8 RADICALISM AND THE NATIONAL CRISIS. Coming nearer to our own times, who, let me ask, were the Dissenters and Puritans in England? Who fled from the old world, and came to this, for the purpose of enjoying their religious rights? Who are the men that floated in the May Flower, and in the depths of Winter landed at Plymouth Rock? Who planted the Church, the School-house, and the State on these Western shores? The same men, as to their spirit and temper, that in the armies of Oliver Cromwell sung psalms, and made prayers, and then fought for God and liberty as no other men ever did. They were radicalists, hated by the English aristocracy, persecuted for their faith, yet fulfilling a mission in the history of the world, which one must be blind not to see. Their power consisted in the thoroughness and depth of their principles. They belong to the class whom kings and politicians sometimes disdain, and as often fear. They are the men who have a gospel ; and they believe it. Their brains are not too narrow to comprehend fundamental principles. Who stirred up all New England, some century ago, purifying its theological atmosphere, and showing the unscriptural character of what has been styled the “ Half-Way Covenant” in respect to the question of church-membership, reasoning with the people of his special charge, and reasoning with the ministry, and choosing to forfeit the good esteem of his people rather than sacrifice the truth? The man who faced opposition, and under God accomplished this task, is Jonathan Edwards,—that illustrious prince in theology, that profoundest of thinkers, as well as that most beautiful exhibition of the Christian virtues; and he did the work by laying the axe at the root of the tree. Who, by deep and earnest discussion, struck such heavy blows against the Unitarian heresy, so prevalent and so popular in New England, some half a century ago? .Moses Stuart and the venerable Dr. Woods,—both of whom, I trust, are now reaping the heavenly reward of their labors,—buckled on the armor of God, and contended earnestly for the faith. They, too, laid the axe at the root of the tree. You thus see, without farther recital, that the radical spirit in science, in the reformatory movements of earth, and the religious
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