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"During the war, before Abraham Lincoln was fully converted to the anti-slavery movement, President Finney wrote three letters to, him. 'On bended knees,' said he, 'I wrote one, and then I prayed God so earnestly all the while that it might move him. But no answer came. I could not be at peace. I wrote again and waited. This time there came a little note, giving no thanks nor promises, only asking a question. I answered it, and knew that God had prevailed.' It was not long after that that the Proclamation of Emancipation was made."
Oberliniana A Jubilee Volume of Semi-Historical Anecdotes connected with the past and present of Oberlin College. 1833-1883. Page 76.
Two Positive Influences at the end of the Enlightenment,
Who typified the American Spirit of Progress: Charles Finney and Asa Mahan.
The Works of
CHARLES GRANDISON FINNEY 1792-1875.
(Second President of Historic Oberlin College)
How Finney was influential in bringing Reformation to America. His History, Actions, and Spirit.
His Religion Behind this Reformation:
The Method he found that Worked.
His Philosophy Behind this Reformation:
BASIS OF MORAL AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT:
Nature of Moral Law |
Definition of Government and implications
Man Subject of Moral Obligation |
Nature and Extent of Moral Obligation
False Theories of Obligation (false grounds) that have Serious Effects on Society:
Abstract 'Right' Not the Foundation
Moral Excellence of God Not the Foundation
Moral Order, Nature and Relations of Beings, Duty; Complexity Not the Foundations
(Additional) Complexity Not the Foundation
Absurdity of these Theories |
Summing up
Practical Bearings of these and Utilitarian Theories
Practical Bearings of Rightarianism; and TRUE FOUNDATION
Nature of Obedience to Moral Law |
What sense Partial |
Knowledge an Essential Condition
Attributes of Virtue: Voluntariness . . Liberty . . Intelligence . . Virtuousness . . Disinterestedness . . Impartiality . . Universality |
Efficiency . . Penitence . . Faith . . Complacency |
Opposition to Sin . . Compassion | Mercy . . Justice . . Veracity |
Patience . . Meekness . . Long-suffering . . Humility |
Self-denial . . Condescension . . Candour . . Stability . . Kindness . . Severity |
Holiness, or Purity . . Modesty . . Sobriety . . Sincerity . . Zeal . . Unity . . Simplicity |
Gratitude . . Wisdom . . Grace . . Economy
Nature of Disobedience to Moral Law |
Nature of Disobedience to Moral Law 2
Attributes of Selfishness: Voluntariness . . Liberty . . Intelligence . . Unreasonableness . . Interestedness . . Partiality . . Impenitence . . Unbelief |
Efficiency . . Opposition to benevolence or to virtue . . Cruelty . . Injustice |
Oppression . . Hostility . . Unmercifulness . . Falsehood, or lying . . Pride |
Enmity . . Madness . . Impatience . . Intemperance . . Moral recklessness . . Unity |
Egotism . . Simplicity . . Total Depravity
Obedience Essential Condition of Salvation
Sanctions of the Law
Atonement:
Nature, Fact, and Design |
Extent of Atonement
Human Governments:
Basis, Nature, and Extent | Forms, Revolutions, and Punishments
[Finney risked his reputation and life while attempting to enlighten his generation about this secret society that he believed had at least partly controlled government and had corrupted the church. He had once been a member.
"The question now has taken this form; shall we individually and personally aid in making men slaves?"
"This whole subject presents some curious questions pertaining to political action, the pulpit, and the duty of Christian men. Before and during the American revolution, there was much more political discussion in the pulpit than there is now, or perhaps than there has ever been elsewhere. Indeed the great questions of the revolution were all discussed in the pulpit and with signal ability. As some writer has said, "The pulpit thundered and lightened on the subject of liberty." The consequence was the true ideas of liberty were understood, and came to have a living development in the public mind. The tallest statesmen of the land heard the gospel of liberty proclaimed from the sacred desk. Who needs be told that ministers then met their responsibilities to the state and to the public weal, fearlessly and boldly? Who does not know that all these questions were then blended with prayer, and civil liberty was hailed as a boon from heaven?
"But ministers in our day have become afraid to stand forth and speak as honest, fearless men on this subject, and political men have become fearful and sensitive lest the pulpit should utter its voice for freedom. But why this sensitiveness of politicians? And why this timidity in the heralds of the gospel? Have not all Christian men political duties to perform? Ought they not to search out these duties, and settle in the fear of God all the great questions they involve, and then meet their political responsibilities in the fear of God and for the welfare of the nation?" Charles Finney. Guilt Modified by Ignorance. 1852.
These comments, and those that follow about national sins, do not come from some ignorant preacher but from one who very well could have ended up as President of the United States:
"In 1818, Mr. Finney settled down to the study of law at Adams, a lively little town near his paternal home. He read law diligently, became the law clerk of Judge Benjamin Wright, the most prominent lawyer and politician in that region, was admitted to practice, at the age of twenty-eight, and at once became active in the profession. . . .
The historian of Jefferson County, New York, speaking of the conversion of Mr. Finney, says:
'He had previously been a law student under Judge Benjamin Wright and evinced an ability and sagacity that would doubtless have made him eminent in that profession.' [Houghes’ History of Jefferson County, N. Y. 1854, p. 76.]
One of the younger set, who were devoted admirers and followers of Mr. Finney, said:
'When he abandoned the profession and decided to study for the ministry, we all felt that he had made an awful mistake. That if he had continued in the practice he was destined, in a very short time, to attain the highest position at the bar and in politics.' [Horatio N. Davis, father of Senator Cushman K. Davis.]
He was peculiarly fitted to succeed in the practice of law at a time when text-books were almost unknown, when the published reports could all be placed upon a single shelf;* and when success depended upon close, logical reasoning from general principles. He, himself, has recorded that he loved his profession and that the stumbling block in the way of his earlier conversion, was the feeling that if he submitted, he would have to give up his practice and go into the ministry. Every judge and lawyer who heard Mr. Finney preach felt that a great lawyer was lost to the bar of New York, when Charles G. Finney united with the church at Adams." Memorial Address Delivered at the Dedication of The Finney Memorial Chapel. Oberlin, June 21, 1908. By William Cox Cochran (his oldest grandson). pp. 32, 36, 37.
* The text-books were Coke upon Littleton, Blackstone’s Commentaries, Fearne on Remainders, Sugden’s Law of Vendors, Sugden on Powers, and local Form Books and Treatises on Practice. Chancellor Kent and Joseph Story were still on the bench and had not begun to write the Commentaries and text-books which afterwards became so prominent in the education of lawyers and the opinions of courts. English reports were very expensive and, as a rule, inaccessible to the country lawyers. The New York reports then consisted of Coleman & Caines’ Cases, 1 vol.; Caines’ Cases, 2 vols.; Caines’ Reports, 3 vols.; Johnson’s Cases, 3 vols.; Johnson’s Chancery Reports, 4 vols., and Johnson’s Reports, 18 vols. Besides these a well stocked law library would contain the reports of Cnnecticut, 9 vols.; Massachusets, 8 vols.; Vermont, 4 vols.; and the U. S. Supreme Court Reports, 18 vols.
The Works of
ASA MAHAN 1799-1889.
"Asa Mahan was not a one-dimensional man. Although nineteenth-century America produced many talented people, each genuinely significant in his own specific line--Charles G. Finney as preacher, Mark Hopkins as teacher, James McCosh as scholar, Charles William Eliot as college president, Theodore Weld as abolitionist, Lucy Stone as champion of co-education--Mahan, incredible as it seems, was outstanding in all of these roles. He preached widely in America and the United Kingdom as advocate of New Light theology; and as professor of mental and moral philosophy he taught and wrote effectively at Oberlin and Adrian colleges. As the first president of each school, he advocated the "new education" which was eventually established at Harvard College in 1869 by Eliot. He defended the rights of women to co-education on equal terms with men and engaged in antislavery activity, including many acts of civil disobedience. His philosophical and religious ideas defined and controlled his reform activities, and the latter enriched his ever developing web of ideas." Freedom and Grace: The Life of Asa Mahan. 1982. p. ix.
Specifically:
The System of Mental Philosophy. 1882. 285 pages.
A System of Intellectual Philosophy. 1854. 476 pages. (incomplete)
The Science of Logic: 1857. 285 pages. (incomplete)
Critical History of Philosophy in Two Volumes. 1883. 1000 pages in 2 volumes.
The Phenomena of Spiritism: Scientifically Explained and Examined. Expositing Modern Mysteries of unusual phenomena, tricksters, etc. 1875. 421 pages. (Unedited)
Modern Mysteries Explained and Exposed: In four parts. 1855. 466 pages. (Unedited)
Many other works here.
The Social Vision of Asa Mahan.
The Church as a Universal Reform Society
An Application of this Reformation:
Mahan advised Lincoln during the Civil War, and if his advice had been followed it may have prevented the death of almost half a million people.
"After the close of the war of the rebellion, [Hon. Wendell Philips] delivered, in Adrian, a lecture, in which he laid down most true and noble principles in advance of the existing public sentiment. At the close, I went upon the platform and congratulated him upon his address, thanking him especially for the advanced principles which he had announced. His reply was in these words: 'I had rather receive such commendation from you, than from any other man in the world. We all know that you have done more for this cause than any of us.'" Autobiography. 1882.
See a new book with Finney's letters and Mahan's lectures: The Right Way to "Train up a Child."
"No parent can train up children in the way they should go, without maintaining a spirit of deep devotion to God on the one hand, and on the other hand, without paying the most rigorous and unremitted attention to their personal training—physical, intellectual, and moral."
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"Anything that will unite the Church and consolidate her efforts, and wisely direct them will correct the national morals, and nothing else can." Charles G. Finney.
[This is not to be misunderstood for modern ecumenicalism.]
"6. It is not a little surprising that, so far as I can learn, President Finney attended almost no reform conventions and delivered no lectures or addresses exclusively devoted to the promotion of moral reform. Let no one infer from this, however, that his influence was not potent in all such reforms. If all Christian ministers preached as he did, there would be but little need of special organizations for the promotion of reform. He was not a temperance or antislavery lecturer in the ordinary sense, yet the world knew him as one of the most pronounced and powerful advocates of these causes. His life illustrates the fact that a man can be a great reformer by simply preaching the Gospel. He did, of course, speak hundreds of times directly against the sins of Sabbath desecration, intemperance, and slavery, with tremendous emphasis. He said the Church was guilty in its indifference to the drink traffic--that a man's hands were red with blood who stood aloof from the temperance cause. The church that did not take sides with God and array itself against all moral evils, was not a true church. A church member who tampered and compromised with either organized or individual wrongs, after light had been thrown upon them, was not a true Christian. Every Christian is born a reformer when he is born again. To make men true reformers is simply to make them true Christians. In this way, by simply devoting his life to the winning of men to Christ and illuminating the great truths of the Gospel in their application to practical life. Mr. Finney became one of the most radical and powerful abolitionists of his time. No one of all the multitudes of his converts could go out into the world anything less than a moral reformer. It must not be inferred, however, that he did not favor special, organized efforts in the line of reform. He himself was an evangelist, called of God to do a more funnamental work than lecturing on slavery, but his heart was with all those engaged in that undertaking. He saw that mere outward reform would not avail. The abolition of slavery and of the saloon "must be brought about by promoting union among Christians and extending correct views of Christian responsibility." "Anything that will unite the Church and consolidate her efforts, and wisely direct them," he said, "will correct the national morals, and nothing else can." Mr. Finney's "Philosophy of Emancipation" explains his relations to other great reformers. He cannot be said to have stood either with the conservative or the extreme radical wing of Abolitionists, in the anti-slavery struggle. He did not occupy exactly either the position of Wm. Lloyd Garrison or of Dr. Leonard Bacon. While agreeing with Garrison that immediate emancipation was a duty,--that justice to God and man could accept nothing less, he did not sympathize with that great Abolitionist in losing heart in the reformation of the Church, as the agent of the reform. He knew that the anti-slavery principle was itself the child of Christian faith. To abandon the Church was to abandon the last hope of the world. Let the Church be reformed, he said. Let her eyes be open to the true spirit of the Gospel, as applied to human life, and she will sweep slavery out of existence. I do not mean to imply that Mr. Garrison lost faith in a true Christian Church, but according to his friend, Oliver Johnson, he held that a slave-holding church, or a church indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, could not be, in the nature of things, a church of Christ. I understand that Mr. Finney, radical as he was, took issue with Garrison on that point. He would admit the utter failure of such a church, for want of proper instruction, but still hold that it might, in other respects, have the elements of a Christian church which only needed enlightening and awakening to its duty on that subject. To say, as I do, that I believe that Mr. Finney was right in this matter, is not saying that the two men were very wide apart, or that Garrison was to be condemned for denouncing pro-slavery churches. It is only saying that Mr. Finney made a larger allowance than did Garrison for that blindness of mind which obscures the sense of ethical justice in a given direction while yet the general purpose may be to do the will of God. Both men held the same conception of what the Church ought to be. Both denounced pro-slavery churches. The one believed in pouring into pro-slavery minds the light and love of Christ, thus correcting the defective judgment and awakening the conscience in regard to the slave. The other believed that an Abolitionist should come out from such a church, and denounce it as utterly reprobate. It is indeed conceivable that had Mr. Finney made more direct antislavery and temperance addresses, and attended more political and reformatory conventions with his brethren, he might have widened his influence for good in those directions. And yet the wisdom of his course seems to be justified by its fruits. He, more than any other single man, breathed into Oberlin the spirit of radical moral reform. I have not learned that any of the multitudes that went out from under his influence here have been specially lacking in that direction. True Christian teachers of youth, always stand nearer to the sources of power than any other class of men. The country has certainly been profoundly affected by Mr. Finney and his co-laborers and pupils who caught the hot spirit of reform, not so much from his outward attitude as from the contagion of his spiritual life."
Memorial Address. On the Occation of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of President Charles G. Finney. By Rev. James Brand, D. D.
"The outrageous injustice with which this nation has treated the aborigines of this country." "The shameless wickedness of this nation, in respect to the manner in which the Indians have been duped in making treaties with them--the shocking and disgraceful manner in which these treaties have been violated by this government, is almost too bad to name." "Who can mention or think of these things, without grief and indignation? How these helpless Indians have been trampled down, and in multitudes of ways oppressed and injured, until their cry has come up into the ears of Jehovah!
" I notice the hypocrisy of this nation, in shedding British blood in defense of principles which, when applied to their own wrongs, they have always denied. As the very basis of the Revolution, they publicly declared, that "ALL MEN were born free and equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights--among which are life, LIBERTY, and the pursuit of happiness." Now, at the very time at which this declaration was made--the very men who made it--and the nation that proclaimed these truths, as an excuse for revolution and war, stood with their unsanctified feet upon the necks of the prostrate slaves! And from that day to this, this nation as such has continued, publicly and practically, when these wrongs were held up to view, to deny the principles upon which the Revolution was based; while, at the same time, she has, in view of the wrongs received from the mother country, strenuously maintained them--thus at the same time both maintaining and denying these great truths--when herself oppressed, maintaining them and fighting in defense of them--when accused of oppression, denying them, and ready to fight in support of the opposite doctrine.
"I notice the national treatment of the question of the abolition of slavery, as another of those heinous sins for which this nation ought to blush. Is it not astonishing, that in this government the friends of the oppressed are not even allowed to petition? "Our government will not so much as suffer itself to be asked to 'undo the heavy burdens.'" "'Concerning oppression they speak loftily.' And could we this day meet with the public assemblies in the city of Washington, we might perhaps hear the conduct of Abolitionists, in seeking the abolition of slavery, pointed out as one of the great sins of the people, in endeavoring, as they would express it, 'to dissolve the Union.'
"The great wickedness in forming, and in attempting to support a Union upon such principles. It is "a league of iniquity." The nation never had a right, in their constitution or in any other way, to recognize the lawfulness of slavery, and guarantee the protection of states in holding their fellowmen in bondage. The compact was an utter abomination. The union was a league against God. And now our public men make this excuse for supporting slavery, that by the stipulations of the constitution, they are bound to do so. Now admitting that the constitution does ever so expressly contain such stipulations, are they, can they be binding? What! can it be obligatory on the nation, or any set of men, to violate the great law of love, because they have promised to do so. Suppose the different states had entered into a stipulation to carry on the slave trade for ever--could such a promise as this be binding on any of them? Suppose each state had promised to fit out and keep, upon the high seas, a certain number of pirate ships, to rob all the nations of the earth, to supply the public treasury with funds--could such an abominable compact be binding? Would any state have a right to abide by such a stipulation as this? No, no more than a contract to keep up a perpetual war with heaven could be binding." "The fact is, that neither individuals nor nations can ever bind themselves by any promise to do wrong, to violate the law of love. Can a man render it lawful for him to murder, by promising to murder? If this be so, any sin may cease to be sin, become obligatory, and consequently a virtue, simply by promising to do it. It is lamentable and shameful, that this nation should try to preserve a union, based upon such principles as these. If the union cannot be preserved, except by abiding by a stipulation to sustain slavery, or not to interfere with it, let it be given up. It is in the highest degree rebellion against God, to attempt to support it upon such principles.
" . . . This nation has seemed to be ready to go almost any length in obtaining wealth, and to set aside the law of God whenever it has interfered with its grasping after worldly goods.
"I notice the notorious licentiousness and intemperance of many of our rulers. It is commonly reported, and I suppose truly, that during the sessions of Congress, the city of Washington exhibits a scene of most disgusting licentiousness and intemperance on the part of many of those who are entrusted with, and voluntarily put into places of power, and made the conservators of the public morals."
" . . . Is it too much to say that no nation is so wicked as this? Where can a nation be found, so enlightened on religious subjects as this nation, yet so recklessly, perversely, and even wantonly trampling down the government of God?
"I notice the wickedness of political contests, and especially the great sins that were committed during the election of the late President. We are assembled to celebrate a fast appointed in view of the recent death of that President. Now who can wonder that he was taken away by a stroke of Divine Providence, in the very beginning of his official career? Who ever witnessed such disgraceful and bacchanalian scenes as very generally disgusted the eyes and grieved the hearts of the friends of virtue during that political struggle? What low, vulgar, indecent, and in many instances, profane measures were resorted to? They are too bad to name. Who does not know that "Tippecanoe" and "Hard Cider," and almost every other abomination, were the watch-words and the measures for carrying that election? My soul mourns when I say it. God forbid that I should say it to bring a railing accusation against my country. Were they not already public I would never make them so. I call your attention to them that they may be confessed among the guilt and God-dishonoring sins of this nation.
"There are numerous other sins of this nation to be confessed and put away. But I have not time to call your attention to any more at present."
"The particular forms of state government must, and will, depend upon the virtue and intelligence of the people.
(1.) Democracy is self-government, and can never be safe or useful except so far as there are sufficient intelligence and virtue in the community to impose, by mutual consent, salutary self-restraints, and to enforce by the power of public sentiment, and by the fear and love of God, the practice of those virtues which are indispensable to the highest good of any community.
(2.) Republics are another and less pure form of self-government.
(3.) When there are not sufficient intelligence and virtue among the people to legislate in accordance with the highest good of the state or nation, then both democracies and republics are improper and impracticable, as forms of government.
(4.) When there is too little intelligence and virtue in the mass of the people to legislate on correct principles, monarchies are better calculated to restrain vice and promote virtue.
(5.) In the worst states of society, despotisms, either civil or military, are the only proper and efficient forms of government. It is true, indeed, that a resort to despotic government is an evil, and all that can be truly said is, that in certain states of desperate anarchy, despotic government is the less of two evils.
(6.) When virtue and intelligence are nearly universal, democratic forms of government are well suited to promote the public good.
(7.) In such a state of society, democracy is greatly conducive to the general diffusion of knowledge on governmental subjects; and although, in some respects, less convenient, yet in a suitable state of society, a democracy is in many respects the most desirable form of government."
Charles Finney, Human Governments from Systematic Theology. 1851.
The American Idea of Religious Freedom. Church and State in the United States - 1888 by Philip Schaff.
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