A sermon delivered in the Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, Ala., on Sabbath, December 22, 1851

A

X.

SERMON,

DELIVERED IN

THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH,

IN

GREENSBOROS ALA.;

ON SABBATH, DECEMBER 22, 1851

BY GEORGE BELL,

LICENTIATE OF THE PRESBYTERY OF TUSCALOOSA.

TUSKALOOSA :
PRINTED BY M. D. J. SLADE.

1851.

./.

CORRESPONDENCE.

GreenshQro\ January 10th, 1851.
Rev. Grorge Bell,

Dear Sir, — ^We had the pleasure of hearing the Ser-
mon, prepared for Thanksgiving Day, which you, by request of Session,
delivered in the Presbyterian Church, on the 22d ult.

In common with others who heard your Address, we believe its publi-
cation would tend to promote the cause of truth, of sound morality, and
true patriotism.

We therefore hope you will favor us with a copy for publication, as
soon as your convenience will permit.

Your's, Respectfully,

. LEM'L D. HATCH,
J. M. WITHERSPOON,
JAS. D. WEBB,
JOHN H. PARRISH,
V. BOARDMAN,
J. C. MEREDITH.

Greensboro\ January 10th, 1851.
Gentlemen, — I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of this
day, and in compliance with your request, do hereby send you a copy of
the Discourse delivered in your Church on the 22d ult.
With gratitude for your kindness,

I am, Gentlemen, your's, truly,

GEORGE BELL.
Rev. Lem. D. Hatch, Dr. /. M. Witherspoon, Dr. John \

H. Parrish, Messrs. /. D. TFe6&, V, Boardman^ and V

/. C. Meredith. )

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SERMON.

•And thou Solomon, my son, know thou the God of thy fathers, and
serve Him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord
searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the
thoughts. If thou seek Him He will be found of thee, but if thou forsake
Him, He will cast thee off forever." — 1 Chronicles, xxviii, 9.

The Church of God was once in Egypt — but the Egyptians
persecuted it. They cried unto God, and God heard them, for
His people never cry to Him in vain. Then He led them away
to a far oflf country through the Red Sea, and through the bar-
ren wilderness, until He had delivered them from their ene-
mies, caused them to walk on dry land through the river of
Jordan, and planted them in that land which was the glory of
all lands. From the time of Joshua until the time of David,
God led them on to victory, until, at length, Jerusalem was ta-
ken from the Jebusites, and that city, which has since become
associated with some of the most stirring incidents in the world's
history, became the metropolis of the Jewish nation — the city
of God — where He recorded His name — the pride and glory
of every Jew ; rather than forget which, he would part with the
use of speech, or with the skill of his right hand. The Jews
found all their prosperity in seeking the Lord. They sought
Him in Egypt, and He was found of them there : they sought
Him at the Red Sea, and He was found of them there : they
sought Him in the rocky wilderness, where there was no wa-
ter— no corn-fields waving with golden harvest — no fig-tree
for the weary pilgrim, and where, not unfrequently, the hoof
of the traveller's horse strikes on the skeleton bones of the
famished way-farer — and here, also, He was found of them :
they sought Him in their conflicts with their enemies, and He
was found of them. They sometimes neglected to seek Him,
and then, they but stood still, or wandered from the right way ;
but always when they sought Him, then, the Lord, true to

6

His promise and His covenant, went before them, and tlie God
of Jacob was their rereward. Thus they found the verification
of His faithfulness, in that He had said, " None shall seek my
face in vain," but " they that seek me early shall find me.'*
Knowing this, as well from the history of his own nation, as
from his own personal experience, David, now about to depart,
and when devolving upon his son Solomon, and upon the Jew-
ish nation under him, all the fruits of the toils and sufi'erings of
their forefathers — knowing that God would be found of them
that seek Him, and that their precious rights and privileges
could only be preserved in time of peace, by cleaving to that
same Almighty Security, through whose grace they had at first
been obtained — knowing, that adherence to God and His
Truth, is the only lasting foundation for a nation's prosperity,
the dying Father thus afiectionately admonishes his Son : — -
" And thou, Solomon, my son, know thou the God of thy Fa-
*' thers, and serve Him with a perfect heart, and with a wil-
" ling mind, for the Lord searchethall hearts, and understand-
" eth all the imaginations of the thoughts. If thou seek Him
" He will be found of thee ; but if thou forsake Him He will
*' cast thee ofi" forever."

Such was the death-bed advice of David to Solomon ; or,
considering each of them as representatives of their respective
generations, and their respective eras — for David's was a time
of war, and Solomon's was a time of peace : such was the ad-
vice of the patriarchs who fought, who sufi"ered, and who con-
quered, to those more favored and more fortunate, who suC'
ceeded them, and who, entering into the peaceful possession of
their new inheritance, and into those religious privileges for
which their fathers had contended, were permitted to " sit eve-
ry one under his own vine and own fig tree, none daring to
make them afraid. ' ' This was a good advice of the dying King,
and 0 ! had they followed it, we should not have had, as at
this day, to point the finger to Palestine, and say, Behold what
desolations God hath wrought there ! Behold how that land
mourneth, weeping for her captive children ! But in addition
to the privileges and possessions oftheir forefathers, nations in-

herit also their obligations and responsibilities ; and although
it may not be true of Israel, as a nation, for God shall yet
have mercy upon their descendants, yet it was true of all, even
of Israel, who sinned against Him, and who failed to seek
Him, just as it shall be of all who, in whatever land they may
be found, shall follow their example, that the Lord did indeed
cast them off for ever. In the view of their declension, as a
nation, you are ready to pronounce sentence, " Israel hath
sinned, and the Judge of all the earth hath done right." But
it is not so much our duty to judge, and to condemn, as it is to
take warning, lest by forsaking the Lord and His Truth, we
should fall after the same example of unbelief.

Your condition, as a nation, though circumstantially differ-
ent from that of Israel, is yet strikingly similar and analogous.
About two hundred years ago, the people of God, in many of
the counries of Europe, were called upon to suffer persecution,
so that it was then with your forefathers as it had been with
the sons of Jacob in Egypt ; and there are few things so cal-
culated to rouse our sympathies, or awaken our admiration, as
the sad narratives of that period, to be found in the martyrolo-
gies of England, and Scotland, and Erance. This was indeed
the time for the patience of the Saints, and for them that kept
the commandments of the Lord, and the faith of Jesus, and
blessed were they who died in the Lord. This was a time of
sore wasting, at the immediate instance of a reigning Popery —
a time of the desolations of God's anger, who then made the
wrath of even His enemies to praise Him.

In England and in Scotland, prompted by the true spirit of
Popery, of which, when you have read the narrative of Fox, in
his Book of Martyrs, and of Neale, in his History and Lives
of the Puritans, you will say, that it was not only ferocious,
but infernal ; the zealous supporters of the semi-popish gov*
ernment of England, put to death, by their cruel instruments
of tortui'e, or burnt at the stake, or dispatched with their cruel
musketry, and with but little warning, many thousands of men,
women and children, born and unborn. In France, in the
times of Charles IX, the Huguenots were slain in hecatombs.

At the massacre of St. Bartholomew alone, you will find, by
referring to the authorities mentioned in Buck's Theological
Dictionary, that about a hundred thousand were suddenly put
to death, and that subsequent to the revocation of the edict of
Nantes, such cruelties were practised by the agents of Roman-
ism upon the people of God, exceeding those of Nero or Dio-
cletian— the news of which was welcomed at Rome, and cele-
brated in a very solemn manner by the Pope and his Cardi-
nals, in a great festival ©f thanksgiving to God for such dis-
tinguished blessings to the See of Rome, and to the Christian
world — such cruelties as are calculated to make you shudder —
to make you blush and hang your head to think yourself a man,
when you contemplate this not only almost, but altogether Sa-
tanic cruelty, cold-blooded and calculating, that is resident and
not always dormant in our depraved human nature. In this
time of trial, multitudes, following the example of Israel, sought
the Lord, and, as in the case of Israel, the Lord was found of
them, and coming in the promptitude of His interposition into
this midnight gloom. He made his suffering people, in all these
lands, the inheritors of a providence strikingly similar to
theirs, for He pointed them by the finger of His Providence
to a far off land, where the Covenanter of Scotland, the Puii-
tan of England, and the Huguenot of France, might meet to-
gether under happier auspices, and worship the God of their
fathers, according to their consciences. They were men of
whom the old world was not worthy, and for whom, therefore,
He provided a way of escape. He led the way for them, and
prospered them ; and so what Canaan was to the weary Israel-
ites, this land was to your pilgrim forefathers — the sanctuary
■which the Lord opened as a resting place from oppression.
Here they first found that resting place ; and here, amid the
depths of the silent forest, with mingled feelings of sorrow and
joy — sorrow, because of the drooping recollection of their na-
tive hills, and their brethren left behind — and joy, because of
the bright hopes which this new land presented, they assem-
bled together to break up the silence of the great wilderness,
with songs never before sung on these shores, and with hearts

•/ <»?

9

Under tlie smitings of Divine love in tins deliverance to praisd
the Lord, for his goodness, and for his works of wonder to the
children of men, and to seek also his blessing upon themselves
and upon their offspring, in this the land of their adoption*
But this was not all. The parallel holds good still further :
for no sooner had they realized the glorious liberties of their
religion, than, like Israel, again they are called on to buckle
on their armor for another struggle — ^the vindication of their
civil rights, and those of their posterity. But they are ready
for the conflict ; for those who are bold enough to claim and
assert their religious freedom, cannot submit to vassaldom or
serfdom, like the Russian or the Turk. These two things go
hand in hand — Civil and Religious Li'berty. True, in the first'
instance, to their Savioux and his Covenant, they are now true
to themselves and their descendants, and wives and mothers bid
their husbands and their sons God speed, in this all but hope--
less enterprise : «

" But Freedom's battles, once begun,
Bequeathed by bleeding sire to son,
Tho' baflied oft, are ever won.-"

And thus at length, because of the good hand of God that wag
upon them, they vindicated that full national inheritance of
civil and religious freedom, an inheritance which you are ready
to say, exists no where in such measure in all the world be-
sides ; and now, that that inheritance has been transmitted ta
you as your birthright, and theirs who shall come after you,
you are ready to pay the tribute of veneration to the departed
dead — to the many brave and the many noble who joined the
rush of youthful warriors from the mountains, and from the
plains, and from the valleys, and who, with a valor that would
have done honor to the sons of ancient Greece, launched out
upon the alternative of the Grecian watchword which they had
adopted, " Let us fight for our liberties, let us conquer or die.'*
These were the patriarchs who fought, who suffered, and who
conquered, and who redeemed for their descendants, this rich
legacy of which you are now the inheritors and the guardians ;
but with the inheritance, civil and religious, which they have

2 .

10

bequeathed to you, remember, that you inherit also the -weighty
responsibilities ; and now that the revolutionary era is passing
away, and a time of war is giving place to a time of peace, i^t
becomes you to reflect what is the language of tliep past to you
of this generation. Are not your conquering ancestors recog-
nizing you as their heirs, thus addressing you as from their
death beds, in the very language, or in the very sentiment, of
David's generation, to the more fortunate one that followed :
" Thou Solomon, my son, know thou the God of thy fathers,
and serve Him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind ;
for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the
imaginations of the thoughts. If thou seek Him, He will be
found of thee, but if thou forsake Him, He will cast thee off
forever."

Your liberties secured to you by the blood of the Savior, are
thus all the more highly recommended to you, that under him,
and by his faithful servants, they have been thusr easserted ;
yom^ religious freedom, by the blood shed in the Old World,
and by the victims whose ashes were given to the winds of
heaven with those of the faggot, and your civil freedom, by the
blood shed in the New World, and by those countless victims
who, falling in battle, were not heard of any more — whose flesh
melted away on the spot where they fell, and whose bones,
sinking into the ground, and being overgrown with the grass,
have been trodden upon by the unconscious traveler, who,
while he breathes in the atmosphere of precious liberty, walks
all unknowingly over the bones of the forgotten patriot. No
doubt you are in some measm-e thankful for your liberties, and
it would ofi'end you if we should say any thing to cast a stain
upon the memory of your patriots. This is just as it should
be ; but while you cherish the memory of your forefathers, re-
member, the God of your forefathers is not to be forgotten.
All the merit of this result, and ali the glory are His. It is
good that you should cherish gratitude to your forefathers, but
it is good also, that you should mark the finger of God in those
events which concern your national existence and your na-
tional prosperity, in those outstanding proofs of His peculiar

11

Providence, and in tliat goodness wliicli is tlie only source of
your pre-eminent privileges as a people. It is a noble result
that has been achieved, but it is well to remember that power
and that grace which are the true origin of all the innumera-
ble benefits, temporal and spiritual, which distinguish this na-
tion. It is desirable to have a full view of this great work of
deliverance and mercy, the result of which is so glorifying to
God, so creditable, under Him, to Protestant America, and to
our common evangelical Christianity, and which is so calcu-
lated to impress us with a sense of our obligations to that God
who doeth according to His pleasui'e in the armies of heaven
and among the inhabitants of this earth. It is well that we
should discern that this is the fruit of evangelical Christianity;
for, though this is an opinion in regard to which many will dif-
fer from us, yet we believe that he does not understand aright
either the organization of this Republic, or the character of
evangelical truth, who does not recognize that the one is the
offspring of the other, and that the United States Constitution
excels all others only in this, that its characteristic principles
are no inventions of the wise statesmen to whom they are so
often ascribed, but such as are to be found in the divine record,
true, and just, and immortal. Long will it be before any -false
system, such aS Puseyism, or Socinianism, or Popery, or Infi-
delity, can present such a result as this — such energy, such
liberality, such philanthropy, such daring for conscience sake,
such moral and religious elevation. These results, while they
are collateral arguments in favor of the gospel of Christ, should
encourage true Christians, amid all their difficulties, to seek
that God who will be found of them, and more particularly
should impress upon us the obligation to give God thanks, to
humble ourselves for our short-comings, and to seek the Lord
with renewed zeal ; for failing this, then, the word of the Lord
hath gone out against us : ^' If we forsake Him, He will cast
us off forever." Many of you, perhaps, may have thought no
more about the special Providence of God towards this coun-
try, than towards any other on the face of the earth ; or some
of you may have perhaps judged erroneously, or with preju-

12

dice, ascribing to some other cause, sucli as your republican
form of government, or your more than ordinarily wise legis-
lators, the rich inheritance of your privileges ; but when you
rise above such narrow views, and contemplate this country in*
the light of evangelical Christianity, as an asylum which Grod
provided for the truth in times past, and as destined to render
important services to Christianity in the future, sxirely you can-
not fail to regard it as a nation which God's own hand hath
planted, and on which he has, therefore, peculiar] and special
claims. That we may discern this more fully, let us look at
the providence of God in connexion with its origin; at the men-
and at their principles, which had more particularly to do with
its establishment ; and in noticing the facts in this history,
while we are compelled to proclaim the crimes of Europe, we
may discern at the same time those peculiar providences in re-
gard to the origin of this nation of which we speak, as well as
the faithfulness of the Great Head of the Church, who, when
his people are in danger, cometh to their aid, and that right
early.

It is a fact of great importance, both in regard to the state
of religious persecution in England, and in regard to the char-
acter of the first settlers here, that in the reign of Charles I,
and his coadjutor, the celebrated Laud, Archbishop of Canter-
bury, whose semi-popish principles are now being revived iji
England, that not less than twenty-one thousand two hundred
of the Puritans emigrated to New England. A voyage across
the Atlantic was a much more arduous undertaking than it is
now, and yet, in that period — the reign of Charles — S'overal
hundred vessels crossed that ocean, carrying multitudes of suf-
ferers in the cause of Christ, who preferred to brave all the
hardships and dangers of a settlement in the wilderness, amid
disease and amid savage Indians, and under a disastrous cli-
mate— for this was its character while yet uninhabited by Eu^
ropeans — rather than remain at home, to be compelled to the
alternative of suffering death, or to conform to the supersti-
tious and idolatrous religion of that country. Men may tall^
f>f charity now, when speaking of that monarch, who was be-

13

headed, whom the Episcopal Church of England denominate an
illustrious martyr, and whose martyrdom, as they are pleased
to term it, is every year celebrated there in a special service
which you will find in their prayer books ; but look at this fact
— at the numbers who suffered at home, and then at the num-
bers who were compelled to emigrate, and when a monarch
thus becomes the murderer of his own subjects, tell us not of
the divine right of kings, which Episcopal writers are wont to
urge. , He was a murderer in his life, and was not unjustly
iiuuiUjml with them in his death. Under the military rule of
Cromwell, there was an important change of affairs, and that
was indicated by the cessation of any farther emigration dur-
ing his period ; but when again the persecution was resumed,
at the restoration of the Second Charles, the faithful were
again compelled to emigrate, not from England only, but from
Wales and from Scotland. Even before this period, four thou-
sand Presbyterians from Scotland and from the north of Ire-
land, had landed on the shores of Kew England. These were
afterwards, and in the progress of oppression, vastly enlarged.
The government of Charles judged it their interest to suppress
and annihilate the entire Presbyterianism of Scotland, and in
their attempts to do so, the sufferings were most calamitous.
The whole force of the laws of his kingdom, (and some enacted
for this express design, enjoining uniformity to the established
religion under pain of death,) were leveled at the absolute de-
molition of all the Scottish Presbyterian churches, that they
might give place to a more than semi-popish Episcopacy ; but
the Christian heroism of many thousands cheerfully submitting
to the loss of all things, even life itself, bade defiance to their
murderous design, and the result over which they had to la-
ment was this, that the Presbyterianism of Scotland had only
been rooted out to the extent that it was burnt out. Under
the pressure of this persecution, many thousands of Scottish
families emigrated to this country, bringing their servants and
laborers along with them, nor did they forget to bring their
faithful pastor, whose services contributed not a little to the
stability and prosperity of their infant settlements. That the

14
»

Presbyterians from Scotland and from the north of Ireland,
■while they have added so largely to the numeric strength of
this country, have largely contributed also to form the religious
character of the United States, particularly in the middle and
southern parts of the country, and by consequence, in the cor-
responding parts of the Valley of the Mississippi, which have
been colonised from them, is too plain to be called in question ;
and as these early emigrants were not only Protestants, but
decidedly of a religious character, they did much to give a reli-
gious tone to the districts in which they established themselves,
being those precisely which stood most in need of such an in-
fluence. So that in this, we have another proof of the evan-
gelical character of the first founders of this nation, and an-
other instance of the divine interposition in behalf of a coun-
try, whose whole history is one continued illustration of the
goodness and mercy of God.

From a very early period, the persecuted Protestants of
Prance sent a large contribution of her members to the colon-
ization of America. So that the influence from this quarter
also was in favor of our evangelical Christianity. Indeed, the
first Protestant mission that was ever projected was by that
nation, at the instigation of Calvin, and in the very year in
which that great Reformer died ; but it was not till the revoca-
tion of the edict of Nantes, in 1685, that there was such an
overflowing emigration of French Refugees into these British
Colonies. The very next year, a settlement of eleven thou-
sand acres was granted by the British Government, and ex-
clusively appropriated for their accommodation. This French
settlement was soon vastly increased under Charles II and
the Prince of Orange, particularly the latter, who furnished
facilities for the emigration of the Huguenots from England,
whither, in the immediate emer^-ency, they had fled for refuge.
It is owing to this extensive importation of French Protestants,
that so many families of French extraction, and bearing French
names, are now to be found in the evangelical communions of
America.

The first contributions of Germany to your American popu-

15

latlon were Protestants, those who had been driven out of the
Palatinate of the Khine by the cruelties of Louis XIV, multi-
tudes of whom, having been in the first instance dispersed over
Europe, ultimately migrated to this country in such numbers
that, in the year 1682, they constituted the third part of the
population of Pennsylvania, numbering, at the lowest calcula-
tion, one hundred thousand, and multitudes followed them dur-
ing the last century to different States, so much so, that in
point of numbers, they rank next in order to the emigrants of
British extraction.

Smaller parties, such as the Moravians, the Protestant Poles,
and a few hundreds of the Waldenses, have also, while seeking
refuge from persecution, contributed to the early Protestantism
of this country. ]!Sor are the Swedes and the Dutch to be
overlooked. The first, as early as the year 1638, at the in-
stance of the Great Gustavus Adolphus, who, however, did not
Hve to see his project fulfilled, sent forth emigrant ships con-
taining seven hundred persons ; while the second — the Dutch
— were among the earliest colonists of America. They did
not leave their country on account of persecution, for the high
honor belongs to Holland, of having been the grand and almost
only asylum in Europe for the persecuted of all these countries.
Trade and commerce were the inducements in their case ; but
though their character was rather commercial than missionary,
yet their influence as a people was exerted on the side of evan-
gelical religion, and consequently, on that also of civil and re-
ligious liberty. Such is a hasty enumeration of the materials
that originally made up the American population, and thouorh,
in some respects, they were very varied, yet you perceive that
in one particular, they all agreed — in their attachment to evan-
gelical Christianity ; and we do not doubt but it was this prin-
ciple of religious unity, and no merely fortuitous concurrence,,
no selfish alliance as fellow countrymen, that prepared the way
for that national alliance, that confederation of their strength,
without which, these had been to this day the dependent States
of Great Britain, subject to a colonial government, while Ame-
rican Independence had been a thing unheard of and unknown.

1 (5

But for this, it liud been with you as it is with Hindostan,-
where, because of the idolatrous, and therefore, heterogeneous
elements of which it is composed, and notwithstanding that it
contains six times the j^opulation of Great Britain, the entire
country is frowned into fear and subjection by a few detach-^
ments of the British army, ^hefic, because of the absence of
that bond of unity and strength which bound together the lit-
tle brotherhood of the first Americans, so that, standing side
by side, they could maintain nobly their righteous cause, and
withstand even' the might and the chivalry of England*.. In
the absence of this, the entire extent of Ilindostan, from the
Himalaya Mountains to Cape Comorin, with its 150 millions,
is held in hopeless subjection, and that by a small island situ-
ated at the distance of a hemisphere. We believe that we can-
not be wrong in asserting — though many will call it in ques-
tion, or positively deny it — that this country owes its prosperi-
ty, its pre-eminence, and more particularly its liberties, not so
much to the wise statesmen, and to that constitution whicb
their skill projected, not so much to your republicanism and
free institutions, to all of which they are by most individuals
mainly ascribed, as to the religious character of its first found-
ers. Being themselves deeply imbued with that spirit of free-
dom which the word of God inspires — for whether it be under-
stood of civil or religious liberty, they only can possess it, who
are emancipated of God ; whom the truth makes free, they are
free indeed, and all other freedom is but licentiousness— being
thus imbued, they did, as the fruits of that evangelical Chris-
tianity to which they adhered through suff'ering, give origin icy
that civil constitution, and these republican institutions : and
these, therefore, instead of being the parents, were in the first
instance only the ofi'spring, and are now the guardians, of your
religious freedom.

We have referred to the evangelical character of the first
settlers. There were no infidels, no scofi'ers among the early
emigrants. There were no inducements for such to emigrate
at that early period. These were all left among the inglorious
conformists of England. Nor were there any Roman Catholics.

17 .

As early, indeed, as the year 1634, a British colony of this last
kind had begun under favorable auspices, but it soon ceased,
and for a century and a half, was not attempted to be revived.
The early settlers, British, French, and German, were all Pro-
testants, and, under God, this was not only a wise, but a mer-
ciful arrangement. Had these States been peopled by the vo-
taries of the church of Rome, wherein would you have differed
at this day from Spain, or Italy, or Mexico ? and what a con-
trast would this have been with your free and enlightened con-
dition, as members of an evangelical communion? What ig-
norance ! what degradation ! what moral debasement ! Was it
not well ordered, that Popery was not suffered, in any strength,
to invade this country till Protestantism had erected her tem-
ples, and thrown the broad shield of her constitution over her
new-born institutions of science and learning, and had gained
such an ascendancy as to render the assault on the part of
popery, at least for a long period, vain and hopeless. Is there
no indication here, that God intended this immense colonial
field as the palladium of evangelical Christianity — as the Ca-
naan of his chosen people, that, coming forth from Babylon,
and shaking off the abominations of her superstitions, the true
church of God might arise from the dust, and putting on her
strength, might array herself on the Lord's side, and make
ready against that day when the Lord shall shake terribly the
earth, and summon the nations to that great controversy which
he shall have with the world and its unrighteousness, in the
great day of the Thermopylae of the world, the day of the great
battle of the Lord God Almighty ? And if such was God's
design in establishing this nation, where is the proof of your
labors in accomplishing it? Are you prizing the gospel of
Christ as you ought ? Are you serving the Lord with a per-
fect heart and with a willing mind, and are you sending such
an influence abroad as will tend to perpetuate, — I will not say
your wealth, your trade and commerce, — but as will perpetuate
that evangelical Christianity to which you owe so much, in
its progress among yourselves and among all nations ?

3

18 . .

We perceive that the newly created Romish Archbishop of

New York, has been weighing your Protestantism in the baf-
ance ; and if his opinions be correct, this country must be on
the eve of a great change, and a great calamity. His present
judgfiient is, that your religion is languishing ; that it is ready
to die ; that it has become superannuated, having no more
power or energy left ; and his prophecy is, that it will soon
vanish away, giving place to the primitive claims and preroga-
tives of the Universal Bishop and Vicar of Jesus Christ. If
this be a true prophecy, then we say, wo be unto you ! If in
this vineyard which God has planted and water'ed, you yield
him only thorns and briars, and become traitors to your evan-
gelical religion, then, in all probability, this will be the result ;
and if Satan bring hither the instruments of his dominion, and
more particularly that master-piece contrivance for despotising
over nations, then farewell to all your boasted freedom. What !
will not the Constitution protect us, to which the nation is
sworn and pledged ? No, nor will any thing else save you.
Popery is a conception too deep, and an achievement too
mighty. Many speak of it as if it were a very harmless thing,
but they are profoundly ignorant, both of its present spirit and
its past history. They are deceived by its chameleon color ;
and while it teaches nothing but error, they fancy that it is the
truth, rightly explained ; and while it sheds nothing but pesti-
lent darkness, they are charmed into the belief, that the true
light shineth. Oh ! it is an ample net, and well contrived,
framed for the delusion and bondage of the world, and for en-
slaving the souls and bodies of men. It is no partial error,
like that of the Gnostics, framed out of mystic imaginations ;
or like that of the Arians, framed out of the proud arguments
of reason ; or like that of the Munster Anabaptists, framed out
of the licentiousness of the will ; — but a stupendous deception,
and a universal counterfeit of truth, having a chamber for
every natural faculty of the soul, and an occupation for every
energy of the spirit. It is the contrivance of sublime subtlety,
and while the badges of its triumphs, its necklaces, beads, and
amulets and grotesque dresses, look extremely inojQfensive, yet

19

they hold with the tenacity of iron. It was that very yoke
which your fathers could not bear, and against which they
lifted up their testimony as the great bane and scourge of Eu-
rope; and if now you shall so far forsake the. Lord and his
truth, as to give up this land to Rome, then we repeat it, Wo
be unto you! Popery, wounded of late in the vitals, is now
putting forth her dying struggles in her extreihities. In Eng-
land, tempted by the increasing faithlessness of the established
church, she is now seeking to reassert her former sway; and
from the present aspect of afifairs in that country, and judging
from the Pr^ier's letter to the Bishop of Durham, we believe
that another great struggle with that Anti-christian power is
soon to commence. A similar attempt, in all probability, is in
preparation for our own land, and if it shall be accompanied
with that success which Archbishop Hughes anticipates; and
if the light of evangelical truth shall thus be Cj[uenched, then
your course as a nation shall be turned backwards — backwards
towards ignorance and superstition, and downwards into the
depths of moral and spiritual degradation. Your sanctuaries,
having become temples of idolatry, shall be forsaken of the
God of your fathers. Your Christianity, with all its blessings,
civil and religious, will retrograde into the Middle Ages, and
the great clock of your western continent will be put back for
centuries.

In conclusion, we would recommend, on the review of the
past, in the first place, that you should cherish a spirit of
thankfulness to God. We have reminded you of a few of the
facts connected with the first settlement of this nation, shewing
that its first founders were men of God, whom He in His all-
wise Providence thus directed in laying the first foundations of
this republic. They sought the Lord, and he was found of
them ; and in answer to their prayers, he has caused the bless-
ings of the fathers to descend upon the children ; and the con-
sequence has been, that God has prospered you, even as it is
this day. And 0 ! is there not reason to give thanks for this,
that while Asia, the first peopled of all our continents, is still
shrouded under the darkness of Blmddism and Brahmanism

20 '

and Islamism; that wliile so many millions of that ancient
world are groveling in the dust, little elevated above the Indi-
ans of your western territories ; that while Africa, like the
arid sands of its great desert, presents on the map of the
world, only a vast picture of moral desolation, over which the
Christian philanthropist weeps ; that while more than half of
Europe groans beneath the Popish tyranny, and the other half,
notwithstanding all their struggles, have not yet been able to
vindicate their civil liberties ; 0 ! is it not a cause of thankful-
ness to you in this more favored land, that God hath put you
in the front rank among the nations ; that he haslet upon you
the distinguishing marks of His favor, so that you have risen
to eminence by a process of rapidity hitherto unparalleled ;
that He has, as it were, heaped upon you one great and distin-
guishing blessing after another, civil, commercial, social, edu-
cational and religious, till this land, more than all lands be-
sides, has been made to blossom as the garden of the Lord.
Give unto God the glory ; and while you seek to recognize His
hand in conducting you to this prosperity, it becomes you to
cherish towards the Great Ruler of the Nations, that spirit of
gratitude, to which, as your God and the God of your fathers,
he is so eminently entitled at your hands. What would other
nations give for your preeminent privileges ! But a short time
ago, the Hungarian patriot, Kossuth, now a voluntary exile in
Asia, addressing an American, said, or gave expression to this
sentiment, " "Were such a thing possible, as that a man should
have the choice of his own birth-place, I had chosen to be a
native of the United States of America ; for there is the favor-
ite home of Liberty." This he said when mourning over the
desolations of his native Hungary, which, but for the Arnolds,
the traitors amongst themselves, might lately have resumed her
place among the independent nations of Europe. But, in the
second place, while we recommend you to glorify God in giving
thanks, — we would suggest, also, that it is required of you that
you humble yourselves before God for your sins and shortcom-
ings, and that you should cherish a watchful and prayerful
spirit, lest He should bereave you of your privileges, and cast

21

jou off from His favor. Have you served tlie Lord fully ?
Are tliere no national sins over "wliicli you have to lament, sucli
as covetousness, idolatry, and tlie worship of Mammon. God
doth not send the pestilence for naught. He doth not chastise
the innocent. Oh, let us be admonished ; let us repent, and
return to the Lord, lest He continue or increase his judgments
upon us, for He is strong to smite, as He is also to save ; and
■when His anger is kindled against us, who shall be able to
stand ? But what ! you say, we are but a few individuals ; are
w^e responsible for the future destiny of a great nation ? A
nation, w^e a^iswer, is nothing in the abstract, but as composed
of individuals, and though yoiu- fate be different from that of
the nation considered collectively, i. e., though you may be
accepted of God, while yet the nation shall be cast off, or the
contrary ; yet, few as you are, youi* responsibility is so far in-
volved here, that it shall influence either, in the one way or in
the other; and whether this nation, backsliding from God,
shall perisn, crumbling to ruins under the wasting influence of
the latent elements of corruption, like Babylon or Rome ; or
whether, having righteousness — that righteousness which ex-
alteth a nation, emblazoned upon all her banners, she shall
flourish and grow and perpetuate herself down to the world's
grand and closing issues ; — certain it is, that your character as
a believer, or as an unbeliever, while it shall carry along with
it your OAvn sentence in the great crisis of life and death —
shall lend also an impetus in the direction of good or evil, of
blessing or cursing, of w^hich you shall have the praise or the
.blame, to that entire commonwealth with which you now stand
associated.

The nation, like the human body, may be healthy or diseas-
ed : It may be so healthy, as to resist a certain amount of
corrupting influences, or it may be so diseased, that corruption
shall gain the mastery, and then it shall verge to its utter de-
cay. But when you live worthily, and serve the Lord with a
perfect heart, then you are subtracting from the evil, and add-
ing to the good ; and, on the principle that the righteous are
the salt of the earth, you may, while yet your immediate anxi-

22

eties turn upon your own everlasting welfare, be lending a
mightier influence to uphold and consolidate this nation in
righteousnesSj than all the rich can with their wealth, or a
whole host of noisy and clamorous politicians, with all their
subtle skill and expediency. This Republic has had its origin
in evangelical Christianity, and when, overlooking this, its
prosperity shall be made to depend upon the skill of mere po-
litical economists, then, we have the highest authority for say-
ing, that your prosperity will end, and that God, being for-
saken of 3^ou, will cast you off forever.

The nation, considered as such, is mortal, you' who consti-
tute it are immortal ; and so the primary consideration, whether
it respect yourself or the nation, is, an interest in that king-
dom which shall not be moved. Whether this nation shall be
such as God shall approve or condemn, is a question only in
regard to all its individuals, whether you shall obey God or
disobey Him. Soon all the nations of the earth shall be dis-
solved forever in their corporate existence, and stand in a new
relation towards God. Remember, you shall not stand or fall
in any general judgment upon the American nation. It shall
not be recognized there, except in individuals, separately taken
and separately judged. The Lord shall decide impartially in
your case, for you shall be put in the balance alone, and judged
in respect to those relations which you have sustained towards
God "and towards this nation ; and when that solemn assize
shall be holden, 0 ! how important will it then appear, that
you had followed in the footsteps of your forefathers, and that
you had sought the Lord before the terrible day of His wrath
had come. Were all of us who profess to be followers of Christ
in this nation, to appropriate to ourselves the counsel of the
Jewish king and statesman, and serve the Lord with a perfect
heart and willing mind, how should this republic prosper, not
■only in preserving unimpaired your Protestant rights and reli-
gious privileges, but in extending them also to the farthest lim-
its of every continent and island of the sea. How much did
your fathers accomplish in their generation ? What progress
shall be made in yours ? Are you to go forward, or are you

23

to retrograde, and are you indeed to be swallowed up in the
darkness of popery ? Does not the Providence of God indicate
the path of duty; and does not He call upon you to arise and
maintain His cause and His truth against all antagonism, until
superstition shall die out of the earth, and until the blasphem- '
ing heathen shall rise up and call you blessed, for the new
name in which you shall have taught them to trust ? With
such a noble cause as this before you, and w^ith God as your
leader, you might spread the sound of the joyful liberties, till
the slumbering earth shall awake, and be shaken w^ith the noise
of great gladness. This is no vision of romance — no mere
dream of poetry or of song, but a thing that may be and that
shall be realized. With such a sublime object as this, you
might go forth to the conquest of Satan's dominions, under the
banner af evangelical truth, until his wide empire should be
shaken to its foundations. This cause is not unworthy of you,
if you shall not be found unworthy of it. That banner under
which your fathers fought and died, was by them borne up in
perilous times. It has withstood the conflicts of six thousand
yeaj's. It shall yet outlast greater trials and greater conflicts
in the battle and in the breeze of conflicting moral elements.
It shall survive till the funeral obsequies of sin, death and the
grave, are past, and it shall wave in triumph, and in token of
victory, over the citadels of all nations, when their pomp and
their glory shall be swallowed up and lost amid the overpower-
ing glories of Messiah's reign.

With a prospect like this, and such experience of the faith-
fulness of God, you might go far in advance of your predeces-
sors, in that work which they so happily begun. With Salva-
tion, and Righteousness, and Truth, as the moving principles
of your life of devotion to God, you might so prosper in this
Tvork of benevolence and love, that through your instrumen-
tality, the American nation of Covenanters, of Puritans, and
of Huguenots, should be hailed as a blessing by the perishing
millions of heathendom, and by generations yet unborn, ' be-
come a praise and a glory on the whole earth, and cause the
chorus of the Redeemed to swell the louder^ as, attired in the

24

robes of victory, and riding in the cliariots of salvation, tliey
shall enter in triumph into the possession of the " glorious lib-
erties " in that far off land which is brighter than either the
Canaan of the Israelites, or this happy land wherein you dwell,
though it may have been, as it indeed has been, the safest re-
treat from the oppressor, and, as the Hungarian patriot called
it, the " favorite Home of Liberty."