EH?* LIBRARY OF CONGRESS II Ml III II I II I II 1 1 1 1 1 III 012 028 065 A pH8J E 458 .2 .L85 Copy 1 Rev. EDWARD LOUNSBERY. he j^afe JjgUfujge in the ^ag of (ffatamttg. A SERMON PREACHED IN ST. JUDE'S CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA, Sunday Morning, Sept. 7, 1862, BY THE RECTOR, Rev. EDWARD LOUNSBERY. it ^ublisbeb bg % $"estrg. PHILADELPHIA: RINGWALT & BROWN, BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS, 111 SOUTH FOURTH STREET. 1862. CORRESPONDENCE. Philadelphia, Sept. 9th, 18G2. Rev. Edward Lounsbery: Dear Sir: At a meeting of the Vestry, this evening, it was, "Resolved, That the thanks of the Vestry are hereby tendered to the Rector for the able and faithful discourse delivered in this Church, on Sunday morning last, and that he be requested to furnish a copy for publication." Hoping for your affirmative reply to our request, 1 am, very truly, yours, ANDREW II. MILLER, Secretary of the Vestry. Philadelphia, Sept. ]">M, 18G2. To the Vestry of St. Jude's Church: Gentlemen: The sermon to which you refer was written in great haste and solely for the instruction and comfort of my own Congregation. I have no time to re-write it. Such as it is, it is at your service. If its publication can do anything to calm the anxious — or comfort the mourning — or rouse the apathetic — or cheer and strengthen the loyal, in this desperate struggle for the preservation of all we hold most dear on earth, I have no right to withhold it. Faithfully and truly, yours, EDWARD LOUNSBERY. fit: \vJ{ SERMON, Isaiah, 26: 20. < 'omc, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee : hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: (he earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain. Such are the terms in which the Lord of Hosts summons his redeemed people to the safe covert of his mighty care. They indicate a wide-spread and crushing calamity. There is a speciality in the prophetic vision that seems to link its utterances with those fearful events which St. John describes as marking the end of the present dispensation, and the incoming of that blessed era when Jesus shall take to himself his mighty power and "reign in Mount Zion, and before his ancients glo- riously." But the people of God are one. In every age and land they hold the same relation to him and his purposes. His love, his protecting care, his glorious design is ever one. And, therefore, the general princi- ples on which he administers his government are always the same; and the proffers and promises which he makes to the Church of one generation belong to all the rest. The invitation, the pledge, of our text — all of comfort and security and loving care which it implies as the heritage of God's covenant people — belong, then, to us of this generation just so far as we have faith to perceive (3) and appropriate them. I believe they were meant for us. They only wait our obedient trust to pour the full tide of peace along the path of our own experience. Listen, beloved, with reverent faith, and out of the very darkness that surrounds us, and above the din of the appalling strife which is fast filling our hearts with mourning and our homes with the dead, you may hear a voice saying to each and every one of you, "Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment until the indignation be overpast." But before we can comply with this exhortation, and make its peaceful security our own, we must gain a dis- tinct perception of the refuge it proposes, and the defence it supplies. It is no impossible, far-off refuge — no false or merely fancied security — to mock your hopes and baffle your efforts. It is real, stable, near at hand, and easy of access. And, as if to reveal clearly its nature, and help us — amid the darkness and dangers of our way — to find the safe shelter it yields, the whole history of God's covenant people is radiant with its illustrations. Take one of many that illumine the pages of ancient story. For four hundred years, Egypt had cruelly oppressed the children of Israel, and grown great and rich upon the unrequited toil and hard servitude of the helpless millions whom she had first invited to her soil and then reduced to bondage. Her pride and her oppressions grew with her growth ; until the cry of these poor cap- tives came up unto God, and his sword was drawn for their deliverance. For fifteen generations he had permitted the gross crime to go on and the oppressor to prosper in his sin. But now the iniquity of Egypt was full, and the hour of Israel's release had come. Time and again the message was sent to Pharoah, "Let my people go!" Each demand was enforced by sorer judg- ments, and still the haughty monarch refused, and only made heavier the yoke of his bondage. Already Egypt had been desolated — blasted as by the breath of the Almighty. Fear and despair settled down upon the terror-stricken people ; but the heart of Pharoah refused to bow, and grew but more defiant as the vials of wrath fell more heavily upon his head. One more judgment remains — the heaviest, sternest of them all. The land that had long groaned with the oppressions of the slave, must now be bathed in the blood of the master. Her first-born must die! The devouring sword is commis- sioned to enter every house in the land, until, in the graphic language of the sacred text, there was not a house in Egypt "where there was not one dead." But there, right in the path of the destroying angel, were these poor down-trodden slaves, for whose vindica- tion and deliverance these judgments were wrought. Shall the blow fall equally upon them, as upon their oppressors? The innocent may often suffer with the guilty. But that was not God's purpose here. These judgments were not corrective, but retributive. Israel's immunity gave but the more distinctness to the dire calamity that lacerated the heart of Egypt. A safe covert was found from the storm, and ere it burst upon the land, in every home of Israel a voice of tender love was heard — "Come my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast." What that refuge was — how simple and yet how perfect the protection it gave — you all know full well. 6 Amid the darkness that shrouded the homes of Egypt, Israel "had light in their dwellings.'' Amid the wail of agony that went up from the stricken families of the land, the believing people of God reposed in safety, unharmed, untouched by the blow! The blood of the passover was their defence! Now, brethren, in more points than one, our situation is like that of Egypt on that memorable night. I will not attempt to trace the analogy in full. Let it suffice to say that a pall of thick darkness has shrouded our once bright and happy land; and from out the cover of that darkness, there comes forth the red glare and deep roar of a conflict which is fast drenching our land in the life-blood of her children. In the days of our prosperity we have forgotten the God who redeemed us, and spurned the hand that fed us. With all our growing greatness, the nation has but sunk deeper in corruption. Impiety has taken the place of the fear of God. Selfish greed has usurped the throne where true principle and honor ruled. The authority of God has been set at naught — His word despised — His day trampled in the dust. We have long resisted all the appliances by which He has sought to win us to repent- ance, and at length He has appeared for our chastisement. "The Lord has come forth out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity." The sword is going through the land, piercing to every home, filling our streets with mourners and loading the very air with the wail of agony! Apparently it has but just begun its fearful w T ork. Before it can be returned to its scab- bard, the purposes of God must be accomplished; the nation must be redeemed from its sins; our iniquities must be purged away. And, brethren, from all present indications, before that shall be done, the wail of Egypt must be heard again, and not a house be left without its sacrifice to the stern exigency of the conflict! Such is but a mild statement of our actual condition. We may as well open our eyes to the fact. So far as we are personally concerned, we are but entering the deep waters of the strife. Hitherto, for the most part, we have known the horrors of war only as we have gazed on them from the safe sanctuary of our homes; we have felt them only through our sympathies and our fears. It will be strange indeed, my brethren, if we are not compelled to study them in afar different school! Let us accept the fact then, and with brave and manly hearts look out upon the clouds that are gathering so darkly around us, and calmly go forth to meet the solemn responsibilities they may bring. To such an issue, beloved, I desire in all possible ways to contribute. As a pastor, I would lead you to a safer refuge than munitions of war, or hosts of armed men. I would help you plant your feet upon a rock from which no billows can move you. I would give you an antidote for fear that will not fail you, even when the crushing blow shall fall, and lay waste the fair heritage of your joy. To such a refuge our text invites us. It may help us to find it, to trace two or three of its elements as illustrated in the history of Israel, to which I have referred you. First. You will notice then, in the first place, that this refuge is something personal and individual, rather than collective or national: "Enter thou into thy cham- bers, and shut thy doors about thee." A chamber is not merely a place of secure and sheltered repose, but of secret retirement; something that belongs in a peculiar- sense to its individual occupant; a sacred retreat where he may lie down securely, nor fear the step of the intruder. Such is the figure which God employs to describe the refuge to which he invites. It is a sanctuary for the individual, and which the individual himself must enter. It did not suffice to shield the Israelites on the night of the Passover that they were descendants of Abraham or members of the Hebrew Church. Nor will it avail to shelter us from the fearful calamity that now palls our land and threatens to engulf us in its ruin, that we belong to the strongest party, or that our cause is just and must prevail. The cause may be just, and yet its triumph may cost the lives of many thousands more of its brave defenders ! Nay, for the humbling of our pride and the punishment of our sins, the cause itself may seem for a time to fail. Who shall say that our lukewarmness and our crimes do not richly deserve such a rebuke? Secondly. You will notice it is not so much a rescue from trouble as a refuge in trouble. Israel found it right in the path of the destroyer. It had been as easy to rescue them from that midnight sword by breaking at ©nee the yoke of their bondage and removing them bod- ily from the borders of Egypt. It was a far more signal and glorious defence to hold them there unscathed, amid the desolated homes of their oppressors. And, brethren, our present defence is not to be found in any local escape from the region of danger, or any refusal to participate in the fearful ordeal of the conflict. We are here in the midst of it. Its heavy burden has been put upon us by other hands than our own, and we cannot shake it off. We may as well bend cheerfully to the task, and accept it as the stern necessity of the hour. Sooner or later we shall, every one of us, be compelled to choose our posi- tion and cast our influence either for or against our country. The cowardly traitor who, in such an hour as 9 this, seeks to purchase immunity for himself and his loved ones at home from the dangers and burdens under which the great loyal heart of the nation is struggling, by shirking the one or running away from the other, will be the first to feel the ruin he invites. What we want, brethren, is not to escape from these dire calamities — not to be released from their burdens, or transported to some other land where they will not reach us ; but to be upheld in the midst of them — to be guided amid the darkness of our way, and strengthened for every duty which a Christian patriotism or a self- denying beneficence may impose — and to be kept calm, peaceful and hopeful amid the wildest raging of the storm! Thus it was with Israel, hid in the concave shield of the Lord's appointment, though the desolating sword was all around them. And such is the refuge to which we are invited. But, Thirdly, it follows from these two prior facts, that this refuge belongs to the mind, the soul, rather than to the body. It is a matter of faith rather than of sight. We are to perceive it, and enter it, and appro- priate it, hy faith, rather than by any physical progres- sion. It is something for the heart to rest on when other foundations fail. It gives peace and joy in the very midst of calamity and tumult. It opens a secure retreat when dangers press the nearest; and yields a perfect repose of which no outward strife can rob us. Where, then, dear friends, shall we find this blessed refuge ? How can we enter it so as to make it evermore our own? The answer is found in the positive elements of its nature as revealed again in the illustration to which I have pointed you. These are mainly three: I. We must be able to feel and appropriate the forgiv- ing and adopting grace of God. It is meant only for— it 10 is proffered only to — the "people" of Grod. But the peo- ple of God are sinners redeemed by the grace of God. These poor slaves of Egypt were but stiff-necked rebels themselves. The shield that defended them was the blood upon the door. Their putting it there was a declaration of their faith in that great atoning sacrifice "that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel." So with us. It is faith in Christ that makes us the children of God, and brings us into the privileged chamber of his presence, and makes us the heirs of his covenant faithfulness and protecting care. The very first thing for us to do in order to secure this blessed refuge is to repent of our sins. We must perceive them, and acknowledge them, and turn away from them. Nothing else, brethren, can give us any security. Under any circumstances it is the first condi- tion of peace and safety. And now, if we would be safe amid the perils that surround us, we must hide ourselves in the cleft of the Rock; we must enter the chamber over whose portal there is placed the bloody shield of the Cross. We are safe only there. II. But this is not all — there is a work for us to do; and safety and peace are found only in the path of duty. When Paul was shipwrecked off the coast of Malta, it was only by the vigorous efforts of the crew that the promised safety was secured. The blood upon the door was the shield of Israel when the first-born of Egypt were slain; but every other step in the ordinance of the Passover was an essential requisite to its efficient pro- tection. And so, brethren, of ourselves in this fearful exigency through which we are passing — a solemn and heavy responsibility is imposed upon every one of us. To 11 neglect it may be treason to God and to our country. Let us every one, then, study our duty in the light of God's word; and when we have found it, manfully, bravely, cheerfully, go forth and do it, wherever it may lead us — whatever of toil or danger or self-sacrifice it may involve. They walk securely who walk where duty leads! III. One element more and our confidence is com- plete: God rules the storm! He it is that has let loose this tempest of infuriate passion upon us. It is His voice of stern rebuke. "He visits the earth to punish the inhabitants thereof for their iniquity." To us it is all. dark. We see not the end. But in all, over all, there is a divine purpose which, sooner or later, is sure to be accomplished. Through all these tumults of human passion, and these conflicts of human ends, God is marching straight on to the achievement of His own glorious and beneficent designs. This unnatural war — the most gigantic and the most cruel in the history of civilized nations — is but a step in that direction. And though we may not live to see it, yet when the smoke and tumult shall have passed away, it will be found that a mighty advance has been made toward the reign of truth and righteousness and peace upon the earth. God's kingdom takes no backward steps. Let us seize upon the fact, brethren, and make it the corner-stone of our confidence. We desire no success for our arms or our cause that does not link us with the advancing reign of Jesus. We may suffer. The desolations of war may sweep over our hearth-stones, and drink up the life- blood of the nation, but in the end the right shall tri- umph! God's purposes shall be accomplished. The 12 cause of Christ, the highest interests of the race will have been advanced. Enter then, beloved, into this chamber of secure and abiding repose. You will find it a safe hiding place while the storm is sweeping by. O God, the protector of all that trust in thke, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy, increase and multiply upon us thy mercy; that, thou being our ruler and guide, we may so tass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal. Grant this, Heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ's sake our Lord. Amen. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 012 028 065 P k LIBRARY OF CONGRESS II II I ll I iiii nil iiiii iimii. 012 028 065 A f pemmlife® pH8J