A
DISCOURSE
DELIVERED AT THE
TWENTY-FIRST ANNIVERSARY
OF THE
50oittn  for tie Promotion of (oltegiate  anb  (c)tological
(bucatiou at tl)C illegt.
IN THE
SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NEWARK, N. J.
NOVEMBER 14, 1864.
BY
REV. J. P. CLEAVELAND, D. D.
OF LOWELL, MASS.
NEW YORK:
JOHN F. TROW,.PRINTER, 50 GREENE STREET.
1865.
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"The thanks of the Board were given to the Rev. J. P. CLEAVELAND, D. D.
for his Discourse delivered last evening before the Society, and a copy was requested for publication."
Ani extract from the Minutes of the Proceedings of the Directors of the
Society for the Promotion of Collegiate and Theological Education at the West,
at their Annual Meeting in Newark, N. J., Nov. 15, 1864.,
,' -,: Z..-                 J. SPAULDING, RECORDING SECRETARY.
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al             e —,-$
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DISCOURSE.
1 COR. xvi. 18.
Watch ye; stand fast in the faith; quit you like men; be strong.
Two ideas underlie the text. The first part of it,
"watch ye, stand fast in the faith," commends  a contemnplative piety.   The latter part, "quit you like
mePn, be strong," enjoins the cultivation of the heroic
virtues. The two together show that in every citizen's character, and especially in every Christian's? the
heroic element should be blended with the reflective.
Times as well as men may be one-sided. Imperil.
led interests it may be impossible to rescue without allowing them to absorb the general mind. Then let
the heroic virtues supersede the reflective. There is a
moral, if not a military necessity for it.   But such
exigencies cannot last,for
" When valor preys on reason,
It eats the Sword it fights with."
On the other hand, a piety that is merely contemplative becomes slumberous and decayed. No sensi
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ble person will ever pretend that the reflective faculties can ever be left out of a completed piety. In the
church, and in the wider circles of the world at large,
there is always a class, whose chief business is to praise
moderation and calm contemplation. During the long
peace-periods, the masses, who always swim with the
current, fall in with them.  Why should  they not?
Their own lives float on.  Their plans are smooth.
Their wishes come to harvest. Of course, the morality,
the piety, the worship of such an age will be entirely
contemplative. For when agriculture, commerce, trade,
and all industrial pursuit, settle down into routine,
religion settles into routine along with them. But
that in the church, and in all civilized life, that heroism, which confronts and condemns every daring evil,
whilst it achieves all possible positive good, should be
an abiding element, many do not believe. It will be
appropriate, then, to prove, that in the Christian's
and in the civilian's character, the blending of the
heroic element with the meditative should always be
maintained, and moreover, that to such a result, our
college enterprise tends.
What is meant by the heroic element in Christian
character?
The heroism which the gospel and the grace of
God, when they have the modelling of character, give
to men and to women, implies large 8elf-reliance. So
long as self-reliance subordinates itself to supreme
reliance on God, it cannot wax too strong.  Why are
so many of those men and women who go to make up
the Christian qhurch, moral negations, mere negations?
It is not owing to their peculiar modesty or humility. 
5
The master hero of the Old Testament was the most
retiring in a family of eight sons.  Paul evinced a
deeper modesty than any other Apostle, and yet his
self-reliance was a counter-match for his modesty.
There is not a living disciple of the Master, who can
help to reform an age of corruption, or an age of show,
without a freely self-reliant spirit to start with.
An heroic element in personal piety implies adhesiot to purpose. It may be called meek resoluteness:
such, however,  as keeps self-reliance from fancying
itself competent to do its hardest tasks, whenever it
chooses to.  Such an over self-estimate would lapse,
first, into inaction, and then into contempt. The man
or the woman who is always equal to any duty before
it comes, is never ready when it comes. The apostle
Peter made the bravest pretensions, but famously failed when the trial bore down upon him.
The heroism which God loves implies courage.
Superficial minds confound heroism with mere courage. Courage is only an attribute of heroism, but it
is always an attribute of it. Courage (it is a familiar
remark) signifies heart-action, and when grace engrafts
it on'individual goodness, it beautifully answers to its
etymology. Then, in all public and in all private relationships, it dares to do right. It dares to do now,
whatever needs doing now. In the visible church, it
dares to keep all God's commands, cost what it may.
In the function t)f citizen, it dares to vote right, at the
risk of obloquy and scorn. In the realm of Fashion,
it dares to offend Rank, so be it may please God.
Heroism of the heavenly stamp includes foresight.
This denotes forethought, as the cause of foresight,
"VI 
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and prudence, that shuts all imprudence out of the
account; and wisdom,as the guarantor against folly
and conceit; against going too fast, and still more,
against not going at all.
Of that religious heroism which belongs to every
balanced character, faith is ever a root-principle.
Devoid of faith, the heroic virtues are wont to wax
rash-to strike blind blows-blows that strike back
fatally. Faith in God, underlying faith in one's self
and in man, is most beautiful, because it belongs to all
the strong men and strong women in the world. What
could be any more beautiful than equal proportions of
self-reliance, resoluteness, fearlessness, foresight, and
faith? Christianized heroism contains it all. Who
now can want an argument or an exhortation to convince him that he should never be without such virtue,
whether he be a quiet denizen, a working philanthropist, or an installed legislator: whether his life be
cast amidst battle-scenes, or home-scenes: whether it
be passed in the din of trade, or the sweet peace of a
a gentle housewife's sphere. It takes hard work, to be
sure, to get such a character together.'Tis all the
better for that. Nothing is good in this world that
comes not of work. Such heroic elements as are called for by the solemn voices of our times, be it remembered, can be had only by having clear thought,
rational thought,practical thought, elevated thought,
religious thought..
Having, as I trust, intelligibly defined the heroic
element, both in the Christian and the civilian, I argue
its necessity.
And first frbm its nature. This alone would prove
-W. 
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its indispensableness to every lover of his country and
his God.   Intelligent heroism assumes  the fact of
human depravation. Heroism is ever a relative idea,
and the doctrine to which it is clearly correlated
is that of man's universal perverseness. Of this cardinal fact, it is, itself, a reverse reflection. God never
imparts to man or woman true heroism, but for a
great purpose, for which it is to be put forth. Christian virtue antagonizes only with moral wrong. Were
every one's character modelled after the heroic virtues
of Christianity, those virtues would have no use. But
in a world like ours, their chief function may be, to
be ready. They thus become a priceless power, preventive of evil. Non-resistant virtue will do only
where there is nothing to resist. Given-the moral
imperfection of the race. Existent wrong is the logical inference.  The most eloquent champion of man's
native dignity and worth says, "After all, the principles of universal justice and love have no sure root but
in the religion of Jesus Christ." Rebellions, treasons,
enslavements, he avers, "are nothing but the images of
the human soul"-" the inborn fiends coming out."
Suppose that nine persons out of every ten were
proven to be constitutionally good, yet devoid of heroic
virtue-shunning by very instinct, all resistance to
popular wrong. Would not the perversity of the remaining one tenth b$ very apt to prey upon the passivity of the unresisting nine tenths?;
Only, then, in a perfect world, can any class of
men or of women safely dispense with the heroic
virtues. A state of such absolute sinlessness as a
perfect world implies, may, possibly, in some far off
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cycle, come  round.  It never  seemed  farther  off
than now.
Not less emphatic Is the argument from History.
Begin with the first intensely religious man. So like
his Maker was he, that he attained to immortality
without dying. Society, even in his day, had already
been deteriorating full ten centuries. He held the
triple offices of teacher, ruler, priest. There could
be no walking with God in all these relations, without
also walking among men. Yet who ever so chained
up to himself the admiration of all the after ages as
he?  He walked with God, says our English Bible.
He compelled himself to walk with God, says the Hebrew Bible. Earthward, his face is veiled. Heavenward, it is radiant. From the profound contemplations of his closet, he comes back a just ruler-a
stainless priest-an incorruptible judge.
Why do all the religious sects look backward
through fifty centuries to see a lone column looming
up into clear sky, awaking wonder and awe? Because
the seventh man from Adam was such a matchless
union of the meditative and heroic virtues, as the
world always wants when it is weak and afraid.
Probably no man ever wielded such power over
stolid minds as the great Hebrew Emancipator. On
his oppressed countrymen, "Slavery had done its work
-it had broken heir spirits."  "Hope was extinct in
their bosoms;" This guilty fact explains, and explains
away, the pretence that the bondman often prefers
servitude.   He newer prefers it, unless he is pre-demented. To Moses' first rally, not a countryman of
his made answer. Not a slave-woman cried, Amen 
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to you, sir! What did he? Why he rushed out, one
day, into a street-fight-avenged one of his beaten
brethren; next day turned his back on the downtrodden, and fled for his life! Even they could see
that a courtier might be anything but a chieftain or a
champion. Their deliverer must be one who could
tread down seas and forests, and challenge Pharaoh
and his hosts, or they could never be re-united or free.
The fitting of Moses for such a leadership was then
scarce begun. When he should have doubled his
years, he would have doubled his wisdom-trebled
his nerve-quadrupled his faith. In the desert, he
became an adept in prayer, and in that hardest of all
conquests, self-subjugation. Then Jehovah took him
in hand, and shook out of him all his false humility.
When he next knocked at the palace-door, and in the
name of Almighty God, shouted in the tyrant's face,
"Thus saith the Lord, let my people go "-his blended
meekness and heroism made him seem  a divinity.
The slave let fall his brick and mortar, and the taskmaster was forced to stand aside. If I am called upon
for proof that Moses was meek, and modest, and
meditative,-I point to the fact, that though his Pentateuch was so profound, "the divine Plato" was not
ashamed to dig down into its depths; his own authorship is so concealed that the deist Paine would never
believe he could hive written it.  I point to that
other fact, that both Eusebius and Josephus ascribe
to him military exploits to which he has not left an
allusion. If I am cased upon for proof that he was
self-reliant, heroic, invinoible, I point to his serene contempt for Pharaoh's threats, and to his swaying by 
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the rebuke of an eye a mob of a million maddened
men and women! Well might the first critic of the
world have pronounced him, for his balancing, in
perfect equipoise, of the contemplative and heroic
elements, God's best anti-slavery agent ever yet
employed.
If the historical evidence that neither a nation,
nor an association, nor an individual is secure of God's
favor, that is not pervaded by an heroic virtue, needs
enlargement, take a single scene, in which the last
Hebrew Judge and the first Hebrew Sovereign are
the foremost figures. It could not have more closely
shapen to our own times, had it been wrought out only
for our own wants. It discloses the divine certainty,
that a free people whose government is fired by no
genuine heroism will break up and fall to pieces. It
foreshadows the fact, that whenever the true heroic
element shall have vanished from our national life, the
mission of this Society will be ended. It solves the
perplexing problem, what to do with your enemies
when you have them in your power. It invokes God's
reprobation on all undue leniency towards the defeated
foes of freedom and of equal rights.
On their way to the promised land, the freed mnillions of Israel were bidden to march along the borders
of a tribe of fighting-men named Amalek. The Maker
of all nations-the Owner of all lands-had the absolute right to issue and enforce the order. Not a par.
tidcle of Amalek's private property had been touched.
Without the semblance, therefore, of a provocation,
Amalek sprung an ambush on the rear of the Hebrew
camp, and killed in cold blood every defenceless wornm 
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an and babe they could lay their hands on.  Amalek thus turned traitor to Heaven and humanity.
Against that long-suffering Government, which had
rained its blessings on their unthankful heads, they
broke forth in systematic rebellion. It drove them
mad to see a dozen liberated States marching their
solid ranks towards the North, for the very purpose of
planting Free Institutions, and a Religion which
would anathematize in God's name all national injustice and sin. Therefore they attacked the elect nation
just where rescue or reinforcement would be impossible until after the injury and the insult had been inflicted. In its spirit, it was a perfect prototype of the
yet unavenged butcheries perpetrated at Fort Pillow
by the demon Forrest. A sharp engagement ensued,
in which Amalek was severely punished-but the final
retribution was reserved till Freedom should have
been fully nationalized in Canaan. "Thus saith the
Lord, I will have war with Amalek from generation
to generation, and I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek firom under Heaven." Let allloyal
America ponder upon this divine decree now. Let them
remember too that Amalek was due South from the
"Holy Land."  Four hundred years afterward, their
doom was again called up, and Israel's young king was
sent, at the head of two hundred thousand picked men,
on a mission of extermination. Amalek's then reigning monarch war both vassal and despot; as hearty
a hater as he could well be, of all freedom and all1 religion. Saul's army fouftght with a well-sustained fury
to the end.   The old slaveholder's minions melted
away as if the Almighty were crushing them out. 
God had forbidden Saul to let live one man, woman,
infant, animal. The right or wrong of it was no affair
of his.  A  wiser Power than he would see to that.
During the slaughter of the common soldiery, whose
guilt was trivial to that of the arch-traitor, Agag, Saul
had no tears to shled. But when the chief tormentor's
turn came, that royal savage, who stood committed,
had he triumphed, to cut up God's chosen with saws,
and axes, and harrows of iron, then, forsooth, all at
once, Saul had a very soft heart.  He was too humane
to mete out God's justice to so exalted a sinner! They
were neighbor kings; very likely they were on very
good terms. Really, Agag was too rich, too genteel, to
be hung! Thank God, there was one true man left!
Degenerate as all around him were, Samuel swerved
not. He was a minister of religion-a man of unequalled prayer; whose daily walk was a sermon to
the age-a special sermon to Israel.  "In the moral
grandeur of his character," says one, "he was second
only to Moses." He was an old man. He had been a
godly person from his childhood-a great peace.maker
in his day-a trainer up of young prophets, priests,
and preachers-the founder of just such institutions
as this society is rearing-quietly presiding over his
Western Theological School on Mount Ephraim. Yet
were his heroic virtues the crowning glory of his life.
His withered am  had death-blows for tyrants in it
still. Oh, there was a spring in his step, Heaven's fire
in his eye, and fidelity to God and duty in his heart!
Saul's disobedience had been incredible. The choicest
of Amalek's herds had been driven home untouched.
Worse than all else, there sat, in a near shelter, Agag,
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the imbruted head of the rebellion, unharmed in a
hair of his head!  Samuel heard Saul's lame apology,
and denounced it. Saul begged the good old man to
honor him still before the people-not to let down his
standing with them.  "I will do no such thing," said
the God-fearing veteran.  "You are a traitor at heart,
and all the people shall know it. I will not play the
hypocrite to screen even a king." Rending in pieces
the skirts of his own robe, he exclaimed, "There, sir,
for your disloyalty to the Jehovah, who made you a
king, your empire shall be thus rent asunder i Show
me this doomed despot, whom your false leniency
would snatch out of God's hand. His claims shall not
be thwarted thus."  "And Agag came unto him delicately "-(voluptuously); fancying that, for him,
" surely the bitterness of death was past."  " By some
mistake, doubtless, on the part of his own men, he had,
indeed, got into the wrong place, but the rules of civilized warfare would  surely suffice to save  him."
Hearken to God's steadfast friend.   "Do you-base
oppressor-presume to expect special forbearance:
you, whose business it has been to make mothers childless, and infants orphans! Know, then, that your own
mother shall, this day, drink the dregs of the very cup
you have so often pressed to guiltless lips!"  "Then
Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord." No
more need had ~amul's day of such high-toned heroism than oui's has now.  The flame waxed no warmer
in his honest bosom, thaan it should in the bosom ot
every loyalist in our land. No religion less patriotic
or heroic than his, among the men and women of the
Free States will ever recover this dismembered repub
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lic. A feebler heroism may this association never fos.
ter in one of its beneficiaries. Let all who are called to
manage the pending contest in our own country; let
all whose words make others true or false, when the
dearest interests of learning and religion are at stake,
study Samuel. No public man, nor Christian philantho.
pist, can study a better model. They cannot find among
the living or the dead another statesman whose policy
is set with so many seals of divine approval as his.
With him, the contemplative virtues kept the heroic
in their place, where they gloriously availed to redeem
the church, the nation, and the age. There are socalled Christians; and Christian clergymen, a few;
there are men in place; men in the Government; and
more men, who wish they were in the Government,
who deem it a sacrilege to carry the commendation of
heroic virtue into the church; to aid its growth in the
colleges; to make it an element of all philanthropy
and all piety. Much more would it afflict them to
see the worse Agags of the present rebellion getting
their just deserts, than to know that a thousand loyal
homes were, every day, desolated by the savage hands
of traitors and insurgents. Let them keep it in mind
that the exterminator of Amalek and the executioner of Agag was filled with the inspiration of
heaven. Let them follow him home to his peaceful
school of the prophets, and witness weekly miracles
in attestation of God's delight in old, as well as in
young Samuel; in him-the moral hero, not less than
in him-the meek lan of prayer.  Let them face the
great fact, that traitors to the best government on
earth, are not the only nmen or the only women that 
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have rights-sacred rights; rights which it belongs to
every school and college to assert; rights which can
be trodden upon only at the risk of consuming wrath.
There are those in the ministry and in the laity-male
communicants and female communicants, who get
angry when preachers praise the heroic virtues, and
put them on. They must never openly rebuke rich
sinners, or influential sinners, or fashionable sinners,
or political sinners. It would be a pestilent stimulation of the pride of young theologues. But the ordained exemplars of old time taught an heroic piety,
and showed it. When Nathan, crown-preacher to
David, caught his master in a pit of sin, he was bound
to pull him out. Instead of a discourse the next Sab.
bath, on the bad effects of bad morals among men of
rank and riches, with such antediluvian instances as
neither the fallen king nor any one else would ever
have applied to him, Nathan made the royal transgressor a call, very likely in the morning, when he
had been playing on his harp, and was in a pleasant
mood. Nathan began by telling him a story, and so
got his master's ear at once.  At every step, he drew
the awful coil closer and closer, until that memorable
home-thrust-"- Thou art the man," could not be held
back another moment. How the king quailed! How
he begged for mercy! Truer heroism was that on Nathan's part than the encounter with the giant on David's. It was the very heroism that ought, at this
very moment, to move the nobler passions of all Christ's
ministers and followers, in this the hour of their country's agony. It wag just such moral heroism as ought
more especially to enter into the character of every
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youthful aspirer to a place among the ambassadors of
Jesus Christ. What if every gospel-herald, North and
South, fiom the adoption of the Federal Constitution
to this time, had carried home his convictions to every
slaveholder's ear, as Nathan carried his to David's?
What, too, if every male and female parishioner had
backed up all such pastoral prowess with hearty
prayer and approval? Who doubts whether Slavery
would not long ago have quietly given up the ghost?
Shrewd minds in the army and in the navy are
rapidly avowing their convictions of this humiliating
conclusion. Why are we not all as solemnly bound to
show forth the heroic virtues as our officers and soldiers are?  Do we?  Yes-do we?
That peculiar personage, who pioneered our Lord's
way to public life, was an embodiment of true heroism.
In him, it was refreshing for its very coolness-its leaving
all to the great Arbiter.  "When he spoke openly,
the life of heaven hung on his lips. When he signed
for them to go to the water, all Judea and Jerusalem
were baptized of him in the Jordan."  But over common minds, a single deed of his held then, holds now,
incomparable power. Ask plain men what great
thing John Baptist did. They have an answer. Oh!
he rebuked a titled sinner. He did it at the cost of
his life! He put it to him plainly. He looked a wicked king, dressed up in his robes, full in the face, and,
whilst slaves were crouching at the king's feet, said to
him, As I am an oraained minister of the gospel, sir,
you are living an unlawful life! He set him down
more severely, than he would a poor sinner. Tie was
the true man-the fit, heroic herald of the Saviour of 
17'
the world. That is the way honest men talk But,
cries a craven objector, he threw away his life, just as
our Government are throwing away the lives of our
choicest sons and brothers, and millions of treasure,
every week, for nothing but to free poor blacks, who
are constitutionally slaves, and we have no right to
touch them. Every word of all this is a pitiful untruth.
John Baptist did not throw away his life. But his
rudeness and his rashness, (which is all you mean by
pulpit heroism,) certainly locked him up in jail. And
then he provoked Herod and his wife, so that they
beheaded him. The preacher should have been more
prudent.  He might have held his peace concerning
personal faults-family affairs-and then, very likely,
Herod would have heard him gladly. And if this Society mean to send forth such men, it were better that
they should disband at once.
It was not the brave Baptizer's rudeness or rashness, that got him into trouble, but his goodness, his
Christ-likeness, his spiritual heroism. Besides, what
matter is it, how any one's life goes out, so be it is laid
on the altar of eternal riglht?  Multitudes of men and
women, to whom God has given true heroic souls,
even in the rebel States, have yielded up life to Southern bandits, sooner than give up a good conscience by
joining in the blackest rebellion that ever disgraced
our common natureso What then?  What if the forerunner of our -Lord had never said the word-had
never made a wretch, tricked out in gold and purple,
feel the lash of God's everlasting Law?  What then?
What then for him?   What then for his followers?
What successor of his in the Christian ministry, or
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the Christian membership, would then have been made
afraid to falter by his example? What young man in all
the seminaries of the great West, would then have paused
over the sacred page, to trace the image of one who
saved his life by forcing himself into a truce with sin? 
The deductions from history ought not to be
deemed complete without a glance at later times.   A
more meditative Christian than General George Washington has seldom brightened our American annals.
But if he had not built his whole character on the heroic virtues, the country would never have owed him
the least debt of gratitude. And yet, how often have
his eulogists covered up his most heroic denouncemients of slaveholding! Wherefore have they been so
untrue?  Because, until recently, neither North nor
South,-neither Church nor State, has held anything
to be truly sacred but slavery. It has taken all the
educating force of this unnatural strife, to call forth the
normal type of that piety, which was fast becoming
enervate, and to nmake it henceforward energic and heroical.
Whilst Washington was conducting one of his
Southern campaigns, he invited his officers to dine with
him. At the foot of the table sat a young officer of
modest  mien, whose toast was, "Liberty to every
slave." The Southern gentlemen sneered and refused
to drink. Wasington sprang, to his feet and said,
"My young friend, your toast does you honor I drink
-let us all drink-Liberty to every slave."  It was of
that self-same Gen&al Washington that General Knox
said, " Washington is the best and bravest man in the
world, but he has this weakness, that he never will
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fight, unless he has first spent some time alone in prayer." The moral heroism with which he espoused the -
young subaltern's anti-slavery sentiment, is worth
more to-day to the American church and nation than
the highest valor he ever displayed on the battle-field.
Later still, there was Arthur B. Fuller. We shall
be told that he threw away his life. Those who never
say, come to the war, but only say, go, always charge
him with suicidal haste.  They see in him no heroism,
so plainly begotten by the grace of God, as to make
him a safe example. Suppose, then, he had not seized
the gun-nor jumped into the boat-nor shouted to
those who lagged behind, "Follow on, boys." Suppose
he had stood still on the shore, and called all others
who did the same cowards.   What now if one 6f
them hadl put it back to him-" Chaplain, my life is
worth as much to me and to my family, as yours is to
you and to your family." Suppose his only rejoinder
had been, "Chaplains must never fight with carnal
weapons." Who then would have lingered at the shop.
windows, to drink in the inspiration from his angel
face.  What loyalist does not love to do it now?
They say that he was a Unitarian by way of distinction.
I ask not who claimed him before his martyrdom.
The heroic virtues which shone out firom that self.devoting deed, made him the property of all true men.
Moreover, evangelictl officers and privates have said
that they never felt themselves so near heaven, as in
Arthur B. Fuller's camp' prayer.meetings. When he
resolved to cross the river, even though it should
prove the river gf death, the vision quickly became
real. Such virtues in a bleeding country's cause,
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"To all the sons of sense proclaim,
"One glorious hour of crowded life
"Is worth an age without a Name."
Of a considerate, Christian heroism, leniency toward
traitors and assassins is the opposite pole, and deserves
the deepest detestation. If there be a fault in our over-burdened administration, of which it were not disloyal or unchristian to complain, it is excess of forbearance toward captured rebels.  Ask the brave men who
have fallen into the hands of a foe whose barbarities
would shock the ancient Algiers. Ask the languishing
tenants of our thronged hospitals. Ask those who are
still bearing aloft the dear old flag, defiant of danger
and of death. They have one reply: We can bear
any burden, welcome any pain, but to see such enemies
as ours lightly let off, drinks up our spirits, and hangs
leaden weights on our necks, that we cannot carry.
That is the language of as pure a patriotism, of as martyr-like an heroism, as this world ever saw. It will permeate our whole Christian and national life, or the labors of our society will gather up no lasting rewards.
On the seventeenth of July,'1776, an officer of the
Revolution, long before, a profound jurist, wrote to the
HIon. Elbridge Gerry, a conspicuous co-patriot, this
model of military epistles.  "My very dear sir: can
we subsist: did any State ever subsist, without exterminating traitors! It is amazingly wonderful, that,
having no capital punishment for our intestine enemies,
we have not been iitterly ruined before now?"   That
letter was penned afterbeing closeted with Omniscience.
In illustration of the beautiful blending of the
heroic and reflective elements in the character of Gen.
f
I 
21
Grant, it has been admirably said of him, "that it was
whilst he was wrapped ir mute thought by the space
of four hours, he vowed to his Maker to test the strength
of the country-to challenge the whole strength of
the confederacy, and so settle the question, whether
the United States could keep up their independence
even on the crimson fields of Virginia."  "Perfectly
self-possessed "-says Major Penniman, "he designedly
drew upon his serried columns, the fury of skilled commanders, and a soldiery ready to rush into mad despair. He went forward and upward, and drew his
ladder up after him!"  The most impressive of modern instances, however, is that of General Sherman
at Kenesaw mountain.   To exhibit any available heroism in that perplexing juncture, whole days of meditation must be first had. When the inspiration came,
an eye-witness, with a simplicity that is truly sublime, says, "Then Gen. Sherman ascended Mt. Kenesaw!" There he stands, like one of the old hero-prophets on the hills of Judea-calling down fire'on the devourers of God's elect people. He stands alone-yet
not alone.  God is with him, as from his own Horeb
he controls two armies by signals-marching them by
signals-massing them by signals-mingling them by
signals-pointing them onward to where the goddess
of victory stands, with a wreath for each army in her
hands-or rather * where the true Jehovah, whose
red right hanrhe had meekly invoked, had descended,
at the going out of the last puff of smoke fi-oma the
forts, to crown them conquerors.
That the college, in the character' demanded for it
by this Society, tends to produce a genuine Christian
t 
22
heroism, is proved, flrst, from the fact, that it is a college. College life, at its,threshold, takes its novitiates
up to a higher plane than they had moved upon
before. Other things being equal, even the under
graduate lives, thinks, works-above his equals in
years, outside of the college. Granting that they possess no superiority of intellect, no more unquenchable
thirst for knowledge-such as triumphs over all obstacles-he then has an immense advantage over them.
On his passing out into the open world again, unless
he has'been false to himself and to his college-life,
the difference in his favor will wax wider and plainer
to every eye. I have said that all this will be true as
between young men who go through a college course
and those who do not, if all other things are equal.
Other things may not be equal. Often they are very
unequal. Not seldom a weak brain is allowed to pass
through the most imposing forms of education. Immitigable dulness may have the means to pay all college-fees and fines, and so be suffered to carry home a
diploma. But something else will be needed to avert
the doom of a life-long neglect from those who fall
below their opportunities. For it is held by all sound
minds to be inexcusable, if a full course at college fails
to enable young men to out-run others in a fair race.
It is impossible to do justice to a good college-drill
in after life, and tot show forth its great power. It
will impart a juster self-respect; clearer methods of
thought and speech; and a stricter employment of the
reason and the coescience. But what else are these
but the germinant forms of moral heroism-heroism of
the head-heroism of the heart-ready to become he 
23
roism of the hand, of real life? There is, apart from
all specific causes, or ratter compounded of them all
into a real, effective unity, what may be called collegelife: a college atmosphere: an undefinable whole:
what Mr. Webster fitly denominates the genius  of the
place, suited to inspire heroic sentiment-and which
must be wantonly shunned, not to be invaluable.
In the next place, the range of the college-studiee. is
adapted to plant all ingenuous minds with the heroic
virtues. Blind prejudice has accused them of doing
nothing else. If they avail only for this, and yet certainly for this, the present argument is secure. A set
defence of the classics would be conspicuous absurdity. Earnest minds become spell-bound before they
pass the vestibule. As they press on until they have
penetrated to the inner-temple, the charm becomes a
chain, but one of the only two chains which make the
wearer free.   Expunge from the classic text-books
every senseless myth, blot every impure line. Eliminate every unmanning sentiment even. There shall
remain more than enough to raise, to light, and to fire
all true natures. Every mind, that is susceptible to
the heroic element, will still confess to the kindling
power of classic research. The inner life of all classic
lore is heroism.  " The heathen class8ic?" It is an old
slander. I would that such heathenism might supplant the barbariss of our own people, and cure the
gallant West of her own greatest sin. The claim of
classic studies to the frent rank of a college course, has
seldom been disturbed during the last twenty five
years.
The brilliant challenge to the patrons of classical 
24
learning by the lamented Grinke, was heroism itselfbut heroism shooting beqond its mark. It became, by
a triumphant recoil, their ablest vindication; for, in
revealing the source of the champion's sharpest weap.
ons, it shewed him to be the strongest assailant, only
because he was the most perfect proficient-in the
classics. Should classical instruction on the most liberal scheme, ever fall into disfavor with this Society,
let the Society's knell be rung forthwith. Better that
another exclusive year of devotion to the classic authors be superadded. The broadest foundation of an
heroic character will be laid only by going persistently through with what Cicero (De Senectutte ) beautifully. denominates-" hoe exercitationes ingenii et
haec curricula mentis."
The  ardships of colleqe-life at the West are adapt
ed to nurture Christian heroism. Thousands of the
sons of affluence and ease, although otherwise cultured
and intelligent, know not the' meaning of hardship,
connected with the pursuit of knowledge.   The pathway of their allotted years at college is bordered with
roses andcl overgrown  with plenty.   But  the very
smoothness and levelness of that pathway are its curse.
Where one young man has had occasion to exult over
parental largesses in college, hundreds have been, by
that very means, dropped down to a mortifying mediocrity.  The eductional privations of the brightest
young men are often unrelenting.  But they brace,
whilst they strain, aud- stimulate when they threaten
Could this Society's'charities offer a luxurious life to
college-professor or college student, its true and honorable occupation would, indeed, be gone. Because it 
25
cannot endow Western Institutions so that young men
may have all their great helps for nothing, it shall
make ten times so many of them spiritually heroic
men-moral beacon-lights to other nations and ages
than their own.
Training young men in 8mall colleges, is, aftel all,
the surest means of enriching them with the heroic
virtues. No single cause beside, is so direct, and yet so
little understood. In classes of seventy-five or an hundred, it is not difficult for the most stupid to drone
away the appointed period at college, without feeling
the rebuke which the mastering toil of others ought
to convey. In all large classes, the dull have so many
to share their shame with them, their own aliquot proportion of it is easily submitted to. It is related of a
man, who has since stood high in his profession, that
in college, he was so indolent as to be finally summoned before the President, when the following dialogue ensued. The President: "My young friendthe Faculty judge that you might be the first scholar
in your class. Perhaps you would like to know what
your actual standing is."  The student: "Yes, sir, I
should think it would be well." The President: "Well,
sir, your rank now is the fortieth from the head."' The
student: "Yes, sir, and is that all there are in the
class?" The President: "No, sir-the whole number is
sixty."  The student'. "Ah-sixty- then I can look
down upon twenty yet"-and walked out, unabashed.
Where the classes range from fifteen to twenty-five, it
is not possible to avoif the stimulus of frequent and
fearless weighing and gauging, both by Faculty and
fellow-students. Where every member of a class is 
26
called upon at every recitation, and any one habitually
fails to make even a r;espectable appearance, if the instructor foregoes the proper corrective, offended classpride will inflict a retribution, like Cain's mark, greater than the delinquent can bear. Station and sustain
competent men to teach, and gather in self-respecting
youth to learn, and of every graduated ten, four fifths
shall come forth panoplied for the life-race with the
heroic virtues of the Son of God.
An al7surrounding and exciting growth  helps to
make the College a nursery of high moral heroism. I
am not aware that this Society has patronized any institution which was not started amidst miracles of agricultural, commercial, and social progress. The Presidents and Professors of your colleges feel the charm.
The students feel it. The community around feel it.
It is like the locomotive of a lightning-train, which
catches up the loiterer on its track, and sweeps him
along at its own startling speed. On the spot selected
for one of the beneficiary colleges of the'West, the seventh year from the Indian's departure,there stood two
first-class fiouring-mills; two brick hotels; three wellfilled churches; two printing offices; a superb courthouse; and on one of the evenings of that same year,
a party of two hundred gentlemen and ladies took gifts
to a pastor's residence, to the amount of one thousand
dollars! There was inspiriting energy in such growth.
The young'men of the institution grow mentally in
like proportions, and growth is life-resistance-victory-heroism. 
A kindred element is the vagtnegy of this Society'8
theatre. Its infiuence cannot fail to move the youthful
I
. I 
bosom, made to be moved.  Take one who has been
wont to think, to feel, to act on a narrow spherewhere he must keep himself small, and see only with
shortened vision-and set him down in the midst of
vast "rolling-prairies "-not less than twenty thousand square miles of "ocean-lands" encircling him!
An all-subduing energy has peopled and possessed
them. He is assured that the riches of the surface
reach all the way down to the centre! Will he shrivel
up his nobler nature, and shrink into his old littleness?
Experience in such matters is infallible.  When  he
thinks earnestly, he will long for a larger mind to
think still larger thoughts with. When he feels deeply, he will sigh for a soul capacitated to feel still manlier and diviner emotions. Ere long, he finds enlargement of his spiritual being going on-sending forth its
pent up forces-adjusting itself tb the grandeur of its
new and nobler sphere of action! On such centres, the
College, the College-professor, the College student will
rise to such heroism as forms the safeguard; and the
vanguard alike of church and state.
Who now dares to whisper about the disbanding
of this quiet but effective organization? Why the seven Territories (that were Territories when the writing
of this discourse began) Utah, Dacotah, Arizona, New
Mexico, Washington, Idaho, and the Indian Reservation, all of which, befo'e many years, will be in and on
our hands, coved an area of over nine hundred thousand square miles, or nearl-y one third of the entire territory  claimed  by  the  United  States!  If  any
friend of ours does believe that our mission is very
nearly fulfilled, let'himn glance at a part of our untrod
f
27 
28
den field. Idaho, with its unbounded mineral wealth,
would cut up into seven separate sovereignties, each as
large, territorially, as the Empire State! Washington
Territory, although less than half as large as Arizona
or Dacotah, and less than one fifth as large as Idaho,
has nearly as many square miles as all the New England states together! The six Territories, exclusive of
the Indian Reservation, are considerably more than
fourteen times as large as the six New England states!
Nothing, of course, is said here of comparative populations.  Idaho, with square miles enough to make two
hundred and fifty Rhode Islands, had, at the latest estimate, only one fifth as many human inhabitants.
Should Idaho ever become one fourth as densely peopled as Massachusetts, its population would exceed ten
millions, or would equal the present aggregate population of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Massachusetts. The seven Territories referred to already, made
one fourth as populous as Massachusetts, would contain,
by themselves, as many inhabitants as all the States
and Territories, loyal and disloyal, now contain!
Place in juxtaposition the areas of half a dozen
young Territories, and half a dozen old States, and
mark  the  result.   Washington  Territory contains
60,000 square miles; Utah, 106,000;  New Mexico,
120,000; Arizona, 122,000; Dacotah, 144,000; Idaho, 333,000! Aqgregate, 885,000 square miles! Now
note the difference.  Maine contains 31,000 square
miles; Veirmont, 10,000; New Hampshire, 9,000;
Massachusetts, 7,8,0; Connecticut, 4,700; Rhode Island, 1,300! Aggregate, 63,800-or about one fourteenth as large as the six Territories! I would not 
have touched upon this trite topic, had I not hoped,
at least, toput it in a somewhat  new shape.  The
argument from the tendency of the College to generate a reliable heroism, holds good when tested by
facts. Letters from college-officers, recently received,
show very clearly that, in many instances, but very
imperfect records of their respective contributions in
men to the war have been preserved. It is deeply to
be regretted that the element of greatest moment in
their history should have been neglected. Bowdoin
College, the Eastern Star, has done well in devoting a
portion of its last Triennial Catalogue to a carefully
prepared list of "Graduates who have served in the
war of the Rebellion." Although they have never
graduated a large class at that College, they give the
names of about two hundred who have held office in
the loyal army.   Twenty graduates have served as
privates, and twenty-five have enlisted as undergrad.
nates, and twenty, at least, have fallen in the service.
In Amherst College, the class of 1861 sent six to the
war; that of'62, nine; that of'63, twenty-six; that
of'64, fifteen; that which is to be graduated in'65,
sends twenty-four; the class for'66 has already sent
seven, and the present Freshman class, which will be
the graduating class of'67, has sent three; a noble to tal of ninety undergraduates.   It is now nearly two
years since the Presient of Harvard College publicly
stated that, up to that time, four hundred and fifty of
the Alumni, or about twenty per cent. of all who were
liable to be drafted, ot entitled to be accepted as vol unteers, had gone into the war; and further, that be.
tween the Comme'ncements of'62 and'63, about twenty
29
I I
.      J 
30
young men, and among them some of the most brilliant minds ever instructed at Harvard, had fallen in
battle "-thus solemnly attesting their exalted heroism.
Williams College, that never faltered in good works,
appears to have yielded up over fifty undergraduates
to the country's defence.  Pres. Woolsey of Yale College writes, "Although we have no reliable statistics
in this matter, it is known that, many months ago, at
least three hundred of our graduates were or had been
engaged in the war." A large number of undergraduates had also rushed to the rescue of liberty and
right.   Dartmouth deserves high praise.  The class
of 1860 sent to the war twenty per cent. of its whole
number; that of'61, seventeen per cent..; that of'62,
forty.four per cent.; that of'63, thirty-eight per cent.;
that of'64, thirty-four per cent.; that of'65, thirtythree per cent.; the class for graduation in'66, eleven
per cent. already. Whole number (officers and students), 541! or, "over twenty-three per cent. of the
entire number of officers and students; have entered
the army."  Another President says, "Meagre as the
records of our College, in relation to the share we
have had, thus far, in the great contest, certainly are,
they fully prove that the College is ever the birthplace of Christian heroism." Oberlin has been, it is
believed, the banner Institution in support of the loyal cause, whilst some of )ur own infant colleges have
sent entire classes to the field, and so been compelled
to omit their customary Commencement festivities.
I have thus, by what has seemed to me a logical
course, drawn alike from the nature of the heroic virtues, and from history, sought to show that the culti 
31
vation of those virtues is the foremost duty of every
American Christian and citizen; and I have further endeavored to develop the adaption of our college-enterprise to nurture and call forth those virtues. Nothing
else than a Christian heroism, diffused through all
classes, will make of us one people to put down treason, and to put a righteous and final period to bloodshed and strife. All honest minds have long since
ceased to deny that Slavery is the parent of the rebellion. Therefore, no man, who is filled with an impartial love, would consent to any peace that should
tolerate the longer continuance of Slavery.  Better,
by far, for the interests of Christian learning and of
vital godliness everywhere, would be another war,
outlasting the present, than the best possible compact
that should still leave the Curse alive. To call for
peace with defiant traitors, and on their terms, would
it not be the essence of impiety towards God and man?
Rebellion is, unavoidably, a damning sin! The blackness of darkness overspreads it forevermore.   It is,
moreover, the grossest of all follies.   Of little use is
it, to talk about our philanthropic schemes, till we
know whether we have a country which we can call
our own-whether we shall have one much longerwhether we shall have any government-or any United
States —-or any Christian civilization even-or whether,
instead, we shall only havre anarchy, and oppression,
and assassination, and military depotisms, turning the
great free North itself into an Aceldama of blood!
These are the only  "previous questions"'now.  We
can no more shun them or shut their mouth, than we
can overturn Gravity, or silence the rumble of an 
32
earthquake! If any man accuse me of preaching poli.
tics, in any bad sense, I only say, there are no politics
to preach.  There is just one awful indivisible question-are we true to our country, or are we false to
our country?  If, as Christian philanthropists, we fold
our arms, and wonder when the war will stop, or whether it ever will stop, it never Nill.  True heroic virtue will care a thousand fold more for the triumph of
Liberty, and Justice, and an unadulterated Gospel over
every rood of American soil.  If-which God forbid
-this be, indeed, Freedom's last experiment on earth
-may Infinite Mercy save our loyal churches from
sinking to ruin, without one effort to reach forth unto
a virtue and a heroism that shall render their downfall
glorious to themselves, and to the Lord that bought
them.
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