less been the most prominent actors in promoting the advancement of humanity, correcting its abuses, and in all respects improving the social and political condition of our world. For a rule, they are earnest and honest men, having strong convictions and deep feelings, not, indeed, always right in their ideas, or prudent in their measures; yet men of vast power, men whose absence from earth would make a chasm which nothing else could fill. They have done too much for the good of the world to be branded with opprobrious epithets.

Rising now to a still higher plane of thought, and observing the spiritual and religious history of mankind, we meet the same class of facts springing from essentially the same source. When the Man of Sin had for ages spread the pall of moral death over all Europe, corrupting the very fountains of society, and prostituting the pure religion of Jesus to the vilest purposes, who was it that lifted his voice in thunder-tones against this enormous and widespread iniquity? Who laid the axe at the root of the tree? Luther --the bold, the honest, the earnest, the godly, the radical Luther, going to the bottom of things, and bringing doctrines and morals to the test of God's word,-is the man who, under God, did this work. Who, during the long night of the dark ages, refused to bow the knee to the Pope, and in their humble way maintained the pure worship of God amid their mountain-homes, persecuted but not destroyed? The radical Albigenses and Waldenses are the men on whom history has placed this mark of honor. Who were the martyrs in the early ages of the Church, boldly meeting the storm of Pagan persecution, and cheerfully dying in the cause of their Master? They were the men whose religious convictions neither earth nor hell could suppress or conquer. Who first planted Christianity among men, turning the world upside down, and laying the axe at the very roots of Pagan Rome and a corrupt Judaism? Who made such a stir in Judea and in various parts of the Roman Empire some eighteen centuries ago? This was the work of Jesus and his apostles, than whom, considered in reference to the existing status of the age, greater radicalists the world never furnished. Who, when he mounted the throne of Judea, cut down the idolatrous groves, and purified the temple and worship of the living God? This was the work of Josiah, a young and pious prince, who meant to make the remedy as deep and broad as the disease.

Coming nearer to our own times, who, let me ask, were the Dissenters and Puritans in England? Who fled from the old world and came to this, for the purpose of enjoying their religious rights? Who are the men that floated in the Mayflower, and in the depths of winter landed at Plymouth Rock? Who planted the Church, and the School-house, and the State on these western shores? The same men, as to their spirit and temper, that in the

armies of Oliver Cromwell sung psalms and made prayers, and then fought for God and liberty as no other men ever did. They were radicalists, hated by the English aristocracy, persecuted for their faith, yet fulfilling a mission in the history of the world which one must be blind not to see. Their power consisted in the thoroughness and depth of their principles. They belong to the class whom kings and politicians sometimes disdain, and as often fear. They are the men who have a gospel, and they believe it. Their brains are not too narrow to comprehend fundamental principles. Who stirred up all New-England, some century ago, purifying its theological atmosphere, and showing the unscriptural character of what has been styled the "Half-way Covenant," in respect to the question of Church-membership, reasoning with the people of his special charge, and reasoning with the ministry, and choosing to forfeit the good esteem of his people rather than sacrifice the truth? The man who faced opposition, and, under God, accomplished this task, is Jonathan Edwards,-that illustrious prince in theology, that profoundest of thinkers, as well as that most beautiful exhibition of the Christian virtues; and he did the work by laying the axe at the root of the tree. Who, by deep and earnest discussion, struck such heavy blows against the Unitarian heresy, so prevalent and so popular in New-England some half a century ago? Moses Stuart and the venerable Dr. Woods,-both of whom, I trust, are now reaping the heavenly reward of their labors,-buckled on the armor of God, and contended earnestly for the faith. They, too, laid the axe at the root of the tree.

You thus see, without further recital, that the radical spirit in science, in the reformatory movements of earth, and the religious developments of man, so far from being justly obnoxious to our suspicion or censure, is really worthy of all praise. It is one of the elements in human character by which the mighty God makes his power felt on earth. It is one of the chosen instruments of Providence to bless and save this fallen world. The most effective men of our race have been actuated by this spirit. Such men do quite as much thinking as other men, and vastly more than some. Very often they win victories, over which, being won, the conservatives are ready to shout in terms of the highest laudation. Doubtless, there are many who glorify Luther to-day, who, if living in the sixteenth century, would have passed him by as a radical. Some people are very bold in killing dead lions; but no motive can persuade them to touch a living question till all doubt about the issue is removed. Then their courage comes up to the mark. You can never find them when you want them; and when you do not want them, they are quite ready to help on the good cause. They are too conservative to peril any thing. Their consciences are too elastic to have much force.

I really wonder what those newspapers, and those orators, and

those office-seekers can be thinking about who denounce the radical spirit as if it were the quintessence of all evil. Are they playing with words? Are they trying to deceive the people? Do they understand what they so freely denounce? Are they honest? Have they read history? I take the liberty of saying to them that the facts do not justify the opprobrium they design. The word radical, analytically and historically expounded, is a royal term. In reference to the momentous questions of the Revolutionary age, George Washington was a radical, Thomas Jefferson another, John Hancock another, and John Adams another. They lived in a radical age, and were as radical as the age. They were the men of the future, while the Tories in this country and George III. in England were the conservatives, the men of the present.

I come now, my brethren, to what I had in view in the commencement of this sermon, and what the preceding remarks must have suggested.

IN THE THIRD PLACE, TO MAKE AN APPLICATION OF THESE THOUGHTS TO THE AFFAIRS OF OUR OWN COUNTRY AT THE

PRESENT MOMENT. I am not here to preach politics in the low, party sense of this term. I never did this in the pulpit, and I think I never shall. Nor am I here to make any apology for my utterances. I have but one rule in preaching, and that is, to speak what I think, leaving the people to judge for themselves.

The times, in my judgment, imperatively demand that the Christian pulpit should have a distinct and clear ring. It is ne hour for God's servants to hide themselves, and practice ambiguities for the sake of being unintelligible. The tremendous and appalling drama of events which divine Providence is now enacting in this land, should bring every man to the altar of prayer, and then carry him from that altar to discharge the duties he owes to God, his country, to posterity, and the world. What is now the great American question, has sent its thrill over all Europe. It will, either for weal or woe, cast its shadows on the path of coming centuries. With a single exception, it is more radical and more fundamental, and involves larger interests, than any other upon which mortals or immortals ever fixed the gaze of thought. God, I believe, is in this question. "There is a divine reason in it. There is a divine justice in it;" and we may be sure that there is a divine purpose to be answered by it. Providence is in the crisis of the hour.

As I survey the matter, there are three radical principles crowded by the God of Providence upon this nation, and demanding our solution. The first is one of national life; the second is one of moral justice; and the third is one of an enlarged and generous Christian philanthropy. On each of these points I wish to say a word, beginning,

First, with the question of national life. It would be folly either

to underrate or misunderstand our foe. He means to destroy this noble Union of States. His plan, if successful, is perfectly fatal. Secession is the theory, but destruction is the end. Rebellion and fighting, robbery and pillage, are the means of this gigantic crime against the Constitution and peace of our common country.

What have we to do in such premises? Shall we talk about peace-measures and compromise-measures in the presence of an armed rebellion? Shall we call those our political brethren who are our public enemies, who are traitors to the Constitution, and who are putting the knife to the very throat of our national existence? Shall we chatter about the constitutional rights of traitors? Shall we, by party strife, and for party purposes, seek to foment discord in our own ranks? No-never-NEVER. Our duty is to put down this rebellion, to crush it absolutely, using all the means which God and nature have placed in our hands for this purpose. Our duty is to blast and brand with eternal infamy the theory of secession, and prove to the world that this Union "is a government in the highest sense of the term, the enforcement of whose laws, at whatever cost, is a fundamental article of its creed-just as fundamental as liberty itself." This we must do, or die as a nation. hence regard this war for the Union as an imperative necessity. I regard it as a holy war. The sword was never drawn in a more sacred cause, and should never be returned to its scabbard till the end is gained. What shall be done with the rebels when they are conquered, is an after-question. Let us first conquer them. Let us beat them on the battle-field, as we can do, and I believe we will do, dispersing their armies and bringing them to absolute submission. This, I know, is a very radical measure. The land groans under the tread of contending legions; blood flows, and families weep; yet, in the circumstances of our position, no other measure meets the case. No other measure will give the deathblow to the wicked theory of secession. No other measure will preserve the integrity, the dignity, and glory of this Government. No other measure will prove that we are what we claim to be-a NATION. No other measure will settle this controversy upon a lasting basis. We must conquer the rebels, or be conquered by them. We must lay the military axe at the root of the tree with an earnestness and decision that leave no doubt as to our purpose. The second point is one of moral justice. We have practiced a great iniquity in this land. We have continued to practice it year after year, and generation after generation. In the bosom of the freest government on which the sun ever shone, we have the institution of human slavery. We have tolerated it, fostered it, legislated for it, bought territory for its extension, till it has grown to its present fearful and appalling dimensions. Not a few in this country have gone so far as to call it right. And not a few who think it wrong, have desired to say but little about it. The South

ern people, by one of the most extraordinary apostasies in morals to be found in the history of man, and contrary to the faith of their fathers, have canonized the institution of slavery.

Moreover, that slavery is the cause of this rebellion, the great root and ground of our present troubles, is as plain as the sun in the heavens. The chief watchwords of the rebellion have been the sanctity and perpetuity of slavery. The leaders have hung out the flag of slavery. They have declared it to be the chief corner-stone of a political edifice, that is to be built on the eternal wretchedness of an oppressed and subjugated race. When they discovered by the census of 1860, as well as by the last Presidential election, that the political power of this country was passing into the hands of freemen, and out of the hands of slaveholders, and that they were to be no longer the ruling power in the National Government, then, according to the programme of Mr. Calhoun, of more than thirty years' standing, they rent the contract by which they had hitherto been bound. The whole meaning of this civil war, so far as the South is concerned, is the preponderance of slavery, and of the oligarchy which is founded upon this institution. Slavery, for its own dire purposes, has decreed that the nation shall die. There is no use in blinking this point, or misunderstanding it. Public opinion, the common-sense of men, and the philosophy of the facts, as well as the confessions of the rebels themselves, are not, and can not be in error on this point. Back of all other causes lies the slave-power as the chief cause of this rebellion. And but for it, no such diabolical scheme would have ever been conceived, or if conceived, attempted.

What, then, we inquire, are the signs of the times, as written upon the sky of God's providence? We have all been hoping, and even predicting, that this rebellion would prove the deathknell of slavery,-just how and when we have not been able to see. Had the rebellion been less persistent and formidable, had it been conquered with but little fighting, had the armies of the Union been far more successful, had slavery proved, as many supposed, an element of weakness, and not, as the facts show, an element of very great strength,- had this been the order of Providential events, to all human seeming, this war would have ended without reaching the slavery question in any very essential and radical form. Such, however, has not been the order of Providence. We have had serious disasters and delays. We have had time to collect our thoughts and reflect upon what is right. We have had a severe discipline. Providence has thrown several thousands of slaves upon our hands. We have found it necessary to use them, and make some provision for them. While we have vacillated in our policy, sometimes looking in one direction, and sometimes in another, sometimes seeming to have no policy, the government scarcely knowing what to do, Providence, by the stern force of