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OUR COUNTRY'S TROUBLES, NO. II. 
 
 OR 
 
 NATIONAL SINS AND NATIONAL RETRIBUTION. 
 
 A 
 
 SERMON 
 
 PREACHED IN THE 
 
 CHURCH OF THE COVENANT, 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, JULY 5, 1857. 
 
 BY THF 
 
 REV. DUDLEY A. TYNG, 
 
 B£ C T OB. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 WILLIAM S. k ALFRED MARTIEN, 
 
 No. 606 Chestnut Street. 
 1864. 
 
-^33 
 
 •T^& 
 
 Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by 
 
 DUDLEY A. TYNG, 
 
 la the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the United States, in and for 
 the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 
 
 
SERMON. 
 
 " At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a 
 
 KINGDOM, TO BUILD AND TO PLANT IT ; IP IT DO EVIL IN MY SIGHT, THAT IT OBEY NOT 
 MY "VOICE, THEN I WILL REPENT OF THE GOOD WHEREWITH I SAID I WOULD BENEFIT 
 
 THEM." — Jer. xviii. 9, 10. 
 
 "They HAVE sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind." — Hos. 
 viii. 7. 
 
 "The Lord SPAKE thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that 
 
 I SHOULD NOT WALK IN THE WAY OF THIS PEOPLE, SAYING, SAY YE NOT, A CONFED- 
 ERACY, TO ALL THEM TO WHOM THIS PEOPLE SHALL SAY, A CONFEDERACY; NEITHER 
 FEAR YE THEIR FEAR, NOR BE AFRAID. SANCTIFY THE LoRD OP HOSTS HiMSELF ; 
 AND LET Him BE YOUR FEAR, AND LET HiM BE YOUR DREAD. AnD He SHALL BE FOR 
 
 a sanctuary ; but for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence, to 
 both the houses of israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabihants of 
 Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, 
 
 AND be snared, AND BE TAKEN. BiND UP THE TESTIMONY, SEAL THE LAW AMONG MY 
 
 DISCIPLES." — Isa. viii. 11 — 16. 
 
 I HAVE read these three passages of Scripture because 
 together they present a subject whose full scope is 
 reached by neither. They all concern God's providen- 
 tial government over His people Israel as a nation. The 
 first declares God's absolute sovereignty over nations, 
 and the retributive justice with which He will make 
 His purpose and dealings correspondent with their own 
 doings. The second, from Hosea, relates to the sins of 
 the ten tribes of Israel, and declares that, as they had 
 sown, so should they reap ; their sin itself becoming the 
 source of chastisement. The third, from Isaiah, ad- 
 
dressed to Jiidah at a time of great national distress, 
 contains God's pointed rebuke of their policy of deliver- 
 ance, with an indication of their true refuge and of the 
 duty of His faithful disciples. Taken together, they 
 present us with the subject of God's providential rela- 
 tion to nations, especially in regard to National sins and 
 their retribution. 
 
 After the very emphatic command to the prophet Isa- 
 iah, publicly to oppose and rebuke the iniquitous policy 
 of his countrymen, no apology, I presume, is required 
 from a teacher of religion for directing attention to na- 
 tional sins. Should any be demanded, I have none to 
 offer. A year ago I felt it necessary to preface an appli- 
 cation of religious principle to public policy by an argu- 
 ment for the right and duty of the course. The unseemly 
 interruption which ensued, and the public discussions of 
 the rights and province of the pulpit thereby occasioned, 
 have caused a careful review of the general principle 
 and of the particular discourse. I cannot abate one 
 
 hair's breadth of the position then ASSU3IED. In full 
 
 view of its results to myself and others, I can feel noth- 
 ing but thankfulness for the opportunity of preaching 
 with all boldness what my calmest re-considered judg- 
 ment pronounces simply the truth of God. The storm 
 of opposition has only given currency to the views of 
 the sermon, and confirmed the freedom of the pulpit in 
 the consciences of thousands of God's ministers and of 
 hundreds of thousands of His people. The public ver- 
 dict on the case has enfranchised the sacred desk. God 
 grant that those privileged to stand therein may never 
 
shun to declare the whole counsel of God, whether men 
 will hear or whether they will forbear. 
 
 Without apology, therefore, or defence, I call your 
 attention to the subject which our texts set before us. 
 
 I. We will consider, first, the general principles 
 which they establish. The application of these princi- 
 ples will form the second head of our discourse. 
 
 1. These passages of Scripture, then, teach us God's 
 sovereignty over nations. By this I mean His absolute 
 power and control over their existence and destiny, and 
 His supreme appointment of all the good or evil which 
 they receive. Their origin and progress, decay and dis- 
 solution, and all the fortunes and interests which lie 
 between, depend absolutely upon Him. This was the 
 truth specially impressed upon Jeremiah in the passage 
 quoted from him as a text. " The word came to Jere- 
 miah from the Lord, saying, Arise, and go down to the 
 potter's house, and there will I cause thee to hear my 
 words. Then I went down to the potter's house, and, 
 behold, he wrought a work upon the wheels. And the 
 vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of 
 the potter : so he made it again another vessel, as seemed 
 good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the 
 Lord came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I 
 do with you as the potter \ saith the Lord. Behold, as 
 the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, 
 O house of Israel. At what instant I shall speak con- 
 cerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck 
 up, and to pull down, and to destroy it ; if that nation, 
 against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil. 
 
6 
 
 I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. 
 And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, 
 and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it ; if 
 it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I 
 will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit 
 them." Humbling enough to human pride may this 
 doctrine be; but it has the sanction of history as well 
 as of inspiration. "We look back with pride on the hero- 
 ism of our national origin, apd the splendor of our pro- 
 gress ; we speculate on the causes of our growth, and 
 complacently discuss the elements of our character and 
 policy; but we must go higher for the cause of our 
 causes, and the origin of our elements, even to Him who, 
 while He hangeth the earth upon nothing, has " made 
 its round orb so sure that it cannot be moved." It was 
 the eternal purpose of God to raise up a republic for a 
 home of the oppressed, and a source of liberty and reli- 
 gion to the world. And therefore, hath He spoken 
 concerning our nation, " to build and to plant it." But 
 He can as easily speak concerning it, " to pluck up, and 
 to pull down, and to destroy." And where, then, would 
 be our boasted strength and progress 1 
 
 2. Again, our texts teach us that God will take note 
 of national offences. "We are prone enough to forget 
 that God will take note of any iniquities. But there is 
 an indefiniteness in the action of multitudes which in- 
 creases the tendency. We lose our identity in the 
 crowd, and think lightly of our individual responsibility 
 for what is the action of the whole. Yet God loses not 
 sight of it. He never has forgotten, and never will for- 
 
get, public iniquities. The history of His chosen nation 
 is not peculiar in this respect. It is peculiar only in 
 having the light of inspiration thrown upon this feature 
 for the instruction of mankind. All other nations have 
 been, and will be, dealt with alike. No matter how 
 high their privileges, or how glorious their progress, be 
 sure their sin will find them out. God's book of re- 
 membrance will be a swift witness against them. " At 
 what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and 
 concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it ; if it do 
 evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will 
 repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit 
 them." 
 
 3. Another principle here declared is, that God's 
 dealings with nations involve a present retribution. In- 
 dividual responsibility for public action will come out to 
 light at a future tribunal; and eternity will bear witness 
 to the omniscient justice wherewith each participator in 
 the sin shall receive his reward. To that tribunal let all 
 the nation, high and low, leaders and led, deceivers and 
 deceived, solemnly look forward. For "God will bring 
 every work into judgment, with every secret thing; 
 whether it be good, or whether it be evil." 
 
 But, besides this individual and eternal retribution of 
 all joint sins, there is also a present and national one. 
 God's justice is complete. And, therefore, those aggre- 
 gations of men which will not survive the present world 
 are dealt with in it. Whether it be a nation, or a com- 
 munity, or corporation, God will administer justice be- 
 fore its dissolution, and make manifest even here that, 
 
" though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not go un- 
 punished." The present retribution is a corporate one ; 
 that is, it overtakes the guilty in the peculiar relation 
 wherein they were associated in their crime. And 
 coming thus, it holds the whole relationship to account. 
 Whether it be institution, community, or nation, it suf- 
 fers penalty as such ; and, therefore, the innocent suffer 
 with the guilty. The body corporate suffers, and all its 
 parts must sympathize. When ruin follows public fraud, 
 or war or pestilence scourges a guilty nation, there is 
 no discrimination among the members. The joint rela- 
 tionship implicates in the corporate act even the igno- 
 rant and the protesting; and for the corporate act they 
 must corporately suffer. Beyond this, the account will 
 be made straight at the day of judgment. In this world, 
 I said, they must corporately suffer. And yet, in truth, 
 the suffering even here is individual; for it is still in 
 individual feeling and interest, though by means of a 
 corporate relationship. A nation is but an aggregate of 
 individuals ; its welfare, of individual welfares ; its mis- 
 ery, of individual miseries. When it sins, it is the sin of 
 individuals ; either of a majority, or of the whole through 
 their representatives. When it is chastised, the blow, 
 wherever and whatsoever, must fall on individual homes 
 and hearts. A besieged city refuses to capitulate. Fa- 
 mine and pillage make no discrimination in their vic- 
 tims. And thus in God's retribution of nations, we see 
 the strange spectacle of unwilling and protesting pri- 
 vates overwhelmed in ruin, while guilty leaders make 
 their escape; or we see another generation made to suf- 
 
9 
 
 fer for the sins of their fathers. Seem the scales un- 
 balanced'? They will be equalized hereafter. The 
 design, meanwhile, is to deepen the concern of the good 
 for public action, by the knowledge that they must 
 share its results. Otherwise, they might yield to dis- 
 gust at collision with the bad, and, assured of their 
 own escape, leave the community to itself. 
 
 Thus does God hold communities to a present retri- 
 bution. The eternal principle of His rule of nations is, 
 "Kighteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach 
 to any people." 
 
 4. Another principle here taught is, that in this retri- 
 bution, the sin itself soivs the seed of punishment. " They 
 have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirl- 
 wind." The process of sowing and reaping in the moral 
 world is unceasing. It is the grand principle of God's 
 retributive government. We see it every day in the 
 development of individual character, and the influence, 
 through social relations, of past action on present condi- 
 tion. Visibly, "whatsoever a man soweth, that doth 
 he also reap!" And we are divinely assured that the 
 process which we see continuing down to the very close 
 of life is uninterrupted by death, and increases with 
 eternity. " He that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh 
 reap corruption ; and he that soweth to the spirit, shall 
 of the spirit reap life everlasting." The same process, 
 on a wider scale, is carried on in the moral government 
 of nations. Public virtue results in kindred prosperity. 
 And nations that have sown the wind, reap the whirl- 
 wind. The fundamental reason in all these cases, is the 
 
10 
 
 same. Sin is the great disorganizer. It violates the 
 law of God — everywhere the condition of welfare; and 
 throws open the door for the misery which God's law 
 would have prevented. Whether it breeds disease and 
 anguish in the human body, drops into the soul the 
 worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched, 
 tears out the heart of domestic bliss, or sweeps over 
 society with the whirwind of lust, and crime, and 
 anarchy, the principle is one and the same. God has 
 thus put a brand on sin that men may know it. No- 
 where can it be harmless. Nowhere sigh with such a 
 zephyr softness over beds of wild flowers, that it will 
 not return in the whirlwind to uproot the trees it was 
 allowed to kiss. No crevice is too small for it to enter; 
 no structure too massive for it to overthrow. No " agree- 
 ment with hell" can restrain it; and no "confederacy" 
 of sinners can keep it back. Every page of history is 
 full of the records of its insidious approaches, its final 
 and ruthless desolations. Nations great and strong 
 have gone down into the deep with the millstone of 
 their own iniquities about their necks. Goodly temples 
 of liberty have crumbled and sunk in the swollen sins of 
 the votaries they protected. Nor is there aught in our 
 own too glorious and strong to be dismantled by the 
 whirlwind, if by transient gain or pleasure we are 
 wooed to sow the wind. 
 
 5. Another principle involved is the efficacy of na- 
 tional repentance. Nowhere in this world is sin an 
 irremediable evil. Such efficacy hath that remedy of 
 an atoning Saviour which God himself hath provided. 
 
11 
 
 On the infinite redemption effected by His cross all 
 probation, individual, and national, is founded. With- 
 out this ransom, efficacious even in promise, blank deso- 
 lation had for the first sin swept the earth. But He who 
 in the hour of "man's first disobedience" said, "Deliver 
 him from going down into the pit, for I have found a 
 ransom," has by every sinner's side been ever since say- 
 ing the same. And through His precious bloodshed- 
 ding are " repentance and remission of sins" still pro- 
 claimed in this guilty world. For His sake doth God 
 accept the prayer of the penitent, and turn away His 
 anger from those who for their iniquities deserve to be 
 punished. "At what instant I shall speak concern- 
 ing a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, 
 and to pidl down, and to destroy it; if the nation 
 against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil, 
 I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto 
 them." 
 
 6. Still another lesson here taught is the influence 
 and work of the Lord's disciples in respect to national 
 transgressions, and especially of his messengers, the 
 prophets. We have already seen how the retributions 
 of Providence for national sins involve " the precious" 
 with " the vile." We have seen, also, that the design 
 is to nerve the servants of God to earnest and persistent 
 efforts for national reform. God will not allow them to 
 separate themselves from the community, if they would. 
 For after having staked out the path of duty by pre- 
 cepts. He has hedged it up with the thorns of a common 
 retribution. What is this line of duty] 
 
1^ 
 
 Distinct and avowed separation from every unrighteous 
 'public policy. " Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them 
 to whom (or in all those things in which) this people 
 shall say, A confederacy ; neither fear ye their fear, nor 
 be afraid." This referred to the confederacy of Syria 
 and Ephraim — one part of Israel, against Judah — the 
 other part ; of which confederacy were treacherous parti- 
 sans in Judah itself, weakening the people by enlarging 
 on the dangers of resistance. Unrighteous public poHcy 
 is always " a confederacy," — a confederacy between 
 diverse principles and interests, engineered by unscru- 
 pulous men on the basis of selfish fear. There is no 
 unity among wicked men. They can work together 
 only under outward pressure. Their only scheme of 
 public policy is " a confederacy" which shall bribe some, 
 and bully others into some temporary expedient against 
 immediate defeat — a confederacy without coherence, 
 and falling to pieces when it can no longer be bullied 
 by " chimeras dire," or bribed with loaves and fishes. 
 Against every such " confederacy," sacrificing truth 
 and right for supposed expediency, God's people must 
 take open stand. 
 
 They are also to come boldly out for the right assailed. 
 "Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be 
 your fear, and let him be your dread. And he shall be 
 for a sanctuary." The treacherous confederates of 
 Judah had no faith in the providence of God, and coun- 
 selled the quieting of Ephraim by inglorious submission. 
 Base souls were they who would rather purchase 
 personal ease or profit by succumbing to wrong, than 
 
13 
 
 venture a conflict with, "the two tails of those smoking 
 fire-brands," even though the God of Israel was their 
 helper. Hence the command, " Sanctify the Lord of 
 hosts himself;" honor God by obedience and depend- 
 ence. " Let him be your fear, and let him be your 
 dread." " Fear not them who can kill the body, but 
 after that have no more than they can do ; but fear him 
 who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Be 
 as much controlled by the fear of God in public as in 
 private concerns. " And he shall be for a sanctuary." 
 You shall find him an all-sufficient refuge, whatever the 
 threatened danger. That is, God's people are to adhere 
 simply to Him in every complication, and against all 
 odds. There are no emergencies which render right 
 wrong, or wrong right. There is no expediency which 
 can justify departure from principle. There is no com- 
 plication of dangers which can render it unsafe to do 
 right. Syria may be confederate with Ephraim — foreign 
 invasion with sectional apostasy: and Judah, through 
 timidity and treachery in her own children, may be 
 brought very low: but the cause of Judah is the cause 
 of God, and therefore the " Lord of hosts himself" " shall 
 be for a sanctuary," if He be sanctified among His 
 disciples. 
 
 Preeminent among God's people stood the prophet. 
 His was a special work in the conflict of principle. He 
 says, "The Lord spake to me with a strong hand" 
 (this refers to a special and unusually strong pressure of 
 the prophetic inspiration, impelling him to prophesy,) 
 " and instructed me that I should not walk in the way 
 
14 
 
 of this people, saying, say ye not, A confederacy, to all 
 tliem to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; 
 neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid." It was made 
 his special and imperative duty to prophesy against the 
 policy of his countrymen. All alone might he stand in 
 lifting up his voice for truth. Threatening combi- 
 nations might forbid his message. "A confederacy" 
 might be formed to thrust him out of Jerusalem, and 
 punish his presumption. Yet he must lift up his voice, 
 and spare not, and cry aloud for truth, and righteousness, 
 and God ; and most of all, denounce the temporizing 
 expediency which would surrender principle to escape 
 conflict. If the people would hear him, well. If other- 
 wise, he must not blench at popular disfavor, nor speak 
 with bated breath, but testify still to such servants of the 
 Lord as would give heed. " Bind up the testimony, 
 seal the law among my disciples." They might be a mere 
 handful ; but the hollow of an Almighty hand inclosed 
 them. The same Saviour God would be "a sanctuary" to 
 them and " a stone of stumbling, and a rock of off'ence to 
 both the houses of Israel" (aggressive Ephraim and suc- 
 cumbing Judah,) and " a gin and a snare to the inhabi- 
 tants of Jerusalem" (the time-serving populace of their 
 metropolitan city.) "And many among them shall 
 stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be 
 taken." Thus at last "wickedness should be broken as 
 a tree." 
 
 We have thus considered the general principles 
 respecting national sins, retribution, and duty, which 
 are contained in our text. 
 
15 
 
 II. It now remains for us, secondly, to apply these 
 PRINCIPLES TO OURSELVES. Are there no public wrongs to 
 make us fear the just judgment of God ? Are there no 
 signs that God is repenting of the good wherewith He 
 said He would benefit US'? Are there no indications 
 that we have "sown the wind, and are beginning to 
 reap the whirlwind"?" Are there no policies sacrificing 
 righteousness to a visionary expediency which require 
 the prophets of the Lord to cry out against that to 
 which the people are saying, "A Confederacy'?" He 
 reads not the signs of the times as I, who denies it. 
 Others must judge of their duty for themselves. To 
 their own master they stand or fall. But in the con- 
 victions of my own conscience, " the Lord hath spoken 
 unto me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I 
 should not walk in the way of this people;" and with 
 whatever imaginations others may terrify themselves 
 from open rebuke of wrong, "neither to fear their 
 fear, nor be afraid." I have no other purpose than to 
 "sanctify the Lord of hosts himself;" "and He shall be 
 for a sanctuary," though foes may threaten, and friends 
 depart. 
 
 How have we sinned"? What signs of retribution'? 
 Where have we sown the wind"? And where lowers 
 the resulting whirlwind "? 
 
 1. We have sown the wind oi financial recklessness^ 
 and may reap the whirlwind oi financial ruin. 
 
 Two things have marked the social and commercial 
 spirit of the day. One is universal haste to be rich, 
 stimulating wildest speculation. Men are no more con- 
 
tented with the legitimate avails of labor. Prosperity 
 has turned the head with visions of sudden wealth. 
 Success of a few has blinded the many, until they rush 
 headlong into hair-brained speculation. Men forsake 
 their accustomed callings, and draw out their capital 
 from tried investments, impatient of slow and safe 
 returns. Mechanics drop their tools, farmers sell their 
 land, gentlemen and maid-servants draw out their 
 savings, and launch upon the rapids of commercial 
 hazard, following with eager prow, midst sunken rocks, 
 the trained and cunning gamblers who lure them on to 
 ruin. No journal of the day records how many go 
 down in total wreck; but every accidental prize is 
 trumpeted from Dan to Beersheba, to stimulate unholy 
 greed. It began with the accession of California, and 
 has received fresh impetus by every opening of western 
 lands. Men have bought and sold, and reduplicated on 
 town lots existing only on paper, and farm lands under 
 water. Trade has overbid production, until the sinews 
 of progress are weakened, and the ratio of produce to 
 population declines amidst inflation of paper fortunes. 
 Inordinate, impatient, self-defeating haste to be rich, is 
 now the marked feature of our people. 
 
 With this has naturally gone a second trait — profuse 
 and reckless extravagance. "Light come, light go," is 
 the old proverb. Spendthrift wasting follows toilless 
 gain. Vanity and ambition keep up their vulgar 
 rivalry. Desperate commercial gamblers build splen- 
 did palaces to swell an inflated credit; and envious 
 wives and daughters, with the cry of the horse-leech, 
 
17 
 
 goad harassed husbands to more reckless ventures. All 
 classes rush into debt, spend before they make, mort- 
 gage crops unsown, and stimulate the excessive imports 
 which stop the waterwheels of forge and loom, and 
 send abroad the money which should feed the workmen. 
 The South runs in debt to the North, the West to the 
 East, the country to the town, the nation to Europe. 
 
 Thus have we "sown the wind." And sagacious 
 eyes discern the "whirlwind." Confidence is shaken; 
 money rates increase; reputea fr tunes collapse under 
 the pressure; and the bounty of a forgotten God in 
 unwonted harvests is the declared sole hope of weather- 
 ing the crisis. Retrenchment and patient industry 
 have become, more than ever. Christian duties. Extra- 
 vagance and speculation have grown to crimes which 
 must not go unchallenged of the pulpit. 
 
 2. We " have sown the wind" of party spirit, and are 
 beginning to reap the whirlwind of public demoraliza- 
 tion and anarchy. 
 
 Political faction is the bane of a republic. Men 
 learn to value name and power more than truth and 
 principle. Parties cease to be embodiments of diverse 
 principles, working out governmental harmony from 
 opposing forces, and become mere confederacies for 
 success. Party triumph becomes the mainspring of 
 political action to the multitude; and unscrupulous 
 demagogues engineer a " confederacy" upon the princi- 
 ples of arithmetic. The result is a constant pandering 
 to evil cliques, for the sake of political support. The 
 better class are apathetic; the worse, exacting. Rulers 
 2 
 
18 
 
 dare not enforce law at the cost of popularity ; and the 
 ramifications of public office are prostituted into politi- 
 cal machinery. The process goes on from year to year, 
 from bad to worse. No party dares honesty at the risk 
 of defeat. And good citizens complain of the wrong 
 on the streets, and indorse it at the polls. Thus have 
 we " sown the wind" of party-worship. 
 
 And we are fast " reaping the whirlwind" of public 
 demoralization and anarchy. We are fast coming to 
 this — that no laws can be enforced against any class 
 whose numbers and coherence give power at the polls. 
 Look at New York, with its city government in league 
 with thieves, and publicans, and prostitutes, and wield- 
 ing its immense expenditures of public money for poli- 
 tical bribery and private peculation, while crime stalks 
 unabashed along the streets. Look at California, so 
 ridden and robbed by political sharpers and bullies, that 
 a Vigilance Committee and Lynch Law became the 
 only remedy of virtue against the tyranny of vice. 
 Look at our own city. See our license laws set at 
 nought, and dramshops steaming out their hell-fire on 
 the Sabbath-day, because no administration holds its 
 popularity so cheap as to attempt correction. See our 
 fire department given up to rowdyism and inefficiency, 
 while other cities, by horse-draught and steam-pumps, 
 have rendered fires noiseless, and conflagrations impos- 
 .sible; because the votes of the bruisers, usurping its 
 control, are too important to be lost. See that infa- 
 mous villain, who has violated our neutrality laws, 
 desolated a sister republic with war and rapine, and 
 
19 
 
 deceived, oppressed, murdered thousands of his own 
 countrymen inveigled into his grasp, covering up his 
 incompetence and cowardice by ostentatious travel and 
 receptions, like a returning patriot, and going un whip- 
 ped of justice, because men in power think his crime 
 too strong in sectional approval to be safely challenged. 
 Look at equal enormities still justified and upheld 
 in Kansas by the supreme power of the land, while 
 packed juries say of diaoblic murder, "Not guilty;" 
 and collusive judges are retained upon the judgment- 
 seat. Why 1 Because men in high position have any 
 sympathy with bloodshed'? No; but because the par- 
 tisans to whom they have said, "A confederacy," will 
 not allow retreat. God forbid that the prophets should 
 cease to cry against a policy which, by confederating 
 foreign license with sectional fanaticism, is resolved to 
 rule or ruin. 
 
 3. We have "sown the wind" by temporizing with 
 wrong for supposed expediency^ and we are " reaping the 
 whirlwind" in the aggravation of the wrong itself and 
 the very dangers whence we sought escape. 
 
 It has been thus with the spirit of aggression on 
 neighboring States. Public honor and public interest 
 required it to be nipped in the bud. The first fiUibus- 
 tering crew should have been made to expiate their 
 crime by the fullest rigor of the law. Fear of sectional 
 offence induced a temporizing policy. They were 
 allowed to slip through the fingers of the law, and on 
 defeat, delivered by national entreaty. We " sowed the 
 
20 
 
 wind" in Cuba, and behold we are "reaping the whirl- 
 wind" in Central America! 
 
 It has been thus with the adulterous and Ishmaelitic 
 crew of Mormons. Their debaucheries and villany 
 should have been snuffed out at once by a virtuous gov- 
 ernment. A virtuous people should have risen in 
 majesty, and required it of their rulers. Instead of this, 
 we temporized with the wrong. We suffered them to 
 grow unchecked, to settle afar from oversight, and work 
 out their abominations in the heart of a wilderness. 
 Collisions and robbery went unrebuked. Insult and 
 defiance of federal authority met concession instead of 
 punishment. Their arch-traitor was appointed Gov- 
 ernor. The husband of a dozen wives sat unrebuked 
 in Congress. And behold ! we are now boldly defied, 
 and implacable hostility to Gentiles is openly proclaimed 
 and practised. Bloodshed is fast becoming the only 
 remedy. Yet the merciful promptitude which might 
 still prevent it is still wanting. The army which should 
 bring them to their senses, beleaguers and threatens a 
 peaceful town for party capital; while demagogues on 
 stump and paper are feeling the public conscience with 
 the mischievous assertion that the " religious usage" of 
 adultery is beyond federal control. We have "sown 
 the wind" in Nauvoo and Missouri, and we are beginning 
 to " reap the whirlwind" in Utah. 
 
 It has been thus with slavery. It was introduced 
 into the country against the will of the colonists. In 
 the inauguration of our blood-bought liberties, it was 
 confessed a sad anomaly and shame, as well as a national 
 
21 
 
 disaster. The author of the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence felt its inconsistency with the charter of human 
 rights, and spoke as no southern man now dares to speak. 
 The " Father of his Country" deplored its existence, and 
 labored for its removal. But fierce remonstrance came 
 from interested men, and union of all the colonies on 
 the basis of manumission could not be had. Principle 
 and expediency were in collision. Would to God our 
 fathers had possessed the faith in Him to act out con- 
 viction, and eschew " a confederacy" at cost of principle. 
 Union might have been delayed, but when attained, 
 would have thrown no apple of discord among the sister 
 States. God would have defended the right, and pos- 
 terity would have escaped the reaping of the whirlwind. 
 But they stood the shock of battles, to be dismayed by 
 the chimera of domestic discord. After daring death 
 for asserted right, they were misled by a supposed expe- 
 diency to temporize with acknowledged wrong. With 
 the so common error that evil will wear out itself, for 
 which this case afforded more than common ground of 
 hope, they bequeathed to future generations the task of 
 righting the oppressed. Misfounded hope, that the 
 devil will hang himself, if given rope ! No temporizing 
 with a wrong can stand. It roots itself the deeper in 
 corrupt humanity, and demands more room. Collision 
 constantly ensues at every point of its widening circum- 
 ference. Wrong, grown haughty by indulgence, more 
 imperiously demands concession; and conscience, weak- 
 ened by compromise, yields more cravenly than ever. 
 It was so here. Slavery, under death-sentence by the 
 
22 
 
 Declaration of Independence and public sentiment of a 
 young republic, begged and blustered for reprieve. It 
 would be shrived before its execution. Emboldened by- 
 its quick success, it demanded nourishment for twenty 
 years by man-stealing. Weakened by their first con- 
 cession, the blood-stained champions of freedom yielded 
 this. With evasive phrase, dictated by secret shame, 
 they enacted bondage to the slave, and furlough to the 
 slave trade. Expediency triumphed over principle. 
 And now mark the consequence. Not one hundred 
 years have gone by since that first concession ; yet under 
 the pressure of that first wrong step, we have for 
 transient peace successively conceded to that growing 
 wrong, the fertile fields of Tennessee, Kentucky, Ala- 
 bama, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mis- 
 souri. We have conceded Texas. We have conceded 
 liberty to hunt and kidnap men over all free soil. We 
 have conceded abrogation of the law protecting any 
 portion of our territory from the curse of bondage. We 
 have stolen two generations of innocent and helpless 
 children, besides the one our fathers kidnapped on the 
 coast of Africa, and ten in the place of every one. Yet 
 the difficulty has not abated. We have now to deal with 
 the problem of four millions of slaves instead of four 
 hundred thousand. Instead of shame-faced apologies 
 for an inherited and involuntary evil, we have to deal 
 with a new-fangled theology, begotten by interest, which 
 justifies slavery by Divine Revelation, and a new-fangled 
 jurisprudence, instilled by political ambition, which 
 crushes all men in colored skin into constitutional non- 
 
23 
 
 entity. And fiercer threatenings of disunion and civil 
 war than ever frightened our forefathers encounter the 
 refusal of permission to tyrannize at will in Kansas, the 
 resentment of the decision which is paving the way for 
 transporting slaves into sovereign States against their 
 will, and the permission of free speech on free soil to 
 those who in God's name rebuke the "confederacy" 
 which is working all these abominations. The press, 
 the pulpit, Christian missions, and Christian publica- 
 tion societies, are all challenged to submit, and the 
 Church of God is riven asunder to silence its witness 
 against the direst of wrongs. Verily, our fathers 
 "sowed the wind" in the tremors of national weakness, 
 and we, their descendants, in the day of national vigor, 
 are compelled to "reap the whirlwind." Who can 
 foresee the end] Or how can we put limits to the 
 swelling evil, save through the teaching of the pro- 
 phet 1 "Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to 
 whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither 
 fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of 
 hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be 
 your dread. And He shall be for a sanctuary." The 
 only way to repair a wrong is to cease from it. And 
 however a foreign Syria may confederate with a sec- 
 tional Ephraim, to subjugate divided Judah, let us hear 
 the word of God, and keep it. 
 
 Such are some of the manifestations of God's retri- 
 butive justice at work among ourselves. Such are the 
 circumstances in which we are called to apply the prin- 
 ciples inculcated in our text. Let the application 
 
24 
 
 begin with us, and here. National though be the sin 
 and retribution, we have already seen how it operates 
 through individuals. Though national must be repent- 
 ance and reform, they must be wrought in individual 
 minds, and begin at the house of God. The prophet 
 must sound the alarm, and the people of the living God 
 follow his instruction. " Bind up the testimony, seal 
 the law among my disciples." 
 
 W46 
 

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