l.-::.i ilS;:: ■ , 'wi?^Jf^'S t. KS IvIBRARY OF THE University of California. Mrs. SARAH P. WALSWORTH. Received October, 1894. ^Accessions No . !^y^30 ' ^^^^^ ^0, Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2007 witii funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation littp://www.arcliive.org/details/discoursescliargeOOpottricli BISHOP POTTER'S DISCOURSES, ETC. ■DISCOUllSES, CHARaES, ADDRESSES, # PASTORAL LETTERS, etc! etc! BT ALONZO POTTEE, D.D., LL.D., BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE OF PENNSYLVANIA. ^^> Of lafe ' ' <^-'^ PHILADELPHIA: PUBLISHED BY E. H. BUTLER & CO. 18 58. -P4 ^^, Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, BY E. H. BUTLER & CO., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. f This volume is composed of Charges, Dis- courses, Addresses, and Pastoral Letters, which have been prepared by the author, in the course of his official duties during the last thirteen years. With one exception, they have been printed al- ready. They are now collected and reprinted for more convenient reference, and in the hope that they may possibly prove useful to some, to whom they were not at first addressed. In ar- ranging them, the author has beguiled some hours of lassitude and sickness, which could not be given to more active duties ; and he now commits them to the indulgence of his friends, and the candid consideration of the public. Should he speak no more through the press or with the living voice, in this volume may be found his settled opinions upon many topics connected with the interests of the clerical profession, the exten- sion of the Christian Church, and the welfare of society. \ '% CONTENTS. The Position of the Clergy, The Christian Minister a Student, The Studies of the Clergy, Holy Scripture, Ten Years Reviewed, The Christian Bishop, Character of Bishop White, Our Country Admonished, National Accountability, , Plea for Sailors, Drinking Usages, . Sunday-Schools, Spreading the Gospel, Appendix : I. Candidates for the Ministry, II. Primitive Deacons, III. Religious Training — Confirmations, IV. Church and Other Schools, V. Convocations, VI. Support of the Clergy, , VII. Instability of the Pastoral Relation, VIII. Lay Co-operation, IX. Diocesan Missions, etc., X. Church Buildings and Services, . XI. Aggressive Work of the Church, XII. Church Charities, XIII. Perversions to Rome, XIV. Notice of General Conventions, PAOB 47 77 105 135 161 201 211 229 247 271 299 327 349 360 365 372 378 380 389 399 401 407 411 423 434 443 THE POSITION OF THE CLEEGY. PEIMAEY CHAEGE * My Brethren of the Clergy: Among the duties imposed by the Church on her Bishops in this country, is the grave and responsible one of addressing a Charge, as often as once in three years, to the Clergy within their jurisdiction. I have delayed entering on this duty, somewhat beyond the period fixed by the Canon,t partly because of other urgent duties, but more especially because I have de- sired that, when once begun, it might be prosecuted at intervals less rare than the Canon seems to con- template, and with some degree of method. It is my purpose now, should life and ability be given, to offer to you, from year to year, a series of connected counsels on some of the most momentous of our common duties as Ministers of Christ. Waiv- ing topics of a more transient nature, I propose to bring before you a few of the great principles, which ought, as it seems to me, always to be kept in view, while we labor at the twofold work assigned us by God, of saving ourselves and saving them that hear us ; and I shall endeavor, while presenting these prin- * Delivered May 16, 1849. ' f Canon XXVII of 1832. 14 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. ciples, to indicate how they ought to be modified in practice, according to the state of the world at large, and especially according to the condition of our own country and Church. The great secret of all ministerial usefulness must be found, I conceive, in ministerial self-culture — in the careful cultivation, with the aid of God's grace, of our whole nature — spiritual, moral, intellectual, and corporeal. We work on others mainly through the personal endowments which we have received from Heaven, or which we have acquired by culture. Even those divine and supernatural truths and offices which we dispense to men, must reach their great end, for the most part, through our zeal, our integrity, and our wisdom. The word preached, for example, is it not usually effectual in proportion to the clear- ness, the fervor, and the logical power of those who preach it ? The prayers offered — do they not bear the hearts and consciences of the people towards Heaven, according as the Minister's own heart is exalted by faith, warmed with love, subdued by peni- tence ? So the sacraments administered become channels of grace to the souls of men, in proportion as those souls have been previously touched through faithful appeals and instructions from the Pastor, and in proportion, too, as these holy mysteries are dis- pensed in a reverential and edifying manner. No matter, indeed, what be the mean of grace — be it truth or sacrament — be it prayer or thanksgiving — be it fasting or alms, it will be apt to prove all but powerless, if its significancy be obscured, or its grand aim decried, by the evil example of him who is its appointed Minister. The Spirit of God acts on men OUR POSITION. 15 in good part through his anointed Ambassadors ; and He acts therefore feebly, if those Ambassadors interpose between his grace and the souls that he would visit, their own ignorance, levity, or impiety. He rarely acts at all, if they are morally reckless, or corrupt. The great law, which makes thought and emotion in those who speak, the condition of awaken- ing kindred thoughts and emotions in those who hear, is not annulled by the supernatural grace of the Gos- pel. On the contrary, the renewing and saving ener- gies of the Holy Ghost so concur with the natural powers of its earthly Minister, that whether in moving others or in rousing himself to duty, that Minister must work — must work with all his heart and strength, and must never forget that he who would be a bless- ing to others is to begin by winning spiritual blessings for himself. The improvement of the people, then, is conditioned on the improvement of the Clergy. All the world over, and through all time, the state of the Church reflects, in a great degree, the state and character of her Ministers. Make the one more wise, laborious, and earnest, and you cause the other to be more given to every good word and work. So in respect to any congregation ; we can hardly pray more devoutly and fervently in our closets — we can hardly watch more carefully over our own hearts, or ply more diligently our studies at home and our labors abroad even for a few months, but God will vouchsafe us some sign* ■^ If God suffers even a holy pastor not presently to see the fruits of his labors, it is to convince him that the success of his labors belongs to God ; — and he ought to humble himself, and pray much, and fear lest the fault should be in himself. — Bishop WilsoTiy Sacra Frivata, p. 103. 16 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. that our prayers are remembered in Heaven, and our generous self-sacrifice made honorable on earth. And to what purpose, as Ministers, do we live, if this be not always our aim ? We open our churches — not merely that the seats may be filled, — not merely that confiding and admiring throngs may be gathered to hear us, but that the people may give heed to the word spoken. We open them that there may be an active, an ever-extending and an ever-progressive piety — extending, that new hearts may be reached — progressive, that all may advance in religious know- ledge and in personal holiness. Ministerial self-culture therefore, in all its branches, is the subject to which I would ask your attention — comprehending within this term whatever can con- tribute to a clergyman's improvement, and keeping steadily in view the great truth, that it is through such culture, constantly maintained and pressed for- ward, that we are to win at last from our Master's hand — for ourselves, a worthy crown — for our people, an abundant entrance into his kingdom and glory. As preliminary, however, to this subject, there is another which demands a brief discussion, and that is the precise 'position which a Christian minister now occupies in this land and in our communion. Every profession has its own peculiar advantages and dis- advantages, and by those who embrace it, these should evidently be well understood and well considered. Again, the different positions in a profession, whether we consider it in respect to time, or in respect to place, or in respect to other circumstances, will have each its distinguishing characteristics; and it is plain that these too should be carefully studied, if we would OUR POSITION. 17 make the most of our powers and opportunities. And then, again, each individual clergyman has his idiosyncrasy from nature, and his peculiarities — cor- poreal, mental, and spiritual, superinduced by educa- tion and by habit, and it becomes him to remember and appreciate these also, if he would be a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. Self-knowledge is the one grand condition of self-culture, and that alone is self-knowledge which combines, with a correct appre- ciation of our personal character and capacities, a just estimate of our position — I. As ministers. 11. As ministers of religion. III. As ministers of the religion of Christ. IV. As ministers of the Protestant Episcopal Church. V. As ministers of this Church, in the nineteenth century. YI. As ministers of this Church, and of this cen- tury, in the United States of America. I. We should understand our position as Ministers, «. e. as officers, stewards who are clothed with a dele- gated trust, so that we act not merely for ourselves, but for others also. We have a twofold character, the one personal — the other official, and of course we have a twofold responsibility. We ai:e to take heed to ourselves ; we are to take heed to those over whom we are overseers. For the present, I put the religious character of our office out of the account. I call your attention to the simple fact that we are not only men, but officers. It is a fearful thing to be a man — for to man alone, of all the living multitudes that roam over land, or that swarm through air, and a* 18^ DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. stream, and sea — to man alone attaches responsi- bility — a sense of accountability within, which is but the faint echo (as he well knows) of a yet graver ac- countability without. To man alone, belong powers capable of an endless and sublime progression, — powers which he cannot employ aright, without un- speakable benefit to others and to himself, — powers "which he cannot misemploy, without unknown but deplorable ills alike to his neighbor and his own soul. Social always, always active, always responsi- ble, it is indeed a fearful thing to be a man. How much more fearful to be not a man only, but to be at one and the same time a man and a minister ; to have intrusted to us not only our own welfare, but the welfare of others also— to have it intrusted to us, too, in a representative capacity, so that in respect to many, very many perhaps of those around us, we act for them, we act through them, we act upon them, not merely in virtue of the social ties that bind each to the other and all to us ; — we apply to them the different and the higher agency, which belongs to us as trustees at once of an earthly power, and of a heavenly Sovereign. In the course of ten or twenty years, what a number, brethren, of our fellow beings, within and without our own congregations — within and without our own communion, too, must come di- rectly or indirectly, under our official influence ; and each one of these, remember, carries through all his mortal sojourn, and into the very presence of his Judge at last, some trace — some tint of light or hue of dark- ness — that we, because of our official authority, have cast perhaps unwittingly upon him. Is it fearful to be a man then, — how much more fearful to be both a OUR POSITION. 19 man and a minister, and to be, as in our case, minis- ters as well as men for life ; to bear upon us a com- mission which may never be revoked, which always charges us with work to do, and which confers dignity, and exempts from punishment only as that work is done with our might, so that to whatever of official duty we are at any time equal, to so much of official duty we are then commanded. There is no discharge in this war. To he faithful soldiers and servants^ unto our life's end — always to give our faithful dili- gence in the work of our ministry^ and in framing and fashioning our own selves and our families so as to make both wholesome examples to the flock, these are the terms of our enrolment in the sacramental host. Our weakness, then, as well as our strength — our age as well as our youth, are to be given to our work. He that hath much, let him give plenteously ; he that hath little, let him do his diligence gladly to give of that little, for so shall he gather to hilnself a good reward in the day of his necessity. II. But we are to understand, again, that we are Ministers of Religion. In one sense, whoever holds an office, intended to promote human welfare, may be called a Minister of God ; since some purpose of God is to be promoted through his official and proper agency. But we are God's Ministers in a sense more specific, and far more sacred ; since to us have been committed the interests of his religion. The recogni- tion and worship of some superior Power, invisible — yet present and supreme, is the dictate of Nature as well as the command of Revelation. Everywhere, and in all ages, man's heart has yearned after the unseen God, and has trembled before his anticipated 20 DISCOURSES AND CHARaES. judgments. Everywhere, too, this spiritual or reli- gious element in our existence is felt to be paramount in dignity and importance ; so that they who stand forth before men, as its representatives and Ministers, are held to be the special Ambassadors of Heaven, and to bear about them a peculiar sacredness. In some lands, and at some periods, this sacerdotal office, through a misguided reverence, has been allowed to supersede or to swallow up all others ; so that a corps, perhaps a caste"^ of well-disciplined and un- scrupulous priests, alike jealous and tyrannical, have taken to themselves the entire government of society, civil no less than sacred. It was thus in ancient India and Egypt, and to some extent it was thus, too, in Mediaeval Europe — the office being debased and ultimately weakened by the very means which were taken to strengthen it. At other times, or in other lands, the theocratical power in the state has been content to yield a nominal precedence to monarchy, to aristocracy, or even to democracy, provided, how- ever, that these last would constitute themselves its nursing fathers, and would at the same time, profess to receive from it (in whole or in part) as a gracious boon, their right to reign. Again — and through how long a period even of Christian history do we find the temporal and the spiritual authority engaged — now in an ignoble contest for civil supremacy, — now in a league, not less ignoble, to trample down the liberties of the people, and to build up a twofold despotism — * In the latter case the office is hereditary ; in the former it is elective. The distinction is fraught with most important con- sequences, some of which are noticed in Guizot's Modern Civil- ization, Lecture 3d. OUR POSITION. ' 21 the one over opinion, the other over will and act. At one period, all without the Church being ignorance and anarchy, ecclesiastics became the master-spirits of the time, and priestcraft was too often but another name for almost all government. At another, royalty being needed to centralize interests hitherto separate, and to harmonize discordant powers, the crosier was compelled to succumb before the sceptre, and the edicts of a king became supreme, even in matters that touched only the Church's faith, discipline, or worship. How large a share of the world's history, both an- cient and modern, is occupied with these multiform and often stormy • attempts to adjust the social and legal positions of the ministers of religion, to their true character and functions ! And what does that his- tory prove ? It proves, in the first place, how firm and unyielding is the hold on the human mind of religion and its Ministers ; since no violence from without, though all the other powers of society be leagued against it, — no errors or corruptions from within, be they ever so flagrant, have sufficed for its destruc- tion. Cast down, and to all appearance destroyed to-day, religion rises with renewed and resistless vigor to-morrow. This same history teaches, too, that when different forms of religion come into conflict, all must at length yield before that which springs from the simple and positive command of God. Never, for instance, in ancient times, did Judaism and Pagan- ism meet in fair and open field, that it was not soon seen how powerless are the inventions of man, when arrayed against the teachings and institutions of the Most High. But the lesson which I would especially commend 22 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. to your notice, as deducible from the religious history of the past, is, that the Ministers of God never go forth in the simple majesty of truth — cementing no alliance with thrones — courting no friendship with the world, that they do not quickly triumph. How was it in the first centuries of our own era, when the Missionaries of God's last dispensation to man — though few in number and humble in rank — had to encounter a world in arms ? Strange, that the fact then made manifest, was so soon forgotten. Strange that men who had filled the earth with their doctrine — men who with no help, except from God and their own brave hearts, had won to their standard the talent, the learning, and the wealth that rule mankind — strange, indeed, that they should have superseded so soon the simple instruments of such a victory, by cor- rupting alliances with unhallowed passion and with worldly power. But so it is. From the reign of Constantino down to the landing of our fathers at Jamestown and at Plymouth, through more than a thousand years of strife, and toil, and bloodshed, even Christian Europe was slowly working its way towards that truth, which to us seems written as with a sun- beam on all the teachings of Christ, and on the tri- umphant mission of his evangelists. That the Minis- ters of religion are Ministers of religion ; that their functions are simply spiritual — that on the one hand they have no concern (except as they act on the great fountains of human opinion) with civil legislation, and that, on the other hand, that legislation has no authority over them, except as they are men and citizens, — that the Church and the State are indepen- dent but co-ordinate powers, the one having cogni- OUR POSITION. 28 zance of things temporal, the other of things spiritual — and that the one only appropriate weapon of God's Ambassadors is Truth — truth in doctrine and truth in life — truth warning every man, truth teaching every man, truth rebuking every man, with all long-suffer- ing, and yet with all authority — this is a principle which may be familiar to us as household words, but which to the world at large, and even to Christendom itself was long unknown, and which at this very hour is to most of Christendom but imperfectly unfolded. And is this our province ? Is it religion, as contra- distinguished from all the arts and professions of civil life, and from all the functions of civil government ? It is religion, too, as an all-comprehending and all- pervading power — one that can penetrate, hallow, and bind together the humblest and the highest interests. Hence nothing is beneath his notice or sympathy, who is wise to win souls. Does he look for example on industry, on the arts that sustain and gladden our material life ? — He can see there a power, which pro- perly directed must contribute beyond measure even to man's intellectual and moral elevation ; and hence as a minister of God, he would, in his appropriate sphere, and by appropriate means, at once promote and sanctify those arts. Does he look again on science and literature, with their handmaids the press and general education ? — There, too, he sees forces, mighty for good, if wisely controlled, but almost omnipotent for evil, if loosed from the sovereignty of conscience and the fear of God ; and hence he would pour into these well-springs of the world's hope salt from on high. Or does he turn to the phi- lanthropic movements of our own time — movements 24 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. that would smooth one and another visage of human woe, and spread over earth the sunshine of a higher and more joyous life ? — These the minister of God would keep from perversion and from decay, hy in- fusing into them the divine life of faith, and impos- ing on them the holy restraints of law. He knows that the Cross won its most memorable victories over the hearts of men, when its apostles were most intent on assuaging human sufferings, and on subserving even here on earth the utmost happiness of all. And in all past time, it has been the glory of that Cross, that its heralds have gone through the world as the leaders of a true civilization, no less than as the leaders of a true faith. Even when the bands of society were loosed amid the darkness and chaos of the middle ages ; when the clergy had become in- vested, through the force of circumstances, with too much of worldly supremacy, and were devoted too ex- clusively to the interests of their own order, even then they were the world's best temporal benefactors. But for them, Europe must have fallen back, during that awful period, into the barbarism of her Vandal in- vaders. It was in their monastic retreats, that the almost extinguished fires of learning were kept alive with pious care ; and that all the arts of peace were fostered with a wisdom and munificence worthy of un- dying remembrance.* Never be it otherwise. When we strike at the ignorance and corruption of men, we strike at the great root of all social evils : and when we labor to regenerate the spirit of society, we are * Henry's History of England contains valuable notices of the agency of the Mediaeval Clergy in promoting Agriculture, Horti- culture, and various mechanical arts. OUR POSITION. 25 then laboring most effectually for the regeneration of its forms and institutions. But let our labors be guided by an enlarged and enlightened spirit. What- ever makes man more thoughtful, forecasting, or even more decorous, makes him more open also to the ap- peals W3f religious truth. Hence, though divorced from all the employments and dignities of the world, we should still bid God speed to whatever can lift our race to more of physical comfort, or to more of intel- lectual and moral dignity. We should cling to our spiritual functions, and thank God that we are neither burdened with the cares, nor perilled by the fascina- tions of earthly power ; but we should be known, at the same time, as the friends of a comprehensive and true-hearted philanthropy. Our ear should be quick to hear the wail of the oppressed ; our eye should be clear to discern the iron that enters into a brother's soul; our heart should beat in ready and respon- sive throbs to every pulsation of bleeding humanity. Never may the cause of charity and true brotherhood be monopolized by men, who think to bless the world without glorifying God. As charity must be spurious, where there is no faith, so faith will be but as sound- ing brass and tinkling cymbal unless it bring forth the fruits of a large-hearted love for mankind. Let the power and worth of our ministry be seen then, as in earlier days, in the broad sympathies with which it animates our studies and our labors. That day, in which the clergy cease to be amongst the foremost in efforts to ameliorate the condition of mankind, will be a day dark indeed for the prospects of the world — nor of the world alone. The Church itself must suffer in the same proportion, since she can truly prosper, 3 26 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. under the smiles of her Great Head, only when she fulfils her mission as His Minister for good to men. III. But we are not only ministers of religion ; we are ministers of the religion of Christ. Ours is not a religion of types and prophecies like that of Israel ; nor is it an engine of state like that of ancient Rome; nor is* it tributary to a refined but voluptuous taste like that of ancient Greece. It is neither encumbered and made oppressive through ceremonies, like the law of ordinances ; nor is it destitute of all positive institutions and precepts, like the religion of nature. It reveals to us the Word made Fleshy and, in thus bridging over the mighty void between the human and the Divine, it lays the axe to the root of Deism, with its doctrine of fate, and to that of Pantheism, with its notions of Divine Impersonality. It solves the awful question which, for four thousand years, had pressed on the minds of all reflecting men, and which had often wrung misgivings and anxious forebodings even from the unreflecting, " wherewith shall man the sinner come before God the Just?" In the great expiation which it ofi'ers to us, there is peace for the true peni- tent ; and in the ministrations of the Comforter, with his gifts of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and ghostly strength, there is abounding succor for all that would live soberly, righteously, and godly. In Him who is the High Priest of our sanctuary — the Author and Finisher of our faith, we have the only faultless specimen of human wisdom and good- ness that the world has seen, while in the evangelic records this model of a perfect and now glorified Humanity is ever kept before us. And then, in its OUR POSITION. 27 word read and preached, and in its ordinances duly given and received, Christianity has definite and simple channels, through which its divine and regene- rating influences can flow down on the human soul — quickening the dead spirit into life, enlightening the eye of faith, warming the heart of devotion, deepen- ing and hallowing the sigh of penitence, kindling the flame of love towards all mankind, and pouring a soothing and strengthening cordial into every fainting heart. Ours is not a religion that has its esoteric and its exoteric system. It has no gross conceptions and imposing pomp to catch the vulgar ; it has no decent skepticism to conciliate the proud and self- styled wise. With inflexible constancy, it proclaims to all the same Gospel, it exacts from all the same faith, and the same obedience ; and yet with a wondrous adaptive and plastic power, it can adjust itself to every state and condition of human life. It has, too, an all- comprehending, reconciling spirit, through which it harmonizes the most opposite and seemingly incongruous principles of man's nature ; afi'ording food both for reason and for imagination — for conscience and for the aff'ections ; conciliating the love of man with the love of God, and making both consistent with the love of ourselves. Finally, it has a zeal for God's honor, and for the redemption of mankind, that makes it aggressive towards every form of error, sin, and suff'ering, and that can never rest till the triumphs of righteousness and peace have overspread the globe. And when it goes forth to achieve this moral conquest, how does it eschew all the weapons employed by the religions and the governments of man's device, applying no constraint but TRUTH, ofiering no attraction but love. 28 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. Is this Christianity, brethren ? and what then is their duty who are its Ambassadors and Ministers ? It is plain. Their duty is to render their preaching and their practice definitively Christian. It is to remember, always and everywhere, that the dispen- sation they proclaim is a remedial dispensation, that their grand work is first to bring men to a proper sense of their sins, and then to bind up, with balm from Calvary, the wounds that have been opened at the foot of Sinai. In enforcing duty, too, their appeals are to be drawn from the cross — from Christ's constraining love, as at once the source and the centre of the Christian's inner and outer life. And ever in their own lives should they recommend the meek, the condescending, the gentle, the forgiving, yet the un- compromising spirit of their Master. The religion they preach is a religion that teaches hy examiyle. It is a religion for sinners. It is a religion for the tempted and the weak. It is a religion for the poor, the afflicted, and the oppressed ; and God grant that to the sinful, the weak, the tempted, and the sorrow- ing, our thoughts and efforts may always be directed. May I not add that inward sanctity — holiness of heart, is pre-eminently the duty of a Minister of Christ. He is to seem holy, that his conduct, instead of countervailing, may enforce his precepts ; and he is to he holy, lest the coldness or corruption of his own heart obstruct the movements of that Spirit, who through him, would brood, with recreating power, over the hearts of others. Be ye clean that hear the vessels of the Lord, was the injunction even of a ceremonial dispensation ; how much more of a spiritual and soul-renewing one. It is the glory of OUR POSITION. 29 the religion of Christ, that it indissolublj binds together religion and morality ; making them identi- cal in principle, adjudging each to be worthless, unless it spring from an honest and true heart, and decreeing that he only can share in the grace of God, who is willing to love his neighbor. Before the Saviour, too, there is little of that distinction, between personal and official sanctity, which the imperfection of human tribunals sometimes compels them to make. Christ holds no one faithful as a Minister, who is delinquent as a man ; nor any one innocent as a man, who is derelict as a Priest. His religion blends, and as it were fuses our personal and sacerdotal charac- ters into one ; so that the individual is to account for the acts of the officer, and the officer is to stand dis- honored by whatever would stain and disgrace the individual. Serving near the Holy of Holies, that becomes criminal in us which might be allowed in others. Though our personal sins may not invalidate, in respect to others, the force and virtue of our offi- cial acts on earth, they often must do it in Heaven ; and always our official character goes to aggravate our personal transgressions, since on us — the anoint- ed of the Lord — rests a peculiar obligation to be holy as our Master is holy. And when we go before that Master to render in our last account, office and dignity will all drop away from us, and nothing can remain but our character and our re- sponsibility. Be these, then, the object of our supreme concern ! IV. But we are Ministers of Christ in the Protestant Episcopal Church. We owe allegi- 3* 80 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. ance to that branch of the visible Bodj of Christ, from which we derive our external commission. We owe allegiance both to its Protestant, and its JEJpisco- pal or Apostolic character. As Protestant it honors the Reformation. That great religious revolution, like all others directed by human and uninspired agency, was doubtless marred by errors of judgment, and by infirmities of temper and motive. But we must be recreant (it seems to me) to our trust, as guardians of the Bible and of religi- ous liberty, if we do not commemorate, with ever- recurring gratitude, this memorable reaction towards the primitive faith. The indefeasible right of the people to the Bible in the vernacular tongue, which was then asserted and maintained — the adjourning of all questions, that touch an article of faith, to that one Book, as the only Divine and infallible arbiter — • the distinct and effectual protest then made, against the arrogant assumptions of foreign Bishops and fo- reign churches to exercise jurisdiction beyond their proper sphere — the restoration to the adorable Tri- nity of that homage which had been divided between the Virgin, and Angels, and Saints, and Relics, and Images, and Pictures — the lifting to its proper place of the One Oblation, once made by Christ, for the sins of the whole world — the downfall, wherever the Anglo-Saxon race dwells, of a superstition which en- abled Priests to tyrannize over conscience, and even to invade the prerogatives of civil magistrates and the sanctity of private families — what were all these but a blessed boon alike to the Church and to man- kind ? And the fact that at this day there is most of domestic purity, most of general intelligence and en- OUR POSITION. 31 terprise, most of public spirit and public virtue, where the faith of the Reformers is held in its inte- grity, does not this show that that faith has been ap- proved of God, and is entitled to be embalmed in our fond and reverent remembrance. Be it ours, then, to cling to that faith. We are Protestants by name, and we are Protestants in prin- ciple. We protest against the domination of foreign Bishops, and against assumptions of infallibility by any council or metropolitan, living or dead. We pro- test against all attempts to shut out God's word from the people, or to fetter the human mind in reading and thinking, so long as it inquires with becoming modesty and reverence. We protest against an in- tolerance which would visit aberrations of opinion with fire and sword, or with any penalties, save such as imminent and unquestionable danger to social order may demand ; — and that intolerance we abhor alike when displayed by those who hate the Reforma- tion, and by those who profess to honor and adore it. We are Protestant in regard to some things which ob- tained even in the Church of the first three centuries, but which were either plainly transient in their na- ture, or which experience shows are unfriendly to a simple, heart-transforming, conscience-soothing faith. The twelve centuries which rolled away from Cyprian to Luther, we are far from denouncing. We recog- nize with thankfulness, the enlarged and dear-bought experience which the Church then gained ; and we would profit by that experience. Errors which were committed unconsciously, and therefore innocently, then, it becomes us not to repeat now. Accretions which the Christianity of the New Testament gathered S2 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. from various concurring causes, and which were made to further for a time the advancement of society, would now be only incumbrances. We are therefore not to covet them ; — innocently we cannot strive to restore them. We are not to forget the fate of those who have undertaken to unprotestantize the Church of our fathers. We are to remember how wide is the gulf that separates that Church from the one she has renounced ; and that if union is to be effected — coali- tion achieved, it must not be solely through conces- sions of ours. It must be union on principles com- mon to both. When the rulers and doctors of that communion shall seem willing even to consider a plan of comprehension — when, for instance, they shall in- cline, though in the least, to regard as loyal sons of theirs those who would subscribe to the doctrinal statements of our Articles, it will then be early enough to ask whether those same Articles may not, by some means, be translated into the dialect of Trent, and the creed of a persecuting Pope be made to express the faith of his martyr victims ! Until then, it rather becomes us to gather warning from the errors, and instruction from the vicissitudes of that great power. Towards her children and her ministers, we are to cherish only feelings of good will. We are always to remember that, as citizens and Christians, their rights before the law are equal to our own, and that as moral and social beings, with palpitating human hearts like ours, they can be sooner won by kindness, than by railing or by scorn. It is against her too prevalent spirit, that we are to guard, even more assiduously than we guard against her rites and her external regimen ; — for that insidi- OUR POSITION. 33 ous spirit, alas ! lives and reigns in many a Protes- tant heart, in the administration of many a Protes- tant function, and when thus disguised, it only merits our intenser abhorrence. But if we are Protestant, so also we are Episcopal or Apostolic, holding not only the Apostles' fellow- ship, but also the Apostles' doctrine and prayers. Ours is an historical religion. We make no attempt, in our reverence for the Scriptures, to ignore the wisdom and accumulated experience of the past. Those who went before us, in the Church, lived, and labored, and suffered, not for themselves alone, but for us also ; and we have entered into their labors. To cast all these contemptuously from us, to launch on the great ocean of Scripture truth, without chart, compass, or fixed star, to forego all the contributions to the meaning of the Bible, that have been supplied by the toilsome studies and the eventful vicissitudes of eighteen hundred years, would be a thankless re- turn — alike to God who made us children rather than fathers in the Church, and to those who have thus bequeathed to us the fruits of their suffering and laborious lives. To attempt to construct for ourselves, unaided, a system of Bible truth, is not, after all, to honor the Bible, — for he who goes to the study of it, goes, almost inevitably, with some preconceived judg- ment of its import ; and unless he have rare candor and force of mind, his prepossessions will be sure to color its declarations, and will urge him to seek, in Scripture, rather for his own opinions, than for truth. He who would gather from the sacred page the mind and will of God, must have a humble, teachable, truth-loving heart ; and with such a heart, no man, it 84 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. seems to me, can hastily reject the helps that have been provided for him, in the creeds and liturgies of the ancient Church, in the decrees of her councils, and the writings of her fathers. Her pealing an- thems, her humble, penitential litanies, her prayers, •which first broke from lips hallowed by eminent grace, and mellowed by a wisdom above this world — her creeds, which have borne towards IJeaven, in every Christian age, the confessions of her noblest martyrs and her truest saints — these are the Church's glorious commentary on the Bible. These form her tradi- tionary testimony to its received meaning, and to the faith of those who lived nearest to her days of inspi- ration. When to all these you add the writings of her greatest doctors, and of those especially who wrote when all around them was toil and danger, you have a mass of venerable lore to which it becomes us all to give heed. But then the inevitable question presents itself — which, among all this mass of multifarious and some- times contradictory opinion, is to be regarded as pri- mitive or Apostolic ? To this question, it is obvious, that the whole genius of our Church suggests one answer. We are not to lean, too hastily, to our own judgment. AVe are to defer to their judgment who were called to consider this great question in the six- teenth century ; who considered it amid trials that were fitted to tax to the uttermost their wisdom and their faith ; and who have embodied the result of their deliberations — a result which they cheerfully sealed with their blood — in our liturgy, articles, homilies, and polity. I am far from holding that no man may go back of these ; — but I do hold, that he who does • . OUR POSITION. 35 SO, and he especially who would set them or any material part of them opprobriously aside, should weigh well the responsibility he assumes. He, with a limited range perhaps of reading; ere he has reached, it may be, the meridian of life ; when he has done little or suffered little for the cause of Christ — he would replace, by his individual dicta, the delibe- rate decisions of his Church, and the combined opinion of men venerable alike for age and for services — for sagacity and for learning. For the Apostolic or Catholic system, as defined by such minds and with such authority, he would substitute opinions, gleaned, it may be, at will and under the influence of an ex- alted and over-fond imagination, — from the vast mass of literature that the Christian writers of the middle ages have left behind them. Is this reverence for authority ? Is this modesty ? Is it thus that we shall inculcate the duties of meekness and obedience? Is it by such a procedure, that we are to incite our people to respect the constituted authorities of the Church and the land, or do our part towards building up, throughout a world convulsed by anarchy, the dominion of law ! Pe it ours then, brethren, to remember our mission as ministers of a Church, which is at once Protestant and Apostolic. We are to be the friends of liberty, but we are not to be the enemies of order. We are to concede to all — ministers and people — the privilege of reading and thinking ; but we are to enjoin on all alike, reverence and self-distrust. We are to catch the catholic comprehensive spirit of our baptismal office, which makes belief, in the articles of the Chris- tian faith as contained in the Apostles' creed, the 36 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. • sole dogmatic test for admission to our fold. We are to uphold, and by our practice, recommend those ad- mirable provisions by which, in our system of polity and worship, we combine the sober with the earnest — the fixed with the variable — the material with the spiritual — the corporate with the individual — the tra- ditionary with the philosophical. We should be sober, because we are always to proceed by rule ; we should be earnest, because a large part of our services is uttered in the burning language of Scripture. For the conservative principle we have security in our liturgy and sacraments ; for the progressive in our preaching, legislation, and pastoral care. Material symbols we employ and value ; but their end is the renovation of a mind enlightened by faith, and their efficacy is made contingent on the humility and true contrition of those who receive them. The corporate relations of the Christian to the Church we insist on as a great and indispensable duty and privilege ; but not in such sense as to make that Church his Saviour, nor in any proper sense his Mediator. We may hold to tradition, because our province is to teach no new commandment or Gospel ; but we are not therefore to scorn philosophical theology, for we are to vindicate the hope we cherish to every man's reason, while we subject all opinions and all systems to that only safe criterion of experience, which is thus set forth by Coleridge, " No article of faith can be truly and duly preached without necessarily and simultaneously in- fusing a deep sense of the indispensableness of a holy life."* * Table Talk, part ii, p. 54. Am. Ed OUR POSITION. 37 V. But again, "we are not only ministers of Christ, and of his religion as set forth in a Church at once Protestant and Apostolic ; we are ministers of this Church in the nineteenth centuhy. The onward flow of time has brought us to a position, unlike any occupied by our predecessors in the sacred office. We live when, with the many, there is more of intel- ligence and thoughtfulness ; but not perhaps when, with the few, there is more of high sagacity, or far- reaching faith. We live when industry has vindi- cated for itself a new and more commanding place, among the powers that direct the legislation and opinion of the world ; but not when the toiling mil- lions it employs are always admitted to a correspond- ing elevation. We live when there is great activity, and in some sense great and almost universal earnest- ness ; but not when that activity is always tempered by forecast, nor that earnestness duly subdued by reli- gious feeling. We live when there is more of Christian faith than there was in the eighteenth century, and more of Christian toleration than there was in the sixteenth ; but alas ! it does not become us to boast that even now a practical and life-transforming faith or sincere toleration in the heart is very abundant. We live when despotism of every kind, civil and reli- gious, has much to fear ; but not when legitimate authority, be it the authority of law, or the moral sway that belongs to age, wisdom, or parental power, has everything to hope. Practical and all-embracing charity is more active than it once was ; but it is not always more wise, or more patient. Institutions, usages, opinions, all are arraigned with a free and bold hand, and to all is applied the salutary test, " by 4 M DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. their fruits ye shall know them;" but the trial is not always conducted with caution or discrimination ; and there is too little care to conserve the good, while we eradicate the ill. Such, I conceive, are some of the features of the age in which we live. Beside those which affect all classes of men, there are some that bear, with pecu- liar effect, upon our own profession. The clergy are no longer the peculiar guardians and dispensers of knowledge. They are no longer clothed with the exclusive privilege of legislating for the Church, nor even of teaching it. They are no longer an indepen- dent corporation, sovereign over the law, or exempt in good part from its jurisdiction. There was a time, when they owned hardly any but an ecclesias- tical superior — when they could successfully claim a control over the property and persons even of lay- men — when they could, almost at will, summon all the powers of the state to do their bidding — when the absent husband could hardly correspond with his wife, except through the clerk in orders — when all laws were drawn up, all treaties reduced to form, all deliberations of cabinets and even of parliaments aided and guided by ecclesiastics — and when they held possession not only of cathedrals, churches, con- vents, and monasteries, but of all colleges and schools of learning also. How different is it now, when they are merged, by law, into the one class of citizens, — amenable to the same laws, mere sharers in the same intellectual and social privileges, and left to contend on less than equal terms for the direction of public opinion ! I say less than equal, not so much because pf the political disabilities under which they some- OUR POSITION. 8§ times labor, as because I fear, that the growing and almost morbid jealousy of interference on the part of the clergy, in things secular, excludes them too much from that promiscuous commerce with men, and from that free conflict with the difficulties of life, which seems almost essential to the utmost force of character, as well as to the highest degree of culture. And what is the duty of the ministers of Christ in such an age ? Is it to denounce it ? Is it to shut out from our hearts all respect for it — all sympathy with it? Is it to dwell exclusively on its defects, and bring these into exaggerated contrast with the fancied glories of some age that has gone by ? Is it to war only against the outward forms which have been assumed by the social, intellectual, or religious spirit of the time, while we overlook or take perhaps into our very heart, the worst elements of that spirit f Or, is it our part, on the other hand, to idolize the age, to seize upon some of its grosser achievements, and to set these in array against all the past ? Is it to regard the spirit of the age as a Divine Inspira- tion, which has only to move on unobstructed and unopposed, to accomplish, for mankind, the most beneficent results ? Or, in fine, is it our province to regard the characteristics of our age as inevitable effects from causes that have been at work hereto- fore, and to conceive that the vicissitudes of the future, like those of the past, must be governed by a blind and uncontrollable destiny ? Neither of these courses, I should suppose, was tbe dictate of true wisdom. We are placed here as teachers and guides of our time. To fulfil that mis- sion as we ought, we must, in the first place, under- 40 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. Stand our age ; we must, in the second place, sympa- thize to a certain extent with it ; and we must, in the third place, be resolved that we will, God being our helper, do something to improve it. We must understand our age, in order to be understood by it. We must so far sympathize with its great movements, that they who are borne along by them will not be disinclined to listen to us ; and improvement we must believe to be possible, or we shall not be induced to attempt it. But how can one understand his age, unless he be willing to see and to admit both its merits and its defects ; or, how can he have due sym- pathy with this or with any period of history, unless he remember that, in all periods, the same corrupt heart of man holds sway ; and that hence the same essential evils, however differing in shape or in degree, must prevail in all. And he who, with a right good will, would labor to exalt and bless mankind, must surely have faith in the efficacy of right efforts rightly applied ; and he must go forth hopefully, in the strength of God and of a good cause, to his work. He must be neither a fatalist nor an optimist. Both the form and the spirit, the body and the pressure of the time, he is to accepts as facts — facts which he cannot set aside though he may leave them out of view ; and he is to consider that it is through these facts, and in the light that they cast upon his path, that he is to labor for the service of the Church of God. These facts he would study and analyze by the aid of a high scriptural philosophy ; and he would study them, not for purposes of speculation, but that he may the better help to guard whatever of blessing we inherit from the past, and to compass whatever of OUR POSITION. 41 blessing is possible in tbe future. Could we but sta- tion such minds, vigilant, large-hearted, forecasting, hopeful, at the great reservoirs of human opinion and influence, what a benign change might be wrought even in a single generation on the moral habits of mankind! The faithful and enlightened student of history finds, since the flood, no age or civilization that he would willingly reproduce, even if he could. And he knows full well that there is none, though ever so much desired, which could be reproduced ; since the forces that now mould societies and nations are not the forces that they once were. He turns, therefore, to the Present, as an inevitable yet ever changing and ever to be modified fact ; and he would so work that this great fact shall be the harbinger of one brighter and more blessed soon to succeed it. The blessings that the world has gained, he would remember and own, that he may be contented and thankful; the blessings that the world has still, through God's help, to achieve, he would never for- get, lest he be tempted to indolence or to self-com- placency. » Finally. We a,re American Ministers of Christ's Protestant and Episcopal Church in this the nine- teenth century. The state and institutions of our country are peculiar ; and hardly less so is our own position as members and clergymen of this Church. We should be surely unworthy of our place, in one of the most prosperous and peaceful lands on earth, if we were not devoutly thankful for the plenty, the. equality, the intelligence and the freedom that sur- round us. As Christians, too, we should rejoice in 4* 42 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. the nominal regard for our religion, whicli obtains throughout the land ; and as Churchmen we may well congratulate ourselves, that our ecclesiastical system is to win its way from a position of compara- tive weakness, to one of general consideration and confidence, beneath the mild sway of equal and toler- ant laws. On the other hand, we may well mourn that with all our blessings as Americans, there is still so little of true contentment among us. We may well mourn, that there is sometimes so much impatience of the restraints of law, and always such overweening na- tional self-esteem, combined with a tone of detraction so ungenerous and undistinguishing in respect to the institutions and condition of other lands. We may well be saddened, when we observe how much of our philanthropy is spurious and superficial ; how much of our zeal for the public good is but another name for selfishness and ambition. And for the future of our land, may we not sometimes tremble, when we see how the bands of parental authority and domestic afiection are relaxed ; how much insolent contempt is expressed for the wisdom of the past ; — how the religious world is swayed to and fro between dogmatism on the one hand and mysticism on the other ; and what a fearful divorce often obtains between the profession and the obligations, the faith and the moralities of the Christian life ? Under such circumstances what is our duty ? It seems to me to be obvious. It is to remember that we are Americans, and that both our form of govern- ment and the characteristic features of our social system are fixed — fixed both in the habits and in the OUR POSITION. 43 afFections of the people. Our duty is, to guard against the tendency of studies, which lie much with the past, to disaifect us towards the faith and civiliza- tion of the present. We should consider, too, that the traditionary beliefs and practice of nine-tenths of the American people are at variance with our own ; and that if we would gain a hearing for our cause it must be done through kindness, courtesy, and a blame- less Christian life. We must beware, too, of the fatal mistake of confounding the essentials of our Church- system, with the abuses in civil or ecclesiastical ad- ministration, which have been sometimes associated with it in our fatherland ; and never should we be led to speak or act as if we were the champions, the defenders, or even the apologists for despotism. We must also struggle against the somewhat provincial reverence for the current theology and literature of our Anglican mother, which even yet keeps our Church mind too much in vassalage, and which is so apt to embroil us in controversies, or charge us with sentiments alien to our true mission as American Episcopalians. We must, for ourselves, resort to the great masters of ancient and modern theology, and substitute them as our manuals in place of the ex- tracts, abridgments, and superficial treatises, which too often engross our time. We must strive, too, to lay the foundation of a more stable faith and of a higher Christian life among our people, by working out thoroughly the principles of our system in regard to the training of the young — whether at home, at school, or at church. And in fine, we must cultivate in our hearts, and in the hearts of all our people, a generous and enlightened interest in whatever can 44 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. benefit our country, and our whole country — in what- ever can purify morals, or raise the tone of public intelligence and public taste — in whatever can pro- mote a healthy feeling of Christian brotherhood among all classes, and in all that can invest our own communion with a more benign and powerful influence in dealing with the prevailing disorders of society, or •with the current errors in Christian doctrine and practice. I have thus sketched, too briefly for the subject, but too much at length for the occasion, some of the main features that characterize our position as Minis- ters of Christ. As Ministers or stewards it is re- quired that we be found faithful ; as stewards of the mysteries of God, that we be about our Master's busi- ness ; as Ambassadors of Christ, that we know nothing save Christ and him crucified; — and as Ministers here and now — in this church, at this time, in this land, that we be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Fulfilled in its true spirit, with a large, enlightened, and earnest mind, no calling can be nobler than ours. We deal with the highest senti- ments of man's nature, and with his most momentous interests. We go with him from his birth even to his death, and never do we leave him till we give back, embalmed with words of hope and promise, his inani- mate clay to its last earthly rest. We are with him in his hours of deepest sorrow and of liveliest joy ; and if we cleave, in our Master's spirit, to our Master's work, we must wrest from every ingenuous mind its warmest aff'ection and regard. Speaking the truth of God in the name of God ; constituted OUR POSITION. 45 dispensers of his peculiar grace, our words, if meetly chosen and meetly uttered, must go winged with more than earthly power. An unction from the Holy One waits to iiw^est them with a regal authority, and to mark both Minister and people as the chosen of the Lord. Take heed, then, man of God, to thyself and to the doctrine. Ye, who your Lord's commission bear, His way of mercy to prepare, Angels he calls ye ; be your strife To lead on earth an Angel's life. Think not of rest ; though dreams be sweet, Start up, and ply your heavenward feet. Is not God's oath upon your head, Ne'er to sink back on slothful bed, Never again your loins untie, Nor let your torches waste and die. Till, when the shadows thickest fall, Ye hear your Master's midnight call ?* * Keble's Christian Year. (2d Sunday in Advent.) THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER A STUDENT. r.r .., , J, J, SECOND CHARGE. My Brethren oe the Clergy: In addressing you a year since, I announced my intention to offer, should God permit, a series of connected counsels on some of the most important of our common duties, as Ministers of Christ. I then referred to self-culture, in its largest sense, as the most essential of these duties, since a clergyman's personal character and endowments form the instru- ment with which he works, whether for his own wel- fare, or for the welfare of others. It is an instrument, too, which he may fabricate to a great extent with his own hand, thus assuring himself of its temper and worth ; and in proportion as, in this respect, he takes heed to himself, in the same proportion will he win honor to his Master, blessing to mankind, and a glo- rious recompense to his own soul. The more holy his heart, the more resolute his will, the more vigorous, comprehensive, active, and well-furnished his intellect, and the more perfect his power of imprinting his own convictions and aspirations on the souls of others — so much the greater will be his capacity for good, and * Delivered May, 1850. 5 60 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. SO much the nobler the crown that awaits him at the last day. In my first charge, I endeavored to point out the peculiar position of our ministry in this age and land, with some of the effects which that position ought to have, in modifying our professional efforts and our methods of self-culture. I proceed on this occasion to consider the subject of self-culture by itself, and shall confine myself, after a few prefatory remarks, to one of its branches, and to that branch considered under but one of several aspects. That branch of self-culture which I shall first dis- cuss, may be called the intellectual^ as distinguished from that which is moral and spiritual. To form a mind well stored with knowledge, and well trained for enlightened and thoughtful effort, is of course the primary object of intellectual culture. To prepare that mind to convey to others, through language and other modes of utterance, the precise notions and feelings with which it is itself possessed, is another object of the same species of culture; and to qualify it for conducting well and wisely the practical affairs of life, for leading the minds around it to act on their own acknowledged convictions, and to rise gradually through effort and reflection to higher views of duty and en- joyment, is a third and most important end. We have thus three distinct objects of intellectual train- ing, whether that training be conducted by others, or ordered by ourselves. These may be designated by the three words, logical, rhetorical, and administra- tive, — it being the aim of the first to develop and per- fect the power of thought ; of the second, to cultivate the powers of utterance or expression, taking those HOW WE SHOULD STUDY. 61 terms in the most extensive sense; of the third, to bestow the wisdom and efficiency which qualify us for the practical duties of our station. They are objects which must be pursued, of course, more or less in common, and the powers with which we become in- vested, through a culture so extended, will be em- ployed often simultaneously in one and the same sphere. If we consider them with respect to the duties or responsibilities of a Christian minister, and as pursued by him after he enters his profession, they are powers of which the first will find its most appro- priate sphere mainly in the study — the second mainly in the pulpit and desk — the third mainly in the parish and among the people. Whatever I have to offer then, under the head of self-culture for the clergy^ will belong to one of the three following topics : The Christian Minister a Student. The Christian Minister a Preacher. The Christian Minister a Pastor, and Ser- vant OF men for Christ's sake. ' ^ In thus directing your attention in the first place to the cultivation of the intellect, I mean not to dis- parage that which must ever be regarded as para- mount, — the cultivation of the heart. Never would I forget, nor have forgotten the fact, that a devout and conscientious spirit is infinitely more important than any knowledge, though it could compass all mysteries, or any eloquence, though it could speak with the tongue of angels, or any power, though it could re- move mountains. I postpone this topic, in form, not because it is secondary, but mainly because, being of primary and universal necessity, it should not only be an object of special care, but should blend itself with 62 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. every branch of ministerial self-culture. Whether engaged as a student, or called to proclaim to men the riches of Christ, or employed in the manifold, delicate, and perplexing cares of a Pastor's office, there is no guard, no guide, so needful, as an humble, dutiful, and pious temper of mind ; and this, therefore, will be insisted upon at every step of our inquiry. Beginning life, as we all do, without knowledge or mental development, our intellectual growth is the result, in part, of culture applied in our earlier years by others, in part, of circumstances over which we have little control, and in part, of voluntary efforts of our own, more or less deliberate. It is to the last of these alone that we refer, when we use the terms intellectual self-culture. As we are never too old to improve morally, so never should we suppose that we are too much ad- vanced in years, or too well accomplished in mind, to supersede the demand for earnest and enlightened effort, that we may enlarge our store of knowledge, correct our intellectual defects, and rise to new and larger views of truth. Life is a race, whose goal stands directly over the tomb, and we are never to count ourselves as having wholly lost or wholly won the prize, till we gain permission to lay aside our mortal, that we may put on immortality. Who will be prepared to enter on the higher progress which belongs to the " life beyond life," but he who has kept his faculties bright by use, and who never ceases to regard himself as a pupil in the school of expe- rience and of Infinite Wisdom ? How inglorious, with a never-ending career before us, to rest on laurels already gained ! More inglori- HOW WE SHOULD STUDY. 63 ous still, to rest before laurels have been gained — before one worthy trophy of our fidelity and power has been attained. To underrate our power over our- selves, over our whole intellectual as well as moral state, is the mistake of every period of life — espe- cially is it the mistake of those who have reached its meridian, and who begin to bow beneath the yoke of tyrant habits. Never should we think it too late to supply deficiencies in our knowledge, or to repress evil tendencies in our manner of thinking or reading. Because all may not become deeply learned, because many can never hope to dazzle the world by the splendor of their creative genius, are they therefore to consign themselves to sloth or despondence ? Let them rather rise and quit themselves like men. We all can form ourselves to habits of mind more just and active than we have yet attained. All can cul- tivate those moral dispositions, which predispose us to love the truth, and aid us in understanding it ; and all can gradually gather new light to guide them amid the cares and duties appointed by God. To as- sume, then, that there are in our previous education no mistakes wholly irretrievable, that there is in the way of our future improvement no insuperable obstacle, and that there is hardly any summit of excellence to which we may not at length ascend — this is the true wisdom ; and to act bravely and unflinchingly upon it, is the sure way to do great things for ourselves, and for mankind. We may not win indeed all we as- pire to ; but we shall not fail of the proud consci- ousness that we have done what we could, while the pleasure of constant self-improvement, and the privi- 5-^ 64 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. lege of rendering increased and ever increasing ser- vice to others, will be our sufficient reward. To a Christian minister, the objects of intellectual culture are both general and special, — the former embracing such as are common to him with other men, the latter including such onlj as pertain to his profession. As a man, he is to aim first of all to unfold and discipline, in due proportion, the several faculties which are employed in the per- ception and appreciation of truth, such as mem- ory, judgment, imagination, and reasoning; and in the second place, he is to apply these powers dili- gently and wisely, in acquiring exact knowledge, where such knowledge is possible, and in forming judicious opinions, where they alone are within his reach. As a minister of Christ he is to cultivate the special powers and habits that fit him for the mastery of Divine Truth ; and the largest amount of such truth he is to collect, alike for his own edification and for the instruction and benefit of others. These two ob- jects of study — the development of intellectual power and the acquisition of knowledge — are by no means so distinct as may at first sight be thought. They are in truth to be sought and attained, for the most part, by the same methods and in the same line of study. He who would adopt a system of self-culture, which will best furnish and enrich his mind with positive truth, will usually find it in the studies which most contribute also to quicken, strengthen, and subordinate his various faculties of thought. And on the other hand, he who would find the readiest way to develop and invigorate all the higher powers of the intellect, ought in general to select such studies as open to him HOW WE SHOULD STUDY. 55 tlie largest treasures of true knowledge. The severer studies, that most tax our powers of reflection and in- vention, are precisely those which best supply the keys with which we unlock the noblest and most proli- fic truths in Nature, Providence, and Revelation. The immediate object of a true culture, is to place our minds in a commanding position, whence they can overlook the whole field of actual, and, to some ex- tent, even of possible knowledge, and above all to endue them with the power and will to explore that field. Everywhere and always its object should not be so much to read books, as to mark, learn, and in- wardly digest books that are good — those which em- balm and treasure up " the precious life-blood of mas- ter spirits." Its aim should be through books, to master subjects — to study facts only in reference to principles. And it should rejoice rather in the power, which can think and investigate wisely, and which is thus potentially endowed with all knowledge, than in the present possession of any number of facts or even principles, however great. With these preliminary remarks, I hasten to the main subject of this charge, which is, the proper 9net?iody matter, and motive for ministerial studies, in our own church, age, and land. In other words, I propose to answer the three questions that seem most to concern those students of Divine truth, who are charged with the solemn trust of acting as messen- gers, watchmen, and stewards of the Lord. I. How OUGHT WE TO STUDY ? c II. What ought we to study? III. Why ought we to study ? 5B DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. I. How OUGHT WE TO STUDY ? — In attempting a reply to this question, I shall not enter upon any metaphysical questions respecting method. My aim is to present practical hints, and my remarks will bear rather on the spirit and general intent with which we ought to study, than on the precise principles, philo- sophical or logical, which may be conceived to apply to the question. My counsels, too, will address them- selves rather to the prevailing wants of the clergy, than to such individual emergencies as may arise. Few maxims can be laid down which will hold without qualification in every case, and to each one's own judgment must be referred the special system that he ought to adopt, to give the best effect to his efforts at self-improvement. If asked then, how ought clergymen to study, I should answer, 1. Earnestly. 2. Comprehensively. 3. Candidly. 4. Reverently. 5. Freely. 6. Sys- tematically and progressively. 1. Earnestly, I use this term in a sense, perhaps somewhat more extended than is usual. I understand by it not merely warmth and activity, for these may be expended on objects the most insignificant and unworthy. Men are often earnest and intensely so in pursuit of gold, of pleasure, of power, and even of revenge. Nor do I mean merely the fervor with which studies, even the highest, may be pursued, if it be for their own sake only, or for the sake of some transient benefit or pleasure which they afford. The really earnest man is one who has an object before him worthy of the zealous devotion of his best powers. The earnest minister is one whose heart's desire and prayer to God is, that he may bless and save his HOW WE SHOULD STUDY^ 57 flock ; and the minister who is earnestly studious in the sense which becomes him, and in that intended in this place, is one who subordinates all study and all intellectual effort to the one work of winning souls. With him, study is not so much an end as a means. It is not the grand employment within which his efforts and aspirations are to expend themselves. It is the arena on which he trains himself for a manly and- ever-during conflict with the powers of evil and error within his own breast, and in the world without. It is the school in which he arms himself for the noblest of all victories, — a victory over his own igno- rance, indolence, and self-will ; for the noblest of all ministries, — a ministry to the souls for which Christ was content to die. In keeping ever before him that purpose — a purpose so definite, so practical, so high and heavenly — he has a pledge, that his studies will not only be ardent and diligent, but effective also ; and not effective only in adding to an intellectual wealth, which may take to itself wings and fly away, but yet more effective in gaining, both for himself and them that hear him, a saving and imperishable wis- dom. Such practical earnestness will do much to guard us against idleness. He who would be really diligent in business, must be fervent in spirit also. Sore are the temptations, brethren, that beset us to fritter away the hours that should be given to severe and generous intellectual toil. Between the claims of friendship and the exactions of society, between the intrusions of the idle and the demands of the busy, what with visits to the sick and afflicted, what with preaching the Gospel from house to house, what with "58 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. discharging public, though not official trusts, and meeting our domestic duties, he needs indeed a stern purpose, who would combine the habits of a true stu- dent with ministerial fidelity. Time is left to us, but it is time sadly broken up and rarely to be called our own. What then is to rouse us to this sternness of effort, but a strong conviction that study is that, with- out which our most sacred duties cannot be well dis- charged ? Away with the thought that such duties can be met aright by men whose minds are not quick- ened and strengthened by constant reading and re- flection — whose stores of information and range of thought are not constantly enlarging. What are the terms of our commission ? Does it not charge us to go teaching every man and warning every man, ^. c, supplying instructions and exhortations adapted to every variety of character, every stage of culture, every mood of mind ? Do we not preach to men, roused to the most earnest activity by surrounding events — ^men accustomed to the utmost freedom of discussion, and to daily and stirring appeals from the press? Are we not to dispense truth to those of every state and condition in life, from the humblest in mental stature to those most exalted — from babes in Christ to full-grown men — from the dullest intellect and the most torpid conscience, to the clearest of ap- prehension and the most fervent in faith, — from the insolent and reckless scoffer, to the keen and sagacious but perverse skeptic ? Yes, to each we are to give his portion of meat in due season. We are to bring forth out of our treasury not things old only, but things new and old. We are to put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. We are to banish the too HOW WE SHOULD STUDY. 69 prevalent notion that the pulpit is a place for nothing but iterated truisms, for crude assumption, or inconse- quent reasoning. We are to beware lest reproach fall on our religion, through teaching which is rash or superficial. We are not to be always laying again the foundation, but we are to go on unto perfection, striving to unfold the boundless wealth of Christ's doctrine, as it bears on the diversified relations and vicissitudes of this our earthly lot. And can he be expected to do this, who does not study, and study with his might ? Brethren, how frugal should we be of time ! How should we gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost ! How should we bid away from us all the companionship that kills time — all foolish talking'and jesting — all vacant or roving thoughts — • all unnecessary rest and recreation ! How should we have printed on our remembrance the solemn thought, that souls intrusted to us, freighted with the full weight of an endless blessing or an endless curse, are daily departing to meet their God. Such practical earnestness will also guard us against literary Upieurism. This is one of the be- setting sins of those who call themselves students. Too often they read, rather for amusement or the gratification of some private fancy, than to fit them- selves for the great battle of life. Too often the im- portunate demands of our current literature are allowed to thrust aside that robust culture and that specific line of research, which would make us able ministers of the New Testament. I counsel no studied disregard of our original propensities — no needless crucifixion of natural or acquired taste ; I appreciate too highly the value of a cordial and hearty devotion 60' DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. of the mind to its work, and know too well how much we need it as a counterpoise to intellectual inertia, and to the manifold distractions and allurements hy which we are surrounded. Still it should not be for- gotten, that self-indulgence is always dangerous, and self-restraint and self-direction always a duty. To yield ourselves passively to the impulse of an intel- lectual appetite, regardless of the claims of our pro- fession, is too much like being vassals, where we are commanded to be masters. It is less ignominious than bondage to sensual appetite ; but it may be doubted whether it is always more innocent. Where propensities belong to our higher nature, there the obligation to control them aright, would seem to be only the more imperative and sacred. Many is the intel- lectual Epicure, who flatters himself in the very spirit of the Pharisee, that he is not as other men — not as the idle, the frivolous-minded — when to the eye of the All-seeing, he lacks all that is most needful to the true scholar. How important then to keep distinctly in view, the work with which we are charged ! We have promised " out of the Scriptures to instruct such as are or may be committed to our charge." We have promised to " be ready with all faithful diligence to banish and drive away from the Church all erroneous and strange doctrines which are contrary to God's word ; and to use both public and private monitions and exhorta- tions as need shall require and occasion shall be given." Are such vows duly kept, if we devote to alien studies those hours which are needed for profes- sional learning? Be it admitted (as unquestioned truth) that our duties do require not only theological HOW WE SHOULD STUDY. 61 knowledge, but also a generous erudition in letters and even in science ; still all should be held in direct subordination to our proper duties. We are encom- passed on every hand, by those who are hungering and thirsting for spiritual sustenance. We are pressed by questions, which touch on the very foundations or strong walls of our faith. We are interrogated by minds strained to their utmost tension, and whom nothing can satisfy, but counsels, just, clear, and large- minded. Never was it more necessary to fall back on God's word, wisely expounded, and on a distinct and firm apprehension of great first truths. Is this then the time for a luxurious and eflfeminate culture ? Is this a day for what we call light reading ? or for a merely secular and unsanctified scholarship ? This practical earnestness will serve further to guard us even in our theological studies^ against such as are too fiHvolous on the one hand, or too 'purely speculative on the other. Our path through life is encompassed with intellectual as with spiritual dangers. If we rise above the dead weight of indolence, and withstand the seductions of a lettered self-indulgence, we shall then encounter the hazard of wasting our strength on all but useless inquiries. How few among those who seem even earnest in study, achieve much for their own minds or for the world ? As there have been cultivated ages and nations, incapable appa- rently of all creative efi'ort, so in every age and in every nation there are individual scholars who doom the highest powers of their souls to inaction, or waste them in laborious idleness. In the intellectual decline of the ancient Greeks and Romans, they soon reached a period when all the fires of original genius seemed 6 62 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. to die out, and those gifted people aspired henceforth but to swell the funeral train or watch beside the grave of departed greatness. And is it not so with individuals even now ? Are there not scholars, even in our profession and our communion, who expend high talent in elaborate trifling, in verbal disputations, in childish criticisms, or in studies that seem to have defined for themselves no aim or purpose ? Are there not those who linger long over insoluble enigmas in metaphysical or sacramental theology, and devote to the vain attempt to settle questions that have defied the sagacity of the ablest among the sons of men, that time and zeal which are needed to furnish us for our daily duties ? Even in studying the Bible or the standards of the Church, we can have no sure guar- antee against such errors, unless we carry to the task minds disciplined and enlarged by a thoughtful con- test with the practical cares of life. We should beware of study, divorced from action, as carefully as we should beware of action unenlightened by study. What we need are sober, robust, and discriminating minds, that will not perpetually Inistake shadow for substance, nor exalt questions the most puerile into issues that involve the fate of nations or the existence of the Church. Can we read the history of the past and yet not see, that while principles, and great ones doubtless, underlie most protracted controversies among Christians, still those controversies owed much of their virulence and duration to unduly magnifying points which were merely incidental or insignificant? And does not that history .show fur- ther, that every attempt to settle by authority, points even the most grave — if they are points that elude HOW WE SHOULD STUDY. 63 our understanding by their subtlety, or defy our com- prehension by their vastness — is an attempt as short- lived as it is futile ? It becomes us to denounce no line of study which is likely to open new mines of truth — to proscribe no scholastic labors, which can cast new light on the word or will of God. But to a Christian Pastor — and this must ever be the office of a great proportion of our clergy — to a Christian Pastor, called to deal directly with the consciences and understandings of men, pressed with practical questions that bear urgently' on their salvation or edification, — to him it may surely be forgiven if he leaves to others that which pertains to a too curious philosophy, or a too recondite lore. It must be acknowledged, however, that in our time, the tendency to studies too frivolous, or to spe- culations too abstruse, is not that against which we are most called to guard. The most momentous ques- tions that bear upon Practical Religion, and upon the economy of social and even domestic life, are now re-opened ; and they are discussed, not only by the learned and wise, but by those of every condition. Discontent with prevailing institutions and prevail- ing maxims is clearly one of the features of the age, and multitudes of all ranks and degrees of intelli- gence feel called to attempt their improvement. This disposition is increased, if not created, by the stupen- dous innovations wrought through science and indus- try, and through that heroic love of adventure which exhibits so much of the enthusiasm and indefinite longing of the days of chivalry. We may not wonder, then, that the human mind is disposed at such a time to arraign opinions and usages the most venerable, 61 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. demanding by what right they still rule over men. Nor need we wonder that, intoxicated by its own activity, and by a presumptuous self-confidence, it should now and then be borne violently towards the wildest and most monstrous conclusions. If ever there were a call for soberness of mind, in those who act as ambassadors for Christ — if ever they should pray and strive for the wisdom that will steer clear alike of extravagant novelties, and of a blind and bigoted conservatism, it is surely now. And where can that wisdom be fbund but in a thoughtful and earnest devotion to our practical duties ? It is through such devotion alone, that we shall be likely to work our way to a due understanding of the real wants and dangers of our time. It will train us to those prac- tical views, and to that habitual clearness of judg- ment, which form our best safeguard against specu- lative error. It will demonstrate the absurdity of all Utopian dreams of human perfectibility, whether in the individual or in the state. It will awaken our understanding and our sympathies to the precise evils, social and ecclesiastical, under which we labor. It will reveal the utter deceptiveness of many pretended claims and promises; and when we attempt the ardu- ous work of improving or reconstructing institutions, it will keep ever before us man's essential state as a being by nature alike ignorant and sinful, who can be served and permanently exalted only as he can be roused to exertion in obedience to the law, and in dependence on the grace of Christ. Such minds will not wait to evolve a complete theory in respect to the organization of labor, the principles of Education, or the ideal of a Church, before they begin to work, or HOW WE SHOULD STUDY. 65 in order that they may work. They will begin by working — working patiently and hopefully, that thus new light may gradually break on their conceptions of that better state towards which they should aspire. 2. But if we ought to study earnestly, so should we do it comprehensively — in a large and catholic spirit. To be earnest in quest of knowledge, as a help and guide in our cure of souls, is not sufficient, if we are wanting in breadth of mind or in range of information. Mere zeal and ardor without these, will often transport us into bigotry, or urge us toward heresy. To refuse first to reconsider our opinions even on doubtful matters, then to associate them with whatever is most sacred and important, and then to denounce and persecute all who hesitate to accept them, is the too common result of ignorance or of a contracted mind. To refine much again even on points the best settled, to trace them to their sup- posed consequences, under the direction of a hard and peremptory logic, to neglect the rectification of our conclusions, by the plain sense of Scripture and the ancient Fathers, and by the deep and impressible convictions of mankind,— this is another characteris- tic of an uncatholic temper, and it has proved fruitful alike in heresy and in intolerance. Who can rate too highly, Brethren, that large-minded and docile spirit which keeps itself open to light from whatever quar- ter ? Who can prize too dearly the aid which difierent branches of knowledge can yield to each other? How unexpected and impressive the confirmation of old opinions, which often flashes from studies apparently the most remote from our own! From how many sources, critical, historical, moral, and even physical, 66 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. may we not gather aid in elucidating the sacred text ! How can nature help us in understanding the Bible, and the Bible again in apprehending aright many of the laws of nature ! How do the same facts and prin- ciples change their aspect, as we view them succes- sively, from the stand-point of a free and critical reason, and from that of mere human authority! How different the teachings of God's pure word, un- corrupted by tradition, unobscured by philosophy, falsely so called, from the conclusions of a stern, dogmatic theology! Do men approach the great questions of religion with nothing but an imperious, practical understanding ? We need not wonder that they descend rapidly towards the depths of a Deistic Rationalism. Do others apply to the same problems only the maxims of a philosophy more spiritual and transcendental ? We need not be surprised if their conclusions, too, are at variance with Scripture, and with observed facts. So long as we accept but one pri- mary source or criterion of knowledge, be it authority or reason, be it blind submission to any teaching, short of God's own word in its unquestionable import, or be it the intuitions of the lower understanding, or of higher consciousness, or even of the Christian affec- tions — in each case, the ultimate conclusions will be found wanting in the breadth and comprehensiveness which characterize "the truth as it is in Jesus." That truth is adjusted with respect to our whole com- plex nature, soul, body, and spirit. It speaks to all the different powers and susceptibilities of our minds. It was intended to give play and development to every faculty ; and while in its rudiments it stands on a level with the apprehension of the child, it HOW WE SHOULD STUDY. 67 mounts in its higher declarations, far above the range of any mortal intellect, and calls us to bow down in wonder and adoration, confessing that God's ways are not our ways, nor his thoughts our thoughts. 3. Again. As we should study, earnestly and comprehensively, so in the third place, should we do it in a candid and teachable manner. We all start on the race of life without knowledge ; and the mea- sure in which we attain it, must depend not only on the earnestness and comprehensiveness of our inqui- ries, but also on the strict integrity and frankness with which we conduct them. A perverse or disin- genuous temper will cast deep shadows over our intel- lect, even though it be surrounded by the effulgence of a midday sun — causing us to put darkness for light, and light for darkness. So much there is of intrinsic difficulty in many of the subjects that chal- lenge our attention, and so closely do they press upon some of the deepest and most powerful of our sensi- bilities, that we cannot be too much on our guard against adventitious embarrassments, superinduced by our own prejudices and passions. If the Gospel contains doctrines and precepts that commend them- selves to every man's conscience, so does it contain others, that are foolishness to the speculative and earthly-minded Greek, stones of stumbling to the sensual and pageant-loving Jew. If questions arise that transcend all reason, and lay a heavy tribute on our faith, how many more are there that lay burdens on our integrity, and that will ever be rejected, except by the honest and sincere heart ! Our voyage towards the haven of a complete and harmonious system of Divine Truth — does it not lie between opposing, yet nearly impending errors? Does it not call us to 68 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. accept facts apparently most incongruous? Are we not to find our way as Scientific Theologians between the Scylla of a too scrutinizing understanding and the Charybdis of a blind credulity — between empty formalism on the one hand, and a vapory, unsubstan- tial spiritualism on the other — between such views of God as are too pantheistic, and such as are too anthro- pomorphical — between the theories of Antinomian grace and those of a presumptuous self-righteousness — between an abnegation of all moral liberty, and the claims to a licentious and God-defying freedom — between a faith, so subjective as to be beyond the reach of any intelligible test, and a faith so purely objective as to leave no appeal to the primitive and irrepressible voice of God in the soul ? Brethren ! can we trace the history of controver- sies so often renewed and yet still unsettled, without feeling that there is much in our religion to teach us our imbecility, much to write upon our hearts a solemn sense of the unfathomable depths of the Divine coun- sels ? Can we consider how, from age to age, men of unbounded learning, and of the most sagacious intellect, have addressed themselves to the Divine mysteries, and yet have reached no conclusions that men equally learned, equally able, and equally up- right have not denied — can we consider this as we ought, without feeling that there are matters too high for us, and that while we may form opinions, they should be held as things doubtful ? And when, to the intrinsic darkness that belongs to these subjects, we add the difficulties that embarrass many minds, because of their peculiar position or temperament — because of early prepossessions or long-established HOW WE SHOULD STUDY. G9 habits — does it not become us to look with forbearing eye on much that to us may seem error ? To denounce men because they fail to reach conclusions the same in all respects with our own, as wanting in under- standing, or as deficient in honesty, is a sad commen- tary upon our own intelligence and generosity. It is to make our minds and opinions the standard of all orthodoxy. It is to claim, in our own behalf, quite too exclusive an exemption from the frailties and infirmi- ties of our common humanity. When we meet what seems error, is it not well, at least, to hope that it may have, to those who hold it, the very aspect — the " counterfeit presentment" — of truth ; or that, though questionable even to them, it may still stand associated in their judgment with truths so certain, or with interests so momentous, that they dare not assail it ? Far from us be the unkind and unbrotherly spirit which refuses to extend to those of the same household of faith, and to all who name the name of Christ, some measure of the charity which we demand at their hands. And while such considerations urge us to be indul- gent toward others, let them constrain us to be watch- ful and jealous in respect to ourselves. In seeking truth, never let us suppose that we " have appre- hended." All through life, let us proceed as learners ; and let us remember that there are few sources from which we may not gather some help in understanding the works, ways, and will of the Almighty. Vigi- lantly and anxiously should we watch, lest unholy desire or passion cloud the clearness of our intellec- tual eye. Earnestly should we strive, lest we prefer our own opinion before the judgments of truth, or 70 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. cling more to that which will make for our present ease, or credit, or pleasure, than to that which will redound to our everlasting well-being. Never may we forget, that if we would know the mind of Christ, we must love truth better than party, and covet more the glory of him who can rule his own spirit, than the transient triumph of one, who beholds his adver- sary silenced perhaps, but not convinced — defeated it may be, but neither enlightened nor made holy. These remarks have grown so unexpectedly and so unduly under my hand, that I must hasten to con- clude. I have said that as our studies should be con- ducted earnestly, comprehensively, and candidly, so again they should be characterized by reverence, by freedom, and by progressiveness. On these last topics, I can merely indicate some of the principles, which, as it seems to me, ought to regulate us, in our efforts at intellectual self-culture. 4. Our studies and investigations should be con- ducted in a reverent spirit. The great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ are everywhere placed before us, as the paramount objects of our regard and sub- mission. It must always become beings, so short- sighted and erring as men, to keep silence when the voice of Infinite Wisdom is put forth, and to bow before its teachings with a filial and confiding faith. That voice speaks now, obscurely, through outward nature ; now, more clearly, through the detjp instincts and intuitions of our own souls. Now it comes to us clear and full, through the trumpet of the Gospel ; now it speaks more vaguely and ambiguously from hidden oracles in the Old or New Testaments. Now it is God himself or his messengers full fraught HOW WE, SHOULD STUDY. 71 with his own Spirit and wisdom ; now it is uninspired, yet most holy sage, or priest, or lawgiver. Now it is a proclamation, sounding forth from the collected intelligence or the universal conscience of our race ; now it is the consentient judgment of those who, acting in their official capacity, would define the faith of the Church. Now it is the accordant judgment of learned doctors and fathers, speaking each for him- self ; and now the individual judgment of the autho- rized ministers of Christ, when preaching publicly or from house to house. In all these cases, the matter spoken, if true, is in one sense divine ; and though not true, the source whence it comes entitles it to be considered with respect and discussed with care. He who has the fear of God before his eyes, and who feels properly his own fallibility, will sit with docility at the feet of all who are able to teach ; and he will at least presume, until evidence shall overthrow the presumption, that where there is lawful authority, there is ability too. In the father, at the head of his family, in the law-making and law-administering power at the head of the state, and in the ministers and pas- tors of Christ's flock, he will recognize a rightful, though not unlimited or arbitrary authority ; and he will feel that the best interests of mankind and the truest welfare of his own soul require that that autho- rity should be upheld and revered. Woe betide the people who have thrown off all alle- giance to a superior power ! and woe, too, to them, whether they be a nation, a church, or individuals, who in their pretended reverence for God, withhold all submission towards his earthly representatives ! 5. But if our studies should be reverent, so also 72 DISCOURSES AND. CHARGES. should they he free and manly. God has not given us inquiring and investigating minds for nought. To no man, who has the capacity, has he denied the right to think, or to ask a reason for the faith or the obe- dience which is claimed at his hands. In proportion as we have true reverence, we shall exalt the will and teachings of the infallible Jehovah above those of frail and fallible men ; and in the same proportion, will it be our privilege to question those who profess to speak with a superhuman wisdom, or by a superhuman authority. The largest freedom and the deepest reve- rence are not only compatible, they mutually imply each other — there being no true freedom, except where there is a sense of our limited powers and our essential dependence, nor any true reverence, unless it be the spontaneous homage of our souls to an autho- rity seen to be alike legitimate and competent. A blind and unreasoning faith cannot be more grateful to God, than an ignorant and senseless devotion. He best honors his Heavenly Master and his earthly guides who is able to vindicate the allegiance he pays them. After all that a reverent reason can comprehend there will still be a boundless expanse, where implicit trust in the Divine truth and goodness will be our only resource; and to prepare us for making our way with unfaltering wing over that great sea, we need to have seen for ourselves that God's ways are just and true, his works great and marvellous. We need to have certified ourselves that the word in which we are called to trust is really divine, and that many of its disclosures have been verified by experience, and others expounded by reason. Where there is true modesty — a sense of our own HOW WE SHOULD STUDY. T8 weakness — a perception of the superior wisdom of others, and a profound veneration for God's word, there freedom of inquiry is safe and salutary. Where that temper of heart is wanting, all professions of reverence for authority, all outward tests, however rigidly enforced, will fail to induce true wisdom, or guard us against error, heresy, and schism. 6. I should gladly dwell, did time permit, upon the importance of systematic, as opposed to desultory studies, and of study aiming at the progressive deve- lopment of truth and of our own powers, as opposed to that movement without progress, that reproduction of the same materials in new forms, which charac- terizes too much, perhaps, both of our preaching and our habits of reading. There is a deal of miscellaneous reading, especially in our day, which can do little to enlarge our knowledge, while it is sure to impair ma- terially the mind's vigor, and its power of concentra- tion. There is a diligence in preparing discourses for the pulpit which lays little tax upon our higher faculties, and contributes hardly anything to the range or precision of our own knowledge, or that of others. To aim at a constant advance in our views of Divine truth, and in our power of unfolding it, to be satisfied with nothing short of progress in theolo- gical learning, and in the clearness, precision, and compass of our opinions, and to be bent on building up our flocks not only in the first principles, but in the full and harmonious stature and proportion of Christian doctrine and Christian practice, is that, as it seems to me, towards which all should aspire, and to which all, according to the measure of their capa- 7 •T4 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. city and opportunities, should attain. But on this topic I may not dwell. I have discussed but one of the three questions "which I proposed fOr consideration when I began, and this has been treated in a manner, I am conscious, which is by no means complete. Let me close with one or two questions, which I would present for our common benefit. At our ordination, as priests, we promised that we would be " diligent in reading the Holy Scriptures, and in such studies as help to the knowledge of the same, laying aside the study of the world and of the flesh." That promise was preceded by an awfully solemn exhortation that we would " consider how studious we ought to be in reading and learning the Scripture, and in framing the manners both of ourselves and of them that specially pertain unto us, according to the rule of the same Scripture, and for the self-same cause, how we ought to forsake and set aside as much as we may all worldly cares and studies." My brethren of the clergy, let us often ask ourselves whether these, our paramount duties as students and as pastors, are duly considered. This promise to be diligent in reading the Scriptures, and in all auxiliary studies, is it faithfully kept ? Are we students indeed, and is the Bible the one great sub- ject on which the best of our labors are expended? And these sacred studies, are they prosecuted with a temper so devout, candid, and humble, that we may expect in their behalf, the special aid and benediction of Almighty God ? Are we diligent also in prayer, and in framing the manners, both of ourselves and of them that specially pertain to us ? Thus only can we HOW WE SHOULD STUDY. 75 acquit ourselves of our solemn vows and obligations. Thus only can we presume upon the cheering and sustaining presence of God's good Spirit in our hearts and on our tmls, and thus alone, will we win at last the " Well done, good and faithful servant," of our Lord. "These messengers," says Archbishop Leighton, speaking of the clergy, " should come near the life of angels, always beholding the face of the Father of lights; but if their afifections be engaged to the world, their faces will still be that way. Fly high, they may, sometimes, in some speculations of their own ; but, like the eagle, for all their soaring, their eye will still be upon some prey, some carrion here below. Upright, meek, humble, and heavenly minds, then, must the ambassadors of this great King have, and so obtain his intimacy; mounting up on those wings of prayer and meditation, and having the eye of faith upwards. Thus shall they learn more of his choicest mysteries in one hour than by many days poring upon casuists and schoolmen and such-like. This ought to be done, I confess ; but above all, the other must not be omitted. Their chief study should be that of their commission, the Holy Scriptures. The way to speak chiefly from God, is often to hear him speak. ' The Lord has given me the tongue of the learned,' says the evangelic prophet (chiefly in- tending Christ), ' to speak a word in season to the weary.' (Aye, that is the learnedest tongue when all is done.) But how? *He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.' (Isaiah 1 : 4.) Thus we see how these 76 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. ambassadors have need to be friends, and intimate friends with their Lord. Tor if they be much with God in the Mount, their return to men will be with brightness in their faces, and the law in their hands ; their lives and their doctrines shall be heavenly." THE STUDIES. OF THE CIEEGY. THIED CHAEGE * My Reverend Brethren : I propose to resume this morning a subject which I introduced to your notice when we last met. That subject addresses ministers of Christ as students, and presents as worthy of their consideration three ques- tions : I. How WE OUGHT TO STUDY ? , II. What we ought to study ? and III. Why we ought to study ? To the first only of these topics, that touching the method of study, was I able to give attention at that time. I proceed then on this occasion to consider the matter of the studies which pertain to our profes- sion ; or in other words, I shall endeavor to answer the question, what ought to be his subjects and text- books for study, who is called, in this age and land, to discharge the duties of a minister of the Protestant Episcopal Church. In entering on this subject, I need hardly remind ^ Delivered, May, 1851. 80 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. you that no studies, even the most sacred, can impart true wisdom, unless they enlist the heart as well as the understanding, nor unless the spirit of Him who was meek and lowly guide and animate our labors. Neither the sublime teachings of Christ nor His stu- pendous miracles served to excite among many who heard him more than contemptuous cavils, while to others they were only subjects for curious and unpro- fitable speculation. The same sad propensities beset, more or less, every one who comes to the study and contemplation of Christian truth. They can be with- stood only through watchful self-scrutiny and an humble dependence upon the grace of Christ. If prayer without study be presumption, study without prayer must, in a minister of Christ, be the height of impiety. It may be proper to observe here, that the propor- tion of our time which ought to be allotted to study must depend upon the claims of our more urgent practical duties. These are always entitled to our first and most anxious thoughts. We study, that we may be enabled to preach the Gospel of the grace of God more effectually, both in public and from house to house. We study, that we may the better hold up the weahy heal the sick, hind up the hroJcen, bring again the outcasts, seek the lost, that we may be so merciful that we he not too remiss, and so minister discipline that we forget not mercy. But if these be the great and legitimate objects of ministerial study, then to postpone them, that we may have time for its luxuries, is not only to postpone the end to the means, but is to run the hazard of losing sight altogether of our true mission. " Theological learning," says ano- WHAT WE SHOULD STUDY. 81 ther, " is the profession of the clergy ; and it may justly be said to every ignorant minister of the Gos- pel, ' Thou, which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself?' Yet on the other hand, mere abstract learning, how profound and various soever it. may be, is not an acquisition much to be valued by them ; it is its application to the useful purposes of their pro- fession, to the bringing men from the dominion of sin to Gospel perfection, which will render it of any esti- mation in the sight of God. I mean not here to speak in disparagement of theological learning ; but, I do mean to say, that practice is better than speculation ; and that he who, in promoting the salvation of his flock by a sedulous performance of his pastoral duties, finds not leisure to be learned, instead of our censure, deserves our warmest approbation. It may honorably be said of such a man, ' Contemnehat potius literas, quam nesciehatJ* "* In making choice of studies, we should never forget that they have a twofold object, — the acquiring of knowledge and the training and enriching of our various faculties. What Bacon has happily styled the Georgics of the mind, embraces perhaps the most important part of a liberal self-culture; for knowledge is power, in its perfection; only when the mind is so developed, that it can appropriate and assimilate that knowledge thoroughly on the one hand, and on the other can use it wisely and promptly. For the true scholar, there is in books much more than is usually styled knowledge. There are quickening and ex- panding thoughts, which stir up our minds to reflec- tion and investigation. There are images of beauty * Bishop Watson Tracts, Vol. VI, Appendix. 82 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. and sublimity, which refine the taste and exalt both our conceptions and our aspirations. There are motives and examples, which like the trophies of Miltiades, will not let the thoughtful beholder sleep, and which serve to press and animate him on to deeds of high and generous endeavor. And there are studies, moreover, which to most persons are useful only or chiefly as gymnastics^ which evolve intel- lectual strength and self-mastery through well-directed exercise. Thus the mathematics of our earlier years are serviceable to many, only as they invest us with the power of concentrated and long-continued atten- tion, or as they accustom us to precision in our notions and use of terms. The elements of foreign languages, and of metaphysics, are profitable to most students, mainly because they cultivate the capacity for reason- ing and for nice discrimination. Science, again, helps to make us thoughtful observers of the pheno- mena of nature. History and polite letters render us the same service in respect to the mental and moral constitution of man ; while poetry in its loftier ima- ginings and its gentler musings, contributes to chasten and yet to nourish, to expand and invigorate, our nobler and more refined capacities. Each of these then should have some place in the education of the young — and if in theirs, why not also in the self- culture of manhood? — There is one consideration, which renders the aid of one or more of these studies all but indispensable to him who would attain to a truly normal intellectual state. It is the fact, that every one who is observant of himself, and of his mental tendencies, is likely to discover defects which it behooves him, alike for his own sake and for that WHAT WE SHOULD STUDY. 83 of others, to correct By a wise choice, then, among such studies, and hj a proper use of them, he may contribute greatly to this end. " If a man's wits," says Bacon, "be wandering, let him study the mathe- matics ; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again ; if his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the schoolmen, for they are 'cymini seetores;' if he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call upon one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyers' cases ; so every defect of the mind may have a special receipt."* Besides intellectual defects that pertain to indivi- duals, there are some which are incident to our pro- fession. As ministers of the Gospel and pastors of Christ's flock, we command a certain deference which renders our hearers slow to indicate to us fallacies in reasoning, or errors in fact, or offences against taste, which may be quite evident to those among them who are really intelligent. Occupying the pulpit alone too, with none who can publicly arraign our teaching, we are in danger of contracting a manner too magis- terial, or indulging in disquisitions too loose and ram- bling, or manifesting a flippancy not becoming one who is charged with a trust so solemn and eventful as the cure of souls. To guard us against errors like these, which are often much more obvious to others than to ourselves, a kind and faithful friend is invalu- able. In the absence, however, of his counsels, or in order, if we enjoy them, to make them truly profit- able, let us cultivate studies, such as Logic and Criti- cism, which will enable us to become rigid censors of * Bacon's Works, Vol. T, page 55. 84 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. our own efforts. To those branches, let us add some knowledge of the first principles of Ethical and Specu- lative Philosophy, that we may not grievously misap- prehend nor thoughtlessly misrepresent those great questions which, as they underlie all religion and all morals, cannot but be referred to more or less dis- tinctly, when we come to set forth the grounds and reasons of our faith or duty. With one remark further, I close these preliminary suggestions. He would greatly err, who should ima- gine that books are the only implements of study. It has been well said, that " to make judgment wholly by their rule, is the humor of a scholar," not of a wise man. They enable us "to improve nature," but are capable themselves of being still further improved through experience and reflection. Their value lies in the grand principles with which they enrich our understandings and hearts, and in the disposition and ability which, if properly used, they create, to gather wisdom from every source. Bobks are good servants but bad masters. Therefore read, as a great master advises, " not to believe and take for granted, not to contradict and dispute, not to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider." An active, just, and inquiring mind will collect instruction from every inci- dent of life, and from every vicissitude in the world's history. It will be the wiser for every stray volume or chance companion that it meets by the wayside or in the house ; for it has learned the divine art, which finds tongues in trees, sermons in stones, books in the running brooks, and good, at least for itself, in every- thing. Let me add, too, that he learns most rapidly, who WHAT WB SHOULD STUDY. 85 learns in order to teach. The emergency opens our faculties, making us quick to discern all kindred truth, and quick to embrace it. Time is economized, and friends who have the knowledge we seek, are laid under contribution. And who has nobler opportuni- ties than the parish clergyman to become a teacher, not only in religion, but also in science and in letters ? In Sunday and other schools, whenever he visits them, he can press into his service both secular and sacred knowledge. A still wider field he can make if he helps to direct that taste, now so predominant, for instruction through lectures. Would he not only preach the Word, but would he prepare the under- standings and hearts of his people, the better to appre- hend and appreciate it ; would he become the bene- factor of the whole population where he dwells, by contributing to raise, their tastes and enlarge their knowledge ; would he win all hearts towards his per- son and his ministry, through the incidental good which he is thus enabled to accomplish — he has but to qualify himself to become their teacher in any useful art or branch of knowledge. In the generous attempt to do something for others, he will do yet more for himself. In mastering a few of the leading truths, that pertain to any branch of learning, he creates a centre of attraction towards which matter will begin to converge from every quarter. Passages in reading and facts in experience, that had otherwise been barren, will begin to acquire significance and value. The mind shall be alive ; sooner than it dared to hope, stores of information shall accumulate ; and the wealth and power which are thus gained for one purpose, shall be available for any and for every 8 86 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. other. Nor is there need that in such efforts, we waive, in any particular, the proprieties of our pro- fession. While we always remember into how high a dignity, and to how weighty an office and charge we are called, and see to it that neither the church and congregation of Christ, nor any member thereof, take any hurt or hindrance by reason of our negli- gence, we may also see to it that no means of use- fulness are neglected, and that we engage in such studies and labors, not as mere votaries of science — much less as pedants and sciolists — but as humble ministers of Christ, who are intent upon our Master's business. Having thus touched upon the nature of true and comprehensive study, as distinguished from that which is spurious or partial, I come now to speak of the OBJECTS towards which study should be directed. It was a saying of the ancient critics, that the mind of an orator ought to be stored with all kinds of know- ledge. If this were true of him, who spoke in the Forum or the Senate-house, it can be hardly less true of him whose position combines much that belonged to both of those scenes, and to the popular assembly besides. The man of God is to teach, per- suade, exhort. He is to administer discipline, having oversight and authority. He is to deal with those of each sex, and of every age and condition. He is to address minds that are in every stage of development, from the rudest to the most polished, from the least reflecting to the most curious and inquisitive — minds that sustain every conceivable relation to the faith of Christ, from positive unbelief, through captious skep- ticism and wavering assent, to a faith at once simple WHAT WE SHOULD STUDY. 87 and all-confiding. He is to plead at the bar of reason, of conscience, and of sensibility, knowing however that each is liable to be perverted ; now by stupid or obsti- nate prejudice, now by morbid self-love, now by un- worthy passion, now by ignoble sloth or by groundless fear. He needs the greatness of heart, the courage, which nothing but simple dependence on the presence and grace of Christ can give him. And does he not also need whatever of knowledge, or dialectic skill, or rhetorical power, he can gain from the studies of the schools? He needs wherewith to explain and defend the truth, and he needs wherewith to embel- lish and enforce it. Whatever can move or conciliate, whatever can awe or overpower, whether it be urged upon the soul through the intellect or the imagina- tion, through the aflfections or the conscience, all should be his as the fruit oY converse with the hoarded wisdom of the world, and as the appropriate ally of His cause, who of God is made unto us Wisdom as well as Righteousness. But life is short. The cares of our profession are manifold. Books are scarce, congenial minds are not at hand, and alas ! want is sometimes at the door. We must therefore select, and our selection must con- fine us mainly to the studies that bear directly upon our peculiar duty and profession. As the lawyer must be occupied chiefly with jurisprudence, with fundamental laws and statutes, with commentaries and reported cases ; as the physician must give his hours of leisure and study to researches in medicine ; so the man of God, forsaking and setting aside, as much as he may, all worldly cares and studies, should devote his best strength to sacred lore. Theology by 8§ DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. itself is a vast field, stretching away from the sacred Scriptures over voluminous commentaries and biblical helps ; over the writings of learned divines, and the decisions of venerable synods ; over the symbolical books of churches, and the whole history of God's people in their struggles and deliverances, in their government and discipline, in their aberrations from faith and obedience, and in their manifold relations to the kingdoms of the world. It is to be presumed that in our preparatory studies, some note was taken of each of these. He would be ill-qualified for the duties of our ministry, who did not apprehend clearly the general scope of the Old and New Testaments, who had not traced with deepest interest the gradual unfolding of the one central idea and purpose which runs through the three great dispensations,* who did not always have before him, the general object and character of each writer in the sacred canon, and the special place which he occupies with respect to the whole. He would have studied to little efiect, if, in addition, he has not considered carefully those objec- tions of unbelief, and those departures from sound doctrine, which are most prevalent in our own time and especially near the scene of his own labors. He should have digested, too, with proper aids, some co- herent views of the whole system of Christian truth, remembering always, however, that such systems are but inductions by uninspired minds from the facts and informal teachings of Scripture, and that they have authority only as they accord with the voice of * The Gospel, says Chrysostom, was in tlie world before Christ : " It took root in the writings of the Prophets, but flowed forth in the preaching of the Apostles." WHAT WE SHOULD STUDY. 89 those who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And finally, he ought not to be ignorant of the current of ecclesiastical history, nor of the man- ner in which the most flagrant errors and schisms have, from time to time, arisen ; nor how much philo- sophy, falsely so called, on the one hand, and the pride and sensual passions of men on the other, have contributed to these rendings of the body of Christ — these mournful disfigurements of the fair face of Christianity. And especially at such a time as this, does it not become every one of us to explore carefully and hopefully the foundations of our Reformed and Protestant Church, to mark well her bulwarks, that thus we may vindicate with clearer and more impres- sive cogency her divine and scriptural character ? Here, then, are theological studies which ought not to be neglected. Yet there is great danger, lest in our devotion to them, we reserve too little time and heart for that which after all is our most urgent duty, — THE STUDY OF THE BiBLE. As the charter and fundamental law of Christ's kingdom, as the deposi- tory of all that has Divine authority, as the one only infallible rule of faith and practice, it has claims which nought else can have. Yet, convenience often suggests to us, that instead of reading it closely for ourselves, we may substitute the well-arranged results attained by others. Pride or prejudice whispers, that if we read the volumes of uninspired theology, we shall find our own views reflected more clearly from them than from the Bible, and shall encounter less to qualify or oppose our preconceived opinions. Early associations rise up and incline us to regard these holy oracles as dull and commonplace; while the 8^ 90 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. frailty of our natural hearts disposes us more to the heat and storms of modern controversy, than to the mild and unearthly splendors of that word which giveth wisdom to the simple and rejoiceth the upright in heart. All these are causes which work with con- stant and insidious power ; and when, to them, we add the cares and distractions of a busy and intensely excited age, and the intrusive demands of our current literature, who can wonder if the Bible should some- times suffer practical disparagement, even at their hands, who most loudly magnify its merits and insist most imperatively upon its authority. But while there is much to draw us aside from the study of the Bible, there is yet more which ought to bind it upon our consciences and hearts. Science and philosophy, criticism and church authority, are, each in its own sphere, and as represented through some of its ablest advocates, now seeking to depreciate this sure word of prophecy — this divine record of the past. Literature and art, also, are but too ready to ignore its peculiar teachings, while a well-meaning but misguided philanthropy is tempted to brand, as human or devilish, whatever on the sacred page would seem to rebuke the rashness of its fiery zeal. The Bible was never more widely or industriously circulated, and yet never perhaps was its proper influence and authority in more imminent danger. Among its most subtle and untiring foes are many who call themselves Christians, and who add to zeal the most fervent, consummate ability and learning. Not they alone who deny altogether the inspiration or credibility of the Bible are to be met. They who admit it to a partial but divided sway; they who WHAT WE SHOULD STUDT. 91 would supersede some of its records by the teachings of science or the conclusions of a speculative philo- sophy; they again who would exalt to the same divine honors the teachings of the Church — all these are to be encountered. Assumptions, which sixty years since might be regarded as part and parcel of the Protestant mind in every Anglo-Saxon land, can- not be so regarded now. These assumptions in behalf of Holy Scripture are arraigned on one hand at the bar of a high philosophy ; on another, at the bar of venerable tradition; so that he who would match himself against some of the mightiest leaders of thought in our time — leaders whose writings are spread abroad with indefatigable industry — will have to go back more than ever to the uncorrupted Word. He must review it in the light of these new assaults upon its integrity and supreme authority. He must remember how insidiously it may be undermined, through a skepticism which clothes itself in the guise of reverence and voluntary humility, and how this most captivating form of unbelief* is even now going forth under the auspices of a great communion, which we fondly desire, but can hardly hope, to see reformed. From the ranks of our own clergy, and from those of our Anglican mother, that communion recruits its decaying strength with minds of no mean capacity ; and it is not to be doubted that the prevailing attrac- tion, with most of them, is the fond desire to add to the unerring word an unerring interpreter. The work of defection still goes on, — and who shall stay it but * This system begins by casting doubt over all ordinary evi- dence, and ends by demanding unlimited and unquestioning credulity. 92 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. they who have gained for themselves, that they may impart to others, clearer and stronger views of the CLAIMS, CREDENTIALS, CONTENTS, and CAPABILITIES, of that one book, which, in each of these respects, is high and paramount above all other oracles, written or oral, living or dead ? I. Its Claims. What does the Scripture claim for itself and in its own behalf ? Does it come to us as a messenger sent from God, and demand for its teach- ings an implicit credence ? Does it profess, too, to be God's only Revelation,* so that we may not go beyond its recorded words to believe or to do either less or more ? — To ask these questions, is, in my judgment, to answer them. Writings which declare of themselves that they were given by inspiration of God, and that they are not only profitable for doctrine, but able to make the man of God perfect — writings of which it can be said that if men hear them not, neither would they be persuaded though one rose from the dead — writings which seem to have been composed for the express purpose of setting forth in order those things which were in the first place deli- vered orally by eye-witnesses and ministers of the word, thus the better enabling men to know the cer- tainty of the things wherein they had been instructed by the preaching of the Apostles — writings, too, which contain not a few warnings and censures for all who teach for doctrines the commandments of men, or make void the word of God through their * Reference is made here only to so much of Divine Teach- ing as comes to us through the medium of language. In one sense, Nature and Providence are revelations of the Divine cha- racter and will. WHAT WE SHOULD STUDY. 93 own traditions — such works would seem to affirm most explicitly both their divinity and their suffici- ency. Their very name — the Old and New Testa- ment — would seem to preclude all idea of supplemen- tary revelation ; for, it is of the nature of a testament, that it declare, to the exclusion of all other authority or evidence, the will of the testator. The declaration, too, that the law of God is perfect, converting the soul — that they who would have the testimony of Jesus must search the Scriptures — that the Bereans were more noble than those of Thessalonica, because they searched the Scriptures daily to see if that which Paul taught was really from God ; — these and like passages would seem conclusive of the fact, that the Scriptures are invested with a pre-eminent autho- rity, and are given to every man — minister and people — to profit withal.* But though this be our judgment it is not that of others, and it threatens to become year by year less * It is impossible, within the limits of a Discourse, to show that the sense attached here to the several passages I have quoted, is their true and proper sense. For a thorough discus- sion of the subject in all its parts, I would refer theological students to Whitaker^s Disputation on Holy Scripture, against tlie Papists, especially Bellarmine and Stapleton. It is one of the Parker Series, and a work of singular learning and ability. It won from its great adversary, Bellarmine, such admiration, that he procured Whitaker's portrait, and kept it in his study, saying. Quod quamvis hcereticus erat et adversarius, erat iamen doctus adversarius. Bishop Hall, speaking of Whitaker, says, " Who ever saw him without reverence, or heard him without wonder ?" Of another work, better known in this country, but too little read, — Mr. Goode^s Treatise on the liule of Faith — no one should be ignorant, who would understand this most important subject. 94 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. prevalent among many, both of the ignorant and of the self-styled wise. By many, the very right to read and interpret for themselves, however reverently, the word of God, is more than questioned, and questioned too upon the alleged authority of that word itself. By others, that right is assumed without limitation, and with it the still further right of pronouncing, under the guidance of private judgment and from internal evidence alone, whether the whole or certain parts of Scripture be not altogether human or fabu- lous. And then how many are there who deny that the Bible claims an exclusive and supreme authority ! How many, alas ! within our own borders, who give forth on this subject sounds that are ominously un- certain ! In their well-meant but mistaken wish to attain to a certainty in sacred things — not consistent with our present militant state,* nor conducive to our highest spiritual welfare,t — how many are secretly pining for some authority which can still every rising doubt and hush all angry disputation ; which can shed on the Church, in one word, the fancied blessings of an implicit, uninvestigating faith ; and how many imagine that even in Scripture itself, such authority is distinctly admitted, or at least sufficiently implied ! Evidently, then, for this one reason, if for no other, the Bible ought to be studied now with renewed ear- nestness. The exact extent of its claims, in its own behalf, are to be weighed. Our theories of inspira- tion are to be more clearly defined. A proper dis- * Why should we not be liable to error, as well as to sin, during our probation ? f Doubts are a part of our trial, and most useful as discipline* WHAT WE SHOULD STUDY. 95 tinction is to be taken and carefully maintained, between the authority of the text and the authority of human interpreters. The Scripture should be held responsible only for what it declares, " either in express terms or by necessary consequence ;"* and these its declarations should be calmly considered in th« face of whatever, science with its new discoveries, or philosophy with its "high priori road," or criticism with its utmost skepticism, or tradition with its lofty pretensions, can plausibly allege in derogation of its paramount and exclusive claim to divine honor. The more searching and large-minded the scrutiny, the more clear we doubt not will be its self-asserted supre- macy. In whatever degree this volume is studied, with a candid and open mind, in the same degree will it be apparent that all co-ordinate authority on the part of tradition or of reason is discarded. It knows of no parallel stream of Apostolic teaching, flowing side by side with the tradition of Scripture, and entitled to divide with it our homage and allegi- ance. Nor does it know of instincts, or intuitions, or transcendental reasonings, which are at liberty to array themselves against this sure word of prophecy, f * Bishop Hall, Vol. II, p. 183. f Quinet thus sketches the result attained by applying the Hege- lian Philosophy, in the hands of Strauss, to the interpretation of the New Testament. " Christ," says Strauss, " is not an individual, but an idea; that is to say, Jiumanity. In the human race, behold the God-made man, behold the child of the visible Virgin, and the invisible Father! /^a^i5,of matter and of mind; behold the Saviour, the Redeemer, the Sinless One ; behold him who dies, who is raised again, who mounts into the heavens I Believe in this Christ— in his death, his resurrection, man is justified before God." An- other result of the same system of interpretation, which assumes 96 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. And the claims which it asserts, it goes far to authen- ticate bj the unrivalled majesty with which its oracles are put forth, for it speaks with authority and not as the Scribes.* a faculty or power in tlie mind competent to judge a priori of the credibility of any narrative, and which explains the super- natural occurrences in the Scriptures, as mere illusions pro- duced by natural phenomena, Quinet notices as follows : " The pen which wrote the Provincial Letters would, be necessary to lay bare the strange consequences of this theology. According to its conclusion, the tree of good and evil was nothing but a venomous plant, probably a manchineal tree, under which our first parents fell asleep. The shining face of Moses on the heights of Mount Sinai, was the natural result of electricity j the vision of Zachariah was effected by the smoke of the chande- lier, in the temple ; the Magian Kings, with their offerings of myrrh, of gold, and of incense, were the wandering merchants who brought some glittering tinsel to the Child of Bethlehem ; the star which went before them, a servant bearing a flambeau; the angels^in the scene of the temptation, a caravan traversing the desert, laden with provisions ; the two angels in the tomb clothed in white linen, an illusion caused by a linen garment j the Transfiguration, a storm." " Who," asks a writer, quoting this passage, " would not sooner be an old-fashioned infidel, than such a doting and maundering rationalist ?" * '• It speaketh," says Barrow, " with an imperious and awful confidence, such as argueth the speaker satisfied both of his own wisdom and authority ; that he doubteth not of what he saith himself; that he knoweth his hearers obliged to believe him. Its words are not like the words of a wise man, who is wary and careful that he slip not into mistake (interposing, therefore, now and then his maybe's and perchances), nor like the words of a learned scribe, grounded on semblances of reason and backed with testimonies ; nor as the words of a crafty sophister, who, by long circuits, subtle fetches, and sly trains of discourse, doth inveigle men to his opinion ; but like the words of a king, carry- ing with them authority and power uncontrollable, commanding forthwith attention, assent, and obedience ; this you are to WHAT WE SHOULD STUDY. 97 II. Credentials. From the claims of Scripture, it becomes us, in our day, to turn with renewed interest to a consideration of its credentials. These are from without and from within. I shall speak in this con- nection only of the former, — only of such as are ex- ternal to the book itself. To most, if not to all Christians of our time, this Book brings at least pre- sumptive proof that it stands invested with a divine power and sacredness, for it has won from nations, and from a long train of ages, a title {the Bible, the Holy Bible), which implies that it merits such rever- ence and honor as rightfully can be accorded to no other writings, sacred or profane. To us, who are Protestant Episcopalians, it brings credentials yet clearer and more impressive, from the Church to which we belong. Hear that Church in her Sixth Article : " Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation : so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or neces- sary to salvation." Hear that Church in her Eighth Article : '' The Kicene Creed, and that which is com- monly called the Apostles' Creed, ought thoroughly to be received and believed, for they may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture.'" Hear that Church again in her Twentieth Article, in which believe, this you are to do, upon pain of our high displeasure ; at your utmost peril be it ; your life, your salvation dependeth thereon : such is the style and tenor thereof, plainly such as becometh the sovereign Lord of all to use, when he shall please to proclaim his mind and will unto us." — Barrow's Works, Serm. XVI. 9 98 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. she declares that as a Church, she has power to decree rites or ceremonies, and authority in controversies of faith, yet has no power or authority " to ordain any- thing that is contrary to Grod's Word written,'' or so to " expound one place of Scripture that it be repug- nant to another,'' or ''to enforce anything besides Holy Writ to be believed for necessity of salvation,'^ And to us who are her ministers, how does that Church speak, on the solemn day when she admits us to the order and ministry of the Priesthood ? First, in her prayer that the people " may have grace to hear and receive what we shall deliver out of God's most holy word;" — again, in the exhortation, "See- ing ye cannot by any other means compass the doing of so weighty a work pertaining to the salvation of man, but with doctrine and exhortation taken out of the Holy Scriptures, and with a life agreeable to the same, consider how studious ye ought to be in reading and learning the Scriptures, and in framing the manners both of yourselves and of them that specially pertain unto you, according to the rule of the same Scriptures ; and for this self-same cause how ye ought to forsake and set aside, as much as ye may, all worldly cares and studies;" — Once more, in the Bishop's question, "Are you persuaded that the Holy Scriptures contain all doctrine required as necessary for eternal salvation, through faith in Jesus Christ? and are you determined, out of the said Scriptures, to instruct the people committed to your charge, and to teach nothing as necessary to eternal salvation, but that which you shall be persuaded may be concluded and proved by the Scripture ?" — And, finally, in the answer, so explicit and solemn, to that WHAT WE SHOULD STUDY. 99 question, which has fallen from the lips of many of us who are here before God to-day, and which our Church puts into the mouth of every one who would serve at her altars, '' I am so persuaded and have so determined hy God's grace.'' — Brethren, I can hardly conceive of attestation, more distinct or more em- phatic, than that, which the Church so gives of her exclusive reverence for Scripture as the only divine rule of faith and practice ; nor can I envy his recreant heart, who with such vows upon him, and such exhor- tations sounding in his ears, can deliberately go about to pluck that Scripture down from its high place, or exalt, to a share in its honors, the traditions and commandments of men. The judgment of the Church of England, as pronounced by one of her ablest and holiest Doctors (Bishop Hall), is the judgment of her American daughter : " The Scripture is the sun — the Church is the clock, whose hand points us to, and whose sound tells us the hours of the day. The sun we know to be sure, and regularly constant in its motion ; the clock, as it may fall out, may go too fast, or too slow. We are wont to look at and to listen to the clock, to know the time of the day ; but where we find the variation sensible, to believe the sun against the clock — not the clock against the sun. As then we would condemn him of much folly that should profess to trust the clock rather than the sun, so we cannot but justly tax the miscredulity of those who will rather trust to the Church than to the Scrip- ture."* If beyond our own Church in England and Ame- rica, we pass to the blessed company of all faithful * Bishop Hall, Vol. V, p. 137. 100 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. people, "what is their testimony to the value and the pre-eminence of Scripture ? What especially was theirs, who shone as the lights of Christendom during the first four centuries of our era ? On such a subject I desire always to speak with diffidence ; but I must be permitted to express surprise, that the authority of these venerable names should have been invoked so often, and should still continue to be invoked so confidently, in behalf of a system which would yield to Scripture only a divided homage, or even degrade its authority below that of the Church. If we except the cases in which ancient writers, when arguing with heretics, found themselves compelled to go beyond mere Scripture to an admitted succession of doctrine; and, if we further except the cases, in which the term tradition is applied to the Canonical Scripture, we shall find their testimony alike uniform and explicit, — explicit as it respects the authority and sufficiency of Scripture on the one hand, and explicit in respect to the right and duty of all, whether lay or cleric, to read it on the other. This is the case even with Irenaeus, whose testimony is so often adduced in oppo- sition.* It is the case also with Origen, with Atha- nasius, with Basil the great, with Cyril, with Cyprian, with Jerome, and others. Says Lactantius (vii, 2), ** Those things can have no foundation or firmness which are not sustained by any oracle of God's word." Says Augustine, the grand luminary of the Western Church, " I do believe that if a man could not be ignorant of this thing without damage of his salvation, * See Dr. Jarvis's Eeply to Milner's End of Controversy, for an examination of the passages in Irenseus, which bear on this ques- tion. WHAT WE SHOULD STUDY. 101 there would be most clear authority for it in the divine oracles." (De Pec. Mer. et Rem. ii, 36.) Says Chrysostom, the golden-mouthed, a luminary not less brilliant in the Eastern Church, " The Scripture does not permit the hearer of it to go wrong." (Hom. xiii, in Gen.) And again (Hom. Psalm xcv), " If any- thing be spoken without proof from Scripture, the thoughts of the hearers stumble, now assenting, now hesitating, sometimes turning from the discourse as frivolous, sometimes receiving it as specious ; but when the testimony of the voice of God is uttered from the Scripture, it confirms at once the discourse of him who speaks, and the mind of him who hears." And what was the testimony of these great men, respecting tlie right and duty of the people to read and interpret Grod's word? When a pleasure-seeking and worldly-minded laity perverted the distinction be- tween ministers and people, so as to infer that the former only were bound to study that word, and that the latter must depend for their instruction in divine things on the clergy, without being entitled to go to the original source itself, Chrysostom loudly remon- strates. He points out how thei/ especially needed the panoply of Scripture who were in the midst of the storms of the world and exposed to its many temptations. " Frequently," says Neander, " both in private conversation and in his public discourses, he exhorted his hearers not to rest satisfied with that which they heard read from the Scriptures in the Church, but to read them also with their families at home : for what food was for the body, such the Holy Scriptures were for the soul — the source whence it 9* 108 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. derived substantial strength. To induce his hearers to study the Scriptures, he was often accustomed, •when there was as yet no set lesson of the sacred word prescribed for every Sunday, to give out for some time beforehand, the text which he designed to make a subject jof discourse on some particular occa- sion, and to exhort them, in order that they might be better prepared for his remarks, in the meantime to reflect upon it themselves. In like manner, Augus- tine says, "Do not allow yourselves to be so immersed in present earthly things, as to be obliged to say, I have no time to read or to hear God's word." Among the characters of the zealous Christian, whom he de- scribes under the figure of the ant, as one that trea- sures up from the divine word that which he may have occasion to use in the time of need, he places the following : " He goes to church and listens to God's word ; he returns home, finds a Bible there, and opens and reads it." Often does Chrysostom trace the corruptions of the Church, as well in doc- trine as in life, the spread of error and of vice, to the prevailing ignorance of the Scriptures.* With one thought more I close this branch of the * See. Neander's History of the Christian Religion, and the Church, Vol. II, p. 281. It is mournful to find how the language of the Prelates of the Church of Rome has changed on this subject. Among the propositions of Quesnel which were con- demned, are four (80, 81, 82, 84), which declare the reading of the Sacred Scripture, to be the privilege of all. So Pope Pius VI, in his condemnation of the Synod of Pistoga (A.D. 1794), says, " The doctrine that nothing but incapacity can excuse from read- ing the Scriptures, and that the neglect of this precept is noto- riously the cause of the obscurity brought on the very chief truths" — isfalse^ rashj and tends to disturb the peace of souls. WHAT WE SHOULD STUDY. 103 subject. The Bible has the strongest credentials, even from its enemies, in the impotence of their at- tempts to overthrow its credibility and divine autho- rity. No book ever had so many points of contact with the human mind as Scripture ; and if false, therefore, none was ever so vulnerable. Miscel- laneous in its contents, the work of many different minds who were unconnected and unacquainted with each other, — composed in different languages, and at periods that stretch back from St. John to Moses, through sixteen hundred years, — embracing history, jurisprudence, ethics, poetry, prophecy, with mani- fold allusion to the physical and topographical state of different countries and of the earth at large, — it seems to invite the scrutiny of every class of scholars and philosophers. It can be compared with profane history. It can be compared with the story told by mouldering ruins. It can be compared with the in- scriptions on half-defaced medals. It can be com- pared with the sculptured or painted figures on tow- ering pyramids, with the disinterred remains of buried cities, with the cemeteries of dead races that encircle the whole earth, with calculated motions of the sun, moon, and stars. Have these comparisons been made ? Have they been made by men, able, acute, learned, and in many instances hostile to Revelation ? In each case, where anything like a full and fair conclu- sion was reached, has it been, on the whole, favorable to this depository of our faith ? Then may we che- rish the assurance that what has been, will be. New investigations shall result in new and independent verifications. Philology, Ethnology, Archaeology, Numismatics, Physiology, History, Physics, each by its 104 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. own proper methods, shall reach conclusions which tend more and more to corroborate Revelation, so that the time shall at length come, when, through an improved Biblical interpretation* on the one hand, and more thorough critical and scientific exploration on the other. Science and Scripture shall become clearly ac- cordant, and the strains that go up from the temple of nature shall mingle and blend sweetly with those that go up from the temple of grace, and all be lost in the one swelling chorus, " Great and marvellous are thy works. Lord God Almighty ; just and true are thy ways, thou King of Saints." * "It is not at all incredible," says Butler (Analogy II, ch. 3), "that a book which has been so long in the possession of mankind, should contain many truths as yet undiscovered." Again, " As it is owned the whole scheme of Scripture is not yet understood ; so if it ever comes to be understood, before the restitution of all things, and without miraculous interpositions, it must be in the same way as natural knowledge is come at : by the continuance and progress of learning and liberty j and by particular persons attending to, comparing, and pursuing intimations scattered up and down it, which are overlooked and disregarded by the gene- rality of the world." HOLY SCRIPTURE. FOUETH CHARGE* ; Inquiring, in my last charge, What the Christian minister should study, I dwelt upon the paramount importance of Holy Scripture. Its pre-eminence I proposed to vindicate by some notice of the Claims "which it makes in its own behalf — its External Evi- dence or Credentials — its Contents or Internal Evi- dence — and its CapaMlities as the Educator of Man- kind. Having then time for the discussion of but two of these topics, I deferred the remainder until the present occasion. Let us pass, then, from the Claims and Credentials of Holy Scripture to some consideration of its con- tents, as witnessing to their Divine origin and trans- cendent importance. The history of its Canon, the judgment of the Church, the consent of ages and nations most emi- nent for intelligence and virtue, and the futility hitherto of all attempts to overthrow its authority, or permanently to arrest its progress, — these may pro- claim that it comes from Heaven, and yet its contents may go far to weaken that conclusion. Books and writings always afford some clue to their origin, whe- * Delivered May, 1852. 108 DISCOURSES AXD CHARGES. ther it be in wisdom or follj, in force or feebleness. There are internal credentials not less convincing, and perhaps more impressive, than any that are ex- ternal. When a book is the offspring of true genius, it attests the fact by the spell which it casts upon our hearts. So if its source be divine, it must bear on every page traces of His hand, who is the Head over all things to the Church. We are not without intuitive notions and sponta- neous tendencies which lead us, independently of re- velation or formal teaching of any kind, towards the idea of an intelligent First Cause, and which enable us to discern in nature, and in our own souls, traces of his infinite perfections. Hence we have pre-exist- ent ideas and great first principles, which prepare and predispose us to welcome a book claiming to be from God ; and which enables us to try its claims by out- ward and by inward criteria. No conception of God meets the real, though ever so much suppressed, wants and cravings of the human mind, but that which represents Him as infinitely good and infinitely holy. Hence when alleged mira- cles come before us, to authenticate the commission of one who claims to be our teacher in religion, we may at once judge whether they are from Satan or from God. A house divided against itself cannot stand ; and we therefore conclude, that if the miracle be wrought or the prophecy uttered and fulfilled, to recommend and enjoin high moral duties which com- mend themselves to every conscience not wholly seared or besotted, or if they are employed as harbingers to introduce one whose doctrine is worthy of God's eter- nal power and majesty, — then in such case the miracle THE BIBLE AS A STUDY. "t. 109 and the accompanying instruction are to be owned, not as diabolical, but as divine. So when we separate from Scripture its record of miracles and prophecies, and confine our attention to the simple matter taught or to the manner of teach- ing, both, if the book were really given hj inspiration of Grod, must stand, in some sense, self-authenticated. In such a book, we anticipate that its style and struc- ture, its principles and revelations, shall be at once natural and supernatural — natural, so far as to vio- late no deep-rooted and healthy sentiment of our minds, to misrepresent no well-established truth or law; and yet supernatural, because recording. facts, and inducing impressions, and unfolding plans which no human intelligence could give birth to. On com- parison with all other books, ancient or modern, the Bible, if divine, should vindicate its transcendent power and greatness, and should compel from all gifted souls, not perverted by pride or darkened by sinful passions, the admission that the Spirit that designed and the power that achieved it, could have sprung from no earthly or human source. And is not such its character ? Is not that book a phenomenon, which can find adequate explanation, only in the presence and agency of God ? Is it not a volume which, from title-page to colophon, seems written over and over, with a divine and heavenly signature ? Look at its human authors, — herdsmen and shepherds, fishermen and publicans, men who wrote without even ordinary art or learning, and often in the rudest style ; and yet, where among the great poets and philosophers of antiquity, those masters of language and models of taste, find we such burning words, such expanding ]0 110 DISCOUKSES AND CHARGES. and soul-enrapturing conceptions ? Or, to place the comparison on other grounds, range side by side the writings of the Apostles in the New Testament and those which have come down to us as works of Apos- tolic Fathers, contemporaries and companions of those Apostles ; and who does not feel that the one repose upon a serene height, from which, to reach the other, there is a descent as great as it is sudden and abrupt ? Minds of the most opposite tempers and tastes have found themselves constrained to confess, that when thoughtfully perused for a few hours, there is in this Book of books a spell which attests its origin to be unearthly. " Read to me," said the dying poet, the mighty Wizard of the North, who for more than a quarter of a century had held the reading world of both hemispheres in rapt delight with the offspring of his teeming brain. " Read to me." " In what book ?" was the question. " Can you ask ? there is but one," and he bade him open the Gospel of St. John. Says Calvin, — a mind how different in type, — addressing scoffers and unbelievers, " John, thundering from his sublimity, more powerfully than any thunderbolt, levels to the dust the obstinacy of those whom he does not compel to the obedience of faith. Let all those censorious critics, whose supreme pleasure consists in banishing all reverence for the Scripture out of their own hearts and the hearts of others, come forth to public view. Let them read the Gospel of John; whether they wish it or not, they will there find nu- merous passages, which will at least arouse their in- dolence ; and which will even imprint a horrible brand on their consciences to restrain their ridicule."* * Institutes, Lib. I. c. 8, sec. 11. THE BIBLE AS A STUDY. ^ 111 There is one characteristic of Scripture, that de- serves an ampler development than has yet been given to it. I refer to the intrinsic, and even mon- strous, improbability of many of the facts recorded, and many of the predictions made, if we are to ex- plain them on principles merely natural; and the absurdity, therefore, of supposing that those who wrote of their own mere motion, could have invented them, or would have asked for them the faith and affections of mankind. On the other hand, try these alleged facts and predictions by a divine and super- natural standard, and they become not only conceiv- able but probable. " It is impossible, and therefore true," said Tertullian,* speaking of the resurrection of Christ, ^. 6., impossible to any power but that of God, and therefore impossible that men not idiots, who wrote from the dictates of mere reason, and for purposes of imposture, could have invented that which was so essentially incredible. This principle admits of extension to a large portion of the sacred narrative, and in connection with the moral and doc- trinal test, which I have noticed already, constitutes one of the strongest guarantees for its fidelity to truth. Events and sayings, the most strange to our natural ears, are recorded without one word of com- ment, and with perfect simplicity. Even when they involve that which is most discreditable to the writers themselves, or to the nation of which they are a bigoted and enthusiastic part, they are still set down without any attempt at extenuation ; and in the case of the Old Testament, these records when once made, though throughout their whole extent they compro- * De Came Christi, cont. Marc. J12 ^ DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. mise that nation grievously, are yet preserved, and guarded, and cherished by them with a care almost fanatical. Here, then, is a branch of Christian evi- dences most worthy of our study at this time, when the external or historical proofs are assailed alike by the advocates of authority, and the votaries of a licen- tious freedom ; but it can be duly studied only by him who reads the Bible with all care and diligence for himself. If we look at Scripture, again, as a threefold Revelation. First, of God to man; Second, of man to himself; and Third, of nature in its rela- tion to both — we shall meet other and more striking proof of its Divine origin. Consider Holy Scripture, then, as a Revelation of Grod to man. When the learned Grotius would lay a secure foundation for the Law of Nations, in that great work of his, which may be said to have created a new science, he began by gathering from the sages and poets, the historians and orators, the lawgivers and moralists of ancient and modern times, a consensus of passages, which recognize certain first principles of moral obligation, certain fundamental and sacred duties as binding everywhere and in all ages, and which are to be accepted therefore as the universal dictate of reason and conscience. He thus demonstrates, that deep in human nature itself has been planted one great law, which is obligatory not only upon indivi- duals, but upon nations regarded as moral persons, and which can never be rightfully superseded by custom or by positive institutions — a law before which, power in all its might and majesty is bound to bow^ and under the shelter of which, weakness THE BIBLE AS A STUDY. 113 and innocence may always claim sanctuary. I need hardly add, that the principles, thus laboriously col- lected out of the best wisdom of the past, are only a faint outline of that better law, which we jBnd traced in our Bibles, thus showing that the commandments of Christ are re-echoed in the laws of our own moral constitution. Would it not be a boon to Theology, if a similar course were taken with respect to the first principles of that science ; if from those great intellectual lights, who have lived and labored with- out the Bible, were collected their best thoughts re- specting the Divine nature, whether such thoughts came to them from tradition, or were imparted to them directly as a reward for severe meditation and self-discipline, or broke upon their view, when their souls were most sorely tried by danger, suffering, or temptation ? Such a collection would represent the universal religious sentiment of mankind in its noblest and purest manifestations when left without direct revelation, and together with our own intuitions and irrepressible convictions, would furnish a test by which we could measure the probable value of Scrip- ture as an exponent of the Divine character. But to apply this test thoroughly, requires a large and most thoughtful consideration of all that the Bible directly or indirectly teaches of God — of His personality as opposed to pantheism, of His unity as opposed to polytheism, of His holiness as loathing sin, of His mercy and long-suffering as pitying the sinner, and of the wondrous blending of wisdom, goodness, justice, and mercy, which is seen in all his dispensations. It requires, too, a patient comparison of such teachings with the best, the average, and the 10* 114 DISCOURSES AiSD CHARGES. ■worst, on the same subjects, whicli have emanated from the heathen mind. No candid student could make that comparison, without rising from it with conceptions of the greatness and excellency of Scrip- ture, which he never enjoyed before — without feeling that if Socrates and Plato spake of God as became sages, Moses and the Prophets, Christ and his Apos- tles speak of Him, as becometh God himself when addressing men. Uninspired poetry, in its loftiest flights, unaided philosophy, in its most unearthly moods, how faint the glimmer of their light, beside the blaze of glory which breaks from David and Isaiah, from Job and Ezekiel ! Compare, for instance, the divinities of the Iliad with the Jehovah of the Old Testament, or compare the invisible world of Yirgil, which no Bible helped him to conceive, with that portrayed by Milton or by Dante. If it be said that through the vast mass of fable and conjec- ture, collected by Pagan minds, may be found scat- tered, confusedly and dimly, the same views of God which are presented by Moses and the Prophets, and that therefore, these last may have been borrowed, then we ask, whence the instinct which enabled such men, and they only, to choose the gems and reject the refuse ; to bring together all the pure gold, and leave behind all the dross and all the baser metal ? To select^ under such circumstances, requires as much' of inspiration as to conceive or invent. When by such considerations, in connection with others, we become convinced of the supremacy and divinity of Scripture, how readily may we accept its more mysterious,* its awfully sublime revelations re- * If we subject everything to reason, says Pascal (Pensees, THE BIBLE AS A STUDY. ^ 115 specting the threefold personality of God — the won- derful union of the Divine and Human in Him, who is both Son of God and Son of Man — the humiliation of a Being so august — His Passion and Death, His Resurrection and Ascension — with the outpouring of His Spirit — all that we might not perish ! Our hearts Xjrj out that we need such a Divine redemption, and our conscience and our experience accord with the declarations of the Bible, that if we would see God aright in this wondrous manifestation of Himself, we must be born again — must become pure in heart — must be meek and lowly — must be content to do, in faith nothing doubting, the whole will of Christ. There is nothing more characteristic of Scripture, because there is nothing, in one sense, more alien from our natural 'habit of thought — yet nothing more in harmony with our highest reason, and therefore no- thing more indicative of a superhuman origin, — than this stress which the Bible everywhere lays upon the development of a regenerated consciousness, upon the presence in the heart of a strong conscientiousness, and an humble fear of God, as the indispensable con- dition of the highest Christian knowledge. 2. But, again, we may consider the Bible as a Revelation of man to himself. There are depths in our own nature which no consciousness has yet ch. xl), our religion would have nothing in it mysterious and supernatural. If we violate the principles of reason, our religion would be absurd and contemptible. Reason, says St. Augustine, would never submit if it were not in its nature to judge, that there are occasions when it ought to submit. It is right then that reason should yield, when it is conscious that it ought, that it should not yield, when it judges deliberately that it ought not But we must guard here against self-deceit. 116 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. sounded ; there are incongruities and contradictions, before which, man's Philosophy, though it has watched and discussed for near six thousand years, is con- founded. All the systems, that have been framed by man's device, have failed, because they overlooked some essential element in the human constitution, or because they misconceived the true end and highest good of life. Even those which have been constructed by men who read the Bible have rarely had the ampli- tude or the fidelity to truth, which could satisfy our minds. He who studies the Bible as a portraiture of Human Nature will soon feel that, for penetrating motives and revealing unconscious propensities — for touching with bold and skilful hand the master-springs of human action in general, and the twisted, com- plicated web of influences, that surround each one in particular — the myriad-minded of our own lan- guage and the greatest masters of other languages and other times are as pigmies. Collect all that has been well and wisely said of the best poets and moralists as painters of man, or of the profoundest psychologists and metaphysicians, or of the most sagacious and truthful historians, and it will be seen, by those who have studied Holy Scripture thoroughly, that all this, and more, is true of that one volume. And, therefore, it is, in part, that while other books have been bounded in their influence by country, by race, or by civilization, the Bible seems to be free of all lands, races, and estates of men. Other writings have succeeded in gaining an imperial sway over the world only for some specific purpose, as the classics for beauty, natural philosophers for knowledge ; but here is a volume which is at once a classic, a history, THE BIBLE AS A STUDY. 117 a philosophy, a collection of Divine hymns, a code of universal morals, and in each capacity, it holds the mirror np to nature, as is done in no book besides. Dante has been styled the priest of the Catholicism of the middle ages. The Bible is the organ of the Catholicism of all ages and of all people. Its voice gives meet utterance and articulation to the highest conceptions and desires of the enlightened, while it is at the same time joy and strength to the rude and unlettered. It is the book to which the child takes soonest, and clings the closest. It is the book to which manhood in its prime, — in the fulness of its active strength, its far-reaching thoughtfulness — in- stinctively seeks, when it would gain the highest wisdom or the surest solace. Its appeals ring, like a trumpet summons, on the heart and conscience of all who are alive to duty or to the soul's eternal weal ; and when we reach the evening of our life, or stand on the verge of the eternal world, then it is that the still small voice of this same word is all our stay. What hoarded wealth then does it not contain ! How little of that wealth has yet become theirs, who are its most devoted students ! What a duty binds us, as ministers of God, to gain, through intimate and living communion with its pages, the Divine art of giving the "word in season," to those of every class whom we would know at last as "our joy and crown !'* This theme is too large for an occasion like this. It would need volumes to show how true to man's universal nature the Bible is ; how it speaks to every faculty and through every faculty ; how there is no constituent element in our complex being which it 118 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. does not discern and own as legitimate, while it points to each as disfigured by sin. The grand problems before which man's wit has stumbled, it solves with an ease and simplicity only surpassed by its origi- nality. Is it the question, for example, which divided so long the ethical sages of old, touching the sum- mum honum, the chief good of man? Some held that it must be in the mind, others in the outward estate, others in both combined. Christ goes up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the poor in hearty for they shall see Grod. Nothing could seem more strange or paradoxical to the world as it then was, than teaching like this ; and yet Bayle the skeptic admits, that its wisdom is corroborated by the whole history and experience of mankind. — Or do we con- sider again the contrarieties in our human nature, the magnanimity and the meanness, the lofty promises and the slim performance, the perverse moral eye that can see motes in others and overlook the beam in our- selves, the resolving and re-resolving and yet living unchanged, the heart that honors virtue, and the hand that perpetrates sin, the intellect that will not be con- tent unless it asks for truth, and the aflfections that shrink from that truth lest they be reproved ? Would we find the key to this vast enigma? It is all sup- plied in one utterance of this Divine oracle, God made man upright, hut they have sought out many inven- tio7is. — Or look we at ourselves, so full of sin, at God so awful in holiness, and does our trembling spirit cry THE BIBLE AS A STUDY. 119 out, "Wherewith shall we come before the Lord?'* There is breathed forth, even from the Old Testa- ment, the words of hope, " man, what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, to love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God?" Again, however, does conscience, taught of enlightened reason, insist on inquiring, how man the guilty, can be just with God the holy ? Lo, strains of a sweeter and better promise rise and swell until, in one grand symphony, we hear, " Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world." " The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." " If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Chri&t the righteous." " Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." In one word, the Bible has a balm for every wound, a medicine for every sickness. What Hooker has said so nobly of the Psalms is truer still of the whole of Scripture ; — " The choice and flower of all things profitable in other books, the Psalms do both more briefly contain, and more movingly express, by reason of that poetical form, wherewith they are written. The ancients, when they speak of the book of Psalms, use to fall into large discourses, showing how this part above the rest doth of purpose set forth and celebrate all the considerations and ope- rations which belong to God ; it, magnifieth the holy meditations and actions of divine men ; it is of things heavenly a universal declaration, working in them whose hearts God inspireth with the due consideration thereof, a habit or disposition of mind whereby they are made fit vessels both for receipt and for delivery of whatsoever spiritual perfection. What is there ISO DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. necessary for man to know that the Psalms are not able to teach ? They are to beginners an easy and familiar introduction ; a mighty augmentation of all virtue and knowledge in such as are entered before ; a strong confirmation to the most perfect amongst others. Heroical magnanimity, exquisite justice, grave moderation, exact wisdom, repentance unfeigned, un- wearied patience, the mysteries of God, the suffer- ings of Christ, the terrors of wrath, the comforts of grace, the works of Providence over this world, and the promised joys of that world which is to come ; all good necessarily to be either known, or done, or had,* this one celestial fountain yieldeth. Let there be any grief or disease incident unto the soul of man, any wound or sickness named, for which there is not in this treasure-house, a present comfortable remedy at all times ready to be found."* This abounding fulness that there is in Scripture, who shall appreciate it as he ought, save he who gives to his Bible, something of that unyielding toil, that enthusiastic study which is so often bestowed on mere human compositions ? Or what minister of Christ will be able out of this exhaustless storehouse to make distribution to every one according to his need, save he who by careful inventory of its trea- sures, and thorough intimate knowledge of the mani- fold nature and wants of men, shall have come to see the soul as it stands revealed in the light of redemp- tion and eternity ? There is perhaps nothing more striking, throughout the Bible, than the manner in which the natural and supernatural worlds interpenetrate. Man is presented * Ecclesiastical Polity, Book V, Sec. 37. THE BIBLE AS A STUDY. 121 as working on in all freedom, and frequently with all perverseness, and God is presented as woildng now in him to will and to do ; now through him to over- rule even his rebellions to the triumph of law, and the wickedness alike of individuals and nations to his own glory. From Genesis to Revelation, God is in the foreground, working here by miracle, there by providence, and yet man remains always true to his own nature, and seems never bereft of his inherent liberty. Thus we see in mute prophecy and dim shadow, the way preparing for that mystery of mys- teries, God manifest in the fleshy the incorporation as it were of the finite and the infinite, of the human and the divine ; prefiguring also, how closely we may all become united, by spiritual bonds, with God in Christ ; how our whole soul and body and spirit may be sanctified, through the indwelling of the Spirit ; how, retaining all our personal identity, we may still be gradually filled with the fulness of God, and thus be made ready for that final and glorious transfigura- tion, when, risen and renewed in the likeness of Christ, we shall be permitted to dwell forever with the Lord. 3. The Bible may be regarded again as a revela- tion of nature, in its twofold relation to the Creator and to His earthly creatures, especially to us, who are self-conscious and accountable. Considered even by itself, nature is rendered nowhere with such spirit and life as in the Bible. He who would awaken a love for it, in its grandeur and beauty, in its rich variety and boundless magnificence, will find that even for such a purpose there is no book like Scrip- ture. As seen, however, through that book, nature 11 122 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. is no isolated or self-subsisting machine. It is full of relations to God and to man. Every object, from the blazing sun to the faintest twinkling star, from the tallest cedar on Lebanon to the hyssop in the wall, acquires, when seen through this medium, a divine import. In each we behold the agency, and in most we can trace the wisdom and the goodness, of a pre- sent God ; in each, too, the marks of a Providence, such that the meanest are not too lowly for its care, nor the greatest too great to be upheld by its abound- ing goodness ; in each an image likewise more or less distinct of some high and specific truth in morals or in religion. And if, from the poetry of nature we pass to its science, we. shall find that even there the Bible is a great and most necessary teacher. Neither telescope with its farthest reach, nor microscope with its most amazing revelations, nor the calculus with its widest sweep of inductions and generalizations, ever kindled conceptions of the greatness and manifold wisdom displayed in the material universe equal to those which filled the mind of Job or David, and which gave birth to those sublime utterances that must for- ever outrun the discoveries of science. To read the book of nature aright, we always need to draw aid from the book of grace. He but half knows the thing formed, who does not see it in the mind and hand of Him who formed it, — a mind, that having once made, would now forever superintend it, and that may come forth, too, from time to time, to stay its onward movements, or even to reverse its course ; that so, when laws and uniform succession fail to instruct us, we may be roused to reflection by THE BIBLE AS A STUDY. 123 laws suspended, by forces disarranged, and thus be constrained to rise, even through nature convulsed, to nature's God. Mere physics, whether inductive or deductive, evince too often a tendency towards fatalism and sensualism, which can be arrested only through such teaching as will keep the supernatural always in mind, and remind us that our pledge for the stability of nature is to be found, not in the laws themselves, nor in the neces- sity of things, but in the will of God. The grand secret of the success of modern, as compared with ancient science, lies in the more docile and tractable spirit which has guided its researches ; precluding rash assumptions ; recognizing everywhere an intel- ligent purpose ; waiting for sufficient light before con- clusions are finally adopted ; and beholding, in every law, a provision through which God dispenses good, directly to men, and to his other creatures; and through which, too, by art and industry, man himself is enabled to multiply to an indefinite extent his own resources and enjoyments. Nature, too, as seen through Scripture, reveals herself as an instrument of trial and discipline. The whole material system of things, beginning with our own bodies and extending away to the remotest part of the visible world, is made subservient to the development of character — the education of the soul. What the garden was to our first parents, with its forbidden tree and tree of life, the same in some sense is the whole outward world to us. We may in- dulge ourselves and be ruined ; we may deny our- selves and rise through self-denial to a better life. We may ply the hand of industry, and through it 124 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. evolve plenty for our bodies, and enjoyment and im- provement for our minds. Or we may play the slug- gard till want comes upon us as an armed man, and our higher powers are wholly paralyzed. We may, again, in laboring to supply our humblest material wants, so proceed as to exercise and strengthen the loftiest vir- tues and the holiest charities in the fear of God ; or we may so proceed, that we shall grow only more selfish, more sordid, more cruel, more godless, more God-defying and God-forsaken. The Creator has given us bodies ; through these bodies he has put our minds in relations, both active and passive, with all external objects, and all other terrestrial inhabitants ; so that at every step we may use the material in order to unfold and discipline the spiritual and immaterial, or we may use it to debase and enslave them. IV. There is one more characteristic of Holy Scripture which I desired to insist upon at much more length than time will now permit. It is what may be termed its capability — its capahility as the educator of the individual and the educator of the race. In man there is capability for progress and development unknown in any other earthly creature; and in the Bible there is capability for promoting that progress without measure or limitation. Bounds can hardly be set to the powers and the knowledge that even one mind can compass, if it have time enough and a fitting field. What, then, shall limit the progress of society or of the race, working as they do through associated eifort and through all time, if only they have a guide to keep always in advance, urging them on to new achievements, and teaching them how, in attaining the new, they lose THE BIBLE AS A STUDY. 125 not the old ? Thus far in the history of the world, civilization in its highest forms has not permanently advanced, on the same theatre. It has kept migrat- ing, from one seat to another, towards the setting sun. Though it has gained new elements as it moved on, and has transplanted itself with more and more power of self-perpetuation, it is still sad to observe how nation after nation has gradually grown unworthy of the trust, and has been obliged to sit down humbled, amidst the ruins of its own greatness. Time will not allow me to suggest all the causes of this mournful and most striking fact ; but, I shall not presume too much on your opinions, if I assume, that moral dete- rioration has always preceded that which was material and intellectual, and that decay and weakness have invariably ensued when " the salt had lost all its savor." The faith, the virtue, the nobleness of soul, which are our only sure and abiding guarantee for the loyalty of individuals to each other or to their country, die out, and universal stagnation or dissolu- tion follows as the inevitable consequence. Now, is it not a fact, that of no people having the Bible, and cherishing that Bible aright, can this be alleged ? A nation without a Bible, or with a Bible suppressed, or a Bible neglected, may well decline ; for it finds it hard to keep open those fountains of high enthusiasm, or to maintain that sense of responsibility, which are the best preservatives of society from effeminacy and corruption. A bold, hardy, enterprising people, who cherish the domestic virtues and fear God, need but a generous culture to make them steadily and con- stantly progressive ; and is not the Bible, whenever read and honored, the fruitful parent of hardihood 11^- 126 DISCOUKSES AND CHARGES. and heroic enterprise ? Is it not the palladium too of the domestic virtues, and does not its voice ever urge in all-commanding tones to the fear of God and to works of righteousness ? The Bible, however, is not merely a conservator of good already compassed, nor is it merely an authori- tative summons to come up higher. It is itself the well-spring, the exhaustless fountain, of the noblest truths and impulses, that have been given to man- kind. It has not only supplied new views of God, and put its ban on Polytheism, Pantheism, and Superstition. It has not only solved the awful pro- blem of evil in its relation to man, and taught us the way of redemption through the Son of the Highest. It has invested every individual soul for which Christ died, with ^new and inconceivable dignity. It has developed in all, who have received its great truths in the love of them, a sense of responsibility which takes in both worlds. It has proclaimed the idea of a true brotherhood among all men in Christ Jesus, and has thus laid the axe to the root of the tyranny with which man once lorded over woman, patrician over plebeian, noble over prince, master over slave. It has developed the true function of the state, as one of the agencies through which the individual mind is to be trained under God to full capacity and taste for all its duties and prerogatives, and as having right to exist and to rule, only as it promotes to the utter- most, in all its people, this high culture. These ideas, when first propounded, met with uni- versal contempt or execration. Slowly but surely, however, they have spread like leaven through bodies, politic and social, charging mind after mind with their THE BIBLE AS A STUDY. 127 sacred influence, and gradually achieving that ameli- oration which places us this day high above the highest condition ever attained under Pagan or Mahoramedan sway. And thus are mankind to be always taught of God. Thus have they been learn- ing for six thousand years — from the Patriarchal to the Mosaic, from the Mosaic to the Christian stage. In the infancy or childhood of the world, it was the absolute regimen of parents; in its hot and fiery youth, it was the fixed and well-defined dominion of law as prescribed in the Old Testament ; and in its riper and more thoughtful manhood it is the Gospel of the grace of God. First, there is outward truth to make men wise, then there is subjective preparation to receive that truth. There is glory without, hidden from the proud and self-complacent, but revealed to those who in meekness are babes. There are laws for earlier stages, and there are laws again which shall be fully comprehended in all their applications and cordially obeyed, only when society through a larger experience and a deeper moral sense, shall come to see their wisdom and to own their sanctity and binding force. What an instrument have we here for regenerating universal humanity ! Ours is not a religion for a favored family or a preferred people. We are put in trust of the Gospel, and we hold it for mankind ; for the distant, the benighted, the down-trodden, the afflicted. Nations in their loftiest successes, in their purest forms of civilization, are but travelling towards the ideal presented in Scripture ; and as new phases of society appear, that Scripture will be found adapted to each, so far as it may be legitimate, and be calcu- 128 DISCOURSES AND CHARQES. lated to advance each to new glory and perfection. If this book be of God, then it was written with fore- sight of all coming conditions of the world, and it will be found to have for every one of them appro- priate instructions and influences. What higher privilege or responsibility then than ours, who are called to dispense this word to all who need it ; and what duty more solemn or more momentous for those who are appointed to study and to teach its truths, than to unfold such as are most applicable to the dangers and the difiiculties of our own times ! There are signs of impending and eventful changes. There are fearful struggles between capital and labor — between liberty and order — between Church autho- rity and private judgment — ^between spiritualism and formalism — between asceticism and sensuality — between fatalism and freedom — between mysticism and dogmatism — between belief and unbelief. For these, then, let us be prepared by diligent communion with this word, whose wisdom alone can be our suffi- cient guide. But if the Bible be such an Educator for nations and for the race, it must have capabilities equally great for the culture and improvement of the indi- vidual. And what could we desire in a book, to rouse our dormant faculties or to invigorate and refine them, that we may not find here ? Holy Scripture comprehendeth History and Prophecy, Law and Ethics, the Philosophy of Life that now is, the Philosophy of Life that is to come. At one time, it clotheth its teaching in strains of the sublimes t or tenderest poetry, at another, in narratives, as beau- tiful and touching for their simplicity as they are TUB BIBLE AS A STUDY. 129 unrivalled in dignity. It has reasoning for the logical understanding ; it has pictures for the discursive imagination ; it has heart-searching appeals for the intuitive powers of the soul. There is no duty omitted ; there is no grace or enjoyment undervalued. It provides a sphere for every faculty, and even for every temperament and disposition. This many-toned voice uses now the logic of a Paul, and now the ethics of a James ; here the boldness and fervor of a Peter, and there the gentleness and sublimity of a John. With one it discourses of the awful guilt and curse of sin, and points us to the only way of escape ; while with another it expatiates on the unutterable love of God and the attractions of the Cross of Christ. The Bible is no formal, lifeless system of propositions and inferences and precepts. It is as rich in the variety and vivacity of its methods, as it is in the overflowing abundance of its materials. While it draws some to religion, through the ideal, and some through the real and demonstrable, it allures others by means of the affections and sensibilities, and others it overawes, as a son of thunder, by its appeals to conscience and the dread of an hereafter. And how is it, if we look to the culture of the intel- lect merely ? How vast is the field which the Bible opens to our inquiries ? What rich results may we not win, in almost any conceivable line of research ? What discipline does not the proper study of it pro- vide for our reason and our faith, for patience and humility, for fortitude and moderation ? And in re- spect to those momentous questions, which pertain to God and the soul's destiny, there is light enough for every humble, robust mind ; there is darkness enough 130 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. for every proud and self-confiding one. To attain to perfect and all-embracing knowledge belongs not to us, who are still in the twilight of our being, and who are called to work our way, through patient and en- nobling labor, to that state where we can see even as "we are seen, and know even as we are known. That way will open gradually but surely before all, who go forward trustfully and manfully with the Bible as their guide. They shall have no infallible certainty, but they shall have unshaken and soul-satisfying con- fidence. To the question of questions, " What shall I do to be saved ?" they shall find an answer on which they can stay themselves in perfect peace. Their assurance will be the gift of no ghostly confessor ; it will be the ofispring of no sudden and undefinable im- pression or inspiration. It will be faith well-grounded and settled — an anchor to the soul. It will have the witness within that we love and strive to serve God ; and it will have the witness without that they w^ho do Christ's will shall know of His doctrine, that the Holy Spirit will guide the meek in judgment and instruct them in God's way, and that he who cometh with a faithful and penitent heart in Christ's name, shall in no wise be cast out. While here, in this state of warfare, the Christian must expect to be assailed through his understanding as well as through his heart. He may never hope therefore to be exalted, while in the flesh, above all necessity for seeking more truth, nor above the duty of guarding against the beguilements of his own frail heart. The divisions which rend Christendom, and the fierceness of contending sects, are not to be ascribed to the insufficiency of Scripture. They are THE BIBLE AS A STUDY. 181 to be ascribed to the insufficiency of man's fallen, but self-confident nynd — its insufficiency to discuss without passion, and to decide without prejudice. When men rise superior to selfish pride and interest, when they bring to the study of Scripture a devout and teachable spirit ; when they gladly avail themselves of all pro- per help, and look with becoming deference to the judgments of the wisest and best of all ages and lands ; when they seek truth, first of all as a guide in action, and not as a weapon for controversy ; when they apply to its contemplation, both their intellectual and their moral powers, their reason, their conscience, their afi*ections, and an obedient will, they shall not be left, in such case, greatly to err. Says Pascal, " God, willing to be revealed to those who seek him with their whole heart, and hidden from those who as cor- dially fly from him, has so regulated the means of knowing him as to give indications of himself which are plain to those who seek him, and shrouded to those who seek him not. There is light enough for those whose main wish is to see; and darkness enough to confound those of an opposite disposition."* I have thus indicated some of the reasons which should determine us as ministers of Christ to more * Thoughts, ch. xvii. — To the same intent is this among others, from Butler. "The evidence of Religion is fully suffi- cient for all THE PURPOSES OP PROBATION ; how far soever it is from being satisfactory as to the purposes of curiosity, or any other ; and indeed it answers the purposes of the former in several respects, which it would not do if it were as overbearing as is required." — Analogy, Part II, ch. 7. It is worthy of consider- ation, whether the infidel, in demanding more evidence for Reve- lation, and the believer, in demanding less obscurity in its mean- ing, are not committing the same fault. .. ,, . ,., 132 DISCOURSES AND CHANGES. earnest and devoted study of Holy Scripture. The more we read and meditate upon it, the more will its spirit and influence transpire in our preaching and deportment, and the more will our people be taught to reverence and love it. It will be more attentively listened to in public. It will be more thoughtfully and systematically perused in private. The congre- gations will demand of the clergy, and the clergy will gladly furnish to the congregations, more full and copious expositions of the inspired word. Its autho- rity shall rise as that of mere human teachers declines, and we shall come to learn, not that there may, on this side the grave, be unity in all things, but that in all things there may be charity, and that in many things now held to be as of the essence of the faith, there may be rightfully and safely more of toleration.* * Says Bishop Marsh, " It has been frequently said, and very lately repeated, that, as the Churches (of England and Rome) act alike in maintaining for itself that it does not err, it is mere metaphysical subtlety to distinguish between the petty terms of ^does not' and can not.' But these terms, insignificant as they may appear, denote nothing less than two distinct principles of action ; and principles so distinct, that the one leads to charity and toleration, and the other to intolerance and persecution. On the former principle, which is maintained by the Church of Eng- land, though we believe that we are right, we admit that we are possibly wrong ; though we believe that others are wrong, we admit that they are possible/ right ; thence we are disposed to tolerate their opinions. But on the latter principle, which is maintained by the Church of Rome, the very possibility of being right, is denied to those who dissent from its doctrines. Now, as soon as men have persuaded themselvs, that in points of doc- trine they cannot err, they will think it an imperious duty to prevent the growth of all other opinions on a subject so important as religion. Should argument, therefore, fail, the importance of the end will be supposed to justify the worst of means. But the THE BIBLE AS A STUDY. 133 We shall have fewer pretended articles of faith. We shall have more allowed diversity of opinion. We shall be more anxious to know of a brother, whether he have the Spirit of Christ, than whether he speak precisely according to our Shibboleth ; and we shall not recoil from a day, when we must own as among the faithful and the accepted, those who on earth have walked not, in a^ll things, according to our will. intolerance thus produced by an imaginary exemption from error, is far from being confined to the Church of Rome. And hence we may justly infer that the same inquisitorial power which has been exercised by the Church of Rome, would be ex- ercised by others who set up similar pretensions, if the means of employing that power were once at their command." — " Lec- tures on Interpretation of the Bible," as quoted in the Bampton Lectures of the present Bishop of Hereford. Bishop Marsh's work, entitled " Comparative View of the Churches of England and Rome," is one which well deserves attention in our day. 12 TEN YEAES REVIEWED, FIFTH CHAEGE * Brethren : — Since I was first called to the post which I now occupy, a period of ten years has elapsed, and it may not be uninteresting or unprofitable to review briefly this period in the history of the Diocese, and to endeavor to derive from its leading incidents some hints for our future guidance. { In reverting to the names attached to the testimo- nial of my election, drawn up in May, 1845, 1 find that out of seventy-six clergymen who were then members of the Convention and sharing in its deliberations, nine are no longer among the living ; and that of the ninett/'three parishes then represented, twenty-one have been deprived by death of one or more of the deputies then present. Such facts constitute a start- ling call to work while we have time. The muta- bility of all things connected with the Church Mili- tant, especially in this country, is still further illus- trated by the fact, that of the seventy-six clergymen just referred to, only one-half are now resident in this Diocese, and in more than one instance they have removed in the interim, but have since returned. ■^ Delivered May, 1855. — w.^^.-.t 1 V-* 138 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. During the last ten years (less four months, which elapsed between my election and consecration) I have officiated in public on two thousand two hundred and eighty-four occasions, on one thousand and two of which the rite of Confirmation was administered. The whole number of persons Confirmed during this period has been eight thousand six hundred. I have also, during the same period, consecrated fifty churches, admitted sixty-five candidates to the Diaconate, and sixty-one Deacons to the Priesthood, preached seventeen hundred sermons, baptized one hundred and fifty-four infants and adults, and admi- nistered the Holy Communion two hundred and nine- teen times. In instituting a comparison between the present and past condition of the Diocese, we should remem- ber that figures are at best but an imperfect index. There may be increase of churches and clergymen, a material addition of worshippers and communicants, and yet the aggregate moral and spiritual power of the Diocese may be stationary or even retrograde. I would speak, therefore, with diffidence of any apparent prosperity which we enjoy ; yet not without thank- fulness that so many signs of increasing activity and zeal can be discerned, both among the Clergy and among the Laity. One of the most cheering facts in our experience is that the advance, during the last ten years, in the number of communicants and Sun- day-school scholars, and in the amount contributed to benevolent objects, has been greater in proportion than the increase in the number of parishes and clergy- men ; thus indicating not merely an expansion of our visible limits, but a substantial addition to the strength, DECENNIAL REVIEW. 139 earnestness, and liberality of our older congregations. In much larger proportion, too, than formerly, our rural and suburban parishes are coming to be self- supporting, and throughout the Diocese, with a few exceptions, the erection of Parsonages, the separation of parishes which were formerly held jointly by the same clergyman, and the increase of clerical compen- sation, indicate progress. The number of our Sun- day-school scholars is larger than in any of our sister Dioceses. Some provision has been made for the support, at school, of the sons, and yet more for that of the daughters of the Clergy. Academies of the highest order have been opened in this city and else- where, under the immediate auspices of the Church, in which a large number of the young of both sexes have been educated gratuitously. Hospitals have been founded for the sick, for the aged and infirm, and for orphans; and measures are in progress, espe- cially in this city, to enlarge materially our sphere of operations in this department. In 1845, the number of clergymen reported as be- longing to this Diocese, was one hundred and twenty- one ; in 1855, it is one hundred and sixty-seven. In 1845, the number of parishes reported was one hun- dred and nineteen ; but the actual number that had more than a name to live, was less than one hundred, and of these more than one-half received material assistance from without. In 1855, the number of parishes is ostensibly one hundred and seventy-two, but actually not more than one hundred and fifty-six, of which not less than eighty are self-supporting ; in- dicating an increase of fifty-six in the number of con- gregations, and of forty-six in the number of the 140 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. clergy. In 1844, the number of communicants re- ported to the General Convention, as belonging to this Diocese, was eight thousand eight hundred and sixty-five ; in 1853 (nine years later), it was twelve thousand six hundred. In 1844, the number of Sun- day-school scholars reported was nine thousand three hundred and five ; in 1853, it was fifteen thousand and four. During the ten years just ended, fifty -four churches have been erected and occupied, and seven more are now in progress. Between twenty and thirty churches have also been materially enlarged and improved ; twenty-three parsonage houses have been erected or purchased, and I rejoice to add that there are very few places of worship in the Diocese which, during the same period, have not been to some extent renovated and adorned. In the City of Philadelphia alone, eighteen new churches have been built for new congregations, nine have been enlarged, and nearly all repaired and improved. There is one feature in the operations of the Dio- cese, during this period, to which we may recur, I think, with special satisfaction, for it seems to promise the approach of a time, when we shall be able to com- mand greatly increased means for church extension. I refer to the reduction, and in a large measure, the entire liquidation of church debts. During the last few years, this work has absorbed our resources to an ex- tent much greater than is usually supposed. The sum devoted to this object, in the city and county of Philadelphia alone, within the last eight years, can- not have been less than two hundred thousand dol- DECENNIAL REVIEW. 141 lars.* In every part of the Diocese, the same right- eous and prudent work has been advancing, and the whole amount remaining unpaid is comparatively small. Its liquidation will be an easy task, and once accomplished, we may hope, that the means and energy, which have been lavished so freely on the un- grateful work of discharging obligations belonging to the past, and in the incurring of which many of us had no part, will be held sacred for the future and rapid extension of the Saviour's Kingdom. What may not be hoped from the next ten years, if the power and liberality thus developed in conjunction with that which has been already given to the work, and in conjunction with much which is still to be quickened into life — if all this shall be addressed under the inspiration of faith and hope to new enter- prises ? — I am aware that, under the pressure of an imperious and urgent sense of duty, this work may have been pushed forward, in some cases, at a rate which induces temporary exhaustion. But such ex- haustion soon recruits itself, while the power that has been developed by faithful and strenuous effort, forms a permanent addition to our resources. It is a hope, to which I have clung fondly during past years, and which I shall not readily relinquish, that those who have done so nobly in liquidating debts which have descended to them, in many cases, as heir-looms from their predecessors, will not be wanting when they are called upon to meet the rapidly increasing * During the last ten years nearly $400,000, have also been paid in Philadelphia on account of neiv church buildings, par- sonages, &c. In the Diocese out of Philadelphia, the amount paid for the same object has been over $200,000. 142 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. wants of this vast city and commonwealth, and to rear new sanctuaries for their children and their children's children. The Diocese has a great work before The Future. . . . . it, and it is one which admits of no delay. So long as this incubus of debt weighed upon many of our largest and most earnest congregations, at once a burden and a reproach, I have been slower in devising and pressing the establishment of new parishes, and the prosecution of new missionary and benevolent en- terprises, than would otherwise have become my office and comported with my desires. This impediment is now all but overcome, and the Church in Pennsylva- nia, and especially in Philadelphia, wants but the will to move forward to a new and blessed career of benefi- cence. This city has doubled its population and more than doubled its capital in less than fifteen years, and in its growth and abounding prosperity, the members of our communion have had their full share. The whole commonwealth is advancing with strides more and more rapid. Multitudes from difi'erent lands are thronging towards its mines, manufactories, fields and forests. While their skill and toil enhances our power and wealth, be it ours to see that they are not left destitute of the true riches. In our large towns and mining districts, there are numbers frightfully large, who seem to have none to care for their souls. Schools are opening the intellectual capacities of our people, and creating an appetite for mental employment and gratification, which must be fed from the tree whose fruit is for the healing of the nations, or it will sate itself on garbage. The labors of philanthropic men and the authority of law, are likely to stay, in DECENNIAL REVIEW. 143 some good degree, the awful flood of intemperance, which has swept so long and so ruthlessly over many homes and through many souls; and minds that have hitherto heen besotted by vice and indigence will now, we fondly hope, be more open to appeals from the cross and from a sanctified literature. God is also inclining many, who are without, towards our services, and a large proportion of them have property and social influence. In yet greater mercy. He is rousing our people, both lay and clerical, to a new sense of the debt, which we owe as a Church to the poor and outcast and forsaken, and He is moving us to tremble, lest the Divine Presence be withdrawn from a com- munion, to which " the common people" do not press, as they did of old to hear the words of Christ, when his name was cast out as evil by scribes, pharisees, and principal men. In an unwonted manner too, He is disposing us to relax the stiff*ness of our liturgical system when we go abroad in missionary labor ; and in, almost every conceivable way, he seems to say to this Church in Pennsylvania, as of old he said to the angel of the Church in Philadelphia, " Behold I have set before thee an open door." Shall we fail in the wisdom, the courage, the devotion, that become such a crisis ? Never was a more golden opportunity held out to us in this commonwealth or in this city, and if we prove wholly unequal to its needs, we may w^ell fear lest the candlestick be removed out of its place. Two objects have been kept steadily in view, first, the consolidation and enlargement of such of our con- gregations as have been recently established or are still weak ; and secondly, the formation of new parishes as opportunities ofi'er. A third object is 144 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. entitled to more consideration than has yet been ap- plied to it. I allude to the care of such scattered members of our flock as cannot be gathered at once into separate congregations, but who need, as they earnestly desire, both for themselves and their chil- dren, the offices of the Church ; and ministrations to "whom can be well connected with missionary labors among those who belong to no communion. Such persons are to be found — sheep without a shepherd — in every part of the Diocese. Already services among some of this class, by District or Itinerating Missiona- ries, have resulted in the establishment of a few new congregations, in the revival of others which were nearly extinct, and in the edification and comfort of many sons and daughters of our communion. It is a department of our work, however, which deserves to be greatly enlarged. I can conceive of few measures more likely to honor God by benefiting men, than a well-digested system of Itinerancy, which shall cover all Pennsylvania, not yet occupied, and be administered by men of sound judgment, earnest zeal, and indomit- able perseverance. It might embrace the care of such feeble and stationary parishes as now engage too large a share of the time and strength of the clergy. When we examine what has been done in promot- ing the stability and comfort of the pastoral relation \ij increasing salaries, building parsonages, providing Rectors' Libraries, with free scholarships for their children, and an endowment for their families in case of death, the aggregate seems very large; yet it bears but a moderate proportion to what we need. Here is a field which may well claim our steady and earnest attention. What has been accomplished in it already, DECENNIAL REVIEW. 145 demonstrates that nothing but resolute effort and faithful prayer are needed to achieve what remains. In this and every Diocese, however, there are and ever must be, positions which can be occupied only at considerable — sometimes at very great — sacrifice to their incumbents. No one can witness, as I do, the cheerfulness with which refined and educated men and delicate and accomplished women, submit to the severest personal privations, or draw unceasingly upon their own strength or private means, to eke out an insufficient salary, without being filled with admira- tion and with gratitude to that God who thus strengthens his servants, to give rather than receive, nor without sounding again and again to those whom Providence has blessed with substance the call to re- member these brethren and sisters in their heroic struggle against want and discouragement. In no part of the Diocese is the opening for mis- sionary labor more inviting than in Philadelphia, and in none perhaps do we so much need to redouble our exertions. Here we have wealth, zeal, and the requi- site capacity to conduct missions on the largest and most efiective scale. I will now but express the hope that this too long neglected work will soon be under- taken with a vigor commensurate in some degree with its importance. And in this connection let me suggest whether in erecting new churches it may not he expe- dient to abandon^ in cities^ the plan of multiplying such as are intended only or mainly for the poor. They do not seem to harmonize with our position or our necessities. As churches for the poor, they are apt to be avoided by all who do not expect to remain in that class, or who are unwilling to proclaim their 13 146 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. indigence. The rich and especially the middle classes shun them of course — so that too generally they lan- guish, badly supported and not well attended. In the house of God, where His special presence dwells who is the Maker of them all, rich and poor and those of every class ought to meet together. It promotes sympathies which are none too strong or active now ; it secures that churches shall be large enough to be ultimately self-supporting, and it opens for the clergy that diversified sphere of labor which is best for their mental and spiritual culture. Tho system of Convocations for the Clergy^ in different districts of the Diocese, was adopted in the hope that it would develop a spirit of co-operation and self-reliance among the churches in such districts ; that it would create centres of church enterprise and activity out of which independent Dioceses might, in some cases, ultimately spring, and promote senti- ments of affection and fraternity generally among our clergy and people. Some of these results have, I think, been secured already, and I cannot but hope that if the system works itself out steadily and effi- ciently, all of them will be compassed in time. Some of the Convocations evince increased interest in mis- sions within their own bounds. In my last address I expressed the opinion that this Diocese ought, at no distant day, to have a Training College for Ministers of the Gospel and Teachers of Youth. The rapid growth of our re- sources and spiritual necessities will contribute each year to demonstrate that such an Institution is a necessity. Our population is one that can be dealt with most successively by clergymen who are familiar DECENNIAL REVIEW. 14t with its habits and tastes. Pennsylvania embraces great diversities of people, whether we consider their origin or their pursuits. Every kind of employment, whether rural, mining, manufacturing, or commercial, has within our bounds its representatives in large and increasing numbers, and almost every nation of Europe has contributed ingredients towards the great social caldron which is seething around us. But with all these varieties there is still a certain unity of cha- racter, and we need candidates for the ministry who can appreciate the latter while they are being trained to adjust themselves to the manifold phases of the former. An education, moreover, which shall fit a man to be a successful and efficient minister in the different spheres afforded by this Diocese would qualify him for almost any position which is likely to present itself in the United States ; and it is there- fore within our power to deal here with the whole problem of Domestic Missions. The remotest West can hardly present emergencies to a missionary which may not be met with in some part of Pennsylvania, and if in an institution of our own, we can educate men with the force, the tact, the versatility, the genial temper, the unconquerable resolution and self-sacri- ficing zeal which are needed to win the confidence and allegiance of the people of this commonwealth, we shall have done much for the solution of a momen- tous question, interesting to every part of our church and of our country. In closing this Discourse I introduce another sub- ject on which I hoped to have been prepared to ex- press myself with more distinctness. From the beginning of my Episcopate I have contemplated the 148 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. division of this Diocese as a measure which ought not to be long delayed. As far as I have had opportunity Division of I ^ave endeavored quietly but steadily to the Diocese, prepare for it, by developing the energies of the remoter districts, and rendering them more and more equal to the task of self-support. I have been sensible that more Episcopal as well as more clerical and lay force was desirable, and that the rapid growth of our population and my own advancing age would render a reduction in the size of the Diocese doubly expedient. So far as my own wishes are concerned, I could at once propose a line of division which would leave both the Dioceses large enough to occupy all the energies of their incumbents, and I should be willing myself to be assigned, for the remainder of my life, to the charge of either of them. It will cost me severe pangs to part with any of the friends among whom I have gone ministering for the last ten years, and at whose hands I have received such unmeasured kind- ness. But delay would not be likely, at least on my part, to lessen those pangs when at length the time for separation came, and I should hold myself un- worthy of my office and of the confidence which you have generously given me, if, on such a question, I could be governed by any other consideration than your welfare, the welfare of those you represent, and the honor of the Saviour. An Assistant Until recently, I intended to propose Bishop. ^]ja^^ steps contemplating an early division be taken at once. Circumstances have occurred, how- ever, which render it more than possible, that the con- tingency contemplated hy the Canon which autliorizes the election of an Assistant Bishop, may present it- DECENNIAL REVIEW. 149 self before long^ and in that event such an election might be thought to supersede the necessity of an immediate division of the Diocese. I therefore reserve the -subject, and in my future course will endeavor to be guided by the indications of Providence, and by the counsel of such friends, medical and otherwise, as may be able best to appreciate the emergencies of the case, as it respects both the Diocese and myself. Such personal relief as (I am admonished) I impe- riously and immediately need, I can obtain in part, and perhaps entirely, by declining all duty which does not pertain directly to my office. I have parti- cipated, since I came to this Diocese, in many move- ments which contemplated the general improvement of society, because I felt that labor of that kind was eminently becoming in a Christian Bishop, and because I hoped that it might, if properly discharged, not only benefit its more immediate objects, but also exert a benign reflex influence upon our Communion. But such labor I have always regarded as wholly secondary to my proper official work, and I shall not hesitate to withdraw from it, in proportion as precarious health, or accumulating Episcopal duty indicates the pro- priety or necessity of such a course. Having announced my readiness to co-operate in dividing the Diocese, and my cordial constitutional desire to see it consummated soon, I will Restriction, add some remarks on a subject of more general inte- rest. The reduction of Dioceses to what has been called the primitive standard is, with many, a favorite idea. By the constitution of our American Church, as it now reads, no new Diocese can be formed out of existing Dioceses, if it contain less than eight thousand 13* 150 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. square miles of territory, or have less than thirty Presbyters canonically resident therein and regularly settled in a parish or congregation. It was proposed in the General Convention of 1850, that both these re- strictions should be withdrawn, and that, with the con- sent of the Bishops and Convention more immediately interested, and that of the General Convention, new Dioceses should be formed without any limitation as to territorial extent or clerical force. At the Conven- tion of 1853, this proposition received the unanimous consent of the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies, but was non-concurred in by the Bishops, by a vote of 17 to 9. As this action of the Bishops has been made the occasion of reproach — ambitious motives having been freely attributed to them — and as it was on my motion that the vote of non-concurrence was adopted, it may be proper to assign some of the rea- sons which induced it, and also to develop some of the principles which, in my judgment, ought to govern the future policy of our Church on this important subject. I was myself the more free to move in this matter — on the occasion referred to — because under the law, as it now stands, the Diocese of Pennsylvania might at once be divided into three if not four dio- ceses, each having the required number of presbyters and square miles. As no relaxation, therefore, of these requirements would be likely to affect my per- sonal position, I felt that I could deal with the subject simply on general principles, and without the obloquy to which some of my brethren, under their different circumstances, might be exposed. The Resolution of non-concurrence adopted by the Bishops was in these words : " Resolved, That this DECENNIAL REVIEW. 151 House non-concur in the proposed amendment to the Seventh Article of the Constitution, for the reason that it would not, in their judgment, be wise to dis- pense with all restrictions as to the number of pres- byters and extent of territory." They followed their non-concurrence with the proposal to the lower house (through a committee of conference), to dis- pense with all territorial restriction, except that not more than one Diocese should be formed in the same city — simply requiring that to entitle a new Diocese to be established it must have a certain number of self-supporting parishes and settled presbyters (fifteen of each), and must leave not less than thirty self- supporting parishes and twenty presbyters in the parent diocese. That overture was accepted by the House of Deputies, and if ratified at the next General Convention, becomes thenceforth a part of the organic law of our Church. It leaves the matter as open as can well be required, while it secures that no strong Diocese shall set ofi" an insignificant fraction of its territory and churches to be a feeble and sickly body, and provides on the other hand, that any part of an existing Diocese which seeks to become independent, shall give, in its number of clergy and self-sustaining parishes, some pledge that it has within itself the elements of life and growth. Western New York, when formed into a Diocese, had seventy-six clergy- men. The Church in each new State, it must be re- membered, is entitled already to erect itself into an independent Diocese, co-extensive with said State; and but six parishes and six presbyters are necessary to entitle such diocese to elect its own Bishop. With- out the boundaries of States, having this small number 152 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. of parishes and presbyters, we must rely, of course, on Missionary and Provisional Bishops ; and as our terri- tory expands of late, even faster than our population, it is evident, that for some time to come, such Bishops, in common with some of our Diocesans, must labor over large tracts of country, and rely for sup- port either on parishes which they hold as rectors, or on their brethren of older and richer Dioceses. There is here, brethren, a field for our liberality and frater- nal co-operation which we shall never, I trust, over- look. When we come to regulate the subdivision of older dioceses, we encounter questions which deserve thorough discussion, and which will be resolved in different ways, according to the view which we take of the Episcopal office, and of the functions proper to it in this country. In the early church, the jurisdiction Small Dioceses. « ^-w. , . ^^ . • 01 Jiishops was naturally co-extensive with a principal city and its adjacent villages and territory. Its territorial extent, however, was often much greater than is commonly represented. The African Dioceses (according to Bingham) embraced on an average three or fourscore towns and villages, besides the principal city. Hippo, the Diocese of St. Augustine, was more than forty miles long, which, if estimated by the time required to traverse it, would be equivalent at present, in most of the old dioceses, to two hundred miles. Carthage is said to have had five hundred clergymen subject in the fourth century to the same Bishop, and Hooker adduces the authority of Chrysostom and Theophilus of Alexandria, to prove that " ample jurisdiction" was the rule rather than the exception. DECENNIAL REVIEW. 153 But to my mind, a more weighty consideration is to be found in the great difference which may be observed between the position of a modern Bishop in a Reformed Communion, and that of the ancient Episcopate. The conception formed, under the Boman Empire, of almost every local authority, was naturally modelled after that which, to a Roman mind, was then the ideal of Executive power — a cen- tralized monarchy. For a long time. Presbyters, in- stead of being Rectors of independent parishes, were mere assistants or curates of their Bishop, who was Pastor of the principal church in the Diocese. They were attached to the principal or parent church, and served the Bishop, both as his council of advice and as his subordinates in preaching and ministering the sa- craments and in missionary labor throughout the sur- rounding villages and districts. I need hardly indi- cate the vast difference between such a Bishop and one invested with the supervision of an American Diocese, where Episcopalians form a small minority of those who profess and call themselves Christians, and where parishes and their Rectors have not only a certain independent existence, but are, in one respect, the fountains of our legislation, and indeed of all church authority. Such a Diocesan Episcopacy, being the only one adapted to the habits and genius of our people, is the only one likely to gain a footing among American Protestants. A monarchical Episcopate which would transform each Bishop into an Autocrat, his Presby- ters into drill-sergeants, and the people into spiritual serfs, is, among the children of the Reformation in this land, simply an impossibility. And we ought, 154 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. it seems to me, to thank God for it. A Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, •who is wise, will be as jealous of the rights of his Clergy and of their people as of his own. He will hold in highest estimation those of his administrative functions which are merely advisory and preventive, and will count it more pleasure and privilege to fore- see, and by friendly private counsel, avert evil and promote good, than to exercise the lordliest rule over God's heritage. But, if such are the functions of a Bishop — if, in his cure, each Presbyter has an independent autho- rity and jurisdiction of his own, the labors that per- tained to the Episcopal oflfice, during the first five centuries, have been greatly abridged, and the sphere in which he applies them will admit, in the same pro- portion, of being geographically enlarged. If he is to strengthen the position and increase the proper in- fluence of the Clergy, he should not be too much among their people, so as to be tempted to supersede them in their proper functions, or to open his ears too readily to the complaints of the discontented. While he will be easy of access, and have a ready " mind and will" for all kindly offices, he will avoid the familiarity that breeds contempt. He will put such an interval between his official visits that the anticipation of them will rouse the slumbering ener- gies of the parish, inciting the Pastor to more than usual zeal and diligence in preaching, both publicly and from house to house, and animating the Laity to greater carefulness for the interests of the Church of God. And, then, as to the support of the Episcopate : DECENNIAL REVIEW. 155 If the efficiency of the office is to be greatly increased in the older States, it must be through arrangements which will leave to a Diocese full freedom to select the best man for its peculiar wants, and to a Bishop full opportunity to devote all his time and energies to the duties proper to his office. Neither of these conditions can be so well attained as when this sup- port is furnished by the Diocese at large, as contra- distinguished from any particular parish, on the one hand, and from private sources on the other. If it be a condition of his election that he hold the cure of a large and wealthy parish as the means of his sup- port, then the exigencies or tastes of that parish, rather than the wants of the Diocese, will have to be consulted, not only in his selection, but also in the disposal of his time and strength. On the same prin- ciple, he should be the stipendiary of no one portion of his flock to the neglect or exclusion of the rest. If, on the other hand, he is to be sustained out of his own private property, not only will his sense of ac- countability to his Diocese be impaired, but the pre- ference given to him over other candidates for the office, will run the chance of being governed by the very last consideration which ought to rule in a ques- tion touching so closely the dearest interests of Christ's Church. There is no danger that wealth shall not be held in sufficiently high estimation in this country, and in our branch of the Christian world. It will bode only evil if it shall ever come to be considered as a necessary qualification for the highest office and honors of a Diocese. Disqualification it surely ought not to be. But all the Church's ministers will, as it seems to me, best serve and most honor her when 156 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. they are examples and patterns of simplicity and fru- gality in all their habits ; and such they can hardly be expected to be if they are preferred before others mainly on the ground of personal affluence. These few suggestions may render it evident why the Bishops desired to engraft on the Constitution some security that, in the creation of new Dioceses, there should be at least the promise that they shall, at no distant day, be self-supporting as it respects both a certain number of parishes and the Episcopal office. In establishing parishes we consider this a wise pro- vision. Can it be less wise in the formation of new Dioceses out of those now existing ? In our anxious desire to promote the growth and efficiency of our communion, we are apt to anticipate too much from some one untried expedient, instead of laboring to develop all its means of action. Among the fondest visions with which I contemplate the future is the hope that, should a few years more of active labor be vouchsafed to me, they may be subsi- diary to a twofold, threefold, or even fourfold division of this Diocese. But a somewhat careful examination of the statistics of our American Church for twenty or thirty years past admonishes me not to expect from such a measure any great and sudden enlarge- ment of our numbers or our capacity for usefulness. The only State in which this course has been taken does not exhibit during the last twenty years much greater collective growth by our Church, in the ratio of the growth of population, than has taken place during the same period in Pennsylvania. The new Diocese set off has enjoyed the active oversignt of a Bishop surpassed by few in qualities which illustrate DECENNIAL REVIEW. 157 and recommend the Episcopal office, or give effect to Episcopal supervision ; and yet, if we are to judge from the increase of the clergy, we should infer that its progress during the last twelve years had been behind that of a majority of eastern Dioceses. And when we compare the whole of New York with the whole of Virginia, or of Connecticut, where the policy of Assistant Bishops has prevailed, we find that when the rate at which population has increased is com- pared with the increase of our clergy, Virginia, from 1834 to 1854, made progress quite equal to that of New York. I refer to these facts neither to recom- mend the practice of unnecessarily multiplying Assis- tant Bishops, which I do not approve, nor to dispa- rage the policy of dividing Dioceses, but to indicate that there are other causes, more powerful than a mere increase of the Episcopate, which affect the pro- gress and prosperity of our Church. In some States, from the peculiar character of the immigrant popula- tion, or from the prevalence of emigration, or from the force of hereditary antipathies, that degree of ad- vancement is impossible, even with the best appli- ances, which, elsewhere, is accomplished easily. In Pennsylvania, all these causes combine to cripple our exertions, and nothing can overcome them but the earnest co-operation of all orders of clergy and people. That an increase of Episcopal force is expedient and all but necessary, I have already avowed as my con- viction ; but experience proves that it does not neces- sarily produce a corresponding increase in the num- ber and efficiency of the clergy, nor in the zeal and liberality of the laity. — More prayer for an unction from the Holy One — more strenuous effort to glorify U 158 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. God and do good to all men as opportunity offers — < more co-operation of laity and clergy in making aggressions on the kingdom of darkness and debase- ment immediately around them — more special prepa- ration on the part of all, and especially on the part of the clergy for the peculiar work which devolves upon us in this age and land — here is the work which it most behooves us to do, and to do with our might. To this work let us address ourselves with one mind and heart. The grand condition of all beneficent progress, when wrought out through human instru- ments, is a profound conviction, on the part of those instruments, of their past deficiencies, and a resolute determination, with God's blessing, to amend them. We may well be grateful to the Author of all good for what has been accomplished hitherto in His name, and for His glory. But other feelings than those of self-applause surely become us when we review the past ; and if we hope for the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel, other emotions than those of self-con- fidence should possess our minds as we look forward to the future. If we have great openings and opportu- nities, so have we great difficulties and discourage- ments. He who can enable us to remove the one out of the way, if we assail them in a spirit of humble trust in Him, can easily change the other into mere embarrassments and failures, if we move onward in our own strength. May God then fill us more than ever with a sense of our immediate dependence on the succors of his grace. He who is over you in the Lord has little occasion to felicitate himself on the meekness or the trustfulness with which he has toiled at his work. He needs your prayers ; he earnestly DECENNIAL REVIEW. 159 asks that he may receive them ; that for the next decennial period of that work, should he be spared to fulfil it, he may have a double portion of the wisdom, the zeal, and the self-renouncing faith which come only from above. The clergy, at such a time, may well ask wherein they can be more diligent, more wise in the use of every opportunity — more bold and warm-hearted, and yet more gentle in probing the consciences of all who hear them — more intent, in fine, on every good word and work. And the Laity — has not the time come when we of the Clergy should demand more of their aid in teaching the igno- rant, in reclaiming the vicious, in giving personal relief and oversight to the necessitous ? Has not the time come when we should admonish them, in all afi*ection, but with all faithfulness — as we have never yet done — that the gold and the silver are the Lord's ? And will they not incline their ears and hearts to the word of exhortation ? God is crowning, with wonderful success, the enterprises and the in- dustry of many of them. Should not thank-ofierings be laid on his altar, bearing some proportion to the munificence of His unmerited gifts ? Should w^e put our trust in uncertain riches when His providence alone can keep us in safety, or fill our hearts with contentment and gladness? God spared not His own Son when our souls were to be saved and our world redeemed. Should we pass by on the other side when multitudes lie weltering in sin and ignorance, and when a portion of our substance, given in season and with liberal hand, might cause many a scene of spiritual desolation to rejoice and blossom as the rose? "There is that scattereth and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but 160 DISCOUllSES AND CnARGES. it tendeth to poverty." 0, that God would put it into the hearts of the Laity of this Diocese to resolve,- in His strength, on great things for His honor ; that, gathered frequently with their Pastors to implore an outpouring of the Divine presence and benediction, they might bring on another day of Pentecostal grace and Pentecostal bountifulness. If we would have God honor us with the gifts of His Spirit, we must honor him with the offerings of our liberality. We must give, too, as we have opportunity, not waiting till death shall deprive us of the ability to peril our means on the hazards of trade, or to lavish their yearly income on ostentatious self-gratification. May there be many among us of this mind. May ministers and people, looking to God, who alone can prosper the work of our hands, but who declares to those who devise liberal things, that by liberal things they shall stand — may Bishops, Clergy and people, in His strength and grace, go forth with brave and indomit- able hearts to the work that is given them to do. Wherefore consider with yourselves the end of the ministry towards the children of God, towards the Spouse and Body of Christ, and see that ye never cease your labor, your care and diligence, until ye have done all that lieth in you, according to your bounden duty, to bring all such as are or shall be committed to your charge unto that agreement in the faith and knowledge of God, and to that ripeness and perfectness of age in Christ, that there be no place left among you for error in religion or viciousness of life. THE CHRISTIAN BISHOP. 14* A SEEMON * "I charge thee, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead, at his appearing and his kingdom ; preach the Word ; be instant in season, out of season ; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine."— 2 Tim. iv : 1, 2. Four times does St. Paul appear before us in the i^ew Testament in the act of counselling those whose office it is to minister in holy things — once in a fare- well charge from his own lips to the Elders or Pres- hyters of the church which he had planted at Ephe- sus, and thrice in Letters or Epistles which he ad- dressed to individuals. Of these Epistles, two were addressed to his own son in the faith, his dearly- beloved, his work-fellow, Timothy, whom he had besought to abide at Ephesus, that he might oversee both its pastors and people. The third was directed to Titus, whom, in like manner, the Apostle had left at Crete, that he might ordain elders in every city, and set in order things that were wanting. In the first of these charges, we learn what counsels and * Preached at the consecration of Bishop Whitehouse, St. George's Church (N. Y.), Nov. 1851. 164 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. exhortations the clergy ought to receive from those "who are over them in the Lord ; and in the remainder, we are taught how even they may be addressed who are invested with the highest authority in Christ's Church. Happy they who, in attempting to copy such models, are enabled to catch a portion of the Apostle's own spirit — thrice happy they who can plead in fitting words, and with something of his own solemn and majestic pathos, the cause in which he gloried, and who can do it with the same inward witness that, in exhorting others, they are not con- demning themselves. The circumstances which surround us to-day. Bre- thren, how they stand contrasted with those that sur- rounded St. Paul when he indited the words of my text ! He was then not only Paul the aged, he was Paul a prisoner of the Lord, L e,, for the Lord's sake. Nor was he a prisoner only — he was a pri- soner at Eome, where the machinations of the tyrant Nero had inflamed the people almost to madness in their hatred of Christians. Aftet* fighting the bat- tles of the faith for thirty years in a spirit the most magnanimous and with results the most grateful, he finds himself now, in the evening of his days, closely imprisoned and almost forsaken. His Master's expe- rience is become his own. Arraigned before the imperial tribunal, he stands alone. At my first answer, no-^man stood with me, but all men forsook me. Still later, when his toil-worn but unblenching hand traced these his last lines, only Luke was with him, Demas had forsaken him, having loved the present world, and was departed unto Thessalonica ; Cres- fiens to G-alatia;^ Titus unto Dalmatia, His hour THE FAITHFUL BISnOP, 165 of martyrdom draws on. He is now ready to he offered, and the time of his departure is at hand. Not quite eighteen hundred years have since passed by. The Church of Christ, then planted in a few cities and struggling for life against relentless perse- cution, now overspreads the fairest portions of the globe. Where civilization has done its best work ; where industry is dispensing its richest rewards to the millions it employs ; where laws are most equal and most equally administered ; where science- and letters, commerce and the arts, civility and charity most abound, there does the faith of the Crucified, in its purest forms, prevail. Here, too, in this far-off land, — unknown to the wisest of the sages and the most ambitious of the heroes who lived when Paul lived, on a continent where neither the sun of civili- zation nor the Sun of righteousness had then shone, — Christ is now owned. They who here profess and c^ll themselves Christians, are numbered by tens of millions; and in their great commercial centre, with one eye on the Old World, and the other on the open- ing and ever-expanding new one, we meet to-day in Christ's name and in Christ's behalf. We come to set apart one, who, like Timothy and Titus, is to join with his ministry of the Word and Sacraments, that still more momentous ministry, which involves the power of ordination and the power of govern- ment. The fifty-fourth of those who, on ikis West- ern Hemisphere, have received a like commission from the same source and through the same channel, he is to exercise his apostleship in a distant Diocese, and in conjunction with one, who, like venerable Paul, feels that the time of his departure is at hand. As 106 DISCOURSES AND CIIAIiaES. far as Rome was from Ephesus, so far is the scene of this high solemnity from that in which our brother beloved is to labor, and laboring is to earn his reward. We have gathered here this morning to bid him God speed, and to join with our benedictions a few hasty words of counsel and admonition. Would that he were present,* whose heart yearns so warmly towards his future work-fellow, and who from the fulness of his watchful care and foresight, from the abundance of his love towards the flock, could speak in more fitting words. As it is, I can but strive to reproduce the counsels of St. Paul. Though dead, he yet speaketh ; and our wisdom at a time like this, surely lies in teaching even as he taught. And since we can hardly fail to feel that, though bloodthirsty foes no longer track the Church ; though Christians have risen from the place of a despised sect everywhere spoken against, to be the arbiters of the world*s destiny ; though smiles now greet the Rulers of thb Christian fold as they take their official rounds, still we must feel that there are dangers impending — dangers to ourselves — dangers to those over whom we are placed as overseers. Let us, therefore, listen to the Apostle ; let us imagine him present even here and now, while in his words and in the name of the Church he loved and served, we charge our brother, before God and our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom, to preach the Word ; to be instant in season and out of season ; to reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. Something we would say — first, of the duties which * Bishop Chase, of Illinois. THE FAITHFUL BISHOP. 167 devolve on the Episcopate always; and secondly^ some- thing of those which pertain to it more especially in our own time and land. I. Something of thou duties which devolve on the Episcopate always. 1. First among these in order, and second to none in real dignity and importance, is the duty of minister- ing in the Word and Sacraments. Preach the Word, says the Apostle ; he instant in season, out of season ; reprove [or repel false teachers], rehuJce [evil livers], exhort with all long suffering [though they seem to heed thee not], and with all doctrine"^ [as need shall require or occasion shall be given]. In no way is the Church of Christ more distin- guished from that which went before it, in the order of divine appointment, than in the pre-eminence which it assigns to teaching. As in Pagan religions, the ministering priest was rarely, if ever, an instructor of the people, so in that which God himself established through Moses, rite and ceremony, sacrifice and obla- tion, were the main, and through a large part of its history, the sole care of those who bore the sacerdotal ofiQce. It was reserved for the Christian dispensation to recognize the paramount value of truth as an in- strument in the Divine hand for awakening men from the death of sin to the life of righteousness, and for sealing them over to the obedience of faith. The dispensation of sacraments and ministrations of praise and prayer, became thenceforth joined with what, if we may judge from the precepts or the example of Christ and his Apostles, is now to be counted a yet * Whitby's Paraphrase. 168 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. higher work. Do we go abroad as heralds of Christ's Gospel, and ministering servants of his Church ? Is it not because we would comply with his last command to his disciples, and through them to all who bear his name — Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature: and when, in obedience to this commission, we minister in the sanctuary, or go breaking the bread of life from house to house, or scatter the good seed among those who are in the highways and by-paths, neglected of men and for- saken of God — in each of these cases, by what means are we to commend ourselves to every man's con- science in the sight of God ? Is it not, according to St. Paul, hy manifestation of the truth ? How are we to be unworthy instruments of salvation to them that believe ? Is it not hy the foolishness of preach- ing ? How cause them to be born again — not of cor- ruptible seed, but of incorruptible — is it not by the Word of Q-od ? How build them up and give them an inheritance among them that are sanctified ? Is it not by the Word of His grace ? Or, in fine, how enable them at last to come ofi" conquerors and more than conquerors ? Is it not through the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God ? Sacraments — alms-deeds — devotions — these are great and blessed parts of our ministering service ; but greater still is the ofiice we sustain, when, as Ambassadors of God, we entreat men to become reconciled to Him ; when, before saint and sinner, we unfold the infinite riches of His grace in Christ Jesus. Brethren, let us thank our Master, that it is our privilege to serve in a teaching church— ^m one that bids us go before the people, not with sealed instruc- THE FAITHFUL BISHOP. 169 tions, but with credentials, and a mission as open as day. Let us adore His wisdom and His goodness, too, that where we minister, we are bound to give at- tendance to reading — that we are not permitted to speak our own words, however they may be words of soberness and truth, till first we have recited, in the presence of all who hear us, two portions of inspired teaching — one from the Old Testament, the other from the New ; that we are commended to the Bereans as a noble example, because they searched the Scrip- tures daily, that thus they might estimate the value and justness even of Apostolic teaching ; and that we are emboldened to hope that, unworthy as we are of such a trust, it shall be ours to speak with saving effect even in demonstration of the spirit and of power to the souls of men, if we only speak the truth as it is in Christ. Never, then, be this ordinance of reading and preaching God's Word neglected or disparaged. Es- pecially now, when on every hand the intellect of men is assailed by natural truth, let the full radiance of that which is supernatural descend upon them. Now that books are so multiplied ; now that schools make reading and thinking all but universal ; now, when on every other subject, it is deemed praiseworthy that we are ready to give a reason for our convictions, and a warrant for our hopes ; — is this, brethren, a time, when we who serve at His Altar who is the Light that would enlighten every man that cometh into the world, — is this a time when it becomes us, or is safe for our cause, to require of men that they forego their reason ; that they receive dogmas which relate to their highest and most enduring welfare, merely on our 15 170 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. authority, or in deference to our wishes ? Modesty and ingenuous self-distrust, we are always to cultivate ourselves, we are always and earnestly to enjoin on others ; but the right and duty of considering well the grounds of our faith, are points not less sacred and important. It is a right which we can never waive ; it is a duty which we can never cast behind us without being recreant to the first principles of our Reformed Faith, without proving ourselves unworthy heirs of that glorious inheritance which our fathers bought even with their blood. 2. Again ; The teachings of a Christian Bishop should always he enforced hy his life and examfle. The ark of God is rarely in such danger, as when un- worthy hands are stretched forth to uphold it. Men are not often so tempted to distrust Christianity and renounce its control, as when those among its officers who are foremost in dignity, are foremost also in pride and worldliness of temper. When, on the other hand, like St. Paul, we can call all men to witness that we are pure from their blood ; that we have kept back nothing that was profitable for them, but have taught them publicly and from house to house ; when we can challenge their testimony to our disinterested and self-sacrificing zeal — that we have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel ; — that our own hands have ministered to our necessities, and to them that were with us ; and that thus we have recommended to them by our example, the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, "it is more blessed to give than to receive," — he who thus follows Paul, even as Paul followed Christ, will win a sublime power over the hearts and consciences of men. Hence the solemnity and ur- THE FAITHFUL BISHOP. 171 gcncy •with which the Apostle presses this duty upon Timothy and Titus. To him who presided over the church of the Ephesians, he says : " Be thou an ex- ample of the helievers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit (or spirituality), in faith, in purity. Thou, man of God, flee these things, i. e., covet- ousness ; follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness — fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life." To him whom he had left in Crete, he says : " Show thyself in all things a pat- tern of good works, that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you." Still more explicitly (though indirectly), does St. Paul enjoin on Bishops this duty of being ensamples to the flock, when he describes on whom alone they should lay hands ; when he sketches that ideal to- wards which every candidate for Holy Orders, and every minister, even of the lowest grade, should aspire. Is it of Deacons that the Apostle writes — he declares (and if of them, how much more of Bishops), that they should not he covetous ; not greedy of filthy lucre ; not given to much wine ; not double-tongued. Would he represent what they should be, he says, Deacons must he hlameless ; and if Deacons, how much more they who sustain the highest place in the Sacred Hierarchy ? Deacons, again, must he grave ; must rule their children and their own houses well ; must hold the mystery of the faith in a good con- science. — And so of Elders, or, as in the language of our day and Church, we should term them. Presby- ters. They are to be no brawlers ; how much less those who are over them in the Lord ? They are not 172 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. to be greedy of gain ; they are not to he given to wine ; they are not to he accused of riot ; not unruly ; no novices; not self-willed; not soon angry. On the other hand, what in St. Paul's estimation should Presbyters strive to be in all godly conversation ? They, and since the inferior orders subsist in the superior. Bishops must be under at least equal obli- gations: they must be vigilant; soher ; patient; just; holy ; temperate; hlameless ; lovers of hospitality ; lovers of good men — ruling well their own houses; apt to teach — having a good report of them that are without. Sad will it be for the Church, when these moral qualifications are not exacted of our ministry more stringently than we exact even talent or learning ; and still more sad and ominous of ill, will be the day, when it shall be thought that our appointed rulers and constituted heads are not under an obligation to cultivate such virtues — more solemn and more bind- ing than any which can rest on Presbyters or Dea- cons. " It cannot be denied," says Lord Bacon, when writing of the Controversies of the Church, " but that the imperfections in the conversation and govern- ment of those who have chief place in the Church, have ever been principal causes and motives of schisms and divisions. For whilst the Bishops and governors of the Church continue full of knowledge and good works ; whilst they feed the flock indeed ; whilst they deal with secular states in all liberty and resolution, according to the majesty of their calling and the precious care of souls imposed upon them, so long the Church is situated as it were upon a hill — no man maketh question of it, or seeketh to depart from THE FAITHFUL BISHOP. 173 it ; but when these virtues in the fathers and leaders of the Church have lost their light, and that they wax worldly, lovers of themselves and pleasers of men, then men begin to grope for the Church as in the dark. They are in doubt whether they are succes- sors of the Apostles or of the Pharisees. Yea, however they sit in Moses' seat, they can never speak as hav- ing authority, because they have lost their reputation in the consciences of men by declining their steps from the way which they trace out to others, so as men had need continually have sounding in their ears this same 'go not out,' so ready are they to depart from the Church upon every voice ; and therefore it is truly noted by one, who did write as a natural man, that the humility of the friars did for a great time maintain and bear out the irreligion of Bishops and Prelates." 3. Thus far, we have spoken of duties which per- tain both to Presbyters and Bishops, but which de- volve on the latter with greater weight of obligation, inasmuch as they are charged with more of dignity and authority. I come now to say one word of duties which are peculiar to the Episcopate, and which the Apostle designates in language like this : Commit that which thou hast heard to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Lay hands suddenly on no man, lest thou be partaker of other mens sins. Charge them, i. e. Elders, that they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables and endless genealo- gies and contentions and strivings about the law ; for they are unprofitable and vain. Against an elder, receive not an accusation but before two or three wit- nesses. Them that sin, rebuke before all, that others 15* It4 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. may fear ; not referring one before the other, doing nothing by partiality. Count them worthy of double honor who rule well, especially they who labor in word and doctrine. These passages recognize all the duties which are peculiar to the Episcopal office, — the power of ordination in respect to the clergy, and powers of discipline and supervision in respect to both clergy and people. In proportion as the welfare of the Church depends on the number and qualifications of its clergy, in the same proportion does the training of candidates for the ministry, their consecration to the sacred office, and their subsequent direction, become one of the most momentous of a Bishop's duties. This duty, enjoined by Scripture, is still more circumstantially defined in ancient canons and in the legislation of our own and our mother Church. And never, my friends, was the duty more urgent than now. The restless activity which now possesses the minds of men, the celerity with which public opinion forms itself, and the unexampled power with which it acts in evefy scene and relation of life, require that minis- ters of the sanctuary should be multiplied, and that they should be men of robust minds and unspotted virtue. In our own land, the amazing progress of our native population ; the vast influx of those reared under other institutions ; the constant expansion of our enterprise and industry ; the ever growing extent of our territory, make this demand yet more pressing and imperative. What must befall the faith and order of a Church, which has no ministry able to cope with the emergencies of our position, and how can such a ministry be hoped for, unless the Bishops THE FAITHFUL BISHOP. 175 and Fathers of the Church are bent through prayers and pains in Christ upon obtaining it ? Do we not suffer greatly for want of more laborers to reap fields, whitening to the harvest ? Do we not suffer still more for want of laborers who can endure hardness — who combine the requisite force and forti- tude with prudence ; with sagacity ; with humble faith in God ? Oh, then, for prayers to the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth laborers into His harvest ! Oh, for diligence and discrimination on the part of pastors, in seeking out and inclining towards the ministry, those whom nature and grace seem to have rendered meet for it. And, oh, that we who have been charged with the duty. of "ordaining, send- ing, or laying hands upon others," might be stirred up to greater diligence in so momentous a work ! " We are not only watchmen," says another, " to watch over the flock, but likewise over the watchmen themselves. We keep the door of the sanctuary, and will have much to answer for, if through our remiss- ness or feeble easiness — if by trusting the examina- tion of those we ordain to others, and yielding to in- tercession and importunity, we bring any into the service of the Church who are not duly qualified for it. In this, we must harden ourselves and become inexorable, if we will not partake in other men's sins, and in the mischiefs that these may bring upon the Church. It is a false pity, and a cruel compassion, if we suffer any considerations to prevail upon us in this matter, but those which the Gospel directs. The longer that we know them before we ordain them ; the more that we sift them ; and the greater variety of trials through which we may make them pass, we do, thereby, both secure the quiet of our own consciences 176 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. the more, as well as the dignity of holy things, and the true interest of religion and the Church : for these two interests must never be separated ; and they are but one and the same in themselves ; and what God has joined together, we must never set asunder. " We must be setting constantly before our clergy their obligations to the several parts of their duty ; we must lay these upon them when we institute Or collate them to churches in the solemnest manner, and with the weightiest words we can find. We must then lay the importance of the care of souls before them, and adjure them, as they will answer to God in the great day, in which we must appear to witness against them, that they will seriously consider and observe their ordination vows, and that they will apply themselves wholly to that one thing. We must keep an eye upon them continually, and be applying reproofs, exhortations, and encouragements, as occa- sion ofiers ; we must enter into all their concerns, and espouse every interest of that part of the Church that is assigned to their care ; we must see them as oft as we can, and encourage them to come frequently to us, and must live in all things with them as a father with his children. And that everything we say to stir them up to their duty may have its due weight, we must take care so to order ourselves, that they may evidently see that we are careful to do our own. We must enter into all the parts of the worship of God with them ; not thinking ourselves too good for any piece of service that may be done ; visiting the sick, admitting poor and indigent persons, or such as are troubled in mind, to come to us ; preaching oft, catechizing, and confirming frequently ; and living in THE FAITHFUL BISHOP. 177 all things like men that study to fulfil their ministry, and to do the work of evangelists.* * " There has been of late an opinion much favored by some great men in our Church, that the Bishop is the sole pastor of his diocese; that the care of all the souls is singly in him, and that all the incumbents in churches are only his curates in the dif- ferent parts of his parish (which was the ancient designation of his diocese). I know there are a great many passages brought from antiquity to favor this : I will not enter into the question — No ! not so far as to give my own opinion of it. This is certain, that such as are persuaded of it, ought thereby to con- sider themselves as under very great and strict obligations to constant labor and diligence ; otherwise it will be thought that they only favor this opinion because it increases their authority, without considering that necessary consequence that follows upon it. " But I will go no further upon this subject at this time ; having said so much only that I may not fall under that heavy censure of our Saviour's with relation to the Scribes and Phari- sees, that they did bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, upon others ; and laid them upon men's shoulders, when they themselves*' would not move them with one of their fingers. I must leave the whole matter with my readers. I have now laid together with great simplicity, what has been the chief subject of my thoughts for above thirty years. I was formed to them by a Bishop* that had the greatest elevation of soul ; the largest compass of knowledge ; the most mortified and most heavenly disposition, that I ever yet saw in mortal ; that had the greatest parts, as well as virtues, with the perfectest humility, that I ever saw in man ; and had a sublime strain in preaching, with so grave a gesture, and such a majesty of thought and language, and of pronunciation, that I never once saw a wandering eye where he preached, and have seen whole assemblies often melt into tears before him ; and of whom I can say with great truth, that in a free and frequent conversation with him , for above two- and-twenty years, I never knew him say an idle word (that had not a direct tendency to edification) j and I never once saw him * Archbishop Leighton. 178 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. II. We hare thus spoken of duties wliich pertain to the oflSce of a Bishop, everywhere and through all time. I come now, to speak of those which seem to be imposed by the condition in which we are placed by the providence of God in this country. Time will not permit me to enlarge upon this topic as I would ; but there are four qualities, which ought, as it seems to me, to distinguish our clergy of every grade, but which they ought to possess in a pre-eminent degree, who are overseers of the flock. The first of these, is earnestness of mind. If ever there was an age, or a land, where the Christian Church needed not drones, but workers, — not idle dreamers, but stern and enthusiastic doers of the word, it is surely here and now. Inquiry — action — progress, are the watchwords of our day. What re- volutions have not the last fifty years achieved in the science, the philosophy, the material condition of all Christian and civilized nations ? What vicissitudes still more stupendous and eventful, have not trans- pired in the social and political condition of those who dwell on this newly-found continent ? Every- where around us, the human mind is astir. Opinions, the most conflicting, ferment and strive for mastery. Questions long thought to be settled are re-opened, in any other temper, but that which I wished to be in, in the last minutes of my life. For that pattern which I saw in him, and for that conversation which I had with him, I know how much I have to answer to God ; and though my reflecting on that which I knew in him, gives me just cause of being deeply humbled in myself, and before God ; yet I feel no more sensible pleasure in anything, than in going over in my thoughts all that I saw and observed in him."* * Burnell's Pastoral Care. THE FAITHFUL BISHOP. 179 and debated with intense eagerness. Freest scope is afforded for discussion and action in every sphere, and all under the influence of hopes and anticipations more brilliant and aspiring, than have moved the world for ages. The time seems now to have come, when the honors of the world wait upon the workers of the world — upon those who are indeed workers ; who tax their noblest powers to reach the truth and to apprehend aright their duty, and who then summon all their energies to "fulfil the same." Who can look over the present and the impending future of this continent, and not feel at his heart the spirit-stirring call to rise and show himself a man ? Who can look at the clear mission of our own Church, and not own that the next twenty years are to decide its position and its influence, for generations to come — especially its position amidst the valleys and prairies of the West ? And even here, in our Atlan- tic States, has she not a momentous duty assigned to her ? Through literature, she is to leaven many a leading mind. Through her ministrations, she is to form many an individual and family of wealth and refinement, to the service of error, or to the honor and obedience of the truth. She is to leave educated and cultivated multitudes in the slumbers of a torpid dreamy faith, or she is to rouse them to do valiantly for God. She is to teach the rich their fearful obli- gation to God's poor, and to the Gospel of Christ, and to every good word and work ; or she is to con- sign them over to a still more insane and reckless pursuit of the world's baubles. She is to put on her robes of mercy, and go forth to the outcast multi- tules, who, eveu here, in this Christian city, are 180 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. living as much without God, and as far estranged from Sabbath and sanctuary, as though they dwelt in Pagan darkness ; or she is to take to her soul the flattering unction, that she was not sent forth to preach the Gospel to every creature, but only in ears polite, to audiences on cushioned seats, in gorgeous temples, beneath imposing spectacles of art. Breth- ren, look forth over the hundreds of thousands of im- mortal beings who are around you, who are hasten- ing to the bar of God ; hastening to make report to Him, who is their Lord and our Lord ; not of them- selves alone, but of us too, and think for how many of them no Sabbath sun arises, no house of prayer is opened. Think of the immigrants, who each week touch for the first time your shores, with no man to care for their souls, with little but the sense of utter loneliness, and the fear lest they perish for lack of food. Think who it is that compose our Christian congregations. Women and children are there ! But where are the men ? Where are those who guide the commerce and ply the trades, and practise the liberal professions, and move and control the great heart of this community ? How small a pro- portion of our young men — those who even now wield a vast influence, and who, a few years hence, are to direct the most momentous of your material and social interests, are gathered on the Lord's day to hear the teachings of the Lord's house ! And then, when we come within that house, what do we find ? Is it elevation of faith, such as becomes those who call themselves Christians ? Is it sublime abstraction from the cares and perplexities of life ? Is it a simple, whole-hearted purpose to do all the will of God, and THE FAITHFUL BISHOP. 181 have within us the mind of Christ ? Is it a devotion that ascends from hearts full of love for all goodness, and righteousness, and truth ? — which breathes alike glory to God in the highest, and good will towards all conditions and estates of men ? Know we not. Bre- thren, that churches may rise ; that splendid orna- ments may deck their walls or chancels ; that sea and land may be compassed to make one proselyte ; that multitudes may crowd towards the sacred mysteries of our religion ; that at the impulse of mere earth- born zeal, ease and property may be sacrificed, and even our bodies given to be burned, and yet true charity be so wanting that all shall be as sounding brass, and as tinkling cymbals ? Here, then, is the state of things by which we are all surrounded ; and who will not say that it calls for earnest and heroic treatment ? We want not the fitful fires which flash up with a momentary zeal. We need the steady, high-hearted enthusiasm which can breast itself against neglect or scorn ; which can brook long delays, and stand undismayed, even though the people rage, or the kings of the earth imagine a vain thing. We need the fervor and constancy of soul, which can be sustained by nothing but a simple trust in God, and a simple looking towards the recompense of our final reward. It must have root in prayer. It must be fed by manly and persevering studies. It must gather power by wrestling with the perverseness of men, and the obstructions of nature and Providence. " It must be no fugitive and cloistered virtue* unex- ercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and seeks her adversary, but slinks out of the race, when * Milton. 16 182 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat." " In this theatre of man's life," says Bacon, " it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on." It is our part, not to say, " Be ye warmed, and be ye filled," while we *^give them not those things which are needful." It is ours to do ouf diligence to give to all who need, whether their lack be of meat that perishes, or of that which endureth ; whether it have respect to disease of body, or to plague- spot upon the heart ; whether it be knowledge that lights our pathway through life, or that which gilds with the sunshine of a blessed hope our last departing hour. Oh, then, for Pastors and Bishops of the flock who shall be instant in season and out of season; who, with all long-suffering, and yet with all autho- rity, shall reprove, rebuke, exhort ; who shall do this, to use the words of Chrysostom, " not only when they are in the church, but also in their house ; not only in times of peace and safety, but also when they are in prison ; not only when in time of health, but even when they are about to die." 2. But if earnest, so also they should be soher- minded. In whatever proportion activity becomes intense and general, in the same proportion it needs to be thoughtful and forecasting. If we would have our earnestness tell for the welfare of mankind, and the lasting honor of the Church, we must surely not forget that there is but a step between true earnest- ness and the aberrations of a morbid enthusiasm, or the fires of a senseless fanaticism. When imagina- tion and passion are greatly exalted, then men are always in danger of misconceiving the true ends of effort, and still more in danger of overlooking its ap- THE FAITHFUL BISHOP. 183 propriate means and conditions. It is with difficulty they can then wait on the tardy movements of Pro- vidence, or press calmly on, cheered by no shouts of applause, exasperated by no cries of opposition. It is at such seasons that expedients abound in the reli- gious as in the active world, which must he spurious, because they are easy and compendious ; which must be unpleasing to God, because, in derogation of all his plans, they would buy us blessings without the ap- pointed price. Patience, prayer, and humble con- stant effort. Brethren, are the conditions without which no great or lasting good can be achieved for ourselves or for others. If to them we add the wis- dom that foresees, and the prudence that provides for every emergency ; if reason, self-possessed and look- ing before and after with large discourse, hold the helm; if conscience, clear-eyed and serene in her sovereignty, preside over the way ; if imagination is invoked only to raise the actual into a fairer and more benignant ideal, and the heart, inflamed with generous desire, urge us to bring that ideal down to men's busi- ness and bosoms, that it may gradually mould them to its own shape — that so our hearths may reflect a holier charity, and our neighborhoods be filled with more of peace and good will, and our land abound yet more and more with all righteousness and truth ; — in such case, need I say, that action, the most earnest and fervid, will be fraught with blessing. To all, then, we would, in this age and country, address the coun- sel given by the great English moralist : "Pour forth thy fervors for a healthful mind, Obedient passions and a will resigned J 184 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. For love which scarce collective man can fill ; For patience sovereign o'er transmuted ill ; For faith, that panting for a happier seat, Co ants death kind nature's signal for retreat, These goods for man, the laws of Heaven ordain ; These goods he grants who grants the power to gain. With these, celestial Wisdom calms the mind, • And makes the happiness she does not find." But if this soberness of mind be needed by all, jet more is it needed by those who have the care and oversight of Christ's flock. Everything around them calls for wisdom and circumspection — for the calm spirit of Him who made it his meat and drink to do his Father's will, but who vented his burning zeal in no transports of excitement. We stand between the past with its mournful but instructive vicissitudes, and the future which seems big with unknown and eventful revolutions. We behold the world bent on change, and intoxicated with visions of a day which shall be brighter and better than any that has passed. We see the Church of our fatherland convulsed even to its centre, through the struggle of principles which must learn to dwell together and be at peace, unless the world is to be given over on the one side to the wildest anarchy, or on the other, to the most unmitigated despotism and superstition. The same awful and momentous conflict, we see waging throughout the states of Europe, and not a stranger in our own. And when, in the attempt to meet our duty, we summon the Church to gird herself for some glorious work of piety or benevolence, what opposing tastes and tendencies do we not encounter ! What contra- dictory theories ! On the one hand, what professed scorn for all that characterizes the present, and what , THE FAITHFUL BISHOP. 185 tindlstlngulshing reverence for the usages and doctrines of the past ! On the other hand, what blind submis- sion to the spirit of the age, and what profound faith in that which styles itself the destiny of our Republic ! Here, a theory of education which would denounce all change in the methods or instruments of culture, and there a theory which would explode the well-tried systems of our predecessors, and put out boldly with- out chart or compass on the sea of experiment. Here, a scheme of pastoral care and religious training, which rests its whole hope on the renewal of cateche- tical instruction, or on the practical recognition of the sacraments as the all but exclusive means of grace ; there a scheme which holds as stale and unprofitable every method of spiritual culture, which does not begin and end with dogmatic teaching, or with the machinery of associated effort. Here, principles for the regulation of Christian beneficence which would merge all consideration of means in one agonizing effort to reach the end ; there, principles which condemn all charity that presumes to scrutinize some of the sorest ills that flesh is heir to, which will tolerate nothing that can move deeply the sensibilities or dis- turb the interests of classes, and which is almost tempted to maintain that whatever is, is right. Surely, he needs sobriety of mind who would him- self steer, or who would conduct those who have a right to claim guidance at his hands, through such a sea of storms and quicksands ; who would hold fast all that is good in the past, and yet be thankful for every boon which the present can bestow ; who can- not vote as obsolete the wisdom of the ancients, nor as impertinent the discoveries of the moderns ; who 186 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. does not think that the education of the child, nor the moral and spiritual improvement of the man, nor the advancement of society in happiness and virtue, is to be secured by any mere systems^ however just or comprehensive ; whose faith rests at once on the good providence of God, and on the unfailing well-spring of intelligent conscientious activity, which the Creator has planted deep in each human soul ; and who holds that the grand desideratum, in all these spheres of Christian beneficence, is that the roch in the wilder- ness, — the torpid intellect ; the yet unawakened, un- developed heart ; the uneducated conscience, be so struck by a skilful and faithful hand, and by God's grace, that the streams of voluntary self-directed effort shall break forth, and what before was desert, shall begin to bloom and blossom with a freshness and beauty of its own creation. It is not what we do for the child, or for the man, that is to bless them per- manently and effectually ; it is rather what we move and assist them to do for themselves. 3. But I hasten to another point. As they who are charged with the highest authority in the Church should be earnest, and yet sober men, so in the third place, they should be men of large minds. They should be large-minded in respect to things secular, as well as in respect to those which are sacred. They should, for instance, be able to discern, and not un- willing to appreciate, the part which other agencies, besides those of the Church, are bearing in the great work of forming a nation's mind and heart. Science — Philosophy — Letters — here are powers in the move- ments of our age, and they are powers which ought to be actively engaged in the service of Christ and THE FAITHFUL BISHOP. 187 his Gospel. To recognize in each, then, as it now manifests itself, its proper merits and defects ; to ac- cept from each, gladly and thankfully, whatever help it can afford in moving our race forward towards a higher state, and to war boldly yet discreetly against whatever, in each, arrays itself against the integrity of the faith or the welfare of society — this, surely, is the duty of all who would be wise in winning souls. Do we look, then, towards Science f This claims to be the interpreter of that great Book in which God has drawn clear traces of his eternal power and majesty ; in which he has engraven memorials of the physical history of our globe, and on every page of which the devout and thoughtful mind can find fresh occasion for gratitude and adoration. It is a book whose scroll is yet but partially unrolled, and in which many characters are found that no human sagacity has been able to decipher. We may not wonder then, if its students, like those who pore over another and a holier volume, sometimes mistake as divine their own crude or presumptuous conjectures. The teach- ings of that Book, when once they come to be read aright, will be found to blend harmoniously with the real teachings of the Book of grace, and all will tell of the moral as well as natural perfections of a per- sonal God ; of One who is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever ; who is glorious in his holiness, and yet a Father, full of compassion to the children of men. To Science, we owe unmeasured and immeasurable thanks, for the material and moral blessings which it has shed on mankind through its alliance with indus- try. To Science we owe gratitude also, because it is gradually training us to juster notions of criticism and 188 DISCOURSES AND CHARQES. interpretation in respect to the Bible. But we must guard against its tendency to divorce itself from a simple faith in God. We must watch lest a base counterfeit (Science falsely so called) intrude into its seat ; and we must be suspicious of all its oracles, when they so set forth laws as to obscure our percep*- tion of the great Lawmaker ; when they so expound the material mechanism of the universe as to dispense with the providence of God, or treat as fabulous the notion of miraculous intervention. Do we look, again, towards PTiiloaophy f If we see much in its present state to regret, the Christian minister may find in it also much to commend. Com- pared with its condition fifty years since, it is more spiritual and more comprehensive. It discerns more clearly the existence and supremacy of that in man which is immaterial, self-conscious, self-determined ; it recognizes more decidedly and cordially the interior moral force which is the glory of our nature, and treats us less as if we were the unresisting recipients, or the mere aggregate results of outward forces. It has extended its researches to every part of our nature. It has ascended from the seen to the unseen world of truths and ideas. It has descended again to the mysterious links that unite together so closely our bodies and our souls. It has inquired how matter is working with mind in the development of our highest and holiest powers, and it has urged the necessity of reaching continually towards notions of the Eternal and Absolute — notions, which, though they sometimes resolve themselves into pantheistic conceptions, are still preparatory to a juster theism than was commonly accepted among the wits and philosophers of the last THE FAITHFUL BISHOP. 189 These are grounds for thankfulness ; but there are others, alas ! which can occasion only grief and alarm. It is not to be doubted that a subtle skepticism has been engendered by these studies now — as will always be the case, when they are not pursued in the fear of God, and are not continually submitted to searching practical tests. This skepticism spares neither the records of Revelation nor the conclusions of Natural Theology ; and whether it take the form of a positive or of a high metaphysical philosophy, it is destined, no doubt, to make frightful havoc among many gifted but misguided minds. The disease is deplorable ; but he needs a skilful and a tender hand, who would eradicate it ; and great will be the debt — incalculable the blessing, which they will confer on Christendom, who shall qualify themselves to deal with it in all its disguises, and who shall conduct its blinded, but often sincere votaries, to the rock of a childlike Christian faith. In fine, do we turn to our Literature ? It is wield- ing a mighty power alike over the many and over the few. It penetrates everywhere, under the guidance of the press, and of popular education; and it speaks with a directness and force which have rarely been surpassed. It deals too with the most momentous social and political problems, and discusses them often with a reckless and ignorant audacity. Let us at the same time acknowledge that, in its better forms, it breathes a spirit of more genial humanity, and mani- fests a truer reverence for the moral and spiritual capabilities of our race than it once did. Even its poetry and fiction now plead for social amelioration. Its daily labors send light into the dark places of 190 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. crime and immorality, and it causes its voice to be heard as it cries aloud in behalf of the poor and down-trodden. Would that we could see in it a due appreciation of the origin and causes of those ills under which mankind still groan. Would that it dealt more wisely and anxiously with the reconstruc- tion of institutions on which it draws a displeasure that may prove simply destructive; that it probed with searching hand the great spiritual disease that affects our whole race ; and that it saw with earnest heart and taught with impressive power, the utter insuffi- ciency of all social palliatives and all political reforms, which do not include as their ground and ultimate aim, repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Be it ours, Brethren, as God may give us strength, to supply this great and essential defect. For all that Literature is doing to subserve human progress, let us be thankful. Let us emulate the comprehen- sive and severe scrutiny with which it explores the hardships that press on those who are not blessed with property or education ; and let us resolve that it shall not be our fault if the light and consolations of the Gospel do not find entrance where the press thus leads the way. We are ambassadors of Him who, when full of the Holy Ghost, went forth to en- counter Satan and triumphed over him gloriously. We are His ambassadors who, returning from that memorable victory, went down, as we are told, in the spirit into Galilee, and, entering into a synagogue, selected for comment this passage : " The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the poor ; to proclaim THE FAITHFUL BISHOP. 191 liberty to the captive, and the opening of the prison doors unto them that are bound." Where the anoint- ing of the spirit is, in its proper life and energy, there, Brethren beloved, will ministrations to the poor and afflicted of this world be reckoned among the highest of honors as well as duties. And if we are to deal in this enlarged spirit with other studies, how miich more with our own. Theology is now vibrating between the past and present — be- tween theories which would abnegate the sense of personal responsibility and the right of private judg- ment, and theories which put the intuitions or reason- ings of the individual not only before the authority of the Church, but even before the letter and plain sense of Scripture. Between these opposite and distant errors, lies a vast variety of opinions, which in an active and earnest age must all conduce, some- what, to strife. Does it not become the fathers of the Church, however, while they hold fast the doc- trine which is according to godliness, while they cling to all that seems accordant with Scripture and time- hallowed usage, still to do it with such meekness and moderation, that they shall lead others to imitate their example ? A large-minded theologian cannot look on the limitation of human faculties and on their extreme fallibility, without perceiving that in religion, as elsewhere, diversities of opinion are unavoidable, and he will feel that the discussion of such diversities is neither to be prevented nor condemned. He will see that controversies which, in times of persecution, respect the very existence of the faith, will in more peaceful days turn on the interpretation of it, and he will hope that their blasts may contribute to sift and 192 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. winnow men's opinions. He will always distinguish, however, mere strifes about words, from those which involve great and sacred principles, and he will be as impatient of the one as he is tolerant towards the other. He will be anxious that all Christians act on the Apostolic maxim, he swift to hear^ slow to speak — inasmuch as readiness to listen, and indisposition to reply, will often serve of themselves to close the most angry debates. He will, above all, desire that all parties be slow to wrath; that each disputant suppress its first risings in his own breast, and care- fully shun whatever in word or deed would be likely to arouse it in others ; that, while he contends ear- nestly for the faith, it shall never be with bitter in- vective nor with licentious wit. On his own part, and on the part of those with whom he acts, he will be ready to amend whatever is justly obnoxious to censure, and when he sees in others that which he cannot but condemn, he will beware lest his aversion carry him to some opposite and not less pernicious extreme. He will strive to discover that residuum of good which can generally be found in the most erroneous opinions, and he will use this as a means for winning them back to a more excellent way. And, finally, when they who have erred and gone astray, whether in doctrine or practice, shall appear to relent, he will welcome the first sign of misgiving, and will hasten forth to meet the returning prodigal — imposing no humiliating conditions, nor exacting that in form which may cheerfully be yielded in substance. Are these. Brethren, principles which commend themselves at once to our reason and our hearts ? Is their soothing influence needed • THE FAITHFUL BISHOP. 19S greatly among us at this time ? Be it ours, then, to contribute, as we may, to their diffusion. Be it ours to cultivate in our own minds, and to impress on others, larger views of theology as a science, and juster con- ceptions of the constitution and economy of the mind of man. Let us not indulge the thought that true unity is inconsistent with all differences of opinion and all diversities of practice ; and above all, let us have done with the unjust and ungenerous supposi- tion, that he only dissents from our views who is weak in understanding or wicked at heart. 4. In the fourth and last place, we need Bishops who have large hearts — expansive and active sym- pathies. Manifold causes are now at work to bring us into closer relations with those of our own kind throughout the world. The moral and physical con- dition of all sorts of men is opening more and more to view, and we are pressed importunately to consider their claims, especially, who are poor or degraded. Philanthropy is busy; and though not always wise in counsel, nor lowly of spirit, nor reverent of right, she still warms with a generous wish to ameliorate the condition of mankind. Ancient and powerful king- doms, too, exhibit portentous signs of impending re- volution, which prove that there is evil abroad — evil in that against which the many so war — evil too in the temper and means with which the warfare is waged. At such a time, the Church is false to herself and to her most sacred trust, if she does not show that she is alive to the claims and interests of all. The interests of education ; the interests of labor ; the rights and interests of property ; liberty for the oppressed ; elevation for those cast down ; spiritual 17 194 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. regeneration for all men, — none of these should be forgotten or treated lightly. The rich should not be abandoned as hopeless, nor should the poor be sent for sympathy and guidance to those who fear not God nor regard man. If it be the reproach of too many efforts to raise the fallen and emancipate the im- prisoned, that they are allied with infidelity, let that reproach be regarded as one that belongs, in some degree at least, to those whose part it is to see that the lost and despairing never are given over to the tender mercies of the wicked. Christianity is a reli- gion of love and goods works — a gospel of promise, above all, to the suffering and sorrowing. For the just rights of all, she enjoins the most sacred respect. In behalf of established authority, she claims obedi- ence ; but her eye of compassion seeks not out first Scribes and Pharisees and principal men. She goes on her errands of pity and saving grace where sorrow dwells — she goes not merely to dispense alms, not merely to indulge the luxury of commiseration, or to make parade of sympathy — she goes even to those most abject and lost, hoping all things, enduring all things, believing all things, and she is never wanting, at fitting times, in fitting efforts : — Were we as rich in charity of deeds As gold — what rock would bloom not with the seed ? We give our alms, and cry, " What can we more ?" One hour of time were worth a load of gold I Give to the ignorant our own wisdom I — give Sorrow our comfort ! lend to those who live In crime, the counsels of our virtue! — share With souls our souls, and Satan shall despair 1 Alas 1 what converts one man who would take The cross and staflP, and house with Guilt, could make. THE FAITHFUL BISHOP. 195 A counsellor of a great kingdom in Europe, charged with the superintendence of its public instruction, of Education for the People, thus expresses the inspiring guiding idea under which he worked. " I promised God," says he, "that I would look upon every Prus- sian peasant child as a being who could complain of me before God if I did not provide for him the best education as a man and a Christian, which it was possible for me to provide." Noble purpose ! and is it not one that it well becomes each one of us to form, who would glorify God by improving man's estate ? He who goes forth to guide and rule the flock of Christ, should he not say, "I will hold myself account- able for all of sorrow and evil which I am not honestly and heartily endeavoring to remove ; my duty is bounded only by my ability ?" Is irreligion rife throughout the land ? Then let me count myself irresponsible only when, in person and through the voice and efforts of all whom I can inspire by my example, or move by my remonstrance, I have labored to the utmost, that God's ways may be honored, and his saving health known and accepted by all. Is there crime in our highways, and even in our homes ? Is there dark depravity and sensuality in our lanes and alleys ? Let me never protest, in re- spect to it, my innocence before Heaven, until I have done all that in me lies, to educate and humanize the young, to reclaim the mature in age, and to shut off all the parent sources of this iniquity. Does pauperism in squalid form and garb stalk around us, pressing upon our industry, and eating as doth a canker into the heart of the body politic ? Let 196 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. Die as a Christian minister, and above all, as a Chris- tian Bishop, claim not to be guiltless in regard to that stain upon our civilization, until I have labored, to the utmost, to prevent it on the one hand, and to re- lieve it on the other. Are there social usages -which still prove, as they always have proved, abounding sources of immorality and crime ? Let me not hold myself acquitted before God, unless I have done, by precept and example, all that I might have done, to protest against their con- tinuance. Is there idolatry of wealth and pageantry — sense- less servitude to the tyrannical fashions of the day ? Let me not hold myself innocent, unless I have steadily and urgently recommended a nobler service ; unless I have been myself a model of simplicity and frugality. In one word, let me resolve like Dinter, that I will regard every human being, old and young, gentle and simple, who may be reached and benefited by my prayers and exertions, as one who can complain of me before God, if I have not done him good at every opportunity and by every means. My dear Brother — I now bid you welcome to the office with which you are to be clothed. It has toils and trials. Nowhere in this country, and least of all in the region where you will minister, is it without weighty and sometimes depressing cares. But it is not without its solace and supports. For the faithful incumbent, it has even here and now its abundant recompense. The sweet consciousness that you live not for yourself alone ; the animating thought that you are helping on your Master's yet unfinished THE FAITHFUL BISHOP. 197 work ; the ennobling assurance that you are encom- passed by a cloud of unseen witnesses, who have trod the same path and are now with God, but who still bend with sympathy over your steps ; the solemn yet consoling reflection that His eye who waits even yet that he may see the travail of his soul, rests on yoa beaming with love, and owning you as son — as brother — these shall be your best reward. The scene that opens before you is enough to rouse the noblest enthusiasm ; it is enough too to provoke the deepest self-distrust. When one stands on an eminence in the city, which is soon to offer you a home ; when he reflects how the territory over which your official duties will carry you, and among whose earnest, enterprising people your influence will now be felt — when he sees how this territory is watered on the north and on the south ; how its expanse is little less than one great fruitful field ; how beneath its surface exhaustless treasures are hidden, and how every movement of our industry and enterprise tends to place it more and more on the highway of this con- tinent, — at such a spectacle, one cannot but feel that here is a theatre of usefulness large enough and lofty enough to satisfy the most aspiring and generous ambition. Scarcely ten years have passed since its population was but the half of what it now is. Since sixteen years, when our venerable father, soon to be your associate, built his log hut, and laid beside it the foundation of his college, and held his jubilee festi- val, its numbers have quadrupled ; and our little communion, which then numbered scarcely five clergy- 17* 198 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. men, has that number six times told. A short time more, and its population, now nearly one million, will have risen to two ; wealth will have increased still more ; knowledge will have spread and grown apace, and the signs and elements of almost imperial greatness will be around you. Be instant. Brother, in season and out of season. Preach the Word. Train up the young in wisdom's ways. Multiply from among sons of the soil, candidates for the sacred ministry. Cherish that infant seminary of Arts and Religion, which the wise hand of your brave old asso- ciate has planted on a foundation so broad, and which he has nourished with a care so tender. Summon to its aid the wealth of those whom God has blessed in their basket and store. Gather round it learned and holy men who shall be able to teach well and wisely the future stewards and watchmen of the Lord. Carry with you even from those who are here, some pledge that the fond desire and prayer to God of our senior Bishop, for this the child of his old age, shall not be in vain. You go where morals are to be conserved. You go where reverence for law is to be inculcated. You go where universal education is to be promoted. You go where the fireside virtues are to be strengthened ; where men's thoughts are to be raised above material cares and interests ; and, above all, you go where honor is to be won to Christ, and his Apostolic Church upreared. Go, then, and may the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ go with you. Re- prove — rebuke — exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. A few years more, and the mantle of Eli- THE FAITHFUL BISHOP. 199 jah will have descended on EUsha. May you receive it with a double portion of his own self-sacrificing, indomitable spirit. May your life be so spotless, and your labors so abundant and so full of love, that men shall say of you, as has been said by Fuller in his portrait of the Good Bishop, " He is an overseer of a flock of Shepherds as a good minister of a flock of God's sheep. His life is so spotless, that malice is angry with him because she can find no just cause to accuse him. With his honor, his holiness and his humility doth increase. The meanest minister of God's word may have free access unto him. Whoso- ever brings a good cause brings his own welcome with him. The pious poor may enter at his wide gates, when not so much as his wicket shall open to wealthy unworthiness." But a few more years will have rolled away before we shall no more be seen among the living. Let us keep that, the all-eventful hour in our soul's history, ever in view. Before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, then ; they are not absent, Brother ; they are here ; in their presence ; in the presence of these your breth- ren, who wait to see you advanced to a higher minis- try in Christ's Church ; in the presence of my asso- ciates, who, with me, are impatient to bid you welcome to our ranks ; before this vast assemblage, I charge you in the name of God, on Christ's behalf, keep that which is committed to you. So live that when you come to die, your name and memory shall forever be embalmed in the hearts of a grateful and affectionate people. So live that when you come to meet all those among whom you have gone preaching and laboring, 200 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. you shall find in every soul a witness to your fidelity. And in your last earthly hour, when the world fades from your view, and God alone can be the strength of your heart, then may you be able to say with Paul in holy confidence: "I have fought a good fight," "I have kept the faith." CHAMCTER OP BISHOP WHITE, AN ADDEESS * After explaining the object of the solemnities which had just been witnessed, and the principles to which the proposed Church would be devoted, the speaker proceeded to state that the edifice to be erected, would not only be a Protestant Episcopal Church, with all its sittings perpetually free, — it would also be a memorial of one of our best and wisest Bishops. The day selected for this duty, was that (April 4th) which, one hundred and three years before, had given birth to William White, the most eminent native citizen perhaps, that Philadelphia had produced. For nearly ninety years he had been one of her inhabi- tants, and had been identified most closely during his whole life with her highest interests. He had also associated his name with memorable events and per- sonages belonging to our political and ecclesiastical history. A patriot of the Revolution, one of the earliest Chaplains of Congress, at one time the friend and Pastor of Washington, for more than fifty years Hector of the two principal congregations in the Dio- * The substance of some remarks made on laying the Corner Stone of Calvary Church (Northern Liberties), April, 1851. 204 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. cese of Pennsylvania, the first Bishop of that Dio- cese, and for nearly half a century the senior Bishop of the American Episcopal Church, his career had been alike conspicuous and eventful. When such a man, hearing so many offices and sus- taining relations so high and responsible passed through more than fourscore years with an unspotted name, in the fearless discharge of every duty — and when the same man, called by Providence to take a leading part in measures which were calculated to give cast and character through all time to a large and important branch of the Church universal — had been enabled to fill the post with surpassing wisdom and success, it was not too much to say that his me- mory deserved to be cherished with the fondest vene- ration. To allow it to be forgotten would be treason to every sentiment with which nature calls us to honor departed excellence ; it would be most unthankful to the God who had bequeathed to us the legacy of such services and such a name : and it would be robbing the young and ingenuous of future generations, of an example peculiarly fitted to incite to worthy deeds of piety and philanthropy. Let this humble monument rise, then, on the banks of his own Delaware, in sight of the spire beneath which he had published for more than sixty years the riches of Christ, and let it pro- claim to every beholder, that " the memory of the just is blessed." A shaft, higher than the highest pyramid of Egypt, is now rising at the Capital of our Union, and is to perpetuate, at the expense of thousands of grateful Americans, the fame and achievements of the Father of his Country. BISHOP WHITE. 205 Is it not well that here in this city of his birth, in this State that had his loyal affection, in the midst of Churches which he did so much to plant, in the presence of Protestant Episcopalians throughout the land, and in the sight of all good men, we should build a simple but lasting memorial, where the poor may be welcomed to the Banquet Supper of the Lamb, and where the name and services of this Father of our American Church shall be embalmed and treasured up. Bishop White's was a character eminently worthy of study. He was without the salient points that most strike the eye of the casual observer, and he had not the splendor of genius which too often dazzles the world without essentially serving it. His was that harmonious development of moral and intel- lectual qualities which makes the best and most useful men. With a happy natural disposition, with a noble per- son and fine health, he combined from early youth a conscientiousness and a spirit of self-culture, which crowned the gifts of nature with the graces of piety. No man ever passed through a course so long and eventful, more universally beloved for kindness and gentleness, or more honored for purity and unyielding integrity. With this claim to the affection and respect of men, he added a claim not less strong to their abid- ing and active co-operation, for he was firm of purpose — patient in dealing with obstacles — loyal through good and evil report to his convictions of duty — fear- less of danger to life, person, and reputation, and yet eminently prudent and conciliatory. His intellectual powers were not less worthy of honor. Gifted by nature with a sound judgment and with a truth-loving 18 206 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. spirit, he cultivated habits of calm and profound re- flection, and looked before and after with large dis- course of reason. Though he passed his life in the midst of various and distracting cares, yet systematic industry, combined with a tenacious memory, made him master of a large variety of learning ; and as a theologian he reached an eminence which is not yet acknowledged, and which measured by the standard of attainment then prevalent, and by the manifold dis- advantages under which ministers of our Church every- where labored, merits the highest praise. If his rhe- torical powers had equalled his erudition and his capacity for thought, and had we been ready to honor as we ought the writers of our own country, the name of White had now stood side by side with those of Seeker and Porteus, of Horsely and Home. There were those present who could bear ampler testimony than the speaker to his virtues as a man, to his public spirit as a citizen, to his devotion as a pastor, and his graces as a Christian Bishop. There was one capacity, however, in which his name and character belonged especially to history, and to which history had not yet done justice. His own modesty, sometimes too fastidious, prevented him from doing it in his "Memoirs of the Church," and it was not to be expected that in a work emanating from a dig- nitary of the English Church (the present Bishop of Oxford), the motives which governed him, or the ob- stacles with which he was called to struggle, could be adequately set forth. As little was it to be ex- pected, that in such a quarter the characteristic merits of the American Episcopal Church, as resting for pecuniary support on the voluntary offerings of BISHOP WHITE. 207 the people, and as recognizing largely the right of the laity to share in government, should he appre- ciated. The time, however, is coming, when Bishop White will be recognized as alike the founder and wise master builder of a system of Ecclesiastical Polity, which though not faultless, is as perfect as the condition of things then admitted, and of which the essential excellence is likely to be demonstrated by the progress of events. The War of Independence nearly completed the ruin which for a long time previous seemed impend- ing over the Church in America. The want of Epis- copal supervision had been all but fatal to her disci- pline, and to the proper supply of an educated and exemplary ministry. During the seven dark years of that war, many of her best clergymen and laymen had been expatriated, and the peace of 1783 found her hedges broken down and her few husbandmen almost in despair. Her members, scattered sparsely from Maine to Georgia, were without habits of co- operation, and were much divided in opinion. > To combine elements so scattered and heterogene- ous, to reduce to order and inspire with hope those who knew no superior and were sunk in despondence, was a task which could only have been achieved by a man of rare discernment and of great practical effi- ciency. It was necessary that his motives should be above suspicion. His urbanity must conciliate regard. On one side, his loyalty to his own country must be unquestionable ; and on the other, he must be es- teemed for the strength of his attachment to the Episcopal regimen, and to the doctrines and worship which prevailed in the Mother Church of England. 208 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. He must have a temper so moderate, and principles so catholic, that he could mediate between extreme opinions, which from the East and the South threat- ened to come into hostile collision ; he must be able to foresee and provide for the inevitable difficulties •which had been occasioned by old prejudices on the one hand, and by new fears and aversions, the result of a protracted civil war, on the other ; and he must pos- sess, in a large measure, the twofold wisdom which can devise the best measures and yet yield, when ne- cessity requires it, to others which are not the best. When such men are needed, we may consider it a singular boon of Providence if they are permitted to appear. It is this which invests the career of Wash- ington with so much that moves to religious gratitude and admiration. For the singular adaptation of his talents and disposition, his early training and his subsequent experience, to the great work he was called to perform, we can account on no human principle. It was the same with him who was called, like an- other Moses, to lead our Church out of her long captivity, and through a wilderness of suffering and humiliation. He was sent of God. He had a name against which reproach did not venture to whisper. He had a calmness and candor of mind, and a strength of judgment, which made him the rallying point of all who desired unity and reorganization. His mind was clear in its own conceptions, and settled in the conclusions to which it had been carried ; yet he was always ready, when he could do so without serious dereliction, to defer to the judgment and wishes of others. He had both prudence and courage, and he BISHOP WHITE. 209 was gifted in larger measure than almost any man of his day with a clear and far-reaching foresight. The peace of 1783 had not been concluded before he had sketched out, in a pamphlet entitled " The Case of the Episcopal Churches Considered," a plan for the organization of our infant Communion, which shows the comprehensive skill of a statesman, and which ultimately commended itself to general accept- ance. The essential unity of the whole American Church as a national Church, its independence of any foreign jurisdiction, the entire separation of the spiritual and temporal authority, the participation of the Laity in the legislation and government of the Church and in the election of its ministers of every grade, the equality of all parishes, and a threefold organization (diocesan, provincial, and general), were fundamental principles in his plan, as they were in that which was finally adopted. To conceive such a plan, however, was much easier than to secure its adoption. The difficulties which had to be encountered were such as might well have appalled any spirit less calm and patient, less resolute and trustful than his own. This is not the place, nor is now the time in which to set forth the unyielding serenity of soul, the unfailing courtesy and kindness, the true modesty and self-forgetfulness, the calm sobriety of judgment, the independence of personal considerations, and the straightforward honesty and zeal which gradually won to him the confidence of all hearts, and which enabled him at length to secure the cordial acceptance of every important feature in his original plan. To develop these services in full will be the duty of the future historian ; and upon that 18* 210 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. historian will devolve the grateful task of showing how his steady hand guided the system as it went into operation ; and how, through the gracious 'goodness of God, he was permitted for more than forty years to he in every emergency its most honored and trusted administrator. No monument of stone or hrass can worthily com- memorate the services of such a man. No care, however pious or affectionate, can guard his memory or honor his services too well. Thanks then to the godly women who in all meekness, hut with indomit- able patience, have striven through five long years to provide here a lasting and most appropriate memorial. In a church, the seats of which are to be always free, and which is to open its doors alike to poor and rich, they would remember the destitute and needy, and they would remember him, too, who through all his useful life was distinguished by devotion to their wants. The sick, the indigent, the vicious, the igno- rant and neglected, the prisoner in his cell, and those bereaved from birth of the most important organs and faculties, ever found in William White a friend and benefactor. May the mantle of his benevolence and meek wisdom descend on those who survive or follow him. May the example of pious zeal and of gratitude to his memory, which our sisters have given us, be gladly imitated ; may we take shame to ourselves that this good work has been so long delayed, and may we resolve — would that this resolution could be adopted by every household in our communion in this city, — may we resolve that we will each of us bear some part, however humble, in its early consummation. OUR COUNTRY ADMONISHED, A SEKMON/ " For when thy judgments are in the earth, the Inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness." — Isaiah xxvi, part of 9th These words form part of a song of praise, dic- tated by the Most High to his prophet, and intended to be sung in the land of Judah, when that land should enjoy its promised triumphs over those who were alike the enemies of God and of his people. Among the subjects for devout thanksgiving indicated, one was to be found in the awful judgments, which, while they desolated other nations, should spare their own. In these judgments, God saw means at once of arousing and of permanently improving those who might look, with vacant eye and uninstructed heart, on the ordinary dispensations of his providence. As well to those who might behold them only in their effects on others, as to those who should suffer from them in their own persons, they would speak in loud and most impressive tones of the supremacy and the perfect rectitude of His law, and of the peril of every nation that should perseveringly disobey it. * Delivered on Thanksgiving Day, 1848. 214 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. You will understand then, brethren, why I select these words as the theme of our morning's meditation. We assemble in this place, at the call of both the civil and ecclesiastical authority, to commemorate our public and national blessings ; and among them, ac- cording to the teaching of the text, we may reckon those judgments which have been sent on the earth, that the inhabitants of the world may learn righteous- ness. All experience teaches, that with nations, as with individuals, adversity, though a stern, is still a wise and most effectual teacher ; and that its salutary lessons often admonish and benefit those to whom they are not directly addressed. And if ever in our day such lessons were abroad in the earth, — it is now; or if ever nation had cause to congratulate itself that it can enjoy the admonition, while it escapes the suffering involved, it is surely our own. On us there is laid, therefore, a twofold obligation to gratitude and improvement — the one emanating from the pre- eminent blessings we enjoy — the other proceeding from the judgments we have thus far escaped. What a contrast there is between our lot to-day, and that of some of the most powerful and illustrious nations of Christendom ! Our barns and storehouses are filled with plenty ; theirs indicate, in too many cases, the approach of painful scarcity, if not of abso- lute famine. — Our air is still free from the taint of that mysterious and deadly pestilence ; while in theirs it is silently spreading its fatal infection. — With us the resounding clangor of war is hushed, and we are again at peace ; while with them, there are on every hand the evils and the woes of bloody strife. Within our own borders, we live in substantial unity — differ- ^ TEACHING BY JUDGMENTS. 215 ing indeed in our opinions, but referring those differ- ences, after free and full discussion, to the silent arbitrament of the ballot-box ; whereas within their borders class is arrayed against class, and one divi- sion of kingdoms against another, in feuds alike cruel and unrelenting. — In this our own beloved common- wealth, we have beheld within the last few months, its chief magistrate resigning the power and dignities of his office, that he might close his days more tran- quilly amid the contemplations and the devout services which become a believer's deathbed. In other lands, we behold sovereign princes — heirs of a long line of renowned ancestry — swaying one day with all but absolute authority the destinies of millions, while on the next day they are driven as fugitives from their own palaces, or yield to the indignant demands of their people a reluctant consent. At this very moment what is the condition of several kingdoms most famed in the history of modern Europe — kingdoms embrac- ing more than one hundred millions of our fellow- Christians, and comprehending among their statesmen an almost unbounded share of the sagacity, experi- ence, and learning of the time ? — Does not the whole framework of society seem disjointed ? Are not regular governments superseded by temporary and perhaps self-constituted committees? The gravest and most difficult questions of state, are they not referred to the arbitration of some popular tumult ? And monarchs — are they not engaged in carrying the horrors of fire and sword into the very heart of their own capitals ; while among the people there is uni- versal discontent, and all but universal perplexity — men's hearts failing them for fear^ and for looking 216 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. after those things which are coming on the earth, -^ And we, brethren, does it not seem as if we alone of the nations had escaped to celebrate God's sparing mercy to us — his fearful judgments on others ? Lifted suddenly to an unwonted eminence among the great powers of the earth — objects now of unprecedented regard alike to their rulers and their people, does it not well become us to remember to-day who it is that hath put this honor and blessing upon us — and how vast and fearful is the responsibility to mankind with which we are now charged ? In order the better to meet this responsibility, let us notice for a moment the admonitory lessons which are addressed to us in the events of the past year. When God's judgments are on the earth, then espe- cially should the inhabitants of the world learn right- eousness ; and then may the Christian pulpit, leaving its ordinary topics, strive, especially on a day like this, to give voice and articulation to the providential teachings of the Most High. Among these teachings we may, beside others, re- cognize distinctly — as it seems to me — the following : 1. That nations, as well as individuals, are imme- diately accountable to Crod, 2. That they ought to look with increased abhor- rence on war and on all its accessories. 3. That they should shun alike, law without liberty ^ and liberty without law : and 4. That they should ever beware of a civilization^ however refined, which is not enlightened and ani- mated by a healthy national conscience ; or in other words, which is not founded on the immovable rock of public and private morality. • TEACHING BY JUDGMENTS. 217 I. From the judgments which are abroad in the earth, taken in connection with our own mercies, we may learn to stand in awe of Him who is the God of nations. Both the evil meted out to others, and the good bestowed upon ourselves, will tend to mislead and to corrupt us, unless we view them with senti- ments appropriate to religion. Forgetting that God is the Supreme Disposer of events, we shall, in such case, ascribe all our national prosperity to our own wisdom, and the might of our own hand. Or if look- ing higher, we own a Providence that shapes our ends, and leads us by a way that we know not — even then, if we take counsel of pride and self-love, we shall be apt to regard our successes not as so many tokens of unmerited favor, but rather as rewards which the Most High bestows upon our sagacity, enterprise, and virtue. It was against this sore but common mistake of nations, that Moses protested when warning God's chosen people of their coming glory, and of their consequent danger. As they were about to pass over Jordan and take possession of the promised land, he charged them, saying, " Speak not thou in thy heart after that the Lord hath cast out those nations from before thee, saying, for my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land; but /or the wickedness of those nations the Lord doth drive them out from before thee. Not for thy righteousness or the uprightness of thy heart (for thou art a stiff-necked people) dost thou go to possess their land, but for the wickedness of these nations doth the Lord thy God drive them out from before thee, and that He may perform the covenant which He made with thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." 19 218 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. ^^ How well does this language of the lawgiver of Israel apply to our own history. One tribe after an- other of a valiant and warlike people retired before our fathers, as they came, a feeble band, to plant themselves on this western continent. One restric- tion after another, imposed by the fatherland upon free industry, and free political action, gave way be- fore their resistance, till at length, through the bless- ing of God upon their counsels and arms, the last vestige of foreign dominion was obliterated from these shores. Another war with the same great power was not without its substantial fruits. In the mean- time our industry and enterprise have been gaining every year still nobler triumphs ; and of late we have seen all the resources of a neighboring republic,* ral- lied over and over to withstand the victorious progress of our soldiery, and rallied in vain. And now — shall we say it is for our rigJdeousness — or it is by our power alone or the might of our hand that we have gotten us this wealth ? Should we not rather say, it is for the wickedness of these nations ; — or better still, it is to accomplish His own wise but in- scrutable designs, that God has thus caused us to pre- vail. When, for instance, we look at the war from which we have just emerged, does it not become us to remember, that to triumph over a nation rent by con- tending factions and besotted by vice and supersti- tion, is, at best, but a humble triumph ! Does it not become us, too, to consider that triumph in the light of the past, and of God's avenging justice ? When we think of the bloody and remorseless career of a Cortez ; when we think of the cry of oppressed and * Mexico. ^ TEACHING BY JUDGMENTS. 219 despoiled natives ascending to Heaven, through long ages, for redress ; when we remember the licentious- ness of public and private morals which overspread that ill-fated land, may we not ask whether here were not arrears of national delinquency which had to be discharged ; and whether we may not have been se- lected rather in wrath than in kindness as the agents to collect them. Who knows but that in the fate of that land we are reading the dark foreshadowing of our own ? Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things ; I tell you nay. There are other natives — besides those enslaved by the Spaniards — who have arrears to settle with the spoilers that stripped them of their hunting grounds, and drove them, helpless and heart stricken, from their homes and the graves of their fathers. There are other captives, besides those in the mines of Mexico, whose sufferings tell of unre- quited wrongs, and who speak forth to-day with more than two millions of tongues, the disgrace and danger of a nation boasting itself free, and yet holding Christian men and Christian women in bondage. There are other derelictions, both public and private, besides those which, under institutions less wise and in climes more enervating, have stained the name of American Republican — and do they not call us to-day to mingle humiliation with our thanksgivings, and amendment with our congratulations ? Do they not say unto us as Moses said to Israel of old : " Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, for it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth. And if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, to walk after other gods and serve 220 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. ^ them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish; as the nations which the Lord de- stroyeth before your face so shall ye perish, because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God." And is not this the thank OFFERiNa " that God hath chosen ? to loose the bands of wicked- ness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke ? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house ? when thou seest the naked that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh ? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily, and thy righteousness shall go before thee, and the glory of the Lord shall be thy rear-ward," II. In the second place, recent events, and espe- cially the judgments which are abroad in the earth, should teach us to look with increased abhorrence on WAR. In respect to ourselves, it might seem that wars have been fruitful in real and substantial benefit, as well as in glory. It should be considered, how- ever, that their apparent benefits to every nation are present and palpable, while their inevitable and most mournful evils are future, and to the mass of men all but unobserved. All can feel the stirring influence of martial movements and martial exploits. When troops move forth with their plumed chivalry, in pride and pomp and glorious circumstance, it needs steady nerves and a thoughtful forecasting mind, not to share in the general enthusiasm. And when their courage, their discipline, the science of their leaders, TEACHING BY JUDGMENTS. 221 and, in the moment of severest trials, the self-for- getting, self-sacrificing spirit of all have done their ap- propriate work ; when all obstacles have yielded before those who have fought in our names, and professedly for our honor and welfare, whose heart will not, for the moment, overleap a sober estimate of the right and of the solid advantage, to exult in the brilliancy of the achievement and in the consequent acclamations of an unthinking multitude. But alas ! the fumes of this mental intoxication ought to give place, before long, to other and wiser thoughts. We ought to begin to reckon up the wives that have been widowed, — the children that have be- come fatherless, — the homes of helpless age that are now desolate, — the moral contagion caught in the camp and brought back to infest our neighborhoods and our firesides. We ought to consider the heavy accumulations of public debt that those who win the glory of the war unusually turn over to be borne by those who come after ; the distaste which has been contracted by a disbanded soldiery for all peaceful and gainful industry ; the lust of adventure, of mili- tary fame, and perhaps of military rapine, which has been aroused, and which spreads with electric quick- ness and force to the young and inconsiderate on every side. Are not these evils ? — and are they not evils which it becomes a sagacious people to weigh well and wisely before they elect a warlike in preference to a pacific policy ? — If the people were wise, said a sage and statesman of former times — if the people were wise, war is a game at which kings would not he allowed to play. It is a game, — and always, and in every country, it is a game played by the few at 19* 222 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. the expense of the many ; and yet without the con- sent and co-operation of the many it could not even begin. History will be searched in vain, as it seems to me, for one great and enduring benefit, not in some way countervailed, which has been compassed by a strictly aggressive war — and it is of that alone I now speak — and yet the war spirit is fostered as if it were one of the greatest friends and benefactors of mankind ! What is taught on this subject by the present con- dition of Europe ? The convulsions which are shak- ing and upheaving the whole social fabric, do they not spring primarily from the distresses of the labor- ing poor ! — and those distresses, do they not spring from the disproportion between the cost of subsist- ence and the means of obtaining it ? — and the cost of subsistence, is it not increased to an almost incre- dible degree by the burden of taxation ? — and that burden again, what is it, in great measure, but the burden imposed or entailed by war ? To the cost of former wars, which comes in the shape of perpetual and often of increasing interest on national debts, add the cost of more than two millions of men, withdrawn even in times of peace from all productive pursuits, and constantly employed in standing armies and na- vies, — and the cost also of maintaining fortifications, ships, arsenals, and armories, and you have what European labor and European capital have to pay annually to uphold war. It is a sum more than eight times as great as all the other expenses of govern- ment put together. The administration of civil func- tions — the dispensation of justice — the prevention of crime by police — the education of the people, and TEACHING BY JUDGMENTS. 223 the support of the religion of Christ, all combined, do not impose on the suffering nations of Europe a burden one-eighth as great as is constantly imposed by war. And what, in principle, is war ? It is the duel between nations, differing in no respect from the duel between individuals, except that the successful com- batant is allowed to carry off as spoil the effects of his vanquished antagonist. It is an adjournment of great questions of international right or courtesy from the bar of temperate discussion and peaceful arbitra- tion before peers, to the bar of chance or mere force. It is an appeal from the reason and conscience of the parties themselves, — from large views of their true interest, and from the moral judgments of mankind, to the exploded trial by combat of the middle ages. Alas ! alas ! that eighteen hundred years after the coming of the Prince of Peace, this relic of barbarism should still be clung to by nations calling themselves Christians ; and God grant that the penalty which they are now suffering, and which has been treasuring itself up for ages, may deter us from following their dazzling but dangerous example. III. A third lesson, taught by the judgments abroad in the earth, is the danger on the one hand, of Law without Liberty, and on the other, of Liberty with- out Law, Each alike is at war with the will of the Creator, and each, therefore, inconsistent with the duty and happiness of nations. The one is the state towards which some of the great powers of Continen- tal Europe seem to have been tending — the other is the state towards which their subjects, wearied with 224 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. undue restraints and burdens, seem to be now strug- gling. Taking to themselves a large share of the authority, once wielded by the nobles and free cities of Europe, Kings and Emperors have essayed a new kind of absolutism — governing through laws, fixed, known, and in many respects, wise and just, — but in the creation and administration of which, the people should have little voice. We need not wonder, if in recoiling from the inevitable abuses of such a system, that people, uninstructed and unpractised in the pro- per functions of government, should rush to the oppo- site extreme, and should now seek to substitute the licentious will of a majority, for the arbitrary decrees of a court. Liberty, however, is but a name, unless they who enjoy it are protected by law against wrong and violence ; — and Law is a fraud, unless it secure the utmost freedom to virtuous aspirations of every kind, whether political or personal. In presence, then, of the frightful storms, which have been pro- voked by the ambition of power ; in presence, too, of the horrors which have been enacted in the prosti- tuted name of Liberty, let our thanks ascend to God, that thus far we have been saved from both ; and let our prayers and efforts never be wanting, that this mercy may be continued. Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty ; and moderation, forecast, and love of order, are the soul of Law. IV. In conclusion — the judgments which are in the earth, should teach us to beware of all civiliza- tion that does not find its root and nourishment in a healthy national conscience. There may be literature and science — there may be wealth and refinement — TEACHING BY JUDGMENTS. 225 there may even be the outward rites and institutions of Christianity, and yet our civilization be essentially hollow and false. The voice which God sends to us from the tottering thrones and the social chaos of Europe, speaks in vain, if it do not teach that for nations as for individuals, the fear of the Lord is wisdom, and that to depart from evil is understand- ing. What but a deep sense of our accountability to God, and of our obligations to his creatures, can keep us from disloyalty to our families, our neighbors, our country ? What are laws or constitutions, unless there be faith between man and man ; and whence can that faith be derived, but from God's truth and God's spirit, writing their living lessons on the heart ? Even religion itself, if it do not rectify and strengthen the moral sentiments, if it do not frown on all dere- liction, whether domestic, social, or public — if it do not constrain us to do justly and love mercy, as well as walk humbly with God, if it offer pardon without amendment of life, and promise heaven to those who are unfit for earth — what is such religion, but one of the most fearful engines of mischief ? Let us beware then of whatever can corrupt the national conscience, and stain the national heart. Let us see to it, lest under a fair exterior, with much of outward refine- ment, — much too, of the show of virtue and piety, the soul of true morality be eaten out — lest the lower passions and propensities, by becoming everywhere predominant, gradually sap the very foundation of the social edifice, and leave it to perish through its own weight and rottenness. I have thus noticed very imperfectly a few of the 226 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. lessons to be deduced from the vicissitudes of the past year. When thy judgments are in the earthy the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Rarely, if ever, has God addressed such warnings and admonitions to nations, and never was any nation more solemnly bound to listen and profit by them than our own. Our destinies are still, under God, in our own hands. The destinies of other lands, too, to a degree fearful to think of, are to be henceforth affected by our example and influence. Let it be our prayer, as it was the unceasing prayer of the great Washington, recorded in his Farewell Address — "that heaven may continue to us the tokens of its beneficence ; that our union and brotherly affection may be perpetual ; that the free constitution, which was the work of our hands, may be sacredly maintained ; that its administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and virtue ; that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, under the auspices of Liberty, may be made complete, by so careful a preservation, and so prudent a use of this blessing, as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and adoption of every nation, which is yet a stranger to it." Yes, ever let us pray, in language employed by the same Sage and Patriot, in a Procla- mation for a National Thanksgiving, issued fifty-three years ago, that God will "imprint upon our hearts a deep and solemn sense of our obligations to Him, for our blessings as a people ; that He will preserve us from the arrogance of prosperity, and from hazarding the advantages we enjoy by delusive pursuits ; that He will dispose us to merit the continuance of his TEACHING BY JUDGMENTS. 227 favors by not abusing them, by our gratitude for them, and by a correspondent conduct as citizens and as men ; that He will render our country more and more a safe and prosperous asylum for the unfortu- nate of other countries ; — that He will extend among us true and useful knowledge, diffuse and establish habits of order, sobriety, morality, and piety, and finally impart all the blessings we possess or ask for ourselves, to the whole family of mankind." NATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY. 20 J.,..'.X, A SEEMON* Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God : on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness : otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. Romans xi, 22. These words indicate the principle on which nations are dealt with by their Great Ruler. They refer more immediately to the rejection of the Jews, and the calling of the Gentiles. Israel had been chosen as the special instrument through whom the Messiah was to be introduced to his work on earth. Hers were the adoption, and the glory, and the cove- nants, and the giving of the Law, and the service of Grod, and the promises. One temple rose to attest his unity, and sacrifices and oblations were continu- ally offered as memorials of what he had done in the past — as intimations of what he was yet to do in a more gracious and wonderful future. To add to the effect of all these, there were not wanting, from time to time, stupendous displays of judgment and of mercy. All the way through which the Most High led them for forty years in the wilderness, was but a * Preached on Thanksgiving Day, November, 1857. 232 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. rehearsal of that longer way through which, for nearly two thousand years, he conducted them, that he might humble them and prove them, and see whether — when the great crisis of their history came, the grand trial of their obedience and faith — they would be found true. The result we know. They proved unfaithful, and retribution fell. The natural branches being unfruit- ful are cut away with unsparing hand, and the wild olive is grafted in, to be a partaker of the root and fatness of the true plant. We have here an epitome of the history of all nations with respect to natural and civil advantages. What Israel was in respect to spiritual and supernatural privileges, all are in respect to those which are earthly and temporal. They are stewards. Soil and climate ; race and language ; domestic and social economies ; laws and government ; schools and churches ; — all are hut a trusty and nations grow or decline, rise or fall, according as they prove faithful or unfaithful. Need I say that with no trust of this kind was ever nation charged (since the days of Israel) more eventful, through which more of blessing may be won to huma- nity, or more of glory to God, than is that with which we, the American people, find ourselves possessed? We have all that could be desired to occupy our powers and to incite them to higher and nobler effort — vast expanse of territory — exhaustless riches of mine and forest and field — the two oceans of the globe at our feet — navigable rivers, whose sum of length is measured by tens of thousands of miles — and inland seas, which, almost without help from art, open to the voyager an unobstructed path from the far-distant interior to the remotest ports of China or Japan. THE STEWARDSHIP OF NATIONS. ^ 233 We have in our veins the blood of a race which has thus far proved itself invincible by sea and land. A race which has belted the globe with its commerce and its arts. And from the experience of nearly six thousand years ; from the manifold vicissitudes of the nations that have gone before us; from all their mistakes and all their successes, we have had be- queathed to us a precious legacy of power and wisdom. Young in years, but old in the fruits of the world's toil and travail, enriched with spoils gathered by those who through all time have wrestled, whether as sages, legislators, and patriots, for man, or as apostles, pro- phets, and martyrs, for God, we are here to-day as trus- tees — trustees of all the past, for the benefit of all the future. We are here, not merely with a glorious heri- tage to be enjoyed, but with one also to be improved, that they who come after us may say. Well done, good and faithful stewards. And never has the Lord our God been wanting to us. How often has He in- terposed by his providence to avert the dangers with which we were threatened or the judgments we had provoked ! How often, too, as a loving Father, has he striven, by reasonable correction, to chastise our presumption, or rebuke our idolatry of the world ! Sometimes he has caused a blight to fall upon our fields, sometimes pestilence to stalk through our cities. At one time he has sent confusion into the councils of our rulers ; at another madness into the hearts of our people. To-day we meet to celebrate harvests more bountiful ; health more general ; peace with the world more profound, than ever perhaps were ours before. And yet, what signs not to be mistaken are around us of suffering ; of perplexity ; of fear ! 20* 234 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. With one hand God seems to have given to us, as to his people in the wilderness, meat for our lusts, but with the other he has sent, also, leanness withal into our souls. The table is spread, the banquet is all pre- pared, and pressed upon our acceptance ; but the appetite is wanting ! What a spectacle to move at once to gratitude and to humiliation, — to gratitude for Heaven's gifts, to humiliation for our abuse of them ! We have means and appliances through which, God being our helper, we may rise to such a height of glory and beneficence as the world has not yet seen ; but, shall we have the moderation, the private and public virtue, the loyalty to our fathers and our past, the fidelity to the Gospel of Christ, of which we are put in charge, without which our greatest pride will be apt to become our greatest shame ? Is not our domestic and social life too often fevered by excitement, and harassed by vain and silly ambitions ? Is not our business life pitched too often at the extremest point of risk, so that no one knows but a single turn of the die, his own or another's, may consign him to bankruptcy or lift him to afiluence ? Is not that business life wound up too, to an unnatural strain of efibrt, so that little time or heart is left for repose or for devotion, for the gentle amenities of home, for the blessed charities of friendship, for the generous pursuits of literature, for patriotism or philanthropy ? And the stern yet loving virtue, the high-hearted faith which first came as exiles to this far-off wilder- ness, which so inspired and sustained that little com- pany who landed amidst wintry storms, on the sterile coast of New England ; which were as a tower of THE STEWARDSHIP OF NATIONS. 235 strength to that small band of Quakers, who, sixty years later, came to found in our forests a common- wealth (now numbering nearly 3,000,000 of freemen), on the simple principle of glory to God and good- will to men. Brethren, I ask if the solemn league, then struck between private virtue and public probity, has been maintained unimpaired ? Yes, that trust in God, that simple love of Jesus and of those for whom he died, which prompted William Penn to come out to this new land, that he might make what he calls ^''the holy experiments^' setting " an example to the nations of a just and righteous government," that spirit of true and universal brotherhood which drew from him, as he stood unarmed and undefended under the great elm at Shakamaxon, and saw " as far as his eyes could carry," the painted and plumed children of the forest gazing upon him as a new and strange ruler ; that love to God and man, which then impelled his great heart to say to them, " I will not call you brothers or children, but you shall be to me and mine as half of the same body ;" which two years later, when he left for England, prompted him to send to this city of brotherly love, which he had founded, the message, "And thou, Philadelphia, virgin of the pro- vince, my soul prays for thee, that faithful to the God of thy mercies in the life of righteousness, thou mayest be preserved unto the end :" — And again, when he wrote replying to the charge, that he had manifested, while here, restless ambition and lust of gain, and made this memorable prediction, " If friends here (i. e. in Pennsylvania) keep to Crod, and in the justice, mercy, equity, and fear of the Lord, their enemies will be their footstool ; if not, their heirs and my heirs 236 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES, ^f'*'' too, will lose all. " Brethren ! Has our course as a people, been thus loyal to God ? Has it been true to this, Our beginning — faithful to justice, mercy, and the fear of the Lord ? If not, we may plume ourselves upon our wealth and enterprise, upon our far-reaching do- main, upon our achievements in arts or in arms ; but we should tremble, when we remember with whom as a nation we are to reckon. We should tremble, when we consider that his retribution is unerring for nations as for individuals, and, that while in the case of indi- viduals, just punishment may wait to another life, in the case of nations it must fall here. When we look around us and over the past, do we not see ruined empires almost without number ; once the admiration of the world, but now having a name only in history ? Monarchies and Republics, Oligar- chies and Feudalities, have all shared one common fate, and that fate, if it witness more to one truth than to another or to all others, it is to the truth that God governs nationalities ; that by Him kings reign, and princes or people decree justice ; and that his govern- ment is administered only in righteousness — with long-suiFering patience, 'tis true — but yet with ultimate and rigid justice. Go to the dawn of historical civi- lization in the East, trace the rise and fall of one nation after another, and everywhere as religion and virtue decline, strength and glory decline with them, till at length we seem to hear the great Ruler and Proprietor say. Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou mayest be no longer steward. Whether theirs were the one talent, or the five, or the ten, it is the same : the portion of the unprofitable or unfaith- ful steward is taken from him, and given to those who THE STEWARDSHIP OF NATIONS. 237 may afford promise of more fidelity. And lest they should glory in being thus preferred, a voice of warn- ing seems to be addressed to them, as to Israel when she was about to pass over Jordan to possess nations greater and mightier than herself. " Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the Lord thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying. For my righteous- ness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land, but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord doth drive them out before thee. And the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land. And when thou hast eaten and art full, beware lest thou forget the Lord thy God in not keeping his commandments ; beware, lest when thou hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein, and when thy herds and thy flocks mul- tiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied ; then thine heart be lifted up, and thou say in thine heart, my power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. For it shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God and walk after other gods, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish." Such is the grand law not for Israel only, but in effect for all nations. To them it was proclaimed through inspired Prophets, sent on purpose ; to most kingdoms and states, it has been taught by the still small voice of conscience and reason, as well as by their experience that have gone before. It tells — this law — of no manifest destiny, of no irreversible fate. It hints at no possible condition of things which can subvert the principles or arrest the march of God's superintending Providence, which can guarantee per- petual and increasing greatness, though vice and ini- 238 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. quity abound. Pharaoh tried it, and we see the re- sult, as he and all his formidable host went down, in their power and pomp, as lead, in the mighty waters. Nebuchadnezzar tried it when he cried, " Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty ?" And, while the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, " King Nebuchadnezzar, the kingdom is departed from thee. And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field ; they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will." So when you follow the fune- ral train of the other great nations, once known only to be feared, now remembered only to be pitied, you everywhere find that they fell rather by their own suicidal hand than by foreign invaders. First pufied up with the pride that betokens a fall, because it re- laxes effort and lulls vigilance ; then given over to sordid gains and ignoble pleasures ; then rent by the strife of contending factions ; then full of cruelty to the weak, and of license to the baser passions, and of hatred of all whose voice and example are raised to rebuke the reigning degeneracy. Socrates and Cicero, Aristides and Demosthenes, are reckoned unfit to live, because they protest, and warn, and will not prophecy smooth things. Neibuhr's picture of Rome, after the fall of the Republic, may stand as a likeness for all : " As regards the manners and mode of life of the Ro- mans (says he), their great object at this time was the acquisition and possession of money. Their moral THE STEWARDSHIP OF NATIONS. 239 conduct, which had been corrupt enough before the social war, became still more so by their systematic plunder and rapine. Immense riches were accumu- lated and squandered upon brutal pleasures. The simplicity of the old manners and mode of living had been abandoned for Greek luxuries and frivolities, and the whole household arrangements had become altered. The Roman houses had formerly been quite simple, and were built mostly of brick, but now every one would live in a splendid house, and be surrounded by luxuries." We know what followed. With deeper degeneracy came a more profound self-confidence, and a more stolid indiiference to all but selfish pleasure, till not even the tramp of barbarian invaders could disturb their security. As at the Capitol, so in the provinces. Carthage was then called the Rome of Africa, where, less than two hundred years before, Cyprian had sufi'ered martyrdom ; near which, only nine years previous, Augustine had yielded up his life. Where churches abounded, and Christ was preached by a multitude of priests and deacons : — Yet Genseric came with his Vandals, "and while his troops were mounting the ramparts, the people were descending to the circus. Without was the tumult of arms ; within, the resounding echoes of the games. At the foot of the walls were the shrieks and curses of those who slipped in gore, and fell in the melee ; on the steps of the amphitheatre were the songs of the musi- cians, and the sounds of accompanying flutes." So elsewhere. Too idle and cowardly to march against the conquering tribes, the people were still delighted at seeing the agony of the dying gladiator ; and, at Treves, no sooner had the invaders finished their work 240 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. of rapine and desolation than the returning inhabi- tants cried out for a renewal of the Circensian games. In Cicero's time, he marked the beginning of this most opprobrious end, when he said, speaking of the Roman Senate, " Beware of a body who think that even though the Republic should perish, they will be able to preserve their fish-ponds." To hint that the history of Rome's decline and fall can be reproduced on our continent and in our land may seem a dotard's dream. But we cannot have more faith in our " manifest destiny" than they had in theirs. And a so-called Christianity, our imagined panacea for all social ills, is it not possible that as it failed to save the Empire, then so it may fail, if we do not give good heed, to save our Republic now ? I look at the vast territory, the many tribes of people, the diversified languages and civilization, over which the Roman eagles floated in the fourth and fifth centuries, and everywhere Christ seems to be owned. Temples rise in his name ; expensive ofi'erings are made, Alex- andria, Antioch, Carthage, Constantinople, Rome, are so many splendid centres of the religion called Chris- tian. I look three centuries later, and in all of those cities save one the crescent has supplanted the cross. In the deserts of Arabia an obscure man, some say ignorant, some say mad, part fanatic, perhaps, and part impostor, appears and claims to be the prophet of the Most High. He preaches three years with unwearied zeal, and has made but fourteen proselytes. With what supreme indifference was he regarded in the splendid palaces of Rome or Constantinople ! With what serene and lofty contempt was he looked down upon by philosophers and divines, by governors and THE STEWARDSHIP OF NATIONS. 241 Proconsuls ! That strange compound of superstition and libertinism, of industrial force and unmeasured self- confidence, which hangs as a small cloud upon our western horizon now, does not seem to us one whit more despicable than did Islamism for many a year to the civilized world, whether East or West. Christianity is a great conservative power, hut not that Christianity which has lost its Christ. So long as it remained true to its one work, and kept, through humility and self-denying works of charity, near to its Lord, so long as his loving presence was in the sanctuary and in the hearts of his people, they seemed to reanimate the waning civilization of the earth. But when the altar lost its fires, and the gold became dim, and disputation took the place of faith, and pa- geantry was substituted for the sacrifice of meek and lowly hearts, Christianity was thenceforth only half Christian; it ceased to be equal to the most difficult of all works, — arresting the progress of social declen- sion. And when nations intrusted with such a trea- sure as the Gospel prove derelict to it, we need not wonder that they are overtaken by swift retribution. The greater and more flagrant the dereliction, the quicker should be the punishment. Hence the strik- ing fact that the oldest empire and the oldest civiliza- tion in the world is not Christian but Pagan, while most great nations that profess the Gospel are of recent origin. They who first embraced it proving unfaithful, were soon deprived of their stewardship. Others like Spain rose rapidly to a lordly eminence, but declined so soon that now they are hardly counted in settling what is called the balance of power. The four leading powers of the world, or at least of the 21 242 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. western portion of it, were none of them leading powers six hundred years ago. Four centuries ago America was the habitation of barbarians only ; Russia was but " one of many races who shared the plains of Tartary; the French hardly defended their inde- pendence against England and Burgundy; and the English could call their own, but half a narrow island, and their number scarcely perhaps exceeded the pre- sent population of a first class Chinese city." On the other hand, China, because, faithful comparatively to the light she had, has stood almost unchanged for two thousand years, numbering in population one-third of the human race, and that population hardly surpassed on earth for industry, for thrift, for contentment, and for order. In view of such facts, does it become us to be high-minded? Let us rather fear, remembering "the goodness and severity of God; on them which fell, severity ; but towards us goodness, if we continue in his goodness ; otherwise we also shall be cut off." Thus, we are brought to our conclusion. Were we to look only at the past, we might conclude that what has befallen other nations must, at no distant day, be our lot. The candle burns more and more dimly, till at last going out, the candlestick will be removed. But, let us thank God that experience is not our only teacher in this case. He who has pro- mised abiding and increasing honor to all who honor him speaks to us words of hope. He tells us that all depends on the faith and virtue of the people, and he forewarns us that, with advancing prosperity, these will decline, unless his own people are more than ever steadfast, prayerful, watchful. Our Master passes us, now and then, as he did his chosen people of old, THE STEWARDSHIP OF NATIONS. 243 through fiery trials. This day, he writes before all eyes, especially before ours, who, as a people, have on this point, I fear, grievously sinned, the peril and the folly of presuming too much on our own wisdom, of imagining that our life consisteth in the abundance of the things that we possess, of resolving that we will be rich, and that speedily, though the care of our souls and the proper training of our children be neglected, and though our business, stained too much with craft and speculation, be wanting in the three grand requisites of justice, mercy, and the fear of the Lord. No religion will meet our social necessities but one that is simple, hearty, and unworldly ; one that seeks first the kingdom of God and his righteous- ness, nothing doubting that if we labor, and are up- right, frugal, and discreet, the Providence that feeds the fowls and clothes the lilies of the field will not leave us destitute. No religion of pretences will stand us in stead. Christ, when on earth, courted not the society of ostentatious Pharisees, looked not for support to the self-complacent but hypocritical reli- gionists of the day. Let us bethink ourselves whether, were he to come again among us, he might not still find too many who draw near him with the lips, while their hearts are far from him. To think of that august Presence in some of our places of business, presiding at some of their transactions too, who claim to be foremost among his followers, looking into hearts that are ready to grace every proposition with a text, and back every argument with a prayer, and are yet cold, grasping, merciless, measuring the so-called munificent ofi"erings of the rich to the Lord's treasury against the poor widow's two mites ! Who that 2M DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. imagines this, does not feel that our piety should be of a higher, holier type ? that we need more of the humble, self-condemning spirit of the publican in the temple, more of the open-handed, high-souled liberal- ity of Zaccheus ? lleligious faith is a vast power in almost every nation's history. Imbedded in the deep- est instincts and intuitions of the soul, it must, in some form, blend itself with the life of the people. But to be at once a conservative and an impelling force, guaranteeing to the social system all the good we have, and helping to develop whatever good we need, it must ally itself with morality and with humil- ity before a sin-hating God. Its hopes must promise nothing to the unrelenting love or practice of sin. A self-indulgent, self-complacent religionism, loose in its notions of what we owe to others, exacting in what we think due to ourselves, striving to embrace at once the promises of heaven and the lying plausi- bilities or debasing sensualities of earth, such a reli- gion has for nations no power to save, but only to destroy. It may have its open Bible, its Protestant and orthodox creed, its tithe of mint, anise, and cum- min, but where are the weightier matters, judgment, mercy and truth ? "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." Churches without humility and all-embracing love. Christians without the life of God in their souls, followers of Jesus who seem to know little of the blessedness which he affirms only of the poor in spirit, the pure in heart, the meek and merciful, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. Such Christians, such churches, such creeds save and exalt a nation ? Never ! never ! The appointed regenerators of the world are THE STEWARDSHIP OF NATIONS. 245 Faith, Hope, and Charity, not faith without charity, not hope without faith, but all three as one. " And here abideth faith, hope, and charity, these three, hut the greatest of these is Charity,'^ Have I spoken of our future with distrust and doubt ? It is not that I despair. It is not that I am unable or unwilling to discern how much there is in our condition to excite to hope, to inspire confidence. I see it with exulting pride. Yes, " I can see," to borrow the strain of Milton, the great republican of England, when speaking of his own land under the Commonwealth, " I can see, methinks, in my mind's eye a noble and puissant nation, rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks. Methinks I see her as an eagle, nursing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full midday beam ; purging and unsealing her sight at the fountain itself of heavenly radiance, while the whole noise of timorous and flocking birds, with those also that love the twilight, flutter about amazed at what she means." "I see her a city of refuge, the mansion-house of liberty, encompassed and surrounded with Divine protection, where there are not more in- struments for the defence of justice or beleagured truth, than there be pens and heads sitting by their studious lamps, musing, searching, and revolving new notions and ideas wherewith to present, as with their homage and their fealty, the approaching future, and others as fast reading, trying all things, assenting to the force of reason and convincement." Glorious vision of a day, however, that may be overcast — that in England's case was overcast speedily. It was painted by the great poet and patriot but a very few years 21^ 246 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. before that land fell back, under Charles II, into the lowest depth of the lowest despotism. Prosperity, always dangerous, is specially dangerous in free states. All these mighty energies in which we so exult may, in our case, as in hers, be turned on the citadel of our own national life, and spend themselves in the work of self-destruction. " Let us not then be high-minded, but fear." The grand secret of a nation's enduring and advancing greatness is to combine with a consciousness of her gifts, a proper sense of her dangers, and difficulties, and responsibilities. " Be- hold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God. On them which fell, severity ; toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness, otherwise thou also shalt be cut off." PLEA FOR SAILORS. A SERMON * >* "And he began again to teach by the sea-side, and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship and sat in the sea ; and the whole multitude was by the sea, on the land, and he taught them many things." — St. Mark, ch. iv, 1st and part of 2d verse. The Sea of Galilee which is here referred to was, to the neighboring districts, what the high seas or oceans of the globe now are to the countries that sur- round them. A small lake, not more than twelve miles in length and six in breadth, it was yet to those who dwelt near it, at once their fishing ground, the highway on which they travelled, and the means of facilitating their exchanges in trade. We need not wonder then that its shores were studded with popu- lous villages ; nor that the Saviour, when he would gather about him a multitude to hear the words of eternal life, went often and again to teach — as the evangelist has it — hy the sea-side. In the station which he occupies — sitting on the vessel as it rests on the calm waters of the lake, and preaching to the thronged multitude on the shore — he seems to pre- figure the part which the great ocean was to bear in carrying the Gospel over the world ; while the fre- * Preached on the occasion of forming the Churchman's Missionary Association for Seamen, Philadelphia, Febuary, 1848. 250 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. quency* with which he thus resorts to the sea-side, may well suggest to us the duty we owe to the great commercial marts of the earth. With her compass and needle, Commerce has now pushed far beyond what were once regarded as her utmost limits, and she finds her home to-night around the shores and on the bosom of what were then only pathless and un- known seas. Her great cities now rise round their margin. And it is in these cities that multitudes not only dwell, but dwell in the midst of the most wakeful activity — of the most stirring and thoughtful enter- prise. These then are the places where the Gospel is most needed, where its truths can be propagated most rapidly, and from whence they can go forth, with most effect, to bless the world. Observe, however, that Christ had compassion not on those only who came to him from the adjoining cities and villages. He often passed to and fro on the lake itself, and held communion with those who toiled on its waters. Of his twelve Apostles, four, as we have seen in the lesson of this evening (St. Mark. chap, i) were called in one day from their nets and ships, to enjoy and to proclaim his grace. What then do not the followers of Christ now owe to them who go down to the sea in ships and do business on the great waters ? Everything in their condition is fitted to move the sympathies of a Christian heart. Their peculiar privations — their many and great dangers — their sore trials and temptations — their migratory life, carrying them to all parts of the earth and giving them access to so many different minds — does not all this, with their warmth of heart and almost childlike * Four instances occur in the first three chapters of St. Mark's Gospel. CLAIMS OF SEAMEN. 251 simplicity, entitle them to a peculiar place in our re- membrance, while it makes it unspeakably important to the world that they too should be called with an effectual calling to Christ's service. Yet what until lately has been their state? Agents of immense good to the world — agents of good above all to Christendom and especially to Protestant Christendom, still sailors have not been remembered ; or they have been remembered, often, only to be cor- rupted and wronged. Of those who thirty years since profited by the toils and perils of the seaman, how many reflected that he had a soul — how many even that he was a man^ with the sensibilities, the capa- cities, the rights of a man. His very name, was it not synonymous with recklessness and vagrancy ? Nay more, — was it not synonymous with drunken- ness, debauchery, and a God-defying impiety ? With- out fear of Heaven, it is not strange that he had cast off regard for man. Often he knew no home but the ruthless sea ; he had no friends but some chance ship- mate ; he owned no power above him, but that which paced the quarter-deck ; and he thought not beyond the brief term of his voyage. Picked up at the beginning of it as a machine, that could climb the mast and trim the sail and keep the look-out ; thrust aside at its end as a machine no longer needed, and therefore no longer cared for, he rushed from the despotism of the ship to the licentious freedom of the shore— that shore where men smiled only to betray, where women courted only to pollute, and doors were opened only to decoy and plunder him. When the crew of a vessel was discharged, as it came into port, what was expected from them ? If in their own 252 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. country, was it expected that they would save their earnings, visit their friends, respect the proprieties of life, reverence the law of the land? If they were strangers in a strange land, was it expected that they would be objects of hospitality and kindness ? No, not even those who employed them, who extracted riches from their toil, and luxuries from their priva- tions, not even they were usually kind. How much less those who dwelt afar oflf. Every man's hand seemed to be against the sailor, and we need not wonder if the sailor's hand was against every man. They were indeed the Ishmaelites of the sea. No Saviour came down to the shore to say to them Repent, and he at 'peace with God. No John the Baptist lifted up his voice to them, as they were tossed to and fro on the wilderness of waters. At sea there was no man to care for their souls, and on land men lay in wait to make them a prey. Thus it was—and thus it too often is, even now. Let us thank God, however, that a brighter day for sailors begins, as we trust, to dawn. Much was done for them, when, some twenty-five years ago, Christians in England and in America, first awoke to the truth that those who live on the waters are entitled to the Gospel, no less than they who live on the land, and • that as men they must have hearts to feel its power. Yet more was done when the conviction of that truth ripened into action ; when missions among seamen were established ; when afterwards the intoxicating cup was banished from a large portion of our mer- chant vessels, and when in some of them the rough discipline of the deck and the comfortless cheer of the forecastle were improved. And the results — how CLAIMS OF SEAMEN. 253 cheering ! They have demonstrated not merely that these men can be reached — not merely that here, as everywhere, God's blessing will follow faithful efforts to proclaim his truth and save souls ; they show that this is the effort on which God seems to vouchsafe his peculiar smiles. In proportion to the means em- ployed and the difficulties to be vanquished, no mis- sions were ever more successful than those among seamen. Twenty years ago, a pious sailor, whether in the navies of England and America, or in their merchant service, was almost unknown ; — officers and men alike seemed to agree with the world at large, in thinking, that religion was not made for sailors. Now it is computed, that among the seamen of these two countries, there are not less than ten thousand who are communicants of some Christian denomination. It is said too, that there are eight hundred captains of vessels, who glory in the service of a heavenly Master, and whose crews are almost invariably dis- tinguished by their orderly and contented spirit. In the American navy, it is not known that there were, fifteen years since, among all its officers, more than one or two communicants. There are now more than one hundred, and many of them occupy high positions. On board our cruisers at distant stations, where hardly any human agency was employed, a deep soli- citude respecting religion has arisen in more than one instance, and groups of sailors have been found in the darkness of the night, offering up their united prayers for God's grace to make them Christians. In some instances means apparently the most inadequate have become a blessing to a whole ship's company ; and it is said that throughout the American navy, where 22 254 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. religious zeal was once either ridiculed or persecuted, it is now not only tolerated, but respected and even honored. And what do these results say to us ? Do they not say, "go forward?" God gives such success, not to supersede effort, but to reward and animate it. So much as will quicken prayer and redouble zeal, he vouchsafes ; but it is only that he may leave it to his people to say whether that success shall continue and be progressive. There is still much land to be pos- sessed. The little one is still to become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation. When you com- pare what has been done, with what remains undone, you must feel that there is urgent need of more ex- ertion. In this country and England alone, there are probably two millions of men who labor on the water as seamen or watermen — men who are mostly in the prime of life, with passions that need all the restraints ■of religion, and temptations that might endanger the virtue of established Christians. They are men, too, who need specific religious instruction. Sailors, espe- cially those on the high seas, are gregarious. They shun promiscuous assemblies. As they will live only in sailor boarding-houses, and associate only with sailor companions, so, for the present at least, they will frequent only sailor churches. And how far have these been provided ? In our own land, I speak with- out exaggeration when I say, that they are insufficient for the accommodation of one-third of those who are temporarily on shore. In Philadelphia, where I believe the first effort in behalf of American seamen was made, and where, in proportion to the wealth and population, there is but little commerce and much CLAIMS OP SEAMEN. 255 philanthropic zeal, there may be accommodation now for one thousand sailors ; whereas it is supposed that there are more than two thousand constantly in port, besides those who belong to the navy, and besides those, too, who are engaged in the navigation of rivers and canajs. What must it be then along our coasts, in smaller towns, with a larger proportional trade ? Consider, too, that nearly all sailors on shore might iattend church — sickness being their only obstacle. Consider, moreover, how our commerce is extending. Year by year it stretches out its arms, till now our whalers are in every sea, — our traders in every harbor, and even along every barbarous shore. From a recent report made by the Navy Department, it would seem that the tonnage of the United States employed in trade, is at this moment but one-fifth less than hers who has so long written herself undisputed mistress of the seas. What then must it be ten years hence ? They are facts like these which have recently led to the formation of the Churchmen' 8 Missionary Association for Seamen of the Port of Philadelphia, Its members and managers propose, with God's bless- ing and the aid of the benevolent, to construct a floating churchy which shall lie at your wharves, and which shall open its doors, each Lord's day, to those who live on the water. I desire to bespeak for this effort your prayers and your active co-operation. Such a church is needed. It is needed, because ex- isting means for the religious improvement of seamen are inadequate. It is needed, too, because as 2^ float- ing edifice, throwing out its flag among the masts and spars of your shipping, it will be more likely to 256 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. attract the sailor's attention, and will commend itself more warmly to his professional sympathies. It can be erected at a cost much less than would be needed for a building and the necessary land on shore ; it will be less exposed to danger from fire ; and it can be readily moved from one point to another, should changes in the commerce of the city or other causes render removal expedient. And further, such an edifice is needed, that there may be at least one place, where the sailor can worship according to the order of our own church. Not a few of our seamen, natives and foreigners, are the children of Episco- palians. Others have been brought into contact with our services, in the navy, or in distant lands. Others again are attracted to them by their social and re- sponsive character; and others by their chastened fervor and orderly administration. But that which, beyond all else, wins the sailor's preference towards us, is our Prayer Book. In one small volume, which he can carry always about him, he has exhaustless sources of instruction and comfort ; — choice and copious extracts from Scripture for every day ; prayers and thanksgivings suited to the manifold changes of his eventful life ; deep confessions of sin ; ardent ascriptions of praise and thanksgiving — the vows that he made, or that were made for him at baptism — solemn appeals addressed both to those who neglect and to those who celebrate the Lord's supper — devout hymns, in which his whole heart can pour itself out in melody before the Lord, with creeds and more extended expositions of a Christian's faith. These — must they not be to him a perpetual well- spring of blessing and delight, if he be only led, CLAIMS OF SEAMEN. 257 when on shore, by uniting in our public worship, to use, to appreciate, and to enjoy them ? And yet, what, thus far, has the church of American Episcopalians — the church blessed by this book of Common Prayer, done for Sailors ? In whatever proportion she has peculiar means for promoting their welfare, is she not bound in the same proportion to use them ? As a church, too, planted especially in large cities, and embracing, within her pale, multi- tudes who are engaged in commerce, are not her re- sulting obligations the more imperative ? We ask, then, what has this Church done, as yet, for sailors ? But three or four chapels, where they can worship accord- ing to the order of our service, have been opened along the whole extent of our seaboard ; and these have been opened only within the last six or seven years. To those bearing other Christian names, we have left the toil and the glory of conducting the sailors' worship and breaking to them the bread of life. Well, then, may we blush for the past, while we bless God that our supineness is at length disturbed — that while we commend the noble zeal of others, we have come at last to feel the awakening influence of their example — that we are now bent on sharing in the burden of this work, and are resolved that if sailors be not won to the faith and obedience of Christ and him crucified, the fault shall not be ours. I ask your attention to a few of the reasons why we should co-operate in this undertaking. I. We should do it, in the first place, for our own sakes. Independent of our religious obligations, we have all of us a present and even a pecuniary interest 22* 258 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. in the improvement of seamen. I should hesitate to present such a motive, did I not remember that the Saviour promised earthly as well as heavenly rewards, and gave his pledge that they who seek first of all, for themselves and others, the kingdom of God and His righteousness, shall find at last that godliness is great gain, even in respect to the life that now is. Let me suggest, then, that in christianizing sailors, we add value to whatever we intrust to their care. Mere abstinence from ardent spirits, by a ship's crew, when at sea, is known to increase so materially the safety of the vessel and cargo, that they can be in- sured at considerably lower than ordinary rates. In other words, there is pecuniary gain to those who own the vessel, to those who own the cargo, and, of course, also to those by whom that cargo is to be purchased and consumed, — from the simple circumstance that the seamen, officers and men, can be kept sober while on shipboard. How would it be, then, if they could be kept equally sober when on shore ; if, when they come on board to begin a voyage, they had the vigor, the steadiness of nerve, and mental activity of the temperate man, instead of the debility and the dulness of the sot ? And, suppose that they were not only sober at all times, but were also honest, self-respecting. God-fearing men, — anxious to do justly by their em- ployers, and to deal kindly and truly by each other. Would they not be more efficient and trustworthy, — alike in sunshine and in storm ? Would they not be more vigilant when keeping their lone watches at night, and more earnest in all efforts that are needed to make the voyage at once quick and prosperous ? To elevate the character of a workman is to add — CLAIMS OF SEAMEN. 259 always and everywhere — to the value of Ms services. Even now, the intellectual and moral superiority of our seamen, gives us immense advantages over foreign nations in the competitions of trade. If I mistake not, an American vessel puts to sea for a voyage round Cape Horn, or round the world, with a number of men, which in most other countries would be thought wholly inadequate. What then, would be the result, were the men who navigate our vessels not only supe- rior to those of other lands, but as virtuous and as efficient as religion might make them ? But, is it the safety and value of property only that we increase, by raising and improving the sea- men ? Life^ too, is intrusted to his keeping — and in this busy locomotive age, there is scarcely one of us who is not often in danger merely from the reckless- ness, intemperance, and want of principle, which pre- vail among too many who labor on our w^aters. But alas ! there is that involved which is more pre- cious than either life or property, and that is our do- mestic peace and happiness. How many of us may have sons, brothers, friends, who will be called by duty or interest to live on the sea ! Perhaps, at a tender age, one whom we love as the apple of our eye, may be placed on shipboard He has, as yet, little of the force that can bid defiance to temptation ; nor is he hardened to the toils and privations even of a landsman's life. He may be one, too, whose inno- cence has already yielded before the seductions of the city or the country, and now as a last resort, we con- sign him to the restraints of a long voyage, where he cannot reach the maddening bowl ; where the theatre, the gaming table, and the brothel, cannot draw around 260 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. him their charmed circles, nor practise upon him their foul sorceries ; where there must be hard fare, hard work, and implicit obedience, and where now and then there may be a solitary hour for reflection, and with God's blessing, for repentance and amendment. Me- thinks I see a father, his heart nearly broken by the follies and extravagance of one whom he has fondly cherished. Commands, remonstrances, entreaties, all have proved vain. As his only hope, he betakes him to a vessel bound to some far-distant land, and there, with many an anxious request to the officers — solemn charges to himself — earnest, agonizing prayers to God, he leaves all that remains to him of what was once his darling boy. With speechless anguish he turns back to comfort her who bears the whole weight of a mother's bitterest sorrow, and whose meek spirit seems ready to fail beneath that load which she would fain carry with a brave, an uncomplaining heart. Alas ! fond parents ! heart-stricken mourners ! where shall we find words of comfort for you ? Know you the companions with whom your child may be consort- ing now ? The forecastle — the deck — are they in their present state likely to prove schools of reforma- tion ? The men who compose most crews, are they men whose examples you would have your son follow — who will plead with him to abandon his vices, and retrace his steps to a life of manliness and virtue ? When he reaches the freedom of some foreign port, will they be the guides and counsellors for his inexpe- rience ? Had he been sentenced to yonder peniten- tiary, he would not have been without kind friends, and sympathizing, pious counsellors. He would at least have gained seclusion from base and profligate CLAIMS OF SEAMEN. 261 companions. But in that floating prison to which you, in your despair, or shame, or weariness, have sentenced him, too often there is there only contami- nation. Strange will it be if, under such discipline, he does not wax worse and worse ; if from such an exile he does not come back to you more besotted in his tastes and more madly bent on ruin. No ! if we would use ships as means of reclaiming prodigal sons or reckless friends — and who knows how soon we may have occasion to do so — we must see to it that they are purged. We must see to it that they to whose care and fellowship we commit our erring, or our un~ corrupted youth, are men who fear God, and who will delight in saving a soul from death. II. But again, in the efforts now making for the sailor's welfare, we should co-operate for his sake. Justice and humanity both plead with loud and ear- nest tones in his behalf, who has toiled so efficiently in ours. What do we not owe. Brethren, to the hardy and intrepid mariner ? How, but for his toils and his dangers, could we surround ourselves with the pro- ducts of every clime, and the creations of every art ? It is the sailor who bears to us in safety from the remotest regions, food for our nourishment ; fruits and spices for our refreshment; medicines for our diseases ; costly gems and fine fabrics and curious devices for our ornament and delight. He does more. Science can make no discovery ; ingenuity can frame no new instrument of production ; creative genius can give birth to no new, spirit-stirring, or soul-enlarging thought — no new forms of beauty or grandeur can start from the canvas of the painter, or the marble of 262 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. the sculptor, that the sailor does not take them and bear them in safety and with quick despatch to our own doors. It is through him that we naturalize^ as it were, on our own soil, and within our own homes, the combined fruits of man's intellect, and of nature's powers over all the gbbe. And what does he receive in return ? Is it not well, as we pass those shops where wares are gathered in such gay and gorgeous profusion from all parts of the world, to think now and then of him who gathered them ? Is it not well, as we look on all the splendid array which adorns the mansions of wealth and taste ; as we consider how contributions have been levied through the sailor, on the industry of every land, and the natural resources of every people, that one sumptuous dwelling-place may be provided for man, whose breath is in his nos- trils: — Oh ! is it not well, sometimes, to ask what is that sailor himself the better, the wiser, for all this ? Extending, all-enriching Commerce, what has she brought to her own laborer? Look at him in his hammock ! Look at him at his meals, without fork, or plate, or table ! Look at him as he is stowed away in most vessels^ in the narrowest space, and in the most comfortless apartment ! He is freight that does not pay — and he must give place therefore to that which does. Look at him as he reaches the haven where he would not be ! a prey it may be to harpies, who stupify him with drugged liquor, rob him in a few days of all his earnings, ship him when intoxicated for another voyage, and then seize part of his wages in advance. And look at him when he comes at last to the end of life's voyage, to the crisis of his long and fitful fever, and dies as the fool dieth. CLAIMS OF SEAMEN. 268 The very man through whom commerce has achieved its triumphs and dispensed its blessings, is this to be his lot ? Is he to be the only ome who is to have no share in these blessings or triumphs — nay, is his de- gradation and ruin to be the awful price at which we win them ? — I will not believe it. I can understand why the grim monster War — stained with blood and orphans' tears — should first debase, and then sacri- fice his ministering servants ; but I cannot understand why this must needs be the case with peaceful and beneficent Commerce. I see it to be usual, but I can- not believe it to be necessary. Were it so — did it become certain that Commerce could move forward with all its magnificent train of benefits and blessings, only by degrading and sacrificing even the humblest of its human instruments, then I would say, let Com- merce be stayed. Let her sails be furled, and her fires be put out. The human soul is worth more than Commerce. Let her hardy but neglected and injured servants go back to the farm and the workshop, where they can share in the comforts, and claim the spiritual rights, and enjoy the social prerogatives of our com- mon humanity. Brethren ! here is a question which, as it seems to me, is big with interest to every philanthropist ; nor to every philanthropist alone, but to every thought- ful man. In order that wealth may increase, must poverty and wretchedness increase too, and even in a more rapid ratio ? Must men decay, in order that arts or trade may flourish ? Without attempting any discussion, here and now, of this the most momentous problem of social science, a problem which is now 264 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. challenging our consideration from every quarter, I will only say that the tendency always apparent, more apparent now only because creative industry is now more active and universal — the seeming ten- dency of the poor to become poorer at the same time, and, in part, by the very same means, that the rich become richer — the seeming tendency of certain in- dustrious pursuits, such as commerce and manufac- tures, to impair the moral force, and deteriorate the spiritual prospects of their operative agents, is a ten- dency that can be arrested by moral means alone. Material expedients, whether in the shape of poor laws, sumptuary laws, or agrarian laws — all expe- dients, in fine, which do not go to ennoble and purify the man — employed and employer — which do not go to make both parties, and especially the laborer, en- lightened, upright, and pious, will fail, as they always have failed^ and as they always ought to fail. The enlightening, purifying, and saving of man's immortal mind, is the ultimate end of all industry and all legis- lation, as well as of all science and all religion. That end attained, the relations of capital and labor, of employers and employed, will adjust themselves. That end neglected, adjustment becomes impossible ; because its most essential element is wanting. Make men — even the poorest — thoughtful, enlightened, and upright, and they will find or make means to protect themselves ; while they will extend, at the same time, a like protection to the rights and interests of others. III. But again, the honor of the CJiristian name requires that we should labor to give our religion, with all its living power, to seamen. They are our CLAIMS OF SEAMEN. 265 representatives, and the representatives of our reli- gion in foreign lands, and among the heathen. None except Christian nations engage in foreign trade, and hardly any except nations professing the Re- formed faith, enjoy at present much commercial pre- eminence ; so that the sailors of the world, wherever they appear, appear for the most part as exemplars of the religion called Christian and Protestant. And what sort of exemplars are they ? Is it strange that the name of our God is blasphemed and ridiculed even among barbarians and cannibals, when the only persons whom they see bearing the Christian name are crews such as man too many of our whalers and merchantmen ? The Islands of the Pacific, for ex- ample, where it is said five hundred American whaling ships are constantly cruising, and where millions of untutored barbarians see scarcely aught of nominal Christianity except through them — what impressions must they get of the faith we profess, when a ship from Christian America nears their shores, and dis- gorges its inmates to do deeds of debauchery, ra- pine, and violence, at which heathenism itself stands aghast ? It is a fact, that not many years since, a Rajah chief of the Malaccas called together his brother chiefs and leading people, to deliberate by what means they could reform the sailors and whalemen that swarmed along their shores — reformation or banishment having become inevitable. What a spec- tacle ! when Malays, who have had a world-wide no- toriety as pirates and perfidious barbarians, come to meditate a mission of mercy — a scheme of moral re- 23 2G6 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. formation — for the benefit of those who call themselves Christians ! Take another instance : — A sailor is driven on shore by the cruelty of his treatment. After wandering about in destitution, he sickens and dies. Some of his own crew thrust him into a hole in the sand, in the presence of Mohammedans and Pagans ! Can we wonder that they pour out scorn and execration on the actors in such a tragedy ? These, said they, are your Christians. They first by oppression drive men mad — they then leave them to die in loneliness and want, and when dead, they can refuse even to their poor remains the rites of sepulture, the tribute of a decent grave ! Is it said that such men misrepresent Christianity ? But why should Christianity be misrepresented ? Why not make sailors worthy exponents of the religion we glory in ? Why, when these men land on heathen shores, should they not be as conspicuous for their worth, as they now, too often, are for their debase- ment ? The day was, when pagans, looking on the followers of Jesus, were compelled to exclaim. Behold how these Christians love one another ! And is it not an object worthy of the best eiforts and prayers of all who love Christ and his Gospel, to bring on a day, when, as the crews of Christian ships land on the shores of idolaters and infidels, they shall so bear themselves as to wring from the most reluctant the admission : Behold how these men work right- eousness ; their Lord he is the Grod; we will go with them; their God shall he our God foj^ever and ever? Another reason here occurs to me, why the honor of Christianity, and of our own land, is involved in the improvement of seamen ; and that is, that most of CLAIMS OP SEAMEN. 267 our difficulties with heathen nations, together with the reproach and expense they occasion, may be traced directly or indirectly to the misconduct of sea- men. But for the provocations which they give, there would be but little danger to our merchantmen as they navigate the most distant seas, and trade along the most inhospitable coasts. It is when they go, as they sometimes do, (would I could say but^ rarely), with false weights and false coin, to cheat the unsus- pecting natives — when they debauch their wives and daughters — when they assault, and think it sport to shoot them down ; then it is that vindictive passions are roused, and the aggressor escaping, vengeance is wreaked upon the first vessel, however inoifensive, that bears the American flag, or is associated with the Christian name. That act of retribution, how- ever, must needs be requited. It calls, it is supposed, for the bloodiest and most memorable expiation. The majesty of the American government must be invoked. The prowess of the American navy must be put in requisition, and frigates appear to batter down their towns, and lay waste their villages and fields. Now with us, all this is placed to the account of the san- guinary spirit of the heathen. But let us remember how it is among them. With what indignation, and with what justice too, may they not say, " Behold ! thou art called a ^ Christian,' and makest thy boast of God, and knowest his will, and art confident that thou thy- self art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness. Thou, therefore, which teachest an- other, teachest thou not thyself? Thou that preach- est a man should not steal, dost thou steal ? Thgu that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost 268 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. thou commit adultery ? Thou that abhorrest murder, dost thou commit murder ? The name of God is blasphemed among us Gentiles through you." IV. In the last place, need I say that as Christians, taught to prize the souls of men as above all price, we are solemnly bound to labor for the salvation of sea- men^ and through them, for the salvation of those to whom they go. Sailors can at best enjoy but a small share of the living ministrations of the Gospel. Five- sixths of their time is spent upon the ocean. But they have hearts. They are rarely skeptical. They see too much of the wonders of the Lord in the deep, and know by sad experience, too much of the uncertainty and vanity of life, to take refuge in the cheerless creed of the unbeliever. They feel as all friendless men feel, an inexpressible yearning for sympathy ; and their hearts open, like those of children, to the appeals of any who show that they are friends indeed. That now, sailors professing and exemplifying piety can be counted by thousands, where, twenty years ago, piety was all but unknown — that those in the navy occupying the most distinguished and responsible posts are not ashamed to confess Christ and him crucified before men ; — these results, when we think of the means employed, prove how much greater would be the results, were we to rise and quit our- selves like men. Be it remembered too, that when a sailor, be he officer or be he man, comes out as a fol- lower of Christ, he is frank and decided. His influ- ence is at once apparent, and it is in the same pro- P9rtion effective. A single whaling ship, commanded by a pious captain, and manned by an examplary CLAIMS OF SEAMEN. 269 crew, has been known, in the Pacific, to shed a hal- lowing and restraining influence on all surrounding vessels. Others, whatever might be their propen- sities, and to whatever excesses they might otherwise rush, felt the silent but powerful rebuke that there is in Christian principle, acted fairly and frankly out. And hence it is, that among seamen, sooner than elsewhere, the leaven of a holy influence spreads it- self abroad. And then on heathen soil, what aid and comfort would not Christian sailors give to our few and faint- ing missionaries. There are, in all the Pagan world, some twelve hundred Protestant missionaries, pro- claiming the doctrines of the cross, while sailors bear- ing the Christian name, who go among these Pagans, must be at least a hundred times that number ; — so that one hundred sailors are seen by the heathen, where they see but a single Christian missionary. Now it is often the delight of the one to oppose and calumniate the other. Not many years since, at the instance of American seamen, the chiefs of the Mar- quesas Islands in the Pacific, drove away the mission- aries who had labored faithfully among them. Under their influence, barriers were rising to the indulgence of licentious passion, and the native chiefs were per- suaded to sacrifice their best friends, that their own homes and the homes of their people might become stews for American and English sailors. So, well-nigh, was it in the Sandwich Islands ; and there is hardly a missionary post where the toiling evangelist does not find himself obstructed by those professing his own faith, and coming perhaps from his own land. Oh ! that this suicidal policy might cease — this policy of 23* 270 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. sending one man to enlighten and purify, while we send a hundred to pervert and contaminate. Would that Christians would rouse to the magnitude and urgency of the evil, and that they would resolve in the strength of God that this evil shall be abated. Remember the heathen. Brethren, dying in the de- basement and abominations which have been con- firmed, if not induced by our own seamen. Remem- ber the seaman himself. We give him but little else ; let us not withhold the Gospel. A few years more, and he will fall a prey to the fury of some remorse- less storm. Few seamen — very few die in their beds on shore. Suddenly, in most cases, when aloft on his perilous duty ; when battling in vain with the over- powering elements ; when the ship parts, and he casts himself among the breakers — then does he give back his soul to God. Let it go washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. Let not the deep waters that engulph his body, be the image of deeper and darker waters that overwhelm his soul. Let there be a Dove hovering over him from brighter worlds ; hold- ing up to view her olive branch, and betokening the happy hour when the Son of Man shall say, " Come, ye blessed of my Father." DRINKING USAGES. AN ADDRESS* We have assembled, ladies and gentlemen, to con- tribute our aid in arresting a great and crying evil. We do not aim to promote directly that temperance which forms one of the noblest and most comprehen- sive of the Christian virtues. Our simple object is to prevent drunkenness, with its legion of ills, by drying up the principal sources from which it flows. To one of these sources, and that the most active and power- ful, I propose to ask your attention this evening. The occasion, I need not say, is a most worthy one ; one that merits the warmest sympathy and support of every patriot and philanthropist, of every follower of Jesus Christ. For what is Intemperance, and what the extent and magnitude of its evils ? Of these we all know some- thing. We all know how it diseases the body ; how it disturbs the equilibrium of the intellect ; how it poisons the springs of generous aifection in the heart, and lays a ruthless hand upon the whole moral and spiritual nature. What drunkenness does to its poor '^ The substance of an address, delivered by request in the Masonic Hall, Pittsburg, April, 1852. 274 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. victim, and to those who are bound to him by the closest ties, you all know. All know, did I say ? Let us thank God that few of you can know, or are likely to know, the inexpressible horrors which fill the soul of the inebriate, or the gloom and anguish of heart which are the portion of his family. You know enough, however, to feel, that where this sin enters, there a blight falls on happiness, virtue, and even hope. Look at the palpable shame and misery and guilt which collect within and about one drunkard's home ; and then multiply their dreadful sum by the whole number of such homes, which, at this moment, can be found in this Christian city ; and you will have an accumulation of sin and sorrow, even at your doors, which no mortal arithmetic can gauge, but which is sufficient to appal the stoutest heart, and move to sympathy the coldest charity. But whence does this vast and hideous evil come ? To you, as a jury of inquest, standing over the victims it strikes down, I appeal for a verdict accord- ing to truth and evidence. Can it be said, that they who are now cold in death, with a drunkard's shame branded on their memory, " died by visitation of God ?" God sends no such curse even upon the guiltiest of his creatures. He may send pestilence and earthquake ; he may send blasting and mildew ; but he commissions no moral plague, like drunkenness, to carry desolation to the souls as well as bodies of men. This evil, alas ! is self-invoked and self-inflicted. And how ? Do men rush deliberately, and with full purpose of heart, into such an abyss ? Is there any one so lost to self-respect, to all prudence and duty, so devoid of every finer instinct and sentiment DRINKING USAGES. 275 of our nature, that he can willingly sink down to the ignominy and the woe that are the drunkard's portion? I tell you nay. Every human being recoils, with in- voluntary horror and disgust, from the contemplation of such a fate. He shrinks from it, as he would from the foul embraces of a serpent, and feels that he would sooner sacrifice everything than take his place beside the bloated and degraded beings who seem dead to all that is noble in our nature or hopeful in our lot. These are the victims that have gone blindfold to their fate. Gentle is the declivity, smooth and noiseless the descent, which conducts them, step by step, along the treacherous way, till suddenly their feet slide, and they find themselves plunging over the awful precipice. And what is that deceitful road ? Or which is the perfidious guide who stands ever ready to turn aside the feet of the unwary traveller ? Here, ladies and gentlemen, is the great question. To arrest an evil eff'ectually, we must know its nature and cause. It is idle to lop off branches, while the trunk stands firm and full of life. It is idle to destroy noxious leaves or flowers, while the plant still pours forth its malig- nant humors at the root. If we would go to the bottom of this evil, if we would lay the axe to the very root of the baleful tree, we must see how and whence it is that unsuspecting multitudes are thus en- snared, never scenting danger till they begin to taste of death. It will be admitted, I presume, by all who hear me, that, if there were no temperate drinking, there would be none that is intemperate. Men do not begin by what is usually called immoderate indulgence, but by that which they regard as moderate. Gradually 276 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. and insensibly their draughts are increased until the functions of life are permanently disturbed, the system becomes inflamed, and there is that morbid appetite which will hardly, brook restraint, and the indulgence of which is sottish intemperance. Let it be remem- bered, then, that what is usually styled temperate drinking stands as the condition precedent of that which is intemjjerate. Discontinue one, and the other becomes impossible. But what is the cause of moderate or temperate drinking ? Is it the force of natural appetite ? Rarely. Nine-tenths, if not ninety-nine-hundredths, of those who use alcoholic stimulants do it, in the first instance, and often for a long time, not from appetite, but from deference to custom or fashion. Usage has associated intoxicating drinks with good fellowship, — with offices of hospitality and friendship. However false and dangerous such an association may be, it is not surprising that, when once established, it continually gathered strength ; with some, through appetite ; with others, through interest. It is in this way that what we term Drinking Usages have become incorporated with every pursuit in life, with the tastes and habits of every grade and class of society. In the drawing-room and dining-room of the affluent, in the public room of the hotel, in every place of re- freshment, in the social gatherings of the poor, in the harvest-field and the workshop, alcoholic liquor was at one time deemed essential. Too often it is deemed so still. Many a host and employer, many a young companion, shrinks even now from the idea of exchanging the kind offices of life without the aid of intoxicating liquors, as he would shrink from some DRINKING USAGES. 27T sore ojffence against taste and propriety. Not to put the cup to your neighbor's lip, in one word, is to sin against that most absolute of earthly sovereigns, Fashion. Here, then, lies the gist of the whole difficulty. Fashion propagates itself downward. Established and upheld by the more refined and opulent, it is soon caught up by those in less conspicuous walks. It thus spreads itself over the whole face of society, and, becoming allied with other principles, is planted deep in the habits and associations of a people. It is pre-eminently so with drinking usages. Immemorial custom ; the example of those whose education or position gives them a commanding sway over the opinions and practices of others ; appetite, with them who have drunk till what was once but compliance with usage, is now an imperious craving ; the interest of many, who thrive by the traffic in intoxicating drinks, or by the follies into which they betray men, — here are causes which so fortify and strengthen these usages, that they seem to defy all change. But let us not despair. We address those who are willing to think, and who are accustomed to bring every question to the stern test of utility and duty. To these, then, we appeal. Drinking usages are the chief cause of intemper- ance ; and these usages derive their force and autho- rity, in the first instance, wholly from those who give law to fashion. Let this be considered. Do you ask for the treacherous guide, who, with winning smiles and honied accents, leads men forward from one degree of indulgence to another, till they are besotted and lost ? Seek him not in the purlieus of the low 24 278 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. grog-shop ; seek him not in any scenes of coarse and vulgar revelry. He is to be found where they meet who are the observed of all observers. There, in the abodes of the rich and admired ; there, amidst all the enchantments of luxury and elegance ; where friend pledges friend ; where wine is invoked to lend new animation to gaiety, and impart new brilliancy to wit ; in the sparkling glass, which is raised even by the hand of beautiful and lovely women, — there is the most dangerous decoy. Can that be unsafe which is thus associated with all that is fair and graceful in woman, with all that is attractive and brilliant in man ? Must not that be proper, and even obligatory, which has the deliberate and time-honored sanction of those who stand before the world as the " glass of fashion," and "rose of the fair state?" Thus reason the great proportion of men. They are looking continually to those who, in their esti- mation, are more favored of fortune or more accom- plished in mind and manners. We do not regulate our watches more carefully or more universally by the town-clock, than do nine-tenths of mankind take their tone from the residue, who occupy places towards which all are struggling. Let the responsibility of these drinking usages be put, then, where it justly belongs. When you visit on some errand of mercy the abodes of the poor and afflicted ; when you look in on some home which has been made dark by drunkenness, — where hearts are desolate, and hearths are cold ; where want is break- ins: in as an armed man ; where the wife is heart- broken or debased, and children are fast demoraliz- ing ; where little can be heard but ribaldry, bias- DRINKING USAGES. 279 phemy, and obscenity, — friends ! would you connect effect with cause, and trace this hideous monster back to its true parent, let your thoughts fly away to some abode of wealth and refinement, where conviviality reigns ; where, amidst joyous greetings, and friendly protestations, and merry shouts, the flowing bowl goes round ; and there you will see that which is sure to make drinking everywhere attractive, and which, in doing so, never fails, and cannot fail, to make drunken- ness common. Would we settle our account, then, with the drinh- ing usages of the refined and respectable ? We must hold them answerable for maintaining corresponding usages in other classes of society ; and we must hold them answerable, further, for the frightful amount of intemperance which results from those usages. We must hold them accountable for all the sin, and all the unhappiness, and all the pinching poverty, and all the nefarious crimes, to which intemperance gives rise. So long as these usages maintain their place among the respectable, so long will drinking and drunkenness abound through all grades and condi- tions of life. Neither the power of law aimed at the traffic in liquors, nor the force of argument addressed to the understandings and consciences of the many, will ever prevail to cast out the fiend Drunkenness, so long as they who are esteemed the favored few uphold with unyielding hand the practice of drinking. Hence, the question, whether this monster evil shall be abated, resolves itself always into another question ; and that is, Will the educated, the wealthy, the respectable, persist in sustaining the usages which produce it ? Let them resolve that these usages shall 280 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. no longer have their countenance, and their insidions power is broken. Let them resolve, that, wherever they go, the empty wine-glass shall proclaim their silent protest ; and fashion, which now commands us to drink, shall soon command us with all-potential voice to abstain. Now, what is there in these usages to entitle them to the patronage of the wise and good ? Are they necessary ? Are they safe or useful ? Unless they can show some offset to the vast amount of evil which they occasion, they ought surely to be ruled out of court. But is any one prepared to maintain that these drinking usages are necessary? That it is necessary or even useful, that men should use intoxicating liquors as beverage ? Do they add vigor to muscle, or strength to intellect, or warmth to the heart, or rectitude to the conscience ? The experience of thousands and even millions, has an- swered this question. In almost every age and quar- ter of the world, but especially within the last twenty- five years, and in our own land, many have made trial of entire abstinence from all that can intoxicate. How few of them will confess that they have suffered from it, either in health of body, or elasticity of spirits, or energy and activity of mind ! How many will testify that in each of these respects they were sensible gainers from the time they renounced the use of all alcoholic stimulants ! But, if neither useful nor necessary, can it be con- tended that these drinking customs are harmless? Are they not expensive ? Many a moderate drinker, did he reckon up accurately the cost of this indul- gence, would discover that it forms one of his heaviest DRINKING USAGES. 281 burdens. No taxes, says Franklin, are so oppressive* as those which men levy on themselves. Appetite and fashion, vanity and ostentation, constitute our most rapacious tax-gatherers. It is computed by Mr. Porter, an English statistician of distinguished ability, but of no special interest in the subject which we are now discussing, that the laboring 'people of Great Britain, exclusive of the middle and higher classes, expend no less than X53, 000,000 ($250,000,000) every year on alcoholic liquors and tobacco ! There is little doubt that the amount, di- rectly or indirectly consumed in Pennsylvaniaf an- nually for the same indulgence, equals $10,000,000, a sum which, could it be saved for four successive * " Mj companion at the press," says Franklin, speaking of his life as a journeyman printer in London, " drank every day a pint before breakfast, a pint at breakfast, with his bread and cheese, a pint between breakfast and dinner, a pint at dinner, a pint in the afternoon about six o'clock, and another when he had done his day's work. I thought it a detestable custom ; but it was necessary, he supposed, to drink strong beer, that he might be strong to labor. I endeavored to convince him that the bodily strength afforded by beer could only be in proportion to the grain or flour of the barley dissolved in the water of which it was made ; that there was more flour in a pennyworth of bread j and therefore, if he could eat that with a pint of water, it would give him more strength than a quart of beer. He drank on. However, and had four or five shillings to pay out of his wages every Saturday night for that vile liquor, — an expense which I was free from ; and thus these poor devils keep themselves always under P See Dr. Franklin's Life, written by himself. t In Western Pennsylvania, one of the most valuable products is bituminous coal. Great quantities are sent down the Ohio, and are paid for in whiskey. I was informed by a distinguished citizen of that part of the State, that every year shows a balance against the producers of coal, and in favor of the distillers I 24^ 282 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. / years, would pay the debt which now hangs like an incubus on the energies of the Commonwealth. In wasting $250,000,000 every year, the laboring popu- lation of Britain put it beyond the power of any go- vernment to avert from multitudes of them the miseries of want. Were but a tithe of that sum wrenched from the hands of toil-worn labor, and buried in the Thames or the ocean, we should all re- gard it as an act of stupendous folly and guilt. Yet it were infinitely better that such a sum should be cast into the depths of the sea, than that it should be expended in a way which must debauch the morals, and destroy the health, and lay waste the personal and domestic happiness of thousands. If the ques- tion be narrowed down to one of mere material ivealth, no policy can be more suicidal than that which up- holds usages, the inevitable effect of which is to para- lyze the 2^'^oductive powers of the people, and to de- range the proper and natural distribution of property. Remember, then, he who sustains these usages, sus- tains the most prolific source of improvidence and want. He makes, at the same time, an inroad upon his own personal income, which is but a loan from God, intrusted to him for his own and others' good. But these drinking usages are not only expensive, they are unreasonable. What is their practical ef- fect ? It is that others shall decide for us a question, which ought most clearly to be referred only to our own taste and sense of duty. We are to drink, whe- ther it be agreeable to us or not, whether we think it right or not, whether we think it safe or not. More- over, and this is suflficiently humiliating, we are to drink precisely when, and precisely where others DRINKING USAGES. 283 prescribe. It has been said, that in some parts of our country, one must either drink with a man who invites him or fight. It is not long since, in every part of it, one must either drink when invited, or incur the frowns and jeers of those who claimed to be arbiters of propriety. And, even now, he or she who will not drink at all, or will drink only when their own reason and inclination bid, must not be surprised if they provoke invective or ridicule. And is a bondage like this to be upheld ? Does it become free- born Americans, who boast so much of liberty, to bow down their necks to a servitude so unrelenting, and yet so absurd ? A German nobleman once paid a visit to Great Britain, when the practice of toasting and drinking healths was at its height. Wherever he went, during a six months' tour, he found himself obliged to drink, though never so loath. He must pledge his host and his hostess. He must drink with every one who would be civil to him, and with every one, too, who wished a convenient pretext for taking another glass. He must drink a bumper in honor of the king and queen, in honor of church and state, in honor of the army and navy. How often did he find himself retiring, with throbbing temples and burning cheek, from these scenes of intrusive hospitality ! At length his visit drew to a close, and to requite, in some measure, the attentions which had been lavished upon him, he ma5fifl?y RETURNED TO MAY ^ 195T ,lnY 1 1977 — PEC.CIR.IW^^'''^ LD 21-100m-6,'56 (B9311sl0)476 General Library University of California Berkeley UNIVERSITY OF CAIvIFORNIA UBRARY 1: • '..'y. i.' : k