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INDEPENDENCE. 



SECOND 

ANNUAL SERMON, 



PREACHED TO THE 



13th. REGIMENT, N ; GL S. N. Y., 



IN THE 



BROOKLYN, N. Y., 
ON SABBATH EVENING, DECEMBEE 9th, 1866, 




BY ITS CHAPLAIN, 



REV. EDWARD TAYLOR, 

PASTOR OF THE SOUTH CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. 



BROOKLYN: 

BOAED OF OFFIOEES, 13th EEO'T, N. G. S. N. Y 

1867. 






I* 



IN DEPENDENCE. 



SECOND 



ANNUAL SERMON, 



PREACHED TO THE 



13th REGIMENT, N. GL S. NT. Y., 



IN THE 



BROOKLYN, N. Y., 
ON SABBATH EVENING, DECEMBEE 9th, 1866, 




BY ITS CHAPLAIN, 



REV. EDWARD TAYLOR, 

PASTOR OE THE SOUTH CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. 



BROOKLYN: 
BOAED OF OFFIOEES, 13th EEG'T, N. G. S. N. Y 

1 8 C 7 . 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST 

OF THE 

BOARD OF OFFICERS, 13th REG'T, N. G. S. N. Y. 



I SOI . 

61503 
'05 



E. ?. Dodge & Co., Printers, 
R4 John St., >'. Y. 



I 



4 



IlSHDEPElNriDENCE. 



"Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do 
according to all the laws which Moses my servant commanded thee ; turn not 
from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever 
thou goest." — Joshua, 1, 7. 



Comrades of the Thirteenth ! 

Cheered by your cordial response to the invitation 
of your Chaplain to attend Divine service in this tem- 
ple of God last year, and by your respectful and sym- 
pathetic attention to the discourse then preached, I 
have renewed the invitation ; and in behalf, not only 
of myself, but of the congregation statedly worshiping 
here, I bid you all a fraternal ^welcome . 

*\ ' » . 

My design in this invitation is two-fold. 

First. — To do honor to our citizen soldiery. 

Many, especially since those fearful riots, have been 
ready to award them their meed of praise as conserva- 
tors of the public peace ; but a higher value attaches to 
a regiment constituted like your own, in that it is a 
Military Normal school, self-supporting, in which men 
are being trained into fitness to officer armies necessary 
in times of war ; so that the men in your ranks are not 



so much enrolled privates as so many cadets in drill 
for possible contingencies. Hence an importance at- 
taches to the Thirteenth, and to similar regiments, 
which it is difficult rightly to appreciate. 

But, secondly, and mainly, my design is to fulfill the 
functions of my office by stimulating that intellectual 
and spiritual culture without which one cannot be the 
highest type of a soldier and a man. Once it was 
unblushingly affirmed that the "worst men made the 
best soldiers;" but those who said it never made a 
correct analysis of the elements that are essential to 
the true warrior. Not more essential is well-tempered 
steel to the sword blade than a well-tempered character 
to him who wields it. The error is exploded. 

I purpose this evening to present to your considera- 
tion one of these elements. Before doing so, however, 
one or two matters of regimental interest may properly 
claim a notice. Since our last similar gathering we 
have been deprived of the services of a commander* 
whose "unvarying courtesy and high-toned honor as a 
gentlemen, whose excellence as a soldier, whose un- 
questioned fidelity as a friend, whose impartiality, 
kindness, and painstaking as an officer" have won our 
highest esteem. But we are favored with a competent 
successor in one,t who entering the military service of 
the United States in the capacity of Major of the Four- 
teenth (N. Y.) regiment, and continuing in that arduous 
service during most of the long years of the late pro- 
tracted and bloody struggle, has been worthily promoted 

*Col. J. B. Woodward. 

fBrev. Maj. Gen. James Joukdan. 



from grade to grade till the double stars adorn the 
shoulder ; whose qualities as a gentleman and an officer 
united with an unobtrusive, unselfish and devoted patri- 
otism, furnish every requisite for the position he has 
done us the honor to accept. 

Though some of our members are to-night sleeping, 
in the body, the sleep that knows no waking till the 
trump of God shall stir the sheeted dear!, I gratefully 
acknowledge the Divine goodness in the general pres- 
ervation of the regiment from sickness and death, and 
especially that the watch-care of the Great Father has 
been over our daughter, who this evening meets with 
you, her parents by adoption. It is a pleasant thought 
that our commander was an intimate friend of her 
father, who laid himself an offering upon the altar of 
his country, and so can not fail to feel a tender regard 
for the orphaned child of his fallen comrade. 

And now to our theme ; — Independence in thinking 

AND IN A CORRESPONDING PRACTICE. 

The Holy Scriptures furnish types of all characters, 
and specimens of all characteristics ; in them we find a 
gallery of portraitures unequaled elsewhere. Joshua, 
the great Captain of Israel, is a fine example of an 
independent man. No man could have appreciated 
such an exhortation as we have in our text whose soul 
did not have the true ring. The Divine Government 
is an economical one ; there is no waste in it ; and a 
commission so nervously worded would have been 
wasted upon a man whose character was not fibrous. 
Young men, listen ! and apply these sentiments to 



6 

yourselves. " Only be thou strong and very courageous, 
that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law 
which Moses my servant commanded thee ; turn not 
from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest 
prosper whithersoever thou goest." 

Much is said about Independence which shows that 
the speakers have not correct ideas of what Indepen- 
dence is. How many disreputable deeds have been 
sheltered beneath that abused word ! Vice ever pays 
this tribute to virtue, that it seeks to christen its prog- 
eny with reputable names. Sometimes we see adver- 
tisements in which some good citizen assures the public 
that the individual charged with such and such an 
offense is not himself but another one who has a similar 
name. But in the case of Independence there is a 
worse trial, for its name is stolen by all sorts of viola- 
tors of good taste and morals. So in order to say what 
Independence is, we must first say what it is not. And 

I. Independence is not obstinacy. 

Perseverance differs from obstinacy in this ; the for- 
mer is a strong will, the latter a strong wont. Many 
pride themselves upon being independent simply be- 
cause they have a strong wont. If their estimates are 
correct, then mules are very independent. Back-bones 
are useful ; a poor concern would a human body be 
without a back-bone. But how much better off would 
it be if the back-bone were one straight, inflexible 
piece ? To be useful, it must be vertebrated. Inde- 
pendence is back-bone, but back-bone with joints in it. 



II. Independence is not recklessness. 

The life of recklessness is the "don't care" spirit. 
That is a blind spirit. Some think that if they do 
violence to a cultivated sense of what is true and beau- 
tiful, if they go forward over a road made of the pro- 
prieties they have crushed, if they become indifferent 
to the estimates other people may have of them, if they 
become reckless of social and moral restraints, if they 
can swagger and act the braggadocio, they are thus 
independent. They are mistaken ; they were never 
before so chained ; if they would use their tongues less 
and their ears more, they would hear the clank of 
their fetters. Independence is not reckless ; it does 
care ; it is thoughtful, deliberate ; it is discriminating ; 
with an unerring eye for the detection of shams, it 
combines a wonderful sensibility to every genuine form 
of truth and beauty. Its possessor " don't care," and 
he does care. For the flippant, for tinselry, for osten- 
tation, for sounding brass, for varnish, he "don't care:" 
but for the substantial, for the pure metal, for the sen- 
sible, for the firm fibre and the true grain, he does care. 
He compels action to hold the stirrup for thought, and 
his motto is, — "A wise look-over may save from a fatal 
over-look." 

III. Independence does not consist in being disagree- 
able. 

Some who most assume it, manifest their false ideas 
of the virtue by evincing a purpose to be at cross-points 
with the world, They are ill-mannered in their modes, 
dogmatic in their statements, and offensive in their 



words. They seem not to know how to be intelligent 
without being opinionated ; they thrust their peculi- 
arities impertinently into the faces of their neighbors ; 
they do not seek good, but notoriety, and they get 
it. They are nothing unless disagreeable, and by their 
own standard, they are much. The very fact that 
their ways shock good taste is to them a reason for 
continuing them ; one of them smokes in the front door 
of a crowded street car and answers appealing or re- 
proachful looks with a glance, half chuckling, half defi- 
ant, that says, " I'll let all these disgusted people in the 
cars know that I am a man that does as I please." He 
lives his creed, " Nothing unless a nuisance." Yet his 
consistency is to a lie ; for he affirms the right to be 
unnecessarily disagreeable and there is no such right ; 
his is a declaration, not of independence but of impu- 
dence. 

The creed of the truly independent person is, "I have 
no right to do as I please, unless I please to do rigid :" 
hence, he is never unnecessarily disagreeable, because 
he is guided by the right, which is a sure pilot to the 
observance of that most accurate definition of polite- 
ness — the Golden Rule. 

IV. It is not necessarily a mark of independence to 
differ from other people. 

There are those who express dissatisfaction with 
what is — why 1 They will not allow it, but the reason 
is — because it is. With them 

" Old tilings are over old 
And new not new enough.' 



They "would be voices, not echoes ;" they are " opposed 
to running in ruts ;" they triumphantly ask, " How is 
one to show himself independent, if he falls in with old 
notions and goes with the crowd?' Hence, they seek 
to startle by enunciating novelties ; they advance " pe- 
culiar views." Now, if these views were peculiarly 
good we would not take exception, but they are quite 
apt to be peculiarly bad. Opinions commonly received 
may not be true, but their common reception is no proof 
that they are not true. Where men have had the 
means of judging and are under no violent prejudices, 
their general acceptance of an opinion, especially if it 
has abided the test of centuries, is not proof, but it is 
presumptive argument of its truth. It is no more a 
mark of independence to differ from the world, unless 
the world is wrong, than it would be for a passenger to 
leave a staunch Cunard steamer bound straight for Liv- 
erpool, and undertake to paddle himself in one of the 
boats to that port. He would get no compliments for 
his originality, but much contempt for his folly. So 
one who abandons ideas, not because investigation 
shows them erroneous, but because they have been long 
and generally entertained, cannot thereby have his 
claims to independence allowed. A little boat in mid- 
ocean headed for Liverpool is better than a huge 
steamer headed for the bottom of the sea, but in order 
to pass for a sensible man its occupant must show cause 
for being in such a craft. The long concurrence of wise 
and good men in a sentiment, while in itself no conclu- 
sive proof of its truth, entitles that sentiment to at least 
a peculiarly careful examination. Instead of such con- 
currence being a suspicion of error, it is a presumption 



10 

of truth. Some of these men are candid, wise and good, 
and they have brought scholarly culture, trained minds 
and pure hearts to thorough examinations of this sub- 
ject, and their conclusions ought to hold till overturned 
by deductions not less intelligent. Yet, how many seem 
ambitious of securing a reputation for independent 
thinking, merely through differing from others, simply 
by beating a new path, no matter whence or whither. 
They affect to despise cant and still use such stale, cant 
terms as " blinded by prejudice," " afraid to come out," 
" priest-ridden," to designate the adherents of the es- 
tablished views. They mistake the nature of true 
independence : it does not consist in differing from 
other people, in going alone, in forsaking well-beaten 
highways, but in rejecting error : it consists, not in 
thinking otherwise, but in thinking correctly. These 
remarks hold good in an especial manner with respect 
to religious subjects, for they are apt to be treated by 
the class referred to with peculiar unfairness. No 
student deems it a mark of wisdom to cavil at mathe- 
matical axioms or to deny the multiplication table, or 
to battle scientific data carefully established. In the 
domains of religion certain moral truths are as fully 
established as are these mathematical facts, and he, who 
cavils at or denies them, proclaims, not his independ- 
ence, but his folly ; — he does but do battle against pos- 
tulates, axioms, and the multiplication table and gets a 
roll in the dust and a shivered lance, in which is no 
glory. 

5. It is not Independence to depart from the true 
laws of thought and action. 



11 

While we are obligated to think, we are not obliged 
to think wildly. There is a law of freedom ; this is 
it, "Perfect freedom is the result of perfect obedience 
to a perfect law." Freedom is lost where this law is 
violated. A measure of restraint is essential to free 
motion. The planet swings free in its orbit only when 
held by the law of gravitation ; the kite soars high in 
the skies only while held by the cord ; cut the cord and 
the kite does not fly higher but is dashed to the ground. 
The locomotive rolls freely and fleetly along the track 
only while the wheel is bound by the flange to the rail ; 
break the flange and the ponderous machine lies by the 
wayside powerless as Sampson shorn of his locks. 
They do but dream who think of standing alone ; there 
is no such thing as absolute independence. It is said 
that in a mill at Lawrence there is a piece of mechan- 
ism which carries two hundred threads, and if one be 
broken the whole instantly stops. This will illustrate 
the interdependence of human beings ; they are linked 
together, and, most of all, to God, by many threads ; 
and one broken line affects all. 

We live in a world of correlates. The recognition 
of this fact is essential to independence. How absurd, 
then, in infidels to call Christians " credulous and 
shackled," and themselves " free thinkers." They are 
are chain bound ; they are shackled ; they trample upon 
all the laws of evidence ; they seek not truth but the 
negation of truth ; for them the centripetal force is 
destroyed and they no longer delightfully circle the 
throne of God, but wander into darkness and confusion. 
They are not independent, they drift I 



12 

Having shown what is not independence, we are 
prepared for its definition. The essence of independence 
consists in having all our powers and faculties under 
the control of a vigorous will, directed by an absolute 
sense of duty. It follows that the independent man 
must he a man of character. As the ability of the oak 
to resist the wrench of storms arises from the toughness 
of its fibres and the grasp and spread of its tenacious 
roots, so he must needs be fibrous with truth and firmly 
rooted in the right. Such a man is superior to circum- 
stances ; he can stand in all weathers. He can say, 
with William Penn, when threatened with imprison- 
ment if he continued to practice his principles, "Well, 
friend, thy strength shall never equal my patience," 
and so show himself the stronger ; with Socrates, 
"They may kill me, but they can not hurt me"; with 
many Scripture worthies, "We are more than conquer- 
ors through Him that hath loved us." Such an inde- 
pendence, young men, the holy religion of the Bible and 
of Jesus Christ, its most illustrious exemplar, creates; 
it furnishes every element essential to it ; it conserves 
as well as creates. Sin is wasteful ; it fast depletes the 
strength and scatters the elements of power, for "the 
thief in the candle waste th more wax than the wick 
thereof." A free, firm mind, based upon the Bible, is 
a noble spectacle. "It does not take on a new opinion 
in such a way as to give the appearance of a huge wen 
or tumor, but so as to increase in strength and symme- 
try, as when healthy flesh is acquired." And, what is 
more, it can withstand the wild onsets of innovation 
and not be swept away. A stouter heart and a brawn- 
nier arm are required to stem the "Hoods of ungodly 



13 

men" than to swim fast and far with the stream of 
corruption. Such nerve and brawn Christianity gives, 
whose holy founder, the God-man, was the only perfect 
specimen of independence the world has ever seen. I 
exhort you to the cultivation of a manly, righteous 
independence. There is too little of it. Men are 
being constantly hampered and led about and made to 
do that which offends their judgment, taste and moral 
sentiment. We too much build houses, dress, vote, live 
and regulate our social customs to suit other people 
rather than ourselves. Too many young men evince 
an infirm spirit by allowing themselves to be enticed 
away from places and pursuits approved by conscience, 
into objectionable scenes, slavishly allowing another to 
decide for them. They lack the nerve to snap the 
cord. It is right to be influenced by another to good, 
but not to ill. 

The motives to the culture of a spirit of Christian 
independence are many and mighty. Such a spirit 
promotes an honorable character ; it gives stability ; it 
wins respect. The good withhold their respect from a 
vacillating, imbecile person, because they are not sure 
of him ; the bad because they are. It increases useful- 
ness ; it makes a robust will ; it invigorates the con- 
science power; it plants one in safety. One of cur 
brave boys in blue, on guard against the strongest fort 
of the rebels at Petersburgh at a time when a struggle 
was evidently at hand, being asked what he thought 
would be the result, nobly replied: "If they come to 
this fort, we'll repulse them ; if we go to that fort, we'll 
take it, for God is with us! So, young men, keep right 



14 

on in the straight path, and if you are assailed by the 
powers of darkness you will repulse them; and if you 
storm a strong-hold you will take it, for God will be 
with you ! 

As the world advances toward the millennial glory, 
more and more will it appeal- that great deeds are deeds 
of patriotism, and humanity and piety ; that great men 
are not those of long ancestral line, of hereditary pos- 
sessions, of titled names, of heraldic insignia, but men 
whose hearts throb, not with the pride of a lordly 
Lineage and with the blood of an imperial race, but 
with the love of liberty and of right, and with the blood 
of man as man ; men who are great in their goodness. 
An American gentleman lately on London Bridge met 
a volunteer regiment returning from drill, marching at 
ease with rifles slung over their shoulders. They were 
singing, first one company and then another, catching 
up the refrain which swelled every now and then along 
the whole column. As the head of the column drew 
near he recognized that American song of freedom, the 
"Glory, Hallelujah." 80 while the Irish at Dublin were 
awaiting the arrival of John Bright to address them, 
they sang the "Glory, Hallelujah!" Humble in its 
origin, the inspiring refrain goes marching on; and 
while the great Captain will order those whose grand- 
eur is but of earth to "halt," the souls of the good will 
ever be inarching on. The day is coming when for 
every one who shall seek in Westminister Abbey the 
last bome of him whose title was his chief commenda- 
tion, hundreds will make loving pilgrimages to some 
wild mountain spot and drink in strength of soul over 



15 

the green turf that will cover all that could die of some 
martyr, whose soul was too sturdy to bow to a lie. 
Young men, be ambitious to be great in goodness. 

And now, before we part let us solemnly speak the 
names of our four comrades, who, since our last assem- 
bly here, have answered to the roll-call of death. 

Private Lindsey F. Rozell, of Co. "H," died last 
spring, so soon after joining the regiment that but few 
of you were acquainted with him. He was an unmar- 
ried man, and about twenty-one years of age. 

Private M. S. Edwards, who joined Co. "D" in 1864, 
last July died of cholera, leaving a wife and two 
children. 

Private Joseph C. Smith, who joined Co. " F," in 
November, 1866, was a single man about twenty years 
of age. Early in the recent war he enlisted in the 
U. S. Army and was discharged at the return of peace. 
Coming home, he made the acquaintance of a man, 
who, in the guise of friendship, persuaded Smith to en- 
trust to him for safe investment the few hundreds of 
dollars he had saved of his pay. His pretended friend 
proved to be a villain, and, failing in every effort to 
recover his money, poor Smith, in a moment of des 
pondency and desperation, on the 27th of March last, 
shot himself dead. 

Corporal Edward B. Benedict joined Co. " H," Janu- 
ary 14th, 1862, and during the summer of that year 
served with you at Suffolk, Va. Upon his return, he 



16 

accepted a position on the Btaff of Brig.-Gen. Jackson, 
then on recruiting duty ;it Bart's Island. He after- 
wards joined the army of the Tennessee and marched 
with Sherman from Atlanta to the sea, being at times 
charged with most responsible missions from one por- 
tion of the army to another through the enemy's 
country. At the close of the war his constitution was 
undermined by consumption, to which he was heredi- 
tarily disposed, and in the hope of regaining health he 
visited Minnesota. But it was too late. He died there 
in May last, Leaving a wife and three or four children 
to mourn their irreparable loss. He was well spoken 
of in every respect. 

My comrades : The roll-call of death proceeds ; it 
will not cease till, one by one, we all shall have an- 
swered to our names. Are we ready'? Let us live 
wisely and well, let us penitently trust in Christ cruci- 
fied for the pardon of all our many sins, and we will be 
ready ; and that which I have denominated the roll-call 
of death will he in truth the roll-call of Life Ever- 
last Lug. Amen. 



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