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

Stamfoed in 1837.— Whole tax, $1389 50; expended for the poor, $1263 75. In 1838, whole tax, $1226 07. Expended for the poor, 1118, of which, at the pro- portion indicated by the accounts of Korwalk, $874 went to support those brought to pauperism by intemperance. Danbuky in 1838.— Town tax, $2358 07; expended for the poor, $1325; .for intemperance, $550. Would that the examination could be made for the last five years in every town in the State, that the people might know how remorselessly their pockets are plundered by the rumsellers, in combination with the drunkards. A tAMENTATION FOB THE SLAIN. 11 tion, which compared with this, had not the weight of a feather. And somehow the feeling will keep rising in my heart to inquire, whether, if all this desolation and death must be endured, the people have no right to defend themselves from so heavy and so horrible a taxation ? Are your houses, shops, farms, earnings all mortgaged to pay for ever whatever taxes may be imposed by this unhallowed compact between the drunkard and the trafficker? I am indeed no lawyer; but if here be not ground on which the people may take their stand, and rise in their strength, and coerce this traffic and ilrimkenness, by a righteous and effectual law, then I give up in despair, that I know not what righteousness or liberty is. If this be the case with us, that there is no relief from these burdens and no redress ; then the liberty of the few is a slavery upon the many ; liberty to tax, to plunder,^to ravage and destroy, according to the avarice and the appetite of a combined and odious aristocracy. If this be hberty, then I know not what may be slavery. Tell me no more of slaveholding and slavery, if the few who have the conscience to work all these evils have power also to lay upon all the people such an odious, limitless, and endless taxation, for such purposes as these ! ' The wonder has been with me, for years, how, in a civilized cammunity, such things can be endured. Nearly a hundred years ago, the great and good John Wesley said, " It is gmazing that the preparation and sale of this poison should be permit- ted, I will not say in any Christian community, but in any civilized State." Who can show that this is not sound speech which cannot be condemned ? But the discussion of policy and laws is not my province, farther than as "laws are required or forbidden by the principles of everlasting righteousness, and by the law of God. I was to preach the funeral sermon of another poor ruined — murdered man. If I have spoken too freely, or too earnestly, fbrgive me. If I have gone not beyond the demand of truth, and of duty to men in view of the last judg- ment, then I need no apology. I remember that when an Apostle was sent for to be heard concerning the faith in Christ, and there was need to urge home the truth, and to reach the conscience of a transgressor, though that transgressor was the Roman governor who had •over him the power of life*or death, and the apostle stood before him in bonds — then " Paul reasoned of Righteousness, Temperance and Judgment to come,'''' and so reasoned that Felix trembled. How can I visit the poor suffering families of the inebriates, or see the inebriates them- selves on their death-beds, or follow them to their graves after they have perished amid the snow or in the waters, and not have my heart stirred within me ? Will those who traffic in the poison complain that I speak too earnestly ? Alas, why will they continue to give me so much cause? Why, after witnessing so much distress and sorrow, and so many violent deaths for so long a course of years, why do they not cease ? Why is there no generous, no compassionate feeling rising in their hearts, or at least some fear of God, which shall prompt them to 12 A LAMENTATION FOE THE SLAIN. sajr, We will share in the guilt of so much ruin no longer ? Why do not the sober, influential part of the community go to them, tell them the results of this traffic, and beg them, as good citizens, to forbear ? And if there be any who will not, why is there not virtue enough in TEE People to rise in their strength, and say in a tone which may not be disobeyed, vStop ! Pursue this work of devastation and death no longer ! If none of these things can be done, then what remains for me, but after I have pointed all to the law of God, and to the final judgment, to take up the lamentation of the prophet, and say, " Oh, that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of teai-s, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people 1" COLLEGES ESSENTIAL TO HOME MISSIONS. A DISCOURSE, DBLIVEBED AT THE NINTH ANNIVERSAEY ^0mta fax t\t ^xsmtim sf Mlqmtt m)i %\tal^m\ CENTRAL CHUEOH, BOSTON, MASS., OoTOBEB 27, 1852. BY EDWIN- HALL, D.D., FASTOK 07 THE FIRST CONGB£aATZONAL CHrECH, NORWALE, CONN. NEW-YOEK: JOHN R TROW, PEINTEE, 49 ANN STREET. 1853. " The thaaks of the Board were presented to the Rev. Ed-win Haix, D.D., for his Discourse, delivered before the Society last even- ing, and a copy requested for publication." An extract from the minutes of the Proceedings of the Directors of the Society for the Promotion of Collegiate and Theological Edu- cation "at the "West, at their Annual Meeting at Boston, Mass., Oct. 28th, 1852. A. D. Eddy, Sec^y. SEEMON. EPHESIANS, IV. 11, 12. "And he gave some, apostles ; and some, prophets ; and some, evan- gelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. IN tte work of upbuilding and perpetuating the Cliurch, our Lord, from time to time, employs men in various capacities. Noah the preacher of right- eousness, Abraham the father of many nations, Mo- ses, Aaron, Samuel, David, Isaiah, Ezra, Nehemiah, each" has his work according to the necessities of his day. John the Baptist has his work, the apostles have theirs. As there are diversities of labors, so there are diversities of gifts. All are not prophets ,; all are not apostles ; for as the body is one, and hath many members, so also is Christ. If bishops and deacons are established in the organization, of each particular Church, evangelists are also sent to labor where the Church is not. The great Head over aU things to the Church hath committed to him all power in heaven and in earth ; and is not limited to agents or methods. He can say to the deep, " Be dry : " and of Cyrus, " He is my sheplierd, and shall perform all my pleasure ; even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shall be built ; and to the Temple, Thy foun- dations shall be laid." He can make Mngs nursing fathers, and queens nursing mothers to his Church. The ships of Tarshish first shall bring his sons from far. The kings of the isles shall bring presents ; the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Fire, hail, snow, and vapor, fulfilling his word, shall be enlisted in the cause of Zion. In a sense unknown to the Psalmist, fire and vapor are yet to fulfil the pleasure of the Lord. Perhaps, also, in a sense which prophets never imagined, "a highway shall be there ; " and there shall' be made " straight in the desert a highway for our God : every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain." Now the Lord famishes the lar borers with the gift of tongues ; now with the press ; now they are scattered abroad preaching the word; now they bear up against persecution ; now they re- sist unto blood, witnessing against the abominations of antichrist; now they cross the seas, and found new homes for religion and freedom in the wilder- ness. As each disciple has his work, so have the people of each generation. Besides the duties uni- versally and permanently binding on all the people of God, the Lord is perpetually leading each gene- ration of his people, in each land, to some special work which they alone can fulfil, and which, if well done, proves the glory of their age. Thus one generation of our fathers were called to stand for religious purity and freedom,' and to suffer in their native land ; another was called to be pilgrims, and to be " stepping stones " for others in a labor for Christ in the wilderness ; another was called to contend for the possession of the land against a formidable Papal power ; another to sever it from the dominion of the mother country ; then to form our constitution: for we love to believe that all these labors were done for Christ, and under his direction, whether all the laborers so meant it or not. As to the work to which God specially calls his people in this land and in this generation, there re- mains no possible doubt. It is to plant the institu- tions of the Grospel in all our widely extending set- tlements, and to save this country for Christ, now while its character is in the forming state. In order to form a just conception of the work to be done, let us first survey the field ; then consider how it is to be cultivated ; and then the nature, and relative importance of the work undertaken by this Society,, with reference to this gi'eat end. 1. SuEVET THE FiELD. Here is a vast country spreading through all climates, capable of yielding nearly all the productions of the earth, rich in mine- ral resources, and with its commodious harbors, its innumerable lakes and rivers, furnishing facilities for commerce, the like of which, on so vast a scale, is found nowhere else on the globe. For some thousands of years, this land had been kept vacant. Monuments of a strange people are found here and there, betokening some advance in the arts of civilization, but the people are gone, and who shall declare their history ? About three hun- dred and sixty years ago, this vast region was made known to the civilized world. Why then ? Why not earlier? Why not later? The world was ready for it then. Had it been discovered before, this land would now have been in a condition aa Jiopeless as that of the most despotic nations of Eu- rope. Had the discovery been longer delayed, the germs of freedom which have here expanded and grown with so much hope for man, might, in that delay, have perished. For reasons not yet fully com- prehended, the Lord suffered the subjects of the Pope to establish themselves first, in what were supposed the fairest and richest portions ^f the field, while for another hundred years, the English Pilgrims were under discipline to fit them for their work. Never was there before so auspicious a field ; never was there before a people so prepared. We need not detail the means by which Grod" brought them here, and then maintained them ; nor the means by which he defeated the designs of po- pery in this field. Its power was the strongest. Its plans were far-reaching, formed with consummate wisdom, and pressed with indomitable perseverance. It held the North. It advanced up the St. Law- rence, and founded its establishments and fortresses along the lakes, on the plains of Elinois, and on the banks of the Mississippi. It held Mexico. It held Florida. It pushed its fortresses down the Ohio, with the design to prescribe, and finally to extermi- nate the few scattered colonies, which were identi-