George Washington Bethune

“ Even if any of you doubt the policy of our civil constitution, or desire a different order of things, your skepticism is too late, and the whispers of your wish would be drowned by the earthquake shout of federate millions, conscious of an irresistible will. The sovereignty of the people is a fact, and over the results for good or evil you have no control beyond your individual vote, except, by diffusing the leaven of truth through the mighty heaving mass, you persuade them to rule well ”

“ Place by the side of the most stately cathedral, furnished with all the appliances of idolatrous pomp, a plain meeting-house with the simple gospel in its pulpit, and we need not fear for the result. The multitude may enter the gorgeous pile, gaze curiously at the novel exhibitions, listen to the skilfully adjusted music; but when they wish to worship God, it will be under the more lowly roof, where the mercy of the homeless Nazarene is offered to the poor, and their own voices can exult in the hallelujahs of praise, or falter out the accents of contrition. ”

“ The citizen who goes forth from the midst of us to build his log-cabin on the farthest borders of the newest State, has a vote as influential as though he stood at the polls by our side. Mighty as we have already become, the valley between our great mountains is the cradle of, as yet, an infant nation destined to attain a gigantic strength, compared with which every other republic, past or present, will appear like a dwarf. Still we are one people, and the national will is the aggregate result of the suffrage of each individual citizen of all these millions. ”

“ For, besides that the Holy Scripture is a library of itself, containing the most ancient, authentic and satisfactory account of things in their causes, narrative the most simple and impressive, biography the most honest and useful, eloquence the most powerful and persuasive, poetry the most sublime and beautiful, argument the closest and most profound, politics the justest and most liberal, and religion pure from the throne of God; it alone teaches morals with sufficient authority, motive, and example—the authority of God, the motives of eternity, and the example of Jesus Christ, God-in-man. ”

“ To teach a child reading, and not to follow up the service by providing him with good books, and giving him counsel how to read them, is but to prepare him for the most dangerous forms of temptation in which bad men have colluded with hell to ruin immortal souls. For this necessity our Sunday-school system has provided. The teacher is the child’s affectionate friend, and with him is sent a rich library of hallowed volumes, carefully fitted to inculcate the best lessons, while they lead on the youthful reader by their pleasing style. ”

“ As you love your country, the safety of your children’s freedom, the salvation of your fellow sinners, and the honour of Him who alone can make us free, cherish the American Sunday-school Union, pray for it, give to it, and act in aid of it. Nor think you have done this, when you have opened schools for the children of Christian congregations. Go forth and gather the poor, the morally destitute, for whom the Sunday-school, like the gospel, was mainly intended. ”

“ If the secular power be permitted to sustain the altar, it will soon control the ministers of the altar, and substitute strange fire for the heaven-kindled flame. As we would deprecate such oppressions as those which characterize false forms of Christianity, we should avoid the slightest acknowledgment of any right in the State to act for the seeming advancement of our own religious views. Religious liberty and the rights of conscience have been purchased by too long a struggle and too much expense of blood and argument, now to be lightly ventured. ”

“ Among the hundreds of thousands who come and mingle with us as a nation, there are many who bring with them habits and prejudices unfitting them to use aright their novel plenty and freedom. It cannot be otherwise than that disaster must result from such a heterogeneous influx among us, unless means, the most efficient, are taken to counteract the threatened evil. The covenant and providence of God have put those means within the reach of our faith and zeal; for we cannot doubt the sufficiency of the gospel, which we have the most unlimited permission to employ in the salvation of our country. ”

“ The relations we sustain to other countries are of vast importance both to them and ourselves. With the establishment of our unprecedented government and Union, a new era dawned upon the world. The scoffing prophecies of our speedy downfall, as a certain consequence of our popular system, which then curled the lips of despotic and aristocratic power, have been silenced by ill-dissembled terrors, lest its example should overturn and out-live the strongest thrones. ”

“ Brethren, if we have any faith in the value of civil and religious liberty, any mercy for the oppressed, to break whose bonds our Lord and Master came, any love of that political morality which bids us look on our neighbour as ourselves, let us put forth all the energies of prayer and zeal, that the revived hope of a golden age be not proved a dream, by the failure of our people to live worthily of their vocation ”

“ Shall the children of our land, even the poorest, be made early wise in the fear of the Lord, that they may be prepared to exercise faithfully their part of the national sovereignty on earth, and then be crowned immortally as royal priests unto God and his Christ? Or shall they, abandoned by your lukewarmness to the evil influences everywhere at work, when grown up, ignorant and irreligious, curse the land by a foolish rule, and perish for ever. ”

“ We have not now reference to the defective working of the best devised plans of public instruction, from the lukewarmness of the people to secure good results; but to other difficulties which lie deep in our national policy. By our wise national and State constitutions, religion is most properly left unregulated by law, while every citizen is protected in the rights of conscience. Free from partiality to any particular creed, our political system allows to all the equal and best privilege of being let alone. The theory is just, better for religion even than for the State ”

“ Shall we then doubt the duty or the ability of Christian patriots to meet these increasing exigencies? Shall the world’s lust of gain exceed our zeal for souls? Shall war summon willing instruments by tens of thousands, and the gospel of peace ask without success for messengers to bear the tidings of saving grace among our distant brethren? ”

“ A more than adamantine power of resistance is already secured in the tastes and customs of our people; an omnipotent active force is given us in the truth of God’s holy word. A religion whose policy it is to attract by pompous show, and to beat down reason by human authority, must be rejected by men who will not allow their judges or officers of state the slightest insignia, and who are ready to battle until death for the right of free discussion. ”

“ Remember, that there is no school of sound morals open for the people, but the Church and the Sunday-School!
Establish Christian principles in the souls of our American youth, and you build our republic upon a rock, so that whatever storm may blow or flood come, it will not fall until in the final catastrophe the earth itself is dissolved, and the kingdom of the new Jerusalem made perfect, in which all its citizens shall be princes, the younger brethren of Him who sits on the right hand of the throne, the children of God himself. ”

“ The course of a nation is rarely backward from decay to prosperity; and it must be among us, that, when wrong in opinion or practice acquires a popular majority, right will not soon nor easily regain the sway, because the native bent of the human character is downward; but prosperity also becomes most dangerous, when not severely regulated, while amidst the greatest popular triumphs of virtue there is reason to fear, lest evil, assuming the angelic garb, may divert the impulse gained by such excitement, and precipitate the best cause into ruin. ”

“ The cases must be very rare, in which, with such facilities for teaching or learning, any need grow up to manhood destitute of skill to trace the words of divine truth.
The art of reading is, however, but a small part of the necessary training. It may, in itself, be a curse, and will be, if pains be not taken to render it a blessing. The press, though one of God’s greatest gifts to man, like every other bounty of his, may be converted into a fruitful means of mischief. It would be, truly, most short-sighted folly, to lament the cheapness of publication in our day. ”

“ Good among men is always somewhat mixed with evil, and it would be strange, indeed, if there were no seeming drawbacks to the immense political and religious advantages which we enjoy. Rash and treasonable is the tongue that would breathe discontent with our admirably adjusted laws, because of some temporary hindrance to a favourite plan of usefulness. It is our duty, as individual citizens, to supply what the government cannot extend without a dangerous violation of its fundamental harmony. It is impossible for the general government to provide education for the youth of our country ”

“ Insolence of riches, madness from too much learning, a romantic imagination, family ties, a desire of notoriety from opposition to the general sentiment, may have led some to please themselves with the gorgeous, gloomy, or fantastic forms of those dark ages, when the ruffian noble, the bigot priest, and the royal fool, trampled on the neck the conscience and the heart of the many; but such exceptions must be few, far fewer than instances of the reverse. No impression can be made upon the people generally. ”

“ The infidel, the Papist, and other dangerous errorists, have far more than a pretext for opposing the power of God’s pure word upon a theatre common to all. Whatever may be the honest purposes of Christians, they will find their philanthropic zeal in this matter plausibly, obstinately and often successfully met. We lose time, perhaps moral power, in fighting a battle on such debateable ground. Our true policy is, by means, in methods, and on occasions undeniably our own, to outwork the enemies of truth and the friends of darkness. ”

“ Each ship that has borne a crowd of emigrants, glad to leave the soil of their birth, and the graves of their ancestors, that they may find happy homes for their children and children’s children, bears back tidings of a land flowing with milk and honey, to the mud-walled cabins where famine broods, and the gaunt infant dies upon the exhausted bosom of its starving mother. ”

“ When we hear the apostolical exhortation: “That, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men; for kings, and all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty;” [17] we learn the importance of prayer and thanksgiving for the people, that God may have mercy upon our nation, and bless it, by guiding the people in the exercise of their power. ”

“ Without defining positively what the system of government should be, it insists upon our loyal obedience to constituted authority; and of this, our Divine Lord set us a notable example, in paying tribute to the Cæsar of the Romans, who had won their sway over the Jews by the sword. Our apostle, also, under the same domination says: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.” ”

“ We are daily evolving methods of policy, rejecting or confirming what has been tried, and, disregardful of precedent, boldly venturous in novelty. Hence, the public mind, though impulsive and agitated, is lively and far more pliant than when the weight of inveterate prejudice renders it torpid or obstinate. The fire is always under the crucible, and fresh elements may constantly be added to those already in fusion. It is for us to see, that, by our earnest industry, principles of truth and righteousness are supplied so liberally as to more than neutralize the malignant force of error and sin. ”