Thomas Binney

“ Worship is the communion of mind with mind,—not only the sympathy of worshipper with worshipper, but the communion of each and of all with the worshipped. There can be no communion or sympathy with a force;—no intelligent adoration of a law; no affections can be warmed and excited, and drawn forth in psalm and song, towards a mere senseless [50] physical power,—an unintelligent, mechanical necessity! Without a personal God, everything like worship is a mockery and a lie; the whole service is nothing but a masquerade. ”

“ No human being would be to be found, who could look over the earth with all its wonders, and survey the heaven with its sun and stars,—and see no proof or probability in either, of the existence anywhere of a being or a personality greater than himself! This is the amount of the Atheistic creed,—if creed it can be called, that consists only in denials and negations. The universe is a thing,—wonderful indeed, but nothing more,—having no consciousness, no capacity for voluntary action, nothing about it of personal properties ”

“ Teach us ever to remember that all this store which we have prepared cometh of Thine hand and is all Thine own. Both riches and honour come of Thee, and thou reignest over all. In Thine hand it is to make great and to give strength unto all. Now, therefore, O God, we thank Thee; we praise Thee and intreat Thee so to overrule this assembly of many nations, that it may tend to the advancement of Thy glory, to the diffusion of Thy Holy Word, to the increase of general prosperity, by promoting peace and goodwill among the different races of mankind. ”

“ That wonder will include specimen and proof of what man has done for himself and his dwelling-place, since he lay helpless on the margin of the earth, like a ship-wrecked mariner that had got to shore, but with the loss of all things. Guided and helped by the Divine power, but in a manner consistent with his intelligent nature, his free thought and personal agency, the mind of man was developed and enlarged, society formed, and arts and handicrafts, science and letters, rose and realized what history records, and what modern civilization so wonderfully represents. ”

“ How one generation has improved upon another, and how discovery and invention, and labour and skill, and industry and genius, have covered the earth with a succession of wonders; and then to think, how a sort of representative epitome of these is to stand before us in the marvellous contents of the last and greatest wonder of the world! ”

“ He is “the great God that formed all things.” “O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them [19] all.” “The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth, by understanding hath he established the heavens. By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down dew.” “Of old thou hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of thy hands” “The sea is his,—he made it; and his hands formed the dry land.” “Mine hand hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens.” ”

“ It was God who appointed wood to swim, and water to flow, and fixed the poles, and fashioned the loadstone, and gave the compass, and bound the breast of the first mariners as with triple brass, that all the wonders of navigation might ensue, and enterprise and discovery, and the peaceful and profitable intercourse of nations. And it is God that still presides over and governs all things; that gives spring and summer, and winter and harvest; it is he who distils the influences of the heavens, and perpetuates the fertility of the earth ”

“ To this, under God, we owe our free political constitution, our civil rights, and our religious liberty; to this we are indebted for the power we are at present exercising and using in the face of the world,—the power of throwing our metropolis open to the nations,—receiving them all, without passports, and with hardly a precaution, to our streets and squares, our court and senate, our families and our homes. We have no fear that our soldiers will be corrupted, or our population seduced;—we apprehend nothing of injury to our faith, or of temptation to our loyalty. ”

“ In the holy of holies, there is the mysterious light of the glory of God seated between the cherubims;—between that and the hanging veil and the sacred floor, some one must be standing, whom, as yet, we see not,—for his shadow can be discerned on the veil itself, and even on the floor, as we mark minutely the appearances before us of light and shade. ”

“ The religious instinct, then, or susceptibility, or faculty, or whatever it may be called, is inherent in human nature—divides and distinguishes it from all else in the wide world, though it may express itself in the grossnesses of superstition and idolatry, or may have sunk into dormancy in extraordinary cases; but neither old, nor young, of all the tribes of the inferior races,—the most sagacious or the most domesticated,—can be found to display, or be taught to comprehend, religion at all! ”

“ It is worth living for, to be, first, the occasion of a great central commercial edifice, in one of the greatest cities of the world, bearing on its front the record of the central truth of religion; and then, secondly, to be the cause of the congregating together, in that city, of men of all lands and of all languages, to look, among other things, upon that edifice, and to observe the truth which the people it represents have there publicly enthroned! ”

“ We acknowledge that it is not because of works of righteousness which we have done, but of Thy great mercy, that we are permitted to come before Thee with the voice of thanksgiving, and that instead of humbling us for our offences, Thou hast given us cause to thank Thee for Thine abundant goodness. And now, O Lord, we beseech Thee to bless the work which Thou hast enabled us to begin, and to regard with Thy favour our purpose of knitting together in the bonds of peace and concord the different nations of the earth; for with Thee, O Lord, is the preparation of the heart in man. ”

“ The products of the different regions of the earth will recognise each other as belonging to one and the same world; the multitudes of things that will illustrate the achievements of skill and industry, though constructed or fabricated by the hands of men of many languages, will have among themselves a common dialect—a language of their own—but which all the different national workers shall alike understand. ”

“ What stands next to the idea of worship, is a description of the moral character of the worshippers. “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?” “He that hath clean hands and a pure heart: who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.” This description is very brief, but it is very comprehensive. Each clause may be considered as representing a distinct and large department of duty; and the whole, taken together, as demanding or enforcing universal virtue. “Clean hands” stand as a figure for all outward and visible excellence. ”

“ Admit the Divine existence; it is [45] felt to extend downwards into the domain of human duty, and to suggest and enforce the obligation of worship: admit the reality of the religious instinct, and mark its universal and irrepressible force,—it swells upwards and amounts to a proof of the existence of God. The Divine Being has not only set his glory above the heavens, and spoken of himself by the myriads of voices that are perpetually issuing from the earth and the sky ”

“ Everything will speak of oneness, brotherhood,—the same nature, the same faculties, the same Father,—the folly and wickedness of men not “living together in unity,”—of their degrading powers that are so wonderful, and so prolific of wonders, and desolating a world which they have such vast ability to beautify and adorn! ”

“ The truth thus referred to, the foundation truth of all religion, is taught and illustrated in the Holy Scriptures in the most remarkable manner. The Bible, indeed, seldom or never attempts to prove that there is a God; it rather assumes his existence, takes it for granted, proceeds upon it as a necessary intuitional truth, and regards any one who would pretend to deny it, either as “a fool” who is prompted to the denial by his corrupt “heart;” or as a philosopher who has become “vain in his reasonings,” and whose “understanding is darkened.” ”

“ Now these thoughts, and a thousand others of a kindred sort, may all be indulged by a reflective man in visiting the Exhibition,—indulged devoutly, and turned to eminent spiritual advantage. Every thing that man is seen to have achieved,—every proof of his sagacity and power, his skill and performance—will only enhance, in a thoughtful soul, the impression of the wonderfulness of that nature which God originally made for himself, which sin has degraded, and which Christ has redeemed. ”

“ The believers in the Bible believe, of course, in supernatural manifestations of the Divine Being, made to them in the records, and embodied in many of the facts, of the book; and it is this belief that makes them worshippers. For the habit of worship, then, facts everywhere and abundantly demonstrate, you must have a religion; and for the existence of religion, you must have the belief of supernatural discoveries of God to man, in addition to the display of himself in his works. Deism is not a religion, but a philosophy; it has a God, but it does not worship ”

“ There never can be literal and absolute equality of station or circumstance;—there never can be a uniformity of rank or possessions. In the most perfect condition of the world and man, there must still of necessity be master and servant, the employer and the employed;—the head of one, the hand of another, the capital of a third, the back for a burden, and the feet for toil; all these will always be required, and must be furnished, and must act, in any improved state of society. ”

“ He has given to sound sentiment and eloquence, and has made instruments of music that can subdue multitudes. Of all these achievements, and of a vast variety of other forms of skilfulness and power, the Great Exhibition will present the proofs, and exhibit them in their latest and most perfect development. And yet it is to be remarked, that with all it will do, it will leave the greatest and the most wonderful of the works of man uncollected and unseen. Mechanical industry has its many marvels,—art and science their miraculous results ”

“ While we survey the works of art and industry which surround us, let not our hearts be lifted up that we forget the Lord our God, as if our own power and the might of our hands had gotten in this wealth. ”

“ If a holy God can only be approached by holy worshippers,—and that, too, in a world of which holiness is not the natural and characteristic attribute,—it is very obvious, that he must either remain without ever being worshipped at all, or some mode must exist by which the inhabitants of such a world may be made holy. Now this is just the thing which the Jewish dispensation illustrated by a figure, and which the Christian redemption is given to the world to realize in fact. ”

“ If the nations of the world were each to possess a national religion in the sense of the whole nation being religious, then, every individual would be chaste and temperate, upright and truthful, fortified by the strength and softened and adorned by the beauties of holiness. ”

“ If worship could be conceived to be honestly attempted in connexion with the denial of God’s personal existence, it would be an attempt on the part of the worshippers to produce subjective states of mind by the conscious temporary assumption of a falsehood, and the employment upon themselves of a system of direct deception and imposture. The thing is impossible,—or impossible to be continued. There must either be the admission of a personal God as the object of worship, or worship itself will soon cease. Our belief and persuasion as a people are recorded in the front of our Royal Exchange. ”

“ No books would be written to demoralize and corrupt,—nor the arts be allowed to minister to licentiousness. Industry would be cheerful, and labour [123] honoured; the fruits of the earth would be taken and used as a Divine gift; and the productions of skill would be connected with thoughts of the Maker of the mind. In that day, there would be on every object “holiness to the Lord,” for all men would act in consistency with the belief, that “the earth is His, and the fulness thereof.” ”

“ The gathering of the nations about to be held is to be altogether of another sort. The crowds that move to it, are not to move as a thunderbolt or a whirlwind, carrying in their course havock and desolation; they are to bring with them, in their tranquil march, the useful products of their respective countries, and the bloodless trophies of their industry and their skill. ”

“ It was God who appropriated to different climes their diversified productions;—who hid beneath the surface of various peoples mineral varieties;—who conferred on the nations different talents and different tastes;—who made exchange of productions a mutual want, necessity, or convenience;—and who thus established the law of commercial intercourse. It was God that gave to man improvable reason, so that he was not bound down to unintelligent instinct in constructing his habitation or providing for his necessities, but was empowered and intrusted [28] with the inventive head and the skilful hand ”

“ The lower animals have senses and appetites similar to his; they can see and hear—they hunger and thirst; in many of them, indeed, some of the things that he and they possess in common, exist in greater acuteness and perfection in them than they do in him; while others make approaches to thought and reason, memory and will, affection and passion; but none of them share with him the capacity to adore,—none of them can pray,—none but he can entertain the conception of an invisible power,—engage in individual, or unite in acts of social, devotion. ”

“ In visiting the Exhibition, there are many sentiments which Christians might indulge as means of impression or improvement to themselves. It is hardly necessary, after having gone through the foregoing argument, to press upon the reader the duty of seeing and remembering God in all that will be displayed of the riches of nature and the products of art. It is true, indeed, that it is to be the Exhibition of the Industry of the Nations,—that is, it is, in a manner, to reveal and magnify MAN by accumulating and displaying his wonderful works. ”

“ And in the same way, the myriads of gods, which the Asiatic nations conceive to be filling the heavens and the earth,—large and small,—great and little, but most of them debased,—will all disappear, like the more elegant system of the Greeks, that once divided the domain of nature, and parcelled it out among its subordinate divinities. ”

“ When Christian worship shall be universal in the earth, the gods, and priests, and altars and temples of all other religions will have departed; everything gross, cruel, and obscene will have passed away, and have given place to the practical knowledge of the one living and true God,—to Him, “who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity,” and who requires to be worshipped by men of “clean hands” and of “pure hearts.” ”

“ The aggregate of families, which make up a nation, living in unity, like each of the families that constitute or compose it, the aggregate of nations will dwell together in the same spirit, and with the same results. ”

“ The religious man, if he be true to his privileges and profession, will have all the virtues of the man of the world, besides some others which the latter has not;—and still further, as those that they have in common, are, in him, fed and sustained from a far higher and diviner source than what nourishes those of the man of the world, they ought to be seen to be both more pure and more elevated than his, in simple correspondence with that circumstance. ”