CHAPTER XVII.

THE INDEPENDENCE BELL.

In the afternoon of Sunday, April 27, 1851, I had a large audience on the Plaza, to whom I said: "My text is recorded on the old Independence Bell, in the State House in Philadelphia, and reads as follows: 'Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, to all the inhabitants thereof. Lev. xxv, 10. By order of the As sembly of the Province of Pennsylvania, for the State House in Philadelphia. Pass & Stow. Philadelphia, A. D. 1753.' Young America, just beginning to scribble, thus wrote his name on that old bell, twentythree years before the tocsin of war called him forth to try his manly muscles in mortal combat with a giant foe.

"On the evening of the great atonement of the Jews, the Jubilee year, that proclamation, sounding from every hill-top in Palestine, and echoing through every vale from Dan to Beersheba, thrilled with gladness the hearts of millions of Abraham's sons and daughters. It was under the inspiration of the Bible doctrine contained

in this text, that John Hancock and his compatriots were enabled, with steady hand, and a determination of purpose stronger than death, to sign that immortal document, the Declaration of Independence.' This was the theme that clothed our fathers with that unconquerable courage and zeal, which carried them through a seven years' struggle on fields of carnage and blood, till throughout the united colonies, from Maine to South Carolina, the jubilee trump sounded.

Lord is upon me, be

Behold, to-day, the results of an appropriate, practical application of Bible truth, even politically and civilly considered! But the institution of the Jubilee typifies a spiritual Jubilee, which, in its provisions and results, transcends all earthly good and earthly glory, as much as the duration and developments of eternity transcend the duration and developments of time. Our divine Joshua proclaims The Spirit of the cause he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind: to set at liberty them that are bruised. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.' And he hath sent forth his heralds, charging them to 'Go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.' This is the character in which I appear before you to-day.

CHAPTER XVIII.

KING DAVID'S FOOL.

My Plaza text for Sunday, March 2, 1851, was: "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." Some of my remarks on that occasion ran as follows:

"Here is a watch my father gave me when I was a boy,” holding it in my hand. "He bought it from an old bachelor by the name of Walkup, who, of course, recommended it to be a first-rate watch. I am not acquainted with its early history, but if I were to tell you that this watch had no maker, that some happy chance formed the different parts of its ingenious machinery, and that another chance put them together with the very useful design of a time-piece, you would call me a fool. It is said that Sir Isaac Newton had a friend who professed to be an atheist. Sir Isaac, anticipating a visit from his friend, placed a beautiful new globe where he knew it would arrest the attention of his visitor. When the atheist saw it, he exclaimed with admiration, 'Sir Isaac, who made this beautiful globe? O, it was not made at all,

sir!' answered the great philosopher, with a significant glance at the confused eye of his friend. The argument was unanswerable. And if we cannot believe that a mere globe of wood, with certain lines, and colors, and figures, representing the earth's surface, could come by chance, how can we imagine that this mighty globe itself, with its continents and seas, and various laws, to say nothing of the vast universe of suns and systems which occupy the immeasurable expanse of space, could be the result of chance? To adopt such a conclusion, there is surely no such fool in this intelligent audience. But remember, David's fool was not such. He probably, like some fools encountered by Jesus, in the days of his incarnation, 'drew nigh to God with his lips, and honored him with his mouth,' but 'said in his heart, There is no God.' The Holy Spirit was looking at him, and heard his heart say it, and moved the royal Psalmist to pen it down, and so it stands recorded to-day.

"The Holy Spirit is looking at each one of you now, and listening to every pulsation of your moral heart, and were he now to reveal what has there passed this day, what shocking revelations he would make! It is not by the profession of the mouth, but by the conduct of men, that we are to learn the orthodoxy of their hearts. A miserable gambler said to me but a short time since, 'When I came to California I had but twenty-five cents; but I had