SUBSTANCE
OF A
DISCOURSE DELIVERED BEFORE THE
LEGISLATURE OF GEORGIA,
ON THE
OCCASION OF THE FAST-DAY
APPOINTED BY HIS EXCELLENCY,
JOSE2PH ZE3. ZBlO-O-VSTBir,
NOVEMBER 28TH, 1860, BY
REV. ANDREW A. LIPSCOMB, D. D.,
Chancellor of the University of Georgia,
I
BOUGHTON, NISBET & BARNES, State Printers.
MILLEDGEVILLE, GA.
I860.'
HISTORICAL i PHILOSOPHICAL
SOCIETY OF OHIO
EMORY UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
Purchased from the
funds of
The Lewis H. Beck Foundation
CORRESPONDENCE.
MILLEDGEVILLE, GA., Nov. 29th, I860.
Rev. Dr. Lipscomb:—
Dear Sir—The General Assembly have this day passed a joint resolution,
returning their thanks for the profound and eloquent discourse delivered by
yourself, yesterday, in the Hall of the House of Representatives, and have
directed the undersigned Committee of Arrangements, to request a copy for
publication.
Allow us, dear sir, individually, to join in the request of the General Assem¬
bly, and hope that you will comply at an early dav.
W. W. PAINE,
JOHN COLLIER,
B. H ROBINSON,
Committee of Senate-.
E. P. LUMPKIN,
T. W. ALEXANDER,
A. R. BROWN,
j; B. McCRARY,
J. B. WARE,
Committee of House of Representatives.
MILLEDGEVILLE, GA., Nov. 30th, 1860.
Messrs. P«ine, Collier and Robinson, Com. of Senate; Messrs. Lumpkin*
Alexander, &c., Com. of House of Representatives :—
Gentlemen—I have just received your letter of yestei day, enclosing the joint
resolution of the General Assembly of Georgia, and requesting for publics
tion a copy of the Discourse delivered en the 28th inst. In reply, I beg-
to say, that at my earliest leisure, I will prepare the Discourse for the press, and
send it to you.
Thanking you for the very kind terms in which you have conveyed to ma
the wishes of the General Assembly, permit me, gentlemen, to remain,
Your obedient servant,
ANDREW A. LIPSCOMB.
SERMON
" Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord."—Psalm, cxxx., i.
Depth of nature is one of God's greatest and noblest earthly
gifts. Such a capacity to feel as that every sensibility shall min¬
ister to thought, utterance and action ; such fulness of power as
that the whole man shall enter into everything the man does ; this
is a rare endowment—rarer than tact with its acute senses, than
talent with its constructive skill, than genius with those splendid
qualities by which it creates and inspires. It is the ultimate
form of human experience, and, amid the rich and manifold re¬
sources which God has furnished for our culture and growth, there
is nothing that can render us better service than to awaken deep
feeling. Not the half of our manhood can ever go into thoughts
and words, nor indeed is it possible for the intellect, acting within
the limits of its own sphere, to reach all theaspeefs of truth. To
feel profoundly is as necessary as to think profoundly, for the one
is the natural correlative of the other. Man must have a mighty
heart or he forfeits the highest prerogative of his being.
Some men are shallow in all their sentiments and emotions.
There is no central core in them. Never touching life broadly,
never feeling that the simplest thing has a secret to teach them,
content with the surface and finding enough thereon to occupy
and exhaust them, they have an airy worldliness even in their
sober and subdued moments. Pleasant companions are they in
our lighter hours—agreeable and refreshing in the fugitive offices
of the day—but when we need them to interpret some of the
strange mysteries ol consciousness, to answer the anxious ques¬
tionings of the spirit, to lift us out of ourselves and set us forward
on a new path of earnest endeavor—then they fail us because
unable to meet the vast wants of our nature. Others—the few
noble—have large and liberal sympathies. The treasure of their
manhood is an immense patrimony oflove, which they generously
distribute as it is needed in the fellowship of life. Find them
where you may, they are princely souls and the world is enriched
by their presence. The f iintest tone of their voice is a call to
our noblest efforts, and their smile would light up for us an arctic
landscape. The best within our hearts always goes forth to greet
them, and it seems to us that the victory were easier won, if we
could fight the battle of duty by their side.
Such a man was the Psalmist. Had he been otherwise, he
had been no Psalmist. Suppose him gifted with that keen sense
which instantly detected beauty and sublimity in the material
universe, suppose his eye quick to see and his ear quick to hear
all that appealed to them, suppose a superadded sensibility to
pathos and grandeur, yet these alone had made him no Psalmist
for our hearts. In the meaning seasons of history, in the sad
and silent pauses of our inner being, we need something more
than the offices of genius—aye, than the offices of religious genius.
Then we yearn for helpers who have struggled with doubt and
darkness, men who have died daily and lived by dying. And
jnst such a man was the Psalmist. " Out of the depths"; this
6
mat) was born for us. " Out of the depths " ; there you have the
"secret of his human power. " Out of the depths " ; thence came
that wonderful voice, which, first rising in the still air of Judea,
has floated ever since without loss of tone or lessened life, in
a region to which our hymns and hallelujahs seldom ascend. It
the Psalmist had not been a man of deep experience ; if he had
not traversed with slow and measuring step the whole circuit of
human feeling ; if he had not known distress and dread, the agony
of guilt, the bitterness of repentance, the sweet and soothing
joys of pardon, the transports of reconciliation with God, the
serene ecstacy of hours that mark the visitations of heavenly
apture ; had these been wanting, never could he have articulated
those songs which, swelling from the couch of pain, swelling from
the sackcloth and ashes of humiliating grief, or gushing forth from
the midst of tokens of victory, are to-day as in generations past,
the inspiration and blessing of the Church.
In the prosecution of this subject, I wish to call your attention,
1. To the characteristic of the Psalmist's experience as
presented in the text, viz: Its depth. "Out of the depths have
I cried unto thee, 0 Lord."
A man of that day might have been a Jew outwardly. And if
he performed the duties of the outward ritual, a certain degree of
blessing from the hand of God would follow such obedient ser¬
vice. The covenant that Jehovah made with his elect people,
embraced within its provisions all needful and desirable earthly
good. It was a covenant with their business and homes, with
their corn and wine, with their personal and national prosperity.
Every clod of their ransomed soil, every vine-hill and olive-
grove, as well as higher and holier interests, God included in
its sacramental scope. If his chosen servants did nothing more
than observe the external form of obedience, the favors of Heaven
were vouchsafed in accordance with that measure of devout ac¬
tion. But all this might be an outward matter rather than an in¬
ward life, a religious morality instead of a deep-seated experience ;
and hence, when the system of prophecy was superadded to the
Priesthood, when men were taught to look forward to Clu-ist no
less than backward to Moses, the spiritual aspects of the Law as
a preparatory form of the Gospel were rrnfolded, and the true Is¬
rael was urged to serve God in the spirit as well as in the letter of
the commandment. Had they sacrifices to bleed within their
Temple, to burn upon their altar? Yes; but Israelites were told
too, that "the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit." Was their
religion a magnificent scheme of Providence, opening its history
with miracles the most splendid, tracing its progress in glories that
crowned glory, flaming from the heights of Carmel, and flashing
hack from the level sands of the desert, until the symbolic lands
flushed in a radiance not its own ? Yes; hut lest the senses and
the imagination should rest in these glowing signs and forget the
things signified, conscience was stirred, and men were moved to
pray, " Create within me a clean heart, O God; and renew a
right spirit within me." And these were Israelites " indeed, in
whom there was no guile; " men who saw beneath the ritual and
read the import which its forms enshrined—men who were worship¬
pers in that faith which renews the soul. Among these the Psalmist
7
is pre-eminent by reason of rare gifts and religious virtues. Stand¬
ing in the midst of tbat transition age which marks off the earlier
from the later developments of Judaism, endowed with a richly-
furnished nature, able by means of an imaginative sympathy to
appreciate fully the expressive symbols in which the divine gov¬
ernment disclosed its order and dignity, and equally able to enter
into the ulterior purposes which were shadowed forth but dimly
to other eyes, the Psalmist was singularly qualified to combine
the truths of Jewish history, the glory of ancestral renown, the
wisdom of venerable legislation, the profound facts of poetry, the
foreshadowings of prophecy, and the instructive lessons of a wide
and varied experience, in such fitting forms as should endure for
the piety of all ages, whether that piety needed the language of
prayer or praise, of defeat or success, of sorrow or joy. Men dif¬
fer greatly in the workings of intellect. So too they differ in the
outside shapes of life. Sunshine and cloud, May and December,
business and books, the bridal altar and the home fireside, these
are very unlike things to different persons. The light of every
day prints millions of portraits, no two of which are similar, each
wearing its own look, each alive with its exclusive emotions. But
in our deeper moments, we are one. The same key-note is heard
in all the discordant voices, and this note the Psalmist has struck,
so that every heart listens to its uttered self in his words and
claims him for its brother. " Out of the depths'''' ; here the Psalm¬
ist interprets us one to another, asserts our common origin, vindi¬
cates our common blood. Affliction lays bare our instincts, and
how quickly they hasten into sympathy and love 'I Every man
were a foreigner in his own household, but that all must weep the
same tears and wrestle with the same agonies.
Observe now how the Psalmist represents us in his experience.
Out of the depths " of conscious guilt and shame, he cried for
pardon and deliverance. " Have mercy upon me, 0 God, accord¬
ing to thy loving kindness; according to the multitude of thy
tender mercies, blot out my transgressions." It was mercy, he
wanted ; and when a man pleads for mercy, you may be sure he
as an humbled sinner. Men never ask for mercy until they feel
that they can ask lor nothing else. Not pity, not compassion, not
the sympathy of respect, not the offices of reciprocal be¬
nevolence that soothe and bless so much of life between friend
and friend; no, but mercy is craved as the only attribute of God
that can descend low enough to reach his degradation. And is
not this a most human cry ? The immortal heart begins its utter¬
ance in a plea for mercy, and never did you or I speak a single
word out of the depths of our true being until we cried, "God be
merciful to me a sinner." Just here, all sophL try of thought is
swept away ; all subterfuges of logic have gone ; sin is no more a
mere misfortune, no longer an evil that education and culture can
remove ; but an awful guilt, self-assumed, self-nurtured, needing
not extermination and forbearance, but the forgiveness of the In¬
finite God in Christ. One genuine feeling, born of the Holy
Ghost, puts us right in an instant, and, although the intellect as
an organ of thought may have utterly failed to penetrate the phil¬
osophy of the Plan of Salvation, yet awaken the spirit of repen¬
tance, and the heart soon apprehends the wisdom and love of the
s
cross of the Lord Jesus. No wonder; for in all wisdom, feeling
is a higher element than thought; emotion is not simply the inva¬
riable attendant on all great ideas; but is still more the essential
condition on which they spring into existence ; and therefore, the
manifestation of God commences in the depths of penitence.
Precisely at this point and not elsewhere, must we catch our first
glimpse of the Divine Glory, nor indeed can we conceive how a
fallen being, destined to grow in the knowledge of God, could be
prepared for further relations of his pure and perfect character, if
this specific experience be not realized. If we know him not as
the God of the Penitent, we can never know him as the God of
the Believer, the Saint, the Angel.
Aside from this most interesting and instructive fact, it is impor¬
tant for us to notice that repentance gives birth to the noblest ele¬
ments of our being as Christ's redeemed creatures. For not only
does a magnanimous nature love to be under obligations, and find
therein a constant and availing check on its subtle and ever insin¬
uating selfishness, but moreover, it has in the sense of favors re¬
ceived a most effectual means for the cultivation of the ablest class
of sentiments. A narrow and sordid man, who has no world be¬
yond the bones that incase his heart, is averse to all obligations.
Brute things, and things inanimate may gladly serve him because
he may accept their benefits, and beresponsible for very small re¬
turns. Whereas, a true man delights in obligation. Talk as
we may of heroic virtues, of the majesty of self-reliance, of the
grandeur of triumphs won by our unaided arm, there is something
far nobler than to feel our competence to meet the daily issues of
life, and to enjoy of ourselves its title to distinction and honor. Is
there really any object to which we are not indebted, and en¬
nobled too by that indebtedness? When I sum up the blessings
that have most encircled my life, I find that I am a debtor to the
prattle of infancy, to the smiles and merry voices of children in
the street, to the servant that waits on me, to the fire that burns
on my hearth, to the clods in the garden and field, to the grass that
catches the dew and cools the hours of repose, and to the thous¬
and other things which pride and vanity and littleness within me
would pass by andnever note. So needful is this sense of obliga¬
tion—such are its manifold and gracious offices-—that God has or¬
dained that it shall be called out and perfected by all objects in
the Universe. But what foundation could exist for this, did not
God come to us as sinners, offering pardon for guilt ? It is the
mercy of the Cross that transforms the world into a merciful world.
Learning then the great lesson of unmerited grace, you go forth
to see infinite tenderness every where. The very thorns shake
off the seal of Adam's curse, and, dearer to her than the flowers,
the old earth wears them as the crown of her crucified Lord be¬
queathed from Calvary. Pain is now seen as a safeguard against
worse ills. rJ he true source of enjoyment, no less than of moral
strength, is found in the proof that every object supplies of God's
unmerited mercy, and in the light of this most blessed truth, the
wonderful mysteries of our being gradually evolve as we
rise towards the consummation of that purpose, for which,
grace demands the splendors of Jehovah's own abode, and the
duration of everlasting ages.
9
Look closely at this fact, and see that it is your highest glory to
be saved by sovereign mercy- We often speak of the moral
power of the sentiment of dependence, but what form of indepen¬
dence is so powerful as simple and entire reliance on mercy ? If
we seek the strongest motive in all the Universe that can operate
on a created being, where can you find it but in God's mercy ?
Our sensibilities are merely physical sensations in a state of re¬
finement, or they are the mockeries of intellectual emotion, until
mercy touches them, and then they are thoroughly human. Do you
not know that Scripture always presents God's mercy as his chief
attribute ? And to some extent, we can understand why God pre¬
fers to be called by this name. Justice as between man and man
is a transaction on terms of equality ; mercy dn ferms of inequal¬
ity. Justice obgegve# a fixed limit; mercy transcends that limit.
Justice consults rights; mercy looks to forfeited rights and gener¬
ously restores them. Justice is the authoritative reason of law ;
mercy is the sublime spirit of character. Justice is content to
administer a system; mercy creates a new life, and enriches it
with the boundless resources of happiness. If then, it is the most
glorious perfection of God, if mercy is his crowning attribute,
surely it is our noblest prerogative to feel the need of that mercy,
and cry " out of the depths " for its pardon and peace.
But the Psalmist also cried " out of the depths" of sorrow and
loneliness unto God. " I found trouble and sorrow. Then called
I upon the name of the Lord: 0 Lord, I beseeeh thee, deliver my
soul." Such is the Psalmist's spirit in affliction, and herein his ex¬
perience oilers to our view the true type of christian life.
Men suffer not simply because they are sinners, but because
God would make them saints ; and hence while suffering is a part
of our life, it is also a part of redeemed life, deriving a new aspect
from the Cross of Christ and serving the purposes of discipline
and purification. Not only suffering, but loneliness of suffering is
our appointed lot. T he sympathies of friendship often weaken,
and therefore God shuts us up in silent grief, and lays burdens on
our hearts which are all the more burdensome since unshared.' If
we need fellowship with kindred spirits, we likewise need its
withdrawment, so as to be left alone with God. And thus there
comes a time in every man's career when advice and counsel avail
him not, when succor and condolence are unable to meet the in¬
tense wants of his soul. But let not this be confounded with ordi¬
nary sorrow. I speak of christian suffering. The sacrificial Cross
of Christ is not more distinct from every human institution than
is this suffering from all common suffering. Inspiration uses strong
language here. It declares that we are co-sufferers as well as co-
woikers with Christ. " If we suffer wiih him." The infinite dis¬
tance between us is not thereby lessened, for it is the meritorious
value of his sufferings that imparts all their disciplinary virtue
to our sufferings, and hence, if faith in Jesus does not give
strength, patience, fortitude in suffering, the moral benefit of trial
and tribulation is all lost. "With his stripes we are healed;"
but the healing process is painful. A bone is broken ; a ligament
is cut; and when nature sets herself to heal the injured part, we
often endure our acutest pain. So with the spirit.
Have you suffered 1 Have the waves and billows spbken of by
10
David gone over you? Have you known what it is to have your
names cast out as evil, to have the hearts of others, where you
were once sure of readiest access and fullest welcome, closed and
barred against your entrance ? Have you silently and sadly trod¬
den paths on which, no friend left his footprint beside yours ?
Day by day, have you wrestled with your private grief? Night
by night, have you taken it to an unsoothing pillow, rising in the
morning to feel that the darkness bad been kinder to the parched
grass and thirsty field than to you ? Why should ,1 ask these
questions ? I look on your faces and see it all. Every counten¬
ance here tells me the story plainly enough. Whatever else may
be hidden out of sight, sufferings will write its record where all
may read. The human countenance, so expert in discharging ev¬
ery emotion, so competent even to conceal guilt, is yet compelled
to be true to that inward instinct which publishes in the eye, on
the cheek, on the forehead, the bitter agonies endured. No office
of the face is more significant than this, none more indicative of
the grandeur of the soul. The great biography is written there.
Each hour adds something. Each season of life brings out
its own witness in nerves and muscles. How the registry pro¬
gresses ! Line on line—furrow beside furrow—shadow thicken¬
ing on shadow ! Here I see a face that bears the epitaph of a
lost wife; there one with the epitaph of a lost husband; yonder
another with the epitaphs of lost children. What monumental in¬
scriptions ! Better than marble—better far and more faithful—
tiie soul's own testimony to the truth, the reality of grief. Is this
all? If it were, the human face would be dishonored. No;
there is something unearthly in all deep grief, and to this fact,
the countenance witnesses. "Out of the depths." I sometimes
think that the sorrowing eye preaches this very word. 1 imagine
that pale lips and shaded brows are the psalmody of suffering in
flesh and blood. I remember that in my childhood, men in grief,
women in tears, sad faces around coffins, were awful prophecies to
me. Not so now. For when I see eyes looking up " out of the
depths "—faces turned imploringly upward-—then I see the living
visions of David's Psalms.
Notice another point in connection with this part of our subject.
Aside from reasons of personal experience, it was necessary for
the Psalmist to cry " out of the depths " in order that he might be
fitted to discharge the offices of inspiration. God chose him as
an instrument through which to reveal his saving truth. But the
miraculous gift of inspiration did not reject his native qualities, nor
in any way supercede the huvs of personal experience. The in¬
fallible wisdom of God was communicated to him, and yet he was
a man among men, nor was his striking individuality for an instant
sacrificed. If .Revelation is God's spoken-self, still it must be a
book from men of like passions with ourselves. Hurnanness is
just as essential to it as divineness. It must speak our language. It
must think and feel as we think and feel. And hence, no theory
of inspiration covers the true ground if it refuses to recognise
either the divine or human clement. The mere institutions of the
human mind, quickened by the Holy Ghost, could never constitute
inspiration. Objective knowledge must be imparted. The truth
of God must come directly from God, but nevertheless if the hu-
11
man is chosen as the channel of the divine, it is necessary that
the relations and circumstances of the human mind should be
duly consulted. The conditions of thought, of sensibility, of ut¬
terance, as appertaining to the intellect and heart, must be re¬
garded ; and hence, men of the genuine stamp, men of earnest
and large nature, men of profound feeling, men of heroic mould,
men typical of the unity of humanity, must stand in this high
privilege of the messengers of God. Therefore had the Psalmist
a deep experience ; therefore cried he " out of the depths " ; that
thereby under the superadded illumination and guidance of the
Holy Ghost, he might aid us in the struggles of life. Only such
men can minister to our spiritual needs. Do you suppose that to
be your guide and helper, a man must simply know more than your¬
self? Not so; a man must feel more as well as know more than we
feel and know, before he can fulfil for us the grander offices of human
duty. And now you see one reason why the Psalmist was a man
of deep experience, for had his cry not come "out of the depths,"
it never could have reached our inmost being. I look upward to
find God ; I look downward to find men. Human greatness is our
profoundest lesson in humility. It is greatness "out of the depths"
and no other greatness will God sanctify to the highest service of
his redeemed people.
Let us now consider,
2. The provision in the Gospel for this depth of experience.
Feeling is not under our direct control. But there are laws, in
obedience to which, emotions are awakened and affections formed.
Depth of feeling therefore arises under certain conditions, which
God has organized in our nature. We do not mean that all per¬
sons will feel with the same intensity under the same circumstan¬
ces, but granting that the appropriate conditions exist, the capac¬
ity to feel will be developed in harmony with the peculiarities of
each individual. Now it is quite clear that depth of experience
needs three conditions before it can be enjoyed. 1st, a great ob¬
ject must be presented to the mind. 2nd. This object must excite
reliance. 3rd. It must create apprehension. The interaction of
these causes intense feeling, and if the feeling become habitual, it
results in experience. Let us see how these conditions are met by
Christianity.
All of you know that Christianity sets a vast object before your
thoughts—such an object as is worthy of a miraculous message
from God, and which can be found nowhere outside of Revelation.
This object is Everlasting Existence. But do not think that this
is simple continuation of being. Every mind has certain moods,
in which, it were a relief from the overpowering grandeur of etern¬
ity to find shelter in the idea that our life would merely be pro¬
longed through endless ages. But Christianity is precise and spe¬
cific. It advances beyond the general conception of immortality,
and with firmest emphasis declares that it is not Everlasting Ex¬
istence, but such an everlasting existence as appeals first, to a
sense of right and wrong, and secondly to a sense of good and evil.
Inward purity in an outward heaven ; inward unholiness in an
outward hell; this is its doctrine. A mere forever—that is the
forever of the material Universe. Is your forever the forever of
suns and stars ? Believe me, it is the forever of conscience and
12
sensibility quickened and sustained in their profoundest activity.
It is the forever of happiness or misery—the immortality of love
or hate with all that love and hate involve. Think of your na¬
ture involved in these permanent qualities ; think of the whole
Universe as related to their immense reeeptiveness ; think of God
as thus knowing you throughout eternity; think of your own con¬
sciences as withdrawn from all other forms, and intensified within
all these susceptibilities. Such is your forever and mine.
So much for the object. It presents the basis for depth of ex¬
perience. How that experience is developed will appear if you
consider the throe great doctrines of Christianity as they bear on
our sentiments and feelings.
1st. The Paternal character of God. '• Our Father which art
in Heaven;" these words form the sum and substance of New
Testament teaching about God. Our Lord Jesus came from
Heaven, so far as his ministry was concerned, to tell men of their
Father, and on this broad foundation, all his instructions rested.
Out of this primary truth, grew his parables, his beautiful images,
his touching illustrations, his searching doctrines, his restoration
of the true meaning of the law, his rebukes of Pharisaism, his
commission to the Apostles, and the institution of the Church.
Out of it came words for the weeping penitent, for the loving Mary
and busy Martha, for impetuous Peter and doubting Thomas.
Out of it, too, came words for such as could hear no mortal lan¬
guage—deaf men—whose dead ears leaped into life when they
were spoken. A most marvellous doctrine it was—so wonderful
that men were surprised into joy—so wonderful that other mira¬
cles, whether calming the fevered breath of a sick child or hush¬
ing the angry strife of a thousand waves, seemed to be its easy
and natural accompaniments. It was withheld from the world un¬
til Christ himself could give it proper utterance, and, once an¬
nounced, all his Gospel legitimately followed. A mind that will
securely grasp this truth, can advance to every other truth Christ
taught; and hence he made it the foundation of the doctrines and
duties that he revealed.
Not enough is it to know God as the Infinite Wisdom and
Power. Not enough to understand that the laws of Nature are
His laws, and Providence is his Providence. All this might be
told and'never a tear gush from the eve, never a yearning for God
be awakened, never a struggle against sin aroused. The cry of
the heart is for a Father—a Father he must be or no God to us.
The laws of the material creation, uniform and majestic, reaching
with equal force to the vast and the minute, and controlling the
magnitude of the Universe as easily as the insignificance of an
atom, these laws are only the order and power of a machinery, if
a Father's hand does not guide them, if a Father's image is not
stamped upon them. Separate Providence from a Father's watch¬
ful love, and it instantly becomes the administration of a mere
system that feeds, clothes, sustains us without reference to that
moral nature, in which our real being dwells. The beauty of this
world were an idle show but for this truth, and therefore Christ
has assured us that our Father maketh the sun to rise, and send-
eth the rain. On such a world, a Redeeming Cross may be
planted.
13
There are two distinct aspects of this great truth which present
themselves to different sensibilities in our nature. Seen from one
point of view, it appeals to confidence and love as a truth of in¬
finite tenderness, and invites us to reciprocate by means of those
feelings which characterize the filial relation. In another light it
exhibits the sovereignty of God in sternest hostility to sin. N oth-
ing is so dreadful as a warfare with Infinite Goodness. Within
the compass of human possibility, we cannot conceive of any
malignty worse than hatred to such pure and perfect excellence.
To wrong this parental goodness, to insult its kind authority, to
break the laws that issued from the heart of infinite affections, and
that bind our hearts for the sake off their own welfare—this is the
terrible evil of sin. Such is our condition here that this awful
fact can scarcely touch the surface of consciousness. But the day
will come when it will descend as though instinct with omnipo¬
tence into the depth of being, and there, the centre of another
life not known.it will attract the elements of immortality to itself,
and subordinate them, one and all, to its terrific energy. Manhood
must enter on the possession of its powers as the destined inheri¬
tor of everlasting ages before it can sustain this shock. None
less than a being unloosed from the restraints of time, set free from
the limitations of earth, and invigorated amid the vast objects of
the Universe, could endure this revelation of the righteous anger
of the Father. Crush me with arbitrary power, and something is
left uncrushed; " all is not lost;" the sense of wrong inflicted, the
indomitable will, the heroic heart, are yet alive and can never die.
But when a Father's voice banishes the condemned into " outer
darkness," then indeed is wretchedness complete, for it is the
wretchedness of "the second death."
Passing from this point, direct your thoughts sadly, to the atone¬
ment of Jesus Christ. There is 110 one of us who has not had fre¬
quent occasion to repair wrongs committed against others, and
who has not received a specific impress from the manner in which
this duty has been discharged. Our days are full of apologies,
explanations, assurances and satisfactions, which have been pre¬
sented as offerings to wounded sensibilities and injured rights.
From childhood to age, we all spend much time, and put forth
many efforts to undo what has been thoughtlessly or wilfully done,
to restore ties that have been sundered, to recover love lost by
fretfulness, injustice, passion. Every man has had his share of
this experience, but have you gone beneath the experience, and
seen the one momentous fact that underlies it? What is the moral
significance of these reconcilations that occur almost daily ? Be¬
yond their own immediate connections, they have a deep meaning,
for they are unconscious witnesses to the truth that all life needs
atoning virtue. If we are not inhabitants of a redeemed world,
no place would be found for acts like these.
Is there any reason why God should forgive our sin ? There
is such a reason in the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ and
hence, when the Scriptures speak of his death although they re¬
cognize its relations to our motives, sentiments and conduct,
they most distinctly and emphatically present it in its primary
aspects towards God the sovereign Father. What that death is
in its bearings on the moral government of God determines its in-
14
fluence on our character and life, so that we must contemplate it
as the means of reconciling God to us before we can view it as
the means of reconciling ns to God. If the cross did not display
God's hatred to sin. it would not be a manifestation of love for the
sinner, for in no sense, as conceivable by reason, 01* as accepted
by faith, is it an exhibition of love except as connected with ab-
horence of sin. First of all in the spectacle of Calvary, we see
how the sovereign Father regards this gigantic evil, and what an
agency must be employed for its removal. And we are thus pre¬
pared for the other side of this great truth, viz : that the death of
Christ constitutes the highest of all motives for love and obedi¬
ence. United in this form, two ideas of legal and moral sacri¬
fice perfect each other, and perform a joint office within the heart.
The wants of the conscience and the sensibilities are alike met, so
that while as towards God, our Redeemer is substitute and ran¬
som, towards us he is the inspiring source of a new life. If then
his holy life exemplified every principle of the moral law, setting
before the world the perfect ideal of humanity which had been
lost as completely as Eden, drawing back the imaginations of men
to a beauty long since vanished, and touching their dead hearts
with the hand of infinite benediction, so too his sacrificial death
reached every interest of God's government, and shed over it a
lustre that can never fade.
But notice Srdly, the influence of the Holy Ghost. The death
of Christ is a satisfactory vindication of God's justice, and of the
rectitude of his government. As an offering for sin, it is complete
in itself. But if we would see the completeness of Christianity,
we must look at the fraternal character of God, as evinced in the
atonement and confirmed by the gift of the Holy Ghost. The
three doctrines stand linked together, nor can we dissever them.
Separate the fraternal idea of God from Christ's death, and it
sinks into a mere sentiment—a sentiment so feeble, so remote
from our sympathies, that it would scarcely serve as material out
of which to construct a poetic hymn. But if you must combine
these two truths, equally necessary is it to associate
them with the power of the Holy Ghost, by which, they ar«
made a living, saving influence in the fallen heart of man. To
the offices of this Spirit, our Lord pointed even more clearly than
Priests and Prophets, ministering under the Mosaic Institute, had
pointed to him as the world's Redeemer. His language was full
and explicit.
Was it necessary that Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, should pass
away and leave the world to his single presence—a solitude for
him alone to occupy—a silence whose broad spaces and deeper
than midnight hush, his voice might fill ? So too it was neces¬
sary though for a different reason that Christ should return to the
Father, and fulfil the promise of the Holy Ghost. Pentecost saw
his word accomplished. Often before, had God answered the sac¬
rifice of the altar by fire, but now the one perfect and final sacri¬
fice was to be attested, not by fire descending on Calvary, but by
fire baptizing the elect Apostles who should go forth and preach
Christ crucified. A permanent power in the church, it is the
source of all other power. A permanent glory, it dispenses with
the magnificence of the Temple, the pomp of rituals, the splendor
15
of national granduer. A permanent joy, it dwells in believing
hearts, and creates the beatitudes Christ pronounced. Without
it, sacraments are dead signs ; pale tombstones over paler dust.
Without it, the sublime truths of Christianity are like Alpine
heights, distant and inaccessible. And hence, by promises full
and precious, by tokens abundant and gracious, .this spirit is of¬
fered as our strength and 'hope, a living omnipotence all abroad
and in closest contact with men, quickening lifeless instincts,
arousing dormant consciences, wounding and healing, renewing
and sanctifying.
If now you take these three doctrines of Christianity—the pa¬
ternal character of Cod, the vicarious death of Christ, the agency
of the Holy Ghost—it will not be difficult for you to see how
they are calculated to secure depth of experience. "View them
on intellectual grounds, and they lift up the mind to commune
with objects than which, immensity and eternity can offer nothing
sublimer. The profoundest instincts of reason, those that lie back
of all reasoning, and are incapable of any local shape, are here
strengthened and satisfied. The dread mysteries that turn into
debasing errors in the understanding, or into frightful phantoms
in the imagination, are not permitted to invade the peaceful do¬
minion of thought, over which, Christianity serenely reigns. The
demoniacs of the mind no longer rave and howl. Morbid tastes,
that are superstitious to-day and fanatical to-morrow, are supplan¬
ted by pure and salutary sentiments. But when you view these
doctrines as experimental and practical, their power rises into a
transforming efficacy to which, no limits can be assigned save those
of human capacity. Through them, we are renewed by the Holy
Ghost, and enter on the privileges of a new manhood. A divine
principle of growth is planted within, the principle of love, to
which all things minister. The heart widens its range of life, and
we find that the world, once regarded with distrust and
suspicion, is filled with the reconciled servants of the soul. Then
we see the meaning of Paul's words, " all things are yours." and
as our spiritual discipline progresses, the very objects that form¬
erly wasted our energies, now replenishes their strength. Petty
cares, insignificant tasks, homely duties, that were neglected and
despised, are lessons in immortal trust and hope. The growing
surprise is in discerning that life is far nobler than we knew. On
every side, the " depths " open depths " of thought, of con¬
sciousness, of strange instincts, of memories that startle, because
they seem like records antedating the hours of childhood " depths"
too of sensibility that bring tears we cannot understand, and of
affections already purified from their earthliness, and prefiguring
the ties of immortal love.
But I must turn from this train of thoughts. You are here,
Legislators of Georgia, on this Fast Day to humble yourselves be¬
fore God, the Sovereign of Nations, the Ruler of the Universe, to
confess your* sins, to deprecate his wrath, to implore his mercy, to
beseech his guidance, never so much needed as now. I cannot
meet the responsibilities of this impressive hour, if I fail to refer
to the questions that agitate us so deeply. Were they party-ques¬
tions, you sheuld not hear my voice. Nor shall 1 speak of them, I
trust,in such a way as to inflame prejudice already too violent,or to
excite passions which may yet master both reason and religion,if we
16
are not prayerful and cautious. I shall not speak to your Southern
pride. I shall not speak to your Southern blood. But if God is
graciously pleased to keep me, 1 shall try to speak to your chris¬
tian manhood, anxious only to offer the truth, and that too out of
the fulness of a sad and stricken heart.
The present state of our country, our beloved country, gives
me deep pain, and never before have I known what it is to be
burdened to the dust with sorrow on her account. I utter your
heart in these words, as well as my own. But the sorrows of
patriotism must come, no less than its joys, and it is the part of
true manhood to accept thorn as a portion of that disciplinary trial
through which God calls us to pass. Against our remonstrance,
against our most earnest entreaties, despite of forbearnce long and
patient, despite of the sacred claims of national brotherhood, the
fearful issues of the day have been forced upon us ; and if we fail
to meet-them in the spirit of a firm and decided christian man¬
hood, I believe that we shall prove faithless to the trust God has
committed to our keeping, and faithless to the best interests of
humanity. The precise form in which this difficulty should be
met, I am not here to discuss, for it is altogether outside of my
duty, but I am here to tell you in tones that shall not falter, and
in words not to be misunderstood, that you should terminate this
angry strife and secure peace for yourself and your homes. Let
us endeavor to see this subject in its true light, and to this end,
notice
1st. Our providential relations to the Government of the Unit¬
ed States. The idea of government as such is a divine idea. Its
particular forms being circumstantial, changing to suit habits of
thought, stages of civilization, and different sections of the earth,
are left to the agency of man, subject to the principle on which
all human authority rests, and to the objects for which it may be
legitimately exercised. Scripture gives dignity to the idea of
government, by assuring us that it is a vital part of that great and
complicated system of Providence which rules the world; and
therefore it is something more than a mere economy to protect
life and property. Statesmanship may be mainly confined to its
utilitarian ends, but it nevertheless has higher aspects, social and
moral uses that involve the dearest interests of mankind, and wit¬
ness to the presence and glory of God. Men associate under gov¬
ernment, because they have social instincts yearning for gratifica¬
tion, and because its conservative agency is needed for the world
as a sphere for moral discipline.
Viewed therefore in its general relations, we are warranted in
contemplating our government as a part of God's scheme of Pro¬
vidence, but when we consider the circumstances under which it
was created, the conflicting claims reconciled, the internal and ex¬
ternal difficulties overcome, the jealousies subdued, the nature of
the union effected, it would seem that our Fathers were guided by
a wisdom higher than their own. If the success of the Revolu¬
tion bears testimony, none can dispute, to a power mightier than
their arms, so too the organization of the Union, witnesses to an
intelligence more than human. '1 he most striking traces of Pro-,
vidence, are sometimes seen in men's thoughts ; their sagacity is
well nigh prophetic,and unconsciously to themselves,they read the
future Look at the venerable framers of the Constitution as they
17
•stand around it, and wliat a vast advance from their original posi¬
tion as political thinkers ! How mysteriouslyjhey have been edu¬
cated to their present point of Statesmanship ! If they won our
freedom by conqueiing their foes, they embodied that freedom in
institutions by conquering themselves. I see God's hand in their
"work. I see it in the magnificent fabric of constitutional liberty,
"which they reared, and because I behold these evidences of a di¬
vine presence in their labors, I value the Union which the Consti¬
tution established as a sacred compact.
The principles of our government are clearly defined. Limit¬
ed in its powers, it exists for specific purposes, which have been
assigned to it by the contracting parties, and in fulfilling which, it
represents those parties as an agent represents his principal. Not
a government built upon abstract grounds, not a government em-
boyding an imaginary will, which theorists might define as their
logic and speculations determined; it is a government as the cre¬
ation of sovereign and independent States, all of which have dele¬
gated the authority and power that it possesses. It is a govern¬
ment by whal it is not,as much as by what it is. Formed and ratified
by States, it cannot assume anything not granted by these States
without wrong, without tyranny. What then ? Have we any
dis-satisfactiion with the Constitution? None; it is far better
than any generation that has lived under its provisions and en¬
joyed its benefits. If this hand were raised against it, it would
deserve the curse of leprosy. Where then is the difficulty ? It
is in the fact, that a public opinion has grown up among eighteen
millions of our countrymon outside of the Constitution, and ad¬
verse to its spirit and sentiments, a public opinion formed by pul¬
pit and press, a public opinion antagonistic to the peculiar form of
our civilization, and Which seeks to administer this common and
"equal government conformably to that opinion. The conditions
under which such a constitution must be administered, plainly
suppose that it will create the opinion, the spirit, the patriotism,
"the fraternal sympathy,by which its provisions are to be executed
■and its ends attained. Neither pulpit nor press has any right to
Utter an opinion, nor urge a motive, that would even remotely
tend to interfere with its just and equitable administration. Any
such opinion or motive is traitorous and worthy of detestation.
No matter what the impulse, men are anarchists if they tran¬
scend the express provisions of the Constitution, and as such, are
to be resisted with the bold and fearless force of christian man¬
hood.
But notice gndly. Our Providential Relations to the system of
Slavery. I take the ground that we are a providential party, to
the guardianship and security of this institution. On no other
ground would I discuss it in a religious discourse. I think then,that
the indications of Providence may be gathered from the history
of African Slavery in these States, and although I know that we
are often erring interpreters of the will and ways of Providence*
yet in an emergency like the present, praying humbly to God for
guidance, we must use what faculties we possess, to ascertain as
far as may be its purposes. This, therefore, I say, that if the
progress of Anglo-Saxon civilization in our country; the grand
basis on which it has rested, the gradual removal of its restraints
2
18
and its fuller expansion, the growth of trade and commerce; the.
growth of mind still more, the effects of our national policy on the.
peace and prosperity of the world, the prodigious stimulus we.
have imparted to European thought and labor, the new era that
lias reversed the order of the firmament,andshed the splendors of a,
fresh morning from the West, if these things demonstrate a Pro-,
vidence over the welfare of the Anglo-Saxon race, the same facts,
measurably apply to the advancement of the African race, dwell¬
ing in our midst. Almost side by side with us, they entered on
this continent. Side by side with us, they have reaped its ad¬
vantages. Had they come a century later, the conditions of this
question would have been entirely changed, but as if to forestal1
human agency, the institution of domestic slavery was incorpo¬
rated into the rudimental form3 of our commercial organization,
and started with the early developements of the country. Is this,
nothing? Has this no meaning 1 Never could it have been a
system of reciprocal benefits in any other way. Never by other'
means could it have intertwined itself around our very roots and
spread itself simultaneously with our enlargement.
It has quietly dropped away from the Northern States. It
practically abolished itself out of those States, and hence, I
see no bearing in this fact except in our favor. Eor if circumstan¬
ces disposed of the institution there, one of the main results has,
been to strengthen the institution., both physically and morally
' with us. Without doubt, soil and climate necessitated this step,
but if soil and climate had been different, the same thing would
have occurred. Northern men were better-hands to bring them
from Africa, than to domesticate them at home. By the peculi¬
arities of their temperament, by the absence of sympathy with the,
negro, by nature and character, they were utterly unfit to manage
this sort of service, and therefore/under any circumstances, it
would have been exterminated from among them. But not so in:
the South. There was another hind of people here : a people,
with other traditions, a people with an unlike creed and an unlike,
spirit, I say this in no tone of disparagement of the North. I
only state the essential difference, and that by reason of this dif¬
ference , Southern men have shown a capacity to manage the in¬
stitution, and hold it up against all outward pressure. If the,
North has a native aptitude for manufacturing and mercantile life,
fbr the rivalry of trade, for the competitions of commerce, let her
enjoy it. But we claim the rights of our native aptitude, too.
The strength of civilization must always come from, within, from,
the thought, and enterprise, and moral force of mind and heart,,
and hence, if the North has obeyed this law, and created for her¬
self a mass of resources, a variety of industrial pursuits, and a
grandeur of physical position never surpassed, is it not fair and
just that we should be allowed to consult our tastes, and follow
the same instinctive tendency that she has so tenaciously cher¬
ished ?
Any view of Providence as a general scheme over the affairs of
the world, directed by a wisdom that looks to the welfare of the.
race, is radically defective, when we fail to study the laws of la¬
bor. 'The instinct of mankind for preservation, is not sufficient for
Ishe economical and moral uses of labor, and hence, God has put it.
19
tander the guardianship of positive laws. So far as this life is
concerned, better break any laws than these. The sword of jus¬
tice, aye of vengeance, always goes with them, and wherever you
find work, there stands Omnipotence pledged to see it done. The
province of work is nqt simply to get daily bread and earthly
comforts. If it were, we should soon dwindle into nothingness.
But its higher purpose is to train character, to form men, to pre¬
pare the earth to he a fitter and nobler home for a redeemed race,
to aid in the progress of humanity and in the spread of the Gospel.
There is therefore a standard for the moral results of labor as well
as a standard of physical results, and however persistently poli¬
tical economy may ignore the former, it is a vital consideration in
a discussion like thisv And now what are the facts 1 Not only
has slavery shown a striking adaptation to our circumstances, not
only has it accomplished what nothing else could ever have ac¬
complished, not only have its benefits far outreached our Southern
States and extended themselves over the entire land, not only has
it demonstrated itself beyond all cavil, and in the face of all op¬
position, as a main element in our power and progress as a nation,
tut, what is more to our immediate purpose, it has blended itself
in its results with other and unlike systems of labor throughout
the world. It is the most international thing on this earth. Every
bale of cotton is five hundred pounds of diplomatic influence, and
weighs that much in the scale that holds the peace of nations.
Every cargo of cotton is a cargo of blessings for Europe. Every
cotton thread binds millions together in amity and brotherhood. I
insist then on the principle that if you would estimate the provi¬
dential aspects of a great system of labor, you must estimate them
b.y their relations to the wants and circumstances of the world. To
take its home results is not enough. Selfishness might make an
easy and complacent argument out of such materials. But you
must study its foreign connections, and mark its advantages as
universally enjoyed. Tested by this principle, I urge that domes¬
tic Slavery in these States, is doing a vast humanizing work, a
greater work than any other system of labor, and moreover, that
if the free labor of this country were withdrawn from the stock in
the world's trade, the interests of humanity would not suffer as
they would suffer, were Slavery abolished. On the one hand, I
think then that Slavery has proved an immense benefit to the negro,
while on the other hand, it has enriched and exalted our country,
and at the same time, promoted beyond computation the peace
and prosperity of the world.
Take another fact. There has been a steady and constant ad¬
vance in the moral management of this institution. We have
made two centuries of progress in governing and directing its in¬
terests, which have taught us lessons that we ought earnestly and
conscientiously to improve. Already we are the wiser and the
better for this experience, and furthermore, I am quite sure, the
institution stands on far higher grounds than ever before. The
strength of the institution to-day, is not in its commercial connec¬
tions, nor in its mere philanthropic relations, but in those honest
and heartfelt convictions, as to its providential utility and moral
hearings, which virtuous and christian men in the Southern States
generally entertain. And no^; can capital and labcs? elsewhere
20
show this advance in their inter-relations ? The progress of this
sentiment among us is the more remakable, when its history is
closely scrutinized. On the introduction of African Slavery into
the Colonies, our ancestors resisted it. Subsequently, it was re¬
garded as an evil, but within the last twenty-five years, men have
examined the whole subject carefully, not only in the light of re¬
cent facts, but also in the light of God's word, and the consequence
is, an almost universal opinion in the South, that Slavery has the
sanction of G od's truth and the support of his Providence.
The gradual growth of opinion has arrested all schemes for the
removal of Slavery, has dra wn the welfare of the negro race near¬
er to our consciences and hearts, has turned the attention of our
churches much more anxiously towards it. But this state of things
has been met on the part of the Free States, with a violent antag¬
onism, and the critical hour has now come, when this conflict of
opinion must be settled. I do not say how it should be settled.
But I do implore you to be thoughtful, prudent, considerate men.
I implore you to suppress all bitterness, all strife, all hatred. I
implore you to think, decide, act, as christian Statesmen, looking
to God our Father for guidance, praying for his control, and sub¬
mitting yourselves unreservedly to His Supreme will. Left to
ourselves, abandoned by His merciful spirt, folly and passion will
only shape a downward destiny. Men are feeble for good, but
mighty for mischief. The weakest man loses his insignificance,
when he perpetrates a wrong. Then he starts suddenly into a
Goliah. Then the lightnings leap to his service. Then the bifi
lowy air swells with his rage, and the billowy sea surges with his
fury. Oh ! then, 1 pray you, hasten to God and ask his directions
" Out of the depths,"—these depths—cry unto the Lord, your
God.
If I have got to go out of this Union, I shall go with a bleeding
heart. I love its principles ; I love its vindication of the rights
of man ; I love its assertion and its championship of those funda¬
mental doctrines of equality and fraternity, on which the hopes of
the world repose; I love its beautiful harmony of Liberty and
Law. I love it for those traditions that are as precious as written
truths, and for memories that can never die. For the sake of our
fathers, I love it. For their graves, rising as hallowed monu¬
ments around the altar of our freedom, I love it. For what it has
been to you and yours, to me and mine, to the world, I love it'
I still love it as our fathers created it. I want no better govern¬
ment than the government of the Constitution. But if we cannot
have this of the Constitution, then let us exercise our right as free^
men and as christians, to establish such a government as we need.
Out of the depths," if our cries have first risen, we shall rise
and meet their descending blessings.