'Tam $ armors ?2. r— ft C : y/'c/'L J l pj^l _ Lejrf’-t- cMr—y^ A DISCOURSE /U# SABBATH EVKN1KG JANUARY' 4, 185J, ON THE STATE OF THE CIVILISED WORLD. AS RELATED TO THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST : AND REPEATED, BY REQUEST, IN THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, REV. DR. SPRAGUE'S, ON SABBATH EVENING, JANUARY llTH. BY RAY. PALMER, MINISTER OV THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, ALBANY. ALBANY : GRAY, SPRAGUE A Co, VAN BENtHCTSEN’s PRINT. 1852. A DISCOURSE DELIVERED SABBATH EVENING, JANUARY 4, 1852, ON THE STATE OF THE CIVILISED WORLD, AS RELATED TO THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST: AND REPEATED, BY REQUEST, IN THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, REV. DR. SPRAGUE’S, ON SABBATH EVENING, JANUARY llTH. BY RAY PALMER, MINISTER OP THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, ALBANY ALBANY: GRAY, SPRAGUE & Co 1852 , m ?JL CORRESPONDENCE. Albany, January 15, 1852. Rev. Ray Palmer — Dear Sir — The undersigned, believing that the Sermon on “the Pre- sent State of the Civilised Word,” delivered by you in your own church, the first Sabbath in the year, and repeated in the Second Presbyterian church, last Sabbath evening, is eminently a Sermon for the times, and deserves, as well for the justness of its views as for the ability with which they are presented, to be extensively circulated, respectfuly request that you will furnish a copy for the press. W. B. SPRAGUE, JOHN WOODWORTH, E. P. PRENTICE, ’ ELIPHALET WICKES, • B. R. WOOD, THOMAS W. OLCOTT, ERASTUS CORNING, 1 ... ANTHONY GOULD, ARCH’D CAMPBELL. Albany, January 19th, 1852. Gentlemen : The Discourse which you are pleased to notice so favorably, was prepared under the impression that “ the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,” ought to be most distinctly recognized in the great events of our time ; and to be made the ground of hope for humanity, and of encouragement to prayer and effort for the speedy regeneration of the world. It is cheerfully submitted to your disposal ; with the single regret, that it is not better fitted to awaken worthy thoughts of the reality and the glory of that kingdom which Messiah is establishing among the nations. I am, Gentlemen, with great respect. Very truly yours, RAY PALMER. To Rev. Dr. Sprague, Judge Woodworth, and others. - SERMON II PSALM, 1-12. 1. Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing. 2. The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel to- gether, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, 3. Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. 4. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh : the Lord shall have them in derision. 5. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. 6. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. 7. I will declare the decree : the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son ; this day have I begotten thee. 8. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. 9. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron ; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. 10. Be wise now, therefore, 0 ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth. 11. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. 12. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. It is generally agreed by commentators, Jewish as well as Christian, that this Psalm predicts the universal reign of Christ, the anointed of the Lord in the highest sense. By the revelations which had been delivered in the ages preceding his own time, as well as those which had been granted directly to 6 himself, the inspired writer had been made to understand that the promised Messiah should come not only as a Savior but as a Prince ; invested with power to establish, and to reign over perpetually, a kingdom fundamentally different in its organization, principles and spirit, from any other existing on the earth. This reign of the Messiah, was a favorite theme with all the later prophets. Isaiah sets it forth in the highest style of poetry.* Jeremiah turns to this for encou- ragement in days of the deepest degeneracy and darkness.f The language of Daniel re- specting it, when he interpreted to Nebuchad- nezzar his memorable dream, is wonderfully explicit : And in the days of these kings, shall the God of Heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed ; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.^ In another place also the same prophet says : I saw in the night visions, and behold one like the Son of Man, came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought I*, lx-lrri. t Jer. xxiii, xxxi, and xxxiii. t Dan. ii. 44. 7 him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations and languages should serve him : his dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.* It was in accordance with these utterances of the prophets, that when the Christ had come and was about to enter on his public ministry, John his forerunner announced that the kingdom of heaven was at hand.f The time, long anticipated, for its establishment, had at last arrived. Jesus himself, in his public teachings, claimed to be laying its foundations; and he declared that it should live and ultimately pervade the world. The kingdom of heaven, said He, is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three mea- sures of meal till the whole was leavened.}. The writer of the Psalm which we have read, was favored with a prophetic vision of the scenes which should be exhibited, when, in the course of Divine Providence, the time should arrive for the kingdom of Messiah to be established throughout the earth. Won- • Dan. vii. 13. f Math. iii. 2. J Math. xiii. 33. 8 derfully graphic and life-like, you perceive, is the description of these scenes. Christ, in the writer’s mind, has come. His throne has already been set up. His reign is well begun. The stone cut out of the mountain without hands, is seen going on to fill the world ;* or in other words, the forces of this kingdom are making themselves felt in all directions. The powers that have had dominion are alarmed. They will not give way without a struggle ; and as they see the Head of this new econo- my going forth, and pressing on to successive conquests, the kings of the earth set them- selves, and the rulers take counsel together, against Jehovah and against his anointed, saying, let us break their bands asunder, let us cast away their cords from us. Then, with the highest flight of poetic boldness, the Most High is represented as looking from his lofty throne, and laughing at their blindness and their folly, and deriding their vain resistance to the march of his eternal Providence. At the same time He re-affirms the supremacy of Messiah, ; and declares that he shall dash his enemies like a potter’s vessel, until he shall * Dan. ii. 45. 9 inherit the nations, and possess the utter- most parts of the earth. And lastly, those kings and judges of the earth, who would save themselves from perishing miserably from before the Son of God, when his wrath is kindled but a little, are warned to submit themselves, and reverently and joyfully to become his servants. My brethren, what better portraiture of our own times could possibly be drawn, than is furnished in these prophetic words ? What is it that we see and hear? What mean these convulsive throes that heave and agitate the old foundations of society throughout so large a part of the civilized world ? It is that, after long ages of preparation, the kingdom of Christ is coming; coming with accelerated progress. It is thrusting itself out in all di- rections. It is bringing down the arrogant and proud, and raising up the poor, the suf- fering, the long-oppressed. It is clearly seen to be the antagonist of every form of wrong ; to be the bearer of all alleviating and enobling influences ; and to have a direct and potent tendency to bring about the social and civil, as involved necessarily in that which is still 2 10 higher, the moral regeneration of the world. The old tyrannies, both civil and religions, have become thoroughly aroused ; and, re- solved to maintain to the last the usurped authority which they have held forages, they, are banding together to strengthen each other’s hands in opposing the reign of Christ. And now the contest is beginning. There will be no permanent repose to nations till it shall be fairly and finally decided. We say then, let it come, if this be God’s good pleasure ; and God himself send good deliverance to the right ! The sooner the great decision shall be reached the better. Let us here be distinctly understood. We are not wishing to see war and bloodshed. These things we say not a word to encourage or to justify. We do not suppose, indeed, that the conflict now commencing is going to be merely one of force; yet we anticipate that it will, in fact and of necessity, be so in part: lor while it is certainly true, that the kingdom of God, in itself, is righteousness and peace, it is also true that Christ himself declared that In 4 came not to send peace on the earth, but a sword.* Even the peaceful •Math. x. 34. LI Gospel may arouse, in its successes, the most violent hostilities. If the enemies of Mes- siah’s reign are bent on a desperate resistance, then there is no alternative but that lie should, in fulfillment of the terrible predic- tion, — break them with a rod of iron. He will certainly move on to a grand and uni- versal triumph, whoever and whatever may be crushed by his chariot wheels; nor can he be held responsible for those evils, how- ever great they be, which are occasioned solely by the blind infatuation, and the obsti- nate fury of his enemies. You will expect me to corroborate, and to justify to your convictions, the general state- ments which have now been made. This I shall attempt to do by a reference to the nature of that Kingdom which Christ is set- ting up, together with the present state of the Civilised World, and the manifest course of divine Providence. 1. In the first place, this Kingdom of Mes- siah, this reign of Heaven, the theme of Prophets, and the hope of Saints for ages, and which, in its setting up, is according to the Scriptures, to change the whole aspect 12 of the world, — in what does it consist? On what foundations, and by what forces is it constituted and ordained to grow ? It would not be surprising if even many of us, who ought to be supposed to understand the sub- ject well, should find, on careful examination, that our views in relation to it are far from being definite and clear. It is well, at least, that we should know precisely what we mean, when we speak of Christ’s Kingdom among men. Let me ask your special atten- tion here. In answer to the question, then, in what this Kingdom essentially consists, we say in general, that it consists in the assertion on divine authority, and the practical applica- tion under divine direction, of a few vital principles or truths. It does not consist in any visible organization. It is not represent- ed by any visible Church, nor do all evangeli- cal Churches taken collectively, constitute or embody the Kingdom of Christ among men. Many are doubtless included as subjects in the Kingdom of Christ, who have never been brought within the pale of any organic Church ; and not a few, it is to be feared, 13 have been and are included in such Churches, who have no relation whatever to that King- dom. Considered as to its own nature and power, we repeat, the Kingdom of Christ consists in a divine administration ol certain truths which are fundamental in their bear- ing on the duty and the happiness ol man throughout the whole course of his existence. Considered as to its subjects, it of course includes all by whom those truths are cor- dially received and practically exemplified. It is, however, you will please to bear in mind, in relation to its own nature and power, and not its subjects that we are now inquiring. We wish to know what it is essentially, as a moral force acting on human character and shaping human destiny. This we would state in the fewest possible words. We say, then, that the Kingdom of Christ asserts, and is founded on the following principles or truths : The absolute supremacy of God : The law of right, the only law of happi- ness : The dignity and responsibility of' individ- ual man : J 4 The universal brotherhood of the human race : The love of God to man, begetting love in man, the grand regenerating power. These primary and fundamental truths solemnly affirmed by a well authenticated revelation, and fully unfolded and applied in precepts, examples, and parabolic and other illustrations, are fitted to bear in the most direct and practical manner on human char- acter and conduct. And mark, if you please, their comprehensiveness — what a reach and power they have. The supremacy of God : — it makes his will, distinctly announced, the universal rule of action — the highest law to man; the grand statute of limitation, by Avhich all human authority and legislation are bounded and restricted ; and the clear transgression of which renders the authority or the legislation so transgressing, a usurpation and a nullity. Government becomes not only despotism, but high treason against God himself, the mo- ment it transcends on any side, the lines which his known will has drawn around it.* That the will of (toil, when clearly known, is the supremo law, wc sup- The law ol‘ right, the only law of happi- ness: — tliis second truth you will pereeive, affirms the utter lolly of believing, either in the case of individuals, communities or go- vernments, that wrong will in the end prove advantageous to those by whom it is com- mitted. It sets up duty as the great idea. It allows no calculations of expediency, where duty is imperative. It does not tolerate, either in private or public affairs, a resort to dishonest artifice and sly intrigue, nor to the tergiversations of a crooked policy, under the pretence of securing some important good. That the permanent well-being of individual man or of society, can be promoted by injus- tice, by oppression, by any form of wrong whatever, it most unequivocally denies. The third truth, the assertion of the dignity and responsibility of each and every human being in himself considered, is equally vital and far-reaching. Divine revelation in teach- ing, as it does, that man was made in the pose is admitted by all good men. The disputes which have arisen, in relation to the subject, have grown out of the difficulty of deciding, in some cases, whether a given course of action is, or is not, contrary to the known will of God; or in other words, whether the will of God in regard to that particular thing, is certainly made known. The great writers on f undamental law, admit all that is stated above. See, for instance, Blackstone, Introd. Sec. 2. 16 image of his Maker, that each man is God’s rational and immortal creature, that each stands personally accountable to God for what he is and for what he does, subject to the awards of an eternal retribution, sets every human being on a lofty elevation. It makes the right of private judgment, and of obedi- ence to the commands of enlightened con- science, the indefeasible right of every man whoever or whatever he may be. It forbids that any power whatever should rob men, either individually, or by classes, or by nations and races, of their manhood ; that any power should debar them from the liberty, and from the opportunities, of realising in their lives the high ends for which they were created. And so again the fourth truth — of the uni- versal brotherhood of mankind. God in his Word, puts all men on one level as regards their natural relation to himself. They are all his offspring. He hath made of one blood all men to dwell upon the earth.* They all constitute one family and have a common Father ; and the law of the household is, that each should do unto others as lie would that • Acts xvii. 26-8. 17 others should do unto him ;* and should love his neighbor as himself.f Even the weakest is thus hedged about, and protected against wrong. No man in the kingdom ol Christ, may look exclusively on his own things but every man also on the things ol others. £ And as there is one God and Father ol all, who is above all and through all, and in all, so it is declared that no man can love God, and not love his brother also.§ Of course this asser- tion of the fraternal relation of all the race to one another is a positive prohibition of all castes, all orders, all institutions, all policies, which tend to dishonor and degrade any part of the human family, at the pleasure, or for the convenience or profit of the rest. It lays on every individual the solemn obligation to labor to promote the general happiness as truly as his own. And finally, the truth, that the love of God to man, made effectual to the produc- tion of love in man, is the great, and indeed the only regenerating power, is a revelation of the only moral force which can accom- plish the renovation of human character — * Math, vii, 12. f Math, xxii, 39. { 1 John iv, 20. § Phil, ii, 4. 3 18 which can so elevate men as regards their affections, their thoughts, their desires, their purposes, and hopes, as to make them truly virtuous, and good, and happy. God so loved the world, that he gave his only begot- ten Son, that whosoever believeth on him, might not perish, but have everlasting life.* Here is at once a ground of pardon to the guilty, and an appeal to the hearts of sinful men, than Avliich nothing can be imagined more tender and subduing. This view of the riches of God’s love to poor, degraded, suffering man, becomes through the divine blessing, efficient in softening the hard heart, and kindling up within it a flame of holy love, which first in order expresses itself in piety towards God, and then in benevolent affection towards all fellow creatures for his sake. This love, the fruit of love, is the moral force which both binds the Kingdom of Christ together, as with a sweet attraction, and operates continually, with an expansive energy, to make it extend and grow. These, then, are the elementary ideas, the simplest seminal principles, of the Kingdom • John iii. 16. 19 of Messiah among men. The administration of these principles in their manifold applica- tion to human conduct, and to human things, is the chief end for which Christ, as Media- tor, reigns; and so far as these principles are practically felt, so far his reign extends, or his Kingdom truly comes. The moulding of the hearts of men, and of the institutions of society, into accordance with them, is the establishment of that Kingdom, which Dan- iel saw, as a stone cut out of the mountain, destined to break and to consume all other Kingdoms, and itself to fill the earth. It is this, and this only, which constitutes true progress. And is it not manifest, my hearers, that those truths which we have now seen to be, so to speak, the Constitutional Doctrines of Christ’s Kingdom, do in their right applica- tion, strike at the very root of those great evils which have hitherto so sadly checked the advancement of our race, and under which humanity, to so melancholy an ex- tent, has been groaning through long ages ? They do manifestly wrest the scepter of su- preme dominion over men, from Kings, and 20 Priests, and place it in the hands of Jesus Christ himself. For King-craft, and for Priest- craft, they substitute the eternal rule of right. They teach every man to feel him- self a man, and to see in every fellow-man, a brother. And finally, they breathe abroad in place of a hating and a hateful selfishness, an atmosphere of love, in which the hearts of men are warmed with kind wishes towards each other, and with concern for each other’s welfare; and are carried upward in grateful affection towards God. What more is wanted to regenerate and bless the world, than just these truths universally carried out, to their legitimate results? Wherever they prevail, they must overturn oppression whatever form it may have taken. They must strip injus- tice of its pretexts. They must raise up and enoble individual man; they must reform the abuses of society, and facilitate its health- ful progress; in short, they must help on the realisation of that higher and better condi- tion of humanity for which the hearts of men are continually yearning. And when we say that such must be the influence of Ihese truths, wherever they are applied to *21 man and to society, we mean that they are precisely adapted in themselves, to do these very things ; and that Christ, the Head and Administrator of the Kingdom, of which they are the essence and the power, will, by his Providence and Spirit, cause them to work out their appropriate effects. They are mighty moral forces, and he reigns to give them play.* Now then, my hearers, let us understand, that when we read or talk about the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, we are concerned not with a mere abstraction or a metaphor, but with something which has actual existence. The * M. Guizot maintains — Hist. Civiliz. Lee. 2, — that the idea of individual liberty, so far as it is an element in modern Civilization, was derived from the German Barbarians. He admits that it was unknown, even to the Republics of antiquity ; and as it could not have come from the Church, which by the fifth century was itself a Spiritual Despotism, nor from the Civil Power, which was then taking the feudal form, he assigns it the above named origin. With all deference to so great a name, we can not think that the love of personal independence which has all along struggled against tyrrany, is wholly or even chiefly to he traced to such a source. That the German tribes were, like all rude nations, impatient of restraint, is doubtless true ; and that this character- istic was not without some influence, is credible enough. But it does not at all appear that they had any well developed ideas of individual rights. Chris- tianity itself, however, — not the corrupt organic Church — distinctly announced these very ideas, as has been shown, in an emphatic and authoritative manner; and from the Christian Scriptures, and the early and faithful Christian teachers, we insist, they were mainly derived and spread abroad, so as to find their way into the minds of men. To the teachings of Jesus Christ, and his disciples, more than to all other sources, we are confident, is the world indebted for sound notions in relation to the rights of individual man, and to the true principles of liberty. Kingdom ol the Son of God in this our world, is just as much a reality, as the Kingdom of Great Britain. Its power, its administration, its influence on all the aflairs of the civilised world, are just as real as are those of England or any other state. It is impossible to under- stand the course of human events, to com- prehend the agitations of society and the various phenomena of the civilised world in its perpetual unrest, without the key which the recognition of this invisible, this silent but yet powerful Kingdom of essential truths affords; not less impossible than it would be for any statesman to appreciate the political condition of Europe as a whole, while he took no notice of that mighty Empire to which we have just alluded. The dominion of essential truth, in relation to human duty, human rights and human happiness tor this world and the next, which the King of Kings is setting up in the bosoms of mankind, is altogether too important an element in the calculation of the results of the changes going forward, to be omitted, without the certainty of falling into the most material errors. There are those who in the conceit 23 of their own wisdom, do deliberately disre- gard it; and they pay the penalty by blindly falling into the most disastrous practical mistakes. No statesman who ignores this dominion, whatever may be his talents, or however great his political sagacity, can de- serve to be considered really enlightened and large-minded. He may have the energy of Pitt, or the acuteness and eloquence of Burke ; but he wants a kind of knowledge without which these will avail him comparatively little for all the highest ends of statesmanship. II. We come now to a second general in- quiry. Such being the nature of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, considered as a moral force, an element of life and power, steadily opera- tive on man and on society, what are the obstacles to its easy application ? What are the evils which have so long and so greatly obstructed the happiness and the progress of the race, and which it is destined to remove ? In what I have to say on this part of the subject, I shall direct your thoughts especially to Europe ; both because that furnishes the best materials for illustration, and because it is to that quarter of the world that great 24 events, and the signs of greater yet to come, are attracting our attention. What is true in relation to one portion of the world, so far as the present inquiry is concerned, will be sub- stantially applicable to all the rest. What then, as briefly stated, are the heavy burdens that lie upon humanity and from which it craves and is struggling for deliver- ance? What is it that even in civilised Europe, by far the happiest portion of the Eastern Hemisphere, produces such a vast amount of wretchedness, and occasions such perpetual friction in the social organization ? We may put at the head of the catalogue, popular ignorance ; the want of intellectual culture and enlightenment in the great masses of the people. Great and noble as man ap- pears in the full development of his high powers, if cut off from the means of such development and doomed to drudge in a merely animal and sensual life, he becomes by necessity but a mean and grovelling crea- ture. Ignoble occupations, vulgar pleasures, and the want of any opportunity to rise or any stimulus to rouse the dormant energies, beget inevitably low tastes, gross appetites, 25 and a general imbecility of character which incapacitates lor lofty aims and deeds. But the masses of mankind have been, in general, delivered over to all the evils which pertain to ignorance from the earliest ages of the world. This was true of the great body of the people under even the highest of the an- cient Civilizations. Neither among the Greeks nor the Romans, in the palmiest days of their respective literatures, did intellectual culture prevail to any great extent among the multi- tudes composing the inferior classes. And Avhile the several states of modern Europe have been for centuries gradually emerging from the heterogeneous social elements pro- duced by the commingling of Barbarism with the remains of Roman Civilization, it is still unhappily true, as you very well know, that a vast portion of the common people of these countries are almost wholly destitute of edu- cation, and sunk in ignorance so deplorable that they are incompetent to act any impor- tant part in life. So long as this prevails, sensuality and coarseness will prevail; super- stition will find her easy dupes, and ambition its ready tools. Neither the social nor the 4 26 civil relations will be properly understood ; the flowers of existence will all wither, and its best fruits be blasted. As a great writer observes, “the ignorant think nothing about what they shall become, and very little what shall become of them.”* Or if through the agency of others they are led to reflect upon their wretched state, and are excited to make efforts to improve it, they are just as likely to tear down the pillars of society itself, and to bury themselves beneath the ruins, as they are to discover and remove the real evils under which they suffer. In such a condi- tion, it is quite obvious, that they are equally unfitted to act and to enjoy, and progress in their case, can be only in the direction of stupidity. Another powerful cause of individual and social miseries, is found in the moral debase- ment, which even in nominally civilised and Christian Europe, is more wide and dreadful than the intellectual blindness and stupidity, just mentioned. Society even there, has never as yet, been generally correct in moral sentiment, and virtuous in its spirit and its • John Foster. 27 manners. As the philosophy of the schools was never able to raise mankind at large above gross vice, and to make them pure and good ; so neither has corrupt Christianity, with its idle superstitions, its heartless cere- monies, its deceitful casuistries, and its false tests of truth and of morality, all serving to mislead or to disgust, done any thing effec- tual to this end among the great body of the people in the States of Europe ; and pure Christianity has reached but comparatively few. For want of healthful influences, to unfold their moral natures ; for want of some- thing that should awaken conscience and put the necessary restraint upon the appe- tites and passions, the greater part of the people of those countries have always been at a wide remove from virtuous character, and sadly wanting in all the moral qualities that fit men to fill usefully and happily the rela- tions they sustain in life. Atheism, secret and avowed, irreligion, immorality in all its grades and forms, an utter recklessness and abandonment in sin — these are the charac- teristics which have too generally been ex- hibited by the larger portion of the people of 28 the European Kingdoms, from their origin onward to the present. How is it possible, that from the midst of moral rottenness, man should arise to his true dignity, or become capable of domestic, and of social happiness ! Here always has been found, and is found to-day, in Europe, a most stupendous diffi- culty in the way of effecting the regenera- tion of society, by merely political revolu- tions and expedients. A man shall rear an edifice of goodly size, and admirable in its style and its proportions; it shall be planned in all its parts with perfect architectural skill, shall be wrought throughout with ex- quisite and thorough workmanship, and as it comes to its completion, shall look as im- posing as possible, in its loftiness and beauty : yet because it is made of materials which are essentially unsound and incoherent, the top-stone may hardly have been laid, when it shall come tumbling to the ground a melancholy ruin. Even so it is sure to be with civil polities and institutions, no matter at what sacrifice, or with what labor and sagacity they have been constructed, where the great body of the people who compose 29 the State, are destitute of moral virtue. The political fabric will, in such circumstances, dissolve and fall through the corruption of its elements. It has invariably been so in the history of the world. Yet another prolific source of the evils which depress the great body of the people, and obstruct the advancement of society in Europe, is found in the cupidity and the self- interest of the more prosperous and favored classes. There is nothing blameworthy in prosperity ; nothing in affluence, in itself con- sidered, that merits censure ; nothing in emi- nence of reputation or of place attained by honorable means, that ought to occasion envy or ill-will. These, on the contrary, are the appropriate rewards of industry and prudence, of noble conduct in all relations, of self- sacrifice for the sake of being useful, and to withhold them where they are fairly won and really deserved, is to sweep away at once the highest earthly motives to honorable ex- ertion. Nothing can be more utterly absurd, than the views on this point which some are disposed to adopt and propagate. But it is quite a different matter, when the great com- 30 mercial, manufacturing and landed interests, or the holders of aristocratic and hereditary privileges, for the sake of preserving and augmenting their own advantages, not only grow reckless in regard to the welfare of the working classes and the poor, but actually combine their influence to keep them from bettering their condition. There has been more or less of this in every age; there is danger of it always, and in most of the coun- tries of Europe, it has been and still is by these combinations, dictated by sheer selfish- ness, that the measures of governments and the general direction of affairs have been principally determined. It has been too often in vain that the laboring classes have told the tale of their intolerable sufferings; that they have lifted up imploring hands to those above them; that they have begged, in the name of God and of humanity, that they might not be compelled, after having worn themselves to skeletons in unremitted toil, to see their wives and children dying around them from starvation. The opulent and the noble have been so intent on gaining their own ends, that they have had no time or in- 31 clination to listen to the groans of those who have been struggling for life itself, or to hold out to them encouragement and aid. It is, without a doubt, by this indifference to their sufferings — this apparent willingness to make them suffer even, that the laborers of' Paris and of many other parts of Europe, have been urged on to that implacable hostility towards those above them, and that desperate agrarianism, which have so often been ex- hibited of late. We do not mean to say that such has been universally the spirit and the course of those who make up the higher classes. Not at all. There are not a few of these who have shewn a generous wish to elevate and bless the less favored portions of society, and have proved themselves their steady faithful friends. But that there is a vast amount of cold unsympathising selfish- ness, among too large a part of the rich and noble, is an indisputable fact. That it is one of the chief hindrances to the improvement of the masses, so as to make them comforta- ble and happy, is also not to be denied. Of course we must not omit to mention among the prominent causes which afflict the 32 body of the people throughout Europe and hinder their progress toward a better state, the despotism, civil and religious, which has been for ages an organic evil — a deadly wrong wrought into the very constitution of society. Civil government in its legitimate functions, is an ordinance of God ; it is also a necessary condition of human welfare, since social happiness and anarchy cannot coexist. But the right of the ruler, or the government what- ever form it may assume, to administer whole- some and impartial laws — laws such as the general happiness demands — is not by any means that divine right to set up over men a galling tyranny, which feudal lords and hereditary sovereigns have usurped and ex- ercised. The unnecessary curtailment of per- sonal liberty, the degrading subjection of the many to one or to the few in the civil organi- zation, the taking away from men the right to the use of their own faculties and the re- wards of their own labor, these are at once offences against God, and outrageous injuries done to the well-being of mankind. And so in regard to spiritual despotism, the assumption, by the Church or by the 33 Priesthood, of power to control the con- science. The Church is indeed the pillar and ground of the truth, The Ministry are the divinely commissioned ambassadors of Christ. But it is made the duty both of the Church and of the Ministry, to take the Bible, God’s own Word, as the authorita- tive rule of faith and holy living; to recog- nise in all men the capacity and the obliga- tion to understand and receive it for them- selves ; and to scatter it all abroad, and urge it on the heart and conscience of every individual. Whatever either Church or Priest, ecclesiastical Corporation or establishd Hier- archy, assumes to do in the direction of the conscience, beyond the faithful administration of the simple word and ordinances of Christ to men — to men as standing under this ad- ministration, each on his own responsibility to God — is a presumptuous and arrogant assumption of the prerogatives of Christ himself, in order to justify oppression. No Avonder then, while over so large a part of Europe, the temporal and the spiritual powers, either separately, or in alliance, are systematically employed in wresting away 5 34 from men those civil and religious rights which are their precious birthright and the sacred and inalienable gift of the Creator, that the higher activities of which human- ity is capable should be repressed. How can a man walk or act when his feet and hands are manacled ? How can the godlike soul expand itself with knowledge ; how shall it feel the stirring hope of realising its own high and glorious aspirations ; how shall it exult like the soaring eagle, in the con- sciousness of power and freedom, when it is hedged about on every side, as if with bars of iron, and dragged downward as if with leaden weights ? Civil and religious liberty are just as much the necessary conditions of complete human development, and social elevation, as time and space are of the exist- ence and evolutions of the material worlds. Man must have them, before he can feel and show himself a man ; he will have them when once he is led to the discovery of their inestimable value. When the souls of men are really awakened into thought, and excit- ed to activity, they can no more make them- selves content without these invaluable bles- 35 sings, than they can divest themselves of all the nobler attributes of the nature God has given them. The evils which have now been specified, we take to be the grand obstacles to the ele- vation of mankind and the regeneration of society. They are the prolific causes of the groans and tears that give expression to hu- man wretchedness perpetually, even in the fairest parts of Europe, and still more in the yet darker portions of the world. They are also closely related to each other. Popular ignorance and degeneracy of faith and morals, prepare the masses of the people to become the prey of the selfish and the cruel among the more favored classes, and to bow abjectly to the usurped authority of Princes and of Popes ; and on the other hand the overbearing of the privileged, and the despotism of the temporal and spiritual powers, tend all the while to perpetuate the intellectual and moral debase- ment of the middle and lower ranks. It is just because these evils are so connected, each helping to prevent the removal of the rest, that they are found to present so formidable a barrier to that advancement towards a bet- 36 ter state for which the hearts of men are longing. It is not however a barrier that will stand. It must he borne away at length. The Kingdom of Jesus Christ will steadily advance, asserting, as it comes, those funda- mental truths in which lies as we have seen its moral force ; and He that sitteth in the heavens, shall laugh at the puny efforts, and deride the feeble leagues, of those who labor to maintain it, he they kings and nobles, or be they priests and pontiffs. As with a rod of iron shall the Lord’s Messiah break them; He shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. He is Himself the Head and the Prince of all genuine reformers. III. But this brings us to the third and last part of our subject. It remains that we should indicate the manner in which those truths which the Kingdom of Christ affirms with divine authority, are to be brought to an effectual application. In what ways is the vital power of those few and simple truths to be made to bear upon the obstacles just mentioned so as to remove them ? It is obvious enough that the force of these truths cannot be applied at all to the removal 37 of these obstacles, except so far as the truths themselves are generally disseminated and made to enter into the minds and hearts of men. Here lies the difficulty. It will pro- bably seem to some that if the accomplish- ment of this had been a possible thing, it should have been effected centuries ago. But almost nothing, they are ready to believe, has been achieved in the way of getting the leaven of the divine kingdom infused into the mass. This, we are convinced, is a great mistake. We are persuaded that as the law is our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, so the awful intellectual and moral darkness, and the terrible severity of despotism in all its forms, which characterized the middle ages, have been made by Providence the means of making the very heart of humanity sick of falsehood and of tyranny, and of im- planting deep within it the germs of truth and freedom. We do not doubt, we cannot doubt, that the horrible tortures of the In- quisition itself, were teachers of the rights of conscience ; and that from every martyr fire there was radiated on the world a light which helped men to discern the lies by which the 38 powers that sought to keep the many in vas- salage to the few, essayed to justify their usurpations. But not to go back beyond the Reforma- tion, it is undeniable that from the day on which Luther affixed his Theses to the door of the Church at Wittenburg, those truths, the dissemination and right application of which is the coming of the Messiah’s King- dom, have been steadily making their way into the thoughts and the hearts of men, over the greater part of Europe. The pro- gress, taking the whole period together, has certainly been slow ; in some parts, as for example, in Italy and Spain, and we may also say in France, it has been very slow indeed. But even where matters have gone worst, there have been great advances in men’s views within the last three hundred years ; advances which clearly show that the truth has gradually been working in, and finding permanent lodgment ; and bad as in many respects the condition of the common people is to-day in the States of Europe gen- erally, it is far better than it was even a cen- tury ago. 39 What then was wanting, say at the com- mencement of the present century, but an acceleration of the progress of those regene- rative ideas which the Kingdom of Christ embodies, in order to make a great and visi- ble impression on those evils which so weighed down the many ? Nothing but this was wanting. And now look backward, over the last fifty years, and see how God has brought this great result to pass. At the commencement of that period, each State was as yet comparatively isolated. Each, as it pleased, was able to hedge itself about, in a good degree, and shut its gates on disagre- able opinions. But now there is no such thing as isolation. Thought, principle, sym- pathy, the light of example, and the force of public sentiment, travel every where. There is no cordon that can shut them out. Then — our own example of the practicability and the happiness of general enlightenment, and of civil and religious freedom, had not exerted its power upon the European world. But now they have come to see it, and to feel its influence ; and every day they are learning more and more, as thousands and 40 thousands of those who have come to share our blessings with us, are sending back their fair reports to the kindred they have left behind. Then there was but little interest felt comparatively in the distribution of the Word of God, in which the very truths needed by mankind, are taught with divine authority ; and in the way of doing it, there existed the greatest obstacles. But now there are millions who are intensely interested in this work, and it is going on amain, in every State of Europe almost without exception. Then the people generally, saw but little to awaken hope, and they had hardly courage to make any serious effort to better their con- dition. But now what is the fact, my hear- ers? Their hearts are all on fire with hope, they seem to see their day of redemption drawing nigh, and they are ready to suffer, and to die, if need be, so they may gain, at least for their posterity in coming genera- tions, a more desirable condition. Then Kings and Pontiffs despised the low mur- mur of the people. Now, they tremble like aspens, when they hear it swell in its power like the sound of many waters. Ah ! sure 41 enough, the leaven has been working with accelerated life and vigor. The principles which Christ asserts, and makes the basis of his Kingdom, have been finding an efficient application. There had been many centres of light and influence before, scattered abroad amid the prevailing darkness. But now the beacon fires have multiplied upon ten thou- sand hills, and they are seen blazing brighter and brighter, and shedding more and more widely their commingled light over the long benighted lands. Thus it is that the essen- tial truths of Messiah’s Kingdom, are obtain- ing a rapidly progressive application, by means of that quickening of all the pulses of individual and social life, which marks the present century. And this is a cause which will inevitably go on to operate with more and more effect. There is further every reason to believe, that the desperate expedients, the unprin- cipled and reckless measures of those who would continue to oppress mankind, will greatly contribute in the end to the practical application of the principles which Christ is reigning to establish. Look at the gross 6 42 barbarities, worthy of the darkest ages, which the King of Naples has perpetrated since the late attempted revolution. He has found himself arraigned for them before the civilized world ; and they have so shocked the moral sense of all impartial men, and have called forth rebuke so scathing and in- tolerable, that he has been fain to attempt a defensive plea at the har of public opinion.* Look at the course of the Emperor of Aus- tria ; abjuring the Constitution with unblush- ing perjury, setting his iron foot on lovely Italy, and on Hungary, glorious even in her humiliation, tears and blood, and ruling his whole Empire, with the rigor of military despotism. Be sure that he is deepening, in the hearts of millions, the hatred of oppres- sion; and adding intensity to the volcanic fires already burning hot beneath his throne, • The fact here referred to, is an instructive sign of the times. That Mr. Gladstone’s Letters exposing the barbarities of the Neapolitan government, were felt so keenly that an attempt on the part of that government to justify its course was deemed necessary, clearly shows that a new era has commenced for Sovereigns. The day has arrived in which there is a force of public opinion in the civilised wortd, which was unknown to former ages, and which even Kings are under the necessity of respecting. The “good old times ” in which a ruler could quietly torture or imprison or put to death any number of his subjects on any frivolous pretence, and hardly have the matter known beyond his own dominions, are gone never to return. Nothing can now be done in a comer; and they who will outrage humanity, must do it in the face of all the world, and bear the contempt and scorn which their deeds deserve. 43 and preparing to scatter its ashes upon all the winds of heaven. Look at the new usurper, the Dictator President of France. It is too soon perhaps to judge him yet; but he is on the track which tyrants have always loved to tread, and has the applauses of the enemies of freedom. There is but little rea- son to expect any thing from him, but that he will strenuously endeavor to crush, with despotic rule, the hopeful buds of liberty in that unhappy country. He may seem to have success for a little while. But who that understands the condition of the popular mind in France can doubt, that the result will be a vast increase of thought about the principles of rational liberty and social ame- lioration, and ultimately wiser efforts to apply them. To make men think on any subject, is almost certainly to make them more sa- gacious. AVe might add to the list the Auto- crat of Russia, the King of Prussia even, and the Roman Pontiff, as, each in his sphere, proceeding to the extremities of severe and arbitrary rule, and straining every nerve to keep the nations in abject submission. As human nature is, and in the present condition 44 of the world, the course which they are all pursuing, must help to expedite the applica- tion of the truths by which Christ will ele- vate and bless humanity. And finally, the Providence of God is in a remarkable manner, enlisting the sympathies of those the world over, who are well wishers to the best interests of mankind, in behalf of all who are struggling against injustice and oppression and striving to renovate society. There has always been sympathy enough, and enough of ready co-operation, among those who have wished to hold the multitude in subjection to their will. To crush the aspirations of the people, the Kings of the earth have indeed set themselves and the rulers have taken counsel together. But it has not until somewhat recently been true, that those who have been moved by a spirit of enlightened and liberal philanthropy, have had their hearts warmed together, and have been moved together to combined and earnest efforts, to encourage and to aid those who are struggling towards truth and freedom. The ancient prejudices, which by estranging nations from each other, prevented the free 45 intercourse of men of kindred views, are fast disappearing through facility of intercourse and personal acquaintance. The civilised world is fast becoming one, in an important sense. The net-work of electric wires which is rapidly extending itself over the whole and transmitting thought with the lightning’s wing, is as it were one vast nervous system, whose quick vibrations instantly transmit whatever vitally affects the remotest ex- tremity; and so all hearts that throb in uni- son, no matter where they are, may easily par- ticipate each other’s impulses, and stimulate each other’s zeal and efforts. The last ten years have probably done more to bring about a sympathetic union of all good men and true, than any half century before. The people of Great Britain and of the United States, acknowledged as the leading powers of the civilised world, are fast becoming cor- dially disposed as it would seem, to stand together, and make common cause for the rights of man and the welfare of the world. In both these countries, the oppressed and the exile find not only a safe retreat, but heart- felt kindness and material aid. And certain- 46 ly the time is not far distant — at least we confidently believe it — when it will come to pass that all the moral force of these great nations, officially directed, shall be employed in sustaining and protecting the feeble, who are contending in behalf of aggrieved hu- manity and abused religion We are bound to notice also, how the hand of God is deepening this general sympathy, by raising up efficient advocates, and ena- bling them to make appeals in behalf of those who are wrestling against principali- ties and powers, for their dearest rights. There are eloquent utterances from the pulpit, from the halls of legislation, from popular assemblies, and from the secular and religious press, which are all the while extending the impulses of philanthropic sym patliy, and increasing its intensity. The wonder-working Providence of the Most High, is never at a loss for agents for the accom- plishment of its designs. Whenever a work is to be done, the man to do it is sure to be raised up. Luther, Calvin, and Knox, appeared when they were needed. So did Hampden, Pym, and Cromwell. So did 47 Washington, and the great and venerated men, by whom he was sustained. It is just because such men are raised up lor a special purpose, that they are seen sometimes individually, to do the work of thousands. And who of us will doubt that that illus- trious man, who is now our nation’s guest, the Chief of weeping Hungary, — that man of rare endowments — who has a soul of fire — a pen that seems dipped in light and beauty — a tongue that embodies thought in burning words — a purity of character which the malignity of enemies can not impeach — and a religious conviction that does homage to the Bible, and dares to honor God before the world ; — who of us will doubt, that God has raised him up and saved him from his enemies, to make him greatly instrumental in impressing the hearts of the millions whom he reaches, with a deeper solicitude for the redemption of the nations. Believing this to be his mission, we bless God on his account ; and we pray that wisdom from above may guide him, and strength be given him to ac- complish his great work ! Whether he shall ever be permitted to conduct his beloved Hungary to freedom, or shall be disappointed in this hope, the generous hearted hero has already done that in the souls of enlightened men, at which all conspirators against the rights of God and man, may with good reason tremble ! He has touched the chords of sympathy for the oppressed in innumerable hearts, so that the generous impulses thus awakened, are not likely soon to die away. He has stirred in many a bosom, thoughts which will live and glow, and find practical expression, perhaps long after the eloquent tongue that kindled them, is silent in the dust !* The time will not allow us to enlarge further on the subject. The sum of what we have said is this: That the essential truths of Christ’s Kingdom as promulgated with divine authority in the Scriptures, do constitute a moral force, specifically • In relation to the strictly political questions which have been raised by the visit of the great Hungarian, the writer offers no opinion. The examination of these, he leaves to those within whose province it appropriately falls; con- vinced that they will be thoroughly considered, and that the truth whatever it may be, will at length be clearly seen. But let the ultimate decision in regard to them be one way or the other, the truth of what is said above will not be altered in the least. Both in England and the United States, there has already been produced a warmer beating of unnumbered hearts towards those who suffer at the hands of despotio governments, than has ever before been felt. So much, at least, has been accomplished. 49 adapted to remove the existing obstacles to the elevation and happiness of man- kind ; and that Divine Providence is rap- idly bringing these truths to an effectual application, by quickening all the motions of society, by overruling even the despe- rateness of tyranny to this end, and by rousing the sympathies of all right-minded men, againt injustice, by whomsoever it may be committed. We will close with a remark or two, of which this is the first : that to regard the great events which now agitate the world, as merely political in their character, and as directed only by human passion or caprice, is to take a view of the matter which is ex- tremely superficial. We are very apt to do this. In our watching of agencies and secondary causes, we are apt to forget the mighty spiritual power which is at work around us. Men talk quite sagely about the laws of progress, as though blind laws were the only Providence ; and discuss the future of the world as though it were an uncertain problem. As God is true, my hearers, there is no uncertainty ubout it, except perhaps in 7 50 relation to the single question of time. Jesus reigns. His Kingdom is coming ; and its coming involves all that good for which humanity is sighing, and has sighed for ages. Far down beneath the shifting billows which appear on the troubled surface of the world, there are unseen currents, still, but mighty, which all the while are setting towards an era when truth shall triumph, and mankind be happy ; as happy as the fixed conditions of the present life admits. We have no sym- pathy, not the least, with the opinion, that because the ancient Civilisations died, the modern also will expire when their cycle is completed. The ancient Civilisations wanted what the modern have — the salt of the earth within them ; the vital saving influence of God’s own truth ; the Kingdom of Christ, in a word, set up and steadily advancing in the full power of its appliances. For want of this they perished. By means of this, the modern Civilisations are to be purified and made progressive. It behooves us all, and especially every statesman, to consider the view profoundly, which is pre- sented in our text, and throughout the Bible, 51 of the coming reign of Christ over all the earth. The second remark is highly practical. It is that then only are we true Reformers, when we are carrying out the principles, and acting in the spirit of Jesus Christ. We may take any other course in vain. If we grow impatient of the slow approach of better days, and think to hasten them by measures which the gos- pel does not justify, we are sure to administer poison to a diseased and suffering world in- stead of the balm of life. No matter where we are, whether in the pulpit, or on the bench, or in the halls of legislation, or in the walks of philanthropic labor, we must keep in harmony with those great principles which Christ delivers, as embodying the duty and happiness of man, both in action and in tem- per, if we will bless the world. This is true both in regard to individual conduct, and to the policies of governmental administrations. We know infallibly, on this ground that civil despotism, even were it so disposed, can never put the world at rights. Neither can religious despotism do it any better ; nor will the socialistic theories accomplish it; nor 52 will it be helped on by bitter railings and harsh invectives of party against party. But when divine Love, bearing aloft the torch of Christ’s own truth, and breathing influences of celestial purity and sweetness all around her, shall go before the united host of those who desire the world’s redemption and direct their movements, depressed humanity will every where rejoice and lift up its drooping head ! Messiah then will soon possess the earth ; and there shall dawn a day so glori- ous — so peaceful and serene — that it shall dry the tears of weeping nations, and shall hush their groans of anguish, and the turmoil of their angry strifes, into long repose. That my hearers, — O, that will be the coronation day of Jesus Christ, as the acknowledged Sovereign of this world ! For this delightful era, let us wait in hope ; wait not in idleness, but in earnest effort to accelerate its coming, and with fervent prayer that He who sits a King upon his holy hill of Zion, will hasten its approach. Yes ! O Immanuel ! Thou art the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords. Thy Kingdom shall uproot all other Kingdoms ! It is thine 53 to right all wrongs, to break all chains, to disenthral the soul of man, to elevate and bless the human race. Thine it is: and well thou wilt do thy work; and all the earth, bright in thy glory and thy beauty, shall shout aloud for joy, that thou dost reign ! May God hasten the blessed day, for his name’s sake — Amen. - I