Farewell to the First Congregational Church in Norwalk, Conn. (bound with other addresses)

own wisdom to guide, and his own power to strengthen them in the arduous ascent— bears long and patiently with their grievous provo- cations — holds back the uplifted thunder, and cries, " How shall I give them up 1 How shall I make them as Admah ? How shall I set them as Zeboim 1 My heart is turned within me, my' repentings are kindled together." With a persuasion equally subduing the Savior pleads with them. He presents his Godlike form scarred with the scourge and the cross. He displays to their view the crowns of life and the seats of Paradise which he has made accessible to , mortals; and entreats them, with all the eloquence of his boundless •^love, not to reject the inestimable benefits purchased for them by his dying agonies. The Spirit, too, speaking in the voice of providence, the whispers of conscience, and the messages of holy truth, calls upon them to come to the " waters " of salvation : while the Bride, the regenerated church of Christ, repeats the call, and prolongs it in her efforts and prayers. Thus are the wicked pressed on every side to turn and live, by incentives and solicitations that might move a heart of adamant. But amid these multiplied and cogent appeals, they remain unaffected, despise the joy that is " full of glory," and trample on the priceless boon of divine beneficence. And why 1 Is it that they are already sufficiently happy 1 Be it so, that basking in the sunshine of prosperity, rioting in affluence, and cheered by the flatte- ries of a delusive world, they live at ease in their possessions. Is this happiness 1 Can it satisfy the yearnings of thqjr immortal nature ? Can it secure them from outward calamity, or inward disquietude? Will it support them when the touch of the Almighty withers their hopes ; or soothe the anguish and allay the terrors of their dying hour 1 No ; the earthly enjoyments of irreUgious men are not happiness. Their cup of pleasure is mingled with gall. The chaplet of honor on their brows is interwoven with thorns. Their highest worldly advantages are only a source of splendid misery. There is, there can be, no peace to the wicked. Wherever they turn, a dreadful sound is in their ears. Amid the din of business, the sluniber of carelessness, the song of mirth, and the whirl of dissipation, they hear a voice of warning and see a hand writing their doom, in characters fearful as those which were traced by the finger of God on the wall of Belshaz- zar's palace. Why, then, do they neglect the blessings of the gos- pel? Is it that they have no power to obtain them? Are they compelled to behold them from afar, as we gaze upon those remote stars which, however they may be the bright abodes of other beings, can never be purs ? No. Christ has brought these blessings within their reach; They have only to believe in him, and heaven is theirs. And yet, though salvation is thus easy, and though they are wretched without it, they will not come to' the Redeemer, that they may have life. Do they say that they intend to apply to him at a more conven- ient season ? But are they certain of living tiUfthat season arrives ? Who has given them a guaranty, that the pulse, which now beats — !ii-;._ J^ — „,;ii „„(. f^^^^wrj-nr })q gtiU jn death, the color of 278 THE NATIONAt PREACHER. v** their cheek exchanged- for a mortal paleness, and their bodies at^red for the sepulchre 1 Or, if this should not be the case, what assurafice have they that the period of their probation will not then be closed 1 Even at the moment when they are resolving to presume yet longer upon the divine forbearance, and to suspend their eternal felicity on the issue of that presumption, their insulted God may give them up to their own hearts' lust, and swear in his wrath that they shall not see his rest. Where, then, can we find a parallel to the infatuation of sinners, while they thus trifle with the welfare of their souls ? There was a profane Esau who sold his birthright for a morsel of meat, and a heathen Lysimashus who renounced his kingdom for'a draught of water. But their folly was wisdom compared with that of those who barter the. bliss of immortaUty for the gratifications of sense. VI. Insanity is evinced by a recklessness of dcmger. If you saw a man standing on a volcano, and manifesting no alarm, while the restless. heavings of its imprisoned fires gave indubitable presage of an eruption at hand, you would, without hesitation, conclude that he was insane. But incomparably more amazing is the indifference of the unconverted to the far greater perils by which they are encom- passed. He, whose declarations will infallibly be fulfilled, has said, that "the wicked shall be turned into hell" — that " they, who obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, shall be punished with ever- lasting destruction." — that " he that believeth not, is condemned already, and the wrath of God abideth on him." By these circum- stances of imminent jeopardy all the impenitent are surrounded. Above them hangs the bolt of vengeance suspended by a single hair. Behind them a hfe stained with sin follows them to the judgment. Before them blazes the sword of inexorable justice. Beneath them rolls the blackness of darkness. And yet, in this appalling condition, they dream of safety, and walk undismayed on the brink of wp. With terrific rapidity, they float down the stream of sin towards the gulf of despair. But though the current, as they advance, grows deeper and stronger ; though the roar of " the troubled lake," in which it terminates, becomes, every moment, nearer andii louder; though Infinite Love calls upon them to return while yet they may, reminds them of the millions who have perished on that river of death, and discloses to their view the abyss at its end; — still they pursue their fatal voyage, and glide merrily along the treacherous waters that are fast sweepmg them away td perdition. What illus- tration can be found for insanity hke tins 1 Behold on the top of that burning building, an individual surveying, with careless uncon- cern, the progress of the flames, making no effort to escape firom his hazardous position, and even repelUng the exertions and ridiculing the anxieties of the friends who are endeavoring to save him. What madness! you exclmm".' Yes — but far more dreadful is his madness who is thoughtless and at ease, while Hable, every hour, to plunge, body and soul, into the fire that shall never be quenched^ See that MORAL INSANITY OF IRRELIGIOUS MEN. 279 her. Her strained masts " quiver as a reed," her sails are torn and shivered, and \?ith the abandonipent of a doomed spirit, she drives upon the foaming breakers. But hark ! from her deck there comes a sound of revelry. Her intoxicated crew are carousing in the very jaws of destruction. And yet, infatuated as their conduct is, it is immeasurably more rational than that of the sinner who sports and trifles in a situation so solemnly critical, that, perhaps, the next instant may wreck his immortal hopes on the rocks of ruin. VII. The last mmck of insanity, which I shall mention, is sdf- «)^rder. — The instances are not rare, in which men, in a paroxysm of elirium, have violently terminated their own lives. Equally despe- rafe is the course which the wicked pursue. They, too, destroy them- selves, and become the voluntary and efficient instruments of their own damnation. They might be saved if they would, even though the sentence of their condemnation is already passed, and the war- rant for its execution written and sealed. For Christ has died to procure their pardon, and nothing but their own refiisal can defeat his gracious mediation, But ' they will not be pardoned. They choose death rather than life, and, vsdth suicidal hand, thrust from them the charter of forgiveness. So strongly, indeed, are they bent upon ruin, that, in effecting it, they surmount innumerable obsta- cles, and overcome the mostpowerful resistance. They employ every artifice to avoid conviction, to stifle serious feeling, and to counteract the agencies exerted for their conversion. They spurn the counsels of age, and the dictates of experience ; scoff at the admonitions of the Bible, the lessons of the sanctuary, and the entreaties of pious friendship ; press onward in their career against all the barriers of a Savior's love, and all the strivings of his Spirit ; and rending away eVery cord which God-has, in mercy, thrown around his wandering creatures, to draw them back to himself. — leap vsdlfuUy into the open pit. Their destruction, isj therefore, wholly self-induced. They perish as wantonly as the man who plunges a knife into h& bosom. They are as really the authors of their own doom, as if the soul within them were a pearl, and they should cast it into mid- ocean ; 4)r as if it were a . combustible world, and they with a torch should set it on fire. And when we see all this — ^when in the light of inspired truth we behold the earth thus filled with moral sui- cides, who despise the patience, and tantalize the compassion, and dare the vengeance'of the Eternal — we cannot, without the utmost violence to reason, avoid the conclusion, that impenitent sinners are spiritually mad. Having thus enumerated some of the principal tokens of insanity, and shown that they all exist, with moiu-nful prominen^e'J'.in the character of irreligious men, the subject vnUnow-be closed tpith iAree brief reflections. 1. How great is the depravity of the human hmrt. On every^gide we se£ immortal beings reasoning and acting like the merest idiots, '■ V '■ ■ - "- - rV^TCf:"; +T-Vtt2f *>e?d-??.s of their highest good, unp iujv/it.ciiTr«cimraim«BimKt«ir'oniipinincr evils. Jr.' however. thiS 280 THE NATIONAL PREACHER. conduct -were the result of any derangement of their natural powers', sad and disastrous as it is, it -would not be criminal. But the distem- per -which produces these effects, is seated, not in the intellect, but in the affections, and springs, not from necessity, but from choice. That this is true, is evident from the fact, that they manifest no -want- of sa- gacity in relation to objects with which their inclinations accord. It is -with reference to religion, alone that all their -wisdom is seen to forsake them. Their imbecility upon this subject, therefore, emanates entirely from the voluntary sinfulness of their hearts. It is this which has darkened their understandings, distorted their perceptions, robbed them of their celestial birthright, and rendered them the abject skffel' of unhallowed passions. It is this, in short, which has transformgl a world, originally the scene of order and beauty, into a moral bedlam, dug deep the pit of hell, and peopled it -with millions of undone im- mortals. Well, then, may inspiration declare, as it does, that "the heart of the sons of men is fiall of evil, and madness is in their heart."