UCSB LIBRARY


 
 LECTURES 
 
 YOUNG PEOPLE 
 
 MANUFACTURING VILLAGES. 
 
 BY DORUS CLARKE, 
 
 Pastor of the Congregational Church, Chickopee Factory Village, Springfield. 
 
 AN INTRODUCTION 
 BY AMOS BLANCHARD, 
 
 Pastor of the First Church in Lowell. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY PERKINS & MARVIN. 
 PHILADELPHIA : HENRY PERKINS. 
 
 1836.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1836, 
 
 BY PERKINS & MARTIN, 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.
 
 TO 
 
 TIMOTHY W. CARTER, ESQ., 
 
 Agent of the Chickopea Manufacturing Company ; 
 AND TO 
 
 GEORGE W. BUCKLAND, ESQ., 
 
 Superintendent of the Mechanical operations of the same; 
 
 THIS VOLUME, 
 
 PRIMARILY DESIGNED FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE NUMEROUS 
 
 YOUTH IN THEIR EMPLOYMENT, IS, WITH MANY 
 
 SENTIMENTS OF RESPECT, GRATITUDE, 
 
 AND AFFECTION, 
 
 INSCRIBED.
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 THE following Lectures were prepared 
 with the desire to promote the intellec- 
 tual, moral and religious improvement of 
 the young people of the author's pastoral 
 charge ; and, at the solicitation of the 
 young men before whom they were de- 
 livered, they are now given to the public, 
 in the hope, that they may be useful to 
 youth generally, but especially to the nu- 
 merous and highly important class which 
 are connected with the manufacturing es- 
 tablishments of the country. 
 
 SPRINGFIELD, MARCH, 1836.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Pagt. 
 
 INTRODUCTION, 9 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 Importance of the period of youth, 29 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 Intellectual cultivation, 47 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 Established and correct religious principles, . . 65 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 Dangers of young people, 91 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 Origin, obligation and proper observance of the 
 
 Sabbath, 115
 
 Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 
 Morality necessary, but insufficient to salvation, . 143 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 Personal piety, 170 
 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 Life of active usefulness, 195
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 WITHIN comparatively a few years, a new direction 
 has been given to a large amount of American genius, 
 capital, and labor. Instead of the unbroken stillness 
 of agricultural life, almost every village of New 
 England resounds with the din of machinery ; every 
 water- fall is laid under tribute as a centre of business 
 and a source of wealth ; and populous towns, cities 
 in all but the name, occupy the soil, which yesterday, 
 as it were, scantily rewarded its partial cultivation, 
 or was covered by the tall trees of the forest. 
 
 A corresponding change has come over the char- 
 acter and habits of a large portion of the people. 
 Multitudes, especially of the youth, once scattered 
 among the farms and smaller workshops of the 
 country, are now congregated in compact masses, 
 and are subject to all the influences, good and evil, 
 which attend a dense and busy population. 
 
 Interesting as are the inquiries suggested by this 
 state of things to the statesman and political econo- 
 2
 
 mist, questions of vastly greater interest arise in the 
 mind of every Christian. What complexion is the 
 moral character of these institutions to assume ? 
 What is to be their effect on the intelligence and 
 virtue of the community ? These inquiries possess 
 an interest paramount to any and all others, and 
 demand the most serious consideration of every lover 
 of his country's and of human weal. 
 
 One thing is certain. We are to be a manufactur- 
 ing country. The tide of events which has already 
 given so strong an impulse in this direction to 
 American enterprise, cannot be arrested. It is every 
 day becoming more resistless. The natural resources 
 of the country, the amplitude of its domain, its fertility, 
 and its means of artificial power by water and by 
 steam the capabilities for production in our large 
 and increasing population, their enterprise, and the 
 necessity of finding objects on which that enterprise 
 may be expended the aptitude of our countrymen 
 for the mechanic arts, their ingenuity and skill, and 
 their success in the invention of labor-saving ma- 
 chinery all point out our destiny with a distinctness 
 which supersedes the ken of prophecy. Even now, 
 manufactures have ceased to be exotics here. They 
 have struck their roots so deep, and have spread 
 upward into such luxuriance, as to leave no doubt that 
 they will henceforward compose an important feature 
 of our moral and social scenery. Desirable or not, the 
 result is inevitable. Christians and philanthropists
 
 XI 
 
 can only fall in with the current, and prepare them- 
 selves to meet, as best they may, the responsibilities 
 and perils which it shall evolve. 
 
 Another fact is no less clear. The influence of 
 manufactures on education and morals, is to be, one 
 way or another, tremendous. They have already 
 levied their contributions on nearly every town and 
 village. They embosom the flower of many families 
 of the yeomanry of the land families from which 
 have sprung the greater part of our most honored and 
 useful men, and of which it is not exaggeration or 
 flattery, but simple truth to assert, that they compose 
 the bone and sinew of the nation's strength. Not a 
 few of the youth who fill these abodes of honorable 
 industry, are the offspring of piety and prayer. And 
 around these crowded resorts, are clustered the sup- 
 plications and hopes of many of the best hearts in 
 our churches They here form a society in which 
 the elements of good and evil are brought into direct 
 and fearful collision. Parental oversight is withdrawn. 
 The kindly influence of the family, restraining from 
 vice and stimulating to good behavior with all the 
 secret magic of a charm, is here almost unknown. 
 They are linked by active and numerous sympathies 
 with every possible variety of character, and are ex- 
 posed to every species of temptation. It is true their 
 pursuits exercise and develope talent, and the constant 
 contact of mind with mind, gives them a degree of 
 intelligence perhaps above the average intellect of an
 
 agricultural community. There is here little stagna- 
 tion of thought ; and hence their ignorance, if they 
 be ignorant, will not be that of torpid, vacant minds. 
 It will be ingenious, passionate, prurient ; putting 
 itself forth in forms of bold, reckless, destructive 
 error. Uneducated mind in a manufacturing village 
 will be emphatically " educated vice." The well 
 known excitability too of such communities, may, 
 under auspicious moral influences, be turned to the 
 best account, as facts delightfully prove ; or it may 
 render them " rebel to all law," and qualify them to 
 bid defiance to every religious and moral restraint, as 
 leviathan laughs at the shaking of a spear. And 
 when these splendid monuments of enterprise and 
 art shall have become lazar-houses of corruption, 
 should heaven in its wrath ever visit us with so dire a 
 day, the nation will rue the riches which erected 
 them, and the very extremities of the social system 
 will wither beneath their corrupted and corrupting 
 influence. 
 
 Our hope however is strong that such a day is 
 never to arrive. There is much to invigorate this 
 hope in the habits and institutions of the American 
 people. The industrious tenants of our mills and 
 workshops are aspiring to become themselves at no 
 distant day proprietors. They are treading the same 
 honorable path through which some have already 
 reached the high places of power, and multitudes 
 have acquired competent, if not affluent wealth.
 
 Few among them can be found at present, who are 
 not looking forward to an eligible settlement in life, 
 with little or no expectation that their present em- 
 ployments are to be the inheritance of their children. 
 Among the unnumbered blessings of our social institu- 
 tions, institutions whose glory it is that, like the laws 
 of Providence, they are felt chiefly in the blessings 
 which they diffuse, the constant though noiseless 
 revolutions which society is undergoing are certainly 
 among the foremost. With no law of entail, and no 
 rights of primogeniture, there never can be an aristoc- 
 racy among us, in any proper sense of the term. To 
 how great an extent are our rich men the artificers of 
 their own fortunes. How seldom is a family distin- 
 guished by inherited wealth through more than one 
 or two generations. The elements of society, like 
 the particles in a mass of boiling fluid, are constantly 
 changing places. In the ceaseless rotation of the 
 wheel, those who are now deemed by themselves and 
 others as at the bottom, are found, in the lapse of a 
 few years of patient industry and enterprise, at the 
 top. We cling to the hope that, under the operation 
 of our social system, manufacturers will never become 
 a distinct caste, doomed, as families, to mere me- 
 chanical toil, and aspiring to no higher education for 
 themselves or their children than is requisite to make 
 them convenient appendages of the machinery with 
 which they work. 
 
 Again, the early education of a large proportion of
 
 XIV 
 
 those who work in our manufactories, will go far to 
 form and maintain among them all an elevated tone 
 of moral feeling. In countries where these institu- 
 tions have been complained of as hotbeds of vice, it 
 is questionable whether the fact, if it be a fact, is to 
 be ascribed so much to the simple influence of the 
 system, as to the previous moral character of the 
 people themselves. As long as one half or one third 
 of the youth in these establishments enter them with 
 the associations of well regulated and pious homes 
 fresh about them, they will compose a leaven of vast 
 and truly conservative power. 
 
 And then there is among the people at large an 
 ever wakeful jealousy of abuses, which, even while it 
 seems to slumber, is still watching with its hundred 
 eyes against the encroachments of avarice in the 
 employer on the rights and welfare of the employed. 
 Public sentiment must be strangely deteriorated to 
 tolerate the abuses from which most of the evils 
 charged to the^e institutions in other countries have 
 sprung. 
 
 It is matter of encouragement, that hitherto so 
 healthy a public sentiment has been maintained in 
 most of our manufacturing communities. Proof is 
 wanting that in point of morality and social order, they 
 are inferior to any other communities of equal extent 
 and density, or even to an equal number of youth 
 taken as they rise in a sparse and widely scattered 
 population.
 
 XV 
 
 It must not be forgotten, moreover, that the same 
 causes which expose the youth in these crowded resorts 
 to peculiar temptations, facilitate also salutary moral 
 appliances. Religious sympathies are rapidly com- 
 municated. The sanctuary and the Sabbath school 
 are commonly more accessible than they can be in 
 most of our country towns ; and systems of religious 
 effort can be made to bear upon those who have not 
 become inured to the thrilling scenes of the confer- 
 ence room and the meeting for social prayer. 
 
 But the chief ground of our hope respecting the 
 future character of these institutions, is in the fact 
 that some of the largest of them have been the scenes 
 of delightful and glorious revivals of religion. The 
 Holy Spirit has hovered over these interesting spots, 
 and hallowed them by his special presence. To not 
 a few they have proved the very gate of heaven. 
 Hundreds of youth might be named, who, after a few 
 months' residence here, have returned to their friends 
 with a new song put into their mouths, and who will 
 through eternity recur to this, as the birth-place of 
 their souls. 
 
 These are, confessedly the brighter aspects of the 
 subject. It must be admitted that the tendency 
 of the unbounded prosperity of the country is to 
 create the same inequalities of wealth, which char- 
 acterize society in many states of the old world. 
 With the progress of refinement, and the more ex- 
 tended application of the principle of division of labor,
 
 the employments of the laboring classes will break 
 them up more or less into distinct castes, at the sacri- 
 fice of intellectual expansion and capacity for moral im- 
 provement. With the growing luxury and vice of the 
 country, our larger towns and villages will, it is to be 
 feared, embody a still greater amount of corruption. 
 Of these incalculable evils, manufacturing towns will 
 come in for their full share. Nay, it is easy to see 
 that, without special preventive influence, they, of all 
 places, will be most sorely scathed by the lava tide of 
 profligacy and crime. 
 
 These emergencies must be suitably met, or we are 
 undone. In the responsibility of meeting them aright, 
 the whole religious community partakes. A few 
 suggestions to ministers and Christians will be here 
 indulged. 
 
 There must be then, most obviously, a special 
 adaptedness of ministerial and Christian effort to the 
 wants and peculiarities of manufacturing towns. Not 
 forgetting that the sovereign power of God is the only 
 source of success in saving men, it is still a truth not 
 to be overlooked, that God works ordinarily by in- 
 strumentalities adapted to their intended ends ; and 
 that, other things equal, those means will be most 
 blessed, which are the most perfectly fitted to accom- 
 plish their object, and are most wisely, perseveringly, 
 and prayerfully applied. It is on this ground that we 
 speak of the wants of these places as demanding 
 special adaptedness of religious exertions. No fixed
 
 routine of effort, mechanically pursued ; no following 
 of a beaten track ; no stereotyped plans of action, will 
 answer the purpose. Among a population transient 
 almost as the water-courses by which they dwell, a 
 minister cannot live on the " capital " of reputation 
 and public confidence which he may have acquired 
 by past years of prudent, indefatigable, and successful 
 toil. Nor will a few splendid efforts atone for long 
 intervals of dullness. Pulpit preparation must not be 
 neglected. Do whatever else a minister may, if he 
 be habitually careless on this point, his moorings are 
 unsound, and his sheet anchor drags. No audience 
 hears preaching more attentively than one composed 
 of mechanics. And with little aid, perhaps, from 
 mere bookish lore, there is in such an audience no 
 lack of quick perception, of sound common sense 
 judgment, and a demand, approaching even to fas- 
 tidiousness, for clear, matured and solid exhibitions 
 of truth. But the pastor must not stop here. The 
 materials, of which his church and congregation are 
 composed, are, to a great extent, individuals, as 
 distinguished from families. These require, as the 
 means of attraction and union, a large amount of in- 
 dividual attention. The pastor's work, therefore, 
 consists much in details ; and generally his success 
 will depend less upon a few great or brilliant efforts, 
 than upon a multitude of things, in themselves per- 
 haps small, skilfully and seasonably performed. His
 
 skill in tactics will go nearly or quite as far towards 
 determining his success as his pulpit power. 
 
 His toils, like the fabled labors of Sisyphus, must 
 be unintermitted. But if he have the blessing of God, 
 the results will be proportion ably great. Beneath his 
 ministry are passing in quick succession scores and 
 hundreds of minds to be molded for eternity by his 
 hands. If he emulate the satisfaction of instrumen- 
 tally " building up " a church, he may enjoy it in 
 such a place, not merely for a few years, but for his 
 life. Those who a year or two since were gathering 
 around him, with the ardent attachment of his spirit- 
 ual children, to cheer him with their sympathy and to 
 lend him their aid, are now very probably gone. 
 New faces present themselves every Sabbath. And 
 these new comers must be converted, new con- 
 scripts for Christ must be perpetually enrolled, or the 
 church, now numerous, and strong in mutual confi- 
 dence and attachment, will be found to have ebbed 
 from him in the refluent tide of emigration, leaving 
 only the fragments of what was so lately " the pillar 
 and ground of the truth." 
 
 This representation applies, in its whole extent, 
 only to those places where the body of the population 
 is composed of manufacturers. But it is true propor- 
 tionably of smaller establishments. And it is made, 
 not to discourage ministers from entering these fields 
 of labor, but to correct an impression under which, 
 we have sometimes suspected, ministers of acknow-
 
 ledged power have declined invitations to the pastoral 
 charge of such churches; viz : that they do not promise 
 sufficient opportunities of usefulness. Let a minister 
 throw himself upon such a community, regardless of 
 emolument, honor, or ease, for the single purpose, 
 in the strength of God, of winning men to Christ, and 
 he shall have souls for his hire. True and warm 
 hearts will rally for his countenance and support in 
 every good enterprise. Aarons and Hurs will not be 
 wanting. He shall not labor in vain, or spend his 
 strength for naught. 
 
 In no communities so much as in these, does the 
 prosperity of religion depend so much on the exertions 
 of private members of the church in their individual 
 and social capacities. They can perform services 
 vital to the growth and prosperity of the church, 
 which no pastor, without the gift of ubiquity, and 
 scarcely even then, could render. The character and 
 circumstances of the population, necessarily throw 
 upon them much of the work of cementing and con- 
 solidating the church, and of securing the attendance 
 of strangers upon the means of grace ; introducing 
 them, when suitable, to the pastor ; and following up 
 the favorable impressions which they may have re- 
 ceived in the sanctuary. All the responsibility which 
 rests upon Christians in other places, for the mainte- 
 nance of a sound public sentiment, is incurred ten- 
 fold in a manufacturing village. No where are they 
 called upon to take so high and decided a ground
 
 XX 
 
 on the subjects of Intemperance, Sabbath-breaking, 
 and every other form of open vice. On all these 
 subjects it emphatically concerns Christians thus cir- 
 cumstanced to avoid the appearance of evil ; to abstain 
 from what their circumstances and relations to others 
 render inexpedient, as well as from what is morally 
 and universally wrong. Let those habits of wasteful 
 expenditure, of indulging in idle and fashionable 
 amusements and follies, which have ensnared and 
 ruined so many youths of both sexes, be met by pro- 
 fessing Christians with the sternest and most decided 
 reprobation. The peculiar susceptibility of all assem- 
 blages of youth, to the contagion of example, gives 
 transcendent importance to the strictest consistency, 
 in all these matters, on the part of professed followers 
 of Christ. Let the youthful female friends of the 
 Redeemer ponder well their peculiar responsibilities. 
 Woman's energy and perseverance have here done 
 wonders. It is ordinarily for the females of such a com- 
 munity to give tone to its public sentiment on morals 
 and religion, and to decide how general shall be the 
 attendance upon the sanctuary, the Sabbath school, 
 and the meetings for prayer and for religious inquiry. 
 It would be interesting, did space allow, to record 
 some of the results of the divine blessing upon the 
 exertions of females employed in manufactories. But 
 their record is in heaven, and their memorial is on 
 high. Let every female so situated, understand her 
 obligations to Christ, and aspire to the enviable en-
 
 comium pronounced by our Lord upon one of their 
 sex " She hath done what she could." 
 
 Professors of religion, on entering a manufactory, 
 have too often imagined that they were lost among the 
 throng of strangers, and were in some way released 
 from the .obligations which they recognized when 
 among their friends, to walk not according to the 
 course of this world. I shall not, I hope, be charged 
 with cen seriousness, if I say, that pastors abroad err 
 most sadly in not encouraging the youth of their 
 churches who are about to remove to these scenes of 
 peculiar temptation, to become connected at once 
 with some church of Christ in the place of their 
 expected residence. What though their stay is to be 
 but temporary, do not their best interests and highest 
 usefulness plainly require that they should enjoy the 
 Christian vigilance and sympathy of some church of 
 Christ, and feel themselves responsible, to the extent 
 of their influence, for its enlargement and purity? 
 Facts speak on this subject with convincing and ter- 
 rible eloquence. Delinquent professors of religion 
 cripple the power of the gospel in these communities 
 far more than all the combined opposition of avowedly 
 irreligious men. Nowhere is it so true as here that 
 if all the inconsistent professors of religion ' could be 
 exchanged, each for ten open, boisterous enemies of 
 the truth, piety might proclaim a jubilee at the bright- 
 ening prospects of her cause.' In such places no 
 safeguard of Christian character can be wisely dis-
 
 pensed with. And it is surely no small security of 
 Christian consistency, to feel one's self publicly and 
 solemnly committed before the community among 
 whom he resides, to live as becometh godliness. 
 A simple introductory line, making them acquainted 
 with some pastor of a church, would, under God, 
 have saved numbers who have found, in manufacturing 
 towns, the grave of their character, usefulness, and 
 hopes. 
 
 To enlarge on the peculiar duties of professing 
 Christians in manufacturing establishments, would be 
 to anticipate other portions of this volume. One 
 thought I cannot forbear to suggest. The friends of 
 the Redeemer in such places, are most loudly called 
 upon to quench the spirit of sectarian party strife. 
 Party spirit in religion, always a calamity, is here a 
 most blighting, withering curse. It works with a 
 virulence elsewhere unknown, especially in villages 
 of the smaller class, where rival denominations 
 struggle for existence. While, therefore, every Chris- 
 tian indulges his predilection for his own place of 
 worship, and feels himself specially responsible for the 
 prosperity of that branch of the church of Christ 
 with which he is directly connected, let him love the 
 cause of Christ more than that of a sect, and strive to 
 make inroads on the kingdom of darkness, rather than 
 to win adherents to his own detachment of the sacra- 
 mental host. 
 
 The responsibility which devolves upon those, who,
 
 XX111 
 
 as directors of companies, agents, and superintend- 
 ants, control our manufacturing institutions, can 
 scarcely be overrated. They cannot be insensible of 
 the direct interest which they and their employers 
 have in the religious and moral character of the in- 
 stitutions over which they preside. And many of 
 them, it should be told, have exerted the influence, 
 demanded by an enlightened policy, as really as by 
 the higher law of duty to God. But there are those 
 to whom the language of truth must be that of re- 
 spectful though firm arid urgent remonstrance. To 
 any of this description into whose hands this volume 
 may fall, I would say Think not lightly of evangelical 
 religion. Despise not the efforts of its friends. Give 
 its institutions' your active and efficient support. 
 Hallow the day of God, and let it not be violated 
 under your authority, sanction, or connivance. Let 
 no demands of avarice wrest this consecrated day 
 from the holy ends to which the temporal welfare of 
 society, no less than the laws of God, require it to be 
 devoted. The time may come when you will feel the 
 need of the enlightening, soothing, and subduing 
 influences of the Sabbath, the sanctuary, and the 
 Sabbath school, to stand between you and the radical- 
 ism, which, in its jealousy of wealth and distinction, 
 shall prostrate law and social order, and wreak its 
 blind malice on the splendid achievements of yout 
 capital and skill. The signs of the times are surely 
 portentous enough to bid you beware of doing any
 
 thing, in person or by proxy, to arrest or obstruct any 
 of the instrumentalities which God has appointed for 
 bringing his moral government to bear upon the con- 
 sciences and hearts of men. You may despise the 
 Sabbath and the public worship of God. But a just 
 God will hold you to account for all the good which 
 an opposite course would have secured, and for the 
 positive mischiefs which your station and influence 
 give you the opportunity thus to inflict upon society 
 around you ; and none will be to blame more than 
 yourselves, should it appear at no distant day, that in 
 prostrating the Sabbath, you have sprung a mine, of 
 which yourselves and those whom you represent are 
 the very first victims. 
 
 It cannot be too often repeated or too deeply im- 
 pressed, that the special presence of the Holy Spirit 
 in his renovating power is the only ultimate ground 
 of hope for the continued purity of these institutions. 
 They must be the scenes of perpetual revivals of 
 religion, or abodes of moral infection and spiritual 
 death. Let then those pastors and Christians who are 
 called to live and labor in these important fields of 
 benevolent exertion, make it the burden of their 
 efforts and prayers to secure the shedding down of 
 celestial influence like the rain and the dew. If the 
 obstacles are peculiar, so also are the encouragements. 
 The useful arts are with us as yet in their infancy. 
 Their relation to morality and religion is now fast 
 assuming a shape and complexion which will be re-
 
 XXV 
 
 tained when maturer growth shall have developed their 
 giant energies. No one can be in a position to observe 
 the rills of influence by which the character of these 
 institutions reaches and affects the whole community, 
 without feeling that we are authorized to bespeak in 
 their behalf the prayers and sympathies of all Chris- 
 tians. Let our Home Missionary Societies bestow 
 special attention upon the manufacturing villages 
 whose population and resources are inadequate, with- 
 out foreign aid, to the support of an evangelical 
 ministry. Nor let our older towns withhold their aid 
 when needed for the erection of houses of public wor- 
 ship. It should be understood that the wealth of such 
 places is for the most part owned and represented, as to 
 religious objects, elsewhere ; that the mass of those on 
 whom devolves the support of religion, are young men 
 and women, with no capital but their enterprise, their 
 industry, and their time ; and that, relatively to their 
 population, such places have generally less ability than 
 any others for enterprises requiring so heavy an outlay 
 of capital, as the building of suitable houses of pub- 
 lic worship. We could tell of sacrifices made for such 
 objects by those whose earthly all is their daily wages, 
 such as the owners of hoarded wealth in our older 
 towns would turn pale to think of. Furnish them 
 with meeting-houses, and such places will be found 
 foremost in devising and executing liberal things. 
 Their characteristic enterprise in business will show 
 itself in religion. Put them, in this respect, on a 
 3
 
 level with towns whose capital can yield its thousands 
 for this purpose without a sensation of embarrassment, 
 where local attachments and the prospect of perma- 
 nent abode divest such enterprises of even the show 
 of self-denial, and where they are attended with not 
 more than one half or one third of their expense in 
 manufacturing towns ; and no places will outdo these 
 in attendance on public worship, or in readiness to 
 meet the current expenses of maintaining religious 
 institutions. 
 
 It bodes well for the religious interests of man- 
 ufacturing districts, that the press is becoming 
 tributary to their spiritual wants. Adaptation marks 
 the age. The multiplication of books is some- 
 times complained of as an evil. But in so far as 
 it results from well directed efforts to adapt religious 
 instruction to every condition of mind, there is surely 
 little cause to deplore it. While, therefore, we have 
 many excellent volumes intended for the young, let 
 not this attempt to address a particular class of the 
 young be deemed a work of supererogation. Every 
 pastor located in or near a manufacturing village, 
 must have felt the need of some volume to be put 
 into the hands of this interesting and important portion 
 of his congregation, which skould speak to their con- 
 dition. And many a parent has desired to deposit 
 such a volume with his son or daughter on leaving 
 the family home, as a memento of danger and of
 
 xxvu 
 
 duty. The author having favored me with the perusal 
 of his manuscript, I am happy to bear my testimony 
 to the wisdom of his plan, and the success of its 
 execution. The doctrinal views are, throughout, 
 those in which I suppose all classes of evangelical 
 Christians will concur. But the work will speak for 
 itself. I recommend it most cordially to the beloved 
 youth of my own pastoral charge, and to all who like 
 them are summoned to the duties, and exposed to the 
 dangers of such a community. May the author reap 
 an ample reward for this labor of love in the enlarged 
 effusions of the Holy Spirit upon his own flock, and 
 in the blessing of Heaven on this little volume whither- 
 soever it shall go on its errand of mercy and of life. 
 
 Lowell, March, 1836.
 
 LECTURES 
 
 TO 
 
 YOUNG PEOPLE. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF THE PERIOD OF YOUTH. 
 
 PHOT. xx. 29 The glory of young men is their strength. 
 
 IN attempting to adapt a series of discourses 
 to the circumstances of young people in a manu- 
 facturing village, I am entering, so far as I know, 
 upon untrodden ground. Able lectures, addressed 
 to youth in other situations in life, are at command, 
 but they do not profess to reach the peculiar con- 
 ditions of a manufacturing population. To say 
 that the circumstances of such a population are, 
 in some important respects, peculiar, is to utter the 
 language, not of invidiousness, but of kind truth ; 
 and the public good requires that these conditions 
 should be more accurately known and appreciated.
 
 30 IMPORTANCE OF THE 
 
 A manufacturing population, then, is yet a nov- 
 elty in this country. Manufactures, of the simpler 
 kinds, were indeed coeval with the settlement of 
 New England ; but it was not till the general 
 pacification of Europe in 1815, that they assumed 
 any great degree of importance. Since that 
 period, they have outstripped, in the Northern 
 and Middle States, all the other great departments 
 of secular enterprise. That they are destined in 
 future years to increase, to a great and indefinite 
 extent, requires no prophetic skill to divine. If 
 we consider the amplitude of our domain its 
 natural resources its mineral treasures its ex- 
 uberant fertility its means of artificial power by 
 water and by steam the rapid increase of our 
 population the far famed aptitude of our country- 
 men for the mechanic arts their ingenuity in the 
 invention of labor-saving machinery and the great 
 surplus capital of many of our citizens, which can 
 find no other so profitable investment, there can 
 no longer remain a doubt, that manufactures will, 
 in coming years, be prosecuted on a far more ex- 
 tensive scale than the present. If, then, such be 
 the recent date, present importance, and prospec- 
 tive magnitude of the manufacturing interest, it 
 ought surely to receive the serious consideration, 
 not merely of the political economist, and the
 
 PERIOD OF YOUTH. 31 
 
 statesman who adjusts the tariffs of his country, but 
 of all who regard the moral bearing of different 
 pursuits upon the condition of individuals and of 
 communities. 
 
 A very large proportion of youth is another 
 peculiarity in a manufacturing population. This 
 feature is at once remarked by every stranger, on 
 entering a village or a congregation composed of 
 this class of our citizens. Few indeed are the 
 hoary heads in such a community. Here are the 
 young, the ingenious, the enterprising. Special 
 efforts for their instruction and establishment in 
 the great principles of morals and religion, can 
 never be deemed inappropriate or unnecessary. 
 
 No small part of such a population are also 
 widely separated from their parents and friends. 
 They have left the nameless endearments of home, 
 and the restraints of parental authority, to engage 
 in the business of active life, and that, too, at an 
 age, when the counsel of parents and of other 
 judicious friends is of incalculable value. Not a 
 few also are in a state of unprotected orphanage. 
 With no father's house to which they can resort 
 in seasons of bodily indisposition and mental dis- 
 tress, and no mother's attentions and prayers to 
 assuage the grief of the heart, does not their 
 lonely and defenceless situation bespeak the sym-
 
 32 IMPORTANCE OF THE 
 
 pathies of humanity and of Christian benevo- 
 lence ? 
 
 Such a population also comprises no small share 
 of vigorous and independent mind. There are 
 no sinecures for mental dullness in a manufacturing 
 community. Here, no person can get a dollar a 
 day for sleeping. No person can be a distin- 
 guished machinist or manufacturer, with but a 
 mediocrity of mental strength and ingenuity. It 
 is only that class of minds which is enterprising, 
 noble and magnanimous, that finds its element in 
 the ceaseless industry and manly independence of 
 a manufacturing population. 
 
 Such a community possesses immense facilities 
 for exerting an influence on the country. The 
 population is dense. It has all the advantages in- 
 cident to frequent intercommunication. Opinions, 
 whether good or bad, circulate rapidly. A little 
 leaven quickly leavens the whole lump. The 
 people are collected from different parts of the 
 country, and perhaps of the world, and sentiments, 
 formed by such communities, are disseminated 
 among their friends, and thus society, throughout 
 its numerous ramifications, feels the influence of 
 the manufacturing villages. Even London herself, 
 it is said, looks up to Manchester, Birmingham, 
 Leeds, and other large manufacturing towns in
 
 PERIOD OF YOUTH. 33 
 
 England, for opinions upon the great political 
 questions, which, from time to time, agitate the 
 public mind. The manufacturing interest in this 
 country does by no means exert that controlling 
 influence over public affairs, which it does in Great 
 Britain, for here it is yet in its infancy ; but it 
 already gives tokens that it is the infancy of a 
 giant. 
 
 Another peculiarity in the manufacturing villages 
 of our country is, that their place on the scale of 
 moral character does not yet seem, to be determined. 
 Whether they will sink to the low point of the 
 manufacturing districts of the old world ; or 
 whether they will average in moral character with 
 our agricultural, mercantile and commercial popu- 
 lation ; or whether they will surpass them all, in 
 purity of morals, is yet a problem. It is not to 
 be denied, that the solution of this problem is of 
 vital importance to the country j nor is it to be 
 concealed, that much solicitude is extensively felt 
 for the result. 
 
 Such are the more prominent conditions of a 
 manufacturing population in this country. In this 
 Course of Lectures, such subjects will be presented 
 as are deemed to be appropriate to these condi- 
 tions ; and, as I trust it is commenced with a de- 
 sire to promote your present and eternal good,
 
 34 IMPORTANCE OF THE 
 
 may I not be permitted to draw somewhat largely 
 upon your candor, and to cherish the hope that 
 whatever of truth may be exhibited, will be cor- 
 dially embraced and practised ? 
 
 Solomon tells us that " the glory of young men 
 is their strength." He probably had primary 
 reference to the physical strength for which young 
 men are distinguished. But, by a very easy and 
 natural accommodation, the text may be regarded 
 as having respect to the moral strength or influ- 
 ence of the young of both sexes. I propose to 
 contemplate it in this broad moral aspect. The 
 subject of this introductory lecture will therefore 
 be, 
 
 THE GREAT IMPORTANCE OF THE SEASON OF 
 YOUTH ; 
 
 I. To yourselves. 
 
 II. To the world. 
 
 To yourselves, it is important, 
 . 1. As it is a season of exquisite susceptibility. 
 From the earliest dawn of moral agency in the 
 infantile mind, all men have a sinful moral char- 
 acter ; but their depravity, although entire, is not 
 of so deadly a virus, and does not exhibit such 
 deeply indurated features, as in mature age. 
 During the period of childhood and early youth, 
 there is a peculiar susceptibility of moral and re-
 
 PERIOD OF YOUTH. 35 
 
 ligious impression, which we search for in vain in 
 the subsequent stages of life. The passions now 
 are easily moved the conscience is tender the 
 mind is open to the various influences which may 
 assail it. The whole mental and moral constitu- 
 tion is spread out to receive impressions, either 
 good or evil, from whatever comes in contact with 
 it, like the petals of a flower, displayed alike to 
 the sunshine, the dew, and the storm. 
 
 If you have any regard, as I know you have, 
 to your future peace and respectability, you cannot 
 be indifferent to those numerous influences which 
 operate, with such prodigious power, upon the 
 character of youth. A point of no inferior con- 
 sequence will be gained, if your minds should be 
 habitually awake to the high importance of your 
 season of life, arising from its peculiar susceptibility 
 of impression. 
 
 It is important to you, 
 
 2. Inasmuch as it is the season of education. 
 I know, indeed, that many of you have completed 
 your education, so far as the schools are concerned. 
 But the great business of education, properly so 
 called, is by no means confined to the school-room. 
 It is going forward every day the education of 
 circumstances insensible education by means of 
 which, your opinions, prejudices, habits and char-
 
 36 IMPORTANCE OF THE 
 
 acters for life are forming. Enlightened heathens, 
 as well as Christians, have noticed that the im- 
 pressions imbibed by youth, " grow with their 
 growth, and strengthen with their strength." Ham- 
 ilcar, the Carthaginian general, understood this 
 principle and acted on it, when he brought his son, 
 at the early age of nine years, to the altar, and 
 there made him swear eternal vengeance against 
 the Romans. It was because prejudice was thus 
 early instilled into the youthful mind of Hannibal, 
 that he became the most inveterate, the most un- 
 compromising, the most terrible foe of Rome. 
 The arch infidel Voltaire understood this principle 
 when he said, " give me the making of the bal- 
 lads, which are read and sung by the youth, and I 
 care not who has the making of the laws." 
 
 The present, then, my young friends, is the 
 season of your education of your education in 
 its most comprehensive and important sense. 
 Those influences which are now forming your 
 manners and your minds, cannot, if you are at all 
 awake to the subject, fail deeply to interest you. 
 They are insinuating themselves into your very 
 habitudes of thought and jeeling. They are inter- 
 weaving themselves in the very texture of your 
 mental constitution. 
 
 The present is with you an important period of 
 life,
 
 PERIOD OF YOUTH. 37 
 
 3. On account of its peculiar exposure to temp- 
 tation. The dangers, to which young people in 
 manufacturing and all other densely populated 
 villages are more particularly exposed, are those 
 arising from intemperance, profaneness, Sabbath- 
 breaking, licentiousness, and erroneous religious 
 sentiments. In this connection, it gives me sincere 
 pleasure to be able to state, that it is believed this 
 village will bear comparison, for purity of morals, 
 with any other similarly situated community in 
 New England. And it is devoutly hoped, that in 
 future years it will even more than maintain its 
 present elevated position in this respect. But a 
 faithful exhibition of the high importance to your- 
 selves of your present period of life, requires a 
 distinct reference to those vices and errors to which 
 young people are always more or less exposed. 
 No person is too strongly fortified against tempta- 
 tion. The celebrated Fisher Ames was accus- 
 tomed to say, " we have but a slender hold of our 
 virtues ; they ought therefore to be cherished with 
 care, and practised with diligence. He who holds 
 parley with vice and dishonor, is sure to become 
 their slave and victim. The heart is more than 
 half corrupted, that does not burn with indignation 
 at 'the slightest attempt to seduce it." Happy, 
 indeed, will it be for every youth here, if it can
 
 38 IMPORTANCE OF THE 
 
 be said of you, as it was beautifully remarked of 
 that pure-minded patriot, " he did not need the 
 smart of guilt to make him virtuous, nor the regret 
 of folly to make him wise." I appeal then to 
 your self-respect, and to your regard for the public 
 weal, and exhort you to untiring efforts to uproot 
 the last vestiges of immorality which may exist 
 among us. If the youth will but resolve upon 
 their extermination, the work is done. 
 
 Your season of life is of indescribable impor- 
 tance to you, 
 
 4. Because your religious principles are now 
 forming. You have already been sufficiently con- 
 versant with the world to know, that religious 
 opinions are almost endlessly diversified, and fre- 
 quently contradictory. Almost every sect, too, 
 except atheists and deists, profess to derive their 
 sentiments from the Bible. Now it is perfectly 
 obvious that all these sentiments cannot be right, 
 and also that most of them must be wrong. And 
 when we recollect the intimate and inevitable con- 
 nection between faith and practice, it cannot be a 
 matter of indifference to you what religious 
 opinions you embrace. As your present peace 
 and future felicity are concerned, this subject is 
 fundamental it is vital. I purposely abstain from 
 entering upon its merits at this time, because it is
 
 PERIOD OF YOUTH. 39 
 
 intended to exhibit it more at large in a future 
 lecture. But the criticalness of that period of 
 life, when the religious sentiments are imbibed, 
 and matured, and wrought into the very structure 
 of your moral being, is beyond the power of lan- 
 guage to describe, or the imagination of an angel 
 to conceive. 
 
 5. But the last and crowning circumstance 
 which gives importance to your present time of 
 life, is, that it is the season when nearly all become 
 Christians who ever do. The statistics of revivals 
 of religion exhibit facts in relation to this subject, 
 of overwhelming interest to persons of all ages. 
 Probably nine tenths, if not ninety-nine hundredths 
 of the present members of the churches became 
 hopefully pious, while under the age of forty. 
 The term youth, in its most enlarged sense, may 
 be said to embrace all persons up to that age. 
 But, according to the Scriptures, there is some- 
 thing fearful in the thought of passing that limit 
 without repentance. What else can be meant by 
 such passages as these ? " Your fathers tempted 
 me, proved me, and saw my works forty years." 
 " But with whom was he grieved forty years ? 
 was it not with them that had sinned, whose 
 carcasses fell in the wilderness ? " " Forty years 
 long was I grieved with this generation, and said,
 
 40 IMPORTANCE OF THE 
 
 It is a people that do err in their heart, and they 
 have not known my ways ; unto whom I swear 
 in my wrath, that they should not enter into my 
 rest.'* Around what other epoch, in the progress 
 of human life, can you find so many terrors clus- 
 tering ? Although there are occasional instances 
 of conversion in later periods of life, there is 
 something tremendously appalling in the idea of 
 passing that extreme limit in the period of youth, 
 in a state of enmity against God. 
 
 But that is not all. It is well known, that a 
 vast majority of those who embrace religion, do it 
 at a much earlier age than this. " Out of the 
 mouth of babes and sucklings," God often perfects 
 praise. Some of you, it is hoped, have " remem- 
 bered your Creator in the days of your " early 
 " youth." To all who have not, let me say " Now 
 is the accepted time, behold, now is the day of 
 salvation." Your present time of life is, of all 
 others, the most favorable for attending to the 
 great concern. Let these tender, susceptible 
 years pass by unimproved, and the loss is remedi- 
 less they are gone forever. Beyond all question, 
 so far as your immortal interests are concerned, 
 the present is by far the most important part of 
 your life. Whatever you do whether you accept 
 or reject the " great salvation," you will feel the
 
 PERIOD OF YOUTH. 41 
 
 consequences of your choice, in the extremes of 
 rapture or of wo, all along the mighty cycle of 
 eternity. 
 
 But it is time to pass to the remaining branch 
 of the subject, and to show, 
 
 II. That the season of your youth is of great 
 importance to the world. 
 
 1 . Young people exert great influence over each 
 other. This inevitably follows from the laws of 
 social intercourse. Mankind are so constituted, 
 that they cannot associate freely together without 
 receiving and communicating impressions. This 
 law of our social being is specially illustrated in 
 all densely peopled communities, because the 
 points of contact are unusually numerous. And 
 it is still more emphatically illustrated in the unre- 
 served freedom of intercourse, which obtains among 
 persons engaged in the same occupation. Con- 
 tinually and insensibly are they exerting an influ- 
 ence over each other, of the most important 
 character. Nor is this incompatible with indepen- 
 dence of mind. Real independence does not dis- 
 dain the opinions of others, nor retire, in haughty 
 disgust, from society. But it rather invites their 
 opinions, gives them a candid hearing, and allows 
 them all the weight to which they are fairly en- 
 titled. This condescending and generous treatment 
 4
 
 42 IMPORTANCE OF THE 
 
 of the sentiments of others, is a necessary ingre- 
 dient in genuine dignity of mind. 
 
 Your time of life is, therefore, of great moment 
 to society, inasmuch as you are giving to each 
 other a cast of character which no lapse of ages 
 can destroy. 
 
 Your passing period of life is of immense im- 
 portance to the world, 
 
 2. Because the first generation of manufac- 
 turers in this country, will materially affect all 
 subsequent ones. Perhaps it may be said that 
 such a generation does not yet exist that those 
 who are now engaged in manufacturing pursuits 
 regard them as mere temporary occupations, from 
 which they intend soon to retire to other employ- 
 ments. Such is unquestionably the intention of a 
 very large majority of those who are at present 
 thus occupied. But when children, in no incon- 
 siderable numbers, are put into manufactories at the 
 early age of eleven years, and even earlier, and kept 
 there from year to year with but perhaps an annual 
 respite of three or four months for purposes of edu- 
 cation, there can be no doubt in the mind of any ob- 
 servant man, that the system on which manufactures 
 are conducted is rapidly creating, and has, in fact, 
 already created a class, which may be properly 
 called manufacturers. The moral influence of
 
 PERIOD OF YOUTH. 43 
 
 manufactures is now undergoing the test of ex- 
 periment. The ultimate result is not developed. 
 Not our own country only, but the great common- 
 wealth of nations is deeply interested in the issue. 
 Much, very much of the moral influence of this 
 growing interest, will depend on the character of 
 those who are connected with it during its incipient 
 stages. You, and other youth similarly situated, 
 will do much towards deciding the question, 
 whether the manufacturing establishments of our 
 country are to be, as some of their enemies predict, 
 the veriest hotbeds of ignorance, and degradation, 
 and radicalism, and crime ; or, whether they are 
 to equal, or even to surpass other occupations in 
 intelligence, and virtue, and magnanimous devotion 
 to the best interests of man. Point me, then, if 
 you can, to the class of young men and young 
 females in our land, which are acting under respon- 
 sibilities so momentous. If the young people, who 
 compose so large a portion of our manufacturing 
 communities, will but awake to the influence they 
 must exert on their successors for generations to 
 come, there will be but little cause for solicitude 
 as to the result of the experiment now in progress. 
 Their well known spirit of enterprise their thirst 
 for improvement their self-respect their liber- 
 ality, accompanied with the requisite sense of re-
 
 44 IMPORTANCE OF THE 
 
 sponsibility in the case, will be a sufficient guaranty, 
 under God, that the manufacturing interest will 
 exert a salutary moral influence on the world. * 
 
 Your season of life is of pre-eminent importance 
 to others, 
 
 3. Because the world is more easily and ex- 
 tensively affected by moral influence than at any 
 "preceding period. The present has been appro- 
 priately styled " the transition age." The world 
 is now passing from a condition of great moral 
 deformity and debasement, to one of millennial 
 beauty and elevation. The foundations of many 
 generations are breaking up. The general mind 
 of man is waking from the slumber of ages. The 
 moral elements are in high commotion. Opinion 
 is dashing against opinion, like the waves of 
 ocean against the shore. Moral causes exert a 
 hundred fold more power than they did in the 
 twelfth century. The influence of the press is 
 tremendous. The ends of the earth are brought 
 into juxtaposition by means of steam. Whatever 
 of importance is done in any place, affects, with 
 electrical quickness, the antipodes. Never before 
 was the world in such an excitable, impressible 
 state. Never before did a generation of youth 
 appear on the stage of action, with so many facili- 
 ties for doing good or evil. Never before was the
 
 PERIOD OF YOUTH. 45 
 
 moral "strength" of the " young" so herculean ; 
 and never before, if they will exert that strength 
 aright, could it win such victories of benevolence, 
 or place on their heads crowns of such surpassing 
 brilliancy. 
 
 Finally, The season of your youth is important 
 to the world, because the church of God has claims 
 upon your influence. I am not addressing a con- 
 gregation of young people, who are ignorant of 
 the moral " signs of the times." You are well 
 aware, that high expectations are entertained, and 
 on the best of grounds, that the religion of the 
 gospel is soon to become the religion of the world. 
 But great must be the expenditure of time and 
 strength, and property and life, before that glo- 
 rious consummation can be realized. To whom, 
 then, so far as instrumental agency is concerned, 
 is the church to look for help, if not to the youth 
 to those whose " strength " is their " glory ? " 
 
 YOUNG MEN, the church calls on you for aid. 
 She hath need of you. She needs your hearts, 
 your time, your substance, your influence, your 
 prayers, your labors. Devote yourselves, then, 
 like youthful Samuel and Timothy, to the Lord. 
 "The field," to which he summons you, "is the 
 world." Here is scope enough for your philan- 
 thropy and enterprise. Live and die in promoting
 
 46 IMPORTANCE, &c. 
 
 that cause which will soon absorb every other 
 the cause of Jesus Christ. 
 
 YOUNGK J^EMALES, the church of God calls on 
 you. Give ft your lives, and your all. Sympa- 
 thize, like the " daughters of Jerusalem," with 
 the Redeemer, in his efforts to save a dying world. 
 Imitate the unwavering devotedness to Him, which 
 was so characteristic of woman, during the trying 
 scenes of the crucifixion : 
 
 " Not she with trait'rous kiss the Saviour stung ; 
 Not she denied him with unholy tongue : 
 But when Apostles shrunk, did dangers brave, 
 Last at the cross, and earliest at the grave."
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION. 
 
 Pa. CXLIV. 12. That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth ; 
 that our daughters may be as corner-stones, polished after the similitude of 
 a palace. 
 
 GRAY, in his " Distant Prospect of Eton 
 College," has drawn an exquisite picture of the 
 simplicity, gayety and unconcern of early youth. 
 
 " Gay hope is theirs by fancy fed, 
 Less pleasing when possess'd j 
 The tear forgot as soon as shed, 
 The sunshine of the breast. 
 
 Alas ! regardless of their doom 
 
 The little victims play ! 
 No sense have they of ills to come, 
 
 Nor care beyond to-day." 
 
 Such is the description, which the poet gives of 
 a class of youth, who were sent to the groves of 
 Academus to make those intellectual acquisitions,
 
 48 INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION. 
 
 which should fit them to fill with honor the learned 
 professions of Great Britain. Many youth, with 
 all the advantages for education offered by an 
 university, have thoughtlessly squandered their 
 privileges, and have never woke up to the " re- 
 alities" of life, till it was too late. But there is 
 occasionally a person, like Paley, who, after being 
 prodigal of his scholastic advantages, " comes to 
 himself," redeems his time, and wins unfading 
 laurels on the fields of literature. 
 
 Most of you have already passed the blithesome 
 period of very early youth, and are beginning to 
 look at life in a graver aspect. Whatever may 
 have been the degree of success, with which you 
 prosecuted study while at the schools, you have 
 now reached that time of life, when you probably 
 realize, more deeply than ever, the importance of 
 a good education. 
 
 I shall avail myself of the spirit of the text, to re- 
 commend to your increasing regard the subject of 
 INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION. 
 
 My remarks will be confined to the three fol- 
 lowing topics ; 
 
 I. Its importance. 
 
 II. The obstacles to mental improvement in 
 such a community as this ; and 
 
 III. The means of overcoming them.
 
 INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION. 49 
 
 Its importance is apparent, 
 
 1 . As it is a prominent means of personal en~ 
 joyment and influence. It is altogether a mistake 
 to suppose, that, when we have entered upon 
 active life, further mental culture is unnecessary, 
 or incompatible with the successful prosecution of 
 business. The standard of education is now ele- 
 vated, and is continually rising. The amount of 
 intellectual wealth, which, twenty-five years ago, 
 conferred great enjoyment and influence, is now 
 quite inadequate to produce the same result. 
 During that period, the mind of civilized man has 
 received an impulse, greater perhaps than any 
 preceding century had communicated. Now, a 
 taste for reading very generally prevails. The 
 mind, which does not keep up, in this particular, 
 with the times, feels a degrading sense of inferi- 
 ority. The respect of others being lost, it soon 
 loses respect for itself. Its enjoyment and influ- 
 ence are now seriously impaired, if not utterly 
 destroyed. This calamitous result cannot be 
 avoided, in this improving age, except by perse- 
 vering efforts at mental cultivation. The profes- 
 sional man, who -should abandon study, will soon 
 find his mind debilitated his memory weakened 
 his power of close and long-continued thought
 
 50 INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION. 
 
 destroyed and those who were his equals in 
 standing, already become his superiors. Such is 
 the thirst for knowledge such the " rush of 
 mind," that the man who stands still but a short 
 time, will find himself outstripped by others ; his 
 compeers become his masters. This will hold as 
 true of persons engaged in manual-labor occupa- 
 tions, as of professional men. The importance of 
 constant attention to the culture of your minds, is 
 therefore urged upon you by every motive of 
 personal enjoyment and usefulness. Never feel 
 that you are too old to learn. Waller, by incessant 
 cultivation of his taste and imagination, lost none 
 of his poetical power at eighty-two ; and the great 
 Newton, in his eighty-fifth year, and only a few 
 days before his death, was found improving his 
 " Chronology." 
 
 2. As a matter of pecuniary benefit to your- 
 selves and your employers. My object here is not 
 to urge the sordid motive of money-making as a 
 reason for intellectual improvement, but to illus- 
 trate the fact, that superior intelligence always 
 contributes to increase prosperity in business. 
 Time has been, when the converse of this maxim 
 was held to be sound ; that the more ignorant a 
 person was, the better at least for his employer. 
 Such a principle befitted the feudal institutions of
 
 INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION. 51 
 
 Europe, and was twin-sister of the papal maxim, 
 that " ignorance is the mother of devotion." But 
 the progress of light has exploded them both. In 
 all well-informed communities, it is now univer- 
 sally admitted, that the labor of intelligent, free, 
 independent operatives, is far more productive 
 than that of ignorant serfs or slaves. This doc- 
 trine is advocated by the most distinguished polit- 
 ical economists, such as Adam Smith, Say, and 
 Malthus. What enlightened individual or com- 
 pany but would prefer to employ, so far as the 
 mere matter of dollars and cents is concerned, the 
 services of persons of intelligence and self-respect, 
 and consequently, of skill and enterprise ? By so 
 doing, they find their account in the superior 
 quality of the work performed in the diminished 
 expense of keeping their tools and machinery in 
 repair in the smaller premium paid for insurance 
 and supervision and in partial relief from taxes 
 for the support of pauperism and the prevention of 
 crime. Vice is often compelled to pay homage to 
 virtue ; but it is a homage by no means more pro- 
 found, than that which ignorance renders to intel- 
 ligence. An intelligent agriculturalist one who 
 understands the nature of different soils, the best 
 methods of cultivation, and the proper rotation of 
 crops, will be far more successful in business, than
 
 52 INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION. 
 
 one who is ignorant of the scientific principles of 
 husbandry. The merchant of intelligence and 
 forecast more readily perceives those occasional 
 tides in human affairs, which bear men on to 
 fortune, than he who knows but little of the state 
 of the market, and the condition of the world. In 
 like manner, those operatives in a manufacturing 
 establishment who are the most intelligent and 
 enlightened, will, other things being equal, be the 
 most skillful in the prosecution of their work will 
 command the highest wages, and be the most prof- 
 itable to their employers. The principles of sound 
 political economy, therefore, offer the highest pre- 
 mium for this description of labor, and present a 
 cogent motive to mental improvement. 
 
 It is important, 
 
 3. As it elevates the character of manufacturing 
 pursuits. There is a strong disposition in the 
 public mind, to compare the moral character of 
 our manufacturing establishments with that of 
 those in Great Britain. Without at all appreci- 
 ating the difference in the educational and moral 
 condition of the two countries, in the habits and 
 institutions of society, and in the standing and 
 prospects for life of the operatives, many have 
 imbibed the uncharitable and groundless impres- 
 sion, that the manufacturing establishments of our
 
 INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION. 53 
 
 country are to inherit the moral character of their 
 predecessors in the old world. That the moral 
 condition of most of the transatlantic manufactur- 
 ing establishments is deplorable indeed, admits of 
 no question. In a speech of Lord Chancellor 
 Brougham, in 1833, he says, "ignorance prevails 
 in Great Britain to a horrible extent." The 
 British and Foreign School Society, not long since 
 made this memorable declaration, " ENGLAND is 
 YET UNEDUCATED." Dr. Chalmers, in a speech 
 made on a public occasion in 1834, repeatedly 
 deplored the "practical heathenism" in which 
 thousands of the population of Edinburgh live. 
 He had recourse even to the strong figure, that it 
 is necessary " to excavate the population, firmly 
 imbedded in a mass of practical heathenism." 
 And when we recollect, that more than seven 
 eighths of the population of Great Britain obtain 
 their living by labor, and that manufactures of 
 many descriptions, are prosecuted to an extent 
 which has no parallel in any other country, we 
 can have no doubt, that the above cited declara- 
 tions of the ignorance which prevails there, have 
 emphatic reference to the operatives in the manu- 
 factories. Simpson, in his " Popular Education," 
 also asks, " Who has not felt and deplored, in his 
 intercourse with nearly the whole class of manual-
 
 54 INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION. 
 
 laborers, even what are deemed the most decent 
 and respectable, the mass of prejudice, superstition 
 and general ignorance, which he is doomed to en- 
 counter ? The working man," he says, " rarely 
 knows how to better his lot in life, by rational re- 
 flection on causes and consequences, founded on 
 early acquaintance with the simpler principles of 
 trade, the state of particular employments, the 
 legitimate relation between labor and capital, and 
 between laborer and employer, the best employ- 
 ment of surplus earnings, the value of character, 
 the marketable importance, to say no more, of 
 sober and moral habits and intelligence ; in short, 
 on any practical views of the circumstances, which 
 influence his condition. On the contrary, he is 
 the creature of impressions and impulses, the 
 unresisting slave of sensual appetites, the ready 
 dupe of the quack, the thrall of the fanatic, and, 
 above all, the passive instrument of the political 
 agitator." 
 
 Such, according to English testimony, is the 
 mental and moral condition of the great mass of 
 the laborers in the British manufactories. They 
 are so profoundly uninformed as to their own posi- 
 tion in the market of labor, and the due relation of 
 labor and capital, that they are readily seduced to 
 join combinations to extort larger wages and fewer
 
 INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION. 55 
 
 hours, both of which, if they could be obtained, 
 would, in their present condition, only be misap- 
 plied to purposes of idleness and sensuality, and 
 of course, be a curse instead of a blessing. By 
 joining such short-sighted unions, they often throw 
 themselves permanently out of the only employ- 
 ment with which they are acquainted, and plunge 
 themselves and their families into all the horrors 
 of starvation. 
 
 That the manufacturers of our country will ever 
 sink to such deep degradation, is, by no means, to 
 be expected. But if, on the contrary, they would 
 reach that high elevation of character, which is so 
 desirable to every community, and which, consid- 
 ering the nature of our institutions, it is so easy for 
 them to attain, the foundations of such intellectual 
 and moral eminence must be laid in the thorough 
 education of the children and youth. 
 
 II. But, in such communities as this, there are 
 
 certain obstacles to great intellectual culture, which 
 
 
 
 deserve our consideration. 
 
 1. The first of these is, want of time. From 
 twelve to thirteen hours a day,* you are engaged 
 
 * A large proportion of the youth, to whom these Lectures 
 were addressed, are engaged in the cotton manufacture. This 
 fact will explain a few other expressions and allusions in these 
 pages.
 
 56 INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION. 
 
 in your manual-labor employments. If you add 
 to the hours thus occupied, those which are de- 
 manded by other necessary avocations and by 
 sleep, the time which you can devote to the direct 
 improvement of your minds is very little. This, 
 it must be acknowledged, is a serious obstacle to 
 great literary acquirements. But, while your time 
 for intellectual improvement is limited, you have 
 this advantage, that you know just what time you 
 can devote to it. The perfect system, with which 
 your manual-labor employments are conducted, 
 enables you to calculate, with great accuracy, the 
 time which you can devote to study. This re- 
 deeming circumstance is one of no inconsiderable 
 importance, and gives you a decided advantage 
 for mental improvement over those classes of 
 society, whose ordinary business is less systematic. 
 2. Another obstacle is lassitude of body and 
 mind. A general languor of the physical and 
 mental powers is created by long-continued ap- 
 plication to business. After spending twelve or 
 thirteen hours in labor, a person is quite unfitted 
 for close mental application. In order to prosecute 
 study the most successfully, the body and mind 
 must be in an active, vigorous state. Besides, 
 that discipline of mind, which will enable one to 
 accomplish much, even in untoward situations, is
 
 INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION. 57 
 
 very difficult to be acquired under the almost 
 ceaseless pressure of business. These conditions 
 present serious impediments to your progress in 
 study. But do not feel that their influence can- 
 not be counteracted. Simpson, the mathemati- 
 cian, by untiring perseverance in mental applica- 
 tion, rose from the weaver's loom to the first 
 rank of scientific men. 
 
 3. There is no great demand for high literary 
 attainments. In academical and professional life, 
 there is incessant conflict of mind with mind. 
 There, the premium, which public sentiment 
 awards, is awarded only to mental productions of 
 a high order. In such a market, distinguished 
 efforts of mind are the articles in demand. But, 
 in all pursuits where there is no special demand 
 for great intellectual acquirements, there will, of 
 course, be less prospect that they will be made. 
 The river will rise no higher than the fountain. 
 The supply will not be likely to exceed the 
 demand. No employments of the handicraft 
 character present the highest inducements to in- 
 tellectual improvement. Those persons who 
 who have no special taste for improvement, will 
 therefore be in danger of resting satisfied with 
 barely that measure of education, which may 
 enable them to ply their mechanical operations 
 5
 
 58 INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION. 
 
 with acceptance. Such are the prominent obsta- 
 cles to intellectual improvement, which exist 
 among a manufacturing population. 
 
 III. It now remains to consider the means of 
 overcoming them. 
 
 1. Attach a high degree of importance to edu- 
 cation. A man's principles will affect his prac- 
 tice. If education be undervalued, it will be 
 likely to be neglected ; if its vast importance be 
 appreciated, it will receive corresponding attention. 
 To argue the importance of education, in this en- 
 lightened day, would seem to be as superfluous a 
 task, as an attempt to demonstrate an axiom. 
 And yet it is the theme of almost every tongue. 
 It is advocated in every variety of form and man- 
 ner. It is urged in the tract, the newspaper, the 
 periodical, and the more stately volume. It is 
 the theme of the teacher, the professional man, 
 the poet, the patriot, the philanthropist, the states- 
 man. For a few years past, perhaps no subject 
 has found so many eloquent panegyrists. And, 
 yet, one half of its importance to individuals or to 
 communities has not been told. " An angel's 
 lyre " would not suffice to sound its praises, nor a 
 seraph's eloquence to do justice to its merits. 
 Let its immeasurable importance to man, in his 
 individual and social capacities, be impressed upon
 
 INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION. 59 
 
 your hearts. Next to the conservative power of 
 the gospel, we must look to education to give 
 perpetuity to our republican institutions, and to 
 preserve our cities and villages from riots, incen- 
 diarism and blood. A well-educated individual is 
 a blessing to himself and to the world. A well- 
 educated community will be a prosperous commu- 
 nity, and its example will operate salutary changes 
 on the other side of the globe. 
 
 2. Rise early. 'Perhaps you may think this 
 advice gratuitous, when your business often calls 
 you to rise before the sun. But there is little 
 danger of rising too early. The mind is more 
 vigorous, early in the morning, than in any other 
 part of the day. Milton wrote much of the 
 "Paradise Lost" before breakfast. Though to 
 him did not return 
 
 " Day, or the sweet approach of ev'n, or morn, 
 So thick a drop serene had quenched his orbs, 
 Or dim suffusion veil'd," 
 
 yet some of the most splendid passages of that 
 immortal poem were written under the inspiration 
 of early dawn. Dean Swift says, " I never knew 
 any man come to greatness and eminence who lay 
 in bed of a morning." The celebrated Buffon 
 agreed to give his servant a crown every day, if 
 he would get him out of bed by six in the morning.
 
 60 INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION. 
 
 His servant persevered, and his master afterwards 
 said, " I am indebted to poor Joseph " (his ser- 
 vant) " for ten or a dozen volumes of my works." 
 
 Frederick II. of Prussia, gave strict orders never 
 to be allowed to sleep later than four in the 
 morning. Peter the Great always rose before 
 daylight. Dr. Doddridge declares, that his Com- 
 mentary on the New Testament, and most of his 
 other writings, were the result of his habit of rising 
 at five o'clock. " One of the most celebrated 
 writers in England was lately asked, how it was 
 that he wrote so much, and yet from ten in the 
 forenoon was at leisure through the day ; ' Be- 
 cause I begin to write at three in the morning,' 
 was the reply."* One half hour devoLed to 
 reading, before you enter upon business, will 
 furnish you with materials for profitable reflection 
 through the day. Such a practice, perseveringly 
 pursued, will yield you a stock of knowledge, 
 which some graduates of our colleges can hardly 
 be said to possess. 
 
 3. Improve fragments of time. " Drops added 
 to drops," says the Arabian proverb, " constitute 
 the ocean." The pyramids of Egypt were reared 
 by degrees. The coral-insect, by beginning at the 
 bottom of the ocean and adding one grain at a time, 
 
 * Todd's Student's Manual.
 
 INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION. 61 
 
 has built those beautiful, numerous and extensive 
 islands, which adorn the Pacific. It has been 
 said, that " he that shall walk with vigor only 
 three hours a day, will pass in seven years a space, 
 equal to the circumference of the globe." Luther 
 was asked, " How, amid all his travels and active 
 labors, he could have made so perfect a translation 
 of the whole Bible." " No day without a verse," 
 was his reply. This slow process, in due time, 
 carried him through. 
 
 Of nothing are men more prodigal than of those 
 little portions of time, which intervene between 
 their regular hours of business, and yet it is per- 
 fectly astonishing how much may be accomplished, 
 by devoting such fragments to some valuable 
 purpose. " It is a virtue," says Seneca, " to be 
 covetous of time." God has given us all time 
 enough, if properly improved, to make us intel- 
 ligent, wise, arid happy. Appreciate far more 
 highly those little intervals, which your business 
 leaves you every day. Appropriate them to the 
 improvement of your minds. 
 
 " On all important time, through every age, 
 Though much and warm the wise have urged, the man 
 Is yet unborn, who duly weighs an hour." 
 
 " Moments seize." Your happiness, your use- 
 fulness are on their wing.
 
 62 INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION. 
 
 4. Let your reading be select. We live in an 
 age when the remark of Solomon seems to be 
 verified, "of making many books there is no end." 
 No scholar even can or ought to read the whole. 
 Much less can persons, whose business is manual- 
 labor. Considering the small portions of time 
 which you can devote to this employment, there 
 is special reason why your reading should be 
 select. It is far better to read but few books of 
 the right kind, and read them well, than to range 
 superficially over the whole field of literature. 
 Apply to some judicious friend to direct you to a 
 proper course of reading. Especially, avoid bad 
 books. Voltaire was made an infidel for life, by 
 committing to memory, at the early age of three 
 years, a deistical pamphlet. The influence of 
 books, in forming the taste and in giving direction 
 to life, is incalculable. The reading of Spenser's 
 Fairy Queen, in his mother's apartment, made 
 Cowley, as he says, " irrecoverably a poet." Sir 
 Joshua Reynolds's taste for painting was first ex- 
 cited, by reading Richardson's Treatise on that 
 subject. The reading of but one book, and that 
 often a tract, frequently gives a cast to a person's 
 character, and a bent to his destiny which last 
 forever. Let your books, then, be well chosen 
 and thoroughly read, and their influence will be
 
 INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION. 63 
 
 seen in the enlargement of your understandings, 
 in the refinement of your taste, and in the aug- 
 mentation of your usefulness. 
 
 5. Habitually attend upon the public instruc- 
 tions of the gospel. No one knows how much 
 we are indebted to the gospel, for its improvement 
 of the intellectual powers of man. Its simple, 
 solemn and sublime announcements are admirably 
 adapted to chasten and give wing to the imagi- 
 nation, to mature the judgment, to strengthen the 
 memory, and to invigorate the conscience. The 
 infant Sabbath school scholar has an amount of 
 useful religious knowledge, to which the wisest 
 heathen can make no pretension. 
 
 In this connection, let me urge you to avail 
 yourselves of the inestimable advantages for in- 
 tellectual as well as moral culture offered by the 
 Bible class and Sabbath school. These institu- 
 tions are pre-eminently adapted to your circum- 
 stances, while engaged in manufacturing pursuits. 
 If properly improved, they will compensate, in no 
 inconsiderable degree, for your want of time for 
 reading and study. 
 
 But after all, the pulpit is the grand source of 
 mental and moral illumination. It is a radiating 
 point, diffusing on every side, light, intelligence, 
 wisdom. A church-going community is a well-
 
 64 INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION. 
 
 educated community. The Bible, which it is the 
 business of the pulpit to expound, is an exhaustless 
 source of information. Sir William Jones^ who 
 was master of twenty-six languages, and who, of 
 course, must be regarded as a competent judge on 
 such a subject, says, " The Scriptures contain, 
 independently of their divine origin, more true 
 sublimity, more exquisite beauty, purer morality, 
 more important history, and finer strains both of 
 poetry and eloquence, than could be collected, 
 within the same compass, from all other books 
 that were ever composed in any age, or in any 
 idiom." Much of the intellectual, as well as 
 moral greatness of such men as Bacon, Newton, 
 Boyle, Locke, Hale, and Milton, is to be attributed 
 to a profound study of the Bible. If then, my 
 young friends, you would be " as plants grown up 
 in your youth, and as corner-stones polished after 
 the similitude of a palace," be the habitual, humble 
 students of the word of God. Let your seats in 
 the sanctuary always be filled. Prosecute with 
 vigor, and by all the means in your power, a 
 course of intellectual improvement ; and that im- 
 provement, if connected with holiness of heart, 
 will fit you for more elevated communion with the 
 minds of heaven.
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 ESTABLISHED AND CORRECT RELIGIOUS 
 PRINCIPLE S. 
 
 DAN. in. 18. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not 
 serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. 
 
 SUCH was the decisive reply of Shadrach, 
 Meshach, and Abednego, three young men, to 
 Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, when he com- 
 manded them to worship a golden image which he 
 had set up, on pain of being cast into a burning 
 fiery furnace. Nebuchadnezzar had made an 
 enormous image of gold, about ninety feet in 
 height, and placed it in the midst of an extensive 
 plain. He then issued a proclamation to all the 
 princes, the governors, the captains, the judges, 
 the treasurers, the counsellors, the sheriffs, and all 
 the rulers of the hundred and twenty provinces 
 over which he reigned, to assemble together to 
 celebrate the dedication of the image. In obe-
 
 66 ESTABLISHED AND CORRECT 
 
 dience to the royal mandate, an immense number 
 of the officers of his kingdom, from all parts of 
 the empire, assembled in the plain of Dura, in the 
 presence of the idol. When every thing was in 
 readiness, "a herald cried aloud, To you it is com- 
 manded, O people, nations, and languages, that at 
 what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, 
 harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of 
 music, ye fall down and worship the golden image 
 that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up : and 
 whoso falleth not down and worshipped! shall the 
 same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery 
 furnace." When the concerted signal was given, 
 all the people, nations, and languages, with the 
 exception of these three young men, fell down 
 and worshipped the golden image. Report was 
 immediately carried to the king, that Shadrach, 
 Meshach, and Abednego, refused to join in the 
 general homage, which was paid to the idol. 
 Then Nebuchadnezzar, in his rage and fury, sum- 
 moned these young men before him. And he 
 spake and said unto them, " Is it true, O Shadrach, 
 Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, 
 nor worship the golden image which I have set 
 up?" He then offered them another trial. "Now 
 if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound 
 of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and
 
 RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES. 67 
 
 dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and 
 worship the image which I have made ; well : but 
 if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour 
 into the midst of a burning fiery furnace ; and 
 who is that God that shall deliver you out of my 
 hand ? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, an- 
 swered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, 
 we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. 
 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to 
 deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he 
 will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if 
 not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will 
 not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image 
 which thou hast set up." Here was a signal ex- 
 ample of inflexible adherence to sound religious 
 principles. These youth were Jews. They had 
 been carried captive from Jerusalem to Babylon. 
 They were firmly attached to the only true re- 
 ligion, and to worship the golden image would be 
 a violation of the first and second commandments 
 of the decalogue. They had correct religious 
 principles, and they would not sacrifice them, 
 though the burning fiery furnace was in sight. I 
 shall not pursue the sacred narrative further, and 
 rehearse the increased fury of the king the 
 heating of the furnace to a seven fold intensity 
 the casting of the young men into the terrible
 
 68 ESTABLISHED AND CORRECT 
 
 flame their miraculous rescue by the interposition 
 of Jehovah the astonishment of Nebuchadnezzar 
 when he found they had received no injury and 
 their subsequent promotion in the province of 
 Babylon. 
 
 My present object is, to invite your attention, 
 with this example before us, to the importance of 
 your having 
 
 ESTABLISHED AND CORRECT RELIGIOUS PRIN- 
 CIPLES. 
 
 The subject naturally divides itself into two 
 branches. 
 
 I. Your religious principles should be estab- 
 lished. And, 
 
 II. They should be correct. 
 
 I. You should have established religious prin- 
 ciples. 
 
 In all communities, and especially in those com- 
 posed, as this is, of people from different parts of 
 the country and of the world, there is apt to be 
 not only a great variety of religious opinion, but 
 also a great want of religious principle. By a 
 certain class, it is deemed to be unbigoted and 
 popular to have no settled principles on the subject 
 of religion. In their view, one system of doctrine 
 is about as good as another ; and to have no 
 system, is quite as good as to have any. Hence,
 
 RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES. 69 
 
 they are continually in the wind. They attend 
 one meeting to-day, another the next Sabbath, 
 and a third the Sabbath after, and approve of all 
 the sentiments they hear, although they may be 
 contradictory, or disapprove of the whole because 
 they are contradictory. Such a state of mind is 
 truly dangerous and deplorable. It may serve to 
 increase your estimate of the immense importance 
 of established principles, to take a view of the 
 causes and evils of instability of religious opinion. 
 
 Among the causes of this instability, the follow- 
 ing are the more prominent. 
 
 1. A peculiar structure of the mental constitu- 
 tion. Some persons seem to be by nature more 
 unstable than others. This appears in all their 
 operations in relation to every subject. You see 
 it in their plans, which are frequently made, and 
 as frequently relinquished. You see it in their 
 opinions ; suddenly formed, and as suddenly 
 changed. You see it in their principles ; moved 
 by some to-day, and by opposite ones to-morrow. 
 They are the creatures of mere impulse. Having 
 no mind of their own, they calculate to be led by 
 others. Independence is no ingredient in such a 
 character. This constitutional instability is carried 
 into the subject of religion. Their principles, if 
 they can be said to have any, are so pliant, that
 
 70 ESTABLISHED AND CORRECT 
 
 they easily accommodate themselves to all the 
 sinuosities of religious opinion which exist. Hence, 
 it is not a little curious to observe, what different 
 opinions are formed of them by others. By some, 
 they are called Universalists ; by others, Unita- 
 rians ; by others, infidels ; and by others, men of 
 sound principle. And all this, because, having no 
 fixed sentiments, they accommodated their prin- 
 ciples to the companies into which they happened 
 to fall. A part of the instability under considera- 
 tion, may be accounted for on the score of this 
 peculiarity of mental structure. 
 
 2. Defective early religious education. It is 
 affecting to see what multitudes of children and 
 youth are growing up, in this age of biblical in- 
 struction, without any religious education. Sup- 
 pose you were to collect together indiscriminately 
 one thousand youth, who belong in this village, 
 and who came from different parts of the country, 
 and should inquire of them all what was their re- 
 ligious education at home, and they should give 
 you an honest reply, what would probably be the 
 development ? You would doubtless find not a 
 few results of great parental faithfulness. Many 
 of these youth would tell you how their parents 
 dedicated them to God in baptism in their infancy, 
 and with many prayers and tears set them apart
 
 RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES. 71 
 
 to be the Lord's forever. They would tell you 
 how their very earliest recollections are associated 
 with the subject of religion ; how, as their little 
 minds expanded, a pious father or mother sowed 
 in them the good seed of the word, and prayed 
 for the future harvest. They would tell you how 
 a father's counsels, or a mother's supplications pre- 
 served the tottering steps of their infancy, and 
 sobered the playfulness of their childhood, and 
 rescued them from the temptations of their youth. 
 They would tell you how the frequent, affectionate 
 and judicious conversation of their parents with 
 them about their souls, and the Bible, and God, 
 and heaven, and hell, planted religious principles 
 within them, as immovable as the everlasting 
 hills. And they would tell you that they would 
 not barter those baptisms, and counsels, and 
 prayers, and tears, for all the wealth of creation. 
 This class of our youth are firmly fixed in the 
 great doctrines of the Bible. You know where to 
 find them. They are not carried about by every 
 wind of doctrine. 
 
 " Immortal principles forbid " 
 
 them to make shipwreck of the faith, or of their 
 souls. 
 
 But you would find, perhaps, that a large
 
 72 ESTABLISHED AND CORRECT 
 
 majority of this collection of youth were very 
 differently educated at home. Some would tell 
 you, with weeping, that their father and mother 
 died when they were quite small, and that they 
 were left to the instructions of others, who felt 
 less interested in their welfare. Others might tell 
 you that their father is an Universalist ; that he 
 neglects the sanctuary opposes the Sabbath 
 school and the temperance society -never prays 
 in his family, nor instructs his children in the 
 things of religion, unless it be to teach them to 
 hate its distinguishing truths. Others might tell 
 you that their parents, though strictly orthodox 
 and moral, are not pious ; and that they themselves 
 were never taken away to the closet and prayed 
 with alone, or solemnly addressed on the subject 
 of their salvation. In short, if you should ascer- 
 tain how this collection of youth were educated at 
 home, you would be profoundly astonished at the 
 small amount of sound, direct religious instruction 
 which they received. This is another prominent 
 pause of their present instability on the subject of 
 religion. 
 
 3. The existence of numerous denominations of 
 Christians. That the Christian church is divided 
 into numerous sects, is a fact which, though it may 
 be attended with some advantages, is replete with
 
 RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES. 73 
 
 serious evils. Not the least of these evils is the 
 scepticism, which it generates in the minds of the 
 young. Many of them are led by it to the conclu- 
 sion, that it matters little what opinions they em- 
 brace, or whether they embrace any. The infer- 
 ence they draw from the premises is utterly adverse 
 to their establishment in the faith once delivered to 
 the saints. Many a youth is held, for years if not 
 for life, in a state of suspense on a subject, where 
 definite opinions are infinitely necessary, because 
 professed Christians are no more harmonious in 
 their faith. Such youth are subject to the attract- 
 ing influences of different denominations, and are 
 held in equilibrium between them all. The con- 
 sequence is, that they have no settled opinions. 
 They are carried about by every wind of doctrine. 
 They are " ever learning, but never able to come 
 to the knowledge of the truth." Under the influ- 
 ence of these circumstances, many of them 
 embrace the grosser forms of error, and make 
 shipwreck of their immortal interests. It will not 
 be known till the disclosures of the last day, how 
 much denominational differences among Christians 
 have done in diffusing infidelity, and in whelming 
 souls in perdition. 
 
 4. The misconduct of some Christian profes- 
 sors. It pleases God, for holy and wise reasons, 
 6
 
 74 ESTABLISHED AND CORRECT 
 
 occasionally to suffer his real children to fall into 
 sin, and thus to bring serious reproach on his 
 cause. In this sense, he suffered David to fall, 
 and Peter to fall. It also pleases Him to have a 
 church, in this probationary state, which is by no 
 means free from unholy members. Hypocrites 
 and self-deceivers are often found within the hal- 
 lowed pale of his visible kingdom. One of the 
 twelve disciples of our Lord was a traitor and a 
 devil. Five of the ten virgins were foolish. It 
 is quite possible, that these relative proportions of 
 the unsound to the sound obtain among the 
 churches of the present day. Here, then, in the in- 
 consistency between the professions and the practice 
 of many visible believers, we find a powerful cause 
 of the unsettled state of religious opinion among 
 the youth. But I would here enter my solemn 
 protest against the practice of making religion 
 answerable for the misconduct of its enemies, or 
 the indiscretions of its friends. These delinquen- 
 cies are not the fruits of religion, but of irreligion. 
 They are the offspring, not of piety, but of de- 
 pravity. A great increase of holiness in the 
 church, instead of multiplying such evils, would 
 work their extermination. Indeed, there is no 
 other remedy. The only possible remedy is a 
 great, an indefinite augmentation of that very
 
 RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES. 75 
 
 spirit, which is ungenerously charged with being 
 the author of the evils in question. And yet it 
 must be admitted, that to the misconduct of some 
 Christian professors, much of the practical infi- 
 delity of the young is referable. That a cause of 
 such infidelity should exist within the precincts of 
 the church, is deeply to be deplored ; but, on that 
 account, to abandon the great principles of Chris- 
 tianity, and plunge into the abyss of scepticism, is 
 the height of infatuation. 
 
 But the greatest cause of instability of religious 
 principle is 
 
 5. A depraved heart. This is the fountain- 
 head from which this bitter stream flows. When 
 you see a young man vascillating between opposite 
 religious opinions balancing between truth and 
 error, you may know that he is under the influence 
 of a depraved heart. Such halting between two , 
 opinions opinions as wide asunder, in their 
 nature and influence, as heaven is from hell, is an 
 infallible indication of deep-seated depravity. 
 Unregenerate men do not love the truth. There 
 is something in the distinguishing doctrines of the 
 gospel, which excites their strong aversion. Now, 
 the difficulty is not in these truths, for they are 
 holy, just, and good ; but it lies in the disposition 
 of their hearts. Their hearts are " desperately
 
 76 ESTABLISHED AND CORRECT 
 
 wicked." This is the principal cause of the fluc- 
 tuation of their religious principles. 
 
 Let us now look at some of the evils of this 
 instability. 
 
 1. It tends to universal scepticism. When the 
 mind becomes unsettled on the main points of 
 Christianity, none can tell how far the evil will 
 spread. It is like the letting out of water. Open 
 but a small orifice in the embankment, and soon 
 the whole will be swept away. A small leak, un- 
 less stopped, will sink the largest ship. A single 
 spark may wrap half a city in flames. A young 
 man, with no fixed religious principles, is like a 
 vessel at sea without chart, or compass, or helm, 
 the sport of every tempest, and liable to be driven 
 to a returnless distance from port. The spirit of 
 scepticism, when orice it obtains possession of the 
 heart, spreads like contagion. It soon extends to 
 all the great and essential truths of revealed reli- 
 gion to the doctrines of natural theology and 
 to the fundamental principles of sound morality. 
 Its creed is summarily this ; " I believe in all 
 unbelief." 
 
 Now I appeal to all the youth before me, and 
 ask, can this be a desirable state of mind ? Does 
 it confer happiness ? Or rather, is it not the very 
 essence of misery ? Let experience judge.
 
 PRINCIPLES. 77 
 
 2. It precludes serious and long continued re- 
 flection on the interests of the soul. That the 
 interests of the soul are sufficiently momentous to 
 claim your most serious and persevering attention, 
 I will not insult your understandings to argue. 
 Surely if there be any interests below the sun, 
 which challenge your first regard, they are these. 
 If there be any subject on which settled, as well 
 as sound principles are important, it is that of your 
 eternal destiny. Now, my position is, that the 
 unsettled, fluctuating principles of some youth, on 
 the subject of religion, are most adverse to the 
 best interests of the soul. They close the av- 
 enues of truth. They preclude deep seriousness. 
 They render protracted reflection on the interests 
 of the soul impossible. No sooner is the attention 
 arrested, than the habit of doubting comes to its 
 relief. No sooner is the person alarmed, than his 
 habitual scepticism administers an opiate to con- 
 science, and quiets his distress. His seasons of 
 seriousness, which are " few and far between," 
 are not of sufficient duration to annihilate his 
 spirit of scepticism. In this contest between so- 
 licitude and thoughtlessness, the worse ordinarily 
 get the mastery of the better principles. This 
 process is likely to be repeated as often as con- 
 science admonishes him ; till she gradually ceases
 
 78 ESTABLISHED AND CORRECT 
 
 to remonstrate, and he is swept down the current 
 of life to that precipice, where all hope expires, 
 and the last plunge must be made, and damnation 
 begins. 
 
 This instability is 
 
 3. A fatal obstacle to your embracing religion. 
 1 say this obstacle is fatal to your salvation ; and 
 I say so advisedly, and for the purpose of dis- 
 closing its true character and results. I would, 
 indeed, set no limits to the omnipotence of divine 
 grace. We are not called upon to determine what 
 God can do, even in these most adverse circum- 
 stances ; but what, according to his ordinary laws 
 of operation, he may be expected to do. With 
 this rule of reasoning, I may safely pronounce 
 your situation hopeless, so long as your religious 
 principles are unsettled. There are no data, on 
 which to build an argument to urge you to re- 
 pentance. It would be like attempting to erect 
 an Egyptian pyramid upon the restless waves of 
 the ocean. You must have some fixed principles, 
 before the gospel can take effect. If, then, you 
 value eternal life, if you have a soul worth more 
 than all the wealth of the universe, and if that soul 
 cannot be saved, except through the medium of 
 certain principles which tend to conversion, what 
 words can express the importance of those prin-
 
 RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES. 79 
 
 ciples ? The holding of those principles will not, 
 indeed, insure you eternal life, but the persevering 
 rejection of them will inevitably bar your entrance 
 into it. 
 
 Unsettled principles on the subject of religion, 
 4. Will prepare you for a gloomy death, and a 
 hopeless eternity. I will illustrate this point, by 
 referring you to a few examples. Hobbes, a man 
 of sceptical principles, found the grave shrouded 
 in such impervious gloom, that he exclaimed, with 
 his dying breath, " I am going to take a leap in 
 the dark." Gibbon, only twenty-four hours before 
 he died, to divert his attention from the scene 
 before him, set himself to calculating the pro- 
 bability that he might live fifteen years, and con- 
 fessed that as life wore away, it gave " a browner 
 tint to the prospects of man." Hume, to smother 
 the awful reflections, which, in his last moments, 
 crowded upon his soul, tried to assume the ap- 
 pearance of entire unconcern. He jokes about 
 Lucian, and Charon, and the crazy boat, and the 
 fabled Styx. He frames various reasons, which 
 he might assign for delaying his transmission. He 
 tries games at whist. He revises his infidel 
 writings, and finishes his Essay recommending 
 suicide to all who are in trouble, and died as a fool 
 dieth. Paine, in his last moments cried out, " O
 
 80 ESTABLISHED AND CORRECT 
 
 Lord, help me ! O Christ, help me ! " He was 
 afraid to be left alone. He declared, "If the devil 
 has an agent on earth, I am the one." Being 
 asked, whether he wished to believe that Jesus 
 Christ is the Son of God, with his characteristic 
 scepticism " strong in death," he replied, " I have 
 no wish to believe on that subject ; " and yet, a 
 few moments after, he invoked the name of the 
 Saviour, in a tone of voice that alarmed the house. 
 In one of his paroxysms of mental agony, he ex- 
 claimed, " I think I can say, what they make Jesus 
 Christ to say, "My God, my God, why hast 
 thou forsaken me ? " When Voltaire thought 
 himself dying, he sent for the Abbe Gauthier, 
 crying out, " I do not wish to have my body cast 
 into the common sewer." As death approached, 
 his terrors overcame him. D'Alembert, Diderot, 
 and about twenty others of his sceptical associates 
 beset his apartment to reassure and comfort him in 
 his last agonies ; but he would curse them, and 
 exclaim, " Begone, it is you who have brought me 
 to my present state." One moment, he would 
 cry, " O Christ ! " " O Jesus Christ ! " the next, 
 he would blaspheme. His physician, calling in to 
 administer relief, thunderstruck, retired. The 
 Mareshal de Richelieu fled from his bedside, de- 
 claring it to be a sight too terrible to be sustained,
 
 RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES. 81 
 
 and M. Tronchin observed, that the furies of 
 Orestes could give but a faint idea of those of 
 Voltaire. 
 
 These are thy fruits, O infidelity ; these thy 
 joys, thy consolations, thy triumphs in death. "O 
 my soul, come not thou into its secret ; unto its 
 assembly, mine honor, be not thou united ! " 
 
 I have now spread before you a view of the 
 causes and evils of instability of religious faith. 
 And can any one fail to perceive, that unsettled, 
 sceptical principles are infinitely dangerous, and 
 established principles of infinite importance ? If 
 you would avoid the present anxieties and eternal 
 horrors of infidelity, cling, like the three young 
 men in Babylon, to the great truths of the Bible. 
 Let your religious principles, like theirs, be so 
 firmly fixed, that not the terrors of martyrdom can 
 move them. 
 
 The way is now prepared to show 
 
 II. That your religious principles should be 
 correct. This, if possible, is of more importance, 
 than that they should be fixed. Principles, which 
 involve every degree of error, may become very 
 firmly established, through their congeniality with 
 the feelings of a depraved heart. Under the in- 
 fluence of depravity, men are much more likely 
 to embrace error than truth. Hence, all youth
 
 82 ESTABLISHED AND CORRECT 
 
 are in imminent danger of imbibing those erro- 
 neous principles, which will jeopardize their sal- 
 vation. This part of our subject is of ineffable 
 importance to you all ; but want of time requires 
 me to compress my remarks upon it, into as narrow 
 a compass as possible. 
 
 It is the great object of religion, to save the 
 soul. Your religious principles should be sound 
 and scriptural, because error has no tendency to 
 do this. Any principles, which have no tendency 
 to do that for us, which religion was designed to 
 do, are obviously unsafe. Now, I fearlessly main- 
 tain, that the grosser errors which infest the com- 
 munity have no tendency to save, but every ten- 
 dency to destroy. Those religious systems, which 
 reject the authority of the Holy Scriptures, the 
 reality and literal eternity of future misery, and 
 the supreme Deity and atonement of Jesus Christ, 
 have no tendency to effect regeneration, for the 
 substantial reason that they deny its necessity.* 
 
 , * In the text, no comparison is attempted of these errors 
 themselves. The author does not undertake to decide whether 
 they are equally removed from the truth. Their conflicting 
 claims to pre-eminence, he does not assume to settle. The 
 settlement of that question, if it be worth any pains, he leaves 
 to those who are interested in its decision. All that he is con- 
 cerned to show is, that they are void of any tendency to pro- 
 duce evangelical holiness.
 
 RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES. 83 
 
 It is believed that no person, under the inculcation 
 of these principles only, was ever convinced of his 
 lost condition as a sinner, or made to feel as the 
 three thousand did on the Bay of Pentecost, or as 
 the Jews often did under the preaching of Christ, 
 or as Felix and Agrippa did under the preaching 
 of Paul. It is my firm conviction, that under the 
 exhibition of these sentiments, unmixed with truth, 
 no person was ever heard to cry out, " What must 
 I do to be saved?" or has been made to love and 
 constantly to practice secret prayer, or ever gave 
 any other evidence of scriptural conversion. I 
 appeal to the whole history of the world, I appeal 
 to your own experience and observation for the 
 support of these positions. I challenge all men 
 to cite one case, where these systems, in their le- 
 gitimate results as religious systems, have brought 
 a sinner to the foot of the cross. Such a case, 
 it is believed, has never been known. If then, 
 these sentiments, which are so industriously propa- 
 gated, and which unsanctified men are very apt to 
 embrace, have no tendency to make us feel, as the 
 preaching of Christ and his apostles made men 
 feel, I beseech you to reject them. Spurn them 
 from you as you would a viper. Let your reli- 
 gious principles be as sound as the Bible. Em- 
 brace the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but 
 the truth, and you shall be saved.
 
 84 ESTABLISHED AND CORRECT 
 
 The practical influence of the great doctrines 
 of the Bible on the hearts and lives of men also 
 shows the importance of those doctrines. The 
 truths to which I refer are such as these ; the 
 total native depravity of every human heart, the 
 indispensable necessity of regeneration, the un- 
 compromising claims of the divine law, the uni- 
 versality and efficacy of the atonement, the 
 entire dependence of every sinner on sovereign 
 grace for salvation, his ability and consequent 
 obligation to repent without any delay, the un- 
 conditional election of a certain part of mankind 
 to eternal life, the necessity of special divine 
 influence to renew the heart, arising from the 
 otherwise incorrigible obstinacy of the sinner, 
 and the eternal duration of the blessedness of the 
 righteous, and of the punishment of the wicked. 
 These, and other kindred truths of the Scriptures 
 exert an influence on mankind, which is both 
 salutary and immense. A faithful exhibition of 
 these doctrines makes men feel solemn. Under 
 the blessing of the Holy Spirit, they extort from 
 many a person the momentous inquiry "What 
 must I do to inherit eternal life ? " They often 
 bring the inquiring sinner to a cordial, grateful 
 acceptance of the terms of salvation. They make 
 him ever after a man of prayer. If he was before
 
 RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES. 85 
 
 
 
 ambitious, they humble him. If he was covetous, 
 they make him benevolent. If he was licentious, 
 they purify his heart and life. In short, if there 
 be any moral goodness on earth, it is owing to the 
 instrumentality of the doctrines of the Bible. If 
 heaven is fast filling up with souls redeemed from 
 the ruins of the apostacy, that glorious work is 
 advancing solely under the auspices of the doc- 
 trines of the cross, made effectual by the Holy 
 Spirit sent down from above. 
 
 The whole history of the propagation of Chris- 
 tianity shows, that nothing permanently and sav- 
 ingly interests men in the subject of religion, but 
 these great truths. Robert Dale Owen, Frances 
 Wright, Abner Kneeland, and Hosea Ballou, may 
 interest, for a short time, a collection of thought- 
 less, pleasure-loving, theatre-going youth; they 
 may occasionally draw together large assemblages 
 of that class of people, but the great moving prin- 
 ciples are three ; curiosity, love of error, and 
 hatred of the truth. But the doctrines of grace 
 exert a wide and permanent interest. Large com- 
 munities are held together by their power from 
 year to year and from age to age, as the principle 
 of gravitation binds together the immense masses, 
 which compose the solar system. It is not curi- 
 osity nor love of controversy which interests the
 
 86 ESTABLISHED AND CORRECT 
 
 evangelical part of the community so deeply and 
 permanently, but it is love of the truth, and a 
 profound reverence of its Author. It was the 
 exhibition of the great doctrines of revelation, 
 which spread Christianity over nearly the whole 
 of the known world during the first three cen- 
 turies of the Christian era; which wrought such 
 wonders in the time of the Reformation ; which 
 has filled New England with school-houses and 
 churches ; which has multiplied revivals over the 
 whole extent of our country; which has given 
 birth to the missionary movements of the age; 
 and is fast disenthralling, regenerating and elevat- 
 ing to heaven the nations of the earth. Here, 
 then, you see the importance of your embracing 
 and maintaining the truth, in its purity and power. 
 Error, however popular, cannot sanctify and save. 
 Nothing but the doctrines of the cross, admitted 
 to your hearts, in all their humbling, transforming 
 energies, can bring you into a harmonious and 
 delightful relation to God and all holy beings. 
 
 Two remarks will close the discourse. 
 
 1. The subject exposes the fallacy of the 
 maxim, that it is no matter what a man believes, 
 provided he is sincere. It is just as important to 
 believe correctly, as to believe sincerely. It is 
 just as necessary to believe the truth, as it is im-
 
 RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES. 87 
 
 portant to save the soul. Sincerity is neither the 
 test of truth, nor a substitute for truth. Men may 
 be very sincere in believing error, even soul-des- 
 troying error. Saul of Tarsus, before his con- 
 version, " verily thought that he ought to do many 
 things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth," 
 but he soon found, notwithstanding his sincerity, 
 that he was then on the high road to perdition. 
 Pagans, by their costly sacrifices and self-inflicted 
 tortures, give every proof of sincerity, and yet, 
 according to the Bible, they are sinking by gen- 
 erations into hell. " No matter what a man be- 
 lieves, provided he is sincere !" A very unsound, 
 but a very favorite maxim with men of latitudi- 
 narian sentiments ; a maxim, which goes to ob- 
 literate all distinction between truth and error 
 right and wrong ; a maxim, which is peopling the 
 bottomless pit with deluded souls. In this con- 
 nection, I cannot forbear to remark, that, not all 
 Pope's talent at pouring forth harmony of numbers, 
 can atone for the mischief, which a single couplet 
 of his has occasioned ; 
 
 " For modes of faith, let graceless zealots fight, 
 His can't be wrong, whose life is in the right." 
 
 This adage contains a very convenient equivoque. 
 There is a sense in which it is correct ; and there
 
 88 ESTABLISHED AND CORRECT 
 
 is another, which is more generally embraced, and 
 which favors the utmost latitudinarianism, which 
 the depraved heart can desire. All experience, 
 however, goes to show, that a man's faith will 
 affect his practice ; and that a cordial belief in the 
 doctrines of the Bible will issue in something more 
 than merely a moral life. It will result in a life 
 of unfeigned piety. 
 
 But, even on theoretical grounds, correct faith 
 is ineffably important. A man who believes the 
 Bible will feel differently from an infidel. A man, 
 who believes regeneration to be indispensable to 
 salvation, will have more solicitude about it, than 
 one who disbelieves it. A man, who believes that 
 the wicked " shall go away into everlasting pun- 
 ishment," will be more likely to escape " the 
 wrath to come," than one who rejects this decla- 
 ration of Jesus Christ. 
 
 I beseech you, then, habitually to feel the high 
 importance of sound principles. They are your 
 life. Throw them not away. Cleave to them 
 with all your hearts. They are to you, what the 
 life-boat is to the drowning marinerthe only 
 means of salvation. 
 
 2. There is fc no effectual safeguard against the 
 destructive influence of unstable and erroneous 
 sentiments, but a change of the heart. I know
 
 RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES. 89 
 
 that a real Christian may be led into a variety of 
 erroneous opinions, but they will be of minor im- 
 portance. A true friend of God cannot embrace 
 fundamental error. His heart is right. That 
 operates, in all seasons of temptation, like the 
 anchor of a ship in a storm. It holds him safe. 
 His safety, however, does not consist in the 
 strength of his piety, but in the grace and power 
 of God. He is kept by the power of God, 
 through faith, unto salvation. All the energies of 
 Omnipotence are pledged for his security, and his 
 salvation is certain. 
 
 And now, my young friends, if you would be 
 saved from the destructive errors, to which you 
 are exposed, become Christians. Feel that you 
 have no security, till you have a renewed heart. 
 You may think your present principles strong 
 enough to stand the hour of trial. So did Hazael. 
 When the prophet told him of what horrible enor- 
 mities he would be guilty, he exclaimed, " What ! 
 is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great 
 thing ? " And yet, under the power of temp- 
 tation, his better principles gave way, and he 
 committed the very atrocities, which the prophet 
 predicted. " Let him that thinketh he standeth, 
 take heed lest he fall." You have no security, 
 but in the grace which God will give his children. 
 7
 
 90 ESTABLISHED PRINCIPLES. 
 
 Embrace, then, if you have not already, that re- 
 ligion, which made Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed- 
 nego prefer the fiery furnace to disobedience to 
 God. Their principles stood the trial, and it was 
 because their principles were those of the heart, 
 as well as of the understanding. If, like them, 
 you would abide the hour of temptation, admit 
 the religion of the gospel to immediate and entire 
 dominion over you. Then, you will be living 
 illustrations of the uncompromising integrity of the 
 Christian character ; and, when you leave this, 
 for a higher sphere of service in the heavens, 
 these lines will form no inappropriate inscription 
 to your memories ; 
 
 " Servant of God, well done ! 
 
 For this was all thy care, 
 To stand approved in sight of God, 
 Though world's judg'd thee perverse."
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 DANGERS OF YOUNG PEOPLE. 
 
 1 COB. xv. 33. Evil communications corrupt good manners. 
 
 IT cannot have escaped the notice of any 
 attentive observer of mankind, that the season of 
 childhood and early youth is comparatively unso- 
 phisticated with error and immorality. Not that 
 that period of life exhibits no indications of de- 
 pravity ; for depravity is, in all cases, coeval with 
 the existence of moral character. Not that per- 
 sons in the earlier part of life are but partially de- 
 praved ; for the degree of depravity in every case 
 is total, that is, there is an entire Absence of 
 holiness by nature. Not that there are no in- 
 stances of children and youth committing some of 
 the most atrocious crimes ; for such instances 
 sometimes occur. But notwithstanding these ex- 
 ceptions and qualifications, the general remark is 
 still true, that persons in quite early life are com-
 
 92 DANGERS OF 
 
 paratively free from error in principle, and vicious- 
 ness in practice. There is generally an artlessness 
 in their manners, a simplicity in their practice, 
 and a freedom from gross error in their faith. 
 But when the period arrives for entrance upon the 
 active business of life, it ordinarily constitutes an 
 epoch in the history of the individual. What 
 parent, who has ever sent a son to college, or 
 bound him to an apprenticeship, or put him into a 
 manufactory, but felt, when he was doing it, that 
 it would probably be a crisis in the destiny of that 
 child. Often has the anxious father, when the 
 time of separation arrived, accompanied his son to 
 the door, and bade him farewell, saying, 
 
 " My child, the unwelcome hour is come, 
 When thou, transplanted from thy genial home, 
 Must find a colder soil, and bleaker air, 
 And trust for safety to a stranger's care." 
 
 Often has the affectionate mother, when called to 
 commit her son to the temptations of the world, 
 and exchanged with him the last adieu, gone away 
 to her closet as her only consolation, and com- 
 mitted him to the keeping of Israel's God. When 
 the inexperienced youth enters upon his new 
 scene of life, and finds himself associated with 
 new companions, and assailed by new temptations,
 
 YOUNG PEOPLE. 93 
 
 then comes the trial of his principles. What a 
 moment in his history ! It is a moment replete 
 with interest and with danger. And what youth, 
 who has been nurtured at home in the school of 
 correct principles, and now brought to the trial, 
 while his parents are trembling for the result, does 
 not tremble for himself. Perhaps there are hun- 
 dreds of youth before me, who are now undergoing 
 this severe experiment. Many of you have but 
 recently entered upon the active scenes of life. 
 Many of you are far away from the safeguards of 
 home, while the palpitating hearts of your parents, 
 if they are not cold in death, and their midnight 
 prayers for your safety, give evidence of ceaseless 
 anxiety for your welfare. You are now placed in 
 circumstances of trial, and the event alone can 
 determine, whether " evil communications " will 
 " corrupt " your " good manners." 
 My object, in this lecture, is to state, 
 
 I. The principal evils to which youth, in your 
 circumstances, are exposed, 
 
 II. The means and process by which many 
 youth, similarly situated, have been ruined, and 
 
 III. What can be done to rescue the young 
 from the dangers which surround them. 
 
 I. What are the more prominent evils to which 
 youth are exposed ? Among these, intemperance
 
 94 DANGERS OF 
 
 holds no inferior place. Perhaps in no village in 
 this region, has the temperance reformation found 
 greater favor than in this. But the means of in- 
 toxication and ruin are still here. They are sold, 
 and their sale is licensed by law ; while the vend- 
 ing of lottery tickets, an evil by no means as great 
 as the other, is prohibited. I cannot forbear, in 
 passing, to express the hope, that this traffic, 
 . instead of being encouraged by legislation, will 
 soon be banished from the country by being made 
 penal. 
 
 There may be youth in this village, who are 
 now gradually and insensibly forming habits of in- 
 temperance ; habits, which may yet consume their 
 property, blast their reputation, hurry them to a 
 premature death, and bring down the gray hairs of 
 their parents with sorrow to the grave. The 
 hearts of parents are exquisitely sensitive with 
 respect to the exposure of their children to this 
 vice. I will illustrate this fact by an example. 
 Some years ago, there was a bright and promising 
 youth, who was " the only son of his mother, and 
 she was a widow." Falling under the influence 
 of bad company, he soon lost his love of home, 
 and all sense of obligation to his aged dependent 
 mother wandered away to a distant part of the 
 country, and spent his substance in riotous living.
 
 YOUNG PEOPLE. 95 
 
 Many an anxious month and year rolled slowly 
 away, while she could hear nothing from her son, 
 except that he was notoriously abandoned. In 
 process of time, as she was shivering one cold 
 December's evening over a few embers, which con- 
 stituted all her fire, her heart bursting within her 
 as she thought of her prospects and of her profli- 
 gate son, she was aroused by a rap at the door. 
 Permission being given, a stranger entered. After 
 the customary salutations were exchanged, and the 
 stranger seated, he kindly inquired, " Is your 
 name Mary Judson ? " for that is the designation, 
 by which I would introduce her to your acquaint- 
 ance. "Yes, sir," was her reply. "And have you 
 a son by the name of Joseph Judson ? " continued 
 the stranger. If a flash of lightning had that 
 instant struck her dwelling, it would not have 
 agitated her frame more than the simple mention 
 of that dear name. " I have, sir, if he is alive," 
 she instantly rejoined, " and do you know him ? " 
 " Yes, madam, I saw him about six weeks since, 
 far beyond the Alleghanies." " But how does he 
 do ? " inquired the trembling mother, endeavoring 
 to draw from the stranger information, not so much 
 respecting his health, as his conduct. " Bad 
 enough," " bad enough," was the heart-breaking 
 reply. " But I wish to know one thing in partic-
 
 96 DANGERS OF 
 
 ular, Is he intemperate ? " " No, madam, I am 
 happy to say, that although he is guilty of almost 
 every other sin, which disgraces humanity, he does 
 not use ardent spirits." " Then," exclaimed the 
 mother with tears of joy, " there is hope of him ; 
 Joseph, my son, my only son, is yet alive, and if he 
 is not intemperate, I may see him before I die." 
 Time rolled on ; and finally, this abandoned youth, 
 through the influence of his mother's prayers, and 
 his abstinence from intoxicating drinks, became 
 entirely reformed returned to his broken-hearted 
 mother comforted her in her advanced age 
 closed her dying eyes committed her to the 
 grave, and shed many a tear over the memory of 
 her, who had so often prayed and wept for him. 
 Many a parent, my young friends, feels, as did 
 this mother, respecting the sin of intemperance. 
 If their sons are not addicted to that vice, they 
 feel that there is yet hope ; but if they are, gen- 
 erally all hope is extinguished. 
 
 Profaneness is another sin to which youth are 
 exposed. This is a sin, which can plead no temp- 
 tation or excuse. No craving appetite, no irresis- 
 tible propensity, no hope of gain, compels a man 
 to swear. Neither is it any sign of politeness or 
 veracity, but it is rather an infallible indication of 
 vulgarity and disregard of truth. No man respects
 
 YOUNG PEOPLE. 97 
 
 the profane swearer, or receives his most solemn 
 asseverations, backed by oaths, but with many 
 grains of allowance. Lord Chesterfield, a master 
 in the school of politeness, declares, that such lan- 
 guage k never that of a gentleman. 
 
 " To swear, is neither brave, polite, nor wise." 
 
 Jesus Christ, who has pronounced an irreversible 
 sentence of exclusion from the kingdom of heaven 
 against the man of incorrigible profaneness, also 
 says, " Swear not at all ; but let your communi- 
 cation be yea, yea; nay, nay : for whatsoever is 
 more than these, cometh of evil." I am happy 
 in being able to say, that profaneness, like intem- 
 perance, is fast receiving the disapprobation of all 
 respectable men, that it is much less practiced 
 than formerly, and that, under the condemnation 
 of public opinion, there is hope that it will soon 
 entirely cease. Young men, frown upon this vice 
 wherever you meet it, and it will shortly be ban- 
 ished from society. 
 
 Licentiousness is another vice, which often be- 
 sets youth. This is a subject of great delicacy, 
 and is too rarely made a topic of discussion in the 
 pulpit. Public attention, however, has recently 
 been directed anew to the subject, and the evil 
 has been found to exist, in an alarming degree, not
 
 98 DANGERS OF 
 
 only in our large cities, but also in the villages and 
 towns of the country. Let every youth, who has 
 any regard to his reputation, his peace, his hap- 
 piness, his usefulness, or his eternal salvation, 
 beware of this vice. " Flee youthful lusts." 
 Chastise the rovings of an impure imagination. 
 When temptation is presented, your courage will 
 be best illustrated, and your safety best consulted, 
 not by parleying, but by flight. Escape in- 
 stantly from this enchanted, this forbidden ground. 
 " Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass 
 away." 
 
 Vain amusements, such as balls and theatrical 
 exhibitions, are also attended with danger. I 
 know that youth and others must have their seasons 
 of relaxation and amusement ; a proper regard to 
 health requires them. But they should be of such 
 physical character as to improve, not impair health ; 
 and of such moral bearing as to purify, not pollute 
 the affections. 
 
 Young people are also more or less exposed to 
 the contaminating influence of erroneous religious 
 principles. Some of these principles were men- 
 tioned in the last lecture. If you were educated 
 religiously at home, your parents and friends feel 
 no little solicitude on this point, especially if they 
 have reason to believe, that your religious prin-
 
 YOUNG PEOPLE. 99 
 
 ciples are not firmly established. The heart of 
 many a parent has been rent asunder, by hearing 
 that an absent child had embraced some of the 
 soul-destroying errors, which infest the community. 
 Respect, then, whatever of sound instruction your 
 parents have given you. Wisdom addresses you 
 in these terms ; " My son, hear the instruction 
 of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy 
 mother ; for they shall be an ornament of grace 
 unto thy head, and chains about thy neck." 
 
 Violating the Sabbath is another sin of which 
 youth are in danger. This may be done by un- 
 necessary labor, travelling, walking the streets 
 and fields, amusements, and by the indulgence of 
 worldly thoughts and affections. A strict and 
 conscientious observance of the Sabbath is indis- 
 pensable to your highest respectability, usefulness 
 and happiness. Revere the Sabbath, and love 
 the sanctuary. Let no temptations, however 
 strong, induce you to infringe, in the slightest de- 
 gree, upon the hours of holy rest. Your pious 
 parents and friends will indeed have occasion to 
 rejoice over your prospects for life and for eternity, 
 if you invariably " remember the Sabbath day to 
 keep it holy." 
 
 Such are the dangers to which you are more 
 particularly exposed ; let us now examine
 
 100 DANGERS OF 
 
 II. The means and process by which many 
 youth have become erroneous in principle, and 
 bankrupt in morals. The principal means are 
 pointed out in the text. " Evil communications 
 corrupt good manners." Many youth are ruined 
 through the example and influence of bad asso- 
 ciates. Let us suppose the case of an artless, 
 unsuspecting youth, who has just come from his 
 home among the Green Mountains of Vermont, to 
 enter a manufactory, or to engage in some other 
 employment in a thickly populated village. The 
 means and process of his ruin, I will attempt briefly 
 to sketch ; and the picture has had its prototype 
 in thousands of instances in our land. It is a 
 scene, which, I hope, has never been, and never 
 may be enacted here. On arriving at his new 
 place of abode, this youth finds himself in circum- 
 stances, to< which he is entirely unaccustomed. 
 The scenery around him is quite unlike that of his 
 native hills. His boarding-house, with its para- 
 phernalia, is a novelty. His employment is new 
 his associates are strangers. The tout-ensemble 
 the whole character of his new residence is such 
 as makes a deep impression upon his feelings. 
 Every thing is novel and exciting. He is now in 
 that impressible state, which prepares him to be 
 acted upon, with prodigious effect, by influences,
 
 YOUNG PEOPLE. 101 
 
 which never reached him in the retirement of his 
 father's house. Many of his associates, as is too 
 often the case, are perhaps men of lax religious 
 principles, and are living in the habitual trans- 
 gression of the rules of sound morality. They 
 mark the unsuspecting youth for their victim. 
 They take pains to become acquainted with him. 
 They perceive his simplicity, and his ignorance of 
 the world. Sometimes the mode of attack is bold 
 and direct. More generally, it is covert and cir- 
 cuitous. If the latter mode be adopted, they 
 proceed gradually and cautiously to sound his 
 principles. They find the point, where he can be 
 most successfully assailed. With no apparent 
 intention of affecting him, and as it were almost 
 accidentally, they utter in his hearing, with half 
 suppressed voice, a profane oath. Or, they set 
 before him an example of violating the Sabbath, 
 or of drinking ardent spirits, or of using the lan- 
 guage of obscenity ; or they throw out oblique 
 insinuations against the divine authority of the 
 Scriptures, and the truth of its distinguishing doc- 
 trines. When the youth first hears or sees such 
 violations of all he has been accustomed to deem 
 sacred, his better feelings are shocked. Soon, 
 however, the same process is repeated, and, if 
 possible, with greater adroitness, and probably
 
 102 DANGERS OF 
 
 with greater success. They perhaps gently in- 
 sinuate, that, although such things may not be 
 considered exactly right by the unenlightened, 
 straight-laced puritans of his native town, they are 
 freely practiced and approved by all the liberal, 
 independent and high-minded young men in this 
 part of the country. They do not fail to appeal 
 to that most sensitive of all feelings in young men 
 as they are entering upon life, namely, a regard 
 for his reputation among his fellows. They inti- 
 mate to him, that if he would be respected by his 
 companions, and be regarded as a young gentleman 
 of liberality and independence of mind, he must 
 give up the contracted notions instilled into him 
 in his childhood, and enter fully into their more 
 enlarged views, and liberal practices. Unfavor- 
 ably impressed, as he probably is, by such in- 
 fringements of sound principles and morals, the 
 leaven of mischief has nevertheless begun to work 
 in his susceptible and depraved heart. A breach 
 having been made in the barriers thrown around 
 him by his education, the Rubicon having been 
 passed, the process of declension advances. His 
 wily companions, perceiving his better principles 
 beginning to give way, are careful to follow up 
 their advantage. Erroneous principles are more 
 frequently started in his hearing. Immoralities, of
 
 YOUNG PEOPLE. 103 
 
 the less repulsive kind, are oftener practiced in 
 his presence. Intimations are incidentally made, 
 that to do such things are indications of an un- 
 fettered, manly spirit. No arts are left untried to 
 infuse into his moral constitution the virus of he- 
 retical principles, and to lead him gradually into 
 habits of vice. The walls of defence, which early 
 education had reared around his morals, having 
 been scaled, and the work of dilapidation com- 
 menced, his professed friends, but real enemies, 
 determine to proceed in their unholy conquest, till 
 not one stone shall be left upon another. 
 
 The unwary youth, with an evil heart with his 
 principles unfortified by regeneration and the grace 
 of God, in the midst of associates whom he re- 
 spects for their superior age and greater knowledge 
 of business and of the world, with such skillful 
 appeals to his pride of reputation, and with such 
 examples before him of evil doing by persons, 
 claiming the highest degree of information and 
 respectability gradually, and with many an in- 
 ward pang, and with many a thought of his pa- 
 rents, yields himself to the power of the destroyer. 
 
 " Vice is a monster of such frightful mien, 
 That to be hated, needs but to be seen ; 
 But seen too oft, familiar with her face, 
 We first endure, then pity, then embrace."
 
 104 DANGERS OF 
 
 In this conflict between his better principles, and 
 the powers that would work his ruin, the forces 
 are entirely unequal. There is a fearful odds 
 against him. 
 
 Now, it is scarcely in human nature successfully 
 to withstand such well-conducted attacks. One 
 principle after another gives way. One error after 
 another is embraced. One vice after another is 
 practiced. Conscience, at the outset, rung indeed 
 fearful notes of alarm through the chambers of his 
 soul, but her voice has been gradually silenced. 
 The pleasures of sinful indulgence are found to be 
 sweet. The power of temptation waxes stronger 
 and stronger, while that of resistance grows weaker 
 and weaker. His progress down the current of 
 destruction was at first slow and gradual. But it 
 has become more and more rapid. The stream 
 grows broader and deeper. He is swept along 
 with increasing and terrible velocity towards that 
 awful cataract, of whose horrors, Niagara affords 
 no conception. 
 
 He now begins to lose his love of his parents, 
 and his respect for their feelings and instructions. 
 Their prayers for his safety among strangers, he 
 gives to the idle wind. He writes home less fre- 
 quently, and with more reserve. He informs 
 them, indeed, that he is pleased with his situation.
 
 YOUNG PEOPLE. 105 
 
 He passes encomiums upon his companions. He 
 describes his prospects as unexpectedly promising. 
 His health never was better. He exhorts his 
 parents to feel no anxieties respecting him. But 
 all this while, he carefully conceals from them the 
 change which has taken place in his principles, 
 and the immoralities of which he is guilty. To 
 tell them the whole truth on this subject, he knows 
 would give them a shock, little less than apoplectic. 
 He has filial regard enough left to save them from 
 the nameless pangs, which a knowledge of his 
 principles and life would create. He therefore in 
 his letters preserves a studied silence on the very 
 topics, respecting which, a good, an anxious parent 
 most of all desires information. The pleasantness 
 of his place of residence the interest he feels in 
 his employment the agreeableness of his com- 
 panions the alleged brightness of his prospects, 
 and even the perfection of his health, are matters 
 of small moment with them, if his silence respect- 
 ing his moral habits has excited the suspicion that 
 all is not right there. If their suspicions are 
 awakened, and they see them awakened, too, by 
 the very means he had used to prevent it, they 
 are alarmed, as if a bolt from heaven fell smoul- 
 dering at their feet. 
 
 Fearing the worst, and anxious to know the 
 8
 
 106 DANGERS OF 
 
 truth, they now ply him with interrogatories con- 
 cerning his religious opinions, his observance of 
 the Sabbath, his habits of temperance, of chastity, 
 of attendance on the duties of the sanctuary, and 
 especially respecting the moral character and prin- 
 ciples of his associates. But on these topics, he 
 does not wish to say a word. If he replies at all 
 to their inquiries, he does it in such general terms, 
 and with such ambiguous phraseology, as only 
 serve to confirm suspicion, undermine their confi- 
 dence in his integrity, and crush their hearts 
 between the upper and nether millstone. More 
 dissatisfied and solicitous than ever, they press 
 their inquiries with greater definiteness and par- 
 ticularity, so as to prevent, if possible, all evasion. 
 Perhaps he has now become so hardened, as to 
 take no notice at all of their communications, 
 though they were wet with the tears of a parent's 
 love. But if he replies, it is in such a style of 
 supercilious contempt for their alleged imperti- 
 nence in prying into his affairs, and with such bold 
 insinuations of their comparative ignorance and 
 illiberality, of his ability to manage his own con- 
 cerns, and of his desire to receive no further 
 molestation, that they become heart-broken, and 
 soon find a refuge from affliction in the grave. 
 And now, the restraints of parental influence
 
 YOUNG PEOPLE. 107 
 
 being trampled under foot, every barrier erected 
 by education and conscience being swept away, 
 sinful appetites having obtained giant strength and 
 undisputed empire, the catastrophe hurries on 
 apace. His profligacy has, by this time, thrown 
 him out of employment and of virtuous society ; 
 his former companions, if they have not already 
 reached the end of their career to destruction, 
 now abandon him ; the gloom of his prospects 
 thickens into night ; disease hastens him towards 
 the grave ; conscience, as if by way of reprisal, 
 agitates him with the very terrors of perdition ; 
 the thunders of divine wrath make all his bones to 
 shake ; the lightnings of incensed goodness rive 
 his departing soul ; and he sinks and sinks and 
 sinks into a bottomless hell. 
 
 Such is substantially the history of many youth ; 
 such the means and process of their ruin. Un- 
 principled and immoral associates have destroyed 
 multitudes. " Evil communications corrupt good 
 manners." 
 
 You, my young friends, may now be passing 
 through this same probation, and exposed to these 
 very temptations and dangers. It will therefore 
 be an office of kindness to point out 
 
 III. What can be done to rescue the young 
 from their perilous situation.
 
 108 DANGERS OF 
 
 1. Realize your erposure to temptation. Many 
 have been ruined through a mere unwillingness to 
 admit the possibility that they could be ruined. 
 An overweening confidence in their security has 
 proved their destruction. It is one of the infirmi- 
 ties of human nature, and especially of inexpe- 
 rienced youth, to consider ourselves proof against 
 all temptation. " A prudent man foreseeth the 
 evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on, 
 and are punished." Think not that your princi- 
 ples are impregnable. " He that trusteth in his 
 own heart is a fool." Hazael knew not the 
 strength of his early principles, till they were 
 brought to the trial. That proved that they were 
 frail as gossamer. Peter had the utmost confi- 
 dence in his own integrity, but the remark of a 
 servant made him deny his Master. " Let him 
 that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." 
 If you keenly feel your constant exposure to 
 temptation, it will put you upon your guard. You 
 will more eagerly avail yourselves of other means 
 of preservation. 
 
 2. Never cease to respect and follow the good 
 instructions of your parents. I say good instruc- 
 tions, for it is the unhappiness of many youth to 
 be contaminated with those which are bad. Erro- 
 neous instruction is often worse than none. But
 
 YOUNG PEOPLE. 109 
 
 if you were correctly and religiously educated, 
 never become so wise in your own conceit as to 
 place a light value on such an education. Never 
 feel that you have become so enlightened, as to 
 make it safe or proper to despise the counsels of 
 Christian parents. If a man possessed the wisdom 
 of Solomon, it would not exempt him from obli- 
 gation to obey the instructions of a pious mother. 
 The holy precepts which such a mother instilled 
 into your minds in infancy and childhood, and her 
 many prayers and tears on your behalf, you ought 
 to prize above thousands of gold and silver. Per- 
 haps, as you left home, she put a Bible into your 
 trunk; let that Bible be valued above the gold 
 of Ophir. Perhaps, as you parted, she dropped 
 some counsels upon your ear, as weighty as if 
 they were her dying words ; let those counsels be 
 engraven on your heart forever. You can hardly 
 fail of being preserved from immoral courses, if 
 you faithfully practice the instructions of those 
 who gave you being, and whose earthly all is 
 bound up in your respectability and happiness. 
 
 3. Be especially careful in your choice of asso 
 dates. Too much importance cannot be attached 
 to this direction. It is fundamental. The influence 
 which young people exert over each other, is abso- 
 lutely immeasurable. In your intercourse with each
 
 110 DANGERS OF 
 
 other, you will find almost every shade of religious 
 belief, and nearly every variety of practice. Your 
 opinions and life will be insensibly formed after 
 the models with which you are most familiar. 
 You cannot be intimate with any one, without 
 imperceptibly imbibing his views. Beyond all 
 doubt, more depends, as it respects the formation 
 of character, on the character of associates, than 
 on any other circumstance, and perhaps more than 
 on all other circumstances united. " He that 
 walketh with wise men shall be wise : but a com- 
 panion of fools shall be destroyed." Language, 
 my young friends, wants power to express the 
 importance of your selecting for your intimate 
 friends, those who are well-principled, wise and 
 virtuous. If then you know a youth of unsound 
 religious principles, or of questionable morals, treat 
 him indeed with perfect propriety, but shun rather 
 than solicit his acquaintance. His personal ap- 
 pearance and bearing may be unusually prepossess- 
 ing. His treatment of you may be singularly 
 courteous. His knowledge of business and of 
 mankind may be superior to your own. But mark 
 him. Count him not an enemy, much less a 
 friend. He may make an offer of confidential 
 friendship, but firmly and respectfully decline it. 
 Give him to understand, if necessary, that your
 
 YOUNG PEOPLE. Ill 
 
 principles and his are too dissimilar ever to admit 
 of intimacy. He may use various arts arid strata- 
 gems to dislodge you from your position, but stand 
 the more firm and erect on your principles. Let 
 whatever he does to gain you be met by a digni- 
 fied inflexibility. O, could the history of the 
 ruined youth of our land be rehearsed in your 
 hearing, it would make every ear tingle. Quite 
 likely nine tenths of the cases would be found to 
 be the result of the influence of bad associates. 
 How does the moral youth become a Sabbath- 
 breaker, or a profane swearer, or a liar, or a lewd 
 person, or a drunkard, or an infidel ? By means 
 of the example and influence of companions, who 
 are addicted to those vices, or hold those princi- 
 ples. " Evil communications corrupt good man- 
 ners." Take care, then, whom you choose for 
 your associates. Your respectability, peace, use- 
 fulness, salvation ; the happiness of your friends, 
 the well-being of society, all, all are involved in 
 the choice you make. 
 
 4. Christians should take special pains to be- 
 come early acquainted with those youthful stran- 
 gers, who come here to reside, and endeavor to 
 give them a right direction. The first acquain- 
 tances which strangers make are generally the 
 most durable and influential. They never forget
 
 112 DANGERS OF 
 
 those who first take them by the hand, and mani- 
 fest a deep interest in their welfare. One kind, 
 encouraging word has often won the affections of 
 a stranger's heart, and laid the foundation of an 
 intimacy, which could never be dissolved. Now, 
 who shall secure all the advantages of this early 
 acquaintanceship with strangers? the Christian, or 
 the infidel? the moral, or the immoral man? It 
 has been often remarked, that unprincipled men 
 take more pains, than Christians do, to form these 
 early acquaintances with strangers, and interest 
 them, and secure their confidence. However that 
 may be, good men are doubtless very delinquent 
 in this duty. While they are purposing to obtain 
 an introduction to a stranger for the sake of doing 
 him good, another has actually done it with a 
 very different motive, and has probably secured 
 his object. The favorable moment for making 
 the first impression is now irrecoverably gone ; 
 and those who purposed well, but did not imme- 
 diately act, are often compelled to stand by, and 
 behold the progress of the youth in his precipitous 
 career to destruction, without being able to arrest 
 it. Let those, then, who wish well to the rising 
 generation, thoroughly understand the principle in 
 human nature, that first impressions are gener~ 
 ally the deepest and most durable. Let them
 
 YOUNG PEOPLE. 113 
 
 endeavor, in all cases, to make those impressions 
 themselves ; and by so doing, they will rescue 
 multitudes of youth from the power of the de- 
 stroyer from temporal and eternal ruin. 
 
 5. The last thing, which I would recommend 
 to the youth as a defence against temptation, is to 
 choose God for your Father and Protector, Are 
 you far removed from friends and relatives? "The 
 Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to 
 all that call upon him in truth." Are you orphans, 
 with no parents to counsel and protect you ? Say 
 with Christian confidence, " When my father and 
 my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take 
 me up." Do you feel your inexperience and 
 danger? Lift up your eyes to Jehovah, and ac- 
 knowledge, "My Father, thou art the guide of 
 my youth." Give your hearts and your lives to 
 him, and you will be safe. If you stand on the 
 rock of his defence, the highest mountain billow 
 of temptation shall break harmlessly beneath your 
 feet. He loves his children with an everlasting 
 love, and not a hair of their head shall perish. 
 If, in times past, he has divided the sea to give 
 them a passage from their enemies ; if he has 
 rained manna from heaven, and brought water 
 out of the flinty rock to supply their wants ; 
 if he has stopped the sun to aid their victories,
 
 114 DANGERS OF YOUNG PEOPLE. 
 
 and reproved kings for their sakes, saying, " Touch 
 not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm;" 
 if he has done all these things for them, what 
 have you to fear, if you flee to the sanctuary of 
 his power? Accept, then, accept to-day the prof- 
 fered protection of Almighty God. Do this, and 
 though you live in a corrupted and corrupting 
 world; though temptations beset you, and ten 
 thousand ills betide you ; though the heavens 
 gather blackness, and the rains descend, and the 
 floods come, and all your prospects are veiled in 
 darkness, and all your hopes seem lost in the 
 commingling fury of the storm ; your Father 
 will look out of his holy habitation upon the 
 raging elements, and say, " Peace, be still, my 
 children are there ! " And suddenly there will be 
 a great calm and the sun will shine out again 
 and it will be to you a prelude of CLOUDLESS 
 
 EVERLASTING DAY.
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 ORIGIN, OBLIGATION, AND PROPER OB- 
 SERVANCE OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 EXODUS xx. 8 11. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six 
 days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sab- 
 bath of the Lord thy God ; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy 
 son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, 
 nor thy stranger that is within thy gates : For in six days the Lord made 
 heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh 
 day ; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it. 
 
 THE importance of the Christian Sabbath to 
 the present and future well-being of man, is very 
 generally, if not universally, admitted. By its 
 weekly recurrence, it offers him timely and needful 
 rest from labor, perplexity and care. It promotes 
 cleanliness, and health, and intellectual improve- 
 ment. It divides time into portions the most con- 
 venient for the transaction of worldly business, 
 and thus regulates the various intercourse of com- 
 munities. It recruits the exhausted strength of 
 working animals, and thus makes them more ser-
 
 116 PROPER OBSERVANCE 
 
 viceable to man. Indeed, it contributes in a 
 thousand nameless ways, to the temporal comfort 
 and happiness of the human kind. 
 
 But these are the minor benefits of the Sabbath. 
 It also recognizes man as an heir to immortality 
 as a being on probation for eternal blessedness or 
 wo. As such, it offers him a season for retire- 
 ment, for self-inspection, for reading the Scrip- 
 tures and other pious books, for repentance, 
 and for private, family and public worship. 
 He is allotted, by special statute, one seventh 
 part of all his time, for the purpose of making 
 preparation for his eternal state. Thus, the 
 Sabbath is the great means of preparing men 
 for future glory. In short, were it not for the 
 Sabbath, religion would soon disappear from the 
 face of the earth, and all communication with 
 heaven cease. 
 
 The transmission of the Sabbath, in its purity, 
 from generation to generation, is, therefore, an 
 object of pre-eminent importance. In securing 
 this most important object, much, very much de- 
 pends upon the youth, and especially upon young 
 men. In a still more emphatic sense, does much 
 depend on the example of young people in manu- 
 facturing, and other densely populated villages, 
 because such villages are centres of business, en-
 
 OF THE SABBATH. 117 
 
 terprise and influence. Their example will either 
 exalt the Sabbath in the respect and affections of 
 the communities around them, or will roll the tide 
 of recreation and business over that consecrated 
 day. 
 
 The remarks, on this subject, which I shall sub- 
 mit to your consideration, will be arranged under 
 the following heads : 
 
 I. The origin, 
 
 II. The perpetual obligation of the Sab- 
 bath ; And 
 
 III. The manner in which it should be ob- 
 served. 
 
 I. The origin of the Sabbath. The Sabbath 
 was instituted by Jehovah immediately after the 
 creation of the heavens and the earth, and was 
 designed to commemorate his cessation or resting 
 from that work. This fact we find in the second 
 chapter of Genesis, and is described in these 
 terms ; '< On the seventh day God ended his 
 work which he had made ; and he rested on the 
 seventh day from all his work, which he had 
 made. And God blessed the seventh day, and 
 sanctified it ; because that in it he had rested from 
 all his work, which God created and made." 
 Here, then, is the scriptural account of the time 
 when the Sabbath was instituted. But there are
 
 118 PROPER OBSERVANCE 
 
 in the Bible a number of incidental allusions and 
 expressions, which corroborate this conclusion. 
 
 The book of Genesis contains the only authen- 
 tic history of the first twenty-four hundred years 
 after the creation. It cannot therefore be ex- 
 pected, that in so brief a history of twenty-four 
 centuries, we shall find frequent references to the 
 Sabbath. Nor were such references necessary to 
 give permanency to it, for they would serve rather 
 to weaken than to strengthen the obligatory power 
 of a divinely established institution. And yet the 
 Sabbath is, in two or three instances, alluded to in 
 that history. When the waters of the deluge 
 began to subside, Noah sent out a dove, which 
 soon returned. At the end of seven days, he sent 
 her out again ; and at the end of seven days more, 
 he sent her out a third time. Now, why did he 
 wait in all these cases just seven days ? Why did 
 he not wait six days, or ten days ? Simply because 
 time was then divided, as it now is, into weeks. 
 The fair implication therefore is, that the Sabbath 
 then existed, and that weeks were reckoned from 
 the close of one Sabbatli to the close of another. 
 
 In the twenty-ninth chapter of Genesis, a sim- 
 ilar division of time is incidentally mentioned. 
 " Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also. 
 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled his week." The
 
 OF THE SABBATH. 119 
 
 word " week " was always used, except in pro- 
 phetical discourse, to designate a period of exactly 
 seven days ; and this uniform division of time into 
 such periods obviously implied the existence of 
 the Sabbath. 
 
 In the sixteenth chapter of Exodus, the pre- 
 existence <3f the Sabbath is again recognized. 
 When the Israelites were supplied with manna, 
 they were required to gather twice as much on 
 the sixth day of the week as on any other, and 
 Moses assigns this as the reason of that require- 
 ment; "To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sab- 
 bath unto the Lord." This mode of speech 
 plainly implies that the Sabbath previously ex- 
 isted, and not that it was then instituted. 
 
 The introductory expression in the text implies 
 the same thing. "Remember the Sabbath-day to 
 keep it holy." Here, the injunction to keep the 
 Sabbath holy is incorporated into the code of 
 moral laws, which God gave the Israelites amid 
 the thunderings, and lightnings, and quakings of 
 Sinai, and the way in which the subject is referred 
 to, evidently supposes that the institution previ- 
 ously existed. It is not a customary form of 
 speech to call upon others to "remember" that, 
 which had no previous existence. 
 
 If, to all these considerations, we add the facts,
 
 120 PROPER OBSERVANCE 
 
 that the Sabbath was as much needed by the 
 earliest inhabitants of the earth, as by their de- 
 scendants, and that God was as much disposed to 
 consult their good, as the good of others, there 
 seems to remain not a vestige of doubt, that the 
 Sabbath was instituted immediately after the crea- 
 tion, and was designed for the benefit of all man- 
 kind from the beginning to the end of the world. 
 
 This result, to which we are conducted by an 
 appeal to the Scriptures, is confirmed, although 
 confirmation is unnecessary, by the testimony of 
 ancient authors. Homer and Hesiod say that the 
 seventh day was holy. Porphyry, an infidel, says 
 that the Phoenicians consecrated one day in seven 
 as holy. Philo says that the Sabbath is not a 
 festival peculiar to any one people, or country, 
 but is common to all the world ; and that it may 
 be called the general or public feast, or the feast 
 of the nativity of the world. Josephus affirms 
 that there is no city either of Greeks, or barba- 
 rians, or any other nation, where the religion of 
 the Sabbath is not known. Now, there is no way 
 to account for this wide dissemination of the know- 
 ledge of the Sabbath among the earliest postdi- 
 luvian nations of the earth, but to suppose that 
 they received it from Noah, their common an- 
 cestor, who must have received it through one
 
 OF THE SABBATH. 121 
 
 generation only, from Adam. Thus, by direct and 
 indirect proof, the existence of the Sabbath can 
 be traced back to the creation. 
 
 My next position is 
 
 II. That the Sabbath, being coeval with the 
 existence of man, is perpetually obligatory upon 
 him. 
 
 The time when the Sabbath was instituted, 
 shows that it was " made for man " for all men. 
 It was instituted immediately after the creation of 
 man ; it was the very first divine enactment 
 for the benefit of man ; and was obviously de- 
 signed to be commensurate with the duration of 
 man upon the earth. It was not enacted, like the 
 ceremonial laws, for the sole observance and benefit 
 of the Jews as a nation, because it was enacted 
 two thousand years before the calling of Abraham 
 the " father " of the Jewish nation, and two 
 thousand five hundred years before the ceremonial 
 laws were given to that people. Besides, this 
 institution was no more necessary to the national 
 polity of the Jews, than to that of other nations. 
 Every kindred, tongue and people under the 
 whole heaven, needs such an institution as much 
 as did the Jews. The moral wants of all nations, 
 in every age of the world, are substantially the 
 same. That construction therefore is violent and 
 9
 
 122 PROPER OBSERVANCE 
 
 inadmissible, which makes the Sabbath obligatory 
 upon the Jews, and not upon other nations. 
 
 Again, the Sabbath is a law of God, and as 
 such, it can cease to be binding only in two ways. 
 It is a settled principle, that all laws continue in 
 force unless they expire by their own limitations, 
 or are repealed by the authority which enacted 
 them. Now, I maintain that the law of the Sab- 
 bath has not been abrogated in either of these 
 ways. It has not expired by its own limitations. 
 When Jehovah instituted the Sabbath, he made 
 no provision, expressed or implied, that it should 
 cease after a given period. All that is said about 
 it is, that " God blessed the seventh day, and 
 sanctified it." Here are no limitations. The 
 seventh day was set apart and sanctified as a holy 
 day. The only natural interpretation is, that the 
 Sabbath was intended to be a permanent institu- 
 tion. The absence of any provision, that the 
 observance of the Sabbath should be maintained 
 for a given period and then cease, most conclu- 
 sively shows that it could not expire by limitation. 
 The unavoidable inference is that it is still in 
 force. 
 
 Nor has the law of the Sabbath been repealed. 
 The Scriptures contain no account of a repeal. 
 On the contrary, we find that good men, under
 
 OF THE SABBATH. 123 
 
 the former dispensation, sacredly observed the 
 Sabbath, and that the apostles, under the new, did 
 the same. Christ did not repeal it, for he not 
 only regularly observed the Sabbath himself, but 
 expressly said, " I carne not to destroy the law 
 and the prophets ; I came not to destroy, but to 
 fulfil." "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, 
 than one tittle of the law to fail." The subject 
 is therefore specially guarded against the sup- 
 position that Christ abrogated the sabbatical law. 
 
 This is also still more evident, because the sab- 
 batical law is, in the text, made a constituent part 
 of the moral law. God gave to Moses on Sinai a 
 code of moral laws, in distinction from the cere- 
 monial, and incorporated the original law of the 
 Sabbath into that code, as an integral part of the 
 same. The moral law, or the decalogue, is, in its 
 very nature, obligatory on all men in all ages of 
 the world. It is not, like the ceremonial laws of 
 the Jews, adapted to the genius and circumstances 
 of one nation only, but of all nations alike. It 
 was not designed, like the ceremonial laws of that 
 nation, to cease with the existence of that nation, 
 but to be of perpetual obligation on all mankind. 
 If the other nine commandments of the decalogue 
 are, in their very nature, obligatory on all men ; 
 if all mankind are bound to have no other gods
 
 124 PROPER OBSERVANCE 
 
 before Jehovah to make and serve no graven 
 images to abstain from taking the name of God 
 in vain to honor their parents to refrain from 
 murder, adultery, theft, bearing false-witness and 
 covetousness, then they are equally bound to 
 " remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." 
 
 Again, the fourth commandment occupies a 
 peculiar place in the decalogue. The first three 
 commandments prescribe our duties to God the 
 last six our duties to man. An old writer rather 
 quaintly, but pertinently remarks, " The fourth 
 commandment is put into the bosom of the deca- 
 logue, that it might not be lost ; it is the golden 
 clasp which joins the two tables together." 
 
 Another circumstance, which strengthens the 
 argument for the perpetuity of the Sabbath, is, 
 that the ten commandments were written by God 
 himself on tables of stone. Stone is the emblem 
 of durability. A table of stone, or a pillar of 
 stone, is designed to transmit whatever is engraved 
 on it, down to as late a period as possible. The 
 moral law, (a part of which is the fourth com- 
 mandment,) was written on tables of stone, thereby 
 indicating the intention of the great Lawgiver to 
 transmit it to the latest ages, as a law binding on 
 all mankind ; while the ceremonial laws, intended 
 for the Jews only, were unwritten given to Moses
 
 OF THE SABBATH. 125 
 
 orally. Now, why this distinction in the mode of 
 giving these two codes of law, if there was to be 
 no difference in respect of their duration? And 
 why was the fourth commandment written on a 
 tablet of stone, like the other nine, if Jehovah 
 intended to make its obligatory power less per- 
 manent than that of the rest ? Every interpreta- 
 tion of this fact is unnatural and forced, which 
 does not admit the perpetual obligation of the 
 fourth commandment. 
 
 This various and ample proof establishes the 
 position, that the Sabbath is a permanent institu- 
 tion ; binding on us and on all men to the end of 
 the world. 
 
 But it may be said, that the Sabbath has been 
 changed from the seventh to the first day of the 
 week, and that this change of the day militates 
 against the doctrine of its perpetuity. In reply to 
 this, I would say, that the day for the observance 
 of any festival may be changed, without at all 
 affecting the permanency of that festival. The 
 two things are entirely distinct, and rest on inde- 
 pendent grounds. But we have the high authority 
 of "the Lord of the Sabbath " and of his apostles, 
 not only for the change of the day, but for the 
 continuance of the Sabbath after the change. 
 The Sabbath was instituted to commemorate the
 
 126 PROPER OBSERVANCE 
 
 resting from the work of the creation ; and it was 
 changed from the seventh to the first day of the 
 week to commemorate the resurrection of Christ. 
 There was a propriety in the change, arising from 
 the superior importance of the latter event. 
 
 " 'Twas great to speak a world from nought ; 
 'Twas greater to REDEEM." 
 
 Christ, by his own example, sanctioned not the 
 change of the day only, but the permanence of 
 the institution itself. On the day of his resurrec- 
 tion, he repeatedly appeared to his disciples, and 
 he met them again the next first day of the week, 
 when they were assembled for religious worship, 
 and said, " Peace be unto you" Now, why did 
 he so regularly and repeatedly meet them on the 
 first day of the week, unless it was not only to 
 change the day, but to confirm the existence and 
 perpetuity of the Sabbath by the highest possible 
 authority ? 
 
 The Holy Spirit also added his decisive attesta- 
 tion to the continued and permanent existence of 
 the Sabbath, under the new regulation, by his re- 
 markable operations on the day of Pentecost, which 
 was the Christian Sabbath. The conversion of 
 three thousand souls was a glorious consecration 
 of that day to the great work of saving men.
 
 OF THE SABBATH. 127 
 
 The practice of the apostles and of the primi- 
 tive churches, on this subject, conformed to the 
 example and probable instructions of their Master. 
 They regularly observed "the first day of the 
 week" as the Sabbath. On that day, they were 
 accustomed to assemble for public worship, to 
 celebrate the Lord's Supper, and to contribute of 
 their substance to supply the wants of their needy 
 brethren. 
 
 Ecclesiastical history informs us that, in the 
 early ages of the Christian church, the first day 
 of the week was observed as the Sabbath. Ig- 
 natius, Justin Martyr, Constantine, Theophilus, 
 and others, have left their testimony to the extent 
 and correctness of that practice. The same prac- 
 tice has continued to the present time, and no 
 doubt will continue till the consummation of all 
 things. 
 
 Such is a brief view of the proof that the Sab- 
 bath is of perpetual obligation, binding alike on all 
 nations and individuals to the end of time. 
 
 The way is now prepared to consider, 
 
 III. The manner in which the Sabbath should 
 
 P 
 
 be observed. " Remember the Sabbath day to 
 keep it holy." In the Scriptures, that is called 
 holy which is set apart, and consecrated to the 
 service of God, Now God has set apart and
 
 128 PROPER OBSERVANCE 
 
 sanctified the Sabbath, as a day to be devoted ex- 
 clusively to his service. A proper observance of 
 the Sabbath, therefore, includes attention to two 
 things ; the duties we are to perform and the 
 acts and feelings from which we are to abstain. 
 
 Of the duties we are to perform on the Sabbath, 
 the following are the more prominent. 
 
 1. Rest from secular labor. The word Sabbath 
 means rest. It received its meaning from the fact 
 that God rested from the work of creation. On 
 the Sabbath, all secular labor is to cease. " In it 
 thou shall not do any work." The moment the 
 Sabbath begins, there is to be an universal pause 
 of the din and bustle of the week. In all well- 
 regulated, Christian communities, all animate and 
 inanimate things seem to sympathize in the still- 
 ness of the Sabbath. The heavens and the earth 
 appear to be unusually placid and serene, and all 
 animated nature to repose in unwonted quietness. 
 Man, too, man, for whom **the Sabbath was 
 made," should cease from secular labor, and rest 
 in the service of God. 
 
 2. Self-examination, reading the Scriptures and 
 other religious books, and secret prayer are duties, 
 which, though they are to be attended to on the 
 other days of the week, are to receive special 
 attention on the Sabbath. Indeed, the great
 
 OF THE SABBATH. 129 
 
 reason for the institution of the Sabbath was, to 
 give us an unmolested opportunity to become ex- 
 perimentally acquainted with our Maker to cul- 
 tivate nearness of access to him, and intimate com- 
 munion with him. The leisure and quietness of 
 the Sabbath afford an excellent opportunity for, 
 and supply powerful motives to deep self-inspec- 
 tion, devout reading and meditation, and near 
 approaches to God on the mercy seat. These 
 high and holy communings with heaven are a most 
 essential part of the duties of the Lord's day. All 
 persons, who cultivate none of this hallowed in- 
 tercourse with God, do not " remember the Sab- 
 bath day to keep it holy." 
 
 Many persons would acquire but a little know- 
 ledge of the Bible and of divine things, were it 
 not for the leisure afforded them by the Sabbath. 
 Persons employed in manufactories, day laborers 
 and domestics, often cannot devote as much time 
 during the secular days of the week to religious 
 improvement, as their cases demand; but the Sab- 
 bath comes to their relief, and spreads out before 
 them the ample page of divine knowledge. Em- 
 ploy, then, this holy day in obtaining that know- 
 ledge of yourselves and of God, which will prepare 
 you for the companionship of the seraphim. 
 
 3. Family instruction is an important branch of
 
 130 PROPER OBSERVANCE 
 
 the duties of the Sabbath. The man of a thousand 
 cares can now retire to the bosom of his family, 
 and spend holy time in imparting instruction to his 
 children and domestics. The family are now 
 together. The parents are the natural instructors 
 of the circle, and all the group look up to them 
 for counsel and example. What a favorable op- 
 portunity to exert good influence ! What an 
 amount of religious knowledge may parents impart 
 in the lapse of a few years ! How many gems 
 may they add to the brilliant crown of the Re- 
 deemer, by fidelity to the souls of their house- 
 holds ! If they are unfaithful, they will have an 
 account to render at the judgment, which will fill 
 them with consternation. 
 
 4. Public worship claims your special attention 
 on the Sabbath. Public worship is fitted to the 
 nature of man as a social being. Jn all ages of 
 the church, it has been sustained. The Jews had 
 their holy convocations on the Sabbath. Often 
 did they chant the high praises of God in the 
 words of the psalmist, " How amiable are thy 
 tabernacles, O Lord of hosts ! Blessed are they 
 that dwell in thy house ; they will be still praising 
 thee. For a day in thy courts is better than a 
 thousand : I had rather be a door-keeper in the 
 house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of
 
 OF THE SABBATH. 131 
 
 wickedness. I was glad when they said unto me, 
 let us go into the house of the Lord." 
 
 The Bible tells us that it was the " custom " of 
 Jesus Christ, when on the earth, to attend public 
 worship in the synagogue. The apostles used to 
 meet with their converts, and worship God on the 
 Sabbath. They commanded men not to "forsake 
 the assembling of themselves together, as the 
 manner of some " was even at that early period. 
 Good men, in all ages, have loved the sanctuary. 
 Here, " the rich and the poor meet together." 
 Here, they are made, in some measure, to feel, 
 that 
 
 " All the distinctions of (his little life 
 Are quite cutaneous" 
 
 and that they will all be forgotten in the great and 
 endless distinction between the righteous and the 
 wicked in heaven and hell. 
 
 Who can estimate the influence of the sanctuary 
 on the intelligence, the morals, and the religion of 
 the world. The oft-repeated lines of Cowper 
 have lost none of their truth ; 
 
 " The pulpit, 
 
 I say the pulpit, in the sober use 
 Of its legitimate peculiar powers, 
 Must stand acknowledged, while the world shall stand, 
 The most important and effectual guard, 
 Support and ornament of virtue's cause.*'
 
 132 PROPER OBSERVANCE 
 
 Regularly attend, then, my young friends, the 
 public worship of God. Sanctify the Sabbath by 
 resorting to his house " with the multitude which 
 keep holy day," and by offering the homage of 
 humble, contrite hearts. 
 
 But a proper observance of the Sabbath requires 
 us to abstain from certain acts and feelings, as 
 well as to perform the above-mentioned duties. 
 In order to ascertain what things are prohibited on 
 the Sabbath, we must examine somewhat more 
 closely the fourth commandment, and our Saviour's 
 expositions of it. " Remember the Sabbath day 
 to keep it holy. Six days shall thou labor and 
 do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sab- 
 bath of the Lord thy God. In it, thou shalt not 
 do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, 
 thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, thy cattle, 
 nor thy stranger that is within thy gates." Here, 
 all heads of families are expressly forbidden to do 
 " any work," and the prohibition extends to their 
 sons and daughters, their men servants and maid 
 servants, their cattle, and the strangers whom they 
 happen to entertain. The prohibition is positive 
 and absolute, " Thou shalt not do any work ; " 
 and, under the Mosaic economy, the least violation 
 of this rule was punished with death. In process 
 of time, the Jews engrafted many of their tradi-
 
 OF THE SABBATH. 133 
 
 tions on this law, and accounted it improper to 
 repel force by force, to use oil medicinally, or to 
 heal the sick on the Sabbath day. To show that 
 these traditional constructions of the law, forbidding 
 us to " do any work" were incorrect, Christ him- 
 self expounded its meaning. Let us look at his 
 exposition. 
 
 On a certain Sabbath, he found a woman in a 
 synagogue, who had been severely afflicted with 
 disease eighteen years, and he healed her. The 
 ruler of the synagogue was indignant, and said to 
 the people ; " There are six days in which men 
 ought to work : in them, therefore, come and be 
 healed, and not on the Sabbath day." Our Lord, 
 knowing that the rebuke was intended for himself, 
 answered, " Thou hypocrite, doth not each one 
 of you on the Sabbath day, loose his ox or his ass 
 from the stall, and lead him away to watering ; 
 and ought not this woman, being a daughter of 
 Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these 
 eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the 
 Sabbath day ? And all his adversaries were 
 ashamed." 
 
 At another time, Jesus, going to the synagogue 
 on the Sabbath, " went through the corn, and 
 his disciples were an hungered, and began to pluck 
 the ears of corn and to eat." The Pharisees
 
 134 PROPER OBSERVANCE 
 
 charged them with breaking the Sabbath. But 
 our Lord fully justified them on the ground of the 
 urgent necessity of the case. It was to save life. 
 The same day, he found in the synagogue "a 
 man whose hand was withered." The Jews, with 
 their usual captiousness, asked him, " Is it lawful 
 to heal on the Sabbath day ? And he said unto 
 them, what man shall there be among you, that 
 shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on 
 the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and 
 lift it out ? How much, then, is a man better than 
 a sheep ? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on 
 the Sabbath days." 
 
 These expositions are all which Christ thought 
 necessary to give of the clause, " Thou shall not 
 do any work." Now, let it be distinctly remem- 
 bered, that, in all these cases, no work is allowed, 
 but works of mercy only. It is a work of mercy 
 to relieve an ox or a sheep from present suffering, 
 to deliver men and women from present severe 
 bodily infirmities, and to appease present hunger. 
 And in all these cases, it was a work, which could 
 not be postponed till Monday without endangering 
 life. They were then necessary works of mercy.* 
 
 * For some of the thoughts in this lecture, the author grate- 
 fully acknowledges his obligation to a Treatise on the Sabbath 
 by Rev. Dr. Humphrey, of Amherst college ; a work, which 
 deserves a far more extensive circulation.
 
 OF THE SABBATH. 135 
 
 The phrase, " necessary works of mercy" is intel- 
 ligible, describes more accurately the only excep- 
 tion to the fourth commandment, and is less liable 
 to abuse, than that used by the Westminster As- 
 sembly of divines ; namely, " works of necessity 
 and mercy." There are many sorts of business, 
 which some would call " works of necessity" but 
 which are not necessary works of mercy, and there- 
 fore they are forbidden by the fourth command- 
 ment. 
 
 Here, then, is the test, to which we are to bring 
 all our conduct on the Sabbath. The command- 
 ment is, '' Thou shalt not do any work ; " and 
 the only exception, authorized by the great Ex- 
 pounder of the law, is those works, which are 
 clearly necessary works of MERCY. None others, 
 under any circumstances, are allowed. 
 
 Let us subject some of the practices of society 
 to this decisive test. 
 
 Here is a farmer, who has a field of grain, 
 which for sometime has been ready for the sickle, 
 but in consequence of continued rains, he has been 
 unable to harvest it. And, to make the case as 
 strong as possible, we will suppose him to be a 
 poor man, and that his family are quite dependent 
 on this grain for their bread. The first fair day 
 is the Sabbath. The grain has already begun to
 
 136 PROPER OBSERVANCE 
 
 sprout in the ear. Monday it may rain again. 
 Now, the question is, does our Saviour's exposition 
 of the fourth commandment allow him, even in 
 this extreme case, to go and gather his grain on 
 the Sabbath ? The case turns on the point, Is it 
 a necessary work of MEKCY ? Is it present suffer- 
 ing which is to be relieved ? No. His family are 
 all in health. They have at present a supply for 
 their wants. They are in no immediate danger of 
 starvation. The case then does not come within 
 the exception. He ought not to gather his grain 
 on the Sabbath day. He ought to obey God, 
 and leave the result with him. His command is, 
 " Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh 
 day thou shalt rest ; in earing time and in harvest 
 thou shalt rest." " Trust in the Lord and do 
 good, and verily thou shalt be fed." 
 
 But he may reply to this, and say, " I ex- 
 pended much labor in preparing that field for a 
 crop. God has blessed the work of my hands, 
 and brought my crop to maturity ; and now, does 
 he not design that I shall gather it on the Sabbath, 
 rather than lose it entirely ?" My answer is, that 
 this reasoning does not invalidate the rule, "Thou 
 shalt not do any work." The law is to be obeyed. 
 And besides, it is not certain that God intended 
 he should enjoy the crop, because it is brought to
 
 OF THE SABBATH. 137 
 
 maturity. Often has he blessed the labors of the 
 husbandman, and caused his crops to ripen, and 
 given him a favorable opportunity for harvest, and 
 then sent the lightnings of heaven and consumed 
 the whole, after it was deposited in the barn. It 
 is the duty of every one to obey God, and leave 
 all consequences to his disposal. 
 
 " But," says another, " I keep a livery stable. 
 Myself and family are dependent on that business 
 for support. I can let more horses and carriages 
 on the Sabbath than on any other day of the 
 week, and I cannot sustain myself if I do not let 
 them on the Sabbath. Is it not right for me to 
 continue the business ? " The answer turns again 
 on the point, whether it is a necessary work of 
 mercy to let his horses and carriages on the Sab- 
 .? bath. It is his duty to let them to physicians, 
 who have no other means of conveyance to visit 
 their patients, and to other persons, whose absent 
 friends are sick and are in pressing need of their 
 assistance. These, and similar cases, come within 
 the exception. But to let them to all persons in- 
 discriminately, for purposes of recreation or gain, 
 is a palpable violation of the Lord's day. 
 
 " But," says the man, " I am not in the habit 
 of inquiring after other people's business. I do 
 not know whether their friends are sick, or in 
 10
 
 138 PROPER OBSERVANCE 
 
 health. I am applied to for means of conveyance, 
 and may I not in all cases furnish them ? " Jesus 
 Christ, by his recorded expositions of the law, 
 has settled the point. You have the means, or 
 you may have them without any impertinent in- 
 quisitiveness, of knowing whether you let them 
 for purposes of pleasure or profit, or for those 
 which the " Lord of the Sabbath " approves. 
 You are therefore bound to discriminate, and never 
 to furnish the means of conveyance to persons, 
 who you know will employ them in violating the 
 Sabbath. 
 
 The same rule applies to the hiring as to the 
 letting of means of conveyance. No man has a 
 right to hire them, or to use his own on the Sab- 
 bath, except it be to perform a necessary work of 
 mercy a work of mercy, which cannot be post- 
 poned to another day. What an amount of guilt, 
 then, attaches to the multitude in our large cities, 
 and towns, and villages, who charter hundreds and 
 thousands of conveyances by land and water, and 
 drive over and trample under foot the Sabbaths of 
 Him, who has commanded us all to remember 
 them and keep them holy ! 
 
 Take another case. In a large manufacturing 
 establishment, it happens, that, just at sunset on 
 Saturday, a principal wheel in the machinery
 
 OF THE SABBATH. 139 
 
 breaks, and it will take five men a whole day to 
 repair it. A hundred, or perhaps two hundred 
 persons cannot proceed with their business till the 
 repair is made. Now, the question is, must this 
 repair be made on the Sabbath, or must it be de- 
 ferred till Monday, and the numerous operatives 
 lie still, on expense, a whole day ? Bring the 
 case to the test of the principle established by our 
 Lord, and what is the decision ? Is it a necessary 
 work of mercy to make the repair on the Sabbath? 
 Whose life or health will be placed in jeopardy by 
 the delay of one day ? Nobody's. It is then a 
 mere question of property of profit or loss. If 
 five machinists may on the Sabbath repair the 
 broken wheel, on the same principle, the farmer 
 and the mechanic may repair their tools, and other 
 trades ply their respective occupations. The dif- 
 ference in the magnitude of the concern, in the 
 one case and in the other, makes no difference in 
 the principle involved. It is still a mere question 
 of property, and therefore the propriety of the 
 repair is not admitted by our Lord's construction 
 of the fourth commandment. 
 
 Suppose another case. In this manufacturing 
 establishment, there are some hundreds of persons, 
 who are almost incessantly occupied with business 
 during the week, and, on the Sabbath, a strong
 
 140 PROPER OBSERVANCE 
 
 temptation is presented to spend a part of the day, 
 at least, in walking the fields and streets, or in 
 riding into the surrounding country. Now, does 
 their confinement during the week give them a 
 dispensation from the duty of remembering " the 
 Sabbath day to keep it holy?" Not at all. 
 Spending the day, or any part of it, in mere 
 recreation, is positively forbidden. To spend it 
 so, is to incur the wrath of Heaven. 
 
 But here is a young man, who wishes to go and 
 see his friends, some ten or twenty miles distant, 
 and he can save the wages of a whole day, by 
 visiting them on the Sabbath. Has he not a right 
 to go ? No. It is not a necessary work of 
 mercy. His friends are in health, or, at least, he 
 knows nothing to the contrary. His object is 
 merely the gratification, which a visit to his friends 
 would afford. His duty therefore is plain. He 
 must forego the gratification of a visit, and keep 
 the Sabbath holy. 
 
 There are many other usages of society which 
 fall under the condemnation of the fourth com- 
 mandment, which I have not time to notice at 
 large. Among them may be mentioned the trans- 
 portation of the mail on the Sabbath, the opening 
 of post-offices, the delivery of letters, the posting 
 of books, the loading and sailing of vessels, the
 
 OF THE SABBATH. 141 
 
 reading of political newspapers and literary peri- 
 odicals, and the selling and drinking of ardent 
 spirits. 
 
 Finally, it is to be particularly remembered, 
 that a proper observance of the Sabbath requires 
 not only the practice of the duties, and the avoid- 
 ance of the sins mentioned in this lecture, but 
 abstinence from all worldly, unholy feelings and 
 thoughts. God looketh on the heart. All re- 
 ligious duties may be externally performed, and 
 yet the Sabbath is violated, unless the heart be 
 right. A renewed, a holy heart is indispensable 
 to a real compliance with the requisitions of the 
 fourth commandment. 
 
 My youthful hearers, viewing the conduct of 
 many of our fellow citizens in the light of this 
 commandment as explained by our Lord, it is not 
 to be denied, that the Sabbath is violated to an 
 alarming extent. And there is much reason to 
 fear, that this evil is increasing with the prosperity 
 of the country. The rapid growth of our cities 
 and villages the increase of luxury and wealth 
 the multiplication of canals, and stearn-boats, and 
 rail-ways the impatience of restraint and the 
 laxness of many professed observers of the Sab- 
 bath, all, all contribute to roll the tide of desecra- 
 tion over that holy day. The whole land groans
 
 142 OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 under this abomination. And if God is strict 
 to mark iniquity if he sent his chosen people 
 into a seventy years' captivity because they would 
 not keep the Sabbath, how much have we, as a 
 nation, to fear ! Nothing but timely repentance 
 and reformation can avert his fierce anger. O, 
 let the young men of our land lay this subject to 
 heart. They can do much to increase, and much 
 to prevent the profanation of the Sabbath. This 
 generation of youth have the question to decide, 
 whether the Sabbath shall be a day of amusement 
 and business, or whether it shall be devoted to its 
 proper objects. The responsibility on them is 
 tremendous. Save the Sabbath, then, from dese- 
 cration. Give it the whole weight of your influ- 
 ence. Remember that the day, which shall wit- 
 ness an universal prostration of the Sabbath, will 
 shine, though with dimmed lustre, on the cemetery 
 of our republican and Christian institutions and of 
 the hopes of the world.
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 
 MORALITY NECESSARY, BUT INSUFFI- 
 CIENT TO SALVATION. 
 
 MATT. six. 16 22. And behold, one came and said unto him, Good 
 Master, what good thing shall I do, that 1 may have eternal life ; And he 
 said unto him, Why callest thou me good ? there is none good but one, that 
 is, God ; but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith 
 unto him, Which > Jesus said, Thou shall do no murder, Thou shalt not 
 commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, 
 Honor thy father and thy mother, and, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy- 
 self. The young man saith unto him, All these have I kept from my youth 
 up ; what lack I yet > Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and 
 sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in 
 heaven ; and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that 
 saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. 
 
 IN all enlightened, well-regulated communi- 
 ties, morality is held to be essential to the highest 
 prosperity of man. Its praises are on every 
 tongue. It has been often recommended in the 
 most splendid creations of the poet's fancy, by the 
 didactic instructions of the theologian, and from 
 the chair of the professed teacher of moral science. 
 And yet, in common discourse, morality is a term
 
 144 MORALITY NECESSARY, BUT 
 
 of very indefinite signification. Customs and 
 practices, which some think are conformable to 
 the rules of morality, others deem to be palpable 
 violations of the same. This arises from the fact, 
 that men appeal to no common standard, to deter- 
 mine the moral quality of actions. Though there 
 is a standard of appeal, which is safe and decisive, 
 most men seem to be unwilling to bring their con- 
 duct to so high and holy a test. They are afraid 
 of the consequences. They anticipate an unfa- 
 vorable decision. 
 
 But such is the homage which vice pays to 
 virtue, that men are anxious to keep themselves 
 in countenance while they are living, if the Bible 
 be admitted to judge, in habits of fearful delin- 
 quency. Hence, rules of life and manners are 
 created, in different communities, by public opinion, 
 or, more properly speaking, by the prevailing taste 
 of those communities. These rules are purely 
 conventional ; and, formed under these circum- 
 stances, they are, almost of necessity, more lax 
 and accommodating than those contained in the 
 Scriptures of truth. It was in this way, that theft 
 came to be considered a virtue by the Spartans, 
 provided it was not discovered ; and that war was 
 regarded by the martial Romans, as not only 
 proper, but, in the highest degree, honorable.
 
 INSUFFICIENT TO SALVATION. 145 
 
 Hence it is, too, that the laws of chastity are so 
 commonly violated in France, and that duelling is 
 so frequently practiced in some parts of the United 
 States. According to these lax rules of judgment, 
 what is right in one country is wrong in another 
 what is honorable on one parallel of latitude, may 
 be dishonorable on the next. "Mountains inter- 
 posed " determine the quality of actions, and pro- 
 nounce the same actions, on the one side, wrong ; 
 and, on the other side, right. 
 
 It is evident, therefore, that, apart from the 
 Bible, the moral quality of actions can never be 
 determined. If the Bible be not the standard, 
 men have no standard. But, all believers in di- 
 vine revelation admit the Bible to be the standard, 
 by which all actions are to be tried. They hold 
 it to be an authoritative, infallible standard, and 
 one from which there lies no appeal. 
 
 The young man, whose history is given us in 
 the text, sustained a character, according to the 
 judgment of this world, of the most irreproacha- 
 ble morality. So far as his outward conduct was 
 concerned, he had kept all the commandments 
 from his youth up. But when Jesus, to test the 
 soundness of his morality by the rules of the 
 Scriptures, told him to go and sell all that he had 
 and give it to the poor to make an entire and un-
 
 146 MORALITY NECESSARY, BUT 
 
 conditional surrender of the world, as the indis- 
 pensable condition of discipleship and of admission 
 into heaven, he could not abide the trial ; " he 
 went away sorrowful, for he had great posses- 
 sions." 
 
 The history of this young man is substantially 
 that of many other youth. It is proposed to con- 
 sider the subject, suggested by his history, in its 
 application to the young people of this village ; a 
 village, which, after making all reasonable deduc- 
 tions on the score of local predilection, must be 
 admitted to hold, at least, as high a place on the 
 scale of morals, as other villages equally popu- 
 lous. 
 
 The general sentiment taught by the text is, 
 that strict morality is indispensable, but insufficient 
 to salvation. 
 
 The two parts of this proposition will be con- 
 sidered separately. 
 
 I. Strict morality is indispensable to salvation. 
 
 The term morality is here used in the popular 
 acceptation meaning just what it imports in com- 
 mon usage. Some men, in their zeal to enforce 
 the scriptural doctrine of salvation by grace alone, 
 have, by implication, communicated the idea, that 
 sound morals have but little connection with our 
 preparation for heaven. This idea, however, is
 
 INSUFFICIENT TO SALVATION. 147 
 
 wholly at variance with the preparation demanded. 
 Admitting, what is truly the fact, that vital piety 
 is the grand requisite for entrance into life, it by 
 no means follows, that strict morality is unneces- 
 sary or unimportant. Though the greater be in- 
 dispensable, the lesser may be equally so. Mo- 
 rality, in one sense, may be said to sustain very 
 much the same relation to religion, which a part 
 does to the whole ; and surely, if the whole, be 
 demanded, its parts, of course, are required. It 
 is altogether a delusive and dangerous impression, 
 that a man can give credible evidence of piety, 
 while his morals are questionable. What evidence 
 of personal holiness can he give, if he is seriously 
 deficient in sobriety, or honesty, or integrity, or 
 benevolence ? How can he substantiate his title 
 to heaven, if he exhibits habitual defects in the 
 social and mercantile virtues ? His pretensions to 
 piety rest on a slender basis indeed, if they are 
 not accredited by a life of consistent morality. 
 
 Antinomianism is as far removed from religion 
 on the one hand, as Arminianism is on the other. 
 While mere morality is utterly inadequate to save 
 the soul, good works are indispensable as the fruit 
 and evidence of religion in the heart. " What 
 doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he 
 hath faith, and have not works? can faith save
 
 148 MORALITY NECESSARY, BUT 
 
 him ? " " Whoso hath this world's goods, and 
 seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his 
 bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the 
 love of God in him ? " " If any man among you 
 seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, 
 but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is 
 vain." " For as the body without the spirit is 
 dead, so faith without works is dead also." Thus 
 emphatically do the inspired writers pronounce all 
 religious hopes to be vain, if they are not sup- 
 ported by a life of strict morality. But 
 
 II. The strictest morality of the world is en- 
 tirely insufficient to salvation. That it is sufficient, 
 is a very prevalent error ; and dangerous, just in 
 proportion to its prevalence. This branch of the 
 subject, therefore, requires to be treated more at 
 large. Some of the usages of society, on which 
 great reliance for salvation is frequently placed, 
 will be put to the test of the Scriptures, as that is 
 the only standard of appeal. 
 
 The scriptural rule of morality is summarily 
 announced in these two declarations ; " Thou 
 shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, 
 and thy neighbor as thyself." " All things what- 
 soever ye would that men should do unto you, do 
 ye even so to them ; for this is the law and the 
 prophets." As this rule of morality applies to a
 
 INSUFFICIENT TO SALVATION. 149 
 
 great variety of subjects and relations, I can, in 
 this lecture, show its application to only a few of 
 them. 
 
 1. Strict morality forbids us to injure others by 
 violating their right of property. That right 
 may be violated in three ways; by theft, robbery, 
 and fraud. Theft is the taking of the property 
 of others without their knowledge. But few in- 
 stances of theft on a large scale occur. There is, 
 in such cases, more danger of detection, and this 
 operates as a powerful preventive of theft. Most 
 of the thefts, which -are committed, consist in pil- 
 fering or purloining articles of small value. There 
 are probably more immoralities of this sort than 
 are commonly imagined, even in communities 
 which claim to be honest. Clerks, apprentices 
 and domestics frequently handle the property of 
 others, and are under strong temptations *to this 
 species of dishonesty. Nor is the moral character 
 of the most petty theft altered, by persuading our- 
 selves that the owner will never know it, or that 
 he will not care about it, or that he would have 
 no objection, or that he can afford to lose the 
 property. None of these excuses palliate, in the 
 slightest degree, the heinousness of the offence. 
 I put it to the consciences of the young, and ask, 
 whether any of you are guilty of such violations
 
 150 MORALITY NECESSARY, BUT 
 
 of the command, " Thou shall not steal." If you 
 are, " be sure your sin will find you out." Your 
 offences were committed not merely against the 
 injured individuals, but against society, against 
 conscience, against the moral law, against God; 
 and all are interested in bringing them to light. 
 Escape, therefore, is impossible. 
 
 Robbery is the taking of the property of another, 
 with his consent compulsorily obtained. The high- 
 wayman meets a traveller, and threatens him with 
 instant death, unless he surrenders his money. 
 Here, consent is obtained, but obtained at the point 
 of the bayonet, or the mouth of the pistol. This 
 is a high-handed offence against society, and, 
 under most governments, is capitally punished. 
 As this offence is comparatively infrequent, as it 
 is committed only by the most hardened despera- 
 does, and, as it should seem, they cannot hope for 
 salvation on the ground of their morality, it is un- 
 necessary to dwell on it at length. 
 
 The rule of morality, respecting the property 
 of others, is much more frequently violated by 
 fraud. Fraud is not so tangible a thing as theft 
 or robbery, it can be practiced in a greater variety 
 of forms, and is not so easily exposed. Hence, 
 the frequency of this species of immorality. 
 
 A man is guilty of fraud, when he sells an in-
 
 INSUFFICIENT TO SALVATION. 151 
 
 ferior article at the market price of good ones. 
 This is done by artfully magnifying the value of 
 the article. The seller knows that it is not as 
 good as the average quality of such articles. 
 Rather than sell it at its fair value, he tries various 
 methods to make the buyer think it as good as 
 articles of -that kind will average 5 and if he suc- 
 ceeds in disposing of it above its actual value, he 
 commits fraud upon the property of his neighbor ; 
 that is, he knowingly receives from him more than 
 an equivalent for the article sold. 
 
 Now, I ask, is not this species of fraud fre- 
 quently practiced, and practiced too without com- 
 punction, by men who hold a respectable standing 
 in society, and who would highly resent it if they 
 should be called immoral ? Such conduct may 
 be connived at by the lax maxims of society, but 
 it is pointedly condemned by the golden rule,- 1 - 
 " Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto 
 you, do ye even so to them." This law of re- 
 ciprocity between man and man exposes the deep 
 iniquity of such transactions, however customary 
 they may be in the high places of this world's 
 respectability. 
 
 A man is also guilty of fraud, who sells any 
 article above the market price. It is the common 
 understanding of mankind, that the market price
 
 J52 MORALITY NECESSARY, BUT 
 
 is the rule which determines the worth of an 
 article. Every seller takes pains to create the 
 expectation, that he will sell at the market price. 
 He would consider it an impeachment of his 
 character, were it asserted, that he is unwilling to 
 sell at that price. All this shows, that it is mor- 
 ally right to se}l at the market price, and at no 
 higher one. He, then, is guilty of fraud, who sells 
 above that price. Nor can the fraudulent character 
 of the sale be altered, by saying that there is no 
 market price, or that every man is bound to look 
 out for himself, or that the purchaser was not 
 obliged to buy. The guilt of fraud is upon the 
 seller, because he was anxious to have it under- 
 stood, that it is his rule to sell at the market price, 
 and because he refused to fulfill an expectation 
 which he created. 
 
 A man deals fraudulently, who induces others to 
 purchase by appealing to their hopes, fears or av- 
 arice. " This rule is violated when, in dealings 
 on the exchange, false information is circulated for 
 the purpose of raising or depressing the price of 
 stocks. It is violated by speculators, who monop- 
 olize an article to create a scarcity, and thus raise 
 the price while the supply is abundant. The case 
 is the same when a salesman looks upon a stranger 
 who enters his store, and deliberately calculates
 
 INSUFFICIENT TO SALVATION. 153 
 
 how he shall best influence, and excite, and mis- 
 lead his mind, so as to sell the greatest amount of 
 goods at the most exorbitant profit." * 
 
 Again, a man is guilty of fraud, who conceals 
 any defect, fault or blemish in an article which he 
 sells. When any article is offered for sale, the 
 presumption is that it is sound, or free from de- 
 fects. This is always the presumption, unless it 
 is known, that the seller does not guaranty its 
 soundness. Whenever, therefore, an article is 
 sold, under an expressed or implied guaranty that 
 it is perfect, and, at the same time, the seller 
 knows and conceals any defect in it, he is mani- 
 festly guilty of fraud. How often are horses and 
 cattle sold when their defects are carefully con- 
 cealed ; and wines and liquors adulterated and 
 sold as genuine ; and legal weight and measure 
 curtailed. These, and many similar frauds are 
 practiced to a wide and fearful extent, and prac- 
 ticed too by men, who claim to be strictly honest. 
 But, tested by the moral law, these practices are 
 found to be egregiously sinful. Is not such mo- 
 rality utterly insufficient to save the soul ? 
 
 But these remarks, which have been made re- 
 
 * Wayland's Elements of Moral Science ; a work, from 
 which a few of the principles in this part of the lecture are 
 taken. 
 
 11
 
 154 MORALITY NECESSARY, BUT 
 
 specting the seller, are equally applicable to the 
 buyer. Both parties are equally bound, by the 
 law of reciprocity, to the strictest integrity in their 
 pecuniary transactions. If the buyer uses any 
 unfair means to obtain an article for less than its 
 real value if he is unwilling to give the market 
 price, he is clearly guilty of fraudulent dealing. 
 He does not give an equivalent for the article 
 purchased. The law of morality lays under deep 
 condemnation the whole business, however com- 
 mon it may be, of depreciating articles which we 
 wish to purchase, of beating down and cheapening 
 their price. Such are the customs of society, that, 
 nearly every man, who has anything to sell, has a 
 number of prices for his article, and the buyer 
 deems it right to cheapen it to the lowest possible 
 point. All this is done every day by men who 
 profess to be moral, and who are hoping, on the 
 strength of their morality, to enter the kingdom of 
 God. 
 
 The iniquity of these modes of dealing, with 
 respect to either the buyer or the seller, is not, in 
 the slightest degree, mitigated, by saying that these 
 customs are universal, that they enter into the 
 very framework and texture of society, that no 
 business can be conducted without them, that 
 every body expects to deal in these ways, and
 
 INSUFFICIENT TO SALVATION. 155 
 
 that we cannot support our families, if we must 
 relinquish such methods of making a good bargain. 
 The question, in all such cases, is, not what is 
 politic according to the corrupt maxims of society, 
 but what is morally right. In all ethical inquiries, 
 the point to be ascertained is, what is right ; and 
 not what, in a pecuniary sense, is advantageous. 
 With respect to the customs adverted to, it is most 
 manifest, that the stamp of Jehovah's disapproba- 
 tion is imprinted on them all. Such morality is 
 therefore utterly inadequate to save the soul. 
 
 In the twenty-third chapter of Genesis, is an 
 account of Abraham's purchase of the field of 
 Machpelah, of Ephron the Hittite. In the whole 
 history of pecuniary transactions, perhaps there 
 cannot be found a finer example of genuine polite- 
 ness of noble generosity of uncorrupted sim- 
 plicity and of unimpeachable integrity than both 
 parties exhibited in that trade. I would earnestly 
 recommend the frequent perusal of the account of 
 that most honorable negotiation, as an antidote to 
 the low cunning, and over-reaching, and chicanery 
 of this trafficking age. 
 
 2. The moral law forbids us to injure the repu-* 
 tation of others. This rule is violated by unneces- 
 sarily giving publicity to their bad actions. If I 
 know that my neighbor has acted dishonestly, I
 
 156 MORALITY NECESSARY, BUT 
 
 am not therefore at liberty to speak of it, unless 
 the law of benevolence to individuals or to society 
 requires it. Many seem to desire to possess a 
 knowledge of all the bad actions of others, and to 
 report them without the least reserve. They 
 never seem so much in their element, as when 
 they are industriously engaged in collecting and 
 spreading such intelligence. Whether this dispo- 
 sition arises from a desire to gratify the malice of 
 the heart, or to be thought to possess greater 
 knowledge or greater virtue than others, it is man- 
 ifestly evil it is a flagrant violation of the law 
 " Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself." Few 
 sins are more common or more injurious than 
 slander. " The words of a tale-bearer are as 
 wounds." " Where there is no tale-bearer the 
 strife ceaseth." Mark Antony, it has been said, 
 tamed lions, and drove them harnessed to his 
 chariot through the streets of Rome. Had he 
 tamed his own tongue, it had been a greater 
 wonder still. " But the tongue can no man tame ; 
 it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. It is a 
 fire, a world of iniquity, it setteth on fire the 
 course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell." 
 Can it be possible that persons, who are habitually 
 given to slander, are fair candidates for heaven ? 
 Certainly not.
 
 INSUFFICIENT TO SALVATION. 157 
 
 The law of morality also forbids us to draw 
 general conclusions respecting the characters of 
 others from individual bad actions. A single act 
 is rarely decisive of character. A single act of 
 illiberality does not prove a man to be covetous. 
 A single act of unkindness does not prove a man a 
 monster. " How unjust, then, must it be, to pro- 
 claim a man as destitute of a whole class of virtues, 
 because of one failure in virtue. How much more 
 unjust, for one fault, to deny him all claim to any 
 virtue whatsoever." * 
 
 Again, this law is violated by imputing bad 
 motives to the actions of men. In some cases, the 
 nature of the action is such, that to presume a 
 good motive is impossible. But the rule requires 
 us always to presume a good motive where the 
 action is susceptible of one, and to assign no other 
 motive than that from which it professes to pro- 
 ceed. And yet, how often does the malignity 
 of the heart show itself, by indiscriminately 
 imputing bad motives to all the wrong actions 
 of men, and even by persisting in imputing such 
 motives, after they have been disclaimed. You 
 do not wish others to impute unworthy motives 
 to you, and " whatsoever ye would that men 
 
 * Elements of Moral Science.
 
 158 MORALITY NECESSARY, BUT 
 
 should do unto you, do ye even so to them ; 
 for this is the law and the prophets." 
 
 Applying the principles of the moral law to the 
 conversation of mankind, we see that no small part 
 of it is laid under the ban of its terrible condemna- 
 tion. No man, who is habitually guilty of the 
 practices above-mentioned, can safely regard him- 
 self as a candidate for heaven. 
 
 3. The moral law requires of us veracity, or a 
 strict regard to truth. " Thou shall not bear 
 false witness against thy neighbor." " Lying lips 
 are an abomination to the Lord." "All liars shall 
 have their part in the lake, that burns with fire 
 and brimstone." 
 
 The law of veracity is therefore violated when 
 we utter as truth, what we know to be false. This 
 is the boldest form in which the law of veracity is 
 broken, and yet it is often exhibited by men, who 
 would highly resent it, if they were told that their 
 word cannot be depended on, and who are trusting 
 in their morality for eternal life. To save their 
 reputation, or to make money, they will unblush- 
 ingly tell the most deliberate falsehoods. They 
 will positively assert that to be true, which they 
 know to be false, in the hope of relieving them- 
 selves of some foul imputation, or of disposing 
 of some article, which they are anxious to sell, or
 
 INSUFFICIENT TO SALVATION. 159 
 
 of obtaining one, which they very much want. 
 The simple statement of this practice is sufficient 
 to show its odiousness in the sight of a holy God, 
 and to demonstrate the entire unsoundness of that 
 man's hopes, who, while he is guilty of it, is reck- 
 oning on his moral life as the ground of his admis- 
 sion into heaven. 
 
 Another frequent breach of the law of veracity 
 consists in uttering the truth in such a way, as 
 conveys a false impression. This is done by ex- 
 aggerating, or by extenuating the facts in the case. 
 Doubtless this is not unfrequently done in courts 
 of justice. Under all the solemnities of an oath, 
 such a gloss or coloring is sometimes given to the 
 facts in the case, as conveys a false impression to 
 the minds of the court and jury. In common con- 
 versation too, facts are often stated in such a 
 hyperbolical way, that incorrect impressions are fre- 
 quently communicated. This is a very customary 
 mode of speech ; and yet it contains most of the 
 elements and guilt of more open falsehood, for no 
 man knows exactly how many grains of allowance 
 to make to the habit of dealing in hyperbole, and, 
 of course, his mind may be very injuriously influ- 
 enced. The law of veracity requires, in all cases, 
 the most simple, upright, unvarnished statement 
 of facts. The customs, just adverted to, are evi-
 
 160 MORALITY NECESSARY, BUT 
 
 dent violations of this law, and, in the sight of 
 God, are stamped with deeper iniquity than is 
 generally imagined. Habitual indulgence in them 
 must prejudice every title to heaven. 
 
 4. The scriptural rule of morality requires the 
 strictest chastity. There are certain offences 
 against the law of chastity, which, though they are* 
 not unfrequently practiced and connived at, are 
 nevertheless real violations of the seventh com- 
 mandment. Of this description, is the indulgence 
 of impure imaginations. Jesus Christ, the Great 
 Expounder of the moral law, has decided, that 
 " whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, 
 hath committed adultery with her already in his 
 heart." An impure look is therefore a gross vio- 
 lation of the divine law, and, unrepented of, will 
 prevent the salvation of the mental adulterer. 
 
 Of the same description, are all indulgencies in 
 lascivious conversation the reading of obscene 
 books self-pollution and the tempting of others 
 to lewdness. I refrain from pursuing this topic 
 further, and leave it to every person's conscience 
 to decide, to what extent he is guilty of violating 
 the law of chastity. Let every youth tremble, 
 lest, at the great day of trial, he be found guilty 
 of sins, of which " it is a shame even to speak ; " 
 and be consigned, with the multitude of the
 
 INSUFFICIENT TO SALVATION. 161 
 
 polluted, " to shame and everlasting contempt." 
 " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they," and 
 they only, " shall see God." 
 
 5. The scriptural law of morality requires the 
 strictest temperance. Such is the intoxicating and 
 poisonous nature of all alcoholic mixtures, as 
 proved by chemical analysis and experience, that 
 any use of them whatever, as a beverage, is now 
 known to be highly injurious to the bodies and the 
 souls of men. The importation, manufacture, 
 vending and drinking of intoxicating liquors have, 
 after the most mature examination, been pro- 
 nounced to be immoralities by nearly all the tem- 
 perance societies throughout Christendom, by a 
 large and most respectable part of the medical 
 faculty, and by numerous ecclesiastical bodies of 
 various religious denominations in different and 
 distant parts of the world. This decision of en- 
 lightened and widely extended public sentiment is 
 sustained and corroborated by the word of God. 
 It must therefore be regarded as immoral for any 
 man, with all this light on the subject, to continue 
 any longer in the importation, manufacture, sale 
 or consumption of alcoholic liquors as a drink. 
 The immediate relinquishment of these several 
 employments is imperatively demanded by the 
 law of morality. Continuance in them, after they
 
 162 MORALITY NECESSARY, BUT 
 
 are known to be of immoral tendency, is heinously 
 sinful. " To him that knovveth to do good, and 
 doeth it not, to him it is sin." If, therefore, it be 
 immoral to continue, in any of these ways, to pro- 
 mote intemperance, and if strict morality is an 
 indispensable prerequisite to entrance upon the 
 perfect purity of the celestial state, in what a fear- 
 ful position are all importers, manufacturers, vend- 
 ers and drinkers of intoxicating liquors placed ! 
 Who would be willing to put his soul in their soul's 
 stead ? Who is willing to take the risk they are 
 incurring, of drinking forever "the wine of the 
 fierceness of the wrath " of Almighty God, " pour- 
 ed out without mixture into the cup of his indig- 
 nation ? " 
 
 Such are some of the offences against the law 
 of God, of which multitudes are guilty, who claim 
 to lead a life of irreproachable morality, and who 
 regard such a life as a sure passport to heaven. It 
 is overwhelming to think, on what precarious 
 grounds they are building their immortal hopes. 
 From the slight examination which has now been 
 given of the subject, it is palpable as the sun in 
 heaven, that the strictest morality of the world is 
 utterly insufficient to save men. There are three 
 reasons why it is insufficient. 
 
 1. It is deficient in extent. The reason why
 
 INSUFFICIENT TO SALVATION. 163 
 
 many suppose themselves to be strictly moral is, 
 because they measure themselves by some other 
 standard than the law of God. That law takes 
 cognizance of the heart, as well as of the outward 
 act ; and, according to its irreversible decision, 
 every impure look is adultery, and every emotion 
 of anger towards our fellow men is murder. Now, 
 can the most self-complacent moralist lay his hand 
 on his heart and say, that he never entertained 
 one impure or angry feeling ? This, no man can 
 say with truth. If not, his morality, as the ground 
 of his justification, is worthless in the sight of a 
 holy God. He that offends in but one point, is 
 guilty of all. One breach of the law shows as 
 conclusively the principle of contempt in the 
 heart, aims as deadly a blow at the authority of 
 the Lawgiver, and is as utterly irremediable by the 
 offender, as a thousand offences. The best mo- 
 rality of the worldling is therefore utterly defective 
 in extent. It is not a compliance with all the 
 obligations imposed by the moral law. 
 
 But this is not the worst view of the case. As 
 a matter of fact, he stands guilty, not merely of 
 one violation of the law, nor even of a few but 
 of more violations of it than there are hairs on his 
 head, or stars in the canopy of night. Nor is this 
 mere conjecture or assertion ; but according to the
 
 164 MORALITY NECESSARY, BUT 
 
 Bible, it is plain, palpable, undeniable truth. 
 " Who then can . be saved ? " Not one, on the 
 ground of perfect compliance with the law of God. 
 Probably the young man, whose history is the 
 basis of this lecture, was as scrupulously moral as 
 any of you can claim to be, and yet he went away 
 from Jesus sorrowful, when the deficiencies of his 
 morality were exposed. You, too, may belong to 
 the " straitest sect " of mere moralists your char- 
 acter in the estimation of the world, may be unim- 
 peachable, while, in the estimate of the law of 
 God, you are deeply defective and corrupt. That 
 law addresses each of you, who is depending on his 
 morality for salvation, in these searching terms 
 " One thing thou lackest ; " " TEKEL, thou art 
 weighed in the balances, and art found wanting." 
 
 2. Mere worldly morality is defective in prin- 
 ciple. Inadequate as it is in degree, it is much 
 more seriously defective in motive. It is supremely 
 selfish. Unexceptionable as your conduct often is, 
 its supposed justificative power may be entirely 
 vitiated by the impurity of the motive from which 
 it springs. Let me illustrate this point by an ex- 
 ample. 
 
 A merchant in New York or Boston, invests all 
 and more than all his property in certain articles 
 of merchandise, sends them to the East Indies,
 
 INSUFFICIENT TO SALVATION. 165 
 
 and consigns them to the care of an agent or 
 factor whom he has never seen, and who is actu- 
 ated by the principles which generally regulate 
 commercial intercourse. That agent exchanges 
 the articles for such as the merchant ordered, the 
 return cargo arrives in safety, and the merchant 
 finds that he has made fifty thousand dollars by the 
 voyage. And all because that factor was an honest 
 man ; and though the merchant had never seen 
 him, and though the diameter of the globe was 
 between them, yet he dealt fairly and uprightly 
 by the consigner. Now, the point is, why was 
 he honest ? He may have been honest from a 
 holy regard to the law of God ; or, he may have 
 been honest from a natural regard to what is hon- 
 orable in commercial transactions ; or, he may 
 have been honest from the mere force of educa- 
 tion ; or, he may have been honest from a direct 
 regard to his own interest. If he had been dis- 
 honest, it would have injured his character, and 
 the consequence would be, that merchants will 
 cease to consign goods to his care, his business will 
 thus leave him, and he will be ruined. All the 
 motives to integrity above-mentioned, except the 
 first, may operate, and often do operate in men 
 who blaspheme the name, or even deny the very 
 existence of God. Now, if the integrity of the
 
 166 MORALITY NECESSARY, BUT 
 
 factor flowed from any other motive than a su- 
 preme regard to the divine law, it was utterly 
 unsound in principle. 
 
 Much of the morality we see around us every 
 day is equally defective. Some are honest ; others 
 are restrained from licentious practices j a third 
 class abandon the use of ardent spirits ; a fourth 
 relinquish profane swearing ; a fifth the habit of 
 gambling ; and a sixth, Sabbath-breaking, through 
 the influence of these vicious motives. The 
 leaven of selfishness impregnates and vitiates them 
 all. Indeed, there is nothing which is virtuous 
 but may be performed, and very often is performed 
 under the influence of no higher, purer motive 
 than a mere regard to one's own interest. This is 
 the fountain-head, from which issue all the streams 
 of worldly morality. Such morality is therefore 
 totally unsound in principle ; and all, who at death 
 rely upon it for salvation, will find that they have 
 built on the sand, and tremendous will be the de- 
 struction of their hopes. 
 
 3. The strictest morality of the world is insuffi- 
 cient to save, because it does not amount to a 
 change of the heart. " Except a man be born 
 again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." The 
 morality of the young man in the gospel was, ac- 
 cording to the judgment of this world, without a
 
 INSUFFICIENT TO SALVATION. 167 
 
 blemish; but "except your righteousness exceed 
 the righteousness " of that amiable, upright youth, 
 " you can, in no case, enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven." Moral as he was, he was not regener- 
 ate ; and, rather than' transfer his supreme affec- 
 tions from his possessions to Christ, " he went away- 
 sorrowful " and we hear of him no more. 
 
 Your morals, too, may be much purer than the 
 average morality which exists around you ; you 
 may be amiable, and temperate, and veracious 
 you may be punctual in meeting your pecuniary 
 engagements you may be upright in buying and 
 selling you may possess, in a very high degree, 
 the mercantile virtues and your " eye, even 
 turned on empty space, may beam keen with 
 honor;" and yet you need something more, you 
 need much more, you need a renovation of the 
 heart. Youth and others, whose moral habits are 
 generally correct, are extremely prone to depend 
 on them for salvation ; but never was dependence 
 more misplaced or more dangerous. You would not 
 think of erecting a dwelling-house for yourself on 
 the waves of the Atlantic, but such folly would be 
 wisdom, compared with building a hope of heaven 
 on your moral life. This is the danger to which 
 you are pre-eminently exposed. You may deem 
 yourselves quite safe, because your general charac-
 
 168 MORALITY NECESSARY, BUT 
 
 ter for morals so often receives the meed of praise. 
 I shall be the last to call in question the correctness 
 of your habits according to the common judgment 
 of mankind, but fidelity to your immortal interests 
 requires me to say, that, according to the law of 
 God, you all stand guilty of soul-destroying immo- 
 ralities. Your vaunted morals, are seriously defi- 
 cient in extent, defective in principle, and inade- 
 quate as a substitute for a renovation of the heart. 
 There is within you hostility to God, which the 
 most beautiful exterior can never hide from his 
 sight which no self-flattery can charm into love 
 and which can never be satisfied while he is on 
 the throne. That hostility must be annihilated by 
 the Holy Spirit, and repented of by yourselves, or 
 your salvation is hopeless. 
 
 My young friends, let your whole solicitude be 
 concentrated on this point. You probably have 
 serious moments, when your hopes, built on your 
 fancied goodness, totter, like the most stable edi- 
 fices by the rockings of an earthquake. You 
 shudder, as if the bottomless pit were opening her 
 mouth to receive you. Yield yourselves up to the 
 influence of such impressions. Feel your need of an 
 entire transformation of your moral temper. You 
 are guilty. You need an Almighty Saviour. You 
 need to be washed in his blood. You need a
 
 INSUFFICIENT TO SALVATION. 169 
 
 heart of supreme attachment to his person and 
 his cause. 
 
 " Talk they of morals ? O thou Bleeding Love, 
 Thou maker of new morals to mankind, 
 The grand morality is LOVE OF THEE." 
 
 12
 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 
 PERSONAL PIETY. 
 
 PROYERBS zxm. 26. My son, give me thy heart. 
 
 IN the last lecture, it was, I trust, conclusively 
 shown, that the strictest morality of the world is 
 insufficient to salvation. The conclusion to which 
 we were then conducted was, that an entire ren- 
 ovation of the heart is an indispensable prerequisite 
 to entrance into life. The vast importance of this 
 last topic demands your most serious consideration. 
 Wisdom, personating the Lord Jesus Christ, pre- 
 sents it distinctly before you all as individuals ; 
 " My son, give me thy heart." 
 
 It is a matter of devout satisfaction, that I ad- 
 dress not a few, who have already " given their 
 hearts " to the Redeemer. Their views of them- 
 selves, of God, of his government, his law, his 
 gospel, and of " the chief end of man " are so 
 altered as to prove, that the " eyes of their under-
 
 PERSONAL PIETY. 171 
 
 standings " have been " enlightened," and that 
 they are " renewed in the spirit of their minds." 
 All I have, at present, to say to this class of youth 
 is ; Resolve to make the highest possible attain- 
 ment in piety. Do all you can to bring others to 
 an experimental acquaintance with Jesus Christ. 
 Be faithful unto death, and you will receive crowns 
 of life. 
 
 This lecture will be addressed more particularly 
 to those youth, who have not yet complied with 
 the injunction of wisdom, and who have never 
 contemplated the subject of practical piety but at 
 a distance, and in the " dry light " of worldly 
 prosperity. 
 
 In soliciting your attention to the subject of 
 personal, vital religion, we are met at the outset 
 by certain obstacles, which, I fear, will defeat all 
 efforts to bring it near your hearts. It is a subject, 
 of which multitudes have no definite conceptions. 
 All the idea they have of religion is, that it is 
 something external, or something speculative. To 
 talk about the life of God in the soul, to describe 
 the emotions of experimental piety, is to use lan- 
 guage which is quite unmeaning. As it regards 
 conveying any definite conceptions to their minds, 
 we may nearly as well speak in an " unknown 
 tongue." Language, in this case, is not a vehicle 
 of thought.
 
 172 PERSONAL PIETY. 
 
 Before we enter upon the general subject before 
 us, it may be well, therefore, to point out the main 
 obstacles to a clear understanding of it. If we 
 cannot convey to the minds of the benighted and 
 ruined, a clear idea of their disease and of its rem- 
 edy, we may perhaps convince them that they are 
 diseased. If we cannot " pour eyesight " on their 
 eyes, it is possible that we may convince them 
 that they are blind. 
 
 J . One obstacle, which prevents the sinner from 
 perceiving the nature and importance of personal 
 piety, is an habitual reliance on his morality. 
 The moral youth trusts in his amiable temper, his 
 kind, sympathetic, generous disposition, and in 
 his freedom from open vice, and then asks, " Is 
 not this religion ? " His eye has been so long 
 placed on these praiseworthy qualities, and they 
 have become so magnified by habitual contempla- 
 tion, that it is impossible by human strength to 
 divert his attention from them as a ground of hope. 
 This is the only basis on which he is accustomed 
 to rest. To dislodge him from this position, 
 would be to wreck all his hopes of heaven, and 
 leave him he knows not where. Tell him that 
 religion consists in loving and in serving God, and 
 such is his want of sight that he supposes he has 
 been doing this all his life. Try to explain to
 
 PERSONAL PIETY. 173 
 
 him what it is to love God, but it is all unintelligi- 
 ble. Put in requisition all human ingenuity and 
 skill to convey to his mind the simple idea of 
 holiness of heart, but he obtains no distinct view 
 of anything beyond an irreproachable morality. 
 He reverts to that as invariably as the needle 
 points to the pole. But 
 
 2. The principal impediment to a clear under- 
 standing of the nature of experimental religion, is 
 an obtuseness of the moral perceptions. " Light 
 has come into the world, but men love darkness 
 rather than light, because their deeds are evil." 
 " The natural man receiveth not the things of the 
 Spirit of God ; for they are foolishness unto him ; 
 neither can he know them, because they are spir- 
 itually discerned." There is a difficulty, then, in 
 understanding the nature of vital piety, arising 
 from the blinding influence of sin. There is light 
 enough it is poured around men with noontide 
 effulgence, but it is in vain because there is no 
 spiritual perception. The blind man walks abroad 
 amid the dazzling splendors of the meridian sun, 
 but all is dark to him as midnight, because he has 
 not the organs of vision. The impenitent sinner 
 labors under a similar difficulty in a moral sense. 
 The only difference is, in the first case, the diffi- 
 culty is a physical one, and one, over which the
 
 174 PERSONAL PIETY. 
 
 blind man has no control; in the other, it is purely 
 a voluntary one, and is pertinaciously cherished. 
 Sinners " have eyes, but they see not, ears have 
 they, but they hear not, neither do they under- 
 stand." We may display before them the living 
 beauties of Christianity, and they see in them 
 neither form nor comeliness. We may strike the 
 notes of David's lyre, and no holy thrills are felt 
 within. We may prove, with the demonstration 
 of Paul, the great reality of communion with God, 
 but the argument does not compel the credence of 
 the heart. Now this GREAT FACT in every sinner's 
 moral condition, is one which should fill him with 
 alarm. Is he walking thoughtlessly on the edge 
 of a precipice ? Yes. Does he see his danger ? 
 But very dimly. Is he liable every moment to 
 sink into the pit, which burns with fire and brim- 
 stone ? He is. Does he see his exposure ? 
 Scarcely at all. There is such an obtuseness of 
 moral perception, that sights, which make devils 
 tremble, awaken but little if any concern. 
 
 This obtuseness of moral vision is created by 
 the unholy state of the affections. There is in the 
 heart, not only no predisposition to understand the 
 nature and admit the claims of vital religion, but an 
 inveterate aversion to them. 
 
 A right state of the affections, is therefore of
 
 PERSONAL PIETY. 175 
 
 the very first importance, as it regards a proper 
 appreciation of divine things. Christianity requires 
 " experimental conditions for the apprehension of 
 its truth and evidence. Here, knowledge and 
 insight are conditioned by the moral and practical 
 state of the percipient. Christianity is a remedy 
 for a diseased spiritual state, and must be taken 
 before its efficacy can be truly seen and known." i 
 A practical trial of Christianity is therefore indis- 
 pensable to all satisfying insight of its nature. But, 
 in the impenitent sinner's mind, the element of 
 connection with holiness does not exist. In the 
 language of the profound Pascal, " God alone can 
 connect divine things with the soul. It is His 
 ordination that they should enter from the heart 
 into the mind, and not from the mind into the 
 heart. Hence, while in order to love human 
 things they must be known, we must love divine 
 things in order to know them." In like manner 
 St. Anselm observes, " I do not seek to under- 
 stand in order that I may believe, but I believe in 
 order that I may understand. For he who has 
 not believed, cannot have experienced, and he 
 who has not experienced, cannot understand." 
 This doubtless sounds strange and mystical to 
 many minds, but Christ taught the same truth 
 * Literary and Theological Review, Vol. I. No. III.
 
 176 PERSONAL PIETY. 
 
 when he said, " If any man will do his will, he 
 shall know of the doctrine." " Whosoever shall 
 not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, 
 shall in no wise enter therein." 
 
 The only way then to understand the nature of 
 vital religion is to embrace it. It must be a matter, 
 not of speculation, but of actual experience. Our 
 knowledge of the natural world even is principally 
 gained by experiment. All the discoveries in 
 chemistry and natural philosophy are the results 
 of experiment. In like manner, if you would un- 
 derstand what genuine piety is, you must give it 
 the trial of inward experiment, by giving your 
 whole heart to God. Love God love God, and 
 then you will understand. Then, the " light of 
 the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus 
 Christ " will shine upon you in full-orbed splen- 
 dors ; and though the light of the moon should be 
 as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun 
 seven fold, yet the light of GOD'S COUNTENANCE 
 will eclipse the whole. 
 
 Do you not then feel that you need something 
 more to save you than you have yet experienced ? 
 Have you never met with some Christians, whose 
 heavenly conversation, whose holy joys and sor- 
 rows, whose lively hopes and anticipations, whose 
 deadness to the world and faith in God told you,
 
 PERSONAL PIETY. 177 
 
 that they knew something about religion beyond 
 what you have ever felt ? Say not that they 
 were persons of weak minds, and that their supe- 
 rior experience was nothing but enthusiasm. 
 What if it should turn out, at the day of judgment, 
 that their experience is the only kind that can 
 save ? What if it should then appear, that their 
 peculiar feelings were the elementary feelings of 
 heaven, and that the most you have ever felt ab- 
 solutely requires your consignment to hell ? What 
 if it should then appear, that they are right, and 
 you wrong? Be cautious, then, in stigmatizing 
 their experience as fanatical. Having never felt 
 the same, you are obviously unqualified to judge. 
 Instead of flippantly pronouncing their experience 
 delusion, humble your own understandings and 
 hearts to a meek and cordial reception of the 
 gospel; embrace the Saviour they have embraced; 
 experience what they have experienced ; and I 
 might risk the universe, did I possess it, on the 
 assertion, that you will change your opinion ; and 
 will exclaim, with the raptures of the new-born 
 soul, " If this be delusion, let me be deluded. I 
 can well afford to be called enthusiastic myself. I 
 know in whom I have believed. Jesus is mine 
 and I am His, and that is enough." 
 
 If the conviction has fastened itself on your
 
 178 PERSONAL PIETY. 
 
 minds, that, after all your prepossessions to the 
 contrary, vital religion may be a reality, we are 
 prepared to proceed to a more particular considera- 
 tion of the subject itself. 
 
 My object is to exhibit 
 
 Its nature, 
 
 Its necessity, and 
 
 The motives which should induce you immedi- 
 ately to embrace it. 
 
 I. The nature of vital piety. " My son, give 
 me thy heart" Vital religion consists in an entire 
 change of the heart. It consists in giving the 
 affections supremely to God, and subordinately to 
 man. It is a practical compliance with the requi- 
 sitions of the moral law, " Thou shall love the 
 Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neigh- 
 bor as thyself." I know not how I can better 
 illustrate the nature of this great and indispensable 
 moral change, than by citing some examples. And 
 the cases 1 will produce, shall be those of persons 
 distinguished for soundness of mind, and for abhor- 
 rence of every thing which is enthusiastical. 
 
 The case of PRESIDENT EDWARDS, a man of 
 gigantic intellectual strength, admirably illustrates 
 the nature of this change. " From my childhood 
 up," says he, " my mind had been full of objec- 
 tions against the doctrine of God's sovereignty, in
 
 PERSONAL PIETY. 179 
 
 choosins; whom he would to eternal life, and re- 
 
 O 
 
 jecting whom he pleased ; leaving them eternally 
 to perish. It used to appear like a horrible doc- 
 trine to me. But I rememher the time very well, 
 when I seemed to be convinced and fully satisfied 
 as to the sovereignty of God, and his justice in 
 thus eternally disposing of men, according to his 
 sovereign pleasure. 
 
 " The first instance that I remember of that 
 sort of inward sweet delight in God and divine 
 things that I have lived much in since, was on 
 reading these words, ' Now unto the King eternal, 
 immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor 
 and glory forever and ever, AmenS As I read 
 these words, there came into my soul, and was as 
 it were diffused through it, a sense of the GLORY 
 of the Divine Being ; a new sense, quite different 
 from any thing I ever experienced before. The 
 sense I had of divine things would often) of a sud- 
 den, kindle up, as it were, a sweet burning in my 
 heart ; an ardor of soul, that I know not how to 
 express. After this, my sense of divine things 
 gradually increased, and became more and more 
 lively, and had more of that inward sweetness. 
 The appearance of every thing was altered. God's 
 excellency, his wisdom, his purity and love seemed 
 to appear in everything ; in the sun, moon, and
 
 180 PERSONAL PIETY. 
 
 stars ; in the clouds and blue sky ; in the grass, 
 flowers, trees ; in the water and all nature. I 
 spent most of my time in thinking of divine things, 
 year after year ; often walking alone in the woods 
 and solitary places for meditation, prayer and con- 
 verse with God." 
 
 Take the case of COWPER, the poet. Describ- 
 ing the change in his mind, he remarks, " I found 
 the cloud of horror, which had so long hung over 
 me, was every moment passing away ; and every 
 moment came fraught with hope. The happy 
 period, which was to shake off my fetters, and 
 afford me a clear opening of the free mercy of 
 God in Christ Jesus, was now arrived. I flung 
 myself into a chair near the window, and seeing a 
 Bible there, ventured once more to apply to it for 
 comfort and instruction. The first verse I saw 
 was the 25th of the third chapter of Romans ; 
 ( Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation 
 through faith in his blood, to declare his righteous- 
 ness for the remission of sins that are past, through 
 the forbearance of God.'' Immediately I received 
 strength to believe, and the full beams of the Sun 
 of Righteousness shone upon me. I perceived 
 the sufficiency of the atonement he had made, my 
 pardon sealed in his blood, and all the fullness and
 
 PERSONAL PIETY. 181 
 
 completeness of his justification. In a moment I 
 believed and received the gospel. 
 
 " Unless the Almighty arm had been under me, 
 I think I should have died with gratitude and joy. 
 My eyes filled with tears, and my voice choked 
 with transport. 1 could only look up to heaven 
 in silent fear, overwhelmed with love and wonder. 
 To rejoice day and night was all my employment. 
 Too happy to sleep much, I thought it was but 
 lost time that was spent in slumber." 
 
 ANDREW FULLER, in his youth, had frequent 
 convictions of sin. " One morning," says he, " I 
 think in November, 1769, I walked out by myself 
 with an unusual load of guilt upon my conscience. 
 The remembrance of my sin, the breach of my 
 vows, and the shocking termination of my former 
 hopes and affections, all uniting together, formed 
 a burden which I knew not how to bear. The 
 reproaches of a guilty conscience seemed like the 
 gnawing worm of hell. I do not write the lan- 
 guage of exaggeration. I now know that the 
 sense I then had of the evil of sin, and of the 
 wrath of God, was very far short of the truth j 
 but yet it seemed more than I was able to sustain. 
 I saw that God would be perfectly just in sending 
 me to hell, and that to hell I must go, unless I 
 were saved of mere grace, and as it were in spite
 
 182 PERSONAL PIETY. 
 
 of myself. In this state of mind, I thought of the 
 resolution of Job, ' Though he slay me, yet will I 
 trust in him.' I paused, and repeated the words 
 over and over. Each repetition seemed to kindle 
 a ray of hope, mixed with a determination, if I 
 might, to cast my perishing soul upon the Lord 
 Jesus Christ for salvation, to be both pardoned 
 and purified. I now found rest to my troubled 
 soul." 
 
 " SAMUEL J. MILLS," says his biographer, "was 
 one of the most extraordinary characters America 
 has produced. When about fifteen years of age, 
 his attention was specially directed to the great 
 concerns of his soul. For two full years, he con- 
 tinued in a state of anxiety, quarreling with the 
 sovereignty of God, and often wishing that he had 
 never been born. One morning, as he was about 
 to leave home, to return to school in a neighboring 
 town, his pious mother took an opportunity of in- 
 quiring into the state of his mind, and begged him 
 to make an ingenuous disclosure of his feelings. 
 
 " For a moment he was silent, and wept ; but 
 his heart was too full long to suppress the emotions 
 produced by so affecting a request. He raised 
 his head, and with eyes streaming with tears, ex- 
 claimed, ' O that I had never been born ! O that 
 I had never been born ! For two years I have
 
 PERSONAL PIETY. 183 
 
 been sorry God ever made me.' What reply 
 could such a mother make to such a disclosure ? 
 It was given her in that same hour what she should 
 speak : ' My son,' said she, ' you are born, and 
 you can never throw off your existence, nor your 
 everlasting accountability for all your conduct.' 
 This heavy thought was like a dagger to his soul. 
 His mother expressed her fears that he had never 
 thoroughly seen the evil of his own heart; to 
 which he ventured to reply, ' / have seen to the 
 very bottom of hell.' 
 
 " With this state of mind, he took a melancholy 
 leave of his parents for the winter ; and it was a 
 day never to be forgotten in the life of Mr. Mills, 
 nor in our recollection of those splendid schemes 
 of benevolence, which characterized his subsequent 
 history, and to which the events of this day bore 
 so intimate a relation. What took place under his 
 father's roof may be easily conjectured ; a scene, 
 apparently of very little moment; a scene, the 
 world would scarcely deign to look at, but one on 
 which God looks down with smiles ; a scene in 
 which no prince or princess is the actor, but one 
 which princes might come down from their thrones 
 to emulate, a devout and humble woman, wrest- 
 ling with the Angel of the covenant, and as a 
 prince obtaining power to prevail !
 
 184 PERSONAL PIETY. 
 
 " The farewell to his mother drove her to her 
 knees. There is such a thing as special faith in 
 prayer. It was such to this dear saint, when she 
 went to plead for her poor son. She felt his sor- 
 rows and her own ; and God was pleased to show 
 her that all her help was in him. She did not 
 leave her closet, till she found the full relief she 
 sought, and till her mind was confidently assured 
 that God would remember mercy for her child. 
 On that very morning, it pleased the Holy Ghost, 
 as she afterwards ascertained, to knock off the 
 chains from this unhappy prisoner, and introduce 
 him into the liberty of the sons of God. He had 
 not gone far, before he had such a view of the 
 perfections of God, that he wondered he had never 
 seen their beauty and glory before. There was 
 nothing in God now which distressed him. He 
 had lost all his opposition to the divine sovereignty, 
 and such were his views of this adorable perfection, 
 that he could not refrain from exclaiming, ' O glo- 
 rious sovereignty ! O glorious sovereignty ! ' He 
 retired a small distance into the woods, that he 
 might be the more at liberty to contemplate the 
 character of God, but here he saw so much of 
 God, that his mind was almost lost in the over- 
 whelming manifestation. The scene was alto- 
 gether new. There was a wonderful change
 
 
 PERSONAL PIETY. 185 
 
 either in God, or in him, and he knew it was in 
 himself. Every thing was gilded with light and 
 glory ; and now and then, as he gazed at the 
 splendor and majesty of the divine character, he 
 would still exclaim, ' O glorious sovereignty.' 
 Such is the nature of genuine religion." 
 
 I might extend this list of examples indefinitely; 
 but let me now ask you, my youthful hearers, 
 have you ever experienced anything of the kind ? 
 I do not ask, whether your experience has been as 
 marked as those of the individuals just mentioned ; 
 but have you had any of their new and delightful 
 views of God, and any of their deep self-abase- 
 ment for sin ? 
 
 Let us now consider, 
 
 II. The necessity of this great moral change. 
 
 I argue its necessity from the elements of eternal 
 wretchedness and ruin, which exist in your own 
 bosoms. The moral feelings of every unrenewed 
 ' sinner are utterly wrong. They contain the prin- 
 ciple of rebellion against God. This principle 
 may be active or it may be dormant, but whether 
 active or dormant, it truly exists in every unhum- 
 bled heart. God has only to put you into circum- 
 stances which will powerfully excite and elicit 
 your moral feelings, (and he can do it in the 
 twinkling of an eye,) and that principle of re- 
 13
 
 186 PERSONAL PIETY. 
 
 bellion will assume a most palpable and terrible 
 activity. Should He take off restraint, and let 
 loose your conscience upon you, your heart would 
 be hell in miniature. You would exclaim with 
 Milton's fiend ; 
 
 " Me miserable ! which way shall I fly 
 Infinite wrath, and infinite despair ? 
 Which way I fly is Hell ; myself am Hell; 
 And, in the lowest deep, a lower deep 
 Still threatening to devour me, opens wide." 
 
 The elements of perdition exist then in every 
 unsanctified heart. 
 
 Now I urge the necessity of a change of your 
 hearts on the ground that you are sentient beings, 
 capable of suffering and enjoying beyond what 
 flesh and blood can sustain. I urge it on the 
 ground that you are immortal beings, and, as such, 
 must suffer or enjoy the extremes of wo or bliss 
 forever. I urge it on the ground that you are 
 accountable beings, and have no right to destroy 
 yourselves. The suicide has no right to take his 
 own life ; and you have no right to "destroy both 
 soul and body in hell." You pervert the great 
 end of your creation, if you do not become Chris- 
 tians. You destroy an amount of happiness which 
 no created mind can estimate, if you continue to 
 choose the way to death.
 
 PERSONAL PIETY. 187 
 
 I beseech you, then, to be immediately recon- 
 ciled to God, by that smothered principle of evil 
 in your own bosoms, which, if death should take 
 place, will instantly ignite and 
 
 " out-burn Vesuvius." 
 
 Again, I argue the necessity of a radical change 
 of heart from the fact, that all real Christians 
 ascribe their hopes entirely to such a change in 
 themselves. There are no real Christians between 
 the poles but attribute their hopes of heaven to a 
 renovation of the heart. Pious ancestry, intellect- 
 ual refinement, baptism, honesty, generosity, kind- 
 ness, convictions, prayers, tears, they feel to be 
 valueless as grounds of hope. They know that 
 their feelings before regeneration partook, in no 
 degree, of that " holiness, without which no man 
 can see the Lord." Their hearts have been 
 transformed by "the renewing of the Holy Ghost," 
 and it is on this ground only, that they permit 
 themselves to hope for heaven. Their deliberate 
 judgment, arising from their own experience, is, 
 that no person can safely hope for salvation who 
 has not been born again. 
 
 Now, why will you not believe their testimony? 
 They are credible witnesses. You would believe 
 them on any other subject. Why not on this ?
 
 188 PERSONAL PIETY. 
 
 If actual experience of any fact affords any advan- 
 tages for judging and adds any weight to judgment, 
 then the testimony of Christians to the necessity 
 of regeneration, ought, on every principle of fair 
 reasoning, to be admitted as decisive. " Marvel 
 not," then, " that I say unto you, ye must be born 
 again." 
 
 This necessity further appears from the nature 
 of heavenly happiness. All the happiness of 
 heaven consists in its holiness. The thoughts, 
 affections and employments of all its inhabitants 
 are perfectly holy. The honors, pleasures and 
 emoluments of this world have no existence there. 
 No glorified spirit would consent to lose a ray of 
 the Redeemer's countenance for all the fame, and 
 wealth, and pleasure of this lower world. 
 
 Now, who does not see the utter incompatibility 
 of the feelings of the unrenewed heart with those 
 which reign in heaven ? Who does not see that, 
 with such a heart, heaven cannot be enjoyed ? 
 Indeed, who does not see that, with such a heart, 
 heaven must be abhorred ? The element of con- 
 nection between the two things does not exist ; 
 but on the contrary, there is between them a prin- 
 ciple of violent and eternal repellency. 
 
 And yet, the unconverted sinner hopes -to go to 
 heaven. He may imagine a heaven above the
 
 PERSONAL PIETY. 189 
 
 sky which will suit the feelings of his heart; but it 
 is as unlike the heaven of the Bible, as a Grecian 
 elysium or a Mohammedan paradise. The felicity 
 of a holy heaven can never be enjoyed by an 
 unholy heart. Hence, the necessity of a total 
 change in the moral temper of the heart. 
 
 But Jesus Christ has settled the point, that this 
 change is indispensable to salvation. " Verily, 
 verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born 
 again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." 
 " Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man 
 be born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot 
 enter into the kingdom of God." " Verily I say 
 unto you, except ye be converted, and become as 
 little children, ye shall riot enter into the kingdom 
 of heaven." " And there shall in no wise enter 
 into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever 
 worketh abomination, or maketh a lie : but they 
 which are written in the Lamb's book of life." 
 
 Here, then, I rest the argument for the neces- 
 sity of a change of the heart. All the experience 
 of men, in three worlds, proves it ; and He, who 
 hath the " keys of the kingdom of heaven," de- 
 mands the change as the condition of admittance. 
 
 III. The motives, which should induce you to 
 become Christians, are numerous and cogent. 
 But few of them can now be presented.
 
 190 PERSONAL PIETY. 
 
 1. The unparalleled importance of the subject 
 itself should move you to action. If a change of 
 heart be necessary to salvation, who can be in- 
 different respecting it f This congregation of im- 
 mortal youth, sitting in judgment on the question, 
 whether they will give their hearts to Christ or 
 not, is a spectacle which interests the universe. 
 The question you are to decide is, whether you 
 will be saved or damned ; and it is a question of 
 such overwhelming import, that it " might con- 
 vulse the abyss and move the thrones of heaven." 
 A question, involving such wide and interminable 
 extremes, can be pondered and decided only 
 while you are in this world of probation. The 
 question, in its importance, admits of no parallel ; 
 for there are no such enrapturing ecstacies as those 
 of heaven, and no such insupportable despair as 
 that of hell. 
 
 And can it be, my young .friends, that you are 
 to-day settling a question which involves so much ? 
 Can it be, that the lapse of one more hour may 
 determine it forever ? I beseech you, then, to 
 decide for God and for heaven. Throw not away 
 your souls. Put not away from you everlasting 
 life. Choose not for your portion everlasting 
 death. Decide right, and decide now. 
 
 2. The uncertainty and brevity of life should
 
 PERSONAL PIETY. 191 
 
 excite you to instant duty. " What is your life ? 
 It is even a vapor, which appeareth for a little 
 time, and then vanisheth away." Your " days 
 are swifter than a post ; " they are like " the 
 weaver's shuttle." Yesterday, perhaps, you wove 
 your winding-sheet ; to-day, insidious disease may 
 be finding the way to your heart-strings. Your 
 companions, too, are falling around you, like the ., 
 leaves of autumn. Summons after summons, like 
 successive peak of thunder, is sounding in your 
 ears. Think not that " all are mortal but your- 
 selves." Very shortly your turn will come. Pre- 
 pared or unprepared, there will be no respite. 
 
 Now, by the utter uncertainty and extreme 
 brevity of life, I pray you to " prepare to meet 
 your God." You know not what a day may bring 
 forth. You have no lease of life for an hour or 
 moment. 
 
 " The spider's most attenuated thread 
 Is cord, is CABLE to man's tender tie 
 On earthly bliss ; it breaks at every breeze." 
 
 O, the superlative folly of that youth, who pro- 
 crastinates repentance ! " Turn ye, turn ye, for 
 why will ye die ? " 
 
 3. Your peace of conscience requires immediate 
 reconciliation to God. That person must have
 
 192 PERSONAL PIETY. 
 
 very little knowledge of himself and of divine 
 truth, or must be given over to hardness of heart, 
 who feels no compunctious visitings while living in 
 sin. IVJost youth, who have been religiously ed- 
 ucated, are much under the influence of conscience. 
 It often fills them with disquietude and alarm. 
 " The wicked flee when no man pursueth." 
 
 " Guiltiness will speak, though tongues were out of use." 
 
 The bosom of many a sober, moral youth is 
 
 often the theatre of any thing but repose. " The 
 
 wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot 
 
 rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There 
 
 is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." 
 
 Here then is a mirror, in which you may look 
 far into your own heart, and see the mingling 
 elements of that storm which sometimes rages 
 there. How dire the wreck of serenity and joy ! 
 How irksome, and restless, and agitated is all 
 within ! And can you be content to writhe all 
 your life under the dagger of remorse ? Do not 
 the chills of despair, like the waves of the sea, 
 chase one another over your frames, when you 
 think of your present and prospective condition ? 
 In some paroxysms of mental agony, is not the 
 inquiry extorted, " What must I do to be saved ? " 
 I answer, You must be reconciled to God. This 
 war in your conscience is a war with your Maker.
 
 PERSONAL PIETY. 193 
 
 You must submit or perish. You must throw 
 down the weapons of your rebellion, and become 
 the cordial subjects of the Prince of peace, or all 
 the attributes of the OMNIPOTENT are pledged for 
 your destruction. 
 
 I will plead with you to become Christians by 
 one motive more. 
 
 4. You are in danger of grieving the Holy 
 Spirit by delay. Jehovah says, " My Spirit shall 
 not always strive with man." There is a limit 
 beyond which the Holy Spirit will strive with you 
 no more. You are dependent on his regenerating 
 influences for salvation. Will you then trifle on, 
 till you pass that limit where those influences will 
 forever cease ? Perhaps you are this moment 
 nearing that line. Perhaps, this moment, angels 
 and devils are gathering round, anxious for the re- 
 sult. Trepidation may be felt in other worlds for 
 the decision you are about to make. 
 
 Immortal youth ! pause and consider. Take 
 not another step in the road to perdition. Is not 
 the Spirit of God now moving on your hearts ? 
 Do you say, that you know not whether you ever 
 felt his operations ? 
 
 " Sinner, hath not a voice within, 
 
 Oft whispered to thy secret soul, 
 Urg'd thee to leave the ways of sin, 
 And yield thy heart to God's control ?
 
 194 PERSONAL PIETY. 
 
 Hath nothing met thee in the path 
 
 Of worldliness and vanity, 
 And pointed to the coining wrath, 
 
 And warn'd thee from that wrath to flee? 
 
 Sinner, it was a heavenly voice, 
 
 It was the Spirit's gracious call ; 
 It bade thee make the better choice 
 
 And haste to seek in Christ thine all." 
 
 Perhaps his last call is now sounding in the 
 chambers of your conscience. Listen believe 
 give your hearts to -Jesus, and you will soon find 
 yourselves in a new world. The heavens and 
 the earth will be gilded with the glory of God. 
 Your souls will beat in delightful unison with the 
 symphonies of his holy creation, and you will 
 then begin to live. 
 
 See the spirit and conduct of the newly con- 
 verted youth. 
 
 " He walks with God, 
 Surveys far on the endless line of life ; 
 Values his soul ; thinks of eternity ; 
 Both world's considers, and provides for both ; 
 With reason's eye his passions guards ; abstains 
 From evil ; lives on hope, on hope, the fruit 
 Of faith ; looks upward ; purifies his soul ; 
 Expands his wings, and mounts into the sky ; 
 Passes the sun, and gains his father's house, 
 And drinks with angels from the fount of bliss."
 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 LIFE OF ACTIVE USEFULNESS. 
 
 2 COR. v. 15. And he died for all, that they which live, should not hence- 
 forth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose 
 again. 
 
 " WHAT is the chief end of man ? Man's 
 chief end is to glorify God, and enjoy him for- 
 ever." This noble sentiment ought not only to 
 be committed to memory by every youth, but to 
 be indelibly engraven on his heart. It is melan- 
 choly to notice, what a wide waste of talent, and 
 intelligence, and influence, most men in all ages 
 have been guilty of, by not understanding and 
 pursuing the great and only proper object of life. 
 If the " chief end of man," or the great object of 
 life, be to " glorify God " and to become pre- 
 pared to " enjoy him forever," then the conduct 
 of a vast majority of mankind is stamped with 
 superlative folly. For it is most manifest, that, 
 not only the Cains, and the Sauls, and the Jero-
 
 196 LIFE OF 
 
 boams, and Pilates, and Alexanders, and Attilas, 
 and Ca3sars, and Napoleons, and Humes, and 
 Voltaires, and Robespierres, but thousands of mil- 
 lions of others, less conspicuous for iniquity, have 
 not made it their supreme object to " please 
 God," and to "enjoy him" here and hereafter. 
 Indeed, the great mass of men seem to suppose, 
 that they were sent into the world merely to ac- 
 cumulate property, to gain renown, and to enjoy 
 sensual pleasure. Their objects are purely selfish. 
 They are living " unto themselves." They seem 
 to have no higher views of the object of life, than 
 the gratification of self, in some of its forms. The 
 horizon of their views is narrowed down to the 
 diminutive circumference of their own selfish in- 
 terests. 
 
 It is perfectly evident from the Scriptures, that 
 the indulgence of such contracted notions of the 
 great end of our being, is a perversion of the 
 object for which our Creator made us. There is 
 perhaps nothing more important to persons just 
 entering upon active life, than distinctly to under- 
 stand the reason why they were made. If they 
 were made merely to eat and to drink, and to rise 
 up to play, if they were created merely to deco- 
 rate their bodies in the most fashionable style, 
 and live in the richest palaces, and roll in the
 
 ACTIVE USEFULNESS. 197 
 
 most splendid equipages, and to be deemed 
 wealthier and more honorable than others, then 
 they should know it. But if they were created 
 for a far higher and nobler end ; if they are heirs 
 of immortality ; if they sustain, and ever will sus- 
 tain the most important relations to all intelligent 
 beings and to God, then, they should know that. 
 
 In bringing to a close the Course of Lectures, to 
 which you have listened with so much candor and 
 indulgence, and I would fain hope not entirely 
 without profit, I know not what can be more ap- 
 propriate, than to recommend to you a 
 
 LlFE OF ACTIVE USEFULNESS. 
 
 Such a life will be a fulfilment of the great 
 design of your creation. All the preceding lec- 
 tures have been designed to bear upon this point. 
 It has been my purpose to throw out such sug- 
 gestions for your consideration, as would tend to 
 form your characters for the highest possible 
 degree of usefulness. Particularly has it been 
 desired, to induce you all, without one exception, 
 to become Christians ; for the " Christian is the 
 highest style of man " highest in excellence, 
 highest in usefulness, and reflects the brightest 
 glory upon your Creator and Redeemer. " He 
 died for all, that they which live, should not
 
 198 LIFE OF 
 
 henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him 
 which died for them and rose again." 
 
 According to the text, your highest usefulness 
 in life will consist in living unto Christ in pro- 
 moting the great interests of his kingdom in the 
 world. Your attention is therefore invited 
 
 To what constitutes the basis of the greatest 
 usefulness ; 
 
 To your obligations to live such a life ; 
 
 To the encouragements to do it ; and 
 
 To the results of supreme devotedness to 
 Christ. 
 
 I. What constitutes the basis of the greatest 
 usefulness in life ? 
 
 Good native and acquired abilities are highly 
 necessary. By good natural abilities, I mean 
 just such as almost every youth possesses. That 
 respectable measure of talent, which is generally 
 enjoyed, is far more useful than occasional prodi- 
 gies of genius. Splendid genius falls to the lot 
 of but few, and is rarely distinguished for useful- 
 ness, because it is often associated with some 
 eccentricity, equally splendid. Those minds 
 which have exerted the widest and most benefi- 
 cent influence on the world, have generally been 
 those, which were nearly as far removed from
 
 ACTIVE USEFULNESS. 199 
 
 transcendent genius on the one hand, as from im- 
 becility on the other. 
 
 More ordinarily depends on intellectual acqui- 
 sitions than on native talent. Industry and habits 
 of close application are indispensable to a life of 
 distinguished usefulness. But it is not my design 
 to dwell on this point, because it was presented 
 to you somewhat at large on a former occasion. 
 
 Practical wisdom, also, lies at the foundation of 
 the most useful life. This implies a quick per- 
 ception of the springs of human action a deep 
 knowledge of mankind the faculty of reasoning 
 soundly, or of drawing just conclusions from given 
 premises a nice discernment of what is proper 
 and improper, of what is right and wrong and a 
 skillful adaptation of means to accomplish pro- 
 posed ends. A person distinguished for practical 
 wisdom is but rarely, if ever, guilty of those little 
 weaknesses and indiscretions, which blight the 
 usefulness of multitudes, and which make you 
 feel it to be somewhat unsafe to adopt their 
 opinions, or to be governed by their advice. 
 The cultivation of this important trait of char- 
 acter, or rather of this happy combination of 
 mental qualities, cannot commend itself too for- 
 cibly to your attention. 
 
 But the principal ingredient in a highly useful
 
 200 LIFE OF 
 
 life, and which I feel more anxious that you 
 should possess than any other and all others, is 
 eminent piety. That men entirely devoid of piety 
 are often, in various degrees, the benefactors of 
 their race, is cheerfully admitted. But the whole 
 history of the world shows, that men of sound 
 religious principle and of piety have generally 
 performed the most labor, and made the greatest 
 sacrifices of ease and property, and health and 
 life, for the promotion of the best interests of the 
 human kind. It is only the man, who has learned 
 the worth of his own soul, who feels much for the 
 souls of others. It is only the man, who has fled 
 from the city of Destruction, who sees the danger 
 of remaining there. It is only the man, who has 
 lost his load of sin at the Cross, who sees the 
 immense burden of guilt under which others are 
 laboring. It is only the man, who has fallen into 
 the hands of giant Despair, who has had any 
 taste of the agonies of perdition. It is only the 
 man, who has ascended the Delectable Mountains 
 and taken a near view of heaven, who feels a 
 burning desire to elevate a suffering world to the 
 felicity of that abode. 
 
 But there are various grades even in the piety 
 of Christians, and their usefulness is ordinarily 
 measured by the degree of their spiritual attain-
 
 ACTIVE USEFULNESS. 201 
 
 ments. They are like the lights in the firmament, 
 differing in magnitude, and of course, in splendor. 
 It is a fact which ought to clothe the church in 
 sackcloth, that the great mass of her members 
 have acquired so little of the spirit of their 
 Master, and have "lived" so little "unto Him." 
 Their formal, fitful, periodical piety has done 
 comparatively but little to bless the world. Who 
 are the men, who, in all ages of the church, have 
 done the most for her advancement? They are 
 her Abrahams, and Nehemiahs, and Pauls, and 
 Luthers, and Baxters, and Brainerds, men of the 
 highest personal attainments in holiness, men who 
 habitually walked with God. These, and other 
 similar choice spirits, though few in number, have 
 perhaps done more for the world and for the 
 Saviour, than the undistinguished million of his 
 professed but undevoted friends. Other things 
 being equal, they, who are most humble, fervent, 
 holy, are the most widely useful. Men of this 
 stamp have wrought those miracles of love and 
 mercy which have exalted the ages in which they 
 lived, and the record of which will endure longer 
 than the sun and the moon. 
 
 And what is necessary now to banish from the 
 earth intemperance, profaneness, Sabbath-breaking, 
 lewdnesSj duelling, murder, slavery, war; in short, 
 14
 
 202 LIFE OF 
 
 those legions of evils which afflict humanity ? 
 Nothing but the spirit of apostolic Christianity 
 in the church. And what is necessary to diffuse 
 universally light, and intelligence, and peace, and 
 brotherly-love, and salvation ; and to transform 
 this world into another Eden, and breathe over 
 it the zephyrs, and pour around it the radiance, 
 and inspire it with the transports of the Millen- 
 nium ? Nothing but religion enough. And to 
 whom shall we look, under God, to usher in a 
 consummation so devoutly to be wished ? To 
 the aged, who will to-morrow sink into the 
 grave? No. To the middle aged, who^e piety, 
 low as it is, has nearly reached its maximum ? 
 No. To the youth, whose very existence should 
 be baptized into the spirit of Christ, and who can 
 yet attain a character for moral elevation, and 
 symmetry, and power, such as the world has 
 never seen ? Yes. This is the generation which 
 is to fight the battles of the Lord of hosts, and 
 to occupy the very Thermopylae of the conflict 
 between the powers of light and darkness. O, 
 what a measure of piety do you need to fulfil the 
 destiny to which you are summoned ! 
 
 Christians, generally, seem to have caught 
 scarcely a glimpse of that degree of piety, which 
 is indispensable to the conversion of the world.
 
 ACTIVE USEFULNESS. 203 
 
 Their formality, and worldliness, and unbelief must 
 be entirely displaced by a degree of spirituality, 
 which shall equal that of primitive times. They 
 need a far higher degree of piety to bear success, 
 as well as to secure it. They need habitually to 
 feel that high and extreme tension of anxiety of 
 souls, which " the nature of the human mind 
 forbids to be more," and the importance of the sub- 
 ject forbids to be less. And, at the same time, 
 their zeal needs to be the most enlightened, the 
 most chastened, and the best directed. The 
 piety, which is requisite to convert the world, 
 needs as much to be well balanced and symmet- 
 rical, as to be ardent. But how little of this 
 piety there is in the church ! And how little are 
 Christians trying to cultivate it, while whole 
 generations of men are sweeping down the current 
 of life into the ocean of a hopeless eternity ! But 
 this is the piety which forms the basis of the most 
 eminently useful lives. Let it be your daily effort 
 to culiivate it in yourselves and in others. 
 
 II. You are under solemn obligations to live a 
 life of the greatest possible usefulness. These 
 obligations principally arise from Christ's redeem- 
 ing love. " He died for all, that they which live, 
 should not henceforth live unto themselves, but 
 unto Him, which died for them, and rose again."
 
 204 LIFE OF 
 
 He died for you. He had his eye on you, in the 
 agonies of Gethsemane. He thought of you, 
 while hanging on the cross. Your sins drove the 
 nails and impelled the spear. Your sins brought 
 over his mind that cloud of horror which made 
 him exclaim, " My God, my God, why hast thou 
 forsaken me?" And when the scene was closing, 
 the last pulsations of his heart were for you, and 
 then all was still. 
 
 He died, that you might live. And as many 
 of you as, through his death, have been quickened 
 into spiritual life by the Holy Ghost, are forever 
 bound to live, not unto yourselves, but unto Him. 
 You owe your hopes, and joys, and prospects all 
 to Him. 
 
 " O, to grace how great a debtor 
 Daily I'm constrained to be, 
 Let that grace now like a fetter 
 
 Bind my wandering heart to Thee." 
 
 The promotion of his kingdom in the world, 
 you should therefore regard as the great object for 
 which you were born. Nothing else compara- 
 tively is worth living for a moment. This is the 
 greatest and the best of causes. It is the one 
 which will soon swallow up every other. Happy 
 is the youth whose enjoyments are identified with
 
 ACTIVE USEFULNESS. 205 
 
 its prosperity, but wo be to him who opposes its 
 progress. " Whosoever shall fall on this stone 
 shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, 
 it will grind him to powder." 
 
 You are also under obligation to live a life of 
 the highest usefulness, on account of the facilities 
 afforded you for doing it. Circumstances often 
 create duty. Your means of doing good are far 
 superior to those of the youth who lived in the 
 dark ages, or who are now living in China, or in 
 South America, or even in Great Britain. You 
 live in a free and happy land ; in a land of light 
 and unexampled enterprise, in a land of benevo- 
 lent institutions which are scattering the blessings 
 of education and piety over every section of the 
 country, and which are reaching their hands 
 around the globe, and presenting the lamp of sal- 
 vation to the benighted dwellers on the other side. 
 If you offer up one " effectual fervent prayer," 
 the influence is quickly felt from the equator to 
 the poles. If you insert a paragraph in the news- 
 papers containing a new and important thought, 
 that thought may soon circulate in different lan- 
 guages to the ends of the earth. If you have a 
 dollar to give, you can place a Bible in a family 
 of pagans, and as the parents and children collect 
 around it to read, or listen to the story of the
 
 206 LIFE OF 
 
 Saviour, they unitedly exclaim, " this is what we 
 want;" and their idols are thrown "to the moles 
 and to the bats," and hope springs up within 
 them as they " behold the Lamb of God, which 
 taketh away the sin of the world." If you assist 
 in sending a band of missionaries to a heathen 
 land, as they disembark and ascend the hills to 
 view the scene of their future labors, and as the 
 inhabitants are collecting from all directions to 
 receive them, you will hear a new song, bursting 
 from hundreds of voices, " How beautiful upon 
 the mountains are the feet of them that bring 
 good tidings, that publish peace, that bring good 
 tidings of good, that publish salvation, that saith 
 unto Zion, ' Thy God reigneth.' 5: 
 
 The youth who has a heart to do good finds no 
 lack of opportunity. Numerous facilities are al- 
 ready within his reach, and new ones are con- 
 stantly opening around him. This state of things 
 imposes obligation. " To whom much is given, 
 of them will much be required." He who has 
 ten talents is bound so to employ them as to gain 
 ten talents more. Never was there a generation 
 of young men and young females, which could do 
 so much for Christ and his cause. You enjoy the 
 day, which kings and prophets desired to see ; a 
 day of all others the most favorable for exerting a 
 wide moral influence.
 
 ACTIVE USEFULNESS. 207 
 
 Coming upon the stage of action with these un- 
 precedented facilities and means of usefulness, you 
 are bound to make the most of life. Your obli- 
 gations to live for Christ and the world can be 
 measured only by your ability. " She hath done 
 what she could" was a splendid eulogium pro- 
 nounced by our Lord on a female friend, and it 
 marked at once the extent of her obligation and 
 the degree of her devotedness. Ability, and 
 ability only, is the measure of your obligation. 
 Cheerfully, then, offer yourselves and all you 
 possess a sacrifice to Christ upon the altar of 
 duty. But, 
 
 III. What are some of the encouragements to 
 lead a life of usefulness ? 
 
 One is, there is enough to be done. " The 
 field is the world." Here is scope for your most 
 enlarged philanthropy. The generous mind loves 
 to have enough to do. Now there is very much 
 in the social, the political, and the religious con- 
 ditions of the world which needs reform. Indeed, 
 there is but little in any of these conditions, which 
 is now right. The reform must be radical, in the 
 good sense of the word. More than the strength 
 of Hercules is necessary to cleanse this world of 
 its impurities. The blessings of education need 
 to be universally diffused. The personal and
 
 208 LIFE OF 
 
 domestic relations of life require special improve- 
 ment. A general and thorough reformation of 
 morals is demanded. An universal and conscien- 
 tious regard to the rights and happiness of others, 
 and to the will and glory of God, is imperatively 
 required. 
 
 Now, to work a reformation of such intrinsic 
 difficulty and wide extent to re-mould nearly all 
 the maxims, and opinions, and principles of men 
 to re-cast almost the entire framework of human 
 society to form every thing on the basis of the 
 word of God and to prepare the world for the 
 latter day glory and especially for heaven ; this, 
 this is the enterprise, which the youth of this 
 generation are called to prosecute. 
 
 Another great encouragement is the favorable 
 concurrence of providential events. It has been 
 said, with equal felicity and truth, that " the 
 Greeks would have conquered the Persians without 
 Alexander, that the Romans would have been 
 enslaved, had Caesar never been born, and that 
 the Arabians would have been deceived by other 
 impostors, if Mohammed had never existed." 
 But why ? Because the tide of events, in each 
 case, ran in favor of just such a result as did ac- 
 tually occur. The existing state of society was 
 such as necessarily to bring about the results which
 
 ACTIVE USEFULNESS. 209 
 
 did take place, unless arrested by the direct in- 
 terposition of the Almighty. 
 
 In like manner, the present age exhibits the 
 most striking and unparalleled concurrence of 
 events, tending directly, as it would seem, to work 
 out the moral regeneration of the world. The 
 concurring circumstances are such as these ; 
 public expectation, like that which ushered in the 
 advent of the Redeemer, anticipates and favors a 
 great moral revolution in the state of the world ; 
 the missionary cast given to the education of chil- 
 dren throughout Christendom, baptizing them, as 
 no preceding generation has been, in the very 
 spirit of engagedness for the world's conversion ; 
 the numerous voluntary associations formed for 
 the direct purpose of diffusing the gospel, con- 
 taining within themselves the elements of self- 
 preservation to the end of time, adapting them- 
 selves to all the varieties of human want, capable 
 of commanding the most inexhaustible resources, 
 and already wielding an amount of influence which 
 moves the globe ; the wide and increasing dif- 
 fusion of the English language, that vast store- 
 house of Christian truth, richer than all other lan- 
 guages in the means of evangelical instruction, and 
 insuring, by its spread, the spread of the Bible ; 
 the commercial activity of Great Britain and the
 
 210 LIFE OF 
 
 United States, the two most Christian nations of 
 the earth ; the numerous emigrations from these 
 countries to every part of the world, which ne- 
 cessarily tend to the wide diffusion of the true 
 faith ; the unexampled multiplication of copies 
 of the Bible by means of the press ; the disper- 
 sion of the Jews among the nations of the earth, 
 holding as they do, with proverbial tenacity, the 
 doctrine of the Unity of God, and prepared, by 
 their universal presence, when they themselves 
 shall embrace the Messiah, to exert a powerful 
 influence in subverting polytheism ; the trium- 
 phant progress of the temperance reformation, 
 removing some of the principal obstacles to the 
 spread of the gospel ; and finally, the unparal- 
 leled effusions of the Holy Spirit, multiplying 
 converts to Christianity almost like the drops of 
 the morning. 
 
 Such are some of the conspiring causes, which 
 are operating the most salutary changes in human 
 affairs. And, can you, my young friends, in your 
 efforts to enlighten and save the world, ask the 
 co-operation of more powerful agencies ? Can 
 you desire stronger supports of your faith, or in- 
 citements of your zeal ? 
 
 You may also derive great encouragement from 
 the comparative ease, with which public opinion on
 
 ACTIVE USEFULNESS. 211 
 
 any point of morals is now corrected. Public 
 sentiment rules the world, and time has been, 
 when it seemed as unalterable as the laws of the 
 Medes and Persians. Moral influences were 
 nearly stagnant, and little could be done in the 
 work of reform. But the scene has changed. 
 JVloral influences are now active and numerous, 
 and can be easily concentrated and made to bear, 
 with tremendous energy, upon any given abuse. 
 As illustrations of this, I refer you, among other 
 things, to the increasing unpopularity of war. 
 Not long since, nations, for the most trivial reasons, 
 would plunge into the guilt and horrors of this 
 wholesale butchery of their species ; but public 
 sentiment now frowns upon that practice, and the 
 consequence is, that most civilized nations are re- 
 luctant to decide their controversies by an appeal 
 to arms, but prefer their settlement by the arbi- 
 tration of a third power. 
 
 A few years ago, the slave-trade was prosecuted 
 with vigor by nearly every nation in Christendom. 
 But, by the efforts of Clarkson, Wilberforce and 
 others, public sentiment has become so enlight- 
 ened and reformed, that many of those very 
 nations have pronounced that traffic to be piracy 
 and punish it accordingly. 
 
 A short time since, intemperance rolled its
 
 212 LIFE OF 
 
 waves of " distilled damnation " over the fairest 
 portions of the world ; and though the deluge has 
 not yet entirely died away, a rectified public sen- 
 timent has reared an effectual barrier against its 
 power, saying, " Hitherto shall thou come, and 
 no further, and here shall thy proud waves be 
 stayed." 
 
 You may labor, then, for a general and thorough 
 reformation of morals, with this inspiring con- 
 viction, that public opinion can with comparative 
 ease be reformed, and made to bring its resistless 
 energies to your help. 
 
 But the crowning encouragement to a life of 
 usefulness is the certainty of success. God has 
 indissolubly joined the effect to the means. Do 
 you pray ? He has said, that praying breath shall 
 not be spent in vain. Do you labor ? He has 
 said, that your " labor shall not be in vain in the 
 Lord." Do you give your substance ? He has 
 said, you " shall in no wise lose your reward." 
 No efforts, put forth with right motives to build 
 up his kingdom, can prove abortive. Good will 
 be done. The world will be converted. " The 
 earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord 
 as the waters cover the sea." There is no cause 
 in which you can labor with such certainty of suc- 
 cess. Disappointment here is impossible. God
 
 ACTIVE USEFULNESS. 213 
 
 has promised to convert the world, and has pledged 
 all the resources of his Omnipotence to redeem 
 his promise. " Hath He said, and shall He not 
 do it ? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make 
 it good ? " " Heaven and earth shall pass away, 
 but His word shall not pass away." Here, then, 
 is the supreme encouragement to live and to labor 
 for Christ and his cause. 
 
 Let us contemplate, 
 
 IV. Some of the particular results of a life of 
 supreme devotedness to Christ. 
 
 I. It will produce a state of elevated religious 
 enjoyment. Go almost where you will in the 
 churches and you will hear the complaint, " We 
 have but little holy consolation and peace." Over 
 nothing, perhaps, are so many tears shed by multi- 
 tudes of professed Christians, as the withdrawment 
 of the divine presence from their souls. Much of 
 their time they walk in darkness, and they have 
 walked in darkness so long, that they regard deliv- 
 erance to be nearly hopeless. They almost expect 
 to live and to die under the cloud. They perhaps 
 can recollect the time, when the candle of the 
 Lord shined brightly upon their tabernacle when 
 God was enjoyed, and their days and nights were 
 full of peace. But that holy, halcyon season has 
 long since passed away, and gloom, and wretch-
 
 214 LIFE OF 
 
 edness, and tears are now their meat and their 
 drink. 
 
 Now, it is evident, that this state of mind is not 
 only quite common, but most deplorable. In 
 primitive times, religion was a matter of habitual 
 and high enjoyment. Its consolations were ever 
 present in seasons of trial. And so it is now with 
 that class of Christians, who live devoted to their 
 Lord. Why was it that Paul could say, " For 
 me to live is Christ, and to die is gain ? " Be- 
 cause his was a life of supreme devotedness to 
 Jesus. Why was it that Latimer, when enveloped 
 in the flames of martyrdom, could say to Ridley, 
 his companion at the stake, " Be of good cheer, 
 brother, we shall this day light such a candle in 
 England, as, I trust in God, shall never go out?" 
 Because a life of simple, entire consecration to 
 Christ had prepared him for that hour. A mis- 
 sionary of the cross, who was embarking from 
 our shores to go and spend his life in the isles 
 of the Pacific, said to the speaker, as he " ac- 
 companied him to the ship," " Go and tell my 
 brethren at the theological seminary, that this is 
 the happiest day of my life." O, if Christians 
 would live devotedly to their Master, their harps 
 would no longer hang on the willows, the light of 
 God's countenance would return, and their " peace
 
 ACTIVE USEFULNESS. 215 
 
 would be as a river, and their righteousness as the 
 waves of the sea." 
 
 " Heaven waits not the last moment, owns her friends 
 On this side death, and points them out to men." 
 
 2. Eminent devotedness will result in the con- 
 version of many souls. " Restore unto me the 
 joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free 
 spirit, then will 1 teach transgressors thy ways, 
 and sinners shall be converted unto thee." The 
 tone of piety in the soul ordinarily determines the 
 extent of one's usefulness. Harlan Page, by his 
 ever-living, warm-hearted piety, was the honored 
 instrument of converting a great number of indi- 
 viduals. His piety was of that active, practical 
 character, which sought to bring the Gospel to 
 bear on the conscience of any and every person 
 to whom he could gain access. His affectionate, 
 solemn and pathetic appeals to the consciences of 
 individuals was the secret of his success ; and he 
 could make such appeals, because his views of the 
 danger of sinners were rendered absorbing and over- 
 whelming by his steady contemplation of eternal 
 scenes. Brainerd's success among the Indians was 
 never so astonishing, as when he was " dwelling 
 on the sides of eternity." That degree of piety 
 in Christians, which makes them, relinquish their
 
 216 LIFE OF 
 
 hold on the honors, pleasures and emoluments of 
 this life, and sets them apart exclusively to the 
 service of God, exerts a surprising influence in 
 bringing sinners to Jesus, wakes up louder an- 
 thems in heaven, and plants new gems in their 
 eternal crowns. 
 
 3. Supreme devotedness will give a new impvlse 
 to the missionary enterprise. At the present rate 
 of proceeding, there is but little prospect that the 
 world will ever be converted. A much higher 
 degree of faith, and zeal, and benevolence is 
 indispensable to success. Christians, generally, 
 have not yet taken hold of the work in earnest. 
 So long as they can be contented, and see the 
 cause of God remain nearly stationary, so long 
 will but little be done. But when they become 
 so deeply imbued with the spirit of Christianity 
 themselves, that it is essential to their happiness 
 to see the cause rapidly advance, then prayer, and 
 men, and money will no longer be wanting. 
 
 There have been some few Christians who 
 possessed this degree of devotedness, and their 
 influence is felt around the globe. Carey pos- 
 sessed it, when, with holy magnanimity of soul, 
 he said to his brethren who were projecting a 
 mission to the East, " Attempt great things, 
 expect great things.' 11 Harriet Newell possessed
 
 ACTIVE USEFULNESS. 217 
 
 it, when she penned her decision to become a 
 missionary, 
 
 " The sultry climes of India then I'll choose, 
 There will I toil and sinners' bonds unloose, 
 There will I live and spend my latest breath, 
 And in ray Jesus' service meet a stingless death." 
 
 Paul felt it when he said, " What mean ye to 
 weep and to break mine heart ? for I am ready 
 not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem 
 for the name of the Lord Jesus." 
 
 And there are some living examples of supreme 
 devotedness. They are that class of Christians, 
 who hold all they possess sacredly consecrated to 
 the cause of God, and who " count not their lives 
 dear unto themselves " if they may but rescue 
 sinners from perdition. O, that their spirit may 
 soon pervade the whole church ! Then will her 
 "righteousness go forth as brightness, and her 
 salvation as a lamp that burneth." 
 
 4. Entire devotedness to Christ will prepare 
 you for peace in death. A devoted, holy life is, 
 in almost every case, followed by a peaceful, if 
 not a triumphant departure. Them that honor 
 me," saith God, I will honor." There is not a 
 more delightful spectacle below the sun, than to 
 see a Christian, who has honestly and entirely 
 15
 
 218 LIFE OF 
 
 devoted himself to God, rising to those Pisgah 
 heights of joy, which give token that he will 
 soon take his mansion near the throne. There, 
 " the praises and censures of men die away upon 
 the ear, and the still small voice of conscience is 
 no longer drowned by the din of this nether world. 
 Here, the sight is apt to be occupied by earthly 
 objects, and the hearing to be engrossed with 
 earthly sounds ; but there, he has come within 
 the view of the resplendent and incorruptible 
 crown, which is held forth to his acceptance in 
 the realms of light, and his ear is regaled with 
 heavenly melody. Here, we dwell in a variable 
 atmosphere ; the prospect is at one time dark- 
 ened by the gloom of disgrace, and, at another, 
 the eye is dazzled t>y the gleamings of glory; 
 but he has now ascended above this inconstant 
 region ; no storms agitate ; no clouds obscure the 
 air ; and the lightnings play and the thunders roll 
 beneath him." * 
 
 See the end of the late lamented and devoted 
 Payson. See him dating the last letter he ever 
 dictated at the " land of Beulah " 
 
 " Quite on the verge of heaven ; " 
 * Wilbeiforce's Practical View.
 
 ACTIVE USEFULNESS. 219 
 
 and hear him saying, " The celestial city is full in 
 my view. Its glories beam upon me, its breezes 
 fan me, its odors are wafted to me, its sounds 
 strike upon my ears, and its spirit is breathed into 
 my heart. Nothing separates me from it but the 
 river of death, which now appears but as an insig- 
 nificant rill, that may be crossed at a single step, 
 whenever God shall give permission. The Sun 
 of Righteousness has been gradually drawing 
 nearer and nearer, appearing larger and brighter 
 as he approached, and now he fills the whole 
 hemisphere ; pouring forth a flood of glory, in 
 which I seem to float as an insect in the beams 
 of the sun ; exulting, yet almost trembling, while 
 I gaze on this excessive brightness, and wondering 
 with unutterable wonder, why God should deign 
 thus to smile upon a sinful worm." 
 
 Are you ready to exclaim, " Let me die the 
 death of the righteous, and let my last end be 
 like his ? " Then, live for Christ, LIVE FOR 
 CHRIST. Thus your sun will set in glory. 
 Amid the tremblings, and sinkings, and gaspings 
 of dissolution, ineffable peace will fill your souls ; 
 and you will ascend to the abode of the redeemed 
 and be clothed in white robes wrought in the 
 manufactory of the skies and receive your un- 
 fading crowns and join the song of heaven,
 
 220 LIFE OF ACTIVE USEFULNESS. 
 
 breaking from the voices of " ten thousand times 
 ten thousand and thousands of thousands," rising 
 and swelling into one universal chorus, and rolling 
 on through the cycle of eternity with ever increas- 
 ing alleluias " unto Him that sitteth on the throne 
 and unto the Lamb."
 
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