Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-04-17
Fast Day sermon Delivered by
81 Rev. H.F. Austin.

All uHlOn oSi flCCf pclS lCl0 db euC lap
fist. church, Center street, on Friday,
being the day of annual State Fast, the
congregations of the Baptist, Congre-
gational and Methodist churches uniting
for that purpose. The sermon was
preached by the Rev. Fl. F. Austin,
pastor of the Methodist church, an alb
stract of which is herewith given.
The text is from Proverbs xiv-3 4:
Righteousness exalteth nation, but
sin is reproach to any people.
To fear God and keep his command
ments constitutes righteousness or recti-
tute of heart and rectitude of life. In
this moral and practical rectitude lieth
mans greatest good and highest honor.
For thus saith the Lord 'Them that
honor me l will honor. -e
This principle of divine reciprocity
and compensation holds true both in its
Individual and in its universal applica-
tion-both in private life and public
legislation. The subject of the discourse
is: s'The exaltation and reproach of our
nation"
The text contains two antithetical
propositions, the one Numerically op-
posed to the other, but both in harmony
with the divine law of reciprocity and
final and full compensation.
Righteousness includes more than vir-
tue or the practice of honest and honor
able intercourse between man and man,
or between nation and nation in friendly
business relations, in diplomacy and
| commerce. 1t means rectitude of heart
and rectitude of life-a right state of
the heart, a correct theory and correct
practice. This law does not conform it.
self to mans practices and opinions, but
| those practices and opinions must con-
form to that law.
A nation is community of private
individuals bound together in public
matters by common interests under CON-
mon laws Whatever tends to exalt or
reproach nation tends to exalt or re-
! proach the individuals composing that
nation and vice versa. The character
and prosperity of a nation depends upon
the aggregate preponderating character
and prosperity of the individual citizens
composing and governing that nation.
In our nation every citizen is a law
maker, and either observes or violates
the laws of his own making, either per-
sOnally or by his delegated servants,
whom he elects to represent him in pub
lie and national affairs. Hence it is a
just conclusion that every public SER
want is in character and conduct a just
exponent of the moral character and
! conduct of his constituents
The righteousness that eXalts or the
sin that reproaches our nation is to be
found in the conformity or non-conform-
! ity of the character and conduct of its
individual citizens in their private and
public capacities. In a nation like ours,
its righteousness or sin in public legisla-
ton and public ministration of laws, has
its support in public sentiment.
! Public sentiment is but the manifest
! righteousness or sin of private individ-
uals. If we appeal to the records of the
! past, their testimony invariably confirms
| the two antithetical affirmations of the
/ text History is the great teacher of
nations. By it they are warned to shun
the sands where ships of state have
hopelessly stranded, and gradually rotted
to utter decay to avoid the rocks where
on they have suddenly split, and gone
down amid the waves of popular fury,
or been broken by the just judgments
| of an offended God. By it they are most
clearly taught that the path of safety
and of progress in all things pertaining
| to the true greatness and permanence of
national character and power, is in per
feet harmony with the Divine law epit-
omized in the text.
/ If we summon from the past, and file
in order before us the long line of ma
tions of every age, and of antique names,
that once peopled the earth with wealthy
and populous cities, whose commerce
was the envy, and whose armies the
fear of rival kings and empires, their
! written testimony seems but the recorded
| application of divine truth, their history
/ but the fulfillment of divine prophesy.
With one voice these nations cry out,
Righteousness exalteth a nation, but
sin is reproach to any people"
AS nation, we have the reproach of
1 sin. Sin is our shame, our nations curse.
1t threatens, and may prove our nations
ruin. 1t has been said, eternal vigilance
is the price of liberty. Said Webster,
"A nation may lose its independence
fifty years before it wakes to the danger
of the fall" Sin in our nation is so great
and growing, so rank and ruinous, as to
be more than source of anxiety to all
| good people. 1t should be an occasion
of alarm to all lovers of virtue, of law,
and of liberty. AS people, we trans
gress the law of righteousness in many
and grievous ways.
The Church of Christ is not entirely
free from participation, and hence the
guilt of sin, or our nations reproach.
Covetousness is sin that finds shelter
and support in the Christian Church
Mammon, in too many instances, rules
the Church. There is no one thing that
saps the foundations of faith and expert
ence SO soon and SO surely as covetous-
ness; at its touch, the fairest plants of
grace lose their sweetness, and life and
life, and the fountain of Christian feel
ing and beneyolence are quenched and
dried in the soul. The Church of Christ,
once poor in this worlds goods, has
grown rich. Its riches are increasing.
There is great danger that the heart of
the Church will be set on riches, instead
of on Christ. The benevolent institu-
tions of the Church are impoverished and
dwarfed in their plans and powers to do
good. The Macedonian cry for help, plain
lively, but long and loud, rings out over sea
and land from other shores, but the Chris
tan Church gives but faint response, so