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 SERMONS 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. MR. WESTON, 
 
 Chaplain of the 1th Regiment, National Guard, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 REV. BYRON SUNDERLAND, 
 
 Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Washinyton, 
 
 PREACHED 
 
 IN THE HALL OF IlEPRESENTATIVES, 
 
 SUNDAY, APRIL 28th, 1861. 
 
 lubli^eir bg nptst of i\t $egiment. 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 
 HENRY POLKINHORN, PRINTER. 
 
 1861. 
 
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 Services were opened by the Band playing a Voluntary. 
 After which the usual Services of the Episcopal Church 
 were read. The Choir sung the 76th Psalm ; 3d, 4th, and 
 
 5th verses. 
 
 For Thou, God, art seated high, 
 Above earth's potentates enthroned ; 
 Thou, Lord, unrivaled in the sky, 
 Supreme by all the gods are owned. 
 
 Ye who to serve the Lord aspire, 
 Abhor what's ill, and truth esteem : 
 He'll keep His servants' souls entire, 
 And them from wicked hands redeem. 
 
 For seeds are sown of glorious light, 
 A future harvest for the j ust ; 
 And gladness for the heart that's right, 
 To recompense its pious trust. 
 
 Also the 177th hymn 
 
 Guide me, Oh thou great Jehovah, 
 Pilgrim through this barren land : 
 I am weak, but thou art mighty ; 
 Hold me with thy powerful hand. 
 
 Open now the crystal fountain 
 Whence thy living waters flow : 
 Let the fiery, cloudy pillow 
 Lead me all my journey through. 
 
 Feed me with the heavenly manna 
 In this barren wilderness ; 
 Be my sword, and shield, and banner , 
 Be the Lord my righteousness. 
 
 When I tread the verge of Jordan, 
 Bid my anxious fears subside ; 
 Death of death, and hell's destruction, 
 Land me safe on Canaan's side. 
 
SERMON 
 
 REV. MR. WESTON 
 
 Ye have heard it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a 
 tooth : 
 
 But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil : but whosoever shall smite 
 thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. 
 
 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let 
 him have thy cloak also. 
 
 And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. 
 
 Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee 
 turn not thou away. — St. Matt., v. 38-9, 40-'l-'2. 
 
 Fellow Christians and Fellow Soldiers : These are the 
 words of Jesus Christ — a portion of His sermon on the 
 Mount — and as I trust we are all Christian men — in head if 
 not in heart — and are willing to be guided by our great Ex- 
 emplar, it may be instructive this morning to endeavor to 
 ascertain, so far as a few hours' preparation will allow, their 
 scope and limitation. 
 
 We are living in eventful times. Our National Capital is 
 echoing with the tramp of armed men, and the glorious sun- 
 light flashes back from thousands of glittering bayonets. 
 " Grim-visaged war" is upon us; and yesterday, on yon 
 grassy field, a thousand ready right hands were raised to 
 Heaven ; a thousand willing voices rung out on the still air, 
 pledged to sustain the Constitution of our common country. 
 This means war, if our enemies persist. Do the words of 
 our text — resist not evil — forbid war ? 
 
 That some wars are forbidden is evident: such as arise 
 from ambition, revenge, avarice, desire of fame, or lust of 
 territory ; because the passions from which they spring are 
 forbidden and are contrary to the whole spirit of the Gospel 
 
// 
 
 of Jesus Christ. But do the words of the Saviour condemn 
 war under all circumstances ? It cannot be denied that pub- 
 lic, like private contentions, originate in the depravity of 
 the heart ; and while they are evidences of the wickedness of 
 man, they are also the instruments of punishment. But it 
 does not follow that both parties are guilty, though it is often 
 the case. There must be a right and wrong, and though the 
 history of the wars of six thousand years would afford count- 
 less instances of guilt on both sides, yet there are enough 
 where the sober verdict of impartial history has declared 
 one side in the wrong and the other not guilty. The ques- 
 tion then arises : is it the duty of the injured party, in every 
 instance, to permit the aggressors to carry out their wicked 
 designs and indulge the passions of lust of power, spoil, do- 
 minion, or revenge, without resistance — first of reason and 
 remonstrance, and if these fail, by a solemn appeal to the God 
 of Battles ? 
 
 There are those for whom we entertain the profoundest 
 esteem, because we believe them animated by the purest mo- 
 tives, who declare that, in the New Testament, war under 
 any provocation is emphatically forbidden, and therefore sin- 
 ful. They quote, in support of their opinion, Christ's sermon 
 on the Mount, and " Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, 
 but rather give place unto wrath ; for it is written, vengeance 
 is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord ;" " Eesist not evil ;" 
 " Recompense no man evil for evil ;" " See that none render 
 evil for evil to any man, but ever follow that which is good, 
 both among yourselves and among all men ;" " If, when you 
 do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is accepta- 
 ble to God." 
 
 Now, the majority of these and similar texts have respect, 
 no doubt, to private life and personal intercourse, and condemn 
 revenge and retaliation ; and several of them were local — pe- 
 culiarly applicable to the circumstances and times of the day, 
 and were not, probably, of universal application. For exam- 
 ple, the last passage quoted was addressed to the domestics, 
 
who, having embraced Christianity, became thereupon very- 
 obnoxious to their Jewish and heathen masters, and were 
 consequently treated with the greatest cruelty. They pos- 
 sessed no means of redressing their grievances, and unques- 
 tioning submission was all that was left them. The Apostle 
 does not counsel the/ree Christian to submit to buffetings. 
 When an evil becomes inevitable — when there is do escape — 
 we are to suffer patiently, and, with faith in God, look to an- 
 other world for our vindication and reward. But this is the 
 last resource ; to be resorted to only when all other lawful 
 remedies fail us. When assailed by evils, patience becomes 
 a virtue when we have exhausted all other means for their 
 removal. 
 
 If we are afflicted with a disease or poverty, we strive to 
 cure the disease by medicine, poverty by industry ; and if 
 we find this absolutely impossible, then, and not till then, 
 we take it for granted it is the will of God. But in any and 
 all calamities which are evils, we are justified in employing 
 all lawful means to remove them before we are assured it is 
 the will of God that we should suffer them. Men often talk 
 of suffering from God's Providence when they are only inglo- 
 rious martyrs to their own indolence, indecision, and cow- 
 ardice. 
 
 Brethren, a good soldier, when he meditates an attack, 
 runs his eye along the line of resistance, selects and assails 
 the strongest point first. If he can carry that, the rest fol- 
 lows of course. In treating, then, our subject as to the lawful- 
 ness of war under sufficient provocation, we shall select the 
 gibraltar of the non-resistant. Their strongest point is the 
 words of Christ, " I say unto you resist not evil." What, 
 then, is the scope and limitation of these words ? Do they 
 forbid all war ? Observe the context ! " Ye have heard it 
 hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. 
 But I say unto you that you resist not evil." It is here lim- 
 ited, first, by contrast with the sanguinary code of " eye for 
 eye," a law which the Saviour declared was given the Jews, 
 
/4 
 
 for the hardness of their hearts, and we may fairly infer that 
 it was not intended to forbid all resistance, but to discounte- 
 nance those revengeful feelings so characteristic of their 
 natures and times, and which Christianity has done so much 
 to ameliorate. 
 
 Again, resist not evil, is modified by the passages with it 
 is connected. Is there a man here who would understand 
 literally and strictly when thus smitten on the one cheek he 
 was to turn the other also, or if a man, by law, took away 
 his coat, he was bound to give him his cloak also, or if 
 compelled to go a mile, he was obligated to go t wains. Who 
 could afford to give to every one that asketh, or never turn 
 away from him that would borrow ? To carry out these com- 
 mands literally, would disorganize society. 
 
 The truth is, the Gospel lays clown laws in general term, 
 and rarely descends to particular minutia, but leaves the appli- 
 cation to our natural reason and common sense, which are as much 
 the gift of God as revelation. The Gospel enunciates great 
 truths without pausing always to fill up the details. It sketches 
 in gigantic outlines the continents of everlasting principles, 
 and leaves provinces, counties, and towns, to rise in their natu- 
 ral order. We are to look at the spirit, and not the letter, of 
 its edicts, and with a few grand acknowledged principles to 
 guide us, we are to interpret all seeming contradictions so 
 as to preserve the symetry of the whole. Detached senten- 
 ces and isolated expression are not to be made fundamental 
 principles. Will any contend that we are to understand liter- 
 . ally and strictly, as applicable to us in this age, the words of 
 Christ : "Sell all that ye have and give alms ;" or these, " Lay 
 not up for yourselves treasures upon earth;" or these, "Take no 
 thought for your life what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, 
 nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on." To understand 
 them literally, would make the Gospel a mass of contradictions 
 because we could quote others enjoining forethought, industry, 
 economy, and fathers bidden to lay up for their children. 
 The general principles are plain, and we are to employ our 
 
8 
 
 common sense to find ont the exceptions and make them har- 
 monize. But we are told it is unsafe to depart from the 
 letter of the Gospel, and that such a course would endanger 
 the integrity of Holy Writ, and expose it to the wildest license 
 of private interpretation. But does not a strict literal interpre- 
 tation of "Resist not evil" involve a still greater peril? Christ 
 did not limit the application to war. He did not qualify — He 
 said in general terms, resist not evil. If, then, we may not 
 war in self-defense for our country; if we may not resist evil 
 by the sword, we may not by law, therefore, all legislative, 
 judicial, and executive action against evil, is forbidden accor- 
 ding to this interpretation. Repeal, then, your^enaZ codes, 
 burn your statute books, cut down you gallows, raze to the 
 ground your jails, prisons, penitentiaries, and houses of correc- 
 tion; let the ruffians go free, discharge your judges, magistrates, 
 and all officers of justice, for the whole machinery of govern- 
 ment is a resistance to evil. There can be no order without 
 law. Laws without penalties are idle, and penalties without 
 coercion are impossible. 
 
 St. Paul says, let every soul be subject unto the higher 
 powers, for there is no power but of God — the powers that 
 be are ordained of God — whosoever, therefore, resisteth 
 the power, resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist 
 shall secure to themselves damnation ; for rulers are not a 
 terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou, then, not 
 be afraid of the " POWER." If thou do that which is evil, be 
 afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain. For he is the 
 minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that 
 doeth evil. 
 
 It is plain, my brethren, that St. Paul did not so under- 
 stand Christ — he believed in resisting evil — and before his 
 plain and energetic declaration, the doctrine of passive suffer- 
 ing under wrongs, melts away like a snow-wreath under a 
 vernal sun. 
 
 My brethren, it cannot be denied, war is a tremendous evil. 
 It has been the scourge of men since the primal, eldest curse, 
 
/y 
 
 9 
 
 a brother's hand was thicker than itself with brother's blood. 
 It appeals to the worst principles — aronses all the worst pas- 
 sions of the human heart. It throws Christianity backward 
 centuries. Language is powerless to paint its horrors. Hu- 
 man arithmetic is impotent to cast the aggregate of the woes 
 it entails. Blighted credit, ruined commerce, sacked cities, de- 
 vastated fields, hospitals crowded with the maimed,battle-fields 
 strewn with the slain, and lamentations of grief from the be- 
 reaved at home, who mourn their unreturning brave ; and 
 therefore a weight of responsibility rests on him who cause- 
 lessly invokes the dread ordeal of battle, which the judgment 
 day alone can disclose. 
 
 But there are calamities still more disastrous to humanity 
 and truth than even war. " It is necessary I should die for 
 my country," said a patriot, "it is not necessary to live." It 
 is a dread alternative. But the magistrate is the minister of 
 God — ordained of God — and beareth not the sword in vain. 
 In the name of the Lord he sets up his banner. There are 
 records in the Old Testament of mighty men who went forth 
 to battle, marshalled by the Lord of Hosts ; and they have 
 secured the lasting commendation of the Holy Ghost in the 
 New Testament. " Time would fail me," says the eloquent 
 apostle, " to tell of Gideon, and Barok, and Sampson, and 
 Jeptha, and David, who through faith subdued kingdoms, 
 escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made 
 strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of 
 the aliens." 
 
 When the soldier came to John the Baptist and asked him 
 what he should do, John did not condemn his profession. He 
 rather encouraged it, for he bade him be content with his 
 wages. Timothy is exhorted. Then, therefore, endure hard- 
 ness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, a text to which I con- 
 less the last few day's experience has given & significance that 
 I never attached to it before. So Christ is called captain of 
 our salvation. If war, under every circumstance, were sinful, 
 
10 
 
 the inspired writer would hardly have felt warranted in using 
 such figures of speech. 
 
 We are also commanded to contend earnestly for the 
 faith. True, St. James says, the wisdom from above is 
 peaceable, but first pure and then peaceable. Contention in 
 church or State is better than surrender of principle. 
 
 Brethreu, it is not improbable we are now entering on the 
 threshold of such a war as we conscientiously believe the 
 Gospel will sanction. Before Heaven, we believe our cause 
 a righteous one, and, therefore, on bended knee, we dare invito 
 the aid of the God of Battles. To that contest, for a time, 
 you have solemnly pledged yourselves. You know well 
 what is expected of you. The eyes of the whole country 
 will be on you. When the gallant Nelson went into action, 
 there streamed from the mast-head of the Victory a flag bear- 
 ing the inspiring words, : "England expects every man to do 
 his duty." Amid the roar of battle, through rent fisures of the 
 sulphurous cloud that enveloped him, the intrepid mari- 
 ners caught sight of the signal and fought on with renewed 
 energy. Your country expects you to do your duty, and re- 
 member that courage alone, however dauntless, will not suf- 
 fice. In that quality you are above suspicion. Fortitude is 
 a rarer and higher quality in a soldier than even courage. 
 Fortitude in disaster and defeat, in privations, in onerous 
 and exhausting duty, in implicit, unhesitating obedience to 
 commands, however exacting or repugnant. It is a trite 
 aphorism, but true as trite, and wise as true, that he who can- 
 not obey is not fitted to command. By acclamation you 
 have begun well. With the gallant 8th of Massachusetts, 
 your companions in danger and toil, you have won golden 
 opinions of all sorts of men. Continue to deserve praise. 
 Emulate the iron will of those brave, uncomplaining patriots. 
 They saved one Constitution, let us compete with them in 
 saving another. Napoleon cheered his fainting soldiers in 
 their arduous duties, by reminding them that a grateful 
 
11 
 
 country would appreciate their devotion, and on their return 
 point them out with pride ; and say " there goes one of the 
 army of Italy." 
 
 Let it be your pride to hear the exclamation, there goes 
 one of the National Guard. I can pledge myself your title 
 will be no misnomer, you will be a national guard. You 
 need no Senate to warn you to " take care the republic re- 
 ceives no harm." Let your country, and whole country, be 
 dearer to you than life or home. You are from the Empire 
 city of the Empire State. Your speaker drew his first 
 breath in Maine. I am proud of my native State, as you 
 are of yours ; but the insignia that burns on her escutchen, 
 " Dirigo" is lost in the effulgent blaze of " E Pluribus 
 Unum." So, even, "Excelsior" fades before its light, as stars 
 go out with the rising sun. 
 
 Brethren, your fathers and mothers, your wives and sis- 
 ters dismissed you on your perilous errand with tearful eyes, 
 but resolute hearts. They bid you go, not that they loved 
 you less, but your and the country's honor more. They are 
 watching your career with an interest no tongue can tell. 
 They will hail your return with transports of joy; but they 
 had rather never look on your face again, than one breath of 
 reproach should tarnish your fair fame. As gentlemen, sol- 
 diers, christians, then, maintain your well-earned renown that 
 even your enemies accord you ; and, while, as good soldiers 
 you watch, and pray — pray God so to overrule the wrath of 
 man that it may redound to the glory of His holy name. Pray 
 Him to make a speedy end to this unnatural war. Pray him 
 to prosper the right and confound the wrong. To give wis- 
 dom to our rulers, courage to our armies, repentence to our 
 enemies, and lasting stability to that august Union under 
 whose protecting banner humanity has marched on to peace- 
 ful victories, unparalleled in the history of the world. Pray 
 for dear ones at home are praying too — pray that you may 
 return unscathed to your peaceful abodes, where prattling 
 
12 
 
 voices and sunny eyes will fill your happy homes with music 
 and light, and so shall you deserve well of your country, well 
 of humanity, well of your God. 
 
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 (Svjeniwfl £txvitt$. 
 
 Voluntary by the Band — Singing by the Choir, Psalm 47. 
 
 God, my heart is fixed, 'tis bent, 
 Its thankful tribute to present, 
 
 And, with my heart, my voice I'll raise 
 To thee, my God, in songs of praise. 
 
 Awake my glory ; harp and lute 
 No longer let your strings be mute ; 
 And I, my tuneful part to take, 
 Will with the early dawn awake. 
 
 Thy praises, Lord, I will resound 
 To all the listening nations round ; 
 Thy mercy highest heaven transcends, 
 Thy truth beyond the clouds extend. 
 
 Be thou, God, exalted high ; 
 And as thy glory fills the sky, 
 So let it be on earth displayed, 
 Till thou art here, as there, obeyed. 
 
 Eeading of the 1st Psalm — Singing by the Choir. 
 
 My country ! 'tis of thee, 
 
 Sweet land of liberty ! 
 
 Of thee I sing : 
 
 Land where my fathers died ; 
 
 Land of the Pilgrim's pride ; 
 
 From every mountain side 
 
 Let freedom ring. 
 
 My native country ! thee, 
 Land of the noble free, 
 Thy name I love : 
 
 1 love thy rocks and rills, 
 Thy woods and templed hills ; 
 My heart with rapture thrills 
 Like that above. 
 
 Our Father's God ! to thee, 
 
 Author of liberty I 
 
 To thee we sing, 
 
 Long may our land be bright, 
 
 With freedom's holy light, 
 
 Protect us by thy might — 
 
 Great God, our King. 
 
SEIRIMIOlSr 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. BYRON SUNDERLAND, D. D, 
 
 But hr* that shall endure unto the end the same shall be sayed. — Matt. 
 xxiv, 13. 
 
 Time, ever big with momentous events, fulfills the proph- 
 ecy of Jesus. Amid the mighty convulsions predicted by 
 Him, there was one, to take place in a distant age and 
 country, that should stir the foundations of a great govern- 
 ment, and fire the hearts of its people across the breadth of 
 a continent. In the full presence of that commotion, we 
 are standing here to-night. 
 
 Heart and tongue seem alike to fail under the pressure 
 and the power of this heart throb of the nation. And yet, w e 
 must rise up to the magnitude of the events which are 
 breaking upon us. 
 
 No language can express the emotions with which I stand 
 in this assembly, on this sacred Sabbath — signatory of our 
 divine religion — heraldic of our hopes of Heaven — in the 
 Capitol of the Confederacy, before the representatives of 
 our collected armies — stand here, an humble minister of Jesus, 
 to speak to you, my fellow-men, my fellow-countrymen, sol- 
 diers of the Kepublic, for God and our country. 
 
 Because I come to announce the doctrine of patriarchs and 
 prophets, of apostles and confessors — the great doctrine of 
 believers in all ages, that Grod can be just and yet save 
 man — that great doctrine which creates purity in the midst 
 of corruption ; which kindles hope in the midst of despair ; 
 which gives light in darkness ; which produces joy out of 
 

 the heart of sorrow, and lifts a shout of triumph over the 
 most terrible siege. 
 
 Let me say to you, first of all, then, my commission is to 
 bring you these tidings — salvation by Christ to every man 
 of us who will believe in him with an abiding faith ; the 
 soul's salvation, now, finally and forever ; salvation from sin, 
 and at length from suffering ; courage now, glory hereafter ; 
 and to say also, that if the salvation is perfect, the terms 
 are also plain — " He that endureth unto the end shall be 
 saved." It implies that circumstances may arise to shake a 
 man's faith, to turn him aside from duty, to overpower him, 
 and cut him off from reaching the end. 
 
 Yet, next to salvation itself, the mode of its attainment 
 is most important. What is needed in this, as in any 
 other warfare is fortitude, perseverance, and determination. 
 The soldier of Christ must expect to endure' hardness, must 
 follow his Captain, must obey His orders, must smite down 
 temptation on every hand, and reach the object of the cam- 
 paign at every cost. Discipline is the life of the hero. 
 Through this, and only this, he marches to victory. The 
 life to which God calls us is a time-long conflict, from which 
 there is no discharge and no retreat, and from which we 
 may thank God there is none. The true soldier wants none, 
 else he would be willing to turn back from the conquest and 
 the final rewards of triumph. 
 
 The salvation which calls us to endure unto the end, is the 
 salvation of a great spiritual kingdom ; the salvation of 
 righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost ; the 
 salvation which stays the heart of man, by faith, upon the 
 eternal strength of God, and in the unshaken hope of a 
 glorious immortality— so that the soul so stayed and girded, 
 shall look out of the windows of her earthly habitation and 
 lauo-h to scorn the enemies of her peace, the assailants of 
 her security. All physical evils, all temporal dangers and dis- 
 tresses are nothing to a spirit thus kindled with God's great 
 
16 
 
 virtue, and beating with the pulses of that infinite life, which 
 flows from the heart of Christ into the soul of his follower. 
 Then look to it my brethren. See that, first of all, your 
 soul is right with God ; "all the fitness He requires is to feel 
 our need of him." Go to Him, cast yourself upon Him, take 
 the oath of fealty to Him, receive from Him your spiritual 
 weapons which "are mighty through God to the pulling clown 
 of strong-holds." And this is your panoply in the warfare, 
 "for we wrestle not against flesh and blood," alone, "but 
 against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of 
 the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in 
 high places. "Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of 
 God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and 
 having done all to stand. Stand, therefore, having your 
 loins girt about with truth, and having on the breast- plate of 
 righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the 
 gospel of peace ; above all, taking the shield of faith, 
 wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of 
 the wicked; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword 
 of the Spirit, which is the word of God ; praying always 
 with all prayer and supplication, and watching thereunto with 
 all perseverance." Thus will you fight the good fight, and 
 keep the faith, and be enabled at last, to say, "I have endured 
 unto the end ; I have finished my course with joy ; Oh, 
 grave, where is thy victory ! Oh, death, where is thy sting ! 
 Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, 
 which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that 
 day." 
 
 These are the prospects which support a man in stern and 
 trying times ; in days that test the soul ; in hours which rise 
 surcharged with wrath and blackness ; when the swift spirit 
 of God's judgment travels in the invisible air; when all 
 earthly things are to be given up ; when men no longer 
 lingering amid pleasant dalliances, or in the peaceful walks 
 of home life and customary engagements, are suddenly sum- 
 moned to meet a stern and terrible emergency, and to act 
 
17 
 
 their part in solemn and eventful times. Such a period has 
 come to us and to our beloved country. 
 
 It is for this cause, that you with all your brethren in arms 
 are gathering to the Capital of the Nation. It is a spectacle, 
 which in my day, I never thought to see. But who can tell 
 what are to be the developments of the morrow ; and who 
 but the man that is resolved on enduring to the end, and on 
 seeing the great promised salvation, is thoroughly prepared 
 to meet so grave and momentous a crisis. Next to the ser- 
 vice of our God is the service we owe our country. The 
 one implies the other. Christianity fosters patriotism. 
 Spiritual religion and free government are both ordained of 
 God. He that is right with his Maker is most likely to be 
 true to the interests of his country in her hour of danger ; 
 and therefore, there is a political, yea even a militant, as well 
 as a religious sense, in which the declaration is true, "whoso- 
 ever shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." 
 
 For a long time a certain subtle poison of dissatisfaction 
 and disloyalty to the General Government has been dif- 
 fusing itself among a portion of the people of our country. 
 The cloud of insubordination has been rising and spreading 
 itself on our political horizon, and the muttering of the thun- 
 der of dissolution has been heard — till at length a settled 
 plan and purpose to break up this great political structure 
 has been undertaken, and its progress has been fearfully 
 rapid. Forbearance and conciliation have been wrested 
 and perverted to stimulate and encourage this proceeding ; 
 and for months it has been permitted to go on, aggravated 
 by circumstances which it does not become me here to detail, 
 but which must cause the heart of every honest man to 
 ache, and his cheek to tingle with the blush of shame. By 
 such means the Government was brought to the brink of ruin, 
 and the first feeble endeavor to exercise its rights was met 
 by a resistance as determined as it was unrighteous. But 
 at length the batteries which opened upon Sumter have 
 opened the eyes of this nation to the impending destruction. 
 
18 
 
 In this fearful crisis we have no doubt that the President of 
 the United States and those gentlemen who are acting with 
 him in his Cabinet, and all the thousands of our fellow-citi- 
 zens who have responded to the appeal which has gone 
 forth — and responded so promptly, so nobly, without distinc- 
 tion of party or diversity of sentiment — in their efforts and 
 sacrifices to uphold and maintain the government made by 
 our fathers, the government under which we were born and 
 have lived and expect to die, the government which has been 
 the beneficent instrument, under Providence, of so many 
 and so great blessings, for so long a time, the government 
 under which such a boundless prospect for future usefulness 
 and happiness spreads out before us — are, one and all, en- 
 gaged in a cause as righteous as ever men undertook to de- 
 fend and maintain. 
 
 We hold that nothing but prompt measures — such measures 
 as Christianity and patriotism may now suggest — measures 
 conceived not in the violence of passion or the spirit of preju- 
 dice, but in the temper of firmness, of coolness, of humanity, of 
 faith in God, and under a full sense of responsibility to Him; 
 and of all the momentous interests involved, can retrieve the 
 errors of the past or avert the dangers threatened in the fu- 
 ture. We cordially approve of the earnest efforts now being 
 made by the President, aided as he is by our war-worn Gen- 
 eral — the venerable Chieftain of the American people — to 
 preserve the Government and to maintain the Constitution 
 and the laws ; and we feel that he has "an oath solemnly re- 
 corded in Heaven" to use his best endeavors to this end. We 
 discountenance all efforts from every quarter to interfere with 
 this object. We disapprove of all appeals made to him from 
 whatever motive, to embarrass or cripple him in his work. 
 This is emphatically his work ; and therefore to entreat him 
 to desist from it, is to undertake to seduce or to solicit him to 
 perjury. The principle and spirit of my text applies to 
 him and his work, as well as to you and to me and to our 
 work. Our only salvation lies in "enduring to the end." If 
 
^J *£- 
 
 19 
 
 this Government is permitted, through his unfaithfulness, to 
 crumble in pieces on his hands, it will be a crime against 
 God and nature, against earth and heaven, and the curse 
 and ruin of anarchy will surely succeed. 
 
 It is not the man who is President, or the party that raised 
 him to his high place, that we have rallied to sustain ; but 
 it is the Government which he, for the time being, adminis- 
 ters. It is that flag — the only symbol of national supremacy 
 we know — which has been despised, insulted, dragged down 
 and trailed in the dust. Amid repeated provocations, crowned 
 by the last and most melancholy outbreak of all, on the very 
 spot where our national song was composed, in the Monu- 
 mental city, upon brethren, soldiers from a sister State hast- 
 ening hither from the home of Webster, to stand by us in 
 our peril, by a ruthless mob. Oh, could not the memories 
 of other days have restrained their fury ! Oh, to prevent 
 such disgrace, could not the spirit of our army, in the war 
 of 1812, have again animated the breasts of those, who dwell 
 on the spot, where the writer of the Star-Spangled Banner 
 composed his imperishable hymn, graven in every American 
 heart ; and which now, with no less enthusiasm, we repeat, 
 thankful to God for the occasion which called it forth, and 
 the victory, upon the soil and in the waters of our sister State, 
 that inspired it : 
 
 Oh say can you> see, by the dawn's early light, 
 
 What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming ; 
 Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight, 
 O'er the ramparts we watched while so gallantly streaming? 
 And the rockets' red glare, 
 The bombs bursting in air, 
 Gave proof through the night 
 That our flag was still there ; 
 The Star Spangled Banner, oh long may it wave, 
 O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave ! 
 
 Oh ! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand 
 
 Between their loved homes and the war's desolation ; 
 Blest with victory and peace, may the Heaven-rescued land, 
 Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation ; 
 Then conquer we must, 
 For our cause it is justj 
 
20 
 
 Let this be our motto, 
 
 In God is our trust ; 
 And the Star Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave, 
 O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. 
 
 But, brethren, we know why you have gathered around 
 us at this time ; why the mustering thousands of the loyal 
 States have been moved as by the spirit of one man to hasten 
 hitherwards. You have come as friends and as brothers, 
 not as enemies or as aliens. We understand the purpose of 
 your coming, and we applaud it. New England's heart has 
 been touched to the core ; and the same shaft of anguish has 
 pierced the great soul of New York, and of Pennsylvania, 
 and of the whole broad Northwestern States ; yea, and the 
 soul of every patriot throughout the land. It was the cry of 
 the genius of Liberty, as she saw the stars and stripes go down 
 before the unnatural wrath of a once sister State. Oh, would 
 that the same anguish could have rent the heart of the South- 
 ern States, showing still, despite all partisan strife and all 
 sectional interest, that the body is yet one, and thrills to the 
 living pulse of an unbroken nationality through every fibre 
 and limb ! But the North have felt the shock, and have come 
 not as an army of invaders ; not as the Scandinavian hordes 
 that issued from the realms of Thor, rolling like a sea over 
 the plains of Italy ; not like the legions of Napoleon, in later 
 times, resurging from the South to the walls of the Kremlin, 
 to perish in northern snows ; but like themselves alone, 
 Americans and patriots, the sons of the sires of the Eevolu- 
 tion, lovers of their country and ready with their lives. 
 What indeed, in such a time as this, are wealth, and riches, 
 and friends, and pleasures, and ease, and recreation ; what 
 are cities, and marts, and proud' thoroughfares of trade and 
 travel, and argosies of commerce, and all the pomp and 
 treasure of an ever-advancing civilization ; what are dangers 
 and self-denials and personal hardships ; nay, what is life 
 itself, if the glorious visions of American Liberty and Inde- 
 pendence, of American institutions and ideas and principles, 
 can only be preserved ! 
 
#3 
 
 21 
 
 God only knows the issue of this great business. I confess 
 to you, it looks to me sometimes grim and terrible ; and the 
 baptism through which we are called to pass seems awful to 
 our mortal nature, even as that more terrific and unspeaka- 
 ble mystery of Christ our Saviour, in which He was baptised. 
 Yet, I cannot but hope and believe, that as His death proved 
 the life, and light, and hope of the world, so our suffering 
 and toil, if we are true and faithful, will produce a harvest 
 of fruits at last, of which none of us shall ever need to be 
 ashamed ! 
 
 Above all, let us remember whose we are, and the mighty 
 God whom we serve ; let us put our trust in that "Name which 
 is above every name, and shall endure forever." All we can 
 do for our country will finally prove but the just tribute of 
 oar age and our generation to that mightier kingdom which 
 Jesus Christ has set up, and over which He will reign 
 perpetually. When life's work is finished, and the con- 
 summation of all things is come, may it then be found of each 
 of us, that we have "endured unto the end," and have in- 
 herited salvation. 
 
 Oh, soldiers of Chri&t, if indeed you are such, what a life 
 is before you ! what a victory and reward await you ! I see 
 the last enemy approaching ! There lies between you and 
 yonder welcome, but one more conflict. Earth is receding! 
 Heaven begins to open! 
 
 It shall be when life is over and the battle ended ; it 
 shall be after you have worn the harness of this warfare, 
 and having worn it well, shall unbind the corselet and lay 
 aside the weapons of the fight ; it shall be when the earthly 
 evolutions are all spent ; when the crisis is decided ; when 
 the tents are struck, and the camp-fires wasted ; it shall be 
 after that long sleep of the grave, in the muster-morning of 
 the Kesurrection, when the trumpet of the Archangel shall 
 breathe its living blast through "every soldier's sepulchre," 
 and Heaven shall open, upon the sight of the rising myriads, 
 
22 
 
 its long-expected glories. Oh, fellow-men, if indeed you be- 
 long to Christ, 
 
 " I see you on your winding way" 
 from these distant regions of the grave to that resplendent 
 and august Metropolis in yonder skies. The night — that 
 last long night of death — which put an end to the combat 
 and forever, is past ; the dawn of that day eternal opens to 
 your vision the full realness and magnitude of the battle 
 you have fought and won ; and the morning drum-beat of the 
 mustering angel calls you up from the damp sod where the 
 night found you fighting. 
 
 Oh, what a victory and welcome ! There under the tri- 
 umphal arch before the Celestial City, greeting the glad eye 
 of the victor, there is your beautiful crown, ready for the 
 soldier's temples, the gift of Him whose cause you served, 
 winning that peace which is now your eternal fruition. 
 There too, is the array, more gorgeous and magnificent than 
 army ever made in a home-return from conflict, an array 
 that you will join, in your upward march, at the clarion sound 
 of seraphic heralds, amid the plaudits of unnumbered angel 
 voices, bidding you welcome in the name of Him, for whom 
 that night of earthly battle found you fighting to the last ! 
 
 Once again, therefore, let me point you to the religion of 
 the Cross ; to that only solace which can assuage our sorrows ; 
 to that refuge and support which alone is adequate to life's 
 solemn undertakings. There may you learn how the soul 
 overcomes in every changing fortune of the strife ; and there 
 may* you furnish the spirit expectant, for the dawn of the 
 eternal morrow — when away from the conflict and the bi- 
 vouac of mortal warfare, your vestments shall glisten in a 
 purer light, and your tents be pitched under a fairer sky. 
 Amen. 
 
-* - ^ * X 
 
 23 
 
 Prayer — Singing by the Choir. V« ., * v, * v ^ 
 
 Glory to Thee, my God, this night, 
 For all the blessings of the light : 
 Keep me, keep me, King of Kings, 
 Under thine own almighty wings. 
 
 Forgive me, Lord, for Thy dear Son, 
 The ills that I this day have done ; 
 That with the world, myself, and Thee, 
 I, ere I sleep, at peace may be. 
 
 Teach me to live, that I may dread 
 The grave as little as my bed ; 
 Teach me to die, that so I may 
 Triumphant rise at the last day. 
 
 DOXOLOGY. % 
 
 Praise God, from "Whom all blessings flow ; 
 Praise Him all creatures here below ; 
 Praise Him above, angelic host ; 
 Praise Father Son, and Holy Ghost. 
 
 After the Benediction, the Band played " The Star-Span- 
 gled Banner," while the audience joined in singing. 
 
 Thus passed the second Sabbath of the National Guard. 
 
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