[Sonnet 58.] In the providence of God I am the oldest living member in Massachusetts of the American Board for Foreign Missions, which was established by a vote of its General Association in 1810, the year of my settlement in the ministry. Multitudes of missionaries have died; and the missionaries living, scattered over the world, are 170 with 230 assistants: native laborers are 500, of whom 222 are preachers: in all 900. The churches 153, and members 23,500; free schools 313.
[Sonnet 59.] Milton, in a sonnet, speaks of submission to God in his blindness, when of three years' continuance:—
"Yet I argue not
Against Heav'n's hand or will, nor bate a jot
Of heart or hope; but still bear up and steer
Right onward."
[Sonnet 62.] Mr. Robinson, born in England in 1585 and educated at Cambridge, becoming a protestant minister, was driven by persecution with his people into Holland. His church at Leyden consisted of 300 communicants. He zealously promoted the emigration under elder Brewster to Plymouth in 1620, intending to follow; but he died in 1625. It was his memorable remark—"I am very confident the Lord has more truth yet to break forth out of his holy word."
[Sonnet 64.] When Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life," he announced to us the infinite value of truth as the path-way to immortal life. Truth is immutable and eternal; it is most pure and purifying, the source of joy and the foundation of hope; and the denial of truth is more or less perilous and implies more or less of guilt. All falsehood is injurious. As the Bible reveals to us divine truth, how can we doubt, whether we are bound to study it with our own eyes? For otherwise we must accept for the teachings of the holy word the faith of some one of the authors of a hundred different creeds; and we may perchance have for our great teacher and master some bewildered lunatic, or some hungry impostor, or some proud and boastful promoter of the purposes of the father of lies.
The catholic may use the term mystery as a cover for absurdity and contempt of reason, or in support of a contradiction, and as an excuse for idolatry; but surely God's Bible contains nothing but truth, and that revealed in a manner adapted to the human understanding. But what says archbishop Fenelon in defending transubstantiation or the imagined change of the bread in the sacrament into the body of Christ? He says of the doctrine—"in believing its mysteries one immolates his ideas [or sacrifices his common sense] out of respect to eternal truth." Thus his blunder, his misunderstanding of Christ's words, "this is my body," he represents as "eternal truth." So Bourdaloue says—"I make to God a sacrifice of the most noble part of myself, which is my reason:" and he professes to believe a mystery "although it seems to be directly repugnant to my reason;"—or one "which shocks reason itself and contradicts all its lights," referring to the received doctrine concerning God's nature. Massillon thinks it is "necessary to believe certain apparent contradictions:" he says, "it is faith and not reason, which makes us Christians." All this in my view is a pernicious error: for reason is the intellectual power, which discerns truth. God himself is perfect reason, pure intellect, infinite understanding. To him the universe is all light. But our reason is restricted: man may grow in knowledge forever; yet he never will know an absurdity or contradiction to be true. To us one great source of truth is God's testimony or revelation. Faith is the belief of God's testimony. As to the word mystery, the common meaning of it in scripture, is not something unintelligible, but a doctrine, once hidden or secret, which is now revealed and intelligible. Thus in teaching the resurrection Paul says, "Behold, I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep," &c. 1 Cor. 15:51. See also Rom. 16:25.
It is clear beyond a question, that there cannot be two contradictory truths; for truth is one; it is but an expression of the reality of things. But some metaphysicians have lent their aid to the catholic theologians by asserting that, there are contradictory truths in philosophy; but the instances adduced are all fallacious, as Achilles walking 20 times as fast as the turtle, but never able to overtake him.