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 LIGHT IN DARKNESS : 
 
 »jS A DISCOURSE 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE 
 
 Reformed Dutch Church, 
 
 STAPLETON, S. I., 
 
 ON THANKSGIVING DAY, 
 
 November 27, 1862, 
 
 THOMAS H. SKINNER, Jr. 
 
 GAZETTE PRINT, STAPLETON, S. I. 
 
 186 2. 
 
 TT1T1 ^ T ^ T7Trn ~ rrn J 
 

 STAPLETON, Dec. 1, 1862. 
 Rev. Thos. H. Skihnee, Je. : 
 
 Dear Sir: The undersigned listened to your Thanksgiving Discourse with 
 pleasure and profit, and are persuaded that the truths which it sets forth should be 
 put into a permanent form and receive wider circulation. Nothing is more important 
 than that the minds and hearts of men should be established in the truth of God's 
 Word in its bearing upon the tremendous crisis through which our nation is now 
 passing : we therefore earnestly request that you will furnish a copy of said discourse 
 
 for publication. 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 J. H. SINCLAIR, T. C. MOFFAT, 
 
 JOHN D. D1X, JOHN BONNEB. 
 
 F.. A. LUDLOW, F. A. LANE, 
 
 Win. SHAW, R. L. ALLEN. 
 
 Stapleton, Dec. 3, 1862. 
 
 Messrs. T. C. Moffat, J. Bonner, and others : 
 
 Gentlemen : I comply with your request for a copy of the discourse to 
 
 which you refer. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 THOS. H. SKINNER, JR. 
 
LIGHT IN DARKNESS. 
 
 Thou, which hast showed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, 
 and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth. — Vs. lxxi. 20. 
 
 Under the pressure of a most terrible and portentous 
 .judgment, the Chief Magistrate of the Commonwealth has 
 appointed a Day of Thanksgiving- to the Most High. The 
 appointment is not unseasonable. Though dark and dense 
 clouds are hovering over us, yet they are clouds in day- 
 time ; the light of Divine Love is shining through them. 
 But were it otherwise, why should we not lift up our hearts 
 in unfeigned gratitude for numberless blessings, temporal 
 and spiritual, which have been descending upon us everv 
 day, hour, and moment during the year ? It is comely in 
 Christians in everything to give thanks. 
 
 We do well, however, to mingle fear with our praise ; to 
 rejoice with trembling to-day. The country of which this 
 State is a component part, is engaged in one of the direst 
 and most disastrous wars known in human history. The 
 existence of a nation of thirty millions of the most free, 
 enterprising, and energetic people on the globe, is imperiled. 
 Our future, which has been looming out so vastly before 
 the world's prospective eye, is at this moment seriously, 
 awfully, at stake. The question of the improbability, if not 
 the impossibility, of a happy issue, agitates profoundly the 
 hearts of not a few : all of all parties are pondering with 
 intensest interest the tendency and results of the colossal 
 struggle. 
 
 I propose to offer a few thoughts adapted to inspire hope. 
 Perhaps I may be too sanguine. I shall endeavor not to 
 forget this. I shall at least study moderation, and hope to 
 
 
LIGHT IN DARKNESS. 
 
 be kept from uttering any other words than those of sober- 
 ness and truth. 
 
 Men occupy different positions in surveying the unsearch- 
 able movements of Divine Providence. Many fail altogether 
 to discover a Providence in them. In their study of second 
 causes, the first great Cause is excluded or ignored. In 
 such an instance as that now presented by our own coun- 
 try, they discern the plans, purposes, and motives of men : 
 the marshaling, movements, and conflicts of armies and 
 fleets ; the cabals, intrigues, quarrels, and jealousies among 
 officials in the state, in the army, in the navy ; the surg- 
 ings to and fro of the waves of political strife ; the fer- 
 mentation of social elements and interests ; the wise or the 
 mistaken policies and measures of legislators and com- 
 manders ; the relations of the war to foreign powers ; the 
 resources, energy, and despotic union of the South ;— these 
 and such like things are more or less clearly before them, 
 and their conclusions are derived from such balancings and 
 adjustments of the various matters as they may make. 
 
 How few embrace in their estimate those philosophical, 
 moral, and religious principles that underlie, quicken, and 
 control the material and political forces which play upon 
 the surface of the struggle ! 
 
 How few rise above the storm that rages so fiercely 
 about them, and judge of the present in the calm and steady 
 light of the past, discerning those secret and imponderable 
 agencies that attach to race, geographical surroundings, 
 historic associations, national training ! How few see the 
 comparative unimportance of local and transient influences 
 which, though at first glance they seem to be bearing all 
 before them, speedily yield before the silent operation of 
 broader and deeper principles ! 
 
 How few regard the presence and working of superhuman 
 creatures in this mysterious darkness of our national sky ! 
 On the one hand, celestial principalities and powers, God's 
 invisible messengers of mercy and of might ; and on the 
 other, malign spirits of various orders, who tempt and 
 seduce men to evil, and then guide them in it. Great 
 
LIGHT IN DARKNESS. 3 
 
 crimes are, in their inception, diabolic before they are 
 human. The supreme iniquity, the betrayal of the Son of 
 G-od, is directly and carefully traced in Scripture to Satan 
 as its source : " The devil having put it into the heart of 
 Judas, Simon's son, to betray him." Lest the better nature 
 of Judas should revolt at the thought of the horrid treach- 
 ery, and disappoint the invisible instigator, therefore " en- 
 tered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot." The traitor 
 became possessed of the devil. The atrocities of Nero's 
 persecution are likewise represented as the result of the in- 
 spiration and management of this same arch enemy of Grod 
 and man. " Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into 
 prison, that ye may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation." 
 Among all secondary agencies in this unparalleled rebellion, 
 it is~not to be doubted that here we have the first. 
 
 More especially, how few, in their estimate of this mighty 
 political agitation, consider the existence, divinity, and re- 
 lations of the Church of Christ, which, whether we apply 
 it or not, is the real key to the mystery — the solver of the 
 awful problem. Doubt it not, my hearers, the issue and 
 the sequel of His shaking in our land will be determined 
 by its bearing on the interests of the Church. You know 
 on whose shoulder rests the government of the nations. 
 How few take note of His immediate and everywhere present 
 agency — an agency supreme and almighty over all agen- 
 cies, directing and shaping all the elements of the strife, 
 and the destinies of the continent, for His own glory ! How 
 few believe that the minds and hearts of all men are in His 
 hand, as clay in the hands of the potter ; that at His plea- 
 sure He imparts to rulers, legislators, and commanders a 
 spirit of counsel and wisdom and of a sound mind, or sends 
 upon them an evil spirit of delusion and folly ! How 
 weak, alas ! the faith of our people in an absolute, univer- 
 sal, irresistible, and glorious Providence ! How blind are 
 they to the fact that 
 
 " There 's a divinity that shapes our ends, 
 Rough hew them as we may," 
 
 and that this divinity is no other than the great Head of 
 
4 LIGHT IN DARKNESS 
 
 the Church ! The way of nations, as well as of indivi- 
 duals, is not in themselves. The Lord Jesus direeteth their 
 steps. He ruleth by his power for ever. Let not the 
 rebellious peoples exalt themselves. Their diplomacies, 
 their councils, their armies, their navies, their commanders, 
 are under His command. Of Him, and to Him, and 
 through Him, are all things. 
 
 No one, my dear hearers, can begin to think rightly of 
 this gigantic rebellion, or forecast its future, who does not 
 follow Bible teaching in regard to it. "I will destroy the 
 wisdom of the wise." In Grod's light only can we see light ; 
 and we shall see light taking our stand-point there. Though 
 thoughtful believers dimly see Him who, even to faith, 
 covereth Himself with clouds and darkness, yet by Biblical 
 illumination they can often catch glimpses of the Divine 
 mind, and discover some outlines of His scheme of eternal 
 providence, the principles and ends of His administration, 
 the means and instruments and secret causes by which, for 
 His own glory, He governs and controls all beings and 
 events. " Thy testimonies are my counselors." 
 
 If I was a Millenarian (as the word is technically used) 
 I should be almost in despair of my country. All the 
 pillars of this splendid fabric of human liberty would 
 appear prostrate in my visions of the future ; its foundations 
 would seem to be heaving out of their place, while its 
 benignant Deity would be changed into an avenging 
 Judge. I could only see the hand of G-od dashing us to 
 pieces as a potter's vessel, dividing the nation not simply 
 into two bitterly hostile parts, but into ten, twenty, or 
 more, making each a prey to other nations, sowing the 
 seeds of new European convulsions — so intensifying the 
 wickedness of mankind and fitting them for sudden and 
 overwhelming destruction by Omnipotent Judgment. I 
 should anticipate the speedy personal return of Christ, and 
 the establishment of His Kingdom on the wreck of the 
 nations, tribes, and families of the earth. The events of 
 the past and present years, the rumbling of the thunder of 
 Divine Power all round the world's horizon, would betoken 
 
LIGHT IN DARKNESS. 5 
 
 ruin, desolation, and woe as the harbingers of the coming 
 of the Son of Man. I should see the Church diminishing, 
 her power weakening, her existence menaced, her faith 
 well-nigh extinguished, and a small remnant saved only by 
 God's " cutting short" His work of judgment. 
 
 But on no such scheme can I interpret the Bible. It is 
 most manifest on the very face of Scripture, that (rod's 
 spiritual kingdom on the earth is one which, beginning in 
 obscurity and on a very limited scale, is to increase, and go 
 on increasing, by a gradual, thorough, widespreading growth. 
 The world of mankind is not to advance in wickedness till 
 it calls for a sudden and overwhelming visitation of Divine 
 Wrath ; but in one respect at least it is to decrease in 
 wickedness — that is to say, it is to be more and more 
 encroached upon by the Kingdom of Heaven until that 
 kingdom comprehends it all. Severe judgments, local 
 exhibitions of the Divine displeasure, are doubtless to 
 take place — kingdoms and governments to be convulsed and 
 overthrown, and perhaps new empires to arise ; but be the 
 changes what they may, they make way for something 
 better. The principles of the Orospel in conflict with man's 
 depravity, no doubt will result, as they have done, in wars, 
 famines, pestilences, in distress of nations with perplexity, 
 fulfilling the word of Christ, " I came not to send peace on 
 the earth, but a sword." But these things will only clear 
 the moral atmosphere, and serve to consolidate and extend the 
 kingdom of Christ. What other meaning can be given to 
 Nebuchadnezzar's vision of the stone cut out of the moun- 
 tain, which srrote the image and became a great mountain 
 and filled the whole earth ? What else, too, is the teaching 
 of the parable of the leaven put in three measures of meal, 
 and working till the whole was leavened ; and of that other 
 like parable of the mustard-seed, which, though the least of 
 all seeds, grows to be the greatest among herbs, and be- 
 cometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge 
 in the branches thereof? The world is to be converted ; 
 the fullness of the Grentiles is to come in ; all Israel are to 
 be saved. The Church, through much tribulation and great 
 
6 LIGHT IN DARKNESS. 
 
 sacrifice, is to take possession of the ends of the earth and 
 all the isles of the sea ; the principles of the Gospel are to 
 penetrate and permeate and completely change human life. 
 Zion is to lengthen her cords and to strengthen her stakes. 
 Kings shall be her nursing fathers and their queens her 
 nursing mothers. The kings of Tarshish and of the Isles 
 shall bring presents, the kings of Sheba and Seba shall 
 offer gifts ; yea, all kings shall bow down before her, all 
 nations shall serve her, and the earth shall be full of the 
 knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea. 
 The commands, promises, and prophecies of the Bible, the 
 prayers and hopes and labors of Christians, all regard this 
 as the grand consummation of the purpose of Christianity. 
 And whatever may be the wars, famines, pestilences, earth- 
 quakes ; whatever the convulsions and changes in dynasties, 
 thrones, states, and nations ; whatever the judgments of God 
 upon the beast and the false prophet, these things, so far 
 from restricting the influence and growth of the Church, 
 only settle deeper its foundations and enlarge its boundaries. 
 To this judgment history conforms. The world, on the 
 whole, has grown better, not worse, under the influence of 
 the severity and goodness of God. " Say not concerning 
 the former times that they were better than these." No 
 student of history can fail to see, during the past eighteen 
 centuries, the real progress of mankind in civilization, in 
 art, in science ; in the amelioration of the civil and social 
 condition of the masses ; in the acknowledgment of human 
 rights and performance of human duties ; in virtue, morality, 
 religion, and piety ; in the establishment and diffusion of 
 the eternal principles of righteousness. Vast reforms and 
 renovations are yet required, and the progress of the right 
 and the holy is slow, and against stupendous obstacles in 
 the organization of states and communities and in each and 
 every individual human heart, but the fact of signal and 
 most hopeful progress is palpable on the face of modern 
 history. 
 
 Along with the just interpretation of Scripture, the in- 
 terpretation of Providence, so far as we can read this 
 
LIGHT IN DARKNESS. 7 
 
 solemn book, inspires hope for our country from the course 
 and upshot of this war. If we regard the outstretchings of 
 the Divine arm over nations and individuals as having 
 primary reference to their sins, if this is our habit of thought 
 concerning the providential judgments of Grod, the state of 
 our minds may well be one of alarm and terror. Hope will 
 scarcely be able to find anchor ground. Instead of working 
 together with God for the fulfillment of His holy purposes, 
 we shall but seek to hide ourselves till the fury of Divine 
 vengeance be overpast. The conviction of sin against the 
 Most High will exclude thoughts of His mercy, because it 
 is impossible to prescribe the limits of Eternal Justice against 
 human transgression. It is not judgment, with the sense 
 of fear which it awakens, that is most likely to lead to re- 
 pentance and a better life, but a persuasion of the Divine 
 goodness with its consequent sense of admiration, gratitude, 
 and hope. It is when we regard Providential movements, 
 which inflict widespread desolation and woe, as means in 
 (rod's hand of fulfilling his eternal counsels of wisdom and 
 of love ; it is when we regard them as having other ends 
 than the expression of the Divine displeasure toward suffer- 
 ing individuals or communities — ends of culture, of discipline, 
 of preparation for future service ; manifestations of Divine 
 power and wisdom, full of blessed and far-reaching signifi- 
 cance — then it is that we lift up our heads in hope, and sub- 
 missively bear whatever inflictions the Divine glory may 
 require. You cannot but see, if you read the Bible aright, 
 that the uses of Divine judgments are very manifold. 
 Sometimes they are direct punishments of sin. Sometimes 
 they have no such intent, at least on a portion of the suffer- 
 ers. While every judgment ought to lead to heart-searching 
 and humiliation of soul and watchfulness against sin, it 
 would be a great mistake to interpret all the adversities of 
 life as visitations for sin. In the case of an earthquake, a 
 shipwreck, a pestilence, or a flood, the good and the bad are 
 alike overwhelmed. In the case of the man born blind, our 
 Lord was asked, " Who did sin, this man or his parents, 
 that he was born blind ?" And he replied, " Neither hath 
 
8 LIGHT IN DARKNESS. 
 
 this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God 
 should be manifest in him." And He taught the same 
 lesson in connection with the account of the resurrection of 
 Lazarus, " This sickness is not unto death, but for the 
 glory of G-od, that the Son of God might be glorified 
 thereby." Job, Joseph, and Daniel were the very best men 
 on the earth in their days, and like Christ they suffered, not 
 for themselves, but for the good of others. The overthrow 
 of the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, and Grecian empires, 
 though in punishment for their sins, had for its main end a 
 preparation for the advent and kingdom of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. The shaking and removing of these nations 
 opened the portals of Heaven that the Redeemer of the 
 world might come forth. For this purpose did God raise 
 them up and then cast them down. It is not given us, 
 except so far as the Scripture may guide, to trace the 
 mysterious connection between the events of an era and the 
 eternal counsels of Providence. Why this or that event 
 occurred, may not find its just exposition for hundreds or 
 thousands of years. God moves in mystery : time to Him 
 is the same, whether a day or a thousand years. He is His 
 own interpreter. ( And the simple question is, whether, in 
 order to estimate aright the Divine dealings with men, we 
 shall stand amid the judgments and terrors of God and look 
 up, or ascend above on the wings of faith, and standing by 
 the side of the Invisible Ruler, look down upon them ? 
 Shall we estimate them by sight, or by faith ; by reason, or 
 by the Word of God ? 
 
 This war has a deep and glorious meaning. God has 
 ordered it for wise and good purposes, which it will sub- 
 serve as surely as God reigns. Let us hot be overwise in 
 attempting to determine that meaning. How far it is 
 retributive in its aspect, both on the North and the South, 
 we cannot know. That it ought to lead us to forsake all 
 sin and fulfill all righteousness, is the dictate alike of natu- 
 ral piety and the Bible. " When the host goeth forth 
 against their enemies, then keep thee from every wicked 
 thing ; for the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy 
 
LIGHT IN DARKNESS. 9 
 
 camp to deliver thee and to give up thine enemies before 
 thee ; therefore shall thy camp be holy ; that He see no 
 unclean thing in thee and turn away from thee." 
 
 That it imports the destruction of the nation would be a 
 bold assertion, without Scriptural warrant, the suggestion 
 of blind fear and distrust of Grod. I cannot but think that 
 the United States had more occasion to tremble in the time 
 of their unsurpassed prosperity, than they now have in the 
 season of their sore adversity. Whom the Lord loveth, He 
 chasteneth. The language of the prophet Jeremiah is very 
 striking : " Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he 
 hath settled upon his lees, and hath not been emptied from 
 vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity ; there- 
 fore his scent remained in him and his taste is not changed. 
 * * * Behold, the calamity of Moab is near to come, and 
 his affliction hasteth fast." The country is safer to-day 
 than when apparently less imperiled by its insidious 
 enemies. Truth and Justice make headway only by con- 
 flict. The world resists the true principles of its own prog- 
 ress. Hence the declaration of Christ already referred to, 
 " I came not to send peace on the earth, but a sword." His 
 battle-cry is, " Prepare war ; wake up the mighty men ; 
 let all the men of war draw near ; let them come up ; beat 
 your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into 
 spears ; let the weak say, I am strong ;" and His counsel to 
 all them that love Him, amid wars, famines, pestilence, and 
 earthquakes, is, " See that ye be not troubled." Therefore 
 will not we fear though the earth be removed and the 
 mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. 
 
 Bearing in mind the principles now stated, let us see 
 whether we may not reasonably, nay, whether we ought 
 not as a matter of duty to indulge hopeful anticipations for 
 our national future. 
 
 1. I have already remarked that the world and all nations 
 in it exist and are ruled and governed by Grod in the inter- 
 est of and for the advancement of His Church, His king- 
 dom on the earth. This is the secret of all human history, 
 the clew to the vast labyrinth of human life. The advant- 
 
 6 
 
10 LIGHT IN DARKNESS. 
 
 age of the Church, its strength and growth, its gradual 
 possession of power and influence in the world's affairs, and 
 eventual assumption of universal dominion and control, are 
 the objects to which all things national, civil, social, ma- 
 terial, scientific, and political are made subservient. Em- 
 pires with all their diversified interests and relations rise, 
 endure, and pass away wholly for the good of the Church. 
 If it could be shown that these United States were opposed 
 to the Church's advantage and progress, we would at once 
 interpret this war as significant of their speedy dissolution. 
 But no truth in the history of Divine Providence ever de- 
 clared itself more distinctly than this, that under the pro- 
 tecting favor of the Constitution and organized life of this 
 nation, the Church of Christ has never in all time had so 
 fair an opportunity, such untrammeled liberty, such scope 
 and power to put forth its inborn and sacred energies. 
 Allow me to quote, as pertinent to our circumstances, a 
 few lines from a discourse by Dr. John Owen, delivered 
 before the Parliament of England a little more than two 
 hundred years ago. He states as one of the reasons for the 
 shaking and convulsions, in Divine Providence, of the king- 
 doms of the earth, " that Grod by His own wisdom may 
 frame such a power as may best conduce to the carrying 
 on of His own kingdom among men," and remarks, " For 
 the present, the government of the nations (as many of 
 them as are concerned therein) is purely framed for the 
 interest of Anti-Christ. No kind of government in Europe, 
 or line of governors, so ancient but that the Papacy is as old 
 as they, and had a great influence into their constitutions 
 or establishment, to provide that it might be for its own in- 
 terest. I believe that it will be found a difficult task to 
 name any of the kingdoms of Europe (excepting only that 
 remotest northward) in the setting up and establishment 
 whereof the Pope hath not expressly bargained for his own 
 interest, and provided that should have the chiefest place in 
 all the oaths and bonds that were between princes and peo- 
 ple." Works, vol. 8, pp. 264-5. Does it not seem as if 
 ours was the nation the celebrated Puritan unconsciously 
 
LIGHT IN DARKNESS. 11 
 
 foreshadowed ? Think of the nearly forty thousand 
 churches, with their three million five hundred thousand 
 officers and members, that have here sprung into existence. 
 Think of the Christian and philanthropic institutions they 
 have founded and cherished, pervading the whole land with 
 their benign influence, and reaching forth to the^very ends 
 of the earth. Think of the immense power they exert upon 
 the laws, institutions, customs, maxims, habits of the 
 country. We can hardly imagine anything more fatal to 
 the Church's power than the failure of the nation to preserve 
 its being and its future. It surpasses human ingenuity to 
 discover any permanent blessing to the Church of Christ in 
 the destruction of this fabric of government ; and it defies 
 human thought to compass the boundless good that must 
 come to mankind under it. Why, then, should we con- 
 clude that this war will have any other effect than that of 
 establishing more firmly than ever the national union and 
 power of this country ? 
 
 The objection may possibly suggest itself to some minds 
 that Grod has a Church in the South, and that the argu- 
 ment which is good for the nation is in a measure, if not 
 equally so, for the States now in rebellion. In reply to this, 
 it is enough to name only a single aspect of the case. A 
 corrupted, apostate Church is the most odious object ever 
 presented to the eye of God. He can bear sin in a nation 
 which He cannot bear in a Church. His jealousy will burn 
 like fire when His Church prostitutes its supernatural pre- 
 rogatives and virtue to the propagation of organized and 
 atrocious evils. Never let it be, never can it be, forgotten 
 that the avowed object of this fearful war on the part of 
 the South is the preservation, perpetuation, and extension 
 of slavery ; an object, as it seems to us, simply demonic. 
 And no element of strength exists in the rebellious States 
 comparable with that of the Christian Church. And she, 
 including her ministry and membership, has consecrated 
 her whole power of learning, of interpretation, of preaching, 
 and of example, with a terrible unanimity, to the support 
 of this insurrection against the union, laws, and liberties 
 
12 LIGHT IN DARKNESS. 
 
 of the nation. And shall not God visit her for these things ? 
 What hope is there in God for the South as a people, when 
 the Church stands in the forefront of the conflict and 
 leads on the States in their madness and sin ? The arch 
 traitors themselves seem absolved from their crime, when 
 the sacramental host sanctify and support them in it. The 
 crime is transferred from the people to the Church, which, 
 when left of God, becomes the weakest, blindest, most 
 reckless guide creatures ever trusted. The spectacle of 
 defection in the Southern Church, is the most painful and 
 appalling that has been exhibited during this war, and no 
 one thing is so prophetic of extremest disaster to the South, 
 as the course of each and every denomination of professing 
 Christians in this rebellion. 
 
 2. I return to the argument, and remark, secondly : The 
 Church of God, having this supreme interest in the perpe- 
 tuity of the nation, does it not follow that the wickedness 
 of the people will not determine its destiny, so long as the 
 Church is enshrined in its bosom ? The sins of individuals 
 and of officials and their subordinates are certainly great 
 beyond all computation ; and if God should be strict to 
 mark our iniquities, and should deal with us as we deserve, 
 we should be swept away with the besom of destruction. 
 Our national sins have been and are varied, willful, and in- 
 excusable. It is madness to cloak them or to refuse to 
 acknowledge them. But we must remember that God 
 does not look for godliness except among the godly. Only 
 real Christians can do anything to please Him. None others 
 can pray to, honor, love, or serve Him. We must not judge 
 the world as we do the Church. God regards the two as 
 essentially dissimilar and separate, and has complacency 
 only in the latter. The unrenewed portions of this nation 
 are endured, favored, and made strong for the sake of the 
 renewed. These are the salt and the light of the country. 
 The appalling wickedness of Sodom was insufficient to 
 destroy it, if ten righteous men had been in it. Yea, the 
 presence of one such man prevented the fires of heaven 
 from consuming it. "I cannot do anything," said God to 
 
LIGHT IN DARKNESS. " 
 
 Lot, " until thou be come thither " (to Zoar). The crimes 
 of ages, from the days of righteous Abel to Zacharias. con- 
 centrated upon Jerusalem, could not sink it into destruction 
 till Christ had removed his Church into the wilderness. No 
 language can exaggerate the safety of a nation where (rod 
 has a people established, and having a deep and vital con- 
 nection with it. 
 
 Moreover, we must be careful how we transfer the Old 
 Testament threatenings of God against the Jews to our 
 nationality. The two cases are totally distinct. With them 
 the Church and the State were one. The two were exactly 
 identical. The apostasies of the people, were the apostasies 
 of the Church. What one did, the other did. If it had 
 been otherwise — if the nation had fallen into idolatry, and 
 the Church had preserved her purity and integrity — their 
 history would have been vastly different. Threatened 
 wrath, therefore, in their case, may not be applied to ours. 
 My friends, if the interests of God's Church demand the 
 perpetuity of the nation, all the sins of the people, all the 
 corruption in high places, all the miserable ambition and 
 intrigues of politicians, on the one hand, and all the powers 
 of the rebellion, and all the cabinets and crowned heads of 
 Europe, on the other, all combined, can do nothing against 
 us. They will be managed and overruled by the Great Su- 
 preme to strengthen and consolidate this free and vigorous 
 nation. The selfishness of the former, and the fury or the 
 envy of the latter, will aptly serve God's gracious purposes. 
 He has not abandoned nor suspended His plan of mercy, 
 which is dependent, not on the righteousness of the Church, 
 nor on the wickedness of the people, but is secured and will 
 be consummated only for His great name's sake. 
 
 3. The force of these considerations will be enhanced by 
 recalling the dispensations of God with the population of 
 these States, whereby they became a nation. Here I may 
 not enlarge. Let me briefly suggest (a) that, ages ago, 
 when the Most High divided to the nations their inherit- 
 ance, He selected for us this broad expanse of territory, 
 with its peculiar characteristics of climate, soil, mineral 
 
U LIGHT IN DARKNESS. 
 
 treasures, lakes, gulfs, rivers, mountains, and table-lands, 
 isolated by vast oceans from the rest of the globe : a new 
 world given to a chosen people by the goodness of God in 
 the last dispensation of human history, as far removed, in 
 the nature of their government and institutions, from foreign 
 powers, as these are distant from them in space : for G-od, 
 who " hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell 
 on all the face of the earth, hath determined the times 
 before appointed and the bounds of their habitation." 
 (b) The recency of the discovery of the continent, the his- 
 tory of its colonization, the seven years' struggle of the 
 colonies for independence, and the birth, founding, and 
 wondrous growth of the nation. And (c) the character of 
 the race appointed to possess and control the immense herit- 
 age ; not the Latin, centralizing and strongly local in their 
 tendencies, but the Anglo-Saxon, migratory and missionary, 
 hardy, energetic, and inventive. The study of these facts 
 is, I think, most inspiring for our national continuance and 
 progress. I pass them, however, to name, in the fourth 
 place : 
 
 4. The advanced and Biblical type of the form of our gov- 
 ernment. I regard the Constitution of these United States 
 as the greatest boon God has vouchsafed to any nation in 
 human history since the Jewish Theocracy. It is more in 
 keeping with the original nature and rights of man than 
 any constitution, written or unwritten, that .has ever existed. 
 Every form of government ordained by God among men is 
 ordained on the basis of the supreme selfishness and deprav- 
 ity of the human heart. With the progress of the Gospel 
 by which that selfishness and depravity are modified and 
 restrained, we should naturally expect freer, more advanced 
 modes and forms of civil administration and authority. 
 Looking at r this country from the stand-point of Eternal 
 Providence, there is a sublime grandeur in the rapid gather- 
 ing and multiplication of its people under the benignant 
 and powerful aigis of its simple, unmatched Constitution. 
 With the single exception of the African race, concerning 
 whom God is now having such a tremendous controversy 
 
LIGHT IN DAMNESS. 15 
 
 with the South, for infringing, as against them, the inherent 
 principles of this Constitution, and with the North for per- 
 mitting such infringement,— with this single case excepted, 
 here every man is a man, in the Bible sense of the word. 
 Each human being is, by the fundamental law, recognized 
 as possessing a worth equal to any human being. ° The 
 divine fact that God has made of one blood all men, per- 
 meates and leavens the whole document. The lowliest 
 American is as sovereign as the loftiest. Loyalty with us 
 is not to royalty, but to law. No blood is richer than that 
 which flows in the veins of the tradesman or the artisan. 
 Except for crime, no legal barriers are erected between man 
 and man. Nor blood, nor birth, nor regal gifts of nobility, 
 nor landed estate, can create classes and castes here. The 
 poor and the rich, the high born and the lowly, meet 
 together and are evermore changing places. 
 
 So, too, the rights and privileges of every man, whether 
 natural, religious, social, civil, or political, are secured with 
 all the force of the organic law of the nation. " Excelsior," 
 the motto of our commonwealth, might be written over the 
 doorway of every family in the land. None are held down 
 by the oppressive hand of legalized power. The highest 
 political, judicial, military, naval, literary, and commercial 
 honors are freely offered to every citizen. All may aspire 
 with hope. No laws of entail and primogeniture, no bills 
 of attainder, no hereditary privileges, no rank, in the 
 European sensa of these words, are possible. The genius 
 of our liberties lavishes with open hands the treasures of 
 knowledge — providing a good education for the multiplying 
 millions of the population, and establishing freedom of 
 speech and freedom of the press, and, thereby, freedom of 
 thought. It gives the largest scope to the religious instincts, 
 preferences, and labors of the people. It throws wide open 
 the channels to wealth and position in life, making integ- 
 rity, industry, and merit the conditions of success in any 
 sphere. One of its greatest achievements is the oomplete 
 emancipation of the people from the hierarchies of Europe. 
 The union of Church and State, so fruitful of evils to both, 
 
16 LIGHT IN DARKNESS. 
 
 was perhaps a necessity under feudal and old monarchical 
 institutions, during the transition of the nations from bar- 
 barism to civilization. Here they are completely separated, 
 and Religion, divorced from the State, has married Liberty. 
 The pathway to civil honors, emoluments, and office does 
 not lie through the Church. The pure robes of the Bride 
 of Christ are unspotted by contact with worldly pomp and 
 power. As I have before observed, Christianity is more 
 absolutely free and untrammeled in this country than it 
 ever has been since the world began. Mr. Webster has 
 truly said, " This nation is founded on principles which never 
 did prevail to any considerable extent, either at any other 
 time or in any other place." (Works, vol. 3, p. 192.) 
 
 Add, moreover, to all this, that the Constitution itself, as 
 a written document, is based on the Bible. I wish the 
 statement of this fact had been made on its forefront. The 
 omission is unhappy, but of no material moment. Its 
 framers were, for the most part, men of high moral and 
 Christian character. The seal and signet of its authority 
 is the Divine Word. Christianity is its inspiration. The 
 Bible is its oath book. The day of the resurrection of 
 Christ is its sacred institute, and its engrossment is a beau- 
 tiful acknowledgment of the crucified One as our Supreme 
 Sovereign and Lord. And all— in the language of its most 
 consummate expounder — all proclaim that Christianity, 
 general, tolerant Christianity, Christianity independent of 
 sects and parties, that Christianity to which the sword and 
 the fagot are unknown, — general, tolerant Christianity, is 
 the law of the land. 
 
 5. One thought more will complete this rapid sketch. It 
 relates to the innocence of the people of the loyal States as 
 to the cause and object of the war. The absurd charge of 
 lust for empire comes with an ill grace from a people who 
 have seized upon the vast domains of Hindostan, owned and 
 peopled by one hundred and fifty millions of inhabitants, to 
 say nothing of China, South Africa, Australia, and New Zeal- 
 and. So far as the war itself is concerned, nothing was fur- 
 ther from the thoughts of the North. We neither meant it 
 
LIGHT IN DARKNI 17 
 
 nor suspected it. It was forced upon us. We had yielded 
 everything to the South which we dared to yield — far more 
 than we ought to have yielded. From the beginning of the 
 government they had had their own way and wishes. Our 
 pusillanimity in not resisting them was our chief sin ; not, 
 however, so much against them as against God, posterity, 
 and humanity. No Northern man imagined the leaders in 
 this rebellion capable of such a crime. Many of them 
 occupying the chief seats of national trust and power, with 
 the solemn oaths of office registered in the Book of God 
 against them for the support and defense of the Constitu- 
 tion and Government, were secretly conspiring for their 
 overthrow. The first-fruits of the conspiracy were perjury, 
 robbery, falsehood, and treason ; then followed war, with 
 its fearful bloodshed, sickness, sorrow, and desolation. 
 Social, civil, commercial, financial disorganization and ruin 
 impend — possibly servile insurrection, famine, and pesti- 
 lence. The South have plunged into a frightful abyss, and 
 they have not yet touched its bottom. Their act was not a 
 calmly considered Revolution. It was not a bold and open 
 Rebellion. It was Secession — a word which will hereafter 
 be regarded as more expressive of all that is mean, cow- 
 ardly, and vile than perhaps any word in any language. 
 And ail this in the nineteenth century of Christian prog- 
 ress, in behalf of the most stupendous organic crime of 
 modern times — human chattel slavery. Can it be that a 
 righteous God will prosper them to whom belongs the 
 guilt of this unparalleled, atrocious, Satanic war ? 
 
 Have we not ground, then, for the hope that God has 
 not created this great nation, founded, strengthened, dis- 
 ciplined, and biassed it, and embosomed and magnified His 
 Church and His Word in it beyond all historic precedent, 
 in order now to destroy it, and set up on its ruins a vast 
 empire founded on an organized crime and devoted to its 
 perpetuity and extension ? How can any one who believes 
 in the Supremacy and Providence of God so interpret this 
 war ? For, remember that the confident hope we thus 
 indulge arises from no estimate of the patriotism, the virtue, 
 
18 LIGHT FN DARKNESS. 
 
 the wisdom of our rulers, commanders, legislators ; it does 
 not repose upon the vastness of our resources, the magni- 
 tude of our armies, the number of our vessels of war, the 
 tenacity and determination of our people ; nor is it abated 
 by the knowledge of the corruption, ambition, weakness, 
 divided counsels, or vacillation of men in high places, nor 
 by defeats, delays, disasters, fearful losses in our armies. 
 But we rest our assurance on the principles and ends of the 
 Divine Administration among men, revealed to us in the 
 Bible and manifested in the ways and workings of Provi- 
 dence. In this light, can we not indeed see light ? We 
 got not this land in possession by our own sword, neither 
 did our own arm save us ; but Grod's right hand and His 
 arm and the light of His countenance, because he had a 
 favor unto us ; and thus and only thus shall we retain it. 
 So that we cannot but think that this great rebellion is 
 to be regarded, primarily, not as a judgment of the Lord 
 against us, but as His merciful visitation to save us. What 
 else could have rescued us from the degeneracy and moral 
 corruption into which the whole nation would soon have 
 sunk, under the guidance and inspiration of the slave 
 power ? Reason, honor, right, oaths, the instincts of self- 
 interest, ballots, were all powerless to arrest the onward and 
 downward course of that proud oligarchy, that iron-willed, 
 cruel despotism. This war has revealed the despotic nature, 
 the virulent spirit, which has been gathering its strength 
 during forty years for this rebellion, and has proved itself 
 to be the necessary means of the preservation of our Con- 
 stitution, Union, and Liberties. Its tendency is to revivify, 
 invigorate, and perpetuate them. Its very magnitude is 
 full of promise. Such a movement of the Merciful Ruler 
 of Nations portends great and benignant results. God, we 
 may be sure, will be thorough in the work He has under- 
 taken. Now that He has begun, He will not cease till He 
 has made an end. The issues will be radical, widespread, 
 and permanent. The nation will be born again. And as 
 Morality and Religion, rather than armies and navies, Right> 
 rattier than might, are the true, almost the only conserva- 
 
LIGHT IN DARKNESS. ™ 
 
 tive and repressive forces— the real balance-wheel of our 
 vast system— is it an unreasonable expectation to indulge, 
 that God. having baptized the nation in blood, will, for His 
 own name's sake, and His Church's sake, baptize it with 
 His grace; that having exorcised the insatiate demon 
 which was consuming the vitals of the state. He will im- 
 part His Holy Spirit to our institutions, and make His 
 revived and spreading Church the joy and praise of the 
 
 land ? , 
 
 Ajmd wars and rumors of wars, vast battle-fields and 
 terrific carnage, desolation, sorrow, and anguish ; amid the 
 deeper conflict of civilizations, social institutions, formative 
 principles and ideas, we need not be troubled for the future. 
 Many most intricate and perplexing questions are present- 
 ing and will hereafter present themselves— questions per- 
 taining to the South and to the North, to the white and 
 the black races, to the Constitution and laws of the nation 
 and of the States. With these, however, we have now 
 little concern. God reigns. The war is His war. There 
 is one thing now for us to do. and let us do that with our 
 might. Never had a people a clearer case of duty. A 
 direct command from God could not make it plainer. We 
 must prosecute this war to its legitimate, proper conclusion. 
 We must conquer, crush, annihilate this rebellion by the 
 arm of our military power. Not to do it, is ourselves to 
 turn traitors to Gor\ to posterity, to mankind. We may 
 not, we dare not succumb before the relentless despotism 
 that enchains and magnetizes the revolted States. We 
 dare not make peace with the power that betrayed this 
 people, and sacrificed on its dark altar the hopes of tens of 
 thousands of families. We dare not enter into alliance 
 with this Judas of human liberty. We must fight till his 
 crime in spectre shape pursues him, and compels him to 
 self-destruction; till he goes to his own place; till he 
 plunges into the bottomless abyss of shame and everlasting. 
 
 contempt. , 
 
 Sad sympathy for the South we ought to feel; for the 
 five millions of degraded, oppressed whites; tor the four 
 
20 LIGHT IN DARKNESS. 
 
 millions of slaves ; for the hundreds of thousands of deluded 
 deceived, impressed mechanics and laborers ; for the rem- 
 nant of loyal slaveholders ; for their posterity ;— but for the 
 real traitors and conspirators, the hand of Mercy which 
 attempted to arrest that of Justice against them, would be 
 palsied. Therefore, as we look upon the enormous military 
 and naval preparations of the Government, and see their 
 unfaltering and invincible determination to prosecute the 
 war, while there is much we could wish otherwise, we 
 thank Grod and take courage. 
 
 And Thou, Almighty Ruler and Lord of our land, which 
 hast showed us great and sore troubles, oh, quicken us 
 again, and bring us up again from the lowest depths of the 
 earth ! 
 
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