The Duties of an American Citizen: Two Discourses, Delivered in the First Baptist Meeting House in Boston, on Thursday, April 7, 1825, the Day of Public Fast. ... |
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The Duties of an American Citizen: Two Discourses, Delivered in the First ... Francis Wayland No preview available - 2018 |
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aware becoming brethren century Christendom church citizens civil institutions civilized world classes of society constitution contest continent coun destinies direct your attention doctrines earth effect elevate enlight evident exert exist fact feeling form of government free institutions freedom friends of free furnish genius gospel government of law Greece happiness hath hence Holy Alliance Homer human heart human mind human nature human race Iliad influence intellectual and moral intellectual cultivation intelligence interests Italy Jesus Christ labours literary Lord love of liberty lower classes Magazine ment mighty moral character nations of Europe never number of newspaper oppression papers parties physical force ples political condition popular present age principles progress in intellectual Protestant Christianity public opinion ratio of improvement religion religious republican revelation shall shine revolution rulers Sabbath school scriptures South America Supposing all power taught tion trains of thought truth tual United universal unto vastly whole
Popular passages
Page 49 - GOD be merciful unto us, and bless us ; And cause his face to shine upon us. That thy way may be known upon earth, Thy saving health among all nations.
Page 33 - Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us.
Page 44 - But considered simply as an intellectual production, who will compare the poems of Homer with the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. Where in the Iliad shall we find simplicity and pathos, which shall vie with the narrative of Moses, or maxims of conduct to equal in wisdom the Proverbs of Solomon, or sublimity, which does not fade away before the conceptions of Job or David, of Isaiah or St John. But I cannot pursue this comparison. I feel that it is doing wrong to the mind, which dictated...
Page 45 - If, then, so great results have flowed from this one effort of a single mind, what may we not expect from the combined efforts of several, at least his equals in power over the human heart? If that one genius, though groping in the thick darkness of absurd idolatry, wrought so glorious a transformation in the character of his countrymen, what may we not look for from the universal dissemination of those writings, on whose authors was poured the full...
Page 42 - Not many an one has made its little mark upon the generation that produced it, though it sunk with that generation to utter forgetfulness. But after the ceaseless toil of six thousand years, how few have been the works, the adamantine basis of whose reputation has stood unhurt amid the fluctuations of time, and whose impression can be traced through successive centuries on the history of our species.
Page 12 - Let a voice, borne on the feeblest breeze, tell that the rights of man are in danger, and it floats over valley and mountain, across continent and ocean, until it has vibrated on the ear of the remotest dweller in Christendom. Let the arm of oppression be raised to crush the feeblest nation on earth, and there will be heard every where, if not the shout of defiance, at least the deep-toned murmur of implacable displeasure. It is the cry of aggrieved, insulted, much-abused man. It is Human Nature...
Page 8 - In connexion with these facts, we would remark, that in consequence of this general diffusion of intelligence, nations are becoming vastly better acquainted with the physical, moral and political conditions of each other. Whatever of any moment is transacted in the legislative assemblies of one country, is now very soon known, not merely to the rulers, but also to the people of every other country. Nay, an interesting occurrence of any nature cannot transpire in an insignificant town of Europe or...
Page 14 - Useful and necessary changes in legislation and administration," says the Laybach Circular of May, 1821, "ought only to emanate from the free will and intelligent conviction of those whom God has rendered responsible for power; all that deviates from this line necessarily leads to disorder, commotions, and evils far more insufferable than those which they pretend to remedy.
Page 43 - The Pythagorean scale of numbers' was at once discovered to be perfect; but the poems of Homer we yet know not to transcend the common limits of human intelligence, but by remarking, that nation after nation, and century after century, has been able to do little more than transpose his incidents, new name his characters, and paraphrase his sentiments.
Page 10 - Thus one form of government, which in any pre-eminent degree promotes the happiness of man, is gradually but irresistibly disseminating the principles of its constitution, and from the very fact of its existence, calling into being those trains of thought, which must in the end revolutionize every government, within the sphere of its influence, under which the people are oppressed.