Year: 1859

=


S46baM morning, Fs6 20hL 1859.


"Thou settest print upon the heels of my feet"
job XIII, u.


True religion, my hearers, there can be
none without keen and abiding SENSE Of our
responsibilities. We must discover and realize
our moral obligations, or we can never meet
and discharge them. The moral law is supported
by sanctions of reward or punishment, aud so
supposes trial; and trial and sanction necessarily
involve responsibility; to live under the prac-
tical influence Of its recollection, becomes the
creature whom it affects. And what is meant
by moral responsibility what do we intend
when we use that term? 1t implies that God
will call man to account for his whole character
and conduct, and will render to every man ac
cordingy Ii intends that to every man, Time
| is state of probation, and Eternity state
OF retributon. 1t means that a judgment to
come is sure and necessary truth. This, then,
is responsibility and that man is so respons-
BILE, is fact not only writ or implied in
every page of the Bible, but speaks with living
and unseen voice in the conscience OF each indi-
vidual. Bold assertions and plausible reason
ngs, by which men sometime try to deceive
themselves and TO silence those that reprove
them cannot, however, be established in the face
of their own consciences. The doctrine OF our
responsibility lies within us, craven on our very
being BY the spirit OF God HIMSELF Every man
! feels himself to be accountable upon the testi'
mony of his own conscience. And this respon-
sibilty the Bible tells us is a personal response
| bility. We must answel zach man FOR himself.
We cannot shift upon sno her accounta-
bility to God Every man shall bear his OWL
bur, en-. Every man of the whole human fomi-
| ly will, in respect of the account he is to give
| of his character and conduct, stand as isolated
at the bar of God as if he were the only being
that had ever lived, and US if tbe awful anJ
majestic SCENERY of that great white throne
was only just set up for him.


Now, my hearers, we ali believe this. We
all know that there is Judgment in which
every one of US shall answer for the things done
in the body. But then, we are apt to forget the
extent of this responsibility. We look upon i
as mere generality. We act as if our obliga
tons under the law of God touched the mali
of life, but not the minute of life as if on
accountability was in the grand total, and no
in the smallest item and detail of every action
And so the recollection oil our responsibility il
not ever present, is not vigorously in practice
, with u.s. We seem to think ourselves some
times within its range, but only sometimes
Our thoughts aud lesser incidents i'll life are no
regarded as falling uithin its lines. We do no
e realize everywhere and at all times the convic
lion, and speak it out to our spirlt-Now hcaI
nv soul, thou dost stand, thou dost think, thor
" dost speak, thou dost act, thou dost buy, tho'
dost deal, thou dost sell, as responsible being
being who cannot oe this, cannot live this
without exertng an influence upon thine own
or another beings eternal destiny--a being wht
for this act however minute and secret il ma,
be, of the mind or of the member, who for thu
act, as man generally, and us christian mai
particularly, and under the law, the law Of re
sponsibility must certainly be called to account
The word of God is constantly reminding us O
this. Here we are told that God requircth al
that is past -" He will judge the secrets of al
hearts =" He will bring to light the hiddel
things OF darkness - and again, " He will brn
every work into Judgment and every secre
thing whether it be good or bad"


Notice, then, we are responsible for GU
thoughts and actions, Now this you know


But do you ever rem mber that your response
biliy extends quite with the same universalit
TO every word Of your lips, or as am about t.
show, to every stepping of your feet? Do yo
rem m2mber that there is moral history in ever
word you say on The light air around YOU
moral History you do not realize perhaps, an
the world has scarce ever read, but for all tina
a moral history bearing upon it the nature aa
result of your account at the day of judgment
history which will be r all for you, or rea
against you, at that day? Do you ever remem
Der that solemn verse, " Every idle word tina
men shall speak, they shall give account thereo
in the day of Judgment?' Did you ever, b.for
. my text, dwell on the thought 1t vigorously cx
presses, that every step you ever took, in you
track through life, left behind you the "print o
} your heel 1.-THE print which God has oTdaine
it shall eave--leaye that these points may b
told out and their history read in the day G
final account? We all kuow that our word
have a permanent record. One philosopher
Horne Tooke, has said, "that by the law Q
speech, the very law of its nature, we are alway
sereotyping the record of our remarks upon th
y" atmosphere around us. Each word excites


wave of sound there, a vibratory motion in tn
fluid which fills Infinite space. vibratory mo
ton which can never be exhausted anil neve
l. cease" Fit be so as regards words. then
y daily writing down my conversation on this un
= seentablet around me, hlling--as it were--shee
after sheet OF the Book of Judgment to
brought before me, and read aloud at that day
Then, all that will be required as regards iudg
ment upon my words. will be for the air to ech
back 10 me just what have said--to echo bac
to me the long forgotten voice and then, i
confounding reaux, we shall just hear ourselves
and it shall come TO pass in the very letter c
the Savior's warning, that out of our ow
mouths we she'll stand condemned


But the law of responsibility extends also I
our feet. AS We walk, we write the history {
our movements--write them down forever
The moonlight robber on the moist turf, or tn