IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

%^%'

III

1.0

•50 '""=

2.j

I.I

lii 22

11116

2.0

1.25

1.4

Photographic

Sciences
Corporation

1.8

•<»

\>^

<<'\

•f>

«;''

23 WEST MAIN STREET

WEasTE::,N.Y. usso

(716) 872-4503

•SJ

^ ■

«■■

%^\<^>^

CIHM/ICMH

Microfiche

Series.

CIHM/ICIVIH
Collection de
microfiches.

Canadian Institute for Historicat Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques

^^^

Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibllographiques

The Institute has attempted to obtain the best
original copy availabio for filming. Features of this
copy which may be bibllograph'cally unique,
which may alter any of the Images in tha
reproduction, or which may signlficantSy change
the usual method of filming, are checked below.

D
D

D
D
D
D

□

Coloured covers/
Couverture de couleur

Covers damaged/
Couverture endommag^e

Covers restored and/or laminated/
Couverture restaur6e et/ou pelllculde

Cover title missing/

Le titre de couverture manque

Coloured maps/

Cartes gdographiques en couleur

Coloured ink (I.e. other than blue or black)/
Encre de couleur (I.e. autre que bleue ou noire)

Coloured plates and/or illustrations/
Planches et/ou Illustrations en couleur

Bound with other material/
Reiid avec d'autres documents

Tight binding may cause shadows or dlsto;tion
along interior margin/

La rellure serr6e peut causer de I'ombre ou de la
distortion le long de la marge int^rieure

Blank leaves added during restoration may
appear within the text. Whenever possible, these
have been omitted from filming/
II se peut que certalnes pages blanches ajout^es
lors dune restauration apparaisiseiit dans le texte.
mals, lorsque cela dtait possible, ces pages n'ont
pas 6t6 fllmees.

Additional comments:/
Commentalres suppl6mentaires;

L'Institut a microfilm* le mellleur exemplaire
qu1l lui a dt6 possible de se procurer. Les details
de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-dtre uniques du
point de vue bibllographlque, qui peuvent modifier
une Image reproduite, ou qui pouvent exiger une
modification dans la mdthode normale de filmage
sont indiquds cl-dossous.

Coloured pages/
Piges de couleur

I — j Pages damaged/

Pages endcmri^ag^es

Pages restored and/oi

Pages restaur6es et/ou pelllcul6es

Pages discoloured, stained or foxe
Pages d^colordes, tachet6es ou piqudes

Pageu detached/
Pages ddtachdes

Showtiirough/
Transparence

Quality of prir

Qualite indgale de I'Impression

Includes supplementary materii
Comprend du materiel supplementaice

Onlv edition available/
Seule Edition disponible

I — I Pages restored and/or laminated/

I — I Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/

I — I Pageu detached/

I — I Showtiirough/

I 1 Quality of print varies/

I — I Includes supplementary material/

I — I Onlv edition available/

Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata
slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to
ensure the best possible image/
Les pages totalement ou partiellement
obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure,
etc., ont 6t6 film6es d nouveau de fapon &
obtenir la meilleure image possible.

This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/

Ce document est film6 au taux de reduction incilqu* cl-dessous.

10X

14X

18X

22X

12X

16X

20X

24X

26X

30X

28X

32X

ilaire
s details
ques du
fit modifier
(iger une
le filmage

id/
qudes

The copy filmed here has been reproduced thanks
to the generosity of:

Library of Congress
Photoduplication Service

The images appearing here are the best quality
possible considering the condition and legibility
of the original copy and 'f^ keeping wit() the
filming contract specifications.

Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed
beginning vyrith the front cover and ending on
the last page with a printed or illustrated impres-
sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All
other original copies are filmed beginning on the
first page with a printed or illustrated impres-
sion, and ending on the last page with a printed
or illustrated impression.

taice

The last recorded frame on each microfiche
shail contain the symbol — ^- (meaning "CON-
TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"),
whichever applies.

Maps, plates, charti, etc., may be filmed at
different reduction ratios. Those too large to be
entirely included ir. one exposure are filmed
beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to
right and top to bottom, as many frames as
required. The following diagrams illustrate the
method:

L'exemplaire film6 fut leproduit grdce d la
g6n6rosit6 de:

Library of Congress
Photoduplication Service

Lef images suivantes ont 6t6 reproduites avec le
plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et
de la nettetd de I'axemplaire film6, et en
confok-mitd avec les conditions du contrat de
filmage.

Les exemplatres originaux dont la couverture en
papier est imprimde sont film6s en commenpant
par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la
dernidre page qui compo;te une empreinte
d'impression ou d'illustration, soit par le second
plat, selon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires
originaux sont film6s en commenpant par la
premidre page qui comporte une empreinte
d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par
la dernidre page qui comporte une teile
empreinte.

Un des symboles suivants apparattra sur la
dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le
cas: le symbols — ^ signifie "A SUIVRE", te
symbole V signifie "FIN".

Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc.. peuvent dtre
filmds d des taux de reduction diffdrents.
Lorsque la document est trop f rand pour dtre
reproduit en un seul clichd. il est film6 d partir
de Tangle supirieur gauche, de gauche d droite.
et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre
d'images n6cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants
illustrent la m6thoJe.

J by errata
med to

Tient

, une pelure,

I fagon &

32X

-^1 ^ 1 1* J * W-

S*.

i"
g. '

;■*,

^tvmm

Preached to the Cambridgei'ort Parish,
May 28, 1S71,

Oil the First Sunday after the Ratification

of the Treaty with Ettgland, by the

Senate of the United States.

By GEORGE W. BRIGGS.

PUBLISHED BY REQ.UEST.
1871.

*JJf^i^#-.y

♦;

5J>

'■^

7\ ':

Preached to the Cambridgepouv Parish,
May 28, 1S71,

Oft the First Sunday after the Ratification

of the Treaty with England, by the

Senate of the United States.

By GEORGE W. BRIGGS.

... - /^ ^

PUBLISHED BY REQ.UEST.
1S7I.

" .

X^,

lff^lJ.L««VL (A

'Bss

TnE following Discourse,— the expression of an hour of joy, rather
than an elaborate Sermon,— Is commended to the forbearing judg-
ment of those who desired it to be printed.

^/ ..■■:/■

'Jtmfmit&mtttimimmMii mt ' k mini*" ' - .

SERMON.

rather
judg-

Isiiliib II. 4.— Nkitiikii shai.i, tiiky Mcvrts wau anv more.

A grand event has oecuiTecl during the last
week, whtise imijortanec at the present moment
it is difficult to over-estimate, Avhose promise for
the best interests of civilization itself in the
future it is impossible to grasp. The Senate of
the United States, which disgraced itself by angry
discussions concerning its prerogatives, redeemed
its character by the adoption of the Treaty be-
tween England and America. We can almost
forgive the unworthy debates, the waste of days,
in the attempt to vindicate itmcied privileges,
after this act of statesmanship. Let us forget
that it took senators a longer time to accuse one
another for revealing what the nation had a right
to know at the beginning, than to debate the
treaty itself ; and let us only remember that their
fitting duty has been so nobly done. When will
men and legislators learn that their dignity is never

■|

mlU&mmiik

Trrrr-- ^ !-.^r ?^sag!j a.iL ' iJJLiJlgjJ f ^ ''fr

f^r'

.^^^

' y***** ' ^"Tk'iVir .

"j '.:•!»■

■■:.

y--

secured by attempts to defend oi' vindicate it? Let
them link their names with truth, justice, liberty,
civilization, the cause of humanity and right, and
they place themselves upon enduring principles,
the pillars of the universe, and stand upon ped-
estals of honor.

I have nothing to do with the minor details of
this great settlement of international disputes to-
day. Of necessity it is in a certain sense a
compromise. Something of the most extreme
demands was yielded on either side. In some
respects, claims in themselves r6a8onable and just,
have been partially abated. Ingenious men dis-
cover various little points of criticism. But I
forget all these ftincied or real objections, and see
one grand whole, one grand event in the inter-
ests of peace. Questions of peculiar importance
and difficulty, involving interests, grievances, na-
tional honor, questions a hundred-fold greater than
those which have plunged nations into bloodiest
wars, have been calmly and honorably adjufited.
Last summer, France and Prussia rushed to arms
upon a mere pretext, which concerned neither the
dignity nor rights of either empu'e. IN^ow, con-
troversies that involved great principles of inter-
national law, concerning acts of outrage that

-SrWirffni^Wiffeariii «• ^'

liaataAlMfcm tf<'l*i''%irnaii¥,'f(< TtiVrff>-iTi:riii|i8

.JinfiiiHiiiiii'

■•V> , t' lV " I

wounded the nation to its very heart, ai'e wcttied
without a drop of human blood, without even a
threat of war. More than that. A broader basis
of mutual understanding and harmony is estab-
lished, which at once atones for the past and
secures the future. Let there be no petty criti-
cisms upon a measure in itself so grand. The
clamor of little unsatisfied interests should be
silenced in the sublime accord of this great vic-
tory of peace.

How silently the most beneficeat and grandest
things are accomplished ! For almost a year the
world has resounded with the clash of arms.
The tumult of the battle has filled Christendom
with its din, and morning and evening, millions
have intently listened to the tidings from the field
of strife. The eyes of Europe and America, I
had almost said of the race itself, have been fas-
tened upon one spot, as if there alone were events
worthy of attention. The great things were not
there. God does not disclose his greatest maj-
esty in the storm, the earthquake, that blanch
men's cheeks with fear. The silent forces of
N^ature, that cover the earth anew with living
green, robing hill and vale and prairie with beauty,
that hold the stars in their orbits, that bring the

:V^.

/•■■I

.1 "

; }

evening nnd tlio morning, the socd-timo nnd the
harvest, Avith their ever-varying Hplendors, — tlieso
are more l)eneflcent and grand. This awfnl out-
break of war has aeeompHwhed little. Sedan and
its accompanying battles discrowned one empe-
ror and made another ; but they established no
new principle of International law, gave no new
security to civilization and peace. A few Com-
missioners, quietly discussing mu<^ual differences at
"Washington, have done an immeasurably mightier
work than generals, marshals, emperors, hurling
millions of men at one another in the fury of
the battle. The noiseless movement of the pen
has performed a greater deed than the roar of
artillery. This European war has compacted dis-
united Gennany indeed into an empire, — a result
which will be a blessing if she wisely develops
the resources of her power and the mind of her
people ; or which may be a curse if she too be-
comes besotted with dreams of success and con-
quest. But whatever Germany may be in the
future, she has sown in the heart of France the
seeds of undying hate, that may bear the deadly
fruit of other wars. The peaceful Commission
has given a new security against war itself, sown
the seeds of good-will between continents and

a^.-

■,A.^t>^i»::£afe^:.n^?^aLi3;>K4feiUJM?»aia

■..:^-&,^-„,;stuBiisa_i^-aasf 1 .

, ■'^ ' ."^■■' '"'"■' •"■ "'■T-— •

nations, and recognized a principle of interna-
tional jnsticc which civilized men will rtgoico to
honor. "What is it that Von ^loltke, the Prus-
sian commander, Iuih plamied and executed a cam-
paign that seems unparalleled in the annah of
war, and written his name on the scroll of martial
renown with that of the first Napoleon ? The
negotiator who maintains national honor and
establishes peace, writes his name higher still,
and on a far nobler scroll. The warrior has a
kind of greatness. The figure of the great Na-
poleon is fitly sculptured upon the front of the
Arch of Ti'iumph in Paris, surrounded with dread
and fitting cYnblems, to perpetuate his fame as a
splendid type of Wat form of genius. But
"blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be
called," they are, " the children of God." Let
the bugle sound its triumphant notes for the vic-
tors in battle. Bat when the peacemakers do
their work the angels sing the heavenly song,
"On earth peace, good-will among men."

"What a contrast between the appalling scenes in
Europe, and the peaceful negotiations here during
the last few weeks. The Germans had completed
their conquest. But their withdrawal from the
strife was only to give place to a deadlier, more

^ it
i

'. i^

inhuman contest. There, battle has raged around
the city, and along the streets of Paris, blazing
fiercely as the fires of hell. Here, trusted states-
men sought to weigh great questions ir the bal-
ance of justice, and to adjudicate upon them in
the spirit of civilization and forbearance. There,
palaces and public temples, whose beauty was itself
an education, were ruthlessly burned to ashes.
Here, with " no sound of axe or hammer," men
were building a fairer edifice of interrfational com-
ity and law, in which nations should clasp hands in
lasting fellowship. There, the descendants of the
Latin race, as their fallen emperor termed them,
flew at each other's throats with the ferocity of
fiends. One who has ever been in Paris, in the
streets now desolate with fire and red with blood,
must mourn as he thinks of the smouldering ruins,
the heaps of the slain, in places where he gazed
upon such magnificence and beauty. Here, the
descendants of the Anglo-Saxon race recognized
the sublime appeal to reason and right, and met
one another in the true dignity, and mutual respect,
of civilized manhood. In the one place it would
seem as if the demons gained a transient, but for a
time, an absolute supremacy. In the other, though
his name was not spoken, nor, perhaps, his influ-

around
blazing
states-
the bal-
them in
There,
ras itself
ashes,
er," men
Qal corn-
hands in
ts of the
ed them,
rocity of
8, in the
th blood,
ng ruins,
he gazed
BLere, the
Bcognized
and met
il respect,
it would
, but for a
Br, though
his influ-

r'"*»rM~*'-' '^"

l!>v

ence even recognized, — in the public sentiment
which his agency has created, educating, civihzing
the advanced nations of Christendom, until they
became prepared to recognize the majesty of truth
and reason, — the Prince of Peace overruled the
deliberations of men, and drew them into harmony.
"Whence came this contrast ? All days, rightly
viewed, are judgment-days. The results of past
action, — its fidelity, or sinfulness,— become in-
wrought into our life, to make us strong, or weak,
to shape our present condition, and determine our
destiny. The actual character, sooner or later,
revepi« its nature, and does its work. France has
met another of her judgment-days. The world
has admired, and gloried in her splendor. Travel-
lers have journeyed over ocean and continent to
study her works of art, to feast their eyes upon the
magnificence of her now desecrated capital. In-
telligent men in every land have Hstened to her
physicians, i lathematicians, her adepts in various
forms of science, as holding a high place among
the world's teachers. Her novelists, and men of
letters, have fascinated myriads of readers. With
her sunny lands, her apparently assured pros-
perity, her briUiant capital,— the queen of taste,
and the home of art,— she seemed a year ago to

'V.M

"fj

•' is.

.n,l

*.;i..^i'S

■■■ifJMi'ittir'ii'l 'S^''' J-.:-i!.J.---'«--^---V----i"--ifa---

tai^m

' p

stand the first among the empires. But, though
fertile in men of letters, ignorance was the charac-
teristic of her people ; and, demoralized by luxury
corrupted by social indulgence, — by the love, and
the vices of war, — '' when the winds blew, and the
flov. is came," the edifice of greatness, built upon
the sand, fell into ruins. Then the mask was torn
away, and men showed themselves to be savages
at heart. The fairest city became most like hell.
No merely external civilization, with its grace of
manners, its attainments in art, its splendora of
architecture, or even its apparent progress in let-
ters, can stand. It is the civilization of principle
and character alone that is based upon a rock.

And shall we venture to name the other side of
the contrast ? Franco has been " weighed in the
balance, and found wanting." Shall we presume
to say that England and America, in the test
which these multiplied cau ?es of national iiTitation
have brought to their character, yet listening to
reason instead of rushing to arms, have been
weighed in the balance also, and not found want-
ing ? The faults of England are clear enough to
American eyes. We do not dwell upon them now,
— th- wrongs at home, abroad, on every continent
whi< 11 her flag has covered. The faults of Amer-

f ■■■v*'?r'';*.7*^T?riT^TT"

j:,.!^-^iMlA^....

ica are also plain, — the growing corruption of her
cities and her politics. Though her one appalling
crime of slavery has been washed out in blood,
perhaps atoned for by pnceless sacrifices of price-
less lives, blots enough remain to change all boasts
into confessions. What patriot is not at times dis-
heailened by the yet unsolved problems in respect
to universal education, to national character itself,
which will determine our future history? God
knows how profoundly we need all true human
effoi*t-s, and providential guidance, to accomplish
our true mission for right and liberty. Still the
splendid fact remains, that controversies embracing
many causes of dispute, relating to acts that swept
our commerce from the seas, and perilled the very
existence of the republic in its hour of agony,
when it seemed tottering to its fall, that these are
to be settled by argument instead of arms. With
all their ftiults, England and America are civilized
enough to accomplish a triumph of peace that
transcends all the victories of war.

It is a triumph of Christian civilization which
we rejoice in to-day. Here is the reason why I
regard it not only with joy, but with hope. Our
text says, "N^either shall they learn war any
more." Seven hundred years before the day of

' .1

•'.■■/•■;

• ■./

■ ; l «. ' l f'V-??^ i

Jesus, the prophet looked Oii, and on, into the
future, to a time in which men should " beat their
swords into ploughshares," "to pruning hooks
their spears." Eighteen hundred years after the
Prince of Peace has come, it seems to need an
equally prophetic eye to look on, and on to that
distant day of joy. Sometimes we fear that this
day of prophecy will never come. We almost
question whether the prophet did not mistake
some vision of heaven, of the harmony of angels,
for the possible life of men. N^ot only are men
still learning war, but they learn it now as they
never learned it in all preceding centuries. In
the collection of arms of different periods in the
Tower of London, may be seen the wondrous
progress of invention, from the rude weapons of
a former day, to the perfected ones of the present
hour. Science and thought have been tasked,
century after century, to fashion more destructive
missiles of death. Even the arts of industry have
not made greater progress than those of war.
Civilization makes the rifle more deadly, gives the
cannon a more terrific range, and sends the shell
for miles in its awful curve, as a demon of fire,
crashing through private dwellings, or splendid
cathedrals, on its errand of destruction and death.

■ifc»ii ■■■ f

, | .J. ' , ' t ' ""w " i'

: \

The. beneficent forces of nature are turned inio
engines of warfare, as if men would bring even
the attributes of omnipotence to the work of
slaughter. They shall learn war no more, do we
say ? Russia seems to be arming her millions
and mustering for battle. Prussia has become a
camp, and outstrips former masters in the art of
war, in the far-reaching plans of her military
leaders, and the earthquake shock of her armies,
shattering an empire in a day. England, Amer-
ica, task themselves to construct the impregnable
fortress, to build the ship which no shot can pierce,
to fill their arsenals with the most perfect enginery
of war. Princes and peoples are still striving to
learn what the prophet predicted they should for-
get. Still, the prophet was not wrong. He did
not merely speak of a long-distant future. His
prophecy begins to be realized to-day. Blessed
are our eyes to see the promise of a coming dawn.
Somehow, by all its manifold and nameless influ-
ences, by the power of education, by the silent
might of Christian feeling, swaying the minds
of citizens and statesmen, — somehow, under God's
overruling providence, a civilization has come
which has prepared two nations for the peaceful
settlement of disputes. The promise and glory of

■J

r" --*-■'* - r 1 .•[/■ '■'■• Iri 'i i-f^rrrt tiii •" , ,1 i : '•/'.t .....

I,-

this event is, that it seems an outgrowth of the
nation's character. For this reason, we repeat, it
is a basis of hope. A low degree of progress
in the individual man, or in the nation, will never
permit the peaceful appeal to reason. The brutal-
ized, barbaric man must fight. Lift men up to a
true civilization, educate them to recognize the
sovereignty of thought and justice, and they out-
grow barbaric appeals, and bow to the simple voice
of truth as both diviner and mightier than the
sword.

God be thanked that this triumph of peace
comes to balance the discouragement amidst the
savage outbreaks of international and civil war.
Always God sets his bow in the cloud, and
causes it to span the heavens after every deluge,
to re-assure our hearts and hopes. We know
not when nations will rise above the appeal to
arms. Sometimes wars must come. When na-
tional existence and freedom itself are at stake,
as in our own day of trial, lovers of their coun-
try and of liberty must meet the terrible neces-
sity with the soul of heroes. Those who rush
to such a strife, like our own citizen armies, are
not mere soldiers. Those who fall in a cause so
sacred are martyrs. You will help to decorate

-.1^1

^ l-\-f

their graves during this coming weclc, as a sym-
bol of a nation's deathless gratitude. Such
graves are shrines, and voices come from them
to inspire us to recognize the supremacy of prin-
ciple and right. Ko sepulchre of lv*ng or war-
rior, in the Old "World, though in itself a tri-
umph of art, is half so eloquent as the rows of
graves in one of our national cemeteries, — graves
of those perishing from wounds or starved in
prisons, whose names even were unknown, but
who were among the holy sacrifices for liberty.
Such contests have come, when loyal men, lovers
of liberty, must be faithful unto death. Perhaps
they may come again. Still, more and more,
civilized men will be prepared to submit to the
■ control of reason, and nations will appeal to the
tribunal of justice instead of the arbitrament of
arms. I do not look for the triumijhs of peace
as the result of arguments in its behalf. It is
easy to show the folly and waste, as well as the
terrible devastations and bloodshed of war. The
argument is unanswerable. But argument is
powerless when men live in the domain of pas-
sion instead of reason. Brutalized, passionate
men are as deaf to reason as the brutes them-
selves. In the true civilization that develops

'■^^f

:\m

manhood, the peaceful adjustments of national
disputes will become as natural as the l)attle for
barbaric races. It is a great thing to produce
any special reform in the world's action. The
whole ocean must be stirred in order to raise
the tide at a single point. But then it will pour
into every creek and inlet, and fill every channel
open to its floods. To secure one splendid
moral victory in the life of states, the truer civ-
ilization must come to uplift thought, sentiment,
character. That civilization is coming. The
omnipotent influences are at work to affect the
action of governments and the character of na-
tions. The leaven of Christian truth has been
hid in the mass of human thought, to leaven the
whole at last. Long centuries it has seemed to
be buried from our sight. We have raised the
old despairing cry, "Where is the promise of its
coming ? " The coral insect, in its countless
generations, works on perhaps for centuries at
the bottom of the sea. But by-and-by it fash-
ions rocks that lift themselves above the waves,
on which fair islands are formed, rich with veg-
etation gi'cen as that of Paradise. ^Now and
then the coming Christian civilization reveals its
power, hurling slavery from its ancient founda-

-..-•iiiii ijii^i--.&!!i;ie^tat^

'v'

':'i<

tions, settling controversies, securing peace be-
tween disagreeing nations. It shall accomplish
the thing whercunto it is sent. Look through
the prophet's eyes to the coming of that better
day, and be glad.

What a magnificent service to a true civiliza-
tion England and America can render! Linked
together by a common parentage and a common
tongue, — among the foremost in resources, cul-
ture, power, — spanning the globe with their set-
tlements, — holding up the principles of peace in
their intercourse with one another, — they may
gradually shame or inspire Christendom to ap-
peal to reason rather than to anns. There are
men who seem inclined to stir up strife between
these kindred nations. Politicians play upon the
people's resentments to pave the way to personal
aggrandizement. But while they thus place
themselves with the enemies of true civilization,
they cannot hinder its triumph. Twice already
irritating controversies between England and
America have had a peaceful settlement. This
present treaty will be ratified on the other side
of the ocean as cordially as here. These two
kindred nations will not. leara war with one
another any more. Joined together by a cable

'.'i

■J,

■ <i

^'•^:■V•;f■-

^MMfl

bejicath the sea, they shall henceforth be joined
m the closer bonds of amity. "What is truest
and best in either nation will be mutually trans-
mitted to one another, till each shall receive the
highest eidture and progress of both, and gain a
double inheritance of greatness. Hail to the
event that makes such a consunnnation possible,
with its promise to ourselves and to the world.
Celebrate it at Christian altars, and gladly give
one Sabbath to thanlvsgiving for such a victory
of the Prince of Peace.

*ii>«&'a«iti!.i-J .:_ *i

■!''?^4'JP'

/ '

, "1

. y

\ ■

■', •

*/, »

V..i

-4

am^tmt ^■""■ti^-

.■*•'

,*i*Hiiaf-'

4;.