I.
A DISCOURSE OF THE TRANSIENT AND PERMANENT IN CHRISTIANITY.—PREACHED AT THE ORDINATION OF MR. CHARLES C. SHACKFORD, IN THE HAWES PLACE CHURCH, IN BOSTON, MAY 19, 1841.
“Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.”—Luke xii. 83.
In this sentence we have a very clear indication that
Jesus of Nazareth believed the religion he taught would
be eternal, that the substance of it would last for ever.
Yet there are some who are affrighted by the faintest rustle
which a heretic makes among the dry leaves of theology;
they tremble lest Christianity itself should perish without
hope. Ever and anon the cry is raised, “The Philistines
be upon us, and Christianity is in danger.” The least
doubt respecting the popular theology, or the existing
machinery of the church; the least sign of distrust in the
religion of the pulpit, or the religion of the street, is by
some good men supposed to be at enmity with faith in
Christ, and capable of shaking Christianity itself. On the
other hand, a few bad men, and a few pious men, it is said,
on both sides of the water, tell us the day of Christianity
is past. The latter—it is alleged—would persuade us that,
hereafter, Piety must take a new form; the teachings of
Jesus are to be passed by; that Religion is to wing her way
sublime, above the flight of Christianity, far away, toward
heaven, as the fledged eaglet leaves of ever the nest which
sheltered his callow youth. Let us, therefore, devote a few
moments to this subject, and consider what is transient in
Christianity, and what is permanent therein. The topic
