# The Responsibilities of the American Youth

The Responsibilities of the American Youth.
An Address
delivered before
The Erodelphian and Philologian
Societies
of
the Masonic College,
Lexington, Missouri,
July 24th, 1850.
By Leander Ker, Chaplain of the United States Army.
Lexington: Printed at the Office of the Weekly Express.
1850.
Correspondence.
Masonic College, July 24, 1850.
Rev. Sir:— Rev. Sir:— It was with feelings of the highest gratification that we listened to the truly eloquent and impressive Address which you have just delivered.
Permit us to return you the thanks of the Societies we represent, and to request a copy of the Address for publication.
Respectfully yours,
V. Marmaduke, J. W. C. Moore, Committee, Erodelphian Society.
J. W. Waddell, M. M. Broadwell, Committee, Philologian Society.
Rev. Leander Ker.
Lexington, July 24, 1850.
Gentlemen:— GentlemenYour note has just been received, requesting a copy of my Address to you, which is herewith forwarded.
Sincerely and truly yours,LEANDER KER. Leander Ker.
V. Marmaduke, J. W. C. Moore, Committee, Erodelphian Society.
J. W. Waddell, M. M. Broadwell, Committee, Philologian Society.
Address.
Young Gentlemen of the Erodelphian and Philologian Societies:
I return you my sincere and grateful thanks for the honor conferred, and for the distinguished position in which your consideration and kindness have, this day, placed me: and, incompetent as I am to meet the expectations conceived and the request made, I will proceed, to the best of my abilities, to discharge the pleasing duty imposed upon me.
In the present momentous and startling condition of the world, when universal society is fearfully ominous of great and varied revolution and change—rapidly conceiving and rapidly approximating to some mighty consummation, the outlines of whose form and dimensions the eye cannot yet discern through the dim twilight that intervenes: at a time when all the elements of social, political and religious life—held by man, in his fancy and his pride, to be as perpetual and immutable as thy elements of nature—are undergoing a process of decomposition as sudden and rapid as unexpected, to reorganize themselves again in higher, fairer and nobler forms of social, political and religious life and being: at such a time and under such circumstances, well calculated to fit the heart of every patriot, philanthropist and christian with anxiety and apprehension; in looking over the field of literature, science and ethics for a subject suited to the time and occasion, I can conceive of none more worthy of your attention than the one selected,
The Responsibilities of the Youth of our Country.
This subject, vast as it is, and important as it is vast, derives its most essential and prominent features from a variety of other subjects connected with it, and which indeed have created the very subject on which we propose to address you.
And in order, young gentlemen, to set before you the magnitude and importance of the responsibilities of the youth of our country—the length and breadth, the depth and height of those ​responsibilities—it will be necessary to present to you, first, those subjects which have created those responsibilities, which now, in all the weight and force of a high and mighty moral obligation, the obligation of the Most High God, rest upon the American people in general, and upon the American youth in particular.
We beg leave, however, in the first place, to make a few remarks on the term responsibility, in its moral and ethical sense. There was a time when this term and its adjuncts, like many others which contain great and most important truths, had little or no meaning affixed to it, except what was of a strictly conventional and arbitrary character; and then the idea of human responsibility, duty and obligation, rising higher or extending father than the dictate of the king and the mandate of the priest, was regarded as the most impudent and impious act of rebellion that an individual or a people could commit. And yet, somehow or another, it always happened that by the discharge of all these duties, obligations and responsibilities on the part of the people towards their lords and masters, spiritual and temporal, the welfare and selfish interests of the king and the priest were alone promoted and secured. This was the rule that controlled, the line that measured, and the limit that bounded the responsibility and duty of the people; who, when they complained, as sometimes overtaxed and overburdened humanity will complain, were gravely told that the king did this by divine right, and the priest by divine command. This quieted all complaints for a time; and the poor people, like the poor donkey between two bundles of hay, were compelled to jog on submissively and humbly, without permission to taste of the burdens they carried, showing their respect to divine authority, as they thought, like good and patient donkeys.
But almost every evil in our world has its antidote, at least it was so in the case before us; for by hard kicks and heavy blows, redoubled in quantity and increased in quality, sufficient to make even a donkey think, the idea of divine rights was at least, after many centuries, beaten into the heads of the people; who began to think and enquire: Have the people no divine rights, as well as the priest and the king? A most eventful day it was and still is to the world when this idea was first suggested; for it is the ​great moral Archimidean lever that is steadily moving, revolutionizing and transforming the world in its social, political and religious aspects. When this idea was first conceived, the more it was turned, pondered and thought upon, the more beautiful, true and tangible it became. And such an idea soon becomes an active principle. It becomes a giant, even when young, and before its club of truth no hydra-headed monster can stand. And soon it was so in this case. The divine rights of the people soon became too strong for the assumed divine rights of kings and priests. And the people, in their discovered rights and power, and with that boldness which truth inspires, said to their oppressors and tyrants, “My masters, you have rode long enough; dismount, and let your legitimate masters take the saddle and become what God, in his divine arrangement, ordained you to be—the servants of the people: this is the true divine right.” And upon a refusal to obey, the king was kicked into the ditch and the priest flung into the mire; and a new order of things commenced with the discovery of human rights and the dawn of human responsibility. The latter is inseparable from the former, and is coexistent and coequal with it. The former give birth to the latter—preside over it and control and direct it. Contract the sphere of the former, and you must, to the same extent, circumscribe the sphere of the latter; extent the sphere of the former, and you, to the same extent, extend the sphere of the latter. And between the two there must be a perfect adjustment and equality; the one must not transcend the other in point of numbers. For whenever this is done, the moral equilibrium is destroyed—and injustice and oppression is the result.
In the wise and benign constitution and administration of the moral government of God, he has uniformly equalized the rights, privileges and responsibilities of his moral subjects, graduating and determining the quantity as well as the quality of the responsibilities and duties of his subjects with their rights and privileges. And so it shall appear clear as his throne of justice and grace, at the last day, when the good are called home to their reward and the evil are doomed to their punishment. And upon no other ground than upon a perfectly equalized condition of rights and ​responsibilities, can the former be justly exercised, and the latter honestly, truly and faithfully met and discharged.
And it is just to the want of this adjustment of the two, that all the commotion, confusion and distraction in the political and religious world owe their existence. A struggle going on between responsibility on the one hand and tyranny on the other, which now has assumed the name of conservatism—a fine name to conceal a hateful and repulsive thing! But you will always find this conservatism, as it calls itself—discover it where you may and under whatever name or association it lies—posted and trenched against every species of reform, improvement and progression; standing still like a mile-stone, and sneering at and ridiculing every thing that passes by in its flying career.
Human responsibility, my young friends, is a high and a sacred thing, and grows out of the nature and necessities of man, and is always determined by the condition of his nature and necessities. And as man changes, or as his condition and circumstances change, there will and must be a change in his responsibilities, his rights and his duties; and those who laugh at all progress in man and his condition, are either too stupid to perceive the great law of progression which God has imposed upon the universe and all its contents, or they are too lazy to put their intellectual and moral locomotives in motion; and thus they become the dignified mile-stones of the world—witnessing all that passes by, but without one feeling of the excitement, the joys, pleasures and interest that fill the traveler’s breast.
But there is one circumstance connected with the doctrine of responsibility which we must not fail to notice, which is this:—that men are much more desirous of securing their rights than of meeting and discharging the responsibilities which those rights impose upon them; upon the same principle that most men would rather receive a debt justly due them, than discharge a pecuniary obligation equally just. This results from the fact that it is more pleasant to receive than to give; though it is much more blessed to give than to receive; and this is the law or consideration that should influence all men in the discharge of their duties and responsibilities. Not that they should desire less the possession of all their rights, but the discharge of all their responsibilities more: ​because that in receiving our rights and our dues, the blessing or the benefit is confined to ourselves; but in discharging our responsibilities and duties, we benefit and bless others;—and how fay that benefit and blessing are extended, depends upon the nature and character of those responsibilities. And now, young gentlemen, we will endeavor to show you how far you may benefit and bless mankind, by meeting and discharging faithfully and truly all the responsibilities that devolve upon you, of will devolve upon you and the youth of our country, when you occupy the place of those who preside over the affairs and hold the interests and destinies of our country in their hands, whether in private or official stations. This we will do when we show you the nature and character of your responsibilities.
Human responsibility is, we have stated, a high and sacred thing. Like human rights, it comes from God, and should be exercised in reference to his honor and glory, in promoting the welfare of man. And God has ordained it as part of his moral economy, that no man shall live for himself alone; and no one can live for himself alone, much as he desires it and wills it. In one way or another, his life and conduct, however humble and obscure they may be, do exercise an influence, we cannot tell to what an extent, on the lives, fortunes and conduct of others; giving them a tendency and character which ultimately may result in consequences the most momentous, for good or evil, to society and the world. God rules over the nations of the earth; nor does he carry out a single purpose of his high and holy will in reference to the destinies of this world and the affairs of men, without employing therein man’s co-operation, directly or indirectly; and the individual, without knowing it or designing it, is made the agent of God for mercy or judgment, either to bless mankind or scourge them for their sins. And if we are not engaged in the cause of God and the cause of man, which are one and the same, we are engaged in the ignoble, dishonorable and unprofitable business of serving and promoting the cause of evil to man and his honor to God. And even idleness here is not a negative and innocent quality; it, too, subserves the cause of evil, not of God. And as no man under the government of God lives or can live for himself alone, much less can a people or nation ​exist, rise, decay and fall for itself alone. Its existence, its rise and fall may determine the character and destiny of nations unborn; so intimately blended and interwoven are all beings and events in this world by the order and wisdom of Him who creates and sets in motion the vast and complicated machinery of the universe, and guides and controls the whole until all his plans and purposes for which all things were created, are wound up in their fulfilment.
It is declared in the holy oracles of truth, that the Most High God ruleth in the kingdom of men, and appointeth over it whomsoever he will; and history confirms the declaration. The Bible is not the only medium through which God reveals his mind and purposes to man. He has another mode by which he does this; and this is his administrative revelations; emanating from his moral government, which he exercises over this world and its destinies. And this kind of revelation, which the Bible clearly intimates, God is still communicating to the world, in a manner neither to be questioned nor mistaken. And I know of no wiser or better employment for rulers, statesmen, and all who have the interests and welfare of humanity at heart, and likewise for you, my young friends, than to examine well and peruse carefully those providential revelations of God furnished by history, that you may understand your responsibilities, and become the honored co-workers with Him for good to man, glory to God, and honor, fame and immortality to yourselves.
And now, that you may perceive the wisdom and goodness of God to all nations in general, and to us in particular—that you may perceive his wise and benevolent arrangement of all things, and how truly as well as wisely he rules over the nations of the earth—and that you may see and feel the weight and importance of your responsibility—we will propound a few questions to you, and make a few statements of a historical nature, the force and importance of which are derived from the signs of the times and the circumstances of the age in which our lot is cast.
What would now be, and what would have been the condition of millions of the human family, if America was not, or was yet, unknown to the rest of the world! But we have more questions to ask, to which is the opening and leading one. Why did ​God so long conceal all knowledge of the new world from the old? And why he placed this grand division of the globe so remote from the others? These are no idle nor unimportant questions; but when considered in relation to the purposes of God in reference to the interest of humanity, lead us to the contemplation of the wisdom and goodness of Him who alone is wise in council and excellent in knowledge. The reasons for what is implied in the questions just proposed, are now, at this period of the world’s history, becoming very apparent and lucid. And I see not how any can fail in perceiving them. In answer to the second question, we say, that it is one of the distinctive features in the administration of God’s moral government, that he prepares for all events and contingencies, and furnishes things just when they are needed; thus doing for man, ever since the creation of the world, what he did for man in its creation: that is, providing for the necessities of man, as in the course of time and in the progress of things necessities may arise. And in looking back along the track of time, guided by the lights of history, we see that this has ever been the uniform course of procedure on the part of God to man. Do man’s increasing wants and expanding necessities demand new and additional means of supply? In the providence of Him who suffers no sparrow to fall unnoticed, those wants are supplied. And when advancing science, art and commerce require new inventions and improvements, to increase the comfort, convenience and welfare of nations, God sends into the world the qualified minds to furnish the requisite means. And when the peculiar condition of society and the general necessities of the world require a new or an additional continent, then that which was created from the beginning and kept in reserve for this very emergency, is in due time disclosed to the rest of the world. And when it is discovered, the wonder with every one is why it was never discovered nor thought of before. It was not needed before, nor wanted until the time it was discovered, and that it was particularly wanted when discovered, is most easy to prove. For the Reformation, the first fruits of the doctrine of personal responsibility, commenced soon after the discovery of America, and which awakened the spirit of liberty, civil and religious, and which was followed by persecution, civil and religious, ​all over Europe; this Reformation created a most imperative necessity for a place of refuge to which the persecuted and oppressed of all lands could fly, and find safety and repose. And where were these to be found but in the new world just discovered? Was not the hand of God in all this? and is his hand less visible still? And what would have been the fate of those who embraced the Reformation and its spirit of liberty, had America then been unknown? Whither could they have fled, and to what point of the compass looked for hope and safety? Persecuted to the death they must have been; and liberty, finding no home and resting place on earth, would have fled to her native heaven, and left the world one frightful waste of the most hideous and appalling despotism. And now behold the wisdom of God in placing this continent, liberty’s own soil and home, so far away from the other grand sections of the earth.
Were America as contiguous to the other three quarters of the globe as they are to each other, then she could not and would not have been what she has proven herself to be—the home and abiding place of liberty—because she would be in character and condition like all the others, possessing the same or similar forms of despotic government and religion, ruled by the iron rod of despotic power. But how wisely has God, who alone sees the end from the beginning, arranged all things, and rules and directs all events; making the physical arrangements of the world to harmonize with its moral contingencies and necessities. What so fortunate as the discovery of America, at the very time it was discovered!—and how well it suited the state of things in Europe, and met the circumstances and necessities of the times! And what so fortunate for the safety, progress and development of liberty, as the remote locality in which God placed this continent from the seat of all oppression and despotism!
Human foresight and wisdom could as little have foreseen all these contingencies, as human power could have provided for them. Oh, how much is here for meditation and reflection, and to fill the American with gratitude, pride and joy; filling us with assurance that God is on the side of liberty and the rights of humanity, and that we are now his peculiar people, called in his providence to work out the redemption and regeneration of the world.
​And now we come to the consideration of another most important class of facts, unfolded in the government of God in the world, and which we will lay before you, and for the same reason for which we have placed before you all we have stated, that you may see the extent and character of your responsibilities, and the responsibilities that rest upon every one bearing the American name. The class of facts to which we call your minds is, that since nations and empires began their march on the field of time, the van of that march, for a certain period, has been led by some one nations pre-eminent and distinguished above all others, until it had finished its mission and completed the work assigned it by Him who employs nations as well as men to do his will; then it was overthrown and destroyed, either by external violence or internal corruption, often by both, and its place supplied by another; which, having fulfilled its destiny, was in turn removed, and another succeeded to be the head and front in the grand march of empires. Thus has it ever been; every age or period of ages has had its leading and prominent nation. And though a rivalship has often existed between two distinguished nations, each striving for the supremacy; yet, in the end, the one has had always to yield to the power of the other.
Another fact equally interesting and important to us is, that this march of empires has ever been westward, or rather that supremacy of which we have been speaking, and which has always internalized itself in one particular nation for a period of time, has ever successively tended westward; and what is still worthy of more consideration, its every advancement has been distinguished by an increase of all those things that contribute to man’s improvement, exaltation and happiness—individual, social and natural, intellectual, moral, political and religious. Babylon and Nineveh, having reached the zenith of their power, glory and fame, gave place to Greece, the birth-place of our science and literature. Greece being consolidated under the Macedonian empire by Alexander, and having finished her destiny, gave place to Rome, which for a time led and lorded it over the rest of the world; and under the providence of God, having done the world more good than evil, was at last swept away by the Gothic and Vandalic inundation. And out of the broken and scattered ​fragments of her empire, rose the nations of modern Europe: the chief and leader of which has been England, whose supremacy over all the nations of the earth for centuries has been felt and acknowledged. But that supremacy, yielding to that mysterious law which has impelled the march of empires westward, is passing from her to another nation and another people; which people and nation, I need scarcely tell you, are ourselves. England, like all nations that have preceded her, has had her day: her destiny is nearly completed, her mission is drawing to a close, her work is done. And, under the providence of God, she has done much good, if she has done much evil. The world owes her much, and will owe her much more; but chiefly by us and through us, will the latter and greater part of that obligation be due. We owe England much, but more to her cruelty, injustice and harshness, than to her kindness and clemency. Had she been less harsh and selfish to us in our childhood, and more kind and generous, she, perhaps, would not this day have the painful and humiliating reflection of seeing her greatness, her supremacy and her influence departing from her and attaching themselves to us, whom in her cruelty and folly she drove into the wilderness to suffer and to die.
But tyranny and oppression of every kind are as blind to their own interests, as they are regardless of the interests and welfare of those they oppress; and, by a strange perversion of will and purpose, defeat their own designs, and build up and preserve what they would pull down and destroy. And of all fools in this world of folly, royal and imperial fools are the last to learn wisdom; and seldom, if ever, learn it until it is too late to be wise.
God, in his written revelation, has most unequivocally declared his abhorrence of and detestation against tyrants and oppression; and the revelations of his providence in the moral government of the world fully demonstrate and sustain the former.
It is true, that both in the Old and New Testaments God does sanction the institution of domestic slavery, as much as he does every other domestic and social institution; placing slavery in the same category with all the others, imposing upon it the same instructions and obligations that he does upon the parental, the conjugal and the political: and it is only injustice and cruelty he ​denounces and condemns in it, as he does in all. And the Bible, which must ultimately become the rule of life and conduct for all men—in authority and out of authority, for the ruler and the ruled—furnishes no more legitimate objections or arguments against the institution of domestic slavery, than it does against any other institution of man or society; and they who demand the total and unconditional abolishment of slavery on moral and religious grounds, must first produce a special message and revelation from God, on which to sustain their demand.
The last great fact I would notice, deduced from the history of the world, and which greatly concerns us, is, that since the flood the world has been distinguished by three great eras or periods. The first of these was the call of Abraham and the erection of the Jewish Commonwealth, which God made the starting point of his great and gracious purposes to men. The second was the coming of Christ and the introduction of Christianity into the world. And the third was the discovery of America, with the mighty events that have and will continue to flow therefrom. This last may be called the American era or epoch of the world. The first prepared the way for the second, and the second led to the third, which is a full and complete extension of the second, the consummation of God’s purposes of love and mercy to the children of men. And for this high and most benevolent mission and destiny, we, as a nation, are called. In the providence of God, we are destined to be the file leader to all the nations of the earth, to lead them to liberty, honor and happiness. And how long shall this be our post of honor, glory and power? Just as long as the American people are true to their duties, their rights and their responsibilities. Just as long as each and every succeeding generation of the American youth prepare themselves to resume and carry on the great and glorious work which their fathers laid down, and meet all their responsibilities fearlessly and faithfully; until the world’s regeneration and deliverance, political, moral and religious, are accomplished. And what distinguishes us as a nation, in this work of regeneration, from all the nations that have preceded us, is not the sword or physical power and force; but the mild, pacific and gentle spirit of liberty and our institutions; a mighty moral and political influence ​emanating from us invisibly, and which, like light, will penetrate to the utmost limits of the earth, becoming both visible and tangible in the great and beneficent results produced. And this we are now doing to the nations of the Old World—teaching them a new class of truths, moral and political, which these statesmen, philosophers, bishops and popes never knew and never taught.
Where will this mighty influence, now issuing from us like ten thousand diverging rays of light from a common centre—where, I ask, will it stop? and what power can stop it? Not the power of man, and certainly not the power of God, for it is his work and his purpose. Man cannot stop it, and God will not. Call it what you may—aggression, annexation, usurpation, everything known in the vocabulary of monarchists and conservatists—the same things—Liberty heeds them not, stops not to answer them or argue with them. She has a vocabulary of her own, containing her own terms, her own ideas, and her own principles of action. She is aggressive; all truth is so, Christianity is so; and God, the author of them, is no less. Christianity is at eternal war with falsehood, impiety and superstition; nor will she lay by her panoply of war until the last territory of falsehood, superstition and impiety is reclaimed, redeemed and annexed to her pure, pacific and holy domain. Truth of every kind is aggressive, and will not cease her acts of aggression and usurpation until the whole realm of error is subdued and annexed to hers. And liberty, too, is aggressive—oh yes, most aggressive—warring and will war against oppression and wrong; nor will she cease her acts of usurpation until the last throne of despotism is thrown down, its last sceptre shivered, and its last foot of territory annexed to liberty.
And now, young gentlemen, having led you up to this point of moral elevation, from which you may survey the field around you, and in view of all that we have presented to your consideration, you cannot but feel and perceive the greatness of the responsibilities that rest upon you and upon the youth of our country. And not upon you alone, but upon all do these high and momentous responsibilities rest—on the American parent, the American father and the American mother; and no less on the literary institutions of our country. Time fails me here to go into all the ​details of a subject and a duty so vast. We have endeavored to collect and spread before you an array of facts and truths, from the due consideration of which the nature and importance of these responsibilities and duties, which every year, yea, almost every day, are increasing and multiplying around us, may be estimated.
And now to draw to a conclusion. In view of all the events of the past, the stirring transactions of the present, and the contemplation of the momentous and eventful future, with our country’s position and character in the foreground, is it too much to affirm, that under the dispensations of an all-wise and overruling Providence, the destinies, the future and ultimate condition of the nations of the earth, political and moral, are placed in our hands, and that He who ruleth the nations will hold us responsible for the same? We are warranted in making this solemn asseveration, the solemn truth of which I daily pray Almighty God to impress upon the minds of our Statesmen, Senators and Rulers.
Our continent is not sufficiently large and wide a field for the development, display and exercise of the Anglo-Saxon, or rather the Anglo-American mind, talents and energies: the world is that field; the entire globe, the ocean and its isles, is the field worthy of that mind which is making its power and influence felt upon the condition and character of the age. What a mission is ours! How exalted, how noble and glorious! What if Jehovah intends to restore to the world again, as it was at the beginning, one people and one language? The idea is neither preposterous nor impracticable; nor is a miracle required to do this. There are moral causes now at work—causes emanating from ourselves—sufficient, in the lapse of a few centuries, to effect this. The voice of prophecy in the oracles of truth, the mission of Christ into the world, and the nature and tendency of Christianity, intimate, we think, very clearly the truth of the idea we have advanced; and the signs of the times, with the tendencies of the age, all seem to approximate to and confirm the same end. All things are tending to the fulfilment of that promise which gives the kingdoms of this world to the Son of God, and to which the Redeemer evidently alludes in that sublime prayer of his, the night of his betrayal, when he prays for the unity and oneness of all his believers and followers. His kingdom shall embrace the ends of the earth, and shall be one kingdom; his people one—one in faith, one in heart, one in min, one in purpose; and why not one in language also? Then shall Emmanuel’s law (the perfect law of liberty) control, Emmanuel’s spirit transform, and Emmanuel’s love unite and bend all hearts and souls in one.
You see your position then, young gentlemen, as a part of the youth of our country, your calling; and how to meet the work and destiny before you, is the first question. No ordinary qualifications are demanded. The first thing requisite is knowledge, and that of the clearest and fullest kind, not alone of books and science and literature: this is all desirable and proper in its place; but its place is but secondary. It is a knowledge of things themselves as they are, a knowledge of the signs and tendencies of the times, a profound and accurate knowledge of the character and wants of the age. And all this requires time, long and laborious study, close, honest and independent investigation—an investigation carried on irrespective of the fear, or favor, or dogmas of men. Bear this truth always in mind, that you are first responsible to God—next to your country—then to yourselves and your neighbor. And the first is to be your guide and rule in determining all the others.
​But above all things, guard against a superficiality of knowledge in any and in all things. There is much said and written about the “diffusion of knowledge;” but there is reason, I fear, to apprehend that it is the diffusion of superficial knowledge, or of that kind which does not meet the wants of the age. The stream of knowledge is extending and spreading; but its depth may be in many places inversely to its width. Incomprehensible nonsense, like that embraced in German transcendentalism, which many in our country profess to admire, and which they desire to engraft upon our literature, morals and religion, is taken for sublimity and profundity of knowledge—just as a muddy and very shallow pool is often mistaken for one of great depth.
The second and last requisite qualification necessary and indispensable are the principles of the Christian religion, as taught in the Gospel of the Son of God. Without these principles to guide you and govern you, you cannot do the work which, in the providence of God, you are called upon to perform. Liberty only is safe under the shield of Christianity; the former is the child of the latter; and child and parent mutually sustain and preserve each other. Without Christianity, liberty soon becomes disorder and licentiousness; the check and corrective of which is despotic and absolute power. Man can only govern himself, individually and collectively, as long as he is governed by the Christian religion. And Christianity without liberty is, of all forms of despotism, the most despotic on the part of those who rule; and of all forms of slavery, the most abject and degrading on the part of those who are ruled.
The first essential for the preservation and extension of liberty is universal and increasing intelligence, in perfect freedom of mind and conscience. But the most essential requisite for the preservation of these is the universal diffusion of virtue. And the only safety of virtue is in the diffusion of the principles and the spirit of the Gospel of the Son of God.
And now, in conclusion, young gentlemen, in taking my leave of you, which I do with sentiments and feelings of the most ardent kind for your honor and welfare, let me remind you that you live not for yourselves alone, but for your country and humanity; that you belong to your God, to your country, and to the age in which you live; that for these, all these, you must live, and act, and die. And that as you live and act to and for these, will eb the measure of honor or dishonor, glory or infamy, which, in the end, these will bestow upon you. Great, indeed, will be the reward that awaits you, if you are found faithful and true in your day and in your generation. But oh, a heavier curse and a deeper infamy than ever were hurled upon the heads and characters of any, by divine justice, will rest upon your names and memories forever, if to your station you are false, and if to your responsibilities you prove faithless.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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