PUTNAM A Sermon. REV. GEORGE PUTNAM'S 1846. SERMON DELIVERED HE FORE HIS EXCELLENCY GEORGE N. BRIGGS, GOVERNOR, HIS HONOR JOHN REED, LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR, THE HONORABLE COUNCIL, AID THE LEGISLATURE OF MASSACHUSETTS, AT THE ANNUAL ELECTION, WEDNESDAY, JAN. 7, 1846. BY GEORGE PUTNAM, Minister of the First Church in Roxbury. Boston: DUTTON AND WENTWORTH, PRINTERS TO THB STATE, 1846. LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CA SANTA COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, January 8, 1846. Ordered, That Messrs. Page of New Bedford, Seaver of Boston, and Jones of Roxbury, be a Committee to present the thanks of the House of Representatives to the Rev. GEORGE PUTNAM, D. D., for the Discourse yesterday delivered by him before the Government of the Commonwealth, and to request a copy thereof for the press. CHAS. W. STOREY, Clerk. SERMON. CXIX Psalm, 46. I WILL SPEAK OF THY TESTIMONIES ALSO BEFORE KINGS, AND WILL NOT BE ASHAMED. THE Legislators and highest Magistrates of the State have come up to the Sanctuary, as their pre- decessors have done yearly for more than two centu- ries, to own the sovereignty of the righteous God, and to seek his blessing and guidance for themselves and for the people whose public interests have been entrusted to them. It is an appropriate observance ; and we trust that so goodly a spectacle in outward appearance expresses the intent of the heart. It is the Commonwealth, *as represented by its civil functionaries, acknowledging its religious depend- ence and obligations. The occasion furnishes its own topic ; one which, in some of its aspects and applications, 1 suppose has been accepted by all my predecessors in this service, and which I have no ambition to change for any more novel but less ap- propriate one. That topic is, The connexion be- tween the Religious and the Secular Interests of the Commonwealth. In considering this connexion, there is no occasion to raise the old distracted question of Church and State. That question we are happily rid of. It has vexed the nations of Christendom since the time of Constantine, and, under other names, before that time. Through many centuries, it has provoked almost continuous wars, and drenched the earth in blood. It has bred revolutions and changed dynasties. It has been the matter of chief concern to statesmen and ecclesiastics alike ; a chief subject of cabal in courts, and of agitation among the masses of mankind. It has brought princes to the block, and peopled wildernesses with exiles. And the question is not at rest now. It is still mixed up with all the politics of the Old World. There is hardly a government in Europe that is not at this moment sorely perplexed by it, hardly a community that is not more or less violently convulsed by it, hardly an empire whose political destiny may not be said to be involved in the issues of it. But that question of Church and State does not trouble us. That problem has been fully solved here. The Church survives, and the State survives, but there is no political connexion between them. They are bound up together indissolubly in the heart of the people, but without collision or embarrassment. The Church receives no support from the State, and yet the Church prospers. The State imposes no reli- gion, constrains no man's conscience, does not hold itself responsible for forms of faith or modes of wor- ship, and yet the State stands more secure in its civil stability than if it did. In this Commonwealth, nothing remains to be set- tled respecting the relations of Church and State considered as institutions. There is no occasion to discuss them. But the connexion between religion and all the substantial interests of the body politic, claims consideration everywhere, and nowhere more than in Massachusetts. That connexion has been vital here, and is so still. Massachusetts was the child of Christianity. She was cradled in the storm- tossed Mayflower, and was baptized in fire and flood, in danger, gloom and suffering at the Rock of Ply- mouth. I know not what other State on earth has been so distinctly founded in Christian faith and principle as ours. The origin of this Commonwealth was characterized, in a degree wholly unexampled, by heroic enterprise and endurance, undertaken and borne for conscience sake, in devout earnestness, in 8 the strength of prayer, in the invincibility of faith, and in unreserved, unwavering and all-sacrificing de- votion to the truth of Christ and the righteousness of God. Not a reckless spirit of adventure or of conquest, not the expectation of riches, luxury or renown, brought our fathers hither ; but at the cost of every thing which the worldly heart holds dear and desirable in outward things, they came, because with all their hearts they did believe in God and the Gospel, and would have a place wherein they might worship and live as they believed, though it were an ice-bound rock and a howling wilderness would have such a place, and plant their children in it, or starve and perish in the attempt. There was character in this. No State has had such a Christian founding. There is the stamp of truest greatness on our origin. We have the privilege and responsibility of illustri- ous descent. If a people had power to choose or change their own ancestry, our Commonwealth, J think, should hold on to hers, against all the world, from the flood unto this hour. The Christian spirit and faith of the founders have given a Christian tone to the Massachusetts mind through the whole period of her histor^ The peo- ple, as a people, have ever loved and honored the faith, the principles and the institutions of that Gos- pel, the love of which brought their fathers hither. Ours has been from the first as eminently a Christian State as the world ever saw. The original influence has never died out. Other elements have come in, many and fast, to overlay it, but it was vital and has mixed with and modified them all. That early Christian element has been the chief root of what we call the New England character. Other favoring circumstances have cooperated, but that preemi- nently has been at the bottom of all those charac- teristics which are our strength and our glory characteristics which our Commonwealth, as the eld- est of the New England family, has early and late done not a little to impart to her neighboring sisters characteristics, too, which she has sent abroad west- ward in the breasts, in the habits, in the beliefs of the numerous little colonial companies that have been ever going forth from her borders to people new re- gions. 1 cannot take time to describe those charac- teristics, and there is no need of it. 'They present themselves more or less definitely to the mind as soon as referred to. The very worldliness of this people has had something of the old Puritan stamp on it. That indomitable energy of will, and steady persistence of purpose, which, in the Pilgrim Fathers, was born of Christian faith, and was as the power 2 10 of God in their souls, is energy and persistence still, though directed to different ends. The zeal for edu- cation and diffusive intelligence, which glowed in the breasts of the Fathers, whereby they and their chil- dren might understand God's word and will, still operates, though seeking more various directions and ends, which they deemed quite secondary. It would be narrow and ungracious to make invid- ious comparisons with other parts of the country or the world, but surely it is no more than loyal and just to appreciate and rejoice in those traits of cha- racter and condition to which our State has owed her prosperity, power and fame, the well ordering of her affairs, the freedom and stability of her institu- tions, and all the goodliness of her outward aspect and her inner health. There is many a stain on her garments, many a sin in her heart, many a danger in her horizon, and there are fit times to consider and deplore these things ; but let any sober and Chris- tian man of us go travel the world over, and then come back and say if he can, that it has fared ill with him to have had his birthplace and abiding-place appointed within these borders. Whoso loves Massa- chusetts, and will trace back her history to the begin- ning, and mark well the sequences of cause and effect in the formation of her character and the pro- 11 gress of her fortunes, shall own that it is as being Christian born and Christian bred, that she is what she is, and has done what she has done. The con- nexion between Christianity and the visible condition and interests of a people, is no mere matter of ab- stract reasoning in reference to this Commonwealth. And now, in what remains of this discourse, 1 wish to consider the necessity of still recognizing and maintaining that connexion. 1 will not go into a general discussion to show how essential to the well- being of mankind at large, is that spiritual life and moral elevation which Christianity imparts. We will have in mind now only our own State. Massa- chusetts must retain, renew and reinvigorate the Christian element of her character, or else she can- not continue to be the same State, whose founders we revere, whose history we glory in, whose very hills we filially love, and whose name is named with honor throughout the civilized world. She must be Christian Massachusetts, Christian in name and in spirit, in faith and in principle, or she will not con- tinue the dear mother that bore us. She cannot flourish without her religion. If she let go her hold of the ark of the Lord, her prosperity will cease in her borders, and her crown will fall from her brow. 12 1 know what a miserable plea it is for religion, to urge its favorable bearings upon temporal and pub- lic welfare. I know how little, how less than nothing, the cause of religion gains by any demonstration of the identity of its principles with a good selfish policy, whether public or private. Religion is never born of calculation, never originates in a view to its worldly uses. It springs from an independent and a deeper source. The renewing spirit of God comes not to bodies politic, as such ; it comes, when it comes, to individual souls, as such. Religion does not reveal its worldly benefits, till it has first filled and uplifted the individual mind with hopes, aspira- tions and interests, more enduring than states or empires, and immeasurably surpassing the magni- tude of all the interests that involve their fate. Our fathers did not become Christians in order that they might qualify themselves to be the founders of a great and well-ordered Commonwealth ; but they founded such a Commonwealth because they had first become Christians for the love of God and the salvation of their souls. They were earnest believ- ers, and were conscious of the divine Spirit witness- ing to their own spirits, and therefore they were qualified to lay the foundations, deep and solid, for a strong and happy State. And now, no patriotism 13 can make men religious, but religion, springing from its own legitimate fountain, would make them patri- ots. It would be absurd to call on the present gen- eration to be more religious, in order that their reli- gion may subserve the well being of the State. Nevertheless, it cannot be amiss for us, if it were only as lookers-on, the disinterested investigators of affairs, to consider how much the high prospects of the State depend upon the continued and extended prevalence of the Christian element, and how sacred is the duty to promote its prevalence by all the means appropriate to our several spheres of action and influence. In looking abroad over the State, the most dis- tinguishing feature in its outward aspect, is its Pros- perity. It is not a new feature, but it becomes more and more marked and prominent. It is a progressive prosperity. There are occasional pauses and reac- tions, as there must needs be ; but the general move ment is forward, a strong and steady movement. There is growth in this world's resources everywhere manifest. You see the signs of it, nay, the thing itself, wherever you turn, on the seaboard and in- land, by the waterfalls, in the very gorges of the mountains, in the shop of the mechanic, and the 14 fields of the husbandman, in the stately structures of the city, in the elegance of our villages, in the magnificence that betokens individual wealth, and the air of comfort that invests the humblest conditions of society. Industry, steady, unwearied, universal, pur- sued with a sagacity, a thrift, a persistency and a suc- cess never and nowhere surpassed, has wrought great results already, and has established for itself a van- tage-ground from which, to all human foresight, its power is to achieve yet greater attainments. Never was there a more substantial or more legitimate worldly prosperity. And who can be so sullen or so captious as not to rejoice in it ? Every man with a sound heart in him, is animated and cheered by the sight and the foresight. By all the sympathies that join heart to heart, and by the gratitude we owe for the blessings of God, we are bound to be glad. But such prosperity is not an absolute and unconditional good. It brings its own perils. Prosperity, no less than adversity, opens a way to ruin, a broad way, and many there be, both of States and individuals, that go in thereat. Prosperity always brings with it the elements of its own decay, and requires some- thing better than itself to preserve it. It does not bring with it its own safeguards. Perhaps no people has ever risen to a condition of continuous, substan- 15 tial and well diffused prosperity, without a basis of such virtues as bear something of the Christian stamp, whatever may have been their origin. But when that condition is attained, there is always a tendency to let those virtues die out. Steady industry, frugal- ity, temperance, justice, moderation, perseverance, are virtues that tend to produce prosperity. But prosperity, when attained, tends to undermine those very virtues, and thus to take away greater blessings than it brings to take away, indeed, the very foot- hold on which alone itself can maintain itself. The growth and progress that attend a prosperous career, are engrossing and exhilarating. They are apt to engross the affections and aspirations of an individ- ual and a community. External blessings become the objects of reliance for well being and enjoyment. Money-making, commercial thrift, the improvement of mechanic arts, the multiplying of our numbers, the development of our resources, these are le- gitimate objects of interest and pursuit ; but as they become more and more exciting and absorbing in the progress of a prosperous career, they tend to keep out or put out the spiritual and moral element from the soul of a people. Worldliness, rife as it is likely to be among a prosperous people, unless influences of another character and from another source inter- 16 vene, leads to an apathetic atheism, to a low, self- seeking, uninspired animalism, an unwritten creed of worldliness, in which prudence is the highest virtue, and personal aggrandizement and comfort the highest good. It is the creed of mammonism a creed, that as it works itself into the heart of the people, brings forth its legitimate and inevitable fruits of sensuality and moral depravation. It is a creed, a state of public feeling and thought, that renders sel- fishness intense, and produces wide chasms between the rich and poor. It weakens the principle of in- tegrity. It fosters luxury and the sensual vices. It enervates the will, it emasculates the mind. It de- stroys those energies and brings down that elevation of character by which alone a people can have risen to a strong position of prosperity. Mammon is a god, who is sure to betray and ruin his own votaries. These are the tendencies and dangers of prosper- ity. And they are not the dreams of the pulpit, but realities written out distinctly in all history. They have been at the bottom of national decay and ruin, since the world has stood. For one state or empire that has fallen through sheer adversity, or the hand of violence from abroad, tens and hundreds have perished, because prosperity had sapped the ener- gies and gangrened the heart of their people, and 17 made them unfit to cumber the earth ; and so God in his righteousness has brought them down and swept them away. Our tendencies and our dangers lie in that direction. Our safety lies in the prevalence and power of the Christian religion. It was this that nerved our fathers for their different work, and made them equal to their different trials, and enabled them to lay the foundations of our pros- perity. Nothing else can preserve what they trans- mitted and carry forward what they began. Our dangers are not what theirs were, but they are as formidable, and more subtle and treacherous, and no feebler barrier than theirs can stand against degen- eracy, disruption and decay. There must be a soul in a body, or the body cannot live. Religion is the soul of all true worldly interests, and they cannot thrive without it. A people must stand on a level above their worldly affairs, or their worldly affairs go to wreck. There must be a moral life, a soul's life, a spiritual element, an infusion of other than animal energies of high sentiments and heroic activities, whose springs lie deeper in our being than the goad- ings of mammon or the expediencies of a worldly policy. There must be these, or else our prosperity becomes the mire in which we shall wallow, till we sink in it and deservedly perish. The kingdoms of 18 this world cannot flourish, unless the kingdom of God be established in the midst of them. The very principles of life, and the elements of character, which are necessary for the worldly welfare of a State, can have their origin and nutriment only in those living and earnest convictions that take hold of things higher than the world. The Legislature of our State find their chief em- ployment in regulating and carrying forward those interests and enterprises of the people which have in view the increase and the uses of Property. And rightly so ; it is the sphere of our Legislature. The Government has nothing to do directly with those higher elements by which alone the people can be blessed in their worldly pursuits. But if Legisla- tors and Magistrates do but take with them, and cherish within them a sober sense of higher interests than those which they have visibly to deal with, and do what they do in the fear of God and in the man- ifest righteousness of a Christian heart and purpose, they thereby give a silent but effective guarantee to the perpetuity of our blessings, and the continued prosperity of our Commonwealth. Legislators and Magistrates, like all other men, in all other spheres, need to have in them a spirit that is above their im- mediate work, or else that immediate work will not 19 be well performed, and an unsanctifying influence mysteriously accompanies all they do. A leading interest in this Commonwealth is the education of the young. The Government has much to do with it, and it is a great object of concern with all the people. There is no such thing as education in the true sense of that word, without moral and spiritual culture. To neglect this last, while we stimulate and train the intellect of a child, is to commit an outrage upon that child's natural rights, and to do him an irreparable wrong. He is not edu- cated. He is miseducated, and we send him out into life with a mind in which we have destroyed the balance. In regard to our Common Schools, I be- lieve their condition has been greatly improved in these late years. What 'the Government has done in their behalf, has been the means, directly and in- directly, of creating a new interest in their prosper- ity, of diffusing much new light, and reproducing old light on the subject of education. It has set the people to thinking. It has stimulated and guided towns and committees in their duty. Schoolhouse architecture has been improved, the qualifications of teachers have been raised, and the responsibility of 20 parents and guardians more widely recognized. The very controversies that have arisen, however they may terminate, or seem to terminate, here or there, do good. They are signs of life ; they give life. Light comes out of them, and truth, and improve- ment. Much, I say, has been done. And now the next great step, which we should look for in the im- provement of our schools, is a more distinct recogni- tion of the moral nature of a child, and a more direct and diligent endeavor to develop, guide and train his higher susceptibilities, a more clear recogni- tion of the fact that soul is the chief part of a human being, and that character is the one central object to which all other things, intellect, knowledge and skill are incidents, great and essential, but subordinate parts of a far greater whole. A more moral and Christian culture is what is wanted now. It is true, that the laws, most wisely beyond ques- tion, have prohibited the introduction of denomina- tional religious instruction into the Common Schools. Let that law stand and be respected. But, aside from denominational differences, there is a whole world of moral truth, that may and can be imparted to the child, wakened up in him, developed, guided, fostered, and made the basis, the very atmosphere of all his intellectual activities and acquirements. More 21 special Christian instructions may well be omitted in the Common Schools, because in them children are not separated from the influences of home. They have their parents for their religious teachers, or such persons as their parents may desire to be their guides in spiritual things. With regard to our higher seminaries, our Col- leges, the case is different. They are communities in themselves, consisting of youths removed from home, and from the particular religious institutions with which, as members of families, they may have been connected. They, with their teachers, consti- tute a society of their own. And it is accordant with all the ideas and practices of our State, as a Christian State, that Christian institutions, observances and instruction, be fully provided for and maintained in such a society. This matter has been a good deal discussed among the people of the State, with refer- ence to one of our Colleges, and therefore a few general remarks on the subject will not be inappro- priate now. In this Christian Commonwealth, it would be an anomaly, both of theory and practice, which would not long be tolerated by the people, to have a society of the young gathered anywhere with- in its borders, and no provision made for Christian observances and instruction among them. Such a 22 seminary could not flourish, it could not live in Mas- sachusetts ; far distant be the day when it would be tolerated. But difficulties are supposed to exist aris- ing from theological differences among the people of the State. But I think we have learned how to set- tle those difficulties. Our people, thanks to that liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, a liberty which our brave fathers asserted for themselves and their posterity our people judge for themselves indi- vidually on points of faith. The necessary conse- quence is, considerable diversity of opinion on some disputable subjects connected with religion; and hence again, various denominations, each with some theological or ecclesiastical peculiarity. This is not to be lamented. It is a condition of our religious freedom, and it does not necessarily impair the real unity of the Christian church. Controversies neces- sarily arise. They ought to arise. They are due to our convictions of truth. The spirit of them may sometimes be bad, and that is to be lamented ; but God grant that we may never arrive at such pitch of indifference, as that any points connected with our religion, shall cease to be subjects of discussion. Whatever evil there is in such denominational di- visions as exist here, is growing less and less. We are fast learning the great lesson which the Christian 23 world has been so slow to learn the lesson of mu- tual toleration and respect. We are learning, amid all our differences of opinion, to live together in peace and harmony. Persecution is quite gone bj. De- nunciation grows faint and rare. The people have learned that sects, which appear outwardly to differ most, may yet stand together, and do, on that broad ground of Chistianity, which is broad enough for them all. They have learned that the sanctifying faith, the uplifting piety, and the practical righteous- ness, which constitute the essence of Christianity, are confined to no portion of the diversified whole, to no sect. While, therefore, every man, who has any earnest convictions, believes that his own denomina- tion more than others receives in its purity that truth of which all Christian believers have a share, and de- sires the greater prevalence of his own, which, as an honest man he must, he has learned to respect all and wish well to all, and to bid them all God speed in whatever they intelligently and sincerely do and teach in the name of Jesus Christ. Such, in the main, are the Christian people of Massachusetts. What, then, do they desire and demand with regard to the religious character of such institutions as our Colleges ? They require, first, that Christianity be recognized and taught in them, distinctly, earnestly 24 inculcated Christianity in some form, instead of heathenism, instead of Islamism, instead of nothing. Each man would prefer that Christianity as admin- istered in his particular denomination, should be taught there, if it could be properly. But he knows that cannot be in all cases, for that others have rights. Every man knows, too, that it would be un- edifying and quite inexpedient, that each particular church in a village or city should be the arena on which various systems should be brought into con- flict together. This would be fatal to religious cul- ture and to social peace. It is nowhere deemed wise or practicable, certainly not in a college, where it would produce more discord and mischief than any- where else. There is then but one course, namely, for the rulers of each college, its legitimate rulers, those who by regular and lawful succession in the possession of corporate powers, are for the time be- ing charged with the responsibility of managing their several institutions, that they should amply provide Christian observances and instruction, and of course such observances and instruction as they, the re- sponsible persons, judge to be most accordant with Gospel truth and order. They must provide such, if any. They cannot, as honest men,* provide any other. And if other persons, not intrusted with the 25 Jawful power, and not charged with the responsibil- ity, assume to do it, then the fundamental principles of our civil polity are subverted, and there remains no security for any civil rights, nor guarantee for any civil duties. The people understand this matter. The form of Christianity to be taught in any college, they expect to have determined, they cheerfully leave to be de- termined, by its lawful and responsible guardians. They expect nothing else they know there is no other way. But they do demand, with the united voice of a Christian State, that some Christianity be taught, the Christianity of some denomination, not controversially, not intolerantly, not with a narrow and proselyting spirit, not thus in a college, by any means ; but the Christianity of some denomination, because there is no defined Christianity separate from denominational character. They demand a Christi- anity which embodies the principles of piety and vir- tue, and makes them elements of character. The people ask no more than this ; but this they do ask, and will demand, as long as they partake of the spirit of the Fathers, and maintain their allegiance to the Gospel of Christ. If, therefore, there shall ever arise, on the part of the responsible rulers of any of our colleges, a disposition to turn Christianity out 4 26 altogether, or to sink Christian observances and in- structions out of their system, or to make them as invisible and inoperative as possible, in the vain hope of conciliating and satisfying all denominations, they will commit a fatal error. They will conciliate and satisfy no portion of a Chistian community. They will repel all Chistian denominations, their own among the rest. Heathenism or atheism will not please any portion of Christian Massachusetts. And if such neutral measures should ever be adopted or approached, or covertly slid into, with regard to any of our colleges, they must assuredly bring upon that college the distrust of its friends, the exultant con- tempt of its enemies, if it have any enemies, and the indignation of the whole Christian people. It be- longs to every Christian citizen, whether in a public or a private station, to watch against such measures, and, if occasion should ever arise, to protest against them, in the name of our common Christianity, and in the name of the Christian founders and fathers of our colleges and of our Commonwealth. Thus far, we have considered only the connexion of Christianity with the local and internal interests of Massachusetts. But Massachusetts is a member of a great Confederacy, and I must take a few mo- 27 ments to speak of her Christian character and duty in that relation. This State, I believe it is no boast- ing to say, has always had an influence in the Union beyond the proportion of her size and population. If so, it is her weight of character that has given her that influence. And that character has been emi- nently of a Christian stamp and growth. May she always maintain that influence, and may she under- stand, and may her statesmen understand, that she can maintain it only by maintaining the same character, the same in its fruits, and the same in its root. She sends her statesmen to speak for her and act for her in the councils of a great na- tion. She desires them hereafter, as hitherto, to represent her as a Christian State, and to do all and say all in accordance with the principles of that reli- gion which has ever been her strength and her glory, both at home and abroad. If evil be conceived there, it is for them in her name to resist it ; if good, in her name to forward its accomplishment. If in the Na- tional Congress, in whose doings our destinies are so deeply involved, there should be manifested a spirit unfavorable to the preservation of international peace, let it meet a rebuke from at least one State protest- ing against it on the Christian ground of that com- mon humanity, that Christian brotherhood which 28 recognizes all nations as of one blood, and of one Father, and one destiny. If the war cry must be raised, let no voice from Christian Massachusetts so belie its home as to swell that infernal chorus. If the dogs of war must be let loose, let no hand of O ' ours lend itself to unleash the monsters. If the bonds of amity which unite us in mutual beneficence to a friendly nation, must be broken which we both deprecate and disbelieve let it not be with the con- sent or connivance of any falsely acting in behalf of this Christian Commonwealth. If there is enough of folly and madness in the country to produce war, or if a righteous Providence sees that the nation needs the chastening of that terrible scourge in retri- bution of its sins, and if the miseries of war must come upon us, we can bear with fortitude our share of the dreadful consequences, but we cannot afford to participate in the guilt in advance. Again, as to that most fearful stain that rests upon our national fame Slavery. In these days of light, when the bad principles and tendencies of that insti- tution have become so obvious to the eyes of the whole Christian world, it cannot be that Massachu- setts will ever lend her aid by word or deed to pro- mote its extension or continuance, or forbear to resist 29 its encroachments, and by any lawful and righteous means to speed the time when all its wrongs and woes may cease out of the land. While the Consti- tution endures and long may it endure for the sake of its inestimable benefits ! let its compromises and compacts, to which we are pledged, be strictly re- spected by our statesmen and our people. But whenever, in the unknown counsels of the future, the monstrous purpose shall be conceived of spreading the evil over new regions, to which it was not origi- nally guarantied, and extending the national counte- nance, protection and powerful hand of fellowship to foreign states, in whose breast that institution is rooted or to be rooted, then may Massachusetts be found possessing still enough of Christian principle to place her firmly on the side of freedom, justice and humanity. Hereafter, as heretofore, let her voice be heard in the halls of Congress, in her own Leg- islative halls, and throughout the length and breadth of her domain, in calm and unyielding resistance, resisting unto the end, faithful found among the faith- less, bearing evil if she must, but doing it never. And as to the institution of slavery generally, while we are restrained from all direct and active interference, except such as the maintenance of our own legal rights may require, there is a power of 30 public opinion in the expression of moral principles and Christian sympathies and patriotic aspiration a power, the exercise of which, is the inalienable birthright and sacred duty of all free minds through the world and which Massachusetts owes it to her own Christian name and to the cause of universal truth and right, to exercise soberly, charitably, yet firmly, whenever and wherever her voice may be heard or her influence be felt. I must pass by many topics connected with my general subject. All topics relating to the wel- fare of our Commonwealth, are connected with it ; for all her interests, her powers and duties are identified with that character which she owes to her Christian parentage and training. She recognizes no ecclesiastical power, but she recognizes Religion as the root of all her power. She knows no politi- cal connexion between Church and State, neither does she know how to flourish, or to be at all as a State, without religion. Religion wants no State patronage, but the State wants religious influence, as the very breath of her life. Whenever she shall come down from her high Christian estate, and dis- own her baptismal vows, then look at her history, look at her position, and acknowledge it then, her 31 prosperity will become disease, her trumpet voice of truth and right will be hushed, her horn of power will be broken, and all her glory departed. Let it not be. Men and brethren, Rulers and Lawgiv- ers, let it not be. Thou God of our fathers, let it not be ! To the Chief Magistrate of the Commonwealth, and to all his honored associates in the Executive and the Legislative branches of the Government, I commend these views, in the well assured confi- dence, that in so far as I may have truly expressed the relation of the Christian character of the State to its civil and secular interests, I shall have their sympathy and concurrence. And I unite with them in the humble prayer, that God may guide them in their responsible labors, and bestow the blessings of his Providence and the riches of his grace on the people of our beloved Commonwealth. LIBRARY FACILITY j. - THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. Series 9482