Concord June 1827 Dabney 247 III.

I Timothy IV 12 195 229 But be thou an example of the believers in word in conversation in charity in spirit in faith in +Ps 74* Belknap Ps 119 1st pt. 119 10th pt.

purity

The ordinary admonitions of the Christian moralist are addressed to man as the creature of God. Without regard to any other relations in which we may stand it is thought to be a sufficient foundation for <his> +our* virtue that we are sinful beings in intimate dependance on the almighty Being. And when the mind is matured in virtue when the mind has been long accustomed to the contemplation of God it is both pleasant & sublime to conceive the soul as divorced from all other society, & finding its heaven in its state of free & perfect communion with the Divine Mind. <It is certainly the first & should be a sufficient motive to human virtue that it has been enjoined by God on each of us as the condition of his favour & of our happiness.> But my friends at our best estate we are imperfect & frail. An immediate connexion & dependance upon God is too lofty a motive to sustain & console our virtue in the daily warfare of the world. It is high, we cannot attain unto it. +We want something else nearer* We are made of clay too coarse to be affected by all those finer influences which act upon us from the spiritual world Our clouded eyes cannot always see God walking at our side. We do not feel the everlasting arm that led us up into life & holds us here. We need the support of what we +can* see & <hear> +feel*. We must lean on the objects of sense. We must do as others do. In short we are virtuous & vicious as social beings, in obedience <more> +very much* to the example <than the precept> of those who surround us. <And tho' the admonitions wh come to <man> +us* as the creatures of God ought to be sufficient, he would do great injustice to the condition of man who should leave out of the account the immense force <in> +by wh.* his social relations <by which he is> draw<n> to +him* evil & to good.> The increased moral obligation, which arises out of this source of society has been I am well aware often & carefully measured & cannot be expected to afford any ground for original remarks. But it is a subject of such weighty importance as to deserve our most anxious consideration +I am anxious to dwell upon it* & I shall willingly incur the risk of repeating old & well known truth in the humble hope of giving new force to the great practical maxims which it involves. <Let us>It is <then look for a moment at the vast advantage which is derived from our connextion with other men to our power & happiness> +almost unnecessary to call your attention to those great features in our life which mark us as social*. We are surrounded on every side by this blessed influence. Our pleasure & our pain our knowledge our property our projects our hopes our actions are social. <When we came> +All that the eye* sees & the ear hears has relation to the social life of man. When we came up this morning to the house of God, did we come in savage solitude each from his lonely house a congregation of hermits to whom their meeting together is unwelcome & when the hour of prayer is past are we to separate again to sunder at once these sympathies of devotion which we have reluctantly indulged? Is our only joy in private meditation, when our house is empty & our door is /shut/barred/? in an unpartaken pursuit each o<ur>f <our> +his own* surly interest. Must we eat our bread alone & spread our table in secret? We rejoice before God that it is not thus we live. Nothing can be more alien <from> to our nature than this ungrateful picture. We dwell in families We have taken sweet counsel together. We came up to the house of God in company. We do not live for ourselves. We do not rejoice we do not weep alone. Our lives are bound up in others. Our blood does not roll in selfish

flow thro our lazy veins It beats in our breasts pulse for pulse with a true accord to the honour & the shame of a hundred other hearts to which God has united us in family or in friendship. It reaches farther this mighty sympathy, this golden hoop that binds our brothers in, and does not embrace only our kindred & acquaintance I run<d>s round the whole land in which we live and agitates our bosoms with words that are uttered or actions that are done at the distance of a thousand miles from our peaceful homes. +The prosperity of your nation is felt <ye>to be your prosperity. its honor confers honor on you* And if the foot of an invader defiled at this moment any sod on our soil I need hardly ask you +standing where I stand (in Concord)* if <the b> your blood would keep its even & temperate flow for the voice would cry to me from the graves of your fathers. No, our souls delight to spend their tho'ts on the welfare of others. Not a wind can blow its tidings from any corner of the world however distant or barbarous but <we>it awakens some of us to an interest in the fate of others which weans us +for a time* from the nearer concerns of ourselves & our neighbor. Such & so intimate is the connexion in which God has created us, & for purposes which are as clear as <the light of day> +they are grand*. The meanest understanding may see what a prodigious addition is made to the force & to the happiness of man from the existence of society. Compare the effects produced in Gods lower works, in the brute & insect creation by those animals that are solitary & those that are social; compare the +wondrous* dwellings of the beaver & the bee, with <those> +the unprovided rock* of the eagle & the lion. And then add reason to the workman and compare the powers of man when he is alone, with the powers of man in society. In solitude he is weak; in society he is strong. In solitude his mind & body decay; his mind languishes in stupid ignorance, his body is famished for the want of bread; the wolf & the bear are his dreaded enemies; his sickness is not nursed; his sorrows are not consoled. In society, his mind is expanded in its efforts to accommodate itself to the large minds which every hour brings before him; He has a command over objects that are on the other side of the earth; The dangers that once beset him, he fears no more, for all men are his protectors; even mortal pain is less an evil, for the arts that all are cultivating can relieve it; & death is less dreadful, for he is sustained in its downward march by the sympathy & service of his friends. {Consider I beseech you one moment the face of the world around you & tell me what it is that has wro't upon it this wonderful effect. Three hundred years ago the country you inhabit was dwelt in by men living alone, not joining themselves in society, by laws, institutions or arts. The country was then a silent wilderness. What is it that has sprinkled its hills & valleys with towns what is it that has felled its forests that has chalked the continent with roads & furrowed it with canals & reduced its noble streams into the servitude of man that has filled its enormous regions with rejoicing nations, subdued them with laws, <decorated> +enriched them with arts,* & consecrated them with temples to the living God, & multiplied innumerable blessings for which the voice of thanksgiving ascends from them all this day in a mingled incense to heaven. What is it under God but the joint <mutual> +human* exertion <of men>; the cooperation of men in society?} These are the great & obvious advantages of our social condition in the improvement of our physical powers, & the creation of happiness that arises out of them. But th<ey>is <ha> condition has another influence vastly more important to which I am chiefly anxious to call your attention. +This world is not our home. We are on earth to prepare for heaven.* Our social relations are full of helps & full of perils also to our virtue +& our happiness*. +{Insert A} A <This social system has its evident advantages to our happiness.> Our pleasures are doubled by the cheerful sympathy that extends them to our friends

& our griefs are divided by the same sympathy & made light & tolerable. It is incredible also how much we are stimulated to virtue by the virtue of <our friends> those we love & how much <we enjoy their applause> our moral character is built on the hope of their approbation.* God has placed us in such intimate relations with our fellow men that the influence, of others upon our character can hardly be appreciated. We learn virtue almost as we learn our native tongue by imitating the tones & actions of others, and we learn with the <same> +more* fatal facility the example of vice. It is not a revelation, which first instructed each of us in our duties & our hopes It was not books & sages, it was not even conscience that taught us the rudiments of our religion +Almost* Before even that immortal monitor began to be heard in our infant breasts, we <lisped> +uttered* the great name of God on a mother's lap. We copied in the dawn of the faculties from other countenances, the expression of human passions. Perchance in that pliant hour our moulding character took a bias from those about us which it will forever <preserve> +retain*. Who of us has seen a child busy at its little games & beheld that little imitator of all the motions & sounds about it prompt to copy the slightest action of its parent without feeling how <perilous> +burdensome* a responsibility rested on them to whose care God had committed its introduction into life? And now my friends let me call your attention to the great object to which all these views of our social condition point to the immense importance which belongs to your conduct when it is considered as example. Since you cannot hide your deeds, since you are invironed by a cloud of witnesses, since your smallest action & idlest word is thus a conspicuous mark for the study & imitation of all with whom your example has weight, let me beseech you +to make that example* the perfect model, it ought to be. There is no man who has not much influence, and if your life is faultless the whole of that influence is cast into the right scale. But if any part of your character is defective--if you obey many Commandments, but are guilty in one, then the whole of your virtue is made use of to <countenance> sanction that vice to which you have yielded. All those who find themselves tempted to the same offence will quote triumphantly your name & merits & plead that they may surely do what one so good & so honoured has done before. Moreover the contagion of vice is so swift, it is so much easier to <learn> +copy* a fault than a merit that the danger to others is certain when you swerve by one hairs breadth from the straight & narrow way. If in the transaction of your affairs you talk of one purpose whilst the sharpened eye of your friend detects another lurking in your tho't+s*, it is strongly probable that he will meet your deception with his deception. Dissimulation invites dissimulation. Every hour of your life, every word you utter is infinitely important. You are one +of those* member+s* of who make up society. It <belongs> +depends on* to you as much as on any other, whether the standard of <virtue> +religion* in society shall be high or low, whether others shall be countenanced in their vices by your authority, or shall be shamed out of their intended indulgence by the spectacle of your purity. Men are looking to you. Youth is looking to you & it may depend on your determination at any moment whether the young man in the strength of his passions shall have the ardour of his virtue chilled, & an evil bias given to +the whole tenor of* his unfolding life, or whether he shall be encouraged to spurn the tempter & unite himself to the sons of God But be assured whichever influence you <produce> +exert* it will not, cannot end with the individual who has thus adopted your course. For his influence you also will be accountable & for +the issues of* those whom his influence has guided. It reaches on this perilous effect thro' all the mighty ages of the time to come.

It is impossible for you to determine the effect of any one action. It is impossible for you to say at any time--`I shall safely sin None can be injured but myself by what I am doing. I am not regarded by others & the action itself is obscure.' You judge not wisely in this matter It is one of the most remarkable things in the order of Providence to see how short an arm man extends at any time to aid the great revolution of events to observe how little <a> matter kindles so great a fire. It is like the infants hand which plays with the pin of an engine till he has ignorantly set in motion wheels that astonish him with their activity & deafen him with their thunder. So do men habitually begin actions which in their influence have immortal duration & immeasurable magnitude. We daily behold consequences proceeding to a greatness out of all proportion to the insignificancy of the things that gave them birth. Kings & counsellors whom Oceans part, will league together in the prosecution of magnificent schemes which after a parade of embassies & pagegyric wh. send its fame everywhere end in smoke. At the same moment in an obscure corner a peasant a beggar raises his finger from the dust, or in the neverending train of thought an idea darts into his soul, which action or tho't is the parent impulse which numbers ages & nations among its coadjutors, & all the after history of mankind as its effect. And as man can reach that foresight which shall say to this event Prosper & to <that> +another* Go in vain. You cannot discriminate the seed that shall perish in the soil from that which shall multiply itself a thousand fold. The present moment is in your power; but the Past is unalterable, the future is inscrutable. Nor do you know when you give utterance to an idle or an evil word whether its poison is to be lost in instant oblivion, or whether it is to be the accursed occasion of prodigious & eternal calamities. <Beware then whilst it is in your power that you be blameless in your high vocation.> Your own moral character is of immense importance to yourself alone But its importance to others is still greater. Nor can we doubt a moment that this was intended by God. Your example is one of the great means he employs in the education of others and it is certainly a worthy ambition by which we may thus be excited to <make> cooperate with God <by> in the salvation of men by making our lives a perfect pattern such as he may approve for the instruction of our fellow men. <Remember also that it is in vain you appeal to an imperfect example & say I have done good yesterday I have given to the poor today & my example was not copied It is because men had learned> +Why has that portion of your life wh. has flowed from good principles failed of this effect and who is it that undo the good wh. you sometimes do? It is yourselves It is yourselves. Your good lost its effect your good example went for nothing because those who wd. have relied on it saw that it was only an irregular occasional virtue, a capricious ebullition of a character not trustworthy.* Take the advice of the Apostle to Timothy Be thou an example of the believers. Aye & be thou an example of the unbelievers also that the strong persuasion of your virtue may bring them also to the foot of the cross & to the worship of God. My friends I do not+,* <ascribe> +for* I believe I cannot ascribe a greater importance to this subject than it deserves. +I lament my own feebleness.* It ought to command our earnest & humble reverence. If we were wise, we should soon forget to plume ourselves upon our knowledge; our talents; our wealth; we should escape that strange delusion of valuing ourselves above our neighbor because our religious opinions were more exclusive & our faith more orthodox Human opinions are dust & vanity in the comparison with human actions. If we were wise we shd discover how pitiful was this angry altercation about words & creeds and exchange this sinful <competition> +emulation* of human passions, miscalled religion, for that high & genuine emulation <in>wherein the angels & archangels of God are partakers, the emulation of good deeds. It is in

vain that we put solemn words in our mouth or even good intentions in our minds so that they bear no fruit in action. It is +not* prayer that saves, but practice. He that sets a good example is the true saint. He that sets a good example is the benefactor of mankind. He is the true hero before whose honest fame the sounding titles of this worlds <kings & conquerors> +greatness* sink into contempt He that amid the defilement & temptation of the world uplifts the image of a good example is like the +glorious* vision of the king of Babylon +"a form* like unto the Son of God, walking in the midst of the fire." Before I conclude the subject permit me to suppose a strong case to illustrate the force of example. Suppose then an eloquence which I would to God were mine had moved the spirits of this congregation & had awakened their imaginations let me rather say their slumbering understanding to a discernment of the prodigious effect they were capable of producing; & that under this impression an hundred, fifty, or even ten had sternly resolved to break away once & forever from the insidious seductions of sloth of depraved customs, of open & of secret vice & scorning the tame indolence which dallies away life in doing neither good nor evil shd give themselves up to a manly unfeigned uncompromising ardor for virtue; should sever themselves with that omnipotent force wh. God confers on virtue alone from the deeds the words & the appetites of vice & plighting their pure hands to heaven & each other should lead lives void of offence before God & before man what let me ask you would be too much, what would be enough to expect in its full effect from the determination of this inviolate brotherhood In honest homage before them, the mask would fall from the face of the hypocrite. The sneer would die on the lip of the sophist-Virtue would prove too awful for the argument of the infidel. The emulous flush would mantle in the cheek of youth as he marked how the great <men>things & great men of the world dwindled down by their side--by the side of these august assertors of the honor of God & the honor of man They wd infuse new blood, & borrow the language, they wd. in infuse new blood into the aged veins of the world The honor that heretofore has attached to the pomp of wealth & earthly grandeur would forsake the palace & the camp {the laurels of victors would wilt under this meridian light} {The glory the romance in which youthful imagination delights would separate itself from the bad passion to decorate the good A new epoch would open in our history. Men would be enamoured of the beauty of virtue They would recognize at last the perfect beauty of that venerable example which eighteen hundred years ago <was> the Son of God disclosed to the world but of which the world was not worthy +It has wro't on men with a slow & purifying effect; it has reformed the face of ye world* and now in these latter<s> days by the blessing of God +on these his chosen servants* his true disciples might cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Such should be the high office & success of these martyrs to the world. And tho' they disdained the fading echoes of vulgar fame would age on age as they revolved in the periods of heaven would the farthest duration think you impair their powers or detract from their renown? or God assign any date of praise to this high this venerable this celestial ambition? And now my brethren in conclusion let us take to ourselves our own part in those duties which so obviously grow out of these views of our condition. We have seen that God has placed us in a most remarkable connexion & interdependence on each other, that certain mighty purposes are answered thereby that our power & our happiness <is> +are* incalculably <increased> +augmented* that this social connexion has an inevitable influence upon our virtue & our vice & that hence our obligation to <do right> cease to do evil & to learn to do well is wonderfully increased, that much of the future is in our hands and that we are able by a strenuous perseverance in <virtue> +a religious life* to give a great impulse that may act on all the future character of mankind, but if we

will foolishly yield to the whispers of these rebel passions that war against the soul, if we will forget the great objects for which we live forget the life & the death of Christ forget the presence of God & the hope of Heaven that we shall throw all our weight into the scale of iniquity and after our dust is festering in the soil the evil influence of our example shall be running on in ceaseless activity to the ruin of unborn generations. God forbid it should be so. God forbid that we my friends should hesitate a moment in the course that lies before us. We will give ourselves up to that course which shall remove the corrupt condition of the world Fear not how few & feeble you may be in your great undertaking. Power does not depend on the number but on the energy of those that embark in a cause Fear not my brethren though you are few Fear not my brother tho' you are but one You are not alone--for God is on your side. His spirit is upon you. His angels aid you in this your labor of love The spirits of just men made perfect the unseen <congregation> +assembly* of all the good are your approving coadjutors. When your strength fails your children shall rise up & call you blessed & carry forward the holy cause and when God shall call you to Himself, you shall hear a voice on high Well done good & faithful servant enter into the joy of thy Lord.-Concord June 1827 Chauncey Place June 17 1827 N.Y.C Oct