SERMON PREACHED AT THE INSTALL

Excerpt from A Sermon Preached at the Installation of Adams Ayer, as Associate Pastor of the Unitarian Society in Charlestown, N. H., June 7, 1855There are some truths so plain, and so readily assented to, that they are little better than falsehoods in respect to their prao tical in¿uence. To get them honestly doubted is perhaps the [first step to getting them efficiently believed. Among these is the im portance of religion to a nation; a truth which secures with about equal readiness our assent and our indifference. To hear it dis pated might excite our indignation and sorrow; to hear it affirm ed moves only our thoughtless acquiescence. When in the reign of terror, the French nation, so far as their act could do it, de posed God, and abolished public' worship, and religious days and usages, the pious instincts of the world were Shocked at the mon strous idea of a nation without a church, a people without faith. It was perhaps a happy thing for Christendom, that one nation should substitute antipathy to religion for indifference to it, and convert into visible opposition and practical atheism, what is commonly only latent and unconscious distaste for piety. It alarmed other nations into self-examination, and animated the theological studies and religious activity of the Protestant world. It is fortunate that from time to time, other providential circum stances draw attention to national religion, and awaken our minds to the importance of understanding the religious life of whole peo ples. Until the recent war with Russia, the English nation wereinterested in nothing so much as in studying the question of their on relations as a people to Christianity, and to Christian insti tutions. The attempt of Rome to re-establish the Catholic hie ratchy in England, had aroused the nation, not merely in opposi tion to popish assumptions, but to an anxious consideration of the condition of the Established Church, and of the Whole religious attitude of the country. Ought we not to be incited by such exam ples, to inquire into the condition of the American Church - to consider the prospects of religion in our own land? It may seem a very broad subject to treat in a sermon of moderate length, but there are a few salient points in it, to which we will confine our present attention.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.