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diff --git a/19597.txt b/19597.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..913ddb7 --- /dev/null +++ b/19597.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1146 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of National Character, by N. C. Burt + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: National Character + A Thanksgiving Discourse Delivered November 15th, 1855, + in the Franklin Street Presbyterian Church + +Author: N. C. Burt + +Release Date: October 21, 2006 [EBook #19597] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NATIONAL CHARACTER *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Diane Monico, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +NATIONAL CHARACTER. + + * * * * * + +A + +THANKSGIVING DISCOURSE, + +DELIVERED NOVEMBER 15TH, 1855, + +IN THE + +Franklin Street Presbyterian Church, + +BY THE PASTOR, + +REV. N. C. BURT. + + * * * * * + +BALTIMORE: PRINTED BY JOHN D. TOY. + +1855. + + + + +BALTIMORE, _November_ 17, 1855. + +REV. N. C. BURT, + +_Pastor of Franklin Street Presbyterian Church_: + +DEAR SIR--We earnestly solicit a copy of the Discourse delivered by you on +Thanksgiving day, for publication. + +With great respect, yours, &c. + +GEORGE S. GIBSON. +R. K. HAWLEY. +J. HENRY STICKNEY. +I. C. CANFIELD. +HORACE W. TAYLOR. +JOS. B. FENBY. +S. PATTERSON. +C. D. CULBERTSON. +R. H. HUMPHREYS. +HENRY D. HARVEY. +DAVID FERGUSON. +JOHN BIGHAM. +E. S. ALLNUTT. +CHAS. U. STOBIE. +H. W. HAYDEN. +HIRAM WOODS. +GEO. W. UHLER. +E. B. BABBITT. +ASHUR CLARKE. +M. M. BIGHAM. +WM. L. MCCORMICK. +JNO. BARBER. +ALGERNON R. WOOD. +ALEXANDER CLOSE. +JOHN R. COLE. +M. SHAW. +A. COULTER. +J. PERKINS FLEMING. +JAMES V. D. STEWART. +JOEL N. BLAKE. +J. HENRY GIESE. +W. E. BARBER. +ROBERT BUSBY. +JOHN S. MCKIM. +J. DEAN SMITH. +DAVID S. COURTENAY. +WM. R. SEEVERS. +S. A. LEAKIN. +PATRICK GIBSON. +J. P. POLK. +WILLIAM WHITE. +GEO. W. BRADFORD. +EDWARD DUFFY. +THOS. H. QUINAN. +SAMUEL W. BARBER. +MATTHEW HORN. +MORGAN COLEMAN. +STEPHEN WILLIAMS. +JAMES WILSON, Howard-St. +J. H. PATTERSON. +LANCASTER OULD. +GEO. C. MORTON. +GEO. ROSS VEAZEY. +DANIEL HOLLIDAY. +D. H. BLANCHARD. +E. H. THOMSON. +W. J. DICKEY. +JOHN P. COULTER. +ALEX. E. BROWN. +H. C. REED. +CORNELIUS E. BEATTY. +JOHN T. DICK. +WM. H. BROWN. +R. H. PENNINGTON. +JOHN P. RICHARDSON. +ROBERT LESLIE. + + + + +BALTIMORE, _November_ 25, 1855. + +GENTLEMEN--The request for a copy of my Thanksgiving Discourse, so +generally made, I cannot refuse. The manuscript is herewith placed at your +disposal. + +Very truly yours, + +N. C. BURT. + + +DR. G. S. GIBSON. + +R. K. HAWLEY, Esq. + +J. HENRY STICKNEY, Esq. and others. + + + + +DISCOURSE. + + + PSALM 33: 12.--BLESSED IS THE NATION WHOSE GOD IS THE LORD. + +We have met to-day, at the call of the Governor of this Commonwealth, +to render thanks to the Supreme Governor of the world for his mercies +granted us during the past year. Surely we have abundant cause for +thanksgiving. In the present instance, our annual festival not only +calls us to recognize the common bounties of God's providence most +richly bestowed, but also affords a most suitable opportunity for +rendering special offerings of gratitude for our happy exemption from +that pestilence, which, for months just past, lifted its frowning +clouds in our near horizon, and committed its devastations on our very +borders,--a pestilence which, if God had permitted it to march upon +our City and to do a like deadly work amidst our population, would now +be exulting over as many slain victims from among us, as there are +persons now assembled in all our Churches for this thanksgiving +service. Let us give hearty thanks for this distinguishing sparing +goodness. + +Being called together by our civil authorities, and that to recognize +the hand of God over us as a people, the occasion is suitable for +considering the general subject of NATIONAL CHARACTER, and in +connection with it, the duties and destinies of our own nation. + +What now, to begin at the beginning, is the proper idea of a nation? +The idea is a complex one, involving, to a greater or less extent, the +ideas of community of birth, community of language, occupation of the +same territory, citizenship under the same government. + +The _word_ nation signifies a body of men descended from the same +progenitor,--those having community of birth. We may, from the sense +of the word, call the Jews a nation, though using a diversity of +languages, and though scattered over the earth, without distinct +territory or separate government. + +Community of language commonly follows upon community of birth. Yet +community of language does not of itself determine or secure +nationality. The English and ourselves speak the same language, yet +are distinct nations. The Swiss are one nation, yet speak some of them +French, others German, others Italian. + +Occupation of the same territory is not essential to nationality. Not +only may a nation be scattered,--its parts dwelling in several +lands,--as in the case of the Jews, but a nation may migrate in a body +and preserve its national character in transit, or it may have no +fixed territorial abode whatever. The Tartars and the Arabs are +nations ever in motion, and held but the most loosely by any tenure of +soil. + +And even citizenship under the same government, does not of itself +exhaust the idea of a nation. Russia may be said to include many +nations under her sway. + +Yet the ideas of race, language, country and government, all enter +into, and with greater or less distinctness, and to a greater or less +extent, constitute the general idea of a nation. The French have in +general the same origin: they speak the same language: they possess a +definite territory: they live under one government. They are of Gallic +origin: we call their language French: their home is France: they are +the subjects of Napoleon. + +These several ideas of a nation do not, however, seem to be equally +essential. It is in the idea of Government, the idea of the State, in +which an associated body of men rises to view as a personality, and as +a sovereign power, clothed with divine privileges and prerogatives, +subsisting for high moral ends, dispensing justice amongst its own +citizens in the name of God, and treating with other States as +responsible persons like itself, with whom it dwells as in a family of +nations to possess the earth;--it is in this idea that the ideas of +community of origin and of language, and occupation of the same +territory, merge themselves as subordinate or accidental, and that our +view of a nation is most satisfactory and complete. + +The functions of supreme government are rarely exercised over a very +small body of men. And nations need to be of some magnitude to +realize the benefits of national existence. A nation, just in virtue +of its national constitution, is in a measure separated from the rest +of mankind. It has an existence by itself. It ought, then, to have a +completeness in itself. It should be made up of so many and such +variety of parts, that these parts in their inter-action, may produce +a sufficient life. Its classes of citizens and their occupations, +should be so diversified and numerous, that in the mutual dependence +and support, the highest possible benefit may result. _Size_ has to do +materially with the idea of a nation. This, indeed, makes all the +difference between a family and a nation, if only sovereign +prerogatives be conceded to the family, as was done in patriarchal +times. It is in the life of the State rather than that of the family, +that we have civilization. The very word civilization implies +this--_civis_, being a citizen, and _civitas_, a State. + +The importance of national relations may be seen in the consideration +of the nature of history. What is history? Is it a collection of the +biographies of individual men? We do not, as a fact, give to such +collection the name of history. History has been called "the biography +of society." But of society founded upon what basis, working by what +agencies, involving what interests, proposing what ends? Not surely +voluntary associations, formed for the promotion of the arts, or +commerce, or philosophy, or benevolent undertakings. Such associations +are too limited in the numbers which belong to them, too narrow and +partial in the ends they propose and the means they use, to justify us +in calling their biography history. We must find a society which, as +nearly as possible, shall comprehend in its members the entire human +race, command in its workings all human energies, involve in its +consideration all human interests; the biography of such a society we +may call history. Such a society we find in the State. And it is +because the whole human race is gathered into nations; it is because +the State proposes as its true object the highest good of all its +citizens; and especially is it because the State as a sovereign power, +not only holds the persons and property of its citizens at its +disposal, but deals with its citizens and with all mankind as moral +beings, and as itself a moral person responsible to God,--being a +sovereign only as his minister;--it is because of all this, that we +give the name history to the biography of nations rather than to that +of any other society. And the idea of history generally accepted is +this,--it is a record of the changes which come over the aspect and +fortunes of nations, in their self-development and their mutual +intercourse.[A] + +The highest truth of history is unquestionably the Providence of God. +Now, it gives us a most impressive view of the importance of national +relations, when we consider the Bible representation of nations as the +great agents of God's Providence. The Assyrian nation sent against the +people of Israel is "the rod of his anger" and "the staff of his +indignation." Said God to his ancient people, "I will bring a nation +on you from far, O house of Israel." God of old sent his prophets to +this nation and that; Elijah to Israel, Jeremiah to Judah, Jonah to +Assyria. + +Moreover, the Bible recognizes the importance of national relations in +the position it assigns to nations in the historic and prophetic +development of the plan for man's redemption. Before the advent of our +Saviour, God was in covenant with a nation. To conserve the true +religion amidst the corruptions which a second time were coming over +the whole earth, God took Abraham and his family into special +relations to himself. Yet God did not see fit to keep these special +relations confined to a single family in successive generations. It +entered directly into his plan, to make of this chosen family a +nation, to set them in a land of their own, to give them a government +of their own, to place them amidst the other nations of the earth. The +influence of a nation was required to prepare the world for the coming +of Messiah. So also in prophecy. Whatever may be thought of the beasts +of the Revelation, with their heads and horns, the beasts of Daniel +are distinctly stated to be "Kingdoms upon Earth." They are States and +Empires. It is, moreover, a kingdom which the Lord God will set up +upon earth, which, as a little stone cut out of the mountain, shall +smite and break and crush the kingdoms of earth, and itself occupy +their place. "The saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and +possess the kingdom for ever." + +With this consideration of the idea of a nation, and of the importance +of national relations, let us now, turning and beholding the race of +men dwelling together in a family of nations, ask more particularly +after their duties and destinies. + + * * * * * + +I. The State has a religious character. Nations derive their existence +as such from God. The State is of divine institution. It enjoys and +exercises divine prerogatives. It is hence under duty to God; it has +herein a religious character. + +I do not propose to argue the question of the nature of civil +government. I will not undertake to show that the theory of a social +compact--the theory that all just powers of government are derived +from the people, who voluntarily yield them up and consent to their +exercise--that this theory is false. Enough for me--enough for you, I +presume,--that it is unscriptural and infidel. Enough for us that the +Scriptures say, "The powers that be are ordained of God," and the +civil ruler is "the minister of God." I do not deny,--the Scriptures +do not deny--the distinction between things _civil_ and things +_religious_. The Christian does not demand that the State shall be a +theocracy. The State and the Church has each its appropriate end and +sphere. The prime end of the State is the dispensing of justice, the +protecting of its citizens, and the securing by agriculture and +commerce and the arts, and by the intelligence and virtue of its +citizens, of the general welfare. The prime end of the Church, so far +as man is concerned, is the promotion of his spiritual and eternal +good, through the agency of the Scriptures of revealed truth. The +sphere of the one is the affairs of this life,--that of the other, the +affairs of the life to come. Yet the State and the Church are not +wholly separated and absolutely independent; and neither is +independent of God. + +Again: Man in his entirety, is a religious being, and must carry his +religion with him into all his relations. He is a religious citizen; +so that not only is government instituted by God and to be +administered in his name, and is therefore religious, but being +administered by men and upon men, who themselves are under +responsibility to God, it is therefore again religious. + +And again: Although the prime end of the State be the promotion of +man's temporal welfare, and that of the Church, the promotion of his +spiritual welfare, and although the prime sphere of the State be the +things of the present life, and that of the Church those of the life +to come, yet things temporal and things spiritual, and the things of +the present life and those of the life to come, have most intimate and +important connections. The spiritual welfare tells upon the temporal, +and the life to come is but the issue and result of the present life. +Here, once more, is the State seen to have a religious character. All +this admits of abundant proof and illustration. + +The State, then, has a character directly religious, due to its origin +and nature, as instituted by God for doing his ministry with men. +Hence, its laws should be founded on the highest views of the divine +will ascertainable. It should enact that alone to be crime which God +pronounces to be sin. And again, the State has a character indirectly +religious, in view of the fact, that it is administered by and upon +those who are under religious obligations, and in view of the fact +that religion has material connection with that public welfare which +it is the design and duty of the State to promote. The State must, on +the one hand, respect the conscience of its citizens, leaving them +free in religious opinions and practices; and yet, on the other hand, +it must seek to promote the interests of true religion, with whose +prosperity the public welfare is vitally connected. + +It belongs to our government, my hearers, to conform its legislation +to the principles of the Bible, and to impose its penalties for +violated law, on the authority and with the sanction of the God of the +Bible: and it belongs to our government, while indulging the largest +and most liberal toleration of religious opinions and practices, still +to seek the diffusion and establishment of Christianity throughout the +length and breadth of our land. It is right that our government +enforces, to a good degree, the observance of the Christian Sabbath. +It is demanded that such observance be enforced in still larger +degree. Our government, if it be bound to afford an education to the +children of its citizens at all, is bound to give them a Christian +education. The Bible should be in all our Public Schools. Chaplains +should be provided for all State institutions, as they are for the +Army and Navy. + +I know, indeed, that these views, when fully expressed, are not +generally conceded. Many seem to think that government has no proper +connection with religion. The cry of Church and State--of the invasion +of religious rights--is raised against these views.[B] But not only +has government a necessary connection with religion, but what may +seem still more objectionable, the freest government must have +reference, in its laws and institutions, to some _form_ of religion, +as that held by the great body of its citizens: and it is a mistake, +as egregious as it is frequent, which supposes that because our +Federal Constitution prescribes no religion as that of this country, +and unites the government to no Church, our country is therefore as +much Pagan or Infidel as it is Christian. The Constitution and the +legislation of our country presuppose and take for granted, if they do +not distinctly affirm, that Bible Christianity is the religion of this +country. And they must do so, in order that this be a free government, +since the great body of our people are believers in this religion. The +President of the United States, standing in the portico of the +Capitol, before the face of heaven and in view of the assembled +people, swears upon the Bible to support the Constitution. The great +functions of government cease to be exercised among us when the +morning of the Christian Sabbath dawns. The Executive closes his +mansion, Congress vacates its halls, the judge comes down from his +bench;--all pause and wait through the day of which the God of the +Bible and the Lord our Saviour has said--it is mine. How solemn the +testimony, and how frequently recurring, that this is a Christian +nation. + +And whose rights are invaded by this observance of the Christian +religion? The Jew's? Why he can observe his Sabbath on Saturday, and +the law will protect him in the observance. None shall molest or make +him afraid. The infidel's? It may be that he is put to inconvenience. +He cannot have his cause tried in Court; he cannot lay his petition +before Congress or the Executive; he may not be able to procure his +letters from the Post Office: but is this an invasion of his rights? +Who has the right to compel the judge to violate the Sabbath by trying +his cause, or the mail-carrier or post master by delivering his +letters? Would not the non-observance of the Sabbath by the government +operate at once to close the doors of office against four-fifths of +our conscientious citizens? For the very reason, then, that the body +of our people are Christians, our government does and must, as a free +government, respect the Christian religion; and furthermore, because +this religion is, as we know, the true religion of God, and its +influence most happy in sustaining a free government, the State is +bound not simply coldly to protect it in common with all forms of +religion, but warmly to foster it as its own chosen religion. + +It would not be well longer to dwell on this topic. It may only be +added that while the understanding of this subject is of the very +first consequence to us as a nation, there is no subject of general +interest which seems to be so little understood.[C] + +Nations of necessity have a religious character. The civil government +is of God's ordination, and does God's ministry. The civil government +is administered by and upon men who are religious beings, who cannot +under any circumstances divest themselves of their religious +character. The prevalence of true religion amongst its citizens, is of +the highest advantage to the State. + +Every nation has its God or its gods. "Blessed is the nation whose God +is the Lord." Blessed is America so long as a pure, scriptural +Christianity stimulates and governs its public life. + +It may be mentioned, but need not be discussed as a distinct topic, +although its full consideration would greatly enforce the views just +presented, that, as a matter of fact, God does regard nations as +responsible persons, and does hold them in strict account to himself. +The highest truth of universal history being the universal and +comprehending providence of God, and the great factors of history +being the nations of mankind, and the personal and responsible +character of nations continuing only in this life and obtaining God's +full judgment of mercy or wrath during the time of their present +continuance, the historic page, recording the majestic movements of +empires in their rise and fall, becomes unspeakably sublime as the +record of the Almighty's manifested character, smiling and blessing in +their righteous prosperity, and frowning and overthrowing in their +guilty doom. + + * * * * * + +II. But let us pass to another view of nations. The race of men we +behold in a family of nations. We may consider the relations of these +nations one to another. + +I use the word _family_ in reference to nations, to indicate at once, +at the outset, and as fully as possible, their true relations. Nations +are most closely and most tenderly related. Their relation is one of +blood, and their one parent is God. "He hath made of one blood all +nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath +determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their +habitation." Each nation has a certain completeness in itself, yet it +is but a partial completeness. Nations are still connected. They are +dependent on one another. They are under obligations to one another. +They are alike and together bound to the same God. They are a +brotherhood before God their common Father. Patriotism has its limits, +and philanthropy, its appropriate and transcendent sphere. + +See the physical dependence of nations. Does not every nation on the +face of the earth contribute to the conveniences and comforts and +luxuries, not to say the necessities of our every-day life? And do we +not, as a nation, contribute something for the physical well-being of +every nation in turn? What mean these thousand ships, at all times and +in all directions traversing the main? Are they not all hastening on +the wings of the wind, with their precious burdens, to do the +ministries of nations one toward another? All commerce is significant, +first of all, of national interdependence. + +This mutual dependence in things physical is, however, but an image of +a higher dependence. What is civilization? Is it the culture of the +national life? Yet how is national life cultivated? Is it by +self-effort only, put forth from a stimulus self-begotten? Or is not +civilization, like the education of the individual, in some measure +dependent on the efforts of others? Must there not be an outward +contact, and a stimulus provoked by such contact? Turn a child into +the woods, and let him grow up to manhood without the society or the +sight of his fellow-men. Where is his self-culture? He is a wild man +of the woods; he is a barbarian. So nations need the stimulus which +comes from a contact with their fellow nations; and that, not only +that they may advance in civilization, but even that they may save +themselves from going down into barbarism. See China, the largest +empire of men, yet separated from its neighbors by a stone wall. See +Hindostan, insulated by surrounding seas and mountains, and destitute +of commerce for many hundred years. See Africa, secluded from all the +world by its miasmatic regions and its fever-bound coasts. What +stereotyped character! What stagnant life! What hopeless barbarism! +Interchange of thought among the nations,--communication of the +products of art and literature, and of the discoveries of +science;--this is requisite for the welfare of nations. + +It would easily follow from this mutual dependence of nations, even if +it did not come to us in a more direct way, that the intercommunion of +nations should be guided and governed by religious principles, and for +the end of highest mutual spiritual benefit. Nay, the statement may be +made thus, in reference to us who know what true religion is, and who +are bound to go according to the light we possess, and not according +to the darkness of others,--that the intercommunion of nations should +be conducted on Christian principles, and for the end of the diffusion +and establishment of the Gospel of Christ. + +Blessed is the nation whose God being the Lord, who, as the +first-born, and fullest-grown, and highest-favored, in the Lord's +family of nations, becomes the loving instructor and helper of the +younger brethren. + +Looking this day upon the brotherhood of nations, we behold one sight +which might excite our joyful hope, were it not for another closely +connected with it, which must excite our astonishment and sorrow. We +behold, on the one hand, the nations of the earth brought into close +proximity and to the possibility of easy friendship, by the many +physical improvements of the age. These improvements, as we see, are +made and first used by enlightened and Christian nations,--and we are +encouraged to ask, shall not these improvements be the channels and +vehicles for conveying to all nations the influences of the gospel? In +this bringing of the ends of the earth together, by those whose great +glory is their possession of the knowledge of God's salvation, shall +not "all the ends of the earth," through their agency, speedily be +brought "to see the salvation of God?" But alas! The ardency of our +hopes is quenched, when we behold this day the most enlightened and +powerful and happy of the whole brotherhood of nations, whose great +tie is that of natural and Christian love, and whose great duty is to +strengthen the cords of love amongst all their brotherhood,--when we +behold these nations, submitting themselves to the demon of national +hatred and revenge, employing the agencies which should convey the +gospel of peace to all mankind, in transporting the munitions of war, +and then putting forth all their skill and energies in planning and +executing, with the aids of the most matured science, and by means of +the most ingenious and mighty enginery, the devilish work of national +desolation and destruction. + +Can we, my hearers, conceive of a higher and more horrid contradiction +of the whole spirit of our religion than a national war? And can there +be anything more discouraging to him who hopes for the speedy +diffusion of the Gospel amidst the nations, than the contemplation of +the present war,--a war not only waged by nations the most Christian, +but a war involving no principle and devoid of all glory,--a war +stamped in its every feature, and chargeable at its every step, with +the attribute and the crime of murder. + +O when shall war be recognized in its brutality and fiendishness and +hellish horrors? When shall patriotism separate itself from a proud +ambition and a cruel revenge, and become the loving handmaid of a pure +philanthropy? When shall Christian nations become capable of a +Christian transaction? Must "the sword devour forever?" + + * * * * * + +III. We may not omit on such an occasion, and with such a subject +before us, to speak of the destiny of our own nation. + +It would seem from many considerations often presented, that God +intends great things for us as a nation. The time and circumstances of +the original settlement of our country, and the character of the +original settlers, is regarded as one indication of promise. How long +God kept this continent concealed from the view of the civilized +world! And, when it was discovered, how long he kept back the nations +from its successful settlement! Not until the Protestant Reformation +had wrought its great results, and nations were prepared for the work +under its tuition, did God begin to people this country;--and even +then, it was a "winnowed seed" which he planted here. Men tried in the +fires of persecution, and strong in the love of God and the desire of +liberty, laid the foundations of our republic. Is not this peculiar +beginning prophetic of a glorious consummation? + +Our past experience and present condition seem to confirm the tokens +of our auspicious beginning. Colonial dependence has given way to +National independence. Thirteen States have increased to thirty-one. +Three millions of people have increased to thirty. Immense forests +have been subdued, and the soil yields supplies for the famishing of +other lands. Great manufactories crowd our rivers and darken our +towns. Our commerce whitens every sea and swarms in every port. Our +people are intelligent, and virtuous, and happy beyond all example. +Our government is strong and efficient. What is needed to make our +destiny glorious, but just to go on in the way that we have come? + +Then see the prospect which invites us on. Vast territories are still +unoccupied. What shall prevent the flood of population from pouring +westward and overflowing these territories? Our internal resources +have only begun to be developed. What shall prevent their utmost and +magnificent development? The commerce of the Pacific waits to be ours. +How long till Pacific railroads shall bind our eastern and western +coasts together, and our country, standing in the midst of the earth +and reaching out its arms on either hand, clasp the entire sphere in +its embrace? Our country is in the dew of its rejoicing youth, and has +but the dimmest consciousness and dream of its own strength, and who +can predict the glory of its manhood, when in the fullest +self-consciousness, it shall exert to the utmost its matured and +mighty energies? + +Thus are we accustomed to talk. Our destiny is manifest--our glory is +inevitable. It is pleasant to talk thus, and it is unpleasant to talk +otherwise. Yet we ought to desire to see and know the truth. +Self-flattery is an odious folly. Is our destiny, then, manifest? Is +our glory inevitable? Has God so conspicuously favored us that he +cannot but continue to bless? Ah! It is our self-flattery and odious +folly to think so. + +We need not look again to our history or our prospects, to gather +evidences of a different destiny, although such evidences might not be +wanting. Yes, we might find the evidences which, duly weighed, would +make us shudder in view of our possible or probable future. We might +come to think it very problematical whether our country has sufficient +vital force to work into good American citizens the hordes of +infidels, paupers, criminals, cast upon our shores from the nations of +the old world;--whether our country has sufficient wisdom to guide its +own vexed domestic questions to a proper and satisfactory issue, and +to balance and regulate the rival and numberless interests of a +country widening indefinitely in extent;--whether--but no, we do not +need thus to forecast the future to ascertain our probable destiny. We +may determine the question by the teaching of God's word. "Blessed is +the nation whose God is the Lord." And blessed is that nation alone. +Here is the solution of the question of our destiny. It is in making +the Lord the God of our country, that we are safe--that we are +prosperous--that our glorious destiny becomes inevitable. Our destiny +is left to ourselves. The means of its glory are placed in our hands. +We may use them or not, as we will. + +And now, I utter it to you, my hearers and fellow-citizens, as the +solemn testimony of the Lord our God, that so surely as ignorance and +moral corruption and lust of power, become generally prevalent, and +popery and infidelity attain the supremacy among us, it matters not at +all that we have had a ballot-box, and a free press, and free schools, +and the whole circle of liberal institutions,--these will become but +the insignia of our shame; it matters not that we have had a boundless +territory, and a teeming soil, and mighty cities, and universal +commerce,--the grass will grow again on our prairies,--the red man +return to his forsaken forests,--our cities become black with +desolation, and the sails of our commerce be rent on the seas, or the +hulks of our commerce rot at our wharves; it matters not that God has +been wonderfully gracious to us as a nation,--the more wonderful the +grace, the deeper the insult and crime of our despising it, and the +deeper our doom;--this, this is our manifest destiny. + +And it is only as America teaches her children to fear God and do +their duty; it is only as our virtuous citizenship escape from the +chains of corrupt party and procure for themselves a fair +representation in the offices of government--exerting themselves for +the purification of corrupt men, rather than for the promotion of +their evil designs; it is, in a word, only as the power of our blessed +religion shall go out from the hearts of the truly pious in our land, +leavening the mass of the population and bringing them under its +sway;--it is only as we truly make the Lord our country's God, that we +can hope to be blessed, and can, with any just confidence, await our +country's future glory. + +Need I, my hearers, deduce and enforce the exhortations of this +subject? Or do they not lie upon its surface, and do they not make +their own appeal to every patriot's and Christian's heart? + +The God of nations, looking forth upon our happy land this day, may be +conceived as breathing the benevolent desire once expressed in behalf +of his ancient people, "O that there were such an heart in them, that +they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might +be well with them and with their children forever." + + * * * * * + +N. B. In the delivery of the foregoing discourse, the following +remarks were interjected near the commencement: + + "Permit me to state to you my conviction, that desirable as + it is that days of religious observance be appointed by our + civil authorities, the regular appointment of annual + fast-days or thanksgivings, will not secure for any long + period a general and hearty observance. I should much prefer + the appointment by our civil authorities of a fast-day, in + view of any public calamity impending or experienced, or of + a day of thanksgiving, in view of deliverence or exemption + from such calamity. In such case we might hope that the day + would secure a suitable and profitable observance." + + It is the writer's apprehension that days of special + religious observance occurring at regular intervals, and + hence occurring, oftentimes, when there is no special + providential call for a religious service, and being + destitute of the binding obligation a divine appointment, + will degenerate into mere holidays; and in his opinion, the + providential call ought to guide our rulers in the + designation of times of special religious observance; so + that when we fast, we do so in direct view of special + calamity, and when we render thanks, we do so for special + mercies actually experienced. The thanksgiving of last year + occurred at a time of most trying financial embarrassment, + at the close of a season remarkable for its drought and + meagre harvests, and for the prevalence of disease and the + destruction of property by land and sea. Surely, God called + us then to humble ourselves and fast, rather than to rejoice + and give thanks, and a thanksgiving service was appropriate + only for the reason that God always deals with us better + than we deserve. We need the evident appropriateness of the + service to secure its continued and suitable observance. Who + does not remember the appointment by our national Executive, + some years since, of a day of national humiliation, when a + visitation of the cholera was threatened? And now solemn and + affecting the service of that day throughout the land! In + New England, the regular, annual thanksgiving preserves its + sacredness through customs and associations, which were + established in the very infancy of the country, and which + have grown up with it,--customs and associations, which + cannot elsewhere be created. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote A: See Dr. Arnold's "Lectures on Modern History." The above +statement is correct, so long as we take a merely _natural_ view of +mankind--so long as we view men merely in their _moral_ relations. +Viewing men by the light of revelation and in relations more strictly +_religious_, Church-biography would still better deserve the name of +history. But for some reason, these religious relations are not +commonly recognized in their importance. Like the historian, the moral +philosopher commonly ignores man's lapsed condition, and all the great +truths which distinguish supernatural religion. See Wardlaw's +"Christian Ethics." + +It ought also to be observed that human governments, at the best, are +obliged to leave many interests of their citizens uncared for, or to +be cared for by other agents than their own; also, that human +governments are often corrupt and fail to discharge their proper +functions. Hence, the historian needs the supplement of individual +biographies, and transactions of voluntary societies, and pictures of +domestic and social life, in order to a full representation of his +subject. Who would dispense with the Book of Ruth in the Old Testament +history, or with Macaulay's picture of England in 1685 in his English +history?] + +[Footnote B: See Congressional Reports--Col. E. M. Johnson on Sunday +Mails, and Mr. Petit on Chaplains to Congress. Of course, in +practically meeting and adjusting the two claims upon the government, +first to respect the conscience of its citizens, and secondly, to +promote the interests of religion, great diversity of opinion may +exist even among those who hold to the same principles. There is room +for a variety of prudential considerations. Yet the _principles_ above +expressed are discarded in the documents referred to, as they very +often are elsewhere.] + +[Footnote C: A volume entitled "The Position of Christianity in the +United States," by Stephen Colwell, Esq. of Philadelphia, deserves the +attentive and serious perusal of every American citizen.] + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of National Character, by N. C. 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