DI S C Our S E s
BY
REV. SAM1UEL T. SEELYE, D.D.,
,REV. CALVIN E'. STOWE, D.D.,
DELIVERED AT
LOWELL, MASS., AND HARTFORD, CONN.,
BEFORE THE
SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF COLLEGIATE AND THEOLOGICAL
EDUCATION AT THE WEST.
I, gti-,Rrh:
JOHN A. GRAY & GREEN, PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS,
FIRE-PROOF BUILDINGS,
CORNER OF FRANKFORT AND JACOB STREETS.
1864.
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DISCOURSE
BY
REV. SAMUELIL T. SEELYE,, D.D.*
"FOR the Lord giveth wisdom; out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understand
ing."7-PRoVERBs 2: 6.
THis passage of Scripture furnishes a theme that is especially
appropriate to the present occasion. We learn from it that wisdQm is a divine communication, and that knowledge is acquired
by intercourse with God. It teaches us, not that education is
important to Christianity, but that Christianity is essential to
education.
Before entering upon the discussion of this subject, it may be
well very briefly to show its relation to the Society for the Promotion of Collegiate and Theological Education at the West.
That the aim of this Society is a noble one, is never questioned.
All admit that the West must be supplied with colleges as well
as with churches. It is, however, a question, whether the Church
as such should plant and sustain them. Very many Christian
men do not give an affirmative answer to this question. They
hold that as the State builds hospitals and asylums. it should also
found our colleges.  What propriety, they ask, in pressing the
claims of a Society like this upon Christians, and especially on
the Sabbath? They regard the college as wholly a secular insti
* "The thanks of the Board were presented to the Rev. Dr. Seelye for his discourse,
delivered last evening, and a copy requested for publication." An 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 at Lowell, Mass.,
November 21st, 1860.                            Jo:s SPAULDING, Recording Secretary.
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THE LORD GIVETH WISDOM.
tution. If the Church can bless it by her influence, and place
Christian men at the head of it, so much the better. Just as it
is better to have a Christian man at the head of an insane asylum
than one who is not, if the latter be not more skillful than the
former. If this position is correct, if the college can safely be
left to the care of the State, or if the State without the aid of the
Church can found and sustain the college, then this organization
might as well be dispensed with at once. If, however, we can
show that, like the preaching of the Gospel, it is so properly and
specifically the work of the Church that it will not be done at all
if she does not do it, then it will be admitted that this Society
justly makes the strongest demand upon the sympathy and benevolence of every Christian heart. This will, we trust, be made
apparent by the proof of our subject.
Whether education is considered as the acquirement of know edge or as mental development, there can be none that deserves
the name unless it be Christian.
1. Nothing of value can be taught concerning nature, if
Christianity be not the teacher. Natural science will tell us of
forces attractive and repellent, and of laws fixed and controlling.
It      will show us the strata of earth and rock which make up the
world, and disclose the atoms which form the mass of every structure. It will reveal to us the original elements, and describe all
the properties of matter. It will teach us the name of each
plant and mineral, and make us familiar with all the varieties of
shape and substance which are gathered in this treasury of creation. We may also learn, without the aid of Christianity, that the
earth is a part of a system, which itself, with its sun and planets,
forms but an insignificant part of the boundless universe. We
may count the stars and measure their distances, and even weigh
them in the  balance.  Yet is this knowledge? -)o these forces
and laws and properties really teach us any thing of nature?
Neither the chemist, by the most careful analysis, nor the geologist, by the most patient investigation, can gain one true conception of nature, if the design of the Creator be not seen in his
works. What progress has he made in mathematical science who
can       merely distinguish the numerals which it employs?  IHow
much       does he know of language who has learned only the alpha bet? Yet these material forms, of which alone mere natural sci
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THlE LORD GIVETIL WISDOM..
ence can tell us any thing, are but the letters of a language. Of
themselves alone they are worthless. It is only when grouped
together into words that they can embody thoughts, and teach us
truths. All acquaintance with nature that does not go beyond
the mere phenomena which she presents, is as fruitless as the mere
knowledge of the alphabet of a foreign language. What knowledge could be gained of the master-piece of Raphael, by overlooking the grand conception of the artist in a most careful analysis of the colors and the canvas? He who thus studies nature, as
he sums up his worthless attainments, may well cry out in despair:
"Where shall wisdom be found, and where is the place of understanding? The depth saith, It is not in me; and the sea saith, It
is not with me."
Yet with Christianity as a teacher, these material forms tell us
of something more than properties and laws.  She shows us the
Creator in his works, and thrills our soul by the great truth that
"in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."  Nature is no longer a meaningless combination of atoms and elements. It is an exhibition of Divine skill and Infinite goodness.
Its laws are expressions of the Divine will, and all its varied phenomena show something of the plan and the attributes of its
Author. "The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed
the dry land. By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and
the clouds drop down the dew. His covenant is with day and
night, and he hath appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth.
The heavens declare his glory, and the firmament showeth his
handiwork." With Christianity as our teacher, the study of nature is no longer limited to the mere properties of matter; but
every law and force and form, tell us something of God. Can
there be any knowledge of nature with God left out of view?
2. Our knowledge of history is worthless, except as Christian ity interprets the events of the past. We might indeed without
her aid know the bare facts of history. But how meaningless
would be the record! We might learn the struggles, the achieve ments, and the defeats of each successive generation. Yet what
bond would unite them together? what truth would they teach
if they did not exhibit a Divine purpose and plan? The events
of the past are perverted, and made to teach that which is false,
if God be not seen in them all. If history tells us only of disap
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pointed hopes, and the vain strife of human passion; if it teaches
uis only what the skill of man has accomplished; if it narrates
only the rise and growth and decay of governments, it proclaims
a stupendous falsehood. For the events of the past were not
designed to show us the value of forms of government, nor to
teach us the limits of human power, but to reveal the eternal
sovereignty, the inflexible justice and infinite love of God. From
the fall of man to the birth of Christ the centuries were employed
in preparing for his coming; and from the crucifixion to the pres ent moment, they have been preparing for his triumph. The
student of history, therefore, who fails to grasp these truths is
engaged in a fruitless task. Hie can only be deceived.
What could he know of machinerywho should see only the
shuttle as it flashes across the loom? If he looks no further what
must be his impressions? Hie must believe that the shuttle is
animated by a power of its own, and for a purpose of its own.
Yet all the while, far down below, the great wheel is steadily
revolving, sending through many an agent its own impulse to the
shuttle.  Of this, the real moving power, he could learn nothing.
So he who studies history without going back to the sovereign
power which shapes and marshals its events, must believe that
which is false.  "I History," says a German philosopher, "is the
inspired gift of God, employing itself to illuminate the dark ways
of God." A still better definition is that of Bolingbroke, as
amended by one of the ablest of our American scholars. iHe
defines history to be "God teaching by examples."  With either
definition we see that the mere record of past events which does
not recognize God is not history. Hie must be seen in it all,
unfolding his own plan, and accomplishing his own purpose in
each event, or there can be no knowledge of the part.
Again, it can also be easily shown that all conceivable attainments, all that men call knowledge, must be rejected as unsatisfying if God be shut out. The soul can not rest till it has overleaped every bound, and attained the infinite.  Neither the intellect nor the will, nor the heart, can be at rest without God. The
intellect finds that there is a limit to its knowledge till it knows
God. The will is conscious of misdirected and wasted energy
till it moves in harmony with the will of God. The heart feels
that all the wealth of its love is thrown away upon an idol till it
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THE LORD GIVETH WISDOM.
is given to God.  Man, with all his insignificance, yea, because of
his insignificance, rejects every thing as unsatisfying till he lays
hold on God. Yet the knowledge of God does not satisfy unless
it be of God in Christ.- In order to approach him, and be able
to cry, Abba, Father, these sins which separate us from him must
be taken away.  We hear only the stern demands of justice, and
see only the terrible penalty of a broken law, till God appears
incarnate, and with the power and willingness to pardon, says with
infinite tenderness: "Come unto me." In him, and in him alone,
can the soul find rest.  Of what value is all other knowledge in
comparison with this?  What truth has he gained that is worth
possessing, who knows nothing of God manifest in the fiesh-the/
Saviour of the world? Is not Christianity, therefore, which evermore points us to this Saviour, the only teacher that is qualified
for the office?
3. Education, regarded as mental development, can not be adequately secured without the aid of Christianity. The mind grows
by the acquirement of knowledge. The expansion of its powers
is determined by the truth which it is able to grasp. For its
highest development, therefore, it needs the highest kind of
truths. Yet we have seen that its unaided efforts to gather truth,
either from nature or the past, are alike in vain. It can only be
baffled and deceived.  Christianity must create for it a true
science and a correct philosophy, and give it a history to study.
Any proper mental development is therefore impossible, except
under the influence of Christianity. Those truths, however,
which it is the peculiar province of Christianity to unfold, are
essential to the fullest developments, because they are the highest
of all truths. For they pertain to the character and attributes of
God, and the eternal destiny of the soul. All other truths are
petty and worthless in comparison with these.
A few years before his death, Daniel Webster, at a dinnerparty in New-York, sat for a long time silent and abstracted.'
Repeated attempts were made to arouse him, but in vain. Finally,
one of the gentlemen present asked him what was the greatest
thought that ever entered his mind? His eye kindled in a moment, and he replied: "The greatest thought that ever entered
my mind is the thought of God, and my relation to him." Surely
no greater thought than that ever entered any mind.  To con
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THE LORD GIVETH WISDOM.
ceive of God as Christianity reveals him, and to learn the plans
of his mercy toward us, is to grasp the sublimest of truths.
That mind must remain forever dwarfed which has no such con ception of God.
There is, however, an essential requisite to the highest mental
development, which should not be overlooked. The spiritual
must be emancipated from its bondage to the animal. Unless
reason becomes supreme over sense, every effort at mental devel opment will only make its bondage more degrading. Yet what
can overturn the sovereignty of the sense, and make reason
supreme? What can bring the cravings of the animal into
unquestioning submission to the behests of the spiritual? Human
philosophy here confesses her impotence. The work is far beyond her power. If man becomes conscious of his degradation,
that consciousness can only drive him to despair. For in all the
universe there is no power that can work out his deliverance.
Every system of education devised by human wisdom can only
confirm the supremacy of the animal nature. On this account,
the triumphs of civilization, and the utmost refinement of art, can
confer no lasting blessings. They can never give to man that
which he most needs-liberty. All their influence renders the
enslavement of the spiritual more complete. Christianity alone,
so much as promises freedom. She alone even tries to arouse the
conscience, by whose decision the crown must be placed upon the
reason. She arrays before it the great principles of eternal right,
and demands for them its support. Conscience responds to the
demand, and for the first time the spiritual has hope of triumph.
Yet with this victory of the spiritual, the work of education is
not finished. The full stature of perfection can be attained only
in Christ Jesus. The man is not complete till his manhood is
glorified by Christian faith. He can be fitted for great achievements only through its power, and his heart swells with satisfying
joy only as that hope which is the offspring of this faith becomes
an anchor to his soul.  By faith he is united to God, and the
glory of the Highest is his eternal crown.  The province of gospel
faith is higher than that of human reason, as the reason is above
the sense.  Christianity alone raises the soul up to this higher
and wider domain. She places the sense in just subjection to the
reason, and brings the reason under the still higher power of Gos
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pel faith. Under her teachings, the mind grows by the acquirement of knowledge; the spiritual nature rejoices in its freedom,
and the soul is fitted to attain the highest destiny. This is the
glorious fruit of Christian education. Compare it with the results which all other systems have attained, and you will be
persuaded that no other true education is possible.
This leads me to say that these conclusions of our reason are
fully affirmed by history. It declares that there never has been
any true and adequate education except through Christianity.
There has been great progress in art without her aid. Yet the
mind has always been deluded by falsehood; that knowledge
which alone can satisfy has never been attained, and the most
sublime of all truths have not developed the powers of the intellect. Aside from this, moreover, the idea of attaining a nobler
manhood for its own worth was never conceived; nor has there
ever been so much as an attempted deliverance frora the bondage
of sense, except under the influence of Christianity. The old
philosophies were intended to give greater refinement to sensual
indulgence, and even this seeming blessing was to be conferred
only on the favored few. The idea that man as man, is of worth
and has rights, has never been conceived except as Christianity
has taught it.  To the cultivated few, the masses were always the
vulgar herd, the ignorant rabble, unworthy the efforts of those
more highly favored. For their improvement no philosopher ever
toiled, and human learning denied them even the crumbs which
fell from its table. Even the right of man to civil liberty was
never declared till Christianity proclaimed it. In the Athenian
Republics the idea of freedom for man as man was never developed. The blessings of liberty were to be given only to the freeborn citizens of the Republic. Plato, in his ideal of a model
state, gained no such conception of the rights of min. The man
was merged and lost in the State.  Neither Socrates nor Aristotle, nor any other moralist or philosopher, untaught by the Bible,
ever grasped the great truth, that man, in whatever clime he
dwells, has a God-given right to be free. The development of
this sublime truth was reserved for Christianity alone. Save
under her influence, no right has ever been conceded to the mass
of the people, and there has been no thought of improving their
condition. No system of false religion, no kind or degree of
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THE LORD GIVETH WISDOM.
civilization, and no form of government have ever been able to
free the masses from oppression and ignorance. Such has always
been the structure of society, where the influence of the Gospel
has not formed it, that a plan of universal education would necessitate a revolution. Christianity alone seeks to distribute to all
with impartial hand the choicest blessings. She asserts the infinite worth of every human soul. She sends her servants into the
highways and hedges, to invite the outcast and the degraded to
her richest feast. She bestows her priceless gifts upon the lowest
as well as the highest. The poor fisherman, the dishonest publican,
and the degraded Magdalen, are offered the same blessings as the
rich and the honored. Jesus Christ himself taught the multitude,
and preached the Gospel to the poor. It is for this reason that
Christianity has provided the means of education for the masses,
and that universal education is possible under her influence alone.
The Church of Christ has proved herself to be the light of the
world, because she has been the only educator of the world.
From no other source has the light of learning ever been shed
abroad, diffusing its blessings to every class.  Our fathers were
led to plant colleges, not as politicians, but as Christians; not for
the sake of the State, but for the sake of the Church.  A college
whose doors are open to all is a Christian institution; its very
plan shows the influence of the Gospel.  These Eastern colleges
have grown strong and vigorous, because they were founded and
have been nurtured by Christian men. The Church planted them
as a part of her great work in the strict fulfillment of her mission.
If the East had been settled by godless men, these colleges,
which are now her glory and her strength, would never have
been established. Look over the land to-day and see the proof
of this truth.  Wherever the Christian element prevails, there
only is the college really demanded, and there omly can it be sustained. We need not go beyond our own borders to learn that
the power to educate is in the Church, and that the cause of education prospers just in proportion to the strength of the Church.
The state with all its resources can not make a college. Neither
the pride nor the pecuniary interests of peculiar localities can
build up a college. The Christian element in the character of
the people must lay its corner-stone, and rear its walls, and provide its endowment. It may be aided by the patriot and philan
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TIE LORD GIVETH WISDOM.
thropist, and receive contributions even from pride and selfish
interest. Just as in building churches, and in sending missionaries to the heathen, the ungodly may lend a helping hand; yet,
after all, the work is the work of the Church. If, moreover, this
work be neglected, Christianity herself must suffer. It is as
essential to her own life that she should found the college as that
she should rear the family altar and the sanctuary. We are asked
to sustain colleges at the West for precisely the same reason that
we are asked to build churches and send missionaries there. The
Christian element is already there demanding the college for
education as truly as the Church for worship.  Prevent its complete development by withholding the college, and you will crush
out that element as truly as by withholding the Church.  For
the college is not a luxury which can be dispensed with, but a
necessity. It is necessary not only to the glory of the State, but
to the prosperity of the Church. If we refuse to plant colleges
at the West, no other effort put forth in its behalf can accomplish
any permanent good.
This Society, therefore, makes the strongest possible appeal to
Christians at the East. It asks us to nurture the colleges at the
West, which have been already founded by those who learned at
the East, or from the East, that education must be Christian. It
appeals to Christian men to do a Christian work, and it makes its
appeals for the sake of Christ and the Church.  It asks us to
make permanent the influence of the Gospel, by endowing the
most permanent of all Christian institutions.
No other Society seeks a nobler object, or possesses stronger
claims upon the sympathy and cordial support of the disciples of
Christ.
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DISCOURSE
BY
REV. CALVIN E. STOWE, D.D.*
THE WORD OF GOD APPLIED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD THE SOVEREIGN
REMEDY FOR THE MISERIES OF MEN.
"SEEING ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto
unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God,
which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the
flower of grass.   The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away.   But the
word of the Lord endureth forever.   And this is the word which by the gospel is
preached unto you."-1 PETER 1: 22-25.
OUR text teaches that, selfish and corrupt as men are, they can
be brought to disinterested love and entire purity, when born again
of incorruptible, seed, by means of the word of God. That 8ee(1
and word here do not mean the same thing is evident frorn the
change of prepositions, ic before opa denoting the efficient cause,
and  before oyov the instrument or means. That the word
(oyo) is the spoken and written revelation, and not the personal
Logos, is evident from the last verse, where it is interchanged with
and this is the word (pa) which by the  is preached z~nto
In order to love and purity,'then, according to our text, men
must be born again, not of the old and corruptible seed of nature,
* The thanks of the Board were presented to Rev. Dr. Stowe for his Sermon
preached last evening, and a copy requested for publication." -An 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  at Hartford, Ct., November 11, 1863.  JOHN  SPAULDING, Recording
Secretary.
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REMEDY FOR THE MISERIES OF MEN.
which gives their first and sinful birth, but born again of the new
and incorruptible seed of the Spirit, proceeding directly from God,
and made to germinate by means of that word of God, proclaimed
in the Gospel, which liveth and abideth forever, while all human
things fade away.
No one, as it seems to me, can look upon men as they now exist,
and as they always have existed in all ages of their history, without seeing the necessity of their being regenerated, born again, if
they would at all become the worthy offspring of a God of love
and purity. When I look at the human race just as it is, and just
as it always has been from the earliest period of its history, I am
astonished at the superficial views of those who affirm that human
nature is not depraved, and that men need only cultivate and train
and educate what they have by nature, and that thus they can become good and perfect without regeneration or the supernatural
workings of God's Spirit in the soul; and I am equally
amazed at the presumption of those philosophers and theologians, who undertake to account satisfactorily for the existence of man just as he is, and to show clearly how it is that such a
creation, in its present condition, is an honor to God and a good to
the universe. When I read these theories, propounded usually with
such an air of self-complacency, it seems to me, if the authors are
really sincere in their assumptions, it must be that they have never
seen the actual condition of mankind, and know but little of the
nature and character of men as they really are.
Precisely why God has made just such a world as this, and put
into it just such a race, in just such a condition, as has alwayf occ'upied it, I believe nobody knows; and all professedly rational and
satisfactory accounts of the matter, which have ever yet been given,
are, as I see them, but a mockery to the earnest, a foolery to the
thoughtful, and a sham to all mankind.  And this entirely apart
from all theories of the origin of sin, or of the corruption of our
nature; and taking only the facts which lie upon the very surface
of the history of man.  For His own glory and the highest good of
the universe, no doubt; but how? in what way? why precisely by
this process rather than by some other involving less of sin and
shame and agony? why was not some other way possible?  These
are questions which we are constantly asking, and to which-we never
get a satisfactory answer. And if we can not get satisfactory an
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REMEDY FOR THE MISERIES OF MEN.
swers to these questions, it matters very little whether other sub ordinate speculative questions are answered or not. It is all an
inexplicable mystery, and we can only say: "Even so, Father, for
so it seemed good in thy sight."  God knows if we do not, and he has
given proof of his love in the gift of his Son for our salvation.
Lookat menas a whole justas they are now, andjust as they always
have been ever since they began to exist. I do not say this or that
exceptional individual, or this or that exceptional community; but
all men of all ages and all regions, and all races, by whom the world
has ever been peopled, and is now peopled, and considering each individual of this countless multitude as an immortal soul, capable of
bearing the image of God intellectually and ethically, and expanding
through all eternity in the divine glories of mental greatness and
moral goodness, and is not the actual condition of the human race a
mystery?
Observe the lower stratum of population in all great cities, from
the beginning of the world to the present time.  Millions on millions of individuals, each an immortal soul, capable of the highest
development, living and dying like the brutes that perish, without
even the physical comforts and advantages which the brutes themselves have, and that, too, in the midst of the most Christian nations.
WVhat does God want of so many human creatures of such sorts?
Why not have fewer and of better quality?  Who knows?  IHow
many thousands, nay millions, of Australians, and Feejees, and Diaks, and of whatever savage names, have lived and died, are still
living and dying, on this earth, apparently never rising in the scale
of being perceptibly above the rank of rats and reptiles!  And are
these God's immortal souls, created in his image and destined to his
eternity?  Will you explain it to me how and why it is?  Or go
to equatorial Africa, the land of the monstrous gorilla, and show
me God's offspring there, in the human inhabitants, whose most
relishing and delicious food is the gigantic monkey, the boa
constrictor, and each other-a kind of food which certainly has the
advantage of great economy and abundant reproductiveness. i Can
you make the reason, the final cause of this, all plain to the understanding?  Yet these horrible savages, disgusting and loathsome
as they seem to us, are morally no worse than, possibly not so bad
as, the many of the classically cultivated and wonderfully intellectual
Greeks and Romans, as they are described to us by their own histori
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REMED  FOR THE MISERIES OF MEN.
ans, Thucydides, and Tacitus, and Suetonius, and by the Apostles
in the New Testament.
Indeed it seems to me that the capabilities of the human race for
wickedness and degradation have never yet been full' described or
even adequately conceived by the most terrible of the theological
writers on total depravity; and on the other hand the capacity for
elevation and refinement is equally wonderful.   These human
creatures, all and each, collectively and individually, are God's offspring, immortal souls, capable of regeneration and eternal life.
They can, each one of them, be born again of incorruptible seed,
by means of the word of God, and brought to love and purity and
an eternity of spiritual, God-like life. We have the experimental
proof of actual fact that many of the most degraded and most
wicked of the human race have been, by the spirit and word of God,
made pure and noble and good, evidencing the possibility of such
a regeneration.
Besides this extreme and gross though by no means exaggerated
view of what that human nature is which is to be regenerated and
sanctified by the spirit of God through the means of his word, let
us take a nearer and more interior look at the actual fact as it exists among the most cultivated nations, where the Gospel for ages has
been the civilizer, and where all the institutions of the Christian religion are found in full operation. Without at all ignoring, but with
full and grateful recognition of the fact of a great amount of individual excellence and social purityand happiness in Christian nations,
yet even in them the deplorable effects of depravity axe but too
plainly seen.
1. Sins of the spirit By the perversion of the natural susceptibilities.
. Avarice. A prudent foresight of future needs perverted to a mere
love of acquisition, saying to the gold, Thou art my hope, and to the
most fine gold, Thou art my confidence, whence extortion and all its
miseries, slavery and all its demoralizations, and infinite suffering
among men.
Ambition. A laudable desire to excel perverted ~o a towering
determination to trample others under foot at whatever expense of
treasure and blood.   Hence desolating wars, destruction,  devastation and wretchedness.
Envy.  Where one can neither acquire nor excel, the indulg
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REMEDY FOR THE MISERIES X MEN.
ence of a morbid hatred toward those who can; the meanest of all
mean passions, yet one of the most common, even among Christians
and clergymen.
2. Sins of the flesh by the perversion of the natural appetites.
Gluttony. The natural and necessary relish for food perverted
to an indulgence worse than brutal, for brutes seldom over-eat.
Drunkenness.  The necessary desire for drink perverted to an
indulgence which brings misery unspeakable, every day and every
moment, upon a very large portion of the human race, and brutal izes the human soul.
Lust. The relation between the sexes which God has chosen as
the most fitting symbol of the relation between himself and the de vout soul, the foundation of some of the purest and most ecstatic
joys of life. Oh! the untold miseries arising from its perversion in
all ages and nations, and in every Christian as well as in every
pagan community.
And withal, the almost universal stupidity and recklessness in
regard to sin; and all these perversions and horrors the most com mon and every-day occurrences, in all ages, in all nations, in the
most Christian lands, from the beginning of history to the present
day.
And religion, the Christian religion inself, intended by God as
the cure of all these evils, by a most wonderful ingenuity of depravity, instead of diminishing, is often made to aggravate them
all, through ethical errors and fearful superstitions, through the
narrowness of bigotry and the ferocious cruelty of persecution.
And this remedial religion has never been put in the possession
of a tenth part of the human race, who all are to be saved by it,
or they have no method of salvation revealed to us. No wonder
the best Christians sometimes groan in mental and bodily agony,
and are almost ready to sink to hopeless despair, especially when
they place the actual facts side by side with the miserable, futile,
abortive attempts of philosophers and theologians to account for them
and give a rational vindication of them.   So the seaman sometimes, in a dark and tempestuous night, out of his reckoning
and with only the uncertain glimmer of a distant lighthouse to
guide him, must just put head to the wind, hold hard on the helm,
and wait for the subsiding of the storm and the rising of the daylight.
Better in such cases no chart at all than a chart constructed in ignorance of the soundings of the deep and the bearings of the coast.
16 
REMEDY FOR THE MISERIES OF MENV.
Perhaps in all the developments of human depravity and blinfd  ness and weakness, there is nothing more discouraging and painful
than the misuse of the remedies which men propose and apply for
the alleviation and cure of the evils under which they suffer.
The science of politics and the art of government are perverted
to tyranny and oppression, to war and anarchy, and nearly one half
of the miseries of the world have arisen from the conflicts between
the governments and the peoples. And what can excite a more in  tense indignation than a history of the opinions and feelings and
actions of the governing classes generally in all generations in
respect to the governed?
Physicians, sometimes, with the most benevolent intentions adopt
theories in regard to disease and apply medicines which torture in stead of alleviating, and exasperate instead of curing-and after
there is good reason to suspect all is not right, there are some who
still go on with the most wiry pertinacity, and in blind adherence
totheir theory torment and kill for the benefit of science as consci entiously as persecuting inquisitors for the good of the Church and
the glory of God.
The theologian, too, in his anxiety to vindicate the ways of
God to men, tnd thus reconcile men to God, often makes ten puz zles in solving one, inspires hate where he would induce loves
and destroys the soul instead of saving it. Ancld yet he per severes, for he is sure his explanations ought to be satisfactory, and if they do harm rather than good, it is because men are
depraved, and not because he has undertaken to tell more than he
knows.
For universal obligatory belief, for the'salvation of the soul and
the conversion of the world, the simple, direct, aphoristic, matterof fact teachings of the Bible are enough without the jointings and
tinkerings and inharmonious harmonizings of speculative philosophy, It is the sincere milk of the word which men need in order
that they may grow thereby; and not the hard, biting, indigestiule cheese which theologians so often make of it. Not that theologians are blameworthy for speculating; it is the nature of mind,
to investigate and to systematize.  As Lord Bacontruly says: ".The,
human understanding is active, and can not halt or rest, but, even
though without effect, still presses forward." The fault is not in
the speculating, that is all right and useful when kept in its proper
17 
REMEDY FOR THE MISERIES OF MEN.
sphere. The fault is in imposing the results of these speculatiens
upon others, as articles of faith, and insisting upon it that these
theories shall relieve the difficulties of others, because perhaps they
may have relieved our own, when their only effect is and must be in
certain minds to disturb and destroy. The doctrine itself is difficult enough, but the explanation is a hundred-fold more so. The
real facts of theology are hard enough, but the theories invented to
ease and smooth over the facts are ten times harder than the facts
themselves.  Says the philosopher to the troubled inquirer: "The
pill, I know, is a bitter one, it needs a little coating; come, I will put
it int2 this chestnut burr, and then you will not taste the bitter as
it goes down. Now gape, sinner, and swallow, and be thankfiul
for a Meg Merrilies who can make hard things easy to you."
Thus the effect of the word is hindered by many who desire to
be its promoters; the injudicious defenses of its friends are more
fatal to its success than the fiercest assault of its foes; and men are
driven into sin and darkness by those who really wish to lead them
into the light of the Lord.
The condition of the human race, physically and morally, is a
dark mystery to us all, and there is no sufficient explanation of it;
but one thing we do know, and that is a satisfaction, even if we
know nothing else-God has put into our hands a remedy for the
moral ills of man, and ultimately for the physical-a remedy
unchangeable, infallible, always effective-his word-and this rem edy we can always apply with a certainty of success.
Attend again to the declarations of the Apostle: "Seeing ye have
purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit unto un feigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure
heart fervently: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of in corruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.
For all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass.
The grass withereth and the flower thereof falleth away: Blat the
word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which
by the gospel is preached unto you."
The effect of this word is to produce sincerity and love, not
hypocrisy and hate.   It is the truth of God operating by the
efficiency of the Spirit of God. Here is something for us to busy
ourselves with-here is scope enough for all the activity of our
nature-and here our powers can always be usefully employed.
18
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REMEDY FOR THE MISERIES OF MEN.
Sickening and distressing as is the view of men in their
depravity and debasement, yet the human creature is, after all, the
noblest of God's works which ever meet our eye, especially when
this degenerate creature is born again, not of the corruptible seed,
but of the incorruptible, by means of the word of God, which
liveth and abideth forever.   What more lovely, more de'ightful,
more perfectly admirable, than the cultivated, regenerated, sancti  fied Christian man or woman, than the thoroughly Christianized
community of men? Yet these men are the brethren of all other
men, and it is God's Spirit and God's word which raises them above
the common level of the race. And the word acts by no magic
energy. It is the ideas and principles of the word, transfused into
the soul by aid of the Spirit's power, which produces the effect.
But to prevent mutilations, corruptions, and perversions, it is
necessary that this word be committed  to writing, fixed and
permanent on the alphabetic page. The book is better than the
Church (that keeps the book indeed but hides it) as the depository
of divine truth. That-portion of nominal Christendom (and it is
much the largest portion numerically) which makes church tradi tion superior to or coordinate with the written revelation, and has
withheld the Bible from the people, has smothered the divine truth
under a mass of the commandments of men. From the earliest times
they have chosen the ship as the emblem of the Church; and with
them the old bottom has become so encumbered with an aggregation
of traditionary barnacles, that she can scarcely move, she barely
floats and drifts, and makes no progress. But on the book, open to
the eyes of all, and with freedom of thought and discussion, there
can be no permanent aggregation of barnacles. The ship is hauled
into dock at very frequent intervals, and where freedom prevails,
every man is at hand with his scraper to keep the bottom clear and
smooth; and the old ship of the true spiritual Church of Christ is
so solidly built that it will endure any amount of scraping without
injury. The word is stable; there it stands from age to age; and
whatever changes may take place in opinions, in philosophy, in
institutions, in social life, there is the old text, just as it always was,
just as it always will be. There may be misunderstandings, there
may be perverse interpretations, there may be dogmatic glosses;
but while the text remains,  the inevitable result of thorough
investigation will be to wheel men round at last to the true meaning
I
19 
REMEDY FOR THE MISERIES OF MEN.
of the word again.  The ship may turn with the tide and veer with
the wind; but while the mooring holds, she can never break quite
away nor go entirely adrift; and she will certainly bring round
right when the wind goes down and the tide finds its level. While
there is a written word, intelligible, unequivocal, error must be
temporary and mutable, not permanent nor steadily progressive.
To us, in regard to spiritual and eternal things, there is an
absolute necessity for a reliable book, an objective revelation, sure
and infallible. The late Theodore Parker once told me that he no
more felt the need of an infallible revelation on religion than on
chemistry. It struck me that there were some very essential
differences in the two cases. Chemistry lies entirely within the
bounds of natural knowledge, religion does not. We can detect
the mistakes of chemists by our own investigations in the world of
nature, as open to us as to the chemist; but who can go into the
spirit lands, and there detect the mistakes of the religious philosophers, and come back and let us know? By the time the mistake
is ascertained it is too late to correct it. Moreover, chemistry pertains only to material things and this short life; but religion
to spiritual things, which fix our destinies for eternity. I must
have an infallible, objective revelation on religion, or I must dis card religious thought altogether, and live wholly in and for the
world of sense.
This divine word, however, this regenerating word on which so
much depends, to us and to all mankind, at the present day, (and so
it will continue to the end of time,) is locked up in ancient
and foreign languages, formed under strange and unknown climes
and customs, to be perfectly learned only by hard and long con tinued study, with ample literary apparatus; and a kind of study,
too, which to most men, as I have had ample opportunity to know
by forty years' experience in teaching, is extreme weariness to thq
flesh. Yet here is the only avenue to this divine word; for there
are no Scriptures plenarily inspired but the original Scriptures, and
the gift of tongues has ceased. God has deposited his word among
us in this way. This is God's method for man's access to it, and
woeful defeat awaits any organized body of God's army who
neglect to come to his arsenal, by this the only gate which he has
opened.
The pure and effective application then of this, the only inflible
ol
20
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REMEDY FOR THE MISERIES OF MEN.
remedy which God has provided for the sins and woes of mankind,
requires, in every community, the establishment of colleges And
literary institutions of the highest order. This has always been
known and acknowledged in every Christian nation. Not one man
in a hundred, no, not one in a thousand, of all who go into the
-ministry, ever have the taste, zeal, and energy to pursue this study
effectively in private; and even where this thousandth man is
found, he can not, from his individual resources, collect a competent
literary apparatus for the purpose. Nor is the individual mind,
without the help and collision of other associated minds, able
to make  a clear passage through the thorny paths of ancient
linguistic study.
Nor the ancient languages alone, but also the modern.  The
varied forms of human thought, to as wide an extent as possible,
should be called in to tle aid of him, who would ascertain clearly
the meaning of God's word for himself, and learn how effectively
and fully to communicate that meaning to others. Not that every
minister must be an accomplished linguist himself; but he must
learn how to breathe in an atmosphere of linguistic learning, and
be able to avail himself of the acquisitions of others.
And not languages only, but the sciences, all, must contribute
their quota to the art of divine interpretation; for all truth is from
God, natural as well as spiritual-Creation and the Bible are both
from him, and all truth is homogeneous, harmonious, self-con      sistent. If, then, any supposed truths of natural science and of
revelation seem to conflict with each other, we are precisely in the
condition of the arithmetician, who has done his sum, as he thinks
correctly, but findg that it will not prove; he must go all over
it again, both the sum and the proof, and detect the hidden mistake;
for he knows, by the result, that there must be a mistake some     where.
X\      Want of harmony shows there is error, and there is no real
conflict anywhere between a truth of natural science and a truth of
theology; and an apparent conflict only shows the need of a re     investigation, either in our science or in our theology, and probably
in both. And how is this to be accomplished without institutions
of learning of the highest order? The institutions must be fitted
to the communities in which they exist. They must begin small
where the communities are small, and grow proportionately, keep     ing pace with society around them.
21 
REMEDY FOR THE MISERIES OF MEN.
I know institutions may be perverted, but so far as the interpretation of the Bible is concerned, if they are really learned institutions, they can not long be perverted; for real learning, applied
to the Bible, inevitably leads to an understanding of what its
teachings really are, and not all the dogmatic prejudice, or scientific
scorn, or sectarian blindness in the world can effectually prevent
or long retard this result.
Let no one say we must have the meeting-houses first and
the colleges afterwards. We must have them both together.
In the old church, the chief meeting-house in a district was
always also the college for the education of its ministers.
This practice, we are told by the ancient fathers, was introduced
by the Apostle John, who established a school of this kind in
the principal church at Ephesus.
Supposing men should say, let us have the paddle-wheels, for our
steamboats-the paddle-wheels, by all means-we can get them
cheap, we can make them ourselves with a little help; but as to
the engines, they are cumbrous, complicated, expensive things.
The material must be brought from a distance; the best of workmen must be employed at high wages; we will wait till we are
richer before we get them. I know it is possible to work the
paddle-wheels, if they are very small ones, by hand or by horsepower, but not long or to much advantage. We must have the
engines, or the paddle-wheels will do but little.
And if you are poor, you will be a long while growing rich
enough without your engines to enable you to get them.  You
must have your engines before you can get your start out of your
poverty. Your boats will do nothing effectively without both
engines and paddle-wheels, and you must have them both to begin
with.
By the appointment of Christ himself, and as the necessities
of the case most obviously require, a class of men are set apart
from all other employments to devote themselves to the study
of God's word, that they may be its interpreters to the people.
These men know that they have no miraculous gifts, either
of inspiration or of tongues, and that their qualifications must
be the result of their own industry and fidelity in the use of the
opportunities which God has given them. Dare such men assume
to be interpreters of God's word, without being able to read it
22
1. 
REMEDY FOR THE MISERIES OF MEN.
themselves, as God gives it to them? Dare they take this responsible office, without doing all in their power to make themselves as ready as possible in the original languages of the Holy
Scriptures?
Not that every minister is bound to be an accomplished linguist;
but every minister who can do it, is bound to make the originals
Scriptures his ultimate appeal both for doctrine and practice; and
to take the words of God as God originally uttered them, and
make these words the basis of his instructions to the people.
But perhaps some may think that this is all theory and not fact.
Many men are good and successful preachers with no knowledge of
the ancient languages. The Methodists did a great work before
they had colleges or an educated ministry. But the Methodists
have always operated in a land of colleges. Their first generation
of preachers were taught by the Wesleys, who were, graduates of
Oxford, the proudest of the English universities, and eminent
Greek scholars; and many of these preachers, though without the
advantages of early education, became most enthusiastic students of
the original Scriptures, some of them committing large portions, and
even the whole of the Greek Testament to memory, and all,
in their extempore preaching able to expound the Hebrew text of
any passage of the Old Testament which they had occasion to use.
Many intensely interesting examples of this early Methodist scholarship are given by Southey in his biography of the Wesleys.
They believed in their hearts that the original Scriptures were the
word of God to men, and as the interpreters of God's word to the
people they acted conscientiously in accordance with their belief.
There is but one alternative-there must be either direct plenary
inspiration, or a familiarity with the Bible in its original tongues, to
qualify one to be an interpreter of God's word to the people. Such
a scholarship as that of the first Methodists lasted a geod while, and
fertilized a wide field otherwise barren.  But diffused through
successive generations, and spreading over a large space, it began
at last to run very thln. In this country especially, it fell off to a
mere echo; and for the last thirty years the Methodists, with most
commendable diligence, have been returning to the scholarship of
their founders, and establishing everywhere in the land, literary
institutions of a high order for both clergy and laity.
The Baptists, too, began their career among us, by decrying
23 
REMEDY FOR THE MISERIES OF MEN.
human learning, and especially the study of the ancient languages;
but the progress of society around them and their own good sense,
have entirely changed both their opinions and their feeling in this
respect; and now for zealous, earnest, persevering, successful study
of the original languages of the Scriptures, there is no denomina tion whatever, which goes before the Baptists.  And so it ever must
be. Such is the mighty power of truth in the long run. Truth
will force its way, sooner or later.
Uneducated men sometimes educate themselves and by their
own supereminent talent become better trained than most of the
educated; but these are rare examples, of men with great native
powers, and are exceptions to the general rule. Such rare instances can not be calculated upon to supply the daily wants of the
Church.
Uneducated men of only the average native power, in a limited
sphere, and for special departments, are often eminently useful;
but to give permanence and value to their work, they must be
surrounded and sustained by the educated. They are like the
rifle-rangers and light artillery, admirably effective in their peculiar
line; but without the compact bodies, heavily armed, to form
a base for their operations, easily scattered and worse than useless
for any permanent achievement.
The revolver may say to the columbiad: "You great clumsy
thing, you can not move without a team of twenty horses to start
you, and you want an hour to turn round in; in a close fight, handto-hand, you can do nothing, and you cost heaps of money to begin
with."  "True, my lively little snapper," (replies the columbiad;)
"but I can throw a three hundred pound iron ball five miles through
the air, and at one blow sink a ship with a crew of a thousand
men, while you are picking off some half-dozen enemies in detail with
your leaden pellets."  And this is just the difference between the
erudite Calvin with his Institutes and the unlettered colporteur with
his tracts. In the war with Satan and sin, we must have both, and
both at the same time.
I have presented this subject-the indispensable necessity of colleges and literary institutions of the highest order, to the Church,
for the accomplishment of its appropriate work-in only one of its
aspects, the aspect in which it has most forcibly presented itself to
my own mind, in consequence of the professional duties to which
24
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REMEDY FOR THE MISERIES OF MEN.
my life has been devoted. There are many other points of view
no less important and impressive, and many of these have been
presented with great ability and power in the reports of the Secretary of this Society and in the discourses of those who have before
spoken at its anniversaries.  Thank God, there is no difference of
opinion among intelligent and earnest Christians as to the necessity
of accomplishing the object contemplated by this Society. Here
there is a wonderful, a most cheering unanimity.  The only question is, whether this Society can not wait till some other objects
have been accomplished first. If twenty years of most earnest
and self-sacrificing labor on the ground give me any right to an
opinion, I say, No, this Society can not wait a moment, its resources must all be put in requisition now, or the whole field to us
is lost.  General Knox always said that Washington lost the battle
of Germantown, because he waited for a stone house to be demolished, before he would press on to meet the advancing foe. In
this case his habitual caution and self-distrust operated disastrously.
My health broke down in the West and I became entirely incapacitated for labor there, not from over-work, not from any thing
which I actually had to do; but from constant anxiety lest the
good Christians to whom God had committed the funds might be
saying to themselves:
"Well, we will have our colporteurs and our missionaries and
our meeting-houses first, and then after a while the people themselves will build their colleges." Dear brethren, there can be no
first and last in this work. All must be first; your missionaries
must be first, and your meeting-houses must be first, and your
tracts must be first, and your colleges and theological schools
must be first, and they must all be first, and they must all go
together with one unbroken front or the whole battle is lost. All
the divisions of the grand army must be moving on together, and
there can be no waiting for any thing, any more than one leg can
be waiting for the other, when a man is on a rapid march.
Happily this whole matter is now seen and appreciated in its
true light. The labors of this Society have not been in vain.
With the most gratifying liberality an enlightened Christian public
is responding to its appeals, and our churches are true to the
principles of their fathers in respect to the necessity of institutions
25 
REMEDY FOR THE MISERIES OF MEN.
of learning of the highest class, for the use of the Church in its
fullest development.
As long as there are new States springing up West, and still west of
us, until the whole country from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific is
filled and cultivated and civilized and Christianized, just so long must
there be some method East for sustaining colleges West. Whatever
may be our views of the mysteries of divine providence or on the
nicer points of theological speculation, one thing is absolutely certain, and we are all agreed in it, namely, that we are put into this
world to help each other, and whatever may be the origin of the
evil in which the world is involved, there is but one way out of it,
and that is by the word of God; and we can wield the power of
the word of God by those methods only which the decree of divine
providence has made effective, and which all Christian bodies,
since the times of the Apostles, have been obliged to resort to.
And it is not brutish Australians, nor cannibal New-Zealanders,
nor snake-eating Africans that we are laboring for, (though all these
can be regenerated and brought to a life of purity and love by the
Spirit and word of God, yet with a distressing seedtime and a long
deferred harvest;) but we are extending a little temporary help
(such as our fathers, in the infancy of their institutions, received
from their beloved island home) to the noblest work of modern
civilization, where the seedtime is all genial and lovely, and the
harvest is almost simultaneous with it, as in some tropical orchards
you may see the bud, the blossom, and the ripened fruit, all growing at the same time on the same tree. This is what we have seen,
and still see, in our moral gardens at the West; and if we are
faithful to the trust which God has put into our hands, we may
continue to see it, till the whole space between the Atlantic and
the Pacific is filled and exulting with a complete Christian civilization.
How nobly and efficiently the West comes forward in this hour
of our country's need, in this last great struggle against barbarism
and anarchy! And have the twenty years' labor of this Society
had nothing to do with making the preparation for this great
triumph of national principle over the meanest and most sectional
selfishness?  How many of the glorious men who are there leading
this magnificent movement, think you, have been trained in the
institutions which you have fostered, and which, without your aid,
26
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REMEDY FOR THE MISERIES OF MEN.
would have perished?  Go on with your work-you can not afford
to stop-scatter still more profusely your seed, the harvest comes
at once, and the yield is a thousand fold.
But some may say:  "It takes so long to get this thorough education, and the work is of such pressing and immediate urgency,
that we must shorten the course by four or five years and have the
men in the field sooner." But would it not be cheaper to contrive
some way, or pray God to open some way, by which, for the present emergency, men might be born sixteen years old, and thus save
all those long years which the body and mind at present need to
acquire their compactness, consistency, and firmness? This would
shorten the course, to be sure, in a way that would be worth the
while; and shall we not get up education societies and prayermeetings to effect'a purpose so desirable? Every body sees the
absurdity of this. We can never help God along in his work by
the violation of his laws, whether physical or moral. God spurns
all such help.
The Creator, by irrevocable laws, has fixed certain limits, has
made certain periods of time indispensably necessary for the consolidating and the fitting for actual service, of the powers both
of the body and mind, and it is all in vain for men to think of
transgressing these limits, or essentially curtailing these periods of
time, without injury. God will have his own way. Hle will not have
men born with the strength and power and stature of sixteen years,
however urgent the exigency may be; nor will he, in ordinary cases,
have minds grow into the discipline necessary for good service in less
time than the experience of ages has decided to be requisite for a truly
liberal education. Uneducated preachers, who decry human learning
and the study of languages, claim for themselves, as they must do
to give any authority to their preaching, a special gift of the Spirit,
an inward light, superseding to a great extent the necessity of the
outward word.  Indeed, among those who acknowledge the supernatural character of the Christian revelation, there are in fact but
three theories possible (except in a few exceptional cases) of a
worthy entrance into the Christian ministry, always admitting genuine piety to be in all cases the indispensable prerequisite, to wit:
1st. The external, authoritative, ecclesiastical impartation of ministerial gifts as held by the Papists and other High Churchmen; or
t
27 
REMEDY FOR THE MISERIES OF MEN.
2d. A specific inspiration and infallible inward light, such as is
claimed by many fanatical sects; or
3d. A knowledge of the Bible as God gave it to men at first by
inspiration of the Holy Ghost, without the necessity of depending 
on uninspired translations.
We have deliberately and intelligently rejected the first two of
these theories, and adopted the third. Now let us deliberately, intelligently, and consistently accept all the consequences of this principle, and act throughout in accordance with it.
28
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