 
 as a man, sincerely and amiably modest — though without all 
 unmanly weakness or pusillanimity. Hence he felt that his 
 best preparations, with all the scepe vertas stylum, or labor 
 limes et mora, that Horace inculcates, were never too good 
 for the public, and especially for the pulpit. He felt, there- 
 fore, the necessity, and enforced it, of literary and studious 
 seclusion, as the only proper way in which to discharge his 
 high official duties. This induced system in all his economy 
 of time. He would see his friends in the morning, happy to 
 meet them at breakfast, but afterward, no)i est inventus, he 
 was not at their service. This rule he owned to me, and 
 wondered that the preachers of America seemed not to adopt 
 * Now Mrs. Rev. Dr. Hanna. 
 
AN EVENING APPOINTED. 45 
 
 it. ■ I told him of its practical difficulties here ; he replied, 
 but I would maintain it. The interests of the people and the 
 cause ahke demand it. Are pastors in America such drudg- 
 es ? Have they no time to study vi^ithout interruption ? 
 Then ought they to be more than human, legitimately to 
 maintain themselves in an educated community. But your 
 best preachers steal time from midnight, wear out their 
 strength, are crushed under their burdens, and, as soon as 
 their health goes — away to Europe ! Now this way is no 
 way ; and it becomes you to be aggressive and pertinacious 
 for a thorough reform. All the American clergymen I have 
 ever seen were valetudinarians, crossing the ocean to get 
 some release from onerous, and enervating, and incessant 
 toils. This will never do. It is quite a mistake and an evil. 
 
 It was now that we projected an evening. He told me, 
 with the most companionable freedom, that, unless interrupt- 
 ed in some unexpected way, he would be at leisure and at 
 home next Monday* evening : so come then, be sure ; and come 
 early, and as we have so much talking to do, I will sit it out 
 with you, if it takes the whole night. It may chance to rain 
 or be a heavy Scotch mist. In this case, we'll be likely to 
 encounter no disturber, but have it all to ourselves. If it 
 rains hard, so much the better ; we'll have fine good weather 
 in doors. And then we'll see all about your great country ; 
 your projects for a political millennium ; your late temperance 
 revelations and revolutions ; your prospects as a nation, with 
 all your ecclesiastical system, sustained and progressive, on 
 the voluntary principle ; your education ; your revivals of re- 
 ligion ; your great preachers ; your national slavery ; your 
 heretics, and your interminable mixtures, with all the change- 
 fulness of your raw and your recent population ; and your 
 swaying forever, from one side to the other, at the caprice or 
 the cupidity of your popular masters. 
 
 To this I replied, with cheerfulness, that I should certain- 
 * September 16, 1833. 
 
46 ESTABLISHMENTS IN CONTROVERSY. 
 
 lybe there, by the will of God ; should meet his questions on 
 the topics with pleasure ; not object to the lateness of the en- 
 gagement, provided I could return to Douglas Hotel, so as 
 to be admitted there before the morrow's dawn ; and as to 
 the rain, I could only say success fo it ; I shall be glad to see 
 it rain hard, especially as the means of securing a colloquy of 
 the requisite protraction, undisturbed. 
 
 At this time, the grand religious question that was in agi- 
 tation and in conflict there respected the utility and the per- 
 petuity of ecclesiastical establishments. All dissenters, north 
 of the Tweed, were combined and fierce against them. They 
 quoted America as a brilliant demonstration in their favor, 
 and were much disposed to learn of us all the good they could, 
 if not a little more. Their opponents Avere, in temper and 
 argument, as much against us and the voluntary principle ; 
 and their grand propugnator was Chalmers. Arriving there, 
 as I did, in the very crisis of their controversy, I was no neu- 
 tral object in the eyes of either party. The one claimed me, 
 and expected that, of course, I was to go with them, shoulder 
 to shoulder. The other desired to interrogate me, in their 
 own way, about the dreadful moral wastes in the valley of 
 the Mississippi, the general destitution of the means of grace, 
 the mighty wants of whole neighborhoods and districts of our 
 people, in the wide-spread plains and savannas of our great 
 country. Indeed, when I came home from the Highlands, so 
 fatigued that I thought to keep an incognito for a while at 
 the hotel, till I was fairly rested, and could find time for some 
 personal adjustments and letter-writing to friends at home, all 
 this was exploded in a queer way. My rest had been broken, 
 and I thought to make some compensation, after retiring late 
 the first night, by late rising in the morning. But, no ; about 
 seven, a loud knocking at my chamber-door surprised me — 
 not very gratefully. It seemed intolerable. The door was 
 locked, and at first I felt almost tempted to set it at defiance, 
 and give no answer. But, on the whole, this was impracti- 
 
EARLY VISIT. 47 
 
 cable. I opened the door, and saw, to my profound astonish- 
 ment, the Kev. Dr. Heugh, of" Glasgow, whose acquaintance 
 I had been so happy as to make a few weeks before, and 
 whom, with reason, I had learned to esteem and love. What 
 had brought him there ? How knew he that I had arrived, 
 that I was in that house and that apartment ? What could 
 he want of me so early ? Why so earnest and thundering ? 
 Really, I was almost afraid to inquire, lest some bad news 
 I'rom home, or portent hori'iblc of another kind was now to 
 transpire. To my wonder and dismay, he answered, There is 
 a great public breakfast at Waterloo Hall this morning, on 
 the subject of Dissent and Establishments. All our friends 
 are there, and Avaiting for you. They are quite rejoiced that 
 they may be availed of your testimony — expect a speech on 
 the occasion — can't take No for an answer ; so I have come 
 for you, my dear friend, and can not return without you. 
 
 Much as I loved Dr. Heugh and appreciated his amicable 
 assault, I felt as if it could not be endured — it was so incon- 
 venient, so incongruous to all my plans. I was fasting, need- 
 ed the razor, had to make an entire toilet, lacked time, had all 
 my hours pre-engaged, aiid besides, felt the fatigues of mis- 
 cellaneous travel and irregularity. But, said he. Go at it. 
 I have ordered your breakfast sent you ; in about twenty min- 
 utes I shall return for you. So be lively, my dear friend, and 
 meet the exigence, as I know you can. 
 
 I surrendered, like Washington at Fort Necessity, and in 
 half an hour entered the hall with my brotherly guide. What 
 a breakfast I Three hundred dissenting clergymen, with 
 about fifty distinguished laymen, men of renown in Athens, 
 writers to the Signet, learned in the law, honored in the re- 
 views, versant m all literature, eminent and worthy in the 
 Church; and of all denominations — Presbyterians, Baptists, 
 Congregationalists, Methodists, Episcopalians, and the repre- 
 sentatives of almost all others that were opposed to the Scot- 
 tish Establishment. They were all seated at three or four 
 
48 PUBLIC BREAKFAST. 
 
 tables, parallel, and extending the whole length of the spa- 
 cious area, exee])t one at the I'uither end, running across, at 
 the centre of which sat their chairman, the venerable Dr. Ped- 
 dle, supported by a host of vice-chairmen, as I apprehended 
 them, on his right and on his left. 
 
 As we entered, the whole company rose, and commenced 
 a clapping welcome, loud, long, and in full concert. I knew 
 it was not to me personal, but the cause to which, in their 
 own way, they would commit me. So borne along, I was 
 introduced to the chairman, who thus addressed me, as I 
 breathed their stimulating atmosphere, heard their noise, and 
 stood not perfectly tranquil, in the midst of them, the object 
 of their concentrated expectation. Wc welcome you, dear 
 sir, to our company on this occasion. I occupy this chair, be- 
 cause my brethren here would put me in it, and not because 
 I am fit for the service, or worthy of the honor. I can not 
 make a speech, but you can, and we all desire to hear one 
 from you. "VVe are endeavoring to do for Scotland what has 
 been done long ago for happier America ; to divorce the 
 Church and the State, rendering to Ccesar the things that 
 are Ccesar s, and to God the things tliat are God's. On 
 this point, we are all in a ferment now in Edinburgh. Some 
 think that you Americans are all going to hell, for want of 
 an establishment ; we think rather you are all going in the 
 opposite direction, through grace, because you are not cursed 
 with it. But we want facts, and you can give them to us. 
 America is, just now, a great topic with us ; and hence we 
 were so glad when it was announced that you were here, 
 and could give us your testimony, as well as your informa- 
 tion, to the truth. We therefore despatched our beloved friend, 
 Dr. Heugh, for you, and rejoice that his mission has been so 
 successful. Permit me, then, dear sir, to welcome you here, 
 and to ask you freely to say to us whatever you can or will, 
 for we are a free meeting. I rejoined in brief, told them 
 facts, remarked on my relations as a stranger, and refused to 
 
I'l iiiuus '/.i;ai,. 49 
 
 make a partisan cause with them or others ; much as 1 co- 
 incided with them in sentiment, much as I loved my own 
 country, and wished devoutly well to theirs. A foreigner 
 abroad ought always to refrain from intermeddling with po- 
 litical affairs, especially in the country he visits, and where 
 he is generously welcomed and entertained. A busy-bodyin 
 other men's tiiatters is classed in the kscriptures with an evil- 
 doer, a thief, and even with a tnurderer. And though it is 
 an evil, which, as Americans, we are quite habituated to en- 
 dure from others, some foreigners who visit us having the 
 manners most offensively and remorselessly to enact it ; yet, 
 as two wrongs will not make a right, we ought to be better 
 bred, if others are not, than to copy so bad an example. The 
 vice of pragmaticalness, against communities or individu- 
 als, is ever associated with arrogance and sordid principles. 
 Hence I stood on my own convictions of propriety, and refused 
 to go a campaign against the advocates of ecclesiastical es- 
 tablishments, or to right the battles of another hemisphere, 
 even with those whose principles I approved and preferred. 
 But a personal remorse influenced me. They were covering 
 the name of Chalmers with inundations of abuse. He was 
 the only peg, they said, that kept the deleterious and ruinat- 
 ing system from lapsing to its own destruction. Indeed, after 
 attending that meeting of furious Reformers, and sympathiz- 
 ing with their fury not at all, I felt almost bereft of a good 
 conscience, and as disqualified to face fraternally that distin- 
 guished person, and others of his sympathy, who deserved 
 my affectionate regard. 
 
 One curious fact amused me — the Episcopalians there are 
 all terrible disseiiters I The establishment north of the T\\'eed 
 is Presbyterian alone. Consequently, the prelatists, with their 
 meeting-houses and their chapels, are there at a discount ; 
 as are all their mitres, crosiers, and vestments, among the 
 Knoxian and Presbyterian Churches. Hence, in their dis- 
 senting agitations, they herd with all the others ; they debate 
 
 C 
 
50 ( 111 KClJiMEN l\ tiCUTLANU. 
 
 and vote, and vocil'crate Avith ihem, use and appropriate their 
 arguments, endorse and adopt their principles, and make com- 
 mon cause, if not catholic display, with them, as brethren 
 in adversity. One of them, a loud-spoken clerk at that meet- 
 ing, in converse with me after its adjournment, denounced 
 the principle and the policy of establishments, with singular 
 virulence against the character and agency of Chalmers. 1 
 remonstrated — You are opposed, my friend, only because you 
 are north of the Tweed. At the South, you would, I sus- 
 pect, become a Conservative. You are aware that in Lon- 
 don Chalmers is honored and quoted by ministers, peer.s, 
 royal dukes, princes of the blood, and all the pyramid of cler- 
 gy. How then can you speak at this rate against establish- 
 ments, simply because you live in North Britain ? He re- 
 joined — No such thing I I hate the whole affair, here and 
 every where. On that point, I go the entire figure with you, 
 and am quite an American. 
 
 On the anticipated evening, as 1 loft the mansion of a friend, 
 late in the afternoon, for that of Chalmers, I had the satis- 
 faction to see it begin to rain, arriving through the drops at 
 his door. The I'ain increased, and became at once our pro- 
 tection, and an assurance of privacy in the projected inter- 
 view. It was truly memorable, as well as useful and de- 
 lightful. The hours flew over it on golden pinions ; and at 
 a late hour, if not rather an early one, I returned contented 
 in the rain to the hotel. 
 
 Our topics have been already indicated. Chalmers threw 
 himself on the sofa, supine and at ease ; and exemplifying the 
 kind good-nature that his manners inspired in others, cozy 
 and confiding, he began the conversation about America. Our 
 country, at that time, was more a riddle and a wonder than it 
 is now, in all the British islands. It was before the steam- 
 navigation had been either established or generally consider- 
 ed practicable. Of course, we were not then such near neigh- 
 bors as now. The Atlantic was then the mighty and insu- 
 
i^TEAM I'OWKUS AND rUOSPECTS. 51 
 
 perable barrier to all neighborly iulercourse ; almost realizing 
 the prudent day-dream of Horace — which we may view as 
 the gnomon of all the geographic wisdom ol" the Augustan 
 Age ; marking the prodigious advances of science and civil- 
 ization in eighteen centuries — that the ocean was ordained 
 by Heaven on purpose to curb the presumption of mankind, 
 and keep the opposite shores of continents separated and dis- 
 sociable. 
 
 Neqiiidquam Dcus abscidit 
 Prudens oceano dissociabili 
 
 Terrcis, si tamcn iinpise 
 
 Non tangenda rates transiliunt vada. 
 
 We no longer think it impious to sail any where, or even to 
 circumnavigate the globe ; we know, as they did not, that 
 the world is a globe ; we bridge the ocean with sociable 
 steam ; we give news to the world, and make the lightnings 
 bear our messages through and over itr; we shall soon talk 
 with the antipodes as our neighbors, and the very ocean shall 
 imbosom and protect the metallic conductors of our commu- 
 nicated thought ; and not curses, but blessings, shall be in- 
 terchanged and propagated through all the related and pacif- 
 icated habitations of mankind. 
 
 The ignorance of our country, which has often astonished 
 and amused our countrymen traveling in England, yet re- 
 mains, in many places, like a huge iceberg floating toward 
 the equator, with only some of its rough coating melted and 
 flowing in the solar rays ; an iceberg still, though destined 
 to dissolve in warmer latitudes, as it approaches their clear 
 and balmy atmosphere. Some of the remarks of Chalmers 
 were singular in this relation, but very corrigible and kind, 
 and, as entertaining and curious, I give them here. If any 
 of his countrymen were prejudiced, or contracted, or invidious 
 toward us, none of these sordid attributes belong to him. He 
 was a noble of the realm of God ; and magnanimity belonged 
 at once to his capacity, to his discipline, to his habits, to his 
 
52 SCOTLAND AND AMERICA. 
 
 nature, and to his character. He had a high and a gener- 
 ous appreciation of America ; he rejoiced in all its develop- 
 ing greatness ; he seemed to realize a personal interest in its 
 prosperity ; he had no atrabiliary fears, no arrogant and ul- 
 tra-English prognostications, against the glorious hopes and 
 promises of our republic. We are to view him as a friend, 
 even Avhere his free-spoken thought seems to question, to im- 
 peach, or to accuse us. Scotland, indeed, has some special 
 reasons, and some patriotic affinities, of friendship for Amer- 
 ica. The land o' cakes and the land o' hearts may well love 
 the vaster and the related land far ofT, the land of cataracts 
 and mountains ; of enterprise and independence ; of emi- 
 grants and natives in national brotherhood commingling ; of 
 Christianity, and Protestant religious freedom for all man- 
 kind ; the laud of refuge, and of welcome, and of home for 
 thousands of Scotia's brave sons and bonny daughters ; and, 
 finally, the hospitable and the capacious country of refuge 
 for the millions of the persecuted and the persecuting world. 
 We have, indeed, our inconsistencies, our faults, our sins I 
 The mercy of Heaven shield us from our deserts, at the hand 
 of his terrible righteousness, who reigns there and here I and 
 that same mercy correct us, that Ave may be, to please HIM, 
 the great model nation of the world I But to our colloquy. 
 
 1. I am surprised, Dr. Chalmers, to speak plainly, at some 
 of the questions, and the manner of putting them, which meet 
 me in Europe, about the younger hemisphere. Is it the pol- 
 icy of the Holy Alliance, or of local monarchy and establish- 
 ments, to make us such an enigma to clever persons even in 
 Great Britain, to say nothing of the more papal tenebrosity 
 of the Continent ? 
 
 2. Well, many causes conspire, I think, to produce the re- 
 sult. It is a fact that you are not known by us as you ought 
 to be, or even as we are by you ; and you are to us a won- 
 der, a curiosity, and a theme of ever-varying interest and 
 complexity ; or, rather, a great thesaurus or museum of these, 
 
OURS TFIE DAUGHTER COUNTRY. 58 
 
 in pai'ticulai' and often in astounding phases of demonstra- 
 tion. Yours is a wonderl'ul country and a great one ; and it 
 strikes me as a mighty original, since history affords no par- 
 allel to it in many of its great aspects. But I am yet to 
 study, perhaps literally to explore you, that I may feel that 
 my data are trustworthy, when I speak or argue about the 
 United States, or the daughter country, as we sometimes 
 call you. 
 
 1. Our filial feelings are not offended at the designation. 
 Some of us, however, with too many fitting monuments, rec- 
 ollect some very unmotherly and very cruel conduct that we 
 have endured from the parent country. But let us register 
 even our real wrongs in the sand, our received benefactions 
 on tablets of granite rock. You speak of exploring us ; I 
 hope that means that you will actually visit our country. 
 
 2. It does. I should rejoice to accomplish such a plan. 
 But its difficulties are various, perhaps insuperable. Still, I 
 entertain the pleasant imagination, and am not sure at all 
 that it will not yet be realized. At any rate, I intend to tell 
 you now my beau ideal of it, yes, of a tour through the states 
 of your great country. 
 
 1. I shall rejoice to hear it, especially if there is any prob- 
 ability at all that it may ever be realized. 
 
 3. Pa, will you go alone — or take ma and some of us with 
 you ? I should like to be of the party. 
 
 2. We shall attend to details afterward, my dear. Now 
 I am getting on in life. In another heptade of years I shall 
 have reached threescore ; and the chair of Theology in Ed- 
 inburgh ought hardly to have an incumbent who is over 
 sixty. Hence, if I live to reach that age,* I am thinking to 
 vacate my post, and go to America — if Mrs. Chalmers will 
 go with me. It will be easy just to take a steamer in the 
 Clyde, go to Liverpool, and in one of your good and safe lin- 
 ers embark for the London of the West, your famous New 
 
 * He died, May, 1847, in his sixty-eighth year. 
 
1)4 II ks BKAC IDEAL OF A VISIT. 
 
 York ; tliat would be inj' port and my route, you know. 
 A.nd yet it would seem a vast undertaking for me and for her, 
 at that period of our advancing age and infirmities — should 
 it ever occur. 
 
 1. Unite formidable in prospect, less probably in experi- 
 ence. At least, if it were perilous for you, our Americana 
 would care little or nothing for it, except to embrace it with 
 avidity, and rejoice in the opportunity, with no hesitation or 
 tardiness. 
 
 2. But I should wish to go through your land, and over 
 your mountains, to see the mouth of your Ohio, and your Mis- 
 sissippi, as well as your other rivers. Would you go with 
 me, Dr. Cox, if I come, and be my cmnpagnon du voyage in 
 k merica ? 
 
 1. Well, doctor, I think I will — certainly it would be a 
 rery pleasant journey and a tempting opportunity. But let 
 us hear your plan moi'e particularly, even if theory be the 
 whole of it. 
 
 2. Your country, as I was saying, is quite a topic with us, 
 in this present emeute about the voluntary principle. 
 
 1. I am glad that something occurs to make you think of 
 us; and yet it seems that, in all Europe, among statesmen 
 and philosophers, but es])eeially among theologians and ec- 
 clesiastics, you ought to think, as Avell as learn and know, 
 more about the facts of our wondrous history, the promise of 
 our grand and our momentous future, the problems we are 
 solving, our enterprise, our commerce, our science, our political 
 economy, our growth, and our achievements, and pre-emi- 
 nently all that God intends to do with us, for us, and by us, 
 according to his own revealed counsel and eternal plan, in 
 relation to other nations. 
 
 2. I quite agree with you. So, arrived in New York, 1 
 should look about me, and see with my own eyes the won- 
 ders of the New World. It seems there would be quite a 
 new atmosphere in that new world, certainly a glare of nov- 
 
HIS I'LAN TO MEASURE US. 55 
 
 elty on all the scenery ; your architecture, your manners, your 
 habits, your costumes, your display, your intensity of action, 
 all would seem strange at first. But soon I should explore 
 you, as I said ; gauge tlie dimensions of your ecclesiastical 
 statistics and your means of Christian education; ascertain, 
 for myself, the ratio of your accommodations, your sittings in 
 churches, as compared with your whole population ; know 
 all about your colleges and universities, your standard of 
 scholarship, yonr modes of teaching, and all the economy of 
 your sysloni lor sacred and secular learning — what it is I and 
 see the workings of the voluntary principle, in its own great 
 sphere, in the national laboratory of its proper home, as test- 
 ed by its results, its fruits. 
 
 1. I was lately giving the results in part, and I now assert 
 to you, as what I can prove and do know, that the ratio of 
 our accommodations in the city of New York, all places of 
 worship included, as compared with the entire population, is 
 higher and better than yours, in either chief city of Scotland. 
 Yes, my honored friend ; neither Glasgow, nor Edinburgh, 
 in their houses of worship, could accommodate so large a pro- 
 portion of its inhabitants, by either the voluntary or the in- 
 voluntary principle, or both united, as the city of New York. 
 And this is a fair sample and criterion of other cities com- 
 pared, on your and on our side of the ocean, at least for the 
 most part, and so for the general rule. 
 
 2. So I have heard, and astonishing as to me it seems, I 
 have no reason to gainsay the statement. The people could 
 do wonders, if they were all as good as they are powerful. 
 But I would put facts and observations, and these alone, in 
 my notes ; and then I should next go away to Boston, some- 
 where in the East, I think. There I would enact the same 
 exploration, and see about that old university in the vicin- 
 age that has gone away from the principles of its founders 
 — under the voluntary principle, or the innovations of your 
 American Dernocracy, by a sad deviation, as I hear ! How 
 is that ? 
 
50 VOYAGE TO KENTUCKY. 
 
 1. Bad enough, 1 think. It reminds me of some of your 
 European examples, where lapses of the sort have been de- 
 fended by the power of establishments around them. But 
 proceed. 
 
 2. AVell, having explored these two great cities, in my 
 next move I should go straight to Kentucky. 
 
 1. You would ? There must be some mistake, doctor. 
 The distance is too great from Boston. It could not be 
 your next terminus — and no omnibus or minibus runs that 
 way : 
 
 2. Oh I distance, with the modern means of travel, is of 
 little or no account. 
 
 1. Still, you would have to encounter en route the inter- 
 mediate cities and states. 
 
 2. What need I care for all the intermediate states ? It 
 is my beau ideal that I am telling you. 
 
 1. True. But you could scarce get from Boston to Ken- 
 tucky, even by an air line, without passing through Hhode 
 Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
 Virginia, and Ohio. And as the people of these states are 
 intelligent enough to read your works, to appreciate your 
 fame, and to desire a glimpse, at least, of your person, they 
 would be apt to find means of detaining you at several places 
 on the way, and for some weeks, I think, if not of hearing 
 Dr. Chalmers in the pulpit, on more than one or five occa- 
 sions, before he reached Kentucky, about one thousand miles 
 from Boston Your bcaii ideal, my dear doctor, may be a 
 very fine one, and quite worthy of its projector ; but, as you 
 could not ride it there, any more than a witch could ride a 
 broomstick or a philosopher a streak of lightning, I must sur- 
 mise some breach in the fabric of your ideal plan, which pos- 
 sibly ought now to be rectified. You would next go from 
 Boston to Kentucky ? 
 
 2. Yes, to that old and venerable university there, you 
 know — 
 
THAT la, TO NEW HAVEN. 57 
 
 1. "Why, my dear sir, they have nothing old there. Their 
 state itself is young, recent, modern. 
 
 2. And — was it not in Kentucky that Dwight lived ? 
 
 1. Excellent, doctor ! You mean Connecticut, in New En- 
 gland, bordering on Massachusetts ; and the old university 
 is none other than venerable Yale, over which the Rev. Dr. 
 Dwight presided with such celebrity, and for so many years. 
 He died in February, 1817. 
 
 2. Ay, so it is. I never can recollect yovir new-fangled, 
 outlandish Indian names. I mean Connecticut then, and not 
 Kentucky. But to me they seem much alike, after all. 
 
 1. Well, dear sir, why do you not learn, at least in general 
 outline, more of our geography ? What would your critical 
 acrimony say to us, were we, on your soil, to make similar 
 mistakes about your geography ? 
 
 2. That were hard to say. But this yovi deserve — you 
 Americans know more of our geography, our history, and our 
 literature, than we of yours ; whatever the cause be. 
 
 1. Many causes, I grant you, may combine. But one is 
 this — we pay more attention to yoiu's than you to ours. 
 
 2. It is true — so I drop my bcmc ideal for the present. 
 Kentucky is a slave state, I think ? 
 
 1. It is; and slavery seems always one of your favorite 
 topics about America. Some British gentlemen and ladies 
 seem to think and speak to us almost of nothing else. Hence, 
 as the original sin of it is your own ; as we have the conse- 
 quences and the actual results of it ; as talking against us 
 never helps the matter, nor gives us any true or useful in- 
 formation ; were it not wiser in you if slavery were less a 
 topic ? Every American in England — so shamefully annoy- 
 ed — gets sick and disgusted with it. 
 
 2. So I think. With many it is the theme interminable. 
 They are monomaniacs about it. In it alone is all they know 
 or care about ethics, politics, jurisprudence, or religion. I 
 am all awry with them myself, because I can not get up be- 
 
 C 2 
 
58 BAD MANNERS UF TIIK ENGLISH. 
 
 hind them and see their zeal fur (he Lord; wliile they drive 
 like Jehu, but without his commission, iu their work of re- 
 form ; and also because, on one occasion, I proposed a plan 
 of gradual melioration and improvement for the colored peo- 
 ple ; the only one that I could judge neither Utopian, nor un- 
 scriptural, nor impracticable in the case, they were all ali- 
 enated, if not positively inimical. 
 
 1. I am glad to hear such sound sense from Dr. Chalmers. 
 Like most others who visit you, I have no slaves ; not one of 
 my personal or pastoral relations owns one, so far as I know 
 and believe ; the Empire State, where I live, is a free state, 
 and so are a majority of the others ; nor love I the system at 
 all, nor cease to pray for its discontinuance, with all other 
 sorts, and degrees, and modes of oppression, in all the world ; 
 but I am nauseated with the arrogant ill manners of the En- 
 glish, and their obstreperousness of assault, on all occasions, 
 and at all hazards, indisci'iminate and vociferating, about 
 slavery. Some of them seem only to know of America, that 
 it is a great place, far over the ocean, with slavery there — 
 and besides that, the cataract of Niagara I I was rudely as- 
 sailed lately in Exeter Hall, at a missionary meeting, after I 
 had spoken there, by importunate request, on the mode of con- 
 ductmg missions in America. A perfect stranger to me, after 
 two or three others had followed, arose, with a loud voice, 
 and began to pour ominous eulogy on my address — with just 
 one exception, one great fault, he said ; and this not what was 
 in it, but wholly what was not in it — no light on the subject 
 of slavery I He then proceeded — and when he sat down, I 
 claimed the right to answer him, and I did answer him. I 
 am commonly roused a little on such occasions. 
 
 2. Just like them, and just like him ! I know the man,* 
 and can comprehend it all. He remarkably pleased himself! 
 
 1. I heard afterward, whether by way of apology or not, I 
 can not say, that he was put up to it by some near him, who 
 * .\s I have no pnrsonal frelings, I withhold his name. S. H. C. 
 
AN OLU SKKMON WAS IHH SI'EKCH. 59 
 
 lieard liim preach oii the subject a few days before ; and so, 
 complying, he re-euacted his memoriter sermon on that occa- 
 sion, made me his target, and, leveled all that he could bring 
 to bear at me, an entire stranger, who had landed only a day 
 or so previous, and thus I had to take from his batteries a 
 raking fire on that topic, before a London audience of about 
 three or four thousand persons — so gratifying to his own feel- 
 ings, his national vanity, and his own pragmatical arrogance. 
 But I had rather despise than speak of the abomination. It 
 is not a rare instance, not the exception to the rule, but the 
 impudent character, the good-for-nothing habit* of the En- 
 
 * At the meetings of the Evangehcal AUiance in London, August, 
 1,846, wc Americans were very batUy and very injuriously treated on 
 the topic of slavery — as if every one of near a hundred of us, cleric 
 and laio, and from all parts of the Union, but chiefly, or almost all, 
 from the free states, were himself the impersonation, the jmncipium 
 ctfons, of all the evils and of ail the crimes in any way connected with 
 it, by reality or imagination. They first invited the whole world of 
 Christendom to be there, for the holy and the ecumenical jubilation, 
 and then, just before we Americans arrived, their hospitality, in its 
 bowels of mercies and in its catholic impartiality, took a sudden cachexy 
 against the possibility of any Americin being admitted who might 
 possibly have some relative connection with slavery. They hence 
 insulted us with an ex post facto rider on the bill, with a special quar- 
 antine regulation, or rather impeachment, or exclusion, or probation, 
 as the case might require. Some excellent brethren refused to join 
 the Alliance at all, and returned without it on that account, righteous- 
 ly indignant. Some were pertinaciously excluded to the last — one, 
 especially, from a slave state, an excellent brother, whom I well 
 knew, and whose claims I advocated with constancy and a good 
 conscience, and so did others ; all in vain ! ! He sustained in 
 law the relation, or his wife did, of master or mistress, to their 
 house servants, six or seven in all. And he more eminently sus- 
 tained the character of kind, beneficent, and even affectionate con- 
 sideration of them and theirs. Thus, while engaged in the delibera- 
 tions of the Alliance, heart and soul, having traveled three or four 
 thousands of miles at our own expenses to attend it, as freely and 
 equally invited, they, many of those excellent Englishmen, insisted 
 on some appropriate tests, of their own devising, in the American 
 
60 CHURCH ANU 8TATE HIS THEORY. 
 
 glish ; we could well retaliate in either or both countries on 
 clue occasions oflbring, were we so destitute of wisdom and 
 good manners ; but enough of this. There are more profit- 
 able subjects, especially for our present conference. 
 
 2. I think the same. Let us talk of the expediency of estab- 
 lishments as, on the whole, the best ecclesiastical economy as 
 related to the state. Mind — we sufTcr not Caesar to govern us. 
 Our government is our own, under Christ. We preserve those 
 three normal qualities of the Church intact, apostoUcity, 
 catholicity, and autonomy. Christ is our HEAD, not Cajsar. 
 But in the worldly circle of Cajsar's jurisdiction, we radiate 
 an mfluence highly and incomparably useful to Caesar, as 
 conservative of public order and rational liberty, and in this 
 way our function is beneficent and incomparable, making 
 men good subjects of Caesar, because they are true disciples of 
 Christ. For this, Caesar, conscious of the good service render- 
 ed him, and feeling also how indispensable it is to his throne, 
 is admitted to show at once his gratitude and his justice, by 
 Branch, to exclude slaveholders ! Against this, without all concert, 
 all the Americans rose and protested, nno ore, una sponte ; with one 
 exception only, and hardly that ! But all in vain. They knew more, 
 and better about America, than all the Americans ! Their holy and 
 hardy arrogance rejected and overruled all our remonstrances, and — 
 just as we faithfully told them, with tears in our eyes — at last, and 
 as it is badly at this day, they crippled and killed the Alliance in this 
 country ! ! ! The Rev. Dr. Baird lately told them, nobly and lumin- 
 ously, the truth about it, and I cordially re-echo and endorse his mas- 
 terly perfomiance. I am myself descended from the venerated grand- 
 sire of my father, whose name I bear, old S.\muel Hanson, of Dover, 
 Kent county, Delaware, who set all his .slaves free spontaneously ; 
 and since then no one of his descendants, known to me, ever owned 
 a slave — except when I bought a woman and eight children with 
 money contributed and collected by myself, and set them free, accord- 
 ing to my plan, immediately. I have never loved it — any more than 
 I love the way of the English, fanatical, and offensive, and short-sight- 
 ed, in dealing with it. They have only disgusted this nation with 
 their manners, and done evil, and not good, to the cause — precisely as 
 we knew, and as we vainlv warned them more than thrici^ ! 
 
WATKULUO HALL AND CIIALMEK.S. Gl 
 
 assisting in the support of the organization, which to him is 
 found so serviceable, so indispensable. Here are two grand 
 interests at once distinct and united, mutually helpful and 
 beneficent ; each stronger, and better, and more permanent, 
 because of the other. This is what we mean by establish- 
 ment ; this our Christian expediency ; this is not, indeed, 
 sanctioned expressly in Scripture, neither is it forbidden ; nay, 
 many things seem to favor it. It coincides, at least indirect- 
 ly, with all that is there. Its utility is founded in experience. 
 
 1. Our experience is very contradictory to yours, though of 
 yours the accounts greatly vary. Many of your good and true 
 ministers of the Gospe], you know, doctor, differ from you toto 
 ccdo in your estimate of establishments. They think them 
 corruptive, embarrassing, and bad in the main. I never heard 
 in America such tirades of crimination and severity against 
 them as in Scotland here, and that by clever and responsible 
 men, official and non-official. 
 
 2. You would be likely to hear all that, in concentrated 
 volume, among the dissenter.s just now, as several recent oc- 
 currences have exasperated the controversy to an alarming 
 degree. We are all, unhappily, belligerent, and armed on 
 one side or the other. 
 
 1 . Yes ; I saw it all the other day at the public breakfast 
 in Waterloo Hall, and greatly regretted the excesses I wit- 
 nessed there. But I wish you, dear sir, to understand that 
 I went there almost passively, and Avas both qualified in my 
 words on the occasion, and told them, also, that, as a stran- 
 ger, I thought it not decent or proper for me to intermeddle 
 in their local policy or contentions ; and particularly assured 
 them of my regret and grief to hear such language in con- 
 nection with the name of Chalmers. 
 
 2. Oh I I am quite the theme of their severities and their 
 denunciations ; but I will hope to be humble under the co- 
 pious honors with which they load me. Now what detri- 
 ment to Church or State in America, if both were united 
 
62 PRELACY AND MONARCHY. 
 
 there, fur their mutual advantage, on the principles I have 
 mentioned ? 
 
 1. As a fact, doctor, I am happy to aver that the dream 
 of snch a consummation, in the United States, is utterly for- 
 lorn and impracticable. The common sense of our citizens 
 of all parties, both political and religious, and their experi- 
 ence too, render it impossible. Even churchmen, that are 
 " fond of povi'cr," form no exception ; at least they always 
 declare against establishments ; and well they may, since, 
 were one doniiuaut in America, the majority must rule ; and, 
 whatever other denomination might be preferred, themselves 
 must be dissenters. The Church of England is not the 
 Church of America, and never will be I They are not pop- 
 ular ; not german or homogeneous to our republican institu- 
 tions. They are eminently aristocratic and royal in their 
 predilections and their tendencies. No bishop, no king, said 
 that apostate King of Scotland, when he became also the 
 English king, James ; and we may say, with Whitgift, in 
 kindred response, No king, no bisho]}. Prelacy and mon- 
 archy are in good accord and natural league, as all the world 
 knows, and so are presbytery and popular government. Kings 
 and bishops, and their divine rights, are all factitious and tra- 
 ditionary creations. In our Revolutionary agony, the Pres- 
 byterians vvere cordially, and naturally, and quite incompar- 
 ably, the friends of Washington, liberty, and independence. 
 They acted, prayed, and stood, with distinguished unanimity 
 and cordial decision, for the vernacular cause — as, indeed, 
 their principles impelled them. But many a statesman 
 among us is so little of a philosopher, or so bad a historian, 
 as not to see the connection between their principles and 
 their actions ; and some understand neither the one nor the 
 other. Your own learned and heroic, as well as honorable 
 and eminent "VVitherspgon, of happy memory — yours by na- 
 tivity, was one of our exemplary patriarchs — ours by adop- 
 tion. He was one of the renowned and now time-honored 
 
THE ENGLl.SH CIIUKC'II. 63 
 
 patriots, who shall never cease to figure with praise iu his- 
 tory as the signers of our immortal Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence ; a distinguished and useful member of Congress ; 
 a most influential writer ; and every way a leader, whose ex- 
 ample was revered and followed by all the true-hearted lov- 
 ers of liberty in the country. 
 
 2. Well, personally, could you see much objection to my 
 views on the subject of establishments ? Caesar feeds us ; 
 we benefit him ; we earn more than he pays us ; we could 
 do without, him quite as well, on the whole, or better, pos- 
 sibly, than he without us ; and we govern ourselves — deny- 
 ing him all headship and government in the Church. 
 
 1. Your theory strikes me as exceptionable and perilous, 
 and the practice as worse than the theory. If Cajsar feeds, 
 he will rule you, indirectly, if not directly, as surely as that 
 the rich rulcth over the poor, and the borrower is servant 
 to tlie lender, Prov. 22 : 7. You become his abjects, as well 
 as his subjects. Look South : the British Cajsar is their ec- 
 clesiastical HEAD, male or female — their governor and mas- 
 ter. The government of the Church of England is complete- 
 ly secularized. It is identified quite with the British Par- 
 liament,* the British ministry, and the British monarchy. 
 Their spiritual convocation exists functionless, and only in 
 abeyance of law. Their autonomy is gone ; and as for their 
 catholicity, they would not, at this moment, in their iron- 
 bound organization, brook even Dr. Chalmers, or Merle d'Au- 
 bigne, or any other Presbyterian, nor even the Apostle Paul, 
 I opine, in one of their pulpits. And what becomes of their 
 apostolicity — is it genuine ? entire ? scriptural ? real ? No ! 
 When Henry the Eighth deposed the pope, and abominably 
 usurped his place in England, as HEAD of the Church there 
 himself, he committed an anomalous and monstrous scandal, 
 which lasts there to this day, incorrigible ; and we must al- 
 ways respect the example, and sympathize with the scruple, 
 * With Romanists, heretics, infidels, and Quakers in it — if not .Tews .' 
 
64 TKMl'ERANCE MISSIONS. 
 
 of the leanipd and honest friend of Erasmus, Sir Thomas 
 More, to whom that anomaly was so astounding and so im- 
 pious, that, papist as he was by education, and patriot on 
 principle, and unfeignedly brave, rather than acknowledge 
 Henry, his sovereign, a layman, a persecutor, a pedant, and 
 a royal brute — though God overruled, as well as used, his 
 agency for his own most beneficent purposes, as Head of the 
 Church, he nobly yielded his own head, by order of the des- 
 potic and persecuting murderer, on Tower Hill. And see 
 your own General Assembly of Scotland, opened first by the 
 Moderator, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and then 
 by the Royal Commissioner, seated over and behind him, 
 throned there in state, with two liveried pages, opening the 
 Assembly with Caesar's sublime sanction, and in the name of 
 " the monarch of these realms !" This, my dear doctor, or 
 the like of it, would never do in America ; and I hope to see 
 the time when, in Europe, or Great Britain, it will owe its 
 advocacy no more to the example and the eloquence of Chal- 
 mers I America disclaims it. 
 
 2. Well, you are a gallant people, and in all good things 
 we are willing you should instruct the world. In two re- 
 spects, you are, at present, exciting great attention ; to say 
 nothing of the stability and the solidity evinced of your fab- 
 ric of government, as against the fears and the prognosis of 
 all our European croakers. You deserve applause for your 
 recent achievements in the field of foreign missions, and your 
 more recent reformation in respect to temperance. There is 
 great moral grandeur in all this. 
 
 1. I am happy that you seem to appreciate us there, espe- 
 cially in the matter of temperance. In Scotland, I think, 
 with all your excellences and your eminences, which we all 
 acknowledge and admire, you have drinking habits, aijd 
 drinking faults, that call loudly for reform — verj' loudly, my 
 dear sir I 
 
 2. Too true I but it is still a question with the Scots wheth- 
 
ABSTINENCE THE PRINCIPLE. 65 
 
 er they will, or can, or should, follow you in your ultraism 
 of the principle of total abstinence. 
 
 1. And how many more thousands of your sons — and shall 
 I say, your daughters, arc to be insidiously nuirdered by alco- 
 hol, in body and in soul, for time and for eternity, murdered 
 by fashionable compliance, on the principle of" prudent use ;" 
 th"e only initiating principle on which drunkards are manu- 
 factured, or can ordinarily be made ; before you Scots, in your 
 Baconian philosophy and your Presbyterian wisdom, can be 
 persuaded to adopt, to your own infinite advantage, the only 
 principle in the world that makes your safety certain, that ren- 
 ders your ruin impossible 1 Yes, dear sir, the only principle. 
 
 2. It is unquestionably a grand and a unique reformation 
 that has begun among you, and certainly the world needs it. 
 Great Britain needs it, and especially North Britain. We 
 must also own that America is here our leader and our teach- 
 er ; young as she is, she has the honor to be the mother coun- 
 try of the Temperance Reformation. And still, we fear, the 
 Scots cair hardly brook the principle of total abstinence. 
 
 1. Perhaps not — as long as the learned clergy, with Chal- 
 mers at their head, neither brook it themselves, nor recom- 
 mend it to others, nor join the reformation in its initial crisis. 
 It seems to me a little like Erasmus approving of Luther ; 
 but never joining the Reformation, and at lasif dying a papist I 
 The curse of Meroz was for a similar delinquency, a negative 
 ofiense ; they came not. Drunkenness at home is, at least 
 relatively, a greater evil than slavery abroad. Judges 6 : 23. 
 Matt. 7 : 3-5. HF^ It is slavery and vile subjection to the 
 devil. Yes, the worst kind of slavery ! 
 
 2. They object, however, to your sweeping principle o{ to- 
 tal abstinence, as extravagant, unnecessary, and, some think, 
 adverse to the wisdom of the Scriptures. I do not give this, 
 however, as my opinion ; and yet I have not adopted the prin- 
 ciple. Let the experiment be fully tried, by its genuine and 
 its permanent fruits. 
 
66 TIIK CAUSE VINDICATED. 
 
 1 . Ill the principle I see no fanaticism, properly no extrav- 
 agance. As a beverage, when in health, we drink nothing 
 that can intoxicate ; nothing lor which we have no need ; 
 nothing that may injure, but can not benefit us ; nothing for 
 the sake of the mere bibacious and guzzling pleasure ; nothing 
 for Bacchanalian honor, or the godless laws of the fashionable 
 symposium ; nothing to disturb the sobrieties of nature, or 
 precipitate the motions of life's pendulum within our bosoms, 
 or induce the morbid necessities of the initiated drinker. And 
 is it not lawful, innocent, salubrious, as well as safe, to ab- 
 stain ? On the other hand, if I am weak, or sick, and act- 
 ually need it, I can use it, outwardly or inwardly, as a med- 
 icament ; just as I would use any other clement of pharma- 
 cy, any other poison, as arsenic, bella donna, or prussic acid, 
 or even execrable tobacco, as a means of cure. And here, if 
 drunkenness is a most insidious and destructive evil ; if souls 
 and bodies, and families, and churches and nations, the young 
 and the old, ladies and gentlemen, are more deceived and de- 
 stroyed by it, incomparably more, than by the Asiatic chol- 
 era, that scares the world so terribly, and yet that can not 
 harm the soul at all ; and if the remedy of our principle is 
 both therapeutic and prophylactic, as well as cheap, easy, 
 universal, infallible, and without all pretense, or fallacy, or 
 deceit ; and if those who have tried it, delight in it, recom- 
 mend it, and abhor the deleterious alternative that foregoes 
 the principle, I leave it to such a judge as Dr. Chalmers, 
 whether you ought not to become the eldest-daughter coun- 
 try, if we are the mother country, in so great, and so excel- 
 lent, and so necessary a reformation. 
 
 2. I admire the stand you take, and am not quite sure that 
 ours is the right, in our refusal to stand with you. 
 
 1 . Who ought to take a stand, if not the ministers of God ? 
 and in a cause of such purely moral, spiritual, and practical, 
 as well as personal nature ? We should find and follow good 
 examples ; or, like the blessed Paul, set, and let others find 
 them in us. Phil' 3 : 17-19. 
 
AMERICAN MISSIONS. 67 
 
 But, doctor, you spoke of our missions abroad. I should 
 like to hear your opinion more at large. 
 
 2. You shall have it then, in terms of approbation, and 
 even of laudation, unqualified. I have perused your statistics 
 and your reports, and read your public documents, on the great 
 subject of Foreign Missions, with attention, and for years ; and 
 I may say, M'itli increasing advantage and pleasure. The ac- 
 counts given by your missionaries themselves are quite valu- 
 able papers. I read them not only for the narratives they 
 contain, and the facts they declare, and the results they as- 
 certain to us ; but for the theology, and the pbilosophy, and 
 the experimental wisdom included. It is my own opinion 
 that your missionaries abroad are doing a great and a good 
 work ; that they are an honor to your coimtry, and a blessing 
 to mankind; and that, for address, industry, sagacity, faith, 
 and practical thrift, they have no equals. At least, I wish 
 the heathen world were full of such missionaries and their aj)- 
 propriate fruits. 
 
 1. You deserve, my dear doctor, our grateful recognition, 
 for your liberal and magnanimous appreciation of us in all 
 our best aspects. For one, I thank, esteem, and love you only 
 the more for it. Bad as we are, we have some salt in Amer- 
 ica ; not only Attic salt, but the better salt of the covenant. 
 It is a provocation very legitimate, and very Christian too, 
 in which for you and us to engage together, and with mutual 
 or common profit, if its object be to love and to good icorks. 
 There are magnific, and swaying, and religious reasons why 
 England and America, the daughter and the mother country, 
 should always maintain a good and an honest understanding 
 together ; should foment or provoke no angry or illiberal al- 
 ienations ; should know and pursue their common interests ; 
 should respect each other as much as possible, in spite of the 
 faults respectively of both ; should in many things co-operate 
 for the good of the world ; and, above all, should so think, so 
 speak, and so act, henceforth, as to make another war be- 
 
68 AMERICANS GUESS, NOT SO BADLY. 
 
 tween them, a thing so tremendous in idea, and so abom- 
 inated in conduct, as to be hereafter neither tolerable nor 
 possible I Pax inter nos divina esto perpetua, custode 
 Deo, nationcs. nomine Chnsiiauas. 
 
 Thus our conversation mainly proceeded, sometimes with 
 intermissions of its gravity and episodes of familiarity and 
 humor. With no reference to his own broad Scotch intona- 
 tions, he would rally us about our peculiarities. Our vernac- 
 ular use of the word guess quite amused him. He asked 
 if all the states alike used it, in the sense of suspect or think, 
 and with familiar frequency. I replied, that this usage was 
 more at home in New England, as Yankee proper, than in 
 the other, and especially the Southern States — though, while 
 at the South they say recko?i, they generally guess only ; and 
 while at the North or Northeast, they say guess, they gen- 
 erally reckon only ; using the multiplication table more than 
 others, commonly ciphering in their head, and ascertaining 
 results with the certainty of figures, " that can not lie ;" 
 while their guesses are announced often with almost orac- 
 ulous infallibility. Still, our proverbial guessing was rather 
 ridiculous in his view ; his amiable daughter, however, took 
 our part in this arraignment. 
 
 3. Well, pa, might not this proceed from modesty ? They 
 are conscious of their own liability to mistake, and hence 
 they would not assert a thing absolutely ; but, in the costume 
 of a simple and modest guess, they suggest and introduce it 
 to our thoughts. We, I am sure, are more dogmatical, " you 
 know." AYe always assert not only, but, " you know," we 
 tell the hearers presumptuously that they knotv the same, 
 " you know." In this, perhaps, our own is a peculiarity much 
 more objectionable, as really arrogant and often false. Some- 
 times, when one is telling us marvels, " you know," that we 
 never heard or thought before, he will keep interrupting his 
 own thoughts and ours, by saying, when he asserts a wonder, 
 
OUR REAXJING NOT INFERIOR. 69 
 
 " you know," though tve knoiv properly no such thing, and 
 possibly he may not know it either, " you know I" 
 
 I followed suit, by remarking that the dialects of ancient 
 Greece were neither so variant, nor so bad as those of the 
 different districts, and even related counties, of the British 
 isles ; and that for general correctness and homogeneousness 
 too, the English language flourished in America, among the 
 commonly-educated classes, with quite remarkable, and even 
 with increasing uniformity, throughout the whole country and 
 all the states. But the British are often prejudiced, in this 
 respect more innocently than in some others, it maybe, against 
 us. So Dr. Johnson was set against the Scotch — but more, 
 they say, against the intellectual character of America, es- 
 pecially after* the Revolution ; of whom it is related that 
 once, in conversation with an honored and excellent Ameri- 
 can, the latter spoke of purchasing, as desired, a quantity of 
 books, w^hile in London, to stock the private libraries of a 
 few of his friends and neighbors at home ; when Johnson in- 
 terposed with an ill-natured remark about the low state of 
 American literature and cultivation, as if any thing was good 
 enough for their reading and improvement. The Americanf 
 replied, True, indeed, you have more age and more maturity 
 than my countrymen ; but neither are your minds at all su- 
 perior to ours, nor is our proficiency as low as you commonly 
 rate us. We read the works of Addison, Pope, Young, Mil- 
 ton, Shakspeare. The Spectator, the Rambler, Rasselas es- 
 pecially, are great favorites Avith our readers. And it is be- 
 
 * He died shortly after the peace, December 13, 1784. 
 
 + Rev. John S. Ewing, D.D. LL.D. Provost of the University of 
 Pennsylvania, and pastor of the First Presbyterian church, Philadel- 
 phia ; a rich and a ripe scholar, a finished gentleman, and one of whom 
 that surly English eater of beef-steaks, and testy old colossus of lit- 
 erary erudition, and morose defender of church and state establish- 
 ments, and superstitious propugnator of monarchy ^and every thing 
 English, ought in all decency and justice to have been more consid- 
 erate and respectful. 
 
70 OL'K KVlLri AND (»LK DANGERS. 
 
 cause they have read these so much, that they need and ask 
 for more of the same, and even of higher character — if Lon- 
 don can afibrd them to us ! The doctor uas wonder-struck, 
 and quite improved in his huge urbanity and his estimate of 
 the American capabihties — especially if the Rambler and 
 Rasselas were favorites with their common readers, as they 
 were certainly with himself I 
 
 To some of the questions of Chalmers, about the stability 
 of American society and our republican form of government, 
 I answered as far as honestly I could in their general vindi- 
 cation. At the same time, I owned our incidental evils, our 
 dangers, and our fears — sectional jealousies; sordid ambi- 
 tion ; demagogism ; party spirit ; flattering the people for 
 their votes ; the silly and the shameful idolatry of militar)' 
 chieftainship — rather of military success and hero-worship, 
 so that no matter who he is in other respects, if he is a con- 
 spicuous general, sees actual service, and gets a victory, he 
 meets the coUaudation of the continent, and is alw<iys in act- 
 ual danger of being made, on that account mainly, if not 
 solely. President of the United States. There are also the 
 mischiefs of contempt for age and office ; boys and girls an- 
 ticipating maturity of life, and arrogating more than all its 
 honors in their upstart and impious vanity ; others leveling 
 downward ; a spirit of giddy restlessness in some places ; 
 slavery and its affinities ; popery and its corporation of false- 
 hoods ; residuary intemperance; Sabbath-breach ; infidelity ; 
 insubordination, in some few instances, even to the sacred- 
 ness of law ; the selfish love of liberty, or that against order 
 and the rights of others ; defective education ; papal immi- 
 gration and imported licentiousness ; false equality ; predom- 
 inating ignorance in particular localities ; national vanity ; 
 and, above all, national sins of every kind against God ; these 
 and such as these might, each or all of them, be commis- 
 sioned to work our punishment, and execute his wrath, even 
 in our national dismemberment and ultimate destruction. 
 
OUR UEFICIENCIEH. 71 
 
 In reference to our 'system of education, from primary 
 schools to the ultimate honors of Alma Mater and the Pro- 
 fessional Gymnasium, I made as favorable replies as in con- 
 science I could, to his searching, and yet bland and pertinent 
 interrogatories. Our system as peculiar, as properly and real- 
 ly American, I endeavored to expound and vindicate — from 
 the nature of the case ; from the extent as well as the recen- 
 cy of our country ; from our sparse and industrious popula- 
 tion ; from the wants and the necessities of our emigrating 
 fathers; from their noble history and puritan principles ; from 
 the late multitudes of Europe's poor and ignorant population 
 coming among us by uncounted thousands ; and lirom other 
 and incidental causes allied to these. As to our deficiencies, 
 I insisted that, as a boy of seven years old could not compete 
 so well at school with one thrice seven, so we ought to be 
 credited, too, in proportion to our comparative infancy, for the 
 really gigantic achievements and attainments we have made ; 
 that some of our acknowledged and characteristic qualities 
 as earnest and original thinkers, and as inventors, were not 
 deficiencies ; that some of their own specimens were less a 
 decHS than a dcdccus to their proud and aristocratic educa- 
 cation, so vaunted, at Oxford, at Cambridge, or even at their 
 Athens of the North ; that many of their University gradu- 
 ates were merely factitious scholars, who " eat their terms" at 
 college, and then, by the aid less of grammars than of cram- 
 mers, they prepare ad litcram for the examen of " the little 
 go," and also, in the same way, of " the great go," each of 
 them, or, at least, one here and there, now and then, liaud 
 rari, and as certain also of their own j)oets have said, 
 Proceeding soon a graduated dunce. 
 
 Now, if some of our graduates are stamped at the mint of 
 the University B.A. or even A.M. or possibly D.P. or M.D. 
 or LL.D. or, horresco refer ens, even D.D. rather immaturely, 
 one here and there, now and then, glorying in the degree sin- 
 cerely, and taking his Diploma by faith — not being able, ex- 
 actly or analytically, to translate its Latin mysteries — yet 
 
72 UHALMEKS AT LA;?T A UlSi^KNTEU. 
 
 such things occur not here alone I 7ioh nobiscum solum, but, 
 alas ! they are to be found in all Europe, especially where 
 royal prerogative interferes, for some favorites by onandamus, 
 and the oraculous degree-makers respond, in all their loyal- 
 ty, and somebody is emblazed by fiat of the king I* But, all 
 this apart, it is now our hope, as it was then our averment, 
 that the tendency of things among us, on the whole, counter- 
 working other and lamented tendencies, the stronger against 
 the weaker, is upward as well as onward ; elevation as well 
 as progress ; raising the standard of education, and scholar- 
 ship, and universal learning, ab ovo usque ad tnahim., of the 
 whole curriculum and the total entertainment. 
 
 On other topics I think it not necessary to dwell. In what 
 is here written, the reader is probably aware that I profess to 
 give the substance mainly, without the form or the order, his- 
 torical, of our conversation. But I have aimed in all to rep- 
 resent the truth, and especially to do justice to the high and 
 lucid character of Chalmers. In quite a number of instances, 
 I have used very nearly his language, his identical words, and 
 in all have shown fairly, I trust, his real sentiments. On 
 the subject of establishments, little could either of us suspect 
 what occurred about ten years afterward at the memorable 
 disruption, as they correctly term it — when Chalmers be- 
 came de facto et de jure a dissenter ; leading that grand and 
 general exodus from the Established Church of Scotland, 
 which is now so exemplary and so honorable in our "American 
 eyes, and in the eyes of all the world, as the Free Church 
 OF Scotland. They are now, we trust, yr^-e indeed; and 
 what is this but a confession of the compromises and the bond- 
 age of their former state, as well as that yet extant of the 
 residuary Church there ? These — are they " free ?" 
 
 It was in July, 1846, that, on my second visit to Scotland, 
 I again enjoyed the pleasure of several interviews with Chal- 
 mers. He was living at Morningside, a mile or two from 
 
 * I say nothing of bribes for honors, and Almae Matres growing 
 
 rich — BY DEGREES. 
 
POLITICS PARTISAN AND MONETARY SWAY. 73 
 
 Edinburgh, in a suburban retreat from the smoke, and the 
 din, and the dust of the metropolis. There, on one occasion, 
 I breakfasted with him ; on another, had a second full con- 
 ference with him alone, and by appointment, in his study, 
 and afterward a preaching service with him, of a singular 
 character, in Burk's Close, West Port, just south of the Castle 
 of Edinburgh. Of these three interviews, selecting some in- 
 teresting parts of each, I shall attempt, in the sequel, some 
 description — omitting others, as, on difl'erent accounts, less 
 proper to my pen or the public eye. 
 
 Great changes had occurred in the interval of thirteen 
 years. No longer was Chalmers the propugnator of estab- 
 lishments on either side of the T\veed. Whatever might be 
 his philosophic preference or his general theory, he was Css- 
 sar's man no more. Chalmers was, in fact, a dissenter. Caj- 
 sar's men and he were at odds. They called him a worship- 
 er in conventicles, and his party a set of renegades from civil 
 and ecclesiastical order. The Bishop of London would award 
 him no more favors or honors — like the composition of a 
 Bridgewater, with the convenient quiddmn honorariian of a 
 thousand sterling for his exemplary and his masterly trouble 
 and performance. He Avas now in combat for the rights and 
 the sites of new church edifices ; and the proud, and the loy- 
 al, and the inexorable Dukes of Buccleugh and Sutherland, 
 with all the stipendiary officials of the queen, and all the 
 religionists in the queendom, whose consciences are in the 
 keeping of royal favor and the public purse, were illumined, 
 and converted, and confirmed by bishops to be his enemies. 
 
 The exchequer of England is a powerful casuist. It is also 
 an oracle, a magnet, and an enlightener of the eyes. Some 
 men can plainly see their duty only in relation to it ; and if 
 wrong by coincidence, it requires more powerful argument 
 than Chalmers could wield to convince them of it. Hence 
 the mighty ferment, the collisions, and the animosities, and 
 the alienations accruing and rampant in Scotland. The 
 
 D 
 
74 PRESBYTERIANS IN EARNEST. 
 
 Scotch have neck of their own, and a vertebral column 
 which, when stiilened to a special perpendicular, will brook 
 no common deflection from its assumed, and commonly its 
 real rectitude. The spirit of Knox is not dead in the nation 
 — if we may so speak. Hence their partisan warfare is no 
 child's play. They scatter the rooks, by breaking up the 
 rookeries and tearing down their nesting-places. There are 
 no controvertists, especially in a matter where religion is con- 
 cerned, or its apostolical purity and polity, against prelacy 
 and the Stuarts, or their resultant branches, is imphcated ; 
 none so stern, so tenacious, so impregnable as the roused and 
 the resolute Presbyterians of Scotland. And well they may 
 be — mindful of all the bloody raids and infernal persecutions 
 which the treacherous Charleses and the persecuting Jameses 
 have enacted to persuade them, vi et armis, to forego the 
 truth oi the glorious gos2)el of the Messed God, and the ex- 
 cellent order that it inspires, and that maintains its purity 
 and its glory, and take that meretricious system to which the 
 Stuarts apostatized, and in which, with terrible consistency, 
 Caesar takes the precedence, and Christ is a mere appendage 
 to his usurpations, eclipsed and perverted at that, and prop- 
 erly Head no more of his own Church — if his, in propriety, 
 it may still be called and continue I No wonder they have 
 an ancestral and a patriotic, as well as a religious horror of 
 the prelatical system, of all Erastianism, and of whatever 
 they conceive inimical to the true interests of Scotland and 
 the Church of God. Hence the severity of their present par- 
 tisanship. 
 
 It w^as like the civil war of the roses, the red and the 
 white in bloody contest, only that the arena was more con- 
 tracted ; words were used, and not bullets, and the contest was 
 ecclesiastical, or rather ecclesiastico-political alone. Many of 
 his friends and brethren of the Free Church were worshiping 
 in the open air, sometimes where two or more ways met, ex- 
 posed to all the stormy perils of the boreal elements, because 
 
DISRI'PTION in^KE AND THERE. 75 
 
 their principles had wrought their secernment from their for- 
 mer places of worship, and because the great lords of the soil 
 in their vicinities denied them a site on which to build a 
 house for the glory of their God, and the celebration of his 
 proper, and his priiiiitive, and his purer worship, according 
 to their creed, and their conscience, and their Bible. 
 
 Besides, Presbyterianism was shaken in the other hemi- 
 sphere — its fabric, not its principles ; and like their national 
 ecclesiastical device, the burning bush, in flcames and yet un- 
 scathed, because the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob 
 is there, its motto was every where vindicated — Nec Con- 
 SUMEBATUR ;* a piece of eternal asbestos which fire can illus- 
 trate, but not destroy. There had been a disruption, also, in 
 America, a few years older than theirs ; and this fact occa- 
 sioned some mutual interest and sympathy, as well as sug- 
 gested several topics of inquiry and explanation. 
 
 It was ph.in to myself that the mind of Chalmers, as well 
 as other minds in league with him, were in process of under- 
 going a great change in reference to the question of " the 
 Christian expediency" of enthroning Ctesar in the kingdom of 
 heaven. God was teaching them a lesson, which their great 
 teachers were slow to learn, and slower to propagate, about 
 the sole HEADSHIP of Jesus Christ in his own Church ; 
 and that his kingdom is not of this tcorld, in a sense and to 
 a degree which their previous wisdom had not appreciated. 
 God will do more, in this way, there and in our own country. 
 
 It was hard for the renowned advocates and the time-hon- 
 ored champions of establishment all at once to revolutionize 
 their sentiments, and their preaching, and their publishing, 
 on that great theme ; with friends and enemies by thousands, 
 alike the spectators of the movement, and alike or variously 
 interested in its similar or its various issues. They had to 
 change their tactics, their allies, and the very nomenclature 
 of their technical erudition. It was intrusion or non-intru- 
 * The motto of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. 
 
76 AXTiaUITY MORE ANCIEN'T. 
 
 sion ; Christ or Caesar ; the only true and worthy headship of 
 the Church ; the apostolic way ; a spiritual legitimacy or a 
 corrupt Erastianism ; a free church or a servile one ; the prim- 
 itive precedents and the traditions of the feudal ages ; texts 
 of Scripture and acts of Parliament ; a good conscience and a 
 fat stipend ; Christian principle and temporizing policy. It 
 was a time of new questions, new issues, and new controver- 
 sies, in Scotland. It was this — or its opposite, in stiff con- 
 flict. It was, generically, a new phase of papacy or protest- 
 antism. It was a learned going back to the sacred antiquity 
 of the Christian fathers, with all the lore and the ore of their 
 precious wisdom — or a going fai'ther back, to a more learned, 
 and a more sacred, and a more ancient antiquity, of the 
 Christian, grandfathers, the Apostles themselves ; as the 
 inspired and the plenipotentiary oracles of Christ, with their 
 documents of divine wisdom ; standing on the platforms that 
 inspired, and supported, and constituted all the sound, and 
 the true, and the valuable, of "the Christian fathers ;" and 
 that would have made them more and better, if those Chris- 
 tian fathers, in their own patristic folly and manifold imper- 
 fections, had not so often deserted those divine platforms — the 
 only basis of wisdom and of safety to the standing and the 
 walking of any uninspired adventurer of any other age sub- 
 sequent in this world, ancient or modern, peasant or philos- 
 opher. Christian or theologian, Turk or Jew ; and in any age 
 of the world, virtually just the same thing I God's true sheep 
 drink of the rain of heaven from the pure springs that Him- 
 self has opened for them in the side of the Rock of Ages ; 
 while churchism, in all its manifold forms of mutual exclu- 
 siveness and fantastic dotage, enacts the dirty idolatry of 
 drinking only at the turbid streams — the farther removed 
 from the proper fountain, the better ; since then their illusion 
 of antiquity has a more imposing range, and a vaster retro- 
 spect, gloriously umbrageous, and canopied by the venerable 
 and the filthy smoke of the paganizing, the illiterate, and the 
 
ERASTIAN PHILOSOPHY. 77 
 
 dark ages, in the rife apostasy ; so that error mainly was held 
 
 SEMPER, ET UIJIQUE, ET AB OMNIBUS ; with the UukuOWU CODI- 
 CES iNSPiRATi of the Bible under their feet. But we say, 
 JuvAT INTEGROS ACCEDERE PONTES, religiously and with all 
 our hearts : 
 
 'Tis better, and delightful too, to go 
 
 To the spring-head, where living waters flow ; 
 
 While pagans in the distant plain drink the vile wash below. 
 
 Indeed, the word Erastianism was revived and familiar, 
 and often in use, especially by the Free Church, both minis- 
 ters and people. When the Reformation was introduced into 
 England, and all the clergy were coerced to adopt it, by the 
 last and the proudest and the vilest of their Henries, the first 
 layman that ever was pioclaimed the Head of the Church 
 there, many of them acquiesced in what they did not prefer, 
 and vindicated their conformity on principles of the Erastian 
 philosophy, though then under another name, which they pro- 
 fessed to believe and adopt, and of which, the three cardinal 
 and related points were afterward embodied and shown to be 
 the following : 
 
 (1) The Church has the instructive and the suasory power 
 aloiie, without all right of government and discipline. 
 
 (2) All right of government is in the magistracy alone, 
 extending to the Church as well as the State. 
 
 (3) It is the will of God, and the dutj' of all subjects, that 
 they submit to the magistracy, and obey their authority and 
 their ordinances. 
 
 It is hard to tell whether this system of the German phy- 
 sician* be more impious or absurd. Let it suffice, with the 
 Christian philosopher, to observe that it is utterly unscrip- 
 tural, and that the Free Church acted nobly and well in re- 
 cording their protest so manfully and so decisively against it. 
 The keys of the Kingdom were never given to Ctesar, more 
 than to the Pope, the Sultan, or the Great Mogul ; or than 
 * De Excommunicatione Ecclesiastica. Erastus died 1583. 
 
78 GREATNESS TURNS SLOWLY. 
 
 plenary wisdom was given to that pragmatical theological 
 adventurer and ecclesiastical charlatan, Erastus. 
 
 Now, in turning from establishment to dissent, in fact, in 
 painful and perilous reality, it was breaking their fall, or, 
 rather, conveniently and well vindicating their rise, to talk 
 of Erastianism, which, as an idea and as a technical term, 
 had become, for nearly three centuries, about obsolete in the 
 British world ; and which they could condenm in itself, and 
 charge on their opponents, both with manifest justice, and 
 also with less show of inconsistency — though some of us be- 
 lieve that previously they were, virtually, all Erastians to- 
 gether ! A steamer of magnificent dimensions, and of keel 
 one sixteenth of a mile in length, as now often seen afloat 
 on the surface of some American river, sails gallantly, and in 
 a style of beauty and pleasure, provoking almost the envy of 
 spectators. But she can not turn as shortly and as soon as 
 a smaller one ! She consults her own magnificence by ne- 
 cessity, in making a larger gyration in the water, sailing in 
 curvilinears less abrupt, and more as if keeping the tangent 
 of rectitude in her extensive course ; but if it is requisite that 
 she turn at all, if her safety and her usefulness are the con- 
 secutive result, who shall object to the fact, because its circle 
 is wider, and the seamanship more artistic and complicated, 
 and the time required longer, when they see her nobler nav- 
 igation afterward in the right direction ? 
 
 Fuit haec sapientia quondam 
 Publica privatis seccrnere, sacra profanis. — Hor. 
 It once was wisdom duly to restrain 
 Private from public, sacred from profane ; 
 And what was beauty once may be again. 
 I own the moral ; nor with thought elate, 
 Civil or rude, its law would violate. 
 
 Perhaps it may not be out of place here to remark, in few 
 words of episode, on the domestic relations of Chalmers and 
 his family — surely with no view of revealing secrets or of 
 
DOMESTIC SANCTITIES. 70 
 
 indelicate intrusion. Nor will I venture here as far as 1 
 could, though it is little that I know, compared with the 
 knowledge of others, in respect to the moral, and the mental, 
 and the social scenery of Chalmers at home. I do this with 
 the less hesitancy, however, as I have mainly no memories 
 that are not agreeable, and no themes that may not reflect 
 honor on the loving and the lovely inmates of his house. He 
 had six daughters, never a son ; and his bearing in his fam- 
 ily seemed delightfully to exemplify the virtues of the hus- 
 band and the father. Afi'ection and famihar intercourse, 
 with confidence and filial reverence, seemed to pervade the 
 mansion. Greatness was softened and adorned by more ob- 
 vious goodness. His breakfasts were comparatively public ; 
 one could hardly be a guest there without meeting several 
 other strangers. Ordinarily, I think, after ten or twenty min- 
 utes of friendly greeting' and general converse, the Bible was 
 placed on the breakfast-table near his plate, the guests were 
 seated around it, he read a select passage, with sometimes a 
 remark or explanation : 
 
 Then, kneeling down to heaven's eternal King, 
 
 The saint, the father, and the husband prays ; 
 Hope " springs exulting on triumphant wing," 
 
 That thus they all shall meet in future days ; 
 
 There ever bask in uncreated rays, 
 No more to sigh or shed the bitter tear ; 
 
 Together hymning their [Redeemer's] praise, 
 In such society, yet still more dear, 
 While circhng time moves round in an eternal sphere. 
 
 Compared with this how poor religion's pride. 
 
 In aR the pomp of method and of art ; 
 When men display to congregations wide 
 
 Devotion's every grace — except the heart. 
 
 The Power incensed, the pageant will desert, 
 The pompous strain, the sacerdotal stole ; 
 
 But haply, in some cottage far apart. 
 May hear, well pleas'd, the language of the soul, 
 And in his Book of Life the inmates poor enroll 
 
80 HIS TENDERNESS AND COURTESY. 
 
 On one occasion, at his request, I led the devotions of the 
 family. On another, in 1846, myself and daughter were 
 there, with several others, and among these the venerable 
 Dr. Beecher and his lady, of Cincinnati. I thought, of 
 course, that he would ask the doctor to officiate ; hut he did 
 not. In his prayer at that time, the last I ever heard him 
 offer, he seemed really enlarged and devout in an eminent 
 degree. Such simplicity and reverence, such humility and 
 adoration, such earnestness and confidence, such comprehen- 
 sion and friendly sympathy — and Chalmers in prayer ; so ab- 
 sorbed and so solemn, so appropriate and so believing, so in- 
 fantile and so importunate, it was really good to be there! 
 H.e ver)' kindly and copiously referred to his present Ameri- 
 can friends ; prayed for America ; and expatiated over the 
 world and its wants, especially over those of the Church and 
 the ministry ; commending them to the eternal mercy of his 
 God, and pleading for their due redress, only for the sake of 
 Christ, his Lord and his Redeemer. 
 
 On a subsequent occasion, he said to me, alone, in a tender 
 and impressive manner, I fear I have erred this morning, 
 and regret that I omitted to ask Dr. Beecher to engage in 
 prayer with us. He is indeed a venerable person, and I have 
 a very great respect for him. His career of usefulness has 
 been large, and his reputation has traveled before him into 
 Scotland. 
 
 1 . Yes ; and in reference to the great Temperance Refor- 
 mation, its progress owes more, probably, to his original agen- 
 cy, than to that of any man living ; under God, he is prop- 
 erly the father of it. His " six sermons" gave the original 
 projectile force, while his whole influence and his eminent 
 example engaged others in the cause. Next to him, perhaps, 
 were the Rev. Dr. Humphrey, President of Amherst College, 
 and the Rev. Dr. Justin Edwards, of Andover. These were 
 the first three of David's men for the work, and an honored 
 uiumviratc in the thrice useful achievement. 
 
MRS. CHALMERS AND HER PLAN. 81 
 
 2. Think you I could have hurt his feelings in not asking 
 him ? 
 
 1. Certainly, dear sir, not at all. Whatever your reasons 
 might have been, I know too well the magnanimity of your 
 venerable guest to suppose him capable of impeaching them. 
 May I ask what they were, doctor? if the question is proper I 
 
 2. Indeed, I scarce know myself In some degree, possi- 
 bly, it arose from want of thought. Often, at breakfast, we 
 have strangers and foreigners of the clergy, and when I ask 
 them to pray vnih. us, they excuse themselves, and this in- 
 duces an awkward and unpleasant embarrassment for a mo- 
 ment. Hence I have become a little sensitive, or, to pre- 
 vent the infelicity, I proceed in the action. But if you at 
 all think, in this, that I could have injured the feelings of our 
 honored friend, I will make a suitable explanation, or you 
 may do so on my behalf, and I will heartily thank you for it, 
 as it would greatly grieve me to wound his feelings, even by 
 the shadow of indifference or neglect. 
 
 I assured him that I would, if I could conceive there was 
 any occasion for it ; and I record the circumstance as evinc- 
 ing the delicacy and brotherly kindness of Chalmers, since, 
 if Dr. Beecher ever sees this, it will be as novel to him as to 
 any other reader. As an item of characteristic moral beau- 
 ty and refinement, as well as amiable humbleness and heav- 
 enliness of mind, it is quite worthy of notation and imitation. 
 
 When, in 1833, I was newer as his guest, it was my for- 
 mal plan and stern purpose to be a listener, rather than a 
 speaker, in his presence. Mrs. Chalmers perceived this, and 
 remarked to me apart, that she hoped, if I desired to please 
 the doctor and his family, I would more fuUy sustain my part 
 in the conversation. Besides, she added, it will be a real 
 assistance to him. He has always to entertain all these vis- 
 itors ; and sometimes it is quite a burden to him, especially 
 as his cares, and thoughts, and duties are commonly forced 
 to march in another direction ; so you must help him ; and 
 D 2 
 
82 THE DIACONATE WHAT. 
 
 in this way you will better please the doctor, I can assure 
 you. 
 
 Subsequently, Dr. Chalmers said to me, alone, almost the 
 same thinj^s ; assuring me that, often in appearing at break- 
 fast, amid several entire strangers, he felt the difficulty of 
 sustaining the conversation and furnishing due entertainment 
 to the circle, as specially unfitted to figure in the scenes be- 
 fore him, in all their exaction and their diversity. This I re- 
 cord as evincing the simplicity and the unfeigned modesty of 
 his character. If, said he, you will help me entertain them, 
 I shall be much your debtor ; you will have paid your wa^ 
 by your services. 
 
 On my next visit, I found among the distinguished of his 
 guests a reverend rector from England, and a young candi- 
 date with him, who had just been admitted to the order of 
 deacon — such an order, I must say, as God never authorized, 
 and as the priftiitive seven, with Stephen, the protomartyr, 
 at their head, were not. They took little notice of me, 
 though I took quite a quantity of them. 
 
 Instead of caUing their diaconate an order, I would call it 
 a mere porch or a serviceable stepping-stone to orders. No 
 one ever takes it, as a general thing, for its own sake, or with 
 the view of remaining in it ; or for any other purpose than 
 to rise, in their only way of the pyramid, to some loftier em- 
 inence in office. We Presbyterians reject the whole figure ; 
 believing in the sole, supreme headship of Christ ; and the 
 true power of his ministers as merely declarative and minis- 
 terial ; and, of course, in their official parity and equality in 
 his glorious kingdom. Hence our figure is quadrangular, 
 rather is it a proper cube ; with the motto — The length, and 
 the breadth, and the height of it are equal ; like the dimen- 
 sions of the celestial city, the grand metropolis of Israel, the 
 Jerusalem of God, Rev. 21 : 16. To those who object the 
 antiquity of the office, we answer, by referring them to the 
 higher antiquity of their institution, Acts 6 : 1-6, showing 
 
A TEXT WHAT IT MEANS. 83 
 
 the reason of it, the design of it, and the nature of it — as a 
 vastly difierent thing from modern assumptions concerning it. 
 
 At that time the clergy of the Church of England were 
 very aflectionate to Chalmers, as he and they were all in 
 favor of the establishments of the British Caesar in the three 
 kingdoms ; yet they were not particularly in favor of Presby- 
 terians, especially from America. It seemed as if the con- 
 versation lagged, and Chalmers showed that it was more an 
 effort than a pleasure to maintain it. He looked to me — 
 but I almost instinctively forbore, as doubting that I should 
 be acceptable, especially to the rector, whose bearing seemed 
 rather lordly, with more of hauteur and pontiff" arrogance 
 than the guest of such a host ought to have shown. The 
 deacon was, like good children, to " be seen, and not heard." 
 The rector — 
 
 3. I desire to get your opinion. Dr. Chalmers, on the mean- 
 ing of a text of Scripture that seems obscure and difficult ; 
 and, on the whole, I can hardly understand it. It occurs in 
 1 Cor. 2 : 14. 
 
 He recited it, and Chalmers appeared actually confused, 
 as if proved with too hard a question. He replied, 
 
 2. You must excuse me from the task. I am not good, 1 
 think, at exposition, especially at extemporaneous effort of the 
 sort. But my friend from America is here, and to him I 
 shall take leave to refer you for the exegesis of that passage. 
 
 The rector looked at me, and I looked at him ; the doctor 
 insisted that I should reply and give the exposition. 
 
 1. I must respectfully decline, doctor. 
 
 2. But you have no good reason, I am thinking ; and we 
 shall all join suit and expect your compliance. Let us hear 
 from America. 
 
 1. It was not to me, good sir, that the appeal was put, and 
 I have no regular call to it. I know, indeed, what I think 
 it means ; but when the theological chair of Edinburgh is 
 invoked as an oracle, I hold it proper to hold my tongue ; I 
 
84 EXPOSITION IN THE PULPIT. 
 
 also want to hear what you think of it. It is a very import- 
 ant passage ; and the response will be, I trust, worthy of 
 our best commemoration. 
 
 The rector looked — paused — and at length acquiesced in 
 the reference of Chalmers ; especially as he altogether de- 
 clined, and excused himself, as what he could not properly 
 attempt. 
 
 In this predicament I thought it wiser also to acquiesce, 
 especially as I remembered the original, and knew what I 
 thought the meaning to be ; and as I could forbear no lon- 
 ger, without seeming obstinate, or foolishly fond of the posi- 
 tion of neutrality, I proceeded — to the end; when Chal- 
 mers remarked : I entirely concur in that view ; you have 
 shown, I think, the plain, or the demonstrable sense of the 
 passage. The rector listened, as if he thought it questionable 
 whether or not I " belonged to the succession," even if Chal- 
 mers did ; which might be doubted, as he endorsed me on 
 the occasion. 
 
 "VYc were soon after alone, when the following conversa- 
 tion, or something much like it, ensued. 
 
 2. Do you practice that good business of exposition in the 
 pulpit — is it common in America ? I have some reasons for 
 the question. 
 
 1 . You ask, Do all interpret ? No, indeed I Whatever 
 be the reason, it is done there — not half enough of it ; and 
 not that, half well enough. Still, we are in progress, im- 
 proving. Our theological seminaries are inducing the her- 
 meneutic science, and the exegetic method, and the proper 
 sacred homiletics ; with good promise of advancement in 
 Scriptural theology, and in the increasing light and power of 
 popular instruction. May I ask, How is it here ? Exposi- 
 tion is not your forte in Scotland, is it ? From some reports 
 and some specimens I should so infer. 
 
 2. No, indeed. Apart from Dr. Campbell and Dr. 
 M' Knight, we have had very few eminent scholars and ex- 
 
ITS GREAT USE AND POWER. 86 
 
 pounders in that department. In fact, to do it well is very 
 difficult, especially to a popular audience ; and if not done 
 well, it were better left off, like contention., before it is med- 
 dled loith. For one, I can not master it ; it rather masters 
 me ; and yet I think well of doing it, if I could do it just as 
 I ought. It is a great gift, which we may well covet. 
 
 1. Yes, it is an endowment and an attainment both ; and 
 so very valuable and edifying to the elect of God, that, in 
 general, I would say to every preacher — stir up the gift of 
 God that is iii thee — rightly dividing the ivord of truth — 
 if any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God — 
 BY MANIFESTATION OF THE TRUTH Commending ourselves to 
 every man's conscience in the sight of God — preach the 
 word. 
 
 2. 1 quite agree with you ; but I have done too little of 
 it, in my own ministrations, thus far, all the way. 
 
 1. You will write, I hope, some commentary yet, and give 
 it to the public. You could do it, I am sure, though hitherto 
 it may be less in your li?ie of things. It would be well re- 
 ceived every where. 
 
 Nor, in the pulpit, compared with rich and able exposi- 
 tion, is there any public exercise more professional or appro- 
 priate. Besides, my dear sir, as you are the Elijah of Scot- 
 land, with several of the Elisha class to assist you, as a train- 
 er of the sons of the prophets for the tribes of Israel, may it 
 not properly be said to you that this is the chief thing these 
 cadets are to learn ? Is the Bible his letter of instructions 
 from the court of heaven, and yet is not the embassador of 
 Christ, as the august official representative of that court, to 
 be furnished and able to command the masteiy of its con- 
 tents, for all his high negotiations on God's behalf, in the con- 
 ciliation of immortal mind and the pacification to God of the 
 impious rebels that contemn his throne ? Heresies, errors, 
 and mistakes are ever rife in Christendom, to say nothing of 
 the diabolical darkness of heathendom ; and they are to be 
 
86 INTERPRETATION THE THING. 
 
 met and refuted, in all their ever-varying costumes and forms, 
 or, better, with a heaven-illuminated atmosphere, prevented, 
 by the incomparable and the original batteries of heaven, 
 opened and firing on them. Nothing but the word of God, 
 AS SUCH, is the sword of Uue Spirit, the grand authentic in- 
 strument of the world's rectification and return to God ; and 
 his favor may we expect, only as we legitimately seek it, 
 only as we faithfully subserve his own influence to his own 
 glory forever. But the word of God itself is to be interpret- 
 ed, its true sense evolved, vindicated, maintained, and ap- 
 plied. And what rich and learned mastei-y does this imply ! 
 Men may write essays, and cap them with a text ; they may 
 take a theological thesis, and be most specious and sanctilo- 
 quent in its expansion and its management : still, it is man, 
 rather than God, talking to the hearers ; it befits less the 
 Churches than the schools ; it is redolent more of logic, rhet- 
 oric, and classic formula, after the traditions of nien, than 
 of Christ, in the way of the Spirit, and with the sanctions of 
 the living God. This is surely the grand desideratum of the 
 age — MASTERLY INTERPRETATION. No man ou earth is in- 
 spired, or ever will be again. Inspiration is ever living, plen- 
 ary, and apt for all sacred uses of duty and salvation, by the 
 very plan of God, in the Holy Scriptures. Now we want a 
 ministry that can master the sense of scripture and commu- 
 nicate it to the people. This is God's high ordinance, ever 
 since the time of building the second Temple, Neh. 8 : 4-12. 
 Oh I for its revival in all the Churches I God will do this, 
 as surely as he will accomplish Dan. 7 : 27, and bring his 
 own reign in the millennium. 
 
 This conversation occurred on my first visit — I recur to 
 my second, July, 1846. 
 
 After a pleasant colloquial breakfast at Morningside, we 
 proposed returning to the city, either in pedestrian plight, or, 
 at any rate, taking the bus, after some grateful excursion on 
 
MORNING WALK WITH CHALMERS. 87 
 
 foot — " bus" being, in all the British world, the regular ab- 
 breviation for omnibus; lor "cab," the common word in 
 Edinburgh seems to be " minibus ;" a carry-all is called " a 
 van." This last word I shall use presently, and with em- 
 phatic memory. 
 
 Dr. Chalmers insisted on walking with our party some 
 distance ; and we submitted most cordially. That walk, 
 and the talk that beguiled its progress, were very delightful 
 and worthy of our memoiy. My daughter had the honor of 
 his arm, and the doctor was full of innocent glee and witty 
 sayings, as he led us circuitously about, explained the scen- 
 ery, the localities of nature and of art, expansive around us, 
 as we traveled, traversed the circumference of prospect, and 
 listened to his kind observations, full of sparkling good hu- 
 mor and genial coruscations of wit. 
 
 1. There seems, doctor, a neat new edifice yonder, built 
 by your free allies, I think. Where is the old hive whence 
 the swarm emigrated ? It is one of your new and free edi- 
 fices, I think. 
 
 2. There it is — do you see ? Well, truly, when the residu- 
 aries were all alone, with themselves and their fealty, they 
 were sadly run for a preacher to a place, through all Scot- 
 land. They called forth every clerk unknown to fame and 
 miwonted to the duties of the kirk, and metamorphosed him 
 into a first-rate preacher, as if by a sort of queen's magic 
 that they have, and they intruded him, " by authority," into 
 all the vacant stalls of their afflicted jurisdiction. So to that 
 old one they ordered a man whom the people thought to be 
 no man at all ; and with much of the spirit of John Knox, 
 or, rather, I hope, of his master in them, they one and all, to 
 the precentor and the beadle of the parish, resolved to give 
 a wide berth to the Presbytery's intruder, whom they would 
 not honor or receive as their spiritual teacher — no, not for 
 an hour. So they performed a total exodus on the occasion, 
 and left him plenty of naked walls, and vacant pews, and 
 
88 THE presbytery's intruder. 
 
 empty benches for the probation of his zeal and the recrea 
 tion of his voice, that day. Not one of them remained — their 
 house was left to tliem quite desolate, I assure you. The 
 people were intelligent, and they were unanimous, too — now 
 they occupy that new edifice, happy and prosperous there. 
 But — such revolutions of the sort ! It is quite a transform- 
 ation, social and ecclesiastical, in the whole country of the 
 North. 
 
 1 . Yes ; you are Americanizing here very fast ! Success 
 to the process, doctor. You see and feel now some of the 
 productive virtues of the voluntary principle, the voluntaiy 
 system, in contrast with the loving patronage of your quon- 
 dam host, Cajsar — we welcome and honor you as all dissent- 
 ers de facto. 
 
 2. But — the intruder ; I had almost forgot the faithful 
 paragon of wit, and strategy, and courage that he showed 
 himself. Getting some wind of the movement and the con- 
 sequent vacancy that was expecting his intrusion, he obtain- 
 ed a capacious old van, and one horse to draw it, and put 
 aboard of it as many of his own family and friends as it 
 could contain, and so he traveled to the empty edifice with 
 difficulty — for the poor quadruped was sorely worked and 
 pestered with his burden. The vis ineiticB of matter was 
 laboriously against him, as he impelled it ; and the wheels 
 got no blessing from the people as they rolled on their axles 
 past their doors ; and the patient beast groaned as he moved, 
 fatigued and dispirited, with so great a load of Erastianism, 
 as he never encountered before, in all his laborious and pro- 
 pulsive experience ; tiU at length he reached the place — after 
 a long, and a rough, and a heavy operation, that morning. 
 Well, now, leaving the horse for the man — he took possession 
 with his company, and not another person was there. But 
 he — brave soldier I preached courageously, as he was bid. 
 The whole congregation listened to him, as became them, all 
 mightily convinced, if not converted ; his eloquence was quite 
 
FACETIOUS, NOT COARSE OR CROSS. 89 
 
 extraordinary — and his oratory, nei'vous and impassioned to 
 a wonder; he outdid himself"; he was plainly the greatest 
 man in the house, if not in the country ; and lor the first time 
 in his life he gave universal satisfaction to his hearers — he 
 actually carried, for once, his whole audience along with him I 
 And that was preaching, as the echoes of emptiness resound- 
 ed to the voice of the preacher, ore rotiindo, declaiming to 
 them, where a close-packed multitude of Christian people, 
 and their children witli them, used to convene, and listen 
 to his word, as the beloved of the Lord. 
 
 In all this, however, I must aver, there was no malignity. 
 It is difficult to relate it, without some resulting injury. Chal- 
 mers was in the happy and unbent mood of kindness — in the 
 vein of cheerful confidence, as recreating with his friends. 
 His words and thoughts, prompted by the moving scenery 
 around him, flowed at once extemporaneous and clever, with 
 no apprehension of 
 
 A chief's amang you taking notes. 
 And, faith, he'lf prent it. 
 
 It was, indeed, an amiableness of display, the more worthy as 
 utterly inartificial and spontaneous. He seemed not to know 
 that he was great, or celebrated, or admired by those around 
 him, and by all Christendom. It was an elegant exemplifi- 
 cation of the idea of Horace, with nothing low, or improper, 
 or vinkind in it — Ditlce est in loco desipere. 
 
 'Tis pleasure, and no damage to the wise, 
 Sometimes to leave the problem and the prize, 
 Body and mind, in chase of butterflies. 
 
 And the same great poet expresses a similar sentiment in 
 another place — if I recollect it right. 
 
 Noil semper arcum tcndit Apollo: 
 The god of eloquence, and all the arts, 
 Not always bends his bow or throws his darts. 
 
90 NOCTURNAL WALK FROM MORNINGSIDE. 
 
 Elastic more, his bow unstrung is found, 
 His mind at rest becomes the more profound. 
 All nature sleeps more vigorous to awake, 
 Nor wisdom shines less brilliant for its sake. 
 
 It was now that the doctor made another private assigna- 
 tion with me, as he had more questions to put in relation to 
 things in America. At the designated time, " punctual as 
 lovers to the moment sworn," I came alone to Morningside 
 in the early evening. It was clear and beautiful. The sum- 
 mer solstice was in its wane ; yet both the air was balmy, 
 and the solar light, as if reluctant to part with the rich scen- 
 ery that its presence there evokes and decorates in the warm 
 season, kept, in that high latitude, the twilight deceitfully 
 prolonged. At eleven o'clock, or near twelve, when I walked 
 back to Edinburgh, enjoying the solitude and the sceneiy, it 
 was lucent and pleasant — as if the firmament and the at- 
 mosphere had conspired to beguile me, with the conscious- 
 ness that it was only half an hour after sundown. It was 
 the regular nocturnal aurora borealis of Scotland. The 
 sun seemed only to dip for an hour beneath the northern pole, 
 while his attendant radiations and refractions left the very 
 night with .pledges of returning day, and the rich crepuscular 
 glories of the sky seemed to contradict the dial-plate of our 
 watches, in answering the question, What is the hour ? The 
 north-star, that bright and faithful friend of many a lonely 
 traveler, shone mild, and clear, and beautiful, and almost vert- 
 ical — so high, it seemed not the same I had greeted and 
 loved from my youth, in America, full fifteen degrees lower 
 there ; here more central and thronal, in the illuminated 
 dome of the nocturnal heavens. 
 
 We were soon together in his study, and his questions and 
 my answers were in animated progress. Our topics were the 
 divines of America, living and dead ; the state of religion and 
 education there ; and especially the late rupture, nine years 
 before, in the Presbyterian Church ; not without some com- 
 
DIVINES OF AMERICA. 91 
 
 parisons between their disruption, then of three years' con- 
 tinuance, and ours ; the analogies and the difierences, and 
 their common influences on the general cause of apostolical 
 religion throughout the world. As Presbyterians in common, 
 sincerely we loved our doctrine and our polity ; as generical- 
 ly identified with genuine Christianity, and as contradistin- 
 guished from all the forms of the paganizing virus of church- 
 ism — a proud, usurping monopoly, and like the hostile mis- 
 anthropy of the autocratic Arabs, in any or in all countries. 
 But I must here make selections, inserting some and omit- 
 ting other things, with due discretion and regard to utility. 
 
 In reference to our great theologians, he made many quite 
 hearty inquiries — especially Griffin* and Stuart among the 
 living, D wight and Edwards among the dead. He praised 
 these all for appropriate excellences ; but of Edwards he 
 loved to speak as our Great Man of the Church. The 
 strength and sagacity of his mind, and his great power as a 
 patient and elaborate reasoner, though dry and abstract in 
 the main, received his recognition and his commendation. 
 
 2. I read him with equal admiration and fatigue. Some- 
 times I feel strait-laced in his philosophy, convinced and full 
 of it, and yet pinioned and embarrassed by it in the pulpit. 
 I can not preach with it, and I can not preach it ; so I had 
 rather forget all his clear and deep metaphysics, read my Bi- 
 ble, be full of what it says, and then preach with all the full- 
 ness and the freedom it inspires. The Bible is full of free- 
 dom and glory. 
 
 1 . Probably I know by experience exactly what you mean ! 
 
 * I here perpetrate, confessedly, an innocent anachronism, by in- 
 serting several things that occurred in 1833 as if they happened in 
 1846. Tltis is now convenient, and no evil is involved in it. Dr. 
 Griffin, however, was not aUve in 1846, having died eight or nine 
 years before. His gigantic thought and teeming eloquence received 
 the testimony of Chalmers. He said to me, quite energetically, " And 
 who ez that Graffun 1 I should like to hare aboot em." 
 
92 PRESIDENT EDWARDS. 
 
 2. Yes, it is so — even if the cause is in our own want of 
 comprehension, or our puerility or insipidity in contact with 
 liis great mind. You know how our school oi Humean in- 
 fidels once claimed him ? 
 
 1 . I do ; but it was like their impiety and their impudence 
 to do it. 
 
 2. It was ; still, they were very specious. His doctrine of 
 moral necessity, especially, in his great Essay on the Will, 
 seemed almost to allow their premises. They construed him 
 as virtually with them, in those philosophical views, in which 
 they seem to superinduce a plausible fatalism, and eflectually 
 to preclude the accountable free-agency of men. Hence they 
 lauded his great talents, and appropriated his eminence, as if 
 it was a support and a sanction to their boasted philosophy. 
 
 1. Ay, to their purblind infidelity. I wonder if one of 
 them ever read his E.ssay through, ever tried to comprehend 
 the scope of it, its sense and plan, and the real drift of his 
 argumentation ? I doubt if they ever did such a thing ! 
 
 2. Are you, then, quite with it and for it ? 
 
 1. Pretty nearly. I think it has faults, infelicities, and 
 weaknesses, and also that no mere scholasticism can well 
 comprehend its author. One must see his great object, his 
 subservient method, and not make him a)i offender for a 
 word, nor criticise too literally or too sternly his technicali- 
 ties or his terminology. It is a polemico-theological perform- 
 ance, and refers to the great Arminian controversy — to what 
 he conceived the grand point of the collisions at the Synod 
 of Dort, and to its resulting consequences in the Protestant 
 theology of the world. 
 
 2. And his chosen type of controversy was highly meta- 
 physical and psychological. He intends by the analysis of 
 mind, and the philosophy of its moral acts, to demonstrate 
 the truth of generic Calvinism. 
 
 1. I think so. Arminians are very fond of asserting that 
 man is a free agent — a truism that no one disputes. Y'^et in 
 
THE CLIQUE AND FOLLY OF HUME. 03 
 
 what his freedom consists, and whether it is consistent with 
 the purposes and the providences ol" God, or how it can be, 
 they are not the men to tell. Hence they often supersede 
 those purposes, to keep their favorite dogma, in their own 
 sense of it ; just as Antinomians sometimes deny the freedom 
 of the will, or rather of human agents, that they may keep 
 their own view and vision instar omnhivi of the decrees. 
 Now Edwards believed the twcr together as perfectly true, 
 each of them, and as perfectly harmonious, both of them. 
 He was no hobby-rider or mule-driver, nor was he a man of 
 only one idea. 
 
 2. Yes ; and he is surely not far from right in the main. 
 
 1. He truly is ; and your great Dugald Stuart, I hear, has 
 allowed as much, nay, has said more ; namely, that it has 
 never been answered, and probably never will be answered 
 — that is, refuted. If so, remember, it was an American 
 that did it. For one, I own my great obligations to him ; 
 for I early saw his meaning, and liked it, not repudiating so 
 grand a master-piece because minute criticism, with flies' 
 eyes, can see some few blemishes or incongruities possibly, in 
 so imperial and magnificent a pile of metaphysico-theological 
 reasoning. 
 
 2. I think the grand objection among vts is his views of 
 moral necessity, as repulsive and fatahzing — the very reason 
 of Hume and his clique seeming to like and claim him, say- 
 ing, the great American metaphysician was with them. 
 
 1. When a friend wrote, and told him of that appropria- 
 tion, you remember, surely, his noble reply. They could not 
 claim him afterward. By-the-way, I wonder at the inapt- 
 ness of some great and good men, even in their scientific 
 statements, to understand him. They stumble and object so 
 much at the idea of moral necessity I It consists plainly with 
 freedom ; we are perfectly voluntary in it ; it is, imder God, 
 all of our own making. Look at God himself — He can not 
 lie — it is IMPOSSIBLE, we are told. Well, does this remove 
 
94 MORAL NECESSITY AND FREEDOM. 
 
 or impair his freedom? Preposterous! The quintessence of 
 nonsense ! No other beuig is so perfectly free, or so morally 
 necessitated to do right, and act with such infinite and ab- 
 solute wisdom in all things. 
 
 Henry Home, Lord Kaimes, in his Essays, was much at 
 one with Hume ; and Edwards, pronouncing their views in- 
 fidel and corrupt, vindicates himself, in his letters to Scot- 
 land, from their abhorred communion. He declares " that 
 such a necessity as attends the acts of men's will is more 
 properly called certainty than necessity ; it being no other 
 than the certain connection between the subject and predi- 
 cate of the proposition which affirms their existence." He 
 says, also, " I have abundantly expressed it as my mind, that 
 man, in his moral actions, has true liberty ; and that the 
 moral necessity which universally takes place is not in the 
 least inconsistent with any thing that is properly called lib- 
 erty, and with the utmost liberty that can be desired, or that 
 can possibly exist or be conceived of." What, then, do those 
 wise men mean who cavil at his use of the term necessity ? 
 The words italicized above are by his own pen. Do they 
 say that certainty, because God can see it in its future, is 
 therefore fatalism, befitting more the porch of Xeno, or the 
 throne of the supreme mufti at Constantinople, than the the- 
 ology of a Christian philosopher ? Edwards was infinitely far 
 removed from Fatalist, Stoic, Antinomian, dotard, and fool ! 
 If God eternally foresees our actions with the foreknowledge 
 of vision, he foresees as well that they are ours ; that we are 
 free, and voluntary, and so accountable in them ; and that 
 their evil is our own sin, and as such punishable by justice, 
 or pardonable by grace, in their proper nature. 
 
 2. It seems, indeed, to be easy as you state it. 
 
 1. Well, dear sir, and what says himself of it? Why, that 
 all he means is, that the future actions of men, all of them, 
 are objects of historical vision to God. Yet they are perfect- 
 ly free. God sees them infallibly and universally, good and 
 
CERTAINTY OF FREE ACTIONS. 95 
 
 bad, from eternity as future, just as they are, and just as he 
 sees them all, to eternity, as past. So that certainty is the 
 key to all he means — " certainty" is his own word, in reply 
 to the letter. God predicts often the free moral actions of 
 men. He described those of Judas ten or eleven centuriei 
 before he was born. He predicted the sins of Peter, emphat- 
 ically, a few hours before he did them. So of many others. 
 Well, this was not to take their free agency from them — yet 
 it was necessary that their actions should seem to fulfill the 
 prophecies ; and they did occur ; and they were perfectly free 
 too I I fully believe with him — and never saw a man yet 
 that could logically meet his argument and refute it. In- 
 deed, I believe that moral necessity is not only consistent 
 with freedom, but essential to it, and that the Arminian idea 
 of freedom is nothing better than metaphysical foolery on 
 stilts — it is, that absolute contingency, in eventuation, is nec- 
 essary to free moral agency every where I If it were — God 
 has no freedom ; since there is no contingency at all in his 
 eternal agency. And must a man be more free than God, 
 in order to be accountable, or a moral agent, or — an Armin- 
 ian ? They may be good men, possibly, who assert or imply 
 this, in spite of their reasonings ; we must be quite excused 
 for thinking them far enough from wise ones. They are 
 quite free enough in their nonsense and their drivel — and so 
 is God, in seeing it, and in despising it, from eternity and to 
 eternity ; for eternity is the hfetime of God, the habitation 
 of his glorious being. 
 
 2. Your New England divines, I think, are distingixished 
 for the metaphysical cast of their theology. 
 
 1. They are; and so are your Scotch divines; only that 
 the mode of your metaphysical inquiry and preaching is of a 
 different type from ours. I have witnessed some of your 
 Scotch metaphysics in the pulpit ; and as comparisons miglit 
 be perilous, if not odious, 1 only say that ours is different, is 
 American ; more conformed to that of our illustrious Ed- 
 
96 OUR REVOLUTION REPRODUCED. 
 
 wards, and his illustrious grandson, Dwight, than to your ver- 
 nacular models. Which is the more scriptural, the more 
 masterly, the more useful, I may not affirm, whatever is my 
 opinion. 
 
 2. You deal possibly too much in metaphysical theology. 
 Had it not a real or a latent influence in your late ecclesi 
 astical explosions ? Come, tell me fairly now all about that 
 controversy, its antecedents and its results ; for you set the 
 example, six years earlier than we followed it in ours. 
 
 1. Yes ; but not, I hope, like France, making a bad, a very 
 bad copy of our Revolution, or a worse reproduction of some- 
 thing not very like ours, about six years after ours was over. 
 
 2. I am quite desirous to understand yours of 1837 and 
 1838 and onward, to see if there be any or what similitude 
 between yours and ours. 
 
 1. Perhaps I am not the right one to tell you, for I am de- 
 cisively on one side, and that the constitutional ; protesting 
 with all my soul against the conj) d'etat of perjury and wick- 
 edness by which it was done, even if good men did it I Still, 
 one of the other side might be no more impartial, no more 
 trustworthy, no more well-informed or correct. Besides, I 
 will endeavor to tell the truth, as I surely believe it ; though 
 not unaware that some, who, I think, are themselves badly 
 committed, interested, and unscrupulous, will condemn, both 
 a priori and a posteriori, whatever I say, in the main, con- 
 nected with it. I expect no quarter, and no justice, and es- 
 pecially no brotherly kindness, from some of their eminences, 
 who chiefly did the sin ; or, should I receive any proper dem- 
 onstration of such qualities at their hand — the hand of some 
 I say, not all, or the majority of them — I should be encour- 
 aged in my hopes of the approaching millennium. 
 
 2. I never could properly see what you had, comparative- 
 ly, in America, about which to get up such a quarrel, such a 
 revolutionary civil war, in your ecclesiastical relations ; what 
 were the causes ? 
 
«IX MAIN CAtSE8 OF OURS. 97 
 
 1. They were a rare specimen, a conglomerate of several 
 kinds and classes ; I would state, mainly, six in all : 
 
 (1) Doctrinal diflerences, chiefly allecting the metaphys- 
 ical statements or modes of illustration and vindication, in 
 reference to our common generic Calvinism. 
 
 (2) The economy of general beneficence, as ecclesiastical 
 or sustained on the voluntary principle ; or, rather, leaving 
 it free and optional with all donors, in what way their char- 
 ities should find their objects. 
 
 (3) Our correspondence and our pact with our orthodox 
 Congregational brethren ; we co-operatively favoring, they 
 constantly and jealously oppugning them. 
 
 - (4) The influence of partisanship, and the strife for as- 
 cendency and power. 
 
 (5) The concealed but most potential influence of slavery 
 — the South, though much with us on other themes, going 
 mainly with them in the division — their small majority be- 
 ing thence constituted, as it remains at this day. 
 
 (6) The special agency of one or two ecclesiastical coun- 
 terparts of Hannibal, or Catiline, or Ajax, or rather of Dio- 
 trephes, who, though comparative novices in the ministry 
 and in the Church, deserved the title, which they appropri- 
 ately procured to themselves, of juvenile patriarchs in the 
 revolution ; such was their leadership, their sway, their fury, 
 their "nunc aut nunquam'' precipitation in the scene, which 
 many were afraid to follow ; only they were more afiraid to 
 refuse, as more and more intimidated and driven to adopt 
 and exemplify it, in that unparalleled and terrible crisis of oui 
 history. 
 
 There never was any thing of the sort enacted so perfectly 
 anti-constitutional ; but for this they practically care nothing ; 
 calling it a worn-out argument — much as the law of God 
 becomes quite obsolete to some reprobates who never keep it I 
 They were sworn to the Constitution ; they conspired, and 
 deliberately subverted its foundations ; monopolized all our 
 
 E 
 
98 PALLIATION AND PEECEUENT. 
 
 funds aiul property ; and called it the " reform" of the 
 Church I Some acquiesced on the saving principles, " it can 
 not now be helped, we must make the best of it, though it 
 is an unhappy precedent." Yes, rather unhappy ! Their 
 favorite palliative word is " extra-constitutional." This they 
 concede — and we thank them not for it. It is a word true 
 — as far as it goes ; but it goes not half as far as it ought. 
 It is a mere plaster of irritating palliations. Their deed was 
 furtive revolution, under the pseudology of "reforming" the 
 Church of God. As I do not believe in the expediency of 
 sin, I characterize the crime according to its nature ; and 
 refer it to God, for his decision on the case, with calm con- 
 sciousness of his holy and true impartiality. Our brethren, 
 who did this wickedness, may call it by what soft names 
 they please. Its proper amaritude shall yet corrode their 
 souls. They must yet be both sorry and ashamed in the rec- 
 ollections of it I What think you, doctor, of such a ruse, 
 makhig such a precedent ? "Whaj; has been, and what is rat- 
 ified as their " basis," as they call it, may be again. Rather 
 perilous, as, worse than the sword of Damocles, pendent over 
 them, it defines all their security, and it caricatures their 
 boast of liberty, as it demonstrates that Constitutions are 
 weaker than crises, with juvenile patriarchs to make and to 
 rule them I 
 
 2. I confess it is strange what necessity they could imag- 
 ine great enough to warrant such revolutionary measures. 
 But did they not badly accuse the orthodoxy of their oppo- 
 nents ? 
 
 1. There have always been two sides, or two parties, in 
 our Presbyterian Church ; and it is so very much in all oth- 
 ers. In the last century, they made the famous schism of 
 seventeen years, from 1741 to 1758, when they reunited, 
 with tears, and promises, and hopes of perpetual harmony 
 and union. They felt how foolish they had been in magni- 
 fying the trifles of their dis.seiision, in the laud of their vwm- 
 
NO CHIEF ERROR IN OUR RANKS. 99 
 
 mies, against the fundamentals of their common faith, and 
 duty, and interest. It Avas then the old side and the new 
 side, the old lights and the new lights ; more learning in the 
 ministry — with piety at a comparative discount, or more pi- 
 ety in the ministry — with learning at a comparative discount. 
 On the new and the pious side were Princeton, with Pres- 
 ident Edwards and Whitfield — but now, how changed I 
 Tempora mutantur, et nos nmtamtir hi illis. 
 
 As to orthodoxy, we quite as sincerely accused them of 
 propinquity to Antinomianism and Fatalism, as they us of 
 deviation toward Pelagianism and Arminianism. But, my 
 dear sir, our differences were not like some of yours : we were 
 none of us Socinian, or Arian, or Sabellian, or Universalist, 
 or Neonomian, or Erastian. No I in contradistinction to all 
 these themes or symbols of mortal or insidious error, we were 
 all generic Calvinists ; we all, like yourselves, professed, 
 with credible sincerity, " solemnly to receive and adopt" the 
 same Westminster " Confession of Faith, as containing the 
 system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures." 
 
 2. Miserable business this ! It seems to me that a little 
 wisdom and forbearance might have prevented the schism. 
 
 1 . Certainly it might — si mens non IcBvafuisset ! But the 
 fiercest in the war, or behind the scenes, were impracticable 
 and inexperienced, as well as comparatively young ecclesias- 
 tics. The chief driver had not been ordained five years ; and 
 some that spirited him onward had never been pastors, but 
 belonged to the knowing corps of amateur clergy ; specula- 
 tive, theoretical, scholastic, and ever boastful of their Avhole- 
 sale orthodoxy. Still, I say of all, that our errors were not 
 as bad as some of yours — I mean of your whole ministry pre- 
 vious to the disruption here. 
 
 2. We have had some wasteful errorists among us, we 
 must own. 
 
 1 . The heretical comprehensions of the Scotch establish- 
 ment, and the abominable intemperance of too many of their 
 
100 FORBEARANCE ORDER OF DECREES. 
 
 clergy, previous to the disrujUion, were really tremendous — 
 if I may credit what some of your intelligent and worthy 
 ministers here have told me, as what they personally knew. 
 We never had such error in our ranks — except possibly in a 
 solitary instance, one or two, far apart, and where amputa- 
 tion followed, as soon as the morbus of the diseased member 
 was juridically ascertained. But among your Moderationists 
 there are fundamental heretics, as I learn, with sentiments 
 subversive of the whole system of redemption by grace ; and 
 whom, should such occur within the closures of our Church, 
 a unanimous vote would depose and excommunicate, as soon 
 as fairly tried, in any of our judicatories. But there was no 
 error among us on the subject of the triune nature of God ; 
 on the glorious fact of atonement ; on the godhead, or the 
 manhood, of the Savior ; on the actual depravity and the lost 
 estate of all the sons of Adam ; on the si7ie qua non need of 
 regeneration ; on the conservation of the saints ; or on the 
 grand characteristics, and the proper fundamentals, of " the 
 system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures." This is 
 truth ! 
 
 2. It seems to me that a little brotherly forbearance was 
 the grand desideratum in your case, and the whole misery 
 and mischief might have been prevented. Is it not so ? 
 
 1. The living God knows that it is I 'Qni forbearance was 
 not there and then to be tolerated — the thing was banished 
 and the word proscribed. The furies that rode on that whirl- 
 wind Avould have scowled stormy wrath at the name of it. 
 
 In the order of the decrees, the order of their eternal na- 
 ture and their temporal development, we hold, and we know, 
 since we have often proved it, that election, as the grand re- 
 source of God against the suicidal unbelief of man, is after 
 atonement ; they, that atonement is after election ; and so, as 
 a consequence, they say, was it made, and it exists, as atone- 
 ment, all for the elect alone. They also denounced our or- 
 der as preposterous ; and we, exactly and with full convic- 
 
MORAL GOVERNMENT OF GOD. 101 
 
 tion, cordially returned the compliment, with some thunder 
 of logic and lightning of Scripture discharged — which occa- 
 sionally struck, as well as boomed, in the argument. We 
 honored moral government more, much more, than they, who 
 almost exclude it from their Turkish theology — who seemed, 
 like Antinomians, often to dislike the word, and to reject the 
 phrase, and to vacate the thing, and to hate the very term- 
 inology of the thing ! We showed that without moral gov- 
 ernment there could be no atonement ; since then, law is 
 nothing, sin nothing, pardon nothing, regeneration nothing, 
 piety nothing, preaching nothing, and the gospel nothing ; 
 and that atonement was a grand governmental transac- 
 tion — an awkward expression, as they termed it, and one 
 which they specially nauseated — in which all the proper, and 
 wise, and benevolent ends of punishment were superabund- 
 antly and gloriously answered by a substituted suffering 
 on the cross, as well as a substituted sufferer there ; dy- 
 ing, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. 
 Hence we showed that the whole world might be saved, 
 John 3 : 17. if they would only, as God requires them, obey 
 the gospel ; that, when they refuse, all with one accord be- 
 gin to make excuse, and so make light of it, God has his 
 own sublime resource, and Christ his own prorhised reward, 
 in spite of them. John 6 : 36-40. Election now occurs in 
 sovereignty sublime ; but even election is not exclusive. It 
 is only inclusive, and so, magnificently, facilitating salvation 
 to all reasonable men. Election shuts not the door — recalls 
 not the invitation — changes not the commandment — throws 
 no stumbling-block, or snare, or impediment in the open way 
 — proves that way practicable and desirable, by living exam- 
 ples — rebukes not the bride, saying, come, nor silences or 
 sinks, but only emphasizes, the voice of the Spirit, saying, 
 COME. Election demonstrates the earnestness of God ; his 
 sincerity, his plan, his forecast, his eternal wisdom, his vic- 
 tory, his glory ; man by sin makes the necessity of it ; and it 
 
102 LLECTJON DOES NO MISCHIEF. 
 
 also shows, Avhat sordid selfishness alone misunderstands it 
 and dislikes it, that we are dependent on God — not he on us; 
 that heaven will be populous, even if we, our blessed selves, 
 are not there, but rather decline to be of its population ; that 
 the cause of God, and virtue and salvation in the earth, is no 
 failure, and never will be one ; that we can easily, by our 
 meanness, frustrate ourselves, but not him ; that election 
 keeps no man from heaven, or from piety and salvation — but 
 only makes more definite and powerful our motives and fa- 
 cilities promptly to go, and really takes thither all the will- 
 ing multitudes, and all the obeying millions, that ever get 
 there ; that election in its place sheds glory and virtue on all 
 the revealed system, and permeates eternity with its blessed 
 radiations and entailments. On the other hand, Ave believe 
 of their side, that their order is frigid and Antinomian ; that 
 it is fitting more for politics and Jesuitry, than moral govern- 
 ment and the true glories of the grand mediatorial system ; 
 that it makes the obstructions and the objections that it finds ; 
 that they can not preach it, pray it, or read it in the Bible ; 
 that it is no friend to the flight of the angel of missions ; that 
 it is starved, cramped, collapsing, and soon to be a buried 
 mummy in the tomb of the Capulets, for the resurrection of 
 doom, or for no resurrection at all. 
 
 Still, in that controversy, as in most others, the passions 
 were enlisted ; reason and long-suflbring were ostracized from 
 the scene. There were faults in all. On both sides were 
 seen impatient and arbitrary persons, with little mature 
 learning or divine philosophy, to inspire their self-moderation, 
 Heb. 5 : 13 ; and on the aggressive side — among the accusers 
 and vile vilifiers of their brethren, those w'ho denounced 
 Beecher and Barnes, and were, several of the foremost, not 
 worthy to untie the latchet of the shoe of either of those ven- 
 erable men of God — were persons of low and petty rumina- 
 tions, of contracted and ignominious views, of disappointed 
 ambition, of worldly policy and military command, and of a 
 
A HAD WAY VVORHi; THAN NO WAY. J O.'J 
 
 sort of rigorous severity of calumniation, by which their real 
 malignity enacted its appropriate orgies, in a junto that met 
 regularly, counted noses, and actually ruled the assembly — 
 inducing the eruption, at last, of their wrathy and long-rum- 
 bling volcano. Some men have a wonderful tact and pro- 
 clivity to do mischief. They can destroy, if they can not build. 
 As they could not culminate, and could calumniate, they 
 seemed to prefer this as second best — and so became quite dis- 
 tinguished, some of them liberally compensated, celebrated for 
 their wickedness, and made great men in the end. 
 My answer to your question, then, is two-fold : 
 
 (1) There were no difibrences, had there been adequate 
 humility and self-abnegation and brotherly-kindness, to call 
 for such a rupture, or even for any separation at all — noAv so 
 great a scandal to the nation. 
 
 (2) Had those differences existed, their way of curing them 
 was no way, or it was infinitely worse than none, as falsely 
 aftecting to redress them. 
 
 To condemn, and exscind, and cast out, at one fell S7coop, 
 without trial, or warning, or crime, and without discrimina- 
 tion of persons or characters, so many official peers and part- 
 ners, regularly constituted i?2ier se jurejicrando, in the com- 
 munion of the Presbyterian Church, in our solemnly cove- 
 nanted religious commonwealth, more than one fifth of the 
 whole, this they did — oh I wickedness, black and horrible I 
 iii. John, 9-11. How will it look at the judgment-seat of 
 Christ ? Doth our laxo jtidge any man before it hear him, 
 and know xohat he doeth ? No I And the Jewish Sanhedrim 
 never enacted such wickedness, except in condemning Christ, 
 so far as we can credibly learn from their general annals and 
 traditions. It was rare and astonishing ■\\acKEDNESS I I 
 affirm it as knowing who sees me. It is precisely incapable 
 of justification, or even of decent and honest apology. It was 
 a wonderful instance of 7iovum et inauditum nefas, a min- 
 istris Dei confectum in ministros et ecclesias Dei. 
 
 w 
 
104 DorriUNAL uifkkrences. 
 
 2. And has your alienation now become personal and im- 
 placable ? 
 
 1 . Only with some of the reckless and the pre-eminent 
 butchers in the war, and their sympathizers since. Some of 
 them call it a revolution, and on that basis alone venture to 
 try to defend it. Many worthy and excellent fathers and 
 brethren, ministerial, and especially laical, like Joseph in the 
 General Assembly at Jerusalem, never consented to the coun- 
 sel and deed of them ; many are discontented and unhappy 
 in their present positions, because of it ; many of them cease 
 not to condemn and deplore it sincerely, if not consistently, 
 to this day ; many arc my owni personal friends, whom dear- 
 ly I esteem, and cordially and fraternally I love, and whose 
 feelings I would not intentionally wound — nor yet be insipid, 
 or ambiguous, or uncommitted, ad justitiam demonstran- 
 dam et tindicandam, ut oportet. 
 
 Some facts of personal history and strange contrariety of 
 development I could narrate, to your astonishment — but I 
 forbear I God is overruling it, as he does every thing, for his 
 own glory and the ultimate good of his elect : He overruled 
 in this way the murder of his Son, Jesus Christ, our ever- 
 blessed Lord and Savior ; but all this is no more an excuse, 
 you know, for the juvenile patriarchs at Philadelphia, than 
 for those senile or full-grown ones, the chieftain murderers of 
 the Son of God at Jerusalem. 
 
 2. In respect to your doctrinal divergences, I should like 
 to have from you a synopsis of them ; as these chiefly inter- 
 est us in Scotland, and, indeed, in all parts of the Church 
 universal. 
 
 1. They respect, as I have said, chiefly the type of our 
 Calvinism ; the philosophy of religion, rather than its great 
 facts ; and the correct technical discriminations of theological 
 wisdom, which become the pulpit and its inculcations, espe- 
 cially in our age and country. Americans demand a reason 
 for eveiy thing — mere human " authority" will not exactly 
 suit them. 
 
PRINCETON THEOLOGY. 105 
 
 • 
 
 What they held it were difficult to say — because specu- 
 latively they differed inter se quite as much as we did, or 
 possibly much more ; but if we take the Princeton type as 
 normal in their theology, as probably we ought, then I can 
 state an honest syllabus of the views they hold there, and 
 sometimes elegantly hide, as their piety, and tact, and learn- 
 ing in combination know how, beneath a costume of scholas- 
 tic and rhetorical speciousness, which effectually prevents the 
 common people, to this day, from a correct estimation of their 
 system. And were it not so, they could, with their dogmas, 
 be scarcely endured. They strenuously hold — 
 
 (1) The absolute, not mediate, imputation of the sin of 
 Adam to all his posterity; so that each of them justly de- 
 serves eternal damnation, absolutely, on that account simply 
 and alone, and whether, in fact, any one is finally saved or 
 lost. 
 
 (2) In the order of the decrees, election precedes atone- 
 ment, and hence Christ died for the elect alone; so that, how- 
 ever redundant in intrinsic value may be the price paid for 
 them alone, yet the atonement, as such, proper and real, is 
 limited, not to the price, but to the moral purchase ; and for 
 the others, the non-elect, whatever else there may be for 
 them, incidentally or otherwise, there is no atonement at all, 
 or any other preparation or provision, actual or possible, in 
 the system or in the universe, for their salvation. 
 
 (3) We are all passive, only and entirely, in regeneration. 
 
 (4) Men, in their present lapsed state, are free only to sin ; 
 and they have no ability to do their duty, neither physical, 
 nor moral, nor social ; nor ability of any other kind have they 
 as moral agents ; that is, if they be moral agents at all — be- 
 fore they are, by miracle, passively regenerated I 
 
 In general, they avoid all popular statements that are at 
 once as full and as honest as this ; but they hold this really, 
 I am sure, however they may thank me, or otherwise, for the 
 declaration of the fact. 
 
 E 2 
 
106 PRINCETON TH EULOGY. 
 
 The question here about regeneration is truly metaphysical 
 — but it is also, and in a high degree, practical. It ought, 
 therefore, in the theology especially of every preacher, to have 
 a thorough eclaircissement. He ought to understand it. Re- 
 generation is properly no miracle, though supernatural, or su- 
 perhuman and divine, and so really superior to a miracle. 
 This is wrought in order to that ; this the means, that the 
 end. A miracle is done to us only, and ordinarily requires 
 no concurrence or activity of ours in its production or to its 
 perfect eventuation. The cripple at Lystra, indeed, leaped 
 and ivalkcd. Acts 14 : 10. But this was after the miracle, 
 which was perfect before it by the mere fiat of God ; and his 
 active exultation only followed and proved the reality. But 
 is regeneration in the same predicament ? We are passive 
 in election, in justification, in adoption, and in creation ; since 
 eacla of these depends alone on the volition of God, and re- 
 quires no active and voluntary concurrence of ours in his act. 
 But can a man be regenerated till he loves God ? And is 
 he passive in loving him ? Does God something, and if so 
 — WHAT, to the soul, which constitutes regeneration, before 
 that soul ceases to do evil and learns to do Avell ? Let man 
 or angel answer, if he can ! Does not regeneration, then, re- 
 quire our concurrence in it, absolutely, in order to its exist- 
 ence ? and if so, what is this but our activity ? And so in 
 the whole process of sanctifi.cation, of Avhich the beginning 
 is regeneration. Those stujndissimi, who care more for 
 words, forms, and theories, than for things — their natures and 
 their relations, and who hold the passivity of the subject in 
 regeneration, show its numbing eli'ects in the paralysis of 
 their own ministrations, in their actions, in their failures, and 
 in the marked frigidity of their characters. They wait for 
 the miracle, which they so much need, and it never comes. 
 The heathenish spell of fate creeps over them. Their peo- 
 ple, in the mean time, get hardened, incrusted with habitu- 
 ated sloth, deadened in their distance from God : and are 
 
ALL OBEY NOT THE GOSPEL. 107 
 
 quite too orthodox to seek the Lord while he may be found, 
 lest they should interfere with their own proper passivity and 
 with his OAvn appropriate work I Hence their earnest seek- 
 ing they often postpone, we fear, till it comes in spasm and in 
 paroxysm, when God can not be found — ^when it is too late 
 forever ! Prov. 1 : 20-33 ; Luke, 13 : 24-30 ; Mat. 7 : 21-23. 
 Such passivity is not taught in the Holy Scriptures, John, 
 1 : 11-13, Born should be (from yevvaw) rendered begotten 
 always. God is our father — not mother I 
 
 2. Is there no danger that your views of full atonement 
 may lead to Universalism, and do they not apprehend such 
 a tendency ? 
 
 1, I may not say — it certainly leads to independent thought, 
 and that is very suspectable in their conservative assump- 
 tions. But they are with their theology forever in a mist, 
 possibly " a Scotch mist," about the nature of salvation as 
 actually ofiered to men in the gospel. Is there an offer of 
 that to men, or to some men, or to one man, which, rela- 
 tively to each of such, or of his class, as non-elect, has no ex- 
 istence ? Go preach the gosjyel to every creature — hi all 
 the world ? Does this lead to universal salvation ? Does it 
 imply any danger that men will be saved by the gospel — 
 without obeying it ? or that the non-elect will obey it ? or 
 that, if they should — though we all know they will not, any 
 damage woixld accrue, or God have any objection ? 
 
 Some say to us, well, where the difference, since it all 
 comes to the same thing at last ? Answer, Is it no differ- 
 ence whether or not God is sincere and veracious in the 
 fact of his offered mercy ? Blind and stupid is the mind 
 that can see no difference between honesty and dishonesty ! 
 between right and wrong, and this where the actions of God 
 are alone concerned. The difference is, that, if God could 
 lie, the whole universe were one eternal desolation, and 
 heaven an impossibility. I shoiild not have taken notice of 
 this most contemptible allegation, had it not on several oc- 
 
108 LIMITARIAX DOTAr.E. 
 
 casions been polemically addressed to me ; once by a selfish 
 old theologue, or, rather, theologaster, who, in a bad way, I 
 fear, loved himself, and mainly nothing else. Some of them 
 have 60 represented it, as if really God ofl'ers salvation to no 
 mortal in the gospel ! One of them, at his ordination, 7ne 
 teste, told the Presbytery that olFer was an Arminian idea ; 
 that there was no such thing in the gospel. And he proved 
 it too, in his way ; why, said he, there is no need of it to the 
 elect, for they have it already ; they have the reality, and 
 the ofier to them were superfluous. And as to the non-elect, 
 there is no ofl'er to them ; and for two reasons : ( 1 ) It would 
 do them no good if there were ; for they are unable to accept 
 it. They have no ability, more than the dead in their sep- 
 ulchre. And if it could do them no good, it were a very 
 vanity, too, to ofl'er it to them, and the doctrine of such an 
 ofier is false and silly. Besides, (2) They have no ofier — for 
 another good reason. Offer? of what ? of salvation or atone- 
 ment ? There is none for them ! there never was any, there 
 never will be any. 
 
 Hence there is no offer at all — only doctrinal statements, 
 only the privilege of hearing such Solomons enunciate to them, 
 or to others in their presence, the arbitrary connection that 
 there is between faith and grace — between passive regener- 
 ation and passive salvation I all the elect, in his mongrel the- 
 osophy, being quasi a kind of substantive verbs, each in the 
 passive voice, pluperfect tense, third person plural, and neuter 
 gender I But, deserving of ridicule as well as execration, as 
 is this direful stupidity, that confounds the eternal difference 
 between physical and ethical, between matter and mind, be- 
 tween mechanical powers and moral government, and that 
 sees the dynamics and the statics of the universe only in the 
 worse chaos of its own confusions, I would say — how little 
 its disciples properly know of the holy scriptures ! or of the 
 way in which t}(£se are able to make us wise to salvation, 
 through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 
 
VIEVVH OK TKCTH I\' REALITY. 109 
 
 But we affirm, and demonstrate, and know, and preach, 
 
 (1) That God offers the gospel, in its due ministration, to 
 every hearer. 
 
 (2) That the offer is no nuUity ; no insult to their weak- 
 ness and their ruin ; no equivoque or ambiguity ; but made 
 to them with infinite sincerity and perfect consistency by God 
 himself, and by his own order in the gospel. 
 
 (3) That the atonement proper, or the mission and the pas- 
 sion of the Son of God, is always the normal, and the neces- 
 sary, and the only basis of this offer. 
 
 (4) That the atonement is, therefore, not limited at all, or 
 properly capable of limitation ; though ultimately its applica- 
 tion is limited to the elect alone, or all the finally redeemed. 
 
 (5) That men are all obligated, as their supreme duty, to 7-e- 
 petit and believe the go?,'pel ; so that the sin oi neglecting so 
 great salvation is perfectly paramount, and just infinitely 
 tremendous and perilous. 
 
 (6) That they have full natural ability to do this, and are 
 therefore wholly blamable for its omission ; their only ina- 
 bility being moral, not physical, that is, not organic or neces- 
 sitating, but voluntary, so that themselves make it, and main- 
 tain it, and are the architects of their own despair, as they 
 perish from the xcay, and are so forever punished for their 
 sins. 
 
 (7) That the influence of the Spirit is not to make men ac- 
 countable ; men are such, in the very nature and the very 
 structure of their moral being : they are such as creatures 
 under law, absolutely, universally, necessarily. But it is 
 needful to remove the moral obstacles which our own sin 
 and folly put in our way ; so that the Spirit enlightens, con- 
 vinces, effectually persuades, and actuates us in duty ; so that 
 we do it, and obey the gospel, and are saved by the grace of 
 God in Christ Jesus. 
 
 (8) That, as to freedom, man's moral actions are voluntary, 
 and therefore free. If he sins voluntarily against all the per- 
 
110 calvin's last will and testament. 
 
 suasion and authority of God, and is under no necessity to sin, 
 except what he makes by his own preference and voluntary 
 agency, why is he not free, as well as criminal in it ? And 
 to what does the opposite view tend but to excuse the foot- 
 stool and criminate the throne ? Besides, intellectually, it is 
 indiscriminate and stupid. 
 
 2. But is your view Calvinistic ? 
 
 1. Yes, is our answer — if Calvinism it is to beUeve with 
 Calvin in his maturer thoughts and works. His noble In- 
 stitutes, which we admire, and love, and for the most part, 
 or in the main, we adopt, were written in his comparative 
 youth ; but his Commentaries, his latter epistles, and his last 
 will and testament,* were the ripened fruits of his older and 
 
 * This great and renowned Reformer, this mighty man of Christ, 
 this leader of modern commentators on the word of inspiration, was 
 as correctly illuminated and as profoundly humble before God, in view 
 of his sins, as he was incomparably eminent and honored among men, 
 in consideration of his powers, his attainments, and his deeds of en- 
 during usefulness. His last will and testament, as found appended to 
 Beza's Life of Calvin, and as dictated, just before he died, to Peter 
 Chenalat, the Genevese notary, contains many solemn and excellent 
 sentiments, splendidly appropriate to the moral sublimity of such a 
 scene ; among others, this : 
 
 I also testify and confess that with humble supplication I beseech 
 God that he would in sovereign mercy cause me to be washed and 
 cleansed by the blood of that great Redeemer who shed his blood for 
 the sins of the human race, that to me it may be vouchsafed, before 
 his own tribunal, to stand at last [beautified and beatified] in the im- 
 age of the Redeemer himself 
 
 Thus spoke the dying saint, the living and immortal martyr of Je- 
 sus. These are his words : 
 
 Testor etiam ac profiteer me suppliciter ab eo petere, ut ita me ab- 
 lutum et mundatum velit sanguine summi illius Redemptoris, effuso 
 PRO HUMANi GENERIS pEccATis, ut mihi liccat, apud tribunal ipsius, con- 
 sistere sub ipsius Redemptoris imagine. 
 
 The whole document deserves to be translated and studied, as so 
 solemn, so luminous, so sublime, at such a moment, " quite in the 
 verge of heaven" — "fly, ye profane !" 
 
HIS VIEWS OF ATONEMENT. Ill 
 
 richer piety ; and they state our views, especially on the great 
 subject of atonement, which is quite cardinal in our Amer- 
 ican controversy. 
 
 2. I have no recollection of Calvin teaching that the atone- 
 ment was made for all men, in any of his writings. 
 
 1. Possibly then, dear sir, repressing my surprise, I can 
 amuse you, at least, by quoting his ipsisswia in the original : 
 Communem omnium gratiam f'acit apostolus, quia omnibus 
 exposita est, non quod ad omnes extendatur re ipsa : nam- 
 etsi passus est Christus pro peccatis totius mundi, atque om- 
 nibus indifierenter Dei benignitate offertur, non tamen omnes 
 apprehendunt. 
 
 2. Are they the words ? Indeed ! Where does Calvin 
 say that ? 
 
 1. I am happy to tell you exactly. Have you his Opera 
 Omnia at hand ? 
 
 2. No, I have not that great work in my study, though it 
 may seem strange to you. 
 
 1. Indeed it does, since it has long been in mine ; and of 
 all human thesauruses of theological wisdom, I prize it as 
 chief. I have it in nine volumes folio, done in vellum, the 
 edition of 1671, Amstelodami, apud viduam Johannis Jacobi 
 Schipperi ; and must be allowed to wonder that your library 
 should not contain it. 
 
 2. "Well, let me hear where it is to be found, for I will see 
 it there before I quit ; for novel is the specimen to me, I 
 own. 
 
 1 . Yes, there are several others there ; and all of them 
 
 The large expression about the blood of Christ will not admit of 
 construction, according to the restrictive sentiments, which have done 
 so much mischief to the souls of men ; in view of what he says on 
 the subject in other places, with such amplification and exphcitness. 
 Shame to you, ye preachers of no offer, or one that is worse than 
 none, to men, in the glorious gospel of the blessed God. But we h.*.ve 
 
 SEEN, AND DO TESTIFY TH.KT THE FaTHER SENT THE SoN TO BE THE 
 
 Savior of the world. 
 
112 HIS COMAlENTAKIEri ON ROMANS. 
 
 identified and compared, one finds the fact that I assert per* 
 I'ectly sustained by him. It is even asserted often, and im- 
 plied more frequently. 
 
 2. Let me have the place, then, if you can recollect it. 
 
 1. I know it happily and well. You will find it in his 
 comments on Rom. 5 : 18.=* 
 
 2. Wait, then, till I examine. I have an old Scotch trans- 
 lation of Calvin on Romans; and could I just lay hand on it, 
 I would see how he renders it. 
 
 He here took a step-ladder, moved it to a distant part of 
 his study, rose to the top shelf, and after some search found 
 the book, opened and read the passage, and resumed : 
 
 You are right, I see. But really the fact never reached 
 me before, as I must plainly own.f 
 
 1. It is my own opinion, dear sir, that the point is both 
 cardinal, and too commonly and almost every where little 
 
 * Other passages in his commentaries ought to be compared ; as 
 Mat. 26 : 28 ; ii. Pet. 2:1; i. John, 2:2, et alia. 
 
 t I admired the excellent simplicity of his character, so conspicu- 
 ous in this and many other occurrences ; it seemed so child-like, that 
 one must view it as equally rare, and beautiful, and worthy. How 
 many specimens of greatness of other sorts, assumptive, strutting, 
 majestically unnatural, too perpendicular to bend, too great — by spe- 
 cial wisdom and dignity, that is, by inflation and false consequence 
 — too great to condescend, from their airy altitude, to bless the mem- 
 bers of Christ, or perform their proper duties, or evince the temper 
 of the Gospel ; how many a vapid exhibition of self, ostentatious and 
 official, self-sublime, have we seen, and grieved to see, teste Deo, in 
 titled and renowned examples, from whom we were so simple as to 
 expect better things — and seen them, with wounds heartfelt and in- 
 genuous, when and where we had no thought to see or feel them ; 
 and much the same, alas ! through pride, sin, folly, not to speak of 
 ignorance and ill breeding, on both sides of the ocean ! I suspect 
 such samples existed before the flood — not before the fall ! ♦ * ♦ 
 As to the replies and quotations made, I have stated facts, and was 
 happy that, in some respects, my memory served me, rather signally, 
 in those very relations, in which his interrogations were at once more 
 particular, as well as more earnest or vehement. " Whar dos Colvun 
 sai thot ?" 
 
OL'R3 AND THEIR DISRUPTION. 113 
 
 appreciated in our theology, and that this is the reason why 
 the pulpit is often poorly cfl'ulgent, or powerful so much in 
 vain 1 The atonement is not understood, or elucidated, or 
 impressed on the minds of men, as it might and would be 
 if views more discriminating and definite, more rich and large, 
 obtained respecting it — that is, if we all comprehended it 
 more as it is. 
 
 2. Well, is there no hope of reunion among you ? Is there 
 no way of reconciliation ? It is a bad thing for the country 
 and the cause, to remain like brethren at variance forever. 
 It is even bad for us here in Scotland. It is your own loss. 
 Your common interests bleed for it. The cause of our Sav- 
 ior suffers — and there is no reason with you, as there is 
 with us, in the very organization of the state and the nation, 
 for your lasting separation. No great principle keeps you 
 apart. 
 
 1. None like yours exactly ; but we could never consecrate 
 their new " basis," never build on it Avith them, never I And 
 now we all love our own Church with a generous and a fra- 
 ternal, as well as an increasing and enthusiastic affection. 
 The attachment of our ministry and our people to the general 
 interests, and the ultimate progress of our Church, is both 
 remarkable and delightful, as well as waxing greater and 
 greater every day. I beUeve, and, feeling our dependence — 
 especially my own, on the grace and providence of God, for 
 all things, almost venture to predict, that, however we may 
 meliorate toward each other in good and kindly feeling, in 
 all acts and interchanges of pious service and Christian courte- 
 sy, yet, a reunion is not now practicable, even if it were de- 
 sirable : nor do I think that at present there is any prospect 
 of it, or any promise of it, in the future — at least in the pres- 
 ent world I 
 
 2. When you go back to America, tell them from me that 
 this is the burden of the Lord to them, to forgive and forget 
 mutually, and so become one again, for the common cause, 
 
114 SMALL HOPE OP REUNION. 
 
 for the kingdom of God, for the sake of the love of Christ con- • 
 straining all of you. 
 
 1. I should rejoice with millions, and with all my soul, 
 could this be done ; but I fear it is not to be expected, at 
 least in our day ! A brother ojfc?ided is harder to be icon 
 tJio.n a strong city; and their cofitentions are like the bars 
 of a castle. Better is a neighbor that is near than a broth- 
 er far off. To me it seems — only possible with Grod ! 
 
 2. You must hope for the best, by the grace of God. 
 
 1 . They never confess, that is, their great leaders — whom 
 all the others mainly follow. They assume the right, as if 
 they were infallible. They dogmatize, ridicule, denounce their 
 brethren, and never admit their own wickedness in the acts 
 of excision, Prov. 30 : 20. They hate, because they have in- 
 jured us ; illustrating the deep truth, in reference to depraved 
 human nature, contained in the old adage — odisse quern 
 IcEseris ; that we hate whom we injure ; our morbid moral 
 instincts, set in disarray by our own sins, distress or lash us 
 at every memorial that reminds us of them, till aversion be- 
 comes antipathy and cruelty toward the passive object that 
 occasions, even unconsciously and innocently, the misery of 
 our bosoms. Here it is — conscius fadnoris is the tormentor. 
 They that were chiefly distinguished as leaders in the war 
 are equally self-accused now, as quite conspicuous for their 
 gratuitous and habituated malignity of soul and manners, to- 
 ward their injured, deeply injured brethren. God will deal 
 with them soon. 
 
 2. Are they not called the Old School, and you the 
 New? 
 
 1 . Yes ; just as you here are called the Geese, and they the 
 Swans, of the Church of Scotland, in relation to Mrs. Caesar's 
 North British Establishment. I repudiate and deny the nick- 
 names. It is only opprobrious and deceptive. Our aim is 
 not innovation or revolution. We doctrinally desire nothing 
 better and nothing other than the eternal antiquities of God, 
 
OUR EXCELLENT POLITY. 115 
 
 as revealed to us all in the Bible — and by some of us studied, 
 understood, and enjoyed there, with infinite profiit and ineffa- 
 ble satisfaction. As for them, they are the innovators, the 
 revolutionizers, the layers of the new f.asis, the exscinders, 
 and the arrogant factors of the schism — to say nothing of their 
 proper brand for monopolizing and retaining all the funds, and 
 all the property, of the Church, valued at about one third of a 
 million of dollars. This it tfa.s — before they took precarious- 
 ly, with broken banks to help them, the whole charge of it ! 
 And as to our polity, we are Presbyterians, cordial and de- 
 vout, with PREFERKNCE, NOT EXCLUSION, for our sinccro mot- 
 to. As already said, we are only more and more such, as we 
 see others ruinating for the want of our incomparable system 
 of constitutional government, so gloriously suited to the coun- 
 try ; and, as some of us believe, the best system of polity in 
 the world ! The monarchy of the popedom, the oligarchy of 
 the prelatists, the regime of Caesar according to the Eras- 
 tians, the uproarious and impulsive uncertainty of Congrega- 
 tionalism, or, DEMOCRACY IN A KINGDOM, or " Independency" 
 — a proud and schismatical idea, or Presbytery with estab- 
 lishment, or Presbytery with the basis of exscinding prece- 
 dents ; all these we decisively postpone and deny, in prefer- 
 ence for our own superior system of representative common- 
 wealth and constitutional order, under Christ, in his own un- 
 suflering kingdom. But, with no pleasure in these recollec- 
 tions, I calmly invoke the judgment of the Great HEAD of 
 the Church, and wait for his award. 
 
 As we were thus in earnest converse, the signal-bell rang 
 an alarm, which the doctor immediately interpreted as " sup- 
 per," and seemed to require my attendance and participation. 
 It was late, but in apparent twilight and rich moonlight, I 
 submitted, and followed to the drawing-room, where the ladies 
 were waiting for us, and especially a neighbor lady, who, as 
 I afterward learned, stayed on purpose to see an American — a 
 
110 8UPPEK AT MORNINGSIDE. 
 
 curiosity quite new to her I It was to me a scarce unusual 
 amusement ; and as, on the occasion, I thought she might be 
 assured that, being caught young, I was quite tame, would 
 neither bite nor scratch, and so might be safe for spectators, 
 though neither caged, nor pinioned, nor chained, nor tended 
 by an armed keeper I She proved, however, to be very agree- 
 able, and seemed evidently gratified with all the spectacle 
 as she viewed it. 
 
 Soon an opened door showed a briUiant apartment, with 
 supper spread, and we were all motioning or preparing to ap- 
 proach and surround it. Among the bright beauties of the 
 scene, however, were three or four that I less welcomed — 
 these were so many decanters, tastefully displayed, and dec- 
 orating the well-stored table. As I had become quite fa- 
 miliar, though I hope not ofTensively or too much so, I viewed 
 the vinous splendors without moving, fixed my gaze on them, 
 stood in attitude, and with pantomimic significance indicated 
 
 my astonishment. One of the doctor's daughters. Miss , 
 
 with easy and elegant address, taking my meaning, came to 
 me, and in an undertone, kind and familiar, yet playful, and 
 rather pleasantly satirical, remarked : " Oh ! do not allow 
 yourself to be so scared. The best wines, you know, are the 
 least intoxicating and the most nutritious, as the old poets 
 say. Ours is old, genuine, rich, and good ; better than any 
 you find and censure so justly in America. We never let the 
 superior brands go across the Atlantic, and you never tasted 
 any so good as ours. Now you shall prove them youi'self. I 
 will tell you which, and present it to you ; and, besides, when 
 you take it, we'll all keep the secret. For one, I'll never tell 
 of it, only you must try it, and see if it be not truth that I say 
 to you." 
 
 I replied — Tempters all of you. Eve and her daughters I 
 But, as to your keeping the secret, I think I can trust you for 
 
 once, my dear Miss . You will never tell of me, I am 
 
 sure. But you lovely lasses, that expect husbands and hap- 
 
INNOCENT PLEASANTRY. 117 
 
 piness, ought to be thorough-going allies of the temperance 
 cause — since drunken husbands abound, and just horrible is 
 the life and the prospect of the wife of every one of them I 
 Possibly the reader may take a false impression here — as 
 
 if Miss were really engaged to get me to drink wine ou 
 
 the occasion. This was not the fact. It was all done in 
 easy and elegant mirth ; the well-bred playfulness of a happy 
 young daughter, who enjoyed her father's friends, and natu- 
 rally chose to make herself humorous and agreeable to all the 
 company. She had, indeed, been used to hear the ultraisra 
 of total abstinence mainly ridiculed, as eccentric, as Ameri- 
 can, even as anti-scriptural, by all the Scots ; and, " inno- 
 cently gay," she carried it at that, meaning gravely not any 
 thing in the world — incapable, indeed, of meaning any thing 
 unkind, or disrespectful, or even admonitory to her seniors. 
 Her manners, and the tones of her voice, gave the perfect ex- 
 planation ; and the real Christian urbanity of the whole cir- 
 cle, and, indeed, of the entire family, insured each guest, and 
 especially a temperance-man from America, against all that 
 importunity, which, in some other and vastly different soci- 
 ety, becomes at once the social annoyance of the guest and 
 the moral degradation of the host, at every table where wine 
 is introduced as a beverage and an elegance ; too often in 
 criminal conformity to the fashionable laws of the jovial and 
 the reprobate, i. Pet. 4 : 4, 1-6. In general, my grand reason 
 for dwelling on the topic is a sincere conviction of its infinite 
 importance — as ebriety kills the soul ; to say nothing of the 
 mischiefs of an allied but inferior sort, done by it to the body, 
 the usefulness, the good name, the longevity, and the success 
 in life, of its multitudinous and immedicable victims I If 
 this be thought singular — still, in this I remain. Many a 
 better person has had to be more singular, for the good of 
 others, in such a world as this I Wherefore, if ineat make 
 my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh [as I would drink 
 no wine] tvhile the xvorld standeth, lest I make mif brother 
 
118 THE doctor's concession. 
 
 to offend, i. Cor. 8 : 13, 8-13. It is good neither to eat 
 
 flesh, NOR TO DRINK AVINE, NOR ANY THING, IvIiOcby thy 
 
 brother slumblcth, or is offended, or is made iceak, Rom. 
 14 : 21. Self-denial for the welfare of others is a noble and 
 a Christ-like virtue. Matt. 20 : 28 ; and to prevent men from 
 drunkenness — is this worthy of no efibrt, of no self-denial ? 
 
 We were soon seated in convivial gladness around the 
 board, when, at his request, uttering thanks, and begging 
 blessings from the Great Dispenser of all good, I afterward 
 owned a remorse that made mc almost in terms except the 
 decanters ! I could intently ask no blessing on our wine-bev- 
 erage ; and this I freely announced. The doctor, frank and 
 hospitable, passed some euloginm on the temperance move- 
 ment, and on the example of his guest, so far atca' from 
 home ; and ended by saying about as much as decently he 
 could in favor of both ; ending thus : I acknowledge that the 
 man who acts on the principle of total abstinence is the safer, 
 and the happier, and the wiser man. 
 
 1. Dear doctor, what a concession I It seems to me you 
 go the whole figure, in sentiment at least. Is not a man 
 bound to act on a principle that makes him safe, and happy, 
 and "wise ? Is he not religiously bound, that is, under obli- 
 gation in the sight of God, to act on such a principle ? For 
 one, I am glad of your concession. I shall not fail to remem- 
 ber it. And if God pleases to return me to America, I will 
 tell of it there. The friends of temperance in its " mother 
 country" shall hear what Dr. Chalmers said in its favor. 
 Would to God I could add — and he acts on the principle. 
 
 2. Not just yet am I prepared to give my adhesion to the 
 principle. 
 
 1. I am sorry for it. When I was here thirteen years ago, 
 you spoke of it with such general approbation and delight, 
 that I thought, my dear sir, you were in a good waj', and 
 would shortly be found in the ranks of the men of the prin- 
 ciple, as one with them. Oh I how would such intelligence. 
 
A TEAfl'ERATE MA\. IIP 
 
 going every where with a thrill, be greeted in many places 
 in the United States of America with joy and jubilation. 
 What good it would do I The name of Chalmers, quoted on 
 the right side, as " a safer, a happier, and a wiser man," of 
 late, by adopting the principle, would do great good — and 
 with no detriment, no privation to you I How long, my dear 
 doctor, before we can quote you in this right honorable way ? 
 If you refuse, you will be quoted on the other side, and re- 
 sponsible for the good you failed to do. But I leave it again 
 to your own wisdom in the matter. 
 
 It is due to Chalmers, and the scene I have narrated, to 
 add, that he was no wine-bibber, nor any of his amiable fam- 
 ily. On the occasion just described, so far as I recollect, he 
 drank none at all. Very little was used by his guests. The 
 drinking usages of his country and his ancestors he did not, 
 however, assault or repudiate, as we in America might just- 
 ly approve ; but Chalmers was a man of temperance, of uni- 
 versal self-government, of symmetry iu conduct and excel- 
 lency of example. Only he never adopted our principle, our 
 method, our way ; though he so considered it, generally ap- 
 proved it, and progressively espoused it, by approximation, 
 that many thought, and I was one of them, that, by all or- 
 dinary principles of human estimate, he bid fair to come on 
 our platform, before many more months passed over him, 
 when he vanished from the sight of the dying — for not we 
 live, the dead only are immortal — they live alone in heaven. 
 
 About the time of his death, as, indeed, often in previ- 
 ous years, yet then especially, the question was raised, with 
 keener interest in America, debated in public at our temper- 
 ance meetings, and discussed on all sides in our pubhc news- 
 papers, whether Chalmers approved our reform ? Had he 
 joined it ? AVas he in favor of our great principle ? What 
 says he about it ? Was he at all against it ? All this shows 
 the value of his name, and the importance of his sanction, 
 and the celebrity of his fame, in our American estimation. 
 
120 WHAT IIENRV CLAY SAID. 
 
 At some periods, the fact was asserted, published, echoed in 
 our pulpits, and made the theme of popular rejoicing, that 
 Chalmers had joined the cause and espoused the principle — 
 as it was afterward more certainly contradicted and disbe- 
 lieved. In these relations and circumstances, it seemed prop- 
 er, knowing the truth in the case, for mc thus to tell it : 
 though 7mich xcould it grieve me, in such adventurous state- 
 ments, one particle to wrong his memory, or derogate from 
 his pure and excellent renown, or wound one fibre of feeling 
 in any branch of his lovely and excellent family — now of the 
 second and the third generation alone I This explanation 
 will, I trust, be at once appreciated and acceptable, in ref- 
 erence to what, in other circumstances, I should have dis- 
 creetly and wholly omitted in this narration. I would pre- 
 scribe to the conscience, or limit the liberty, of no man ; and 
 on such a point as this, persuasion and forbearance is mainly 
 all our wisdom. 
 
 Our late exalted senator, Henry Clay, once said to me, at 
 Saratoga Springs : It is a good cause that you are advoca- 
 ting, this of TEMPERANCE. Let me, however, say that a sys- 
 tem of manly argument and magnanimous persuasion is the 
 only proper one, especially for our countrymen. Sometimes 
 its advocates are severe and dictatorial, or even denunciatory 
 and vituperative. By aU this their oratory loses. Their 
 hearers are as free as themselves, and they know it. When 
 you decide for a man, this is not so good as to make him de- 
 cide for himself. It is not the right kind of persuasion. The 
 cause needs select and competent advocates, and ought not to 
 be committed to every thing on two legs that can ape an 
 orator — that is, can make a noise ; for some animals on four, 
 with long ears, can do that I 
 
 As I recollect this in the distance, and can not command 
 his very phraseology, I give it by honest approximation, and 
 think it, even at that, too good a relic of our great American 
 Nestor, in mere oblivious silence to be lost. 
 
burk'b close, west port. 121 
 
 Since writing the above, I have been pleased to read, in 
 the speech of Mr. Clay, at a banquet or " barbacue" given 
 him, June 9, 1842, on his return to Kentucky and to his own 
 favorite "Ashland," after resigning his seat in the Senate of 
 the United States, and after a happy feast, civic and social, 
 full of sumptuous cheer, with nothing " to drink but cold 
 water — excellent water, it is ti-ue, from the classic fountain 
 of our lamented friend, Mr. Maxwell, which has so often re- 
 galed us on celebrations of our great national anniversary," 
 the following additional words, epitomizing the sentiments I 
 have commemorated from his lips : 
 
 " I protest against any inference of my being inimical to 
 the temperance cause. On the conti'ary, I think it an ad- 
 mirable cause, that has done great good, and will continue to 
 do good, as long as legal coercion is not employed, and it rests 
 exclusively upon persuasion and its own intrinsic merits." 
 
 I must now invite the reader to go back with me in the 
 chronology of this narration. At a previous interview, Dr. 
 Chalmers asked me, as follows : 
 
 2. Are you resolved to be one of my auditors next Lord's 
 day ? Because, if you are, I am resolved to be one of yours 
 also, at least in some respects. I wished to keep it close, 
 that I am to preach then in Burks Close,^ West Port, to the 
 neighbors and the poor people near ; but I understand it is 
 noised abroad, and hence we may expect quite a jam, in its 
 limited spaces, on that occasion. Besides, I shall attempt 
 nothing but plain and familiar preaching, and so I desired 
 that no strangers might be there ; as they would probably dis- 
 relish it, and neither get good, nor do good, by their attend- 
 ance. But so be it. If they come, we must meet them, and 
 just do our best in the circumstances, leaving events with 
 
 * Covered court, leading from the street to small buildings in the 
 rear, and guarded by a gate ; common name and thing in the cities 
 of Scotland, as also of England too. 
 
 F 
 
122 APPOINTMENT THERE TO PREACH. 
 
 God, and hoping and praying for the copious gift of his Spirit. 
 I was about to propose to you, however, a partnership with 
 me in the services. If you will come there, then I will use 
 you, you know ; and all the introductory parts, before the ser- 
 mon, you will perform. It will be quite a help to me, and so I 
 shall be reconciled to your coming there, as the strength of an 
 old man is not what it used to be. Non sum qualis eram 
 is an ancient saying, which old men gradually learn to adopt. 
 
 1. Yes, my dear doctor, it is my purpose, certainly, to be 
 with you ; and not mine only. My daughter, and quite a 
 company of us Americans; will be there ; and among them 
 your venerable friend, the Rev. Dr. Beecher and his lady. 
 Nor shall we be ofiended, or at all regretful, to meet you in 
 a place so humble. We consider it a greater honor to Chal- 
 mers, the minister of one, on earth a poor man, born in a 
 manger and murdered on a cross, thus to officiate to the poor 
 and the destitute, than it ever could be to dress or to be dec- 
 orated to the excited senses, in all the gorgeous canonicals of 
 sacerdotal pomp ; as appears the rival of God, the man of 
 SIN, in the ecumenical Cathedral of St. Peter's. 
 
 Pardon an illustration so extravagant ! I simply mean 
 that the humility and the rarity of such a scene will only the 
 more commend it to our approbation, the more endear its 
 chief actor to our afiections. As for my services, if I can at 
 all meet your wishes, and assist your labors, it will give me 
 real pleasure. You may command me. 
 
 2. It is a place, as you have heard, of horrible associations ; 
 so near to the very locality of the Biirkiug operations, that 
 of late thrilled all the world with their kidnapping and their 
 summary murders. What a peril it was to many of our cit- 
 izens, who narrowly escaped the snare I 
 
 1. Yes; and I hear that you are there actualizing your 
 grand ideal truth of the disinfecting virtues of the gospel, in 
 its proper contact with depraved individuals and degraded 
 society. If you can there emit the influence of salvation, and 
 
THE NEGLECTED POOR IN CITIES. 123 
 
 truly Christianize the masses, the argument will be good ; 
 philosophy should ponder it, as the fact of its premises must 
 be acknowledged, and what succeeds there may also succeed 
 any where, in all the earth. Still, certain am 1 that the only 
 catholicon in the world, that is, for the whole world, and in 
 which there is no quackery, no illusion, and no failure, is the 
 glorious gosjyel of the blessed God. Since, if men do not sin- 
 cerely try it and take it, then the patient fails, not the med- 
 icament. If men will not obey the gospel, or believe it, they 
 will BE DAMNED ; sincc it never promises salvation, but only 
 its terrible opposite, to the rejecter of its mercy and the dis- 
 believer of its divinity. May the giver of the increase pros- 
 per your benignant and most praiseworthy efforts I 
 
 2. Oh ! my dear sir, my soul sometimes shudders to see the 
 awfully neglected condition of the poorer classes even in this 
 great metropolis — and so it is, only worse, in London and the 
 cities of the continent. It shall be for a lamentation I 
 
 1. Alas I indeed. How many millions in Christendom ut- 
 terly neglect Christianity, and perish in their sins — while each, 
 too, may say, accusing the neglects of Christians, No man cares 
 for my soul. I cordially sympathize with your griefs, and cor- 
 respond with your shudders, in this most solemn and affect- 
 ing relation. There is a fault somewhere — their blood cries 
 to God for their punishment, who directly or indirectly refuse 
 them the appointed means of grace — whoever they are I 
 
 2. It seems a problem that the Church or the ministry has 
 yet to work out — How are they to be reached ? how brought 
 under the influence of salvation ? how subjected to Christ in 
 the gospel ? It is certainly a fearful problem, that ! 
 
 1. Well, my dear sir, this conversation will, I trust, have 
 the effect to prepare me to hear your faithful ministration, 
 only with a higher and a better appreciation, if the Lord will 
 that we live, and that we meet, as we now anticipate. 
 
 Thus did this man of God think, and feel, and act for the 
 
124 TENDER FEELINGS OF CHALMERS. 
 
 poor. And if that theory is sound and correct which con- 
 strues a moral action, not by what it accompHshes, bat by 
 what it cordially intends, or by that toAvard which its tend- 
 ency aims and moves, then, virtually, the pious philanthropy 
 of such a soul, desiring intensely the conversion of all men, 
 as the only way of the salvation of all men, since he would 
 do it if he could, may be construed in heaven as virtually 
 converting, and virtually saving all men I And yet who 
 truly loves Christ, through the faith of his word, and thinks 
 wisely on such a subject, without virtually doing the same? 
 In these relations, so private, so unknown, at least to the 
 great public, I seem to myself as oflbnding, I trust, against 
 no right and no law, while picturing this great and good man, 
 as he was, in his personal character and his unbent and truth- 
 ful manifestations. The pleasure they minister to my own 
 reconsideration and recollection of them, is only augmented 
 and enhanced in communicating something of their history to 
 others — as here, to dispense from such a fountain, is not to 
 exhaust, or reduce, or impair it. I never knew a man, prob- 
 ably, so greatly celebrated, or distinguished in a way so high- 
 ly eminent, who seemed to have and to hold so rich, and so 
 simple, and so child-like a humility. At times, his incidental 
 expressions of it, with nothing factitious, or artistic, or got- 
 up-for-eflect in them, were very sweet and beautiful. They 
 were rare and ripe specimens in Christian cardiology. He 
 was the disciple, acting in the felt presence of his Master. He 
 is now ivith Him. 
 
 Here we may make a circular deviation, for future use and 
 terminal illustration. I give facts and anecdotes, which I 
 never witnessed, with a sense of vagueness and indefinite- 
 ness ; still, in the present instance, with some rational and 
 good confidence in the substantial truth of the story. If the 
 reader will digest and remember it, my ulterior reason may 
 at length approve itself to his judgment. 
 
CARDINAL POINTS OF OaTHODOXY. 126 
 
 Orthodoxy, not only in Scotland, but here also in America, 
 yet here, I opine, with many more excellent exceptions, is 
 ollen found at fault, in preaching its own doctrines, mainly 
 by making, in an important and practical point, a seeming 
 or a real, as well as a practical, contradiction. It requires 
 one skillful in the word of righteousness to preach ortho- 
 doxy, and yet avoid it. Now, I am not disparaging ortho- 
 doxy ; by which I mean the truth, the whole truth, and noth- 
 ing but the truth, of God. But theology, like any other great 
 science — though it be infinitely and eternally the greatest of 
 the sciences, as it includes all others, requires learning, thor- 
 ough and well-taught wisdom, to master and elucidate to the 
 people, harmoniously and profitably, all its loca dijficiliora, 
 or parts and places of difficulty. One of these, and a great 
 one, is, always to reconcile the real dependence of the sin- 
 ner and the saint on grace divine, as the Bible does ; with 
 his obligation to do the commands of God and his agency in 
 obeying the gospel. The excellent manner in which apos- 
 tles did this is no mean proof of the inspiration that pro- 
 duced it. They left contradictions and learned nonsense to 
 the schoolmen ; those copious and specious dealers in hoc ge- 
 nus omne, whose logic can prove any thing, whose rhetoric can 
 grace stultiloquence with beautiful plausibility, and whose 
 audacity can affirm, quite credibly, whatever error may suit 
 the occasion. Now we admit that many examples of sin- 
 cere stupidity, and many of illustrious stultiloquy, and many 
 of blundering injury, may be quoted here against us ; and 
 that they do hurt hazardous to the souls of men I They seem 
 almost to warrant the caricature, in which they are some- 
 times decorated, vulgarly and profanely, to the gaze and the 
 contempt of millions. Take a specimen ; which, in a justly 
 definable variation or qualification of the sense of the words 
 used, is just the eternal truth of God, all of it I 
 You can and you can't, 
 You will and you wont ; 
 
126 MORRISON ISM WHAT. 
 
 You shall and you shan't, 
 
 You'll be damn'd if you don't. 
 
 As I have it, the Church of Scotland licensed and ordained 
 a young man of the name of Morrison, whose gifts and ven- 
 tures in the ministry were making some unique and censured 
 demonstrations, about the time of my last visit there, or just 
 previous to it. He saw there was a difficulty, from his prem- 
 ises, in making to the sinner the real offer of the gospel. 
 He felt it with intense distress. He could neither solve nor 
 bear it ; so, Alexander-like, he cut the knot. He cut him- 
 self too — like some in our country, who, however, have no 
 wholesome and effective Presbyterian discipline or constitu- 
 tional polity to set things right when they get wrong ; even 
 on such great articles as the revealed mode of the Godhead ; 
 the supreme deity of Christ ; the real vicarious and expiatory 
 nature of his atonement ; the divine method of justification ; 
 the principles, and uses, and ends of language, as the medium 
 of revelation from God to us, or from one man to another. 
 Morrison, it seems, vacated and denied the office-work of the 
 Spirit ; as if the order. Repent and believe the gospel, were 
 irreconcilable with it ; as if the invitation. Come to me, were 
 embarrassed only, not facilitated by it. The result was his 
 deposition from office, and the denunciation of his doctrine. 
 Another result — every body in the pulpit was just a little, 
 or not a little, too particular, at once to preach down Mor- 
 RisoNiANiSM, and to show every body, and his wife and chil- 
 dren, how specially clear were they of all taint of it. Mor- 
 risonians, indeed I — they, so wise and sound, they were no 
 such thing at all I The people, too, sympathized in the an- 
 tagony ; and even Chalmers seemed willing to care too much 
 about defining his position of antipathy. This phobia was 
 quite pervading ; sometimes rather ridiculous. Why not let 
 the people hear tchat the Spirit saith to the churches, with- 
 out breaking order, and symmetry, and influence, at every 
 turn and sentence, by pragmatical intervention, in an attempt 
 
TO VAUNT one's ORTHODOXY. 127 
 
 to show that it was not the sense or the way of the Spirit, 
 and especially not our way, to sanction Morrisonianism ! 
 
 It is not so honorable for a minister of Christ, especially 
 in an orthodox ecclesiastical connection, to be sound in the 
 faith, and a cordial and entire friend to the revealed system 
 in all its truth, as it is shameful and nefarious for him to be 
 any other than such a theologian and such a preacher. His 
 orthodoxy is analogous in society to the purity of woman. It 
 must not be impeached, or suspected, or defended, or handled 
 in common. The winds of heaven may not blow on it ex- 
 posed. Besides, the practice of self- vindication is only con- 
 temptible, as a species of self-impeachment and the implica- 
 tion of morbid consciousness. Qui se excusat, magis accu- 
 sat. One should mainly trust himself and his reputation to 
 God, caring for realities rather than appearances, and desir- 
 ing to do good to souls more than eclaircise his own reputa- 
 tion. Let a man mind to do his duty, and ordinarily his ac- 
 tions will tell their own story in the instinctive sentiments 
 of men. We have seen and remember some bragging ortho- 
 doxy-venders, whose terminus justified their accusers — they 
 gloried self-righteously in their orthodoxy — pshaw I and ac- 
 cused and calumniated some of the best and the most useful 
 ministers of God. De talibus citius dicto obliviscendian est. 
 But rest we here for a moment. 
 
 On the appointed morning, a fine day of boreal summer, 
 we arrived too soon at the place by some forty minutes, and 
 yet too late, as it seemed, to find easily a seat. The apart- 
 ment had been commonly unused for its present purpose ; and 
 its largeness was made by a summary mode of " church ex- 
 tension," known by some of our own missionaries, that of re- 
 moving the partition between two rather small rooms, as it 
 appeared. Well, it was overflowing full ; but the sexton, 
 having some hint or word that I was to assist Dr. Chalmers 
 that morning, began to purvey me a seat, near the table, at ^ 
 which the place of the doctor was awaiting him. With dif- 
 
128 A SUDDEN AND STRANGE SERVICE. 
 
 ficulty and his assistance, I reached it, and saw the crowds 
 collecting without, as well as squeezed together within ; yet 
 no Dr. Chalmers. I felt that some irregularity must ensue, 
 and remained more anxious than happy, till the sexton or 
 beadle came, amain, through the parted crowd, and informed 
 me that Dr. Chalmers was waiting in another room near, 
 and very desirous to see me I I objected, it seemed so dif- 
 ficult to get there through the mass, and then so hopeless to 
 return. But he was earnest and firm. He marshaled me 
 the way ; I followed him, and was soon in the presence of the 
 doctor, when, after despatching the commonplaces, he said, 
 
 2. My dear six, you see here how it is — a larger audience on 
 the outside than there is in the inside, and many of them men 
 of sense and standing in this city. "Well, I have just given 
 orders, and you must come into the arrangement. They will 
 have a large table spread there, a carpet to cover it, a small 
 table on it, and the Bible on the table. So you must climb 
 up and preach there, and I will try it inside. There's just 
 no other way, you see ; and plainly you are called to it. 
 
 I acquiesced with real regret, as it settled the question of 
 my ever hearing Chalmers again, and I knew it ! Soon I 
 was mounted, and explaining the matter to my very intelli- 
 gent and Christian-looking audience, mostly of my own sex, 
 the ladies having found accommodations within. The text 
 was, Isai. 55: 1. Ho! every one that thirsteth ; come ye 
 to the loaters — and so to the end. My position was not very 
 easy or commodious, yet I proceeded and finished the service. 
 They were very attentive ; and probably some curiosity to see 
 and hear an American might explain much of it ; probably 
 the grace of God may be credited for more of it. At any 
 rate, I spoke with freedom and directness — not scared out of 
 my proper consistency with a fear of the charge of Morriso- 
 nianism, nor anxious particularly to vaunt my undoubted or- 
 \ thodoxy. I let my reputation take care of itself, or, rather, 
 commended it and its proprietor to the care and grace of God. 
 
THE PKEACHING OF CHALMERS. 129 
 
 What was enacted within, I was not there to witness. 
 Each preacher could hear the voice of the other, without any 
 discrimination of the sense in the sound. But from several 
 others who were present I mainly describe it. The doctor 
 preached in his own admirable way to an arrested and sol- 
 emn auditory — yet, whether so familiar or not might be a 
 question. His text, ii. Cor. 5 : 20. — Noiv then tve are am- 
 bassadors for Christ ; as though God did beseech you by 
 us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to 
 God — was rich and excellent, and one might be allowed to 
 guess how Chalmers used it. His notes were before him, 
 though he seemed remarkably unconfined to them. But to 
 such a mind as his, so philosophical, so affluent, so disci- 
 plined, and so habituated to revel in scholastic forms and 
 phrases, it is quite possible that there was too much of learned 
 abstraction, and too little of practical directness and familiar 
 plainness, in his admirable sermon ; that I could not hear it, 
 was a privation and a disappointment, as I felt then, and feel 
 now, almost wounded with the thought that I had lost the 
 only opportunity I might ever have to hear him once more, 
 in the spirited and powerful discharge of his appropriate and 
 holy function. 
 
 But I am noAV to narrate another, but a related matter — 
 which, if it were to come off, I regret that I was not " there 
 to see." Among liis hearers, for the first and the last time 
 in his life, was the venerable Dr. Beecher ; and he was, in 
 his feelings and his thoughts, no ordinary hearer ! He was 
 filled with the subject, enthusiastic in his correspondence 
 with it, and not a little impressed with the idea of a practical 
 defect in it, as wanting more direct and personal application. 
 Consequently, after its close, he enacted a part, which, how- 
 ever it might be appreciated in America, was quite singular, 
 if not censurable, in Scotland, especially in the city of Edin- 
 burgh, the great Athens of North Britain, and most especially 
 as a quasi addendutn to the sermon of Chalmers I As I give 
 
 F 2 
 
130 VOLUNTARY OF BEECHER. 
 
 the narration only from hearsay, though from the lips of con- 
 current witnesses, I must remind the reader that I may not 
 be minutely correct in all the forms, and the details, and the 
 phrases of that memorable address, " on the voluntary prin- 
 ciple." He spoke mainly as follows : 
 
 My friends and brethren here present, I trust you will al- 
 low one in my circumstances, with the consent of the honored 
 preacher, to say an additional word on his great theme, the 
 more, if possible, to impress its rich and solemn truth on the 
 minds of you all. I am four or five thousand miles from my 
 home and country, have lived long in God's world, and can 
 scarce hope much longer to continue in it, and for half a cen- 
 tury have been occupied as a preacher of the gospel. Hence, 
 my friends, you may see some reason for my special interest 
 in the subject on this special occasion. I pray that this sol- 
 emn and faithful discourse may not be lost on any of us ; 
 and that, on the contrary, you may aright improve it to your 
 everlasting advantage, siiffcr, I pray you, the word of exhor- 
 tation ; though from the lips of a stranger, yet from the heart 
 of a friend. I shall never meet you again, most probably, till 
 we stand together at the judgment-scat of Christ. Well, 
 there are four things that I would affectionately enjoin on you, 
 connected with the sermon just dehvered to us : 
 
 First. Try to review, that you may retain, that you may 
 understand, that you may improve, the great truths you have 
 heard, lest at amj time you may let them, slijy, and be forgot- 
 ten and lost. 
 
 Second. Resolve here, now, on the spot, that you will im- 
 prove them, will be reconciled to God, his enemies no more ; 
 his friends, his subjects, his children, from this hour. 
 
 Third. Remember it to-morrow ; act on it ; keep and car- 
 ry it about with you ; think — a savor of death to death, if 
 not of life to life; and this necessarily, one or the other; 
 and then comes heaven or hell, at last ; just as you treat the 
 message, to improve it or not. I join with the preacher, old- 
 
DIFFERENT OPINIONS. 131 
 
 er than he, and both of us earnest, though not half earnest 
 enough, yet with gray hairs and warm hearts, as though 
 God did beseech you by us, we pray you, in Christ's stead, 
 Be ye reconciled to God. Yes, here all God's ambassa- 
 dors are one ; and now it is as if America and Europe, and 
 heaven and earth, all as one, and above all, God himself, 
 prostrate, at the feet of the moral agents that he made, your 
 suppliants, beseeching you I Can you slight it — what ? and 
 yet hope to be saved ? But, 
 
 Fourth. With all your resolves and efforts, it will come 
 to naught but death to death at last, without the grace of 
 God, to help, keep, gird, guide, and guard you in the way, 
 and all the way ; therefore pray to HIM. Pray now, pray 
 every day, pray always, pray ivithout ceasing, pray in faith, 
 pray for faith, pray till praise prevents you ; and let prayer 
 and praise, in their happy alternations, make the salubrious 
 and the celestial atmosphere of all your pilgrimage, till you 
 come home to heaven, where praise, and song, and progres- 
 sion in eternal blessedness, shall be all your delight and all 
 your business, without weariness, or imperfection, or fatigue, 
 or any infirmity, forever active and forever young I 
 
 The audience heard all this with strange and rapt emo- 
 tion ; some pleased and rejoiced beyond measure ; others, 
 withholding their approbation till they saw whereto this 
 would grow ; others, waiting for some authority to give them 
 an opinion ; and others, almost angry and censorious at the 
 unwonted venture or interruption from Ohio I It took them 
 all aback. Such an occurrence, or a similar one, I dare say, 
 Chalmers' ministry never before encountered. But I have 
 reason to think the spectacle was viewed, generally, as hap- 
 py, and even sublime. Beecher was the senior of Chalmers 
 about five* years. How different, too, their education and 
 the career of their usefulness ; and on theatres how dissimi- 
 
 * Tlie one born March 17, 1780 ; the other October 12, 1775, nine 
 months before our national Declaration of Independence. 
 
132 NO GREAT FAULT IN IT. 
 
 lar their action, their growth, and their development, respect- 
 ively. Yet in tlie unity of the faith they were one. Ven- 
 erable in so many aspects of his character, " for years de- 
 serving honor, but for wisdom more," Beecher stood mature, 
 with the snows of seventy-one winters on his head, faithfully 
 confirming the words of their venerated preacher, affection- 
 ately reimpressing them on the minds of the hearers, and sol- 
 emnly warning them to obey the gospel. It was, however, 
 a novelty or an innovation ; and, as such, opinions were va- 
 rious as to its character and its propriety. 
 
 For one, I may write it here, that, however estimated in 
 Europe, 1 could wish his address were printed, stereotyped, 
 and placed, three in every pew, of every church, and on ev- 
 ery occasion M-hen the truth of the gospel is clearly and pure- 
 ly declared in the ears of the people of America. I believe 
 the Spirit of God would take no offense at it — so grieved, 
 and so resisted, by that opposite course of fashionable levity 
 and religious driveling, which murders souls, and which the 
 FOUR ITEMS of Beecher's address are so well adapted to ex- 
 pose, rebuke, and supersede. It is authorized eminently by 
 such words as the Spirit saith to the Churches, in many a 
 notable passage ; for example. Therefore ice ought to give 
 the MORE EARNEST HEED to the things which toe Jiave heard, 
 lest at any time ice should let them slip. Wherefore, as 
 the Holy Ghost saith. To-day, if ye will hear his voice, 
 harden not your hearts. Ye stiff-necked and uncircum- 
 cised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy 
 Ghost ; as your fathers did, so do ye. Not to-morrow, but 
 nmv is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salva- 
 tion. 
 
 Both services seemed to be finished about the same time 
 After some recognitions and gratulations of friends, I met 
 Chalmers in the apartment where I had last before seen him. 
 He spoke very affectionately, as might so revered a patri- 
 arch ; thaixked me for my compliance with his request ; ut- 
 
APPREHENSION OF CHALMERS. ] 33 
 
 tered some kind words about my discourse, as so extempora- 
 neous and acceptable ; and then remarked about his own, as 
 not so happy in his own view, since he was in some perplexi- 
 ty about the things and the scenery around him ; so difTereut 
 from what he designed in the origin of that strangely-located 
 and extraordinary service. I had heard mainly nothing of 
 the events within doors, and he adverted to them as follows : 
 2. After I had ceased, our venerable friend from Cincin- 
 nati asked permission to add a few words. It was rather 
 odd to us here, and we could not tell what he wanted to say. 
 The precedent would not answer with us, and we are quite 
 unused to the like of it. And what he said was quite good 
 and solemn, only that it was open to the allegation of one 
 fault, which, I fear, was remarked by some of the critics 
 among us. On the whole, I rather regretted the occurrence. 
 
 1. But, doctor, the critics, if that means the men, were 
 mainly outsiders. All the ladies nearly were with you. 
 
 2. True ; but some of both sexes there, who heard it, 
 must have observed it, as I rather fear, and so considered it 
 as heretical. 
 
 1 . My dear sir I why, did you so consider it ? And in what 
 respect ? 
 
 2. No ; it contained no heresy at all. I allow it was all 
 sound aQd good. Still, I fear that some of them will accuse 
 it of Momsonianism. Their attention is so turned to that 
 evil doctrine just now, that they will be apt to think it has 
 traveled to America and corrupted your orthodox preachers 
 there. Error flies very swiftly in the atmosphere of this sin- 
 ning world. 
 
 1 . Why, dear sir, I trust they will not be at once so sensi- 
 tive, so unjust, and so silly. It is, I think, no foolery of ours 
 at all — it is wholly Scotch. 
 
 2. Yes, but he exhorted them to do so much, and said not 
 a word, from first to last, about the Spirit helping them — 
 that was the great omission. 
 
134 
 
 PHOBIA OF HERESY. 
 
 1 . And is not that the very way in which the Spirit speaks 
 to the Churches, quite often, in the Holy Scriptures ? Christ 
 says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock ; if any man 
 hear my voice, atid open the door, I will come iti, and sup 
 icith hi?n, and he tvith me. Now, plainly it is his duty to 
 open the door to Christ, and antecedently to hear his voice 
 in order to it. But neither the one duty, nor the other, nor 
 any duty at all, is done, in fact, ever, hy sinner or by saint, 
 without the influence of the Spirit tvorking in tis that zvhich 
 is well-pleasing in his sight. But is the Bible itself ob- 
 noxious to such a charge, because it does not drop a paren- 
 thesis at every sentence, and every doctrine, and every in- 
 junction, about our dependence on the influences of the Spir- 
 it ? Is the decalogue heretical, the Ten Commandments 
 Morrisonian, because the Spirit, or the Son, or the Father, by 
 name, is not mentioned once in the whole of it ? I trust your 
 hearers, especially the more intelligent of them, will have 
 too much justice, as well as too much sense and wisdom, to 
 wrong Dr. Beecher with the charge of Morrisonianism. The 
 CREDENDA and the agenda of Christianity are at once per- 
 fectly related and perfectly distinct. No man in the world 
 believes intelligently more than he. or probably preaches and 
 prays more, in the work of the Spirit of God. his influences 
 and his fruits. And as to this new-fangled heresy that is just 
 noAv rampant so much, and so intensively among you, I ques- 
 tion if he ever heard of its existence. It is a mere air-bub- 
 ble, or a smoke one, of your own vernacular theology. 
 
 2. Indeed, you are quite right. Perhaps I am given to 
 overrate such aberrations ; but there is ever some new phase 
 of error upturning to our startled fears, though old in the his- 
 tory of erroneous ecclesiastical dogmas ; and refuted often, 
 virtually or in form, centuries before its present inventors 
 and propagators were born. I am thinking, however, that 
 this late virulence will damage our national pulpit, and hurt 
 our common theology, in more ways than one. 
 
 1 
 
CHIROGRAPHY OF CHALMERS, 135 
 
 1. I confess there are questions of truth and skill, which 
 all your young spiritual cadets would do well, with study, and 
 patience, and prayer, to resolve and master, in reference to 
 THE MANNER OF PREACHING THE GOSPEL — offering its mercy 
 to men — and subserving, instead of subverting, the true in- 
 fluences of the Spirit, by exemplifying the way of the Spirit, 
 as shown in the Holy Scriptures ; studying them, and imi- 
 tating, with manly wisdom, those inspired and stupendous 
 examples of preaching. 
 
 So passed the time in his company I The more I had of 
 it, the more I desired to have, and the more attached to him 
 I became. From my jfirst acquaintance with him, indeed, I 
 had occasionally corresponded with his family and himself; 
 and here 1 may say that his chirography was as original, and 
 as singularly bad, as his thinking was eloquent and his dic- 
 tion superb. Such quail-tracks on paper I One describes it 
 as if a spider had fallen into the ink, and then got out, and 
 ran over the paper, backward and forward, in angles, curves, 
 and diagonals, describing all sorts of geometrical figures, till 
 the sheet was covered ! When one of his letters arrived, I 
 was glad of it — ^perhaps enough ! but I knew what decipher- 
 ing study was before me. So, like an anaconda attacking a 
 dead elephant, I went round it, looked over it, made general 
 observations, retired and rested, then renewed the assault, at- 
 tempted the mental deglutition, persevered, repeated the ef- 
 fort, and sometimes — as snakes never do — invoked a friendly 
 Champollion to assist me in the enterprise. On one occasion, 
 I had, in about ten days, fairly mastered the whole letter — 
 except one word 1 and what was that, or what it could sens- 
 ibly be made to seem, was too much for me. The connec- 
 tion had no illumination for it ; and at last I was indebted 
 to the superior sagacity of my friend, the Rev. Dr. Skinner, 
 for ascertaining the word — Reviews. I may add, that one 
 of his best letters I had spirited away from me by one of the 
 
136 HIS DISDAIN OF PUSEVISM. 
 
 cunning and covetous collectors of autographs ; from which, 
 if I could command or recover it, I might enrich this work 
 with some select quotations. But it is neither in my pos- 
 session, nor my knowledge, nor my power. I calmly par- 
 don, not without some effort, the felony that abstracted it, 
 through special skill ; and yet, that one honored brother, the 
 friend of Chalmers and my own friend, called by some wags 
 the king of autographs,* might not be suspected, and wronged, 
 in this relation, I must say only that the wily and the right 
 honorable felon was — a lady. In that letter, as I recollect, 
 were some golden sentences of pious scorn against a modern, 
 and yet an ancient, system of pseudology and stupidity, which 
 is infinitely stronger in the devil's patronage than Morriso- 
 niauism, and thus proved nearer to his own heart and better 
 for his own kingdom — I mean puseyism ! Such an impos- 
 ture, mendacious and assumptive, that inhabits a half-way 
 house between popery and protestantism, though not in the 
 centre between them, but nearer, and still getting nearer, 
 the former ; and putting on her vail, or putting it off, as cir- 
 cumstances vary the policy of appearance ; such a system, 
 a mighty and a holy mind, like that of Chalmers, must re- 
 ligiously denounce and energetically abhor. And for one of 
 their fundamental fallacies, with which they sectarianize, 
 make schism, profane religion, and deceive many, I can from 
 memory quote his measured words of holy reprobation and 
 contempt, " the uxter folly of apostolical succession !" 
 A late prelate, in converse with a Presbyterian bishop on 
 this topic, said. Well, sir, it is a great office, and has come 
 down to us from many ages and generations ; and thank 
 God, I have it. He replied. You have all there is of it, I 
 have no doubt I I bless God that I have no such thing ; 
 and expect to bless him for it at the judgment-seat of Christ, 
 and after that to all eternity ; with all my soul — odi et arceo 
 
 * Some reader may possibly not know that I refer to the Rev. Dr. 
 Sprague, of Albany, New York. 
 
APOSTATICAL SUCCESSION. 137 
 
 But Chalmers was a good and a most competent judge of 
 the utter folly of it. Yet well I know that the dupes of that 
 mendacity are not to be taken, even with the fresh salt of 
 the covenant ! The cool atrocity with which they unchurch 
 such men as Chalmers, and millions with him of the best 
 saints and the best denominations and Churches of God that 
 ever lived, is only one of the bitter fruits of their hypocritic- 
 al and contemptible dogma — antichrist, and vile assump- 
 tion all I 
 
 Where is Chalmers now ? In heaven ? How got he 
 there? Did he open the postern of salvation's castle, and 
 furtively secure an entrance ? John, 10:1, 7—9. Was it by 
 " uncovenanted mercies," such as Judas met his doom abus- 
 ing and possessing ? If those impudent churchmen ever get 
 to heaven themselves, which demands a doubt, how will they 
 previously repent of their impious wickedness and utter folly 
 in their present insipid ritualism, and schismatical sectarian- 
 ism, and most unprotestant exclusiveness ! Theirs is an or- 
 ganized monopoly. No such spots of the pit appear on Chal- 
 mers. Such abomination the Bible only abhors. He went 
 not to the dark ages for his light ; nor to paganism for his 
 Christianity ; nor to Rome or the British Parliament for his 
 authority ; nor to tradition for his certainty ; nor to the suc- 
 cession of Hildebrand, Borgia, Bonner, Talleyrand, Archbish- 
 op Hughes, or any such rebukable pretenders, for his right to 
 preach the gospel. Glory to God alone. 
 
 Some may resolve this and all similar expressions into the 
 alleged rigidity of the Scottish theology ; and I reply only 
 that truth is rigid and exclusive of all alien or other propo- 
 sitions ; and were it otherwise, or apart from this, the En- 
 glish especially, that are wonted to groan or growl at the 
 theology of their North British neighbors, are not the ones 
 exactly to correct it, especially if their donatives offered should 
 find their elements for its correction, in their own diluted the- 
 ology of semi-papal sympathy and ritualizing pomp. The 
 
138 HEATHEN TEUMPERY SOUTHWEST. 
 
 Scotch would decline their assistance and their favors ; and 
 especially would Chalmers act on the principle, 
 
 *«♦*♦* Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes. 
 
 I dread these specious patrons and their lifts ; 
 
 Most dread them when they come with special gifts. 
 
 He touches on this indeed, not ambiguously, in one of his 
 prelections from his official chair to the arrested and con- 
 fiding circle of ingenuous youth, the students in divinity 
 around him : 
 
 " About our doctrine, however, at the same time, I feel no 
 intolerance ; and have occasionally met with the best of men, 
 especially on the other side of the Tweed, who shrink from 
 it with antipathy almost nervous, and that certainly par- 
 takes much more of the sensitive than the rational. There 
 are many, even the saintliest and most devoted among the 
 clergymen of England, who talk with the sincerest horror of 
 our gloomy and repulsive Calvinism. ***** 
 
 "But if there be degeneracy among us, and aught is to ar- 
 rest it, it will not be, most assuredly, the importation of its the- 
 ology from England ; and as little by a supply from the South 
 of its altars, or its surplices, or its gorgeous candlesticks, even 
 though aided by the mystic charm, either of pulpits with 
 their faces to the southwest, or of ministers performing some 
 unknown evolutions with their backs to the people. Least 
 of all will the figment of apostolical succession be of aught 
 avail against the chilling influences of a jejune and lifeless 
 ministration." 
 
 All these human inventions are trumpery and huge imper- 
 tinence. How much religionizing stupidity it requires in one 
 to imagine that God can be propitiated or pleased with them ! 
 Altars indeed, and priests, and sensuous symbols, are all ab- 
 rogated in the present noble and spiritual dispensation. They 
 are superseded now by their substantial archetypes ; and all 
 the appetence that tends to reproduce them is only blunder 
 and degradation, in the nominal worshipers and the genuine 
 
BRITISH ROMANIZING. 139 
 
 ofienders of the Almighty. Their way is more Judaizing 
 than Christian, more in retrogradation and heathenizing pref- 
 erences than in the progression of our glorious Christianity, 
 according to the way of the Great Author of all the dis- 
 pensations, and the Dread Reprover of all the purblind in- 
 ventions and modifications of our flesh-pleasing and substi- 
 tuted wisdom. Hoivbeit then, token, ye kneiv not God, ye 
 did service to them that by nature are no Gods. BiU 7ioto, 
 after that ye have known God, or rather are knmvn of God, 
 how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, 
 ichereunto ye desire again to be in bondage. Ye obsei've 
 days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of 
 you. Yes, they observe Christmas — though Christ was not 
 born in winter, and God enjoins us to commemorate his death 
 not his birth ; and Easter, and a stereotyped legion of human 
 ordinances of the same foolish sort. 
 
ADDENDUM CHALMERI MEMORANDIS. 
 
 The opinion of Chalmers on the subject of slavery may be 
 correctly gathered from what I have already written ; nor 
 can that opinion be regarded with lightness by men of sense 
 and virtue any where. The relations of slavery, and of war, 
 and of government, to the Church of God involve questions 
 of interest to all Christians ; and if, in this age, there has 
 existed one man who, above others, might be trusted, as well 
 as selected, to answer them, that one was Chalmers. I 
 have lately met in his published works with some expres- 
 sions of his views, which I deem it proper here to subjoin. 
 They are those of our own Dwight, Richards, Griffin, Miller, 
 Alexander, Stuart, and others. In a letter to my own ex- 
 cellent and learned friend, the Rev. Thomas Smyth, D.D. of 
 Charleston, South Carolina, dated Edinburgh, September 24, 
 1844, he writes thus : 
 
 " I do not need to assure you how little I sympathize with 
 those who — because slavery happens to prevail in the South- 
 em States of America — would unchristianize that whole re- 
 gion ; and who even carry their extravagance so far as to 
 affirm that, so long as it subsists, no fellowship or intercourse 
 of good offices should take place with its churches or its min- 
 isters. 
 
 " As a friend to the universal virtue and liberty of man- 
 kind, I rejoice in the prospect of those days when slavery 
 shall be banished from the face of the earth ; but, most as- 
 suredly, the wholesale style of excommunication contended 
 for by some is not the way to hasten forward this blissful 
 consummation." 
 
 The publication of this letter led to a demand made on 
 
HIS VIEWS OF SLAVERY. 141 
 
 Dr. Chalmers by the Anti-slavery Society of Edinburgh, for 
 a disclaimer of the letter, or a fuller expression of opinion. 
 This he gave in a letter on American slaveholding, from 
 vv'hich the following extracts are taken : 
 
 '• Our understanding of Christianity is, that it deals not 
 with civil or political institutions, but that it deals with per- 
 sons and with ecclesiastical institutions, and that the object 
 of these last is to operate directly and proximately with the 
 most wholesome effect on the consciences and character of 
 persons. In conformity with this view, a purely and rightly 
 administered Church will exclude from the ordinances not 
 any man as a slaveholder, but every man, whether slave- 
 holder or not, as licentious, as intemperate, as dishonest. 
 Slavery, like war, is a great evil ; but as it does not follow 
 that a soldier can not be a Christian, neither does it follow 
 that there may not be a Christian slave-holder. * * 
 
 It holds experimentally true that within its limits * * 
 the most exalted specimens of piety and worth are to be 
 found. * * * Neither war nor slavery is in- 
 compatible Avith the personal Christianity of those who have 
 actually and personally to do with them. Distinction ought 
 to be made between the character of a system and the char- 
 acter of the persons whom circumstances have implicated 
 therewith. We hope that our Free Church will never devi- 
 ate to the right or the left of undoubted principles. But we 
 hope, on the other hand, that she will not be frightened from 
 her propriety, or forced by clamor of any sort to outrun her 
 own conviction, so as to adopt, at the bidding of other parties, 
 a new and factitious principle of administration, for which 
 she can see no authority in Scripture, and of which she can 
 gather no trace in the history or practice of the Churches in 
 apostolic times. But I must repeat my conviction that slav- 
 ery will not be at all shaken — it will be strengthened and 
 stand its ground — if assailed through the medium of that 
 most questionable and ambiguous principle which the Aboli- 
 
142 WISDOM OI' THE AMEKIC.W BOARD, 
 
 tionists are now laboring to force upon our acceptance, ever 
 that the slaveholding is in itself a ground of exclusion from 
 the Christian sacraments. * * * Not only is 
 there a wrong principle involved in the demands which these 
 Abolitionists now make on the Free Church of Scotland, it 
 is hurtful in efl'ect. Should we concede to their demands, 
 then, speaking in the terms of our opinion, we incur the dis- 
 credit, and in proportion to that discredit we damage our 
 usefulness as a Church, of having given in — and at the bid- 
 ding of another party — to a factitious and new principle, 
 which not only wants, but which contravenes, the authority 
 of Scripture and of apostolic example, and, indeed, has only 
 been heard of in Christendom within these few years, as if 
 gotten up for an occasion, instead of being drawn from the 
 repositories of that truth which is immutable and eternal — 
 even the principle that no slaveholder should be admitted to 
 a participation in the Christian sacraments." 
 
 The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- 
 sions has been often tried with ultraisms, party questions, 
 and zealous extravaganzas, at its annual meetings, as well 
 as in its councils and its operations at other times, both at 
 home and abroad ; and hitherto that learned and dignified 
 body have been wise, and unawed, and incorruptible, and for 
 the most part entirely unanimous in their practical and their 
 theoretical positions and responses on the subject, to the ap- 
 probation, and even the admiration, of the best judges, and 
 the most intelligent observers of their administration, both in 
 America and in Europe — I might say also in Asia and in 
 Africa. Dr. Chalmers was distinguished for applauding 
 their wisdom, as the results to which they came, and the 
 " deliverances" they gave, at Rochester, in 1843, and at 
 Brooklyn, in 1845, especially pleased him. He says, " We 
 admire the practical wisdom of the American Board in the 
 deliverance to which they have come on the subject of slav- 
 ery." His views, indeed, are those of all sober, well-in- 
 
DUTY OF ALL CHRISTIANS. 143 
 
 formed, and impartial theologians, who read in the original 
 and wisely interpret, not wickedly or stupidly pervert, such 
 passages compared, to mention no others, as i. Cor. 7 : 21, 
 20-22 ; Eph. 6:5-9; i. Tim. 6:1-5. The kingdom that 
 is not of this xoorld is in the world, however, and its object 
 is not primarily to mingle with existing organizations of so- 
 ciety, or to militate against them, or to drive forward any 
 temporal reforms, much less to meddle with partisan and 
 political opinions and issues. It is legitimately no part of 
 its way to declare war against Ccesar, even though a pagan 
 or a persecutor. It afiects all social improvements gradual- 
 ly, and potentially, and surely, in the best possible way — 
 THAT IS, INDIRECTLY ; by Christianizing individuals, by edu- 
 cating them for heaven, and by giving them on all subjects 
 a correct and a purifying public sentiment. Christianity 
 comes from heaven to earth, not to make earth its home, or 
 to lose itself by sympathy or identification with the ways or 
 the wisdom of this world, but to prepare persons, an exceed- 
 ing great multitude, for a better world, them and their off- 
 sjyring with thevi, by making their characters right, and 
 wise, and happy in the sight of God ; givi7ig thanks to the 
 Father, ivho hath made them meet, fitted them to be jJar- 
 takers of the inheritance of the saints in light. Thus 
 Christianity, so to speak, never forgets its special mission, 
 and never lends itself to any other. "The happiness which 
 it confers in the present life are blessings, which it scatters 
 by the way in its march to immortality^." And those who 
 follow in its train may well afford to be misunderstood, and 
 even calumniated, for its sake ; though here, it is true, to be 
 distinguished for wisdom and rectitude, is certainly to suffer, 
 in some way, with the honors of a living martyrdom. 
 
 With fame, in just proportion, envy grows ; 
 And he who makes a character, makes foes. 
 Where impulse rules, or party sways the mind, 
 The wise are scorned by men sincerely blind. 
 
INTERVIEW 
 
 WITH THE 
 
 REV. NATHANIEL EMMONS, D.D. 
 
 FRANKLIN, MASS. 
 
 He that getteth wisdom loveth his own soul ; he that keepeth understanding shall find 
 good. — Ptov. 19 : 8. 
 
 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt ; for he 
 had respect unto the recompense of the reward — Heb. 11 : 26. 
 
 Thou Shalt love thy neighbor as thyself— Matt. 22 : 39. 
 
 Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from 
 above, and cometh doicnfrom the father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither 
 shadow of turning. — James, 1 : 16, 17. 
 
 Christians, who are united in the belief of the truth, have a right to blame those 
 who think differently from them upon religious subjects. — Dr. Emmons. 
 
 The project of improving the Gospel of God has often been attempted, and in no 
 instance with success ; the design of it, indeed, to say nothing of its modesty, or its 
 piety, or its wisdom, is singularly inconsiderate or uninformed in respect to the 
 Architect of the eternal system, and his only negative relation to all possible mistake 
 or imperfection, in whatever he does, and most especially as the author and avenger 
 of the system of redemption. — Anon. 
 
 fieTao-rpe'il'ai to euayye'Aioi' ToC Xpicrrov. — Gal. 1 : 7. 
 
 ipevvare to? ypa(f>ai. — John, 5 : 39. 
 
 ****** laboratit 
 Cum ventum ad verum est : sensus moresque repugnant 
 Atque ipsa utilitas justi prope mater et lequi. — Hor. 
 * * " * vi.x credere possia 
 
 Quam sihi non sit amicus. — Hor. 
 
REV. NATHANIEL EMMONS, D.D. 
 
 This distinguished New England divine has made, if not 
 an era in the theology of" our country, yet a permanent and 
 a palpable demonstration in its theological history. There 
 is no way, perhaps, in which we may, with equal facility 
 and pertinence, at the present day, characterize a syllabus 
 of doctrinal and philosophical sentiments in religion, wheth- 
 er we approve or reprove them, as to say that they belong to 
 the system of Emmons. 
 
 That several of his normal principles are virtually con- 
 demned by mainly all our orthodox divines, by such men as 
 Witherspoon, Dwight, Rice, Alexander, Richards, Stuart, 
 and in Europe by Chalmers, Hall, AYatts, Doddridge, Howe, 
 Owen, Baxter, and others, among the illustrious dead ; and 
 there by Candlish, Cunningham, Brown, Symington, Cooke, 
 Edgar, Morgan, Harris, Morison, Cumming, Liefchild, James, 
 Jay, Raffles, still alive, with all others of their sympathy and 
 affinity in religion, is a fact most certain, as well as most 
 solemn and most admonitory. It is probable that, among 
 all the faculties of our own theological seminaries, their 
 learned professors would, in the main, unite in rejecting those 
 principles, as equally deleterious and unscriptural, and there- 
 fore false. Such schools as New Haverr and Princeton, how- 
 ever differing in some theses of metaphysical theology, are 
 remarkably, and with no conspiracy or concert, coincident 
 here. They both reject the system of Emmons ; and the 
 former has suffered more misrepresentation and more cal- 
 umny from masked batteries on that identical account, un- 
 
148 a(;uki:ment in avei;sk)\. 
 
 speakably, than the latter ; Avhile in New England it seems 
 to have led the way, with true Christian tenacity and cham- 
 pion daring, in oppugnation and explosion to that system ; 
 and to have derived very little recognition or justice of laud- 
 ation for its original, indomitable, and exemplary demon- 
 strations, to the confusion of its adherents and the triumph 
 of the truth. Palmam qui meruit ferat . In my own pro- 
 foundest conviction, the whole Church of this country, and 
 especially of New England, owes a deep debt to Dr. Taylor 
 for the matter, and the manner, and the motive of his agen- 
 cy, in his able and steady refutations of all the greater princi- 
 ples of the system of Dr. Emmons. And I am glad to know, 
 and be able here to write it, whatever some may think of it, 
 that such a triumvirate of theological strength and eminence, 
 however diflering possibly in other things, as Alexander, 
 Richards, and Taylor, are substantially one in this relation. 
 Dr. Richards, as I have full reason to know, bravely did, 
 and sufl'ered, and periled more, perhaps, than any other man 
 in this relation, and with great success, from his first induc- 
 tion to the chair of theology at Auburn to the end of his 
 useful and devoted life. 
 
 On the other hand, Dr. Emmons has qualities as an au- 
 thor that elevate and distinguish him, justly, among the or- 
 thodox clergy of this country. He lived to a great age, 
 about ninety-five and a third years old at the time of his 
 death. He was born April 20, 0. S. or May 1, N. S. 1745, 
 about three months after Hannah More ; and he died Sep- 
 tember 23, 1810. He commenced his public labors as a 
 preacher, October, 17G9, and Avas soon settled, once only, in 
 the stall, virtually the same, where, after discontinuing his 
 pastoral responsibilities for several years, he died, at Frank- 
 lin, Norfolk county, Massachusetts. What a pity that we can 
 not always get the good, without an insidious profusion of the 
 evil, in the concrete mass of the works of an author I 
 
 From the first of my graver religious impressions, from the 
 
FIRST IMPEES8I0NS OF HIS WORKS, 149 
 
 year 1811 and onward, till I was introduced to the ministry, 
 October, 1816, the works and the views of Emmons sur- 
 rounded and pervaded me, as making much of the spiritual 
 atmosphere ill which I lived, and moved, and had my be- 
 ing. I read his sermons, received them as ne-plus-idtra 
 specimens of metaphysico-philosophical divinity, and admired 
 them even till I began, in professional life, to try their prin- 
 ciples, in a practical way, in the solemn work of preaching 
 the gospel. Here I studied more calmly and originally the 
 native sense and the correct interpretation of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures. To these I felt, more and more, that all theories 
 ought substantively and utterly to he subordinated — and this 
 great principle I feel and love more and more to the present 
 day I Its greatness and its goodness are becoming, with 
 my better educated judgment, increasingly appreciated and 
 avowed. It ought to be the deep religious aim of a preacher 
 to study the truth of Scripture in its own inspired originals, 
 and thence to derive the substance of all his pabulum for the 
 pulpit or the press. God will not allow his ministers to sub- 
 stitute the human wisdom for the divine. It is spiritual 
 adultery, and idolatry, and perfidy in the highest possible 
 relations of moral man. Isai. 29 : 13, 14. The precept of 
 men may be coincidently right ; it is, however, very often 
 deceptive and erroneous ; but right or wrong, it is no fitting 
 substitute for the identical word of God. John, 17 : 17 ; Pet. 
 1 : 21-25 ; Col. 2:6-9; i. Tim. 6 : 20, 21. The Scriptures 
 have their circumstances, their incidents, and their ancient, 
 peculiar costumes. They have also their doctrines, their 
 facts, their relations, their connections, their proportions, 
 their styles, their methods, and their glorious harmonies, both 
 in their credenda* and their agefida,f as legitimately af- 
 fecting our minds and characters in religion ; and to ascer- 
 tain their native sense, to educe and verify it, to teach and 
 vindicate it, is the grand and noble function of intcrpreta- 
 * Things to be beheved. t Things to be done. 
 
150 HIS PROTON PSEUDOS. 
 
 tion, or the heimeneutical science — a science which our great 
 and venerable divines of the former century pre-eminently 
 needed and distinguishingly lacked I Hence their metaphys- 
 ics, their polemics, their dogmatics, and their inductive and 
 resultant ethics, in religion, became at once the medium and 
 the discoloration of the truth of God in their ministrations — 
 with too few great exceptions. 
 
 Of such a man as Emmons, I grieve to say that, while I 
 am yet among his admirers, 1 view his characteristic doc- 
 trines as fundamentally* false and bad — his philosophy as 
 eminently unscriptural, and his system as speciously and de- 
 plorably unsound. Their faults and their offenses can not 
 be expiated by the sleep of the sepulchre or the culmination 
 of his general living or posthumous fame. There is a virus 
 in them that pervades them. They have a tendency, an 
 influence, a sympathy, and a drift, as well as a very taking 
 speciousuess, of M'hich, if a man, and especially an inexperi- 
 enced student, is not suitably aware, he may become less a 
 beneficiary than a pervert or a victim. 
 
 His rrpdrov tpevdog, or cardinal error, was probably — his 
 views of the divine agency, its nature, its extent, and its final 
 causes. If they who hold those views come not to the ex- 
 tremes of pantheism, fatalism, and idealism, the better result 
 must not be credited to those views, or to their logical acu- 
 men and consistency, by whom those views are credited or 
 entertained. Some of those views are here stated, for the 
 proof and verification of which I am responsible. See Em- 
 mons's Works, by Dr. Ide, Boston edition, 1842. 
 
 1. God is the author of all things, sin especially included. 
 
 2. He presei-ves all things, material and immaterial, by a 
 procreative and incessant act, just as he began the same act 
 by creation. 
 
 * This in a sense objective, as related to the revealed system ; 
 not subjective, as if judging the spiritual state of a man — which I 
 w nnld never wish to do, even in thought. 
 
SYNOPSIS OF HIS VIEWS. 151 
 
 3. Preservation is simply creation continued ; mind, mat- 
 ter, acts, entities, attributes, motions, relations, universally 
 included ; as procreated incessantly, each of them — or they 
 could never be and continue at all. — IV. 382. 
 
 4. It is best, all things considered, that just as much sin 
 as exists, and as will have existed eternally, should exist ; 
 and therefore it exists in the measured preference and by the 
 measuring agency of God. 
 
 5. However good the universe might be without sin, it i.s, 
 all things considered, and as a whole, deliberately and infi- 
 nitely better with it. 
 
 6. God intended to introduce it, to this verj' end ; and 
 hence he originated it in fallen angels, and in fallen men, 
 and in every instance, as the necessary means of the greatest 
 possible good, the eternal optimism of the system. 
 
 7. Hence our submission should subjectively correspond 
 with this array of objective theophany and glory ; and our 
 submission to be in his hand, that he may make us as wick- 
 ed and as miserable as he sees fit, all things considered, 
 should be at once superlatively joyous and absolutely uncon- 
 ditional ; amen, alleluia I pure piety, heaven on earth begun I 
 this — the very thing I 
 
 8. If men dislike this, it is all owing — not at all to their 
 wisdom, but only to their selfishness ; and so is it none other 
 than impiety and upstart rebellion ; yet, for the best ends, it 
 is produced positively, at the time, in them by God himself 
 
 9. Selfishness is the genus generalissimutn of all sin ; 
 and self-love, or the love of happiness as one's own, is only 
 a modification of the same thing, selfishness : and fools only 
 affirm or believe a difference. 
 
 10. Disinterested benevolence is the only true virtue, as 
 the grand and the only proper antagonist of selfishness. 
 
 Among other aspects of character, I was wont to view Dr. 
 Emmons as a very unique person, and so as an intellectual. 
 moral, and theological curiosity. As previous to this inter- 
 
152 1\'J'KK\ IlLW WITH E.MMUN!?. 
 
 view 1 liad never seen him, and hardly thinking it probable 
 that he could continue much longer, I wrote to him in the 
 summer of 1838, respectfully announcing my expectation to 
 journey toward the East in his vicinity, and requesting his 
 permission that, stranger as I was, I might be allowed to 
 visit him. He wrote a reply, courteous and prompt, assuring 
 me that, if he remained " in the body" till my arrival, he 
 would be glad to see me, and that I should certainly find 
 iiiiu at home. In company with an intelligent and worthy 
 elder of ray own church, Lowell Halbrook, Esq. who had 
 Ijeen born and reared in that vicinity, and had ever held Dr. 
 limmons in very high estimation, I visited him, on Saturday, 
 August 11, 1838, then in his ninety-fourth year, and only 
 about twenty-five months before he Jitiished his course, Sep- 
 tember 23, 1840. 
 
 My plan or design in this visit was, in many respects, va- 
 riant from what actually occurred in it. To argue with him ; 
 to engage in controversy ; to be theologically catechized, or 
 mipeached, or suspected, never once entered my mind, as I 
 now remember. Almost half a century my senior in life, I 
 felt deeply the awe of his age, his fame, and his approxima- 
 tion to eternity. I desired to see the theological patriarch, 
 to converee with him, and to hear any of his sayings — with 
 no idea of gainsaying. Indeed, I had the idea of his waning 
 strength, his senility, and his subdued consciousness of the 
 hastening transition. Besides, an event that had its place 
 in our conversation, and shall appear in this narration, had 
 just met and affected me. I was requested, before the visit 
 to Dr. Emmons that morning, to make one to a venerable 
 layman, only two years his junior, and then confined on what 
 seemed to be the bed of dissolution. I found him calm, con- 
 scious, and humbly happy in his Savior. Indeed, the moral 
 odor of the scene was hallowed, " quite in the verge of heav- 
 en." I was edified, delighted, instructed, as the result; and 
 love to this day to remember it. Such intelligence, script nr- 
 
COURTEOUS AND KIND RECEPTION. 153 
 
 alness, and practical submission to the will of God, one seldom 
 sees united ; where hope at once predominates, and soothes, 
 and purifies the soul ; and where patience has a perfect 
 u-ork to the glory of God. Having engaged, at his request, 
 in prayer and thanksgiving, at the bed-side, with its honored 
 mcumbent, I returned, and immediately rode, about eight 
 miles, to the residence of Dr. Emmons, with fresh and hap- 
 py memories of that solemn spectacle, which Christianity 
 alone could inspire, and which so honored Christianity. 
 
 "VYe were soon introduced, and received in a courteous and 
 easy manner by the venerable man. He seemed more vig- 
 orous and agile, as well as cheerful and mirthful in his man- 
 ners, than I could have anticipated. He welcomed us in an 
 honest and open style, inquired after the health of friends, 
 and with considerable vivacity despatched the common topics 
 of the day. I assured him of my regret that I had never 
 before been able to meet him personally, especially when he 
 visited New York,* in May, 1836; adverted to his uncom- 
 mon age, as probably the oldest clergyman in the country, 
 and ended by saying that, in other respects, he was properly 
 no stranger to me, however I might be unknown to him. 
 Then our dialogue commenced. 
 
 2. I have heard of you, Dr. Cox, almost twenty years ago 
 or more ; ever since the split in the Young Men's Mission- 
 ary Society in New Y'ork. [It occurred in the autumn of 
 1816.] 
 
 1. Q^uite a memorable occasion was that I 
 
 2. Y''ou had some sharp theological shooting on both sides, 
 I think. 
 
 1. We had. Those scenes have passed, though not their 
 consequences. 
 
 2. Who is your great giant there, since Mason died ? 
 1. We have none, I think, to take his place. 
 
 * The only time in his life, as I am informed ! I was then in Au- 
 burn, New York. 
 
 G 2 
 
154 FEW SOUND I'KEACIIERS, HE TUINKS. 
 
 2. His views were verj' diflerent from mine, you know. 
 
 1. Yes ; and all such difierences in general evince, I think 
 the imperfections even of great and good men. 
 
 2. The truth is always the same. 
 
 1 . It is ; yet how vary our perceptions of it I 
 
 2. I am apt to think there are very few there among you 
 who hold the truth with thoroughness and discrimination. 
 Indeed, I know of one only — just one, who constitutes the ex- 
 ception to my remark. 
 
 1. That is, you knoio, only one I \Yell, certain it is, my 
 good sir, that your acquaintance with the evangelical minis- 
 try there is very remarkably limited, as you admit. Possibly 
 there may be more scholars, intellectual giants, and worthy 
 men, among them, than you imagine ; holding the truth with 
 good and clear intelligence ; eloquent men and mighty in 
 the Scriqyturcs. ; faithful pastors, devoted, holy, exemplary, 
 and evidently prospered and owned of God. So I think of 
 them — although, no doubt, there may be one Judas among 
 every twelve of them ; since false preachers and heretical 
 corrupters have cursed the Church of Christ in every age, 
 with the costume of a sheep and the spirit of a wolf; and 
 who would deceive, if it xccre possible, the very elect. Bless- 
 ed be God, this is, in his guardianship, eventually impossible. 
 
 2. I make a great difference between general orthodoxy 
 or generic Calvinism, and that theology which can rightly 
 discriminate ; class all its views in a correct system ; state 
 arguments and objections in their just relations ; and hold 
 all the doctrines in their thoroughness and their consistency, 
 as one great whole, and as exclusively the truth. 
 
 1. This, indeed, implies great acumen, and great erudition 
 too. Still, it leaves the question, What is truth ? much at 
 large and undecided. Men might agree in the general de- 
 scription, yet not in the specifications under it. 
 
 2. Right. And hence I said that I know only one among 
 you. in New York, who exemplifies the character of thor- 
 
ASSAL'J/r ; rUANKLIN vs. NEW YORK. 155 
 
 ough, discriminating, and correct, as a theologian and a 
 preacher.* 
 
 1. He must be a very Abdiel, according to your eulogium. 
 
 2. I learn, Dr. Cox, that you are not well pleased with my 
 theology. Now that you are here, it may be as well to 
 render a reawn, if you can, for your difl'erence. 
 
 1. My dear sir, I had no such thought in this visit. 
 
 2. Still, it is a proper way to spend the time, and I must 
 know your reasons. I shall urge my right to them. 
 
 1. Why, doctor ? Are you serious ? This implies we know 
 not what in the end. 
 
 2. Because I suspect they can all be answered. Many 
 have come here with their objections, which crossed my 
 threshold but once. They had none left to carry away with 
 them. 
 
 1. I might prove an exception, doctor. 
 
 2. Yes, and you might not. If you difier from my theol- 
 ogy, you ought to have reasons for it ; and if these are stated 
 so as to be known, they might be answered. 
 
 1 . When .T think of the diflerence of our age, doctor, I feel 
 less courage to meet the encounter. Really .your mercurial 
 vivacity surprises me, however, after so many years have gone 
 over you. 
 
 2. Well, be not too modest. Let us have them. You need 
 not think that Franklin is going to New York to learn theol- 
 ogy ; New York must come to Franklin. 
 
 1. So you say. doctor. Well, here I am then, according 
 to your wish, at Franklin, and ready to learn any thing you 
 can teach me, on two conditions only — 
 
 One, that it is true ; 
 
 The other, that it can be proved by the Bible, soundly in- 
 terpreted . 
 
 2. Well, I agree to the conditions, though the latter 
 
 * The name of the individual I forbear to announce, from motives 
 of courtesy, and lest it might be misunderstood. S. H. C. 
 
156 METHOD OF THEOLOGIZING. 
 
 may seem a little ambiguous. What, then, are your objec- 
 tions ? 
 
 1 . Really I feel at a loss to begin, especially as I had no 
 thought of such a thing in this visit. I may be found in 
 some disarxay. 
 
 2. Well, let us hear and see them, in due order. 
 
 1. There is a primary one, sir, which perhaps I ought to 
 state here. It respects your way or method of theologizing. 
 I object to it as utterly wrong. If so, your other aberrations 
 may be its offspring. 
 
 2. What is that way, think you ? 
 
 1 . You bring the trained logic of your mind, contempla- 
 tive, to investigate what you apprehend as the principia of 
 truth. You then get axioms, aphorisms, postulates, synopses, 
 parallelisms, and contrasts of all degrees and sorts ; and thus 
 you get topics into system ; " make joints," and places for 
 them ; behold the congruity and coincidence of all the parts 
 in their magnific facade ; and have the whole eclaircised with 
 definitions, illustrations, proofs, objections, refutations, appli- 
 cations, and classifications, until the entire contour is fixed, 
 and finished, and furnished, ready for use. It becomes easy, 
 then, to select a theme, and to construct a discourse from it, 
 on principles of topical homiletics ; and as easy to get a text, 
 and fix it in place, so as to make a sermon. Thus, too, all 
 textual or expository preaching is practically precluded. 
 
 2. And what great objection have you to such a way ? Is 
 it wrong to reason, to investigate, to look at things, to com- 
 pare, to construct, and so arrange and use the results obtain- 
 ed ? or, to make a system ? 
 
 1. It may be admitted, to some extent, and in a subordin- 
 ate way, in systematic theology. But as a way, it is neither 
 the first, nor the last, nor the best, nor the main, nor the 
 right way, in my view. 
 
 2. Must a man surrender reason in order to begin, then ? 
 1. Not at all, only use it aright. The oflS^ce-work of rea- 
 
INTERPRETATION THE UAY. 167 
 
 son iu religion is great and definite ; but by mistake or per- 
 version, it becomes an infinite mischief to the souls of men 
 and to the cause of God. It is not the province of reason to 
 invent truth, or to anticipate, or to modify it, in the revela- 
 tion of God ; but there to learn, and thence to teach it. 
 
 2. What, then, must we do, as our method in theologiz- 
 ing ? 
 
 1 . Mainly, study that revelation ; study it for our prem- 
 ises ; study it in its inspired originals ; study it with honesty, 
 with candor, with learned assiduity, with all proper auxil- 
 iaries and technical helps, and, above all, with prayer to its 
 great Author, for wisdom liberally imparted ; and so inter- 
 pret it, use it, follow it, and feel that if you have the native 
 sense of scripture, and only as you have it, you have the 
 
 TRUTH. 
 
 2. Do you, then, condemn metaphysics ? 
 
 1 . When they dare to take the lead in theology, condemn 
 Ihem, sir ? yes, execrate and abhor them too I It is only a 
 proud and a plausible way of running before one's leader, and 
 superseding the word of his authority, by that of our own in- 
 finitely inferior wisdom. It is only in their abuse, however, 
 that I condemn them ; which abuse is oftener perpetrated 
 than seen, suspected, or confessed. This I call the great 
 learned fiend of our current theology in some places, and not 
 of yours alone. Only put the truth of scripture through the 
 great alembic of our metaphysics, and it results a different 
 thing ; its identity is gone, as well as its purity, and its pow- 
 er, and its divinity. The sanctions of God are gone, those of 
 man preponderate. It is idolatry I 
 
 2. But what is your substitute ? 
 
 1. Interpretation of the word of God; where man 
 has a guide and a rule always with him, and his u'Oi'k be- 
 fore him. Metaphysics, as a science, are related to every 
 man's own various acumen, learning, clarity, vigor, caprice, 
 sophistry, prejudice, imagination ; and of itself it ultimately 
 
158 MESSAGE-BEARING IN PREACHING. 
 
 determines nothing, or nothing with religious authority. But 
 says God to every preacher, Son of man, I have made thee 
 a ivatchman to the house of Israel ; therefore hear the icord 
 at my mouth, and give them warning from me. Preach 
 to them the preaching tJmt I bid thee. If any man speak, 
 let him speak as the oracles of God. Some men might re- 
 ply, very consistently, " Lord, I preached dogmas, after my 
 metaphysics had proved them to be vi'hat I think really and 
 purely true. I did it all very carefully and conscientiously." 
 2. You seem quite severe against us. 
 
 1. Preaching is vv'ell called message-bearing. Let com- 
 mon sense determine in a case analogous. You send a mes- 
 sage by a servant, the more intelligent and well-bred the 
 better ; yet it is your will and his duty that he bear that 
 identical message, and none other, and bear it as yours, in 
 your name, unaltered, and pure as possible, to its proper des- 
 tination, without sufl'ering change or taint on the way. He 
 may study it ; but not make it, in that way, some other mat- 
 ter, or manner, than you gave him to convey to a third par- 
 ty. Toward God, and as his message-bearer, how ought ev- 
 eTy minister to feel the supreme obligation that is on him to 
 do just his duty I Instead of this, his metaphysics occupy 
 him. He is scholastic, philosophical, investigating the na- 
 ture of things ; and not a thing will he say till it has passed 
 that medium, and been endorsed current by that authority. 
 In this Avay the servant gets above his master ; the minister 
 eclipses the king. Now, sir, such is my confidence in hu- 
 man nature, in human wisdom and truth, in the luminous 
 powers and the truth-eliciting fecundity of the mind of man, 
 that I verily believe, coram Domino, that not a man exists 
 on his footstool that is fit to be trusted to theologize and preach 
 in that way. He will inevitably get wrong, and attract oth- 
 ers deceptively in his wake. 
 
 2. In this way, then, I take it, you think I have commit- 
 ted and taught errors. 
 
 i 
 
OBJECTIONS TO HIS WAV. 159 
 
 1. I do, sir. You say, " Begin the study of divinity at the 
 root, and not at the branches ; that is to say, begin at the 
 first principles of theology, which are few and plain, and aft- 
 erward trace them out in their various consequences, rela- 
 tions, and connections." I should say. Take the Bible ; read, 
 study, analyze it ; ascertain what its sense is, what it teach- 
 es. Never mistake its popular style, or its figurative state- 
 ments, or its splendid poetical illustrations, for metaphysical 
 truths. Be familiar with all its contents. Let the word of 
 Christ dicell hi you richly. Make much, and more, and 
 most of the Holy Scriptures. Be mighty in them. Let your 
 sermons tell the people for you. My doctrine is not mine, 
 but his that soit me. Then are you morally omnipotent, 
 when you are personally nothing ; because Christ is all, and 
 in all, the Master, the Head, the Commander, the King. 
 
 2. Well, and what are the errors that you chiefly allege ? 
 
 I answered by stating his views of the divine agency, of sin, 
 of submission, and of disinterestedness, which I judged to be in 
 several respects unscriptural — though all right by his meta- 
 physics. On submission as unconditional, I objected. 
 
 That it was all the creation of his system, and not of scrip- 
 ture. 
 
 2. You would have the sinner, then, make conditions with 
 his God ? 
 
 1. Not at all. There is a distinction, founded on a proper 
 difierence, between submission with no conditions, and sub- 
 mission with conditions made for us by our God. If God has 
 preoccupied the ground with his own perfect, gracious, un- 
 changeable conditions, and published them to the world, it is 
 no more piety to reject them, and submit unconditionally in 
 those relations, than to prescribe our own conditions or con- 
 tinue in impious rebellion. The phraseology here, of unre- 
 served submission to the conditions and proposals of God, I 
 cordially approve ; as meaning also, by necessity of the ne- 
 
160 SELF-LOVE AND SELFISHNESS. 
 
 gotiations of the gospel, an unreserved and hopeful acqxiies- 
 cence in the way of salvation, as copiouslj' revealed, and of- 
 fered to us in the gospel, that we may be saved. 
 
 2. Well, and what have you to object to holy affections as 
 disinterested ? You are no open advocate for selfishness, 
 surely. 
 
 1. I refer, dear sir, to your views of it, when I announce 
 my disclaimer. Those views seem to me erroneous. 
 
 2. I hardly ever heard an objector to my theology who 
 did not terminate in selfishness. 
 
 1. To selfishness I am exceedingly averse. If you resolve 
 all sin into it as a genus, it is not at all to this that I object, 
 but to other views of yours. 
 
 2. "What, then, are they ? 
 
 1 . I make a very important distinction here between self- 
 ishness and self-love, as normally and cardinally different. 
 
 2. I say they are just the same, or that either is as bad as 
 the other. 
 
 1. By self-love I mean the love of happiness as ours, con- 
 sidered as an instinct, a duty, and a privilege ; and as prop- 
 erly involving no sin in it at all. Adam had it before he 
 sinned. Christ had it, and hence it was self-denial and self- 
 abnegation for him to die for us. Saints in glory have it. 
 
 2. All which I utterly discredit and deny. As for your 
 distinction between self-love and selfishness, it is wholly gra- 
 tuitous, and, reposing on no difference, it is like a house with- 
 out a foundation. Who makes such a distinction ? who ? 
 
 1. I suppose you think none but a fool, quoad hoc, could 
 make it. Yes, this idea is not new to me. When a stu- 
 dent, I read it in your old preceptor. Dr. Hopkins. So that, 
 warned, and with both eyes open, I pronounce the allegation 
 false and the distinction true. 
 
 2. Then, where is the proof? Give us proof. 
 
 1. Possibly I can, my dear sir. Without it, of course, I 
 shall ask no man, surely not Dr. Emmons, to believe me. 
 
CONTROVERSY ; IN FOR IT. 161 
 
 2. If you can prove your position, I shall become your con- 
 vert. 
 
 1 . See if I do not ; though not much drawing on meta- 
 physics in my argument. You say that self-love is sin ; that 
 it is contrary to the law of God, at one with selfishness, and 
 impossible to be proved virtuous and right in its own nature, 
 and irrespective of all consideration of degrees, as less or 
 more ? and that, in contradistinction to all self-love, disinter- 
 ested benevolence is the summation and definition of virtue ? 
 
 2. I certainly do ; that is just what I say, because just 
 what I think. Let us see how you can prove the contrary, 
 in this argument of New York against Franklin. 
 
 1. Perhaps, my dear sir, you may find that the issue, to 
 begin, is not between you and — me, but between you and — 
 Christ I The argument may be very simple ; it may be very 
 brief; but it will suit me better than all human metaphysics. 
 
 2. Produce it, then ; the issue is fairly joined, and the ques- 
 tion is fundamental. 
 
 1 . There is a passage of truth in which all others seem 
 condensed ; on which, says our blessed Savior, hang all the 
 law and the frophetsi. It comprises two grand precepts : 
 of which the second zs like to the first. Thou shall love thy 
 neighbor as thyself; that is, supplying the ellipsis, as thou 
 lovest thyself. 
 
 Dr. Emmons : Thou shalt not love thyself at all, for that 
 is sin : seK-iove and selfishness are both the same, and each 
 is only sin. 
 
 Inference, Thou shalt not love thy neighbor at all ; for 
 that is sin. 
 
 2. Why, how is that ? Go over it again. 
 1. I will, with some variation. 
 
 Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself; 
 Thou shalt love thyself; this is duty too ; 
 Inference and measure. Thou shalt love thy neighbor also, 
 equally and as really as thou lovest thyself 
 
162 MAGNANIMOUS CONFESSION. 
 
 Now, hold to your thesis, and then what a synopsis I Your 
 metaphysics have refuted all the laiv and the propliets, ay, 
 and the Son of God too, with a witness. 
 
 Thus, my honored and dear sir, it is plain that God, mak- 
 ing no account of all your philosophy, has given you and all 
 men a perfect measure of their social obligations, in the sim- 
 ple perfection of his word ; and what has become of it ? Is 
 not his word better than your philosophy % Can we under- 
 stand the former alone through the medium of the latter ? 
 In respect to the duty of each to every other, he has given 
 us the proper and the perfect measure ; and you, by your 
 metaphysics, have knocked the bottom out of it. Now it is 
 Uke a broken cistern that ivill hold no ivater. Now philan- 
 thropy has become a crime, as much so exactly as selfishness 
 is, and as certain — as your metaphysics I It is thus that ex- 
 tremes meet, and that the icorld, ay, and the Church too, by 
 wisdom kneiv not God. What is the worth or the virtue of 
 revelation, if, after all, we must go to sea with the heathen, 
 before we can know our duty and our salvation ? 
 
 2. Why, I am wrong ; surely I am wrong, sir. 
 
 This he solemnly announced, and not ironically, as I at 
 first was tempted to suspect. It was a moment of awe and 
 surprise. I could say nothing — he said no more ; my friend 
 was affected even to tears. 
 
 After a pause of some length and meaning, I rejoined, 
 
 1 . Honored and dear sir, if I may, I would now say three 
 things : 
 
 (1) I am wonder-struck and overwhelmed. We seem to 
 reach a result " portentous, unexampled, unexplained." I 
 never anticipated it at all, and, of course, never intended it 
 in form. 
 
 (2) The thing itself is strange and rare in history. I give 
 you the credit, and God the glory of your making a mag- 
 nanimous confession, the like of which, its proper parallel, 
 I never knew before as a fact in history. Here is an ele- 
 
TERMINUS OF THE ARGUMENT. 1B3 
 
 ment of your vaunted metaphysics and your own unique the- 
 ology, that you have held and preached for two or three gen- 
 erations ; and now, in your ninety-fourth year, and in the full 
 exercise of your faculties, you repudiate it as false, in honor 
 of a simple saying of the Son of God I I only add, 
 
 (3) Would to God that you could have seen the grand and 
 the simple truth of scripture eighty years ago, and never de- 
 parted from it I What a different influence would you have 
 exerted, what a superior ministry would you have exercised, 
 what a better course would you have run, what richer, and 
 lovelier, and nobler, and wiser, and more useful sermons 
 would you have preached, what a change for the better, 
 and what a great change, so to speak, would have been real- 
 ized in comparison Avith what your sermons now ai"e ; with 
 your tests of Christian piety, ultra-evangelical and impossible ; 
 with your rough and jagged theological horns every way pro- 
 truded, and goading the simple piety of the Church of God I 
 This my soul sincei'ely thinks. 
 
 It may be inferred that, in his most exemplary confession, 
 he was both sensitive and sincere, from the fact that, after 
 it, he showed no inclination to pursue the controversy. Ac- 
 cordingly, I also declined ; and after a few more remarks on 
 general topics, we took our departure as respectfully and as 
 tenderly as we could, and with his subdued but well-sus- 
 tained politeness to the end, uttering its valediction. On 
 some accounts I regretted, while on others I rejoiced, that 
 any third person, and especially a layman, was present at the 
 interview, fearing that it might embarrass or wound him in 
 the result. I certainly endeavored to be at once courteous 
 and reverential on the one hand, honest and faithful on the 
 other ; and if in any thing I failed, contrary to the spirit of 
 the fifth commandment, I am ready to ask pardon for it be- 
 fore God and man. The interview was so singular and so 
 remarkable, and also so very instructive, that I obey my own 
 feelings not more than the requests of others, whom I respect 
 
164 SIMl'LE BIBLK PIETY. 
 
 and love, in making this registration of the occurrence and 
 giving it to the public ; well availed of the attestation of 
 my valued friend, who was my companion there, whose test- 
 imony I have chosen, in anticipation, to provide to the sub- 
 stantial truth of the narration, and which will be foimd at 
 the end of this article. Indeed, without such attestation, 
 in reference especially to his confession, as above related, I 
 should almost fear to stand before the orthodox theology of 
 New England and affirm the fact. Some may refer it to in- 
 cidental causes, some to the second childhood of age, some to 
 mistake on my part or his ; I only say that I believe, as does 
 also my iriend above named, the facts as here stated, that 
 is, in their main and substantial verity. As to the manner 
 of the narration, it is much my own ; it has, perhaps, defects 
 and superfluities ; I have aimed, however, to have it not un- 
 worthy of confidence, however vulnerable to criticism. 
 
 Our promiscuous conversation, before the colloquy just re- 
 cited, had many salient points that were characteristic and 
 worthy of recognition. One or more of these I may relate. 
 
 The old disciple* that I had just previously visited, and 
 with whose ripe and evangelical piety I was so gratefully 
 impressed, frequently recurred to my thoughts, and that in a 
 way suggestive as well as agreeable. I could not avoid the 
 contrast between piety trained by the Bible, with common 
 sense, spiritual experience, faith, prayer, and hope ; and that 
 artistic and techiiical sort, which metaphysics, clear and cold 
 as an arctic day in December, yet affecting to shoio to us a 
 more excellent tray, is fitted or able to produce. His will- 
 ingness to die ; his hope of heaven ; his trust alone in Christ ; 
 his simplicity of submission ; his prayer for patience ; his 
 sense of personal un worthiness ; his confession of sin ; his fear 
 of desiring too much to be with God ; his joy in the salva- 
 tion of the gospel ; his devout meditation ; and his rich yet 
 simple-hearted love for the Savior, as dying for him, as inter- 
 * Captain Benjamin Shepard, of Wrentham. 
 
THE DOCTOR'h HOPR OF IIFCAVfiN. 165 
 
 ceding for him, as never leaving or forsaking him, as loving 
 him with an everlasting love, and as ruling over all, mighty 
 to save, never-changing, all-adorable ; these remembered traits 
 affected my mind, and induced the following dialogue : 
 
 1. There is one question. Dr. Emmons, which, if you allow 
 the freedom, I would respectfully venture to ask. 
 
 2. Ask it, sir, with freedom. 
 
 1. You have lived long, wrote, and read, and thought, 
 and preached, and prayed much, and probably may soon be 
 called to the world of spirits ; how, then, do you feel about 
 salvation ? how does heaven appear to you, or what think 
 you of it ? Does it seem sure and desiiable, as well as prox- 
 imate to your experience ? 
 
 2. You wish to know what I think about heaven and sal- 
 vation ? about my own being saved ? 
 
 1. I do, sir, if you please ; I desire to know that exactly. 
 
 2. Well, then, I will tell you. I think that, if I am never 
 saved, and never get to heaven, others will. 
 
 He spoke this with deliberation and emphasis. I heard 
 his words, waited for more, thought the sentence incomplete, 
 and was surprised to see that it was finished. 
 
 1. Is this all, sir ? 
 
 2. Yes ; what need of more ? what could I say better ? 
 1. I can easily tell you — Jiaving a desire to depart and 
 
 be loith Christ, i.chich is far better .' 
 
 I can not well recollect what followed ; but view this an- 
 swer as the logical, uncomfortable, and jejune result of his 
 religious metaphysics. No rejoicing in hope; no full as- 
 surance of hope ; no consciousness that could sa-y, for me to 
 live is Christ, and to die is gain — and no self-love I No, 
 not a particle of that metaphysical sin I 
 
 If you say it was his humility, he felt his atomic insig- 
 nificance, and was too modest to aver his .certain glorifica- 
 tion ; I then reply. It is not the fruit of the Spirit, but of his 
 own philosophy. Isai. 30 : 1 ; Mic. 2:7; Eph. 5 : 8-10. 
 
1G6 THE I'ROrKK Httl'U OK Clllt I8TI ANS. 
 
 This is his hope, and all of it. I never read of such a hope 
 in all the scriptures. It is as unlike the wisdom of the Bi- 
 ble, as the first chapter of Ephesiaas is other than a theorem 
 in Euclid ; or as a beautiful flower is diflcrent from the Au- 
 tocrat of France or the Queen of Madagascar. It was the 
 utterance of a mere metaphysico-hypothetical truism, and 
 about as pertinent as if he had said, Robinson Crusoe cared 
 very little either for democratic progress or for the recent dis- 
 coveries in astronomy. It is not to be praised because Dr. 
 Emmons said it ; and apart from such a reverent or filial 
 consideration, it ought to be rejected with religious indigna- 
 tion. What could I say better, indeed ! The only credit 
 due for it is — it is consistent. It is the starved and imbecile 
 symbol or epitome of his system and his theology. It is not 
 the result of the gospel at all. Christian hope may be de- 
 fined — the authentic expectation and joyous desire of future 
 good, resting on Christ alone for its basis, and honoring scrip- 
 ture alone for its medium, in which one's character becomes, 
 by the grace of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, the subject- 
 ive counterpart of all the exceeding gi'cat and jyrecious py-om- 
 ises of the gospel, received objectively as revealed, and real- 
 ized subjectively by faith in their Author. Let any unsophist- 
 icated person consult those promises, and then ask whether 
 the counterpart of them can be any thing like this — If I am 
 not saved, others ivill. The gospel is not responsible. 
 
 At another moment, as we were approaching the severer 
 part of our conference, he remarked that the presumption 
 was against my system, and in favor of his system ; since his 
 was so purely unselfish, so illustriously disinterested, that 
 mine, in the contrast, must appear inferior and wrong, as 
 just the opposite, or nearly so, and therefore as interested and 
 selfish. 
 
 1 . To that, doctor, I not at all assent. The truth, I think, 
 would well-nigh reverse your statement. I deny that there 
 is any selfishness in my system at all, especially because, in 
 
SELFISH DISINTERESTEDNESS. 167 
 
 your sense of the phrase, I have no system. It is my high 
 aim to learn the system of God, to know that, and to repu- 
 diate and religiously scorn every other. My hope would 
 wither, and my soul collapse in stormy agony, if I thought 
 my hope was in any other system than simply that of God. 
 But as to yours, I think that you well call it so familiarly 
 " my theology." A man ought to own what he makes. Yours 
 is all or mainly your own architecture. Now, who called 
 you, or any other uninspired man, to make a system of theol- 
 ogy, instead of simply learning and taking what God made 
 for us all, and revealed to us all, as the glorious gospel of 
 the blessed God ? 
 
 For one, I am cordially willing to "receive that of God 
 which I study, but never made, and never wish to alter or 
 improve, as the only system that has a right to be, because 
 it represents realities as they are, for his glory and our good, 
 and because it is his system. As to yours, I think that you 
 have made one for yourself, which, as wholly supererogatoi-y 
 and fabricated, is also a selfish action or work, its very dis- 
 interestedness being elaborately a selfish creation of your own. 
 This is honestly my opinion ; and I have seen the system 
 work, and seen, as well as felt, its evil fruits in some high, 
 and others not high, places of the Church. Some of the most 
 selfish ministers I ever knew, so viewed by all their brethren, 
 had adopted your system con amore, and were so given to 
 prate professionally against self-love, and in commendation 
 of their moon-struck abstraction of disinterested benevolence, 
 that it became with them at once a hobby, a dotage, and a 
 degradation, as of them a proverb of scorn. 
 
 WTiere yet was public virtue ever found 
 Where private was not 1 Can he love the whole, 
 WTio loves no part \ he be a nation's friend. 
 Who is in truth the friend of no man there 1 
 
 The old maxim of the law is beautifully philosophical, be- 
 cause ultimately scriptural : sic uteie tuis ut non alie?ia 
 
168 Tur. cHii'.r knd ok ma\. 
 
 ladas ; so use your own as not to injure what belongs to an- 
 other. Now here we liave a fine criterion. It is coincident, 
 and that subUrnely, with the law of God. To -seek our own, 
 so as to mar or injure what belongs to another, is selfishness. 
 To seek our own, in coincidence with another's interests, 
 rights, and possessions, and to love both in consistency, is 
 moral rectitude. To make our own, as an object of love and 
 pursuit, sinful, and to love others with no sell-love at all — 
 but only to include, perhaps, as a unit among millions, what 
 is our own, this is Emmonsism. 
 
 Now suppose that every person should seek his own sal- 
 vation, as God plainly requires ; and suppose they should all 
 find it and love it, I should like to know whose interests in 
 the universe could be injured, or, rather, not promoted by it ? 
 Thus Cowper, pleading for the Christian against the hostile, 
 and caviling, and envious worldling, expresses it well : 
 
 Forgive him then, thou bustler in concerns 
 Of little worth, a trifler in the best. 
 If, author of no mischief, and some good, 
 He seek his proper happiness by means 
 Which may advance, but can not hinder thine. 
 
 Thus it is a fact worthy of note, that Dr. Emmons was 
 wont, on this same ground of disinterestedness mainly, to ac- 
 cuse the answer to the first question in the Shorter Cate- 
 chism of selfishness and absurdity. The chief end of man 
 IS TO GLORIFY GoD, AND TO ENJOY HLM FOREVER. His char- 
 acteristic comment here was this — the former branch of the 
 sentence is well enough, the latter is selfishness and absurd- 
 ity. Of this one of his,* aftervv'ard one of my own intelli- 
 gent parishioners informed me. 
 
 Some of us deem it an answer that can not easily be me- 
 liorated by all the system-makers in the world, and are con- 
 vinced that all of the selfishness and the absurdity that per- 
 tains to it results latently or overtly from the erring meta- 
 • She then an excellent widow, now, I trust, a glorified saint. 
 
SIN BAD, AI-L THINGS CONSIDRKKI). 109 
 
 physics of its oppugiiers. This, however, though important 
 as well as true, is a lesson which some are too old to learn, 
 and which others are so habituated in false philosophy as 
 never to appreciate. Our young divines and our youthful 
 multitudes ought to be started right in their career, or 
 error may captivate them all their days, and the hope of a 
 reformative opslmathy may prove as vain as the mythic ef- 
 forts of the ancient giants to pile Ossa upon Pelion, in ex- 
 pectation by such means to Scale the habitations of the gods. 
 
 The metaphysic qualifier, or distinction between a thing 
 desired or pursued, " in itself considered," or " all things con- 
 sidered," figures largely, or rules latently and insidiously, in 
 Emmonsism. It is, when rightly applied, a valid and useful 
 distinction. For the same reason, it becomes, in other rela- 
 tions, a gi-eat blinder to the eyes, and a deceptive perverter 
 to the ways of men. Thus, according to his system, my sin 
 is bad, in itself considered, since it breaks law ; but it is good 
 and desirable, all things considered, because it is an immense 
 and a necessary benefit eternal to the universe. In the former 
 respect God hates, in the latter he loves it ; in the one we are 
 to be sorry for it, in the other glad and thankful. — iv. 371- 
 37 G. When God gives law to men, that law is so the ex- 
 ponent of his re ipsa will, that he desires them to keep it 
 always in the former, but desires them to break it always in 
 the latter respect, in such form and in such degree exactly 
 as theocratically becomes history in the event ; sin being, in 
 every such instance, pro tanto et pro tali, the necessary means 
 of the greatest good to the eternal universe. 
 
 However good some men may be, in spite of certain inci- 
 dental and exceptional things in their system, these things 
 inhere organically in the system of Emmons, and they are, 
 as misrepresentatives of God and his system, horribly false and 
 infinitely abominable I Coram Deo, et in judicii diem, et 
 scio et scribo. I denounce them as evil, and eminently evil. 
 
 A young Emmonsite, full of light and zeal, and very full 
 H 
 
170 
 
 A LAW-CONDEMNING DIAGRAM. 
 
 of assurance, once made a diagram to illustrate this two-fold 
 and contrary relationship of sin, somehow thus : 
 
 A square, as a 
 perfect figure, rep- 
 resents the universe. 
 Whatever line of ac- 
 tion coincides, as a 
 parallel, with its per- 
 pendicular or its hor- 
 
 /- 
 
 -7^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 izontal lines, coin- 
 cides also with the 
 good of the universe. 
 The line L repre- 
 sents law ; those S 
 represent sin ; those 
 H represent holiness. 
 
 Thus S is sin in every case, in itself considered, because it 
 crosses or transgresses law ; but it is right, all things consid- 
 ered, because it coincides with the lines of the universe, and 
 so promotes its good. He was answered, 
 
 (1) But the lines H are wrong, for the same reason ; be- 
 cause, though coinciding with law as parallels, they contra- 
 vene the harmonies of the universe, as not parallel with those, 
 but transgress them ; that is, they violate the greater. 
 
 (2) The law is wrong, for the same reason ; it is contrary, 
 and transgressive to all the higher and greater parallels ; it 
 is itself sin against the universe. The old-fashioned idea, 
 however, is, that the lata is holy, and the commandment 
 holy, and just, and good 
 
 He paused, as if taking time to consider, where we leave 
 him, to manage his, instead of Euclid's, elements alone ; and 
 remark, that if sin, in any relation that it sustains, is not evil, 
 and only evil, and that continually, we own that we know 
 nothing of the theosophy of the Holy Scriptures. Nor is the 
 view of Emmons identical at all with that of Calvin. It is not 
 Calvinism, but hypercalvinism. That magnificent Reformer 
 made God not at all such an agent, although supremely and 
 prosperously regnant in the throne of eternal providence. His 
 treatise proposes to show his agency " without stain," and to 
 avoid the abhorred result of predicating of God that he is the 
 author of sin. His doctrine is limited and guarded, as his 
 idea was plainly and laudably variant ; thus, causa [peccati] 
 
EMMONSISM NOT CALVINISM. 171 
 
 extra hiimanam voltintatcrn quaRrcnda non est, ex qua radix 
 mali surgit ; in qua fuudauiciitiim regui Sataiia^, hoc est, pec- 
 catum, residet. — lust, book ii. chap. iv. secrt. 1, 2. 
 
 And he shows, also, that the idea of God as the author oi" 
 sin is to be justly avoided in the argument ; nor — Deum mali 
 auctorem pra;dicemus — should we make the predicament to 
 call him the author of evil. 
 
 I say, therefore, that the peculiar views of Emmons are not 
 Calvinism ; and that, so to denominate them, however com- 
 mon or specious it may be, is only another specimen of pseu- 
 donymous titles in theology, by a very old, if not " a weak 
 invention of the enemy," to superinduce on error some of the 
 sacred sanctions and associations of the truth, and thus smug- 
 gle it into the kingdom of heaven. Were Calvin now living 
 among us, as he was in Geneva three hundred years ago, I 
 am sure he would reject and denounce the system of Em- 
 mons with lightning and thunder^ that would leave its im- 
 pression on all Christendom and all posterity. It would ap- 
 pear to him as misrepresentation, if not caricature, of the 
 system that took his confidence and bears his name. We say 
 of the symbols of faith of the Westminster Assembly, now for 
 a century and a quarter nearly adopted by the Presbyterian 
 Church in these United States, that we receive them as 
 
 CONTAmiNG THE SYSTEM OF DOCTRINE TAUGHT IN THE HoLY 
 
 Scriptures. But no Emmonsite can properly say the same ; 
 nor, nostra jiidicio solcmni, ought any Presbytery to allow 
 such an errorist, such a perverse and alienated preacher, to be 
 matriculated as a minister of our Church. In his preliminary 
 examination, his principles ought to be soundly ascertained ; 
 and if so tainted and characterized, he ought not to be ap- 
 proved, nor his examination sustained, nor his ulterior pur- 
 poses realized, nor his request allowed to be accepted in our 
 connection as a Presbyterian minister. We can not at all 
 consistently sufi'er such incongruities and moral improprieties, 
 with our sanction, in the Church and the ministry of God. 
 
172 ESOTERIC WISDOM. 
 
 Suppose I can not tell the mode of a thing, shall I there- 
 fore the less believe the fact of a thing ? Modes and es- 
 simces are mainly a terra iticognita to men, especially to one 
 wlio has a microscope of his own invention, through which 
 his optics are exhilarated as with the consciousness and the 
 illusion of philosophic vision. Some men are so short-sight- 
 ed tliat they can not see to the limits of human knowledge, 
 and lience conclude that those limits exist not. To know 
 how the will oi" the immaterial tenant, the soul, can inhabit 
 and actuate the machinery of the material tenement, the body, 
 to write a letter, or to wield a sword, or to touch with skill 
 some sweet instrument of music, all real philosophers know 
 lo be exactly impossible, in our present state of being. But 
 the facts of the case every one knows that he knows, with 
 or without philosophy, and with or without a microscope — or 
 system of his own metaphysics. 
 
 Now it seems that the system in question has its chief af- 
 fectation here — it can tell how things are, how they move 
 or act, how it is possible, and how it is impossible ; so that, 
 without such system, a man can neither tell, nor know how I 
 Hence, in this important knoM'ing, the system is a theologico- 
 metaphysical novum organum, and a sine qua non at that, 
 with all right philosophers. The word yvcoaig was not more 
 potential or central with the ancient Gnostics. • 
 
 A friend of mine, an original thinker and a gifted lawyer, 
 who was then an acute-angled and sharp-pointed Emmonsite, 
 but afterward saw through the system and piously renounced 
 it, once related to me, with high approbation at the time, the 
 following conversation, as a part, that he had with Dr. Em- 
 mons, whom he visited with reverence bordering on adora- 
 tion. He said, 
 
 The doctor asked me, after I had told him my views and 
 how I admired his theology, if I knew why it is that they — 
 he called them Hopkinsians in the argument — are ai'raid of 
 no other religionists, and why all other religionists are afraid 
 of them ? 
 
GREAT ANSWER TO A GREAT aUESTION. 173 
 
 3. I answered, No, sir, I do not ; nor am I aware that 
 the fact is as yon state it. Arc they all airaid of us ? 
 
 2. Yes, and Hopkinsians are afraid of none of them. And 
 there is a good reason for it. 
 
 3. Well, doctor, I confess this is a new view of the sub- 
 ject. At least I never thought of it before. 
 
 2. The doctor rejoined, The reason of it is plain, and good, 
 and true, accounting honorably for the fact. It is this : Hop- 
 kinsians understand all other religionists, and see through 
 their system ; and other religionists do not understand Hop- 
 kinsians, or see through their system. 
 
 3. The lawyer added to me that he was sti'uck with the 
 boldness and the grandeur both of the fact and the reason, 
 and that he could never forget or cease to admire it. 
 
 The latter, however, he cordially did, some years after- 
 ward, by the help of some of the eye-salve of Christ. I re- 
 late the narrative, because so exceedingly characteristic both 
 of the system and its author. It is, however, a glaring in- 
 stance of the 2)etitio j^rincipii, to say nothing of its modesty. 
 ^^^lere is there any proof of the alleged fact of universal fear 
 on one side, and none on the other ? Where any, that the 
 reason of it, if it were fact, is true, apart from his modest as- 
 sertion ? What excessive vanity in reference to his system 
 of theology I And just so his out-and-out disciples every 
 where view it, as the to ttov, the instar omnium of all re- 
 ligious wisdom. 
 
 My own conviction of the system is, that it often tells what 
 it does not know, often what is false, and, as a medium of 
 theological exposition and enforcement^ is a vile perverter of 
 the truth of God ; that facts with it are less, modes more ; 
 the scripture subordinate, its own wisdom perilously superior. 
 
 Take a few illustrations : 
 
 Say this man is an enlightened moral agent ; that is, a 
 creature accountable, and acting under law, to his Creator. 
 The law says— this do ; temptation says — that. The result 
 
174 GOD SINCERE AND HOLY. 
 
 is, he sins. The question then occurs, How much did God 
 desire him to keep the law ? Eimnonsism answers. In itself 
 considered, not all things considered ; but, in this latter re- 
 spect, God desired him, with an infinite preference, to do just 
 as he did ; and just as God worked in him to do ; and just 
 as God positively energized all things to induce him to do ; 
 and just as, if he had not done, it would have been, an ever- 
 lasting blight, and an immedicable malady to the creation 
 and the Creator ; and just as, having done, the substantial 
 and eternal optimism of the universe is gloriously and indis- 
 pensably sustained by it. 
 
 How well one knows when he has competently learned 
 all this ; fit now to preach any where — except, at least, in 
 the pulpits of some unsophisticated and intelligent ministers 
 of the truth as it is in Jesus ! 
 
 Let us now answer the question by common sense, in ac- 
 cordance with the Bible, and conscience, and experience. 
 
 How much, in the case supposed, does God desire that the 
 moral agent should obey, and not transgress ? Answer, In 
 a degree infinitely intense, perfectly sincere ; and both in it- 
 self considered, and all things considered, he desires him to 
 do right only, according to the rule of action prescribed to 
 him ; so that it is impossible to conceive that he could more 
 desire it than he does. His law is himself It is his own 
 radiating heart. It is the full-orbed exponent of his bosom 
 and his soul ; and to suppose he could have a counter and a 
 paramount desire, at the same moment, in favor of sin, is the 
 very acme of all that is absurd, anti-scriptural, and impious 
 Be ye holy, for I am holy. 
 
 On the antagonist platform, it were impossible for God to 
 be sincere. Indeed, he is the most — but I forbear. Ecce 
 signuni. 
 
 There is, indeed, one mode of pseudo-orthodoxy that comes 
 near to a parallelism, in the matter of dishonor to the glorious 
 sincerity of God, as the object of our adoring confidence in 
 
FALSE OFFER OF SALVATION. 175 
 
 the gospel. I refer to that astute and persisting type of theol- 
 ogy that oilbi'S salvation, in some indefinable anil ambiguous 
 sense, to men, when it is all folly and equivocation, because 
 there is none for them ; that provides exclusively for a part, 
 and then afl'ects to offer salvation in all the world, and to 
 every creature ! There is some erudite sense, we are told, in 
 which this is all consistent, all rational, all wise, all honorable 
 to God. But how mnch metaphysics, karning, " yvuiaii; et 
 aocbia," it takes to illustrate and prove the sincerity of God, 
 in the dilemma so made for him by his own self-arroga- 
 ting disciples and official luminaries, who can measure ? 
 who knows ? who can guess ? One of them, now, I trust, in 
 Heaven, who was nurtured in this school of the Vatican of 
 America, once said to me, "I care nothing for philosophy, 
 I only preach the gospel. Yet this is my principle — I know 
 not for whom the provision is made, or who the elect are; 
 therefore I ofler it to all." I replied. When I lately heard 
 your truly eloquent, but very exceptionable sermon, from John 
 5 : 40, you told the people that " God oflers them salvation, 
 that the ofler is his own." Now, if it is God's ofler, what 
 has your ignorance to do with it ? And if it is only your of- 
 fer, and that indebted for its being alone to your ignorance, 
 why not tell the people so, that they may safely despise both 
 the preaching and the preacher I He replied, " True, to a 
 wonder ! I declare to you I never thought of that before. 
 It is absurd, sure enough." I vi'ould not tell the name, though 
 he was more honest, and sincere, and generous than were some 
 of his teachers — and cordially I love his memory ! 
 
 Before I give the illustration, let me remark, that, in the 
 gospel, God is perpetually offering salvation to ever// creat- 
 ure. I affirm in it, what I cordially believe, his veritable, 
 and perfect, and glorious sincerity. In this relation, the mat- 
 ter is important beyond all created thought. Men perish, 
 by neglecting, or rejecting, or discrediting his offer, and 
 their guilt is infinitely enhanced as the consequence. If they 
 
17G VIEW OF COMMON SENSE. 
 
 had reason to doubt his sincerity, how would it prevent their 
 own, howmalte confidence impossible I He invites, he urges, 
 he forbears, he remonstrates, he weeps over them, he com- 
 mands, he threatens, he waits, he teaches, he pursues, he re- 
 peats, he lightens, he thunders, and at last he destroys them ! 
 Was he sincere ? I answer, on the system of Emmons, he 
 was infinitely insincere, and nothing better. 
 
 Now for the illustration, and the appeal to common sense. 
 A friend from abroad visits you. After inquiries, you ascer- 
 tain his condition, and invite him to be your guest, and malte 
 your house his home during his stay. You are sincere. You 
 desire him to accept the invitation, and he will do it, unless 
 self prevented. Now, suppose the fact that you would like 
 him to stay with you, in itself considered, but not all things 
 considered ; that your reasons for the latter you keep a se- 
 cret, and urge those only that show the former ; urging him, 
 on that ground, to remain : what would you think of your 
 own sincerity ? What would the whole world think of it, 
 when known ? In a reversal of circumstances, would you 
 accept such an invitation yourself? that is, if you knew or 
 only suspected it ? If this be sincerity and truth, what are 
 hypocrisy and falsehood ? And is this the illustration of the 
 sincerity of God in the gospel ? Hell might tremble anew 
 to entertain the thought ! In view of the facts of the case, 
 conmwn sense pronounces that no Jesuitism in the universe 
 could be conceivably worse, as a system of sublime mendac- 
 ity and most captivating religious Machiavelism. Shall we 
 theologically endorse or adopt the great maxim of the Bishop 
 of Autun, that " the use of words is to conceal our thoughts ?" 
 to say nothing of a late distinguished piece of originality on' 
 the nature and use of language, by one of the learned pres- 
 byters of New England. 
 
 Suppose, now, you are sincere in your invitation, and you 
 iipprehend that it is his great interest to accept it ; that you 
 can make him do it, by some means which it is in your 
 
SINCERITY HYPOCRISY. 177 
 
 power, but not in your wisdom, to apply ; that you would 
 like to apply those means, if you consistently could, but know 
 that greater evil would result from such application, in other 
 relations, than good in this ; and that you could not, there- 
 fore, apply them, even if the foreknown result were certainly 
 the refusal and damage of your friend. In this case you do 
 not apply them ; your friend suffers as the consequence, not 
 as the effect, and you are sincere. You have a resource — he 
 none. In itself considered, you would have apphed those 
 means, because you were sincere ; but all things considered, 
 you applied them not, because you were good ; because you 
 were wise ; because you could not prefer the less to the great- 
 er, or act with the weaker against the stronger motive. 
 
 This shows where and when the distinction legitimately 
 applies — when one agent looks at two alternatives, to decide 
 about his own agency toward one or the other of them ; say- 
 ing, shall I do this or that ? In itself considered, I would 
 gladly do this ; all things considered, I wisely prefer to do 
 that. I would not have my limb amputated, in itself con- 
 sidered ; but, all things considered, I will, I prefer, I determ- 
 ine it. 
 
 Not so when two agencies are distinctly related and in- 
 volved. Come and stay with me, my friend. I desire you 
 to comply, you can not imagine how much — almost as much, 
 as, all things considered, I desire you not to accept the in- 
 vitation. If you come not, I shall weep over you, I desire it 
 so much ; but if you come, I shall weep more, since I have 
 more and greater reasons for desiring you, at aU events, not 
 to come or to think of such a thing. 
 
 The grand and stupid objection we are now prepared to 
 answer in the highest relation — If God desires the sinner so 
 much to accept salvation, why does he not make him do it, 
 or take order effectually to secure that result ? I reply, he 
 would do it, in every instance, and with all his heart, be- 
 cause he is so perfectly sincere ; but often he sees that he 
 
 H 2 
 
178 SUPREMACV OF LAW. 
 
 can not wisely do it, that, having done much, he can properly 
 do no more, and that he must utter over them the awful 
 dirge oi' reprobates' souls, How s/uiH I give thee v/p, Ejfhra- 
 im, Iww sluxll I deliver thee, Israel ? Hoio sfuill I make 
 thee as Ad/nah, Iwio shall I set thee as Zeboim ? Mine 
 heart is tur?ied ivithin me, my rejjentings are kindled to- 
 gether. 
 
 If he can not save an individual person, in consistency with 
 his established and excellent system, or mediatorial moral 
 government, as a great whole, then plainly he can save that 
 person not at all, and he perishes in his sins ; and the rea- 
 son is both obvious g,nd conclusive, in the estimate of a sound 
 and rectified intelligence. In this system, too, so vast and 
 so perfect in itself, so good for us and so glorious to God, it 
 is plainly and pre-eminently the fault of the sinner, and his 
 alone, if he is lost. If our civil government, in this country, 
 were, for its proper ends, absolutely perfect ; and if in it, ac- 
 cording to law, a citizen were guilty, and justly condemned 
 to die, so that the law must be executed, and the culprit sac- 
 rificed to the justice of the land, or the executive clemency 
 must interpose, and rescue him, in a way contrary to the 
 system of the government, then, plainly, the law and all it 
 represents is sacrificed, if the malefactor is saved at its ex- 
 pense. But the less must be sacrificed to the greater, rather 
 than the reverse ; in itself considered, benevolence would ac- 
 complish his rescue ; but, all things considered, benevolence 
 requires his punishment — requires that the law be executed, 
 and justice maintained at his expense, who made the dilem- 
 ma and deserves the doom. 
 
 There is an excellent distinction resulting from the forego- 
 ing views, without which Christianity and Fatalism could 
 not be easily or well discriminated. It is necessary to the 
 reality, as well as to the perfection of moral government, 
 and therefore it ought to be well under.stood by all preachers. 
 It may be thus stated : The moral or judicial preference 
 
rREI'ERENCE AND RESOURCE OF GOD. 179 
 
 OF God, in connection with his providential resource. 
 That pielerence, always peilcclly and intensely sincere, de- 
 sires that the subject should act right under the law, and ac- 
 cept grace, and so be saved, under the gospel ; but, at the 
 same time, it" he will not, in his privileged and appropriate 
 circumstances, then God says to him, I have my resource 
 with glory, you have none at all in your guilt and shame ; I 
 will cause your very larath to praise me, and I will restraiti 
 the remainder ; your punishment shall show my justice and 
 honor my law ; you shall glorify me passively, as you refused 
 to do it actively ; I will coerce your ways, and use your sin 
 to become its own punishment and your own tormentor ; I 
 will overrule and counterwork all your transgressions, and 
 economize them, contrary to their own nature, and in spite 
 of their native tendency, to efTectuate good ; I will be avail- 
 ed of your sins, as you can never be ; if you murder my Son 
 to kill his cause, I will make his death the life of his cause ; 
 " the blood of the martyrs shall become the seed of the 
 Church ;" and while you shall be made useful in your de- 
 struction, your presence will never be desiderated in heaven. 
 Others shall be there, the majority at last, and the wedding 
 shall he furnished ivilh guests. All this I understood, an- 
 ticipated, and rightly compacted, from all eternity ; and great 
 shall be my glory, as my own veritable ways in this shall be 
 displayed, and understood, and enjoyed, by all the holy uni- 
 verse, and to all eternity, with adoration, and thanksgiving, 
 and praise. 
 
 This forever precludes the least motive to sin, and destroys 
 from the sinner every figment of excuse. The sermons of 
 Emmons, vol. vi. on Ezek. 18 : 32, and Heb. 11 : 26, are 
 real curiosities, as connected with his system. We would 
 not criminate his motives, or say any thing unkind, when, in 
 view of those sermons, rigidly compared with his system — 
 with what he fully maintains in other sermons — we pro- 
 nounce them speciously sophistical and contradictory in their 
 
180 SPURIOUS SINCERITY. 
 
 total structure and scope. The title of the former, The 
 Death of Sinners not pleasing to God, evinces its inten- 
 tional drift ; and its whole argument in epitome may be stated 
 inthese extracted words : " The salvation of every sinner is 
 desirable in its own nature ; and therefore God sincerely de- 
 sires that every sinner should be saved." If he meant this 
 lor logic, what child can not see that it is inconsequent and 
 false ? The illative, therefore, imports a connection between 
 premise and conclusion that has no existence, and especially 
 in light of his system. He speaks of them that perish ; God 
 desiies each of them, in itself considered only, or " in its own 
 nature," to repent, believe, and be saved. Yet, all things 
 considered, that is, in the higher, and the vaster, and the su- 
 preme aspect of the matter, he desires them exactly as they 
 do, to sin and perish ; works it all in thein, efficiently, pro- 
 ductively, creatively, to continue their rebellion, grow worse 
 and worse, and so meet perdition at last ; and, in the mean 
 time, he weeps over them, and all that, because he desires 
 the salvation of each of them " in its own nature" only ; and 
 therefore he is sincere in desiring, remonstrating, protesting, 
 and grieving over them, for their salvation ! Poor Mendez, 
 you are starving, and I pity you — in itself considered ; not 
 otherwise. Good-by. 
 
 Words are poor to express a proper detestation for such a 
 hollow-hearted and hypocritical system I It is organized hy- 
 pocrisy by wholesale, caricaturing and misrepresenting God 
 in his ways of truth and mercy toward them that perish. 
 It is neither scripture, nor sense, nor conscience, nor experi- 
 ence, nor Calvinism ; and in a sermon, written on purpose to 
 do and show his best to evince the sincerity of God in his 
 overtures and urgencies toward the non-elect or them that 
 perish, according to his system, he has made a specious and 
 a perfect failure. It awfully misrepresents the God of sin- 
 cerity, from beginning to end of his sermon I 
 
 That God can make a moral agent is a grand and infalli- 
 
SI'KCIiMKNfi OF EMMON3ISM. 181 
 
 bli; fact. That he can govern him, when made, without de- 
 nuding him of his proper attributes, is another fact. The.se 
 facts are not the less real, because neither metaphysics nor 
 the Bible shows us the mode of them. The mode is of no 
 relative importance or value to us. We know the fact.s, and 
 other facts related and subordinate ; but the modes involved 
 we do not know, nor is it at all important that we should 
 know them. God alone understands all modes, all essences, 
 all things, real or ideal, actual or possible, in time and in 
 eternity ; and what we may know hereafter, if we obey the 
 gospel and get to heaven, is another matter. 
 
 Some of us, however, believe that the mode of the meta- 
 physics of Emmons destroys the facts of the revelation of 
 God. Is this a moral agent — a man, all whose volitions, 
 good and bad, God creatively and equally produces, causes, 
 and works in him to will and to do ?* Then, a better 
 moral agent is a good watch ! this can go alone for a time ; 
 but such a moral agent can act only as actuated, and this by 
 physical, aboriginal necessity. It is the worst kind of mate- 
 rialism I Emmons says that God does all the sins of men I 
 and so he does, if his theory is true I Take a few tremen- 
 dous specimens. " But since all their sinful conduct may be 
 ascribed to God [the devil being very much at leisure,] who 
 ordained it for his own glory [great ' glory' that !] and whose 
 agency was concerned in it, men have no reason to be sorry 
 that any evil action or event took place." HF^ Read and 
 compare here the fifty-first Psalm, and Luke, 22 : 62, serious- 
 ly. " If we ought to be sorry, all things considered, that any 
 event has taken place, then it is utterly impossible that either 
 God or his holy creatures can be completely blessed." " The 
 actions of men may be properly ascribed both to God and to 
 themselves." " He is said [which, in his sense of it, we 
 
 * Dr. Emmons, one of the worst of interpreters, makes this mean 
 the way of God with good and bad men equally and universally, ft 
 is plain assumption and perversion. 
 
182 HIS THEORY ATTESTED AS HIS. 
 
 deny] to work in all men, both to will and to do, of his good 
 pleasure ;" the text refers alone to saints ! " Mind can not 
 act, any more than matter can move, without a divine agen- 
 cy," that is, without the producing agency of God in all its 
 volitions, efficiently creating each of them. " If men do us 
 evil, God is the primary cause of the evil." " If they need 
 any kind or degree of divine agency in doing good, [ITF^] 
 they need precisely the same kind and degree of divine 
 agency in doing evil. This is the dictate of reason, and 
 the scripture says the same. It is God who worketh in 
 men both to will and to do in all cases without exception." 
 This means Judas as well as John, and the devil as well 
 as Christ. "And if he produces their bad as well as good 
 volitions, then his ageiicy was concerned in precisely the 
 same manner in their wrong as in their right actions. It 
 is upon this ground, and only upon this ground, [«=:^] that 
 all the actions of men, whether good or evil, may properly be 
 ascribed to God." In reference to the first sin of Adam, he 
 says, " It was produced by a divine operation." The motives 
 of Satan, a supernumerary there with Adam, " by a divine 
 energy, took hold of his heart and led him into sin." The 
 sins of new-born infants, too, are all solved as well, on this 
 new and sparkling theory. " God now brings men into the 
 world in a state of moral depravity. But how ? The an- 
 swer is easy. When God forms the souls of infants, he forms 
 them with moral powers, and makes them men in minia- 
 ture ; he works in them as he does in other men, both to 
 will and to do of his good pleasure ; or produces those moral 
 exercises in their hearts in which moral depravity proper- 
 ly and essentially consists. Moral depravity can take place 
 no where but in moral agents, and moral agents can never 
 act [[C^] but only* as they are acted upon by a divine op- 
 eration. It is just as easy, therefore, to account for moral de- 
 pravity in infancy as in any other period of life." What a 
 * This shows exactly what a moral agent is in his view. Shame ! 
 
GOD THE AUTHOR OF SIN THEREFORE! 183 
 
 doctor of divinity I What a motaphysiciau I AYhat au in- 
 terpreter of the oracles of God ! What a pity that the whole 
 assembly of divines at Westminster could not have gone to 
 school to such a glorious theologian before thoy ventured to 
 tell us that human sins come to pass, indeed, in connection 
 with eternal providence ; " yet so as the sinfulness thereof 
 proceedeth only from the creature, and not from God ; 
 who, being most holy and righteous, neither is, nor can be, 
 the author or the approver of sin." Yet this is the divine 
 whose metaphysics, doctrinal wisdom, and great piety, as 
 well as talents, are so praised by other great divines — and 
 indeed he seems to need all the praise he will ever get I Let 
 any calm, intelligent scholar, that is, disciple of Christ, read 
 and study, especially in the original, such passages as the 
 following, in this connection : James 1 : 13-17, 3 : 10-18, 
 Gal. 5 : 22-16, 6 : 7, 8, 15, 16. 
 
 If God is not perfectly the author of sin, on the theory 
 of Emmons, then w^e can not conceive of any theory that just- 
 ly involves such a consequence. If he is not, then is it ow- 
 ing to the fact alone, hy him alleged, that God is not its 
 similar or its approver. But this is wholly another idea. Sup- 
 pose — I write it with awe and horror — that God produces, to 
 answer his own ends, and as Emmons teaches, all the sin 
 that ever was, or is, or ever will or can possibly be in the 
 universe ; he is then the cause of it, both efficient and final; 
 and what is this but the author ? Now if any man can go 
 this, and not wince at it, we may only say that we are pro- 
 foundly sorry for him, in itself cohsidered and all things con- 
 sidered I God keep us all from so gross, and so hardening, 
 and so impious a hallucination against his nature, and his 
 truth, and the influence of his own Holy Spirit ; against the 
 whole analogy of faith I 
 
 On the theory of Emmons, we must aver that God is both 
 the author and the approver of sin. If he is not then 
 thie similar too, we confess the native danger of our mind as- 
 
184 SOME OTHERS AGREE WITH HIM. 
 
 sociating it, as a consequence, not more morally terrible than 
 logically legitimate. He approves of sin, all things consid- 
 ered ; approves it positively in that relation of infinitude ; 
 views the universe hypothetically as morally ruined without 
 it, and really perfectionated only with it ; hence he aborig- 
 inally designed and desired sin, produced it creatively, keeps 
 producing it, as infinitely desirable, all things considered ; 
 and, as the Lord sJuill o'ejoice m his works, so he enjoys it 
 exquisitely, to all eternity, on that same ecumenical and eco- 
 nomical basis, he and all the hosts of heaven with him ! Is 
 this our God ? 
 
 Leibnitz, Lord Bolingbroke alias Henry St. John, Hume, 
 Pope, and others of the infidel class, taught the same anti- 
 Christian theosophy. Bolingbroke, indeed, was the patron 
 deity of Pope. He invokes him for a muse in his Essay on 
 Ma7i, which teems with elegance and poison : 
 
 Awake, my St. John, leave all meaner things 
 
 To low ambition and the pride of kings. 
 
 Afterward, mixing plausibility with fallacy, and truth with 
 error, and eternal providence with Turkish fatalism, and sweet 
 versification with moral death, he says much that is hugely 
 and impiously false : 
 
 All nature is but art unknown to thee ; 
 
 All chance direction which thou canst not see. 
 
 All discord harmony not understood, 
 
 All partial evil universal good. 
 
 In spite of pride, in erring reason's spite. 
 
 One truth is clear — "Wu-^tever is, is right. 
 
 If sin ever exists, we aver, according to the word of God, that 
 a more direct and impious lie, than that contained in the last 
 four words of the quotation, was scarcely ever Avritten or con- 
 ceived I 
 
 The proposition that avhatever is, is right, may be de- 
 nominated an axiomatic lie, or an illustriously lying axiom. 
 Sill is, and sin is only wrong. Sin is right, according to the 
 
A MISTAKE FAVORS HIS VIEW. 185 
 
 laws of language and the nature and relations of things, in 
 no sense whatever I it is wrong, and only wrong, and wrong 
 to all eternity. That God permits its eventuation, so to 
 speak, in his system, because he could not, all things consid- 
 ered, consistently and wisely prevent it, we believe and know ; 
 also, that he overrules it, manages it, counterworks it, pun- 
 ishes its doers, and pardons for it his penitent people, to his 
 own perfect glory, is also true. But in what relation or de- 
 gree is sin therefore right ? Its tendency and nature — arc 
 they altered ? meliorated ? or less bad as malum in se, et 
 malum prohibitum^ et malum in omnibus, et malum sempi- 
 ternum, totum et solum nialum.' 
 
 It is by such and the like specious philosophisms that great 
 men " reconcile their sins with saving grace" and perish in 
 their serene delusions. What a pity that great divines should 
 become their helpers iu the science I I knew one, now, I 
 trust, in heaven, through pardoning grace, indeed I who on 
 a special occasion undertook paternally to comfort some young 
 converts with this philosophy. His thesis was. You ought 
 not to regret your sins, all things considered, but only in it- 
 self considered ; uay, iu the former relation you ought to be 
 grateful, and ofier thanks to God that you committed them 
 all exactly as you did. Then he opened to them the beau- 
 ties of Rom. 6 : 17 as his authority ; his own qitoad hoc stu- 
 pidity working with a mistake or two of our version, where 
 the bold, idiomatic style of the original is very unhappily 
 transferred, as it ought to have been translated only ; getting 
 all its argument from a mere mistake of the version, which 
 ought to be, delicately, thus : But God be thanked that ye 
 are not, though ye were, the servants of sin : since from the 
 heart ye have obeyed that mould of doctrine into which ye 
 were delivered or cast ; as we say, in reference to metals in 
 a state of liquidity or fusion, as poured into the mould, and 
 thence deriving the image and superscription of their new 
 existence. 
 
186 A PREACHER SHOULD KNOW BETTER. 
 
 If it were not doing evil tlmt good might come, I should 
 like, for the good that might come of it in the way of illus- 
 tration, I should like to see a clever theologian undertake the 
 task, bona fide, before a large assembly of co-worshipers. I 
 would say, go it, sir, if you dare I Tell God how much you 
 thank him for all the sins, especially the worst, you and they 
 ever committed ! Nay, iicrform tlic doing of it with a holy 
 willingness to sin, and all that sort of thing — do it devoutly, 
 do it thoroughly, do it intelligibly ; do it — if you dare ! Tell 
 him how much better is the universe of being, for all the dis- 
 interested contributions by sinning, made to it in your own 
 case and that of others so copiously ; and how willing you 
 are, hypothetically, to go to hell, on the same principle and 
 for the same sublime ends, thereby achieved and magnified 
 throughout everlasting ages, Amen. 
 
 I am no novice, and no frigid speculatist, in the exposure 
 of this theological deceit and malignity. I have seen it in 
 the concrete, operative, and in many instances ; and I boldly 
 write it — in my judgment no man ought to be sanctioned by 
 the Church of God, as his minister for its edification, who 
 holds that refined, metaphysical, and execrable Jesuitry of 
 theological wisdom. Generally, it would be as wise, and ex- 
 pedient, and as safe in the lower relations of national politics, 
 and in a state of war, to send such an ambassador as Bene- 
 dict Arnold or Aaron Burr to represent us diplomatically at 
 the court of the hostile nation, the actual belligerent, and to 
 manage our negotiations there in reference to a treaty of per- 
 petual peace and amity. It is quite time that all personal 
 regards and memories toward the living and the dead were 
 solemnly postponed to the grand previous question, xchat 
 is the truth of God, and what do its interests require of us 
 a7id our children ? 
 
 In the free and popular language of the Bible, God is often 
 said to do a thing, because it occurs in his multiform and holy 
 providence, and not because literally he did it. Solomon 
 
CHRIST OUR GLORIOUS HEAD FOREVER. 187 
 
 built him an house, it is said ; yet, literally, he did no such 
 thing, neither he nor any other man. It was the johit pro- 
 duction of many thousands of minds, and hearts, and hands. 
 God's providence is manifold and wonderful, 2ipholdi7ig all 
 things by the word of his foxver. He is wonderful in coun- 
 sel and excellent in ^vorking. To hud him out to perfec- 
 tion is the result of no man's metaphysics. We are to rec- 
 ognize and worship HIM by faith ; not through philosophy 
 and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudi- 
 ments of the ivorld, and not after Christ : for in him dwell- 
 eth all the ficllness of the Godhead bodily ; and ye are com- 
 plete IN HIM, u'ho is the Head of all princijMlity and pow- 
 er. It is a pity that some disciples have no just conception 
 of how COMPLETE IN HIM wc are ; and hence they resort to 
 their own elaborate ingenuity to frame a metaphysical key 
 that is to open all the doors, by fitting all the locks, of reve- 
 lation ; and they wonder that others value it not as they do I 
 But the lofty hierarchies that surround his throne, principal- 
 ities and powers put in subjection under him, own him their 
 HEAD AND Captain ; and till they desert him for a sub- 
 limer completeness elsewhere, may we be found ever hold- 
 ing THE HEAD, in whom alone we can be complete, or 
 have good hope through grace. 
 
 God is said to harden men, when they harden themselves, 
 under his means and methods of mercy or of judgment with 
 them, by voluntarily perverting those means. Thus the gos- 
 pel is a savor of death unto death to thousands ; not because 
 this is at all its proper tendency and fruit ; nor because God 
 desires men to abuse it ; nor because it has no positive char- 
 acter and tendency of its own ; but because, as Watts cor- 
 rectly says, " unbelief perverts the same, to guilt, despair, and 
 death." To this we may add, that God at length gives them 
 up, as he says. Then they harden themselves fast, and he, 
 in eft'ect, hardens them, judicially, as seems good in his sight. 
 They arc thus the architects of their own undone eternity. 
 
188 REASONS FOR SELF-LOVE. 
 
 If it be not wrong, but right, for a man to love himself, the 
 question may properly occur, on what grounds and lor what 
 reasons exists the obligation ? We view it here as a prac- 
 tical duty, and not merely and originally as an instinct ine- 
 radicable of our being. 
 
 The true answer may evolve a grandly important principle, 
 that is virtually excluded in the system of Emmons, and oft- 
 en foregone in the practice of its disciples. We answer, one 
 ought properly and practically to love himself: 
 
 (1) Because the law of God commands it; and Emmons 
 says at last, I am wrong in maintaining the contrary for sixty 
 years. 
 
 (2) Because all other duties commanded resemble, and as- 
 sist, and imply it, and could not and do not exist without it. 
 
 (3) Because, without it, one has lost his criterion of duty to 
 his neighbor. 
 
 (4) Because, when rightly performed, it benefits one's self 
 and others, and injures no being, but coincides with universal 
 happiness. 
 
 (5) Because it would be preposterous to put love to others 
 before love to one's self, and absurd to attempt the former in 
 derogation, or violation, or exclusion of the latter ; to incur in 
 some cases a temporary inconvenience or privation for the sake 
 of others, is to act only with large and enlightened, we say not 
 supreme, regard to one's own best happiness. 
 
 (6) Because of one's own personal worth and importance 
 as a creature of God, in connection with the necessary and 
 the universal instincts of one's being and those of our species, 
 holy or unholy, perversely or genuinely loving happiness. 
 
 (7) Because of one's constituted or incidental moral rela- 
 tions to himself ; 1 alone of beings sustain those relations to 
 myself, and I sustain the same to no other being — only sim- 
 ilar or equal ones. 
 
 This last or seventh is the grand and momentous principle 
 that seems excluded, or pretermitted, or condemned in Em- 
 
DUTIES RESULT FROM RELATIONS. 189 
 
 monsism. To compare and weigh the objects of duty as to 
 their intrinsic importance, or absolute and comparative value 
 a work to which no man on earth is at all equal or com- 
 petent, seems to be the wisdom of that system. It may hence 
 be philosophico-metaphysical in a sort, hut it is not practical, 
 it is not scriptural, it is not worthy of confidence. It ex- 
 cludes relations as connected with duties. 
 
 On the other hand, according to the gospel, our duties 
 RESULT FROM OUR RELATIONS. This is a proposition of uni- 
 versal truth, of prime and cardinal gravity. There is no 
 such thing as duty without the antecedent relation, from 
 which it flows. Hence wise men study their moral relations, 
 all of them mutually, toward others from themselves, and to- 
 ward themselves from others. Tltoii shall love — an abso- 
 lute command I — love whom ? an abstraction — a possibility 
 — a hypothesis — an idea ? or what ? Answer — the Lord, 
 THY God ; the great One, who sustains to thee the relations of 
 maker, owner, ruler, benefactor, preserver, judge, and sover- 
 eign disposer. And thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. 
 But suppose his intrinsic or comparative importance be very 
 inferior ! Answer — That is nothing, or mainly nothing. The 
 relation exists — he is thy neighbor. His proximity to thee 
 makes him the proper object of thy beneficence. If he lived 
 in some other world, and that unknown, or entirely out of 
 thy reach, the relation could not exist, nor the duty either. 
 If in no sense thy ?ieighbor, he is to thee morally nothing ; 
 whatever he may be metaphysically — as a quiddity, an entity, 
 a possibilit)', a phantasy, a non-entity, an ambiguity, or an 
 absurdity. The relation between Paul and Nero made it 
 the duty of the former to obey the latter, irrespective of his 
 intrinsic character or importance. The relations of a man 
 to his own family, especially to his wife, and parents, and 
 children, make his duties to them inalienable ; even if some 
 others, and not our own parents, or wives, or children, are 
 superior in all excellence. The moral bands that contain 
 
190 A SAGE OBJECTION ANSWERED. 
 
 and consolidate society depend on no impulses or preferences 
 —on no capricious or variable causes. They are worthy of 
 the Great Architect and Economist Avho made them. 
 
 So, also, the moral relations of each to himself, as prior, 
 obey not an order of importance, but of j)ractical propriety. 
 It may be my duty to try to induce my neighbor to repent 
 and believe the gospel; but it is my prior duty to perform 
 the same myself And common sense knows it ! Nor have 
 I any such relation to the piety and the salvation of another, 
 as I have to my own piety and salvation. 
 
 Objection — But if I could see excellence, to which I have 
 and sustain no real or possible relation, should I not be bound 
 to love it ? And if I should, how or why ? 
 
 Answer — If you should level a rifle at an abstraction, and 
 shoot it flying ; and if you should see a system of metaphys- 
 ics hanging by a cobweb to the wing of a gossamer, and ca- 
 reering through the atmosphere before the spirit of the storm ; 
 and if you should ever see excellence without seeing the per- 
 son that is excellent, or whiteness without the thing that is 
 white, or the quality real and tangible without the subject, or 
 a mass of matter that had no gravitation, or a parliament of 
 inteUigences who know not or disbelieve that two and two 
 are four ; or if you should ever see folly that is not the prop- 
 erty of some fool, or mysterious knockings with which the 
 
 devil is not practicing his own mysterious mockings stay, 
 
 when you shall see these, and some other ontologies of meta- 
 physical fanfaronade, and will report them, "may I be there to 
 see ;" because dreams and visions used to be so edifying I 
 The question is too much compounded of hypothesis, and im- 
 possibility, and absurdity, and fustian, to deserve any more 
 sober or formal answer. It is properly a logical felo de se, 
 answering suicidally itself. I say, then, to the objector at 
 last, as soon as you see that same excellence, I advise, 
 
 (1) That you remember some of the grave questions that 
 illumined the intellections of the dark ages, as this : If an 
 
OtJR DUTY TO BE SAVED. 191 
 
 actually existing insect is not quite as important as a possi- 
 ble angel ? If" a seraph can not pass from one star to anoth- 
 er without at all passing through or near the intermediate 
 space ? Or, whether the peterity of Peter, or the johnity of 
 John, or the shearjashubity of Shearjashub, be not a reality 
 quite as capable of identification, if not as magnificent in the 
 quintessence of its possible attributes, as the conception of 
 the paulity of Paul ? And — 
 
 (2) 1 advise that, as soon as the phenomenon appears, you 
 should point your rifle at it, and — fire I 
 
 If in all this I have gone far to crush a foolery, I plead — 
 not too far at all, if the foolery is only crushed. Sometimes 
 the proper way, and the only proper way, of answering a 
 question, is just to show, by analysis or illustration, that the 
 question is silly or contemptible. 
 
 What now is that excellence or squalidity that has no 
 subject, no object, no relation, no entity, and no possibility 
 either ? 
 
 My own solvation, under God, depends on myself, as it 
 can depend on no other creature, and as no other creature 
 can depend on it. I am obligated to obey the gospel, and be 
 saved too, as I am not obligated, in reference to any other, 
 that he should do and be the same. I can control my own 
 moral actions, as no other creature can control them, and as 
 I can control the actions of no other creature. The gospel 
 requires each of us, in that new and living xvay ivhich 
 Christ has consecrated for us through the vail, that is to 
 say, his flesh, to go to heaven ; to know it ; to have the earn- 
 est of it in our hearts ; to walk in the light and the peace 
 of its hope ; and thus to allure others in the same supremely 
 right way, intending to help their salvation, and consciously 
 securing our own, by cordial confidence or faith in what- 
 ever GOD SAY'S IN HIS HOLY WORD. 
 
 If all men would seek their true happiness where only it 
 can be found, Jer. 2 : 12, 13, in God, how happy and how 
 
192 FAITH SAVES US, NOT OUR OWX WISDOM. 
 
 holy Avould Ihey all become ; possessing in Christ the first- 
 fruits of" heaven, and iaheritiug everlasting life. The con- 
 sistency betvi^een individual and social happiness veould be 
 every where acknovirledged and demonstrated. Simplicity of 
 faith and practice would induce sublimity of usefulness and 
 enjoyment. The system of God would be illustrated in the 
 piety of men, and they would correspond with him intelli- 
 gently and devoutly ; tcho will have all men to he saved, even 
 to come to the acknoidedgiyient of the truth : as I would ren- 
 der the passage, i. Tim. 2 : 1. 
 
 We may here relate an illustrative anecdote. It is cer- 
 tainly in point, as the reader will own. That it is credible 
 and authentic, I am fully competent to affirm. I well knew 
 the parties, all of them ; and trust they are now in a world 
 where wisdom is perfect, and where grace in glory, and glory 
 in grace, forever accomplish them, as the worshipers of God 
 and the ransomed of the Lamb. I also knew the incidents 
 and the facts ; I witnessed them, and well remember the oc- 
 casion on which they occurred. The style and language of 
 the colloquy is mainly, however, my own — not all of it ! 
 
 But first there is a principle involved, which may here be 
 stated and justified. It is this — blessed be God I a man may 
 be saved in spite of his philosophy. Many a good Christian 
 is a bad philosopher ; and though his errors in opinion are no 
 helps, but only hinderances to his faith, and, with a better 
 philosophy, he would be a happier, and a stronger, and a bet- 
 ter Christian ; yet his faith saves him, triumphant against 
 those errors. This principle I fully believe, or I should not 
 think that even a majority of the elect of God would ever 
 get to heaven. There are persons known to us, who so live, 
 and so pray, that no one, knowing them, can, on the whole, 
 doubt their piety ; while they have some incidental faults, 
 and some blundering and preposterous opinions, which, if the 
 conditions of salvation were correct erudition, extensive sci- 
 ence, and clear and true philosophy, instead of cordial faith 
 
PIlILUHOl'lIY Ol' KMMONhl. li)3 
 
 ill the testimonies and the promises of God, would certainly 
 condemn and destroy them forever. I bless God for his own 
 gracious and glorious doctrine of faith in the name of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ I 
 
 The preacher, on the occasion which I am now to relate, 
 was meeting a county Bible Society in one of our rural neigh- 
 borhoods, and a collection Avas to be made for the glorious 
 object immediately after the sermon. His text was i. Tim. 
 2 : 4, and, in descant on the words who will have all men 
 to be saved, good and lovely a brother as he was, he resorted 
 to his philosophy for the solution of its difficulties ; instead of 
 viewing it in a practical way, as the counterpart to the or- 
 der. Go, preaclt, the gosjyel to every creattire . But we, who 
 believe that u-isdom is the principal thi?ig, may have no 
 objection to philosophy, if it be only genuine, and wlioUy of 
 the right kind, baptized into the tiame of the Father, and 
 of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen ; and so both .sub- 
 ordinate and subservient to the truth as it is in Jesus. 
 
 The preacher was not so much an Emmonsite, as tinc- 
 tured, almost unconsciously, with that philosophy ; and so de- 
 monstrating how insidiously it spreads, and how potentially 
 it pervades and operates the very orthodoxy of our country, 
 especially of New England, where he was born and educa- 
 ted ; and where, or here, as a son of that time-honored dis- 
 trict of bur nation, he was, in the main, only an ornament 
 and a eulogium to his native soil and his venerable Alma 
 Mdter. Sound, and good, and devout ministers of the gospel, 
 in spite of their imperfections, and even of their incidental 
 faults, are an honor and a guard to the country — reiimhlica 
 decus et tutamen ; instead of armies, and fortifications, and 
 treasures, they are the cluiriots of Israel, and the horsemen 
 tJiereof 
 
 The problem that met him was to show how it is that 
 God wills all men to he saved, and yet so many are lost. 
 Oh I quick as flash, and flashy as quick, he told us just how. 
 
 I 
 
It<i A PdPLLAR PKEACHKR. 
 
 In itself considered, he desires and wills it ; all things con- 
 fidered, he desires, and wills, and infinitely prefers the con- 
 trary ; in relerence, that is, to all the finally lost. And in 
 liis honest elucidation, he so extensively and learnedly show- 
 ed how desirable it was for the good of the universe, that, 
 all things considered, so many should finally perish, that one 
 would think his demonstrations almost sufficient, not only to 
 dry the tears that Jesus shed over the lost souls in Jerusa- 
 lem, but even to rebuke those tears, as hugely unphilosophic- 
 al — at least, as destitute remarkably, and quite vacant, of 
 all the bloomer glories of his philosophy. What a pity that 
 the preacher had not been wise enough to substitute some- 
 thing akin to those tears in his sermon for that philosophy — 
 that ruined it. 
 
 After the sermon and the collection, two aged and respect- 
 able men, standing honorable and even high in the Church, 
 on their return to their own homes, as pedestrians, thus com- 
 muned : only that I would also premise that the esquire had 
 been nurtured and habituated in such principles of parsimony, 
 that others could hardly appreciate in him any better quali- 
 ties which probably he possessed — his ideas being educated 
 to circulate several times round the circumference of a pica- 
 yune, before he could consent to part with it, ordinarily, even 
 to God himself, as represented in his cause. I give the dia- 
 logue, virtually, just as it actually occurred, sometimes the 
 very words. 
 
 Neighbor. Well, 'squire, we had a good sermon to-day from 
 that new preacher. I have heard much of him, and so I de- 
 sired to hear him. He seemed to make his points clear. 
 
 Esquire. Did he answer your expectations ? 
 
 N. Yes, partly he did, partly not. He is a smart man, 
 however, and seems to know every thing — only he was rath- 
 er too learned and too metaphysical for me. And, speaking 
 plainly, after all, I should have liked him more if he had 
 been more in earnest as to his object, if he had anv. Per- 
 
DIALOGUE ABOUT IMS SERMON. 195 
 
 haps some commoner preacher would have benefited more 
 the cause, and made us more value the Bible, and more feel 
 the importance and the blessedness of giving it to others. 
 There was a kind of a wantage in it. 
 
 E. I was struck with his argument, and I own the power 
 and eloquence of his reasoning. But it still seemed to lack 
 something, I scarce know what, to make it a first-rate ser- 
 mon for such an occasion. He had many ministers to hear 
 him, because he was so great, or so new, in these parts ; but 
 I thought, somehow, that I could name any one of five or 
 six there, not half so celebrated, or honorable, or learned, or 
 traveled as the preacher, who would have surpassed him, at 
 least in a useful and effective discourse. How large a col- 
 lection was it ? 
 
 N. Not very great, I think. The people gave in a lan- 
 guid way, though there were so many in his audience. Hoav- 
 ever he might have enlightened their understandings, he 
 certainly did not rouse their affections, or move their feelings 
 at all. 
 
 E. Whitfield used, they say, to get large collections from 
 his auditors, by inducing them to double, treble, or quintuple, 
 successively, what they at first thought to be the maximum 
 of all propriety and power. I certainly gave no more than I 
 at first purposed, but less only ; and this, I thought, his ar- 
 gument authorized and taught, in itself considered. 
 
 N. Why, how is that, 'squire ? Or, Avould you say how 
 much you did give at last, or how much you purposed to 
 give at first, so that the difference may appear ? For one, I 
 should just like to know. 
 
 E. I went there expecting to give a dollar to the cause. 
 But when I heard what he said about the benevolence of 
 God, I altered it, and finally gave sixpence.* So there you 
 have it, just the truth. 
 
 ♦ Six cents. 
 
196 ITS LOGICAL RESULT AND WORTH. 
 
 N. Why, 'squire, you don't say so I Why, was that right, 
 do you think ? You — gave sixpence ! 
 
 E. Well, I listened to his reasoning about willing them all 
 to be saved, and then willing that so many should perish, 
 and proving it too, that they ought to perish ; and it altered 
 my views ; and so I said, In itself considered, 1 would give 
 this dollar ; but, all things considered, I prefer to keep it : 
 since otherwise, it seems to me, I should either be more be- 
 nevolent than God, or should be counteracting his prefer- 
 ences, on the whole. 
 
 iV. And so, 'squire, you gave — sixpence ! 
 
 JS. Yes, I did ; I have my dollar yet safe with me. 
 
 iV. Well, I wish the preacher only knew both the fact and 
 the reason of it. How much he got in the aggregate, I do 
 not know. But if the effect ansAvered to the cause, I should 
 think that, all things considered, the collection was a very 
 slim one. 
 
 S. I feel not quite sure that I did right, after all. 
 
 JV. I feel very much as you do on that point, 'squire. 
 
 E. Then I think I went according to the doctrine. 
 
 N. And yet, in itself considered, it seems a pity that you 
 did not give your dollar to the Lord, when you purposed at 
 first to do it, and then leave other matters to Him, to take 
 care of them all as He knows how, and save as many as He 
 sees good, at last. 
 
 Before I leave the subject, there remains to be viewed one 
 result of the system of Emmons, which I have myself wit- 
 nessed in actual life, and in many instances as connected with 
 its injuries. I speak of it as a fruit of the system for these 
 reasons, 
 
 (1) The men who exemplified it Avere characteristically 
 saturated Avith the system as its devout admirers. 
 
 (2) They professed thence to derive it, and almost said 
 
HOLY WILLINGNESS TO SIN. 197 
 
 that the millennium could never come till Emmonsism should 
 bring it ? 
 
 (3) I never heard of any others so occupied or influenced. 
 
 (4) It is my deliberate conviction that the system naturally 
 inspires, and legitimately warrants it as its own fair result. 
 
 It is their own theologico-experimental problem — how shall 
 I rule it so as always to have " a holy willingness to sin," and 
 no other willingness than a holy one ? Oh ! Bishop Butler, 
 President Edwards, Dr. Chalmers, or who can tell us I who 
 solve it ? 
 
 They saw the beltistic excellence of their sins, all things 
 considered ; and some of them, as self-love was such a sin, 
 were pragmatically ready, and hypothetically desirous to con- 
 ditionate their eternal damnation in honor of the sovereignty 
 of THEIR God, in, majorem Dei gloriam, to the everlasting 
 benefit of the universe, or being in general. This gave them 
 a very serene or a very severe delight and consolation in 
 memory of their sins, exactly so far as they had committed 
 them ; which consolation became rather a perfidious element, 
 sometimes in their economical and actual management. 
 They had some reason, as it now and then appeared, to fear 
 that their disinterested contributions to the good of the Avhole 
 in that way might be rather superabundant, somewhat more 
 than was theocratic ally requisite in the best possible system. 
 Besides, their serenity, so self-sacrificing in sinning discreetly, 
 just quantum sufficeret, in order to that end, was sometimes 
 disturbed by a non-metaphysical twinge and a rather rudely- 
 taught and uncivilized remorse of conscience ; a twinge that 
 abruptly told them, " there — hold ! enough, possibly just a lit- 
 tle too much of it !" and hence the grand desideratum — to 
 know what, and how much at all times, and then to do just 
 enough and no more, just such and no other, in one's ordinary 
 practice. Hence the problem, so marvelously difficult to solve, 
 about this terra incogfiita, or moral El Dorado, of a holy wil- 
 lingness TO SIN ; monstrum — cui hwien adeinptiirn ! 
 
198 WILLING TU BL ACCLR3ED FROM CHRIST. 
 
 Wisdom that cometh from above, is this 1 
 
 The way of piety to endless bliss 1 
 
 Rather 'tis false, factitious, counterfeit ; 
 
 In learning's costume an ignoble cheat. 
 
 It vUifies the holiness of God, 
 
 Or is what truth and grace may not applaud : 
 
 Its light extinct, or into darkness changed, 
 
 And all its sympathy from Christ estranged. 
 
 We leave its subtleties, take wisdom's road, 
 
 And search the scrtptukes for the path to God. 
 
 The expression in our version, / coidd icish that myself 
 were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen 
 according to the flesh, has been a great crux interpretum, 
 or plague and shame to interpreters, in almost every age and 
 place where its exegesis has been attempted. Dr. Chalmers 
 waves its hermeneutical analysis, and treats it eloquently and 
 well, but in a practical Avay alone. "With Dr. Emmons, Dr. 
 Hopkins, and their class, it has become a grand rallying point, 
 and a normal demonstration in their favor. But have they 
 interpreted it correctly ? Their argument is, that Paul was 
 willing, conditionally, to be eternally damned* for his breth- 
 ren, if" that could save or benefit them at all, as the result ; 
 that this is, in its own nature, a specimen of genuine holi- 
 ness or benevolence, and virtue divine ; that it is written as 
 an example and a standard for our imitation and trial ; that 
 any man, who has none of the same, has no true reUgion ; 
 that we ought to examine ourselves in view of such a test, 
 and not hope at all, unless we can stand it ; that this is an 
 instance of what they mean by disinterested benevolence ; 
 that nothing but selfishness can have any objection to it ; 
 and that, as it is a fact recorded here for our instruction, and 
 in its own nature perfectly cardinal, it ought to be used and 
 magnified in the Church of God, by preachers and hearers, 
 as the grand and superlative test of Christian character, in- 
 comparably superior to the diluted and insipid specimens or- 
 * Pronounce in two syllables, dam-ned. 
 
MOST UNHAPPILY RENDKKED. 1 'J9 
 
 dinarily in vogue in its place as its rivals and its substi- 
 tutes. 
 
 In reply to all this, we aver, with positive conviction, that 
 all their reasoning is based on moonshine, stupidity, and in- 
 tolerable blundering ; that Paul never thought of such in- 
 effable monstrosity of nonsense and impiety ; that the original 
 contains or asserts no such thing ; that, of all the theoretic 
 ventures about its native sense, the views of this school are 
 incomparably the most stupid and the worst ; and that there 
 hardly ever was broached in the Church of God an error 
 more enormous, a position more abominable, or a hypothesis 
 more impossible than theirs. 
 
 It is only a poor shadow of an excuse for their error, that 
 our rendering is, indeed, as ungrammatical, as untheological, 
 and as unreasonable, as it well can be. Why did they study 
 Greek, if they never use so richly a professional acquisition ? 
 If also the science of hermeneutics, or scientific interpretation, 
 can not render the true sense, then can it never be demon- 
 strated or known on the earth. It is another shadow of apol- 
 ogy, that interpreters of eminence, ancient and modern, for- 
 eign and vernacular, so blunder and so differ, as a general 
 thing, in regard to it. In our own country, we have Barnes, 
 Stuart, Hodge, all different ; and all wrong — as we must take 
 leave to say, in attempting its exposition. 
 
 All our present punctuation is modern and uninspired. 
 Yet punctuation is commentarj'. It affects, modifies, often 
 determines, and sometimes hugely perverts, the sense. The 
 writings of Paul abound in figures of speech, orientalisms, 
 elhpses, parentheses, and hyperboles, in wonderful fullness 
 and singular variety. Here, especially, a parenthesis occurs ; 
 which, duly indicated and observed, and the other and re- 
 lated parts just rendered with school-boy's common sense, 
 when he knows his lesson, the sentence then is indeed em- 
 phatic and remarkable — ^but it ceases to shock our moral con- 
 sciousness ; to rebel against the analogy of faith ; to perpe- 
 
iiOO \t)Xi: UlLLI\(i TV BE DAMNED. 
 
 irate absurdity ; or to dictate a test of piety, which, we are 
 sure, no man on earth or in heaven can either stand or go, 
 who is neither deceived, nor inconsiderate, nor lunatic, nor in 
 sport, nor an active hypocrite — and then he can not, either I 
 We would so render it : Brethren, I say the truth in Christ, 
 I lie not, my conscience also bearing me vntness in the Holy 
 Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow 
 in my heart — for I myself was glorying to be anathema 
 from Christ — for my brethren, my kinsmen according to 
 the ficsh, icho are Israelites, and, as such, so specially pre- 
 ferred and so grandly distinguished in the sovereign provi- 
 dence of God. 
 
 On this I remark, 
 
 1. That the idea of suffering perdition for the Jews, the 
 mighty monstrosity of the Emmons view, is here justly va- 
 cated and forever precluded. He was sorry so intensely for 
 his brethren ; not wished perdition to himself on their ac- 
 count, as if sin and folly could be their salvation I The great 
 blinder of eyes here has been to associate two elements of 
 thought directly which have no direct relation to each other 
 at all I These two are, his intense grief and his being anath- 
 ema from Christ. Whereas, the former, not the latter, is /or 
 my brethren, my kinsmen according to tlie flesh ; that is, 
 his sorrow was for them — not his anathema for them I His 
 anathema from Christ is only a great and accessory idea, 
 connected with the intensity of his grief ; as if he should say, 
 1 grieve for them so much, and so intensely, because my 
 memory supplies me with experimental recollections of their 
 present, drawn from my own past — Since I was, previous to 
 my conversion, exactly in their horrid predicament ; I was 
 alienated, infatuated, treasuring up xorath against the clay 
 ofivrath, and cumulatively ripening for ultimate destruction. 
 Why, then, should I not feel for them with intense affliction ? 
 They are my countrj'men, my kinsmen, my virtual brothers 
 and sisters of the progeny of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ! 
 
tup: love of christ greatest yet. '201 
 
 though now repudiated by the God of the patriarchs for their 
 cardinal impiety in rejecting the Messiah ; and nationally are 
 they, as I also was, anathema from Chrht, whom they cru- 
 cify to themselves afresh, and put him to an open sham,e. 
 
 2. That the idea of such a sacrifice is all absurdity, except 
 that it is such impiety also. What could it do for them, if 
 it were performed ? What congruity, fitness, or proper argu- 
 ment in it ? Could it atone ? or absolve ? or sanctify ? or 
 benefit them at all ? It is only incongruity, and abortion, 
 and impossibility, instead of credible doctrine. Why prefer 
 the worst of all possible alternatives ? 
 
 3. It is most horrible in its relation to the cross of Christ, 
 and the love that fixed him to death on that horrid gibbet, 
 for our salvation. It eclipses as well as disparages infinite- 
 ly the Savior, in comparison Avith the greater self-sacrificing 
 of his disciple Paul. The former, our precious Redeemer. 
 laid down his life, that he might take it again for us ; the 
 latter desires to be an eternal anathema from salvation, for 
 his countrymen and his kinsmen — especially as it could do 
 them no conceivable good, but harm only, should he attempt 
 the impossibility and the nonsense, or even should he perform 
 it ! But, says Christ, Greater love hath no one tlia7i this, 
 that one lay down his life for his friends. Nothing is plain- 
 er than that, in the view we oppose, the love of Paul just 
 INFINITELY AND ETERNALLY trauscends the love of Christ I 
 If this redifctio ad absurdiwi will not answer, we care not 
 for any other consideration. But we observe, 
 
 4. That the translation is very incorrect and faulty, no mat- 
 ter how induced. 
 
 First. The word wish is unhappy, as specific for generic ; 
 since the original word evxofiat is generic, and means sev- 
 eral other things, as glorior, jacto, dico, opto, aftecto, precor, 
 ostento me esse, ago quasi, and so forth ; each of which is 
 perhaps superior and preferable. 
 
 SecoJid. The mood is false in our version, as badly sug- 
 I 2 
 
202 GRAMMAR OF THE ORIGINAL. 
 
 gestive, and as conditional — could. In the Ctreek, it is 
 INDICATIVE SIMPLY I Hot optative at all ; not subjunctive, not 
 potential, not hypothetical, not conditional at all. It simply 
 asserts a fact that Avas — and so it should be rendered in En- 
 glish. It is a direct historical averment of what he was do- 
 ing ! The tense is simply imperfect, or past present ; as, / 
 was so acting, or sho^cing, or affecting, at the time of which 
 I speak. 
 
 Third. The object of the verb is factitiously suppHed in 
 our version, and exists not in the original. What did he 
 wish ? oh ! that myself were accursed from Christ ! that is, 
 xoish myself to be accursed. No such thing I nor the shad- 
 ow of it, in the original. 
 
 Fourth. The subject of the verb is attenuated and lost, 
 making the object of it false in an alien gloss. In the orig- 
 inal, the subject of the verb is very emphatically and emi- 
 nently Paul himself; rjvxofJ'ijv yap dvTog ey w ; the verb of 
 affirmation put first, and then the emphatic nominative. It 
 is literally I myself , or myself I ; yes, even I, who now am 
 going to glory, and nothing shall be able to separate me from 
 the love of God tvhich is in Ch^'ist Jestis mir Lord, even I 
 once acted as madly, and as desperately, and as impiously as 
 they do ; yes I I myself did the same sin and folly ; actually 
 / myself gloried to be anathema from Christ : and hence 
 my grief is experimental ibr them, who are, as I was — but 
 am not. 
 
 The whole of Macknight's theory rests on a gi-ammatical 
 assertion, bald, and unsupported by the shadow of a reason 
 — refutatio7ie indignum est. There are plenty of Jews and 
 other infidels, alas I who show this very desperation at the 
 present day. All they that hate me love death ; they love 
 to be anathema from Christ. That is, they practically do it. 
 They act as if that were their motive ; since they use the 
 very means to that end, and insure that result as certainly as 
 if they aimed at it alone. In general, the wholp Jewish 
 
SINNEKS ALL DISINTERESTED. 203 
 
 world are now glorying to be, as they actually arc, anathema 
 from Christ. John, 3 : 18 ; Rom. 10 : 1-3, 21 ; H : 14. 
 Fools that against my grace rebel, 
 Seek death, and love the road to hell. 
 In the strong language of a natural, and especially an ori- 
 ental rhetoric, theij all glory to be anathema from ChriU. 
 They do this practically, and they may all achieve it ulti- 
 mately. Hence each that was doing it once with them, and 
 now repents of it, will naturally have deep, experimental sor- 
 row for them in his heart, especially for his near relatives ; 
 the more intense as he better recollects what himself was and 
 did, when exactly in their sympathy and madness ; and as 
 he loves them intensely, on every natural account, as his own 
 flesh and blood. 
 
 One test of a parenthesis : abstract it, put the extremes 
 together, and the sense is good, even if seeming incomplete ; 
 thus, I have agony in my heart — for my brethren. Then in- 
 sert the words or sense ; thus — for I myself was once as bad, 
 and acted with a desperation as tremendous I 
 
 In this strong style of speech there is still a naturalness of 
 figure, a metonymy of the consequence for the aim, as if one 
 meant to do that, in purpose and in plan, which he does in 
 result and in fact. The schoolmaster reproves his pupils for 
 their inattention and their sloth, saying, Do you mean to be 
 grown fools or simpletons in a few years ? since such will be 
 the consequence of your present actions. A general in the 
 field chides a false movement of his colonels ; thus. Do you 
 desire to help the enemy ? Why will you be such traitors to 
 your country ? But all these specimens, though illustrative 
 and analogous, are Aveak, we own, compared with that ca- 
 reer of desperate madness in which sinners, defying the word 
 of God, act voluntarily and wantonly, as if they gloried to in- 
 duce that perdition which is the certain consequence of their 
 reckless unbelief. Hence rousing and terrible language is 
 there in place, or it never can be. Ye put it from yoK . and 
 
204 THEY PRACTICALLY DESIKE PERDlTIOrf. 
 
 judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life; that is, yo 
 do this practically — ye act as if ye meant it — ye perpe- 
 trate spiritual suicide — ye crucify the Son of God afresh, 
 atid put him to ati open shame; ye act as {{glorying to he 
 anathona from Christ. 
 
 If one object that they never mean to do this, have no such 
 thought or aim ; I reply, true ; but, 
 
 (1) This is the natural and the necessary result of their 
 chosen course. 
 
 (2) Of this the evidence is superabounding, and the cer- 
 tainty divine, in the scriptures of truth. 
 
 (3) Sirmers are fully vv'arned of their hastening doom. 
 
 (4) They are perfectly free and active in prosecuting the 
 means to such an end. 
 
 (5) Their ignorance is guilty and voluntary — of these 
 things they icillingly are ignorant. 
 
 (6) The desperation of such a course is without all paral- 
 lel conceivably in the universe of God ; and the strongest 
 language of description, remonstrance, and protest is only 
 weak and poor to do justice to its horror and its crime. They 
 practically glory to be anathema from Christ. 
 
 But why asseverate so solemnly ? why begin with such a 
 spontaneous and terrible oath ? Answer — 
 
 On the scheme of Emmons it were just infinitely disgust- 
 ing, revolting, effete, absurd ! But — 
 
 The Jews, of whom, rather than to whom, he here writes, 
 hated him with a terrible malignity. Reason, nature, and 
 history would anticipate only a vengeful retaliation. But 
 grace gave him very different affections ; at once kind and 
 God-like. This was singular, almost incredible ; and if true, 
 demonstrative of the glory of Christ in the gospel. Well, 
 says the apostle, it is rare, but yet true. I say the truth in 
 Christ, I lie not, my co7iscience also beari7ig one icitness 
 in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and con- 
 tinual sorrow in my heart — for my brethren, my kinsmen 
 
OBJECTION OF STUART. 205 
 
 according to the flesh, ivho are Israelites ; and so onward to 
 the culmination of the glorious climax in Christ, who is over 
 all, God blessed forever. 
 
 In reference to this view, which we are sure is the onlj 
 probable or true one, I must here relate a very important and 
 illustrative fact. In the month of June, 1829, not very long 
 before Stuart on Ro7nans appeared, I was at Andover, and 
 dined with the learned and the excellent Professor Stuart, 
 alone. The conversation turned on this very passage. He 
 exacted my view, and I gave it, just as it is here, for sub- 
 stance of doctrine. I expressed the hope that his forthcom- 
 ing volume would settle the matter with this celebrated and 
 difficult passage. After hearing my view, this Avas his com- 
 mentary on it, as follows : 
 
 2. On your view, my dear sir, I can say, that, in general, 
 I approve it. It is at once reasonable, hermeneutical, and 
 practical. I have, on the whole, but one objection to it. 
 
 1. And if that one could be answered, you Avould think it 
 then the best view ? Is it so, my dear professor ? 
 
 2. I certainly should, since there is but one objection to in 
 of any respectability known to me ; yet that is a great one. 
 
 1. My dear sir, let me hear it ; this is much, from you. 
 
 2. It is this — the sense it gives to a-nh, from, in the pas- 
 sage. I think from implies not distance only, or existing 
 separation or antagonism ; but antecedent inbeing, or that 
 he was in Christ at the time of his wish or glory to be anath- 
 ema //"Otw. him. If this be so, it is fatal to your view. 
 
 1. And if it be not so, my plan of interpretation is endorsed 
 the best, by the honored and the learned Rabbi Moses, of An- 
 dover I I would be modest in your presence, my learned and 
 honored friend, but you will allow me also to be free where 
 the truth is in question. Well, then, I am surprised at your 
 objection ; and view it only as flax to the fire, if tested in the 
 crucible of the tcsus loqtiendi of scripture or the classics. 
 'Atto is used there just &%from in English, in kind if not in 
 
206 USAGE OF airo. 
 
 quantity of instances, for distance or difference in comparison, 
 with or without all antecedent inbeing, conjunction, simi- 
 larity, or relation. The sun is ninety-five millions of miles 
 from the earth ; our modern pretenders, lords in lawn, are 
 vastly different /rowt the primitive apostles of Christ ; I re- 
 vere the ancestors y>o??j whom I am descended ; we are some 
 twelve thousand miles or more /row our antipodes ; our north- 
 ern explorers in the arctic regions will always remain many 
 miles //o/^i the central pole ; may we all be kept/;w;i neol- 
 ogy, and popery, and Emmonsism. 
 
 2. Well, now go to scripture. 
 
 1. I will ; but there you seem to me like our Baptist sages 
 on the text, he xoent u'p st7-aighUcay out of the water ; from 
 it, a-nb. There they see, through their imagination, not only 
 " antecedent inbeing," but the previous piety and luxury of 
 a total submersion in the wave of the Jordan ; as the whole 
 charm of their lamentable blunder, and their blinding self- 
 commitment, and their shameful schism, and their fatiguing 
 childishness. But the innocent preposition teaches no such 
 thing, as you know ; any more than his going up into a 
 mountain, tlq to opoq, means, he burrowed into it a mile 
 or so under ground. Besides, my dear sir, in that same chap- 
 ter. Matt. 3:7, John the Baptist says. Who luxth warned 
 you to flee from the wrath to come ? arro ; not a case of an- 
 tecedent inbeing, this I In Acts 13:8, we are told that 
 Elymas, the sorcerer, ivithstood them, seeking to turn away 
 the deputy from the faith. Now Sergius Paulus, the dep- 
 uty, though a prudent man, was a heathen ; and neither 
 was he antecedently in the faith, nor the faith in him ; no 
 inbeing here, in the usus loquendi of a-nb. Looking dili- 
 gently lest any man fail of the grace of God. Heb. 12:15. 
 To fail here, ju^ rif vorepiov, means to come short of it ; to be 
 ahnost time enough for the boat or the rail-car, but just too 
 late ; just to miss your passage ; just to fail of it, or from it ; 
 drrd. No antecedent inbeing here I This is certainly usage, 
 
ANTECEDENT INBEING, INDEED. 207 
 
 scriptural usage I as they are all now anathema and Christ, 
 who do not obey the gospel, and for them in sympathy, we 
 all, who love him, ought more intensely to feel ; and then, I 
 deem it, we should all the better know exactly what, Paul 
 meant in his tears of blood shed for his countrymen — espe- 
 cially in memory of his former self ! But, my dear sir, for- 
 give me for protracting the argument with you I I must say 
 that your objection is not tenable, nor, for once, is its basis 
 true ; and I come to the result, that, te judice, my view is 
 " the best every way" that Moses Stuart ever knew I 
 
 2. That seems very fair, and 1 will think of it. 
 
 1. I hope you will — on the principle, si quid novisti rec- 
 tius istis, candidtis imperii ; si non, his utere mecum. 
 
 Hereabout our collocution ended ; and soon appeared his 
 volume on the principle, illo in loco, of antecedent inbeing ! 
 Non invideo ! miror magis. 
 
 That Paul should ever have had such a spasmodic rabies 
 of transcendental rodomontade and stultiloquent benevolence* 
 after his Christian regeneration, I hold to be, a priori, of all 
 fantasms the wildest ; transubstantiation and apostolical suc- 
 cession themselves — almost — postponed to it. This is more 
 probable, as it occurs after taking an oath of veracity, so sol- 
 emn, beyond all common precedent, as to preclude all such 
 frightful and impious extravagance, under the notion of ori- 
 ental hyperbole and poetical impressiveness. By their fruits 
 is a criterion of principles as well as persons, and it is one 
 that utterly condemns the notion of Emmons. Is its fruit to 
 holiness and edification in the gospel of Jesus Christ ? 
 
 Besides, the case of Moses, Exod. 32 : 32, is not at all par- 
 allel. Emmons quotes it as one of his hobby texts, " Blot my 
 
 * A strange specimen of words, I own ; but put for a stranger and 
 a more uncouth specimen of thought, a rare and a perfectly abomina- 
 ble absurdity ! 
 
208 PRACTICAL SENSE THE THING. 
 
 name out of the Book of life." This utterly alters the words 
 and the sense. The Book of life of the Lamb had nothing 
 to do with the argument. The expression is merely proverb- 
 ial for " forget me ;" or, as we say, such a one blots me 
 from his book : meaning, I am not in his favor, as before. 
 The answer of Moses plainly refers to the proffer of God to 
 promote him, instead of them ; which Moses, as the typical 
 mediator interceding for them, personally declines — prefer- 
 ring, in that respect, comparatively, not to be remembered in 
 his ways! 32 : 10. But they pervert one reciprocally to 
 help the other, and thus fortify their most unedifying and 
 anti-scriptural extravagance. In the mean time, it does im- 
 mense damage to the souls of men, doing evil, and only evil, 
 and tluxt continualhj, under the subHmest assumptions of 
 wisdom and holiness. 
 
 May I be permitted here a general reflection ? Possibly 
 it might, or might not, be readily conceded to a Christian 
 pastor and a practical minister, who has seen some service 
 in the Church of God. It is the constant and the paramount 
 need of the principle and the influence, in large measure, of 
 COMMON SENSE and PRACTICAL VIEWS, rather than a serene 
 scholasticism, in the interpretation especially of the written 
 oracles of God. Learning is great and good, and very desir- 
 able in its place and in its use — not out of its place or in 
 its insidious abuse. Some men are so learned, so full of 
 books, of theories, of rules and exceptions, of immense phi- 
 lology, of technology, of pneumatology, of psychology, of on- 
 tology, and all the ologies, with hypotheses and opinions of 
 great men, that their common sense collapses in a foreign 
 and an imposing presence ; and their plethora of authorities 
 and erudition, ut helhwnes librorum, prevents the action of 
 their own judgment, and precludes a just originality of 
 thought — so that their opinion, if they have any that is their 
 own, is a conglomerate of all their reading ; as stationary as 
 a weather-cock; as true as an old Turkish time-piece, made, 
 
EMMONriiaM DREARY AND COLD AW DEATH. 209 
 
 as we are truly informed, to announce twelve whenever the 
 sultan was ready and in humor to give his fiat, for the re- 
 sounding of the gong, as the signal, the oracle, the fact. 
 
 All the commoner theories on the passage in question arc 
 condemned by the rule oi the fruits and common sense; so 
 far are they from practical, natural, probable, useful, on the 
 principles of the best biblical interpretation. They are vast- 
 ly unprofitable, therefore, and even derogatory to the high 
 and plenary inspiration of the written word. Yet what is 
 more common or natural than for an honest Christian phi- 
 lanthropy, in persuading and f)cseechi?ig men to be reconciled 
 to God, to refer with humiliation to its own former experi- 
 ence ; its recollection of its own confused madness in a pre- 
 vious state of alienation from the life of God ? nor is it 
 wonderful, if such an eloquence as Paul was wont to exem- 
 plify, in this or a similar relation, should teach the tremen- 
 dous folly and the impious suicide of all the rebellious ene- 
 mies of God, by citing and impressing his own example of 
 astonishing anti-Christian zeal and desperation ; character- 
 izing it as if glorying in the destination it was inducing ; as 
 if acting with a direct aim to the consequence so real of his 
 course ; as if coveting the condition of being forever — an- 
 athema from Christ. Acts, 9, 1-4 ; 22 : 4, 5 ; 26 : 9-11 ; 
 i. Tim., 1 : 12-17. 
 
 I subjoin the remark that Emmonsism is a dreary, an iso- 
 lating, pre-eminently an unjoyous, and a comfortless system. 
 The coldest and the most dissocial religionists I have ever 
 known, preachers and people, in the ranks of the orthodox ; 
 the most incapable of private friendship, and the most desti- 
 tute of the social and the domestic loves and sympathies, 
 their humanities and their home-born affections all exsic- 
 cated, and precluded, and gone, I have seen, known, and 
 marked, among this especial class, as properly of them. 1 
 could distinctly trace their frigidity, their rigidity, and their 
 aridity to the system that formed their characters. It has 
 
210 COMFORT A.\D JOY IN GOD ARE SANCTIONED. 
 
 almost ruined them for all amiableness and all usefulness. I 
 could give instances and names. 
 
 Nor toward God did it seem, as 1 have often explored it in 
 them, a particle better — they are not happy in God, they 
 can not be. " If I am not saved, others avill be," is the 
 genuine result — the whole of it. And is this the proper fruit 
 of reading the scriptures ? which were written for our learn- 
 ing, that ive, through patience and comfort of the scrip- 
 tures, might have hope. The fruit of the Spirit is ascer- 
 tained to us in nine especial graces, of which the first three, 
 and the substance of all the others, are, love, joy, peace. 
 These are the elements of substantial and eternal happiness, 
 as well as holiness. 
 
 A system that can not legitimately inspire happiness or 
 make its disciples joyful in God, rejoicing in hope, is not the 
 gospel. The most edifying and comforting book in the world 
 is the Bible. Yes, for consolation and joy to the soul, there 
 is nothing like it. It is incomparable every way ; and no one 
 should be content to lose so much direct and genuine happi- 
 ness as he must who allows himself in the sin of ignorance, 
 touching the matter and the manner of the Book of God. 
 There is no proper substitute for it — or if, gentle reader, you 
 think you have found any, burn it, for your own better edifica- 
 tion. Christianity longs for the proficiency of its friends in joy 
 and goodness — tliat their hearts might be comforted, being 
 knit together in love, and to all riches of the full assurance 
 of understanding — that every one of you do shoiv the same 
 diligence, to the full assurance of hope to the end — now the 
 God of hope fill you ivith all joy and peace in believing, 
 that ye nuxy abound in hope through the power of the Holy 
 Ghost — the God of patience and comfort — rejoice i?t the 
 Lord ahvays, and again, I say, rejoice — for the kingdo?n of 
 God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, 
 and joy in the Holy Ghost. 
 
 But these exhilarating and jubilant affections are not at 
 
I,E.\RM\(i NOT IMPIOUS. 211 
 
 all the fruit of his gelid metaphysics, or of the gasconading 
 and the assumption of any of the schoolmen. Scholasti- 
 cism, in some of its multifarious phases, affects supreme in- 
 telligence, and a perfect oraculous mastery in religion. Its 
 idol is philosophy, assumed their own. We are warned to 
 beware of its sway and its deceit. — Col. 2 : 8-10. After all, 
 it is literalizing and short-sighted. Its magic is contracted, 
 its gyromancy contemptible. Learning has its highest func- 
 tion, as well as its purest nature and its richest honor, only 
 as coincident with revelation, because taught by it and sub- 
 ordinate to it, in all its proper and its genuine manifesta- 
 tions. 
 
ATTESTATION. 
 
 Having accompanied my friend and pastor, Rev. Dr. Cox, 
 on the occasion here described, I am constrained in duty to 
 say that I view the account given of his interview with the 
 Rev. Dr. Emmons as substantially true and correct. The 
 admission of error I heard him make, as here it is correctly 
 narrated. The singularity and impressive nature of the 
 whole scene were fitted solemnly to impress me, as they cer- 
 tainly did at the time ; and though fourteen years have since 
 flown over us, I find my recollections sufficiently vivid to au- 
 thorize me in this act as a witness. 
 
 Lowell Holbrook. 
 
 Brooklyn, New York, Aug. 11, 1852. 
 
 P.S. — The coincidence is strange, but wholly undesigned, 
 and was not known or observed till some time after the above 
 was written, that fourteen years exactly, to a clay, mark the 
 period since the interview to the date of this document. 
 
 It is strange, too, for an author to anticipate doubt or im- 
 peachment to a fact which he avers and witnesses in this 
 way ; but stranger was the fact itself, and this may well ac- 
 count for the mode and the fact of anticipation. 
 
 Samuel H. Cox. 
 
 Brooklyn, New York, October, 1852. 
 
INTERVIEWS 
 
 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, 
 
 president of the united states : 
 September, 1825. 
 
 Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of tliis world?— 1 Cor. 1 : 20. 
 
 The foolishness of God is wiser than men. — 1 Cor. 1 : 25. 
 
 The depravity of men is total ; since we are destitute, as fallen creatures, of all 
 real virtue, till, obeying the Gospel, we are sanctified by the Spirit of God, and so 
 conformed, in some degree and for the first time, to the law of God as the rule, and 
 the glory of God as the end, of our actions ; previous to which simple, but great and 
 wonderful change, our depravity deceives us and others, working its spirituality 
 of evil deceptively, latently, speciously, and not less efficaciously, to make us the 
 voluntary captives and the desperate victims of dominant transgression and all its 
 penal consequences. This is plainly the testimony of God in the Scriptures, though 
 it is opposed enough by unregenerate men, and in all unreasonable ways enough, 
 to increase, if possible, the proof that amply sustains that humiliating article of our 
 faith. — Anon. 
 
 Other acquisitions may be requisite to make men great ; but be assured the re- 
 ligion of .lesus is alone sufficient to make them good and happy : * * * a religion 
 which has been adorned with the highest sanctity of character and splendor of tal- 
 ents, which enrolls among its disciples the names of Bacon, Newton, and Locke, the 
 glory of their species, and to which these illustrious men were proud to dedicate the 
 last and Ihe best fruits of their immortal genius. — Robert Hall. 
 
 No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which con- 
 ducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. * * * The pro- 
 pitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eter- 
 nal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained. — Washington. 
 
 True patriotism and true piety are very congruous, as well as ornamental, when 
 seen united in an American citizen. — Anon. 
 
 Valet ima summis 
 Mutare, et insignem atlenuat Deus 
 Obscura promens. — Hor. 
 
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 
 
 The fame of this great man belongs to the American na- 
 tion. Among her pi-oceres of the Revolution, or, rather, of 
 the age next after it, he figures as a star of the first magni- 
 tude. His lustre is original, characteristic, real. As a schol- 
 ar, a statesman, a patriot, he belongs to the first class, and 
 distinguished there in the constellation of our country's great- 
 ness. From March, 1825, to the same m.onth, 1829, he of- 
 ficiated as the sixth President of the United States of Amer- 
 ica; and now, 1852, the thirteenth acting in the administra- 
 tiou of the government, it may be said that a better informed 
 reader, writer, and thinker, on the whole, never illustrated 
 that high place of magistracy or occupied more luminously 
 the seat of Washington. 
 
 All this, however, respects his secular character. We pro- 
 pose as CONSIDERATIONS, somc of them, perhaps, implying 
 each other, yet with a view to distinct reference in subse- 
 quent places, the following seven questions : 
 
 (1) What was his interior man? 
 
 (2) Was he a Christian ? 
 
 (3) Was he a regenerated person, according to the conver- 
 sation of the Son of God with Nicodemus ? — John, 3 : 1-21 
 
 (4) "VMiat were his religious views and sentiments ? 
 
 (5) Is he now in glory, among the ransomed of the Lamb ? 
 
 (6) "WTiat will be the influence of his memory on the Chris- 
 tian piety of his country ? 
 
 (7) If not an infidel, like Jefferson, was he a sound Chris 
 
216 one's secular uu spiritual character. 
 
 tian, like Jackson,* before he left this probationary theatre 
 and met the awful experience of the eternal Avorld ? 
 
 One's secular is as distinct from his spiritual character, as 
 the ignorance of man compared with the knowledge of God. 
 The two are, indeed, related ; not identical. By one's spirit- 
 ual character is meant — what man is in the sight of God, as 
 related to the truth of revelation and the hope of immortal- 
 ity ; as a lover of God, or as a hater of God ; as obeying the 
 gospel ill the only right way, or as disobeying it, finally, in 
 any way ; and as prepared, on the whole, for the glory of 
 heaven, or as not prepared for it. 
 
 The secular character is that which obtains among men, 
 depending on outside views and human estimates, often tri- 
 umphantly high — where the spiritual character is low and 
 false, and incapable of the divine approbation and reward. 
 
 Of character here two things are to be remembered : 
 
 First. Its only proper arbiter is God. 
 
 Second. He will decide at last, absolutely and independ- 
 ently, according to his own truth, published to mankind ; 
 since he can not contradict himself, in time or in eternity. 
 
 Of the seven questions stated, this treatise refers mainly to 
 the fourth alone. It is, indeed, related to all the others — as 
 is each other to each of them ; and the mutual relations of 
 them all are intimate, though not alike in form legitimated 
 to our inquiry or decision. As to the fifth, we must leave it 
 entirely with God, and refer it, ex animo et mccum et tecum, 
 with solemn reverence to the developments of eternal judg- 
 ment. We should remember, however, that there is no re- 
 spect of persons, places, titles, or circumstances at the Judg- 
 ment-seat of Christ. This we shall, sooner or later, all laiow 
 and experience. Nor do we omit to treat the fifth question 
 because we view it as trivial, or as wholly unlawful, or as 
 
 * After retiring from public life, he professed the religion of Christ, 
 and died happily, in full communion, as an honored member of the 
 Presbyterian Church. 
 
TWO WEIGHTY CONCESSIONS. 217 
 
 characteristic of low and sordid principles ; or, as if it were 
 not the very one that, by a necessary law of thought, as it 
 were an inexorable instinct, recurs first or second to the mind, 
 when the death of any individual is announced to us — es- 
 pecially if he were esteemed by us, or were a personage of 
 distinction and eminence. It is comparatively the only im- 
 portant question that can be asked of one who has made the 
 transition from time to eternity ! Alas I how soon — soon — 
 soon — shall the writer and the reader be there. In less 
 than the circle of one year, this October, 1852, how many 
 great men, a cluster of them, have gone to their account — 
 as the King of Hanover and the Duke of Wellington, in Eu- 
 rope ; as Calhoun, Woodbury, Clay, Webster, in our own coun- 
 try ; to mention not thousands of others. 
 
 It is my present design to relate the substance of a pro- 
 longed interview, or series of interviews, with President Ad- 
 ams, in which the topic was religion, and mamly religion 
 alone. It lasted for many consecutive hours, with several 
 occasional interruptions, and with a singular frankness and 
 honesty, perhaps, on both sides. As to his errors, which 
 seemed, indeed, great and even cardinal, I would remind th' 
 reader of two concessions, of which my own thoughts sincere- 
 ly are, and this narrative may be, rightly availed. 
 
 First. How much of what he said was for the sake of ar- 
 gument, or merely to educe reply, or for the end of experiment 
 or amusement only, I am unwilling to assume, or to decide, 
 especially in the aggregate. How it struck me at the time, 
 the reader may infer as we proceed. I indeed have, even 
 when it may not be necessary to show, mine opinion. 
 
 Second. As the conversation occurred almost a quarter of 
 a century before his death, it is possible that his vieAvs may 
 have changed ; as some say or think that they altered for 
 the better previous to his exit from the world. 
 
 On the seventh question, it is very certain that he never 
 deliberately intended to be an infidel. His eloquent and 
 
 K 
 
218 MR. ADAMS EVER KIND TO ME. 
 
 learned lecture on faith, which, with many others I heard 
 him deliver, in this city, November 19, 1840, was prepared 
 expressly, as he personally assured me at the time, to counter- 
 vail some of the more recent tendencies and demonstrations 
 ot" transcendental and rationalistic impiety, which then were 
 fatiguing the patience of Heaven, and figuring impiously be- 
 fore the country : by which, however, I mean not to express 
 approbation of its doctrines, or its competency on such a theme. 
 On the contrary, it must be viewed by all correct judges, by 
 all enlightened Christians, as exceedingly imperfect, superfi- 
 cial, and vulnerable. 
 
 After the conversations of the interview, which I am now 
 to describe, Mr. Adams, whether gratified or not, whether 
 benefited or not, was, I am very sure, not personally offended. 
 He saw me often in his subsequent life ; he frequently, or 
 rather occasionally, attended on my public ministrations, both 
 in "Washington and New York, and always seemed courteous 
 and affectionate. On one occasion, when my theme was the 
 miracles of the gospel — their credibility, and when I at- 
 tempted a direct answer to the argument of Hume, and in a 
 way, perhaps, quite novel and extraordinary, Mr. Adams was 
 pleased to express his approbation, as it were not proper for 
 me to relate ; yet, as an implication that he believed those 
 miracles, it was a specially grateful and memorable response. 
 February 27, 1844, he presided in the House of Representa- 
 tives at Washington, where, as a delegate of the American 
 Bible Society at the time, I addressed him in the chair, sup- 
 ported by the Hon. John M'Lean, of the national judiciary, 
 at a meeting of the Bible Society of Washington ; on which 
 occasion, his address, as he opened the meeting, I will in its 
 place subjoin. It speaks for itself; and the autograph copy 
 which he gave me I still retain in honor among my valua- 
 ble PAPERS. 
 
 Our meeting was entirely accidental. Designated to a pro- 
 fessional service in the city of Boston, I found myself on tho 
 
OUR MEETING AND JOURNEY. 219 
 
 deck of the steamer Fulton, Captain R. S. Bunker, with 
 him, on Tuesday, September 27, 1825, at four o'clock P.M. 
 leaving New York. We reached Providence, Rhode Island, 
 next day in the afternoon, and Boston at nine o'clock in the 
 evening. It was tkoi viewed as swift traveling — only twen- 
 ty-nine hours. We now go, steaming it on land, in about 
 eight. If we continue improving at this rate for a few more 
 years, we shall be in danger, before long, of arriving there 
 several hours before we set out I At least, a great demon- 
 strator, who has faith in figures, that " will not lie," and 
 faith, he says, in nothing else, is reported to have come to 
 this result, and to have propovmded it with large confidence 
 to others — proved by figures I 
 
 How we traveled the land route will be shown in its place. 
 The object of his tour was honorable to his filial piety — to 
 pay a visit to his aged father, who died so remarkably, the 
 next year, simultaneously with Jefferson ; both on the 
 FOURTH OF July. He had not then occupied the presiden- 
 tial eminence much more than half a year, and was only in 
 the fifty-ninth year of his age — I had just completed the 
 thirty-second of my own. He had seen much of the world, 
 on both sides of the ocean. He had acted with mighty men, 
 and been occupied in scenes of national honor and distinction, 
 in courts, and camps, and cabinets, at home and abroad. I 
 was certainly not intentionally deficient in respect for him in 
 all these relations ; though I knew of others, and those the 
 highest, where it was my edified conviction that, like an an- 
 cient oriental emperor, he was probably weighed in the bal- 
 ance and found wanting. 
 
 La Fayette, as " the guest of the nation," had just accom- 
 plished his gratefal and jubilant visit to the land he had so 
 magnanimously aided in its Revolutionary crisis, and so joy- 
 ously gratulated in its culminating prosperity. Having been 
 received in every part of the country with the warmest ex- 
 pressions of delight and enthusiasm, his presence was every 
 
220 RETURN OF LA FAYETTE. 
 
 where the signal for festivals and rejoicings. He passed 
 through the twenty-four* states of the Union in a sort of tri- 
 umphal procession, in which all parties joined to forget their 
 dissensions — in which the veterans of the war renewed their 
 youth, and the young M'ere carried back to the doings and 
 the suHerings of their fathers. Having celebrated, at Bunk- 
 er Hill, the anniversary of the first conflict of the Revolu- 
 tion, and, at Yorktown, that of its closing scene, in which he 
 himself had borne so conspicuous a part ; having taken leave 
 of the four ex-presidents of the United States, he received the 
 farewell of the president in the name of the nation, and sail- 
 ed from the capital in a frigate, named, in comphment to 
 him, the Bkandywine, September 7, 1825. His embarka- 
 tion and return were then a topic of freshness and life among 
 all classes, with many valedictious, and more benedictions, 
 from millions of grateful citizens ; and its occurrence, in our 
 conversation, was one of the incidental causes that induced 
 its religious character, as will appear in the sequel. We 
 proceed. 
 
 1. It is a pleasant incident to me, Mr. Adams, that I may 
 be somewhat filled tvith your company on this occasion. I 
 was as totally unaware of it, before I saw you here, as sub- 
 sequently gratified to realize the fact. You are on a filial 
 visit, I hear, to your honored predecessor and father. 
 
 2. Yes. My occupations are so numerous that I have been 
 already detained too long from this duty. But now, having 
 given the valedictory to La Fayette, and adjusted other mat- 
 ters, I hasten to see the old gentleman in his advanced age 
 and infirmities. 
 
 1. He will be happy, I am sure, to receive you ; and your 
 visit will, I trust, be a source of mutual pleasure and of grate- 
 ful memory, especially as his continuance with us can not, 
 probably, be much further protracted. He will be glad to hear 
 from yourself a description of the departure of La Fayette. 
 * Now TiuRTY-oNE, and vast territories soon to evolve more states. 
 
THE DESERTER CHAPLAIN. 221 
 
 2. Some things, on that theme, I ought rather to tell you 
 than him, probably ; especially one that concerns the clergy, 
 though not as honorably as we all could desire. 
 
 1. Let me hear it, if" you please. 
 
 2. It respects the chaplain of the Brandywine. We tried 
 to have every thing comnie ilfaut for the comfort of the ven- 
 erable marquis ; and hence we provided him, we thought, 
 with a first-rate chaplain ; one whose paper character, at 
 least, was fair and promising. We thought he would prove 
 a pleasant companion for him. But you heard, perhaps, of 
 the trick he served us. 
 
 1. He changed his mind, I think. 
 
 2. He was a deserter and a coward. He accepted the ap- 
 pointment, after trying to get it ; got his outfit, went on 
 board ; all seemed right, when, all at orice, as the pilot was 
 leaving, his luggage was reproduced, and nothing would do 
 but return he must, and did ; though the ship was under 
 weigh, and all hands urged him. to remain. This was not 
 the thing at all. This was all the reason why our national 
 vessel, with such honored freight, went and returned with no 
 chaplain, no prayers — and what think you and yours of it ? 
 
 1. It strikes me very strangely. I knew that eccentric 
 person some years ago. He was a Baptist preacher ; though, 
 after several flaming publications in favor of immersion and 
 close communion, which he soon renounced, he left them, 
 joined some Western presbytery, and has belonged, I think, 
 to several denominations in the course of his life. His rea- 
 sons, or his impulses, in that matter, I know not ; only I great- 
 ly regret that a minister of religion should seem to be the 
 theme of so just and so high a censure. La Fayette had a 
 great esteem, and with good reason, for Witherspoon, Rogers, 
 M'Whorter, Dufiield, Miller, Wilson, and many others of our 
 Presbyterian clergy ; and I am quite sorry he should not 
 have had one of their sort to benefit and to bless him when 
 homeward bound. It was a service and an opportunity which 
 
222 RELIGIOUS CONVERSATION. 
 
 any one of those patriots, sages, and men of God might have 
 embraced with delight and immutability. But poor human 
 nature is not as it once was ; though, through the reign of 
 grace, it may be restored to a grander moral eminence than 
 that whence we fell in Adam ; the paradise of the second 
 Adam, never to be forfeited by those who are so happy as to 
 arrive there. 
 
 2. You orthodox clergy think most unmercifully ill of hu- 
 man nature. I have sometimes heard sermons about our 
 wickedness that really made me smile. I wonder that a 
 preacher, after such a discourse, should descend from the pul- 
 pit and take one of us by the hand ; but perhaps he scarce 
 believes it himself, and was only performing a technical rou- 
 tine that had no connection with practical wisdom or com- 
 mon sense. I think better of human nature. 
 
 1. What a man thinks of human nature, Mr. Adams, is a 
 criterion of character often of most ominous demonstrations. 
 There is some paradox, some deceit, and some instruction 
 often, and a strange compound in such an estimate. 
 
 2. Yours is too extravagant, too uncompromising, too se- 
 vere, too indiscriminate. 
 
 1. Mr. Adams, I am surprised, and glad too, to see the 
 course our converse is taking. The subject of religion is with 
 me comparatively the only one. All else seems dust on the 
 scale, or at best as the diaff of the mountains before the 
 vdnd, and like a rolling thing, a thistle down, hefwe the 
 tvhirlivind. To converse on such a theme with you, I value 
 as at once a pleasure, and an honor, and a responsibility. 
 Well I know that you may not be a Christian, even if in all 
 other qualities you excel. There is no ex officio salvation 
 for me or for you. Hence I shall be very happy to prolong 
 this colloquy, only I must be at once respectful and honest. 
 Please observe, too, that j'ou shall adjourn it whenever you 
 please, and afterward resume it, or not, as you please. 
 
 2. Proceed, then. We can occupy the time comparative- 
 
MR. ADAMs' INAUGURAL. 223 
 
 ly well in this way. I shall state my objections with equal 
 frankness, as I know no reason for concealment. 
 
 1 . Agreed, sir. Your secular cares and duties seldom al- 
 low a hiatus for such themes ; and I pray God to make this 
 opportunity one of mutual profit and pleasure. Yet, as the 
 head of a great Christian nation, how congruous, how prop- 
 er, how desirable, that you should be a Christian ! All this 
 pertains not merely to theory, to theology, or theosophy, as it 
 were a mere science. Truth is in order to goodness ; and 
 if we can see what the truth is, we must obey it or perish. 
 
 2. That sounds hke some of your Calvinism. 
 
 1. More, Mr. Adams, like the Christianism of the Bible. 
 You ought to know how all the truly pious in the country are 
 praying for you, and how much they desire that our great 
 men should be good men, especially the presidents of this 
 great and noble nation. Greatness without goodness will cut 
 a sorry figure at the left hand of Christ in that day I It is 
 the goodness, rather than the greatness of God, that consti- 
 tutes his glory, the love of his people, the praise of his wor- 
 shipers, and the wealth of heaven. It makes the sin of his 
 enemies so enhanced, and so inexcusable, too, that they hate 
 and dishonor the veiy goodness of such a God. 
 
 2. Yes, God is good, and over all. 
 
 1. In reading your inaugural last Mai'ch, I was pleased 
 with all the piety and all the scripture I found in it. But 
 they were rare instances. The public would tolerate con- 
 siderably more. Look at the public documents of Washing- 
 ton. He was honorably distinguished for that reverent rec- 
 ognition of God Almighty, in all, and over all, which ought 
 to be the ordinary way and character of all our statesmen. 
 His example ought to be normal and permanent in this as 
 well as in other relations of his sublime philosophy. In all 
 thy tvaijs acknowledge HIM, and HE shall direct thy 
 paths. In that inaugural, you made a beautiful quotation 
 from Daniel, I remember, which was surely fit and admira- 
 
224 EXTRAVAGANCE OF I'KEACHEKS. 
 
 ble — importing your sense of dependence on One invisible, 
 who has yourself, and your administration too, in His power ; 
 in whoic hand your breath is, and icliose arc all your icays ; 
 but you might have quoted the next clause with no improprie- 
 ty ; and whom you have not glorified, to perfect the sentence. 
 2. More of your Calvinism, it seems. 
 
 1. No ; only some of Daniel's. 
 
 2. I attended the Presbyterian Church while preparing 
 my address ; and that text was taken by the preacher, the 
 Rev. Dr. Post,* and so I used it. I was impressed with the 
 sentiment as he handled it ; and hence it seemed pertinent 
 to my case, entering on so great and so arduous a service. 
 
 1 . I am very glad you did, dear sir. You are dependent on 
 God to an extent greater, grander, sublimer, than man or an- 
 gel can comprehend. But we can all apprehend the fact, and 
 own it, to his glory and our own good — and to our own wis- 
 dom as well. 
 
 2. Well, on the topic of sin we have not concluded. 
 
 1 . No ; you allege our extravagance, and I am sorry you 
 do. 
 
 2. Yes ; you are quite beyond all sober reason, I judge. 
 
 1. I well remember when Paul judged very similarly, as he 
 says. It was before he had any genuine piety, Mr. Adams. 
 
 2. Your views at large I have often considered, on this 
 topic, as a rare phenomenon. It used to perplex me — lately 
 I seem to have solved it — I mean the theory you clergy in 
 common hold. 
 
 1. Let us hear. 
 
 2. I resolve it all into a latent vanity of your minds. 
 
 1. An odd theory, and quite original, I dare say ; all your 
 own. 
 
 2. Oh ! you are honest, and mean no harm by it, at all 
 events. 
 
 1 . How came we by it, since by nature we commonly in- 
 * Now of Charleston, South Carolina. 
 
THEIR VANITY AND THEIR PRINCIPLES. 225 
 
 clinc to it not at all. We are all by nature children of 
 tvrath, even as others. We too are men. 
 
 2. How the vanity vv^orks it might not be possible always 
 to show. 
 
 1 . We have learned our doctrine from the page of inspira- 
 tion, studying it in its pure originals, with patience, prayer, 
 and critical helps. We know, and feel, and prove what we 
 hold, and what we teach, on that and other topics. You know 
 the rule, cuique credendum est sua in arte* Is it not prob- 
 able the clergy know, in their own profession that absorbs 
 their life, more and better than men of merely secular pur- 
 suits ? But try them by the scriptures, like the noble Be- 
 reans of old, and let them stand or fall there. 
 
 2. They adhere professionally and technically to their way, 
 I think. 
 
 1 . Well ; your way, Mr. Adams, about their vanity, as the 
 reason of their views of sin and human depravity, you have 
 not yet expounded. 
 
 2. I will attempt it, then — they think so much of them- 
 selves, that their importance seems to expand with a halo of 
 greatness, as if they were the peers and comrades of God. 
 Hence they are His enemies, they are at war with Him, their 
 sin is an infinite evil to HIM, it requires a great motion in 
 heaven and earth to get it pardoned ; and in all this they are 
 self-magnified at an extravagant rate, beyond all probable 
 or reasonable limits of their being. 
 
 1. Go on, sir, and show how should they think, so as to 
 be sober. 
 
 2. Think ? They should learn their littleness, and be hum- 
 ble. A man is a mite, an insect, an infinitesimal of exist- 
 ence. He is an atom of an atom world. Our world is an 
 atom compared with the solar system. This a few particles 
 of dust, measured with the fixed stars, the sidereal universe 
 — with its millions of firmaments, its nebular glories, its 
 
 * Every one is to be credited in his own art or profession. 
 K2 
 
226 HIS ARGUMENT VAIN AND FALSE. 
 
 manifold constellations : and all those and all creation, noth- 
 ing — to God I "What then is man, individual man, to HIM ? 
 What all his works but the shadow of his substance ? And 
 man lives here but one moment, compared with eternity. 
 Can he then be so much, and do so much, to annoy God him- 
 self, to convulse the universe, and attract to his little person 
 such an infinitude of wrath ! I say, they should study their 
 own insignificance, and then they would not magnify them- 
 selves so much — they will be magnificent even in depravity, 
 or in the sentiment of it. 
 
 1. Now I seem to understand you. 
 
 2. Well, and what say you to my argument ? 
 
 1 . I first say, thanks, Mr. Adams, for giving it such a cer- 
 tain and tangible shape. That mode of argument, called re- 
 ductio ad absurdum, comes into my mind in an opportune 
 moment. Suppose you correct — then these are logically the 
 consequences : 
 
 (1) The clergy are all refuted, and ought to be corrected 
 too, fundamentally. 
 
 (2) Christ, and his apostles and prophets, are exactly in 
 the same predicament — they are all wrong, as shown by the 
 solar system and the sidereal universe. 
 
 (3) Materialism is the great criterion of ethics, theologies, 
 and metaphysics ; for example, because I can not stamp with 
 my foot on the deck of this steamer so as to stagger her mo- 
 tions, or break her machinery, or injure her hulk, I can not 
 sin against the captain or the owners, even by hating them 
 in my heart, and by plotting their murder, intending to exe- 
 cute it as soon as opportunity offers. Because I can not strike 
 this little globe so as to arrest its flight in space, or damage 
 the solar system, or shake the throne of God, it is impossible 
 to hate him at all ; or to sin, if I do hate him ; or to break 
 his commandments and deserve punishment for it I Your 
 theory is nothing new. It is materialism, bald and bad, and 
 nothing better I It illustrates by contrast the glories of spir- 
 
MATERIALISM AND SPIRITUALITY. 227 
 
 ituality — the only rif^ht philosophy. Spirituality is the doc- 
 trine of reason, truth, experience, conscience, wisdom, and 
 scripture. Now I begin to understand how so wise a philos- 
 opher can get along in life, without any annoyance from the 
 idea of sin, any need of mercy, or pardon, or atonement, or 
 salvation ; and hoAV sin appears to him a demonstrated ni- 
 hility, nay, a certain impossibility, for such a point of space 
 and time as man to perpetrate against the infinite circum- 
 ference of universal being ! Oh I Mr. Adams. 
 
 2. I supposed you would not relish my argument. 
 
 1 . What logic is that, sir, that refutes God ? that renders 
 his sayings obsolete, as so many antiquated nullities ? that 
 makes faith substantially at one with infidelity ? As for your 
 argument, my dear sir, I am very glad you have produced it ; 
 I know now what it is I 
 
 2. You like not my kind of humility, either ? 
 
 1. Certainly not. I know it to be pride only, under cover 
 of a pseudo-philosophy and the solar system. Think you that 
 conscience means nothing ? or is it a fibrous organ, or a mus- 
 cular machine, or a disease, like the toothache, within us ? 
 Murder consists not in killing, but in hating. This the an- 
 cient heathen even, especially Cicero, knew and aflfirmed. 
 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer ; and ye knoxo 
 that no murderer liath eternal life abiding in him,. So 
 says the Holy Ghost, by his beloved Apostle John. This is 
 spirituality ; it is not materialism. 
 
 2. What, then, would you make of us ? 
 
 1. Exactly what we all are, by nature and by practice, 
 till grace makes us somewhat as we ought to be ; exactly, 
 dear sir, what the Holy Scriptures fully and truly assert that 
 we all are. 
 
 2. You do not agree with me, then ? 
 
 1. No, indeed. You see what a sin was the first in Eden. 
 Its consequences ai'e all about us, and in us, and over us, for- 
 ever. But, according to materialism, it was all nothing. 
 
228 HUMAN NATURE, SELf's VIEW. 
 
 Was the apple — if that it were — evil ? No. The tree ? No. 
 The admiratiou of it as fair and beautiful ? No. The eating 
 of it, sinii)ly considered ? Not at all. Where, then, was the 
 sin ? Answer — In putting God at defiance ; in making noth- 
 ing of his order ; in practically annihilating God himself ; iii 
 crediting the doctrine of the father of Universalists in con- 
 tradiction of God ; and in setting an example, to follow which 
 would ruin heaven and confound the universe. The tree of 
 the knoioledge of good and evil, which they violated, is so 
 called, demonstrably and simply, because it was ordained of 
 God as the criterion, the test, the signal of their fidelity or 
 of their sin. If they ate not of it, it stood the lovely monu- 
 ment of their innocence ; if they ate of it, its wound con- 
 demned them, it bled their accusation, it wept their death I 
 
 On the other system, it was all trivial and innoxious, as 
 the autumnal tlight of the gossamer. If Adam and Eve had 
 torn up all the trees in the garden, had burned them, and 
 turned the floods of water in desolation over Paradise, that 
 might have been an atom of an atom of something ; but as 
 it was, it was all the play of children, and original sin is all 
 and only the day-dream of Calvinists. 
 
 2. You are coming hard on poor human nature again. 
 
 1. Better it were, Mr. Adams, to see how hard God comes 
 on it. His truth is infallible and eternal, and it is revealed 
 for our instruction. 
 
 2. I never could consent to such a manifesto as you give. 
 1. Human nature, dear sir, is often good or bad in our 
 
 eyes, inversely, as we are bad or good in the eyes of God. 
 This is what I mean by our estimate of human nature being 
 a criterion of our character, as regenerated or yet in the state 
 of nature ; thus, an unregenerate man, latently, if not con- 
 fessedly, thinks morally well of himself, is proud and self- 
 righteous, and all his tendencies in this relation are blindly 
 to self-justification, to apologies for his peccancies, and to 
 show, ill substance, that, if only justice were done him, in- 
 
THE WRATH TO COME. 229 
 
 Blead of oppression ami injury, he should do well and pros- 
 per, both here and hereafter. He thinks well of human na- 
 ture in the abstract, because it means himself in the con- 
 crete. On the other hand, for a similar reason, the Christian 
 thinks ill of human nature, especially because he receives 
 the testimony of God concerning it with humiliation and per- 
 sonal application. Hence he is humble, grateful, teachable. 
 He trusts God with gladness, in sight, out of sight, in dark- 
 ness, in light, in trial and distress, at all times, and for all 
 things. His confidence, in God, through the medium of his 
 truth, is at once enlightened and joyous. It makes him hap- 
 py, holy, safe ; in life, in death, and forever ; through the 
 power and constancy of the covenant-keeping God, by the aid 
 of his Spirit and the eternal mediation of his Son. And in 
 this temper his heai-t dilates in pure philanthropy, unfeigned, 
 toward others. His sense of the truth impels him to seek 
 your happiness, to love your soul, and to desire intensely that 
 you may participate the blessedness of God in Christ Jesus. 
 No other man is happy — no other can be happy. When 
 pleased and joyous, without religion, it is only the harbinger 
 of the wrath to come I 
 
 2. What mean you by wrath ? 
 
 1. The expression is not mine, dear sir. It is fxeAAovaa 
 opyr), future wrath ; and as Whitfield says, it is future now, 
 but it will be both present and future forever to them that 
 die in their sins. 
 
 2. Do you really believe that ? 
 
 1. Indeed I do. God says it, and I believe it. Its appli- 
 cation, as a doctrine, to individuals, to final aggregates and 
 comparative numbers, is another thing, Avhich will be well 
 adjusted by vmerring wisdom and immutable truth. God is 
 the arbiter of all hope, the dispenser of final destiny. Do 
 you not believe it, Mr. Adams ? 
 
 2. What, in eternal punishment ? 
 1. Yes. 
 
230 THE SCRIPTURE VERY PLAIN. 
 
 2. Not I, indeed. 
 
 1. But you are afraid, now and then, that it may be true? 
 
 2. I can never believe that. 
 
 1 . Yes you can, my dear sir ; and what is more, you will 
 believe it forever. 
 
 2, Never. 
 
 1 . Do you then deny revelation, or are you willing to con- 
 tradict God to his face ? 
 
 2. Oh I I interpret those expressions in a different way. 
 1. Interpretation, sir, you know, is a science. It has its 
 
 definitions, its functions, its rules, and its tests. Without 
 these, what is the science of law ? How, in Westminster 
 Hall, do judges, erudite and honored, interpret the statutes 
 of the realm? or in our own American judiciary at Wash- 
 ington, Boston, Albany, Philadelphia, New York, or else- 
 where ? The object of the science is in a reasonable way 
 to ascertain, and evoke, and vindicate the native sense of the 
 document — no matter what. The laws of interpretation, 
 as laid down by Blackstone, are substantively all we want 
 in the science of theology. Let us concede that the scrip- 
 tures every where mean something ; let us go to the inspired 
 originals ; let us be grammatical and hermeneutical in our 
 analysis of the passage, the last part of the twenty-fifth of 
 Matthew, for example ; see there the millions of the whole 
 completed species standing promiscuously before the Son of 
 Man — see him separate the?n one from another, as a shep- 
 herd divideth his sheep from the goats — see him place them 
 in two classes, one at his right, the other at his left hand, 
 then read the final award, first to the one, then to the other ; 
 observe the principle of contrast, of antithesis, of contrariety, 
 in the character of the one class compared with that of the 
 other in their sentence, in their final state ; and remember 
 that principle of contrast pervades the whole Bible, and all 
 the sayings and doings of God to man from the beginning, 
 when he declared to our apostate first parents the war of 
 
INFIDELITY ALONE STUMBLES AT IT. 231 
 
 two parties, their reciprocal enmity, and the final preva- 
 lence of the seed of tJie ivomati bruising the head of the 
 serpent. Christ shall eternally conquer. 
 
 2. I think God is too good to punish men forever. 
 
 1. I think him infinitely too good to lie. Did he reveal 
 the future lorath simply to scare us, not believing it him- 
 self? There is nothing else in creation so strong as the 
 word of God. It made creation ; it upholds it ; and heaven 
 and earth shall vanish, but not a particle of his truth, Mr. 
 Adams. 
 
 2. Still I do not believe your version of it. 
 
 1. What is your version, my dear sir? 
 
 2. Any thing but yours. 
 
 1. How to get away from the plain sense of scripture on 
 this awful article of our ikith, not here only, but throughout 
 the whole volume of revelation, I confess cordially that I do 
 not know at all. I have read the most plausible and ingen- 
 ious works of Universalists, Restorationists, and purgatory- 
 mongers and their theories, only with the edified conviction 
 that selfishness, and deceit, and impiety, or presumptuous ig- 
 norance, made them all. From the times and the reveries 
 of Origen, in the third century, to the impudent day-dreamers 
 of our own times, I have never seen any thing of the sort 
 that could bear investigation, or live in the light of revela- 
 tion. They are all lies, sir. 
 
 2. Nothing could ever make me believe in your version 
 of it. 
 
 1. Possibly you may believe it yet. You are not wholly 
 your own keeper. 
 
 2. No ; impossible. 
 
 1. A learned minister of the "liberal" school, but a pol- 
 ished and courteous gentleman, /acZws ad unguem, once told 
 me that he never would believe it ; that he would believe 
 rather that there was no God. 
 
 2. And what said you in reply ? 
 
232 NO ONE CAN BEAR THE WRATH OF GOD. 
 
 1. I told him that reading the Bible then, intelligently and 
 honestly, would soon make him an atheist. He said he 
 would prefer to be an atheist, seriously I I replied, very pos- 
 sibly ; and, after all, I only believe more the testimony of 
 God. According to your position, sir, the doctrine of eternal 
 punishment is, j^cr se, incredible and impossible — no language 
 could reveal it ; and were it revealed in Greek or Hebrew, 
 or both, that fact would condemn as spurious the assumed in- 
 spiration of the document. This is a beautiful position. 
 
 2. Well, I take it. 
 
 1. I rather question it, Mr. Adams. I take the affirmative 
 or the positive with evidence — you the negative without ev- 
 idence, and in spite of it. My faith is a posteriori, is baco- 
 nian and inductive ; yours is a 2^'iori, antibaconian and anti- 
 nomian. I am sure that your negative conviction is far in- 
 ferior to my affirmative. 
 
 2. Mine is such that nothing will ever touch it, certainly. 
 
 1. God has two methods, one of evidence, and piety re- 
 sponds to it ; the other of experience, and his enemies suffer 
 it. I pray God that in the former, not the latter way, you 
 may know and own it to his glory. 
 
 2. Well, if worst comes, so be it. I must bear it. 
 
 1. Say not so, my dear sir; you can not bear it! Let 
 Christ tell you, in his owti words, about the agonies of final 
 despair. In hell no lost spirit, human or demon, ever thinks 
 of such a thing. The reality is given us by Christ, in Luke, 
 16 : 19-31. The sufferer says not that he can bear it, but 
 begs a drop of water to cool my tongiie, for I am tormented 
 in this flame. On earth he was a gentleman of ease and 
 opulence, and probably thought that he could never believe 
 the doctrine of the future wrath. 
 
 2. AVhy is it, think you, that they are so punished ? What 
 end is to be gained by it ? Does God delight in the miseries 
 of his creatures ? 
 
 1. Not at all. Lifinitely the reverse. He no more loves 
 
MR. ADAMS IN HIS FINE MANNERS. 233 
 
 misery than he loves sin — the sin that makes the misery. 
 But you seem to make nothing of either the one or the other. 
 In all our conversation, Mr. Adams, I have observed that, 
 from all you have said, I could not infer that you are a sinner 
 in your own eyes at all, or that you need mercy, or that a 
 Savior to you would not be a perfect superfluity. Surely, 
 there is no hell if there be no sin ; but then there is no heaven 
 cither, if that be the home of redeemed sinners. Hence 
 grace is vacated in the same way, and becomes as grand a 
 nullity as wrath. And what is the Christianity you have 
 thus denuded of its honors and left to our despair ? 
 
 In these conversations, I was aware of the danger of weary- 
 ing the president by too great and continuous a prolongation. 
 Hence I favored an occasional pause, changing the subject, 
 retiring now and then for a few minutes, observing some in- 
 cidental scene, and at length, when called to supper, waving 
 the subject till a future opportunity. At the table, and at 
 each meal, the most decorous order was observed ; the pres- 
 ence of the president was urbanely respected ; the captain 
 presided with ease and propriety ; the table was well pre- 
 pared and served ; and the epularj' operations were preceded 
 by the action of thanks to the Giver, in which all seemed to 
 participate. I officiated, at the request af the captain. The 
 manners of Mr. Adams were bland and simple. It was beau- 
 tiful to see the chief magistrate of this great nation, attend- 
 ed merely by a French valet, in the dress of a common citi- 
 zen, with no outward pomp, nor a particle of artistic ostenta- 
 tion ; and on these very accounts honored more by the people, 
 as a private traveler, passing through the difi'erent states of 
 our common country ; recognized in office wherever he went, 
 and yet in such a social, proper, philosophical style and man- 
 ner, as befits the highest civilization, and bespeaks a country 
 which science and the arts, but, above all, the Bible and its 
 influences, and the universal education of the masses, have, 
 
234 A VENTURE IN RHYME. 
 
 under God, made -what it is, and can, under God, have the 
 appropriate mission to perpetuate. 
 
 "And oh ! may heaven our simpler lives prevent 
 
 From luxury's contagion, weak and vile ; 
 Then, howe'er crowns or coronets are rent," 
 Or Europe's stonns convulse her continent, 
 
 The millions there God's temples that defile 
 Unburied fall ; the man of sin is gone, 
 And desolation's volume spreads alone 
 Wliere tjTanny in spasms resigns her throne ; 
 Their balls of empire rolling still — or spent — 
 Spasmodic throes and deep volcanoes pent, 
 With many a presage of destruction sent. 
 
 And many a fear of plot and prosperous guile ; 
 The ancient power and rule of iron departing. 
 And rights and duties their deserts asserting. 
 
 Portents and prodigies, as rank and file. 
 
 Invading every city, province, isle ; 
 Indignant commons with their monarchs sporting, 
 To wild confusion all their states reverting. 
 
 Factitious glory burnt on its own pile ; 
 Turk, Papist, Jew, and Infidel surrounded 
 By retributions floods, rebuked, confounded ; 
 Blood must they drink who martyr blood have shed ; - 
 Judgments divine and truthful there are sped, 
 
 Where old corruptions all the scene embroil ; 
 But prophecy must wholly be fulfilled 
 In all, as writ, the killing and the killed : 
 
 And Europe's vanity may cease to smile ; 
 Her own must flow for blood that she has spilled ; 
 As oracles declare, as God in heaven has will'd ; 
 So persecution, tyranny, and v.'rong, 
 Crushing the weak, and flattering the strong. 
 Must meet their day and doom of retribution : 
 Earthquakes of terror, wrath, and revolution. 
 
 Shall rock their continent — in mill-stone style 
 Old Italy's peninsula shall fall. 
 And guilty Rome he found no more at all! 
 Czar, Sultan, Pope, King, Bishop, Emperor, 
 Shall be extinguished, to exist no more ! 
 
SOME APOLOGY FOR ITS DRIFT. 235 
 
 Usurpers and their trains, in church and state, 
 Vanquished and vanished, neither good nor great ! 
 Such arc the changes destined there to come 
 Before can be Christ's own millennium : 
 
 Queen of the world, America the while 
 Shall grow and flourish with serene content ; 
 Our fathers' God her shield and battlement ; 
 Her wisdom shining in each noble deed : 
 Her motto, Truth ; the Bible still her creed ; 
 Her virtuous millions, rising, shall be found 
 Peaceful, united, happy ; while around 
 They stand a wall of fire on freedom's sacred ground. 
 
 If explanation or apology were in place for the above ex- 
 cursive license, I would beg the reader to believe that the 
 perpetration of numbers was not here deliberated ; nor is it 
 charged, in fact, with some portentous complot, or personal 
 conatus of malignity, or fanatical dismay, against the pros- 
 pects or the prosperity of European states — the ten horns of 
 the beast. The poesy of it is surely poor enough ; but as for 
 the sentiment, it may be just as true as it is terrible, and 
 just as true, also, as the spirit of projjhecy in Daniel, Paul, 
 and John. See also Mat. 15 : 13. The organized Christian- 
 ity of Europe is, in the main, an abhorrence to the living God. 
 It is perverted, paganized, metamorphosed, and stiffened with 
 the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. It is a huge target to the 
 bolts of heaven. Its epitaph is written at large in the apoc- 
 alyptic visions ; and not the houses of Braganza and Haps- 
 burgh ; nor the Bourbons and the Bonapartes ; and the Guelphs 
 — Busici ; nor Russ, or Moslem, or Man of Sin, or Jew ; nor 
 Holy Alliance ; nor all their pie-crust citadels, and fortrtress, 
 and castles, and palaces of glory ; nor all the infidehty, and 
 error, and dotage, and scorn of true religion that abound there, 
 will ever prevail to arrest the executive arm of omnipotence 
 in making good the veracity of God in their realized catas- 
 trophe. No ! Nor shall self-righteous and arrogant old En- 
 gland, or the British Islands, escape. There is salt, indeed, 
 some of it, even in Sodom, even in Great Britain. 
 
236 THE KIPK WICKEDNESS OF EUROPE. 
 
 And thou hast many righteous ! Well for thee — 
 That salt preserves thee. More corrupted else, 
 And therefore more ohnoxious, at this hour, 
 Than Sodom in her day had power to be. 
 For whom God heard his Abraham plead in vain. 
 
 Still, England shall pass through scourging and revolutionary 
 purgations ; from which neither her proud science, nor her 
 profound statesmanship, nor her might of armies, and navies, 
 and colonies, nor her self-gratulating and selfish security, 
 SHALL EVER BEGIN TO BE ABLE to defend her ; for strong is 
 the Lord God icho jicdgcth her. There is immense abom- 
 ination in the sight of God, ensconced and sanctified in her 
 wicked establishment. Her very religion is an organized 
 pomp of hypocrisy, for the most part ; and though the con- 
 crete mass is not all rotten, probably, yet putridity pervades 
 it, I fear, increasingly, with its predicted end. 
 
 Still, we have our sins, though not of the same form or 
 degree, in vaster, nobler, and happier America ; and I would 
 not forget them, and do not ; while, in place, I write obiter, 
 what Europe, including all the realm of Britain, colonial as 
 well as central, may, according to prophecy, with manifest 
 desert, anticipate — except they repent, indeed I But, as 
 a general thing, in view of prophecy, as well as of observa- 
 tion, I know that they will not repent I — Rev. 17 : 12-18, 
 9 : 20, 21 ; Deut. 31 : 26, 29. And, in general, their na- 
 tional character and way proclaim it. 
 
 For the substance and scope of this episode, rhyme and 
 prose, I therefore ask no pardon of earthhngs, knowing my 
 responsibiUty to One who will judge us all. 
 
 Return we to our travel and our interviews with President 
 Adams ; rather to the familiar account of them we have now 
 on hand. 
 
 After supper the president appeared cheerful, though more 
 sedentary. The weather, though not remarkably pleasant, 
 was practicable on deck, rather warm ; and there we walked, 
 
HIS REMARKS ON MINISTERS. 237 
 
 and stood, and talked for several hours, with little or no in- 
 terruption. I was aware that I might seem to be monopo- 
 lizing his company, or occupying it too steadily. On this 
 account I relaxed in my attentions, when he called me to 
 him, and resumed the conversation, though not the topic. He 
 spoke of" diflerent divines of our own country, and in several 
 places, whom he had heard, with diflerent impressions of 
 their learning, their wisdom, their eloquence. Sometimes his 
 animadversions were caustic and severe, but with no ele- 
 ment discernible of malice. He mentioned with emphasis 
 the eloquent ministrations of the Rev. Dr. Spring, formerly 
 of Newburyport ; said he used to attend them when young, 
 and, if I remember aright, when he was a student of law or 
 recent in the profession. I remarked that I also knew him ; 
 had heard him occasionally in the pulpit, once memorably in 
 that of the late Rev. James Patriot Wilson, D.D.* of Philadel- 
 phia ; had been in his company and enjoyed his conversation ; 
 and considered him as one of our learned orators, and honored 
 pastoi's of the previous age ; and asked how he liked him. He 
 replied, I honored his talents, but believed not his docti-ine. 
 
 1. When he read the Bible, Mr. Adams, did you believe ? 
 
 2. Perhaps not in your way. 
 
 I here spoke with him on the nature of faith, and its car- 
 dinal importance in the religion of the scriptures. I then 
 listened to some discursive remarks on preaching, singing, 
 and the worship of the sanctuary, which he inclined to make. 
 He was very entertaining, and in fine good humor. He passed 
 a deserved eulogy on the psalmody of Watts, as a poet quite 
 alone in his exalted excellence. One hymn he particular- 
 ized, and recited it, as the best for its use and end, in his per- 
 sonal judgment, that could possibly be written. He knew it 
 all by heart, and his recitation was so articulate and distinct, 
 so rhythmical and elegant, and, at the same time, so manly 
 and true to the sense, that I shall not soon forget or cease to 
 * Predecessor of our Doctus Barnes. 
 
238 FINDS AN OLD OBJECTION. 
 
 admire it. It was a model of a manner, snch as graces too 
 seldom the pulpit. Since then, I have several times used 
 that hymn, but can never see or think of it without recall- 
 ing the scene and the sound when it was so well enunciated 
 by the President of the United States. What monarch in 
 Europe could do it as well, or do the like at all ? 
 
 How beauteous are their feet 
 
 Wlio stand on Zion's hill ; 
 Who bring salvation on their tongues, 
 
 And words of peace reveal. 
 
 He went on with it, and I listened with pleasure through all 
 the six stanzas, as I think, to the end. He spoke of the 
 honor, the influence, and the usefulness of the evangelical 
 ministry ; and seemed as a patriot to rejoice that a class of 
 religious teachers so pure and so enlightened, and with such 
 increasing prospective advantages, was appreciated by the 
 people, and desired so extensively in our country. I gave 
 him my own estimation of its incomparable importance, es- 
 pecially to our own beloved nation, as the great balance- 
 wheel of all its movements ; its education and its intelli- 
 gence ; its virtue and its stability ; its order and its freedom ; 
 its purity and its perpetuity, as the United States of Amer- 
 ica ; E PLURIBUS UNUM ; SEMPER UNUM ! 
 
 He assented ; but, in a way of sarcastic humor, he re- 
 marked on the difi'erences of theologians as a great infelicity, 
 making them narrow-minded, dissocial, and exclusive. Why 
 is it ? said he. 
 
 1. There have always been false prophets in the world, 
 since their father, the devil, deceived the mother of mankind. 
 But true prophets have minor difierences, owing to their own 
 manifold imperfections as fallen men, which, however, may 
 all coexist Avith substantive soundness in the faith, challeng- 
 ing mutual forbearance more than breaking unity and fellow- 
 ship. Still, even clouds of smoke result from fire ; and on 
 one side, or on both sides, there may be some sincere love of 
 
 ».*v 
 
MUST HAVE ALL SAVED, IF ANY ARE. 239 
 
 the truth in every controversy. Indifierence cares for truth 
 and error alike, because it cares for neither. Agitation is 
 better than stagnation ; it more clarifies the atmosphere, and 
 renders it diaphanous to see and salubrious to breathe. We 
 are commanded to contend earnestly, and that for the fait lo 
 ONCE DELIVERED ; it will never be again delivered, even to 
 the saints. Men in the ministry are all imperfect ; not one 
 of them infallible ; not one of them inspired. If they care 
 for truth, they must defend it. However, I deny that the 
 clergy of this country are distinguished for collision and con- 
 troversy ; I speak generally of all, but especially of sound di- 
 vines, holding the head. It is my own opinion, though I 
 seem to magnify my office in saying it, that, as an entire 
 class or body, there is no order of men more sound, service- 
 able, or worthy of confidence on this footstool of God — with 
 all their faults. 
 
 2. What mean you by the unsound ones ? 
 
 1. I mean those that belong only to the school of Cain — 
 that old founder of a religion without a Savior ; that first 
 desperado that undertook to worship without a Mediator, 
 without an atonement, without faith in our Advocate icith 
 the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, xvho is the propiti- 
 ation for our sins. 
 
 2. So you exclude all them ? 
 
 1 . Indeed I do, sir ; but so do the apostles of the Lamb. 
 Says Jude, Woe to them, for they have gone in the way of 
 Cain ! Now his way, from a comparison of passages, we 
 know very well. By exclusion, however, I mean that I can 
 not recognize them as Christians, and, of consequence, not as 
 ministers of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 2. Your criterion appears to me very refined and imprac- 
 ticable. 
 
 1. By their fruits ye shall knoio tliem, says Christ. Matt. 
 7 : 13-20. 
 
 2. "What fruits are, then, determinate ? 
 
240 DEMANDS FALSK CHARITY. 
 
 1 . They are three-fold in preachers : 
 
 (1) Doctrines, or what they preach as compared with the 
 Scriptures. 
 
 (2) Actions, as they exempHfy the truth in their conduct. 
 
 (3) Conversions, as their converts show that God, who giv- 
 eth the increase, has regenerated them by his Holy Spirit. 
 Tlic sheejj of Christ k?iow his voice, he says, and foil oiv him, 
 and the voice of a stranger they tvili not follow. 
 
 2. I am not satisfied. 
 
 1. Well, Mr. Adams, take your favorite hymn. The true 
 ministiy are there described ; those that preach Jesus Christ 
 as our Savior, as human and divine ; saying. 
 
 The Lord makes bare his arm 
 
 Through all the earth abroad ; 
 Let every nation now behold 
 
 Their Savior and their God. 
 
 2. Could you have no communion with a minister unless 
 he believed in the proper divinity of Christ ? 
 
 1. I could esteem him as a citizen, a neighbor, a scholar, 
 a gentleman, a pleasant companion possibly, and a useful 
 man in the secularities of society ; but be his brother ? grat- 
 ulate his ministry ] fellowship his piety ? Yes, 
 
 ad graecas calendas. 
 
 2. There is your exclusiveness in full. 
 
 1. Sir, these men differ from themselves, as well as from 
 each other. They never abide in one stay, except in com- 
 mon denial of the truth. With one, Christ is a mere man, 
 and fallible and peccable at that ; with another, the greatest 
 and the best of men only ; again, he is quite superhuman — 
 or, superangelic — or, officially divine — or, quite divine, only 
 created such ; and so forth, to the top or the bottom of the 
 finite scale ; all infinitely far from the truth, all infinitely 
 wrong I Their Master is a mere creature, whom they know 
 not, and are wisely at a loss to define ; ours is the only wise 
 
CATHOLIC EXCLUSION. 241 
 
 God, our Savior. If they are right, we are idolaters of the 
 darkest grade ; if we are right, they are sons of Cain — the 
 first of their order — religionizing deists ; and how can we 
 have communion ? why should they desire it ? why I 
 2. Well, you go the whole figure of exclusion, indeed. 
 
 1. Mr. Adams, we are exclusive only as truth is. All 
 truth is exclusive ; it denies the other, it denies the opposite. 
 The multiplication table is exclusive — in every arithmetical 
 proposition of which it is fairly capable. The truths of the 
 Bible always aftirm the one and deny the other. Hence men 
 hated its Author, persecuted, murdered him. And hence 
 they who hold his truth and follow in his way, are despised 
 for his sake, ultimately to their honor, as well as his own. 
 Yea, and all that tvill live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer 
 persecution in the ways of calumny, spite, insult, and con- 
 tempt, if not in those of the faggot, the cross, or the block ; 
 since the offense of the cross has not ceased. Gal. 5:11. 
 
 2. I thought you were catholic, rather than exclusive. 
 
 1. So in truth we are ; but what is scriptural Catholicism ? 
 Here it is — to include all true Christians, and them only, as 
 the mystical body of Christ ; thus, grace be icith all tliem, 
 not of our own party only, but of any stripe or name, that 
 love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen. So con- 
 cludes the inspiration of the epistle to the Ephesians. There 
 are some that organically and ecclesiastically exclude many 
 whom, at the same time, and per force, they own to be the 
 lovers of Christ ; this we utterly reprobate and disallow, what- 
 ever be the fiction that defends it. 
 
 2. Your exclusion, then, expatiates in a larger circumfer- 
 ence than theirs. Its circle is larger, but its bounds are 
 impassable. 
 
 1. The truth of God is the criterion, Mr. Adams. In his 
 light shall we see light : and Ave know that the circle of 
 our Christian Catholicism, in principle, coincides identically 
 with that of God's covenant of grace. "We must trust HIM, 
 
 L 
 
242 INSPIRATION AS PLENARY. 
 
 and if this be a burden, it is one from which perdition will 
 be no relief To call it bigotry, contractedness, and all that, 
 will never answer. Where, in the mean time, is your trust 
 in God ? where your piety of subordination ? Besides, the 
 impenitent and unbelieving are self-excluded from mercy 
 and from hope. Their alienation is voluntary, as well as 
 suicidal. We pity them as well as blame them ; and so 
 much more does God. Think of the copious and instructive 
 tears the Savior wept, not fanatically, not ignorantly, not de- 
 ceitfully, over the volunteer reprobates of Jerusalem I Luke 
 13 : 31-35. 
 
 2. You seem to me to infer a great deal from it, and your 
 theology is thus armed at all points. 
 
 1. You seem to me to infer altogether too little, if indeed 
 you infer any thing, from the registration of so stupendous an 
 occurrence as those tears of the Son of God at such a time 
 and in such a place — a scene so worthy of the gaze of ser- 
 aphs. 
 
 2. Well, I own your version is quite entertaining. 
 
 1. So is the day of judgment, dear sir ; where not a dull 
 or insensible spectator will be found, where the truth of God 
 will be all interpreted by its author, on the throne of his 
 glory manifest, to the astounded conviction of the moral 
 universe. But, Mr. Adams, I see possibly where your car- 
 dinal error lies, the error of your unbelief. 
 
 2. Where? 
 
 1. In you diluted and mistaken views of inspiration. You 
 have no just conception of what inspiration is, as plenary, 
 and as characterizing a revelation made to us from God. 
 
 2. What are your views, then, in contrast ? 
 
 1. That is not the main or the proper question ; but this, 
 What account does the scripture give of its own inspiration, 
 its nature, degree, use, and end ? What says it of itself? 
 of our views are the same with its own averments, they are 
 correct ; then only. 
 
WHAT REVELATION IS, COMPARED. 243 
 
 2. Continue : I am all attention. Let us hear about in- 
 spiration. 
 
 1. Well you might be, sir. These are topics that slied in- 
 significance in the comparison on all others. Heroes, stales- 
 men, philosophers, monarchs, presidents, are small here ; 
 and what inquiry besides so grand, so useful, so necessary, so 
 profitable to man — to mortal and immortal man ? 
 
 The world by wisdom knew kot God. The experi- 
 ment was made, the opportunity given, and all in the wis- 
 dom of God. Its results we all know. The monstrosities, 
 and the fooleries, and the impertinences of what that infidel 
 dotard, Gibbon, calls " the elegant mythology of the Greeks," 
 demonstrate the fact. We abundantly need a revelation 
 from God, if we need to know God. 
 
 Revelation and inspiration, however, are not the same. 
 They difler as genus and species. Revelation is generic, 
 and includes many conceivable kinds and ways of revealing 
 — by the ministry of angels, by a voice in the air, by dreams 
 and visions, by special miracles, by ocular theophanies, by 
 letters emblazed on the firmament, and by such a suggestive 
 influence of the Spirit of God on the minds of men as to se- 
 cure the result of spoken or written, and so of communicated, 
 truth. This last, as written, is what we mean by the in- 
 spiration of the Scriptures. Iii this sense it is plenary, as 
 all-competent to its proper end. Thus, inspiration in the 
 sixty-six books of the Bible furnishes our glorious revela- 
 tion ; that is, an unvailing or a disclosure of things not 
 otherwise known, things unseen and eternal. By trath 
 we mean the doctrine that shows things as they are. The 
 truth of scripture is God-spoken, and adapted to our mental 
 and our moral, as well as to our mortal and our immortal 
 wants. It is humanized and familiarized to us in form, 
 while in substance it is divine, the objective xinity of the 
 iSpW? favoring the bond of peace. 
 
 Now, according to its own account of itself, we are so to 
 
244 FALSE VIEWS OF INSPIRATION. 
 
 receive it as it is, and as the gracious teaching of God to our 
 souls. This can be amply verified from its total scope and 
 tenor. Paul says, all scripture is given by inspiration 
 OF God. All the other sacred writers, and our blessed Sav- 
 ior himself, attest the same, and in their practice they so treat 
 and so use it. 
 
 Hence, my dear sir, the question is primary in religion — 
 Believest thou this ? And this I mean in propounding it to 
 you. Christ believed it — do you ? 
 
 2. Yes, I believe the scripture was inspired, and also the 
 Iliad of Homer. 
 
 1 . My dear sir — 
 
 2. I seem to believe in more inspiration than you. 
 
 1. Just so I but such inspiration I I can express this arti- 
 cle of your creed, then, by a classical aphorism — Principium 
 musce a Jove est : 
 
 That is, the fountain of poetic song 
 
 Is Jupiter himself, serene and strong, 
 
 To bear the muse in rapture's flight along. 
 
 2. You describe it with some felicity. 
 
 1 . Ah ! sir. Here, again, I become discriminate and ex- 
 clusive. What is a myth of paganism to the truth of God ? 
 The prophet that hath a dream, let hi?n tell a dream; 
 and he that liath my word, let him speak my word faith- 
 fully. WJiat is the cluxff to the iclieat ? saith the Lord. — 
 Jer. 23 : 28. 
 
 I think, Mr. Adams, you must be doing injustice to your- 
 self You have written in honor of the Bible, a book that 
 claims inspiration as the volume of the oraoles of God. If 
 not inspired, then, what is it soundly worth ? What was the 
 worth of the lying oracles of the heathen ? What is that of 
 the Koran ? the Sadder ? the Zendavesta ? 
 
 To all this I added some passionate appeals and exhorta- 
 tions, begging him not to be afraid or ashamed to become a 
 
PRIVATE INTERVIEW WITH THE CAPTAIN. 245 
 
 little child at the feet of Christ, and learn of Him, and enter 
 into the kingdom of heaven. He asked what I thought of 
 the inspiration of Milton, the Homer of our language. He 
 then descanted in free and full sway on the grandeur of his 
 master-piece, Paradise Lost. I yielded the floor, not through 
 fatigue or frigidity ; but because I chose not to seem to press 
 the argument too obtrusively on my august catechumen, or 
 catechist, as I might call him. Our boat, like others at that 
 time, had no state-rooms ; and our berths, by what contriv- 
 ance I know not, were conterminous. It was after eleven 
 before we retired. The president, in his panegyric on Mil- 
 ton, spoke, in language that I can not reproduce, of his great 
 thought and rich expression. He especially honored his cel- 
 ebrated and richly excellent invocation to light, with which 
 the third book commences, as the chef cVczuvre of lofty min- 
 strelsy, quite incomparable. Its opening passages he then 
 recited, with comments and praises ; seemed enthusiastic and 
 almost absorbed ; and when his familiar critique was ended, 
 we disrobed for the night. 
 
 In the morning we arose with no hurry or noise, walked 
 on deck, discoursed of ordinary events, and made no direct 
 mention of the conversation of the previous evening. Our 
 steamer kept regularly wheeling our way on a serene surface 
 through the night. After breakfast we separated for an hour ; 
 and here an event surprised me, which, as characteristic of 
 the president, equally delicate and generous throughout, it 
 may not be improper, it seems indeed a duty, plainly to re- 
 hearse. The captain sought a private interview, and re- 
 marked, in an undertone, that when we arrived at Providence 
 we should all take stage-coaches for Boston ; that they would 
 there be in readiness, though, as he should signal his honored 
 passenger irom llie mast-head, it was probable that the citi- 
 zens there, as well as at Newport, where we were to stop, 
 would make some patriotic demonstrations to the chief mag- 
 
246 DELfCATE KINDNESS OF MR. ADAMS. 
 
 istrate of the nation, that might for a short time detain us ; 
 and tliat it was his uiissiou to invite me to ride with the 
 president, as a seat would be reserved, and I should find it 
 agreeable, in more ways than one, to be, with a few others, 
 his coinpagnoH dii voijage to the end of our journey, as he 
 had chartered a whole coach and four for the occasion. I 
 thanked him for the courtesy, and was about to leave him, 
 when he added, but your passage-money for the whole route, 
 which you paid yesterday, I am to return to you ; putting it 
 with decision into my hand, Avith the assurance that the 
 president had required it of him, and would probably be hurt 
 if I should seem to refuse it. It was unexpected, and in a 
 degree embarrassing ; but the fix was unalterable, and I ac- 
 quiesced, of course ; requesting the captain to convey in prop- 
 er terms to the president my grateful sense of his benignity 
 — for with that, and not with the money as such, was I truly 
 afiected and specially gratified. It Avas my own opinion that 
 the truth afiected Mr. Adams more than he appeai'ed di- 
 rectly to indicate. He could see an argument, or a truthful 
 statement, with sagacity which no man could doubt who 
 knew him. In reference to evangelical truth, we had anoth- 
 er rencounter courteous toward the terminus of our sail, in 
 which himself was wholly the aggressor. As if he had been 
 concocting it shrewdly with himself for some time, he came 
 to me apart, and evidently with some design, recommenced 
 on the subject of religion. 
 
 2. You have your technical classifications and definitions, 
 not only of difTerent sorts and phases of religion, but of the 
 persons who profess and hold them. Now I feel somewhat 
 curious to learn in what categoiy of the sort you distribute me ? 
 
 1. I leave you, dear sir, in the hands of God, the final and 
 sovereign judge supreme of all of us ; for ice must all ap- 
 2)ear before the judgment-seat of Christ. 
 
 2. Yes, but what kind of a Christian do you think me ? 
 1. A pretty home question, Mr. Adams. 
 
JOHN ADAMS AT MADRID. 
 
 247 
 
 2. You can give it a home answer, if you please. 
 
 1. I am not loud of seeming to pronounce on the state of 
 individuals, in this or the future world. No man can search 
 or see the heart, as can God. The Lord knoweth them that 
 are his, as none other knows them. But what a solemn 
 question for self-examination — Am I one of his ? 
 
 2. You seem, however, to evade my question. 
 
 1. Well, sir, I believe that no man is truly a Christian 
 who is not regenerated in the sense of scripture. I fear you 
 have never known experimentally what that is — and this is 
 the worst thing that I wish to believe of you in any way, and 
 am very sorry to believe that. 
 
 2. When my father was in Madrid, in Spain, and was 
 shown, in company with several others, himself the only Prot- 
 estant present, some of the public edifices and halls, they came 
 into one apartment suddenly, where were madonnas, apostles, 
 saints, and martyrs in abundance ; at least, their statues, pic- 
 tures, relics, and memories. All the gentlemen performed some 
 act of outward worship, some lower and more than others, ex- 
 cept my father, who stood erect and compos sui as before. This 
 caused observation and surprise ; and the inquiry ran, Is not 
 monsieur a Christian ? One of the party, who comprehended 
 it, immediately replied, though in French, which they were 
 all speaking, Yes ; he is a Christian, d sa maniere. But his 
 hearers thought him an infidel for having such a manner. 
 
 1. Do you wish to extend the parallel, sir? 
 
 2. No. 
 
 1 . Surely you could not doubt our Protestantism ; but to be 
 a Christian is more, and greater, and better than to be a Prot- 
 estant. 
 
 I am well aware of'' the censure sharp," of which " little 
 reck I," that may " idly cavil" or malignly scoft' at all this 
 narration. It may be called revealing secrets or betraying 
 confidence ; it may be charged with bigotry and enmity to- 
 
248 RELIGIOUS FREEDOM OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 ward freedom of opinion ; it may be named arrogance, and 
 the assumption of infallibility in religious doctrine ; it may 
 be dismissed with a sneer, or a sentence of acrimony and sar- 
 casm, by those Avhose practical or spiritual love of the Holy 
 Scriptures would put them, as really as they would the present 
 writer, and as soon, if not sooner, under a ban of common rel- 
 egation from the country, if nothing prevented them but the 
 predominating temper of their hearts ; and it may be neg- 
 lected utterly or not by those whom no ordinary motive could 
 influence to give it a fair and a full perusal. Still, it is a par- 
 amount consideration with the writer that God knows the mo- 
 tives that actuate him in this matter. God makes no mistake I 
 
 As to secrecy or confidence, I know of no law of ethics or 
 esthetics that I break or dishonor in the measure. There 
 was no imposition or implication of secrecy. Why should 
 there be ? or how could there be ? We were fellow-passen- 
 gers, traveling together in a public steamer. Our topics were 
 public in their nature, as are the contents of the Bible. Mr. 
 Adams was, as a man, too magnanimous to practice a system 
 of ambiguity or concealment. If my own frankness and di- 
 rectness seem sometimes remarkable, this was in accordance 
 with one of the prescribed conditions of the conversation. 
 Besides, I have no wish to hinder his fame in those relations 
 in which, so richly, it is inalienably his. But if I had not 
 supposed the narrative would entertain not only, but be use- 
 ful also, I should, of course, never have written it — certainly 
 never have given it to my countrymen. 
 
 As for trenching on liberty of opinion, I would be of all 
 men furthest behind the last to attempt it. Our religious 
 freedom in this country is a boon too precious, too glorious, 
 too incomparable, and, I add, at once too perfect in itself, 
 and too much the fruit of protestant institutions and senti- 
 ments, that is, too much the fruit of the glorious Bible, for 
 me ever to disparage it, ever to cease to thank God for it, 
 ever to fail in its commendation to the perpetual vigilance of 
 
THB BIBLE IS ITS SOURCE. 249 
 
 my countr}Tnen, however the tyranny of Rome and hell may 
 hate it I But let it be equal and impartial. For one, I con- 
 cede, and equally I claim it. Civil liberty were mutilated 
 and contemptible without it ; yes, finally and properly im- 
 possible WITHOUT IT. Look at France, Austria, Italy, 
 Spain, Mexico, and all South America, in contrast with our 
 own grand garden of the world, for an illustration. We are 
 Protestants. 
 
 But lovers of the Bible, as such, love hberty naturally, nec- 
 essarily, superlatively. Where the Spirit of the Lord 
 IS, THERE IS LIBERTY. The Bible inspires liberty as well as 
 order, purity, and salvation. It is the terrible antidote to 
 all usurpation and false assumption in church and in state. 
 And here is the reason why certain personages character- 
 istically proscribe it, why they inexorably and hypocritically 
 hate it. 
 
 We lovers of the Bible have no cause that requires or ad- 
 mits of coercion. That cause can be obeyed and loved only 
 in the atmosphere of freedom, only as the result of the freest 
 action of which the human mind is capable. To illumine, 
 convince, conciliate, and attach, as well as edify and comfort 
 the mind, in his truth, is, under God, all our mission, all our 
 work, and virtually all our meaning, when we pray. Thy 
 kingdom come. Teste Deo, we " do not even wish to see 
 any religious constitution aided by the civil power, further 
 than may be necessary for protection and security, and, at the 
 same time, he equal and common to all others."* 
 
 But there are some " liberal Christians," whom we view, 
 perforce, as no Christians at all (i. Cor. 16: 22; ii. Pet. 
 2: 1-3 ; i. John, 9 : 10, 11 ; Luke, 14 : 25-35 ; Acts, 11 : 
 26 ; Rev. 21 : 27 ;) who demonstrate, sometimes too plainly, 
 that they are utterly averse to the system of revealed truth 
 not only, but also to our freedom of thought as well as speech 
 
 * Polity of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of Amer- 
 ica. 
 
 L2 
 
250 SELFISH AND FALSE CHARITY. 
 
 on the subject of religion — they are so vastly liberal, and so 
 catholic, on particular occasions. Some of them are " fierce 
 for moderation," as well as for spurious and insipid charity, 
 and have no conception of the real selfishness that inspires 
 all their refined tenderness for others. 
 
 Anon, in some doubt of their excellent selves, 
 So deep is the source of their tender emotion, 
 
 Their mercy is moved for less fortunate elves ; 
 And that is the clue to their generous devotion. 
 
 Some of these call us idolaters, and yet " brother" us occa- 
 sionally, and wish us always to " brother" them I If they 
 love liberty so "liberal," why grudge it to us? We say, 
 with the old Augustan poet, 
 
 Hanc veniam petimusque damusque vicissim. 
 This privilege Ave take, and equal give ; 
 The Christian freeman's own prerogative ; 
 Claim and concession worthy of a man, 
 Let honesty and truth its basis scan ; 
 The birth-right dear of each American. 
 
 There is no nation on the face of the whole earth, in this 
 respect, so favored and so blessed as ours I By the grace of ^ 
 God, we will die, with or without a monument, with or with- 
 out a grave, rather than surrender it. 
 
 UBI LIBERT.4S, IBI PATRIA.* 
 
 In a way somewhat more general^ I proceed with the narra- 
 tion of that memorable interview. 
 
 Mr. Adams said one thing that really wounded me ; wheth- 
 er he was specially sincere, or only venturous and colloquial 
 in it, I may not aver, as possibly I know not. But the top- 
 ic demanded more gravity than he seemed willing to bestow 
 on it ; and I judged, from his manner, that he had never fair- 
 ly and fully read or thought on the subject. The groat doc- 
 trine of the Trinity was our theme. In a style rather too 
 absolute, he resolved our faith, in that great article of the 
 * Where is liberty, there is my country. 
 
THE TRIUNE NATURE OF GOD. 251 
 
 Bible, into our ignorance of oriental language, its metaphors 
 and its hyperboles, for its source. Mr. Adams once " graced 
 a college," I think, as professor of rhetoric ; and surely, in 
 that department, if not in theology, he demands or deserves 
 high consideration. I replied, 
 
 1 . What, sir ? Do you think that all the Reformers, all 
 the fathers of English theology, with such men as our own 
 Edwards, Witherspoon, D wight, to say nothing of Chalmers, 
 Robert Hall, Moses Stuart, Archibald Alexander, John H. 
 Rice, and James Richards, and hosts of others, were, on such 
 a theme, mere simpletons, rhetorically stupid, floundering and 
 blundering in sacred places, because they understood not the 
 orientalisms of the Bible ? 
 
 2. I think they err in their views there. 
 
 1. Well, dear sir, how are yours sustained, if, denying 
 their positives, you have any thing better than negatives, and 
 doubts and objections as a substitute for them ; that is, a 
 creed of negations, very misty, if not very mysterious, in ref- 
 erence to the great centre of revealed religion — Jesus Christ, 
 AND HIM CRUCIFIED — the object of our worship and the author 
 of our hope ? 
 
 2. I like not, by your literatizing mistake of symbols, to be 
 required to believe, in place of God, in an old Man, a Lamb, 
 and a Dove, and to worship them all three ! 
 
 1 . My dear sir, you shock me ; and I regard this as quite 
 unworthy of you. It is caricature — and of what I Who is 
 the Savior ? What think you of Christ ? What means his 
 title, Son of God ? or Son of Man ? or the Logos of John, 
 1 : 1-14 ? Lamb is not his only title, though it implicates 
 subUmely, yea, signifies the only hope of a sinner. 
 
 2. Let us hear, then, what you can say in defense of the 
 Trinity. 
 
 1 Neither the place, nor the time, nor my capacity, per- 
 mits any justice to so great a subject ; but I will respond as 
 God may help me, since you call for it. 
 
252 INCOMPREHENSIBLE BY US. 
 
 First, then, iu the abstract or the general, we say that God 
 is such a being, that there is, in his proper and eternal na- 
 ture, a basis for the modes of" speech, titles of distinction, of- 
 fices of redemption, and pronouns of conference, as I, thou, 
 he, we, you, us, they, and their cognates, as taught us, ])as!^im, 
 in the Holy Scriptures ; but these discriminated, and collo- 
 cated, and correlated, chiefly as the name of the Father, 
 
 AND OF THE SoN, AND OF THE HoLY GhOST. By this We 
 
 understand not tritheism, or three gods ; nor simple theism, 
 with Jews, Mohammedans, Deists, Swedenborgians, Arians, 
 Sabellians, Socinians, and savages. We believe God is One, 
 in one sense, and three in another sense ; that the two 
 senses are perfectly harmonious, though we can not meta- 
 physically define or, in this world at least, fully know them. 
 But we can learn them, love them, be humble, and be saved 
 by the one only true, and wise, and great God of redemption. 
 
 The metaphysical mystery is wholly in the mode ; and 
 this, remember, is not revealed ; it is, therefore, no object of 
 faith, because it is no subject of revelation ; and it is in that 
 respect normally like the omniscience of God, his necessary 
 existence — the grandest of sublime ideas I — his eternity, his 
 infinity, his independence, his immutability, and other essen- 
 tial attributes, incommunicable and adorable forever. 
 
 The distinction between the fact and the mode of any re- 
 ality contemplated is perfectly sound and just, and nobly 
 philosophical. It is also baconian and immensely import- 
 ant. It is applicable almost equally to all known objects 
 in nature, in science, in daily observation, and in religion. 
 What would become of us, if we could never believe a fact, 
 and act on the faith of it, till we could comprehend as well 
 the mode of it ? How can these things be ? said Nicodemus. 
 How are the dead raised ? said the fool at Corinth. How 
 is the soul incarnate in the body, or how moves my will, my 
 tongue in speaking, or my hand in writing a word ? The 
 mode is the sphere of what we call mystery— only because 
 
MYSTERY, WHAT IT M£ANS. 253 
 
 of its superiority to us or our ignorance of it. I say, what 
 we call mystery ; that is, somewhat that is incomprehens- 
 ible, or not metaphysically intelligible. The word is never 
 found in the Old Testament. In the New it occurs, I think, 
 just twenty-seven times — meaning always a fact or reality 
 known only as revealed to us ; and, consequently, not at all 
 anticipated, not otherwise attainable ; and then, as revealed 
 and ascertained, like any other fact — only more august as re- 
 ligious and divine : according to the revelation of the 
 MYSTERY, xvhich icus kcjit secret si?ice the tcorld began, but 
 NOW IS MADE MANIFEST, and by the Scrijyttires of the proph- 
 ets, according to the comniaiulment of the everlasting God, 
 
 MADE KNOWN TO ALL NATIONS, FOR THE OBEDIENCE OF FAITH. 
 
 In regard to the Trinity, I understand the reality as a re- 
 vealed fact. I can state it and prove it as any other re- 
 vealed object ; and I can understand the fact and the doc- 
 trine, but not the mode of the great reality. 
 
 2. But the mode of it you can not understand ? 
 
 1. No ! nor the mode essential of almost any thing. We 
 state the reality negatively, positively, relatively, officially, 
 and copiously ; but the mode we neither state, nor know, nor 
 believe ; but we hope in heaven, where / shall know even 
 as also I am known, to begin in a career of progression in 
 knowledge, as well as perfect beatitude, that wiU never end. 
 There many objects, and possibly that, will be so illumined 
 to our ininds, that our knowledge shall increase as with elec- 
 tric speed, and like the "swift-winged arrows of light" as 
 they radiate from the sun. Till then we can trust the Lord, 
 and so be availed of what He knows. The foolishness of 
 God is wiser tha7i onen, as some of us judge. 
 
 2. This does not prove the reality or thing affirmed. 
 
 1 . Well, it prepares for it. Suppose the abstract view I 
 have stated agrees with the total scope of scripture, and none 
 other does, what are we to inier ? Give me a better one, 
 and let me prove it as such, and I will make the exchange. 
 
254 THE NAME WE GET IN BAPTISM. 
 
 It is easier to pull down than to build up ; to nurse a de- 
 mur, than to vindicate a position ; too easy for some minds 
 to unsettle every thing, and settle nothing. A creed of ne- 
 gations is only a thin screen of ignorance and deceit. God 
 save us from error I 
 
 2. Better that than to settle it wrong. 
 
 1 . Possibly ; and yet to be ever learning, and never able 
 to come to the knowledge of the truth, is no compliment to 
 revelation, or to our own wisdom or docility. It is made in 
 scripture one of the marks of a reprobate, ii. Tim. 3:7; Psalm 
 25 : 8, 9, 14, as heady, high-minded. 
 
 2. On what proof do you mainly rely to establish the 
 reality ? 
 
 1. One instance palpable may be adduced — the text al- 
 ready mentioned. In the conclusion of Matthew, the Savior, 
 having been forty days risen from the dead, and just about 
 to be translated in his ascension to heaven, gives the great 
 commission of the ministry for discipling the nations till the 
 end of lime ; thus, Go ye therefore and discij)le all the na- 
 tions, baptizing them to the name of the Father, and of 
 THE Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teachiftg them to ob- 
 serve all tilings ichatsoever I have conwianded you; and 
 lo .' I am icith you, ahcay, to the end of the world. Amen. 
 
 I have changed the phraseology in our version in a way 
 to which no man will object, as it is not fundamental, and 
 as it makes the true sense more definite and impressive ; and 
 I allege, 
 
 (1) The importance of these words. They meet us all at 
 the threshold of the Church visible. Every worshiper is 
 TO BE MARKED WITH THEM. The name we get in baptism 
 is this name, and none other — not John or Mary, but the 
 name of the three. In the ancient oriental adoption, the 
 adopting communicated his name to the adopted party ; and 
 so God visibly adopts us in that solemn ordinance ; as all (f 
 the nations on whom my name is called upon them, saith 
 
THE ROCINIAN MUMMERY. 255 
 
 the Lord, xvlio docth all these thingx (Acts, 15 : 17,) as is 
 the original, so emphatically repetitious. 
 
 (2) It is plainly an act of solennn and spiritual worship to 
 the fuime of" God, dedicating the party. 
 
 (3) The words arc spoken by the Redeemer himself; no 
 fiction or tradition of men at all. 
 
 (4) They teach the triune nature of our God, are perfectly 
 congruous with that doctrine, and properly with none other, 
 epitomizing the current usage of the total scripture from 
 Moses to John. 
 
 Let us try one somewhat popular theory, and see if it does 
 not invert the pyramid w^ith a witness for " rational Christi- 
 anity," from infinite to nothing, in horrible nonsense and im- 
 pious confusion, with a witness. 
 
 I baptize thee to the name of the Father — who is in every 
 sense alone the true God, and of the Son — who is not God 
 at all, but a mere creature, if not a mere man, and of the 
 Holy Ghost — who is neither God, nor man, nor angel, nor 
 being, nor moral consciousness, but only an oriental hyper- 
 bole or metaphor, or energy, or attribute, or quality, or in- 
 fluence, or efi'usion, or idea, or — nothing at all in the universe ; 
 and so thou art baptized. Amen. Alas I alas I for the pseudo- 
 ministrations that enact it I I I 
 
 No orthodox Church or ministry, however, acknowledges 
 the act of those Socinians, or recognizes it as baptism. In 
 quite a number of instances, I have so administered ; baptiz- 
 ing the party with no respect for the worthless infidel nullity 
 before performed — nor is it anabaptism I 
 
 2. You seem to make it of considerable importance. 
 1. Certainly, sir, of fundamental importance ; I never saw 
 the first educated man, denying the triune God, who did not 
 sweep away as well the whole system of redemption, after 
 denying the only xcise God of redemption, ^yhen the foun- 
 dation is everted, where is the superstructure ? To my soul 
 it is revolting and tremendous I — Gen. 49 : 6 ; Psalm 139 : 
 
256 A PERSONAL DEVIL IS REVEALED. 
 
 19-24. Sometimes, indeed, they manage it to a large extent, 
 in the way of habituated preterition, always remembering to 
 forget to pay any court or notice to it at all I So might an 
 astronomer omit the sun in the system of the planets ; or an 
 anthropologist, the soul in the body ; or an ontologist, the 
 founder of creation and the author of all other moral beings. 
 2. How know you what doctrines are fundamental ? 
 
 1. It may be difficult to state it scientifically — -just as in 
 a large mansion it might not be easy to define every part 
 that is essential to the structure. In proportion, however, 
 to the perfection of the architecture, and the utility or the 
 grandeur of the pile, one would desire no dilapidation or mu- 
 tilation of its harmonious whole. It is surely fundamental 
 to our piety to receive, sincerely and in its own integrity, the 
 virtual whole of the inspiration of our God ; and not pick and 
 cull, according to our prejudice, our caprice, our ignorance, 
 
 or OUR M''ISDOM I 
 
 2. And they do this who reject the Trinity, you think. 
 
 1 . Mr. Adams, here is a test of our professed subjection to 
 the gosjoel of Christ, which all light and frivolous religionists 
 unite in repudiating or scouting — I mean the belief of a per- 
 sonal devil and his angels. As a fact, this is clearly revealed 
 all through the Bible. Hence Ave believe it. It is implicated 
 in a thousand ways with the total system. Yet is it rejected, 
 or explained away, by all Universalists, all anti-Trinitarians, 
 all rationalistic authors, with iew if any exceptions ; none 
 that are clear and true in the revealed faith of it. 
 
 2. It is not very pleasing to think of such personages. 
 
 1. Very likely ; but God has revealed them and their agen- 
 cies. 
 
 2. These are more mysteries in the category. 
 
 1 . Yes, the mysteries of the kingdom. 
 
 2. And you wish us all to receive them ? 
 
 1. Certainly, cordially, intensely, I do ; as I would to God 
 you had the humiliating self-knowledge to understand why, 
 
SUPPOSITION AND FACT. 257 
 
 EXACTLY WHY, you do not receive them. You there volun- 
 tarily and impiously repel from the windows of your soul the 
 solicitations of the visiting light of heaven, that would illu- 
 mine and decorate all the chambers of your conscious habi- 
 tation, and give you the truth, the grace, the glory of the com- 
 plete salvation of our Savior and our God. 
 
 2. But how can I believe what I can not understand ? 
 
 1. Well, but suppose you believe not what you do under- 
 stand ; and reject this grand doctrine of the grander reality 
 of the ETERNAL GODHEAD, Only bccausc you can not compre- 
 hend the essential mode of that reality — which mode is not 
 revealed, not believed by us, and not related directly or pos- 
 sibly to our faith at all, any more than it is absolutely to our 
 knowledge ? 
 
 2. Suppose it confounds me only ? 
 
 1. We may suppose any thing, Mr. Adams. Let us sup- 
 pose that whatsoever things ivere written aforetime were 
 written for our learning, that xve, through patience and 
 comfort of the Scriptiires, might have hope ? Oh I that our 
 Lord Jesus Christ might, in sovereign mercy and power, make 
 you his illuminated and true disciple I as of old it is written, 
 Then opened he their U7iderstanding, that they might un- 
 derstand the Scriptures. — Luke, 24 : 45 ; Acts, 16 : 14; 
 Eph. 1 : 17, 18. 
 
 2. I have no reason to doubt your sincerity. 
 
 1. Ah I dear sir, how would it rejoice heaven and earth 
 if you were truly to repent of your sins, and believe with your 
 heart to righteousness ; that is, to justification in the glori- 
 ous way of God I 
 
 2. It seems to me that you believe it, at all events. 
 
 1. Mr. Adams, God loves you more than all other beings 
 in the universe do or can love you I He loves not your sins, 
 but he loves you I If he loved your sins, yourself he could 
 not love ; since your sins are your own worst enemies, as 
 really as they are his ; and since it were impossible for us to 
 
258 FACTS IN NATIRE ANALOGOUS. 
 
 love him, so as to have our sins pardoned for Christ's sake, 
 if we could suspect at all that he loves, or not supremely 
 hates our sins. Sin is the greatest evil, and the cause or 
 the occasion of all other evils, in the universe. The wisdom 
 of the pnulcnt is to iaidc?stand his way ; but the folly of 
 fools is deceit. Fools make a tnock at sin ; but among the 
 righteous there is favor. — Prov. 14 : 8, 9. 
 
 2. There seems little promise of my adopting these views. 
 
 1. I fear as much, Mr. Adams. But truth is just the same, 
 whatever we are, whatever we do, and whether we are saved 
 or lost. It is the eternal offspring of God. 
 
 In some scientific histories, I have known facts analogous 
 and illustrative. One I will, if you please, rehearse. 
 
 2. I shall be happy to hear it, sir. You are quite enter- 
 taining, I must own. 
 
 1. I refer to what was once called, and with great empha- 
 sis and notoriety, the mystery of the Mediterranean. 
 
 Certain phenomena or plain facts were known to the anti- 
 baconian philosophers of an eatlier age, touching that grand 
 inland sea, which none of them could explain ; but I never 
 read of one of them attempting to deny them on that ac- 
 count. They were paradoxes, proved and known, and so ac- 
 credited as facts ; yet they seemed to all the world like con- 
 tradictions and impossibilities. Men, however, that knew the 
 facts, believed them ; though the mode of the facts, either 
 relative or essential, they could not believe, or explain, or 
 contradict, or know. They owned the mystery, and held the 
 facts, perhaps hoping that the future would bring the possi- 
 ble, but quite improbable solution. You, I dare say, are well 
 aware of it. 
 
 That Great Sea, as the Jews called it, as an immense ba- 
 sin inclosed by three continents — Europe, Asia, Africa, re- 
 ceives from them in all directions, always, their watery trib- 
 utes ; from the Black Sea, itself fed by a hundred tributaries, 
 through the Dardanelles, the narrow strait 
 
MYSTERY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN. 259 
 
 Longus in angustum qua clauditur Hellespontus ; 
 rroin the Nile, the Oiontes, the Adige, the Po, the Rhone, the 
 Ebro, and the vast Atlantic at the Straits of" Gibraltar, and 
 from a thousand minor streams, all forever pouring their 
 quotas into it, and yet the basin is never full. The learned 
 desideratum was to find the outlet ; since some outlet, and 
 that a large one, they knew it must have. Hence ingenuity 
 and theory, imagination and exploration, were set to find it, 
 and could not, it was so large, so obvious, so circumambient, 
 and so proximate to every one. 
 
 Parties, sects, and controversies soon resulted ; " each 
 claiming truth, and truth disclaiming" all. The Mediter- 
 ranean, however, remained in armed neutrality the same ; 
 in storms and calms alternate, as of yore ; since the deluge ; 
 since Jonah navigated it ; since Paul was shipwrecked there, 
 in a place tchere two seas met ; or since, so long before, ^Ene- 
 as and his companions crossed it twice, in their perilous voy- 
 age from Troy to Italy. 
 
 One theory taught the probability of a subterranean outlet 
 under the iron-bound coast of Barbary ; reaching far into 
 Central Africa, and absorbed in the lower sti-ata of that ocean 
 of sand, so dry and bibulous, which constitutes the torrid des^ 
 ert of her interior. Very possible, or very probable, they said. 
 But it was a theory which no fads supported, or even seemed 
 to prove — with other facts quite contrary. 
 
 Some wiser venturer superseded it by the more taking hy- 
 pothesis of a counter sub-current at the Straits, where the 
 ocean superficially ran in, while the sea profoundly ran out, 
 thus restoring the perpetual cequor of the extended surface. 
 But navigators, by their deep soundings, as they sailed in- 
 ward or outward, absolutely refuted and scouted it, though 
 quite a deep theory ! 
 
 The next theory, I think, was surer yet. Spain and Port- 
 ugal were spread on a vast quadrangular peninsula, sepa- 
 rated from France by the comparatively narrow Pyranaean 
 
260 THEORIES FOR SOLUTION. 
 
 isthmus. This extended westward from the Gulf of Lyons, 
 and eastward from the Bay of Biscay ; and the perpetual 
 paroxysms of that troubled estuation of the Atlantic might 
 well consist with tlie idea that the Mediterranean had there 
 its subterranean and its submarine debouchment to the ocean, 
 so long unknown to men and mariners I What a precious 
 discovery it was — not. 
 
 Other theories of the sort were multiplied. One, south- 
 eastward to the Red Sea ; another, northeastward into the 
 Black Sea ; and still another, from the Adriatic and the Gulf 
 of Venice, under the mountain ribs of the breast of Europe, 
 into the Baltic. 
 
 All these theories, like bubbles from boys' blow-pipes, went 
 up, danced brilliantly, reflected realities, and fell forgotten. 
 No evidence sustained them. The mystery remained — be- 
 cause the ignorance did. But we hear or read of no Socinian 
 school starting into being to den-y the facts, because they 
 could not solve the mystery connected with them, or get up 
 a sectarian " opposition line" in self-defense against the in- 
 flexible and inhuman orthodoxy of the facts. It was really 
 humiliating to the philosophy of ages, especially to some whose 
 profounder ignorance utterly neglected or despised the facts. 
 
 But the solution came at last, and filled philosophy and 
 the world with wonder and delight. A chemist in London, 
 1 forget his name, making some experiments in an obscure 
 attic or cellar, I think, in reference to the analysis of water, 
 found the solution. He found the outlet — by looking toward 
 heaven ! It was aerial, and vast as the superincumbent at- 
 mosphere. It Avas all explained by — evaporation. It was 
 as clear as the light of the sun, as certain as the power of 
 heat, and as fully demonstrated as the facts which it alone 
 could explain. Indeed, the mystery was almost reversed. 
 The known ratios of evaporation, applied to the surface of 
 that spacious sea, containing at least one million of square 
 miles, and in the mean latitude of thirty-five, seemed to im- 
 
MYSTERY ALL RELATIVE. 261 
 
 ply an aerial exhaustion so great as to exceed all its sources 
 of supply, especially with the local climate, in some parts so 
 rainless and so intensely hot. But the solution evaporated the 
 mystery ; and the facts, if better now appreciated, are not more 
 real than they were before Cadmus came to Greece, or all 
 Phoenicia, from Tyre and Sidon, began their pioneering nav- 
 igations to the West. 
 
 2. Think ^ou all mysteries could be analogously solved ? 
 
 1. All realities are not equally simple or equally abstruse. 
 This, however, I believe, that all intellect is homogeneous in 
 nature, varying only in its volume, its degree, its operation, 
 and its circumstances ; and that God knows all things abso- 
 lutely, all actual, all possible, all hypothetical, all desirable, 
 or the reverse, and all these in all possible combinations, to 
 perfection. He will never grow any wiser than, as omnis- 
 cience, he ever was and now is. He can not go to school to 
 his own works, to make experiments and leani wisdom. To 
 him there is no mystery, nothing real or ideal that is not to 
 him perfectly comprehensible. He is the only being that 
 perfectly understands himself; and how far, if we ever get 
 by grace to heaven, Ave may approximate, a million of cycles 
 of ages after the day of judgment, to the knowledge of him- 
 self, it takes God to know. Two things, however, I fully 
 belifrve in this relation : 
 
 (1) One, that our progressions there will be accelerated, 
 as large and glorious, and without end. 
 
 (2) The other, that we and all creatures shall forever re- 
 main infinitely short of God in knoAvledge, glory, and perfec- 
 tion. 
 
 Thus mysteries are all relative, and they will in succession, 
 not painful there, nor probationary and perilous as here, con- 
 tinue forever. 
 
 This, indeed, will be the method of our happiness in holi- 
 ness, and our holiness in happiness ; and in heaven they are 
 all too philosophic to object to mysteries, or to entertain any 
 
262 WITTY AND PERTINACIOUS. 
 
 prejudice against them. How different from us poor sinners 
 in this world ! Mr. Adams, I should like to know your hope 
 of heaven, its basis, its medium, its nature, its strength, and 
 its power to purify and comfort you. There is such a thi'ig 
 as knowing God, and participating his own blessedness be- 
 gun in this world. To you, indeed, this may seem like en- 
 thusiasm, though I trust I know it as the truth and the so- 
 berness of Christianity. • 
 
 On all these conferences with Mr. Adams, I have frequent- 
 ly pondered with religious interest and solemnity. He seem- 
 ed at once observably fixed in non-committal, and pertina- 
 cious both in his questions and in his constancy of continuance. 
 He never seemed wearied with the subjects, whatever was 
 the reason. When interrupted in some way, he would re- 
 commence them. Often was I apprehensive of reducing his 
 patience or fatiguing his bodily powers. When we retired 
 at night, it was considerably after eleven, if I remember 
 aright. But he appeared vivacious and colloquial as ever to 
 the last. In the morning, I felt some remorse lest I had 
 been tedious, obtrusive, or inconsiderate of his health or ease ; 
 but he owned no such thing ; asking questions or raising ob- 
 jections, in a pleasant, sub-sarcastic way, as usual ; and now 
 and then venturing some witty and pointed remark, rather 
 caustic or satirical. And, unlike old Priam, his shots struck 
 with effect, not damage. 
 
 Sic fatus senior, telumque imbelle sine ictu 
 
 Conjecit. 
 
 So spake the veteran sage, and threw his dart 
 
 With warless pleasantry to strike the heart. 
 
 Sharp was the weapon, yet, with grace impell'd, 
 
 It ghded bloodless from th' opposing shield. 
 
 Yet was there, truth to say, no martial preparation, as in the 
 example of the brave old Trojan monarch, when, on stern 
 occasion, as we read, 
 
RELIGIOUS THOUGHT AND CONVERSE. 263 
 
 Arma diu senior dcsueta trementibus aevo 
 Circunulat neqiiioquam hiiincris, ct inutile fcrrum 
 Cingitur, ac densos fertur moriturus in hostes. 
 
 His arms so long disused with trembling care 
 The sire his shoulders gives, in vain to bear ; 
 And, bent on death, he rushes to the host 
 Of thickest foes, to conquer or be lost. 
 
 Our colloquy, though dissident enough, was not polemical ; 
 and his bearing or manner, whatever was the wisdom he 
 manifested, I am happy to declare, was dignified and gentle- 
 manly, was courteous and benignant, was consistent and at- 
 tractive. And as he seemed set on purpose to pursue the con- 
 versation, and as such topics are not only in themselves of 
 importance to all men, perfectly supreme, but, alas I woefully 
 neglected, while trifles and squalid anxieties in common oc- 
 cupy the thoughts and the words of the million and the ton, 
 and as it is of hopeful augury to attend to the things of re- 
 ligion almost in any way, rather than to omit and neglect 
 them altogether, (Phil. 1 : 15-18,) so I was, on this account 
 as well as others, more than willing to correspond with him, 
 and to defend the truth as wisely and well as I could, accord- 
 ing to the ability ichich God giveth ; that God in all 
 things niay be glorified throicgh Jesus Christ, to tchom be 
 jxraise and do7?tinion forever and ever. He seemed willing, 
 and even eager to hear, as our themes were probably refresh- 
 ing to him, so different from the perplexities of statesman- 
 ship and the cares of the nation which ordinarily engrossed his 
 mind, that their novelty and variety, at least, made them en- 
 tertaining. This, indeed, he several times remarked to me ; 
 now and then in terms of gratification and encouragement 
 too emphatic to be recited. I trust that some zeal for his 
 salvation, and the glory of God in his regeneration, as possi- 
 ble and hopeful, were among the actuating motives of all I 
 said to him. 
 
 On the subject of the Trinity he said httle ; and seemed 
 
264 PAGANISM OF ITALIAN PAINTERS. 
 
 not to have studied it in any aspect of its polemic or didactic 
 relations. Still, he seemed quite willing to hear an orthodox 
 statement and defense of it. The idea that the terms Father 
 and Soti are correlative, or the method of illustrating their 
 mutual relations, seemed never to have occupied his mind. 
 In reference to the third, in the adorable triad of the God- 
 head, his ideas appeared all confused, and even superficial 
 and inane. The oriental symbol of a dove was constantly 
 fluttering in his imagination, as at once picturesque and 
 empty, not, however, without some palliation, as I judge. 
 
 The paganism of popery, the pictures and the designs of 
 the artists of Italy, have tinctured all Christendom with their 
 manifold influences of insidious, and noxious, and paganizing 
 eiTor. One instance is — the common mistake that the pres- 
 ence of the Holy Ghost, at the public baptism of the Son of 
 God, was visibly embodied in the form and likeness of a dove, 
 descendant and couchant on his head at the time. Thus, in 
 their cathedrals, an aged person, a youthful one, and a dove, 
 are profanely, and stupidly, and sinfully, as well as common- 
 ly, emblazed, with artistic skill of some sort, " a Guido or a 
 daub," in a place central and conspicuous, to attract the 
 worship of the people, in spite of the second commandment. 
 And though we may brook an imitation of it, or an approx- 
 imation to it in poetry, yet is it both dangerous, and fortified or 
 sanctioned not at all by the original scriptures. Thus, Cow- 
 per, " Return, holy Dove, return ;" and Watts, " Come, 
 holy Spirit, heavenly Dove ;" to name no others. Com- 
 pare Deut. 4: 12-19, with Mat. 3 : 16 ; Mark, 1 -. 10 ; Luke, 
 3 : 22 ; John, 1 : 32, 33. 
 
 Let us distinguish between a visible symbol, as of a dove 
 in form and semblance, descending and abiding on Him ; and 
 the manner of its descending, as dove-like, gentle, undulat- 
 ing, lambent, noiseless, graceful, lovely — all that the action 
 of the pinions of a dove could symbolize or exemplify. Now 
 1 affirm that the latter, and not the former, is illustrated by 
 
MANNER, NOT FORM, "AS A DOVE." 266 
 
 the expression as a dove, and that this is all that it means. 
 The Holy Ghost no more appeared in the form or the pictur- 
 esque outline of that beautiful and lovely bird, than did the 
 Lamb of God in the shape and proportions of that clean, and 
 useful, and innocent animal. Nay, the Son is called the 
 Lamb often ; the Holy Ghost, the Dove, or a Dove, never, in 
 the Bible. Thus a good grammarian would refer the ex- 
 pression, or the words cjaei irepiOTepdv, as or in the manner 
 of a dove, not to the bodily shape or visible and palpable 
 symbol, that is, the shekinah of glory that appeared and 
 rested on him; but to the act of descending, showing its 
 manner, as most soft, mild, and mansuete in its movement 
 and its rest. The symbol had a form, and also a manner of 
 movement ; the latter only is illustrated by the words as a 
 dove ; the movements were so serene and so graceful. 
 
 If this be the truth, then, no literalizing blunder could be 
 for a moment sustained in identifying the form of the Holy 
 Ghost, in our worship, with the image of a dove ; and there 
 is properly no foundation for such a gross, and literalizing, and 
 paganizing blunder at all. We should be practically jealous 
 here for the purity of the worship of JehovaJi. — John, 4 : 23, 
 24. There is danger of impiety in the grossness. On tlie 
 great topic which the Lamb implies, namely, his propitiatory 
 sacrifice for our sins, that God might be just, and thejusti- 
 fier of him that believeth in Jesus, I had less opportunity in 
 proportion to converse. Mr. Adams, however, seemed to dis- 
 credit it, especially as it implied so awfully the implacability 
 of God, in his view. The implication I fully denied ; affirm- 
 ing just the opposite; the death of Christ, the just for the 
 unjust ; indeed, his whole mediation, his mission and his pas- 
 sion, were the grandest demonstration the universe ever saw 
 of the eternal placability of God. — John, 3:16, 17 ; i. John, 
 4 : 7-16. 
 
 All was willing ; God required it ; 
 All was ready ; love inspired it ; 
 M 
 
260 WASHINGTON AND MAJOR ASDRt. 
 
 Love the prompter, love the spring : 
 Wlio was injured by the measured 
 He — whose love esteemed it pleasure T 
 
 He — who chose the suffering 1 
 
 But then he seemed to object a test which was certainly 
 false, that after all so many should perish. Hence, to reject 
 Christ, and to neglect so great salvation, and to live in the 
 grand crime of unbelief, he appeared to disregard as matters 
 of small or no moment. I tried to demonstrate that a judge 
 could punish with no malice, nay, even with the kindest 
 sympathy and the purest wisdom, administering the laws ; 
 and that legislation could make them in the same spirit of 
 wise benevolence. I referred him to the rigid justice of the 
 Father of his country toward Major Andre for a good illus- 
 tration, though infinitely small in the comparison ; and to the 
 fact accredited to us, that Washington wept, in the bitterness 
 of his soul, to do it, and signed his death-warrant, almost ob- 
 literating his signature with his tears ; and then inexorably 
 proceeded to the execution of the law. So God swears by 
 his own being ; saying, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have 
 no pleasure in the death of the wicked ; but that the wicked 
 turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye, from your 
 evil ways ; for why tvill ye die, house of Israel ? But 
 what if, after all, the sinner dies in his sins, as we know that 
 frightful multitudes do ? Is he saved ? or, is that solemn as- 
 severation of the only ivise God, the God of truth, the awful 
 dirge of his soul, himself the victim of the second death ? 
 
 The censured lenity of his immediate predecessor, Mr. Mon- 
 roe, in extending the boon of executive clemency toward so 
 many sentenced pirates, aflbrded me a good argument. The 
 newspapers blamed him for it, all over the country. They 
 said the law is good, and must therefore be maintained. 
 They said the law represents the interests of the whole, as 
 well as each part, and protects them too ; they said that pi- 
 racy made the interest of a part antagonistic mutually to those 
 
DECEIVKKS ALONE DECEIVED. 207 
 
 of the whole, and therefore the less should be sacrificed foi 
 the sake of the greater. That is, the law should be honored, 
 and the pirates should be hanged. 
 
 But these principles, founded in the nature and relations of 
 all moral government, are fundamental and glorious in that 
 which is the only perfect moral government in the universe, 
 the government of God. This I endeavored to enl'orce, and 
 commend to his approbation. We have violated his law, and 
 it must be supported. This can be done conceivably in either 
 of two ways only ; one, by execution of the law, and our con- 
 sequent punishment and perdition ; the other, by that sacri- 
 fice of the Son of God, with repentance and faith in him, 
 which makes justice honorable, while mercy is triumphant, 
 which magnificently sustains the law and the prerogatives of 
 the lawgiver, while it makes, and demonstrates, and com- 
 mends the way oi' grace reigning through righteousness to 
 eternal life by Jesus Christ, our Lord. 
 
 But alas I I could make seemingly a slight impression 
 only on the mind of my illustrious friend. In one of our epi- 
 sodes, as he often made animadversions on the clergy, he inti- 
 mated that some of the ^eawlduX magnates deceived them occa- 
 sionally with a kind of courtesy, by wholesale, to their office 
 and to them, thinking it quite enough to get a smiling pledge 
 of their good-will, as the result of their own bland concession 
 to religion in general, or to its forms, and its claims, and its 
 officials, as established in society. I replied assentingly, for I 
 had often observed, as others have, the same thing ; but added 
 that the deceiver there was alone the deceived, as an ordina- 
 ry result, and that the ministers of Christ, those that are his 
 ministers, both know more of such men, and see further into 
 their ways, their Aviles, their tactics, their motives, their sins, 
 and their retributions, than the dotage of their own vanity 
 or their shallowness commonly apprehends. In this regard 
 I commended Mr. Adams for his honesty and for his great 
 superiority to that low and mean policy to which we were 
 
268 NEWPORT AND PROVIDENCE. 
 
 referring — a degradation in hypocrisy of which there lives 
 not the man on earth, I judge, that would accuse him. He 
 utterly scorned all such duplicity, all such servility and mor- 
 al baseness. 
 
 The people of venerable old Newport, that city of exciting 
 and manly memories, reading afar the presidential signals at 
 the mast-head of the steamer, crowded to the wharf as we 
 approached it, where the Fulton Avas to touch. They re- 
 ceived him with loud patriotic cheers, and every eminence 
 near was populous with gratified spectators. They joyed 
 spontaneously to see and to greet the great civic father of 
 their young and mighty nation. The old gentleman, hat in 
 hand, returned the pleasing signals, and, like a plain and pa- 
 triarchal citizen as he was, shook hands cheerfully with mul- 
 titudes, who crowded perilous on board to enjoy the moment- 
 ary gratification and valued honor — though its memory was 
 not so transient. Their valedictory cheering, too, was tena- 
 cious, oft-repeated, and long-continued, till it died in the dis- 
 tance away, still visible, and heartily returned, even when 
 no longer audible to us or them. At Providence, the intelli- 
 gent capital of their gallant and enterprising little state, our 
 sail terminated. Crowds of their busy and curious popula- 
 tion had obeyed some concerted signal, and were waiting to 
 welcome the president of their country. Cheers M^ere all in 
 cordial uproar as we approached. The governor and his 
 aids, the lieutenant governor, and other distinguished citi- 
 zens, occupied the front ranks, and did the hospitable honors 
 to their distinguished guest — only that he was too transitory 
 to suit their notions or their desires. Soon afterward, the 
 president's coach and four appeared gallantly in sight, which 
 himself and others of us having occupied, with a fine-looking 
 and quite conscious and intelligent driver humoring the reins, 
 we were wheeled away in fine style, amid the enthusiastic 
 and stentorian outbreaks of the self-complacent sovereign 
 
BRIEF AND TERMINAL REFLECTIONS. 269 
 
 people ; and after a pleasant drive of some forty miles, we 
 arrived safe in the evening at Boston. 
 
 It is common, we are told, in some rural parishes in New 
 England, for the pastor regularly to occupy the morning of 
 the Lord's day with doctrinal discussion, establishing certain 
 favorite or orthodox positions ; and in the afternoon, to come 
 to the IMPROVEMENT, or the practical reflections, or the 
 SPIRITUAL USES, or the proper inferences from the subject. 
 So, from such interviews with such a personage, one might 
 write a volume of instructive commentary and speculative 
 analysis. But possibly the facts and statements which must 
 be the premises of all such philosophy are rather to be viewed, 
 in the present instance, as more instructive and more valuable 
 in their simple appearance to the reader, leaving his own mind 
 to its own workings and inductions in the matter. Often, in- 
 deed, has the recollection of what is here narrated recurred 
 with a thrill of moral interest to my own mind, and eminently 
 has it been suggestive, and perhaps instructive and profitable. 
 Truth compels me to add, that it is always painful too. But 
 what men's motives are, and what their characters, if now 
 ambiguous or mysterious, will soon be manifested and notori- 
 ous to all. I make one reflection, that the religion of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ is no pensioner on the favor of the foot- 
 stool. It depends on no man, but on God alone. Every 
 man depends on it passively, if not actively ; it depends on 
 God, and God depends on himself; so that religion is excel- 
 lent, irrespective of majorities, however poor in worldly state 
 and glory, and when devoid of all human opinion and patron- 
 age. Hence, too, the imperfections and the faults of profess- 
 ing Christians are no excuse for the irreligious. Thei-efore, 
 Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his 
 wisdom, neither let the tnighty inan glory in his ynight, let 
 not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glo- 
 rieth glory i?i this, that he tinder sta7ideth and knoweth me, 
 that I am the Lord, icho exercise loving-kindness, judg- 
 
270 BIBLK SOCIETY ADDRESS. 
 
 ment, and righteousness in the earth ; for in these things 
 I delight, saith the Lord. — Jer. 9 : 23-24. 
 
 Our account of this memorable interview is now conclud- 
 ed. I therefore subjoin, as I have promised, his Bible Socie- 
 ty address, pronounced nearly nineteen yeai-s after ; taken 
 now from his own autograph, identified before me, and show- 
 hig, as a chronometer of his life, the proofs of age in its for- 
 mation of letters, and of the difficulty with which he executed 
 the document, then so far advanced in his seventy-seventh 
 year. 
 
 Address. 
 
 Fellow-citizens of the American Bible Society, and of 
 this Assembly, — In taking the chair awarded to me as the 
 oldest Vice-president of the American Bible Society, I deem 
 myself fortunate in having the opportunity, at a stage of a 
 long life drawing rapidly to its close, to bear at this place, 
 the capital of our national Union, in the Hall of Representa- 
 tion of the North American people, in the chair of the pre- 
 siding officer representing that whole people, the personifica- 
 tion of this great and mighty nation, to bear my solemn test- 
 imonial of reverence and gratitude to that Book of books, the 
 Holy Bible. 
 
 Thirty-five years have passed away since, in the State 
 House at Boston, the capital of my native commonwealth, I 
 became a member of the Bible Society ; and although I have 
 followed, with a deep interest, their continual exertions and 
 the various fortunes of their success in distributing this Book, 
 I think I have never been able to attend another meeting of 
 the society from that time to this. Since that time one gen- 
 eration of mankind has passed away — another has arisen. In 
 the midst of the painful and perilous conflicts inseparable 
 from public life, and on the eve of that moment when the 
 grave shall close over them forever, I may be permitted to 
 
EACH GENKRATIOX IMPROVrNG. 271 
 
 indulge the pleasing reflection that, having been taught in 
 childhood the unparalleled blessings of the Christian gospel, 
 in the maturity of manhood I associated with my brethren of 
 that age, for spreading the light of that gospel over the face 
 of the earth, by the simple and silent process of placing in 
 the hands of every human being who needed, and could not 
 otherwise procure it, that Book, which contains the duties, 
 the admonitions, the promises, and the rewards of the Chris- 
 tian gospel. It is a soothing consolation to my last hours, 
 that, having so long since associated in this cause with the 
 fathers, I still find myself associated in it with the sons ; that 
 it has in the interval been perseveringly and unceasingly 
 prosecuted with intense ardor, with untiring assiduity, and 
 with animating and eminent success. In contemplating what 
 may be termed the life and adventures of one whole genera- 
 tion of the race of man, the only member of the animal crea- 
 tion susceptible of the perception of good and evil, of virtue 
 and vice, of right and wrong, there are in this, as there have 
 been in all former ages, observing and reflecting men, espe- 
 cially in the decline of life, prone to depreciate the moral and 
 physical character of the present age, and to glorify the past. 
 Far more pleasing, and I believe more correct, is the con- 
 clusion, that the race of man, in his fallen estate, is placed 
 by successive generations upon earth to inijyrove his own 
 condition and that of his kind ; and that this book has been 
 furnished him, by the special providence of his Maker, to en- 
 able him, by faith in his Redeemer, and by works conforma- 
 ble to that faith, to secure his salvation in a future world, 
 and to promote his well-being in the present. If this be true, 
 the improvement of successive generations of men in their 
 condition upon earth, aird their preparation for eternity, de- 
 pends in no small degree in the diftusion and circulation of 
 this volume among all the tribes of man throughout the hab- 
 itable globe This is the great and exclusive object for which, 
 in the last generation, this society was instituted. The whole 
 
272 EXCELLENCE OF THE SOCIETY. 
 
 Book had then existed upward of eighteen hundred years ; 
 and wherever it had penetrated and been received, it had 
 purified and exalted the character of man. Reposing upon 
 three fundamental pillars, the unity and omnipotence of Gcd, 
 the Creator and Governor of all worlds ; the immortality of 
 the human soul, and its responsibility to that Creator in a 
 future world for all the deeds done in the present ; and the 
 system of morals, embracing in one precept the whole duty 
 of man upon earth — Thou shalt love the Lord thy God ivith 
 all thy heart, and toith all thy mind, and ivith all thy 
 strength ; and [thou shalt love] thy neighbor as thyself. 
 
 The Bible carries with it the history of the creation, the 
 fall and the redemption of man ; and discloses to him, in the 
 infant born at Bethlehem, the Legislator and Savior of the 
 world. The faith in him and in his divine mission is insep- 
 arably connected with the performance of his will, and that 
 will is all comprised in the song of the angels at his birth — 
 Glory to God iji the highest, and on earth j^eace, good tvill 
 toward men. 
 
 In whatever region of the earth, in whatever condition of 
 the human being this blissful sound first salutes his ears, the 
 depravities of his nature fall before it ; the selfish and the 
 rancorous passions which had absorbed his soul and ruled his 
 conduct under the impulses of hatred and revenge, sink within 
 him into impotence ; he bathes in the waters of Jordan, and 
 rises cleansed from his leprosy, in the freshness and vigor of 
 health, and the purity of benevolence and mercy. 
 
 Such has been the progress of the gospel wherever the 
 Bible has been carried and suffered to be read. In the mys- 
 terious providence of God, its influences have been counter- 
 acted by the spirit of evil in all its thousand forms, through- 
 out a long succession of ages. Its advancement has been 
 slow ; its victories desperately contested ; its triumphs sub- 
 jected to cruel vicissitudes ; its war against the world, the 
 flesh, and the serpent, a perpetual, never-ceasing struggle. 
 
MILLENNIAL FUTURE OF THE WORLD. 273 
 
 Yet its march has been uniform in purifying and ennobling 
 the moral, the intellectual, and the physical condition and 
 character of man. 
 
 To circulate and distribute among great multitudes of men, 
 in every quarter of the globe, this blessed volume, was the 
 purpose for which this society was instituted. One genera- 
 tion of mankind has since passed away. 
 
 The secretary* of the society is now present, and will give 
 an account of their labors, their success, and their prospects. 
 I trust they will prove to the satisfaction of this assembly 
 that, by their labors, the human being of this age is, on the 
 whole, wiser, better, happier than the human being of the 
 last. 
 
 That by the success of those labors they will be cheered 
 and encouraged to perseverance in them, by the emulation 
 of the present age to contribute their aid to the progress of 
 human wisdom, virtue, and happiness, from age to age, till 
 that consummation of human felicity promised in this book, 
 when — 
 
 The wolf, also, shall dwell icith the lamb, and the leopard 
 shall lie doivn with the kid, and the calf, and the young 
 lion, and the fatling together; and a little child sJmll lead 
 them. 
 
 * Rev. Dr. Brigham. 
 M 2 
 
VISIT EXTRAORDINARY. 
 
 TWO PSEUDO-APOSTLES. 
 
 TTiou hast tned them that say they are apottles, and are not, and hast found them 
 liars.— Rev. 2 : 2. 
 
 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idol- 
 aters, and WHOSOEVER loveth and maketh a lie. — Rev. 22 : 15. 
 
 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apos- 
 tles of Christ. And no marvel ; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of 
 light.— i Cor. n:\Z,li. 
 
 For there shall arise false Christs, and f rise prophets, and shall show great signs 
 and wonders ; insomuch that, if it luere possible, they shall deceive the very elect. — 
 Matt. 24 ■ 24. 
 
 BXe'jUTe /!)} Tt? v/iias ■n\avr)ijrj. — Matt. 24: 4. 
 
 Ma.xima pars vatum, pater et juvenes patre digni, 
 Decipimur specie recti. * * • — jj^j.^ 
 
TWO PSEUDO-APOSTLES. 
 
 Religious imposture is, in its proper nature, evil, and only 
 evil, and tliat continually. It is huge impiety and systematic 
 sin, organized as if at once to injure man and offend God. In 
 its conception and origin is it literally infernal ; in its term- 
 ination, as well as its tendency, unvitterably and desperately 
 dreadful. In its secular relations, to a great extent, the genus 
 of imposture, however versatile in form and feature, is in the 
 main popularly known ; hence its temporal ravage is com- 
 monly execrated as imposture. People like not to be duped 
 and cheated, except in the matter of their souls. Hence coun- 
 terfeiting, forgery, getting money under false pretenses, the 
 perfidious courting or deceiving of women, quackery, and all 
 kinds of professional murder, and the ways multifarious of 
 mendacity, for the sake of gain, of artful and specious lying, 
 " to get an honest livelihood," and other false methods of prac- 
 ticing on the credulity of the million — ever having men's per- 
 sons in admiration, because of advantage ; all such villainy 
 becomes suspected, and probably detected ; as certainly it is, 
 then, the horror of the nations ; the object of legal punition ; 
 the peril of principals, accomplices, and accessories ; as well 
 as redounding to the damage or the sacrifice of its victims. 
 Touching these lower relations, men are ordinarily severe, 
 and even inexorable, as well as just in its reprobation ; and 
 mainly the penalty of the law of the land is exacted to the 
 uttermost farthing, at least sentimentally — though practi- 
 cally its due execution is not always the result. In some 
 places, however, this side of Oregon and California, as emi- 
 
278 IMPOSTURE OF VARIOUS CLASSES. 
 
 nently there, lynch-law is peculiarly prompt and sure ; and 
 not always without " method in its madness," sometimes ap- 
 pearing qinxsi just and exemplary, if not quite vindicated at 
 last, in the summary and the capital vengeance of its visita- 
 tions. The criminal practitioner, who kills a patient by no- 
 sology, or for the want of it, or by doses infinitesimally small, 
 or by those analogously too large, or by corrupt and blunder- 
 ing pharmacy, as a matter of course, suffers for it — rides on a 
 rail, instead of a rail-road ; is costumed cap-a-pie, unfashion- 
 ably, in tar and feathers ; is publicly or covertly scourged 
 with ignominy ; or, it may be, SAVung immediately from the 
 limb of a tree, into that dread eternity I in all his unfitness, 
 unpardoned, unprepared, untaught, 
 
 With all his imperfections on his head. 
 
 Well, how much better or more innocent than secular is 
 religious imposture? when, sparing their adorable property, 
 it only seduces and kills the souls of men ; only calumniates 
 or abolishes the glory of God ; only adulterates the gospel ; 
 o?ily poisons the waters of the well of life ; o?ihj fumes and 
 struts, in its dignified short-sightedness, for a moment, at the 
 expense of its votaries ; o>ily gives falsehood the precedence 
 against truth, sorcery substituting for inspiration, and foolery 
 preferring to the heavenly and incomparable wisdom ; and 
 so ONLY counteracts Christ, and assists the strategy of Satan, 
 in his own proper work, as a manslayer (avdpcjnoKTOVo^ rjv 
 an' apxT]^) fro77i the beginning — oh I we republicans, loving 
 freedom so intensely and so immensely, may well tolerate the 
 infelicity ; we politicians and office-hunters, expectant or can- 
 didating, may profitably flatter it — for votes, a cheap pur- 
 chase — at present ; and we sycophants may court it, cun- 
 ningly, whenever it radiates prosperous, and glorious, and sat- 
 isfactory in its alliances with wealth, fame, worldly learning, 
 party success, civic station, or ofiScial power I Short-sight- 
 edness recks not of the day of judgment : 
 
THAT ON HAND RELIGIOUS. 2T0 
 
 Dies iree ! dies ilia, solvet saeclum in favilla. 
 
 These are the sentiments and the principles that we — do 
 not hold. How God esteems it, how HE regards imposture 
 of every kind — false doctrine, lying preachers, spurious piety, 
 superficial man-traps, vain assumptions, all sorts of religion- 
 izing charlatanry, however vaporing in his name, even if an 
 angel from heaven were its patron or its propugnator, his 
 word copiously informs us. See the whole Bible ; especially 
 Deut. 13 : 1-5 ; 18 : 20-22 ; 29 : 18-28. Gal. 1 : 6-9 ; 3 : 
 1. Rev. 21 : 27. 
 
 The specimen now to be exhibited is, in several of its re- 
 lations and aspects, sufficiently vulgar and squalid ; still it is 
 reality. It is a specimen. It actually occurred. It shows 
 partially the way, or, rather, one of the changeable ways, in 
 which, with occasional success, and resulting malady, its ser- 
 pent-hissing or its serpent-trailing orgies are devotionally en- 
 acted, to beguile multitudes, and deceive, if it were possible, 
 the very elect. If the manner of reception and treatment to 
 which two of its infatuated angels, or more modest apostles, 
 were subjected, on a special occasion, uncomfortably, may be 
 useful to any one in similar condition, or for general instruc- 
 tion and warning, I shall be satisfied. In some directions, 
 not quite Utopian or imaginary, a few seasonable suggestions 
 or hints may be conveyed as to the erect and honest skepti- 
 cism with which Christian faith itself does, and human safe- 
 ty must, regard all such assumptions, from the manipulations 
 of the puseyite to the scoundrel miracles of Jesuitism ; from 
 the diabolical religion of the Mormons to the specious pseudo- 
 philosophy of the pantheist ; from the ignorant ventures of 
 Miller's millennarian chronology, making ad diem appoint- 
 ments with Heaven, and repeating them by various consider- 
 ate adjournments, all of which Heaven inexorably scorned, to 
 the madcaps of Irving, with their "unknown tongues;" or 
 to the philosophico-sophistical day-dreams of a cracked Swed- 
 ish nobleman, and his triple sense of Scripture, interpreted by 
 
280 A VISIT OF ITS OWN SORT. 
 
 "correspondences;" or to the sottish impudence of the Uni- 
 versalist ; or, to the serene, religious self-complacency, and 
 learned propagand excecation of the modern Socinian, deceit- 
 fully corrupting his word and hating its adorable Author ; or 
 to any other furtive system of delusion, ancient or modern, 
 vulgar or refined, by which the devil and his angels prose- 
 cute their own Avork, in this world of sin and wickedness. 
 
 A man who truly knows Christianity finds little perplexity 
 in knowing the vanity and lies of all its rivals, or would-be 
 substitutes, or self-lauded improvements on its known iden- 
 tity. May God teach us all to discriminate in favor of tJie 
 truth as it is in Jesus, and of that alone I I proceed to the 
 narration ; may it be to the glory of the God of truth I 
 
 It was a day much of its own class, distinguished for ter- 
 rible heat — the hottest of hot days of summer in this latitude ; 
 and one of the rare and oppressively hot days that make peo- 
 ple talk, and newspapers show philosophical and wise ; as all 
 remember "the three hot days" of the season, that the por- 
 tentous visit occurred. Whether or not they deliberately chose 
 such a day, though I incline to doubt, is not certain. It might 
 possibly have suited their mission, their plan, or their conven- 
 ience, as so hot ; no matter. They came then, unheralded, 
 uulmown, unintroduced, unsanctioned by any practicable au- 
 thority or evidence. 
 
 It was the Lord's day, and near the hour of worship, in 
 the afternoon, some seven years since, that the event occurred 
 which I am now to narrate. The bell was tolling, and I was 
 descending from my study, contiguous, to enter the pulpit, 
 and in the act of locking the door, while several of my peo- 
 ple were passing near me into the church, and I recognized 
 no others, when a strange voice from behind arrested my at- 
 tention, in tones direct and earnest, as well as measured and 
 articulate. 
 
 2. Is this Dr. Cox? 
 
 1. It is, sir, at your service. 
 
DIRECT AND AFFECTIONATE. 281 
 
 2. Sir, I am glad to see you. Dr. Cox, we have heard of 
 you, have come to pay you a religious visit, and hope it will 
 suit you to afibrd us an opportunity. 
 
 1. Gentlemen, you are entire strangers to me, and your 
 request is at present impracticable. I should like, however, 
 to know who you are. 
 
 2. Oh I we are your friends, and we wish to speak with 
 you about the kingdom and the way of God. 
 
 1. Well, gentlemen, is it your mission to learn or to teach 
 on this occasion 1 
 
 2. "Why, doctor, we know well your character, and have a 
 very great esteem of you. You are Brother Cox, a man of 
 God, a friend of truth, a lover of righteousness, and a preach- 
 er of the gospel ; and as for our object, we will explain it 
 to you, as soon as opportunity ofi'ers. 
 
 1. It is now the hour of service, and I must leave you. 
 If, however, you will wait till after it, and my strength may 
 allow, I will receive you in the study immediately — although 
 the heat is so oppressive that one feels more like dissolution 
 than exertion at such a season. 
 
 2. Well, what shall we do in the mean time ? 
 
 1. Go into the house of God, and worship HIM. 
 
 2. But we are strangers, and have no seats. 
 
 1. No matter. I will show you seats, gentlemen. Please 
 proceed. 
 
 They were soon seated, and the service was performed in 
 due order. With copious perspiration and exhausting effort, 
 even when self-controlled and calm, on that day of memora- 
 ble and inclement heat, I went through my public duties and 
 returned. The study door was scarcely opened, before the 
 two visitors, each " steady to his purpose," were at my elbow ; 
 when, ascending, we were soon together seated in the study. 
 I sat in my ordinary chair, with a sliding leaf for writing 
 closed before me, and my manual Greek Testament lying on 
 it open, as I had left it. 
 
282 DESCRirTION OF THE TWO. 
 
 The two strangers, though united in their sympathy, and 
 their aim, and their work, seemed very dissimilar in their cast 
 of character. The one that had done mainly all the talking, 
 quite the Mercury of the mission, was rather tall, of a plain 
 and open countenance, apparently sincere, very loquacious, 
 religiously coniident, and rather fraternally sociable, and foi'- 
 ward, and exacting, as well as seemingly assured and remark- 
 ably afiectionate toward his " Brother Cox." The other, rath- 
 er below medium size, of dark complexion and cunning eye, 
 seemed watching his opportunity with greater sagacity and 
 prudence of reserve, as the consular pundit of the enterprise, 
 and as ready to bring relief and succor to rear or flank in the 
 engagement. He had said little, and that only in the way 
 of confirmation or acquiescence, as he followed the lead of 
 his obtrusive and venturous colleague. They were, person- 
 ally, as strange to me as their manner was singular and their 
 business a mysterj'. I had previously no knowledge of them 
 whatever, and no clue at all beyond the present scene to 
 guide me in it, not knowing even their names ; and having 
 no friend or w^itness, except the omniscient ONE, to corre- 
 spond with me, I felt in a strange predicament ; tried, but 
 not daunted in the least ; perplexed, but not in despair ; de- 
 termined to keep my propriety, and stand by the principles 
 of everlasting truth and rectitude. It was plain that their 
 object and their views were odd and queer, but I had no sus- 
 picion or imagination of their sect, their principles, or their 
 specific design. 
 
 As to the way in which all such pretensions should be met, 
 and they are always occurring, as they have occurred contin- 
 ually, though in ever-varj'ing forms, in every age, before the 
 witch of Endor, or Balaam the son of Beor, or the antedilu- 
 vian impostors of Cain's progeny were born, I mean, that they 
 are all Satanic, and so of very respectable antiquity ; and as 
 to the way of meeting them and treating them, it is proba- 
 ble that a calm rigidity, which shows them all due polite- 
 
NOT PROFOUNDLY LEARNED. 288 
 
 iicss, yet stands ever on — the right and the claim of evi- 
 dence, demanding full proof of their assumptions, accrediting 
 nothing without it, demanding it at the outset, and before 
 any action or negotiation is begun, and remembering, and 
 causing them not to forget, however convenient and desired, 
 that the burden of proof, the onus probandi, of the matter is, 
 by their own act, resting wholly on themselves, as their 
 OWN, ANt) theirs ONLY. They make the category, which they 
 ought immediately to prove. They voluntarily take the po- 
 sition which they are required, in all reason and righteous- 
 ness, to demonstrate and establish. And if they dare to in- 
 sult their fellow-creatures so impudently and so wantonly, to 
 say nothing of their enormous impiety and sacrilege against 
 God, what is the proverbial shrewdness and common sense 
 of Americans worth, if they can not resist their claims, when 
 they have not, and can not have, proved them ? We only 
 add, let all Americans who love their country, and who de- 
 test imposture, thinking there is quite enough of it in Europe, 
 and that we want something better in the United States, in 
 Church and in State, in politics and in religion ; let all Amer- 
 icans agree, to frown with indignation on all claims that can 
 not be proved, that are plainly imposture and falsehood, be- 
 lieving here the truth, the whole truth, and NOTiiiNG 
 BUT the truth — and the truth itself, only as proved by ra- 
 tional evidence to be divine, and so worthy of all human con- 
 fidence. 
 
 They appeared in respectable attire, as common citizens 
 of the middle class of society. Their manners were rather 
 respectful and correct, but not polished ; and their use of rough 
 phrases, and occasionally of bad grammar, graduated them 
 to their place on an intellectual scale : Ut ad primum in ar- 
 tibus gradum, scilicet, Baccalaureatus, non adhuc admissi. 
 Still, their manner indicated negotiation, and seemed to pre- 
 ominate some earnest and well considered result. Hence I 
 said, 
 
284 LATTER-DAY SAINTS, SELF-STYLED. 
 
 1. Well, gentlemen, before we begin our religious conA^er- 
 sation, let us settle some requisite preliminaries. I should 
 like to know who you are. 
 
 2. Never mind that now. We know you, and you will 
 know us as we proceed, and we hope rejoice in the end. 
 
 1. That, gentlemen, Avill not suit me. Let all things be 
 done decently and in oider. You are utter strangers. You 
 have no introduction. We are not on a: par, as you know 
 me so well, and I know you not at all. I must insist on 
 the first thing in the first place. If you are religious, are 
 you Christians ? or what ? 
 
 2. Yes, sir, Christians — that we are. 
 
 1. Well, to what denomination do you appertain? 
 
 2. Why, sir — no matter. We are Christians ; but if you 
 wish to know, we are Latter-day Saints. 
 
 1. Indeed I And what means that designation? The 
 Pope, by the word saint, means one thing ; the Bible, quite 
 another ; and infidels use it only in scorn. I am not aware 
 that in the latter day the saints are to be normally different 
 from what they were before the flood. A sincere Christian, 
 a sound believer, a lover of Christ, his own genuine disciple, 
 a true worshiper in any age, is a saint in the language and 
 style of the Holy Ghost ; and the alternative is, to be his en- 
 emy, a reprobate, an heir of perdition. 
 
 2. You must have heard of the Latter-day Saints, sir ? 
 
 1 . Possibly ; but I have no recollection that is definite re- 
 specting them. I hear occasionally of many strange things. 
 
 I forgot, or had never learned, that this is the favorite cant 
 of the Mormons. Those squalid heretics call themselves 
 " the saints of the latter day." It never occurred to me till 
 after the interview, however ; and for the moment I let it 
 pass at that. 
 
 2. Yes, that is what we are, and all the world will be soon. 
 
THEIR MISSION FROM WHOM ? 285 
 
 1. But who sent you, gentlemen, to me ? and what, pre- 
 cisely, is the nature of your errand ? 
 
 2. We come in the spirit and the power of the apostles of 
 Christ. 
 
 1. Stay I let me understand you exactly. Do you mean 
 that you come endowed and accredited from God in the same 
 way, degree, and manner as the apostles of Christ ? Is this 
 your position and your designation, gentlemen ? 
 
 2. Certainly, sir ; that is the way we come from God to 
 you. He sent us, and ivc bri/ig you glad tidings of great 
 joy. You, Brother Cox, are to be blessed to know these 
 things ; and if you are only faithful, you will become great 
 and honorable in the kingdom of the saints. 
 
 3. Yes, doctor. That is why we come from God to see 
 you to-day. 
 
 1. Not too fast, gentlemen. Your proposals are sufficient- 
 ly flattering, I own ; but in such a serious matter 1 must 
 both see and feel my way. Festina lente ; that is, make 
 haste slowly, see and feel your way. We must have rational 
 evidence, and walk by it. 
 
 3. Yes, that is right. Take time, and you will see it all, 
 after a while. We must wait patiently on the Lord. 
 
 Here they held some communings with each other, some- 
 times intelligible, sometimes ambiguous ; from which I gath- 
 ered that, by revelation, such as it was, they had ascertained 
 with religious, that is, fanatical infallibility, that I was to 
 become a Mormon, and even to figure in the promotions and 
 the honors of their official eminences ; that all this was fully 
 predestinated by somebody, and clearly announced to them 
 from some source ; and that my effectual calling was to be 
 superinduced through their own ministry, and exactly on the 
 present occasion. In the mean time, I considered them as 
 men lunatic or drunk, and so to be wakefully regarded as so 
 deluded and so venturous ; with questions of curious concern 
 
286 APOSTLES TWELVE ONLY. 
 
 occurring in my thoughts ; though less determined to say 
 any thing conclusive, or definite, or manifestive before the 
 time. I wished to sec them enjoy the dilemma they had 
 made for themselves, and work the problem they had un- 
 dertaken to some regular result ; trustful that God would 
 keep me from their influence and their design. Their faith 
 was probably tried in the interview, as I must have seemed 
 rather an untoward subject from the first. They seemed to 
 try in different ways to engage my feelings and depose my 
 judgment, that, so liquefied, I might flow with them. But in 
 some way, I early saw through them. These successors of 
 the apostles, without all proof of their commission or their 
 mission, stood, in my estimation, self-condemned and self-re- 
 futed, with some others of another species, but the same 
 genus pi-ecisely, iii their solemn averment or assumption of 
 a thing absurd and impossible. The apostles, as such, had 
 no successors — could have none. The pretension is sorcery 
 and abomination, though here less guilty, in these base-born 
 and low-bred ignoramuses, than in some other and better 
 educated usurpers of the monstrous title. They, indeed, suc- 
 cessors of the apostles of God, who, as twelve, are to occupy 
 twelve thrones in the celestial kingdom, judging the tM'elve 
 tribes of Israel, and not each pseudo, with one for himself, 
 making an aggregate of myriads ; they, their successors, who 
 possess no one quality that distinguished or constituted an 
 apostle of Christ in the apostolic age ; they, to have their 
 assumptions accredited by us as additional apostles, super- 
 numerary moderns, adscititious and spurious, such as Apos- 
 tle Hildebrand, Apostle Bonner, Apostle Talleyrand, Apostle 
 Hughes in New York, and Apostle Doane in Burlington I I 
 wonder that such revolting impudence can win the confi- 
 dence, in this country, of one American that repudiates the 
 more respectable whim and usurpation of the divine right of 
 kings I But to our story. 
 
 1. Your quality and claims, gentlemen, as you must be 
 
pur.,sr,.\T ci.Ai.MH iiii;ii r,.\oi:r;ii. 287 
 
 aware, are superlatively high. If I comprehend them, you 
 are every way the peers ofthe apostles of Christ. 
 
 2,3. Yes, sir. He sent us, and we serve him just as they 
 did. 
 
 1 . Then you can discern spirits, speak with tongues, write 
 inspiration, heal the sick, expel demons, and raise the dead, 
 as well as work other miracles in other ways, as due occasion 
 offers ? 
 
 2. 3. Yes, we can. [Spoken with grave and solemn tones 
 and countenances.] 
 
 1 . Very well, so far I I seem now to understand you, gen- 
 tlemen. The next thing in order, then, is — proof. You will 
 please to produce your credentials. If you come from God, 
 as his ambassadors, and on such a mission, I am glad to see 
 you ; and only want justly the signs of an apostle — some just 
 demonstration from HIM that sent you, and I cordially sur- 
 render to your sway. 
 
 Both looked queer at me, and at each other. 
 
 3. You ought not to dictate, sir ; but take what comes 
 from God. 
 
 1. Exactly so. I am not particular as to the kind or form 
 of evidence ; but have seen none at all, as yet. I am wait- 
 ing, not dictating ; and we are all, it seems, this hot day, in 
 a full perspiration with the matter. Here happens to be the 
 Greek Testament — the blessed original text of the inspired 
 oracles of the living God, who searches all hearts. That will 
 be gentle and easy, and very proper as a test. Will you, sir, 
 take it and read a chapter, or six verses, nay, one verse, aloud, 
 and give us the sense of it ? 
 
 2. [Declining, and looking at the other.] You dictate, sir, 
 in demanding evidence, like that evil and adulterous gen- 
 eration of which you read in the pulpit, this afternoon, seek- 
 ing for a sign, and there shall no sig}i be given it, as Christ 
 says. 
 
 1. There is no likeness or analogy between the two cases. 
 
288 TESTIMONIALS aUITE ILLEGIBLE. 
 
 He had wrought miracles, and they knew it and believed not, 
 and then asked for more in vain. Have you wrought any ? 
 
 2. Yes, sir, we wrought some great ones in New York last 
 week, as the people know. 
 
 1. Any in Brooklyn ? or is your power limited to the sen- 
 ior city ? If so, you should limit yourselves there, probably. 
 
 3. Why then ask for more? Only believe: all things 
 are possible to him that bclieveth. Have faith — 
 
 1. That seems to me, sir, an impious perversion of the word 
 of God, made by a sui generis saint of the Latter Day. Are 
 you yet to learn that Christianity is throughout a religion of 
 evidence, and, as such, the only one in the world "? It says, 
 Prove all things ; hold fast tlmt tvhich is good. It says. 
 Beloved, believe 7iot every spirit, but try the spirits wheth- 
 er they are of God; bj;cause many false prophets are gone 
 out into the world. It warns us against antichrist, and 
 declares that even now are there many antichrists. If you 
 have no evidence, no credentials, then, where — then, what 
 are you ? Your pretentions surely require support. Are 
 you, then, truly the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ ? or 
 do you really take me for one who, on such conditions, can 
 entertain your mission, and recognize you according to your 
 assumptions ? If, in this high profession you make, you are 
 either deliberately in practice of a cheat, or are yourselves 
 infatuated and deceived, sirs, it is no small affair of mischief 
 that ye do. You are sinning against God, who loves the truth, 
 and is himself the mo.st sincere person that ever spoke, and 
 the most honest being in the universe. He has no partner- 
 ship Avith ignorance, or falsehood, or fraud ; and you may 
 need to remember that you have to do with One who can not 
 be deceived, and who will not be mocked. I shall not stir 
 another step in this business till I see the evidence on which 
 you rely, as self-vaunted envoys extraordinary, and ministers 
 plenipotentiary from the court of the King of kings, to sustain 
 your apostolicity and vindicate your claims. Here, then, I 
 
PROOF I\ ANY WAY KKHrKCn. 289 
 
 take my stand, and call foi* evidence, for proof. How am I 
 to know, gentlemen, that you are not impostors ? 
 
 3. You had belter take care, sir, what you say. The evi- 
 dence may come sooner than you desire, and as you do not 
 expect, and what you will not relish, sure enough I I would 
 just warn you to bewai-e I 
 
 1. You mean that the evidence may surprise me, coming 
 in the way and style of some divine judgment? 
 
 3. Yes, sir, I do ; and I hereby warn you against it. 
 
 2. Oh ! if it should come now, what would become — 
 
 1. Very well, gentlemen, I am ready, and quite conteat. 
 Send a good rousing judgment along — a little touch of earth- 
 quake, some thunder and lightning, cholera morbus, palsy, 
 volcano, avalanche, nightmare, gout, ship-fever, neuralgia, or 
 any thing else you please ; yes, little or much of it, gentle- 
 men, and the sooner the better, as I am ready, if you are, 
 and quite disposed to be accommodating. 
 
 3. Sir, are you forgetting yourself all the time ? 
 
 1. Not at all ; I am only remembering you. Let us have 
 some of the evidence. Come I your testimonials, your seals, 
 your signs, gentlemen. 
 
 2. Why, I never saw or heard such a man — as you I 
 
 1. Nor I ever read or conceived before of such men or such 
 apostles — exactly, as are j'ou. 
 
 Here our apostles began to be restive. They looked at 
 each other in perplexed significancy, as if their mitres were 
 a little loose ; as if desiring some concert ; as if meditating 
 some change of tactics. The thought crossed my mind of 
 personal insecurity. I was alone with them. The sexton 
 had locked the doors and left the premises. My study was 
 almost in the centre of a square, and equidistant from each of 
 four streets. The nature of fanaticism, or spiritual delusion, 
 was not to me a novelty, either in books or in living scenes. 
 Its malignity, its sublimated mania, its occasional excursions 
 
 N 
 
290 THEY GET AXGRY IN ARGUMENT. 
 
 and outrage, its serene confidence, its specious arrogance, its 
 superiority to truth and soberfiess, I had witnessed in other 
 examples. It is ever wiser in its own eyes than seven men 
 who can roider a reason. But I thought there was no rea- 
 son to fear them at all ; reason enough for conduct and decis- 
 ion. Hence I was calm, and not at all afraid on my own 
 ground, locally, and morally ; and if they understood it not, 
 so much the better for me. My plan was to be tranquil 
 and bold, if not aggressive, sticking to principles. They had 
 shown great assurance of success in their mission; "surer to 
 prosper than prosperity could have assured them ;" though 
 now nonplused, badly committed for their inspiration, and in- 
 clined to denounce and rave. Hence, said he, 
 
 2. I fear you are a hardened old — 
 
 3. Yes, and blinded, too, with darkness. 
 
 1. Why, surely there seems to be considerable darkness in 
 my study — more than common this alternoon ; and I wish 
 there were more air, since light seems so scarce and heat so 
 oppressive in it. 
 
 3. Sir, to tell you plainly, you are a hardened man and a 
 hypocrite — given up — reprobate. 
 
 1. Why ? Because I ask and wait for evidence, and you 
 have given me not a particle ? You were great strangers, 
 gentlemen ; but I seem to be getting acquainted with you, 
 hy degrees, as Latter-day Saints, apostles, and so forth. Real- 
 ly, my friends, or my foes, whatever you are, it is plain that 
 your navigation is all at sea, and all a mistake at that. 
 
 2. Don't you know what shall become of him that believ- 
 eth not ? Why, you have no faith — 
 
 1. With claims higher than apostolic, only quite strange 
 and audacious, if not insane, you demand my faith in them, 
 without evidence and against evidence ; and because I be- 
 lieve not that — 
 
 3. Yes, you are no believer, but — 
 
 1. Think, sirs; no mountebank, harlequin, heretic, or de- 
 
INSPIRATION VS. ITSELF. 291 
 
 mon could make claims of prouder altitude than yours ; and, 
 they, one and all, could furnish quite as much, 1 should say 
 possibly rather more, proof of them than you have yet even 
 attempted or can possibly afibrd. Poor men I poor sinners I 
 1 fear you know neither God nor yourselves, nor the reward 
 that awaits you in the future world. 
 
 2. Oh, how dark — dark — dark you are I 
 
 3. Yes, you are a hypocrite, a liar, sir ; and I know — 
 
 1. Stay just a moment. Pray, be quite calm. I can re- 
 fute all that instantly on the authority of two apostles. In- 
 stead of liar, hypocrite, reprobate, I am, you remember, 
 " Brother Cox, a man of God, a friend of truth, a lover of 
 righteousness, and a preacher of the gospel." This is a great 
 honor — quite a high and a memorable endorsement. It is, at 
 least, the exalted character I had a few hours since. If I 
 have it not yet, but have grown so bad all at once, as you 
 now denounce me, it must be because I have been some time 
 in your company. The ancients say 
 
 Nemo repente turpissimus. 
 That is, no man can get astray 
 From rectitude's habitual way- 
 All in one moment, hour, or day. 
 
 But your recorded encomium, gentlemen, I shall remem- 
 ber, as I pray you not to forget it. Think what apostolic 
 authority ! what rich commendation I what a glorious epi- 
 taph ! Such honor never happened to me before. Few 
 things in this world equal it. Some of your initiated disci- 
 ples, real Latter-day Saints, might be lifted iq) icith it above 
 measure, might be spiritually proud — though I shall endeavor 
 to keep some humility for all. It seems to me, gentlemen, 
 that canonization itself from the Pope of Rome — yes, canon- 
 ization itself, IS inferior — not even this incomprehensible hon- 
 or, with the entail of purgatory as a rare mercy and a pon- 
 tiff's privilege, for about two thousand years only, can surpass, 
 in my estimation, the apostolic honors you — 
 
292 Annurr dismissfon. 
 
 2. Sir, I have no respect or care for you. 
 
 1 . Queer apostles these, to be so mistaken in their inspi- 
 ration — for once I 
 
 3. Yes, sir ; hypocrite liardencd — 
 
 1 . Silence, gentlemen. You are now going rather too far. 
 There seems no immediate prospect of my becoming a Lat- 
 ter-day saint, you perceive. It is the Lord's day, and I wish 
 not to break it. I have read of the like before. You are just 
 such apostles proved as are described in Rev. 2:2; and in 
 ii. Cor. 11 : 12-15. Go, read and ponder your character 
 and your doom. You arc ba.se and horrible impostors. It is 
 very plain who sent you, and how equally deceived and crim- 
 inal you are in your inspired assurance ; that I was to be 
 your convert and your champion, and as such promoted in 
 your kingdom, and among your kind of saints. I have done I 
 You need make no reply. Now, I have only two more things 
 to say ; the first, this is my study ; the second, there is the 
 door ; make rectilinears in quick time, and leave the prem- 
 i.ses immediately. I am not your brother or your dupe. 
 
 With this, I rose and opened the door, pointed them out, 
 cleared the way for them, and have never heard from them 
 since. They went down the stairs, and disappeared as di- 
 rected, uttering many and various denunciations and inspired 
 predictions, for which God, who hates impostnre more than 
 any of us, will call them to account, when their true charac- 
 ter shall be displayed to the universe. 
 
 What specimens of popular imposture I They are all anti- 
 evangelical, all of the policy and the patronage of the devil. 
 These are illustrations and examples of those religious abom- 
 inations which, in various forms, often more specious and in- 
 sidious in their ways, delude the multitude and prosper for a 
 season, till some newer tilt or toiunanient of Satan solicits 
 their credulity, and i'eeds their appetite for religious oracles 
 and marvels near at hand. It must always be something 
 
BRUTALITY OF MORMONI8M. 293 
 
 newer than the truth. Yet is it most humiliating to our 
 country and our age I Wlio could opine that, in our liaj)j)y 
 land, in a nation of voters, freemen, newspapers, periodical 
 literature, and general reading, such a gross and detestable 
 imposture as Mormonism could find disciples and devotees ? 
 That such a wretched scamp as Joe Smith, or any one of his 
 successors, could have prospered in his audacious way, and 
 with his hyper-apostolic pretensions, to such a grave extent? 
 and that so many, both in Europe and in America, in insular 
 and continental Europe, should have yielded their religious 
 faith and being to so much absurdity, to such diabolical coun- 
 terfeit ? Yet they are now a numerous community, and Utah 
 is to become a great Mormon State of our Great Confederacy, 
 under the primacy of these vulgar, malignant, and selfish 
 corrupters. They are men of many wives, and of Mormon 
 morality on all subjects. In the interview above reported, it 
 was soon obvious that their views were destitute of all rea- 
 son and evidence ; that it required great decision and direct- 
 ness to stem the torrent of their inspired assurance ; and that 
 only a very little religious credulity, could I have mustered 
 it, was requisite to make their sway omnipotent, their juris- 
 diction sure. 
 
 We have now various specimens of the general sort, either 
 secret and skulking, or advertised in newspapers, and solicit- 
 ing the patronage of fools — as witchcraft, sorcery, palmistry, 
 divination, astrology, fortune-telling, mesmerism, mysterious 
 knockings, clairvoyance, and even some rare manifestations 
 of phrenology, with learned manipulations and oraculous prog- 
 nosis of character, founded on the conformations and config- 
 urations of the cranium, its sinuses and its protuberances, its 
 form, its size, and its relative proportions. 
 
 We ought to be, as rational and genuine Christians, Avise 
 to resist imposture, bold to confront it, and faithful to rebuke 
 its diaboli<ml mendacity. JBi/ their fruits ye shall know 
 them — try the spirits — to the laio and the testimony ; if 
 
294 SOME LIMIT TO TOLERATION. 
 
 they speak not according to this tcord, it is because there 
 is no light in fhrm. This last plain oracle disposes of all 
 the imposture with which, in its multifarious phases and va- 
 rieties, the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and 
 Satan, deceivcth the nations, and who is, by usurpation, the 
 prince of the icorld, the leader of all its wickedness, and the 
 spirit that nmo worketh in the childrefi of disobcdie?ice. 
 The truth of God is a system and a unit, eternal, unchange- 
 able, and tcritten for our learning, tliat toe, through pa- 
 tieftce a7id comfort of the Scriptures, 7night have hope. If 
 we receive not the love of the truth, that we might be saved, 
 we know the consequence ; for this cause God shall send 
 them strong delusio?t, that they shotdd believe a lie, tluit 
 they all might be damned, ivho believed not the truth, but 
 had pleasure in tinrighteousness. This is the explanation 
 of the matter, and there is competently none other. Let no 
 man be diluted and doting, no man a trifler with God, or an 
 experimental gambler with his own immortal destiny. In a 
 moral sense, we ought to hate them tJiat hate God, and have 
 no silly remorses, for one moment, in their favor ; proving 
 ichat is acceptable to the Lord ; and have oto felloivship ivith 
 the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. 
 And let even an angel from heaven be anathema if he preach 
 another gospel. 
 
 To obtain money on false pretenses is actionable at com- 
 mon law. Yet here are notable instances I Jugglery, quack- 
 ery, lying, hoaxing the poor, bewitching the credulous, rob- 
 bing the simple-minded, gulUng the multitude, in all these 
 ways, so gross and palpable, so deleterious and ruinous, cer- 
 tainly some of these deserve the animadversion of the laws. 
 Some of them ought to be indicted by the Grand Inquest of 
 the county ; that all kinds of charlatanry or fraud might not 
 seem to be patronized and protected, in an easy and an ordi- 
 nary way, but rather, for the good of the people, exposed and 
 punished by our republican laws, especially when imposture 
 
IMBECILITY NOT RELIGION. SO^ 
 
 dresses itself in the robes of" religion, the better to elude re- 
 sponsibility, and eflt'ctuate its purposes. It is abuse and 
 crime ; it is nuisance as well as impiety. Let no American, 
 by approving, become a partaker of such evil. 
 
 To what are we all coming? Are truth and soberness 
 to be repudiated ? Are the facts of philosophy, the laws of 
 nature, the ways of Providence, the truths of religion, the 
 known realities of Scripture, all wisdom and soberness, and 
 all the province of genuine faith to be forsaken, perverted, 
 or eclipsed, simply to please the devil and his angels. If 
 we allow ourselves to be so easily trepanned by our adver- 
 sary the devil, the age of jiossessimis may return to us iu 
 judgment ; then, like the fury of the xclwlc herd, on a nota- 
 ble occasion, we shall run violently downward on a descend- 
 ing plaiii, and reach a catastrophe in the end, quite as sure, 
 and much more tremendous in ruin. 
 
 The plea of charity — a word most marvelously misun- 
 derstood, and unhappily rendered in our version, and terribly 
 abused by blind men and infidels — the plea of charity is sil- 
 ly and false. Error and imposture are no objects of charity, 
 but only of revulsion and abhorrence. Take a specimen of 
 apostolic charity from the pen of the beloved John, by way 
 of eminence, the Theologus of the ancient Fathers : If 
 there come any to you, and bring not this doctrine, receive 
 him not into your liouse, neither bid him God speed; do not 
 " tell him to rejoice" — literally from the original ; for he that 
 biddeth him God speed is partaker of, or has communion 
 with, his evil deeds. The disciple of Jesus' bosom wrote 
 this ! 
 
 Take another specimen, apostolical and inspired, and writ- 
 ten for our learning — another specimen of the genuine chari- 
 ty of heaven : And uhen they had gone through the isle of 
 Cyprus to Paphus, they found a certain sorcerer, or magi- 
 cian, a false prophet, a Jew, but far more respectable, I ween, 
 than the abominables of the pseudo-celestial and fanatico- 
 
290 'J'llF, COURAGK OF TRUK CHARITY. 
 
 Spiritual " knoc-kiufrs," or oraculous lliumpings, pretension, of 
 our own days, whose name teas IJar-Jcsits : irlio teas with 
 the deputy of the coioitri/, Scrgius Paulus, a 'priulent man, 
 or an intciligout person ; who called for Bar7iabas and Saul, 
 and desired to hear the word or doctrine, rbv Xoyov, of God. 
 Bui Eiymas, the sorcerer, for so is his name by interpreta- 
 ticni, ivithstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from 
 the faith. Tlien Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with 
 the Holy Ghost, set his eyes mi him; and what a withering 
 look of apostolic charity was that, when he said, O ! fnll of 
 all subtilty and all mischief, thon child of the devil, thou 
 enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to per\'ert 
 
 THE RIGHT WAYS OF THE LoRD I 
 
 It is supposed that the sublime Apostle of the nations, 
 now in the initiative of his glorious embassy to them, chose 
 to change his name from the Hebrew to the Latin, adopting 
 or prefixing that of his illustrious convert, not only in com- 
 memoration of his cordial faith, then first professed at his 
 baptism, but also because its meaning, small, Utile, suited at 
 once the stature of his body and the humility of his mind ; 
 and also because, as a proper name, it was in common use and 
 general honor throughout the Roman empire, so favoring his 
 mission. Hence — PAUL, that noble hero of the cross I 
 
 Let this demonstration of charity teach and arm us against 
 all the importunities of error and imposture, which the devil 
 patronizes and his victims accredit, in this sin-blinded, and 
 truth-hating, and dreadfully apostate world. 
 
 In the conclusion of this interview, memorable and use- 
 ful, I may remark, on the one hand, that they seemed really 
 to believe, somehow, the divinity of their own mission, not 
 only without evidence, but against it ; so high and confluent 
 was the tide of their delusion and their assurance. They ap- 
 peared to boggle at the only miracle enacted, namely, that 
 of their own failure. It was a prodigy and a poser, that 
 
PEETINACITY OF OUR APOSTLES. 297 
 
 seemed impossible to their creed, but strangely real in their 
 exasperating experience. Still, there was tenacity of expect- 
 ation. They appeared to act on the principle, all in good 
 time I the crisis must be mature before the interposition to 
 meet it will suit the way of heaven. Nee deus intersit, ?iisi 
 nodus vindice dignus — it is not worth while for divinity to 
 interfere till a difficulty occurs that warrants and vindicates 
 a solution so sublime I But here was the nodus only, and 
 they stared at it ; especially the chief speaker, as having 
 more faith in fooleries, possibly, than his astute and reserved 
 colleague. I never saw such assurance enacted and main- 
 tained so palpably against invincible fact. It was as the faith 
 of a lunatic striking his head against rock because he believ- 
 ed it was only cloud. Hence they were reluctant to go, or 
 bring the convention to an end. They only cast about to see 
 what they were to do next, sure of the result, and set incor- 
 rigibly and religiously in their heaven-shown way. 
 
 On the other hand, if I may be permitted to aver it, as no 
 other witness can, I maintained a calm and a courteous man- 
 ner, as I was resolved from the first to do, and thus became 
 imperturbably and most provokingly good-natured. Still, I 
 was firm as well as calm ; and reiterating, as it were a mat- 
 ter of course, as well as a thing of reason, the demand for 
 EVIDENCE IN ORDER TO FAITH, the position just there, in lim- 
 ine, where I kept it, became to them a bore impracticable, 
 and an obstacle tremendous, of which, as almost new and 
 strange, they appeared never to have anticipated or thought. 
 When, however, their self-induced dilemma was felt to be real 
 and serious, its formidable weight increasing its pressure every 
 moment, they became irritable and impudent. They vented 
 their anger in sallies of warnings, prophecies, denunciations, 
 abusive epithets, and Mormon hobgoblins. All this I sur- 
 vived and tranquilly endured, through several fits and repe- 
 titions — till at last it seemed meet, in a peremptory way, to 
 prorogue the parliament by a brief speech in j}erson, as raon- 
 N 2 
 
208 Tin; truth ever the same. 
 
 arch of my own study. This, too, seemed to take them all 
 aback. They were reluctant to go, and still determined to 
 succeed in their mission. My manner, however, was reso- 
 lute and mandatory that they should quit the premises ; and 
 hence, at last, with awkwardness and confused faith in things 
 impossible, they complied. The invei'view lasted considera- 
 bly more than half an hour, and no conceivable advantage 
 could be apprehended from protracting it. Besides, I was fa- 
 tigued — the heat was wilting, and they were at the time 
 boisterous, both at once, or alternating incessantly, with their 
 jjivectives. In the whole scene, they gave the strophe and 
 the antistrophe with zeal interminable ; and as for the epode, 
 properly my own part, it was like singing love-songs to the 
 spirit of the storm — it Avas either precluded, or utterly lost 
 in the uproar of the elements. 
 
 On the whole, I have little to regret in the retrospect — 
 taken as I was on the sudden, with a fanatical onslaught, the 
 like of which 1 never saw or experienced, in its entire and 
 cxtcii.«ivc momentum, before or since. Yet I have .siibsc- 
 (|ii('iitly hi-ard of several instances of the general sort, not of 
 Mormon sympathy alone, but all of serene im])osturc and re- 
 ligious abomination, enacting dreadful impiety for some tem- 
 poral and sinister ends, in the name of the eternal God I My 
 general motive ior inserting this narrative, is to place all 
 readers properly on their guard against such devices of the 
 adversaiy ; or, in contact with his emissaries, to assist pos- 
 sibly their proper wisdom in counteracting their treacherous 
 assaults, in penetrating their deceitful arrogance, and, finally, 
 in rebuking their desperate iniquity. Let us believe the truth 
 of THE GOSPEL, AND THAT ONLY, whatever otlicrs believe I 
 since the everlasting gospel shall yet be the creed of na- 
 tions and the glory of eternity ; as all other creeds and all 
 other glories shall perish forever. For all flesh is as grass, 
 and all the glory of man as ihc foirrr of grass. The grass 
 tvithercth, and the finifer thereof fatleth a.rvay ; hut the 
 
THE GOSPEI, AND ITS AUTHOR MNCIFANfMNG. 299 
 WORD OF THE LoUD ENDURETH FOREVER. Aiul tJlJs IS the 
 
 ■word ivhich by the gospel is 2^ reached to you — with no ad- 
 dition, or subtraction, or multiplication allowed in this, tJte 
 last time ; as solemnly and immutably sealed till the second 
 coming and tue glorious appearing of the great God 
 AND Savior of us, Jesus Christ. Compare the original oi" 
 Tit. 2 : 13, 14 ; and Rev. 22 : 18, 19, Amen! Even so, 
 come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Loi'd Jesus Christ be 
 ivith you all. Amen. 
 
INTERVIEW 
 
 WITH A 
 
 FASHIONABLE LADY OF DISTINCTION 
 
 AT CALAIS, FRANCE. 
 
 And they that use this world as not abusing it ; for the fashion of this world paasetk 
 away. — 1 Cor. 7 : 31. 
 
 But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth. — 1 Tim. 5 : 6. 
 Such being aliens from the commomvealth of Israel, and strangers from the cove- 
 nants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. — Eph. 2: 12. 
 Fis anus, et tamen 
 Vis formosa videri, 
 
 Ludisque et bibis impudens. — Hor. 
 Quam rarum, quam difficile, ut homo muliere natua, se ipsum cognoscat. — Mod. 
 
A DISTINGUISHED FASHIONABLE LADY 
 AT CALAIS. 
 
 TiiK wickeJ, or the ihoughlless and the ungodly, arc a 
 source of sincere grief to the enlightened Christian. To see 
 them, to mark their practical atheism, or even the thought 
 of what they are and whither they are going, is a "wound to 
 their moral sensibility ; and all this, none the less, because 
 they see no danger, I'ear no evil, and feel very happy. Yet, 
 when they shall say, "^:)eace and safety," then sudden de- 
 struction cmncth vjmn them, and they shall not csca/pc. 
 However, in other things, intelligent and respectable, grace- 
 ful and popular, or even useful and eminent, still their doom 
 is written and their character described. He icill take venge- 
 ance 071 litem that know not God, and that obey not the 
 gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. To obey the gospel is the 
 way and the medium of knowing God. Hence their igno- 
 rance is voluntary and criminal. It results from their diso- 
 bedience. They hate the light, and therefore come not to it. 
 Their neglect is repeated till it becomes habitual. It is an 
 incrustation of character, an habituation of moral servility 
 and deceptive alienation from God. It gains and grows on 
 its victims. It blinds and infatuates them with their owii 
 sincere consent. Hence the grief is founded and rational, 
 which it legitimately occasions in the bosom of pious fiiend- 
 ship ; such as Christian mothers, sisters, daughters, and es- 
 pecially wives and all their correlates, are often called pe- 
 culiarly to know ; and as all Christians at times are com- 
 pelled to share. It is a grief unselfish, unobtrusive, and un- 
 
304 FROM DOVER TO CALAIS. 
 
 appreciated mainly bj' its object, though of great price in 
 heaven I What care the lost souls in Jerusalem, y^owiw^ose 
 eyes the things of their joeace are forever hid, for the tears 
 of love divine Aveeping over their doomed city ! Hoiv often 
 would I have gathered you, and ye tcould not! 
 
 When a Christian journeys, even in nominal Christendom, 
 he sees human nature in many a strange and revolting spec- 
 tacle displayed. It entertains, affects, instructs him. Ho 
 grieves for them ; and heaven records, however earth dis- 
 parages, the groans he heaves, the w^ounds he feels, the fears 
 he knows, and the prayers he offers, as he observes their man- 
 ners and their ways. 
 
 Sometimes the contrasts of splendid and impious are coun- 
 terpoised by those of a jewel of God, as seen to sparkle amid 
 all the externals of squalidity and want. On the present oc- 
 casion, however, we have to describe a character adorned 
 with all worldly glory ; yet strangely vacant and insipid, I 
 might say even silly, in reference to every nobler object of 
 duty, or destiny, or existence ; ivise to do evil — to do good 
 having no knowledge. I will amplify some extracts from 
 my itinerary or traveling journal, referring to individuals with- 
 out name, as it is no part of my plan to be personal, or to 
 wound the feelings of any one, but only to do good I 
 
 It was on Thursday, June 6, 1833, at 11 A.M. that we 
 sailed from Dover, England, for Calais, in France. We were 
 in the little yacht of a steamer, Fire-fly, sailing across the 
 channel, with its surface of beauty as serene as that of Lake 
 George or Lake Champlain, as I have delighted to view them, 
 when ruffled gently with a breeze of summer. About sixty 
 persons in all, various in appearance, in language, in man- 
 ners, in character, and in relation to each other, from differ- 
 ent and distant nations of the earth, were there all collected 
 and consolidated for nearly three hours, going, as it seemed 
 to me, on a slow trot ; our little pony of a boat moving in a 
 couTBo not very direct or swift toward our destined haven- 
 
THE fire-fly's company AND MUSIC. 305 
 
 All, however, seemed to enjoy themselves. We were togeth- 
 er three Americans, pledged to keep in company, Avith mu- 
 tual interest and assistance, till we arrived in. Paris. For 
 one, the jaunt was to me singularly novel and agreeable. 
 Some men of state — if not statesmen, and some of noble bear- 
 ing — if not nobles, and some looking clerical — if not clergy- 
 men, they, and their wives, and their daughters, figiired 
 gracefully and well in the tout ensemble oOhe moving scene. 
 8till, there is sometimes seen in such assemblages a blufT 
 dignity that may be English, but is not American — I had al- 
 most said, not Christian — as the equally censurable extreme, 
 in contrast with the too familiar manners of our countrymen, 
 at least occasionally witnessed. Well, said I to myself, no pat- 
 ent of nobility consciously possessed, meliorating one's blood, 
 and all that, could make the scene or the occasion more ex- 
 hilarating and balmy ; and I consciously repeated, from some 
 long unused registration on the tablet of my memory, the fol- 
 lowing lines fi'om the Task : 
 
 Now hoist the sail, and let the streamers float 
 
 Upon the wanton breezes. Strew the deck 
 
 With lavender, and sprinkle hquid sweets, 
 
 That no rude savor maritime invade 
 
 The nose of nice nobility ! breathe soft. 
 
 Ye clarionets, and softer still, ye flutes ; 
 
 That winds and waters, lull'd by magic sounds. 
 
 May bear us smoothly to the Gallic shore. 
 
 Yes, we had music, such as it was, obtrusive with its man- 
 ufactured sounds, but more with its mendicant importunities 
 to be — gratuitously — paid for them. When Cowper wrote 
 those lines, his imagination never dreamed of such an airy 
 nothing as swift travel, on land or water, by steam ! Yet, so 
 leisurely was our steaming, cutting some angular and some 
 curvilinear figures in our course, as if on purpose to detain us 
 longer on the glassy element, and not arrive too soon for some- 
 body's special convenience, that, about two-and-twenty miles 
 of transit, instead of " gone in an hour," as we are wont char- 
 
306 FIRST MEAL IN FRANCE. 
 
 acteristically to go, as our minimum in America, strangely 
 cost us about thrice that amount of time before our cruise 
 was ended. I would not, however, complain of it. It is not 
 a long time to go from England to — France I so at least our 
 fathers were wont to think, not without all vernacular ap- 
 prehension. It was to me a very pleasant diversion ; and I 
 regard it always with new delight, in the present retrospect 
 of almost twenty years. The English, too, enjoy it, with a 
 kind of national jubilation. France once was theirs, nomin- 
 ally, for several centuries. 
 
 But our narration must here omit the subsequent events 
 and circumstances, though devoid neither of interest nor in- 
 struction. After customary hinderances jind vexations, we 
 were summoned, about four o'clock, to the large saloon, re- 
 fectory, or salle a manger, to dine ; where the great and 
 florid table (Thbte was ornamented and displayed, a la mode, 
 and we were to eat for the tirst time on the continent of Eu- 
 rope, and in France I 
 
 Our guests were quite numerous, and even more diversified 
 than our felloAV-passengers in the Fire-fly. Near the head of 
 the table were seated a number of good-looking military offi- 
 cers, some of them generals of note, just returning from the 
 siege of Antwerp ; and, though seemingly formidable in their 
 brilliant uniform, bright epaulets, and bearded physiognomy, 
 their manners Avere polished and gentle, and graceful withal ; 
 so that they seemed no encumbrance, but an acquisition rath- 
 er, to our large and motley dining party. The other guests, 
 ladies and gentlemen nearly equal, were quite various in cos- 
 tume and language, generally strangers to each other, yet, on 
 the whole, well behaving, not without courteous bearing, and 
 the proofs of education and refinement. We three Americans 
 were all the representatives, on the occasion, present, of the 
 great occidental republic. We felt i)iter se American ; en- 
 deavoring so to act as not to discredit our far-off, our dearly- 
 beloved country. We thought, with new and vivid interest, 
 
THE LADY OF THE WIIOI.K SCKIVE. 307 
 
 of home, sweet home, of Hail Columbia, Yankee Doodle, 
 Fourth of July, Stars and Stripes, E pluribus Unum, Llbcrtas 
 et natale solum ; and were sensible to whatever incident re- 
 minded us of our own dear native land, loved even more in 
 our separation. To two of us, the scene, as French, was all 
 a novelty ; the third had previously become even familiar 
 with the manners and localities of the Continent. Almost 
 every preparation of food, and especially the most specious 
 and attractive, was quite an ambiguity. It was anonymous 
 and foreign to our thoughts, cooked scientifically, metamorph- 
 osed, seasoned too much, and no doubt, ^ar excellence, all just 
 right, comme il faut. 
 
 An old bUnd harper was led by his daughter to a conven- 
 ient spot standing there, to comfort us all with music at the 
 feast ; and then that we much more might comfort them 
 with a generous douceur in compensation. We realized in 
 this one of the scenes and usages of which we had often read, 
 but never saw before. He played and she sang ; but the 
 minstrelsy seemed not remarkably agreeable to the critics. 
 
 Near the centre of the table there was one personage that 
 appeared about equally to attract, and to expect, universal 
 attention — a lady. She was certainly as much as threescore 
 years of age, yet fair, or almost florid, graceful, and even 
 commanding, in her port and mien. Having received adu- 
 lation for many successive years, she seemed to consider it 
 now as her right and a matter of course. In conversation 
 she used good English, yet with an accent that indicated her 
 nativity elsewhere. She soon addressed the old harper in 
 Italian, with reprehension for his inferior performance. To 
 the French officers, she was easy and fluent in their vernac- 
 ular ; and equally so in German, to others. A gentleman, 
 who seemed well to know her history, informed us of its chief 
 events and characters. She was a faded beauty, once " the 
 leading star of every eye, the theme of every minstrel's art." 
 She had figured in fashionable society of the most honored 
 
308 HER I'KRriON ANU STYLK OF CONDUCT. 
 
 sort. Courts, theatres, drawing-rooms, ball-rooms, masquer- 
 ades, and public jjagcauts — at Vienna, at Rome, at Paris, at 
 London, and other places of godless grandeur, had been iier 
 spliere and her home ; all the ultimate home, or hope, prob- 
 ably, that her ladyship ever recognized, or desired, or knew I 
 A])art from something too much approaching the imperious, 
 il' not the imperial or the queenly, her manners were good, 
 dignified, and even elegant. She was rather tall in person, 
 well proportioned, with a bust of conscious beauty ; her conn- 
 lenance expressive, self-sustained, intelligent, and yet bland. 
 How much modesty she should have shown, more than was 
 visible in her air, or to be inferred from all the premises be- 
 fore us, in order to exemplify the perfection of feminine be- 
 havior, so as to provoke or deserve no censure of her bearing, 
 as occasionally overbearing and almost Amazonian, I may 
 not aver. Yet, whenever a lady ceases to be tender, gentle, 
 delicate, all without affectation, or to exhale soft, and sweet, 
 and virtuous influences, as the proper atmosphere of her per- 
 son and the peculiar charm of her presence, in my view she 
 ceases, proportionately, to be attractive ; and instead of be- 
 ing, as she ought, an example of the agreeable and the love- 
 ly, to the proper adornment and praise of the sex, she revolts 
 me — like a mannish monster in ladyship's attire, a colloquial 
 blue-stocking, a woman that is no lady I Still, this person- 
 age of many accomplishments was a grandmother ; and 
 something, probably, must be credited to her age. Much 
 that was showy and flne distinguished her. She sat on the 
 side of the table, a remarkably wide one, with central flow- 
 ers and ornaments intervening, opposite to myself; but I ex- 
 changed no word with her, observing none the less her man- 
 ifestings and her manners. Peers and princes had been 
 among her admirers and her courtiers. Every one seemed 
 to own the superior distinction of her appearance, with which, 
 indeed, she appeared rather consciously to shed insignificance 
 or nothingness on all the other ladies, and some brilliant and 
 
SCKNES AND MF.-\rOK IF,.=l rOMJirxcT. 309 
 
 fine ones, at the banquet with her ; and so careering she 
 maintained the prestige of her superiority, yVowi tlie egg to 
 tlic app/e of" the festal engagement ; and if her consciousness 
 was sometimes quite observable, she seemed, at the same 
 time, to vindicate it, by the stately elegance and the obvious 
 success of her manners. 
 
 After we had despatched the continuous courses of the din- 
 ner, and made a contribution for the " white-haired Allan 
 Bane," the old harper and his daughter, the company dis- 
 persed in different directions. We wandered over the scen- 
 ery of the place, the town, and its gardens, and its walks, 
 and its palaces, with observations, and some of the prominent 
 recollections of history agreeably awakened, both French and 
 English. The siege of Calais in the fourteenth century, 
 when Edward the Third reduced it ; the appearance of the 
 six self-offered victims, with ropes round their necks, at the 
 feet of the proud and cruel monarch, and the intercession of 
 his tender-hearted queen, Philippa, procuring their release, 
 in consideration of her earnestness, and even of her royal 
 loveliness, less, possibly, than of her delicate maternal condi- 
 tion ; and the moral contrast between the magnanimity of 
 those devoted and patriotic burgesses at the time, and the 
 selfish mannei's of the conqueror ; a paragon at once of the 
 glorious chivalry of the age and of its moral barbarism, un- 
 der the dark, and the horrid, and the then solitary and ram- 
 pant patronage of popery ; just before the day-star of the Ref- 
 ormation arose in the person of the blessed Wiclif, then in 
 the process of ripening for his great and unending usefulness : 
 these were the topics that chiefly engaged us as we made 
 our curious and hasty explorations, without identifying the 
 veni spots, in the topography of the town and its environs, 
 ■whei'c happened those events of historical and thrilling in- 
 terest, rather more than five centui'ies ago. The interval 
 was happy, as it left us some hours to ramble and view the 
 scenery of Calais, of which from early youth our memories 
 
310 CONVERSE IN THE PIAZZA. 
 
 had been conversant, with unaffected interest and dehght. 
 We were, however, to start at nine o'clock for Paris in the 
 niaUe-poste ; having been so fortunate as to secure the only 
 three seats which, with Monsieur le Conducteur, are to be 
 had in that vehicle, as distinguished from the great national 
 omnibus, la diligence ; which, with its cabriolet* its coupe, 
 its interieur, and its rotonde, drawn by six or ten horses, each 
 on his own hook, was, till lately, the only common method 
 of traveling in France or on the Continent. But steam is 
 now the wondrous metamorphosis of all civilized society, and 
 the pacific revolutionizer of its ancient usages, on land and 
 water, in Europe and in America, and soon to be the way of 
 travel all over the world. Progress is now the word, in 
 more than one sense I 
 
 As we returned to our rooms, we parted, and my own sol- 
 itary approach was toward the back piazza of our Hotel 
 Meurice, where, as I arrived, I found our distinguished ma- 
 dame walking at ease and alone. As she had also been a 
 topic, I was prepared to feel some interest in her, especially 
 as related to religion. The opportunity was favorable, rare, 
 unexpected. Whatever the reader may think of it, the fact 
 is that I pitied her ! She seemed to me the victim of a bad 
 education, which, in connection with her own excellent abil- 
 ities and plainly wicked heart, was old at the work of the 
 process of hardening her in sin and unbelief; and I determ- 
 ined to attempt the improvement of an event that might 
 never again occur, as I now seemed to have a special oppor- 
 tunity of conversation with her. 
 
 1. The evening, madam, is pleasant, and I perceive you 
 are enjoying it. 1 hope you are in good health. 
 
 * The first, on the top in front, holds two or three, and the con- 
 duclor ; the second, three only, at the highest price ; the third, six, 
 select and respectable; the fourth, all that can stow in it, with to- 
 bacco, fiddles, lap-dogs, garlic, vulgarity, noise, wine, beer, brandy, 
 snuff, and cheapness. 
 
OUR VARIABLE WEATHER. 311 
 
 2. Perfectly well, sir. The air and the scenery are veiy 
 agreeable. 
 
 1. It seems rich and luxurious to myself, and two others 
 who are with me from America ; and as strangers here, new, 
 in this old world, we regard every thing with peculiar in- 
 terest. Few can imagine it Avithout experience. 
 
 2. Ah I you are from America ? Well, I thought there 
 was something rather peculiar in your appearance ; but 
 knew not before that we had with us three gentlemen to dine 
 to-day from that great country, so far distant from Europe. 
 
 1. It probably seems farther to you, who merely contem- 
 plate it at a distance, than to us and to our countrymen, who 
 are so much and so increasingly in the habit of ci"ossing the 
 ocean to visit these nations and lands of our ancestors, to us 
 so historical and so new. 
 
 2. You are quite bold and enterprising, and we admire 
 your adventurous spirit ; though, in crossing the Atlantic, 
 there are few of us that dare to imitate it, I think. 
 
 1. Apart from myriads of emigrants, who cross the ocean 
 ordinarily but once, we certainly surpass you in that achieve- 
 ment. We visit Europe, tour it through its whole extent, 
 both insular and continental, and mark all that seems mem- 
 orable and rare in our journey. 
 
 2. Your visits, too, are often commercial, I am informed ; 
 and even that is showing a spirit of adventure that is really 
 an honor to you. But some of your visits are valetudinarian. 
 You migrate in quest of health, amd come to our softer and 
 milder climates ; since yours, I hear, are so rough, severe, 
 and changeable. 
 
 1 . \Ye have some extremes of heat and cold, but our changes 
 are probably overrated. Some of your soft and delicate gen- 
 try of Europe, I know, are extravagantly afraid of them. 
 
 2. Yes, indeed. Some of my correspondents there, friends 
 that have visited your country, sadly complain of it, especial- 
 ly its severe and frequent changes in the temperature of the 
 
312 NOT IMF'.RniANT?, RI'T MIMSTKRS. 
 
 •weather. In some places, they tell me, they have four or 
 five climates in one day. 
 
 1. That, madam, is certainly extravaj^ance — a sample of 
 oriental hyperbole rather than historical truth. 
 
 2. Oh I you are so accustomed to it, and so full of other 
 things, that you less observe it, probably. How do you find 
 our atmosphere ? 
 
 1. Sometimes so remarkably variable, that is, in England, 
 that I observe it very accurately. There, too, it is exceed- 
 ingly humid, a misty and drizzling rain often falling unper- 
 ceived, or known from its cfieets only. How it may be on 
 the continent, I have yet to learn. 
 
 2. Do you visit Italy in your plan ? 
 
 1. That is yet left at large. I am not certain even of our 
 intentions, as I hear much about the cholera on the other 
 side of the Alps, and must be determined by circumstances. 
 We shall probably visit Switzerland, Germany, and Holland, 
 perhaps Belgium, before we return to England. 
 
 2. Belgium and Holland, you know, are in a state of war, 
 and you may find it inconvenient to pass from either to the oth- 
 er, and much more to transact any commercial aflairs in them. 
 
 1. Our plan, madam, has nothing to do with commerce ; 
 that is, I and my companion appertain to the clerical pro- 
 fession ; though the other, or third one of our company, is 
 commercially engaged, and for that purpose is soon to visit 
 Lyons, after some weeks, perhaps, at Paris, Avhither we are 
 all to depart in an hour or so. 
 
 2. You, then, are an American preacher — a minister of 
 religion ? 
 
 1. Yes, madam, and I would love always to magnifu my 
 office. To me, every human pursuit or acquisition seems less, 
 infinitely less, than that of religion. What is it all witlioiit 
 ical estate in eternity ? We die so soon, life is so perilous, 
 the future so solemn, and sin so terribly related to the judij- 
 ment of God I 
 
IGNORANCK ANU INriDBLITY. 313 
 
 2. I seldom speak on such topics, sir ; and opinions vary. 
 
 1. Opinions, my good lady, as such, are of very little ac- 
 count. Truth is all, and the word of liod is truth. And 
 truth will stand forever. 
 
 2. Oh I sir, I confess it is all mystery to me — above my 
 comprehension, quite. 
 
 1. Yet, if your heart was right in the sight of God, his 
 truth would seem all-excellent and all-precious to your soul. 
 
 2. That, indeed ! 
 
 1. You know, my dear madam, that you had a Creator, 
 and that you must die, and after death the judgment. Now, 
 is it rational to know all this, and yet neglect all prepara- 
 tion for what is so inevitable and so awful ? 
 
 2. Oh I sir, whatever comes, I am safe, you know. 
 
 1. Truth to say, madam, I know no such thing. We may 
 have a hope that is not of the right kind — a hope that will 
 make us ashamed forever. God is no respecter of persons. 
 His judgment is just, and his truth inviolable. You may 
 have a hope without any right foundation ; and if so, the 
 only time to rectify is — before you die I 
 
 2. I am not at all afraid — whatever comes. 
 
 1. There may be reason of fear utterly unknown to you, 
 because you have never examined or studied the subject. 
 But why are you so assured of safety at all events ? I should 
 really like to know the reason of your persuasion, your secu- 
 rity. 
 
 2. Yes, sir ; I am safe enough there. 
 
 1. God has spared you, madam, many years, and blessed 
 you in his providence ; but soon you may be called to die, 
 and if your hope is not of the right kind in his sight — if it 
 depends on sand instead of the Rock of Ages, your assurance 
 Avill do you no good. Delusion is a very diflerent thing from, 
 safety, and quite as diflerent from conviction. 
 
 2. Well, what do you think would become of me ? 
 
 1. Madam, we are all sinners in the sight of God ; and as 
 O 
 
314 hi:r remaukauli: hope. 
 
 such, in ourselves, we are utterly lost. God has provided, in 
 the mission and the passion of his Son, a full salvation for 
 mankind ; He offers it to us freely, ivithout 7^ioney, atid with- 
 out price ; but we must accept it, accept that same salva- 
 tion, or, dying as well as living in our sins, we perish forever. 
 And have you accepted his salvation ? 
 
 2. Oh I sir, what is all that to me ? I certainly never 
 heard such doctrine. Why, sir, you surprise me. It is rather 
 ridiculous. 
 
 1 . Madam, it is the gospel of God, and not of my invention. 
 
 2. AVell, sir, I will tell you, then, just what nriy hope is — 
 only I can say I never thought of it so much before. 
 
 1. And yet of every thing else, inferior and mean in the 
 comparison, you have thought, read, conversed, and in some 
 degree understood, in all your life I But pray tell me your 
 hope. 
 
 2. Well then — here it is : if there is any hereafter, 
 
 I SHALL BE SAFE ENOUGH, BECAUSE I NEVER DID ANY THING 
 WRONG, AND I NEVER HAD BUT ONE FAULT IN ALL MY LIFE. 
 
 1. Well, madam, pray tell me just that one fault of yours. 
 
 2. I will, sir. It consists simply in this — in always being 
 too good and kind to every body. That always was my fault, 
 I own. And all my friends say the same. 
 
 1. So, my dear madam, this is your hope I Eeally, in the 
 form of it and its curious development, it is the most unique 
 specimen, the most wonderful hope, the most of its own class, 
 and like itself alone, that I ever saw, or read, or heard re- 
 ported ! 
 
 2. You disapprove of it then, do you ? 
 
 1 . My dear madam, you know not God ; you know not 
 yourself ; you know not the revelation he has given us ; you 
 know nothing on the subject, as I must kindly but solemnly 
 assure you I Nor is your hope any hope at all. It is merely 
 a presumptuous conjecture, a vain and infidel hypothesis, 
 founded on unbelief — " if there is any hereafter !" Tell me 
 
REMONSTRANCE AND WARNING. 315 
 
 plainly, as a friend, though a stranger. How much of the 
 New Testament have you ever attentively read, in all your 
 life ? 
 
 2. Oh I I leave all that to the clergy, sir. I never care 
 for it. 
 
 1. You speak, madam, as I perceive, at least four differ- 
 ent languages of Europe. To these you have attended, and 
 you understand them. But to the revealed truth of God you 
 have not attended, and you know it not. I must then sol- 
 emnly testify to you that your delusion is dense and tremen- 
 dous. It is no more Christianity than Voltairism or Islam- 
 ism is I And now, if God spares you longer on the earth, I 
 would kindly beseech you to repent of your sins, and seek 
 God till you find him ; to read the Holy Scriptures in faith, 
 and with prayer for divine illumination ; and to let the past 
 time of your life suffice you to have lived for this world in 
 chase of shadows, in frequency Avith the vain, the gay, the 
 godless, and the wicked ! It is all your own fault that yoH 
 know not God^for you have the means of knowing him ; 
 and you are well endowed with the faculties that might u.5e 
 those means ; and had you used them aright, you might now 
 have not hypothesis, adventure, presumption, for your hope ; 
 but the very hope of the gospel, authentic, divine, and never 
 deceptive, to adorn your character, to soothe your soul, to as- 
 sure your mind, to comfort your heart, and to abolisJt death, 
 in the beatitude of your glorilied experience, as you make the 
 sublime and the wonderful transition from this vestibule of 
 probation into that temple of eternal glory. These are the 
 thitigs that are i/nsee/i and eternal. 
 
 2. Oh I sir, how you preach I Is that the way in Amer- 
 ica ? 
 
 1. I must bid you farewell, madam. I shall see you again 
 in eternity, where your memory will have recorded this scene 
 and several others — of your whole life I Till then it is very 
 certain we shall never meet again. I only add, to what I 
 
316 INTERVIEW CONCLUDED. 
 
 have told you already, that God has made you an account- 
 able creatine ; that you are under the jurisdiction of his law, 
 nut a particle of which, in the spirit of its pertect righteous- 
 ness, have you ever obeyed once in your whole lile ; that, 
 as a sinner before him, you need infinitely his mercy and 
 his grace in Jesus Christ ; that except you turn to him, and 
 obey the gospel, you will perish forever ; that, though you 
 have lived among flatterers in this world, no one will flatter 
 you in that which is to come ; and that, having reached al- 
 ready, as I judge, the age of threescore, you can not expect 
 the residue of your years to be many ; while, with such ap- 
 preciation, I have sincerely commiserated your condition and 
 the very happiness in which you seem to glory, knowing its 
 nature, its deceit, its triviality, and its transientness. I can 
 do no more — 1 pray you, think me not your enemy because I 
 Juive told you the truth. I commend you to the sovereign 
 mercy of God, and say once more, madam, solemnly, fare- 
 well, till we meet at the jiidgment-scat of Christ I 
 
 Here I bowed, and left her. My time coerced me, or I, 
 should have loved to stay and to pray with her. Her air 
 was mainly that of saucy wonder and curiosity, half reserved, 
 half respectful, and sometimes for a moment almost confid- 
 ing. Now, with a fashionable courtly laugh, she tried to 
 parry the influence of the Spirit in the words of his own 
 truth ; and now she seemed taken all aback with its sudden 
 thunder or its lightning flash in an unsuspected quarter. On 
 the whole, I said, what is a fashionable lady 1 Are these 
 her accomplishments, that leave her spirit so unfurnished, 
 and so clo\Miish, toward heaven ? There is no adulation, no 
 blandishments of fashion, no soft airs of compliment and hom- 
 age to ladyship or the sex. Spirits have no sex, persons no 
 respect, in judgment. There fools are exposed, as such, and 
 see themselves, while others see them just as they are in the 
 sight of God. There they are punished, too, ^i■it]l■ everlasting 
 destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory 
 
RKASONS FOR KKCOKUING IT. 317 
 
 of his poivcr, ivhen he shall come to be glorified in his 
 SAINTS, and to be admired in all them that believe. 
 
 I cite this instance, this example, of the atheism of the 
 fashionable world, the bean monde of the aspirations of the 
 millions of mankiird, not as a rare case, or an exception, or a 
 monster extraordinary in that doomed sphere, but for a very 
 opposite reason. It is an example of it, an exponent, a spec- 
 imen. The forms, the degrees, the exterior ornaments, all 
 differ inimitably ; as the new juxtapositions, and phases, and 
 beauties of pebbles in the kaleidoscope, with its infinite vari- 
 ety of scenic display and the poor glory of its reflecting sur- 
 faces, seen in the light of heaven — that is, of the natural sun. 
 But open the instrument, analyze its glories, and discourse 
 with its colored stones and its angular surfaces of glass I So 
 this world, when making for its dupes all the heaven of their 
 being or their ambition I They are like children, dancing 
 and rampant, under the power of exhilarating gas. They 
 have no reflection, no forecast, no deep conviction, no moral 
 sincerity. They prefer to be deceived, as really as the devil 
 to deceive them. And God, so long insulted and ofiended, 
 needs only to give them up to their own vanity and impiety, 
 and they become the maddened architects of their own de- 
 struction. He has described them fully in his word ; warn- 
 ed them honestly and perfectly ; and they, in their very folly 
 and infatuation, vindicate the truthfulness of their moral biog- 
 raphy as recorded by inspired pens, and precipitate the dam- 
 nation of their destiny. 
 
 Let God speak, and let mortals that are immortal hear his 
 own unalterable words — 
 
 But the statural man reccivcth not the things of iJte 
 Spirit of God ; for they are foolishness to him ; neither 
 can he knoiv them,, because they are sjnrituaUy discerned. 
 
 But the things of the devil are his wisdom, his creed, his 
 oracle I A man without revelation, and one with it, who 
 utterly neglects it, are both in this condemned category ; 
 
318 PASSAGES OF SCUIPTLRE. 
 
 only that the latter is the far guiltier person in the eight of 
 God. Yet, remaining such, they both hate the light ; folly 
 is their wisdom, error their truth, and hell at last their com- 
 mon home. Let not the reader indulge a sneer. Hell is a 
 revealed fact. And is it philosophical to care so much for 
 the word and so little for the thing ? or is it indeed folly 
 what God says ? 
 
 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men ; and. 
 the weakness of God is stronger tlian meti. 
 
 Men practically feel as if they were both stronger, and es- 
 pecially wiser, than he ; and this caustic and terrible irony 
 of the reigning Lord God omnipotent, the only wise God, 
 touches not their sensihilities. If voluntarily stupid in time, 
 however, they shall be involuntarily intelligent and well-in- 
 formed in eternity. Devils believe and tremble ; and they 
 are not atheists at all. 
 
 Be not deceived ; God is not mocked; for whatsoever 
 a man soiceth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth 
 to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption ; but he that 
 soiceth to the Spirit, shall of the Spnrit reap life everlasting. 
 
 What a harvest is corruption, lor some sowers ! and here 
 set in full contrariety and antithesis with salvation, or life 
 everlasting. Do men sow cockle, and expect to reap bar- 
 ley ? or darnel, in hope of a crop of wheat ? And, continu- 
 ing in sin and vmbelief, do they anticipate heaven as their 
 proper reward ? If so, God is not mocked in the end ; they 
 are deceived to their own perdition. 
 
 Tliey Jiave Moses and the prophets ; let them hear them; 
 if they hear not Moses and the prophets, ?ieither will they 
 be persuaded, though one rose froin the dead. 
 
 When our blessed Redeemer uttered these words, not one 
 letter of the New Testament was ■written. If, then, the 
 scorners of the former, the negleciers o[ Moses and the proph- 
 ets, were so guilty, so inexcusable, so forlorn in their peril, 
 and without all resource in their madness, ivhat shall the end 
 
RECAPITULATION OF THE HOPE. 319 
 
 be of them that obey not the gospel of God ? that de- 
 spise, and atheistically Ibigct, not Moses and the prophets 
 only, but also, with them, as making one great revelation, 
 from God, Christ, and the apostles, and the evangel- 
 ists ? Beside, now ONE is uisen from the dead, and be- 
 come tlie first-fruits of them that slept. Hence the crime 
 of such a hope as that fashionable lady alone could cher- 
 ish, of her selfish and sin-blinded self It is the gnomon of 
 all the hope of fashion's dupes and victims, the greatest fools 
 in the universe I a hope compounded of self-deception, habits 
 of alienation i'rom God, sheer infidelity, vanity, presumption, 
 massive ignorance, and the iron-bound folly of all grace-aban- 
 doned and incorrigible reprobates. There is no use, and no 
 sense, in touching such " delicate subjects" only with fine 
 silk or elegant white kid gloves I Enough of all that homi- 
 cidal kindness. 
 
 For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and ev- 
 ery transgression and disobedience received a just recom- 
 pense of reward, how shall we escape, if we neglect so 
 GREAT salvation, tclilch at the first began to be spoken — 
 not by angels, but by their superior and commander, by the 
 Lord ; confirmed to us by them tJiat heard him ; God also 
 bearing them icitncss, both u-ith signs and iconders, and 
 xvith diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, accord- 
 ing to his oivn will. 
 
 In all this, I pray the reader honestly to learn what the 
 hope is of the fashionable world : 
 
 ♦ * * « * gt crimine ab uno 
 Disce omnes : 
 
 And from one specimen of polish'd crime, 
 
 Learn all their characters, for hope sublime ; 
 
 Lost in undone eternity and cursed by Heaven in time. 
 
 [l^F^The hope of the fashionable and the worldly ._£jj 
 If there is any hereafter, i shall be safe enough ; 
 
 BECAUSE I never. DID ANY THING WRONG, AND I NEVER HAD 
 
320 SOLKMMTY OF Slfll AN EXAMl'LE. 
 
 BUT ONE VAULT IN ALL MY LIFE ; AND THAT FAULT CONSISTS 
 SIMPLY IN THIS ALWAYS BEING TOO GOOD AND TOO KIND TO 
 
 EVERY BODY, as all my Iriends know and say ol" me. 
 
 What need now of the Bible, the Lord's day, the ordinan- 
 ces of public worship, or the practice of true religion ? What 
 need even of 
 
 Jesus Christ and him crucified ? 
 
 O earth, earth, earth, hear the ivord of tJie Loi'd. 
 
 Quam difficile, quam rarum, ut homo, muliere natus, se 
 ipsum cognoscat I — which we render, or rather paraphrase, 
 in its spiritual, in its religious, in its eternal and divine rela- 
 tions, thus : 
 
 How difficult the problem, hence how rare, 
 To know one's moral self! t' escape the snare 
 That fascinates the pilgrim on his road — 
 Devious from truth, from virtue, and from God ; 
 That takes the million, graceless and forlorn ; 
 Threatening each sinful child of woman born : 
 Pride, love of ease, procrastination's sway, 
 Nourish their madness and pervert their way ; 
 Custom and fashion add their potent spell ; 
 They quaff the poisoned nectar, like it well, 
 And brook no honesty the truth to tell. 
 Till — soon — aghast, each knows himself — in heU! 
 
NOTES OMITTED IN THEIR PLACE. 
 
 Page 38, 11th line from bottom, after word Bruen, " The late Rev. 
 Matthias Bruen, A.M. first Pastor of the Bleecker Street Presbyteri- 
 an Church, New York." 
 
 Page 115, 8th line from bottom, after word award, "The Book of 
 the Synod of New York and New Jersey, on the Division of the Pres 
 byterian Church, so well and wisely wTitten by Rev. Dr. Judd, Octo 
 ber, 1852, is the only authority to which I need here refer the reader.' 
 
RUNNING INDEX. 
 
 Inscription — Preliminary Reflections Page 5 
 
 A packed jury, 5 ; Liberties taken, 7 ; Another volume possible, 8 ; 
 A faulty world, 9 ; Indifference is enmity, 10 ; Texts from Prov- 
 erbs, 11 ; Sin gloomy, 12; The religion of fools, 13; Reading for 
 all, 15; Reference to Chalmers, 16; Results and motives, 17; 
 Emrrionsism, 19 ; Terms of communion, 20 ; Sinners quite too 
 dis— interested, 22 ; Humility in office, 23 ; The diaconate, 24 ; 
 Christianity forever rmpartial, 25 ; Illustrious ignorance, 26 ; Hope 
 for our country, and promise of future good, 27. 
 
 I. HoR/E Chalmerian^ 29 
 
 Greatness, 32 ; Two providences, 33 ; Hearing Chalmers, 35 ; His 
 broad Scotch, 36 ; Compliment from Mason, 38 ; Strictures on his 
 sermon, 41 ; Frank manners, 43 ; His composing, 44 ; Topics, 45 ; 
 Breakfast at Waterloo Hall, 47; Address of Rev. Dr. Peddie, 48 ; 
 Pragmaticalness, 49 ; Episcopal Dissenters, 50 ; Cozy interview — 
 Ignorance of America, 52 ; His beau ideal of a visit to us, 53 ; Re- 
 sults of the voluntary principle, 55 ; Going to Kentucky, 57; Views 
 on slavery, 58; Vile habit of the English, 59; Establishments, 61; 
 No go in America, 63 ; Our temperance reform, 65 ; Our mis- 
 sions, 67 ; Our guessing, 68 ; Dr. Ewing and Dr. Johnson, 70 ; Our 
 education, 71 ; Chalmers after the disruption, 73 ; Church wars, 
 75 ; Erastianism, 77 ; Great steamers turn slowly, 78 ; Chalmers' 
 fireside, 79 ; Scene at family prayer, 80 ; His tenderness, 81 ; 
 British rector — Difficult text, 83 ; Exposition in the pulpit, 85 ; 
 Walk after breakfast at Morningside, 87 ; The Presbytery's in- 
 truder. 88 ; Appointed interview, 90 ; Our divines, 91 ; Edwards 
 on the will, 95 ; Our Presbyterian disruption, 96 ; Causes, 97 , 
 Remedy worse than disease, 103 ; Views of exscinders, 105 , 
 Ours in contrast, 109; Calvin, 111; No reunion, 113; Message 
 
324 RUNNING INDEX. 
 
 from Chalmers — Geese and swans, 114; Supper and decanters, 
 116; His concession, 118; Opinion of Henry Clay, 121; Preach- 
 ing at Burk's Close, 122 ; The poor in cities, 123 ; Morrisonian- 
 ism, 126 ; Sudden call, 128 ; A voluntary appendix, 131 ; Fears 
 about it, 133; His chirography, 135; His estimate of puseyism, 
 137; Preference, 138; Letter to Dr. Smyth, 140; His views of 
 slavery, 141 ; 'Deliverance' of tlie American Board, 142. 
 
 II. Interview with Rev. Dr. Emmons 145 
 
 His age, 148; His views, 151 ; Colloquy, 153; New York vs. Frank- 
 lin, 155; Interpretation, 157; His way, 159; Selfishness, 160; 
 Self-love, 161; Confession, 162; Old disciple, 164; The doctor's 
 hope, 165; ' My theology,' 167; 'In itself considered,' 169; Dia- 
 gram, 170 ; Not Calvinism, 171 ; Organum theologicum, 172 ; A 
 lawyer grown wiser, 173 ; Optimism, 174 ; Sincere offer, 175 ; 
 Common sense, 176; Useful distinction, 179; Modes and facts, 
 
 - 181 ; Quotations, 182 ; Autlior of sin, 183 ; Blunders in texts, 
 185; Christ our head, 187; Reasons for self-love, 188; Duty re- 
 sulting from no relation, how to be met, 190, 191 ; Anecdote, 192 ; 
 Dialogue, 194 ; Holy willingness — to sin, 197; Paul, accursed from 
 Christ, 197; Remarks on it, 200 ; Desperation of the ungodly, 204; 
 'Anh — Stuart objects, 207 ; Practical views, 208 ; Dreariness of 
 Emmonsism — heartless, mechanical, trashy, 211 ; Attestation, 212. 
 
 III. Interview with John Quincy Adams 213 
 
 Suggestions, 215 ; Two concessions, 217 ; His visit to his father, 
 219; The chaplain of the Brandywine, 221 ; Human nature, 222; 
 Religion — His inaugural, 223 ; Vanity of the clergy, 225 ; Spirit- 
 uality, 227 ; Future punishment, 230 ; Atheism, 232 ; Venture in 
 rhj-me, 234 ; Prophecy, 236 ; Rev. Drs. Spring and Wilson, 237 
 Watts' H>-mns, 238 ; Unsound preachers, 239 ; Truth exchisive 
 241 ; Entertaining matters, 242 ; Inspiration, 244 ; Next morning 
 245 ; Kindness of the president, 246 ; Anecdote of John Adams 
 in Spain, 247 ; Order and freedom, 249 ; Selfish liberality, 250 
 Views of the Trinity, 251 ; Mystery, 253 ; Proof-text in baptism 
 255 ; Personal devil, 256 ; Mystery of the Mediterranean, 260 
 Mysteries in heaven, 261 ; His pecuhar way, 262; 'As a dove,' 
 265 ; Placability — Major Andre, 266 ; Newport and Providence, 
 868 ; His address to the Bible Society, 270-273. 
 
RUNNING INDEX. 325 
 
 IV. Intervikw with two Pseudo-Apostles 275 
 
 Imposture, 279; Hot day, 280; Sudden approacli, 281 ; Who they 
 vvcie, 284 ; Fanatical hopes, 285 ; Apostles, 286 ; Their creden- 
 tials, 287; Their confid(Mil warnings, 289 ; Perplexed, 290 ; Abus- 
 ive and self-refuted, 291; Outrage and exodus, 292; Utah, 293; 
 Charity for folly and sin, 295 ; Apostolic charity, 296 ; Conclusion, 
 299. 
 
 V. Interview with a kashion.\ble Lady, Calais, France 301 
 
 Grief of Christians, 303 ; Sail from Dover, 305 ; Dining at Calais, 307 ; 
 The Lady, prima doiina of the scene, 308 ; Recollections of his- 
 tory, 309 ; La diligence and malle-post, 310 ; Converse on the pi- 
 azza, 311 ; Our climates in America, 312 ; Religion, a queer thing 
 to her, 313; Her very remarkable hope, 314; My remonstrance, 
 315 ; Reflections and texts, 318 ; More like her, 319 ; Final catas- 
 trophe of fashionable fools, 320. 
 
 THE END. 
 
Stmtbavb tOorks 
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 Harper's Illuminated and Pictorial Bible, 
 
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>-^ ■^' — The literary world has crack y 
 
 J jokes, the past month, and indul^elPin ' 
 many a hearty gvift'aw over the Interviews 
 Meiiioral'lc and Useful, from Diary and 
 Memory] hy Rev. Samuel Hanson Cox, 
 1). I >. Eut the doctor is as unconscious of 
 his aniusini; pedantry as parson" JAiraham 
 Adam.s, and he reminds us strongly of that 
 best of parsons by his^turdy, hearty, and 
 simple-minded boldness in saying what 
 he thinks, in his own ^^'ay, let the world 
 laugh at him as it will. The Doctor's 
 style is none of the best, and his memory | 
 may sometimes play him false in relating 
 his interviews, but he is always self-poised 
 and original, and just as sure of beiug 
 exactly right in every thing he may 
 choose to do, or believe, as ever Davy 
 Crocket was, when he had determined to 
 go ahead. Let the Doctor appear toothers 
 as he may. he always appears to himself 
 with as palpable a nimbus round his head 
 3 as ever encircled the crown of a saint. 
 I To ha ve so comfortable an opinion of one's | 
 .ffi^ is better than a fortune. The state 
 * TOTroind which the author must enjoy wio 
 could have written such dedications, aiSI 
 published such poetry, any poor mortal ; 
 might Qxxvy. Those who laugh at the 
 Doctor have all their merriment to them- 
 selves ; he Avould as soon suspect the 
 world of laughing at the ponderous tower 
 of his brown stone church, as j^his 
 solemnly-intended utterances. Yet the 
 Doctor is by no means lacking in a pereep-' 
 tion of humor, as his most amusing descrip- 
 tion of the maimer of Dr. Chalmers in the 
 pulpit can testify ; but no one who reads 
 the " Interviews" will suspect the author 
 of that strange volume of entertaining a 
 suspicion that there is any thing either 
 peculiar or humorous in his own manner. 
 
I — -^ 
 
 -writer in the Ohrislian Rt:[/is(ev tV^ 
 
 ccB^cisoH a sertnou recently preached by the 
 
 Lev. Dr. Co.^, late of Brooklyn. 
 "How shall I describe tho^sorraon of the 
 Hev. Dr. Cox, delivered before the 3Iill8 
 Theological Society? "f><couId thiuk of no- 
 thing but a four-horse otiinibtM, somewhat 
 floridly painted and ambitiously ornamented, 
 driven around the streets, turning corners 
 with grand flourishes of the whip and shouts 
 at the leaders, picking up a passenger here 
 and there, and after giving him a brief air- 
 "•^■'^dropping him, and driving the spanking 
 *||ii^r:«w home at last, with not a hair wet 
 ' ' '-m them, and not more than half satisfied 
 
 i-.;Ji their exercise. I have not the slight- 
 est idea that the Doctor knew what he was 
 going to say when he arose, and, but for his 
 almost unexampled memory, I should doubt 
 whether he knew what he had said when he 
 finished. It seemed to me like a sermon 
 that might be represented as a railroad car 
 that had been thrown from the track, under 
 a high rate of speed, smashed in pieces, and 
 then gathered up in fragments, just in those 
 chance relations into which accident had 
 thrown them. The materials of a complete 
 and beautiful car were there, (with the ex- 
 ception of the brakes,) but they were hauled 
 out of the mass, and put together very much 
 like those cattle that Dr. Todd tells the 
 children about, as the inhabitants of a 
 chance world. The sermon was learned, 
 poetical, disjointed, pedantic, powerfuf," bril- 
 liant, humorous, witty, explosive, redun- 
 dant, English, Greek, Latin, and Dr. Coxy.", 
 
Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries 
 
 1012 01198 8823 
 
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