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is aware, moreover, that their descendants are represented as having become affected by this fall. "Sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men." "In Adam all die." They are "born in sin, and shapen in iniquity." They "go astray from the womb." This is

declared to be the case with all whose descent is reckoned from Adam. We may expect, therefore, that if the position of this lecture be a sound one, there will be exhibited everywhere traces of moral depravity-symptoms, more or less conclusive, that man is not what man ought to be, either towards his fellows or towards God. And never was expectation more signally realized. Wherever you find mankind, you

see them the victims of their passions, the subjects of the most extraordinary contrarieties, the creatures of alternations with which nothing can be compared. In the language of a thoughtful heathen, they see and approve the excellent; but they prefer and pursue the base. Illustration and proof of this might be, almost indefinitely, produced. Were the Scriptures totally silent, or were their testimony on this point to be withdrawn, we think we could make it out beyond all dispute, that men are born with tendencies to evil; that those tendencies do put themselves forth in mighty power; that, in consequence of their action, men are more or less unhappy; and that to pacify their unhappiness, they offer up, as we have seen, propitiatory sacrifices to their gods. Why indeed do they slay innocent animals in sacrifice? Why do they exercise, at various times, self-denial of the severest kind? Why do they fast and pray, and go on pilgrimage? Why, on emergencies, will they give of the fruit of their bodies, the children of their choicest love? It is all for the sin of their souls. They feel their need of something which they do not possess; and by all these acts they are labouring to secure it. They want strength for their weakness, peace for their uneasiness, instruction for their ignorance. They want to be assured, in

some of their thoughtful moods at least, that death is not annihilation; and that the sepulchre is not their home. They are fitted for immortality, and they are destined for immortality; but of immortality they know nothing whereupon calmly to repose. Their condition baffles all human effort to correct its anomalies, or to supply its defects. They are lofty and yet grovelling, mighty and yet mean, presumptuous and yet cowardly, partaking largely of the earthly and the basemost largely, though not exclusively—because every now and then they undeniably indicate their aspirations towards the Spiritual and the Divine. The tribe has not been found of which, concerning individuals, this is not true. No matter how wide the range of your observations; no matter how rigid the processes of your investigation; no matter to what period of the world your inquiries may be directed; it will turn out that man ever has been, and that man universally is in a condition of moral degradation, betokening alienation from God. You may not choose to adopt scriptural phraseology in designating man's condition. You may, rightly enough, declare your disapproval of much of the phraseology of our theologic schools. Be it so. But your phraseology, to accord with fact, must designate bondage, darkness, selfishness, revengefulness, dishonour, intemperance, and many such-like things, and ungodliness at the head of all. You could not describe mankind without representing what the Scriptures mean when they speak of deadness in trespasses and sins. Well, this being the actual condition of all men living, we judge that all men living have descended from that one man by whose disobedience the many were made sinners; we believe that Adam, the transgressor, was the father of us all.

Thus then we argue in proof of the common origin of the human race. And now the argument must be left in your hands, with the request that you will look at it in its several parts; because it is by the consistency and harmony of the

VOL. IV.

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This is

is aware, moreover, that their descendants are represented as having become affected by this fall. "Sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men." "In Adam all die." They are "born in sin, and shapen in iniquity." They "go astray from the womb." declared to be the case with all whose descent is reckoned from Adam. We may expect, therefore, that if the position of this lecture be a sound one, there will be exhibited everywhere traces of moral depravity-symptoms, more or less conclusive, that man is not what man ought to be, either towards his fellows or towards God. And never was expectation more signally realized. Wherever you find mankind, you

see them the victims of their passions, the subjects of the most extraordinary contrarieties, the creatures of alternations with which nothing can be compared. In the language of a thoughtful heathen, they see and approve the excellent; but they prefer and pursue the base. Illustration and proof of this might be, almost indefinitely, produced. Were the Scriptures totally silent, or were their testimony on this point to be withdrawn, we think we could make it out beyond all dispute, that men are born with tendencies to evil; that those tendencies do put themselves forth in mighty power; that, in consequence of their action, men are more or less unhappy; and that to pacify their unhappiness, they offer up, as we have seen, propitiatory sacrifices to their gods. Why indeed do they slay innocent animals in sacrifice? Why do they exercise, at various times, self-denial of the severest kind? Why do they fast and pray, and go on pilgrimage? Why, on emergencies, will they give of the fruit of their bodies, the children of their choicest love? It is all for the sin of their souls. They feel their need of something which they do not possess ; and by all these acts they are labouring to secure it. They want strength for their weakness, peace for their uneasiness, instruction for their ignorance. They want to be assured, in

some of their thoughtful moods at least, that death is not annihilation; and that the sepulchre is not their home. They are fitted for immortality, and they are destined for immortality; but of immortality they know nothing whereupon calmly to repose. Their condition baffles all human effort to correct its anomalies, or to supply its defects. They are lofty and yet grovelling, mighty and yet mean, presumptuous and yet cowardly, partaking largely of the earthly and the basemost largely, though not exclusively-because every now and then they undeniably indicate their aspirations towards the Spiritual and the Divine. The tribe has not been found of which, concerning individuals, this is not true. No matter how wide the range of your observations; no matter how rigid the processes of your investigation; no matter to what period of the world your inquiries may be directed; it will turn out that man ever has been, and that man universally is in a condition of moral degradation, betokening alienation from God. You may not choose to adopt scriptural phraseology in designating man's condition. You may, rightly enough, declare your disapproval of much of the phraseology of our theologic schools. Be it so. But your phraseology, to accord

with fact, must designate bondage, darkness, selfishness, revengefulness, dishonour, intemperance, and many such-like things, and ungodliness at the head of all. You could not describe mankind without representing what the Scriptures mean when they speak of deadness in trespasses and sins. Well, this being the actual condition of all men living, we judge that all men living have descended from that one man by whose disobedience the many were made sinners; we believe that Adam, the transgressor, was the father of us all.

Thus then we argue in proof of the common origin of the human race. And now the argument must be left in your hands, with the request that you will look at it in its several parts; because it is by the consistency and harmony of the

VOL. IV.

I

whole, rather than by the supposed conclusiveness of any one part that conviction will be produced.

Remember, then, the affinity between the languages of mankind, the resemblances in the physical organization of mankind, the equality of the intellectual capacities of mankind, the identity between the great traditions of mankind, and the sameness in the spiritual condition of mankind. And as you

remember and compare and reflect, then pass reverently, in imagination, back to the garden of Eden, there to worship and bow down as you witness the creation of the one father of the human race; for there and there only, then and then only, "God created man in his own image; in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."

In conclusion, let me remind you that it is no barren, unprofitable speculation on which we have been engaged to-night. Inferences the most practically and permanently valuable may be, and I doubt not will be most promptly drawn.

Are men of every peculiarity one race? Then every man living is your brother; the realization of which truth would go far to humanize, and civilize, and elevate us all. How effectually it would destroy all notions of natural enmity between the nations of the earth! How completely it would abolish hereditary feuds between individuals as well as clans ! How certainly it would tend to diminish the spirit, and do away with the atrocities of war, until we should happily be strangers even to rumours of war! How generously it would keep those who live in luxury mindful of surrounding poverty, and how intelligently it would prevent the poor from criminating and condemning those who happen to be rich! The recollection of our brotherhood would lead us all to do unto others as we would have them do unto ourselves-consummation devoutly to be desired.

Are men of every peculiarity one race? Then, in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we have a provision adapted to them all.

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