"With such sacrifices God is well pleased."—Hebrews xiii. 16.
I am to speak of public spirit, as manifested in a willingness to makesacrifices for the public good.
The necessity for making sacrifices would seem to be founded in this:as we cannot have every thing, we must be willing to sacrifice somethings in order to obtain or secure others. Wicked men recognize andact upon this principle. Can you not recall more than one person inyour own circle of acquaintances who is sacrificing his health, hisgood name, his domestic comfort, to vicious indulgences? Worldlypeople recognize and act upon this principle. Look at that miser: heis hoarding up his thousands and his tens of thousands, but in orderto do so, is he not sacrificing every thing which makes life worthhaving? It is a mistake to suppose that religion, or morality, or thepublic necessities, ever call upon us to make greater sacrifices thanthose which men are continually making to sin and the world, tofashion and fame, to "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, andthe pride of life."
In times of ease, and abundance, and tranquillity, the public takescare of itself. There are few sacrifices on the part of individualsfor the public good, because there are few occasions for suchsacrifices. They are not made because not called for, because notneeded. Moreover, private benevolence is apt at such times to becomeless [4]active, and, for the same reason, that is to say, because lessof it is required.
This state of things is seized upon by those who are eager to put theworst possible construction on human nature and human conduct, asevidence of extreme degeneracy. How often are we to be told that ourpresent troubles are sent upon us in order to lift the whole communityout of the mire of money-getting propensities, where every thing likepublic spirit was in danger of being swallowed up and lost? I protestagainst this wholesale abuse of what has been,—at best, a grossexaggeration. The whole truth in this matter is told in a few words.By constitution, by habit, by circumstances, our people are intenselyactive; and this activity, for want of other objects, has been turnedinto the channels of material prosperity. If, therefore, you merelyaffirm their excessive eagerness in acquisition, I grant it; but if,not content with this, you go on to charge them with being niggards inexpending what they have acquired, I deny it, emphatically, utterly.Read the history of what has been done in this commonwealth, in thiscity, during the last twenty-five years for humanity, for education,for science and the arts, for every form of public use or human need,and then say, if you can, that public spirit has been dying out. Ourpeople have never been otherwise than public spirited, and hence thepromptness and unanimity of their response to this new call to publicduty. Hence also our confidence in it,—not as an excitement merely,which a day has made, and a day may unmake, but as an expression ofcharacter.
Let us, however, be just to the excitement itself, considered as thesudden and spontaneous uprising of a whole community to sustain thegovernment. We ne