Sermon Preached Before the General Assembly of the State of Vermont

fondly he broods over it, that this great Being, who is so mighty in counsel and so wonderful in working, is eminently the God of Israel ; and, in the language of a recent commentator, " will work spiritual changes " corresponding to these natural phenomena, for the " benefit of the people whom he has entrusted with " the revelation of his will." But if such were the views and feelings of the Jew, with his incomplete revelation, and his system of worship, which was chiefly only the shadow of good things to come, how much more should similar views and feelings be cherished by a people who are blessed with the fullorbed revelation, and the spiritual worship of the christian dispensation; — a dispensation in which "life and immortality are brought to light," and not the consecrated hierarch alone, but every worshiper, is permitted, through " the offering made once for all," by Jesus his great High Priest, to enter himself " the most holy place,'' and draw near to God in full assurance of faith. The following statement, then, is plainly derived from the text, and, I, trust, will not be deemed inappropriate to the occasion which has assembled us before God in this house of prayer: The highest privileges and richest blessings of any people, are found in^ the possession of the word of God, and the institutions, instructions and ordinances of a pure religion. This proposition, obviously warranted by the text, will be sustained and enforced by every just view we can take of the character, condition, relations and prospects of man. And a due consideration of its significance may fully justify the propriety of the course you have adopted, as the rulers and legislators of a commonwealth, to signalize the commencement of your offices and duties by an act of homage to that religion, which is the fountain-light of our best knowledge, and the sure guardian of our dearest interests, for this world and that which is to come. It is no unhallowed union of church and state, injurious to both, but the fit acknowledgment of wise and good men, that for the right discharge of their official duties they need that wisdom which cometh from above, and that for the state, whose welfare they are sacredly bound to promote, the blessing of God is the only effectual provision : that " except the Lord keepeth the city, the watchman waketh in vain," For the confirmation of the statement proposed as the theme of discourse at this time, — I. Let us look, first, at man in his social and civil relations ; and see how, for the perfection of all these, and to ensure the realization of their highest blessings, the truths and institutions and influences of religion are indispensable. It is not difficult to show, by decisive historic proof, that for our civil freedom, and those institutions of popular government in which we rejoice, we are directly indebted to religion. Our popular institutions of civil government were the gift of religion to the state. The wisdom and instincts of religion revealed their conception and produced the longing for them, and the purifying influences of religion prepared a people by whom they could be realized. An infidel historian has been compelled to record, that the great principles of freedom in the English constitution owe their existence to that noble body of earnest religious men, who were derided by their enemies as "puritans," a name now widely honored among the nations. From these men came our own pilgrim fathers. And be it forever remembered, that their great object in coming hither, was freedom to worship God according to the high behests of a religion which they regarded as paramount to all the considerations relating to the duty and the destiny of man. Their establishment of free political institutions, the freest the world has ever seen, was a corollary to their main proposition. That proposition was not human, it was divine; it was not earthly, but heavenly. It was freedom of conscience, — freedom to learn, and do all the will of God, without human dictation or human restraint. And the wisdom which guided them in ordering their civil and political affairs well — better than the world had ever seen before, — was an emanation from that wisdom which made them wise unto salvation. They were wise in the things of earth and time, because they reverenced " the word, and the statutes and the judgments" which the Lord had given unto them, and, guided by such a heavenly light, they considered all the things of time in their relation to the things of eternity. Such was the way in which our blessed heritage was prepared and transmitted to as, and only in this way can it be preserved and freed from the formidable dangers which now oppress it, and be handed down to bless the thronging generations that shall come after us.

" Sons of sainted pilgrim sires, " Guardians of their altar fires, " Hold the truth that made them free, "Hold their faith and purity. " They were sent to free the mind, " Heavy burdens to unbind, "Nobly they discharged their trust, "Peace and honor to their dust." "By their tears, their toils, their cares, " Martyr struggles, wrestling prayers, " We, beneath our spreading Tine " And our fig-tree now recline. " Sons of sainted pilgrim sires, " With a zeal that never tires, " Tread the path your fathers trod, "Serve the Lord, your Father's God." We have indeed a great and goodly land — a land " flowing with milk and honey," with a fullness of tide such as Canaan in its palmiest days never knew. But "man doth not live by bread alone. By every " word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord " doth man live." And we have marvellous mechanical inventions. …