branches of knowledge, which has so happily displayed itself in the useful arts. The time has gone by when even the mocker would dare to ask, Who reads an American book? How rapidly our Bench and our Bar have risen to eminence during the last half century; and how liberal have been their contributions to the great store-house of legal knowledge, is acknowledged wherever jurisprudence is understood and appreciated. If I may speak of my own profession, our divines, according to their numbers, have done their part to vindicate and illustrate the great truths of the Gospel. But our distinguishing achievement in religion is that in which as a people we yet stand alone. Nor is it to be traced simply to the wisdom of our divines, or of any one profession or class of our citizens. It is the result of public sentiment pervading the land. We have severed the Church from the State. We have withdrawn and secured religion, the holiest boon of heaven, from corrupting alliance with civil authority. We have discovered, if discovery it can be called, that religion is best supported when self-supported. We have brought to the proof of successful experiment, what was long ridiculed as a dream, that those who enjoy the blessings of Christianity, will best sustain her worship and ordinances by their voluntary offerings. We ask neither establishment nor toleration from the

State. We require nothing but protection for all worshippers, and in any form of worship which conscience approves, and which will not disturb the peace and safety of others. I dwell on this subject the more because it so well exemplifies the fearless and truth-loving spirit of inquiry which belongs to our nation. The belief that religion could be sustained only by the patronage of the State, was indurated by the rust of ages. It formed an article in Protestant as well as Papal creeds. The Reformation, with all its power in dispelling delusions and removing abuses, had failed to create a reformed and scriptural faith on this important point, important both to the peace of the State, and the purity and prosperity of the Church. In this country we broke down ecclesiastical establishments when we broke away from colonial dependence. We made the Church independent of the State when we wrought out the independence of the nation. We have based the claims of religion for support on her own excellence, as she herself reveals it to the hearts of men; and now, having watched the working of our system for more than half a century, we find the result to be most propitious. We find it in the liberality with which the ministry and ordinances of the Gospel are sustained. In no land throughout Protestant Christendom are the clergy, as a class,

placed in circumstances of a more happy co-petency than in these United States. If none of them are luxuriating in princely incomes, none of them are left destitute of the necessaries of life. We find it also in the spirit of mutual kindness and good will which prevails among the various denominations of Christians. "Judah does not vex Ephraim, nor does Ephraim envy Judah." No one sect, because established by law, can look down upon others who do not enjoy the same patronage. We all share equally in the favor of the State, and must all depend equally on ourselves for favor among the people. We find it also in the enlarged munificence and increased activity with which our churches act, for the spread of the Gospel. Universal experience shows, that it is those whose hearts are trained to liberality by sustaining religion among themselves, who lead the way in voluntary offerings for sending it to others.

Not to cite farther proofs showing the vigor with which the minds of our people act, in new acquisitions of knowledge, and in correcting old and long established errors and abuses; let me now ask. what can it be that gives to the nation this elastic spirit, this indomitable energy and perseverance! What, that diffuses this character so widely as to make it extend to every class, in every condition of

life? No doubt we owe it to our wide spread Christianity as the first and great cause. But had Christianity been cramped and enfeebled by civil disabilities and restraints, she would have been far from imparting this tone to the public mind. She has long existed under these counteracting influences in lands where we find but little proof of such power on the character of the people. No, it is only where Christianity is allowed to act herself out; to act in alliance with civil and religious freedom; a freedom which she sanctions by her own high authority; that she can "have free course," reaching all classes and imbuing a whole community with a spirit which renders them alike blessed in themselves, and the instrument of blessing to the world around them.

Surely then, if freedom is thus interwoven with the improvement and happiness of our race, it may well be expected that whatever is essential to its establishment should be revealed in a volume which "has the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." The precious Book has assured us that "the hairs of our head are all numbered;" that our "bread shall be given us and our water shall be sure;" and when we are taught that the Most High governs with such care in the minutest concerns of human life, can we suppose that he

would fail to instruct men in the nature and importance of institutions by which every thing valuable in their personal, domestic, civil and Christian welfare, is so deeply affected.

I would not close this Lecture without asking you to reflect, that this desire for progress, this onward spirit which I have described as characteristic of our nation, unless wisely regulated may lead into errors of no ordinary magnitude. Let it not be supposed that we would have the elastic spring of the bow destroyed, because owing to unskilful hands it may sometimes send the arrow beyond the mark. Wrong, oppression and injustice have been so long prevalent in our fallen world, that inveterate evils are not always to be eradicated, nor great benefits acquired and secured by powers of action that have been tamed down to what some would call a safe mediocrity; and if the sultry and deadly atmosphere can be purified by nothing short of the breeze freshening into a gale; then let the wind blow, and even, if need be, let the thunder roll, though the trees of the forest be shaken, and some. of their branches be scattered in the storm. But while we would not have the energy of our people subdued or destroyed, we desire to see it wisely governed, and their eyes opened to the dangers which beset them.