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Full text of "Republican Christianity: Or, true liberty, as exhibited in the life, precepts, and early disciples of the Great Redeemer"

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PRINCETON, N. J. 



X) O :V J*. T I o x- or.- 

SAMUEL AGNEW, 

OF PHILADELPHIA, PA, 



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BR 121 .M328 1849 
Magoon, Elias Lyman. 
Republican Christianity 






REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY 



OE, 



TRUE LIBERTY, 



AS EXHIBITED IN THE LIFE, PRECEPTS, AND EARLY 
DISCIPLES OF 



THE GREAT REDEEMER 



E. L. MAGOON, 



AUTHOR OF "PROVERBS FOR THE PEOPLE," " LIVING ORATORS OF AMERICA," 
" ORATORS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION." 



BOSTON: 
GOULD, KENDALL, AND LINCOLN, 

59 WASHINGTON STREET. 

1849. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, by 
GOULD, KENDALL, AND LINCOLN, 
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts 



STEREOTYPED AT THE 
BOSTON TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY. 



TO ALL 



WHO HATE TYRANNY, 



REVERE HUMANITY, BELIEVE IN PROGRESS 



AND FOLLOW CHRIST, 



THIS WORK IS INSCRIBE D 



PREFACE. 



The author of the following work avows his creed in a brief 
formula, as follows : — 

First, he believes in Jesus Christ. 

Second, he believes in no one else, as having the slightest 
authority over the personal freedom and religious rights of mankind. 

Christ came into the world to redeem it, by the power of a benefi- 
cent life and vicarious death. He was born at the base of the 
pyramid of society, where the masses are densest, widest, and most 
oppressed ; mingled with every class ; endured every wrong ; miti- 
gated every form of suffering; sympathized most with the most 
abused ; denounced political and spiritual tyranny in the strongest 
terms ; and, finally, fell a victim, mangled by that malignant pride 
and power which, in the persons of high priests, crafty scribes, and 
official Pharisees, ever stand ready to inflame the popular mind 
with cruel prejudice, leading the multitudes to spare a robber and 
murder their greatest Benefactor, so that oppression may yet flourish, 
and their own ungodly immunities remain secure. 

In the first part, we have attempted to portray the human, as well 
as the divine career of Christ. Viewing him at five different stages 
of his progressive work, we see how he lived out the diversified 
1* 



6 PREFACE. 

experience of all the injured, before he came to the consummation 
of his mission, and that this preparatory discipline fully qualified 
him gloriously to accomplish the salvation he came to perform. 

In the second part, an examination is entered upon touching the 
character of the primitive church. The author believes that Jesus 
Christ, eighteen centuries ago, gave our race a perfect model of 
republicanism ; and that this was not only exemplified in his life, 
and confirmed by his death as the highest gift to all men, but that 
it was strikingly imbodied in the original formation of the Christian 
church. The analysis of the argument on this point, as well as 
the authorities by which it is fortified, are before the reader, and he 
may judge with respect to the correctness of the deduction. It will 
be seen that the author nowhere offers a direct defence of the 
views held by his own denomination, but presents data from 
standard writers, which can easily be verified. If any persons are 
dissatisfied with the statements adduced, they need not long doubt 
with whom to quarrel. 

In the third part, premises laid in the character of Christ, and 
illustrated in the constitution of the primitive church, are applied 
to existing evils, showing the legitimate influence of Christian 
doctrine. The author is aware that this is a delicate matter; but 
he would hope that the topics involved in the discussion have been 
handled in a way adapted neither to exasperate the passionate 
unnecessarily, nor make the judicious grieve. With prayerful 
solicitude, and, he thinks, true conservatism, he has written under 
the influence of no sectarian feeling or sectional prejudice, express- 
ing as plainly as possible what he sincerely believes, and fawning 
for no favors. Herein are thoughts and emotions which have 
haunted the author for years ; and they are now sent forth to stir 



PREFACE. 7 

in other bosoms, and thence to produce, according to the soil of 
their growth, a blessing or a curse. 

There are many young men in our country, cultivating the earth, 
swinging the hammer, or driving the plane, whose superior endow- 
ments and hidden aspirations generate in their aching bosom pur- 
poses most honorable to human nature, but which true merit is slow 
to confess. These are surrounded by the mercenary and grovelling, 
who are as indifferent to the effulgence and utility of sanctified 
genius as they are to the glories of a flower crushed' under their 
miry heel. To arm such young brethren with fortitude, foster their 
beneficent purposes, and share their sympathetic regards, has been 
a primary purpose with the author, and will constitute his most 
genial reward. 

We live in Avhat we are pleased to call a free and happy land. 
As we here enjoy the amplest means, and are urged by the strongest 
motives, it is certain that we should employ the wisest and most 
heroical enterprise, to bless every section and rank of our common 
country and the world. The present is an age auspicious for 
humanity, inasmuch as good books are every where multiplied, 
benevolent institutions are springing up of every kind, and the 
divinest enfranchisement is rapidly embracing all our race. Tele- 
graphs, with lightning alacrity, bring the remotest regions into 
near neighborhood, and speak almost simultaneously to multifarious 
classes and states. Commerce, with a body of iron and soul of 
flame, darts athwart oceans, the mighty auxiliary of the cross, and 
pledge of universal brotherhood. In our western world, innumer- 
able presses multiply intelligence with a speed and profusion truly 
sublime, causing all the intellects of antiquity to become contemporary 
with ourselves, and the willing agents of a civilization perpetually 



8 PREFACE. 

improved and indescribably grand. In the eastern hemisphere, the 
most startling developments of Providence are continually tran- 
spiring". Napoleon is represented as saying, " When I am dead, 
my soul will return to France, and dwell in the hearts of the 
French people, like thunder in the clouds of heaven, and throb with 
ceaseless life in new revolutions." In an infinitely nobler sense, it 
would seem as if all the champions of outraged humanity, in every 
epoch and nation, were becoming incarnate again, or exerting, 
through occult means, a redeeming poAver in every clime. The 
masses are finding their hands, feeling their powers, and asserting 
their rights. The almightiness of the great Captain of our salvation, 
the rejected, toil-worn, lacerated, murdered Nazarene, is imbuing 
the intellect and heart of man — of all mankind. Let bigots 
tremble, and let tyrants flee, for the hour of their doom draws near. 
Crumbling thrones, decaying mitres, obsolete creeds, and shattered 
chains, are blown aside by the tempests of popular indignation, 
giving space and capacity for humanity to exercise itself, and taste 
the rapture of those energies which heaven bends low in our 
day to emancipate, and which hell must be permitted no longer 
to bind. 

E. L. M. 

Cincinnati, April 1, 1849. 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. 

THE REPUBLICAN CHARACTER OF JESUS CHRIST. 



CHAPTER I . 

The Infancy of Christ, 15 

In his advent ; identified with the lowly condition in which the masses 
of mankind are born. 

1. His coming was prepared ; 

2. The place of his appearance was appointed ; and was 

3. The type of all redemption, pledge of universal freedom. 

CHAPTER II. 

The Youth of Christ, 31 

In his youth, occupied in toil such as the great majority of men 
pursue. 

1. His best energies were developed by the worst trials ; 

2. His finest sympathies became the source of most rugged 
v strength ; and 

3. His earliest aspirations arose to emancipate the world. 

CHAPTER III. 

The Manhood of Christ, 48 

In maturity, trained by sufferings such as mankind in general are 
doomed to endure. 

1. In his manhood subjected to severe social oppression ; 

2. "Was compelled to exercise personal self-reliance ; and 

3. Experienced much of the seductions of power. 



10 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 
Christ as a Preacher, 79 

In his public life, the beneficent champion of universal rights. 

1. He addressed a common nature ; 

2. Aroused common emotions ; and 

3. Imparted common blessings. 

CHAPTER V. 

The Sacrifice of Christ, 106 

In his sacrifice, the divine atoner in whom all are invited to trust 
for the highest freedom and immortal joy. 

1. He died for the wretched, whose sorrows he felt ; 

2. Atoned for the sinful, whose guilt he assumed ; and 

3. Triumphed alone on the cross in gloom, that he might open 

the gates of glory to all, and proffer to each a crown. 



PART II. 

THE REPUBLICAN CONSTITUTION OF THE PRIMITIVE 
CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 
The Church -without a Kixg, 136 

1. History of the alliance between the church and kings ; 

2. Nature of this relationship ; and 

3. Its practical results. 

CHAPTER II. 
The Church -without a Pope, 163 

1. Popery originated in degeneracy; 

2. Flourished most in the darkest times ; and 

3. Is destined to disappear before increasing light. 



CONTENTS. 11 



CHAPTER III. 
The Church -without a Bishop, 196 

1. Bishops are not essential to constitute a church ; 

2. Were never designed to exercise lordship over equals in 

Christ ; and 

3. Are no longer needed to oppress the sacred brotherhood. 



CHAPTER IV. 
The Church without a Priest, 230 

1. Priestcraft is the product of every age ; 

2. The defender of every bigoted creed ; and 

3. The chief foe to Christianity, and greatest curse to mankind. 

CHAPTER V. 

The Church -without an Aristocrat, 261 

1. Aristocracy was the first foe of the church ; 

2. Is at best but a hypocritical friend ; and 

3. A perpetual impediment as well as consummate disgrace. 



PART III. 

THE REPUBLICAN INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIAN 
DOCTRINE. 



CHAPTER 1. 

Christianity the Solace of the Obscure 291 

1. Christianity arose in the deepest gloom ; 

2. Is designed to mitigate the keenest pangs ; and 

3. Pour solace upon the obscurest children of mankind. 



12 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER II. 

Christianity the Patron of the Aspiring, 316 

1. Christianity was proudly contemned when most pure ; 

2. Is adapted to encourage the deserving when most depressed ; 

and, 

3. Patronizes all aspirations that are both free and grand. 

CHAPTER III. 

Christianity the Fortifier of the "Weak, 343 

1. Christianity was fiercely persecuted when most feeble; 

2. Sympathizes with the suffering when most wronged ; and 

3. Fortifies the confiding with invincible strength. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Christianity the Deliverer of the Oppressed, 367 

1. Christianity was given to subdue the most ungenerous foes ; 

2. Is most merciful towards those who suffer the greatest 

abuse ; and 

3. Inspires ceaseless rebellion against every species of ungodly 

bonds. 



CHAPTER V. 

Christianity the Rewarder of the Sacrificed, 395 

1. Christianity has ever been the fairest and foremost victim of 

tyranny ; 

2. The mightiest antagonist to every form of injustice ; and 

3. Most glorious rewarder of all devotees for her sake sacri- 

ficed. 



REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 



" Know, then, that when I say the religion of Protestants is in prudence 
to be preferred before yours, on the one side, I do not understand by your 
religion the doctrine of Bellarmine or Baronius, or any other private man 
amongst you, nor the doctrine of the Sorbonne, of the Jesuits, or of the 
Dominicans, or of any other particular company among you, but that 
wherein you all agree, or profess to agree, the doctrine of the Council of 
Trent, so, accordingly, on the other side, by the religion of Protestants, 
I do not understand the doctrine of Luther, or Calvin, or Melancthon, nor 
the Confession of Augsburg, or Geneva, nor the Catechism of Heidelberg, 
nor the Articles of the Church of England ; no, nor the harmony of Prot- 
estant Confessions ; but that in which they all agree, and that which they 
all subscribe with a greater harmony, as a perfect rule of faith and action ; 
that is, the Bible. The Bible, I say, the Bible only, is the religion of 
Protestants." — Chillingworth. 

" It was from Christianity that man derived the spiritual element wherein 
he could once again become self-sustaining, free, and personally invincible ; 
a new vitality awoke in the bosom of the freshened earth, and she became 
fructified for the development of new productions." — Ranke. 

" Christianity, which has declared that all men are equal in the sight 
of God, will not refuse to acknowledge that all citizens are equal in the 
sight of the law." — Be Tocqueville. 

" L'Evangile est democratique, le Christianisme est republicain ! " — Les 
Conienticmnels. 

" I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already 
kindled? " 

"One is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren." — Jesus 
Christ. 



PART I 



THE REPUBLICAN CHARACTER OE 
JESUS CHRIST. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE INFANCY OF CHRIST. 

IN HIS ADVENT, IDENTIFIED WITH THE LOWLY CONDITION IN WHICH 
THE MASSES OF MANKIND ARE BORN. 

The ancient economy of grace was closing; the era of 
transition to a better dispensation had arrived. Every thing 
indicated the approach of a radical and stupendous change. 
The concluding words of ancient prophecy were full of blended 
fear and hope. The language of Haggai was startling. " For 
thus saith the Lord of hosts, Yet once, it is a little while, and 
I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the 
dry land." All reliable interpreters consider this as referring 
to the coming of the great Redeemer of mankind. His ap- 
proach was prepared ; the place of his appearance on earth 
was appointed ; and his advent was the birth of salvation, 
the type of all redeeming influence, the pledge of universal 
freedom. 

In the first place, the coming of Messiah was prepared. 
Jehovah declared aforetime, that he would shake the mighty 
kingdoms of the earth, and deprive them of that power with 
which they withstood the progress of exalted principles among 



16 



REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 



men. "And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all 
nations shall come." This, doubtless, refers to the great politi- 
cal concussions whereby the power of the heathen should be 
broken, their pride humbled, and they should thus become 
qualified to receive the salvation prepared for the world. 
Hence God declares, " And I will overthrow the thrones of 
kingdoms ; and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of 
the heathen ; and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that 
ride in them ; and the horses and their riders shall come down, 
every one by the sword of his brother." 

In view of this great revolution in the condition and pros- 
pects of mankind, Isaiah had long before declared, " Behold, a 
virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name 
Immanuel." The fulfilment of this gracious promise is re- 
corded in the words, which the angel of the Lord spake unto 
Joseph. " Take unto thee Mary thy wife ; for that which is 
conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring 
forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus : for he shall 
save his people from their sins. Now, all this was done, that 
it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the 
prophet, saying, Behold a virgin shall be with child, and shall 
bring forth a son? and they shall call his name Immanuel ; 
which, being interpreted, is, God with us." 

It is interesting to observe that all nations known in history 
have ever expected a Liberator, a person mysterious, divine, 
and one who, according to the ancient oracles, should bring 
them salvation, and reconcile them with the Eternal. Prideaux, 
in his work on the Jews, observes that " the necessity of a 
mediator between God and man was from the commencement 
a prevailing opinion among all people." In proportion as the 
glorious realization approached, an extraordinary light diffused 
itself over the world, like the bright beamings of Jacob's star. 
Cicero caught some of its beams, and in his Republic an- 
nounced a law eternal and universal, the law of all nations 
and all times ; a single and common master, who should be 
God even, and whose reign was about to commence. Virgil, 



THE INFANCY OF CHRIST. 17 

recalling the ancient oracles, celebrated the return of the Vir- 
gin, the birth of prevailing order, and the descent of the Son 
of God from heaven. To his eye a grand epoch speedily- 
advanced ; all the vestiges of crime were effaced, and earth 
was forever delivered from fear. The divine infant, who should 
i*eign over the peaceful world, will receive for first presents 
the simple fruits of earth, and the serpent will expire near his 
cradle. The universal tradition, moreover, was, that this celes- 
tial envoy would be man and God combined, and that he would 
come to achieve the salvation of the world. " He will save 
us," said Plato, "by teaching us the true doctrine," — " Shep- 
herd, prince, universal teacher, and sovereign truth," said Con- 
fucius, " he will possess all power in heaven and upon the 
earth." This lively anticipation of a mighty liberator and 
restorer, vanquisher of demons and imbodiment of supreme 
good, was doubtless permitted to prevent the nations from 
falling into complete ignorance and despair. It never ceased 
to prevail, in a manner more or less distinct, through all the 
pagan world, from a period long anterior to Moses to the 
auspicious night when the Magi, guided by a supernatural 
meteor, came from the East seeking the Star destined to ele- 
vate Israel and overthrow idolatry. Who is .this Savior — the 
desire of all nations — the true Messiah, sent of God? We 
have but one response, and shall never need another — Jesus 
Christ, who was all that the nations expected him to be, all that 
the prophets declared he would be, the true Son of God, be- 
gotten from eternity, his Wisdom and his Word, incarnate and 
divine. 

Humanity has never ceased to pour forth its desires and 
tears at the foot of such altars as could be found ; it has never 
ceased to adore under some form ; and hence, since worship is 
a universal instinct, in the most sacred of books God has 
entitled himself " the desire of all nations." But at the time 
Jesus of Nazareth was born, more than ever before, poor, 
degraded, persecuted, bleeding humanity laid its hands upon 
its mouth, and its mouth in the dust, crying for a deliverer to 
2* 



18 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

appear. Its prayer was heard. The fulness of time had come, 
and "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us." The 
eternal Son of God deigned to take our nature and clothed 
himself with our mortal flesh. He united in himself the divine 
and the human ; and these two natures formed but one person, 
Jesus Christ, the God -man who was the expectation of all the 
nations. He appeared at the time foretold, " and we have seen 
his glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father, full of grace 
and truth." His incarnation was a great mystery indeed, but 
a mystery so analogous to our wants and so conformable to the 
universal reason of mankind, that it has been perpetually be- 
lieved ever since the fall. 

But what end did the divine Word propose to himself in his 
incarnation ? What secret designs impelled him to descend so 
low, and unite himself to our nature ? " He came," says 
Paul, "to regenerate all things in the heavens and upon the 
earth." His mission v/as as grand as it was benevolent. It 
was worthy of Him by whom all things were made ; and who 
alone was able to renovate — regenerate all. Our nature had 
become depraved, and it was the prerogative of Christ, by his 
sacrifice, precepts, and example, to create us anew in the im- 
age of the Highest. It seemed to the apostle that this sublime 
work, achieved through such wonderful means, would blaze 
with ineffable splendor, not only in the world which we inhabit, 
but beyond us to all worlds, even to the most exalted height of 
the heavens. It was necessary that the Source of all light, by 
making himself man, should enter the night in which humanity 
was involved in order to disperse it. The regeneration of our 
nature is the image of its primitive creation : the first and the 
second are equally the work of the divine Word. " For by 
him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in 
earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or domin- 
ions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by 
him and for him." He renews our spirit in the same way as 
he formed it, by the communication of himself: to hear, be- 
lieve, obey, this was man's first act ; he was born by the throes 



THE INFANCY OF CHRIST. 19 

of faith, and the word which originally gave to him life, is the 
same which reproduces it. 

The king of day is glorious and sublime in all his course, 
but he is the most beautiful as he comes into view and disap- 
pears. The resemblance which this bears to the great Sun of 
Righteousness is manifest. We are ever to remember that in 
Jesus Christ our nature was intimately united with Divinity the 
most exalted, and that in the triumphant Redeemer humanity 
is already enthroned in heaven. He came to unfold to man- 
kind their capacities of greatness, to impart generous concep- 
tions and reveal the splendid destiny that awaited them, to 
awaken aspirations after a nobler character and a higher being, 
to kindle in their bosoms a love for all the virtues imbodied in 
himself, and throw wide open before them the gates which 
invite to life without a pang, and glory without a cloud. 

This, then, is the truth we are to observe at the outset of our 
discussion; on the one hand, that the appearance of Christ 
had been, from eternity, predetermined by the divine will , 
and, on the other, that this determination was carried into 
effect precisely at the period when all was made ready for the 
purposes of his mission. But Christ, according to all records, 
sacred and profane, does not stand isolated in universal history, 
but was heralded among the Jews by the law and the prophets, 
— among heathen nations by symbols, significant myths, and 
vivid traditions — by philosophy, poetry, and art — by the very 
depravity which kept alive a painful consciousness of a doom 
deserved, and which awakened the deepest longings for the 
appearance of one mighty to save. This fore-appointment of 
the Messiah from all eternity is especially stated by the apostle 
Paul ; as when, for instance, he asserts that God chose us in 
Christ before the foundation of the world ; while the historical 
necessity of the Redeemer's appearance at a particular period 
is announced in those assertions of Scripture, that the Son of 
God and of man was born in the fulness of time ; in other 
words, that he appeared at the precise moment when the prep- 
arations for his advent were completed, and the world in such 



20 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

a state, that the influence of his mission, however much op- 
posed, could never be entirely lost. He appeared in the 
period prepared — at exactly the right time. 

Secondly, the birthplace of the Redeemer was appointed, 
and comported well with the character of his mission. It re- 
sembled the spiritual character and the temporal condition of 
the great masses of mankind. Man had fallen from his high 
estate into the most abject condition ; and, in order to redeem 
him, it was necessary for the great Captain of Salvation to pass 
through the deserts of penury and the tomb. The first Adam 
had desolated Eden with sin ; the second Adam, in the hum- 
blest home of misery, will open the fountains of life for all. 
" As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." 
The first man had changed every zephyr of the world's garden 
into destructive tempests, every flower into thistles and venom- 
ous stings, every sweet stream into bitterness and woe. But 
He who, from the eternal throne, wings the thunders with 
power, stoops to the manger, and lies bound in swaddling 
clothes. Celestial purity blends with and springs from the 
least corrupt source on earth, exemplifying at once the great- 
est marvel in physical creation, and the most astonishing move- 
ment of heavenly love. In the first instance, the divine was 
destroyed by the human ; in the second, from humanity divin- 
ity is produced, pledged to heal every wound sin has inflicted, 
and spread over a groaning and degraded world joy and glory 
again. 

It is worthy of especial remark that the circumstances of 
poverty and desolation which characterized the advent of 
Christ were the same that attend the birth of the great masses 
of mankind. Doubtless the coming of the Redeemer was 
arranged with reference to this fact. " He who was rich for 
our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might be 
made rich." He rendered himself in the greatest possible 
degree accessible to all ; he bore the deprivations of the most 
obscure, and, from his very birth, accumulated a wealth of 
experience and sympathy with the outcast and suffering of 



THE INFANCY OF CHFtlST. 21 

every degree, so as to be able to enrich every child of poverty, 
and mitigate every pang of woe. In every age and clime 
there has been many a Simeon waiting for the consolation of 
Israel, all of whom felt that the needed Redeemer, to be effi- 
cacious, must be weak as well as strong, poor as well as in- 
finitely rich. Plato not only shows that in his day a divine 
instructor was desired, but he strikingly described the attributes 
he would need to bring and the doom he would meet. " He 
must be poor, and void of all qualifications but those of virtue 
alone ; that a wicked world would not bear his instructions and 
reproofs ; and therefore, within three or four years after he 
began to preach, he would be persecuted, imprisoned, scourged, 
and at last be put to death." The feebleness and penury of 
Christ would give him ready access to the great majority of 
mankind, while his omnipotence and infinite stores of heavenly 
merit would qualify him to atone for all their sins. Blessed 
was the lowly condition of the infant Redeemer, and auspicious 
were the mild beamings of the star that heralded his birth. 
Then a softness began to spread over the obdurate heart of 
man ; the curtains of mystery began to fall, and immortal 
glory rose on the enraptured view. 

Lamartine, in visiting the spot appointed to be the scene 
where the advent of Messiah should transpire, gave utterance 
to his feelings in the following words: — 

" It appeared to me, on ascending the last hills which sep- 
arated me from Nazareth, as if, from the summit of the moun- 
tains of Galilee, I were about to contemplate at its source that 
all-comprehensive and fruitful religion which for nearly two 
thousand years has established and is establishing itself in the 
universe, and which has refreshed so many generations by its 
clear and vivifying waters. Here was the source in the hollow 
of the rock, which I here tread under my feet, and the hill of 
which I have ascended the last heights, has borne on its sides 
the salvation, the life of the light, the hope of the world. It 
was here, a few paces from me, that He, the model of man, was 
born amongst men, to withdraw them by his word and his 



22 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

example from the sea of error and corruption in which the 
human race had been for some time immerged. If I reflected 
on these important subjects in the character of a philosopher, 
it was the period at which took place the greatest event which 
ever affected the moral or political world ; an event the reper- 
cussion of which still impresses at the present time a principle 
of motion and life upon the whole intellectual world. It is 
here that the greatest, the most just, the most wise, the most 
virtuous, of all men emerged from obscurity, from ignorance 
and misery ; here was his cradle, here was the theatre of his 
actions and his affecting discourses. Thence he departed, 
whilst yet in his youth, with a few obscure and illiterate men, 
whom he had inspired with confidence in his genius, and with 
courage for the accomplishment of their mission, which was 
knowingly to contend against an order of ideas and things not 
strong enough to resist him, but still strong enough to cause 
his death. Thence, I repeat, he went forth with confidence to 
conquer death, and the universal empire of posterity ; thence 
has flowed Christianity, its source obscure ; a drop of water 
unperceived in the hollow of the rock of Nazareth, from which 
two sparrows could scarcely allay their thirst, which a single 
beam of the sun could have absorbed, and which, at the pres- 
ent day, like the vast ocean of mind, has filled every abyss of 
human wisdom, and bathed with its inexhaustible waves the 
past, the present, and the future. Did I entertain a doubt of 
the divinity of that event, still would my soul have been 
strongly affected on approaching the first theatre on which the 
glorious deed was enacted, and I should have uncovered my 
head, and bent my forehead in reverence of that occult and 
governing will which has made such mighty and important 
things flow from so weak and so imperceptible a commence- 
ment. 

" But, on considering the mysteries of Christianity as a Chris- 
tian, it was here, under this small portion of the blue firma- 
ment, at the bottom of this narrow and sombre valley, under 
the shadow of this little hill, the old rocks of which appear 



THE INFANCY OF CHRIST. 23 

even at the present day to be all split with the trembling of joy 
which they experienced in giving birth to and in bearing the 
infant Word, or with the shivering of grief which they felt in 
entombing the Word crucified ; here was the fatal and holy 
spot of the world which God selected from all eternity, on 
which his truth, his justice, and his incarnate love, in an infant 
God, was to descend upon the earth ; it was here that the divine 
breath descended, at its proper time, in a poor cottage, the 
abode of humble labor, of simplicity of mind, and misfortune ; 
it was here, that within the bosom of a pure and innocent vir- 
gin, he gave life to something like herself, sweet, tender, and 
compassionate ; as a man, it was full of suffering, patience, 
and lamentation ; as a God, it was powerful, supernatural, 
wise, and strong ; it was here that the God-man submitted to 
our ignorance, our weakness, our labor, and our misery, during 
the obscure years of his retired life, and in some measure 
entered into the exercises of it, and practised the ways of the 
world, before he edified it by his word, healed it by his prodi- 
gies, and regenerated it by his death ; it was here that the 
heavens opened, from which burst forth upon the world his 
incarnate spirit, his fulminating word, which was to consume 
till the end of time all error and iniquity, to try, as in the fire 
of the crucible, our virtues and our vices, and to kindle before 
the only holy God that incense which was never afterwards to 
be extinguished, the incense of the renovated altar, the perfume 
of universal charity and truth." 

Yes, along those ancient plains reverberated the angelic 
shout, " Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will 
to men.'" There the Word sowed divine seed, and the Spirit 
made it productive. For eighteen centuries men have seen it 
blossom and ripen ; they recognize the beneficence of a God 
in the inexhaustible supply, and every where pant to feed on 
the fruit produced from that tree of life which was removed 
from the paradise radiant with riches of every kind, and planted 
in the abode of the wretchedly poor. Lamb of God, thy birth- 
place was well chosen, and thy first moan seems to say, " Chil- 



24 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

dren of a fallen race, the night is dark, but the morning breaks ! 
Liberty is born ! " 

In the third place, in his advent, Christ was the type of all- 
exalting power and the pledge of universal redemption. 

Whenever God wishes to execute some grand result, one of 
those comprehensive and profound revolutions which leave 
perpetual traces among mankind, — when he would rend down 
the obscure curtains of his providence, and reveal newer and 
vaster domains whereon to develop his own almightiness and 
the expanding faculties of man, — he does not ordinarily choose 
as instruments those who are armed with power or clothed with 
authority ; but, in some retired walk of life, on some secluded 
farm, in some lonely shop, suddenly his potent spirit seizes a 
rugged worker, unknown, unlettered, void of all force save 
that which swells in his aspiring soul, and, from that obscurity, 
go forth trumpet tones to arouse the nations, flame and energy 
to enlighten and bless mankind. He who possesses all re- 
sources, and can readily select from means infinitely diversified, 
sees fit forever to employ weak things in the destruction of the 
mighty. Before honor is humility, or a lowly station. Joseph 
was raised from the prison to the throne. Moses and David 
were called from the shepherd's fold to feed the inheritance of 
the Lord. Gideon acknowledged himself to be of M the least 
of the families of Israel ; " but the great Captain of our salva- 
tion arose from an origin still more obscure. It would seem to 
be the initiatory truth of Christianity, that the lower one de- 
scends in humiliation, the higher shall he rise in exaltation. 
The lower his foundation of humility is laid, the loftier and 
wider shall his crown of glory shine. 

More true greatness is born in hovels than in palaces. All 
great conservative influences come up from the oppressed and 
industrious classes. Ordinarily from the husbandman's cottage 
or the artisan's shop emerge the efficient pioneers of social 
improvement and national weal. As the exponents and exec- 
utors of divine purposes, they trample on hoary wrongs, dis- 
solve unholy coalitions, and win deliverance for the down- 



THE INFANCY OF CHRIST. 25 

trodden every where. They are the true nobility of heaven, 
the born monarchs of mind, whose credentials are manifest in 
their beneficent deeds, and whose patent of royalty consists in 
their native grandeur of soul. They are infinitely greater 
than the kings of physical empire, since they can defy the 
greatest concentration of martial force, and laugh to scorn the 
rack and the flame. The god-leavened ponderers on creation, 
and the god-armed deliverers of their race, always struggle up 
from the lowest depths of experience, meditation, development, 
till they obtain a firm hold on the deepest as well as broadest 
mass : then how these moral Titans will make the mountains 
shake ! They have drunk from every bitter cup, felt the gall- 
ing weight of every burden, smarted under every lash ; their 
own wounds have become the inlets through which they im- 
bibe the pangs of all their brethren in endurance vile, and they 
rise up in the omnipotence of humanity made divine by its 
purpose to redeem and disinthrall mankind. 

Individual excellence dawns on the world from obscurity, 
like day from night. The mightiest rivers rise from sources 
the most occult, and the brightest gems are found in caverns 
the most obscure. Like Iceland moss, the finest capacities of 
our race often grow beneath the snow, and must thence be 
sought. The matured champion is a babeling at first, cradled 
in poverty, nursed on the bosom of loveliness, invigorated by 
stern realities, while down on his loneliness heavenly beams 
are streaming, and filling him with splendors in due time to 
inundate the globe. It may be that the young heart for a long 
time lies torn and bleeding in the predestined deliverer, before 
it has generated momentum adequate to the emergencies he is 
called to meet. Gently at first gleam angelic thoughts on the 
darkness of the infant brain ; long and silently in the soul 
mature the incipient purposes of moral warfare, like unfolded 
flowers in the profoundest depths of the sea ; but by and by 
they burst on the world's gaze and fill heaven with odors most 
sweet. Such a heart is born to become the temple of religion 
the most pure, the difFuser of an influence the most beneficent, 
3 



26 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

and the tomb in which it goes at length a broken sacrifice to 
repose, becomes the altar of liberty for all our race. 

" 'Tis rare in Fame's rich, galaxy to shine 
With steadfast blaze unwithering, but to dawn 
From darkness, scatter off the black eclipse 
That veils the withered lustre — this, most rare, 
Maketh man's soul an everlasting fire 
Worthy the God that hung the heavens with light ; 
'Tis hard for downcast spirit to o'erleap 
Ruin's sad barriers ; but Heaven's angels drop 
Soft dews beneath his burning feet, his flight 
Imp with strong plumes ; his coming doth adorn 
The earth he moves on ; till Remorse, abashed, 
Before the orient glories fades and flies." 

We have observed that all exalting power springs from the 
dense masses of mankind ; that redemption is seldom or never 
born in the palace but in the hut ; and that of this fact Jesus 
Christ is the highest illustration and the most striking type. 
We would here add, that the greater the want the greater will 
be the supply which Providence ever grants to suffering man. 
Great occasions have never been wanting in great champions ; 
nor have the greatest and best of heroes ever failed in finding 
fitting scope for the divinest energies they possessed. This 
palpable and merciful law is of itself sufficient to demonstrate 
the existence of an infinitely wise and powerful Lawgiver. 
Its most glorious exemplification was recognized by the wise 
men who came to Bethlehem. They there found Immanuel, 
God with us, born at the base of the pyramid of human soci- 
ety, where the masses are broadest and most oppressed, far 
down there unveiling the Sun of Righteousness, that up through 
all the superincumbent myriads of men, purifying and eman- 
cipating beams might shine to diffuse impartial goodness and 
universal hope. The ancient patriarch saw in his dream a 
ladder reaching from earth to heaven. Perhaps its foot meas- 
ured the broad diameter of earth, but its top rested at a single 
point on the throne of God. Christ came to give substance to 
that vision, in the presence of all men, as the inspiration of 



INFANCY OF CHRIST. 27 

faith and encouragement of hope, to pour effulgence from base 
to summit of that highway to glory, planting attendant angels 
on the lowest step, increasing attractions at each ascent, and 
the amplest provisions of immortal joy at the journey's end. 

It remains to show that Christ was not only the type of all 
exalting power, but that he was the pledge of universal free- 
dom. This will appear from a consideration of the divine na- 
ture he possessed, and the divine tokens which heralded his 
birth. He was the " Word made flesh," the creativeness of 
Jehovah incarnate among a created, fallen race, himself with- 
out sin and powerful to redeem the depraved from every stain. 
A word is the clothing of an idea ; an idea never presents 
itself made ; the human mind can only conceive it under the 
drapery of expression. As soon as an idea presents itself, the 
mind hastens to create the equivalent word ; without this the 
idea remains vague at least, if not forever unseizable. Christ 
was the incarnation of eternal power, ancient truth and mercy 
imbodied. He was the Word made flesh, the Divinity in idea 
divinely clothed in a vesture of manhood, God humanized. In 
order to save man, to conduct him to the Supreme, the Word, 
all-creative from eternity, becomes flesh in time on behalf of 
those who could not behold him as Divinity alone. He as- 
sumes mortal shape and substance, passes through every phase 
of human experience, and through a human voice, thrilling 
through human sympathies, calls to himself those who, by 
being first conformed to the God incarnate, may afterwards 
gaze on the unclouded majesties of Jehovah. May not this be 
the meaning of Paul ? " Though we have known Christ after 
the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more." He 
became human and dwelt among us. He was transformed on 
the mount, where he not only appeared in his own glory, but 
where he caused the spiritual law and the prophecies to be 
represented by Moses and Elias. Then they who were pres- 
ent could say, " We have seen his glory, the glory of the 
only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth." Those 
spirits whom Christ summoned to the transfiguration, and 



28 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

revealed to men panting with astonishment on earth, were old 
acquaintances, with whom he talked in familiar terms respect- 
ing the great redemption he had come to achieve. Older than 
the human race, mightier than the worlds he formed, the babe 
of Bethlehem struggled into being amid tears, and groans, and 
oppressions, that from the ox's stall and that shepherd group 
might go forth a transforming power to revolutionize all tyran- 
nical customs and break all accursed bonds. He was the new 
representative of mankind, a divine one, the destroyer of hea- 
thenism, the founder of a new era, the universal atoner, the first 
born of God, the father of a new spiritual human race. His 
advent was unseen save to the pure, the humble, and discon- 
solate, and was as noiseless as the falling dew or gleaming stars. 
But as that young breath first blended with the chill night air 
where suffering reclined, and even the brute creation moaned, 
earth felt a new power whispering above and penetrating be- 
neath, like light and life pervading every where, foretelling 
complete redemption and universal joy. 

Man has indeed become debased, cast down, and trodden 
under foot. He has crawled on abjectly for centuries in the 
very dust. Tyranny, superstition, and vice have bound him 
in cruel fetters, and hurled him down to the caverns of igno- 
rance and night. But the vital spark has never been extin- 
guished ; the most outrageous abuse can never quite obliterate 
the image of God in his soul. In the deepest degradation, 
in the gloomiest dungeon, man has ever prayed for light and 
struggled for freedom. Independence of mind, of heart, of 
body, of soul, — this is the great boon designed by Heaven for 
all ; and to reconquer this the wonderful star burned on the hills 
of Judea, and Mary laid her still more wonderful child in the ox's 
crib. He will come forth from that comfortless abode to be- 
stow on earth richer blessings than all her kings can give — 
moral and intellectual improvement; free limbs to toil and 
free minds to soar ; blood unchilled by the oppressor's touch ; 
thoughts, souls, swift to compass the skies and ascend to 
heaven. 



THE INFANCY OF CHRIST. 29 

We live in an age of fearful commotion. A mighty storm is 
overturning thrones and changing the aspect of whole conti- 
nents. What we have yet seen is only the beginning of the 
end. The germs of more radical and comprehensive revolu- 
tions were planted eighteen centuries ago. In order to interpret 
the present and anticipate the future correctly, it is necessary 
often to go back in thought and " place ourselves at the Chris- 
tian era. This was, in every respect, a most interesting period. 
It was the one to which all prior history had been pointing. 
It was ' the fulness of time,' for which all preceding time had 
been making ready. It stands conspicuous, not because a 
new order of things, different in causes and tendency entirely 
from the old, was then established, — but because a new 
and mighty instrument was then first put forth, in aid of 
the same purpose, which before had made but slow and feeble 
progress. For these reasons, therefore, that it imbodies in 
itself the result of all that had gone before, and because the 
series of events, from that time to this, is sufficiently long to 
illustrate their connection, it is the most appropriate and inter- 
esting point that we can start from." 

We stand, then, at that momentous period, which the intro- 
duction of Christianity has immortalized. And what is the 
first thought that bursts upon our mind ? It is, that we are 
standing, at the very moment, in the midst of a most glorious 
revolution — a revolution glorious in itself, but incomparably 
more so in its tremendous and never-ending effects upon the 
human race. Yes, the star that rose in the east, — mild, peace- 
able, and radiant, as the young child to which it pointed ; the 
guide of the wise men ; the light, as it has proved, of the 
world, — the " star in the east" was the herald of an event, 
mightier in itself, and mightier in its consequences, than any 
which the dazzling sun, in all his brilliancy, ever looked upon. 
The paean of angels, as it sounded in the ears of the shep- 
herds on the plains of Bethlehem, proclaimed the advent of a 
Being, before whom and whose kingdom tyrants have trem- 
bled and conquerors fled away. The introduction of Chris- 
3* 



30 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

tianity was, indeed, a revolution. And what a revolution ! 
Where can we learn that such events belong to the world, 
that they interest man, whenever and wherever he is found, if 
not from this, the first, the greatest of the series ? Where can 
we be taught that the great end of great events has been the 
improvement, the progress, the elevation of man, if not in this, 
this " Heaven's best gift to man " ? We need not say, in this 
day and generation, that Christianity stopped not with those to 
whom it was proclaimed, that the influence of this greatest, 
because religious revolution was neither limited nor partial. 

For what was Christianity, and what was the purpose of the 
revolution which ushered it in ? It came, indeed, to proclaim 
that there was a God, a kind and beneficent Father. It pointed 
to a heaven. It spoke of a hereafter. But it did more than 
this. It came nearer to man as an inhabitant of earth. It 
whispered to him that he was an immortal being ; that he had 
within him a noble spirit, capable of exalted attainments, and 
destined to lofty purposes, even here ; a spark of divinity itself. 
It bade him cultivate, improve, exalt it. It bade him rise up in 
his native strength, to shake off the tyranny of ignorance, of 
vice, and of his fellow-man ; to burst asunder the shackles 
which bound down his high nature. It bade him be free ; in 
mind, that he might be intelligent ; in conscience, that he might 
be holy ; free in every thing, as his Creator had designed him. 
This was the grand purpose of the Christian dispensation, to 
fit man for heaven, by making him all that he could be on 
earth, and to give him an impulse, in this upward direction, 
which he should feel to the end of time. 

In the book of Revelation the perpetual promise to the Re- 
deemer is, " I will give him the morning star." Yes, there, in 
the sombre, but yet brightening skies, still shines, in full view 
of man, the ever-enduring star of morn, the herald and pledge 
of that " hope that comes to all." Beneath its placid beams 
the great purposes of infinite love and mercy will be rolled 
into full execution. Neither kingcraft nor priestcraft can hurl 
it from its lofty home, nor has hell storms dark enough en- 
tirely to obscure its cheering light. It will forever shine, the 



THE YOUTH OF CHRIST. 31 

pledge of deliverance from all wrongs, and freedom to all ranks ; 
the memento of that beginning of good days when God de- 
scended to the lowest parts of earth, that he might exalt man to 
the sublimest heights of heaven. 

" All stars, that fill Time's mystic diadem, 
Are falling stars, save that of Bethlehem." 



CHAPTER II. 

THE YOUTH OF CHRIST. 

IN HIS YOUTH, OCCUPIED IN TOIL SUCH AS THE GREAT MAJORITY 
OF MEN PURSUE. 

Jesus Christ came into this world to redeem it, to fill it 
with needful instruction and saving grace. There is not only 
infinite efficacy in the power of his blood to cleanse from sin ; 
there is also light in his life adapted to every age, force in his 
example vouchsafed to sustain the aspiring every where, and 
fortify the weak. The period of early youth, his preliminary 
training, is less amply portrayed in the Gospels than his public 
ministry ; but the stupendous achievements of his maturity 
bear an intimate relation to his juvenile career, rendering it 
desirable that we should contemplate the entire life of the 
great Redeemer as a unit, his teachings and actions as they are 
connected throughout, so as to derive the greatest profit from 
the harmonious view. 

In this discussion, we will consider two general points. In 
his youth, Christ was occupied in toil such as the great majority 
of men pursue. That toil was prosecuted under circumstances 
adapted to develop his powers, and prepare him for the perfect 
accomplishment of his divine mission on earth. 

In the first place, Christ, in his youthful condition on earth, 



32 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

was occupied in toil such as the great majority of men pursue. 
The Roman domination embraced nearly all the known world, 
when the Redeemer was born at the precise moment and in the 
exact locality where the sacred oracles had predicted that he 
should appear. Springing from a race of kings, and, in his 
extreme indigence, deprived even of the humblest asylum upon 
the earth he came to save, he represented in this double state 
the entire race of man. All the unfortunate who bear the 
burdens of toil and of pain, exiled patriotism, banished merit, 
wandering tribes, and outraged benefactors of every degree, 
may turn to the babe of Bethlehem, and recognize a brother in 
" Him through whom Jehovah bestows salvation," who was 
cradled into suffering by both power and want, and was from 
the outset violently pursued by the tyranny he came to overthrow. 
Several of the first years of our Lord's temporal life were 
passed in almost entire obscurity, wherein he accomplished the 
destiny of man, eating the bread which he gained in the sweat 
of his brow. Submissive to every filial obligation, it is recorded 
that he obeyed Joseph and Mary with perfect docility ; he ac- 
complished with them the precepts of the law, and it was thus 
that he grew in wisdom, in age, and in favor before God and 
men. As the deliverer of man condemned, the ennobler of man 
degraded, it was necessary that Jesus should at every step be 
the model of man in perfection, the source of all the graces by 
which we can, in following his precepts, and imitating his 
examples, reestablish in ourselves the image of God, which sin 
has defaced. No period of his progress, no incident in his life, 
is unworthy of our profoundest study. We should strive to 
penetrate the thoughts of eternal wisdom, and contemplate his 
ways in the marvellous work of our redemption. 

Infinite wisdom has not seen fit to grant us copious and 
minute details of our Savior's early life, but enough are trans- 
mitted to us to excite interesting thoughts and impart the most 
profitable lessons. The events of his maturity command our 
attention by their grandeur; but they are not the only ones 
worthy of our observation. On the contrary, we should study 



THE YOUTH OF CHRIST. 33 

the growth of this divine Being, " seek for the bud which con- 
cealed the seed, and the powers that conspired to unfold it." 

No other child was ever harassed by adversity and subject to 
the necessity of exhausting toil, like Jesus Christ. It began in 
the manger and ended only on the cross. A divine messenger 
came to Joseph, and directed him to fly with the child and his 
mother to Egypt. Think of the length of the journey required ; 
the ignorance of the parents with respect to the way they were 
to pursue ; the youth and feebleness of Mary, and the trembling 
age of Joseph ; the delicate condition of the infant they were to 
transport so far, over so rough a way ; and especially think how 
utterly unprovided they were with means of supporting them- 
selves in a foreign land. Groups of the lonely, sojourning in 
poverty far away from natal soil, behold your prototype and 
consolation in Christ ! How did that family procure food by the 
way, a shelter from the sun, and a covert from the storm ? 
Think of the tasks and sorrows that encompassed the child 
Jesus, in the dawning of his first consciousness, and the exer- 
cise of his first strength. 

At length the angel of the Lord again appears unto Joseph, 
saying, " Take the boy and his mother, and go into the land of 
Israel ; for they are dead who sought the life of the boy." Jo- 
sephus has told us who the tyrant was who had driven the young 
Redeemer from Judea, and whose death now allows his return. 
It was that Herod, who, at the close of a blood-stained life of 
seventy years, goaded by the furies of an evil conscience, 
racked by a painful and incurable disease, waiting for death but 
desiring life, raging against God and man, and maddened by 
the thought that the Jews, instead of bewailing his death, would 
rejoice over it as the greatest of blessings, commanded the 
worthies of the nation to be assembled in the Circus, and issued 
a secret order that, after his death, they should all be slain 
together, so that their kindred, at least, might have cause to 
weep for his death. It was this monster who sought to destroy 
the infant Christ, and it is the like of him that perpetually 
persecute the innocent, feeble, and unfortunate of earth. But 
he who is about to return from Egypt will grow up to be a 



34 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

mightier than Moses to conduct the people from bondage and 
deliver the tyrant's prey. His first impressions are those of 
cruel wrongs ; his earliest days are troubled by despotic rage ; 
his youthful limbs are chafed with incessant toil ; and he grows 
up keenly to observe on the one hand benignant old age buf- 
fetted by scorn and doubt, while on the other the " bright 
consummate flower " of her sex bends before the storm she 
cannot resist, diligently labors to foster the excellence she has 
produced, and at the source of human hope and fear tempers 
for our redemption the swelling attributes of one mighty to 
save. Thus, says Neander, " in the very beginning of the 
life of Him who was to save the world, we see a foreshadow- 
ing of what it was afterwards to be. The believing souls, to 
whom the lofty import of that life was shown by divine signs, 
saw in it the fulfilment of their longings ; the power of the 
world, ever subservient to evil, raged against it ; but amid 
all dangers, the hand of God guided and brought it forth 
victorious." 

From this general statement of the circumstances attendant 
on the early days of Christ on earth, let us proceed to remark 
that the suffering and toil into which he was plunged at so 
tender an age were adapted to develop his powers and fit him 
for the perfect accomplishment of the redemption he came to 
execute. The painful experience of his earliest struggles had 
the triple advantage of unfolding his energies, his sympathies, 
and his aspirations. 

In the first place, as is the case with all redeemers, his best 
energies were developed by the worst trials. Christ assumed 
our nature, bore our sorrows, fought our battles, won our tri- 
umphs. He came to this tearful and stormful earth to live out 
in actual experience, from the first pang to the last, the spiritual 
sorrows and physical deprivations of all Adam's race. Mon- 
arch supreme in heaven, and regal on earth even by right of 
birth, he chose to appear in the most humble condition. For 
oursakes he became poor, and entered upon the conquest of the 
world without noticing either its honors or its emoluments. In 
the eye of the wealthy and powerful he was regarded only as 



THE YOUTH OF CHRIST. 35 

" the carpenter's son." The morning of his career dawned 
in the lowest vale of life, where he shared the sufferings of the 
most destitute, the wretched abode of cattle even, for there 
was no room for him and his associates at the inn. Such was 
the pomp in which the'Deliverer of mankind appeared. The 
first acts of his divinity here below were struggles against want, 
and his destitution increased in proportion as his functions 
arose. The foxes had holes, and the fowls of the air had 
nests ; but the Son of man had no reposing place for his head. 
Poor and toil-worn to the end, he earned all with his own 
hands, or received from charity the bread he ate, the garments 
he wore, and the winding-sheet in which he was entombed. 
Whoever has struggled with difficulties almost to strangling at 
the very outset of his heroical career, — whoever has toiled 
all day to win a scanty sustenance, and, in mental desolateness 
and gloom deeper than night, has shrieked in agony to the 
God of heaven, — whoever has cloaked his outward wants and 
inward aspirations beneath the humble mechanic's garb, and 
gone forth, firm, silent, and resolute, learning the " priceless 
wisdom from endurance drawn" among his fellow-men, — 
whoever has mourned for " all the oppressions which are done 
under the sun," and been " mad for the sight of his eyes that 
he did see," — whoever has felt all the " wanderer in his 
soul," and striven through the tender years of youth with 
sweating brow, blistered hands, and bleeding heart, to win the 
weapons of moral warfare, and cleave a way to self-emanci- 
pation and the disinthralment of all mankind, — let him come 
and hug to his bosom that brother of the poor and young 
champion of the weak ; let him receive cheering words of 
fellow-feeling, and strength that shall never fail, from that 
Boy of Nazareth, the working Son of God. And in his inter- 
course with such an example of overcoming courage and 
patient efforts for the common weal, let him never despond, 
but remember 

"He that is born is listed; life is war — 
Eternal war with woe." 



36 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

Early to task the energies of a predestined hero through 
severe toil is gradually to make him acquainted with his latent 
might, and causes him to taste the glory of his own puttings 
forth and triumphs. It is thus that personal power is quickened 
and kept in motion. All that is divine on earth must be de- 
veloped and find expansive scope through resolute exertion. 
Of what use are wings to a young eagle so long as he sits in 
his eyry, looking out idly upon the vast expanse around him ? 
Because the first flappings of those pinions are of necessity 
feeble, they are not therefore to be kept perpetually unem- 
ployed. Mere instinct teaches the parent bird better than 
this. He early induces his young to try his strength, and if 
he refuses, for lack of confidence, he pitches him out ; and a 
few weeks of trials, constantly increased, constitute the glory 
and the joy of the young monarch of the air. Had he been 
moored in the dove's downy nest, his first flight would have 
sent him down dazzled before the rising day ; but with strong 
plumes growing from within himself, and strengthened by 
struggles to surmount or penetrate opposing blasts, he wins 
and adorns the birthright of his race, darting to the zenith 
unblenched, and bathing himself in the splendors of the noon- 
tide sun. The very condition of one in this world of sin and 
sorrow — the obscurity in which we perish, or from which we 
are compelled to emerge — vicissitudes of even' degree, and 
wants of every kind — every objective difficulty, and every 
subjective trial — all that can by any possibility be made to 
invigorate the body or arouse the mind — may be regarded as 
the compost out of which true heroism draws sap, acquires 
fibre, and imbibes the sustenance which aids the rising cham- 
pion to disclose the hidden beauty of his spirit, the symmetry 
of his form, and the flexile majesty of his invincible strength. 
Says Cowper, truly, — 

" Xo soil like poverty for growth divine, 
As leanest land supplies the richest -wine." 

All our higher faculties gain infinitely more of purity and 
power by breathing in content the keen and wholesome air of 



THE YOUTH OF CHRIST. 37 

penurv, than by all the enervating fumes which wealth can 
furnish through luxury and lust. The history of true great- 
ness exhibits not a single model who did not from the fust 
accustom himself to drink only from the well of homely life. 
Adversity, in exercising her power, loses her most offensive 
features, and develops in her victims their best strength. 
Said William Wallace to King Edward I., " Thou hast raised 
me among men. Without thy banners and cross-bows in 
array against me, I had sunk in utter forgetfulness. Thanks 
to thee for placing me, eternally, where no strength of mine 
could otherwise have borne me ! Thanks to thee for bathing 
my spirit in deep thoughts, in refreshing calm, in sacred still- 
ness ! This, O king, is the bath for knighthood : after this it 
may feast, and hear bold and sweet voices, and mount to its 
repose." The best energies of the greatest men are never 
fully unfolded within and without except by the ordeal of 
severe struggles and malignant sufferings. Almost every 
champion who has won eminent influence among his fellows 
might adopt the motto of Rousseau : " I was born weak ; ill 
treatment has made me strong." They who " wander in the 
torrid climes of fame," the sons of beneficent genius, who are 
born to elevate the existence of the human race, must in the 
beginning shed many bitter sweat-drops, and give vent in soli- 
tude to many tear-steeped sighs. It is thus that the godlike 
is ever compelled to do penance for superabundant powers, 
and pay, with exhausting interest, the debt which he owes to 
suffering humanity. No great redeeming spirit appears on 
earth to be ministered unto, but to minister ; it is his highest 
prerogative and best reward to serve, to elevate, to bless. 
All wisdom that pertains to salvation is bought with labor and 
pain, and he who pants for the holiest truth and the highest 
power, will be indulged just so far as he climbs the rugged 
heights of tribulation with delight. 

Lord Bacon compared virtue, or true manliness, to precious 
odors, " most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed ; 
for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best 
4 



38 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

discover virtue." Here is a high truth ; but Jesus came, in 
the circumstances of his birth, in the toils and deprivations of 
his youth, to teach us a higher and a better. He would have 
us no longer leave, unperceived, or, if known, despised, the 
numerous examples of heroical poverty, which lie all around, 
and which should challenge the fostering sympathy of all 
mankind. Shrouded in obscurity and enduring neglect, still 
are they the choicest denizens of the earth, coming here to 
devote their lives to benevolence, sacrificing themselves to 
duty and the defence of justice in view of inevitable persecu- 
tion, perhaps of prisons or the rack. O, what moral grandeur 
in such examples is exemplified, and what divine lessons do 
they teach. We almost hear each consecrated votary at the 
shrine of Eternal Righteousness exclaim from the depths of 
his soul, " Poverty may humble my lot, but it shall not debase 
me ; temptation may shake my nature, but not the rock on 
which thy temple is based ; misfortune may wither all the 
hopes that blossomed in the dewy morning of my life, but I 
will offer dead leaves when the flowers are no more. Though 
all the loved objects of earth perish, all that I have coveted 
fade away, I may groan under my burden, but I will never be 
recreant to duty, never disloyal to thee, O my God." Such 
resignation, suffering supported with so much constancy, was 
indeed noble, as seen, for instance, in the immolation of Soc- 
rates ; but how much more sublime in the youthful struggles 
of Jesus Christ ! What is there so exalted or divine " as a 
great and brave spirit working Out its end through every 
earthly obstacle and evil ; watching through the utter dark- 
ness, and steadily defying the phantoms which crowd around 
it ; wrestling with the mighty allurements, and rejecting the 
fearful voice of that Want which is the deadliest and surest of 
human tempters ; nursing through all calamity the love of the 
species, and the warmer and closer affections of private ties ; 
sacrificing no duty, resisting all sin ; and amid every horror 
and every humiliation, feeding the still and bright light of that 
genius, which, like the lamp of the fabulist, though it may 



THE YOUTH OF CHRIST. 39 

waste itself for years amidst the depths of solitude and the 
silence of the tomb, shall live and burn immortal and un- 
dimmed, when all around it is rottenness and decay ? " But 
if it thrills every generous fibre of our nature to observe a 
fellow-creature thus toiling to be free and beneficent, what 
shall we think of that wonderful Being who deigned to assume 
humanity's woes, and struggle up from childhood through the 
most abject trials, that from the throne of heaven and the 
thrones of earth he might win the energies of almightiness to 
redeem mankind ! It is indeed strange to see a Savior incar- 
nate in a manger, and, from the first developments of youth, 
tied with base entanglements which, through all subsequent 
life, are destined to grow closer and closer, till death sets the 
inthralled divinity free. But the sight is glorious and instruc- 
tive as it is strange. It tells us that effort is the condition of 
growth ; that he who came to be a matured and perfect Re- 
deemer had first to perform the appropriate toils of a youth- 
ful God. 

In the second place, the sympathies of the young Messiah 
were as effectually developed by the stern necessity of toil, as 
were the other elements of redeeming strength. Man's destiny 
is best achieved, and his most valuable fruit produced, through 
the agency of suffering. This is a great mystery, and would 
be stranger still, did we not see the fact exemplified in the 
purest man " that e'er wore flesh about him," and who, in all 
his career on earth, was the greatest of sufferers. Standing 
on the shore of that great sea of agony into which the Deliv- 
erer plunged to rescue a perishing race, we learn, through our 
own limited but bitter experience, that in the tumult and pres- 
sure of the profoundest billows of dark despair, God elaborated 
the sympathetic love, and gave to the world a tortured and 
bleeding heart, as the best symbol of its condition, and solace 
for its woe. As the unfathomed deep which unceasingly 
vibrates, the billows which forever moan, the waterspouts 
which fall back with crashing might upon the tempest that gave 
them birth, the lightnings that fringe cloud and billow, and the 



40 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

thunders which shake the mighty main, may all be necessary 
to perfect the pearl lying in the obscurest coral depth, — so are 
the storms of life designed to develop in their gloom bright 
gems for the sunshine of heaven. Pliny tells us that the ring 
of Pyrrhus contained a jewel which had the figures of Apollo 
and all the Muses in the veins of it, produced by the sponta- 
neous hand of nature, without any help from art. The youth 
of Christ was adorned with fairer features than any that belong 
to the loveliest productions of earth, but they were unfolded 
amid the severest exactions of sublunary toil. At an early age 
he was given up to the powers of darkness, to the end that, 
tempered in suffering, like a blade of steel in furnace flames 
and mountain torrents, he might become an irresistible sword 
to conquer the genius of evil and set humanity free. It was 
necessary that he should traverse " the vacant bosom's wilder- 
ness," and stand worn and desolate in " the leafless desert of 
the soul," that he might sympathize with the great mass of our 
race, who are born in that condition, and in it are compelled to 
grow. "If misfortunes could be remedied by tears," says 
Muretus, " tears would be purchased with gold. Misfortune 
does not call for tears, but counsel." This advice, however, 
which is adapted at the same time to soothe and guide effectu- 
ally, can originate only in a tenderly-experienced soul. " Few 
are the hearts whence one same touch bids the sweet fountain 
flow ; " but Christ was the chief of such, and was always ready 
to relieve the distressed, because from his tenderest years he 
had experienced their direst pangs. In every respect he was 
a model of moral excellence, possessing superlative worth ; 
and this superiority consisted not a little in the fact that, con- 
sidered in his human qualities, his was one of those 
" Souls that carry on a blest exchange 
Of joys they meet with in their heavenly range, 
And, with a fearless confidence, make known 
The sorrows sympathy esteems its own, 
Daily desire increasing light and force 
From such communion in their pleasant course, 
Feel less their journey's roughness, and its length, 
Meet their opposers with united strength, 



THE YOUTH OF CHRIST. 41 

And, one in heart, in interest, and design, 
Give up each other in the race divine." 

The youthful days of our Savior were full of toil, such as is 
common to mankind ; and this toil was adapted to develop his 
energies for the coming strife, and enlarge his sympathies for 
the suffering of every class. These are the points thus far 
considered. We would remark, thirdly, that in those early 
scenes of bitter experience, his aspirations were divine, and 
doubtless urged him with profounder ardor to break the fetters 
of the world. The Hebrew nations expected a Deliverer, and 
Micah had foretold that the promised king should be born in 
Bethlehem, the very place where the house of David had its 
origin. The Messiah appeared ; but the lowly circumstances 
of his birth and youth were in striking contrast with his inhe- 
rent dignity, and the glory it was supposed he would bring. 
That he should make his advent in the guise of a carpenter's 
son, and accustom himself to manual toil, instead of assuming 
at once the splendors of worldly dominion, rendered him, to 
the minions of priestly and regal power, the object of loathing 
and contempt. We must remember that Christ was all the 
while conscious of this ; that, in the face of the upper and most 
oppressive circles, and in spite of their rage, he, from the be- 
ginning, chose to identify himself with the lowest rank of com- 
mon people, share their burdens, sympathize with their sorrows, 
and aspire to deliver them from all their wrongs. In the midst 
of the most menial pursuits, he fostered the sublimest purposes 
of soul ; in " clear dream and solemn vision " he contemplated 
the auspicious destinies of the human race, and, in view of 
what his own almighty hand should, at the proper time, per- 
form, labored on in patient thoughtfulness, lifting his young 
brow ever and anon toward heaven, to " hail the coming on of 
time." Let the youth, whose divine aspirations chafe against 
the chill impediments of earthly want and depressing toil, con- 
template the history of the great pattern, and be content to 

" Wait for the dawning of a brighter day, 
And snap the chain the moment when he may." 
4 # 



42 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

The fallen race of Adam have an Advocate who ever lives to 
make intercession in their behalf; one who was thrust out from 
the houses of the rich and powerful here below, that he might 
prepare for outcasts mansions of glory on high ; one who 
graced the mechanic's shop, and sweat great drops of agony 
on the barren earth, ere he broke his mighty heart on the cross, 
and ascended in triumph to the mediatorial throne. He was 
humanity's worker before he was humanity's Savior. His ex- 
perience in the flesh spread out his sympathies from the lowest 
to the highest, prompted him to break down all hinderances to 
personal freedom, and, by both precept and example, encour- 
aged pure aspirations in every breast. There is vast signifi- 
cance in his command, " Suffer little children to come unto 
me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." 
Because Christ had himself been a child, he knew to what 
sublime height the thoughts of children, the most obscure, 
may rise. 

So abjectly subject to sin and the slavery of grovelling hab- 
its is man, that he needs some one who has not partaken of the 
fall to stand by his side at every step, and with divine earnest- 
ness to tell him how much he is yet able to perform, despite 
the degradation he has incurred. The world of youth needs 
the example of that sinless one, whose every action and ap- 
pearance are designed to disclose how that we should put forth 
all the divinity of deed, of attitude, and of expression, of 
which our immortal nature is capable. He demonstrated that 
all fortune can be conquered by bearing it ; and no more valu- 
able lesson can, by the young, be learned. Every soul has its 
bright visions, as well as its sombre ; but, unfortunately, in this 
uncongenial world, it is the better aspirations that we are least 
disposed to indulge. " The vision and the faculty divine " is 
greatly obscured, because its exercise is but little encouraged 
by our associates. Each one may have his own occasional 
gleams of exalted things, but he will be little inclined to con- 
template the revelations made to others. The world is less 
disposed to recognize our sincerity, when delineating the gor- 



THE YOUTH OF CHRIST. 43 

geous heights of celestial achievements which, in meditation, 
we have seen, than when detailing those loathsome phantasies 
in which the best of depraved beings sometimes revel. Thus 
the frigid multitude without forces us to be hypocrites, when 
we have the strongest disposition to be sincere in the best pur- 
suit, and to assume a supineness and meagreness which ill cor- 
respond to the height, and depth, and lavish variety, of the 
inner man, in its spontaneous efforts to expand and soar. But 
Jesus most acutely experienced " the Teachings of our souls," 
and made provision for their freest and widest flight. Impelled 
by divinest aspirations, he would have us mount to the starry 
gates of God's dwelling in the skies, and drink into our panting 
souls, with unutterable ravishment, broad and clear beamings 
of his mysterious splendor, and then, in our generous warmth, 
he would have us hasten to distribute among our brethren the 
glad and sanctifying beams with which we are imbued. If 
they spurn our gift, depreciate its value, deny even its existence, 
and question our capacity to attain views so blissful, he would 
not have us chilled into despair by the captiousness we incur, 
but hold on our way in patient effort, till Omnipotence comes 
to crown with success our beneficent design. 

Says Neander, " There was peculiar fitness in Christ's being 
born among the Jewish people. His life revealed the kingdom 
of God, which was to be set up over all men ; and it properly 
commenced in a nation whose political life, always developed 
in a theocratic form, was the continued type of that kingdom. 
He was the culminating point of this development ; in him 
the kingdom of God, no longer limited to this single people, 
was to show its true design, and, unfettered by physical or 
national restraints, to assert its authority over the whole human 
race. The particular typifies the universal ; the earthly the 
celestial. So David, the monarch who had raised the political 
theocracy of Jesus to the pinnacle of glory, typified that greater 
Monarch, in whom the kingdom of God was to display its glory. 
Not without reason, therefore, was it that Christ, the summit 
of the theocracy, sprang from the fallen line of royal David." 



44 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

And yet, what is remarkable in the youth of Christ, he never 
fortified his claims to popular regard by allusions to an illus- 
trious ancestry, and his origin from royal blood. On the 
contrary, he avoided courting the favor of the worldly great, 
refused to meddle with every thing connected with oppressive 
sovereignty, and preferred the humblest position among the 
masses, at once their symbol, their champion, and friend. The 
beautiful spirit of young Christ, rising from the people and 
shining on them all, 

" Looked down on earth.' s distinctions, high and low, 
Sunken or soaring, as the equal sun 
Sheds light along the vale and mountain's brow." 

Great and beneficent souls always rise from the general 
mass and belong to it. They spring from the industrious ranks, 
diffuse the principles of equality, bind the great elements of 
society together, and ennoble them. They inspire fresh 
thoughts, execute generous deeds, and transmit the grandest 
influence to the end of time. Such, in a preeminent degree, 
was the case with the "child Jesus." Though he was in 
character divine and of exalted birth, he claimed no immunities 
on account of these considerations, but, from the lowest grade 
of rational existence, dared to aspire to the highest, and win 
the most glorious attitude by his own sufferings and toil. He 
was not educated in a learned school, nor sustained by any 
favorable combination of clique and circumstance. " He was 
obliged to contend with poverty, lowness, and contempt, and 
was surrounded with obstacles, difficulties, and dangers, which 
seemed invincible. In his obscure and helpless condition, 
however, we find him capable of forming a plan for the good 
of all nations, and cherishing a thought which lay beyond the 
reach of human intellect, though possessed of the greatest 
powers, and exercised under the most favorable circumstances. 
We find him capable of making a bold effort to carry it into 
execution, and indulging a hope that all would be accom- 
plished, never firmer than in the moment when to human view 
all was lost ; when he was forsaken by his intimate friends, 



THE YOUTH OF CHRIST. 45 

opposed and even put to death by his nation. What conclu- 
sion must we draw from a phenomenon so distinct in its kind ? 
Shall we not be justified in considering him the most exalted 
sage, the greatest benefactor of mankind, a most credible mes- 
senger of the Godhead ? " • 

The aspirations of our Lord in his early youth, their intensity 
and lofty aim, are indicated by the circumstances of a well- 
known event, concerning which the profoundest of modern 
commentators remarks as follows : — 

" Of the early history of Jesus we have only a single inci- 
dent ; but that incident strikingly illustrates the manner in 
which the consciousness of his divine nature developed itself 
in the mind of the child. Jesus had attained his twelfth year, 
a period which was regarded among the Jews as the dividing 
line between childhood and youth, and at which regular reli- 
gious instruction and the study of the law were generally en- 
tered upon. For that reason, his parents, who were accus- 
tomed to visit Jerusalem annually at the time of the Passover, 
took him with them for the first time. When the feast was 
over, and they were setting out on their return, they missed 
their son. This, however, does not seem to have alarmed 
them, and perhaps he was accustomed to remain with certain 
kindred families or friends. Indeed, we are told (Luke ii. 44) 
that they expected to find him ' in the company,' at the even- 
ing halt of the caravan. Disappointed in this expectation, they 
returned the next morning to Jerusalem, and, on the following 
day, found him in the synagogue of the temple, among the 
priests, who had been led by his questions into a conversation 
on points of faith. His parents reproached him for the unea- 
siness he had caused them, and he replied, l Why did you 
seek me ? Did you not know that I must be about my Father'' s 
business ? ' Now, these words of Jesus contain no explanation, 
beyond his tender years, of the relations which he sustained to 
the Father; they manifest simply the consciousness of a child, 
— a depth, to be sure, but yet only a depth of presentiment. 

" We can draw various important inferences from this inci- 



46 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

dent in the early life of Christ. At a tender age he studied 
the Old Testament, and obtained a better knowledge of its 
religious value by the light that was within him than any human 
instruction could have imparted. Nor was this beaming forth 
of an immediate consciousness of divine things in the mind of 
the child, in advance of the development of his powers of dis- 
cursive reason, at all alien to the character and progress of 
human nature, but entirely in harmony with it. Nor need we 
wonder that the infinite riches of the hidden spiritual life of the 
child first manifested themselves to his consciousness, as if 
suggested by his conversation with the doctors, and that his 
direct intuitions of divine truth, the flashes of spiritual light 
that emanated from him, amazed the masters in Israel. It not 
unfrequently happens, in our human life, that the questions of 
others are thus suggestive to great minds, and, like steel upon 
the flint, draw forth their inner light, at the same time revealing 
to their own souls the unknown treasures that lay in their hid- 
den depths. But they give more than they receive ; the out- 
ward suggestion only excites to action their creative energy ; 
and men of reflective and receptive, rather than creative, 
minds, by inciting the latter to know and develop their vast 
resources, may not only learn much from their utterance, but 
also diffuse the streams which gush with overflowing fulness 
from these abundant well-springs. And these remarks, apply- 
ing — i n a sense in which they apply to no other — to that 
mind, lofty beyond all human comparison, whose creative 
thoughts are to fertilize the spiritual life of man through all 
ages, and whose creative power sprang from its mysterious 
union with that Divine Word which gave birth to all things, 
show us that his consciousness developed itself gradually, and 
in perfect accordance with the laws of human life, from that 
mysterious union which formed its ground. 

" And further, without in the least attempting to do away 
with the peculiar form of the cliilcVs spiritual life, we can 
recognize in this incident a dawning sense of his divine mis- 
sion in the mind of Jesus ; a sense, however, not yet unfolded 



THE YOUTH OF CHRIST. 47 

in the form in which the corruption of the world, objectively- 
presented, alone could occasion its development. The child 
found congenial occupation in the things of God ; in the Temple 
he was at home. And, on the other hand, we see an opening 
consciousness of the peculiar relation in which he stood to the 
Father as the Son of God. We delight to find, in the early- 
lives of eminent men, some glimpses of the future, some indi- 
cations of their after greatness ; so we gladly recognize, in the 
pregnant words of the child, a foreshadowing of what is after- 
wards so fully revealed to us in the discourses of the com- 
pletely-manifested Christ, especially as they are given to us in 
John's Gospel." 

The history of rising worth has nothing to compare with that 
temple scene. A youth appears " sitting in the midst of the 
doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions. And 
all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and 
answers." He comes into the assembly of venerable sages 
with a mild and pensive countenance, that seems haunted with 
earnest thought. He is no favorite of earthly fortune, no scion 
of aristocratic pride, no pet of exclusive schools, but the sim- 
ple child of the unsophisticated people, steeped to the lips in 
suffering ; and yet, mightier than the domes that bend above 
him, he is for the intellect and heart of man a glorious living 
temple, built with the choicest riches of unnumbered worlds. 
The first question he propounds startles the attention of all who 
hear him, and creates the greatest astonishment in the most 
profound ; for his words bear that charm of immaculate wis- 
dom which can neither be defaced nor excelled. Question 
succeeds to question, and learning, in despair, grows more and 
more confused, in this, the grandest gladiatorship of mind yet 
witnessed on earth. Sage after sage, swelling with wounded 
pride, is silenced before that youth apparelled in the plain attire 
of peasant life, radiant with the celestial light that emanates 
from an aspiring heart, and bent on throwing wide open the 
gates of instruction to all. The whole park of artillery which 
power and craft have erected on their contracted citadels he 



48 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

has spiked, and, like " a mailed angel on a battle day," he 
rejoices in his triumph, not for himself, but for the sake of the 
benighted multitudes around. Free thought and free discus- 
sion then and there were born ! 



CHAPTER III. 

THE MANHOOD OF CHRIST. 

IN MATURITY, TRAINED BY SUFFERINGS SUCH AS MANKIND IN GENERAL 
ARE DOOMED TO ENDURE. 

It is important that we keep constantly in view the rela- 
tion which the progressive development of Christ's manhood 
bore to the complete accomplishment of his divine mission, 
The years of his life which were most veiled in obscurity were 
full of preparatory discipline, wisely adapted to the sublimest 
ends. The lowly circumstances of his infancy, the severe toils 
of his youth, and the varied experience of his early manhood, 
were doubtless designed gradually to awaken the full con- 
sciousness of that divine call, and fortify him with that perfect 
mastery over adverse powers, which he displayed on entering 
upon his public life. From an infinite diversity of sources 
sublunary and celestial, Jesus imbibed energies of every kind 
which, with irresistible concentrativeness, were at length em< 
ployed to redeem and renovate the world. To the silent 
solitary preparation which transpired in the life of Christ be 
tween the ages of twelve and thirty, let us now attend. 

In examining this period of transition from youthful conse- 
cration to perpetual struggle and triumphant sacrifice, we shall 
find that our Redeemer experienced much of social oppression, 
personal self-reliance, and the seductions of power. 

In the first place, Jesus Christ experienced much of the 



THE MANHOOD OF CHRIST. 49 

bitterness produced by social oppression. Suffering humanity- 
drank from no cup and experienced no wrongs in which he 
did not participate. He was in all points tempted like as we 
are, yet sinless. He knew no actual participation of depravity ; 
but, as he rose from the lowest vale of human existence, and 
pressed through every barrier that sin has raised, he learned 
how to sympathize with a fallen race in every pang they 
endured. This was essential to the full development of the 
Messianic character, and the perfect discharge of the work he 
came to perform. He entered upon various human relation- 
ships, mingled intimately with human beings of every class, and 
witnessed human wretchedness of every degree. That which 
he saw, felt, and wept over, made profound impressions on his 
mighty heart, and nerved him, amid the tempest of vicarious 
woe, to win peace for mankind. 

Jesus, in common with nearly all who are born to elevate 
and bless the world, was disparaged by those who had the best 
evidences of his worth, and found least encouragement from 
the kindred to whom he was most closely allied. Various state- 
ments of the evangelists inform us that Christ had younger 
brothers and sisters. For instance, they who witnessed the 
first marvels of his career said, " Is not this the carpenter, the 
son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and Simon, and 
Juda ? and are not his sisters here with us ? " A distinguished 
critic observes, — 

" It is worthy of note that Mark and John agree in stating 
that these brothers of the Savior remained unbelievers during 
his stay on earth — a fact which illustrates the truthfulness of the 
history, since it by no means tended to glorify either Christ or 
his brothers, one of whom, at least, (James,) was in high re- 
pute among the Jewish Christians. It is not to be wondered 
at that the prophet was without honor among those who dwelt 
under the same roof, and saw him grow up under the same 
laws of ordinary human nature with themselves. True, this 
daily contact afforded them many opportunities of beholding 
the Divinity that streamed through the veil of his flesh ; yet it 
5 



50 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

required a spiritual mind and a lively faith to recognize the 
revealed Son of God in the lowly garb of humanity. The 
impression of humanity made upon their senses day after day, 
and thus grown into a habit, could not be made to yield to the 
divine manifestations, unless in longer time than was required 
for others ; but when it did yield, and, after such long-continued 
opposition, they acknowledged their brother as the Son of God 
and the Messiah, they only became thereby the more trust- 
worthy witnesses." 

The whole life of Christ on earth was tragical in the highest 
degree ; the portions which were most obscure, not less so 
than the scenes on Calvary and Olivet. Think of the desolate- 
ness of that preparatory state, wherein his own kindred dis- 
carded his claims, and oppressed him with all the chilling 
weight of undisguised distrust. Nothing is sublimer in the 
history of mind than the lonely struggles which precede and 
generate success. Every predestined hero will have to de- 
monstrate his superior worth by encountering and overcoming 
the most undeserved obstructions. Long before an effective 
foothold is attained, he will have suffered most from unex- 
pected quarters, and been more aroused by neglect than by 
timely aid. Misfortune is a fire that melts weak hearts, but 
renders the firm purer and stronger. How many of the best 
of our race can recognize their model and consolation in the 
unfriended youth of Nazareth ! Let the young man compelled 
to struggle with that sorest destiny, relatives who foster not 
but rather congeal his warmest hopes, take heart from the 
experience of his Lord, homeless and brotherless among his 
own kindred, but yet on his way to the conquest of popular 
prejudice, the redemption of degraded humanity, and the pos- 
session of power the most comprehensive and supreme. 

How merciful was God to the best desires of the best hearts, 
to portray before the world the discipline of toil and neglect 
which his beloved Son endured ! Alas for the nobly aspiring, 
if they derive not more solace from this heavenly example 
than can be found in the selfishness of earth ! In every age, 



THE MANHOOD OF CHRIST. 51 

oppressive sceptres and galling chains have been broken by- 
youthful hands nerved by wrongs, " as the rock shivers in the 
thunder stroke;" and in almost every instance these saviors, 
like their great Pattern, have been inured for the strife by the 
contempt or envy which at the outset they incurred. They 
arose in the field or shop, panting to be useful, and demanding 
only the patronage of good will and a fair opportunity to ex- 
ercise their gifts. Some have contemptuously glanced at the 
lowly condition of such, saying, " Can any good thing come 
out of sources so obscure ? " and have done what they could to 
depress the native talents with which they are too ignoble to 
sympathize. But when the wealthy and powerful of earth 
discard all claims on their regard proffered by the indigent 
candidate for usefulness and the highest fame, how sweet to 
turn to Christ for sympathy and support ! How easy of access 
is he ! How grateful to walk with him in the dusty path of hard 
endeavor, and spread before his generous heart our own 
benevolent and comprehensive schemes, when all others are 
distant and deaf — him, my fellow-mechanic, brother sufferer, 
kindred student, friend, teacher, God! 

At an early day, the great Deliverer began to look out from 
the centre of his own domestic circle through all the ramifica- 
tions of the human race, and saw that injustice and oppression 
every where prevailed. His keen experience of this set in 
operation his superhuman energies to defend the feeble and 
demolish the strong. He won a mastership over injustice even 
while suffering it, and through the paths of distress ascended 
to the highest triumphs and the best repose. Hence he ex- 
claimed to those who would tread in his footsteps and emulate 
his deeds, " In the world ye will be oppressed ; but be of good 
courage, I have conquered the world." In a manner full of 
light and encouragement, he has taught the champions of 
righteousness that it is their doom and reward to endure much 
that is oppressive, in order that they may the better know how 
to appreciate the invulnerable nature within man, which may 
be abused but cannot be destroyed. Providence has armed 



52 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

the mind with a quality which lies at the foundation of many 
excellences, and supports them all. This is fortitude which, 
by throwing a spirit of graceful endurance into every mental 
energy, gives beauty to grandeur, and tranquillity to zeal. 
Much is this quality needed, since 

" In this wild world the fondest and the best 
Are the most tried, most troubled, and distressed." 

In addition to the bestowal of fortitude as a prime element 
of the soul, there is a fact connected with its exercise which 
claims our gratitude. It is, that when the victim has endured 
his appointed suffering with unflinching heroism, and when 
vanquished fortune is compelled herself to admire, he is 
always the admiration of the world, as well as its greatest 
benefit. There is a potency in the daring heart of the resolute, 
to which even destiny must yield. Let us remember that, as 
the most beautiful roses bloom in dreary Lapland, as the richest 
diamonds are found on the stormiest coasts, and as porphyry 
hardens the more it is exposed to the elements, so the best 
virtues of the soul are generally disciplined by the sternest 
trials. 

This truth has been felt and enforced by all who have ex- 
celled in every age. Zeno taught it in the severe philosophy 
of the Porch ; and the artist who gave to fame the wonderful 
group of Laocoon felt this sentiment deeply, as he sculptured 
colossal agony in marble, and transmitted to succeeding gener- 
ations that sublime representation of an heroical spirit struggling 
in the serpent-coils that would cripple his benevolence, and yet 
not altogether overcome by his pangs. The great father of 
tragedy imbodied this idea in his masterpiece, when, in Pro- 
metheus bound, he demonstrated that neither the shaking earth, 
nor the rending heavens, a bed of rock without, nor vulture 
fangs within, could cause regret for good deeds already done, 
or terror in view of evil yet to be inflicted. Filled with for- 
titude based on conscious merit, the torn victim, even amid his 
most cruel tortures, would not stoop so low as to be envious 



THE MANHOOD OF CHRIST. 53 

towards the dishonorable prosperity of Mercury, his tyrannical 
foe. Although so borne down with sufferings that naked ex- 
istence, alone remained to him, still the sweets of benevolence 
and the balm of heavenly courage flow in each pulsation of the 
throbbing heart through all the avenues of tortured life. Marius, 
seated among the ruins of Carthage, was the impersonation of 
heroical endurance, and a striking exemplification of this in- 
herent power of the manly mind. The shattered and pros- 
trate city was a type of the fallen fortunes of the conqueror ; 
but the contrast between the soul unbent, the hero undaunted, 
and the surrounding mass of ruins, presents in a striking aspect 
that element of indomitable power which forever glows in the 
brave of soul. But Christ came, the mighty architect of all 
things majestic and fair, to reconstruct with pristine glory a 
world far gone in moral decay. His object was not only to 
suffer in our stead, but to teach us by example how superior to 
suffering mind can be made. Every event of his life, and 
every phase of his sorrow, inward struggles and outward ob- 
structions, are full of meaning for us, and for all persons who 
have sensibilities to be crushed or hardships to endure. Es- 
pecially should they who have to do with the young and the 
unfortunate recognize the latent germs of worth and capacity 
which the Almighty has deposited in every human soul. This 
was what Christ was most prompt to do, the mighty achieve- 
ment which he alone could effectually perform. At the mo- 
ment when all the earth groaned with longings for deliverance, 
a voice arose in Judea, the voice of Him who came to suffer 
and to die for his brethren, proclaiming the dawn of freedom 
for every land, solace for every woe. This was the capenter's 
son, poor, persecuted, forsaken, who cried to the multitudes 
crushed beneath the burdens of depravity and toil, " Come 
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give 
you rest." To heal the evils which afflict our race, he assumed 
their condition, on their behalf met every claim of infinite jus- 
tice, and opened the fountains of redemption and charity freely 
to all mankind. 

5* 



54 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

Men every where became manageable under the eye and 
the moulding hand of Christ, because, in addition to the 
native divinity of his character, the depth and variety of his 
human experience enabled him to get close to them — closely 
in contact with their inmost selves. He did not spin about him 
an impervious web of conventional prejudices and feelings, 
which protected his tender soul from the touch of ordinary 
bystanders. The beings and vicissitudes with which he came 
in contact day by day and hour by hour, touched the inner- 
most and tenderest fibres of his being. He thus learned to 
sway the masses, because he could draw them with the cords 
of a man. The winding passages to the human heart he had 
critically scanned, and all its trembling sensibilities he had felt ; 
hence, through the outer sanctuary, into the very presence of 
the most hidden spirit, he could advance at once, holding the 
object of his mercy spell-bound by his tones and the first 
glance of his eye, because that eye moistened with sympathy 
for the suffering, and there were tears in his voice which no 
degree of obduracy could resist. But what was the educa- 
tional process preparatory to a mission so divine ? How were 
results so grand and beneficent attained ? 

This leads us to remark that Jesus experienced much of 
personal self-reliance. His education was not professional, but 
personal ; it was self-development, in the most free and un- 
limited degree. Neander has profoundly explored this topic, 
and on it remarks, — 

" We have already seen that in the early progress of the 
mind of Christ every thing was original and direct, and that 
external occasions were needed only to bring out his inward 
activity. As we must suppose that his development was sub- 
sequently continued in the same way, we come at once to the 
conclusion that his education for a teacher was not due to any 
of the theological schools then existing in Judea. But we can 
reach this conclusion only by comparing the peculiar tenden- 
cies of those schools with the aims of Christ, with his mode 
of life and instruction, and with the spirit which he diffused 



THE MANHOOD OF CHRIST. 55 

around him. In the outset, how unlike Christ was the legal 
spirit of Pharisaism, with its soul-crushing statutes, its dead 
theology of the letter, and its barren subtilties ! Some few of 
the sect, endowed with a more earnest religious sense, and a 
more sincere love of truth than their fellows, could not resist 
the impression of Christ's divine manifestation ; but they came 
to him with a full knowledge of the difference between his 
mode of teaching and theirs, and not as to a teacher sprung 
from among themselves. They had first to overcome their 
surprise at his strange and extraordinary language, before they 
could enter into closer connection with him. They had to 
renounce the wisdom of their schools, to disclaim their legal 
righteousness, and to attach themselves to Christ with the same 
sense of deficiency in themselves, and with the same desire for 
what he alone could impart, as all other men. 

" The spirit of the Sadducees presents a still more rugged 
contrast to the spirit of Christ. Their schools agreed in noth- 
ing but denying ; their only bond of union was opposition to 
the Pharisees, against whom they strove to reestablish the 
original Hebraism, freed from the foreign elements which the 
Pharisaic statutes had mixed up with it. But an agreement 
in negation can be only an apparent one, if the negation rests 
upon an opposite positive principle. Thus certain negative 
doctrines, that agree with Protestantism in rejecting the au- 
thority and traditions of the Romish church, separate them- 
selves farther from Protestantism than the Romish doctrine 
itself, by the affirmative principle on which they rest their 
denial, and by carrying that denial too far. The single posi- 
tive principle of Sadduceeism was the one-sided prominence 
given by them to morality, which they separated from its 
necessary inward union with religion. But Christ's combat 
with the Pharisees arose out of the fullest interpenetration of 
the moral and religious elements. The Sadducees wished to 
cut off the progressive development of Hebraism at an arbi- 
trary point. They refused to recognize the growing conscious- 
ness of God, which, derived from the Mosaic institute, formed 



56 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

a substantial feature of Judaism, and hence could not compre- 
hend the higher religious element from which, as a germ, un- 
der successive divine revelations, the spiritual life of Judaism 
was to be gradually developed. Rejecting all such growth as 
foreign and false, they held a subordinate and isolated point to 
be absolute and perpetual ; adhering to the letter rather than 
the spirit. To the forced allegorizing of the Pharisees in 
interpreting the Scripture they opposed a slavishly literal and 
narrow exegesis. But Christ, on the other hand, while he 
rejected the Pharisaic traditions, received into his doctrine all 
the riches of divine knowledge which the progressive growth 
of Theism, up to the time of John the Baptist, had brought 
forth. His agreement, then, with the Sadducees, consisting, 
as it did, solely in opposition to Pharisaism, was merely nega- 
tive and apparent. 

" Had the source of Christ's mighty power been merely a 
doctrine, it might have been received, or at least suggested, 
from abroad. But his power lay in the impression which his 
manifestation and life as the Incarnate God produced ; and this 
could never have been derived from without. The peculiar 
import of his doctrine, as such, consists in its relation to him- 
self as a part of his self-revelation, and image of his unorigi- 
nated and inherent life ; and this alone suffices to defy all 
attempts at external explanation. Had Jesus been trained in 
the Jewish seminaries, his opponents would, doubtless, have 
reproached him with the arrogance of setting up for master 
where he himself had been a pupil. But, on the contrary, 
we find that they censured him for attempting to explain the 
Scriptures without having enjoyed the advantages of the 
schools, (John 7 : 15.) His first appearance as a teacher in 
the synagogue at Nazareth carried even greater surprise, as 
he was known there, not as one learned in the law, but rather 
as a carpenter's son, who had, perhaps, himself worked at his 
father's trade. The general impression of his discourses every 
where was, that they contained totally different materials from 
those furnished by the theological schools. (Matt. 7 : 29.)" 



THE MANHOOD OF CHRIST. 57 

One of the most striking features of Christ's education was 
the purity, strength, and copiousness of his affections. From 
the aristocracies of the age, in both church and state, he was 
isolated and contradistinguished ; but to his sisters, to children, 
and to all spirits not dwarfed by bigotry and degraded by pas- 
sion, he was ever closely allied. He first breathed on the 
breast of a virgin, and perpetually grew in intimate contact 
with the great heart of humanity, throbbing in the bosom of 
unsophisticated life. He came to uprear love's standard upon 
the battlements of truth ; and he won his best preparation for 
the task, not in the contracted and desiccative influence of po- 
lemical warfare, but amid the expanding and ennobling ten- 
dencies which prevail where * glides the calm current of do- 
mestic joy." 

Speaking of a great master of American theology, a dis- 
tinguished professor at Andover recently remarked, — 

" We cannot help wishing that he had been somewhat more 
of a brother, and somewhat less of a champion ; that he had 
left his book on the Will just as large as it is, but had made his 
book on the Affections and sentiments more comprehensive and 
full ; that he had been a little more like one on whose bosom 
we might lean our heads at a supper, and a little less like one 
standing in the gloom of solitude, and awing down every 
weakness of our poor nature. We need and crave a theology 
as sacred and spiritual as his, and moreover one that we can 
take with us into the flower-garden, and to the top of some 
goodly hill, and in a sail over a tasteful lake, and into the 
saloons of music, and to the galleries of the painter and the 
sculptor, and to the repasts of social joy, and to all those hu- 
manizing scenes where Virtue holds her sway, not merely as 
that generic and abstract duty of a t love to being in general,' 
but also as the more familiar grace of a love to some beings in 
particular. We do want a theology that will not frown with 
too great austereness on every playful sentiment, nor disdain 
all communion with those things which hard-nerved men 
call ; innocent follies,' but which were designed by Him who 



58 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

remembereth our frame to make the intellect more pliant and 
versatile, and the manners more polished, and the whole man 
more human. Many of our systematic treatises on theology 
have been written in schools, and garrets, and cloisters, and 
prisons ; some of them by men bearing the title of ' bachelors 
in divinity,' and the character of bachelor in humanity also; 
but these treatises would have been more exactly true, had 
they been composed amid the scenes of a more sympathizing 
and social life, and by men not so ' intensely married to their 
folios and parchments. 1 Much of our theology has been ham- 
mered out by metaphysicians ; and we all know what Burke 
says of these men — i There is no heart so hard as that of 
a thorough-bred metaphysician.' " 

Christ was the divinest of theologians, because he taught 
not in abstraction, but exemplification ; not in dogmas merely, 
but deeds ; in the ardor of his heart, as well as the energy of 
his mind ; in the gentleness of his demeanor and the benefi- 
cent industry of his life. The love of the beautiful, the good, 
and the true, were a trinity in his soul, never mutilated, smoth- 
ered, or divorced. From the earliest youth he so deepened and 
refined the sentiment of the beautiful, that he could not be 
otherwise than good ; and he so deepened and refined the sen- 
timent of the good, that it was impossible for him to be other- 
wise than true. He chose this order and condition of devel- 
opment here below, that he might prepare for earth that 
which earth most needs — men and women in whom the beauti- 
ful, the good, and the true, may be one, harmonious, and divine, 
causing their hearts instinctively to soar toward heaven when- 
ever they behold the flowers of the field, the stars in the fir- 
mament, and, with purer vision still, gaze on angels round the 
eternal throne. 

Christ assumed our humanity, and rendered it intensely hu- 
man, that it might become divine. He did not isolate it, nor 
associate it more closely with the exclusive few ; he socialized 
it — blended it intimately with the great masses, knowing that 
every development of our social nature tends toward the 
% 



THE MANHOOD OF CHRIST. 59 

development of our religious emotions. Absolute solitude is 
unnatural to mankind. It is unfavorable to the profoundest 
meditation, and suicidal to all that is elevated and comprehen- 
sive in the unfolding of our powers. Man is not by nature an 
ascetic, sown by hazard on earth, to live and die in the hidden 
shadow of a rock or forest ; he is born in the midst of society, 
which adopts him, nourishes him, trains him, communicates to 
him its ideas, its passions, vices, virtues, and to which in turn 
he leaves, with his dust and memory, the influences of his own 
life. In humanity every thing which is true of the individual 
is true of the race ; and whatever is true of all was designed 
to be concentrated in each for his improvement, enjoyment, 
and safeguard. Our fellow-men are our fellow-men in all 
respects ; and Christ, who through his incarnation obtained the 
truest knowledge of our condition, by the most perfect expe- 
rience of our wants, felt the most profoundly that human nature 
admits of no privileges; that in distributing the two richest 
treasures we can possess — freedom and truth — partiality is a 
crime. Hence the first thing the Redeemer did, was to rec- 
ognize and fortify the great and holy law of mutuality, of 
reciprocity, in every worthy deed. Who better than he could 
perceive that beings endowed with passions and affections are 
necessarily dependent upon and responsible to each other ? A 
distinguished follower of his taught that the obligation of broth- 
erly love among men is a debt from which we are never ab- 
solved or acquitted, saying, " Owe no man any thing, but to 
love one another." But the great Master had long before 
inculcated this law by his example, when, disowned by his 
brethren according to the flesh, and discarded by the worldly 
great, he was compelled to rely on his own resources, and 
illuminated the retired but social sphere of his development 
with the torch of love, calm and majestic, like " the waveless 
ocean in its noontide slumbers." 

The chief design of Christianity is, to create in its subjects 
a new life, and to accelerate their spiritual progress. That this 
may be accomplished with the greatest certainty and widest 



60 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

success, a minor motive is, to develop and refine social ties, 
that through these others may be wooed into companionship by 
the way, and a participation of the final reward. Therefore 
its Founder, though superhuman, did not wish to appear as a 
giant, least of all a solitary one, lest the multitude of ordinary 
mortals should be alarmed at his height, and shudder before 
him as a monster. He first taught that family life, social 
spirit, patriotism, universal brotherhood, or by whatever name 
the law of reciprocity may be designated, all spring from the 
existence of our affections, which indissolubly bind our fates 
to those of our fellow-men ; that intellectual, or moral, or 
religious solitude is impossible so long as love is exercised ; 
and that without the development of this, the best portion of 
our nature, perfection can never be attained. Therefore all 
the superstitious admiration ever felt for the life of anchorites, 
so far from being the legitimate product of true religion, is di- 
rectly opposed to it. Hermits are monsters, inasmuch as they 
adopt a mode of life in conflict with the nature of man, and 
in every respect injurious to his healthy growth. Nothing but 
the corruption and impiety of the times can justify a solitary 
life ; and even this is not a sufficient excuse, according to the 
apostle Paul : "I wrote to you in an epistle not to company 
with fornicators ; yet not altogether [to break all intercourse] 
with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous or ex- 
tortioners, or with idolaters ; for then must ye needs go out of 
the world." One of the most attractive features in the char- 
acter and life of Christ, is this early and unbounded develop- 
ment of his social nature under circumstances which were 
apparently so adverse. He may have been neglected by 
others, but he neglected none. His birth was so low, and his 
preparatory career so obscure, that the great and influential of 
earth found themselves incapable of stooping to foster his 
worth ; but he who was greater and mightier than all, volun- 
tarily assumed that position, not for the purpose of dragging 
any down, but for raising all up. Kings, princes, and priests ; 
Sadducee, Pharisee, and Essene ; all sects, orthodox and het- 



THE MANHOOD OF CHRIST. 61 

erodox, may have striven equally to make their respective 
adherents bow and mould themselves to their own creed ; but 
lie, the lowly aud loving man of the people, the Son of God, 
the Son of man, every where and in every condition, would 
let his mighty heart swell under a prostrate and abused race, 
that he might raise them above oppression, by imparting to the 
soul a power and a deliverance which sectarianism and tyranny 
can never wrest from its grasp. As Christ moved about from 
scene to scene where the great masses antagonized with pen- 
ury and wrong, drudging through long periods of unproductive 
toil, that a few might riot in luxurious ease, and gathering at 
remote intervals a few gleams of home-joy, while their op- 
pressors wasted their whole lives in riotous delights, it is easy 
to see how he constantly yearned to be their Redeemer, and 
to make other redeemers ; to spread far and wide ideas and 
emotions fitted to make men divine ; to undergo all privation, 
peril, and pain ; to love where he was hated, and to die that 
humanity might live, in loyalty to the widest affection and the 
highest truth. Hence has generation after generation been 
disinthralled and beautified, blessed with patriots, sages, mar- 
tyrs, prophets, and apostles, men facing the dungeon, the sword, 
and the flame, rather than desert their allegiance to the best 
interests of the greatest number. This was indeed God man- 
ifest in the flesh — a Deity full of justice, wisdom, and benev- 
olence ; who passed from heaven to earth, that he might raise 
earth to heaven ; who adopted our shape and carried our sor- 
sows, that he might comprehend us better, compassionate more 
benignly our infirmities, and vindicate us without defeat when 
tortured by the evils which in this bad world we cannot escape. 
It is this intense human ness of the Savior, as well as his 
divinity, which gives to his religion its ineffable gentleness and 
irresistible power. 

But if the necessity of self-reliance occasioned the thorough 
and comprehensive development of Christ's sensibilities, it had 
an equally beneficial influence on his intellect. In some re- 
spects, the early training of the Old Testament prophets and 
6 



62 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

that of the great Prophet of the New, were similar ; but in most 
particulars the contrast was very great. 

" The most extraordinary beings, as imaginative objects, who 
ever appeared upon this planet, were the prophet-bards of 
Israel. Mark one of those wondrous beings, in his most per- 
fect character ! He was a solitary and savage man, residing 
with lions, when he was not waylaying kings, on whose brow 
the scorching sun of Syria had charactered its fierce and ter- 
rible hue ; and whose wild eye swam with a fierce insanity, 
gathered from solitary communings with the original forms of 
nature ; the sand, the sea, the mountains, and the sky ; as well 
as with the divine afflatus. He had lain in the cockatrice's 
den ; he had put his hand on the hole of the asp ; he had spent 
the night on lion-surrounded trees, and slept and dreamed amid 
their hungry roar ; he had swum in the Dead Sea, or haunted, 
like a ghost, those dreary caves which lowered around it ; he 
had drank of the melted snow on the top of Lebanon ; at Sinai 
he had traced and trode on the burning footprints of Jehovah ; 
he had heard messages at midnight, which made his hair to 
arise and his skin to creep ; he had been wet with dews of the 
night, and girt by the demons of the wilderness; he had been 
tossed up and down like a leaf upon the strong and awful storm 
of his inspiration. He was essentially a lonely man, cut off, 
by gulf upon gulf, from all tender ties and human associa- 
tions. He had no home ; a wife he might be permitted to 
many, but the permission, as to Hosea, might only be a curse ; 
and, when her death became necessary, as a sign, as in the 
case of Ezekiel, she died and left him in the same austere 
seclusion in which he had existed before. The power which 
came upon him, cut, by its fierce coming, all the threads which 
bound him to his kind, tore him from the plough or from the 
pastoral solitude, and hurried him to the desert, and thence to 
the foot of the throne, or to the wheel of the triumphal char- 
iot. And how startling his coming to crowned or conquering 
guilt ! Wild from the wilderness, bearded like its lion lord, 
the fury of God glaring in his eye, his mantle heaving to his 



THE MANHOOD OF CHRIST. 63 

heaving breast ; his words stern, swelling, tinged on their ter- 
rible edges with poetry ; his attitude, dignity ; his gesture, 
power ; how did he burst upon the astonished gaze, how ab- 
rupt and awful his entrance, how short and spirit-like his stay ; 
how dreamily dreadful the impression made by his words, long 
after they had ceased to tingle on the ears , and how myste- 
rious the solitude into which he seemed to melt away ! Poet, 
nay, prophet, were a feeble name for such a being. He was 
a trumpet filled with the voice of God ; a chariot of fire car- 
rying blazing tidings ; a meteor kindled at the eye, and 
blown on the breath of the Eternal ! " 

The above sketch may be true respecting the heralds of the 
ancient theocracy, but it does not apply to the Founder of a 
newer and better dispensation. He was diviner than they — 
had more character, and therefore was habitually more majes- 
tic and calm. He was equally private in his habits of life, 
was even more conversant with nature than his predecessors 
on the heights of inspiration ; but he was imbued with Deity 
more than any man — relied incessantly on himself for aug- 
mented force, and exerted the greatest public energy, for the 
veiy reason, probably, that he threw abroad his heavenly gran- 
deur from the shadows of the most humble sphere. It was 
this retired, calm, and truly godlike self-unfolding of our Re- 
deemer that shed an epic splendor around every step of his 
progress, made each injury he suffered a solace to emulative 
disciples on his track, and every act he performed a symbol 
most significant of truth and freedom to all mankind. 

We have seen how our Lord early relied on resources 
native to himself, and arose superior to the religious dogmas of 
the day, as they were taught by all the popular theological 
schools. At the outset, oppressed as he was by toil and exclu- 
siveness, he strove to stand forth the first among our race, an 
independent thinker, struggling for the suffering of every class, 
with head, hands, and heart disinthralled. Mankind yearned 
for the advent of one in whom the love of the beautiful, the 
pursuit of the good, and the defence of the true, would not be 



64 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

a mere artistic perception, but a natural and ardent passion, 
such as in Christ only is realized. He best served the salva- 
tion of humanity by the peculiar education of himself as an 
individual. When he had once made the beautiful, the good, 
and the true, an harmonious unity for himself, the divine ex- 
ample of this unity became a more resistless argument to his 
sympathetic brethren than all the eloquence that man or angel 
could employ. He broke away from sectarian despotism, and 
aspired to become thoroughly and energetically individual in 
the purity and power of his own light, that he might excite 
kindred aspirations in all other individuals ; and, for their en- 
couragement, while his own person was yet sombre in the 
lowest vale, he poured the dawn of universal deliverance along 
every summit of the world. All that was needed to make him 
a tender friend, a perfect teacher, and a mighty Redeemer, he 
acquired by experience on earth, and transmitted for its hope. 
He had the same faith in himself as in his doctrine ; and feel- 
ing that both were divine, he was more than willing — it was 
his only ambition and delight — to lay them at the feet of every 
man. He would transform each immortal creature of our race 
not only into a disciple, but a prophet, placing in his heart a 
sublime idea, a celestial sentiment, which he should profoundly 
feel was destined to redeem the world. With a modest but 
majestic self-reliance, he shrank from no peril, no pain, no 
obloquy, that he might accomplish the advocacy of mercy and 
truth in word and deed. He went abroad, armed with no ex- 
clusiveness and no coercion, but radiant with the energies and 
beatitudes of a salvation designed to bless all nations, free, 
purify, and exalt all mankind. 

The mental independence so prominent in Christ is a rare 
thing on earth, and most worthy of our esteem. We see many 
persons who are able to act with vigor so long as they are 
sustained by popular opinion ; but the moment this deserts 
them, they fall into utter imbecility, and the wonder is, how 
they ever have commanded the confidence and admiration of 
their fellows. But such are never heroes ; they belong not 



THE MANHOOD OF CHRIST. 65 

to the goodly fellowship of those who stoop their anointed 
heads as low as death, in defence of ennobling and saving 
truth. Christ, on the contrary, was the consummate model 
of the noblest cast of character; one "by its own weight 
made steadfast and immovable." Suffering emancipated, 
instructed, and consolidated his mind, as it does in every hero 
truly great. The burdens which Isaiah, Stephen, Paul, and 
Luther bore, gave steadiness to their movements and energy 
to their limbs. 

"Thus doth, strength 

To wisdom., courage, and long-suffering love, 

Minister like a slave." 

Schiller, full of that self-relying individuality which after- 
wards made him a master in his sphere, when encompassed 
with the gloomy auspices of his early manhood, exclaimed 
bravely to his friend, " O Karl, so long as my spirit can 
raise itself to be free, it shall bow to no yoke ! " Christ 
acted on this principle, above and beyond all human beings. 
Difficulty was the element in which he wrought out his mental 
greatness in the presence of man, as if on purpose to teach 
him to resist resistance, and in the fierceness of holy endeavor 
to grow strong. The opposition of men, and the bufferings 
of elemental storms, the sudden vicissitudes of time, and the 
adversities of adverse fate, are all designed to drive man from 
the vassalage of grovelling conventionalities, and lift him to 
the exalted regions of pure action and free thought. To 
the true champion, susceptible of great improvement and 
beneficent deeds, " if misfortune comes, she brings along the 
bravest virtues." The path to perfection is always difficult ; 
but the trials which the aspirant meets are designed to rouse, 
and not to discourage, him. He must win strength and speed, 
as grow the eagle's wings and the giant's arms ; he must 
tunnel the mountains in his way, or soar above them. 

Doubtless the difficulties of our state are among its best 
blessings. " The distance at which good objects are placed, 
and the obstacles which intervene, are the means by which 
6 * 



66 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

Providence rouses, quickens, invigorates, expands, all our 
powers. These form the school in which our minds and 
hearts are trained. Difficulty and hardship bind us more 
closely to objects. We love more ardently what we have 
suffered to attain, and enjoy nothing so exquisitely as what 
we have pursued through calamity and danger. It is in such 
pursuits, when we endure and labor for ends which con- 
science and religion enjoin, that our whole nature is called 
forth and perfected. The heart gains new ardor, the under- 
standing new clearness and vigor. A delightful conscious- 
ness of rectitude sustains us, even if we fail, and gives a 
rapture to success." Christ came to teach us that all wisdom 
is bought with labor and pain, and that we arrive at holy 
truth and the highest bliss only through great tribulation. 
True, we are on a field of battle, and imminent are the perils 
which menace us on every side ; but the vestiges of a celes- 
tial Leader are palpable all around, telling both where and 
how he fought and conquered, winning from this tear- wet 
and sanguinary ground crowns of righteousness and victory 
for every brave comrade in the war. This independent 
self-reliance of the great Captain of our salvation is happily 
adapted to soothe and encourage every manly follower, and 
in the hours of exhaustion and doubt to rouse in him invinci- 
ble faculties kindred to the perfect model he emulates. Like 
him, he will struggle most for elevation of soul, and press 
perpetually towards a throne on high, not advancing like an 
earth-fowl blown upward by the chance direction of impetuous 
gusts, but soaring through a purer and calmer medium to genial 
skies, upborne by wings full of living and growing power. 

In contemplating the discipline of Christ preparatory to his 
public career, one cannot but be struck with the fitness he at- 
tained through the practice of perpetual industry and fearless 
thought. He never required others to earn his bread or do 
his thinking. He endured patiently many personal wrongs, 
and much social oppression ; but he never permitted tyrants 
of any degree to dictate to him what to believe. He would 



THE MANHOOD OF CHRIST. 67 

suffer no spiritual intolerance, and he practised none. He 
pitied the ignorance and bigotry of mankind, and devoted his 
entire life to the work of teaching them ; but he never coerced 
an individual to a particular belief. He poured forth heart 
emotions and rational motives enough to subdue and lead 
captive - all ; but he left his disciples, like himself, free in 
every decision and act. He wished to see none involved in 
meshes, or incarcerated in gloom, which suffocated every 
exhilarating breath, and crippled all vigorous growth. Every 
act he performed, every precept he inculcated, every prayer 
he offered, was designed to open a free and fascinating com- 
munication between himself and every other soul, that all 
might stand inthralled by affection and rapturous thought in 
his presence, but no one palsied by ignorance or chilled by 
fear. He came to earth, burdened with immortal verities 
which he panted to distribute through every avenue of the 
general heart ; he was accustomed to " breathe in worlds to 
which the heaven of heavens is but a veil," and his only desire 
was to elevate the degraded of every class to an unbounded 
participation of a mental life and moral grandeur as un- 
shackled and glorious as his own. If we would be like him, 
we must not fail to imitate this divine trait in his character 
and life. We must rise above contracted dogmas, disregard 
ephemeral dignities, inhale the sublime majesty of Jesus, and, 
like him, be at once the servant and victor of the world. In 
the language of another, we may exclaim, — 

" What faculties slumber within, weighed down, by the 
chains of custom ! The want of courage to carry out great 
principles, and to act on them at all risks, is fatal to origi- 
nality and freshness. Conformity benumbs and cramps genius 
and creative power. We must commit ourselves fully to a 
principle of truth and right; we must dare to follow it to the 
end. Moral independence is the essential condition of loving 
warmly, thinking deeply, acting efficiently, of having the soul 
awake, of true life. This habit of reliance on principle should 
give us a buoyant consciousness of superiority to every 



68 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

outward influence. A far-sighted anticipation of great results 
from worthy deeds should make us strenuous in action, and 
fill us with a cheerful trust. No particular interests should 
absorb our sympathies ; but our hearts should flow out in sen- 
sibility to every thing which concerns humanity, so that the 
pursuit of particular objects may expand and exalt our whole 
power of good, and free us from all narrowness of spirit or 
fanaticism. A minister should be possessed with the con- 
sciousness of a higher law than public opinion, traditionary 
usage, prevalent fashion. Strictness, sternness, may often be 
demanded of him to whom conscience is the supreme law ; 
and power and majesty belong to him who yields himself up 
in willing obedience to the absolute rectitude of God. 

" A bold, free tone in conversation, the decided expression 
of pure and lofty sentiment, may be influential to change the 
whole temper and cast of thinking of society around us. Are 
we not traitors to great truths when we suppress the utterance 
of them, and let the opposite errors pass unrebuked ? Ought 
not the spirit of the world to be continually met with mild- 
ness, yet unfaltering firmness ? It cannot be opposed too 
steadily and uncompromisingly. To bring out a noble spirit 
into daily intercourse, is a more precious offering to truth than 
retired speculation and writing. He who leaves a holy life 
behind him, to bless and guide his fellows, bequeaths to the 
world a richer legacy than any book. The true, simple view 
of right should be presented without disguise. High princi- 
ples are to be advanced as real laws; the vague uncertainty 
wrapped round them by unmeaning professions and practical 
renunciation is to be stripped away, and they are to be firmly 
set up as standards for the judgment of all men, public and 
private. No air of superiority, contempt, anger, no fault- 
finding cynicism, no thought of self, should mingle with this 
testimony to right; but a true love of mankind, a reverence 
of virtue, a desire to elevate all men to the nobleness for 
which they are destined, should manifest the depth and 
purity of our moral convictions." 



THE MANHOOD OF CHRIST. 69 

Our greatest anguish is internal, connected with those 
efforts which transpire in every thinking soul, as it gropes in 
that partial night wherein Providence has thought best to leave 
the reason of man, with respect to his origin, his nature, and 
his destiny. In relation to the most important matters, we 
acutely and constantly feel the need of a guide, one who can 
arrest us from the labyrinths of doubt, and transport us to the 
regions of light and security. Christ is that blessed guide, 
who, by his own severe experience in our flesh and among 
our toils, escaped from the cold and gloomy abstractions of 
heathen philosophy, rose above the confused jargon of the 
schools, resolved the problem of human destiny, and unveiled 
life and immortality to the feeblest vision and the dullest heart. 
He demonstrated that for the simplest and rudest mind to 
embrace true religion, it had but to seize on a few salient and 
saving truths. It had not to entangle and confound itself 
amid a maze of manifold claims, conflicting authorities, and 
impossible persons. Supreme love to God, obedience to the 
Great Teacher sent, and devotion to the welfare of our 
brother man, — these constituted the one great doctrine which 
gleamed in all his discourse, and was exemplified in all his 
career. With Christ, religion was not a mere theory, but a 
holy and radiant fact, a prolific and powerful life, adapted, 
through its urgency and agency, example and appeal, to 
qualify its subjects, struggling to vanquish oppression without 
and within, to rise above feverish excitement and fainting 
flesh, to serene heights in the skies, where Jehovah wel- 
comes the champions from earth, and crowns them with joy 
forevermore. 

In his own person, Christ naturalized human affection and 
intellect, as well as set it free. At the time of his advent, the 
earth groaned, being burdened, as at the present day, with a 
surplusage of mechanical contrivances, to force arbitrary prin- 
ciples upon man, # crushing his unfolding faculties, instead of 
promoting their natural evolution, the growth of the mind 
itself. Spiritual faculties, susceptibilities, and tastes, of the 



70 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

highest power and progressiveness, lie wrapped in that germ 
of vital intelligence which has been planted in every human 
being ; and it is the budding forth, the legitimate unfolding and 
expansion, of this manifold embryo, which demands our chief 
care. All the kingdoms of knowledge on earth, and all the 
appliances which can by any means be produced, only form 
the compost out of which the living germ grows, extracts ali- 
ment, and assimilates all strength and fruitfulness to itself. It 
is just so far useful, and no farther, as it contributes to develop 
and fortify the faculties around which it is accumulated and 
applied. The growth of the inner and essential man is all 
that is needed, and this only is valuable. The mind of man 
is not a soil, and its varied information the diversified flowers 
and harvests that root themselves therein. On the contrary, 
mind itself is the plant of immortal worth, and knowledge the 
soil to be drawn around, not to overwhelm it, but to promote 
the growth of its roots and to ripen its fruits. Christ came " to 
plant the tree of life, to plant fair freedom's tree," simultane- 
ous with the growth of which, every soul should expand its 
roots and stretch its boughs, imbibing vigor from all healthful 
elements, and producing fruit in every land. He would not 
have the plant of righteousness cooped in the effeminate air 
of Pharisaic conservatories, nor boxed within the contracted 
dimensions of Sadducean creeds, but rooted and grounded in 
the firm soil and granite of world-wide truth, where the free 
mountain winds of Heaven's own divinity might have leave to 
blow against it. 

Christianity is as flexile in its adaptation as it is potent in its 
efficiency. It is a power which can cope with the grossest 
systems of idolatry, or eradicate the last stain from a saint ; 
kindle in an infant the first gleam of devotion, and thrill the 
highest angel forever with aspiring thought. What the world 
most needs is, to be brought under the influence of a religion 
so happily adapted to its constitution and wants. 

" An amusing story is to be found in the Spectator of a man 
in the pursuit of health by rule. He was possessed of a strange 



THE MANHOOD OF CHRIST. 71 

notion that his constitutional soundness might invariably be 
tested by the weight of the body. He furnished himself, 
therefore, with a weighing-chair, and regulated his food, exer- 
cise, sleep, and all other movements, by a perpetual reference 
to the index of his machine. This is a fair type of the 
mechanical regularity within the range of human contrivance. 
How different is that of nature ! There, too, we have laws, 
constant as the daily course of the sun in the heavens ; but 
laws, the special and external modifications of which adjust 
themselves with the nicest accuracy to the multiform conditions 
under which they develop themselves. The vital energy 
which moulds the oak or the elm, will unerringly put itself 
forth according to certain definite structural rules ; and the 
result will be that, in the form and color of the leaf, the gen- 
eral grouping of the twigs, the direction of the branches, and 
the contour of the whole tree, the one may be readily distin- 
guished from the other. But with this wonderful regularity 
there is combined a variety yet more wonderful. No two trees 
of the same species are identically alike. The inward law, 
which secures a structural sameness, leaves its work to be 
modified by the innumerable external circumstances in the 
presence of which it exerts itself ; arid accordingly, instead of 
having a dull monotony, wearisome to the eye and oppressive 
to the spirits, we have an infinite variety adapted to give play, 
by turns, to all our pleasurable emotions. 

" Christianity in the heart of man, say, rather, in the bosom 
of society, is a vital energy, working by rule, clothing itself in 
certain well-defined and identical forms, fashioning out of 
human powers and passions certain structural results, weaving 
into a tissue of the same general character and fabric all the 
moral elements which constitute the material of its designs, and 
thus securing an external regularity and order. But the laws 
by which it works out these results are, to a certain extent, 
capable of modification by every variety of surrounding influ- 
ences. The unchangeable tendencies of the vital, motive prin- 
ciple, which, like leaven, is to leaven the whole mass of 



72 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

humanity, are found, nevertheless, to harmonize with an ex- 
tremely flexible and self-adjusting system of instrumentality ; 
a system which, retaining under all circumstances certain lead- 
ing and cognizable forms, may yet adapt itself to the special 
peculiarities of time, place, custom, habit, and political consti- 
tution, and may take an outward modification of form — here, 
for instance, by a healthy excitement, stimulating an active 
zeal ; there, by enlightened instruction, regulating fervor in 
danger of running into fanaticism — from the peculiar moral 
atmosphere, the combination of outward influences, in the 
midst of which it grows." 

The most conclusive proof of the supernatural origin of our 
religion is found in its naturalness, in its adaptation to our high- 
est wants and noblest growth. It imparts to its possessor " that 
inner eye which is the bliss of solitude," and causes him to 
" hear the veiled gods walk at night through the hushed cham- 
bers of his listening soul." Intellect reigns supreme, associ- 
ated with invincible faith, its living soul and quickening spirit. 
Throned in the august temple of universal truth, the votary 
yields to no error, and sinks before no obstacle ; fortified as he 
is by God on high and his own true purpose, he is destined to 
conquer all enemies, and work out a resistless life through self- 
reliance and heavenly aid. He makes his body and all its 
senses subservient to the higher interests of the soul, and 
walks abroad under the everlasting firmament, rejoicing in the 
light which radiates every where in the placid regions of his 
choice, and becomes worthy, because willing, to commune with 
Jehovah, face to face. The mind thus emancipated from 
earth-born conventionalities, and made one with great nature, 
has its movements measured by the movements of the universe. 
Stationed on the Alps of divinest knowledge and holiest delight, 
the devout servant of God and man, watchful and free, beholds 
the effulgence of a brighter morn bursting on a world too long 
obscured by superstitious fear, and rejoices at the sight as an 
exiled angel would rejoice before the unfolding gates of heaven. 
These are the true disciples of Him who appeared on earth to 



THE MANHOOD OF CHRIST. 73 

give liberty and naturalness to the human mind. They are 
beacon-lights, kindled to cheer and guide the benighted race. 
They resemble the mountains which the pure and tranquil dawn 
smiles on long before the rising of common day, and which, as 
they were the first to hail the rising sun, so, struggling against 
darkness early and late, they preserve far into night the linger- 
ing beams of his glory. 

By emancipating the affections and intellect of man in his 
own person, and by providing for their natural growth, Jesus 
Christ rendered these attributes more intense and palpable to 
every human being. It is hard for man to become the abso- 
lute slave of custom, to efface completely from his brow the 
mark of his divine origin, and crush fully from his heart the 
dream and the daring of his immortal destiny. Yet is he often 
so abjectly subservient to the powers of darkness, that he needs 
some one who has partaken of his sorrows, but not of his guilt, 
to stand up with divine earnestness, and tell him how much he 
has deflected from virtue's path, and how much energy, as well 
as happiness, by this rebellion he has lost. This was the mis- 
sion of humanity's great model and sufferer, the immortal 
Nazarene. His infant slumbers, his juvenile toils, his manly 
experience, his public ministry, his conquest over hell and tri- 
umphant ascent to heaven, had a much more intimate connec- 
tion with human history than theologians are wont to recognize. 
If we would follow in his footsteps, we must develop the entire- 
ness of our energies, as he did his, loving as well as learning, 
doing as well as believing, since knowledge and faith are val- 
uable only so far as they conduce to vigorous thinking and 
beneficent deeds. When Jesus appeared, he found power and 
craft leagued together, and every where employed in grinding 
man in the dust. Priests claimed the privilege of exercising 
the twofold function of teacher and tyrant ; and it was against 
fragmentizing the human soul that he was prepared to protest 
with the whole force of his life and all the eloquence of his 
warmest blood. It was this tenderness of Christ that touched 
all hearts, and drew the multitudes close around him, and made 
7 



74 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

his frank and courageous example, as well as his benignant 
words, an irresistible sermon which will speak to the remotest 
generations of mankind. All ingenuous spirits will see the 
adaptation, and verify in themselves the infinite worth, of that 
religion which unfolds the harmony of our physical nature as 
it ascends to the intellectual ; the harmony of the intellectual 
as it ascends to the moral ; the harmony of the moral as it 
ascends to the religious ; and when it has unfolded all the 
harmony of the religious, causes its subject, by a spontaneous 
and glorious transition, to ascend to heaven as a son of God. 
While preparing for his public toils, our Lord moved about 
gently among the race he came to redeem, like "stillest 
streams watering fairest meadows ; " but he every where made 
hearts feel his presence, and from first to last ruled only by 
the power of his love. 

We have considered the experience which in his early man- 
hood Christ had of social oppression, and the trials he endured 
of personal self-reliance Let us now glance at the discipline 
he was made to feel under the seductions of power. From the 
account which the evangelists give of the fast, and the scene 
at the pinnacle of the temple, it is clear that the Savior did 
not wish to free himself from the sense of human weakness 
and dependence ; that he would work no miracle for that pur- 
pose. Speaking of the still more remarkable temptation of 
universal dominion, Neander remarks, — 

" We do not take the third temptation as implying literally that 
Satan proposed to Christ to fall down and do him homage, as the 
price of a transfer of dominion over all the kingdoms of the world : 
no extraordinary degree of piety would have been necessary 
to rebuke such a proposal as this. We consider it as involving 
the two following points, which must be taken together, viz., 
1. The establishment of Messiah's dominion as an outward 
kingdom, with wordly splendors ; and, 2. The worship of Satan 
in connection with it, which, though not fully expressed, is 
implied in the act which he demands, and which Christ treats 
as equivalent to worshipping him. Herein was the temptation, 



THE MANHOOD OF CHRIST. 75 

that the Messiah should not develop his kingdom gradually, and 
in its pure spirituality from within, but should establish it at 
once, as an outward dominion ; and that although this could 
not be accomplished without the use of an evil agency, the 
end would sanctify the means. 

" We find here the principle, that to try to establish Mes- 
siah's kingdom as an outward, worldly dominion, is to wish to 
turn the kingdom of God into the kingdom of the devil ; and 
to employ that fallen intelligence which pervades all human 
sovereignties, only in a different form, to found the reign of 
Christ. And in rejecting the temptation, Christ condemned 
every mode of secularizing his kingdom, as well as all the 
devil-worship which must result from attempting that kingdom 
in a worldly form. We here find the principle, that God's 
work is to be accomplished purely as his work and by his 
power, without foreign aid ; so that it shall all be only a share 
of the worship rendered to him alone. 

" We find, then, in the facts of the temptation the expression 
of that period that intervened between Christ's private life and 
his public ministry. These inward spiritual exercises bring 
out the self-determination which stamps itself upon all his sub- 
sequent outward actions. Yet we dare not suppose in him a 
choice, which, presupposing within him a point of tangency 
for evil, would involve the necessity of his comparing the evil 
with the good, and deciding between them. In the steadfast 
tendency of his inner life, rooted in submission to God, lay a 
decision which admitted of no such struggle. He had, in com- 
mon with humanity, that natural weakness which may exist 
without selfishness, and the created will, mutable in its own 
nature ; and only on this side was the struggle possible — such 
a struggle as man may have been liable to, before he gave 
seduction the power of temptation by its own actual sin. In 
all other respects, the outward seductions remained outward ; 
they found no selfishness in him, as in other men, on which to 
seize, and thus become internal temptations, but, on the con- 



76 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

trary, only aided in revealing the complete unity of the divine 
and human, which formed the essence of his inner life. 

" Nor is it possible for us to imagine these temptations origin- 
ated within ; to imagine that Chris-t, in contemplating the course 
of his future ministry, had an internal struggle to decide whether 
he should act according to his own will, or in self-denial and 
submission to the will of God. We have seen, from the third 
temptation, that, from the very beginning, he regarded the 
establishment of a worldly kingdom as inseparable from the 
worship of the devil ; he could, therefore, have had no struggle 
to choose between such a kingdom, outward and worldly, and 
the true Messiah-kingdom, spiritual, and developed from within, 

" Even the purest man, who has a great work to do for any 
age, must be affected more or less by the prevailing ideas and 
tendencies of that age. Unless he struggle against it, the spirit 
of the age will penetrate his own ; his spiritual life and its 
products wilt be corrupted by the base admixture. Now, the 
whole spirit of the age of Christ held that Messiah's kingdom 
was to be of this world, and even John Baptist could not free 
himself from this conception. There was nothing within 
Christ on which the sinful spirit of the age could seize ; the 
divine life within him had brought every thing temporal into 
harmony with itself; and, therefore, this tendency of the times 
to secularize the theocratic idea could take no hold of him. But 
it was to press upon him from without : from the beginning, 
this tendency threatened to corrupt the idea and the develop- 
ment of the kingdom of God, and Christ's work had to be kept 
free from it ; moreover, the nature of his own Messianic minis- 
try could only be fully illustrated by contrast with this possible 
objective mode of action ; to which, foreign as it was to his 
own spiritual tendencies, he was so frequently to be urged 
afterward by the prevailing spirit of the times." 

From an early period in his sublunary course, our Re- 
deemer "suffered, being tempted ;" but with strong hope and 
patient endurance, he resisted the most crafty onsets of the foe. 



THE MANHOOD OF CHRIST. 77 

The divinity of his nature was firm as the eternal throne, while 
the sensibilities he bore, swayed by all the innocent infirmities 
of humanity, were as lovely and flexible as a rose-bough waving 
in the breeze. It was only so far as he was intrinsically 
divine that he was competent to redeem ; it was by resisting 
in his own person the evils we incur that he could best open 
a way of deliverance and teach us how to overcome. He thus 
" fought to protect, and conquered but to bless ; " each battle 
being directed against our common adversary, whose tempta- 
tions, under the guise of wealth and dominion, are hardest to 
resist. Thankful, indeed, should we be that we have a High 
Priest who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities ; who 
was in all points tempted like as we are, yet sinless. It is 
from his own experience that Christ speaks, when he directs 
us to resist the devil and he will flee from us. Every hero, 
destined to struggle against the powers of darkness with energy 
and success, will first be most sorely tried in view of emolu- 
ments and power, proffered by the great enemy of good. The 
church too much neglects its most gifted sons. But when 
human friendship is dumb, and earthly resources are all sealed, 
how sweet, in the sadness of young hopes oppressed, to hear 
Jesus whisper, " Be of good cheer ; I have conquered the 
world!" 

How did Christ resist the temptations of power? He made 
himself his own fountain of honor, and guarded that fountain 
with strength derived from on high. He was the root of Jesse, 
the offspring of mightiest kings, the herald and pledge of the 
greatest renown ; but so far from boasting of royalty, he ever 
scorned to assume the airs of superiority. It seemed to be his 
purpose to demonstrate before all the world that it is only in 
personal merit that genuine distinction lies, — that one can no 
more invest himself with ancestral fame, than he can clothe 
himself in the beams of yesterday's sun, which departed with 
the sun itself. " He who works God-like, works for his brethren 
and his age ; purifies his own blood beyond all the factitious 
quackery of heralds, and the lies of fashion ; he makes it a 
7* 



78 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

foundation of honor to himself and his children, if they follow 
in his steps; — of shame to them, if they depart from them. 
He, and he alone, is the noble. He alone carries God's 
patent in his hand, the star of unflecked honor in his heart ; 
and all besides, though they number ancestors by thousands, 
are but wretched impostors, and presumers on a lie. 

"That old boast 
Of blood is but opinion's idle brag, 
And nature knows no 'scutcheons," 

Jesus Christ, in the discipline of his early manhood, the type 
of all redemption, from the most sombre depths of obscurity 
rose before men and angels, developing the attractiveness of 
infinite worth, nurtured amid trials of every sort, like a sea- 
flower, whose roots interlace and penetrate the profoundest 
caverns, but whose stem mounts through unfathomed billows 
to the surface, and unfolds its petals to wanderers in storm and 
calm. His royalty began in the nakedness and gloom of the 
manger, was educated through a career of incessant toil, fa- 
tigues, and watchings, in which the rising Champion gathered 
a few palms and acclamations from the masses, between whom 
and himself there was cordial love, until bigoted power inter- 
posed. But these were soon followed by the maledictions 
which kingcraft and priestcraft had inspired, the anguish of the 
garden and the tortures of the pretorium. Finally, bowed 
beneath the cross he bore, his brow being wreathed with a 
diadem of thorns, and his lips redolent of blessings on his 
murderers, he goes forth to expire on the mount which over- 
looked Tophet, that type of hell, whose powers he came to 
conquer and destroy. 

In the above description, we have limited our views mainly 
to the discipline which our Lord experienced anterior to his 
public life, in which, we think, his most manly energies were 
educed, and a divine example of consecrated genius was 
displayed. 



CHAPTER IV. 

CHRIST AS A PREACHER. 

IN HIS PUBLIC LIFE, THE BENEFICENT CHAMPION OP UNIVEKSAL 
RIGHTS. 

In his advent, Christ identified himself with the lowly con- 
dition in which the masses of mankind are born. In his youth, 
he was occupied in toil such as the great majority of men pur- 
sue. In his maturity, he was trained by sufferings such as 
mankind in general are doomed to endure. These are points 
elsewhere discussed. It is our present purpose to consider the 
character of our Lord as a preacher. 

Having passed through the preparatory discipline requisite 
to the Messianic office, and having; spoken to his disciples in 
private, he enters upon his public career. Popular attention is 
excited ; persons of every age, sex, and condition are ad- 
dressed ; and this extraordinary Teacher draws around him 
crowds of men who never leaned on the bosom of a loving 
master, were never instructed in the language of sympathy 
and friendship, but who, despite the power of depraved pas- 
sion and prejudice, now listen with attention the most profound, 
and with delight openly declared. The most significant and 
valuable encomium on record, respecting preaching, is the tes- 
timony of Mark, that the common people, the miscellaneous 
multitudes, heard Jesus gladly. We interpret this fact by sup- 
posing that he addressed a common nature, aroused common 
emotions, and imparted common blessings. Christ addressed 
a common nature, since he shared our human condition in all 
its wants, and respected it ; he aroused common emotions, be- 
cause his own sympathies were excited, and his esteem for our 
ruined race was legitimately exemplified ; and he imparted 
common blessings through labors for the redemption of the 



80 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

common people which were most intense, and by the exercise 
of love towards them in every respect the most impartial. Let 
us examine these points consecutively. 

Our primary remark is, that the multitudes who attended the 
ministry of Christ heard him with delight because he addressed 
a nature common to them all. He was qualified to do this 
effectively for two especial reasons. 

First, he shared our human condition in all its wants. We 
believe that the true humanity of the Son of God is as fun- 
damental an article of Christian doctrine and consolation as 
his true divinity. To say that Christ was not real man, we 
regard as heterodox as that he was not real God. Scripture 
describes him as being at one time " in the form of God" and 
at another as " being in the form of man." The expression 
is exactly the same when applied to the preexistent state of our 
Lord, and when describing his incarnate condition. The pro- 
priety of this is seen in the necessity of the case. He is a 
mediator between God and man ; and " a mediator is not a 
mediator of one," but must partake of the nature of both. 
The most comforting and upholding truth in the Bible, consists 
in the fact that the Redeemer is, in the strictest and most en- 
dearing sense, our kinsman. We may often have occasion to 
resist erroneous doctrines touching the humanity of Christ , 
but we should neither underrate, nor overlook, this grand truth 
of salvation — that the Son of God became as truly, and as 
literally, human, as the beings he came to redeem are human. 
We cannot, and we need not, allow that there was in him that 
fountain of evil which there is in ourselves. " We contend 
that the absence of the fountain, and not the mere prevention 
of the outbreak of its waters, is indispensable to the constitu- 
tion of such purity as belonged to the holy child Jesus. But 
that he was like myself in all points, my sinfulness only ex- 
cepted ; that his flesh, like mine, could be lacerated by stripes, 
wasted by hunger, and torn by nails ; that his soul, like mine, 
could be assaulted by temptation, harassed by Satan, and dis- 
quieted under the hidings of the countenance of the Father ; 



CHRIST AS A PREACHER. 81 

that he could suffer every thing which 1 can suffer, except the 
remorse of a guilty conscience ; that he could weep every tear 
which I can weep, except the tear of repentance ; that he 
could fear with every fear, hope with every hope, and joy with 
every joy, which I may entertain as a man, and not be ashamed 
of as a Christian ; — there is our creed on the humanity of the 
Mediator. If you could once prove that Christ is not perfect 
man, — bearing always in mind that sinfulness is not essential 
to this perfectness, — there would be nothing worth battling for 
in the truth that Christ was perfect God ; the only Redeemer 
who can redeem, like the Goel under the law, my lost heritage, 
being necessarily my kinsman ; and none being my kinsman 
who is not of the same nature, born of a woman, of the sub- 
stance of that woman, my brother in all but rebellion, myself 
in all but unholiness." 

Various reasons have been suggested why Christ styled 
himself the " Son of man : " probably the best was his con- 
scious relation to the human race — a relation which stirred the 
very depths of his heart. He called himself the " Son of 
man " because he had appeared as a man ; because he be- 
longed to mankind ; because he had done such great things 
even for human nature, (Matt. ix. 8 ;) because he was to glo- 
rify that nature ; because he was himself the realized ideal of 
humanity. 

Says Schleiermacher of the title " Son of man," " Christ 
would not have adopted it had he not been conscious of a 
complete participation in human nature. Its application would 
have been pointless, however, had he not used it in a sense 
inapplicable to other men ; and it was pregnant with reference 
to the distinctive differences between him and them." As has 
been suggested, the fundamental idea of the title is, perhaps, 
allied to that involved in the Jewish designation of Messiah 
as the " second Adam ; " but it is clear that Christ was not 
led by this fact alone to adopt it. " Much rather do we sup- 
pose that the name, although used by the prophets, received 
its loftier and more profound signification from Christ's own 



82 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

divine and human consciousness, independent of all other 
sources. It would have been the height of arrogance in any 
man to assume such a relation to humanity, to style himself 
absolutely Man. But He, to whom it was natural thus to style 
himself, indicated thereby his elevation above all other sons of 
men — the Son of God in the Son of Man." 

The time arrives when the Redeemer should manifest him- 
self more openly to the world : he emerges from the artisan's 
shop, through a long and varied course of experience, rises 
naturally into the sphere of beneficent action, and his public 
life has commenced. He instructs, reproves, commands, and 
exercises all the functions connected with our social condition. 
The cares of authority, the fatigues of power, and all the 
yearnings of charity divine, were exemplified in him. In sol- 
itude he has garnered every sentiment that is pure, and in 
practical efforts to do good he has rendered himself skilful in 
the use of all the means adapted powerfully to move mankind. 
Filial love dwells in his bosom, intimately blended with chaste 
friendship and generous compassion. He shares in the joys 
and griefs of all around him ; mingles in the festivity at Cana, 
and anon passes forty days in the desert without either com- 
panion or food. Vicissitudes of joy and grief, complacency 
and indignation, sweep over him as over other men. Cal- 
umny, treason, and dark ingratitude pursue him at one mo- 
ment, and boisterous applause hails him the next. Envious 
priests spread vengeful nets in his private paths, and state 
tyrants plot more publicly to destroy his life. He experienced 
every form of favor and hate, serene confidences as well as 
sombre despair, and in his own destiny wrought out the desti- 
nies of all our race. Truly did he carry our sorrows and 
experience our griefs ; and it was this practical knowledge that 
gave him unlimited popular power. He addressed no peculiar 
or limited order of feelings, but united in his discourse all the 
qualities and emotions which are spontaneous in every order 
and condition of mankind. His audience was coextensive 
with humanity itself, because his experience included the 



CHRIST AS A PREACHER. 83 

experiences of all, and as his heart thrilled and responded to 
their own, he verified in the highest sense the saying that "one 
touch of nature makes the whole world kin." 

Hence the mercifulness and wisdom of Christ's incarnation ; 
he must assume the form, and experience the condition, of a 
servant, that he might bind our hearts to eternal life with the 
trembling fibres of his own. Even for those fledged souls who 
desire to soar upon the wings of devout meditation, it is well, 
from time to time, Antaeus like, to rest upon this grosser sphere ; 
it was infinitely more necessary that he who came to elevate 
us from earth to heaven should absorb into his own person, and 
destroy the oppressions of our present state, that we might have 
both space and power to rise. This he did. He became the 
son and companion of the common people ; was born in a 
town proverbially depraved ; of a nation preeminently distin- 
guished for superstition, national pride, bigoted self-esteem, and 
contempt towards all other men. He chose to arise " in an age 
of singular corruption, when the substance of religion had 
faded out from the mind of its anointed ministers, and sin had 
spread wide among a people turbulent, oppressed, and down- 
trodden ; a man ridiculed for his lack of knowledge, in this 
nation of forms, of hypocritical priests and corrupt people, 
falls back on simple morality, simple religion, unites in him- 
self the sublimest precepts and divinest practices ; thus more 
than realizing the dream of prophets and sages ; rises free 
from all prejudice of his age, nation, or sect ; gives free range 
to the spirit of God in his breast ; sets aside the law, sacred 
and time-honored as it was — its forms, its sacrifice, its temple, 
and its priests ; puts away the doctors of the law, subtle, 
learned, irrefragable, and pours out a doctrine beautiful as the 
light, sublime as Heaven, and true as God. The philosophers, 
the poets, the prophets, the Rabbis — he rises above them all. 

Christ was greater, more popular as a teacher, than those 
who preceded him, because he was more manly, imbued with 
more natural dignity and grace. He habitually spoke as a 
being related to all whom he addressed. He never arrogated 



84 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

to himself superiority over the humblest, and a narrower 
sphere than the whole world for the exercise of his benevolent 
regards seems never to have entered his thoughts. This 
native tone of grandeur and love which pervaded his teaching 
was duly impressed on his hearers. He breathed more energy 
into them than did common teachers, because he had more to 
breathe ; and they in turn were inclined to manifest esteem for 
him proportioned to the natural enthusiasm he kindled in their 
souls. The multitudes pressed upon his steps, published his 
glory, and diffused his fame all around. Until corrupted by 
priestcraft, and suborned by aristocratic power, the common 
people spread their garments, and cast palm branches in the 
triumphal way of the great Teacher whom they adored. 

Secondly, Christ not only shared our human condition in all 
its wants, but he profoundly respected it ; and this was another 
secret of his great popular power. He recognized the fact that, 
whatever may be the feebleness of man and his degree of 
corruption, the immortal principle within, which reminds him 
of his origin and destiny, never loses its empire upon the soul ; 
a deathless fibre forever remains in the heart to vibrate to the 
influence of true religion. Connected with this is another fact 
of great importance : it is, that the common people are com- 
petent to appreciate the profoundest truths that any teacher 
can distinctly state. Not many mighty, not many noble, in 
this world's estimation, become the disciples of Christ, be- 
cause they rely more on mind, the faculty of pride, than on 
love, the faculty of devotion. In the day of judgment, many a 
peasant will appear more imbued with faith and light than the 
doctors of the law, because affection sees farther than intellect ; 
and when the soul yields to her mild but potent influence, 
truth accompanies her flight, as an eagle seizes her little ones 
upon her back and bears them to the sun. 

It is the plain, practical, and yet profound common sense of 
the masses, that saves the world when statesmen and men of 
genius fail in their mission, and betray, with the cause of God, 
the cause of humanity. It is reason in the toil-worn and 



CHRIST AS A PREACHER. 85 

suffering which counteracts ambitious diplomacy and the vaga- 
ries of inexperienced abstractionists. It is the people, the great 
masses, between whom and Jesus were such mutual sentiments 
of esteem, who in every age receive from God the instinctive 
wisdom necessary to resist the treason against popular rights 
which the masters of the world employ all their resources to 
execute. This, the heroical aspect of human nature, Christ 
respected, as he did every thing interesting and great in man. 
Those profound aspirations, latent in every mind, and which the 
thoughtful keenly feel compelling them to live in the past as 
well as the future, Christ did not despise ; on the contrary, he 
incurred the deepest opprobrium, and suffered the greatest sac- 
rifice, that he might bestow on our race a religion adapted to 
educe all our faculties, and impart to them the divinest growth. 
He would deliver from all oppression, and conduct us out of 
the regions of contracted perception into the unbounded do- 
mains of enjoyment and thought. The soul pants for the 
unlimited and undying with a thirst which human objects can- 
not assuage. From the beginning, as Novalis remarks, " every 
science had its god, which was its end. Philosophers sought 
the unlimited, though they found only what is limited. They 
sought infinity, though they found only things." But Christ 
brought to earth the elements of a nobler science, free for all, 
and opened for every devotee instructions the most satisfying 
and sublime. They were in harmony with the deepest wants 
of the human heart and intellect ; with the idea of perfection 
which slumbers there, and which, by his teachings, is awak- 
ened to reality and consciousness. Man every where requires 
not merely intellectual excitement and luxury, but an adoration, 
which humbles, sanctifies, and regenerates his higher powers : 
this was the prerogative of Him who is higher than all the 
sources of mere genius, and who came to the weary and 
heavy-laden people that they might freely drink of the waters 
of life. His words were spirit and vivifying power to the lis- 
tening multitudes. He profoundly respected every vestige of 
God in man, feeling that the feeblest intellectual life, of which 
8 



86 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

obedience is the law, is but a participation of the supreme 
reason, a full consent to the testimony which Jehovah has him- 
self rendered to his creature. All created intelligences are 
animated by rays of the eternal intelligence, that divine reason 
which communicates itself through the words of Christ, and is 
the cause of that divine life of which faith is the essential 
mode. The mortal combat of the flesh against the spirit goes 
ever on, and Christianity comes with its mighty energies to 
emancipate, enlighten, and transform the soul — a task effect- 
ually accomplished because the agency employed is but the 
assemblage and manifestation of all the truths useful to man. 

They who do not profoundly respect the worth and capa- 
bilities of the common people, are always themselves unwor- 
thy of being confided in. The mind of the masses may often 
be quite uncultivated, but its instincts are always sure, and they 
never long adhere to leaders, or eulogize talents, which are 
not destined to enduring fame. The multitude, in its igno- 
rance, is wiser than philosophers crippled and perverted by 
factitious learning, because it will not shut its eyes to that light, 
truly natural, which shines in the midst of the world, and 
enlightens all who are sincere. Who gave the signal of revolt 
against Jehovah, and provoked those calamities, the record of 
which is so frightful? Kings, and their courtiers, the leaders 
of schools, and the priests of a party. Such have ever been 
the instruments of supreme selfishness, and the chief destroyers 
of popular rights. They have always persecuted and op- 
pressed humanity, as, under the false and lying protection of 
hypocritical sovereignty, they betrayed Christ to their pretorium, 
crowned him with a diadem of thorns, and, after having ren- 
dered his sacred head gory with their blows, knelt before him, 
exclaiming, We salute thee, King of the Jews ! 

On the contrary, who pressed around Christ, on the moun- 
tains, by the sea, and in desert places, to listen with profound 
respect to his instructions ? The people. Who wished to 
choose him for ruler supreme, in the greatest transports of pop- 
ular admiration crying, " Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in 



CHRIST AS A PREACHER. 87 

the name of the Lord ? " The people. Ay, who was it that 
professed to be scandalized because he healed the sick on Sab- 
bath days, and thereupon interrogated him insidiously, that they 
might entrap him with their malice and destroy his life ? 
Scribes and Pharisees, the tools of power and paragons of 
bigotry. Their astute and cunning hypocrisy deceived the 
people even, and in a moment of popular caprice impelled 
them to demand the death of Him who had nourished them in 
the desert with seven loaves, who gave health to their sick, 
sight to their blind, and life to their dead. But seeing how the 
heartless aristocracies of church and state had deceived the 
people, as the serpent deceived Eve, Jesus prayed his Father, 
saying, " Father, forgive them ; for they know not what they do." 

Thus far we have considered how that Christ addressed our 
common nature, by personally sharing its wants and respecting 
its capacities. We proceed to remark, — 

Secondly, Christ aroused common emotions, so that the 
multitudes heard him gladly. This result was produced from 
two causes : his own sympathies were excited, and his esteem 
for his hearers was legitimately exemplified. 

In the first place, Christ aroused common emotions of interest 
and delight, because his own sympathies were excited in be- 
half of those who heard him. He who was rich, for our sakes 
became poor. He chose poverty, and laid aside all the outward 
appearances of high station and power, that he might come 
near to the multitudes and ingratiate their esteem. At the 
opening of his ministry, what a spirit of humanity did he 
breathe in the festive gathering at Cana of Galilee ! But his 
chief sympathies are with the ignorant, the sinful, the op- 
pressed, and those who mourn in solitude. He drew his con- 
fiding disciples and the common people into the most intimate 
relations with himself; journeyed with them on foot, com- 
muned with them as a loving equal, slept in their houses, sat 
at their tables, partook of their frugal fare, and poured upon 
their minds the highest truth in the simplest forms. He came 
to seek and to save that which was lost, and his awakened 



88 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

sympathies were the unerring guides which led him to the 
needy of every class. It was this combination of the spirit of 
humanity in its tenderest form, with native glories the most un- 
rivalled and divine, that gave Christ such a hold on the masses 
of mankind. He was evidently anxious to see the cloud of 
ignorance and superstition, that darkens over our world, rent, 
and the full and sanctifying effulgence of truth flaming down 
into the chaos and torpidity of the people's being. As this 
was a true feeling on his part, it was promptly recognized and 
acknowledged on theirs. We cannot wonder at the solicitude 
which Christ felt, nor at the applause which his hearers be- 
stowed. Ignorance wears a fearful aspect to one whose brain 
has been pierced by rays, however few and feeble, of a purer 
and more beautiful light than that of earth. To the J3un of 
Righteousness, then, how revolting, how overwhelmingly dis- 
tressing, must be the sight of an ignorant, bigoted, depraved 
being ! But such objects never repelled the active beneficence 
of his hands, nor chilled the ardor of his heart. However 
grim and incongruous might be such a spectacle of death in 
life, of life in death, Christ saw in it a human reality fitted to 
unseal all the fountains of his most weeping Godhead. He 
regards the victim of lust, and fully comprehends how depraved 
he is. The serene light of heaven has never visited his soul ; 
but a lurid glare, engendered of the most loathsome corrup- 
tions, has flashed on his senses, and when he takes one step 
more desperate than the rest, it is only when that glare adds 
terror to his dismal path. Nature is fierce within him, and 
yet he is not natural ; for though the companionship to which 
he seems doomed has gifted him with nothing else, it has 
taught him ingenuity in vices. But does Christ despise this 
brand almost consumed ? No ; to his eve the most deplorable 
aspect of the victim is, that the very faculties which prove and 
constitute his identity with the Omnipotent should be employed 
only as the instruments of sin, and that he should be able to 
sink so low in the abyss of iniquity, only by the aid of those 
energies which were generated in the bosom of God himself. 



CHRIST AS A PREACHER. 89 

You may almost hear this humane Savior in every such case 
saying, Here is a brother, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, 
formed in the same exalted image as the best of his race, with 
the same mark of the divine upon his brow, with the same 
traces of celestial ancestry all through his soul ; yet he crawls 
on, unconscious of his divinity, in bestial degradation. And 
shall nothing be done to rescue him from the thrall of those 
appetites he unquestioning obeys ? nothing to arouse him from 
a slumber grosser and more gloomy than that of the brutes ? 
O, yes; even in the most stupid and most depraved, the reli- 
gious sentiment has an indestructible vitality ; and He whom 
humanity heard with delight will prove his claims on popular 
regard by breathing hallowed emotions into that wretched 
brother's heart. It was from condemnation, from sin and hell, 
that he came to save us ; and he delivers men from the worst 
practices and the most fearful doom, even though they have 
reached the lowest degree of corruption, and grovel at the 
very gates of the eternal pit. 

Christ commanded the popular ear, because he sympathized 
with the popular heart, over which he poured his tears, and 
to redeem which he was ready to shed his blood. The eternal 
laws which slumber in the human breast he awoke into free 
action, and expressed with a clearness and power forever 
unsurpassed, developing, as he spoke, "energetic reason and a 
shaping mind. 1 ' His own heart melted through all the tones 
and words he uttered ; and thus he engraved the noblest senti- 
ments on the hearts of mankind with " such fiery characters 
as lightning on the rocks inscribeth." He impressed through 
his discourse the seal of life and action, energizing the " might 
that slumbers in a peasant's arm," every where making " the 
fresh air blow through the soul's shut-up mansion," that each 
bosom might swell as rapturously, and each mind soar as 
freely, as his own. 

Jesus Christ fulfilled his ministry in the streets and highways. 
He did not seclude himself in some lonely sanctuary, but toiled 
and taught constantly among the masses, in the midst of the 
8* 



90 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

world. He was compassionate toward all men, and was par- 
ticularly attentive to the most destitute. When he saw the mul- 
titudes, he was moved with tender sympathy on their behalf, 
because they had neither instruction nor support. He wept 
for a fallen race, not with the tenderness of weakness, but of 
almighty strength ; and it was the love of the purest among 
the mighty, the mightiest among the pure, that touched the 
hearts of the populace and swayed them as the whirlwind 
sways summer foliage. His object was not to compel, but pei*- 
suade ; to gain consent where consent was wanting ; to make 
willing what before was reluctant ; to actuate the affections 
and woo their force ; to make man say " yes," willingly and 
with joy, in a matter in which he was before inclined to say 
" no." The power he aimed at was the persuasion of crea- 
tures endowed with reason, capable of faith, and strongly 
affected by passion ; accordingly the course he pursued was 
harmonious with the end he desired. The secret of his in- 
fluence consisted in the nature of the religion he taught, in 
its depth of meaning and warmth of love, in its perfect sim- 
plicity and universal application. He expanded into innu- 
merable forms, and diversified by infinite varieties of illustra- 
tion, the great truths of human sinfulness and the infinite 
fulness of divine redemption. He humbled himself to the 
condition of the most humble, and poured out the greatest 
treasures at the feet of the most indigent, while in each act he 
was never formal, but fraternal, under the guise of a servant 
performing the functions of a God. He knew that a delicate 
and close net-work of sensibility is diffused over the entire 
body of society, rendering it susceptible of being acted upon 
at every point ; and along this he poured a tide of his own 
sympathy, seeking the greatest good of the greatest number, 
until he had drawn all segments of the great circle of humanity 
to one central spot, the throbbing core of his own great and 
benevolent heart. It was this kind of address that aroused in 
the common people " all the mysterious world of eye and ear," 
making them to hang with delight uoon the lips of the Son 



CHRIST AS A PREACHER. 91 

of God, and to lean fondly towards his swelling breast. Each 
new principle he announced resounded in their intelligence 
like echoes from beyond the grave ; and while they stood 
inth railed by the splendor of a truth then first seen, they be- 
held in it a glass which showed them many more, — inter- 
minable vistas of glory, joys that should never end. It was 
Christ who first made the pulse of true religion beat in all the 
arteries of the common heart, and caused the people to feel 
that, invested with the serene and blessed atmosphere of his 
presence and instruction, they indeed stood in " the presence 
chamber of the King of kings." 

Let us remember that " there is in man an inward con- 
sciousness of worth, not individual, but generic, which, how- 
ever it may be given to slumber, is almost invariably awakened 
by the show of sincere reverence. Pitiable as may be his lot 
for the most part ; cheerless and dark as may be the igno- 
rance in which he lives ; vitiated and vulgar as may be his 
appetites, worthless his ordinary pursuits, and perverse his 
will, — he yet possesses the elements of a noble nature. What 
susceptibilities lie buried in the bosom even of the most 
degraded ! what high-wrought sympathies ! what glorious 
powers ! Woe be to them who can deliberately insult and 
despise man, clothed in any garb, or presenting himself to 
view under colors even the most repulsive. Ignorant as we 
may perchance find him, he is, nevertheless, a being capable 
of thought ; malignant, as oftentimes he is, he was yet formed 
to love. There is nothing deep which we search into, nothing 
excellent which we feel, nothing heroic which we attempt, 
nothing great and praiseworthy which we do, which the poor- 
est, meanest, most wretched outcast of us all, might not search 
into, feel, attempt, and efFect. Lift him out of very abjectness 
of spirit ; do homage, as becomes his fellow-mortal, to the 
imprint of divinity still visible upon his soul ; remind him of 
his true dignity, by gently and reverentially appealing to the 
higher attributes of his nature ; bow to him as a member, 
forgetful though he may have been of his relationship, of the 



92 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

same family to which you yourself claim to belong, — and 
some 4 touches of kin' will show themselves. A new life will 
quicken that man's heart. The obeisance you have done to 
his nature, and to the image of God which you discerned there, 
if rightly, wisely, feelingly offered, will turn his attention, 
haply for the first time, to the rich worth of those elements of 
character, which, in self-ignorance, he has treated with cruel 
disrespect. By this means he is led to see himself — to feel 
his own powers — to learn the secret of his high birth. Other 
and nobler thoughts than those with which he has heretofore 
busied himself, will come crowding into his mind. The 
respect you have paid him will apply the match to a train of 
new aspirations. You will have aroused that consciousness 
within him, which alone can look round upon a home of dark- 
ness and disorder, — darkness in the understanding, and dis- 
order in the passions, — and exclaim with surprise and shame, 
4 What misery and pollution are here ! ' True, that new-born 
consciousness may die again ; but surely he does most for 
human nature, whose every aim is to keep it alive, and nourish 
and strengthen it, until it can bear no longer to dwell amid 
scenes so revolting." 

Christ best knew what was in man, and he was so bent 
on developing and ennobling his torpid powers, that gracious 
words and beneficent deeds were as common to him as vital 
air and daily bread. If he was the wisest teacher that ever 
descended from heaven, it was because he habitually acted on 
the principle that the religious sentiment in human beings is 
the mightiest agent on earth. To give this a proper training, 
and to preserve it from a perverted use, was his constant aim. 
To accomplish this the more benignly, and with the widest 
advantage, he did not conduct his hearers through the dubious 
region of conflicting theories, but brought them at once into 
the lucid medium of absolute truth ; by word and action he 
reached their intentions through his own deepest and most 
tender consciousness, without permitting any intellectual re- 
finements or fastidious niceties of the brain to check and chill 



CHRIST AS A PREACHER. 93 

their outpouring. His ambition was to teach not so much the 
new as the true, and the true not as a logical formula or dog- 
matical proposition, but as a transparent and comprehensive 
religious sentiment, enlightening the conscience, spiritualizing 
the heart, elevating the soul, and regenerating the entire 
family of man, as it swept outward with infinite expansive- 
ness to embrace the world. Hence, in the gospel, there is 
the calm of a mighty possession, the ravishing peace which 
follows the gratification of immense desires, the tranquil 
serenity of heaven even. He whom the earth waited for so 
long and anxiously has come. " The Word was made flesh, 
and dwelt among us ; and we have seen his glory, the glory 
of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth." 
Under his auspices all assumes a new appearance ; the time 
of symbols is passed ; salvation is accomplished ; and human 
nature, having won confidence in itself through the great Re- 
deemer, experiences a calm and august repose, such as was 
never known before. The benighted has found light to guide, 
the feeble imbibes energy to sustain ; and thus fortified with 
resources from on high, the confiding disciple is crowned with 
a divine sovereignty, " like Strength reposing on his own 
right arm." It is the prerogative and glory of Christianity to 
awaken in its subjects the free, earnest exertion of their pow- 
ers ; to kindle inward inspirations, and rouse the whole soul 
to a healthful activity and useful life. Therefore its nature is 
not arid and barren, revealing a precise and frigid doctrine 
which admits of no expansion, and feels no purifying and 
guiding fires in the heart and intellect. The religion which 
comes from the Creator of the human soul, which is adapted 
to its constitution, and which honors both the Maker and his 
work, tends perpetually to burst its limits and grow forever. 
Christ loved the people because they were common ; because 
they were immortal creatures, men. He had faith in their 
improvement, and labored to promote within all " the fiery 
grandeur of a generous mind." He showed himself to be 
eminently the friend of the multitude ; the defender of popu- 



94 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

iar rights, as well as the foundation of eternal hopes ; and by 
these demonstrations of practical goodness he took a power- 
ful hold on their judgments and hearts. He made popular 
impressions through preaching and practice, that was replete 
with love, overflowing with mercy. He was not the imper- 
sonation of reason so much as affection ; he dealt not so much 
with the moonbeams of cold dialectics, as with the brilliant 
sun-rays of fervid benevolence. He bent his ear to every 
sigh, put forth his hand to relieve every want of the distressed ; 
and even when he had departed, it was natural that his sym- 
pathetic tones should come back upon the popular heart again, 
thrilling even to the eye's fountain. Christ addressed him- 
self to the tendencies of our nature most easily awakened, 
whose education is the promptest, and whose results are the 
most enduring ; to the powers of enjoyment, and he thereby 
won souls to happiness and peace ; to the afTections, and thus 
captivated them by love ; to conscience, and caused it to 
respond to the instinctive voice of the moral sense ; to the 
religious principle, and gave it the amplest means of redemp- 
tion and eternal progress. In every miracle he performed on 
matter or on mind, it was our merciful Savior's purpose 

"To raise the human to the holy, 
To wake the spirit from the clay." 

We have said that Christ aroused common emotions, because 
his own sympathies were excited on behalf of the multitudes. 
We remark further, that his esteem for his hearers was legiti- 
mately exemplified, and for this reason especially he was 
heard with delight. 

Consider the mode and the spirit of Christ's teaching. In 
the first place, the manner in which he addressed the people 
was calculated to fix their attention and conciliate their belief. 
In his teaching, says an American writer, " he was wont to em- 
ploy a great variety of illustrations ; sometimes by means of 
short and pointed similes ; sometimes more expanded parables ; 
and sometimes by incidental allusions to present objects and 
passing occurrences in the natural world. Scarcely ever does 



CHRIST AS A PREACHER. 95 

he teach any important truth without making use of some 
well-chosen illustration, to render it more clear or more im- 
-pressive. He knew the mental habits of the people to whom 
his preaching was addressed. He knew, that in general they 
were not a cultivated and an intellectual people. Their con- 
ceptions were gross, and they needed a species of instruction 
which should make much use of their senses in so setting 
truth before their minds as to do them good, and he adapted 
his instructions to them accordingly. When he would rebuke 
the pride of man, and inculcate on his disciples the need of 
cultivating a lowly and confiding temper of heart, he does not 
merely deliver to them the abstract and general, though all- 
important truth, that man must be converted and experience 
a radical transformation of character, in order to their being 
saved ; but, to impress this sentiment more strongly, he takes 
a little child and sets him in the midst of them, and then tells 
them how salvation is to be obtained : ' Verily I say unto you, 
Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall 
in no case enter into the kingdom of God. Whoso receiveth 
not the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter 
therein.'' When he would teach men to confide in the all- 
governing providence of God, and not yield to impatience, or 
discouragement, or unbelieving fear, he summons to his aid 
the objects of Nature around him, and makes the dependence 
of all her tribes, animate and inanimate, subservient to his 
design. ' Consider the lilies of the field.' ' Consider the 
ravens.' Who nourishes them ? Who gives them their deli- 
cate clothing ? Who protects them in the storm ? Who 
preserves them through the changing seasons ? The field, 
untrodden by the foot of man, and uncultivated by human 
care, has flowers surpassing in glory the richest and wisest of 
earthly kings ; but ' they toil not, neither do they spin.' Who 
rears and upholds these little and delicate structures ? ' If 
God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to- 
morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not clothe you, O ye 
of little faith ? ' When our Savior would impress upon us the 



96 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

duty of kindness to our poor neighbor, and tell us who is our 
neighbor, he relates the misfortune of a Jew, who ' went down 
from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves.' Waylaid 
and plundered by a band of robbers, he is left upon the high- 
way, weltering in his blood, and half dead. A priest and a 
Levite pass by that way, but offer no aid to the sufferer. It 
is a Samaritan that, passing by, takes pity on him and saves 
his life. What a beautiful illustration is this, to show us who 
is our neighbor, and what is the proper conduct which is due 
from us one toward another in any circumstance of need ! 
When he would make known to us the real feelings of our 
Creator, and of all holy beings, in view of the recovery of lost 
sinners, he gives us the story of the prodigal son ; and thus 
refers us to the strongest sensibilities of nature within us, as an 
illustration of the paternal interest which God himself takes 
in beholding one of his lost creatures recovered to virtue and 
to happiness. This delightful interest, which the Creator 
himself feels in receiving back to his favor the lost sinner, is 
represented too as a diffusive common interest, felt throughout 
the heavenly world. What a vivid impression does this give 
us of the importance of a single conversion ! In what other 
way could we have been made to feel this fact so strongly, or 
been prompted to use our powers so earnestly, in spreading 
abroad through the earth the means of salvation to our fellow- 
men ! When he would teach us what it is to be finally lost 
from God's holy kingdom, or finally happy in his favor, what 
appalling and what delightful imagery does he employ ! The 
poor, suffering Lazarus, coldly and disdainfully repelled from 
the sympathies of his fellow-men, and left to die of hunger 
at the gate of human affluence, because no man would give 
unto him, is carried by angels to Abraham's bosom. Despised 
on earth, he is admitted, beyond the grave, to the intimate 
fellowship of the c father of the faithful.' Friendless on earth, 
when he dies, he is admitted to the bosom-confidence and com- 
munion of the ' friend of God.' Angels perform the office of 
conducting him to his blissful home. How exceedingly does 



CHRIST AS A PREACHER. 97 

the imagery here employed heighten the impression of the 
simple truth thereby illustrated, that good men, however neg- 
lected and overlooked on earth, will be honored and happy in 
the world to come ! So, too, on the other hand, what a fear- 
ful picture of wretchedness is that which is drawn by our 
Lord, in the same chapter, as descriptive of the state of a 
wicked man after death ! " 

It is to be observed that the miracles which Christ performed 
were designed to direct popular attention to his doctrines more 
than to his person. He knew that the fundamental principles 
of religion which he taught lay so near to the reason and con- 
science of mankind, that they needed only to have their atten- 
tion directed towards them, in order to secure assent. For this 
reason, Jesus delivered his instructions with such a clearness 
and simplicity, such an energy and power, that they commend- 
ed themselves immediately to every ingenuous heart. " His 
instructions exhibited none of those dialectical subtilties, deep 
speculations, and prolix demonstrations, which abounded in the 
systems of the old philosophers, and rendered them, how much 
soever good they might contain, totally unfit for the multitude 
at large. The most important truths, which, in the way of 
speculation, and by the greatest efforts of philosophizing reason, 
had either not been discovered at all, or but imperfectly, were 
represented by Jesus with such a lucid and touching simplicity, 
that they must be obvious to the most illiterate, and fill the 
most acute thinkers with admiration. At the same time, he 
delivered them as the instructions and expressions of God him- 
self, and thereby clothed them with that authority, every where 
and to the highest degree valid, which is indispensable to the 
great mass of people, and, with them, holds the place of 
demonstration and the profoundest proofs, without prohibiting 
reason, however, from laboring further upon .them, and endeav- 
oring to deduce them from principles peculiar to itself alone." 

One of the most important conditions fulfilled by the human 
life of our Redeemer was that of showing himself to be our 
brother. Under this character he always appeared, and never 
9 



98 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

more so than when employed in teaching. He realized, in the 
presence of the human race, an ideal of human perfection 
level to popular comprehension and within the reach of all. 
In his person, his demeanor, and his speech, the world saw the 
infinite brought down to our standard, so realized that we can 
easily understand it, and feel the majesty and beauty of that 
love to Christ which is nothing but the imitation of God brought 
near to the roused intellect and heart. We cannot wonder that 
the people were spell-bound in the presence of such a teacher. 
The pure and joyous effulgence of truth emanating from him 
must have captivated their vision, like the sun as he bathes 
with his beams fragrant vales and bleak mountain-tops. Christ 
was radiant with celestial benignity, which he transfused into 
the surrounding multitudes through the simplest expressions and 
most transparent life, fascinating the popular heart, and lifting 
it to a participation of immortal bliss. 

But, turning from the form of his teaching, let us look more 
particularly to its spirit. The chief element of Christ's power 
lay in the fact that he thrilled the principle of perfectibility 
latent in every rational creature whom he addressed. By his 
own incarnation he glorified humanity, and came breathing into 
every recess of its bleeding and aspiring heart nothing but 
peace and love. He explained the possibility of our being one 
with God, and presented motives for our becoming grand as 
eternity. In this way he portrayed the soul as a treasure most 
precious, which the universal Father bends down with infinite 
solicitude to rescue, ennoble, and forever preserve. " My 
Father worketh hitherto, and I work," said he ; and his inces- 
sant effort was to elevate souls, by revealing to them the gospel 
plan of spiritual perfection. All his labors and lessons were 
designed to lift up the fallen race of Adam, to remove every 
obstruction in the way of moral improvement, and to show 
how man is to be loved as God's child, a creature of immortal- 
ity, a temple built for the skies. Of all teachers Christ was 
the best, of all reformers the wisest and most beneficent ; for 
his thoughts were the mightiest, and he strove with divinest zeal 



CHRIST AS A PREACHER. 99 

to plant them in all the masses of mankind. He unfolded the 
reality of spiritual life, his example the best model, and his 
teaching the only sure guide. 

The doctrines of Christ were at the same time the most prac- 
tical and profound. His precepts were level to the capacities 
of a child, and yet they contained principles which the most 
matured and soaring intellect could never outrun. These were 
addressed to the wants, rather than to the worth, of their recip- 
ients. Their most distinguishing mark was a fulness of gen- 
erosity ; since the one avowed object of their Author was, " to 
do good and to communicate." Like a delicious air, laden 
with the most delicious odors, Christ eveiy where made his 
presence manifest by the joys he awakened and the benefits he 
conferred. Sweet, gentle, conciliating, and yet most power- 
ful, he approached human hearts to imbue them with something 
of his own divinity ; and, by investing them with his own spir- 
itualizing influences, not only to purify and gladden them, but 
to make them the almoners of like blessings to all other men. 
From first to last, there is all about the career of Christ the 
highest witchery of love. Unasked and undesired,'he sped his 
flight from celestial glory earthward in search of moral wretch- 
edness, that he might relieve its woes. Then, with a bearing 
exquisitely harmonious with his mission, in unassuming gentle- 
ness, he knocked at the door of sick and sorrowing humanity ; 
pityingly lifted the latch of our dilapidated nature ; spoke in 
sympathizing, soothing accents ; and, having beguiled the faint- 
ing and guilt-burdened spirit into peace and hope by a kiss of 
forgiveness, he smilingly displayed a store of inestimable bless- 
ings, and bade us welcome to the eternal feast. He knew that 
the soul can never be contented to be fed with trifles or 
amused with bawbles, and he therefore came not to work on the 
surface of human character, but to pervade it with himself, 
thus rendering it divine. He would breathe into the soul a 
heavenly energy, an indomitable force of will, teaching at once 
the love of wisdom and the wisdom of love. His spirit pos- 
sessed a most purifying and expanding warmth, because " a 



100 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

thousand hearts were great within him ; " and he was the glory 
of all spirits, since he was the pattern of the grandest ideas. 
Every speaker who would be influential must stir in the bosom 
of the people the noble sentiments of liberty, equality, and 
justice. Christ was the most efficient in this respect, because 
he invigorated every attribute he wrought upon, inspired infinite 
hopes, and clothed human nature with unfading righteousness 
and majesty. His own spirit was large as the suffering world 
he came to save ; and, in all his vicarious toils, he gathered 
bliss in seeing the needy blessed. The principles of Chris- 
tianity are adapted to man's nature, and are designed to make 
him a better citizen, kinder associate, truer friend, a nobler 
being every way. They excel all other influences, not in 
intensity only, but in extent ; they not only command, at one 
moment, the whole spiritual being, but retain their power 
through the whole course of existence, over every moment of 
an immortal life. They appeal to the thinking faculty of man, 
no less than to his heart and his conscience, making all our 
spiritual faculties to partake of the divine nature, to be filled 
with all the fulness of God. 

Such were the mode and spirit of his teaching whom the 
common people gladly heard, and who aroused in them emo- 
tions common to all, because his own sympathies were excited, 
and his esteem for his hearers was legitimately exercised. 
Herein is a model for us not only to admire, but imitate ; for 
such must every disciple be who would honor God and benefit 
mankind. 

"He lives and breathes 
For noble purposes of mind ; his heart 
Beats to heroic things of ancient days ; 
His eye distinguishes, his soul creates." 

We have considered two general points — that Christ ad- 
dressed a common nature, and that he aroused common emo- 
tions in the masses among whom he moved. It remains, 
thirdly, to show that he imparted common blessings, and that 
he accomplished this through labors for the redemption of the 



CHRIST AS A PREACHER. 101 

common people which were most intense, and by the exercise 
of love for them in every respect the most impartial. 

In the first place, the labors of Christ for the redemption of 
the common people were most intense, and this caused them to 
receive him gladly. The world was divided into two classes, 
the rich and powerful on one hand, and on the other the poor 
and unfortunate. There was no middle space. The Messiah 
comes, and behold which side he takes ! He confers his roy- 
alty and divinity mainly upon the destitute. " He is poor," 
exclaims the prophet Zechariah, as he beheld him from afar ; 
and, declaring his own mission, " The Lord," said he, " has 
sent me to evangelize the poor." His precursor, John, sent 
disciples to question him, saying, "Art thou he that should 
come, or is it necessary to expect another?" And Christ 
responded, " Tell John what you have heard and seen. The 
blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are purified, the deaf hear, 
the dead are raised." Is this all ? No. Hear the crowning 
wonder ! u The poor have the gospel preached to them." 
That is, science, light that is truthful, and dignity truly divine, 
are restored to that immense portion of humanity who had 
been cruelly deprived of these gifts designed for all. Jesus 
Christ never formed the slightest alliance with the oppressors 
of the masses; but, sweeping splendid tyranny from his path 
as often as he encountered it, he exclaimed, with ineffable ten- 
derness, " I thank thee, O my Father, that thou hast concealed 
these things from the educated and sagacious, and that thou 
hast revealed them unto docile little ones." In a word, he 
established between himself and such, a bond of fellowship 
which will eternally protect the poor, and guaranty to them 
the respect of all coming time. " Whatever you shall do to 
the most dependent among these my brethren, it is even to me 
that you do it," were his gracious words. 

Christ conquered the world by experiencing its deprivations, 

its oppressions, and all its woes. He started from the base of 

the pyramid of human society, and struggled up, by incessant 

toil, through all the superincumbent mass, before he entered 

9* 



102 



REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 



upon his public ministry ; and then, from the highest point of 
earthly toil, he showed how we are to accompany him through 
much tribulation to the fairest heights of celestial glory. The 
Son of man was the manliest of men ; the most humane, and, 
at the same time, the most brave ; he taught as never man 
taught, because he sought usefulness rather than honors, and 
was ready to enter the lists against the most numerous and 
mighty foes, whenever the feeble were to be defended or the 
captive set free. It mattered not though crowned and mitred 
tyranny condemned his advocacy of mercy and truth. It was 
impossible for his righteous soul to be otherwise than " bold in 
the right, and too bold to do wrong." Christ was never afraid 
to speak out and tell men the truth. His denunciation of the 
hypocritical Scribes and Pharisees, those " whited sepulchres" 
of the nation in those last stages of degeneracy and moral 
putrescence which they had mainly produced, is in point to 
show that he was above the influence of fear or favor in his 
teaching, whatever might be the reputation of his hearers or 
the rank in which they moved. He never injured the wealthy 
and powerful by refraining from dealing out to them wholesome 
counsel ; but his especial solicitude was for the welfare of the 
great multitudes who did not scorn his lowliness, but, on the 
contrary, in a measure, appreciated the constant labors he per- 
formed for their sakes, and gladly listened to his discourse. 
They recognized in him a sympathizing friend, an untiring 
brother, a champion divine. 

" Patient of toil, serene amidst alarms, 
Inflexible in faith, invincible in arms." 

Finally, the love of Christ for the common people was not 
only deep beyond all precedent, but it was also in every respect 
the most impartial ; and, if any thing was wanting to secure 
their undivided regard, this would succeed beyond all other 
means. 

Christianity was the first universal educator. Its spirit is the 
patron of all excellence, the enlightener of all mind, " the light 



CHRIST AS A PKEACHER. 103 

that lighteth every man that cometh into the world." When 
this Liberator of universal thought appeared, he signified the 
divine purpose of his mission in the well-known words, " The 
Lord has sent me to evangelize the poor." Why the poor? 
Doubtless because they formed the greatest number, and suf- 
fered the greatest wrongs ; and, since all souls are of equal 
value before God, when he weighs them in the balance of eter- 
nal justice, the soul of the great masses should certainly pre- 
ponderate. The common people recognized Christ, and adored, 
him in the deepest obscurity, while, as he rose on the general 
view, men of station and power saw in him nothing to admire, 
but every thing to persecute. The people loved him, because 
they saw in him the transparent wisdom and impartial love they 
so much needed ; and he in turn loved them the more, because, 
in their destitution and despair, they were willing to confide in 
him as the great Master who had come to teach every class of 
mankind without money and without price. This was instruc- 
tion and love which met men's entire yearnings, aspirings, and 
powers, and was employed to raise human nature, by enlarging 
and cultivating its faculties, but not to fortify tottering thrones 
and exclusive sects. As Christ himself was conscious of a 
perfect union with God, he designed to produce, upon all who 
were susceptible of such a feeling, a corresponding impression 
of an existence pervaded with the fulness of the divine spirit 
and nature. Devout emotions, tender, fraternal bonds, and the 
sublimest aspirations, are inherent in the nature of the gospel, 
flowing spontaneously forth from the word, the spirit, and the 
life of Christ, and were most strongly confirmed by the perfect 
harmony between his manifestation in the flesh and that inward 
perception of the godlike, which, through it, was first awakened 
to full consciousness in the popular heart. Jesus was the 
Shekinah to the world ; a palpable imbodiment of Jehovah to 
all men, in a far wider and higher sense than the Shekinah of 
old ; for he was not merely a symbol of the divine perfections 
gleaming in the cloud, and circumscribed by a narrow sanctu- 
ary, but infinite wisdom and universal love realized distinctly 



104 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

and rapturously to the common intellect and affection of 
mankind. The beloved Son was the bright image and rep- 
resentative of the great Father of us all, whose advent was 
designed to testify the worth of the soul in the sight of God, 
and to qualify it for the infinite functions for which it was 
framed. 

In order best to accomplish the work which was given him 
to do, our Savior appeared in the greatest poverty, and lived 
upon the generosity of those who suffered with him the ills of 
life. With the noblest zeal he attacked the strongest party 
among his countrymen, and seemed purposely to excite the 
indignation of all who were tyrants and bigots at heart. To 
know who were the wretched creatures he most denounced, we 
have only to ascertain who had already inflicted the greatest 
wrongs on their race. The Pharisees had transformed mo- 
rality into a subtle casuistry about ceremonials, and made it the 
patroness of most pernicious hypocrisy. The Sadducees had 
reduced it to a system of arbitary maxims for the use of un- 
principled sensualists ; and the Essenes, to a gloomy asceti- 
cism, fit only for fanatical anchorites and morbid enthusiasts. 
They all agreed, however, to abandon the common people to 
uncultivated desires, and were satisfied themselves, selfishly, to 
conform to their own frivolous formulas, and treat the excluded 
multitudes with bitter contempt. To rescue morality from 
such degradation, and to open on earth the fountains of free 
salvation, instead of priestcraft so accursed, was the design of 
Christ and his glorious reward. He would convert men to 
himself by making them like himself, and thus bind them to 
each other with a love as comprehensive and magnanimous as 
his own. He would disabuse them of all prejudice, destroy 
from amongst them all hinderances to mutual improvement, and 
invest each devotee, at the shrine of impartial justice, with the 
nobility of heaven. He drew golden truth from its original 
sources, and scattered it as widely as possible among the mis- 
cellaneous crowds, not simply to meet their immediate wants, 
but to stimulate their appetite, and to remind them that the 



CHRIST AS A PREACHER. 105 

inexhaustible mine was laid open to be explored by all. He 
sowed the field of the world with the seeds of most precious 
harvests thickly scattered, and invited every rank and con- 
dition to gather unlimited stores for themselves. He addressed 
the masses, and not private circles ; went to the reading-desk 
of the synagogue, and not the secret alcoves of the temple ; 
and made every spot where his feet stood and his voice re- 
sounded, a perpetual source of the widest, highest, freest, and 
most powerful instruction. It was his own declaration, " And 
I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." That is, all 
men are made susceptible of emotion, as well as capable of 
believing ; all men love to feel, as well as to think ; and in my 
gospel is an exciting and exalting power, adapted to the human 
mind, and to which, if permitted through appropriate instruc- 
tion, it will every where respond, feeling that by the contact 
all its faculties of head and heart are refreshed. 

Can we wonder that the eyes of the Redeemer, " which 
seemed to love whate'er they looked upon," as they met the 
popular gaze, held all spirits spell-bound ? Is it strange that 
those tones of his which every where proclaimed that all 
rational beings have an equal right to live and enjoy elicited 
applause from the throbbing hearts on which they fell ? The 
common people must have been something less or more than 
human to have resisted the power of wisdom so exalted, and 
love so impartial. He taught them to look into the everlast- 
ing mysteries of God's might, to be assimilated to infinite 
excellence, and thus to become divine. He created in the 
common people faith, that living power which grows by the 
struggles it encounters, and outruns the demands made upon it 
by the trials of life. As Elijah, who wore a rough garment, 
arose to heaven with chariot and horses of fire, so Christ would 
encourage the humblest of earth's children to aspire after 
celestial treasures of the greatest worth, through a career the 
most resplendent and full of beneficence. Standing in the 
presence of such a teacher and such a friend, the people saw 
God manifest in the flesh, who addressed a common' nature, 



106 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

aroused common emotions, and imparted common blessings, 
and whose life, as well as doctrines, proclaimed a model 
worthy of being not only admired but imitated by all. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 

IN HIS DEATH, THE DIVINE ATONER IN WHOM ALL ARE INVITED TO TRUST 
FOR THE HIGHEST FREEDOM AND IMMORTAL JOY. 



We have surveyed the infancy, the youth, the manhood, 
and the public ministry of Christ. It remains to consider the 
crowning act of his life on earth, and the results which thence 
emanate and spread through time and eternity. We believe 
that the divine Savior died for the wretched, whose sorrows he 
felt ; atoned for the sinful, whose guilt he assumed ; and tri- 
umphed alone on the cross in gloom, that he might open the 
gates of glory to all, and proffer to each a crown. 

In the first place, Christ died for the wretched, whose sor- 
rows he felt. The progressive character of his career was 
climacteric in the most interesting and sublime degree. The 
different traits of his life grew fairer and brighter at each 
successive development, until his person was invested with 
multifarious charms, each one perfect in itself, and all blended 
in a perfect whole ; as celestial hues appear one after another 
only to consummate their beautiful union at last in the rainbow, 
spanning earth and touching heaven. If our Lord was more 
than human in his human growth, and infinitely beneficent in 
his earthly toils, he was indeed divine in the merits of his 
death, and in those consequences of his sacrifice which so in- 
timately connect the destinies of our race with the councils and 
career of the Almighty. 



THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 107 

Consider what difficulties the Redeemer had to encounter, 
and what a victory he won. Human nature, which was origin- 
ally adapted to a union with the divine, had incurred a fearful 
obstruction, which interposed between this original design and 
its accomplishment: that obstruction, which necessitated the 
life and death of the Son of God, was sin. As it is the first 
truth of our religion, that this evil influence had obtained com- 
plete dominion over man, thus causing his immediate union 
with God to become impossible, it follows that the power of 
sin was first to be vanquished, annihilated within him, before 
reconciliation could result, and salvation be secured. But this, 
from the peculiar state of subjection in which man was held, 
could not be effected by his own effort ; it must be the work of 
that Being alone, whose very nature renders him unassailable 
by sin, and supreme over it. He, therefore, through whom 
the Deity opens, as it were, afresh his intercourse with human 
nature, becomes necessarily the Redeemer, not from one special 
spiritual burden, pressing on one particular period, but from 
the burden which weighed down the whole human race, at all 
times and every where. The atonement which Christ effects 
is that of mankind with their holy Creator ; and it is in this 
character we behold him invested with a special and unrivalled 
importance, a dignity the most attractive and divine. 

Undoubtedly one of the greatest proofs of the heavenly 
origin of the gospel consists in the fact that it is prepared for 
all ages, the pioneer of all progress, and adapted to every con- 
dition of mankind. In it the moral law is every where laid 
down — great, simple, absolute, and positive. " For this, thou 
shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not 
steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, and if there be any 
other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, 
namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." " So like- 
wise ye, when ye have done all those things which are com- 
manded you, say, We are unprofitable servants : we have done 
that which was our duty to do." Then came Peter to him, and 
said, " Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me and I 



108 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

forgive him ? till seven times ? " Jesus saith unto him, " I say- 
not unto thee, Until seven times ; but, Until seventy times 
seven ; " that is, indefinitely, without reckoning the number of 
pardons. " For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth 
any thing, nor uncircumcision ; but faith, which worketh by- 
love." 

By the death of Christ, a basis has been laid for faith, and 
freedom won for its exercise ; so that eveiy where the applica- 
tion of the law is left to the individual conscience, emancipated 
and enlightened by the Holy Spirit to be our guide. And 
when we remember that the gospel succeeded the Mosaic dis- 
pensation, which constitutes an immense and minute system of 
outward ceremonies and cumbrous discipline, it is impossible 
not to see the merciful hand of God in the difference — a dif- 
ference which man, in his imprudence or his pride, has vainly 
attempted to efface. It is the aim of " the glorious gospel of 
the blessed God" to make our responsibility complete and 
entire ; and, in order that we may be responsible, we must be 
perfectly free — a condition won only by the death of Christ. 
It is in reference to the oppressive precepts of the Mosaic law, 
and the superior privileges of the gospel, that Paul observes, 
" Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." " Stand 
fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us 
free." James tells us that the law of Christ is the " perfect 
law of [moral] liberty," the only sense which the context of 
the passage in which it occurs permits us to adopt ; and Paul 
has laid down the fundamental principles of Christian morality 
in these words : " Let every man be fully persuaded in his 
own mind .... for whatsoever is not of faith, is sin." 

Christ is every where described, in the sacred record, not 
so much a teacher as a doer. If he taught as never man 
taught, he did what only God could do ; he grappled the infinite 
evils of sin, and atoned for a world, that all men might be both 
teachers and doers of eternal truth. He was a light indeed, 
broad-shining and effective, which lighteth every man that 
cometh into the world ; the luminary supreme, which causes 



THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 109 

what it shows, as well as shows what its genial beams have 
caused. The great Redeemer came to the rescue of fallen 
and oppressed man in the desperate hour of his need. And 
what treasures did he bring and bestow on the race whose 
sorrows he pitied most, because by him they were most deeply 
felt ? He elevated the obscure and protected the weak, by 
teaching the common origin and sacred fraternity of mankind. 
He gave force to the imbecile, dignity to babes, and unwonted 
charms to woman, by unfolding the idea of a new and more 
exalted domestic law, and threw round all oppressed persons 
the highest and best munitions of safety and affection, by 
demonstrating, in life and death, that he came to set up the 
universal republic on earth, founded and governed by God. 
What could be more magical and sure in its effects on the pop- 
ular heart? When Jesus Christ appeared, and from the deep- 
est obscurity of Judea the all-embracing air had borne to the 
remotest regions his liberating influence, with what sacred hope 
did the human race tremble as it rose to hail his progress, gaze 
on his attractiveness, and listen to his words ! Who wonders 
that the impotent strove to approach him, rose and walked ? 
that the deaf leaned towards his lips, till his miraculous tones 
broke rapturously on their brain ? Who wonders that children, 
females, laborers, slaves, the poor and despised of every class, 
country, and condition, gathered along the dusty highway 
which he covered with monuments of mercy, spreading their 
garments under his feet, waving boughs over his head, just 
before his death, and crying, " Hosanna to the Son of David : 
Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord ! " That 
hosanna was the cry of deliverance, the response of abused 
humanity to Him who groaned over popular wrongs, sympa- 
thized with the better desires of the popular heart, lived and 
died in the defence of popular rights. That cry accorded 
well with the master purpose of the great Deliverer ; in part, 
perhaps, fortified and rewarded it. There is a picture by 
Raphael which represents our Lord bowed down to the earth 
by the weight of his cross and his sufferings; but, in the 
10 



110 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

expression of the countenance, the artist has made visible an 
inward satisfaction, struggling over pain, that he is yet to save 
the world. 

We have said that Christ died for the wretched, whose sor- 
rows he felt. We proceed to remark, — 

Secondly, he atoned for the sinful, whose guilt he assumed. 
We are to remember constantly that it was the criminality of 
man which occasioned the atonement of Christ ; but for sin, 
the light and warmth of Eden would never have been changed 
into flames round the sword of the guardian angel, nor blazed 
in the terrors of expulsion at the forbidden threshold. This 
is the abasing truth of the gospel, which teaches us to rejoice 
in Christ chiefly as a Savior. By the same record in which 
our ruinous fall is proclaimed, the exalting process of complete 
redemption is also displayed. Said the Savior himself, at the 
institution of the commemorative supper, " This is my blood 
which is shed for you, for the remission of sins." " The Son 
of man came to give his life a ransom for many." " He died 
to redeem us from the curse of the law, being made a curse 
for us." " God has set him forth as a propitiation for sin, that 
he might be just, and yet justify him that believeth in Jesus." 
" He made reconciliation for the sins of the people." Schleus- 
ner, commenting on these passages, says, " Christ came an 
object of execration in our stead. He was made an expiatory 
offering, in the place of sinners, to procure their deliverance 
from the curse. Christ was sent of God, for the express pur- 
pose of undergoing death, as the cause of human salvation ; 
and God has proposed Christ, as the expiator, or expiatory 
victim, expiating the sins of mankind, by a sacrifice offered." 

The fact of our utter inability to atone for our own sins, and 
the fulness of redemption secured for us by the sacrifice of 
Christ, are well stated by Dr. Edwards, as follows : — 

" The very idea of an atonement or satisfaction for sin, is 
something which, to the purposes of supporting the author- 
ity of the divine law, and the dignity and consistency of the 
divine government, is equivalent to the punishment of the 



THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. Ill 

sinner, according to the literal threatening of the law. That 
which answers these purposes being done, whatever it be, 
atonement is made, and the way is prepared for the dispensa- 
tion of pardon. In any such case, God can be just, and yet the 
justifier of the sinner. And that that which is sufficient to 
answer these purposes, has been done for us according to the 
gospel plan, I presume none can deny who believe that the 
eternal ' Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,' and that 
he, the only-begotten and well-beloved Son of God, ' bare our 
sins in his own body on the tree,' and ' gave himself a sacrifice 
to God for us.' 

" But perhaps some, who may readily grant that what Christ 
hath done and suffered is undoubtedly sufficient to atone for 
the sins of his people, may also suppose that, if God had seen 
fit so to order it, we might have made a sufficient atonement 
for our own sins. Or, whether they believe in the reality and 
sufficiency of the atonement of Christ or not, they may sup- 
pose that we might have atoned, or even now may atone, for 
our own sins. This hypothesis, therefore, demands our at- 
tention. 

" If we could have atoned, by any means, for our own sins, 
it must have been either by our repentance and reformation, or 
by enduring a punishment, less in degree or duration than that 
which is threatened in the law as the wages of sin. No other 
way for us to atone for our own sins appears to be conceivable. 
But, if we attend to the subject, we shall find that we can make 
no proper atonement in either of these ways. 1 ' 

Thus conditioned, where is our hope ? It is in God, whose 
Son descends from heaven, takes upon him the nature of man, 
sufFers in his stead, and, having consented that the whole bur- 
den of offended justice should be laid upon him, bears it in his 
own body on the tree, that the Father may be glorified, the law 
magnified and made honorable, by pouring out his soul unto 
death for all who trust in his blood. He ascended on high, 
and, by the arm that was lacerated on the cross, now energized 
with everlasting strength, he has levelled the wall of partition 



112 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

which traversed and darkened the path of redemption, so that 
now every barrier on the part of God is done away, and he, 
with untarnished glory, can dispense forgiveness over the whole 
extent of a guilty creation, and pour balm upon every penitent 
heart. On this theme Robert Hall has spoken with his wonted 
piety and eloquence. Said he, — 

" The conclusion to which we are conducted is confirmed by 
inspiration, which assures us that a great revolution has actually 
befallen the species ; and that, in consequence of the entrance 
of sin into the world, we have incurred the forfeiture of the 
divine favor and the loss of the divine image. In this situation, 
it is not difficult to perceive that the economy adapted to our 
relief must include two things — the means of expiating guilt, 
and the means of moral renovation ; in other words, an atoning 
sacrifice and a sanctifying spirit. Both these objects are ac- 
complished in the advent of the Savior, who, by presenting 
himself as a sin-offering, has made ample satisfaction to 
offended justice, and purchased, by his merits, the renovating 
spirit which is freely offered to as many as sincerely seek it. 
By the former, the obstructions to our happiness arising from 
the divine nature are removed ; by the latter, the disqualifica- 
tion springing from our own. By providing a sacrifice of 
infinite value in the person of the only-begotten, he has con- 
sulted his majesty as the righteous governor of the world, and 
has reconciled the seemingly incompatible claims of justice and 
of mercy. By bestowing the Spirit as the fruit of his media- 
tion and intercession whose soul loas made an offering for sin, 
pollution is purged, and that image, of God restored to sinful 
creatures, which capac'tates them for the enjoyment of pure 
and perfect felicity. Thus every requisite which we can con- 
ceive necessary in a restorative dispensation is found in the 
gospel, exhibited with a perspicuity level to the meanest capa- 
city, combined with such a depth in the contrivance, and such 
an exquisite adaptation to our state and condition, as surpasses 
finite comprehension. This is the substance of those glad 
tidings which constitute the gospel, to the cordial reception of 



THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 113 

which must all the difference he ascribed which will shortly be 
found between the condition of the saved and the lost. 

"Be assured, my Christian brethren, it is by a profound 
submission of the soul to this doctrine, offensive as it may be 
to the pride of human virtue, repugnant as it undoubtedly is to 
the dictates of philosophy, falsely so called, that we must 
acquaint ourselves with God, and be at peace. When we 
mention peace, however, we mean not the stupid security of a 
mind that refuses to reflect ; we mean a tranquillity which 
rests upon an unshaken basis ; which no anticipations, however 
remote, no power of reflection, however piercing or profound, 
no evolutions which time may disclose or eternity conceal, are 
capable of impairing; a peace which is founded on the oath 
and promise of Him who cannot lie ; which, springing from 
the consciousness of an ineffable alliance with the Father of 
spirits, makes us to share in his fulness, to become a partner 
with him in his eternity ; a repose, pure and serene as the 
unruffled wave, which reflects the heavens from its bosom, 
while it is accompanied with a feeling of exultation and tri- 
umph natural to such as are conscious that, ere long, having 
overcome, they shall possess all things. 

" While the prize is so transcendently great, no unparalleled 
efforts, no incredible exertions, are requisite to obtain it ; it is 
placed within the grasp of every hand. If the great sacrifice 
had not been presented, if the succors of Heaven had not been 
offered, if the glad tidings had not been proclaimed, nor life 
and immortality brought to light, our condition would indeed 
have been deplorable ; and little encouragement should we 
have had to engage in the great work of seeking salvation. 
But now all things are ready, and the chief, or rather the only 
prerequisite is a childlike docility, a disposition to derive wis- 
dom from the fountain of light, strength from the strong, to- 
gether with a fixed and immovable conviction that the care of 
our eternal interests is the grand concern.'" 

Hall, like the great apostle, spoke with the greatest con- 
fidence, in contrasting the vain sacrifices of the law with the 
10* 



114 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

inherent sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ. " If the blood 
of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling 
the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much 
more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, 
offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience 
from dead works to serve the living God ! " " The blood of 
Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin." He has 
effected for believers an entire exemption from all liability to 
punishment, and procured for them a title to the blessedness 
of heaven, because he was the Son of God ; and the heirs of 
grace are one with him, the sufferings of the Redeemer are to 
be regarded as vicarious, that he appeared in the character of 
a substitute for sinners, in distinction from a mere example, 
teacher, or martyr. Only as we thus embrace the atonement, 
both penitently and actively trusting in its merits, can we believe 
to the saving of the soul. 

Such views are the life and power of the gospel. They 
constitute the chief efficiency of the pulpit every where, 
and were well exemplified in the preaching of the great man 
to whom we have just referred. Dr. Gregory, in describing 
Hall's removal to Cambridge, where he had to encounter the 
pernicious antinomianism of his predecessor, remarks, — 

" Attentive to the voice of heavenly admonition, thus ad- 
dressing him from various quarters, he entered upon his new 
duties with earnest desires that he might be able ' to commend 
himself to every man's conscience in the sight of God.' 
Feeling that to him was consigned the charge of transforming, 
with God's assistance, a cold and sterile soil into a fruitful field, 
he determined not to satisfy himself with half measures, but 
proceeded to expose error, and defend what he regarded as 
essential truth. The first sermon, therefore, which he deliv- 
ered at Cambridge, after he had assumed the office of pastor, 
was on the doctrine of the atonement and its practical tenden- 
cies. Immediately after the conclusion of the service, one of 
the congregation, who had followed poor Mr. Robinson through 
all his changes of sentiment, went into the vestry, and said, 



THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 115 

' Mr. Hall, this preaching won't do for us ; it will only suit a 
congregation of old women.' l Do you mean my sermon, 
sir, or the doctrine ? ' ' Your doctrine.' ' Why is it that the 
doctrine is fit only for old women ? ' ' Because it may suit 
the musings of people tottering upon the brink of the grave, 
and who are eagerly seeking comfort.' l Thank you, sir, for 
your concession. The doctrine will not suit people of any 
age, unless it be true ; and, if it be true, it is not fitted for old 
women alone, but is equally important at every age.' " 

A negro boy, when informed by his teacher that God had 
sent his Son to die for the world, replied, " O massa, me no 
wonder at that ; it be just like him." Yes, the untutored child 
of nature feels that " God is love ; " the pupil of Providence 
learns the same great truth at every step ; but it is for the 
happy subject of redemption -to repeat with unutterable delight, 
" God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life." " Herein is love, not that we loved God, 
but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be a propitiation for 
our sins." Love is the mightiest inspiration in the weakest of 
mortals. What, then, shall be its power and products, when, in 
behalf of a lost race, it is exercised by the Almighty himself! 
Herein is love, that " God sent not his Son into the world to 
condemn the world, but that the world through him might be 
saved." In a late disaster on the lake, a benevolent individual 
was swimming with a mother and child. Becoming exhausted, 
he inquired which he should drop, and the mother replied, 
" Drop me." In a more fearful emergency, He who is mighty 
to save exclaimed, " Spare the rebel from going down to the 
pit. Lo, I have found a ransom ! " 

" He had joined the offending nature to his own, for the dis- 
tinct and deliberate object of pouring out the blood which 
flowed through its veins, and of making its soul an offering for 
sin. His whole life was only a preface to his death. Having 
taken a survey of all that would be required from the Surety 
of sinners ; having cast up and pondered the mighty sum of 



116 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

guilt to be cancelled, and measured with his eye the thunder- 
stores of wrath which must be exhausted, and fathomed the pit 
which to them was bottomless, — he pressed the entire respon- 
sibility to his heart, and addressed himself to the task. Our 
nature, to him, was a robe of suffering, assumed expressly 
that, when the crisis of our redemption came, Justice might 
find him sacrificially attired and prepared for the altar, a sub- 
stance which her sword could smite, a victim which could ago- 
nize and die. And, if the human soul admits of an indefinite 
enlargement in its capacity of pleasure and pain ; if the admis- 
sion of the purified spirit to the uncreated splendor above aug- 
ments that capacity to such a degree that almost an infinitude 
of emotion can be compressed into the space of a moment, — 
what must have been the measureless capability of the human 
soul which he took into so perfect a union with his divinity, that 
the two natures composed only one person ? What must have 
been the acquired intensity of its antipathy to sin, and what 
the consequent intensity of his exceeding sorrow, when, being 
in an agony, he had, in a sense, to absorb the infinite mass of 
human guilt, and to exhaust, in one short moment, the mighty 
cup of omnipotent wrath ! " 

Christ came to make a new world by changing the moral 
character of its inhabitants. His cross was the throne of love 
inexhaustible and unconfined. He loved, toiled, died for the 
whole world. He loved man for his own sake, all men with- 
out exception or exclusion. His ministry was elevated, like 
the mount from which he taught ; unlimited, like the heavens 
above which he would raise the hearts of all our race. His 
temple was universal nature, his congregation the promiscuous 
representatives of every class of mankind ; and the truths he 
imparted, like the blessed influences of sunshine and rain, fell 
on each and all alike. " This is life eternal, to know thee, the 
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." This 
alone can cure the conscience, cleanse the heart, wipe away 
the tear of sorrow, sanctify the soul, and fill it with the joys 
of heaven. And this the gospel can do, since it is the 



THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 117 

revelation of one whose arm is almighty -to save, and whose 
heart embraces every child of fallen Adam. As the repre- 
sentative of the Father, our blessed Lord offers this gift to all. 
" Human reason, arguing from the limited appropriation of the 
priceless benefit, would infer that the extent of the love which 
provided, and the value of the means which procured it, are 
limited also ; would examine them by the torture of its logic, 
and bring its insignificant line to the measurement of boundless 
grace. Human selfishness would make a monopoly of eternal 
life. The Jewish Christians would fain have made it a local 
and national benefit ; till the unconfinable spirit came and 
showed them that, like the air, it belonged to the world. And 
the inheritors of their selfishness, in every succeeding age, 
have attempted to number Israel, to count the people ; have 
adhered to the persuasion that the great gift of eternal life is 
only to be offered to a party. But an attempt to imprison the 
air, and to enchain the light, would be wise and salutary com- 
pared with this." 

Christ died for the wretched, whose sorrows he felt ; he thus 
atoned for the sinful, whose guilt he assumed. Having con- 
sidered these points, let us proceed to remark, — 

Thirdly, that he triumphed alone on the cross in gloom, in 
order to throw wide open the gates of glory to all, and proffer 
to each a crown. 

Jesus Christ was the representative of the Deity in this lower 
world, the Savior by his incarnation, divine spirituality im- 
bodied and made palpable to all the spiritual faculties of man. 
" Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, 1 ' said Christ, 
" nor seen his shape : " that is, as an infinite spirit he can have 
neither outline nor dimensions, and yet he who thus spake was 
so literally the manifestation of Jehovah, that Paul character- 
ized him as " the image of the invisible God." He was the 
image, in the same sense as he was the word, of the Almighty. 
What speech is to thought, that is the incarnate Son to the 
invisible Father. Thought, with unseen wing, can traverse 
space, fly to and fro through the universe, and pass instantane- 



118 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

ously from one outer bound to another, without being discerned 
in its mighty careerings by the eye of man. But speech is 
thought manifested, imbodied in palpable shape, and rendered 
sensible to the multitudes who could not apprehend it in its 
secret workings and silent flight. Thus the Son is the man- 
ifested Father, and fitly termed " the Word ; " since the rela- 
tion between the incarnate Son and the Father is the same as 
that between speech and thought ; the one imbodying and 
making intelligible the other to the simplest mind. It was this 
that the world most needed, because without some sensible 
representation of the divine Being, the understanding can make 
no approach to him, and the affections have nothing to em- 
brace. " Faith itself, like the dove of the deluge, has nothing 
on which it can alight ; it finds itself voyaging in an objectless 
universe, an infinite vacuity ; and piety must suffer and pine 
as in an atmosphere too subtile and unsubstantial for its present 
earthly constitution." 

But He who had been from eternity in the bosom of the 
Father, the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the 
world, appears the representative, and the only adequate rep- 
resentative, of the divine character. Invested with a body 
which God had prepared, and not man, he claimed to himself 
the exclusive power of unveiling those perfections which are 
the groundwork and pledge of eternal life. " No man," said 
he, " knoweth the Father except the Son, and he to whomso- 
ever the Son shall reveal him." He who alone blended hu- 
manity immaculate and the fulness of the Godhead in himself, 
felt that he could control the salvation of the world, and that 
the illumination of mankind was within his power, by virtue 
of the attributes placed entirely at his discretion. And what 
did he do? — that wonderful Being whom ' ; they shall call 
Emanuel, which, being interpreted, is, God with us." " With- 
out controversy, great is the mystery of godliness : God was 
manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, 
preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received 
up into glory." " We are in him that is true, even in his Son 



THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 119 

Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life." It was 
indeed for no work of slight importance that Christ was man- 
ifested in the flesh. It was not to found exclusive schools of 
recondite wisdom, or bless favorite sections of the world, that 
he came. He was with us, partaking of the divine nature and 
our own, that he might save our common race from its lost 
condition, restore to life the dead, and transport to heaven 
those who had become the prey of hell. " Jesus answered 
them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." If to create 
a race like ourselves was a wonderful work, to save us from 
the guilt we had incurred, and the eternal misery we deserved, 
was a divine task wonderful indeed. The Father created 
every thing that is by his word ; the Son redeemed, by an inef- 
fable sacrifice, the human race condemned ; and the Holy 
Spirit concurred, by the infusion of his grace, to the sanctifl- 
cation of man purchased with blood divine. Briefly stated, this 
is the summary of all religion, the substance of ancient faith, 
the accomplishment of the hopes of the world, which Jesus 
Christ came to save. " Whosoever believes in him, is not con- 
demned ; but whosoever believeth not on him, is already con- 
demned ; because he believes not in the name of the only Son 
of God." 

Circumstances of hereditary prejudice, local laws, and par- 
tisan education, may modify the legitimate influence of Chris- 
tianity on the souls of men, but they cannot narrow the infinite 
amplitude of its source, nor long degrade the ultimate dignity 
of its power. The sunlight, indeed, produces a different effect 
upon the eye, as it passes through the painted glass of palatial 
halls and cathedral altars, from that which it bears when it flies 
unimpeded and untinged through the transparent air. The 
flowing stream may have different hues upon its surface, 
reflected from the blue canopy of heaven or the clouds which 
float beneath ; but sky, stream, and sunlight are in themselves 
the same, perpetual, boundless, and free, bestowed, like God's 
highest gift to humanity, without respect to station or class. 
The offers, gifts, and graces of Christianity are not for one, or 



120 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

for a few. They are proffered to all. Even when the gospel 
is preached to a single individual, it is offered to him as to one 
of a great household. Not only man, but, says Paul, the whole 
creation, is included in the consequences of the fall : so also 
are all included in the change wrought by redemption. " God 
was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself." Christianity 
is redemption and reconciliation, by virtue of the union of 
Christ with God ; it becomes salvation to the believer, by the 
union of his penitent and faith-inspired soul with Christ. The 
condemnation of the law is averted, since the great Atoner 
died in the sinner's stead. It is this grand truth which consti- 
tutes the deepest significance of Christianity, which makes it a 
gospel to those that believe therein, love which alone can give 
life to something superior to the dead forms of Judaism ; ana 
when this is done, as in the life of Christ, the law becomes 
written in the heart, a vital principle thenceforth destined nei 
ther to condemn nor destroy. " For what the law could not 
do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his 
own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned 
sin in the flesh ; that the righteousness of the law might be 
fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." 
" For it pleased the Father, that in him should all fulness 
dwell ; and, having made peace by the blood of his cross, by 
him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether 
they be things in earth or things in heaven." The utmost 
effort of the dispensation of types and shadows was only a 
preluding overture, till he should come to lead a loftier song, 
who had said, " In the midst of the church will I sing praise 
unto thee." 

" He took up the strain at a point beyond which creation 
would have carried it. His voice gave the key-note to the 
universe. His description of the divine character furnished 
words for the new, everlasting, universal song. His uncon- 
fined power ; his unsearchable understanding ; his holiness, on 
which no spot, no shadow could settle, and which the eyes of 
wickedness could not gaze on for its brightness ; his untiring 



THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 121 

patience ; his constant community with the general heart of 
man, which he wept over and bathed in tears ; his meekness 
clothed with majesty ; his personification of infinite love, — these 
were the several parts of the harmonious song. All the attri- 
butes in him became vocal, and made infinite music in the ear 
of that glorious Being in whom they eternally reside. Each 
myriad-voiced rank of the church above, overflowing with joy, 
took up the mighty, whelming, ocean strain ; the church below 
redoubled, and returned it back again in alleluias to the throne 
of God ; age after age has heard it swelling on, as lisping 
infancy, and newly-pardoned penitence, and misery beguiled of 
its woes, and ingratitude charmed into thankfulness, and hope 
spreading her pinions for heaven, and all the new-born heirs 
of grace, have awoke up their glory, and joined the general 
choir ; and on it shall continue to roll and swell, attuning and 
gathering to itself all the harmonies of nature ; till all space 
shall become a temple ; and all holy beings, actuated by one 
spirit, and swayed in perfect diapason, shall become one great 
instrument, sounding forth praise to God in the church, by 
Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.'" 
A redemption is the correction or renewal of a creation, 
and consequently must be what the nature of the creation 
requires. It is a remedy whose speciality depends on that of 
the evil which it proposes to cure. The terms which express 
this idea, are those which in particular characterize the lan- 
guage of the gospel. " For we [Christians] are his workman- 
ship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works." " If any man 
be in Christ, he is a new creature." " And be renewed [as 
Christ taught you] in the spirit of your mind ; and that ye put 
on the new man, which, after God, is created in righteousness 
and true holiness." And Jesus said, " Except a man be born 
again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." The idea 
of a redeemer is intimately associated with that of a creator ; 
the one depends upon the other ; two terms necessarily united 
and correlative forever. This great principle is as significant 
as it is simple, and may be expressed in the infinite formula : 
11 



122 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

As God, so Christ. " The only-begotten Son, which is in the 
bosom of the Father." " Who, [the Son,] being the brightness 
of his glory and the express image of his person," was " the 
exact image of the invisible God." Consequently, " whoso- 
ever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father ; " that is, 
knoweth not the Father so as to be united to him ; " but he 
that acknowledged the Son, hath the Father also." It follows 
that Jesus was entitled to make the requisition of all in abso- 
lute terms: "Ye believe in God, believe also in me." 

The first announcement of redemption was general ; it was 
a promise which belonged to the whole family of man, and 
had nothing in its origin either peculiar or special. God said 
to the serpent, the type of evil, " I will put enmity between 
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed ; it 
shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." In this 
passage, universal redemption is foretokened in the most 
appropriate manner. " The seed of the serpent " we may 
consider as representing evil of all kinds, perpetrated from 
generation to generation ; " the seed of the woman " signifies 
mankind ; the enmity spoken of is the universal struggle 
which mortals have to maintain against evil ; the inevitable 
bruise is an image of the sufferings which must always be 
experienced in this struggle ; the complete victory, the crush- 
ing of the serpent's head and venomed fangs, is an image of 
the triumph over evil, achieved by our Lord, and of which all 
mankind enjoy the fruits ; all is universal — the conflict, the 
wound, and the triumph. What was true of the first promul- 
gation, is also true of the actual accomplishment of redemp- 
tion in its perfect, Christian form ; it has nothing exclusive or 
particular, and is in no respect national, but, by its own in- 
trinsic nature, is nationalized every where. " For there is no 
difference between the Jew and the Greek ; for the same Lord 
over all is rich unto all that call upon him." " Where there 
is neither Greek nor Jew, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free ; 
but Christ is all and in all." 

Providence prepared afar off the way for free and full 



THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 123 

salvation. We see its light faintly dawning, even in the age 
when Solomon erected the temple of a local and national 
religion. In the prayer of dedication, the king, acting as priest, 
says, " Moreover, concerning the stranger that is not of thy 
people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for thy name's 
sake ; . . . when he shall come and pray toward this house : 
Hear thou in heaven thy dwelling-place, and do according to 
all that the stranger calleth to thee for ; that all the people of 
the earth may know thy name, to fear thee." Isaiah proclaims 
the rights of even eunuchs, (who, in whatever manner they 
had become so, were not considered as Jewish citizens.) 
" Neither let the son of the stranger that hath joined himself 
to the Lord, speak, saying, The Lord hath utterly separated 
me from his people : neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am 
a dry tree. For thus saith the Lord, . . . Those that choose 
the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant, even 
unto them will I give, in mine house and within my walls 
a place." Another striking passage in the same prophet 
opened to the Mosaic system a vast perspective of expansion. 
" In that day shall five cities [the definite for the indefinite 
number] in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan 
[that is, the language of the worship of the true God,] and 
swear to the Lord of Hosts. . . . And the Lord shall be 
known to Egypt. ... In that day shall there be a highway 
out of Egypt to Assyria, [frequent and intimate communica 
tion,] . . . and the Egyptians shall serve the Lord with the 
Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt 
and Assyria." It was impossible more effectually to over- 
throw ancient particularism than by placing Israel as the third 
with strange nations in the service of the true God. The law 
of Moses had its court for the men, more sacred and nearer 
to the sanctuary than that of the women, because it recognized 
a shade of distinction in holiness between the sexes. All 
ancient religions had sacred localities, contracted creeds, and 
bigoted priests, ready to condemn all not born of their own 
caste, and sworn to their own ritual. But Christianity came 



124 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

to receive all nations and ranks by the same title, into the 
same church, and lead them towards the same immortality. 

As is redemption so is revelation, its evidence and record 
to man. As God has granted to all a remedy equal to the 
evil of sin, so has he granted light equivalent to the impor- 
tance of the work, which is the Bible. From this, saving 
thought reaches the soul of the believer, as the sun's rays 
reach his eyes. It has pleased God by religious, biblical 
teaching, to save them that believe. If one denies inspiration 
because he cannot trace its path to the human mind, in order 
to be consistent, he ought to deny light because he cannot 
explain the manner it penetrates to the bottom of the eye, and 
through a dark avenue kindles the brain. It is much farther 
from the retina which covers the interior of the visual organ 
to the globe of the sun, than from the soul of a sincere inquirer 
to the spirit of God. " Say not in thine heart, Who shall 
ascend into heaven ? that is, to bring Christ down ; or, Who 
shall descend into the deep ? that is, to bring up Christ again 
from the dead. But what saith it ? The world is nigh thee, 
even in thy mouth, and in thy heart ; that is the w T ord of faith 
which we preach." " For God, who commanded the light to 
shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the 
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of 
Jesus Christ." " God is light," says John ; that is to say, 
perfection, which is the signification of this term, often em- 
ployed in this sense by Greek writers. There is nothing more 
beautiful than light, nothing more mysterious, nothing more 
necessary, nothing more universally diffused. In this respect 
is light the best symbol of our holy and expansive religion, 
which courts investigation, promotes and rewards it ; never 
more powerful than when in contact with the highest improve- 
ment. It was at the doors of the great centres of the civiliza- 
tion of antiquity — Antioch, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, Rome, 
and Alexandria — that it first knocked to obtain admission, 
and thence flowed out in augmented streams of intelligence 
round the globe. All the enterprising nations of antiquity 



THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 125 

inhabited the countries washed by the Mediterranean: their 
cities studded its coasts ; their fleets ploughed its billows ; the 
commerce of the fairest and most potent ideas took place 
for ages along its shores, or from coast to coast ; the pagan 
Olympus was reflected in its waves, and the genius of activity 
seems to have emerged thence, as the goddess of beauty was 
fabled there to have been born. It is a very significant fact, 
that, at the extremity of this great inland sea, and at an equal 
distance from the three continents — consequently in the very 
centre of the known world — God placed the theatre of re- 
demption. This took place, too, at the fearful moment when 
evil had reached its culminating point ; when imagination 
could conceive no excess left untried ; when the intellect 
despaired of truth, conscience of morality, and hope of reli- 
gion, — when the manifest symptoms of spiritual decay ap- 
peared to be consummate in the human race, and nothing 
but the cross of Christ could arrest the descent of a revolted 
world to eternal woe. 

Surely a godlike redemption was requisite to meet the 
emergency in which man was placed by sin, and this seems 
to have been felt by the thoughtful of every nation and age. 
Cicero, who in his Republic painted so eloquently the gran- 
deur of human nature, could not fail of being struck with the 
astonishing contrasts presented by that nature, subjected to 
so many miseries, maladies, griefs, fears, and devouring pas- 
sions ; so that, compelled to recognize something divine in 
man so unhappy and so degraded, he called him a soul in 
ruins. The Chinese have a tradition that once man revolted 
against his Maker : then the columns of heaven were broken ; 
the earth shook to its lowest foundations ; the system of the 
universe was deranged ; the general harmony was disturbed ; 
calamities and crimes inundated the earth. But if men the 
most benighted, as well as men the most enlightened, have 
ever known and acknowledged their degradation, they have 
always hoped also to be one day reestablished in their primi- 
tive state, and this has sustained their courage. All nations 
11* 



126 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

have lived in expectation of a Redeemer, a mysterious and 
divine person, who, according to traditions and sacred oracles, 
should bring them deliverance and reconciliation to God. This 
the world has received in the marvellous riches and power of 
the gospel, which, by the grandeur and fruitful simplicity of 
its doctrines, develops and renovates reason ; by the perfec- 
tion of its morality, imparts a permanent base to wholesome 
laws ; by the sublimity of its worship, unites man closely to 
God, without reflecting on infinite justice and without flattering 
human pride; — a glorious blending of truth and righteous- 
ness, which from so much corruption causes exalted virtues 
to arise ; which before immense misery places merciful love 
as immense, a Redeemer to expiate all, a Mediator to sanctify 
all, a godlike salvation to shower on all blessings every way 
inexhaustible and divine. The primary truth of the gospel 
is, that " Christ tasted death for every man ; he gave himself 
a ransom for all.'" Even the Gentiles, who were without the 
benefit of an outward revelation, were by no means destitute 
of an inward knowledge of the law of God, and some of 
them showed " the work of the law written on their hearts, 
their consciences also bearing witness." " Christ is the true 
light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." 
Hence we may infer that as the Father appointed the death 
of the Son to be a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, 
so all men receive through Christ a measure of moral and 
spiritual light, and all have their day of gracious visitation. 
The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, as it is revealed in the 
Bible, is designed for the whole world ; it is adapted to men 
of every condition, clime, and character ; all are invited to 
avail themselves of its benefits ; all who will come, may 
come, and " take the water of life freely." 

If the fountains of life are absolutely sealed to a single 
mortal ; if one of our race, without some crime of his own 
grounded on free choice abused, searches in vain for the light 
of which he has need, and, opening his ear, does not hear the 
voice of God speaking within, then redemption, it must be 



THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 127 

confessed, is not universal ; and, very distinctly let us add, 
such a fact would be the most frightful of all, at once anti- 
divine and anti-human. But we have not so learned Christ. 
We rejoice with exceeding joy in the propitiatory sacrifice of 
the Mediator, and trust confidently in the atonement made by 
" the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world." 
We can conceive of no right and availing preparedness for the 
vast hereafter, but such as is grounded by faith in the one perfect 
Sacrifice, through renovation from the one infinite Spirit, inspir- 
ing constant devotion to the service and honor of the one 
Almighty God. We look to Christ reconciling the world unto 
himself, and not imputing unto them their trespasses ; see him 
lift off from the men of this guilty planet the burden of the 
violated law, bearing it himself in his own body on the tree, 
that he may magnify that law, and make it honorable : we 
hear him proclaim a full release from all its tremendous penal- 
ties, but in such a way that the truth which declared them, and 
the justice which should execute them, remain untainted under 
a dispensation of mercy, and feel that the mild, peaceful light 
of the Sun of Righteousness, shining benignly on all, has great- 
est power to melt the obdurate into penitence, and the believing 
into joy. True religion is perfect reconciliation, and is every 
way reciprocal in its influence, as well as ennobling in its 
effects. In Christ, all our powers, all our faculties, are brought 
to unite with God. He knows, and we are made wise unto 
salvation. He is holy, and the sinner is accepted through the 
imputed righteousness of the sinless Redeemer. He is supremely 
happy, and the sanctified soul, having partaken of the divine 
nature, shares forever in the felicity of the highest divinity 
whom it serves and adores. Thus Christianity is a bond which 
time cannot loosen nor eternity outlast, and if man holds one 
extremity of the chain, God holds the other. 

The mysterious constitution of the person of Christ, and the 
glorious atonement consequent upon his sacrifice, form the 
stupendous link which unites God and man, earth and heaven ; 
that mystic ladder, on which the angels of God ascended and 



128 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

descended, whose foot is in the dust of our sinful world, and 
whose summit scales the pinnacles of celestial glory. Fully 
to comprehend the obscure wonders of this theme is a task 
and a privilege reserved for the future state ; the nature of the 
case forbids a perfect comprehension. Says Robert Hall, — 

" It is the greatness which forms the mystery of the fact ; 
the matchless love and condescension constitute the very 
nucleus, of the difficulty. It could only be brought within the 
sphere of our comprehension by a contraction of its vast 
dimensions, by a depression of its native grandeur. A pros- 
tration of it to the level of our feeble capacities would only 
render it incapable of being the magnet of souls, the attraction 
of hearts, the wonder of the universe. The effect of this great 
fact on every one who has sufficient humility to believe the 
word of God, is not at all diminished by its mysterious grandeur. 
On the contrary, the fact itself is replete with moral influence 
and practical effect. Could the whole theory of the incarna- 
tion be laid open to our view, no additional force would be 
given to those motives to fervent gratitude and devotedness to 
the service of our Redeemer which the mere fact is adapted 
to inspire. The practical influence is not at all impaired, but 
rather heightened, by the speculative difficulties which attend 
it, because they result merely from its ineffable grandeur. The 
same may be said with respect to the doctrine of the Trinity. 
The distinct parts assigned to the three divine persons exhibit 
the beautiful harmony of the plan of redemption ; the Father 
sending his Son, the Son executing his Father's will, the Holy 
Spirit sanctifying the people of God by dwelling in their hearts. 
These truths are not less practical because of the mystery 
which attends the doctrine. We are as able to adore the grace 
of the Father, the love of the Son, the communion of the Holy 
Spirit, to value the distinct agency of the several persons in 
the work of our salvation, as if we could perceive the theory 
of this unspeakable mystery. 

" With regard to the doctrine of the atonement, we are taught 
all that it is necessary for us to know — that the blood of Jesus 



• THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 129 

Christ is the price of our redemption, and that it was infinitely 
worthy of God, ' in bringing many sons unto glory, to make 
the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.'' We 
can perceive, in some degree, its tendency to advance and 
maintain the honor of God, as Moral Governor of the world. 
But many questions may be proposed, with respect to the 
extent of its efficacy, which our reason cannot penetrate. 
What connection this great sacrifice may have with the happi- 
ness, what influence on the destiny, of beings of a higher 
order, of which the Scriptures give some faint intimation, we 
have no distinct and satisfactory knowledge ; but this affords 
no objection to the testimony they contain, that ' for us men, 
and for our salvation,' the Son of God became incarnate, 
suffered, and died. It is worthy of the reserve of Infinite 
Majesty to give us very brief hints with respect to the influence 
of these great facts on the innocent and holy part of creation, 
to the utmost extent of his dominions." 

It is with the practical character of the atonement, rather 
than with its speculative aspects, that we as sinners have to do ; 
and it is enough for us to know that, however far the radiance 
of the cross may flow beyond the domains of humanity, it at 
least includes all our race. Christianity was designed for the 
whole world, not merely as a system of instruction, but an 
awakening, an appeal, the means and source of spiritual life. 
Its Founder taught every truth, performed every miracle, em- 
ployed every agency, moved every part of the universe, 
exhibited every perfection of the divine character, which was 
in the least essential to the instruction and salvation of man- 
kind. True Christian liberty consists in a common gospel for 
all, unfolding its sacred records for general instruction, and 
bestowing the spirit of all grace to seal each believer unto 
eternal life. It does not necessarily follow that all will avail 
themselves of the means of salvation which infinite love has so 
amply provided, or that all the disciples of our blessed Lord 
attain unto the same degree of progress, but that resources 
adapted to every possible want are proffered to each without 



130 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

money or price. " There is one body and one spirit, even as 
ye are called in one hope of your calling ; one Lord, one 
faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all." " But unto 
every one of us is given grace according to the measure of 
the gift of Christ ; " and it is Christ " from whom the whole 
body, fitly joined together and compacted by that which every 
joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the 
measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the 
edifying of itself in love." We can no more conceive of the 
means of salvation being limited, than we can conceive of a 
limit to the affections of an infinite God ; the capaciousness 
of both of which gloriously characterizes the whole New 
Testament, and at its close bursts forth in the overwhelming 
eloquence of mercy and love, the epitome of the entire gos- 
pel : " The spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that 
heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And 
whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." 

Herein we have attempted to show that Christ died for the 
wretched, whose sorrows he felt ; that he thereby atoned for 
the sinful, whose guilt he assumed ; and that he triumphed 
alone on the cross in gloom, that he might open the gates of 
glory to all, and proffer to each a crown. From this whole 
discussion we deduce three points. 

First, the divine atonement is unlimited, and all of us should 
avail ourselves of its saving power. We are aware that some 
think this a too generous view of the gospel. They profess 
to believe that its worth is vitiated, and its Author dishonored, 
by such a wide expansion and comprehensive grasp. They 
look rather for a monopoly of heavenly grace, and will be 
very sure to regard themselves, the special and selected fa- 
vorites of predestined life. Christ found the earth burdened 
with such, and strove with all his might to drive them from the 
altars they disgraced, while standing and thanking God heart- 
lessly that they were not as other men are ; and planted purer 
examples along the highway of salvation, which they encum- 
bered in arrogant and hypocritical display of fine morality, not 



THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 131 

in their daily life, but patched on their garment's filthy hem. 
These were the bigots of an earlier age, who were accustomed 
to speak of themselves as chosen of God, before all meaner 
creatures, holy and clean ; while the Gentile nations were sin- 
ners beyond the reach of salvation, reprobate dogs. And why 
was this ? It was because they, like the Pharisees of modern 
times, clung to the dogma, " out of their church, no salvation ;" 
the latent principle of death in all those sects which have 
embraced or ever do embrace such a creed. 

The immediate influence of teaching like this is bad enough, 
leading the hearer stupidly to wait for conversion, if that chances 
to be "a fixed fact" in his case, as a dead tree stands on a 
dreary mountain top to be struck by lightning, should a sov- 
ereign cloud, in passing, vouchsafe it an irresistible bolt. 
But the hereditary influence of such doctrine is, if possible, 
still more pernicious. Who can read, without horror, the state- 
ments in some standard works ? One says, " God by his own 
will has made the frightful difference between the elect and the 
reprobate." Another asserts that " God needed, anterior to 
the foresight of original sin, to predestinate some and condemn 
others ; all this is arbitrary in God." While a third, still more 
orthodox in the faith of that age, declares, " Jesus Christ no 
more died for the salvation of those who are not elected, than 
he died for the salvation of the devil." It was only one step 
farther that a disciple of the same school went, when, at the 
funeral of a woman who died in childbirth, he stated, for the 
edification of the faithful and consolation of all the bereaved, 
that " it is certain that the devil possesses the soul of a little 
infant in the womb of its mother." This theology, in all its 
glory every where, we think, comes from Man, and not from 
Jesus Christ. It has little affinity for the cross, when he who 
dies thereon, the Savior of the world, cries, " It is finished" 
— the veil of the temple is rent in twain, and every barrier 
between the ranks of men broken down — in this preternatural 
gloom the Sun of Righteousness is apparently extinguished here 
in this place of a skull, overlooking the metropolis of a limited 



132 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

dispensation henceforth dead, only to kindle every star of 
heaven, every page of Scripture, and every rood of earth all 
a-blaze with the light of salvation for every eye. It is here, on 
the ragged irons, in the expiring moanings of Him " in whom 
dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," and " who 
tastes death for every man," that a meaning high as heaven, 
deep as hell, and wide as the outskirts of creation, is given to 
his own gracious words : " Come unto me, all ye that labor and 
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." " The living 
heavens shout with thousands of angel voices round the throne, 
and a glory of love gushes out over the universe, which shortly 
before had fastened its looks upon a fearful place of sacrifice." 
In the second place, redemption does not infringe upon free 
will, and all should profit to the utmost by its sanctifying and 
ennobling influence. Since freedom of action is the principal 
and indispensable means of progress, the very object of re- 
demption is to lead men to, and confirm them in, the path of 
perpetual advancement. From the very dawn of the gospel, 
the free use which would be made of it was announced: 
" Simeon said unto Mary, his mother, Behold, this child is set 
for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign 
which shall be spoken against." To be compelled to carry 
the cross of Christ is not to " take up " his cross. In his 
lamentation over Jerusalem, whose inhabitants he " would have 
gathered together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under 
her wings," Jesus utters the simple but terrible reproach, " ye 
would not." This free use of Christianity goes even so far, 
that, from being the chief instrument of peace, it may be per- 
verted to the occasion of war ; this Jesus declared : " Think 
not I am come to send peace on earth ; I am not come to send 
peace, but a sword ; for I am come to set a man at variance 
against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and 
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's 
foes shall be they of his own household." " I am come to 
send fire on the earth ; and what shall I if it be already kin* 
died ? " It is as an explicit recognition of free will under the 



THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 133 

power of redemption, that the angel says to the apostle : " He 
that is unjust, let him be unjust still ; and he that is righteous, 
let him be righteous still ; and he that is holy, let him be holy 
still." 

Christianity leaves the mind of the individual, as well as the 
civilization of the masses, to its own free course of develop- 
ment, sure that the divine principles of purity and love it 
implants will suffice to moderate and guide it, so that excesses 
of all kinds and differences repugnant to its spirit, of every 
degree, will be either restrained or averted. Independent of 
every thing earthly, temporal, and transient ; independent of 
nature, which is merely the domain on which it toils and its 
progress is accomplished ; and independent of mankind, which 
is its pupil and beneficiary, Christianity is divine, and therefore 
cannot be destroyed ; it is the soul and substance of perfect 
freedom, and therefore is too mighty for sectarian chains, and 
too capacious for exclusive creeds. It is a beneficent and all- 
blessing spirit, like the sun shining on the imbecile and blind. 
It gently permeates the arteries and veins of the whole social 
system, softens manners, calms hatred, enlarges sympathy, 
expands benevolence, and every way exalts and ennobles the 
soul. Let us be most anxious to imbibe this influence, and 
thus become " filled with all the fulness of God." 

Thirdly, Christianity being designed for the world, it is our 
first duty and highest privilege to exert our utmost powers in 
diffusing this invaluable treasure among all mankind. Every 
one who truly receives the gospel, and by it is made anew after 
God's image, has, by the very nature of his renovated affec- 
tions, an inclination and indescribable joy in rendering the gift 
of inspiration saving to others, as it has been to himself. This 
sentiment was sublimely expressed by the apostle Paul : " Fulfil 
ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being 
of one accord, of one mind. Yea, and if I be offered on the 
sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you 
all " — he the missionary, they his supporters, and co-workers 
at home, all loving and toiling together to fill the earth with the 
12 



134 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

knowledge of Jesus Christ. " We have this treasure in earthen 
vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and 
not of us." The means of distribution are earthen, adapted 
to every section of our globe, and the most solemn obligations 
require that the disciples of Christ should go every where, 
diffusing light, life, and immortal joy. This is God's gift to 
humanity, and is to be bestowed without respect to condition 
or rank. We are appointed to carry out, along every meridian 
and through every zone, the whole Bible and the gospel entire, 
not the religion of a sect or section, but the Christianity of 
Christ, a divinely original, majestic, beneficent, godlike type, 
as it is found in Jesus of Nazareth, and is destined to be exem- 
plified in all the world. 



PART II 



THE REPUBLICAN CONSTITUTION 
OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 



" Being persuaded of nothing more than of this, that whether it be 
in matter of speculation or of practice, no untruth can possibly avail the 
patron and defender long, and that things most truly are likewise most 
behovefully spoken." — Hooker's Polity. 

"To endeavor to impose our sentiments by force, is the most detestable 
species of persecution. Others are as much entitled to deem themselves 
in the right as we are." — Godwin's Political Justice. 

"They who contend that nothing less can justify subscription to the 
Thirty-nine Articles, than the actual belief of each and every separate 
proposition contained in them, must suppose that the legislature expected 
the consent of ten thousand men, and that in perpetual succession, not to 
one controverted proposition, but to many hundreds." — Paley's Moral 
Philosophy. 

" Christianity will civilize, it is true ; but it is only when it is allowed to 
develop the energies by which it sanctifies. Christianity will inconceiv- 
ably ameliorate the condition of being. Who doubts it ? Its universal 
prevalence, not in name, but in reality, will convert this world into a 
semi-paradisiacal state ; but it is only while it is permitted to prepare its 
inhabitants for a better. Let her be urged to forget her celestial origin 
and destiny, — to forget that she came from God, and returns to God; 
and, whether employed by the artful and enterprising, as the instrument 
of establishing a spiritual empire and dominion over mankind, or by the 
philanthropist, as the means of promoting their civilization and improve- 
ment, she resents the foul indignity, claps her wings, and takes her flight, 
leaving nothing but a base and sanctimonious hypocrisy in her room." — 
Hall's Address to Eustace Carey. m 

" La revolution est tout entiere dans l'Evangile. Nulle part la cause 
du peuple n'a ete plus energiquement plaidee, nulle part plus de maledic- 
tions n'ont ete infiigee aux riches et aux puissants de ce monde. Jesus 
Christ est notre maitre a tous." — Les Girondins. 

" My kingdom is not of this world." 

" Render therefore unto Ceesar the things which are Caesar's ; and unto 
God the things that are God's." — Jesus Christ. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE CHURCH WITHOUT A KING. 

The policy of kings and the avarice of priests have ever 
sought to blend religion with civil power, and make the church 
an appendage of the state. But every such attempt has served 
only to emasculate Christianity of its true force, and utterly to 
destroy its greatest glory. Such results might indeed be 
expected; since, as John records, Jesus himself declared, — 
" My kingdom is not of this world." When human power 
subordinates the altar as a prop to its throne, earthly majesty is 
sure to receive much more of the incense than the King of 
heaven, whose divine prerogative alone it is to govern the 
spirits of men. That kingdom, whose comprehensive rule 
embraces at once the highest and the lowest ranks of our race, 
has nothing to do with our petty affairs of state, and seeks no 
protection save the right of free discussion, and unimpeded 
intercourse with all mankind. 

Such, doubtless, were the nature and original design of our 
holy religion ; but its high use and beneficent influence have as 
yet been but partially enjoyed. Primitive purity was soon cor- 
rupted, and secular alliances fearfully dwarfed and degraded 
those ennobling institutions which were vouchsafed to disinthrall 
and bless the world. Let us glance at the history of the alli- 
ance between church and king ; the nature of this relationship ; 
and its results. 

In the first place, our discussion requires an historical glance 
at the great evil the world has so long had occasion to deplore. 
But it is not our intention to go into minute details. All intel- 
ligent persons are familiar with the circumstances under which 
Constantine, in the fourth century of the Christian era, seized 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A KING. 137 

upon supreme power in ecclesiastical as well as civil affairs, 
and in his own person exercised absolute control over both. 
Others succeeded him in like domination, increasing the 
pressure of their sway, and darkening the world. But despite 
the evil influence of imperial dictation, Christianity for a long 
time maintained something of its primitive elasticity, and nobly 
resisted the oppression it endured. In her darkest hour and 
most crippled condition, she was conservative of all that was 
valuable in the past, and the herald of a much more auspi- 
cious future. Numerous laws and facts might be cited to show 
very strikingly, that between the Roman municipal system and 
that of the free cities of the middle ages, there intervened 
an ecclesiastical municipal system ; the preponderance of the 
clergy in conducting civil affairs succeeded to that of the an- 
cient Roman magistrates, and paved the way for the organiza- 
tion of our modern free institutions. It is easy to see that the 
church gained a vast accession of power by these means, not 
only within its own appropriate sphere, but also in the circles 
of those with whom it united in temporal matters. It is from 
this period its influence began powerfully to promote the ad- 
vance of modern civilization. 

Says Guizot, " It was of immense advantage to European 
civilization that a moral influence, a moral power, a power 
resting entirely upon moral convictions, upon moral opinions 
and sentiments, should have established itself in society, just 
at this period, when it seemed upon the point of being crushed 
by the overwhelming physical force which had taken posses- 
sion of it. Had not the Christian church at this time existed, 
the whole world must have fallen a prey to mere brute force. 
The Christian church alone possessed a moral power ; it main- 
tained and promulgated the idea of a precept, of a law supe- 
rior to all human authority ; it proclaimed that great truth 
which forms the only foundation of our hope for humanity ; 
namely, that there exists a law above all human law, which, 
by whatever name it may be called, whether reason, the law 
12* 



138 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

of God, or what not, is, in all times and in all places, the same 
law under different names." 

In the fifth century, the church began an undertaking of 
great importance to society — the separation of temporal and 
spiritual authority. " This separation," continues the same 
historian, "is the only true source of liberty of conscience; it 
was based upon no other principle than that which serves as 
the groundwork for the strictest and most extensive liberty of 
conscience. The separation of temporal and spiritual powers 
rests solely upon the idea that physical and brute force has no 
right or authority over the mind, over convictions, over truth. 
It flows from the distinction established between the world of 
thought and the world of action, between our inward and in- 
tellectual nature and the outward world around us. So that, 
however paradoxical it may seem, that very principle of liberty 
of conscience for which Europe has so long struggled, so much 
suffered, which has only so lately prevailed, and that, in many 
instances, against the will of the clergy, — that very principle 
was acted upon under the name of a separation of the tem- 
poral and spiritual power, in the infancy of European civiliza- 
tion. It was, moreover, the Christian church itself, driven to 
assert it by the circumstances in which it was placed, as a 
means of defence against barbarism, that introduced and main- 
tained it. 

" The establishment, then, of a moral influence, the main- 
tenance of this divine law, and the separation of temporal and 
spiritual power, may be enumerated as the great benefits which 
the Christian church extended to European society in the fifth 
century. 

" Unfortunately all its influences, even at this period, were 
not equally beneficial. Already, even before the close of the 
fifth century, we discover some of those vicious principles 
which have had so baneful an effect on the advancement of our 
civilization. There already prevailed in the bosom of the 
church a desire to separate the governing and the governed. 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A KING. 139 

The attempt was thus early made to render the government 
entirely independent of the people under its authority — to take 
possession of their mind and life, without the conviction of their 
reason or the consent of their will. The church, moreover, 
endeavored, with all her might, to establish the principle of the- 
ocracy, to usurp temporal authority, to obtain universal domin- 
ion. And when she failed in this, when she found she could 
not obtain absolute power for herself, she did what was almost 
as bad : to obtain a share of it, she leagued herself with tem- 
poral rulers, and enforced, with all her might, their claim to 
absolute power at the expense of the liberty of the subject." 

From the beginning of the sixth century, as the alliance be- 
tween church and state grew much more intimate, the progress 
of deterioration rapidly and wretchedly advanced down to the 
fifteenth century, when, on the occasion of the martyrdom of 
Huss by the council of Constance, the emperor Sigismond 
seated himself by the side of the infamous pope Balthasar 
Cossa, his soul tormented with remorse, and his hands stained 
with blood. In the words of Pollok, — 

"Then was the evil day of tyranny, 
Of kingly and of priestly tyranny, 
That bruised the nations long. As yet, no state 
Beneath the heavens had tasted freedom's wine, 
Though loud of freedom was the talk of all. 
Some groaned more deeply, being heavier tasked ; 
Some wrought with straw, and some without ; but all 
Were slaves, or meant to be ; for rulers still 
Had been of equal mind — excepting few — 
Cruel, rapacious, tyrannous, and vile, 
And had with equal shoulder propped the Beast. 
As yet, the Church, the holy spouse of God, 
In members few, had wandered in her weeds 
Of mourning, persecuted, scorned, reproached, 
And buffeted, and killed — in members few, 
Though seeming many whiles ; then fewest oft 
When seeming most. She still had hung her harp 
Upon the willow-tree, and sighed and wept 
From age to age." 



140 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

But this evil is not confined to what we are accustomed to 
term " the dark ages." All history and observation attest the 
danger, the fearful curse, connected with the insurmountable 
vice of absolute power, wheresoever it may exist, whatso- 
ever name it may bear, and for whatever object it may be 
exercised. The religious influence of an unlimited monarch 
is often as dangerous as the rankest impiety. In the middle 
of the nineteenth century, it is easy to perceive from the proc- 
lamations issued by Nicholas, that he considers God as the 
guardian of legitimate kings, and the special patron of Russia's 
autocrat. Aided by a sycophantic hierarchy, he has contrived 
to throw an air of sanctity over his infamous usurpations ; with 
pious pretensions extirpates a noble race, and, in the name of 
a merciful God, drenches their country in blood. 

There is something supremely frightful in the idea of one 
man fastening chains on a whole people, and crushing millions 
beneath his iron heel ; of tyrannical dictation to those millions 
in matters of eternal moment, so that the entire country they 
have received from God is overshadowed and desolated by the 
despotism of a frail fellow-being. In view of the invasion of 
Greece by Darius, Diogenes is represented as having said, 
"An Athenian is more degraded by becoming the counsellor 
of a king, than a king is degraded by becoming the school- 
master of paupers in a free city. Such people as Dionysius 
are to be approached by the brave and honest from two motives 
only — to convince them of their inutility, and to slay them 
for their iniquity. Our fathers and ourselves have witnessed 
in more than one countiy the curses of kingly power. All 
nations, all cities, all communities, should enter into one great 
hunt, like those of the Scythians at the approach of winter, 
and should follow it up unrelentingly to its perdition. The 
diadem should designate the victim. All who wear it, all who 
offer it, and all who bow to it, should perish. The smallest, 
the poorest, the least accessible villages, whose cottages are 
indistinguishable from the rocks around, should offer a reward 
for the heads of these monsters, as for the wolf's, the kite's, 
and the viper's." 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A KING. 141 

But regal power is a more pernicious impediment to religious 
progress than it was to ancient freedom ; and the Christian has 
occasion to deprecate its influence as earnestly as did Athena's 
sage. What can possibly justify the transformation of im- 
mortal men into the mere echo and image of one unbridled 
tyrant, who is bowed to as a God ? The soul has become a 
wretched thing indeed, when it is compelled implicitly to obey 
a foreign will as a despotism with which it is foolish to strug- 
gle, and which it is vain to resist. All such obedience is 
mechanical, grudging, constrained. It wants the elasticity of 
faith and the spontaneousness of love. All persons would im- 
mediately rebel against this iron yoke, only that they some- 
times have been so long serfs that they have lost the courage 
to rebel. If they partially escape from their thraldom, they 
are quite likely soon again to bow with a still more crouching 
and cowardly prostration to the tyranny that has already fet- 
tered them. Thus, in harmony with the example of Luther, 
and the example of Calvin, Voltaire preached at the same time 
revolt against spiritual authorities, and submission to temporal 
power. The reformation was far from being complete, because 
its leaders continued to be the helots of the state. They 
violently denounced the true reformers, who, applying the same 
principles to political oppression as to religious, sought to 
emancipate the nations from this craven slavery, and bring all 
mankind into the free, the joyous and energetic service of their 
Father, God. We shall hereafter have occasion to discuss this 
point at large. 

If the reformation was imperfect in Germany, it was vastly 
worse in England. "The best and most perfect church in the 
world," it should ever be remembered, was founded by that 
meek and immaculate " Defender of the Faith," Henry VIII. 
This title was conferred upon him by the pope for writing a 
pamphlet against Luther, and was a reward to the Protestant 
crown for its first blow against the infant Protestant cause. 
Through a career of frightful licentiousness and blood, the king 
pursued his course in establishing the English church in igno- 



142 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

ranee and bigotry. While Luther was translating the Bible 
into his native tongue, and diffusing it all over Germany, 
Henry, this first " head of the church," was intriguing to get 
Tyndal, the early English translator, persecuted to death in 
Holland, and was issuing his royal pious proclamations that 
the Bible should not be read by the working men, or any 
woman whatever, except by the special permission of the 
priest. In Germany, notwithstanding the leaders feared to go 
the whole length for freedom, the popular feeling spread itself 
rapidly ; but in England, aristocratical cupidity, state patronage, 
and priestly influence, connected themselves with every depart- 
ment of what was called the reformed religion of the country, 
and, from that day to this, either shut out all education from 
the masses of the people, or made it the mere tool of ecclesi- 
astical power. 

If any religious institution in the world deserves to be called 
a creature of the state, it is the Protestant church of England. 
It was shaped originally very much after a wretched king's 
own will, and has been the dupe and tool of bigoted kingcraft 
ever since. It is surprising that a people generally so sturdy 
and sound-hearted could tamely submit to dictation, in mat- 
ters .of religion, under such creatures as Henry VIII., Edward 
VI., Mary, and Elizabeth. The most melancholy feature 
of all is, that religious functionaries of every order, from 
the lowest to the highest, continue with impunity to advocate 
" the divine right of kings to govern wrong." It is not long 
since that a lordly bishop, in a sermon before the House of 
Lords, declared that " the divine right of the first magistrate, 
in every polity, to the citizen's obedience, is not of that sort 
which it were high treason to claim for the sovereign of this 
country. It is a right which in no country can be denied, 
without the highest of all treasons. The denial of it were trea- 
son against the paramount authority of God," This ridicu- 
lous, if not impious, claim set up by one of the lordships of the 
realm, in favor of the absolute authority of the sovereign, 
masculine or feminine, adult or babeling, is urged by a promi- 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A KING. 143 

nent religious satellite near the regal sphere, and is a striking 
instance and illustration of the pernicious alliance between 
church and king. Fearful, indeed, is that consolidation of 
selfishness and tyranny, 

" That sets the emaciate wolf to dog the flock, 
The hawk to guard the dove-cote ! " 

In the second place, let us look more minutely into the 
nature of the relationship which royal ambition is so prompt to 
form between the church and state. 

In former discussions, we have shown that the sole object of 
Jesus was to instruct the world in true religion, and labor for 
the moral improvement of all mankind. He never appeared with 
the arrogance and importunity of a boisterous demagogue, but 
always in the peaceful character of a teacher from heaven, 
who had the instruction and salvation of his fellow-citizens 
supremely at heart. He even pronounced those the best fitted 
for the kingdom of God, who possess a feeling of universal 
benevolence, and an anxious desire for perfection in moral 
excellence ; and as the rich and exalted in station are too often 
fatally deficient in this respect, he declares it next to impossible 
for them to enter the heavenly kingdom. As was the Re- 
deemer, so was the church he founded, in idea and character, 
directly opposite to that of a state, and especially antagonistic 
to every thing like royalty. A state does not regard individuals, 
but classes ; and its regard for favorite classes is measured, not 
by intrinsic merit, but by accidental circumstances, as wealth, 
birth, station, &c. But a church, so far as it is Christian, acts 
on directly the opposite principle ; disregarding all adventi- 
tious externals, it regards men as individual persons, allowing 
no gradation of ranks, but such as grace and practical good- 
ness have conferred. For this reason, therefore, as Coleridge 
has well said, " A church is, in idea, the only pure democracy." 
Christianity, developed and exercised as its Author designed, 
is a power self-subsisting, in its own proper vitality independ- 
ent, and designed to counterbalance, by its influence, all the 



144 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

exorbitant influences which tend to subjugate and oppress the 
nations. To exercise civil power in her name, to subordinate 
religious institutions as tools of state, is as impious as absurd ; 
and it is among the chief dishonors of Protestantism to have 
recognized crowned and coroneted sinners as the supreme head 
and legislators of Christianity, in every earthly kingdom claim- 
ing to be Protestant. 

Christ never forced the truth upon any one. He could 
speak, indeed, with an eloquence which melted every heart, 
atid affected even his foes ; but he never dazzled that he might 
make superficial converts, nor did he ever cunningly confound 
his hearers that he might more successfully entangle them in 
the meshes of a creed. He always respected reason in man, 
and addressed himself frankly and magnanimously to man's 
free will, teaching every where that when we neglect those 
faculties given us by nature for perceiving the truth, we judge 
falsely of true religion, and involve ourselves in disgraceful 
inconsistencies. For examples, consult Matt. xii. 9 — 12 ; Luke 
xiv. 1 — 6 ; Matt, xxiii. 16 — 33, &c. In reading the whole his- 
tory of Christ's life and instructions, we cannot fail to be struck 
with astonishment and delight at the carefulness with which he 
ever honored the freedom and capacities of the human mind, 
in ail cases seeking to create rational convictions, and never 
employing coercion aside from the constraints of love. He 
did not consider it of so much importance for men to believe, 
as for them to believe aright, with reason and reflection ; and 
he was not so anxious for the accession of numbers to his king- 
dom, as for the establishment of that kingdom on the basis of 
exalted freedom and the most perfect brotherhood. Christ 
gave the church authority, but not force, — the authority vested 
in their own equal, voluntary suffrages, and never allowed to 
go forth in individual domination over the mass. No law in 
religion, no duty, can result from force, which differs essen- 
tially and eternally from authority. Force is the power that 
compels, authority the law that equitably directs. From the 
right to command results the duty to obey ; from the power to 



* THE CHURCH WITHOUT A KING. 145 

compel follows the necessity to yield. The two ideas are 
heaven-wide. To confound them would be to discard the sig- 
nificant sense of common language, allowing us to say of the 
tempest uprooting an oak, that it exercises a right, and that the 
oak in falling fulfils a duty. 

In planting the church on earth, Christ established a govern- 
ment infinitely superior to all others, and of which he is the 
only head. All religious allegiance is due only to him. All 
Christians, by the very process of becoming such, are most 
solemnly pledged to serve the Savior, and him alone. For 
kings and their perjured satellites to usurp ecclesiastical con- 
trol, is to obtrude into the holy place an impertinence not more 
splendid than profane. This fact was strongly felt by the 
early church. Said Tertullian, " I consent to recognize Caesar, 
provided he will exact of me nothing that conflicts with the 
laws of Him from whom the highest authority descends. Be- 
sides, I am free ; I have no other master than God the omnipo- 
tent, eternal, who is also the master of Caesar." But a sad- 
der day of personal and national imbecility has come, when 
over the greater portion of earth, religion is made an institution 
of the state, completely subordinate to the sovereign in both 
doctrine and form. As might be expected, infidelity and 
hypocrisy of the darkest dye follow in the train ; for when men 
refuse to believe Christianity on the authority of God, they will 
be sure not to believe in God on the authority of the king. 

It does not appear in the Bible and providence, that infinite 
wisdom has suspended the dominion of Christ upon the fiat of 
Caesar ; nor do we think that those teachers are most worthy 
of being heard, who maintain that this dogma lies at the basis 
of every thing purely orthodox. Christianity never once rec- 
ognizes her dependence upon law. We search the sacred 
record in vain for a single hint intimating that it would ever 
rely for triumph upon aid extraneous to itself. Its power is all 
within itself, and its ultimate universal success is suspended, not 
upon the machinery that may be gathered around it, but upon 
the divine energy which is evolved by and from it, using no 
13 



146 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. * 

means that are not both peaceful and original with itself, while 
it anticipates no successes that are not grounded upon its own 
transcendent excellence. Such is the Christianity of Christ, 
but quite another thing is the religion of state. That bids 
every man throw his individual conscience into one public 
caldron, " that, by the potency of some invisible fire, they 
may all be melted down into a state conscience, which state 
conscience is, in respect of making provision for the spiritual 
wants of man, to do duty for every member of the community, 
and become a universal proxy." 

Tyrants have ever oppressed human thought by hindering its 
free development ; they would control, as far as possible, the 
ethereal power which tends constantly to escape from the bonds 
it is too often forced to endure. Genius and free thought are 
always on the side of popular improvement and national 
progress. Freedom is essential to produce the best mental 
creations, which masterpieces forever generate and fortify re- 
publicanism. The whole circle of the arts and sciences join 
in choral song to mankind, like Christianity herself proclaiming 
nature's decree, " All ye are brethren." They acknowledge 
no despotism, nor unchanging dynasty. Their life is derived 
from unimpeded advancement, and therefore do they scorn 
all lordship, whether solitary or consolidated. Science, like 
the air, is Heaven's gift for all, and works more naturally for 
the millions than for the few. Literature, like an immortal 
blessing, lives on from age to age and from land to land, 
always the most widely beneficent when permitted to be most 
free. At the period of the reformation, the wise and inde- 
pendent heroes of old awoke as it were from the grave, and 
came forth to teach the world. With the revival of intel- 
lect and letters, there was the resurrection of that spirit of 
ennobling power which is always the pioneer and patron of 
intellectual and civil liberty. In England, when the parasites 
of spiritual oppression foresaw the coming storm which was 
about to burst upon the Stuarts, they translated and published 
ancient classics, to avert, if possible, the outbreak which so 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A KING. 147 

speedily followed. But the result was the contrary of what was 
expected ; for the thoughts of free men acted as a stimulus, 
rather than a quietus, to the people. There were many who, 
like Algernon Sidney, were 

" By ancient learning to th' enlightened love 
Of ancient freedom warmed." 

Whatever inspires in the masses of the people a disposition 
to think for themselves, and to act fearlessly according to the 
dictates of God's word only and their own convictions of right, 
is inimical to the relation of church and king, and for this rea- 
son is most furiously opposed. When John Huss came before 
the council at Constance to give a reason for the faith dearer 
to him than life, he was hooted down by kingcraft and priest- 
craft, so that not a word of his defence was heard by the popu- 
lar ear. The only provocative to this royal uproar was the 
fact, that he and his co-martyr, Wickliffe, proclaimed the 
sovereignty of the people in matters pertaining to their highest 
rights. Said Huss, " The people can, if they wish, correct their 
masters when they fall into error." Hearing this, the em- 
peror Sigismond, springing to his feet, furiously exclaimed, 
" Not content in having degraded the priesthood, dare you 
wish to degrade kings ? " For this offence his books were 
burned with his body, and his ashes were thrown into the River 
Rhine. The spirit of the craft is ever the same. Charles V. 
sent a herald through the chief city of his realm, proclaim- 
ing with a trumpet, that no minister would be suffered to 
preach any more without special permission from the emperor. 
" Thus," as the elector of Saxony wrote to Luther, " our Lord 
God is commanded to be silent at the Imperial Diet at Augs- 
burg." We hear much of the horrors of the French revolu- 
tion ; but in this, as in other things, we are in danger of ex- 
aggerating the effect, without sufficiently noting the guiltier 
cause. The priesthood who revoked the edict of Nantz, and 
drove from their country the skill, industry, virtue, and piety 
which were the sinews of her strength ; the Sycophants who 



148 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

intoxicated Louis XIV. with the ambition of universal em- 
pire ; the profligate and shameless Orleans ; and the still 
more brutalized Louis XV., with his retinue of ecclesi- 
astical panders and prostitutes, were the infamous cause of 
national revulsions whose end is not yet. Says the amiable 
Channing, " The revolution was, indeed, a scene of horror ; 
but when I look back on the reigns which preceded it, and 
which made Paris almost one great stew and gaming-house, 
and where 1 see altar and throne desecrated by a licentious- 
ness unsurpassed in any former age, I look on scenes as shock 
ing to the calm and searching eye of reason and virtue as the 
tenth of August and the massacres of September. Bloodshed 
i.s, indeed, a terrible spectacle ; but there are other things 
almost as fearful as blood. There are crimes that do not make 
v-s start and turn pale like the guillotine, but are deadlier in 
•'leir workings. God forbid that I should say a word to 
weaken the thrill of horror with which we contemplate the 
outrages of the French revolution ! But when I hear that 
revolution quoted to frighten us from reform, to show us the 
danger of lifting up the depressed and ignorant mass, I must 
ask whence it came ; and the answer is, that it came from the 
intolerable weight of misgovernment and tyranny, from the 
vuter want of culture among the mass of the people, and from 
a corruption of the great too deep to be purged away except 
by destruction. I am also compelled to remember that the 
people, in this their singular madness, wrought far less woe than 
kings and priests have wrought, as a familiar thing, in all ages 
of the world. All the murders of the French revolution did 
not amount, I think, by one fifth, to those of the massacre of 
St. Bartholomew's. The priesthood and the throne, in one 
short night and day, shed more blood, — and that the best blood 
of France, — than was spilled by Jacobinism and all other forms 
of violence during the whole revolution. Even the atheism 
and infidelity of France were due chiefly to a licentious priest- 
hood and a licentious court. It was Religion, so called, that 
dug her own grave." 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A KING. 149 

When the church and state are united by law, the result is 
always intolerance and tyranny. It matters not whether the 
alliance is with Romanism, with Unitarianism, with Calvinism, 
or with democratic infidelity, as has been proved in the old 
papal dominions, at Geneva, in Canton de Vaud, in Protestant 
England, and Presbyterian Scotland. The virus is every 
where the same, and, when once infused into the body politic, 
the identical plague is soon certain to rage. The chief ones in 
authority seem to suppose that the poor creature whom they 
judge to be a heretic is God's personal foe, and that their 
hatred of a fellow-man is shared by the merciful Father of all 
mankind. The only alternative before such Christian kings is 
to drive their victim into the church which they control, or out 
of the world into that hell of which their elder brother is the 
sovereign ; and they are usually surrounded and sustained by 
ecclesiastical props, to whom such service is a genial task. 

Consider the means by which the alliance between church 
and state is maintained. They are two — legislation and the 
hierarchy; and, for examples of both, we will turn to England. 
We will not stop in the House of Commons, whom a recent 
writer of their own describes as " an aggregate body of gen- 
tlemen called honorable, the sons of peers or near relations, 
lawyers and stockbrokers, country gentlemen and bankers, 
fortunate speculators and [rarce, aves] successful gamesters, rich 
manufacturers, Indian nabobs, soldiers, and seamen, with here 
and there a philosopher. All the varieties of creed may find 
their abettors in this assembly, and every commandment of 
Heaven, saving that which says, ' Thou shalt not steal,' its vio- 
lators, without disqualifying them for the exercise of legislative 
authority. They are chosen without the smallest reference to 
religion, gathered from all classes but the poor, brought together 
from all quarters, and selected of every shade of character, 
from the roue to the devotee, and, being associated together in 
one body, they forthwith undertake to construct and work an 
apparatus of means, having, for its object, to persuade all the 
subjects of the realm to revere, love, obev, and confide in 
13* 



1-50 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

God." We should give especial attention to the peers, the 
chief source of church government and patronage. Every 
reader of history knows that when the Norman conqueror had 
succeeded, by fire and murder, in robbing the original occu- 
pants of that land of their possessions, he gave to his ruthless 
accomplices the estates which he had seized, and conferred on 
them most of the privileges of nobility. From time to time 
the number of these worthies was enlarged by the elevation of 
other successful warriors. Some civilians have been added, 
and the eldest of their male descendants wear the title, and 
assume the functions, of their ancestors. These are the august 
personages who, by the accident of birth, become the heredi- 
tary legislators for the church of Christ, with power to dictate 
religion to the people, and make them pay for it. They 
may be good or bad, wise or foolish, it matters not. What 
they themselves believe, or what they do, is equally a matter of 
indifference ; the grand fact is, they are born lords, and, con- 
jointly with their idol, the monarch, lord it unquestioned over 
all the consciences and souls of the realm. Prominent in that 
House of Peers is the " bench of bishops," mingling with these 
great proficients and supporters of the sword-power, and receiv- 
ing their marked approbation. Together they exhort the peo- 
ple to " stand by the altar and the throne ; " and, when a 
bloody war is resolved upon, and executed in support of the 
unholy prerogatives of the mitre and crown, one of their num- 
ber writes, and, by united action, they command, through- 
out the kingdom, to be read, a special tribute of thanks- 
giving, that they, the hereditary legislators of the church, 
and their gallant allies, have succeeded in blowing out so many 
brains. The most fruitful source of bloodshed for centuries 
has been the alliance between church and king, that most per- 
nicious relic of feudalism, the complete eradication of which 
will, we fear, occasion yet more terrific wars. Certain it is 
that nothing can be more unjust and absurd than the legal sup- 
port we have described. "The philosophy of a people," says 
Bonold, " is its legislation. When men, greedy of domination, 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A KIIVG. 151 

impose their own opinions upon a people for laws, and endeavor 
to make their particular sentiments a general doctrine, foolish 
and impious legislations are the consequence." 

Another and even more pernicious resource upon which 
tyranny mainly relies, is perverted education. Kingly govern- 
ments are becoming rapidly modified. Some of them are 
essentially republican in their politics, as in England, where 
freedom of thought and speech is comparatively unfettered. 
But in religious matters another spirit prevails. Precisely 
where there should be least restraint, there is the most of it. 
Touching one's spiritual creed, liberty means just what the 
royal vocabulary pleases to make it mean. The most thorough 
mental slavery sways every rank, from the palace down to the 
hovel. No British regality is allowed the right of conversion 
to other theological notions than those sworn to in the Thirty- 
nine Articles, whatever the individual possessing that royalty 
may think of them. For a king or queen publicly to avow a 
change of religious belief, is to forfeit the exalted station they 
occupy. What vassalage is meaner than this ? The peers 
seem to be as loyal as the Cavaliers who followed the standard 
of Charles I., and who declared they would fight to death for 
the crown, though it were only stuck upon a thorn-bush. This 
reverence for royalty affected strongly even the mind of such 
a man as Lord Bacon. How so ? They who grow up under 
the enchantments of amalgamated Cunning and Strength are 
very likely to become a fatally-fascinated prey. To them the 
crown is the great mystery of antiquity, the symbol of all mor- 
tal divinity, the blazing star of all glory and conquest. It is 
regarded as the arcanum of power, virtue, and righteousness, 
the ark of the royal covenant, — that which descended from 
heaven to earth, to subsist expressly between God and kings. 
Hence the grovelling adoration, on the part of aristocracies, 
towards royal prerogatives, the second downward degree of 
mental slavery. Below these we meet a long gradation of 
ranks and classes composing the gentry and common people. 
How are these moulded into shape, and held in abeyance to 



152 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

the purposes of the alliance we are discussing ? That is per- 
formed expressly and almost entirely by the church, which 
receives and distributes, not pelf only, but power ; that state- 
church which is not simply a monopoly in itself, but the shield 
and patron of all other monopolies. Let Miall describe the 
process in his own vivid and forcible manner. 

" Fifteen thousand clergy, trained in the most exclusive spirit 
at universities where subserviency to rank is not only taught, 
but practised j receiving each his appointment to a living from 
the hands of a land-owning patron, or, what is much to the 
same purpose, from those of a bishop or the crown ; looking 
to the same source for future preferment ; dependent, for inter- 
course with aristocratic society, upon the good will of the neigh- 
boring squire ; sympathizing with all the sectional feelings of 
the order, as being themselves members of a privileged class ; 
wielding, to appearance, the dreadful sanctions of religion ; 
almoners, usually, of parochial funds and the great man's 
bounty ; conduits through which may flow to bowing tradesmen 
the custom of the rich ; having access to every house, able to 
assume an air of authority, and, in virtue of their office, to 
work upon religious fears and affections ; fifteen thousand 
clergy thus dependent on the one hand, and powerful on the 
other ; to the aristocracy pledged servants, to their own flocks 
supreme dictators ; stationed at convenient intervals over the 
length and breadth of the land, and thus coming in contact 
with society at all points, — could mechanism more fatal to 
religion, or more serviceable to the interests of the upper class, 
be framed and put together ? 

" All the movements of this tremendous engine are under 
the complete control of the class for whose advantage it exists. 
The appointment of bishops, to whom is intrusted the superin- 
tendence of this well-organized corps, who dispense no small 
portion of its patronage, and whose requests, in consequence, 
have all the force of law, is vested in the crown, that is, in the 
ministry for the time being. That they are selected for their 
spiritual aotitude for the office, none will pretend. Their ele- 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A KING. 153 

vation is in most instances owing to their connection with, or 
their former subserviency to, the aristocracy. They thereupon 
become members of " the order." They breathe exclusive 
atmosphere. They are thoroughly imbued with the aristocratic 
spirit. Is any inroad upon sectional privileges threatened, they 
have but to nod the head, to give the well-understood sign, and, 
on the instant, tenants, tradesmen, parish officers, paupers, 
small gentlemen who occasionally dine at the squire's, matrons 
who tremble for religion, and young ladies who are looking up 
to respectable connections, send forth a cry of disapprobation, 
and send up a shoal of petitions, at which the boldest statesman 
may be excused for standing appalled. 

" The intimate dependency of the one class upon the other 
is sufficiently illustrated by daily facts. If any instance can 
be pointed out in which the clergy and the aristocracy have 
taken different sides, we would be content to give up the whole 
argument. But, in truth, it cannot be. The hands must obey 
the mandates of the head." 

It is the policy of every hierarchical establishment to obtain 
exclusive control over every university, as was seen until 
recently all over the continent, and is still the fact in the British 
islands. The church claims the supreme prerogative to be the 
only source of education ; and, as the moulder of the popular 
character, it is most ambitious to prepare its dupes for the use 
of the state. If the king needs subjects who will implicitly 
obey his mandates ; soldiers who will not question the righteous 
necessity of pouring out their-blood to support the immunities 
of splendid indolence, and* ministers who will stoop to any tru- 
culent subserviency to " the altar and the throne," the church 
stands ready to furnish an abundant supply. Her principle of 
unlimited obedience, inculcated from earliest infancy on all the 
youth of the land, has done the work of succumbing prepara- 
tion, and she goes with her vassal hordes to the state, saying, 
" Here are so many hundreds, thousands, or millions of tools, 
ready to obey any command, and to perform any task ; they 
will be perfectly subservient to all your wants and wishes, so 



154 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

long as you do not interfere with us ; hand us over the tithes 
in payment." 

It could not be expected that a community thus trained 
would be very magnanimous on the score of the rights of con- 
science, or very zealous in the defence of general liberty. 
Take an illustration. On the 14th of July, 1791, a few per- 
sons at Birmingham met to commemorate the destruction of 
the Bastile. Among these was that distinguished philosopher 
whom Robert Hall eulogized for his personal worth, and de- 
fended when deprived of his religious rights — Dr. Priestley. 
Soon after the meeting broke up, a ruffian mob was raised and 
led on by " most respectable men." The windows of the 
hotel at which the party had met were speedily demolished. 
A cry was raised to burn Dr. Priestley's chapel, and also his 
house. The residences of many of his friends shared the 
same fate. The sky was illuminated for miles round by the 
blaze they kindled that night. History accredits all this loyal 
work to clergymen and high civil functionaries ; for such per- 
sons connected with the magistracy were seen and heard in the 
outrageous rabble while all this was going on. Driven from 
Birmingham to London, no sooner had Dr. Priestley arrived in 
Hackney, where he intended to reside, than a very pious 
church-and-state placard was in every public place posted up, 
couched as follows : — 

" Dr. Priestley is a damned rascal, an enemy to the political 
and religious constitution of this country, a fellow of a treason- 
able mind, consequently a bad Christian ; for it is not only our 
duty, but the glorious ambition, of every good Christian to fear 
God and honor the king." 

We have presented enough to show the horrid nature of the 
relationship that ever subsists between allied political and reli- 
gious power. Its whole history is one loathsome picture of 
clerical selfishness, ambition, intolerance, and hypocrisy. No 
deeds of darkness have been too foul, no attacks upon the 
rights of man have been too malignant and infernal, to be per- 
petrated by ecclesiastics in the name of state Christianity. 



THE CHURCH "WITHOUT A KING. 155 

When were they ever seen struggling with the people for civil 
freedom and mental independence ? Never ! Despotism and 
tyranny have ever found in them the willing and zealous tools 
to enslave the masses of mankind. Doubtless there are good 
men among them who regret the condition of things in which 
they are placed ; but the talents and sacred calling of the great 
majority are notoriously prostituted at the beck of infamous 
courts, in preaching up the divine right of kings, and in enfor- 
cing the duties of passive obedience and non-resistance to the 
most oppressive wrongs. What they ever have been they are 
to-day, modified only in some slight respects by the progressive 
spirit of the age. 

Having taken a brief historical view of the alliance between 
church and king, and having portrayed the nature of that 
relationship, let us, in the third place, look at some of its 
results. 

" My kingdom," said Christ, " is not of this world." He came, 
indeed, to rule mankind, but not to rule them after an earthly 
mode, not by force and menace, not by arbitrary dictation, but 
by setting before them a heavenly example, and by inculcating 
those divine precepts which educate, ennoble, and save the 
soul. He came to exert a moral power, and not martial or 
legal ; to reign by the exemplification of exalted virtues ; to 
arouse the energies of the free mind, and invest the spirit and 
life of his disciples with all the mild splendors of true godli- 
ness. He came to publish liberty to the captives ; to open the 
prison door ; to deliver from the thraldom of passion ; to break 
the yoke of cumbrous rituals in religion fitted only for the 
childhood of our race ; to transform us into the divine image 
and exalt all to an equal participation of his own eternal throne. 
The Redeemer never authorized the slightest alliance of his 
institutions with civil power, but condemned the passion for 
such dominion with the greatest abhorrence, as being the most 
pernicious foe to true religion. He would have Christianity 
separated from state control, as the " church in the wilder- 
ness " was happily isolated from the Egyptian bondage from 



156 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

which it had just escaped. Christ came to realize the sublime 
idea of true independence, and through his doctrines to impart 
it to all mankind ; to be himself the heart of the church, and 
its only Lord. Says Dr. Harris, — 

" The voice of prophecy had declared that such would be 
the spiritual character of his new kingdom. For while some 
monstrous type, of brute ferocity and power, was deemed an 
appropriate symbol of each preceding monarchy as seen by 
Daniel, the ensign of the Messiah's reign was distinguished by 
the likeness of the Son of man ; aptly denoting, that while 
they prevailed by the ascendency of physical might, from his 
kingdom should be banished every carnal weapon and instru- 
ment of coercion ; and that to him should belong the honor 
of recognizing and erecting the prostrate elements of humanity, 
of reigning by the spiritual action of mind on mind, the almighty 
influence of enlightened reason, of sanctified gratitude and 
love. It was distinctly predicted that his kingdom, instead of 
symbolizing with any of the governments of earth, should be 
to the world an image of his own sufficiency, surpassing and 
encompassing them all. At first, it would resemble an impe- 
rium in imperio, a dominion of principle and affection flourish- 
ing amidst the kingdoms of the world, like the verdure of para- 
dise set in the desert ; but in the end, as Bacon describes the 
prevalence of a far different principle, ' it bringeth in a new 
primum mobile, that ravisheth all the spheres of government;' 
forming, from first to last, in the eyes of the world, an anomaly 
of government. Accordingly, when Jesus came to erect it, he 
appeared at a loss for suitable illustrations by which to explain 
it to the minds of his hearers. ' Whereunto,' saith he, ' shall 
we liken the kingdom of God, and with what comparison shall 
we compare it ? ' None of the governments of the world sup- 
plied an analogy : he who is the wisdom of God seemed 
embarrassed, as he looked around the world of civil society 
for a similitude, and saw that it contained none." 

Next to his own supreme dominion in every thing pertaining 
to our highest welfare, Christ fostered and enforced the sov- 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A KING. 157 

ereignty of the people ; that sovereignty which is the essence 
of liberty itself, founded on equality, political, civil, and reli- 
gions, and which respects the rights of all by the especial pro- 
tection of each. This theory, first realized by the Son of God, 
is the most beautiful ever presented, because it is the most 
true ; and is the most consoling, because it leaves no grief 
unmitigated, and no injury unavenged. But its retribution is 
that of justice and mercy only ; hence it is the most sublime, 
as well as the most holy, because it is the expression of univer- 
sal suffrages here below, harmonious with the infinite will on 
high. If there be aught in Christianity which elevates it above 
the pestiferous region of mere fable, any thing lovely and true, 
any thing divine, of this fact we may be sure, that whatever 
principle it contains is worthy of being trusted to the utter- 
most, and foremost among its principles stand the rights of 
an unfettered conscience granted to every rational being on 
earth. To infringe on these, is to inflict the greatest injury 
man can possibly endure. In church relationship, Christ is 
God with us, and we with God ; and no finite being has any 
authority to interpose himself in the slightest degree. The 
universe has no grant of nobility, and no dignity higher than 
that of being inscribed in the Lamb's book of life ; and this 
the lowliest Christian enjoys equally with the highest. As 
early as 1532, the church at Berne declared that the state 
ought not to interfere with religious matters, except in respect 
to external order. " But as to the work of grace, it is not in 
the power of man, and is dependent on no magistrate. The 
state should not meddle with the conscience ; Jesus Christ our 
Lord is our only Master. If the magistrate meddles with the 
gospel, he will only make hypocrites." Switzerland has ever 
maintained a noble primitive spirit in this respect. " Let the 
moderator have the presidency," say the ordinances of Schaff- 
hausen, " but nothing more, lest a monarchy should take the 
place of democracy.'''' 

The legitimate results of the system we deprecate are indi- 
cated by the present condition of the eastern hemisphere com- 
14 



158 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

pared with that of the west. Look at the old and imbecile 
empires where immemorial kingcraft and priestcraft were born. 
Their annals are full of convulsions, but not movements. Ge- 
nius, under their sway, is too often struck with a torpidity which 
unfits it to perfect even the mediocrity it has invented. The 
popular mind is palsied by the sceptre it obeys, and moves 
sluggishly in a circle which perpetually returns to the same 
starting-point. This result is produced by the combination of 
all those institutions which fetter, embarrass, and retard human 
progress ; systems of state religion, worship of ancestors, and 
division of the people into castes. On the contrary, look at 
the west : what activity, what ardor, what a thirst for improve- 
ment and advancement, what an impetuosity of life ! Citizens 
here find a spur in the present which urges them onward to 
something broader and nobler yet to come ; they see that they 
have a hopeful and glorious future to conquer ; their lot is not 
immutably fixed ; they feel that they are free incessantly to 
modify and improve it. The principal cause that has created 
and perpetuated this distinguished state of things was religion, 
an influence which grew more and more fi*ee and expansive as 
it perpetually advanced. It outgrew Abraham and tradition ; 
it outgrew the heroic and federal times in Israel when Moses 
and Joshua flourished ; it outgrew the powers of monarchy 
exercised by David and Solomon, in endeavors to maintain 
spiritual unity by political consolidation ; finally, it outgrew the 
prophets, in their struggle against idolatry, by giving the pre- 
eminence to the moral element of worship above the ceremo- 
nial, that clearest unfolding of the spirit of true religion which 
heralded the Messiah, and gave the gospel of redemption to 
mankind. That religion is still advancing, having been made 
perfect and divine in " the man Christ Jesus," and is destined 
to mature Christian manhood every where. It scorns to use 
the rod that hung up over the mantel-piece to frighten the 
infancy of our race. Human character, and the religion given 
to redeem it, have passed this stage of childishness, and, 
released from nursery trammels, man is coming to pursue the 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A KING. 159 

great ends of existence, loving all and fearing none, guided 
only by the light of heaven in his own consciousness, and 
feeling that there can be no sin without its punishment, no 
virtue without it appropriate reward. Kings and their gew- 
gaws in the church are regarded as a nuisance by all the good, 
and must soon become every where obsolete. Their only hope 
of being tolerated at all in this age lies in their speedy divorce- 
ment from ecclesiastical affairs. The great masses of the 
people will submit to the alliance no longer. It is an unmit- 
igated curse to all concerned, as Milton saw the results it pro- 
duced in his day, and described in the following magnificent 
passage : — 

" I cannot better liken the state and person of a king than 
to that mighty" Nazarite, Samson, who, being disciplined in 
the practice of temperance and sobriety, and without the strong 
drink of excessive and injurious desires, grows up to a noble 
strength and perfection, with those his illustrious and sunny 
locks, the laws, waving and curling about his godlike shoulders. 
And while he keeps them about him undiminished and unshorn, 
he may, with the jaw-bone of an ass, that is, with the word of 
his meanest officer, suppress and put to confusion thousands 
of those that rise up against his just power. .But, laying down 
his head amongst the strumpet flatteries of prelates, whilst he 
sleeps and thinks no harm, they wickedly shaving off all those 
bright and weighty tresses of his laws and just prerogatives 
which were his ornament and strength, deliver him over to 
indirect and violent counsels, which, as those Philistines, put 
out the clear and far-sighted eyes of his natural discerning, 
and make him grind in the prison-house of their sinister ends 
and practices upon him ; till he, knowing this prelatical razor 
to have bereft him of his wonted might, nourish again his 
puissant hair, the golden beams of law and right, and sternly 
shook thunder with ruin upon the heads of those his evil 
counsellors, but not without great affliction to himself." 

The cry of the popular conscience grows more distinct and 
universal every day against allowing monarchs any longer to 



160 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

subordinate Christianity to their own degraded designs. The 
nations desire no more to see her enslaved in the ante-rooms 
of despots, prostituted in service the most base. The grand 
cry of rousing humanity is for the rescue of religion from all 
control of the state. Henceforth aspiring to be independent, and 
not fearing royal or hierarchical interference, the church will 
say to her teachers every where, as did one of old, (Amos vii. 
12, 13,) " Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee 
away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy 
there ; but prophesy not again any more at Beth-el, for it is 
the king's chapel, and it is the king's court." 

This growing discontent under the united tyranny of church 
and state results from the rapidly-increased consciousness of 
its fearful effects in every clime. In Russia and Greece, it 
successfully resists all attempts to reform the idolatrous wor- 
ship of the Greek church. In Italy and Austria, fortified by 
the state, Romanism maintains itself, tremblingly, it is true, but 
not yet overthrown. For centuries the cimeter has defended 
the Koran ; while the bayonets of Germany and England have 
hitherto sustained the hollow formalism of a defunct Protestant 
establishment. 

It is on the latter domain that the greatest evils of church 
and state relationship are at present found, and it is doubtless 
there that the last and greatest battle for religious freedom is 
to be fought. How does that religion appear in the English 
church, which disclaims worldly pretensions, warns against 
" the deceitfulness of riches," and courts not " the honor which 
cometh from men" — that religion which was cradled in pov- 
erty, baptized in suffering, dwelt from choice among the labo- 
rious, and has forbidden to its followers all titles of distinction ? 
We will let a distinguished living English author present an 
instance and illustration. 

" Take the last royal christening, and look at it simply as a 
state imbodiment of Christianity. Without staying to question 
the rite itself, or the authority upon which it is founded, look at 
it as a simple act of divine worship. Why, the religion of 






THE CHURCH WITHOUT A KING. 161 

the thing is a trifle, compared with its worldly environment. 
Nothing but costly splendor ! Royal sponsors landing amidst 
salutes of artillery and popular acclamations ; cavalcades and 
processions ; jewels and feathers ; fetes, banquets, balls, on 
the most magnificent scale ; how can a religious thought or a 
religious emotion harmonize with the bustle, and the circum- 
stance, and the bravery of a scene like this ? We know who 
retired into a desert to pray. But religion now-a-days can 
plunge into the very whirl of fashion, and perform its most 
solemn acts amid the parade of all the accompaniments of 
frivolous greatness. 

" Alas ! that that meek, sober, earnest, spiritual reality, 
Christian truth, Heaven's best and noblest gift to man, should 
thus be tricked out with meretricious ornaments, and sent 
flaring through these realms, so berouged and beribboned by 
aristocratic frivolity, as to leave upon men's minds an impres- 
sion of nothing whatever beyond earthly pomp ! They see the 
coaches and the gold, but where is the moral loveliness to 
which they are bidden to do homage ? They hear the thun- 
dering cannon and the swelling organ, but do they, can they, 
discern, amidst it all, the words of persuasion which drop as 
the dew ? Is, then, that coarse thing which barbarians can 
equal, if not outvie, Christianity ? Are her claims and her 
instructions thus fitly symbolized ? Does she delight in gairish 
attire, and love to show herself first among the foremost in 
surrounding herself with a vain show ? No ! But this is what 
legislators 'make of God's truth. Their wisdom turns a 
strangely solemn reality into a plaything for nobles ; a fresh 
occasion for the indulgence of their costly tastes ; a mere peg 
upon which to hang aristocratic pomp and pleasure. Ay, 
they have turned their hands to religion, and a fine thing they 
have made of it. Strip this state-church of its titles, power, 
and wealth, and what would be left ? What is it but a bubble, 
reflecting the colors by which it is surrounded ? Burst it, and 
there remains — nothing." 

And burst it will, that bubble, very soon. The people are 
14* 



162 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

coming to understand, and estimate at its proper worth, the 
value of that government which, a few years since, in minute 
detail, prescribed to its agents in Canada odious measures of 
persecution against the Catholics, and at the same time, by a 
formal treaty, guarantied to the inhabitants of Ceylon the 
liberty of idolatrous rites, sanctioning, by the presence of 
ambassadors, those pagan ceremonies, and offering to their 
divinities sacrilegious gifts. Light is spreading on this subject, 
and the great body of the nation are looking with rapidly- 
increased disfavor upon this unholy and insufferable alliance, 
in which gold, state honors, and ecclesiastical dignities become 
the spoils of intrigue, the recompense of indolence, and the base 
pension which functionaries of every grade receive, for crip- 
pling the capacities and betraying the rights of the people at 
large. 

But, thank God ! Christianity is diffusing the leaven of its 
influence widely and deeply through the popular heart, ren- 
dering its subject both socially regenerative and politically 
energetic. From age to age it has bequeathed to earth a 
mighty accumulation of power, which, in the era upon which 
we are entering, seems destined to burst into freedom, glad- 
ness, and salvation in the presence of all mankind. Revolu- 
tions the most radical and retributive are growing rife, in view 
of which let tyrants and bigots take heed, for chasms dark and 
frightful as their own deeds are yawning wide to give a quick 
passage down the fiery depths of the oppressor's hell. Com- 
binations to support allied aristocracies around the altar and 
throne, must bow before the gathering storm of reformation in 
church and state, or be swept before it like summer dust. 
"Through this house or over it," said Lord Brougham, on the 
occasion of a noted debate in the English senate, " this reform 
bill must pass." The Lord of lords and Monarch of mon- 
archs has decreed that through every chapter house, every 
ministerial cabinet, and every legislative hall, or over them 
with crushing might, the great Reform Bill of primitive Chris- 
tianity shall pass, leaving every where in its course the mind 
without a fetter, and the church without a king. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE CHURCH WITHOUT A POPE. 

Popery originated in degeneracy, flourished most in the 
darkest times, and is destined to disappear before increasing 
light. These are the main positions which in this discussion 
we shall endeavor to substantiate. 

In the first place, it was in degeneracy from the primitive 
purity of the church of Christ, that Papal domination arose. 
Careful research into this matter will show that the first society 
of Christian believers was bound together only by the bonds 
of mutual love, and a free devotion to their common Lord. 
After his ascension, they continued to cooperate with the 
same singleness of heart and spontaneous enterprise, for the 
worship of their heavenly Master and the promotion of his 
kingdom on earth. The government under which they volun- 
tarily placed themselves was the purest form of freedom ever 
imbodied and exemplified. " Each individual church possessed 
the rights and powers inherent in an independent popular as- 
sembly. The right to enact their laws, and the entire govern- 
ment of the church, was vested in each individual association 
of which the church was composed, and was exercised by the 
members of the same, in connection with their overseers and 
teachers ; and, when the apostles were present, in common 
also with them." 

Next to the inspired historians themselves, perhaps the most 
reliable writer on this subject is Dr. Augustus Neander. Speak- 
ing of the office of the apostles, he says, " They stand as the 
medium of communication between Christ and the whole Chris- 
tian church, to transmit his word and his Spirit through all 
ages. In this respect the church must ever continue to ac- 



164 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

knowledge her dependence upon them, and to own their right- 
ful authority. Their authority and power can be delegated to 
none other. But the service which the apostles themselves 
sought to confer, was to transmit to men the word and the 
spirit of the Lord, and, by this means, to establish independent 
Christian communities. These communities, when once estab- 
lished, they refused to hold in a state of slavish dependence 
upon themselves. Their object was, in the spirit of the Lord, 
to make the churches free, and independent of their guidance. 
To the churches their language was, ' Ye beloved, ye are 
made free ; be ye the servants of no man.' The churches 
were taught to govern themselves. All the members were 
made to cooperate together as organs of one Spirit, in connec- 
tion with which spiritual gifts were imparted to each as he 
might need. Thus they, whose prerogative it was to rule 
among the brethren, demeaned themselves as the servants of 
Christ and his church. They acted in the name of Christ and 
his church, as the organs of that Spirit with which all were 
inspired, and from which they derived the consciousness of 
their mutual Christian fellowship. The brethren chose their 
own officers from among themselves. Or if, in the first organ- 
ization of the churches, their officers were appointed by the apos- 
tles, it was with the approbation of the members of the same. 1 ' 
Possibly as early as the latter part of the life of John, when 
he was sole survivor of the other apostles, the custom obtained 
of distinguishing by the name of episkopos (bishop) the pres- 
ident of the sacred assembly. There is, however, no evidence 
that the apostle himself introduced such a change ; much less, 
that he authorized it as a perpetual ordinance for the future. 
Such an innovation would be directly opposed to the well- 
known spirit of that apostle. " When, however," continues 
Neander, " the doctrine is, as it gradually gained currency in 
the third century, — that the bishops are, by divine right, the 
head of the church, and invested with the government of the 
same ; that they are the successors of the apostles, and by this 
succession inherit apostolical authority ; that they are the medi- 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A POPE. 165 

um through which, in consequence of that ordination which 
they have received, merely in an outward manner, the Holy 
Ghost, in all time to come, must be transmitted to the church, 
— when this becomes the doctrine of the church, we certainly 
must perceive, in these assumptions, a strong corruption of the 
purity of the Christian system. It is a carnal perversion of 
the true idea of the Christian church. It is falling back into 
the spirit of the Jewish religion. Instead of the Christian idea 
of a church, based on inward principles of communion, and 
extending itself by means of these, it presents us with the 
image of one, like that under the Old Testament, resting in 
outward ordinances, and, by external rites, seeking to promote 
the propagation of the kingdom of God. This entire perver- 
sion of the original view of the Christian church was itself 
the origin of the whole system of the Roman Catholic reli- 
gion, — the germ from which sprung the Popery of the dark 
ages." 

The control of the apostolical churches was administered by 
each body of believers collectively, until the third or fourth 
century. It was about this period that the simple form and 
efficient discipline of the primitive church, exchanged for a 
complicated and oppressive system of penance, came to be 
administered by the clergy, and the usurpations of the Episco- 
pal hierarchy began. Then, instead of being simply an assem- 
bly of brethren, with God only for their Word, their Spirit, 
and their Life, the church became a mere thing of creeds and 
ceremonies ; its head was a man, and if the devotees recog- 
nized the presence of Jesus Christ at all, it was mainly in a gross 
material sense. But he had said from the beginning, with an 
infinitely higher signification, " Lo ! I am with you always, 
even unto the end of the world." This is the grand doctrine 
of the Real Presence, which was too early overlooked, but 
which should never be forgotten by the disciples of our Lord. 

The true church is built on the foundation of the purest as 
well as most sacred liberty, and is cemented with unconstrained 
confidence and mutual love, the strongest of all bonds. It is a 



166 



REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 



voluntary assemblage of equals, wherein every one obeys and 
no one commands. Every rational being is created in a nat- 
ural independence of every other being ; and if the most ex- 
alted finite intelligence should come, of his own accord, and 
with no other credential but his own will, to dictate laws to 
man, and to subjugate him to his dominion, himself would be 
a tyrant, and his subjects would be slaves. What shall we say, 
then, when frail man arrogates sovereignty over man, his equal 
in rights, and often his superior in reason, in cultivation and 
virtue ? Can there be any pretension more iniquitous or more 
insolent? Does the universe present a more ignominious 
servitude ? Surely, we may not hesitate to affirm with Rous- 
seau, "A long perversion of just sentiments and ideas is 
necessary, before one can resolve to take a fellow-man for his 
master." If this is true with respect to natural society, what 
shall we say concerning Christian organizations ? The duty 
of obedience implies the right of commanding ; and he who 
has a rightful authority to dictate in religious matters must be 
above him who submits to his decrees — so much above him that 
higher than this no superiority can be conceived. An angel, 
by his nature, is above human beings ; and yet man is not 
bound to yield obedience to an angel in any thing. If Gabriel 
should assume palpable shape and appear in our midst as a 
religious ruler, where should we find either reason or revela- 
tion directing us to follow his behests? There would be no 
right on the one hand, or duty on the other. 

Plutarch tells us, in his life of Numa, that in the age of 
Saturn, there will be neither masters^nor slaves. In the highest 
sense, this can be applied only to the peaceful domain and per- 
fect sway of Christianity. Her law is not the expression of 
a single dictator, nor the avenger of a few wills the most prom- 
inent and strong ; its object is rather to protect private inter- 
ests, and to establish righteousness, the supreme interest of all. 
" Jesus called the disciples unto him, and said, Ye know that 
the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and 
they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A POPE. 167 

not be so among you : but whosoever will be great among you, 
let him be your minister ; even as the Son of man came not 
to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a 
ransom for many." This plainly declares that God only has 
the right to impose on rational creatures religious laws, and 
that these are imbodied and exemplified before each independ- 
ent believer in Jesus Christ. Equity the most severe, blended 
with benignity the most divine, duty and the reason of duty, 
the precept sanctioned by the highest example, all are found in 
Christ alone. He is our great Exemplar, Lawgiver, and Judge, 
and no other are we bound to obey. " Away, then, with the 
interference of your Popes and your Right Reverend Fathers 
in God ; and let the minister of Christ, to all intents and pur- 
poses whatsoever, be the bishop of his flock. And away with 
the nauseous and insufferable arrogance that claims a whole 
state for a parish, and tells the ministry of every denomination 
but its own, — men who, ' by pureness, by knowledge, by the 
word of truth, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned ; ' and, 
not a few of them, in ' fastings, in necessities, in distresses, in 
stripes, or imprisonments,' are approving themselves the min- 
isters of God, — that tells such men, ' Your credentials are 
spurious, and your work unauthorized;' and, turning to a 
whole commonwealth, says to its hundreds of thousands, ' Ye 
are the people of my pasture, and the sheep of my hand.' " 

We have shown that Popery originated in degeneracy ; and 
we remark, secondly, that it flourished most in times of the 
least spiritual light and power. We can best prove this point 
by noting yet more fully the process of degeneracy through 
which Christianity in her dark days passed. 

At the time Christ appeared on earth, the Jews had changed 
the worship of the only true God into slavish ceremonies as 
much opposed to genuine religion, and as injurious to morality, 
as idolatry itself. They proudly conceived themselves to be 
the chosen people of God, and preferred by him above all 
others. They not only conceived the very essence of religion 
to consist of corporeal exercises and sacred ceremonies, but 



168 



REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 



despised all other nations, and fancied themselves holy, if, not- 
withstanding the grossest vices, they fasted diligently, offered 
sacrifice, and zealously observed the foolish superstitions of 
their fathers. Under such circumstances, it is easy to perceive 
that the spirit of true religion had vanished from the world 
Jesus came to redeem, that the pernicious influence of super- 
stition controlled every thing, and that a mighty body of priests, 
whose existence and authority depended upon this influence, 
were incessantly engaged in preserving and fortifying it. To 
provide a remedy for these evils, and to destroy every sort of 
superstition, by establishing a simple, rational worship of the 
true God, was an object of Christ's mission. By the diffusion 
of pure and universal truth, he would extirpate all heathenish 
rites and exclusive creeds, making the divine word, which had 
hitherto been the exclusive property of the Jews, to become 
the faith of the whole human family, the foundation of a nobler 
and more comprehensive popular belief. When our Lord ap- 
peared, religion, in all nations, had constituted an essential part 
of the civil regulations. All the kingdoms of the old world 
were theocratical and hierarchical ; which state religions, 
endowed with special prerogatives and armed with high civil 
power, were, as they ever are, insufferably intolerant. But the 
religion which Jesus came to spread was directly opposed to 
this in nature and design, and therefore he kept it carefully 
distinct from political affairs. He gave the Christian church 
such regulations as are compatible with any form of national 
government, but which are to be allied to none. By both 
example and precept, he inculcated this primary principle in 
the most clear and emphatic manner. Constraint and power, 
under no form whatever, were to be employed in matters of 
religion. The only bond laid upon his disciples by Christ was, 
allegiance to himself; the only enginery of conquest commit- 
ted to their hands was the enginery of truth and love. 

For several centuries after the establishment of Christianity 
in the world, there were two distinct societies mutually inde- 
pendent, the one civil, the other religious. This was based on 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A POPE. 169 

duty, that on interest ; the first reigned by justice, the second 
oppressed by force. Christ separated the two as far asunder 
as possible ; but the pope caused them to coalesce, and made 
despotism to be the fundamental law of both church and state. 
The power with which our Lord endowed his people, far from 
enslaving, elevates and makes more free those upon whom it is 
exercised, and, in this respect, differs infinitely from the sway 
for the attainment of which vulgar ambition strives. But he 
knew, too, that there is another kind of sovereignty, which does 
not quicken and exalt, but crushes and degrades ; a power 
which robs men of all the best qualities of their nature, and 
compels them to bend in base subserviency to the will of a 
fellow-man. This is the potency which men, even the best, 
most eagerly grasp ; and, when wielded in ecclesiastical domi- 
nation, is earth's most fearful curse. Guizot says very truly 
that " all religion is a restraint, an authority, a government. It 
comes in the name of a divine law, to subdue, to mortify human 
nature. It is then to human liberty that it directly opposes 
itself. It is human liberty that resists it, and that it wishes to 
overcome. This is the grand object of religion, its mission, 
its hope. 

" But while it is with human liberty that all religions have to 
contend, while they aspire to reform the will of man, they have 
no means by which they can act upon him ; they have no moral 
power over him, but through his own will, his liberty. When 
they make use of exterior means, — when they resort to force, 
to seduction, — in short, make use of means opposed to the 
free consent of man, they treat him as we treat water, wind, 
or any power entirely physical ; they fail in their object ; they 
attain not their end ; they do not reach, they cannot govern the 
will. Before religions can really accomplish their task, it is 
necessary that they should be accepted by the free will of man ; 
it is necessary that man should submit, but it must be willingly 
and freely, and that he still preserves his liberty in the midst of 
this submission. It is in this that resides the double problem 
which religions are called upon to resolve. 
15 



170 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

" They have too often mistaken their object. They have 
regarded liberty as an obstacle, and not as a means ; they have 
forgotten the nature of the power to which they address them- 
selves, and have conducted themselves toward the human soul 
as they would toward a material force. It is this error that has 
led them to range themselves on the side of power, on the side 
of despotism, against human liberty; regarding it as an adver- 
sary, they have endeavored to subjugate rather than to protect 
it. Had religions but fairly considered their means of opera- 
tion, — had they not suffered themselves to be drawn away by 
a natural but deceitful bias, — they would have seen that liberty 
is a condition without which man cannot be morally governed ; 
that religion neither has nor ought to have any means of influ- 
ence not strictly moral ; they would have respected the will of 
man in their attempt to govern it. They have too often forgot- 
ten this, and the issue has been, that religious power and liberty 
have suffered together." 

All persons historically informed, and accustomed to ex- 
tended observation, know that civil and religious freedom are 
inseparable companions as well as mutual supports, and that 
in no country can one exist for any great length of time with- 
out producing the other. It has been the misfortune of the 
greater portion of Christendom that state tyrants have assisted 
a degenerate church in fettering the popular mind, while she, 
in turn, has powerfully aided them in enslaving the body. This 
combination of political and ecclesiastical despotism constituted 
and perpetuated the Popery of the dark ages. Then w 7 as de- 
clared the infallibility of the pope and his bench of cardinals, 
thus excluding all dissent. The Bible was suppressed, knowl- 
edge in a great measure extinguished, and the human mind 
shut up to be amused with the most unsubstantial bawbles. The 
first act of the popes, having arrogated to themselves complete 
sovereignty in the church of Christ, was that which had been 
the practice of impious bigotry in all ages — to monopolize the 
true knowledge among themselves. As the priests of Egypt 
and Greece enclosed it in mysteries, they wrapped the simple 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A POPE. 171 

truths of the gospel in mysteries too ; as the Brahmins forbade 
any except their own order to read the sacred Vedas, they shut 
up that holy revelation given to enlighten the world, the very 
book that declared of its own contents, that they were so clear 
that " he who ran might read them ; " that they taught the way 
of life so perspicuously, that " the wayfaring man, though a 
fool, could not err therein." 

Christ imparted no secret doctrines, and would perpetuate his 
reign on earth through the agency of no occult institutions. 
The apostles, far from being allowed to consider the private 
instructions of their divine Master as addressed to them alone, 
received from him this especial command, which was at the 
same time a great encouragement : " What I tell you in dark- 
ness, that speak ye in the light : and what ye hear in the ear, 
that preach ye upon the house-tops.'" But there is an opposite 
system, flattering to pride, and convenient for despotism ; a 
system to which the East is indebted for its castes, and ancient 
Europe Tor its superstitions ; which possesses the enormous evil 
of systematizing and legitimating ignorance. " As man pos- 
sesses nothing more precious than his thoughts, his conscience, 
and his religious powers, it follows that intellectual and religious 
privileges are the worst of all privileges ; they fetter progress 
in both senses ; among the people, by devoting them to hered- 
itary darkness, and among the initiated, by persuading them 
that the degree of knowledge conferred by the nature of their 
institutions is sufficient." This mode of teaching, in which the 
whole truth is brought to the privileged alone, while what is 
communicated to the multitude is truth veiled and mutilated, 
was early adopted by the Papacy, and became one of the most 
fruitful sources of their power. 

The progress of Papal aggression and assumption reached 
its culminating point in Hildebrand, better known in history as 
Gregory VII., who made the church wholly dependent on him, 
and entirely subservient to the papal views. The example of 
the pontiffs was not lost on the bishops, abbots, and inferior 
clergy. Says a credible historian, " These, even in the time 



172 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

of Charlemagne, had actually obtained for their tenants and 
their possessions an immunity from the jurisdiction of the counts 
and other magistrates, as also from taxes and imposts of all 
kinds. But in this century they carried their pretensions still 
further, aimed at the civil government of the cities and territo- 
ries in which they exercised a spiritual dominion, and even 
aspired to the honors and authority of dukes, marquises, and 
counts of the empire. The nobles were forever resisting, in 
their respective domains, the assumptions of the clergy in mat- 
ters of jurisdiction and other affairs. These, therefore, seized 
the opportunity which was offered them by the superstition of 
the times, to obtain from the kings these, the ancient rights of 
the nobles; and, as the influence of the bishops over the peo- 
ple was greater than that of the nobility, the kings, to secure 
the services of so powerful a priesthood, generally granted 
their requests. Thus they became bishops and abbots clothed 
with titles and dignities so foreign to their spiritual office, — 
reverend dukes, marquises, counts, and viscounts ! 

" It was not, however, by these means only that they sought 
dominion over the world. They had a thousand arts to rivet 
their power into the souls of the people. Councils were one 
of them. As if the sacerdotal name and inculcations were not 
influential enough, they sought, by collecting together all the 
dignities of the church into one place, to invest them with a 
more awful character, and to render the enactments of these 
priestly congresses everlasting and indissoluble laws. These 
enactments were such as the worship of images, decreed in 
the council of Nice, 787 ; the holding of a festival to the 
Virgin Mother, instituted by the council of Mentz in the ninth 
century ; taking the cup of the sacrament from the laity ; and 
a declaration of the lawfulness of breaking the most solemn 
engagements made to heretics, by the council of Constance, in 
the fifteenth century, with a thousand other despotic measures 
equally inimical to all freedom of opinion, and destructive to 
the rights of mankind." 

A fearful policy prevailed at that gloomy period, when " the 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A POPE. 173 

man of sin " had throned himself in the temple of God, and 
exalted himself "above all that is called God, and that is wor- 
shipped. 1 ' Shadows were substituted for substance, theological 
life was smothered under sacerdotal gorgeousness, and the 
people at large were taught to be content with such instruction 
as they could derive only through the medium of priests. Men 
sat in judgment on God's record of salvation, the charter of our 
immortality, and, sifting its precious contents to suit their own 
selfish ends, decided what was proper to be communicated and 
what to be withheld. The medicine of life was dealt out with a 
sparing and cautious hand, and mixed with foreign ingredients, 
" like arsenic or hemlock, which are only safe when adminis- 
tered in a diluted form, and in small quantities*" In allusion 
to this condition of things, President Du Paty is represented by 
Landor as saying to Peter Leopold, " Wherever there is a sub- 
stitute for morality ; where ceremonies stand in the place of 
duties ; where the confession of a fault before a priest is more 
meritorious than never to have committed it ; where virtues and 
duties are vicarious ; where crimes can be expiated after death 
for money ; where, by breaking a wafer, you open the gates 
of heaven, — probity and honor, if they exist at all, exist in the 
temperament of the individual. Hence a general indifference 
to virtue in others ; hence the best men in Italy do not avoid 
the worst ; hence the diverging rays of opinion can be brought 
to no focus ; nothing can be consumed by it, nothing warmed." 
With equal truth Middleton said to Magliabechi, " You tell us 
that you do not worship images, but worship in them what they 
express. Be it so. The pagans did the same, neither better 
nor worse. What will you answer to the accusation of wor- 
shipping a living man ? Adoration is offered undisguisedly and 
openly to priests and monks, however profligate and infamous 
their lives may have been and be. Every pope is adored by 
the holy college on his elevation." 

A writer in the Foreign Quarterly Review of July, 1840, 
reviewing a work by the famous French preacher Lacordaire, 
notices the fact that Popery has every where been the same, 
15* 



174 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

and that its modem aspect is by no means sufficiently improved. 
Says he, " Great pains have been taken of late, not only on the 
continent, but especially in this country, to propagate the belief 
that Romanism is synonymous with every kind of liberality, as 
well as the security and order of the state ; than which asser- 
tion, triumphantly refuted by history, there can be none ad- 
vanced more entirely groundless. In the language of Popery, 
the state means the church, and vice versa; excluding the co- 
existence of any other power not subordinate to it. The ortho- 
dox Papist must look upon every heretical government as 
illegal, and as that which they are bound in conscience to 
overthrow. The absolute submission, indeed, which the pope 
requires from his followers, is incompatible with their duties as 
subjects of an independent state ; and, to take one instance out 
of a thousand, we may refer to the words of a pope's legate 
addressed to Casimir IIL, king of Poland. When the latter 
refused to give the see of Cracow to a Papal nominee, saying 
that he would rather lose a kingdom than comply with such a 
request, the legate replied, that it would be better that three 
kingdoms should perish, than, that a word of the pope should 
be set at nought. This sublime of despotism is linked with 
moral degradation of the worst description ; one of the popes, 
Alexander VI. , having boastingly said, that the more foolish a 
religion was, the more fitted was it for the people. To keep 
the latter in the most abject slavery is the main object of 
Popery, and this principle was well expressed by a talented 
supporter* of the system, when he represented the state in the 
form of a triangle, the top of which was occupied by the 
clergy, and the body by the king and nobles. The remainder 
of the nation was left out of his construction. No wonder, 
then, that in whatever country Popery succeeded in establishing 
its power, it left behind its pestilential effects, not to be oblit- 
erated for centuries. Look at the Roman States, the finest 
district in the world, converted by the Romish priesthood into 

_ 

* Oricliovkis. 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A POPE. 175 

a morass ; look at Spain, Portugal, and Poland, during the 
sway of the Jesuits, still suffering from its baneful influence. 
Hence it has been invariably the case that, whenever a nation 
endeavored to rise from a state of degradation, it has always 
shaken off the Papal yoke. And what does Popery say of 
such spiritual regeneration ? Does it not always stigmatize it 
as the tyranny of human reason ? Lest we should be accused 
of misrepresenting facts, we extract a passage from the letter 
of Abbe Lacordaire. The abbe, well known by his controv- 
ersy with Lamennais, is now one of the most distinguished 
preachers in France, and a zealous defender of Papacy. 

u War, 1 ' says he, " has been in Europe for fifty years. . . . 
But where is that war ? It is higher than opinions, higher than 
kings, higher than nations ; it is between human reason and 
faith — betweeen Roman Catholic and rational power. The 
Papal see, therefore, does not join any party, does not interfere 
with any form of government, but keeps up a friendly inter- 
course with every country in which, as, for instance, in 
Belgium and in France, the tyranny of reason has been put 
down ; it protests against the violence offered to church and con- 
science wherever, as in Spain and Portugal, that tyranny raises 
its head.'''' It will be easy to see that the tyranny of reason, 
here so much complained of, means nothing more than a purer 
sense of religion, liberty of conscience, and, above all, inde- 
pendence of the Papacy. 

The Roman Catholic church is a strange combination of 
things the most absurd and the most sublime. For instance, 
how absurd that so many millions of rational beings, some of 
them enlightened in the highest degree, should submit them- 
selves in spiritual matters to the dictation of a poor frail man, 
the pope at Rome ! How absurd the interminable and unin- 
telligible ceremonies of the church ! How absurd is the doc- 
trine of celibacy and transubstantiation ! How absurd the 
sanctity which devotees attach to the bones and other relics 
of the canonized ! How absurd that thousands and tens of 



176 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

thousands of men and women should immure themselves in 
melancholy seclusion from the world, under the notion that 
they are best serving God by abstaining from all intercourse 
with the creatures he has made. 

But there are many associations connected with the Papacy 
by no means contemptible ; on the contrary, glorious and sub- 
lime. The Catholics were a church long before England was 
a state, and fought the battle of civilization a dozen centuries 
before America was known. They coped with those northern 
tribes who subdued them ; and even while yielding to physical 
force, they taught them manners and arts, and led them to- 
wards the refinements of social intercourse. It was a church 
clothing itself with all the authority of ancient days ; " the 
word of God in its hands, both tradition and Scripture ; believ- 
ing it had God's infallible and exclusive inspiration at its heart, — 
for such no doubt was the real belief, — and actually, through its 
Christian character, combining in itself the best interests of 
mankind, no wonder it prevailed. Its countenance became as 
lightning. It stood and measured the earth. It drove asunder 
the nations. It went forth in the mingling tides of civilized 
corruption and barbarian ferocity, for the salvation of the 
people — conquering and to conquer ; its brightness as the 
light." But this was in her earlier and better days, when she 
owed no such allegiance and subordination as the church of 
England does to political authorities, but both claimed and 
exercised supremacy. We should not forget that the Catholic 
church has taken eighteen centuries to grow ; that it was the 
heir, not only of Mosaic institutions, but of all classical an- 
tiquity ; that many of the ages it traversed were ages of bar- 
barism, when the will of the strongest was law ; that while it 
has served as a spiritual guide to each generation, each genera- 
tion has stamped upon it its own impress ; that while it was 
encompassed by imperfection, and all the social as well as 
political institutions of its domain were rude in the extreme, 
it could not be expected suddenly to attain perfection in con- 
trast with the universal degradation it had to oppose ; and that, 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A POPE. 177 

notwithstanding the mighty evils against which it had perpetu- 
ally to struggle, it has served powerfully to civilize all Europe, 
and, through Europe, the world. The Papacy has ever been 
a tremendous power for good as well as for evil. It put its 
foot upon the necks < of kings, distributed crowns, consecrated 
banners for the conquest of the British Islands, and arbitrarily 
disposed of empires in the old world and new. It is a 
church that has boasted of always having the power to work 
miracles, and has claimed to extend its influence even into the 
unseen regions and eternal cycles of the spiritual world. It is 
a church which, in its palmy days, could scorn nobility and 
blood, while they were the objects of superlative popular ven- 
eration ; which took the butcher's boy and raised him to the 
highest ecclesiastical eminence ; gave him prerogatives that 
enabled him to look down on princes, with all their pomp 
and pride, and make them the mere puppets of his political 
schemes, — a church which survived the " reformation" with 
power enough yet in her hands to shame and baffle the most 
successful aspirants to universal empire ; and which, even in 
modern times, has shown itself the church of the enslaved as 
well as the triumphant, the poor as well as the rich, degraded 
multitudes as well as dignified classes, and has been true to 
the forlorn, when most destitute and despairing. Let us rec- 
ognize and generously appreciate what Catholicity has done for 
the religious culture of the world, when no other source for 
such culture existed, as well as what it has done for every 
other species of human improvement. It has preserved for us, 
and not for us only, but for all coming time, the immense and 
invaluable treasures of Greek and Roman literature. It kept 
alive a taste for art, even in those barbarous times, when on 
every hand the feeling of the beautiful seemed ready to be 
destroyed. To it we owe the most exquisite music, and those 
venerable cathedrals, which reveal to both sense and soul the 
loftiest poetry and sublimest genius of the past. It is not 
wonderful that the Catholic church has such a hold upon the 
affections of those who have grown up under its influence. It 



178 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

is not only their church, but the church of their fathers, and is 
made beautiful and engrossing to their hearts by a multitude 
of the most thrilling associations. It is the church which in 
infancy they were taught to love, and which threw the whole 
magic of its myriad hues on their childhood's brow and youth- 
ful path. In many a dark hour its priests, its consecrated 
utensils, and symbolic rites, have imparted to them consolation^ 
when from no other source it could be derived. Therefore, 
right or wrong, for weal or woe, does the Catholic profoundly 
love his church. Nor should we indiscriminately condemn the 
faith and practice from which we so widely differ. Catholicism 
has doubtless added many things to the word of God, but she 
also preserved most of the fundamental doctrines of Christi- 
anity, the depravity of man, salvation through the atonement, 
the essential divinity of the Redeemer, and the indispensable 
work of the Holy Spirit in the heart. Protestants are in no 
great danger of dishonoring themselves or their faith, by being 
mindful of the respect which is due that ancient class of 
Christians, in whose ranks have shone the names of Laurence 
de Bilva, Sadolet, Borromeo, Vincent de Paul, Pascal, and 
Fenelon. 

These remarks, we think, are not in much danger of being 
perverted. No right-minded person will accuse us of undue 
partialities for the Catholic church, because, when compelled, 
by the nature of our discussion, to refer to its history, we 
magnanimously recognize the merits it is well known to the 
intelligent to possess. We frankly affirm, in the language of 
Channing, " Of all Protestants, we have fewest sympathies with 
the Romish church. We go farther than our brethren in re- 
jecting her mysteries, those monuments of human weakness ; 
and as to her claims to infallibility, we repel them with an 
indignation not to be understood by sects, which, calling them- 
selves Protestant, renounce in words, but assert in practice, a 
Popish immunity from error, a Popish control over the faith of 
their brethren. To us, the spiritual tyranny of Popery is as 
detestable as Oriental despotism. When we look back on the 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A POPE. 179 

history of Papal Rome, we see her, in the days of her power, 
stained with the blood of martyrs, gorged with rapine, drunk 
with luxury and crime. But what then ? Is it righteous to 
involve a whole church in guilt, which, after all, belongs to a 
powerful few ? Is it righteous to forget that Protestantism, too, 
has blood on her robes ? Is it righteous to forget that Time, 
the greatest of reformers, has exerted his silent, purifying 
power on the Catholic as well as on ourselves ? Shall we re- 
fuse to see, and to own with joy, that Christianity, even under 
Papal corruptions, puts forth a divine power ? that men cannot 
wholly spoil it of its celestial efficacy ? that, even under its 
most disastrous eclipse, it still sheds beams to guide the soul 
to heaven ? that there exists in human nature, when loyal to 
conscience, a power to neutralize error, and to select and in- 
corporate with itself what is pure and ennobling in the most 
incongruous system ? Shall we shut our eyes on the fact, that 
among the clergy of the Romish church have risen up illus- 
trious imitators of that magnanimous apostle, before whom 
Felix trembled, — men who, in the presence of nobles and 
kings, have bowed to God alone, have challenged for his law 
uncompromising homage, and rebuked, in virtue's own un- 
daunted tone, triumphant guilt?" 

Two general points have now been considered — first, that 
Popery originated in degeneracy ; secondly, that it flourished 
most in the darkest times. It remains to suggest, thirdly, that 
it is destined to disappear before increasing light. 

Under this general topic, we will consider three particulars — 
first, in the primitive days of Christianity, all the churches 
stood on a perfect equality ; secondly, of these churches Christ 
was recognized as the only head ; thirdly, all revolutions and 
reformations in modern policies tend perpetually toward the 
original condition of religious affairs. 

In the first place, no fact in history is clearer than that, as- 
ordered by Christ and executed by the apostles, all the churches 
stood on a perfect equality with each other. The New Testa- 
ment uses the word churches, as applied to local bodies of 



180 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

Christians living in the same region, and sometimes in near 
neighborhood ; as, " the churches throughout all Judea ; " Paul 
"went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches ;" 
" so were the churches established in the faith, and increased 
in number daily." We read of the churches of Galatia, the 
churches in Asia, Macedonia, &c, &c. Paul says to the 
Corinthian church, " I robbed other churches, taking wages of 
them to do you service." The force of the appeal rests 
wholly on the churches in question being regarded as separate, 
distinct bodies ; otherwise he should have said, " I robbed other 
branches or dioceses, or parishes, of the church, to supply 
this branch." 

The more magnanimous and reliable class of Episcopal and 
Papal writers recognize and acknowledge the scriptural truth 
on this great subject. Archbishop Whately, in his essays on 
" The Kingdom of Christ," says, " The church is undoubtedly 
one, and so is the human race one; but not as a society. It 
was from the first composed of distinct societies, which were 
called one, because formed on common principles. It is one 
society only when considered as to its future existence. The 
circumstances of its having one common head, (Christ,) one 
Spirit, one Father, are points of unity which no more make the 
church one society on earth, than the circumstance of all men 
having the same Creator, and being derived from the same 
Adam, renders the human race one family." And again, 
" The church is one, then, not as consisting of one society, but 
because the various societies, or churches, were then modelled, 
and ought still to be so, on the same principles ; and because 
they enjoy common privileges, — one Lord, one faith, one 
baptism. Accordingly, the Holy Ghost, through his agents 
and apostles, has not left any detailed account of the formation 
of any Christian society ; but he has very distinctly marked 
the great principles on which all were to be founded, whatever 
distinctions may exist amongst them. In short, the foundation 
of the church by the apostles was not analogous to the work 
of Romulus, or Solon ; it was not, properly, the foundation of 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A POPE. 181 

Christian societies which occupied them, but the establishment 
of the principles on which Christians in all ages might form 
societies for themselves. 1 ' Gieseler says, vol. i. § 29, " The 
new churches every where formed themselves on the model of 
the mother church at Jerusalem. At the head of each were 
the elders, all officially of equal rank," &c. 

Says Mosheim, vol. i. pp. 80 — 86, Murdock's 1st edition, 
" All the churches in those primitive times were inde- 
pendent bodies, or none of them subject to the jurisdiction 
of any other. For, though the churches which were founded 
by the apostles themselves, frequently had the honor shown 
them to be consulted in difficult and doubtful cases, yet they 
had no judicial authority, no control, no power of giving laws. 
On the contrary, it is clear as the noonday, that all Christian 
churches had equal rights, and were in all respects on a foot- 
ing of equality. 

In giving an account of the government of the church dur- 
ing the second century, the same distinguished historian re- 
marks, " The form of church government which began to 
exist in the preceding century, was, in this, more industriously 
established and confirmed in all parts. One president, or 
bishop, presided over each church. He was created by the 
common suffrage of the whole people. 

" During the greater part of this century, all the churches 
continued to be, as at first, independent of each other ; or, 
Avere connected by no consociations or confederations." — Vol. 
i. p. 142. 

The Magdeburg Centuriators, in their famous work, pub- 
lished in 1559 — 1574, in describing the constitution and disci- 
pline of the churches of the first and second centuries, furnish 
the following testimony with respect to the republican spirit of 
primitive Christianity : " A visible church was an assembly, 
or congregation of persons, who believed and followed the 
writings of the prophets and apostles ; which should be com- 
posed of persons regenerated by the word and sacraments, 
though there might be in this assembly many persons, who, 
16 



182 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

though they agreed with the regenerate in doctrine, were, nev- 
ertheless, not sanctified in heart. Clemens [of Alexandria] 
says, I call not a place, but a congregation of the elect, a 
church." — Century ii. ch. 4, p. 39, ed. Basil. 1624. 

Of excommunication they say, " The right of excommuni- 
cation was committed to the hands of the church and its min- 
isters." — Cent, i. lib. 2, ch. 3, p. 274. 

" The power of announcing the remission of the sins of pen- 
itent offenders was also in the hands of the church ; though, 
for the sake of order, except in cases of necessity, it was ex- 
ercised by the ministers of the church." — lb. p. 276. 

" The whole assembly, or church, in any particular place — 
including laymen and clergy — had power to elect, call, and 
ordain suitable ministers, and to depose and avoid false teach- 
ers, or those whose evil lives threatened injury to the church. 
These things appear from the testimony of the Scriptures con- 
cerning the power of the keys ; for the keys were given to the 
whole church. But the church, if she calls her ministers to 
act, does nothing else than commit to them the keys. That 
power, therefore, pertains to the whole of the church. More- 
over, the examples in the New Testament teach the same 
thing ; for, in the first of Acts, it appears that not by the apos- 
tles alone, but by the whole church, Matthias was put in the 
place of Judas ; and in Acts, sixth chapter, the deacons were 
chosen, called, and ordained, not by the apostles alone, but also 
by the rest of the church. In Acts, thirteenth chapter, the 
whole church of Antioch gathered together by command of 
God, and sent forth Paul and Barnabas to teach the gospel to 
the Gentiles." — lb. p. 299. 

The following summary view of the constitution, govern- 
ment, and rights of the churches of the second century is given 
by these learned ecclesiastical historians. 

" If any one examines the approved writers of this century, 
[the second,] he will see that the form of church government 
was very like a democracy, (drjuoxgailac.) For each church 
had equal power of preaching the pure word of God, of ad- 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A POPE. 183 

ministering the sacraments, of absolving and excommunicating 
heretics and wicked persons, of observing the ceremonies 
received from the apostles, or, even, for the sake of edification, 
of instituting new ones; of choosing ministers, of calling, of 
ordaining, and, for just causes, of deposing them again ; of as- 
sembling councils and synods ; of instituting and supporting 
schools; and, in matters of doubt or controversy, of demand- 
ing the opinion of others; of judging and deciding." — Cent, 
ii. ch. 7, pp. 102—103. 

These and numerous other testimonies which might be ad- 
duced, go to sustain the following positions, viz. : " 1. The 
apostolic churches were single congregations of Christians, 
with their appropriate officers. 2. The government of these 
churches was essentially democratical. Each church elected 
its own officers, determined by what particular regulations it 
would be governed, exercised discipline upon its members ; in 
a word, did every thing that those possessing the supreme 
power were authorized to do. 

" 3. Their officers at first consisted simply of presbyters 
(who were also called bishops, or overseers, and elders) and 
of deacons ; and when, for prudential reasons, a president was 
chosen from among the elders of a single church, and the title 
of bishop, or overseer, was given to him, to distinguish him 
from his coequal elders, his authority was confined to a single 
church, or religious society, and was essentially unlike a mod- 
ern diocesan bishop. 4. That all the churches in those prim- 
itive times, though bound together by a common faith and 
order, were equal and independent bodies, subject to no earthly 
power nor authoritative control beyond themselves." 

We proceed to remark, secondly, that of these equal 
churches, Christ was recognized as the only head. The su- 
preme power of Christ in and over his churches has been well 
indicated by Mr. Crowell, in his admirable work, called the 
"Church Members' Manual," p. 61. Like every judicious wri- 
ter on this solemn topic, he expresses his positions in the lan- 
guage of Scripture itself. As, 1. The sole power of making 



184 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

laws for all churches is in him, and is not transmitted to any- 
other. James iv. 12. The only power given to churches is 
to publish and execute his laws. Matt, xxviii. 20. Being per- 
fect and able to make the man of God perfect to every good 
work, (2 Tim. hi. 17,) they need no addition. 2. That He only 
can erect and establish the true church constitution. Heb. iii. 
3 — 6. No man has a right to set up a church except ac- 
cording to that frame or pattern. 3. All offices, ordinary and 
extraordinary, are established by him, and the authority belong- 
ing to them, (Eph. iv. 11. 1 Cor. xii. 5 — 18,) as well as all 
gifts of wisdom and grace to discharge the duties of every 
station in the church, (Col. ii. 3 — 9,) together with all spiritual 
efficiency to make these gifts and offices effectual for the per- 
fecting of saints and the conversion of sinners. Matt, xxviii. 
20. Col. i. 29. 

Speaking of the nature of church power, the same writer 
adds, pp. 61, 62, 81, " A church is to learn, and then to exe- 
cute, the will of Christ. Its power is therefore exclusively 
spiritual and executive. It has no right to the use of political 
power, nor to form any coalition with the state ; and if it does 
so, it ceases to be a true church of Christ. Nor has a church 
the right to use force, either directly or indirectly, to accom- 
plish its purposes. It may persuade, exhort, entreat, admonish, 
and rebuke, to produce obedience, but has no right to resort 
to corporal or pecuniary pains and penalties. 

" This spiritual power must be used in an executive sense 
only. Christ has made all the laws by which it is to be gov- 
erned. He has delegated no legislative power to any church. 
The right of each to execute his laws among its members, 
implies the right to study those laws for itself, and to adopt that 
construction which the united wisdom of its members believe 
to be true. 

" To the same point are the directions of our Savior in Matt, 
xviii. 15 — 20, in regard to the course to be pursued in cases 
of private quarrels between brethren. The final resort is, 4 if 
he neglect to hear the church, let him be to thee as a heathen 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A POPE. 185 

man and a publican.' As the offence which subjects to excom- 
munication is l neglecting to hear [that is, to obey] the church,' 
the whole body, of course, and not its officers, must pass the 
sentence. He connects the solemn assurance, ' Whatsoever ye 
[the church] shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.' 
The righteous decisions of every church shall be ratified in 
heaven. And then, as if to forestall the inquiry, What is a 
church ? he immediately adds, that it is a company of believers, 
however small, united in covenant to obey him. ' For where 
two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in 
the midst of them.' 

" As it is certain that each church is invested by the Savior 
with the highest ecclesiastical, disciplinary, and judicial power, 
it follows, necessarily, that each is an independent body, com- 
plete in itself for all the purposes of a church on earth. Al- 
though this point has already been proved, yet this furnishes 
an independent, and alone a sufficient, proof of the same. 
There can be no higher act of sovereignty performed by a 
nation, than that of expulsion from citizenship." 

The beginning of ecclesiastical degeneracy, and its fright- 
ful consequences, are compendiously stated by Gieseler, sect. 
49, vol. i, wherein he shows most clearly that the independ- 
ence of the early churches was lost by laxity in discipline, till 
heresies had crept in, and then by " the churches which held 
to the ancient faith making common cause " against the her- 
etics. "Thus was developed the idea of a catholic (universal) 
church, as opposed to and excluding all heretics ; and this idea, 
in its turn, as well as a common interest, led to a more intimate 
union." " The result was, first, prelacy, with its worldliness 
and pride ; and finally, papacy, with its legion of abominations. 
Let churches, then, beware of two things: First, of neglect- 
ing discipline by suffering persons who have adopted danger- 
ous heresies to retain membership ; and Second, of combining 
their power for any disciplinary purpose, however urgent or 
desirable." 

We have shown the condition of equality among the primitive 
16* 



186 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

churches, and the fact that Christ was universally recognized 
as the only lawgiver and head : it remains, finally, to indicate 
how that all modern revolutions tend to bring the church back 
to its original condition of republican simplicity and power. 
Doubtless complete victory will be but gradually attained, and 
in a manner best adapted to exercise religious patience and 
faith ; but the ultimate triumph will be both certain and glori- 
ous. God deals with the modern church as he did with the 
ancient in view of the Canaanites, which foes might have been 
quickly destroyed, had not infinite wisdom seen fit to discomfit 
them in a more moderate way. Said God, " I will not drive 
them out from before thee in one year, lest the land become 
desolate, and the beasts of the field multiply against thee. By 
little and little will I drive them out from before thee, until thou 
be increased, and inherit the land." Exod. xxiii. 29, 30. 
In all the movements of divine Providence, as Lamartine has 
well remarked, " there is evidently a double motion of decom- 
position and organization at the same time. The creative spirit 
is at work in proportion that the destructive spirit destroys. 
One faith supersedes another; one form is substituted for 
another form. Wherever the past crumbles to pieces, the 
future is all prepared to appear behind the ruins. The tran- 
sition is slow and rude, as every transition is, in which the pas- 
sions or the interests of men have to fight in their progress, or 
in which the social classes or the different countries march 
with an unequal pace ; in which some will obstinately go back, 
whilst the general mass advances. Their confusion, dust, 
ruins, darkness prevail for the moment ; but from time to time 
also, the wind disperses that cloud of dust, which conceals both 
the track and the end, and those who stand on the eminence 
distinguish the march of events, recognize the promise of fu- 
turity, and perceive the earliest dawning of a day which is to 
enlighten a vast horizon.'" 

All great revolutions tend, sooner or later, completely to dis- 
mthrall the church of Christ. Such are the designs of Prov- 
idence, and such will be the final result. Whatever may be 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A POPE. 187 

the personal views of those who excite and execute national 
commotions, their chief producing cause is more latent and 
profound than the influences which the superficial observe. It 
is no other than the need, universally and invincibly felt, of a 
fairer and higher social order, founded upon that exalted and 
immense development of liberty which Christianity has ren- 
dered necessary by unfolding itself to the soul of the masses 
in the true conception and feeling of justice. Hence are the 
collisions which occur between the multitudes and their op- 
pressors conservative of the most salutary principles, con- 
formed to that law of progress which rules humanity, and 
which to it is a perpetual pledge of a grand epoch of complete 
renovation, the signal of future victories by which, subordinat- 
ing national policies to its light and force, will consummate its 
glory by establishing the human race in the unity of righteous- 
ness and peace. To the love of liberty which the spirit of 
Christ excites and nourishes in the popular bosom, more than 
any other cause, are joined a principle of order which controls 
it, and a charity unbounded in its exercise, which unite and 
consolidate those healthful elements that distempered ultraism 
tends to isolate and disperse. By her disinthralling and enno- 
bling power, Christianity delivers man from the yoke of man ; 
by the principle of order it contains, and the mutual esteem it 
creates, it perpetually conducts mankind, free in Jesus Christ, 
to social harmony and national improvement, in anticipation of 
the promised day which approaches, when it will establish all 
ranks and conditions in one perfect whole. " And there shall 
be one fold and one Shepherd." 

The world does not need^nor does it desire, the false and 
destructive freedom of anarchy which traces itself in blood, 
and which, in the end, plants a cimeter over the horrible ruins 
it has formed ; but that real and enduring liberty, founded upon 
righteousness, and inseparable from it, pure as heaven, whence 
its last development will descend, and holy as God, who has 
graven an ineffaceable desire for its enjoyment in the breast of 
every human being. To the unlimited possession of this, a 



188 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

consummation so devoutly to be wished, all the grand upheav- 
ings and down-dashings of our day conduct. We have reason 
to believe that the period is not remote when all our race will 
come to enjoy, without let or hinderance, the inestimable bless- 
ings, civil and religious, which the Creator designed for all. 
Then, and not till then, Christianity, disengaged from the clouds 
which have so long obscured her, will appear, in primitive 
splendor, above the horizon of society, as a star, to enlighten, 
vivify, and guide the people, and toward which they will direct 
their enraptured gaze, accompanying its magnificent course 
with harmonious chantings of joy incessantly renewed. 

Two systems have for centuries contended for the empire 
of the world — the system of freedom and the system of abso- 
lutism; doctrines which establish society on the basis of justice, 
or those which subjugate it to brutal force. The future des- 
tinies of the human race depend on the issue of the final bat- 
tles soon to be fought. If the victory remains to absolute 
force, then, stooping to the earth like burdened beasts, mourn- 
ful, mute, and panting, must men, lacerated by the scourge of 
ruthless masters, continue to plod, moistening with sweat and 
tears the rough furrows they upturn, with no other hope but to 
bury at length under the obscurest turf the bloody burden of 
their miseries. But, on the contrary, should justice triumph, — 
as we are certain it will, — then will humanity advance in the 
predestined path of progressive glory, with elevated head, 
serene brow, and eye fixed upon that auspicious future, a 
radiant sanctuary wherein Providence has deposited the highest 
benefits for all who bravely persevere. The conflict becomes 
keener and more general every day. On the one side are 
the great multitudes of the people, exhausted of suffering and 
patience, yet struggling in desire and hope. These masses of 
outraged humanity are profoundly moved by the rousing up of 
the too long dormant consciousness of all within them that 
constitutes the dignity and grandeur of man. They are ren- 
dered potent by their faith in prevailing justice, their love of 
liberty, and that firmness of will which makes them invincible. 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A POTE. 189 

On the other hand, all absolute powers are leagued against 
popular rights, with their armies and agents of every kind, a 
mighty organization of tyrannous iniquity, whose strangling 
elements are interchained in one isolated and compressed 
whole, beyond which there is no movement but between two 
bayonets, no speech but between the malicious ears of two 
spies. Lamennais, himself a Catholic, and the victim of 
hierarchical oppression, has recorded many noble sentiments 
on this point, of which the following specimen is a literal trans- 
lation : " Spiritual liberty has for expression the liberty of 
religion or of worship, the liberty of teaching, of the press, 
and of association. Where one of these is not complete, and 
above all, the last, the others are but a vain name. Do not ask 
under what form of society the people live thus deprived of 
their natural rights ; ask under what tyranny." — (Euvres Com- 
pletes, tome vii. p. 286. 

We believe that the Papacy has usurped individual rights, 
and for this the appropriate retribution is at hand. For centu- 
ries it has been imposing restraints on human nature, where 
development should be the grand aim. The soul is not to be 
cramped, but cultivated. True religion is a liberating power, 
tending constantly to provide a wider and purer sphere for the 
exercise of both intellect and heart. It puts a people in a 
condition to be saved, by diffusing among them the word of 
life and the power of love. Before it the mountains sink, 
rough places become plain, and the great salvation is revealed 
to all without partiality or disguise. Christianity teaches that 
our highest happiness, as well as foremost duty, lies in obey- 
ing God rather than man, even the best of men ; since a 
church made and ruled by human hands Mils the substance of 
religious belief, whereas the spirit that moulds the church of 
Christ vivifies the form. In the Papal system, the most prom- 
inent things are men — priests, bishops, popes ; but in Chris- 
tianity, Christ is all and in all. Unlike the Mosiac system, it 
was not an ecclesiastical, sacerdotal, and hierarchical com- 
pound to confuse and oppress ; but, as all the declarations of 



190 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

the New Testament prove, the religion given to the world by 
our Lord is " life and spirit " only. " The kingdom of God," 
saith Jesus, " cometh not with observation : neither shall they 
say, Lo, here ! or, Lo, there ! for behold, the kingdom of 
God is within you." "The kingdom of God is not meat 
and drink but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy 
Ghost." 

There is an infinite disparity between inward graces and 
outward institutions. Christ came to elevate mankind equally 
above Judaism and Paganism, — to make them superior to 
every form of religion dependent on symbols, and administered 
through artistic representations. Speculative philosophy and 
priestly craft are often inclined to divert the popular eye from 
the original source of purest light, in order that earthly lamps, 
ministering to selfish purposes only, may be ostentatiously 
employed ; but the highest obligation resting on religious 
teachers, as the only means of saving the souls of men, is to 
woo all to the unveiled beamings of the one great, free, moral 
Sun. It is his light alone that has made generation after 
generation beautiful and blessed by patriots, sages, martyrs, 
prophets, and apostles, men facing the dungeon, the sword, and 
the flame, rather than desert their allegiance to the truth of 
God. Contemplating these, we ought to be still more con- 
firmed in the belief that humanity should never bow to a frag- 
ment of itself; that the only infallibility to which we should 
kneel is the infallibility of conscience, enlightened by the 
Holy Spirit — that most sacred of all creeds, which is written 
by the finger of God in the depths of every renovated heart. 
As a system of ecclesiastical domination, it is evident that 
Popery is rapidly going to decay. Human nature is tired 
of the political and theological dismemberment in which, for 
centuries, it has been living, and yearns intensely to unfold 
itself once more in the exercise of natural faculties and rights. 
A new era is beginning, when Man and the divine prerogatives 
about to be restored to him will constitute the noblest privilege 
and most exalted name. The hour is at hand when the true 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A POPE. 191 

glory of a state will be regarded as consisting, not in the 
aggrandizement of wealth and honors among a few exclusive 
individuals, but in the elevated character, the magnanimous 
spirit, and improved condition, of the generality of the citizens. 
Now, it is not a Roman Catholic church, but a Human Cath- 
olic, a truly Christian church, which alone will meet and 
respond to the wants of this new era ; a church which will 
resemble the infinitude of nature, wherein the lowliest things 
and the sublimest things are found side by side, and which will 
seek to gather children into its bosom, not by the tricks of priest- 
craft and inquisitorial coercion, but by intensest love, most gen- 
erous freedom, and the utmost ministration to human aspirings 
and needs. 

When Jesus arose to work through the simplest means the 
most wondrous of revolutions, mankind had so much forgotten 
God, that they had come to waste their affection and reverence 
on material emblems of the Deity, rather than on Deity himself. 
This depraved inclination of our race has ever formed the 
chief strength of the Papacy. It ought ever to have been 
the prompter and promoter of intellectual progress, and its 
response to this requirement of the true church should have 
been equally conducive with its moral beatitude to its perma- 
nent power. But its intellectualization and moralization have 
not maintained an abiding vitality, because they have not been 
the cardinal motives of church polity. The gospel is pro- 
foundly republican : it shows how little regard it has for the 
power of man, by teaching its followers, as their primary 
lesson, to submit themselves only to God. It constitutes prog- 
ress an autocracy, and consequently prefers that man should 
in every thing be his own master. This fundamental truth the 
Papacy has either ignorantly overlooked or unjustly suppressed. 
But it is now too late, however much it may be desired, to 
keep the masses longer in ignorance on this point. The spirit 
of the age is too intelligent and free, to suffer the chains of 
ignorance and injustice to be permanently rivetted on their 
minds. The multitudes have learned to weigh many things, 



192 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

and among other valuable lessons they have learned their own 
weight in the affairs of both church and state. 

Revolutionary principles, springing from the gospel of Christ, 
have for eighteen centuries been in a continued process of 
growth, through all vicissitudes generating the means by which 
to act on society with fresher vigor and more comprehensive 
force. This spirit of renovation and improvement has not 
ceased to operate, even during those long periods of apparent 
suspension in which Imperial or Papal policy has given for a 
time a sinister direction and sombre hue to the movement. It 
is still at work, having much done, and being in a condition, 
undoubtedly, to do vastly more for humanity in the times at 
hand. We are, perhaps, to feel its greatest momentum and 
witness its mightiest shocks. This is a revolutionary age in 
the best sense ; as all the omnipotence of nature and Provi- 
dence are combined to energize freedom and promote progress. 
All things powerful and good coalesce to diffuse the spirit of 
free institutions, vindicate them from reproach, fortify the fee- 
ble for their defence, and plead for the injured of every class. 
The whole civilized world is heaving like an ocean, and the 
great issues of freedom are working themselves clearly out 
amid the throes of the storm. The great designs of Providence 
are unfolding with tremendous import, before which the arro- 
gance of petty monarchy is lost like the buzz of an insect in 
the thunder-crash. In the light and liberality that begin to dis- 
tinguish our age, read the following dictum of Gregory IX. : 
" There is only one name in the world — the Pope. He only 
can bestow the investitures of kings ; all princes ought to 
kiss his feet. No one can judge him ; his simple election 
makes him a saint ; he has never erred ; he never will err. 
He can depose kings, and absolve subjects from their alle- 
giance." A church holding such principles cannot walk in 
proportion to the speed of all around it. Hence says Fran- 
cisque Bouvet, " Roman Catholicism has vanished at the aspect 
of civilization. It is undergoing due suffering for the evil of 
having subjected all spiritually to its views of temporal aggran- 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A POPE. 193 

dizement." Doubtless the Romish church did much good in 
its day ; but it has fulfilled its mission, and has become, in the 
estimation of most persons, a hollowness, and a lie ; therefore, 
in the progress of truth, all its trumpery must be swept away. 

" Bulls, pardons, relics, cowls, black, white, and gray, 
TJpwhirled, and flying o'er the ethereal plain, 
Fast bound for Limbo Lake." 

The great foe of the Papacy is human nature rejuvenated, 
with a keener consciousness of its powers, catching clearer 
glimpses of its legitimate career, panting for free action and per- 
fect development. Man will soon learn that there is something 
diviner than ceremonies or creeds; will recognize in Jesus 
Christ the only celestial example, the only Master we are 
bound to obey. The common people are winning a familiarity 
with grand principles, political as well as religious ; and this 
kind of knowledge is death to all tyranny. Christianity dis- 
plays truth and discloses happiness in its own records ; and 
these were given to the church to be spread out before all 
mankind. Because the Papal prerogatives have been employed 
in restricting the circulation of divine truth, humanity, instinc- 
tively soaring towards the needful light, like a shaded plant 
towards the sun, has outgrown the pope. Spiritual despotism 
can no longer with impunity forge fetters for the mind, since 
man, the indignant victim of superstition, now renovated in 
spirit and advancing with unshackled limbs, has learned to 
stoop only to gather up the fragmentary chains that lie shat- 
tered all along freedom's path, and hurl them at the sham in- 
fallibility it has unwillingly too long revered. 

The peculiar tendency of the popular movements of this age 
is to expansion, diffusion, and universality; a tendency directly 
opposed to the exclusiveness and monopoly which character- 
ize the institutions of the dark ages. The masses scorn an 
abject position, and are determined to rise from the dust. The 
many have assumed and worthily fill the posts once restiicted 
to a few ; the privileges once sacred to a segment of human- 
17 



194 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

ity's circle now are flowing equally round the whole. It is 
beginning to be understood that, of all rights, religious truth is 
the property most dear to every man. This is stronger than 
councils or popes ; it is the spirit of primitive Christianity, the 
divine beauty of which will put to shame the hollow dignities 
of hierarchical pomps, and pour the splendors of salvation all 
over earth. The ruling forces of universal empire are latent 
in her spirit, ready to be unfolded every where ; and, however 
reluctant the bigoted may be to yield to her sway, the hour 
hastens when all will be compelled to bow to her sovereignty 
of soul. The truthful earnestness of the true church of Christ 
must speedily be crowned with complete success. 

" Her weapons, like the sword 
Of Michael, from the armory of God, 
Are given her so tempered, that neither Pope 
Nor Papist can resist their edge." 

But let us remind ourselves, again, that, however great have 
been the degeneracy and crimes of the Papal church, her 
monuments of usefulness are numerous, and her example is 
not only a beacon to warn, but a model in many respects to be 
admired. With fierce bigotiy she may have armed herself 
with the frightful enginery of the inquisition, and inflicted the 
most terrible injuries on the bodies as well as the souls of men. 
But she can never do the like again, even if she desired it, which 
we do not believe. It is something worse than folly to overlook 
the fact that the Papacy has participated in the progressive 
spirit of our age, as well as all other powers. Indeed, the pope 
of to-day stands in the front rank of national reformers. He 
has struck the key-stone from the arch of feudal power, and 
the whole infamous edifice is now tumbling around his own, as 
well as many other regal heads. Concerning the commingled 
excellences and evils of the Papal progress, Guizot, in his 
" History of Civilization," has well said, " Human thought and 
liberty, however fettered, however confined for room and space 
in which to exercise their faculties, oppose with so much 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A POPE. 195 

energy every attempt to enslave them, that their reaction makes 
even despotism itself to yield, and give up something every 
moment. This took place in the very bosom of the Christian 
church. We have seen heresy proscribed, the right of free 
inquiry condemned, a contempt shown for individual reason, 
the principle of the imperative transmission of doctrines by 
human authority established. And yet where can we find a 
society in which individual reason more boldly developed itself 
than in the church ? What are sects and heresies, if not the 
fruit of individual opinions ? These sects, these heresies, all 
these oppositions which arose in the Christian church, are the 
most decisive proof of the life and moral activity which reigned 
within her ; a life stormy, painful, sown with perils, with errors, 
and crimes, yet splendid and mighty, and which has given place 
to the noblest developments of intelligence and mind." 

The tide of improvement is sweeping forward through all 
Europe with increased volume and speed. A mighty influence; 
is at work every where, tempering the clay to mould great 
men, true Christians, and effective reformers. How unlike is 
the condition of things this moment around the Papal throne, 
compared with what it was only four years ago, when Mazzini 
complained, in view of the martyrdom of some of his co-patri- 
ots, " There was in these men a will of iron, which only hard- 
ened on the anvil of obstacle. They wished to die ; they had 
perceived the great cause which yet hinders us from being 
free — the want of harmony between thought and action. They 
knew that the national opinion — the opinion which says that 
an Italy ought to be — is general amongst us ; but they felt 
that, even to the present day, it is only an opinion ; that faith 
is wanting ; the faith which compels men to incarnate that 
which they think in acts ; the faith which teaches that life is a 
representation, continual, progressive, of what we believe to be 
truth and justice. And this faith they saw no means of teach- 
ing in the Italy of to-day, without press, without parliament, 
without schools, without liberty of conscience, without any 
thing to render education possible, except it was by example 



196 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

They wished to set this example ; they wished to bear witness ; 
they wished to say to their fellow-citizens, ' See, the belief in an 
Italy to come, the belief in the duty of action to engender that, 
is so true, that we step to death far it ! ' Tyranny, they would 
say, can stifle all except the last cry of the man who dies upon 
the scaffold for his faith." 

But not in vain have martyrs toiled, wept, prayed, taught, and 
died. Their redeeming spirit survives to witness earth's des- 
tiny, as, in these auspicious days, it is gloriously working out. 
Chains are sundering, truth is spreading, shouts of redeemed 
nations are to heaven rising, and soon, from his effulgent throne, 
will the sun look down on all the world without a heretic, and 
the church without a pope. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE CHURCH WITHOUT A BISHOP. 

In the two preceding chapters, we have considered some of 
the unhappy consequences flowing from an alliance of the 
church with Imperial and Papal power. But there are evils 
connected with the amalgamation of ecclesiastical and civil 
institutions under other forms of not less magnitude. Unfortu- 
nately, Protestant establishments present to the world, in the 
nineteenth century of the Christian era, the most intimate and 
injurious coalitions of church and state. 

We shall be likely to apprehend some of the iniquitous fea- 
tures of this system, while we observe that bishops are not 
essential to constitute a church, were never designed to exer- 
cise lordship over equals in Christ, and are no longer needed 
to oppress the sacred brotherhood. 

In the first place, let us prove historically that, according to 
the Episcopal meaning of the word, bishops arc not essential 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A BISHOP. 197 

to constitute a church. The authorities we cite are from stand- 
ard works only, used in all theological schools, and most gen- 
erally approved. 

Says Coleman, in his work on the " Apostolical and Primi- 
tive Church," p. 255, " In the beginning, there was but one 
church in a city, to which all the Christian converts belonged. 
But the care of the church was intrusted, not to one man, but 
to several, who constituted a college of presbyters, and divided 
the duties of their office among themselves. This arrangement 
was analogous to that of the Jewish synagogue, after which the 
church was organized. A plurality of persons every where 
appear in the Acts as the representatives of the church at 
Jerusalem. They represent, also, the church at Ephesus, (Acts 
xx. 17 — 28,) and at Philippi, (Phil. i. 1.) Titus was also in- 
structed to ordain elders in all the cities in Crete. In such a 
college of elders, sharing a joint responsibility in the care of 
the churches, it would obviously be convenient, if not indispen- 
sable, for one of their number to act as the moderator or pres- 
ident of their assemblies. Such a designation, however, would 
confer on the presiding elder no official superiority over his 
fellow-presbyters ; but, coupled with age, and talents, and spirit- 
ual gifts, it might give him a control in their councils and in the 
government of the church. This control, and this official rank as 
the 5t^o£cttc5s, the presiding elder, which was first conceded to him 
by his fellow-presbyters only as to a fellow-presbyter , a primus 
inter pares, he began, in time, to claim as his official preroga- 
tive. He first began, by moral means and the influence of 
accidental circumstances, to be the bishop of the church, and 
afterwards claimed the office as his right. This assumption of 
authority gave rise to the gradual distinction between bishop 
and presbyter. It began early to disturb the relations of equal- 
ity which at first subsisted between the ministers of the 
churches, and, in the course of the second and third centuries, 
resulted in the division of the clergy into two distinct orders, 
bishops and presbyters.'" 

This comprehensive exposition of the origin of domineering 
17* 



198 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

Episcopacy has the sanction of all the leading writers of eccle- 
siastical history. 

The " King's Book," published in 1543, asserted that there 
is " no real distinction between bishops and priests, 1 ' and taught 
essentially the same doctrine respecting the deacon of the 
primitive church as is now held by Congregationalists. It 
further declared, that the Scripture made no mention of any 
other church officers but these two — priests, or elders, and 
deacons. — Hist. Cong.ut sup. Dwight's Theology, serm. 151. 

Neander's account of the officers and government of the 
Gentile churches during the apostolic age is as follows : " It is, 
therefore, certain that every church was governed by a union 
of the elders or overseers chosen from among themselves ; and 
we find no individual distinguished above the rest, who presided 
as a. primus inter pares, [a chief among equals,] though prob- 
ably, in the age immediately succeeding the apostolic, of which 
we have, unfortunately, so few authentic memorials, the prac- 
tice was introduced of applying to such a one the name of 
iTtlaxoTio;, [bishop, overseer,] by way of distinction." — Hist. 
Apost. Chh, vol. i. pp. 168, 169.' 

The correctness of Mosheim's account of the humble char- 
acter and limited authority of the primitive bishop is admitted 
by Waddington, who says, " The government of a single per- 
son protected each society from internal dissension ; the elec- 
tiveness of that governor rendered probable his merit." — Hist. 
Chh. p. 44. 

Lord King's representation is, u There was but one bishop, 
strictly so called, in a church at a time, who was related to his 
flock as a pastor to his sheep, and a parent to his children." — 
Inquiry, ch. 1, § 5. And again, " There was but one church 
to a bishop." And this church, he tells us, was u a single 
congregation." — lb. 2, § 1. " The bishop's diocese exceeded 
not the bounds of a modern parish, and was the same, as in 
name so also in thing." — lb. § 2. 

Dr. Campbell gives the following account of the bishop's 
relation to his church in the third century : — 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A BISHOP. 199 

" The bishop, who was properly the pastor, had the charge 
of no more than one parish, one church, or congregation, the 
parishioners all assembling in the same place with him for 
the purposes of public worship, religious instruction, and the 
solemn commemoration of the death of Christ." — Lee. 8, 
p. 128. 

Gieseler's account of the apostolic churches is this : " The 
new churches every where formed themselves on the model 
of the mother church at Jerusalem. At the head of each 
were the elders, TtQaa^vjeQoi, intaxonoi, [elders, bishops,] all 
officially of equal rank, though, in several instances, a peculiar 
authority seems to have been conceded to some one individual 
from personal considerations. After the death of the apostles, 
and the pupils of the apostles, to whom the general direction 
of the churches had always been conceded, some one amongst 
the presbyters of each church was suffered gradually to take 
the lead in its affairs. In the same irregular way the title of 
irclaxonog, bishop, was appropriated to the first presbyter." — 
Coleman's Antiq. pp. 101—103. 

It is evident, from these witnesses, and the still clearer testi- 
mony of the New Testament itself, that in the primitive church 
there were but two kinds of officers, and two classes of duties 
corresponding to these. The first was a pastor, or bishop, who 
was to " take heed to all the flock," " to feed the church of 
God," and to "give himself continually to prayer and to the 
ministry of the word." For this reason, " a bishop must be 
apt to teach," "able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and to 
convince the gainsayers." Says Crowell, " The duties of this 
office are therefore to teach religion, and to look after the spir- 
itual welfare of the church. The other class of duties is of a 
temporal nature, requiring "not aptness to teach, but eminent 
piety, honesty, sobriety, good sense, and business habits. These 
are provided for in the office of deacon, whose duties may be 
inferred from the word diaconus, waiting servant, from the cir- 
cumstances in which the office originated, and from the requi- 
site qualifications. 1 Tim. iii. 8 — 13. The wants of churches 



200 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

are all provided for in these two offices. They have no 
more occasion for the services of prelates, or diocesan bishops, 
to govern churches, ordain ministers, and administer discipline, 
than a civil state has for those of an autocrat, or a dictator.'" 

The church of Christ, as originally constituted, is purely 
republican. Christ commissioned all his disciples to go forth 
and proclaim the truth, giving them no authority over others, 
no preeminence among themselves. Of all kinds of instruc- 
tion, religious exercises were to be the most free. Every 
apostle received wisdom from the original source, and acted on 
his own responsibility in its distribution. Paul, the last acces- 
sion to the apostolic band, was the most independent and pow- 
erful. He boasts that he received his doctrine straightway from 
God, and not from those " who were apostles before him." He 
would not allow the council at Jerusalem to cripple his spirit 
by their decision, but expanded his views beyond Jewish big- 
otry and local prejudice, under the legitimate influence of that 
ennobling Christianity which he loved and heroically toiled to 
spread abroad. In those days, Christians were " a royal priest- 
hood ; " all of them being " kings and priests " appointed to offer 
" a spiritual sacrifice." When, for practical purposes, a church 
organization was required, the synagogue was adopted as their 
model, which claimed no power to domineer ; and not the 
temple, whose officers assumed the exercise of high govern- 
mental powers. Their elders and deacons were chosen by 
popular suffrage, and were as much of the people after their 
election as before. The distinction between clergy and laity 
was unknown ; all were sons of God, upon whom the Holy 
Ghost in equal measures fell. They were " anointed of God," 
and " knew all things ; " they " needed not that any man 
should teach them." Christ broke every priestly yoke, and 
bade men pray as he did, with no intermediate official, nothing 
between them and the Father of lights ; making the whole 
earth a temple, and each true breathing of the heart acceptable 
adoration. More than two centuries passed before masters of 
doctrine arose, who claimed to bind and loose on earth and in 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A BISHOP. 201 

heaven. These were the favored ones, who knew expressly all 
about " the mind of the Lord," the " successors of the apos- 
tles," who, as " the clergy," first made themselves " the 
church," and ended by setting themselves above the reason 
and conscience of every individual soul. 

Christianity, by its very nature, is independent of every thing 
terrestrial and human. It has no sacred localities, no station- 
ary shrines. Should Sinai and Calvary, Jerusalem and Rome, 
Wittemberg and Geneva, disappear from the earth, Christianity 
would remain unaffected. Least of all should we infer from 
the Scriptures that such an anomaly could exist as a national 
church, wherein all the religious organizations sink their inde- 
pendencies into uniform subserviency to a single worldly sov- 
ereign and a few semi-political prelates. Christ is the only 
Master in Christianity, and the entire framework of his admin- 
istration is spiritual. Attempt to combine with it state patron- 
age or coercion, and you utterly destroy its power. The prime 
command of divine religion is, " Choose ; " that of a state 
church is, " Who are you, sir, that you should presume to 
choose ? " When God approaches a man, he recognizes his 
individuality, his independency, and freedom of action. But 
when man presumes to legislate for his fellow-man in religious 
things, he arrogates authority which belongs only to God, and 
degrades the passive victim of his tyrannical control. The 
instant civil government is employed as a means in Christianity, 
all its primitive beauty and force are destroyed. For a little 
while longer, perhaps, it may continue " the be-all and end- 
all " of Episcopal religion to exalt " the church " above Chris- 
tianity, the hierarchy above God, ordination above edification ; 
but surrounding multitudes are waking up to juster and more 
scriptural views, not having yet forgotten the cry of the Wal- 
denses — "All Christians are priests." 

John Huss was burned at the stake for asserting, " If he 
who calls himself the vicar of Jesus Christ imitates the life of 
Jesus Christ, he is his vicar ; but, if he follows an opposite 
course, he is the messenger of Antichrist." This truth we hold. 



202 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

We believe that gospel institutions are not formed by a power 
without, but within. Every man born of the Spirit of God, and 
obedient to the commands of Christ, has a perfect right to all 
church privileges ; and every such Christian, according to his 
measure of gifts, is divinely commissioned to be a teacher of 
the doctrines he has professed. In the language of D'Aubigne, 
" Where the Spirit is, there is the church ; this is the principle 
of the reform : where the church is, there is the Spirit, is the 
principle of Rome and Oxford ; and it is also, though in a 
milder form, that of Lutheranism." John Milton had a vivid 
conception of the republican character of the primitive Chris- 
tianity^, and of its infinite superiority over all state religion. 
Says he, " That the magistrate should take into his power the 
stipendiary maintenance of church ministers, as compelled by 
law, can stand neither with the people's thought nor with 
Christian liberty, but would suspend the church wholly upon 
the state, and turn the ministers into state pensioners. For the 
magistrate to make the church his mere ward, as always in 
minority ; the church, to whom he ought, as a magistrate, ' to 
bow down his face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of 
her feet;' her to subject to his political drifts, or conceived 
opinions, is neither just nor pious ; no honor done to the church, 
but a plain dishonor ; and upon her whose head is in heaven, — 
yea, upon Him who is the only head in effect ; and what is 
most monstrous, a human on a heavenly, a carnal on a spirit- 
ual, a political head on an ecclesiastical body ; which at length, 
by such heterogeneal, such incestuous conjunction, transforms 
her ofttimes into a beast of many heads and many horns." 
What the Christian church is, has been admirably defined by 
the same profound thinker and unrivalled author, in his 
"Treatise on Christian Doctrine, compiled from the Holy 
Scriptures alone." 

" The visible church is either universal or particular. 

" The universal visible church is the whole multitude of 
those who are called, in every part of the world, and who 
openly worship God the Father through Christ, in any 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A BISHOP. 203 

place whatever, either individually or in conjunction with 
others. 

" A particular church is a society of persons professing the 
faith, united by a special bond of brotherhood, and so ordered 
as may best promote the ends of edification and mutual com- 
munion of the saints." 

Having thus shown that bishops are not essential to con- 
stitute a church, we proceed, secondly, to observe that they 
never were designed to exercise lordship over equals in Christ. 
The plan projected by our Lord for planting the kingdom of 
truth and righteousness in the world is admirably stated by 
Reinhard in the following extract : " He directed his apostles 
never to think of striving after civil power, or any other influ- 
ence than that which could be obtained by exhibiting the truth 
and setting a virtuous example. Luke xxii. 24 — 27. 1 Pet. 
v. 2, 3. They were to gain none by promising them earthly 
advantage, but were ever to inculcate upon their hearers the 
truth, that virtue must look for its full reward to another world. 
Matt. x. 37 — 39. They were not to constitute a secret soci- 
ety, nor operate by secret arts, but to go forth into all the 
world and make known the truth ireely and publicly to all 
nations. Matt, xxviii. 19,20. Acts i. 8. In so doing they were 
not merely to enjoin it upon every one to believe their word, 
but they were to call upon every one to hear their reasons and 
examine them for themselves. Wherever they found people who 
advocated the truth, they were to establish institutions for the 
preservation and extension of a more thorough acquaintance 
with it. Hence they were to prepare men by education for 
teaching others, and institute meetings and exercises for the 
common information and encouragement of all the professors 
of this pure religion. In their efforts, indeed, they were not to 
allow themselves to be checked or disturbed by vetoes or magis- 
terial power, (Matt. x. 17 — 33. John xv. 17, to chap. xvi. 4,) 
for no earthly ruler has a right to prohibit his subjects from 
receiving this religion, addressing itself, as it does, to the con- 
science, or to lay down precepts for directing them in attend- 



204 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

ing to their moral education and the welfare of their souls. 
Acts iv. 19, 20. On the other hand, they were not to allow 
those who wished to become of their number to occasion any 
discord in society, or, under any pretence whatever, to trans- 
gress the several relations to which they had been assigned, 
(1 Cor. vii. 17 — 22,) or refuse to give due honor to their rulers, 
and yield the most willing and punctual obedience to their law- 
ful regulations. Rom. xiii. 1 — 7. 1 Pet. ii. 13 — 17. Tit. iii. 1. 
They were rather to aim earnestly at transforming all the ad- 
vocates of the truth into the most diligent, faithful, and useful 
citizens, by inculcating it upon them, as a general principle, 
that they were bound to honor the doctrines which they pro- 
fessed, and advance the truth as much as possible, by exhibiting 
the most upright and dignified conduct in all their relations. 
Matt. v. 16. 1 Pet. ii. 11, 12. Phil. i. 27. Col. i. 10. Tit. ii. 
5 — 10. In this way, then, was the truth to conquer of itself. 
It needed no foreign aid. The nations of the earth would 
gradually ascertain that it would be for their interests, in every 
respect, to embrace it and obey it. All those, also, who gave 
themselves up to the advancement of the Savior's great views, 
were to expect the protection and assistance of Heaven, which 
was of far more importance than the favor of the world ; for 
the plan in which Jesus was engaged, was the work of God. 
John iv. 34, with chap. xvii. It was the object of the Governor 
of the world, and of the Father of mankind, to bless the whole 
human family, and give the inhabitants of the earth the highest 
proof of his infinite love, by carrying this great undertaking 
into effect. 

" Such is the great plan, which, according to historical testi- 
mony, Jesus devised for the good of our race, and such are 
the means which were to be employed for carrying it into com- 
plete effect. That it has been misapprehended and misrepre- 
sented, is neither his fault nor that of his friends. It has not 
yet been carried into complete effect, at least to such a degree 
as its author intended, and as could be wished. With this, 
however, we have nothing to do. It is sufficient that Jesus 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A BISHOP. 205 

intended it should be ; that this was the object which he had in 
view." pp. 117, 118. 

Now, any form of religious establishment, papal, primatical, 
or episcopal, we believe calculated to violate these scriptural 
principles by fostering servile education, training an obsequious 
priesthood, and rivetting the bonds of degrading tyranny upon 
the popular mind. We will examine these points in the order 
named. 

In the first place, the existence of episcopal primacy in 
the church tends to foster a servile education in all its mem- 
bers. In the presence and under the control of national reli- 
gion, national education will be a political agency mainly, 
employed to fortify tottering thrones and decayed dynasties, 
not to promote human greatness and joy in all the practical 
walks of popular improvement. The despots of Europe dis- 
covered some time since that, from the extension of liberal 
sentiments, and the growing empire of the press, it would be 
unsafe for them to rely on the old weapons of tyranny as they 
had been hitherto employed. They knew that standing armies 
are losing their value ; the sword is growing patriotic rather 
than oppressive, and the bayonet is inclined to fraternize with 
the populace, instead of piercing its heart. To secure general 
control, other influences must be put in operation, of which 
powers education occupies the front rank. But it is a great 
mistake to suppose that an educated nation will necessarily in 
the highest sense be free. Educated slaves abound as well as 
ignorant ones, and quite as disposed to " crook the pregnant 
hinges of the knee, where thrift may follow fawning ; " indeed, 
they are generally the most degraded, for there are rugged 
energies in the ignorant which occasionally rebel against 
oppression, and perform the work of holier agencies, whereas 
an educated slave is too abject to rise against dignified despot-, 
ism. How have Austria, France, and especially Russia, been 
employed for the last half century ? They have been uncom- 
monly active in establishing institutions and promoting plans 
for the instruction of their subjects. But what are the nature 
18 



206 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

and tendency of the lessons imparted to the masses of the peo- 
ple ? Not such as are calculated to unfold" in each soul the 
true, the beautiful, and the just, in harmony and holiness, but 
such as would incline them still to remain the quiet serfs of 
tyranny. The bold, free characteristics and aspirations of the 
individual, by this process, are sacrificed, and one mechanical, 
levelling scheme is pursued, fatal to all manly earnestness, all 
enthusiasm, all lofty emulation, all courage, and all strength. 
Our countryman, Horace Mann, not long since went personally 
to survey this process, and has described its effects. He regrets 
the incompetency of the Prussian population, and accounts for 
it as follows : — 

" When the children come out from the school, they have 
little use either for the faculties that have been developed, or 
for the knowledge that has been acquired. Their resources 
are not brought into demand ; their powers are not roused and 
strengthened by exercise. Our common phrases, 4 the active 
duties of life,' ' the responsibilities of citizenship,' ' the stage, 
the career of action,' ' the obligations to posterity,' would be 
strange-sounding words in a Prussian ear. There, government 
steps in to take care of the subject, almost as much as the sub- 
ject takes care of his cattle. The subject has no officers to 
choose, no inquiry into the character or eligibleness of candi- 
dates to make, no vote to give. He has no laws to enact or 
abolish. He has no questions about peace or war, finance, 
taxes, tariffs, post-office, or internal improvement, to decide or 
discuss. He is not asked where a road shall be laid, or how a 
bridge shall be built; although, in the one case, he has to per- 
form the labor, and in the other to supply the materials. His 
sovereign is born to him ; the laws are made for him. In war, 
his part is not to declare it, or to aim at the end of it, but to 
fight and be shot in it, and to pay for it. The tax-gatherer tells 
him how much he is to pay ; the ecclesiastical authority plans 
a church, which he must build ; and his spiritual guide, who 
has been set over him by another, prepares a creed and a con- 
fession of faith all ready for his signature. He is directed 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A BISHOP. 207 

alike how he must obey his king and worship his God. Now, 
although there is a sleeping ocean in the bosom of every child 
that is born into the world, yet, if no freshening, life-giving 
breeze ever sweeps across its surface, why should it not repose 
in dark stagnation forever ? " 

At the same time he believes the stagnation in Prussia not to 
be so profound or enduring as it may appear to a superficial 
observer. He proceeds to remark, — 

" A proverb has now obtained currency in Prussia, which 
explains the whole mystery of the relation between their schools 
and their life. • The school is good, the world is bad.' The 
quiescence or torpidity of social life stifles the activity excited 
in the school-room. Whatever pernicious habits and customs 
exist in the community, act as antagonistic forces against the 
moral training of the teacher. The power of the government 
presses upon the partially-developed faculties of the youth as 
with a mountain's weight. Still, in knowledge and in morality, 
in the intellect and in the conscience, there is an expansive 
force which no earthly power can overcome. Though rocks 
and mountains were piled upon it, its imprisoned might will 
rend them asunder, and heave them from their bases, and 
achieve for itself a sure deliverance. No one who witnesses 
that quiet, noiseless development of mind which is now going 
forward in Prussia, through the agency of its educational insti- 
tutions, can hesitate to predict that the time is not far distant 
when the people will assert their right to a participation in their 
own government. The late king made a vow to his subjects 
that he would give them a constitution ; he survived a quarter 
of a century to falsify his word, and at last went down to his 
grave with the promise unredeemed. This was a severer shock 
to his power than if he had lost half the wealth of his realm. 
Thousands of his subjects do not hesitate now to declare that 
fidelity on his part was the only equivalent for loyalty on theirs ; 
and, standing in his mausoleum, amid the costliest splendors 
of architecture and statuary, — the marble walls around cov- 
ered with gilded inscriptions in honor of the royal name, — 



208 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

they interpolate a black line upon his golden epitaph, and say, 
' He promised his people a constitution, but violated his royal 
faith, and died forsworn ! ' " 

Ay, within a few months past, the outraged people have 
done more and better than that ; they have rebelled en masse, 
and won the privileges so long refused. But there are other 
examples which should give timely warning of similar results 
against political and spiritual despotism. Look at England, 
and observe how education there produces little or no other 
effect than that of substituting a polished for a barbarous sla- 
very. All the great universities are in the hands of the Epis- 
copacy, and no student can enter their halls without first 
swearing fealty to her Thirty-nine Articles. Oxford and 
Cambridge are the richest educational establishments in the 
world, furnished with the choicest spoils of literature and sci- 
ence, and offering to the emulative the accumulated thought of 
earth's sages and poets, from Homer down to our own day. 
What is the result ? One would suppose that these two univer- 
sities would produce the most zealous prophets and magnani- 
mous legislators, the wisest leaders of civilization, the bravest 
tribunes of the people, the most beneficent disciples of Christ. 
" But," says William Maccall, " the only fruit of so much 
intellectual wealth, of such varied intellectual stimulus, is 
slavery, — slavery of the most abject kind. Those who emerge 
from those famous halls, from those cloisters professedly sacred 
to religion and philosophy, may be scholars, may be gentlemen, 
but they are not what is higher, men. They are crammed 
with Greek and mathematics, armed with the glittering eti- 
quettes which habit can teach the dullest to use with as much 
dexterity as the shrewdest. But they dare not think, they dare 
not wander from the beaten path ; they are as much chained 
to custom, and to the paltriest absurdities that custom has hal- 
lowed, as the felon is to his galley. Instead of aiding social 
and political progress, they are its fiercest enemies. Instead 
of a comprehensive knowledge of the tendencies and wants, 
and an enlarged and generous sympathy with the fate of 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A BISHOP. 209 

mankind, they display an ignorance of humanity which is 
equalled only by their indifference to its destiny. They confine 
their interest entirely to England, and, even in England, their 
interest is further narrowed to those who hold the same political 
opinions or are connected with the same ecclesiastical institu- 
tions as themselves. I am convinced that the great mass of 
the clergymen of the church of England know absolutely 
nothing of the state of feeling and opinion beyond the narrow 
circle in which they usually move. I say this more in regret 
than in reproach, and as having a special bearing on my sub« 
ject. Now, my friends, the slaves that Oxford and Cambridge 
thus create, have heads and hearts like their neighbors. Apart 
from their bigotry and prejudice, many of them display the 
greatest acuteness, the profoundest erudition, the keenest sense 
of honor, the warmest benevolence. It is an atrocious system 
which renders them what they are, and dwarfs so deplorably 
their moral and intellectual stature. Blame them we cannot 
help occasionally, and in harsh terms, when they stand so ob« 
stinately in the way of all human improvement ; but they are 
still more to be pitied than blamed, as having been, from earli- 
est childhood, crushed by a burden of formulas, which have 
gradually grown to be a portion of themselves, and under which 
they can only move with a tortoise gait and at a tortoise pace." 

The sinister motives which constitute and control the eccle- 
siastical establishments of England are easily understood. By 
national education is simply meant the training up proselytes 
to her church, vassals to her creed ; and, if so be their shib- 
boleth be constantly and correctly repeated, as they hold the 
children's souls in the way of salvation and servitude, all the 
ends are accomplished about which any real interest is felt. 
But we have not so learned Christ. We believe that " the just 
shall live by faith ; " not by the Thirty-nine Articles, not by 
court patronage, not by the favor of mitres, nor by clinging in 
base subserviency at the hem of bishops' robes. 

This leads us to remark, secondly, that the subjugation of the 
church of Christ to the control of episcopal primacy, requires 
18* 



210 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

the training and agency of an obsequious priesthood. Preach- 
ers, in common with all professional men, depend mainly for 
support upon the good will of others ; and, whether those others 
be few or many, a people or a government, a church or a 
patron, deacons or lords, there is always a powerful induce- 
ment to accommodate truth to vitiated tastes. Against this dan- 
ger, nothing but the independency of both churches and cler- 
gymen can provide a sufficient check. If each congregation 
is left voluntarily to support such services as they believe to be 
sincere and edifying, no danger will result ; since, however 
much people in general may love a lie, they are never long 
disposed to pay for having it taught. But, if men ordinarily 
betray a disposition to make the truth they preach coincide 
with the views and wishes of those upon whom their temporal 
comforts depend, then, in the primatical system, this kind of 
danger will most certainly be incurred. Subservience to an 
individual is far more to be deprecated than subservience to a 
congregation. For this reason, pay received at the hands of a 
state, or sacred functions held only at the will of a bishop, will 
be sure to work the most disastrous consequences. Enslaved 
by the frigidity and formality of an artificial and conventional 
existence, the sworn parasite of power will be content to move 
in the petty and monotonous round of a despotic etiquette, 
squandering his modicum of intellect and God's precious leg- 
acy of time on matters all unworthy of a teacher of free and 
immortal truth. So long as he sits at the table of an earthly 
patron, or crouches at his feet, with an eye to future prefer- 
ment, and with all his interests indissolubly linked with " things 
as they are,' 1 right or wrong, he will be expected to gloss over 
fashionable vices, debase the spirituality of the gospel, preach 
the divine right of kings and bishops, the virtue of passive obe- 
dience, the efficacy of sacraments, and the exclusive preten- 
sions of that priesthood of which he claims to be a member, in 
spite of his boasted independence of his flock. 

The tendency of primatical religion is the same wherever it 
is allowed to preponderate, the legitimate character of which 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A BISHOP. 211 

is seen most clearly displayed in the chief kingdom of its 
source. There, according to the highest authority, only such 
gentlemen as are educated at Oxford and Cambridge, in the 
dead languages and exact sciences, with a quantum sufficit of 
spirited irregularities, are divinely commissioned to supersede 
human reason and common sense in religious affairs. These 
extraordinary men attain their heavenly attributes by the rite 
of Episcopal ordination ; by the sublime privilege of having 
laid upon their head the hands of some other member of their 
class, who has been fortunate enough to have been promoted 
by the prime minister of the day to a vacant see ; which inef- 
fable blessing fuses down, by some mysterious agency, all the 
crude materials which pedantic tutors have crammed into their 
brains, and converts them into that species of supernal wisdom 
which is entitled, by its own superiority, to treat all common 
wisdom and saintship as mere surplusage — infinitely contempt- 
ible in the presence of those whom the premier of the British 
lion, and his jackal, the bishop, have dovetailed into " the reg- 
ular apostolic succession." By such means, the souPs freedom 
is subverted, rather than sustained ; and religion appears before 
the world as a miserable monopoly of priests, conferring on 
man a right to dictate to his fellows, instead of inspiring in all 
alacrity to sympathize with and succor each ; treating Chris- 
tianity as if designed expressly to be an instrument by which 
the few may awe the many into abject servitude, and not as the 
lawful property of every human, being, the great boon given to 
make cheerful and happy every immortal mind. It is not 
strange that reflecting persons look on with disgust, when, by a 
round of formal prayers and empty rites, attempts are made 
to propitiate God, and fawning the most abject pervades all 
ranks of an arbitrarily-graduated priesthood, from the humblest 
candidate to the highest functionary. It is painful, in this 
enlightened age, to see those who enjoy the privileges of a (so 
called) liberal education, and whose knowledge, sympathies, and 
aspirations, should raise them far above the meagre and con- 
tracted region of factious strife and bigoted antagonism, yet 



212 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

condescend to yield their manly neck to the yoke, and their 
luminous brow to the brand of a petty and dwarfing thraldom, 
which the accident of birth or station has created. Jesus 
Christ never established such dictatorship amongst his primitive 
disciples, nor do we believe that it is desired, or will long be 
endured, by the progressive piety of modern times. On the 
contrary, we believe that few things are regarded with such 
unqualified abhorrence, by the masses of the people, as the 
iniquitous influence of this system and its oppressive results. 

" A hundred humble pastors starve, 
While one or two, impalaced, mitred, throned, 
And banqueted, burlesque, if not blaspheme, 
The holy penury of the Son of God ; 
The fastings, the foot-wanderings, and the preachings, 
Of Christ and his first followers." 

Under this general division of our subject, we are noticing 
some of the forms of primatical or episcopal religion which 
violate the simplicity of the original institutions of Christ. We 
have mentioned two, and it remains to describe a still worse 
feature, viz., the process by which it rivets the worst bonds 
upon the popular mind. Many of the best writers in Europe 
are not insensible to the importance of this subject. Says an 
able contributor to the Edinburgh Review, of August, 1820, — 

" The ' alliance of church and state,' when rightly inter- 
preted, seems to mean merely the alliance of the majority with 
the majority, in order to keep down the minority — which does 
not appear either to be a very just or a very necessary measure. 
And, accordingly, the doctrine of this famous alliance, which 
was at one time crammed down our throats with so much vigor, 
and which some persons seem sufficiently disposed to revive 
at the present moment, has been so generally discredited of 
late years, that it may fairly be considered as abandoned by 
all the temperate and enlightened advocates of the establish- 
ment. Dr. Paley, for example, has stated unequivocally, that 
to ' make of the church an engine or even an ally of the state, 
serves only to debase the institution ; ' and that ' the single end 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A BISHOP. 213 

we ought to propose, by an ecclesiastical establishment, is the 
preservation and communication of religious knowledge.' And 
to the same purpose Mr. Burke, in terms still more direct and 
decided : ' An alliance,' says he, c between church and state, 
in a Christian commonwealth, is, in my opinion, an idle and a 
fanciful speculation. An alliance is between two things that 
are in their nature distinct and independent, such as between 
two sovereign states ; but, in a Christian commonwealth, the 
church and the state are one and the same thing.' To us, 
indeed, it appears more like a burlesque upon government than 
any thing else, to say that the only way to secure the excel- 
lence of any political institution is to connect it with a corpora- 
tion of priests, dependent upon it by their interests, and conse- 
quently bound, as far as interest is concerned, to support it 
when it invades the rights of the people as well as when it pro- 
tects them." 

Milton, in his " Reason of Church Government urged 
against Prelacy," chap, iii., says, with forcible pertinency to 
this point, — 

" When the church, without temporal support, is able to do 
her great works upon the unforced obedience of man, it argues 
a divinity about her. But when she thinks to credit and better 
her spiritual efficacy, and to win herself respect and dread, by 
strutting in the false vizard of worldly authority, it is evident 
that God is not there, but that her apostolic virtue is departed 
from her, and hath left her key-cold ; which she perceiving, as 
in a decayed nature, seeks to the outward fermentations and 
chafings of worldly help and external nourishes, to fetch, if it 
be possible, some motion into her extreme parts, or to hatch a 
counterfeit life with the crafty and artificial heat of jurisdiction. 
But it is observable, that so long as the church, in true imitation 
of Christ, can be content to ride upon an ass, carrying herself 
and her government along in a mean and simple guise, she 
may be, as he is, a Lion of the tribe of Judah, and, in her 
humility, all men, with loud hosannas, will confess her great- 
ness. But when, despising the mighty operation of the Spirit 



214 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

by the weak things of this world, she thinks to make herself 
bigger and more considerable by using the way of civil force 
and jurisdiction, as she sits upon this Lion, she changes into 
an Ass, and instead of hosannas, every man pelts her with 
stones and dirt." This great and good man knew that what- 
ever is binding upon us as Christians, whatever is essential to a 
Christian church, must be recorded in the New Testament ; if 
it be not there, the assumption of divine right is false. He 
knew that the whole fabric of jure dwino Episcopacy is built 
upon dubious sophisms derived from the (so called) fathers, 
instead of the explicit directions of Christ and the apostles ; 
hence his distrust of those corrupters of the middle ages whom 
in the following manner he has characterized: "Whatever 
time, or the heedless hand of blind chance, hath drawn from 
old to this present, in her huge drag-net, whether fish or sea- 
weed, shell or shrubs, unpicked, unchosen, those are the fa- 
thers." Milton was too much of a republican and sincere Chris- 
tian, to abandon the Scriptures, and swear allegiance to man on 
the authority of these exceedingly fallible fathers, whom he 
calls " a fog of witnesses." 

The architect of prelatical religion succeeds only by destroy- 
ing the temples of freedom and revelation. The physician of 
the soul thus contrives to live by the death of the body. Brit- 
ish Christianity has long been petrified by the Gorgon head of 
frightful worldliness. By the act of supremacy, Henry VIII. 
became as truly pope in England, as Clement VII. had previ- 
ously been. He claimed the right to regulate the church as 
seemed good in his own eyes ; and his parliaments sanctioned 
that claim. The successors of Henry, with the crown, inher- 
ited also the headship of the church of England. At present, 
the " supreme head " is a gay woman, who " convenes, pro- 
rogues, restrains, regulates and dissolves all synods and eccle- 
siastical convocations ; " for, though there is the formality of 
an election of these functionaries by the deans and chapters 
of their respective dioceses, yet this is authorized only 
by what is called a conge (Vel'ire, or permission to elect, 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A BISHOP. 215 

which is accompanied by a nomination of the person to be 
elected. 

Says Dr. Cheever, " Episcopalianism becomes Popery in 
essence, when it takes to its bosom the apostolical succession. 
Its priests assert that every thing is in their hands, that baptism 
is regeneration, that there is no regeneration without it, and 
that there is no baptism except through a prelatical bishop. If 
you enter the prison of such a system, it will make you do as 
it pleases. Its monopoly cannot be broken. You dare not go 
elsewhere, for salvation is only within its walls. Let its rules 
be ever so rigid, you are obliged to abide by them ; it may tax 
you to its heart's content, but if there is no salvation out of its 
ordinances, what are you to do? It may take away all your 
liberties, but if it holds the key of your salvation, you are a 
helpless victim, and cannot stir. Once give to the system of 
Episcopalianism the claims which the apostolical successionists 
are advancing, and you have a perfect spiritual despotism, quite 
as remorseless as Popery itself. 

" Whether these odious pretensions are rightly attributed to 
Episcopalians as a body in this country, we do not undertake 
to decide ; but they are the pretensions of those who love the 
preeminence, and who possess it, to a degree, in their conven- 
tions, and in their metropolitan royalties. And those who do 
not side with these dignitaries, will nevertheless have to bear 
the reproach of such pretensions, unless they plainly disavow 
and resist them, and are willing to make some effort to reform 
their church of them. Whatever persons in the church do 
not, so far as they may be able, oppose these injurious maxims 
and practices, they are themselves partakers in the ungodliness 
of that zeal which was marked of the apostle John in the case 
of Diotrephes, who loveth the preeminence and casteth us out 
of the church." 

The church of Rome fulminates her thunders clear and loud, 
— every heretic accursed ! 

The Episcopacy, which is only Papacy diluted, with subdued 
arrogance imitates the same thunders. There is no church but 



216 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

our church ; no true ministry, nor any regular salvation, out of 
it ! Even in this country, where all sects are indebted to the 
Puritans in general, and to Roger Williams in particular, for 
religious liberty, this small sect swells into a puny resemblance 
to their mother across the sea, and talks of dissenters with ill- 
disguised contempt. Can any thing be more absurd ? The 
church of England, and her offshoot in this country, have no 
better claim to be denominated Protestant than the " dissenting 
bodies," whom they charitably place beyond the pale of Chris- 
tianity. It was not an act of the British church, by any means, 
that first caused the application of the term Protestants to the 
supporters of the reformation. The term arose from the six 
Lutheran princes, at the diet of Spire, in Bavaria, in 1529, who 
solemnly protested against a decree of Ferdinand of Austria, 
and other Popish princes, abridging their religious rights. 
Hence the name of Protestants was first applied to the follow- 
ers of Luther. But it was not confined to them. " It soon 
after included the Calvinists, and has now of a long time been 
applied generally to the Christian sects, of whatever denomi- 
nation, and in whatever country they may be found, which 
have separated from the see of Rome." 

In the gospel, divine worship is a truth of fact, of practice, 
and of sentiment, every where prescribed, but no where re- 
stricted ; it remains free as to its forms, its language, and its 
place. The New Testament does not arrogantly dogmatize, 
but lovingly instruct ; does not enumerate decretals to excite 
strife, nor rouse enmities by coercing conviction ; it every 
where inculcates one firm, uniform, consolatory, and saving 
faith, a sufficient guide and support in life and death, which 
faith is not the arbitrary result of a human creed, but the legit- 
imate fruit of free investigation of the inspired word. Dictat- 
ing to man how he shall worship God, is dictating to God how 
he shall be worshipped — prescribing what kind of prayer and 
praise he shall receive. Unfortunately quite too much of this 
is done. 

The oppression which the people suffer under compulsory 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A BISHOP. 217 

bisohprics is twofold — pecuniary and spiritual. We now are 
speaking of the first of these, and the iniquitous means by 
which it is maintained. To the archbishop of Canterbury a 
yearly revenue is allowed of .£19,182, or $85,168 ; and 
to the archbishop of York, ,£12,629, or $56,072: making 
a sum total of one hundred and forty -one thousand two hun- 
dred and forty dollars annually, for two ornamental digni- 
taries of the only scriptural church ! Beside these, there 
are some five and twenty bishops, the direct successors of the 
apostles, and who receive their authority as well as dignity 
from Him who had not where to lay his head, and to support 
whom, the people must pay annually no less than^re hundred 
and seventy thousand four hundred and fifty-five dollars. The 
amount appropriated yearly to the twenty-eight deans and 
chapters is one million two hundred and sixty-two thousand 
and thirty dollars ; to the support of other ecclesiastical ranks 
in the establishment, sixteen and a half millions of dollars ; 
making the gross annual expenditure, including the branches 
in Ireland and Wales, more than Twenty Millions of Dol- 
lars, which the industrious classes have to pay from their own 
pockets to keep themselves in bonds. The English Episcopal 
church is indeed, as they modestly call themselves, "the Won- 
der of Christendom" but whom Lord Chatham more justly 
characterized as having " a Popish liturgy, a Calvinistic creed, 
and an Arminian clergy." 

The chief means of raising this enormous revenue is by 
cheating the popular mind with the idea that bishops are sacred 
personages invested with all but divine authority. The word 
apostle is prominent in the Bible, and is most sacred in its asso- 
ciations, but the general masses of the people have not learned 
the simple fact, that it only means sent, and is never a term 
signifying office, except when applied to the original twelve, 
and to Paul, who was also called and sent by our Lord per- 
sonally, though after his ascension. "This is evident from the 
manner in which the word is used in 2 Cor. viii. 23 — 'or our 
brethren be inquired of, they are the messengers [apostles] of 
19 



218 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

the churches, and the glory of Christ' ; and in Phil. ii. 25 — 
' Epaphroditus, my brother and companion in labor, and fellow- 
soldier, but your messenger, [apostle.]' The apostles, there- 
fore, neither had, nor could have, any successors in office, 
since each must be appointed by our Lord personally ; their 
apostleship ceased with their lives, and contained in it no war- 
rant for appointing nor for ordaining successors, nor made any 
provision for transmitting or perpetuating the apostolic office. 
They were not officers in, or of, any church ; they do not in 
their official epistles style themselves the apostles or bishops of 
any church, or churches, or diocese, nor ' Right Reverend 
Father in God,' but simply ' apostle of Jesus Christ,' and ' ser- 
vant of Jesus Christ.' They never appoint any one to office, 
nor interfere with the internal affairs of any church, but simply 
assert their right to declare the infallible will of Christ, as his 
inspired messengers, requiring obedience of faith from all in 
every age, whether bishops, deacons, or private Christians." 
The justness of the above statement, quoted from Mr. Crowell, 
is sustained by what the most intelligent member of the Epis- 
copal hierarchy, Bishop Whately, has affirmed in the following 
words : " Successors in the apostolic office the apostles have 
none. As witnesses of the resurrection, as dispensers of 
miraculous gifts, as inspired oracles of divine revelation, they 
have no successors. But as members, as ministers, as govern- 
ors, of Christian communities, their successors are the regu- 
larly admitted members, the lawfully ordained ministers, the 
regular and recognized governors of a regularly subsisting 
Christian church." This is putting the matter on the true 
ground of scriptural equality among the disciples of Christ — a 
position very unlike that which in church and state establish- 
ments is almost universally assumed. If it were necessary to 
say any thing more respecting the true character and appro- 
priate functions of bishops, we have only to add what Mosheim 
says, vol. i. p. 85 : " Whoever supposes that the bishops of 
the first and golden age of the church corresponded with the 
bishops of the following centuries, must blend and confound 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A BISHOP. 219 

characters that are very different. For in this century and the 
next, a bishop had charge of a single church, which might 
ordinarily be contained in a private house ; nor was he its lord, 
but was in reality its minister or servant. ; he instructed the 
people, conducted all parts of public worship, and attended on 
the sick and the necessitous in person ; and what he was una- 
ble thus to perform, he committed to the care of the presbyters, 
(elders,) but without the power to ordain or determine any 
thing, except with the concurrence of the presbyters and the 
brotherhood." 

Another means by which Episcopal hierarchs win and main- 
tain authority over the masses is by imposing upon them big- 
oted and dwarfing creeds. The Bible is the freest and most 
ennobling book ever written, heaven wide from those pinching 
compendiums which ecclesiastical craft has invented to abridge 
the natural prerogatives of the soul, and mould it into subser- 
viency to their selfish schemes. It is most deplorable to observe 
how long and how sadly our holy Christianity has been do- 
formed, degraded, and disgraced, by being subordinated to that 
remorseless lust of power, and insatiate thirst for gain, which 
labors toward the inthralment of mankind, rather than to 
enlighten and set them free. Who strives to dim the glare of 
outward distinction, and disabuse the world of those prejudices 
which caste and rank have created ? Shall we never estimate 
man above his wardrobe or his title, nor understand that to be 
a Christian is to be a philanthropist ; that, in fact, the very 
essence of Christianity shows itself in a consecration to the 
welfare of all mankind ? 

The degrading influence we deprecate spreads itself through 
all gradations of society where it is found, from the highest to 
the lowest. In the House of Lords, Lord King one day in- 
quired of Bishop Horsley what was the meaning of " ortho- 
doxy " and "heterodoxy." "My lord," replied the bishop, 
" orthodoxy is my doxy, and heterodoxy is another man's 
doxy." This is the language of a theological slave ; but to 
the man who in a Christian spirit really respects human nature, 



220 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

every other opinion is as orthodox as his own, however much 
they may differ. Like the engineer, who imagined all rivers 
to have been created exclusively for the purpose of feeding 
canals, so these bishops act on the principle that the ultimate 
object of revealed truth is, to facilitate the success of their 
particular system — to invest them with artificial sanctions, 
without which they would find it difficult to play their part, and 
to dispose dupes to unlimited submission, which they account 
the highest style of personal and social virtue. Hence all the 
force of religious artifice is employed to bolster up their indo- 
lent dignity, and compel the people, out of their hard earnings, 
to pay the expense without complaint. This scheme is not 
original, though it is certainly very oppressive. The chief 
priests and Pharisees of a former church were not less positive, 
certainly not more puerile in their assertions of self-importance, 
than these ; and the world knows both their wrong estimate 
of themselves and their despotic rule over others. True, there 
was not the slightest flaw in the chain of their succession, and 
yet we do not find them commended for having taken away 
from the people " the key of knowledge." The nations, there- 
fore, are beginning to think that the human understanding and 
heart were given for some higher purpose than to be made 
blind tools in the hands of such a regularly ordained and apos- 
tolical clergy. This kind of popular apprehension is quick- 
ened, among other means, by frequently seeing inserted in the 
public prints that a living is or will be vacant ; inviting special 
notice to the fact that the said living is in a fine sporting coun- 
try — that the present incumbent is quite old, and rather given 
to be apoplectic. But the most notorious and exasperating 
fact is, that where the seats of the squirearchy most thickly 
stud the land, where established churches are most numerous, 
and clerical magistrates most abound, there, usually, ignorance 
and demoralization are most marked ; and there the zeal of 
pious and patriotic dissenters is most opposed. The same 
influence which produces the evil, prevents the good ; and the 
consequences of aristocratic vices, fortified by Episcopal intol- 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A BISHOP. 221 

erance, are permitted to darken the fairest auspices of human 
progress. It is not in God or man much longer to allow this 
tyranny to subsist. 

We have shown that bishops are not essential to constitute 
a church, and were never designed to exercise lordship over 
equals in Christ : it remains to state that, — 

Thirdly, they are no longer needed to oppress the sacred 
brotherhood. Our preceding remarks relate chiefly to the tyr- 
anny of Episcopacy, as it is felt by the people in common ; 
but we now refer to the injustice inflicted by this system on 
Christians of every name in particular. There are a good 
many persons who are disposed to call their souls their own, 
and to judge, in relation to their spiritual welfare, for themselves. 
The fundamental principle with them is, that the religion of 
Christ ought to be left to make its way among mankind in the 
greatest possible simplicity, by its own truth and excellence, 
through the labors of pious, voluntary, and free advocates, pre- 
sided over by its great Author alone. They think that true 
religion cannot, without fatal injury to the primitive purity of a 
" kingdom not of this world," be subordinated to the political 
arrangements of monarchs and statesmen, and blended insep- 
arably with secular interests and clerical intrigues, the most 
ambitious and degrading passions. When religious authority 
is vested in an individual, it assumes the papal, primatical, or 
episcopal form, identical in character, and in influence every 
where the same. Whether it be wedded to sceptres and cor- 
onets, an engine acted on by state corruptions to crush strug- 
gling subjects, or develop its arrogance through domineering- 
bishops and secret conclaves in a country where the sanctions 
of legalized oppression have been wrested from its greedy 
grasp, the fervor of high church aspirations after absolute dic- 
tation in theological affairs, should tend constantly to intensify 
the detestation of freemen towards hierarchies of all forms 
and ecclesiastical combinations of every name. No religious 
organizations in this country, or any other, stand strictly on 
apostolic ground, except those whose principles, ordinances, and 
19* 



222 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

polity are the same as those of the primitive churches. These 
only are in harmony at once with the principles of Christianity : 
and the genius of all institutions which adorn, as well as fortify, 
a republic, are most favorable to the cultivation of personal 
virtues, and possess the only real claim on the regard of repub- 
licans. " Where one particular priesthood has rank in the 
state, others are not free ; and where they all have, the people 
are not free. So far as the ceremonies of one particular faith 
are connected with filling any particular occupation, entering 
into the relations, or enjoying any of the advantages, of civil 
life, there is not religious liberty. It is a fallacious distinction 
which has sometimes been drawn, that a state may patronize, 
though it should not punish. A government cannot patronize 
one particular religion without punishing others. A state has no 
wealth but the people's wealth; if it pay some, it impoverishes 
others. A state is no fountain of honor. If it declare one class 
free, it thereby declares others slaves. If it declares some noble, 
it thereby declares others ignoble. Whenever bestowed with 
partiality, its generosity is injustice, and its favor is oppression." 
It has ever been the ambition of false religions to employ 
solemn and hypocritical attempts to drain the multitude for 
the benefit of priestly aristocracies and the defence of regal 
wrongs. The most flagrant instance of this feudal barbarity 
now extant flourishes around the head -quarters of Episcopacy 
in England. There, as Robert Hall has said, " in theory, the 
several orders of the state are a check on each other ; but 
corruption has oiled the wheels of that machinery, harmonized 
its motions, and enabled it to bear, with united pressure, on the 
happiness of the people." But such a state of things cannot 
be long endured. For, as the same distinguished advocate 
of English freedom remarks, "to invest idleness and dissi- 
pation with the privileges of laborious piety is an impracticable 
attempt. For by a constitution more ancient than that of any 
priesthood, superior degrees of sanctity and of exertion will 
gain superior esteem as their natural reward. We must not 
wonder to find the public forget the reverence ue to the sacred 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A BISHOP. 223 

profession, when its members forget the spirit and neglect the 
duties on which that reverence was founded. The natural 
equity of mankind will not suffer the monopoly of contradic- 
tory goods. If the people are expected to reverence an order, 
it must be from the consciousness of benefits received. If the 
clergy claim authority, it must be accompanied with a solici- 
tude *br the spiritual interest of their flocks, and labor sus- 
tained. To enjoy at once both honor and ease never fell to 
the share of any profession. If the clergy neglect their charge, 
if they conform to the spirit of the world, and engage with 
eagerness in the pursuits of ambition or of pleasure, it will be 
impossible for any human policy to preserve them from sink- 
ing in the public esteem." 

It is pitiable indeed to see a bench of bishops conspiring 
with tyrannical lords of the secular orders against the popular 
desire for liberty already too strong to be overcome, and which 
is constantly on the increase. How vain and futile the effort, 
in this nineteenth century, to interpose bayonets before the 
progress of free principles, — the prerogatives of supercilious 
rank and sanctimonious presumption, as barriers in that path 
which conducts to the wider area and loftier privileges in 
reserve for mankind ! " The pope eats the grain, we the 
straw," said Luther. But millions of Christians are, even in 
this enlightened age, worse conditioned. They are obliged to 
assist in supporting a pompous show of religion, which they 
abhor, and yet, out of the scanty resources that remain, pro- 
vide preaching more genial to honest piety and the word of 
God. Milton told splendid u hirelings," long ago, that " forced 
consecrations out of another man's estate are no better than 
forced vows, hateful to God, who ' loves a cheerful giver ; ' but 
much more hateful wrung out of men's purses to maintain a 
disapproved ministry against their consciences." 

It is manifest, that God never purposed to bind redemption 
to forms, fixed and inviolable ; it is a divine kingdom that 
u cometh not with observation," but is established " within us," 
that it may pass freely from heart to heart, through all ranks and 



224 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

degrees of mankind. By this independence of forms, Chris- 
tianity admits the poorest and most humble to rites that soothe 
and doctrines that save without money and without price. The 
religion of Israel, which was ceremonial and transient, could 
not exist without the temple, with its treasures, its vessels of 
brass, of silver and gold ; hence, when the sacred vessels em- 
ployed in the service were carried away to Babylon, the whole 
was removed. But pure religion borrows nothing from worldly 
wealth and power ; the cross of wood is her only instrument 
given to conquer the world. Devout worshippers of gowns 
and bands, and the whole round of ecclesiastical mummery, 
are only attempting to revive what eighteen hundred years ago 
became obsolete. Great and glorious improvements are taking 
place in every other department of life ; and yet what do we 
see in the most important of all ? Nations are calling for the 
word of life, with their myriads of immortal souls in danger 
of eternal death, which urgent demands must be set aside till 
bigots shall terminate their transcendental controversies on 
tapers, bowings, and surplices, — till they shall have decided 
whether the salvation of the world depends upon their having 
a stone altar instead of a wooden one, and when they stand up 
to read a prayer, whether they shall face the east or west. 
The directions of the rubric are in debate, and the bishop of 
Exeter, for one among the spiritual lords, insists upon their 
observance in every church throughout his diocese, whatever 
may be the opposition of the laity assembled in town and parish 
meetings. All agitation in favor of greater freedom of thought 
and speech is suppressed with a zeal exceeded only by the 
gross and brutal outrages which are frequently committed on 
the most sacred feelings of humanity. For instance, a short 
time since, in London, the body of a child was brought by its 
parents to the churchyard, that its remains might rest by the 
side of its brother or sister ; but the weeping parents were 
rudely repulsed from the gate, because the little infant had not 
been sprinkled in " the regular apostolic succession." A dis- 
senting preacher is not allowed to bury in consecrated ground. 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A BISHOP. 225 

A line of demarcation is set up among the dead, as every- 
where among the living. His father may have been buried 
there if he was a member of the church, but he is not per- 
mitted to lie by his parent's side ; at least, with his own chosen 
minister to consign him to the grave and pray over his body. 
It is this same bigoted feeling that has excluded the republican 
Cromwell's statue from the new palace of legislation, and still 
more recently has denied the statue of John Wesley a place in 
Westminster Abbey. It is the more remarkable that the latter 
should be denied Christian honors, since he lived and died in 
the establishment. 

As the great mother gives the word beyond the sea, her 
loyal children, with apish pretensions to infallibility, repeat the 
arrogance among ourselves. But the end draws nigh. Pri- 
matical religion is death-struck throughout the world, and no 
ostentatious forms can vivify it with spiritual life, nor can fine 
dresses long hide its putrescence. The decree of the Omnipo- 
tent has gone forth, that the will of one or a few shall no 
longer break down the will, the heart, and conscience of the 
many. The religion that will not educate and bless the multi- 
tudes of earth is doomed speedily to be extirpated by them. 
Episcopacy has always and every where been as tyrannical as 
the -spirit of the age would permit ; therefore is it to be depre- 
cated as anti-Christian and anti-republican. It tends to subvert 
all true religious liberty, and all political freedom. It began 
by removing the checks and guards of a popular government 
against the exercise of arbitrary power. It invested the 
bishops with prerogatives, which can never be safely intrusted 
to any man or body of men. The subsequent history of this 
church abundantly confirms the position that popular rights 
can never be confided to the hands of the clergy without 
detriment. Says Arnold, one of the most magnanimous and 
enlightened of the English Episcopacy, " To revive Christ's 
church is to expel the Antichrist of the priesthood, which, as it 
was foretold of him, as God, sltteth in the temple of God, 
showing himself that he is God, and to restore its disfranchised 



226 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

members, the laity, to the discharge of their proper duties in 
it, and to the consciousness of their paramount importance." 

Home Tooke, quoting from Christ's words to Nicodemus, 
said, " Truth is that which a man troweth." That which 
another man thinks is as true to him as what I think is true to 
me. This right and duty, resting on every rational creature to 
examine and decide for himself, was the first lesson inculcated 
by Christ, and the last privilege which selfish bishops are dis- 
posed to grant. The patrons of ceremonialism have too much 
mercenary interest in their hollow rites willingly to give them 
up, though they are known to constitute almost invincible 
obstacles to the inward spiritual life. The absurdities of the 
gloomiest superstition are attempted to be modified in our day, 
not for the better, but the worse. It is not enough that the 
world for centuries should have derived its principal illumina- 
tion from wax lights, fixed on iron spikes, before pictures ; 
while its most substantial nutriment for the soul was derived 
from the sacrifice of the mass ; not as the Neo-Catholics refine 
and explain it, but such as it is defined by the council of 
Trent — to sacrifice the Lord by manducation — to eat and 
drink the Lord God himself; or, according to the terms of the 
council, in " his flesh, blood, soul, and divinity." The happy 
period has arrived when high Episcopacy, insolent and insipid, 
reviving the faith of the middle ages in a modern dress, would 
impose on us the carcass of defunct Catholicity without a par- 
ticle of its soul, wax tapers lighted up, not as an act of worship 
to the virgin, but to gleam on moral as well as political false- 
hoods designed to confuse the vision and enchain the under- 
standings of mankind. 

Spiritual truth is moral force, and thought, as moral force, 
is spiritual truth in action, and adoration ; though that action 
is most often revolution, still we had better have anarchy 
than stupidity — the heavings of the ocean rather than its 
stagnation. A great human or divine reality, in whatever 
garb it appears, is always better than a great pretence de- 
ceiving all, itself the most deceived. What the world most 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A BISHOP. 227 

needs is truth that is simple and energetic, infinitely nobler 
than truth ceremonial and sectarian. Christianity is that truth, 
the sublime ideal that Christ conceived and nurtured in the 
profundity of his breast, to be breathed abroad freely on the 
aching brows and sorrowing hearts of all mankind. 

Coleman, in his " Primitive Church," sums up this matter as 
follows : — 

" Thus, as we have seen, ecclesiastical history introduces 
first to our notice single independent churches ; then, churches 
having several dependent branches ; then, diocesan churches ; 
then, metropolitan or provincial churches; and then, national 
churches attempered to the civil power. In the end, we behold 
two great divisions of ecclesiastical empire, the Eastern and 
the Western, now darkly intriguing, now fearfully struggling 
with each other for the mastery, until at last the doctrine of the 
unity of the church is consummated in the sovereignty of the 
pope of Rome, who alone sits enthroned in power, claiming to 
be the head of the church on earth. The government of the 
church was at first a democracy, allowing to all its constituents 
the most enlarged freedom of a voluntary religious association. 
It became an absolute and iron despotism. The gradations of 
ecclesiastical organization through which it passed were, from 
congregational to parochial — parochial to diocesan — diocesan 
to metropolitan — metropolitan to patriarchal — patriarchal to 
papal. 

" The corruptions and abominations of the church, through 
that long night of darkness which succeeded the triumph of 
the pope of Rome, were inexpressibly horrible. The record 
of them may more fitly lie shrouded in a dead language, than 
be disclosed to the light in the living speech of men. The 
successors of St. Peter, as they call themselves, were frequent- 
ly nominated to the chair of ' his holiness ' by women of in- 
famous and abondoned lives. Not a few of them were shame- 
fully immoral ; and some, monsters of wickedness. Several 
were heretics, and others were deposed as usurpers. And 
yet this church of Rome, ' with such ministers, and so ap- 



228 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

pointed, — a church corrupt in every part and every particular, 
individually and collectively, in doctrine, in discipline, in prac- 
tice,' — this church, prelacy recognizes as the only representa- 
tive of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the period now under consid- 
eration, invested with all his authority, and exercising divine 
powers on earth ! She boasts her ordinances, her sacraments, 
transmitted, for a thousand years, unimpaired and uncontami- 
nated, through such hands ! High church Episcopacy proudly 
draws her own apostolical succession through this pit of pollu- 
tion, and then the followers of Christ, who care not to receive 
such grace from such hands, she calmly delivers over to God's 
1 uncovenanted mercies'! Nay, more, multitudes of that 
communion are now engaged in the strange work of ' unprot- 
estantizing the churches ' which have washed themselves from 
these defilements. The strife is with a proud array of talents, 
of learning, and of episcopal power, to bury all spiritual reli- 
gion again in the grave of forms, to shroud the light of truth 
in the gloom of Popish tradition, and to sink the church of God 
once more into that abyss of deep and dreadful darkness from 
which she emerged at the dawn of the reformation. In the 
beautiful and expressive language of Milton, their strife is to 
4 reinvolve us in that pitchy cloud of infernal darkness where 
we shall never more see the sun of truth again, never hope for 
the cheerful dawn, never more hear the bird of morning sing.' " 
— pp. 312,313. 

Yes, humanity shall behold a fairer morn, a clearer sun, and 
listen to more enrapturing melody, than has yet been enjoyed. 
The minions of power and the slaves of religion may move and 
combine, according to their fantasy, the grains of their glitter 
ing but worthless sand on the bank where truth and progress 
roll their billows along ; but the hour of flood tide comes, and 
nothing can retard or avert its overwhelming power. Nothing 
can arrest popular thought now in full revolt against spiritual as 
well as political despotism, and marching to certain victory over 
every form of wrong. To demand liberty as a Christian is to 
demand liberty as a man. Luther, whether he designed it or 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A BISHOP. 229 

not, led the way direct to Munser. This point did not escape 
Bossuet. Said he, " Luther, in affirming that the Christian was 
not subject to any man, nourished the spirit of independence in 
the people, and gave to their leaders dangerous views." Luther, 
however, was a very imperfect reformer, since he admitted in 
religion, but rejected in civil policy, the right to resist tyranny. 
He fought against the pope for a point of doctrine, but left in 
the hands of kings and sub-pontiffs the power to strangle all 
belief. What would ecclesiastical domination have accom- 
plished long before this, had it not been for the principles of 
brotherhood and spiritual freedom contended and bled for, not 
by Catholics, Lutherans, nor the self-styled Protestants, but by 
Waldenses, Hussites, Anabaptists, Moravians, and other great 
defenders of the rights of conscience in recent times ? But a 
more glorious advancement is before us, and it must speedily 
come ; " another and greater reformation, the more complete 
for its delay. Not even the church can render itself perma- 
nently invulnerable to public opinion. The strength which it 
resists grows yet more formidable by that resistance. At last 
the voice of truth must be heard, and the light of knowledge 
must be admitted. At noonday, in the height of summer, it is 
silent, cold, and dark, in the cloisters of a cathedral. But the 
thunder resounds along its vaulted roofs, teaching them strange 
echoes; and, in the glare of the lightning that flashes through 
its aisles, the very stones seem to move, and the monumental 
dead to be stirred, like a slumbering world aroused to the ne- 
cessity of change, revival, and reformation. The stroke of 
heaven's lightning spares neither tower, nor spire, nor gilded 
ball, nor the very cross itself. It unroofs the church, and lets 
in the free air and sight of the blue sky. Institutions no more 
than buildings are made for eternity. They only prolong 
themselves by improvement and renovation ; nature alone is 
everlasting. Truth, justice, right, imbodied in opinion, are 
nature's thunder and lightning ; and, when they shatter institu- 
tions, as elemental powers the material building, it is that from 
the ruins humanity may raise a purer and nobler shrine, wor- 
20 



230 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

thier of that great Spirit whose temple is the universe, whose 
altar the human heart, his best worship the activity of benefi- 
cence,, and the only uniformity he requires *the oneness of 
brotherhood in all mankind." 

If we are to have freedom of conscience in full extent, and 
a religion emanating from Christ and harmonious with the 
republican institutions projected eighteen centuries ago, and, by 
a merciful Providence, now begun to be realized in the world, 
then must the hierarchical element be discarded by all, that the 
enfranchised nations may joyfully verify to themselves that, 
under God, the best security of freedom, civil and religious, is 
a church without a bishop, not less than a state without a king. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE CHURCH WITHOUT A PRIEST. 

Priestcraft is the product of eveiy age, the defender of 
every bigoted creed, the chief foe to Christianity, and greatest 
curse to mankind. These are the general points which, in this 
discussion, it will be our purpose to elucidate. 

In the first place, priestcraft is the product of every age. 
The makers and patrons of consecrated silver shrines have 
ever deprecated the innovation of free principles, such as Paul 
diffused, summoning local prejudice and partisan bigotry to the 
defence of their established prerogatives, with the mercenary- 
plea that by this craft they have their wealth. This is peculiar 
to no clime, limited to no sect, but is indigenous to our fallen 
nature in every place and association. As before Menes the 
Egyptians precipitated a young virgin into the Nile, in sacrifice 
to a superstitious creed, so, under the emperors and kings of 
later times, and in league with civil power of every degree, 
priestly domination, under all varieties of artificial forms, 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A PRIEST. 231 

pagan ceremonies, and unscriptural rites, has been sanguinary 
without exception, and inimical to all the best interests of man- 
kind. The sacerdotal corporations who thus tyrannize over the 
masses betray their intrinsic infamy by the fact that, while they 
willingly lend a mercenary support to political oppression, they 
do not seem to regard as a divine thing the worship they 
impose, and by which they most of all desire to aggrandize 
themselves. Hence the greatest evils have been inflicted upon 
humanity in the name of religion. The auto dafe has taken 
the place of human sacrifices, and a new monopoly, embracing 
almost every source of knowledge and enjoyment, has, for 
many centuries, plunged the nations in ignorance and despair. 
Because priestly oppression is oftener made the rule than the 
exception, the attempt to break this accursed yoke demands 
the greatest efforts, and involves the most formidable perils ; 
but the auspicious hour has at length arrived when, in the pop- 
ular estimation, no treasure of gold or blood can exceed the 
value of that boon Heaven designed for all — freedom to wor- 
ship God. 

Any system that places human intermediaries between the 
individual believer and his Creator, is in direct conflict with 
man's rights and the law of Christ. Such obstructions, rather 
than aids, to the welfare of our race do exist, and it is easy to 
trace their origin and detect their motives. Says Ranke, 
" Among the heathens, sacerdotal offices were conferred in like 
manner with those of civil life. The Jews set apart a particu- 
lar tribe for the duties of the priesthood ; but Christianity was 
distinguished from both these by the fact that a certain class 
of men, freely choosing the sacred profession, consecrated by 
the imposition of hands, and withdrawn from worldly cares and 
pursuits, is solemnly devoted " to things spiritual and divine." 
The church was at first governed in accordance with republi- 
can forms ; but these disappeared as the new belief rose in 
preeminence, and the clergy gradually assumed a position 
entirely distinct from that of the laity." After truth, ema- 
nating from the manger and the rural simplicity of Judea, Strug- 



232 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

gled through centuries to make the nations free, and, in the 
strife with craft and power, became but the more inthralled, 
the ancient depth of degradation was again nearly attained, 
when the pope resolved to demolish the basilica of St. Peter, 
the metropolitan church of Christendom, every portion of which 
was crowded with hallowed monuments which had received 
the veneration of ages, and erected a temple, planned after 
those of pagan antiquity, on its site. 

To represent the priest as the sole and immediate vicegerent 
of Heaven, clothed with authority the most divine, and conse- 
crated with a sanctity the most pure, no imposition is reckoned 
too gross, and no fable too absurd. The undeviating aim is to 
gain power over the credulous, ignorant, and superstitious, of 
all times, as we may infer from the ridiculous claims of apos- 
tolical succession and other ecclesiastical fooleries propounded 
in our own day. If men calling themselves Christians, and 
Christian ministers, attempt, as every body knows is done, to 
concoct a new infallibility, and dig up from the consecrated 
churchyard of defunct absurdities a revolting system, which 
they strive to fasten on the free minds of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, what must have been the amount of deception and spirit- 
ual tyranny when priests had an unquestioned recognition as 
the messengers of God, were the sole depositaries of science, 
the uncontrolled conservators and communicators of knowledge 
to the world ? We live at a period when " the solemn and 
plaintive tones of the ancient church, once heard amid the 
pangs of martyrdom, or resounding as soft echoes, wakening 
the solitudes of the deserts of Syria, Arabia, and Upper Egypt, 
— the veiy same tones, and the same testimony, at once for 
great truths and for great errors too, for eternal verities, and 
for futile superstitions, are now, and after so long a silence, 
breaking from the cloisters of Oxford," and other haunts of 
corrupted truth, to subvert, if possible, pure and simple Chris- 
tianity every where. 

This passion for spiritual power is as common and intense in 
modern sects as it was in the hierarchies of an earlier type. 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A PRIEST. 233 

Its means differ, but the end in view is always the same — to 
establish a sovereign control over the faith of mankind, by 
assailing the timid with threats, and the credulous with arrogant 
assertions. Free and independent minds it would seduce with 
fawning, or coerce with invective ; indifferent as to the process 
used, so that the fabric of superstition may be reared with all 
its crushing weight on the brain and soul of mankind. 

Since the reformation, so called, there has been as much 
spiritual despotism and spiritual slavery, as abject submission 
to priestly rule, as ever there was before. This has followed 
because that reformation, while it pruned off some of the 
branches of the deadly Upas, yet left its main root of vigor 
and source of all its poison unscathed. Luther himself was 
too much of a priest to the last, and therefore a great deal of 
imperfection depreciated the work he performed. Natural 
religion is not adequate to meet and satisfy our higher wants, 
though it imparts many noble influences through those voices 
which from the stars of heaven and the flowers of earth speak 
to the soul, ever tending to raise it above a low and sordid 
system of action, towards virtue and sacred love, as the blossom 
of our nature, and its highest development. Christianity is 
therefore sent by our heavenly Father freely to bestow every 
assistance we can need ; truth, mercy and love not to be inter- 
fered with by those who pollute what they touch, and render 
the purest agency subservient to their own sordid purposes by 
the perverted modes of its application they are most ambitious 
to employ. We do not always find clerical functionaries 
advocating the dearest interests of humanity, ample freedom, 
civil and religious ; freedom of speech, thought, and action, 
against arrogance and despotism of every kind. On the con- 
trary, beyond the sea and in our own country, we too often 
find dissenting intolerance coalescing with episcopal bigotry, 
while Christianity, like its divine Founder, between the two 
thieves is crucified. 

Such religionists, the disgrace of their profession, are aptly 
described by Robert Hall, in his " Antinomianism Unmasked." 
20* 



£34 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

In their own estimation they are " a privileged class, who dwell 
in a secluded region of unshaken security and lawless liberty, 
while the rest of the Christian world are the vassals of legal 
bondage, toiling in darkness and in chains. Hence, whatever 
diversity of character they may display in other respects, a 
haughty and bitter disdain of every other class of professors 
is a universal feature. Contempt or hatred of the most devout 
and enlightened Christians out of their own pale, seems one of 
the most essential elements of their being ; nor were the an- 
cient Pharisees ever more notorious for ' trusting in themselves 
that they were righteous, and despising others.' " 

Professor Park, of the Theological Seminary at Andover, has 
described the dictatorial spirit of arid dogmatists, and the impo- 
tency of their rage in the present age, by the following appro- 
priate instance and illustration : " The Alexandrian fathers, 
Clement, Origen, and Athanasius placed a punctuation mark 
after the word ev in the third verse of the first chapter of John's 
Gospel. Chrysostom was alarmed at this punctuation, and 
denounced it as a heresy. Epiphanius declared it blasphemous, 
and the sin against the Holy Ghost ; and this commotion on 
account of a single dot contributed to delay for years the per- 
ilous work of punctuating the sacred page. The like hostility 
to free thought bound the energies of the schoolmen down to 
the most profitless inquiries. Not daring to rise up and labor 
in the sunshine, they burrowed in darkness, and wasted on 
puerile conceits the power that was meant for discovery and 
progress. This substitution of polemic rancor for fraternal 
interest has driven the mind of others to an extreme of error, 
which they did not themselves anticipate. As the child, so the 
man, and as every man, so the theologian, is apt to do right if 
you convince him that he is expected to do so, and is apt to do 
wrong if you assure his neighbors that he is past recovery. 
He is won to truth and repulsed into error. Arminius, if he 
had been kindly reasoned with, instead of being rudely de- 
nounced, had never pressed his corruptions so far ; and the 
history of many pitiable writers is this — first, they inquired 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A PRIEST. 235 

with honest intent ; secondly, they were called heretics ; lastly, 
they became heretics. This domineering spirit of ecclesiastics 
has incited other minds to revolution against authority. There 
are some spirits who will think for themselves. You might as 
well chain the Hellespont as them. You may stand at the 
portal with a pointed bayonet, they will come out and do what 
they list. When the bull of the pope has fallen on such a 
mind, and the edict of the bishop has oppressed it, and the 
Presbyterian book of discipline has held it down too closely, 
this mind has stirred under its load, and has struggled against 
the walls that confined it, pressing against them like lava 
against the sides of iEtna, and at last has heaved, and poured 
itself out of the rent crater, and scattered books of discipline 
to the four winds, and taught the aspirants for mental sway 
that what God has made elastic, and expansive, and inflamma- 
ble, is not to be compressed and stifled.' 1 

That priestcraft is endeavoring to gain a foothold in this free 
land is evident from notorious facts. For instance, on July 2, 
1843, a young man was ordained by Bishop Onderdonk of New 
York, who openly avowed his agreement essentially with the 
church of Rome. 1. " He did not see any thing to prevent 
or forbid " his having recourse to the ministry of Rome, if 
denied admission to the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal 
church in this country. 2. " He did not deem the differences 
between them [the Protestant Episcopal Church] and the church 
of Rome to be such as embraced any points of faith." 3. " Pie 
was not prepared to pronounce the doctrine of transubstantiation 
an absurd or impossible doctrine." 4. " He does not object to 
the Romish doctrine of purgatory, as defined by the council of 
Trent." * * 5. " Pie was not prepared to say whether she 
[the Romish church] or the Anglican church were the more 
pure." 6. " He regarded the denial of the cup to the laity 
[in the administration of the sacrament of the Lord's supper] 
as a mere matter of discipline." * * 7. " He believes that 
the reformation from the church of Rome was an unjustifia- 
ble act, and followed by many grievous and lamentable results." 



236 



REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 



8. " He was not disposed to fault the church of Rome for 
using Apocryphal books ; nor was he prepared to say that 
the Holy Spirit did not speak by these books Apocryphal." 

9. " He considered the promise of conformity to the doctrine, 
discipline, and worship of the Protestant Episcopal Church as not 
embracing the Thirty-nine Articles in any close and rigid con- 
struction of them, but regarded them only as affording a sort of 
general basis of concord — as those which none subscribed 
except with certain mental reservations and private exceptions ; 
and that this was what he regarded as Bishop White's view." 
He further declared his conviction of the lawfulness of the 
invocation of saints ; thought the souls in purgatory might be 
benefited by our prayers ; received the creed of Pope Pius 
IV., so far as it was a repetition of the decrees of the council 
of Trent, which decrees he could receive, the damnatory 
clauses only excepted, &c, &c. See " A Statement of Facts 
in Relation to the recent Ordination in St. Stephen's Church, 
New York, by Drs. Smith and Anthon, 1843." 

Of the overbearing nature of hierarchies, under the forms 
of papacy and English prelacy, we have said enough in the 
preceding chapters. The above statement is abundantly suffi- 
cient to show that, if it were possible, we should soon have the 
same oppressive absurdities established here. There is another 
class of Christians to whom we shall refer in this connection, 
and with profound respect. The Methodist Episcopal Church 
is exceedingly active, and doing a great amount of good ; but 
we think they would do much more, if they were governed by 
a more primitive ecclesiastical polity. Punchard, in his work 
on "Congregationalism," speaks of this as follows: — 

" 1. 'The government of this church is strictly Episcopal.' 
So says one of its leading members. Another says, ■ It is a 
moderate Episcopacy.' 

" Like the Protestant Episcopal Church, it asserts that there 
should be three orders in the ministry — bishops, elders, and 
deacons ; and its book of discipline, contains the substance of 
the form and manner of making and ordaining these officers, 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A PRIEST. 237 

which is found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episco- 
pal church. Their bishops, however, claim not the exclusive 
right to ordain, and may themselves be ordained by presbyters. 
See 'Discipline Methodist Episcopal Church,' chap. i. § 4 ; 
chap. iv. § 1, 2, 3. They are regarded as superior to elders in 
office rather than grade. Zioii's Herald, on Methodist polity, 
Oct. 6, 1841. Still they appear to sympathize with Episcopacy. 
Soon after the establishment of an ' episcopate ' in the Prot- 
estant Episcopal church of the United States, Dr. Coke, the pre- 
siding Methodist bishop, expressed his entire accordance with 
the Protestant Episcopal church, in their order and discipline, 
and his earnest desire for a union between the two denomina- 
tions. And though there is now, perhaps, less sympathy be- 
tween these hierarchies than ever before, yet, as late as 1840, 
this proposal was renewed by a leading Methodist. 

" So far, then, as this church approves of the constitution 
and discipline of the Protestant Episcopal church, so far must 
we disapprove of Episcopal Methodism. 

" 2. The national character of this church is another ob- 
jection to it. All the congregations throughout the United 
States are regarded as but parts of one great national estab- 
lishment. In no church system in these United States, Popery 
alone excepted, is there such a centralizing of power as in this. 
"Viewed in its national character, it is an oligarchy. Six bish- 
ops are at its head, as its supervisors, and, to a very great 
extent, its uncontrolled governors. And these, unlike the bish- 
ops of the Protestant Episcopal church, appear not to be per- 
manently confined to particular dioceses, or districts, but to 
have equal power and authority in every part of the church, 
over its spiritual and temporal affairs. More than two thousand 
travelling preachers, in every part of the United States, are 
under their control, and go and come at their bidding — a 
power which the very apostles, the vicegerents of Christ him- 
self, never pretended to exercise over the pastors and teachers 
of particular churches. 

" 3. The absolute and exclusive power of the clergy, in the 



238 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

government of this church, is, in our view, another very ob- 
jectionable feature in the system. 

" The United States are divided into thirty -three ' confer- 
ences ; ' in each of which there is a yearly meeting of all the 
travelling preachers, and such as are eligible to this office, with 
a presiding bishop at their head, called the ' yearly confer- 
ence.' This body of clergymen manage the affairs of the 
church within their conference. 

"From these yearly conferences a number of delegates, 
one for every twenty-one members, go up to form the ' gen- 
eral conference,' which has in its hands the supreme power of 
the church. Into neither of these bodies are any laymen ad- 
mitted. The general government of this church, then, is en- 
tirely in the hands of the bishops and clergy — a most unscrip- 
tural and dangerous location of power ; as is manifest from the 
infallible word of God, and from the past history of the church. 

" 4. Not only are the people thus robbed of all participation 
in the general government under which they live, but likewise 
of all right to call, ordain, retain, or dismiss their ministers. 
The general conference chooses the bishops. Discipline, 
chap. i. § 4. The yearly conferences choose the travelling 
elders and deacons, and present them to the bishops for ordi- 
nation. Discipline, chap, i, § 6, 7. The quarterly confer- 
ences recommend the preachers to the yearly conferences. 
The bishops appoint the presiding elders, who are virtually 
bishops in their respective circuits. Section 5. The presiding 
elders, the travelling elders, the deacons, and the preachers, 
are, as we have already seen, all under the direction of the 
bishops, who station them where they think proper, and 
remove them when they think best, subject to certain general 
restrictions. Sections 4, 5, 8. Answer 11, 12. 

" In none of these important matters is the voice of the peo- 
ple heard. I mean the body of the people, in distinction from 
the officers of the church." pp. 230, 231, 232. 

Secondly, priestcraft is not only the product of all ages, but 
it is the defender of every bigoted creed. The priests of the 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A PRIEST. 239 

old nations were in some respects the benefactors of the human 
race ; but in most instances they were a curse. Reinhard and 
others have shown that, though the sacerdotal orders were 
appointed for the express purpose of preserving true religion, 
and extending good dispositions and feelings, yet it is well 
known that they not only neglected this important calling, but 
acted in direct opposition to the duties imposed upon them. 
They were every where zealous to maintain and propagate the 
crudest notions of religion, and the most senseless forms of 
superstition ; to cry down and suppress all the new light and 
information that might be derived from philosophy, while they 
favored the bitter hostilities which originated in antique creeds, 
and employed them to their own advantage. In Egypt, and 
through all the nations of the East, priests bent all their pow- 
ers of artifice to secure their own dominion, and maintain the 
dependence of kings upon their order, without doing any thing 
towards enlightening and improving the people. 

When Jesus Christ appeared on earth, he came to destroy 
ecclesiastical tyranny, by founding a kingdom purely spiritual ; 
one that might be admitted into all countries without the cum- 
brous use of sacerdotal enginery. Whatever may be the 
modifications of the civil constitution, and the vicissitudes of 
climate, or time, he prescribed only two ceremonies, which 
have a noble simplicity, and can be observed wherever men 
reside, without priests to mystify or turn them to a perverted 
use. Every thing was left, both by Jesus and the apostles, to 
the judgment and conscience of those who might embrace the 
true religion, and follow only the word of God, as best ex- 
pounded and exemplified in the lessons and life of the great 
Redeemer. They well knew that therein nothing is said of 
sacred places or stated feasts ; of pious journeys and pil- 
grimages, or of oppressive ceremonies binding on those whom 
the truth has made free. The whole earth is God's temple ; 
in every place, man can lift up holy hands ; every creature of 
God is clean and good, and no worshipper is to have dictated 
to him, by earthly authority, the attitude and language in which 



240 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

he shall divinely adore. Jesus attacked the pernicious tradi- 
tions and presumption of the ancient priesthood on all occa- 
sions, (Matt. v. 21, et seq.) and did it with an earnestness which 
evinced itself by the most vehement reproaches. Matt. xv. 
1 — 9. Mark vii. 1 — 13. Matt, xxiii. 1 — 39. He compared 
all these merely human precepts to poisonous plants, which 
must be entirely rooted up, (Matt. xv. 13,) bitterly censured 
the Pharisees for taking so much pains to make proselytes to a 
disfigured religion, (Matt, xxiii. 15,) and finally engaged to 
deliver the poor, oppressed people from the whole burden of the 
Mosaic law, and give them the easy yoke of a pure, spiritual 
religion in its stead. Matt. xi. 28, 29. By the representation 
which Jesus gave of the doctrine of the one only and supreme 
God, and of the nature of acceptable worship, very important 
objects were to be accomplished. He exhibited true religion 
with such clearness and simplicity, that those of the humblest 
capacities, even children, might comprehend it. By calling 
God Father , and putting that endearing name in the first breath 
of all our supplications, the Savior would extirpate those fright- 
ful images under which both Jews and Gentiles had contem- 
plated the Deity, and substitute a childlike confidence, a heart- 
felt love, instead of that slavish mortification and the service 
extorted by fear, which had usually been thought necessary for 
appeasing him and retaining his favor. "In particular, the 
priests, those promoters and protectors of superstition, who had 
hitherto claimed for themselves the authority of an indispensa- 
ble mediatorship between God and man, and thus rendered 
themselves of very great importance, were to he deprived of 
their influence forever ; for he who knows God to be a conde- 
scending and affectionate Father can apply to him directly, and 
needs not a prior introduction from such mediators and con- 
fidants." 

Christ would teach man that there is no spiritual progress for 
him till he discovers that truth is as much a thing to be felt, as 
a thing to be perceived, and that it is only a very small portion 
of truth that the philosopher's analysis, the logician's syllo- 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A PRIEST. 241 

gisms, theological dogmas, and sectarian creeds, can impart to 
the immortal soul. The searcher after true light and strength 
will have to sweep from his path a dense host of antiquated 
chimeras, before he can run rejoicingly, like an unbound giant, 
in the way of holiness. To mould, transform, and elevate, all 
the elements of our deathless nature is the legitimate influence 
of Christianity, and not to degrade it into a monstrosity absorb- 
ing the entire being, and deadening much that is eminently and 
beautifully human. One main cause of this unrighteous effect 
is the supposition, most earnestly inculcated by priestcraft, that 
religion consists in certain formal acts ; whereas religious ser- 
vices are only the expressions of a sentiment which can with 
equal acceptance find utterance in a thousand other shapes 
beside those which temple shrines and gorgeous ceremonies 
exhibit. In the depths of the savage wilderness, amid the 
foaming billows of stormy ocean, or on thunder-scarred moun- 
tain peaks, the incense of an honest heart can rise in prayer to 
the Omnipotent as fervently and as welcomely as from beneath 
the lofty cathedral dome. And even when the lips move not, 
and when the eyes, weighed down by sickness and sorrow, are 
closed, the heart, gratefully devout, can throb its silent adoration 
as sacredly as if it mingled its tones with the melody of thou- 
sands, and bowed ostentatiously before altar and priest. True 
worship is as different from the mere forms on which priestcraft 
mainly depends, as a hundred beautiful flowers, fragrantly 
blooming in the verdant, dewy, and sunny field, are unlike the 
mere arithmetical statement that there are a hundred of them. 
To substitute this in the place of that simple and divine adoration 
which Christ appointed and Heaven requires, is worse than to 
prefer a horlus siccus to the delicious odors and diversified hues 
of a blooming parterre ; it would be the superstitious madness 
that drains the veins of a human being to make a warm bath 
for his feet. 

The church, so far as it corresponds to its true character, is 
Christianity realized in the world. The life of Christ, as the 
life of perfect love to God and man, binds those who share it 
21 



242 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

into fellowship, and this is their only bond. As the God re- 
vealed in Christianity is a God of order, so must this fellow- 
ship, notwithstanding the variety of gifts and characters therein 
comprised, constitute one perfect whole, organized and devel- 
oped according to its own essential and inherent laws. "If,". 
says Ullmann, " the church is only the natural expression, the 
realization of Christianity, then must the essential character- 
istic of Christianity be that of the church. We therefore say, 
on the one hand, the church is no mere moral institution, no 
school for the dissemination of doctrine, or the promotion of 
redemption or reconciliation ; but, on the other hand, as Christ 
taught and bore witness to the truth, so must the church teach 
and bear witness ; as he, by word and deed, promoted morality, 
so must the church cultivate and cherish it ; the redemption and 
reconciliation which he revealed, the church should, with all 
its powers, diffuse and render available. But all must be done 
with reference to the central point of Christianity, which is the 
life and character of Christ himself; and the more all sec- 
ondary objects are kept subordinate to this main principle, the 
better will the church fulfil its office, the more Christian will it 
become." Now, as eighteen hundred years ago, men can 
become Christians only by entering into a vital communion 
with the divine character of Christ, and, through it, with God. 
They can participate in the full benefits of Christianity only so 
far as they persevere with growing steadfastness in this com- 
munion, obeying every command, so that Christ becomes more 
and more a living existence in their souls, pervading their 
whole life, and calling forth within them a higher nature, like 
unto his own. 

Creeds fabricated by priestly craft constitute the heaviest and 
most corroding chains ever fastened on human minds. The 
inquirer after truth is drawn away from the words and example 
of the great Teacher, and confused by those who shout around 
him their own articles so violently, that the voice of the only 
infallible Master is nearly drowned. And what are these sub- 
stitutes for the plain teachings of the New Testament, but mis- 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A PRIEST. 243 

erable skeletons, freezing abstractions, unintelligible dogmas, 
as dubious to the understanding as they are repugnant to the 
heart? The confessions of faith, books of discipline, and 
creed concoctions, in general adopted by most Protestant sects, 
imbody the grand idea of infallibility, as truly as the decrees 
of Trent and the Vatican ; and, if I were compelled to choose 
between the two, most assuredly would I prefer the despotism 
of Rome ; for that has some historical dignity, if no other 
merit. The spirit which has dug dreary dungeons, kindled 
martyr-flames, and invented instruments of exquisite torture for 
the body, yet reappears, from time to time, in little books, man- 
ifestoes of synods, conferences, and councils, to exert a no less 
fearful influence over the human mind. The bonds of gross 
outward intolerance may be broken, and the pressure of state 
religion may be removed, yet the agents of evil, who, at an 
earlier day, exerted their unhallowed tyranny even in this free 
land, still lurk with cunning alacrity to spring upon us those 
spiritual chains that eat like aspics into the soul. Were it not 
that the spirit of the people is essentially liberal, and that intel- 
ligent conceptions of republican Christianity are spreading 
wider and deeper every day, human auspices would be sad 
indeed. Coalitions are as practicable in the church as in the 
state ; and recent events show that minor differences can be 
sunk, for the purpose of achieving a common end. If the 
ministry, instead of forming alliances among themselves, would 
exercise individual faith in a higher operation of Christianity, 
a nobler development of humanity, they would more directly 
and efficiently commend themselves to the popular heart, and 
more gloriously sway the destinies of all mankind. Christ was 
the greatest of reformers ; and perpetual reform is the charac- 
teristic spirit of a true ministry. Without this spirit of truth 
and power, fine churches are but painted sepulchres, and 
priestly disquisitions in them are but sounding brass or a tin- 
kling cymbal. Wherever we meet with persons who teach that 
the special mercy of God and the saving power of the Holy 
Spirit are bestowed through a wafer, bread and wine, some 



244 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

form of benediction, baptism, and ordination, or any other out- 
ward ministration, from the hands or lips of a frail fellow- 
mortal, there is priestcraft the most rife to be reprobated and 
despised. 

Christ came to put an end to hereditary faith, to make each 
man's belief original and independent wjth himself, directly 
drawn from the only source of Christian doctrine and practice. 
Nothing is more certain than that religion is a subject upon 
which all persons are under obligations the most solemn to 
deliberate, choose, and act for themselves. Freedom of 
inquiry is a high privilege, as safe for the masses as for indi- 
viduals ; and this boon Christ procured for all our race. He 
never designed that a few should lead, and that the multitude 
should be compelled to follow in their steps. But what are the 
spirit and language of many professed teachers of Christianity ? 
" Out of my creed there is no orthodoxy ; out of my church 
there is no salvation." But, fortunately, the days of such 
priestly arrogance are numbered. 

" The spirit cannot alway sleep in dust 

"SYhose essence is ethereal; they may try 
To darken and degrade it ; it may rust 

Dimly a while, but cannot wholly die ; 
And, when it wakens, it will send its fire 
Intenser forth and higher." 

Priestcraft lays hold of man as soon as he is born, and holds 
him in degrading vassalage from the cradle to the grave. 
Infant sprinkling, youthful catechizing, confirmation, creeds, 
and extreme unction, — these are some of the machinery which 
sacerdotal falsehood, in varied forms, employs to cramp the 
free thoughts and mould the eternal destinies of its unhappy 
dupes. Imbecile babelings are made church-members by a 
senseless rite, before they have a will of their own to exercise, 
and are often domineered over, by artificial restraints, against 
their will, until, having grown mature enough to judge for 
themselves, they either supinely yield to the tyranny that has 
been imposed upon them, or recklessly repel all religions as 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A PRIEST. 245 

equally absurd. Blind superstition or mad infidelity is the 
common result by priestcraft produced. 

It sounds very inconsistent, if not absurd, to hear sectarians 
boasting of their Protestantism, and abusing most violently the 
superstitions of the Romish church, while they themselves 
attach such efficacy to the very practice which constituted 
the first radical corruption of Christianity, and has ever re- 
mained the chief strength of the Papacy. As a specimen of 
the most recent views on this subject, the following extracts are 
adduced from " Dodsworth on Romanism and Dissent," the 
American edition, printed at Baltimore, 1842. Speaking of 
" the church," the author says, " It is certainly most surprising 
that any one can call in question the fact that she holds the 
efficacy of Christian baptism. By adopting the Nicene Creed 
into her formularies, she calls upon her members to profess 
their belief in ' one baptism for the remission of sins.' In her 
baptismal service she adopts such language as this : ' We call 
upon Thee for this person, or this infant, that he, coming to thy 
holy baptism, may receive remission of his sins by spiritual 
regeneration.' 'Sanctify this water to the mystical washing 
away of sin.' And after baptism, 'We yield thee hearty 
thanks, most merciful Father, that it hath pleased thee to 
regenerate this infant with thy Holy Spirit, to receive him for 
thine own child by adoption, and to incorporate him into thy 
holy church.'' Consistently with this, in her Catechism, she 
teaches every one of her baptized children to say, 8 My bap- 
tism, wherein I was made a member of Christ, the child of 
God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven ;' and asserts 
that ' the inward and spiritual grace ' of baptism is * a death 
unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness ; for, being by 
nature born in sin, and the children of wrath, we are hereby 
made the children of grace.' 

" Such, then, is clearly the doctrine of the church of England. 

She teaches her members to look back to their baptism as the 

instrument whereby they were grafted into Christ, and began 

to receive from him the element of a new and spiritual life ; 

21* 



246 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

not only as a badge and token of our Christian profession, but 
rather as ' a sure witness and effectual sign of grace, and of 
God's good will toward us, by the which he doth work invisi- 
bly in us, and doth not only quicken, but also strengthen and 
confirm our faith in him. ' " pp. 126, 127. 

Herein we are distinctly told that sprinkling is a saving ordi- 
nance ; and, on page 129, we are further informed that infants 
unfortunately bora beyond the pale of " the church" cannot, 
even by sprinkling, be saved. The author continues, " The 
general rule obviously is, that those children alone are entitled 
to baptism who are born within the bosom of the church, of 
parents in her communion. So Hooker teaches : 4 God by cove- 
nant requireth in the elder sort faith and baptism ; in children, the 
sacrament of baptism alone, whereunto he hath also given them 
right, by special privilege of birth, within the bosom of the holy 
church.' Ecc. Pol. v. 62. And again : ' We are plainly 
taught of God, (1 Cor. vii. 14,) that the seed of faithful 
parentage is holy from the very birth, which albeit we may not 
so understand, as if children of believing parents were without 
sin ; or grace from baptized parents derived by propagation ; 
or God by covenant and promise tied to save any in mere 
regard of their parents' belief; yet seeing that to all professors 
of the name of Christ this preeminence above infidels is freely 
given, that the fruit of their bodies bringeth into the world with 
it a present interest and right to those means wherewith the 
ordinance of Christ is, that his church shall be sanctified,' &c. 
lb. v. 60. 

u In the time of Augustin, the question arose whether chil- 
dren whose parents were under excommunication and the 
church's censures were entitled to baptism ; which that father 
decides in the affirmative, maintaining that the excommunica- 
tion of a parent did not deprive the child of his right to bap- 
tism. But in this case, as in every other, it is obviously pre- 
supposed that the sponsors of such child are in communion 
with the church. This, indeed, appears from the analogous 
case of children born of heathen or Jewish parents." 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A PRIEST. 247 

These are the blessed offspring who from the first are trained 
to believe that their salvation began with a few drops of water 
on their brow or linen, and that it will be perfected if they 
carefully " look to the south while reading prayers, and to the 
west while reading lessons." Coleman, in tracing the rise of 
Episcopacy, makes a remark or two quite pertinent to this 
point. Says he, " Very few of that communion know or 
believe that the prescribed mode of baptism in the church of 
England is immersion. This, however, is precisely and accu- 
rately the fact. The words of the formulary for the public 
baptism of infants in their Book of Common Prayer are as fol- 
lows : ' then, naming it after them, (if they shall certify that the 
child may well endure it,) he (the priest) shall dip it in the 
water discreetly and warily, saying, &c. But, if they certify 
that the child is weak, it shall suffice to pour water upon it.' 
In this, under circumstances the most improbable, an innovation 
has been made of which the mass of the people are totally 
ignorant. The mode of baptism has been entirely changed 
without their knowledge or belief, while every churchman holds 
in his hand the prayer-book which describes the exact manner 
in which the ordinance shall be administered. Shall we wonder, 
then, at the gradual change in the government of the church in 
that early age, when every thing favored its introduction, and 
in the absence of any written constitution, or remaining records 
of the primitive church ? " This shows what priestcraft has 
been able to effect in changing the prescribed form of a rite ; 
and let us here add, that whether sprinkling, pouring, or im- 
mersion, is insisted on as having in itself a saving efficacy, the 
claim set up is equally impious and absurd. To " believe and 
be baptized "is undoubtedly the duty which Christ has laid 
equally on every one. But to believe with one's own mind, 
and to be baptized according to one's own conviction of duty 
in view of the teachings and example of our Lord, we hold to 
be duties equally clear, and indispensable to the full discharge 
of the one grand obligation upon which all true religion is 
based- 



248 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

Christians who lived at the period of the Lutheran reforma- 
tion, and who caught a large share of the true spirit of Christ, 
were far from thinking to analyze it ; they had yet to free 
themselves and their religion from the stifling encumbrances of 
ecclesiastical authority — a task which they never radically per- 
formed. All their struggles were practical, and confined within 
the sphere of the church ; all that lay beyond was for them of 
little interest, and hence Christianity to their eyes presented 
but a limited view. The moderns have attempted a more 
exact definition of the distinctive character of the gospel, and 
a wider application of its beneficent influence. This has been 
the natural result of their advance in historical and philosophi- 
cal culture, which enables them to perceive that Christianity, 
independent, original, and divinely derived, is the model of 
purest republicanism, the teacher of most comprehensive wis- 
dom, and inspirer of the divinest life. Progressive improve- 
ment will undoubtedly still advance under the direction of 
merciful Providence, until the last priest shall have perished 
with the last anti-scriptural creed, and then the whole dis- 
burdened and rejoicing world may sing with Pollok, — 

" love destroying, cursed bigotry ! 
Cursed in heaven, but cursed more in hell, 
Where millions curse thee, and must ever curse. 
Religion's most abhorred ! perdition's most 
Forlorn ! God's most abandoned ! hell's most damned ! 
The infidel, who turned his impious war 
Against the walls of Zion, on the rock 
Of ages built, and higher than the clouds, 
Sinned, and received his due reward ; but she 
Within her walls sinned more : of Ignorance 
Begot, her daughter, Persecution, walked 
The earth from age to age, and drank the blood 
Of saints, with horrid relish drank the blood 
Of God's peculiar children — and was drunk ; 
And in her drunkenness dreamed of doing good. 
The supplicating hand of innocence, 
That made the tiger mild, and in his wrath 
The lion pause — the groans of suffering most 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A PRIEST. 249 

Severe, were nought to her : she laughed at groans : 

No music pleased her more ; and no repast 

So sweet to her as blood of men redeemed 

By blood of Christ. Ambition's self, though mad, 

And nursed on human gore, with her compared, 

Was merciful. Nor did she always rage : 

She had some hours of meditation, set 

Apart, wherein she to her study went, 

The inquisition, model most complete 

Of perfect wickedness, where deeds were done, — 

Deeds ! let them ne'er be named, — and sat and planned 

Deliberately and with most musing pains, 

How, to extremest thrill of agony, 

The flesh, and blood, and souls of holy men, 

Her victims, might be wrought ; and when she saw 

New tortures of her laboring fancy born, 

She leaped for joy, and made great haste to try 

Their force — well pleased to hear a deeper groan." 

In the third place, let us remark that priestcraft is not only 
the product of every age, and the defender of every bigoted 
creed, but it is also the chief foe to Christianity and greatest 
curse to mankind. 

Christ came to earth to establish thereon a church, not of 
the clergy, but of the people ; his own true disciples, trans- 
formed in heart and divine in purpose, the conservators of all 
excellence, the teachers of all truth, Christian patriots, to reno- 
vate and bless their race. Having composed his church of 
those only whom he had healed of the worst malady and illumined 
with the best light, and in the original organization having con- 
structed it on the most perfect republican principles, Christ 
designed each branch to be the model and school of perfect 
freedom, the Gilead of its district, and the Pharos of the 
world. 

Primitive Christianity had something better than a pedantic 
priesthood to lay its broad and salutary foundations after the 
pattern revealed from heaven ; it had its Marks, as well as its 
Peters; its Timothies as well as its Pauls. And from the 
apostolic age, from the morrow of the divine foundation of 



250 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

the church till a long after period, all historical monuments 
positively assert, that a clergy, properly so called, an ecclesi- 
astical body established upon the basis of a hierarchy, and 
recruiting its ranks according to conventional rules, did nowhere 
exist. The clerical office, with its incommunicable privileges, 
its pretended indelibility and investiture, to whatever remote- 
ness it may presume to ascend, is far from being as old as 
Christianity, but began in the degenerate age when the distinc- 
tion between priest and layman first commenced. It was then 
that our holy religion came to be regarded, not as a system of 
free and divine instruction, but of arbitrary human dogmas; 
when knowledge and faith were theoretical only, instead of 
being exalted doctrine applied — practice, holiness, love, life. 
Then, as is ever the case under like circumstances, authority 
was introduced into the hallowed sphere of Christianity, to for- 
tify imbecile and hollow creeds, and truth was strangely trans- 
formed into something absolute and despotic, to facilitate the 
despotism of crafty men. Having usurped the functions of a 
governing body, they gave a preponderance of the earthly 
over the heavenly power of Christianity, and ended by decree- 
ing formulas of faith — forging those heavy chains, which in 
some measure have ever since kept the masses of the world 
under the yoke of ecclesiastical dominion. 

The grand curse of the day is the inthralment of man's 
nobler nature, the sophistication of conscience through conven- 
tionalism, the overthrow of which giant evil is destined to 
evolve all the blessings which mental and moral culture can 
diffuse. Sacerdotal dynasties of every order and degree will 
soon learn that the soul of man is not a frozen formula, on the 
glassy surface of which they may with impunity scribble their 
dictations, but a free, fervid, and fragrant vitality, branching 
forth majestic aspirations toward the heavens of eternal truth. 
The world is beginning to regard Christianity in its true light, 
not fragmentary, but as a ivhole, at once historical and ideal, 
doctrinal and practical, human and divine ; capable equally of 
individual and universal application, to be studied in its origin, 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A PRIEST. 251 

its essential elements, the conditions of its progress and cer- 
tainity of final triumph. 

The true creative energy of religion, to which now, as at 
first, its main influence is owing, consists, not in the propaga- 
tion of abstract ideas, but in legitimate fruits of pious souls, 
rather than in the sanctimonious cantings of sectarian creeds. 
Christianity is doctrine, so far as it relates to the circumstances 
nnd divine revelations that signalized its birth ; but it is more 
than this, a testimony, glad tidings, gospel., not in selfish axioms 
and frigid deductions, but by religious and moral principles 
expanded in the spiritual consciousness of its recipients, and 
imbodied in beneficent deeds. No doctrine can possess either 
dignity or force apart from the spirit which was first exemplified 
in the life of Christ, and designed, in a smaller or larger meas- 
ure, to be practically displayed by all who profess to follow in 
his steps. He who has not erected a temple to the Deity in his 
own bosom will never be a true and holy worshipper; and he 
who neglects both the example and precepts of the Lord, whose 
disciple he professes to be, will not fail to dishonor the profes- 
sion he has made. 

One of the most beautiful characteristics, and one of the 
greatest advantages of Christianity, is the independence of be- 
lief and life which it both requires and rewards. In the laby- 
rinth of existence in which we all wander, not knowing whither 
the brittle thread will lead, when or where we may die, it 
is the blessed prerogative of a true Christian, to carry his 
priesthood always in his own heart, feeling that redemption is 
not bound to any hierarchical constitution or sacerdotal rite. 
He believes that his progress toward God will not be arrested 
when no longer accompanied by a human guide ; that his chief 
resource lies in recognizing the light of divine truth, and re- 
membering, with an humble, docile heart, that the only priest we 
are bound to serve is the great One who ever lives to intercede 
for us on high. The love of such a believer is derived from 
his faith no less than his faith is nourished and purified by his 
love. In his faith, knowledge and obedience are comprehended 



252 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

in delightful union ; so that these elements can as little be 
separated from it, "as the light of the fire from its warmth. 1 ' 
The character of a true disciple, like that of his Lord, can 
be very imperfectly understood, if we regard it as consisting 
wholly either in morality or in piety : it lies rather in the 
symmetrical combination of the two — in holiness, a life from, 
and in, and /or God. This is that creative and ennobling power 
Christ brought to earth ; not a mere abstract theory of the invisi- 
ble world, but a redeeming influence, which awakens in its sub- 
jects a capacity for union with God, and causes them to radiate 
with the genial effulgence of charity all around. 

All true religion is essentially communion of man with his 
Maker, in which there is but one Mediator ; it is that which 
stands between God and man, and which in Christ blends both 
in one. Such being the relation between the reason as well as 
heart of man and its Author, every act of rational devotion 
must not be an artificial ceremony, but a living reality, the 
mutual operation of spirits finite and infinite. God must stoop 
to communicate himself to the worshipper ; and he by simul- 
taneous act must raise himself to God, and have a conscious- 
ness of his presence, not in idea alone, but in spirit, power, 
and love. But priestcraft most effectually destroys this central 
point and chief glory of Christianity, by degrading what in it 
is life, reality, and moral energy, to an unsatisfactory specula- 
tion or hollow form. Hence the importance of our keeping 
before us constantly and only Christ, the whole Christ, as he 
was possessed by the apostles and primitive Christians, who 
invites us to stand before him independent of all self-constituted 
rabbis, to receive light for our understanding, joy for our heart, 
guidance and support for a temporal and eternal career. 

Life can proceed only from life. The priest contrasts man 
and God because he wishes to make himself important as a 
messenger to a race whom he represents as superlatively 
degraded ; but Christ came to render every man his own 
priest, by inviting all to himself in whom the human and divine 
are one, and teach us to rise to heaven by developing heavenly 






THE CHURCH WITHOUT A PRIEST. 253 

graces in ourselves. Thus at the outset the Messiah demon- 
strated that his mission was not to confuse and oppress, but to 
teach and save. He would vanquish all obstacles to our eman- 
cipation from sin and .perpetual progress in holiness, raising 
feverish and fainting spirits above the skies, where Jehovah 
breathes eternal blessedness on the sincere, the loving, and the 
free. Seeing man, the image of God, trampled in the dust by 
priestcraft, that God himself, in their estimation, may be fitly 
honored, the pitying Redeemer comes to our rescue, and 
imparts religious instruction so simple and yet potent, that the 
least educated need not err as to its import, nor the most sin- 
ful fail by its efficacy to be saved. The dead blank of our 
spiritual night he does not make still more dubious by the 
twinkling of a few artificial lights, but unveiled to every vision 
Jie hangs blazing on high the great luminary that smiles 
through every petty storm and eclipse, the king of our spiritual 
planetary system, the God of an ultimately cloudless and 
eternal day. 

Every person has a vital interest in this question. In order 
that morality may be free, faith must be free also. If one is 
compelled to believe, he is also compelled to act. It is impos- 
sible to conceive a being endowed with moral liberty, who does 
not also possess religious freedom ; which is merely saying, 
that a being is really free only when he is free in the whole of 
his being. Christianity, to attain pristine beauty and power 
again, must perfect itself; not by modifying its essence, which 
has been completely divine from the beginning, but by disen- 
gaging itself from earthly clogs, by emancipating itself from 
the entanglements of priestcraft, which envelop, obscure, and 
degrade it. Perfection in religious teaching is attained when 
that which constitutes its soul fulmines through its body, and 
manifests itself to the gaze of all with a sublime brilliancy, 
like the throne of God. This is its nature and' only design. 
Its two weapons of warfare are light and love. From genera- 
tion to generation, its invitation, resounding to the Nathaniels 
of every land, is, Come and see ! Starting in the lowest vale 
22 



254 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

of life, the ocean of Mercy would roll its flood-tide abroad over 
the earth, to renew the energies of a fallen race, and bear 
them upward on its billows as they swell to be immersed anew 
in their divine source. But priestcraft* is afraid of so much 
benevolence here below. It is as incapable of appreciating its 
worth as of measuring its proportions ; therefore it goes on 
stupidly exacting impossible duties, denouncing impossible sins, 
confounding honest minds with conflicting dogmas, and to the 
utmost extent keeping Christianity in leading-strings. Condor- 
cet said truly, " Kings persecute persons, priests opinion. 
Without kings, men must be safe ; and without priests, minds 
must be free." 

Christianity was strikingly characterized by its Author as 
leaven. This is destined to put the whole mass of mankind 
into a state of fermentation, that it may work itself clear of 
all heterogeneous grossness, purge itself of every form of error, 
absurdity, and delusion ; until, by this natural process, it shall 
have refined and clarified our race with pure and profound 
views of truth. Our eyes, so delicately organized, and guarded 
with so much care, were not made to be closed and bandaged 
from the cradle to the grave, but to gaze freely on the beauties 
and sublimities of earth, sea, and sky. The soul of man, of 
all men, pants to contemplate brighter and broader glories than 
the natural vision can perceive ; and is there a fiend more 
worthy of hell than he who would darken heaven from human 
view ? Our business as Christians is to throw wide open to all 
mankind the temple gates of Truth. Her influence, when once 
it roots itself in the human heart, never dies : it lives, grows, 
multiplies itself, and becomes indestructible. The laws which 
guaranty this may be but dimly discerned, but their operation 
is constant, potent, and universal. Nothing is beneficial with- 
out this. " All the great advances made by society are spon- 
taneous movements. The positive benefits which have flowed 
to man out of the fount of civil authority and law are few and 
comparatively trivial. Civilization owes far less to political 
instructions than they to civilization. Science has flourished 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT A PRIEST. 255 

without the aid of law. Morality has purged itself of gross 
admixtures, and manners have passed through many revolu- 
tions, and refinement has reached its present pitch, and litera- 
ture has spread abroad its blessings, not by means, but often in 
spite, of legislative interposition. And why not religion ? Is 
it not, when once fairly planted in the human heart, the most 
powerful of all impulses ? Does it not incessantly yearn to 
multiply itself? Are not all its tendencies to increase, to repro- 
duction, to universality ? Can it exist and be silent ? Can it 
shake hands with indifference, or take home to its bosom a 
careless negligence of others' welfare ? Die ! It was not born 
to die. It is immortal. Nominalism may die — hypocrisy 
may give up the ghost. Priestly pretences, wearing the guise 
of Christianity, may want the factitious support derived from 
state enactments. But an enlightened apprehension and a cor- 
dial love of revealed truth will, up to the measure of its own 
existence, not only continue to live, but to work. Safely may 
it be left to its own noble impulses. It can neither dwindle 
nor decay. And if, at times, it disappears from the surface, it 
is only, like streams working their way through a subterra- 
neous passage, to emerge again from obscurity in greater clear- 
ness, in larger breadth, in yet augmented power." 

Of all the contemptible efforts of modern priestcraft, none 
can exceed in absurdity that which complacently eradicates 
from man the diviner half of his nature, and then proceeds 
to coerce the other half into the reception of its own husky 
dogmas, as the only food on which an immortal creature 
should feed. Reason and free will are strangled or denied, 
that a despotic system may be substituted in their place. The 
soul is killed to save the body. Truth, God's own word, as a 
great, earnest, awful reality, is kept out of sight, and the mis- 
erable victim is dwarfed into the pigmy proportions of the puny 
creed in which his cramped faculties are bound. 

Bigotry is not the vice of a peculiar sect, but of every 
ruling party. Luther and his confederates imitated the powers 
of Rome in intolerance, as soon as they possessed the means. 



256 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

Says D'Aubigne, " It was Luther, that great man of God, who, 
in this, as in every thing else, advanced at the head of his 
church. When, in 1527, the Reformed pleaded for brotherly 
love and Christian concord, he answered, ' Be such charity and 
unity cursed, even to the bottomless depths of hell.' He him- 
self relates to one of his friends that, at the conference con- 
voked at Marburg by the landgrave of Hesse, to unite the 
Lutherans and the Reformed, Zwingle, moved to tears, ap- 
proached him, saying, ' There are no men on earth with whom 
I so much desire to be united as with the Wittembergers.' 
And Luther repulsed the Zurich reformer, answering, 4 Your 
spirit is not our spirit,' and refused to acknowledge Zwingle 
and the Swiss as his brethren. 

" Since that day, a sectarian spirit has always pervaded 
Lulheranism. When, in 1553, the unhappy Reformed were 
driven from London by the unfeeling order of bloody Mary, 
they were cruelly repulsed, in the midst of winter, by the 
advice of the Lutheran theologians, from the walls of Copen- 
hagen, of Rostock, of Liibeck, and of Hamburg, where they 
asked for shelter. ' Better Papists than Calvinists,' said they ; 
1 better Mohammedans than Reformed.' " 

Viewed as a whole, we hold Luther's influence in high 
esteem ; but some portions of his creed and conduct have 
doubtless entailed much wrong on mankind. When Erasmus 
defended the existence and obligations of free will, the prophet 
of Wntemberg exclaimed, "No; in that which concerns God, 
in that which relates either to salvation or damnation, man has 
no freedom. He is subjugated to the will of God, or that of 
Satan; he is chained and a slave." (Subjectus et servus est 
vel voluntatis Dei, vel voluntatis Satance.) This is bad enough 
belief, surely. His worse conduct, pei'haps, is portrayed in the 
following extract from the works of W. J. Fox, now of the 
British parliament : — 

" He had published an eloquent tract on Christian liberty. 
This work found its way, as such tenets, when once broached, 
will ever do, into other quarters than those for which it was 






THE CHURCH WITHOUT A PRIEST. 257 

originally intended. It obtained circulation amongst the peas* 
antry of Westphalia, Suabia, and the provinces adjoining the 
Rhine. These peasants were just in the condition of men 
whose ears would tingle at the very word liberty, whether 
Christian or otherwise. In their politically degraded state, it 
must have sounded to them as enchantingly as Paradise or 
Utopia would to others. They were at that time ground down 
under the horrible feudal system. The great bulk of them 
were slaves, who were bought and sold like any other market- 
able article ; a class whom their masters multiplied systemati- 
cally, by breeding, as jockeys do their horses, and with as little 
regard to the preference of the parties themselves. Their 
masters might wound and maim them at pleasure, and kill them 
with impunity, if the murder was not complained of within a 
day ; and, even when that happened to be the case, the offence 
was only punished by the payment of a small pecuniary fine. 
The farmers and peasants were scarcely in a better condition 
than the slaves. They were subjected to those horrible imposts 
which have always been associated with the name of the feudal 
system. At the best, they could merely earn for themselves, 
out of the soil, a wretched pittance, just sufficient for their sup- 
port ; all the residue went to their lords. Their state was such, 
that, if a farmer was taken ill, no one connected with his farm 
would work a stroke more, knowing very well that, if the mas- 
ter died, whatever was in his house or upon his farm would be 
forthwith seized upon under pretence of arrears for rent, or 
fines and payments due to the lord upon passage of the farm 
from one tenant to another. The little miserable protection 
which the laboring people, slaves, and peasantry had, was only 
a kind of game-law regulation, to keep their proprietors from 
interfering with each other's property, and had no regard what- 
ever to the parties for whose benefit they nominally existed. 
This complicated oppression was too much for human nature to 
bear, especially when these victims of tyranny found, in Martin 
Luther's tract, that there was such a thing in the world as lib- 
erty. They began to consult together whether they might not 
22* 



258 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

have a little of this same good thing for themselves, in their 
social condition as well as in their theological opinions. This 
intercommunication led to cooperation among them, and, at 
length, they mustered 300,000 men. Having attained this 
strength, they issued a manifesto, claiming the right of com- 
monage, and some of the most simple and elementary privi- 
leges which are due to humanity, in a tone and temper, a spirit 
of reason and moderation, which induced Voltaire to say that 
their manifesto would not have been unworthy of the signature 
of Lycurgus. In this state of things Luther was applied to. 
He first strongly advised the lords to be humane, then recom- 
mended the slaves to be obedient ; but, as neither the one party 
nor the other appeared disposed to adopt this advice, — and 
certainly it could not be expected that the vassals should return 
to obedience while the lords showed no symptoms of returning 
humanity, — why, then Luther first rebuked them both, and 
afterwards advised the princes of Germany to unite in their 
strength to put down the insubordination. No doubt excesses 
were perpetrated by this people ; history has not spared them ; 
history never spares the faults or excesses of democracy, or of 
unsuccessful insurrection ; the reason for which fact may be 
found in the connections and partialities of those by whom his- 
tory has usually been writen. A very great part of the alleged 
excesses of the Anabaptists of Munster, as they have been 
called, because a number of them were identified with the plain 
and homely flocks of the Baptists of Germany, have, beyond 
all doubt, been grossly exaggerated, piled up in heaps before 
the world, who have been taught to look back upon them as the 
most outrageous enthusiasts and fanatics that ever scourged 
mankind or disgraced the face of the earth. Yet, if we go to 
the original document from which they started, it is plain that 
this was only one portion of that great serf movement through- 
out Europe which took place about that period ; the feudal 
system being found every where so intolerable that the serfs, 
like trodden worms, writhed and rose against the oppression, 
having a glimmering and indistinct perception, but vet to them 






THE CHURCH WITHOUT A PRIEST. 259 

an animating one, of a better state of things, wherein the equal 
value of each human being, and the just rights of humanity, 
should be acknowledged by all." 

Civil and religious freedom were never designed to flow in 
two separate channels. Those who, in every age, take sides 
with the best and broadest interests of the people, defend this 
point as fundamental, while time-serving and sycophantic 
priests always oppose it. Every man is to be esteemed who 
honestly endeavors to give a reason for his belief, and claims 
the freedom of its peaceful enjoyment, however mistaken or 
absurd he may be. To despise the intellect of another, to hint 
his want of integrity, or to ridicule his convictions of right, is 
but poor evidence either of philosophical judgment or Christian 
charity. The spirit that leagued with an emperor and excited 
him to murder the Anabaptists of Munster, burned Servetus at 
Geneva, hunted Roger Williams beyond the boundaries of civ- 
ilization with no less savage rage, persecuted the elder Carroll 
in Maryland, and more recently burned the convent at Charles- 
town, as well as the churches of Philadelphia, is part and par- 
cel of the bigoted priestcraft that dug the prisons of Venice 
and erected the inquisition in Spain. Milton had good reason 
for asserting that " Presbyter is but old priest writ large." The 
Hildebrands of Rome may soon become obsolete ; but we fear 
that it will take much longer to extirpate the u parish popes," 
who call themselves Protestant, and under whose benignant 
sway millions of the spiritually oppressed have had occasion to 
declare, as was said of the ancient Baptists of Germany, when 
some one doubted whether they really knew what " church 
authority meant : ' O, yes,' replied a Catholic divine ; < they 
know what church authority is, just as a dog knows a stick.' " 

Pastors who rise from the people, are chosen and sustained 
by the free suffrages of the people, while they toil magnani- 
mously for the greatest good of the greatest number, are un- 
doubtedly among the best instrumentalities for promoting the 
general and highest good. On the contrary, a priesthood edu- 
cated apart from and arbitrarily imposed upon the masses are 



260 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

the greatest obstacle to their progress, because they are them- 
selves sworn to think only certain things, which are prescribed 
for them, having begun their subscription to articles and creeds, 
which subscription has to be renewed with every preferment 
they truckle for, and every prerogative of oppression they ob- 
tain. Such training and such relations are hostile to progress 
in every department of social improvement and public enter- 
prise. It is in direct conflict with whatever principles belong 
to the best interests of humanity ; for those interests are inti- 
mately allied to the largest freedom and most unobstructed 
advancement. But attempts to effect the permanent thraldom 
of mankind, however cunning and fortified with power they 
be, cannot longer succeed. The mind and heart of the nations 
are arousing. Catholic priests withhold the communion cup 
from the laity, and Protestant priests arrogate the right of secret 
legislation over the household of faith, both classes uniting to 
make the sources of religious emotion and divine grace special 
monopolies limited to their own cliques. The people, however, 
are coming to search after truth for themselves, make their 
own regulations in moral affairs as in civil, bow in base vassal- 
age to no human creed, swear allegiance to no selfish interces- 
sor, but take God's word as their only guide, and Christ as their 
only Lord. 

Liberty is the word inscribed on the banner of modern civ- 
ilization, and is destined soon to shine still brighter on the ban- 
ner of the world's Christianization. The soul of man demands 
free air to breathe, a wide and lofty area whereon to expand 
its faculties, and will remain no longer cramped. The Bible, 
fairly opened and fully translated before all ranks and condi- 
tions of mankind, with one Spirit to teach and one Mediator to 
atone and intercede, is the highest boon we can possess ; and 
this, it is certain, the whole world will soon enjoy. Providence 
is loudly proclaiming that the shepherd was made for his flock, 
not the flock for the shepherd. Crumbling thrones, dispersed 
dynasties, rending chains and exploding revolutions in every 
zone, proclaim in tones of thunder, " God hath made of one 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT AN ARISTOCRAT. 261 

blood, and for the enjoyment of equal rights, all nations who 
dwell upon the face of the earth." The reverberations of this 
celestial proclamation will continue to roll onward with deep-- 
ening tones, amid the blazings of still brighter splendors, till 
the human mind shall endure no fetter, and the church of Christ 
crouch to no priest. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE CHURCH WITHOUT AN ARISTOCRAT. 

We have traced some of the baleful influences which encum- 
ber and degrade Christianity when subjected to the control of 
kings, popes, bishops, or priests. In this last discussion of the 
present series, we propose to consider the church without an 
aristocrat. We hold that aristocracy was the first foe of the 
church, has ever been but a hypocritical friend, and is a per- 
petual impediment as well as consummate disgrace. 

The first and greatest foe Christianity encountered was aris- 
tocratic malignity and contempt. To meet and subdue this at 
the outset, our Savior proclaimed the universal law of human 
relationship, and, at a single stroke, reduced all mankind to one 
level. He recognized no higher personage in morals than our 
" neighbor," no other rule of conduct than love, and taught 
that, when we have discharged this duty to our " neighbor," we 
have fulfilled our obligation to all mankind ; for we can owe 
our equals neither the allegiance of flattery nor any service 
that is constrained. Christ was the first to declare all men 
royal compeers and nobles by nature, each one sent on earth 
to do that for which he is fitted, and, with noble independence, 
to fill the niche he was ordained to fill. In tones that " open 
every cell where memory sleeps," he would have man speak 
to his brother man with magnanimous esteem as a sovereign 
like himself, and never pour forth libations to church and state, 



262 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

or seek to hold the appointment of priests to offer fulsome sac- 
rifices and obsequious oblations. 

All who listen to other words, or follow the dictates of 
authority less exalted, are "after ill example gone astray." 
" One is not born," said he whom principle and nature made a 
republican, but circumstances and ambition an emperor, — " one 
is not born with a boot on his leg, and another with a pack- 
saddle on his back. There are no naked kings ; they must all 
be dressed." We enter upon the present existence invested 
with certain inalienable rights, which constitute natural liberty ; 
if we are components of a true republic, the enjoyment of our 
inherent rights is guarantied by righteous laws ; and this is civil 
liberty. Civil liberty is natural liberty established and pro- 
tected upon fixed principles by equitable government, the right- 
ful possession of all mankind, to bestow which in the highest 
and purest form is the grand prerogative of Christianity alone. 
Cicero defined a republic to be " the union of a multitude, 
cemented by an agreement in what is right, and a participation 
in what is useful." Christ announced the eternal law of true 
social and national organizations more definitely and divinely 
when he proclaimed that but one is our Master, and all we are 
brethren. Never, for one moment, are we to stand in awe 
before presumptuous rulers, civil or religious, " alien from 
heaven, with passions foul obscured ; " but reverence and obey 
only the almighty King, " who was on earth for our sakes cru- 
cified." 

Truth, even the most abstract, invariably becomes the 
object of hatred, whenever practical virtue is not the object 
of love ; and as hatred, by its intrinsic nature, is destructive, 
in the same manner as love is conservative, man, brutalized 
by sensuality, and given up to physical pleasures, naturally 
becomes a hateful destroyer. His obdurate soul gloats over 
spectacles of ruin and blood, while he confirms barbarous 
tastes and ferocious habits : hence it is remarkable that all 
people who are incredulous or impious are voluptuaries, and 
the voluptuous are always cruel. As a primary example, 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT AN ARISTOCRAT. 263 

look at pagan nations : what forgetfulness of humanity in war 
as in peace, in laws as in customs, in their temples as at the 
theatre, in the heart of the father as in that of a tyrant with 
his scourge ! Under such circumstances, what abject materi- 
alism do we see in religion, and what aversion to those doc- 
trines which tend to elevate men and spiritualize their 
thoughts ! Polished and erudite Greece condemned Socrates 
to martyrdom because he despised the gross superstitions of 
his country; and those same refined patrician Greeks, 
crowned with flowers and singing exquisite songs, strangled 
human victims, and covered their territory with altars the 
most infamous. 

Always the aristocratical subjugation of soul to sense pro- 
duces haughty opposition to the noblest intellectual and moral 
truths, and is the only explanation we need seek for the 
profound hatred which, in all ages, certain nations and ranks 
have manifested toward the example and doctrines of Christ. 
It is the perpetual and deadly conflict of the flesh against 
the spirit. The one would degrade and destroy ; the other 
tends constantly to enfranchise, enlighten, and render divine, 
through those precepts and influences which are the aggregate 
and manifestation of all the truths useful to mankind. When 
Christianity first appeared, the human race were universally 
involved in the grossest sensuality. What little worship 
remained on earth was but an empty phantom, allied to no 
substantial belief, but a mere ceremony preserved by habit, 
because of its ostentatious pomp suited to lascivious festivals, 
and, above all, because of its relation to civil institutions. 
The religion of that age inspired neither faith nor veneration. 
The sages and grandees, who first produced the degeneracy 
they could but despise, committed religion to the masses with 
contempt, who, less corrupt than the aristocrats, still contin- 
ued to imagine, even in ignoble emblems, something divine. 
Nevertheless, there existed really no other religion than that 
of voluptuousness ; and the sects most sincere at first, degen- 
erated rapidly into factitious austerity, and, by a confusion of 



264 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

ideas, which passed into current language, went even so far 
as to identify virtue with pleasure. 

The " upper classes," as they are usually termed, but really 
the most degraded, and who have ever demonstrated their 
superiority only by standing aloof from the greatest good of 
the greatest number, as they were the most active corrupters 
of ancient religions, so were they the most malignant foes to 
Christianity, from the first. All who have sacrificed their 
worldly interests and comfort for the good of their fellow- 
men, and been impelled to painful efforts by no motive but 
love to God and his creatures, are viewed and treated by them 
in every age as the vilest criminals, and as enemies to their 
arrogant prerogatives. The aristocrats of Judea, under the 
pretence of patriotism, entreated that Jeremiah might be put 
to death, because " he weakened the hands of the men of war, 
and of all the people;" of Paul they said, " We have found 
this man a pestilent fellow \ and a mover of sedition ;" and of 
Christ himself, " We found this fellow perverting the nation." 
But the teachers of truth and freedom the most divine perse- 
vere in their beneficent enterprise, knowing that the love of 
liberty, turbulent though it be deemed by exclusive circles, 
has so much affinity to law, and so wholesome a jealousy 
of force, that, if generously treated, it composes in the end 
popular disorders, and confers the widest and most salutary 
blessings on all. When Christianity shall come at length to 
pour its tide of sacred republicanism through the chief arteries 
of the body politic, it will impart healthful action to limbs 
long palsied by the inactivity which tyranny has produced, 
and elevate the masses into the gladsome possession of those 
functions of w T hich all have need. Says Sir James Mackin- 
tosh, " The generous sentiments of natural equality are so 
deeply engraven on the human heart, and so inseparably 
blended with the dictates of reason and conscience, that no 
appeal to them can be wholly vain ; their power over those 
who grievously suffer from their violation never can cease to 
be great." 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT AN ARISTOCRAT. 265 

The ancient republics were much more aristocratic than 
democratic in the form and spirit of their institutions. The mass 
of the people were slaves ; and those that were nominally free, 
with a few exceptions, were excluded from popular influence 
and power. The few were as entirely the masters, as autocrats 
and priests were in Persia and Egypt. Petty tyrants rose up 
with blasphemous pretensions to the right of excluding their 
fellow-men from the bountiful repast of providence and grace. 
In their despotic lust of possession, they were eager then, as 
now, to monopolize the popular share ; or, worse still, they 
would frighten or coerce the common people to forsake the 
exalted privileges which Heaven designed all equally to grasp 
and enjoy. These are the persons 'whose character, conduct, 
and fearful destiny, are so strikingly described by our Lord, 
whose equalizing spirit and ennobling doctrines they always 
so much hate. The true Light " came unto his own, and his 
own received him not." " I am come in my Father's name, 
and ye receive me not : if another shall come in his own 
name, him ye will receive." " Woe unto you, Scribes and 
Pharisees, hypocrites ! for you shut up the kingdom of 
heaven against men : woe unto you, lawyers ! for ye have 
taken away the key of knowledge ; for ye neither go in your- 
selves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in." 
" Ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation 
of hell ? " And when some well-disposed listeners inquired 
of the apostles, " Men and brethren, what shall we do ? " 
they were obliged to reply, " Save yourselves from this unto- 
ward generation." Arrogant and hypocritical aristocrats were 
Christ's most malignant adversaries, and the worst obstacles 
which the apostles met. 

It is recorded of Cornelia, the noble mother of the Gracchi, 
that, on a certain occasion, when some vulgar and haughty 
gossip boasted of worldly wealth, ornaments, and power, she 
proudly and magnanimously cried, pointing to her children, 
some of them the future saviors of Rome from aristocratic 
thraldom, " These are my jewels," Thus of the true church 
23 



266 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

of Christ, the mother of all exalted virtues, patriotic, civiliz- 
ing, and saving. Her brightest ornaments are they who 
recognize the great brotherhood of the human race, who 
labor to break down all iniquitous oppression, and to raise all 
to a like participation of unclouded light and undistinguished 
love. Says Pollok, — 

" ' He was the freeman whom the truth made free ; ' — k 
Who first of all the bands of Satan broke ; 
Who broke the bands of Sin ; and for his soul, 
In spite of fools, consulted seriously ; 
In spite of fashion persevered in good ; 
In spite of wealth or poverty, upright ; 
Who did as reason, not as fancy, bade ; 
Who heard temptation sing, and yet turned not 
Aside ; saw Sin bedeck her flowery bed, 
And yet would not go up ; felt at his heart 
The sword unsheathed, yet would not sell the truth ; 
Who, having power, had not the will to hurt ; 
Who blushed alike to be, or have, a slave ; 
Who blushed at nought but sin, feared nought but God ; 
Who, finally, in strong integrity 
Of soul, 'midst want, or riches, or disgrace, 
Uplifted calmly sat, and heard the waves 
Of stormy folly breaking at his feet ; 
Now shrill with praise, now hoarse with foul reproach, 
And both despised sincerely ; seeking this 
Alone — the approbation of his God, 
Which still with conscience witnessed to his peace. 
This, this is freedom, such as angels use, 
And kindred to the liberty of God. 
First-born of Virtue ! daughter of the skies ! 
The man, the state in whom she ruled, Avas free ; 
All else were slaves of Satan, Sin, and Death." 

Secondly, aristocracy was not only the first foe of the 
church, but has ever remained, at best, but a hypocritical 
friend. 

The true principles of republican Christianity do not con- 
sist in degrading the higher ranks to the lowest, but in elevat- 
ing the greatest possible number to the highest standard of 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT AN ARISTOCRAT. 267 

independence and intelligence. Hence the divine Author of 
our faith, when rebuking the Scribes and Pharisees, demanded 
of them the exercise of charity, liberty, and light, toward 
every human being, because these would guaranty perfecti- 
bility to religious institutions, and impart to them an invincible 
force. That which is most needed to promote human welfare, 
is a bold and independent spirit of inquiry, which will seize 
on all classes, and sift every question of political or religious 
right to its last analysis. Every mind needs something which 
is more reasonable than coercion, and less dubious than 
priestly dialectics ; and this our greatest necessity is abun- 
dantly supplied by the doctrines of Christ, which impart to 
every honest inquirer too much light to suffer him long to 
remain the dupe of either force or fraud. Despotism, dis- 
guised under martial or sacerdotal forms, for thousands of 
years, was the chief means resorted to to govern the world. 
But, in Christianity, the discovery has been made, that the 
agency which is at once the most powerful and salutary in 
its operation, consists in that inward spiritual force which 
prompts the best private virtues and* generates the freest and 
most beneficent public opinion. The tendency of this is to 
draw light from every source it can reach, and concentrate 
all the rays it accumulates upon the best interests it can 
promote. 

The men who most perseveringly oppose this heavenly 
influence are they who plead " the right divine " for kings, 
popes, bishops, or priests to govern wrong. They throw 
before the people " an infinity of impertinent and vain things," 
and corrupt the popular mind and heart through the distorted 
dogmas of their own misguided wills. They are " Jove's 
satellites much less than Jove," but full of pagan adoration at 
the footstool of the worldly great. The drapery around the 
seats of prelatical and regal power is almost always crimson, 
as if yet wet with blood, and aristocrats have a strong affinity 
for that. But they never averted a great danger nor pro- 
moted a great good. They are ever ready to deprive their 



268 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

fellow-men of that feeling of infinity, without which nothing 
grand is accomplished, and no lofty height attained ; but to 
aid in such tasks suits neither their talents nor ambition. The 
character of such base sycophants is well described by Milton : 
" A king must be adored like a demigod, with a dissolute 
and haughty court about him, of vast expense and luxury, 
masks and revels, to the debauching of our prime gentry, 
both male and female ... to the multiplying of a ser- 
vile crew, not of servants only, but of nobility and gentry, 
bred up then to the hopes, not of public, but of court offices, 
to be stewards, chamberlains, ushers, grooms ; . . . and 
the lower their minds, debased with court opinions, contrary 
to all virtue and reformation, the haughtier will be their pride 
and profusion." 

The Christian and republican bard of Paradise Lost had 
witnessed enough of aristocratic meanness and oppression to 
make him denounce it in strong terms. For instance, when 
Richard Cromwell fled before popular rebellion, he took with 
him two large trunks full of those addresses and congratulations, 
customary with all servile creatures, in honor of those who 
possess and pervert the uses of power. In these addresses 
he was told that God had given him the supreme authority 
for the happiness of the three kingdoms. "■ What have you 
in those trunks ? " said some one to him. " The happiness 
of the English nation," he replied with a laugh. Such jeer- 
ing and mockery constitute the most sacred solicitude ever 
felt by aristocracies and their pets for the suffering masses 
of mankind. The Bible tells us of a certain king who lived 
a wild beast in the woods seven years, and then re-assumed 
the human form. It has often happened that such is the lot 
of the people. For seven years they are the ferocious beast, 
and then they become men. But their madness has been 
produced by the regal wrongs they have endured, and revolu- 
tions are beginning to metamorphose their condition, as well 
as elevate their hopes. 

There are moral tories all over the world, as well as politi- 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT AN ARISTOCRAT. 269 

cal, neither of whom care any thing for what they term " the 
lower orders" beyond what their own interests will allow; 
they have no hearty desire for the general elevation and 
progress of the people. This might be expected, since 
aristocracy and true humanity are incompatible. Humanity 
they cannot have, who entertain no respect for men as men, 
as essentially on an equality with themselves, by a participation 
of the image of God. Such persons claim the right to dog- 
matize without examination, and impose their vagaries without 
restraint, as if they had discovered some nearer road to truth 
than that of argument, and some better means of moral con- 
quest than that of conscience and common sense. 

The combined horrors of kingcraft, priestcraft, and aristo- 
craft, the chief support and most oppressive component -of 
all, constitute one of the very greatest curses that has afflicted 
earth ; and till its hydra heads are crushed beneath the car 
of true republicanism, there can be no perfect liberty for 
mankind. Seated around sumptuous tables, loaded with 
viands the most delicious, wines the most exquisite, and 
flowers of the sweetest perfume, men of might and women 
of fashion float gayly in an atmosphere of voluptuousness, and 
intoxicate every sense with pleasure. But what to them are 
the wants and woes of the Lazaruses groaning and famished 
at their doors ? In the intervals of their hilarity, one hears 
the sharp sound of clattering fetters, and they smile ; or the 
whizzing lash as it scarifies the skin or scoops out a fragment 
of bleeding flesh, and they smile ; or the low groans which 
arise from some dungeon, and they smile ; or the sobbings of 
inexpressible anguish, the death-rattle of famine, or the shriek 
of one about to be strangled, and still they smile, as if the 
world was made expressly to fill their coffers, and every 
thing beautiful and fair to satiate their lusts. But, thank God, 
the ranks which have heretofore most abused the rights and 
patience of the great masses, now provoke them to a just 
retribution. Through this fearful process the old world is 
now passing. " The strange illusion, that a man, because he 
23* 



270 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

wears a garter or ribbon, or was born to a title, belongs to 
another race, is fading away ; and society must pass through 
a series of revolutions, silent or bloody, until a more natural 
order takes place of distinctions which grew originally out of 
force. Thus aristocracy, instead of giving order to society, 
now convulses it. So impossible is it for arbitrary human 
ordinations permanently to degrade human nature, or subvert 
the principles of justice and freedom ! The past is gone, the 
feudal castle is dismantled, the distance between classes 
greatly reduced. Unfortunate as it may be, the people have 
begun to think, to ask reasons for what they do, and suffer, 
and believe, and to call the past to account. Old spells are 
broken, old reliances gone. Men can no longer be kept 
down by pageantry, state robes, forms, and shows. Allowing 
it to be best that society should rest on the depression of the 
multitude, the multitude will no longer be quiet when they 
are trodden under foot, but ask impatiently for a reason why 
they too may not have a share in social blessings. Such is 
the state of things, and we must make the best of what we 
cannot prevent. Right or wrong, the people will think; and 
is it not important that they should think justly? that they 
should be inspired with the love of truth, and instructed how 
to seek it ? that they should be established by wise culture 
in the great principles on which religion and society rest, and 
be protected from skepticism and wild speculation, by inter- 
course with enlightened and virtuous men ? It is plain that, 
in the actual state of the world, nothing can avail us but a 
real improvement of the mass of the people. No stable 
foundation can be laid for us but in men's minds. Alarming 
as the truth is, it should be told, that outward institutions 
cannot now secure us. Mightier powers than institutions 
have come into play among us — the judgment, the opinions, 
the feelings of the many ; and all hopes of stability, which do 
not rest on the progress of the many, must perish." 

The influence of feudal institutions has ever been unquali- 
fiedly pernicious in the old world, and was imparted in quite 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT AN ARISTOCRAT. 271 

too large measures in the first settlement of the new. That 
influence still remains among us in some degree, and cannot 
be too soon extirpated from our institutions, root and branch. 
Sir Walter Scott, in describing one of the original vassals in 
England, after depicting the other peculiarities of his costume, 
adds, " One part of his dress only remains, but it is too 
remarkable to be suppressed ; it was a brass ring, resembling 
a dog's collar, but without any opening, and soldered fast round 
his neck ; so loose as to form no impediment to his breathing; 
yet so tight as to be incapable of being removed, excepting by 
the use of the file. On this singular gorget was engraved, in 
Saxon characters, ' Gurth, the son of Beowulph, is the born 
thrall of Cedric.' " This describes the condition of " born 
thralls," in the hands of ancient aristocrats ; but we think they 
are not demanded by the enlightened spirit of this age, and 
least of all should they be found associated with the boasted 
institutions of this free land. 

If physical bondage yet remains to disgrace a portion of the 
United States, we yet enjoy the rights of conscience without 
restraint ; and it is easy to learn to whom we are indebted for 
the inestimable boon. Bancroft, speaking of the priestcraft, 
inflamed and fortified by the primitive aristocracy of New 
England, says, " The larger number of the friends of Anne 
Hutchinson, led by John Clarke and William Coddington, pro- 
ceeded to the south, designing to make a plantation on Long 
Island, or near Delaware Bay. But Roger Williams welcomed 
them to his vicinity ; and his own influence, and the powerful 
name of Henry Vane, prevailed with Miantonomoh, the chief 
of the Narrangansetts, to obtain for them a gift of the beauti- 
ful island of Rhode Island. The spirit of the institutions 
established by this band of voluntary exiles, on the soil which 
they owed to the benevolence of the natives, was derived from 
natural justice ; a social compact, signed after the manner of 
the precedent at New Plymouth, so often imitated in America, 
founded the government upon the basis of the universal con- 
sent of every inhabitant : the forms of the administration were 



272 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

borrowed from the examples of the Jews. Coddington was 
elected judge in the new Israel ; and the three elders were 
chosen as his assistants. The colony rested on the principle 
of intellectual liberty ; philosophy itself could not have placed 
the right on a broader basis. The settlement prospered ; and 
it became necessary to establish a constitution. It was there- 
fore ordered by the whole body of freemen, and ' unanimously 
agreed upon, that the government, which this body politic doth 
attend unto in this island, and the jurisdiction thereof, in favor 
of our Prince, is a Democracie, or popular government ; that 
is to say, it is the power of the body of freemen orderly 
assembled, or major part of them, to make or constitute just 
Lawes, by which they will be regulated, and to depute from 
among themselves such ministers as shall see them faithfully 
executed between man and man.' 'It was further ordered, 
that none be accounted a delinquent for doctrine;' the law 
for ' liberty of conscience was perpetuated. , The little com- 
munity was held together by the bonds of affection and free- 
dom of opinion ; benevolence was their rule ; they trusted in 
the power of love to win the victory ; and ' the signet for the 
state ' was ordered to be 'a sheafe of arrows ' with 4 the 
motto Amor vincet omnia.' " — Vol. i. pp. 392, 393. 

This points to the first home of true principles ; and another 
extract will show some of their first struggles with growing 
aristocracy. Continues the same historian, " When Clarke, 
the pure and tolerant Baptist of Rhode Island, one of the happy 
few who succeed in acquiring an estate of beneficence and 
connecting the glory of their name with the liberty and happi- 
ness of a commonwealth, began to preach to a small audience 
in Lynn, he was seized by the civil officers. Being compelled 
to attend with the congregation, he expressed his aversion by • 
a harmless indecorum, which would yet have been without 
excuse, had his presence been voluntary. He and his com- 
panions were tried, and condemned to pay a fine of twenty 
or thirty pounds ; and Holmes, who refused to pay his fine, 
was whipped unmercifully. 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT AN ARISTOCRAT. 273 

" Since a particular form of worship had become a part of 
the civil establishment, irreligion was now to be punished as a 
civil offence. The state was a model of Christ's kingdom on 
earth ; treason against the civil government was treason against 
Christ ; and reciprocally, as the gospel had the right paramount, 
blasphemy, or what a jury should call blasphemy, was the high- 
est offence in the catalogue of crimes. To deny any book of 
the Old or New Testament to be the written and infallible word 
of God, was punishable by fine or by stripes, and, in case of 
obstinacy, by exile or death. Absence from l the ministry of 
the word' was punished by a fine. 

" By degrees the spirit of the establishment began to subvert 
the fundamental principles of Independency. The liberty of 
prophesying was refused, except the approbation of four elders, 
or of a county court, had been obtained. Remonstrance was 
useless. The union of church and state was fast corrupting 
both ; it mingled base ambition with the former ; it gave a false 
direction to the legislation of the latter. And at last the gen- 
eral court claimed for itself, for the council, -and for any two 
organic churches, the right of silencing any person who was 
not as yet ordained. Thus rapidly did human nature display 
its power ! ' The creation of a national, uncompromising 
church led the Congregationalists of Massachusetts to the 
indulgence of the passions which had disgraced their English 
persecutors ; and Laud was justified by the men whom he had 
wronged." — pp. 450, 451. 

It is greatly to be deplored that Christianity has so often been 
crippled or despised by those who misunderstand its genius, or 
are too much blinded by bigotry to perceive its superiority over 
the religions it came to supersede. Judaism had its theocracy, 
and paganism its aristocracy of divinities circling the brow of 
Olympus ; but Christianity is encompassed and adorned only 
by one grand brotherhood, bound together by love, like the 
angels, and blended in republican equality, like flowers blos- 
soming in Tempe's vale. All the great gifts of God and nature 
bear the same marks, and are evidently designed for a common 



274 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

benefit. The air is clearly free for all to breathe ; water pours 
abroad its currents of beauty and richness with undistinguished 
profusion ; and earth, with all the bounty of diversified soil, 
proffers the fruits of national fertility in proportion to the indus- 
try of every man. With wonder and admiration we contem- 
plate the miracle of Christ, when, with five loaves and two 
fishes, he fed assembled thousands. Let the principles of his 
religion but preponderate among mankind, and that miracle 
will become perpetual ; the supply will outrun the demand, and 
wretchedness of every form be banished from earth. But no ; 
the poor must be made poorer, that the rich may become yet 
richer. Millions per annum must go to support sinecures and 
worse than useless luxuries, while the great masses inherit 
nothing but ignorance, servitude, and want. When will the 
opulent, the proud, and the pompous, learn that the code of the 
rights of property is destined to be modified at least by the 
rights of humanity ? The one is artificial, temporary, and 
often exceedingly oppressive ; the other is natural, universal, 
and immovable. The negro admires the skill of the white 
man ; he says that he makes every thing work. " He catches 
horse, makes him work ; catches nigger, makes him work ; 
catches smoke, makes him work." But the mighty, who are 
playing this imperial game, compelling humanity unceasingly 
to toil, should exercise Christ's law of mercy, or they will 
speedily learn, to their cost, that the workers are themselves 
becoming qualified to define their just rights and defend them. 
Over thrones, dominions, and powers, over whatever ancient 
bulwarks or modern prejudices may oppose to their advance- 
ment, truth and justice are marching to inevitable and speedy 
triumph. In tones most clear and exhilarating, God is speak- 
ing in the soul of the masses, telling each to realize all of which 
his energies are capable, and toward which his aspirations 
tend, recognizing no human master, and wearing no fetter on 
faculty or limb. 

* We have said that aristocracy was the first foe of the 
church, has ever since been but a hypocritical friend at best, 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT AN ARISTOCRAT. 275 

and we now remark, thirdly, that it is a perpetual impediment 
and consummate disgrace. 

There always has been something fiendish in absolute power, 
and in the mode with which ambitious worldlings have maligned 
the nature of Christianity, or attempted to pervert its use. For 
centuries after the primitive church was planted, this evil was 
the greatest which truth struggled to overcome. Tertullian, in 
his "Apology," (chap, xlv.,) has occasion to allude to this fact, 
and indirectly sketches a beautiful outline of what Christianity 
then was. Says he, " We pray for emperors, and for all 
officers in power, for the present state of the world, for peace, 
and for the delay of the final consummation. We unite to 
read the Scriptures, whence we derive, according to circum- 
stances, the light and warning of which we have need. This 
divine word nourishes our faith, elevates our hope, confirms 
our confidence, establishes the bond of discipline, and incul- 
cates its law. . . . Old men preside. They attain this honor, 
not by wealth, but by the popular suffrage offered to their well- 
known worth. Money has not the slightest influence in things 
pertaining to God. If there is found among us a kind of 
treasure, its source is pure, and no one has occasion to blush 
for having sold religion. Each one contributes a moderate 
sum every month, in such manner and amount as he pleases ; 
there is no compulsion ; the offerings are voluntary. This is 
the deposit of piety ; it is never dissipated in festivals or in 
debauches, but is employed to relieve or buiy the destitute, to 
nourish forsaken orphans, superannuated domestics, and those 
who have suffered shipwreck ; and, if there are Christians con- 
demned to the mines, held bound in prisons, or banished to 
islands, only for the cause of God, Religion expands her ma- 
ternal solicitude in behalf of those who have confessed her 
before the world." 

This shows, with every other form of testimony, that truth 
has much more to fear than to hope from unsanctified great- 
ness. Her chief strength is in the attachment of the feeble 
whom she protects, and the law of righteousness upon which 



276 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

she is based. Love is her great power, and the unlovely great 
are her chief impediment and disgrace, " without one glory spar- 
kling in their eye, one triumph on their tongue." Christianity 
has been shorn of its best energies ever since it fell into the 
thraldom of aristocratic patronage, and wherever the masses 
have been prevented from selecting, at their own will, pious 
and philanthropic pastors to fill free pulpits, and station in every 
community a lover of justice, humanity, and God. 

In the history of the past and observation of the present, we 
meet with artificial distinctions much oftener than the enjoy- 
ment of natural rights. Particular dignitaries domineer over 
and obscure our common nature. Autocrats and aristocrats, 
nobles and priests, are more frequently obtruded upon the gen- 
eral notice than men, — human beings made conscious of 
divinity within them, and acutely conscious of the worthless- 
ness of all outward decorations, compared with what is treas- 
ured in their own souls. Man does not sufficiently value him- 
self as man, but looks rather to the chance circumstances of 
blood, rank, or caste — unworthy prejudices, which obscure 
what we most need to know, the invaluable worth and immortal 
destiny of every human being. 

To maintain arbitrary distinctions and power, there has been 
a frightful expenditure of money, blood, and human happiness. 
Says a distinguished English writer in relation to his own 
country, " We talk of education and institutions for the peo- 
ple : why, the country might have been covered with endowed 
schools, institutions, museums, libraries, picture and sculpture 
galleries. We might have brought the luxuries of life home 
to every village, and furnished the means of intellectual and 
artistical improvement and enjoyment to the entire population 
of these realms. Nor was it merely a waste of money, but 
of human life and happiness, which the principles of the Cor- 
responding Society would have averted. During the long and 
bloody wars with France, men fell as thick as pounds were 
wasted, by hundreds of thousands and by millions. There was 
scarcely a stream which was not stained by British blood, how- 






THE CHURCH WITHOUT AN ARISTOCRAT. 277 

ever remote the country in which its waters flowed, — scarcely 
a soil which was not saturated and fertilized with the blood of 
our countrymen. And for what? To keep down freedom 
both abroad and at home ; to arrest the course of the French 
revolution, and prevent the commencement of an English 
reformation. Not only is the loss of life to be considered, but 
also the sacrifice of human enjoyment and peace. Widows 
and orphans were made by wholesale ; sorrow and suffering 
were spread over Europe ; every department of trade and 
commerce was disturbed. There was, so to speak, almost an 
omnipresence of evil generated ; bad passions, lashed into a 
fury of demoralization, spread from country to country, too 
often under the name of religion, by means of which it was 
attempted to establish over humanity the reign of the most 
demoniacal principles and practices. There was a fearful sus- 
pension of that regular career of improvement by which the 
human race, left to itself, would advance, a throwing back of 
the destinies of humanity, and, as far as human power extends, 
counteracting the purposes of divine Providence for the 
amelioration of the condition of mortals, and their gradual 
advancement towards a higher state of being. If the Corre- 
sponding Society had been successful, not only would external 
warfare have been prevented, but internal dissension likewise. 
The Irish rebellion of 1798 would not have taken place ; the 
tremendous horrors of which have not yet been forgotten, and 
never will be until that country has every wrong redressed. 
Pitch-caps, floggings, triangles, and all the gross barbarities to 
which the inhabitants of that land were subjected by an inso- 
lent soldiery, — the recollection of which accumulated so much 
of horror and hatred around the name of Lord Castlereagh, 
that it could not be obliterated even by the death which he 
inflicted upon himself, — these would have been saved, and all 
the passions and collisions which have resulted from this state 
of things, and have spread so much derangement and confusion 
abroad in society since that time." 

The oppression suffered by the laboring classes at home is 
24 



278 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

equalled only by the miseries of those who are driven into wars- 
abroad. Coleridge said of the first, — 

" Those institutions of society which should condemn me to 
the necessity of twelve hours' daily toil would make my soul 
a slave, and sink the rational being into the mere animal. It is 
a mockery of our fellow-creatures' wrongs to call them equal 
in rights, when, by bitter compulsion of their wants, we make 
them inferior to us in all that can soften the heart or dignify 
the understanding." 

Upon this truthful text, Rev. Mr. Fox makes the following 
equally truthful remarks : — 

" There are those who can bear well the amount of toil 
which Coleridge disclaims for himself, as likely to exercise 
such a crushing influence over his faculties. While there are 
a few who are subject to the curse — for such it is — of indo- 
lence, the great body of the people, most assuredly, are over- 
tasked in their labors ; they have to wear out life, thought, 
sensation, and all the higher and better powers of our nature, 
in the mere exercise of muscular strength ; they are doomed 
to a sort of engine mode of existence, having to fulfil their 
allotted task from day to day ; and, however much medical 
men may be puzzled to say exactly what is the average meas- 
ure of labor which is good for human beings, there can be no 
doubt, nor, I believe, is there any with scientific men them- 
selves, that that measure is, in an immense multitude of cases, 
largely overpassed. 

" The results of this system force themselves upon our 
notice. They evidence themselves in debilitated frames, pre- 
vailing epidemics, and shortened duration of life. Death, like 
a stern monitor, keeps his account-books well ; he swells his 
numbers, and records with unerring pen the consequences of 
a deteriorated and oppressive condition of society ; he points to 
nameless graves in the distance as the total and the end of all. 
If, in the struggle of the Scottish people with Episcopacy, they 
can now point to their distinguished martyrs and others who 
fell in the cause of religion or their country, — so numerous 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT AN ARISTOCRAT. 279 

that they were called upon to erect one gravestone to the mem- 
ory of ten thousand martyrs, — why, excessive toil has also its 
records in graves without a tombstone, where lie the hundreds 
of thousands and the millions of martyrs to the imposition of 
labor too great for humanity to bear." 

To limit the blessings of education to the smallest possible 
number, and to monopolize its power for selfish purposes, is 
another form of craft practised by priests and aristocrats. 
" Their only real object is to render education subservient to 
the interests of certain wealthy and powerful classes ; while 
that moral appreciation of its benefits, that earnest wish that 
humanity, wherever it exists, however lowly its condition, 
should have all the gladdening views and lofty aspirations 
which a wholesome training and guidance would bestow, is 
altogether thrown overboard, and the whole thing is sacrificed 
to a thirst of power, and a principle of sordid ness." Hence all 
the great universities are closed against those who will not first 
swear to stand by " the altar and the throne," because unshackled 
republican students are, of all agencies, those which despotism 
has good reason most to fear. They would have subjects, 
not of right, but of sufferance — not of independence, but of 
charity — a sort of slaves who, like tame animals, should lick 
the hand that grudgingly feeds them, and obey the unquestioned 
biddings of their masters, upon whatever errand they may be 
sent. The first article in the creed of such dons is, that 
" whatever is is right," and especially is it right that they 
themselves should be comfortably off, and care as little as 
possible about the unfortunate millions. Every child they 
produce to propagate their ignoble character and prejudices, 
is instructed in infancy to distinguish between a rich and poor 
relation, while he sucks in the absurdities of his catechism, 
receiving " all that the nurse and all the priest have taught," 
as the ultimatum of truth and the only rule of life. 

The crowning iniquity of aristocratic influence is found in 
the monopoly it aims to secure in secular and religious legis- 
lation. It is yet too true, in Europe and America, that. " the 



280 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

largest possessors of wealth have the greatest influence in the 
enactment of laws by which the people are taxed. Thus we 
find, as a consequence of this undue influence of property, that 
the whole round of taxation falls most hardly upon the poor, 
and those who have the least ability to pay. It is not upon 
large properties, immense estates, and great accumulations 
of wealth, that the burden of taxation ever falls with a pres- 
sure which can be felt for an instant ; but the weight bears 
upon all the necessaries of life, taxing every thing which 
comes to the poor man, and making him pay without im- 
mediately seeing the hand of the tax-collector ; but although 
the process is invisible to the eye of the oppressed individual, 
it is in reality plundering him of a large portion of his earn- 
ings. This is the result of legislation being exclusively in the 
hands of the money power, by which the taxation is thus 
imposed ; instead of being, as it should be, in the possession 
of that moral power which would make realized property pay 
for its security and permanence — a tax which would scarcely 
be felt by the individual, and which is amply due from him 
as the amount of his insurance in the great office of social 
safety. 

" The contest which is now going on between monopoly and 
free trade is another struggle of the same description. Here, 
indeed, it may be said that there is the money power on both 
sides ; and that accumulation is the object of those who are 
striving for the one object, as well as for those who are fight- 
ing against its attainment. But there lies something deeper 
in the conflict than a mere struggle between two sections of 
the money power ; there is a most vital elementary principle 
at stake — man's right to what he earns, and to the greatest 
amount of good which his industry will produce in the world's 
market — his liberty to buy, at the lowest price that he can, 
any of the commodities of which he stands in need. This is 
a question involving the natural right of the people, and which 
is not the 'less infringed for the interference being veiled 
under a variety of terms, and practised indirectly. It is, in 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT AN ARISTOCRAT. 281 

reality, the same thing as though that portion of his earnings 
which is abstracted in taxation, or by what is called « protec- 
tion,' was actually taken from him by force, and applied, 
against his own consent, to purposes in which he had no 
concern. 1 ' 

The only aristocracy worthy of our esteem is Nature's 
own. This is differenced from every factitious kind by two 
invariable marks ; it is always practically useful to society, and 
never hereditary. Mere learning, wealth, and artificial honors, 
may be acquired mechanically ; but the sons of their posses- 
sors are never born with their actual possession. At the 
advent of every child of Adam, in the hovel or palace, 
Nature presents herself before him with the eternal charter 
of human rights, declaring — all are born free and equal. 
But of the rightful inheritance belonging to all new-comers, 
false greatness seizes the lion's share, leaving to be doled out 
to the weaker classes only a few scraps and crumbs of 
privilege. If the possessors of more copious brain, heart, 
and living soul, work out the results which constitute the 
dignity of human nature, and the moral grandeur of either 
church or state, no thanks to fostering wealth or official 
patronage for their success. Solitary and unsympathized 
with in their lofty aspirations, they win a peaceful, honorable, 
and useful victory over the world, benefiting those whom 
they subdue by the majesty of their intrinsic worth, and 
raising them from the degradation of privileged classes, to 
the higher dignity of membership in a free state and republi- 
can church. 

Monopolists are all of the same feather, and their influence 
is the same in every country and age. They are known by 
the positions they covet, as well as by the deeds they perform ; 
as innocent birds build their nests in the grass, but birds of 
prey on domineering heights. The finest creatures of im- 
agination, and the grandest masterpieces of inventive genius, 
are estimated by what they will contribute to personal 
aggrandizement, and not by their relation to the common 
24* 



282 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

weal. " Discover what will destroy life, and you are a great 
man ! what will prolong it, and you are an impostor ! Dis- 
cover some invention in machinery that will make the rich 
more rich, and the poor more poor, and they will build you 
a statue ! Discover some mystery in art that would equalize 
physical disparities, and they will pull down their own houses 
to stone you." 

The English aristocracy are, at this moment, greatly 
alarmed, as they have been for the last half century, in their 
conflict with republican France, and other abused neighbors. 
They profess to fight under the banner of Liberty ; but the 
least informed can easily see that the only freedom they 
desire is to enjoy their own selfish privileges, which are 
endangered by every advance of liberal opinions and rational 
institutions. But liberty does not cease to be a great fact in 
the heart of humanity, and the most strengthening of its 
hopes, because the base, the cunning, and the tyrannical, are 
ready to offer mock incense on her altars, when about to 
murder Liberty's champions, and to transform into curses all 
which it is her prerogative to bestow. For instance, look at 
that beautiful and abused land, of which her noble son, Grattan, 
said long ago, " I found Ireland on her knees : I watched 
over her with an eternal solicitude : I have traced her prog- 
ress from injuries to arms, and from arms to liberty." No: 
not yet to liberty quite, but justice to all oppressed people will 
yet come. 

The common sense of mankind has declared Brahminism 
hostile to civilization, because it produces stagnation in the 
moral life, and perpetually limits the exercise of intellect. 
The influence of all feudal institutions is exactly the same. It 
is a system which has rendered but one good service to man- 
kind — the example of individual will, displaying itself with 
the utmost energy in revolt against insufferable wrongs. The 
lesson prospered : in spite of the weakness of the serfs, and 
the prodigious inequality between them and the great pro- 
prietors, their lords, whole cities broke out in rebellion, and 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT AN ARISTOCRAT. 283 

began the battle of freedom for the world. Says Guizot, " It 
is difficult to fix a precise date to this great event — this 
general insurrection of the cities. The commencement of 
their enfranchisement is usually placed at the beginning of the 
eleventh century. But in all great events, how many un- 
known and disastrous efforts must have been made, before 
the successful one ! Providence, upon all occasions, in order 
to accomplish its designs, is prodigal of courage, virtues, sacri- 
fices — finally, of man ; and it is only after a vast number of 
unknown attempts, apparently lost, — after a host of noble hearts 
have fallen into despair ; convinced that their cause was lost, 
— that it triumphs. Such, no doubt, was the case in the 
struggle of the free cities. Doubtless in the eighth, ninth, and 
tenth centuries, there were many attempts at resistance, many 
efforts made for freedom ; — many attempts to escape from 
bondage, which not only were unsuccessful, but the remem- 
brance of which, from their ill success, has remained without 
glory. Still we may rest assured that these attempts had a 
vast influence upon succeeding events : they kept alive and 
maintained the spirit of liberty — they prepared the great 
insurrection of the eleventh century." 

The battle of the popular heart and will, against feudality, 
has never ceased ; it is mightier and more successful now than 
ever before. In the days of Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, 
sumptuary laws were passed which allowed traders and arti- 
sans the use of meat at one meal only ; even the rich were 
allowed only two courses and two sorts of viands, with the 
exception of barons and prelates, who were at liberty to de- 
vour as many kinds and as much as they pleased. But people 
in our day seem disposed to take the law-making and food- 
providing business into their own hands. In the grand final 
conflict, which every moment approaches a more deadly crisis, 
aristocrats in church and state will be the first to perish, 
according to the righteous ordinance of Heaven, that they who 
most outrageously invade the liberties of others shall first lose 
their own. The time has come when every man, deprived of 



2S4 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

his lawful rights, will exclaim, as did Mirabeau, when expelled 
from the assembly of the nobles at Marseilles, " So perished 
the last of the Gracchi ; but, before yielding up his life, he 
threw dust toward heaven, and from that dust Marius grew — 
Marius, less great as the exterminator of the Cimbri, than as 
the destroyer of patrician aristocracy at Rome." These words 
expressed the daring resolution of their author, which he lived 
to accomplish, and which enabled him to say on his death-bed, 
" I carry to my grave the shreds of the monarchy." So true 
is this that, although there have been a few royal puppets since, 
we hope Louis Philippe correctly said, in his recent flight, " I 
am the last king of France." 

It is matter for devout acknowledgment that the Church of 
Christ, like every thing else really good, is progressive, and 
is destined to sweep away every obstacle, become as universal 
as the wants of our race, free as the dew and effulgence of 
heaven. She marches nearer and ever nearer to the infinite 
grandeur of the universe, and the perfect unity of its God. We 
are to look perpetually forward, and press toward the mark of 
our high calling, cultivating the conservatism, not of bigoted 
feudality, but of generous fraternity, holiness, and joy. Yester- 
day we cannot bring back ; it is antiquated : our duty is to perform 
the duties of a better to-day, and anticipate a still more glorious 
to-morrow. Christianity must not be allowed to lag behind 
the other elements of civilization which it so much excels. 
Every new power that Science discovers, Religion hallows and 
consecrates to the widest advantage of all ranks, or they inevi- 
tably suffer together the greatest harm. True development is 
a constant growth from the past into the future, at every 
advance imbibing the mystic and mighty agencies by which 
the heart is purified, intellect enlarged, and the whole person 
fitted to serve God and man. As it is with individuals, so is it 
with the church as a whole. If it remains stationary a mo- 
ment, incompetent to satisfy the religious wants, or graf»ple 
with the religious perils, of an era characterized by great social 
and political revolutions, then must it perish, or receive from 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT AN ARISTOCRAT. 285 

some new source immediate accessions of intelligence and 
force. Hence do we see modern Christianity, true to her 
mission of progress, gaining new vigor every day from inno- 
vators within her fold, who float more freely between habits of 
ancient submission, associations of bigoted attachment, and 
allegiance to revolutionary ideas. 

All auspices indicate the dawn of a new era. Storms gather 
with irresistible might to sweep down thrones, disperse mitres, 
chastise aristocratic and priestly arrogance, awaken the masses 
to a sense of their capacities as well as their wrongs, and give 
stability to free institutions every where, by giving elevation of 
sentiment to all classes of mankind. Then rulers will under- 
stand that one of the best means of improving men is season- 
ably and generously to employ them ; that the good of the 
laborer is to be regarded, as well as the profit to be derived 
from his toil. Then, too, it will be known that the vitality of 
Christianity is in itself, or rather in the will, precepts, and exam- 
ple of its divine Founder ; not in arid creeds, sacerdotal des- 
potisms, and hollow forms. True devotees, then, will be genteel 
and highly accomplished, not by an imprudent or effeminate 
unison with the taste's and customs of feudalism, ancient or 
modern, but by a profound and yet independent reverence for 
virtue, rather than rank ; for worth, more than wealth. Should 
we live to enjoy the full splendors of that day, we shall have 
learned, beyond all present experience, that to be the servant 
of all is to command all ; to give is to receive ; to love is to 
be loved ; to die is to live ; that true happiness consists in the 
flowing out of our affections upon others, rather than the 
flowing in of their treasures or affections upon ourselves ; — that 
dispersion, not accumulation ; self-spending, not self-seeking ; 
is the grand design of our earthly existence and its highest 
reward. 

We have already seen that the first home of true religious 
freedom was in a few hearts among the first colonists of this 
western world. The Roman Catholics of Maryland, dreading 
the aggression of English bigotry, and profiting by Roger 



286 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

Williams's wise liberality, on April 21, 1649, placed upon their 
statute-book the following noble act : " Whereas the enforcing 
of the conscience in matters of religion hath frequently fallen 
out to be of dangerous consequence in those commonwealths 
where it has been practised, and for the more quiet and peace- 
able government of this province, and the better to preserve 
mutual love and amity among the inhabitants, no person within 
this province, professing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall be any 
ways troubled, molested, or discountenanced, for his or her 
religion, or in the free exercise thereof." But notwithstanding 
these generous and Christian movements on the part of reli- 
gionists who differed most widely in their tenets, their mutual 
foes in Massachusetts soon employed 

" The skeptic's might, the crosier's pride, 
The shackle and the stake," — 

if not to mangle their flesh with the enginery of the most fiend- 
ish bigotry, to attempt what is worse, and " lock its hard fet- 
ters on the mind." Too soon for the peace and honor of that 
age, but not too speedily and outrageously for a warning to all 
time, and the ultimate disinthralment of all men from priestly 
and aristocratic domination, came the actors and their acts, cel- 
ebrated by Whittier : — 

** O, glorious days, when church and state 
"Were wedded by your spiritual fathers ! 
And on submissive shoulders sat 

Your Wilsons and your Cotton Mathers. 

" Then -wholesome laws relieved the church 
Of heretic and mischief-maker ; 
And priest and bailiff joined in search, 
By turns, of Papist, "Witch, and Quaker ! 

" The stocks were at each church's door ; 
The gallows stood on Boston Common ; 
A Papist's ears the pillory bore — 
The gallows-rope, a Quaker woman." 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT AN ARISTOCRAT. 287 

Who were the bold advocates of religious liberty in this 
country in her first struggles, and who have been her stanch 
friends every where ever since ? Says the "New Englander," 
(not a Baptist magazine,) "Among them, in the providence of 
God, American Baptists seem to have been called to lead the 
van. In the report on the subject of European missions, which 
was adopted at the last meeting of the general convention in 
Philadelphia, American Baptists have put this testimony on 
record : — 

" ' In Greece, the great practical value of our principle, — to 
recognize no national church, but to build up churches of spir- 
itual Christians that shall be independent of the state, and in- 
dependent of each other, — has been early and signally mani- 
fested. To attempt to reform, by fraternization, the corrupt 
national churches of the East, is, we believe, a fruitless 
effort. We act on another principle. A church, composed 
only of hopeful converts, independent, and, as far as man gov- 
erns it, self governed, is our view of the New Testament polity, 

AND OUR SCHEME FOR MODERN MISSIONS.' 

" That is the American Baptists' stand. Be it theirs to 
maintain it every where, in good faith and entire. In doing so, 
let them, by prayer, sympathy, and succor, stand by their per- 
secuted brethren in Germany and Denmark ; let them encour- 
age and uphold their suffering brethren' in France, and if 
4 Protestant evangelists and colporteurs, 1 sustained, perchance, 
by American funds, make common cause with high-church 
' Nationals,' in multiplying their afflictions and upholding the 
doctrine of state alliance and control, let them tell the story, 
as in the last report of their Board of Missions, to all the 
churches, and they will see that American Christians of other 
names will not send funds across the Atlantic, to help the 
vengeful bond woman to beget abortions, or to strangle at the 
birth the free babes of the free woman ; just when her Lord, 
too, is saying, ' Rejoice, thou barren, that bearest not ; break 
forth and cry, thou that travailest not ; for the desolate hath 
many more children than she which hath a husband.' Let 



288 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

them, in the same spirit, bid their brethren in Greece be of 
good courage and fear not, both to preach and to baptize in the 
name of the Lord Jesus ; and if those good brethren dare not 
do so, let American Baptists unite with the weak, and timid, 
and prudent of other faiths, and call home all Protestant mis- 
sionaries from the East, ' to stay in Jericho till their beards be 
grown,' or other men are found, who, like Paul, will carry the 
gospel there, and bear themselves, in its propagation, in respect 
to civil relations and authorities, worthily of the gospel of 
Christ ; or, like Christ, will be ready to obey unto death in the 
maintenance therein of his supremacy over all authorities, 
whether of heaven, earth, or hell." 

This was published in July, 1845 ; and since then what has 
the same denomination done for civil and religious liberty in 
Asia, Africa, and Europe, especially in those grand fields of 
modern civilization — France and Germany ? 

We believe that nobler conflicts are yet to be fought, and 
ampler trophies won. Heaven has evidently predestined the 
Christian heroes of this age " to fight the battles of the future 
now," and woe be to him who is too imbecile or cowardly for 
the strife. The era has come when, as a redeeming and con- 
trolling agent, the days of expediency, priestly cunning, and 
aristocratic compulsion, are numbered, and henceforth not 
power, nor conventional morality, nor parasitical talent, but 
truth, simple, unshackled, and sublime, is the untaxed dowry of 
every Christian soul, and the only crowned monarch of all 
mankind. There is a luminary risen fairer and more extended 
than all other lights — even the word that was in the beginning ; 
the all-blessing effulgence of the highest Heaven, of which 
solar beams are but the Shechinah and cloudy tabernacle ; the 
blessed word that shines for all, and giveth eternal life to as 
many as seek to be transformed by his influence. He has 
offered himself, a divine atonement for the sins of the whole 
world, thus abolishing all lesser sacrifices, and destroying the 
functions of all other priests. He has taught us to call no man 
master, and in no way to create in others or ourselves the 



THE CHURCH WITHOUT AN ARISTOCRAT. 289 

degradation of a slave. He has planted on earth a sacred asso- 
ciation of members every way equal to each other, and mu- 
tually esteemed ; and this perfect model of republicanism, given 
to the world eighteen hundred years ago, Christ carefully iso- 
lated from kings and popes, bishops and priests ; and that these 
four classes of tyrants may ever be deprived of their chief 
support, he would most zealously banish from the holy broth- 
erhood every aristocrat. 
25 



PART III 



THE REPUBLICAN INFLUENCE OF 
CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 



" Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the 
earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously by licensing and prohibit- 
ing to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple ; who ever 
knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter ? Her confuting 
is the best and surest suppressing. . . . For who knows not that Truth is 
strong next to Almighty ? She needs no policies, nor stratagems, nor 
licensings, to make her victorious ; those are the shifts and the defences 
that Error uses against her power. Give her but room, and do not bind 
her when she sleeps." — Milton's Areopagitica. 

" If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union, or 
to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments 
of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated, where reason 
is left free to combat it." — Jefferson's Inaugural Address. 

" Croyez-vous que le lache, qui traine en tout lieu la chaine de l'esclave, 
soit moins charge que l'homme de courage qui porte les fers du prison- 
nier ? " — Paroles d'un Croyant. 

"If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." 
" And there shall be one fold and one shepherd." — Jesus Christ. 



CHAPTER I. 

CHRISTIANITY THE SOLACE OF THE 
OBSCURE. 

In parts first and second of this work on Republican Chris- 
tianity, we have portrayed the progressive character of Christ, 
and the spirit of the primitive church. It remains to discuss the 
republican influence of Christian doctrine ; and our first duty 
will be to show that it is Heaven's best solace to hidden 
rninds. 

Under this general head, three points are to be discussed, as 
follows : Christianity arose in the deepest gloom ; is designed 
to mitigate the keenest pangs ; and pour solace upon the 
obscurest children of mankind. 

First, it was in the deepest gloom that our holy religion arose 
to diffuse its light and blessedness all over earth. This is 
" the dayspring from on high, which has visited us, to give 
light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, 
to guide our feet into the way of peace." From the darkest 
night, the Sun of righteousness burst on our world with healing 
on his wings, light and joy for all. Christianity is not the 
religion of a sect or section, the tool of kings, popes, councils, 
hierarchies, synods, or creed-makers, but Heaven's own sys- 
tem of infallible truth and free salvation, with few doctrines 
necessary to be believed, and many duties necessary to be 
performed. 

Human society is a natural condition, the state necessary 
for man ; since without sociality man could neither reproduce 
nor preserve himself. Hence religion, without which social 
institutions cannot exist, is necessary as society itself, and 
cannot be a mere human invention. If our existence is 



292 



REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 



designed for some exalted end, as that of all beings, it is evi- 
dent that the end designed cannot be attained but by the aid of 
revelation, which alone can give us positive information in 
relation to our nature, origin, and destiny, while it guaranties 
the possession of that which is supremely good and true. Chris- 
tianity, as it is found in the New Testament, is " ordained to 
better and to beautify existence as it is ; " a religion of love and 
saving grace, addressing itself to the head and to the heart ; 
in harmony with the natural as well as moral world ; and 
bringing to all the magnificent proofs of Deity without us, 
and the still more impressive proofs of Deity within us ; a 
religion which is adapted to man's condition and wants every 
where, admitting no compromise with vice, making sincerity 
the test of sanctity, and practical benevolence the test of 
sincerity. 

True religion is every way infinite, because it is all full of 
God. Between it and our faculties there is a perfect harmony ; 
therefore, in all time, and in every place, man, naturally 
inclined to worship in some form, has felt the need of being 
enlightened by divine doctrines, consoled, vivified by lofty 
hopes, and conducted by unerring precepts. The more reli- 
gion is pure, holy, and vigorous in its claims of truth and 
justice, the greater is its power over man, and the more is it 
conformed to his nature, despite the disasters of the fall. 
Hence, in every region of earth, Christianity has only to be 
proclaimed in purity to be universally heard. The follies and 
crimes of paganism, superstition, bigotry, and fanaticism, can- 
not long resist its influence, taint its spotless purity, nor pre- 
vent its diffusion even in the darkest corners of earth, where, 
as on the boldest heights, its prerogative is to create the " sun- 
minds that warm the world to love, and worship, and bright 
life." 

The voice that cries, " Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make 
his paths straight, 1 ' always resounds in the desert rather than in 
the garden, among the masses of the obscure, who pant for 
improvement, and not in the halls of the luxurious, already 



CHRISTIANITY THE SOLACE OF THE OBSCURE. 293 

satiated with ease. Christ has taught us not to seek him in a 
terrestrial paradise, but in the Nazareths of virtuous penury, 
the Bethanies of simple domestic joys, the Gethsemanes of 
agonizing prayer, on the Calvaries of martyrdom, and the 
Olivets of triumphal ascent from earthly sufferings to immor- 
tal joys. He who came down from the Father of lights, 
kindled the mild splendors of Christianity first in the most hid- 
den vales, not that the more prominent should be left benighted, 
but that the most unfortunate should be especially blessed. 

As the young eye of Christ opened upon the world he came 
to redeem, he every where saw vice and tyranny in the 
ascendant, crime and imposture ruling supreme. He had not 
made kings to destroy their fellow-men, nor priests to harness 
them, like brutes, to regal chariots, thus in the person of reli- 
gionists giving to the world the basest example of pride, perfidy, 
and avarice, to debauch and destroy ; but as he had built the 
universe to proclaim his power, so he came to enlighten and 
protect the feeblest of the rational creation, the most glorious 
manifestation of his mercy. It is in this respect, especially, 
that Christianity excels all preceding religions. It alone lays 
a pure basis, adapted to the community at large, inculcating 
the spirit of universal authority, and at the same time of such 
a character as to unite all hearts together, and bind them to 
God himself. This was an innovation upon all local systems, 
an overthrow of all contracted creeds, of which Plato, for 
instance, the wisest of uninspired reformers, never dreamed. 
Says he, " No man who has sense, whether he undertakes to 
erect a new state from the very foundation, or merely to restore 
an old one which has been broken down, will attempt to change 
those things relative to the gods and to sacred ceremonies 
which ought to be stable, — from whatever gods or demons 
they may have received their appellation. Nor should the 
legislator touch in any respect that which is founded upon the 
authority of the oracle, or upon sacred old sayings." We 
should infer from language like this that paganism, as religion, 
never rose to the full conception of the Divine, as something 
25* 



294 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

holy, spiritual, individual, and superior to nature. Judaism, on 
the other hand, was an ethical, monotheistic religion, distin- 
guishing God from the world, it is true, but, like preceding 
systems, leaving man more as a phantom of another state of 
being than as a social creature to be cultivated in this. The 
great difficulty was, that whilst paganism confused the ideas 
of the Divine and Human, of God and Nature, Judaism not 
merely distinguished, but separated them. Christ came to 
correct this fatal falsity of view, and placed the whole truth, 
unmutilated and unobscured, palpably before the eyes of all 
mankind. He taught and exemplified his teaching in his own 
wonderful person, that all true religion has both a divine and a 
human character. He showed from the nature of God, as Spirit 
and Love, that he should communicate himself to his creatures, 
even the most lowly, receive them into intercourse with him- 
self, and impart to each some measure of the fulness of his 
own infinite blessedness. This is at once the origin and con- 
summation of Christianity. " God reveals and communicates 
himself; man accepts this revelation, and enters into this com- 
munion. All genuine religion is therefore of divine origin. 
But this is only one side of the question ; there is another, also 
of much importance. This divine message can be received 
by mankind only through means adapted to human capacities. 
Revelation has to work upon the human mind, with all the fac- 
ulties and susceptibilities with which it has been endowed for 
this very purpose, and which constitute its rational character. 
Nor is this all. This mind, at whatever period revelation is com- 
municated, must be in some particular stage of progress, and 
under some peculiar historical influences. Thus all true, liv- 
ing religion must have also a human form, an historical impress 
and character. But while this is the case with all religion, it is 
especially so with Christianity. No religion is at once so divine 
and so human, so creative and original, and at the same time 
so deeply and grandly historical, as this ; and in none are the 
two elements so entirely and so indissolubly united. The 
grand ideas which form the basis of all religion are here 



CHRISTIANITY THE SOLACE OF THE OBSCURE. 295 

presented in their greatest perfection and simplicity; God 
manifests himself in a form wholly corresponding with his 
character, and imbued with his spirit; and this type of his 
perfections is a ?nan, thinking, feeling, acting, and suffering ; 
as a man, exemplifying every human quality in its entire sim- 
plicity and truth, condescending lovingly to the smallest human 
interests, and thus investing them with a divine glory. Viewed 
in this light, Christianity appears divine in its essence, human 
in its form ; divine in its origin, human in its imbodiment and 
development. It possesses the full originality and independ- 
ence of a new religious creation, such as could proceed only 
from an immediate divine impulse ; and is yet in the fullest 
sense historical, bearing the most intimate relation to the whole 
previous training and progress of the human race. It appeared 
when the fulness of time was accomplished ; it is entwined by 
a thousand threads with reality ; and has been, ever since its 
first appearance in the world, so completely the moving spring 
of history, that we cannot but regard it as the germ of the 
higher development of humanity ; while, superior both to rea- 
son and nature, it is at the same time the highest reason and 
the truest nature. For no reason could have invented, no 
reflection discovered, that which forms the central point of 
Christianity ; the self-sacrifice made by divine love on the 
cross, for the sake of sinful humanity ; and yet both recognize 
therein the only effectual means for the redemption and regen- 
eration of humanity." 

Christianity alone distinguishes between God and man with- 
out dividing, portraying the true characters of both, and realiz- 
ing their perfect union in the person of its divine Author. It 
teaches the perfect holiness of God, but at the same time his 
infinite grace and condescension to our fallen race ; the dis- 
tinctly human nature of man, but also his divine origin and 
capacities. In this respect has our holy religion attained the 
end to which all previous systems vainly aspired, being the 
grand luminary of absolute, unchangeable Truth, into whose 
effulgence all the subordinate beams of imperfect systems are 



REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

sublimely merged. And it is the highest glory of " the day- 
spring from on high, which hath visited us," that it arose in the 
deepest gloom, on purpose to pour solace on the most obscure. 
Secondly, Christianity is designed to mitigate the keenest 
pangs. All religion not intrinsically Christian is deficient in 
respect to the prime element of true morality — sympathy for 
hidden suffering. This was one of the fatal defects that pre- 
vailed in the morality of pagan antiquity. Apart from the 
fact, that it favored selfish principles mainly, and constituted 
merely a system of rules for sensual gratification, which ren- 
dered man a proud and obdurate being, it exerted no influence 
upon the great mass of the common people, and had no tender 
emotions to soothe the suffering poor. Its guardians satisfied 
themselves with disputing in their schools about certain abstract 
principles, and left the struggling people to their fate. All 
moral restraint and fraternal obligations derived their chief 
support from traditionary customs, dogmatical ceremonies, and 
mercenary maxims ; and even this poor basis, always weak, 
was rendered still more insecure and pernicious by the preva- 
lence of the most degrading superstition. But such disposi- 
tions, feelings, and moral habits, Christ came to extirpate, 
and to substitute in their place the most salutary laws of 
personal and social improvement. The feeble and unfor- 
tunate were no longer to be despised, but as brethren to be 
recognized and protected. Matrimony was to cease being a 
state for the male to exercise unjust dominion over the fe- 
male, and keep her in miserable bondage. Every house 
was to become a temple, and every inhabitant, however 
humble and destitute, to be ennobled, improved, and conse- 
crated to the service of God and mankind. Animated by 
the highest and purest mutual esteem, every family, neigh- 
borhood, and state was to become a venerable and beneficent 
whole, wherein all should be equals, and none abused. How 
desirable a consummation is this ! Said Plato, " Could we 
create so close, tender, and cordial a connection between the 
citizens of a state, as to induce all to consider themselves as 



CHRISTIANITY THE SOLACE OF THE OBSCURE. 297 

relatives, as fathers, brothers, and sisters, then this whole state 
would constitute but a single family, be subjected to the most 
perfect regulations, and become the happiest republic that ever 
existed upon earth." What Athena's sage vainly hoped to 
accomplish by the feeble power of consanguinity, the obscure 
Teacher of Nazareth will accomplish through fraternal love 
and grace divine. By the legitimate influence of Christianity 
alone can the citizens of this world be united together in such 
a manner, that they will become harmonious members of the 
same body, and yield each other constant assistance, by labor- 
ing together for the common good, mutually participating in 
the cares of each, and tenderly mitigating the sorrows of all. 
Then will the rich and powerful search for those condemned 
by want and misfortune to dwell " in dead Hadean shades," 
and from the deepest gloom agonized merit will emerge, " as 
of yore out of the grave rose God." 

The proper excitement and beneficent use of our sympa- 
thies conduces powerfully to the best mental cultivation. 
Christianity is founded on this principle ; for it is a central 
light, which imparts a proper tone to all surrounding objects, 
and is designed to pierce the obscurest depths, as well as adorn 
the loftiest heights, of society. Having the revelation of God's 
will and the example of Jesus Christ especially before us, we 
learn that correct believing and merciful acting, equally and 
perpetually combined, are indispensable to the formation of 
perfect moral worth. 

" All declare 
For what the Eternal Maker has ordained 
The powers of man : we feel within ourselves 
His energy divine : he tells the heart 
He meant, he made us to behold and love 
What he beholds and loves, the general orb 
Of life and being — to be great like him, 
Beneficent and active." 

Novalis has beautifully said, that man stands with the visible 
universe in as various and incomprehensible relations as with 



298 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

his fellow-men ; that, as it shows itself childlike to the child, 
and bends itself condescendingly to his childish heart, so does 
it appear godlike to divine men, and sound in harmony with the 
highest spirit. It is the strongest passion and highest delight 
of many in the lowest . walks of human life, " nature's low 
tones and harmonies to hear — heard by the calm alone." To 
these tones, to these harmonic sympathies pervading all worlds, 
they possess the acutest sensibility, and by them are inspired 
with the loftiest aspirations. Their hearts shine through their 
native lowliness like live coals through ashes, and they instinc- 
tively soar on high to " search the golden-globed skies for deeds 
of grace." It is the prerogative of Christianity to succor, 
guide, and console such, and has planted disciples here below 
that light may issue from them to impart warmth and lustre to 
every needy soul. Thanks to its benign influence, there never 
need be winter in the spiritual regions most genial to tender 
minds, nor need sympathizing spirits ever be cut off from each 
other, and frost-bound by selfishness, but all may be fused 
everlastingly into one living whole by the breath of heavenly 
love. The great Teacher of universal brotherhood smiles 
down upon our race in common, teaching man every where 
to be merciful to his fellow-man, and, with the gentlest 
regards, wooing the obscure into the bland splendors of his 
presence, to " lift up their hearts, like grass blades to the 
sun." 

Mental and moral cultivation has too often, hitherto, been a 
gift thrown into the lap of affluence alone ; but the doctrines 
of the cross would make it a garland twined round the brow 
of the poorest child of Adam, rendering him joyfully radiant, 
and bounding from the conquest of a thousand perils and pangs. 
Christianity aims to regenerate and perpetually improve the 
moral nature of the masses of the people, strowing her richest 
and most roseate blessings on the million victims whom re- 
morseless Mammon has trampled under his all but omnipotent 
foot. It comes with cheering words and timely patronage to 
those whose hearts are wrinkled long before their brow, wasted 



CHRISTIANITY THE SOLACE OF THE OBSCURE. 299 

by worldly neglect, or broken by oppressive care, and plants 
therein healing joys and auspicious hopes 

" More pure than dewdrops, Nature's tears, which she 
Sheds in her own breast for the fair which die." 

In the life and lessons of Christ is traced the influence of 
those agencies given to mould and bless our world in all its 
unceasing process of creation and improvement. Until regen- 
eration is perfect and universal, the first step will ever be regard 
for the feeble, and the last, martyrdom to the malignity of the 
powerful. In the mean while, humanity will not cease to march 
steadily upward toward perfection. Every step of progres- 
sive light and improvement, from the manger wherein virgin 
worth lays her poorest child, to the throne of ultimate and tri- 
umphant grandeur, Christ attends the race he came to console 
in the darkest hour, its Redeemer, illumination, and reward. 
Compelled as we are, by the necessities of our being, to look 
to the outward world for much of our comfort, and for no small 
share of our happiness, Christ would counsel us rather to look 
within our own bosoms for the best law, guidance, salvation, 
and God. With earnest love he transfers to his disciples the 
truths which the pangs of his earthly experience stamped on 
his innermost soul, and would have us never forget that what- 
ever he draws as an illustration from his own nature has its 
counterpart in our nature, and that he suggests advice and 
inspires purposes divine in our hearts, in order that we may 
raise ourselves from the prostration of worldliness to soar to 
the infinite spiritualities of heaven. This ambition, so useful 
and pure, God most often kindles in the darkest and bleakest 
nooks of earth, prompting the sons of penury to joy in their 
fearful strife, " even as an eagle, nigh famished, in the fellow- 
ship of storms." In these emergencies, wherewith talent is 
elicited and worth matured, success results only from an humble 
but firm resolve to be individual, a being girt with that unity 
of manhood and divinity that God designed. Such a purpose 
is not formed in moments of excitement and enthusiasm, to be 



300 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

abandoned with the first ebbing of emotion ; neither is it a res- 
olution barren of practical use in the world. It says, in all 
calmness, and with the utmost fixedness of will, " If no other 
man shall be found disposed to stand by my side through every 
vicissitude, I will be an unflinching hero to resist evil, delusion, 
and despotism, of every form." Such persons are imbued with 
deep-seated strength, won from fiercest elements, and which, 
like manna in the desert and wilderness, they can live upon, 
and, " spider-like, spin their web out any where." The pur- 
pose of their life is to improve mankind in general, and espe- 
cially to encourage those who, like themselves, have known 
the direst struggles ; to show them the beauty of holiness, and 
urge them, by the most potent entreaty, to aspire to its posses- 
sion ; to paint before the eye of their mind the ideal of progres- 
sive virtue, and to indicate the agencies by which individual 
perfectibility can best be attained ; to state and exemplify the 
renouncement, the self-denial, the martyr courage, the perti- 
nacity, the unity of purpose, and earnestness of pursuit, by 
which men may best fulfil the end of their existence, best ac- 
complish the will of their Creator, and shine with most health- 
ful brightness over the wide ranks of their race. To such 
persons religion is not a frigid, stationary thing ; but, as soon 
as it has passed into the form of vital experience, its progress 
is thenceforth illimitable and its influence unbounded. As sym- 
pathy threw them, when sorrowing, on the Invisible and Immu- 
table, and, in all their subsequent career, conducts them to the 
same infinite sources of light and strength, when all around 
their dimmed eyes and yearning heart the visible is dark and 
troubled, so do they delight most, in every interval of their own 
bitter strifes, to search out the still worse conditioned, and 
relieve their woes. They know full well how slight an act 
may raise or sink a soul, and multiply, in the most desponding, 
those serener and sublimer moments which convey the spirit 
away through the gate of devotion to the throne of the Infinite, 
where the poorest are most bountifully enriched, and the proud- 



CHRISTIANITY THE SOLACE OF THE OBSCURE. 301 

est honors of earth appear less valuable, as well as more tran- 
sient, than summer dust. 

The truth as it is in Jesus of Nazareth, the victim of oppres- 
sion and patron of the obscure, exalts, consoles, and raises us 
above the sphere of ordinary suffering, chases despair from 
anguish, restores to us " the loved, the lost, the distant, and the 
dead," pours into minds the most deeply hurt the most healing 
balm, ministers to the loftiest hope, and awakens those imagin- 
ings which " bring all heaven before our eyes." The sincere 
teachers of this truth will not tarry on their errands of mercy 
because of the rain and wind, nor will they wait until the day 
shall break, when tyrants are crushing their victim, demons are 
impatient for their prey, and an expiring sinner may be saved 
from eternal woe. When man, loving and serving his fellow- 
man, the most wretched even, goes forth in the tempestuous 
midnight, ascends wintry hills, traverses the pathless wilder- 
ness, till, faint, cold, and dripping, he at length reaches the 
hovel of deserved and tortured humanity, with what a gasping 
of inarticulate gratitude, interpreted most strongly in smiles 
mantling the cheek of agony, is his coming welcomed ! There 
are thousands of such abodes, which, but for the tender mer- 
cies of Christianity, would never be lighted up with a single ray 
of health or hope. Most persons, like Tacitus, delight to por- 
tray the corruptions of their fellow-men, without once attempt- 
ing either to reform or alleviate them. Instead of making 
human culture as universal as heavenly light, the influence of 
redemption coextensive with the disasters of the fall, the selfish 
would forbid the sun to shine beyond the boundaries of their 
own useless domain, and concentrate their intrinsic meanness 
to the violent enforcement only of their own bigoted creed. 
If pure and promising talents start up in humble shades, like 
rosebuds peeping out of snow, these tramplers on the best 
hopes of mankind will stamp down their first unfoldings, or 
leave them to freeze beyond all power of further growth. But 
not so would Christ have us deal with those who are in danger 
of abiding in a perpetual Cimmerian sojourn ; he directs each 
26 



302 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

struggling plant of humanity to be brought out into a genial, 
salubrious air, not mutilated by tyranny nor chilled by neglect. 
Each congealed sensibility would the Savior gently loosen with 
the soft breath of love, and each incipient faculty would he 
energize with power undying, that he might transform the most 
hidden heart into a perennial fountain, " flinging its bright, fresh 
feelings up to the skies it loves and strives to reach." 

The noblest are always the most tolerant, the basest the most 
arrogant, and the most deserving the most uncomplaining. We 
often have occasion to remark, with an early Greek father, that 
" it is the rich and prosperous who condemn Providence, in 
affected pity for the sufferings of innocence." Said Bernardin 
de Saint Pierre, " It is from the midst of voluptuous prosperity 
that these murmurs against Providence issue. It is from these 
libraries, so filled with light, that the clouds rise up which have 
obscured the hopes and virtues of Europe." " It is not Laza- 
rus," says St. Chrysostom, "that pronounces such blasphemy. 
He would have shuddered at the thought of it. k it not revolt- 
ing, then, that, while those whom God has visited with all kinds 
of misery, bless him and give him thanks, you, who are only 
bare spectators of the combat of humanity with suffering, should 
thus blaspheme against Providence ? For, if the sufferer 
should for a moment give way to grief, and utter some guilty 
words, there would seem to be some excuse for him ; but that 
another, who is a stranger to the sorrows of life, should lose 
his soul and outrage his Creator, condemning things which are 
regarded by those who endure them as benefits, and a subject 
of gratitude, this certainly is inconceivable, and undeserving 
of pardon." 

Sincere Christians are the most uncomplaining, however great 
the sufferings they endure, because they are most conscious of 
their own demerits and the unspeakable mercy of God. If 
their good deeds are calumniated, their integrity denied, or 
their faults exaggerated, they inflict on their foes nothing but 
tears of sorrow ; for their heart tells them to set against the 
unjust treatment they receive on earth the boundless rewards 



CHRISTIANITY THE SOLACE OF THE OBSCURE. 303 

laid up for them in heaven. The lone pilgrim who journeys, 
it may be with tender feet and feeble limbs, along the gloomiest 
vales of life, remembers that He who built the universe, and 
possessed all treasures within himself, was, on earth, more des- 
titute and despised than all the children of men, yet bore in his 
youthful bosom a heart forever swelling with inexhaustible 
compassion, which finally broke on the cross, when, in the hour 
of dark despair, he stretched out his arms to embrace and bless 
a world redeemed. 

Thirdly, Christianity not only arose in the deepest gloom, 
and is designed to mitigate the keenest pangs, but, in harmony 
with its origin and first experience, it also pours solace upon 
the obscurest children of mankind. 

Christ inculcated nothing with more earnestness than a belief 
in the universal and impartial love of the Father of all, which 
is extended even to the feeblest fowls of heaven. He inces- 
santly labored to place the wretched in an attractive light, and 
cause them to be approached with feelings of benevolence and 
esteem. He portrayed, in brilliant and fascinating terms, the 
alacrity with which God pardons the vicious and wandering, as 
soon as they repent and reform. The parable of the prodigal 
son (Luke xv. 11 — 32) in the most touching and beautiful 
manner applies this truth to the heathen nations, and represents 
them, after a long wandering, as returning and again received 
into their Father's house. In order to inspire the proud and 
domineering ranks of his countrymen with merciful dispositions 
toward their fellow-men, Christ employs the strongest and 
most vivid colors to represent the exalted worth of human 
nature, and shows them that it ought to be respected in the 
smallest child even, and the meanest slave. His most distinct 
command was to love all mankind, which obligation, on our 
part, he grounded upon the universal love of the Father in 
heaven, who makes his sun to shine equally upon all nations, 
and sends his rain as plentifully upon those who are most 
benighted or deformed by vice, as upon those who are decorated 
with the fairest virtues. The neighbor to be loved as one's 



304 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

self was every man without exception ; and, by thus represent- 
ing love to the weakest and most unworthy of mankind in con- 
nection with love to the Almighty Father in heaven, as the 
substance of all morality, our Lord entirely and forever abol- 
ished all party considerations in respect to distinction of family, 
rank, nation, and religion. He would have each rational crea- 
ture, in his appropriate sphere, fostered with the tenderest 
regard, that each succeeding day he may possess more of mind 
and freedom than he ever had. 

In a strain of ineffable melody do we hear resounding on 
the wide air, from the sacred mount, "Blessed are the poor in 
spirit." Blessed the poor ! Ah, how unlike to this were the 
wisdom and demeanor of pagan antiquity ! Said the great 
Stagirite, " We fear all evil things, such as the loss of fame, 
poverty, sickness, friendlessness, and death." The Athenian, 
with Plato, would make a law in every state to this effect — 
" Let there be no poor person in the city ; let such a person be 
banished from the cities, and from the forum, and from the 
country fields, that the country may be altogether pure and free 
from an animal of this kind." In short, for four thousand 
years poverty was looked upon as a dreadful evil, a sign of 
malediction ; and, where true Christianity does not predomi- 
nate, the same sentiments continue to maintain their ground 
among men, and impel them to ungenerous deeds. The 
children of penury and misfortune, however richly they may 
be endowed, are still regarded as those vile animals against 
whom the Grecian legislator proposed to make laws, banishing 
them from every place of public resort, that the more favored 
might not be annoyed by their presence, and even rural seclu- 
sion be cleared of their contaminating touch. 

All vitiated forms of Christianity, patronized and enforced 
by the head of the state, by princes, nobles, magistrates, and 
hierarchies of every form, descend slowly into the lower ranks, 
and do little or no popular good. But the great Founder of 
the true church took exactly the opposite course ; he himself 
was bom and began his divine mission among the plebeian 



CHRISTIANITY THE SOLACE OF THE OBSCURE. 305 

classes, the poor and ignorant, and the power of faith ascended 
rapidly into the higher classes, reaching at length the impe- 
rial throne. The two impressions of these two origins of reli- 
gious belief have remained distinct on their respective classes, 
manifested in the magnanimous zeal of one and the bigoted 
mummery of the other. The great masses hail the advent of 
the first, and are blest by their influence ; while to the exclu- 
sive arrogance of the latter, contracted aristocratic circles al- 
ways furnish the most favorable soil. So little alive are they 
to the natural inference from this palpable and disgraceful fact, 
that in magnifying national, religious, and pharisaical creeds, 
they always boast of their wonderful effects in giving a digni- 
fied tone to high society, the monopoly of literary elegance to 
a clique, or in contributing to some worldly advantage, which 
by special grace should belong alone to the ranks above the 
poor. There is in truth always a secret tendency in the higher 
walks of life, where pride and affluence reign, to despise the 
company of the shepherds of Bethlehem, who were the first to 
believe, as well as to scorn treading in the steps of those fish- 
ermen who were the first to obey. But it would be well for 
all to remember what St. Jerome, the hermit of Bethlehem, in 
the fourth century said : " The apostles have written, and our 
Lord himself has spoken in the Gospels, not that a few merely, - 
but that all, should understand. Plato wrote, but he wrote for 
a small number, and not for the nations. Scarcely three men 
understood him. But these, that is, the princes of the church 
and of Christ, have written, not for a few, but for all men." 

Christ appeared on earth invested with sublime and holy 
doctrines, which he labored to impart, not to sects and secta- 
ries, but to universal man. He taught with a completeness of 
wisdom and love that contemplated all those^ laws which reg- 
ulate our sublunary career, often so stormy, but over which 
never ceases to gleam the rainbow of hope. He had a vivid 
personal experience of all the delicate sensibilities that melt 
and trickle around the heartstrings of the obscurest bosom, as 
streams of pearl flow darkly beneath the mighty mountains ; 
26* 



306 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

and this same great patron of trembling merit, who remotely 
read the better desires of Nathaniel when under the fig-tree, 
says to each obscure youth panting to arise and shine, — 

" I saw thy secret longings — unsaid thoughts, 
Which prey upon the breast like night-fires on 
A heath." 

The redeemer who goes forth to bless this world, must be 
a prophet to arouse and encourage, rather than a philosopher to 
dogmatize and confound ; one speaking to our spiritual, intui- 
tions more acutely than to our mental speculations — aiming 
at the diffusion of universal light, as the means of securing 
individual rights and promoting perpetual progression. Thus 
Jesus came — divinity veiled under, the luminous shadow of 
immaculate humanity, which combination garnered within 
itself the suggestive and stimulative power of all the genius in 
the universe, to kindle and feed the purest flames in the most 
secluded bosoms. His interest in the beneficiaries whom it is 
his highest joy to solace, is not fitful and brief, but rooted in 
the eternal substance of his glorified being, and always 
prompted, by the sublime faithfulness of Godhead, to elevate 
and ennoble the profoundest emotions that ever struggle in the 
otherwise disconsolate heart of man. Christ can sympathize 
with those whose backs are lacerated with the injustice, and 
whose eyes are dimmed with the tears extorted by those who, 
instead of gazing on benighted and abused humanity with com- 
passion, rend it in pieces, and throw away the palpitating flesh, 
in order to fit the reeking bones into an arbitrary system, to 
which, for yet longer cycles of agonized years, they would con- 
demn, the great multitudes of toiling men. These are the un- 
fortunate offspring of obscure destiny, who plod on their weary 
way, as stars wear through the night, fair in their nature, though 
remote from brighter spheres, and scarcely seen by the com- 
mon eye. But He who at evening was admitted to no hospi- 
table home in the metropolis wherein all day he had toiled, 
and walked wearily to Bethany to repose on a rustic couch, 



CHRISTIANITY THE SOLACE OF THE OBSCURE. 307 

regards all who labor unrequitedly with heart, hand, and brain, 
for the public good ; else would their prospects be blank in- 
deed, as the blue skies when the sun is gone. He is forever the 
solace of the injured and obscure, lingering yet on earth by 
the energies of his spirit, to make every aspiring child first a 
hero, then a sage, then a saint, partaking of the divine nature, 
and breathing holy and elevating influences all around. As 
the good, the true, and the lovely, are an harmonious unity in 
God, and an harmonious unity in the universe, so would Christ 
make them an harmonious unity in every son of man. Since 
man is a perfectible being, he is, from every low gradation of 
existence, to be urged upward, by the radiance of perfect right- 
eousness, from one height of excellence to another, till he shall 
be filled with all the fulness of Go<t. Every human creature 
that struggles into existence, even in the lowest vale of life, is 
to be looked upon as the child of the Infinite and the Divine, 
gifted with latent energies, that may be taught to swell with 
unbounded progress, and yearn into the deep bosom of im- 
mensity. Who can be indifferent to the condition and destiny 
of the obscurest among such creatures ? Who would not eman- 
cipate them from every bond, awaken them from every lifeless 
formula, and cheer them gladly on the way to bliss? And, to 
this end, who would not pray, — 

" Let them not 
Be forced to grind the bones out of their arms 
For bread, but have some space to think and feel, 
Like moral and immortal creatures" ? 

Too many religionists are mere compounds of intolerance 
and indifference. Where, as it respects their fellow-creatures, 
they should be most strenuously active, full of discriminating 
zeal, dispensing generous blessings, there it is precisely that 
the eye is blind, the ear deaf, the hand shut, and the heart 
cold. Christianity teaches them to rise above sectarian consid- 
erations, and do good to all men for their own and the blessed 
Redeemer's sake. This they are too mercenary or too indo- 



308 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

lent to do ; but where they have no right whatever to interfere, 
and where their bigoted meddling can produce only mischief 
and misery, there it is they most pertinaciously obtrude them- 
selves, and degrade all they touch. If their poor forsaken 
brother is dying in the next street, on a pallet of straw, fam- 
ished, diseased, and almost driven by sheer neglect to despair, 
they hasten not to relieve the wants of his body, or soothe the 
pangs of his soul, but leave him to fight out the fierce last fight 
with the grim destroyer as best he can. If you direct their 
attention to the ignorance, crime, and misery of the commu- 
nity, some of which can be removed by social action, and 
much more by private benevolence, and ask them to put their 
hand to the holy work of diffusing light, purity, and happiness, 
they shrug their shoulders, and reply, that they have enough to 
do to mind their own affairs, and it is a shame there are 
so many wretched creatures in the world. It is in vain that 
millions pine and perish on every hand. It is in vain that the 
captive longs for deliverance, that the heel of tyranny is on 
the neck of the feeble, and the lash resounds on the back of 
the enslaved. It is in vain that abused and exasperated out- 
casts darkly grope for instruction and compassion, till, goaded 
to madness by starvation, they violate laws the moral propriety 
of which they have never learned, and are hurried by judicial 
martyrdom to the consummation of inhuman abuse. As they 
have lived uncared for by the large majority of those classes to 
whom fortune has been more merciful, so they die the objects 
of their profoundest contempt. 

Some of the Roman emperors hung their laws so high on 
brazen pillars that the people could not read them, and then 
punished those as offenders who knew not a description of their 
offence. But no exalted philanthropists of our day of aug- 
mented light, and in this country of freer institutions, would do 
this, except such as either contentedly hold or would create 
slaves. If one who is a tyrant at heart does not find men 
already brutish enough for his brutal purposes, he will strive 
most successfully to complete the degradation of his victims 



CHRISTIANITY THE SOLACE OF THE OBSCURE. 309 

by excluding divine light from their minds. Christ's com- 
mand to " teach all nations," he practically nullifies ; and since 
all who are saved are rescued by lessons, and not miracles, he 
forecloses the redemption of the poor, and with fiendish tri- 
umph seals their eternal doom. 

In the obscurest walks of life may be found many a youth 
richly endowed with latent germs of greatness, who contin- 
ually exclaim to themselves, in shrinking sadness, " O, I feel 
like a seed in the cold earth, quickening at heart, and pining 
for the air! " To whom can such look for appreciating sym- 
pathy and appropriate aid but to those who really possess and 
practically exemplify the spirit of Christ ? 

" The wild flowers' tendril, proof of feebleness, 
Proves strength ; and so we fling our feelings out, 
The tendrils of the heart, to bear us up." 

And none comes quicker to our solace and support than He 
whose heart most yearned over a suffering world, and was 
pierced to redeem it from eternal woe. The thought of ame- 
liorating the condition of mankind inspired and fortified the 
great Redeemer in planting his doctrines on earth ; and his only 
direction to his disciples is to love all, and perpetually to ad- 
vance. The institution of Christianity is designed to purify our 
hearts and regulate our demeanor by the love of God. In the 
practical accounts of the proceedings of the last day, given in 
the Scriptures, the excellency which is represented as being a 
criterion and distinguishing feature of the disciple of Christ, 
and which He will acknowledge, is Christian benevolence — 
love to man manifested in the relief of the poor. The apos- 
tle John has given us a most sublime description of the benefi- 
cence of God, when he says, " God is love." Love is not so 
much an attribute of his nature as his very essence — the spirit 
of himself. Christian benevolence is the imitation of Christ ; 
and just so far as we possess his spirit, and exemplify his char- 
acter, we bear the image of God, and are his sons indeed. 
But few can enter the more exalted sanctuaries of earthly 



310 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

wisdom : Christ, to meet the emergency, has richly endowed 
the highest school of the most generous instruction, and thrown 
open its portals wide as the world. He proffers to every one 
of the most benighted and destitute among the children of men 
a handful of eternal truth, and bids them make a heartful of 
it. Christ won the emancipation of our race from the worst 
bondage by the sacrifice of himself, and has transmitted the 
privilege and duty of universal education, with all the other 
inestimable blessings connected with the patrimony of his 
blood. His lessons are most abundant, better understood, and 
best enjoyed by the most needy and deserving — the inheritors 
of genius obscured, who gather truth from trials, " like snow 
from clouds, the most, and whitest, from the darkest." 

The true Christian, who is instructed properly with respect 
to the nature of the soul and its fearful destiny, will love man 
as man, and be interested in him, whatever may be his rank 
and wherever he may dwell. The bounds of family complex- 
ion and country cannot confine him. In whatever form hu- 
man nature puts forth its energies, he delights to contemplate 
them, and feels a brother's solicitude to promote their happiest 
growth. Says Channing, " Christianity lays the foundation 
of a universal love, by revealing to us the greatness of that 
nature in which all men participate ; by inspiring reverence 
for the human soul, be that soul lodged wherever it may ; by 
teaching us that all the outward distinctions of birth, rank, 
wealth, honor, which human pride foolishly swells into impor- 
tance, and which separate different classes from each other, as 
if they were different races, are not worthy to be named in 
comparison with those essential faculties and affections which 
the poorest and most unprosperous derive as liberally from 
God as those who disdain them. Christian love is founded on 
the grandeur of man's nature, its likeness to God, its immor- 
tality, its powers of endless progress, — on the end for which 
it is created, of living forever, diffusing itself inimitably, and 
enjoying God and the universe through eternity. He who has 
never looked through man's outward condition, through the 



CHRISTIANITY THE SOLACE OF THE OBSCURE. 311 

accidental trappings of fortune and fashion, to the naked soul, 
and there seen God's image commanding reverence and a 
spiritual grandeur which turns to littleness all that is most glo- 
rious in nature, — such a man may have kindness, for of this 
he cannot easily divest himself; but he is a stranger to the dis- 
tinctive love of Christianity, and knows nothing of the intense- 
ness and diffusiveness with which the heart can bind itself to 
the human race." 

It is matter calling for deep gratitude on the part of all who 
desire the best welfare of mankind, that the doctrine of broth- 
erhood, first announced and exemplified by Christ, is coming 
more and more to occupy and illuminate the highest, as well as 
the lowest, ranks of humanity. In the beginning, the cross 
rose above all, and there must it remain. For, if the principle 
of fraternity thence emanating is either forgotten or betrayed, 
all hearts are injured and every thing luminous in religion is 
obscured. Thank God, imperishable and adored, the sign for 
eighteen centuries has saved from oblivion the thing signified ; 
and, destined still to raise its blood-stained arms aloft until the 
world shall cease, the cross will continue to rebuke the treach- 
ery of tyrants, and cheer all the abused. 

" Star unto star speaks light, and world to world 
Repeats the password of the universe 
To God — the name of Christ ; the one great word 
"Well worth all languages in earth or heaven." 

The Savior of the world never sanctioned that narrow big- 
otry which would confine the soul in some one particular 
department of moral culture, but opened many mansions of 
glory, at once the infinitely varied field of its excursions and 
reward. Forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching 
upward to the things that are before, the devotee whom the 
best friend has rescued from the deepest gloom is eternally to 
soar with wider views and purer joys, verifying, at each ad- 
vance, that " in the garden of his Master there are many kinds 
of flowers." It is not the true disciple who has had this 
experience, and tasted these delights, but spurious Christians, 



312 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

who would monopolize all high culture among a few luxurious 
favorites, and leave the great masses of industrious poor to 
ignorance, superstition, and loathsome vice. To do this, is to 
outstrip the heathen in obdurate cruelty, for they had household 
gods who were patrons of all the oppressed. Coriolanus, after 
having laid waste the country of the Volscians, felt himself free 
and secure by the hearth of Aufidius, under the protection of 
the penates, or household gods of his enemy ; while here, in 
this Christian and republican land, unoffending children are 
born slaves, ignorance is plead as the only safety of tyrants, 
and persecution is the penalty which sympathizing benevolence 
is sure to meet. O, it is time this foul blot were removed, this 
most bigoted and disgraceful spirit become extinct. Until such 
improvement transpires, Christianity will continue to appear 
sadly obscured, like the sun when belts of clouds hide half his 
burning disk. 

The needed reform will shortly come. All moral truth, as 
well as scientific, is learning to work for the millions rather 
than for aristocratic cliques. Assuming numerous forms, both 
powerful and salutary, free thought will drive oppressive toil 
from the earth, and become the one grand laborer, the slave 
and drudge to mitigate the weariness of universal man. Sci- 
ence, guided by religion and subordinated to the highest ends, 
will create means of existence and enjoyment for myriads 
more than now breathe the air of true liberty ; will people earth 
all over with men, instead of clods in the field, fops in the 
parlor, or machines in the factory ; men, with industrious 
leisure, intelligent feeling, and holy hope, who will recognize 
the equality under which we are made to exist, and the heaven 
to which we should all aspire. 

But, before this auspicious day arrives, it will be necessary 
for secular and religious tyrants to remove the splendid pinna- 
cles falsely called the "pillars of the church;" hierarchies 
and arrogant aristocrats must take down the golden dome of 
special privilege, which has already become too ponderous, 
and begins to totter over their heads ; they must take down the 



CHRISTIANITY THE SOLACE OF THE OBSCURE. 313 

gorgeous mass of hollow ceremony and priestly despotism 
which never belonged to the Christian order, if they would save 
any portion of the sacred edifice, which such deceptive corrup- 
tions have always endangered and never adorned, or an unex- 
pected concussion will speedily lay the hypocritical time-servers 
and their desecrated altars together in ruins. The affluent, the 
powerful, and the proudly great by the accident of birth or 
ignominious adventure, must stand aside, that the honest though 
obscure peasant may come forward, 

" His rights to scan, 
And learn to venerate himself as man." 

The voluntary association of a truly Christian brotherhood, 
where each one enters and retires freely, seeking individual 
enjoyment only in the general welfare, according to the simple 
conditions determined by one Lord, one faith, and one baptism, 
is the most efficacious alleviation, if not cure, of the three 
grand evils of this world — penury, bondage, and corruption. 
The church, from the morrow of Pentecost, has loudly pro- 
claimed this ; she founded among the first disciples a voluntary 
community of the blessings of life ; and hypocrisy was struck 
dead, when it first attempted to corrupt the primitive law of 
benevolence. Since then, for eighteen centuries, Christianity 
has not failed to inculcate a tender regard for the happiness of 
all, and especial solicitude for the most obscure and needy. 
The union of all ranks and conditions, for the purpose of mu- 
tual protection and sa notification, has ever been her motto, as 
the world has taken for its motto to divide and subjugate. 

The only force Jesus Christ employs to propagate equitable 
and saving doctrine is himself; that profound force, the sure 
possession of an immortal essence, which he brought with him 
from eternity to diffuse all through the diversified ranks of 
mankind. He knew that the truth he inculcated, all sim- 
ple as it was in form and substance, was the way, the truth, and 
the life ; and this he sowed profusely wherever he went, as the 
sower scatters wheat. The Christian husbandman has no need 
of worldly policy, force, recondite science, philosophical mys- 
27 



314 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

tery, or cunning skill ; he has the wheat of the word, earth 
and heaven, and he opens wide his hand to sow the seed of 
life. While human policy advances with her train and disap- 
pears, force antagonizes with force, science exhausts science, 
the philosophy of to-day supersedes the philosophy of yester- 
day, and subtle craftiness is captured in her own net; "the 
wheat falls from the hand of God into the hand of man, and 
from the hand of man into the bosom of earth, whence the 
germs spring, grow, and ripen ; humanity gathers the precious 
harvest with joy, partakes with rejoicing appetite, and soon 
attains strength to comprehend the most invigorating principles 
and defend the highest rights. Thus did Jesus Christ ; and 
thus proceeds every one who sincerely holds to the truth as it 
is in God. He first comprehends the worth of truth by expe- 
riencing its power in his own soul, then diffuses it as widely as 
possible, and the world, which is the field, at length blooms 
with the fragrance and fruitfulness of heaven. 

Christ smote the popular heart with the concentrated influ- 
ence of infinite attributes, melted it into penitence, transformed 
it into adoring love, and filled it with expanding joys. He 
taught the multitudes that they had a God and Father in 
heaven ; and thenceforth humanity, however abased and sor- 
rowful, raised its joined hands to the skies, and, in beseeching 
God to relieve present miseries, felt the dignity and consolation 
which thence descend. The people have a God, not only in 
heaven, but nearer to themselves ; a God who was made mor- 
tal and poor, born in a stable, cradled on straw, and who suf- 
fered more in all his life than any man. The people have a 
God, not only in heaven, not only in kindred flesh and poverty, 
but there is a God upon the very cross the great masses are 
compelled to bear, a living and triumphant God, to teach, 
defend, save, and console them. 

Christianity, in its primary lessons, inculcates the principle 
of equality among men in the presence of God, which princi- 
ple necessarily generates another, which is but the development 
or application of this, namely, the equality of men among 



CHRISTIANITY THE SOLACE OF THE OBSCURE. 315 

themselves, or social equality ; for, if there exists, under this 
relation, an inequality essential and radical relative to justice, 
this inequality will render them primarily unequal before God. 
Religious equality tends, then, to produce, as its consequence 
and ultimate result, political and civil inequality. Now, civil 
equality has liberty for its form, for it excludes originally all 
power of man over man, and obliges him thenceforth to con- 
ceive temporal society under the idea of unconstrained associa- 
tion, which has for its end to guaranty the rights of each of its 
members, that is to say again, his freedom and native inde- 
pendence. Thus the freest and most salutary culture is 
secured by that religion which Christ came to establish, and 
which every way works a beneficial influence on the mind and 
destiny of even the obscurest of mankind. Says Hieremias, 
" In youth, in health, and prosperity, it awakens feelings of 
gratitude and sublime love, and purifies at the same time that 
it exalts ; but it is in misfortune, in sickness, in age, that its 
effects are most truly and beneficially felt, when submission in 
faith, and humble trust in the divine will, from duties become 
pleasures, undecaying sources of consolation ; then it creates 
powers which were believed to be extinct, and gives a fresh- 
ness to the mind which was supposed to have passed away 
forever, but which is now renovated as an immortal hope." 
These mercies Christ bought for the poor, deserted, and discon- 
solate every where. Let us appreciate the blessings conferred 
on ourselves, and deprive no one, not the weakest and most 
obscure, of the slightest mercy designed for all. Like Christ, 
let us seek with tender solicitude to pour solace upon the 
obscurest children of mankind ; and, to do this effectually, 

" O, pray for those who in the world's dark womb 
Are bound, who know not yet their Father, God." 



CHAPTER II. 

CHRISTIANITY THE PATRON OF THE 
ASPIRING. 

The following positions mark the outline of the present 
discussion. Christianity was proudly contemned, when most 
pure ; is adapted to encourage the deserving, when most 
depressed ; and patronize all aspirations that are both free 
and grand. 

In the first place, Christianity, in the immaculate purity of 
its unoffending youth, was treated by worldly greatness with 
chilling indifference and overbearing contempt. It was 
almost impossible for the 'insolent cliques of the day to sup- 
pose that any good thing could come out of Nazareth — a 
country town — a rural hamlet, away from the pollutions of 
their own bigoted and degraded metropolis. They were too 
dull to perceive, or too supercilious to confess, that in all ages 
of the world not one strong intellect, brilliant genius, generous 
redeemer, in a hundred, is ever born in a great city, garnished 
with ostentatious wealth and enervated with effeminate ease. 
Pride and intolerance were the mighty passions Christ first 
encountered, and towards which he ever remained the most 
unyielding foe. He gave no quarter to the mental oppression 
of the Scribes and Pharisees, and looked down with pity upon 
the great buildings, the palaces of affluence and power, amidst 
which deserving merit wanders unnoticed, and innocent genius 
too often goes weeping and bleeding from the humblest cradle 
to the most ignominious death. 

All true greatness is invariably born in the sphere of in- 
dustrious seclusion, and is there nourished from the beginning 
with that chastity of heart which loves God supremely. It 



CHRISTIANITY THE PATRON OF THE ASPIRING. 317 

scarcely ceases to draw the elements of loveliness and strength 
from the purest source in the calm gladness of domestic joy, 
than it turns to ruder and bolder scenes, where it pants " for 
fresher growth and for intenser day." But what encourage- 
ment does the young heart meet? Who hails with discrimi- 
nating eye and cheering tones the advent of a new hero, the 
dim but auspicious auroras of a bright and beneficent mind ? 
Shepherds with their lowly flocks, or, perchance, a few wise 
men, bring offerings that attest their appreciation of the new- 
comer, and foster his worth ; but the majority who bask in 
the profuse bounties of Providence, and too often pervert the 
blessings they have received, are busy in suffocating the best 
energies of their own offspring with costly luxuries, while they 
leave true worth to groan in unmitigated want, saturated with 
the cold dew of darkness, and bound in the chains of unde- 
served contempt. 

These are the baleful influences which at every age are 
most suicidal to meditation, the sister and mother of genius. 
They are most fatal when brought to bear on youth, as the 
frost is most destructive in spring. Nothing is more sacred 
than the first reveries of a young soul, and nothing should be 
more kindly treated, since their issues are unbounded and 
eternal. A dreaming infant is the prelude to a thinking man, 
in whom love may become the mightiest inspiration, and 
thought all but omnipotence. Profound and aspiring medita- 
tion gave Milton heaven, Dante hell, Michael Angelo the 
Sistine Chapel, Columbus a new hemisphere, Herschel un- 
numbered worlds, Paul visions of unclouded, unmeasured, 
and eternal glory. Thoughts that may become the architects 
of noblest grandeur, limners of greatest beauty, moulders of 
sublimest worth, usually originate under the most rustic cos- 
tume ; as to the unreflecting, an apparently loathsome worm 
prepares for its perfection while it creeps in the dust, and 
at length bursts from its silken tomb with newly developed 
form, nature, and aspirations. Like a " winged flower," with 
brilliant and delicate pinions, and decked with the richest 
27* 



318 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

gems, it gladly soars with the light, and sips nectar from the 
hand of God. In this image of the butterfly, first sluggish in 
the grub, then dormant in the chrysalis, and finally vitalized 
with a free and happy existence, amidst loveliest flowers or in 
loftiest light, the ancients saw a striking illustration of mental 
progress and immortality. What they felt in their conscience, 
they imbodied in the consummate excellence of plastic art, 
and gave us in the Apollo of Grecian intellect when he gazed 
in triumph on the smitten Python. " We seem to see in this 
statue the visible idea or image of the man who aspired to be 
a god. At length he stands triumphant over the temptation 
and the tempter, content in the consciousness of a renovated 
and perfect humanity. Passion and intellect are blended in 
calm unison ; knowledge and affection are at peace ; the 
attributes of feeling, thought, and action, are combined in one 
attitude, expressive of the delicate might of a living spirit. 
The mind reigns in that body. The incarnate intelligence 
manifestly controls matter by his will, and appears as if con- 
scious of being always resisted, yet never vanquished ; but, 
inspired by the apprehension of his right, as vicegerent of 
Almightiness, he subdues resistance and surmounts difficulties 
by perseverance in the use of strength, that continually and 
spontaneously increases with every opposition to his purpose. 
Such is man, when sustained by the divinity which stirs within 
him ; the only creature on which the Creator has shadowed 
divine perfections, and therefore he is to be honored even in 
his ruin ; for when his affections and faculties are restored, as 
they may be, to divine sympathy, he shall again stand upright, 
the conqueror of the mighty serpent." 

The tyrants of this world are always ambitious to stifle the 
tones of freedom, that silence may cover their own wretched 
demerits ; but Christianity strives to promote the utmost culti- 
vation of all that the personal worth of each, however obscure, 
may be revealed and rewarded. Truth presides within the 
holy of holies, in the temple of knowledge opened by heaven 
for every inhabitant of earth ; but craft and bigotry stand in 



CHRISTIANITY THE PATRON OF THE ASPIRING. 319 

the dark vestibule, to obstruct the approach of all save a 
favored few, who are their own servile and contemptible 
satellites. They brutally repel the child of misfortune from 
every point of redeeming confraternity, and, if possible, doom 
him to remain forever a melancholy monad, a contemned 
solitaire, in the deserts of unsympathizing and rayless despair. 
So far as sublunary counsel and support are concerned, he 
has but to sit down, and exclaim, " O world ! how from thy 
every quarter blows a gale, wintry, cold, and bleak, to the 
heart that would expand ! " 

All youth are dead for the present life who do not hope for 
the future, and aspire to shine in beneficent goodness as they 
soar to attain eternal rewards. They are unworthy of being 
the companions of the exalted, and the recipients of bliss 
without alloy, so long as they do not elevate themselves to a 
level with the objects they revere, and nourish in their bosoms 
feelings kindred to the purest truth and divinest good. These 
objects of the highest reverence, and this fountain of the 
noblest desires, it is the prerogative of Christianity to create 
in the mind and heart of the most ignoble in the world's 
estimation, invigorate with the best supplies in the most ex- 
hausting race, and crown with the highest honors at the ultimate 
goal. Therefore, however cold and constant may be the self- 
ishness of earth towards the youthful aspirant in his purest and 
most needy days, he never should yield to despondency, 

" While the voice 
Of truth and virtue, up the steep ascent 
Of nature, calls him to his high reward, 
Th' applauding smile of Heaven." 

Christ combined in his own person all the wrongs, griefs, 
and hopes, of humanity, because he passed through all the 
stages of human progress, and especially felt the bitterness of 
penury and neglect crippling the aspirations of his youth. 
The acorn, bedded in the loneliest dell of the forest, may 
know, perhaps, that it is an oak ; but it was with keener sen- 
sibilities, clearer intuitions, that Christ, in the unheeded isola- 



320 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

tion of his youth, felt, knew that he was God. It is through 
that bitter experience, transfigured in the person of Divinity 
itself, by him borne from earth to heaven, and thence rained 
down in the blended showers of pity and power, like dew and 
sunshine, on all aspiring youth, that he would create in them 
a consciousness of the highest existence, and prompt in them 
a readiness and competency for the noblest strife. He would 
have us know that a soul, though cradled in penury and 
nursed with wrongs, is not a fortuitous fraction of mind in 
the world, but a germinal system, in itself complete, written 
all over with indelible thought, every line and word and dot 
being a sparkling chapter in the great book of the universe. 
Who but the cruelly base, the insufferably despotic, will dare 
to blacken the obscurest page of such a work ! 

God is love ; consequently, the disposition which his spirit 
and word inspire, is in perfect harmony with his nature ; and 
it is easy to understand that, as the divine intelligence and 
mercy must be expansive, it would be impossible to form an 
idea of a godly man, or of God, keeping all his knowledge 
and kindness to himself. Supreme selfishness is contrary to 
a nature gifted with pure affections, human or divine. The 
search after and discovery of truth is one of the secrets of 
exalted happiness, and therefore shall we always find that 
those who are in reality the wisest and best, are most impelled 
to communicate their knowledge to the widest ranks. The 
man of God and friend of humanity explores most assiduously 
even in the deepest gloom, that he may learn, not for himself 
alone, but for all around and about him ; he acquires and im- 
parts with an equal degree of pleasure, provided the desires 
of fellow-aspirants are aided, and the hearts of all made glad. 
If any burn to be great and useful, be assured that those who 
have themselves felt the flame in early and neglected youth, 
will be the first to recognize the kindling of kindred bosoms, 
and will blow the latent embers into a free and gladsome 
blaze. 

Christianity teaches all her pupils to say to despots " Hark ! 



CHRISTIANITY THE PATRON OF THE ASPIRING. 321 

we yearn for all the blessings you have permitted us to enjoy, 
but we yearn for liberty, restrained by no man, more. We 
want education, science, art, and religious institutions, in the 
highest form, — we want whatever may make us good, great, 
and influential, as individuals ; but we want these favors not 
as a substitute for, but as a consequence of, Liberty the most 
perfect and unlimited. We do not want one good to be the 
compensation for another good, but one good to be the cause 
and consequence of every other, all derived from one source 
and conferred on all. We do not want Knowledge to do the 
work that Ignorance has hitherto done ; nor would we have a 
few favored ones monopolize the secrets of earth, ocean, and 
sky, in order that they may the more effectually transform the 
masses into hypocrites or slaves. What is most needed in 
our day is a band of moral heroes, to reconstruct and adorn 
the whole fabric of society ; men who will regard the past as 
the preparation of the present, the guide and happy presage 
of the future. We greatly need the services of those good 
soldiers of Jesus Christ who bravely fight out the patriotic 
battles of the only true republicanism, taking their best hints 
from the great Captain of our salvation, who with pure purpose 
struggled for the greatest good of the greatest number when 
most contemned, from obscure youth to splendid maturity 
toiled and bled, that the most neglected and abused might be 
cheered by the example of his life, and share in the glory of 
his death." 

Christianity plants enthusiasm, and not fanaticism, in the 
bosom of its devotee. There is an important difference be- 
tween the two. The fanatic is furious to disseminate his faith 
for his faith's sake ; the enthusiastic believer seeks to diffuse 
his faith for the sake of the benefits it is calculated to confer. 
There is something noble, generous, and loving in enthusiasm, 
of which fanaticism is utterly incompetent either to conceive 
or exemplify. True religion imparts to the mind all those 
ideas that are fitted most potently to stir the heart of man, and 
impel his intellect to the most substantial and useful exercise. 



322 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

It kindles and perpetually feeds that wise zeal which has a 
grasp, breadth, and elevation of which mere sectarian selfish- 
ness is destitute, because not possessing the self-denying hero- 
ism and affection of which true greatness is always formed. 
Christianity is not a blind, headlong, brutal passion, that com- 
pels the few and scorns the many, but a mild, genial heat, that 
enlightens without distinction ; a light that warms with the fond- 
est encouragement all it can reach. It is such a union of light 
and heat, such a blending of thought the most free with cour- 
age and love the most exalted, as most irresistibly triumphs, 
however low born its votary and however mighty its obstacles 
may be ; triumphs not simply because it is thought, but because 
it is courage also ; because it is comprehensive and ennobling 
love. It is not merely that indolent good nature which often 
steals the name of philanthropy, but the supernatural fire that 
flashed transforming ideas on the brain of Paul as he journeyed 
to Damascus, and poured still more celestial revelations on his 
heart, rousing divine yearnings that bigotry had smothered, and 
unsealing that fountain of charity, toward all which theologi- 
cal thorns tend so much to choke, and which partisan bitter- 
ness is sure to destroy. It is this spirit that evolves in the 
bosom of the young a deep longing for goodness, beauty, and 
truth ; a passion that impels through all time, and happily fits 
its possessor for eternity. What he most pants to possess, he 
is equally ambitious to diffuse ; he has great truths to utter as 
well as good deeds to perform, the utterance and the doing of 
which tell potently and blissfully on all who are darkened by 
ignorance, crushed by tyranny, or polluted by sin. Great 
revelations are enclosed in his breast, and revolutions both great 
and good are promoted by the labors of his hands, because his 
religion is not a lifeless creed, but a sympathizing belief subli- 
mated into divine action, that seeks most to assist those who, 
innocently toiling in the deepest gloom, are most worthy of 
beneficent aid. 

In the second place, Christianity, which was proudly con- 
temned when most pure, is adapted to encourage the deserving 



CHRISTIANITY THE PATRON OF THE ASPIRING. 323 

when most depressed. The great and truly divine idea of rad- 
ically curing all the evil with which humanity is afflicted, of 
planting institutions which should be equally advantageous to 
individuals of every rank and communities of every clime, 
thus raising up for the Creator a better generation on the most 
beneficent plan, originated entirely with Jesus Christ. No 
mind before his ever conceived the purpose of establishing a 
kingdom of God, ruled only by truth, morality, and mutual 
joy, into which should be gathered all the nations of the earth. 
All this, too, was to be done without the use of any arbitrary 
force, merely by the gentle influence of convincing instruc- 
tion, ordinances adapted to arouse the moral sensibilities, stim- 
ulate each individual to reflect upon his most important con- 
cerns, and warm his heart with fervid aspirations after the 
highest good. Christ would have man feel, even the humblest 
of our race, that he is endowed with a nature far exalted above 
the brutes, a soul infinitely superior to his body, and that he is 
capable of knowledge, goodness, and friendship of the highest 
order — intercourse the most delightful with Heaven. The 
faintest intellectual nature that gleams far down the vale of 
life admits of endless improvement, and he cheerfully bestows 
resources that will promote growth far beyond mortal existence 
and the decay of unnumbered worlds. Lifting an aspiring 
eye to the loftiest pinnacles of finite attainment, the youth who 
leans on Christ and follows his directions, soars rapturously in 
eternal approximation to the infinite excellence he was made 
to know. Fostered by such patronage, in view of such attain- 
ments, the obscurest and weakest aspirant bravely exclaims, — 

j " Rouse thee, heart ! 

" Bow of my life, thou yet art full of spring ; 
My quiver still hath many purposes." 

Christianity is the quintessence of heroical fortitude, and 
therefore is it best adapted to encourage the deserving when 
most depressed. Its superiority in this respect was strikingly 
indicated by the magnanimous grandeur of its original design. 



324 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

If a few spirits of antiquity seemed to be benevolent in their 
schemes for popular improvement, there were none who ex- 
tended their views beyond their own people, and comprehended 
the advantage of foreign nations in their plan. Such projects 
bear little affinity to that greatness of mind and heart which 
includes the whole human family in its grasp, and would fill 
each individual with all the fulness of God. 

Over the gates of Plato's school it was written, " Let no 
one who is not a geometrician enter." But very different is 
the inscription which invites the ignorant, the homeless and 
unpatronized of earth to enter the school of Christ and be 
freely taught the consummate wisdom of heaven. One of the 
most absurd laws at Athens was that which prohibited the 
exercise of the elegant arts to any but freeborn men. It would 
seem that selfish pride in that age, as in our own, deemed some 
men unworthy to exercise their powers of mind, as if the Al- 
mighty God had pronounced such unworthy of his gifts ! On 
this principle, so disgraceful to those who maintain it, what 
would have become of the fables of iEsop, or the plays of 
Terence ? both of whom were slaves. Many there are amongst 
the lowest gradations of human society whose most cherished 
thoughts 

" Will rise and shake their breast, as madmen shake 
The stanchions of their dungeons, and howl out." 

Shall these be imprisoned and stifled still? No! says Chris- 
tianity ; let every pure and noble feeling of the soul become 
" free of wing as Eden's garden bird." Socrates was said to 
have called minds into existence ; but unfortunately the intelli- 
gence which is ushered into life by human means only, is at 
best but a beautiful slave. Christianity does infinitely more 
than this; it sets free each subject mind, and develops those 
sturdy generations of men, who bear abroad the seeds of lib- 
erty and light all round the globe. It first addressed itself to 
the lowly, *and they rallied round the doctrines so happily 
adapted to invigorate their confidence and make fruitful their 



CHRISTIANITY THE PATRON OF THE ASPIRING. 325 

souls ; so that, starting from the point where all true redemp- 
tion originates, divine faith gradually ascended from the lower 
to the upper ranks, and filled at length the highest functions 
of imperial beneficence. The career and conquests of truth 
are ever the same. Wherever the free exercise of reason is 
opposed, or the happy extension of the arts and sciences is 
stayed, — wherever superstition has rendered the general intel- 
lect indolent and fearful, or a bigoted and intolerant priesthood 
has thrown the spirit of social improvement into chains, — there 
is it her province to appear, and emancipate all classes from 
every accursed bond. Under her influence alone can human 
nature obtain the full and unabridged possession of those rights 
of which it has so long been deprived — rights which should be 
immediately and universally enjoyed. 

Says Hugo of St. Victor, " The tree of wisdom is only 
strong through love ; it only becomes green through hope, which 
yields the joy that keeps the heart warm during the winter of 
this life." The aids here spoken of are most needed in the 
timid beginning of our upward course, when the young facul- 
ties are in greatest danger of being depressed. Frigid cour- 
tesy and yet more pointed neglect will cower the best powers 
sometimes, and becalm their bold adventures on the deep. 
Many a youth lingers in the shop or in the field, filled with the 
most auspicious desires, and waiting in tearful impatience for 
some one to encourage their development, 

" Even as a boat lies rocking on the beach, 
"Waiting the one white wave to float it free." 

Christ never pictured this world as a scene of incessant 
gloom designed for any human being. He never looked 
frowningly on the sympathies which give beauty and perma- 
nency to the relations of the tenderest friendships. He never 
trampled on the joys of home, nor contemned those unspeak- 
able delights which tell of true brotherhood, as impediments to 
holiness. He never stood amidst thronging congregations, 
an isolated prophet clad with omnipotent strength, but spurning 
28 



326 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

affection, and repelling the approach of docile, revering, and 
ardent discipleship ; if he had, we might bow in admiration 
before the grandeur of his power ; but where would be an 
effective appeal to our sensibilities, where a thrilling contact 
with the gentlest and profoundest yearnings of our existence ? 
No ; Jesus did not extinguish human impulses, but endowed 
them with a keener ardor and a wider gi'asp. He did not dis- 
robe youthful hearts of fond memories and fervid aspirations, 
but filled them with a precious incense, to be blended with the 
sacrifices they offer on the altars of wisdom and benevolence. 
He would stimulate the early devotee to imitate himself in 
giving food to famished thousands, sight to the blind, speech to 
the dumb, cleansing to the leper, vigor to the paralytic, reason 
to the insane, and ministration to infirmity in whatever form it 
may appear. 

All the discourses and miracles of Christ were surprisingly 
beneficent and social, while, at the same time, they were as 
patriotic as they were humane. He pitied individual wants, 
and relieved them ; he mourned over his country, because its 
religion had become a hollow, pharisaical mechanism, and its 
freedom lay strangled under the iron heel of a foreign despot- 
ism. As the best solace under these evils, and the means of 
their speediest destruction, Christ, planted those pure republican 
doctrines on earth which elevate while they equalize, and pu- 
rify while they redeem. He was evidently most anxious to 
reach the whole world of youth, that by a wise direction of 
their powers, judiciously given, he might train up a free and 
vigorous race in revolt against every wrong. Hence he caused 
the star of truth that gladdens the eternal dwelling which God 
hath prepared for his children to shine broadly, clearly, and with 
inextinguishable beams, on every earthly home. He was a 
perfect Redeemer, as well as a perfect Creator, seeking to 
render the feeblest votary perfect as himself, by stamping upon 
him the image of his perfection, alike as a speculative idea 
and a practical adaptation. Christianity breathes into the 
young heart, laid open to its influence, a spirit of love and 



CHRISTIANITY THE PATRON OF THE ASPIRING. 327 

power that expands inimitably to the illimitable necessities of 
man ; weeps with his weepings, and rejoices with his rejoi- 
cings ; crowns his best triumphs, and becomes the rainbow of 
hope amid his bitterest depressions ; cools the fever of inordi- 
nate excitement, spiritualizes his worldliness, consecrates his 
endeavors, and immerses him in the threefold baptism which 
all true soldiers of Christ require — the baptism of enthusiasm, 
reason, and religion. 

Vague yearnings of soul fail not to the gifted youth, as he 
grows up a predestined hero : dreaming fancies, like gorgeous 
clouds, hang around him, as the curtains of existence slowly 
rise, in commingled splendor and gloom. Bright visions greet 
him, ever and anon, like star-formed faces peering between 
sombre clouds, and the auroral light of intense love gilds the 
horizon of auspicious day, while the music of heavenly song 
is on his path. And so he walks, — as was said of Burns, — 

"In glory and in joy, 
Behind his plough, upon the mountain side ! " 

But " the world knows nothing of its greatest men." It has 
ever shown but small favor to the most deserving. " Hunger 
and nakedness, perils and reviling, the prison, the cross, the 
poison-chalice, have, in most times and countries, been the mar- 
ket price it has offered for Wisdom, the welcome with which 
it has greeted those who have come to enlighten and purify it. 
Homer and Socrates, and the Christian apostles, belong to old 
days ; but the world's Marty rology was not completed with 
these. Roger Bacon and Galileo languish in priestly dungeons. 
Tasso pines in the cell of a madhouse ; Camoens dies begging 
on the streets of Lisbon. So neglected, so " persecuted they 
the prophets," not in Judea only, but in all places where men 
have been. But the gold that is refined in the hottest furnace 
comes out the purest; and, as Jean Paul said, " the canary- 
bird sings sweeter the longer it has been trained in a darkened 
cage." 

The Scotch peasant, the British laborer, and American slave, 



328 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

have a painful, but we hope not long, road yet to travel before 
they arrive at what the soul calls liberty, and which it is the 
highest crime to impede or destroy. Too many laws and cus- 
toms, now in full force, have for their whole tendency to pam- 
per the pride and feed the luxuries of the born-great, while 
they check the aspirations and depress the hopes of the born- 
little ; and , as this state of things is in direct hostility with the 
spirit of Christianity, we cannot believe that a just God will 
permit such systems long to endure. The spirit of heavenly 
freedom, like the poetry of earth, never dies ; its light is grow- 
ing brighter, and its spreadings wider, each day ; and speedily 
shall each cottage be reached, and each troubled spirit be filled 
with the radiant light, the invincible power, the austere charms, 
and immortal peace, of celestial virtue. In the obscurest 
walks of life, as in the most prominent, true religion will then 
develop its legitimate influence and worth, acting upon every 
mind as Nature when she forms a flower, unfolding the whole 
system of the plant at the same time, and breathing life and 
beauty on every leaf. Sectarian creeds and partial systems 
actuate only fragmentary natures, leaving the best faculties in 
worse than useless repose, like palsied limbs ; while to Chris- 
tianity, as a whole, in its primitive purity and power, belongs 
the glorious prerogative of eliciting each vital principle of the 
soul, giving appropriate exercise to every function, proportion 
to every part, and to the harmonious whole a happy reward ; 
thus animating its subject when most depressed, maturing all 
his powers with the most salutary discipline, and bringing him, 
in the end, to the exalted condition of "a perfect man in Christ 
Jesus." It is this religion which opens to the obscurest devo- 
tee the prospect of unbounded progression and improvement ; 
inspirits him to enter on a career of emulation with angels ; to 
despair of nothing, but to hope for every thing requisite to 
promote the moral advancement of the world ; to stop at no 
point short of universal liberty and perfect holiness ; to toil for 
these results without ceasing, and to invoke, in every struggle, 
the almighty energies of God. 



CHRISTIANITY THE PATRON OF THE ASPIRING. 329 

That which is most needed amongst the youth of our age is 
the culture of a humanizing spirit, which would refine the feel- 
ings, call forth the affections, purify and expand the reflective 
faculties, and which, ever aiming toward true catholicity of 
sentiment, of perception, and aspiration, would evolve the good 
from the husk of error and sin, would transmute antipathy into 
affection, and evil into excellence, would teach men to scan, 
not so much the transient and repulsive in each other, as the 
unchangeable and praiseworthy, which is the glory of their com- 
mon nature, and which makes them one with their Father in 
heaven. It is kindness that we want, and not coercion ; sub- 
stantial support, and not hypocritical homilies. The heart must 
have a prop without as well as within, on which to lean, or it 
will fall and break. O, how sad and crushing it is to the young 
heart thirsting for truth, to be mocked with empty traditions and 
frigid advice, which tell nothing to, and nothing of, the mystery 
within that burns for utterance, sympathy, and solution ! arro- 
gant dogmatizers, who set up antiquated mummies, skeletons 
of by-gone barbarism, as their idolatrous standards, and teach 
youth that their damnation is certain to result if they do not 
implicitly adore. But the greatest and best messengers from 
God to man, who reveal God to man, and man to himself, — 
who elucidate the universe, as a divine language to humanity, 
down to its most desponding sons, teaching each of our brethren 
to address his Maker in the fervor, fulness, and sincerity of his 
heart, without foolish formalities inspired by craft or fear, — are 
not trained after this manner. They are the greatest, wisest, and 
best teachers, because the Bible is their only creed, the Spirit 
of God and the universe their only inspiration, and Jesus 
Christ their only master ; therefore are they the most truthful, 
instructive, and free. The predominant feeling of their bosom 
is that of perfection, aspirations after something sublimer and 
more beautiful than our gross physical perceptions can ever 
present. Beyond the brightest, they would soar to a brighter ; 
beyond the grandest, to a grander ^beyond the best that we 
are permitted to attain beneath the skies, to a better more glo- 
28* 



330 



REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY, 



riously beaming beyond. All external glory waxes dim, when 
compared to the radiant forms that burst brightly on the ima- 
gination of such, and perpetually purify, while they inflame, the 
heart. 

When a brave-hearted and noble-minded youth appears on 
the public stage, stained not by the prevalent vices of the age, 
and yearning with earnest desire to consecrate his faculties to 
the benefit of his race, his country, and his God, the probabil- 
ity of distinguished success will depend mainly, whether con- 
ventional forms have a firm hold upon his nature, and whether 
he have moral force enough to shatter and escape from the 
base trammels they impose. No youth ever becomes a man 
fully developed in head and heart, till he feels most deeply and 
constantly that the universe exists as much for every other 
human creature as for himself, and that every such fellow- 
mortal exists in order that he may freely receive and enjoy 
every good and perfect gift that the Maker of the universe can 
confer. Feeling and knowing this, the exemplary Christian 
will be most studious to seek out and encourage the most timid 
and needy, knowing that in this consists the greatest bliss and 
best reward. 

" We live in deeds, not years ; in thoughts, not breaths ; 
In feelings, not in figures on a dial. 
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives 
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best." 

We* have said that Christianity was proudly contemned when 
most pure, and is adapted to encourage the deserving when 
most depressed. We remark, — 

Thirdly, it patronizes all aspirations that are both free and 
grand. He whose own moral powers are most divinely culti- 
vated is always the most kind and tolerant towards all mankind. 
He will gladly hail the fond hopes of the human spirit, its most 
daring enterprise, the bold and illimitable navigation into the 
unknown regions of truth^; he will cheer on the Argonauts of 
humanity who boldly put to sea beyond the pillars of Hercules, 



CHRISTIANITY THE PATRON OF THE ASPIRING. 331 

and who already seem to discover rising before them the Fortu- 
nate Islands of the future. Through the gathering tempests that 
lower on the present view, they behold a better era dawning, 
which shall bring a perfect regeneration of popular ideas, a 
full development of Christian civilization, and the universal 
establishment of truth republican and omnipotent. These are 
the brave and beneficent citizens of the time to come, who 
prove the solidity of their faith and the sincerity of their zeal 
by most industriously toiling to promote present good. It is 
thus : 

"They prove unto themselves that nought but God 
Can satisfy the soul he maketh great." 

Moral perfection, by its vital energy and symmetrical pro- 
portions, always kindles the most fervid desires in the heart, 
and makes the most beautiful as well as sublime impressions 
on the mind. Introduced to the soul through a pure medium, 
it produces, in the greatest degree and most salutary mode, an 
elevating, liberating, and purifying effect. It elicits and forti- 
fies in the popular heart that nobler sense latent in all which is 
adapted to the perception of divine things ; and does this, not 
by a formal, didactic process, but by fostering a spontaneous 
worship of the beautiful and good, through that life-giving, 
inspiring influence which invariably attends the labors of him 
who exercises all his better faculties for the best interest of all 
his fellow-men. He bends his ear with fraternal solicitude to 
hear the melody of free spirits every where overflowing with 
' irrepressible joys, like birds " singing of summer in full-throated 
ease." These are the workmen for building up eternal things. 
They are of divine origin, serve a divine law, fulfil a divine 
mission, and lead to divinely-ordained results. Their piety is 
a living and loving essence, which assuredly stands higher than 
mere ceremonial worship. It is that adoration of God as the 
merciful Father of a common race, the Christian faith, which 
makes Jesus its own, in a fuller, deeper, more consolatory 
sense, as the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world, the 
Intercessor on behalf of the most wretched and obscure, than 



332 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

those hollow and unfeeling rites which, in fact, only assign to 
him a selfish existence on earth, and an arbitrary control over 
the mercies of heaven. 

The truth as it is in Christ is " the power of God unto salva- 
tion." But, says Channing, " let none imagine that its chosen 
temple is an uncultivated mind, and that it selects, as its chief 
organs, the lips of the unlearned. Religious and moral truth 
is indeed appointed to carry forward mankind ; but not as con- 
ceived and expounded by narrow minds, not as darkened by 
the ignorant, not as debased by the superstitious, not as subtil- 
ized by the visionary, not as thundered out by the intolerant 
fanatic, not as turned into a drivelling cant by the hypocrite. 
Like all other truths, it requires for its full reception and pow- 
erful communication a free and vigorous intellect. Indeed, its 
grandeur and infinite connections demand a more earnest and 
various use of our faculties than any other subject. As a single 
illustration of this remark, we may observe, that all moral and 
religious truth may be reduced to one great and central thought 
— perfection of mind ; a thought which comprehends all that 
is glorious in the divine nature, and which reveals to us the end 
and happiness of our own existence. This perfection has as 
yet only dawned on the most gifted human beings ; and the 
great purpose of our present and future existence is, to enlarge 
our conceptions of it without end, and to imbody and make 
them manifest in character and life. And is this sublime 
thought to grow within us, to refine itself from error and im- 
pure mixture, to receive perpetual accessions of brightness from 
the study of God, man, and nature, and especially to be com- 
municated powerfully to others, without the vigorous exertion 
of our intellectual nature ? Religion has been wronged by 
nothing more than by being separated from intellect, than by 
being removed from the province of reason and free research, 
into that of mystery and authority, of impulse and feeling. 
Hence it is, that the prevalent forms or exhibitions of Chris- 
tianity are comparatively inert, and that most which is written 
on the subject is of little or no worth. Christianity was given, 



CHRISTIANITY THE I>ATRON OF THE ASPIRING. 333 

not to contradict and degrade the rational nature, but to call it 
forth, to enlarge its range and its powers. It admits of endless 
development. It is the last truth which should remain station- 
ary. It ought to be so explored and so expressed, as to take 
the highest place in a nation's literature, as to exalt and purify- 
all other literature." 

Christianity is worthy of supreme regard, because it is a 
redeeming power of the highest order. But side by side with 
the idea of redemption stands another idea, of at least equal 
importance — that of reconciliation. Redemption is something 
essentially internal ; it is liberation from the yoke of sin, res- 
toration of the harmony between the material and the spiritual 
life ; while reconciliation implies an external relation, which 
restores the appropriate connection between the sinner and a 
holy God. To experience the practical power of these is to 
possess Christianity in its essence, which communicates a 
higher, more perfect knowledge of God, as love, as the merci- 
ful Father who sent the Redeemer to save the world, and has 
vouchsafed his Spirit to reveal to all men his own nature and 
perfections. As only in acts can the living God be fully 
revealed, and in their saving power his spirit be manifested, so 
it is only in action, wise and benevolent, that our own virtues 
can be developed, and, by their influence, the world be blessed. 
All the will of Jehovah in relation to man was clearly and 
fully represented in the life of Christ, full of grace and truth ; 
and it is precisely in the same way that all the mercies we 
receive are to be lived out benevolently for the good of all our 
fellow-men. 

Christianity teaches not only the human nature of man, but 
also his divine origin and deathless capacities. It does this by 
causing the souls in which it dwells to aspire towards God, as 
bright flames, at night, stream upward to the stars. The hum- 
ble votary longs not only for something higher than can be 
found on earth, but even for the unconditional, the primal 
fount of life and being. His insatiable spirit requires not 
merely something more perfect and more pure, but finds entire 



334 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

satisfaction only in the absolutely perfect and pure, the adora- 
ble One, the essential Ideal of truth, love, and holiness. It is 
this that generates the immortal impulse from within which 
makes the gladsome soul cry, on, ahvay, on'! 

The ambition which Christianity creates it gloriously sustains 
and usefully employs. It transforms the obscure youth, often, 
into the eagle which you see piercing the storm and braving 
the sun ; an eagle in every fibre of his body, in every look of 
his eye, in relation to the earth he has left, the air he winnows 
with sovereign wing, the lightnings on which he gazes 
unblenched, and the heavens to which he darts unwearied 
and unalarmed. It is said that the Danes used to make their 
horses deaf, lest they should be frightened at the war-songs 
sung by their foes on the field of battle ; but no such precau- 
tion is requisite for the better success of those who contend 
under the banners of our holy religion. Each young volunteer 
struggles valiantly from the cradle to the tomb, that he may be 
useful to virtue, serviceable to merit in distress, and ascend 
from the field of complete conquest, to enjoy in heaven, with 
the great Deliverer himself, the sense of consoling, generous, 
liberating ideas, left by him on earth. 

Men of the most refined sensibilities have usually the most 
ethereal intellects ; and they are always the most radical 
reformers, because it is the best and strongest part of their 
nature to love freedom. They have more hope, more enthu- 
siasm for justice, more impatience under oppression, more 
acuteness of perception, more readiness to act, than common 
men, and less inclination to despair. The heart of a true hero, 
confiding in a righteous Providence, and wholly consecrated to 
the advocacy of universal rights, like the sea-fowl that rests 
upon the bosom of the tempestuous deep, seems to float upon 
the foaming billows with as much composure as if it ruled 
them. Such men prefer death to desertion of duty. They 
encounter the menaces of power, endure the gloom of prisons, 
and, if need be, ascend the scaffold or embrace the rack with 
a step that never falters, lips that never are recreant, and looks 



CHRISTIANITY THE PATRON OF THE ASPIRING. 335 

that never change. They love God and injured humanity with 
all the nobleness of their sympathetic nature, and they are 
ready to encounter death in the most dreadful forms, if from 
their tears and blood a higher life may spring to bless the 
masses that survive. The feeling of progress is the greatest 
spring of personal delight, and the prospect of promoting this 
amongst the people at large imparts cheerfulness and courage 
to the heroical under the severest lot. .With prostrate soul 
and kneeling heart they undertake any task required by duty, 
and submit to any fate, resolved on resisting every form of 
injustice on earth, contented with nothing less than universal 
rights and approving Heaven. 

It has been said that " no man can be just to himself, can 
comprehend his own existence, can put forth all his powers 
with an heroic confidence, can deserve to be the guide and 
inspirer of other minds, till he has risen to communion with 
the Supreme Mind ; till he feels his filial connection with the 
Universal Parent ; till he regards himself as the recipient and 
minister of the Infinite Spirit; till he feels his consecration to 
the ends which religion unfolds ; till he rises above human 
opinion, and is moved by a higher impulse than fame." To 
bestow this is the prerogative and essence of Christianity, which 
recognizes and teaches us to reverence in God the attributes 
of impartial justice and universal love, and to hear him com- 
manding us through the spirit of his word and the monitions of 
our conscience, to become what we adore. 

Wantonly to depress, rather than patronize, free and grand 
aspirations in a rational, moral being, is to inflict on him the 
greatest wrong. We never acquit ourselves of the highest 
duty we owe every human being, till we have exerted our- 
selves to the utmost in planting within him the seeds of wisdom, 
disinterestedness, the firmest fortitude and most beneficent 
piety. We are to address all with the timely aid and soothing 
tones which reveal to the richly-endowed glimpses of a not 
very distant perfection, which prophesy improvements propor- 
tioned to persevering efforts, increase energy of purpose, and 



336 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

add wings to the soul. It is thus that we may send forth those 
who become preeminently " lights of the world," shining the 
more splendidly in contrast with the gloom from which they 
emerged. The first word of encouragement spoken by kindred 
greatness to the gifted heart awakens therein a consciousness 
of having been created to attain something greatly good ; and 
this primary truth becomes a motive power, whose momentum 
and usefulness are augmented at each new remove, until the 
soul flies at length with a majestic and swift effulgence that 
flings the sun into the shade. Thus aspirations that are 
divinely free in their nature, and grand in their aim, 

" Pursue the flying storm. ; 
Ride on the volleyed lightning through the heavens ; 
Or, yoked with whirlwinds or the northern blast, 
Sweep the long track of day." 

Men of rare endowments early and acutely feel that the 
finger of Providence is upon them, and that they have some 
high destiny to perform. Such was the case with Cyrus, 
Homer, Alexander, Shakspeare, Milton, Keats, Scott, and 
Napoleon. Of all men on earth, Socrates was the least likely 
to be superstitious ; yet he believed he was acted on by a spirit. 
The greatest men in every department of high effort have 
always asserted their belief of a supernatural stirring in their 
youthful natures, which supported them in calamity, guided 
them through sombre doubts, and urged them upward cour- 
ageously, whenever they were encompassed with silence and 
solitude. But over and above all other resources of genius, 
Christianity bestows the blessings of infinite support and eternal 
reward. As the dew by night, and the sun by day, the genial 
rain and lavish smile of summer, endow a tree with its beauti- 
ful fecundity, so do the hallowed influences of the cross make 
both fragrant and fruitful the mind on which they descend. 
They are the generators of fair ideas, the sole regenerators of 
fallen humanity, breeding a brightness and a beatitude every 
where, and nourishing in the feeblest nature a potency to 



CHRISTIANITY THE PATRON OF THE ASPIRING. 337 

hallow and redeem. Whatever visits mankind with aspirings 
for something higher and holier than the meagreness and 
monotony of dull earthliness ; whatever tells them of more 
brilliant and substantial possibilities than those that hover tran- 
siently round the selfish concerns of their present career; 
whatever kindles within them emotions that warm and stretch 
beyond the narrow affections of their hearths, and the corroding 
anxieties about worldly pelf, — is derived from a source above 
this world, is an impulse and a strength which guaranties 
human progression, and points to glories above human ken, a 
gladness hereafter to be fully revealed. Enough is possessed 
here, however, to make the participant exclaim, " O, to create 
within the mind is bliss." He prays perpetually that Heaven 
would breathe on him inspiring spirit-breath, and pants with 
perpetually increased longings to ascend beyond those high 
diademed orbs which show to the enraptured aspirant his 
crown to come. 

The religion which actuates a true disciple of Christ is no 
mere faith of custom tagged on the gross outside of his nature, 
like a dormant bat to a dead bough, but the spirit of a new 
life, a second and better, by which he is enabled to scrutinize 
and comprehend all the mysteries of the first. It is the freest 
part of man made still freer by a divine emancipation, and 
endowed with a competency to achieve the grandest results. 
It is infinite excellence infused into every finite faculty by 
assimilation, causing all the spiritual attributes of the subject to 
swell into the sublime proportions of the model upon which 
they are formed, and ultimately to be filled with excellence 
the most complete. Under this process, limited views are 
excluded, and spiritual bondage is impossible. The first truth 
a mind once disinthralled learns is, that forced obedience is the 

" Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth, 
Makes slaves of men, and of the human frame 
A mechanized automaton." 

He who really feels the price of his redemption, and longs 
29 



338 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

to live to Christ, a pure, free mind, actively and widely employed 
in the promotion of human welfare will most industriously 
accumulate resources from without, while his best strength 
always springs from within his own soul. The greatest load 
of erudition lends the lightest wings to real genius, and never 
encumbers them. True aspiration riseth from research, as 
the force and splendor of the flame are measured by the 
amount of fuel that feeds it. From his earliest youth, the true 
man is governed only by his own deep-rooted convictions of 
truth and duty, from the prompt and persevering discharge of 
which he is never nattered or forced to flinch. In all the des- 
perate struggles generally requisite to promote the cause of 
personal and popular improvement, — one day in a prison, and 
the next day in a palace, — he never for an instant loses sight 
of the one grand end, — mercy for the unmerciful and increased 
light for all. He knows that the temple of honor is seated on 
an eminence, to be approached but by some difficulty, and to 
be entered only through virtue, which in magnanimous strug- 
gles is always tried. The treachery and cruelty of the envious 
and mean may do much to destroy his confidence in human 
nature, and often depress his mind when it would rise to the 
contemplation or execution of sublime designs ; but his equa- 
nimity can never be long disturbed, nor the dignity of his 
ambition become permanently debased. Ill treatment from the 
strong, and bitter experience in common with all the weak, 
will only render him but the more diligent in accumulating for 
timely disbursement the resources of mercy and truth ; for the 
gentle and pure emotions of benevolence ever hang about the 
soul of genius, " like a pearl-wreath around beauty's brow." 
There is a sense in which it may be properly said that 
Christianity has but just begun its work of reformation in the 
highest and broadest form. Under its influence, we see in our 
day a new order of society created, and invited to the enjoy- 
ment of unprecedented privileges and rights. The beneficent 
changes already begun, and advancing on the largest scale, we 
believe, will shortly accomplish yet greater good by revealing 



CHRISTIANITY THE PATRON OF THE ASPIRING. 339 

to mankind at large the worth and capabilities of their nature, 
and by teaching them to "honor all" who of that nature par- 
take. Viewed in its light, the most obscure children of our 
race are beings cared for by the Almighty, to whom he has 
given his Son, upon whom he pours his Spirit, whom he has 
created for the greatest good, and whom he would elevate to a 
participation with himself in the highest glory. Perfection in 
Jesus Christ is revealed to all, even the most infantile capacities 
of mankind, not for their discouragement, but most glorious 
consolation — a model which all are qualified, just in proportion 
to the purity and grandeur of their desires, both to approach 
and imitate. The aspirant may at first bend in deepest gloom ; 
but if he holds on his way patiently and imploringly, he shall 
soon possess himself of divine light and strength, that will 
make his spirit bright and buoyant as morning is in heaven. 

The best product and proof of true progress in our day is 
the superior self-culture sought and obtained by most individ- 
uals amongst the masses of mankind. Popular institutions are 
every where rising, which are so many centres radiating light 
and improvement over the largest areas of industrious mind. 
Under these genial influences the people at large are induced 
to think and act for themselves, cultivating their own powers 
and faculties. This is most clearly indicated by the increased 
appreciation of those whom it is most important the body of 
the people should rightly estimate, — the men of talent, genius, 
and worth, who spring from their own humble ranks. Work- 
ing-men toiling daily with their own hands, find or make leisure 
to produce the finest creations of matter and mind, which are 
deemed none the less valuable because they are not the fruit 
of aristocratic patronage. Time was when the creators of 
beautiful things were obliged to look to a higher grade of soci- 
ety to obtain a proper appreciation of their worth. Then they 
were wont to stoop in order to rise ; become servile in order to 
obtain support; degrade the fair and holy gift within them 
before they could obtain the position which seemed to belong 
to their superior endowments. But such is the state of the 



340 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

case no longer. Now, intellect is beginning to be esteemed 
according to its intrinsic worth, originate where it may ; benefi- 
cent, beautiful, and potent genius reigns supreme everywhere. 
This is perfectly harmonious with the spirit of the age and of 
Christ, for all great gifts are always republican in their char- 
acter and works. They deal with the universal, and appeal 
most directly, as well as most powerfully, to the common heart 
of man. They are the imbodiments and chief agents of feel- 
ing, thought, adoration, and not of external rank, form, or 
station. The finest exemplification of worth oppressed by 
wrong in olden time, — such as Prometheus blessing mankind 
while he defied the thunder of Jove, even when fastened to the 
barren rock, with the vulture tearing at his heart, — pictures 
exactly those who strike for freedom in modern times, braving 
the dungeon, the stake, and the scaffold, in their enthusiasm 
for popular improvement, and determination to promote it, 
putting every thing at stake, even their own lives. This spirit 
has no affinity with the few in their exclusive distinctions, but 
with the many in their generous passions, fraternal fears, sor- 
rows, joys, and triumphs. It invites man to the great feast of 
which God and nature are the ample provisions in all their 
diversity of refreshing gifts. These make their lover to grow 
up in lovely order and sublime harmony ; to aspire towards an 
affinity of infinite grandeur with a speed and splendor to which 
the " liijhtninu shall be shadow, and the sun sadness." 

It has been said that poetry "imbodies the loftiest abstrac- 
tions in the noblest forms ; the spirit of divinity in divine 
imagery. It excites admiration at the great deeds of great 
men, and realizes times of old with the heroic virtues which 
they exhibited. 'It opes the sacred source of sympathetic 
tears,' touching with pity as with admiration. It rejoices in 
the simplicity of the flowery meadow, and the gorgeousness of 
the Gothic cathedral. It teaches lessons of wisdom in the 
unity of the epic and the collisions of the drama. Its range is 
from the profoundest philosophy to the lightest sport ; and in 
all, it cheers the spirit, purifies the aim, excites the exertions, 



CHRISTIANITY THE PATRON OF THE ASPIRING. 341 

and graces the conquest, of those who are aspiring towards 
political freedom and social improvement. It gives them 
power in the pursuit of their object, and enhances the faculty 
for its enjoyment. And in this diversified power there is room 
for the rainbow fancy that makes even tears sparkle ; that 
resolves light into its varied colors, and with their hues paints 
the water-drop ; that gives grace and adornment to whatever 
it touches ; that points the keen sarcasm, which must be taken 
with a smile as it is pronounced with a smile ; that calls in the 
alliance of kindred arts, rendering music and verse reciprocal 
echoes of each other ; that enshrines poetical fancies in ele- 
mentary and enduring melodies ; that aids the exhilaration of 
banquet and bower, of camp and court ; that weaves the light 
wreath for gayest hours, and sounds the inspiring march to 
which men advance in sterner times." We should particularly 
observe that this power, with all other attributes of gifted 
minds, when not perverted by priestly or regal influence, inva- 
riably advocate the cause of popular freedom. Thus Homer 
was the poet of Greek republicanism. Amid all the diversified 
imagery of his writings, through all his conflicts, single or 
multitudinous, there stands out palpably one pervading idea — 
the mischief which accrued to his country from the strife of 
aristocratic partisans, when " for the king's offence the people 
died." Still more strikingly is this seen in the great Christian 
poet Milton. In his correspondence, some one who had written 
to him praised his " policy." He disclaimed the term, saying 
that it was not policy upon which he acted, but religious pat- 
riotism. This was ever the prevailing principle with him ; it 
was his head, heart, and conscience ; and it was in perfect 
harmony with his nature, always aspiring to perfect freedom, 
that, having at one time selected King Arthur for the subject of 
an epic, he soon discarded that theme, and determined to rep- 
resent the fortunes of the human race as imbodied in that of 
their first ancestors ; in which production he showed the strong- 
est love of freedom and the clearest principles of republicanism 
29* 



342 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

beating in his heart and crowning with a supernal glory all the 
creations of his lofty intellect. 

Thus have we endeavored to show that Christianity, pure of 
spirit, and legitimate in exercise, which was proudly contemned 
when most pure, is adapted to encourage the deserving when 
most depressed, and ever delights to patronize all aspirations 
that are both free and grand. It coins words in young and 
generous hearts that are often as brave as the bravest deeds ; 
words that have created revolutions more memorable, more 
enduring, and more blissful, than the most glorious battles that 
freedom ever gained with martial weapons. They are words 
compounded of wisdom, courage, and love, but not of that 
shallow cunning, and commonplace charlatanism, which hunt 
for insipid popularity by fawning on arrogant power. The 
brave, free, and consistent Christian scorns all crippling conven- 
tionalisms, stands up fearlessly, though alone, to resist every 
form of injustice, labors assidupusly and kindly to foster every 
order of merit, and sows with a lavish hand the seed destined 
to make glad the eye of coming centuries, in view of unlimited 
harvests gleaming with immortal richness and eternally repro- 
duced. Thus obscure and discarded youth, like young Christ 
battling against the penury, hypocrisies, and popular wrongs 
of his day, learn in solitude and gloom to continue undaunted 
by obstacles, while they nourish noble thoughts, and verify to 
themselves that to persevere unsubdued by defeats, is itself the 
most glorious success we can know on earth. The blows of 
adversity prepare them for future triumphs ; more closely 
incorporate the greatest mental strength of their being with 
its greatest affection ; and in the full development of both, 
create an enthusiasm for perfection, and a sympathy with all 
who aspire toward it, which no hardship can depress and no 
tyranny resist. 



CHAPTER III. 

CHRISTIANITY THE FORTIFIER OF 
THE WEAK. 

The general points discussed in this series of chapters, on 
the republican influence of Christian doctrine, will be found 
to harmonize with those considered in the corresponding de- 
lineations of the republican character of Jesus Christ, which 
constitute the first part of this work. In saying that Chris- 
tianity is the solace of the obscure, the patron of the aspiring, 
the fortifier of the weak, &c, we but remind ourselves that the 
Savior of the world emerged from the deepest earthly gloom, 
was most contemned in his early aspirations, and needed 
continually to pray that his human weakness might be divinely 
sustained. As was our Lord in the lowly and trying circum- 
stances of his incarnate state, so is every truthful disciple who 
has imbibed his spirit, and would imitate his beneficent life. 
He needs all the succors afforded by a divine example, as well 
as the history of a divine belief; and, in all his struggles, should 
remember that Christianity was fiercely persecuted when most 
weak ; sympathizes with the suffering when most wronged ; 
and fortifies the confiding with invincible strength. 

In the first place, the fact that Christianity was fiercely per- 
secuted in the feebleness of its youth, is perfectly consistent 
with the character it bore in contrast with the world it came to 
redeem. At the time Christ appeared, the world stood in the 
greatest need of a religion at once moral, intelligible, and 
spiritual ; adapted to human nature, level to the capacities of 
the multitude, fitted to all countries, and ennobling in its influ- 
ence upon all institutions. Christianity exactly and fully met 
this want, because all its doctrines respecting God and our 



344 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

relations to him agreed perfectly with the moral law, and most 
facilitated human obedience. It poured the clearest light upon 
ethics, and rendered their sacred obligations most intuitive. 
Moreover, it prescribed no external rites and ceremonies, but 
such as, by their manifest moral and exalting efficacy, best 
demonstrated their own intrinsic worth. Because Christianity, 
by its very nature, was most intimately connected with all in 
man that is most lasting and unchangeable, it was happily 
fitted to become universal, and was designed, by infinite wis- 
dom and love, to exert the best influence on man's temporal 
and eternal welfare. She lends human nature that aid which 
is indispensable to self-conquest, and which has always been 
most anxiously desired. In this new fountain of salvation, 
infinitely capacious and purifying, the world was invited to 
participate in energies the most potent and salutary, animat- 
ing and ennobling man in every faculty and every where, 
rescuing body and soul from every form of vassalage, regulat- 
ing all his social relations, and filling him with all the fulness 
of divine freedom and love. 

The better to conceive the worth of this religion, we have but 
to glance at the moral character of the world, when its divine 
Author was fiercely persecuted, and all its heavenly claims 
were first repelled. When Christ appeared, earth presented 
nothing but the frightful spectacle of ignorance, slaughter, and 
slavery. The foot of the strong was perpetually on the necks 
of the despairing and unresisting masses, while the oppressors 
never ceased to carry on the bloodiest conflicts among them- 
selves. Thus, while the majority were in perpetual chains, 
and the minority in perpetual strife, the whole race appeared 
supremely cursed. From the perpetuity of such misery 
Christianity came to free mankind. Infinite truth and mercy 
appeared on the field of conflict to encourage the feeble to 
resist the strong, and to resist them effectually. But while the 
tyrannical minority was to be checked and overthrown by 
redeemed and enlightened majorities, it was not anarchy that 
was appointed to rule, but love. Both parties were first to be 



CHRISTIANITY THE FORTIFIER OF THE WEAK. 345 

reasoned with, then conciliated, and finally blended in one 
common championship of the highest freedom and blandest 
truth. Thus, amidst the greatest oppressions and most ex- 
asperated antagonists, Christianity appears with weapons at 
once invincible and unavenging, because she comes to save, 
and not to destroy. Her design is, if possible, to convert into 
a votary the enraged tyrant, even while she rescues the bleed- 
ing victim; and therefore does she mildly interpose for the 
benefit of both, with a power 

" Which, like a strong man's arm, 
Keeps back two foes whose lips are white, 
Whose hearts with rage are warm." 

Moral aspirings and religious yearnings have never been 
entirely unknown to human nature ; but it was impossible for 
spiritual perfection to be obtained, so long as blind coercion was 
predominant. The kingdom of physical energy was carried 
to its grandest height by the Romans, and was doomed to pass 
away at the dawn of that better kingdom, based on intellectual 
immunities for all, under the beneficent dominion of which the 
most mutilated and degraded child of a suffering race might 
become a perfect man. And though the main purpose of 
Christ, and the immediate effect of his incarnation, was to 
teach true morality and a saving religion, the indirect and very 
important influence of his doctrines, for eighteen centuries, has 
been to substitute the reign of free intellectual power for that of 
arbitrary dictation every where. This tends to the repossession 
of original rights, and the equal balance of all our faculties, in 
which every man will become a son of God, by uniting, in their 
just proportions and healthful exercise, his physical energy, in- 
tellectual power, moral ability, and religious affections. The 
chief instrument for working out this external equality and in- 
ternal equilibrium is Christianity, the divine balm of the keenest 
woe, which tyrants of every grade most fiercely hate. But 
the time has come, when consolidated power and vengeful 
persecution can no longer prevent the steady growth and 
ultimate triumph of the true lawgivers and most potent rulers 



346 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

of the age, who, at the outset, seldom or never occupy situations 
of note, are little known, and are seldom heard by the unheed- 
ing crowds around them. Nevertheless, it is they who appear 
as the high priests of destiny, whose whispered thoughts evoke 
the tempests which annihilate empires and shatter chains. 
From the nineteenth century onward, earth will be governed 
by crownless and sceptreless monarchs, whose only homage 
will be the revolutions they have promoted, and the universal 
blessings they have conferred. Our race will soon have 
learned that there is human truth and divine truth harmo- 
niously blended, and offered equally to all in Christ, the first 
great Teacher of republican doctrine, infinitely higher and 
more salutary than the bigoted creeds which selfish priests sell 
to their victims, and which trembling despots are always 
ambitious to bind on all free souls. From such wretched 
creatures the good may expect persecution, for that which 
they most hate they certainly have good reason most to 
fear. 

Christianity plants redemption and perfects order in society, 
by imparting force to reason and uprightness to conscience ; 
and these are precisely the attributes which it is impossible for 
oppression long to resist. In vain may despots expect to hold 
mankind bound by a chain, every link of which has previously 
been sundered by the lightning of truth. As, in the original 
creation, the kindling elements raved and struggled in the 
gigantic chaos — water and fire, darkness and light, at war — 
vapor and cloud hardening into mountains, while the Breath 
of Life moved a steadfast splendor over all ; so, in the grand 
moral renovations of our day, — when the new heavens and 
new earth -seem rapidly forming, — light pierces to the lowest 
depths, permeates the greatest masses, discriminates between 
all spiritual and material elements, energizes every rational 
being to act for himself, and qualifies him to be his own teacher, 
guide, and judge. The word of God is open for all, and there 
is but one Priest in the universe who has a right to say, " If 
any man lack wisdom, let him ask of me." It is the religion 



CHRISTIANITY THE FORTIFIER OF THE WEAK. 347 

of this our only Prophet, Priest, and Ruler supreme, that 
declares the poorest child ever born in the lowest vale of 
human life, to be like himself, infinitely more worthy of 
regard than planets, satellites, and suns, in their harmonious 
movements, because, with all their magnitude and magnifi- 
cence, the intellectual, the moral, the patient, the energetic, 
the overcoming immortality in a human bosom, swelling 
though it may be under the tatters of most absolute want, in 
its diversity of endowment and grandeur of destiny, is the 
most interesting and sublime of all finite objects upon which 
the universe can gaze. As Christianity regards every human 
being as an heir of earth's best blood, born with no inferior 
right to the free and full enjoyment of Heaven's highest bless- 
ings, it is not wonderful that it is arrogantly hated by those 
whose only delight is in persecuting the weak. 

Secondly, we proceed to remark, more fully, that Christianity 
sympathizes with the suffering when most wronged. It is a 
truth proved and exemplified by numerous examples on every 
hand, that merit the most elevated and abundant originates 
in apparently the most unpropitious scenes. It is a fact 
worthy of reflection, that those persons who are reared in 
homes of classic elegance, improved by art, and embellished 
with natural charms, like Edens, whence stark, deformed, and 
vulgar need is excluded with greatest care, are rarely bene- 
fited by, or worthy of, their superior blessings. The man- 
ners and superficial culture of such, are, indeed, generally 
tinctured with the refinement that surrounds them ; but rarely 
does it imbue the intellect with rugged power, or invest the 
heart with sterling charms. The master-spirits who sow the 
earth with grand thoughts, and adorn it with beneficent deeds, 
are invariably the produce of a pure and free soil, who pro- 
claim, in a healthful and fruitful growth, the vigorous source 
whence they sprung, and the unbounded resources they com- 
mand, delicate in their diction, rich in their imagery, ex- 
alted in their thought, thrilling in their own heart with an 
exquisite sense of the beautiful, and impressive before others 



348 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

with the most august unfoldings of the sublime. The passion 
which family pride, sectarian zeal, or pedantic exclusiveness 
aims to feed, is light which, like straw on flame, may be a 
fierce, but is also a fading fire. Whereas the education con- 
ferred by our holy religion on the minds and hearts of suffer- 
ing devotees who kneel at her altars in the solitary glen, or on 
the mountain-side, is as profound as it is comprehensive, sub- 
stantial in its basis, and gorgeous in its adornments ; a system 
of ennobling truth and unfading glory, built like the temple of 
the Infinite, " whose bright foundations are the heights of 
heaven." 

That sympathy for the suffering which Christianity most 
strongly prompts and most bountifully rewards is designed to 
teach, as the first lesson in its school, that earth, and the sepa- 
rable elements which compose it, were not created for a class, 
but as free blessings for all. " The common sun, the air, 
the skies," were not designed for more equal apportionment 
among mankind than were the common blessings of intel- 
lectual enjoyment, moral cultivation, and personal liberty. 
This position, we know, is denied by some, and its practical 
realization is opposed by many. It is to be confessed, more- 
over, that great minds, such as impress their characteristic 
marks upon the age in which they are matured, and thence- 
forward, like the mightiest rivers, pursue their beneficent course 
from the obscure fountains of their origin, making continents 
fruitful as they perpetually flow, are very rare. The severe 
circumstances which usually attend superior merit, will easily 
explain the cause. But it is not only manifest that the best 
gifts of Providence are the commonest, and the best gifts of 
intellect the rarest ; it is equally clear that there is a perpetual 
tendency in these rare gifts to become common, and it is the 
peculiar office of Christianity to promote such a republican 
equalization. The highest order of intellect is always the 
most active and beneficent ; this law holds good from God 
himself down through all gradations of moral existences. 
Around the most exalted mental and moral excellence the 



CHRISTIANITY THE FORTIFIER OF THE WEAK. 349 

purest atmosphere is most rapidly generated, which tends most 
powerfully towards distinct expression, in order to teach most 
widely the most important truths. Hence persons who are 
born in the possession of the greatest native excellence always 
bring with them that indomitable energy and useful activity 
which characterize Him who never wearieth, and with a 
divine purpose diffuse themselves wider and yet wider through 
society, until they become the common portion and heritage 
of mankind. All great prophets, apostles, poets, artists, wri- 
ters, orators, redeemers, are products and proofs of this prin- 
ciple. Their being's end and aim is to diffuse knowledge : 
the ever-increasing and multiplying excitement of intellect ; 
the renovation and exaltation of hearts ; the rescuing of im- 
mortal souls from apathy, grossness, absorption in the things 
that perish ; the carrying forward an impeded race, and train- 
ing our common nature for its predestined maturity of thought 
and holy emotion, — this is the grand reason why all true great- 
ness is born, antagonizes through frightful gloom with frightful 
wrongs, is persecuted by tyrants, revered by the masses, and 
at length, in mockery, is crucified that all the world may be 
blessed. 

In this connection, it should be observed, that the commonest, 
material auxiliaries are subservient to, and connected with, the 
spread of the rarest intellectual and spiritual blessings. As if 
Jehovah was especially intent on causing the most desirable 
treasures to be most rapidly and widely diffused, he requires 
only the very simplest means to be employed in connection 
with his own invaluable gifts. For instance, printing demands 
only some bits of metal, and not types of precious gems ; a few 
rags spread into paper, and not sheets of refined gold. The 
telegraph, that streams the creations of genius over earth, asks 
only a coil of iron wire as a track, while all heaven furnishes 
the lightning messengers to play thereon. The guide which 
conducts commerce athwart oceans is but a tiny rod of steel 
vitalized with a power direct from God ; and the almost om- 
nipotent agent working so patiently and irresistibly beneath 
30 



350 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

the deck, while its sturdy arms lash the huge billows into foam, 
and sweep sublimely from continent to continent, is but the 
simple subordination to a high purpose of two elements the 
most universal and accessible to man. As in nature, art, and 
science, so is it in grace ; the most needful is most abundant, 
and should be most equally diffused : since God grants all 
gratuitously, the man who presumes to deprive his fellow of 
his lawful share, is dastardly mean and the most accursed. 
The effeminate, the selfish, and the proud may treat with neg- 
lect the predestined sons of might and heroes of good ; but 
Christianity sympathizes with them when most wronged, and 
is rapidly preparing the way all over the world for the full 
development of their worth, and its appropriate reward. 

" Beneath, the frown of wicked men 
The people's strength is bowing ; 
But, thanks to God, they can't prevent 
The lone wild flowers from blowing ! 

" On useful hands and honest hearts 
The base their wrath are wreaking ; 
But, thanked be God, they can't prevent 
The storm of heaven from speaking." 

There is another great law of divine beneficence eminently 
worthy of observation. It is, that those things which relate to 
our highest welfare most powerfully affect the common mind, 
and most strongly cleave even to the weakest memory. The 
missionary Moffat says, that, when he had concluded a long 
sermon to a great number of African savages, his hearers 
divided into companies, to talk the subject over. " While thus 
engaged, my attention was arrested by a simple-looking young 
man, at a short distance. The person referred to was holding 
forth, with great animation, to a number of people, who were 
all attention. On approaching, I found, to my surprise, that 
he was preaching my sermon over again, with uncommon pre- 
cision, and with great solemnity, imitating, as nearly as he 
could, the gestures of the original. A greater contrast could 
scarcely be conceived, than the fantastic figure and the solem- 



CHRISTIANITY THE FORTIFIER OF THE WEAK. 351 

nity of his language — his subject being eternity, while he 
evidently felt what he spoke. Not wishing to disturb him, I 
allowed him to finish the recital, and, seeing him soon after, 
•told him that he could do what I was sure I could not, — that 
was, preach again the same sermon verbatim. He did not 
appear vain of his superior memory. ' When I hear any thing 
great,' he said, touching his forehead with his finger, ' it re- 
mains there.' " What shall we say of those who despise the 
condition and wants of their fellow-beings, who grovel in such 
deep degradation, and yet, even when most benighted, possess 
such abilities to feel and know ? 

Lessing says, " Revelation is to the whole race of mankind, 
what education is to the individual person. Education is a 
revelation made to a single man ; and revelation is the educa- 
tion of the whole race of mankind, which has taken place, 
and continues still to take place." We may consider it as a 
training, by diversity of means, and through a succession of 
efforts, by wonders real and apparent, by a beautiful arrange- 
ment of the most common occurrences, as well as by an influ- 
ence both hidden and divine. The spirit of Christ sympa- 
thizes with the suffering, and labors on their behalf, by sending 
forth its redeeming energies through tender and intelligent 
disciples who spring from the multitudes, can comprehend 
their struggles, mitigate their anguish, and supply all their 
wants. Hence it was not scholastic erudition, or the influence 
of royal station, that Christianity first employed to plant her 
institutions ; but the fishermen, the tax-gatherer, and the tent- 
maker, who could replenish every vale with truth, easily un- 
derstood and rapturously enjoyed ; plant gospel banners on 
every shore, which should be seen in all directions afar; and, 
beginning at the lowest rank, ascend to the highest, with ac- 
cents adapted to the faculties-of each, and good news of great 
joy for all. The most industrious and most oppressed classes 
were first disciplined by the hopes and fears, sorrows and di- 
vine consolations, of our holy religion, that they who had suf- 
fered most and been most consoled by the heavenly treasure 



352 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

they possessed, might become the instructors of the world in a 
loftier theology, purer morality, and brighter prospects of free- 
dom and improvement than the world had ever before received. 
It was this sympathetic gospel which gave a new and unusual 
depth of feeling, a fulness of inward life to mankind. It im- 
parted moral earnestness, intellectual energy, and religious 
fervor to the lowest grade of its subjects, and thus emancipated 
them from the tutelage of effete dogmas, and developed in 
their souls a new, living form of truth, the most dignified, and 
graced with all the glories of felt redemption, atonement, and 
justification before Almighty God. It was this that awoke hu- 
manity to a keener consciousness of its character, its wants, 
and the infinitude of heavenly supplies. In Christ earth saw, 
for the first time, the religion of freedom the most republican 
and pure — freedom toward God and toward all mankind. 
It is this only that can make one feel how grand a thing it is to 
be in perfect harmony with the infinite universe, and in perfect 
identity with the infinite God ; to be, instead of social slaves, 
the agents of social emancipation ; to revere none of the 
monstrous idols human weakness or human vanity hath set 
up ; to bear a brow always bold and radiant, as if the smile of 
heaven beamed thereon ; to tread the green earth with an 
innocent but intrepid step, not crouching to any human lord ; to 
be effulgent in the midst of surrounding darkness, cheerful and 
strong before the desponding and weak ; spurning, not merely 
fetters for ourselves, but breaking the fetters of all the op- 
pressed ; the distributors of great and regenerating ideas, as 
well as the prompt performers of the most commonplace 
duties ; and, thrilled by the recollection of glorious deeds 
already done, and inspired by the consciousness of augmented 
purity and power yet in reserve, to pant for the possession of 
a loftier ideal of individual excellence, an unlimited prospect 
of universal bliss. The diviner the enjoyments we receive 
from Heaven, the greater is our obligation, and the warmer is 
our impulse to lavish them on others, that all the earth may 
come to share equally in our joys. The true Christian will be 



CHRISTIANITY THE FORTIFIER OF THE WEAK. 353 

untiring and impartial in the exercise of his sympathetic re- 
gards and beneficent activity, remembering the great Redeemer 
said, " Freely ye have received, freely give." 

Divine truth is the primary want of the human soul, the 
ground of its own emancipation, and the means of its triumph 
over all outward foes. The full expansion and complete 
donation of this highest gift God has reserved to the ultimate 
energies of Christian doctrine on all mankind. All virtue is 
the inimitable fruit of truth ; and the gospel is worthy of all 
acceptation, because the excellence it produces is the most 
veracious and enduring. It is this that has traversed the tem- 
pests of so many generations, perpetually unfolding a brighter 
horizon to the world, regenerating its ideas, and developing 
the best civilization every where in its course. If we are in 
possession of this heavenly treasure, and, as true Christians, 
sympathize with the suffering when most wronged, we shall 
at any cost impart to them the assistance which most mitigates 
their sorrows and augments their strength. We have it in 
our power to bestow on the needy a favor the highest in the 
universe, and which the loftiest angel might well be ambitious 
to convey. This treasure is enlightening and redeeming truth, 
more productive than earth, more lasting than time, exalted as 
God, and glorious as the eternal throne. When a man gives 
his property, the earth he holds under his feet, it is much ; 
nevertheless, it is the gift of something foreign to himself. 
When he gives his heart, it is more and better ; but that heart, 
all precious as it may be, is the gift of something full of fick- 
leness and mortality : a time will come when the giver will no 
longer be able to create even the movement necessary to make 
his heart a gift. But there is in a Christianized man something 
which, while it is in and of himself, so made by divine grace, 
is more than himself, something that never recedes, never 
changes, never dies : we may even dare to say that it is some- 
thing more than immortal ; it is eternal. Man is a compound 
of time and eternity, and it is by truth that eternity enters into 
his composition. Daughter of eternity, deathless herself, Truth 
30* 



354 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

has descended to time by incarnating herself in the intelligence 
of man, and, endangered by this inhabitation of suffering from 
our nature, she communicates to her possessor the immunities 
and rights of all her original strength. While all else changes 
within us, even the sentiments of the heart and faculties of 
the mind, Truth preserves her immutable life, and, in giving 
her to others, we impart something that will survive ourselves, 
will outlast the decay of all transient things, and bloom perpet- 
ually beyond the grave, redolent of the graces gathered from 
every generation of time to crown the unending youth of her 
eternity. 

Truth is every thing to the soul, while error is worse than 
nothing. The first is a profound well, wherein the farther it is 
sunk the more profusely and powerfully the water gushes ; the 
other is a stagnant pit evaporated, or, as the Scripture says, 
" broken cisterns that can hold no water." The truth bestowed 
and fortified by divine religion, that religion which God has 
given to earth in Jesus Christ, is profoundly seated at the 
centre of humanity, like the primitive granite which supports 
the world; it there conceals divine fire and divine water, a fire 
that forever burns but to purify, a water which it is impossible 
to exhaust while it eternally flows. In proportion as we explore 
the depths of this wisdom and love, we discover new tributa- 
ries, streams unknown, reservoirs unlimited, even until we 
pierce to the centre, and, having given the last blow, the 
immortal stream of immaculate truth springs up to the skies, 
satisfying our thirst without extinguishing it, and raising the 
enraptured soul on its swelling tide even to the threshold of 
heaven's own temple, wherein God will crown the humble and 
diligent believer with all the fulness of himself. Until we 
reach that consummation of mental and moral bliss, we cannot 
expect entirely to escape from the influence of falsehood and 
the pangs of doubt. Whatever may be the charms of truth here 
below, there will always be opposed to it the charm of error ; 
whatever may be the abundance of light, enough of clouds 
will always remain to obscure it. It is by faith and patience 



CHRISTIANITY THE FORTIFIER OF THE WEAK. 355 

that the checkered path through sunshine and storm is to be 
traversed, and the goal of shadowless glory be finally attained. 
Truth itself is unaffected by the vicissitudes of time. Like a 
pyramid immovable and unshattered, it stands amid the moving 
sands and desolating elements of earth ; but we have only to 
descend to its base, in removing the dust and ruins that encum- 
ber it, and a light brighter than the sun will flash from founda- 
tion to summit, to satisfy the intelligence of all who honestly 
inquire, recompense their attention, and imbue them with 
unwasting strength. 

The breath of the Almighty, as it originally vivified and 
inspired the human soul, compelled it, by the very nature of 
its attributes, to be intellectual, moral, affectionate, susceptible 
of happiness, and religious. Man is the same still, so far as it 
pleases himself; his will is free ; he is a free agent. Revela- 
tion, while it has not a word of discussion on the subject of 
moral liberty, every where addresses itself to our race, under 
both covenants, as to free beings. " See," said Moses to 
Israel, " I call heaven and earth to record this day against 
you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and 
cursing; therefore choose life!" "Thus saith the Lord, Be- 
hold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death." 
" Return unto me and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of 
hosts," by the voice of Malachi. " This do and thou shalt 
live," were the words of Christ to the doctor of the law. 
Now, this will, power, liberty of man, which cannot go so far 
as to rob him of the cardinal properties of his nature, does 
often go so far as to disturb their just equilibrium, and to induce 
in him the cultivation of some one faculty to the detriment of 
others, and even so far as to subject the religious to the baser 
tendencies, although its legitimate province is to rule supreme 
in all the faculties, harmonize and approximate them to the 
infinite. It is the divine prerogative of truth, therefore, to 
restore the original sovereignty of the best powers, and the 
symmetrical development of all. In this matter, there is no 
question of more or less ; freedom exists or it does not ; and it 



356 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

is obvious that the liberty of a rational being consists precisely 
in the free use of the faculties inherent in his nature, and of 
all his faculties or powers, without exception or extravagance. 
This is only saying that freedom in the lowest grade of spirit- 
ual existence, as in the highest, is strength ; that a mental 
power is not a power except so far as it is independent. 
Man, renovated by divine truth, is made free in his part of the 
finite, as God is in the infinite ; that is, he acts in his quality 
of man with the same independence that God acts as God. 
It is the redeeming power, given to the world in Christ, that 
impels humanity both highest and farthest ; the only spur 
which can arouse our dormant energies, and excite them to the 
most beneficent action. Mental freedom is the only true free- 
dom, the foundation of all other liberty, without which an 
immortal creature is a degraded slave, and not the less a vassal 
because his chains may chance to be made of gold. 

" For -what is freedom but the unfettered use 
Of all the powers which God for use hath given? " 

Intellectual conception and moral appreciation are two attri- 
butes the grandest of human nature, the germs of which are 
lodged in every bosom. The intellectual power of man proves 
that there must be an object suitable for its exercise and 
demanding its study. This object is truth, the knowledge of 
something real, and consists in the exact understanding of the 
highest realities that exist. This is the grand boon proffered 
to us here and in a more exalted life. " Then shall I know, 1 ' 
says Paul, " even as also I am known ; " that is to say, 
thoroughly. The apostle does not, in this instance, speak with 
respect to himself alone. He had just said, " Now we see 
through a glass, darkly;" and, by a lively change of phrase, 
familiar to his style, he suddenly passes to the first person, and 
says, " I shall know," which is equivalent to we shall know. 
The force of the idea expressed in this sentence rests on the 
point of comparison, on the sense of the particle as. It is 
evident that, of the two principal significations of this word in 



CHRISTIANITY THE FORTIFIER OF THE WEAK. 357 

the Greek of the New Testament, viz., as much as, and in the 
same manner as, the last mentioned alone can be the one 
employed in this passage. The glorious hope which Paul 
expresses is, therefore, that the knowledge of immortality will 
embrace, not the appearances only, the mere outward mani- 
festations of the divine laws and creations, but their perfect 
truth and infinite reality. 

The moral faculty of man proves the existence of a law, by 
which each will should be governed, and to which all should 
have access. " Sin is the transgression of the law." " Where 
no law is, there is no transgression." Thus man is never 
without a moral law ; for when he does not receive one from 
God he makes one to himself. But all history, sacred and pro- 
fane, proves how difficult it is for man to discover, by his own 
unaided powers, the true law of progress, the basis of genuine 
morality, real justice and goodness divine. The reason of this 
difficulty is, that the mission of conscience is much more to 
apply itself to the law which it finds in force, than to discover 
or confer this law. Hence it often applies the rule without 
first comprehending it, and the benighted man conscientiously 
executes the most evil deeds. These are our fellow-creatures 
who suffer the greatest wrongs ; and for us, as the professed 
followers of Christ, to withdraw from them our sympathies and 
deny them his holy word, is at once to proclaim our own 
hypocrisy and seal their doom. 

Truth of the highest and purest form, the object given for 
the rescue and exaltation of our intellectual powers, is the 
same in all worlds ; it is what God thinks, and is what we with 
the greatest avidity should strive to possess and distribute, since 
what occupies his thoughts ought to occupy those of all his 
creatures, according to the graduated capacities of each and 
the mutual welfare of all. The object given to ennoble and 
eternally bless our moral powers, is holiness ; and this, too, is 
the same in all worlds: it is what God wills; and as what satis- 
fies his will is most happily adapted to satisfy that of all his 
creatures, according to the measure of sensibility and moral 



358 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

excellence in each, to distribute instrumentally the word that 
enlightens and the spirit that saves the soul of the poorest and 
meanest child of Adam, is to do that which confers the greatest 
happiness and reflects most honor upon the sons of God. 

We are not to covet for ourselves, nor inculcate upon others, 
that demoniac spirit which springs from wrong and leads to 
wrong, but the sacred liberty which dwells with justice, and 
wages a conflict both mighty and perpetual against every form 
of oppression. It is that merciful and yet resolute spirit which 
to the last gasp of existence resists the arrogance of despots, 
and when its warring energies are spent, so that inevitable 
dissolution" impends, it will, like the father of Hannibal, take 
the offspring it has produced to the altar of its adoration and 
swear them to eternal hostility against all the invaders of 
private rights and a public prosperity. This is 

" A liberty, which persecution, fraud, 
Oppression, prisons, have no power to bind ; 
Which whoso tastes can be enslaved no more : 
'Tis liberty of heart, derived from Heaven, 
Bought with His blood, who gave it to mankind, 
And sealed with the same token. It is held 
By charter, and that charter sanctioned sure 
By the unimpeachable and awful oath 
And promise of a God." 

Thirdly, Christianity, which was so fiercely persecuted when 
most weak, and which therefore sympathizes with the suffer- 
ing when most wronged, ever fortifies the confiding with 
invincible strength. This grand truth is inherent in it as the 
doctrine of Christ, and is its crowning glory as the manifesta- 
tion of his spirit and life. A just discrimination recognizes this 
difference between the science of religion and its practice. For 
analytical examination and popular communication, it is neces- 
sary to reduce Christianity to the form of doctrine ; but for all 
practical purposes, in its highest influence on individuals and 
nations, it is animated with a more efficacious life, and always 
exemplifies itself under the triune majesty of essence, life, and 



CHRISTIANITY THE FORTIFIER OF THE WEAK. 359 

action. The relation Christ assumed towards fallen man ; the 
position in which he placed mankind with reference to God ; 
his own teachings and example, together with the declarations 
of the apostles to him, his person, and work, — these constitute 
Christian doctrine, from the highest point of which, if we would 
obtain a perfect view, we must pass to the manifestation of 
Christ as the exemplar of a newer, higher, and more perfect 
religious life. The essential substance of Christianity is the 
illustrated character of its Author, spoken to all the world, and 
developed in all his existence here below. Only as life is 
Christianity the light of the world ; which position is based on 
the fact that Christ does not say, My doctrine is the truth, 
but, "I am the truth," adding immediately that he also is " the 
life." Christianity is not all faith, neither is it all morality, but 
a perfect combination of faith, love, and moral authority, form- 
ing true religion as its aggregate, from which harmonious 
whole the several components can as little be separated " as 
the light of the fire from its warmth." The character of our 
Lord can never be thoroughly understood, if we regard it as 
consisting wholly either in outward morality or in hidden piety ; 
since the peculiarity of his nature lay in the perfect coalescence 
of the two — in holiness; a life from and in God, designed in 
all of its infinite excellence to be diffused from himself into 
the world. It was this exalted capacity and unprecedented 
benevolence that made Christ to be something more than merely 
a great, pure-minded man ; he possessed a superhuman, world- 
swaying and world-pervading influence, which no pious fiction 
could invent, and which could proceed only from real, living, 
and perfect Divinity. It is equally clear that it was the strong- 
est desire of Christ, that his life and spirit should be shared by 
his disciples; that this life should be perpetuated in them, and 
become, through their instrumentality, the light and life of all 
mankind. This is most distinctly declared in the gospel, 
especially in the record by John. Thus Christ, himself glorified 
by the Father, desires to be glorified again in his disciples ; 
they are commanded to partake of his flesh and blood, that 



360 



REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 



thereby they may receive his life ; " that they all may be 
one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also 
may be one in us ; " and again, " I in them and thou in me, 
that they may be made perfect in one ; and that the world 
may know that thou hast sent me, and that thou lovest them, 
even as thou lovest me." All which is God's is Christ's, and 
this divine fulness he will impart to his followers ; or, as 
Paul expresses the same idea in an inverted form, "All is 
yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." This is not 
a creed, but Christianity, the absolute religion that came down 
from heaven, to be incarnated in life and action on earth, to 
be inculcated in the simplest forms, and eventually to reign 
the supreme and salutary faith of all mankind. Having con- 
quered every foe otherwise invincible, and having ascended to 
the throne of the universe, thence to bestow on all believers 
every resource they can need, Christ says to each, I will give 
the power of soul unbound and purified, 

"To crown thy life with, liberty and joy, 
And make thee free and mighty as I am." 

Our holy religion never throws her choice gifts into the lap of 
luxurious ease and selfishness, but creates strength in the strong, 
purity in the pure, and wreaths a glorious garland round the brow 
of true heroism, as, glad, radiant, and undaunted, it bounds on- 
ward ceaselessly to vanquish every oppressor and mitigate every 
wrong. It is not truth smothered in musty formulas, and faith 
having no more stable foundation than the idle dreams of a list- 
less brain ; but the religion of Christ, more than any other influ- 
ence, deepens and fortifies in the bosoms of its adherents ven- 
eration for duty, confirms the most sacred convictions of right, 
arms with a power of execution equal to the most heroic 
resolves, kindles martyr aspirations, and urges their possessors 
not to live for their own puny personalities, but to offer these 
and every thing dearest and best on the sublime altar of pro- 
gressive Humanity. Before this substantial zeal, magnani- 
mous spirit, and luminous enthusiasm, all empty theories and 



CHRISTIANITY THE FORTIFIER OF THE WEAK. 361 

crafty schemes dissolve and disappear like morning mists 
before the god of day, as he rises to shine on the diffusive and 
resistless redemptions which spring in rapid developments 
round the cross of Christ, to bless all the earth. 

Every man is good in proportion as he manifests the spirit 
of love, and great in proportion as he manifests the spirit of 
self-sacrifice. True religion is something more genial and 
vitalizing than "the patient brilliance of the moon," and is 
adorned with a beauty still more beauteous. It is a power, 
secret, sweet, precious, and profound, lending the soul swifter 
wings to fly, and always guiding its career to the most practi- 
cal and most profitable results. The greatest works of mind 
or hand have always been executed in behalf of the largest 
masses of men and the highest glory of God. This follows, 
because divine truth qualifies its possessor to break spears 
with the brave till he quells all, enlighten the ignorant till he 
has reformed all, and ereate monuments of science, art, and 
religion, which, like the spirit that inspired them, shall purify 
the tastes, enlarge the intellects, and ennoble the aspirations of 
all who, at the most open and unobstructed shrines, learn to 
gaze and admire. The spirit of all goodness and greatness 
is prompt to minister to the wants of the most needy, pro- 
mote the welfare of society at large, aid the changes which 
obviously tend to raise man to a higher order of civilization, 
and in every lawful way to impel the moral progress of the 
world. It takes the feeblest of our race, and, leading him to 
the summit of each mountain, thought says to him there, — 

" Worship thou God ; for Deity is seen 
From every elevation of the soul. 
Study the Light ; attempt the high ; seek out 
The soul's bright path ; and since the soul is fire 
Of heat intelligential, turn it aye 
To the all-Father, source of light and life." 

It is under the tuition of such sympathies and such wisdom, 
that the pupil of the skies, and predestined benefactor of our 
globe, early learns to partake, in glad and vigorous fruition, of 
31 



362 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

the Tree of Life, of which the loftiest stars are fruit, and the 
lightest leaf the food of still loftier power. The partaker thereof 
is increasingly conscious of firmer courage joined to purer 
affection within himself, and is willing to give all or renounce 
all things else, at any risk, and in view of any pain, rather than 
witness suffering which an effort of his own might, in some 
measure at least, remove ; and in proportion as his life is 
moulded by this law, sinking his own personal advantages and 
enjoyments in the higher destinies of our race, he becomes 
truly great, — great with a grandeur kindred to that of God. 
His greatness is hewn from that mount of light whereon the 
throne of heaven's eternal love is built, and, while obeyingly 
he bears the cross close in the footsteps of Christ, always 
ascending toward the highest bliss, every act he performs is 
a monument of beneficence fitted to animate and sustain fellow- 
disciples, and every breath of his lips is the inspiration of in- 
vincible strength in every panting soul. Such heroes reproduce 
and multiply themselves perpetually. Eveiy great result that 
has been achieved for the promotion of human weal, has had 
for its doer some solitary redeemer, one thrust forth from the 
sweet charities of social bliss, from the comforts and enjoy- 
ments to which generous hearts cling most tenderly, and, by 
personal experience the most bitter and lonely, is trained to 
win for others, like conditioned, blessings the most exquisite, 
exalted, and general. Their example stands out cheeringly 
before all successors, teaching them that the best powers are 
multiplied and strengthened in a marvellous degree the mo- 
ment we, with stern resolve, throw ourselves on our own per- 
sonal prowess and persevering endeavors. Such men are 
always the revolutionizers of the world, and conquer with a 
greater, more beneficent, more enduring potency, than the 
sword's edge or cannon's roar. Yet how unseen are their best 
energies fortified, how unostentatiously they enter upon their 
mission, how divine is the wide influence they exert, and how 
sublimely they ascend to the glories of heaven ! They move 
through the world with a heart full of hardihood, benevolence, 



CHRISTIANITY THE FORTIFIER OF THE WEAK. 363 

and power, fanning the hot brow of mental anguish, and sooth- 
ing the pangs of secret suffering, with sympathies balmy and 
grateful as evening zephyrs, singing the sun to repose, as 
down " he lays his head of glory on the rocking deep.'" Such 
benefactors of mankind burst away from all puny restraints, 
grasp and communicate the most comprehensive as well as 
important truths, and form the grand brotherhood throughout 
the world, who in all lands and ranks are working for the 
redemption and improvement of man, obeying no other law of 
duty than that of making the universe, material and spiritual, 
an increasingly glad and glorious revelation to the heart and 
intellect of all our race. It is their privilege and glorious 
reward, in common with the great Redeemer himself, to sym- 
pathize with all the suffering in their deepest wrongs, and 
fortify the feeblest endowments of rational existence 

" "With strength, like that which lifts an eagle's wing 
Where the stars dazzle, and the angels sing." 

All that man can be, this side of the grave or beyond, he 
becomes by the free use of his own faculties ; by the strength 
he attains while emulating the strongest, by the purity he wins 
through admiration of the purest, and by the direction he im- 
parts to these attributes in himself. His freedom and power 
are correlative, exactly proportioned to each other. The in- 
fluence of Christianity is most salutary in a temporal, as well 
as eternal point of view ; it is not a frigid semblance of useful- 
ness, like a burning-glass of ice, but a powerful lens pouring 
the converged beams of universal truth upon the brain and 
heart. It is to the mental and moral world what aggressive 
civilization is to the natural, — it tends to dispel the vapor and 
dislodge the frost, by felling tangled forests, draining fetid 
marshes, and cultivating unproductive wastes, so that coming 
generations may breathe, without effort, the purified air, and 
enjoy without peril a chastened climate and the richest har- 
vests. Its holy flames purify the temple they burn in, emanci- 
pate the intellect, regulate the passions, and exalt the soul. It 



364 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

is necessary that the heart should first find repose, that the 
mind may be active and useful in the greatest degree. The 
disciples of Christ became such at the moment they obtained 
this rest; and in proportion to its measure and permanency, 
they were emancipated from the worst bonds, and remain in- 
dependent in proportion as they are penetrated by the splendor 
and beneficence of God. Under the guidance of this spirit, 
and upborne by its power, even while the body stands heavy 
and solid on earth, as a deserted tomb, the free soul wanders 
from star to star in quest of that fountain of unbounded wis- 
dom and life, which excursions are at once the sublimest 
luxury and the foretaste of eternal joy. Catching a dim 
glimpse of this, Jamblicus said, " There is a principle of the 
soul superior to all external nature ; and through this principle 
we are capable of surpassing the order and systems of the 
world, and participating the immortal life and the energy of 
the sublime celestials. When the soul is elevated to natures 
above itself, it deserts the order to which it is a while com- 
pelled , and, by a religious magnetism, is attracted to another 
and a loftier, with which it blends and mingles." It is not 
pagan philosophy, however, that can thus inspire and invigorate 
the believer; it is religion, the cross of Christ, that raises 
patience first into a fortifying virtue, and then into undying 
hope. It is through the ceaseless throes and invincible strug- 
gles thus sustained, that penury wins sustenance, and whole na- 
tions of the enslaved attain the blessings of freedom which to all 
mankind belong. On this point Bishop Taylor well says, " The 
will is in love with those chains which draw us to God. And 
as no man will complain that his temples are restrained, and 
his head is prisoner, when it is encircled with a crown, so, 
when ' the Son of God hath made us free/ and hath only sub- 
jected us to the service and dominion of the Spirit, we are free 
as princes within the circle of their diadem ; and our chains 
are bracelets, and the law is a law of liberty, and 4 God's ser- 
vice is perfect freedom ; ' and the more we are subjects, the 
more we ' reign as kings ; ' and the farther we run, the easier 



CHRISTIANITY THE FORTIFIER OF THE WEAK. 365 

is our burden ; and Christ's yoke is like feathers to a bird, not 
loads, but help to motion ; without them the body falls." 

The faithful disciple, in the act of entire consecration, enters 
into perfect rest, and thenceforth, unimpeded by crippling 
doubts, devotes all his energies to the promotion of the Re- 
deemer's kingdom. The wisdom which in this school is 
attained, and the strength which in this service is employed, are 
the most exalted in their character, and the most divine in their 
results. Says one of the deepest thinkers of modern times, 
" No man can have been conversant with the volumes of 
religious biography — can have perused, for instance, the lives 
of WicklifFe, Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Wishart, Sir Thomas 
More, Bernard Gilpin, Bishop Bedell, or of Egede, Svvartz, 
and the missionaries of the frozen world, without an occasional 
conviction that these men lived under extraordinary influences, 
that in each instance, and in all ages of the Christian era, bear 
the same characters, and, both in the accompaniments and 
results, evidently refer to a common origin." That origin, we 
scarcely need add, is the pure spirit of primitive Christianity, 
whose glories will remain forever resplendent, when the meteors 
of science shall have fallen from the sky, and unsanctified genius 
withered like a flower in the icy charnePs breath. Much of 
the reward which conscious worth every where enjoys, comes 
to the soul simultaneously with the performance of its beneficent 
acts ; but the fulness of its high fruition remains to be unfolded 
with the bursting glories of that eternity which commences 
from the grave. The spirit of Christ is the most active life, 
continually evoked from kingdom to kingdom, and increasingly 
illumined as it unceasingly ascends. It sustains, from the 
profoundest depths, the beings it emancipates, and arms them 
with invincible strength, by imbuing them thoroughly with the 
genius of heavenly liberty which created and made them free. 
If the sage of this world is to be pronounced blessed, whose 
heart is the home of the great dead, and their great thoughts, 
how much more desirable is the condition and destiny of him 
whose soul is the temple of divinity itself, and who, by virtue 
31* 



366 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

of this possession and the deeds it has inspired, soars with un- 
speakable rapture, through immensity, toward that palace of 
the Eternal, of which our sun is but a porch-lamp. 

We have seen that the inspiration which fortifies the con- 
fiding with invincible strength, which impels to the sternest 
conflicts, and secures the highest reward, is truth ; the very 
essence of omnipotence, the breath of vital energy in the 
nostrils of the brave and good, which, as it inspires the nobly 
endowed, when all outward circumstances are dark and deso- 
late, so, by its absence, is sufficient to countervail the most 
splendid advantages of rank or fortune. It is this that creates 
the true prophets of every age, the mighty teachers and doers 
who startle the stupid with profound and stimulating thought, 
rouse the injured to a horror at their wrongs, and inspire the 
love and practice of virtue, by the stern and zealous reitera- 
tion of those great moral principles, which are as old as man 
himself, which are the basis of all that is noble in his nature, 
and enduring as the bright deeds he was made to achieve. 

This omnipotence and ineffable glory of truth is vouch- 
safed to man only for the purpose of promoting practical 
godliness. All its emanations are infinitely superior to the 
inertness of mere dogmas, since they are designed to make 
man both politically energetic and morally regenerative. 
Truth, in its widest development and noblest exercise, tends 
always to social regeneration, and bequeaths to posterity 
expanded conceptions of a holier gladness, and salvation more 
comprehensive and complete. It is truth to be proclaimed, 
not simply as theological doctrine, but a mighty and saving 
revelation, a celestial fact free for all, which ought to inter- 
fuse every thought we think, adorn every deed we do, and 
be allowed unobstructedly to grow, less as a mere luxury of 
the intellect, than the mightiest passion of the heart. It is the 
spirit of wisdom and holiness, prompting its subject to be a 
man as God originally created him, and as, in Christ Jesus, 
he may be formed anew. Hence will he devoutly strive to 
appropriate, in his own being, the good, the beautiful, and 



CHRISTIANITY THE DELIVERER OF THE OPPRESSED. 367 

the true, from all the universe around, seeing God in every- 
thing, and blessing the creatures of God every where, that in 
this perpetual devotion to the highest aims, and approximation 
to the functions of Divinity itself, he may, in the noblest sense, 
become divine. All who have really partaken of this spirit of 
Christ's truth, and are truly his soldiers, demonstrate the truth- 
fulness and grandeur of their calling by being always found on 
the outward frontiers of civilization, carrying light to the be- 
nighted, strength to the feeble, salvation to the lost. They are 
the beloved offspring of that Christianity which was fiercely 
persecuted when most weak, which sympathizes with the suf- 
fering when most wronged, and forever fortifies the confiding 
with invincible strength. 

" For souls 

Re-made of God, and moulded over again 

Into his sunlike emblems, multiply 

His might and love : the saved are suns, not earths, 

And with original glory shine of God." 



CHAPTER IV. 

CHRISTIANITY THE DELIVERER OF THE 
OPPRESSED. 

The subject for our present consideration is of the greatest 
interest and importance. With the wisest possible blending of 
firmness and magnanimity, that just discrimination and equita- 
ble judgment which are obtained only in answer to humble 
prayer, let us proceed at once to the discussion. The following 
are our general points : Christianity was given to subdue the 
most ungenerous foes, is most merciful towards those who suffer 
the greatest abuse, and inspires ceaseless rebellion against 
every species of ungodly bonds. 



368 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

In the first place, to subdue foes at once the most ungener- 
ous and unyielding was the primary task of Christianity, and, 
to the end of spiritual warfare, will ever constitute its highest 
mission. The substance of Christ's doctrine and the grand aim 
of his life was in the highest degree emancipative, and most 
happily adapted to the diversified wants of mankind. He 
labored to abolish every pernicious superstition, destroy all 
forms of degrading unbelief, break every oppressive bond, and 
eradicate the skepticism of the leading men of his age, which 
openly denied, or industriously subverted, the foundation of 
morality itself. He represented God under the true light, that 
of a purely moral character, and portrayed him palpably to the 
common heart and eye as the supreme Father, loving and edu- 
cating all the rational creatures he has formed. "The conse- 
quences that flow from this fundamental view are also moral. 
A man cannot honor this supreme Father by ceremonies and 
external exercises, but only by doing his will and endeavoring 
to become like him. With a religious truth that represents 
God as the supreme Father, no moral truths can be connected 
but such as reduce every thing back to love. The practical 
part of what Jesus taught, therefore, had the great excellency 
of containing principles not only benevolent, but pure, noble, 
and exalted, every where applicable, and adapted to human 
nature. He who loves God and man according to the precepts 
of Jesus, is a most willing, punctual, and disinterested per- 
former of all his duties ; a most active promoter of all that is 
true, beautiful, and good ; a most faithful and useful citizen of 
the state to which he belongs ; a most sympathizing and benev- 
olent friend of man ; and, in all the relations which he sustains, 
whatever they are called, the author of innumerable blessings. 
Nor did the external part of the religion which Jesus intended 
to bring into vogue, have any other object in view than strength- 
ening its moral power and sustaining its activity. In order to 
preserve a lasting consciousness of their high calling and their 
destination in respect to moral attainments, and to be perfect as 
their Father in heaven is perfect, his followers were to meet 



CHRISTIANITY THE DELIVERER OF THE OPPRESSED. 369 

together and unite as a body in pious exercises ; the object of 
these meetings was to be their advancement in virtue and reli- 
gious improvement. And for what other purpose, than as the 
means of moral improvement, did Jesus institute his two sacred 
rites ? The one was to make it evident, that as soon as a man 
becomes a Christian, he takes upon himself an obligation to 
practise the purest and most immaculate virtue ; the other was 
to admonish him of this with reference to his approximating 
nearer to the pattern of all human virtue in the performance 
of his duties. The religion, therefore, which Jesus destined to 
become that of the human race, was, in all its parts, a moral 
religion." 

Moreover, the doctrines and spirit which Christ planted in the 
world were as heroical as they were moral. Nothing is more 
erroneous than the supposition that Christianity regards indig- 
nant bravery and heroical resistance as vices ; that, instead of 
their exercise on just occasions, it legitimately transforms man 
into a defenceless and passive creature, which chooses to en- 
dure outrageous wrongs rather than defend natural rights. It 
is true that the religion taught by Jesus was adapted to dimin- 
ish the causes of war, prevent aggressions upon all sorts of 
freedom, awaken in every soul the acutest perception of what 
is right, and thus gradually produce universal peace upon earth. 
" It is equally certain," says Reinhard, " that the commandment 
enjoining love, which is the soul of all the precepts of Chris- 
tianity, forbids no man from bravely opposing unjust oppres- 
sors, and maintaining his rights by force, so long as that uni- 
versal peace does not prevail, and cruel disturbers of public 
security and repose, and unjust aggressors, are every where to 
be found. It is not the business even of that love whose efforts 
are directed entirely to the promotion of the general good 
magnanimously to offer itself in sacrifice, as soon as this gen- 
eral weal is in danger ? Can he whom it animates remain idle 
when the society of which he is a member is assailed and 
threatened with danger ? Will he not, on the other hand, 
select, and be obliged to select, the only way left him, in this 



37a 



REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 



case, for exhibiting his love, namely, by laying down his life 
for the brethren ? 1 John iii. 16. Besides, is there not every 
thing to be met with in the soul of a genuine Christian, from 
which real bravery and rational heroism may spring in as good 
' if not a better degree than others ? Is bravery grounded upon 
natural courage, a certain innate intrepidity ? Christianity does 
not suppress this quality, but only hinders it from degenerating 
into savageness and temerity. Is genuine bravery accompanied 
with a contempt of all effeminacy, with diligence, and temper- 
ance ? Christianity inculcates these virtues as indispensable 
duties. Is bravery, without a desire of honor, impossible ? 
No one can possess a livelier and more tender sense of honor 
than the Christian. Does bravery draw its nourishment in a 
particular manner from genuine patriotism ? The patriotism 
produced by Christianity is the noblest and most zealous that 
can exist. Finally, are confidence in God and a belief in 
immortality able to contribute any thing toward strengthening 
courage in danger and rendering men intrepid ? Then no one 
has less to fear than the Christian. A religion which, with the 
tenderest love, combines such an aversion to all injustice, and 
so much to encourage in the hour of danger, cannot be preju- 
dicial to genuine bravery, but will merely hinder it from de- 
generating into savage barbarity and inhuman cruelty. If, 
therefore, Christianity in any state produces in only a part of 
the citizens those dispositions and feelings which its Founder 
intended it should produce, even then the state, whatever be its 
regulations in other respects, manifestly loses nothing thereby, 
but, on the other hand, gains infinitely in the improvement of 
its subjects." 

The true nature of Christian morality, and the righteous 
heroism which moral truth was designed to stimulate, were 
most clearly unfolded to the world by the teachings and exam- 
ple of Christ. Soon after he entered upon his ministry, he 
held the remarkable conversation with a Samaritan woman, in 
which he advanced far beyond all previous instruction, entirely 
laid aside the Hebrew phrase the kingdom of God, and, instead 



CHRISTIANITY THE DELIVERER OF THE OPPRESSED. 371 

of it, spoke of the worship of God in spirit and in truth, as 
then about to be introduced into all parts of the world, without 
regard to the distinctions of nation and country. John iv. 23, 
24. Continues Reinhard, " The Jews expected of the Messiah 
the restoration of their freedom. Jesus promised freedom, but 
a freedom from the tyranny of vice, to be obtained by the 
power of the truth. John viii. 31 — 36. Shortly before his 
death, he conversed with his friends respecting the great work 
for which he had selected them, and in which they were soon 
to engage. For their encouragement and support, he promised 
them nothing but the Spirit of truth. This was not only to 
guide them, but through them to teach and reform the whole 
world. John xiv. 17, 26 ; xv. 26 ; xvi. 13. Whatever we 
understand by this Spirit of truth, we must admit it to have 
been given to the apostles to prepare them for the moral under- 
taking, the accomplishment of which had been intrusted to 
their hands. I have already observed that, in the presence of 
Pilate, Jesus declared his kingdom to be a kingdom of truth, 
and not of this world, nor intended to injure the power and 
authority of its rulers in the least degree. That it was his 
intention to benefit all men by laboring in the cause of moral- 
ity, is a position fully confirmed by the fact that he speaks in 
express terms of a new birth, an entire reformation and reno- 
vation of the heart, and, in the most direct and definite man- 
ner, declares his intention to create mankind anew and make 
them better. In Matt. xix. 28, he calls the new order of things 
which he had in contemplation a regeneration ; and that this 
regeneration was not to be a political change nor a resuscitation 
of the old national constitution, he asserted in a manner worthy 
of the deepest attention, in the well-known dialogue which he 
held with Nicodemus. John iii. 1, et seq. He told the aston- 
ished scribe, with the dignity of an ambassador of God, who 
was conscious of being engaged in the most important business, 
and felt his appropriate sphere of action to be without the 
bounds of the corporeal world, (verses 11 — 13,) that a man 
must be renovated by the influences of a better religion 



372 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

before he could be admitted into the kingdom of God, (verse 
3 ;) that indolent human nature, altogether sunk as it was in 
sensuality, must experience an entirely new birth in order to 
become spirit, and awake to a higher moral life, (verses 4 — 6 ;) 
not that there was any lack of spiritual faculties, for they were 
every where in action, but that they were destitute of the proper 
direction. He told Nicodemus that they should now receive 
the proper direction by means of the new birth, under the 
influences of this better religion, (verse 8 ;) that though it 
would cost him his life to effect this great and universal change, 
yet his death should result in the salvation of all mankind, 
(verse 14,) for that he came to make all happy who adhered 
to him and were willing to be improved ; to do good to all 
mankind without exception, (verses 15 — 17,) and hence that 
none should remain miserable but those who hated the truth, 
and, out of a love to vice, rejected it, (verses 18 — 21.) Jesus, 
therefore, had a new moral creation in view. His object was 
to animate all mankind with better life, to arouse, direct, and 
ennoble their spiritual faculties, and exalt the human race to a 
state of moral dignity and happiness. This was the kingdom 
of God which he had in view, — the important work which 
occupied his mind." 

Christianity is omnipotence armed against all perversions of 
divine truth, and all invasions of human rights ; blended with 
infinite justice, it wields the spiritual sword destined never to be 
laid aside so long as these corruptions and tyrannies endure. 
It is a potency which enables its heroical subjects on earth to 
resist the pressure of wrong and the storms of life without 
timidity or defeat. They stand on a sure foundation, having 
partaken of that freedom wherewith Christ makes his people 
free ; and, walking in his footsteps, they rise from sin to re- 
pentance, from repentance to faith, from faith to sanctification, 
from sanctification to salvation, a lofty height, whence they 
look down with pity upon all who suffer, and with avenging 
scorn upon tyranny of every degree. Each good soldier of 
Christ feels that he has been fashioned after the nature and 



CHRISTIANITY THE DELIVERER OF THE OPPRESSED. 373 

capacities of an all-embracing, creative, and loving intelligence, 
a rational and godlike type of humanity, to exemplify every 
virtue, antagonize against every vice, and, for the glory of the 
Creator, as well as the welfare of all immortal creatures, live 
and die a moral Spartacus among mankind. 

The only justification which tyranny is wont to plead in 
extenuation of its wrongs is, the right of possession ; " I have 
ruled, therefore I rule ; I have exercised this power, therefore 
I exercise it still." Thus it is 

" The queen of slaves, 
The hoodwinked angel of the blind and dead, 
Custom, with iron mace, points to the graves 
Where her black standard desolately waves." 

But Christ unfurled a fairer banner to the world, and made 
innovation upon all forms of established iniquity, all ranks of 
oppressive men, the grand feature of his religion, and the true 
glory it imparts to progressive humanity every where. Christ 
came to qualify all persons to govern themselves, and to bestow 
on each the qualities requisite to a safe and beneficent exercise 
of this high prerogative. True republicanism is not agrarian, 
but Christian ; it is an equal division of rights, not of property. 
It creates and adorns a nobility both original and true, " the Co- 
rinthian capital of society," in the highest sense ; and not the 
pernicious aristocracy which is not merely itself radically cor- 
rupted, but the most powerful and vile agent of corruption. 
Such are the hereditary nobles, whom Burke described as 
being " swaddled, and rocked, and dandled into legislators;" 
the mere puppets of craft and power, who, by the inanimate 
possession of a mere casualty, are allowed to prescribe laws 
of a most fearful influence on innumerable beings of a rational 
and immortal nature. 

The right of self-government, with all its attendant immuni- 
ties, is a consideration which Christianity proffers as its first 
gift to every soul oppressed, at once the best solace and the 
greatest strength. It is an idea which has no affinity to des- 
32 



374 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

potism, and can never enter into an argument for the oppres- 
sor. " He can only allege the right of the strongest, which, 
in the very nature of moral reasoning, can never be any right 
at all. Be it once granted that all are universally competent 
to practise self-government, the tyrant is stripped of his plea, 
the usurper must be dumb in his own justification, and the 
monarch must abdicate his throne, how ancient soever the tyr- 
anny that upholds it, or live in a state of lawless and adulterous 
union with Power." 

As the word just, or righteous, has an absolute signification, 
so the word free has but one meaning, and admits of no qual- 
ified sense in any comparative degrees. An action is right or 
wrong ; a government is free or oppressive ; Christianity is 
republican or despotic. " If it leave every man in the pos- 
session of his native liberty, it is free ; if it depredate upon 
and circumscribe that liberty in the least degree, it is arbitraiy 
and oppressive. No circumstances can alter the nature of 
justice ; none can palliate the severity and wrong of despotism. 
As justice is practicable under all circumstances, because it 
has its foundation in the nature and constitution of man, so is 
self-government, his ability for which is in like manner pred- 
icated upon his moral attributes ; and the universal practica- 
bility of self-government is no more to be questioned than the 
universal practicability of private morals." Hence we may 
add, that a treatise on political or religious doctrines, which 
adopts all the various forms of government as equally legiti- 
mate and Christian, simply because they have all at some time, 
or in some place, been actually reduced to practice, is as 
absurd as any despairing plea of infidelity which sanctions all 
usages and practices alike. But this is not the prevailing spirit 
and tendency of those institutions, through which Christ de- 
signed to place the common enjoyments of life within the 
reach of all, to make instructive books and ennobling educa- 
tion to be accessible to the most obscure, and attainable to the 
feeblest mind ; to spur forward inventive genius to that per- 
fection which will bring literature, art, and science within the 



CHRISTIANITY THE DELIVERER OF THE OPPRESSED. 375 

means of the indigent, resting for the best success upon the 
number, rather than the rank, of their patrons ; leaving unob- 
structed to merit every station in society, to interpose the 
broadest and most prolific domain ; every where and always 
tending to promote " the greatest good of the greatest num- 
ber." These are the ends which republican Christianity pro- 
poses to itself; no exterminating war but that of reason and 
love against blind force ; no destruction but that of tyranny ; 
no division but that of universal and heaven-descended rights ; 
no supremacy but the permanent dominion of just principles, 
the dignity and glory of true righteousness. It was by the 
irresistible power of these influences that Christianity came to 
subdue the most ungenerous foes, and in proportion as they 
prevail over the vices and oppressions of our world, the proph- 
et's dream will be realized, when 

" Sovereign law, the state's collected will, 
O'er thrones and globes elate 
Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill." 

Secondly, Christianity is most merciful towards those who 
suffer the greatest abuse. Its immediate office and ultimate 
design is, to crown all social institutions with the highest free- 
dom, and teaches every where that each individual has the 
same right to be independent that a nation has. As compre- 
hended in the great law of moral obligation expounded and 
exemplified by our Savior, the duties we owe as citizens are 
merely a part of our duties " as neighbors," which implies that 
the whole family of man are both competent and bound to sus- 
tain and discharge the duties of free citizens of a free com- 
monwealth. No book ever written makes us so sensible as 
the Christian revelation of the dignity of man as man, and the 
frivolity of all those temporary or accidental distinctions with 
which the world has been so long oppressed. The time, place, 
and circumstances of Christ's advent are all significant of the 
true nature of the religion he came to diffuse on earth. He 
did not say that he was a Jew, that he had appeared to glorify 



376 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

a particular people, and establish dynasties more splendid and 
enduring than the power of David and Solomon. He said 
simply, " I am the Son of man," never taking to himself even 
the title " Son of God ; " as if he was anxious in every form 
to teach the great and fundamental principle of his life and 
doctrines, that, next to the name of God, nothing is more grand 
than the name of man, nothing more efficacious to procure 
succor, honor, and fraternal regard. The ancient law was the 
incarnation of a threefold inhumanity, manifested in the sac- 
rifice of the feeble to the strong, the many to the few, and the 
enmity of every man toward his brother. But the royal law 
of love, given to the world in Christian institutions, is directly 
opposite — the protection of the feeble against the strong, the 
many against the few, and the love of all for each. It was 
this gospel that the apostles were commanded to go forth and 
" preach to every creature." The propagation, distribution, 
universality of divine truth became the perpetual order of the 
day to every disciple, and in the place of selfishness and op- 
pression, unbounded charity and love came to reign. It was 
redeeming truth whose perfection was to be kindled before the 
eyes of all, that even down to the most inferior ranks, con- 
demned before to vegetate in a shameful and almost invin- 
cible barbarism, vitalizing heat and light might descend, to 
sustain the most depressed and enlighten the most benighted. 
Lycurgus deemed it a great privilege to consult the oracle at 
Delphi, and Numa is fabled to have rejoiced to take counsel 
of the nymph Egeria; but Christianity gratuitously proffers 
wider sources of purer wisdom, from which the most destitute 
may derive the inspirations of sovereign justice, and be invested 
with a panoply of invincible strength. Thus enlightened and 
fortified, the victim of human injustice, coming to comprehend 
his just relations to the Almighty, and the rights connected 
therewith, says to himself and his comrades in affliction, — 

" Why should we be tender, 
To let an arrogant piece of flesh threaten us, 
Play judge and executioner all himself r" 



CHRISTIANITY THE DELIVERER OF THE OPPRESSED. 377 

Christianity protects all human feebleness against all inhu- 
man force, all purity against corruption, all modesty against 
insolence ; it protects the tenderest plant against the most stub- 
born, the vassal against the lord, the cabin against the palace. 
The English Magna Charta has been much praised, because 
of the improved rights wrested from King John. But the vic- 
tory at Runnymede was for the advantage of the barons only ; 
the masses of the common people were left by it just where 
they were before. It is the influence of the cross alone that 
unfolds the basis of public welfare as well as personal secu- 
rity ; let the masses but see the simplicity and feel the power 
of this, and, with free minds in bodies disinthralled, they will 
not vote Barabbas especial immunities while, blinded by priestly 
prejudice, and craftily impelled by despotic power, they send 
Jesus to be crucified. There is no hope for the world, except 
as the feeling of true Christian brotherhood guides and adorns 
the influence of its master minds. Not unfrequently they are 
distinguished for arbitrary political doctrines, or religious infi- 
delity, which lead their possessors to consolidate the despotism 
of a few to the most effectual injury of the many. Gibbon 
and Voltaire attacked the foundations of the Christian faith, 
while they prostituted history to the dishonor of popular rights. 
Hume labored in defence of English tyranny ; and Mitford 
attempted to dignify the monarchs of Persia and Macedon at 
the expense of the republic of Minerva, whose history is the 
brightest glory of ancient intellect. As these pets of aristo- 
cratic and regal power perverted their fine talents to bolster 
up the tyranny of the eighteenth century, so Alison yet lives 
with tinsel show to decorate the insufferable toryism of the 
present age. 

11 Thou bane of liberal knowledge, nature's curse ! 
Parent of misery, pampered yice's nurse ! 
Plunging, by thy annihilating breath, 
The soul of Genius in the trance of death, 
Unbounded Power ! beneath thy baleful sway 
The voice of Freedom sinks in dumb decay." 
32* 



378 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

The free spirit of Christianity quickens and elevates the soul 
by a consciousness of its innate capacities and glorious destiny, 
making proselytes who are independent because they are intel- 
ligent, and who never surrender their wills, their responsibil- 
ity, to an earthly master. Under its influence, man no longer 
grovels in the dust beneath imperial frowns, but walks erect 
and unterrified, himself the lord of creation, with eyes raised 
to that heaven whence comes the only authority he obeys, and 
whither tend all the aspirations of his heart. He is a free 
agent ; thinks, speaks, acts for himself ; claims to enjoy the 
fruits of his own industry ; follows the career most genial to 
his own taste, and persists in maintaining for all others the 
same inalienable right ; lives peaceably under laws which he 
lias assisted to form, and dies at length, having never intention- 
ally caused suffering in a single fellow-being, but achieved 
much to promote the happiness of all. Earth is blest with 
their existence, and when the beneficent depart from sublunary 
scenes, it is with spontaneous joy and a natural ascent they rise 
in a loftier degree to imbibe the freedom of that city of God, 
which they have long enjoyed, and which is indeed a city of 
refuge to the just, and their appropriate award. To them, 
religion is the highest harmony, and most thrilling power, like 
the majestic organ-notes that forever resound through heaven. 
It nerves their faculties, exalts their ambition, and mingles in 
the "cup of trembling," which every human lip must taste, 
many ingredients that most happily mitigate anguish and 
enliven hope. 

Said Bolingbroke, " Liberty is to the collective body what 
health is to every individual body. Without health, no pleas- 
ure can be tasted by man ; without liberty, no happiness can 
be enjoyed by society." But this spirit of freedom, which is 
so essential to the promotion of personal worth and social 
progress, is often destroyed or sorely crippled by those who 
ungenerously strive to dim its light in the souls of their fellow- 
men. Were it not that, to defend and perpetuate the best 
interests of humanity, God raises up, in every rank and age, 



CHRISTIANITY THE DELIVERER OF THE OPPRESSED. 379 

heroes who feel great truths and dare to tell them, and whose 
words seem winged with angels' wings, purifying the air 
they winnow, and scattering light and strength in all their 
flight, we should indeed fear that tyranny at last, by some fear- 
ful combination of nefarious powers, might succeed in blotting 
the bannered constellations from Freedom's skies. Of such a 
result, however, there is little occasion for fear, since we know, 

" That there are spirit-rulers of all worlds, 
Which fraternize with earth, and, though unknown, 
Hold in the shining voices of the stars 
Communion on high, ever and every where." 

We do not believe that man on earth is doomed to perpetual 
slavery in any form. Christianity plants in the heart a sublime 
idea, a celestial sentiment, potent enough to redeem every 
individual and bless the world. It makes its recipients not dis- 
ciples merely, but prophets to teach and redeemers to rescue 
from bondage all their fellow-sufferers. It sends them forth 
completely armed with an invulnerable panoply, commissioned 
to avoid no peril and shrink from no pain which the advocacy 
in word or action may require. They encompass the earth, 
fortified with the energies and exhilarated with the beati- 
tudes of heaven, that they may elevate the remotest victim of 
oppression, and make all nations a band of brethren joined. 
The source of this unique and ennobling influence it is easy to 
trace. In Christ was born the rising genius of all those revo- 
lutions through which progressive humanity advances to the 
full possession of its highest rights and widest glories. From 
age to age, his ideas become acts, his principles grow into 
combats with every form of oppression, and his disciples prove 
their vital relation to himself by becoming at all hazards the 
emancipators of mankind. 

The chief forms of government that prevailed in ancient 
times were, the autocratic, or the rule of a despot ; the theo- 
cratic, or sway of a priestly corporation ; and the aristocratic, 
or dictation of a select and privileged few. The three great 



380 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

vices that predominated in connection with these were, sensual 
indulgence, religious ostentation, and the cruelties of war. 
When Christ arose, he did not meddle with governments as 
such, not because he was indifferent to the injuries they inflicted, 
but because any thing like political action would have defeated 
the mission on which he came. Neither did he assail antago- 
nistically, and apart from the political institutions with which 
they were connected, the great evils we have named ; but he 
overthrew them more effectively, by teaching positive and 
universal principles, whose operation would lead to their inevi- 
table destruction. He assailed sensual enjoyments by teaching 
spiritual purity and elevation ; he assailed empty religious show 
by exciting practical religious feeling ; he assailed tyrannous 
war by inculcating fraternal peace. Such instructions then, as 
now, were much needed, and in all the progress of moral 
reform they will ever be the most triumphant. "The idea 
of the just is one of the glories of human nature ; man per- 
ceives it at first, but he perceives it only as a light glimmering 
in the deep night of primitive passions ; he sees it perpetually 
violated, and eveiy moment obliterated, by the necessary dis- 
order resulting from conflicting passions and interests." Never 
had this latent perception of the true and the good become so 
dim in the soul of man, as under the oppressions he bore 
eighteen centuries ago. Then the universal sway of arbitrary 
power, after having chained the nations to its grandeur, held 
them bound to its humiliations, and, for the first time in the his- 
tory of the human race, liberty had no asylum on the earth. At 
this critical moment Christ came, and ever since Truth has had 
her Maccabees in the world, to preside with brave purity at 
public altars, and kindle holy joys on every domestic hearth. 
At the moment Cato of Utica despaired of human welfare and 
committed suicide, Jesus Christ sent his apostles to announce 
the gospel of life and peace to every creature, and plant in 
their faith, their love, and adoration, the empire of equitable 
justice and ennobling truth. If, therefore, Christ did not single 
out some local evil for particular attacks, and if he did not 



CHRISTIANITY THE DELIVERER OF THE OPPRESSED. 381 

revolutionize a single existing government, he did what was 
infinitely better ; he planted a republican church amongst man- 
kind, thenceforth to be a perpetual Pharos, the source whence 
should emanate principles mighty and beneficent to renovate 
and save the world. 

Says Dr. Channing, " History and philosophy plainly show 
to me in human nature the foundation and promise of a better 
era, and Christianity concurs with these. The thought of a 
higher condition of the world was the secret fire which burned 
in the soul of the great Founder of our religion and in his first 
followers. That he was to act on all future generations, that 
he was sowing a seed which was to grow up and spread its 
branches over all nations, this great thought never forsook him 
in life and death. That under Christianity a civilization has 
grown up containing in itself nobler elements than are found 
in earlier forms of society, who can deny ? Great ideas and 
feelings, derived from this source, are now at work. Amidst 
the prevalence of crime and selfishness, there has sprung up 
in the human heart a sentiment or principle unknown in earlier 
ages, an enlarged and trustful philanthropy, which recognizes 
the rights of every human being, which is stirred by the terri- 
ble oppressions and corruptions of the world, and which does 
not shrink from conflict with evil in its worst forms. There has 
sprung up, too, a faith, of which antiquity knew nothing, in the 
final victory of truth and right, in the elevation of men to a 
clearer intelligence, to more fraternal union, and to a purer 
worship. This faith is taking its place among the great springs 
of human action, is becoming even a passion in more fervent 
spirits. I hail it as a prophecy which is to fulfil itself. A 
nature capable of such an aspiration cannot be degraded for- 
ever. Ages rolled away before it was learned that this world 
of matter which we tread on is in constant motion. We are 
beginning to learn that the intellectual, moral, social world has 
its motion too, not fixed and immutable, like that of matter, but 
one which the free will of men is to cany on, and which, 
instead of returning into itself, like the earth's orbit, is to stretch 



382 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

forward forever. This hope lightens the mystery and burden 
of life. It is a star which shines on me in the darkest night ; 
and I should rejoice to reveal it to the eyes of my fellow- 
creatures." 

If, then, any one asks, " Why should we pity and help the 
poor man ? " let us answer in the language of the same phil- 
anthropic writer, " Because he is a man ; because poverty 
does not blot out his humanity ; because he has your nature, 
your sensibilities, your wants, your fears ; because the winter 
wind pierces him, and hunger gnaws him, and disease racks 
and weakens him, as truly as they do you. Place yourself, 
my friend, in his state ; make yourself, by a strong effort of 
thought, the inhabitant of his unfurnished and cold abode, and 
then ask why you should help him. He is a man, though rags 
cover him, though his unshorn hair may cover his human 
features, — a member of your family, a child of the same 
Father, and, what is most important, he not only has your 
wants and feelings, but shares with you in the highest powers 
and hopes of human nature. He is a man in the noblest sense, 
created in God's image, with a mind to think, a conscience to 
guide, a heart which may grow warm with sentiments as pure 
and generous as your own. To some this may seem declama- 
tion. There are some who seldom think of or value man as 
man. It is man born in a particular rank, clad by the hand of 
fashion and munificence, moving in a certain sphere, whom 
they respect. Poverty separates a fellow-being from them, 
and severs the golden chain of humanity. But this is a gross 
and vulgar way of thinking, and religion and reason cry out 
against it. The true glory of man is something deeper and 
more real than outward condition. A human being, created 
in God's image, and, even when impoverished by vice, retain- 
ing power essentially the same with angels, has a mysterious 
importance, and his good, where it can be promoted, is worthy 
the care of the proudest of his race. . . . 

"Next to the great doctrine of immortal life, we may say 
that the most characteristic element of our religion is that of 



CHRISTIANITY THE DELIVERER OF THE OPPRESSED. 383 

universal charity. And the doctrine of immortality and the 
duty of charity are not so separate as many may think ; for 
love or benevolence is the spirit of the eternal world, the tem- 
per which is to make us blest beyond the grave, and to give us 
hereafter the highest enjoyment of the character and works of 
our Creator. There is another view by which it appears that 
the Christian doctrine of immortality blends with and sustains 
charity ; for, according to this doctrine, all men are to live 
forever, Christ died for all, all are essentially equal, and the 
distinctions of their lives are trifles. Thus it is seen that the 
poor are recommended with an infinite power to the love and 
aid of their brethren. No man can read the New Testament 
honestly, and not learn to measure his religion chiefly by his 
benevolence. If the spirit, and example, and precepts of 
Jesus Christ have not taught us to love our fellow-creatures, 
we have no title whatever to the name and the hope of Chris- 
tians. If we have not learned this lesson, we have learned 
nothing from our Master. About other things Christians may 
dispute, but here there can be no controversy. Charity is a 
duty placed before us with a sunlike brightness. It comes to 
us from the lips, the life, the cross of our Master; and if 
charity be not in us, then Christ does in no degree live within 
us, then our profession of his religion is a mockery, then he 
will say of us in the last day, — ' I was hungry, and ye gave 
me no meat; thirsty, and ye gave me no drink. I know you 
not. Depart.'" 

There can be no doubt that, by enforcing the principles of 
Christianity in all their comprehensiveness and power, we must 
effectually uproot and destroy oppression of every form ; be- 
cause the gospel is most opposed to slavery, and is directly 
antagonistic to the most fearful curse of earth, the spirit which 
enslaves, and which too habitually dwells in us all- But it is 
a most inhuman and unchristian spirit, be it found in individuals 
or commonwealths. We hear much about " Christian states. 1 ' 
A bold and free writer of England asks, " Can any one point 
out, upon the whole face of the earth, a real Christian state or 



384 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

government ? No form of authority which recognizes slavery 
in a community can be entitled to that appellation ; for I think 
it must at all events be admitted, that whatever else may be 
disputable in Christianity, there is one principle belonging to it 
which stands out most prominent in its character ; and that is, 
to ' do unto others as we would that they should do unto us.' 
There is no rule in Christianity which can justify me in 
making my fellow-creature a slave. No man is desirous of 
being a slave, except perhaps under very particular and extra- 
ordinary circumstances. Unhappily there are conditions of 
life which generate this wish. I can, for instance, imagine in 
this country a laborer, poor and old ; his days are now declin- 
ing toward the shades of night and death ; his form is wasted 
by many successive years of toil, and by exposure to a variety 
of hardships; his strength fails him; his muscles and bones 
refuse to do the bidding of a mind which would still, if it could, 
task them for more and more toil. Such a man, probably, in 
the bitterness of his heart, with only the prospect of a removal 
from his wretched hovel to the yet more repulsive poorhouse, 
and from that to the cold grave, — why, he might, in the agony 
of his soul, wish to Heaven that he had been a slave, in which 
case there would at least have been the condition imposed upon 
his master of preserving him from nakedness and starvation in 
his latter days. Show me institutions and their administration 
which can produce such a feeling as this in the human heart, 
and what a mass of wretchedness on the one hand, and abuse 
of authority on the other, will you find in that state of society ! 
But, apart from this or any other extreme case, every man 
recoils from the notion of slavery. It cannot be a thing which 
he would ' wish to be done unto him ; ' and if, therefore, 
Christianity be brought into the question, — for the rule in the 
New Testament applies to the state as well as to individuals, — 
the man must stand self-condemned and convicted of incon- 
sistency, who wishes to make others slaves, or to keep them in 
such a degraded condition if they are so already." 

Every community in which provision is not made for the 



CHRISTIANITY THE DELIVERER OF THE OPPRESSED. 385 

destitute, and in which a single individual is deprived of the 
necessary elements of social existence, either is not yet a 
Christian community, or has ceased to be so. Of the primi- 
tive believers in our holy and beneficent religion it is said, 
" Neither was any among them that lacked." But alas ! to 
how many of their successors in the sacred profession might 
not the reproach of the ascended Redeemer to the church at 
Ephesus be justly addressed : " I have somewhat against thee, 
because thou hast left thy first love," — charity, or merciful 
attention to the wants of the most abused. Individual liberty, 
the unconstrained privilege of private judgment and public 
worship, the human and divine illegality of slavery in all its 
forms, are principles so profoundly Christian, and so preem- 
inently consecrated by the gospel, that their absolute violation 
would soon render Christian society impossible. The com- 
parative inefficiency of the modern church results from the 
fact that the greatest wrongs do yet exist in modified forms, 
and which Christianity was divinely appointed completely to 
destroy. Man was made to go forth freely from his own 
home, armed with the implements of honest industry, to enjoy 
unmolested the fruits of his own toil on his own domain. 
There is but one definition of a slave ; and that is, a being 
who has no rightful possession of earth's soil, no just compen- 
sation for the labor of his hands, or no suitable sphere and 
motives for the exercise of his mind. Delegate to a few 
favored ones the power to possess, represent, and govern these 
invaluable blessings, and what would remain but universal 
servitude, hunger, thirst, and misery the most abject, marshalled 
under the scourge of unfeeling despots, the infernal presump- 
tion and tyranny of whom it is impossible adequately to 
describe ! Then man, the image of God himself, is debased to 
a helot crushed under the heel of a human wretch ; earth flies 
from beneath, heaven from above, and there remains to the 
victim no other glory than to hang joyless in the vacuum 
between, to please an individual tyrant, and shame the passive 
indignation of abused mankind. 
33 



386 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

Jesus Christ rendered the poor necessary as well as useful 
to the rich, and made man every where the proprietor of him- 
self and all the worth of his toil, by procuring for every rank 
and condition of our race the undoubted right to share equally 
in the privileges of the purest freedom and the unobstructed 
sources of the highest life. If any one demands on what page 
of the gospel slavery is positively condemned and abolished, 
we answer, that it is not upon any one page, but upon all ! Je- 
sus Christ never spoke a single word that was not the condem- 
nation of servitude, which broke not every link of all the 
chains ever imposed on humanity. When he entitled himself 
the Son of man, he emancipated all mankind ; when he com- 
manded each one to love his neighbor as himself, he recog- 
nized in every mortal a brother, and made him a fellow-citizen, 
beloved and free ; when he chose fishermen, tax-gatherers, and 
tent-makers for his apostles, he broke down all distinctions of 
proud rank, by levelling all up to a divine standard, and 
degrading none ; when he died for all without distinction, he 
delivered all without exception, and constituted the involuntary 
servitude of rational creatures redeemed by his blood thence- 
forth to be the deepest disgrace and most damning crime. It 
is our consolation to know that the eye of Christ is upon the 
victim as he groans under abuse, drags his fetters, or bleeds 
under the lash ; that he experienced all this in his own person, 
subjected for a season to like tyrants, and that in due time he 
will righteously avenge the infinite wrong. 

The illegality of all tyranny, whether of one or of several, 
and of all privileges legally guarantied to a particular class ; 
the chimera of the rights of birth ; the injustice of an unequal 
division of family property ; and all such questions of social 
order or individual rights, — cease to be doubtful the moment 
Christianity is allowed to be arbiter and judge. There is 
always something the most anti-Christian and diabolical in the 
religious pretexts by which, even in our day, attempts are 
sometimes made to protect and defend them. The gospel sets 
out from the principle of brotherhood and equality throughout 



CHRISTIANITY THE DELIVERER OF THE OPPRESSED. 387 

the whole family of man, and might easily have applied this 
principle to the knowledge of truth, thus showing that this is a 
common right. But the Savior knew that it was much better 
to overturn the bushel than formally to discuss the pretexts 
which had caused the light to be hidden under it ; consequently 
this was his mode of procedure, and, from the very commence- 
ment of his reign, placed every kind of teaching at the dispo- 
sal and within the reach of all. Christ, who understood man 
perfectly, and who was God manifested most divinely in the 
institutions he planted on earth, knew that entire freedom of 
thought and action is the only system favorable to human 
progress ; and the gospel has ever invited the world to follow 
that course with such glad distinctness, that it is impossible to 
deny or disguise the fact, without the greatest disgrace to him 
who makes the attempt, and the most frightful dishonor to 
Christianity thus maligned. 

Christianity was given to subdue the most ungenerous foes, 
and is most merciful toward those who suffer the greatest abuse. 
Having said sufficiently, perhaps, on these two points, let us 
proceed to remark, — ^ 

Thirdly, that it is the highest and most salutary prerogative 
of this heavenly power to inspire ceaseless rebellion against 
every species of ungodly bonds. The fable of Tantalus is the 
history of the human race, so far as they are deprived of the 
redeeming and satisfying influence of Christian doctrine. The 
mighty want is perpetually felt, and the prayer for redemption 
springing naturally from the popular heart is the cry of the 
captive lifting up his chains, and seeking for a link where he 
may most easily break them. It was to meet and satisfy this 
universal need that Christ appeared. He became a member 
of the human race, mingled with the multitude, was seen and 
known of all, member of a family, citizen of a country, 
believer in a religion, participated in all our experience, laid 
the foundation for consummate human progress, and gave to 
the masses of every land the amplest means for obtaining per- 
fect freedom and eternal life, Christianity creates the noblest 



388 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

heroes, by engaging the best thoughts of most earnest men, 
and by giving birth to deeds the most beneficent and sublime. 
While these remain, it will be hard for the world to be whiffled 
out of its own independent reason and indisputable rights by a 
handful of selfish legislators and bigoted priests. A great bat- 
tle is soon to be fought, and will surely end in auspicious vic- 
tory, because those who obtain the triumph deem it no deroga- 
tion from their dignity to be magnanimous and just in their 
warfare, to consult the highest oracle of truth, and to bow in 
allegiance only to its response. 

Up to the time of the Christian era, as has been the case too 
much since, mankind were considered as a herd of deer which 
the privileged classes were to employ to gratify their lusts, or 
which they were at pleasure to hunt down for spite or sport, as 
liked them best. But resistance to such aggressions is an 
instinct wisely kept alive even in the brute creation. 

" To -whom do lions cast their gentle looks ? 
Not to the beast that would usurp their den. 
Whose hand is that the forest bear doth lick ? 
Not his that spoils her young before her face. 
"Who 'scapes the lurking serpent's mortal sting ? 
Not he that sets his foot upon her back. 
The smallest worm will turn when trodden on ; 
And doves will peck in safeguard of their brood." 

This is true to nature; and with equal verisimilitude Diogenes 
is represented as saying to his great pupil, Plato, " Is it no evil 
that truth and beneficence should be shut out at once from so 
large a portion of mankind ? Is it none when things are so 
perverted, that an act of beneficence might lead to a thousand 
acts of cruelty, and that one accent of truth should be more 
pernicious than all the falsehoods that have been accumulated 
since the formation of language, since the gift of speech ? I 
have taken thy view of the matter; take thou mine. Hercules 
was called just and glorious, and worshipped as a deity, be- 
cause he redressed the grievances of others. Is it unjust, is it 
inglorious, to redress one's own ? If that man rises high in 



CHRISTIANITY THE DELIVERER OF THE OPPRESSED. 389 

the favor of the people, high in the estimation of the valiant 
and the wise, high before God, by the assertion and vindication 
of his holiest law, who punishes with death such as would 
reduce him or his fellow-citizens to slavery, how much higher 
rises he who, being a slave, springs up indignantly from his low 
estate, and thrusts away the living load that intercepts from 
him what even the reptiles and insects, what even the very 
bushes and brambles of the roadside, enjoy ! " 

Undoubtedly there is great danger of inculcating extravagant 
notions with respect to the great evils of our age ; but perhaps 
the greatest danger of all lies in being ultra against ultraism. 
We should never forget, in the language of a living English 
writer, that " the world is in a transit from one set of extremes 
to another ; from the extreme of ignorance to that of knowl- 
edge ; from the extreme of servility to that of independence ; 
from the extreme of bigotry to that of mental freedom ; from 
the extreme of war and oppression to that of peace and justice. 
All the world's liberators and reformers have gone to extremes, 
and by that served humanity. The suggestion of independence 
for the United States of America was an extreme proposal, 
which horrified all timid and compromising men. The refor- 
mation of Luther was an extreme movement. He offended 
all the more moderate of the reformers by what they deemed 
his violence. What was the Founder of Christianity himself 
but a propounder of extreme opinions, as they appeared to the 
established formalists and religionists of his day ? Every great 
and good movement in the world has been for a time regarded 
as extreme. Extreme thought is generally the most far-going 
thought of the time in which it is uttered, and therefore it is 
most likely to be the true thought ; for it goes deeper into the 
reality and farther into futurity than any other. O, it is not 
your extreme, but your compromising people who do the mis- 
chief, and indefinitely retard the good. Those who trim be- 
tween party and party ; who coquet with both sides ; who 
would have a little of the right and good, but not too much of 
it ; who forget that in politics we have to deal not so much with 
33* 



390 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

principles as with interests, and that it is not that people do not 
see and know, but that they have their own advantages to gain 
by holding on in a corrupt course ; compromisers of their own 
thought ; patchers-up of something to last their time ; willing 
mixers of clay with the pure gold into a mongrel Nebuchad- 
nezzar's image for false worship, — O, these men are ever the 
traitors to improvement, and work more enduring damage than 
its worst enemies." 

Christ declared that he was not come to bring peace, but a 
sword, a war terrible and grand beyond the conception of 
imagination. It begins in the individual, where it produces the 
mightiest conflict, and thence extends into society at large, 
where it augments its force and works the most radical revolu- 
tions. The predestined mission of Christianity, before achiev- 
ing its final results, will be sure to excite commotions through- 
out the whole mass of humanity the most profitable and 
profound. Its great Author would most effectually improve 
the world by placing the leaven in it, and by causing this vital 
and transforming power to spread out its redeeming and sanc- 
tifying influence through all the ramifications of society, and 
all the relations of life ; proving that there is no capacity of 
mind which it does not enlarge, and no social relation which it 
does not ennoble ; spreading refinement of maimers and deli- 
cacy of thought, rendering individuals more polished, and 
nations more happy, by banishing from the world every thing 
calculated to intimidate, inthrall, or offend. Says the apostle, 
" We preach Christ, warning every man, and teaching every 
man, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." 
This passage, confirmed by the whole New Testament, teaches 
that the great design of all the doctrines and precepts of the 
gospel is to exalt the character, to promote eminent purity of 
heart and life, and to make man every where intelligent and 
free, " perfect as their Father in heaven is perfect." If Chris- 
tianity did not, in specific terms, command the master to free 
his slaves, and the despot to descend from his infamous throne, 
it formed its alphabet of such simple and yet sublime truths 



CHRISTIANITY THE DELIVERER OF THE OPPRESSED. 391 

with respect to the paternal character of God, and our mutual 
relations as fellow-mortals, that no one can mistake the highest 
requisitions, and be either bigoted or tyrannical, and yet a true 
disciple of the great Redeemer. 

As the last and grandest collision between the powers of 
light and darkness draws near, wicked passions will grow more 
boisterous and threats most severe. A reign of terror may 
prevail for a while, when the heroes of freedom will have to 
speak and write with the fetters of turnkeys gaping for their 
limbs, and the minions of despotism impatient to " slip the 
slave's handcuffs on, and snap the lock. 11 Free discussion is 
what unprincipled dictators always most fear, since the wisdom 
of God has so constituted things that the mass of mankind, 
instructed as was originally designed, should always be able to 
resist oppression ; and the injurious know very well that they 
could not long inflict popular injustice with impunity, if the 
people are permitted to comprehend the will of God and their 
own inalienable rights. But when "padlocks for our lips are 
forging, 11 every true Christian man will feel that then, above 
all other emergencies, " silence is crime. 11 Said Burke, 
" Oppression makes wise men mad ; but the distemper is still 
the madness of the wise, which is better than the sobriety of 
fools. 11 It is that wise and beneficent zeal which transforms 
rights into mights, and mights into rights, happily rectifying 
and sustaining each other. It melts away the clogging icebergs 
from the stream of life, disperses dark and depressing thoughts, 
and disinthralls the world. 

"It is thus we feel, 
"With, a gigantic throb athwart the sea, 
Each others' rights and wrongs ; thus are we men." 

Says Christ, " The truth shall make you free. 11 But the 
real disciples of this truth never suppose themselves like 
Noah, who awoke from his wine, and immediately prophesied. 
They do not deceive themselves nor flatter others that they 



392 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

are free, because they may have written on a sheet of paper 
the word liberty, and posted it at the corners of the streets. 
True Christian freedom is not a placard on a dead wall, or an 
empty word on indifferent lips. It is a living and holy power, 
the protection of the feeble, instruction of the benighted, 
fairest adornment of the domestic hearth, complete disinthral- 
ment of all the oppressed, only guaranty of public health and 
perpetual progress. It was once disputed whether persons 
of a different color from Europeans ought to be considered 
as having a lawful claim to the immunities of men ; but 
Christianity, pouring light upon their foreheads, and revealing 
the superscription of God thereon, has forever silenced that 
discussion. If civil tyranny and bigoted craft shall for a short 
time longer combine their infernal machinations to destroy 
the privileges which belong to every human soul, their time is 
short ; both will soon sink on the fiery billows of eternal ruin, 
as they richly deserve, even as a vulture and a snake, out- 
spent, drop, twisted in inextricable fight, into a shoreless sea. 
In an age of most degraded barbarism, man came to be 
estimated so low as to have a pecuniary price put upon him ; 
he was bought and sold as a common chattel, to abolish which 
infamous traffic, it was necessary that God himself should be 
sold for thirty pieces of silver. That execrable bargain was 
the pledge of emancipation for every poor, deserted, stripped, 
and lacerated slave. The Almighty would show to the uni- 
verse that, he never formed the limbs of his children to be 
chafed with fetters, nor their souls to be murdered by base 
servitude. To this end, through the gospel of his Son, he 
gave to the world an entirely new element, one which imparts 
worth, health, and growth to all the rest, and without which 
they can have but a brief and comparatively useless being 
in the minds, hearts, and characters of men ; and that element 
is independence — personal, political, and moral. This gives 
strength to virtue, intensity of feeling as the mainspring of 
upright principle in every soul, and blends the greatest public 



CHRISTIANITY THE DELIVERER OF THE OPPRESSED. 393 

reformations with the every-day aspirations of private life. 
It resembles a vigorous though obscure tree, upon which the 
sun shines and the rains fall, which puts forth its ample foliage 
in the summer, and preserves its vitality unrestrained by 
wintry storms for another spring, which, despite all vicissitudes, 
gives its shade and fruit to all in the proper season, and is 
even more deeply rooted and rendered more prolific by freez- 
ing sleet and howling storms. 

We must not shrink from the approach of moral tempests, 
because the agitation they produce may threaten to be great. 
When the tyranny of ages is to be heaved off the popular 
breast that it may breathe freely, when outraged humanity 
starts up to a full consciousness of its rights and dignity, it is 
not in the law of Providence or nature of man that the boon 
desired should be easily won. 

" Great evils ask great passions to redress them, 
And whirlwinds fitliest scatter pestilence." 

" Curse ye Meroz, saith the angel of the Lord ; curse ye 
bitterly the inhabitants thereof," sang Deborah. Was it 
that she called to mind any personal wrongs, rapine, or insult, 
that she, or the house of Lapidoth, had received from Jabin 
or Sisera ? No : she had dwelt under her palm-tree in the 
depth of the mountain. But she was a mother in Israel ; and 
with a mother's heart, and with the vehemence of a patriot's 
love, she had shot the fire of love from her eyes, and poured 
the blessings of love from her lips, on the people that had 
jeoparded their lives unto the death against the oppressors ; 
and the bitterness awakened and borne aloft by the same 
love she precipitated in curses on the selfish and coward 
recreants who " came not to the help of the Lord, to the help 
of the Lord against the mighty." Well will it be if many 
who profess to be the disciples, and even the authorized 
teachers of Christianity do not justly incur all that is frightful 
in this truly awful malediction. 



394 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

Danby has painted a picture which represents the " opening 
of the sixth seal." The heavens are receding ; mountains are 
rending ; earth is on fire ; wealth, honors, power, are gone ; 
and blank despair seizes every class of mankind, save a poor 
bondman, who alone stands upright, his chains broken, and 
his hands with gratitude raised to heaven. Others sink to 
a frightful prison; but, thank God, he is free! Let us not 
wait till that fearful day, but now boldly strive, 

" Until IMMORTAL MIXD 

Unshackled walks abroad, 
And chains no longer bind 
The image of our God; — 

u Until no captive one 

Murmurs on land or wave, 
And, in his course, the sun 
Looks down upon no slave ! " 



CHAPTER V. 

CHRISTIANITY THE REWARDER OF THE 
SACRIFICED. 

In the first part of this comprehensive discussion, we con- 
sidered the republican character of Jesus Christ ; and, in the 
second, the republican spirit of the primitive church. In this 
third part, devoted to the analysis of the republican influence of 
Christian doctrine, we have already portrayed Christianity as 
being the solace of the obscure, patron of the aspiring, fortifier 
of the weak, and deliverer of the oppressed. It remains, in 
this concluding chapter, to show that our holy religion is not 
only the best inspiration of heroical goodness, but an adequate 
and eternal rewarder of the sacrificed. To this end we will 
consider the following leading points : Christianity has ever 
been the fairest and foremost victim of tyranny, the mightiest 
antagonist to every form of injustice, and the most glorious 
rewarder of all devotees for her sake sacrificed. 

In the first place, the fairest and foremost victim of tyran- 
nous hate has ever been the divine religion which Christ 
imbodied and exemplified on earth. He came to destroy all 
local religions, with their exclusive privileges, and to open the 
fountains of a purer, more efficacious, and diffusive faith foi 
all mankind. This he avowed at the opening of his ministry, 
and constantly reiterated up to the close of his earthly career. 
Just before his sacrifice, he openly affirmed in the temple 
" ' that the kingdom of God was to be taken from the Jews, 
and given to the Gentiles,' (Matt. xxi. 43. Mark xii. 9. Luke 
xx. 16,) and went so far as to clothe his predictions with vari- 
ous instructive narratives, (Matt. xxii. 1 — 14.) Now, how could 
the Jews have been rejected, and the heathen substituted in 



396 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

their stead, without the introduction of an order of things new, 
and entirely different from the former ? When Jesus first 
sent out his disciples with a commission to excite the attention 
of their fellow-citizens to his enterprises, he did not conceal 
from them, in the least degree, the fact that their calling was 
a very dangerous one, (Matt. x. 16,) and the business in- 
trusted to them greatly detested, (Matt. x. 22.) He told them 
of the abuses of every kind to which they would be subject- 
ed, (verses 17, 18,) and observed that the accomplishment of 
his views would unavoidably result in a universal exaspera- 
tion and dissension, which should even disturb the peace of 
families, and sever the tenderest connections, (verses 34 — 36.) 
Had Jesus had no other object before him than the improve- 
ment of the prevailing religion, could he have anticipated 
such dangerous commotions, and spoken of them beforehand? 
The labors of John the Baptist did not disturb the public 
tranquillity, for he undertook nothing in opposition to the 
established constitution. Now, if Jesus, as the result of what 
he intended to accomplish, looked forward to a dissolution of 
all former relations, and a state of war between all parts of 
society, must he not have intended to go much farther than 
John did ? Must he not have purposed the actual overthrow 
of the regulation^ then in existence ? There is something 
remarkable in the manner in which, on every occasion, he 
explained those commandments of the law of Moses, which 
related to the external service of God, and made up a great 
part of the Jewish constitution. Nothing was more sacred in 
the estimation of a Jew than sacrifice. Jesus never intimated 
that a man should offer sacrifice, but he often censured the 
abuses, which, to the prejudice of morality, had crept into the 
service, (Matt. xv. 5, 6 ; Mark vii. 11, 12,) and, with feelings 
of marked approbation, told a learned man who had asserted 
love to God and man to be of more value than t all whole 
burnt offerings,' that he was not far from the kingdom of 
God, (Mark xii. 34.)" 

From the discourses of Christ, recorded by the evangelists, 



CHRISTIANITY THE REWARDER OF THE SACRIFICED. 397 

two things are most evident. First, he makes it the duty of 
his friends, in their future efforts for the accomplishment of 
his purposes, to exercise the most discreet moderation, and 
the most patient submission, while he informs them of the 
oppressions they must suffer in the conflicts about to ensue. 
Violent movements would surely result from the blind re- 
ligious zeal of the Jews and pagans, and their opposition to 
the promulgation of his doctrines ; but the welfare, demanding 
the fortitude and sacrifice of his disciples, was to be strictly 
moral, not political. Thus they understood him ; for none 
were more willing to act the part of good subjects, and comply 
even with unjust regulations, than they. Hence we learn 
from Tertullian, that, for the first three centuries of the Chris- 
tian era, though they were numerous, and might easily have 
done so, not one instance can be found in which Christians 
ever opposed power with power, or took up arms against the 
inhuman tyrants by whom they were often most cruelly per- 
secuted. 

The second truth to which we referred is, that, while Christ 
inculcated moderation and the spirit of self-sacrifice upon his 
friends, he enforced upon them most strongly the duty of 
boldly avowing their real sentiments, and if they perished from 
earth as the consequence, they should be abundantly rewarded 
with himself in heaven. On this point, a German author has 
well arranged Christ's own words : " In more than one in- 
stance, his very expressions are of such a character as directly 
to contradict the idea that he operated by means of private 
institutions. He told his friends, explicitly, that they should 
resemble a city set on a high hill, which, on account of its posi- 
tion, cannot be hid ; that they should be a light for illuminat- 
ing the whole world ; and ought never to think of keeping any 
thing secret. Matt. v. 13, 16. He announced to them, in 
plain terms, that the extension of his doctrines would excite 
great commotions, and draw down severe persecutions upon 
his friends. Matt. x. 21 — 32. Had it been his intention to 
advance his object by secret springs, he must have charged 
34 



398 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

his apostles to avoid all public curiosity, and shun the very- 
appearance of general movements. Instead of doing so, 
however, and making it their duty to maintain a suspicious 
reserve and operate in secret, he commanded them to teach 
every thing that he had delivered to them, with boldness, and 
preach what he had told them in the ear, upon the house-top. 
Matt. x. 26, 27. Stronger expressions could not well have 
been employed for showing that he wished them to act with 
perfect frankness, and avoid every thing like mystery. Of 
the same character is all the instruction which Jesus im- 
parted to his apostles, in his last familiar discourses with them, 
(John xiv. — xvi.,) respecting the manner in which they were to 
labor for the accomplishment of his object after his death. 
They were to do every thing in public, and without a shrink- 
ing reserve. They were not to hesitate, should they be com- 
plained of, persecuted, and oppressed, for their candid and 
open efforts. They were to remember that his frankness of 
action had drawn down upon him the same fate, (John xv. 
18 — 21,) and that the object before them was to effect a radical 
improvement, which could not be done without great public 
commotion, (John xvi. 8 — 11.) It appears even that Jesus 
intended expressly to guard his followers and friends against 
being entangled with societies, in which he referred to some- 
thing secret and mysterious. The admonition which he is 
known to have given them against believing any, who, during 
the last calamitous times of the Jewish state, should try to 
persuade them that Christ was here or there, was in the desert 
or in the secret places, (Matt. xxiv. 23 — 26,) can have no other 
meaning. His object undoubtedly was to make his followers 
suspicious of all secret institutions, notwithstanding they 
promised great things and excited seducing hopes. Finally, 
the declaration which Jesus made, respecting himself, before 
Annas the high priest, when interrogated as to his disciples 
and doctrines, is worthy of particular attention. Jesus told 
him, in the strongest terms, that he had never labored in a 
corner, nor taught nor attempted any thing in secret ; that he 



CHRISTIANITY THE REWARDER OF THE SACRIFICED. 399 

had delivered his instructions in the synagogues and the tem- 
ple, where all could hear him, and hence, that people were to 
be found in every place, who were well acquainted with what- 
ever he had said or done. John xviii. 19 — 21." 

Christ came to teach mankind at large " the art divine which 
heals each lurking ill." He opened the most copious sources 
of lofty thought and enraptured emotion ; taught the clearest 
and most salutary truths ; relieved the heaviest woes ; bene- 
fited the greatest numbers, encountered the fiercest hatreds, 
and foremost fell the fairest victim of tyranny in the sublime 
crisis when 

" He seized our dreadful right ; the load susained, 
And heaved the mountain from the guilty world." 

Secondly, against every form of injustice, Christianity is the 
mightiest antagonist. The disciples of the great Redeemer 
are never to forget that the spiritual sword given for their use 
must not be laid aside so long as truth is discarded or corrup- 
tions endure. Theirs is a great and holy work, incalcula- 
ble in its results through innumerable generations : but it 
is also a labor of toil and sorrow, a work for which human 
sagacity and earthly strength are insufficient ; an enterprise 
the most divine, but which can be accomplished only by re- 
sources perpetually derived from God. It is only when 
thus equipped, that men can resist the storms of life, and 
the potency of persecuting falsehood, feeling that a sure 
foundation is laid whereon faith is to stand and build, beside 
which no other basis can subsist. The one is everlasting rock, 
the other transient sand. The spirit of all grace sends its re- 
cipient first to Christ, the only true Teacher and Lawgiver, and 
thence perpetually forward to Christ the Redeemer and Rec- 
onciler ; to him who not only says, " Thy sins are forgiven 
thee," but goes even unto death under the pure impulse of 
divine love, and sheds his blood that all the world may have a 
pledge of the divine mercy. All who have actually received 



400 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

into their mind and heart this new treaty of peace with God, 
will earnestly desire to see it every where established ; that 
man, abandoning all idea of merit in his own imperfect works, 
may surrender himself wholly to divine love as manifested in 
Christ, and receive in return that strength of heroical consecra- 
tion, that joys in all the struggles of merciful justice, and which 
waits not for commands, but does, before the order is formally 
issued, and, if possible, more than its letter enjoins. This 
mastery 

" Means but communion, the power to quit 
Life's little globule here, and coalesce 
"With the great mass about us." 

The spirit of Christ is preeminently the spirit of sacrifice, 
and this, wherever found, or in what manner soever it may 
be manifested, is always a spirit of illumination. It is born of 
might immortal, a spirit kindred with the angels ; and neither 
sky, nor night, nor earth, nor all the powers of darkness com- 
bined, can extinguish its vision or foreclose its final triumph. 
No one, however lowly his lot, can be entirely wanting in 
knowledge or strength, who is capable of irradiating his earthly 
path with the light of divine self-renouncement ; and this 
Christianity in its most lowly votaries is sure to do. Partici- 
pants of the power of the cross become mighty in obedience ; 
each one labors for the common weal, and he who was at first 
full of infantile weakness, soon grows into manly, even colos- 
sal proportions with whole nations in his mind. His soul is 
such a harmony of light and heat, such a union of thought 
and courage with love, that he has a heart with room for every 
sorrow and joy of humanity, and in the end irresistibly tri- 
umphs, however formidable the obstacles that may be arrayed 
against it ; triumphs not because it is thought, not because it is 
courage, but because it is love, that love which waters cannot 
quench nor floods drown. 

The good, the true, and the lovely, components of all 



CHRISTIANITY THE REWARDER OF THE SACRIFICED. 401 

excellence, form an harmonious unity in God, and a harmo- 
nious unity in the universe ; and Christianity, in its ultimate 
development, would constitute the same harmonious unity in 
man, in all mankind. This is the divine ideal which man, a 
perfectible being, from one radiant height of excellence to 
another, is urged onward to attain. In reference to this sub- 
lime end, every era of persecution that, has yet smitten our 
race with fierce and blasting breath, has been a divine neces- 
sity subordinated to progressive emancipation, and has thus 
accomplished purposes the most divine. Born in Bethlehem, 
tempted in the wilderness, sweating agony in the garden, 
bleeding on Calvary, bursting victorious from the confines of 
death and hell, holy love sacrificing its dearest treasures on 
behalf of Adam's fallen family, has ever kindled its beneficent 
flame to consume rising oppressions, and to serve as a torch to 
pioneer auspiciously a perpetual progress towards the purer 
light of loftier worlds. In every past age, the moral heroes 
who through a divine growth approximated divine perfections, 
prophesied that a period would arrive when all men would 
attain this desired consummation by similar means. Upborne 
by that hope which is the anchor of faith, they persevered in 
their glorious enterprise, till the weary and mangled springs of 
life were compelled to stand still ; but, before ascending to reap 
the fields of immortality, they bequeathed to their successors 
here below an example blissful and beautiful, which we are to 
imitate as the only means of attaining loveliness, and joy of 
soul which shall never fade. They were the sages who be- 
came perpetual redeemers by lofty ideas and lowly deeds, and 
who fought their toilsome way step by step, through the pro- 
cess necessary to be traversed by all who would supplant the 
manifold sophistries, superstitions, and cruelties that meet us 
on every hand. They trod the heavenly paths which lead and 
lure souls to the most salubrious heights, making the feet free 
and swift with loving alacrity that do tread in them. Impelled 
by this spirit, and panting to achieve the greatest amount of 
good, the disciple stretches his strength unto its greatest limits 
34* 



402 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

on behalf of the greatest number; in reaching upward for 
richer fruit to feed the famished multitudes beneath, he loftier 
grows, and in reaching outward to distribute blessings among 
the most remote, he larger, holier, more resplendent grows. 
To develop himself in beneficent actions as practical as they 
are diversified, and to live only for the general good, is the 
master purpose of his heart, his hope, his nature's sum and 
end. Born of God, it is his perpetual luxury to feel inflamed 
with godlike aspirations ; to glow within himself, like a fire- 
opal, and to shine abroad with influences more ardent and 
enduring than the stars — the most potent heat and pervading 
light, even like the sun, "God's crest upon his azure shield, 
the heavens." Love, holy and all-embracing, which is the 
soul and life of true Christians, they pour abroad cloudlike, to 
freshen and render fruitful every parched heart, which lonely 
and arid nook of immortality, thus refreshed and made verdant 
from life-seeds beneficently vitalized, becomes in turn the 
loveliest scene blooming beneath mortal skies, the fairest flower 
of the world's garden, — 

" So sweet and pure, 
That it might freshen even the fadeless wreaths 
'Twined round the golden harps of those in heaven." 

The power and purpose of Christianity were foretold by 
Isaiah when he declared, " Every valley shall be exalted, and 
every mountain and hill shall be made low ; and the crooked 
shall be made straight, and the rough places plain." And 
again, " Go through, go through the gates ; prepare you the 
way of the people ; cast up, cast up the highway ; gather out 
the stones ; lift up a standard for the people." And who is he 
who reopens every closed gateway, levels all obstructions, 
breaks all bonds, and blesses all mankind ? Ah, prophecy 
and history both tell us, " Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, 
meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass." 
It is he, the crownless Monarch of all free spirits, himself the 
most divinely invested with unostentatious freedom, save when 



CHRISTIANITY THE REWARDER OF THE SACRIFICED. 403 

the world forces upon him its bloody regal robes ; this is the 
champion of humanity, who opens every salutary path, and 
revolutionizes every pernicious institution. Long anterior to 
his advent, he cried to the world through the evangelical 
prophet, " Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which 
keepeth the truth may enter in." Science could not enter ; 
power could not enter ; Nineveh, Babylon, Alexandria, Gre- 
cian genius and Roman force could not enter ; but the Son of 
man, mounted upon the foal of an ass, the Maker of the uni- 
verse, clothed in our nature, and borne by the most lowly 
animal of earth, will enter, has entered, and will pass on, 
bearing forward humanity in its ascending progress forever. 
It is Christian truth that imparts fortitude to traverse deserts, 
scale mountains, and encounter the most terrific storms for 
the good of mankind. The missionary departs, knowing very 
well that he has but a few years or months to live ; but the 
truth he proclaims is eternal, and this truth he knows will 
repay him infinitely beyond the measure of time and ease he 
has sacrificed. Their goodness of head and heart is not a mere 
abstraction, but a beatitude practically exemplified in deeds of 
peacefulness and kindness toward all their associates in a com- 
mon strife. Their faith sweeps the future like a glass, reads 
clearly the events of Providence as they come full freighted 
with unfolding destiny ; and this faith, harmonious with the 
hands it employs, works incessantly to promote the widest and 
happiest weal. Thus every child produced and upheld by the 
God of might, not only loves and lives on beneficent power, 
but accomplishes the grand end of his existence by subduing 
moral evils through moral good, and making the highest con- 
quests to be at once the joy and reward of life. 

" For every tear by pity shed 
Upon a fellow-sufferer's head, 
O, be a crown of glory given ; 
Such crowns as saints to gain have striven — 
Such crowns as seraphs wear in heaven." 

The greatest benefactors of our race have not been those 



404 v REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

of illustrious birth, but the humble artificers of a glorious life ; 
men who, having risen to great truths, the perennial growth 
of the grandest principles, have held them as a sacred trust for 
mankind, and have borne witness to them amidst the greatest 
darkness, in the face of most persecuting scorn, and often 
being obliged to suffer the most cruel death. But their post- 
humous influence, like the progressive power of their active 
life, tends still to diffuse most widely an example that enlight- 
ens, and doctrines that redeem. For example, the council of 
Constance, who had previously burned John Huss, ordered 
the body of Wickliffe to be dug up and burnt, and his ashes 
cast into a neighboring stream, which, as Fuller in his Church 
History quaintly says, " conveyed his ashes into the Avon, 
Avon into the Severn, Severn into the narrow seas, these into 
the main ocean ; and thus the ashes of Wickliffe are the em- 
blem of his doctrine, which now is dispersed all the world 
over." Men of this stamp stand firm and undismayed in times 
that most severely test the purity and durability of Christian 
allegiance. They show themselves at all times to be honest 
and true-hearted, ready to act with firm reliance on the arm 
that built the pillars of the universe ; and if they are opposed 
by sanguinary or vindictive laws, they imbibe " a vigor beyond 
the law," calmly meet and brave the storm, and court the 
horrors of martyrdom rather than share the infinitely more 
frightful horrors of recreancy to truth, and treason to the best 
interests of mankind. They are willing to let ruin bury ruin, 
while, as the children of light, it is their business to diffuse 
intelligence on the highest subjects at any cost ; and for this 
purpose they soar and shine in exalted influences which wing 
their way through widening space forever, and endure as 
eagles outlive insects. 

That man will surely be venerated, who, if need be, flinches 
not from becoming a martyr ; who says, under gloomiest aus- 
pices, " I will give my voice openly, and do my duty boldly, in 
spite of greatness, tyranny, and death." But posterity will 
revere his worth still more if he does not endeavor to involve 



CHRISTIANITY THE REWARDER OF THE SACRIFICED. 405 

others in martyrdom with himself; if, while standing forth most 
palpable to the peltings of the pitiless storm, he yet pleads for 
others, that the injury which he defies may be escaped by 
them, that the weak shall not be crushed because he is strong, 
and not a spark of hope be extinguished because in his bosom 
the full, free flame is burning brightly. It is a spirit which 
responds to the minions of murderous power, as did its Author 
to his murderers, " If ye seek me, here I am ; let these go 
their way." This self-oblivion and sacrifice for others most of 
all exalts the character ; it blends beautifully with the grandest 
energies, and makes the most resolute hero tenderly feel 
toward the timid and helpless, while he himself is superior to 
all compromise, and goes straight to the direst issues with 
the boldest decision. These are the "salt of the earth, the 
virtuous few who season human kind." The puny and selfish 
potentates of earth may sue for slavedoms and win them, but 
emancipators and benefactors like these will live in perpetually 
augmented glory, " when tyrants 1 crests and tombs of brass 
are spent." They are true heroes, garlanded with the unwith- 
ering flowers of heaven, crowned with sunny jewels, — crys- 
tallized tears wept by the blessed on earth in grateful joy, — 
clad in light derived from the throne of ineffable glory, and 
girded with the lightnings which scath all injustice and sunder 
every bond. 

•' The world must have great minds, even as great spheres 
Or suns, to govern lesser, restless minds, 
While they stand still and burn with life, to keep 
Them in their places, and light and heat them." 

It is a sad thing to see the torch which should illumine the 
altar employed to kindle fagots around the stake, and the soul 
of the persecutor become as ferocious as the immolation of the 
victim is devout. But such things have been, and may yet be. 
Mahomet II. had an Icoglan decapitated for the purpose of giv- 
ing a painter an idea of life ; and many a mad fanatic has 
exhibited the life of religion in much the same way. But, de- 
spite all the manglings Christianity has sufFered, she still lives 



406 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

in the fulness of her beneficent power, teaching all true disci- 
ples from the foot of her altars to address hymns to misfortune, 
exhortations that shall impart vigor to the weary, and pour balm 
upon every wounded heart. It is the truth as it is in Christ 
which teaches all whom it can reach that there is no just law 
against duty; and all persons, youthful, enslaved, or superan- 
nuated, may say to every invader on the domain of rights 
inherent in each soul, as Pius VII. said to Napoleon, " Sire, I 
can yield to you my goods, but I cannot surrender to you my 
obligations ; I can greatly love you, admire you, even give my 
life to you, but I cannot yield you my conscience ; I can even, 
O emperor, sacrifice for your sake all earthly things, but not 
my soul ; for my soul is eternity, and eternity is more than 
God ; it is man and God all together." Armed with this cour- 
age, the product and glory of the cross, the feeblest woman 
will say, in unshrinking fortitude, as did the noble victim of the 
bigoted Edward, — 

" My death the Lord may make a way 
To advance his gracious purpose to this land; 
They'll see a delicate, timid woman 
Lay down her cheerful head upon the block, 
As on a silken pillow ; when they know 
'Twas Christ that even at that dread hour rebuked 
"Weak nature's fears ; returning home, they'll kneel, 
And seek that power that turns our death to triumph." 

The intelligent and patriotic Christian loves peace, cautiously 
guards against disorder, most of all men hates anarchy and 
war. But he at the same time knows that the violent remedy 
of an hour, though it pain us to the quick, and fearfully ex- 
hausts our strength, is better than the perpetual prostration of 
disease. If the remedy of water or fire, in the most trying yet 
renovating shapes, is our only resource, let it come. If it is a 
remedy indeed, surely it must be just and well-timed, a boon 
greatly to be desired for the rich blessings it will produce. The 
sluggish fever that has long been latent in the system, oppress- 
ing and destroying its best energies, had much better kindle 



CHRISTIANITY THE REWARDER OF THE SACRIFICED. 407 

into a preternatural heat, the first token of a radical cure and 
the first breath of real health, than collapse into helpless inan- 
ity, the presage and commencement of lingering death. This 
condition of the body politic characterized that period of the 
Christian church when the divine dispensation of grace and 
truth seemed to have reached the earth in vain ; a period when 
superstition and priestcraft debased and inthralled the free- 
born spirit of man, not only causing the whips of tyranny to 
ring on the backs of their victims, but binding the most cruel 
and corroding chains on the brain and bosom of the beggared 
and buffeted populace, trampled on like dogs. The book of 
life was closed against the humble votary of religion by 
" destruction's sceptred slaves, and folly's mitred brood," while 
the volume of nature, by the same bigotry, was interdicted to 
the adventurous votary of science, and non-subscription to 
falsehood was punished by the most cruel tortures and death. 
The darkness of that era has mainly passed away, but there 
are yet those who would interdict the pages of reason and rev- 
elation to the common eye, if they do not forbid philosophy 
freely to explore the wonders of creation. But Christianity, 
when allowed to declare the first right and highest obligation 
of her devotees, insists that human thought, redeemed by the 
light of revelation and blended with its glorious splendor, shall 
go forth under the whole canopy of heaven, to proclaim to all 
mankind the wisdom, power, and goodness, of their Father, 
God. Such a proclamation is destined to teach every where 
that the true homage of unshackled hearts has no prescribed 
locality ; that acceptable worship has no stereotyped form ; and 
that the gracious Being we adoringly serve fills all space, sup- 
plies all the necessities of time, and will cause all who suffer 
for the truth's sake here to participate with him hereafter in all 
the glories of eternity. As a fitting support under present 
hardships, and a cheering preparative to the final fruition on 
high, Christ ever speaks soothingly to his faithful servants, 
saying,— 



408 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

"Think on noble thoughts and deeds 
Ever ; count o'er the rosary of truth, 
And practise precepts which are proven wise. 
It matters not, then, what thou fearest. "Walk 
Boldly and wisely in that light thou hast ; 
There is a hand above will help thee on." 

Says the late Mr. Hamilton, " The convict labor and hire- 
ling tasks of the alien and bondman are exchanged for the 
free-will offerings and affectionate services of a son and a 
disciple. Reconciled to God, he is reconciled to every thing 
which comes from God ; and, full of the love of Christ, he 
courts every thing which he can do for Christ. l Come, labor, 
for I rather love thee now. Come, hard work and long work, 
I am in a mood for you now. Come, trials and crosses, for I 
can carry you now. Come, death, for I am ready for thee 
now.' His relation to Christ has put him in a new relation to 
every thing else ; and the same fountain which has washed the 
stain from his conscience having washed the scales from his 
eyes, an inundation of light and of beauty bursts in from the 
creation around him, which hitherto was to him as much an 
unknown universe as its Creator was the unknown God ; and 
the boundless inflowings of peaceful images, and happy im- 
pressions, and strong consolations, dilate his soul with an elas- 
ticity, an enterprise, and courage, as new as they are divine. 
He has found a Savior, and his soul is happy. The Lord 
Jesus is his friend ; and his spirit, once so frigid, is become a 
fervent spirit. His new views have made him a new man.'" 
It is the office of Christianity to unite our existence and ambi- 
tion in the highest sense with the life and purposes of God, not 
simply by a necessity or a desire, but by an efficacious reality, 
by the transformation of our being into the splendor of his 
own. It was comparatively easy for Prometheus to aspire to 
heaven, and to lay his hand upon the sacred fire ; but, to his 
sorrow, he learned that the flame he coveted burned when 
stolen. It is other fire, and for yet loftier uses, we desire to 
possess, and, in the great Mediator, may abundantly obtain. 
God is light and holiness infinite and impartial : possessing 



CHRISTIANITY THE REWARDER OF THE SACRIFICED. 409 

these treasures, it was no small thing for him to draw near and 
blend them with the faculties of the feeble, the debased, and 
the lost. It is no small thing to receive God into our intelli- 
gence to enlarge it, into our heart to purify it, and into our 
senses to regulate their deranged potency and sanctify their 
irregular use, thus uniting two natures so disproportioned in a 
blessed oneness eternal and divine. This union, first realized 
in Christ, and, by the grace of God, reproduced in every true 
believer, is accompanied by an energetic force, a virtue truly 
sublime, which is wise to subdue the spirit of man to the spirit 
of God, without causing the human spirit to lose its personality 
and freedom in the divine Spirit ; which transports the heart 
of its subject to an impassioned love of the invisible, and there 
perpetually recreates it with undecaying joys, subjugates carnal 
desires, emancipates thought, wings the soul redeemed from 
the lowest degradation, and bears him through unfolding glo- 
ries to the otherwise inaccessible heights of divinity. This 
heavenly influence descends graciously on those who receive 
it and are saved, and on those who reject it and are destroyed. 
As the dew descends upon the heart of a poisonous flower, the 
same as where the rosebud bends upon the lily's breast, God 
also causes goodness and truth to be diffused copiously even on 
those who most maliciously pervert the blessings they enjoy. 
Constantly does Christianity woo to herself souls from the 
remotest sides of our earthly horizon ; while, throned serenely 
and majestically amidst central glories on high, she confirms 
the doubting, fortifies the feeble, delivers the oppressed, ac- 
knowledges the utility of reason without accepting its yoke, 
enlightens and elevates without annihilating nature, the mother, 
sister, and daughter of truth, God and man coalesced, impel- 
ling with a firm and equal step the generations of mankind 
toward a brightening future, improved institutions, and ever- 
lasting joys. 

To render its disciple chaste, humble, fraternal, and apos- 
tolic, Christian doctrine has taken its point of support aside 
from man ; it has found it in God. It is in the divine name, 
35 



410 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

by force of that relationship it has created between him and 
ourselves, by the efficacy of his precepts and the ordinances 
connected with pure adoration, that our rebellious spirit is 
changed into virtuous docility, reanimated, purified, trans- 
formed, clothed with the glory of Tabor, and then, being thus 
armed from head to foot, is cast as a newly-formed hero into 
the battle of life, feeble yet by nature, but energized with per- 
petual resources from Omnipotence, incessantly aspiring after 
the loftiest wisdom, and as perpetually antagonizing with all 
forms of injustice with the mightiest strength. Such are the 
causes and consequences of every true conversion. The hu- 
mility, chastity, love, and all those internal exaltations which 
result from the transfiguring power of the Holy Spirit, are pro- 
duced by that fire from heaven's sublimest altar, given to con- 
sume all false virtues that oppose ; that sacred flame which 
alone is competent to burn each proud spot and lustful passion 
from the heart. Without this religion, the key to blissful 
mansions, and prompter to heroical benevolence, there can be 
no communion with God, no conquest over injustice on earth, 
and no sure foundation for heavenly peace. But, under the 
perfection of its benign sway, humanity will come at length to 
possess the amplest freedom and the holiest joys. Mightier and 
more beneficent than Orpheus or Amphion, Christianity, in the 
ultimate development of truth, the glorious melody of love 
from her simple and entrancing lyre, will build of our globe a 
divine Thebes of men, where injustice never wrongs and fet- 
ters never bind. Thus to be inspired, guided, sustained, and 
rewarded, is to live under the protection of Him who made the 
whole universe at one thought as at a glance, and who infuses 
much of his own immensities into every true-hearted devotee. 
In this world they receive a hundred fold, with the infinitely 
higher destiny guarantied to them of a final home forever 

" Amid the august and never-dying light 
Of constellated spirits, who have gained 
A name in heaven by power of heavenly deeds." 

In the third place, Christianity, which, as we have seen, has 



CHRISTIANITY THE REWARDER OF THE SACRIFICED. 411 

ever been the fairest and foremost victim of tyranny, and the 
mightiest antagonist to every form of injustice, is the most 
glorious rewarder of all devotees for her sake sacrificed. 
Christ glorified martyrdom, and caused it to be the object of 
profound veneration, when encountered in a just cause. Be- 
fore the advent of the great Redeemer, the world was incapa- 
ble of appreciating the pure morality of martyr sacrifice which 
he taught in every action of his life, and sealed by his death. 
The brave and yet quiet manner in which this doctrine was 
inculcated, is as worthy of observation as is its intrinsic worth. 
Divine precepts teach us to be good, true, and beneficent, with- 
out a ceaseless struggle so to appear. The divine example 
shows us how we ought to burst through all artificial restraints, 
cumbrous conventional trammels, and cast ourselves with the 
utmost freedom into the hands of Providence, to live or die, as 
may be best for human improvement and the glory of God. 
It is thus that we become divinely qualified for usefulness, and 
are religious in the highest degree, and yet with a noiseless 
manifestation, as the sun shines, dew falls, trees and flowers 
unfold their leaves in spring. 

To this grand end, in the first place, Christianity provides 
adequate means, by bestowing on the devoted disciple the 
inexhaustible resources of peaceful fortitude. If the heart be 
enslaved, the soul can never be free. Whatever manacles we 
may escape beside, with the power of sin still binding us, we 
but " wear the name of freedom, graven on a heavier chain." 
It is soul freedom alone that is the mother of valuable thought, 
making a Christian to be the highest style of man. The true 
disciples of Christ are the blessed spirits radically and eternally 
disinthralled, by the mode of their emancipation divinely qual- 
ified to act the part of redeemers every where ; " and all are 
slaves beside." It is only when we are calm that we can see 
clearly ; and, as the double basis of most perfect wisdom and 
purest bliss, Christ's consummating gift to his followers, were the 
earnests of his own untroubled peace. This he knew is most 
requisite to that perfect freedom of mind, through the develop- 



412 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

merit of which, in inward reflection, matter and mind are interro- 
gated, the highest knowledge is revealed, and every useful aid is 
estimated as well as secured. Thus conditioned, the conscience 
of the understanding keeps itself awake with the moral con- 
science, and the heroicai spirit, at one with God and man, time and 
eternity, is prepared without dismay to examine self, commune 
with self, adorns with the highest virtues his internal dwelling- 
place, makes his own bosom the residence of unsurpassed 
happiness and the inexhaustible fountain of unlimited benefits. 
He receives truth into a pure and fearless soul, diffuses light 
through a transparent medium, sows earth with the seeds of 
all excellence, and pours on all the distressed solace and sal- 
vation mighty and enduring as the eternal throne. 

" The freebom Christian has no chains to prove ; 
Or if a chain, the golden one of love : 
No fear attends to quench his glowing fires : 
What fear he feels his gratitude inspires." 

As vacancy of heart is the source of painful agitation, Chris- 
tianity comes to refresh and fill it with those gentle affections 
and generous sentiments which compose and strengthen the 
understanding, perpetually giving birth to the serene thoughts 
and beneficent deeds which are the emanations and proofs of 
celestial purity. The labor of reflection is best facilitated by 
internal quietude ; and hence there have been so few really 
great minds, because it is rare that we meet with those who are 
eminently pure of heart. It is only the taught and sanctified 
of God who can penetrate the meaning of the celebrated 
oracle of Delphi, "Know thyself;" and they who at the foot 
of the cross most feel their weakness, will be most filled with 
power. Thus from our feebleness, experienced and bemoaned, 
grace educes and confirms the greatest strength ; as from the 
acorn, driven before the wind to root itself in genial soil, springs 
an oak which the mightiest storm can scarcely bend. 

Christian doctrine ever tends to produce the three moral 
conditions which most of all conspire to develop the best fac- 



CHRISTIANITY THE REWARDER OF THE SACRIFICED. 413 

ulties of the soul : first, the greatest freedom of mind, which, 
self-acting and self-directing, penetrates every where, seeking 
more serviceable elements to be moulded into loftier combina- 
tions, mightier munitions within as well as without, like the 
bee, drawing wealth and sweetness from every flower ; sec- 
ondly, that refinement of taste and symmetry of spirit, which 
lead us to seize upon those relationships which are most natu- 
ral, comprehensive, and heavenly, in all things seeking the 
greatest mutual harmony and the greatest general good ; 
thirdly, that energy of character, which collects and concen- 
trates all diversified agencies, and with a divine grandeur of 
purpose producing an invincible potency, not less majestic than 
practical, and at every hazard perpetually employed to crush 
the oppressiveness of infernal wrongs. Without this freedom, 
which the gospel alone can confer, the spirit of man never 
reaches that high love it was designed to attain, nor executes 
the deeds which it is his greatest glory to perform. But under 
its influence, the sterile intellect and heart are made simulta- 
neously to produce the purest sentiments, which are themselves 
the strongest motives ; as the rock, struck by Moses, satiated 
the thirst and fortified the limbs of famishing multitudes. All 
truth as it is in Christ, exactly so far as it is known and felt, 
becomes a moral force which acts. The best principles may 
be forever talked about and curiously analyzed without gener- 
ating in the spectator energy enough to reduce one of them to 
practice ; indeed, this is most frequently seen. But true doc- 
trine is always practical force ; it is the vir within us ; makes 
the heroical possessor to deserve the inscription cut by the 
ancients on the pedestal whereon stood the statue of a cele- 
brated benefactor : Vir, a man ! When the Spartans at Ther- 
mopylae in their hearts prepared themselves to die for the 
salvation of Greece, they inscribed upon the overhanging 
crags of the famous pass these words: "Traveller, go tell 
Sparta that we lie dead here in obedience to her sacred laws." 
Then, embracing each other for the last time, and binding gar- 
lands of young branches around their brows as ready sacrifices 
35* 



414 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

on the altar of freedom, they rushed to universal immolation, 
exclaiming, " Rocks, fields, and mountains, ye will remain ! " 
They died to leave the domain of freedom behind ; and .why 
should they fear death standing in front ? A messenger from 
Marathon, mangled and exhausted with the battle, the result of 
which he was despatched to proclaim in Athens, ran cheerfully 
till the last throbbings of strength were spent, and fell at the 
foot of his country's altar, crying, with death-struck lips yet 
quivering in extatic joy, " Victory ! " Such is the spirit of 
unflinching fortitude, which Christianity, in forms infinitely 
nobler than these, tends constantly to generate and employ. 

"We said above, that, in teaching martyr-morality, Christ 
bestowed on his disciples the divinest peace, as the chief cause 
and support of persisting endurance in his service. We pro- 
ceed to remark, secondly, that he at the same time showed how 
we are best employed when we are obliged to incur the most 
trying sacrifice in giving the highest and widest freedom to 
mankind. All mind is created for improvement through 
instruction ; hence education is a universal want. The soul 
of man forever pants after this invaluable boon ; his faculties 
of thought and will are fitted for nothing else. When a child 
is born, under any meridian, with whatever hue, a mightier 
result is produced than the formation of worlds. These see 
not their own light, feel not their own grandeur, and must soon 
perish. But the soul is immortal, and will eternally glow with 
inextinguishable and constantly augmented emotions of weal 
or woe. As in the incipient process of primitive creation God 
said, " Let there be light," and moulded the universe amid 
increasing splendors, so around the latent germs of every 
rational creature, stamped with his image, endowed for eternity, 
God, in all his works, in all his word, with the full almightiness 
of his spirit, cries, "Let there be light!" — let this mind be 
matured in symmetry, purity, and strength, to fly like a seraph 
toward heaven. Naturalists tell us that if a bird's beak is tied 
and his wings are broken, he can still live and breathe through 
the broken bones ; but in the name of humanity we beg, give 



CHRISTIANITY THE REWARDER OF THE SACRIFICED. 415 

the bird an open mouth, give him unmutilated wings, to sing 
his free song and fly an exalted flight, as the God of love 
designed. 

The human mind every where, groping along the entrance 
path to immortality, responds to the highest questionings, like 
poor blind Bartimeus, " Lord, that I may receive sight ! " Ed- 
ucation is like the sword of Goliath, concerning which David 
said to Abimelech, " There is none like that ; give it to me." 
Every mind, in every place, to some extent feels this want. 
Many of the benighted feel it acutely, and pray, with the 
rugged warrior encompassed by preternatural night, — 

" Disperse this cloud, the light of heaven restore ; 
Give me to see, and I will ask no more." 

As education is man's greatest want, our Savior gave the 
strongest emphasis to his parting command, " Go teach ! " 
When the down-trodden are visitited in mercy, and by benefi- 
cent instruction are made to partake of the more than necta- 
rian sweets of knowledge, the stimulated and enraptured soul 
exclaims, like Homer's giant, quaffing from the goblets of 
Ulysses, " More, give me more ! " 

That which the nature of the soul and the results of sin 
constitute a universal want, Christianity makes a universal 
duty and right. As I am born with the want, so I inherit the 
right. That which corresponds with my first and greatest 
necessity is education; that which I and all men inherit as the 
first privilege to be enjoyed, is the right of receiving and 
imparting instruction. The tyrant of antiquity who ordered 
the tables of the law to be hung so high that they could not be 
read, and then punished with severity the offences which re- 
sulted from a necessary ignorance, was merciful compared 
with those who would extinguish all improvement, and yet hold 
their victims accountable for their degradation. 

It is by being taught fully in the elements of political and 
moral justice that man is rendered competent to judge and act 
for himself. And this is clearly an inalienable right; else why 



416 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

that natural impatience of control, that admiration for those 
who sacrifice themselves at the altar of liberty, which all feel, 
and which would be useless passions, and without any corre- 
spondent aim, had not God made us for self-government. More 
than this, the divinest qualities we possess constitute but an 
incredible artifice of Nature to reduce us from the path of 
legitimate obedience, and subject us to the accumulated evils 
of the worst tyranny, if soul development be not our first 
privilege, and free action the ground of our eternal doom. 
Each mortal, through the healthful exercise of all his physical 
and intellectual powers, is to be made conscious of immortality, 
and that he has been already crowned with a portion of that sov- 
ereignty which was conquered for the world by Emanuel, who 
poured out his soul unto death, that in the vicarious sacrifice 
he might breathe a vital air through all our faculties, regen- 
erate the depraved, enlighen the benighted, and raise the dead. 
Such is Christianity ; it creates liberty, equality, fraternity, as 
its legitimate fruit, and is by necessity destructive to tyranny 
of every type and degree. It brings into view the multitudes 
so long obscured and savagely oppressed, softens their re- 
venge, moderates their counsels, and ennobles their action. It 
is divine truth only that can effectually transform the heart, 
clarify the vision, and rectify the judgment of mankind ; and 
this it does accomplish best, because of all instruction it most 
clearly shows that whatever is opposed to equality and freedom 
is impious and abhorrent before our Father in heaven. This 
was the grand lesson which was announced to all men in 
Bethlehem, reiterated itself on the lake shore, on the mount, 
in social joy as well as garden gloom, and was finally con- 
summated on Calvary's cross. Our elder brother is a Savior 
indeed, a Monarch divine ; but never did he bind a faculty or 
enslave a limb. He lived and died that he might liberate, and 
was royal only to save. 

" The crown he wore was of the pointed thorn ; 
In purple he was crucified, not born." 



CHRISTIANITY THE REWARDER OF THE SACRIFICED. 417 

Freedom desires to be conquered ; and it is remarkable that 
every where, ever since Christ, she has been primarily indebted 
to the generous efforts of some artisan, always the first to 
demand, and the first to obtain, her blessings by dying for her. 
This treasure is of the greatest value when it is obtained for 
the largest number. The great Redeemer came for this pur- 
pose, and found the majority of mankind placed, like an inert 
base, at the lowest stratum of society, where it was compelled 
to bear the most cruel weight. It was there, in the lowest 
depth, and under the greatest burden, that he chose to be born, 
bleed, and conquer. In thus doing, a religion arose from that 
abysm of abasement which declares man to be the child of 
God, the brother of Christ, equal in the order of nature and 
in that of grace to his oppressors ; and this contradiction 
between sanctimonious professions and social facts, with per- 
petual and omnipotent force, thank God ! shall lead to the 
redress of social injustice. 

The rock in which the cross of Christ was planted was the 
corner-stone of the first true republic, and eighteen centuries 
have been placing thereon the broad foundations of freedom 
for the world. The bleeding sacrifice thence ascending for- 
ever proclaims the unity of our race and equality of rights ; 
the boon he won is unlimited, and its full enjoyment must 
speedily come. The principle of the equality of men before 
God necessarily gives birth to another, which is but its devel- 
opment, or rather its application, namely, the equality of men 
among themselves, or social equality ; for if there exists, un- 
der this relation, an inequality essential and radical relative to 
privilege, this inequality will render men primarily unequal 
before God. Religious equality, then, tends to produce, as its 
consequence and consummation, political and civil equality ; 
excluding all power of man over the rights of his brother man, 
recognizing his freedom, and revering his native independence. 

Christ chose the cross for his standard, and protested against 
every success of force by the success of sacrifice. The gos- 
pel, regulating the rights and duties of all, is elevated to the 



418 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

power of a universal constitution, which serves to apportion 
to all legitimate authority, and which, by a beneficent conser- 
vatism, preserves from those excesses to which human ambi- 
tion is perpetually inclined. Under this sovereignty the empire 
of souls was established in conflict with Roman tyranny, 
between which and its own peaceful, republican spirit, it is 
impossible to imagine an antagonism more complete. The 
Roman empire was based on complete servitude ; the empire 
of souls, on freedom complete. Between the two, to be or 
not to be was the grand question, which led at once to a con- 
flict both inevitable and most sanguinary. An.d what muni- 
tions could the empire of souls array against the martial em- 
pire covered with its armed legions ? The forum ? It had 
no foothold therein. The senate ? It had not a representative 
therein. The people ? They were chiefly suborned by craft 
or terrified by force. Speech ? Its only eloquence in all the 
terrors of primitive struggles was silent suffering, self-sacrifice, 
and rejoicing death. As it had been with the Master, so now 
was it with his disciples. It was requisite to confess Christ, and 
then to die for his name's sake ; to conquer enforced bondage 
by the peaceful use of soul-freedom, to rise by falling and 
conquer by apparent defeat. It seems that to them it had been 
declared, If during three centuries you will boldly affirm, I 
believe in God, the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and 
earth, and in his only Son our Lord Jesus Christ, who was 
horn of the virgin Mary, ivho died and is risen ! — if during 
three centuries you will boldly in every presence declare this, 
and then die in attestation of the truth, you shall be masters 
and most free. Such was the result. With a calm brow and 
undimmed eye, rejoicing in that salvation to promote which 
they were ready to perish, they willingly embraced the most 
frightful martyrdom, believing that their sacrifice would eman- 
cipate the earth. 

Whenever the victim of political or spiritual tyranny cleaves 
to the cross rather than be recreant to truth and righteousness, 
like Stephen, he has but to raise his eyes to see the heavens 



CHRISTIANITY THE REWARDER OF THE SACRIFICED. 419 

opened, and the Son of man silting at the right hand of God ; 
and their reward will be as substantial as the vision is glorious. 
Christianity creates true republicans, citizens always ready to 
sacrifice their own interests for the general well-being; and 
when she shall have sufficiently accomplished this work in the 
bosom of humanity, peace and purity will become universal, 
and all injustice obsolete. The pioneers and founders of this 
blissful era are all who are the victims of unrighteous power. 
They are the world-benefactors, who throw out truth, fructi- 
fied by tears and blood, as it were, at hazard, like the invisible 
seed sown by the winds of heaven ; assured that germs thus 
planted will grow and increase, and become a great tree, under 
the shadow of whose branches mankind will ultimately take 
refuge against all errors and all wrongs. 

Sacrifice exacted by integrity is always its own exalted 
reward, since he whose life is consecrated to suffering for 
others must necessarily be a participant of the universal feli- 
city which the Deity diffuses, infinitely more than he whose 
life is a mere pursuit of sensual pleasure. The existence and 
deeds of such men are bright revelations of omnipotent benev- 
olence and power. This is, in some degree, true of all disci- 
ples, but more especially does it apply to the prophets, the 
apostles, the martyrs, who have bravely consecrated their ener- 
gies to the service of their race. Truly do they resemble God 
manifest in the flesh. Their example in time is the brightest 
and their preparation for eternity is the best ; for we hold that 
in the day of final reckoning, the Judge will not so much in- 
quire, What was your belief? as, What was your conduct on 
earth ? What hast thou done ? Where are the proofs that thou 
hast fulfilled a beneficent mission with all thy might ? It will 
then be seen that all who in every age boldly wore a martyr's 
crown of thorns, in order that truth and righteousness might 
acquire comprehensive, pervading, and ennobling sway, there- 
by won the brightest honors and were destined to the highest 
thrones. 

The countries blessed with the footsteps of such moral 



420 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

heroes have their deeds associated with the noblest scenery, 
exertions not merely of chivalric prowess or military talent, 
but of true patriotism, resistance to tyranny, strife the most 
hazardous for peace and freedom the most divine. They are 
champions who appear at fitting intervals, as if Providence 
especially designed, by the mercifulness and durability of their 
influence, to remind the world of what is most characteristic 
of his own eternal throne. They are the foreshadowing of 
infinite harvests, leave earth much better than they found it, 
and ascend with scarred brows wreathed in immortal garlands, 
to participate more fully of that infinite excellence which they 
exemplified here below. Following and surpassing the great- 
ness of antiquity, Grecian philosophers and Hebrew prophets, 
the moral heroes of later times, armed with the pen, the living 
voice and omnipotent press, have sowed most profusely the 
seeds of intellectual profit and power in the world, scattering 
them on every hill, plain, and shore. They all contribute to 
build up that power in the earnest devotee, which, in the unity 
and utility of its results, corresponds with the magnitude and 
variety of the costly materials which have contributed toward 
its erection, and which in turn render him competent to do 
much toward advancing the world in grace, mercy, and peace. 
Such men are the architects of the noblest institutions, and the 
almoners of the richest blessings. They fearlessly confront 
the darkest terrors, brave the most despotic wills, and in life, 
as well as in death, are ready, if need be, to glorify God and 
humanity in the dungeon, on the battle-field, or the scaffold. 
Between recreancy to principle and the sacrifice of life, it 
takes them not a second to choose. So long as one warm 
pulsation of heart remains, they breathe through all ranks of 
mankind a spirit of life and aspiration, teaching them to rebel 
against every wrong, and, if necessary, in their sublime ca- 
reer, like themselves to fall, chanting the Marseillaise of the 
world's march toward the final victories of freedom, civiliza- 
tion, and humanity. When such redeemers are silenced under 
the axe of tyranny, they fall like stately sacrifices. If con- 



CHRISTIANITY THE REWARDER OF THE SACRIFICED. 421 

demned to the lingering immolation of the prison, their hero- 
ical faculties, lofty principles, and indomitable purpose, assert 
most clearly and widely, in the presence of despotism and of 
death, the true " Monarchy of Man." 

Intellect and affection alone confer dominion to the strong 
over the weak — not indeed further to enfeeble, but to increase 
both their happiness and strength. It is a sovereignty that does 
not cripple, stultify, and degrade its victim, but enlightens, 
enfranchises, and exalts him, by gently inducing him to open 
wider the doors of his soul, and let the ethereal tides of thought 
and feeling roll therein. Christ came to bestow infinite mer- 
cies on all ; to nourish the thought of the obscurest soul, beau- 
tify it, and make it most attractive, — 

" As the dissolving warmth of morn may fold 
A half infrozen dew-globe, green, and gold, 

And crystalline, till it becomes a winged mist, 
And wanders up the vault of the blue day, 
Outlives the noon, and on the sun's last ray 

Hangs o'er the sea, a fleece of lire and amethyst." 

When flame is smothered in flax, or when lightning wears a 
chain, such minds may with impunity be bound, or be dis- 
suaded from the discharge of duty through fear. Landor has 
said that " there is a pause near death when men grow bold 
toward all things else." With habitual solemnity and invincible 
fortitude, the true-hearted disciple of Christ will encounter 
every difficulty, and quail before no foe. If an emergency 
occurs in which the devotee must empty his veins rather than 
disgrace his Master's cause, then will he, with calm firmness, 
say, as did the gladiators to imperial tyrants of old, " They 
who are about to die salute thee ! " and those last words of 
virtuous heroism shall seal the damnation of accursed oppres- 
sors, burning through their miscreant souls in retributive flames 
inextinguishable, and eternally increased, while the victim of 
their hellish hate, soaring to the highest firmament of bliss, 
shall shine as the stars forever and ever, 
36 



422 REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY. 

Thus have we attempted to show that Christianity has ever 
been the fairest and foremost victim of tyranny, the mightiest 
antagonist to every form of injustice, and most glorious re- 
warder of all devotees for her sake sacrificed. In all the fore- 
going work, it has been our purpose to portray the character 
and influence of those persons who reproduce, from time to 
time, and exemplify, that idea of immortal worth which first 
sprang from the tomb in the Arimathean's garden, in the defi- 
niteness of doctrine and tangibility of fact, to reanimate and 
adorn the whole moral world. Some of its first fruits we have 
seen and felt ; much more of its ultimate glory was indicated 
in that glorious vision which appeared to the primitive martyr 
of Christ on the right hand of the Majesty on high, encour- 
aging him, in the midst of the agonies of a violent death by 
the hands of an enraged multitude, to say, " Lord Jesus, into 
thy hands I commend my spirit;" and not only thus to resign 
his soul, but at the same time to pray for his murderers. The 
same spirit was again displayed in the apostle Paul, when, 
after a most useful life, he calmly faced the terrors of martyr- 
dom. And here, as the pen inscribes the author's prayer 
on this page, it shall be that the reader, with the same 
holy retrospect and anticipation, may exclaim, " I have fought 
a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith ; 
henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteous- 
ness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at 
that day ; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love 
his appearing." 



PROVERBS FOR THE PEOPLE 

OR, ILLUSTRATIONS OF PRACTICAL GODLINESS 
DRAWN FROM THE BOOK OF WISDOM. 

BY E. L. MAGOON. 



NOTICES OF THE PRESS. 

This is a volume of readable sermons, from a sort of steam engine preacher, who 
hails, we believe, from Cincinnati. He is one of those earnest orthodox men, who, 
unwilling to starve on their creed, go to preaching practical goodness with all their 
might. His words are not, like most preachers, immensely too large for his meaning. 
Indeed, his meaning fills them, and is a little out at the elbows. Every sentence is 
alive. — Chronotijpe. 

This is a new work from the vigorous and terse pen of the author of " Orators of 
the American Revolution." Mr. M. is already well known to the public, both as an 
eloquent preacher and a nervous and forcible writer. One of the best recommenda- 
tions of his works, is the deep earnestness and fervor which always pervade them. 
Whatever other sins may be laid to his charge, he is at least free from the most intol- 
erable and incorrigible one — dulness. He write3 always like a thoroughly alive man. 
We may add that Messrs. Gould, Kendall $• Lincoln, of this city, are the publishers 
of the work, and that its mechanical execution is like that of every other volume 
that comes from this house — in the best possible taste. — YanJcce Blade. 

In the work before us, the principles of Christian morality are handled in a manner 
well calculated to arrest the attention and improve the heart. We would advise the 
reader to purchase the book, and see how interesting a volume may bo written on the 
fundamental virtues and vices of mankind. Like all the publications of Messrs. 
Gould, Kendall & Lincoln, the mechanical execution of the " Proverbs for the People " 
is faultless. — Sat. Rambler. 

This work consists of eighteen chapters, each of which is devoted to the illustra- 
tion of some good or bad trait in human character. It is an excellent book for young 
people, and especially for young men, amidst the temptations of business and pleasure. 
Albany Express. 

This work turns the Book of Proverbs to excellent account. It illustrates the great 
rules and principles of moral obligation, with admirable effect. If the whole world 
would study it and practice upon it, there would not long be occasion to pray for the 
millennium. — Albany Argus. 

There is not a richer mine of precious thoughts and striking aphorisms, than the 
Book of the Proverbs of Solomon. With an easy and attractive style, Mr. Ma goon 
possesses an extensive acquaintance with ancient and modern literature, and inter- 
weaves his practical reflections with varied illustrations and quotations; rendering 
his work as entertaining as it is instructive. It is a book for the people ; " discussing 
the exalted principles of Christian morality in a manner adapted to the comprehension 
of the great mass of mankind." — Ck. Union, 

Our author is one of the most earnest and wide-awake of our American preachers 
and writers. Each of the eighteen chapters in his hook is furnished with a quaint 
title, and filled with vigorous expressions of his own ideas and feelings, interspersed 
with numerous quotations from " ethical writers, ancient sages, and modem poets." 
A work well woithy of its extensive circulation. — Ezcelsior. 

They are Proverbs for the People, not only as based upon the Proverbs of Holy 
Scripture, but from that peculiarity of the author's style which is seen in his express- 
ing himself so that you may pick a sentence at random from his book, and you will 
find it to contain a complete practical idea, which might serve as a motto to think 
about, or hang a sermon on. He is quaint, sententious, — he has indeed the three 
great qualities, " pith, point and pathos," — and always enforces high and noble senti- 
ments. — JV. Y. Recorder. 

It is a popular manual of great practical utility. — Ch. Chronicle, Phila. 

The subjects are so selected as to embrace nearly all the practical duties of life. 
The work, in consequence of this peculiar character, will be found extensively useful. 
The style is neat and compact. — Rochester Democrat. 

The work abounds with original and pithy matter well adapted to engage the atten- 
tion and to reform the life. We hope these discourses will be extensively read. — 
Morning Star. 



NEW PUBLICATIONS 



i. 

THE EAETH AND MAN: 

Lectures on Comparative Physical Geography, considered in its Relation to the History of 

Mankind, By Arnold Guvut, Pro)'. Phys. Geo. &. Hist., Neuchatel. 

Translated from the French, by Prof. C. C. Feli on.— With Illustrations. 

From Prof. Loiiis Agassiz. 

"I understand that you are about publishing the lectures of Prof. Gnyot on Pb) pi- 
ca] Geography. Having been his ft rend from childhood, as a fellow student in college, 
and as a~ colleague in the same university, I may be permitted to express my high 
sense of the value of his attainments. Mr. Guyot has not only been at 1 lie best 
school that of the Ritter and Humboldt, and become familiar with the presentstate of 
the science of our earth, but he has himself, in many instances, drawn new conclu- 
sions from the facts now ascertained, and presented most of them is a new point of 
view. Several of the most brilliant generalizations developed in bis lectures, are 
his ; and if moie extensively circulated, will not only render the study of geography 
more attract. ve, but actually show it in its true light, namely, as the science of the 
relations which exist bet ween nature and man, throughout history ; of the contrasts 
observed between the different paits ol the globe ; of the laws of horizontal and 
vettical forms of the dry bind, in its contact with the sea-, of climate, &c. It would 
be highly servieable. it seems tome, for the benefit ot schools and teachers, that 
you should induce Air. Guyot to write a series of graduated text-books of geography, 
from the first elements, up Jo a scientific treatise. It would give new life to these 
studies, in this country, and be the best preparation for sound statistical investigations. 1 ' 

II. 

WAYLAKD'S UNIVERSITY SERMONS. 

Sermons delivered in Brown University. 
By FRANcrs Wavlahd, 

Contents. — Theoretical Atheism. Practical Atheism. The Moral Character of 
Man, Love to God. The Fall of Alan. Justification by Works Impossible. Prepar- 
ation for the Advent of The Messiah. The Work of the Messiah. Justification by 
Faith. A Day in the Life of Jesus of Nazareth. The Fall of Peter. The Church 
of Christ. The Unity of the Church. The Duty of Obedience to the Civil Magis- 
trates. The recent Revolutions in Europe. 

III. 
A HISTORY OF 

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS, 

In all parts of the World, from their earliest commencement to the present time. Prepared 

under the direction of the American Baptist Missionary Union. 

By William Gammell, A. M., Professor in Brown University. 

IT. 

SACRED RHETORIC: 

Or, Composition and Delivery of Sermons ; including Ware's Hints oh 

Extemporaneous Pkeaching. 

Bt Henry J. RrPLEY, Prof, in Newton Theological Institution. 

V. 

THE CHURCH IN EARNEST. 
By John Angell James. 

We rejoice that this work has been republished in this country, and we cannot too 
strongly commend it to the serious perusal of the churches of every name. — Christian 
Alliance. 

Its arguments and appeals are well adapted to rouse to action, and the times call for 
such a book, which we trust will be universally read. — JVcio York Observer. 



CATALOGUE 

OF VALUABLE WORKS PUBLISHED BY 

GOULD, KENDALL AND LINCOLN, 

««. 59, WASHINGTON STREET, 

BOSTON. 



PRINCIPLES OF ZOOLOGY; Touching the Structure, Develop- 
ment, Distribution, and Natural Arrangement of the Races of Animals, 
living and extinct, with numerous illustrations. For the use of Schools 
and Colleges. Fart I., Comparative Physiology. By Louis Agassiz 
and Augustus A. Gould. 

Extracts from the Preface. 

" The design of this wo.-k Is to furnish an epitome of the leading principles of the science 
of Zoology, as deduced from the present state of knowledge, so illustrated as to be intelligible 
to the beginning student. No similar treatise now exists in this country, and indeed, some 
of the topics have not been touched upon in the language, unless in a strictly technical 
form, and in scattered articles." 

" Being designed for American students, the illustrations have been drawn, as far as pos- 
sible, from American objects. * * * Popular names have been employed as far as possible, 
and to the scientific names an English termination has generally been given. The first part 
is devoted to Comparative Physiology, as the basis of Classification; the second, to System- 
atic Zoology, in which the principles of Classification will be applied, and the principal 
groups of animals briefly characterized." 

MODERN FRENCH LITERATURE; By L. Raymond De Veri- 

cour, formerly lecturer in the Royal Athenaeum of Paris, member of the 
Institute of France, &c. American edition, brought bown to the present 
day, and revised with notes by William S. Chase. With a fine portrait 

of L.AMARTINE. 

*»* This Treatise has received the highest praise as a comprehensive and thorough survey 
of the various departments of Modern French Literature. It contains biographical and 
critical notes of all the prominent names in Philosophy, Criticism, History, Romance, 
Poetry, and the Drama; and presents a full and impartial consideration of the Political 
Tendencies of France, as they may be traced in the writings of authors equally conspicu- 
ous as Scholars and as Statesmen. Mr. Chase, who has been the Parisian correspondent of 
several leading periodicals of this country, is well qualified, from a prolonged residence in 
France, his familiarity with its Literature, and by a personal acquaintance with mauy of 
these authors, to introduce the work of De Verieour to the American public. 

" This is the only complete treatise of the kind on this subject, either in French or Eng- 
lish, and has received the highest commendation. Mr. Chase is well qualified to introduce 
the work to the public. The" book cannot fail to be both useful and popular." — New York 
Evening Post. 

" Literature and Politics are more eloselv allied than many are aware of. It is particu- 
larly so in France ; and the work announced by this learned French writer will, doubtless, 
be eagerly sought after."— The Symbol, Boston. 

" Mr. Chase is entirely competent for the task he has undertaken in the present instance. 
His introduction and notes have doubtless added much to the value of the work, especially 
to the American reader."— Evening Gazette, Boston.. 



GOULD, KENDALL. ASD LINCOLN'S PUBLICATIONS. 



THE APOSTOLICAL AND PRIMITIVE CHURCH; Popular in 

its government and simple in its worship. By Lyman Cullman. With 
an introductory essay, by Dr. Augustus Neander, of Berlin. Second 
Edition. Price $1.25. 

The Publishers have been favored with many highly commendatory notices of this 
work, from individuals and public journals. The first edition found a rapid sale; it has 
been republished in England, and received with much favor; it is universally pronounced 
to be standard authority on this subject; and is adopted as a Text Book in Theological 
Seminaries. 

From the Professors in And over Theological Seminary. 
" The undersigned are pleased to hear that you are soon to publish a new edition of the 
'Primitive Church,' by Lvma.n Coleman. They regard this volume as the result of 
extensive and original research ; as embodying very important materials fur reference, 
much sound thought and conclusive argument. In their estimation, it may both interest 
and instruct the intelligent layman, may be profitably used as a Text Book for Theologi- 
cal Students, and should especially form a part of the libraries of clergymen. The intro- 
duction, by Neam>er, is of itself sufficient to recommend the volume to the literary 
public." ' Leonard Woods* Bela B. Edwards, 

Ralph Emerson, Edward A. Park. 

From Samuel Miller, D.D., Princeton Theological Seminary. 
" Gentlemen, — I am truly gratified to find that the Rev. Mr. Coleman's work on the 
'Apostolical and Primitive Church,' is so soon to reach a second edition. It is, in my 
judgment, executed with learning, skill, and fidelity ; and it will give me great pleasure to 
learn that it is in the hands of every minister, and every candidate for the ministry in our 
land, and indeed of every one who is disposed, and wlxo wishes for enlightened and safe 
guidance, on the great subject of which it treats." 

Yours, respectfully, Samuel Miller: 

THE CHURCH MEMBER'S MANUAL Of Ecclesiastical Principles, 

Doctrines, and Discipline ; presenting a Systematic View of the Structure, 
Polity, Doctrines, and Practices of Christian Churches, as taught in the 
Scriptures; by Wm. Crowell. With an Introductory Essay, by Henry 
J. Ripley, D.D. Price i>0 cents. 

The Rev. J. Dowling, D.D.. of New York, u-rites : — " I have perused, with great satis- 
faction ' The Church Member's Manual.' I have long felt in common with many of my 
ministering brethren, the need of just such a work to put into the hands of the members, 
and especially the pastors and deacons of our churches. . . As a whole, I have great 
pleasure in commending the work to the attention of all Baptists. I think that Bro. Crowell 
has performed his task in an admirable manner, and deserves the thanks of the whole Bap- 
tist community." 

We cordially concur in the above recommendation. S. II. Cone, Elisha Tucker, W. W. 
Evarts, David Bellamy, Henry Davis, A. N. Mason, and A. Haynes. 

The pastor of one of the largest and most influential churches in New England, writes 
as follows. 

" The work is admirably adapted to the wants of pastors and private members. If I 
could have my wish, not only the ministers, but the deacons and senior members of our 
churche? would own and read the book." 

Another writes — " I have read this work with great pleasure. For a long time such a 
guide has been needed, and much detriment to the church would have been avoided, had 
it made its appearance sooner." 

" This very complete Manual of Church Polity is all that could be desired in this depart- 
ment. Every important point within a wide range, is brought forward, and every point 
touched is settled." — Christian Review. 

" While we dissent from the positions laid down in this book, yet we honor the author for 
carrying out his principles. He undertook to write a Baptist book, and we cheerfully 
bear testimony that he has done his work and done it well. We bear testimony to the 
depth of thought and conciseness and purity of style which do credit to the author." 

Christian Witness (Episcopal). 

THE CHURCH MEMBER'S GUIDE, By Rey. J. A. James. Edited 

by Rev. J. O. Choules. New Edition ; with an Introductory Essay, by 
Rev. Hubbard Winslow. Price 38 cents. 

pastor writes— "I sincerely wish that every professor of reliarion in the land may 
ess this excellent manual. I am anxious that every member' of mv church should 
possess it, and shall be trappy to promote its circulation still more extensively." 

"The spontaneous effusion of our heart, on layinc the book down, was, — may every 
church-member in our land soon possess this book", and be blessed with all the happiness 
•which conformity to its evangelic sentiments and directions is calculated to confer." 

Christian Secretary. 



GOULD, KENDALL AND LINCOLN'S PUBLICATIONS. 

MEMOIR OF ANN H. JUDSON, late Missionary to Burmah. By Rev. 
James D. Knowles. 12mo. Edition, price 85 cents. ISmo., price 58 cts. 

" We are particularly gratified to perceive a new edition of the Memoirs of Mrs. Judson, 
She was an honor to our country — one of the most noble-spirited of her sex. It cannot, 
therefore, be surprising, that so many editions, and so many thousand copies of her life and 
adventures have been sold. The name — the long career of suffering — the self-sacrificing 
spirit of the retired country-girl, have spread over the whole world; and the heroism of her 
apostleship and almost martyrdom, stands out a living and heavenly beacon-tire, amid the 
dark midnight of ages, and human history and exploits. She waR the first woman who 
resolved to become a missionary to heathen countries." — American Traveller. 

" This is one of the most interesting pieces of female biography which has ever come un- 
der our notice. No quotation, which our limits allow, would do justice to the facts, and we 
must, therefore, refer our readers to the volume itself. It ought to he immediately added to 
every family library."— London Miscellany. 

MEMOIR OF GEORGE DANA BOARDMAN, Late Missionary to 
Burmah, containing much intelligence relative to the Burman Mission. 
By Rev. Alonzo King. A new Edition. With an Introductory Essay, 
by a distinguished Clergyman. Embellished with a Likeness; a 
beautiful Vignette, representing the baptismal scene just before his 
death ; and a drawing of his tomb, taken by Rev. H. Malcom, D.D. 
Trice 75 cents. 

" One of the brightest luminaries of Burmah is extinguished, — dear brother Boardman 
is gone to his eternal rest. lie fell gloriously at the head of his troops — in the arms of vic- 
tory, — thirty-eight wild Karens having been brought into the camp of king Jesus since the 
beginning of the year, besides the thirty-two that were brought in during the two preceding 
years. Disabled by wounds, he was obliged, through the whole of the last expedition, to be 
carried on a litter ; but his presence was a host, and the Holy Spirit accompanied his 
dying whispers with almighty influence." Rev. Dk. Judsok, 

4i No one can read the Memoir of Boardman, without feeling that the religion of Christ is 
suited to purify the affections, exalt the purposes, and give energy to the character. Mr. 
Boardman was a man of rare excellence, and his biographer, by a just exhibition of that 
excellence, has rendered an important service, not only to the cause of Christian missions, 
but to the interests of personal godliness." Bauo.n Stow. 

MEMOIR OF MRS. HENRIETTA SHUCK, The First American 
Female Missionary to China. By Rev. J. B. Jeter. Fourth thousand. 
Price 50 cents. 

" We have seldom taken into our hands a more beautiful hook than this, and we have 
no small pleasure in knowing the degree of perfection attained in this country in the arts 
of printing and book-binding, as seen in its appearance. The style of the author is sedate 
and perspicuous, such as we might expect from his known piety and learning, his attach- 
ment to missions, and the amiable lady whose memory he embalms. The book will be ex- 
tensively read and eminently useful, and thus the ends sought by the author will be hap- 
pily secured. We think we are not mistaken in this opinion; for those who taste the 
effect of early education upon the expansion of regenerated convictions of duty and happi- 
ness, vho are charmed with youthful, heroic self-consecration upon the altar of God, for the 
welfare of man, and who are interested in those struggles of mind which lead men to shut 
their eyes and ears to the importunate pleadings of filial affection —those who are interested 
in China, that large opening field for the glorious conquests of divine truth, who are inter- 
ested in the government and habits, social and business-like, of the people of this empire — 
all such will be interested in this Memoir. To them and to the friends of missions generally, 
the book is commended, as worthy of an attentive perusal." — The Family Visiter, Boston. 

MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM G. CROCKER, Late Missionary in 
West Africa, among the Bassas, Including a History of the Mission. By 
R. B. Medbeky. Price 62| cents. 

" This interesting work will be found to contain much valuable information in relation to 
the present state and prospects of Africa, and the success of Missions in that interesting 
f ountry, which has just taken a stand among the nations of the earth, and, it is to be hoped, 
may successfully wield its new powers for the ultimate good of the whole continent. The 
present work is commended to the attention of every lover of the liberties of man. 

" Our acquaintance with the excellent brother, who is the subject of this Memoir, will be 
long and fondly cherished. This volume, prepared by a lady, of true taste and talent, and 
of a kindred spirit, while it is but a just tribute to his worth, will, we doubt not, furnish 
lessons of humble and practical piety, and will give such facts relative to the mission to 
which he devoted his life, as to render it worthy a distinguished place among the religious 
and missionary biography which has so much enriched the family of God."— Ch. Watchman, 



GOULD, KENDALL AND LINCOLN'S PUBLICATIONS. 



THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE; A Collection of Discourses 
on Christian Missions, by American Authors. Edited by Baron 
Stow, D.D. Second Thousand. Price 85 cents. 

" If we desired to put into the hands of a foreigner a fair exhibition of the capacity and 
spirit of the American church, we would give him this volume. You have here thrown 
together a few discourses, preached from time to time, by different individuals, of different 
denominations, as circumstances have demanded them ; and you see the stature and feel 
the pulse of the American Church in these discourses with a certainty not to be mistaken. 

" You see the high talent of the American church. We venture the assertion, that no 
Cation in the world has such an amount of forceful, available talent in its pulpit. The 
energy, directness, scope, and intellectual spirit of the American church is wonderful. In 
this book, the discourses by Dr. Beeeher, Pres. Wayland, and the Rev. Dr. Stone of the 
Episcopal church, are among the very highest exhibitions of logical correctness, and burn- 
ing, popular fervor. This volume will have a wide circulation."— The JSew Enylander. 

" This work contains fifteen sermons on Missions, by Rev. Drs. Wayland, Griffin, Ander- 
son, Williams, Beeeher, Miller, Fuller. Beman, Stone, Mason, and by Rev. Messrs. Kirk, 
Stow, and Ide. It is a rich treasure, which ought to be in the possession of every American 
Christian."— Carolina Baptist. 

THE GREAT COMMISSION? Or, the Christian Church constituted 
and charged to convey the Gospel to the "World. A Prize Essay. By 
John Harms, D.D. With an Introductory Essay, by W. It. Williams, 
D.D. Fifth Thousand. Price $1.00. 

" His plan is original and comprehensive. In filling it up the author has interwoven 
facts with rich and glowing illustrations, and with trains of thought that are sometimes 
almost resistless in their appeals to the conscience. The work is not more distinguished 
for its arguments and its genius, than for the spirit of deep and fervent piety that per- 
vades it." — The Day spring. 

" This work comes forth in circumstances which give and promise extraordinary interest 
and value. Its general circulation will do much good."— New York Evangelist. 

" In this volume we have a work of great excellence, rich in thought and illustration of a 
subject to which the attention of thousands has been called by the word and providence of 
God." — Philadelphia Observer. 

" The merits of the book entitle it to more than a prize of money. It constitutes a most 
powerful appeal on the subject of Missions." — Xew York Bajitist Advocate. 

" Its style is remarkably chaste and elegant. Its sentiments richly and fervently evan- 
gelized, its argumentation conclusive. Preachers especially should "read it ; they "will re- 
new their strength over its noble pages." — Zion's Herald, Boston. 

" To recommend this work to the friends of missions of all denominations would be but 
faint praise; the author deserves and will undoubtedly receive the credit of having applied 
a new lever to that great moral machine which, by 'the blessing of God, is destined to 
evangelize the world." — Christian Secretary, Hartford. 

"We hope that the volume will be attentively and prayerfully read by the whole 
church, which are clothed with the " Great Commission " to evangelize the world, and 
that they will be moved to an immediate discharge of its high and momentous obligations. 

2T. E. Puritan, Boston. 

THE KAREN APOSTLE; Or, Memoir of Ko Thah-Byu, the first 
Karen convert, with notices concerning his Nation. With maps and 
plates. By the Rev. Francis Mason, Missionary. American Edition. 
Edited by Prof. H. J. Ripley, of Newton Theol. Institution. Fifth Thou- 
sand. Price 25 cents. 

*,*" This is a work' of thrilling interest, containing the history of a remarkable man, and 
giving, also, much information respecting the Karen Mission, heretofore unknown in this 
country. It must be sought for, and read with avidity by those interested in this most in- 
teresting mission. It gives an account, which must be attractive, from its novelty, of a 
people that have been but little known and visited by missionaries, till within a few years. 
The baptism of Ko Thah-Byu, in 1S28, was the beginning of the mission, and at the end of 
these twelve years, twelve hundred and seventy Karens are officially reported as members 
of the churches, in good standing. The mission has been carried on pre-eminently by the 
Karens themselves, and there is no doubt, from much touching evidence contained in this 
volume, that they are a people peculiarly susceptible to religious impressions. The account 
of Mr. Mason must be interesting to every one. 



GOULD, KENDALL AND LINCOLN S PUBLICATIONS. 



QtJWrt SwRs. 



THE PSALMIST: A New Collection of Hymns, for the use of the 
Baptist Churches. By Baron Stow and S. F. Smith. 

Assisted by W. R. Williams, Geo. B. lde, R. W. Griswold, S. P. Hill, 
J. B. Taylor, J. L. Dagg, W. X. Brantly, R. B. C. Howell, Samuel W. 
Lynd and John M. Beck. 

Bulpit edition, 12 mo., sheep, Price 1.25. Pew edition, 18mo., 75 cts. 
Pocket edition, 32mo., 56,^ cts. — All the different sizes supplied in 
extra styles of binding at corresponding prices. 

*** This work it may be said, has become iiik book of the Baptist denomination, having 
been introduced extensively into every State in the Union, and the British provinces. As 
a collection of hymns it stands unrivalled. 

The united testimony of pastors of the Baptist churches in Boston and vicinity, in New 
York, and in Philadelphia, of the most decided and flattering character, has been given in 
favor of the book. Also, by the Professors in Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution, 
and the Newton Theological Institution. The same, also, has been done by a great number 
of clergymen, churches, Associations, and Conventions, in every State of the Union. 

The following notice, from the Miami Association, of Ohio, is but a specimen of a host 
of others, received by the publishers: 

"Your Committee recommend to the attention of the Churches, the new work called 
' The Psalmist,' as worthy of special patronage. 1. It is exceedingly desirable that our 
whole denomination should use in the praises of the sanctuary the same psalms, hymns, and 
spiritual songs. To secure uniformity, we prefer ' The Psalmist,' because it is strictly, and 
from the foundation, designed for the use of Baptist churches, — is not surpassed by any 
Hymn Book in the world. 2. It has been prepared with the greatest care. In no instance has 
a Hymn Book gone through so thorough a revision. 3. It is a book of very superior merits. 
The Committee therefore recommend to the churches the adoption of this work as well 
calculated to elevate the taste and the devotion of the denomination." 

THE PSALMIST, WITH A SUPPLEMENT, by Richard Fuller, 
of Baltimore, and J. B. Jeter, of Richmond. (Prices same as above.) 

*„*This work contains nearly thirteen hundred hymns, original and selected, by 172 
writers, besides pieces credited to fifty-five collections of hymns or other works, the author- 
ship of which is unknown. Forty-five are anonymous, being traced neither to authors nor 
collections. 

The Supplement, occupying the place of the Chants, which in many sections of the 
country are seldom used, was undertaken by Rev. Messrs. Fuller and Jeter, at the solicita- 
tion of friends at the South. 

" The Psalmist contains a copious supply of excellent hymns for the pulpit. We are 
acquainted with no collection of hymns combining, fc an equal degree, poetic merit, evangeli- 
cal sentiment, and a rich variety of subjects, with a happy adaptation to pulpit services. 
Old songs, like old friends, are more valuable than new ones. A number of the hymns best 
known, most valued, and most frequently sung in the South, are not found in the Psalmist. 
Without them, no hymn book, whatever may be its excellences, is likely to become gener- 
ally or permanently popular in that region." — 1'rej'ace. 

COMPANION FOR THE PSALMIST. Containing Original Mu«ic. 
. Arranged for hymns in ' The Psalmist,' of peculiar character and metre. 
By N. D. Gould. Price 12K cents. 

*** This work is designed, and the music has been written, expressly to meet the wants 
of those who use ' The Psalmist ' It is adapted to the numerous beautiful hymns of peculiar 
metre, which are embraced in that collection, a few of which are to be found in other hymn 
books, and to none of which have any tunes been hitherto adapted. They are simple, and 
suitable for either private, social, or public devotion. 

WINCHELL'S WATTS. An arrangement of the Psalms and Hymns 
of Watts, with a Supplement. 32mo. Price 67 cents. 

WATTS AND RIPPON. The Psalms and Hymns of Dr. Rippon, with 
Dr. Rippon's Selections, in one volume, new edition, corrected and 
improved by Rev. 0. G. Sommers, New York. 18mo. Price 75 cents. 



GOULD, KENDALL AND LINCOLN S PUBLICATIONS. 



THE FOUR GOSPELS, WITH NOTES, Chiefly Explanatory ; in- 
tended principally for Sabbath School Teachers and Bible Classes, and 
as an aid to Family Instruction. By Henry J. Ripley, Newton Theol. 
Institution. Seventh Edition. Price $1.25. 

*** This work should be in the hands of every student of the Bible, especially every 
Sabbath School and Bible Class teacher. It is prepared with special reference to this class 
of persons, and contains a mass of just the kind of information wanted. 

"The undersigned, having examined Professor Ripley's Notes on the Gospels, can 
recommend them with confidence to all who need such helps in the study of the sacred 
Scriptures. Those passages which all can understand are left ' without note or comment,' 
and the principal labor is devoted to the explanation of such parts as need to baexplained 
and rescued from the perversions of errorists, both the ignorant and the learned. The 
practical suggestions at the cfose of each chapter, lire not the least valuable portion of the 
work. Most cordially, for the sake of truth and righteousness, do we wish for these Notes 
a wide circulation. 

Barox Stow, R. II. Neale, R. Tctrxbtll, 

Daniel Sharp, J. W. Parker, N. Colvek. 
Wm. IIagle, R. W. Clsiimax, 

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, WITH NOTES. Chiefly Ex- 
planatory. Designed for Teachers in Sabbath Schools and Bible Classes, 
and as an Aid to Family Instruction. By Prof. Henry J. Ripley. 
Price 75 cents. 

"The external appearance of this book, — the binding and the printed page, — 'it is 
a pleasant thing for the eyes to behold.' On examining the contents, we are favorably 
impressed, first, by the wonderful perspicuity, simplicity, and comprehensiveness of the 
author's style : secondly, by the completeness" and systematic arrangement of the work, in 
all its p-irts, the ' remarks ' on each paragraph being carefully separated from the exposi- 
tion ; thirdly, by the correct theology, solid instruction, and consistent explanations of 
difficult passages. The work cannot fail to be received with favor. These Notes are much 
more full than the Notes on the Gospels, by the same author. A beautiful map accompanies 
them." — Christian Elector, Boston. 

CRUDEN'S CONDENSED CONCORDANCE. A Complete Con- 
cordance to the Holy Scriptures ; by Alexander Ckuden, M.A. A 
New and Condensed Edition, with an Introduction; by Rev. David 
King, LL.D. Fifth Thousand. Price in Boards, $1.25 ; Sheep, $1.50. 

*t*"This edition is printed from English plates, and is a full and fair copy of all 
that is valuable in Cruden as a Concordance. The principal variation from the larger book 
consists in the exclusion of the Bible Dictionary, which has long been an incumbrance, 
and the accuracy and value of which have been depreciated by works of later date, contain- 
ing recent discoveries, facts, and opinions, unknown to Cruden. The condensation of 
the quotations of Scripture, arranged under their most obvious heads, while it diminishes 
the bulk of the work, greatly facilitates the finding of any required passage. 

" Those who bave been acquainted with the various works of this kind now in use, 
well know that Cruden's Concordance far excels all others. Yet we have in this edition of 
Cruden, the best made better. That is, the present is better adapted to the purposes of a 
Concordance, by the erasure of superfluous references, the omission of unnecessary expla- 
nations, and the contraction of quotations, &c. ; it is better as a manual, and is better 
adapted by its price to the means of many who need and ought to possess such a work,' 
thau the former larger and expensive edition." — Boston Recorder. 

" The new, condensed, and cheap work prepared from the voluminous and costly one of 
Cruden, opportunely fills a chasm in our Biblical literature. The work has been examined 
critically by several ministers, and others, and pronounced complete and accurate." 

Bajitist Record, Phila. 

" This is the very work of which we have long felt the need. We obtained a copy of 
the English edition some months since, and wished some one would publish it; and we 
are much pleased that its enterprising publishers can now furnish the student of the Bible 
with a work which he so much needs at so cheap a rate." — Advent Herald, Boston. 

" We cannot see bat it is, in all points, as valuable a book of reference, for ministers and 
Bible students, as the larger edition." — Christian Rejicctor, Boston. 

" The present edition, in being relieved of some things which contributed to render all 
former ones unnecessarily cumbrous, without adding to the substantial value of the work, 
becomes an exceedingly cheap book." — Albany Argics. 



GOULD, KENDALL AND LINCOLN'S PUBLICATIONS. 

THE EXTENT OF THE ATONEMENT, In its relation to God and 
the Universe. By Thomas W. Jenkyn, D.D. Price 85 cents. 

" We have examined this work with profound interest, and become deeply impressed 
with its value. Its style is lucid, its analysis perfect, its spirit and tendencies eminently 
evangelical. We have no where else seen the atonement so clearly defined, or vindicated 
on grounds so appreciable." — Sew York Recorder. 

" As a treatise on the grand relation of the Atonement, it is a book which may be em- 
phatically said to contain the ' seeds of things,' the elements of mightier and nobler contri- 
butions of thought respecting the sacrifice of Christ, than any modern production. It is 
characterized by highly original and dense trains of thought, which make the reader feel 
that he is holding communion with a mind that can ' mingle with the universe.' We con- 
sider this volume as setting the long and fiercely agitated question, as to the extent of the 
Atonement, completely at rest. Posterity will thank the author till the latest ages, for his 
illustrious arguments." —Sew York Evangelist. 

THE UNION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE CHURCH, In 

the Conversion of the World. By Thomas W. Jenkyn, D.D. Price 
85 cents. 

" The discussion is eminently scriptural, placing its grand theme, the union of the Holy 
Spirit and the Church in the conversion of the world, in a very clear and affecting light. 
There is no subject in theology, no department in practical religion, in which the great body 
of Christian professors at the present day, we may add ministers of the Gospel, more need 
instruction than in respect to the agency and influences of the Holy Spirit in the conver- 
sion of men, and the sanctification of belie vers." —Christian Watchman. 

"Avery excellent work upon a very important subject. The author seems to have 
studied it in all its bearings, as presented to his contemplation in the sacred volume." — 

London Evangelical Magazine. 

" Fine talent, sound learning, and scriptural piety pervade every page. It is impossible 
the volume can remain unread, or that it can be read without producing great effects. Mr. 
Jenkyn deserves the thanks of the whole body of Christians for a book which will greatly 
benefit the world and the church." — London Evangelist. 

ANTIOCH ; Or, Increase of Moral Power in the Church of Christ. By 
Rev. P. Church. With an Introductory Essay, by Baron Stow. D.D. 
Price 50 cents. 

" Here is a volume which will make a greater stir than any didactic work that has been 
issued for many a day. It is a book of close and consecutive thought, and treats of subjects 
which are of the deepest interest, at the present time, to the churches of this country. The 
author is favorably known to the religious public, as an original thinker, and a forcible 
writer. His style is lucid and vigorous. The Introduction, by Mr. Stow, adds much to 
the value and attractions of the volume."— Christian Reflector. 

" By some this book will be condemned, by many it will be read with pleasure, because it 
analyzes and renders tangible, principles that have' been vaguely conceived in many minds, 
reluctantly promulgated, and hesitatingly believed. We advise our brethren to read the 
book, and judge for themselves." — Baptist Record. 

" It is the work of an original thinker, on a subject of great practical interest to the 
church. It is replete with suggestions, which, in our view, are eminently worthy of con- 
sideration." — Fhila. Christian Observer. 

" This is a philosophical essay, denoting depth of thinking and great originality. ._ He 
does not doubt, but asserts, and carries along the matter with his argument until the differ- 
ence of opinion with which the reader started with the writer is forgotten by the former, 
in admiration of the warmth and truthfulness of the latter." — Ph il. U. S. Gazette. 

THE IMITATION OF CHRIST, By Thomas a Kempis. With 
an Introductory Essay, by T. Chalmers, D.D. A new and improved 
edition. Edited by H. Malcom, D.D. Price 38 cents. 

*»* " This work has for three hundred years, been esteemed one of the best practical books 
in existence, and has gone through a vast number of editions, not only in the original 
Latin, but in every language of Europe. Dr. Payson, of Portland, thus warmly recom- 
mended it : 

"If you have not seen Thomas a Kempis, I beg you to procure it. For spirituality and 
weanedness from the world, I know of nothing equal to it." 

***" That the benefit of the work may be universally enjoyed, the translation of Payne, 
■which best agrees with the original, has been revised by Mr. Malcom, and adapted to 
general usa." 



GOULD, KENDALL AND LINCOLN'S PUBLICATIONS. 

a§* tUotrU of Jofjfo f^ttm, P.D. 

THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH! Contributions to Theological SoJ 
ence. Price 85 cents. 

This volume is the first of a series, each being complete in itself. By special arrange- 
ment with the Author (who will participate in the profits of this edition), the American 
publishers will be supplied with the early sheets of the future volumes, and issue it simul- 
taneously with the London Edition. 

" It seems to us a very successful specimen of the synthetical mode of reasoning. It puts 
the mind on a new track, and is well fitted to awaken its energies and expand its views. 
We have never seen the natural sciences, particularly Geology, made to give so decided 
and unimpeachable a testimony to revealed truth. He appears to allow it all that it can 
justly claim, all indeed that its advocates can fairly claim for it, while the integrity and 
truth of the Scriptures are maintained inviolate. And the wonders of God's works, which 
he has here grouped together, convey a most magnificent and even overpowering idea of the 
Great Creator." — Christian Mirror, Portland. 

THE GREAT COMMISSION; Or, the Christian Church constituted 
and charged to convey the Gospel to the World. A Prize Essay. With 
an Introductory Essay, by W. K. Williams, D.D. Price $1.00 

" Of the several productions of Dr. Harris, — all of them of great value, — that now before 
lis is destined, probably, to exert the most powerful influence in forming the religious and 
missionary character of the coming generations. But the vast fund of argument and in- 
struction comprised in these pages will excite the admiration and inspire the gratitude 
of thousands in our own land as well as in Europe. Every clergyman and pious and re- 
flecting layman ought to possess the volume, and make it familiar by repeated perusal." 

Boston Recorder. 

" His plan is original and comprehensive. In filling it up, the author has interwoven facts 
•with rich and glowing illustrations, and with trains of thought that are sometimes almost 
resistless in their appeals to the conscience. The work is not more distinguished for its 
arguments and its genius, than for the spirit of deep and fervent piety that pervades it." 

The Day-Spring. 

THE GREAT TEACH ER : Or, Characteristics of our Lord's Ministry. 
With an Introductory Essay, by H. Humphrey, D.D. Tenth thousand. 
Price 85 cents. 

" The book itself must have cost much meditation, much communion on the bosom of 
Jesus, and much prayer. Its style is, like the country which gave it birth, beautiful, varied, 
finished, and everywhere delightful. But the style of this work is its smallest excellence. 
It will be read : it ought to be read. It will find its way to many parlors, and add to the 
comforts of many a happy fireside. The reader will rise from each chapter, not able, per- 
haps, to carry with him many striking remarks or apparent paradoxes, but he will have a 
sweet impression made upon "his soul, like that which soft and touching music makes when 
every thing about it is appropriate. The writer pours forth a clear and beautiful light, like 
that of the evening light-house, when it sheds its rays upon the sleeping waters, and 
covers them with a surface of gold. We can have no sympathy with a heart which yields 
not to impressions delicate aud holy, which the perusal of this work will naturally make." 

Jlumjishire Gazette. 

MISCELLANIES : Consisting principally of Sermons and Essays. With 
an Introductory Essay and Notes, by J. Belcher, D.D. Price 75 cents. 

" Some of these essays are among the finest in the language ; and the warmth and energy 
of religious feeling manifested in several of them, will render them peculiarly the treas- 
ure of the closet and the Christian fireside." — Bangor Gazette. 

MAMMON : Or, Covetousness, the Sin of the Christian Church. A Prize 
Essay. Price 45 cents. Twentieth thousand. 

*»* This masterly work has already engaged the attention of churches and individuals, 
and receives the highest commendations. 

ZEBULON ; Or the Moral Claims of Seamen stated and enforced. Edited 
by Rev. W. M. Rogers and D. M. Lord. Price 25 cents. 

V* A well written and spirit-stirring appeal to Christians in favor of this numerous, use- 
ful, and long neglected class. 

THE ACTIVE CHRISTIAN; Containing the " Witnessing Church," 
" Christian Excellence," and "Means of Usefulness," three popular pro- 
ductions of this talented author Price 31 cents. 



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