THOUGHTS SUITED TO THE PRESENT CRISIS,
A SERMON,
ON OCCASION OF
THE DEATH OP HON. JOHN C. CALHOUN,
PREACHED IN THE CHAPEL
OF THE SOUTH CAROLINA COLLEGE,
APRIL 21, 1850.
BY
JAMES H. THORNWELL,
PROFESSOR OF SACRED LITERATURE AND THE EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
PUBLISHED BY THE STUDENTS.
COLUMBIA, S. C.
PRINTED BY A. S. JOHNSTON.
1850.
SERMON.
" Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of
the Earth; serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling}'1—
Psalm ii. 10, 11.
Three weeks ago this day, as the first bell was giving us
the signal to prepare for assembling ourselves in the house
of God, for.the purpose of rendering our morning homage
to the Father of all mercies, a spirit endeared to us by
many ties was winging its flight to the eternal world.
That bell which summoned us to prayer seems to have
kept time with his expiring breath—and before we had
gathered ourselves in this hall, or assumed the devout
posture of worshippers, South Carolina's honoured son—
and one of America's distinguished statesmen, was num¬
bered with the dead. On the wings of lightning the
sad intelligence was borne to us. The feeling of every
heart was that a great man had fallen—and perhaps few
were so hardened as not to acknowledge, at least for the
moment, that in this death there was a message of God
to the people, the councils and rulers of this land. Death,
it is true, is no rare visiter in this world of sin—and a re¬
fined skepticism might suggest that, as there was nothing
extraordinary in the case before us, of an old man,
enfeebled by disease and wasted by intellectual toil, sink¬
ing beneath the burden of infirmity and care—nothing
4 THOUGHTS SUITED TO
extraordinary in the nature or operations of the malady
which brought him to his end, that we should undertake
to make nothing of it but the natural operation of natural
causes. Some may complacently tell us that a great man
has sickened—a great man has' died—a star has been
struck from the firmament—and its light is lost. We
may speculate upon the probable effects of the phenome¬
non—as we speculate upon any other important event—
but it is the weakness of superstition and credulity to find
in it any immediate interposition of God.
Fortified as this species of skepticism may be by a
shallow philosophy, there is something in the time and
circumstances of the death we have assembled to con¬
template, and the position and relations of the distinguish¬
ed victim, that will make the heart play truant to the
head, and extort the confession of the Egyptian Magicians,
that the finger of God fs here. Behold the time ! Never
in the annals of our confederacy has there been a more
critical period than this. Never has a Congress met un¬
der circumstances so full of moment and responsibility.
Never has the Senate of these United States been called
to deliberate on Questions so solemn and eventful, as those
which were before it when our Senator received the
mandate that his work was done. To my mind nothing
less than the problem of national existence is involved in
the issues before the councils of our country. Shall this
Union, consecrated by patriot blood—founded on prin¬
ciples of political wisdom which the world has wondered
at and admired—and which has conducted us to a pitch
of elevation and of influence, which have made us a study
THE PRESENT CRISIS.
5
among the philosophers of Europe, shall this Union—which
in all our past history has been our glory and defence, be
broken up—and the confederated States of this repub-
lick left to float upon the wide sea of political agitation
and disorder 1 The magnitude of this catastrophe de¬
pends not at all upon the shock which it would give to
our most , cherished sentiments—upon breaking up the
continuity of our national recollections ancF interrupting
the current of patriotic emotion—though this deserves to
be seriously considered. But there are deeper, more
awful consequences involved. To suppose that this con¬
federacy can be dissolved without cruel, bloody, ferocious
war, terminating in a hatred more intense than any which
ever yet disgraced the annals of any people—is to set at
defiance all the lessons of history; and to suppose that
in the present state of the world—when the bottomless
pit seems to have been opened* and every pestilential
vapour tainting the atmosphere—when a false philosophy
has impregnated the whole mass of the people abroad
with absurd and extravagant notions of the very nature
and organization of society and the true ends of govern¬
ment—to suppose that amid this chaos of opinion, which
has cursed the recent revolutions of Europe—we could
enter upon the experiment of framing new constitutions
without danger, is to arrogate a wisdom to ourselves to
which the progress of events, in some sections of the land,
shows we are not entitled. I cannot disguise the convic¬
tion that the dissolution of this Union—as a political ques¬
tion—is the most momentous which can be proposed in
the present condition of the world. Consider the position
6
THOUGHTS SUITED TO
and influence of these United States. To say that this
vast republick is, under God, the arbiter of the destinies
of this whole continent, that it is for us to shape the
character of all America—that our laws—our institutions
—our manners, must tell upon the degenerate nations of
the South, and sooner or later absorb the hardier sons of
the North, is to take too contracted a view of the sub¬
ject. With the Pacific on the one side and the Atlantic
on the other—we seem to hbld the nations in our hands.
With one arm on Europe and the other on Asia, it is for
us to determine the political condition of the race for
ages yet to come. Our geographical position, in connec¬
tion with the inventions of modern science and the im¬
provements of modern enterprize, makes us the very
heart of the world. Our life must be propelled by the
oceans which engirdle our shores through every country
on the globe—the beating of our pulse must be felt in
every nation of the earth. We stand, indeed, in refer¬
ence to free institutions and the progress of civilization,
in the momentous capacity of the federal representatives
of the human race.
But the accomplishment of the lofty destiny to which
our position evidently calls us, depends upon Union as
well as Progression. Our glory has departed—the spell
is broken—whenever we become divided among our¬
selves. Ichabod may then be written upon our walls,
and the clock of the world will be put back for genera¬
tions and centuries. What a question, therefore, is
that—whether we shall go forward in that career on
which we have so auspiciously entered, and accomplish
THE PRESENT CRISIS.
7
the destiny to which the* providence of God seems con¬
spicuously to have called us—or suffer the hopes of hu¬
manity to be crushed, and freedom to be buried in eter¬
nal night. It is not extravagant to fancy that we can
see the unborn millions of our own descendants uniting
with countless multitudes of the friends of liberty in all
climes, in fervent supplications to the American Con¬
gress for the salvation of the American Union. The liber¬
ty of the world is at stake. The Americ'an Congress is
now deliberating upon the civil destinies of mankind.
But the interests of freedom are not the only ones
involved. The interests of religion are deeply at stake.
To Britain and America, Protestant Christianity looks
for her surest friends, and her most zealous and perse¬
vering propagators. With the dissolution of this Union,
all our schemes of Christian benevolence and duty—
our efforts to convert the world—to spread the knowl¬
edge of Christianity among all people, and to translate
the Bible into all languages, must be suddenly and
violently interrupted. It would be the extinction of that
light which is beginning to dawn upon the millions of
China—the total eclipse of that star of hope which is
beginning to rise upon the isles of the sea. The conse¬
quences, civil, political, religious, which would result,
not simply to us, but to mankind, from the destruction of
this glorious confederacy, cannot be contemplated with¬
out horrour—and make the present, beyond all controver¬
sy, the most important and solemn crisis that has ever
been presented in the history of our country. Such was
the time. Behold now the man! He was precisely
8
THOUGHTS SUITED TO
the individual to whom, in such a crisis, his own State
would have most cheerfully confided her destiny. With
an understanding distinguished for perspicacity—a firm¬
ness equal to any emergency—a perseverance absolutely
indomitable—with a masterly intellect and a true and
faithful heart, the South looked to him for defence, for
protection, for guidance. He is permitted to mingle in
the councils of the nation—utter his voice with one foot
in the grave—and then he is withdrawn forever—with¬
drawn, too, when he feels hishead clearer and his prospect
of usefulness brighter than it had ever been before.
Why at this time is his voice stilled in death ? Why
was he not permitted to utter those last words which lay
upon his heart ? Why, when the highest of all sublu¬
nary interests was at stake, was one of our purest and
brightest Statesmen refused permission to continue in the
conflict? Surely this was the finger of God. It was no
casualty—it was no accident of fortune—it was no de¬
cree of destiny—it was the act of the Almighty.
No temper is more constantly commended in the Scrip¬
tures than devout contemplation of the events of Provi¬
dence. The atheism which disregards the works is as
severely condemned as the stupidity which despises the
word of God. They are said to be wise, who observe
and ponder the operation of His hands—who mark His
goings forth and contemplate His paths as the great
moral Ruler of the universe. They are wise who per¬
ceive in Providence its wonderful analogies to grace—
who feel that the plans and purposes and principles of
the Divine government are stamped to some extent upon
THE PEESENT CKISIS.
9
all the Divine proceedings—that the moral, natural and
physical, all harmonize^ with ^ the spiritual and eternal,
and that the events, which are constantly taking place
around them, give emphasis and illustration to the truths
of revelation. Beside what may be styled the natural
history of the universe, its stability and order, its unifor¬
mity and proportion, beside the operation of general
laws and the connections and* dependencies of a syste¬
matic whole, there is a secret lore which the good man
gathers from the phenomena, of nature—a recognition
of God in His moral charact-er, dealing with His moral
and responsible creatures. Death, as a natural event, is
one thing—as a moral phenomenon another. In the one
aspect we may. speculate upon its causes, its symptoms,
its effects. We may discuss fevers and coughs and
agues—talk about the vital organs, and make a consis¬
tent theory of physiology. But the whole train of
natural events which physiology discusses and which
terminate in the dissolution of the frame, must be
viewed in subordination to the moral government of
God, in order to be properly understood and duly
appreciated. It is in this aspect that the contemplation
of Providence becomes a riiatter of religious wisdom,
and yields lessons for the improvement of the heart as
well as the instruction of the head. To deny the agen¬
cy of God, because events are brought about in a natural
order, which is to make the uniformity of nature a plea for
atheism, is a stupidity as absurd as it is deplorably com-
mpn. Who, we may ask, established this natural order 1
Who keeps it in continuance 1 Who brings into being
2
10
THOUGHTS SUITED TO
each successive link in the chain of sequences 1 And
who has arranged the whple series so that every thing
occurs at the appointed time and in the proper place I
But while philosophy and religion conspire in teach¬
ing that the hand of God must be devoutly recognized
in all the operations of Providence, .the investigation of
final causes is circumscribed within narrow limits. We
can only study them in relation to ourselves. To scru¬
tinize the purposes • which God means certainly to ac¬
complish, and explore the, ultimate reasons of His visita¬
tions to the children Qf men—to say precisely what was
the design of the Almighty in such and such a proceeding,
were beyond the limits of mortal penetration. He work-
eth all things according to the counsel of His own will.
The hidden springs which move that will—the ends
which God actually intends to achieve, we are not com¬
petent to discover. But the relations of these events to
us—their tendencies and adaptations are obvious^and
patent—and these tendencies are so many expressions
of the Divine pleasure—so many intimations of what
God would have us to do or forbear. His Providence
often carries lessons on its face which it is criminal stupi¬
dity not to perceive, 'and*criminal insensibility not to
feel. His visitations are often messages to men, as pal¬
pable and clear as if the heavens were opened and an
angel commissioned to speak from the skies.
That there are events brought about in the regu¬
lar operation of secondary causes, which from their
importance and their juncture, have all the effect of a
miracle, in rousing attention and extorting the confession
THE PRESENT CRISIS.
11
of the presence of God, requires only to be stated in order
to be owned. 'Though no encroachments upon the es¬
tablished order of sublunary things, they are invasions
upon the -dull uniformity of thought-r-they disturb the
tranquillity which sees nothing in the world but a suc¬
cession of antecedents and consequents, which appear
and disappear, exciting no other feeling than that they
are a matter of course—they break the slumbers of a
practical Atheism and 'provoke the acknowledgement
that there is a God in the heavens—wh5 has done what¬
soever He pleased—that there are wa'tchers('and a Holy
one who rule in the kingdom of heaven and distribute, dy¬
nasties and thrones with sovereign authority-. - There are
events in which the natural is lost in something which is
felt not to be a matter of course—we pause before them—-
we spontaneously give heed to them as having a special
significance—we interrogate them as strange and unex¬
pected visiters—and through them, if we are wise, we
shall learn lessons that it was worthy of a miracle to
teach. Precisely of this character is the event which
has hung our own Commonwealth in mourning—has
struck the nation with awe—has roused the attention
of all classes in the community and has elicited publick
expressions of sorrow and lamentation from societies,
clubs, schools, colleges, districts, towns, cities and legisla¬
tive assemblies. This spontaneous expression of grief—
every where-^—from all parties—from every portion of the
land—from the pulpit and the press—tKe intense interest
the death of our illustrious Senator has excited—place it
beyond all question in the category of those events in
12 THOUGHTS SUITED TO
which God solemnly announces His own sovereignty and
communicates a message to the children t)f men as if by
a legate from the skies.
Upon occasions of this sort, it has been justly remark¬
ed by one, who of all others, knew best how to improve
them, "the greatest difficulty"a speaker has to surmount
is already obviated—attention is" awake—s-an interest is
excited, and all 'that remains is* to lead the mind, already
sufficiently susceptible, to objects of permanent utility—
he originates nothing--it is not so much he that speaks
as* the events which speak' for themselves—he only pre¬
sumes to interpret the language and to guide the confus¬
ed emotions of a sorrowful and swollen heart into the
channels of piety."
It is not the office of the pulpit, however, to praise the
dead or flatter the living. As it surveys departed great¬
ness with a different eye from the eye of sense, it can
bring no offerings to the altar of human glory, nor erect
a monument to the achievements of human genius. The
preacher, in common with other men, may drop a tear
at the urn of the patriot, and dwell with delight upon those
rare gifts which the Supreme Disposer of all things has
conferred upon a mighty statesman. He, too, is a man
and a citizen—and in these relations he tnay feel and
weep as others weep at the extinction of a great light.
But as the ancient prophets were required, in the pro¬
clamation of their messages, to suppress the voice of na-
ture and to speak with a dignity and majesty befitting
the oracles of God, so the pulpit must stand aloof from
the language of panegyric, know neither friendship nor
THE PRESENT CRISIS.
-13
hatred, and seek to extract from the dispensations of
Providence oiily those lessons of the Divine word, they
are suited* to illustrate and enforce. As we bury our
dfead this "day, and as men, patriots and eitizerts, mourn
that the delight of our eyes and pride of our hearts has
been removed from us at a stroke, let us recognize the
hand of the Almighty and inquire, with" solemnity and
reverence, what the instructions are which the judge of
all truth is imparting to the country by .this dark
visitation. A Senator has fallen-^a statesman has per¬
ished—a man has died, • "In {hese aspects, the mourn¬
ful occurrence may be, regarded as the voice of God,
teaching a fitting lesson to the councils, rulers and "people
of the land.
I. A Senator has fallen! There is a message -here to
those who are entrusted with the cares of government
and the business ^of legislation. The introduction of
death, in a- form so awful and astounding, into the Senate
of the United States, was a proclamation from heaven, to
all who are called to ^deliberate upon the affairs of the
country, that their ways" are before the eyes of the Lord,
and that He pondereth all tbeir goings. Whatever may
be the cause, it is impossible to contemplate death in our
own species as a merely natural event. We may endea¬
vour by a shallow philosophy to persuade ourselves that it
was the original lot of our race—that we were designed,
like the beasts that perish, to appear arid disappear in suc¬
cession—to fret and strut our hour upon the stage, and
then be seen no more—that like drink and food and sleep,
it constitutes an element of ou-r destined course—and is
14 THOUGHTS SUITED TO
no more remarkable than any other*pkenomenon of our
being. But no philosophy can impress these sentiments
upon the heart-^-our moral nature rises in rebellion against
them, and the instinctive feeling of mankind isthatit is" a
dread and awful thing to die. Having sprung, as we are
informed by the sure word, of prophecy, from a moral
cause—being a-judicial visitation of God—how natural
soever the instruments may be by which it is brought about
—the fixed associations of the mind connect it with moral
retribution—and every conscience responds to the declar¬
ation of the apostle—that if is appointed unto men once to
die,'—and after death the judgment. You cannot behold
a corpse—you cannot stand by a grave—without feeling
that though the body is there; the soul is gone to receive
its final'award. The very language in which the event
is familiarly described, indicates the instinctive belief that
the man is still in being in all the mystery of his identity
—and that he has taken a journey to a world from which
he is'to depart no more. We say that he is gone—gone
to his final home—to his fixed and everlasting abode. His
being is not extinguished. He has laid.aside the habiliments
of mortality—the robes and decorations of a sublunary
state—to stand in the nakedness of his moral nature be¬
fore the bar iof God. The man—what was simply the
man—that upon which the law pressed—the intellectual
life—is unclothed that naked, as it came to run its career
of probation, naked it may return to give an account of the
deeds done in. the body. Hence the awful solemnity of
death—it is the precursor of judgment. God's minister
to summon God's creatures to God's tremendous bar. It
THE PRESENT- CRISfS.
15
is accordingly a great thing to die. The keys of death
and hell are in the hands of Him who sitteth upon the
throne—and it is a solemn act of mediatorial government
to open the doors of-the invisible *world and consign u,
'deathless spirit to its destined position. » We say that
such and such an one is dead. The very sound is omi¬
nous and its portentous meaning has been jfearfuily, por¬
trayed—"an immortal spirit has finished its earthly career
—has passed the barriers of the invisibly world—to appear
before its maker, in order to fecejve that sentence which
will fix its irrecoverable doom, according to the deeds
done in the body. Ah evenfhas taken place which has
no parallel in the revolutions of time, the consequences
of which have not room to expand themselves- within a
narrower sphere than an endless duration. An event has
occurred^the issues of which must'qyer baffle and elude
all finite comprehensions, by concealing themselves in the
depths of that abyss, that eternity, which is the dwelling
place of Deity, where there is sufficient space for the
destiny of each,, among the innumerable millions of the
human race, to develope itself, and without interference
or confusion, to sustain and carry forward its separate in¬
finity of interest." This is true of the departure of the
meanest individual to the world of spirits. But the
familiarity of the scene and the small degree of interest
which attaches to the humble and.obscure—the narrow
circle within which that dissolution is mourned as a ca¬
lamity, or deplored as a loss, prevents the impressions
which death as a judicial visitation is suited to make upon
the mind from exerting their full and appropriate effect.
16
THOUGHTS SUITED TO
" In the private departments of life, the distressing inci¬
dents which occur are confined to a narrow circle.. The
hope of an individual-Is crushed*—the -happiness- of a
family is destroyed-^-biit the social system is unimpaired
and its movements experience no impediment and sus¬
tain no sensible injury. The arrow passes through the
air which sopn closes over it and all is tranquil. But
when the great lights and ornaments of the world, placed
aloft to conduct its inferior movements, are extinguished,
such an evenUresembles thd* Apocalyptic vial, poured into
-that element which changes. its whole temperature and
is the presage of fearful commotions—of thunders, light¬
nings and tempests." Such an event reveals the presence
of God—r-and summons imagination and -thought to the
contemplation ofA those august realities which await the
revelation of the last hour. Such an event brings eternity
before us with all its dread and tremendous retributions
and presses upon the soul the burden of an awful and
oppressive responsibility. It makes us feel the magni-
tude,of our being—^and the stoutest heart is-roused for a
moment and startled at the summons—prepare to meet
thy God.
The lesson, of responsibility, of course, tells with more
direct and powerful effect upon those who are intimately
associated in pursuit—friendship—or profession with the
victim of the destroyer. He being dead speaks pre-emi¬
nently to them. Through his grave they are invited to
contemplate eternity, and his departed spirit reminds
them of the hour in which they too shall be called to
lay aside the vestments of mortality. It tells them to do
THE PRESENT CRISIS.
17
their work as in-the eye of God—to think and act and de¬
liberate and feel, in full view of the account which
they must render at last. It tells them that a moral
character attaches alike to their persons and their deeds
—and that the complexion of their destiny depends upon
the spirit in which they discharge the duti'es of their sta¬
tion. When consigning a body to the tomb, or witnessing
the last gasp of a dying friend—we seem to stand upon the
very borders of the unseen world—to be walking on the
shore of that boundless ocean—in which all the streams
of time are swallowed up—we almost hear the thunder of
its billows—and feel the heavings of its waves—and a
sense of immortality rushes upon the soul which at once
oppresses and expands. We feel like rising and shaking
ourselves from the dust—and tne resolution is involunta¬
rily adopted—though in the vast majority of cases too
speedily forgotten—to (Jo with our might whatsoever our
hands find to do—since the night cometh when no man
can work.
No lesson could be more seasonable, in the present cri¬
sis of our national affairs, than the responsibility of rulers
and legislators to God the judge of all. That this doc¬
trine is inadequately apprehended, the history of legis¬
lation in this and every other country is a mournful proof.
There are two errors—widely prevalent—-which have a
direet and necessary tendency to despoil it of its full
and just proportions—one is, that national responsibility
is limited, in its operation and effects, to the dispensa¬
tions of Providence in the present world—and the other
is, that where there exists not, as there should exist
3
18 THOUGHTS SUITED TO
no where, a national establishment of religion, the distinc¬
tive sanctions of religion cannot be introduced. The
effect of both errors is the same in relation to the retri¬
butions of a future world. And although one.appears to
be widely removed from the. other, in that it acknow¬
ledges the fact of national responsibility, yet its mistake
in limiting the Divine visitations to our present and sub¬
lunary state, divests the doctrine of all its awful and com¬
manding majesty. It invests the Almighty, as the ruler
of nations, with limited power and with temporary judg¬
ments—it places at His disposal the plague, pestilence and
famine—war, earthquakes and tornadoes—but it robs Him
of that thunder which holds individuals in check—of that
vengeance which makes the future so terrible to the wor¬
kers of iniquity. He may ride upon the whirlwind and
direct the storm—he may grind the nations as the small
dust of the balance—he. may extinguish their lights—
throw them back into barbarism—but for their national
sins he cannot visit them in the world of spirits.
As the ordinary course of affairs affords but slight indi¬
cations of any marked visitation for national iniquities—
as communities seem to be dealt with upon very much the
same principle as private individuals—one event happen¬
ing alike to all, this defective theory of national responsi¬
bility amounts in practice to a total destruction of any ef¬
fective sense of responsibility at all. Seed time and har¬
vest—commerce and trade—the various elements of na¬
tional prosperity, seem to be so largely within the com¬
pass of human calculation and foresight, that where ap¬
pearances, according to the established connections of
THE PRESENT CRISIS.
19
antecedents and consequents, promise well for the future,
these anticipations will be adopted as the real guide of
conduct rather than any apprehensions of sudden and
violent interpositions of Divine justice. Men judge of the
future by the indications of the present—or the expe¬
rience of the past—and if they have nothing to deter
them from evil but the prospect of immediate calamity,
they will seldom find reason to be alarmed. The conse¬
quence upon statesmen and legislators is very much the
same with the natural effects of the doctrine of universal
salvation upon other individuals. The conclusion which
they cannot but draw from the facts of Providence would
be as unfavourable to moral distinctions and the rectitude
of the Divine administration as if they reasoned from the
fortunes of individuals. They could not but believe, either
that God was indifferent to the moral cond uct of organized
communities—or that if He punished, it was so seldom—
so irregularly, and except in rare and extraordinary cases,
so imperceptibly, that no serious estimate should be made
of His pleasure or displeasure in settling any great ques¬
tion of national policy. The final result would be a prac¬
tical atheism which would completely exclude Him from
the councils of the country*.
The other error conducts to this result directly and im¬
mediately. It maintains that as a natioh, in its organic
capacity, cannot make a profession of religion—cannot
worship God nor believe the Gospel of His grace—there¬
fore it is exempt from His controul—and bound to have
no special respect to His laws. This doctrine confounds
the national obligations of religion with the existence of
20
THOUGHTS SUITED TO
a national Church. And as the establishment of any sect,
or any particular species of religion, is an encroachment
upon the rights of conscience, it is concluded that all re¬
ligion must be excluded from halls of legislation, courts of
judicature or seats of power. The impression prevails,
to a melancholy extent, that the administration of the
country is an affair in which God has no interest and
should, by no means, be consulted, and in conformity with
this impression ftiany look for it as a matter of course that
all the measures of the State shall be independent of any
relations to religion. There are those who would ex¬
clude it from-public institutions of learning—from the ar¬
my, the navy,—as well as from the halls of Congress.
In both errors the fallacy is committed of overlooking
one of the most obvious and fundamental principles of
moral philosophy. All responsibility, in the last analysis,
is personal and individual. 'The responsibility of a nation
is not the responsibility of an organic whole considered as
such, but of alfthe individuals who collectively compose it.
The State is a compendious expression for certain rela¬
tions in which moral and responsible persons exist to¬
wards each other—the duties of the State are all the
duties of individuals—the crimes of the State are the
crimes, of individuals—the sins of the State are the sins
of individuals, and the prosperity and the glory of the
State are the prosperity and glory of individuals. The
State is nothing apart from the men who constitute it.
They exist in-society, with reciprocal rights and obliga¬
tions, and the company of individuals so existing is the
State. To protect and defend these rights—to maintain
THE PRESENT CRISIS.
21
the supremacy of justice—to give each individual the
scope for the developement, without interference or colli¬
sion, of his separate and distinct personality, with a simi¬
lar privilege to others, is the primary end of govern¬
ment—which must still be conducted by individuals and
carries along with it only individual responsibility. In
all the relations, in all the employments, in all the depart¬
ments of the State, every one. who is called to act is still
only a man—and he brings to his labours all the measure
of responsibility which appertains to his capacities and
knowledge considered simply .as a man. He is.every
where—in every office—in every trust, an immortal be^
ingr, under the law of God—and the sanctions of that law
extend as clearly and completely to his political conduct
as to any other actions of his life. That law knows no
manner of distinction betwixt the statesman and the man
—the stateman is only the man,, in new relations, involv¬
ing new applications of the eternal, principles of right.
An honest man and a corrupt politician are a contradic¬
tion in terms.
It is hence obvious how the obligations and sanctions
of religion press upon communities and nations. A State
is bound to be religious, in the sense that every man in it
is bound to fear God and to work righteousness A
State is bound to reverence the gospel, in the sense that
all its members are obliged, on pain of the second death,
to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ—and a State is re¬
quired to glorify God, in the £ense that all its citizens—
whether in private stations or posts of dignity and trust—
are required, in whatever they do, to seek the glory of
22 THOUGHTS SUITED TO
His great name. When a legislature * passes a law, it is
done by the votes of individuals—and these individuals
are all responsible as such, for the votes that they gfive.
If any man has lent his sanction, in his public and official
relations, to aught that transgresses the law of God, or
slights the institutions of the Gospel, it is .sin upon his soul
to be visited and punished as any other wickedness of
his life. God treats him as an individual, in such and
such relations, with such ancLsuch duties growing out
of them.
His responsibilities, therefore, as a ruler—a legislator—
a judge, are precisely of the same fundamental nature—
have precisely the same fundamental character—with
his responsibilities in the private walks of life? He is
summoned as a man to God's bar—and the scrutiny is
made into all that the man has done, in the various rela¬
tions which he has been called to sustain—and he is just
as liable to be sent t,o hell for a corrupt vote—a political
intrigue—or a political fraud, as for lying, hypocrisy or
treachery in the private walks of life. The law of God
as completely bound him in one position as in another—
and in every position, a man should recognize himself as
God's subject who must give an account at God's bar
of all that, he has done in all the relations in which God's
Providence has placed him. This is the doctrine of the
Scriptures as* well as the plain dictate of unsophisticated
reason.
The mandate of the text is given to kings and judges,
as individuals, or men occupying high posts of power or
renown. "Be wise now therefore O ye kings, be in-
THE PRESENT CRISIS.
23
structed ye judges pf the earth—serve the Lord with fear
and rejoice with trembling—kiss the the Son lest He
be angry and ye perish from the way when His wrath
is kindled but a little."
If this doctrine could be impressed upon our public
men and upon the heart of the nation, it would soon
give us in our national councils, what the present cri¬
sis so eminently demands—statesmen instead- of job¬
bers and politicians. There is -not and cannot be a more
painful spectacle, than to see the interests of a great peo¬
ple toss,ed to and fro by tl\e schemes and intrigues and
chicane-of men, who havemeither the fear of God before
their eyes nor the love of their country in their hearts.
We cannot but dread some impending calamity when
we see the honour and prosperity and glory of a nation
made the sport " of the party tactics and the little selfish
schemes of little men, who by the visitation of God, hap¬
pen to have some controul over a great subject and some
influence in a great commonwealth." It is a lamentation
and shall be for a lamentation—that the most momentous
interests, requiring for their*.adjustment -amplitude of
mind, integrity of purpose—simplicity of aim—broad
and general considerations of truth and justice—should
so often be the sacrifice of dwarfish politicians—who are
unable to extend their vision beyond the domain of self
—or the almost equally narrow circle of section, party,
or clique— that in affairs which call for the counsels
of men—of men who are in some degree sensible of what
it is to be a man—who have God's smile or frown before
them—that in such -affairs, we should be dependent on
24
THOUGHTS SUITED TO
the guidance of pigmies—yea of worse than pigmies—
of beings who profess to be immortal—to be working out
a destiny for' eternity, and yet who can rise to no loftier
ends than the flesh pots of Egypt. A statesman is a sub¬
lime character—a jobbing politician too little for con¬
tempt.
Aristotle, in designating the points of correspondence
between a pure democracy and a despotism—the ethical
characters of which he makes the same—has noted the
affinity between the parasite of a court and a popular
demagogue. " They are not unfrequently"—says he—
" the same'identical men—and always bear a close anal¬
ogy." The distinguishing characteristic of each is an ut¬
ter destitution of elevated principle, arising from the ab¬
sence of any just sense of floral responsibility. The
schemes of each are only contrivances for personal ag¬
grandizement. The most momentous interests of the
nation are viewed* as the occasions or instruments of pri¬
vate or party ends. Every thing proceeds from selfish
and sordid calculation, while the supremacy of right and
the authoritative voice of ''duty, the highest policy of a
true statesman—are little reverenced by these pests of
the Commonwealth. The parasite of a courtis designa¬
ted in Greek by a term which condenses the very essence
of the meanness contained in flattery, hypocrisy and
fawning. The cure .of such eruptions upon the surface
of political society is a pervading sense of personal respon¬
sibility. Impregnated with this sentiment—none would
assume duties which they were incompetent to discharge
—because none would be willing to jeopard the interests
THE PRESENT CRISIS.
25
of salvation for the brief importance of an hour. Who
would wear a. crown steeped in poison or occupy a
throne with a drawn sword above his Kead 1 The solem¬
nities of eternity would be made to protect the interests
of time.
For the purpose of teaching this lesson—the lesson of
personal responsibility for the manner and spirit in which
they have discharged the duties of their trust, the event
which we this day contemplate, may have been permit¬
ted to take place. The bar of God, the tribunal of eter¬
nal justice, was reared in frhe halls of legislation. A
signal example was given of one who, in the midst of his
duties, was called to his final account. Each survivor was
reminded of what soon would be true of him. The scene
was touching and solemn beyond'description, when the
dead body of our departed Senator, in the scene of his
greatest glory, was made a monitor of God, eternity and
retribution to those who were deliberating upon the
greatest question that -has ever arisen in the history of
any people. From the tomb,he seemed to say—remem¬
ber, Senator^, that you must soon give an account of your
stewardship. The eyes of God are on you—"raise
your conceptions to the magnitude and importance
of the duties that devolve upon you,"—"let your com¬
prehension be' as broad as the country for which you
act—your aspirations as high as its certain destiny"—
deliberate, vote—decide—;as if the next moment you
were to be with me in the world of spirits—at the bar of
God—in a changeless state. Remember that you occupy
a sublime position—a spectacle to the Deity, to angels and
4
26
THOUGHTS SUITED TO
to men. The civil destinies of the world hang on your
decision. Rise to the dignity and grandeur-of your cal¬
ling as immortal beings, and instead of seeking to conci¬
liate a section—to promote a party—or to aggrandize
yourselves—instead of contracting your views to the idle
and ephemeral applauses of earth, aim at the approbation
of angels and of God. This was the language in which
IJe, being dead, yet spoke to his companions and brethren
in the Senate—and his voice we trust has not been whol¬
ly unheard. The noble eulogy of Webster—the touch¬
ing tribute of Clay—the tone irfiparted to the Senate, lead
to the hope that, notwithstanding recent and flagrant
outrages, there exists in that august assembly a sense of
responsibility, which wisely directed may, under God,
prove the salvation of the country. But whether regard- .
ed or disregarded-, it is the office of the pulpit to proclaim
to our rulers that God will bring them into judgment
for their public and official conduct—that however they
may overlook every thing but the success of their sel¬
fish schemes or the commendation of their persons, God
demands of them a supreme regard for justice, truth and
religion—it is the office of the preacher to tell them, that
if they say or do aught, contrary to the principles of
eternal rectitude, they say or do it at the" peril of their
souls—and to remind them from the memorable example
of Herod that, though an infatuated mob may shout in its
blindness, it is the voice of Gocjl and not of man—the judg¬
ments of heaven may consign their souls to the lowest hell.
Lightly and' carelessly as it is sought, the office of a
legislator is a solemn trust. It is wicked to aspire to it
THE* PRESENT CRISIS.
27
without being prepared for its duties—and when it is
bought or secured by the corruption of the people, it is
the wages of iniquity which God will surely turn into a
curse. How can that man entertain any adequate con¬
viction of "his responsibility to God, in discharging the
functions of a place into which he was introduced by an
open contempt of the Deity? I confess frankly, that I
tremble for my country when I contemplate the deplor¬
able extent to which politicks are turned into a trade—
when I see the shocking separation in the national mind
betwixt the candidate and the mam—the politician and
the citizen. To counteract this tendency, to impress
upon all, the individual and personal nature of responsi¬
bility—to inculcate the supremacy of right every where,
Jin all relations, is an end worthy of the extinction of the
brightest lights of the land. , To* make us feel the all-
pervading authority of the moral law and of the Chris¬
tian faith—to bring us to the recognition of the truth, that
in all the diversified scenes to which the. Providence of
God allots the children of men—they are still to be re¬
garded as Christians and as men—developing the char¬
acter and manifesting the principles upon which their eter¬
nal destiny depends, is a consummation cheaply purchased
by events, which in the figured language of the Scriptures,
are compared to the eclipse of suns—the destruction of
the stars and the convolution of the heavens. And if the
death of our illustrious Senator shall contribute to inspire
the breasts of our Senators and Representatives with
the sentiments which befit their station, it will be his lot to
have served his country as gloriously in death as in life.
28
THOUGHTS SUITED TO
II. The lesson which this event, considered as the
death of a statesman, is suited to impart, is addressed
to the people at large, and comes with pointed emphasis,
in the present crisis of.affairs, to the people of the South,
and particularly to us in South Carolina. Tt is better
to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man—
it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence
in princes. In God is my salvation and glory—the rock
of my strength and my refuge is in God—trust in Him,
at all times, ye people, pour out your heart before Him
—God is a refuge .for us—surely men of low degree
are vanity and men of high degree are a lie—to be
laid in the balance they are altogether lighter than van¬
ity. Thus saith the Lore].—cursed -be the man that
trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm—whose hearts
departeth from the Lord. t For he shall be like the heath
in the desert and shall not see when good cometh." Woe
to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take coun¬
sel, but not of me—that cover with a covering, but not
of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin—that walk to
go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth, to
strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh and to
trust in the shadow of Egypt.
The lesson which the Providence of God was contin¬
ually inculcating u]3on the heathen nations/whose affairs
are incidentally mentioned in the Scriptures, is that the
Most High ruleth in the kingdoms of men—and accom¬
plishes His pleasure among the armies of heaven and the
inhabitants of earth. The dominion of Jesus. Christ as
Mediator extends to nations as well as individuals—States
THE PRESENT CRISIS.
29
and governments are the instruments of God, ordained in
their respective departments, to execute His schemes—
and the Divine Redeemer bears written upon his vesture
and thigh a name which indicates universal sovereignty
—Lord of Lords and King of Kings. They are a part of
that series of Providential arrangments, by which the mo¬
ral purposes of God, in reference to the race, are conducted
to their issue—and as much the appointments of His will
as the family, or the Church. There is not the same di¬
rect interposition in the organization of civil and political
communities as in the constitution of* the Church—but
the necessity of the State is founded in the nature of man
—springs from the moral relations- of individuals—grows
with the growth and strengthens with the strength of
human society. It is the spontaneous offspring of a so¬
cial state—and in the same sense the creature of God,
that the society from which it springs and from which it
cannot be severed is the Divine ordination. There never
was an absurder, and I may add, a more mischievous fic¬
tion, than that political communities are conventional ar¬
rangements, suggested by the inconveniences of a natural
state of personal independence, and deriving their author¬
ity from the free consent of those who afe embraced in
them. Political societies are not artificial combinations to
which men have been impelled by chance or choice, but
thq, ordinance of God, through the growth and propaga¬
tion of the species, for the perfection and education of the
race. The first State, according to the Scriptures, was not
distinct from the family. But as households were multi¬
plied, though the tie of consanguinity was still the ground
30
THOUGHTS SUITED TO
upon which authority was recognized, and natural affec¬
tion and habitual association combined to invest the pa¬
triarch with the highest jurisdiction, a class of ideas be¬
gan to expand themselves which rested upon other prin¬
ciples than those of blood. Moral relations—more ex¬
tensive and commanding than that of father, husband,
wife or child, the relations of man to man—of reciprocal
rights and reciprocal obligations, were brought into view
and the patriarch became a magistrate—the representa¬
tive of justice, as well as a father—the representative of
family affection. That the distinctive boundaries of these
distinct relations were -at once understood—that they are
even now adequately apprehended where the nearest
approximations to primitive society obtain, is by no means
affirmed. It was only in the progress of a long, slow,
providental education that the real nature of the common¬
wealth, as contradistinguished from other communities,
began to be unfolded. The State was developed with the
progress of society—and as the necessity of its existence
is laid in man's nature—as the supremacy of its claims-
its high and awful sovereignty, is nothing but the supre¬
macy of justice and of right, among moral and responsi¬
ble agents, the State, through whatever organic arrange¬
ments its power tnay be expressed, is the creature of God,
the sacred ordinance of heaven. It is not a thing which
can be made or unmade, it is part an-d parcel of the con¬
stitution of our nature as at once social and responsible.
This view of "the State connects it at once with the
moral purposes of the Deity—and the whole history
of the world shows that its -d'evelopement, which is the
THE PRESENT CRISIS.
31
progress of liberty, depends upon the providential dispo¬
sition of events over which the agency of man has no di¬
rect controul. All solid governments and all permanent
liberty have grown much more out of circumstances than
out of fixed and definite purposes of man. A nation of
slaves cannot establish a free government—it is a thing
for which God must have prepared the way, and all
efforts to rise suddenly from a condition of despotism
into that of freedom have been attended with licentious¬
ness, anarchy and crime. True liberty is a thing of
growth—there is first- a stock of acknowledged rights
which are transmitted in the way of inheritance—the pro¬
gress of society enlargesfit with fresh and fresh additions
—there is a conglomeration of the newsand the old—
a connecting link betwixt the.past and the present—and
the consolidation of inheritance and acquisition is the se¬
curity of liberty. Hence -from the very nature of man and
the very nature of the State, and the very nature of liber¬
ty, political communities must receive their shape and di¬
rection from the circumstances in which the great Dispo¬
ser of events has placed any people. The doctrine of de¬
pendence upon God is, accordingly, intertwined in the
very fibres of the commonwealth. The State is a school ,
in which the Deity is conducting a, great process of edu¬
cation, and providential circumstances determine alike the
lessons to be taught and the capacity of the scholars to
learn them. The dangers, as in all schools, are those which
spring from indocility of temper—or from rashness and
impetuosity, which would outstrip the leadings of Provi¬
dence. Each indicates a spirit of independence of God—
32
THOUGHTS SUITED TO
and each is apt to be rebuked with expressions of His dis¬
pleasure. The difficulty with communities that have been
long accustomed to the reign of despotism is, that they
are too dull to learn—-they are backward to follow the
intimations of circumstances—they stagnate in their cor¬
ruptions; and the outbreaks of revolutions are sometimes
necessary to rouse- the people and put them in the atti¬
tude of progress. They distrust the Almighty and re¬
fuse to move until they are driven.
The difficulty with free and growing communities is,
that, in the consciousness of imaginary wisdom and
strength, they anticipate the slow progress of events,
and casting off their dependence upon God, undertake to
accomplish their destiny by their own skill and resour¬
ces. They rely partly upon principles—partly upon
men—partly upotTboth. Overlooking the concurrence
of Providence which is essential" to the success of political
combinations and arrangements, they vainly imagine that
they can create the circumstances upon which they are
dependent.- There is a magic in their doctrines, or a
charm in their schemes, or a power in their champions,
which can subdue the eleftients and accomplish the work
of Him whose prerogative alone it is to speak and it is
done—to command and it stands fast. But the lesson of
the Bible and of experience is " that in the midst of all
our preparations, we shall, if-we are wise, repose our chief
confidence in Him who has every element at His dispo¬
sal—who can easily disconcert the wisest counsels, con¬
found the mightiest projects, and save, when He pleases,
by many or by few. While the vanity of such a preten-
THE PRESENT CRISIS.
33
ded reliance on Providence as supersedes the use of
means is readily confessed, it is to be feared we are not"
sufficiently careful to guard against a contrary extreme,
in its ultimate effects not less dangerous. If to depend on
the interposition of Providence without human exertion
be to tempt Go^l; to confide rn aruarm of flesh when seek¬
ing His aid is to deny Him ; the former is to be pitied for
its'weakness—the latter to b.e censured for its impiety,
nor is it easy to say which affords the worst omen of suc¬
cess."
That this lesson is eminently seasonable-in the present
crisis of the nation, none can be tempted to doubt.- It is
possible that out •confidence in the great statesman, whose
death 'a nation has lamented, may have*been such as to
provoke the jealousy of that God, who will nofcgive His
glory to another. *We may have relied more upon his.
power of argument—his energy of persuasion—his inte¬
grity of character—his putdick and private influence,
than upon the secret operations of that Spirit, who con¬
trols the movements of kings and pirns the hearts of the
children of men as the rivers of water are turned. It is
evident that what is needed at the present crisis is a spir¬
it of patriotism—of justice and,of-loyalty to God. It is
the temper of the people and of the rulers upon which,
under God, the salvation of the country depends, If the
whole nation could be animated with a single purpose
to do what is right—if factions and parties and local and
temporary interests, could be forgotten—if the presiding
genius in our halls of legislation were the sublime and
heroick principle of justice—if every member there could
5
34
THOUGHTS SUITED TO
be brought to feel that he was the representative of the
whole nation, bound to promote, cherish and defend the
interests of all, in conformity with the spirit and provi¬
sions of the constitution—if fanaticism could be rebuked
and selfishness suppressed, and power awed into a sense
of responsibility—-\ylio, doubts but that-all our difficulties
would be speedily adjusted—that the clouds which threa¬
ten us would be rolled away, and the sun of union and
liberty burst out again in meridian refulgence 1 The pro¬
duction of this temper ig. nq£ within the compass of man.
To change the current^ of' established associations—to
dissolve the charms of prejudice^to break yhe fetters
of interest-nrto enlighten the blindness of fanaticism and
make power olTedient to rigkt-r-these are not thb feats
of argurgent or skill—they -require the .finger of God. It
ys He alone who. qap give" the spirit of a sound mind.
He alone has direct access to the souls of men—and in
the removal of him, whom* We were tempted to make
our stay and our prop—He- is exhorting us to trust only in
Himself. Well will if be for us if we qan learn the les¬
son.
It becomes us,* however, to remember that a people
can trust in God only vffien they are seeking the ends
of righteousness^and truth. . Our dependence upon Him
should teach us'the lesson tha*£ righteousness exalteth a
nation and sin .is a reproach to any people. We cannot
expect the patronage of heaven- to schemes of injustice
and of wrong. The State is an element of God's moral
administration—and to secure His favour it must sedu¬
lously endeavour to maintain the supremacy of right.
THE PRESENT CRISIS.
35
He may overrule the wickedness of the people for good—
He may even permit unrighteous kingdoms to flourish
notwithstanding their iniquity—but as the habitation of
His throne is justice'and truth", it will be fbund, in regard
to communities," as wnll as individuals, that „ Godliness is
profitable for all things, having the promise o£ the life
that new is and of that which is to come. " There is in
the bosom of all human societies a desire and a power
of ceaseless progress. It is struggling now?— it will- strug¬
gle to the end. Many failures have ^passed— many are
still to come. Not until men clearly see-th© real and the
only security for their great developqment, will these fail¬
ures cease. If they will put their hands in the great hand
of God, He will lead them firmly in the way:' What is
just, what is right, what is good, let them do these and
they will fail no more'—What is wrong, what is unjust,
what is evil, let them dt> these, under -whatever pretext
of political necessity, and they cannot but suffer and fail
—renew the struggle^ and suffer and- fail again—it is
this great lesson which an open Bible arid free institu¬
tions are teaching the human race." Freedom must de-
generate into licentiousness, unless the supremacy of
right is maintained. We must Co-operate -in our spirit
and temper and aims with the:great moral ends *for which
the State was instituted, if we would reach the highest
point of national excellence and. prosperity. The ulti¬
mate purpose of God is that the; dominion of Jesus should
be universally acknowledged—and that nation only will
finally and permanently prosper, whose people have
caught the spirit and habitually obey the precepts of the
36
THOUGHTS SUITED TO
Gospel. Every weapon that is formed against Him
must be broken ; and the people that will not submit to
His authority must be crushed by His power. ■ Why do
the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing ?
The kings o£the eafth set themselves and the rulers take
counsel together against the Lord and against His'anoint-
ed, saying—let us break their bands asunder and cast
away their cords from us-. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh—the Lord shall have them in derision. Then
shall He sp^ak unto them'in His wrath and vex them in
His sore displeasure.* Yet have I set my king upon my
holy hill'of-Zion--I^will declare*the decree. The Lord
hath said unto' me—tbrou art my Son—-this day have I
begotten thee. Ask- of me and I -shall give the heathen
for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth
for thy possession. Thou shall? break them with a rod of
iron—thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's ves¬
sel. Be wise now therefore O ye. kings, be instructed
ye judges of the earth—serve the the Lord with fear and
rejoice with trembling—kiss the* Son lest He be angry
and ye perish from the way when His wrath is kindled
but a little.
If the accounts, which the" Scriptures.»give, of the exal¬
tation and universal ..dominion of Jesus,"are to be relied on, '
there can be no doubt but that Christianity lies at the foun¬
dation of national prosperity. People .and rulers, must be
imbued with the spirit and observe the institutions of the
Gospel. . We insist upon no national establishment of
religion—upon no human, encroachments on the rights
of conscience, but we do insist .upon the individual and
THE PRESENT CRISIS. 37
personal obligations of .every man, throughout the broad
extent of the country, to be a Christian, and the corres¬
ponding obligation to act as a Christian in all the depart¬
ments of life, whether public or private. As Christiani¬
ty is the presiding spirit of all modern civilization, it is
the only defence of nations against barbarism, rude¬
ness, anarchy and crime. Let Jesus be enthroned- in
every heart—and the nation Chat is made up of Christian
men will soon be a praise "and ar joy in every land/
But where the people and rulers 'know not the medi¬
atorial King, whom God basset upon the Holy hill of
Zion—where His Sabbaths are profaned, His temples
deserted, His grace despised—His favour must be with¬
drawn—the fountains of national virtue must dry up—
and that land must ultifnately be given, to wasting and
, desolation. The strongest security within which the in¬
stitutions of this country can be entrenched, is the pre¬
valence of the Christian religion. . The State is an ordi¬
nance of God as God'is in Christ reconciling the world
unto Himself; and to those who have! considered the
bearings of* the mediatorial government upon the pros¬
perity of'States,, there is riothihg surprising in the pre¬
sent darkness which overshadows the land.* It is the
rebuke of ungodliness and infidelity. From the highest
to the lowest gradations in Society—from the -chair of
State, the halls of legislation, the courts, of justice, the
popular assemblies of the land, the "cry of blasphemy,
profaneness and atheism, has gone to heaven. God's
Sabbaths are polluted for the purposes of gain—licenti¬
ous and unprincipled demagogues make it a business to
38
THOUGHTS SUITED TO
cheat the people with flatteries and adulations which are
alike dangerous and blasphemous—offices are sought by
open chicanery and corruption; and amid scenes of Re¬
velry and riot—more befitting the orgies of Bacchus
than the deliberations of a" free people, the greatest ques¬
tions of the nation are discussed. The debauchery of
the people, and the triumph of"demagogues, has always
been attended with the wofst form of slavery—that bon¬
dage'of the soul in whieh every .man is afraid to enter¬
tain an opinion of his own—in which the individual is
merged in the mass1; and* "when this result is reached,
the moral economy of the State being defeated, we can
look for-nothing but the righteeus judgments of God.—
The reign of licentiousness is the prelude of national
dissolution. The people that will not have Jesus to reign
over them,«must be slain before Him. He is exalted at
God's right hand, above all principality and power and
'dominion, and we must submit to hfs sceptre, or perish
from the way when his wrath is .kindled but a little.
III. But this 'event' may be finally considered as the
death simply of a man, and in tjfis asp'ect of the case, the
pulpit, it seems to me, would "but inadequately discharge
its duty, if it failed to inculcate the distinctive provisions
of the Gospel, as the, only means of securing a triumph
over this last enemy. There are many who admire the
morality and praise the spirit of Christianity, but who
are content to form no higher conception of its power
than that of a moral institute, distinguished'from the phi¬
losophical systems of men, by the larger compass of its
views, and the more commanding influence of its sanc~
THE PRESENT CRISIS.
39
tions. This is particularly the case with the educated
men of the country. It is painful to witness the fact that
so many of this class—to which it will be your distinc¬
tion to belong—while professing, from the superficial at¬
tention they have giveil to the subject, to believe that
there is something in the Gospel; yet either from a lurk-
$
ing skepticism, or the absorbing influence of other cares
and pursuits, are, for the most part, profoundly ignorant
of wThat constitutes, jts essence and its glory. They view
it from a distance—or detect nothing in it but an author¬
itative statement of the principles aiid tenets of natural
religion. But ask them the question—what a sinner
must do to be saved ? and the nakedness of their an¬
swers will evince too clearly that, the great problem of
redemption has never been earnestly considered. The
difficulty is that they.have never felt the malignity of sin.
They have never experienced the sentence of condem¬
nation in their own souls ; and the consequence is that,
however they may respect*the» voice of Jesus as a teach¬
er, they cannot be brought to submit to Him as a Saviour.
The characteristic distinction of the Gospel, is that it is
the religion of a sinnerv .It is a * grand ^dispensation of
Providence and grace to rescue man from the condem¬
nation and ruin, into which the whole race has been
plunged by rebellion against God.. The necessity of its
arrangements is laid in the very nature of moral distinc¬
tions—from which it results that sin cannot be pardoned
by an act of authoritative mercy. .Without the shedding
of blood there is no remission, and he alone can be pro¬
perly denominated a Christian, he alone is entitled to the
40
THOUGHTS SUITED TO
rewards and blessings of Christianity—who, from a deep
consciousness ,-of guilt and ruin, has fled for refuge to the
hope set before him in the Gospel. The calumniated
doctrines of grace are the life and soul of our religion.
Personal union with Jesus by tlfe indwelling of the Holy
Spirit is indispensable to a real participation in the ben¬
efits of redemption. Through faith in the Divine Re¬
deemer death the last enemy is conquered, subdued, de¬
stroyed. It becomes a glorious thing-to. die—it is, only a
birth into a new and 'everlasting state of blessedness and
glory. It is the prerogative of the faithful, and of them
alone, to depart from the world in triumph. There is
no case on record—it has never happened in the expe¬
rience of man—that death was welcomed—hailed with
rapture and delight—by any but those for whom its sting
had been extracted by the blood of the great Mediator.
Still we must guard against the* delusion that the condition,
of peace or consternation, in which a man expires, is any
certain indication of his«futmre state. The righteous,
through the temporary darkness of unbfelief, through ig¬
norance, or doubt of their acceptance in'the beloved, or as
a just visitation for past neglect, may be permitted to
pass from the world in apprehension and alarm; while
the impenitent and wicked, may be bolstered, in their
last-hours,.with the same fatal props which have deceived
them through life. The errors which Have shaped their
conduct may cling to them until the veil is withdrawn
and eternity hgs become,a matter of experience. It is
no uncommon thing, it is true, for conscience, in the final
struggle, to assert her supremacy1—especially in the case
THE-PRESENT CRISIS.
41
of those, whose unbelief and disobedience have "been a
conflict with reason and judgment. They are permitted,
yet further, to look into futurity, and to read something
of .the fearful scrQll which will.be produced against them
at the bar of God ; and they shrink back, with shudder
and dismay, from the awful catastrophe that awaits them.
Stung by remorse and enlightened by the Scriptures,
they, feel that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of
the living God. , Death is, indeed, a terrible ,object—the
very king of ^terrors—they writhe and agonize and strug¬
gle against his encroachments. Clinging to life with the
tenacity of despair, compelled and yet afraid to die—
they curse the day and the hour in-which, it was said
that a man child was born into the world.
" In that dread moment, how the frantic soul
Raves round the walls ofiher clay-tenement;
Runs to each avenue and shrieks for help,
*
But shrieks in vain! How wishfully she looks
On all-she's leaving, now no longer her's !
A little longer, yet a Uttle longer,
Oh ! might she stay to wash away her stains,
And fit her for her passage. Mournful sight!
Her very eyes weep blood; and every groan
She heaves is big with horrours. But the foe
Like 9- staunch murderer, steady to his purpose,
Pursues her close through every lane of life,
Nor misses once the track,, but presses on;
Till forced at last to thejremendous yerge,
At once she sinks to everlasting ruin."
Such is the end of an awakened sinner !
There are others who depart from life with as much
insensibility as they eat or drink or sleep. Such men are
6
42 THOUGHTS SUITED TO
preeminently sensual. They have never risen to any
just conceptions of themselves—of moral responsibility—
of final retribution—of an immortal being. They have
never felt that life was an earnest or serious reality-r-it
has been to them merely a routine of mechanical obser¬
vances, and as they have lived like beasts, they die like
dogs.
There are . others, of a nobler mould, who reconcile
themselves to dissolution by the considerations of a stoical
philosophy. Theyiook upon death as an appointment of
nature—an inevitable event, and they endeavour to pre¬
pare themselves to submit to it with dignity and grace,
since resistance is vain and escapeimpossible. They meet
it, therefore, with the fortitude and courage with which they
would encounter any other calamity. But still it is a ca¬
lamity—it is not a messenger to be greeted—not an object
of congratulation, of triumph™ and of joy. To this attain¬
ment paganism was competent before life and immortali¬
ty were brought to light in the Gospel. The philosophers
of the ancient world, by their dim and njisty speculations,
were nerved to die like heroes, though none could die
like conquerors. But to be content with submission
f ^
when victory is within our reach is heroism no longer.
To endure when we might spbdue is a low ambition.
How different is the death x)f a Christian! Iam now
ready to be offered, says the apostle, and the time of my
departure is at hand—I have fought a good fight—I have
finished my course-—I have kept- the faith. ffenceforth
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which
the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day,
THE PRESENT CRISIS. 43
and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his
appearing. We are conquerors and more than conquer¬
ors through him that loved us. Through death He has
destroyed him that had the power of death, that is the
devil, and delivered them whro through fear of death
were all their life-time subject to "bondage. It is the
glory of Christianity to erect its trophies upon the tomb.
Death and hell were alike led "in triumph at the chariot
wheels of Christ, and those" who are in'Him can sing the
song of exaltation and of victory amid the agonies of
their dissolving clay.
Let me beg you, my young friends, however you may
be tempted by the examples of the great, not to be con¬
tented with distant, partial, defective views of the econ¬
omy of God's grace. It is not the greatness of their in¬
tellects which keeps them at a distance from Christ—it
is not that they have discovered religion to be a cheat—
not that they have weighed its evidences in the balances
and found them wanting—-it is simply because they have
never examined -the subject. From the natural aliena¬
tion of the heart from God, the influence of early preju¬
dice, ' the distractions 6f business—the turmoil of ambi¬
tion—the absorbing power of their pursuits—they have
kept aloof from this inquiry—and though they have won
for themselves a name \yhich posterity will not willingly
let die—the very qualities of mind by which they have
been enabled to do so, would lead them, if properly di¬
rected, to-condemn their inattention to religion as an act
of folly, of distraction and of madness: Deceive not your¬
selves with vain hopes—Jesus is the only Saviour~-in
44 THOUGHTS SUITED TO
the day of final retribution there will be no respect of
persons. On that great day shall be seen " no badge of
State, no mark of age, or rank, or national attire—or robe
professional or air of trade." As in the grave whither we
are all hastening, < the-rich' and the poor are promiscu¬
ously mingled together, the distinctions of honour and of
wealth vanish away as colours disappear in the dark, so
in the last day none caft be found to claim the titles
which were only current upon earth. It will then be
only " a congregation vast of men—of unappendaged
and Unvarnished men—of all but moral character bereav¬
ed." The virtues or the crimes which appertain to each
are all that he can carry to the bar of the Judge. All
else will be left in the tomb—as the worthless badges of
mortal and not immortal men.
There is a distinction, however, that shall never fade
away—the distinction created among men by the pos¬
session of the Spirit and a personal union with Christ.
In the great day to which we have referred, "when God
shall arise to shake terribly the earth,. and" the destinies
of all the race shall be irrevocably fixed—our right to
life will depend entirely 'on the wifness of the 'Holy
Ghost. None can sustain -their title as sons, but those
whom He has sealed unto the day of redemption. To
appear without His signet on pur foreheads and His
impress upon our hearts is to awake to shame and
everlasting contempt. It wills not be a question whether
we have been great or mean, honoured or despised—
rich or poor—it will avail nothing that- Senates hung
in rapture on our lips and nations bowed obedient to
THE PRESENT CRISIS.
45
our nod—but it will be a question—the question—the
turning-point of destiny—whether we have the Spirit
of God's Son. If we have been among the misera¬
ble skepticks—who have not so much as heard whether
there be a Holy Ghost—if our Christianity has been
nothing more than a baptized paganism—if we have
despised evangelical religion under the name of fan¬
aticism—and laughed at pretensions to grace as the
effervescence of enthusiasm—if, from any cause, we have
failed to be born again and to become new creatures, in
Christ Jesus, however admiring multitudes may have
4^phinted our requiem and shook the very arches of hea¬
vens with their plaudits—unlimited duration will be the
period assigned us to lament our folly and bewail the
consequences of our terrible delusion. My young friends
be not deceived—an endless duration is your destiny—
JpLl its greatness—look above the earth—look to your
home in the skies—seek for glory, honour, immortality—
but seek them only in the Gospel of God's grace. Resolve
first to lay hold upon eternal life—and then you shall never
need any good thing on earth. What stronger proof
could you demand of the undying nature of the soul than
that which is furnished in the last moments of our de-^
parted Senator 1 What stronger proof that our real exis¬
tence begins only at the point of death 1 Prepare for that
existence—and your life here will be glorious—your
death triumphant—and your end everlasting peace.