13 It is a law of human, progress, that no work or structure proceeding from human hands shall come forth complete and perfect. Improvement, at the cost of labor and of trial, and even suffering—endless improvement, at such cost, is the discipline of human nature. What, then, shall be the rule of our own conduct? Shall we grasp and hold fast to existing constitutions, with all their defects and deficiencies, and save them from needed amendment, or shall we amend and complete them, and so prevent reactions, and the need of sanguinary revolutions ? Shall we compromise the principles of justice, freedom, and humanity, by compliances with the counsels of interested cupidity or slavish fear, or shall we stand fast always in their defence ? I know no better rule of conduct than that’ of the Puritans. Indeed, I know none other that is sure, or even safe. Nor can even that great rule be followed successfully without adopting their own noble temper and spirit. They were faithful, patient, and persevering. They forgot themselves, and their own immediate interests and ambitions, and labored and suffered, that after-coming generations, among which we.belong, might be safer and freer and happier than themselves. It can never be too well understood that the generations of men, in moral and political culture, sow and plant for their successors. “Let it not be grievous to you,” said Bradford, the meek but brave and constant leader, to the small and forlorn Pilgrim commonwealth that he was landing on this rock in mid-winter—“ Let it not be grievous to you that you have been made instruments to break the ice for others. The honor shall be yours, to the world’s end.” Such was the only worldly encouragement the truthful founder of the Plymouth colony could give to his guileless comrades. Happily, the Pilgrims needed no other. It is a familiar law of nature, that. whatever grows rapidly also declines speedily. Time and trial are necessary to secure the full vigor without which no enterprise can endure. It was only by long, perilous, and painful endurance and controversy, that the Puritans acquired the discipline which, without consciousness of their own, qualified them to be the leaders of the nations. There can be neither great deeds nor great endurance without faith; and true, firm, enduring faith can only be found in generous and noble minds. The true reformer, therefore, must calculate on frequent and ever-recurring treacheries and desertions by allies, such as Milton graphically describes : “ Another sort there is, who, coming in the course of these affairs to have their share in great actions above the form of law or custom, at least to give their voice and approbation, begin to swerve and almost shiver at the majesty and grandeur of some noble deed; as if they were newly entered into a great sin. disputing precedents, forms, and circumstances, when the commonwealth nigh perishes for want of deeds in substance done .with just and faithful expedition. To these 1 wish better instruction and virtue equal to their calling.” Nor will all these qualities suffice, without discretion and gentleness, as well as firmness of temper. The courageous reformer will shrink from no controversy, when the..field is, open, the battle is set, and the lists are fair. But, on the other hand, he will .neither make nor, seek occasions for activity; and he will be always unimpassioned. Truth is not aggressive; but, like the Christian religion, is first pure, then peaceable. Nor need the reformer fear that occasions for duty will be wanting. Error and injustice never fail to provoke contest;/because, if unalarmed, they are overbearing and insolent; if alarmed, they are rash, passionate, and reckless. The question occurs, Whence shall come the faith, .the energy, the patient perseverance, and the moderation, which,are so indispensable? I answer, that all these will be derived from just conceptions of the great objects of political action. It was.so with the Puritans. Their fixed purpose to retain the, rigfy of conscience, fully, copjpreh^ by them, extinguished selfishness and ambition, and called into activity in their places the fear of God.and the love of man. Let them, explain themselves : “knowing, therefore, how horrible a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God, by doing that which our consciences (grounded upon the truths of God’s Word and the example and doctrine of ancient fathers) do telT us were evil done, and m -the great discrediting of the truth whereof we profess to be teachers, we have thought good to yield
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