Volume Iii Part 13 (1/2)
”G.o.d save the Commonwealth!” proclaims the Governor. G.o.d will do his part,--doubt not of that. But you and I must help Him save the State.
What can we do? Next Sunday I will ask you for your charity; to-day I ask a greater gift, more than the abundance of the rich, or the poor widow's long remembered mite. I ask you for your justice. Give that to your native land. Do you not love your country? I know you do. Here are our homes and the graves of our fathers; the bones of our mothers are under the sod. The memory of past deeds is fresh with us; many a farmer's and mechanic's son inherits from his sires some cup of manna gathered in the wilderness, and kept in memory of our exodus; some stones from the Jordan, which our fathers pa.s.sed over sorely bested and hunted after; some Aaron's rod, green and blossoming with fragrant memories of the day of small things when the Lord led us--and all these attach us to our land, our native land. We love the great ideas of the North, the inst.i.tutions which they founded, the righteous laws, the schools, the churches too--do we not love all these? Aye. I know well you do. Then by all these, and more than all, by the dear love of G.o.d, let us swear that we will keep the justice of the Eternal Law. Then are we all safe. We know not what a day may bring forth, but we know that Eternity will bring everlasting peace. High in the heavens, the pole-star of the world, s.h.i.+nes Justice; placed within us, as our guide thereto, is Conscience. Let us be faithful to that
”Which though it trembles as it lowly lies, Points to the light that changes not in heaven.”
FOOTNOTES:
[18] The late Mr. John Parker.
[19] This took place at a meeting in Faneuil Hall to welcome Mr. George Thompson.
[20] At the ”Union meeting” two days before the delivery of this sermon.
[21] Nor even yet. November 24, 1851.
[22] Subsequent events have shown the folly of this statement.
Clergymen, it is said, are wont to err, by overrating the moral principle of men. See the next sermon.
[23] Recent experiments fortunately confirm this, and, spite of all the unjust efforts to pack a jury, none has yet been found to punish a man for such a ”Crime.”
[24] Mr. William Craft, and Mrs. Ellen Craft.
[25] This also appears to have been a mistake. Still I let the pa.s.sage stand, though it is apparently not at all true.
VI.
THE CHIEF SINS OF THE PEOPLE.--A SERMON DELIVERED AT THE MELODEON, BOSTON, ON FAST DAY, APRIL 10, 1851.
My Friends,--This is a day of Public Humiliation and Prayer. We have one every year. It is commonly in the city churches only a farce, because there is no special occasion for it, and the general need is not felt.
But such is the state of things in the Union at this moment, and particularly in Boston, that, if it were not a custom, it would be a good thing, even if it were for the first time in the history of our country, to have such a day for Humiliation and Prayer, that we consider the state of the nation, and look at our conduct in reference to the great principles of religion, and see how we stand before G.o.d; for these are times that try men's souls.
Last Sunday, I purposely disappointed you, and turned off from what was nearest to your heart and was nearest to mine,--a subject that would have been easy to preach on without any preparation. Then I asked you to go to the Fountain of all strength, and there prepare yourselves for the evils that we know not of. To-day, the Governor has asked us to come together, and consider, in the spirit of Christianity, the public sins of the community, to contemplate the value of our inst.i.tutions, and to ask the blessing of G.o.d on the poor, the afflicted, and the oppressed. I am glad of this occasion; and I will improve it, and ask your attention to a sermon of The Chief Sins of this People.
I have said that these are times that try men's souls. This is such an occasion as never came before, and, I trust, never will again. I have much to say to you, much more than I intend to say to-day, much more than there are hours enough in this day to speak. Many things I shall pa.s.s by. I shall detain you to-day somewhat longer than is my wont; but do not fear, I will look out for your attention. I simply ask you to be calm, to be composed, and to hear with silence what I have to say.
To understand these things, we must begin somewhat far off.
The purpose of human life is to form a manly character, to get the best development of body and of spirit,--of mind, conscience, heart, soul.
This is the end: all else is the means. Accordingly, that is not the most successful life in which a man gets the most pleasure, the most money or ease, the most power of place, honor, and fame; but that in which a man gets the most manhood, performs the greatest amount of human duty, enjoys the greatest amount of human right, and acquires the greatest amount of manly character. It is of no importance whether he win this by wearing a hod upon his shoulders, or a crown upon his head.
It is the character, and not the crown, I value. The crown perishes with the head that wore it; but the character lives with the immortal man who achieved it; and it is of no consequence whether that immortal man goes up to G.o.d from a throne or from a gallows.
Every man has some one preponderating object in life,--an object that he aims at and holds supreme. Perhaps he does not know it. But he thinks of this in his day-dreams, and his dreams by night. It colors his waking hours, and is with him in his sleep. Sometimes it is sensual pleasure that he wants; sometimes money; sometimes office, fame, social distinction; sometimes it is the quiet of a happy home, with wife and children, all comfortable and blessed; sometimes it is excellence in a special science or art, or department of literature; sometimes it is a special form of philanthropy; and sometimes it is the attainment of great, manly character.
This supreme object of desire is sometimes different at different times in a man's life, but in general is mainly the same all through. For ”The child is father of the man,” and his days bound each to each, if not by natural piety, then by unnatural profaneness. This desire may act with different intensity in the active and pa.s.sive periods, in manhood and in age. It is somewhat modified by the season of pa.s.sion, and by the season of ambition.
If this object of special desire be worthy, so is the character in general; if base, so is the man. For this special desire becomes the master-motive in the man; and, if strong, establishes a unity in his consciousness, and calls out certain pa.s.sions, appet.i.tes, powers of mind and conscience, heart and soul; and, in a long life, the man creates himself anew in the image of his ideal desire. This desire, good or bad, which sways the man, is writ on his character, and thence copied into the countenance; and l.u.s.t or love, frivolity or science, interest or principle, mammon or G.o.d, is writ on the man. Still this unity is seldom whole and complete. With most men there are exceptional times, when they turn off a little from their great general pursuit. Simeon the Stylite comes down from his pillar-top, and chaffers in the market-place with common folks. Jeffries is even just once or twice in his life, and Wilkes is honorable two or three times. Even when the chief desire is a high and holy one, I should not expect a man to go through life without ever committing an error or a sin. When I was a youngster, just let loose from the theological school, I thought differently; but at this day, when I have felt the pa.s.sions of life, and been stirred by the ambitions of life, I know it must be expected that a man will stumble now and then. I make allowances for that in myself, as I do in others.
These are the exceptional periods in a man's life,--the eddies in the stream. The stream runs down hill all the time, though the eddy may for a time apparently run up.
Now, as with men, so it is with nations. The purpose of national life is to bring forth and bring up manly men, who do the most of human duty, have the most of human rights, and enjoy the most of human welfare. So that is not the most successful nation which fills the largest s.p.a.ce, which occupies the longest time, which produces the most cattle, corn, cotton, or cloth, but that which produces the most men. And, in reference to men, you must count not numbers barely, but character quite as much. That is not the most successful nation which has an exceptional cla.s.s of men, highly cultured, well-bodied, well-minded, well-born, well-bred, at the one end of society; and at the other a mighty mult.i.tude, an instantial cla.s.s, poor, ill-born, ill-bred, ill-bodied, and ill-minded too, as in England; but that is the most successful nation which has the whole body of its people well-born, well-bred, well-bodied, and well-minded too; and those are the best inst.i.tutions which accomplish this best; those worst, which accomplish it least. The government, the society, the school, or the church, which does this work, is a good government, society, school, or church; that which does it not, is good for nothing.