The Home and the Nation

Grecutite and Legislative Departments OF THE GOVERNMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS, AT THE MemeN TAT: Ho MCrTION, WEDNESDAY, Jan. 4, 1860. BY THOMAS D. ANDERSON, D. D. PASTOR OF DUDLEY ST. BAPTIST CHURCH, ROXBURY. Behe. LON: WILLIAM WHITE, PRINTER TO THE STATE. 2 1860. THE HOME AND THE NATLON. A SERMON Geeevtive and Legislative Departments OF THE GOVERNMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS, AT THE Pee ea Ly Woks ty CG) Tob GN... WEDNESDAY, Jan. 4, 1860. BY THOMAS D. ANDERSON, D. D. PASTOR OF DUDLEY ST. BAPTIST CHURCH, ROXBURY. BOSTON: WILLIAM WHITE, PRINTER TO THE STATE. 1860. Commontenlth of Massachusetts. Hovust oF REPRESENTATIVES, January 20, 1860. ORDERED, That three thousand copies of the Election Sermon, deliv- ered by Rev. THomas D. AnpERSON, D. D., before the Executive and the two Branches of the Legislature, on the fourth instant, be printed for the use of the Legislature. WILLIAM STOWE, Clerk. SERMON. Micau Iv. 4. BUT THEY SHALL SIT EVERY MAN UNDER HIS VINE AND UNDER HIS FIG-TREE ; AND NONE SHALL MAKE THEM AFRAID, FOR THE MOUTH OF THE LORD OF HOSTS HATH SPOKEN Ir. Herein is a strong confirmation of our faith that the vision of home peace will be verified on earth. Since He hath spoken, we will believe, for “ The Word of the Lord endureth forever.” With man, the action changed bespeaks the altered purpose, the outward failure tells of inward weakness, and variety of imperfection. But with God, myriads of unlike forms are but the expressions of infinite resource; the interrupted plan is but the temporary eclipse, as His full-orbed purposes pass one another in their well- ordered revolutions; and an act once done shapes an eternal thought, and stands thenceforward a perpetual prophecy of its fulfilment. Let man take heart, then. Although Eden was blighted, it once was planted on earth, and therefore it will be restored. By it we learn that at the first God laid the founda- tion of society amid the sacred associations of home. Man’s interests were not to be isolated, selfish, con- flicting, but common and all-pervading ; of one blood 6 THE HOME AND THE NATION. He constituted a human brotherhood; by like conditions He intended sympathy; harmony was designed through diversity of gifts; the infant heart, awaking in its first consciousness to the influences of love, would have learned to interpret in the light of parental affection the dispositions of all other hearts, and the family would have been the source of human government; its restraints, springing from the tenderest solicitude, would have been but the bonds of fellowship, and obedience to its gentle sway but the grateful response of a trusting nature. Just long enough to indicate the design did the Divine plan take form, then it was marred by sin. By rending the soul from its filial reverence for Jehovah, in whose likeness it was created, the fraternal tie which bound it to all who bore His image was sundered. ‘The peace denied to self by an accusing conscience could be allowed no _ other. Virtue, unimitated, won only detraction. At the more acceptable sacrifice even of a brother, envy lighted the fires of hate; and love, driven from the breast, left but her name, beneath which cloaked self- interest claimed her place and honor. Authority became imperious; the surging passions of the many must be restrained by the fiercer passions of the few; the lust of power seized on dominion; the quiet . home fades out of sight; and history blackens her pages with the maddened conflicts of kingdoms and empires, with here and there the darker or the lighter sketch of tyrant or of hero.

THE HOME AND THE NATION. if All had changed but God’s eternal thought; that breathed of hope. Paradise, though lost, was a promise that the curse should end, when, “instead of the thorn, shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the briar, shall come up the myrtle tree,” and man shall find again a home on earth. The weeping woman fled not before her Maker’s wrath until the title of Mother, the pledge of home, was confirmed to her by the promise of the Seed. With Abraham bearing the name of Father, God establishes His covenant: “In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” Far down the ages the same thought inspires Isaiah to sing of the Child whose announcement as ‘the government shall be upon his shoulders,’ advances the primal idea to a more distinct revelation. But when into the diadem of coronation, pressing the brows of a son of man, inspiration sets the crown jewels of Heaven, ratifying His right to be called the “ Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace,’ then, not changed, but glorified, shines forth Jehovah’s original purpose. The home of earth has’ given birth to the Spiritual Kingdom of the Messiah, and henceforth is sanctified as the Divine ideal of human authority, and the only source of national sovereignty. While Christianity has ever spurned the organic form that ambition has devised for her as a livery, in which she might attend on thrones and do the 8 THE HOME AND THE NATION. bidding of kings, yet, by weaving silently, and without observation, her principles into govern- ment, — the ordinance of God,— she has sought to prepare for herself a garment wherein, her freedom not restrained, nor her progress hindered, she may minister her offices of kindness to all people. A nation thus blessed with a rule penetrated by the spirit of the Gospel is described by the Prophet in our text. It stands forth in accordance with what we have seen to be from the beginning the will of God, who “setteth the solitary in families,’ with reference to earthly dominion, founded in the affec- tions, and establishing the blessings of home. Around it breathes the air of a virtuous imdepen- dence. The fruits of his industry are enjoyed by every citizen. Driven by no regal mandate to the tasks of imperial vanity, each one dwells in his chosen habitation. A government imposing no burdens exercises an almost unfelt supremacy, beneath whose protection, and fostered by whose care, the abodes of peace every where nourish a pure and vigorous patriotism, at once a people’s spontaneous tribute of gratitude, and a nation’s pledge of power.