Original. THE RECREANT FOILED. THE RECREANT FOILED. BY A. M. LORRAINE. 209 consent to marry you while the world stands. It is true I am wild and irreligious; but the pious instructions of my parents, the religious opportunities which I have had, the many heart-searching sermons which I have heard, have for a long time disturbed my peace; Ar a very early period of my ministry, I labored in a and have determined me not to choose death. In view portion of the country where a singular circumstance of my natural proneness to ruin, I had determined to happened in the common walks of life. A well bred marry none but a man who would help me to save my young man, apparently under much religious concern, soul. I had flattered myself that you were such a charunited himself with an excellent religious society. acter, but thought it would be safe to try your steadAlthough he had formerly been rather wayward and fastness. When the proposal to leave your class was inconstant in his life, yet by his steady attendance on all first made, if you had rejected it with a manly and holy the means of grace, and the rapid improvement which indignation, you would have received my hand on the he seemed to make, in his religious course, he had gained spot. When you promised to consider the matter, I largely on the affections of his class-mates; and some saw an indecision of character that made me tremble. of the most pious and discerning had already begun to But even after so many days' deliberation, if you had regard him as a youth of some promise. In the same returned and said that you loved Zion above your chief neighborhood resided a comely, and in many re-joy-above father and mother and wife and all, then I spects, a very amiable girl. Heaven had, in mercy, could have confided my life in your hands. But the granted her one of the greatest of all earthly blessings, die is cast. You will please never mention the subject a pious parentage. But she was of an unusually vola-again-for ever." We hope the reader will never realtile disposition, and passionately fond of the world, itsize the anguish of the rejected suitor. The Church fashions and amusements. Our young friend saw avoided him as an insincere and dangerous character. her, loved her, and finally made proposals of marriage. The world, more cruel, reserved him as a standing Eliza acknowledged that she was pleased with him. target of ridicule. Some think that a compromising "But, William," said she, "there is one insuperable course, in religious matters, is most likely to win over barrier to our union. You profess religion, and I have their irreligious friends and connections. Hence they no reason to doubt your sincerity. You see what a have relaxed their fervor in the services of the sanctugiddy, vain, and heedless sinner I am. What domestic ary. They have even admitted the propriety of things happiness do you suppose will arise from our marriage? which were doubtful, and shaped their profession too You, as a man of God, would feel it to be your duty to much in conformity with the views of the world. This, erect a family altar; I am illy qualified to participate in we will admit, has often warded off persecution, and holy exercises. You would love to see every thing has sometimes restored peace in families; but it is a clothed in the sombre aspect of Christianity; I might peace that impoverishes piety, enervates the soul, and love to shine out with my fashionable friends. Consi- is always bought at the expense of the cross and kingder the great gulf that lies between us. It is true, it isdom of Jesus Christ. We doubt whether this vacillanot impassable. But I am not prepared to come over ting policy has ever saved a soul. Steadfastness and to you, at present. It remains for you to consider decision of faith have, and always will, where salvation whether you can forego your religious associations to is possible. What a remarkable illustration of this did accommodate me." William, with a sorrowful counte- Mr. Fletcher meet with in his ministry! nance and heavy sigh, observed that he would consider "One Sunday," said he, "when I had done reading the matter. A few days after, in a heartless and reluc-prayers at Madley, I went up into the pulpit, intending tant manner, he requested the leader to have his name to preach a sermon which I had prepared for that purerased from the class-book, when the preacher came pose. But my mind was so confused, that I could not round. The leader, supposing he was laboring under recollect either my text or any part of my sermon. I some cruel temptation of the enemy, urged him to con- was afraid I should be obliged to come down without fide in his integrity, and unbosom all his sorrows. The saying any thing. But having recollected myself a more solicitous the leader was to dissuade him from his little, I thought I would say something on the 1st Lespurpose, the more earnestly he pressed his suit. The son, which was the third chapter of Daniel, containing preacher, judging from the vehemency of his manner the account of the three children cast into the fiery that all was not right, and that it might be more credi- furnace. I found in doing it such extraordinary assistable to the Church to let him go, granted his request. tance from God, and such a peculiar enlargement of It was not long before he stood before Eliza, and heart, that I supposed there must be some peculiar renewed his suit. She observed, "You are aware of cause for it. I therefore desired, if any of the congrethe only difficulty that lies in the way -." Before gation found any thing particular, they would acquaint she finished the sentence, he exclaimed, with a smile, me with it in the ensuing week. In consequence of "O that is removed-my name is taken from the book-this the Wednesday after, a woman came and gave me I am no longer a Church member." The young lady fell the following account: I have been for sometime much back in her chair. A deadly paleness overspread her concerned about my soul. I have attended the Church face, and with quivering lips she said, "I will never at all opportunities, and have spent much time in priVol. I.-27 210 GENIUS WORKING FOR HIRE. this transfer; but she became in a measure alienated from the Church of her choice, and estranged from many privileges and enjoyments which she had highly prized, and all without accomplishing her object. Neither do we question her motive. Doubtless she thought she was making a noble sacrifice, which God would highly approve. But we contend that the policy, itself, is founded on a mistake; that there is no safety in trampling on the divine injunction, "Be ye steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord." REWARDS OF GENIUS. vate prayer. At this my husband (who is a butcher) || leave her in a society of comparative strangers. We has been exceedingly enraged, and threatened me se- do not mean that the good woman was destroyed by verely what he would do, if I did not leave off going to John Fletcher's Church; yea, if I dared to go any more to any religious meeting whatever. When I told him I could not in conscience refrain from going at least to our parish Church, he grew quite outrageous, and swore dreadfully if I went any more, he would cut my throat as soon as I came home. This made me cry mightily to God, that he would support me in the trying hour. Last Sunday, after many struggles with the devil and my own heart, I came down stairs ready for Church. My husband asked me whether I was resolved to go thither. I told him I was. Well then, said he, I shall not (as I intended) cut your throat; but I will heat the oven and throw you in the moment you come home. Notwithstanding this threatening, which THE drafts which true genius draws upon posterity, he enforced with many bitter oaths, I went to Church, || although they may not always be honored so soon as praying all the way that God would strengthen me to they are due, are sure to be paid with compound intersuffer whatever might befall me. While you were | est, in the end. Milton's expressions on his right to speaking of the three children whom Nebuchadnezzar this remuneration, constitute some of the finest efforts cast into the burning fiery furnace, I found it all be- of his mind. He never alludes to these high pretenlonged to me, and God applied every word to my heart. sions, but he appears to be animated by an eloquence, And when the sermon was ended, I thought if I had a || which is at once both the plea and the proof of their thousand lives, I could lay them all down for God. I justice: an eloquence, so much above all present and felt my whole soul so filled with love, that I hastened all perishable things, that like the beam of the sun, it home fully determined to give myself to whatsoever warms while it enlightens, and as it descends from God pleased; nothing doubting, but that either he heaven to earth, raises our thoughts from earth to would take me to heaven if he suffered me to be burned heaven. When the great Kepler had at length discov to death, or that he would some way deliver me, even ered the harmonious laws that regulate the motions of as he did his three servants who trusted in him. When the heavenly bodies, he exclaimed, "Whether my disI got almost to our own door, I saw the flames issuing coveries will be read by posterity, or by my contempoout of the mouth of the oven; and I expected nothing raries, is a matter that concerns them, more than me. else but that I should be thrown into it immediately. II may well be contented to wait one century for a reader, felt my heart rejoice that if it were so, the will of the when God himself, during so many thousand years, Lord would be done. I opened the door, and to my has waited for an observer like myself."-Colton. utter astonishment, saw my husband upon his knees, wrestling with God in prayer for the forgiveness of his sins. He caught me in his arms, earnestly begged my pardon, and has continued diligently seeking God ever since.' I now know why my sermon was taken from me; namely, that God might magnify his mercy." If this woman had relaxed her faith in God, to accommodate her religion to the unreasonable whims of her hus-offered the Rev. Robert Hall a thousand guineas for ten band, could she have expected the same favorable result? We meet with too many facts in the Church, to linger one moment in doubt on this question. 1110 ་་ GENIUS WORKING FOR HIRE. It is perhaps impossible for great genius to work expressly and avowedly for hire without being haunted or injured by that unhappy consciousness. A book-seller sermons, and after his first refusal, strenuously and repeatedly urged him to accept the offer. Mr. Hall replied, that if it were no other obstacle in the way of I remember a pious lady, who in early life for- his accepting the proposals, the mere business-like charsook all for Christ. She loved her Church, and was acter of the transaction, the bare naked form in which warmly attached to all its institutions. In expressing pecuniary remuneration was mixed up with it, would the love which she had for the people of her choice, form an objection quite insuperable, and transform an she would sometimes incautiously observe, that no con-occupation which ought to be spontaneous, and theresideration under heaven could induce her to leave her fore delightful, into intolerable drudgery. "A thousand Church and join another, but the salvation of her hus-guineas, sir!" said Robert Hall, "I should soon begin band. He was not only irreligious, but particularly opposed to that Church. At a certain time he became, apparently, very thoughtful, and joined another Church. She, with the purest motive in the world, followed him. But it soon became evident that he had used this stratagem to seduce her from her religious associates, and to to calculate how much it was for each sermon; then I should get down to a page, and from pages to paragraphs and sentences, and at last to words and syllables; should think every word clear gain, and become impatient of erasure and correction!-Sir, it is impossible that I could do it." CHRISTIAN PATRIOTISM. 211 Original. CHRISTIAN PATRIOTISM. of perfect and universal sanctification, and it would not render civil government unnecessary or inexpedient. It would modify our political constitutions, by relaxing A DISCOURSE DELIVERED IN ASBURY CHAPEL, CINCINNATI, the rigor of their provisions and rendering penalties MAY 14, 1841.* BY L. L. HAMLINE. useless. But national distinctions would remain, and would perpetuate the bonds of civil compacts. Before government can be dispensed with, men must be infallible in understanding as well as immaculate in purpose. I repeat, therefore, that civil government is ne CHRISTIAN CITIZENS,-We are brought, just now, to a solemn pause. An unexpected and deplored event assembles millions in the temples of religion, to hum-cessary, and its worst form is better than none. ble themselves devotionally before God, and to consider But all forms are not of equal utility. Some govthe meaning of his providences. Thus we are assem-ernments are evil, though less evil than anarchy. bled. The tenor of the Proclamation which convenes Good government is among the choicest donations of us must govern our meditations. It calls us, not to Providence. It is good in itself, and it enhances the pronounce eulogies on the illustrious dead; but to offer value of every other gift. Whether government shall prayer to the supreme Governor of nations, for our be a blessing or a curse, or both by turns, or both with country-for its government, so much the object of our subtractions and mitigations, depends much on the solicitude and prayers-for its surviving rulers, burden-provisions of the civil constitution. By constitution I ed with such delicate and vital trusts; and for our- mean those written instruments, or those cherished selves, under God the sovereign guardians of its integ-usages which create the depositories of civil power. rity and welfare. The Constitution prescribes that the supreme power Prayer is helped by meditation. To contemplate shall be in one, in many, or in a majority. It dictates the good which our prayers are intended to secure, will how much power public officers shall sway--whether feed the fervor of our devotions. Let us, then, while they shall be elective or hereditary-whether the legisperforming acts of national humiliation, glance at those || lative, judicial, and executive departments shall be social interests, whose perpetual preservation we anx-blended or severed, and other cardinal principles of iously implore. The genius of our Federal Constitu- equal and of vital moment. tion demands that we institute frequent and solemn inquisitions to assure us of the integrity of its ministers and of its beneficent operation. And it is in harmony with the event which has convened us, and with the patriotism which glowed in the bosom of our lamented Chief Magistrate, that our thoughts and sympathics should travel forth, and be busied in devices for the welfare of the nation. Assembled as we are, to implore blessings on our country, how meet it is to inquire what will make that country blest! The Constitution, then, has much to do with the prosperity or adversity of any nation. It is true that under the worst constitution the people may enjoy prosperous periods. In an absolute monarchy, where the will of the sovereign is law, and where the most cruel mandates are unquestioned, tyranny cannot always occupy the throne. It will now and then leave an interregnum to be filled by a gentler spirit, under whose generous sceptre the oppressed may breathe. But these are only accidental or providential intervals I shall invite your patient but brief attention to the in the career of tyranny. Government should secure following questions: something to its subjects. Men should so fashion it as to enforce its contributions to their peace and happiness. God has nowhere commanded us to erect I. What blessings should we seek for our country? 1. Amongst national blessings, I will name a benefi- thrones, invest them with the indefeasible prerogatives cent form of civil government. of tyranny, and yield them to the possession of whomsoever the issues of war or stratagem may place thereon. Nor has he called us to construct governments whose principles shall subject us to the ministry of mercy or of malevolence, according as good or evil men shall chance to ascend the seats of power. So far from this, we are morally obliged to secure, if possible, forms of government which shall not only yield brief periods of prosperity, but which shall secure to us unremitted thrift and happiness—forms which shall not render tyranny facile and protection difficult; but such as shall make equity and clemency inevitable, and oppression, as nearly as may be, impossible. Under the in*This discourse was written amidst pressing cares and influence of such governments, society assumes new and the greatest haste, with so little thought of its being published, that it was deemed scarcely fit for an audience. But as the meeting of Trustees and the Leaders' meeting have each call ed for its publication by formal vote, the writer does not feel at liberty to withhold it. Government is necessary. This is implied in the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, and has been confessed in all ages. A few years since it could not have been believed that an American would rise up and denounce all human government. It remained for recent times, with its unprecedented ultraisms-its neological advances in religion, in philanthropy and in social improvement, to commence crusades against all political institutions. It has been justly held that the|| worst government is better than none, because without it society could not exist. Let religion reach the point attractive forms. Where they exist, they should be cherished with almost as much solicitude as was the fire upon the Jewish altar. In all these respects no government excels our own. 212 CHRISTIAN PATRIOTISM. Its prominent features are so nearly what we might||| desire, that there is small chance for improvement. It places the supreme power in the hands of a popular majority, who exercise it through representatives of their own enlightened choice. It extends the franchises of the citizen to the utmost limits of safety, and guards his acknowledged rights by the strongest possible defenses. Under so benign a regimen, we have prospered beyond example, and have reason to be satisfied with our national compact. We should desire no radical change in our Federal or state Constitutions. As to the former, Heaven forbid that it should yield to any substitute! Let its slight blemishes be cured, but in its essential features may it endure for ever. It is easily inferred that we have no acquisitions to make on this score. Yet there is something for us to do. Our office is to preserve, not to create. This last our fathers did. Sacred be the work of their hands! Heaven grant us the wisdom and the grace not to destroy what they constructed. 2. Another blessing which we should covet for our country, is a righteous and skillful administration. For the time being, the best administration makes the best government. Despotic officers can render the mildest and most guarded polity tyrannical; for against the cunning and unmerciful, no constitutional guards can prove a perfect and sure defense. But clemency in rulers can render the worst form of government tolerable. 3. Popular intelligence and patriotism. In the United States every man who has the right of suffrage is a sovereign. He is invested with some of the highest prerogatives that pertain to the British throne. In him are blended legislative, judicial, and executive functions. By representatives of his own selection, he makes the law, interprets the law, and administers the law. How dangerous it is to invest an ignorant and profligate man with such lofty powers. Every American citizen possesses them. In proportion, then, to the intelligence and moral integrity of our citizen population is our government secure and the nation prospectively prosperous. 4. Another blessing which we should earnestly crave for our country is, the prevalence of Christian principles, which, more than all other causes combined, contribute to the prosperity of nations. This they do, not merely from the conservative tendency of such principles, but because a religious veneration for God secures his friendship, and enlists the energies of Omnipotence to build up and to defend. To convince us of this we need only consult the history of the Jews. Popular intelligence is no blessing to society without popular integrity, and incorrigible integrity cannot exist without the Christian religion. These are the moral and political elements of national prosperity. It will be seen that they are of domestic growth. They arise from internal development. There are others, external or foreign, depending on the civil or militant acts of surrounding nations. But I shall not discuss them. I think, with Mr. Randolph, that "so long as all is well at home, nothing can be dangerously wrong abroad." And what seems wrong, as something often does, might generally be reached and remedied by prayer. I use the word administration in its generic import, as embracing the legislative, the judicial, and the executive functions. These should be exercised in harmony with the Constitution, which must be sacredly guarded at whatever sacrifice. The Constitution is supreme. It is above the magistrate-it is above the judge-it is above the law and the law-maker; and finally it is above the people, unless they reach it by the violence of revolution, or touch it gently with its own consent, and in the manner which itself prescribes. This supremacy of the Constitution cannot be too much insisted on. The popular sentiment should confess and vindicate it. The nation's heart should feel it, and the nation's pulse should quicken with jealous Having briefly noticed the elements of national prosindignation at the least approach towards its infringe-perity, or the blessings which we should crave for our country, I proceed, ment. The administration must be beneficent as well as constitutional. It must promote the interests of the people, which it does when it places them in the best possible circumstances to acquire wealth, knowledge,|| and virtue. To secure such an administration, honest and wise men must be placed at its head-men whose patriotism will prompt them to seek the public good, and whose skill will devise the proper means to promote it. Intimately connected, therefore, with the character of the administration, is the power of election to office. Sometimes the Constitution elects, as in hereditary monarchies and aristocracies. But in our government the elections are mostly democratic. They depend upon the people. Consequently, another element of prosperity is, Another class of inherent elements of prosperity may be denominated natural or physical. They are, extent of territory, amount of population and wealth; climate, soil, and productions; and mercantile facilities, such as sea coast, harbors, lakes, and navigable streams. But these are familiar statistics; and as they are mostly independent of moral influence, I merely enumerate and pass them by. II. To show why we should seek them by prayer. 1. Because these elements of prosperity, and the agents who control them, are at God's disposal. This will be admitted. At least, to deny it requires a great stretch of infidelity. What does it imply? It implies that the minds of public men can be so controlled by Jehovah, that in constructing a government they shall prefer an aristocracy to a monarchy, or a republic to both. It implies that executive officers can be so influenced by the fear of God, or by moral preferences, that they shall be faithful and just. It implies that Providence can direct the attention of nations to the pursuit of truth, and can dispose them to successful efforts for mental and religious improvement. And lastly, it im CHRISTIAN PATRIOTISM. 2. We should seek these blessings by prayer, because national interests are affected by Divine Providence. 213 plies that he can control the policy of other nations || these states, are there no certain indications of a divine towards this, and incline them to be at peace with us; purpose to rear the American colonies and establish or by withdrawing his merciful restraints, can leave them a nation? I appeal to those who have read the them to turn their wrath and weapons against us. history, and can call to mind its wonders. Had ProvWill any deny that God can do these things? Wheth- idence nothing to do with the glorious Revolution? er he does them is hereafter to be inquired. At present Who provided the men and the muscle-the minds and I only affirm that he can do them; although by "can," the means-the national repulsions and the political I mean not merely an ability of power, but an ability affiliations for that period of trials and treacheries and of right; that is, he may do them consistently with his tragedies? Were no ministers of Providence hovering moral rectitude. But, over Braddock's Field, to guard the youthful hero, in whose life were garnered the interests of unborn nations-the franchises of a continent, if not of a world? Was that life the sport of fortune through years of peril, in which the sword cut down his fellows on his right and on his left? Turn from this grateful theme to the city of brotherly love. Fancy yourself, on the 4th of July, '76, in that venerable edifice where the charter of our freedom, framed without the leave of masters, received the pledges of our Hancocks, and Jeffersons, and Harrisons, who devoted life, property, and honor for its defense. Was no God there? Was there none to guard the ark which contained that sacred covenant, during eight years of assault, pursuit, and slaughter? Was there none to control those deliberations that gave to this nation a Constitution, which, amidst severe conflicts of opinion, was scarcely adopted by the members of this confederation? Let Franklin, standing in the midst of his peers, and urging them to pause and implore Jehovah's blessing, answer. To the believer in revelation the proof is direct and conclusive. Let us advert to Scripture examples. Consider the chain of events which planted the Jews in Palestine, and made them the wonder of nations. When Abraham was called into covenant with God-|| when Joseph was sold into Egypt, and made its lord, and became the savior of his brethren-when Moses was rescued from the Nile, adopted by the princess, taught in the wisdom of the Egyptians, fled to Jethro, and returned as the minister of God's mercy to his countrymen, and of God's wrath to their oppressors, was not Providence preparing to build up Jerusalem? When the dust, and the waters, and the cattle, and the first-born of Egypt were cursed by the newly commissioned prophet, did not God curse? When the sea was divided asunder, and the rock poured out water, and the heavens rained manna, and the tables of the law were delivered at Sinai, was it not by God's own providence? When with so many and such great miracles, Joshua, at the head of the tribes, entered the promised land, had the Lord nothing to do with it? When David went with stone and sling against the proud Philistine, and returned with trophies of victory-when Samuel anointed and Jonathan protected him, till at last he ascended the vacant throne, was God a mere spectator? When he sinned, and his enemies became strong-when his own house was against him-when he fled from the fury of Absalom, and the nation was humbled in the dust, was God afar off? Had he no hand in the death of the rebel, in the return of David, and in the restoration of peace to distracted Jerusalem? Had he none in the destruction of the Assyrian hosts, in the captivities of his people, and in the marvelous proceedings of Cyrus to rebuild Jerusalem, and restore the tribes? And, finally, had he none in those incidents of prophesied vengeance which brought on Jerusalem her ultimate doom, and has made her peeled and scattered children a by-word and a hissing to this very day? You may say the Jews were God's people, and Jerusalem was the place of his rest-the city which he had chosen to place his name there. I answer, under the Gospel dispensation, every nation that fears God is his peculiar people. Let us, then, turn to our own country, and see if neither the past nor the present supplies any tokens of God's gracious interference. In the events which preceded and attended the settlement of But in later times were there no tokens that God cared for us? Let land and sea bear testimony. Lakes and oceans are God's speaking witnesses. Go to Tippecanoe, to Fort Meigs, to the Thames, and to New Orleans, and you will light upon the monuments of Jehovah's care for this rising nation. Go any where within our borders; for almost every stream, forest and prairie within the broad circumference of the land records some gracious deliverance from open assault or covert mischief, which, except for God's timely mercy, had betrayed us or ours to ruin. In sanguinary conflicts where thousands fought, how often was the battle ours, because Heaven made it ours! In those border struggles kept up, with slight intermissions, since the settlement of Jamestown and Plymouth, the traces of which have not yet faded from our western fields and habitations, what sanguinary horrors have our fathers escaped by the watchful providence of Jehovah. God was with our ancestors beyond sea; and he moved them to adventure hither, and dwell in this vast wilderness. He made for them a highway of waters, guided them and brought them to these shores. Where they pitched their tents he erected his pavilion. He saved them from famine and the tomahawk. In peace he blessed them with harmony and increase. When necessary, he taught their hands to war and their fingers to fight, and covered their heads in the day of battle. He inspired their hearts with the love of holy freedom. He controlled the minds which framed our excellent Constitution, and gave that sacred instrument the impress of his wisdom. To say noth |