Compulsory government education is, by our own choice and
determination, impossible. The more solemn is the duty laid on us,
on laity and clergy alike, to supply that want by voluntary
education. The clergy will do their duty, each in his own way. Let
the laity do theirs likewise, in fear and trembling, as men who have
voluntarily and deliberately undertaken to educate the lower classes;
and who must do it, or bear the shame for ever. For in the last day,
when we shall all appear before Him whose ways are not as our ways,
or his thoughts as our thoughts--in that day, the question will not
be, whether the compulsory system, or the denominational system, or
any other system, satisfied best our sectarian ways and our narrow
thoughts: but whether they satisfied the ways of that Father in
heaven who willeth not that one little child should perish.
SERMON XXIII.--THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST
LUKE xix. 41.
And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it.
Let us think awhile what was meant by our Lord's weeping over
Jerusalem. We ought to learn thereby somewhat more of our Lord's
character, and of our Lord's government.
Why did he weep over that city whose people would, in a few days,
mock him, scourge him, crucify him, and so fill up the measure of
their own iniquity? Had Jesus been like too many, who since his time
have fancied themselves saints and prophets, would he not have rather
cursed the city than wept over it with tenderness, regret, sorrow,
most human and most divine, for that horrible destruction which
before forty years were past would sweep it off the face of the
earth, and leave not one stone of those glorious buildings on
another?
The only answer is--that, in spite of all its sins, he loved
Jerusalem.
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