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Title: The Royal Exchange and the Palace of Industry; or, The Possible Future of Europe and the World
Author: Binney, Thomas
Language: English
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The Royal Exchange
AND
THE PALACE OF INDUSTRY.
The Royal Exchange
AND
THE PALACE OF INDUSTRY;
THE POSSIBLE FUTURE
OF
EUROPE AND THE WORLD.
In Three Parts.
BY THE
REV. THOMAS BINNEY.
“THE EARTH IS THE LORD’S, AND ALL THAT THEREIN IS:
THE COMPASS OF THE WORLD, AND THEY THAT DWELL THEREIN.”
LONDON:
THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY,
DEPOSITORY, 56, PATERNOSTER-ROW, AND 65, ST. PAUL’S CHURCHYARD.
1851.
PSALM XXIV.
A PSALM OF DAVID.
1 THE EARTH IS THE LORD’S, AND THE FULNESS THEREOF;
THE WORLD, AND THEY THAT DWELL THEREIN.
2 FOR HE HATH FOUNDED IT UPON THE SEAS,
AND ESTABLISHED IT UPON THE FLOODS.
3 WHO SHALL ASCEND INTO THE HILL OF THE LORD?
OR WHO SHALL STAND IN HIS HOLY PLACE?
4 HE THAT HATH CLEAN HANDS, AND A PURE HEART;
WHO HATH NOT LIFTED UP HIS SOUL UNTO VANITY, NOR SWORN DECEITFULLY.
5 HE SHALL RECEIVE THE BLESSING FROM THE LORD,
AND RIGHTEOUSNESS FROM THE GOD OF HIS SALVATION.
6 THIS IS THE GENERATION OF THEM THAT SEEK HIM,
THAT SEEK THY FACE, O JACOB. SELAH.
7 LIFT UP YOUR HEADS, O YE GATES;
AND BE YE LIFT UP, YE EVERLASTING DOORS;
AND THE KING OF GLORY SHALL COME IN.
8 WHO IS THIS KING OF GLORY?
THE LORD STRONG AND MIGHTY,
THE LORD MIGHTY IN BATTLE.
9 LIFT UP YOUR HEADS, O YE GATES;
EVEN LIFT THEM UP, YE EVERLASTING DOORS;
AND THE KING OF GLORY SHALL COME IN.
10 WHO IS THIS KING OF GLORY?
THE LORD OF HOSTS, HE IS THE KING OF GLORY. SELAH.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
PART I.
EXPOSITORY.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 3
THE DIVINE EXISTENCE AND PERSONALITY 9
CREATION 15
PROVIDENCE 24
PART II.
INFERENTIAL.
WORSHIP 44
CHARACTER 52
CHRIST 60
PART III.
PROPHETIC.
THE ARGUMENT RECAPITULATED—THE RELIGIOUS ANTICIPATION OF THE
FUTURE ILLUSTRATED AND JUSTIFIED BY THE HOPES OF SOCIAL AND
POLITICAL PHILANTHROPY 88
UNIVERSAL THEISM 101
UNIVERSALITY OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP 104
THE SCRIPTURES WILL PURIFY AND RESTORE THE CHURCH 112
UNIVERSAL VIRTUE 117
NATIONALITIES 123
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS 128
POSTSCRIPT.
THE EXHIBITION OPENED 149
PART I.
EXPOSITORY.
PART I.
EXPOSITORY.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION, AND PLAN OF THE WORK.
On the night of the 10th of January, in the year 1838, the inhabitants of
London—those especially residing in the heart of the city—were alarmed by
a cry expressive or prophetic of calamity or peril.—THE ROYAL EXCHANGE
_was in flames_! Feelings and sentiments were excited by the occurrence
different from those produced by an ordinary conflagration. The Royal
Exchange was one of the great public buildings of the metropolis; it was
the third too which, within a very short period, had met with a similar
fate. It was not only the monument of individual munificence, the gift
to the city which he had adorned and served, of an eminent merchant,—a
man of talents, goodness, learning, and largeness of heart; it was the
central point in the British empire for the meeting of the men of all
nations; the palace of trade; the place of commercial congress; the hall
in which assembled from day to day the “merchant princes” of England,
and the representatives of the traffic and the wealth of the world.
The flames spread; the devouring element secured to itself the entire
edifice; it fed upon and consumed floor and roof, picture and statue,
destroying or defacing everything it touched, till the whole building was
reduced to ashes, and nothing remained of it but smouldering ruins.
In a little time a new edifice was projected, larger and more magnificent
than the former, and thus better fitted to meet the wants of the age, and
to indicate the progress and advancement of society. The first stone was
laid by the youthful husband of our young queen,—one might almost say the
young bridegroom of a royal bride,—and the building rose with comparative
rapidity, unfolding and embodying its great idea. As it approached
completion, and its front was to be adorned by some significant figures
or allegorical device, questions arose as to whether an inscription
should be placed there with them, and as to what that inscription should
be. The illustrious individual who had laid the first stone of the
structure suggested for that inscription a simple text from the English
Bible, “THE EARTH IS THE LORD’S, AND THE FULNESS THEREOF.” The suggestion
was adopted; it was carried into effect; and hence there may be read, on
the front of our Royal Exchange, and read in our land’s language,—but
addressed to all men; for they are addressed not only to the British
merchant, but to the representatives of every nation under heaven,—the
few plain words which have just been repeated,—
THE EARTH IS THE LORD’S, AND THE FULNESS THEREOF.
Words, however, these, which, while simple in appearance, are pregnant
and suggestive in the highest degree; for they are full to overflowing,
of great practical divine thoughts.
The suggestion of this inscription for the Royal Exchange was the
suggestion not only of sound judgment and good sense, but of piety,
humility, and religious faith. It attributes nothing to any individual;
it proclaims no national or municipal greatness; it breathes no
flattery to monarch, merchant, class, or kingdom:—it is simply a devout
recognition of Almighty God, “from whom, and by whom, and for whom are
all things:”—who created the world, and adorned and beautified it; who
covered it with verdure, made it fruitful, fills it with its various
products, and sustains it for the service of man. It is a great thing to
have this public recognition of the Most High made, as it were, every
hour of every day, from the very centre of all mundane and secular
activities;—it is a stirring recollection, that that very building,
thought by many to be the temple of Mammon, should stand forth as a
preacher and teacher on behalf of God; and, _still more so_, that its
English voice should be distinctly heard above the din and discord of its
many languages, perpetually proclaiming to its busy multitudes, and the
busy multitudes of the whole city, what, if practically pondered, would
cool avarice, prevent fraud, moderate ambition, inspire truth, dictate
justice, make every man feel as a brother to his fellow, and all nations,
ranks, and conditions of men, as the members of one vast and undivided
confraternity.
It is interesting to think that the same illustrious Prince who
suggested the inscription for the Royal Exchange, originated the idea
of the Exhibition of the industry of all nations. It is to the honour
of England, that the first time that the whole world, so to speak,
comes together for a peaceful purpose, the meeting takes place in the
British metropolis; and it is to the honour of the husband of England’s
Queen, not only that he should have been the father of _this_ thought,
but that by a previous one he should have attempted, as it were, to
sanctify industry, and trade, and commerce, and manufactures, by an
open recognition of the providence of God as the source of them 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!
The writer of the following pages proposes, then, to unite in his
reflections the two things which, through the agency of the same mind,
are thus already united in fact—the INSCRIPTION on the Royal Exchange,
and THE EXHIBITION OF THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. He intends, in the
first part, to point out and illustrate the great primary religious
truths which are involved in the announcement of the inscription itself.
As it, however, is the first verse of a psalm, he purposes, in the second
part, to look at it in connexion with the whole of the psalm, and at the
psalm in connexion with the whole of Revelation, and thus to bring out
and associate with the inscription additional ideas of both truth and
duty. Then, supposing the whole series of these truths and duties to be
earnestly adopted and practically exemplified by all nations—by England
herself, and by those to whom they will be virtually presented on their
meeting together in the British metropolis—it is proposed, in the last
part, to describe what, on such a supposition, would be the coming future
of Europe and of the world.
I.
_The Divine Existence and Personality._
The first idea suggested by the words of the inscription is the existence
of God: “_The earth is the Lord’s._” It is here assumed that there is a
God; and it is further assumed that God is a person. He is the possessor
and proprietor of the world: he has an existence distinct from it: he
is capable of looking upon it, and of regarding it as his own: “The
earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the _world, and they
that dwell therein_.” Not only is the material structure his, but the
living inhabitants; and not only those of inferior rank, but the Lord
and Master of them all. The same being that claims “the fowls of the
mountains, the wild beasts of the field and the forest, and the cattle
upon a thousand hills,” claims also to be the proprietor of _man_,
the source and sovereign of the intelligent universe;—“all souls are
mine.” God is not nature, nor nature God. God and the universe are not
one and the same thing. He is not a force, a power, a law; he is not
attraction, electricity, or any of the great active material agents,
or all of them put together: he is not necessity, chance, fate: he is
not a thing, nor the sum of things, but a person: he is a mind, with
faculties, affections, character, and is as distinct from the “earth” and
the “world” as a man is distinct from a house or a clock, or anything
whatever that he can call _his_.
The personality of God—his existence as an intelligent agent distinct
from the universe,—is destructive of all theories of atheism and
pantheism; of the philosophy which teaches that there is no God at all,
and of that which teaches that all things are God. The two systems,
indeed, are essentially one; they are alike opposed to the existence
of religion, and render faith and piety impossible. A principle is
proclaimed in the words before us,—words ceaselessly uttered, and uttered
to all men, from the commercial centre of this great city,—which repels
and repudiates a godless philosophy, in whatever form it may be held or
taught—by whatever name it may be indicated or concealed.
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.” While, however, the
Bible starts with the acknowledgment of God, and proceeds throughout
on the recognition of his existence, it occasionally illustrates his
personality, supremacy, distinctness from the universe and correlative
truths, in a way which is at once adapted to confirm these views where
they are admitted,—to demonstrate them to those that doubt,—and to cover
with contempt idolaters or sophists by whom they may be denied.
Two or three scriptural passages may be quoted here, in support or
illustration of this statement. Let it be remembered then, that the
Scriptures always ascribe to God _personal_ attributes. He is “a God of
knowledge.” His “understanding is infinite.” He acts “according to the
council of his will.” He is “holy,” “just,” “good,” “pure;” He loves
and hates, observes and remembers, approves and condemns, punishes and
rewards. His personal omniscience, and consequent independence of all
other beings, is powerfully asserted by Isaiah:—“Who hath directed the
Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught _him_? With whom
took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path
of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of
understanding?” But the personality of God, and his distinct existence
from the universe, are sometimes united together in a very striking
way. He is referred to as the Creator—the source whence all things have
proceeded; and then, on the principle that _what there is in the effect
there must first have been in the cause, and must continue to be in an
existing cause_, his personal properties are argued from the fact that
such properties actually exist,—exist, that is, in men,—beings whom he
has made: “He that planted the ear, shall not _he_ hear? he that formed
the eye, shall not _he_ see? … he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not
_he_ know?” The same argument, in another form, is used by the apostle
Paul, when reasoning with the philosophers of Athens. Having referred
to God as the Creator of the world; as giving “to all life, and breath,
and all things;” and as “having made all nations of men that dwell on
the face of the earth;”—having illustrated his position by the saying
of one of their own poets,—“we are also his offspring,”—he proceeds to
argue thus:—“forasmuch then, as _we_ are the offspring of God, we ought
not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone,
graven by art and man’s device:” in other words, “seeing that _we_ have
thought, intelligence, and will,—that we have affections, consciousness,
personality,—and seeing that we are the creatures of God, and must have
derived from _him_ whatsoever we possess, it is absurd to think of him
as _im_personal, material, unintelligent, since he must certainly have
in himself what he has been able to confer.” There is great force in
this form of putting the truth as it is put both by the prophet and the
apostle. To ordinary common sense, it would seem to be demonstrative.
It appears so natural to infer that the great parent of _persons_ must
_be_ a person;—that the source of thought must be able to think;—that
the fountain whence flows to the intelligent universe, faculty and
affection, reason and will, must possess these in infinite plenitude in
itself;—it would appear so natural to reason thus, and so obvious, as
almost to render reference to it superfluous, were it not that it is
now fashionable to think of the universe as a mere machine, and God as
the central and pervading force, and that this machine, in the course
of its ceaseless and everlasting action, and in the process of its
varied movements from eternity, has happened, or contrived, to grind out
_thought_ along with other things, and to fill worlds with persons (or
what seem to be such) as well as with form and colour, and the different
objects of material existence! In reference to such a theory, we may
appropriately adopt the words of the psalmist, which stand in immediate
connexion with those already quoted. “Understand, ye brutish among the
people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise?—The Lord knoweth the thoughts
of man, that they are vanity.”
II.
_Creation._
But the words of the Inscription, read in connexion with the second
verse of the psalm from which it is taken, further illustrate the ideas
adverted to—God’s existence, personality, and distinction from the
universe—by placing the fact of his ownership of the earth, on the
previous fact of his having created it. “The earth is the Lord’s, and the
fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For _he hath
founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods_.”
God is thus distinctly recognised as the Creator of all things, and as
hence becoming, or being, their proprietor, by necessary consequence.
That the universe is a creation, in the most strict and literal sense
of the word, is the teaching of the Bible;—a truth which, while leading
to that of his universal proprietorship of the earth and the world,
as necessarily implies and strikingly illustrates his own distinct
independence and personality: “Through faith we understand that the
worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen
were not made of things which do appear.” The meaning of this statement
is, that visible objects—that is, the whole visible universe—did not
_originally_ spring out of visible materials. However long might be
the periods, during which the substance of the earth was undergoing
preparatory processes, previous to the appearance of its destined
inhabitant, there was a time when that substance was _not_. There was a
period when the Eternal lived alone,—when space was literally infinite,
except as filled and pervaded by _him_,—when nothing material anywhere
existed, by which any portion of space could be inclosed or limited. In
that mysterious solitude, God was as much a personality,—as much a mind
with thought and will,—as he is now. He could not then be confounded with
his works, for his works were not; and he ought not now to be confounded
with them because they _are_. It is possible to conceive of all the suns
and systems that exist, as being swept away into utter nothingness, and
yet to understand that God might continue in all the fulness of his being
and perfections. “In the beginning,”—at some period in the immeasurable
depths of the abyss of that eternity which is the dwelling-place of
Deity, God exerted the act of creation, and gave birth to what we call
matter, which, in the revolutions of ages, he framed and fashioned into
separate worlds. The Lord was, “_before_ his works of old.” He was “from
everlasting, _or ever the earth was_.” “When there were no depths,” he
existed;—“before the mountains and hills,—while as yet he hath not made
the earth, nor the fields, nor (even) the dust (or matter) of the world.”
This is the sublime and awful truth which the Scriptures teach as to the
primary relation of God to the universe, and on the ground of which they
ascribe to him successive acts of formative power,—often in language
highly figurative, but always meant to convey the idea of the exercise of
the wisdom, goodness, foresight, and similar attributes of a _personal_
agent in the Maker of the world.
“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the
earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”
“He prepared the heavens, he set a compass upon the face of the depth.
He established the clouds above, he strengthened the foundations of the
deep. He gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his
commandment.” “He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and
hangeth the earth upon nothing.” He is “the great God that formed all
things.” “O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made
them 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.” “Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these
things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by
names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not
one faileth.” “Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the
earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills
in a balance?” “_I_ have made the earth—the man and the beast that are
upon the ground, by my great power and by my out-stretched arm.” “Where
wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast
understanding. Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who
laid the corner-stone thereof? Hast thou commanded the morning since thy
days; and caused the day-spring to know his place? Hast thou entered into
the springs of the sea? Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth?
Where is the way where light dwelleth? And as for darkness, where is the
place thereof? Canst _thou_ bind the sweet influence of Pleiades, or
loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season,
or guide Arcturus with his sons? Who hath put wisdom into the inward
parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart?” “There is a spirit
in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.”
God made “man in his own image.” He is “the Father of spirits.” “The
heavens declare his glory, and the firmament showeth his handiwork.”
“That which may be known of God is manifest” to men, “for God hath showed
it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the
world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,
even his eternal power and Godhead;” so that men are “without excuse,”
if, knowing God, or not liking “to retain God in their knowledge,” they
“worship him not as God,” but, “professing themselves to be wise, become
fools,” changing “the truth of God into a lie.”
Such are some of the statements of Scripture respecting the creation
of the world and man. To admit these, it is not necessary to deny the
revelations of science as to the physical antiquity of the globe,
and the successive phenomena that distinguished the history of the
pre-adamite earth. There might have been then a wonderful series of
gradual developments, and various material and animal formations;—the
point to be kept in view is, that all these were _intelligently presided
over_ by the Author of nature; and that they all followed in obedience
to laws, which _he_ not only ordained, but _administered_. The “Crystal
Palace” is the embodiment of an idea conceived and perfected in a
personal intelligence. It has been constructed and reared by rule and
compass, measure and weight, and according to the suggestions of wisdom
and skill. All the variety of its extraordinary contents bear the impress
of thought and purpose, design and contrivance, faculty and power; but
no one confounds the work with the workmen, or imagines that the skill
impressed on the productions is something inherent in the productions
themselves, or that they have sprung, by necessity, from the impulse or
operation of unintelligent force! Any one who saw the apparently confused
and chaotic jumble of coarse packages and unarranged materials, as they
lay about the building, previous to being put into harmonious order,
could never have imagined that they had in themselves any tendency to
take the places and assume the appearances to which they were destined,
independently of the mind, the thought, plan, reason, and ability of
the person or persons by whom all was to be effected. Even if it had
been possible to conceive such a thing,—to conceive, namely, that they
should, without the immediate agency of hands, have gradually arranged
themselves into beautiful groups, and that _thus_ confusion was to be
succeeded by order,—this would only have been regarded as the result
of processes to which they had been subjected by human sagacity, and
as the proof of profounder and more wonderful contrivance on the part
of the presiding genius of the scene. Instead of tempting a thoughtful
observer to confound and identify the thing done with the actual doer,—or
to lose sight of him, and to attribute all to necessity or chance, or
to some mysterious appetencies in the things themselves,—it would only
have carried the idea of personality further back, and have augmented
his admiration of the attributes that distinguished it. In the same
way, adhering to the truth that the heavens and the earth are an actual
creation, then, whatever may have been the processes through which they
gradually passed till the whole fabric was developed and perfected,
_all was the work of a personal agent distinct from the actual universe
itself_, and all that was done was accomplished through the action
of those laws which he framed,—to which he subjected them,—which he
administered,—which the things did not originate,—which they could not
understand, and from which they could not escape. _He_—the living,
spiritual, personal God—was the Mover and Maker, the Designer and
Doer from first to last. In the same way, just as nothing can be more
completely a man’s own than that which is the product of his own skill,
when acting independently, and operating on his justly obtained material,
so nothing can be such a proof of the proprietorship of God in the
universe and its inhabitants, as that by him they were all alike “created
and made.” “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world,
and they that dwell therein. _For he hath founded it upon the seas, and
hath established it upon the floods._”
III.
_Providence._
The idea suggested by the words of the inscription, of the “FULNESS”
of the earth belonging to God, deserves a distinct and specific
consideration.
By the “_fulness_” of the earth, we understand all that it contains of
raw material capable of being subjected to human skill, and all that
it produces, of whatever sort, animal or vegetable, for the service of
men,—for the sustenance of sentient nature,—for happiness, or glory and
beauty. By all this being God’s, by this “fulness of the earth” belonging
to _him_, we understand that it is to be attributed to him as its
Author; that he originally deposited, in the depths of the mountains and
the womb of the world, their mineral wealth; that he covered the earth
with verdure and fruitfulness, and filled the air, the sea, and the field
with their numerous inhabitants; that he established the laws by which
there should be a constant succession in all the varieties of animal and
vegetable nature; and that he so _superintends_ the whole arrangement,
and _personally_ administers these laws, that all that they produce may
be properly regarded as the _immediate_ product of his power and skill.
“Fulness,” so produced, is _his_, “_from_ whom and _by_ whom” it comes,
with scarcely less emphasis than if it was to be spoken into being in the
“twinkling of an eye,”—at the utterance of a single word, or by a sudden
act of omnipotent volition.
The inhabitants, then, of this great city are reminded every day, as they
look up at the front of their Royal Exchange, not only of the existence
and personality of God, and of his being the proprietor of all things,
but of his being _this_, by _his continued providence and government of
the world_, as well as by his having created it at first. It was God
that for ages wrought in secret, constructing the rocks and consolidating
the mountains, depositing the useful and precious metals, spreading the
coal-field, and preparing materials of every sort for future society.
It was he who commanded “the dry land to appear,” and the waters to be
gathered into seas: who covered the earth “with the grass of the field,
and with the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit;” who
fixed the sun in the heavens, and gave him to the world for cheerful
light and genial warmth; who “spread abroad the clouds,” and “caused
rain,” and established the laws of vegetable production: it was God
who caused the waters to be filled “with the moving creature that hath
life;” that caused “the fowl to fly above the earth in the open firmament
of heaven;” and that made “the beast of the earth after his kind, and
cattle, and everything that creepeth upon the earth;”—it was God that
gave to them the law “to increase and multiply, and to fill the earth;”
and then gave the earth to the children of men, and commanded them, too,
not only “to increase and multiply and to replenish the earth,” but “to
have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air,
and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping
thing that creepeth upon the earth.” It was God who “made of one blood
all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth,” and who,
as “the Most High, who ruleth over the children of men, and doeth as he
will with the inhabitants of the earth,” “separated the sons of Adam,
and divided to the nations their inheritance,” and “determined their
appointed times, and the bounds of their habitation.” 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 with the inventive head and the skilful
hand; could become the accomplished and cunning artificer, so that out
of the raw material of the world he could call forth new appearances
and forms of things, and thus cover the earth with another creation! 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; it is he who gives annual
abundance, and causes all nations, the world over, to rejoice in what
comes to them as if it were a new and instant creation,—a gift and
gratuity dropped from the sky! It is God “that gives to man power to
get wealth,” and that confers on the nations their respective tastes
and distinctive genius,—their capacity for labour, or their love of the
beautiful, or their skilful handicraft, or their omnipotent enterprise,
or their gigantic achievements! It is God that thus makes them useful to
each other;—that binds them together from the very circumstance of their
separate gifts and their mutual necessities;—and that imparts to them an
interest in each other’s industry, from the different forms and uses that
it takes;—and it is he, we trust, who is bringing them together to the
GREAT EXHIBITION, so that, while they wonder at the result, the vastness
and the variety of their own doings, they may acknowledge _Him_, to whom
they are indebted for material and skill, time and capacity, life and
all things;—_whose_ they themselves are;—from whom cometh every good
and every perfect gift; and, as _whose property_, all that they possess
should be held and used. “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness
thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.”
The propriety of thus attributing everything to God, and of recognising
his providence in the laws of the world, the productions of the seasons,
the results of industry, the instruments of commerce, and even in the
adornments of civilization, and the allowable luxuries of elegance and
refinement, and also in the gifts of invention, subtlety, and mechanical
skill,—all this is so frequently taught or referred to in Scripture,
that a few appropriate illustrative passages may with great propriety be
inserted here.
The attentive reader will notice that the several quotations that follow
illustrate the most of the ideas that have been advanced, and that they
do this very much in the order in which they have been given. The first
passage, from the Book of Job, we give in the language of Mr. Goode’s
translation, as it expresses the sense of the original, with some
approach to scientific exactness.
“Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a bed for the gold which men
refine. Iron is dug up from the earth, and the rock poureth forth copper.
Man delveth into the region of darkness, and examineth to the utmost
limit the stones of darkness and death-shade: he breaketh up the veins
from the matrice, which, though nothing thought of under the foot, are
drawn forth, are brandished among mankind. The earth of itself poureth
forth bread, but below it windeth a fiery region. Sapphires are its
stones, and gold is its ground.”
The following sentences, while forming part of an argument respecting
moral and spiritual wisdom,—the fear of God and departure from evil,—are
remarkable as an enumeration of valuable substances, and are here quoted
simply as such.
“But where shall wisdom be found, and where is the place of
understanding? It cannot be “gotten for gold,” nor “silver;” it cannot be
valued with “the gold of Ophir,” “the precious onyx,” or “the sapphire;”
“gold” and “crystal” cannot equal it; nor “coral,” nor “pearls;” nor “the
topaz of Ethiopia;” for “the price of wisdom is above rubies.”
When we rise from the cavern and the mine, from noticing the precious
metals and precious stones, and look abroad on the surface of the earth,
or upwards to the sky, or over the great and wide sea, the Scripture
meets us with innumerable utterances of what, if we are wise, we shall
see there of the ever present, active, and beneficent God. “He causeth
the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that
he may bring forth food out of the earth; and wine that maketh glad
the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread that
strengtheneth man’s heart.” “He sendeth the springs into the valleys,
which run among the hills. They give drink to every beast of the field:
the wild asses quench their thirst. By them shall the fowls of the
heaven have their habitation, that sing among the branches. He watereth
the hills from his chambers: the earth is filled with the fruit of his
works.” “The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon
which he hath planted.” “Thou makest darkness and it is night, wherein
all the beasts of the forest do creep forth. The young lions roar after
their prey, and seek their meat from God.” “The earth is full of thy
riches: so is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping
innumerable, both small and great beasts. These wait all upon thee, that
thou mayest give them their meat in due season. That thou givest them
they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good. Thou
hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath,
they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they
are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth. The glory of the
Lord shall endure for ever; the Lord shall rejoice in his works.” He
is “the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are
afar off upon the sea.” He “by his strength setteth fast the mountains,
being girded with power:” He “stilleth the noise of the waves, and the
tumult of the people.” “Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and of
the evening to rejoice. Thou visitest the earth and waterest it: thou
greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou
preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it. Thou waterest the
ridges thereof abundantly: thou settlest the furrows thereof: thou makest
it soft with showers: thou blessest the springing thereof. Thou crownest
the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness. They drop upon
the pastures of the wilderness: and the little hills rejoice on every
side. The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered
over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing.”
In the following passages, the various powers and capacities of humanity,
as displayed in agriculture and art, are represented as Divine gifts.
The farmer and mechanic, the designer and manufacturer, the engraver and
draftsman, the worker in metals, in wood, stone, and in every sort of raw
material, all accomplish their several operations in virtue of ability
which God confers. “Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my
speech. Doth the ploughman plough all day to sow? Doth he open and break
the clods of his ground? When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth
he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the
principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rye in their place? For
GOD _doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him_. This also
cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in council, and
excellent in working.” “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, See, I
have called by name Bezaleel, the son of Uri;—and I have filled him with
the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge,
and in all manner of workmanship, to devise cunning works, to work in
gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in cutting of stones, and to set
them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship.
And I, behold, I have given with him Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach;—and,
in the hearts of _all that are wise-hearted_ I have put wisdom, that
they may make all that I have commanded thee.” And Hiram, king of
Tyre, sent also to Solomon “a cunning man, endued with prudence and
understanding,—skilful to work in gold, and silver, in brass, in iron, in
stone, in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson;
also to grave any manner of engraving, and to find out every device that
might be put to him.”
The next quotations illustrate commercial intercourse, the dependence
of nation on nation, trade by sea, and the importation of natural
curiosities, as well as of valuable products and useful material, with
other kindred matters. “The Lord gave Solomon wisdom,—and there was peace
between Hiram and Solomon; and they two made a league together:” and
Solomon wrote to Hiram, “Thou knowest that there is not among us any
that can skill to hew timber like the Sidonians. Now, therefore, let thy
servants hew me cedar-trees out of Lebanon, and unto thee will I give
hire for thy servants, according to all that thou shalt appoint.” And
Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, “I have considered the things which thou
sentest to me for: and I will do all thy desire, concerning timber of
cedar, and concerning timber of fir. My servants shall bring them down
from Lebanon to the sea; and I will convey them by sea in floats, to the
place that thou shalt appoint me, and will cause them to be discharged
there, and thou shalt receive them: and thou shalt accomplish my desire
in giving food for my household. So Hiram gave Solomon cedar-trees and
fir-trees; and Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat for
food to his household, and twenty measures of pure oil.”
And Solomon “went to Ezion-geber, and to Eloth, at the sea-side, in the
land of Edom. And Hiram sent him by the hands of his servants ships,
and servants _that had knowledge of the sea_; and they went with the
servants of Solomon to Ophir, and took thence four hundred and fifty
talents of gold and brought it to king Solomon:” “and once every three
years came the ships of Tarshish bringing gold, and silver, and ivory,
and apes, and peacocks.” The 27th chapter of Ezekiel is one of the
most extraordinary descriptions that is anywhere to be met with, of
the exchange of commodities and the intercourse of nations by means of
commerce. The different productions of various peoples and climes are
enumerated; the “fulness” of all lands is represented as flowing into the
markets of Tyre,—brought there by the ships and sailors of every maritime
nation;—while Tyre itself is spoken of as the nurse of mariners and the
mistress of the sea,—her beauty and abundance radiant and wonderful,—and
her merchant princes as the lords of the world. All this may breed
luxury, foster pride, promote corruption, and lead ultimately to national
degradation and decay: but this is not the _necessary_ effect of
abundance, nor does it forbid us to refer riches, prosperity, commerce,
manufactures, and everything else that adorns life, to the beneficence
of God. “The earth is the Lord’s, and _the fulness thereof_.” HE pours
down, year by year, the riches of the skies,—calls up the treasures of
the earth, spreads abroad the abundance of the seas,—adds to the value of
many of his gifts what they derive from the labour, skill, and ingenuity
of man,—and excites the nations to exchange and trade, that each country
may share in the joy and the productions of all. In this way it comes to
pass, that _the whole race_, in relation to _the entire world_, might be
addressed in the language of Moses to the chosen people when he described
the land promised to their fathers. “The Lord thy God bringeth thee into
a good land; a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that
spring out of valleys and hills: a land of wheat, and barley, and vines,
and fig-trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive-oil and honey; a land
wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack
anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou
mayest dig brass.” “Blessed of the Lord be his land, for the precious
things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath,
and for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the
precious things put forth by the moon, and for the chief things of the
ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills, and
for the precious things of _the earth_ AND FULNESS THEREOF, and for the
good will of Him that dwelt in the bush.” “He made Jacob to ride on the
high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields;
and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty
rock; butter of kine and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of
the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and he
drank the pure blood of the grape.”
Unusual as some of these expressions are, especially those of a
figurative character, they may be taken to indicate the intention of
Providence to bless the obedient in “the life that now is,” as well as
in relation to that “which is to come.” “God giveth us all things richly
to enjoy;” if faith and piety, love and obedience, pervaded the race,
everything that adorns and beautifies existence might be delighted in
and used without injury. By free and universal commercial intercourse,
the abundance and blessings of favoured regions may become the common
property of all. There may thus be established throughout all nations,
an equality of privilege, each sharing in the productions of the rest.
With such views, we may appropriately conclude the present chapter by the
following passages, weaving them into a song for the entire race:
“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof;
The world, and they that dwell therein.”
“The Lord is good to all:
And his tender mercies are over all his works.
The eyes of all wait upon him;
And he giveth them their meat in due season.
He openeth his hand,
And satisfieth the desire of every living thing.
_My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord_:
AND LET ALL FLESH BLESS HIS HOLY NAME, FOR EVER AND EVER.”
PART II.
INFERENTIAL.
PART II.
INFERENTIAL.
So far we have been employed in elucidating the principles which are
involved in the terms of the inscription—which is enthroned in the
front of the Royal Exchange,—THE EARTH IS THE LORD’S, AND THE FULNESS
THEREOF. These words, taken alone, distinctly recognise the existence
of God, Creation, and Providence. They express, or imply, through their
own inherent and independent force, the acknowledgment of these great
primary truths. In the course of our remarks, we have glanced at one
or two of the clauses of the psalm immediately succeeding the words of
the inscription; rather, however, as illustrative of the extent of its
significance, than as bringing to it any additional thought. We now
propose to take the acknowledgment, “The earth is the Lord’s, and the
fulness thereof,” in connexion _with the whole psalm of which it is the
commencement, and the psalm itself in connexion with the whole revelation
of which it is a part_; and thus to bring out those additional forms
of both truth and duty, which the _scriptural_ recognition of God’s
existence and government, and his general relations to the world and man,
may come to suggest to a devout and reflective Christian observer.
I.
_Worship._
Immediately after the assertion of God’s proprietorship of the world
and man, the psalmist inquires, “Who shall ascend into the hill of the
Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?” Language this, which refers
to the locality and the uses of the temple, as the appointed place of
Divine service. The existence of God and the obligation to worship him,
would seem to be associated by an indissoluble necessity. The two ideas,
indeed, mutually involve and illustrate each other. Admit the Divine
existence; it is 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; he has not only stamped his image
and superscription on the personal and intellectual attributes of the
race; but he has provided an unimpeachable witness for himself, in the
religious constitution of human nature. If there is one thing more than
another which forms the peculiar distinction of man, and which places
him in secluded and solitary grandeur apart from all the tribes of
sentient existence by which he is surrounded, it is his possession and
consciousness of a religious capacity. It may show itself in grotesque
or disgusting forms,—it may blunder in its search, and babble in its
utterances,—it may even become ferocious and malignant in its character;
but _there_ it is, _in_ man, and in him alone, manifested everywhere,
active always, forming a palpable and _impassable_ distinction between
his nature and that of all other creatures. 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. It is the prerogative of man to be able to
say either, “Our Father,” or “I believe.” Even if it were admitted that
specimens of humanity have been found, or could be produced, utterly
destitute of the religious capacity, and with nothing about them, when
they gaze on the universe, beyond the vacant stare of unintelligent
natures; and even if it were further asserted and acknowledged, that
it was utterly impossible to awaken in them a sense or perception of
anything Divine,—yet it would be found that _their children_ could be
taught to comprehend and feel religious ideas,—that _they_ had within
them the spiritual capacity,—from which it would be evident that _their
fathers had originally possessed it too_. 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 a simple fact, then, beyond all question, that humanity possesses
this distinguishing attribute. All things beneath and around him seem to
be made for man; but he is the subject of a strong, active, predominating
impulse, that appears like a consciousness, on his own part, that _he_
is made for something else. This impulse finds utterance and embodiment
in religious ideas and religious service. Now, it would be a strange
anomaly in a world like this, in which every faculty of every creature
finds its corresponding and appropriate object,—in which wing and hoof,
scent and speed, eye and ear, hand and horn, powers and passions,
appetites and attributes of all sorts, are fitted exactly to something
that seems to be made for _them_, or for which _they_ are made,—it would
be a strange thing, that the only exception to this law, should be in the
Lord and Master of the world himself!—and that it should occur, too, just
in that one faculty that at once distinguishes and dignifies him more
than any other! The existence and actings of the religious instinct in
man thus constitute a proof of the existence of God, just as the admitted
existence of God involves the obligation to religion in man. The tendency
in humanity “to feel after God if haply it may find him,”—and to _have_
something it may call God,—whether it succeed in finding him or not,—is
demonstrative of a Divine objective reality answerable to itself, in the
same way as the half-formed wings of a bird in the shell are proof of the
existence of an external atmosphere, and of the ultimate destiny of the
bird itself.
It is worth observing, too, that this duty of worship, which results from
the truth professed in the acknowledgment that “the earth is the Lord’s,
and the fulness thereof,” like the other things already mentioned,
involves or illustrates the Divine _personality_. Worship, at the very
least, is adoration and gratitude,—the utterance, generally in words,
of thought and affection towards the Supreme Nature, as the subject of
high attributes and the source of universal good;—exercises these, that
can have no meaning, if that nature has no consciousness of its own
perfections, and no knowledge of the language addressed to it. For man
“to ascend into the hill of the Lord, and to stand and worship in his
holy place,” He, to whom he approaches, must be a personal intelligence.
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 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. 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. We may adapt to
the fact the beautiful words of the Book of Proverbs: “Wisdom crieth
_without_; she uttereth her voice _in the streets_. She crieth _in the
chief place of concourse_; in the CITY she uttereth her words, saying,
‘THE EARTH IS THE LORD’S, AND THE FULNESS THEREOF.’” And this publicly
recorded persuasion,—this proclamation of our faith in the ears of all
men, and our meaning it for the proclamation of the common and universal
faith of humanity,—_this_ involves in it the corresponding duty,—the duty
of _worshipping_ Him who is acknowledged as God,—the God of the whole
earth,—and the duty of “_all_ that dwell therein.” “O thou that hearest
prayer, _unto thee shall all flesh come_.” “The Lord reigneth, _let the
earth rejoice_; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof.” “Sing unto
the Lord a new song, sing unto the Lord, _all the earth_.” “Make a joyful
noise unto the Lord, _all ye lands_. Serve the Lord with gladness: come
before his presence with singing. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving,
and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his
name.” “Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his
wonderful works to _the children of men_.” “Praise the Lord, _all ye
nations_; praise him, _all ye people_. For his merciful kindness is great
toward us: and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever. PRAISE YE THE
LORD.”
II.
_Character._
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. Every thing that the
man _does_, is done in consistency with the rule of rectitude. He is
a just, equitable, fair-dealing man. Confidence may be placed in his
honour and uprightness, his incorruptible integrity, his contempt
of meanness, and intolerance of wrong. Everything that belongs to
a sound, solid, practical worth,—a pure, and even a fastidious,
virtue,—a virtue beyond doubt or suspicion,—may be supposed to attach
to the man who is said, by emphasis, to have “clean hands.” “_Not to
swear deceitfully_,”—whatever may be its precise shade of meaning
in the psalm,—may fairly be interpreted, in a discussion like this,
as standing for honest and sincere speech, and as the type of the
virtuous use of the tongue. It excludes from the idea of the character,
deceit and falsehood, concealment and equivocation, with everything
approaching to the _designed_ conveyance of a wrong impression by word
or look. In buying and selling, in barter or bargain, in converse or
correspondence,—in respect to whatever business he transacts, and in
relation to every medium for thought—there is supposed to be, in the man
before us, scrupulous propriety of language,—the utmost transparency of
meaning and purpose. He is simple, straightforward, without the shadow
of deceit or guile. Then, “_a pure heart_,” in addition to habitual
“cleanness of hands,” and the maintenance of entire integrity of tongue,
is intended to express, the co-existence of an upright _inward_ life,
with the outward appearances of practical goodness. It would not only
imply, however, the harmony of a man’s thoughts with his words,—and the
correctness of the motives of his visible acts,—it would include in it,
in its scriptural import, the government of the passions,—the control
of the imagination,—sincerity and depth of religious feeling;—every
thing not only chaste but devout, the whole soul liberated from gross
and corrupting affections,—free from the drag and degradation of the
flesh,—and fairly detached from the adhesions of earth, in all senses
in which they would imply bondage to the sensual or the secular. “_Not
to lift up the soul unto vanity_,” is intended to express the freedom
of the man from idol-worship. The “vanities” of the heathen were the
idols or deities whom the heathen adored; to whom they “lifted up their
souls,”—or, in other words, to whom they rendered religious reverence,
and before whom they appeared in worship. “Cleanness of hands,” then,
“sincerity of speech,” “purity of heart,” with all that they include, in
their seminal comprehensiveness, of outward and inward practical virtue,
are thus connected with regard to _the true God_. The man has not only
both morality and religion, but his religion is of the right kind. It is
as proper as to its object, as it is sincere in itself. The man neither
worships idols _as_ Gods,—nor idols _with_ God,—nor God _through_ idols.
“He has not lifted up his soul unto vanity.” He has not been seduced by
the sun in his splendour, nor by the moon in her brightness; he has not
“kissed his hand,” nor “offered sacrifices,” to “the queen of heaven:” he
has not “bowed his knee to the image of Baal,” nor “fallen down to the
stock of a tree.” The language descriptive of his feeling and practice
would be that of David in relation to himself,—“Unto THEE, O Lord, do _I
lift up my soul_.”
It is easy to see, how this demand of character in his worshippers adds
to the proof of the personality of God. Worship of any kind, to have any
meaning, implies personality;—but the demand for worshippers of a certain
sort, implies, along with this, the possession, by Him whom they are to
approach and please, of personal properties the same in kind with those
of the worshippers. Where there is virtue, there must be thought;—where
there are moral attributes, there must be personal intelligence;
and where there is the necessity for these, as a pre-requisite for
worship,—the Being worshipped must be supposed to be distinguished by
moral attributes as well as by intelligence, as thus, only, could he
properly appreciate, or consistently demand, them. A God may be imagined
to be _better_ than his worshippers,—he cannot rationally be supposed
to be worse. To have a perception of goodness, and a sympathy with the
good, and to permit none but the latter to stand before him, or to come
into his presence, God must not only be a person, but one whose _own_
character, must _itself_ be pre-eminently distinguished by goodness.
It may be worth observing, that moral ideas associated with worship,
operate in more ways than one. They take a direction both upwards and
downwards, each action illustrating the other. The character regarded
with complacency in the worshippers, indicates that of the God they
worship;—the character associated with the God they worship, moulds and
fashions that of the worshippers. The deities of a people will naturally
influence their moral notions and their moral behaviour. The object
of worship becomes the standard of virtue;—men will imitate what they
are taught to adore. If there be _no_ God, there need be no worship;—if
worship is rendered to unintelligent force, it can be of no consequence,
so far as _it_ is concerned, what the moral character of the worshippers
is;—if the God be conceived of as sensual or malignant, lascivious or
bloody, his image may be expected to be mirrored in his worshippers;—but
if in all that approach him, he peremptorily demands “clean hands” and
“a pure heart,”—with all that these include of universal virtue,—he
must of necessity be considered to be holy Himself, while the habitual
worship of such a being must be regarded as conducive to holiness in his
servants. These latter ideas are precisely those which the Biblical idea
of Deity illustrates. He is always described, in the loftiest terms, as
invested with every attribute of excellence; as infinitely removed from
evil; as looking on the good with delight; as permitting such only to
approach him; as bidding the bad far from his presence; as detecting and
denouncing hypocrisy and formality; and as exposing the uselessness of
ritual acts and external observances taken by themselves, and insisting
on an inward and earnest sympathy with his own love of the holy and the
pure.
In consistency with the course which more than once we have already
followed, we shall here introduce a series of passages from the Holy
Scriptures illustrative of the statements which have just been made.
“The holy one of Israel.” “He is the Rock, his work is perfect;—a God of
truth, and without iniquity; just and right is he.” “The Lord is in his
holy temple;”—“worship him in the beauty of holiness.” “For the righteous
Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.”
“Unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes,
or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?—Thou thoughtest
that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee and
set them (thy doings) in order before thine eyes.” “Thou art not a God
that hast pleasure in wickedness; neither shall evil dwell with thee.”
“Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves
of idols. For thou Lord art high above all the earth; thou art exalted
far above all gods. Ye that love the Lord, hate evil. Rejoice in the
Lord ye righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.”
“This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth,—but their heart is
far from me;” “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, seek ye me, and ye
shall live;—seek good and not evil, that ye may live.” “Hate the evil
and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate that ye may live.”
“To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?” “When ye
come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread
my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto
me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot
away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.” “When ye spread
forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many
prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make
you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease
to do evil; learn to do well.” “Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in
mine integrity. Examine me, prove me, try my reins and my heart. I have
not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers. I have
hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked.
I will wash mine hands in innocency, and so will I compass thine altar,
O Lord.” “Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in
thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and
speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue,
nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his
neighbour. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned, but he honoureth
them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth
not. He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward
against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.”
III.
_Christ._
These representations lead to the consideration of a third and last
thing, which is essential to the complete illustration of the subject.
“THE EARTH IS THE LORD’S, AND THE FULNESS THEREOF.” There is a God;
God is to be worshipped; none but the good can acceptably worship him.
So far all is plain. But men are not good. Throughout the race there
is a consciousness to the contrary. In spite of the operation of many
amiable instincts, and in spite of a large amount of passable virtue,
it is quite understood that there is a terrible mass of iniquity in the
world;—that there are the grossnesses of brutal lust, and the refinements
of a fastidious licentiousness;—that there are falsehood, and fraud, and
lying, and theft,—all the modes of open or secret dishonesty by which
men attempt, or contrive, to overreach each other;—that there is the
stupid animalism of rural ignorance, and the arts, and appliances, and
accomplishments of crime, that abound in the recesses of great cities;—it
is well known that corruption and depravity, in all these forms, have
made terrible havoc in all lands; and, what is still more to the
purpose, that among the classes the freest from crime, there is so much
moral defect, and so many things having the character of sin,—so much,
especially, of the want of religious faith, and of indifference to God,
if not of conscious and positive enmity against him,—so much, in fact,
of what constitutes the _opposite_ of all that must be meant by the term
“holiness,” and of what is demanded in those who can calmly “ascend into
the hill of the Lord,” and acceptably “stand in his holy place;” that
it would almost seem, on the admission of the statements and principles
advanced, as if the worship of God must be given up as hopeless, in a
world like this, from the utter impossibility of finding a sufficient
number to make up for him an assembly of fitting worshippers.
There is a difference between worship considered as _the habitual
service of the good_,—the appearing before God of those of “clean hands”
and “pure hearts,” who are living in moral sympathy with him,—and
_the approach to his footstool_, in shame and tears, _of the guilty
and the penitent_. It is the worship and character of _the former
class_ that are contemplated in the description of the psalm before
us; which description, with the demand involved in it, to be fully and
theologically understood, must be looked at in connexion with the entire
service of the Hebrew Institute, and the whole teaching of the sacred
volume. 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.
The Jewish dispensation approached men, in the first instance, as
sinful and polluted, and it established a system adapted to their
necessities. It set up its altar,—prescribed its sacrifices,—appointed
its institutions,—consecrated its priesthood;—had its days of atonement,
and its ark of propitiation,—its paschal lamb, and its burnt offering,
and its scape-goat, and its sprinkling of blood;—with everything else
that could either significantly presuppose sin, or point to the necessity
and the mode of its removal. The Hebrew worshipper, in appearing before
God, was first required to come into contact with the sacrifice and
the priest;—he confessed offence, acknowledged his just exposure to
punishment, brought his propitiation, and _then_, being purified from his
ceremonial transgressions and the consequent disqualifications he had
contracted, by this appointed method of approach to God, he was regarded
as in a state of fitness for his worship, and could thus draw nigh as an
accepted worshipper.
Now, there was a moral meaning in this ritual arrangement. It was
intended to teach that, as ceremonial impurity needed to be removed in
order to acceptable outward service,—so, spiritual guilt needed to be
removed in order to acceptable _spiritual_ worship. When the psalm before
us, therefore, or any other, expatiates on the virtues and excellences
of the man who is permitted “to ascend into the hill of the Lord,” or
allowed “to stand in his holy place,” it is always implied, that he has
come to the attainment of the character described, by a process of pardon
and of purification through the previous exercise of the Divine mercy.
But, it is to be remarked, that the Levitical Institute, while so fully
set forth and impressively taught the two great truths of the sinfulness
of man, and the necessity for some Divinely appointed mode both for his
reconciliation with God and the renewal or sanctification of his nature,
did not reveal, completely and explicitly, what that mode was, or what it
was to be. It dimly foreshadowed it;—it indicated the principle on which
it would proceed, and the parts of which it would consist;—but it did
this by type and symbol,—anticipating, in a picture, the substance and
reality that were one day to be revealed. It was very evident, from the
Hebrew Institute, considered as a Divine and intelligible appointment,
that men were to learn from it that their approach to God was to be
marked by solemn and affecting peculiarities. They were distinctly taught
that they needed to be redeemed, reconciled, pardoned, purified, in order
that they might be able to rejoice at the remembrance of God’s holiness,
or to appear before him as acceptable worshippers; and they were further
taught, that in order to this,—that is, to their attainment of pardon
and its attendant advantages,—it was incumbent that atonement should
be made by sacrifice, and that the priest should pass into the Divine
presence with the blood of the victim, to bring thence, and through it,
the blessings needed by sinful humanity.
St. Paul tells us, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, that the Levitical
Institute taught this, and that it was _intended_ to teach it; that
is, that it taught what it was that humanity _needed_. But he tells
us more than that; he tells us that it _also_ taught that this thing
that was so needed, and so wished for, _was not yet revealed_, that it
was not provided by the Institute itself, in its own altar, victim, or
priesthood,—and would not be manifested _so long as itself stood_; or, at
least, that the coming of it, as it would be the fulfilment of what the
Institute foreshadowed or foretold, would be the signal and means of its
dissolution and departure. By the fact of sacrifice, and the sprinkling
of blood, and the washings and purifications of their own ceremonial,
the apostle says it was evidently taught, that there existed a necessity
for the removal of sin and the cleansing of the conscience; but then,
by the _repetition_ of the sacrifices, the annual return of the day of
atonement, and the mysterious darkness of the holy of holies,—excluded
from sight by the awful veil, and permitted to be approached only once
a year, and that only by one individual,—by all this, he says, it was
_equally_ taught, that Judaism did not accomplish for man, _what it
informed him needed to be done_. The first covenant had ordinances of
divine service,—a sanctuary—a veil—the tabernacle which is the holiest of
all. Now, into this, the high priest alone went, “once every year, not
without blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors of the
people. THE HOLY GHOST THIS SIGNIFYING, that the way into the holiest of
all was not made manifest, while the first tabernacle was yet standing:
which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered
both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service
perfect _as pertaining to the conscience_: which stood only in meats
and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them
_until the time of reformation_.”
Now, this typical and temporary character sustained by the Jewish
Institute,—this parabolic and preparatory office which it had to
fulfil,—this suggesting merely, or setting forth in a figure, of
the wants of humanity and of the _principle_ which must pervade,
underlie, and distinguish the provision that must meet them,—this
prophetic announcement that priest and sacrifice were yet _future_,
but were certain to come,—all this, while it shows the importance of
attending to the connexion between the Old and the New Testaments,
and of mutually interpreting each by the other, gives, of necessity,
to the more spiritual portions of the Hebrew records a far-stretching
and comprehensive meaning, which can only be understood by looking
at it in the light of the Christian revelation. “_Coming events_
cast their shadows _before_.” The whole of the fabric and furniture
of the tabernacle were constructed and arranged upon this principle.
This principle was recognised and embodied in the utterances of the
prophets;—it often pervaded the entire texture, or appeared in parts, of
one or other of _the psalms and songs of the ancient church_. In looking
at the intention and significancy of Judaism, we should imagine ourselves
gazing on the floor of the temple and the front of the veil,—observing
them covered with flickering shadows falling from objects which are
unseen. There they lie,—the distinct outlines of thing and person,—the
_shadows_ of substances which are existing somewhere, but which only,
as yet, give notice that they are, by this insubstantial intimation of
themselves. 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. _Some one is preparing to appear_, and to be revealed, and
manifested, in whose hands will be found the substance of those other
objects whose shadows seem to be lying around us!—The approaching events
are thus prophetically announced by these dim outlines; and, while they
are being so, voices are heard from the great congregation, uttering _an
equally prophetic song_,—celebrating the glories of what they _see_, but
doing it in language which only finds its intended significance when
applied to and associated with what they see _not_.
On this principle it is, then, that we have prophetic psalms;—psalms
that are termed Messianic, from their referring to the Messiah, and
anticipating his appearance, his sufferings and death, his resurrection
and ascension, his kingdom and glory. Some of these refer, in their
primary application, to other individuals and to mundane events;—they
express the feelings and anticipations of the writers in relation to
themselves, and they describe matters of immediate concern or recent
occurrence; but they do this in language that admits of a deeper meaning
and a larger range;—the import of which they that employed it might not
know, and which _we_ only learn from the New Testament expositors of
the Hebrew text. When Jesus “opened the understandings of the apostles,
that they might understand the Scriptures;” and when he condescended
to show them the true meaning of their ancient books, he expounded to
them, it is said, “What was written in the law, in the prophets, and
in THE PSALMS concerning _himself_.” The evangelists and the apostles,
in their future writings for the instruction and use of the Christian
church, used this knowledge, or similar knowledge from the same source;
and thus it is, that we find quotations from so many of the psalms,—some
in the Gospels, some in the Acts, others in the Epistles of Peter and
Paul. From one psalm the apostle takes the expression of man being made
“a little lower than the angels,” to express the fact of Christ’s coming
in the flesh, with the objects and results of it;—that “_he_ was made a
little lower than the angels _for the suffering of death_, that he might
taste death for every man.” From another psalm, he applies language still
stronger, to the same purpose. “Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest
not, _but a body hast thou prepared me_: lo! I come to do thy will, O
God.” The apostle’s comment upon this is very remarkable. Having quoted
the passage, he proceeds to reason upon it after this manner:—When
he says, “Sacrifice and offering, which are offered by the law, thou
wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein, and then says, ‘Lo! I
come to do thy will;’ he takes away the first that he may establish
the second.” That is, he removes and puts aside _the mere symbols_ of
the preparatory dispensation, which were inefficient and typical, and
reveals _the reality_, which they were meant to announce, and which they
prophetically foreshadowed. _That reality_ was the Divine “will” in its
ultimate object, namely, “The offering of the body of Christ” “once
for all,” “through the eternal Spirit,” “without spot;” _by the which
offering_, we are saved and sanctified;—for it can do that _for the
heart and conscience_ which the others only showed to be necessary by
what they did “_for the purifying of the flesh_.” From another psalm may
be collected the physical circumstances of the crucifixion,—the “cruel
mockings,” the “piercing of the hands and the feet,” the “parting of the
garments and casting lots;” together with the anticipated mysterious
utterances of the great sufferer, in his “bloody sweat,” and his mighty
anguish! In another psalm, we find the resurrection;—the soul of Messiah
is “not left in Hades,” the place of the dead, nor does “his body” in the
grave, “see corruption;” and in other psalms, we find the foreshadowing
of _subsequent_ events:—his ascension into heaven; his official position,
and mediatorial glories and functions, there; with much that relates to
the corresponding effect of all this on earth:—“Thou art my Son, this day
have I begotten thee”:—“The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right
hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” “The Lord hath sworn,
and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of
Melchisedek.” “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take
counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed:—Yet have
I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.” “THOU HAST ASCENDED ON HIGH,
_thou hast led captivity captive_: thou hast received gifts for men; yea,
for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.” Now,
this latter passage is to be particularly observed. It is a passage taken
from one of the psalms,—a psalm sung at the removal of the ark, like the
twenty-fourth, and which, like it, is taken up in the celebration of
battle and war, victory and conquest. It is to be noticed, then, that
the passage just quoted, is applied by the apostle Paul, in the Epistle
to the Ephesians, _to the ascension of Christ_, and is connected by him
with the work which he came from heaven to accomplish, and the blessings
which he returned to heaven to dispense. “Unto every one of us is given
grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he
saith, _When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave
gifts unto men_. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he descended
first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended, is the same
also as he that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill
all things). And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some,
evangelists; 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: till we all come, in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge
of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of
the fulness of Christ.”
These last remarks will have revealed the drift of this long discussion,
and will enable us now rapidly to bring it to a close. By “reasoning out
of the Scriptures,” we have shown how the Levitical dispensation was, in
its rites and usages, preparatory and prophetic of something to come;—by
distinct passages from the Book of Psalms, as quoted and explained in
the New Testament, we have shown how the hymns of the ancient church
anticipated, by their recondite and profounder meaning, the same things
that were foreshadowed in the ritual;—and, in the concluding remarks on
this point, we have shown, how the apostle illustrates _the ascension of
Messiah, after successful battle and war_—returning from conquest and
crowned with victory—_by referring to the words of a Hebrew Psalm_. In
the same way, then, we think ourselves entitled to connect the 24th Psalm
with the mission of the Messiah, and to consider that the close of it,
if not an intended prophecy of his ascension, is yet capable of being
regarded _as illustrative of it_; and that it should suggest therefore
the propriety of adding to whatever truths of a general nature the
first verses of the psalm may embody, the specific peculiarities of the
Christian revelation,—that revelation to which all previous discoveries
were preparatory, and without which they cannot be complete. There is an
emphatic sense, in which CHRIST is “the King of glory;” in which he is
to be regarded as having being engaged in mortal combat,—contending with
the enemy of God and man,—overcoming him in a way as mysterious as it was
successful—by yielding himself to be “bruised for our iniquities,” and
“stricken for our sins;” and that, “after having by himself purged our
sins,”—after having, in the nature he had assumed, “presented himself
an offering and a sacrifice,” that we might obtain “eternal redemption
through his blood,”—he rose again from the dead, proclaiming his triumph
over sin and Satan, by showing that it was “not possible for him to be
holden” of Death; and further, that “he ascended up on high,”—entered
into heaven, whose “everlasting gates” opened to receive him, as one who
was “leading captivity captive,” and who came to ask and “to receive
gifts for men.” All this we are warranted in connecting with the ideas
which have already passed before us, of the supremacy of God, the duty
of worship and the character of his worshippers, and of finding in it
the evangelical element in which such ideas need to be baptized. God
is; God is to be worshipped; God is holy; _they_ must be holy who
habitually approach him;—but “all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God:” “every mouth must be stopped, for the whole world is
guilty before Him.” “WHO, then, shall ascend into the hill of the Lord,
or who shall stand in his holy place?”—They, certainly, who have “clean
hands” and “a pure heart,” but—who have _first_ “made a covenant with God
_by sacrifice_;”—who have accepted _Him_, whom he hath “set forth as a
propitiation,” and “whose blood cleanseth from all sin;”—who, as sinners,
draw nigh in _his_ name, who is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” and
without whom “no man cometh unto the Father;”—they who, believing in Him
“who died, rose again, and continues to live,” and “who hath ascended
up on high that he might fill all things,” have “received out of his
fulness even grace for grace”;—have obtained the pardon of actual sin,
and have received the gift of the sanctifying Spirit which the Redeemer
is emphatically exalted to bestow;—they who, by the subjective operation
of the truth, are “washed, and justified, and sanctified, in the name
of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God;” and who know, by
experience, that “the grace of God which bringeth salvation, teaching
them, that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, they should live
soberly, righteously, and godly in the world.” “_This_ is the generation
of them that seek him, that seek thy face O God of Jacob.” “These receive
the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of their
salvation.” “They that do these things, shall never be moved.”
In this way, then, by taking the first verse of the psalm before us,
which constitutes the inscription on the Royal Exchange, and looking at
it in connexion with the whole composition of which it is a part, and by
looking at that, also, in connexion with the religious institution it
belonged to, and the entire revelation of both Testaments, as gradually
developing the great system of mercy and mediation,—in this way, we
are taught to associate with _the general truths of an elementary
Theism_,—which is all that at first appear to be proclaimed,—_the
specific truths of an Evangelical Christianity_. “The earth is the
Lord’s, and the fulness thereof;”—this simple declaration of the primary
principle of all religion, when placed in the light emanating from the
whole constellation of discoveries which surround it in the Jewish and
Christian Scriptures, is seen to involve in it, not only the existence,
the government, and the worship, of a personal God, but the reality and
the functions, the work and the presidency, of a personal Redeemer. They
that “ascend into the hill of the Lord, and that stand with acceptance
in his holy place,” must _be_ holy because God is holy; but it were
terrible to make this demand upon humanity, which is altogether deformed
and dislocated, and that manifests everywhere, when it thinks of God,
that its next thought is that God is _against_ it,—it were terrible,
we say, to make this demand, _if there came not along with it, the
proclamation of the offer, and the announcement of the Divine method, of
forgiveness_,—the “reconciliation” effected by him who triumphed over sin
by the death of the cross, and who ascended up on high in the might of
his achievement, to be at once the medium of our access to God, and the
Divine Distributor of the blessings of his salvation. Men, as men—that
is, as sinners—are to believe the gospel, and to accept of Christ, that,
by faith and repentance, spiritually “entering into the holiest of all,
through the way he has consecrated for them by his blood,” they may be
constituted the church; and then, _being_ the church,—that is, sinful
men justified and sanctified _through him_,—they are “to bring forth the
fruits of the spirit” in their lives, and habitually to worship “in the
beauty of holiness.” The virtue that we demand in the worshippers of God,
under the rule of the Christian dispensation, is the virtue that flows
from religious faith; that faith being, the exercise of trust in the
redemption of the gospel. To have “clean hands” and “a pure heart,”—to be
sincere and upright in lip and life—we exact of _all men_ as their daily
duty; but in order to possess these in a proper manner, so that they
shall be vital, Christian holiness, and not a superficial and secular
virtue, there is a _previous_ duty which behoves to be attended to,—the
submission of the mind to the faith of Christ,—penitent approach to an
offended God through the one divinely-appointed Mediator, “in whom we
have redemption, through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to
the riches of his grace.” Being “made partakers of the Divine nature,”
through the influence of the quickening and sanctifying Spirit, they will
then not only have “their fruit unto holiness,” and cultivate, from the
force of a necessary law, and as impelled by a regal and irrepressible
instinct, “_whatsoever things are just, and whatsoever things are pure,
and whatsoever things are true, and whatsoever things are lovely and
of good report_,” but they will be a part of “the priesthood of God,”
endowed and consecrated by an unction from himself, that, in the various
acts and exercises of the Church, they may constantly offer up “spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to him by Jesus Christ.” These engagements, again,
will re-act on their personal character, and have a constant tendency
to advance and elevate it, and help their attainment of a practical
perfection. In this way, men, _first_ “having obtained like precious
faith” with the Apostles, “in the righteousness of God, and of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ;” will be divinely taught the secret of a real
and accumulative excellence. “Having escaped from the corruption that
is in the world through lust,” they will “give all diligence to add to
their faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance,
and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness
brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity.”
An intelligent adherent of the Scriptural, Protestant, and Evangelical
faith of the living Christianity of this realm of England, associates all
we have endeavoured to illustrate in the whole of our discussion with the
simple inscription on the Royal Exchange. It is a text from the Bible.
It recognises the Divine authority of the book; and the recognition of
that authority in one of its sayings, carries with it the admission of
the whole of its utterances. “The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness
thereof.” The association of this, in a devout mind, is easy and natural
with the exaltation and glory of the Redeemer of the world, whose last
words when he left it were, “All power is given unto me in heaven and
in earth,” and who, upon this, based the command which he gave to the
Apostles, “Go ye, therefore, into all the world, and preach the Gospel to
every creature.” The government of the earth is in the hands of Christ;
it is mediatorial; it is not only that of goodness and beneficence, but
it is that also of revealed mercy. God “will have all men to be saved,
and to come unto the knowledge of the truth,” for his son “gave himself
a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” There is _another_
“fulness,” besides that of the teeming earth, and the annual redundance
and prodigality of nature. There is “_The fulness of Christ,—the fulness
of him who filleth all in all_;” the complete development of “his body
the Church;” and the full-orbed display of his perfections and glory,
when “to him every knee shall bow of things in heaven and things in
earth; and every tongue shall confess that _he_ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father.” All this, the thoughtful observer associates with
the sentence that daily meets the eyes of the citizens of this great
metropolis. All this is being ceaselessly uttered in the hearing of the
assembled congress of nations;—it is held up in the sight of the many
and multitudinous representatives of the various tribes and peoples of
the earth! _What would be the future of Europe and the world_,—moral,
political, social, and religious,—_if England and its visitors alike
learnt, and fully carried out, all that is involved in what the one is
proclaiming in the ears of the others_?
In the succeeding pages of this book, we shall endeavour to reply to this
question.
PART III.
PROPHETIC.
PART III.
PROPHETIC.
THE ARGUMENT RECAPITULATED—THE RELIGIOUS ANTICIPATION OF THE FUTURE
ILLUSTRATED AND JUSTIFIED BY THE HOPES OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL
PHILANTHROPY.
We began this book by referring to the circumstance, that the same
illustrious individual who originated the idea of “the Great Exhibition,”
and who has done so much to extend and realize it, suggested as an
inscription for the Royal Exchange, a single sentence from our English
Bible—“_The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof._” It is the
first verse of the 24th Psalm. The suggestion was adopted;—and hence, on
the front of the building referred to,—in very plain letters,—rather
rude if any thing,—without adornment,—or figure or flourish of any
sort—but conspicuous and legible, in our own homely, honest, Saxon
tongue, stands, open to all the world, the public proclamation of our
faith as a people—“The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof.” It
stands there, on the front of the edifice, which is the commercial centre
of this great city,—the place of meeting for the men of different lands
and of many languages, who, as the representatives of every clime and
country upon earth, constitute, daily, a sort of typical gathering of all
nations,—men connected with the “_industry_,” by being connected with the
trade and traffic, of the world.
We proposed to put the two things together,—the inscription on the
Exchange, with the anticipated gathering in the Palace of Industry,—and
to consider the first as announcing to the second certain great truths,
and these again as involving universal duties; and we further proposed
to consider, in conclusion, what would be the result, to Europe and
the world, if, by ourselves and our many visitors, with the aggregate
of nationalities whom they will represent, these truths were all to be
acknowledged, and the duties resulting from them were all to be done.
We then proceeded—taking in connexion with the first verse of the
psalm, which constitutes the inscription on the Exchange, the entire
sacred composition of which it is a part,—and viewing _that_, too,
in connexion with the whole volume of Divine Revelation to which it
belongs—we proceeded, on this principle, to develope and illustrate
the truths and the duties to which we referred. Thus expounded, we
found the confession, that “the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness
thereof,” to include the following things. It involved, in the first
place, _the existence of God_;—the acknowledgment of this,—and the
acknowledgment of it in connexion with the idea of _personality_. In the
second place, it involved God’s proprietorship of the world and man,
and the recognition of this as carrying with it the acknowledgment of
his being _the Creator_, since, immediately after the statement that
“the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof,” the Psalm goes on
to say, “the world, and _they that dwell therein;—for he hath founded
it upon the seas and established it upon the floods_.” In the third
place, we educed from the confession that the “_fulness_” of the earth
is God’s, the doctrine of _Providence_, including in that, the original
disposition of materials for the service of man in the construction
of the globe,—the whole arrangement of things, animate and inanimate,
on its surface,—the establishment of all the laws of production,—the
continual _administration_ of these laws, by God’s personal supremacy
and presidency over nature,—the gifts which he confers, on nations
and individuals, of contrivance and skill, taste and genius,—with
whatever else belongs to the constant communication of good, and the
progressive advance and improvement of society. All these ideas were
largely illustrated by various striking passages of Scripture; and the
acknowledgment of the truths of _Creation_ and _Providence_, were both
shown to involve in them further evidence of the previous truth of the
Divine personality.
We next advanced to some additional ideas of both truth and duty,
which the acknowledgment of all this involved,—especially as this
acknowledgment was illustrated by the whole psalm that was supposed
to be before us, and as _that_ was illustrated by the whole scheme of
Divine discovery developed in the Bible, and the connexion between the
Jewish and Christian revelations. We found the following things to be
thus brought out. In the first place, the duty of _worship_:—this was
suggested by the question, which immediately follows the acknowledgment
of God, of creation, providence, and the Divine proprietorship of the
earth and the world,—“Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord,
who shall stand in his holy place?” Next, there was the answer to
this question, which involved the obligation of _universal virtue_ in
God’s worshippers—that is, upon all men, since _all_ men are alike
bound to worship him: “He that hath clean hands and a pure heart;
who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.”
This was expounded as a demand for inward and outward purity—purity
of soul, lip, and life—in all who habitually approached God in the
solemnities of worship. But this demand for universal virtue in
_each_ worshipper,—associated with the obligation of _all_ men to
worship,—viewed in connexion with the general consciousness of defect and
sin, and the proof and prevalence of ungodliness in the world,—led, in
the third place, to the discussion of the great question—_how humanity
was to come to the attainment of that character, which was essential to
the fulfilment of its religious obligations_? To be in a proper moral
and spiritual state for the discharge of habitual, acceptable worship,
considered as a duty, we found, by a process of scriptural reasoning, to
involve _another_ and _a previous_ duty; that, namely, _of accepting the
gospel as a system of mercy, and of submitting to Christ as the Redeemer
of the world_. We argued this, from looking at the lessons taught by the
principle that pervaded the appointments of the Jewish ritual, and the
prophetic bearing on the promised Messiah, of some of the hymns used
by the people in the Hebrew worship. We showed how the whole of the
ancient Institute taught the necessity of atonement and sacrifice,—pardon
through a propitiation, and purity and holiness as divine effects; we
saw how it intimated that it did not _itself_ provide these, but, by
typical rites, significant ceremonies, and prophetic songs, anticipated
their coming in “the fulness of time,” when they should be procured
and dispensed by one who was regarded as the hope and “the desire of
all nations.” Without positively saying that the latter part of the
twenty-fourth psalm was a distinct and _intended_ prophecy of Christ,
we showed, from the language of those psalms that are so, as quoted and
expounded in the New Testament, that it might consistently be regarded
as _illustrative_ of Christ—of his return in triumph to the heavenly
world, when, after having “overcome the sharpness of death,” “he ascended
up on high, to receive gifts for men, even for the rebellious, that the
Lord God might dwell among them,” and that _they_ might become the holy
and spiritual “priesthood” of God. In this way, we endeavoured to show
how an intelligent Christian might associate with the first verse of
the twenty-fourth psalm, all the scriptural revelations respecting HIM,
who, in the _Te Deum_,—one of the noblest of ancient Christian hymns,—is
invoked in language borrowed from the close of it: “_Thou art_ THE KING
OF GLORY, _O Christ!_” and that thus, the simple words on our Exchange,
which at first sight appear to announce only the general principles of
Theism, would come to utter in the ear of instructed reason and enlarged
faith, the specific truths of an Evangelical Christianity. It thus comes
to pass, that we are taught ourselves, by the inscription referred to,
and shall teach the nations to whom we exhibit it, that, for men “to
ascend into the hill of the Lord, and habitually to worship in his holy
place;” appearing there in “the beauty of holiness,” and everywhere
exemplifying universal virtue; they must _first_ come to him as sinners,
through Christ, and that, then, being cleansed from their sins, by being
“washed, justified, and sanctified, in the name of the Lord Jesus and
by the spirit of our God,” they can constitute a holy, _worshipping_
Church; and with “clean hands,” and “pure hearts,” offer up “spiritual
sacrifices,” fragrant and acceptable to Him whom they approach,—such
approach, again, ever re-acting on their further attainment of personal
righteousness.
It now only remains for us to conclude and complete our originally
projected course of observation, by setting forth what would be the
future condition of the nations, _supposing that all the world learned
and practised the truths and duties which have thus been enumerated_.
It is not unnatural to look at the subject in this way. Philosophers, and
politicians, and social economists, are all regarding the great event
which is just at hand,[1] as constituting the beginning of a new era and
of better times; and as embodying in itself something like a prophecy of
a brightened and improved future for the nations. For the first time in
the history of the world, there is to be a flowing of the peoples of all
lands to one spot. They are not summoned together by blast of trumpet;
they come not inflamed by mutual animosities, nor with souls bent on
conquest and carnage. Nor do they come for the purpose of witnessing
games and tourneys,—feats of strength or speed,—the rude contests of
muscular athletæ,—the skill of charioteers,—the sanguinary spectacle
of gladiatorial shows,—or the combat of plumed knights, with their
glittering armour and gallant bearing, their caparisoned steeds and gay
attendants, making war look like a holiday entertainment. 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.
These are to be all collected and arranged in one great and extraordinary
edifice, where they are to enter into a sort of peaceful contest and
amicable rivalry, while the people themselves of every region are to
mingle together, and to look on, and to observe, and compare, and wonder,
and rejoice:—and it is expected to come to pass, that however unable the
most of them may be to understand the spoken languages of the rest, all
will be able to read and to interpret what will be written everywhere
on the whole scene, and to comprehend the import of the common voice
that shall seem to be issuing from the objects around them. 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. 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! From such a lesson it is hoped and expected that the
crowds will disperse wiser and better,—more loving and more fraternal;
and that a basis will be laid for such future peaceful and profitable
intercourse, as shall render war an utter impossibility. It may be
supposed, also, that the approaching event will only prove the first of
a long series of similar exhibitions, which shall successively occur in
all coming time, and which shall take place in different cities of Europe
and America, till at length they may be fixed in some distant region of
those lands that witnessed the birth or were honoured by being the cradle
of the race, or in those which are at present the nurseries of nations
as yet without a name. The whole thing, to some minds, is thus shaping
itself into a prophetic type of a new aspect of the civilized world.
But it is easy to see, that this prophecy is one which includes many
others; for it could not be fulfilled, to the extent of its grand and
comprehensive meaning, without a variety and number of important social
and political changes being supposed as the necessary conditions of such
a spectacle in _other_ lands, as that which is possible and prepared for
in our own.
We are merely adding then, to the calculations of philosophy, the higher
thoughts suggested by the principles of our national faith, when we take
the truths included in that faith, and, supposing them to be received by
the nations of the earth, as we have drawn them out from the words that
are enthroned in the midst of our city and in the sight of all men,
proceed to inquire what would be the result of their being universally
learned and embraced, and the duties they impose being universally
obeyed. The inscription on the Exchange, if appropriate for _it_, is
appropriate for the Palace of Industry too.[2] It is a glorious thing to
think that we are living at such a time as this, and are about to witness
such a festival as that projected by the Consort of our Sovereign;—not
the banquet of a vain and idolatrous voluptuary, making “a feast for a
thousand of his lords,” ready to desecrate what is sacred to religion,
and to pour out libations of wine and strong drink, that “he and his
princes, his wives, and his concubines, may lift up themselves against
the God of heaven,” blaspheming his name and abusing his gifts, and
“praising the gods of gold and of silver, of brass and of iron, of wood
and of stone;”—it is not this, or we might expect the appearance of a
mysterious hand, once more, with its “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN,” to
pronounce the doom of a voluptuous court and a devoted country;—it is not
this, but a vast banquet for the eye and the intellect, the heart and
the reason;—and one, too, projected on such a principle of recognising
in all things the dominion of Him “who liveth for ever and ever,”—and
“who ruleth alike over the hosts of heaven and the inhabitants of the
earth,”—“in whose hand our breath is, and whose are all our ways,”—and
“_from whom cometh_ the gold and the silver, the brass, the iron, the
wood and the stone;” the fruits of the earth and the abundance of
the seas;—with every power and faculty of man—ability to accomplish
and capacity to enjoy;—the whole thing so proceeds, we trust, on the
acknowledgment of Him,—that, instead of a vision to strike terror and to
scatter in confusion, we should rather imagine that we see written,—in
radiant letters, by the hand of love and not of vengeance, to kindle
devotion and strengthen faith,—on the crystal walls of the Palace of
Industry, giving a glory to all its contents—“THE EARTH IS THE LORD’S,
AND THE FULNESS THEREOF;—THE WORLD, AND THEY THAT DWELL THEREIN.”
Supposing this, then, to become the creed of the world, enlarged and
illustrated by Christian associations, and for all its personal and
practical lessons to be fully carried out, let us see what would be the
condition of human society.
[1] These pages were written previous to the opening of the “Exhibition,”
and refer to it as approaching. They do not appear quite so soon as it
was once hoped they would have done, but it has been thought best to
retain their original form of expression.
[2] Since this was written, the Author has been gratified by learning
that Prince Albert has selected the words, with the addition of the
second clause of the verse, for the English motto on the cover of the
_Catalogue_ of the Exhibition. It is taken, however, from the Prayer-book
translation of the Psalms, instead of from that of the authorized
version. The sense is the same, although the phraseology is slightly
varied. The words are, “_The earth is the Lord’s, and all that therein
is: the compass of the world, and they that dwell therein._”
I.
_Universal Theism._
In the first place, there would be, everywhere,—in all lands and
in all hearts,—the belief and acknowledgment of the one living and
true God. All doubt, denial, and error, respecting this cardinal and
central truth, would have passed away. There would be no Atheism,—the
rejection and repudiation of a personal God; no Pantheism,—which is only
Atheism under another name; no Scepticism,—professed uncertainty as
to whether there is really a God or not; and no Polytheism—the belief
of a mere rabble of divinities. All these forms of thought would cease
and determine, and give place to the universal admission of the great
fact of the Divine existence. 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;
and, if there be no independent personal God, then, the greatest being
that is known to exist in the whole universe,—the only one that can be
spoken of as a person, is man himself!—a somewhat lame and impotent
conclusion!—a poor summit to the infinitude of things! There are those
who say that they believe this;—there will be none to say it, when it
comes to be a universally admitted truth, that “the earth is the Lord’s,
and the fulness thereof.” In the same way, there will be no thinkers,
or professed thinkers, whose minds, repelled by the gross darkness
of positive denial, but not drawn into the light of positive belief,
wander in the fogs and mists of uncertainty, and “reason downwards
till they _doubt_ of God.” 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. Cleared and cleansed from all these various forms of error,
the large heart of universal humanity will be open to the air and the
sunlight of true thought, and will reflect, as from a mirror, the image
of Him, who has “set his glory above the heavens,” and of whom it is
said, that “the knowledge of him” is abroad “in all the earth,” since,
“from the creation of the world,” he hath made manifest, “by the works
of his hands,” “even his eternal power and Godhead.”
II.
_Universality of Christian Worship._
In the second place, there will be added to this universal acknowledgment
of God, as the object of belief, a further recognition of him as the
object of worship. All men would be worshippers of God, if, throughout
the world, there should be not only the prevalence of the belief of that
God is, but the working out of the results of that belief,—that _because_
he is, he is “the hearer of prayer,” and that “to him,” therefore, “all
flesh should come.” Taking this subject, however, in connexion with all
the explanatory illustrations which we have already advanced, it is easy
to see that it is of wide compass, and will include far more than might
at first be apparent.
The God, whom we suppose to be acknowledged, is the God of the Bible, and
the worship by which we suppose him to be approached, would be worship
conducted on the principle which pervades it, and regulated by all that
its spirit and precepts concur to prescribe. The Being referred to in
the Scriptural expression,—“The earth is the _Lord’s_,”—is not one whose
existence and character are demonstrated by philosophy, and who may thus
be considered as a sort of hypothesis;—it is, as we have said, _the God
of the Bible_,—the God who has made himself known by supernatural facts
and verbal revelation, and whose discovery of himself in the works of
his power, and in the constant displays of his wisdom and beneficence,
is to be supplemented and enlarged by the whole of the utterances of his
grace and mercy. On this principle it was, that we took the expression,
“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof;” not as an independent
and isolated sentence,—not as a thing to be looked at by itself,—but in
connexion with the contents of the entire volume of which it is a part:
and we saw, when we did so, that it brought out, into great prominence,
such a view of the teaching of Scripture in respect to the relations
of God and man, as necessarily affected, very materially, the whole
theory and practice of worship. But it is this _view_ of the meaning
of the passage, that we are supposing to be learned and acknowledged
by the nations, and therefore the worship, in which we are further
supposing them to unite, would of course be _that_ which the whole of our
exposition would inculcate or explain.
It is remarkable, too, that philosophical Deism never leads to worship in
its disciples,—at least not to anything in the form of regular social or
public acts. It is possible for a simple Theist consistently to pray, or
to extol and adore the Deity he acknowledges; and it _may_ be, that some
Theists privately do so,—though all probabilities,—it may by no means
_uncandidly_, be said,—are rather against it. What would be possible
and consistent, however, in a Deist by himself, would be equally so in
a company of such. On the principle of their believing in a personal
God, they might meet together for public worship. _But they never do._
The mere admission of the one principle that God is, would seem not to
be sufficient to lead men to worship;—it needs to be connected with
another principle—that which affirms that “God _has spoken_,” or that,
by some means, he has supernaturally made himself known, revealed his
interest in human nature, and drawn near,—or _draws_ near,—to the human
race. All religions, always and everywhere, have pre-supposed something
of supernatural intercourse between God and man;—they have had, or
have, their traditionary belief of divine appearances,—their notions
of a priesthood peculiarly favoured or filled by the divinity, through
which, and through whose acts, the people could acceptably approach and
pray. 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; and it does not worship, because God, according to its
conception of him, has never broken the silence of nature, or narrowed
the distance between him and his creatures by passing over the limits of
fixed law. All men who worship, whether their worship be pure or corrupt,
do so, we repeat, because they have a religion, and they have a religion,
because they believe in something supernatural as to their knowledge
of God; something which makes their belief of him _faith_ in what is
demonstrated by miraculous fact or divine statement; and not merely
_opinion_, as the logical conclusion of a speculative philosophy.
These principles and reasonings being apprehended, will clear the way
to the intelligent perception of the variety of things that must be
understood as included in the idea of all the world becoming worshippers
of God, _as the result of their perception of what we, as a nation, are
supposed to teach_. For men to be worshippers, their knowledge of God
must be religious, not philosophic; for it to be religious, it must
be founded on belief in a supernatural revelation; it will _be_ this,
when they acknowledge that “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness
thereof,” in words taken from the Jewish Scriptures, and regarded as
an utterance of, the Divine voice. By such an acknowledgment they will
recognise the _whole_ of those Scriptures, as “given by inspiration of
God,” or, as written by men who wrote “as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost.” But the admission of _this_, will draw with it the admission of
the _second_ series of writings, and the acknowledgment of their intimate
connexion with the first, as the perfect development of what the first
foreshadowed, and the record of the fulfilment of what they foretold.
The faith of the men, therefore, who begin with the confession that “the
earth is the Lord’s,” and who profess it in the words of a Divine saying,
and _as such_, must go on till it takes in what the Hebrew institute
taught in type, and the Hebrew prophets uttered in words, when they
“spake beforehand of the sufferings of Christ, and of the glory that
should follow;” and it must still go on, and can only be rationally and
consistently complete, when it receives the whole of the evangelical
discoveries of the New Testament respecting the redemption of the Christ
of God. _This_, then, would be the faith of future society, the world
over; and by _this faith_ its worship would be regulated, if, as we are
supposing, the nations should learn from us our religious belief in all
its extent, and should follow it out in all its obligations.
The worship of the world, then, would be Christian worship. Men would be
worshippers, because they would be religious; they would be religious,
because they would have a religion, not a philosophy; and that religion,
would be the one taught in the Christian Scriptures, and founded on
the facts of the Christian revelation. All that we shall say of the
consequence of this, at present, is, that, just as the admission of a
personal God puts aside all forms of denial or error upon that point,
so, the admission of a particular form of Divine discovery, and the
establishment of worship according to the principles of a specific
revelation, will put aside all other systems of worship, and overturn the
pretensions of all other supernatural beliefs. Mohammedanism and idolatry
would alike die under the predominance of the Christian sentiment;—the
one as including too little, in not adding to the knowledge of God
the knowledge of the redemptive act of the Christ; and the other as
including too much, in having “gods many and lords many,” and worshipping
these through visible objects, or regarding the visible objects as
Divine; thus “falling down to the work of their hands,” and “turning the
truth of God into a lie.” 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.” Then will be brought to pass many of the sayings that
are written in THE BOOK which often portrays, in prophetic song, visions
of the triumph of religion and righteousness, and of that FUTURE, which
it sees, and celebrates, and it is _to make_ for humanity. “The Lord will
famish all the gods of the earth.” “The idols he will utterly abolish.”
“It shall come to pass, that the gods which have not made the heavens and
the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from underneath
these heavens.” “So men shall fear the name of the Lord from the west,
and his glory from the rising of the sun.” “For, from the rising of the
sun even to the going down of the same, his name shall be great among
the Gentiles; and, in every place incense shall be offered unto him,
and a pure offering.” “Behold the days come, saith the Lord, when they
shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother,
saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least even unto the
greatest.” “In that day, shall there be one Lord and his name one.” For
“the kingdoms of the world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of
his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.”
III.
_The Scriptures will purify and restore the Church._
But in the third place, as we are supposing the nations of the world
to be intelligently led from the simple sentence,—“the earth is the
Lord’s, and the fulness thereof,” to the admission of the contents of the
entire book, and the full understanding of the whole system of mercy and
mediation, as developed in shadow, in the Hebrew ritual, and given, in
substance, in the work of Christ; and as we are supposing, that, because
of the fact of their knowledge, their worship will be Christian;—we wish
it further to be observed, that, because of the _mode_ of their acquiring
that knowledge, and on account of _the accuracy_ and _extent_ of it,
their worship will not only be Christian as to its _general_ character,
but it will come to be of a kind distinguished by certain _specific_
peculiarities.
That is to say, learning their faith from a certain book, and from being
taught to comprehend the entire contents of it,—and finding in that
book, that though there are “some things in it hard to be understood,”
it is yet in its entireness _the property of the people_; it will come
to pass, that all the people will claim to possess it,—will stand to
their claim,—and will enforce and carry it, until there shall be none
that shall dare to deny or to resist. Then, again, a whole world of
intelligent and earnest men, with the Bible in their hands, as Divine
thought,—studying the book “till the word of Christ dwells in them
richly, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,”—“having the form of
knowledge and of truth” there;—marking and comprehending “the things
that differ,” and spiritually taught to distinguish between that, which,
however glorious when in its proper place, came, at last, to have “no
glory, because of the glory that excelleth;”—“waxed old and vanished
away as a thing that was done with,” in consequence of that coming in
its stead, which was never to be moved—never to be surpassed, and never
supplanted by any further or superior dispensation;—men, understanding
all this, and understanding, too, that, in consequence of it all, they
have the knowledge of a sacrifice which could never be repeated,—and “a
great High Priest of their profession, who has entered into heaven, and
appears in the presence of God for them,”—and that themselves are “a holy
priesthood,” and that spiritual acts, affections, and duties, _are the
incense and sacrifices of the Christian church_, “with which ‘_alone_’
God is well pleased;”—such men—and we are supposing the whole world to
be such—would cleanse Christendom of the corruptions of the faith, just
as Christianity, generally considered, would, by its active and universal
diffusion, subvert and extinguish the idolatries of Heathenism.—Human
priesthood, visible altars, the sacrifice of the mass, literal incense,
the “lifting-up of the soul unto vanity,” in the sense of the adoration
of saints and martyrs, the worship of a woman, of pictures, images, and
relics of the dead,—ecclesiastical tyrannies, popular superstitions, and
popular serfdom,—with everything else that is incompatible with a vital
and diffused Christian intelligence,—all these would pass away;—the one
offering of the one Priest—and the exclusive intercession of the “one
Mediator between God and men,”—would be the only things before the mind
of the churches;—while they would meet habitually, and meet everywhere,
to worship in simplicity,—“in spirit and in truth,”—undeceived by empty
ritualisms,—regaled and refreshed by “a rational service,” and edified
and established by a ministry of instruction. Christ will be understood
to be “a priest upon a throne;” to be the Head of the church, and the
superior and “Prince of the kings of the earth,” and to hold in his
hands “the keys of death and of the invisible world,”—“to open so that
no man can shut, and to shut that no man can open;”—and when all this is
apprehended by the nations, _it will not be endured_ that there shall be
a sort of blasphemous mimicry of it all in the pretensions and claims
of the Man of Sin. “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof;
the world, and they that dwell therein;”—when this is understood, in its
Christian acceptation, and all men are aware that for all equally “Christ
died,”—that they are his property, and that none are to interfere between
him and his,—that _He_ alone is “Lord” alike, “of the dead and of the
living,” and that by “setting his love” on all, he makes each individual
spiritually “great,” and stamps a dignity on the nature he redeemed,—when
these things are known and felt, there will be none who will “lord it
over God’s heritage,” or none to submit to the attempted usurpation.
IV.
_Universal Virtue._
In the next place,—in consistency with the principles previously
expounded, of the character that God demands in his worshippers,—the
necessity to their acceptance, in divine service, of their possession
and culture of universal virtue,—and the manner by which, in Christian
worshippers, virtue expands and developes into holiness;—in consistency
with this, we have next to remark, that when men have become what we have
sketched _as to religion_, there will be the prevalence among them of _an
elevated morality_. It is not denied that there may be virtue and morals
without faith;—and that the honourable, and the true, and the lovely,
and the beautiful, in habit and behaviour, may exist in the man who is
destitute of religion. It is quite possible that an individual who denies
that “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof,” by denying that
there is any Lord to whom it can belong;—who, therefore, has no sense
of religious reverence,—no idea of Divine authority,—no thought of a
future account,—who never worships, never acts from spiritual motives,
or as “seeing Him who is invisible,”—it is quite possible for such a
man to find reasons in the present, visible constitution of things, for
making the best of the life that now is, by living purely, uprightly,
and honestly in the world. We admit this. But we are now supposing that
all men have risen into a higher sphere, through the reception and power
of religious faith,—and that their virtue, instead of being a thing that
has its roots in the earth, and is nourished by mere mundane influences,
is a thing which flows down upon them from heaven, and is quickened and
invigorated by intercourse with God. 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.
Future society, then, being supposed to have come under the influence
of religious truth,—to be reconciled to God through the death of his
son, and to be regenerated and renewed by the sanctifying Spirit, and, as
such, habitually “to ascend into the hill of the Lord,” and to worship
acceptably “in his holy place,” it is to be expected, as the result of
this, that it will “increase and abound in all holy conversation and
godliness.” Now, there is no personal or social virtue that the New
Testament does not inculcate, or that the spirit of the gospel is not
adapted to nourish and expand. 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. Every family would be loving and harmonious;
parents wise and worthy of respect; children obedient; brethren living
“together in unity.” All business would be conducted justly; commercial
transactions would be all clean, and capable of being touched with “clean
hands;” trade and handicrafts would be noble and dignified, by being
pervaded by the great idea of “duty,” and attended to on principles
which would be the very same as those that control the doings of an
angel, or direct and inspire a seraph in his songs! Nowhere would be seen
drunkenness, or seduction;—robbery and murder would be things of the
past. There would be no oppression on the part of the rich; no pride or
tyranny in the powerful; no injustice between class and class; no envy in
the less favoured of God’s children, prompting them to harsh or petulant
judgments of their more distinguished or opulent brothers. 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. But they may act harmoniously.
There need be no fraud, oppression, or injustice. There may be everywhere
given “the fair day’s wages for the fair day’s work;”—and there may
be everywhere rendered “the fair day’s work for the fair day’s wages.”
Society, like the church, is a body with its members. It has its head
and feet, its ear and eye, its mouth and hands;—the health of the body,
or its physical perfection, does not consist in every member having the
same office; but in all fulfilling their respective functions, without
disturbance,—each being thus in unity with the rest. The perfect and
healthful development of society consists in a condition analogous to
this. Christian communism, and Christian socialism, if anything of the
sort shall hereafter be, will be found to consist, not in society’s
ceasing to be a body by becoming entirely but one member—a huge head,
or a gigantic foot, or a great, swinging, muscular arm,—but in all the
members acting healthily in their own place; and, while doing so, each
having the same care of the other. In this way, and in this way alone,
can society be preserved from opposite dangers;—from becoming a monster
without parts, that must of necessity perish from the want of organic or
functional vitality—or being torn by intestine schisms and dissensions
that must tear it to pieces or make it explode!
It is not possible to enlarge on these and kindred matters, that might
be introduced under the present illustration. Enough has been said
to make manifest the general principle, that, on the supposition of
the diffusion in the world of an intelligent, vital, and uncorrupted
Christianity, there would result from it the fruits of a universal
righteousness. Every family would be “a church in the house;” children
would be trained in the way they should go; and conversion from outward,
practical wickedness, would be seldom needed in adult age. Education
would be universal. Learning and knowledge would be “the stability of
these times”—with the fear of God, and the hope of salvation. Science
would be devout, and literature pure. The universe would be explored
with reverence and humility; discoveries announced without boasting; and
improvements and inventions received with gratitude. No books would be
written to demoralize and corrupt,—nor the arts be allowed to minister
to licentiousness. Industry would be cheerful, and labour 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.”
V.
_Nationalities._
In the last place: it only remains to be remarked, that this universality
of religion and righteousness, in each nation of the earth respectively,
would come to have an effect on the relations and intercourse of each
with the rest, and on its own internal constitution and action. If
all nations were really to believe that “the earth is the Lord’s, and
the fulness thereof,” and especially to connect with this the next
clause,—“the world, _and they that dwell therein_;”—and if they were
honestly to carry such a creed fairly out, into all its great practical
results,—it would be found to be the charter of peace and freedom,
order and liberty, in all lands. Let men get the idea that the earth is
God’s, not theirs,—and that all the race are alike his,—his, at once, as
created by his goodness and redeemed by his mercy;—and especially let it
be imagined, that all habitually mingled in his worship, and that all
felt inspired by a desire to live in constant, practical harmony with
his will;—why, there could be neither war, nor slavery, nor anarchy, nor
despotisms;—men _could_ not be brought, on the supposition suggested,
to be trained and taught to _slaughter_ one another!—or to _steal_ one
another!—or to buy, and sell, and fetter, and lash those who were the
exclusive property of God, and who, whatever their colour, were each
of them as much _a man_ as themselves! No monarch could be seduced
into the belief that a whole people was made for _him_;—or that power
was not _a trust_;—or that it could be used for any purpose but the
good of the nation, and according to the eternal principles of right
on which God himself governs his own. Nor would a people imagine that
any new institutions would benefit them, or any change or revolution be
an improvement, if they were not each of them a king over himself.—We
do not mean to say that one form of political government may not be
intrinsically better than another;—but we do mean to say that the Future
of the world will no more be distinguished by the same form of political
government being universal, than by the universal prevalence of one
mode of ecclesiastical polity;—and we further mean to say, that the
diffusion of an intelligent and instructed Christianity would carry into
the bosoms of all men the Scriptural principles, that government is the
institution of God;—that God, in this respect, is the God of order;—and
that reverence for authority and submission to law are as much Christian
duties as anything else.—Authority may be abused, and law may be unjust;
but he who acts in the fear of God, will suffer much, and think more,
before he will be persuaded that political rebellion and disobedience are
virtues. We do not say that there are not occasions when the one may be
patriotic and the other right;—but there is a time coming when none in
the places of trust and power will so act as for this to be the case,—and
when none in those of submission and obedience will feel that a dignified
and manly loyalty has become either an impossibility or a burden.
Governors, nowhere, will fear discussion; or fetter the press; or refuse
reforms; or cripple independence;—and people, nowhere, will abuse their
rights; or desire, or demand, the unreasonable or unjust. 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. Commerce
will bring, more and more, the whole earth into friendly intercourse;—the
sea that would seem to divide the nations, shall be as a chain to bind
people to people, and land to land. Instead of meeting for hostile
purposes, there will be the interchange of visits to promote science, to
perfect literature, to spread art, to cultivate religion—or to honour
God in the results of industry, by the circulation round the world of
an Exhibition like that which is just at hand. If, in all these ways to
which we have adverted, the lessons of our Royal Exchange were to be
learned, and we ourselves, and our expected visitors, to carry them out,
in the full development of individual, social, and national life,—many of
the pictures of the prophets would be realized; the kingdom of heaven
would be established on the earth; and the tabernacle of God would be
universally with man. Evils might remain, but everything would tend to
mitigate or diminish them. The world would be a temple,—the nations a
church;—all work would be a daily worship, while daily worship, strictly
so called, would hallow and sanctify all work. The day of rest would
be welcomed as it came,—but welcomed for its devotion, as well as its
repose. From all hearts, from all hands, from palace and cottage—from
the mine and the market-place—from the field and the factory—the forge
and the loom—the city and the sea, from all nations and from all
men,—there would be going up constantly to heaven, that which is required
when Christians are exhorted in language like this—“Dearly beloved, I
beseech you, by the mercies of God, _that ye present your bodies as
living sacrifices_, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable
service.” Were this ever to be universally realized, the final cause
of the creation of the world, might, without a figure, be said to be
attained. God’s great idea would be seen to be complete; and He himself,
if we might so speak, after being grieved by the wickedness of the race,
would return again to the unruffled, deep, and ineffable satisfaction
with which he was filled before the world was, when, anticipating the
results of his creative energy, “_he rejoiced in the habitable parts of
the earth_, AND HIS DELIGHTS WERE WITH THE SONS OF MEN.”
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS.
Having thus filled up our originally projected outline of thought, we
shall rapidly conclude and consummate the argument by two or three
practical suggestions.
1. In the first place, a few hints may not be inappropriate as to the
spirit with which Christians should contemplate the Exhibition. There are
some prophets, of these our times, whose “scrolls” in relation to the
great event, are filled with “lamentation, mourning, and woe.” They can
see nothing, in the thing itself, but a gigantic display of pride and
vain glory,—and they apprehend nothing, from the meeting of the nations,
but mutual corruption, prolonged riot, and perhaps blood. Their favourite
analogies are the Tower of Babel, Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image, or
the Devil tempting Christ by revealing on the mount “all the kingdoms
of the world and the glory of them,” or some such human or diabolical
atrocities! Now it is a pity to give way to these dark imaginings;—to see
nothing in our fellow-man but what is bad, and to expect nothing from the
hand of God but the thunderbolt of vengeance, or the “vials of wrath!”
It is far better, far more becoming, especially in those that believe
that “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and
they that dwell therein,” to take healthy, cheerful, and hopeful views,
of the great event,—whose origin, it is at least possible, _may_ have
been good, and whose influence and results _may_ be useful. It ought
by no means to be thought a self-evident thing, that there is nothing
in the multitude of minds and hearts, which have all been engaged in
perfecting the Exhibition, but selfish vanity and godless pride. In
many there may have been frequent and great thoughts of God, devout
humility, and earnest prayer for that blessing without which nothing can
be successful. Supplications may have gone up, in various languages and
from many lands, that God would direct and crown the work, and cause it
to promote his kingdom and glory; and, though the numbers may have been
small, who have thus sought to hallow and sanctify the project by prayer,
in comparison with those who are interested in it without devotion and
without reference to the Divine blessing, _Christians_ should remember,
that, in a world like ours, living under mercy, the very principle
of the Divine government is, to bless one man through the medium of
another, and even to bless the many for the sake of the few;—just as ten
men of righteousness and of faith might have saved the cities of Sodom
and Gomorrah, and as those that were saved, were saved on account of
one such man,—for “when the Lord destroyed the cities of the plain, he
REMEMBERED ABRAHAM, and—_sent Lot out from the midst of the overthrow_.”
Let Christians, therefore, have faith in one another. Let them believe
that many as good as themselves are engaged in the Exhibition, and have
devoutly sought for it the blessing of the Most High. Let others learn
to do likewise. Instead of indulging in forebodings and prophecies
which, being uttered, might fulfil themselves, they should rather
exercise trust in Providence, indulge hope for the church and the world,
and earnestly endeavour to serve both, by hearty, honest, and sincere
_intercession_ for all nations, and for all men,—that that God, who can
make even “the _wrath_ of man to praise him,” would educe praise and
glory to Himself, and much that shall be productive of happiness to men,
from what brings them together _in peaceful intercourse_, and reminds
them of their common relation to himself. The “crisis” of the world
occurred when there was a gathering of strangers and foreigners in one
place;—they were brought together at the time of the crucifixion,—they
were assembled again at the wonders of Pentecost,—and there can be no
doubt that there was a designed coincidence on both occasions. God
has sanctified the meeting of numbers, of “men of every nation under
heaven,”—“Parthians and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in
Mesopotamia, and in Judæa, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia
and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya, about Cyrene, and
strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes, and Arabians,”—God
has sanctified a gathering like this to his own purposes,—to the
establishment of his kingdom and the spread of his truth; and what he has
done before he may do again; and he _will_ do it, if Christians devoutly
and earnestly seek it, by such a spirit of prayer, as, “loving all
things, and believing all things, and hoping all things,” will crave at
his hand a blessing for their brothers, and crave it so that it cannot be
denied.
2nd. 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. But
there is a way of doing this, that may be humble and religious, and there
is a way of regarding and of looking upon it, which may minister much to
the health and nourishment of the divine life. To think highly of what
man _is_, and to strengthen such thoughts by becoming familiar with what
he has _done_, may only make us think more wisely and wonderfully of God,
and more justly of _the worth of the soul_, and of the importance of
salvation to that nature whose capacities would seem to be so mysterious
and so vast! To think of man lying like a wreck on the outside of Eden,
naked and ignorant, without a teacher and without tools,—his mind
darkened, his spirit depressed,—with understanding, indeed, and impulses
and instincts to help him in his first efforts at labour,—a whole world
of raw material under his foot, the compass of the earth for the sphere
of his achievements, his head and hand the instruments of action, but the
one as yet without knowledge, and the other equally without skill! And
then to think of what he has done! How that poor, solitary, naked man,
beginning with some rude attempt at the cultivation of the earth and the
collection of flocks,—seeking for himself and his dependent companion,
the mere supply of their animal wants, clothing of the coarsest, unwoven
and undressed,—with food unprepared and unpalatable,—and shelter that
might be furnished by a few trees or a hole in a rock! To think what he
has become _since then_! 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! 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. Rock and forest, earth and ocean, animated nature
in all its forms, everything placed around and beneath him, supplied
materials which he learned to employ for his convenience and use. He
covered the earth with towns and cities, erected temples, palaces, and
pyramids,—subdued the most stubborn of the beasts of the field, tamed the
most ferocious, outstripped the swiftest, and reduced the strongest to
obedience and servitude. He clothed himself in skins, in fur, in flax, in
silk and wool,—gradually improving as he went on, till fineness of fabric
and elegance of design have become the property of the people at large.
He decorated and adorned his private abode, and filled public buildings
and public places with the creations of beauty and the triumphs of art.
He has crossed the ocean and sounded its depths; he has penetrated the
earth and drawn thence her concealed treasure; he has interrogated
nature, and obtained, or forced from her, the most astonishing replies;
he has soared into the heavens, has counted, weighed, and measured
the stars; he can foretell events with certainty and precision—the
appearance of a comet, or the occurrence of an eclipse; he has made
fire and water, lightning and steam, to do his bidding,—to transmit his
messages, transport his property, carry himself, lighten his labour,
and perform his work. 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;
but the highest form of the greatness of humanity is to be met with in
books,—in the art that has given visibility to speech, and permanent
endurance to thought and emotion,—and in the thoughts and emotions of
gifted minds, which, in every age, and in all lands, have adorned the
race by the researches of the intellect, the conflagrations of eloquence,
and the sublimities of song. These things cannot be represented in the
Palace of Industry; and yet these are the things that belong to the
highest regions of the mind;—to powers and faculties that more than
anything else illustrate the inherent greatness of man;—that lead him to
the contemplation of the right, the divine, the beautiful and the good
in action and character;—that render him capable of religious faith;—and
that might make him a happy and virtuous intelligence if he were called
to exist separate from the body,—without the feeling of physical
necessities, without a surrounding material world, and without members
to mould and fabricate, and work up anything whatever in the way of mere
mechanical dexterity.
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
number of such proofs increasing the conception of the wonderfulness
of the nature they so marvellously manifest, will render the fact of
redemption credible,—increasing the probability that God should interpose
to recover and restore it. And the great fact, that, after all that the
grand pageant can do, and in spite of the splendour and magnificence
of its contents, it will actually leave the most wonderful portion of
the human mind unillustrated, and incapable of illustration,—why, this
may well lead to the solemn remembrance of some of the most impressive
of Scriptural truths. “What is a man profited, if he shall _gain the
whole world_ and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange
for his soul?” “All flesh is as grass, and _all the glory of man_ as
the flower of grass; the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, _but the
word of the Lord endureth for ever_; and this is the word which by the
gospel is preached unto you.” “_All these things shall be dissolved_;”
“_the earth and all things that are therein shall be burned up_,—but we,
according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which
dwelleth righteousness.” And still further, the fact of the exhibition of
the _half_, merely, of the greatness of man by the works of his hands,
(and _that_ the lesser and lower portion,) may suggest the analogy that
there is in this, with the manner of God’s discovery of himself. He, in
his works, has revealed and illustrated his wisdom and power, goodness
and beneficence, and, to the eye of reason, these are largely reflected
there;—but the manifestation of his _moral_ attributes, his justice and
love, compassion and mercy, is made to faith in the gospel of his Son;
and however most men may be alive to the first, and blind or insensible
to the second of these discoveries, there are beings in the universe who
are intent on the higher exhibitions of God,—just as there are devout and
meditative men who will gaze on the wonders of the Palace of Industry
only to be reminded of the spiritual and immortal of human nature, which
the edifice with its marvels will do little to illustrate! Heaven has its
“fulness” as well as earth. That fulness is “the fulness of Christ;”—his
sufferings on earth and the glory that is to follow. This is called “the
unsearchable riches.” In the mystery of redemption are “hid,” or lie
embodied, “_all the treasures_ of wisdom and knowledge,”—_the higher
forms_ of God’s manifestation of himself to his creatures. “Into THESE
THINGS _the angels desire to look_.” And they do this in exact conformity
with the Divine purpose in the revelation of himself in this the greatest
of his works, for it was set forth, “TO THE INTENT _that unto the
principalities and powers in heavenly places_, might be made known _by
the church_ the manifold wisdom of God.”
3rd. But British Christians have a great and solemn lesson to learn from
the view that we have taken, in this discussion, of their language to the
world. If it be so, that we profess as a nation, and utter openly in the
hearing of all men, _the truths_ that have been illustrated, then, also,
ought it to be felt, that we lie under the most binding and imperative
obligations to exemplify _the duties_ which have been explained and
enforced. It becomes us to cultivate the devout and practical recognition
of God; to keep his Sabbaths; to wait upon him in worship; to approach
him through Christ, that we may do so acceptably; to “live in the
spirit,” that “we may not fulfil the lusts of the flesh;” “to walk in
the spirit,” that our daily virtue may be divine holiness. It is well “to
hold forth the word of truth,” and to witness for God, for the gospel,
and for righteousness, in the sight of the nations; but it must be done
_practically_ as well as by profession,—by conduct in harmony with the
articles of our creed,—or our testimony will expose us to ridicule and
rebuke, and may provoke by its mockery the vengeance of the Most High.
Let England beware, that it do not itself, amidst the blaze and glory of
the Great Exhibition, forget the truth and the lessons taught by it, that
“the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.” Let it beware, “lest,
being lifted up with pride, it fall into the condemnation of the devil.”
It is a terrible thing not to give God the glory of our achievements;—“to
sacrifice to our own net, and to burn incense to our own drag.” It was
when the king’s heart was lifted up with pride, and when he said to
himself, “Is not this Great Babylon that I have built,”—it was then that
God smote him from on high, seared his intellect, and sent him to herd
with unintelligent natures! England is first in the commerce of the
world; her “merchant princes” are the nobles of civilization; her markets
and manufactures have decked her with beauty and made her great;—but
it would be well for her to remember, that it was just such a country
that, in ancient times, had her magnificence described with the greatest
minuteness by God’s prophets, but described to illustrate the extent
of her ingratitude, the aggravations of her sin, and the certainty and
completeness of her predicted destruction. It was fearfully realized.
The glory of Tyre was swept away, and her place became bare as the top
of a rock, on which the fisherman might spread out his net to the sun!
It might be well, too, to remember, that the prophetic description in
the book of the Apocalypse, of the Babylon that is to fall in some yet
future judgment of God, is the description of a commercial and maritime
city, over which the merchants of the earth mourn and lament “because
her judgment hath come, and no man buyeth her merchandise any more.”
That these instances should neither be type nor prophecy of Britain, she
must take care to walk by the light of her own creed—that “the earth is
the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof,”—and according to all the devotion
and humility and practical righteousness that this would inculcate.
It is well with a people when their garners are full and their flocks
prolific;—when their sons are as plants grown up in their youth, and
their daughters as polished marble columns; when there is no political
convulsion in the land, and no complaining of poverty in their streets.
“Happy is the people that is in _such_ a case;” but _happier_ they “WHOSE
GOD IS THE LORD.”
4th. Trusting that, as a people, we are not altogether inattentive
to what has been described, let us learn, in conclusion, the value
we should attach _to the blessing of our characteristic and national
Christianity_. We do not mean, the forms or peculiarities of any
church;—the secondary distinctions, that may have their importance,
as the separate testimonies to a particular truth prominently held by
different members of the Protestant family. We refer to our EVANGELICAL
PROTESTANTISM _itself_, which is substantially the same throughout our
many sects, and which is held and taught, with more or less clearness,
by all the influential Denominations in the land. 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. Our
press will be as free, our minds as unfettered, our comments on men and
measures as outspoken, as if none were our daily audience but ourselves.
To impress the moral of all this on the mind of the reader, and on our
own, we might do it, perhaps, most effectively, by putting it in the
form of a friendly address to a reflective foreigner, who might be
looking with wonder on the phenomena around him. “Stranger,” we might
say, “you have looked with surprise on our industry and commerce, our
trade and manufactures; you have seen in our equipages the signs of
our wealth; and, in other ways, how opulence and comfort are diffused
among our people; you have been impressed with the many proofs of our
intelligence, and have wondered, perhaps, most of all, at the liberty
we enjoy and the loyalty we cherish. You have seen A QUEEN _honoured
and beloved_;—and her Royal Consort taking the lead, not in reviews of
military pomp, or only in the parade of magnificent hospitalities; but
in presiding over the displays of peaceful industry, and welcoming the
representatives of science and art. You have seen the multitudes that
crowd to our churches, and wondered at the comparative quiet of our
sabbaths. _Know_, therefore, that for all this, and for far more that is
unseen, we are indebted _to the glorious inheritance of our faith_;—our
OPEN BIBLE, our conscientious inquiry, our habits of worship, and our
religious instructors. We have much amongst us of which it becomes us
to think with shame;—much of which it is impossible to speak but in
moderated phrase, and even with tears;—but if there is anything that has
raised thy admiration, or inflamed thy curiosity,—anything in our general
reverence for law, in our political moderation, our civil order,—our
respect for rank, combined with our individual consciousness of personal
manhood; if there is anything that shows that our morals are not debased,
or our manners frivolous, or our habits sordid, or our minds enslaved
by the gross and the voluptuous,—carry away with thee the certainty and
conviction, that everything that may be good about us as a people, we owe
to our possession of _that_ ONE BOOK,—to our mode of interpreting, and
our constancy in teaching it,—_which tells us to acknowledge_,—and, by
God’s blessing, helps us to act, however imperfectly, on the practical
belief,—_that despotism and priestcraft, anarchy and disorder, pride
and oppression, vanity and selfishness, lawlessness and wrong, are all
alike disobedience to God and injurious to his creatures_, FOR ‘THE EARTH
IS THE LORD’S, AND THE FULNESS THEREOF; THE WORLD, AND THEY THAT DWELL
THEREIN.’”
POSTSCRIPT.
Postscript.
THE EXHIBITION OPENED.
The first of May, eighteen hundred and fifty-one, was a day to be
remembered to all time! On it the nations of the earth combined together
to “make history,” in a manner they had never done before;—in one also,
which, in its prominent peculiarity, can never be repeated. There may
be similar Exhibitions in future periods of the world’s progress, but
_the first_ can never be again. Even respecting those which may be
imagined to occur, although they may be distinguished by new features and
characteristics of their own, and though these may, in some respects,
surpass those of the one now opened, they cannot be anticipated with
that depth of interest, nor excite by their inauguration those profound
emotions, which preceded and distinguished the sublime event which has
just taken place. The preceding pages were written in the prospect of
that event, and were intended to appear before its occurrence. The author
cannot regret, however, that circumstances interfered with the fulfilment
of his purpose, since to this he is indebted for the opportunity of
adding a supplementary section to his little work, commemorative of the
grand and magnificent ceremonial of which he was privileged to be a
spectator.
It is not the writer’s intention to attempt to describe the opening
of the Exhibition, with all that minuteness of detail in respect to
what occurred in the interior of the structure,—or with those stirring
delineations of the bustle and excitement, the lines of carriages and
congregated crowds, that imparted animation to the scene without,—which
have already been furnished by the public prints. He merely wishes to
note a few things which were interesting or suggestive to his own mind,
and especially such as were felt to be in harmony with the spirit and
object of the present volume.
It was his good fortune to obtain admittance into the Palace of Industry,
on the memorable morning of the first of May, before the gates were
opened to the public. He had traversed it frequently during the previous
weeks, and had seen it in various stages of its progress. One morning, in
March, he was there so early, that while walking along its galleries he
observed that he was the _only visitor_ upon them at that moment. Few of
the counters were then erected, hardly any of the articles unpacked;—the
wide spaces and vast dimensions of the wonderful structure spread before
him in clear and unobstructed perspective;—there was something, too, of
solitariness in his position, though multitudes of workmen were occupied
below, above, and around him;—the whole scene, from its simple magnitude,
was inexpressibly sublime; it stirred within him thoughts and feelings
which were not, indeed, “too deep for tears,” but which could only find
utterance and relief in their indulgence; while, as he passed on, and
for the first time saw the compartments of the different countries, and
read the names of the various nations that were preparing to stand,
side by side, in peaceful rivalry,—his emotions deepened to an intensity
which it was difficult to bear, and which cannot be described! He was in
the building, also, for some time, three days before the opening, and
could then form some idea of what would be the number and variety of its
contents; though so much, even at that late period, remained to be done,
that he wondered how it would be possible for the preparations to be
finished by the time appointed. As, however, he walked into the transept,
when that time had come,—approached the centre,—and looked along the
naves stretching to such an extent on either side,—it was not without a
feeling of admiration and surprise, mingled with something of solemnity
and awe, that he looked on the splendid and gorgeous spectacle that stood
revealed in all its completeness!
The mere material scene was sublime when beheld by itself,—empty, and
comparatively still; but much more impressive and affecting was it, when
filled with its immense multitude of spectators. There was much that
was stirring in the sight of the rush and inundation of the crowd, as
it kept flowing in, in vast waves, at every opening; and much that was
impressive when the noise and murmur of its movements had subsided,—when
all had found or had been forced into their places,—and when floor and
gallery, and every part that the eye could reach, was seen to be occupied
by human beings,—by an assembly larger than any that had ever, in
England, been congregated before under one roof,—and by one that had met
for an object, and under circumstances, unparalleled in the annals of the
world!
Men see in all external events and objects, what the light that is in
them reveals. Things are, to us, what we are to them. He that visits
foreign countries, brings back according to what he takes. The same sight
may be a very different thing to two different persons, in proportion
as they may differ in knowledge, in opinion, in taste, in sympathies.
The eye of a clown may look on a prospect that in some souls would
produce rapture or occasion tears, with hardly more intelligence than
that of the ox that he drives before him. The outside of things is open
to all; their inner significance is revealed only to those who have an
inner eye to read it; and even such significance may be differently
interpreted according as the eye is influenced and affected by the degree
of intelligence, the tendencies, and the tastes of the inward man to
whom it belongs. It is quite possible that some may see nothing in the
great Exhibition but an ordinary, though enormous, fancy bazaar; and that
others saw nothing in the ceremonial of the opening but a state pageant,
court dresses, and an immense crowd of men and women! It is quite
possible, too, that some of the incidents of the day, which appeared to
us touching in themselves, or pregnant with meaning, were indebted for
this to the capricious activity of our own fancy, as well as to their
inherent beauty or significance. But, however this may have been, there
certainly were some things that we felt to be deeply interesting as they
occurred, and remarkably suggestive as illustrating the character and
tendencies of the event. We shall not attempt to recall all that struck
us at the time; but a few words may not be amiss on what immediately
bore, or appeared to us to bear, on some of the topics of this book.
On getting a sight of the catalogue of the Exhibition,—which we did
before entering the interior of the building,—we were gratified to find
on the cover and the title-page:
“THE EARTH IS THE LORD’S, AND ALL THAT THEREIN IS;
THE COMPASS OF THE WORLD, AND THEY THAT DWELL THEREIN.”
We were aware that this was to be the English motto, and that two Latin
ones had also been selected. We were glad to find the Divine sentence
placed where it was, and placed by itself; that it stood, as it were,
in _front_ of the Nations as they joined one another, and moved towards
the great point of attraction; that it _faced_ them, and spoke as with
the voice of an oracle; that while the words of men occupied their
proper subordinate position _behind_ those of the book of God—out of
sight—needing, as it were, to be sought for, and found, and _solicited_
to announce themselves,—these stood in their solitary majesty, revealing
themselves by their own light, claiming to speak as having a right to
be heard, and authoritatively announcing to the diversified tribes and
peoples of the earth, and to every visitant of the palace of wonders,
_Whose_ they themselves were, and to whom belonged _all they saw._
This volume was written and in the press before we were aware that _the
inscription on the Exchange_ was to be _the motto of the Exhibition_;
otherwise, the natural course would have been, to have taken the words in
their _latter_ use rather than the former, and thus to have expounded and
illustrated what England _actually does say_ to herself and the nations
through the medium of the event which is bringing them together. When
we first heard of what was to be the English motto of the catalogue, we
were exceedingly disposed to wish it could be given in the words of the
authorized version (those on the Exchange) “The earth is the Lord’s,
_and the fulness thereof_,” instead of those of the translation in the
Prayer-book, “The earth is the Lord’s, and _all that therein is_.” On
further reflection, however, we are willing to think, that while the
two expressions are substantially the same, there is just that shade
of difference between them that fits each for its respective position;
“the _fulness_ of the earth” being most appropriate to a commercial
edifice,—“_all that therein is_” to an industrial exhibition. However
this may be, it was to us, as may be supposed, a gratifying circumstance
that the first sight that met our eye, on the very threshold, or in the
porch of the Palace of Industry, while making our way to the opening
ceremonial, was that which assured us, that the words whose import we
had been endeavouring to illustrate in “a book for the Exhibition,” were
to lie beneath the eye, and to address themselves to the reason and the
religious consciousness, of every individual by whom it would be visited.
The recognition of God, in connexion with the Exhibition, has always
marked the references to it of its most distinguished promoter. The
religious services on the day of the opening were solemn and appropriate,
and seemed at once to crown and sanctify the work. “I confidently
hope,”—said his Royal Highness, Prince Albert, at the banquet at the
Mansion-house, in honour of the undertaking,—“I confidently hope, that
the first impression which the view of this vast collection will produce
upon the spectator, will be that of deep thankfulness to the Almighty
for the blessings which he has bestowed upon us here below.” It was a
most impressive sight, on the opening of the splendid spectacle thus
anticipated, to see some twenty-five or thirty thousand people, all
under the influence of a sentiment of reverence, deeply calm, serious,
and still, uniting in an act of solemn devotion, while the highest
ecclesiastical dignitary in the land, standing by the side of our august
sovereign, who seemed to bow in humility before the footstool of Him who
is “the King of kings,” expressed in a manner the most appropriate, the
“deep thankfulness” of the vast assembly “for the blessings which the
Almighty has bestowed upon us,” and acknowledged _Him_ in the riches of
nature and the wonders of art with which the edifice was filled! Every
reader will probably have seen the prayer to which we thus refer. It
seems, however, not inappropriate to give it a place in these pages; the
more so as its sentiments are so in harmony with many of those we have
been attempting to express. It was as follows:
“Almighty and everlasting God, who dost govern all things both in heaven
and in earth, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy, accept,
we beseech Thee, the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, and receive
these our prayers which we offer up unto Thee this day on behalf of the
kingdom and people of this land. We acknowledge, O Lord, that Thou hast
multiplied on us blessings which Thou mightest most justly have withheld.
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. Of Thee it cometh that violence is not heard in our land, wasting
nor destruction within its borders. It is of Thee, O Lord, that nations
do not lift up the sword against each other nor learn war any more;
it is of Thee that peace is within our walls and plenteousness within
our palaces; it is of Thee that knowledge is increased throughout the
world, for the spirit of man is from Thee, and the inspiration of the
Almighty giveth him understanding. Therefore, O Lord, not unto us, not
unto us, but unto Thy name be all the praise. 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. 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. Let the many mercies which we receive
from Thee dispose our hearts to serve Thee more faithfully, who art the
Author and Giver of them all. And finally, O Lord, teach us so to use
those earthly blessings which Thou givest us richly to enjoy, that they
may not withdraw our affections from those heavenly things which Thou
hast prepared for those that love and serve Thee, through the merits and
mediation of Thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with Thee and the
Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory.”
Prince Albert, after having, in the words above quoted, expressed
his hope respecting the religious impression to be produced by the
Exhibition, proceeded to say that he trusted its _second_ lesson
would be, “the conviction” that the full enjoyment of the blessings
of Providence “could be realized only in proportion to the help we
are prepared to render to each other; therefore only by _peace, love,
and ready assistance, not only between individuals, but between the
Nations of the earth_.” The opening ceremonial of the first of May, was
an impressive commentary on this sentiment. Within the same building
were congregated the representatives of many nations, and people from
every quarter of the globe. All met and mingled together in perfect
harmony, and seemed at once disposed to regard each other with fraternal
cordiality, and to be pervaded and possessed by those sentiments which
are nourished and developed by the sunlight of love. Everybody seemed
bright; good-humoured; happy; willing to please and to be pleased! It
was as if all the world had met to celebrate the arrival or reign of
universal concord. The Palace of Industry was the Temple of Peace. There
were some military uniforms, and a few soldiers here and there, but no
one thought of _fighting_! It was not a battle,—it was not even a review.
It was not War when merely making a holiday; showing himself off in his
fine clothes to a gaping multitude, and startling or amusing them by his
gigantic sport. A little boy—a child of some five or six years old—while
we were all waiting for the coming of the Queen, got away from his
mother, or sister, ran into the midst of the central crowd of dignitaries
and diplomatists, walked up the steps of the platform on which was the
chair of state, turned round and stood looking about happy and delighted,
and then went back again to the cover of the wing from which he had
escaped! The whole thing showed such a sense of _security_,—such a
feeling in the boy that there was nothing to frighten him or to hurt him
_there_,—that he appeared like an impersonation of the spirit of the
place. He could not have done or felt as he did in any assembly of thirty
thousand people that ever met in the world before within the same walls.
Such assemblages there _have_ been, and larger,—but they met for purposes
of cruelty and blood,—to see men fight with beasts or with each other.
In the Crystal Palace is mirrored, we trust, the dawn at least of the
predicted day, when “the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard
shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the
fatling together; AND A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM.”
Then there was to be seen for some time in apparently friendly
conversation, the Iron Duke and the Lancashire cotton-spinner;—Wellington
and Cobden;—the man of war and the apostle of peace! It was a suggestive
sight. The old soldier did a great and necessary work in his day. By his
decisive stroke at the battle of Waterloo, he terminated the protracted
contentions of Europe, and gave to us, as a nation, a peace that has
continued for thirty-five years. _To that prolonged peace, we are in a
great measure indebted for the Exhibition of Industry_. It would not have
been improper, therefore, if, while looking on the scene he had lived to
witness,—a scene that glorified his own eighty-second birthday, and which
was so different from all that he had been familiar with in his youth,—it
would not have been improper if the military veteran had felt that there
was a connexion between what he saw and what he had _done_. Than he, we
believe, there is no one more aware of the horrors of war, or who would
more bitterly lament its necessity;—and though he can hardly be expected
to think Peace Societies the sole or best defence of a nation, it is not
to be doubted that he would welcome “permanent and universal peace,” and
that he rejoices in an enterprise that may help to secure it. _There they
were, then_,—two representative and typical men;—side by side;—talking
like brothers! There they were;—the one the monument of a past age,—the
other the personal prophecy of a coming one. The one the chronicle of
bygone times, when nations thought themselves “natural enemies,” and men
knew of no arbiter but the sword;—the other the advocate of _another_
arbitration, and the apostle of the industrial intercourse of the world.
The one was old,—the other young. Let us hope that this, too, was a
type of _the principles_ they respectively represented;—that that of
appealing and trusting to the sword, is past its vigour and is falling
into decay,—while that of uniting by mutual benefits, and of superseding
the arguments of brute force by those of reason and love, is in its
prime and manhood, and has before it a long period of service. There are
a few specimens of cannon in the Exhibition, but there are far more of
agricultural instruments. The time will come when none of the former will
find their place in any collection of the works of “Industry,”—except,
it may be, some that shall be preserved as curious, though sad and
humiliating, relics of a former age. “Weapons of war” are destined to
disappear, and to give place to the engine and the compass,—the press
and the tool-chest,—the plough and the pruning-hook!
The incidents thus referred to, were felt to be suggestive of many
thoughts in harmony with the sentiment last quoted from the speech of
Prince Albert. That sentiment, however, received ampler illustration
by what was seen on the reading of the address of the Commissioners to
her Majesty,—by the closing language of that address itself,—and by
her Majesty’s reply. The procession that approached the throne for the
presentation of the address, consisted not only of Englishmen headed
by the Consort of the Sovereign, but of the foreign representatives of
twenty-six different nations, states, or kingdoms. These, for the time,
were all ONE;—one body,—filled with one sentiment, pervaded, as it
were, by one soul;—and they all united in uttering through their common
head, in the name of their several countries, and in the presence of a
multitude almost as mixed and multifarious as themselves, the following
words:—
“It is our heartfelt prayer that this undertaking, _which has for
its end_ the promotion of all branches of human industry, and _the
strengthening of the bonds of peace and friendship_ AMONG ALL NATIONS
OF THE EARTH, may, by the blessing of Divine Providence, conduce to
the welfare of your Majesty’s people, and be long remembered among the
brightest circumstances of your Majesty’s _peaceful_ and _happy reign_.”
It was a great thing to see the representatives of Austria and Denmark,
France and Belgium, Prussia and Germany, Russia and Rome, Spain and
Portugal, Turkey and Tuscany, the United States, Tunis, Sardinia, Greece,
and of many other lands, joining together in the expression of a common
hope, and the utterance of a united prayer, that what they were doing
might “strengthen the bonds of peace and friendship among all the nations
of the earth;” and to think, too, that they did this, not only in their
own names, and in those of their respective countries, but in the name
of _all_ lands and peoples in the world that might have any contribution
in the Exhibition, whether they had personal representatives among the
Commissioners or not. The closing paragraph of her Majesty’s reply
echoed the closing sentiment of the address,—a sentiment that came to
her like an utterance from the heart of universal humanity! It was an
over-powering sight, by the way,—that of one so young, elevated in the
midst of so vast a multitude, and virtually receiving the homage of so
many nations:
“A wondrous sceptre ’tis to bear;
Strange mystery of God which set
Upon her brow yon coronet,—
The foremost crown
Of all the earth on one so fair!
That chose her to it from her birth,
And bade _the sons of all the earth_
_To her bow down_.”
Although the closing passage in her Majesty’s speech is that to which we
confine our attention, as the speech itself is very brief, we give it
entire:
“I receive with the greatest satisfaction the address which you have
presented to me on the opening of this Exhibition.
“I have observed with a warm and increasing interest the progress of
your proceedings in the execution of the duties intrusted to you by the
Royal Commission; and it affords me sincere gratification to witness the
successful result of your judicious and unremitting exertions in THE
SPLENDID SPECTACLE _by which I am this day surrounded_.
“_I cordially concur with you in the prayer, that by God’s blessing
this undertaking may conduce_ to the welfare of my people, and _to the
common interests of the human race_, by encouraging the arts of peace
and industry, _strengthening the bonds of union among the nations of the
earth_, and promoting a friendly and honourable rivalry in the useful
exercise of those faculties which have been conferred by a beneficent
Providence for the good and the happiness of mankind.”
But we must draw to a close. There were many other incidents on which
we could willingly linger, as illustrative of the views we had always
indulged of the character and tendencies of the great experiment. The
union in one edifice of such an unprecedented number of human beings,
was itself a most imposing and magnificent spectacle. The Queen appeared
to feel this. As she stood in a position to command a view of the vast
spaces of the building, all of which were densely filled, she seemed
impressed with a sense of awe at the sublime spectacle, and could not
help, even during the reading of the address of the Commissioners,
partially withdrawing her attention from them, to steal a glance at
“the splendid spectacle by which she was surrounded.” That spectacle,
however, partook of the tender, the beautiful, and the domestic even,
as well as the sublime. Into it, the Queen and her illustrious Consort
came, each leading by the hand one of their children! Up and down,
through and amongst that mass of people, they moved together in the
same manner. Pomp and state were in some degree laid aside, and the
sovereign, for the time, seemed to have become one with the people. She
was received with affection, as well as loyalty; and appeared to enjoy
and to acknowledge her reception, not so much as a crowned Queen, as a
happy _woman_, an elated wife, and a loving mother! It must have been
the most wonderful hour in the whole life of Prince Albert,—that hour of
the opening of the Exhibition!—intense must have been the feelings with
which he looked on the realization of his great idea; the end of so much
anxiety; the commencement of the harvest of so much hope! Everything
was propitious. The sun in the heavens shone down upon the scene with
unwonted brightness, as if He who “sits in the centre” thereof, approved
the undertaking and blessed it from on high. There was not an accident
of any sort,—nothing for one moment to excite alarm, to produce panic,
or occasion apprehension in the mind of the assembly. In spite of the
tens of thousands that filled it, in no part of the edifice was there
crack or strain, the indication of weakness, or any sign of insecurity.
The outdoor crowds, instead of being disposed to rudeness or riot, or
capable of being excited to tumult and rebellion (!), would seem to have
been more than usually pacific; a sort of restraint appears to have been
upon the worst even of those who congregate on such occasions; for, on
the following day, there were no cases of either quarrels or robberies
such as ordinarily attend state pageants and civic processions. The royal
Patrons of peace and industry retired from the scene in which they had
developed a new phase of royalty, and read a new lesson to kings, amid
the benedictions and prayers of the multitude with whom they had met and
mingled. They could not but retire happy and glad; grateful to God for
what they had witnessed, and what they had done; and, in the fulness of
their emotions of devout thankfulness, like David, perhaps, “returned
home to bless their household.” As it is not likely that anything will
occasion a _greater_ gathering of the populace in the parks, in connexion
with the Exhibition, and as the ceremony of the opening has given such
a glow of cheerfulness and confidence to the public mind, it is to be
hoped that the many prophecies and prognostications of evil, which some
have indulged in, will now cease, and that all will unite, by cordial
sympathy with the great object, and fervent prayer to Almighty God,
to seek the realization of those peaceful, patriotic, and world-wide
results, which many of the wise and good hope that “the Great Exhibition”
may be an instrument in the hand of Providence to secure, and which as
Englishmen, Christians, and lovers of our kind, we ought all constantly
and earnestly to pursue. In this way, every devout man may help to hasten
that anticipated FUTURE, some of the general characteristics of which we
have endeavoured to deduce from the Scriptural motto on the books of the
Exhibition. Of that period a pregnant and impressive type was presented
in the opening ceremonial, when, in the bearing of all the nations of the
earth, _representatively present in the spacious edifice_, there rose
up,—to the praise and glory of that God, “_whose is the earth and the
fulness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein_,” and to whom we
are indebted not only for “all the blessings of this life,” but for “the
means of grace, and the hope of glory,”—the grand, solemn, _prophetic_
song,—
“Hallelujah! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and
of his Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.
King of kings, and Lord of lords. Hallelujah!”
With the following stanzas, descriptive of the different parts of the
scene thus reviewed, we here close our pleasant labour:
THE GATHERING OF THE NATIONS.
“A peaceful place it was but now,
And lo! within its shining streets
A multitude of nations meets:
A countless throng
I see beneath the crystal bow,
And Gaul and German, Russ and Turk,
Each with his native handiwork
And busy tongue.
I felt a thrill of love and awe
To mark the different garb of each,
The changing tongue, the various speech
Together blent.
A thrill, methinks, like His who saw
“All people dwelling upon earth
Praising our God with solemn mirth
And one consent.”
THE PRAYER.
“High Sovereign in your Royal state!
Captains and Chiefs and Councillors,
Before the lofty palace doors
Are open set,
Hush! ere you pass the shining gate;
Hush! ere the heaving curtain draws,
And let the Royal pageant pause
A moment yet.
People and Prince a silence keep!
Bow coronet and kingly crown,
Helmet and plume bow lowly down;
The while the priest
Before the splendid portal step,
While still the wondrous banquet stays,
From Heaven supreme a blessing prays
Upon the feast!”
…
“Behold her in her Royal place:
A gentle lady—and the hand
That sways the sceptre of this land
How frail and weak!
Soft is the voice, and fair the face;
She breathes Amen to prayer and hymn,
No wonder that her eyes are dim,
And pale her cheek.”
PEACE AND CONCORD.
“The representatives of man
Here from the far Antipodes,
And from the subject Indian seas,
In congress meet;
From Afric and from Hindostan,
From western continent and isle,
The envoys of her empire pile
Gifts at her feet.
Our brethren cross the Atlantic tides,
Loading the gallant decks which once
Roar’d a defiance to our guns,
With peaceful store;
Symbol of peace, their vessel rides!
O’er English waves float Star and Stripe,
And firm their friendly anchors gripe
The father shore!”
…
“Look yonder, where the engines toil;
These England’s arms of conquest are—
The trophies of her bloodless war:
Brave weapons these!
Victorious over wave and soil,
With these she sails, she weaves, she tills,
Pierces the everlasting hills,
And spans the seas!
The engine roars upon its race,
The shuttle whirrs along the woof,
The people hum from floor to roof,
With Babel tongue.
The fountain in the basin plays,
The chanting organ echoes clear,
An awful chorus ’tis to hear,—
A wondrous song!
Swell, organ,—swell your trumpet blast!
March, Queen and Royal pageant, march
By splendid aisle and springing arch
Of this fair Hall.
And see! above the fabric vast,
God’s boundless Heaven is bending blue,
God’s peaceful Sun is beaming through,
And shining over all!”
London: Printed by William Tyler, Bolt-Court.
* * * * *
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J. GROOM, Soho Bazaar.
J. F. SHAW, 27, Southampton Row.
B. SEELEY AND CO., 2. Hanover Street, Regent Street.
C. HASELDEN, 21, Wigmore Street.
S. J. LADD, 10, Jonson’s Place, Harrow Road.
H. FASE, 1, Edwardes’ Terrace, Kensington.
P. HANCE, 14, Upper Gloucester Place, King’s Road, Chelsea.
J. L. PORTER, 43, Sloane Street.
W. F. RAMSAY, 11, Brompton Row.
MILLER AND FIELD, 6, Bridge Road, Lambeth.
J. ROBERTS, 2, Arabella Row, Pimlico.
W. H. DALTON, 28, Cockspur Street, Charing Cross.
T. VARTY, 81, Strand.
MRS. PRESS, Depository, Church Street, Hackney.
W. HANDS, Clapham.
G. W. MEDES, Camberwell.
J. H. JACKSON, Islington Green.
W. D. THOMSON, 138, Upper Street, Islington.
T. K. GORBELL, 16, Hereford Place, Commercial Road East.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Royal Exchange and the Palace of Industry; or, The Possible Future of Europe and the World" ***
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