John Quincy Adams Digital Diary

439

26. IV:30. Sunday

I attended public worship this morning with my wife, Miss Cutts and my Granddaughter Mary-Louisa. Mr Cookman preached from Psalm 72:16 [“]There shall be a handful of corn in the earth upon the top of mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth. 17. His name shall endure forever: his name shall be continued as long as the Sun; and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed. 18. Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. 19. And blessed be his glorious name forever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and amen. 20. The prayers of David, the son of Jesse are ended.”— And it was a good ending said Mr Cookman.— He analyzed and commented with great ingenuity and fervour upon every part of this text as prophetic of the Messiah’s kingdom—of that blessed time, when War shall be banished from the earth— The theme is to me delightful— These promises of the Scriptures—these transcendantly sublime prophesies of the old covenant, and these practicable means and irresistible tendencies to their fulfilment in the new are the most precious pledges of my faith— If I did not believe them, I should be compelled to reject the whole book— I do most faithfully believe them— Peace—perpetual Peace! what an inexpressible blessing to the race of Man! Not that I deem it necessary to believe that the Nature of carnivorous beasts shall be changed— These I suppose to be figures of speech—but that the murderous and treacherous passions in the heart of man shall be so far eradicated or restrained that there shall be no more public or private War— With the practice of War Slavery must of course be extinguished. Mr Cookman was sufficiently enthusiatic in this belief to gratify me; and my faith and hope in the future advent of the kingdom of the Message, to pass among my friends for insane. That Christianity has already made immense progress in checking and controuling the anti-social passions of man is undeniable a religious principle that man has no right to take the life of man, will soon accomplish the abolition of all capital punishments, and the principles of Liberty are daily rendering the life of man more and more precious. Mr Cookman quoted Maundrell for the size of the enormous Cedar of Lebanon, and spoke of what kings would do in the Millennium; if there should be kings; at that time, which was very doubtful.— The hall was more crowded than I had seen it for many years.— I met Mr John Taliaferro there— A very heavy thunder shower prevented my attendance at Church this afternoon. The lightning yesterday struck a barn not far distant from the Capitol, and the barn was burnt down— In the hurricane of this day fortnight a black woman was struck dead by a thunderbolt, in the African church on the brow of the Capitol hill.