Excerpt from A Discourse on the Alton Outrage, Delivered at Peacham, Vermont; December 17, 1837 IN apreceding discourse from this very interesting portion of holy scripture, it was proposed to consider, I. The affecting circum stances in which the Lord Jesus was placed, when he uttered this prayer. II. The import of the prayer itself._ And, III. The reason subjoined For, they know not what they do. Having attended, somewhat particularly, to these things respectively, attention was invited to several remarks, which seemed to be naturally presented. Particularly, 1. That we might learn from the subject the wonderful tenderness and compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ for poor sinners. While suffering the dreadful tortures of crucifixion, and while he was treated with every mark of indignity and scorn, by his cruel and inhuman murderers, who hated him without a cause, his prayer for them was, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. 2. That the subject places all ingratitude and opposition to Christ in the most hateful and odious light. 3. That the subject furnishes reason to hope, even in respect to sinners who are doing most wickedly, that they are not yet given entirely over, - that the Savior has not yet ceased to intercede for them. And, 4. That we 'might learn from the subject the nature of that forgiveness, which we are required to exercise, towards those who do us injuries; and how suitable it must be that we exercise this forgiveness. Since Christ prayed for the forgiveness of his very murderers, who shall withhold forgiveness from those who do them wrong? When your attention was invited to this interesting subject, it was intimated that it was my design, in the sequel, to make some use of it, with reference to a very awful and tragical scene of wickedness, which has recently been enacted in a distant part of our country, of which you have all heard, probably, with deep emotion and in re spect to which it cannot but be desirable that all our feelings should be exactly right; such as will be approved by him to whom ourselves. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This 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.