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 (T'jjr Sininu $tmm n fitppnrt to lummit /rntlttj." 
 
 SERMON 
 
 PREACHED IN THE 
 
 BRATTLE SQUARE CHURCH, 
 
 r 
 
 ON THE SUNDAY SUCCEEDING THE DEATH OF 
 
 ^ HON. DANIEL WEBSTER 
 
 15 T 
 
 REV. S. K. LOTHROP 
 
 PUBLISHED BY REUUKST. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 1852. 
 
 EASTBURN'S PRESS. 
 

 
SERMON. 
 
 GENESIS, xlviii, 81. 
 "BEHOLD I DIE — BUT GOD SHALL BE WITn TOU." 
 
 Thus did the patriarch Jacob, as the hour of death 
 approached, address his children. He on whose wisdom 
 they had leaned, whose counsel had been their guide, 
 whose presence had been their joy, he who had been 
 the central point to which their affections through long 
 years had ever turned with filial confidence and a deep 
 reverence, — -he was to depart. That voice that had so 
 often thrilled their souls was to be hushed ; that eye 
 that had gleamed with the lustre of a noble intellect, 
 strong in faith and devout in purpose, was to be closed; 
 the earthly counsels that had guided, and the earthly 
 love that had blessed them, were to be theirs no more. 
 Death demanded his prey, and death is absolute and 
 inexorable. The Shepherds of Canaan, perplexed and 
 sorrowful, are to be left alone in the land of Egypt, 
 
without that central light that had guided them, with- 
 out that paternal voice that spoke with the authority 
 of wisdom and of years. 
 
 But the patriarch knew in whom he had trusted, 
 and in whom his children could still confide, be- 
 neath whose care they would ever be safe. Briefly 
 and beautifully does he comfort their hearts and his 
 own with a sublime truth. " Behold I die, but God 
 shall be with you." Amid the chances and changes 
 of earth, the trials and calamities of life, this is the 
 great consolation. There is a God, almighty, all 
 wise, all merciful, whose will is the law, whose wis- 
 dom is the guide, whose love the stay and blessing 
 of the universe. There is a God ; we know this or we 
 know nothing; we may refuse to believe more, we 
 must believe this. The universe did not create itself, 
 its elements do not govern themselves. They are kept 
 in order and harmony, not by a will that is in them but 
 by a will that is above them. There is one who speaks 
 and it is done, who commands and it stands fast, and in 
 Him we may trust. Other things may prove to be shad- 
 ows, false, fleeting, vain; God is an eternal reality. 
 Other things may change. Friends may depart or prove 
 treacherous ; kindred may die or grow cold ; fortune 
 may fail or be cankered in its enjoyment, but God re- 
 mains the refuge and the stay of them that trust in 
 him. He is with us and ever shall be with us. 
 
And this God is our God, the framer of our bodies, 
 the father of our spirits, the disposer of our lot. "We 
 did not create ourselves. We are not original and self 
 existent. We feel, we know that some mighty and 
 creative power breathed into us the breath of life, 
 gave us these frames that are fearfully and wonderfully 
 made ; gave us these intelligent, thinking, conscious 
 souls, which are crowned with the fearful glory of im- 
 mortality and accountableness. And this creative pow- 
 er still owns us, has an absolute possession of us, ex- 
 ercises a paternal providence over us. We are allowed 
 a measure of freedom, of self-government, that through 
 action and co-operation, we may make progress toward 
 that perfect holiness and happiness which are the pur- 
 pose of God in our being. But because of this measure 
 of freedom, we often forget how absolutely we are God's 
 and not our own, how completely we are dependent 
 upon him. Strictly speaking we have no ownership of 
 ourselves, no absolute possession even of the soul itself. 
 It is God's soul and not ours. He created it and not 
 we. Its essence is unknown to us. Its action, the 
 birth of its first thought and of every thought is a pro- 
 found enigma to us. It is subject to influences beyond 
 our reach or control. Its memory, — we cannot forbid 
 that, that it go not back along the track of the past, 
 call up the scenes of other years, bring before us 
 
6 
 
 the forms, pour into our ears the voices of those who 
 have long slept in dust ; and thus fill our hearts with 
 sadness. Its imagination — we can forbid that, that it 
 transport us not into the future, make present and 
 visible what has never been and may never be, and thus 
 fill us with fearful apprehensions. Its conscience, — we 
 cannot make that slumber forever. We cannot lull it 
 with opiates that shall never fail. We cannot despise 
 it, and trample upon it and subdue it, and thus forbid 
 that it go not back to some hour of sin and wrong-do- 
 ing, and bring it all up before the soul with terrible 
 distinctness, and beneath the very darkness and soli- 
 tude of midnight, make us blush with shame, and weep 
 bitter and scalding tears. Ah, Brethren, it may be well, 
 it is well for man to remember his greatness, it is bet- 
 ter for him to remember his weakness. It may be well 
 for him to remember that he is made but little lower 
 than the angels and crowned with glory and honor, — 
 but never let him forsret who made him and crowned 
 him thus, — never let him forget that he always has been, 
 ever will be a dependent, absolutely dependent child of 
 God. 
 
 To this point of repose, a sense of dependence, of sub- 
 mission to the divine will, of trust in the divine good- 
 ness, does the patriarch direct the minds of his chil- 
 dren, " Behold I die, but God shall be with you." To 
 
this point of repose does the devout heart ever turn 
 amid the exigencies of life ; and it is only as the heart 
 reposes here, only as it rests on God with that clear and 
 abiding faith which Christ inspires, that it is strong, 
 either for the action or the endurance that may be de- 
 manded of it. Sometimes there are sharp and sudden 
 conflicts with evil, in which action, brave, manly, coura- 
 geous action is required of the soul. There are stormy 
 passages in the sea of life, tempestuous gales, narrow 
 straits, frowning rocks, roaring breakers, and amid 
 these the bark that bears the destiny of a human soul 
 is sometimes tossed widely upon the waves of temptation 
 and driven madly by the winds of passion. Not a mo- 
 ment may be lost. Delay is destruction. Conscience 
 must instantly take the helm, and amid all the roar of 
 the elements, hear only and obey only the voice of God. 
 Faith must unfurl the chart of life, and amid all the in- 
 viting channels that offer, keep close to that one, narrow 
 and difficult, which Christ, the divine guide, has pointed 
 out. When such exigencies arise, and action, courage, 
 a great and steady endeavor is demanded, only the soul 
 that reposes on God can make that endeavor — only the 
 soul that feels his presence, is " strong in the Lord and 
 in the power of his might," is able to say, " I can do 
 all things through Christ's strengthening me," — only 
 this soul shall succeed and triumph in the strife. 
 
8 
 
 But sometimes simply endurance, a calm waiting, a 
 patient trust, a meek submission is demanded of us. 
 As the ship is sometimes exposed to the fury of the 
 elements, so sometimes it is becalmed. A dense, dark 
 fog encircles it ; no beacon light can be seen, no pilot 
 can be found, no answer is heard to its signal guns ; the 
 right pathway through the waters cannot be discerned ; 
 there is danger in motion and nothing remains for the 
 most experienced mariner but to be calm and quiet, to 
 wait God's time for the lifting up of the darkness, 
 the shining forth of the cheerful sun, and the incom- 
 ing of the favorable breeze. So is it sometimes in 
 life. The soul feels itself enveloped in darkness and 
 mystery. Inexplicable changes come upon it. Trial 
 and bereavement, a desert like desolation of solitude 
 and sorrow is appointed it ; no green spot appears, no 
 murmuring fountains gush up in the barren waste of its 
 pilgrimage. It can discern no pathway in the chang- 
 ing and uncertain sands. A starless night, a midnight 
 hour of darkness and doubt is upon it. It can do noth- 
 ing ; it must wait and trust, — wait for the day to dawn 
 and the day star to arise, — trust in God to lift up the 
 cloud of sorrow, to lighten the burden of trial, to 
 point out the way of duty, and lead the heart hi the 
 path of peace. Only the soul that feels God to be with 
 it, only the soul that leans upon an almighty arm, trusts 
 
9 
 
 the divine wisdom, reposes on the divine love, — only 
 this soul can thus endure, and be calm, patient, sub- 
 missive. Here is the great consolation ; and a blessed 
 and abundant consolation it is. God is with us and 
 shall ever be with us in the plenitude of his power, in 
 the wisdom and mercy of his providence. 
 
 " Human watch from harm can't ward us — 
 God will keep and God will guard us." 
 
 He, who sends the dew to the drooping flower, who 
 pours out the rain upon the thirsty grass, will send the 
 dew of his blessing, pour out the shower of his grace, of 
 his consolation and guidance upon the drooping, thirsty 
 and trusting soul. Human help may fail, but the rod 
 and the staff of God shall support us. Human wisdom, 
 the prophet, the counsellor and mighty man may de- 
 part, but the wisdom of God abides to illumine a new 
 generation, and guide his children in the way. This is 
 the great thought, — the universal presence and provi- 
 dence of God, — to which the patriarch turned for peace ; 
 and peace was poured into his soul. " Behold I die— 
 but God shall be with you." And every parent may 
 turn to it in the hour of death, and find it rich in con- 
 solation to his spirit. He dies but God shall be with 
 his children. Those children, whom his power can no 
 longer protect, his counsel guide, or his love bless, shall 
 
10 
 
 be upheld by a mightier arm, guided by a diviner wis- 
 dom, blessed by a holier love. God shall be with 
 them, and amid the great consolations of this thought, 
 the departing parent breathes his last in peace. The 
 patriot statesman may turn to it for light and hope, 
 in that dark hour when the shadow of death is upon 
 his eyelids and its chill upon his brow. He must die, 
 but God shall be with his country. That country he has 
 loved, honored and served, with a wide, unsectional, de- 
 voted patriotism ; his intellect has borne sway in her 
 councils, his eloquence has thrilled her listening senates, 
 his colossal wisdom has been a bulwark and a defence 
 to all her interests. But this can no longer be. Death 
 asserts its power; lie must depart, but God shall be 
 with his country ; its prosperity and power rest with 
 the Divine wisdom ; leaving them to that protection 
 his great patriot heart is at peace. The citizen may 
 turn to it, in the hour of his country's bereavement 
 and sorrow. A great light is extinguished, but the 
 fountain of all light abides. A great statesman, whose 
 genius could grapple with the most profound, unravel 
 the most perplexed, make clear the darkest and most 
 intricate themes of public policy, must go down to a 
 grave hallowed by a nation's reverence and regret, but 
 God is still with his country. There is a wisdom 
 mightier than that of man that shall guide its affairs,-— 
 
11 
 
 a divine love from which patriotism gathers all its in- 
 spiration, that shall preserve and bless it. In that wis- 
 dom he trusts, to that love he looks up and is at peace. 
 His country, in mourning and in tears, bereft of the 
 greatest of her sons, is still safe with God. I turned 
 to it myself, as a citizen and a man, I could not but 
 turn to it a week ago to-day, when in a distant city 
 the muffled tolling of the bells announced what all ex- 
 pected yet dreaded to hear, — an announcement which 
 as it travelled with the speed of lightning from city to 
 city, brought a shock to every heart, an expression of 
 thoughtful sadness to every countenance and spread 
 over all social life a gloom, more easily felt and shared 
 in, than described. 
 
 Though unable always to concur in all his opinions 
 on all public affairs, yet with hundreds of thousands in 
 the land, I had been accustomed from my earliest man- 
 hood, to regard Mr. Webster as a statesman with the 
 profoundest confidence and respect. There seemed to 
 be an almost unfathomable depth of wisdom and pene- 
 tration in his giant intellect. One felt that so long as 
 he lived, come what would, there would be one among 
 us mighty enough for any emergency that might hap- 
 pen to the country, whose voice would be heard, and 
 whose influence on public affairs and public opinion 
 would be felt, whatever might be his station or office. 
 
12 
 
 Thus regarding him, and feeling that no one man liv- 
 ing among us was his equal, in grasp and power of 
 mind, his death was to me as to all, a shock which 
 threw me hack at once upon my trust in Providence as 
 the guardian and the guide of nations, and the words 
 of the patriarch in the text, came up to my mind as a 
 consolation and a solace, under the irreparahle loss our 
 own nation had sustained. 
 
 It is not for the pulpit to speak Mr. Webster's eulo- 
 gy, recount his services, delineate his character, and 
 determine his place on the world's great roll of fame. 
 This will he done, and more appropriately done by 
 some one competent to the theme, in that field where 
 he won his laurels and did his great work for the coun- 
 try and the world. But his death is an event which 
 the pulpit cannot and ought not to leave unnoticed. It 
 is an event which has every where produced a profound 
 sensation in our own land. It will be recognized 
 throughout the world as an event to be lamented — a 
 large diminution of the world's living wisdom. It is an 
 event which to many of us, members of this church 
 and society, where for more than a quarter of a cen- 
 tury, and so long as he had a domicil in the city, he 
 was commonly accustomed to worship and commune, 
 brings up many pleasant and hallowed associations, 
 which we woidd not forget, and upon which death 
 lias now set his seal of sacrcdiicss. 
 
13 
 
 Of the intellectual greatness of Mr. Webster there can 
 be but one opinion. The amount and value of the ser- 
 vices he rendered to his country during more than forty 
 years of active public life can hardly be over-estimated. 
 What Milton was among the poets, what Bacon was 
 among philosophers, such was Mr. Webster among ora- 
 tors and statesmen,' — great among the greatest. In his 
 speeches and writings, there is a solid and sublime depth 
 of thought, an elevation of tone and a simple grandeur 
 of idea and illustration, that will cause them to live, to 
 be studied and to command admiration, so long as the 
 Anglo-Saxon language has a name on the earth. In 
 our own country, through all coming time, generation 
 after generation will be guided and instructed by some 
 of the great thoughts he uttered, the great constitu- 
 tional principles he defended, hi speeches replete with 
 all the splendors of eloquence, breathing a majestic 
 spirit of patriotism, and combining all the force and 
 solidity of truth. The permanent value of some of 
 these speeches, in the constant use and application 
 which will be made of their principles to the right in- 
 terpretation of the Constitution and the wise adminis- 
 tration of our affairs, cannot be calculated. " I still 
 live " are reported as the last words of his expiring 
 consciousness. As the defender and expounder of the 
 Constitution, and so long as the Union which recog- 
 
u 
 
 nizcs that Constitution as its organic law shall last, it 
 may be said of him " He still lives." 
 
 In private conversation, one was often led to notice 
 the manner in which by a brief, terse, epigrammatic 
 sentence, he would combine and lay before you the 
 whole philosophy of a subject. 
 
 I recollect one instance of this, so striking, and as 
 subsequent events have proved, such a foreshadowing 
 of his own fate, as to make it doubly interesting now 
 and worthy of being related. 
 
 Some twelve or fifteen years ago, during a brief 
 visit to this city, made shortly after one of his cel- 
 ebrated speeches in the Senate of the United States, 
 his friends in the Legislature of Massachusetts, then 
 in session, gave him a public meeting or reception at 
 Concert Hall. On this occasion, one gentleman in 
 addressing the persons assembled, said in reference 
 to some individuals then high in office in the Fed- 
 eral Government, that their names would not live 
 in history ; that they held prominent offices, but had 
 rendered no great services to the country, and there- 
 fore had secured no permanent place in the country's 
 gratitude, no imperishable name to be familiar as 
 household words with the future generations of its 
 children. This was the idea, illustrated and urged 
 with much eloquent rhetoric. Happening at this mo- 
 
 .L.Oi (J. 
 
15 
 
 ment to be standing next to Mr. Yv r cbster, a little apart 
 from the speaker, I called his attention to this part of 
 the speech, with the remark that it was a good point, 
 well pnt, &c. He replied in a whisper, stooping over to 
 my ear, so as not to interrupt the speaker, " What a 
 
 MAN DOES FOR OTHERS, NOT WHAT OTHERS DO FOR HIM 
 
 gives him immortality ;" and then for an instant he 
 turned on me his grand, massive countenance, lighted 
 up with one of those momentary, brilliant, but often 
 somewhat sad and sorrowful smiles that occasionally 
 played upon it, as if, even at that hour he felt that 
 this would probably be his own fate ; that the highest 
 office in the gift of his country would never be his, but 
 that a deathless name in his country's history would be 
 achieved without it. 
 
 Mr. Webster's moral nature was on the same scale 
 of grandeur with his intellectual. He had a keen and 
 clear perception on all moral and religious subjects, 
 and when he spoke on these themes, as I have often 
 heard him in private intercourse, he treated them with 
 the hand of a master, as themes which were familiar to 
 his thoughts. His argument in the Gerard will case, — 
 in which he aims to show that morality cannot be 
 taught without religion as its basis, and that a public 
 school such as Mr. Gerard contemplated, in which all 
 recognition of religion was forbidden, and all instruc- 
 
16 
 
 tion in it absolutely prohibited, was a nuisance, an in- 
 jury and a wrong to society and not a charity, and that 
 therefore the will ought not to stand, — this argument, 
 one of his efforts not the least honorable to his memo- 
 ry, affords conclusive evidence that the great topics of 
 morality and religion which it discusses were things 
 which he felt and understood, whose truths he received, 
 and perfectly comprehended their important bearing 
 irpon individual virtue, upon social prosperity and hap- 
 piness. Indeed Mr. Webster's nature was of neces- 
 sity religious, — that is, it was too great a nature to 
 be sceptic or infidel. He believed. Faith, as a sen- 
 timent, or moral instinct, was an essential element 
 of his being. Of whatever faults or failings in prac- 
 tice, he may have been guilty, if in him, as in all 
 of us, human frailty and sin had their hour of mani- 
 festation and triumph, this is clear, — it will be ad- 
 mitted by all who have been personally intimate with 
 him, — that like all men of true genius, of the high- 
 est intellectual endowments, he had a profound sen- 
 timent of religious reverence, a lively religious sen- 
 sibility and a firm religious faith. He was educated in 
 the spirit and principles of New England Congrega- 
 tionalism. Early in life, he professed his christian 
 faith by becoming a member of the First Congrega- 
 tional Church of Salisbury, N. H. At Portsmouth he 
 
17 
 
 attended the church of which the Rev. Dr.-Buckmins- 
 ter was then pastor and on his removal to this city, he 
 purchased a pew in this church, and was for many 
 years a constant worshipper and communicant with 
 us* Formerly, while I sustained to him distinctly 
 
 * There was nothing narrow, bigotted or sectarian about Mr. Webster's reli- 
 gious opinions, and the attempt which seems to have been made in some quarters 
 to claim him as of this or that school of Theology, has little to sustain it As 
 he had occasion or opportunity he could worship and commune with all churches 
 which permitted him to do so. The evidences of Christianity, its supernatural 
 character, and the bearing of this upon the authority of Christ, the reverence due 
 to him, were points which he had examined-but many dogmas about which sects 
 are contending seem never to have interested his mind. He was educated m the 
 spirit and principles of New England Congregationalism. The only direct pro- 
 fession of faith he ever made was in joining a Congregational Church; during 
 the greater part of his life he worshipped constantly at a Congregational Church, 
 and for more than twenty years, worshipped, communed, acted and voted as a 
 member of a Congregational Church, whose creed or covenant introduces no dis- 
 puted doctrine of Christian Theology, but simply demands of its members " a 
 belief in the Holy Scriptures as a revelation of the mind and will of God to men 
 for their salvation, repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ as 
 the promised Mesiah, and Saviour of the world." Subsequently domestie rela- 
 tions led him to worship commonly at an Episcopal Church, but he was never 
 "confirmed "as a member of that Church; and while doubtless in the catholic 
 spirit which all should cherish, he respected and honored its ministry and its in- 
 stitutions, and among its members, both clergy and laity, numbered many valued 
 friends, their is no evidence that he had any such special faith in its articles, or 
 ritual, Is compared with those of other denominations, as to authorize the claim 
 that he was peculiarly or exclusively a member of that church. So far as is 
 known to the writer, and it could not well have been done without his knowledge, 
 Mr. Webster never by any formal act withdrew his relations from the Congrega- 
 tional Church, and without this withdrawal, he could not, with any just respect 
 for himself or the Congregational Church, or for whatever other communion he 
 proposed to enter, become technically a church member in any other denomina- 
 tion. This subject is alluded to by the writer not because he deems it of the 
 slightest importance, but because it is the most convenient way of answering a 
 lar-e number of letters addressed to him making inquiries upon this point. 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 the office of pastor, I had frequent conversations with 
 him upon religious subjects; in these conversations 
 and while speaking from the pulpit, I have often had 
 occasion to notice his evident emotion. His religious 
 impressibility was great, and his religious feelings were 
 always easily moved by an earnest and affectionate ap- 
 peal from the preacher. At one interview, which I had 
 with him, he made a declaration so strong and graphic, 
 that it has remained upon my memory, as if engraved 
 with the point of a diamond. On the day that inter- 
 vened between the funeral of his daughter, Mrs. Apple- 
 ton, and that of his son, Major Edward Webster, at 
 whose obsequies I had been summoned to officiate, I 
 called on him to express my sympathy in his double 
 bereavement. Our salutation at meeting was a silent 
 wringing of the hand ; neither of us spoke for some 
 time. He was the first to break the silence, which he 
 did in these words, after an evident but only partially 
 successful effort at composure, " I feel Mr. Lothrop, 
 at this hour that all that constitutes the glory and dig- 
 nity of man is contained in the religion of Jesus. We 
 have nothing and can turn to nothing but that. If 
 my friends should not think it savored of presump- 
 tion or vanity, I could wish to leave on my tombstone 
 at Marshfield only this inscription, ' He was a believer 
 in the religion of Jesus. ' This sentence, uttered an- 
 
19 
 
 der such circumstances, in that deep-toned voice, com- 
 ing from that grand, intellectual countenance, his sturdy 
 form quivering all over with emotion, made an impres- 
 sion that I can never forget. To deny that he then 
 felt with deepest sincerity what he uttered, would be 
 the extreme of cruelty and injustice. What one of us 
 lives up constantly to his best hours, his best emotions, 
 his highest thoughts and aims'? Let him, and hhn 
 only, who is without sin among us, cast the first stone 
 at his memory. He has done enough things good and 
 great to be remembered ; let the evil if there was any 
 be forgotten. He has gone to answer to a higher tri- 
 bunal than that of man's judgment. He has gone be- 
 yond the reach of party strife, of political envy or 
 hatred, of earthly care or trouble. Let not these min- 
 gle in the emotions which his death awakens, or inter- 
 fere with the just respect with which we should cher- 
 ish his memory. That death, which could never have 
 occurred without making the pulse of the nation beat 
 with the throb of regret, receives an additional force 
 and impressiveness from the time and circumstances 
 under which it occurred, and the events of the few last 
 months. In the midst of an exciting electioneering 
 campaign, himself one of the claimants and candidates 
 for the highest office in the gift of the country, when 
 his name is bruited all over the land, with blame or 
 
20 
 
 praise, eulogy or censure, according to the parties that 
 speak of him, and only a few days before the great con- 
 test itself is to be decided, death strikes him to the 
 dust, blots out his name from among the living, leaves 
 only his lifeless remains to be deposited in the silent 
 grave. Who does not think of the Psalmist's declara- 
 tion " verily every man living at his best estate is alto- 
 gether vanity." We do not wonder that men pause 
 and look at each other with thoughtful countenances. 
 We do not wonder that there is a momentary lull even 
 hi the storm of political strife. It would be strange if 
 it were not so. Here is the whole nation brought as 
 it were into the very presence of death, that it may 
 learn a lesson of the insignificance and vanity of those 
 baubles of human ambition for which men strive, 
 struggle, toil with such intense devotion, such un- 
 ceasing effort and sacrifice. God in mercy grant that 
 the lesson may not be unheeded. God grant that 
 this signal providence may be sanctified to the best 
 good of the nation. May it humble our pride, check 
 our presumption, chasten our devotion to material in- 
 terests and our trust in them. May it turn our hearts 
 to God, and help us so to live in obedience to his great 
 laws, in conformity to his holy will, that we may feel 
 assured that " he will be with " and his blessing be 
 upon us even as it was upon our fathers. 
 

 
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