In speaking from these words last Sunday morning, and in endeavoring toenforce the great truth which they express, I began with referring tocertain facts which characterize that most brutal and ruthless militaryrevolution which has just commenced in France, and the recent news ofwhich made every heart, that cherishes any regard for Freedom andHumanity, burn with indignation. The first statements to which I alludedhave been more than confirmed. Unarmed, unoffending citizens, utterlyignorant of what was going on, and taking no part in it, were shot downby hundreds in the streets, and then transfixed with bayonets. If but awindow was opened, a shower of bullets was poured into it. Cannon werebrought to bear upon whole blocks of private dwellings. In one instance,a woman who rushed out of the house to the help of her husband, who hadfallen under the fire of the soldiery, was instantly despatched andlaid[Pg 4] dead at his side. Bloodshed and terror filled the place, andscenes were enacted, so eyewitnesses report, that baffle description,and that can find a parallel only when cities are sacked.
Now, I refer to these facts, not to harrow up your feelings, my hearers,but because these facts, and such as these, speak trumpet-tongued, as tothe vital interest and the sacred religious duty which every privateman, no matter how humble and obscure,—nay, which every woman has, inthose great questions that agitate nations, in what are designated asmatters of public concern and the public welfare.
I know very well that there are those who deplore it, and consider it agreat grievance, that here, in this country, there is so much agitationof public matters in private circles, and by private, unofficialpersons. To be sure, one would like to have quiet, if he could. Butthere is no help for it. We must take our lot as we find it. And such isthe nature of our social fabric; drawing all the power of the governmentfrom the people, from the individuals that compose the people, that itis made the direct and plain duty of every man and woman of us to knowabout those things, which are public, for this very reason, because theyconcern the many,—the high and the low, the rich and the poor, thesecurity, the happiness, the improvement, the civil and the religiousliberties of every man in the land. A necessity is upon us; and[Pg 5] if wehave been accustomed to confine our ideas of duty and religion to theChurch and the Sabbath, the sooner we get our minds sufficientlyenlarged to see the religious obligation which binds us to the greatPublic of mankind, the better for us, for our neighbors, and for allmen.
So, then, the fact that private men are interested in public affairs,even though it be attended with a good deal of excitement,—that is notthe thing to be deplored. But what is to be lamented is, that false wayof thinking, out of place in this country, out of time in this age, bywhich thousands justify themselves in continuing ignorant andindifferent to things of a vital private concern, simply because theyare of a public and general character. What is more common than to hearmen say, in reference to such matters, 'They are no concerns of ours. Wecare nothing about them. Let those busy themselves about them who are sodisposed. As for us, we are not going to perplex our brai