Need I make the application? I think not. Children are wiser than worldly men, their spotless instincts are truer; and their thoughts are heavenlier. My dear friends, such of us as have forgotten the generous, heavenly, instincts of the child, must indeed, be born again! -Now most children who do not receive what is called an education are spoiled by the time they can talk; and all as soon as they enter what is called the world. Then they become mercenary, both in their intercourse with men, and in their intercourse with Heaven: and we must become children again in spirit—we must feel all their generous ardour, and all their unselfish trust in God, before we can be—what we ought to be and must be—their teachers in all that pertains to the character of Christian Men. There must be no mean worldliness in the injunction by which we hope to build up a religious character in the Children, who will in their turn have to teach Christianity when we are gone. The injunction contained in the words of our text—“A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast”—unlike many of the Proverbs to which I have alluded, has no selfish or mere worldly policy in it. It does not say to the owner of a beast-"Treat it well and it shall be the better for thee:" but it declares this general truth-that all unmercifulness, all cruelty, whether to man or beast, is inconsistent with righteousness, and an abuse of the Power (that glorious attribute of Himself) which it has pleased God to confer on His creature Man. With this delegated power from God, we are absolute sovereigns over the lower animals. If over these creatures, that are incapable of sin, we play the tyrant, and have no pity; with what shew of justice can we, who sin continually, look up to Him for pity, whose delegated attribute of Power, we thoughtlessly, or perhaps wantonly, abuse? That we are capable of sin is a fact, not to sigh over, but to be thankful for. It is a pre-eminence which has no peril in it, if, with the power that renders us capable of sin, we cultivate that other attribute of God which should accompany it—I mean clemency, loving-kindness, Mercy. This is the meaning of the Apostle when he declares that "Charity covereth a multitude of sins.” We are therefore admonished by Solomon-by a Few, mark you, whose system of Religion as set forth in the Bible, is not remarkable for its humanity—that universal kindness is an universal duty. But Solomon, like his father David, was a Poet. Read his "Song," and observe how it teems with tenderness and beauty! The PRIEST revels in sacrifice! His altar reeks with blood! He sprinkles blood on the people and calls this sanguinary sprinkling an atonement. But the Poet is ever in advance of the Priesthood, and Solomon was a Poet. In all ages of the world the Poet has been remarkable for his humanity. Conspicuous in his Diadem of Power blazes the jewel, Mercy. Our own Cowper-not a great Poet certainly, but a good man—a man who had studied the sacred page as few of us have studied it, says in his "Task,”- "I would not enter on my list of friends, (Though grac'd with polished manners and fine sense Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm. An inadvertent step may crush a snail My Dear Friends,—I repeat what I said before—there is no lesson we can teach the young holier than this,—That the life of the meanest thing that crawls upon the ground is sacred in the sight of Him who gave its life and ours, and fitted each for enjoyment. Tell me not that such sympathetic culture would breed effeminacy in our race; and that men would weep when Duty, public or private, might with the trumpet blast of war salute our ears. There cannot be a greater error. The cruel are always cowards: whilst well nurtured, gentle hearted, generous, souls, are always brave. The growth of intelligence amongst a people always sets aside and puts down by the force of its moral power all public exhibitions of barbarity. Cock-fighting and Bull-baiting are out of date; and we go to Lectures, and Concerts, and Oratorios instead. But are Englishmen less brave, because less barbarous than of yore? When the cause of Humanity needs defenders; when Despotism would set its iron heel on the liberties of mankind; are Englishmen found less chivalrous in soul, less animated by the hatred of oppression, and by the love of Truth, and Right, and Freedom, than when the Bull-ring, the Prize-ring, and the Cock-pit were falsely supposed to minister to our manhood and keep our courage warm? The fields of Inkerman and Alma are England's eloquent reply. This is not urged, be it remembered, in defence of war; but only in proof that, as long as war is felt to be a necessity, and education which imparts a tone of tenderness and refinement to the young-whatever their condition in life -which weans their minds from gross pleasures and cruelty in all its phases, by no means disqualifies them for the L sternest duties of the citizen, whenever a just occasion might sanctify a recourse to the sword in defence of the best interests of our common humanity. That such occasions, and on the most favourable circumstances, will continue to arise for centuries to come, cannot, I think, be doubted by any reasonable mind. Opposing "moral resistance" to the machinations of Men who set all morality at defiance-turning cheek after cheek to the smiter, or trying to reason them out of wrong-doing who with arms in their hands, have the will, and believe they have the power, to perpetrate injustice; these are but the amiable dreams of enthusiasts who interpret scripture too literally; who would reap where they have not sown, who expect to gather grapes off thorns, and figs off thistles, and not of men who know that human animals have no consciences, and that it is, and always has been the trick of villany, to turn other men's virtue to its own advantage. No my friends, though war is a dreadful evil, and a disgrace to our Humanity; there are circumstances under which Peace would be a more wide-spread evil and a greater disgrace to us than war. In all such cases I believe that Despotism has no foe so formidable as that large hearted Philanthropy, which, whilst it would not needlessly cause pain to an insect, will not tamely suffer Tyrants to baffle the intentions of Providence, by entailing degradation, and inflicting misery on man. It is because his soul over-flows with sympathy-not because he is cruel, but because he is kindthat the Righteous man unsheathes the sword and grows ruthless in defence of Right-but no sooner has victory crowned his efforts, than the roused Lion is a Lamb again, and, for his prostrate foe he feels the compassion of a friend. If, then, we would exterminate all slavery, and everything that is unchristian, from the world; if we would baffle the Despotism that writes catechisms, misinterprets the Bible, panders to brutality, and hinders the upward progress of mankind in righteousness and spiritual growth, we must teach the young to be kind and compassionate to the animals over whom the Creator has given us pre-eminence and entrusted us with Power. Repugnance to cruelty; a recognition of the universal sacredness of life; Generosity that has no self-seeking in it; Goodness that scorns reward-these are the seeds, the pregnant seeds of that vital practical Christianity, that has lain dormant in the world, except here and there, and at distant intervals, since the time of Christ. Scatter them, my friends; scatter them broadcast on the virgin soil of the infant minds around you; and doubt not, but a crop of manliness, a crop of righteousness, a crop of Christianity—a Christianity for the working-days, as well as for the Sabbaths-will spring up and ultimately outgrow the briers and thorns which render the world a painful and rugged world for all but the well-buskin'd wayfarers to walk in now: Scatter them, and a rich harvest of holiness and happiness, and beauty, will yet be reaped, by us and others, in this life, and a richer in the life to come: Scatter them with a liberal hand, and doubt not but God, the God of Truth, and Righteousness, will bless and sanctify your pious labours. Amen. |