Society and Religion: A Sermon for California, Delivered on Sabbath Evening, July 6th, 1856, at the Installation of REV. E. S. Lacy, as Pastor of the First Congregational Church, San Francisco

Excerpt from Society and Religion: A Sermon for California, Delivered on Sabbath Evening, July 6th, 1856, at the Installation of Rev. E. S. Lacy, as Pastor of the First Congregational Church, San Francisco Of what great kingdom or. Conqueror is this spoken? Is it of Babylon, called by this prophet the hammer of the whole earth '3 Is it of Alexander, Caesar, Tamerlane, Napoleon, raised up in their time as ails of wrath wherewith God will thresh the nations? None Of these. No, it is of and to the prophet himself, a simple, inoffensive, generally af icted, often lacrymose, always faithful teacher of Israel. These words are the words of his di vine call and commission. When the word of the Lord comes to him he says, Ah Lord God I cannot speak, for I am a child. But the Lord said unto him, Say not I am a child; for what soever I Command thee thou shalt speak. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build and to plant. Neither let it be imagined that he is thus set over nations and kingdoms, simply in the sense that he is to prophecy their fall. He is to be the vehicle, as it were, of God's judgments. It will be observed, that he Is also to build and to plant, and it Is not by merely foretelling something that any such work can be done. The prophets were not merely foretellers, according to the vulgar impression, but they were the inspiring, quickening ministers of God's truth, the teachers and preachers of their times, educated in schools for this purpose. The priesthood represented the ceremonial function of their religion, they the illuminative and pastoral function. One had the power of a drill practice. Of what great kingdom or. Conqueror is this spoken? Is it of Babylon, called by this prophet the hammer of the whole earth '3 Is it of Alexander, Caesar, Tamerlane, Napoleon, raised up in their time as ails of wrath wherewith God will thresh the nations? None Of these. No, it is of and to the prophet himself, a simple, inoffensive, generally af icted, often lacrymose, always faithful teacher of Israel. These words are the words of his di vine call and commission. When the word of the Lord comes to him he says, Ah Lord God I cannot speak, for I am a child. But the Lord said unto him, Say not I am a child; for what soever I Command thee thou shalt speak. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build and to plant. Neither let it be imagined that he is thus set over nations and kingdoms, simply in the sense that he is to prophecy their fall. He is to be the vehicle, as it were, of God's judgments. It will be observed, that he Is also to build and to plant, and it Is not by merely foretelling something that any such work can be done. The prophets were not merely foretellers, according to the vulgar impression, but they were the inspiring, quickening ministers of God's truth, the teachers and preachers of their times, educated in schools for this purpose. The priesthood represented the ceremonial function of their religion, they the illuminative and pastoral function. One had the power of a drill practice.