EEV. MR. McLEAN'S SERMON, DELIVERED OX THE APEIL BO, 18 63 [ Digitized by the Internet Arclnive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/sermondeliveredoOOmcle SERMON, I>ELIYEEED OX THE NATIONAL FAST DAY, AT FRAMINGHAM, MASS. APRIL 30, 1863, BY REV. JOHN KNOX McLEAN. |.) u b I i s Ij c b: b n |l c q u c s t . BOSTON: PRESS OF T. R. MAR^^N & SOX, 42 CONGRESS STREET. 1 8 6 3. SERMON. 1 COHINTHIANS x. 10. NEITHER MURMUR YE, AS SOME OF THEM ALSO MURMURED, AXB TVERE DE- STROYED OE THE DESTROYER. This is part of an admonitory address made by Saint Paul to the Christian disciples resident at Corinth. The address con- tains allusions to the early history of the Jews, from whom some, at least, of these Corinthian disciples were descended. In admonishing, he bids them take warning by the disastrous experience of their fathers, and shun their fathers' sins. The particular allusion in this verse is to an event recorded, Numbers, xiv. 2 : ' And all the children of Israel mm-mured against Moses and against Aaron ; and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God we had died in the land of Egypt ! or would God we had died in the wilderness ! ' Yerses 11, 12 : ' And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people pro- voke me ? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shown among them ? \ will smite them with the pestilence,' &c. Yerses 27, 29 : ' How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me ? — Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness.' Or the allusion may be to the event recorded, Numbers, xvi : the rebellion of Korah, and the subsequent murmuring of the people, in consequence of which fourteen thousand seven hun- dred were destroyed by the plague. In both cases, the offense was the same and the punishment the same. The offense — murmuring against God. The punishment — utter destruction from his presence. This must be a most heinous sin in Jehovah's sight, since it was visited with punishment so swift and so terrible ! Many 4 sins before this had the Jews sinned, which he wjnked at ; many transgressions had they committed, and still lived ; many omissions had they been guilty of; still he fed them and led them. But when, under most aggravating circumstances, they became rebellious, Jehovah's wrath, so slow to wake, was fully aroused. And in. his wrath he sware that, because, having seen his glory, and his miracles which he did in Egypt and in the wilderness, they yet tempted him, murmured against him, and would not hearken to his voice, they should not see the promised land, nor enter into his rest. And not even the inter- cession of Moses, whose prayer had so often averted impend- ing evil, could novv^ avail ; but the destroyer was let loose upon them. Brethren, I greatly fear that we, of the loyal States of this Union, are upon the verge of committing this same fearful sin. I fear that we are almost, if not actually, murmuring against the Lord our God for his dealings with us as a nation ; and that in view of his great goodness and long-suffering and mercy towards us ! And upon this day, appointed by our supreme magistrate as a day of national humiliation, do I desire to lift up my voice, with all the earnestness of which I am capable, in warning against this offense. The single admo- nition from this desk to-day shall be : Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured,^^ lest a like calamity befall you, and you also be " destroyed of the destroyer." 1, What is it to murmur ? Webster says it is to grumble, to complain, to utter sullen discontent ; " and his definition is sufficiently complete for all practical purposes. The Israelites grumbled — they complained — they uttered sullen discontent ; and God destroyed them for it. Grumbling, complaining, utter- ing sullen discontent is, therefore, offensive in his sight. It renders them who indulge in it, liable to sure and swift destruc- tion. The thing in itself is an offense. But in the case of the Jews, it was peculiarly aggravated by the fact that they grumbled and complained causelessly ; and not only causelessly, but in the midst of many signal mercies, and despite many and great reasons for gratitude and thankfulness. They had witnessed many miracles and wondrous displays of God's glory. 5 They had seen all the plagues brought upon the Egyptians, while into their own coasts came nothing of the kind. God had brought them out from under the power of the oppressor : their yoke he had broken. At the Red Sea he had delivered them from Pharaoh and his host, turning their powerful enemies to destruction. The Lord had gone before them as a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night. He had miraculously fed them during the journey, and brought forth drink for them out of the rock. Every act of goodness had he performed for them ; every obligation to love and gratitude laid upon them. But all this they forgot ; and murmured against their leaders, by him appointed, and against him. Notwithstanding his tender mercy and his loving-kindness, they grumbled and uttered sullen discontent. And this is precisely what we as a nation are beginning to do, if I mistake not ; and that with no less aggravation, in our case, than existed in theirs. Is this a factj is the charge true, that we, under God's disciplining hand, are becoming murmurous? Look at the facts in the case, and judge for yourselves. What do we hear men saying every day ; what do we say every day ; and what do Ave read in the newspapers continually? Why, we hear men finding fault. We hear them grumbling. We find fault, we grumble ; and our daily journals are gorged with fault- finding and grumbling. We complain of the hard times ; we groan over the high prices; we cry out, in anguish of soul, under the heavy taxes. We shake our heads wisely, ominously ; we say, " We hope Ave shall come out of this Avar all right, but — ." And Avith a dismal sigh, Ave cease — as much as to say, A¥e doubt more than we hope ; and fear more than Ave do either. Noav, brethren, I say this is murmuring ! I say this is that for which God destroys men ! Again : we grumble against the Government. We find fault Avith the measures they adopt, and complain that other measures are not substituted. We have a great deal to say about the imbecility," the " weakness," the " folly " of our rulers and generals. We become despondent at every check our arms experience, and are in despair at every temporary reverse. We 6 are totally dissatisfied with anything less than a victory a day ; and at times are even forward to broach our belief that ^' God is on the side of the rebels in this war, after all ! " I might extend thgse specifications, but presume it is un- necessary. You will bear me witness that all this we do, and much more of the same sort. 3. You will admit the fact that we do so ; but perhaps you will say, "We have good reason for all this, and even more. There is just ground for complaint and fault-finding. And, that being so, we are not aware that the speaking of things as they are, is any so great offense in the sight of God." Where- fore it shall be my aim to show, in the next place, that the spirit which gives rise to such remarks and feelings, is essen- tially a murmuring spirit — the same spirit the Israelites evinced ,• and that the remarks themselves are essentially the same utter- ances of sullen discontent, and our conduct the same perverse conduct, which, in the Jews' case, v/ere so terribly punished by Jehovah. In order that we may institute a fair comparison between our present national spirit and conduct, and that of the Jews, let us glance at those events in their history to which the language of our text refers. They had come to Kadesh-barnea, a place just on the border of Canaan. Halting there, Moses exhorted the people to go up immediately and possess the land which lay before them ; bid- ding them not to be afraid or discouraged ; for the Lord should certainly go up with them. But the whole of the people united in a petition that men should be sent up, in the first place, to search out the land, and bring them word by what way they must go up, and to what cities first come. This proposal was readily acceded to by Moses, and men were sent up to spy out the land and see what it is ; and the people that dwell therein, whether they be weak or strong, few or many ; and what sort of a land they inhabit, &c., &c. ; and, finally, to bring back with them some of the fruits of the land. Having spent forty days in the exploration, the men returned and reported. They all united in testifying that the country was exceeding goodj " a land flowing in milk and honey." 7 Nevertheless, the majority said, The peoyle be strong that dwell in the land; and the cities are walled and very great." Above all, they said, " We saw the children of Anak there ! " This report of the majority of the spies intimidated the people, and excited a commotion in the camp. Joshua and Caleb endeavored to compose and encourage the tribes, assuring them that they were well able to conquer the land. But the others said, We be not able to go up against the people ; for they are stronger than we ; they are giants, and beside them we are like grasshoppers. And now they became more and more agitated. The whole congregation lifted up their voice and cried ; and the people wept all that night. And all the people murmured against Moses and against Aaron, and said, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt ; or would God we had died in this wilderness ! And wherefore has the Lord brought us into this land, to fall by the sword ? Were it not better for us to return into Egypt ? And the^^- said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return to Egypt. Yainly did Caleb and Joshua seek to stay this mad current ; they were unable. Indeed, it was only by a supernatural interference that they escaped death by stoning. But now, in the height of the revolt, the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long ivill this people provoke me ; and hoiv long ivill it be ere they believe me, for all the sig7is ivhich I have showed them 1 I luill smite them with pestilence and ivill disinherit them. And to the people he says, Your carcasses shall fall in the loilderness. All of you, from twenty years and up- loards, that have murmured against me, ye shall not come into the land concerning ivhich I sivare to maJce you dwell therein. * * In this ivUderness shall they be consumed, and there shall they die ! And the Lord's word was fulfilled ; their carcasses strewed the wilderness.* Now the offense of the Jews here consisted, essentially, first, in undue despondency in view of the estimated dangers of their situation ; secondly, in distrusting God's power and willingness to deliver them and give them the victory ; thirdly, in grumbling at the hardships of their situation, and both directly and indi- rectly complaining at the providence of God ; and fourthly, in 8 resisting the authority of their legitimate leaders, and exalting their own measures for the public safety, above those of Moses and his associates. And every one of these charges can he sustained as against the j)eople of the loyal States — as against us here assembled to-day. (1.) fVe are unduly despondent in view of the real and exagger- ated dangers of our situation. Every reverse, however insignificant, sends the public confi- dence down like lead. The gold exchange — as good an index, I suppose, as any we have of the public feeling — fluctuates daily just according to the tenor of the news received. " But what of that?" you ask. Just this; that lye have no right or reason for allowing ourselves in despondency for one single moment respecting the issue of this struggle ! Our confidence is not to rise and fall with the stock market. For suppose " the people be strong ; and the cities walled and very great," the people are arrayed against right, against truth, against freedom ; the city walls inclose deep wrong, and cruelty, and oppression ! Sup- pose they he strong, they are not so strong as tlie Almighty. Suppose the cities he walled, they cannot wall Him out! Suppose the children of Anak do dwell there — and the inhabi- tants are at least no pigmy race — righteousness and truth do not dwell there : and they are they which, under the God of battles, give strength — and not sheer might and muscle. In such a war as this, so brought on, and in such a cause, we have no right to be despondent. Our confidence is not to be based upon reports from front or rear. We are to trust in God, and place in Him our confidence. Instead of which (2.) We are distrusting God's power and willingness to deliver us and give us the victory. We are practically ignor- ing God in this whole afi'air. Said a neighboring preacher, in a discourse on occasion of the late State Fast : Here I think I have touched the ground of all that impatience and discontent, of that contention and mutual recrimination which have manifested themselves with especial vehemence within the last few months. We have not been willing to acknowledge the Almighty in this war. It has been talked about, its causes debated, its measures criticised, its successes and reverses have been discussed precisely as though God had nothing to do with it ! " " To me," he continues, " it is the 9 most serious aspect, as well as the most hopeful augury of this fearful conflict, that it is of God's ordaining ; that it came upon us when the fullness of the time was come ; not by the will of man, but by the fiat of the Almighty." With these sentiments I most fully agree, as well as with another which follows : This is a struggle between universal principles and a local polity ; between natural justice and con- ventional wrong ; between the charity which would lift up the degraded and instruct the ignorant — and so co-operate with the Lord Jesus Christ in his ministry of redeeming love — and the self-interest which would keep them in degradation and shut out all light from their minds. In such a controversy as this, I must believe that God is interested ; and it would be impious in me to entertain a doubt which side is approved by Him."* This, I believe, is just. To throw Jehovah out of consider- ation, in estimating the prospects of this war, is gross impiety ; to doubt his willingness to stretch forth his arm in our behalf, in such a cause, is that same "unbelief" for which he smote the Jews Avho doubted his willingness to give them the victory over the dwellers in the land of Canaan. (3.) J'Ve are allowing ourselves to grumble over the hardships and evils incide^it to our situation ; and are both directly and in- directly complaining at the allotments of God's providence. All this scolding about ' taxes,' this groaning over the ' hard times,' this intense solicitude concerning the rise and fall of the financial barometer, — all these prognostications of 'ruin,' commercial, financial, national and individual, — What are all these, in the last analysis, but grumblings at the providence of God, who, having for years poured blessings so lavishly upon us, now sees fit, in some small degree, to diminish them ? What are they, disguise them as we may, but imputations upon his goodness — perverse substitutes for that gratitude and praise which are at all times due to the Almighty Disposer of events ? (4.) We are practically opposing the authority of our legiti- mately constituted rulers, and seeking to subvert their lawful authority. I am not now bringing a charge against any particular party, or political organization ; but against the people at large of the loyal States. I do not say they are consciously hostile to the * Dr. Thompson, Jamaica Plain. 10 Government, or desirous, willing even, to see it overthrown ; but do we not unreservedly, habitually, express our lack of con- fidence in the Government ? Do we not wish it were in other hands ? Do we not loudly complain against this thing done, and that left undone ? Do not those who are destitute of the faintest notion of what constitutes a government, much more of what is needed to carry on its ponderous and intricate machinery, pass, without scruple, the most sweeping denuncia- tions upon the policy of statesmen, and the conduct of cabinets ? Do not men who would be incapable of bringing a corporal's guard to the " about face," presume to criticise, condemn and rebuke military measures and the plans of campaigns, just as though they themselves were the embodiment of all military genius, or the tried veterans of many wars ? Now all this tends directly to weaken the hands of govern- ment. These croakings are not, in point of evil influence, very far behind those of the Jews at Kadesh-barnea, where they said : Were it not better for us to return into Egypt ? Let us make a captain, and let us return ! " I do not, by any means, wish to be understood as saying that we are bound to submit to whatever our rulers may impose upon us, in silent, meek acquiescence ; that we are to believe all their measures to be the wisest, best and most efl'ective possible : or that we are never to presume to criticise or express a dissenting judgment. What I mean is, that in such a complicated Government as ours, in such an unprecedented emergency as this, it is utterly impossible but that mistakes should be made ; and it is not wrong for those who are capable of doing it, to criticise these, openly and fully. But this should be done fairly ; it should be done intelligently ; it should, above all, be done charitably ; keeping in mind the vast difference there is between sitting, coolly, safely, at a distance, and watching the progress of events, with nothing to do but watch ; and plunging into the thick fray, and ourselves shaping events there, amid the turmoil and confusion, the heat and dust and smoke and blood of actual conflict. We may judge our public men and their measures ; but we should, in doing it, use that same charity the gospel enjoins upon us to exercise towards our neighbor. But for the people to give themselves up to indiscriminate, querulous, discontented complaint — that 11 is a wrong and a sin. The same wrong and sin, to-day, as it was in the day of Moses and Joshua and Caleb. Such conduct, at the best of times, is folly, is sinful. At this time, it is more ; it is a most grievous sin, next door to open treason ! 4. By comparison of our present condition and conduct with those of the Jews, at the time the Lord denounced such mighty judgments against them for murmuring, we have found, in the actual facts of the two cases, an agreement only too close and striking. It remains to be seen whether, in their case, there were any peculiar aggravations of offense which do not exist in our own case as welL In other words, is there any reason to suppose, if our conduct be like theirs, that we are not liable to a judgment like that sent upon them ? I have said they murmured without cause — even worse than that — in the face of many and great mercies. Their grumbling and complaining took the place of deserved gratitude and thanksgiving. This was the peculiar aggravation of their sin. The Lord said, when he came down in his anger : How long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have showed among them?''' And in denouncing judgment, he said : " Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, . . . have tempted me," &c. : Surely they shall not see the land." Their murmuring in the face of his glory and his miracles, added greatly to the magnitude of their offense. Their refusal to believe, after all the signs he had showed among them, was the gravamen of the charge against them. How is it with us in this regard : are we sinning in face of any less striking displays of divine goodness and glory ? I need not point you to the divine beneficence towards this land in past days. I need not tell you how a little, forlorn band of persecuted men came to these shores, somewhat more than two centuries ago, through frost and storm and peril ; and how God has raised up from them a nation, great, enlightened, free and happy, as any the sun ever shone upon. I need not recount the privileges he has given us, more and richer than to any other people : nor the blessings, civil, religious, social, he has lavished upon us. All this 3^ou know. Now, tell me what miracle had God ever wrought, or what exhibition of his glory had he ever made to Israel, up to the 12 time he sent Moses to be their dehverer, which can at all com- pare with his doings in our past history. He had led them in Jacob's day, about four hundred years before, down into Egypt ; and most of the time since, they had been held in close and cruel bondage. No people ever suffered more than Israel did, while under the Egyptian yoke. Now^ indeed, he had delivered them from bondage. But what was that compared with his dealings with us for the last two hundred and thirty years ? They were delivered out of bondage ; we have been 'kept out of bondage. They stood with the marks of their servitude upon them ; degraded, ignorant for the most part, and poor. We stand in the glorious heritage of freedom — elevated, enlightened, with whatever advantages flow from long-continued peace, together with all that science, art and commerce can impart. Was God's goodness to them comparable with that we have experienced ? Or, to bring the comparison down to the time of this revolt at Kadesh-barnea, — What was there in the Lord's dealings with the Jews, during the exodus, that is to be compared, in point of mercy and goodness, with his gracious dealings with this nation, from the outbreak of this war, down to the present moment ? It was now about a year since they had left Raamses, their former residence in Egypt ; and during this time it was, together with the period during which Moses was pleading with Pha- raoh for their release, that those special manifestations of glory and power had been made on their behalf. The Lord had brought plagues upon the Egyptians, and spared Israel. But what plague has he brought upon us, either immediately pre- ceding, or during our national exodus ? Have not the years preceding and during this war been, throughout the whole North, years of unwonted freedom from pestilence, or drought, or anything, in fact, noxious to either man, or beast, or plant? Have not our garners been full, affording all manner of store ; have not our sheep brought forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets? Have not our oxen been strong to labor ; has there been any breaking in or going out, or any complaining in our streets ? No : nor does it at all lessen the magnitude of this mercy, that the Lord has not afflicted our enemies as he did Israel's. For our position towards our enemies is far different 13 from that of Israel towards theirs. They were a feeble folk, seeking to throw off the heavy yoke. We are a great people and a strong, seeking to quell a rebellion which, although mighty, is of greatly less magnitude than the power we have to oppose it with. We do not, therefore, need such special interpositions of Divine Providence against our foes as God gave Israel against Pharaoh. And it exalts God's mercy and goodness towards us, that he has saved us from this necessity. In so far has he, in this respect, favored us above his ancient people. The Lord overwhelmed Pharaoh and his host in the sea for them. But is it a less mercy he has shown to us, in that in the the outbreak of this war he saved for us, once and again, our national Capital, when a mere handful of men might so easily have taken it ? Do we see his hand any less clearly in our case than in theirs, in that when an iron-clad monster came suddenly upon our defenceless shipping, and was making all havoc at its will, the little Monitor should, just in the nick of time, and in a manner purely providential, arrive on the scene of action and send the monster quailing to his den, in- spired with a fear which led him a few days after to deliberate self-destruction ? The falling olf of Pharaoh's chariot-wheels, was no more a divine interposition than was the keeping back of our rapacious foe from our defenseless Capital. Pharaoh's engulfment in the Red Sea, was no more unexpected to him, than was the meet- ing of a Monitor in Hampton Roads to the Merrimac nor was that overthrow more clearly of God than was this. The Lord miraculously fed the Jews during their sojourn ; bringing for them the flocks of quails, and sending, morning by morning, the manna. But does this equal his goodness to us during this war ? What good thing have we lacked, either to eat or to drink or to put on ? What necessary article of common use, what luxury, indeed, has this war taken from us? Not one. And yet we grumble and complain of hard times ! Sup- pose we were compelled to give up these pleasant homes of ours, and our usual avocations, and spend our days tramping through the wilderness — our nights upon the unsheltered > ground — we and our little ones ; or under such booths as, after long days' marches, we could erect; — suppose we were driven 14 from our present style of living, and made dependent upon such wild game as we might chance to find, or upon such a diet as we could scrape from the ground, with the hoar frost of the morn- ing — then shouldn't we complain? Then shouldn't we have something to say about ' hard times ? ' Should we not grum- ble, and should we not conclude we had some good ground for grumbling ? But complaint, even under such circumstanceSj would be wrong ; it would be an olfense against God ; it would be the thing for which he destroyed the Jews. Then how much more aggravated must our sin be, in murmuring, as we do, in the midst of God's abounding goodness and mercy towards us ! And so, did our time allow us to extend the comparison, should we find it to be in every particular. Where the Jews had one mercy, we have a thousand ; where they had but crumbs of divine bounty, we have whole loaves, and hundreds of them. Then, every aggravation of offense, in their case, must exist in still greater measure in our own. We have even less right or reason to murmur than they had ; wherefore if God destroyed them for murmuring, how fearful must our danger be, in committing the same sin ! 5. Comparatively, then — i. e. as compared with the Jews when they were at Kadesh-barnea — we have clearly no -reason to grumble, nor to complain at God's dealings with us, even in this time of sore trial and affliction. In concluding these somewhat protracted remarks, I go further than that, and insist that we have absolutely no ground, either for complaint or for despondency ; but, on the other hand, every reason for devout thanksgiving and confident hope. (1.) And, first, let me remind you of Job's reply to his wife, when, in the depth of his afiliction, she bade him curse God and die. ''What!" he indignantly exclaims, "shall we re- ceive good at the hand of God, and shall we not also receive evil ? " We must not forget that the Almighty is under no obligation to us. He would violate no claim of ours upon him, were he never to permit us to see any good. Whatever we receive is purely of grace, and not of debt. This being so, and he hav- ing so richly lavished his choicest blessings upon us for a long 15 period, is it becoming, is it manly, for us to straightway fall to whining, when it pleases him to mingle some bitter in our cup? Contentment, with a lap full^ is no great virtue. It is but little to our credit that we can refrain from murmuring and complaint, when we have more than we can by any possibility use. And that is but a poor manliness which, after a long experience of unmingled prosperity, flies into complaint or into despondency, when but some of the redundancies of the divine bounty are stricken off. (2.) Secondly, we must remember that we have by our sins forfeited, many times over, any claim to God's mercies we might ever have had. Should he deal with us in justice, our condition would be unspeakably worse than it now is. If men will sow evil seed, it ill becomes them to grumble that the har- vest is of like kind. (3.) We must remember, also, that seeming evil is, very many times, in reality the highest good. Those are by no means our truest blessings, which appear so to us ; but our best blessings come to us in disguise. Affliction is often a truer good 'than gross prosperity. The parents who act with truest wisdom towards their children, are not those Avho cram them with cakes and candies, indulging every childish whim ; but those who apply, when needed, the rod of correction. God is a wise parent. He is indulgent ; but he does not allow any foolish fondness to blind him to the true welfare of his children. His correcting rod is oftener a nation's true blessing, than is a many years' continuance of unbroken peace and prosperity. It may be so — there is every reason for believing it is so — with us. Then let us rather praise him that he is chastening us from our evil ways, which, if followed, would lead to sure destruction, than grumble and complain because, for our good, he is some- what disturbing our carnal ease and enjoyment. (4.) And lastly, and above all, let not the inconveniencies of our situation blind our eyes to the vast preponderance of mercy and goodness still apparent in all his dealings with us. Brethren, God has blessed us ; he is still blessing us, even in the carrying forward of this dreadful war. He has given us greater success than, under the circumstances, we could reason- ably expect or even hope for. Look at this, for a moment. Where did we stand two years ago, and Avhere do we stand 16 now ? Then we could not properly be said to stand at all ; we were prostrate in the dust ; to-day we are upon our feet. Then our hands were tied fast ; now are they free, and doing good execution, too, against our foes. Then our treasury was empty ; Floyd had just stolen the last six millions, and fled to his own kind. Oar forts were all dismantled or occupied by armed rebels ; our arsenals were empty, their former contents in the hands of our enemies ; our army had been carefully sent away to the extreme frontier of Texas — its officers, for the greater part, were in the ranks of traitors; our fleet of two thousand four hundred and fifteen guns, was scattered to the ends of the earth, only two vessels being left on our coast, one of which, carrying twenty-five guns, could enter Charleston harbor only at flood-tide, while the other, carrying two guns, was of little use ; our President's life was in danger from the assassin's knife ; our national capital, cut off from communication with the loyal States, was in most imminent peril, and was, moreover, full of treason: — in a word, we were helpless. But out of that strait God delivered us. In a single day, he roused from their lethargy the whole loyal North, and made the hearts of all to throb with newly awakened patriotism, and their souls to glow with indignation, as the heart and soul of one man; and now where, by his good providence, do we stand ? We have a vast army ; we have a navy such as no other nation has, or ever had ; we have all the money Govern- ment can use, and a full supply of all the material of war. We hem in our enemies upon their own territory, under a blockade, by sea and land, more strict than any other people, having so large a territory, were ever under. We hold the whole line of the Potomac ; almost all the Mississippi. We have all the border States — large districts of the seceded ones. We have New Orleans, Newbern, Port Royal, Fort Pulaski, Norfolk, Yorktown — cities and ports too numerous to mention — all of which have been reclaimed from rebel possession by conquest. Two years ago, our. enemies were boastingly talking about making their next winter quarters in Philadelphia ; and, by this time, displaying the emblem of treason from Bunker Hill and Faneuil Hall. Instead of which, they have but once set foot on loyal soil, and that for but a few hours, and at the im- minent risk of the entire invading army. Foreign intervention, 17 so gravely feared, so constantly prognosticated, so often threat- ened, has been averted. To-day, we stand resolute, determined, strong in all the materials of war ; om' commerce scarcely disturbed, our national credit unimpaired, all branches of industry prosperous, and with fair plenty smiling on all our States. While, on the other hand, our enemies, having by no means held their own, ill-supplied with the munitions of war, all their available resources drawn upon to the utmost, stand, looking grim, gaunt famine in the face, with the clamors of women and children for bread ringing in their ears, and sending anguish and dismay to their hearts. Hath not God wrought this ? And is he not deserving of some- thing better than " grumblings, complaints," and the growlings of "sullen discontent" from our hearts and lips ? True, we have had mistakes ; there have been delays, re- verses, defeats ; there always are. But is it not also true that God has, in our case, averted the usual consequences of these, and through all our delays, failures and blunders, steadily advanced our cause ? We have had mistakes, many and serious — we have com- mitted blunders, frequent and grave — but this is only saying that we have had men, and not angels, to manage our affairs. It would demand more than human skill and sagacity to avoid blunders and mistakes, in such a war ; it is unreasonable to expect that men so unpracticed in war, as our leaders necessarily have been, should not make mistakes. There is wickedness and corruption in the management of our public affairs — no doubt of that. But so, until human nature is regenerated — that is, so long as the world stands and wars are waged, will there be knavery and corruption in such matters. And it all the more exalts the grace of God, and his unspeakable goodness, that notwithstanding these things, he saves us from ruin and confusion, and still advances our arms. This gives us hope that, in spite of the inexperience and in- capacity of officers, in spite of the knavery and rapacity of contractors, God will carry us through, to a happy issue out of all these present troubles. Let us not be despondent. Such a war as this cannot be finished in a day. W^e are making progress ; search the his- tories of great wars all the world over, and you will not find 18 one where, taking all things into account, greater progress has been made, during the same length of time, than we have made during the two years just past. Let us not be despondent. When the rebels have regained the Mississippi to Cairo, and extended thence their conquest to the extreme upper waters of that great river, and the States west of it are cut off from us ; when our fleet is blown out of the western waters, or worse, is in rebel hands, and the border States are re-occupied ; when our iron-clads have passed from us over to the rebels, and our navy sent to the bottom of the ocean, has been replaced by an equal navy South ; when New York has been taken and held for a year, Boston threat- ened as Charleston now is. New Bedford as Savannah, and New London and New Haven are in rebel hands ; when the Hudson is in their possession, except perhaps West Point and some one other fortification ; when all our young men, and all our mature men under the age of fifty, are drafted into the army — a strict blockade maintained over our states, and our medicines, guns, amunition and army stores, imported from foreign countries, are smuggled in through Canada ; when gold sells at five hundred per cent premium, and while our armies subsist on half rations, our starving women and children are rising up in mobs and clamoring for bread; — then may we despond, but never till then ! then, but never till then, may we conclude that God is on the side of the rebels in this war ! Neither let us be uu grateful to God for his goodness to us. Turn not deserved thanks and praises into murmurings and complaints. But let us bear patiently, manfully, whatever God, in moulding the destinies of this nation, sees fit to lay upon us. Let us be hopeful, resolute, self-poised. Putting our trust in the God of battles — who is the the God of righteous- ness and truth, who hates oppression, sedition and treason — let us go forward, and He shall establish our cause in righteousness. And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army ; for his camp is very great : for he is strong that executeth his word. Let us rend our hearts before him this day, and turn unto the Lord our God ; for he is gracious aud merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Who knoweth if he v/ill return and repent and leave a blessing behind him ?