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 LIBRARY OF PRINCETON 
 
 MAY 2 4 2005 
 
 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/christianityenduOOadam 
 

 CHRISTIANITY THE END AND UNITY OF ALL SCIENCES 
 AND PURSUITS. 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 ALUMNI OF YALE COLLEGE. 
 
 NEW HAVEN, SEPTEMBER 18; 1847. 
 
 BY 
 
 v 
 
 REV. WILLIAM ADAMS, D.D.. 
 
 PASTOR OF THE CENTRAL FRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NEW-YORK. 
 
 NEW- YORK : 
 LEAVITT, TROW & COMPANY. PRINTERS, 
 
 33 ANN-STREET. 
 
 1847. 
 
TO 
 
 MY HONORED FATHER, 
 
 Of the Class of 1795, 
 
 TO MY OWN CLASSMATES, 
 
 Of the year 1827, 
 
 AND 
 
 TO ALL THE ALUMNI OF YALE, 
 (ftljis EHscoursc, 
 
 PUBLISHED AT THEIR BEQUEST, 
 
 IS RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY 
 INSCRIBED, 
 
 IN RECORD OF PLEASANT MEMORIES, 
 BY THE 
 
 AUTHOR. 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 So the dream of life is passing away ! Ten, twenty, 
 forty, fifty years have gone since we left these tranquil 
 shades, and we meet to-day like ships on the sea, to 
 compare our reckoning and report our progress. 
 
 The day when we graduated at college, like every 
 other epoch in our lives, was the confluence of regrets 
 and gladness. The event had been long and eagerly 
 anticipated by us and our friends, yet when it was 
 reached, we were strangely reluctant to pass it. The 
 transition from the Georgicsto the iEneids of life — from 
 preparatory culture to earnest action — is never made with- 
 out some violence to the sensibilities. No chemistry 
 works so quick and sure as that which decides the affini- 
 ties of character within the walls of a college : and the 
 sudden disruption of youthful intimacies, which for years 
 had been cemented by common pursuits, the daily walk, 
 the holiday ramble, and all the reveries and projects of 
 future life, did not occur without a pang. 
 
Then the choice of a profession, the first sober re- 
 sponsibility of life ! When we were reading the first ode 
 of Horace, descriptive of the various pursuits and prefer- 
 ences of men, we little thought how difficult it would be, 
 at the proper moment, for us to decide, from among the 
 many honorable and useful avocations which awaited 
 our choice, the one direction and destiny of life. It was 
 easy enough, in general terms, with the Roman Bard, to 
 prefer the 
 
 " Doctarura hederee prsemia frontium " 
 
 above the more secular pursuits of agriculture, hunting, 
 and war ; but the exigencies of life demanded something 
 more specific of our education, than the composition of 
 Latin or English lyrics ; so were we pushed into the 
 world, tremulous or hopeful, some four or five score, every 
 year, of embryo lawyers, doctors, and clergymen. 
 
 'Tis well, after years of absence, to come back from 
 the dust and toil of life to the still and green haunts of 
 our youth. 'Tis well once more to find ourselves within 
 these classic halls, and beneath these o'erarching trees ; 
 for we have all of us an invisible and inalienable property 
 in every beam of the wall, and every bough of the grove, 
 where we left our earliest memories and imaginations. 
 'Tis grateful once more to greet, with filial reverence, 
 the familiar forms with which are associated our earliest 
 lessons of wisdom. Yet, amid all the pleasures and con- 
 gratulations of the scene, there steals over us an emo- 
 tion of sadness for which we find it difficult to account. 
 
Is it because of the memory of those who, standing with 
 us on the threshold of life, were early touched by death, 
 whose faces smile on us so mournfully from the past ? Is 
 it because the world has gone hardly with us since we 
 were young, and, in the words of the hymn we have just 
 sung, 
 
 " Tossed on life's rough sea," 
 
 we look back to the bright morning of life through a 
 medium of intervening afflictions, recalling the forms of 
 those who were the motive and the charm of life, but 
 who have dropped from our side into the grave ? It 
 cannot be owing to the reluctant conviction that we are 
 advancing in years, since a benign Revelation has taught 
 
 us far more than ancient philosophy ever attempted not 
 
 only how to grow old gracefully, but hopefully and joy- 
 fully. The feeling, I suppose, is, in good part, the 
 necessary accompaniment of earnest manhood. Most 
 admirable is the goodness of God in the elastic gayety 
 of the young ; for when care could do no good, the tender 
 body and mind are spared the burden. But with men 
 mature and earnest, devoted to pursuits which affect the 
 fortunes, the lives, and the souls of our fellows, a sense 
 of sober responsibility, deep almost to melancholy, is the 
 means and measure of our success. Wine and oil are 
 made by pressure ; and the active as well as passive vir- 
 tues of manhood are developed only by that weight of care 
 which we cannot throw off in a moment, and of which 
 we are surprised to find we do not wholly divest our- 
 selves, even when revisiting the scenes of youthful sport- 
 
8 
 
 iveness. Most of all, are we saddened by the thought 
 that so much of life has been consumed to so little pur- 
 pose ; that we have so poorly performed the promises of 
 youth, and accomplished so small a service for truth and 
 duty. With emotions thus mingled, startled by the lapse 
 of time, we gather ourselves on the spot where life be- 
 gan, and pause awhile to ask what we are, and what we 
 are doing. 
 
 It is the no small embarrassment of one who is called 
 to speak on an occasion like the present, that while the 
 scene is suggestive of so many topics, it fixes the mind 
 on no one. Remembering the story of Hannibal, and 
 Phormio, the orator of Antioch, I wish to choose a 
 subject which I understand.* But I am here not as a 
 preacher, with a Concio ad Clerum • not as a jurist, to 
 discuss before my own profession some principle in the 
 philosophy of law ; not as a physician, before a school 
 of medicine, to advocate this or that theory of life ; but 
 as one addressing the representatives of all professions 
 and all pursuits, on some topic belonging to the great 
 commonwealth of scholars. 
 
 And what is that which constitutes the law of rela- 
 tionship and sympathy between men of all occupations 
 and opinions ? Theologians, of different schools ; phy- 
 
 * Quid enim aut arrogantius aut loquacius fieri potuit, quam Han- 
 nibali, qui tot annos de imperio cum populo Romano omnium gentium 
 victore ccrtasset, Gracurn hominem, qui numquam hostem, numquam 
 cas*tra vidisset, numquam denique minimam partem ullius publici mune- 
 ris attigis.set. pnecepta de re militari dare? Hoc milii facere omnes 
 isti, qui de arte dicendi pra-cipiunt, videntur: quod enim ipsi experti 
 non sunt, id docent ceteroa. — Cicero de Oralore, lib. ii. 
 
sicians, of rival systems ; politicians, of antagonistic 
 parties; metaphysicians, of different philosophies; men 
 of books, devoted to theories; practical men, bringing 
 science into the service of agriculture, navigation, and 
 the mechanic arts — what is that which gives unity to 
 pursuits so various and complicated ? 
 
 Our first and superficial thought might be, that 
 there is no relationship at all between employments so 
 multiform ; that they are heterogeneous and antago- 
 nistic, like the different agents in a chemical laboratory, 
 with no possibility of reducing them to a simple basis, 
 where all would coalesce and combine as one homoge- 
 neous substance. 
 
 Are we ready to admit this ? Educated to trace all 
 truths and things to ultimate principles, are we disposed 
 to believe that human life is without any law of order, 
 any relationship of parts, any unity of design ? Is the 
 Science of Law an independent and unrelated pursuit, 
 jealous of all partnerships r Is the Healing Art a sepa- 
 rate profession, disconnected from a common object, like 
 an amputated limb from the body: Does Theology 
 belong only to men who dress in black, preach sermons 
 on Sundays, and who are sent for to do their ghostly 
 office over the dying and the dead : Is Natural J*hilo- 
 sophyhke an insulated jar? and Geology itself a boulder 
 on the world's surface ? and History a congeries of dis- 
 cordant events: and Astronomy a lone and lofty science, 
 with no attractions to a common system : and Ethnology, 
 the amusement of an antiquary's closet ? Poetry, is it a 
 
10 
 
 solo strain in life's performance ? and Art, a selfish and 
 solitary workman who has set up for himself? Such an 
 imagination occasions intellectual confusion and pain. 
 11 The intuition of unity," says Lord Bacon, in one of 
 those pregnant aphorisms which are characteristic of his 
 mind, " is the end of all philosophy." Mythology re- 
 presented the Muses and the Graces as grouped and 
 embracing ; and there is a principle in our natures 
 which is painfully disappointed, if it succeed not in 
 discovering that ultimate object which gives unity to all 
 sciences and pursuits. 
 
 It is very obvious that the divers occupations of men 
 are not, all of them, related directly and immediately ; 
 but mediately, like the branches of a tree, to each other, 
 through the parent stock. WHAT IS THE TRUNK 
 FROM WHICH ALL THE DISTRIBUTIONS OF 
 TRUTH PROCEED, AND IN WHICH ALL 
 UNITE ? There is no inquiry which belongs more 
 legitimately to every scholar than this. The different 
 professions and pursuits of men may be compared to the 
 maps of different continents, countries, states, counties, 
 cities, and towns, each more or less extended and mi- 
 nute ; a small space being projected, it may be, on a 
 large scale ; yet all of them having a place and relation 
 to each other on a map of the world, or the surface of a 
 revolving globe. A strange kind of geography is that 
 which conceives of the British Isle as a world by itself, 
 and North America as another and independent crea- 
 tion, without being capable of comprehending how all 
 
11 
 
 parts and places belong to one and the same ball. 
 There is a knowledge of particular sciences which is 
 perfect and minute, like the pocket map of a traveller, 
 directing a stranger through all the streets and 
 squares of a city ; so there is a knowledge of the mutual 
 relations of all departments of knowledge, resembling 
 the combination of all parts and places into one globe ; 
 the formation of what Bacon calls a mundus intellectu- 
 alis. Lexicographers define the word " system " to 
 mean an assemblage of truths, so related and adjusted 
 to one another as to create a series of mutual depend- 
 encies. Many attempts have been made to classify 
 and compact together all the various departments of 
 knowledge into one simple system, most of which have 
 been signal failures, because of the omission or mis- 
 placement of one all-comprehensive subject. 
 
 We cannot now refer to a more notable mistake of 
 this sort, than that which occurs in the celebrated trea- 
 tise of Lord Bacon himself, De Augmentis. Let not 
 the allusion to a particular error of this great man be 
 taken for our general estimate of his services in the 
 cause of science and humanity. Treating of the com- 
 munity and unity of sciences, he records the following 
 passage : 
 
 t: In philosophy, the contemplations of man do either penetrate unto 
 God. or are circumferred to nature, or are reflected or reverted upon 
 himself. Out of which several inquiries there do arise three know- 
 ledges : divine philosophy, natural philosophy, and human philosophy, 
 or humanity. For all things are marked and stamped with this triple 
 character of the power of God. the difference of nature, and the use of 
 
12 
 
 man. But because the distributions and partitions of knowledge are 
 not like several lines that meet in one angle, and so touch but in a point ; 
 but are like branches of a tree, that meet in a stem, which hath a di- 
 mension and quantity of entireness and continuance, before it come to 
 discontinue and break itself into arms and boughs; therefore it is good, 
 before we enter into the former distribution, to erect and constitute one 
 universal science by the name of Philosophia Prima, primitive or sum- 
 mary philosophy, as the main and common way, before we come where 
 the ways part and divide themselves."* 
 
 Here now, we exclaim, is the very thing which the 
 human mind desiderates — the generalization of all 
 knowledge into one universal science. But upon pro- 
 ceeding to ascertain the import of this felicitous passage, 
 we are at first egregiously disappointed, then surprised, 
 and last of all irrepressibly amused, to discover that the 
 great father of English philosophy intended nothing 
 more nor less by this grave nomenclature of Philosophia 
 Prima, than the many analogies which the reason de- 
 scries or the fancy invents, between the several sciences, 
 and which he promotes from the rank of mere similitudes 
 to the dignity of universal truths, — " the same footsteps 
 of Nature treading or printing upon several subjects or 
 matters." "An infectious disease," for example, "is 
 not so likely to be communicated when at its height, as 
 in its early progress; and the example of very abandon- 
 ed men injures public morality less than the example of 
 men in whom vice has not yet extinguished all good qual- 
 ities." Behold the connexion which subsists between 
 medicine and morals ! The pyramid rising from a broad 
 
 Vol. I., p. 193. 
 
13 
 
 base to a vertex, is one of the simplest forms of matter ; 
 so the organizations of society, says a great English 
 statesman, are designed to terminate in the apex of a 
 crown." Behold the nexus between geometry and gov- 
 ernment ! The life of man passes through infancy, man- 
 hood, and decrepitude. Therefore, said the politicians 
 on whom Edmund Burke was commenting, all states 
 are, and must be, subject to the same vicissitudes. f How 
 intimate the relations between physiology and politics ! 
 A quaint old preacher discoursing from the words, Thou 
 worm Jacob, among other portentous discoveries, de- 
 duces the doctrine of a limited atonement, it being true, 
 he says, that a worm always bores a hole of the exact 
 dimensions of his own body, neither more nor less. 
 Behold the identity between nature and Revelation ! 
 
 These are indeed " sermons from stones and trees," 
 but, we apprehend, good illustrations of what Lord 
 Bacon, by one of the most astonishing and incomprehen- 
 sible freaks and follies of the wise, intended by his 
 Philosophia Prima ; of which we have only to say, that 
 if it be well-founded and worthy of its name, the iiiit 
 and only principle in man which needs to be educated, 
 is his imagination ; the only true induction is the power 
 of detecting analogies between things which appear to 
 have nothing in common ; metaphors are the onl\ logic : 
 wit is the true philosophy ; the author of Hudibras, 
 beyond all account, better deserves the name of philoso- 
 
 * Sir William Temple. 
 
 t Letters on a Regicide Peace. 
 
14 
 
 pher than his immortal namesake, the Bishop of Dur- 
 ham ; and the only production of the nineteenth century 
 which can claim any thing like universal science, is the 
 prodigious punning of Mr. Thomas Hood. 
 
 Discarding the guidance of fancy, we revert to our 
 original inquiry — What is it which gives unity to all sci- 
 ences and pursuits ? 
 
 The necessities of our being and the wise appoint- 
 ments of Providence subjecting us to a great variety of 
 occupations, we expect to discern their unity in some 
 ultimate object which they were designed to promote. 
 But are we capable of discerning an ultimate purpose, 
 towards which all the arrangements of life are tending ? 
 " The inquiry is useless," say some. " It is presump- 
 tuous," say others. " It is positively hurtful," say 
 others ; " for it interferes with the free investigations of 
 nature." The ancient Epicurean discarded from his 
 philosophy, most consistently, the whole doctrine of final 
 causes ;* but a Christian scholar, we hold, cannot prose- 
 cute any science or any pursuit aright, unless he prose- 
 cute it to an ultimate use and end. The geologist, 
 carefully observing the phenomena of natural agencies, 
 finds that their action results in the formation of strata 
 
 * IHud in hiis rebus vitium vehementer inesse 
 Ecfugere crrorem , vitareque praemetuenter, 
 Luminane facias oculorum clara creata, 
 Prospiccre ut possimus ; 
 Omnia pervorsa pnopostera sunt ratione : 
 Nihil ideo quoniam natum est in corpore, ut uti 
 I'ofc'semus; scd quod natum est, id procreat usum. 
 
 Lucrel. de Iierum Nat. lib. iv. 
 
15 
 
 of rock and coal, and the deposition of soils. When 
 his theory is authenticated, is it not a pertinent question 
 for him to propose, — And for what was the earth made 
 at all ? The eye of Harvey was arrested by the beau- 
 tiful play of the valves of the veins ; and the inquiry 
 which spontaneously arose to his mind was, " What use 
 were they designed to subserve ?" The conviction that 
 now prevails among physiologists, that all the arrange- 
 ments of the animal frame were formed for some purpose, 
 is so strong, that it is a guide in all discoveries and 
 speculations. The anatomist, when dissecting the eye, 
 observing the combination of lenses and nerves which 
 compose the organ itself — the socket in which it moves 
 — the mucus which makes it easy — the ligature which 
 ties it in — the lid which screens it from harm — the limpid 
 tear which prevents the roughness of friction, cannot 
 doubt that it is an instrument designed to paint within 
 the images of objects without. He will demonstrate to 
 your satisfaction that the external configuration and 
 position, the internal spiral tubes, cells, and tympanum 
 of the ear, are all intended to form an organ for catching 
 the vibrations of sound, and transmitting them to the 
 mysterious lodger within. He will show you what a 
 variety of bones, muscles, tendons, hinges, and sockets, 
 enter into that most wonderful machine, the human 
 hand; and, in like manner, he investigates and discloses 
 the uses of all the various organs of the human body. 
 
 Now the intellectual philosopher begins to observe 
 the beautiful adaptations of the being within to the world 
 
16 
 
 without: the skilful, yet simple arrangement of instincts, 
 appetites, affections, which belong to the human mind. 
 At length we are brought to perceive the symmetry and 
 completeness of our physical and mental constitution, 
 and man stands before us the admirable and august 
 master-work of Infinite Skill. But has science now 
 reached its limit ? Has it arrived at the ultimate know- 
 ledge where it is compelled to stop ? It has discovered 
 the uses of bones, and nerves, and instincts, to form a 
 living man. Can we stop at this point, without asking, 
 FOR WHAT WAS MAN HIMSELF MADE ? If 
 there be a part of the human frame, like the vermiform 
 appendix, the use of which has hitherto eluded all in- 
 quiry, it is still taken for granted that some use it has, 
 and physiology will not cease from its observations until 
 that use be discovered ; and shall we, as students, pro- 
 pose no inquiry concerning the ultimate purpose of man 
 himself? The question, "What is the chief end of 
 man ?" does not belong to a church catechism any more 
 than to a system of physiology, politics, and every other 
 science and pursuit. It is neither presumptuous nor 
 useless to pursue this inquiry, for it involves the highest 
 of all sciences ; it is the last link in the chain of scien- 
 ces, or the staple from which they all hang in mutual 
 dependence. This is the true philosophia prima — the 
 primitive and summary knowledge, in which all the 
 partitions and distributions of truth unite ; and notwith- 
 standing the theory of Descartes, that the ends of such 
 a being as God, in creating man, must be so high and 
 
17 
 
 inscrutable, that it is presumptuous in us to attempt the 
 solution, reason and revelation unite to teach that some 
 knowledge of God's designs is essential to the formation 
 
 of our own. 
 
 Chemistry discerns the affinity between diamond and 
 charcoal, by reducing each to their simple elements ; 
 and if we would discover the great object of man's ex- 
 istence, we must first, by a process of analysis, inquire 
 for the simplest rudiment of his nature. We observe 
 his animal wants, and the whole world busy in supplying 
 them. The herds, flocks, and insects, in all climes of 
 the earth, from Thibet to Brazil, furnish skins, fleeces 
 and fibres for the materials of his clothing ; the water- 
 courses, and steam, that most prodigious of all genii, are 
 busy in spinning the pliant fabric ; the finger of God puts 
 all the processes of nature in motion, evoking heat and 
 moisture to ripen his food; the waters of the sea are 
 ploughed by the keels which transport products for his 
 subsistence; cabinets and congresses consult and legis- 
 late for the interchange of those commodities which 
 feed and clothe the species: but can we believe, after 
 all, that man was designed to be nothing more than a 
 clothes-horse, or a machine for grinding food " 
 
 What is a man 
 If his chief good, ami market of his time 
 Be but to sleep and feed i ;i beasl no inure.' 
 
 We pass beyond all the animal instincts and appe- 
 tites, assured that these must be means subservient to 
 
 * Hamlet, Act IV.. Scene V. 
 2 
 
18 
 
 an end. Natural affections has man, such as are neces- 
 sary to social organizations ; and political science comes 
 in, at this point, with all its claims, laws, and relations. 
 But we stop not yet; for obvious enough it is, that all 
 social and political associations are means designed for 
 man, and not an end for which man is designed. 
 The higher properties of the human intellect, the play 
 of fancy, memory, reason, next come into view; but in 
 neither do we find the ultimate purpose of man ; for the 
 question is not impertinent, Why does man learn, reason, 
 remember? Exalted as is the reason of man, it is 
 itself subordinate to a simpler principle — the moral 
 affections. No analysis can detect in man any thing 
 simpler or higher than these. The pleasure which flows 
 from what is right, and good, and true, is an end unto 
 itself. The joy of goodness is the ultimate purpose of 
 life ; ultimate, we say, for this brings us to God, the 
 source and end of all things. The circle is the most 
 perfect of all forms ; and that which begins with God, 
 to God must return. The highest happiness of man, as 
 found in a moral resemblance to God, is the chief, ulti- 
 mate end of mail's being ; for the communication of such 
 a bliss is the glory of our Maker. " The emanation of 
 his own infinite fullness," says President Edwards, " was 
 the ultimate end of God in creation." 
 
 Admit that we could not reach this final cause of 
 our being, uninstructed by Revelation. We stand not on 
 the same ground with Epicurus, and his poetical com- 
 mentator, Lucretius; and why should we be jealous of 
 
19 
 
 the light of Revelation, and refuse the guide which God 
 has sent from the skies ? Why should we seek to cir- 
 cumnavigate the globe of truth, as Satan, according to 
 Milton's fine conception, sailed round the earth, contriv- 
 ing always to keep in darkness, 
 
 ' ; cautious of day ?" 
 
 Religion is a science ; Christianity is an historical 
 fact in this world of ours ; and a Christian scholar, in 
 this portion of time, cannot divest himself of the teach- 
 ings of Revelation, any more than the oak of centuries 
 can rid itself of any of its successive layers. The sci- 
 ence which contents itself with observing the external 
 phenomena of nature, is a superficial thing at the best. 
 To educate a man without any reference to those moral 
 dispositions which are the ultimate purpose of his crea- 
 tion, is like leading him around a magnificent temple, 
 teaching him to measure the area it covers, to tell the 
 chemistry of its materials, discover the natural history of 
 its stones, learn the names, and times, and succession 
 of its architects, admire the grandeur of its facade, the 
 proportion and Phidian skill of its pillars ; but never 
 once to inform him of the high uses to which it is conse- 
 crated, never to introduce him within its walls, to breathe 
 the sweet odors of incense, bend in worship at its altars, 
 behold the Shechinah of its sanctuary, or join in the 
 hallelujahs which resound through its glorious arches. 
 
 'Joy, fullness of joy,' says Mr. Taylor, ' must be the 
 end of that creation which has "-oodness for its author. 
 
20 
 
 We learn to look upon pleasure with suspicion, or frown 
 upon it as an enemy, only because the world (and our 
 hearts with it) has gone astray from the road of genu- 
 ine felicity. Yet may we read beneath this very per- 
 version, the native tendency, or original purpose of our 
 conformation. It is not as if man was not made for 
 pleasure, but he was made for another sort than he now 
 actually chooses. The guilty or frivolous pleasures of 
 mankind are only an ill sense put upon the language of 
 nature. Let the joy we seek be of celestial quality, 
 and we have discovered the true and ultimate purpose 
 of existence ;'* and the promotion of the highest happiness 
 of man is the grand object which alone gives unity and 
 end to all the various avocations of men. 
 
 The mundus intellectiialis, then, which we would 
 frame for ourselves, may be represented (to use a dia- 
 gram) by a series of concentric circles, forming one solid 
 sphere. The outer periphery represents the providential 
 government of God. A world there must be, as the 
 theatre of action, before that action begins. Men must 
 exist before they act : and the world must, have its laws, 
 and man a nature of his own. But the natural was de- 
 signed to be auxiliary to the moral ; and this forms the 
 second or inner circle. But the moral has a specific 
 form of administration, which is the mediatorial ; and 
 this is the innermost circle of all, with the CROSS OF 
 CHRIST for the common centre of the whole. The 
 natural for the moral ; the moral for the mediatorial. 
 
 * Saturday Evening. 
 
21 
 
 Christian it) is no episode in the long drama of human 
 life ; but programme, progress, catastrophe. Pregnant 
 words are those of the " philosophic apostle " to the 
 Gentiles, "all i/tings were made by Christ, and for 
 Christ." And when he determined to know nothing 
 but Christ crucified, be assured he meant something 
 more than faith in a bare religious dogma ; it was the dis- 
 covery of an acute and comprehensive mind, "strength- 
 ened with might by the Spirit," to discern how all 
 knowledge was included and related to 
 
 '• the great eternal scheme, 
 
 Involving all." 
 
 The « Cross of Christ ' is not a bare theological thesis 
 for the lecture-room and the pulpit ; not a mere histori- 
 cal incident to touch the sensibilities of genius, to be 
 rehearsed by the tragic muse, and painted by the brush 
 of Guido and Rubens. It is the one fact which is cen- 
 tral to all other facts ; the one knowledge which is ulti- 
 mate to all other departments of knowledge. We 
 announce it here not merely as the Sabbath-day religion 
 of the pulpit ; but as a great intellectual truth before an 
 university of scholars, that the true philosophia prima is 
 the knowledge of Christ ; that the only object which 
 gives relationship, harmony, unity, connection, toall this 
 world's affairs, is the grand purpose of God to diffuse a 
 stable and substantial happiness over the world, through 
 the all-pervading beneficence of Christianity, as the cen- 
 tral power ; and consequently, that our true interest and 
 
22 
 
 duty, in all the variety of our pursuits, is to devote our- 
 selves to the service of our race, in seeking to make the 
 world better. 
 
 It was a beautiful conception of ancient mythology, 
 which represented the Muse of History as the daughter 
 of Jove ; and it is the sober conviction of a better wis- 
 dom, that all the history of this world is but the gradual 
 development of Christianity, from a germ to its present 
 power and promise, under the control of that Supreme 
 Presiding Spirit, with whom a thousand years are but as 
 one day, and one day as a thousand years. It does vio- 
 lence to reason to believe, that all the events of time have 
 been discordant and incoherent, as the leaves which the 
 Sybil scattered to the winds. The most philosophical 
 conception of history that was ever formed, is that par- 
 tially executed in the History of Redemption by Presi- 
 dent Edwards ; who, starting at the point where the 
 traditions of pagan mythology and the veritable history 
 of Revelation agree, the original innocence of man, in a 
 golden day when heaven and earth were blended, pro- 
 ceeds to develope, first in the form of a promise, then in 
 type, then in fact, the one great plan of God to redeem 
 a ruined race, and restore them to a more than pristine 
 blessedness. We hold to this one plan and purpose of 
 history, even when we confess ourselves altogether inca- 
 pable of discerning the import and relevancy of particu- 
 lar events ; nor should our limited understandings be 
 ambitious of any such omniscience. All parts of the 
 world are related to one another ; but we should not 
 
23 
 
 expect to find Cock-lane in London, or Bjram river on 
 a six-inch globe ; and there is a general knowledge we 
 may obtain of the great design of God's providence, 
 which is entirely independent of the interpretation of 
 each and every subordinate part. Rivers have their 
 eddies and back-water, but the direction of the main cur- 
 rent is obvious and intelligible. The surface of the sea, 
 when the tide is rising, is broken up into a succession of 
 waves, and these are in constant motion, advancing and 
 receding. One glance of the eye might cause us to 
 doubt any advance ; but look for an hour, and you will 
 see, in all this flux and reflux, that the whole body of 
 the ocean is in progress, covering up the flats, sea-grass, 
 and rocks, which were before open to the sun. There 
 is unity in history. There is progress in history. Innu- 
 merable are those conjunctions of things and times, 
 which show the presidency of One Mind, in reference to 
 one purpose ; and however labyrinthine this scene of 
 life may appear to groping and eyeless infidelity, the one 
 conviction which is continually strengthening in the 
 mind of every student who holds that clue which faith 
 has put into his hand, is, that Christianity is not a by- 
 play in the world, but the one purpose on which time 
 waits, to which Providence ministers, and all things 
 promote. 
 
 Should it be objected to this view of things, that the 
 practical power and extension of Christianity have been, 
 by no means, so great and rapid as this doctrine would 
 lead us to expect, we would reply, that we are speaking 
 
of ultimate purposes, and not of actual results ; that the 
 author of Christianity has not chosen to apply its bene- 
 fits by instantaneous omnipotence, but placed it, like 
 leaven, in the world, to work its own way, leaving men 
 to arrive at the most important convictions, by the pro- 
 cesses of their own observations and experience. The 
 God of nature does not inform the world, by an imme- 
 diate and universal revelation, of all those arts, inven- 
 tions, and remedies, which subserve the health, know- 
 ledge, and comfort of man. These are to be discovered 
 by careful observation ; and, when discovered, diffused 
 abroad by human agencies. Experience is one of the 
 teachers employed by Providence in this great school 
 of man's education ; and though Christianity, with its 
 benign tendencies and blessings, be the ultimate purpose 
 of the world, yet men are to learn the value of it, not 
 by voices from the sky, not by compulsory processes 
 which render mistakes impossible ; but, in good part, by 
 the slow results of time and events, discovering the 
 futility of all other expedients. So that the long delays 
 and hinderances of Christianity have not been time and 
 strength entirely lost, but preparations for better results, 
 as the frosts of winter prepare the ground for future 
 harvests. Mistakes and disappointments are not the 
 same thing in morals as recession ; for the clouds which 
 the mariner mistakes for land, still lead him on where 
 land is sure to be found ; and digging for fabled trea- 
 sures of gold, stirs the roots of the vines and trees, and 
 secures a larger measure of fruit. 
 
25 
 
 If the Christian System be the one great end and 
 object of all things, it is easy to see that in this system 
 there is a place for every science, every art, and every 
 pursuit. The natural and providential, though not the 
 ultimate end, are nevertheless auxiliary to that end, and 
 necessary to it, and so are invested with high importance 
 and dignity. All which relates to the phenomena of 
 nature ; the physical constitution of man ; the adapta- 
 tion of external things to his nature ; whatever promotes 
 his health, comfort, and general good ; all which sub- 
 serves his elevation, convenience and happiness, as a 
 part of a social system ; the beautiful sisterhood of the 
 arts ; the whole science of government ; the advance- 
 ment of knowledge, and whatever else is related to the 
 civilization and progress of the world — all stand imme- 
 diately and indissolubly connected, both as means and 
 results, with that great purpose which Christianity pro- 
 poses as the end and object of all things. These are 
 objects worthy of our study, worthy of pursuit, import- 
 ant and dignified, because, in the constitution of things, 
 they are essential to the framework of that system in 
 which Christianity is to display her highest results ; 
 while Christianity, the great central power of life, inva- 
 riably acts most directly and auspiciously, on the physi- 
 cal, political, and intellectual nature of man. 
 
 There is a distinction generally made between what 
 is religious, and what is secular. This is well enough 
 in common parlance, for purposes of convenience, as we 
 divide and subdivide the ocean into seas, bays, and 
 
26 
 
 inlets. But in more exact speech, no such distinction 
 exists. The ocean is one and the same ; and all things 
 in this world are religious. There is religion in com- 
 merce, in steam-boats, and steam-presses, since they 
 help the progress of Christianity. There is religion in 
 politics, in constitutions, declarations of independence, 
 and charters, since these affect the freedom of religion. 
 On the other hand, there are politics in theology ; whole 
 systems of government, jurisprudence, commerce, art, 
 and enterprise, included in justification by faith ; the sim- 
 ple fact being, that all parts are mutually attracted to 
 each other in a common system. Truth belongs to a 
 system ; it is not a detached and isolated thing at all. 
 The most inert forms of matter even have their mutual 
 attractions and repulsion. Science has demonstrated 
 this perfect dependence of parts, to that degree, that 
 your foot cannot press a spiculum of snow, without im- 
 parting a shock to its neighbor, and this to others still, 
 till extended acres and continents have felt the concus- 
 sion ; and religion instructs us, that you cannot elevate 
 the character of man in the most essential part of his 
 being, without thereby improving every other part of his 
 nature. Throw a crystal into many chemical substances 
 when in a state of solution, and the whole mass will 
 conform to the model. Christianity is a law of love, 
 and when deposited in the heart of society, all the laws 
 and institutions of society gradually and necessarily con- 
 form to it. The science and practice of law, what a dif- 
 ferent thing it is in the presence of Christianity, and 
 
27 
 
 in the presence of Paganism ! In the one, a benign 
 power looking at the general good ; in the other, a cor- 
 rupt power founded in the supremacy of self. The 
 transcript of the codes of heathen nations, by Sir William 
 Jones, shows conclusively, that these laws have no ref- 
 erence to the general good of society ; the law of love 
 not being found in any heathen code, from Confucius to 
 the present time. The same is true of the healing art, 
 in the presence or the absence of Christianity. What 
 is the art of medicine in India, but a feat of jugglery to 
 awe ignorant credulity ? It is Christianity, which, con- 
 ferring such mysterious importance on man, sets a before 
 unknown value on the life and health of the body ; and 
 all the asylums and hospitals, and beneficence of medi- 
 cine, are the offspring of the Christian religion. 
 
 Three hundred years ago, upon the beautiful banks 
 of Lake Leman, there lived a man, whose pale and 
 emaciated face betrayed a life purely intellectual, who 
 is known in history as the Theologian of the Protestant 
 Reformation. ' Let him be. Shut him up in his Al- 
 pine home. What has the world to do with him ? If 
 not a monk by name, what is he better in fact, delving 
 there in his old Hebrew and Greek books, proclaiming 
 his theological theses, and insisting on theological dis- 
 tinctions, fit only for the schoolmen ?' The world no- 
 thing to do with him ! Yes, let him be. Let him 
 study. Let him work. That translucent Lake, on 
 which he lives, is not stagnant ; but through the midst 
 of it runs the " arrowy Rhone," bearing fertility to the 
 
28 
 
 vineyards of the South. That theology is no inert and 
 recluse thing ; and the life of that Genevan Reformer, 
 judge him as you may, is destined to exert a powei 
 above that of any other man upon the intellect, liberty, 
 and progress of the world. Thither repair for shelter 
 the Marian exiles of England, and there they find those 
 great religious principles, which they bring back to plant 
 deep in their native soil ; and of which even Hume 
 was compelled, in spite of his teeth, to grumble 
 out his admiration ZiS the great parent of English 
 liberty. " What poem has it written" — that doctrine 
 of justification by faith ? Undoubtedly the best epic 
 the world ever saw ; the greatest thing England ever 
 did. English Puritanism was there. The revolution 
 of 1683 was there. The Mayflower was there. Amer- 
 ican independence was there. Thither resorts, also, 
 John Knox, that peerless son of Scotland ; and through 
 him life appears in the North. " Scotch literature and 
 thought, Scotch industry, James Watt, David Hume, 
 Walter Scott, Robert Burns, I find," says Mr. Carlyle, 
 " Knox and the Reformation acting in the heart's core 
 of every one of these persons and phenomena." All 
 forms of thought, enterprise, life, progress, were enfold- 
 ed, as mighty forests in a single germ, in that living 
 truth of justification by faith, which John Calvin an- 
 nounced and resuscitated ; and he who suffers himself 
 to talk of this as a dead dogma, and of the theologian 
 as a ' living dead man,' shows that he knows nothing of 
 the origin, history and progress of modern civilization. 
 
29 
 
 Said we not truly, that politics, whole systems of human 
 governments, liberty, and all else which ennobles and 
 blesses man as the creature of time, are embodied in 
 the central truth of Christianity ? Indeed, we should 
 like to dwell on this topic, and show how large a part 
 of the world, at this very hour, are unconsciously 
 indebted to the silent power of that doctrine many 
 affect to despise, for all the intellectual life and freedom 
 which they possess.* 
 
 * It is in season to rebuke the intolerance which would limit the 
 praise of Calvin to a single sect. They who have no admiration but 
 for wealth and rank, can never admire the Genevan Reformer ; for. 
 though he possessed the richest mind of his age, he never emerged 
 from the limits of frugal poverty. The rest of us may be allowed to 
 reverence his virtues, and regret his errors. More truly benevolent to 
 the human race than Solon, more self-denying than Lycurgus. the 
 genius of Calvin infused enduring elements into the institutions of 
 Geneva, and made it, for the modern world, the impregnable fortress 
 of popular liberty, the fertile seed-plot of democracy. 
 
 Again, we boast of our common schools ; Calvin A\ r as the father of 
 popular education, the inventor of the system of free schools. 
 
 Again, we are proud of the free States that fringe the Atlantic. 
 The Pilgrims of Plymouth were Calvinists; the best influence in South 
 Carolina came from the Calvinists in France. William Penn was the 
 disciple of the Huguenots 3 the ships from Holland, that first brought 
 colonists to Manhattan, were filled with Calvinists. II thai will not 
 honor the memory, and respect the influence of Calvin, knows but little 
 of the origin of American liberty. 
 
 Or do personal considerations chiefly win applause ? Then no one 
 merits our sympathy and our admiration more than Calvin. The 
 young exile from France, who achieved an immortality of fame before 
 lie was twenty-eight years of age, now boldly reasoning with the King 
 of France for religious liberty; now venturing, as the apostle of truth. 
 to cany the new doctrines into the heart of Italy: ami now hardly 
 escaping from the fury of papal persecution : the purest writer, the 
 keenest dialectician of his age; pushing free incpairyonly as the means 
 of arriving at fixed principles. The light of his genius scattered the 
 mask of darkness, which superstition had held, for centuries, before the 
 
30 
 
 While Christianity exerts so powerful an influence 
 on the secular affairs of man, it does, by no means, 
 refuse to acknowledge its own relations to secular 
 occupations, inventions and discoveries. In the city of 
 Strasburg, on the eastern frontier of France, there stands, 
 in the principal square, a large bronze statue of Gutten- 
 berg, the inventor of the art of printing with movable 
 types. It is a full length figure of that fortunate indi- 
 vidual, with a printing press at his side, and an open 
 scroll in his hand, with this inscription : And there was 
 light. Upon the several sides of the high pedestal on 
 which the effigy stands, are four tableaux in bas relief, 
 designed to represent the effect of the art of printing on 
 the general progress of the world. In one, stand the 
 names of the most distinguished scholars, philosophers, 
 and poets of all times ; in another, the names of those 
 who have been most eminent for their achievements in 
 the cause of human freedom ; conspicuous among which, 
 
 brow of religion. His probity was unquestioned, his morals spotless. 
 His only happiness consisted in " the task of glory and of good ;" for 
 sorrow found its way into all his private relations. He was an exile 
 from his place of birth. As a husband, he was doomed to mourn the 
 premature loss of his wife ; as a father, he felt the bitter pangs of bury- 
 ing his only child. Alone in the world, alone in a strange land, he 
 went forward in his career with serene resignation and inflexible firm- 
 ness; no love of ease turned him aside from his vigils ; no fear of dan- 
 ger relaxed the nerve of his eloquence ; no bodily infirmities checked 
 the incredible activity of his mind ; and so he continued, year after 
 year, solitary and feeble, yet toiling for humanity ; till after a life of 
 glory, he bequeathed to his personal heirs a fortune, in books and fur- 
 niture, stocks and money, not exceeding two hundred dollars, and to 
 the world, a pure reformation, a republican spirit in religion, with the 
 kindred principles of republican liberty. — George Bancroft. 
 
31 
 
 is an allusion to our Declaration of Independence, with 
 the names of Washington, Franklin, Hancock, and 
 Adams. On the third side, is a representation of 
 Philanthropy knocking- off tin; fetters of the slave, and 
 instructing the tawny children of oppression in useful 
 knowledge ; and on the fourth, is Christianity, sur- 
 rounded by the representatives of all nations, and tribes, 
 and people, receiving from her hand, in their own 
 tongue, the word of Eternal Truth. Christianity ! 
 Heaven-born Christianity ! Divine philosophy ! look 
 down with indifference or disdain on that bearded man, 
 at work with tools in his smutty shop, away on the 
 Rhine ! Affect to overlook and undervalue him as a 
 mechanic ? A mechanic ! why, out of those bars of 
 wood, and pounds of metal, and ounces of ink, he is 
 constructing a machine to make the nations think. The 
 inventive thought and manual skill of that workman of 
 tools, convert him into a greater preacher than was 
 Paul, or Ambrose, or Chrysostom. He is constructing 
 wings for Christianity herself, which shall bear her with 
 the music of her silver trumpet to all the abodes of men. 
 The secular is transmuted into the religious ; for the 
 press gives power and progress to religion, and Chris- 
 tianity rewards with grateful smiles all art which aids 
 her advancement. 
 
 Near the city of Genoa, there stands a cottage 
 which claims the distinction of being the birthplace of 
 Christopher Columbus, over the door of which is this 
 inscription : — 
 
 Unus erat Mundus : duo sint. ait iste : fuere. 
 
32 
 
 " There was one world; there maybe two, said he; 
 there were." That one thought of the Genoese sailor 
 does not stand by itself, a matter of mere secular geog- 
 raphy, or maritime adventure, or commercial enterprise. 
 If Christianity herself did not inspire the thought (for 
 evidence is not wanting, that religious enthusiasm had 
 much to do with the discovery of a new field for reli- 
 gious propagation*), the Author of Christianity, the 
 God of History, reveals, in his august providence, the 
 presidency of one mind, the progress of one plan, in the 
 wonderful conjunction of the adventurer's voyage, and 
 all the past and prospective history of the Christian 
 Church. What would have been the condition of the 
 world, had this continent been discovered and possessed 
 centuries before it was ? Had Grecian argosies passed 
 the Pillars of Hercules, and planted on this Western 
 Hemisphere the irradicable seeds of Pagan mythology ? 
 Or had Saracen enterprise, at the time when Saracens 
 were the only men alive, spread the masculine supersti- 
 tion of Asia, with the mosque and the crescent, on all 
 our shores and hills ; or had Norman chivalry, reaching 
 already the snows of Muscovy, and the sunny waters of 
 Antioch, hung its castles on all our cliffs, and spread its 
 semi-barbarism over this vast continent ? So it was not 
 to be. The mystery of the ocean stretched itself out, 
 as a barrier to progress ; these rivers ran silently to the 
 
 * The manuscripts of Columbus, preserved with religious care in 
 the museums of Europe, bear tins signature: 
 
 Xto FERENS, S. A. S., i. e. Servus Altissimi Salvatoris 
 
33 
 
 sea ; these spacious harbors waited in solitude, for a 
 future commerce ; these prairies and savannas stretched 
 in silent and solitary beauty, under the eye of God, 
 reserved for a coming population. Meanwhile, the wars 
 of opinion were surging and raging in the Old World ; 
 great principles had been smelted out by the fires and 
 furnaces of affliction ; History had reached its right 
 revolution ; the time at length had come ; the world 
 was ready ; the men were prepared ; when the veil of 
 the sea was lifted up, a second ark was seen floating 
 on the astonished waters ; and Cbristianity, pent up, 
 imprisoned, fainting, persecuted, found a strange path 
 prepared for herself through the sea, in which to flee, 
 with the stars in her hand, to plant her institutions on a 
 virgin soil, unfold a new page of history, and develope an 
 unknown power for the reformation of all that was 
 superannuated and effete in remote and ancient conti- 
 nents. 
 
 So it is that all things act and re-act, the religious 
 on the secular, and the secular on the religious ; and we 
 come to see that those things which pass under different 
 names are, in fact, but related parts of one system. 
 While Christianity reveals her own presence and power 
 by all the arts, enterprise, and freedom, by all the vari- 
 ous sciences and pursuits which spring up in her path, 
 like verdure after the rain, all the politics, commerce, 
 jurisprudence, and enterprise of the world, are designed 
 to aid the promotion, development, and triumph of Chris- 
 tianity. By this relation, every study, every pursuit, 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 every thing, if it be a true thing — if it be not true it is 
 " no — thing " at all — becomes invested with a myste- 
 rious importance. No man can tell the effects which 
 will follow the smallest fact which Science discovers, or 
 Art performs. Natural philosophy and theology might 
 seem to have nothing in common, to be of all things 
 remote. But the one in her appropriate work, discovers 
 a power by which a little piece of steel is made to 
 vibrate on the face of a dial — all which you might 
 imagine was a toy for a child. A little thing to be sure, 
 which Science has picked up by the way ; but it is no 
 small thing at all. It is a great religious power ; it 
 circumnavigates the great globe ; discovers new conti- 
 nents ; reestablishes Christianity ; advances the Church ; 
 brightens all the prospects of the world. Sit and think, 
 thou student of nature ! The world counts thy think- 
 ing, dreamy idleness, as thou dost watch at the fire-side 
 the bubbling steam, and wonder what processes and 
 powers are at work in that stupendous engine — a tea- 
 kettle. At last thou hast hit it. Once out, you will 
 never get the mighty genii under the cover of that small 
 prison again. You have subsidized a power which, by 
 the stroke of a piston, will diffuse knowledge, civiliza- 
 tion, freedom, Christianity, along the Bosphorus, the 
 Tigris, and the Caspian, where walked the fathers of 
 our race. Heed not the laugh of the world which dis- 
 dains thy toil, yon chemist, in thy smoky cell ! The 
 sudden flash and quick report, which startled the silence 
 of your work over that sulphurous grain, proclaimed the 
 
35 
 
 birth of a power, sadly to be perverted it may be, yet 
 accessary still, by which civilized society is to be 
 guarded from all incursions of barbarism, and the rela- 
 tions of power are to be so modified and restrained that 
 the great civilizer of the world shall have its way. Toil 
 away at thy humble handicraft, child of labor! thou art 
 planning only for thy daily bread when fumbling over 
 those rags, ropes, and rushes ; but thy craft is the hand- 
 maid of all wisdom. Let them burn their Alexandrian 
 libraries ; the repositories of knowledge shall never be 
 consumed again ; for paper, " the veriest rag which man 
 uses," perpetuates and propagates in the world the 
 teachings of the Son of God, the splendors of immortal 
 truth. Stretch out thy giant arms, and strike deep thy 
 " gnarled and unwedgeable " roots, oak of the forest ! 
 Something more than dull and dead matter, a religious 
 power art thou ; for skill shall hew thee into timber, 
 and thou shalt float on the waters ; Commerce shall 
 spread her sails over thee, augment her speed, and, 
 mindful or unmindful of her high destiny, she is open- 
 ing a path along which Christianity will go, on her 
 glorious mission. Roll on, thou deep and mysterious 
 sea ! something more art thou than so much water, salt, 
 and enemies — more than a home for all fishes and mon- 
 sters ; thou art God's own agent, employed to separate 
 the nations when Christianity was not yet ready for the 
 world, but now a highway of emerald and sapphire for 
 His beneficent footsteps. Remote as the law of relation 
 may seem, the true import of all art, science and action, 
 
36 
 
 is to advance the cause of Christ. Put a ball in motion 
 any where in these concentric circles, it rests not till it 
 finds the common centre. The ultimate design and use 
 of all pursuits is to aid and honor Christianity ; while 
 Christianity imparts its own energy and life in aid of all 
 that which subserves the good of man. 
 
 It is obvious from this relation of things with refer 
 ence to one system, that there can be no such thing as 
 conflict and contradiction between true Science and 
 Christianity. Two truths never can cross each other, 
 like right lines. Truth is never angular, but always 
 concentric and harmonious. The first pretensions of 
 physical Science sometimes appear to conflict with 
 Christianity, but her sober results always harmonize 
 with it, as frightful comets, when first appearing in the 
 sky, create consternation by their lurid flames, but, 
 instead of burning the world, they wheel at the right 
 instant in their orbit, obedient to the laws of a common 
 system. Science, summoned by infidelity, threatens to 
 destroy the Christian system ; but time goes on, and 
 she assumes her proper place, taking and giving glory 
 in the light of the central sun. Geology puts her crow- 
 bar beneath the rocky foundations of the earth, and 
 timid men fear lest Christianity will topple and be 
 buried in ruins ; the science advances, and Christianity 
 receives from it the confirmation of her ample testimony. 
 The lamp still hangs by a rope, in the Cathedral of Pisa, 
 the regular pendulations of which, one day, set in 
 motion the mind of Galileo, concerning the law of 
 
37 
 
 mechanics. " The world is in motion," cries out 
 the delighted philosopher. " Imprison the heretic," 
 was the decree of the Vatican. But the world kept 
 rolling round, popes and cardinals with it. The demon- 
 strations of Newton succeeded ; and the laws of science, 
 and the faith of Christianity are seen at length, in beau- 
 tiful conjunction and harmony. The palace of all the 
 Muses was on Mount Olympus ; and the Mount of God, 
 where piety pitches her tabernacle, for the soul's trans- 
 figuration, is the central point from which to observe, 
 not merely one radius or segment of truth, but, with 
 serene satisfaction, to admire the relations and harmo- 
 nies of all truths and things. The relations between 
 saintship and scholarship are far more numerous than 
 strike the common mind. Wisdom is greater than 
 knowledge, it is the end and object of all knowledge. 
 Truth then may never be feared, come whence, or 
 where, or how it may ; from the laboratory of the 
 chemist, the observatory of the astronomer, the re- 
 search of the historian, from physiology or psychology, 
 we will not despise it, we will not forswear it, we will 
 not fear it ; for all truth is related, consistent, and har- 
 monious. 
 
 In some parts of continental Europe, particularly 
 in France, men of science and progress on the one 
 hand, and churchmen on the other, arc in open antago- 
 nism ; a fact not to be employed to disprove Christianity, 
 as if opposed to Science, but simply in evidence that 
 Christianity, in its native simplicity and truthfulness, is 
 
38 
 
 not there. Most fortunately, in our own land the 
 reverse of all this is true. However it may have been 
 in times subsequent to our revolution (for a glance at 
 the system of theology by President Dwight, shows that 
 his eye was upon an educated infidelity, then holding 
 possession of all the learned professions), it certainly is 
 true now, that Christianity has her ablest advocates in 
 all departments of intellectual and physical science, and 
 her firmest believers among the intelligent friends of 
 popular progress. The reason of this felicitous conjunc- 
 tion is, that Christian theology, liberated from ancient 
 bondage and abuses, is here thoughtful, studious, free, 
 open to the sun, promoting rational inquiry and 
 independent action ; and scattering her blessings on 
 every hand. Scholars and statesmen, men of thought 
 and men of action, have gradually been working their 
 way to the conviction, that the Christian religion is the 
 grand patron and ally of all secular improvement and 
 progress ; and whatever is done, to give to the institu- 
 tions of religion a broader basis, is a sure pledge of all 
 national prosperity. All that can be done to strengthen 
 such sentiments is undergirding the great social experi- 
 ment in which we are embarked. And frequent gath- 
 erings, like the present, of men from all professional 
 pursuits, are something more than an opportunity for 
 the indulgence of pleasant sympathies ; a great practi- 
 cal power and promise. There is profound truth in the 
 remark of M. Arago : " It is the men of study and 
 thought who, in the long run, govern the world ; and 
 
39 
 
 the spirit of union among men of science is the certain 
 presage of the union of nations and the good of the 
 world."* 
 
 Many, we know, are accustomed to look upon the 
 life of a student as a busy idleness, far removed from the 
 useful and the practical. The practical ! " Thou near- 
 est not the root, but the root thee." Some seeds are 
 protruded from the ground, on the top of their own 
 sprouts, like Anchises on the shoulders of /Eneas — the 
 product appearing to bear the cause ; and great actions 
 often seem to be the origin of great thoughts, when, in 
 fact, it is the thinking which originates the acting. 
 Your great revolutions begin in the closet of the student. 
 It is the little plank, out of sight, under water, which 
 turns the big ships hither and thither. The mill-wheels 
 which saw the timber, grind grain and whirl spindles, 
 make all the noise and clatter ; but the streams which 
 keep them in motion, and which float commerce on their 
 bosom, have their origin in little springs among the hills ; 
 and all the politics, enterprise, and prosperity of the 
 world, owe their existence and progress to the unob- 
 served, and oftentimes uncompensated studies of the 
 patient scholar. " The roots of nettles themselves," 
 says Bacon, "are smooth; but they bear stinging 
 leaves." It is your philosopher at Ferney who revolu- 
 tionizes France ; and the sage of Northampton, with his 
 strong theories and theology, who helps to build New 
 England on the basis of order, truth, and equity. 
 
 * Speech at Edinburgh. 
 
40 
 
 It was not peculiar to the days of iEsop for some 
 members of the body to impute laziness to others, 
 which performed their functions with less noise and loco- 
 motion. The godfather of Heyne sends a letter by the 
 public post, to his indefatigable son, addressed to " M. 
 Heyne, idler at Leipsic." If any man in this world be- 
 longs to the ' laboring class,' if we must use a cant 
 phrase for which we have no liking, it is a Christian stu- 
 dent. That expression does not define the mode of 
 labor, as though he only was subject to toil who uses a 
 particular set of muscles. He is of the working order 
 who taxes his thought, as really as he who wields a 
 sledge or plies a spade. As really ? More, by far. The 
 field-laborer and the artisan throw down their tools at 
 sunset, and their sleep is sweet ; when an excited brain 
 cannot stop its work by the clock, but keeps its wheels 
 in motion through the dreams and restlessness of a sleep- 
 less night. He who delves in books for the radicals of 
 words, works no less than he who digs in the ground for 
 esculent roots. The professor with his class, the attor- 
 ney with his brief, the minister at the altar (the minis- 
 try ! we speak now of labor unrelieved by the compen- 
 satory law of the Sabbath), labor no less than if they 
 chopped wood instead of logic ; and a herdsman with 
 all his cattle, toils not half so hard as the faithful teacher 
 who presides over the restless group of a well-stocked 
 school-room. Centuries ago, Pythagoras, when asked 
 what he was, and what he was doing, referred Hiero 
 to the Olympic games, where some came to try their 
 
41 
 
 fortune for the prizes ; some as merchants to exchange 
 their commodities ; some to make good cheer and meet 
 their friends ; and others, and he himself among them, 
 were simply lookers on. A good description this of con- 
 templative philosophy as it once was ; but not as it now 
 is. Philosophy, informed and reformed by a beneficent 
 Christianity, is no more an idle spectator of the world ; 
 neither does it disdain all contact with the vulgar earth, 
 aspiring to a home among the stars. It is a grand mo- 
 tive power for the world's good. It has enlisted its skill 
 and sciences in the service of man. Nothing which pro- 
 motes his convenience and comfort is beneath her regard. 
 The sophist spider, spinning webs from its own bowels, 
 is converted into the useful bee, enriching itself from all 
 the treasures of the open fields, and garnering up its 
 sweet and nutritious stores for the use of man. And to 
 such a degree has Christianity already wrought her 
 reforms, that while intellectual power sometimes breaks 
 off into eccentricity and vagaries, it is not so easy, after 
 all, for any man to lose himself among the stars, or ship- 
 wreck his common sense against the moon. The °rand 
 purpose of Christianity is to improve and perfect man- 
 kind in every part and property of their nature ; and by 
 that general law we are bound, in all our pursuits, to the 
 service of the practical and the useful. The adventurous 
 aeronaut, ascend high as he may, cannot go beyond the 
 attraction of the world to which he belongs, nor can he 
 forget that the silken island in which he floats, and the 
 gaseous power which bears him up, are themselves the 
 
42 
 
 product of that world he may affect to despise, but to 
 which he must at length return. 
 
 Fellow-laborers, then, in a literal sense, are all true 
 men, in the grand purpose of making the world better. 
 Nor can there be a pursuit which is true and good, 
 which does not contribute its aid to this common end. 
 Worthy of more abundant honor, oftentimes, are those 
 whom the world least notices and applauds. They are 
 not the greatest of men, who, decked with plumes and 
 gold, have trampled on all justice, law, and mercy, to 
 satisfy the cravings of a mad ambition, and rise to mar- 
 tial fame and conquest. They are not the highest 
 among men, who have attained to enormous wealth, to 
 be expended only for purposes of display and luxury, 
 pomp and trains attendant. Nor yet they, to whom be- 
 long a greater affluence and power, even that of exalted 
 intellect, yet abused and perverted to mislead and de- 
 stroy, rather than instruct and bless. The true rule and 
 measure of greatness — and the world will certainly one 
 day discover it — is embodied in the words of Him who, 
 greater, richer, and loftier than all, came not to be min- 
 istered unto, but to minister. He that would be great, 
 let him serve. That which constitutes the glory of God 
 — His unwearied beneficence — is to be copied and re- 
 flected in us, as the splendor and magnificence of the 
 sky are painted in every drop of dew. 
 
 Milton complained in his day, that mankind had 
 been so long and busily employed in celebrating their 
 own destroyers, that they had left the better virtues of 
 
43 
 
 meekness, patience, and fortitude, unsung. The earth 
 bears no greater man on its surface than he, who, with 
 every sensibility quickened and refined by culture, with 
 talents fitted for display, and capable of acquiring luxu- 
 rious wealth, through all the misleading opinions of the 
 world, devotes himself, not with momentary impulse, 
 but with persevering martyrdom — not in conspicuous 
 and attractive parts, but with the self-control and pa- 
 tience of unnoticed and unrewarded toil, to the sublime 
 purpose of promoting the true welfare of his fellow-men. 
 Toil away, thou Christian hero, instructing the young 
 in some sequestered spot among the hills ! Speak on, 
 thou legate of the skies, in thy rural pulpit ! Assert 
 eternal Providence, and justify the ways of God to man. 
 Stand forth, in advocacy of law and order, thou defender 
 of right and innocence, firm, true, and just thyself! 
 Albeit unknown to fame, and neither praises nor honors 
 are in your path, and no stars or ribands, the insignia of 
 rank, glitter on your manly hearts, ye are laying the 
 broad and deep foundations of human improvement, on 
 which shall rise the walls of an august and imperishable 
 structure. Other hands shall spread its arches, and rear 
 its columns, and finish its capitals. Nor shall the gates 
 of wisdom be left naked and unadorned. Ply thy work 
 with chisel and brush, thou patient votary of Art, im- 
 mortalizing goodness and greatness in changeless forms, 
 eloquent to the eye. Tune thy harp, thou child of song ! 
 Neither cipher nor discord art thou ! The ear hath a 
 way to the heart ; and thy joyous strains shall be the 
 
44 
 
 " march-melodies " of freedom and truth. " All the 
 players upon instruments shall be there ;" and Science 
 and Religion shall walk together in royal and priestly 
 vestments, their union making sweet harmonies before 
 the altars of God, and God himself shall descend, and 
 his tabernacle be with men. 
 
 To this grand result all things tend. All is in mo- 
 tion ; nothing rests. We have met, and now we part. 
 Very soon this and that reverend head, silvered with the 
 honors of time, will droop to its long-sought repose. 
 The youth, now bounding with elastic step into life, full 
 of promise, full of joy, will faint and fall when the world 
 knows not how to spare him. We die ; but that for 
 which we live — never. All that is good, and true, and 
 fair, is imperishable. That which we call Death, is but 
 Life in other forms of sanctity and power. 
 
 The dead are like the stars by day. 
 
 Removed from mortal eye : 
 Yet not extinct — they hold their way 
 
 In glory through the sky. 
 
 The world is populous with good and useful men, 
 though their forms are in the keeping of the grave. The 
 sagacious men who founded this institution, the long line 
 of virtuous men, who have here taught the lessons of 
 serene wisdom, yet live in the true and best sense of 
 the word. They live in the characters and lives of those 
 whom they have educated ; and these live again, in all 
 the good influences which they have employed for the 
 improvement of the world: and so the lessons of truth 
 
45 
 
 and goodness are ever reproductive, cumulative, and pro- 
 gressive towards tbe final consummation of God's eternal 
 plan. And the grand encouragement which cheers us 
 in our work — and for this we are indebted altogether to 
 the telescopic visions of Christianity — is a belief in the 
 certainty of that result at which we aim. Nothing, says 
 Dugald Stewart, tends so much to call forth the exertions 
 of individuals in the public service, as a prevailing belief 
 in the success of those efforts which they put forth to in- 
 form and bless mankind. As in ancient Rome it was 
 esteemed the mark of a good citizen never to despair of 
 the fortunes of the republic; so the good citizen of the 
 world, whatever may be the aspect of particular events 
 or times, should never despair of the fortunes of the hu- 
 man race ; but should ever act upon the principle, that 
 the longer he lives, and the more his observation extends, 
 the more of truth, order, and benevolent design will be 
 seen in the universe. Every scholar, especially, should 
 be in truth what Mr. Coleridge was wont to call himself, 
 an " inveterate hoper," with his face all luminous, turned 
 towards the sun-rising. We love to listen to the strains 
 of ancient lyrists, Pindar and Ovid ; but we do not be- 
 lieve that society is retrograde from an age of gold to one 
 of iron ; neither do we hold that it is stationary, fluc- 
 tuating only within certain limits, in mutual encroach- 
 ments of civilization and barbarism. Nor have we any 
 faith in the indefinite perfectibility of human nature, 
 according to the theory of Condorcet, and other French 
 authors ; much less in any political atheistic millennium, 
 
46 
 
 with modifications of society which are wiser than Pro- 
 vidence and better than Scripture. But we do hold, and 
 that most firmly, to the sober faith of the good old Bible 
 of our fathers — that God designs to make this world the 
 theatre of substantial, rational, religious joy, by means 
 of the Gospel of his Son. What revolutions of time — 
 what eclipses of truth — what trials of faith — what smug- 
 glings and sacrifices shall intervene before that result is 
 attained, we cannot say. In lonely cells, in midnight 
 toils, on bloody scaffolds, the scholars, the martyrs, the 
 freemen of our race, have looked forward and upward, 
 with hope and faith, saying, Domine quamdiu ?* and in 
 these days of brighter promise, shame on us if our faces 
 are not in the same direction, hopeful of greater changes, 
 compared with which, the highest splendor that ever 
 visited the earth was but the shadow of death. Cheered 
 by this confidence of success, we adopt the words of the 
 poet: 
 
 " I therefore go, and join head, heart and hand, 
 Active and firm, to fight the bloodless fight 
 Of science, freedom, and the truth in Christ. 1 ' 
 
 This world was made for something better than to be 
 the theatre of crime and woe. Though lions and scor- 
 pions are in the zodiac, the sun will roll its way along, 
 bring the year about, and fill the whole earth with glad- 
 ness. As in the crowded thoroughfare of a great city, 
 the rails are laid, and the resistless car comes rolling 
 
 * An inscription on the wall of the inquisitorial prison at the Papal 
 residence in Avignon. 
 
47 
 
 along in the midst of sable funerals, gilded chariots, 
 loaded commerce, and all forms of toil and traffic ; so. 
 through the midst of all the complicated movements of 
 this great world, its governments, its merchandise, its 
 arts, and its revolutions, a highway of the Lord is pre- 
 paring, along which a triumphant and beneficent Chris- 
 tianity will advance with songs and everlasting joy. 
 
 " There's a fount about to stream. 
 There's a light about to beam. 
 There's a warmth about to glow, 
 There's a flower about to blow. 
 There's a midnight blackness changing. 
 
 Into gray; 
 Men of thought and men of action, 
 Clear the way. 
 
 Aid the dawning, tongue and pen. 
 Aid it, hopes of honest men ; 
 Aid it, paper, aid it. type, 
 Aid it, for the hour is ripe ; 
 And our earnest must not slacken 
 
 Into play ; 
 Men of thought and men of action. 
 Clear the way." 
 
 Mackav. 
 
LB2325 .L77 
 
 Obituary addresses delivered on the 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
 1 1 1012 00085 2162