E 458 
 .4 
 
 .D22 
 Copy 2 
 
 CHASTENED, BUT NOT KILLED." 
 
 A DISCOTJESE 
 
 BY HENRY DARLING, D. D. 
 
a'ha.5itcnc(l, but not ^JviUcd." 
 
 DISCOURSE 
 
 nKIIVI-HKfi (>\ TlfK 
 
 DAY OF Tin: XATIOXAL FAST, 
 
 AUGUST 4tii, 1KG4. 
 
 FOUKTIf PKESBYTEltlAX CIllKCIf. ALIIAXV, 
 
 By HEXKY darling, D. D., 
 
 PASTOR OF THE CIH ilCH. 
 
 ALBAXV: 
 
 VAX be\tiiiysen's stlam ruiNTivG nnsE. 
 18(34. 
 
t4^S 
 
 A 
 
 .Ml 
 
CORRESI >ondji;nce 
 
 Al.llANV, .lugusl ^, ll^tVl. 
 
 Eev. H. D.VRLiNO, D. D.: 
 
 Dear Sir — Having listoiu-d to vfnir DiscoursiMlclivcrt'il on tht- DccusiKii 
 
 of the National Fast with much iik-asuro, and having liourd a general 
 
 desire expressed that it sliould be publisiied, wo liereby respectl'ully 
 
 request a copy for that purpose. 
 
 OTIS ALLEN, S. M. KISSIC'K, 
 
 J. O. COLE, AHHM. KIKK, 
 
 DEODATUS WRIGHT, SAMUEL ANABLE, 
 
 B. P. JOHNSON, JOHN C. WARD, 
 
 S. HALE, S. N. BACON, 
 
 AVILLIAM WHITE, JOHN DOUGLASS, 
 
 Z. BELKNAP, WM. 11. KOSS, 
 
 JAS. C. CROCKER, H. S. McCALL. 
 
 Albany, August 13, 18G4. 
 To Otis Allen, Esq., John O. Cole, Esq., Judge Wright, and others: 
 
 Gentlemen — The Discourse you so kindly request for publication, has 
 already in its general outline of thought, and in much of its language, 
 been given to the public. It will be found in an Article, written by my- 
 self, and printed in the Presbyterian Quarterly Review for October, 180'-'. 
 This fact has strongly inclined me to decline your request ; and would 
 have constrained me to do so, had not you, and others who listened to 
 its delivery, expressed a very earnest desire for its publication. 
 
 In consenting to its ai)pearance in this form, I should add, that I am 
 influenced by the fact that in its original imblication, it is entirely inac- 
 cessible to the great majority of those who now desire its reading and 
 circulation; and, also, that many points of interest and importance have 
 been added, while others are omitted. 
 
 Should its publication serve, in the smallest degree, to promote the 
 interests of truth in our beloved country, I shall be thankful. 
 
 Most truly, your Iriend, 
 
 HENRY DARLING. 
 
" "Who murmurs that in these dark days 
 
 His lot is cast? 
 God's hand witliin the shadow lays 
 The stones whereon His gates of praise 
 
 Shall rise at last. 
 Turn and o'crturn, O outstretched Hand! 
 
 Xor stint, nor stay; 
 The years have never dropped their sand 
 On mortal issue vast and grand 
 
 As ours to-day." 
 
SERMON. 
 
 Psalms 3, 5, and 6. 
 
 " I laid mo down and slept; I awaked: for the Lord sustained mo. I will not 
 be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against mc 
 round about."' 
 
 The titles prefixed to the Psalms, though not 
 divinely inspired, nuay still be regarded as pre- 
 senting a truthful account of the peculiar circum- 
 stances in the life of their respective authors 
 that led to their composition. They are found 
 in all the old Hebrew manuscripts, and were so 
 highly esteemed by the Jews, that they called 
 the few which are destitute of them — thirty- 
 three in all — " Orphan Psalms." To the one from 
 which my text is taken this morning, the title 
 prefixed is, " A Psalm of David when he fled 
 from Absalom his son." A brief reference to that 
 incident in the life of the Psalmist is therefore 
 essential to its right understanding. 
 
 There was a rebellion in Israel. A man nour- 
 ished at the king's table, and himself a scion of 
 royalty, sought to dethrone David, and to take the 
 government into his own hands. And to this end, 
 the most unjust accusations were brought against 
 
8 
 
 the king. Taking a conspicuous position at the 
 gate of Jerusalem, when " any man that had a con- 
 troversy came to the king for judgment, Absa- 
 lom said unto him, See thy matters are good 
 and right, but there is no man deputed of the 
 king to hear thee. Oh, that I were made judge 
 in the land, that every man which hath an}- suit 
 or cause might come unto me, and I would do him 
 justice !" And to this base lalsehood was added 
 the blandishments of an assumed friendship). "And 
 it was so that when any man came nigh to him to 
 do him obeisance, he put forth his hand, and took 
 him and kissed him." 
 
 In time, to the most gigantic proportions did 
 the rebellion grow. Treason found its Avay into 
 the very palace of David. Some of the king's 
 counsellors became his deceivers, and went over 
 to the enemy. Crowds from every portion of 
 Judea flocked to the standard of the usurper. 
 "The people increased continually," is the sacred 
 record with Absalom. And a trusty messenger, 
 sent out by David to ascertain the pojiular feeling, 
 upon his return reported that " the hearts of the 
 men of Israel are after Absalom." Indeed, to 
 such an extent did the rel)ellion finally go, that 
 nothing remained for David to do l)ut ignomini- 
 ously to Hy from Jerusalem with the ark of God, 
 
1) 
 
 and (Iio coiiiicirat ivrlv Irw w Iin iiiiulil still adlicro 
 to his shimhird. 
 
 And w li;it a sad spcctiudc was tli;it llli:lit ! Wo 
 cannot I'cad the inspii-od words tliat record it -witli- 
 oiit the pi'oinnndcst emotions. And I)a\id said 
 nuto his siTvants that mci'c Avith him ;it .Icrnsa- 
 1cm, "Arise and let ns lice, tor \ve sIimII not else 
 escape from Absalom; make speed and depart, 
 lest he overtake us suddenly and brin^- evil up(ju 
 us, and smite the city with the edge of the sword." 
 * '* * "And David went u}) l)y the ascent of Mount 
 Olivet, and we])t as lie went up, and had his head 
 covered, and he went ])arefoot; and all the people 
 that was with him covered every man his head, 
 and they went up, weeping as they went up." 
 
 The first place at which the fugitive king and 
 his comjoany stopped was Bahurim, a small village 
 just beyond the Mount of Olives, and which seems 
 to have been reached upon the evening of the 
 same day that he left the capital. And it was 
 there — at Bahurim — upon the morning foUow^ing 
 that David indited, and doubtless sang with his 
 harp, this Psalm.* 
 
 And how remarkable the faith in God, that it 
 
 * Boiiar on the Psalms, page 10. 
 2 
 
10 
 
 exhibits! Men in trouble are not wont to lie 
 down in quiet sleep. Great fear makes that serene 
 repose, in which all the senses are locked in un- 
 conscious slumber, almost an impossibility. It is 
 when men are calm, and free from the perturba- 
 tions of alarm, that the}^ are able to give them- 
 selves to sleep. Yet precisely this was the condi- 
 tion of David. Though a fugitive from his throne, 
 and the capital of his kingdom, and almost de- 
 serted by those who should have been his friends 
 and protectors, yet so full of faith in God was the 
 Psalmist, as to be able to say : " I laid me down 
 and slept; I awaked: for the Lord sustained me. 
 I will not be afraid of ten thousands of joeople 
 that have set themselves against me round about," 
 Surely, it is not strange, that when the Avaves 
 of sorrow and calamity have appeared to be ready 
 to swallow up the Church, that Christians have 
 so often gone to this Psalm to strengthen their 
 faltering hoj)e. Jonah did this in his living en- 
 tombment. A part of his prayer to God, when in 
 that perilous position in the deep, was a quotation 
 from this Psalm.^ Like that which Luther used 
 to sing in his time of trouble — the forty-sixth 
 
 Jonah ii. 9. 
 
11 
 
 Psalm — this has, in all aii'os, been ihc soii^r oi" 
 God's people in ti-iai. 
 
 J>ul before proreedini;- to not ice Hie fait li in ( Jod 
 that David possessed in tin' nndst of a i;r«'at na- 
 tional calamity, let it ])e carefnlly obserxcil that 
 his faith was not ir/l/ioiif irork.s. ^\ hen so sorely 
 pressed by Absalom as to be eonstraincd in the 
 most pitiful manner to ilee, David did not calmly 
 resign himself to sleep, trusting that (Jod, irre- 
 spective of his own exertions, would deliver him 
 from his enemies. The king was too well ac- 
 quainted with the mode of the divine procedure 
 in such circumstances to be guilty of such folly. 
 Ilis faith that God would certainly deliver him 
 from all his foes came aj'ler he had to this end, 
 himself employed every instrumentality in his 
 power, and without this, he could never have cher- 
 ished so unwavering a confidence. That quiet 
 sleep of the king at Bahurim, so beautifully ex- 
 pressive of his faith, was preceded by the forma- 
 tion of the wisest plans for his defence, and by 
 their most vigorous prosecution. 
 
 Thus, to defeat in the cabinet of Absalom the 
 artful counsel of Ahithophel, David sent thither 
 his trusty friend Hushai, the Archite; and that he 
 might have those with him Avho would faithfully 
 transmit important intelligence to the king, Zadok 
 
12 
 
 and Abiatliar, the priests, were, with the ark of 
 God, sent back to Jerusalem. David eniiDlojed 
 the most wily strategy against his enemies. He 
 sent spies into their camp ; and, doubtless, at the 
 same time summoned every loyal friend of the 
 government immediately to flock to his standard ; 
 for very soon after this we find him employed in 
 the organization of a mighty army, " numbering 
 the people and setting captains of thousands and 
 captains of hundreds over them." 
 
 And need I say that this is always essential to 
 the exercise of a true faith ? In a time of per- 
 sonal or national trouble, to cherish a confidence 
 that God will help us, so long as we Jail to help 
 ourselves, is the most arrogant presumption. For 
 any man, or for any nation, Avlien environed with 
 danger, to sit down and with folded arms, sing, "God 
 is my refuge and strength, a very present help in 
 trouble," is little else than blasphemy. That song 
 of sweet and confiding faith in God, can only be 
 rightfully sung by those who have first sought 
 themselves to work out from the danger, their own 
 salvation. 
 
 But I must hasten to notice the faith of David, 
 in this great rebellion of Absalom against his 
 throne and government, a faith that was so strong 
 as to lift him above all unfavorable outward ap- 
 
pearuiU't's, and lo i;i\r him such iiiiw ;i\ ciiiili coii- 
 iidoneo in the linal result as iipitii the \ci'\ iiii»i-n- 
 ing after his exile to sav, *■ 1 laid iiii- down and 
 slept; I awaked: for the Loi-d sustained nie. I 
 will not bo afraid of ti-n thousands of pcoph'. that 
 have set theniscdves against nie round ahoiit." 
 
 And, doul)tless, one reason I'or this faith — one 
 gronnd upon whieh it stood — was David's (U'cp and 
 profound conviction of the unrighteousness and wick- 
 edness of the rebellion. 
 
 David was not the man to arrogate to liiuiself 
 perfection, or to deny, in many particulars, his 
 own personal or olTicial sliortcomings. But just 
 as with every man who will frankly confess his 
 real faults, David was, for that very reason, all the 
 more incensed when falsely accused. And wcdl 
 did he know that such was the cliaracder of the 
 accusations that Absalom brought against him. 
 He had never perverted judgment in Judea. It was a 
 base slander of his government to allinn it. 
 
 With what intense loathing, also, nuist the 
 whole, honest, and manly nature of David have 
 regarded the means employed by Absalom to pro- 
 mote revolt ! A friendship, extended so far as to 
 lead him to take into his royal arms, and to fivor 
 with a royal kiss every man that approached him, 
 but wdiich was all hollow-hearted and assumed. 
 
14 
 
 how could that man, who, in character, was after 
 God's own heart, have looked upon such an act 
 with any other feelings than those of righteous 
 indignation ? 
 
 There was, in a word, no true ground for the 
 rebellion of Absalom. It sought to overthrow a 
 government for the redress of no real wrong. It 
 was a matter of personal ambition. It was a sin- 
 gle man who was seeking for himself a place of 
 power, and who would revolutionize an empire 
 that he might gain it. And will God prosper such 
 an enterprise? Will He suffer a permanent vic- 
 tory to be achieved by any one in so unholy a 
 cause ? AVill He give the sanction of success to 
 this false accusation that Absalom brought against 
 the government of David, and to those dissimula- 
 tions which he practiced to secure popular favor .^ 
 The Psalmist could not believe that such an issue 
 was possible. The (Jod of justice was still upon 
 the throne, and although in His sovereignty, and 
 for the accomplishment of His wise purposes, He 
 might grant to this rebellion a momentary triumph, 
 yet, in the end, David was certain that it would 
 be destroyed. The very character of God was 
 pledged to such a result. 
 
 By this remark I do not, of course, mean to say 
 that everv unrighteous and wicked rebellion will 
 
]5 
 
 certainly 1)0 (tiisIkmI. Tliat siioct'ss is llic iiillilll- 
 ble rule of rii;ht, would he, in the |»(>litics of (his 
 woi'ld, a very dangerous principle (o introduce. 
 Yet the faet that any cause is wronu", lias heeii 
 conceived in lalseliood, and promoted I)y deceit, is 
 that not one ground lor the belief that it will ])e 
 unsuccessful ? Though virtue is militant here, 
 and is sometimes overboi'ue ])y vice, is she not 
 usually victorious ? 
 
 '■' (Jdd's justic is a IhmI where we 
 
 Our anxious hearts may hiy. 
 And weary witli ourselves may sleep 
 
 Our discontent away. 
 For rij2,'ht is riji'lit since (lod is (Jod. 
 
 And ri}i;lit tiie day must win; 
 To doubt, would be disloyalty, 
 
 To falter, would be sin." 
 
 But still another ground upon which David 
 rested his faith in the ultimate triumi:)h of his 
 cause was the recollection of past deliverances. 
 
 Frequently before this had " his enemies com- 
 passed him about, and the assembly of the wicked 
 enclosed him;" but always had he escai:)ed from 
 them ! And now, as the remembrance of such 
 experiences rushed u})on his mind, it kindle(l in 
 his bosom the hope thtit the Lord would help 
 him, and from every danger that thretitened him 
 find out a way of escape. To this, reference is 
 
1(5 
 
 doubtless had in the seventh verse of this Psalm : 
 " Arise, Lord ; save me, my God ; for thou 
 hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek- 
 bone ; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly." 
 David remembered how, when a poor shepherd 
 boy a lion and a bear attacking his flock and threat- 
 ening to devour them, the Lord delivered them into 
 his hands. He recalled that time when, in the 
 providence of God, confronting that giant of 
 Gath, Goliath, his little sling and a few smooth 
 stones from a brook, stretched the Philistine 
 champion a corpse at his feet. He thought of the 
 javelins that Saul had hurled against him, but 
 that passing by him, had smote harmless into the 
 palace Avails; of that critical period in his life, 
 when the hosts of his enemies, surrounding his 
 house, Michal, his then faithful wife, let him down 
 through a window so that he escaped ; and of 
 those many days of wandering in the strongholds 
 of Ziph and Maon, where, though hunted by 
 Saul, in his own language, "like a partridge upon 
 the mountains," yet the Lord delivered him not 
 into his hands. And now He who has thus pro- 
 tected and guarded me all my life long, and who 
 has thus brought me out safely from so many dan- 
 gers, will He — thought David — desert me ? Del i v- 
 ered by the almighty power of God from the lion 
 
17 
 
 and the bear, from (lie might of Philistia's cliam- 
 j)i()ii, and from the ra^-e of the iiifinlatcd Saul, Mill 
 1 now fall ill this unjust and wicked rclx'llioii of 
 Absak)nr? 'JMie ])ast miTcics of (Jod to l)a\id 
 were to him the iirouud ol'his present confidence. 
 He couhl not believe that, after Jehosah had thus 
 cared for him, and had thus succoured him in so 
 man)' hours of danger, He would now leave him to 
 die io-nominiouslv In' the hands of his own son. 
 
 And in thus making the remembrance of past 
 deliverances one ground for present hope, Avas not 
 David right ? 
 
 Manoah, the father of Samson, because he had 
 seen an angel and conversed witli liim, so far 
 yielded to the popular lx4ief of his day, as to sup- 
 pose that he would certainly die. But much wiser 
 than Manoah, was his wife's interpretation of this 
 event. From God's kindness to them, as exhib- 
 ited in receiving their acts of worship, she confi- 
 dently inferred Ilis purpose of love toAvard them. 
 " If the Lord were pleased to kill us. He would 
 not have received a burnt-offering and a meat- 
 offering at our hands, neither would He have 
 showed us all these things, nor would, as, at this 
 time, have told us such things as these." In a 
 word, there is something in the immutability of 
 
18 
 
 the divine character, in the changelessness of 
 His purjDOses and of His love, both to individuals 
 and nations, that gives us good ground for regard- 
 ing the experience of past deliverances, as the 
 pledge for present succour. 
 
 But the faith of David in this hour of his na- 
 tion's extremity, had, I am quite sure, a firmer 
 ground upon which to rest, than either his deep 
 conviction of the unrighteousness and wickedness 
 of this rebellion; or his remembrance of past deliv- 
 erances. David had a truthful — perhaps inspi- 
 red — conception of the divine mission, that, in the 
 great purposes and plans of God toward our race, 
 his nation was to perform. 
 
 The Psalmist was not the man to be blind to 
 the sins of his people. He had too keen a vision 
 of iniquity to permit it anywhere to exist, unob- 
 served. And that the Jews were a wicked people, 
 "a people laden with iniquity, the seed of evil- 
 doers," David well knew. He saw how sadly 
 they, as a nation, had departed from God, and 
 how they had forgotten Him who had " brought 
 them as a vine out of Egypt, and planting them 
 in the goodly land of Canaan, had caused them in 
 their fruitfulness to send out their boughs unto 
 the sea, and their branches unto the river." There 
 was no self-righteousness with David, whether it 
 
19 
 
 was to himsolf or to his nation, that his vision was 
 direc'tc(h 
 
 ]5iit notwithstandinu" all this iinriLihtconsuL'SS 
 and sill, the I'salmist well knew how \astlv sn]»o- 
 rior in good-orcU'r, lihcrtv, \ii'tu(\ and rdiLiion, his 
 nation was to all the other people of the i-arth. 
 Already, hy their goodly example, had the Jews 
 been a blessing to the world; and as a nation just 
 entering upon their existence, how natural to sup- 
 pose that their career of beneficence had just com- 
 menced. That free government which they had 
 received from God himself, and those sublime rev- 
 elations of immortal truth which had 1)een made 
 to them, were these to be forever lost ? Was the 
 darkness of that bondage in Egypt again to en- 
 velope the world? The purposes of God, in their 
 wonderful exode, and in their still more wonder- 
 ful journey in the wilderness, when, 
 
 For them the rocks dissolved into a flood, 
 The dews condensed into angelic food, 
 Their very garments, sacred old, yet new, 
 And time forbid to touch them as he flew, 
 
 w^ere these already accomplished? David could 
 not believe it possible. 
 
 That God designed by this affliction to purify 
 His people, and out of this terrible furnace of fire 
 to bring them with all the dross of their sin con- 
 
20 
 
 sumed, the Psalmist could well understand. This, 
 he knew, w^as just what Jehovah always does for 
 the individual or the nation that lie loves. But 
 the destruction of Israel, or in other words, the 
 ultimate success of this rebellion of Absalom, 
 David could not for one moment believe. In his 
 palace, and especially in that " chamber over the 
 gate " — David's place for private prayer — he had 
 had many a bright vision of the future glory of 
 his country. He had seen her going on in a race 
 of unparalleled prosperity, scattering everywhere 
 through this dark world the blessings of a true 
 liberty and of a pure religion. And now, in this 
 career, is she to be suddenly arrested? It was 
 not thus that David read the designs of God 
 toward his peoj)le. Their present aflliction he 
 believed to be but for their holy discipline, and 
 though long extended, yet finally the great end 
 secured, David had not a doubt but that Israel 
 would go, on and on, fulfilling for many genera- 
 tions yet to come, her divine mission of benevo- 
 lence to the world. And it was this assurance 
 that made the Psalmist so calm and peaceful, in 
 the midst of all the sad and perilous circum- 
 stances that surrounded him, and enabled him at 
 Bahurim, upon the very morning after his flight 
 from Jerusalem to sing. " I laid me down and 
 
21 
 
 slept ; I awakod ; for (he \.(m\ siislnincd me. I 
 will not l)c ntVaid of ten t lioiisaiids of people that 
 have set thciiisoh cs ai:aiiist me round aKout." 
 
 The application ol' tlies(> remarks to tlie pecu- 
 liar eireunistances in which as a nation we are 
 now placed, is to everv mind j)erlecti\- ol»\ious. 
 Indeed there is scarcel}- a single point in whicdi 
 the parallel is not perfect. This war is the rc/jc/- 
 lion of a son ati^dhi.st his })arent. It is Absalom 
 against David. And at lirst too, comparatively 
 weak, it has, at last, grown into the most gigantic 
 proportion. Indeed, truth constrains us to con- 
 fess that David is, somelimes fugitive before Absalom, 
 and loijaUij is, ivith us sitting down, as did of old that 
 man of God, at a seco?id Bahurim. 
 
 And doubtless the first duty of this nation, is, 
 to act just as David did in like circumstances ; 
 to evoke for this struggle every element of its 
 strength. To talk in these perilous times of 
 trusting in God for our deliverance, so long as we 
 remain as a nation in suj^ineness and sloth, may 
 have a pious sound to some ears, but really, it is 
 all cant, aye, more, it is the most arrogant ^yq- 
 sumption. True, all real causality is with God, 
 and without Him we can do nothing, but is it not 
 always through the instrumentality of second 
 causes that Jehovah employs His efficiency ? It 
 
22 
 
 would be no more vain for a sinner to sit down in 
 spiritual idleness, and expect that God would, 
 irrespective of his own activities, interpose for 
 his salvation, than for this nation to hope that 
 Absalom would be defeated and slain, Avliile yet 
 David did not summon to his aid the armies of 
 Israel. It is indeed well for us in these troublous 
 times to remember that our help is in God, and 
 even to sing that sweet song of confiding faith, 
 " The Lord is our refuge and strength," but 
 neither the feeling, or the song have any uieaning, 
 unless at the same time we summon to the strug- 
 gle every resource of power and influence that 
 we possess. 
 
 Here, then, is unquestionably our first duty, 
 and let no one seek in an}- way to evade it. The 
 question, what can I personallj- do to assist the 
 government under which I live to crush this re- 
 bellion, is one that every man should now dili- 
 gently propose to himself; and l)y the reply that 
 his own conscience gives to this interrogation, 
 should all his conduct be governed. This is no 
 time for hesitation or delay, for carping criticism, 
 or for that inquiry that self-interest is so prone 
 to make; how is this or that going to affect me? 
 " the politician with a sharp eye to the future 
 position of his party, the merchant to his con- 
 
tracts, the mone}- lioldci- to his [>i-()])('ri \ , llir mili- 
 tary officer to his chances ol' pn'lrrmciil, .ind Ihc 
 private citizen to liis eoiurorts." \\ r ;irc un- 
 worthy sons of noble sires; we are the uni;rat('riil 
 recipients of divine blessings, if, as when now, 
 everything trnly vahialjh' in tliis country is im- 
 periled, we hesitate at any sacrifice of either 
 time, or property, or life, that duty calls upon us 
 to make. 
 
 Our countr}^, the mother on whose lap we have 
 all been nourished, and from whom we have all 
 drawn our whole political life, wounded and bleed- 
 ing from the blows that she has received from her 
 own ungrateful and rebellious children, now turns 
 to us to staunch her wounds, and to save her from 
 an untimely death, and in the jilaintive accents 
 of mingled hope and despair, cries to each of her 
 loyal sons " Behold thy Motherf Shall the sup- 
 pliant voice be unheeded? Owe we her no debt 
 of gratitude which we should no^y pay ? If to lay 
 the foundations of this republic, our fathers did 
 well to pour out both their blood and treasure, is 
 the life and money of their children too precious 
 to be given for its maintenance ? Our present 
 struggle is either all wrong, and every man who 
 gives it the slightest encouragement is to be con- 
 demned, or it is right, and we are all together 
 
24 
 
 bound at whatever cost, to carry it on to a triuin- 
 jDliant conclusion. 
 
 But let us turn to the analogies of hope our 
 theme suggests. Unfavorable as to all human ajv 
 pearances seemed the cause of David upon that 
 night, that witli his little band of faithful follow- 
 ers he rested at Bahurim ; his confidence in God 
 was still unshaken. " I laid me down and slept ; 
 I awaked: for the Lord sustained me. I will not 
 be afraid often thousands of people, that have set 
 themselves against me round about." 
 
 And may we not cherish for ourselves, in this 
 day of our national peril a like confidence ? Had 
 David a single ground for his faith in the success 
 of his cause that we do not possess ? Was that 
 rebellion of Absalom any more unrighteous or 
 wicked than that which is now deluging our coun- 
 try with blood ? 
 
 It was a falsehood for x\bsalom to say that Da- 
 vid perverted judgment in Judea ; and it is equally 
 false for any portion of this land to affirm that a 
 single one of its constitutional rights were ever 
 denied it. The great producing cause of both 
 these rebellions was the lust of power. It was 
 all ambition for place. Let the reins of this gov- 
 ernment have always remained in the hands that 
 now seek its overthrow, and let them have been 
 
25 
 
 permitted to drive it Avheresocver (licy listed. mikI 
 they would never have lil'ted one liiiucr airaiiist 
 it. And with a di.ssiniidalioii tliat cannot fail to 
 suggest, the obsequiousness of Ahsaloni, in kissiu"- 
 every man in Judea that came to make obeisance 
 to him; has this revolt in our land been ])r()motr(l. 
 The possession of power under the Federal gov- 
 ernment was largely used for its overthrow, and 
 with loud professions of an earnest wisli for com- 
 promises, secret efforts were made to secure their 
 defeat. 
 
 Nor is this all. There is in this American re- 
 bellion one feature — in our apprehension supreme- 
 ly unrighteous and wicked — that had no place in 
 the rebellion in Judea. We refer, of course, to 
 the avowed purpose of conserving and perpetuat- 
 ing an institution, for clinging to which the hosts 
 of Pharaoh were overwhelmed in the Red Sea ; 
 and over which all our fathers in olden times, 
 both North and South, were wont to weep. And 
 now a rebellion thus conceived and j^romoted, will 
 God prosper it ? A government with such a cor- 
 ner-stone — a corner-stone laid in the falsehood that 
 denies human equality, and personal liberty — \\\\\ it 
 ever be established ? We cannot believe it. As well 
 think of Absalom's sitting down upon David's 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 throne and wearing David's purple, as such a pos- 
 sibility in this land. 
 
 And to this ground of the Psalmist's faith did he 
 add the remembrance of past deliverances ? Did 
 David believe that God would bring him out safely 
 from this danger, because from similar perils he 
 had extricated him, maij ivc not do the same? 
 
 It is not over a sea entirely undisturl)ed by the 
 winds of party or sectional strife, that — previous 
 to this great storm — our vessel of state has been 
 moving for more than half a century. Generally, 
 enjoying a calm, she has yet ever and anon, en- 
 countered a storm, in which many a less strongly 
 built vessel would certainly have foundered. The 
 despots of the old world have occasionally seen 
 our political heavens darkened, and our sliij) of 
 state careening, and ai)parently almost sinking 
 before the rude blasts of political contention. Yet 
 from all these storms, by the good hand of God 
 upon her has she, at length, come out unharmed, 
 and with sails filled with the soft breezes of peace 
 and tranquility, has sped away joyfully on her 
 course, with a nation's prayers, like guardian angels 
 hovering round her track. 
 
 One of these seasons of political danger was 
 immediately after our national independence had 
 been achieved, and before the Federal Constitu- 
 
27 
 
 tion had been friinuMl and n(l()])t(Ml. The coiidi- 
 tion of our eouiitry was tlien most crllical. Tke 
 union formed in the heat of the eoumion slnii:'^l<' 
 for freedom, evaporated in the very .success of the 
 energies that it liad ins])ir(Ml. AVe had tlicu no 
 nationality, and in the endless clasliini;- of sec- 
 tional interests, good men feared we never could 
 become one nation. 
 
 As the members of that memorable convention 
 which framed our federal constitution, were on 
 the last day of the session ailixing their names to 
 it, Benjamin Franklin, looking towards the Presi- 
 dent's chair, at the back of which a sun was 
 painted, observed to those next to him, " I have 
 often and often, in the course of the session, and 
 the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its 
 issue, looked at that sun behind the President, 
 without being able to tell whether it was rising 
 or setting." And in a letter written about the 
 same time, by Washington to Lafayette, we find 
 the following emphatic declaration, " It appears 
 to me little short of a miracle, that the delegates 
 from so many States, different from each other, 
 as you know, in their manners, circumstances, 
 and prejudices, should unite in forming a system 
 
28 
 
 of national government so little liable to Avell- 
 founded objections.'"* 
 
 Another such season of national peril was con- 
 sequent upon the declaration of war in 1812. 
 To that measure, in some j^arts of the Union, the 
 opposition Avas most violent. Strenuous exer- 
 tions were made to embarrass the revenue. In 
 some of our sea-ports the flags of the shipping 
 were hoisted at half-mast, in token of mourning. 
 The Governors of two States refused to furnish 
 the required quota of soldiers, and finally a con- 
 vention of several States was called to inaugurate, 
 — so fiir as its real design has ever been divulged, 
 — Secession. 
 
 Still another perilous season in our political 
 history, was, when in 1820, it was proposed to 
 admit Missouri, as a slaveholding State in the 
 Union. I cannot stop to sketch that epoch. 
 Some of my hearers remember it well, and know 
 that Cassandras were not wanting then to predict 
 the downfall of Troy, nor Edomites in their rage 
 against this modern Jerusalem, to cry, " Ilaze it, 
 raze, even to the foundations thereof." But in 
 all these storms God was with us as a nation, and 
 for the precious ark of our liberties prepared an 
 Ararat. 
 
 • Irving's Washington, vol. 4, p. 459. 
 
29 
 
 And will ho not do so imw ! W ill ||r w I,,, in 
 the past has "led us, instructed ns. and kept us 
 as the apple of Ills eve," now witlidiaw IVum us 
 His protection ? it is in (iod's past nifi-cics to 
 this people that we find one i:i-oinid lor our jiopc 
 of present deliveranee. Our fcidiu'js aic per- 
 fectly identical with those of the Psalmist, and we 
 are ready with him to excdaim, " Tliou wlii(di 
 hast showed me great and sore trouldc slialt 
 quicken me again, and l)ring me again fi-om tin- 
 depths of the earth." " Tliou slialt increase my 
 greatness, and comfort me on every side." 
 
 But David had, as we have seen, a still firmer 
 and surer ground for his confidence in the over- 
 throw of Absalom's rebellion. Deeply conscious 
 of the sins of his people, the Psalmist still be- 
 lieved that Israel had, under God, a great and 
 divine mission of blessing to perform to the 
 world, and hence that her present affliction could 
 not be intended for her destruction, but Avas only 
 disciplinary. And are we not right in cherishing 
 precisely the same views of our land in her pres- 
 ent sorrow ? 
 
 Like Israel of old, we are, indeed, a wicked 
 people. Our sins are many and aggravated, and 
 they are continually crying to heaven against us. 
 We are proud. We are ever saying to the nations 
 
30 
 
 of the earth, in the swelling of our national 
 vanity, " Behold this great Babylon which we 
 have built." We are covetous, greedy of gain, 
 practical materialists, ever pampering the body 
 and starving the soul. We are a remarkably in- 
 temperate people. Drunkenness is a vice, perhaps 
 more prevalent with us than with any other 
 people in the world, either civilized or barbarous. 
 We are forgetful of that divine command " Re- 
 member the Sabbatli day to keep it holy." In 
 this very city, without a single one of those flimsy 
 pretenses growing out of a large population, wliich 
 seem to some, in other localities, to justify such 
 conduct ; and for the single purpose of paying a 
 larger dividend, the Lord's dav is desecrated bv 
 the running of cars on our street railways. We 
 are a wonderful extravagant peoj^le, and often- 
 times in our determination to secure every com- 
 fort and even luxury, for ourselves, reverse that 
 famous motto of Christians in olden times, "No- 
 thing for self; everything for thee, O Lord." We 
 have been guilty of the sin of oppression. We 
 have held in unrighteous bondage millions of our 
 fellow men, and what was more strange, if not 
 more sinful, many have stoutly defended them- 
 selves in their guilt. Unlike our noble revolution- 
 ary fathers, and those who followed them in the first 
 
ol 
 
 (jujirtc'r of a ccnliirv of oiir cxi^lciicc as an iir-lc- 
 ])oii(U'iit |KM)|)lr, ami who, wlidlici- in politics, 
 Federalists or Di'Uiorrats, or liv hirtli and resi- 
 dence, Northerners or Sont hcrncrs, ^/// nnitcd in 
 prononneiiiu" American slavery to he hulli a />'>////((// 
 and moral e\ il ; iniiny, now that it has hccome a 
 question of })olitical moment, and pecnniai'v inter- 
 est, a2)ulogize for it ; and some, alas, even of the 
 ministers of Christ, essay to defend it from the 
 pages of the sacred oracles themselves. And to 
 complete the catalogue of our iniquities, Ave shonld 
 doubtless add many other things e(|ually displeas- 
 ing to God. 
 
 But after saying all this, and everything else 
 that can, in this direction, be said, we still cannot 
 feel that, for our ini([uities, God has, in this re- 
 bellion, come out upon us in His wrath, and that 
 He is about to consign ns, as a nation, to reme- 
 diless destruction. We, indeed, recognize our 
 national sins, and the connection that exists be- 
 tween them and our present sorrow ; l)ut the con- 
 nection is not, we believe, one of judgment and 
 retribution, but of discipline and purification. The 
 passage of Holy Writ that we think most aptly 
 applies to this nation, is not those words of the 
 old prophet of doom : " Behold the eyes of the 
 Lord God are upon this sinful kingdom, and 1 will 
 
32 
 
 destroy it from off the foce of the earth ;" but ra- 
 ther those sweet words of comfort that Christ 
 spake to His own people : " Every branch that 
 beareth fruit, He purgeth it that it may bring 
 forth more fruit." Our reading of the purpose of 
 God toward this people, in this terrible rebellion, 
 is all summed up in the words — " Chastened, hut 
 not killed r " Chastened, but not killed r 
 
 But alas, is this process of moral purification 
 yet completed? 
 
 We acknowledge with gladness, to-day, the fact 
 that something has in this direction been accom- 
 plished. A document, recognizing so directly as 
 the one appointing this day, as a day of humilia- 
 tion and prayer, the great doctrines of God's sover- 
 eignty and universal Providence, and above all, the 
 indissoluble connection between national sins and 
 national judgments, never before emanated either 
 from the legislative, or executive department of 
 our government. Heretofore also, with no ac- 
 knowledgment of God in our coinage, Ave hail witli 
 delight the fact that we have now, at least one 
 piece of money, bearing upon its face the inscrip- 
 tion: "In God we trust." Thousands aud tens 
 of thousands, likewise, of those who were once en- 
 slaved, are now enjoying the blessings of freemen. 
 Some are bearing arms in our defence, others are 
 
tilling the ground for roiniinerativ<' waives, and 
 still others are in the way of .securing i'oi- llicni- 
 selves the priceless blessings of education. 
 
 " Already ou tlie sable gntuinl 
 
 Of man's despair 
 Ji^ freedom's glorious picture found. 
 With all its dusky bauds unbound, 
 
 Upraised in prayer." 
 
 How sad that we cannot continue this cataloo-ue, 
 and that that "scourge of cords" with which our 
 blessed Master has been for these three years 
 chastening us, has not yet expelled from this tem- 
 ple of His habitation everything that defiled it. 
 In those great national sins of pride, covetousness, 
 extravagance, drunkenness, sabbath-breaking, we 
 can see but little abatement. Indeed we fear 
 sometimes, that these evils have ivaxed rather than 
 wa?ied in these days of our national trouble. And 
 then as to that great sin, that was beyond all ques- 
 tion the cause of this w^ar, and that the Providence 
 of God, so clearly indicates, is, through its instru- 
 mentality, to be entirely removed from our land ; 
 is there no guilty drawing back on our part, fear- 
 ing that the price of universal freedom is too dear 
 for us to 25ay ? 
 
 Hear me candidly on this point for a moment, 
 for I do not, in this sacred place, utter the Shib- 
 
34 
 
 boleth of any party, but speak only the language 
 of Canaan. 
 
 In everything that man has done to i:)romote 
 universal freedom in this land, are you faithless ? 
 Do you honestly disapprove of all those measures, 
 which have to this end been adopted, \>y our con- 
 stituted authorities ? Let it he so. It is not the 
 proper province of the joulpit, either to attack or 
 defend the particular policy of any administra- 
 tion. No minister of the Lord Jesus Christ 
 should be a partisan. But are you faithless and 
 unbelieving as to what God has done ? Is not 
 this war an enig?na that no man can solve — a 
 perfectly inexplicable problem — a chaos of inter- 
 mingling and conjiicting occurrences, without po- 
 larity, harmony, or design — if it was not in- 
 tended by an all-wise Providence to eventuate in 
 universal freedom ? Recognizing this single fact, 
 as the great purpose of God in this war, have we 
 not at once a key to all its seeming contradictions ? 
 
 I listen, and the bells of Liberty are now cir- 
 cling the earth with their sweet chiming. Serf- 
 dom in Russia lives only in history. Since the 
 first clash of arms in this land, every yoke of 
 bondage, in that mighty empire, which we have 
 been wont to regard as a despotism more compact 
 and cold than her own hills of ice, has been 
 
35 
 
 broken. Austria, until quite recently, tlie very 
 embodiment of tyranny, has now |)r()('laiiii(Ml to 
 religious fjiith, universal toleratiou. Italy lias 
 been rescued from her stagnant degradation, and 
 is now moving on with rapid strides, in the way 
 of an active and free self-development, Holland 
 has just emancipated, in Surinam, 46,000 slaves, 
 in a population of but 61,000; and even the em- 
 peror of Brazil has intimated to the foreign am- 
 bassadors, resident at his court, a purpose imme- 
 diately to inaugurate in his realm some scheme of 
 emancipation. 
 
 And, oh ! is all the world to go free, and America 
 only to be a land of bondage ? Is there no lesson of 
 instruction in these proclamations of freedom, that 
 come to us from across the seas ? Hocked to our 
 very centre by this great social convulsion, was 
 it not all to the very intent, that over our moun- 
 tains and valleys, and along the shores of our 
 rivers and seas, that same bell of liberty now ringing 
 in the old ivorld might chime out its sweet notes ? 
 
 And just here do we not see, the true reason 
 why the victory tarries ; and also the ^^eculiar 
 appropriateness of the observance of such a day 
 as this ? The work of moral purification is not 
 yet completed. We have not yet given up those 
 sins on account of which God has sent upon us 
 
these judgments. And possibly, before we are 
 brought to this point, God may need to hokl us in 
 the furnace for mam^ more weary months, or 
 even years. 
 
 Physical defeats may be uecessar}^, to secure 
 moral victories, in the future, as they have been 
 in the past. Clinging very firmly to our sins, we 
 may have to be brought still lower in the valley 
 of humility, before we will forsake them. " The 
 plough-share of allliction may have to make a 
 deeper furrow, to reach the hard subsoil of our 
 self-devotion." Our material wealth as a nation 
 may need to be greatly reduced, before a gener- 
 ous patriotism will supplant selfishness and party- 
 spirit. But finally, the process ended, and the 
 nation purged of those great sins which have so 
 long polluted her lair fiime, liberty and the bless- 
 ings of brotherhood, secured to all who Avear the 
 form and possess the attrilnites of man, we doubt 
 not but that the darts of some modern Joab ivill be 
 thrust through the heart of this Absalom, and the 
 trumpet of David be heard, calling back to their homes 
 our pursuing hosts. 
 
 And oh, amidst all the darkness of this night 
 of gloom, is it not sweet to think of that coming 
 day of glory; a^-e, more, to see, even now, break- 
 ing over the distant hill-tops, its first bright 
 
o/ 
 
 iiiorniiig beams / This beautiful land, physically, 
 ''the glory of all lauds," with its Northeru luouu- 
 tains, and AYestern prairies, and Southern savan- 
 nahs ; and, intelleetually, the home of a race, 
 whose character, formed by the comminolino- of 
 almost all European nationalities, is like, Corin- 
 thian brass, for that very reason the more pre- 
 cious : such a land, emerging from this terrible 
 baptism of blood, purified from all the dross of 
 sin, and thus starting out upon a new career of 
 blessing; will not that be a spectacle that ano-els 
 will delight to behold ? May God hasten it, in 
 our time, and all the praise shall ho His forevei- 
 and ever. Amen. 
 
UB«««;,0L2Si|| 
 
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