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 TWO 
 
 DISCOURSES 
 
 DELIVERED IX 
 
 HOLLTS- STREET MEETING-HOUSE, 
 
 SUNDAY, SEPT. 21, 1851. 
 
 BY THOMAS STARR KIN( 
 
 PASTOR OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 publtebrfc lii Request. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 BENJAMIN H. ORE E X K. 
 
 124, WASHINGTON STREET. 
 1851. 
 
TWO 
 
 DISCOURSES 
 
 DELIVERED IN 
 
 HOLLIS-STREET MEETING-HOUSE, 
 
 SUNDAY, SEPT. 21, 1851. 
 
 BY THOMAS STARR KING, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Request. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 BENJAMIN H. GREENE, 
 
 124, WASHINGTON STREET. 
 1851. 
 
BOSTON : 
 
 PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON, 
 22, SCHOOL STREET. 
 
DISCOURSE I, 
 
 PEOV. xvi. 9: "A MAN S HEART DEVISETH HIS WAY; BUT THE LORD 
 
 DIRECTETH HIS STEPS." 
 
 IT is true, not only that God sometimes over 
 rules the evil which men create to some good 
 result, but also that he always bends the 
 good they achieve to some better offices than 
 the agent could have conceived. Men are ever 
 "working together with God/ 7 Our action 
 becomes implements for his providence ; and, 
 although we are free, so that every heart de- 
 viseth its own way, we often see clearly how 
 our toil, instead of ending with the result 
 before our own desire, plays, like the mecha 
 nic 7 s cog-wheel, into a vaster wheel, whose 
 roll carries a great and beneficent design of 
 Heaven. Here, indeed, is a prominent element 
 
 M175614 
 
in the glory of goodness, that we do not know, 
 and cannot prophesy, where its blessed se 
 quences will end. We fling out the tokens of 
 our fidelity to become instruments of God, and 
 he alone knows what purposes in his rule they 
 are competent to serve; he alone can foresee 
 what a family of benefits will be their lineage. 
 And, ah! is it not one of the most eloquent 
 warnings against unfaithfulness to right, that 
 the consequences are not limited to ourselves, 
 but that such agency undulates, we cannot 
 know how far, and spreads the power of the 
 prince of darkness in society, instead of start 
 ing, as it might, if obedient to the higher 
 voice, a train of blessings, which God had laid 
 near our will ? 
 
 The old prophets, for instance, were not far- 
 sighted enough to see the effect of their words 
 upon the intellect and heart of after-times. 
 They supposed that the greatness and limit of 
 their office were reached in announcing the 
 approach of some judgment or mercy upon 
 their Hebrew race. But it turns out, that 
 their fidelity to a perilous summons, and the 
 
sublime and tender language in which they 
 clothed their messages of doom or love, remain 
 long after the events they promised are for 
 gotten, and kindle the religious sensibilities of 
 generations whose advent was concealed from 
 their eye. How^ could David imagine that the 
 prayers for aid to which the forest -leaves of 
 Hareth stirred, and the trustful hymns which 
 filled the dim caves of Adullam, and the rap 
 turous odes which he sent from his palace to 
 be chanted in the tabernacle on Mount Zion, 
 and the penitential breathings that brought 
 back the divine presence to his breast, should 
 be used as part of Christian worship in the 
 cities of an unknown hemisphere, and furnish 
 the souls of millions, of all latitudes and 
 times and tongues, with a liturgy of devotion, 
 gratitude, remorse, and hope? Had David 
 been an irreligious man, had he never prayed, 
 and sung, and wept for sin, what a sad blank 
 w r ould be left in the forces of civilization ! how 
 many thousands less would have known the 
 peace of communion with God! how different 
 might be your condition and mine ! His heart 
 
6 
 
 devised the utterance of aspiration and en 
 deavor as a private necessity, and God directed 
 their agency to the help of countless needy 
 souls. 
 
 In secular affairs, also, it is so. Little did 
 the men who went up to die at Thermopylae 
 conceive for what they were to die. It was 
 not merely to prevent the Persian yoke from 
 weighing upon their brethren : their swords 
 were to open a path for the advent of the 
 tragedies of Sophocles, the studio of Phidias, 
 the Parthenon and Plato, from the ideal realm 
 of possibilities into the domain of history: 
 they went up to die for the classic culture of 
 the world. Little did Columbus know of the 
 importance of the hour when the western land 
 broke the dim horizon through the morning 
 twilight of October. The pilot of the "May 
 flower" could not estimate the freight she 
 bore. Feebly did Luther fancy the conse 
 quences of his defiance of the papal edict, and 
 his tearing off the monkish cowl. And what 
 a slight and incompetent idea did the wisest 
 of our fathers entertain of the meaning and 
 
promise of their heroism, when, less than a 
 century ago, they kindled with their eloquence 
 the flame of revolution upon this continent, 
 and deliberately cut the last bond that knit 
 them to a throne beyond the sea ! Something 
 very suggestive was there in the appearance of 
 those two veterans of the Revolution in the 
 pageant which, two days ago, moved through 
 our streets; something to touch the secret 
 springs of our wonder and gratitude. Their 
 tremulous frames were the visible link of all 
 the pomp of that spectacle to the most critical 
 season of our history. I know not on what 
 fields they fought, or what exploits in their 
 country s service they can relate ; but their pre 
 sence was a thrilling admonition to fidelity 
 to duty. Must it not have seemed strange 
 to them, strange as the legends of enchant 
 ment, that they should live to see such fruitage 
 from their labor ! Is it improbable that they 
 thought, as they might well have thought, 
 while their carriage was threading our ave 
 nues, "This, then, is the echo of our valor; 
 this, the offspring of the blood with which our 
 
8 
 
 comrades stained the soil, as they fell, long 
 years ago, at our side. We took our muskets 
 to defend our rights, and show that we would 
 not bear the shadow of oppression: we ima 
 gined we were pledging our toils for our own 
 advantage, and THIS has come of it, cities 
 like this, crowded with plenty, and blessed 
 with peace, freedom and dignity for labor; 
 the myriad-handed genius of industry ever 
 busy, under the free sky, for the welfare of a 
 nation ; a citizen soldiery ; rulers without 
 decoration or titles conferred by birth; and 
 for every child of the humblest and poorest, 
 the privilege of education and the opportunity 
 to rise to the highest influence and honor. 
 Neither we nor our captains intended such 
 grand results as these. " No ; but Providence 
 decreed that they should follow, if the men of 
 the Eevolution were faithful to their task. 
 Alas! how poorly off should we be, if we 
 depended on human foresight to project all 
 even of our social blessings ; if we could have 
 nothing and expect nothing but what the wis 
 dom of men can devise and consciously strive 
 
9 
 
 after ; if there were not a veiled wisdom, will, 
 and mercy to superintend and compass all 
 our ways, and bend our best efforts to pur 
 poses beyond the intention of our will! We 
 cannot be grateful to our ancestors, without 
 recognizing a higher Benefactor, and lifting 
 our praises and thanksgiving to his throne. 
 He has done for us, in addition to our fathers 7 
 labors, more than they could have conceived it 
 possible to effect : he arranged a great plan of 
 beneficence to which their heroism gave the 
 impetus. Their hearts devised their way ; but 
 the Infinite Goodness directed their steps, and 
 we now dwell and rejoice in the manifestations 
 of that bounty. 
 
 The mention of the spectacle that recently 
 adorned our streets leads us to some especially 
 appropriate illustrations of our theme. We 
 have entered into a period of society which 
 will be characterized hereafter as the Indus 
 trial Age. It is plain that, about fifty years 
 ago, a new direction was given to human 
 affairs, a new force uprose in civilization, and 
 different objects loomed ahead to draw the 
 
10 
 
 energies of the world. The subjugation of 
 nature ; the increase of material conveniences 
 and comfort; the binding of nations together 
 by communion of traffic; the conquest of 
 space, and compression of time, - - these are 
 what the civilized world is now beginning to 
 be in earnest about. It is looking to labor, 
 not to armies and diplomacy, for its resource 
 in the accomplishment of its dearest ambition. 
 Not Mars, nor Apollo, nor even Mammon, but 
 Vulcan, stands pre-eminent in its regard in 
 the pantheon of its deities. 
 
 It is often the case that the drift and wor 
 ship of an epoch are revealed in some one 
 enterprise, and condensed in one brilliant 
 scene. Such a symbolic scene this year has 
 numbered among its events. The CRYSTAL 
 PALACE, on the bank of the Thames, is a mag 
 nificent temple, born out of the heart of this 
 century, dedicated to its living God, and filled 
 with the offerings of its worship. 
 
 " Out of Thought s interior sphere 
 Those wonders rose to upper air." 
 
 Not more clearly do the sombre Pyramids, or 
 
11 
 
 the battered face and sand - imbedded gro- 
 tesqueness of the Sphinx, reveal to us the 
 reverence of the old dwellers by the Nile ; nor 
 the massive aqueducts, the ruined Coliseum, 
 and military roads, indicate the favorite ideas 
 of the imperial Romans ; nor the lovely ruins of 
 the Parthenon, and fragments of immortal 
 sculpture, tell, as it were, in sighs and sobs of 
 music, of w T hat Greece once delighted to do, 
 than the various wonders beneath that vast 
 roof, - - the multitudinous triumphs of skill, 
 industry, and genius, collected from myriad 
 workshops that send their smoke into the sky 
 of Europe and the new hemisphere, pro 
 claim our worship of the physical forces, which, 
 under the guidance of cunning hands, will 
 insure perfection of product and dominion 
 over the world. 
 
 Worship is the only word that is deep 
 enough to express the Anglo-Saxon relation 
 to the mechanic powers and arts. We revere 
 what they can produce more than any .thing 
 else. Take us as a race, we love speed and 
 perfection in the necessary fabrics of life, 
 
12 
 
 and skill in the combination of powers that 
 give supremacy over nature, better than we 
 love wealth, comfort, leisure, knowledge of 
 God s world, a cultured manliness, and reli 
 gious nobility and peace. It should seem that 
 we must be lineal descendants of Bezaleel, the 
 son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of 
 Judah, "who," as we read in the book of Exo 
 dus, was selected from Moses camp, and 
 "filled with the spirit of God to devise cun 
 ning works, to work in gold and in silver and 
 in brass, and in cutting of stones to set them, 
 and in carving of timber, to work in all man 
 ner of workmanship." Our inspiration is of 
 that nature, and for such ends. Human na 
 ture itself we estimate of less account than 
 the material products it can create. 
 
 I have sometimes imagined another crystal 
 palace placed near the great receptacle of the 
 world s labor, and filled with typical selections 
 from the laborers that produced those things. 
 Ah! what a commentary would it furnish 
 upon our religion and the love of our neighbor, 
 to pass from the hall of the results to the 
 
13 
 
 inclosure of the workers, to see the squalor, 
 the degradation, the miserable poverty, the 
 unprotected disease, the carelessness of any 
 refinement, the worn and distorted frames, 
 half-fed and scantily clothed, the lack of glee 
 in childhood, the absence of hope in maternal 
 eyes, the feeble gleams of the noble traits of 
 our humanity in the faces of all, men, women, 
 and children ; to whose steady toil from dawn 
 till dark, - - with scarce a respite through the 
 years, till the drained and crippled body drops 
 useless into the grave, - - those triumphs of 
 skill are due ! And yet, with such a palace in 
 open contrast to the great storehouse of indus 
 try, no doubt the verdict of our working race 
 in Europe would be, "We will have the pro 
 ducts at that price." Practically, they do say 
 that now. They know all those miseries ; and 
 they say, "We will pay the human faculty 
 for the material product it may create; we 
 love coal at five dollars a ton more than the 
 miner s manhood and domestic comfort, if they 
 add another shilling to its price ; we must 
 have cheap garments, though the children of 
 
14 
 
 the widow-seamstress cry for food ; pins must 
 be perfect, though fifty thousand men be turned 
 into mere pendents of the machine that makes 
 them so ; fabrics must be woven at the lowest 
 possible rate, even if the factory-bell summon 
 feeble children from the school-room, and the 
 continual roar of the mill drown every thought 
 of duty and of heaven; laces must not ad 
 vance in price, nor lose in elegance, though the 
 needle-woman be forced to stitch her honor 
 and the peace of life into the tender mesh, to 
 prolong her existence in a hostile and desolate 
 world. 
 
 Selfishness, competition, rivalry, are, as yet, 
 the springs of the industry of Christendom ; 
 and yet, see how the doctrine of the proverb is 
 supported even here; see how a providential 
 good rises out of the strife of human wit and 
 trade. It is better for the poor workers, that 
 there be such half-paid toil than war. It is 
 better for their manhood and the hopes of 
 their children, that they strain their sinews 
 in mines, at forges, and by looms, and live 
 in poorly warmed huts and with stinted fami- 
 
15 
 
 lies, than be drilled to the murderous business 
 of the battle-field, and pass their days in the 
 camp, where there are no domestic influences 
 at all. Despite the oppression that underlies 
 our industry, "the World 7 s Fair 7 strikes a 
 great blow for international peace, teaching 
 countries that there is a nobler arena of con 
 flict and emulation than the field of blood ; it 
 awakens industrial ambition and pride ; it con 
 vinces thousands that it is better to tear the 
 earth with ploughs than with cannon, and to 
 try which people can excel in swift steam 
 ships, flying yachts, locks that defy the 
 burglar, and machines that make the reapers 
 cheer for joy. Until now, the nations have 
 striven to see how they could pile the largest 
 holocaust to the demon of war, and keep a 
 relative superiority by means of destruction and 
 devastation : but the rivalry of commerce and 
 industry is found to be more profitable and no 
 less exciting than that of butchery; and out 
 of the shrewd contest of the mercantile and 
 industrial arena, and out of the miseries of the 
 laborers, Providence draws the possibility of a 
 
16 
 
 congress of nations, - - " the United States of 
 Europe/ - - and leads statesmen to talk of the 
 barbarity of battle, and use with hesitation 
 the threat of war. 
 
 In the recent jubilee and the closing pageant 
 within our city, an illustration is given how 
 God draws the good of a higher sphere out of 
 the benefits that lie in a lower order. That 
 pageant was in honor of the completion of 
 many years endeavor to perfect the inter 
 course of the metropolis of New England 
 and our own neighborhood with the North 
 and West. The causal motive of the en 
 terprise that has covered New England with 
 nerves, of which our city is the brain, was 
 not distinctly philanthropic. Perhaps it was 
 chiefly selfish. Each line of road was schemed 
 with direct reference to the return of interest 
 on the investment, and the securing of a larger 
 trade within our streets. Not till the prospect 
 of profit was clear could one of these under 
 takings be carried through. It was not the 
 direct intention of a single board of directors 
 of a single railroad company to do a specially 
 
17 
 
 Christian deed, in inviting to their scheme, 
 to bind states and communities together in 
 holier ties, to diffuse a spirit of good-will, and 
 strengthen civilization. The stockholders, as 
 they subscribed and paid their instalments, 
 had no such motive and purpose. The plans 
 and the acceptance of them were for divi 
 dends and wealth. 
 
 But Providence had another and a higher use 
 for those iron tracks and flying trains. After 
 the mercantile heart had devised and secured 
 them, God took them for his purposes : without 
 paying any tax for the privilege, he uses them 
 to quicken the activity of men ; to send energy 
 and vitality where before were silence and bar 
 renness ; to multiply cities and villages, studded 
 with churches, dotted with schools, and filled 
 with happy homes and budding souls ; to in 
 crease wealth which shall partially be devoted 
 to his service and kingdom, and all along their 
 banks to make the wilderness blossom as the 
 rose. Without any vote of permission from 
 legislatures and officials, even while the cars 
 are loaded with profitable freight and paying 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 passengers, and the groaning engines are 
 earning the necessary interest, - - Providence 
 sends, without charge, its cargoes of good sen 
 timent and brotherly feeling; disburses the 
 culture of the city to the simplicity of the ham 
 let, and brings back the strength and virtue of 
 the village and mountain to the wasting facul 
 ties of the metropolis ; and fastens to every 
 steam-shuttle, that flies back and forth and 
 hither and thither, an invisible thread of fra 
 ternal influence, which, entwining sea-shore 
 and hill-country, mart and grain-field, forge 
 and factory, wharf and mine, slowly prepares 
 society to realize, one day, the Saviour s 
 prayer, " that they all may be one." The 
 beneficent genius of the age keeps his special 
 and invisible express, laden with packages of 
 providential blessings, upon every train that 
 runs through our communities ; and it seems, 
 as the cars fly along the avenues which selfish 
 traffic has created, that the villages, which are 
 everywhere threaded like beads along the iron 
 wires, are, to use the language of another, 
 "counted off by the spirit of our age as so 
 
19 
 
 many pater-nosters upon its rosary, in its swift 
 worship of gratitude for the dawn of the age 
 of peace." 
 
 Honest labor, of all kinds, although stimu 
 lated by private interest, does an unselfish 
 good. " Labor is not a devil, even when en 
 cased in mammonism. Labor is ever an 
 imprisoned god," and will contrive, over and 
 above the narrow task for which it is paid in 
 money, to do some gratuitous service for truth 
 and heaven. It is good that mountains shall 
 be graded, ledges blasted, fair roads built, 
 deserts fertilized, mud swamps filled, marshes 
 drained, and machinery invented ; and, just as 
 fast as they are accomplished, better results 
 than thrifty enterprise had in view supervene. 
 There is more intelligence, more generosity, 
 more enjoyment, more advantages for securing 
 the great ends of human life. " The unre 
 deemed ugliness is that of a slothful people. 
 Show me a people energetically busy, even 
 when worldly motives are the only springs of 
 it, heaving, struggling, all shoulders at the 
 wheel ; their heart pulsing, every muscle 
 
20 
 
 swelling with man s energy and will ; I will 
 show you a people of whom great good may be 
 prophesied, to whom all manner of good is yet 
 certain, if their energy endure." The Chris 
 tian religion never will flourish in purity and 
 power among an unenterprising and unthrifty 
 race. 
 
 I presume it is the simple truth, that the 
 recent jubilee was called into being by the fact 
 that Boston has made good its stand, as an 
 independent force, against the commercial 
 rivalry and absorbing centrality of New York ; 
 and that, by means of the recently finished 
 lines of railroad, the trade of the Canadas will 
 be attracted to our marts, and flour brought 
 here a few cents cheaper on a barrel than 
 before. Never were a few cents so splendidly 
 honored ; never did the prospect of so slight a 
 profit do nobler service. Can any thing bear 
 more brilliant testimony to the worship we 
 pay to material forces, and the supreme esti 
 mate we put upon material triumphs, than 
 that such a spring could stimulate such enthu 
 siasm, and carry such a complex machinery of 
 
21 
 
 show ? And yet, how the mercenary and com 
 mercial origin was dropped from the spectacle, 
 and even banished from memory ! The titled 
 ruler of the Canadas, with his retinue, comes 
 to visit us ; and the talk is not of traffic, but 
 of fellowship in blood. The official word of 
 welcome and pledge of hospitality are re 
 sponded to by the sincere compliment, the 
 expression of astonishment at our prosperity 
 and blessings, and the hope that the two kin 
 dred nations may dwell in perpetual peace. 
 The streets are studded with generous mottoes, 
 the speakers at the feast inspired with noblest 
 sentiments, and the language of bargain and 
 sale would jar the harmonies of the time. It 
 is encouraging to the philanthropist to com 
 pare the procession of the trades with the 
 spectacles that, in former ages, bore witness 
 to popular joy. When a Eoman general w^as 
 honored and welcomed by the city, it was with 
 grim ranks of paid soldiery, files of chariots, 
 long lines of desolate captives, and the brutal 
 excitements of the gladiatorial show\ If a 
 city would be merry in the middle ages, the 
 
22 
 
 tournaments must be projected^ and chivalrous 
 duels delight the eyes of lordly and lady 
 guests. When before, to honor eminent dig 
 nitaries, have the artisans been called from 
 their tasks and toil as the right arm of 
 strength, and the triumphs of their skill been 
 selected as the noblest exhibitions of civil 
 greatness and the chief reasons of pride ? Can 
 it be without important social consequences 
 that so many intelligent Englishmen have 
 been thus welcomed, and have gone back to 
 the provinces of our mother - country with a 
 deep impression of what, under the spur of 
 our free suffrage, we are doing for the improve 
 ment of our soil, the wealth of our community, 
 and the education of every child born into our 
 protection ? In striving for a wider field of 
 traffic, we have built a ladder of iron, upon 
 which our ideas and blessings shall yet climb 
 into the Canadas. Such a three days will do 
 far more for the progress of freedom than a 
 three-days 7 revolution like that which France 
 saw in 1830, and which intoxicated the world 
 with a fallacious hope. Never was commer- 
 
23 
 
 cial motive so dignified by unselfish fruit; 
 never was the mercenary project of man more 
 brilliantly enrobed with a providential mean 
 ing, office, and worth ! 
 
 The visit of our own excellent Chief Magis 
 trate and his Cabinet bore witness, by the 
 speed with which they reached our city from 
 the capital, to the effects of these material 
 benefits in making our countrymen acquainted 
 with each other, and in cementing their fellow 
 ship. Those who indulge fears for the stability 
 of our nation on account of the extent of its 
 domain, and who justify those fears by the 
 recorded fortunes of ancient empires that were 
 broken by the weight of their territories, do 
 not appreciate the difference between our 
 condition and theirs, in a representative go 
 vernment and provincial independence. And 
 yet, admirably devised as our scheme of go 
 vernment is to promise central vigor and 
 permanence, and to avoid the perils that 
 spring from breadth of territory, diversity of 
 climate, variety in habits, prejudices, and the 
 scale of culture, and the conflict of material 
 
24 
 
 and social interests, it is very doubtful whether 
 its present extent would not prove too vast for 
 the resources of our Constitution, if we had 
 been left to the old means of communication 
 and intercourse. The framers of our national 
 charter would have considered the idea of 
 bringing the shores of both oceans under its 
 sway, and keeping their inhabitants in peace 
 ful and fraternal communion, scarcely less 
 than preposterous ; and, with mail-coaches for 
 the only conveyance to Utah, and barques 
 doubling Cape Horn as the swiftest mediators 
 between Washington and San Francisco, the 
 attempt would be almost useless. But, when 
 California may be brought within one week s 
 distance, and the pioneers of Iowa and the 
 planters by the Eio Grande may hear the de 
 bates that affect their interests in the capital 
 before the speakers reach their perorations, a 
 new principle is introduced which must modify 
 all calculations of national security drawn from 
 the infirmity of Athens and the decline of 
 Rome. Steam and the magnetic wires compel 
 the correction of our political philosophy ; and, 
 
25 
 
 if there be a pre-eminent value in the structure 
 of our civil constitution; if it be a worthy 
 subject for rejoicing that the breadth of a con 
 tinent should be brought under its sway, and 
 exhibit to the world the lasting triumph of the 
 experiment of republican freedom, on a larger 
 scale than any upon which imperial despotisms 
 have yet displayed their transient strength, 
 our gratitude is not more certainly due to 
 Providence for the wisdom and patriotism of 
 Washington, Hamilton, Franklin, and Adams, 
 than it is for the genius of Watt, the ingenuity 
 of Fulton, and the mercantile energy which 
 has threaded our forests with rail-tracks, and 
 disturbed our waters with steam-ships that 
 conquer tides and storms. 
 
 Indications of the value of our neighborhood 
 in time are already apparent. That eloquent 
 and most noble speech from the Secretary of 
 the Interior, in our State House, was to me the 
 most important and suggestive event occa 
 sioned by the festival. By the good it will do, 
 it will trebly repay all the money appropriated 
 by the city. Its frank and generous conces- 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 sions of uur thrift and prosperity cannot be 
 without effect in restoring to New England, 
 and especially to Massachusetts, its proper in 
 fluence upon the sentiments and ideas of the 
 nation. It is a solemn declaration to our 
 Southern confederates, that we are in the 
 proper path to strength and power; that we 
 are in harmony with the American idea. Such 
 a speech from the lips of a discriminating, un 
 prejudiced resident of the South does more 
 against slavery than all the infatuated dis- 
 unionists can do in a century. The voice of 
 friendly and unimpassioned wisdom, pointing 
 to the social and industrial results of their 
 institution, will impress them more effectually 
 with its radical injustice than the boom of 
 indignation borne to them from afar. 
 
 We have a country immense in extent, and 
 ruled in its different parts, as yet, by different 
 ideas. To be strongly and permanently united, 
 we must have more than great statesmen in 
 the Cabinet, and a loyal army and navy at 
 command, to coerce South Carolina : we must 
 come into some unity of political and social 
 
life ; we must not be separate nations, one 
 part pledged by passion and fancied interest 
 to the support and extension of bondage, and 
 another part determined to resist that spread. 
 Antagonistic sentiments and principles must 
 not separate us. Titanic strength of intellect 
 in our leaders cannot throw a bridge across 
 that chasm. Iron rails cannot clamp the ter 
 ritory whose principles refuse fellowship, and 
 struggle for despotic supremacy. Unity of 
 ideas must be our bond and stay. The ten 
 dency to such unity is our only hope. The 
 love of freedom, and the belief in its superior 
 benefits, must be shed into our brethren of 
 the South, not by our interference with their 
 affairs, nor by indiscriminate denunciations of 
 their sin, but by the silent, steady example 
 of our New England. Character, national as 
 well as private, must exert an influence ac 
 cording to the measure of its strength, so soon 
 as you put it in vital communion with the 
 world. And so every railroad that opens a 
 path into the heart of our territory, and has 
 tens the traveller on his way to our domain, is 
 
28 
 
 an influence for freedom, a friendly force to the 
 rights of the slave. We say, " Come, and see 
 what freedom has done for us; how it has 
 covered our grim rocks with fertile soil, filled 
 our harbors with wealth, called up cities by 
 our river-banks, wakened the roar of myriad 
 looms, dropped a school-house in every district, 
 and set a church as a beacon of heavenly light 
 upon every hill. Come and see, by our peace, 
 energy, plenty, and opulence, which is the 
 path of power; and consider how your own 
 rich soil would be loaded with fertility, your 
 waste places become green cities, and your 
 cities be filled with busy life, and every element 
 of prosperity bless you abundantly, if, like us, 
 you would banish from your communities that 
 which, in every age, has proved itself the 
 paralysis of energy and the canker of all civi 
 lization, and regain, through justice, the divine 
 path to power." Henceforth, New England 
 must preach for freedom and free soil by her 
 example and her work, and her influence will 
 travel on the lines of iron and the threads of 
 wire, which private interest has laid, into the 
 
29 
 
 most distant portions of our land, and, by 
 reform of public sentiment, at last strike the 
 fetters from the slave. 
 
 Reserving for a second discourse the more 
 practical aspects of our subject, we should thus 
 see, in closing, that God uses these material 
 conquests of our land to impress upon us the 
 value of union, and to make it more firm. If 
 we would exert an influence in favor of the 
 bondmen we desire to aid the most, we must 
 be united. If we would not disturb the inten 
 tions and thwart the purposes of Providence, 
 we must be a family of states ; we must open 
 anew the channels of brotherly affection, che 
 rish fraternal sympathies, and feel that, as a 
 people, upon this land which cannot be broken 
 by the geographer or the surveyor, even if we 
 are insane enough to seek division, we have all 
 one call, one mission, one destiny. 
 
DISCOURSE II. 
 
 LUKE, xii. 15: "A MAN S LIFE CONSISTETH NOT IN THE ABUNDANCE OF 
 
 THE THINGS WHICH HE POSSESSETH." 
 
 THERE is a radical discrepancy between the Ca 
 tholic and the Protestant conceptions of civili 
 zation and social advancement. This difference 
 of ideas makes discussion about the relative 
 merits of the two churches, in respect of their 
 influence on the progress of the race, almost 
 useless. "See," says the Protestant, "how, 
 wherever the new spirit of the Eeformation is 
 welcomed and prevails, public energy is appa 
 rent, the work of improvement begins, wealth 
 increases, genius is stimulated, labor is more 
 cunning and constant, the railroad pierces the 
 forest, and the shrill steam-whistle startles the 
 old meditative silence of the hills. Our reli- 
 
31 
 
 gion," the Protestant continues, "lias been the 
 parent or patron of freedom. Human rights 
 are more sacred where the papal sway is denied, 
 and privileges are steadily gaining ground 
 against despotism. Better laws and order 
 have sprung up wherever the influence of Lu 
 ther has been felt ; and it is plain that man is 
 considered a nobler being. The Protestant 
 faith was compelled to take the colder and 
 wilder North countries of Europe and America, 
 while the Catholic held dominion over the 
 more sunny, cultivated, fertile South ; and look 
 now at the result of our stewardship. For 
 three centuries we have had in charge the 
 rugged North ; for fifteen centuries you have 
 held full sway in the lower climes, - - and 
 what is the verdict of fact upon the worth of 
 the two systems? Eich, powerful, scientific, 
 cultured England answers for our principles, 
 against decrepit, superstitious, paralytic Spain 
 for yours. Scotland appears as an offset to 
 Ireland. Protestant Prussia, with its popular 
 education, its orderly finances, its vigorous 
 administration, and famous universities, faces 
 
32 
 
 Catholic Austria, weak, impoverished, treache 
 rous, and cruel, upheld in its despotic haughti 
 ness by foreign ducats and the bayonets of the 
 Czar. Snowy Sweden reveals the plenty, vir 
 tue, and thrift of her people, in contrast to the 
 dissolute laziness of Naples, and the hopeless 
 ignorance of Portugal. And New England 
 stands out, the brightest spot upon the chart of 
 civilization, reclaimed from the savage, the 
 w r olf, and the deer, while Cuba has been sinking 
 under a despotism that cripples its resources, 
 and Mexico has been rotting into incurable 
 decay. And where, too, 7 continues the Pro 
 testant, "can you bring the names in your list 
 of genius to mate Shakspeare and Schiller, Ba 
 con and Lessing, Franklin and Fulton, Watt 
 and Dalton, Newton, Goethe, and Guizot ? " 
 
 It seems strange to us Protestants, that 
 every intelligent Catholic is not overwhelmed 
 with this argument against his faith. When 
 he is pointed to the fact, that it is the ally of 
 tyranny, the opponent of material prosperity, 
 the foe of thrift, the enemy of the railroad, the 
 caucus, and the school, we wonder that he does 
 
33 
 
 not read in its results the condemnation of its 
 principles, and abandon it for a more inspiring 
 religion. But Catholics, able and learned, are 
 not wanting who boldly take up the challenge, 
 face the array of evidence, and, while they 
 confess the general fairness of the statement, 
 deny the inference. Protestantism, they tell 
 us, is developing a type of civilization that is 
 hostile to Christianity, and indeed to any 
 religion. "You are plunging headlong into 
 materialism and atheism. You are worship 
 ping this world, laboring for the body, pam 
 pering the pride of the intellect, and, in your 
 absorption of the body s needs, forgetting the 
 soul and ignoring heaven. Your materialistic 
 civilization is a tumor that has drawn to itself 
 all the life that should be proportionally dis 
 tributed in the brain, the lungs, and the heart. 
 What advantage is it that you have railroads 
 through every valley, and corn on a thousand 
 hills; that you have charters of civil liberty, 
 and all the means of worldly success and 
 aggrandizement, if men are becoming enslaved 
 to this world, and faithless as to a higher 
 
34 
 
 one ? l A man s life consisteth not in the 
 abundance of the things which he possesseth ; 
 our church makes another end supreme, and 
 can be content to see a State without rail 
 ways, merchant-princes, representative govern 
 ments, and restless democracies, if the people 
 are docile, obedient to spiritual authority, and 
 ambitious of heaven ; if they confess, and are 
 baptized, and die in full communion. Protest 
 antism is raising a spirit which it cannot 
 master: in seeming to carry civilization on 
 ward, it is pushing towards an intellectual 
 barbarism; while our church, content with 
 slower social progress, gives the people more 
 rest and happiness on earth, and fits them for 
 the skies/ 7 Accordingly, it has been seriously 
 contended by an eminent Catholic, in a Eeview r 
 published in this city, that Ireland is in a far 
 more satisfactory state than Massachusetts ; 
 and that Lisbon and Madrid are more truly 
 civilized, more moral, and every way better off, 
 than Boston and New York. 
 
 I have given these arguments at such 
 length, because I believe they are w r orth con- 
 
35 
 
 sidering fairly; and, if so considered, will 
 teach us much valuable truth. The Catholic 
 certainly slights the importance and worth of 
 the material side of civilization. Man was put 
 here to subdue nature. It is just as truly a 
 part of God s call to men to lay rail-tracks as 
 to build churches; to improve steam-engines 
 and construct pulleys ; to perfect levers, spin 
 ning jennies, forges and looms ; to study chemis 
 try and geology, optics and magnetism, as to 
 erect pulpits and revere the characters of saints. 
 It is as really contrary to the Divine intent, that 
 stage-coaches should be the only means of con 
 veyance where there is wealth and skill enough 
 to put steam-cars in motion, or to have books 
 multiplied by copyists where printing-presses 
 can be invented, or to be governed by absolute 
 kings and popes when constitutional charters 
 may be had by discreet resistance, as it is con 
 trary to His will that there should be sin when 
 virtue is possible, or bodily suffering when it 
 may be exchanged for health and pleasure. 
 And if a church recoils from the advance of 
 genius and triumphs of labor; if it feels un- 
 
36 
 
 equal to the task of guiding such efforts, and 
 refuses to sanction them ; if it plainly prefers 
 the shelter of despotism and the stagnation of 
 ignorance ; if it looks with greater affection 
 upon the mediaeval than the modern centuries, 
 and has no other ambition for the people than 
 that they should listen to the chanting of mas 
 ses, obey minute directions about the count 
 ing of beads, and be prepared by priests for 
 heaven, - - it is sufficient evidence of its incom- 
 petency to rule the future, and of some vital 
 falsity. Monasteries and monks were not in 
 tended to be the supreme products of society 
 on earth, even as the shelter and the types of 
 piety. 
 
 But there is much truth, and much that 
 must be pondered, in what the Catholic retorts 
 about the relative importance of machinery 
 and men, material progress and inward cul 
 ture. "A man s life does not consist in the 
 abundance of the things which he possesseth ;" 
 nor do the life and prosperity of society lie in 
 its physical conquests, material conveniences, 
 and trophies of skill. The tunnelling of moun- 
 
37 
 
 tains, the erection of telegraphs, and the free 
 supply of gas and water to cities, are all 
 secondary to the development and vigor of 
 men; and any system which sacrifices the 
 last to the first, or subordinates it to the first, 
 or postpones it in favor of the first, is as par 
 tial as the Catholic theory. It is a serious 
 question, therefore, how far the material 
 achievements of our age injure or help the 
 development of our spiritual faculties, and 
 assist or embarrass a realization of the high 
 est aim of life. 
 
 Plainly there is danger, in a state of civili 
 zation like ours, that we may under-estimate 
 the value of the individual spirit, and forget 
 that it has a worth, separate from social for 
 tunes and destiny, and far above the measure 
 of physical comfort and prosperity. When we 
 see how slightly the laborer is prized in com 
 parison with his work, it is plain that we are 
 all tempted, by the spirit of the time, to put a 
 lower value upon ourselves, as private souls, 
 than it is our duty to do. " How strange it is/ 7 
 said the wisest man of Germany, "that every 
 
38 
 
 man estimates himself for more than he is, and 
 prizes himself much less than he is worth!" 
 He estimates what he has gained and gathered 
 as something noble and precious, - - the acci 
 dents that distinguished his lot from that of 
 the majority of our race, such as wealth, houses, 
 barns, power, and stocks : but the heritage of 
 great spiritual forces, - - intellect, will, and con 
 science, and the opportunity for unfolding these 
 and pledging them to what is eternal, he es 
 teems as of little moment ; to be acknowledged 
 on Sunday, and sacredly forgotten Monday 
 morning. Each one is greater than the highest 
 material aims society has before it. God puts 
 a higher price upon each laborer that finishes 
 a screw for a boiler-plate, than upon the Eoyal 
 or the Collins line of steamships, and all the 
 wealth they will ever make. Great as are the 
 uses of swift and cheap intercommunication, 
 the Infinite Father would destroy for ever every 
 railway in this land, rather than see the soul 
 of the most degraded Irishman that has worked 
 upon their embankments, and whose existence 
 he has accepted, stricken finally from being. 
 
39 
 
 Men would not give liirn another shilling a 
 day, that he may have more opportunities of 
 manly development in his almost brutal home ; 
 but God would not sell him for all the acres of 
 the West. He will keep him alive to be one 
 day cultivated and ennobled in soul, to feel the 
 embrace of Infinite Love, and to progress in 
 goodness and the knowledge of him for ever. 
 And if we lose the sense of our infinite worth 
 in the general estimate of the value of society ; 
 if we fail to revere our ow T n nature more than 
 all outward successes; if we are led to think 
 that we are of trifling consequence, as souls, 
 before the gigantic enterprises of our day, and 
 hold it sufficient that we are stockholders, 
 bank-directors, voters, and legislators; if we 
 spare no energies and ambition from these 
 interests to devote to the spiritual relations of 
 our lives, the culture of intellect, the purifi 
 cation of conscience, the devout study of God s 
 works, and joy in his existence ; if, by reason 
 of the swift progress of society, we are led 
 to live as though our destiny is attainable 
 and completed here, we are the slaves of 
 
40 
 
 matter, and have parted with the glory of our 
 state. 
 
 We talk of " subduing nature ; " and seem 
 ingly, by our vast enginery of science and 
 labor, we are doing so. But it is not certain 
 yet. Satan often foils us with our own wea 
 pons. Let us see to it, that, in our tug and 
 swift contest hand to hand with the world, 
 as in the duel between Hainlet and Laertes in 
 the play, - - the deadly rapier do not pass over 
 to the cunning world-spirit, and we be slain 
 with the implement of our fancied triumph. 
 The only possible way for us to subdue nature 
 is to be men, and to maintain our position as 
 higher than nature, and kindred with the Spi 
 rit that created it. It is yet an open question, 
 whether we are subduing nature, or whether 
 the world is subduing us. If we do not keep 
 our virtue, our vigor, our manliness, our sense 
 of infinite relations and responsibilities, every 
 railway we construct, every science we perfect, 
 every labor-saving machine we invent, every 
 new comfort, whose dominion we extend, be 
 comes our foe ; and the chains we thought we 
 
41 
 
 were flinging over the world are thrown back 
 to bind us to the earth, and make us fellows 
 with the beavers and bears, which nature cre 
 ates that they may eat and sleep and die. 
 
 You, my friend, however obscure you are, 
 are greater in capacity and in the Divine inten- 
 tion than the star you look at, far off in the 
 night-heaven. But, if you do not look upon 
 it in a higher spirit than that from which it 
 shines ; if its light does not fall upon some lens 
 of reverence, faith, and devoutness in your 
 soul ; if it does not awaken that religious sense 
 in you, which makes you a son of the Eternal 
 love and wisdom which hung it out in space ; 
 - in its still light and unbroken obedience to 
 heavenly law, it is greater than you, though 
 you detect its secrets by your telescope, mea 
 sure its bulk, weigh it, and calculate its path ; 
 for it realizes all the purposes of its creation, 
 while you have not aspired nor awakened to 
 yours. 
 
 Every vice or infirmity is evidence of sub 
 jection to nature. If a man needs wine to 
 make him cheerful, or if he has an appetite 
 
42 
 
 that clamors to be satiated with it ; if he must 
 have opium or tea to stimulate him to the 
 pursuit of truth ; if he requires luxury to make 
 him content with life, and can see no inspiring 
 privilege in an existence that never knows the 
 comfort of a fine parlor and the amenities of 
 cultured intercourse, he is, to the extent of* 
 such weakness and craving, in bondage to the 
 physical realm he was sent to subdue. Only 
 that man who estimates the privileges of a 
 mind and conscience as the supreme blessings 
 of Providence, and who would prefer the know 
 ledge of more truth and the attainment of more 
 virtue, with bread for his sustenance, water for 
 his drink, and the night-sky for his roof, to an 
 easier lot at the cost of some abasement or 
 blighting of his faculties, can be said to have 
 " overcome the world." 
 
 Hence, where there is not a development of 
 the higher energies of human nature, propor 
 tional to the great physical achievements of a 
 people, "things get in the saddle, and ride 
 mankind. " Where the merchant has no 
 thought higher than his ships and his ven- 
 
43 
 
 tures, they rule him : he does not own them. 
 When the capitalist bends the energies of his 
 genius to increase the business and profits of 
 his factory, without intercalating any nobler 
 work, he is not the lord of the factory, but the 
 prominent wheel of its mechanism : the steam- 
 engine or the dam carries his brain, his heart, 
 and will, as surely as it keeps any band or 
 shuttle in motion. If the elegant woman lives 
 for the gaieties of fashionable society, and finds 
 the sweetest satisfaction in the admiration her 
 beauty excites and the flattery it wins, her 
 nature is subordinate to the bracelets and dia 
 monds she has purchased, and is owned by the 
 silks and laces by which so much interest is 
 absorbed. Where the mechanic serves his 
 trade ; and the lawyer has no conception of a 
 higher justice, and a supreme court, of whose 
 laws he is not the expounder, but the sub 
 ject; and the preacher thinks only of the struc 
 ture of his sermons, his reputation or ease, 
 and does not live, to the extent of his ability, 
 for and in the truth which he unfolds, - - they 
 are all appendages to their occupation, not 
 
44 
 
 masters of it ; bond-servants of nature, not its 
 lords. 
 
 Babylon and Nineveh, Greece and Kome, 
 supposed that, when they had risen from the 
 savage necessities of their first estate, and 
 were surrounded by the trophies and appli 
 ances of their constructive genius, they had 
 conquered nature ; but, as their visible conve 
 niences and glories rose, their manhood sank. 
 They had spent their best days in piling a 
 majestic and decorated sepulchre; and, when 
 its structure was complete, its art-stained 
 walls and frescoed roof fell in upon the shri 
 velled manliness that was left to inhabit it, 
 and smothered the little vitality that remained. 
 
 Our Pilgrim Fathers, who, landing from a 
 little barque that had borne them away from 
 the culture and civilization of Europe and the 
 past, stepped upon an ice-ribbed and desolate 
 shore, and there pitched their tent, and raised 
 their log-huts, and sent their hymns and 
 prayers up from reverent hearts, so that - 
 
 " The stars heard and the sea ! 
 And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang 
 To the anthem of the free," 
 
45 
 
 they subdued nature. The comforts of their 
 former estate, the shelter of laws, the fellow 
 ship of men, could not make them forget that 
 truth, and the sense of God s approval, and 
 the achievement of the spiritual ends of life, 
 are the everlasting tasks of all true souls ; and 
 when they found that all which civilization 
 had done in the old world did not offer to 
 nourish, but threatened to crush, their manli 
 ness, they came to the wilderness, to show on 
 a background of ice, granite, and famine, that 
 the humble devotion to duty, the reverence for 
 right, and the vigorous will, make men mas 
 ters of the world, and compel the storm-winds, 
 the bleak shore, and the unstained forests, to 
 welcome and cherish their spirit and ideas. 
 
 Our life does not consist in the abundance 
 of the implements and conveniences we have 
 around us, but in the nobleness and virtue 
 compressed in us ; and we cannot now, with all 
 our material triumphs, subjugate the world, 
 unless we partake of the spirit of our ancestors, 
 and feel and show our infinite superiority. 
 Not in the ways by which they were compelled 
 
46 
 
 to manifest it, are we called to exhibit it ; but 
 in a way as hard, - - by resolute resistance to 
 all the soft solicitations of our circumstances, 
 that would make us live in their comfortable 
 embrace for luxury, physical enjoyment, and 
 the world s applause. 
 
 The Christian conception of life vaults far 
 over the plane of our industrial tendencies and 
 civilization. How much direct help does the 
 progress of science give us to live nobly? 
 What influence could emanate from those pon 
 derous and ingenious machines, that were 
 borne along, the other day, in honor of the 
 triumph of our enterprise, to help us in the 
 wrestle and race of moral life? If you are 
 worth a thousand dollars, you are richer than 
 old King Croesus was ; for with your property 
 you can circumnavigate the globe, which he 
 could not do with his. If you have a hundred 
 dollars, and will spend it wisely, you may pur 
 chase more priceless wealth than Lucullus 
 could own; for you may make it bring you 
 almost the whole of the permanent and eternal 
 works of literary genius. And, if you desire to 
 
47 
 
 expend it in other ways, you can have more 
 people and more forces your obsequious slaves, 
 while it lasts, than any Sultan can command. 
 Every railroad offers to bear you; gorgeous 
 steamboats compete for the honor of carrying 
 you; splendid hotels, near the mountains and 
 by the loveliest scenery of nature, send you 
 their cards of invitation, and promise to obey 
 your orders ; merchants endeavor to serve you ; 
 stores vie with each other in splendor for the 
 honor of your entrance; a whole city strives 
 to do your bidding, till the last cent of it is 
 drained. 
 
 And yet how much aid does all this conve 
 nience give you in your secret, unwhispered 
 combat with your appetites, and the conscien 
 tious ordering of life? How much strength 
 does the invention of a new lever infuse into 
 your will ? How will the double-cylinder print 
 ing-press give you the heavenly wisdom? By 
 what means will the opening of a new road to 
 Canada, though it binds two nations in closer 
 amity, shed into your breast that charity with 
 out w T hich "we are but sounding brass and a 
 
48 
 
 tinkling cymbal " ? In what way can the ex 
 tract of gas from water kindle or intensify that 
 inward light without which our souls are in a 
 rayless world ? How can the invention of the 
 " fire-annihilator " assist you to quench the 
 flame of the passions we are set to subdue? 
 There never will be a railroad to heaven ; and 
 no engineering or science, but our vigorous 
 toil, will level the cliffs and pierce the ledges 
 that lie in that journey. 
 
 God helps society, as an organism, by the ad 
 vance of science and art ; they raise the plane 
 and widen the arena of our public life; but 
 that progress cannot add directly one per cent 
 of spiritual faculty to us as individuals, nor 
 remove or lighten a single problem that meets 
 us and tries us as men. Above the region of 
 physical civilization is the domain which the 
 gospel rules; and within the circuit of our 
 wealth and comforts is the sphere of spiritual 
 trial which God and heaven survey, and where 
 our victory must depend, not on our wealth 
 and station, but on the clearness of our con 
 science and the stoutness of our will. 
 
49 
 
 Ah ! how true is it, how sadly true to many 
 of us, that advance of wealth and comfort does 
 not lift us out of our moral feebleness, or re 
 move us from the siege of the besetting duties 
 that grow out of our existence! Temptation 
 and trial rise with the flood of prosperity that 
 floats us into a more elegant abode ; the call of 
 duty is no more musical when our income is 
 princely than when it was slight; the same 
 passions gnaw us when we stand up on the 
 pedestal of our ambition, as when we looked 
 at it from below; the tongue is the same 
 unruly member, whether we ride in a rail-car 
 or in a wagon ; and there is no more breadth 
 of manhood in us, now that California is our 
 province, and our country s flag is reflected in 
 the Pacific waves, than there was when the 
 Rocky Mountains were its western ramparts, 
 and the Ohio flowed through a silent wilder 
 ness. 
 
 I speak these things, brethren, from the 
 suggestions of my own deepest experience: 
 are they not endorsed by yours ? How much 
 better are you, how much more vitality of will 
 
 7 
 
50 
 
 and devotedness to duty have you, because of 
 your advance in prosperity, and the influx 
 of general comfort in our city the last few 
 years? How much nobler men are you for 
 those gas-pipes that bloom nightly in flame 
 around our parlors, and the water that gushes 
 from the generous lake into our chambers, and 
 the furnaces that banish from our homes the 
 knowledge of cold ? "We ought to be, somehow, 
 nobler for these things. They are blessings of 
 God s spreading mercy of civilization, and we 
 ought to be grateful for them. They lift oif 
 layer after layer of the pressure of material 
 necessities, and give us more leisure for the 
 pursuit of higher ends. Think under what 
 heavier conditions virtue is demanded of the 
 poor than it is asked of us. Is it not right 
 that God should expect nobler spiritual results 
 from us, than if we had been appointed to rear 
 Christian qualities amid the anxieties of con 
 stant physical toil, under the pressure and 
 pinch of poverty, and with the consciousness 
 of injustice from the world? Consider the 
 immense distance between the lot of a wealthy 
 
51 
 
 merchant and an ordinary laborer, and think 
 whether the All-seeing Ruler may not justly 
 call for something like a corresponding order 
 of manly attainment ; whether the apex of the 
 social pyramid should not furnish better speci 
 mens of men than those at its base. I will 
 not stop to consider if the fact corresponds to 
 the call: I will only say, that, if we are not 
 better with the extension of our material 
 privileges, we are surely worse, - - worse as 
 individuals, because false to greater privileges ; 
 worse as communities, because we need a 
 larger virtue to uphold the blessings of a com 
 plex civilization than that which would be 
 sufficient for lower stages of social life. Amid 
 this vast network of forces and comforts, man 
 must be more truly and vigorously man, in 
 order to escape being a portion of the sur 
 rounding mechanism, and to stand out distinct 
 and eminent from the splendid social order our 
 hands have raised. 
 
 And so the lesson of all our triumphs, 
 pageants, and comforts is, that we need more 
 reverence for duty, constancy of noble purpose, 
 
52 
 
 steady strife against temptation, faith in God, 
 and assurance of immortality. These alone 
 can enable us to maintain our manhood, and be 
 the lords of the world. These alone can keep 
 off the perils which beset every high state of 
 social advancement, and which, thus far in his 
 tory, have laid every cultured and wealthy 
 nation low. A nation, whose men are dwin 
 dling, may be prosperous for a long while ; as 
 the ship may sail swiftly on her course, headed 
 towards her harbor, while the crew she bears 
 are smitten with pestilence, and have begun 
 to die. But when the storm comes, and stal 
 wart arms are needed, the shrivelled mariners 
 cannot do their work; and she will drift to 
 wrong latitudes, become the prey of pirates, or 
 founder in the sea. 
 
 And for ourselves, in our most comfortable 
 conditions, we need these principles and hopes. 
 We must have them, if we would be men, and 
 feel kindred to something higher than our 
 houses and doubloons ; we must have them, if 
 we would know how to use our means and pri 
 vileges in the service of ennobling things ; we 
 
53 
 
 must have them, if, in dark and troublous 
 times, we would have inward sustenance and 
 medicine for the affections, which soft couches 
 cannot solace, nor money drug to rest. We 
 must have them, if, when houses and estates - 
 the world in its beauty and cultivation begin 
 to fade from the dim sight, and the last great 
 trial of our manliness and superiority to nature 
 is at hand, that trial before which the majo 
 rity of men have failed, we would see the 
 gleaming shores of the spirit s everlasting 
 country through the mists of death, and ex 
 claim, " grave ! where is thy victory ? 
 death ! where is thy sting ? " 
 
 The hope and resource of society and the 
 individual, the hope of stable prosperity, and 
 the resource of personal nobleness, lie in the 
 gospel, and the influence of the Saviour s tri 
 umphant life. Men may ever, and properly, 
 look to science, industry, and art, to conquer 
 the material obstacles to social advancement, 
 and give the key to material wealth and 
 power; but when they feel the burdens and 
 obligations of a heavenly origin, --and who of 
 
54 
 
 us does not feel them often, and would not feel 
 them more ? - - when they are conscious of the 
 stern conditions of virtue and inward triumph ; 
 when they drag the heavy chain of degrading 
 habit, and feel the pressure of the mystery of 
 the grave; when, in the spasms of a holy 
 shame or the agony of doubt, they exclaim, 
 "0 wretched man that I am! who shall de 
 liver me from the body of this death? " the 
 answer conies, not from the forges, the looms, 
 the palaces, the art-halls of civilization: it 
 comes to us if we get the true and compe 
 tent answer as it did to poor, persecuted, 
 triumphant Paul, w^ho sent it to the believers 
 in imperial Rome, and whence it is wafted to 
 our souls, " I thank God through Jesus Christ 
 our Lord ! " 
 
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