Class H^^Q ■col A SEIIMON present flalioiial f roubles, DKLIVEllKD IN TIIK WINTER STRliET CHURCH, JJ^1STTJA.TI-^ 4, isei, TPTE DAY OF THE NATIONAL FAST. BY JOHN 0. FISKE, PASTOR OF WINTER STREET CHURCH, BATH, ME. tf BATH: PRINTED AT THE DAILY TIMES OFFICE. 1861. en A SERMON ON TUB IPresciit IJntioital CroiiHes, DELIVERED IN TIIK WINTER STREET CHURCH, J-A.lSrTJ.A.I?,"5r 4, 1861, THE DAY OF THE NATIONAL FAST. BY JOHN 0. FISKE, I'ASTOR OF WINTER STREET CHURCH, BATH, MB. BATH: PRINTED AT THE DAILY TIMES OFFICE. 1861. Bath, January 9th, 1861. Rev. John 0. Fiske: Dear Sir : — The undersigned, having listened with much interest to the sermon delivered by you in Winter Street Church, on the occasion of the recent National Fast, and be- lieving that its general circulation would do much to allay the prejudices of the day, and to promote the cause of conciliation and peace at the present time, when the stability of the Union itself is imperilled, and our wisest statesmen stand aghast at the fearful prospect, would respect- fully request you to furnish a copy of the same for publication. Very respectfully, yours, &c., J. DRUMMOND, JOHN PATTEN, JAMES F. PATTEN, H. W. FIELD, T. O. STOCKBRIDGE, GEORGE F. PATTEN, DAVID T. PERCY, REUBEN SAWYER, THOMAS G. KNIGHT, THOMAS HARWAED, S. J. WATSON, N. C. A. JENKS, F. CLARK, G. TRUFANT, JAMES OLIVER. Bath, January 12th, 1861. Gentlemen -. — I am happy to learn that the sermon which I preached on the day of the Na- tional Fast in your opinion is adapted, in some measure, to answer the purpose for which it was prepared. There has been much written of late years in regard to the propriety of the discus- sions of the pulpit having any bearing on political affairs. I do not see how the general princi- ple can be properly denied that ministers of the gospel must decide for themselves, subject to their responsibility to God, what subjects they shall treat, and in what manner and to what ex- tent they shall present them. The only line of division which can be drawn between right and wrong preachipj on these subjects, is the line which discretion, prudence and a large-hearted charity for a'l men would draw. That some have erred in regard to these matters, there can be no reasonah e doubt. Whether I have or not must be submitted to the public. The day itself forced upon our consideration one single topic— our national troubles. It would have been im- pertinent to preach upon anything else. I have endeavored to do so in that spirit of concilia- tion, which, happily, is now characterizing the leading and best men of all parties, in all parts of the nation. May He " that maketh men to be of one mind in an house," deliver us fiom " un- reasonable and wicked men." whether found in one part of the land or the other, and perpetuate our free institutions and the Union of all our States, for many generations. If this sermon can be of any service in this gloomy hour for our country, it is very cheerfully submitted to your disposal. With sentiments of high regard. Very gratefully youri, JOHN 0. FISKE. To Messrs. J. Drummond, H. W. Field, David T. Percy, Thomas Harward, F. Clark, John Pat- ten, and others. -tr^ .■^ « *7 / SERMOIsT. Joel ii : 2. A day of darknesa and of gloomiDess, a day of olouda and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains. In these striking words the prophet describes a dark and desolating day that had come upon the favored land of Judah As the morning comes on, lighting up the mountains, suddenly and irresistibly proclaim- ing its advent to all the earth, so with this period of disaster and sorrow. A similar unfavorable day has come to our own beloved land. For the most part, indeed, we have had abundant harvests ; no mighty foreign power has invaded us ; no desolating epidemic has been mowing down our thousands ; the channels of commerce and of trade, until of late, have been full ; and yet now by the voice of the chief magistrate, all parts of our country are called to fasting and prayer to Almighty God for aid when help seems to fail us in all other quarters. I confess myself very incompetept to speak as the proprieties of the occasion demand. I am not acquainted with great matters of political interest, as I am with those of a theological and biblical character ; and although I entertain opinions in regard to the causes of our troubles and their cure, yet I feel myself unable to throw any new light upon subjects upon which the profoundest thoughts of millions of our countrymen have- been turned, and concerning which so many of our ablest and wisest men have spoken ; and yet, after all, there is great division of opinion in re- gard to them. You have all the sources of information open to you which I have, and many of you doubtless are more competent to form correct opinions on these subjects than I am. I have no revelation from God to communi- cate in regard to measures of party politics, but must confine myself to a few general principles and statements, which, after all, every one must apply for himself. These are times of high party excitement ; and witli the utmost care, a minister, on such an occasion as this, may fear that he will offend some, and perhaps permanently benefit none. Still, as one 4 humble citizen among many in all our vast republic, and as a CliristiaFA minister, it seems to devolve upon me, in God's providence, to ask your attention to-day to some thoughts concerning our national troubles. And although the task is a difl&cult and delicate one, I will not shrink from what seems to be duty from any apprehension of evil consequences. I have often thrown myself on your kindness and candor for a fair hearing, and you have never failed me. And so, with God's help, I feel it my duty to try again. First. What are some of our present national troubles ? In the first place, then, among the cii'cumstances which go to make this a very grave and solemn crisis, — 1. Is the fact of secession and much angry and embittered feeling in the southern part of our land. One State, — perhaps two, — has already declared herself as no longer a part of our Union, and there is serious reason to fear that within a short time a large number of others will de- the same. Property, arsenals, forts, a pubhc vessel, and military sup- plies of the general government have been seized ; large companies of soldiers are in arms ready for actual conflict ; the spirit of disunion and disaffection seems to spread. A determination appears to exist never again to return to harmony and peace, except upon such conditions of conciliation and compromise as multitudes at the North are wholly un- willing to grant; and I may add, that many very unreasonable and ex- travagant demands of the kind are ipade, to which the majority of our people will not yield. A very general suspiciousness exists in regard to citizens from this part of the country ; and doubtless much harsh and un- just treatment may have been inflicted upon some of them. The con- sciences of the North, and the eonsciences of the South alike are aroused in the conflict. Each party quotes the solemn authority of God's Word as indubitably favoring its own view, furnishing for the threatening con- flict all that peculiar and unrelenting bloodiness and bitterness which have always characterized religious wars. The South regards the North as led on by the demon of infidelity : the North regards the South as married to the still more horrid monster of slavery. In former years one single State only, and but a portion of that, has been arrayed in opposi- tion to the general government, while other States all around, with the same institutions and interests to support, stood ready, sword in hand, to maintain the authority of our laws. Now, many States with great cai'- nestness appear to feel determined that coercion shall not be employed t^ bring back any seceding States to their duty. The business of secession has been entered upon in an unconstitutional manner, and with very much of haste. "While this state of feeling exists and increases at the South, every week there seems to be growing at the North a disposition to settle the complicated and irritating strife by a stern and .solenni appeal to the God of battles. At a former period there existed at the South a prevailing conviction of the moral and social evil nature of slavery, and a readiness to listen to any suggestions kindly offered as to the means of the removal of the system from their borders. I myself had, by years of residence there, abundant opportunity to know this. But the increased profitableness of slave-labor has doubtless jn-esented a strong argument to the selfish prin- ciple against listening to any propositions whether for immediate or grad- ual emancipation ; while the bitterness and the heat with which the soutli- ern people have been assailed fi-om the North have contributed also very materially to close their minds and hearts against every species of per- suasion or argument ; and now the institution of slavery is comjjletely justified as one deserving to be perpetuated to all coming time, and ex- tended to every land. Wliilo even despotic Russia, and Holland and France and other civilized nations are hastening to emancipate all their subjects from the thraldom of chattel slavery, in the southern part of our country the institution seems to be in full favor, and large bodies of men desire even the re-establishment of the African slave trade. This surely is a dark picture for the South. But I must pass to remark, in the next place, as the second unhappy feature in this time of trouble, — 2. That there have been great and unseriptural heat of temper and harshness of judgment and conduct here with regard to our southern brethren. We have upheld in the Senate and in the House of Repre- sentatives in Congress, men who have seemed to make it a study to be- rate and abuse, with every insulting and vilifying epithet, our Christian brethren at the South, denouncing them as '' barbarians, ^^ and in other harsh terms, — as though that would do any good ! In the speeches that have been made, and in the sermons that have been preached all over our part of the land, the harshest and most vituperative language has often been that which called out the loudest applause and the heart- iest amen. The foray of a wicked fanatic upon the territory of a slave State, called out from many of our people here a deep and ap- plauding synipatliy. When the wretched criminal met with his just dc- sei'ts u])on the gallows, bells were tolled in a number of our cities and towns, expressive of our sorrow. Large meetings were called to express sympathy for his family — a family that entirely justified his deed ! Eminent men pronounced his eulogy, and declared that "he was right." A learned and eloquent clergyman of our own denomination, in this State, in a sermon preached on the occasion of this raid, spoke thus : " The laws may make him a murderer, but his motives ivill canonize Mm as a saint and a hero I He was not a man thirsting for blood, but was supreme- ly bent on accomplishing a humane object in a humane manner .'" "And this is the man that was hung on Friday ! A man's instincts of piety and humanity leading him to do that for which the laws hang him ! Then the law, and piety and humanity must be somewhere in dreadful conflict with each other. It must be that we have something among us which we protect by law, fortify by legislation, and work the machinery of o-overnment to uphold, which piety, conscience and humanity condemn — which they pronounce accursed. What, then, has sacrificed this man's life, is wickedness sanctioned by law — crime made lawful — oppression and robbery taken under the protection of government, and made practi- cal virtues." " You cannot quash what I believe will be the verdict of this age and of all ages, that John Brown was a good man." So pleased were this gentleman's church and society with these senti- ments, that with a high compliment they asked and obtained a copy of the sei-mon for the press. And what this clergyman uttered, others also uttered. Orators here among us have produced a sort of convulsive shudder among their audiences, by telling them that by southern laws the negro is pronounced " a chattel / " carrying with their words the im- pression that God's image in the soul was by this legal phrase actu- ally quite obliterated, and his immortal soul as good as annihilated. Who can measure the indignation that has been aroused by the idea of thus annihilating immortal souls by the legislation of southern States ; though, after all, these " annihilated" souls are largely instructed fi-om week to week in the principles of the Christian rehgion ; are, many of them, we hope, going up to heaven every year ; and the deliberate murder of a slave by his master, if properly proved, is a crime punishable in many, if not all of the Southern States, with death ! We have been unwiUing to hear even the truth in extenuation of the institutions of our brethren at the South. Our anti-slavery principles have not been strong enough to bear more than one class oi facts. We have been afraid if we heard of any thing in favor of slavery, wc should not hate it bit- terly enough. An eminent clerg}^nian of New England, a few years ago pub- lished a book stating some foots which he himself saw, and gathered up at Savannah and vicinity. Nobody ever pretended to deny that the facts were as affirmed, and while the author of the book did not endorse the system of slavery as worthy of perpetuation and imitation, yet, for merely publishing in a very mild and quiet manner these undeniable /«c/s, show- ing tliat tlie blacks are not always under the whip, or on the rack or the burning coals, but do sometimes smile and appear happy, he was assailed with the coarsest and most unsparing vituperation, and largely lost the confidence even of his ministerial brethren in New England. Very glad- ly, if they could have done it, would they have erased his name from among the Publishing Committee of the great religious Tract Society established at New York, for no other reason than telling unpleasant truth. The sin and enoi-mity of slavery have been held up as if it were really the most horrid iniquity that affronts the face of the sun ; as if it were the chief of all the evils of which we have cause to repent, and as if there were no alleviating words that could be said in its behalf. We talk much of the awful violations of the law of marriage there, and are shocked at the unscriptural manner in which married people are often separated. But here at the North I need not say how licentiousness stalks abroad un- blushino; in our large cities. The laws also of all om- States, are in direct violation of the law of God on this very subject of the abrogation of the marriage contract, and yet we are not at all disturbed by it. Scores and huiulrods of divorces are granted every year by wicked human laws at the North, in the very face and eyes of God's Word, which allows of divorce for one cause only ; and nobody is troubled, because we are used to it, and bocau.se it is very convenient and desirable for us, we think, thus to trample on God's law ; but the want of a scriptural regard to the sacred- ness of the marriage contract at the South, is a dreadful affair ! The fact attested by all intelligent travellers, and by the most pious missionaries, that, as compared with the condition of the inhabitants of Africa in their own land, it has been vastly for their elevation and improvement that the colored people have become slaves in this country, goes for notliing. The fact that while they were all wretched, impenitent heathen in Africa, hundreds of thousands of them in this country are", it is hoped, true Chris- tians, goes for nothing. The fact that slaveholders and slaves were found In the cliurclies gathered by the Apostles of Christ, goes for nothing. Those holy men are represented as far behind the times ; and though they quietly ministered among slavebolding churches, trusting to the gradual operation of general principles to extirpate the evil of slavery from the world ; yet multitudes among us demand such a style of ministerial labor and ecclesiastical action in the slavebolding States, as has effectually shut them all up against the operations of one of the great missionary societies, and then all the evil is charged to slavery ! We set up a standard of purity on this subject far higher than was held by the Apostles themselves. The leading abolitionists among us, whose efforts have contributed so largely to give vitality to the modern anti-slavery enterprise, are undis- guised infidels, who oppose and attack the Bible and Christiaiiity persist- ently, because they see the Bible does not justify their notions of the in- herent wrong of slavery under all circumstances ; and yet this character of our pleased and earnest and applauding coadjutors does not at all embar- rass us, or awaken any suspicion that we are in the wi-ong. "We cannot ourselves tell what to do with the slaves. Very few among us would dare to recommend that they all should be immediately and uncondition- ally emancipated. We would not have them migrate and settle down in ail their ignorance and vice and dependence in our own towns and States, and yet we make it out as the great crime of the age that our brethren at the South are yet holding slaves. We have passed unconstitutional and irritating laws, to hinder our southern brethren fi-om obtaining again their fagitives from service ; and, I take it, in the deep heart of many of our northern ^jeople — certainly, not of all ; certainly, not of those who deny it — the real meaning of the groat election that has just occurred is, that this accursed system of slavery shall die. They mean to throw a cordon of fire around this infernal system, as they regard it, and utterly, and as soon as possible consume it from the earth. They do not mean to do this persuasively, but by all the mighty force of government. They mean to have what they call " free speech " inaugurated at the South as well as at the North, meaning by this, such a style of address as will inevitably brino- on serv'ile insurrection : and then, in the midst of all the bloodshed and misery among the blacks and whites, that will ensue, they are ready to exclaim, " See what awful evils the system of slavery has brought about ! We told you so, and you ought long ago to have set your negroes free !" Unwilling longer to rely on those mild, persuasive, moral meas- ures which alone can promote a good moral reform, many among us, — 1 "by no ttieatis mean all of the dominant party,* — seem to bave determined to brino- our southern brotlircn into the practice of good morals by tlic power of the ballot-box. If tlicy will practice their iniquities for awhile at homo, there is a determination, Nvith many at least, to prevent their extending tliem anywhoi-c else ; and so, in due time, forcibly bring the whole business to an end. Another cloud whith contributes towards the tlarkness of the present times is,— ^ 3. The intense selfishness and party spirit wliich prevail so exton^ sively in the political world. It would doubtless be too sweeping to say there are no exceptions to this ; but looked at, on the whole, is it not hard to know who among our public p<:)litical men are worthy of our trust? Is it not hard to gay who he is, who in the opinions he adopts, and in the m<>asurcs he pursues, is not actuated by a supreme desire to secure his own personal and party interests ? Our treasuries, National and State, seem to be regarded as fair objects of plunder, and the pre* vailing spirit all over the country is always to charge to the government a far larger price for services or supplies or property of any kind than is demanded or expected from any other quarter. When groat measures are proposed in Congress, instead of having the action upon them which the individual and conscientious judgments of our legislators and public officers would suggest, wo ham every reason to believe that a great part of them meanly ask, first of all, what will be their bearing on their party or themselves ! A good measure they will oppose and defeat "be^ cause it happens to originate with the other party, and would be likcly to bring to it some credit and advantage. Our legislators and executiA"C officers pander basely to the passing whims, caprices and excitements of the people. There is great reason to fear that some who have been \m- der oath to support our constitution and laws, have been treasonably plotting for their overthrow. Instead of standing up in opposition, even to their constituents, unselfishly, and with no hope of future political re- ward for it, as Mr. Burke did against his constituents in Bristol, and as some men in our own country have done, our public men, to a large extent, drift with what they think is, or they can mal-e to be, the popular current, whether good or bad. They do not look on subjects with the eyes of statesmen interested for the good of the whole country, but with the eyes of party. No bitterness of language is too great to apply to public offi- cers. As an instance of this, let me remind you how a few weeks ago 2 10 the policy recommended by many presses and men of all parties and of no party to our present President, was to let the seceding States quietly go off without making any opposition ; and then when he, unwisely per- haps, adopted for a time this very policy, some of the same journals and men became loud and emphatic in denouncing the poltroonery and treas- on of such forbearance and concession ! 0, shall the time ever come with our men in high authority when they shall practically feel that they live to minister to others rather than to be ministered unto ! Shall the time ever come when our educated and intelligent men, instead of taking ad- vantage of popular prejudices and excitements to swell an already dan- gerous tide, in order by means of it to ride into places of power and profit, shall just honestly give their opinions and adopt their measures with a broad regard to the welfare of our whole land ! But while there is so little of this, — and I am not aware that one party has any advantage over any other in this respect, — is it not an alarming and gloomy time ? When supreme selfishness, instead of sound judgment and true patriot- ism, rules the hour, what will be the result ? Another element of the trouble of this exigent and solemn period is, — 4. Extreme intolerance of individual opinion. Everybody must be made to think as the great mass do at the present moment ; or, at least, be wholly silent, or be crushed under the iron wheels of popular tyranny. Take it in the southern part of our country. Who beheves that intelli- gent and influential men there, who may happen to take a different view from the majority, of the course best to be adopted, have any true freedom to make their opinions and influence felt? Does not the present storm of popular fuiy bear away all before it, and cause an appearance of unanimity to be presented, which, in all probability, does not really exist? All their influence for doing good in every du:ection they must sacrifice unless they bow to the popular demands in this. Their property and their lives might be endangered by independence, as they would at once be regarded as disaffected persons, favoring the suhjugation of the South. Under these circumstances, is it strange that, as prudent men, they keep silence in so evil a time — in so mad an hour ? And we have seen much of this even among ourselves. Twenty-five years ago those who held and expressed what were regarded as extreme sentiments on the subject of slavery among ourselves were met sometimes with a storm of obloquy, and sometimes with personal violence. Presses were destroyed, and meetings were broken up or disturbed. The right 11 of petition was furiously denied, and the life of one of our noblest men — an ex-President — was sternly menaced on account of his advocacy of this right of petition on the floor of Congress. Then the intolerance passed along to he practiced by those who had themselves been the victims of it. When, for example, a particular form of law on the subject of temperance was popular with the masses in our own State, no purity nor holiness of character could shield any one from the most vulgar abuse, if he did not see as his fellow men did. Even the really good men who concurred with the masses in opinion, could do noth- ing to withstand this persecuting and vindictive spirit. All doubt about the supreme excellence and importance of a particular law was opposition to temperance and to God ; and such opposers were to be cried down, and bespattered with every vile name. And so on this subject of slavery. It made no difference that one de- clared himself opposed to it ; if he could not adopt and freely use just the epithets, and pursue just the course wliich seemed best to the major- ity, he was denounced and avoided and persecuted as mercenary, base, intensely selfish — utterly destitute of conscience and independence. Free- dom among us it has been attempted by many to make simply a freedom to think and act as the most violent and persecuting think and act. Now, this is a very dark and dangerous cloud. I know there is a li- centiousness and abusiveness of speech which ought to be suppressed. Men have no right to go into their neighbor's families or neighborhoods and counsel children to disobey parents, or the evil-minded to destroy property. This is illegal and wrong. Men have no right to influence the bad passions of the young or the old by obscene prints or statements. This also is all wrong. Men have not the rio-lit in usino; what is called by the holy name of "free speech" to pull down the institutions of their country. This also is flagrantly wicked. But while they keep within legal and decent limits — much more when they show that, on the whole, they are actuated by a truly Christian and benevolent spirit, there ^b'^uui be perfect kindness and fairness in listening to them, and in suffering them to express the views which they honestly entertain. But all men, even among us, are not yet sufficiently tolerant and liberal for that. Only that kind of speech which favors their views they think ought to be really free. It is a dark time, then, for our country, when there is so extensively the suppression of the opinion of many whose counsels and influence might be of value. 12 The leadino" feature of all in this day of gloominess and darkness is, — 5. The imminent danger of the general dismemberment of these United States. I know there are those who tell us "only stand firm and there is no danger." They laugh at this Fast-day, and represent that all tlireats of secession mean nothing. They would have no concession, no compromise, but a steady going forward as they have gone. There are those who tell us these are the very days they have been hoping and pray- ing for long. They "feelgood" while the foundations of government rock, and aU departments of industry and business are in peril, and when our government at this very moment is obUged to pay twice the legal rate of interest to procure money for its necessary uses. But if the most trustworthy men in the nation can be believed, without some conciliatory measures and something decided in the way of accommodating abstract theories to the constitutional rights and privileges of a large portion of our fellow citizens, this government must be broken up, or maintained only by a bloody war, and the subjugated portion must then for the future be held as a conquered province. To what good ends, on the whole, a merciful Providence might overrule even the dismemberment of our country into two or more independent republics, we cannot tell. But as far as we can &ee, the results would be most deplorable. Our fall as a government would be a disaster to the human race. The enemies of free institutions would rejoice at the failure of this grandest attempt ever made by a great people to govern themselves, and the chains of despotism would be fastened more closely than ever on the necks of millions of mankind. "WTio would ever dare to proolaun the wisdom of a republican government again, if here in this land of the pilgrims, this land of Bibles and gen- eral education, it should now disastrously fail ? And let me say, if we begin to break up, nobody can tell where the process of division and of the impairing of our institutions will end. We shall then have introduced and adopted the principle for the first time in our history into our govern- ment that if any party at any time cannot obtain the gratification of all its desires, we must separate. Compromises must be renounced; and to what end might not subdivisions then go ? Where could any one of the remaining confederacies obtain any national credit if such principles are avowed, and the power of government to uphold its laws be denied ? What protection could our citizens have among other nations, when over each would wave only the miserable banner of some provincial confeder- acy ? To what exactions and insults would not our commerce be exposed 13 upon the high soas and among foRMgn nations? Where would be that mighty power in which we may now stand up anywliere in the earth and demand our rights ? And the various occasions for difficulty and strife be- tween different sections and indiviiluals of our land wliich may now be settled according to a fixed and recognized code of laws, in court, would before long be very likely to lead to the deadly arbitrament of war. And suppose fraternal war should ensue ; and our wisest statesmen have al- ways told us there cannot be a ^leaceable secession or disruption of our States. Burdened with taxes, our families shrouded in mourning for the dead, our industrial pursuits fearfully broken up, our foreign commerce destroyed, at the mercy of whatever successful military leader should claim to hold the government for himself, what would become of our great en- terprises of Christian benevolence and of every good cause ? With all the vices to which war gives such a luxuriant growth, with the Sabbath trampled under foot, with troops marching and passing through their pro- cesses of discipline on all days of the week aldie, as is almost unavoida- ble in war, what would be likely to become of the cause of Christ among us for a long time to come ? True, our brethren at the South might suf- fer even more. But would that be a proper source of pleasure, and would anything but political and social and religious disaster for a long time to come be likely to be the result ? Second, Whither now, let us inquire, in the second place, in these times of gloom, are we to look for relief and help ? 1. To God in prayer. I hail with a solemn joy the recommendation of our President in this respect in this day of our need. It is nothing short of a cold, blank and cheerless Atheism, or frivolous thoughtlessness or base hypocrisy, that can sneer at such an appointment. Among all nations in time of peril, especially when other help seemed inadequate, recourse has always been had to God. Our own nation was establL-^hed in prayers. The foundations of our infant colonies were all laid in c;irnest supplications to God. When a comparatively feeble people, we placed ourselves in hostility to the mighty power of Great Britain, there was much of very earnest prayer ascending to God from all parts of the land for his aid, and it was heard by the "God of Sabaoth." Washington of- ten retired alone from the di.stracting tumult of the camp and the anxie- ties of the council-board, to pour out his troubled heart to God in j)rayer : and God, who saw the great commander in secret, himself rewarded him openly. And do we not need God's aid now ? Is not the disease too 14 great to admit of cure except by Almighty skill? Have not all plans of reconciliation and adjustment hitherto failed, and is not the hour of bloody strife apparently approaching every day ? Would we see angry feeling allayed? remember then how Jacob plead all night in prayer at the brook, as Esau, in anger, was approaching him with an armed band of four hun- dred men to cut him off. That was a memorable, painful night, but the morning's dawn brought to him a brother melted in tears of reconciliation and love. God can allay excited feelings, and spread fiir and wide the spirit of peace. When Hezekiah spread out the blasphemous letter of the King of Assyria before God, and made his earnest supplication to the God of heaven, his own prayer, and that of others of the pious, was heard, and the Angel of the Lord went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians in one night a hundred and eighty-five thousand men. Do we need wisdom to counsel us on what righteous and equitable terms to settle all our occasions of trouble ? "Wisdom and might are His. He revealeth the deep and secret things : He knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with Him. He giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding." When Daniel and his companions desired mercies of the God of heaven concerning the secret dream of the King, the answer was graciously given to their im- portunate prayers. The same Almighty and merciful Euler can give wisdom to our people in all parts of the land in answer to the prayers wo offer to-day. A spirit of greater kindness may thus begin to prevail and God vindicate his ancient promise, "I said not to the seed of Jacob, seek ye me in vain." But with proper prayer there must always be joined the use of all sui- table means of bringing about a desired result which are within our power. In the second place, then, — 2. We must adopt milder methods of discussing and treating grave and delicate affairs of national interest. It is very obvious that a less headstrong, violent and vindictive policy ought to prevail at the South. They have unconstitutional laws, perhaps, which they ought to repeal, and very much of pride and indiscriminate prejudice and wrath, which they ought to abate. And is not this also true of us ? Are there not with us also sins against the Lord our God, or are all our prayers this day to be offered that God "would give repentance to those hardened "wretches" at the South? No, no; tee have sins to deplore and to put away. If you should enter into a close business partnership with a gen- 16 tloman, and at the time ■were known to have difforent religious opinions from Ills, and another private branch of busine>'s of your own, in wliich he did not share, but to which he gave his consent, would he have a right by every odious epithet and argument and scrap of information, to load you with reproach, and to bring down in the heaviest possible manner, public scorn and indignation upon you? How long would you con- tinue a member of sucli a partnership as that, if such a course were pursued ? If wo think the religious opinions or moral practices of any partner of ours erroneous or somewhat sinful, it would doubtless be proper for us in courteous and respectful terms, as long as we could secure a friendly hearing, to converse with him upon them, and it would be his duty, kindly and candidly, to listen to such kind and respectful addresses. If he were disposed in an imi)ertinent and obtrusive manner, to attempt to inoculate the minds of our children with his bad notions, or to set up his practices in our own private house, we ought, I think, very decidedly to object. But as long as we profe>