The Work of New England

feattte aiib f^platiije Jepartmeats GOVERNMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS, AisnsruAL E L E c T I o isr WEDNESDAY, Jan. 4, 1865. By a. L. stone, D. D B O STON: WM. V. SPENCER, No. 134 WASHINGTON ST, 1865. THE WORK OF NEW ENGLAND IN THE FUTURE OF OUR COUNTRY. SEKMO:^ ^Htutik anb Jtgislatiije Jeparlm^nts GOVERNMENT OP MASSACHUSETTS, AlSrisrUAL ELECTION, WEDNESDAY, Jan. 4, 1865. B Y A'^ Lr STONE, D. D. BOSTON: WM. V. SPENCER, No. 134 WASHINGTON ST. 1865. Cflntmontoaltfe of ilassatlttsHts. Senatk Chamber, Boston, January 9, 1865. Eev, A. L. Stone : Dear Sir, — Pursuant to an Order, unanimously adopted, the under- signed were appointed a Committee to present to you the thanks of the Senate for your able and instructive Discourse, delivered before the Government of the Commonwealth on the 4th inst., and to request a copy of the same for the press. Trusting that it will be both agreeable and convenient for you to comply with the request at an early day, "We remain, Very truly yours, HENRY BARSTOW, A. M. IDE, JOSEPH A. POND, Committee. Boston, January 16, 1865. Gentlemen, — I herewith submit to your disposal the Discourse for which you ask in the name of the Senate, with my grateful acknowledg- ments for the courtesy of that body, and for your own in communicating their wishes. * Very respectfully yours, A. L. STONE. Hon. Messrs. Henry Barstow, A. M. Ide, Joseph A. Pond, Committee of Senate of Massachusetts. Commonto^aI!| of Itassac^usdls. In Senate, January 16, 1865. The Committee, to whom was committed the Order in relation to the Election Sermon, preached before the State Government on the 4th inst., have attended to that duty, and have received a communication from Rev. A. L. Stone, D. D., expressing his acknowledgments for the courtesy of the Senate, accompanied by a copy of the Sermon, and report the accom- panying Order. Per order, HENRY BARSTOW. Concurred. Senate, January 17,' 1865. S. N. GIFFORD, CTer/t. In Senate, January 16, 1865.' Ordered, That eight thousand copies of the Election Sermon preached before the Government of the Commonwealth, on the 4th inst., be printed for the use of the Legislature. i SERMON. Isaiah, Iviii. 12. AND THEY THAT SHALL BE OF THEE SHALL BUILD THE OLD WASTE PLACES: THOU SHALT KAISE UP THE FOUNDATIONS OP MANY GENERATIONS; AND THOU SHALT BE CALLED THE KEPAIREK OF THE BREACH, THE RESTORER OF PATHS TO DWELL IN.

We cannot to-day, be narrow, and shut our thoughts within the Hmits of the Commonwealth. The times are educating us all into views and sympathies broad as the land. We stand in these hours on an eminence, and our horizon is the borders of the Republic. We are lifted to the dome of our nationality, and our field of vision stretches to the water-line that marks either ocean shore — the blue of the lakes and the blue of the gulf. We cannot name our State, or any State, without thinking at once of our whole country. We are weaned from the idea that a State is complete by itself. It is one comj^onent part of a Federal Government, held to its sisters by a deathless bond. It is a branch of a living and fruitful vmc, in which 8 THE WORK OP NEW ENGLAND alone it has life and fruitfulness. Except it abide in the vine, we may reverently apply the scripture, it " is cast forth as a branch, and is withered ; and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." Let the stars in the heavens break from their constellations, but let not one on our field of blue, part the chain of celestial gravitation and attempt to shine alone. It 'shall soon become a "wander- ing star," " going out m the blackness of darkness forever." We belong to a nation — a nation living still — lair, and strong, and whole — undivided and indi^ds- ible — wearing still on its brow, for all the jealous kingdoms to read, the old familiar inscription, "jE' i^^uribus unum^'' — and girding itself anew for the race of the f\iture. And the question which I desu-e briefly to discuss to-day, is this : Wliat is the work of Massachusetts and of JSFew J^ngland in this near future of the whole country f "We may say, in the first jplace, that the life of IN^ew England cannot be dissevered from the national life. There has been in some quarters certain idle and flippant talk in reference to such a readjustment of the national boundaries as should IN THE FUTUEB OF OUE COUNTRY. 9 leave this old Puritan Commonwealth and her five sisters outside the walls of the new confederation. But our connection with the Republic is not a matter of territorial contiguity and geographical lines. Let men run border lines as they please; let them frame ordinances of separation ; let them build a Tartar wall between us and the great homestead; neither civil nor material barriers can exile us from the family circle. It were just as possible to separate from the loaf the leaven that made it light and sweet, or from a human life the principles and influences of its early nurture.

New England is not a certain limited portion of the national domain-'— a sharp eastern angle that can be dipt off. 'No map of the Union gives to the eye her full and proper extent.* No engineering art can explore and project her share of our continental heritage. Her life is ubiquitous in the nation. From her fountain heart the warm arterial currents have circulated through the whole body and flowed out to the remotest extremities. Her sons have gone forth into every habitable place of the broad land. …