Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1843-09-07
A Discourse,
Delivered ~ The FIRST Church IN Ror-
bury, (.Nass. on FAST DAY, aprH 6,
l843, by Rev. George Putnam.

I843, by Rev. George Putnam.
Shall not ns hive done unto sau,arin and her Idols
So dOtu Jerusalem aud her idols ,-IsuAn 4 IL.
These are words of warning. The
application 10 be made of them is obvious
They related to II proud and Sc lEcon!i-
dent nation, people who, Regarding
themselves as IN some sense the chosen
people o: God, their city us the religious
centre of The world, with II temple IN
which they said all men ought 10 worship,
IA favored people, highly privileged and
exalted, imagined that on this accoun,
their national existence and welfare
would be shi-.drd for ever by pcculiar
Providence, irrespective of national char
acter. But they were wolully mistaken
The moral law of God makes no excep-
tions. They sinned, and their sins were
visited vigorously upon them as upon
others They fell, as they had been
warned, into captivity and'ruiD, like other
nations that had in like manner corrupted
their ways.
Our own country needs the same warn
ing and would that we might give bet
ter heed to il than they did whom the
prophet had IN his mind
Our Fast day is not II Sabbath Ii
derives It's appointment from the civil
authorities. We come up hthrr to-day
as citizens Of the State, in obedience TO
the call Of the magistrate. 1t seems,
therefore, as much in arcordance with
propriety as with usage, that the obser-
vance should be as peculiar as the occa-
sion (; that, emitting the usual Sabbath
day topics, We should consider, IN some
Of their more moral aspects, our public
condition and civil relations, not as Ia
the details of the political expedipnts and
measures of the day, but those primo pies
which undcrie them all, aud the tenden-
'cies that direct them, m,-n"i party politics,
but the elements of our social system. -
And inasnuch as this is proiessedly not
a day for congraulation and rejoicing,
but n day of humiliation, ii is not fit
time to take nntiering views, or prophesy
smooth lhings but To look upnn Tie
darker side, the side of error aud dan
ger, and see wherein we should take
shame or take warning, for evils com
mitled, or evils TO be apprehended. IL
we meet here for,any one definite object
more ihanHanoiher, il is to contemplate
and mourn For our public sins, mistakes, !,
calanities, and dangers, and to he hum
bic before God on account of them.
Our text leads us To this remark name
Iy that our nation is liable 10 the same
errors and sins which have IN all ages
brought distress or rum on other nations,
and that, greatly favored as we are in
some respects, il we do as other nations
have done, we shall suffer as they have
suffered. Jerusalem and her idols must
fare as SamarIa and her idols
Our people think otherwise. They
seem to imagine that our free institutions,
universal suffrage, aud the establishment
of what are called popular rights, are an
absolute pledge and infalllble means Of
national welfare as If, by avoiding priv
ilcgcd orders and Inonarchlcal power, we
had turned out of The only path to ruin,
and must needs he safe. This is great
deluslon, and it is high time to awake
from it, We natter ourselves that we
are free indeed, and absolutely, and al
ways mus, be, If we keep on as we are
going oD,-trce, ~ a sense IN which peO-
pie, under different forms OF government,
never were, nor can be. No such thing;
we have n sovereign, and one that threat .
Ems to become, II he he not yet, ms abso-
ute, rs arbitrary, as Uncontrolled, and
rs caprlcIous too, as ever sat upon a
hrone. That sovereign Is the ma alorlty,
\ dominant party. Out oi seventeen
the nine millions constitute the
sovereign, and the eight are subjects
We are never under any rule hut that Of
party,-0 pGfy,-a sovereign always
endcred vIndIctve and oppressive by
he bitter struggle through which alone
he ever gets into power. The sovereign
majority. And this mighty sovereign is
SUBJECT To dangerous tendencies and mis-
cadIng influences, similar 10 those which
rave made indiv vdual monarchs unscru-
Dulous and iyrannical As, for Instance,
the one thing that perhaps more than
any other has perverted aud made insup-
portable the absolute monarchleS oI, the
Did World, the system Of cOuriier- ship,
- that ~, a few persons, Of little princi-
pie and great address, bcsrrIng the
sovereign, and, by inslnuaiing batteries,
and professions of unbouudcd devotion To
ls person aud service, securing the
Ionors aud emoluments ~ his gut, and
he fatal powers that accrue te court Ia
'orIies. They get their places by Hat
cry, and use them for their own aggran-
llzemeni, and IN disregard Of the sub
ect's welfare. n
And now Is not our sovereign monarch I
'eset Just so As general rule, those
Who aspire To favor with our king, Ma
oriiy, pursue the same course they lawn
Ipon him, hatier him, assure him OF his
wisdom, and universal and |.
Siunishng intelligence, his incorrup,i-
le virtue, of his perfectly cool and pas
onless judgment ; above all, (and this
always the most agreeable incense TO
Ie ear oi monarchs,) they tell him OF the
ghllu extent OF his prerogaiivc, how he
nght TO rule with absolute sway, how !
ertaIn checks TO his power ought 10 be
,uoved aud shall be, and nothing stand I
ptween hm and the exercise OF his d. !
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