The Lancaster gazette. (Lancaster, Ohio) 1846-1852, 1851-04-03
A Ha,Irosd sermon

February, the Rev. DIR. Aiken Of the
First Presbyterian Church of that city
preached a sermon upon the "Moral
Of Railroads." Arthis particular
lime, it will prove interesting 10 our read
ers and we avail ourselves of an abstract
which we find in the Cincinnati Gazette.
DR.. Aiken is a learned divine, posses.
sing a vigorous and comprehensive mind
and his sermons are always characterized
by common sense" practical applica'
ton. appropriateness to the occasion. and
pertinency Of expression and illustration.
This "Railroad Sermon" we have heard
highly commended by those who heard
it, aud having read a printed copy of it
we can the better express Our gratiica.
ton in its p%erusal, by furnishing ourread-
ers with the leading ideas. His text
was:
"THe chariois shall rage in the streets;
they shall jOstle one against another m The.
road nays; they shall seem like torches;
they shall run like Tie Hghtnmgs."-
NAHAM ia.
On reading this verse. he said, one
might suppose that the prophet lived in
the days Of Railroads and Locomotives
but il was no so. His chari0ts of light
ming were chariuts of war, armed and
sent forth by the King of Babylon to eff
feet the conquest and ruin OF the city Of
Nineveh. From this passage, he should
take occasion to speak of the develope
ment and progress Of a power, which
was destined to introduce into our world
a new order of things In a moral and
religious point of view, no said, as we'll
as social and commercial. there is m
thing interesting, solemn and grand in
the opening of a great thoroughfare.
! There is sublimity about it-indicating
not only march of mind in a higher type
Of society, but the evolution Of divine
purposes, infinite. mountaineering
social revolutions with the progress OF
Christianity and the coming of the reign
of Christ. That it was the duty ofChris.
tians, and especially Of Christian Minis.
lers, to watch the signs ofthe times-to
see God, aud lead the people to see
Him, in all the affairs Of the world. wheth,
err commercial, political or religious, in
the varied aspects in which he Is present
ed to the view in his word.
The history of roads is n of the best
commentaries upon the intellectual and
social state of society; a road is a symbol
of civilization-t the want Of it a symbol
of barbarism. "Let US travel" says the
Able Raynal. lover all the countries OF
the earth, and wherever we shall find M
facilities Of travelling from city to town,
aud from a village to a hamlet, we may
pronounce the people To he balbarous."
The road, then, is a physical index of the
condition and character OF any age or ma
ton. Viewed from this stand point, its
history may lead us to see, that we are
not so far in advance of antiquity as was
imagined. In the earliest perinds Of the
world, u (which there is any record, T0ads
were the dividing line between civiliza.
ton aud barbarism. If Thebes had ii,
hundred gates, it had also its paved and
spacious avenues, leading therefrnrn int
every part ofthe kingdom. The Jewish
commonwealth had its roads constructed
in the most durable manner; urder the
reign OF Solomon, those leading to aud
from the cities of refuge, have probably
never been excelled; while the u%ncivil
lied surrounding nations had no roads
Mark also the Roman Empire in the
days of its glory, there was the famou:
"Appian Way" built 800 years before
Christ, the remains OF which are still Wis
ible after a lapse ofuver 20 centuries. IT.
q entire length was nearly 400 miles, grad
ed to a level, paved with hewn stone il
the formof h~exagonal blocks, laid in du
rable cement. with u smooth and spaclou
surface. Besides this, there were othe
roads-the SHERMAN, Flaminian, Ostian
and Triumphal, leading from the capita
-one Of which extended 1000 mile
from Antioch to Scotland, and at on,
place tunneling a mountain nf rock, on
, mile and half, at another, stretching o
YER r%avines and rivers by bridges, an,
aqueducts. interrupted only by tho Eng
lish channel aud the Hellespout, Tn,
Romans, too, made good time" cousid
= ering that the Roman horse was ueithe
fire or steam, for history records that'on
, Cesarius went post from Antioch to Cou
, s%taniinople, 665 miles in less than 81
i, days"
> But consider the old Saxons. Look q
the Feudal age, when each communit
had its Baron and Castle-when the pet
pie dwelt in walled cities-when Their
were no roads, no wheeled vehicles
when the mode Of travel was on foot q
horseback, through fields and streams all
forests. Then it was that the arts, scienc
. and religion were at a dead stand-lhe
there were no ducts for commerce.
S life. no motion, Ia a country where Their
. are no roads, all things are stagnant-
S there is uo religion except a dead forma
o ity, no learning except the scholastic an
Improbable. A road is a sign of motto
o aud progress-a sign that the people al
living and not dead. Where there is il
$ ~tercourse, social or commercial, there
e activity-new ideas aud hopes-advanc
b ment. All creative action, whether
government, industry, thought, or rel
gion, creates roads and roads create actiuI
d A person accustomed to trace effects