2nd. In visiting the Exhibition, there are many sentiments which Christians might indulge as means of impression or improvement to themselves. It is hardly necessary, after having gone through the foregoing argument, to press upon the reader the duty of seeing and remembering God in all that will be displayed of the riches of nature and the products of art. It is true, indeed, that it is to be the Exhibition of the Industry of the Nations,—that is, it is, in a manner, to reveal and magnify MAN by accumulating and displaying his wonderful works. But there is a way of doing this, that may be humble and religious, and there is a way of regarding and of looking upon it, which may minister much to the health and nourishment of the divine life. To think highly of what man is, and to strengthen such thoughts by becoming familiar with what he has done, may only make us think more wisely and wonderfully of God, and more justly of the worth of the soul, and of the importance of salvation to that nature whose capacities would seem to be so mysterious and so vast! To think of man lying like a wreck on the outside of Eden, naked and ignorant, without a teacher and without tools,—his mind darkened, his spirit depressed,—with understanding, indeed, and impulses and instincts to help him in his first efforts at labour,—a whole world of raw material under his foot, the compass of the earth for the sphere of his achievements, his head and hand the instruments of action, but the one as yet without knowledge, and the other equally without skill! And then to think of what he has done! How that poor, solitary, naked man, beginning with some rude attempt at the cultivation of the earth and the collection of flocks,—seeking for himself and his dependent companion, the mere supply of their animal wants, clothing of the coarsest, unwoven and undressed,—with food unprepared and unpalatable,—and shelter that might be furnished by a few trees or a hole in a rock! To think what he has become since then! How one generation has improved upon another, and how discovery and invention, and labour and skill, and industry and genius, have covered the earth with a succession of wonders; and then to think, how a sort of representative epitome of these is to stand before us in the marvellous contents of the last and greatest wonder of the world! That wonder will include specimen and proof of what man has done for himself and his dwelling-place, since he lay helpless on the margin of the earth, like a ship-wrecked mariner that had got to shore, but with the loss of all things. Guided and helped by the Divine power, but in a manner consistent with his intelligent nature, his free thought and personal agency, the mind of man was developed and enlarged, society formed, and arts and handicrafts, science and letters, rose and realized what history records, and what modern civilization so wonderfully represents. Rock and forest, earth and ocean, animated nature in all its forms, everything placed around and beneath him, supplied materials which he learned to employ for his convenience and use. He covered the earth with towns and cities, erected temples, palaces, and pyramids,—subdued the most stubborn of the beasts of the field, tamed the most ferocious, outstripped the swiftest, and reduced the strongest to obedience and servitude. He clothed himself in skins, in fur, in flax, in silk and wool,—gradually improving as he went on, till fineness of fabric and elegance of design have become the property of the people at large. He decorated and adorned his private abode, and filled public buildings and public places with the creations of beauty and the triumphs of art. He has crossed the ocean and sounded its depths; he has penetrated the earth and drawn thence her concealed treasure; he has interrogated nature, and obtained, or forced from her, the most astonishing replies; he has soared into the heavens, has counted, weighed, and measured the stars; he can foretell events with certainty and precision—the appearance of a comet, or the occurrence of an eclipse; he has made fire and water, lightning and steam, to do his bidding,—to transmit his messages, transport his property, carry himself, lighten his labour, and perform his work. He has given to sound sentiment and eloquence, and has made instruments of music that can subdue multitudes. Of all these achievements, and of a vast variety of other forms of skilfulness and power, the Great Exhibition will present the proofs, and exhibit them in their latest and most perfect development. And yet it is to be remarked, that with all it will do, it will leave the greatest and the most wonderful of the works of man uncollected and unseen. Mechanical industry has its many marvels,—art and science their miraculous results; but the highest form of the greatness of humanity is to be met with in books,—in the art that has given visibility to speech, and permanent endurance to thought and emotion,—and in the thoughts and emotions of gifted minds, which, in every age, and in all lands, have adorned the race by the researches of the intellect, the conflagrations of eloquence, and the sublimities of song. These things cannot be represented in the Palace of Industry; and yet these are the things that belong to the highest regions of the mind;—to powers and faculties that more than anything else illustrate the inherent greatness of man;—that lead him to the contemplation of the right, the divine, the beautiful and the good in action and character;—that render him capable of religious faith;—and that might make him a happy and virtuous intelligence if he were called to exist separate from the body,—without the feeling of physical necessities, without a surrounding material world, and without members to mould and fabricate, and work up anything whatever in the way of mere mechanical dexterity.
Now these thoughts, and a thousand others of a kindred sort, may all be indulged by a reflective man in visiting the Exhibition,—indulged devoutly, and turned to eminent spiritual advantage. Every thing that man is seen to have achieved,—every proof of his sagacity and power, his skill and performance—will only enhance, in a thoughtful soul, the impression of the wonderfulness of that nature which God originally made for himself, which sin has degraded, and which Christ has redeemed. The number of such proofs increasing the conception of the wonderfulness of the nature they so marvellously manifest, will render the fact of redemption credible,—increasing the probability that God should interpose to recover and restore it. And the great fact, that, after all that the grand pageant can do, and in spite of the splendour and magnificence of its contents, it will actually leave the most wonderful portion of the human mind unillustrated, and incapable of illustration,—why, this may well lead to the solemn remembrance of some of the most impressive of Scriptural truths. “What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass; the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of the Lord endureth for ever; and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” “All these things shall be dissolved;” “the earth and all things that are therein shall be burned up,—but we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which dwelleth righteousness.” And still further, the fact of the exhibition of the half, merely, of the greatness of man by the works of his hands, (and that the lesser and lower portion,) may suggest the analogy that there is in this, with the manner of God’s discovery of himself. He, in his works, has revealed and illustrated his wisdom and power, goodness and beneficence, and, to the eye of reason, these are largely reflected there;—but the manifestation of his moral attributes, his justice and love, compassion and mercy, is made to faith in the gospel of his Son; and however most men may be alive to the first, and blind or insensible to the second of these discoveries, there are beings in the universe who are intent on the higher exhibitions of God,—just as there are devout and meditative men who will gaze on the wonders of the Palace of Industry only to be reminded of the spiritual and immortal of human nature, which the edifice with its marvels will do little to illustrate! Heaven has its “fulness” as well as earth. That fulness is “the fulness of Christ;”—his sufferings on earth and the glory that is to follow. This is called “the unsearchable riches.” In the mystery of redemption are “hid,” or lie embodied, “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,”—the higher forms of God’s manifestation of himself to his creatures. “Into THESE THINGS the angels desire to look.” And they do this in exact conformity with the Divine purpose in the revelation of himself in this the greatest of his works, for it was set forth, “TO THE INTENT that unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be made known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.”
3rd. But British Christians have a great and solemn lesson to learn from the view that we have taken, in this discussion, of their language to the world. If it be so, that we profess as a nation, and utter openly in the hearing of all men, the truths that have been illustrated, then, also, ought it to be felt, that we lie under the most binding and imperative obligations to exemplify the duties which have been explained and enforced. It becomes us to cultivate the devout and practical recognition of God; to keep his Sabbaths; to wait upon him in worship; to approach him through Christ, that we may do so acceptably; to “live in the spirit,” that “we may not fulfil the lusts of the flesh;” “to walk in the spirit,” that our daily virtue may be divine holiness. It is well “to hold forth the word of truth,” and to witness for God, for the gospel, and for righteousness, in the sight of the nations; but it must be done practically as well as by profession,—by conduct in harmony with the articles of our creed,—or our testimony will expose us to ridicule and rebuke, and may provoke by its mockery the vengeance of the Most High. Let England beware, that it do not itself, amidst the blaze and glory of the Great Exhibition, forget the truth and the lessons taught by it, that “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.” Let it beware, “lest, being lifted up with pride, it fall into the condemnation of the devil.” It is a terrible thing not to give God the glory of our achievements;—“to sacrifice to our own net, and to burn incense to our own drag.” It was when the king’s heart was lifted up with pride, and when he said to himself, “Is not this Great Babylon that I have built,”—it was then that God smote him from on high, seared his intellect, and sent him to herd with unintelligent natures! England is first in the commerce of the world; her “merchant princes” are the nobles of civilization; her markets and manufactures have decked her with beauty and made her great;—but it would be well for her to remember, that it was just such a country that, in ancient times, had her magnificence described with the greatest minuteness by God’s prophets, but described to illustrate the extent of her ingratitude, the aggravations of her sin, and the certainty and completeness of her predicted destruction. It was fearfully realized. The glory of Tyre was swept away, and her place became bare as the top of a rock, on which the fisherman might spread out his net to the sun! It might be well, too, to remember, that the prophetic description in the book of the Apocalypse, of the Babylon that is to fall in some yet future judgment of God, is the description of a commercial and maritime city, over which the merchants of the earth mourn and lament “because her judgment hath come, and no man buyeth her merchandise any more.” That these instances should neither be type nor prophecy of Britain, she must take care to walk by the light of her own creed—that “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof,”—and according to all the devotion and humility and practical righteousness that this would inculcate. It is well with a people when their garners are full and their flocks prolific;—when their sons are as plants grown up in their youth, and their daughters as polished marble columns; when there is no political convulsion in the land, and no complaining of poverty in their streets. “Happy is the people that is in such a case;” but happier they “whose God is the Lord.”
4th. Trusting that, as a people, we are not altogether inattentive to what has been described, let us learn, in conclusion, the value we should attach to the blessing of our characteristic and national Christianity. We do not mean, the forms or peculiarities of any church;—the secondary distinctions, that may have their importance, as the separate testimonies to a particular truth prominently held by different members of the Protestant family. We refer to our evangelical Protestantism itself, which is substantially the same throughout our many sects, and which is held and taught, with more or less clearness, by all the influential Denominations in the land. To this, under God, we owe our free political constitution, our civil rights, and our religious liberty; to this we are indebted for the power we are at present exercising and using in the face of the world,—the power of throwing our metropolis open to the nations,—receiving them all, without passports, and with hardly a precaution, to our streets and squares, our court and senate, our families and our homes. We have no fear that our soldiers will be corrupted, or our population seduced;—we apprehend nothing of injury to our faith, or of temptation to our loyalty. Our press will be as free, our minds as unfettered, our comments on men and measures as outspoken, as if none were our daily audience but ourselves. To impress the moral of all this on the mind of the reader, and on our own, we might do it, perhaps, most effectively, by putting it in the form of a friendly address to a reflective foreigner, who might be looking with wonder on the phenomena around him. “Stranger,” we might say, “you have looked with surprise on our industry and commerce, our trade and manufactures; you have seen in our equipages the signs of our wealth; and, in other ways, how opulence and comfort are diffused among our people; you have been impressed with the many proofs of our intelligence, and have wondered, perhaps, most of all, at the liberty we enjoy and the loyalty we cherish. You have seen A QUEEN honoured and beloved;—and her Royal Consort taking the lead, not in reviews of military pomp, or only in the parade of magnificent hospitalities; but in presiding over the displays of peaceful industry, and welcoming the representatives of science and art. You have seen the multitudes that crowd to our churches, and wondered at the comparative quiet of our sabbaths. Know, therefore, that for all this, and for far more that is unseen, we are indebted to the glorious inheritance of our faith;—our open Bible, our conscientious inquiry, our habits of worship, and our religious instructors. We have much amongst us of which it becomes us to think with shame;—much of which it is impossible to speak but in moderated phrase, and even with tears;—but if there is anything that has raised thy admiration, or inflamed thy curiosity,—anything in our general reverence for law, in our political moderation, our civil order,—our respect for rank, combined with our individual consciousness of personal manhood; if there is anything that shows that our morals are not debased, or our manners frivolous, or our habits sordid, or our minds enslaved by the gross and the voluptuous,—carry away with thee the certainty and conviction, that everything that may be good about us as a people, we owe to our possession of that one Book,—to our mode of interpreting, and our constancy in teaching it,—which tells us to acknowledge,—and, by God’s blessing, helps us to act, however imperfectly, on the practical belief,—that despotism and priestcraft, anarchy and disorder, pride and oppression, vanity and selfishness, lawlessness and wrong, are all alike disobedience to God and injurious to his creatures, for ‘the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.’”
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