A Sermon Addressed to the Legislature of Connecticut

REV. DR. BEECHER'S SERMON, ADDRESSED TO THE LEGISLATURE OF CONNECTICUT; THX DAT Or TU BY LYMAN BEECHER, D. D. -HAVHN : ?t?BLISHED BY ORDER OF THE LSISLATf &K. I. Bunce, Printer, a 182$. Ala General Assembly of the Slate of Connecticut, holden at New-Haven in said Stale, on the f.rsl Wednesday of May, in the year of our lard one thousand eight hundred and twenty six PESOLVED, That the Hon Samuel Chimh, end Monis Woodruff, be difert-'.d to vviit on the Rev. LYMAN BEEOHciR, and preseut him the trunks of t!e Gen ml A-?eiubl'. for the Scr-nun delivered by him this day, and request a copy of the same, (hat it n y be printed. A true Copy of Record, Examined by THOMAS DAY, Secretary* REVELATION xxi. 5. "And He that sat upon the throne said Behold, Imake all thingi new." HE history of the world is the history of human nature in ruins. No state of society has been permanent and universal which corresponds with the capacities of enjoyments possessed by man, or with his conceptions and desires. Small portions only of the human family have, at the same time, enjoyed a state of society, in any considerable degree desirable: while much the greatest part of mankind have, in all ages, endured the evils of barbarism and despotism. It is equally manifest, that this unhappy condition of our race has not been the result of physical necessity, but of moral causes. The earth is as capable of sustaining a happy as a miserable population, and it is the perversion only of her resources and of the human faculties, which has darkened the earth and made the misery of man so great. The human intellect has given proof of vigour and ingenuity sufficient to bless the world ; and powerful efforts nave been made in every age, by afflicted humanity, to escape trom this downward bias, and rise to elevated and permanent enjoyment. Egypt, in her monumental ruins, affords evidence of a high state of the arts, which arose and passed away at a period beyond the reach of history. In Greece, a vigorous intellect and favouring clime thrust up, from the dead level around her, a state of society comparatively cultivated and happy ; but the sun of her prosperity blazed upon the surrounding darkness t& set .speedily in the night of ages. Rome fought her way to dominion and civilization, and furnished specimens of mental vigour and finished culture. But the superstructure of her greatness rested upon oppressed humanity, and was reared by "he plunder of a devastated world. Commerce, which has given to cities a temporary eminence, has elevated but a little the pjoral condition of the multitude ; and science, which was restored to modern Europe at the Reformation, and commerce and the arts, which have followed in her train, have not, to this day, disenthralled the nations. From experiments so long and so hopelessly made, it would sepm to result that, in the conflict between the heart and the intellect of man. victory has always declared on the side of the heart ; which has led many to conclude that the condition of man h hopeless in respect to any universal abiding melioration of his forKli'-iort. The text throws light upon this dark destiny of man. It is a voice from heaven announcing the approach of help from above. " He that sitteth upon the throne saith, behold I make all things new." The renovation here announced is a moral renovation, which r-: .til change the character and condition of men. The renovation will not be partial in its influence, like the sun shining ih clouds on favoured spots, but co-extensive with the ruin. Nor shall its results be that national glory, which gilds onpalace, and cheers only the dwellings of the noble. It shall bring down the mountains and exalt the valleys. It shall :<Ticl liberty and equality to a!! the dwellings of men. Nor shall ic stop at tiic fire-side, or exhaust its blessings in temporal mercies. It shall enter the hidden man of the heart, and there destroy the power which has blasted human hopes and baffled human efforts. Nor will the change be transient. It is the last dispensation of heaven for the relief of this miserable world, and -ir*:! bring glory to God in the highest, to the earth peace, and good will to men. Manv have doubted whether such a renovation of the world will ever be accomplished ; but, He that sat upon the throne, sakJ, It is done : It is as certain as if it were come to pass.

I shall submit to your consideration, at this time, some of the reasons which justify the hope, that our nation has been raised up by Providence to exert an efficient instrumentality in this moral renovation of the world. I' observe then, that, to this renovation, great changes are required in the civil and religious condition of nations. The monopoly of the soil must be abolished. Hitherto b: rr^britv'of mankind, who have tilled the earth, have been slaves or tenants. The soil has been owned by kings. and military chieftains, and nobles, and by them rented to landlords, and, by these, to still smaller dealers, and by there again it has been divided and rented, until the majority, who paid the rent, have sustained, in the sweat of their brow, not. only their own families, but three or four orders of society above them, and have been themselves crushed beneath the weight, or have lived, on the borders of starvation. The sickness of a week and often of a single day makes them paupers. This same monopoly of the soil sends another large class of the community into manufacturing establishments, to wear out their days in ignorance and hopeless poverty, and another to the camp and navy, where honor and wealth await the few, and ignorance, and an early grave the many. …