The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-05-20
A Plea for Human Nature.
SERMON by REV. DR.. BELLOWS.

If Divine Providence were of our pusil-
Luminous judgment, or afraid of all excess
and confusion, as we are; if God loved
only the neutral tints or dull colors of the
Quaker; if He hated vanity and gorgeous
beauty, and superfuity and clash and con-
dict, and were as exclusively absorbed ia
what are falsely deemed the only real in
terests Of soclety-those represented by
criminal and police laws---as sombre Call
vinists, or sentimental quietists have been,
the world would wear a very different as
pect from what He has chosen to give it.
Prairies dyed in crimson and gold, in purple
and emerald, would not haunt their royal
robes in sun and breeze; birds brilliant
as gems would not weave their rainbows
in the air; skies would not coruscate with
countless stars, no blush with glowing
sunsets; the morning would dress itself 10
sober russell, or dim mist /; the rose would
hide Its DEVELOPS and withhold its per-
fume, while beauty and riotous abundance
would forsake forest and field-now burst
Ing with joyous life and plenty and splen-
dor-nature would grow proper and
demure, and wear the livery of nun.
Where, then, were the lightning's fearful
fash, the thunders growl, the sheeted rain,
Niagara's roar, the belching Etna, or the
earthquakes ominous tread where oceans
mountain waves, or the northern pillows of
snow? And take away these mighty
manifestations of power and awful gran
deur from nature, and what a stupid, un-
impassioned, tame aud loveless thing
nature would bel Would not youths
enthusiasm, the poets inspiration, the
whole imagination Of the world die in this
insane and monotonous calm?
And If Divine Providence had not
greater use for human passion, and the
impulsive aud perilous constituents in our
nature, than we ordinarily dream; if God
We're as much discouraged by the emua-
lions and conflicts and outbreaks of human
nature as we are, He would do what proph-
cts and priests have always in His name
been interchangeable out the race and
begin over again. But He is never dis
couraged, and never joins the party of de-
spair. Men put their own doubts and fears
in His mouth. They abuse in His name
the nature He made; the world He gov
ems the passions He wrought in His &C.
iestial fires the compound, fercer
than gunpowder, He brewed in His
volcanic laboratory, when HumaBi-
ty was fashioned. But He sends new
regiments of His offspring with every
fresh day into the field of life. Thirty
thousand human infants every circuit OF
the sun open the womb to exercise the
wondrous nature God has given to human
ity, and to contribute the vitalizing power
OF their instincts, reasons, affections, pas
sions, conscience, to the stock of human
life. Would the Divine goodness, wisdom
and omnipitence thus for countless genera
tions renew and pepetuate cursed, de-
PRAYED, hated and q ruined race? Would
not God in mercy, suffer it to die out? If
1t repented Him that He had made man
in the earth, was there no other escape
than to suffer countless millions of these
abortive beings to swarm in new
generations, and cover the earth
with their crimes and their shame f?
Believe, who can, 10 God who creates,
endows and propagates moral beings capa-
bic of reason and conscience, and yet
chiefly wretched failures, plotters against
His will, defeaters of His providence
Believe, who can, In that history of our
race that begins in shame and ends in ruin ?
Believe, who can, in an Infinite God ours
ing His children fer inheriting faults and
sins, and sending into permanent misery