ec 
 
 L FT NEflDE 
 DoNot Serve 
 
.3 a 
 
 SERMON. 
 
 , FT MEfiDE 
 iDoNoi Serve 
 
 Luke 2, 49 — Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business. 
 
 This is the answer of Jesus to his parents, when they found him at the age of 
 twelve years discussing with the Jewish Doctors the principles of Hebrew law, and 
 showing, even then, a wisdom superior to all the learning of their schools. His 
 parents gently reproved him, and referred to the au.xiety which his absence had 
 caused them. 
 
 The te.Yt is his reply. He intended to say that He had a work on hand which 
 required that every effort of life should be centered u[>on*th.it alone : that his 
 Heavenly Father's business must take precedence of all else, even of the duties 
 which He owed to his earthly parents. 
 
 Hee-xpressed the same sentiment afterward, when he said to his Disciples : " I 
 have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am 1 straitened till it be 
 accomplished/' 
 
 Virtually, these passages are a statement of the following important fact : 
 
 Nothing truly great has been, or can be, accomplished in the absence of one 
 central idea, one controlling purpose, to which all else must bend, and to which, 
 if need be, all else must be sacrificed. 
 
 I will add, as involved in this statement, that the great forces of the soul can be 
 brought into action only by what is true, and pure, and noble, something truly- 
 worthy of a creature made in the image of God. The noblest faculties, even, of 
 the intellect will not work in view of what tends to corrupt or degrade ourselves, 
 or injure in any manner our fellow-men. 
 
 The human mind is a heavenly machine, devised for right noble purposes, and 
 it does not perform well when doing a devil's work. Of course, these principles 
 are applicable to nations as well as to individuals. 
 
 I will add, also, this proposition: The noblest faculties of man are never 
 brought into full exercise except under the power of the religious sentiment, when 
 the soul burns with loyalty to Christ, and enthusiasm for his cause, and thns only 
 can any nation reach the full measure of its possible greatness. 
 
 Even when the religious sentiment is wrongly directed, when it becomes super- 
 stition or fanaticism, even then, it generates a force mightier far than j.ll else, 
 except a true Christian enthusiasm. I will try to illustrate these propositions : 
 
 First. By reference to the lives of men illustrious in history, some aiming at 
 dtstinction, power and fame, aud others working under the influence of religious 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 Second. By showing that each form of civilization has its own leading/ idea, and 
 each great Power of earth has become mighty in pursuit of some great purpose 
 which could arouse and direct the energies of its people. 
 
 Third By the fact that each great movement of the Church has originated in, 
 and been guided by, some grand central thought. 
 
 Fourth. I will inquire what has been the central thought of our civilization 
 heretofore, and whether the nation is working now under the inspiration of any 
 sufficiently great and noble idea? 
 
 Alexander of Greece is an example of one acting under the power of what, in 
 J,he light of this world only, must be called a great idea. His Eastern march was 
 not merely a raid on a grand scale, to gratify a mad desire for slaughter or 
 conquest. His mind was filled with a nobler thought. He had studied the 
 grandeur of those old Eastern enapires, Babylon, Assyria, Egypt and Persia. He 
 saw how their greatness had been derived from the wealth of India, and how, on 
 this East Indian commerce, they had built their splendid cities. 
 
r< 
 
 HousK OF Representatives, 
 
 Washington, Feb. 25, 1867. 
 Dr. C. B. Boyntox, 
 
 Chaplain to the Uouse of Representatives : 
 Reverend and Dear Sib — The uadersigned members of Cont,'ress, hiivinK had 
 the pleasure of hearing your excellent sermon delivered in the Hall of the House 
 on yesterday, and Ijelievino- that its dissemination will advance the great political 
 ideas espoused and enforced by the friends of freedom in all lands, together with 
 the cause of Evangelical religion, resulting in a redeemed and desenthralled 
 humanity, respectfully and earnestly ask that a copy thereof be furnished for 
 publication at your earliest convenience. 
 
 As co-workers with you, and good men everywhere, in the central idea of 
 
 FREEDOM FOR ALL and PROTECTION TO ALL, 
 
 We are your sincert^ friends, 
 
 H. S. BDNDY, 
 
 C. D.HUBBARD, 
 J. W. McCLURG, 
 
 D. MORRIS, 
 
 SAMURL L WARNER. 
 S. SHELLABARGER. 
 P. SAVVyp:R, 
 AMASA COBB, 
 
 W. C. WASHBURN. 
 G. N. MILLER. 
 
 Washington, Februarp 27, J 867. 
 Hon. H. S. Bundy, and others : 
 
 Gentlemen — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your kind and 
 encouraging note of the 25th, asking for a copy of my sermon preached in the Hall 
 of the House on the 24th of this month. Ne.xt to the approbation of my Lord and 
 Master, I ])rize the good opinion and kind wishes of the noble and true hearted 
 ones with whom 1 have been permitted to have some humble share during the 
 sessions of the Thirty-Ninth Congress. 
 
 The manuscript will be placed at your disposal. 
 
 Very respectfully and truly your ob't serv't, 
 
 CHARLES B. BOYNTON. 
 
His great idea was to restore the splendor of the East by one vast empire under 
 his control, with Alexandria for its western commercial metropolis. This great 
 purpose sustained him in his career of conquest, his soul expanding to the lofty 
 stature of the grand idea. • 
 
 Had he succeeded, he would ha^e changed the aspect of the world. But the 
 design of the Macedonian had in it no religious element, and did not move the 
 soul's noblest powers ; did not lift him above the control of the lowest sensuality, 
 and great as his idea in one aspect was, it could not save him from degrading 
 himself, or from perishing like a brute at Babylon. 
 
 A similar remark may be made in regard to the first Bonaparte. It was not the 
 mere excitement of strife, a passion fo-* war, a thirst for blood, that tempted him 
 to cover Europe with corpses, the wreck of battle, and the fragments of thrones. 
 His mind wrought under the intense excitement of what the world calls a gieat 
 idea. He was dazzled by the glory of the Empire of Charlemagne, when his France 
 Wrt^the undisputed mistress of Europe, and his purpose was to strike down every 
 European Power, and set up instead the one Imperial throne of France. His idea 
 was of the earth, earthy, there was no purpose to elevate humanit}', and no 
 recognition of Chiist, and it perished, as it should have done, with its author. 
 Perished, 1 mean, in that particular form, for, as we shall see, it still lives under 
 another aspect. 
 
 These examples will easily suggest many others, showing what mighty forces 
 great ideas are, how they convulse society like earthquakes, and change th'e destiny 
 of nations. Even when injurious and wicked, they have this terrible power. 
 
 Let us turn to some nobler examples. We- will spend a moment on the great 
 Hebrew leader, Moses. 
 
 By his adoption iuto the family of Pharaoh, he became the heir apparent to the 
 Egyptian throne. Tradition asserts that he was commander-in-chief of the 
 Egyptian armies — the foremost among the princes of the Kingdom. He had njastered 
 all the learning of Egypt, and that embraced then the science and literature of the 
 world. Next to the King, he was the most distinguished man of the realm, but he 
 was still ip heart a Hebrew, and saw with grief and indignation the wrongs*of his 
 people. 
 
 The subject lay upon his heart, making him sad amid all his greatness, and his 
 soul wrought with it till emotions and desires shaped themselves to the form of a 
 purpose, which, at length, by a single event, became the fixed and definite object 
 •of his life. 
 
 While meditating one day upon the oppressions of his countrymen, he saw a 
 cruel outrage committed upon one of his people, and while his heart was hot, be 
 slew the Egyptian, and thus avenged his brother. By this act, typical of the future 
 deliverance, he was forced into exile ; but from that hour the purpose to deliver 
 his people became the controlling one of his life. 
 
 Doubtless, he resolved it often, while attending the flocks amid the valleys over 
 which towered the cloud wrapt peaks of Horab and Sinai. For forty years no way 
 opened ; though, unknown to him, God was training him on the very scene of his 
 future glory. He little thought that, during all this period, he was dwelling on 
 the very spot which would become the chief theatre for accomplishing the great 
 idea of his earlier years. 
 
 It is probable that he often dismissed it from his thoughts, and felt that all his 
 operations were vaiu, and that he would die only the simple keeper of his father's 
 flocks. 
 
 But when called at length by God to execute the purpose which he had formed 
 forty years before, from that moment he moved under the double power of a lofty 
 idea, and of intense religious enthusiasm. He confronted, rebuked, and at length 
 defied the proudest monarch of the world, on his own throne, and in the presence 
 of his guards and nobles. 
 
 His great thought, and his faith in Jehovah, were mightier than the strength of 
 Egypt. Under the pressure of his great purpose, he led his people boldly into the 
 awful gorge of the parted sea, and trusted nearly three millions of people, with 
 their flocks and herds, to a wilderness where neither food nor water could he 
 procured, except by miracle, and yet he faltered not, filled with his great idea. 
 And so pressed in spirit was he to see his work accomplished, that when his peopl* 
 
had siaued, and God seemed about to destroy them, he even remonstrated with 
 Jehovah, and declared that he would rather die there and then, than fail in his 
 design. 
 
 How God honored this loftiness of soul, this steady devotion to a great conception ! 
 From the time wften he left the Court of Pharaoh and fled to the desert, to the time 
 of his death, he was a noble example of the resistless power of a great idea, if the 
 might of the human mind, when inspired by a lofty thought, and held steady to 
 the one heroic purpose. 
 
 Though confronted by the power of Egypt, though an ocean rolled across his 
 path, and the nowling wilderness was beyond ; though treachery and sedition 
 plotted within, and foes assailed from without ; though that sister, who had 
 watched him with throbbing heart when floating in his rush cradle on the waters 
 of the Nile, joined herself to his enemies, and even his brother fell into idolatry, 
 still, upheld by God and the power of his own heroic purpose, he stood unshaken 
 amid all, and when denied that last achievement to which all former effort had 
 been directed, when forbidden to Cross the Jordan with his people, as the Irtst act 
 of his life, he scaled the rocky peaks that overlook Judea, and on the bare pinnacle 
 sat him dow.n to die. with his last look fixed on the land of his hopes, the last 
 throb of his heart atill true to the idea which he formed full eighty years 
 before, when he slew an oppressor of his people and buried him in the sands of 
 Egypt. 
 
 Deborah, with the heart of a hero in a woman's breast, presents another 
 beautiful example of the power of a noble purpose. She saw that the liberty and 
 the manhood of her countrymen both were gone, trodden down together under the 
 heel of the Philistine. So abject were they that they were forbidden to bear arms, 
 and not a smith was allowed in Israel, lest he should forge some weapon for 
 deliverance. 
 
 Her soul was roused under the inspiration of God, and she sent a prophet 
 sumpions through the land, and though Reuben had great searchings of heart, 
 which ended in his remaining neutral at home, and ijan loved his ships better 
 than his country, and Asher would not risk his fine farms on the creeks, her stir- 
 ring message rallied the ten thousand to Tabor, and literally, on the wings of the 
 storm, they rushed down, and swept the hosts of Sisera away, and the might of 
 human enthusiasm was greater than the tornado and deluge of the mountains. 
 
 David, also, was nursed into greatness by the power of noble thoughts. From 
 the time when he was anointed by Samuel, his eye was fixed steadily on the star 
 of his destiny. The crown of Israel was the earthly object which was set before 
 him by God himself, and from that moment we behold him praying, fighting, and 
 singing his wa}' from the sbeepfold to the throne. And when he had won the 
 throne, and his mind turned to the noble conception of a Temple worthy of God 
 and the nation, the Lord told him that, although he could not build it, still it was 
 well for him to cherish in his soul the right royal thought. 
 
 Hildebrand launched into Europe a thought of transforming power. It was, as 
 all know, to 'subject all earthly power to the higher authority of the Church of 
 Christ, to teach the world that Jesus Christ is King of Kings. In itself it was a 
 great and true idea, and will yet be fully realized under the reign of the Lord. 
 
 Gregory made a false application of a true principle, but still the mighty power 
 of the idea is proved by the fact that it subjugated the greatest nations of Europe, 
 and to-day that conception of Hildebrand is the chief among all the external 
 forces which threaten the existence of our own Republic. I think this can be 
 briefly, yet clearly, shown. The thought of Hildebrand was to bring all the 
 world into subjection to the Church of Rome, and make the thrones of the nations 
 tributary to the Head of the Romish Church, and force the Imperial Head of civil 
 power to receive his authority from the hands of the Pope. 
 
 The first Bonaparte, as I have said, thought onlj-of making himself the imperial 
 head of Pvurope, rejecting the Pope, and so, when crowned with the iron crown 
 of Charlemagne, he would not receive it from the Pope, but put it on his head 
 with his own hands, to show bis independence of the Church. Rejectiug the 
 religious element, he failed. 
 
 Louis Napoleon, aided by the Jesuits, has united these two conceptions of the 
 spiritual supremacy of the Church, and the civil Empire of Charlemagne, intending 
 to blend them both in France, and make her the double head of Europe, the 
 
Church and the Empire being thus united in their Lordship over the world. This 
 is the key to the Crimean war. The idea was to cripple Russia aud the Greek 
 Church, and restore the Eastern Empire to Rome. This was the meaning of his 
 attack on Ausliia, to give France the supremacy in Europe. This is the meaning 
 of the invasion of .Mexico, and his sympathy with the rebels, the destruction of the 
 Republic and our Protestant faith. Nor is this idea by any means abandoned. The 
 contest for the possession of this continent is yet to come Those who suppose 
 that henceforth we are to live in peace with Western Europe, will, ere long, 
 perhaps, be undeceived. Rome has not given up the hope of controlling this 
 Western world, and England desires, as earnestly as ever, to check her Republican 
 rival. She is hastening to shape a consolidated monarchy to limit us on the North, 
 and Rome is plotting still for the "Southwestern Empire," which shall stop our 
 southward imarch, and restore the prestige of the Latin race and Latin church. 
 
 The strength and enduring life of this idea of Hildebrand are shown by its 
 becoming, after centuries have passed, one of the great forces that move our modern 
 world. It was true in its main conception, but false and injurious in its applica- 
 tion to the Church of Rome; yet, nevertheless, in the power of this old thought 
 that church is preparing both here and in Europe, for one last, great struggle for 
 the control of the world 
 
 Simply as a religious sect, as one among the churches of the world, the Romish 
 Church is welcome to make here her experiment. But if she assumes the form of 
 a vast political enL'ine, wielded by the thrones, the aristocracies, and the hierarchies 
 of Europe, sbe must be regarded as an antagonism to the Republic. 
 
 I must pass by most of the examples of great men who have been made such by 
 the power of some noble purpose, but will ask your attention a moment to Paul. 
 He was great even in his wickedness, tie persecuted on a grand scale, and worked 
 with a cruel enthusiasm that made every Christian in Judea tremble. It was the 
 force of the thirsty tiger, the enthusiasm of an infuriate partisan. But when 
 stricken down by the light which flashed through body and soul he was prepared 
 for the nobler Christian idea, the salvation, instead of the destruction, of men. 
 And when he had surveyed this new field, the vision filled his soul. "It;ount 
 all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ«Jesus my Lord. 
 Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching forward to the things "that are 
 before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ." 
 But Jesus Christ, even as man, is the noblest example of all. His greatness as a 
 man was caused by the devotion of his whole soul to one ennobling purpose. It 
 was a heaven-born conception, and it exalted him above the earth. He trod under 
 foot its dominions and its honors. He had a loftier aim. Whfn the Satanic 
 tempter unrolled before Him the glories of all earthly kingdoms, the eye of Jesus 
 was fixed on a nobler vision — that of the delivered earth, made more glorious and 
 beautiful under His own peaceful sceptre. While the archangel exhibited an 
 earthlv thrcne, He beheld the loftier one which awaited Him in heaven. He 
 describes the concentration of the energies of His soul upon one idea when He says : 
 "I have a baptism to be baptised with, and how am I straitened till it be 
 accomplished?" Rank, on earth, power, fame, wealth, luxury, ease, had no charm 
 for Him. From the first hour of His public ministry He pressed right on to 
 Gethsemane, the cross, the tomb, the heavenly throne. 
 
 Under the secou^ head, I remark that every form of civilization assumes a 
 national type, and consists essentially in the development of a central national 
 idea, and great powers have arisen in the world when the main thought of a nation 
 has been connected with a well-considered and well-defined national policy. 
 
 The exhumed palaces of Ninevah — the temples and palaces, the pyramids and 
 monuments which form the gigantic mould'ering skeleton of Egypt — the ruins of 
 more beautiful Greece— each show traces of a civilization which is the outgrowth of 
 distinct national ideas. Jewish forms and Jewish thoughts were entirely different 
 from every other. In modern times, we find that Spain is quite distinct from Italy, 
 Germany resembles neither, Ireland and Scotland are unlike, and England, 
 France. Russia, each has a national purpose, life and character of its own. 
 
 The idea of France has been mentioned. To make herself the imperial mistress 
 of Europe, and also the head of the Roman Catholic Church controlling the world, 
 is her leading thought. Germany tends towards union and a national idea. 
 England at present is controlled by no great purpose. To escape revolution, to 
 save her throne, her aristocracy, and her wealth is her highest ambition 
 
Of all the nations of Europe, Russia now is working under the power of the 
 grandest national idea. She is endeavorinj? to lift seventy millions of people to 
 the hi)^h level of Christian civilization. !She is preparing to force the Turk out of 
 Euro|)e and restore the Greek Church over all its ancient territory. Her govern- 
 ment is based distinctly upon the religious idea. The Czar is the Patriarch and 
 High Priest of his people. Her territorial idea is certainly the grandest of modern 
 times, or not to be matched except by one which I think will yet be recognized as 
 our own. Russia intends to stretch herself from the Atlantic, across Northern 
 Europe and Asia to the Pacific, with Constantinople as one of tlie great centres of 
 her national lite. Russia is expanding to match the grandeurof her national idea. 
 
 These examples show that a national idea is the basis of national life, and that 
 idea must be a noble one if it exalts a nation. 
 
 1 next propose to show that each great movement of the church has been through 
 the power of oue central idea. The Apostolic Church wrought under the inspira- 
 tion of a noble purpose, and that purpose was born of the iSaviour's parting com- 
 mand : '• Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel unto every creature. 
 Bear the good news from Heaven abroad till every man of earth has heard the 
 tidings of deliverance." The grand conception of a world restoied to more than 
 its Eden glory — of all the millions of a ruined race made pure and hajjpy and 
 deathless again — the holy enthusiasm for such a leader as the Son of God — these 
 were sufficient to rouse every faculty of the man and sustain all in intense and 
 continuous action. 
 
 This spirit-energy was a resistless power. Well might Paul say they wielded 
 forces which through God were mighty. Without any of the means with which 
 the church is operating now — with no books, or printing press, or steam, or rail- 
 road, or telegraph — with no societies or other orgnnizations to lean en — travelling 
 mostly on foot, and supporting themselves — these early Christians, confronted by 
 Judaism and heathenism, in a single generation planted the Gospel in the whole 
 Roman world. Such is spirit-power, working under the influence of a noble idea, 
 and enthusiasm for such a leader as Christ. It filjs the measure of the soul, and 
 stirs it to its profoundest depths. 
 
 The Crusades present another impressive example of the power of a noble 
 thought, even wheu it has no important practical result. The originators of the 
 Crusades appealed directly to the mightiest forces that have ever moved the human 
 soul, zeal for a religion and enthusiasm for a religious leader. Those were ages 
 of faith, though qhcn blind and misdirected, and beneath the desire for military 
 adventure and glory there was an intense desire to extend the power of the church, 
 to reconquer that part of Christendom which the iMoslems had won, aud rescue 
 the sepulchre of our Lord from the pollution of the infidel. 
 
 These two thoughts had power to cause the populations of Europe to heave like 
 a surging sea, and rolled wave after wave of eager thousands on the shores of 
 Palestine Beyond all other forces, the religious sentiment has power to arouse 
 and sustain the might of the human soul. 
 
 Lutlier, too, shook Europe with a thought. He hurled a single idea against the 
 Papacy, and shattered half its structure. 
 
 To deliver Europe from the elegant heathenism of Rome, to bring back the 
 nations from a deceitful and corrupting formalism to the conception and experience 
 of a spiritual religion, was an idea inspired from Heavcu, |iud it wrought with a 
 Divine power and gave a new religious era to the world. 
 
 1 propose next to inquire whether the American mind is working under the 
 influence of any great idea, one of sufficient power to produce here a great and 
 noble nation, an enduring national life. 
 
 In order to answer this questioh, we must glance at the past that we may 
 understand the present. 
 
 The idea upon which this nation was founded was essentially a religious one. 
 There was in it much of the spiritof the Apostolic Church wheu it went forth from 
 Jerusalem to reclaim the waste and moral wilderness of heathenism. 
 
 The central idea of American Puritanism was to found here a State after the 
 Gospel model— /;>«<, for the honor and glory of Christ, and second, to secure 
 Christian freedom for man. 
 
 We can understand the grandeur of that idea. We can see why it sustained 
 and cheered, while it gave power and nobleness to that pilgrim band, encamjied 
 between the howl of the winter woods and the roar of the winter sea, when the 
 
 >L 
 
them and their English homes when flmfnV^r^^ miles of ocean rolled between 
 and death swept 'their chTeftkanS iSsfaw^^^^ 
 
 thought of founding a State for God InH fLn ^ V ^}\^''^ ^'""^ "'^ ^"^ ^'^""^ 
 tribulation of that s^orrowful wtt?;tiTderS°^^ ''''' 
 
 times dim with tears, fixed on the m'arTforthe pr?ze ^' '"'' '^""^^ '°"^- 
 
 produce heroic men and historic nations ^'^'<^"Sth. Thej are the ideas which 
 
 or^rSic:;:;^Si^::£;;^^j,as^rilS^s^s;'°"' r-. '--' 
 
 ideas began to shape our policy and our desKnv Onin^^ ' ^^'^l''}^^'- 'wading 
 tended to remove the moral an"^ regions S.si/of.ovrnn.ent'^ ^'T ^'"''^"'•^ 
 
 A second idea was the doctrine of State sovereignty which a^ tanahf r..» * a' 
 Je^n^raf^ir^^^'^^^^ "^^'^"^^ ^"^ -ndePedrptibl? JSelJ^STTf 
 
 tripitsroie^rA^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 Republic. The church was enslaved and the it 7 ^v'^''''' '^''' ^°''''^^' ^'^' ""'• 
 oui public affairs. All that then rematned as po s?Wet'r'?h/'' 'f"^^^'-^- ^-'o™ 
 porary and deceitful material prospeHu an?trtS. n,™"- "''7i ""'u' ^ ^'"- 
 gave itself with a blind and reckless enthSsksm It^^.r^. f /" T'^"" '^^ "=''^°^ 
 cry the wail, the prayer of the slS^^^L'd ^ „ doi« Amali^reHtLlf' ZT ''? 
 to fetter and silence its pulpits and shut ont r^l!„io V. "'""''^ed tself Jt agreed 
 policy, and so provoked^th'^, anger o? Ch?i4 It^lielded?o ^^'^"1' ^'"'^ ^^^''^ 
 oppressor, and even bartered its manhood for Jld^ul.t ^V '^^'"^",^ "' ^^^ 
 
 SSe^--j1,^S^-^ - 
 
 ir :^— ^^r-grf ^ftJE s£E^^^ -? r ^^ -^^ - -- 
 
 dimmed with the smTe of battle ut the ll'lU Tf^.'f' ''^'"''^ ''"°'^' ^"^ 
 there a.ain, and by the bapt m 'of ou gTe^^^^^^ was gleaming 
 
 more capable of national greatness ^ national agony, He made us once 
 
 suffering. After these sad eTne-i^nPnl w!V ^°,°'^ '^ perfected through 
 
 nationaf idea the gSconcemio™^ at ength to readopt as our 
 
 principles for the ^onor of Goi and t^e e v 1 ion of "the Jh ', ^T' °° ^^"''''''' 
 have come through a sea red with blood and ;«U^-?J / ^u'^ humanity. We 
 where we dug half a raillffngav°fhed1v natrons ofS^fir ' 1^^'"'^"'^'. 
 
 :TSst^;^SSrm-±^S^^^^^^^ 
 
 honor, and thanks to God, who insnired thpm Vitt, „ ^°*^^^ ^"^ national life and 
 the occasion, and who gav'eZn the victory T , p '? n-^' ^""^ 'jT ''"^ ^'1"'^' ^" 
 the Apocalypse, whichVas mo? alTy wounded and lhen'v«''H' ^5^' ''^^ '^"^'^ ^^^ 
 healed, andhe was more ferocious than before ' '^'^ '"''""^ ^^' 
 
 reS^o^^^H\^^^,;:^i;;nar^S Snl^^a^Jjf ''^L^-'^ -f ^e 
 two years in these halls have battled for the ri.rM ^ J^^ "^^^ ^'^'o ^O'" 
 
 was n'ever before arrayed S.Staitt any tkr;rhnr\'" 'T'''''''' ^' 
 resistless power of a\oble idea. "-Tl^ Ze'Tp^dTd 'i?.'^ac?irt?S, 111: 
 
,U™^"!^' "•■ ^"NUKt^:> 
 
 OoNot Sen 
 
 013 785 563 fi 
 
 grandeur of the ruling iliougdt, and tte rfucm^y.. to luc 
 
 ''second death," and ihat \s -without hope, and without a resurrection, ine legis- 
 lation of theT hirty-Ninth Congress forms a nobler declaration of national inde- 
 pendence than that of '7G. That was almost a miracle of courage and statesman- 
 ship, for its time, but this last matches the grander proportions of this new-born 
 age ;' and under it the nation starts into newness of life, a life derived from the 
 Gospel of Christ. 
 
 Let us analyze this now new, and yet our original, national idea, in order to 
 judge whether it is capable of producing a great nation. 
 
 First our territorial idea : It embraces this North American continent and the 
 adjacent West Indian Archipelago. I think the territorial charter for our nation 
 covers this, and to all this, Europe will yet be persuaded to yield her claim, and 
 these now foreign populations will gravitate tov.ards our stronger life. 
 
 This magnificent continent, whose very unity of structure shows that it was 
 designed for one undivided dominion, presents a theatre unmatched by that of any 
 other power of e^rth, and we now propose to i)ut it to right noble uses. The 
 action of the Thirty-Ninth Congress, and especially that of the last few days, has 
 placed this Republic in a position where it must be acknowledged as the leader of 
 nations. This legislation has presented to the world a model of government more 
 nearly conformed to the letter and spirit of the Gospel— more worthy, in theory 
 at least, to be called a Christian State than any earth has known. 
 
 In the exercise of supreme power as the attribute of a nation, it has declared 
 Christ's own doctrine of the brotherhood of tlie r,ace. It enacts a new charter for 
 humanity, in which not one right is omitted ; it gives back to all the crown of 
 manhood, in which not a single jewel is wanting. 
 
 Men talk of the triumph of radicalism, of a victory for the black man. Let us 
 rise far higher, and proclaim a triumph for our whole humanity, a victory won for, 
 and in the name of Christ. 
 
 Again, it has been declared by the supreme authority of the nation that violence, 
 outrage, and murder shall cease in this land ; that infuriated and reckless men 
 shall he' restrained and punished, with no interference by sympathizing n/is-called 
 courts of justice; and that the whole armed power of the Government shall be 
 used, if need be, to defend the property, the rights, the life of the loyal citizen, 
 and not vainly hereafter shall the humblest friend of the Government look for 
 protection to the stripes and stars. What a withering up of rebel strength, 
 audacity, and hopes ! What a slinking back to their dens of the reptiles that have 
 been stinging to death thousands of true-hearted men ! No man can measure the 
 increase of strength and stability which by this act the Republic has gained. 
 
 Again, the supreme power has at length solemnly set the proper brand upon the 
 crime of' treason, and has thus shown itself able and worthy to govern. Never 
 before on earth have such efforts been made as we have seen, to make crime respect- 
 able and transform traitors into heroes. Public virtue was growing faint ; the 
 underpirders of society were loosened. But this enactment of Congress has 
 arrested this downward tendency, new health has been infused into the public 
 heart the conscience has been quickened, and the whole moral tone of the nation will 
 be firmer and nobler through this most righteous decision. Treason and rebellion 
 must wear the brand. 
 
 Add to these, the new phase of the missionary spirit which moves so deeply the 
 Christian heart - the desire to evangelize and educate the millions so lately eman- 
 cipated—and they form together a grand national purpose, vast enough, noble 
 enough, to become the central thought of a new and higher civilization, and with 
 power enough to fill the whole continent with the wonders of its working. 
 
 It will have the blessings of all those millions whose long, agonizing prayer for 
 deliverance, God has now heard and answered. It will be sustained by the prayers 
 and moral influence of the churches of the land. It will give peace and order, a 
 new creation even, to the now chaotic South. It will restore public confidence, 
 and stimulate every branch of our industry. It will deepen and strengthen the 
 moral and religious sentiment of the country. It embodies the principles of Christ 
 in our political institutions. It will rear on this North American continent one 
 undivided Christian State, which, planted between the seas, will send its trans- 
 forming life to Europe and Africa on the one side, and to Asia on the other, till it 
 shall prove perhaps the morning star of Christian empire, to herald the nobler 
 kingdom of Heaven. 
 
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