Ajlo E 458 i.3 .U6 Copy 2 JiSlS} National Sins the Cause of National Calamity. uJi' 'P' - . H^ A SERMON DELIVERED IN m. laul's (fljuiif], fa |ortf, |nMaiui, ON THE MY OF ^^ATIOEAL HUMILIATION, FASTING, AKD PI{AYE1{, APEIL 30, 1863. GEORGE UPFOLD, D.D., LL.D. BISHOP OP INDIANA. NEW YORK: c^^ 3^ D. APPLE TON AND COMPANY, |j^ k 443 & 445 BROADWAY. 1863. g;r Kational Sins the Cause of National Calamity. A SEPJION DELIVERED IN it. liiul's €\}m\], fa |oi'if. |nM;ura, DAY OF NATIONAL HUMILIATION, FASTING, AND PRAYER, APRIL 30, 1863. ' BY GEORGE UPFOLD, D. D., LL. D., BISHOP OF INDIANA. NEW YORK: B. APPLETON AND COMPANY; 443 & 445 BROADWAY. 1863. SERMON. " God, thou hcast cast us off; thou bast scattered us; thou hast been displeased ; O turn thyself to us again. Thou hast made tlie earth to tremble ; thou hast broken it ; heal the breaches thereof, for it shaketh. Thou hast showed thy people hard, things ; thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment." — Psalm Ix, 1, 2, 3. How trutlifal tliis description of our condition as a nation and country, under existing circumstances ! How clearly and impressively do these words of tlie Psalmist set forth the cause of this disastrous con- dition, and the only way open for our relief ! God hath inflicted the chastisement nnder which we are suffering. We have justly incurred His displeasure, and he hath smitten us ; that " when His judgments are abroad among us, we, an offending people, may learn righteousness." It is the Lord our God who hath "made our portion of the earth to tremble; who hath broken it so that it shaketh ; " and He alone, " turning .Himself to us again," as we humble ourselves before him, in all sincerity of contrition, in deprecation of our manifold sins, and in invocation of His mercy and forgiveness, can " lieal tlie sores thereof," save, and deliver us. The judgments of God are upon us and impend- ing over us. Dark clouds overspread our social and political horizon. Civil war is convulsing our once united, peaceful, and prosperous country ; and " sedi- tion, privy conspiracy, and rebellion " are desolating the foir heritage bequeathed to us by our fathers. The Almighty Ruler of nations, in His mysterious, but wise and gracious providence, hath permitted a grievous national chastisement to fall upon us, in its origin, circumstances, and progress, almost unexam- pled in history. Scarcely three years have elapsed since our favor- ed land, throughout its length and breadth, was j)ros- pering in its wonted quietness and peace ; and in the minds of most of our fellow citizens, there were no apprehensions of any disastrous change. With a form of government calculated, and proved to be, eminently conducive to and conservative of the national welfare ; with wholesome laws, imposing only M'holesome restraints ; and with a system of administration which secured equal rights to every citizen, ample protection of life and property, and as much individual liberty as is compatible with per- sonal and social happiness, the people of this feder- ative Union were blessed beyond most of the nations of the earth. There was everything to encourage, and nothing to dishearten ns in our anticipations of advancement and permanence. With a fertile soil, yielding in its diversified productions, a rich return to its cultivators ; with exhaustless mineral wealth in constant development ; with manufacturing enter- prises of every kind in successful operation ; Avitli a remunerative commerce, internal and external, and encircling the globe ; with educational institutions, open to all classes, and affording every needful facil- ity for intellectual cultivation, scientific attainments, and general knowledge and intelligence ; with reli- gious privileges, unfettered in their exercise, and universally diffused ; in a word, with all the advan- tages and a])pliances calculated to make it a great nation, and perpetuate its growing prosperity, this Republic j^romised not only to realize, but to surpass, the most sanguine hopes and expectations of its patriotic founders, and become more and more " a praise and glory in the earth." Suddenly, a cloud, at first not bigger than a man's hand, but of ominous aspect, appeared in the South, which soon enlarged into portentous dimen- sions, and spread itself wider and Avider, day by day, until it covered the whole southern domain ; and a storm burst upon and swept over it, with the fury of a tornado, threatening the North, East, and West with devastation. War, with its train of attendant evils, was initiated and fastened upon our common coun- try ; not from tlie invasion of a foreign foe, but from tlie aggressive acts of a portion of our own fellow citizens, in tlie madness of pride and ambition ; and brother armed against brother in a sanguinary inter- necine conflict. Ever since a change has come over our anticipations of advance. Our dreams of pros- perity have been disturbed and broken up, and dis- aster and grief have fallen upon our happy land. It is a sad, sad change ; a change in which all classes and conditions are directly or indirectly involved, — those who are remote from the actual fields of strife, as well as those who are in or near it, spectators or victims of the devastation and ruin which have marked the progi-ess of the hostile armies. A gen- eral and sore national calamity has come upon this once peaceful and prosperous country, and is still impending over us, and, as yet, with apparently faint hoj)e of deliverance, adding daily to our chastisement as a peoj)le, and darkening all our future prospects. It is, however, of God's permission and ordering for v/ise and gracious purposes of His own ; and He alone can heal and restore. Very properly, very dutifully, and with a just and commendable recognition of the wisdom, goodness, mercy, and power of the Almighty Euler of nations, and with a due apprecia- tion of the only reliable interposition for our deliver- ance, has the President of the United States again recommended the observance of a Day of National Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayee, and called upon us " to humble ourselves as a i)eo2:)le before Almighty God ; to confess our national sins ; and to pray for His clemency and forgiveness." For this purpose we are now assembled in common with our fellow citizens throughout our afflicted land ; and, I trust, with a full conviction of the necessity for such humiliation, and a sincere desire and intention to discharge this our bounden duty and privilege in true contrition of spirit, and with firm resolutions and earnest endeavors so to amend individually our ways and doings as to add our personal influence and ex- ample to enhance that collective repentance and reformation on which we can alone hope for the Divine forbearance, forgiveness, and deliverance. This is not the occasion nor the place to dilate on the immediate causes of this national disaster, which would involve considerations of domestic poli- tics unbecoming my official position to discuss ; ex- cept to say, which I do without any hesitation or reserve, and on high and competent authority,^* that * Extracts from the speech of the Hon, Alexander II, Stephens adverse to secession, in the Georgia committee, January, 18G1. " Pause, I entreat you, and consider for a moment what reason you can give that will even satisfy yourselves in calmer moments — what reasons you can give to your fellow suiFerers in the calamity that it will bring upon us. What reasons can you give to the nations of the earth to justify it ? They will be the calm and deliberate judges in the case ! it has arisen from no fault of our National Govern- ment to^vard those wlio were notoriously the origin- ators of this internecine conflict, in any of its laws, or in their administration ; that it is not only an un- natural, but an unprovoked rebellion against one of the most just and beneficent Governments on the face of the earth ; and that its resistance to the uttermost, at any sacrifice, and until the madness of those who originated and are prolonging it, is restrained and arrested, and the integrity of the Union maintained and its safety secured, is not only a dictate of true patriotism, but a moral and religious duty. There is, however, a prior cause for this national calamity, of which I am free to speak ; and of which the present occasiou, and my duty as a minister of Christ, require me to speak, and to speak out plain- ly, and without fear or favor. There is a prior cause ; And to what cause or one overt act can you name or point, on wliich to rest the plea of justification? What right has the Kortli assailed? What interest of the South has been invaded? What justice has been denied? and what claim founded injustice and right has been withheld? Can either of you to-day name one Governmental act of wrong, deliber- ately and purposely done by the Government of Washington, of which the South has a right to complain ? I challenge the answer ! * * if ^: * H: * * " Now, for you to attempt to overthrow such a Government as this, under which we have lived more than three quarters of a century, in which wo have gained our wealth, our standing as a nation, our domes- tic safety while the elements of peril are around us, with peace and tranquillity accompanied with mibounded prosperity and rights unas- sailed — is the height of madness, folly, and wickedness, to Avhich I can neither lend my sanction nor my vote." and it consists in oiir general and marked forsaking of God, as a j)eople ; in our self-glorification, wbicli has become so common as to Lave passed into a proverb ; in our dependence on mere human devices and instrumentalities for advancement and prosper- ousness as a nation ; and in ignoring, practically, in a greater or less degree, the Author and Source of all our national mercies and blessings, in the inculpatory language of the prophet, in relation to God's ancient chosen nation : having " forsaken Him, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out to ourselves cisterns broken cisterns, that can hold no water." The Lord our God is the beneficent source of all the multiplied and abounding blessings, which, as a nation, we have heretofore enjoyed, and to a large ex- tent, and amid the present calamity, still enjoy. But, alas ] in our blindness and perverseness, in our j)ride and presumption, we have forsaken and forgotten Him ; if not openly and avowedly, in the scornfulness of utter unbelief, yet practically and to all intents and purposes. We have undertaken to live without and independent of Him ; relying on our own wisdom to guide, our own strength to succor, our own might to protect and defend, and our own skill to bring our enterprises, of every kind, to a successful issue. This gracious God and Father, this bountiful Benefactor, has been, and continues to be, forsaken, recklessly or carelessly and most ungratefully forsaken, by great 10 nunil3ers of His dependent creatures, on whom He pours forth a constant stream of blessings in His be- neficent providence, and invites, " in accents sweet as angels use," to be partakers of His marvellous spirit- ual grace. His glory is given to other and worthless objects ; His just, reasonable, and practical demands of reverence and obedience are deferred to the veriest trifles of this vain and perishing world ; even if, which is in truth the inexcusable sin and crying guilt of very many, His mercy and grace, and proffered salvation, with His positive commandments, are not wilfully refused, rejected, and scorned. In this nominally Christian land, there are noto- riously numbers who live and act as if there were no God and Saviour, no moral obligation, no religious duties and responsibilities. " God is not in all their thoughts." They never bow the knee to Him in prayer, nor offer Him the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. They never name Him, save in trifling and insulting adjurations, or in impious profanity. This world, and its j^ursuits and enjoyments ; this world that is passing away, and they passing away with it to a dread account, which however much they may ignore, or affect to scorn, they cannot escape or evade ; this world is their solace, their hope, their de- pendence, their God. On it all their aflections and desires are fixed ; their confidence placed ; their plans, purposes, and energies concentrated ; and above it. 11 aside from it, beyond it, they seem to have neither thought nor care. Its spirit possesses their minds ; its principles govern their conduct ; its vain and too often debasing pursuits engross their time and atten- tion. Business pursued beyond its legitimate limits, and absorbingly followed ; money making, political ambition, sensual indulgences, purely selfish gratifi- cations of every kind, if there be nothing worse in seeking their attainment, impair and ultimately de- stroy their religious sensibilities, and sink deeper, day by day, in worldliness, ungodliness, and sin. This is no fanciful picture ; no fiction of the imagi- nation. The inculpation is a sad reality, an alarming fact. Will our gracious God and Saviour, who is thus forsaken and forgotten, pass it all by with im- punity to the offenders ? May we not expect Him, in His righteous displeasure, to visit us for all these things? Is it at all strange, and does it cast the shadow of a shade on His goodness and His justice, that He should " cast us off and scatter us ; cause our portion of the earth to tremble, and break it, so that it shaketh ; that He should show us hard things, and make ns to'drink the wine of astonishment " ? Is it any marvel that He should permit calamity to come upon us ; visit our transgressions with the rod of His wrath, and our offences with a scourge ; and thus teach us our guilt and exceeding sinfulness, and with that our littleness and helplessness, proud and self- 12 sufficient as too many of us have been and are ? Can we be at a loss to discern loliy tbe present convulsion of our national affairs has occurred ; and this once united, peaceful, and prosperous country is " shaken " by sedition and rebellion, and involved in a sangui- nary, wasting, devastating civil war ? Alas ! we are " a sinful nation ; a j)eo23le laden with iniquity." Is this denied or doubted ? Take only a brief survey of the history of the past half century, in its bearing on our highly favored land ; and mark the manifest sad contrast, in its moral as- pects, of the present with the past. Where is the pure and elevated patriotism which distinguished the founders of this Republic ? Has it not been gradual- ly Avaning, until it has degenerated into a mere sem- blance, an infinitesimal point ? Has not a selfish am- bition, a lust of power and emolument, with gross corruption in the attainment, insensibly obliterated true, genuine patriotism among our public men of all parties, and increased and cumulated until moral jirin- ciple has been lost sight of, and common honesty be- come a thing that was, a faint and indistinct feature of the past ? Then turn your eyes to our commercial and manufacturing cities ; — and many of our remote villages and hamlets are not far behind them in the crying sin ; — and note the ra^^id advance from sim- plicity to luxury; the a]»ing of the corrupting habits, modes of living, expensive pleasures, and general 13 licentiousness of transatlantic countries and communi- ties, until from servile imitators we have become rivals, and in many resjDects superiors in reckless extrava- gance in dress, equipages, houseliold ornamentation, festive display, and all that is calculated to engender and foster pride, pomp, and sensuality, corrupt the heart and principles, and demoralize social life. Then consider, as growing out of this, the frequent and enormous frauds which have marked our later course as a people, the bribery and corruption which have dishonored many of our legislative bodies, national and State ; the peculations and defalcations of public officials, civic and military ; the swindling operations, immense and repeated, of directors and managers of banking and insurance companies, railroads, and other monetary associations ; with the told and untold sufferings of widows, orphans, and the helpless classes of society, consequent on these and kindred fraudulent transactions and wholesale robberies. And these outrages — unpunished outrages in proportion usually to the amount stolen, the larger the fraud the greater the chance of impunity — not the work of men whose vocation is crime and robbery, but of men high in social position, occupying places of honorable trust, respectable, educated, intelligent, and some of them professedly religious men, active and ostentatious leaders in the popular moral and religious enterprises of the clay, and trusted, because they were presumed 14 to be incapable of a dislionorable action, of any de- parture from moral principle, integrity, and honesty. Then, ^vitli all this, contemplate the general corrup- tion of public morals ; the increase and diffusion of an irreligious, socially disorganizing and demoralizing, and in many instances infidel literature ; the licen- tiousness of a portion of the public press, its pander- ing to the worst passions of human nature, and its encouragement of social evils, and every novel theory and scheme for social disorganization ; the utter reck- lessness of human life ; the robberies, assassinations, and murders, which fill the daily police record of the newspapers, and, from their frequency and audacity, have almost ceased to excite abhorrence and shock the sensibilities of those who read them. In all this, — and it is not a tithe of our moral offences and our crying national sins, which are too horrible to be dwelt on in detail — hath not God been forsaken, for- gotten, and dishonored, and His righteous judgment incurred ? Is it not of His forbearance and mercy, that, as a sinful nation, and for our national sins, in- stead of this corrective chastisement, we are not ut- terly consumed ? It is most true, and as lamentable as true, that, as a people, we have grievously perverted our national mercies and blessings, and run counter to that right- eousness which alone exalte th a nation ; that we have abused our civil and religious liberty to purposes of 15 licentiousness ; have become selfish, unprincipled, worldly-minded, morally corrupt and vicious, in re- quital of the Providential goodness which hath been lavished upon us, and the religious light and knowl- edge, and the spiritual grace which have been so freely and fully accorded to and bestowed upon us, in the word and ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But this is not all of God's just complaint of us as a people and a nation. In addition to the offences which have been cursorily adverted to and stated, we have been, and we are offenders in another way, equally evil, equally deplorable, and equally deserv- ing the Divine chastisement. We have been, we are generally, proud, vainglorious, presumptuous, self- reliant ; counting far too much on human wisdom to guide, human devices to further and preserve, and human power to protect, defend, and prosper us. We have not only " forsaken God, the fountain of living waters, but have hewed us out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water." Amonsr these mere human asrencies and iustru- mentalities, our political institutions and their salu- tary influence have been relied upon for succor and defence in an hour of national peril, and for perma- nent national prosperity. Now to a certain extent, our political institutions are worthy of the high esti- mation which is entertained for them ; worthy of re- 16 liance. In^former evil days, and in past emergencies, they have proved trustworthy in an eminent degree. Not, however, intrinsically and indej^endently, but only as God hath ordered, employed, and controlled them, as his agencies for subserving, securing, and perpetuating the national welfare. In and of themselves, the political institutions in which we have gloried, vainly and pre3um23tuously gloried, are nothing, and less than nothing, as recent events have too sadly proved. For they have failed to disarm faction, and arrest sedition and rebellion, much as they have been relied upon to do both. Indeed, in the present commotion, they have seemed to invite, rather than repel aggression ; and through a perversion of the just principles they involve, have been made to sanction the wrons: and outrasfe so wantonly and recklessly perpetrated. Emj)loyed in distinct recognition of the wisdom and power of God, which can alone give them efficiency, in humble de- pendence upon Him, in His fear, and in invocation of His aid and strength, they have wrought marvels for the American peoj^le ; and will again, and now, and always. But as independent resources, much as they may be relied upon to restrain the madness of the people, and enforce submission to the constituted authorities, obedience to the laws, and a restoration of union, harmony, and peace, they are mere human 17 devices, mere liuinau instrumentalities, and a false and treaclierons dependence. Then again, our self-adulation and reliance have found a basis in certain national characteristics, creditable in themselves, and, subordinated to a Higher Power, manifestly and extensively influential in cementing our political fabric, advancing the na- tional prosperity, and consolidating and expanding the goodly heritage received from our fathers. These characteristics are, the general education and intelli- gence of the American people, their enterprising spirit, their industrious habits, their indomitable energy and perseverance, their mechanical skill and inventive genius, their aptitude for business of every kind, and their capacity for self-government. These characteristic features, which have ostensibly produced such marvellous results, and, in a portion of time un- paralleled in history, have elevated us from feeble, dependent colonies to a commanding position and influence as an independent nation ; these have been made too much of a self-sufficient and God-forgetting reliance. These, in our pride and vainglory, have been substituted for the overruling and controlling Providence, and the beneficent intervention and furtherance of Almighty God. These alone are to make us, as a nation, a praise and glory in the earth. So many have reasoned; so too many still reason and speculate, and far more of the latter than the 18 former. But how fallaciously! What have these national characteristics done for us in the present dis- astrous emergency ; and what are they likely to do? Nothing. They are of the earth, enrfchly; and, inde- pendent of the Divine interposition, less than nothing and vanity. Then again: our internal improvements, our mul- tiplied enterprises, in the shape of canals, railroads, and electric communication, bringing one end of our wide-spread domain into easy and instant con- nection with the other, and forming an apparent strong and inseparable bond of political union ; these and kindred appliances have been and continue to be relied upon as sure, unfailing elements of national greatness, and independent means of advance and permanence to the Republic. Now what have they all done, in preventing the existing convulsion, and in resisting and subduing the threatening machina- tions against the integrity and stability of the Union ? What can they do, in and of themselves, in averting national disaster and in promoting national pros- perity ? Nothing. If they are relied upon, as they have been relied upon, in exclusion of God and His sovereign control, and infinitely wise and gracious interposition ; if He is not recognized as giving them all their efficiency and power ; they are useless and unprofitable appliances, agencies, and instrumentali- ties of no conceivable account, mere human devices, 19 with all the necessary imperfection and imbecility of such devices. Then, farther: the internal resources of our highly favored country, its fertile soil, its diversified products, its mineral treasures, its extensive manu- factures, its constantly expanding and almost bound- less commerce ; all these, contributing as they do largely to national wealth and power, have been, and are, made grounds of self-reliance and vain- glorious boasting. These, eagerly and engrossingly pursued as they are, without reference to God's inter- vention, and in unmindfulness of His creative and conserving power, whose blessing alone makes them in any way and degree elements of national pros- perity, are a fallacious and treacherous dependence, far more likely to initiate decay and ruin than to' promote advancement and permanence ; nay, tending, as history teaches, to engender corruption, pander to luxury, pride, and vice, and aid in undermining and ultimately overthrowing the political fabric. Then, farther: the extension of the national do- main; the occupancy of vast tracts of country, up to a comparatively recent period the hunting grounds of nomadic, savage tribes, or the abode of a degen- erate race, in industry, enterprise, intelligence,''and civilization, but little in advance of savages ; partic- ularly the discovery and development of mineral treasures in apparently inexhaustible quantity; these 20 have been, and are, made a basis of independent reliance, as ensuring national security, advancement, and permanent prosperity. It is not to be denied, tbatin extending our republican form of government, our free political institutions, and our salutary laws, over those immense territories, heretofore given up to barbarism or to equivalent misrule ; in the introduc- tion of civilization, intelligence, and enterprise into regions hitherto destitute of them ; and in opening a new and boundless home for our surplus population, annually swollen by emigration from foreign lauds ; highly beneficial results have been produced, and the national prosperity materially advanced. But the precious metals, particularly the gold, which has attracted so many thousand adventurers to the new El Dorado, and in which so much reliance is placed to save and defend the country; these grounds of glorying are far more likely to prove a curse than a blessing. Gold, on which many place their confi- dence, is, as all history and experience prove and proclaim, a source of national weakness rather than an element of national strength ; a plague spot on the body politic, eating into its very vitals as a cank- erous sore, corroding and corrupting it, and, instead of concentrating the energies of the nation, conserv- ing its welfare, and consolidating the Union, endan- gering, not only the prosperity of the Kepublic, but its very existence. Yet, of late, this has been and is 21 a matter of vain-glorious boasting and reliance. The influx of gold and other precious metals from our extended domain between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific, and the wealth, resources, and power thereby produced, are, in the speculations of many, to sustain the Government in a very important ne- cessity, and through it maintain the Republic on a permanent, unshaken foundation, and preclude ruin or even disaster. The arm of the Almighty is nothing. His providence, if allowed, is only of sec- ondary account. Gold and its adjuncts are to save the country, avert calamity, and carry the nation forward to the summit of prosperity. They who thus reason, or rather boastingly talk, for there is very little reason in their fond specula- tions, are they not trusting in the veriest human de- vice, leaning on an arm of flesh, building on a founda- tion of sand, and " hewing out to themselves a broken cistern that can hold no water " ? Then, still farther : the patriotism of the Ameri- can people generally ; their intense love of liberty ; their devoted attachment to our free institutions; their native bravery and martial j^rowess ; their ready adaptation to a soldier's life and duties, and to war- like enterprises on land and sea ; the promptitude with which they have relinquished their usual peaceable occupations and industrial pursuits, taken up arms, and rallied in armed array in defence of their country 22 wlien it has been menaced or assailed by an aggres- sive power; and the success which has generally crowned their efforts on the battle field, and in naval combat ; these characteristics, very creditable char- acteristics in themselves, have been and are made grounds of self-dependence, in forgetfulness, if not in rejection of the Lord God of hosts, Avho alone giveth skill, and courage, and strength, and victory. Our immense armies, our naval forces, in and of them- selves, are to save the country, in this its hour of peril, crush the rebellion, and restore the Union. Now all honor to those who, in almost countless numbers and without distinction of party, have, in the present national emergency, responded so readily and promptly to the summons of the constituted authorities, and rallied in defence of the Government of the country, the constitution and laws, wantonly and recklessly assailed by aspiring, seditious, and re- bellious citizens, who were profiting by, and prosper- ing under, a most benign, conservative, and salutary rule. All honor to our volunteer soldiers, who, in a spirit of patriotism rarely equalled, and never sur- passed, have left their homes and families and the comforts of domestic life ; their peaceful occupations and remunerative industrial pursuits ; and gone forth by tens of thousands to repel aggression, maintain the laws of the land so wantonly defied, enforce the supremacy of the national authorities, and defend the 23 national flag from defiant insnlt. They have clone well and nobly ; and they deserve well of the coun- try which, at such extensive sacrifices, they have vol- untarily arrayed themselves in arms and hazarded their lives to succor and sustain. Yet, after all, our armies, with all their courage and skill and prowess, are a mere human device ; an agency and instrumentality of the earth, earthly ; and, without the Divine aid, guidance, and blessing, nothing. " The race is not to the swift, nor the bat- tle to the strong." Numbers are nothing ; courage is nothing ; military skill and enter2:>rise are nothing ; a nation arrayed in arms, and prosecuting the conflict with undaunted resolution and indomitable perse- verance, is nothing. If these are made grounds of dependence, independent of the God of battles, who " teacheth our hands to war and our fins^ers to fis^ht ; " in forgetfulness, in neglect, in wilful and defiant dis- obedience of Him, the conflict is divested of any reasonable hope of success, and disaster and defeat, and not victory and triumph, are to be anticipated. It is, however, unnecessary to extend these incul- pations. Sufficient have been adduced to sustain the position, that amid our multiplied and abounding mercies and blessings, we have too generally, as a people, forsaken the Lord our God, and our fathers' God ; He who gave us the goodly heritage we still possess, and for the most part as yet unimpaired ; 24 He, "by wLose grace alone it was, that from inconsid- erable colonists, dependent on a distant and arbitrary sovereignty, we became a free and independent nation. Evidences enoiigli liave been afforded to demonstrate the necessity for the humiliation before God, and the deprecation of His just displeasure on account of our national sins, for which we are assem- bled to-day. Evidences enough have been given to convict us of having been, as a people, " boasters and proud," sinfully and presumptuously self-reliant ; crim- inally dependent on our own wisdom, strength, and resources ; that we have " forsaken the fountain of living waters, and hewed out to ourselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water ; " that we have in our hour of calamity and distress resorted to "refuges of lies," fallacious dependencies of mere human conception and devising, instead of practically acknowledging the Lord God as our " strong tower and rock of defence," flvinsj to Him in our tribulation and peril, and invoking His omnipotent intervention, and relying upon His gracious and overruling provi- dence, to disperse the dark clouds which overshadow the land, arrest the raging storm, and say to the agi- tated billows on which we are tempest-tossed, " Peace, be still ! " We have once more, in compliance with the recom- mendation of the Chief Magistrate of the Kepublic, assembled, with our fellow citizens throughout the 25 land whicli is still faithful to the Union, in confessing before an offended God our manifold transgressions as a people ; onr sins of commission and omission ; dep- recating His just displeasure, and invoking His gra- cious interposition in this our day of national distress and peril. This we have done in fitting words, and, it is trusted, with fitting disposition of mind, in a truly contrite and humble spirit, with sincere and devout affections and heartfelt dependence on the only Source of deliverance and safety. This, however, is not all our duty, nor a tithe of our duty. Actions rather than words are required to demonstrate our humilia- tion and contrition. God the Lord, whom we have confessed to have forsaken and forgotten, must re- ceive honor and glory in our amendment and refor- mation. We must abandon the sins, the fallacious de- pendencies, the " refuges of lies," and all the offences which have brought upon us this sore national calami- ty, and return in the obedience of faith to the Al- mighty Ruler of nations, and manifest toward Him renewed and practical allegiance and homage. Our help is in the name of the Lord, who hath made heaven and earth. He alone can succor ; He alone can defend and give success to our efforts for defence, for renewed unity and concord, and for an honorable and permanent peace. But national sins are only the aggregate of indi- vidual and personal sins ; and our repentance must be 26 personal, and each one begin the work of contrition and amendment with him or herself, so as to expand and intensify the collective humiliation, which is so imperatively demanded. Let us, then, return unto the Lord our God, in our individual capacity, that He may return to us, and return with blessings to our country. Let us honor Him in our families and in the domestic and social circle, fearing Him ourselves with all filial fear, and teaching our children and dependents to fear and reverence and serve Him. Thus only can we reasonably count on His gracious interposition, and hope that He " who hath scattered us, because He hath been displeased with us, will return to us again ; and He who hath made the land to tremble, and broken it, so that it shaketh, will heal the sores there- of." Thus only may we, as a people, whom He hath hitherto preeminently blessed — still blesses beyond our deserts — look to Him to continue to bless us, in delivering us from our present distress, causing this devastating civil war to cease, and restoring peace and prosperity. Thus only may we expect His inter- vention in restraining the madness of the people who have originated and are bent on perpetuating this in- ternecine conflict ; give success to our armies in the field, and our naval armament on the waters. Thus only may we anticipate the day, which may God in His mercy and goodness hasten, when, with glad and grate ful hearts, we may assemble as a people to oifer our 27 thanksgiving and praise for tlie cessation and extinc- tion of this unnatural and sanguinary strife of brother with brother ; see our country once more united in bonds of mutual amity and concord, every heart ani- mated with true patriotism, and the North and the South, the East and the West, rallying as formerly, as one man, — a Macedonian phalanx, foot to foot and shoulder to shoulder, in repelling foreign aggression and in defence and maintenance of that glorious na- tional flag, under which, as an aegis, we have battled and conquered, and advanced from an inauspicious beginning to an elevated position among the nations, and unexampled national prosperity. Amen. PRAYER. Almighty and meeciful God, who for our maui- fold sins hast scattered us abroad, and art justly- displeased with us; turn Thee unto us again, we humbly beseech Thee, in Thy loving kindness and tender mercy. We confess with shame and confusion of face, that we are a sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity. In pride and ^presumption ; in covet- ousness and worldly -mindedness ; in self-sufficiency and self dependence ; in glorying in our own wisdom, resources, and strength, instead of glorying only in Thee ; in making our boast of Thy unmerited bless- ings, as if our own might had gotten them, instead of acknowledging Thy providential goodness in all ; in profaneness of speech and ungodliness of life, and in receiving in vain Thy grace in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; we acknowledge that as a people we have grievously sinned against Thee, and have justly deserved Thy corrective chastisement. Thou, Lord, our offended God, hast moved the land and divided it ; heal, we beseech Thee, the sores thereof, 29 for it sliaketli. Thou who iiiakest men to be of one mind in a house, and stillest the madness of the people, we implore Thee, of Thine infinite mercy, to appease the tumults among us, to bring to an end the terrible strife which is now convulsing the nation, and to restore to our country a speedy, honorable, and permanent peace. May we individually and collectively repent us truly of our past sins, and steadfastly propose and earnestly endeavor to amend our ways and doings in all time to come. Give us grace, we beseecli Thee, to walk henceforth obe- diently in Thy holy commandments, and in due sub- jection to the powers that be from Thee, that so, leading a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty, we may be blessed with a return of our former national prosperity, and continually offer unto Thee our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for the same, through the merits of Thy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen, • [■■-. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ■If 012 027 033 3 ;