m 

 
 ] THE 
 *^*v, 
 
 KELIGION OF THE EAST, 
 
 IMPRESSIONS OF 
 
 FOREIGN TRAVEL, 
 
 BY J. HAWES, D. D. 
 
 OR OF THE FIRST CHURCH IN HARTFORD. 
 
 HARTFORD: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY BELKNAP & HAMERSLEY. 
 1845.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1845, by 
 
 BELKNAP AND HAMERSL.EY, 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Connecticut. 
 
 PRESS OF CASE, TIFFANY & CO.
 
 TO THE REV. RUFUS ANDERSON, D. D. 
 
 MY DEAR BROTHER, 
 
 I feel that there is a propriety in connecting your name with 
 this little volume. 
 
 Most of the objects and scenes which it describes, or to which 
 it refers, we visited together ; and in perusing its pages you 
 will often be reminded of trains of thought which passed in 
 conversation between us, during the nine months we were fellow 
 travelers in foreign lands. 
 
 That tour, which made us companions in a deeply interest- 
 ing, and not, I trust, unprofitable visit to our missionary stations 
 in the Levant, I love to remember for this, among other reasons, 
 that it endeared and cemented a friendship, commenced many 
 years since between us, and which, I trust, will be consummated 
 in a purer and better world. 
 
 That you and the beloved brethren associated with you, in 
 conducting the affairs of our foreign missions, may long be pre- 
 served to devote your united counsels and efforts to the advance- 
 ment of this great and good cause, is the fervent prayer of 
 Your friend and fellow laborer 
 
 In the gospel of our common Lord. 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 Hartford, June, 1845.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 1 Our Goodly Heritage, .... 9 
 
 2. Paul on Mars Hill, . ' >' h . 49 
 3. Bigotry exhibited and reproved in the Woman of 
 
 Samaria, ,. . . . . 77 
 
 4. The Religion of the East, . . '' . *' . 103 
 
 5. Obstacles to the spread of the Gospel in the East, 145 
 
 6. Religious Impressions of Palestine and Jerusalem, 179
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 WHEN it 1 was determined, most unexpectedly to myself, that 
 I should leave my people and my home on a visit to the East, 
 in company with my now deceased daughter, and my beloved 
 friend Dr. Anderson, it was my earnest desire and prayer, that 
 I might make the interval of my absence as profitable to myself 
 and others as possible. With this view, I resolved to keep my 
 mind open to just impressions from all that I might see and hear 
 in the lands I expected to visit. I wished to view the objects 
 and scenes which might engage my attention, not merely with 
 the eye of curiosity, or of one traveling for pleasure, but as a 
 Christian minister, that so I might turn the impressions I should 
 receive, to the spiritual advantage of my beloved people, and 
 the furtherance of the great objects of my ministry, 
 
 I was greatly interested in my journey, it could not be oth- 
 erwise ; the aspect of the countries I visited, the people, lan- 
 guage, religion, manners and customs, were all so strange and 
 so new. What was thus interesting to myself, I naturally con- 
 cluded would also be interesting to my friends at home, though 
 presented only in brief statement and outline. In this view, I 
 have occasionally, since my return, delivered discourses, chiefly 
 in the form of Sabbath evening lectures, designed to give my 
 people some instructive idea of the scenes I passed through 
 during the time I was absent from them. The discourses in 
 this volume are a part of what I have attempted in this way. 
 They were prepared, all except the last, with no intention of
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 publishing them. But as they were listened to with interest, 
 and I trust, profit, by many who heard them, I have thought, in 
 concurrence with the suggestions of judicious friends, that they 
 might be useful, if more widely circulated in their present form. 
 I have found no time to recast or to polish them since their first 
 composition. I give them to the public, simply as containing 
 a faithful representation of the impressions made on my mind, 
 by my visit to the East, and in theliope that they may contrib- 
 ute somewhat to the gratification and instruction of those who 
 may not be able to read larger and more critical works. I have 
 made few allusions in this volume to the state of our missions 
 in the East. The reason is, I have before communicated my 
 views on this subject in a letter addressed to the Prudential 
 Committee of the American Board in Boston, and also in a ser- 
 mon I published soon after my return home. 
 
 Most of the facts and sentiments contained in the volume,tire 
 of course from my own observation. What I have derived from 
 other sources has been adopted only on what seemed to me 
 sufficient evidence ; and I have not thought it necessary to indi- 
 cate my authorities by numerous references in the margin. 
 
 For several facts contained in the first discourse, I am indebted 
 to my much esteemed friend, the Rev. John Mitchell, late pastor 
 of the Edwards church, Northampton. We met at Liverpool, and 
 were fellow passengers in the steamer which conveyed us across 
 the Atlantic. I remember with great satisfaction the many 
 pleasant hours we spent, during the voyage, in communicating 
 to each other the views we had been led to entertain nf the 
 countries we had visited. I derived much useful information 
 from our intercourse ; and I take this opportunity to say, that 
 he has gathered, from his European tour, rich materials for a 
 book of travels, which, I am happy to learn, may soon be ex-
 
 P R E F A G E . VII 
 
 pected from the press ; and from what I know of his plan and 
 his ability to execute it, I venture, beforehand, to promise the 
 public, that they may expect from his pen, not a mere itinerary, 
 but a work highly instructive and useful. 
 
 A few notes have been added, with some things contained in 
 which, all may not be pleased, as they may not be with some 
 things contained in the discourses. I make no apology. What 
 I have written, I am sure, is in a spirit of kindness and charity 
 towards .all who hold the " Head," and regard the Christianity, 
 which is common to all true Christians, as of more importance 
 than any sectarian form of it. I could not forgive myself, and I 
 should fear I could not be forgiven of my Master, if I should 
 exclude from my fellowship those whom my Master loves and 
 receives into communion with himself; and I am willing;, on 
 every suitable occasion, to bear testimony against this great evil. 
 I would, that the sentiment once uttered by Robert Hall, were 
 taken up and echoed from pulpit to pulpit through Christen- 
 dom : " If there be one truth clear as the sun in heaven, it is 
 this there should be no terms of communion but what are 
 terms of salvation ; and the man who is good enough for Christ, 
 is good enough for me!" 
 
 The worst form of schism, and the most dangerous, is that 
 which leads persons to separate themselves, and exclude others, 
 from fellowship with that only true Church, which Christ has 
 purchased with his own blood, and which, though existing here 
 in different names and under different forms, he is preparing to 
 present faultless before the throne of his glory. With all of 
 every name, who belong to this Church, I wish to be united 
 in fellowship and love ; but with respect to all who separate 
 from it, and so become schismatics, I feel constrained to say 
 " O my soul, come not thou into their secret ; unto their assem- 
 bly, mine honor be not thou united."
 
 OUR GOODLY HERITAGE. 
 
 The lines have fallen unto me in pleasant places ; yea, I have a goodly 
 heritage. PSALM 16 : 6.' 
 
 PERHAPS no text of scripture occurred to my 
 mind more frequently than ihis, during my recent 
 tour in the East. As I passed through different 
 lands, observing their natural position and resour- 
 ces, and the general state of society around me, 
 as contrasted with that of my own country, I often 
 exclaimed, Surely the lines have fallen to me 
 in pleasant places, yea I have a goodly heritage. 
 And grateful I trust for the many distinguishing 
 blessings bestowed by a beneficent providence on 
 this land of my birth and of my love, I repeat- 
 edly said to my companion in travel, if ever I 
 live to preach another thanksgiving sermon, this 
 shall be my text. God has mercifully preserved 
 
 * Preached on the Anniversary Thanksgiving Nov. 28, 1844. 
 2
 
 10 OURGOODLY 
 
 my life, and brought me to my home, and to my 
 friends, and I meet you here to day, on this joy- 
 ous anniversary, to execute a purpose, formed 
 when I was more than five thousand miles from 
 the spot most dear to me of any on earth. 
 
 The text was uttered by the pious king of 
 Israel in special application to Judea, the land 
 Where he dwelt, and which God had distinguished 
 by his favors above all other lands. It was a ter- 
 ritory of very limited extent, being only one hun- 
 dred and seventy miles in length from north to 
 south, and seventy miles in its greatest breadth 
 from east to west, not twice as large as the state 
 of Connecticut. On this small territory there once 
 dwelt a numerous, powerful and happy people, 
 more distinguished for their social and domestic 
 comforts, and for their civil and religious institu- 
 tions and privileges, than any other equal number 
 of people on the earth. God acknowledged them 
 as his people, and while they obeyed his laws 
 and ordinances, he dwelt among them, their glory 
 and defense, and poured upon them his bless- 
 ings in rich profusion. The land in which they 
 dwelt is described in the Bible as a good land, a 
 land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths
 
 HERITAGE. 11 
 
 that spring out of the valleys and hills ; a land 
 of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-lrees, 
 and pomegranales, a land of oil-olive and honey ; 
 a land wherein ihou shall eal bread without 
 scarceness, thou shall not lack any good thing in 
 it ; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose 
 hills thou mayest dig brass.* It was in the midst 
 of this goodly scene, and while surveying the rich 
 blessings enjoyed by him and his people, thai the 
 Psalmist, in pious gratitude for these blessings, 
 was led to utter the sentiment in our text. The 
 scene on which his eye icsted wilh such graleful 
 emolions, as comprising all the elements of a 
 happy and prosperous state of society, has long 
 since passed away ; and as one travels over the 
 land which was formerly so rich and so goodly a 
 heritage of a numerous and happy people, his 
 heart is filled with sadness, as he beholds the 
 desolations and ruins that are every where spread 
 around him. So barren, so dreary and waste is 
 the general appearance of the country, that, but 
 for the remains of ancient grandeur and prosper- 
 ity that meet him on every side, the traveller 
 would find it difficult lo realize ihe descriplion 
 
 *Deut. viii : 7^).
 
 12 OURGOODLY 
 
 given in the Bible of the fertility, plenty and gen- 
 eral happiness, which once characterized the land 
 and blessed its inhabitants. The hills and the 
 valleys are indeed there, and the fountains and 
 springs of water, and the beautiful, extended 
 plains. But all else is changed. The people 
 who once owned and tilled the soil are not there. 
 The cities, towns and villages where they once 
 lived, in the midst of their goodly heritage, are 
 heaps of ruins. The terraced hills and moun- 
 tains, once covered with the vine, the fig-tree and 
 the olive, are now barren and waste ; and on the 
 plains and valleys, where once the shepherds of 
 Israel tended their flocks, or the husbandman 
 "shouted the harvest home," wandering Bedou- 
 ins pitch their tents, or miserable Arabs toil in 
 fear and oppression to gain a scanty and preca- 
 rious subsistence. The inhabitants are few, poor 
 and wretched ; a dreadful curse seems to have 
 descended on the land, and to have riven itself 
 into the very rocks and soil of the country, so 
 that no one now living there, would think of 
 applying to himself the language of the text, 
 The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places, I 
 have a goodly heritage. And to no country that
 
 HERITAGE. 13 
 
 I have seen can this language be applied with so 
 much appropriateness and truth, as to that in 
 which God has given us our home. My object 
 in the sequel of this discourse, is to satisfy you of 
 the truth of this asseition, by comparing, in sev- 
 eral particulars, the advantages enjoyed in this 
 land of our heritage, with those possessed by the 
 people of other countries where it was my lot to 
 travel during the last year. 
 
 My remarks will necessarily take a wide and 
 somewhat miscellaneous range ; and it cannot be 
 expected, in the brief limits assigned to this ser- 
 vice, that I should descend to any thing like 
 minute detail or extended statement. My object 
 will be gained if, by the general views I may 
 present, I can awaken in your bosoms a deeper 
 gratitude to God for his goodness, and leave you 
 at the close under a stronger and more vivid im- 
 pression of the truth, that the lines have fallen 
 to you in pleasant places, and that you have 
 indeed a goodly heritnge. 
 
 We may ask, at the outset, what are the great, 
 essential elements of a prosperous and happy 
 community ? They are a healthy climate, a pro- 
 ductive soil, a homogeneous population, free 
 2*
 
 14 OUR G OODLY 
 
 snstitutions, equal laws, the means of general 
 education, and a pure religion. Now point me, 
 if you can, to any country on the globe, where 
 these elements exist in so great perfection, or in 
 io happy combination, as in this land of our her- 
 itage ? I know of no such country myself; and 
 after all the means of observation I have enjoyed, 
 I have a deeper impression than ever, that no 
 such country is to be found, on the face of the 
 earth. I know indeed that ALL good things are 
 not enjoyed in any one country ; they are not 
 enjoyed in our own. But they exist here, I 
 believe, in greater abundance and perfection, 
 than any where else in the world. 
 
 1. Survey our natural resources. If the 
 world now lay vacant, and " all before us where 
 to choose," what part of the globe, of equal extent, 
 would you prefer to the United States? Our ter- 
 ritory is of great extent, capable of sustaining a 
 population several times as large as that of all 
 Europe; and yet without being crowded together 
 as they often are there, in dense overgrown fes- 
 tering masses. There is ample room in our 
 country, for the industry, enterprise and thrift of 
 our spreading population. In the old world mul-
 
 HERITAGE. 15 
 
 titudes are unemployed ; there is no field spread 
 out to cull forth their energies ; either there ia a 
 want of territory, or a want of encouragement for 
 industry arfl effort ; and idleness, poverty, and 
 mendicity are the consequences ; and with these, 
 discontents, crimes and frequent revolts. Here 
 we know but little of these evils. Industry finds 
 ready employment and ample reward ; and intel- 
 ligent enterprise a boundless field for activity and 
 effort. Our climate, it is true, is not as bland as 
 that of Italy, nor as sunny as that of southern 
 Greece, and many parts of Asia Minor and Syria; 
 but it is quite as favorable for nourishing corpo- 
 real and intellectual life. No where have I seen 
 people of finer form, or firmer muscle, or more 
 vigorous, active frame, than in these northern 
 climes of ours. And our soil, though it yields us 
 neither the cane nor the coffee tree, nor allows 
 the growth either of the vine, the fig, the olive or 
 the orange, is still sufficiently fruitful under the 
 hand of industry, to yield an abundant supply for 
 all our wants. It is not the richest soil, nor the 
 softest climate that nourishes the happiest and 
 iruost enterprising population. The valley of the 
 Nile is a perfect garden for richness of soil, and
 
 16 OURGOODLY 
 
 for the variety and abundance of its productions; 
 and there too you find the most idle, shiftless and 
 miserable peasantry, perhaps, in the world. And 
 the same, substantially, is true of rWany of the 
 most fertile parts of Southern Europe, and Asia. 
 We have, on the whole, abundant reason to be 
 contented with the austere sky, and the compara- 
 tively hard, unyielding soil of this our New Eng- 
 land heritage. They have produced us that which 
 would not spring in the richest gardens of the 
 East. The compact numbers and the strength ; 
 the general intelligence, virtue, public spirit, and 
 thrift which characterize our population, these 
 are the products we boast, and they are such as are 
 never found beneath a tropical sky, or where the 
 earth yields her fruits as it were spontaneously. 
 
 'Man is the nobler growth our soil supplies, 
 And souls are ripened in our northern skies.' 
 
 But if we take a wider view and look abroad 
 over the vast territory embraced in our country, 
 we find every variety of climate, soil and produc- 
 tion ; and for pleasantness, fertility, and abund- 
 ance, not surpassed by any country on earth. 
 Our border is washed, in its whole extent, by the
 
 HERITAGE. 17 
 
 broad Atlantic, and indented by innumerable bays 
 and harbors, studded with hundreds of rising- cities 
 and towns ; while our interior is intersected by 
 vast navigable rivers and lakes, which, for 
 extent, are like seas; and thus our whole coun- 
 try, embosoming resources immense, and as yet 
 but partially employed, and spreading over a sur- 
 face of about two millions of square miles, furnishes 
 as De Toque ville has well said, the most mag- 
 nificent dwelling place for man that is to be found 
 on the globe. 
 
 And then for beauty and grandeur of natural 
 scenery, I must say, I have seen nothing which 
 will, on the whole, compare with what is exhib- 
 ited in many parts of my own country. The 
 mountains of Greece and Asia Minor are admired, 
 and they are indeed interesting for their wild, 
 ragged, precipitous appearance. Holding up 
 their bald, naked, dreary aspect to the sky, they 
 strike us for the novelty of their look, and for the 
 historical associations connected with many of 
 them. But there are mountainous scenes in our 
 own country, and even in our own New England, 
 which will vie with any thing of the kind I saw 
 in the East. And for rivers, and valleys, and
 
 18 OtJRGOODLY 
 
 wide, extended plains, the old world furnishes 
 nothing that will compare with our own, either 
 for extent, or beauty, or magnificence. 
 
 The scenery around Constantinople, including 
 the sea of Marmora, the Bosphorus and its envi- 
 rons, is indeed of surpassing interest. I never 
 beheld any thing more so. As you sail up the 
 sea of Marmora and turn round Seraglio point, a 
 scene of enchantment seems to open on your 
 view. On the left is Constantinople proper, built 
 on seven hills and crowned with an equal number 
 of royal mosques, with their lofty domes and grace- 
 ful minarets, topped with gilded crescents ; and 
 towers and palaces filling the vision. On the 
 right is Scutari, rising gradually from the oppo- 
 site shore of the Bosphorus, and skirted in its rear 
 as far as the eye can reach, by a dark forest of 
 cypresses, marking the principal burying ground 
 of the Turks ; while far off in the distance, tower 
 the mountains of Asia Minor, backed by Olym- 
 pus, who lifts his snow-capped head with hoary 
 "majesty above a breast of clouds. In front are 
 Galata and Pera, situated on an eminence, rising 
 abruptly from the water, and overlooking the 
 harbor and the city ; while the beautiful Bospho-
 
 HERITAGE. 19 
 
 rus is seen stretching away towards the Black sea 
 and lined on each side with towns and villages, 
 and numerous palaces and kiosks of the Sultan 
 and high officers of state. Around you is the 
 shipping of various nations, displaying their dif- 
 ferent flags, and hundreds of graceful caiques, 
 gliding in every direction through the water, as 
 if impelled by instinct; while the Golden Horn, 
 the most spacious and beautiful harbor in the 
 world, as it winds around the city, and loses itself 
 in the distance, displays before you the Turkish 
 navy and arsenals in grand and imposing array. 
 The whole scene is one of gorgeous and almost 
 fairy appearance. 
 
 But there are two grand defects which mar and 
 spoil the beauty of this, and in general, all the 
 scenery in the East. The first is, it is outward, 
 merely external. The moment you enter the 
 city, and towns, and mingle with the people, the 
 charm vanishes. You find yourself in the midst 
 of nairow dirty streets, surrounded with filth, 
 poverty and miserable degradation. The other 
 defect is, the entire absence of what I call moral 
 scenery. There are no Christian churches, send- 
 ing their spires towards heaven and assembling
 
 20 
 
 OUR GOODLY 
 
 the people for a pure worship ; there are no 
 schools, no institutions of learning, no free, 
 happy, intelligent population ; but ignorance, 
 superstition, oppression and wrong, meet you on 
 every side. Ascend any elevation in the vicinity 
 of Boston, or on the banks of our own river, or on 
 the shores o,f the Hudson ; and you have spread 
 out before you a scene, which if not in all respects 
 so imposing in its natural aspect, is, on the whole, 
 far more interesting and glorious than all the 
 East can show ; and it is so on account of the 
 superior intellectual and moral associations. You 
 behold in the landscape spread out before you, 
 hundreds of happy villages and towns, a free 
 intelligent population, and schools and churches 
 and public edifices of various kinds, and all the 
 countless privileges and blessings of civilization 
 and Christianity. It is these, after all, which 
 impart the chief interest to a country; and in 
 this view we may emphatically say, the lines 
 have fallen to us in pleasant places ; yea, we 
 have a goodly heritage. 
 
 2. Our position in reference to other nations, 
 is one of great and very distinguishing advantage. 
 Removed at a distance from the involved, jealous,
 
 HERITAGE. 21 
 
 expensive, and easily disturbed policy of the 
 European states, we are left, unchecked and 
 unrestrained, to pursue our own system of gov- 
 ernment, to mature and perfect our own institu- 
 tions, and work out our own destiny. The three 
 united continents of the old world do not contain 
 a single spot, where any grand scheme of human 
 improvement, like that which is going forward in 
 this country, could be attempted, with any pros- 
 pect of success, because there is no spot safe from 
 foreign interference. Every government in 
 Europe and in Asia watches with a jealous eye 
 the movements of every other government; and 
 while the smaller states are continually thwarted 
 and controlled in their policy, by the interference 
 and intrigues of the larger, there is not one of 
 them, that can put forth a movement towards 
 freedom, or a change in the existing state of things 
 for a better, but thousands of bayonets at once 
 bristle around the discontented territory, and put 
 down the rising spirit of reform. Hence large 
 standing armies are kept up in all the countries 
 of Europe and of the East. France has a stand- 
 ing army at this moment of four hundred thou- 
 3
 
 22 OUR GOODLY 
 
 sand men.* Russia has a larger number. Eng- 
 land has ninety thousand, at home and abroad, 
 besides her navy. Belgium has one hundred 
 and twenty-five thousand, and Prussia one hun- 
 dred and eighty thousand. Prussia is literally 
 a nation of soldiers every young man being 
 obliged at the age of eighteen, to enter the 
 army and serve three years uninterruptedly, 
 without substitute, and then, occasionally, for a 
 series of years more. All Europe is filled with 
 soldiers, and so is Turkey and Syria. In trav- 
 elling you meet armed men and the materials of 
 war every where, and you can imagine better 
 than I can describe, what effect this cultivation 
 and display of the war spirit must have on the 
 general character of the people and state of society. 
 In this country, we have in all, about seven 
 thousand men in our national army, stationed at 
 different points, chiefly for purposes of police, and 
 the protection of our frontiers. And yet with 
 this handful of men, scattered hundreds of miles 
 from each other, in far distant sections of our 
 land, we are much more secure against internal 
 
 * There are constantly in Paris about sixty thousand troops, 
 and many more in its immediate vicinity.
 
 HERITAGE. &3 
 
 insurrection, and foreign invasion, than any 
 country in Europe or the East. Behind the 
 mighty veil of waters on one side, and with no 
 neighboring power in any quarter to disturb or 
 make us afraid, we can hear, without alarm, of 
 the jealousies and strifes, and of the revolutions 
 and convulsions that shake the nations of the old 
 world, and go on enlarging our cities, extending 
 our commerce, multiplying our manufactures, 
 and filling our land with the blessings of know- 
 ledge, religion, peace, and general happiness. 
 Our position then in relation to the other nations 
 of the earth, is one of immense importance. It 
 is better for our safety, and for the success of our 
 institutions, than the most powerful army or the 
 strongest wall drawn round our entire territory. 
 
 3. Notice next our institutions, civil, literary 
 and religious. These are all of the most free 
 and popular character ; and under their wide- 
 spread influence our people enjoy a measure of 
 safety and happiness, and of general intellectual 
 and moral advancement, which falls to the lot of 
 no other people on earth. There are, I know, 
 many and great evils in our social slate. Our 
 fiery party spirit, our corrupt elections, our grasp-
 
 24 OUR GOODLY 
 
 ing avarice, our reckless ambition, our oppression 
 and slavery, our bad faith and repudiation of just 
 obligations,* these are evils of great magnitude ; 
 
 * When one hears the evils here referred to spoken of abroad, 
 and tauntingly, as they often are, he feels them keenly ; they 
 make him hang his head. And yet there is not a country in 
 Europe entitled to cast the first stone at us, on the ground of 
 being free from them. Party spirit is quite as unprincipled and 
 reckless in France and England, as it is with us. In respect 
 to corruption and bribery in elections, we are as yet but mere 
 novices in these bad practices as compared with either of the 
 countries just named. For a candidate for a seat in Parliament 
 to spend fifteen, twenty, thirty thousand pounds to secure his 
 election, is, or was quite a common affair in England, and the 
 practice is openly justified by public sentiment. As for slavery" 
 it is evil, only evil, continually, an unspeakable dishonor to 
 our country, and a dreadful curse to our institutions. No one 
 should ever offer the least apology for it, but do all he can for 
 its removal. The doctrine of " repudiation," upon which the 
 changes have been rung throughout Europe, to our great dis- 
 credit, it is but right to say, has found very few advocates in 
 this country. It has been openly and pointedly rebuked by all 
 the leading public presses in the land, as a crime and a villany 
 never to be tolerated. And though this odious doctrine has 
 been extensively represented by foreigners, as the crime and 
 disgrace of our whole country, it has in fact been avowed 
 and acted upon, but by a single state, (Mississippi) and that 
 in the case of a loan which the Legislature of that state be- 
 lieved to have been fraudulently contracted. A few of the
 
 HERITAGE. 25 
 
 and were it not for the many redeeming qualities 
 in our system, might well make us tremble for the 
 future. But making all proper allowance for the 
 evils of our social state, where will you go to find 
 a better? No slate of society is perfect in this 
 world. Ours is not perfect. But where, I ask 
 again, will you find a betler ? If you go to Tur- 
 key, you would, it is true, get rid of the incon- 
 veniences of frequent, popular elections. The 
 Sultan would relieve you of that burden, for there 
 he alone appoints to office ; there, as a subject, 
 you would hold your possessions and your per- 
 sonal liberty by the will of a Pasha or the Grand 
 Seignior ; and if you were suspected of having a 
 little too much property, measures would be found 
 to relieve you of a part or the whole of it, by 
 squeezing it from you, as it is called, or by 
 
 other states have temporarily failed to meet their engage- 
 ments, an evil deeply to be regretted, for this, among other 
 reasons, that it sadly dishonors our free institutions in the view 
 of foreigners, and tends mightily to uphold the advocates of 
 arbitrary power. I always took the ground, when conversing 
 abroad on the subject, that every dollar, both of principal and 
 interest, would finally be paid ; a conviction which has been 
 continually gaining strength since my return to my country. 
 
 3*
 
 26 OURGOODLY 
 
 dropping your head at the door of your own 
 house. In France, out of thirty-three millions of 
 people, only about two hundred thousand persons 
 have the right of suffrage ; not one elector to one 
 hundred and sixty of the population ; and there, 
 half the population cannot read, and more than 
 half cannot write. In England, the electoral fran- 
 chise has, since the Reform Bill was passed, been 
 somewhat extended, but is still extremely lim- 
 ited ; confined to a very small portion of the 
 people. But I have yet to learn that the gov- 
 ernment there is more pure, or elections less 
 controlled by bribery and fraud, or the mass of 
 the people more intelligent, contented and happy, 
 than in your own country. If you wish to get 
 rid of the fickleness of popular government, and 
 live under one more stable and firm, you may be 
 gratified to your hearts content, by removing to 
 Austria, or to the Pope's dominions, or best of all, 
 to the kingdom of Sardinia, or of Naples. In the 
 capital of this last kingdom, out of three hundred 
 and fifty thousand people, two hundred and fifty 
 thousand know absolutely nothirTg of letters, and 
 schools are prohibited by law, and gross supersti- 
 tion and beggary and misery reign on every side.
 
 HERITAGE. 27 
 
 You may find, in many parts of the old world, a 
 more quiet and settled state of public affairs than 
 is enjoyed in your own country; but with this 
 advantage, if it be one, you must take despotism 
 in all its haughtiness, oppression and crimes ; and 
 church establishments, with all practicable degrees 
 of intolerance and other abuses, from Rome down 
 to the Church of England and the Scotch Kirk 
 all sufficiently illiberal and oppressive towards 
 dissenters. And with these no slight inconven- 
 iences^ you must live where there is no system of 
 common schools, as in your own country, this 
 applies especially to England and no colleges 
 accessible to all the people, but only to certain 
 privileged classes; and no broad open field of 
 enterprise where talents of every grade and every 
 calling may find free scope and full employ- 
 ment. No, my friends, the privileges here ad- 
 verted to, are no where so generally and so per- 
 fectly enjoyed as in our land. This is the home 
 of liberty. Here is enjoyed freedom of thought 
 and action. Here the mind has room and motive 
 for expansion and activity. Here the field of 
 honorable industry, and enterprise is open to all ; 
 the means of knowledge and religion are widely
 
 28 OURGOQDLY 
 
 diffused among the people, cind rarely indeed, 
 especially in this part of our country, is an indi- 
 vidual to be found who cannot read and write, 
 and thus have access to the multiplied sources of 
 information around him. 
 
 There is room in our country for that class of 
 society called the people; the middling class, the 
 owners, the freeholders of the soil, the nerve, the 
 sinew and strength of a country. In the old world 
 such a class can hardly be said to exist. There, it 
 is the nobility and the populace ; the aristocracy 
 and the common herd ; and what the populace 
 is, whether in Asia or Europe, it is hardly pos- 
 sible for any one to conceive, who has not seen 
 them in their extreme ignorance, degradation and 
 poverty. This debased, abject, dark minded 
 mass, are the great strength of despotic and 
 priestly power. They cannot sympathize with 
 any intelligent scheme of reform or revolution; 
 and exist, to a great extent, in what may almost 
 without a figure, be called the cattle-state. 
 
 No where else, I believe in the world, is woman 
 admitted to her proper place in society, or treated 
 with so much honor and respect, as in this coun- 
 try. In Turkey she is shut up in the Harem,
 
 HERITAGE. 29 
 
 and excluded from all social and public inter- 
 course with the other sex. In Syria she is a 
 beast of burden, a slave. In Italy, Switzerland 
 and other parts of Europe, as I have often seen, 
 she labors promiscuously in the fields, and on the 
 highways, and in all kinds of toil, with men, and 
 exhibits all the marks of degradation and coarse- 
 ness which might be expected to result from such 
 employment. How different is it here 1 Educa- 
 ted, intelligent, refined, filling her own proper 
 sphere, and discharging her own proper duties, 
 she is treated as a companion, counsellor and 
 friend, and her influence is widely and powerfully 
 felt in all the relations of life. This is a gieat 
 matter, and it is one of the many rich and pecul- 
 iar blessings which flow to us from our free 
 institutions. 
 
 4. I may notice, in passing, our homogeneous- 
 ness of population and language, as constituting 
 an advantage, in our favor, of great importance. 
 We are substantially one people, sprung from 
 one stock, and that the Saxon stock, by far the 
 most bold, intelligent, free, enterprising and fast 
 growing, of any on earth. Travel where you will 
 in our country, you find yourself among essen-
 
 30 OURGOODLY 
 
 tially the same people, speaking 1 the same lan- 
 guage, having the same general habits and man- 
 ners, and loving and cherishing the same institu- 
 tions. Here are no barriers to intercourse and 
 influence, growing out of diversity of language, 
 or old established castes and privileged orders of 
 society. Strike a chord in one part of our coun- 
 try, and you cause a vibration through every 
 other. Write an article for a newspaper, or pub- 
 lish a book worthy of notice, and it will circulate, 
 in a few weeks, through the twenty-six states of 
 the Union, and be read by hundreds of thousands 
 in all parts of the land. Or set in moiion any 
 good influence, and it at once draws around it 
 sympathizing hearts, and goes on producing its 
 results, on a constantly widening sphere, from 
 generation to generation. The importance of 
 this peculiarity in our situation, I never felt as I 
 did, when traveling abroad. In the East, society 
 exists in a broken, fragmentary state. It is com. 
 posed of people of many different nations, speak- 
 ing different languages, and having different 
 manners, interests arid religions. Enter the city 
 of Smyrna, and the same is true of other large 
 eastern cities and you would think you had
 
 HERITAGE. 31 
 
 around you samples of all the confused people 
 and tongues of Babel. In Constantinople, it is 
 said, there are fifteen languages spoken by large 
 masses of people residing there ; and on board 
 the steamer in which I went from Smyrna to 
 Beirut, there were persons from twenty-one dif- 
 ferent nations. This creates great impediments 
 in the way of intercourse and influence, and is 
 indeed one of the most discouraging elements in 
 the organization of Eastern sociely. There is no 
 oneness of language, of character, interest and 
 aim, among the people. They are divided and 
 kept asunder by innumerable repellent influen- 
 ces, and nothing can bring them together, in 
 intercourse and cooperation, but the prevalence 
 among them of the pure spirit of the gospel, 
 and this meets with a formidable barrier in the 
 heterogenous character of the people just allu- 
 ded to. 
 
 We have, it is true, people from different 
 nations in our own country. But they are com- 
 paratively few ; they are lost in the mass of the 
 native born inhabitants; and if we are wise and 
 just to give them our knowledge and our religion* 
 they will soon inelt into the common mass, and
 
 6& OUR GOODLY 
 
 their influence and their interests will be iden- 
 tified with those of our own people. 
 
 5. As another peculiar advantage of our coun- 
 try, I mention our essential harmony of political 
 opinions. I may not, in this remark, carry along 
 with me the assent of my hearers. But it is I 
 think founded in truth. We have parties, I 
 know, and, too often, they war upon each other 
 with well nigh as much earnestness and zeal, if 
 not with as much good temper, as our fathers 
 exhibited in the achievement of our independ- 
 ence ; and sometimes, when witnessing the con- 
 flict, and the various tactics resorted to by the 
 combatants, one cannot but wish, that they would 
 stop and inquire what they are quarrelling about 
 a question, I am sure, which many of them at 
 least, on both sides, would be quite unable to 
 answer. 
 
 I do not say that the matters about which the 
 parties in our country differ are of no importance. 
 Some of them I know are of much importance, 
 and I hold my own views respecting them. Still 
 they are not, on either side, fundamental. They 
 respect measures, not first principles ; courses of 
 policy, not the form of our government, or the
 
 HERITAGE. 33 
 
 spirit of our constitution. We are not all of one 
 political creed, do not all vote alike at the polls ; 
 but we are all republicans ; the friends of popular 
 liberty and of free institutions ; and any man or 
 class of men, who should avow sentiments hostile 
 to these instiUitions, or wish essentially to change 
 the form of our government, would at once be 
 visited with the indignation of all parties. 
 
 But it is not so in Europe. Theie politics are 
 divided on fundamental principles ; gulfs separate 
 them, as wide as democracy is from monarchy, 
 and legitimacy or loyalty from rebellion. In 
 France, for example, there are legitimists ; the 
 friends of Louis Philippe ; and the republicans. 
 The success of either of the contending parties 
 would be, not the change of the policy of admin- 
 istration, but the overthrow of the government, 
 and anarchy and bloodshed would be involved in 
 the process. So of England. There are parties 
 there, which, if they should gain the ascendency, 
 would subvert the whole established order of 
 things, and introduce an entirely new form of 
 government and administration. The same is 
 true of most of the governments of Europe. They 
 are not well adapted to the progress of society. 
 4
 
 54 OURGOODLY 
 
 They involve great abuses and oppressions, and 
 large masses of the people are ready for revolu- 
 tion. Italy would be revolutionized to-morrow, 
 and every government there overturned, if Aus- 
 trian vigilance and power did not prevent. The 
 ground heaves fearfully in many pai^ of the con- 
 tinent, and the rumbling of the earthquake is 
 heard ever and anon, giving direful portent of 
 disaster and change in the breaking up of old 
 institutions, and the coming in of a new order of 
 things. 
 
 How different is the state of things in this 
 country ! Our people wish for no change in fun- 
 damental principles, no subverting of the consti- 
 tution and foim of our government; with these 
 they are well satisfied and desire to see them pre- 
 served and perpetuated to the latest posterity ; 
 and if the infatuating, blinding spirit of party 
 could be allayed, and a little of concession and 
 candor be exercised on both sides, there would, 
 I fully believe, be not only harmony, as to the 
 essential principles of our government, but har- 
 mony also, as to the measures which should be 
 adopted in administering the government, and 
 promoting the general prosperity of the nation.
 
 HERITAGE. 35 
 
 6. Traditional influence in our country is small, 
 and what there is, is good. Our ancestors were 
 wise, intelligent, chrislian men. They feared 
 God and lived for posterity. Far in advance of 
 the age to which they belonged, they broke away 
 from the old, corrupt, oppressive institutions and 
 usages of Europe, and came here to lay the foun- 
 dation of a new order of society, more free, more 
 equal, 'more just, than the world ever before saw. 
 And under the smiles of God's favoring prov- 
 idence, their undertaking was completely suc- 
 cessful. The fruits of it we are enjoying at this 
 day, and they are wide spread and abundant 
 throughout our country. We feel that the mem- 
 ory of our fathers is blessed, and the influence 
 that emanates upon us, through the medium of 
 their institutions and sentiments, is all of a sal- 
 utary, elevating, ennobling character. We are 
 here trammeled wilh no hereditary, prescriptive, 
 time-hallowed abuses. We have no arrogant 
 nobiliiy ; no entailments; no hereditary law- 
 makers; no established church; no privileged 
 class of clergy or laity ; in fine, none of the feud- 
 alism of by-gone, barbarous ages. The world has 
 not outlived the genius of our institutions, as it
 
 36 OURGOODLY 
 
 has in Europe. The traditions and usages of the 
 dark ages hold mighty sway in the old world. 
 There, society, in regard to its structure and 
 machinery, is extremely complicated ; " of vari- 
 ous dates," like a house patched and altered at 
 sundry times, but never thoroughly remodeled or 
 rebuilt, so as to be adapted to the genius and 
 progress of improvement. Many things, foreign 
 to its original plan, have been forced in by cir- 
 cumstances, as light and the popular spirit, or the 
 assertion of human rights have advanced, which 
 are like new cloth upon old garments, threaten- 
 ing disastrous rents. Reform in such a state of 
 things is difficult and hazardous, because it is at 
 the same time revolutionary and subversive. In 
 England, for example, there are several single 
 elements in the social state, to change any one 
 of which, in the way of national reform, would 
 be deeply revolutionary. To give a case, the 
 separation of church and state would change the 
 constitution of Parliament ; itwould overturn the 
 bench of bishops in the house of Lords, and 
 sweep away whole shoals of indolent, pleasure- 
 Bloving, beneficed clergy. Abolish entailments, or 
 the law of primogeniture, and the immense, over-
 
 HERITAGE. 67 
 
 grown estates of the nobles and the privileged 
 orders would change hand.*, and the house of 
 Lords would become another thing, as has been 
 the case in France, and many existing relations 
 in society would be broken up. These great 
 measures, among others, seem exceedingly desir- 
 able ; and yet their consequences would not stop 
 short of revolutionizing the entire political and 
 social -fabric. 
 
 In our country the case is entirely different. 
 The frame of our government is simple. It did 
 not grow up from tradition ; it is not the product 
 of feudalism or of the dark ages. It was formed 
 by intelligent, far-reaching, patriotic men, chosen 
 for the purpose by the people, and acting for the 
 people in the whole process of their deliberations 
 and decisions. Hence the simplicity, plainness 
 and consistency which mark our constitution of 
 government, and which render it so comparatively 
 easy to reform any abuse, or effect any change 
 which may be demanded for the better working 
 of the whole. Our political system is like a very 
 simple machine. You can take out or put in a 
 wheel without stopping, or in the least embar- 
 rassing its general movements. Whereas the 
 4*
 
 38 OURGOODLY 
 
 European systems consist of so many thousand 
 parts and are all so interlocked and dove-tailed 
 together, that to remove or to alter any one part 
 deranges the whole, and of course reform must be 
 extremely slow and difficult. 
 
 In our system too of distinct states and minor 
 communities, instead of one consolidated general 
 government, we enjoy advantages of which, I 
 think, we are by no means duly sensible. The 
 system of consolidated, general government pre- 
 vails throughout Europe and the Eastern world. 
 And there liberty languishes and dies, and tyran- 
 ny, oppression and wrong find their proper home. 
 France attempted a consolidated Republic. It 
 became a hell, the fires of which spread over all 
 Europe, and it cost the blood of many millions of 
 her people to extinguish the flame. 
 
 In our country the powers of the general gov- 
 ernment are circumscribed, confined chiefly to the 
 single object of securing the common rights, and 
 protection of the several states, composing the 
 Union. The states are, in fact, the only real 
 sovereignties known to our system. And here in 
 our little state of Connecticut, safe under the 
 broad shield of the Union, we are free to pursue
 
 HERITAGE. 39 
 
 whatever system of legislation or internal im- 
 provement we may deem best adapted to promote 
 the general prosperity of our people. Our inter- 
 ests are all under our eye and in our own hands ; 
 and it is for us, as a state, to take care of and ad- 
 vance them. If any member of the Union, as 
 South Carolina, or Rhode Island, in its madness 
 and folly, breaks out into insurrection and rebell- 
 ion, we need not be disturbed by it, but leave the 
 fire to be extinguished in the territory where it 
 began. 
 
 But I must close. And, now my friends, as you 
 look over this good land in which you dwell, and 
 survey its mighty resources, its free institutions, 
 its countless blessings, social, civil, literary and 
 religious, which pour around you like the light of 
 heaven, does not the sentiment rise warm and 
 grateful from every heart, the lines are fallen to 
 me in pleasant places, yea, I have a goodly 
 heritage ? 
 
 And is not gratitude to God our first duty in 
 view of the goodly heritage which he has given 
 us? He preserved it of old for our fathers; he 
 cast out the heathen and gave them possession of 
 it; he enabled them to plant it with the rich
 
 40 OURGOODLY 
 
 germs of all our most precious institutions; to 
 defend it in the midst of wars and perils, and to 
 transmit it to us, their children, as at this day, 
 an inheritance, richer and more abundant in all 
 the blessings, that make life desirable and happy, 
 than is enjoyed by any other people under 
 heaven. All, all comes to us from the kind provi- 
 clance of God. How natural then the feeling, 
 and how reasonable what shall I render unto 
 the Lord for all his benefits'? I will take the cup 
 of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. 
 I will pay him my vows of thanksgiving and 
 praise in the presence of all the people. 
 
 This is our first, but it is not our only duty. 
 Great responsibility lies upon us, in relation to the 
 future. The rich inheritance which, through the 
 toils and prayers and sufferings of our fathers, 
 God has transmitted to us, their descendants, is 
 not for us alone. We ara bound in gratitude for 
 the past, and in duty to the future, to transmit it 
 to our posterity; to hand it down unimpaired to 
 bless those who are to come after us. Many 
 dangers, it cannot be concealed, threaten our 
 prosperity. I may not attempt to enumerate 
 them now. But he must be blind and insen-
 
 HERITAGE. 41 
 
 sible indeed, who feels no apprehension at the 
 evils which are working themselves into our social 
 system, corrupting the sources of power, weaken- 
 ing the energies of government and making its 
 administration more and more, a mere instrument 
 of promoting the objects of party strife and selfish 
 ambition. The things here adverted to cannot, it 
 seems to me, go on much further, without sap- 
 ping the foundations of our institutions and shiv- 
 ering the Union to atoms. There are measures 
 now in contemplation by some of our politicians, 
 which, if allowed to be consummated, must, I 
 greatly fear, bring about this disastrous result. 
 There are already in our social system as many 
 causes of division and disunion, as we know 
 well how to get along with, and he must be a rash, 
 inconsiderate man, to say nothing worse, who 
 would knowingly add to these jcauses. One can- 
 not think or speak with patience, of extending 
 the slave power in this country, of strengthening 
 the slave influence in our general government, or 
 of perpetuating that accursed influence over the 
 free states of the North. Bring Texas into the Un- 
 ion; a foreign independent state, a thing never 
 contemplated by our constitution, a state too in
 
 42 OURGOODLY 
 
 
 
 which slavery is sworn to be eternal, and which 
 is designed, as a great mart, to be filled up with 
 human cattle from the South !* Why should that 
 be desired 1 Have we not territory enough ? 
 What good can come of it 1 The measure is evil, 
 only evil, and if effected, it will be found to be evil 
 continually,! fear, until we are destroyed. May 
 God in his mercy avert from us so great a calami- 
 ty. However divided we may be on other sub- 
 jects, there should be but one opinion among good 
 men on this subject; and no measures should be 
 left unemployed to defeat the counsels of those 
 who may wish to consummate so great a wicked- 
 ness, or bring into theUnion so terrible an element 
 of discord and dissolution. Let us take our 
 country as it is, and endeavor, in every possible 
 wiy, to make and to keep it united, prosperous 
 and happy. The eyes of the world are upon us. 
 
 * The measure here referred to has, since the delivery of the 
 discourse, been consummated, in so far as the approval of our 
 general government is concerned. But Texas is not yet a part 
 of the Union. Possibly a kind providence may yet defeat the 
 counsels of our rulers and prevent a connection which, we 
 have every reason to apprehend, will draw after it most disas- 
 trous consequences.
 
 HERITAGE. 43 
 
 We are as a city set upon a hill. Other nations 
 behold and wonder and imitate. The influence 
 of our great example of popular institutions and 
 free government is felt to the ends of the earlh : 
 
 O ^> ' 
 
 and if successful in time to come, as it has been 
 in time past, it will rapidly wake up a spiiit of 
 reform among all nations, and hasten on the 
 reign of universal freedom and justice and right. 
 Never did the desire for (he growing prosperity of 
 my country beat so strong in my bosom as when 
 I was traveling in foreign lands. There I saw 
 and felt by contrast the value of free institutions, 
 and the blessings of a pure, unfettered chrisliani- 
 ty. I saw loo how our movements were all 
 watched and scanned ; our virtues commended 
 and our faults blazoned abroad. It is true, my 
 friends, the eyes of the world are upon us. Our 
 school system, in Connecticut, is referred to, and 
 commented upon, with applause, in the Bri(i:>h 
 Parliament. Our Prison discipline is discussed 
 and held up for imitation in the French Chamber 
 of Deputies. Our free form of government and 
 our popular institutions are known and talked of 
 in Greece, in Constantinople and stiil further 
 East. And our faults, our mobs, our bad failb,
 
 44 OURGOODL'Sl 
 
 our repudiation and slavery are marked and pub- 
 lished at Naples, in a little miserable government 
 paper that sheds only darkness upon the people. 
 Let us see to it then, that our great example fail 
 not, and that all the influence emanating from it 
 be good, serving to cheer and to guide the nations 
 to a freer and happy state. Let us love our coun- 
 try, our whole country, and not, exclusively, any 
 one party in it. Let us pray for our country. It 
 is of God to defend and prosper us. He it is that 
 setteth up and plucketh down ; and no policy or 
 might can prevail in neglect or contempt of him. 
 Let us admit no new elements of discord and dis- 
 union into our country, and put out the old ones 
 as fast as we can. Let us especially send the 
 blessings of the gospel, the means of knowledge 
 and religion throughout the length and breadth 
 of our land, as the great means of our safety 
 and prosperity. 
 
 I have said, and I repeat the remark here, as 
 what I firmly believe, that the salvation of our 
 country is the hope of the world. If we fail in 
 our great experiment of free institutions, the sun 
 dial of time will go back for centuries, and des- 
 potism and superstition will hold a grand jubilee
 
 HERITAGE. 45 
 
 over all the world. But if the salvation of our 
 country is the hope of the world, it is equally true, 
 that the Christianity of the Bible is the hope of 
 our country. All other means of security and 
 prosperity without this will be found utterly una- 
 vailing. There is no truth in morals more certain 
 than this, that a Bible Christianity is the only 
 palladium of a free government. It was for the 
 want of this grand, conservative principle, that all 
 the republics that have gone before us, decayed 
 and died. Let all then who truly love their coun- 
 try, who prize this their goodly heritage, and 
 would transmit it to those who are to live here 
 when they are gone, see to it, that they be not 
 wanting in faithful, persevering endeavors to 
 send the Christianity of the Bible into all the wide 
 spread, destitute portions of our land. America 
 is God's last dispensation towards our world. 
 This act passed, the scene closes, the curtain of 
 time drops, and the glories of eternity are revealed. 
 With grateful hearts then, my friends, retire 
 from the house of God to your homes of comfort, 
 peace and plenty. And when you find your- 
 selves in the midst of your families, around the 
 festive board, spread with the bounties of a kind 
 5
 
 46 OUR GOODLY HERITAGE, 
 
 providence, let the sentiment rise warm and 
 grateful to heaven truly the lines are fallen to 
 us in pleasant places ; yea, we have a goodly 
 heritage. And while the hand of God is thus 
 acknowledged in your blessings, let him have 
 this, the only return he asks, or you can render, 
 a cheerful, unreserved consecration of all to his 
 service and glory. 
 
 Some of us will remember to day loving and 
 beloved ones who were wont to be with us on 
 other occasions like the present, but now are here 
 no more. Let us think of them, as engaged in 
 higher and nobler services of thanksgiving and 
 praise in the heavenly world; and let us be cheer- 
 ed by the assurance that if we are the friends of 
 God. the time is not distant when we shall 
 join them in that better state of being, and sing 
 forever the song of Moses and the Lamb. Unto 
 him that loved us and washed us from our sins in 
 his own blood, and hatli made us kings and priests 
 unto God and his Father ; to him be glory and 
 dominion forever and ever. Amen.
 
 PAUL ON MAES HILL.
 
 PAUL ON MARS HILL. 
 
 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I 
 perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by and 
 beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To THB 
 UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I 
 unto you. ACTS 17 : 22, 23. 
 
 No man ever visited Athens with such feelings 
 and views, or left such impressions on the minds 
 of its inhabitants as did the Apostle Paul. He 
 went there a servant of Jesus Christ, a solitary 
 one among dense masses of mad idolaters, hav- 
 ing the knowledge of the only living and true 
 God, and able to point out the way of life re- 
 vealed in the gospel. His visit appears to have 
 been rather accidental and transient, occasioned 
 by the persecution he had received from his 
 enemies at Berea, and lasted only a few weeks. 
 But his time, while there, instead of being spent 
 in surveying the wonders of genius and art 
 with which the city abounded, was wholly oc- 
 cupied in his favorite work of publishing the 
 5*
 
 50 P A U L O N 
 
 gospel, and striving to turn the people from dumb 
 idols to the service of the true God. 
 
 To give some order to our discourse, let us, 
 
 I. Consider the circumstances and conduct of 
 Paul while at Athens. 
 
 II. The situation and character of the audi- 
 ence to whom he preached on Mars Hill. 
 
 III. The principal topics of the discourse he 
 delivered on that occasion. 
 
 IV. The effects produced by it. 
 
 I. Though Athens, when visited by the Apos- 
 tle, had lost something of its former grandeur, it 
 was still the light of Greece and the glory of the 
 gentile world. It was the seat of art, of learning, 
 of eloquence, and of refinement and luxury in 
 all their most inviting and captivating forms. 
 The city was of great extent, surrounded by a 
 massive wall of hewn stone, sixteen miles in cir- 
 cumference, and so wide that carriages could 
 easily pass each other on the top. Within this 
 vast area, was concentrated all that could please 
 the eye, gratify the taste, excite the imagination, 
 or minister instruction and improvement to the 
 mind. In the midst was the Acropolis, the glory 
 of Grecian art, the depository of the most splen- 
 did productions of human genius, in painting,
 
 MARSHILL. 51 
 
 sculpture and architecture,' crowned with the 
 glorious Parthenon and several other temples of 
 surpassing magnificence and beauty, the ruins of 
 which continue, to this day, to excite the admi- 
 ration and wonder of all that behold them. 
 
 Thither scholars, and statesmen, and men of 
 opulence and leisure were accustomed to resort 
 from every part of the world for the gratification 
 of their curiosity, or for perfecting themselves in 
 the various departments of knowledge which they 
 wished to cultivate. Paul's visit there was for a 
 higher and a nobler object ; and it does not appear 
 from any thing contained in the sacred narrative, 
 that he spent any time in surveying the various 
 monuments of art, the remains of which are so in- 
 teresting to travelers at the present day. Not that 
 he was indifferent to these objects, or was incapable 
 of duly appreciating their magnificence and splen- 
 dor. Paul was a scholar and a man of taste. 
 But he was absorbed in matters of higher interest. 
 His heart was influenced with the love of Christ; 
 his eye was fixed on the grandeur of eternity, and 
 he was actuated, every where and supremely, with 
 the one great purpose of making known the power 
 and glory of Christ, that so he might be an 
 instrument of salvation to perishing men. Hence,
 
 52 P A U L O N 
 
 the first thing we hear of him, after his arrival in 
 Athens, was, that his spirit was stirred in him, 
 when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. 
 He was moved with grief and indignation to see 
 how the one only living and true God was forgot- 
 ten and despised in the midst of this city of science 
 and refinement, and the inhabitants prostituting 
 their noble powers in the worship of dumb idols. 
 And true to the great purpose of his life, he set 
 himself forthwith to the work of reformation, and 
 began to dispute, or to reason with all whom he 
 met, on the great subject of truth and duty, of 
 religion and salvation. He did not hesitate to 
 take his stand in the market place, or place of 
 public resort, and to lift up his voice in the hear- 
 ing of the multitude in favor of God and against 
 their idolatry. He soon produced a stir around 
 him. His deep seriousness, his bold declarations 
 of truth, his entire sincerity and earnestness, 
 together with the weight of argument and faith- 
 ful appeal which attended every thing he said, 
 would not allow those who heard him to be indif- 
 ferent to his discourses, or treat with neglect his 
 solemn exhortations and warnings. Accordingly, 
 he soon drew around him, not only the common 
 people, but men of distinction, and philosophers
 
 MARSHILL. 53 
 
 of various sects. At first, it would seem, they 
 began to treat him with levity and ridicule, call- 
 ing him a babler, a scatterer of vain words ; and 
 not being able to comprehend his doctrine, or 
 disposed to misrepresent it, they charged him 
 with being a setter forth of strange gods, because 
 he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrec- 
 tion. This was a serious matter, as the charge 
 involved a crime, which, according to the laws of 
 the state, was punishable with death. They 
 therefore took Paul, whether on the direct charge 
 of blasphemy, or only that he might more fully 
 explain his views and be examined before the 
 proper judges, does not appear; but they took 
 him and brought him to the court of Areopagus, 
 before whom cases affecting the xeligion of the 
 state were wont to be tried. 
 
 This high court of Athens was held on the top 
 of Mars Hill, on a rocky space, open to the sky, 
 and so near the edge of the craggy, precipitous 
 face of the hill, that no building or obstacle of 
 any kind could have intervened to prevent the 
 view around, either of the city or the Acropolis. 
 Up this hill Paul was conducted from the Agora 
 or market place, where he had been disputing, by 
 a flight of steps, cut in the rock, and which
 
 54 P A U L O N 
 
 remain to the present time. As he ascended into 
 the presence of his judges, surrounded by the 
 Epicureans and Stoics who-had encountered him, 
 and a multitude of listeners, anxious to hear his 
 defense, Paul, we cannot doubt, rejoiced in 
 heart, at the opportunity given him by his divine 
 Lord, of declaring his love for his name, and of 
 testifying against the superstition and idolatry of 
 the city. He knew who it was that had said, 
 When they bring you before magistrates and 
 councils, take no thought how or what ye shall 
 speak, for it shall be given you in that same hour 
 what ye shall say. Confiding in his protection 
 and aid who had spoken these precious words, 
 the Apostle calmly mounts into the august pres- 
 ence of his judges, and stands unmoved in the 
 midst of a vast and mixed assembly. Let us, 
 
 II. In the second place, contemplate the char- 
 acter and situation of this assembly, and Paul's 
 condition, as called to testify in their presence 
 the gospel of the blessed God. Never was there 
 a more interesting audience addressed by man ; 
 never was there a man called to address an audi- 
 ence in circumstances of more deep and solemn 
 interest. There was the high court of the Athe-
 
 MARSHILL. 55 
 
 nians, which had existed for ages, composed of a 
 large number of the first characters ef the city, 
 usually thought to be fifty-one, and held in the 
 greatest veneration for wisdom and authority, by 
 all the Greeks and by other nations. There too 
 were collected philosophers, statesmen, orators, 
 poets, heroes and sages, not only from Athens, 
 but from all parts of Greece and from other dis- 
 tant countries. With these were assembled a 
 multitude of people of different callings and sta- 
 tions in society, drawn thither to witness the 
 conduct of the Apostle before this collection of 
 great and distinguished men, and to hear him 
 explain further those new and deeply interesting 
 truths, on which he had insisted in his more pri- 
 vate discussions in the market place. I speak 
 thus of the audience on Mars Hill, because it is 
 most evident, that, during the short time the 
 Apostle had been in Athens, he had excited a 
 general attention to his doctrines among all 
 classes of people, who would now throng to hear 
 him speak before the high court of the nation, 
 which had authority, among other things, to take 
 cognizance of all matters pertaining to the public 
 religion. Here then they were convened, a vast 
 and mixed assembly, collected from all parts of
 
 56 PAUL ON 
 
 Greece, holding conflicting views of philosophy 
 and religion, all addicted to idolatry, and all 
 alike ignorant of the true God and of the way of 
 salvation by Christ. 
 
 Paul stands in the midst of them, a solitary one 
 in all the vast and mingled crowd, who had in 
 his bosom the knowledge of the true religion, and 
 could make known the way of pardon and life, 
 himself permitted to address them this once on 
 subjects of eternal moment, ere he should meet 
 them before the bar of final judgment. His situa- 
 tion was indeed deeply solemn and critical. His 
 audience was such as might awe an ordinary 
 man, especially when it is considered, that those 
 before whom he was to speak, had the power of 
 life and death, and were peculiarly jealous of all 
 attempts to innovate on the established religion. 
 On this very spot, and before this very court, 
 Socrates, whose -prison was in sight, had, four 
 hundred years before, been arraigned and con- 
 demned for alleged innovation in religion, and 
 contempt of the gods. Then, the scene around, 
 how deeply interesting and imposing! He stood 
 in the midst of Mars Hill, in the very centre and 
 on the highest tower of judicial power and of 
 gentile religion and philosophy; and his audience,
 
 MARSHILL. 57 
 
 as we have said, was composed of that august 
 court, and of others, senators, statesmen, philos- 
 ophers, professors and students of various learn- 
 ing. Before him, separated by a slight valley, 
 rose the Acropolis, crowned by the glorious Par- 
 thenon, dedicated to the goddess Minerva, whose 
 glittering spear, poised above its top, gave warn- 
 ing to all to beware how they offended against 
 the power of Athens. On the right was the Pnyx 
 or forum, where the people were wont to assem- 
 ble, to deliberate and to be addressed by their 
 statesmen and orators. On the left, at a little 
 distance on the plain, stood the temple of The- 
 seus, itself a perfect model of architectural sym- 
 . metry and beauty, and a little further on, in the 
 same direction, was the Academy of Plato, and 
 the Lyceum of Aristotle, which were regarded 
 with the greatest veneration, as the very fountains 
 of wisdom and science. At a little remove to the 
 southeast of the Acropolis, stood in lonely and 
 awful grandeur, the temple of Jupiter Olympus, 
 and all around, on every hand, were to be seen 
 the proud monuments of Athenian art and gen- 
 ius, the whole embosomed in an amphitheatre 
 of hills and mountains of exceeding beauty, 
 
 open only at the west, where at the distance 
 6
 
 58 P A U L O N 
 
 of some five or six miles, but in plain sight 
 from Mars Hill, lay the harbor of the Piraeus, 
 presenting a view of the various islands in the 
 ^iEgean sea, with the navy and shipping of Ath- 
 ens. Such was the scene, in the midst of which 
 Paul stood, on the occasion referred to in our text ; 
 altogether the most sublime and interesting that 
 can be conceived ; at least, so it seemed to me, 
 when on a beautiful Sabbath in the close of last 
 November,* I stood on this same spot, and read 
 over the narrative on which we are now medita- 
 ting. I could easily imagine, with all the local- 
 ities around me distinctly marked, that I could 
 see the great Apostle, surrounded by the temples 
 of idolatry and the numerous monuments of art t 
 standing up in the midst of his august audience, 
 in calm Christian dignity, and preparing to ad- 
 dress them on the great themes of judgment and 
 mercy, of God and salvation. Let us then pass 
 to notice, 
 
 III. Some of the topics on which he insisted 
 in the discourse he delivered on the occasion we 
 are considering. An outline of it is contained in 
 the chapter from which our text is taken ; and 
 whoever studies it, with any degree of attention, 
 cannot but be struck with its peculiar appro- 
 
 * 1843.
 
 MARSHILL. 59 
 
 priateness, and with the grand and weighty char- 
 acter of the truths which it contains. 
 
 The Apostle, aware of the delicate and very 
 critical position he occupied, sets himself first to 
 conciliate the kind and candid feelings of his 
 audience. Ye men of Athens, he says, I per- 
 ceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. 
 This language, in our translation, sounds harsh. 
 It might be rendered I perceive that ye are ex- 
 ceedingly addicted to the worship of invisible 
 powers. For, as I passed by and beheld your 
 devotions, I saw an altar with this inscription, 
 To the unknown God. This, with admirable 
 skill, he chose for his text ; for while it introduced 
 the very subject on which he intended to dis- 
 course, it shielded him from the charge of wish- 
 ing to bring forward any new god or object of 
 worship. In the strange and blind addictedness 
 of these Athenians to the worship of lord's many 
 and god's many, they had erected an altar to 
 one, of whose character, being, or even name, 
 they had no certain knowledge. They could not 
 therefore justly complain of the Apostle, or charge 
 him with innovating upon the popular theology, 
 if he should explain to them the character and 
 ways of that unknown being to whom they had
 
 \ 
 
 60 P A U L O N 
 
 erected an altar. Whom therefore ye ignorantly 
 worship, him declare I unto you. He was not 
 among Jews, but among gentiles who had no 
 divine revelation ; and he met them, as he must, 
 on the ground of natural religion, and led them 
 to contemplate, as their first lesson, the being and 
 perfections of the one only living and true God. 
 This is the beginning, this the foundation of all 
 true religion; and plain and familiar as is this 
 great, fundamental truth to us, it was wholly 
 unknown to the wisest of the Athenians, who, 
 with all their boasted philosophy and learning, 
 needed to be taught the very first elements of 
 religious knowledge. 
 
 With singular propriety then did the Apos- 
 tle begin with saying Whom therefore ye 
 ignorantly worship him declare I unto you. It 
 is not easy for us to conceive with what deep 
 and intense interest this annunciation would 
 be listened to by those whom Paul addressed 
 himself all earnest, serious, as speaking in the 
 presence of that God, whose character he would 
 declare, and to beings who, he knew, must 
 soon die and pass to the judgment. And the 
 annunciation was followed by a strain of def- 
 inite, majestic, simple truth, in regard to the 
 supreme, all-perfect and reigning God, such as
 
 MARSHILL. 61 
 
 they had never heard from the wisest and most 
 eloquent of their philosophers ; such as could not 
 have been found in all the pages of Plato ; such 
 as could not have been gathered indeed from the 
 concentrated wisdom of all their teachers from the 
 earliest ages, and compared with which their 
 whole speculations were but an abyss of darkness 
 and absurdity. 
 
 God that made the world, and all that is 
 therein, Lord of heaven and earth. What a 
 sublime announcement was this 1 It was like 
 a sun shot into chaos, and it put to flight in a 
 moment all the vain speculations of the Epi- 
 curean and Stoic philosophers about atoms, and 
 contingencies, and floating forms of matter, and 
 elementary principles from eternity. Then the 
 announcement was so reasonable, it carried its 
 own demonstration along with it. The world, 
 with some of its loveliest scenery of sky and sea, 
 mountain, valley and plain, was before the Apos- 
 tle and his audience, like a transparent panora- 
 ma ; and the bright heavens seemed to echo the 
 sentiment, and repeat it like a vast intelligence. 
 For the first time in their lives the Athenians 
 heard it ; and its sublimity can be fully felt, only 
 6*
 
 62 P A U L O N 
 
 by those who have traced the wanderings of unas- 
 sisted reason, and the deep chaos of heathen spec- 
 ulation respecting God and the creation. Then 
 the unity of God how must that have seemed, 
 when announced in the face of a system that 
 numbered thirty thousand deities in its catalogue? 
 The Apostle proceeded. God that made the 
 world and all that is therein, dwelleth not in 
 temples made with hands. Here is asserted the 
 supreme creatorship of Jehovah; and also the 
 omnipresence and spirituality of his nature. This 
 was a new truth to the Athenians, and it must 
 have pealed upon their hearing as a voice from 
 the bosom of eternity. 
 
 To feel the full force with which this great 
 spiritual truth would strike the minds of Paul's 
 auditors, one needs to stand on the summit of 
 Mars Hill, and have a clear view of the scene in 
 which he uttered it. Before him was the Par- 
 thenon, and within it and the temples around it, 
 were enshrined the forms of gods many and lords 
 many ; and there the priests of idolatry in their 
 splendid robes, and crowds of devotees were wont 
 daily to pay their worship, in gorgeous rites and 
 costly sacrifices. The Apostle, stretching forth 
 his hand and glancing his eyes over these proud
 
 MARSHILL. 63 
 
 structures, which rose, in imposing magnificence 
 and glory, before and around him, exclaimed, 
 God dwelleth not in these, and all the services per- 
 formed there by men's hands, are in his sight vain 
 and worthless. He, the infinite Being, the Maker, 
 Possessor and Sovereign of the universe, is not 
 limited in his presence or his abode to temples of 
 human erection, however magnificent; neither 
 is he worshiped by outward rites and ceremonies, 
 however costly. He is the independent, every 
 where present, all perfect and reigning God, and 
 needeth nothing of man, seeing he giveth to all 
 life and breath and all things. This was a start- 
 ling truth, and in the position in which it fell 
 from the lips of the Apostle, it was like a vivid 
 flash of lightning across the infidel serenity of the 
 surrounding scene, revealing at once the false- 
 hood of the whole system of idolatry, and the 
 emptiness of all worship paid in idol temples. 
 
 Having thus in this unheard of strain, asserted 
 the being, perfections, and absolute independence 
 of God, the Apostle proceeds to declare his sov- 
 ereign providence, extending to all nations, crea- 
 tures and events; the common relation of all 
 men to him as their original Father and rightful
 
 64 P A TJ L O N 
 
 Disposer, and to one another as his offspring and 
 of one blood ; their common dependence on him 
 for life and breath and all things ; their common 
 obligations to love serve and glorify him ; his de- 
 termining the bounds of their habitations and 
 ordering their circumstances in life, that they 
 might seek after him and know him ; his patience 
 and forbearance towards men in the past times of 
 ignorance, and his commanding them now every 
 where to repent, seeing a new and most interest- 
 ing era had commenced ; a new and glorious dis- 
 pensation was opening upon the world. 
 
 We cannot enlarge on these sublime senti- 
 ments ;* but we can easily imagine with what 
 impressive solemnity and power they must have 
 fallen from the lips of the Apostle, and how by 
 their singular appropriateness and boldness, they 
 must have roused the minds and moved the sen- 
 sibilities of his hearers. They were such senti- 
 ments, as they had never heard before, and it 
 must have been like lifting the veil, of a sudden, 
 from the spiritual world, and letting them look 
 into the realities of God and eternity. Then the 
 inference he draws from the whole of his great 
 argument, how reasonable and how striking 1 
 For as much then as we are the offspring of God,
 
 MARSHILL. 65 
 
 we ought not to think that the Godhead is like 
 unto gold, or silver or stone graven by art and 
 man's device. While Paul spake these words 
 the collosal statue of Minerva Promachus, over- 
 topping the Parthenon, was looking down with 
 silent majesty, and the finger of the Apostle 
 might have pointed the assembly to its senseless 
 form ; and when he referred to the workmanship 
 of gold and silver and stone, every mind must 
 have reverted to the statues thus composed and 
 adorned ; and especially to the image of gold and 
 ivory, the workmanship of Phidias, originally 
 enshrined in the apartment regarded as the inner- 
 most sanctuary of the goddess. Shall we, who 
 are God's intelligent offspring, degrade ourselves 
 so far as to suppose that these images, the work 
 of human hands, are gods; or shall we dishonor 
 the Godhead of the spiritual and invisible One, 
 by likening him to these senseless works of hu- 
 man art? One would suppose that an appeal like 
 this, especially from an inspired messenger of 
 God, must have moved the whole audience in 
 deep indignation against idol worship, and led 
 them at once to renounce all such impious fool- 
 eries. But we shall see. 
 
 The Apostle having announced the introduc-
 
 66 PAUL ON 
 
 tion of a new dispensation, and declared the fact 
 that God now commandeth all men every where 
 to repent, presses home this great duty by a dis- 
 tinct reference to a future day of judgment and 
 account. He refers with awful solemnity to the 
 glories and the terrors of that appointed day, 
 when all men must stand before the judgment 
 seat of Christ, for final audit and everlasting re- 
 tribution. Assurance of this, he declares, has 
 already been given to all men in the resurrection 
 of Jesus Christ; and it is therefore the first and 
 great duty of all to repent, turn unto God and 
 thus be prepared for the scenes of coming destiny. 
 
 I have touched only in the briefest manner on 
 some of the principal topics of this great discourse 
 of the Apostle ; but enough I trust has been said 
 to satisfy you, that no discourse was ever uttered 
 more replete with profound and weighty truths, 
 or in circumstances and scenery around, better 
 fitted to bring it home, in clear and powerful illus- 
 tration, and in absorbing, awakening interest to 
 the mind. 
 
 Standing where Paul stood, on the brow of the 
 same craggy hill, beneath an Acropolis whose 
 temples are still splendid even in ruins, the Chris- 
 tian receives an impression of the power, sublim-
 
 MARSHILL. 67 
 
 ity, and divine wisdom of that discourse, such 
 as he never before experienced. We pass to 
 notice, 
 
 IV. The effects of the discourse. And certain- 
 ly, all, who heard it, must have been convinced 
 and converted, it was so full of light, so reason- 
 able, so cogent in argument, so tender and solemn 
 in appeal, that none, it would seem, could resist 
 its power, or refuse to yield to the duties it enjoins. 
 So we should judge, looking at the case without 
 a knowledge of the facts. But in truth, very liltle 
 saving fruit was gathered from the discourse 
 before us, or from any other labors performed by 
 the Apostle while he was in Athens. No church, 
 so far as .appears, either at this time or subse- 
 quently, was gathered there by him. He was 
 heard respectfully, till he touched upon the doc- 
 trine of the resurrection ; when he was stopped 
 in his discourse by the mocking and derision of 
 some, and by the impatience and restlessness of 
 others. There were those in the assembly, who 
 were too wise to be taught, even, by an inspired 
 messenger of God, respecting a subject, of 
 which from the nature of the case they must have 
 been profoundly ignorant. It is plain that the 
 philosophy, the learning and rank of many
 
 00 P A U L O N 
 
 among his hearers gave the Apostle no peculiar 
 advantage in ministering to them the gospel. 
 
 They wanted humility and teachableness to" 
 profit by his instructions. Pride and vain self 
 conceit armed them against the truth, and they 
 disposed of the Apostle's arguments in a very con- 
 venient, summary way, that of mocking at them, 
 and so dismissed, both him and his discourse, with 
 levity and contempt. Others, too much impress- 
 ed by what they heard for mockery, but not de- 
 cided to yield to the power of truth and argument, 
 and somewhat impatient, it would seem, either at 
 the length of the discourse, or by its serious, 
 pointed appeals to the conscience, proposed, like 
 Felix, on another occasion, to hear him further, 
 at a more convenient season. So Paul departed 
 from among them, retired from that enlightened, 
 distinguished assembly, with very painful reflec- 
 tions, no doubt, on the vanity of human wisdom, 
 and the obstinacy of human pride. 
 
 Howbeit, certain men clave unto him and 
 believed, among whom was Dionysius the Areo- 
 pagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others 
 with them. Though the Apostle's discourse was 
 lost upon the great body of his hearers, it was 
 not altogether fruitless. A few became obedient
 
 MARSHILL. 69 
 
 to the faith ; a few touched with the power of 
 divine grace, turned from their dumb idols to 
 serve the living God; and humbly to wait for his 
 Son from heaven, whom he raised from the 
 dead ; and those few will shine forth as the sun 
 in the kingdom of God, for the joy of the Apos- 
 tle, and for the glory of the Redeemer, when all 
 the proud monuments of Grecian wisdom and 
 power shall not only be crumbled in the dust, as 
 now, but lost in everlasting oblivion. 
 
 The subject, I deeply feel, is very imperfectly 
 illustrated ; but time forbids me to dwell longer 
 upon it, and I close with remarking, 
 
 1. How perfectly reasonable is religion. Paul, 
 on the occasion before us, made his appeal to the 
 higher faculties of the soul, to the reason, the 
 conscience, the common understanding of his 
 hearers, and no rational man can read over his 
 address, or seriously consider the course of his 
 argument, with the great truths and motives it 
 contains, without being compelled to admit the 
 reasonableness of every position taken, and of 
 every duty enjoined. There is a God, all perfect 
 and glorious, at the head of the world, the Maker 
 and Ruler of all things. This great truth, which 
 
 lies at the foundation of religion, forces itself upon 
 
 7
 
 70 P A U L O N 
 
 the mind of every man, who looks around upon 
 the works of creation, or considers his own won- 
 drous being : and from it, it follows with irresis- 
 tible conviction, that every man is bound to love, 
 fear and honor this great and glorious God ; that, 
 seeing he giveth life and breath and all things, 
 he is to be gratefully and devoutly acknowledged 
 in all our ways ; that since we are sinners in his 
 sight, it is our first and indispensable duty to re- 
 pent and seek his mercy ; and finally, as there is 
 before us an appointed day of judgment and a 
 state of just and eternal retribution, it is the high- 
 est wisdom, and most urgent concern of every 
 living man to be in constant preparation for the 
 awful and inevitable scenes before him. But this 
 is religion; the truest, the most reasonable, and 
 the most important thing that can possibly be 
 presented to the mind of man. Let every one, 
 then, use aright the faculties God has given him 
 and be a religious man, fearing and serving God, 
 believing in, and following Christ, and living 
 with a wise reference to those invisible and eter- 
 nal scenes to which all of us are so rapidly ad- 
 vancing. 
 
 2. We see the necessity "of an influence above
 
 MARS HILL. 71 
 
 all argument and motive to bring men to be 
 Christians. Among the hearers of Paul on Mars 
 Hill, there were many of the finest talents, and 
 of the most cultivated minds, that were to be 
 found in Athens, or perhaps, in all Greece. 
 They were addressed by an inspired Apostle, on 
 topics of infinite moment, with a clearness of 
 
 
 
 argument never surpassed, and with a power of 
 motive that would seem irresistible. And yet 
 only a few, a very few, were persuaded to turn 
 from their idols to the living God. But one of 
 the fifty judges, composing the high court of the 
 nation, opened his heart to receive the truth as it 
 is in Jesus. All the others, it would seem, re- 
 mained in their unbelief, turned away from the 
 light held out to them by the Apostle, and con- 
 tinued still in the darkness of idolatry and sin. 
 So little do mere talents and learning avail in the 
 great concern of religion and salvation. Some- 
 thing above talents, something above learning, 
 something above all argument and motive is 
 needed to bring men to repentance and faith in 
 Christ. The pride of the heart is not subdued by 
 argument. The obstinacy of a selfish will does 
 not bend to the power of mere motive. The
 
 72 P A U L O N 
 
 men whom Paul addressed on Mars Hill, were 
 men of enlightened minds, of clear intelligence; 
 abundantly able to understand the force of an 
 argument, and to appreciate the power of mo- 
 tives ; and never was argument or motive more 
 clearly or forcibly'presented, than in the discourse 
 we have been considering. But all in vain in 
 respect to the great body of the hearers. Their 
 pride, their vanity, their selfishness and world! i- 
 ness were more than a match for all the cogency 
 of reasoning, and power of appeal, which even 
 an Apostle could bring to bear upon them. So 
 in all cases. The heart of man is desperately 
 wicked, and it yields to no influence but that of 
 the spirit of God ; and this is just as true of men 
 of talents and learning, of rank and station, as it 
 is of men of inferior mind and of the humblest 
 walks in life. 
 
 3. Let us all be reminded that in the truths 
 declared by Paul on Mars Hill, we each of us 
 have a deep personal interest. The God whom 
 he declares is our God ; the providence he de- 
 scribes is that which surrounds us ; the govern- 
 ment he unfolds is that under which we live ; 
 the command to repent which he proclaims is
 
 MARSHILL. 73 
 
 addressed to us ; and the resurrection from the 
 dead the appointed day of righteous judgment 
 which he asserts, are scenes which lie before us, 
 and the consequences of which we are to meet 
 on the track of our future being. 
 
 The men who heard these great truths, as they 
 fell from the Apostles lips, both those who be- 
 lieved, and those who believed not, have long 
 since learned their reality in eternity, the one in 
 joyous, the other in awful experience. We too 
 who have heard them to-day, shall soon go to 
 learn them in the same place and in the same 
 manner, in eternity ; in heaven or in hell. Let 
 us learn them now, believe them now, feel and 
 obey them now : then shall we be prepared to 
 welcome in peace, the revelations of the last day, 
 and enter with joy into the everlasting kingdom 
 of our Lord. 
 
 7*
 
 WOMAN OF SAMARIA
 
 fit MI i 
 
 AUU 
 
 IV CU
 
 BIGOTRY EXHIBITED AND REPROVED IN 
 THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA.* 
 
 " Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye 
 shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. 
 Ye worship ye know not what : we know what we worship ; for salvation 
 is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worship- 
 ers shall worship the Father in spirit and hi truth ; for the father seeketh 
 such to worship him. God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must wor- 
 ship him in spirit and in truth. The woman saith unto him, 1 know tliat 
 Messias cometh, which is called Christ : when he is come he will tell us all 
 things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he." JOHN 4 : 
 2126. 
 
 THIS is a part of the conversation which our 
 blessed Lord had with the woman of Samaria, at 
 Jacob's well. The whole conversation is deeply 
 interesting and instructive, and I invite your at- 
 tention to it, this morning, with the view of show- 
 ing the spirit of the woman as a bigot, the wisdom 
 of the Saviour in his treatment of her, and the 
 happy consequences which resulted from hig 
 manner of treating her. 
 
 * This discourse has before appeared in the National Preacher. 
 It is re-published here because it is of the same general charac- 
 ter with the others contained in this volume, and treats on a 
 subject of much practical importance.
 
 78 % THEWOMAN 
 
 On the morning of the 4th of last April,* hav- 
 ing spent the preceding night in Nabulus, the 
 ancient Schechem, afterwards Sychar, I left the 
 town about nine o'clock, in company with several 
 of my fellow travelers, and began to ascend Mount 
 Gerizim, which rose before us to the height of 
 about eight hundred feet, and stretched to the 
 east, the point which we wished to attain. The 
 ascent was steep and difficult ; but after near an 
 hour's hard toil, we reached the highest elevation, 
 where the ancient Samaritans were wont to pay 
 their worship, and where now the little remnant 
 of them, residing at Nabulus, go in procession four 
 times a year for the same purpose. Here is their 
 holy place, where they sacrifice the passover, 
 seven lambs among them all, and perform their 
 various religious services, believing them to have 
 a peculiar holiness and acceptableness to God, 
 because performed on this particular spot. There 
 is no temple there, though there are the ruins of 
 one, and the fragments of buildings which lie 
 scattered thick around, indicate that a large town 
 once occupied this site. The view from this posi- 
 tion is one of exceeding beauty and grandeur. 
 Overlooking the intervening hills and valleys, 
 * 1544.
 
 OFSAMARIA. 7iJ 
 
 you see in the west, at the distance of some 
 twenty or thirty miles, the Mediterranean, bor- 
 dering the broad rich plain of Sharon, stretching 
 far to the north and south. Over against you, 
 on the north, rises Mount Ebal, to an equal 
 height with that of Mount Gerizim, but more 
 bold and rocky if possible, and so near that voices 
 can be heard from one mountain to the other, 
 separated only by a valley of about five hundred 
 yards wide. Beneath you, at the east, lies spread 
 out a rich extended plain, including the tomb of 
 Joseph, Jacob's farm as it is called, and also the 
 well which bears his name. Along the foot of 
 the Mount and on the edge of the plain, runs the 
 road which leads from Jerusalem to Galilee, on 
 which our Lord and his disciples were wont to 
 travel, as they went to and from these places. 
 
 Standing on the summit of Gerizim, with the 
 various localities distinctly marked and spread 
 out in full view before me, I could easily imagine 
 that I saw the blessed Saviour and his followers, 
 on the dtcasion referred to in our text, wending 
 their way along this road around the south-east 
 base of the mountain, and drawing near to Jacob's 
 well. There the Master, wearied with his jour-
 
 80 THE WOMAN 
 
 ney and the heat of the day, seats himself by the 
 well, while his disciples pass up the valley a short 
 distance, to the city, to buy food. At this point 
 a woman of Samaria comes near to draw water. 
 With a view to engage her in conversation, our 
 Saviour asks her to give him to drink. Instantly 
 her prejudices are roused, and she replies, How 
 is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, 
 which am a woman of Samaria'? There had 
 been a controversy between the Jews and Samar- 
 itans of long standing. It related especially to 
 the proper place of worshiping God, the Jews 
 claiming that it was in Jerusalem, and the Samar- 
 itans that it was in Mount Gerizim. This contro- 
 versy ran so high, and was carried on with such 
 bitterness of spirit, that it interrupted all the civil- 
 ities of life, and even prevented common dealings 
 with one another. This old enmity continues to 
 the present day, and the little handful of Samar- 
 itans, about one hundred and twenty* in number, 
 residing in Nabulus, still insist that on Mount 
 Gerizim is the very place where God is to be 
 worshiped, and all the world are wrong on this 
 point but themselves. 
 
 * They are variously estimated from 120 to 150.
 
 OPSAMARIA. 81 
 
 The woman who came to draw water had 
 caught the spirit of her sect. She was evidently 
 full of the subject in controversy, and it so ab- 
 sorbed her thoughts, and perverted her feelings, 
 as to make her utterly blind to the deep, spiritual 
 instruction which fell from the lips of the divine 
 Teacher. Hence, when he spoke of giving her 
 living water, if she would but ask it, of which if 
 one drink he shall never thirst, she could think 
 only of common literal water, and at once began 
 to question whether he was greater than Jacob, 
 who had given the well to her ancestors, and 
 drank of it himself with his children and cattle. 
 
 And when, in the course of the conversation, 
 she was convinced that our Lord was a prophet, 
 because he showed himself acquainted with her 
 secret history and thoughts, instead of seeking 
 instruction from him how she might repent of sin, 
 and be saved, she at once raised the old dispute 
 and says : Our fathers worshiped in this moun- 
 tain, but ye say that in Jerusalem is the place 
 where men ought to worship. The great thing 
 with her was the place, the manner, the form of 
 worship, not the spirit, the life, the heart of it. 
 Though her morals were very questionable, and 
 8
 
 82 THE WO MAW 
 
 she was at this time living with one who was not 
 her husband, still she was mighty zealous for her 
 sect, and was ready at once to enter into a dis- 
 pute as to the place and manner of worship. In 
 a word she was a bigot. She attached an undue 
 importance to the mere circumstantials of religion, 
 to forms and ceremonies. She was obstinately 
 and unreasonably wedded to a sect, a party, a 
 practice and ritual, which had respect to the ex- 
 ternals, the outside of religion ; and this made 
 her exclusive, filled her with prejudice and dis- 
 like against all who differed from her in regard 
 to these outward, non-essential parts of opin- 
 ion, or did not come up to her standard, in 
 worship. 
 
 This is the proper idea of a bigot ; and I have 
 drawn it out thus particularly, that you may 
 know just what character is denoted by the term. 
 It denotes a person who has a blind, unreasonable 
 attachment to a particular creed, or place, or 
 mode of worship ; and maintains that attachment 
 with an exclusive, sectarian spirit. It is no big- 
 otry to hold fast the great essentials of religion, 
 or to maintain with earnestness and zeal, the faith 
 once delivered to the saints, which involves the
 
 OFSAMARIA. 83 
 
 honor of God and the salvation of man. Our Lord 
 was no bigot, though he made faith in him and 
 his doctrines essential to salvation. Paul was no 
 bigot, though he maintained the truth of the gos- 
 pel with uncompromising firmness, and even 
 wished those were cut off, who perverted the true 
 gospel, and preached one that was false. So 
 Luther and the reformers of his day were no big- 
 ots, though they waged deadly war against the cor- 
 ruptions of Rome, and maintained, at the peril of 
 their lives, the great fundamental doctrines of the 
 Bible. Bigotry does not consist in believing, lov- 
 ing and maintaining the truth and ordinances of 
 God, with a zeal and firmness proportioned to 
 their relative importance. But it consists in 
 magnifying what is small ; in erecting into terms 
 of communion and conditions of salvation, things 
 which are not allowed to be such in the Bible, 
 and contending for these things with a narrow, 
 exclusive, sectarian spirit. The pharisees were 
 bigots ; who, while they omitted the weightier 
 matters of the law, judgment and the love of God, 
 paid tithe of mint, anise and cummin, and insist- 
 ed upon the observance of their ritual, as essen- 
 tial to acceptable worship. The catholics are
 
 THE WOMAN 
 
 bigots, and all who symbolize with them in senti- 
 ment and practice, because they unreasonably 
 magnify forms and ceremonies, and make con- 
 nection with their church essential to pardon and 
 acceptance with God, consigning all, who are 
 not so connected, to uncovenanted mercy. So 
 were the woman of Samaria and her countrymen, 
 generally, bigots, because they believed that God 
 could be worshiped no where, acceptably, but on 
 Mount Gerizim, and were so intolerant in main- 
 taining this dogma, that they bitterly hated their 
 neighbors, the Jews, who worshiped God in Jeru- 
 salem. And never did bigotry appear to me 
 more odious, or more contemptible, wicked and 
 foolish, than when I saw it exemplified in the old 
 Samaritan priest, a man about sixty-five years of 
 age, and his son, who promises to be a worthy 
 successor of his father. There they were, I saw 
 them in their synagogue, the only two duly 
 authorized priests in all the world, and the little 
 company of their adherents, some one hundred 
 and twenty, all told, the only true church on 
 earth, both priests and church having come 
 down in the veritable line of succession from 
 Aaron, and still having in their possession, the
 
 OF SAMARIA. 86 
 
 oldest and only true copy of the Pentateuch in 
 the world, it having been written by Abishua, 
 the son of Phineas, three thousand four hundred 
 and sixty years ago, all of which is to be received 
 as a part of essential faith. And when after an 
 hour's hard ride up a steep mountain, over ravines, 
 and precipices, and rocks, I stood on the spot, 
 where, according to Samaritan faith, men must 
 go to worship God, if they would worship him 
 acceptably, I could not but exclaim, this is gen* 
 nine bigotry ; here we have it, it sends people 
 away from the ever present Father, from the true 
 spiritual worship, which he requires, and bids 
 them climb to the tops of mountains, and there 
 sets them down amid rocky desolation and bar- 
 renness, and feeds them with empty forms and 
 ceremonies. There stood Ebal, frowning over 
 against me ; and I could not but think, that all 
 the curses which Moses commanded should be 
 denounced from thence, against those who should 
 forsake the right ways of the Lord and go after 
 idols, might justly fall, with a ten-fold weight, 
 on such as pervert the simplicity and spirituality 
 of Christian worship, teach for doctrines the com- 
 mandments of men, and delude people with the 
 8*
 
 86 THE WOMAN 
 
 vain conceit of superior sanctity and acceptable- 
 ness to God, simply because they belong to a par- 
 ticular church, or pay their worship in a particu- 
 lar place, and according to particular forms. Let 
 us turn now and consider : 
 
 II. The manner in which our Saviour treated 
 this bigoted woman of Samaria. 
 
 1. It is worthy of remark, that he entered into 
 no dispute with her. At the very commence- 
 ment of the interview, the woman started several 
 topics which were of a controversial nature. She 
 expressed her surprise that our Lord, being a Jew, 
 should ask drink of her, who was a Samaritan. 
 She questioned his superiority, both in respect to 
 wisdom and power, to her ancestor Jacob. And 
 she claimed that Gerizim, and not Jerusalem, 
 was the place where men ought to worship. 
 These several points our Lord evaded, as of little 
 importance in themselves, and entirely irrelevant 
 to the object he had in view, which was to con- 
 vince the woman of her error and sinfulness, and 
 bring her to repentance. She was not now in a 
 state of mind to be convinced or profited by dis- 
 putation. She was narrow, sectarian, bigoted in 
 her feelings. The difficulty in her case was more
 
 OFSAMARIA. 87 
 
 of the heart than of the head, and if our Lord had 
 entered into controversy with her on the points 
 she suggested, the effect would have been to con- 
 firm her prejudice and inflame still more her ill 
 temper. He therefore aims to draw her away 
 from matters controversial and speculative, and 
 to fix her attention upon the great spiritual truths 
 of religion. 
 
 There are some persons with whom it does no 
 good to dispute ; and bigots are eminently of this 
 character. They are diseased at heart. They 
 see every thing through a false medium. Their 
 state of mind is such, as make little things appear 
 great, and great things little. And to attempt to 
 convince such persons by argument, were as vain 
 as to try to make blind men see, or deaf men 
 hear by argument. The application, in such 
 cases, should be to the heart rather than to the 
 head. And this was the way in which our Sav- 
 iour treated the woman of Samaria. Her mind 
 was full of prejudice and bigotry respecting the 
 external, non-essential parts of religion. To have 
 disputed with her on these things, would have 
 been like pouring oil on fire. The divine Teacher 
 therefore avoided them, and led her to the know-
 
 88 THE WOMAN 
 
 ledge of the truth, by another and more success- 
 ful method. 
 
 2. There is something very noticeable in the 
 mildness and gentleness with which our Saviour 
 treated this woman. Her manner of addressing 
 the stranger, who sat by the well side, was ex- 
 ceedingly arrogant and offensive. She refused 
 to give him so much as a drink of water ; held 
 his character in disparagement as a Jew, and 
 plainly intimated that he was wholly wrong on 
 the question as to the place and manner of pay- 
 ing acceptable worship to God. Passing by all 
 this, our blessed Lord, in the mildest and gentlest 
 manner possible, goes on in his discourse with 
 her, as though nothing improper had fallen from 
 her lips, and gradually corrects her errors about 
 the place and mode of worship, about forms and 
 ceremonies, opening to her view the great spir- 
 itual truths of religion. He turns her attention 
 away from rites and forms, and leads her to think 
 of herself, her sins, her own personal need of 
 grace to sanctify and save her ; and all this he 
 does in so kind and so serious a manner, that be 
 soon began to win upon her confidence, to allay 
 her prejudices, and she was prepared in the end
 
 OF SAM ARIA. 89 
 
 to listen to him, first as a prophet, and then as 
 the Messias, the Saviour of the world. Here we 
 have a perfect model of the way in which we 
 should treat persons who are under the influence 
 of the spirit of bigotry and sectarianism. They 
 can be won by kindness much easier than they 
 can be convinced by argument. They have a 
 heart to feel the attractions of love, though they 
 may have no mind to see the light or feel the 
 power of argument, especially when aimed at 
 their prejudices. We can hope very little good 
 from cold dry argument, employed against secta- 
 rians and bigots. And least of all can good be 
 expected from railing at them, or calling them 
 hard names. If any insist that Mount Gerizim 
 is the place where God must be worshiped, or, 
 which is virtually the same thing, if any insist 
 that theirs is the only true church, theirs the only 
 authorized ministry, theirs the only valid ordi- 
 nances, and that all not connected with their 
 communion, are out of the appointed way of sal- 
 vation, and must be left, like the heathen, to 
 uncovenanted mercies, if any, I say, insist upon 
 dogmas like these, breathing only the spirit of 
 bigotry and narrow-mindedness, the best way to
 
 90 THE WOMAN 
 
 treat them is that adopted by our Saviour in the 
 case before us. Do not dispute with them, do not 
 assail their prejudices; but treat them kindly; 
 pity them and pray for them; and strive, when 
 you converse with them, to bring them to a bet- 
 ter frame of mind, to think of their sins, and of 
 their personal need of God's mercy to pardon and 
 save them. 
 
 3. In his conversation with the woman of Sa- 
 maria, our Saviour aimed to show her the worth- 
 lessness of all mere forms of worship, by leading 
 her to entertain just views of the nature of the 
 true, spiritual worship of God. The opportunity 
 was most favorable for giving instruction on these 
 points, and our blessed Lord improves it, not for 
 the benefit of the woman only, but of all who 
 should become his disciples in after ages. At the 
 point where she brought forward the main dogma 
 of her faith, that Mount Gerizim was the appoint- 
 ed place of worship, the Saviour meets her with 
 the declaration Woman, believe me, the hour 
 cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, 
 nor yet in Jerusalem, worship the Father. Hith- 
 erto the public, solemn worship of God has been 
 confined to one place. It has been a matter of
 
 OP SAM ARIA. 91 
 
 dispute whether that place should be Jerusalem 
 or Mount Gerizim. That controversy is now of 
 little importance. A new, spiritual dispensation 
 is about to commence. The peculiar rites of 
 Judaism are to cease ; and the worship of God, 
 no longer confined to a single place, is to be ob- 
 served every where, and with as much acceptance 
 in one place as another. It is not the place, it is 
 not the out ward form that God regards in his wor- 
 ship ; but the hearty the spirit, the frame of the 
 inner man. The hour is coming, yea is, when 
 external rites and ceremonies as connected with 
 worship, aie to be accounted of no value in them- 
 selves ; and the true worshipers shall worship the 
 Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seek- 
 eth such to worship him. The reason assigned 
 for this follows, God is a spirit ; and they that 
 worship him must worship him in spirit and in 
 truth. This is one of the first truths of religion, 
 and one of the sublimest truths ever presented to 
 the mind of man. God is announced as a pure, 
 spiritual Being ; invisible, eternal, present in 
 every place. This being his nature, he dwelleth 
 not in temples made with hands ; neither is wor- 
 shiped by men's hands, as though he needed
 
 92 THE WOMAN 
 
 any thing, seeing he giveth to all life and breath 
 and all things. A pure, a holy, a spiritual wor- 
 ship is therefore alone adapted to his nature ; that 
 alone he seeks and requires ; the offering of the 
 heart, the homage of the mind, the devout, rev- 
 erential subjection of the soul to him, the all-per- 
 fect Jehovah, the eternal infinite I Am. How 
 does instruction like this put to flight all the silly 
 notions that men have invented in regard to times, 
 and places, and rites, and forms of worship ? God 
 is a Spirit, a great truth ; and it follows irresist- 
 ibly from this, that if we would worship God 
 acceptably, we must worship him in spirit and in 
 truth ; our hearts, our souls, must be in our wor- 
 ship ; all forms, all ceremonies, however exact, 
 however costly, are nothing without this ; and 
 with this, our worship is right and acceptable to 
 God, wherever paid and in whatever forms. 
 
 III. Let us pass to notice, thirdly, the happy 
 consequences which resulted from the manner in 
 which our Saviour treated the woman of Samaria. 
 And, 
 
 1. Her prejudices were gradually subdued, and 
 her mind was opened to listen to the instructions 
 of the divine teacher, with candor and docility.
 
 OPSAMARIA. 96 
 
 2. Drawn away from her excessive and bigoted 
 regard to things outward and non-essential, she 
 was made to think of her personal sinfulness, and 
 to feel her need of renewing grace and pardoning 
 mercy. Hence, 
 
 3. There is reason to believe that she was 
 converted, became a Christian, and an heir of 
 heaven. 
 
 4. Through her instrumentality, or in conse- 
 quence of the change wrought in her, and her 
 zeal in reporting what she had seen and heard of 
 Christ, many others of the Samaritans came from 
 the city to hear him for themselves, and became 
 his disciples. All this is evident, as you may see 
 from a perusal of the narrative from which our 
 text is taken. But I cannot enlarge. Our blessed 
 Lord, seeing the fields white unto the harvest, 
 multitudes flocking from the city and surrounding 
 villages to hear him, was persuaded by the people 
 to tarry with them two days. And many more it 
 is said, believed, because of his own word; and 
 said unto the woman, now we believe, not be- 
 cause of thy saying : for we have heard him our- 
 selves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, 
 the Saviour of the world. Now, all this resulted 
 from the manner in which our Saviour treated the
 
 94 THE WOMAN 
 
 woman in question. He entered into no dispute 
 with her. He did uot directly attack her preju- 
 dices; but led her along in the most kind and 
 winning" manner, laying open great, spiritual 
 truths to her view, till at length awakened, con- 
 vinced and converted, she renounced her bigotry, 
 turned from Gerizim to Christ, learned to worship 
 God in spirit and in truth, and showed the sincer- 
 ity and earnestness of her faith, by striving to 
 bring others to an acquaintance with him whom 
 she had chosen as her Saviour and King. 
 
 The change in her was great and most happy, 
 as it was also in those of her countrymen who 
 believed in Christ. Convinced of the great truth 
 that God is a Spirit, and that all acceptable wor- 
 ship of him must be from the heart, sincere, inter- 
 nal, spiritual, they were no longer disposed to 
 quarrel about places and modes of worship ; but 
 were anxious only to prove themselves to be of 
 those true worshipers, who worship the Father in 
 spirit and in truth. A Christian church was sub- 
 sequently gathered there, and for many genera- 
 tions Christianity flourished there with much 
 purity and power. At length war, in its succes- 
 sive ravages, swept away the city ; laid waste the 
 surrounding country ; and now all that remains
 
 OPSAMARIA. 95 
 
 of ancient piety and of the pure worship of God, 
 are the ruins of two churches one at Sebastie, 
 the ancient Samaria; the other near to Jacob's 
 well, where our Lord held the discourse, on which 
 we have been remarking, with the woman of 
 Samaria. 
 
 The lessons which I have wished to impress 
 on your minds, my friends, by what I have said, 
 are these. 
 
 1. To show you the nature, evil and cure of 
 bigotry a moral malady, very prevalent in our 
 day, and not a little contagious. Its nature is to 
 make great things little and little things great; 
 to attach an overweening importance to things 
 outward and non-essential, and to maintain these 
 things with an obstinate, exclusive spirit. The 
 evil of bigotry is to beget and cherish a bad spirit 
 in those who are the subjects of it ; to narrow and 
 to sour their minds ; to pervert and make void the 
 great essential truths of the gospel ; to delude 
 and destroy men by leading them to trust in dead 
 forms and ceremonies, to the neglect of charity 
 and the love of God; and finally to spread through 
 the community where it prevails, the fruits of 
 jealousy, alienation, sectaiianism and strife. The
 
 96 THEWOMAN 
 
 cure of it, as we learn from our Saviour, is not in 
 disputation, or in harsh denunciatory dealing 1 , 
 but in kindness, in pity, in forbearance, in draw- 
 ing away the mind from its fond, perverting 
 attachment to things outward and little, by open- 
 ing to its view and pressing on its attention the 
 great, fundamental, spiritual truths of religion. 
 Here is the cure of bigotry. It is a disease of the 
 heart, rather than of the head, and no applica- 
 tions are likely to remove it, which do not tend 
 to make the heart better, to expel selfishness and 
 pride from the bosom, and inspire there the love 
 of God and the love of man. I wished, 
 
 2. To show you, from the example of Christ, 
 how you should treat bigots. The Samaritan 
 woman was a bigot. She believed thather's was 
 the only true church, that Mount Gerizim was 
 the only place where God could be acceptably 
 worshiped, and that the priests of her order were 
 the only ones authorized to minister in the things 
 of religion. It was a hard case, very hard. You 
 have seen how the Saviour treated it. He did 
 not dispute with her; he did not denounce her; 
 he did not rail at her, or ridicule her ; but com- 
 passionating her weakness, and her folly, for 
 holding such notions, he conversed with her in
 
 OPSAMARIA. 97 
 
 such a manner as to coneiliate her kind feelings, 
 and thus prepared the way to let in the light of 
 great essential truths upon her mind, which con- 
 verted her from her bigotry, and made her a true 
 disciple of Christ. This is the right way ; and it 
 is the only way that is likely to be of any avail 
 in curing or correcting the bigotry of our times. 
 We see it prevailing widely around us. In vari- 
 ous quarters, and in different sects, persons are 
 rising up, both laity and clergy, who greatly mag- 
 nify little things; who are for ever insisting upon 
 the importance of certain rites and forms in relig- 
 ion; who claim that they are of the only true 
 church, and in the only appointed way of salva- 
 tion. Now I do not know that all the disputing 
 and arguing, of which there has been so much in 
 these last years, have availed to convert or to cure 
 a single one of the many who are infected with 
 the bigotry indicated by such sentiments. Such 
 disputing and arguing may have operated, and I 
 think have operated, as a sanitary measure to 
 keep others from taking the disease ; just as we 
 draw a cordon around a place where the yellow 
 fever or plague prevails ; but it is more than I 
 know if a single one, already under the power of 
 
 the disease, has ever been recovered by the means 
 9*
 
 THE WOMAN 
 
 referred to. Another remedy must be used ; and 
 what that is, you may learn from the example of 
 the Saviour in the case we have been considering. 
 A high churchman, a bigot, whether he be Con- 
 gregational, Presbyterian, Baptist, Episcopalian, 
 Catholic, Jew or Mahometan and the spirit in 
 all of them is essentially alike is not, I think, 
 primarily to be approached with disputation and 
 argument. He is beyond the reach of these. 
 The first effort should be in the way of pity, com- 
 passion and kindness, just as we deal with dis- 
 eased persons; and then, avoiding all dispute on 
 points of controversy, seek to fix the attention 
 upon the great, spiritual truths of religion, such as 
 relate directly to the soul, to God and salvation. 
 This method is likely to be blessed of God ; and 
 whether it succeed or not, you will have the sat- 
 isfaction of having imitated the example of Christ, 
 and must stand approved of him. 
 
 3. I wished, in selecting the subject of my text 
 for your consideration, to lead you to a just view 
 of true and acceptable worship. It is, that it be 
 of the heart, of the spirit ; that it proceed from a 
 mind deeply and solemnly affected with a view 
 of God as a Spirit, pure, holy, invisible, every-
 
 OP 8 AMA R I A. 99 
 
 where present ; and that it be offered to him in 
 true sincerity of soul. This is the worship which 
 is due to our God ; the worship which he requires 
 of us ; wriich alone is acceptable iu his sight, or 
 can be of any benefit to ourselves. This worship, 
 it is our privilege to know, can be rendered to 
 God at any time and in any place. It is not con- 
 fined to the cathedral or to the church, and is not 
 limited to the Sabbath, or to any one day or hour 
 of the week. In the house, by the way, at home, 
 abroad, kneeling in the closet, or bowing in the 
 great congregation, God, the eternal, ever-pres- 
 ent Spirit, is near to us, and we may worship him 
 in spirit and in truth. He knows our wants ; his 
 ear is attentive to our cry ; and never can we be 
 in a situation, where we shall not have the priv- 
 ilege of bowing down and worshiping him, the 
 great Eternal. 
 
 But while the spirituality of God thus presents 
 him to our view as ever present with us, to regard 
 and accept our worship,' it shows us also that no 
 worship can be acceptable to him, which is not 
 in spirit and in truth; proceeding from a mind 
 reverent of the divine majesty, penetrated with 
 a sense of unworthiness, and moved with a sin- 
 cere desire of his favor and glory. All other wor-
 
 100 THE WOMAN OP SAMARIA. 
 
 ship but this, wherever paid and in whatever 
 forms, is but empty breath in the sight of him, 
 the great Searcher of hearts, with whom we have 
 to do. Let this thought possess your mind when- 
 ever you kneel in the closet, bow in the family, 
 or enter the sanctuary to worship. God is there, 
 is here, to notice the frame of your spirit, the 
 thoughts and feelings of the inner man ; and 
 while he will graciously hear the humble and 
 contrite in spirit, and bestow all needed grace and 
 help, he will frown upon the proud, the insincere, 
 and the worldly, however gorgeous the forms, or 
 imposing the rites in which their worship is paid.
 
 RELIGION OF THE EAST.
 
 RELIGION OF THE EAST. 
 
 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such 
 turn away. 2 TIMOTHY 3 : 5. 
 
 IT is remarkable, that this having 1 a form of 
 godliness, while the power of it was denied, is 
 predicated of persons who, in the context, are 
 represented as grossly immoral and wicked, 
 proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, un- 
 thankful, unholy, truce-breakers, false accusers, 
 incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are 
 good, traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of 
 pleasures more than lovers of God ; having a 
 form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. 
 
 This union of gross impiety and wickedness, 
 with an observance of the forms of religion, cannot 
 but strike us, as a strange and most inconsistent 
 anomally in human character. And yet it is just 
 what was exhibited by the scribes and Pharisees, 
 and by great multitudes of the Jewish nation, in 
 the times of our Lord ; and it is just what is seen 
 at the present day, in all its deformity and offen- 
 siveness, throughout the countries of the East,
 
 104 RELIGION OP 
 
 whether we refer to the followers of the false 
 prophet, or to the various sects of nominal chris- 
 tians. No one thing is more striking in the char- 
 acter of these people, than their careful observance 
 of the forms of godliness, while they deny or are 
 entirely destitute of the power thereof, and are 
 grossly wicked. The truth is, man was made to 
 be a religious being ; and I mean by this, not 
 merely that he. has intellectual and moral facul- 
 ties, which qualify him for religion, but that in 
 his very nature he has wants, deep, irrepressible 
 wants, which nothing but religion, in some form, 
 can satisfy. Now as men in their apostacy are 
 averse to the true God and the holy service which 
 he requires of them, they go about to invent a god 
 of their own, and a religion which while, in some 
 sense, it satisfies the wants of the soul, shall at 
 the same time gratify their pride and selfishness, 
 and leave them undisturbed in their sins. This 
 accounts for all the various systems of idolatry 
 and false religion in the world ; and shows how 
 it is, that men may be very strict in observing the 
 forms of godliness, and yet live in the practice of 
 every immorality and crime. This, as I have 
 said, is strikingly characteristic of the religion of
 
 THE EAST. 105 
 
 the East ; including in that designation the coun- 
 tries in and around the Mediterranean; especial- 
 ly, the mingled people of the Turkish empire, 
 Mohammedans, Jews, and the various sects of 
 nominal Christians. 
 
 It cannot, of course, be expected, that I should 
 go into a particular description of the religious 
 doctrines and practices which prevail in the 
 countries referred to. All that can be attempted, 
 in a single discourse, is to present some of the 
 more general characteristics of the religion of the 
 East. And my object in doing this is to make 
 you acquainted with the spirit and tendencies of 
 the religious systems which prevail there ; to lead 
 you to a juster appreciation of your own high 
 privileges, and to a better knowledge of the reli- 
 gion of the Bible, as a spiritual religion, and alone 
 adapted to raise us from the degradation and 
 misery of sin, and fit us for a holy and happy 
 heaven. 
 
 1. In speaking of the religion of the East, my 
 first remark is, there is a great deal of it. One 
 of the first things which attracted my notice on 
 approach ing and sailing along the coast of Spain 
 and Portugal, and down the Mediterranean, was 
 10
 
 106 RELIGION OF 
 
 the number of convents and religious houses of 
 various name, which presented themselves from 
 the lofty head lands on which they are situated. 
 At Gibraltar, I saw less of this ; for that place, 
 from a very early period of European history* 
 hcis been occupied chiefly as a strong military 
 post or fortress; and the people collected there, 
 some fifteen or twenty thousand, are from all 
 parts of the world, and appeared to have very 
 little religion of any kind. 
 
 When I reached Malta, it seemed, as I have said 
 elsewhere, by far the most religious place I ever 
 saw. Ecclesiastics, churches, religious proces- 
 sions, crosses, ringing of bells, and people going 
 to and from worship, arrested my attention wher- 
 ever I went. Attendance upon religious ceremo- 
 nies of some kind, appeared to occupy a large 
 part of the time, and to constitute the principal 
 business, or rather I should say, amusement of 
 the people, for religion in the East is very much 
 a matter of amusement. The same thing, though 
 not perhaps in quite so great a degree, I witness- 
 ed in all the Catholic countries I visited. Reli- 
 gion, in some form or ministration of it, was a 
 most striking feature in the moral landscape.
 
 THE EAST. 107 
 
 In Greece, in Turkey and Syria, I was every 
 where impressed with the religious aspect of 
 society around me. 
 
 The Turks are, naturally, a grave, and appar- 
 ently devout people. As a general fact, they 
 are remarkably strict in observing the rites of their 
 religion. Five times a day the muezzin, from 
 the highest tower of the jami or minaret, sum- 
 mons the faithful to their devotions, by crying 
 out in loud, plaintive tones ; There is no God but 
 God ; Mahomet is the prophet of God ; come to 
 prayer; come to the asylum of salvation ; Great 
 God! There is no God but God. Every good 
 mussulman prays at least three times a day ; at 
 sunrise, noon, and sunset ; and those, who ad- 
 here more strictly to the prophet's command, 
 perform a similar act of devotion between each 
 of those periods. I have often been exceedingly 
 struck with the apparent devoutness with which 
 the Turks perform their devotions. It makes no 
 difference where they are, whether on a steam- 
 boat, or in company, or by the way-side ; when 
 the appointed hour comes, they go through their 
 ablutions, turn their faces towards Mecca, and 
 say their prayers, if indeed that can be called
 
 108 RELIGION OF 
 
 prayer, which has neither confession, supplica- 
 tion, or intercession, but is simply an act of hom- 
 age to the Supreme Being, acknowledging his 
 mercy and his omnipotence.* Friday is their 
 Sabbath, when the mosques are frequented by 
 large numbers, and the services are conducted 
 by imams or priests appointed for that purpose. 
 They are equally strict in observing the feasts 
 
 *The Turks appear very devout in their religion ; so they do 
 in eating a dinner, and smoking a pipe. But grave and serious 
 as they are wont to appear in their devotions, it is no uncom- 
 mon thing for them to break off in the midst, converse, and 
 laugh and storm and scold, and then fall to their prayers again. 
 This latter fact I witnessed in the great mosque at Broosa. A 
 Turk of high distinction, whom we saw there engaged in his 
 devotions, .railed and stormed at us, and our conductor, for 
 allowing us to enter the sacred place, though we had a permit 
 from the Pasha to do so, and having vented his rage, he en- 
 gaged again very devoutly in his prayers. The truth is, prayer, 
 as understood and practiced by the Turks, has nothing to do 
 with the heart. It has seven conditions in order to be accepta- 
 ble. 1. Clean raiment. 2. Clean face, hands and feet, hence 
 ablution before prayer. 3. Clean place to kneel upon. 4. The 
 face must be towards Mecca. 5th and 6th conditions not to be 
 named for their indecency. 7. There must be an intention to 
 pray in the manner and number of times prescribed. None of 
 these conditions touch the heart.
 
 THE EAST. 
 
 and fasts enjoined by their religion. The annual 
 fast of Ramazan continues a month ; during 
 which no refreshment of any kind is allowed to 
 be taken from dawn in the morning, till dusk in 
 the evening, and it is truly wonderful how gen- 
 erally and strictly this long and severe fast is ob- 
 served by the people. It is especially severe in 
 relation to those who are obliged to labor some 
 sixteen hours a day, under a burning sun ; but 
 they seldom break the law of their fast. 
 
 Every mussulman too is expected, in the course 
 of his life, to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca ; and he 
 is'under obligation to do this, whenever it will not 
 take more than half his property to perform the 
 journey, being allowed to reserve the other half 
 on which to subsist when he returns home. The 
 religion of the Turks shows itself also in various 
 chanties, such as feeding doves, dogs and other 
 animals, in opening fountains and erecting cara- 
 vanserais, and places of prayer by the way side, 
 for the accommodation of travelers. Finally, 
 their religion displays itself in their burying 
 grounds, and on the monuments erected over 
 their graves, the inscriptions on which record 
 their faith and their good deeds, and solicit the 
 10*
 
 RELIGION OP 
 
 prayers of passers by ; for the Turks believe in 
 praying to the dead and for the dead. 
 
 In regard to the religion of nominal Christians 
 in the East, there is certainly no lack of it, if 
 reference be had merely to outward forms and 
 observances. These abound to such a degree as 
 to become a burden too heavy to be borne ; ope- 
 rating in many cases as a most serious detriment 
 to the industry and comfortable subsistence of the 
 people. Besides the two weekly fasts on Wed- 
 nesday and Friday, the Greek church prescribes 
 four Lents in each year, one before Easter, 
 another before Christmas, a third in honour of 
 the Virgin Mary, and a fourth in honour of St. 
 Peter and St. Paul. These together make the 
 number of days on which fasting is enjoined, 
 more than those on which animal food is allow- 
 ed ; and the fast days and feast days, noted both 
 in the Greek and Armenian Calendars, exceed, 
 by considerable, the whole number of days in a 
 year, ^he services in the churches are exceed- 
 ingly frequent, and often protracted through 
 many hours of the day. During my stay in Con- 
 stantinople, I was often roused from my sleep
 
 THE EAST. Ill 
 
 long before day, by a heavy pounding on the 
 street pavement, designed to summon the Arme- 
 nians to their places of worship, and I found 
 when present on such occasions, as I sometimes 
 was, that the number in attendance at that early 
 hour was large. 
 
 The Oriental Christians, like the Mohamme- 
 dans, bring forward their religion on all occasions. 
 Their baptisms, their marriages, and their funer- 
 als are connected with very numeious rites and 
 ceremonies. Some six or seven distinct religious 
 services are performed for the dead, among the 
 Armenians, during the first year after their de- 
 cease. They always cross themselves when they 
 take their food, when they kneel, when they 
 rise from prayer, retire to rest, get up, walk, 
 dress, or engage in any important business. The 
 presence of company does not prevent them from 
 saying their daily prayers ; and a pilgrimage to 
 Jerusalem is deemed a sacred duty, and a service 
 of great merit, to be performed by all who are 
 not prevented by ill health, or the want of means. 
 Hence thousands of pilgrims, from all parts of the 
 Eastern world, annually resort to the holy city,
 
 112 RELIGION OF 
 
 there to perform their vows and pay their wor- 
 ship ; and when they return home, they are re- 
 garded as saints of a distinguished order. These 
 few facts may suffice to show, that there is a great 
 deal of religion of some kind among the people 
 of the East. I remark, 
 
 2. It costs a great deal. I am satisfied from 
 all I saw and could learn, that the amount ex- 
 pended in this country for the support of reli- 
 gion, including all religious charities of every 
 name, is but a moiety of what is spent for similar 
 purposes in the East. Mohammedism, though 
 much more simple than the forms of Christianity 
 that prevail in that part of the world, is still very 
 expensive. There are various orders in the 
 priesthood, such as Mufti, Imam, Sheik and 
 others, who are supported by public endowments 
 connected with the mosques, or by private dona- 
 tions for services performed. The revenues of 
 some of the royal mosques are said to amount to 
 the enormous sum of 60,000 pounds sterling. 
 
 The clergy of all ranks at Constantinople are 
 estimated at from fifteen to twentyrfive thousand. 
 Besides these, there are some thirty orders of 
 Dervishes or Monks, who, as in Papal countries,
 
 THE EAST. 113 
 
 live chiefly on chanty or by begging. The fasts 
 and feasts presciibed in the Koran, are usually 
 observed with great exactness ; and the cost of 
 these in time and money is by no means small. 
 Then the pilgrimage to Mecca, which is suppo- 
 sed to be binding on every true follower of the 
 prophet, often involves a great expense of prop- 
 erty, and hazard of health and life. It is almost 
 incredible what sums of money are sometimes 
 given in charity, by wealthy mussulmen, when 
 performing their pilgrimage to the tomb of the 
 prophet. And the sacrifices of animals on such 
 occasions are frequently enormous ; sometimes 
 amounting to many thousands of sheep, cows 
 and camels. 
 
 In regard to the various Christian sects, their 
 religion, I cannot doubt, is much more expensive, 
 than that of the Mohammedans. The number 
 of ecclesiastics of various orders is very large. At 
 Nicomedia, there were seven Armenian priests 
 to about 2000 souls. And I have no reason to 
 believe that the proportion is much less in other 
 places. In Malta the proportion is as one to 
 every eighty or one hundred of the inhabitants. 
 Many of the churches are large and costly edifi-
 
 114 RELIGION OF 
 
 ces ; and for richness and splendor in their inte- 
 rior, we have nothing in this country to compare 
 with them. Paintings, images, statuary meet you 
 on every side ; and the silver and gold, in the 
 form of candlesticks and lamps, and various other 
 church utensils and ornaments, force upon one 
 the impression, that religion in the East costs a 
 great deal. To all this must be added the time 
 which is spent in attending upon the numerous 
 rites and ceremonies of this religion, in keeping 
 fast days and feast days, and in going on long, 
 expensive pilgrimages ; when all these things are 
 considered, you will, I think, admit the conclu- 
 sion to which I was forced, when on the ground, 
 that religion in that part of the world makes 
 heavy demands on the people for its support; is 
 exceedingly expensive both of time and money. 
 I observe, 
 
 3. This religion does the people no good. It 
 has a form of godliness ; but it has no power to 
 enlighten, sanctify, make happy or save. It is, 
 in the language of our Saviour, like salt which 
 has lost its savour ; it is thenceforth good for 
 nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot 
 of men. Mohammedism lies as a dreadful curse
 
 THE EAST. 115 
 
 upon the whole Turkish empire. It is a strange 
 compound of ignorance, arrogance, superstition, 
 bigotry and sensualism. It spreads blasting and 
 desolation over the very soil of the country, and 
 over all the best interests of society. Under its 
 deadening influence, the Turks are scarcely 
 further advanced in any of the forms of civiliza- 
 tion, than they were four centuries ago. 
 
 It may be admitted that for truthfulness in their 
 words, and good faith in trade, the Turks do not 
 suffer from a comparison with their native Chris- 
 tian neighbors. But this is very meagre praise, 
 when it is considered, how miserably degraded 
 are their Christian neighbors in point of morals. 
 The Turks, I believe, are naturally a noble race 
 of men. They have "germs of character, which, 
 if fostered by a proper moral influence, would 
 give them a high rank among the nations of the 
 earth." But their religion is their destruction. 
 It represses all that is free, generous, noble in 
 their nature, and subjects them to a miserable 
 bigotry, ignorance, pride and blood-thirsty cruel- 
 ty. The Koran, the Bible of the Turk, made 
 up of Paganism, Judaism, and corrupted Chris- 
 tianity, is the fundamental law of the land, civil, 
 political and religious; and it is the great support
 
 116 RELIGION OF 
 
 of the despotism, which every where crushes the 
 people to the earth. It has swept many of the 
 fairest portions of the globe as with the besom of 
 destruction. Where once religion and civiliza- 
 tion flourished, and the people were compara- 
 tively enlightened, industrious and happy, you 
 now behold only the monuments of departed 
 greatness, and signs of a widespread and general 
 desolation. And when you seek for the cause of 
 this, you are constrained to believe, it is found, 
 chiefly, in the religion of the false prophet. It 
 allows no liberty to the subject, but puts all 
 power into the hands of the Sultan ; it paralyzes 
 industry and enterprise ; is opposed to all change 
 or improvement in the state of society, and con- 
 sequently holds the people at large in a condition 
 of extreme ignorance and sluggishness. Educa- 
 tion, so far as it exists at all, is almost exclusively 
 limited to the religion of the Koran, and is oppo- 
 sed to every other kind of knowledge, and to 
 every other source of information not Mohamme- 
 dan. The religion of the Turk necessarily makes 
 him arrogant, bigoted and revengeful. He is 
 taught from his earliest years to look with con- 
 tempt upon all who are not of his faith ; he con- 
 signs them at once to the fires of hell, and while
 
 THE EAST. 117 
 
 he never prays for the conversion of infidels, as 
 he calls them, nor seeks to convince them by 
 argument, he deems it altogether right and mer- 
 itorious to propagate his religion by fire and 
 sword. He is indeed uniform and apparently 
 devout in his prayers, but at the same time in- 
 dulges the most fierce and violent passions ; is 
 addicted to gross sensuality, and to crimes which 
 decency forbids me to name ; and perfectly as- 
 sured that no follower of the prophet can possibly 
 be lost or fail of entering paradise^ his conscience 
 is kept quiet in the midst of his sensualism and 
 crimes, and he usually meets death with a singu- 
 lar degree of indifference and repose. 
 
 Such, briefly, is the influence of Mohammed- 
 ism, an influence devoid of all that purifies the 
 heart, and elevates the character, and operates 
 only to depress, to brutalize, and to remove its 
 disciples further and further, from all fitness for 
 the enjoyment of God and a holy heaven. 
 
 The same substantially is the influence of the 
 various corrupt forms of Christianity which pre- 
 vail in the Eastern world. One characteristic 
 belongs to them all ; they are destitute of spirit- 
 ual life ; are mere dead forms ; having no con- 
 11
 
 118 RELIGION OF 
 
 nection with purity of heart and holiness of con- 
 duct ; but are satisfied with an observance of 
 outward rites and ceremonies. This is the grand 
 delusion which prevails in all the Oriental 
 churches. Their religion, though so abundant 
 and costly, is devoid of inward principle ; an ab- 
 straction ; something outward and visible, like 
 Pharisaism of old ; not a thing to be taken into 
 the bosom to purify the affections and regulate 
 the life ; but a thing to be done up and laid 
 aside, as you do any outward task, and then full 
 liberty is supposed to be allowed to do whatever 
 one pleases. Hence, scarcely any thing is more 
 common among Eastern Christians, whether Ro- 
 man Catholic, Greek, Armenian, Syrian or Cop- 
 tic, than to see the grossest immoralities connect- 
 ed with a very exact and devout observance of 
 religious duties.* I have mentioned on a former 
 
 * Such cases sometimes occur among professing Christians in 
 this land ; but they are insulated cases, comparatively rare, and 
 no one thinks of justifying them, or supposes them consistent 
 with religion. Whereas in the East, the severance of morality 
 from religion is exceedingly common, so common that its total 
 inconsistency with piety is not seen, and gross immorality is 
 deemed no evidence that a man is not a good Christian. 
 
 The following fact is stated by the Rev. J. Hartley, in his Re- 
 searches in Greece and the Levant, page 59.
 
 TH E EAST. 
 
 occasion, the case of a Greek, in the island of 
 Spetzia, who, in pursuit of a Turk to put him to 
 death, rushed into a church where he supposed 
 he might find him ; but failing- of his object, he 
 
 " Some Samiot freebooters, in the course of a plundering ex- 
 pedition to the neighborhood of Smyrna, entered a Greek house 
 and demanded food. Animal food was presented to them. They 
 shrunk from it with abhorrence " how could they be guilty of 
 such a sin ?" " I have made voyages with Greeks of the most 
 vicious character. They were men who seemed to indulge, 
 without restraint, in profaneness, falsehood and licentiousness ; 
 and yet these very persons, when they observed me partaking 
 of animal food on their fast days, have turned from me as a per- 
 son guilty of a great sin to which they were happily strangers." 
 " The union which is observable between a rigid attention to 
 certain ordinances of religion, and an open violation of its most 
 important precepts, is easily explained. The human mind is 
 seldom so entirely insensible to the superior interests of eterni- 
 ty, as to neglect every species of preparation for them. It looks 
 for something, either active or passive, either great or small, 
 which may in some degree still the voice of conscience, and im- 
 part hope on approaching the grave. Amongst the Greeks, the 
 injunctions of abstinence afford a most convenient resource of 
 this description. Whatever crime may have been committed, 
 the reflection, that strict obedience has been rendered to the 
 self-denying command of abstinence, presents a soporific to the 
 conscience, otherwise ready to be startled by an alarm of guilt ; 
 and, practically, dependence is placed on it, as on an atonement 
 sufficient to expiate the offence."
 
 120 
 
 RELIGION OP 
 
 turned to go out, when, catching a sight of an 
 image of the Virgin Mary, he stopped, performed 
 his devotions, went out, found his victim and 
 imbrued his hands in his blood. 
 
 It was stated to me by the Rev. Mr. T. that 
 while he resided as missionary at Malta, three 
 men were concerned in killing and robbing a 
 man of his money ; and then to make atonement 
 for the crime, they agreed to give a third of their 
 plunder in charity, another third to the priest, and 
 keep the remainder themselves; and this process, 
 in their view, discharged their consciences of all 
 guilt. 
 
 You have doubtless heard of the Greek 
 pirates, condemned and executed in Malta some 
 years since, for robbery on the high seas. It ap- 
 peared at their trial, that in plundering a certain 
 vessel, while they seized every vegetable article 
 of food on board, a barrel of fish was left un- 
 touched. The court demanded the reason. The 
 pirates replied that, it being Lent when they 
 robbed the vessel, the use of fish was then pro- 
 hibited by the Greek church ; and God forbid 
 they should be guilty of breaking their church's 
 laws. They could rob and murder on the high
 
 THE E AST . 
 
 seas ; but they were too religious to eat fish in 
 Lent. 
 
 It is related by the Rev. Mr. Hartley, in his 
 Researches in Greece and the Levant, that a 
 bishop, on a journey through a distiict of Maina, 
 was waylaid and plundered, and then permitted 
 to proceed. But it soon occurred to the robbers, 
 that he would procure their excommunication 
 from the church, as soon as he arrived at a place 
 of safety. In apprehension of this, they went in 
 pursuit of the unhappy prelate, and actually put 
 him to death. They were too pious to be cut off 
 from the church, but not to rob and murder. 
 
 I will mention another case. It occurred a lew 
 miles from Constantinople, and not long before I 
 was there. Two Armenians hired a smith's shop 
 of a Greek, containing an anvil and some other 
 tools necessary to carry on their business, for 
 which they were to pay a certain sum quarterly. 
 At the close of the quarter, the Greek went to get 
 his rent. But lo ! only the shop was to be found, 
 Armenians, anvil, tools and all had disappeared. 
 On making inquiry, he found that his pious ten- 
 ants, thinking they were called to a higher and 
 more sacred vocation, had made off with them- 
 11*
 
 122 RELIGION OF 
 
 selves, taking with them all they could carry; 
 and having- applied to a bishop for ordination,* 
 had by him been duly inducted into the ministry, 
 and made priests in the true line of Apostolical 
 succession.f 
 
 * It is a notorious fact, that both in the Greek and Armenian 
 churches, almost any person, however destitute of the proper 
 qualifications, may obtain ordination by striking a bargain with 
 a bishop, and paying him well for his services. 
 
 t If being ordained by a bishop, or being found in the line of 
 " Apostolical succession," as it is called, is as some teach, the 
 essential element of a valid ministry, then these thieving Ar- 
 menian blacksmiths were just as veritable priests, as any that 
 have been ordained, either by English or American bishops. 
 That is, according to this class of teachers, no errors in doctrine 
 or wickedness in life, whether in bishop, or in priest, or in 
 both, can invalidate " orders," provided only that the formalities 
 of consecration have been duly observed ; but the absence of a 
 single one of these formalities, the imposition of a bishop's 
 hands, makes null and void the ministry of every denomina- 
 tion, however characterized by truth and piety that ministry may 
 be. One inference from which is, an inference too practically 
 carried out by many, that the Romish church and the corrupt 
 churches of the East, are to be acknowledged as " sister 
 churches," " branches of the one true Apostolical church ;" 
 while all Protestant non-episcopal churches of every name, are 
 to be discarded as no churches, and no fellowship or commun- 
 ion with them is to be tolerated. Some sentiments are so gross- 
 ly absurd that a bare statement of them is the best possible refu-
 
 THE EAST. 123 
 
 Facts of this kind, going to show the entire 
 severance of morality from religion, in the East- 
 ern churches, might be mentioned almost without 
 
 tation. The dogma just named is of this character. The truth 
 is, the notion of " succession," as being essential to a true 
 church and a valid ministry, is a mere figment of the imagina- 
 tion, or as one " of their own order" calls it, the " stupidity 
 and fables of Romanists." Just as if the imposition of a bishop's 
 hands, by virtue of something no body knows what, derived by 
 " succession" from the Apostles, no body knows how, could 
 suffice to make a very good priest out of a graceless profligate, or 
 a blacksmith thief, while for the want of that nameless some- 
 thing, communicated only by prelatical^ hands, no matter how 
 impure and wicked, such ministers as Isaac Watts, Philip Dod- 
 dridge, Robert Hall and Jonathan Edwards, indeed, the whole 
 body of non-episcopal clergy in the world, are to be regarded as 
 no ministers, mere intruders into the sacred office, and all ordi- 
 nances administered by them are invalid and worthless. A sen- 
 timent like this is to be repudiated as ineflably foolish and ab- 
 surd ; the arguments against it are infinite, in favor of it no- 
 thing. " It is alike destitute of evidence, and an outrage on all 
 Christian charity." Kee Edinburgh Review, April, 1843. Arti- 
 cle Puseyism. 
 
 It may be admitted, that church government is of divine ap- 
 pointment, an ordinance of God, just as civil government is, 
 that is, it is the will of God that his friends should be formed 
 into societies with such officers and rules, as are adapted to 
 secure the great object of their organization, the increase of 
 personal holiness in their members, and the spread of true reli- 
 gion over the world. And that form of church government is
 
 124 RELIGION OF 
 
 number. The truth is, as I have said, religion is 
 there regarded as a thing by itself; having no 
 connection whatever with life and manners. 
 
 nearest the divine model, and most in accordance with the divine 
 will, which is best adapted to promote the two fold object here 
 specified. Neither in respect to civil or ecclesiastical govern- 
 ment, is any precise form prescribed in the Scriptures. All 
 forms of government are of divine authority, just in proportion 
 as they are adapted to answer the great end or design of gov- 
 ernment, the improvement of the people in knowledge, virtue, 
 piety and happiness. As the divine right of kings has been ex- 
 ploded as a relic of the dark ages, so the divine right of bishops, 
 having the same origin, should be consigned to the same cate- 
 gory- 
 Suppose that Nicholas, Autocrat of Russia, should rise up and 
 claim that his is the only divinely authorized government in the 
 world ; that Louis Philippe, King of France, should do the same ; 
 and that the Queen of England, and the President of the United 
 States, should put forth a like pretension, each claiming that his 
 is the only government in the world, resting on divine authority. 
 What would be thought of such a claim in this nineteenth cen- 
 tury ? It would be scouted as an absurdity too weak and foolish 
 to be met with serious argument. How far from being worthy 
 of the same treatment is the claim set forth by some professedly 
 Christian denominations, that theirs, respectively, is the only 
 true church, theirs the only authorized ministry, and theirs the 
 only valid ordinances ? We expect this of Popery ; we find it 
 in the Greek church, and it is the very spirit of Moham- 
 medism ; but Protestants, alas ! that any should be found to
 
 THE EAST. 125 
 
 Hence, one may be a very good Christian, and yet 
 a very bad man. Persons notorious for profane- 
 ness, falsehood and licentiousness, are often most 
 scrupulously exact in observing- the appointed 
 ceremonies of their church, and account it a sin 
 hardly to be forgiven for one to take animal food 
 on days set apart for fasting. 
 
 The various orders of clergy in the Oriental 
 churches are, to a deplorable extent, a demoralized 
 and wicked class of men. Great numbers of them 
 
 advocate so anti-christian and pernicious a dogma. It is to 
 offer a cool and deliberate insult to nineteen-twentieths of the 
 Christian people in this country ; as much so as it would be for a 
 petty political party to rise up in this land of the Puritans, and 
 denounce their descendants as no citizens, mere intruders upon 
 the soil and usurpers of the functions of government ; though 
 their fathers owned the soil, cleared it of its forests, defended it 
 with their blood, and established the government and the schools 
 and colleges, and various institutions which exist to bless the 
 people as at this day. Let the dogma which thus unchurches 
 all denominations of Christians but one, and turns them over " to 
 uncovenanted mercy," be put away, by all who call them- 
 selves Christians, as a shame and a reproach to the Christian 
 name ; and let love and fellowship flow forth towards all whom 
 Christ loves, communes with, and is training up for heaven. 
 To all such of whatever name, grace, mercy and peace be mul- 
 tiplied.
 
 126 RELIGION OF 
 
 are sunk in gross ignorance, and in their general 
 character, are a disgrace, not only to their sacred 
 profession, but to common morality and decency. 
 Preaching is far from being regarded as an import- 
 ant part of their duty. Their principal business is 
 to perform mass, and say prayers for the people ; 
 and the prayers throughout all the East, both 
 among Mohammedans and Christians, with the 
 exception of the Greek Arabs in Syria, are in a; 
 language not at all understood by the people. 
 This indeed is not thought in the least necessary. 
 The proper idea of Eastern worship is, that of the 
 priest performing service for the people. The 
 priest is every thing; the people nothing ; and 
 in so far as it respects the utility and acceptable- 
 ness of their worship, it makes no difference, 
 whether they understand a word of the service or 
 not. Indeed, I can hardly conceive of any thing 
 in the form of religion more unintelligible, sense- 
 less and profitless, than the worship I have often 
 witnessed in Greek, Armenian and Catholic 
 churches. Instruction, none is given ; it is all a 
 round of unmeaning ceremonies, kissing the 
 pictures, crossings, manipulations, genuflexions, 
 burning incense, sprinkling holy water and the
 
 THE EAST. 
 
 like. Services, such as these, it is manifest, can 
 have no good effect upon the people. They can- 
 not enlighten the mind ; they cannot quicken the 
 conscience; they cannot sanctify the heart; they 
 cannot improve the character, nor fit the soul for 
 heaven. Christianity indeed, as understood and 
 believed by the churches of the East, has lost 
 its vital, saving principles. It is a dead letter ; 
 and the ministration of it, as it now prevails, is a 
 ministration of absurdity and folly, serving only 
 to keep the people in ignorance and sin. Regen- 
 eration is by baptism. This wipes away original 
 sin, and all actual sin previously committed, and 
 brings the subject into a state of grace and salva- 
 tion. This delusive doctrine is held universally 
 in the churches of the East ; and of any other or 
 more spiritual regeneration, as effected by the 
 Spirit of God operating on the heart, both priests 
 and people are profoundly ignorant. Justifica- 
 tion is not by a living faith, but the observance of 
 ceremonies ; repentance is penance, confessing 
 to the priest and doing what he prescribes ; Chris- 
 tian doctrine is what the church teaches ; prayer 
 is a mere matter of the lips, repeating words in 
 an unknown tongue ; the rule of faith is not the 
 Bible, but tradition, or the decrees of councils ;
 
 128 RELIGION OF 
 
 holiness is observing the rites of the church, and 
 whoever does this is pronounced a saint, and is 
 sure of heaven. Add to these the dogmas of 
 transubstantiation, worshipping the Virgin Mary, 
 praying to the dead and for the dead, going on 
 pilgrimages and the like; and you then have some 
 faint idea of the religion of the East, a mere pa- 
 geant, a show, a thing without life and without 
 power.* No wonder that the people where it 
 prevails, are sunk in ignorance, are demoralized, 
 superstitious, debased, and miserable in their 
 temporal condition. In point of morals, the 
 Turks, it is generally believed, are superior to 
 their Christian neighbors. But neither of them 
 has much to boast on this score. The morals of 
 both are deplorably low ; and the religion of both, 
 being a religion of dead forms, entirely without 
 the power of godliness, has no tendency to re- 
 claim them from the dominion of error and sin ; 
 or make them holy and happy, either in this 
 world or in that which is to come. It is salt which 
 has lost its savor, and is good for nothing. 
 
 4. The religion of the East, which is so abun- 
 
 * For a particular account of the doctrines and rites of the Ar- 
 menian church, see Colman's Christian Antiquities, p. 466.
 
 THE EAST. 
 
 
 
 dant, so costly, and at the same time so worthless* 
 has a strong hold on the minds of the people ; 
 and it is very difficult to draw them off from 
 their attachment to it. The stability of Eastern 
 customs is proverbial. The people are strongly 
 averse to change in anything; and especially so, 
 in respect to their religion. The short argument 
 by which they are wont to repel all attempts to 
 convince them of the errors of their religious sys- 
 tems, and to persuade them to embrace a purer 
 faith, is by saying, " our religion is that of our an- 
 cestors ; it was good for them, and why should 
 we change it for another V It is to be re- 
 marked too, that the religions of which I am 
 speaking, are wonderfully adapted to the corrupt 
 nature of man. They gratify his pride and his 
 selfishness ; give indulgence to his appetites and 
 passions, and at the same time, quiet his con- 
 science and allay his fears, by securing for him a 
 firm hope of happiness after death. 
 
 These religions, also, are maintained by the 
 civil power ; they are interwoven with the in- 
 stitutions and laws of the state ; and the rites and 
 ceremonies which they prescribe are sanctioned by 
 
 the authority of government. This is especially 
 12
 
 RELIGION OP 
 
 true of the religion of the Turks. It is established 
 by law, and defection from it is punished with 
 death. No Mohammedan can think of changing 
 his religion but with the certain prospect of losing 
 his head. This was universally the fact, till the 
 early part of the last year, when an arrangement 
 was made with the Porte, by some of the foreign 
 ambassadors, in which it was stipulated that the 
 barbarous law of the Koran, which punishes apos- 
 tacy with death, should not hereafter be executed. 
 Whether the arrangement will avail any thing in 
 practice time must show. 
 
 It has been commonly supposed of late, that 
 Mohammedism is losing its hold on the people ; is 
 waxing old and ready to vanish away. I have 
 seen no evidence to convince me that this is the 
 fact, at least on any large scale. It is true, in- 
 deed, that the Ottoman empire is decaying and 
 becoming weak ; and this may, in some sense, 
 have an unfavorable effect on the religion of the 
 empire. It is true also that the intercourse of 
 foreigners, much more common now than former- 
 ly, together with the education of many of the 
 Turkish youth in Europe, has tended to some ex- 
 tent, especially among the higher classes, to in-
 
 THE EAST. 
 
 131 
 
 troduce more liberal sentiments, and to shake the 
 faith once reposed in the prophet. But by the 
 great mass of the people throughout the empire, 
 Mohammedism is as firmly believed and rigidly 
 practiced as ever. It now holds sway over 
 140,000,000 of people, among whom there are 
 probably not near as many infidels and sceptics, 
 as among an equal number of people living in 
 Christian lands. 
 
 The truth is Mohammedism has hitherto been 
 walled in, as it were, from the whole civilized 
 world. In its arrogance and bigotry, it has 
 spurned at all light, and refused all intercourse 
 with the science and learning of modern times. 
 Its devotees are of course miserably ignorant, and 
 in proportion to their ignorance, is the strength 
 of their attachment to their faith. It is a faith 
 too, which is taught them in their earliest years. 
 It is associated with all the deepest impressions 
 and thoughts of childhood and youth. The Turk- 
 ish children spend their first years in the harem, 
 with the women of the household, and there 
 they are carefully instructed in the principles of 
 their religion. Their education in the schools, so 
 far as there are any, is conducted on the same
 
 132 
 
 REL IGION OF 
 
 plan. The principal thing taught is the Koran ; 
 so that they grow up with Mohammedism en- 
 grained, as it were, into their very being ; and it 
 is the last thing they think of parting with, and 
 in point of fact is the last thing which, in any 
 circumstances, they can be persuaded to give up. 
 The consequence is, very little has been attempt- 
 ed, and very little done, in the way of converting 
 the followers of the false prophet. 
 
 The attachment of the different sects of chris- 
 tians in the East to their religious systems, is 
 scarcely less tenacious and abiding. It often 
 seemed to me, when there, that it is, in many re- 
 spects, more difficult to introduce a pure gospel 
 into the Oriental churches than among the na- 
 tions of heathenism.* And so it has been found 
 
 * There is an infernal originality in apostate Christianity ; it 
 is the master effort of the Prince of darkness. It sanctions 
 error, by the declaration Thus saith Jehovah. It conceals 
 perdition under the sound of salvation. It transforms the 
 church of Christ into a synagogue of Satan, and thus converts 
 the blessings of God into curses, and draws an eternal poison 
 from the well-springs of salvation. This is apostate Christianity 
 in the churches of the East. Can there be any thing more 
 iniquitous or appalling, in the systems ofHindooismor barbari- 
 an polytheism ? Is not Satan more ruinous, more fearful in his 
 power, when he appears as an angel of light, than when he dis-
 
 THE EAST. 133 
 
 by actual experiment. Many heathen tribes 
 have, by the labors of modern missionaries, been 
 converted to Christ; but few, comparatively, in 
 the corrupt churches of the East, have been 
 drawn off from their errors and delusions to em- 
 brace a spiritual religion. The religious systems 
 of the East are artfully and most successfully 
 constructed to bewilder, corrupt and crush the 
 human mind. They have enough of truth to 
 give them an air of plausibility in the view of 
 the ignorant and unreflecting. They appeal 
 powerfully to the senses and imagination. They 
 have pictures and images, and pageants of various 
 kinds. They have many holidays for the amuse- 
 ment of the people, and many processions and 
 pompous shows for the same purpose. They 
 have a priesthood gorgeously arrayed, and apos- 
 tolically descended. They have splendid church- 
 es, richly ornamented, and numerous rites and 
 ceremonies, and all things grand and impo- 
 sing in the view of an illiterate, pleasure loving 
 people. All this display of pomp and gran- 
 deur and sacredness, it should be remember- 
 
 covers himself in his true character of a fiend of darkness ? 
 Hartley's Researches, p. 79. 
 
 12*
 
 134 RELIGION OP 
 
 ed, is kept continually before the eyes of the 
 people. They see it from childhood upwards. 
 They are taken, as soon as they can walk, and 
 led into the churches, and there, as I have often 
 seen, are taught to kneel before the pictures, to 
 kiss them, and to go through the various forms of 
 worship, and thus these forms are associated with, 
 their earliest thoughts and feelings, and in riper 
 years, come to exert a most powerful and unresist- 
 ed sway over them. Added to all the common be- 
 lief that adherence to their particular church is es- 
 sential to salvation; that damnation is sure to fol- 
 lowevery heretic; and then the sleepless vigilance 
 of a jealous and bigoted priesthood, ready to take 
 the alarm at the discovery of the least inclination 
 to change, and to excommunicate and persecute 
 unto death all who do change their faith or gp 
 out from their fold, take into view all these 
 things, and you will not be surprised that the 
 religion of the East has a very strong hold on the 
 minds of the people ; and that to bieak that hold 
 and bring the people to the knowledge and love 
 of the truth, requires a power which none but God 
 can exert. But this brings before us a subject 
 which may occupy our attention at another time.
 
 THE EAST. 135 
 
 And now, as we review the picture which has 
 been presented, and many, very many even 
 darker shades might be added ; how affecting the 
 thought that these corrupt and corrupting systems 
 of religion prevail over the very lands, where 
 the pure gospel was once triumphant ; where 
 churches were formed by the Apostles them- 
 selves ; where patriarchs and prophets lie entomb- 
 ed; where the Saviour taught and wrought mira- 
 cles, and where he died for the world's redemp- 
 tion ? How great, how melancholy the change ! 
 Age after age, Christianity, in its primitive char- 
 acter, has ceased from these lands. 'Doctrine has 
 become corrupt ; discipline has disappeared ; mo- 
 rality is no more. Apostacy is stamped upon the 
 churches which once shone as lights in the world. 
 Where idol temples once fell, and where they still 
 attest, by their ruins, the resistless force of primi- 
 tive Christianity, the visible temple of God has 
 fallen, and great has been the fall of it. So total 
 has been the demolition, that the very language 
 of our Saviour, descriptive of the ruin of another 
 temple, has become too applicable to this edifice,' 
 not one stone is left upon another, that is not 
 thrown down.
 
 136 RELIGION OF 
 
 What now was the cause of this disastrous over- 
 throw, of this wide spread apostacy, of this in- 
 coming of a false and spurious religion 1 A great 
 question ; one which would well repay a careful 
 investigation ; but time forbids me to enter upon 
 it now. I will only touch upon a few points. It 
 may be admitted that the churches planted by the 
 Apostles were, comparatively, pure both in doc- 
 trine and practice. But long before the death of 
 the last of the Apostles, the mystery of iniquity 
 had began to work. False teachers came in and 
 corrupted the churches from the simplicity of 
 their faith. They insisted upon the observance 
 of forms and ceremonies, and times and seasons ; 
 taught the necessity of circumcision in order to be 
 saved, and revived various rites of the Mosaic law, 
 which had been done away by the gospel. This 
 process went on, till rites and forms came to take 
 the place of spiritual religion, and men began to 
 be satisfied with a round of pious observances. 
 Then the churches began to assume an air of 
 pomp and show, and ceremony. Their worship, 
 no longer simple, spiritual, pioceeding from the 
 heart, became complicated, gorgeous, showy ; 
 various orders of priesthood were introduced
 
 THE EAST. 137 
 
 from one to three, and then to seven and nine, 
 as in the Greek and Armenian churches ; and 
 pride, ambition, envy and jealousy, followed of 
 course. Then to conciliate the favor of the 
 heathen and make Christianity palatable to their 
 taste, various of their rites were introduced into 
 the church, only baptizing them with a Christian 
 name ; heathen philosophy usurped the place of 
 Christian doctrine ; spirituality decayed and died 
 under a load of senseless forms and outward ob- 
 servances ; the clergy, instead of performing their 
 sacred functions in simplicity of faith and prayer, 
 holding forth the word of life to enlighten the 
 people, became proud, luxurious, worldly, indo- 
 lent, ignorant ; and so things went on from bad to 
 worse, till at length, in the close of the fifth and 
 beginning of the sixth century, the churches, 
 having lost well nigh all spirituality in worship 
 and soundness in doctrine, and split up and divi- 
 ded among themselves, were prepared to embrace 
 any form of error and adopt any kind of worship. 
 Then the Mohammedan delusion burst forth like 
 a tempest and swept every thing before it. The 
 effects of its terrible power are now seen in the 
 corrupt and dead forms of religion, which prevail
 
 REL IGION OF 
 
 throughout the East. Whoever is acquainted 
 with the state of the Christian church in that part 
 of the world when Mohammedism took its rise, 
 cannot be surprised at its speedy and complete 
 triumph over all those lands where the gospel 
 once prevailed with so much purity and power. 
 Nor will he be surprised at the present condition 
 of the churches in those lands. The dreadful 
 change that has come over them commenced far 
 back ; commenced in declension, in a loss of 
 spirituality, in substituting the form for the power 
 of godliness ; and now the spirit of life, having 
 for centuries departed from them, they lie wrap- 
 ped in the winding sheet of dead forms, sending 
 forth only exhalations to poison and impregnate 
 with death the whole moral atmosphere around 
 them. It is indeed a profound mystery in provi- 
 dence, that the delusions of the false prophet, and 
 the corruptions of a dead Christianity should have 
 been permitted to spread their baleful influence 
 over those fair and goodly lands, where divine 
 truth once shone with so much brightness, and 
 religion prevailed with so great purity and power. 
 But however unable we may be to explain the 
 mystery of the fact, the process of the change is 
 perfectly obvious, declension, loss of spirituality*
 
 THE EAST. 139 
 
 formalism, death. This is the process by which 
 the churches of the East were corrupted and de- 
 stroyed. Let us, my friends, take warning. We 
 stand by faith. Let us not be high minded, but 
 fear. For if God spared not the churches planted 
 by the Apostles, when they departed from him, 
 but gave them up to error and delusion, let us be- 
 ware lest falling into the same sin, he spare not 
 us, but abandon us to the same fearful judgment. 
 No church that has lost its spirituality and be- 
 come cold and formal in worship, has the least 
 security against the coming in of error and delu- 
 sion, worldliness and sin, in their most destructive 
 form. And no individual Christian, who departs 
 from God, ever knows where he shall stop, or 
 when he shall return. Than such departure, no 
 sin is more subtle, none more dangerous, whether 
 in respect to a church collectively, or its individu- 
 al members. It steals the heart away from God, 
 begets coldness in his worship and indifference to 
 his glory ; then the Spirit is grieved away ; all 
 becomes fruitless and dead ; and in this state, the 
 great adversary is sure to be present to do his 
 work ; to sow the seeds of error and sin, and lead 
 souls captive at his will.
 
 140 RELIGION OF 
 
 Let all take warning. God is true to his word. 
 Mark again the process of ruin to the ancient 
 churches of the East, declension, loss of spiritu- 
 ality, formalism, death. Hear too the solemn 
 and monitory language, once addressed to two of 
 these churches, by the faithful and true Witness 
 I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left 
 thy first love. Repent therefore and do thy first 
 works ; else lujill come unto thee quickly, and will 
 remove thy candlestick out of its place, except thou 
 repent. This was said of the church of Ephesus. 
 How solemn the warning ; how awful the execu- 
 tion of the threatening ! The light of Ephesus 
 has long since become extinct. Not a living 
 being now resides there bearing the Christian 
 name. It is described as a solemn and most for- 
 lorn spot. A passing shepherd, or wandering 
 Turkoman occasionally pitches his tent for a 
 night among the fallen houses ; else all is dreary, 
 waste, and silent as the house of death, except 
 only when the stillness is broken by the mournful 
 cry of the jackal echoed from the mountain, and 
 the night hawk and shrill owl flitting around the 
 ruins. This is the place where Paul, and John, 
 and Timothy once taught and prayed, and broke
 
 THE EAST. 141 
 
 the bread of life to a large and flourishing church. 
 The sin charged upon the church was leaving 
 first love ; and refusing to repent when warned 
 of danger, punishment came and its light went 
 out in darkness. 
 
 To another church it was said, I know thy 
 works, that thou aft neither cold nor hot; I 
 would thou wert cold or hot; so then because 
 thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I 
 will spue thee out of my mouth. This too has 
 had an awful fulfilment, and Laodicea, a misera- 
 ble, deserted ruin, remains now only to attest 
 how great and how dangerous is the sin of luke- 
 warmness, and how sure is God to execute his 
 threatenings, against all who depart from him, 
 and refuse to hear his voice calling to repentance. 
 He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the 
 Spirit saith unto the churches. 
 
 13
 
 OBSTACLES 
 
 TO THE 
 
 SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL IN THE EAST.
 
 OBSTACLES TO THE 
 SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL IN THE EAST. 
 
 When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace \ 
 but when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome hiui, he 
 taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divideth hU spoils. 
 LUKE II : 21,22. 
 
 MY object, in the present discourse, is, first, to 
 point out some of the obstacles to the propagation 
 of the pure gospel in the Oriental chuiches; and, 
 second, to consider what reasons we have to hope 
 for ultimate success. 
 
 Our text is a proper introduction to this subject. 
 It was uttered by our blessed Lord in vindication 
 of himself from the blasphemous charge of acting 
 in concert with Satan, the arch enemy of God and 
 man. This charge was brought against him by 
 his enemies, in consequence of his healing a de- 
 moniac, which, they asserted, he effected through 
 Beelzebub, the chief of the devils. Our Lord 
 replies by showing the absurdity of supposing 
 13*
 
 146 OBSTACLES TO THE SPREAD 
 
 that Satan would act against himself, or exert his 
 power for the destruction of his own kingdom. 
 Every kingdom divided against itself is brought 
 to desolation ; and a house divided against a 
 house falleth. If Satan also be divided against 
 himself, how shall his kingdom stand ? because 
 ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub. 
 And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom 
 do your sons cast them out 1 Therefore shall 
 they be your judges. But if I with the finger of 
 God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God 
 has come upon you. Then follows our text. 
 When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, 
 his goods are in peace ; but when a stronger than 
 he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he 
 taketh from hirn all his armor wherein he trusted, 
 and divideth his spoils. 
 
 Our Saviour here distinctly recognizes the ex- 
 istence and agency of a mighty spirit of evil, 
 whose power was terribly exerted to blind the 
 minds of men, and hold them in subjection to his 
 will. He also intimates that he had come with 
 power mightier than his, to take from him his 
 armor, his strength, set his captives free and 
 destroy his kingdom. Some, I am aware, affect
 
 OP THE GOSPEL IN THE EAST. 147 
 
 to sneer at satanic agency, as a fiction, and regard 
 what the scriptures say of the devil, and fallen 
 angels, as eastern allegory. But aside from the 
 full and explicit declarations of the Bible in con- 
 tradiction of such a notion, it seems to me, I must 
 confess, extremely difficult to account for many 
 of the complicated, extended and deadly systems 
 of evil in our world, without admitting an agency, 
 far more sagacious, wide-reaching and powerful, 
 than man can exert. 
 
 While passing through the different countries 
 I visited in the East, scarcely any scripture occur, 
 red to my mind more frequently than the one 
 selected as my text. I saw such influences at 
 work on every side to corrupt, brutalize, and 
 destroy the souls of men ; systems of evil, i so 
 methodized, so interlocked, so all-pervading, and 
 wielded with such comprehension of plan and 
 such dreadful power,' that I could not doubt, for 
 a moment, the existence and agency of the devil. 
 I felt with a vividness of impression never before 
 realized, that a strong man armed was keeping 
 his palace, and holding terrible sway over the 
 minds of men in that part of the world, and that 
 no hope of deliverance could be derived from any
 
 148 OBSTACLES TO THE SPREAD 
 
 quarter, but from the coming of one, mightier 
 than he to bind him, and take from him his 
 usurped possessions. But this is a general view. 
 I must descend to particulars. Among the obsta- 
 cles then which oppose the propagation of pure 
 Christianity in the East, I mention, 
 
 I. The union of church and state ; the inter- 
 mingling of civil and ecclesiastical power. The 
 effect of this, wherever it exists, is first to corrupt 
 the church, and then to prevent reformation. It 
 was an evil day for the church, when, in the 
 reign of Constantine, it was taken under his royal 
 patronage, and, in a sense, became united with 
 the state. What it gained in protection from 
 persecution, and in outward prosperity, it lost and 
 more than lost, in purity of doctrine, and spirit- 
 uality of character and power. Popery had its 
 birth in that union; and continued to grow and 
 spread, till it brought on the dark ages; and to 
 the present day, the disastrous effects of the con- 
 nection of the church with the state are visible in 
 all the countries of Europe and of the East. In 
 Italy, for example, and the same is true in all 
 papal countries the civil power stands armed to 
 resist every attempt to reform the abuses of the
 
 OP THE GOSPEL IN THE EAST. 149 
 
 church, and to extend to the people the blessings 
 of education and of pure religion. Were it not 
 for this power, sustained as it is by Austrian inter, 
 ference and Austrian bayonets, the pope could 
 not hold his place a month. Italy would be free 
 and accessible to light. So in Greece, the union 
 of church and state is entire. The civil power 
 claims the right of supreme control in all matters 
 of religious instruction and worship ; and acting 
 through the medium of a corrupt priesthood, it 
 raises formidable barriers against all innovation 
 or change in the established religion of the coun- 
 try. Hence a few years since a law was passed, 
 requiring that the catechism of the Greek church 
 should be taught in all the schools of the king- 
 dom. The consequence was, that our mission- 
 aries, feeling that they could not, conscientiously, 
 teach that catechism, as it inculcated the worship 
 of the virgin Mary and various other errors, were 
 obliged to disband numerous flourishing schools, 
 then under their direction, and send back the 
 children to ignorance and delusion. By an arti- 
 cle introduced into the new constitution, in 1844, 
 and finally adopted by a large majority of the 
 convention, all proselytism from the Greek church
 
 150 OBSTACLES TO THE SPREAD 
 
 is strictly prohibited ; meaning by proselytism, 
 all attempts, whether by preaching, the circula- 
 tion of books, or other means, to enlighten the 
 people and convert them from their errors to a 
 purer faith. This article, it was hoped, would 
 not be carried into execution ; and as yet it has 
 not been ; but there it is, an established principle 
 in the constitution of the kingdom, and can at any 
 time be brought to bear in the banishment of 
 every protestant missionary and teacher from the 
 country. 
 
 In Turkey, Mohammedism is the established 
 religion of the empire. The Koran is the supreme 
 law of the land, civil, political and religious ; 
 and it thus arrays the whole civil and ecclesias- 
 tical power of the empire in opposition to the 
 gospel. Till recently no Mohammedan could 
 think of changing his religion but with the certain 
 prospect of being put to death ; and this punish- 
 ment for the crime of apostacy has hitherto been 
 inflicted with terrible certainty. 
 
 In regard to the native Christian sects residing 
 in the country, they are allowed to retain their 
 faith and worship, only by the payment of a lib- 
 eral tribute to the Sultan. They are called, in
 
 OP THE GOSPEL IN THE EAST. 151 
 
 the proper language of the country, rayah, which 
 means a flock, pastured for the sake of the fleece ; 
 and most cruelly are they fleeced by their Turk- 
 ish oppressors. They are not permitted to build 
 or repair any place of public worship without a 
 firman from the Sultan. He decides too what 
 color their houses shall be painted, what dress 
 they shall wear, and what price shall be paid for 
 articles of food in the market ; and whenever pas- 
 sion, caprice, or covetousness, move him to the 
 deed, he has only to say the word, and any Chris- 
 tian subject, whom he has marked as a victim, 
 is liable at once to be despatched, and his prop- 
 erty seized. This creates great insecurity of per- 
 son and estate. The people know not what to ex- 
 pect. There is no uniformity or steadiness in the 
 government administered over them ; except that 
 they are always exposed to oppression and wrong. 
 This gives rise to frequent revolts and revolutions 
 in different parts of the country. The people are 
 continually plotting how they shall evade the 
 unrighteous exactions imposed upon them, and 
 resist the power of the pashas and governors sent 
 by the Sultan to ride over them. You will easily 
 see that a state of things, such as has now been
 
 152 OBSTACLES TO THE SPREAD 
 
 described, must be exceedingly unfavorable to 
 the propagation of the gospel. A people crushed 
 down by the hand of oppression, living in fear 
 and in total uncertainty as to what is before them, 
 can with great difficulty be persuaded to listen 
 to the messages of the gospel, so as to embrace 
 them in sincerity and truth. 
 
 2. The power of the priests presents another 
 obstacle to the propagation of pure Christianity 
 among the people of the East. It is difficult for 
 us, in this country, to conceive of the extent of 
 this power. It seems all-pervading ; reaching all 
 the relations of life, and sending its influence 
 deep into the soul. The people grow up under 
 it, fear it, and dare not resist it. The patriarchs 
 and bishops, both of the Greek and Armenian 
 churches, are clothed with civil, as well as eccle- 
 siastical power. They have their courts, and 
 their prisons, and their instruments of punish- 
 ment ; this is especially true of the patriarchs ; 
 and they are by no means .backward to use 
 their power to restrain and punish any who 
 may transgress the laws of the church, or dis- 
 cover a disposition to inquire after the truth as it 
 is in the Bible. I cannot express to you the
 
 OP THE GOSPEL IN THE EAST. 153 
 
 emotions which were awakened in my bosom, 
 when, on arriving at Smyrna, I was informed that 
 an Armenian priest had just been thrown into 
 the patriarch's prison, at Constantinople, for 
 preaching the gospel, and circulating religious 
 books among the people. He was afterwards 
 liberated, but was threatened with banishment, 
 if he persevered in the course for which he had 
 been imprisoned. I afterwards became acquaint- 
 ed with him, and formed a favorable opinion of 
 his character, as a man of a sound mind, and of 
 devoted piety. I need not say that he remained 
 firm. 
 
 The priests of every grade in the Oriental 
 churches, as did the priests of Diana, at Ephesus, 
 feel themselves interested to keep things as they 
 are. They are averse to all change. They know 
 that their influence with the people depends on 
 keeping them in ignorance. Hence they are 
 opposed to schools, and to the circulation of the 
 scriptures and other books. It often seemed to 
 me, when in that country, that one of the great- 
 est obstacles to the spread of the gospel there, is 
 the opposition which is made to it by a worldly, 
 corrupt, and degraded priesthood. They stand 
 
 14
 
 154 OBSTACLES TO THE SPREAD 
 
 at the avenues of light, and throw back, as far as 
 they can, every ray which is presented for the 
 illumination of the people. And so great is the 
 ignorance and superstition of the people, that the 
 priests hold almost unlimited sway over them. 
 The teiror of excommunication is almost like that 
 of perdition. By multitudes the priest is thought 
 to hold in his hand the keys of life and of death ; 
 and as his services are deemed essential to salva- 
 tion, there is the greatest dread of incurring his 
 displeasure. A threat from him to withhold abso- 
 lution from a penitent, or baptism from a child, 
 or his priestly service in the burial of the dead, is 
 terrible, in the view of the people in general, be- 
 yond what you can imagine, and seldom fails, 
 unless the offender be a true Christian, to bring 
 him to submission. 
 
 Intimately connected with this is the dread of 
 separation from the church or community to 
 which the people belong. For a Turk to do this 
 is not only to expose himself to decapitation, but 
 to certain exclusion from the paradise of the 
 prophet, and consignment to the fires of hell. 
 This he is taught from his earliest childhood, and 
 it holds him, as with the power of fate, firm to his 
 creed.
 
 OP THE GOSPEL IN THE EAST. 155 
 
 The same, substantially, is true of those who 
 belong- to the different Christian sects. They 
 naturally dread separation as the greatest of evils. 
 Hence, when any one shows a disposition to 
 adopt a different creed, or unite with a different 
 denomination from that in which he was brought 
 up, his friends and relatives are alarmed, as if 
 some evil spirit had seized him ; and if he finally 
 separates and goes away from them, they bemoan 
 him as one who has dishonored them, and is lost 
 to all hope of salvation. No pains are spared, 
 in the first instance, to prevent his separation ; 
 and when he has separated, no pains are spared, 
 whether by entreaties, by threats or persecutions, 
 to bring him back. 
 
 I have many affecting facts which I might men- 
 tion to illustrate what I here say ; but time will 
 not permit. You have all heard of the power of 
 caste among the Hindoos ; how it divides the 
 people into distinct classes, or sects, and raises an 
 impassable barrier between them. There is some- 
 thing very analagous to this among the churches 
 of the East. To lose caste in one of these church- 
 es, is to lose the soul ; to separate from them is 
 to separate from salvation. This is the common 
 opinion ; and as among the heathen, so among
 
 156 OBSTACLES TO THE SPREAD 
 
 the Christians of the East, the power of caste, as 
 I call it, operates with terrible effect to shut out 
 from them the light and blessings of the pure 
 gospel. 
 
 3. Another obstacle to the propagation of the 
 gospel in the East, is found in the broken, frag- 
 mentary state of society that exists there. You 
 do not find there, as you do in our country, one 
 homogeneous people, speaking the same lan- 
 guage, and bound together by the ties of a com- 
 mon interest and country. But you find a 
 strangely mingled people, collected from all 
 parts of the earth, speaking different languages, 
 and separated from each other by extreme jeal- 
 ousy and hostility.* They have no bond of social 
 sympathy drawing them into a oneness of char- 
 acter, of interest and aim, and qualifying them to 
 cooperate in plans for mutual improvement. 
 They are divided and kept asunder by innumer- 
 able dissocial, repellent influences, and the mis- 
 sionary is obliged to carry on his w r ork, chiefly, by 
 acting on individuals. He cannot hope to move, 
 at once, by a common effort, the mass of the 
 people. He has rather to take a particular class, 
 
 * See page 30.
 
 OP THE GOSPEL IN THE EAST. 157 
 
 and select individuals from that class, and pa- 
 tiently instruct them, as it were, one by one, and 
 in this, what would seem to us slow process, build 
 up a spiritual kingdom, in the midst of surround- 
 ing jealousy, formalism and deadness. The light 
 thus kindled in the bosoms of individuals, will 
 gradually permeate the masses to which they 
 belong; and it may be hoped, that these masses, 
 as the Armenians and Druses, for example, will 
 in the end be moved and moulded by the power 
 of the gospel. But the process, in such a state of 
 society, insulated, broken up into fragments, must 
 be slow and peculiarly laborious. 
 
 4. The people are exceedingly degraded in 
 ignorance, superstition and selfishness. How can 
 it be otherwise under a despotism like that of 
 Turkey, which seeks only to oppress and grind 
 the people in the dust 1 It often seemed to me, 
 especially while traveling in Syria, that human 
 nature, as I saw it around me, had reached its 
 lowest point of degradation and misery. I was 
 assured however, by our excellent missionary, 
 Rev. Mr. Smith, who was my fellow traveler in 
 that wretched country, that the Copts, the com- 
 mon people of Egypt, were still more degraded 
 14*
 
 158 OBSTACLES TO THE SPREAD 
 
 and miserable, as were great numbers whom he 
 had seen in Armenia. It was difficult for me to 
 see how this was possible, and society continue to 
 exist. Not a newspaper published in all Syria ; 
 not a book-stere, so far as I could learn, except 
 those connected with our missions, and very few 
 schools of any kind for the instruction of the 
 young. The people, living in constant oppres- 
 sion, and fear of what may come upon them, do 
 not think of improvement or look beyond their 
 present wants. Hence their towns and villages 
 are rapidly going to decay; and so long have 
 they been compelled, as it were, to save their 
 lives, and gain a subsistence by the practice of 
 falsehood and fraud, that these have become uni- 
 versal habits, and are scarcely regarded as at all 
 improper or sinful. Truth is utterly fallen in the 
 streets, and equity cannot enter. The idea of 
 disinterested benevolence seems to have no place 
 in the minds of the people. Show them a kind- 
 ness, do them a favor, and they at once suspect 
 some selfish motive. Hence the common impres- 
 sion among them is, that our missionaries are 
 there on some enterprise of selfish gain ; and 
 when they are asked to send their children to the
 
 OF THE GOSPEL IN THE EAST. 159 
 
 schools, opened for their instruction, they fre- 
 quently expect a reward for so doing, on the 
 ground that the whole is a money-getting affair. 
 
 It seems to them incredible, that people in this 
 country, moved simply by a desire to do good, 
 should make such efforts for their happiness; or 
 that missionaries, with no hope of gain, should be 
 willing to leave country and home, and come and 
 spend their lives in seeking their salvation. And 
 it is only after they have had much intercourse 
 with the missionaries, and have become acquaint- 
 ed with their plans and operations, that they 
 admit the idea of their disinterestedness. It 
 seems, in a great measure, a new and strange 
 idea to them, so universally are they accustomed 
 to see men act only from selfishness. I need not 
 add, that this idea, when once admitted to their 
 minds, wins powerfully on their confidence, and 
 renders them easily accessible to missionary 
 influence. 
 
 The remarks now made apply particularly to 
 Syria. In Turkey, the people, as a general fact, 
 are less degraded ; are in a more promising social 
 and moral state. This is particularly true of the 
 Armenians, who are by far the most hopeful sub-
 
 160 OBSTACLES TO THE SPREAD 
 
 jects of missionary labor, to be found in all the 
 East. But even among- them, common education 
 is very little known, and not at all among the 
 females ; and the great mass of the people are 
 sunk very low in ignorance and superstition, in 
 intellectual and moral degradation, so that much, 
 very much prepaiatory work is to be done in their 
 behalf, before the gospel can be expected to pre- 
 vail among them in purity and power. 
 
 5. I mention one other obstacle to the propa- 
 gation of the gospel in the East, greater in some 
 respects than any I have yet named; it is the 
 universal reliance of the people upon forms and 
 ceremonies ; their strong attachment to the an- 
 cient rites and observances of their respective 
 churches. It is a remarkable characteristic of 
 superstition and formalism, wherever they exist, 
 to bind their devotees in firm attachment to their 
 prescriptions. This is true of every system of 
 idolatry and false religion on earth ; and it is seen 
 in all its power among the people of the East. 
 The Turks are universally high churchmen ; that 
 is, they are extremely bigoted and exclusive in 
 their attachment to their form of religion, and
 
 OF THE GOSPEL IN THE EAST. 161 
 
 consign to certain destruction all who are not of 
 the faith of their prophet.* 
 
 The several sects of nominal Christians, are 
 each confident, that theirs is the only true church, 
 and theirs the only valid ministry and ordinances ; 
 and salvation is no where certain but in their 
 communions respectively. The foolish idea of 
 Apostolical succession as essential to a duly au- 
 
 * The religion of Mohammedans naturally makes them proud, 
 and leads them to despise all who are not of their faith. " The 
 prayers of the infidel (the Christian) are net prayers, but wan- 
 derings," says the koran " I withdraw my foot, and turn away 
 my face," says Mohammed, " from a society in which the faith- 
 ful are mixed with the ungodly." The spirit breathed in this 
 language is not extinguished, nor even weakened, by the death 
 of its object. " Pray not for those whose death is eternal," is 
 a precept of the Mohammedan church ; and " defile not thy 
 feet by passing over the graves of men, the enemies of God and 
 his prophet." These precepts are precise and positive; and 
 they regulate the principles and conduct of all classes of Mus- 
 sulmans. They are seldom troubled with terrors of conscience. 
 Their firm belief is that all Mohammedans are safe ; that the 
 divine favor is never withdrawn from those who are steadfast in 
 their profession of faith, and constant in their practice of relig- 
 ious rites. The belief and the performance of both are simple 
 and easy, and not only may exist unconnected with virtue, but 
 may seem to expiate vicious conduct, and so keep the conscience 
 quiet in the midst of great moral delinquencies. See Thornton 
 on Turkey, vol. 2. p. 107-117.
 
 162 OBSTACLES TO THE SPREAD 
 
 thorized ministry, is common in all the Oriental 
 churches ; and the people are taught from their 
 childhood up, that if they observe the rites and 
 ceremonies of their church, their salvation is cer- 
 tain. Tradition has taken the place of the Bible ; 
 the dogmas of men are received for the teachings 
 of God's word.* Regeneration is effected by 
 baptism ; justification is by the observance of cer- 
 emonies; repentance is penance, or doing what 
 the priest enjoins as an offset for sin ; faith is 
 believing what the church teaches ; and while 
 the highest idea entertained of holiness is in 
 the tithing of mint, annis and cummin, or in ob- 
 serving prescribed rites and forms, no sin is 
 thought so deadly, as to renounce connection 
 with the church, and embrace the heresy of prot- 
 estantism ; that is, the pure, spiritual religion of 
 the Bible, in opposition to the doctrines of tradi- 
 tion and rites of human invention. 
 
 That a people trained under the influence of 
 such a system, with no means of general educa- 
 tion, and no Bible in their hands to enlighten and 
 guide them, should cherish strong prejudices, and 
 look with distrust upon all attempts to convert 
 
 * See page 23.
 
 OP THE GOSPEL IN THE EAST. 163 
 
 them to a purer faith, is only what might be nat- 
 urally expected ; and it is what in fact jp wit- 
 nessed all over the eastern world. There the 
 strong man armed keeps his palace, and his goods 
 are in peace. The powers of darkness have for 
 centuries established their sway over the minds 
 of men in that partof the world, and bound them 
 down in chains of extreme ignorance, superstition 
 and debasement. 
 
 I have dwelt too long on this part of the sub- 
 ject. And yet I feel (hat I have given you but a 
 very imperfect view of the obstacles which oppose 
 the progress of the gospel in the countries whose 
 moral and intellectual stale has been under review. 
 Let us now inquire, 
 
 II. What encouragement there is to attempt to 
 send the gospel to the people in those countries. 
 
 1. It is an obvious remark, that the power of 
 God is equal to the overthrow of the obstacles 
 that have been named, and to open a free course 
 for his gospel to run and be glorified. We preach, 
 and you profess to believe the doctrine of the 
 Holy Spirit's influence, as indispensable to the 
 conversion of the human heart. This sentiment 
 is often held here as mere theory ; but the chris-
 
 164 OBSTACLES TO THE SPREAD 
 
 tian feels it, in the countries of the East, to be a 
 soleimi reality. 
 
 As I passed through those countries, I was often 
 filled with amazement, at the wide -spread and 
 dreadful moral desolations which I every where 
 witnessed. I could not doubt, as I have said, the 
 agency of the great enemy of God and man, as 
 employed in producing these desolations. I fre- 
 quently seemed to myself to be in the situation of 
 the prophet, when in vision he was set down in 
 the midst of a vast valley full of bones, which 
 were dry, very dry. When the question occurred, 
 can these bones live, I could only answer, in the 
 prophet's language, Lord God, thou knowest. I 
 saw distinctly, that all human power is utterly 
 inadequate to accomplish the desired change. 
 But what the power of man cannot do, the power 
 of God can do, and it will ; for so the divine 
 promises encourage us to believe. Those lands, 
 once pressed by the footsteps of prophets and 
 apostles, and of the Saviour himself, though now 
 shrouded in deep moral darkness, and given up 
 to the dominion of Satan, are surely included 
 in the covenant, which promises, that Christ shall 
 have the heathen for his inheritance, and the
 
 OP THE GOSPEL IN THE EAST. 165 
 
 uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. 
 One stronger than the strong man armed is on his 
 way to the conquest of the world, and ere long 
 we may rest assured, he will come upon him and 
 overcome him ; take from him his armor wherein 
 he trusted, and divide his spoils. 
 
 2. The gospel has broken down just such ob- 
 stacles as now exist in the East, and cleared a way 
 for its successful triumph. In primitive times it 
 spread its conquests over these very lands, then 
 under the dominion of idolatry, and of a corrupt 
 Judaism, as difficult, surely, to eradicate, as any 
 of the forms of false religion which now prevail 
 there. And though a mysterions providence has 
 permitted that the light, which once shone so 
 bright there, should be obscured and in a great 
 measure extinguished by the overflowings of error 
 and delusion ; still in what the gospel once did 
 on that theatre of its early triumphs, we have a 
 pledge of what it can and will do again, when it 
 shall be sent forth to the people, in purity and 
 power, with the attending influence of God's 
 spirit. That gospel, which in the space of three 
 hundred years, banished idolatry from the vast 
 empire of Rome ; that gospel, which converted 
 15
 
 166 OBSTACLES TO THE SPREAD 
 
 our wild Saxon ancestors from their bloody druid- 
 ical worship, to the love and service of the true 
 God ; that gospel, which smote the arm of popery 
 at the Reformation, and delivered so many of the 
 nations of Europe from its thraldom ; which has 
 wrought such wonders in our day in Greenland, 
 at the Society and Sandwich Islands, and in many 
 parts of Southern Africa and India, that gospel 
 is surely invested with a power, which needs only 
 to be rightly wielded, to spread its victories over 
 all the Turkish empire, banish the delusions of 
 the false prophet, and the various forms of cor- 
 rupt Christianity now prevailing there, and every 
 where set up its banner of light and love, of 
 peace, and joy, and salvation. 
 
 All that is necessary to the achievement of this 
 grand conquest, is only to give the gospel an 
 open field of combat ; is to bring it into direct 
 contact with the various existing systems of error 
 and sin. Let this be done, and the obstacles I 
 have enumerated will melt away, as night flees 
 before the rising sun, and divine light will again 
 spread over all the lands so long enveloped in the 
 darkness and shadow of death.
 
 OP THE GOSPEL IN THE EAST. 167 
 
 3. A very happy beginning has already been 
 made in the great work of reviving pure religion 
 in the lands that have been under review. But 
 little, it is true, has, as yet, been done in behalf of 
 the Mohammedans. Their bigotry, together 
 with the fear of the cimiter, has hitherto shut 
 them out from Christian effort. The scriptures 
 have been translated into their language, and to 
 some extent, circulated among them. But suc- 
 cess has been small. Indeed it has seemed utterly 
 in vain, in the view of those who have been long- 
 est on the ground, to attempt the conversion of 
 Moslems, while they have before them such mis- 
 erable examples of religious character, as are 
 exhibited by native Christians around them. The 
 ungodly lives, the bad morals, and the degrading 
 superstitions of these Christians, fully convinced 
 me, that they must be reformed, before any thing 
 can be successfully done to make Mohammedans 
 think well of ths gospel, or engage them to give 
 their attention to it. All they now see is only 
 adapted to make them despise it. 
 
 In regard to the Greeks, though the success of 
 efforts made in their behalf has been less than was 
 reasonably anticipated, and though missionaries
 
 168 OBSTACLES TO THE SPREAD 
 
 have felt themselves obliged, for the present, to 
 withdraw, in a great measure, from this field, still 
 it would be wrong to conclude that no good has 
 been done. The whole Greek nation is in a very 
 diffeient state from what it would have been in, 
 had no missionaries been sent to them. General 
 education has received a very happy impulse ; 
 many have been instructed in useful learning and 
 the Bible ; some have been converted, and numer- 
 ous copies of the scriptures and other religious 
 books have been widely scattered among the peo- 
 ple ; and these means of divine knowledge and 
 salvation will not, we may rest assured, be lost, 
 but will exert an important influence in the future 
 regeneration of Greece. 
 
 Then with respect to the Armenians, the Nes- 
 torians, the Druses on Mount Lebanon, and the 
 Arabs of Syria, our missionaries are pursuing their 
 work among them with very encouraging tokens 
 of success. Since they first entered the country, 
 some fifteen years ago, a great and most happy 
 change has taken place in their condition and 
 prospects. Then every thing was new and strange 
 to them; they were unacquainted with the man- 
 ners and habits of the people, and with their Ian-
 
 OP THE GOSPEL IN THE EAST. 169 
 
 guage, laws and religion. Now they know the 
 ground they occupy, understand the character of 
 the people, and can speak to them, in their own 
 tongue, of the wonderful works of God. Then 
 they had no Bible in the language of the people, 
 and no books for their instruction, and no print- 
 ing press. Now they have Bibles and books in 
 abundance, and the means of multiplying, through 
 the press, copies of both, to any extent they 
 please. Then they had no schools and no sem- 
 inaries of learning, in which to instruct the young 
 and train them up for usefulness and God. Now 
 they have numerous schools, and hundreds of 
 children and youth, in a course of Christian 
 instruction, and two higher seminaries in which 
 to fit young men to become teachers and minis- 
 ters. Then they were universally regarded with 
 jealousy and distrust, and found itdifficult to gain 
 access to the people. Now they have the entire 
 confidence of a large circle of acquaintances and 
 friends, and free access to as many individuals 
 and families as they can find time and strength 
 to visit and instruct in the knowledge of salvation. 
 Then they had no converts, whom they could 
 draw around them in fellowship and communion, 
 and employ as helpers in their great and arduous 
 15*
 
 170 OBSTACLES TO THE SPREAD 
 
 work. Now they have many who give pleasing 
 evidence of piety, to whom they break the bread 
 of life, and who, in various ways, are found very 
 useful in promoting the cause of salvation among 
 their countrymen. Then they were frequently 
 exposed to vexatious interruptions from priests 
 and men in power ; and to persecutions and vio- 
 lence in their persons and families. Now all 
 these things have, in a great measure, passed 
 away, and as a general fact, they are allowed to 
 pursue their work, having none to molest or make 
 them afraid. 
 
 In a village on Mount Lebanon, where a few 
 years since Mr. Smith, our missionary, was hooted 
 and stoned as he passed along the streets, I with 
 my fellow traveler slept, and visited many of the 
 villagers in their houses, with no more feeling of 
 insecurity than in my own habitalion. The 
 changes here indicated are very great. The 
 missionaries, who have seen and marked them in 
 their progress, often spoke of them with wonder 
 and gratitude ; and all of us should gather from 
 them strong encouragement, in regard to the ulti- 
 mate success of our efforts to revive religion in 
 the East. The numerous little fires, that are now
 
 OF THE GOSPEL IN THE EAST. 171 
 
 being kindled in different and far distant parts of 
 the country, will continue to brighten and spread, 
 till light shall penetrate all the dark places in the 
 land, and the people shall move in masses to 
 renounce their superstitions, and embrace the 
 pure gospel. 
 
 4. There are many other causes, besides those 
 directly connected with Christian missions, which 
 are operating to change the whole moral and 
 religious, and I might add, the whole civil and 
 political aspect of the East. To form a just esti- 
 mate of the nature and power of these causes, 
 one needs to contemplate them on the ground. 
 Turkey, the grand seat and center of Mohamme- 
 dan power, seems doomed ere long to dismember- 
 ment. Indeed this dismemberment has already 
 commenced in the loss of many of its provinces, 
 and in the continual decay of the power by which 
 it retains its dominion over others. The power 
 of Turkey is every where declining ; and she can 
 never regain what she has lost. The Turks can- 
 not change. Their religion and government, 
 their social and domestic habits, their ignorance, 
 their superstition, their bigotry, indeed the whole 
 frame and order of society among them, have 

 
 172 OBSTACLES TO THE SPREAD 
 
 been stereotyped now tHese four hundred years. 
 Their civilization, if so you must call it, has 
 scarcely advanced at all beyond what it was 
 when they entered Constantinople, four centuries 
 ago ; and they are just so far back of the spirit of 
 the age. The consequence is, they are in no 
 respect able to compete with modern civilization, 
 or withstand those influences, which are contin- 
 ually crowding upon them from all the nations of 
 Christendom, and which, irresistibly, operate to 
 supplant them in their power, in their business, 
 and in the possession of their country and their 
 homes. It is an ancient tradition with them, that 
 they are one day to be driven out of Euiope. 
 Nothing seems more probable. 
 
 In the mean time, light from every quarter is 
 bursting upon Turkey. Every steamboat that 
 visits her ports conveys it : every traveler spreads 
 it. The civilization of the West can no longer 
 be shut out from the East by Turkish bigotry and 
 fanaticism. Its influence is felt, and will be felt, 
 more and more, in breaking up barbarous cus- 
 toms, in restraining the hand of violence and per- 
 secution, and in making the people acquainted 
 with the blessings of knowledge, of liberty and 
 religion. And whatever may be th^ fate of the
 
 OF THE GOSPEL IN THE EAST. 173 
 
 Turks as a nation, or however they may resist 
 the process of change, that is going on among 
 them; one thing is certain to result from that 
 change, and that is, free access to all the different 
 sects of native Christians in the empire, with full 
 liberty to publish to them the pure gospel of 
 Christ. Every year is increasing the facilities of 
 intercourse with the East, and multiplying the 
 means by which we may establish there the spir- 
 itual kingdom of Chiist. And whoever is ac- 
 quainted with the state of things in that part of 
 the world, or observes the pointings of prophecy 
 and of providence in respect to it, cannot doubt, 
 that it is ere long to be the seat of great and won- 
 derful changes ; changes affecting the whole 
 frame and aspect of society, and which will result 
 in casting down tyranny, oppression, and the vari- 
 ous forms of false religion, and establishing the 
 reign of freedom, righteousness, peace and salva- 
 tion. This glorious consummation may not be 
 in our day ; but it is hastening on ; it will come ; 
 and if we may but advance it, even in the small- 
 est degree, by any efforts and prayers of ours, let 
 not those efforts and prayers be withheld. It will 
 be pleasant, when the battle is fought and the
 
 174 OBSTACLES TO THE SPREAD 
 
 victory is won, to reflect, even though we may 
 be in heaven, that we contributed any thing by 
 our agency, towards so great and so blessed an 
 achievement. 
 
 In the meantime, let us not forget our beloved 
 missionary brethren, who are now laboring in 
 that land of darkness and the shadow of death, 
 to build up there the kingdom of our Saviour. 
 They are true hearted, faithful, Christian men ; 
 willing to spend and be spent in the service of 
 their Master, and for the salvation of perishing 
 men around them. They are pursuing their 
 work in the only way, I believe, in which it can 
 be accomplished ; not as sectarians, but as the 
 servants of Christ ; not to build up a party, but 
 to advance the cause of pure religion; to convert 
 souls to the Saviour, and train them up for heaven. 
 They believe, what I know to be true, that the 
 churches of the East are radically corrupt ; rotten 
 to the very core ; and though proud in their apos- 
 tolically descended priesthood, and in their gor- 
 geous forms and ceremonies, are utterly dead, as 
 to all spiritual life and power. This being so, 
 our missionaries feel, that they cannot fall in with 
 their rites, nor encourage their forms, nor hope
 
 OP THE GOSPEL IN THE EAST. 175 
 
 to produce a reformation from within. They 
 believe, that a true, spiritual reformation must 
 begin from without ; must begin as did the reform- 
 ation in the days of our Saviour, and in the times 
 of Luther ; begin in preaching the pure gospel, 
 in bringing sinners to repentance, and then form- 
 ing them into churches, which shall be spiritual 
 bodies, animated with the faith and love of Christ 
 as their head. This is the way in which our 
 brethren in the East are striving to accomplish 
 the great work for which they have been sent 
 there. It is, I must think, the right way; it 
 approves itself, I doubt not, to your Christian judg- 
 ment, as it does, we know, by many manifest 
 tokens of success, to the approbation and favor of 
 the God of Missions. 
 
 Let me then, in behalf of our brethren in the 
 East, invoke your prayers for them, and your 
 confidence and love towards them. They are 
 doing a great work. Their discouragements and 
 trials are many, and it will greatly lighten their 
 toils, and cheer their hearts, to know that they 
 and their work are remembered in the prayers of 
 Christians in America.
 
 RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS OF PALESTINE 
 AND JERUSALEM. 
 
 16
 
 
 

 
 RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS OF PALESTINE AND 
 
 JERUSALEM. 
 
 For the Lord thy God biingeth tliee into a good land ; a land of brooks of 
 water, of fountains, and depths thai spring out of valleys and hills; aland 
 of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fij-trees, and pomegranates ; a land'of 
 oil-olive, and honey ; a land where.n thou shall eat bread without scarce- 
 ness, thou shall not lack any thing in it ; a land whose stones are iron, and 
 out of whose hills thou m lyesl dig bra-ss. DKUTKRONIIMY 8 : 7, 8, 9. 
 
 Hal it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the 
 Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which 
 1 command thee this day, that the Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vex- 
 ation and rebuke, in all that thou srttest thy hand unto for to do, until thou 
 be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly ; because of the wickedness of 
 thy doings whereby thou hast forsaken me. Andtiiy heaven that is over thy 
 head shall be brass, and the eanh that is under thee shall be iron. The 
 Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust ; from tu-aven shall it 
 coine down upon thee, until thou be destroyed. UKUTKRO.NOMY 28 : 15. 
 20: 21,24. 
 
 And whpn he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over if, saying, 
 if thou hadst known, even thou. at least in this thy day the things which be- 
 long unlo thy peace ! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For ihe days 
 shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and 
 compass Ihee round and keep thee in on every side ; and shall lay thee even 
 with the ground, and ihy children within thee*, and they shall not leave in 
 thee one stone upon another, ber:uise thou knewest not the time of thy 
 visitation. LUKK 19: 41, 42, 43, 44. * 
 
 THESE Sciipiures, taken together, present a 
 most graphic picture of the land of Palestine, as it 
 once was under the smiles of a beneficent provi- 
 dence, and in the possession of an obedient peo-
 
 180 RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS OF 
 
 pie; and of what that same land now is, under 
 the frowns of a righteous God, executing judg- 
 ments upon a disobedient and rebellious people. 
 The truth of this remark will fully appear in the 
 sequel of this discourse. 
 
 It has often been observed, that the remem- 
 brances of travel are wont to be more interesting 
 and pleasant than the reality. 1 find this to be 
 true in my own case. The passing days of the 
 last few weeks* found me, a year ago, traveling 
 in Syria and Palestine, visiting Jerusalem and the 
 sacred places in and around the city. These 
 days, as they have recurred, have, each in suc- 
 cession, carried me back to the scenes I then 
 passed through ; and the impressions made on my 
 mind by those scenes have been revived with a 
 vividness I had never anticipated. My whole 
 journey from Beirut to Sidon and Tyre, along the 
 shore of the Mediterranean, thence across the 
 southern slope of .mount Lebanon to Safet and 
 the sea of Tiberias, and on through Galilee and 
 Samaria to Jerusalem, I have traveled over again, 
 and with emotions even more intense than I felt, 
 amid the toils of journeying and the constant 
 
 * Delivered Sabbath Evening, May 4th.
 
 PALESTINE AND JERUSALEM. 181 
 
 succession of new objects of interest. Hills and 
 valleys, mountains and plains, deep ravines and 
 narrow precipitous path-ways, the wild look of 
 the inhabitants, shepherds tending their flocks, 
 Bedouins encamped under their long black tents, 
 watching their flocks or sweeping over the fields 
 on their fleet coursers, together with the nameless 
 and countless incidents of every day's travel 
 through so strange a land, and among so strange 
 a people all, all has risen afresh to my mind, 
 as the days have returned on which I performed 
 the journey; and, while I was thus mentally re- 
 tracing my steps, and living over the past, the 
 thought occurred, that it might be pleasant and 
 useful to communicate to my friends some of the 
 impressions made on my mind by the presence of 
 localities and objects, so deeply interesting as 
 those to which I have referred. 
 
 Interesting they certainly are in a very eminent 
 degree. No spot on earth is historically associa- 
 ted with such stupendous events as Palestine. 
 Though small in territory, and connected with no 
 commanding sea-port mart, or inland navigation, 
 it has been the center of influences more deeply 
 affecting the condition and prospects of the hu- 
 16*
 
 182 
 
 RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS OP 
 
 man race, than any that have originated in the 
 greatest and most powerful nations of the earth. 
 There , nearly two thousand years before the com- 
 ing of Christ, God in covenant with Abraham, 
 fixed the future heritage of his chosen people. 
 There he established them, after having conduct- 
 ed them from Egypt by the hand of Moses, and 
 cast out the heathen to prepare a place for them. 
 There, for fifteen hundred years, he reigned over 
 them as their God and King ; and under his wise 
 and paternal theocracy, they became a great, a 
 happy and a powerful people. He protected 
 them by the arm of his special providencej while 
 they were obedient to his laws ; and punished 
 them with severe judgments, when they depart- 
 ed from him. There patriarchs, prophets and 
 apostles were inspired to make known the char- 
 acter and ways of the Eternal to the children of 
 men ; there they lived and labored and died ; and 
 there, in that land of promise, rest their mortal 
 remains till the great resurrection-day. There 
 the Saviour of the world was born ; in that land 
 he traveled and taught and wrought miracles, and 
 there, without the gates of the Holy City, he suf- 
 fered and died, and from the mount of Olives, in
 
 PALESTINE AND JERUSALEM. 183 
 
 its immediate vicinity, he ascended to glory. 
 Wherever you travel in Palestine, or on whatever 
 side you turn your eyes, you continually meet 
 with objects and scenes of the deepest interest, on 
 account of their historical associations; and though 
 the land is now barren and waste as under the 
 curse of God, still you cannot but feel, that there 
 he once dwelt by his special presence ; there was 
 published the revelation on which we rest our 
 immortal hopes ; there were first proclaimed the 
 glad tidings of salvation, and from thence went 
 forth the glorious truth which is finally to enlight- 
 en and bless all mankind, and to which, even 
 now, the greatest nations upon earth trace their 
 civilization, their freedom, their knowledge and 
 happiness. 
 
 * 
 
 These circumstances will always make Pales- 
 tine a centre-point of deep and instructive inter- 
 est, and that, whether to the philosopher, the 
 statesman or the Christian. 
 
 For myself, I must say, that I feel deeply grate- 
 ful to God, that I have been permitted to make 
 even a short sojourn in that land ; and though the 
 recollection of the past, especially as connected 
 with one painful event, brings over my spirit a
 
 184 RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS OF 
 
 feeling of sadness, "as of a bright vision that has 
 passed away forever," I love to cherish in my 
 memory the sacred impressions deposited there 
 by my visit, and they will, I trust, be useful to 
 me while I live and forever. 
 
 1. In order to impart to you some of these im- 
 pressions, 1 will speak, first, of the great and 
 painful contrast, which the traveler every where 
 observes, between what Palestine once was, and 
 what it now is. It is represented in the Scrip- 
 tures, running back to an early period in its 
 history, as a good land, a land flowing with 
 milk and honey, the glory of all lands. And 
 from various other similar expressions in the 
 Bible, it is evident, that the holy land, as it is 
 called, was once greatly distinguished by its fer- 
 tility, and by the variety and abundance of its 
 productions. 
 
 But the Scriptures are not alone in testifying 
 to this fact. In passing through the land, the 
 traveler is every where met with evidence the 
 most convincing, that it was once filled with a 
 vast population, and afforded, in abundance, the 
 means of subsistence and of happiness. He sees 
 this evidence in the thickly scattered towns and
 
 PALESTINE AND JERUSALEM. 185 
 
 villages now in ruins ; in the extensive and 
 crowded burying grounds, near to which no hu- 
 man being now resides ; in the fallen terraces that 
 once lined the sides of the hills and mountains to 
 their very tops, and in the rich plains and valleys 
 which, uncultivated, still pour forth their natural 
 products in wild, luxurious profusion. In travel- 
 ing from Beirut to Sidon and Tyre, I observed, 
 most of the way, an old Roman road, now in 
 ruins, but every where showing, by the deep 
 ruts worn into the massive pavements, that it had 
 for centuries been a great thoroughfare, leading 
 through a rich and thickly peopled country. 
 Sites of ruined towns were numerous ; and I often 
 noticed, as I passed along, fallen columns, broken 
 arches, crumbling aqueducts, with here and there 
 a broad court paved with Mosaic, all indicating 
 wealth and luxury, and greatness now no more. 
 The fine plain of ancient Phenicia, stretching to 
 the north of Sidon and running on beyond Tyre, 
 must once have been covered with a dense popu- 
 lation ; it is now like a garden for fertility, though 
 but little cultivated, and for the most part is left 
 to run to waste. The cities just named, embo- 
 somed in these rich coasts, were once the most
 
 186 RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS OP 
 
 magnificent and powerful in the world ; their 
 merchants were princes, and their traffickers the 
 honorable of the earth. They are now poor, 
 miserable, dilapidated towns, and seemed scarcely 
 habitable. 
 
 Passing from Tyre through the northern parts 
 of Galilee, we saw the most striking marks of an- 
 cient fertility and prosperity, where now little 
 else is to be seen but barrenness and desolation. 
 The fine, rich country around the sea of Tiberias, 
 once thickly studded with large towns, the small- 
 est of which, as Josephus informs us, contained 
 15,000 inhabitants, is now, for the most part, a 
 neglected, unpeopled waste; only two miserable 
 villages appear on the western shore of the lake, 
 Magdalla and Tiberias, and not a single fisher- 
 boat is seen on its waters. The sites of ancient 
 Chorazin and Bethsaida were pointed out to us 
 near the north end of the lake ; but the towns 
 themselves can scarcely be said to exist, so poor 
 and dilapidated are the few buildings that remain 
 where, it is supposed, they once stood. As for 
 Capernaum, which was once exalted to heaven, 
 the place is not known where it formerly flour- 
 ished ; the woe pronounced upon it by the Sa-
 
 PALESTINE AND JERUSALEM. 187 
 
 viour seems long since to have been executed, 
 and it has been thrust down from its elevation to 
 a state of utter ruin and oblivion. 
 
 The great plain of Esdraellon too, or Jezreel, 
 stretching from the base of mount Carrnel nearly 
 to the shore of the Jordan, exuberantly rich in 
 soil and beautiful in situation, presented, at the 
 time I crossed it in the month of April, little else 
 than a most prolific growth of wild flowers and 
 grass, with only here and there a spot under cul- 
 tivation. The same may be said of the still more 
 extensive plain of Sharon, and of the fine, rich 
 country situated around what was once the capi- 
 tal of ancient Samaria. In passing over these 
 beautiful parts of the country, you see the most 
 indubitable signs of a former high cultivation and 
 thrift, and of a teeming population, where now 
 are only decay and ruin. 
 
 From Samaria towards Jerusalem, the country 
 assumes a still more sterile appearance. The 
 hills and mountains, though once evidently culti- 
 vated to their very summits, and clothed with 
 vineyards, fig-trees, pomegranates and olives, 
 now present little else than a mass of naked rock. 
 The terraces, which once supported the soil, are
 
 188 RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS OF 
 
 v 
 
 in ruins ; and the mould, as fast as it is formed, 
 is washed down the slopes and nothing remains 
 but rocky barrenness. 
 
 Even in the valleys, it is only here and there, 
 that a field is seen in a state of tillage. The 
 country immediately around Jerusalem, especial- 
 ly to the west and north, is the most dreary, 
 barren and waste, I ever beheld. It seems over- 
 laid with immense masses of rocks and stones, 
 with scarcely soil enough to allow any thing to 
 take root and grow. The city itself, once beyond 
 a doubt, the most magnificent and splendid on 
 earth, now presents only a melancholy contrast 
 to its former greatness and glory. You cannot 
 walk about Sion, and go round about her, as of 
 old, and tell the towers thereof, mark her bul- 
 warks and consider her palaces. The city sits 
 solitary and forlorn; forsaken of God and evi- 
 dently lying under his curse. All who have 
 been in Jerusalem must have felt this. The in- 
 habitants few, and with the exception of the 
 Turks, if indeed they are an exception, poor, 
 oppressed and extremely miserable. No suburbs, 
 no surrounding busy population, none of the stir 
 and activity of enterprising life is to be witnessed,
 
 PALESTINE AND JERUSALEM. 189 
 
 'but only one rude scene of melancholy waste, in 
 the midst of which the ancient glory of Judea 
 bows her widowed head in desolation.' A few 
 goats and sheep, straggling about the rocks which 
 overhang the shattered remains of the village of 
 Siloam ; a few swarthy shepherds, plying their 
 listless occupation ; with here and there a fierce, 
 armed Bedouin from the surrounding deserts and 
 mountain fastnesses, and now and then a cowled 
 monk or wandering pilgrim steal in upon the pic- 
 ture ; and except it be the sound of the muezzin 
 from the minarets, proclaiming the hour of prayer 
 to the followers of the false prophet, you may sit 
 on the hill slopes, on either side, for an hour to- 
 gether, and not hear the vibration of a human 
 voice from that spot, which once echoed to the 
 strains of sacred song, and royal triumph, and 
 national glory, and the busy din and tumult of 
 2,000,000 of people. 
 
 I can pursue no further this painful contrast 
 between the present and past condition of Pales- 
 tine and the Holy City ; between the " goodly 
 land" formerly enriched with " plenty of corn 
 and oil and wine," and this modern territory of 
 desolation and barrenness. In what has been 
 17
 
 190 RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS OF 
 
 said, I have wished to show that, though little is 
 now seen but sterility and decay, the physical 
 capabilities of the country are great, and that its 
 present barren, unpeopled condition is the result 
 of divine judgments. No one, it seems to me, 
 can pass through the country, without being con- 
 vinced, that the curse of God, in fulfilment of his 
 threatening, is stamped on the face of nature, and 
 on all the interests of society. And thy heaven 
 that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth 
 that is under thee shall be iron. The Lord shall 
 make the rain of thy land powder and dust ; from 
 heaven shall it come down upon thee, until t/tou be 
 destroyed. This fearful den uncial ion has been 
 executed j and the consequences are seen in the 
 sterility, desolation and ruin which every where 
 meet the traveler, as he passes through the land, 
 once favored of God above all other lands. 
 
 2. While traveling in Syria and Palestine one 
 can hardly fail to receive a deeper and more vivid 
 impression of the trutJtfulness of the Scriptures. 
 The Holy land is indeed a local commentary on 
 the sacred volume. One who visits that land 
 with the love of the Bible in his heart, and a com- 
 petent knowledge of its contents in his mind,
 
 PALESTINE AND JERUSALEM. 191 
 
 will continually meet with illustrations of its 
 geography, history, prophecy, comparisons and 
 images. He will feel that he is in the very land 
 of the Bible ; and he will find it the best guide- 
 book he can have. I felt this deeply when in 
 that land, and I often said, either the Bible must 
 be true, or Judea an unreal thing; and all the 
 objects and scenes which there meet the eye 
 must be dreams. Take a position on the lofty 
 hill on which Safet is built, or on any of the high 
 lands around Nazareth, and a vast panorama is 
 spread out to your view, every part of which re- 
 minds you of some locality, some historical event, 
 some great transaction recorded in the Scriptures. 
 Mount Hermon raising aloft its snowy head, with 
 the sources of the Jordan and the beautiful vale 
 through which it flows; the sea of Tibeiias with 
 its interesting localities, and the mountains of Moab 
 stretching along in the east, like a waving line 
 drawn on the horizon ; the mount of Beatitudes 
 where Christ preached to the multitude ; Naza- 
 reth where he'was brought up; Tabor where he was 
 transfigured ; Nain where he raised the widow's 
 son to life ; Gilboa where Saul was slain ; Endor 
 where he went to consult the woman who had a
 
 192 RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS OP 
 
 familiar spirit; Shvmem where Elijah restored to 
 life the Shunamife's son ; Mount Carmel, rising 
 in the distance, where he usually resided and 
 where he sent his servant to watch the cloud, as 
 it rose from the sea, portending rain ; Jezreel, the 
 royal residence of Ahab, and the great plain of 
 the same name, lying below, the scene of many 
 a bloody battle recorded in the Bible ; all these, 
 rich in Scriptural associations, lie spread out be- 
 fore you as on a map ; and as you contemplate 
 them, the whole scene of sacred history rises to 
 view with a new and wonderful sense of reality. 
 The same impression I felt, when from the top of 
 Mount Gerizim I looked upon the frowning front 
 of opposite Ebal, and gazed upon the charming 
 piece of ground which Jacob gave to his son Jo- 
 seph, visited the tomb of this his beloved son, and 
 the well where the Saviour once sat and refreshed 
 himself, wearied with his journey, and traced for 
 many a mile the road he was wont to travel as he 
 went to and from Jerusalem through Samaria. 
 Being on the spot, amid these sacred localities, 
 and seeing how exactly they correspond with the 
 references made to them in the Scriptures, the 
 truth of the inspired volume comes home with
 
 PALESTINE AND JERUSALEM. 193 
 
 new power to the mind, and impresses itself with 
 a livelier interest on the heart. So, take a 
 position on the top of mount Olivet, and view 
 the scene that spreads around you, and you will 
 seem to hear a thousand voices speaking to you 
 of scriptural events, and giving- you a new and 
 deeper impression of theii reality. As you leave 
 the cily, you pass through St. Stephen's gate, 
 near to which is the Pool of Bethesda ; you de- 
 scend into the valley of Jehoshaphat, cross the 
 brook Kedron and tread the same road (hat was 
 wont to be traveled by the Saviour and his Apos- 
 tles, and up which he was led to the hall of 
 Pilate on his way to (rial. You enter the garden 
 of Gethsemane, the place of his last agony, and 
 muse with deep emotion on the scenes of that 
 dreadful night. You reach the summit of the 
 mount and near by, a little to the east, is the 
 place whence the Saviour ascended to glory, in 
 the presence of his disciples ; a little further on 
 is Bethany, the village of Lazarus and his two 
 sisters, Martha and Mary ; at .your right is the 
 road leading down to Jericho, winding round 
 among the hills and valleys, till it loses itself in 
 the dark, gloomy wilderness of the Saviour's 
 17*
 
 194 RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS OF 
 
 temptation ; beyond which is seen the Dead Sea, 
 with all its solemn and affecting associations. 
 At the south-west, distant some seven or eight 
 miles, is Bethlehem, the place of our Lord's birth, 
 hanging upon the slope of a lofty hill, and pre- 
 senting a fine view of the church of the nativity. 
 Beneath you, at the western base of the mount, 
 winds the deep valley of Jehoshaphat, and on the 
 opposite hill lies spread out before you the Holy 
 City; and as you gaze upon the scene, the 'tide 
 of sacred history flows massively through the 
 soul,' and the events of ages, as connected with 
 this spot, pass in rapid review before the mind. 
 There is the site of the once joyous city, the city 
 that was full of people, beautiful for situation, 
 the joy of the whole earth ; the place of kings 
 and heaven's inspired messengers ; the place of 
 the visions of God, and of the ministries of angels; 
 over which the Saviour wept as he descended, for 
 the last time, from this lovely mount ; where he 
 taught, and wrought miracles, was condemned 
 and crucified and rose from the dead. Absorbed 
 in contemplating the past, and beholding the 
 present poor, degraded condition of the city ; the 
 site of the glorious temple, now occupied by the
 
 PALESTINE AND JERUSALEM. 195 
 
 dark, unseemly mosque of Omar, and signs of 
 desolation and ruin on every side, you seem to 
 hear afresh, the voice of the Saviour, as weeping, 
 he uttered the prophetic words, if thou hadst 
 known, even thou at least in this thy day, the 
 things which belong to thy peace ; but now they 
 are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come 
 upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench 
 about thee, and compass thee round and keep 
 thee in on every side ; and shall lay thee even 
 with the ground, and thy children within thee ; 
 and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon 
 another, because thou knewest not the day of thy 
 visitation. 
 
 Indeed one cannot pass through Syria and Pal- 
 estine, without meeting every where with objects 
 to remind him of the truth of God in his word. 
 There prophecy was uttered by seers of old, and 
 there prophecy has had its awful fulfilment. 
 The naked rocks, the deserted plains, the wasted 
 villages and ruined towns, the whole sterile, des- 
 olate aspect of the country are but a faithful com- 
 mentary on the declarations of the Bible, fore- 
 warning of judgments that should come in pun- 
 ishment of idolatry and sin.
 
 196 RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS OP 
 
 While Tyre was yet in her glory, the proud 
 mistress of the seas, and holding commerce with 
 all the then known world, God said, by the 
 prophet Ezekiel, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and 
 I will cause many nations to come up against 
 thee, as the sea causeth the waves to come up. 
 And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre, and 
 break down her towers ; / will also scrape her 
 dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. 
 It sliall be a place for the spreading af nets in the 
 midst of the sea ; for I have spoken it saith the 
 Lord God, and it shall become a spoil to the na- 
 tions." Standing on the spot, I felt deeply how 
 literally this threatening had been executed. 
 Tyre has indeed become like the lop of a rock, a 
 place to spread nets upon. Old Tyre formerly 
 stood on the main land. The ruins of this great 
 and proud city were used by Alexander the Great, 
 332 years before Christ, to fill up an arm of the 
 sea, and thus construct a mole or isthmus to ena- 
 ble him to press the seige against modern Tyre, 
 then situated on an island, and thus was literally 
 fulfilled the word of prophecy For thus saith 
 the Lord God, when I shall make thee a desolate 
 city, like the cities that are not inhabited ; when
 
 PALESTINE AND JERUSALEM. 197 
 
 I shall bring up the deep upon thee, and great wa- 
 ters shall overflow thee, I will make thee a terror 
 and thou shalt be no more. Tyre is thus, as it 
 were,* a permanent living witness to the truth of 
 God, a "hoary monitor, speaking forth from its 
 desolation to us and to men of all ages and 
 climes." 
 
 From these brief notices, you will easily see 
 how it is, that one, passing through the lands of 
 the East, gets a new and more vivid impression 
 of the truthfulness of the Scriptures. He feels 
 himself to be in the home of (he Scriptures ; amid 
 the very objects and scenes which they describe, 
 and from which they draw their illustrations and 
 images. There are the localities with which are 
 connected our deepest and most interesting scrip- 
 tural associations. There are the vines and the 
 fig-trees and the olives, and the cattle on a thou- 
 sand hills ; the same fruits, flowers, birds, ani- 
 mals, and modes of living, that were common 
 four thousand years ago. 'Near every village 
 there are caves, and cisterns, and sepulchres cut 
 in the rock ; women, generally two together, 
 grinding at the mill; holding the distaff, and 
 
 * Read Isaiah xxiii. and Ezekiel xxvi. xxvii. xxviii.
 
 198 
 
 RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS OF 
 
 spinning ; oxen treading out the corn, groups of 
 females seated near a well, or drawing water 
 for their flocks ; shepherds abiding in the fields ; 
 the bottles of the people are made of leather ; 
 their beds are a simple mator carpet, and even a 
 child may take them up and walk ; the grass is 
 cast into the oven, people live in the tombs, there 
 are lodges in the gardens of cucumbers, grass 
 grows upon the tops of the houses, and the inhab- 
 itants walk and sleep upon the roofs of their 
 dwellings ; the wheel is seen turning at the foun- 
 tain and the vessels or pitchers connected with it 
 may be broken.' These customs, and a multitude 
 of others that might be named, are often referred 
 to in the Scriptures, and seeing them on the very 
 ground where the Scriptures were written, im- 
 parts to them a freshness and reality not to be 
 felt in any other situation. The Bible, many 
 parts of it, at least, Appears to me like a new 
 book. I read it with a livelier interest, since my 
 eyes have rested on many of the objects and 
 scenes which it describes; and while the articles 
 of my faith have none of them been changed by 
 what I have seen, I trust that all of them have a
 
 PALESTINE AND JERUSALEM. 199 
 
 deeper place in my affections and a stronger hold 
 on my mind. But, 
 
 3. I must now present a view of this subject 
 somewhat different. The impressions made on 
 themind by visitingPalestine are not all favorable 
 to spiritual affections, or to the strengthening of 
 our faith. Some imagine, that to look with the 
 bodily eyes upon the exact spots, where the great 
 events recorded in the Scriptures occurred, must 
 of course produce a powerful spiritual effect on 
 the mind. Hence, thousands of pilgrims every 
 year, visit Jerusalem and the Holy Land. They 
 come from Egypt, from all paits of Syria, and 
 Asia Minor, from Armenia, from Greece, from 
 Turkey, from the provinces of the Danube, and 
 from the distant parts of Persia. It is the great 
 object of life, with many, to obtain property 
 enough to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. 
 But very few, it is believed, are made better by 
 the tour, while many, it is known, are made 
 worse. The fact is, local associations are insuffi- 
 cient, of themselves, to awaken spiritual feelings. 
 The heart that is cold, while studying the Scrip- 
 tures, in retirement, or surrounded by Christian 
 ordinances in a Christian land, is not likely to 
 \
 
 200 RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS OP 
 
 glow with any kindling warmth, even on the 
 mount of Beatitudes, or in the garden of Gethse- 
 mane. Much depends on the state of mind which 
 one carries with him in visiting sacred places. 
 He, who goes to Jerusalem with little faith, will 
 not be likely to return with much. I can easily 
 imagine, that a worldly minded man, or a man 
 having but little knowledge of the Scriptures, and 
 no settled faith in God, might be made a sceptic 
 and an infidel by visiting Palestine, and especial- 
 ly Jerusalem, with all its miserable superstitions 
 and mummeries. This, we know, has often 
 been the effect of a visit to Rome ; and would, I 
 think, in many cases, be the effect of a visit to 
 the Holy City, there is so much there that is 
 anti-christian and abominable, so much to dis- 
 please and disgust. I often felt, when traveling 
 in the East, particularly in Syria and the Holy 
 Land, that if I could not have access to the 
 Bible, to guide and assist my faith, I should cer- 
 tainly become an unbeliever, so mean, so degra- 
 ded, so unintelligent and worthless did nearly all 
 that is there called Christianity, religion, appear 
 to me. In that land of superstition and igno- 
 rance, one needs both the power and the disposi-
 
 PALESTINE AND JERUSALEM. 201 
 
 tion to separate the gold from the dross, the pre- 
 cious from the vile ; and if he lacks this, he will 
 be much exposed to throw away all as dross, all 
 as vile. 
 
 It is to be observed, further, that persons, of 
 different constitutional temperaments, will be 
 affected differently, by the objects presented to 
 view in the Holy Land. Those of a warm, 
 imaginative turn, or who are chiefly wrought 
 upon, through the medium of the senses, may 
 have their feelings strongly excited by visiting 
 the sacred places in and around Jerusalem, 
 They may kiss, with great ardor, the various ob- 
 jects which are pointed out to them as holy ; may 
 weep abundantly, as they kneel by the spot where 
 the cross was fixed, and be convulsed with emo- 
 tion as they embrace the tomb of the Virgin Mary, 
 or pay their devotions in the church of the Holy 
 sepulchre ; and yet all this while they know noth- 
 ing of spiritual Christianity, be as much the ser- 
 vants of sin as ever, and as little meet for heaven. 
 This is often the case ; and hence in Roman 
 Catholic churches, and the same is true of the 
 churches of the East, there is frequently mani- 
 fested a great deal of emotion where there is no 
 18
 
 202 RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS OF 
 
 religion. It is all feeling-, all emotion, nothing 
 else. 
 
 On the contrary, persons who are of a calm, 
 reflective cast of mind, and whose feelings are ex- 
 cited rather through the understanding and con 
 science, than by outward, visible signs, may visit 
 the Holy City and the various sacred localities in 
 the Holy Land, and be interested, and, perhaps, 
 profited ; and yet they will be likely to have no 
 strong feelings, no deep emotions. Many are 
 disappointed in this respect, and wonder how they 
 can view objects, accounted so sacred and so im- 
 portant, with so little feeling. The truth is, the 
 best and most affecting means of grace, to an en- 
 lightened, Christian mind, are not to be found in 
 viewing saintly relics, or in visiting holy places, 
 or in worshipping even at the reputed shrines of 
 our Lord and of his virgin mother ; but in study- 
 ing the simple Scriptures, in seeking the retire- 
 ment of the closet, in enjoying the Sabbath with 
 its privileges ; in bowing with fellow Christians 
 before the throne of grace, and paying to our 
 common Father an intelligent, spiritual worship. 
 
 A distinction is likewise to be made between 
 Jthe different kinds of events of which the Holy
 
 PALESTINE AND JERUSALEM. 203 
 
 Land has been equally the theatre. Such as are 
 common, or fall within the usual range of human 
 observation and experience, we are assisted to 
 realize, more vividly, by being on the spot, where 
 they transpired. But such as are supernatural^ 
 such as relate to the great spiritualities of our 
 faith, to the wonders of redemption, events of 
 this kind, we are very little aided to comprehend 
 and feel, by local vision, or by being present at 
 the places where they occurred. For example, 
 when I stood by Jacob's well, and remembered 
 how the Saviour once sat there, wearied with his 
 journey, and held conversation with the woman 
 of Samaria, the whole scene rose to my view with 
 new and deeper impressiveness. So when I 
 passed through the village of Bethany, I thought, 
 with peculiar interest, of the sweet intercourse 
 which our Lord was wont to have with the little, 
 pious family that once resided there. As I looked 
 upon the road leading down to Jericho, dark and 
 terrible as it approached the wilderness, and 
 thought of the man who fell there among thieves, 
 the goodness of the Samaritan and the beauty of 
 the whole narrative never appeared to me in so 
 striking and impressive a light. And when,
 
 204 RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS OP 
 
 passing- along the road that leads from Bethany 
 to Jeiusalem, around the southern slope of the 
 Mount of Olives, I came near to the spot where 
 Jesus beheld the city and wept over it, the whole 
 transaction seemed present to my mind, and I min- 
 gled in the tender, solemn scene, with deep emo- 
 tion. These, and other events like them, gather a 
 newand more impressive interestin our view, from 
 having the localities before us with which they 
 are connected. But when we come to the deep- 
 er and more spiritual parts of our religion, to the 
 great transactions connected with our redemp- 
 tion, the birth of Christ in a stable, his temptation 
 in the wilderness, his agony in the garden, his 
 crucifixion, his resurrection, his ascension, here 
 localities are of very little use. These are mys- 
 teries too sacred, too sublime to be understood or 
 felt, through the medium of the senses. They 
 are to be apprehended and brought home to the 
 mind, in their true spiritual impiessiveness, only 
 by faith, by calm reflection and prayer. Indeed, 
 I often felt while traveling in Palestine, that 
 local associations tended to throw a hurtful ma- 
 terialism around my most spiritual views of divine 
 things j I frequently had to resist this influence
 
 PALESTINE AND JERUSALEM. 205 
 
 by calling in my thoughts from the sensible to 
 the spiritual, and I feel quite sure that, in so far 
 as deep impressions of great, spiritual truths are 
 concerned, the pilgrim to the Holy Land has no 
 advantage over him who remains at home, and 
 makes a right use of his Bible and his Sabbaths. 
 It was my privilege, while in Jerusalem, to 
 partake of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper 
 with several Christian friends. It was in an up- 
 per room, at the same season of the year when 
 the Saviour instituted the ordinance, near the 
 place where he partook of it with his disciples, 
 within sight of the spot where he suffered and 
 died, and of the mount whence he ascended to 
 heaven. It may be thought, that these circum- 
 stances must have imparted a deep and most 
 impressive interest to the occasion. It was indeed 
 interesting ; it could not be otherwise. Still I 
 can say with truth, that often here at home, I 
 have been much more deeply impressed by the 
 ordinance, and have derived from it much greater 
 spiritual benefit. The local associations distracted 
 my mind, and drew my thoughts away from 
 those spiritual views of the ordinance, which are 
 18*
 
 RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS OF 
 
 essential to its producing its deepest and best 
 effect on the heart 
 
 It is impossible, moreover, to visit Jerusalem 
 and the Holy Land, without being continually 
 oppressed with most painful and sorrowful re- 
 flections. You feel, wherever you go, that the 
 city and the land are under the dreadful curse of 
 God. The whole country exhibits a most melan- 
 choly contrast to what it once was, and to what 
 it might now have been, but for the sins of those 
 who once dwelt there. The threatenings of God 
 have been executed, and the whole land lies des- 
 olate and in ruins. 
 
 The city, which, it is said, once contained more 
 than two millions of people, and for magnificence 
 and splendor, was unsurpassed by any other on 
 earth, is now reduced to some sixteen or seven- 
 teen thousand souls, Turks, Arabs, Jews, and a 
 motley mixture from many other nations, most 
 of them extremely poor and miserable, dwelling 
 in rude stone buildings, and subsisting on means 
 one knows not what. Then for religion, alas ! 
 well nigh every name and form of it is there an 
 abomination. Painful as it was to hear the cry 
 of the muezzin, calling the followers of the false
 
 PALESTINE AND JERUSALEM. 
 
 prophet to their devotions, on the spot where once 
 the thousands of Israel were wont to shout forth 
 the praises of God, and worship him in the glo- 
 rious temple filled with his presence,! could not 
 but feel, that even such a cry and such devotions 
 were, to say the least, not more irrational, impi- 
 ous, and offensive to Jehovah, than what is daily 
 exhibited, under the name of religion, in the 
 church of the Holy Sepulchre. I was present on 
 " the great, or Easter Saturday," and witnessed 
 what is called the miracle of the holy fire. I 
 cannot describe the scene. Imagine some three 
 or four thousand pilgrims, with every variety of 
 costume, and some with almost no costume at all, 
 assembled and densely crowded together in the 
 immense area of the church, all excited to the 
 most intense fanaticism, in expectation of seeing 
 the heaven-descended flame, issue from holes in 
 the sides of the sepulchre. Turkish soldiers were 
 stationed in different parts of the church, with 
 bayoneted muskets; and officers full armed, car- 
 rying likewise large sticks or canes, which they 
 frequently had occasion to use, and with great 
 violence, in beating groups of quarreling pilgrims 
 into order. One can have no idea of the excesses
 
 208 RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS OF 
 
 there practiced, without witnessing them. It was 
 awful. Laughing, singing, fighting, shouting, 
 jumping, clapping of hands, and dancing, suc- 
 ceeded each other, or were carried on all at once 
 in different quarters of the church. I thought of 
 the furies, of the wild orgies of pagans at their 
 idolatrous feasts, but I can find no comparison 
 rightly to represent it. 
 
 The Greek bishop of Jerusalem, the principal 
 actor in this stupendous farce, accompanied by a 
 priest, at length appeared, preceded by a Turk- 
 ish guard, entered the sepulchre and the door 
 was closed. In about half an hour, the miracle 
 workers sent forth the celestial fire through the 
 apertures before named ; the maddened multi- 
 tude sent forth a shout like that of bachanals, 
 and rushed forward to light their torches at the 
 holy fire, which they say will not burn, and in a 
 few minutes the whole church was in a blaze of 
 light. As I witnessed this shocking scene, the 
 insults offered to the majesty of God within the 
 church dedicated to his worship, and by priests 
 bearing the holy name of the Saviour, I could 
 not but fear and tremble, lest the judgments of
 
 PALESTINE AND JERUSALEM. 209 
 
 heaven should break forth instantly against such 
 barefaced imposture and wickedness.* 
 
 * The sepulchre is an oblong marble structure, perhaps fifteen 
 feet in length by eight in breadth, and twelve or fifteen in height, 
 It is divided into two apartments, in the innermost of which is 
 what is represented to be the real tomb of the Saviour, covered 
 with a marble slab, raised some two feet above the floor. This 
 sepulchre, or mausoleum stands in the centre of a large circular 
 church, surmounted by a lofty dome. As the church has no 
 windows, the dome is the only avenue through which light is 
 admitted, and being open, or only covered with strong wire 
 gauze work, it serves well the purposes of ventilation. The 
 front of the sepulchre, which is towards the east, is gorgeously 
 ornamented with gold and silver lamps, and various costly offer- 
 ings made by pilgrims, who, in successive ages, have gone there 
 to perform their devotions. 
 
 It seems probable, that the miracle of the " holy fire," did not 
 originate at Jerusalem, but at Poitiers, in France, about the 
 year 569. In a church built there by the queen of France, the 
 wife of Clotaire, among other miracles said to have been per- 
 formed in it, was that of a light supernaturally produced on 
 Good Friday, annually, two days before Easter. In the year 
 870, the " holy light" is first heard of as being at Jerusalem. 
 It is very probable, as Coray, acelebraled Greek writer suggests, 
 that the miracle was either invented some time previous, or 
 transferred from Poitiers to the sepulchre at Jerusalem, for the 
 purpose of attracting pilgrims, who, on account of Mohammedan 
 persecutions, were deterred from making the pilgrimage. At 
 this time the " holy light" was in the hands of the Roman Cath- 
 olics, who retained the choice possession, the power of working
 
 210 RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS OP 
 
 But besides the grosser forms of superstition 
 and wickedness just referred to, there are numer- 
 ous other things, in and around Jerusalem, which 
 are exceedingly annoying to a Christian traveler, 
 and can hardly fail to excite his deep indignation 
 and grief. He feels himself to be in the midst of 
 lying legends, and foolish traditions, and degra- 
 ding superstitions. They meet him on every side ; 
 the very atmosphere seems poisoned with them. 
 By far the greater part of the objects and places 
 which are pointed out as sacred, are the mere 
 inventions of stupid monks, or the creations of 
 superstitious credulity. There is no reason to be- 
 lieve, that even the church of the Holy Sepulchre 
 stands on the spot of the crucifixion and burial of 
 
 this annual miracle, for about three hundred years. When 
 Jerusalem was taken from the Crusaders, by the Saracens, under 
 Saladin, in 1187, he gave the Church of the Sepulchre to the 
 Greeks, who have retained it ever since, and have yearly exhib- 
 ited the impious farce of this pretended miracle. The Catho- 
 lics now mock at it, as a gross imposition, though it is certain 
 that they practiced it, annually, for at least three centuries, and 
 regarded it as the seal of heaven on their church. For the last 
 six hundred years or more, the Greeks, by favor of their Moham- 
 medan rulers, have enjoyed the same monopoly, and of course 
 believe that they have equally the divine sanction to their 
 orthodoxy.
 
 PALESTINE AND JERUSALEM. 211 
 
 our Lord. And yet within that church are com- 
 prised almost all the spots associated with the last 
 days of our Saviour. They show you the place 
 where he stood and wept, the pillar by which he 
 was scourged, the spot where he was crowned 
 with thorns, the hill of Calvary, up some fourteen 
 or fifteen stairs, where he was crucified, the stone 
 on which his body was anointed, the tomb where 
 he was laid, the cleft made in the rock by the 
 earthquake, from which Adam's skull was taken, 
 the very place where the wood of the cross was 
 found by the Empress Hellena, and the exact 
 point where is the centre of the world. And if 
 you pass out of the city to the mount of Olives, 
 you are shown, in the church of the ascension, 
 the precise spot whence he ascended, with the 
 print of his feet and of his staff in the rock. The 
 pilgrims regard these things with great venera- 
 tion ; to visit them, to kneel by them, and kiss 
 them, is in their view the highest act of religion, 
 and the surest way to obtain salvation. 
 
 The enlightened Christian grieves to witness 
 such degrading superstition and ignorance. He 
 is pained to see how Christianity, there in the 
 cradle of its birth, and on the spot of its earliest
 
 212 RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS OF 
 
 and brightest triumphs, is desecrated, debased, 
 crushed down and destroyed ; and while he em- 
 braces the New Testament to his bosom with a 
 warmer faith and a more grateful love, as show- 
 ing to him a more excellent way, the exclama- 
 tion bursts, involuntarily, from his lips, how 
 long, Lord, how long shall these desolations 
 continue ! 
 
 From the high land, some two or three miles 
 west of the Jaffa gate, I took my last look of Jeru- 
 salem. The mount of Olives still lingered awhile 
 longer in sight. I gazed upon that with indescri- 
 bable emotion, till the little church on its summit 
 faded from my vision; then I turned and went 
 away in silence, breathing to heaven the prayer, 
 that when my pilgrimage on earth shall be ended, 
 though oceans and continents may separate me 
 from the place of my Saviour's humiliation and 
 triumph, I may find his presence with me, and 
 be accounted worthy to ascend, and dwell eter- 
 nally with him in the world of glory. 
 
 4. To one who has visited the Holy Land, or 
 who feels any concern for the prosperity of the 
 Redeemer's kingdom, it is a question of deep 
 interest, what is to be the future condition of that
 
 PALESTINE AND JERUSALEM. 213 
 
 land, and of the city which was once its capital, 
 the place of sacred solemnities, and of God's 
 especial presence 1 Time will not now permit a 
 discussion of this question. There are those who 
 believe that Palestine is ere long to rise from its 
 present desolations, and Jerusalem to assume 
 more than its ancient glory ; that the land is 
 again to be peopled by the descendants of those, 
 who once owned and cultivated the soil, and that 
 the Holy City, no longer held under Moslem rule, 
 or trodden down of the gentiles, is to be rebuilt, 
 in magnificence and splendor; is to be graced 
 with the presence of her King, and resound with 
 his most worthy praise. It may be so. I express 
 no opinion on this subject. Judging from the 
 present aspect of Syria and Palestine, it is not 
 improbable that the Jews, in large numbers, may 
 yet go back and dwell there. This is the confi- 
 dent expectation of the great body of the nation, 
 and they believe the time is near. The land, in 
 so far as occupancy is concerned, is open to 
 receive them. Its capability to sustain a great 
 population cannot be questioned. And should 
 the yoke of Turkish oppression, under which the 
 country now groans, be broken, and a wise, stable 
 19
 
 214 RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS OP 
 
 government be established there, by some Chris- 
 tian power, England for example, the de- 
 scendants of Israel, there can be no doubt, would 
 be seen flocking there from all parts of the world 
 where they are now scattered, and thus the land 
 be again filled by its rightful owners. 
 
 However this may be, one thing is certain, 
 Syria and Palestine are destined soon to expe- 
 rience great changes, and they will be changes, 
 we may be sure, for the better. The Turkish 
 reign there is very feeble and very precarious. 
 Indeed the whole Turkish empire is tottering to 
 its fall. It is held up for a time by the jealousy 
 of European powers ; but its fall and dismember- 
 ment, at no distant day, is certain. That day 
 may come at any time ; and when it comes, sal- 
 vation, I believe, will come to the land of God's 
 ancient people, and they will probably return, 
 many of them at least, to resume the heritage of 
 their fathers. 
 
 But we must wait the development of God's 
 purposes ; his providence will ere long unroll the 
 book of destiny, and show what scenes are to rise 
 over the land of patriarchs and prophets, and of 
 apostles and martyrs. I deem it a high privilege
 
 PALESTINE AND JERUSALEM. 215 
 
 to have been in that land. My memory loves to 
 retrace the steps of my travel, and call up the 
 various scenes through which I there passed. 
 To have presented to you this brief, imperfect 
 sketch of them, has renewed to me, at least for a 
 season, the pleasure I felt in actual vision ; and 
 if the service thus performed do but prove the 
 occasion of strengthening your fdith in God and 
 his word, and awakening in you a warmer grat- 
 itude for the richer blessings that distinguish your 
 lot, then will I give thanks to the Father of mer- 
 cies, both on your account and my own ; and daily 
 shall it be my prayer, that pastor and people may 
 so pursue their pilgrimage here below, that they 
 shall enter together the New Jerusalem, that city 
 which hath foundations, whose Builder and Maker 
 is God.


 
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