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 UNITY WITH DIVKRSITY IN I'H 
 
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 PREACHKl) MEl'ORK rilK 
 
 COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY, 
 
 JUNE '25, Ili7l, 
 By JAMES McCOSH. D.Jl, LL.P. 
 
 l>RESII)EN'r OK HIE COLLEGE. 
 
 PRINCETON : 
 
 STKI.LE * SMITH, I'UHLISHF.RS AND I{< )OKSKI I.1•.R^ 
 187I. 
 
 5£ 
 
 .m 
 
UNITY WITH DlVliRSlTY IN THI- 
 
 mU iinil WmA ol i&nL 
 
 I'REACHED BEFORE THE 
 
 COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY, 
 
 JUNE 2 5. lil7J, 
 
 \ 
 
 Br JAMES McCOSH, D.D.. LL.D. 
 
 I'RESIDENT ()!• IHE COLLKOE. 
 
 PRINCETON : 
 
 STKLLE .V SMITH. I'UtJl.lSHKRS AND HOoKSKl.I KRS. 
 187 I. 
 
Princeton College, 29 June, 1871. 
 Rev. JAMES McCOSlI. D.D., I.L.U., 
 Dear Sir :— 
 The undersigned, in behalf of the Class of '71, wishing to express our 
 appreciation of your Baccalaureate Discourse delivered last Sabbath, would 
 respectfully recjuesl a copy of the same for publication. 
 Respectfully, &c., 
 
 R. RANDALL HOES, 
 JOHN G. WEIR, 
 OLIVER A. KERR, 
 
 Committee. 
 
 Princeton, Sept., 187 i. 
 
 (jENTLE.MEN : — 
 
 I have great pleasure in complying with your request, believing that the 
 printed discourse may be an interesting memorial of your College life, and your 
 intercourse with 
 
 Yours, (Xrc, 
 
 [AMES McCOSH. 
 
SERMON 
 
 "Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are 
 differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And tliere are diversities 
 of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all." — I. Cor. 
 XII., 4-6. 
 
 " And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of 
 the Lamb."— Rey. XV., 3. 
 
 " Hear, Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord." But 
 while Jehovah is, and must be, one, there are indications 
 from the beginning of there being distinctions in the divine 
 nature : in the Old Testament he is called Elohim, plural 
 noun joined to singular verb; and in the New Testament 
 he is spoken of as Father, Son and Holy Ghost,— so that 
 God never dwelt in loneliness, but ever in the atmosphere, 
 ever in the warmth of love, and was thus ever in a position 
 to exercise his highest perfection. Again, the moral law, 
 the noblest enbodiment and expression of the divine nature, 
 is also one, summed up like the divine character in love; 
 but having a diversity of applications, to the agent himself, 
 to the creatures and the Creator, that one law requiring us 
 to live soberly, righteously and godly. The profoundest 
 investigations of philosophers and artists have shown that 
 beauty, so far as its delicate form can be caught by the 
 subtlety of the human intellect, embraces unity with variety: 
 as it has been expressed, the unity where it is found being 
 
6 
 
 beautiful in proportion to the variety, and tlie variety where 
 it exists ill proportion to the unity. I hope to show in this 
 discourse that in the Works of God and in the Word 
 of God viewed separately, and in the Works and Word 
 of God in combination, there is sameness w^ith difference, 
 after the model of the divine nature, and in correspond- 
 ence with the good and the lovely. In other words in the 
 the true, as well as in the good and beautiful, as in God him- 
 self, there is oneness with diversity constituting a universal 
 harmony. 
 
 I. There is Unity with Variety in the Works of God. 
 
 We see this in the Matter of the Universe. That Matter is 
 one and the same in all time and in all space. As far back 
 as history goes, as geology goes, we discover the same natu- 
 ral agents in the world as w^e do now, in fire and water, in 
 sea and land, in rivers and mountains. Chemistrj^ tells 
 us that provisionally the elementary substances are a little 
 above sixty, and now we know that they are found in the 
 heavenly bodies. Of late years the spectroscope, which 
 promises to reveal more wonders than the telescope or micro- 
 scope has done, shows that the same bodies with which 
 we are familiar on earth, are found in the sun and those 
 distant stars : the rays of light are so affected as to show 
 that they have come through sodium, or hydrogen, or some 
 other substance found on our globe. But in what a diver- 
 sity of modes do the bodies appear : in earth, water, air and 
 tire — as the ancient Greeks classified them ; in solid, in fluid, 
 in vapory, in elastic forms ; in floating ether, in buoyant 
 air, in yielding liquid, in compact stones and metal ; in 
 gems, crystals and stars ; in plants, satellites and suns ; in 
 the trunks, branches, foliage, flowers and fruit of plants: 
 in the bones, the muscles, the blood, the nerves, the brain, 
 the senses of animals; and in that goodly house in whicli 
 we dwell, and which is so " fearfully and wonderfully made." 
 
We see it w the Forces of the Universe. It is the o-raiul 
 discovery of the science of oiir day, that the sum of Force, 
 actual and potential, in the universe is always one and the 
 same. The will of man cannot add to it ; no human effort 
 can diminish it. If you consume it in one form it appears in 
 another. A large portion of it coming from tlie sun, is 
 taken up by the plant, which is eaten by the animal, and be- 
 comes in us the power which we feel in our frame as we 
 breathe, and walk, and run, and labor. We may use it to 
 serve our purposes of good or also of evil; but we can use 
 it only by means of itself, we can evoke it in one form only 
 by means of the same force in another form. And after 
 we have used it, it continues the same in amount as it was 
 before. After r unning it may be the round of the universe, 
 the force may come back to the spot and take the form in 
 which we first noticed it. Just as the vapors which the 
 sun's heat exhales from the sea, rise into the atmosphere 
 and descend in rain on the earth, to form rills and rivers 
 which flow back into the ocean ; so the forces which operate 
 in the earth, in air and sea, in plant and animal, after run- 
 ning their circuits, ever fall back into that great ocean of 
 power, which is just one manifestation of divine power. 
 But in what a diversity of modes does this force appear: 
 in matter attracting matter, and holding atoms and worlds 
 together; in elements combining according to their friend- 
 ships and strifes— as Empedocles of old expressed it, accord- 
 ing to their affinities as chemists now say; driving our 
 steam engines, heating our homes, quivering in the mag- 
 netic needle, riding in the storms of earth and in the storms 
 in the sun'satmosphere, blowingin the breeze, smilingin the 
 sunshine, striking in the lightning, and living in every organ 
 ot the body. Like the ocean ever changing and yet nevei- 
 changing; ever the same and yet never at rest; moving in 
 every molecule, every planet and every star; imparting un- 
 ceasing activity and yet securing an undisturbed stability. 
 
We see it in the orderb/ Arranfjcmmt of the Matter and 
 Forces of the Universe. For the material of the world might 
 have been what it is, and tlie forces of the world might 
 have been wliat they are, and the result, not order but 
 confusion, spreading misery and dismay instead of happi- 
 ness and comfort. It is clear that He who created the ele- 
 ments and their properties, has imparted to them such a 
 disposition and distribution, that they fall into order each 
 in its appropriate place, like the stones in a building, 
 like soldiers arranged into companies every one with a 
 duty to discharge. The world is built up, as was fabled 
 of the walls of ancient Thebes, by some sort of music or 
 harmonizing power. 
 
 The issue is first beneficent law^s such as the revolution 
 of the seasons, of the times of budding and bearing seed 
 by plants, and of the birth, youth and maturity of animals. 
 Such laws as distinguished from the forces of the universe, 
 are not simple, as many suppose, but highly complex ; the 
 result of construction, quite as much as a house is or a 
 watch is. What a number of agencies, for example, are 
 involved in the periodical return of spring: there are the 
 movements and the relative position of the earth and sun ; 
 there are the law^s of light and heat, and the constitution of 
 the animal and vegetable kingdoms. The co-operation of 
 these does not proceed from the mere rude matter of the 
 world, nor from its blind forces, but from an arrangement 
 made to accomplish an evidently intended end, the pre- 
 valence of order in the form of a law, which is to be regard- 
 ed as an expression of the will of God, and enabling the 
 intelligent creatures to gather knowledge. Without such 
 a system of general laws, man as at present constituted could 
 not gather wisdom from experience, could not foresee coming 
 events, could not avoid the threatened evil, or lay hold of 
 the promised good. It is by there being a uniformity estab- 
 lished whereby the future so far resembles the past, that we 
 
are ciiahknl to anticiiiatc what is belbi'C us and lav our plans 
 accordino^ly. 
 
 But along with tlio s^-stcni of g-cneral laws, tliere is an 
 adaptation of law to law, and of every one thing to every 
 other, so as to bring about individual events, Tlius by a 
 series of very complex arraugenients among tlie matters 
 and forces of the universe, we have a series of joints in tlie 
 animal frame, and the joints differing according to their 
 positions: a ball and socket joint for instance, turning all 
 round at the shoulders, where it is a convenience, but not 
 in the fingers, where it would be a weakness and an incum- 
 brance. By these arrangements God can accomplish not 
 only his general des-gns but his specific purposes. This it 
 is which constitutes Providence: that npovotau which Socrates 
 defended against an ignorant mob, that could not discover 
 the one God amid the multiplicity of his purposes, and 
 against the self conceited sophists, who were not able to 
 distinguish between truth and error. This providence is a 
 general one reaching over the whole ; but it does so because 
 it is a particular providence providing for every beirig, and 
 for all wants. So delicately constituted is this whole sys- 
 tem, that it moves sympathetically with our position, our 
 needs, our feelings. It is so ordered that "the very hairs 
 of our head are all numbered," and " a sparrow cannot fiUl 
 to the ground without him." At the close of life, or as he 
 contemplates the scene from heaven, the good man will see 
 that he has been led by a way far better than he could have 
 chosen, and that throughout his steps " have been ordered 
 by the Lord." 
 
 They tell us that all this order with adaptation proceeds 
 from tlie physical agents of the world. All true, but the 
 wonder is to find mechanical forces working through ages, 
 producing such wise, and beneficent, and harmonious re- 
 sults. The forces of Xha universe are distributed into num- 
 bered companies, which march in measured step to the sound 
 
10 
 
 of iiuisir. rvtlian'oras doclarecl tluit it is l)ecanso men arc 
 (lull of lieaiMn<i\ that they do not bear the music of tlie 
 spheres. Certain it is, that it is is only because we have 
 failed to train as we ous^bt onr intellectual orsrans, that we 
 do not perceive a wider ranging harmony in the universe, 
 than in the most skilfully arranged musical concert. 
 
 We sec it in onr 3Ient(d Talents and Tastes. The mind is 
 suited to the position in which it is placed in the world, and 
 the world is adapted to the minds which are to observe and 
 use it. There is order in the world, and man is so consti- 
 tuted as to discover and admire it. There is reason in the 
 works of God, and reason in man's mind to appreciate it. 
 ^'If the laws of our reason," says Oersted, "did not exist in 
 nature, we would vainly attempt to force them upon her; 
 if the laws of nature did not exist in oitr j-eason, we should 
 not be able to comprehend them." Tb'e forms which min- 
 erals assum-e when they crystallize ; the elliptic orbits of the 
 planets ; the hyperbojic curves of the comets ; the spiral 
 confoi-mations of tlie nebular groups of the heavens, of the 
 ap})en'lages of plants around their axis, and of the whorls 
 of the shells of molluscs; the conical shape of the fruit of 
 pines and tirs with the rhomboids on their surface, are all 
 constructed according to mathematical laws which have 
 their seat in the intelligence and can be evolved by pure 
 thought. When we ascend to the higher manifestations 
 of life, in particular, when we rise to the human form, 
 we do not find the same rigid lines as in crj'stals, nor are 
 the invaria])le curves of the nebulae and plants so observa- 
 ble : but I believe they are still there blended in innumer- 
 able ways, so as to give an infinite sweep and variety to 
 the graceful forms on which the eye ever delights to rest, 
 and which the mind never wearies to contemplate, and the 
 mind unconsciously follows now the one and now the other 
 till it is lost in a perfect wilderness of beauty. 
 
 There is a point here at which the laws of thought and 
 the laws of things, at whicli physics and metaphysics meet 
 
11 
 
 and become one. There is l)eauty in (Jod's works and man 
 has a taste for it. Man's intellect formed after the imao-o 
 of God deliii'hts in unity with variety, and nature presents 
 those every where: in starry sky and gilded cloud, in 
 mountain and romantic glen, in IJeld and river, in tlovver 
 and forest. And above even beauty, as much higher as the 
 sky is above the earth, we have a subliniity in the massive 
 rock, in the rolling thunder, in the boundless ocean, in the 
 star bespangled expanse of lieaven, all fitted, all intended 
 to call forth the idea of the iniinite, which the mind of man 
 is ever striving to lay hold oi and yet cannot grasp. Man 
 has faculties of a high and varied order, and he has means 
 of gratitying, cultivating and refining them in the study of 
 the w^orks of God ; and I may add in the study of the 
 works, wdiich man is able to fashion by his heaven endowed 
 gifts, in music, in painting, in statuary, in architecture and 
 most fully— in what is the noblest of the fine arts— in lite- 
 rature, in which the highest wisdom as disclosed by phi- 
 losophy, history, science— mental, social and physical— is 
 embodied in the well proportioned expressions of prose, 
 and the infinite modulations of poetry— lyric, didactic, tragic, 
 comic and epic. All these are thrown open to us in un- 
 grudging profusion, that w^e may form acquaintance w^ith 
 them, and converse with them, that we may drink in their 
 spirit and be moulded after their example. Here we have 
 a fund of wealth wdiich can never be exhausted, things 
 suited to all, things adapted to each, to every talent, every 
 taste, and every pursuit and destination of life. It is clear 
 that the intellect, and the sensibilities of our nature are 
 adapted in every way to our position; and that the same 
 God made the w^orld within and the world without. It is 
 evident that the God who made the eye also made thelifht 
 that falls on it ; and it is equally certain that lie wdio made 
 matter also made mind, and these in beautiful correspon- 
 
12 
 
 (k'uce tlio OIK' to tlie other, tlie one to be used, tlie other to 
 use it, the one to be contemplated, the other to contemplate it. 
 
 " From harmony, from heavenly harmony 
 This universal frame began. 
 From harmony to harmony, 
 
 Through all the compass of the notes it ran, 
 The diapason closing full in man.'" 
 
 II. There is Unity with Diversity in the Word of 
 God. 
 
 That word was written at very difterent times and by 
 writers of very different cbaracters, tastes, talents and tem- 
 [)eraments. Some of tlie anthors write in a clear and sim- 
 ple, others in an ornate, a sharp, or apotliegmatic. in a bold, 
 or a sublime style. Some of the books have upon them the 
 hoar of antiquity, and introduce us to the fiithers of the 
 race and the beginnings of the stream of history. Others 
 are evidently composed when thought is matured and cul- 
 ture has reached a high perfection. One preserves a valua- 
 ble piece of histor}^ another opens to our view the human 
 heart in biograpln', a third enjoins practical precept, a fourth 
 expounds doctrine in systematic order. One takes up his 
 parable, another pours forth a song, a third utters a warn- 
 ing, a fourth cheers the dark days of the people of God 
 with the prospect of better times. The greatest of all the 
 teachers touches the tendei'est cords, and moves the lowest 
 depths of the heart, l^iy simple statement, by vivid illustra- 
 tion, derived fro?n the works of nature and the experience 
 of liuman life, by truth which recommends itself intuitively, 
 by sentiment issuing directly from a tender heart, and by 
 pure precept descending from heaven to purify the earth. 
 " God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in 
 time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these 
 last days spoken unto us by his Son.'' But in the midst 
 of all this diversity there is unity from beginning to end. 
 There is one stream, rising in a pure fountain in Eden ; be- 
 
13 
 
 coniiiiij: defiled in tlic terrible fall into the abyss of sin; 
 often troubled and interrupted and having to burst through 
 chasms; now widening, and now narrowed, but flowing on 
 towards the ocean of eternity. The events occur after a 
 model ; the dispensations are after a pattern, the men are 
 after a type who are looking towards an archetyi)e, first seen 
 in the dim distance and then appearing in tlie fulness of 
 time. It is one progressive march of prophecy through the 
 ages, culminating ever and anon in a fulfillment. It is one 
 creed in regard to God and Christ and man, in regard to 
 this world and the world to come, and this underlying — like 
 the deeper rocks of our earth — the whole history, the song, 
 the dispensations and the precepts. 
 
 The unit)/ arises mainly from the circumstance that there ?6' 
 one God inspiring the ivriterSyRud bringing them all to a con- 
 sistency. Even as " the Lord our God is one Lord," so 
 the Word which he hath inspired is also one. This is the 
 grand central sun which binds, which illumines all the parts, 
 securing a continuity in the history and a congruity in the 
 doctrine and practical injunction. While " all scripture is 
 given by inspiration of God," it is profitable for a variety 
 of -purposes "for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for 
 instruction in righteousness." 
 
 It arises from the ichole being a development of the one plan 
 of redemption.^ We have seen that there is a universal har- 
 mony in nature. But it is evident that somehow a discord- 
 ant element has beeii introduced. The one of these is as 
 clear and as certain as the other. If the one be a fact so is 
 the other. Our business is as observers to notice both, as 
 lovers of truth to receive both. Looking within we find 
 natural conscience clearly indicating that man is alienated 
 from God ; he is afraid of God, he turns away from God. 
 But not oidy is man not at peace with God, he is not at 
 peace with himself. First there is an accusing conscience, 
 and then there are lusts which wai* ac^ainst each other and 
 
14 
 
 war against the soul. Jjooking without we see I'euds, and 
 wars, and bh)odshed ; we see disease, disappointment and 
 deatli, scarcel\' less prevalent than health- and happiness. 
 All these things can be traced directly or indirectly to sin 
 as their source. Kow the Word of G( d reveals a way by 
 which this discordance is removed, by a reconciler and a 
 redemption paid by him. In its evolution the plan assumes 
 various formb, the Patriarchal, the Jewish, the Christian, and 
 there nuiy be a new modification in the millennium. But 
 it is substantially the same along the wdiole line. God ap- 
 pears everywhere as a holy God, saving sinners through the 
 sufferings of his Son. It is under this aspect that he is pre- 
 sented every where throughout the scriptures. In the first 
 promise to fallen man the seed of the woman is represented 
 as having his heel bruised by the powder of the serpent, 
 which has its head crushed in the act. In the first w^orship 
 in Adam's household there is the ofiering of a bleeding sacri- 
 fice. In a later age, the first act of Noah landed on a new^ 
 earth was the presenting of sacrifices unto the Lord. You 
 might have followed the wandering path of the patriarchs 
 by the altars which they built, and the smoke of the sacri- 
 fices which they offered. Under the law almost all things 
 were purified by blood. The grand object presented 
 in the Xew Testament is a bleeding Saviour suspended 
 on the cross. It is thus the same view that is presented 
 under the Patriarchal, the Jewish and the Christian dispen- 
 sations. Except in the degree of development there is no 
 difference between God as revealed in Eden, as revealed in 
 Sinai, and revealed on Calvary; between God as described 
 in the Books of Moses, and God as described so many cen- 
 turies later in the writings of Paul and of John. In the 
 garden of Eden we have the lawgiver, and we have indica- 
 tions of the Saviour as the seed of the woman. On Mount 
 Sinai there is the same combination of awful justice and 
 condescending mercy ; the same law w^-itten on stone, but 
 
15 
 
 with a provisi(-)ii for ofierini;' sac-ritic-es as an atoneiiiciit 
 for sill. Ill tlic iiiystcrious transactions on Calvary there 
 is an awful forsaking and a fearful darkness emblematic of 
 the righteousness and indignation of God, as well as a 
 melting tenderness in the words of our Lord, breathing 
 forgiveness, and telling of an opened paradise. Tlie first 
 book of scripture discloses to ns a worshipper ottering a 
 lamb in sacrifice, and the last book shows a lamb as it had 
 been slain in the midst of the throne of God ; "' I bebeld 
 and lo, in the midst of tbe throne stood a lamb as it had 
 been slain." In heaven they " sing the song of Moses the 
 servant of God and of the Lamb." 
 
 Again, H arises from, the unit// with rariehf in the experience 
 of believers. In essential points the experience of "All ^_ alike, 
 and bas been so from the beo:innino::*'' It is tliaf!'of4)ein2:s 
 formed at first in the image 'of ^GodJ^'from which tliey have 
 fidlen, but now struga:iing wirti sin amid fears and hopes, 
 defeats and triumphs/ and aspiring after communion with 
 God and conformity tt) his will. There is a remarkable cor- 
 respondencef in this respect between the state and feelings 
 of the people of God in all ages. In particular we see and 
 feel tbat there is a curious correspondence between tbeir 
 situation, and that of the children of Israel as ransomed 
 from Egypt. It was evidently ordained at tlie constitunon 
 of the kingdom of Israel that these events should take 
 place, not only as a means of training ancient Israel, but 
 for tbe nurture and instruction of the people of God in 
 every age, who sing on eartli, and sball sing in heaven "the 
 song of Moses the servant of God." Were the Israelites 
 delivered from a degraded and cruel bondage? So are we, 
 but from a greater and more fearful shivery. Did the Lord 
 raise up for his ancient people a deliverer in Moses ? For 
 his people in these times he has provided a yet greater de- 
 liverer, for " a greater than Moses is here." Did he conduct 
 ancit'iit Israel through a desert, supjdyiiig them with 
 
16 
 
 all needful blessings, with manna to feed them, and water 
 to (jueneh their thirst, raising a pillar of cloud to guide 
 them by day, and ever kindling this into a pillar of fire by 
 night? He still leads his people through the wilderness of 
 this world, supplying their temporal and spiritual wants, 
 iiiving them bread to eat of which the world knoweth not, 
 and living water from the smitten rock which is Christ, and 
 he will at last conduct to the rest which remaineth for the 
 people of God. Being placed in circumstances so similar 
 we feel as if every appeal addressed to them should also 
 come home to us. Thus when the commandments are pre- 
 faced with the declaration " I am the Lord thy God which 
 have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house 
 of bondage," we feel as if the motive were one which 
 should also operate upon us, and that we should obey all 
 the -commandments, because we have been redeemed by the 
 blood of Christ. That Old Testament narrative is all true 
 history, and yet it reads as if it were a parable, written by 
 some man of God for our instruction, so adapted is it to our 
 feelings and circumstances. • 
 
 We have a like experience in the Book of Psalms. The 
 song of Moses is also the song of the sweet Psalmist. 
 What mean these wrestlings so frequently and aiFectingly 
 described, these conflicts with an enemy, these humiliations, 
 these successes ? The christian has ever felt that these ex- 
 periences come home to his case, and he sings the songs of 
 Zion, giving a deeper meaning to them than even the author 
 of them was conscious of. Coming to the JSTew Testament 
 we find One who was without sin, but who because he stood 
 in the room of sinners was obliged to say, " my soul is ex- 
 ceeding sorrowful even unto death," " my God, my God 
 why hast thou forsaken me." We see that the song of 
 Moses is also the song of the Lamb. The Apostle Paul 
 describes as a universal characteristic of christian experience, 
 "The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against 
 
17 
 
 the liesli, and those ai'e eoiitrai'v the one to the other," and 
 lie liad to exehuin, '' O wretehed man that I am, \\]n) sliall 
 deliver me from the hody of this death." Now wherever 
 we have a faithful account of the feelino-s of the l)eliever, 
 we tind his experience corresponding to that of Paul. Look 
 at the confessions of Augustine, the letters and lives of the 
 Reformers, and the diaries of later Christians, and we find 
 all of them mourning over a remainder of sin, with wliieli 
 they are earnestly contending, and which they hope finally 
 to conquer. It is extremely interesting, and instructive 
 withal, to ohserve this unit}' of feeling, and to discover be- 
 lievers separated from each other by so many ages, and liv- 
 ing in sucli different states of society passing through very 
 much the same experience. It is an evidence that* our re- 
 ligion is the same in all ages, the same grace of God acting 
 on the same human nature. The people of every age, those 
 who come from the north and the south, from the east and the 
 west, will be able to Join in the song of Moses and the 
 Lairib. 
 
 But while there is the same spirit there are diversities 
 of operation. Because the spirit works in a certain way 
 in the breast of one believer, this is no reason why he should 
 work in the same way in the heart of every other believer, 
 or any other believer. He finds different individuals w^ith 
 different natural temperaments and beset by different sins 
 and temptations, and he suits his manifestations to the dif- 
 ference of their state and character. Let no christian then 
 insist that the work of the spirit must be precisely the same 
 in the heart of every other as in his own. Xor should any 
 humble child of God permit himself to doubt of the reality 
 of a work of grace in his own heart, merely because his ex- 
 perience has not been the same with that of some others of 
 whom he has read, with whom he has taken sweet counsel, or 
 who has opened U[) his heai't to him. Just as there is diver- 
 sity in the works of nature, in <;he color and size of the plants 
 
18 
 
 and animals, that people the air, earth and ocean, just as 
 there is a variety in tlie countenance and shape of the bodily 
 frames of liuman beings, just as one star differeth from 
 another; so christians, while all after one high model, are 
 made to take different forms and hues of beauty on earth, 
 and shall thus be transplanted to heaven, to adorn the gar- 
 den of God and shine as stars, each with his own glory in 
 the firmament above. As in heaven the foundations of the 
 wall of the city are garnished with " all manner of precious 
 stones," and the tree of life in the midst of the street 
 bears "twelve manner of fruits," so the people of God will 
 there as here have each his own characteristics, and the 
 song which ascends will be a concert of diverse voices, each 
 melodious, and each in its diversity joining with the others 
 to make the harmon3\ Each in his own way will join in 
 singing " the song of Moses the servant of God and of the 
 Lamb> 
 
 III. There is an accordance between the Works and 
 Word of God and yet there is a difference. Both come 
 from God and therefore reflect the character of God. But 
 they exhibit it in somewhat' different light. Mature teaches 
 us by potent forces, by arrangements, by laws, and show^s 
 order and beneficence. The Word instructs by flexible 
 language, by clear enunciations, by arguments, b}^ appeals, 
 by threatenings, by promises, and tells of a sin hating God 
 who yet pardons iniquity. The works manifest his power 
 and his wisdom. The Word displays more fully his holiness 
 on the one hand and his mercy on the other. When Moses 
 desired to behold the glory of God, the Lord passed by 
 before him and proclaimed " The Lord, the Lord God, 
 merciful and gracious, long suffering and abundant in good- 
 ness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving ini- 
 quity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means 
 clear the guilty." 
 
19 
 
 It niiiJ^t be acknowledged tliat there are times wlieii 
 seience and scripture seem as it' they contradicted each 
 otlier, with no means of reconciling them. But it is only 
 as one brancli ot* science may seem to be inconsistent with 
 another. There are times when astronomy seems to run 
 counter to geology : geology requires very long ages to ex- 
 plain its phenomena, to account for the successive strata and 
 races of animals on the eartli's surface, whereas astronomy 
 seems to say that so long time has not elapsed since the 
 earth was formed by the rotation of nebulous matter. 
 Nobody thinks that there can be any absolute contradiction 
 between the two sciences ; every one believes that sooner 
 or later the seeming inconsistencies will be cleared up. I 
 say the same of the apparent incongruities between Genesis 
 and geology. Account for it as we may there is a general 
 correspondence between the two, the record in stone and 
 the record in scripture. There is an order with a pro- 
 gression which is very much the same in both. In both 
 there is light before the sun appears. In Genesis the fiat, 
 " Let there be light and there was light" goes forth the 
 first day, and the sun comes out the fourth day, in accord- 
 ance wdth science, which tells us that the earth was thrown 
 off* ages before the sun had become condensed into the cen- 
 tre of the planetary system. In both the inanimate comes 
 before the animate ; in both the plant is supposed to come 
 before the animal; and in both fishes and fowl before creep- 
 insT thinirs and cattle. In both we have as the last of the 
 train, man, standing upright and facing the sky, made of 
 the dust of the ground and yet filled with the inspiration of 
 the Almighty. It is clear that there must be great truth in 
 that opening chapter of Genesis which has anticipated 
 geology by three thousand years. With such correspon- 
 dences we may leave the apparent irreconcilabilities to be 
 explained by future investigation. " He that believeth will 
 not make haste." At times it is not easy to reconcile i)ro- 
 
20 
 
 fane liistorv with scripture; but ever and anon tlioro east 
 up such tilings as tlie monuments of Egypt, the pahtces of 
 Nineveh, iind the stone of Moab to tell us that the Old Tes- 
 tament gives us a correct picture of the state of the nations 
 in ancient times. AVe who dwell in a world " where day and 
 night alternate,"' we who go ever^^vvhere accompanied with 
 our own shadow, cannot expect to be delivered from the 
 daikness, but we liave enough of light to show the ^lath 
 which will lead us through the perplexities. 
 
 I might dwell on the numerous analogies between na- 
 ture and revelation. Both give the same expanded views 
 of the greatness of God ; the one by showing his workman- 
 ship, the other by its descriptions. " The heavens declare the 
 glory of God and the firmament showeth liis handiwork. 
 Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night show- 
 eth knowledge." Both show that there is only one God: 
 the works, which are bound in one concatenated system, 
 and the Word when it declares that " the Lord our God is 
 one Lord." But instead of launching forth on this wide 
 but obvious and common place subject I must confine my- 
 self to two points brought into prominence by recent sci- 
 ence. 
 
 One is the operation of development or evolution. We 
 see it everywhere both in the natural and supernatural dis- 
 pensations of God. " The sun ariseth and the sun goeth 
 down, and hasteth to his place whence hearose." "The wind 
 returneth again according to his circuits." " Unto the 
 place from whence the rivers aiise they return again." 
 But while all thincfs ffo in their circuits, yet in doins^ so 
 they leave their abiding results : the sun calleth fortli vege- 
 tation and givetli heat and light; the winds give breatii to 
 every living thing ; and the rivers leave their deposit which 
 when raised up may become fertile land. We see it in tlie 
 earth bringing forth grass, " the herb yielding seed and the 
 fruit tree vieldino- fruit after his kind, wliose seed is in it- 
 
21 
 
 self." All tills (loos not prove as some would aver, that 
 there is nothinn' hut developinent. The extent of the ])ro- 
 ccss has not yet l)een settled ; hut it is eertain tliat it has 
 limits. For there cannot hv development without some 
 previous material, without some seed out of which the 
 thing developed has eome, and the most advanced science 
 cannot show wdience or how the oriu'inal matter and germ 
 have come. And then development is a very complex 
 operation in wdiich there is a vast variety of agents known 
 and unknown, and these evidently comhined hy a power 
 ahove them to accomplish a purpose. As evolution from 
 a germ according to a general law is a common process in 
 nature, so we see a like operation in the kingdom of grace. 
 The Jewish economy is developed out of the Patriarchal, 
 the Christian out of the Jewish according to a law in the 
 Divine Mind and by agencies appointed hy Divine Wisdom; 
 and the seed planted eighteen hundred years in the world 
 has become a wide spread tree ; all implying an original 
 germ and a formative process, rising into higher and ever 
 higher forms of spiritual life, and about to efHoresce into a 
 period, in which the Spirit of the Lord shall be poured on 
 all iiesh. 
 
 Another point is, that experience, history and science 
 all concur with the Word of God in the view which they 
 present of the state of things in which we are placed. 
 The vain and frivolous may feel as if the Scriptures have 
 drawn too dark a picture of our world, when they describe 
 it as a scene of sin and sutfering, w^ith terrible conflicts 
 within and without. But all who have had large experi- 
 ence of human life will be ready to acknowledge that the 
 account is a correct one. The faithful representation of 
 human character is to many the most satisfactory evidence 
 of the truthfulness of the Word of God. The young and 
 inexperienced may iTuagine, that in that distant spot on the 
 landscape on which the sun is shining, there must be a 
 
paradise still lingering on our eartli : but when they aetu- 
 ally go to it tliey lind it to be very much like the other 
 parts of the earth's surtace. Often in sailing on the rough 
 ocean have I imagined that away in the horizon there is an 
 unbroken calm, but on the vessel reaching the spot it turn- 
 ed out to be agitated and distracted like the place from 
 which I surveyed it. History tells the same story. IIow 
 much of it is occupied with the narrative of battles and this 
 from the earliest to the latest times — in which we have had 
 two terribly desolating wars. We boast of our splendid 
 cities ; but in every one of them you will find sinks of iniqui- 
 ty, with crime and misery festering and fermenting, and in- 
 to which are poured the filth engendered by the vices of 
 the wealthy. And in our rural districts there are feuds 
 and rivalries, bred of selfishness and passion, raging in 
 scenes in which all may seem so calm and peaceful to the 
 superficial observer. There are warring elements in every 
 human bosom, and in every society composed of human 
 beings. Any one seeking to remove the causes of discord 
 will be sure to irritate and to meet with determined oppo- 
 sition, and He who has done most to assuage the storm had 
 to say " I am come to send fire on the earth." " Suppose ye 
 that I am come to give peace on eartli. T tell you nay, but 
 rather division." The greatest men in our world have 
 been martyrs who in order to pull down the evil have had 
 themselves to perish. And is not the science of our day 
 giving us the very same picture ? When we read the older 
 treatises of natural theology, founded on scientific observa- 
 tion, the impression is apt to be left that our world is all 
 fertile and smiling landscape with no desert and no troub- 
 led sea, is basking in the full sunshine of heaven with no 
 darkness and no night. But of late years science has been 
 obliged to speak of terrible conflicts. What mean these 
 discoveries of worlds being formed out of warring elements ? 
 What mean these " struggles for existence" of which 
 
23 
 
 naturalists arc forever speakino-y [t is clear that suflerinii; 
 and death were on our earth since life appeared on it, and 
 reigned " over them that liad not sinned after the simili- 
 tude of Adam's trangression." Does not science as well 
 as Scripture shew that " the whole creation groaneth and 
 travaileth in pain together until now?" The two are thus 
 seen to be in curious correspondence; l)ut they differ in 
 this that wliile botli speak of a troubled day the later and 
 more comforting revelation of God assures us that " at 
 evenincr time there shall be li«;lit." 
 
 Gentlemen of the Graduating Class. You have been 
 studying for years past at a College which aims at keeping 
 tocrether what the Creator has combined, while it makes 
 provision for the diversity of tastes which the- same All- 
 Wise God has implanted in our natures. There is a dispo- 
 sition in some of our American Colleges, and these claiming 
 to be the most advanced, to allow too great a liberty — I 
 call it a license — in study to those who are seeking the 
 Bachelor's Degree. I do not object to a full freedom of 
 study to every one ; this cannot be denied, should not be 
 denied. But I am speaking of what our higher educational 
 institutions should encourage; and I hokHhat a College 
 endowed by the friends of education should foster, not the 
 common branches, which may l)e supplied by the State or 
 left to be cared for on the principle of demand and supply, 
 but the highest departments of study, and reward those 
 who master them by granting a Degree, which for centu- 
 ries past has had a meaning all over the civilized world. 
 It is not for the benefit of education that the inducements 
 to higher learning should be withdrawn, and that tempta- 
 tions should be held out to a dissipation of study, or a one 
 sided learnino; which tends to rear angular minds, which are 
 
24 
 
 not only i^-norant but aii'ect to despise all that is beyond 
 their own narrow circle. In this College we mean, not to 
 fall in with, but to resist this tendency, and to insist on all 
 who claim our Degree being grounded in certain funda- 
 mental l)ranches such as Languages, Literature, Science 
 and Philosophy, which discipline the mind and open tlie 
 way to all kinds of knowledge. In the present day many are 
 allured to devote themselves excbisively to such branches 
 as modern languages and certain departments of physical 
 science in the idea that they are likely to be practically use- 
 ful. Two evils follow. . They neglect to master, when 
 young, certain important branches, and find, when they have 
 reached that age at which it is irksome to begin a new study, 
 tliat they are without the key which opens the richer trea- 
 sure-houses of knowledge. How often, for example, have 
 young men to regret that they have given up Classics, when 
 they find that in conse(|uence the whole of ancient history, 
 with its stirring incidents and exhibitions of human charac- 
 ter, and of social manners and institutions, is placed be- 
 yond their range of vision and contemplation. Another 
 consequence follows. After all, they have acquired a con- 
 tracted and not a liberal education, and are apt to come 
 under the influence of a sectarian and bigoted, rather than 
 a catholic spirit, and to fall into positive error on the one 
 side or the otlier, especially in such all important subjects 
 as philosophy and religion, b}' not being in a position to 
 perceive that one truth is limited by another. I hope that 
 the graduates of Princeton will exercise their influence to 
 secure that in ages to come as in ages past, we shall believe 
 in the trinity of literature, science and philosophy. 
 
 But our minds are not formed originally alike, any more 
 than our bodily frames are. All are so far alike that they 
 are able to acquire the elements of the more essential 
 branches, and if any feel that they have an aversion to any 
 particular branch of high study, it is a sign that there is a 
 
25 
 
 weakness in their constitution, and instead of yielding to it 
 they shouUl seek by the proper gymnastic to strengthen it, 
 and give a robustness and a full rounded development to their 
 whole frame. Hut it is wrong, it is vain to try to stretch 
 all on the same Procrustes' bed. There is sui-ely room in 
 a four years' course for a diversity with the unity of study. 
 We may allow advanced students who have mastered the 
 elements of the fundamental studies to make a selection 
 among other useful branches, to gratify their heaven in- 
 planted tastes and prepare themselves for the professional 
 pursuits before them. I admit that this power of choice 
 may be abused. It is certain to be so by too young students 
 who might avoid some of the most important branches, as 
 being utterly ignorant of their utility and feeling the ini- 
 tiatory steps to be irksome. Even advanced students may 
 pervert it, especially the idle and lazy by selecting the studies 
 supposed to be easiest, or in which the instructor lets off his 
 pupils with the least amount of work. But this evil may 
 be lessened by proper college regulations securing a unifor- 
 mity of standard ; and with its few incidental disadvantages, 
 the system which allows election within certain limits is to 
 be preferred to one which excludes all new branches of 
 knowledge, because there is not time to study them, or 
 forces every one of them on all the students, who in seek- 
 ing to acquire all the branches end in mastering none. In 
 nature every tree, every animal, every branch, every 
 leaf, every Hower, every limb differs from every other, 
 while all are after a type which gives a unity to tlie struc- 
 ture. So it should be with the students trained at our Col- 
 lege. Let them retain, let them cherish their distinctions, 
 their individualities, their very peculiarities ; their taste for 
 poetry, their taste for languages, their taste for physical 
 science,their taste for mathematics, their taste for philosophy, 
 while all are rooted and grounded in certain fundamental 
 principles which keep them from deviating into extremes — 
 
26 
 
 save tliein in fact from becoming monsters — and fashion 
 them all after the same high model of educated gentlemen. 
 
 While we aim to have all trained in the useful branches 
 of secular knowledge, bearing on the improvement of the in- 
 tellect, the refinement of the taste, and the preparation for 
 the anxious pursuits of life, we cannot forget in this College, 
 that man is an immortal being. The students here are 
 most of them separated from their parents and guardians ; 
 and standing as we do in loco j^arejitis, it is expected of us 
 and it is our bounden duty, to provide religious instruction 
 for them. Even as it is God who gives a unity to his works, 
 so it is the fear and love of God that impart a unity to all 
 our intellectual energies, and a consistency to the character 
 and life. I conduct the Biblical Instruction by means of a 
 lecture on Sabbath followed by a recitation on a week day 
 on the part of each class. My course of instruction runs 
 over four years. The first year I took up the four Gospels 
 and the Life of our Lord; the second year the Book of 
 Acts and the planting of the Christian Church ; this last 
 year a simple statement and defence of Christian Doctrine, 
 with an exposition of the Epistle to the Romans ; and next 
 year I take up the Old Testament. My recitations have 
 enabled me once a week to meet face with face with every 
 student in the College. At these meetings, beside becom- 
 ing acquainted with the students, and I trust depositing 
 some seeds of truth in their minds, I have been enabled by 
 moral suasion to put an end, I trust forever, to some of the 
 old evil practices of the College, and to crush in the bud 
 some new evils as they threatened to break out. 
 
 It is to be recorded to the credit of the Class now 
 graduating that they have assisted the authorities in 
 rooting out some of the low and vicious habits of the 
 College. They early pledged themselves to discountenance 
 the mean attacks on students at the dead of night, and the 
 issuing of vile publications, and at a later date they bound 
 
27 
 
 themselves to avoid mid discourage iiiteiuperaiice. It will 
 bo written in the history of this College, nnd will go down 
 to all future generations, that the Class of 1871 was the first 
 to bind itself to stop these evils, and was the means of break- 
 ing the descent from one year to another. 
 
 The members of this Class have endeared themselves to 
 me personally, as w^c met together from week to week now 
 for nearly three academic years. I do not at this moment 
 remember a single unpleasant incident in our intercourse 
 with one another. You W'Ould have a right to charge me 
 with a cold heart — and this infirmity I am not willing to 
 confess — if I did not feel moved now in parting with you, 
 and if I did not promise to look forward with deep and 
 lively interest to the future career of the Class as a whole, and 
 of the individual members. I feel that I w^ill ever rejoice 
 when I hear of you prospering, and grieve when I learn 
 of any evil befalling you. 
 
 We send you forth from our w^alls furnished w^itlia solid 
 liberal education. Different lots w^e may conceive are be- 
 fore you. You are to betake yourselves to different pro- 
 fessions, walks and pursuits. Very diverse may be youi* 
 destinations in life. The coldest heart cannot look on a 
 company of young men, such as that now before me, with- 
 out emotion. One would like to have a horoscope to fore- 
 cast the future, and see therein where you are to be, and 
 what you are to be doing, at some defined time in the future, 
 say five or ten years hence. Some we might find still near 
 us ; some prospering in the journey, some meeting with one 
 disappointment after another ; a number in this w^orld, some 
 gone to the world beyond the grave. But wherever you 
 are and w^herever you go in this world, I trust to hear of 
 you, in low position or in high, in sunshine or in storm, 
 cultivating an academic spirit and difiusingan elevated taste 
 around you ; cherishing a manly independence, and follow- 
 ing^ the path of integrity and honor ; holding firmly ])y the 
 
28 
 
 truth of God, feoling your (Icpenclonce on Ilini, and cling- 
 ing to the hope of dwelling in his presence in heaven. 
 
 It is doubtful whether after our separation a few days 
 hence we will all meet again in this world. Whether we 
 meet again on earth let us cherish the hope of all meeting 
 — no wanderer lost — in heaven, there to sing the song of the 
 redeemed. But let us inquire this day whether we are pre- 
 pared to join in that song. " IN'o man could learn that song 
 but the hundred and forty and four thousand which were 
 redeemed from the earth." The kingdom of heaven is a 
 choir in which every one has to take his part, and the soul 
 unprepared would feel itself to be a discordant note. The 
 universe we have seen is a harmony, a harmony with God, 
 a harmony in itself — the only discordance arising from sin. 
 But suppose that you are out of this harmony being still in 
 your sins, that you are at war with God, and with war rag- 
 ing in your souls. Put the supposition, that in this state 
 you are taken to heaven. Would you feel thai to be the 
 place for you? Would not the holiness that shines there 
 be as painful to look upon, as to gaze forever with unveiled 
 eyes on the full radiance of the noonday sun ? Would not 
 the brightness of the light only shew your blackness in 
 darker and more hideous colors ? The happiness that reigns 
 there would only make you the more to feel your own mis- 
 ery. I believe that if you were to carry an unconverted 
 sinner to heaven, he would flee out of it as of all places to 
 him the most intolerable. 
 
 The song is sung in heaven, but it is learned on earth. 
 It is a new^ song, diflerent from the old songs which you 
 first learned, of earthly war, or love, or fame ; it is a song 
 coming from a soul which has fought with sin and over- 
 come it, and filled with affection to Him who has enabled 
 it to gain the victory. " He hath put a new song in my 
 mouth, even praise to our God." The saints must learn it 
 on earth, if they are to sing it in heaven. We live and 
 
29 
 
 walk in the midst of harmonics, and wu must sti'ivc to bring 
 ourselves into accordance with them : as the Stoics sternly 
 expressed it, " living according to nature," according to the 
 eternal FatiDH^ or word spoken by the all wise God ; or as 
 the scriptures would have us, living and breathing in love. 
 All the lessons of Providence, all the trials we come through, 
 are so ordered as to foster this spirit, and to bring our minds 
 into accordance with the mind and will of God. In the 
 concert in the temple above are many toned voices, each 
 singing in its own Avay but all in unison. The plaintive 
 notes show that there are souls there which have been sorely 
 wounded in the battle ; the more triumphant show that they 
 have gained the victory. The song is sung in broken tones 
 on earth, it is sung in exultant strains in heaven. Xor do 
 the saints become weary in this service. Their hearts are 
 in unison with their song, and as they behold more of God 
 and of the Lamb they find new themes of praise, new mat- 
 ter for wonder and for thankfulness. 
 
 I believe that in their resurrection bodies, the saints 
 will he literally engaged iu singing the song of Moses and 
 the Lamb. But we may understand th language in a wider 
 sense. It nuiy be regarded as pointing to a music in the 
 soul, to a harmony in the thoughts, the words and the em- 
 ployments. Every being in glory will be engaged in a work 
 suited to his gifts, his tastes and attainments. Here a 
 seraph, which signifies fire, will be engaged in a work of 
 perfect love; here a cherub, which signifies mind, will be 
 absorbed in a work of perfect intellect. " It doth not yet 
 appear what we shall be;" but this I believe, that every 
 faculty, every acquisition gained at school or college, or in 
 the training of Providence, will be employed — not idle or 
 running waste, but employed in tlie service of God : — of a 
 wise God, who will allot to every one iiis suitflblc work, the 
 work for whicli he is fitted, for which indeed he has been 
 
30 ' 
 
 prepared, bj his original talents, his acquired accomplish- 
 ments, and all the training through which he has been put 
 in life and at death ; of a good God, who employs his crea- 
 tures in doing good, and makes them happy in the doing of 
 it, so that all their work is doubly blessed, blessed to the 
 doer and blessed also to those for whom it is done.