E458 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS DDQD5T7DDfifi r". ^^ y^MA'. %.a'' ''^'- ""«" -'^'' V'^' '•^^9^^ WHAT GOD REQUIRES OF THIS MTION. A SERMO f il 3Uri®63, I» readied on F-ast I>ay, A.pril HU, 1863 IN THK PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, LENA, ILL., BY REV. ISAAC B. BI^AISrCH, Pastor of the Baptist Church. CHICAGO: CHURCH »t GOODMAX, 51 La Salle Street. ^ 45S £21 E^^J^C Lena, April 31, 1863. REV^SfXc B. Branch: Dear Sir — Believing that the good of our common country and the cause of truth will be advanced thereby, we, the undersigned, respect- fully (Yequest a copy of your sermon, delivered on Fast Day, April 30, 1863, for publication. Respectfully yours, ^^^^^^^ S. H. M^E i^MiMA N, W. W. iIall, E. Ripley, D. Bai^ley, J. B. Hinckley, G. M. Barnes. 'OS- /4^9 WHAT GOD EEQUIEES. IsAiAu, Iviii : 6 : Is not this the fist that I have chosen ; to loose the bands of wickedness, to un- do the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke ? We are gathered here to-day in answer to the call of our Chief Magistrate. He in- vites us to seek the forgiveness of God for our national and individual sins. And while it becometh us to worship God in the great cono;rec;ation. I would fain b'^lieve that vou have not forgotten your family altars and your clcTsets. That from these has already ascended your humble and penitent cry for mercy, mingled with devout adofation of the Giver of every good and perfect gift. \i these have been neglected, you are but poorly pre- pared for the solemn assembly, and the in- structions of the sanctuary. God alone can give us a teachable spirit in those things pertaining to his worship ; and especially ability to discover the nature and number of our sins. AVe are constitu- tionally opposed to self-examination. Sin iurks in the secret chambers of the heart. — Like a nest of vipers in the deep, dark re- cesses of the rocks, it hides from the light ; we see not its double tongue, nor its slimy contortions. We dread not its deadly fangs, until God pours a flood of divine, all-search- ing light upon the foul nest of corruption. And, even then, like Cleopatra, we are much inclined to hide the viper amid the flowers and fruits of self-deception until it has ac- complished its work of death. If this be true of the sins of the individual heart, it is true, in a ten-fold degree, of the sins of this great Nation. Patriotism, and national pride conspire to blind a republican people to their national sins. Add to this the constantly cherished idea that as individ- uals among the millions, we — i. e. — you and I, are not responsible for the sins of the na- tion, and we find one of the chief obstacles to national repentance and reform. Patri- otism, than which, properly exercised, man has not a nobler virtue. Patriotism, I say, in swelling enthusiasm, cries out, " My coun- try first ! my country last ! and my coun- try forever !" And just one step further it cries, " My country, right, or wrong !" — This last was well-nigh a cry of universal acceptance in the late war with Mexico ; and yet a more heaven-daring sentiment, in war or peace, was never adopted by any people, and especially by a people who have the power to make their nation just M^hat they please. The fact is, there is no true patriot- /J7/ riotism in such a war cry. My country right is my country preserved and defended by the power of God, and my country wrong is my country in defiance of God Almighty. He- who will do wrong for his country, will not scruple to do wrong against his country, whenever interest prompts him to such a course. As evidence ot this, let me say that, so far as my memory serves me, the very men who were the bold originators of this horrid war-cry then, are the same men who now, when our country is well-nigh rent in- to ruinous fragments by this unholy rebel- lion, cry, " Peace — peace," and " Remember the Constitutional rights of the rebels." — They look upon our country, bleeding at ev- ery pore, caring not that she is either in her death agonies, or the birth throe of a higher life ; and like the venomous serpent, they strike their deadly fangs into her body cor- porate whenever and wherever they can do so and escape the war-club of her wrath. The fact is no man ever was a true patriot, who avowed himself ready to do or defend wrong for his country. I repeat he who will do wrong for his country, will do wrong against his country ! God has brought our executive and law- making power to acknowledge that some- how and somewhere there is a wrong among us, for which He is justly angry with us as a nation. And we are called together to- day to fast and pray, and seek to know what 6 that wronc is, that we may forsake it and obtain forgiveness. If we would obtain for- giveness of God we must fast in such a man- ner as will please God. It is, then, a ques- tion of the first importance, " How should our nation fast ?" I shall endeavor to an- swer this question, and with this object in view, I have chosen the text as a key to a right understanding of what God will accept at our hands. Isaiah was sent as a prophet to teach na- tions. His was no mission to individuals, except when individuals stood as representa- tives of a people. Hence you will find his prophecies addressed to Israel, Judah and the surrounding nations. This lact is of great importance in rightly understanding our text. That which is spoken to a nation, in its corporate capacity is often quite difierent from that which would be spoken to an indi- vidual under similar circumstances. What would be quite inapplicable and inappropri- ate to the one, would be entirely appropri- ate to the other. Our text and context are emphatically national in their bearing. Otherwise under- stood, they are in tacit contradiction with other portions of God's word. Of individ- uals God accepts prayer and fasting in sack- cloth and ashes. When the wicked king Ahab, by the advice of the woman Jezebel, had killed Naboth, and was about to take poi-:s?ssion of his vineyard, he was met by /r/ Elijah with denunciations for the act, and immediately " he rent his clothes and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly," and the Lord accepted it at his hands, so far as to put away the threatened calamity from him as an individual ; but as kings, neither he nor his family put away their idolatrous oppres- sion, nor loosed in their hearts their bands[of wickedness, and God finally cut them off with all the leaders in that national rebell- ion. So also these Jews whom Isaiah ad- dressed in our text, had fasted and were fast- ing as individuals. They were afflicting their souls — some of them hypocritically, it is true — but many sincerely. The honest and laithful among them wept over the sins of the nation, and all such men as Isaiah and J eremiah would gladly have put away the fearful sin of their nation ; but it was be- yond their power. The great mass of the nation was wholly given ua to idolatry and its laws were idolatrous and oppressive. So that, while as individuals, many of them fas- ted, and went softly before the Lord, and were accepted in so doing, yet, as a nation, God visited upon them the threatened calam- ities, and as individuals they suffered in those calamities. While a minority thus fasted, the major- ity fasted for strife, seeking by outward and apparent sorrow to avert the threatened ca- himities, that they might have the better op- 8 portunities under cover of national laws and customs to oppress and smite their fellows with the fist of wickedness. But our con- text says all this will not do ; this is not the fast that God has chosen. Thus our text teaches that, The only fast which God accepts of na- tions in their corporate capacity is the absolute and entire abolitio?i, jmttiny away of all wick- ed and oppressive laws. This is the fast he has chosen. And this fact is not without its obvious reasons : I. The first of these is that nations, as such, have no bodies except a body corpo- rate, and this body corporate cannot hunger and thirst — it cannot fast and pray. It can- not sit in sackcloth, nor yet dwell in ashes, with any consciousness of sorrow, or afflic- tion. If our nation must fast literally, who shall go hungry 1 Shall Abraham Lincoln 1 He is not the nation. Shall Congress and the Judges of the Supreme Court '? These are not the nation. Shall the Cabinet? They are not the nation. All, all these might die to-morrow, and still the nation would exist. All these may fast, and still the nation does not fast. Yet all these, elected by the peo- ple, create and keep in existence what God recognizes as the nation. II. Nations, as such, have no soul exce^it their expressed will or their enacted laws. — That which stands before God as the respon- sible existence of a nation is its corporate /^-^ doings. God recognizes as the nation what man recognizes as the nation, viz., not the agent; but the act. To illustrate, a minis- ter of state to a foreign government, no mat- ter how acceptable as an individual, will not be accepted and accredited if the law-mak- ing power instructs him to do things offens- ive to that government. Thus God told Israel (See Ezekiel 14 : 20) when the elders came to inquire of him, he would punish Israel for her sins, and " though Noah, Dan- iel and Job were in it, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter. They shall de- liver but their own souls by their righteous- ness." God looks behind the individual representative of a nation, righteous though he may be, and judges it by its national acts. Hence, the only way in which a na- tion, as such, can keep a fast acceptably to God is by putting away its wicked laws, its offensive corporate acts. This is the fast which God has chosen for nations. This, and this only, will he accept at our hands to turn away his wrath from us ! Now proper religious fasting by the in- dividual includes the hunting out and putting away sin, and also incidentally the purifying of body and soul. But you and I, and mil- lions more, including every individual in this state and nation, may bow down our heads like a bulrush with sorrow, afflicting and purifying as far as in our power soul and body both, and it will never purify the 10 soul and body of this nation ! God recog- nizes our Constitution and Laws as the body and soul of this nation. As individuals we ]nay, and should exercise the most humble penitence on account of the part we have had in the great sins of which the nation is guilty, and yet this will be at most but the begiiniing of the national fast which God re- quires of us. Nay, if ive go no further it will not be the beginning of such a fast ! God requres of nations, as such, not sack- cloth, ashes and tears, but acts I Acts that purge our statute books and Constitution ! Not that a man should afflict his soul, but that a nation should arise in its might and put away its legalized abominations ! Let us not deceive ourselves ; " God is not mock- ed." Let us not suppose that when we, the people of this nation, have becomingly spent this day of fasting and prayer we have done all that God requires of us — that we may then fold our hands in self-complacent ex- pectation that God will put away his judg- ments from us. Nay, let us rather feel that we have just buckled on our armor and rubbed the dust from our eyes ; that from this good hour we will go forth to hunt these obnoxious, God-defying laws from our stat- ute books as the Jews did the old leaven from their houses, that as a state and a na- tion we may become a new lump, which fehall not be a stench in the nostrils of Jeho- vah. /r3 That we may the better understand what we have to do, and where to begin in this work, let us turn again to our text and en- deavor to learn how to please God, in an acceptable and appropriate National Fast. Our text reads — " Is not this the fast that I have chosen, to loose the bands of wicked- ness, ti. undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke ?" 1. The first thing which we find here that God chooses, is, " to loose the bands of wickedness." These bands of wickedness I understand to mean the combinations which men form for the purpose of carrying out their wicked and selfish designs and purpos- es. Had we any of these among us when this war commenced ? Let us see. What were our two great political parties, and what had been their most prominent objects I I ask in all candor if their real foundation principles had not been, "To the victors belong the spoils ?" which is only another version of " Miglit makes right." And I ask again if, in carrying out this principle, they had not vied with each other in efforts to see which could most effectually " out- Ilerod Herod" in repudiating the law of God as being not at all applicable to national affairs? Have not both these parties in nearly all cases sought so to construe our Constitution as utterly to repudiate justice to one class, while they fed and the fostered 12 other on the spoils of oppression ? Look at it ! While the Constitution winks hard at slavery and oppression, it does not, except by forced yet customary construction, sanc- tion or establish that crime against God and man — human chattelism. But both parties, embodying the law-making power, have so interpreted it as to flivor the oppressor and not the oppressed. First came the compromises with the .slave oligarchy. Next came the annexation of Texas to keep up the balance of power for slavery. Next the Mexican war, which, however much that brigand people may have deserved it, will be found to have ]>een gotten up, nominally to avenge our wrongs, but really to extend the area of slavery. And it is no thanks to the wire- workers that it failed in the execution. It was God's mercy to this nation that pre- vented it. Had the territory acquired from Mexico been made slave territory it would have added not only the population, but the gold and silver of California to swell the number and wealth of our enemies. Do you doubt it 1 Show me one foot of slave terri- tory M'hich did not side with the rebellion in the outset of this war. On the other hand. Avhere is there a single rood of free territory which has stood up to divide and cripple our nation 1 Thus we see that had not God in his pro- vidence overthrown the quondam schemes 13 ^ of these bands of vrickedness, our nation would, in all probability, have been hope- lessly rent asunder. Next after this Mexi- "^"an war scheme came the oppressor thunder- ing at the doors of the Capitol, demanding ijreater security tor slave property. And Jongress, instead of telling him in the true vpirit of the Constitution, " Go, sir, and take »'our chattels as Northern and Southern men io their horses; go 'prove property, pay charges and take them away,' " instead ji saying or doing this. Congress passed a law which mounted, booted and spurred every U. S. Marshal in the land and set him off with all the blood-hounds of the nation yelping at his heels, to catch the panting fugitive to whom God had said "If ye may be free, choose it rather." And a vast majority of the nation sanc- tioned and glorified this law ; notwithstand- ing it actually violated the Constitution in ;many of its provisions; not the least of which is its unlawful suppression of the right to the writ of habeas corpus. And, by the way, it is a curious fact that the very men who have been the most earnest in abetting the execution of that illegal and unnecessary 1* suppression of that writ, are the first to * groan under its necessary and ler/al suppres- sion at the present time ! Thus it is that God often pays men down in their own coin. But, to return, when all this had been 14 done, as if the nation was not enough com- mitted to slavery by the Constitution and by this law, the Supreme Court came in with a decision which virtually said that one class, of four millions, had no rights which the out-numbering millions were bound to respect. In other words, '• might makes rio;ht," and " to the victors belono: the spoils." And the two great parties vied with each other in seeing which could most fully endorse the measure, and carry enough of the people with them to secure political preferment. Were these bands of wi(*ked- ness or were they not ? Look at them with eyes opened by the incidents and necessities of this war, and then decide the question. And did not these party bands extend from the school-house caucus for Constable up to the halls of Congress and the Supreme Court l Had not political corruption well nigh reached its climax in nearly if not quite all of the political organizations of the day ? Had not even professed Christians almost adopted the principle that " religion should have nothing to do with polities'?" Here then was need of such fasting as God requires, viz., "to loose (these party) bands of wickedness." But we did not thus last. And what we would not do for ourselves God sent this war to do for us. And how like lightning did it accomplish the work! The first gun at Sumter had scarcely ceased to echo through our forests ahd over our 15 /^'^ prairies, when behold Douglas and Seward, and uU the then great party-leaders, stood side by side as if by magic, striving to out- do each other in casting down their party war-clubs, and taking up the sword against the hydra-headed monster of this State Rights Slaveholding Rebellion ! — a rebellion nursed into life and activity by the cringing compromises of the law-making and execu- tive powers of this nation. 2. The second thing which God requires in an acceptable national fast is " to undo the heavy burdens and let the oppressed go free !" The law of Moses requires that " If thou see the beast of him that hateth thee lying under his burde^", thou shalt surely help him." Had we any beasts among us • lying under their burdens'? Nay, had we not human bein<:cs amonij us who were ground into beasts by the iron heel of op- pression? It is a burden under which our Anglo-Saxon blood (to say nothing of the ,■ poor African) is bound, and compelled to * grind in the prison-house of lust, in utter violation of God's law of marriage, and this too by the sanction of laws backed up and supported by your votes and mine. Were there not, and are there not still, millions groaning and dying under this load of op- pression? And is not our national law the galling chain that binds their burden upon them ? Did we fast — did we " undo these / heavv burdens before this war commenced ? ' f'. \ 16 Nay, did we not enter upon this war holding out even to the rebels the tempting assurance that, come what would, slavery should re- main as it was?" The burden should not be undone, and the oppressed should not go free ! The spiked heel of our nation should not bate one hair of its pressure upon these lour or five millions of human beings ! Did we not for months use these very beings as spies and guides for our army, and then either send them back to, or suffer them to fall into the hands of, their masters and be hung for their runaway service to us ? Was this undoing the heavy burdens ? Was this letting the oppressed go free ? But, as in loosing the bands of wickedness so in this case, what we utterly refused to do God has suffered this war to do for us. It has at last made us to know that by re- fusing to do this we were but feeding the scorpion which seeks to sting us to death. It has made us ashamed of our imbecility in supposing that we could feed the viper while extracting his fangs. Oh, I remember the words of our noble, yet sometimes err- ing Commander in Chief when he said, in substance, " I am not prepared to place black men in our army and navy on an equality with our white soldiers in fighting for our country." And I felt and said then, " that must be taken back before this war closes." A,nd as I look at the organized regiments of fieed men I am ready to exclaim, not "See 17 /^ how we have fasted as we should have done !" but " See how God has permitted our enemies to compel us to do his pleasure in these things !" Our proclamation of freeedom is not a vountary measure, but it is a war necessity. A cutting of the rope which, by God's permission, was tightening around the neck of this nation, and would soon have garrotted us into submission. And while 1 honor and respect our Presi- dent for the act, I repeat, it is not such an act of voluntary fasting as God requires, but an act forced upon us by our own persistent efforts in an opposite direction. Indeed, I know of but one voluntary act of our nation which takes a step in that direction, and that is the abolishing of slavery in the Dis- trict of Columbia. And to what sSi extent this was not an absolute necessity is yet to be shown. All else has been wrung from us by the increasing peril of the nation, as y] manifested in the full development of this >^ hell-born rebellion ! <^ 3. One other point in God's chosen flist claims our special attention at this time, and that is, " that ye break every yoke." Many an ox has been unyoked at night to be yoked again in the morning. And many an old ox has been unyoked for the slaugh- ter, that an unbroken steer might take his place in the yoke. The yoke was not brok- en. So Mr. Lincoln in his proclamation has broken no yokes. Thank God, he has un- 18 yoked ?ome thousands, if not millions, and some of them are already in the ranks for slaughter. But the yoke is not yet broken. This is yet to be done by the people at "the ballot box. So of the yokes of political parties, they are not yet broken. When the war broke upon us like a summer tornado, the politi- cal leaders unyoked the parties and said to them, " Go, fight for your country ;" but they set up the yokes for use whenever the " free fight" was over. What said Mr. Douglas ? I quote from memory : " First save the Union, and then we shall have a field on which to renew our party contests." And this was adopted and applauded by the great majority of our nation. And it was right, so far as the proposition to save our country was concerned. But he saved the yoke. " Then we shall have a field on which \to renew our party contests."* This unyoking was forced upon the lead- ers by the flict thhat as a nation we were, and are, well-nigh ruined by wearing these yokes o^ party regardless of w?'f/ic?*p/e. Let me illustrate this. Here are two men in a frail, open boat on the wide sea. They have gold on board which is the common property of both. They fall into a dispute, each finally laying claim to the entire amount. * Since this sermon was delivered I' see Mr. Crittenden comes out in similar lanijuage. 19 /^f From words they come to blows, and during their violent contest the boat springs a leak, and the water comes pouring in like a flood. They see it ; they must bail it or go to the bottom. None but fools or mad men would continue their contest under such circum- stances. And so these leaders, like wise men, unyoked the parties and said " Bail out." But I am sorry to say the mad men are not all rational yet. There are those that cry lustily " the ship is sinking," and yet con- tinue their unhallowed party contests. These men say, " Wear the yoke now." Mr. Douglas said, " Go free and fight for your country, but save the yoke." God says, " Break the yoke ." destroy it utterly^ that men may never come under its conscience- galling crooks again ! Look to God for principles and not to party leaders. Party leaders have laughed to scorn all appeals to " God's higher law " and appealed to the Constitution. There has been, and yet is a Constitution idolatry among us which God abhors. Our lathers that fashioned and adopted our Con- stitution never dreamed that it was perfect, and therefore made provision for its amend- ment. But we have christened it a god, and bowed down to worship it. What more does the heathen man '? He fashioneth his god with a graving tool, and then bows down to it. God will yet break up this idol- atry, if we do not forsake it. And if we ■^ 20 do not purge our state and national constitu- tions of their yokes of oppression, God will cast them to the moles and bats. Let me not be misinterpreted here. I counsel no violation of these constitutions ; but I do say amend them, so that they shall recog- nize God as the rightful ruler of the uni- verse, and all men as having an " inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap- piness." God has partially broken these political party yokes for us, and it remains for us to complete the work. This done, let us hunt for honesty, '• thrusting the lantern of Diog- enes in the face" of every party, no matter what its name or pretension, and if it bear not the test of this scrutiny, reject it, disown it, trample it under foot. Suffer no yoke to come upon your necks, but that which God imposes — viz., the obligation to do right. When you would seek for a lawma- ker, bring out your lantern and hunt for an honest. God-fearing man. Let the first ques- tion be that good old JefFersonian one, " Is he honest T Not is he a whig, democrat, or a republican, but in all his law making will he fear God and love justice ! Let this be the corner stone of preferment and these political and oppressive yokes will be bro- ken, scattered to the four winds, and we shall become " a people whose God is the Lord," and not the Constitution or the party. Let political leaders know that the people 21 // demand sober, honest men for office and we shall soon see such a fast in our nation as God requires. As it is, we are a nation which is ashamed to acknowledge God in our Constitution and laws, and afraid to al- together deny him. Our reform must be- gin with the foundation of our Government, the people. But just here lies the difficulty. The masses are corrupted. It is sometimes said religiously, " Like priest, like people." And it certainly might with equal propriety be said politically — " Like politicians like people." As was said of the Jewish nation, " The whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint." This is shown, not only in our laws, but in the daily transactions of business. It is shown in the laws of our own State. Adultery is a crime unknown to our State laws, while by the same laws our fellow-creatures are being sold into poor-hoU"?e slavery for the horrid crime of remaining on our polluted soil. Fraud and deception are lurking in almost every corner. Weights are light or heavy to suit the buyer or seller, graduated by the chances of detection. Adulteration of nearly all articles of commerce is the rule, and pu- rity is the great, grand exception. Bank- ruptcies for large amounts are deliberately planned and executed to enrich the bank- rupt. Frauds on the Government are of daily occurrence. Men make haste to be rich, and are not guiltless. Professed reli- V 22 aion shapes itself too often to the demands of a perverted and debauched popuhir opin- ion. Even the pulpit must sometimes ring forth the eloquence of angels and tlie smooth- tongued flattery of devils, or be repudiated by the professed disciples of the meek and lowly Jesus. Truly, "the whole head is sick, and the whole heart is fliint." And what is the remedy 1 It is not in re- form societies. If it were, we had been heal- ed long ago. This is pre-eminently an age of societies. We have societies for every- thing, and everybody is, more or less enga- ged in them. The remedy is two-fold, and God alone is the Great Physician. The first remedy is the converting, regenerating pow- er of God. This, and this alone can save us. This, like the salt which Elisha cast into the spring of Jericho, can purify the fountain heads of all this flood of iniquity. The un- savory salt of hypocrisy and lalse religion will never do it. The second is the judgments of God. — These cured Sodom, but they destroyed So- dom ! And these will soon cure us if the first remedy is not taken by enough individ- uals to save the nation. God Almighty holds the sceptre of mercy in one hand and the sword of justice in the other, beseeching us as a nation, and as individuals, to touch the one and escape the other. As a nation, we have thus iar said, " Nay, we will none of thy reproofs." And He hath already " whet- 23 ted his glittering sword, and his hand taketh hold on vengeance." Already is the wail of mothers, widows and orphans heard all over the land. In view of these facts, and what God re- quires of us, " let us humble ourselves un- der the mighty hand of God," and mourn- ing over our individual sins, let us arise to " loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke." Let us do this hopefully, trustingly, and with a ready mind. God will hear and answer prayers when our prayers and our acts go together. God does not demand of us in this emergency that we be craven-hearted cowards, and least of all that we be sneaking traitors, snapping and snarling at the heels of those who have gone to fight our battles. But he does demand that we smite with " the sword of the Lord, and of" Lincoln with all becoming loyalty. Samuel did not a holier work when ihe " hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord" than do our armies in hewing down these blood- hounds of the Pit, who have come in battk array to destroy the best government in ex- istence. While I see and mourn over the wrongs of the North, I envy not the man who can see no wrongs but Northern wrong-do- ings, and no rights but the Constitutional rights of rebels. Northern rights as com- pared with Southern rights in this war are, in my estimation, the rights of Esther and "-K^ 24: Mordecai. And Southern rights are the rights of Haman. And my prayer is that God will forgive the penitent and grant the incorrigible traitor his rights. Pray, my hearers — tast and pray — but see to it that you fast in a political and na- tional, as well as moral and religious sense. Fast at the ballot box if you would save our natioii. And by prayers and effort do all in your power to nerve the arm that strikes for liberty. If we strike for liberty we strike for God. If wc strike for oppression God strikes tcs ! V60 "^y-.-i tP-nK . t • o^ '*^. *♦ •^•-"'""^ ' v<,^>o'••\o*' :HO^ ** ^^"^ -c -^" .«