EA_5JL 
 
A 
 
 ttwp itt the pi^Itt. 
 
 A THANKSGIVING SERMON, 
 
 
 PREACHED IN EMMANUEL CHURCH, BALTIMORE, NOV. 20, 1863. 
 
 BY 
 
 ^ 
 
 REV. N. H. SCHENCK. 
 
 HECTOR. 
 
 BALTIMORE: 
 ENTZ & BASH 
 
 1863. 
 
•3 
 
 I 
 
SERMON. 
 
 Job XXXV. 10 — "Who giveth Songs in the Night." 
 
 He knows but little of the moral economy under which we live, who finds 
 ao occasion for praise and thanksgiving to God, except in the day of prosper- 
 ity. There is an under-current of teaching running through the whole of 
 revelation, which carries to the mind a lesson of mingled tribulation and 
 gratitude. While it is true that man was made for happiness, and can only 
 legitimately rejoice in that condition; yet since his renunciation of his first 
 and blessed estate, since he has become a child of wrath, since true happiness 
 has been exiled from this sin-stricken planet, it only remains for him to re- 
 joice in those experiences and prospects which shall best conduce to his restora- 
 tion to forfeited joys. Now is it a regimen of adversity or prosperit}^ which 
 will the better secure the coveted end? Most true it is that He whose other 
 name is Love "doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men." 
 Therefore He appoints for us a refluent pleasure to every outgoing effort. 
 But as we have a haughty spirit whose pride cannot be curbed except by 
 rigid rule, passions which cannot be quelled except by overmastering them, 
 spiritual enemies only to be conquered by fierce conflict, temptations to be 
 resisted but by crucial discipline, so is it also appointed to the end we may be 
 perfect and entire, wanting nothing, conquerors, and more than conquerors, 
 Christ being our Helper, that the broad arena of soul-efibrt should be darkly 
 cliequered with the shadows of adversity. Give place to the testimony of 
 Paul, "I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation." Nay witness the un- 
 veiling of judgment. Who are the justified? "These are they which came 
 out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in 
 the blood of the Lamb." Open the Book of Life where you will, and you 
 shall be taught that the discipline of sorrow is most wholesome and necessary 
 to the soul. Its exigencies demand it. Its calling and election are insecure 
 without it. Hence the Pauline teaching, "I take pleasure in infirmities, in 
 reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses." The great Apostle 
 knew, as God knoweth, and as every man ought to know, that a life of pros- 
 perity and pleasure is a poor preparation for judgment, is too replete with 
 beguilements to ensure to the soul the safety of its mighty interests. The 
 same mouth which teaches that "the pro.sperity of fools shall destroy them," 
 and which declares prophetically of the latter days, that then "prosperity 
 shall destroy many," declares as well, voicing the confession of the accepted 
 in Christ. "It is good for me that I have been afflicted." If then, it be di- 
 vinely ordained that adversity should frequently be the pioneer ot Christian 
 
progress, paving the way to future felicity, shall we not "thank God and take 
 courage," even when the skies most darkly frown, and the blast of misfortune 
 is fiercest. Like the inferior animals "which lack discourse of reason," shall 
 we refuse to endure the present evil for the sake of the future good? Not 
 penetrating the surface teaching of the Bible, shall we ignore that routine of 
 duty and discipline indispensable to salvation. Absorbed in our selfishness, 
 in the cravings and indulgences of the moment, in the lusts of the flesh and 
 in the pride of life, shall we defiantly oppose those dispensations of Provi- 
 dence which are just as important, in their place, to the soul and the world, 
 as the dispensation of grace? If not, and if you are not prepared to gainsay 
 the whole drift of this Bible-derived argument, must you not also subscribe 
 to the inevitable consequence, viz: that praise and thanksgiving are due, — 
 are more due to God in times of adversity, by so much as then the soul is 
 designed to be more rapidly advanced in that grace which leads to glory. 
 
 But unlike its great Ensample, the sorrow-tried spirit of man is not left to 
 "tread the wine-press alone." "Lo! I am with you alway," says Jesus, the 
 friend born for adversity. In every furnace of aflliction, there is a companion 
 and comforter whose "form is like the Son of God." In every night, 
 however long and dreary, however bitter its cold and biting its blasts, how- 
 ever weary its watches or fatiguing its marches, however fruitful of danger 
 and filled with aff"rights, still beneath its raven wing there is shelter, and on 
 its waves of darkness there is cheer; for its air is ever vibrating with hea- 
 venly melodies, — the cadences of consolation flowing from the lips of tha* 
 always present and all-sufficieut Helper, "who giveth songs in the night." 
 The design of this Discourse, Beloved, is, while reviewing the circum- 
 stances naturally suggested for consideration on an occasion like the present, 
 to bring distinctly to view "the bright light that is in the clouds;" to call atten- 
 tion to the songs which are given of God in every night of trial; or, in plainer 
 words, to shew that in civil, as in spiritual, in national as in personal life the 
 Divine Governor maketh "the wrath of man to praise Him," ordaineth every 
 chastening for the production of "the peaceable fruit of righteousness," sub- 
 sidizes all the events and operations of earth and man to the enhancement of 
 His own glory: and therefore is entitled to the praise and thanksgiving of 
 His creatures, as well in the night-time of their adversity, as in the day-time 
 of their prosperity. 
 
 It is a time-honored custom, and as we fain suppose, well-pleasing to God, 
 that after the season of annual ingathering is ended, the hearts and hands of 
 the people should be lifted up in "prayer and thanksgiving to Almiglity God, 
 for the fruits of the earth, and all the other blessings of his merciful Provi- 
 dence." The grateful recipients of our Father's bounty should spontaneously 
 make such returns of devotion, but our Church stimulates, by giving a proper 
 Diroctoi'y for such worship, accepting at the same time the day appointed by 
 the civil authority. We are here, then, to-day, gathered around our public 
 Altar, summoned by tlie Church, the State, and our own grateful souls. God 
 grant that the solemnity of the call, the place, the act and the hour may so 
 possess the hciirts of worshippers, as to lift them up to sweeter and holier 
 communion with ITim who giveth songs of thanksgiving in the night of our 
 naiional inlamilv. 
 
Never before during the eighty-seven years of this country's civil life, have 
 the people gone up to the temple to chant God's praises and record their 
 gratitude with such heavy hearts and tearful faces. Never before has the 
 world beheld a spectacle so awful, as a "puissant nation mewing her mighty 
 youth" for three-quarters of a century, then to wreak her pent-up power in an 
 intestine and internecine strife. Never before has the arm of God been so 
 clearly bared in behalf of national progress and expansion, as in the experi- 
 ence of our history, and never so terrific a retribution visited upon a people 
 for their sins and wickedness. Never before have the citizens of a State en- 
 joyed for so long and so uninterruptedly the blessings of civil and religious 
 liberty; grasping so many of the appointments of mechanical, commercial and 
 agricultural success, holding in hand so many helps to mental development 
 and intellectual triumj)hs, — and, yet, who upon the instant have experienced 
 such complete revolution in the elements and operations of their great economy. 
 Never before have God's creatures been so peculiarly blessed with facilities 
 for instituting and sustaining spiritual life, the Gospel so freely trumpeted, the 
 conscience so unshackled. Bibles so abounding, agencies so numerous, varied 
 and energetic; and yet Pagan lauds put us to the blush as to the proportion 
 of those earnestly occupied with religious duty. Instead of living up to our 
 privileges, the Protean shapes of sin are defiantly paraded through the 
 length and breadth of the land. We have not only to mourn over the meaner 
 vices, which seek a covert, but "wickedness in high places," clothed in pur- 
 ple and ermine, has been and is the warning sign for this perverse generation; 
 and "because sentence against our evil works has not been executed speedily, 
 the heart of the sons of men seems fully set in them to do evil." And even 
 now, when the punitive wrath of the Lord is loosened, the curvetting pride of 
 the people scorns the control of bit and bridle. Can it be denied that in this 
 eventful crisis, men are less occupied in looking up to learn the will of Hea- 
 ven, than in looking around and before them to execute their own. Gainsay 
 it who will, the inspiration of the hour is not derived from the breathings of 
 the Spirit of God, so much as it is from the exhalations of the seething cal- 
 dron of political necessity. Vainly do we invoke a return of peace, and the 
 glorious prosperities possessed in the past, until we fulfil the conditions an- 
 nexed to the enjoyment of God's favor, and behold the heart of the nation 
 bumbled and bowed down, and hear the united utterances of the people, 
 blended in sweet accord, and bearing upward the confession — "Father not 
 our will but Thine be done " 
 
 I believe there is no difference of opinion in recognizing war as the greatest 
 curse which can rest upon a nation, and civil war as the most aggravated 
 form of this scourge of God. For two years and a half the laud of our love 
 has reeled under this woful infliction. Aud as in all the elements of national 
 life, progress and prosperity, we have been habituated to magnitudes, so now 
 when the gates of Janus are open, and the bugle blast of war awakens the 
 energies of conflict, we behold an array of men speaking the same language and 
 heirs to the same inheritance, such as never before were gathered aud armed 
 and marshalled for battle. The insatiate earth, now quaking beneath the 
 martial tread of a million men, has, since the strife began, given to half that 
 
number "a soldier's sepulchre." We have not been spared the inevitable 
 results of war. It has already ripened its harvest of woe. The wind has 
 quickened and maddened into the whirlwind. In our enthusiastic devotion 
 to what we believe is the right, in our burning desire for the end, in our 
 struggles and sacrifices to attain it, it will not do for us to close our eyes to 
 enacting events, or shut our ears to the lessons of the hour, lest perchance, 
 we lose the profit which is ordained to follow the devout considering of adver- 
 sity. No, no, whatever and whenever the end, we must be true to the Divine 
 teachings of the present. And these are only to be received by fairly view- 
 ing our surrounding circumstances. We want then least of all from the 
 pulpit, the honeyed words which shall speak "peace, peace, when there is no 
 peace" "to the wicked saith my God." We want no time-serving appeals to 
 patriotism to absorb the mind and heart — only too anxious to be relieved from 
 its pressing anxieties — too anxious to be continually beguiled. What we 
 want in times like these, when the waters of worldliness so flow in upon the 
 sanctuary, as even to threaten extinction to the fire upon the altar, what we 
 want, is plain words calling christian men to stand fast by Godly principle 
 and Gospel practice, and pointing the Church and the Country to the crimson 
 panorama unfolding before them, to demand that they be not blind to the 
 pictured teachings of God. I recur then to the fact, that we are engaged in 
 a bloody war. Already every city and hamlet has been draped in mourning 
 weeds for the fallen brave. Already have wide districts been desolated, and 
 well nigh depopulated. Blood has gushed in fountains and treasure been lav- 
 ished without reserve. The land is red with its hundred battle fields. Louder 
 than the roar of Niagara are the continued thunder and reverberations of 
 the furious conflict. Scarcely entombed the victims of one day's fight, ere the 
 charge is sounded for another onset. While far away from these scenes of 
 carnage there is wailing in the cottage and the mansion. In town and 
 country the air is quivering with the moaning cry of the mother and the wife. 
 Not now, not now, for the feeble voice of the wounded spirit is unheard 
 amid the noise and tumult of war: but hereafter shall we listen to the melting 
 histories which connect the home and the battle plain, hereafter see the wreck 
 and ravage which brood by the once happy fireside, hereafter look on the 
 blighted hopes and crushed affections and lacerated hearts which lie thickly 
 scattered along the track of war. Xo forecasting of the future is needed 
 however to fill to the overflowing the cup of our calamity. The alienation of 
 friends, the suspension of confidence, the impairing of public credit, the de- 
 rangement of business, the interruptions to commerce, the conflicts of civil 
 and military authority, the apathy of the Church, the lowering of the stand- 
 ard of religion, and the alarming increase of luxury and reckless extrava- 
 gance, — these superadded to the thousand miseries of our fraternal strife, so 
 charge the air with gloom and roll their black clouds overhead, as to leave us 
 bowed with sorrow and groping in the dark, with a heart only for the mourn- 
 ful cry, "Is it not enough, oh God, is it not enough!" 
 
 But He, who "in the midst of wrath remembereth mercy," He, "who 
 giveth songs in the night," hath put a song of thanksgiving in our mouth, 
 now, even in this time of dark disaster; for His promise has not failed His 
 
people, "seed time and harvest" have not been forgotten; the rains descend- 
 ing -'upon the just and the unjust," have fertilized the pregnant fields, the 
 sun has ripened the corn and the fruit, and to-day the song of our harvest 
 home, a song given to us in the night of our civil calamity, goes gladly up to 
 God in token of gratitude rekindled and faith unimpaired. 
 
 The statistics of agriculture teach us, that the broad acres of our American 
 soil have a productive power equal to the supplj? of the world. The season 
 just ended has fully sustained their character for fertility. The seed planted in 
 the flowery May has yielded its manifold increase in the golden summer and 
 russet autumn. The sweat of the face has not rolled in vain. The tawny 
 tiller of the fields has seen the fruit of his toil in "barns filled with plenty 
 and presses bursting out with new wine." The lowing herd, the folded flock, 
 the various orders of animals, given for man's sustenance and comfort, have 
 been fed and fattened by the nutritious grains and grasses which the earth 
 has so profusely produced. All nature has been busy in her effort to make 
 provision for the wants of man. Offerings are made by meadow and hill, by 
 orchard and forest, by vineyard and garden, by babbling brook and rolling 
 river, bv spreading lake and heaving ocean. The heats of summer have been 
 tempered. The clouds have dropped their rain in refreshing and fertilizing 
 showers. The winds have only been loosened from their caves to blow in 
 genial and invigorating breezes. The heavenly bodies have beamed their 
 beauteous light, and shed their mystic influences upon us, choiring their 
 celestial melodies with the many voices of the animate earth. And now 
 after this seed time and harvest of bounteous benefaction, we come up to the 
 temple, entering "His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise;" 
 and joining our hands around the altar, we lift up our grateful song, — floating 
 it out upon the night of our national sorrow, and shouting it upward to the 
 throne of the glorious Giver, — "Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanks- 
 giving and honor and power and might be unto our God forever and ever, 
 Amen." 
 
 We are enjoined to give thanks to-day, not only " for the fruits of the 
 earth," but also " for all the other blessings of His merciful Providence." 
 Let us then give ear to other melodies which mingle with harvest home 
 anthems, for be assured, He giveth yet other songs in the night of our nation's 
 mourning. On former occasion, like this, have we blessed the Lord, Most 
 High, for sparing us the pestilence that walketh in darkness? When has 
 there been a period of more general health than the twelve month just past ? 
 Have we, in days gone by, praised God for His goodness in giving us His 
 Word, His Son and His Spirit ? Are they not continued to us in undiminished 
 measure ? Have we formerly lifted our hearts gratefully in view of our 
 peculiar and precious Church privileges ? Have we not the Gospel proclaimed 
 and the Sacraments dispensed as freely and faithfully now as ever? Do we 
 remember the thanks we offered before the throne, in view of the jo\-s conferred 
 by the "cloistered sweets" of home and family ? Go back from this Temple 
 of Prayer, and stand beneath the shelter of your own root tree, and gazing 
 upon the firstlings of your human heart, and the comforts which .-surround them. 
 coufes.*^ to God, in a glow of gratitude, that the cup of His kindness is still 
 
held to your lips. What advantage of education, what agency of evangeliza- 
 tion, what organization of benevolence, what comfort of civilized society, what 
 intellectual indulgences, what artistic pleasures has the Dispenser of all now 
 withholden for a time, that He should not receive the same meed of praise— 
 the same awards of gratitude. That there are other lands beyond the sea 
 and that there are places near us where the bloody tide of war has rolled, which 
 have been deprived certain of the blessings here enumerated, is a truth as |l 
 
 painful as it is positive. But however we may be led by christian charity to | 
 
 commiserate their sufferings, and sympathize in their sorrow, we are not to f\ 
 
 be the less grateful to God, while with lavish hand, He droppeth benefits upon 
 
 us — 
 
 "As laden boughs ia Autuina, 
 Fling their ripe fruits to the ground." 
 
 We are each to act with reference to our personal dispensations of grace and 
 Providence "To his own Master, each one standeth or falletb," and in the 
 day of account, even charity will not suffice to mantle from view our sms of 
 ingratitude. Whatever the lessons taught to others, let us fail not to study our 
 own However dark the war cloud may lower-however much of desolation 
 and death there may be around us, since God has come to us with the saine 
 measure and variety of blessed providences, does He not demand of us the 
 same measure of praise. When He giveth us, not one but many songs m 
 the night, shall we refuse to sing them? Nay, nay, beloved lift up you 
 hearts in melody to the Lord, let tributary Psalms go up on high in sweet 
 accord ; for God hath "not forgotten to be gracious ' in the '^midst of wrath. 
 He remembereth mercy," and "giveth us soags m the night 
 
 Thus do we invite you to "prayer and thanksgiving to Almighty God, for 
 the fruits of the earth, and all the other blessings of His merciful Provi- 
 
 ^' As in the beginning, we attempted to show that the Christian should thank- 
 
 fuiry.ubm^t to the :xercises of chastening, as conducive to his highest in- 
 tully submit to .^ ^ ^.^^^ ^.^^^ ^^.^^ ^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^3 
 
 T^'HircunsLces whch surround 'us. that we may co-operate with the 
 ffs^irrtt benign work proposed; and. haply, find occasion as did 
 Holy Spirit, m the ben P \ . _^^^^. that it "worketh 
 
 Paul, to -j;-^^^;^^^^f ;^'/;:" . s,all not the scrutiny reveal the moral 
 ^^T'fte W as 'm ny colduits of grace, rolling into the soul heavenly 
 events ^J '^^'^^^Z^ ^el^, and thus shall we find them again like abled 
 mIToI bX^ tlL gii of the night with sweetest songs, when kissed 
 
 K: :Cf i™ %.para,.e religions in,;ffere.ce. Nc.. but what 
 
 The P^^^^^Y' -irent religious activity in certain quarters. Not, but what 
 there is g-at app-eut ^ehg y_ ^^^^^ .^ ^^^^ 
 
 tHt^t posTb e u tlic^iature of things, that a people should endure the 
 u d oonvulsions of civil war without a benumbing of religious sensibility, 
 
 throes --[^^^2^1:^^^,, brother in deadly strife, can you let loose the 
 """'l f"c y -"^ invoke its unbridled indulgence as leading the 
 
 Zt ^Xl ---s. and at the same time, expect that charity and its 
 
sister virtues should have the same development and exercise. When dove- 
 eyed peace is frightened away to her thickest covert by the hoarse baying of 
 the hounds of war, as they go coursing through the land, and when the 
 Church of God mails herself for the strife, and takes up carnal weapons to aid 
 in establishing a kingdom that is of this world, what other consequence can 
 ensue than that Christians should be secularized, and the tone of piety im- 
 paired. So sensitive is the Gospel, so single-eyed the ministry, that the 
 moment we commingle things civil and things sacred, the former usurps 
 dominion, and claims co-ordinate, if not paramount position in working out the 
 puposes of God. Tlie effect of all this is immediate and demoralizing upon 
 the popular mind. Only yesterday, I read in the daily press of the great 
 metropolis of this Western continent, that never before had been made such 
 lavish preparations for the carnival of fashion as are now in progress. Mean- 
 time, men give largely to benevolent objects. Churches are busy in their 
 machinery of evangelization, and as far as the human eye can scan the field of 
 moral effort, all seems promising and progressive. But, oh I let us remember 
 that gold and the gospel arc not complements of each other, that it is "not by 
 might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord ;" that only by closest 
 adhesion to the fundamental truths of Christ's religion we can expect to carry 
 the Church through such an ordeal as the present without spot or blemish. 
 The highest order of patriotism, the purest devotion to country, the largest 
 sacrifices which men can make for the preservation of free institutions, are 
 only consistent, when brought to harmonize with true loyalty to Christ. I 
 honor, with all the reverential feeling of my heart, the man, who, under 
 sublime conviction, will do and die in defence of noble principle ; but I cannot 
 honor him, who, in any emergency, compromises the honor of Jesus ; who 
 cannot pursue his line of effort holding it parallel from first to last with the path 
 of gospel duty. And here stands the baneful influence of the hour. The 
 niuxim, that human laws are silent or suspended, because of the exigencies of 
 war, argues not that the laws of God are liable to such suspension. Never 
 but once did the Sun stand still upon Gibeon, and the Moon in the valley 
 of Ajalon. Because man has mighty purposes to effect, he may not neglect 
 or defy for the time the eternal and unchanging decrees of the Most High, 
 Malice and hate and evil speaking are just as sinful now as ever they were. 
 Love to enemies, long suffering and forgiveness, are just as inflexibly 
 demanded of Christians as ever they were. Insulted patriotism and righteous 
 indignation and necessary retaliation are beautiful, it may be, but most be- 
 guiling phrases. No, no, war is impossible. I repeat, in the earthly order, or 
 rather disorder of things, without dragging in its bloody train, evils of well 
 nigh every grade and character. What mainly concerns us communing in 
 this House of Prayer, is that they should have invaded the Church in deso- 
 lating raids, and lowered the standard of its spirituality. But from this cloud 
 which thickens our gloom, is there not the reflection of a star beam? What 
 song is written upon the folds of this black canopy pencilled by the ray of 
 Heaven? "He will not always chide, neither keepeth He His anger forever." 
 " Israel ! fear not, for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy 
 name, tliuu art mine." 'Cease ye from man, whose breath is in hi.s nortrils." 
 
10 
 
 "Put not your trust in princes." "Vain is the help of man," ''Return unto 
 me, for I have redeemed thee." The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice. 
 Yea, let all the people praise Thee. 
 
 This is an era of suspicion. Confidence, that plant of slow growth, seems 
 to have withered under the sun of war. The faith which man had in his 
 fellow, the trust wont to be reposed in all the domestic and business relations 
 of life is suddenly and wofully impaired. That beautiful feeling which 
 seemed almost to prepare and pave the way for the entrance of the faith of 
 Christ, is in good degree excluded from the dealings and intercourse of society. 
 Thei-e is a disposition prevalent to erect tribunals of judgment even upon the 
 most fragile and unworthy foundations. Men are daily electing themselves 
 judges of their brethren, and are prepared to pronounce hasty decisions, and 
 execute summary penalties upon all who do not square with their personal 
 decrees of right and wrong Congregations of censors, with itching ears, 
 are waiting upon the pulpit utterances of to-day, disposed to applaud or con- 
 demn, according to the varying standards of individual minds. Woe! woe! 
 to the men pleasers in times like these, when God especially demands 
 independent spokesmen for His independent truth. Intolerance, the hand- 
 maiden of suspicion, is busy with her brawling tongue. Differences in minor 
 matters, as between those who agree in great essentials, are enough now to 
 break the bond of faith, and even of association. Applauded to the echo is 
 the sentiment, that he who is once called in question, no matter by whom 
 or for what, should henceforth be excluded from all fiduciary positions. In 
 political life, in the direction of military affairs, in Christian society, in the 
 church, — her clergy and laity, — who dare say that suspicion, prowling in her 
 mask, is not exercising an arrogated and unholy office. Mutual confidence 
 is the cohering principle of all earthly organizatians. When you strike at 
 its root, you are destroying the life of every thing which gives value to human 
 society. You are attempting to overturn the foundation of every moral and 
 political fabric. When you introduce suspicion into the Church of God, you 
 throw a firebrand upon the altar, you disturb the communion of saints, you 
 break up the fellowship of those who are together enlisted in the Army of 
 Christ, you interfere with the publication and spread of the gospel, you 
 attempt to choke the utterances and chain the hands of those who have divine 
 commissions to speak the same unchanging truth, — no matter whether it be 
 to some a stumbling block and to others foolishness, — still now and always 
 "to them that believe the power of God to salvation." I could tell you of 
 those, who have been standing in positions, where God has placed and kept 
 them, and who have been deprived the backing of a unanimous popular senti- 
 ment touching the issues of the hour. Around them have raged the angry 
 winds and waves, while upon the gospel rock they have kept their footing, 
 with eye upturned and finger pointing only to Christ as "He who hath his 
 way in the whirlwind," who rideth upon the storm, "whom the winds and the 
 sea obey," and who only has power "to rule the raging of the sea," and 
 "speak peace" to its troubled waters. Indignant voices have called to these 
 tried servants of the Lord to cast themselves into the flood. No word of 
 approval from brethren who are sheltered in havens where genial winds lilnw 
 
11 
 
 always in the same direction. No sympathy because of the circumstances of 
 trial by which God has been pleased to surround his servants. But stimulated 
 to enthusiasm by the awful warring of the elements, (contemplated from a 
 safe distance,) these critical members of the priestly brotherhood are unable 
 to appreciate that calm and unchangeable discharge of duty, which no element 
 of passion or power can suspend or modify. It is only left them, then, to 
 withdraw that confidence which has become extortionate in its demands as it 
 is morbid in its sensibility. In bettor days and under a clearer light, we shall 
 hope for its restoration to healthy life. But let us not neglect the teaching 
 imparted by these painful facts to which we have referred. As they combine 
 to make a very important element in this dispensation of chastening, as they 
 deepen the gloom of our moral night, what song, GodI what cheering 
 strain bursts out from the darkness, given of Thee to strengthen and gladden 
 the hearts of Thy people? "By terrible things in righteousness, wilt thou 
 answer us, God of our salvation; who art the confidence of all the ends of 
 the earth" — "who stilleth the noise of the seas and the tumult of the people." 
 "Some trust in chariots and some in horses: but we will remrimber the name 
 of the Lord our God." "It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put any 
 confidence in man." "I will trust in the covert of thy wings." They that 
 trust in the Lord shall be as Mt. Zion, which cannot be removed but abideth 
 forever." "Thou art my hiding place, thou shalt preserve me from trouble; 
 thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance." 
 
 The present is an era of revolution. So calmly and peacefully have rolled 
 away the decades of our national existence, so completely have we been exempt 
 from the ordinary convulsions of the state, that when civil war unfurled its 
 baneful flag, the revolutionary germs, pressed down so long beneath the sub- 
 lime march of law and order, at once shot up to vigorous life. Two years and 
 a half of conflict have aftbrded ample time for these germs to fructify; and 
 now we find a proclivity in every department of our aggregate life to re-organi- 
 zation, or at least to re-adjustment. I speak not only of theorists who would 
 seize upon the crisis as a period opportune for political and social experiment, 
 but I point you to a rapidly developing temper of unrest and lawlessness 
 which pervades the ranks of the people. Submission to rightful authority, 
 acquiesence in the established order of society are not infrcfjuentl}'' and very 
 defiantly brought into question, even as the abuse of power and privilege is 
 also become a crying evil. All this is fearfully ominous. Great changes are 
 doubtless impending in the constitutional life and administration of our 
 institutions, and we should not be surprised to see all the forces of the popular 
 mind and heart exercised in the issues now making iiead. There are groat 
 changes in the relations of trade already eti'ected and greater ones in progress. 
 The rush of events have crushed or cast aside many who controlled society, 
 or directed the current of business, or gave complexion to political affairs; 
 while others have wakened to .^uddeu wealth or found "greatness thrust upou 
 them." In places, poverty is pinching those who have commanded the 
 luxuries of a Sybarite. Again we observe the newly enriched vieiug with 
 the habitue of Fashion's temple in the lavish expenditure of money, in an 
 extravagance, a luxurious indulgence unexampled in modern times. And 
 
12 
 
 this Saturnalia seems not yet to have attained to the full unbridled license to 
 appetite which it proposes. The mind of the country is in that peculiarly 
 plastic state which enables it with extreme facility to adapt itself to new forms 
 of thought, new modes of life, novelties of all kinds, though the changes be 
 as rapid and as varied as the quick and brilliant combinations of the kaleido- 
 scope. The era, I repeat, is intensely charged with the explosive and 
 incendiary elements of revolution. No cloud more portentous than this, that 
 has, as yet, rolled up and mingled its black volumes with the darkness that 
 curtains our skies; and yet He "who giveth songs in the night," has mani- 
 fested his goodness by thus far holding in check the storm power which 
 slumbers in that cloud. No daring demagogue has been permitted to combine 
 these agencies of evil, and launch them as poisoned javelins against the 
 heart of the nation. Nay, may not this very condition of things be the grand 
 preparation for the on-coming glory of the Lord; His Holy Spirit pressing 
 upon the plastic heart those saving truths which made no inscription there 
 while it was hardened by habit and fixed in the iron grooves of precedent and 
 convention. We know not what will be, but this we know, that "no weapon 
 formed against Thee shall prosper," "The righteous shall wash his feet in 
 the blood of the wicked." Though the peoj^le rage and imagine a vain thing, 
 yet God bringeth to naught their evil imaginations, and "casteth down them 
 that exalt themselves against the Lord." Though the power of the people be 
 as the roar and rush of a flood, yet is "the Lord mightier than many waters;" 
 and as " He measureth the waters in the hollow of His hand," so will He 
 measure and mete out, bind or loosen, the forces of the people. 
 
 The present is a tragical era. In passing through the inevitable experi- 
 ences of national life, we have come at length to stand as actors in or audience 
 to a fearful tragedy. No one can look upon the scene without emotion, for 
 each one "has some friend or brother there." Not a breeze that sweeps 
 across battle plain or hospital but bears to us the moans of the wounded or 
 the farewells of the dying. The ear has become familiarized to sounds of 
 woe, and the eye to every variety of bodily mutulation and every attitude of 
 death. Consequent upon all this comes a reduction of the value of human 
 life. The ranks thinned to-day are filled to-morrow and the mournful dead 
 march is directly changed into the gleeful quickstep. And as we grow indif- 
 ferent to the value of life, we become proportionately indifferent to those great 
 moral interest attached to life. Therefore, vice riots in the track of war, and 
 in the intervals of the acts of the great tragedy, minor tragedies have place. 
 It is diflicult for us, so habituated is the mind to our traditions of peace, it is 
 very difficult for us fairly to realize that we are making for history the blood- 
 iest record which has ever crimsoned its scroll. It is very difficult for us to 
 adapt oui'selves to this dispensation of death. It is difficult for us to appre- 
 ciate the fact that we have suddenly become not only a military but a warlike 
 people. But difficult as it is, the mind must open for the entrance, and widen 
 for the embrace of these tragical ideas. Peace has here achieved her sub- 
 limest victories. And now that she is dethroned, shall red-handed war vie 
 with her in securing triumphs as magnificent? It is not the prowess of the 
 conqueror or tlie trophies of the conquest which can mau-li the glories of 
 
13 
 
 peace, but only the ultimate adjustment of vital issues, the permanent settle- 
 ment of those vexed questions which are ever threatening convulsion and 
 strife. I have no space here to discuss the anti-christian aspect of war, but 
 accepting for the moment the popular sentiment, that when begun, it is direc- 
 ted of God for the accomplishment of His own purposes, how can we fail to 
 thank Him this day, that "wc are accounted worthy to suflFer," if so be we 
 can thus be the instruments for working His mighty will. If "we be true 
 men," we should be ready to serve Him, by our death as well as by our life. 
 And this is the song which breathes out upon the night, the night which hides 
 ■from the stars the bloody work of man, — " For whether we live, we live unto 
 the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the. Lord; whether wc live there- 
 fore, or die, we are the Lords." 
 
 The present is an era of unmaslcing. The stern events now marching be- 
 fore us in rapid procession, tear away as they pass, the masks from men's 
 faces. The world is so given over to dissembling that the great dramatist 
 who wrote "the world a stage" and "men the players," might with equal verisi- 
 militude, have pictured society as an unending masquerade. But now that 
 features are revealed, we are surprised not only to observe deformities where 
 we imagined symmetry, but also to discover the lineaments of virtue, where 
 we conceived it had no place. With judgment begun at the house of God let 
 us remark the development of a high ministerial fidelity in some, as con- 
 trasted with a disposition in others to succumb to the secular influences of the 
 hour. The sweets of popularity, the honors and emoluments of civil or mil- 
 itary service, I may not say, have deluded any from that singleness of purpose 
 in saving souls to which they solemnly gave themselves. No, for I award to 
 them the credit of honest conviction and holy sincerity. Still is it left to me 
 and to many, to deplore the error, and its grievous influence now and here- 
 after, over those who look to the Church for the undimmed reflections of 
 "truth as it is in Jesus." How many are there among Clergy aod Laity who 
 have revealed the most beautiful charity, who have been not only "slow to speak 
 and slow to wrath," but who have ministered to the sick and wounded, not asking 
 whether friend or foe, and played an angel part in the drama of death. How 
 many have made patriotism the pretext for plunder, and preyed upon their 
 country in the hour of her trial. How many again have offered their choicest 
 gifts, and spared not husband or son. What pictures of folly sketched by 
 those "dressed in a little brief authority." And again, what sublime 
 daring — what heroic resolve — what magnificent achievement. How many 
 cluistian men and women have entered the embattled arena, and there exer- 
 cised offices of help for soul and body. What beautiful benevolence, what 
 hmmtiful beneficence have been organized and dispensed by these evangelists 
 of tin; camp and the hospital. Again what shirking of duty, what timidity, 
 what time-serving and men-fearing has there not been, — and cloaked in man- 
 tles of christian charity. 
 
 While these times of convulsion have not given birth to any great, repre- 
 sentative men, (men who are like suns to a system, — put them where you 
 will at once becoming centres of attraction and light,) still have they given 
 no toleration to the mere demagogue and pretender. Tf no worthy leader, no 
 
14 
 
 well-entitled teacher of the people has appeared, true it is that no charlatan 
 has been able to enlist their sympathies and rally their energies for his ag- 
 grandizement or their destruction. If the unmasking has revealed no great- 
 ness, it has at least precluded much imposture. I regard this ingredient o^ 
 our bitter cup as no slight alleviation. When we see men as they are, we 
 can mark them for what they are worth. And whether their worth be great 
 or little, it enables us to estimate the value of their agency in compassing the 
 ends we have in view. 
 
 In turning away from this, the last contemplation we indulge of the char- 
 acteristics and events of the day, shall we not give ear to Him "who giveth 
 songs in the night," that ouf souls may be cheered, and their gratitude 
 aroused? "For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, nor hid 
 that shall not be known" — "Giving thanks unto the Father who hath deliv- 
 ered us from tbe power of darkness" — The Lord is my light and my salva- 
 tion; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I 
 be afraid?" 
 
 Thus, even sitting in our thickest gloom, regarding our sharpest sorrows, 
 estimating the burden of our heaviest woe, can we regard the calamities of 
 the times as other than the chastening of the Lord, and so, designed for our 
 spiritual good; and therefore, demanding the tribute of thanks to Him who 
 "chasteneth only them whom he loveth." As we have regarded certain of 
 the aspects of our era, do we not find in each a theme for praise; so that we 
 rise from these reflections to the blessed solace, that our loving Father never 
 faileth to "temper justice with mercy," and therefore, while he chastens His 
 people with darkness, he "giveth them songs in the night." 
 
 As I approach the conclusion of my Discourse, you doubtless observe, 
 Beloved, that I have omitted all jubilations over victory, all appeals to patri- 
 otism, all discussion of the great social question which is commingled with 
 the issue of arms, all pastoral advice touching your duties as citizens, in a 
 political crisis like the present. Not but what I have in common with all 
 whose interests are jeoparded by the convulsions of the country, clear and 
 emphatic convictions upon those great questions submitted for the arbitrament 
 of arms or public opinion, still have I clearer and more emphatic convictions 
 touching the office and duties of the Christian minister, and the solen)n pro- 
 prieties of the place of prayer. 
 
 When victories mean nothing but wholesale slaughter and no great or per- 
 manent advantage secured, the victory mainly ascertained by measurement of 
 blood and calculation of corpses, I fail to see in it the occasion of thanksgiv- 
 ing to God. But we may thank Him, and must thank him with all the devo- 
 tion of our heart for the return of peace and the agencies which t^liall have 
 secured it, whether they be triumphs in the field, the cabinet, the legislative 
 halls or the ballot box, for the cessation from strife and the ro-establishniont 
 of order, for the enthronement of law and the restoration of social liarmony. 
 No voice of authority has taught us that this day is yet come, and while we 
 pray for its rapid appearing, let us prepare our songs of praise to Him who 
 alone giveth tlie victory. 
 
15 
 
 I attempt not now, I never have attempted while exercising the office of 
 your spiritual teacher, to impart lessons of political economy, to make inflam- 
 matory appeals to your patriotism, or to stimulate the passions of conflict. I 
 am very free to say, that I regard such things as an abuse of privilege, as 
 derogatory to the office and work of the Christian minister, as a betrayal of 
 the trust you have reposed in me to whom you should look alone for guidance 
 in your pilgrimage to Heaven, The Pastor of souls is not the man, the 
 Church consecrated to the sole service and worship of God is not the place for 
 the argument of secular issues. Too much of this, too much of this already 
 for the influence of the ministry, the spiritual welfare of the people, and the 
 good of the country. High and clear above all the sounds of earth, like the 
 pibroch piercing the air of the Highlands, must the Christian clarion sound 
 its call to arm for the weal of the soul and the honor of Jesus. I leave for 
 others that for which I have no time, no talent, no vocation, — while the cause 
 of Christ and the soul are committed to me as one of the watchmen on the 
 walls of Zion. And though the popular mind now is warped by the strain 
 and pressure of an exacting sentiment, the day will come (for "the word of 
 our God endureth forever,") when we shall have a return to the simplicity of 
 Gospel preaching, when inflammable themes shall be excluded from our 
 pulpits, when the altar shall not be a tribune of the people, when congrega- 
 tions shall not gather for political instruction and secular meditation, but sim- 
 ply to receive the lively oracles of God , which are only able to make them 
 "wise unto salvation." 
 
 As it is a maxim of the world, beloved, in time of peace to prepare for war, 
 so let it be a maxim of the church, in time of war to prepare for peace. ' 
 Though God now only "giveth songs in the night," yet hereafter will He 
 give us Psalms for the morning and Hymns for the noonday. And may 
 not some melodies be warbled now by our own conscious souls, other than those 
 which He 'givethV Is it not time to cease our evil speaking of each other, 
 our suspicions, our false judgments? Shall we not open our arms once more 
 to embrace the friends whose sympathy and love we have frozen by our icy 
 manner, or forfeited by our open hostilities. How long, .0 God! how long 
 shall our Christian"ch,irity refuse fellowship to those who only differ from us 
 in questions we shall ignore in death and forget in eternity. Let us, on this 
 day, when we come to thank God for His preserving care, and acknowledge 
 with gratitude His chastening, let us bury deep in the grave of forgiveness 
 tlic petty animosities which have embittered our lives and suspended our growth 
 in grace. Here we are, standing in the vestibule of death, our'friends each 
 day, passing within its gloomy portal to return no more, and yet we are 
 wrangling with brethren around us the questions which convulse the land we 
 are leaving. Let us rise to higher levels of thought, to more loving forms of 
 life, to the more momentous interests given us to guard. The greater our 
 freedom from passion the greater our liberty, the purer our faith the nobler 
 our patriotism, the more loving and long suffering our human hearts the sooner 
 will they thrill responsive to the joyous strains of peace. 1^ Be this then the 
 theme of our song in the night of our national sorrow, and soon the darkness 
 •shall be lifted, the orient shall kindle to beauty, and the morning nf peace 
 
16 
 
 make glad the hearts of our people. The -songs of the night" shall be changed 
 to the anthems of day, and the voice of thanksgiving send upward to God the 
 refrain of the soul.-"weeping may endure for the night but joy cometh in 
 the morning." 
 
 ^^.