.1 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS II III II 1111 011 933 388 A f pH8.5 E 458 .1 ■ W52 Copy 1 OtstitWisIraicnt in Rational |lit(|tcousncss, PRESENT CAUSES FOR THANKSGIVING. ^ Establishment in $tatt w ^ CORRESPONDENCE. Brooklyn, N. Y., 28th November, 1861. Rev. and Dear Sir : It was with pleasure, and we trust also with profit, that we listened to the ser- mon delivered by you on this Thanksgiving day. We desire, iii behalf of your people, to tender you our thanks for the clear enun- ciation of fundamental truths, so ably stated in it, and request from you the MS. for publication, as we believe that its distribution among many who had not the privilege of hearing it will tend to promote truth, piety, and Christian patriotism in our once happy and united, but now chastened and distracted land. Very respectfully, yours, E. A. Biden, Abm. B. Batlis, Chas. Clark, John D. McKenzie, B. W. De Lamater, Jonathan D. Steele, Alanson Trask, Albert Jewett, Jas. McFarlane, John H. Prentice, W. K. Brown, Samuel Barber, A. Cruikshank, Henuy Rowland, De Witt C Enos, R. Graves, J. S. Pierson, T. K. Horton. James E. Goddard, To Rev. Nathaniel West, Jr., Pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, N. Y. Brooklyn, December 3d, 1861. To Messrs. E. A. Biden, A. B. Baylis, Charles Clark, J. D. McKenzie, and others. Dear Brethren: — Your kind note expressive of interest in the sermon deliver- ed in the Second Presbyterian Church, on our recent day of Thanksgiving, and re- questing the same for publication, is before me. It is with no ordinary pleasure I accept the thanks of my people, through you, for the maimer iu which I have at- tempted to discharge one of the responsibilities that belong to every servant of Christ. In such trying times as these, when one of the great duties of the ministry is to reinstate the clear truth of God, in reference to national affairs, upon the heart and conscience of the people, such thanks for humble efforts in this direction, are peculiarly grateful. I feel, therefore, all the more free to comply with your request, and to join with you in the hope that the distribution of the MS. may " promote truth, piety, and Chris- tian patriotism," wherever God may send it. While it is true there are some men so patriotic already, that they cannot find time to be penitent, it is equally true (though the numbers are few, may they be fewer !) that some profess to be so penitent already, that they have not time to be patriotic! To check neither patriotism nor penitence, but to blend both together, should be the desire and labor of every Christian. The Church, which is a divine institution, has no more right to arrest the patriotism of the State, which is also a divine institution, than the State has to arrest the penitence of the Church. Both are from God. The Church and the State together, should be alike penitent and patriotic. Brethren: the manuscript is at your disposal. Do with it as you will. May it help us Btil] to battle on ; to fight, to pray, to labor, and to wait. The night soon COmea, the night of death, in which no man can work! Happy will it be for us all if as life's lamp goes ont, life's work shall seem to have been nobly done. Let us take encouragement from the indications around us, that we shall neither run nor labor in vain. Cod first, our country next, our family third, and sell', last. I must add, in explanation of the length of the manuscript, that for want of time, I abbreviated certain portions of the sermon, during its delivery, which I have, how- ever, retained in the Copy I herewith furnish. Yours, in the bonds of the gospel, » 2 503 NATHANIEL WEST, Jr. 'U5 SERMON. Righteousness exalteth a Nation. — Prov. xiv. 34. Blessed is the Nation whose God is Jehovah. — Psal. xxxiii. 12. In the revolution of the seasons, we have been brought, by the good providence of God, to that period of the year when it becomes us to render thanks to Al- mighty God, the Supreme Ruler of all, and Giver of all good, for the multiplied blessings and mercies wherewith He has graciously crowned us as a people. In this ser- vice I trust we all engage, not merely from considera- tions of conventional propriety, nor merely from formal compliance with the proclamation of the civil magistrate, but from a deep and abiding sense of gratitude to Him in whom "we live, move, and have our being," — "of whom, to whom, and through whom, are all things, to whom be glory, forever." To enumerate all the causes of thanksgiving which, to-day, as a nation, as states, communities, churches, families, and individuals we have, is, of course, impossi- ble. As they crowd upon our hearts, and we recount them in our memories, we can but py f > if^possessed of a proper spirit, each for himself, as the Psalmist said, " How precious are thy thoughts unto me, God ! How great is the sum of them ! they are more in number than the sand!" True, indeed, there have been disappoint- ments, bereavements, and sorrows, blasted hopes, and painful experiences, in the hours of our histories as a people, but yet there have been mercies undeserved, comforts unexpected, favors of Providence, successes and prosperities, light mingling with darkness, smiles with frowns, victories with defeats, hope with despondency, gladness with tears, and the sweet with the bitter, all the way through, so that we are called upon to "bless the Lord, and forget not all His benefits, who forgiveth all our iniquities, who healeth all our diseases, who re- deemeth our life from destruction, who crowneth us with loving-kindness and tender mercies, who satisfieth our mouth with good things, so that our youth is renewed like the eagle's." Each of us may well say, "Bless the Lord, my soul." While thus recognizing the goodness of God, I have deemed it appropriate to our service, to-day, and feel justified by the circumstances of the times in so doing, to call attention to some things for which, in our col- lective capacity as a " Nation," we have, in this crisis of our career, most abundant reason to magnify the name of God, — things which, growing out of the recent agita- tions and convulsions of the country, are, I think, full of promise for the nation, and foretoken a future of national exaltation in righteousness, such as we have not enjoyed in the past. In pursuance of this general statement I propose to enquire, I. WJiat we are to understand by a "Nation" in the technical sense of the term. II. By what means a Nation is exalted, and Jehovah's blessing secured. III. What are some of the things, growing out of our present struggle, for ivhich we should give thanks, because indicative of promise that God will exalt us, and bless us, even more in the future than He has done in the past. I. First, then, I remark that the term "Nation" ex- presses a complex idea and fact. It represents a people permanently united together in certain natural, geogra- phical, political, and religious relations, having common manners, customs, laws, and institutions. To constitute a nation, in the strict sense of the term, several things are absolutely indispensable. The first is Unity of Mace. -The etymology of the term "nation," indicates this, its primary meaning being that of birth. This distinctive characteristic is found in the history of every nation of which we have any account. Though all mankind are essentially one, because of their common origin, yet, by means of various causes, they are divided into various races, and marked by such strong peculiari- ties, and oftentimes antipathies, that their common re- union in one distinctive and harmonious nationality is rendered utterly impossible. Therefore it is that sepa- rate national existence becomes a necessity, each nation representing in the page of history either a distinctive race, or a modified division of one. Egypt, Persia, Greece, and Rome, could no more have been blended in one nationality, than can Germany, France, Italy and America. Unity of race, however, need not be abso- lute. A nation may exist, where a slight intermingling of different races occurs. That which is essential is the presence of one predominant race, capable of prepon- derating vastly, in every respect, over the other inci- dental foreign accessions which, enter into its composi- tion. Allied to this is Unity of Language, a second re- quisite. Diversity here, is likely to reproduce some of the fatal consequences which attended the first con- founding of tongues at Babel. The bonds of society, law, and order, are seriously weakened by the presence of different languages, which, being the vehicles of thought, emotion, and communication, tend only to as- similate still more to each other, in all their distinctive peculiarities, those to whom any one of them is common, and thus retard the consolidation of national sympathy and unity. Thus, the conqueror has ever sought, where- ever it was possible, to destroy the vernacular of the conquered people, by refusing to them public instruc- tion, either written or oral, except in the national lan- guage. Unity of Country is a third'element. A nation without a country is an impossibility. The only ap- parent exception to this is that of the Hebrew people in the wilderness of Arabia, and yet no real exception, for the Promised Land was their hope, without which, the perpetuation of their infant nationality had been possi- ble only by miracle. Severance of territory is an ele- ment of weakness. Unity of domain, and closely-linked interdependence of parts — a soil geographically one, set apart by great physical dividing lines, whether of rivers, mountains, oceans, or seas, from other portions of the earth's surface, is necessary to the stability of any nation. One reason of the loss of the American colonies to the British crown was their physical separation from the geographical centre of the British Home Government. A fourth essential to permanent nationality is 'Unity of Religion. It is hardly possible to conceive of a nation- ality with religions totally and fundamentally antagonis- tic. No such phenomenon ever was known. Paganism with its idols, Mohammedanism with its absurdities, Judaism with its superannuated traditions, and Mormon- ism with its effete and licentious practices, and all with their mutually opposing characteristics, never could be incorporated with Christianity in one common nation- ality. The fierce collisions of religious strife would awaken the most terrible resentments, destroy the har- mony of society, and scatter the community into frag- ments by the power of inward repulsion. The last element essential to the existence of a nation, is Unity of Government. The one people, speaking the one language, inhabiting the one country, and professing the one religion, must be subject also to one government. We speak not now of particular forms of government. It may be despotic, constitutionally limited, representa- tive, or purely democratic. It cannot certainly be all of them separately or together. Whatever it is, it must be one and supreme. There must be one system of authority, extending its exercise over all, and requiring, yea, insisting upon the obedience and support of all. It were impossible to conduct the aifairs of a nation upon a political basis compounded of the autocracy of 8 Russia, the imperialism of France, the monarchy of Great Britain, and the republicanism of America. The sys- tems are antagonistic. Equally impossible is it to con- duct the affairs of a nation where two distinct and con- flicting supremacies or governments are allowed to exist in 'the bosom of the same body politic, to one or other of which the people, as they choose, may sur- render themselves. While it is possible for a nation to exist, having many distinct geographical sections, if yet the whole national domain is geographically one, it is utterly impossible for a nation to exist, having in its bosom many distinct sovereignties, each supported by laws, manners, customs, and institutions peculiar to it- self, and incompatible with each other. The very idea of nationality is hereby destroyed. Yea, though the laws, manners, customs, and institutions of each were identical and coincident, still the^ery fact of absolute and multiplied sovereignties would'' involve, by inevitable necessity, the dissolution of national unity. The gov- ernment of a nation must be politically central, power- ful, and one. Its authority, legislative, judicial, and executive, must extend to all the sections of the whole domain, and be everywhere, over all persons and all things, supreme. Petty sovereignties, and tribal asso- ciations are the distinctive marks of a nomadic or barbarous state, as found among Asiatics and Afri- cans, or they are at best but the attributes of an inferior civilization, such as was found in the Achaean League of ancient days, or as is yet seen to some extent in the scarcely better Germanic Confederation, where nothing but fear and military force keeps together the conglomerate of little monarchies, duchies, principalities, and minor republics, with free cities, in one common and politically incoherent association. These jive things, then, are necessary to constitute a " Nation " — Unity of Race, Unity of Language, Unity of Country, Unity of Religion, and Unity of Govern- ment. The diversity of these, mingling together in any thing like equal, or nearly equal, proportions, must render the construction of a nation utterly impossible, or entering into one already constructed, increasing and developing themselves, must produce national conten- tion, be the cause and concomitant of national corruption, and the ominous prophecy of national dismemberment and extinction. In the convulsions that would follow, during the death-throes of the nation, a new government would have to be extemporized, most probably a dicta- torship or military despotism, if anarchy were at all to be checked, and out of the conflicting mass an " Empire," such as that of Great Britain might result, recognizing the existence of petty principalities, sovereignties, and dependencies, and keeping all in subjection by one su- perior force, but the " Nation," as such, i| gone forever, — all the more convulsively in its decease, if that the territory of its existence, the national domain, was geo- graphically one. And, just here, in connection with these remarks, I would interrupt the method of the discourse, for a mo- ment, to anticipate one of the causes we have, to-day, for National thanksgiving. While, for one, I cannot disguise the forebodings which the consideration of these essential unities is calculated to awaken, and must 10 awaken in the breast of every thoughtful student of his country's history and condition, — forebodings in view of what tendency there has been, and still is, to en- courage here, in this land, a diversity of races, and with these a necessary diversity of language ; to tolerate and protect equally not simply different forms of the same Christian religion, but forms of so-called religions to- tally diverse ; to legalize, and defend by law, institutions wholly incompatible, and to have permitted, for years, the growth of a sentiment, diametrically opposed to the very idea of national unity, and all this upon the platform of the national domain which, by physical con- formation, is geographically one ; — while all this is so, nevertheless, as a people, we have abundant reason, yea special occasion to bless God, this day, for this one thing, that still we are a Nation. Though impaired, some- what, in one of our necessary elements of national unity, that of the government, (and fighting to restore it to its original integrity, which, with God's blessing we shall,) still we have a Government ! and we have a Nation ! For this we render thanks most devoutly to God. Inde- pendent and separate from all others, the American people, and the old Government, are not yet blotted out from the face of the earth. This "Nation " still ex- ists, with influence, power, and determined will enough, to make itself respected, admired and feared by the whole world. Notwithstanding the upstart Body Politic and Peripatetic of the South, the American people, as known to the world, have still one name, glorious in the register of the past, destined to be yet more glo- rious in the register of the future ; one flag, the colors of 11 which were never more bright, the waving of which in the breeze of heaven, was never more graceful, and the memories of which were never more dear than now ; one bold energetic Anglo-Saxon race, predominating vast- ly over all the rest ; one common Christianity, teaching in its various evangelic forms the open Bible, in its purity; one language, in its richness, fulness, power, and practical importance, predominating also in the land, and uttering from pulpit, platform, press, and legislative halls, the mighty truths which uow heave the nation's breast, and one domain, the right to which is still main- tained, and ever shall be, stretching in its vast mag- nificence across a continent, from Atlantic to Pacific, from the Southern Gulf to Northern Lakes, from the regions of the tropics to the polar snows, equal to three-fourths of all the European world. Our Agri- culture, Commerce, Trade, and Capital, our Institutions, Science, Art, Law, and Letters, our multiplied facilities for intercourse, and all our other means of national improvement, are still untaken from us. Yes ! we still are a great, a mighty nation, never stronger in our pur- pose or our will than now. And when we think of what we might have been, had God but given us up entirely to our sins, and suffered us to sink, without the power to put one effort forth to save ourselves, for our existence now we bless Him, and from our' hearts we should, this day, pour forth our fervent thanks, and magnify His name. " Not unto us, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory" II. But to proceed. Having spoken technically of 12 what constitutes a nation, let us consider what it is that gives to a nation true grandeur and eminence in the sight of God. This is answered by the wise man, the monarch of the Hebrew people during the period of Israel's greatest splendor. " Righteousness exalteth a nation." Beyond question, there must be a standard of righteousness, possessed and supremely authoritative, according to which the life of the nation is to be con- formed ; otherwise to know what righteousness is will be utterly impossible. Precisely then, and in a word, the standard of righteousness for a nation, in all its actings, is the will of God, both as recorded in the Book of Nature, and as written, more clearly and fully, in the brighter Book of Revelation. It can be no other than this: Conformity to God's will is righteousness; and as God is the author of both Nature and Revelation, the rules by which the whole conduct of men is to be governed, in things natural, social, civil, political, moral, and religious, are to be gathered from the intelligent interpretation of nature and the constitution of things,* as also from the express words of a direct revelation from heaven, God speaking authoritatively to man in both. A nation's righteousness is the sum of the righteousness of all the individuals composing it, acting in their sep- arate or organized capacities, of whatever character, and in all their relations, according to the will of God thus ascertained. Thus this will lies at the foundation of all society, and gives to it all its sanction. And, therefore, it follows that the exaltation of a nation in * See Lord Bacon's Works, vol. ii. p. 138, vol. iii. p. 345, Philadelphia, 1846. Also, Burlamaqui's Principles of Natural Law, p. 106, Dublin, 1791. Also, Harris' Man Primeval, p. 261, Boston, 1850. 13 righteousness involves the conscious and devout recog- nition of Jehovah himself, the God of Nature and Rev- elation, as Supreme Ruler over all, and His law or will as the supreme authority. Hence, ouly that nation can be truly called " blessed," ivhose God is the Lord. Since the introduction of Christianity, with the memory of the appalling examples of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Media, Persia, Greece, and Rome, all perished and gone for want of national conformity to the will of God ; and with the memory of the still more impressive example of the decline and fall of the Hebrew common- wealth, so blessed with peculiar privilege, and with the bright lustre of the clearest revelation from heaven, legists and statesmen have not been slow to enunciate this great truth, as one which lies at the very foundation of all national righteousness. The will of God, they have all, with one accord, declared, must constitute the basis of all national greatness, and form the ground of all human enactments. In asserting this principle, they have but paid the tribute of their combined homage to the supreme authority of God, and acknowledged the truth of the text. By insisting upon the conformity of human laws with God's will, they have sought, like wise men thereby to secure, in the obedience of the citizen to human legislation, an obedience to God. Thus it is that Blackstone, the prince of legal commentators, in the very commencement of his legal expositions, and reaching back to the primary foundations of all human laws, declares, " Upon these two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation, depend all human laws ; that is to say, no human laws should be suffered 14 to contradict these. If any human law allow or enjoin us to commit murder, we are bound to transgress that human law, or else we must offend both the natural and the divine." * To the same purpose is the legal maxim, the maxim of common law, (summa ratio est quse pro religione facit,) as given by Coke upon Lyttleton: " Where the laws of God and man conflict, the former are to be obeyed in derogation of the latter." f Vattel, whose authority as a writer upon the law of nations is known to every legal student, thus speaks of the State, which is but the technical name for the body politic of the nation, and in which the national conscience, if there is any, is supposed to reside: "It is a Moral Person, having an understanding and a will peculiar to itself, and susceptible of obligations and laws." J It is what Blackstone calls an " Artificial Person, devised for the purposes of society and government." § " The State," says Whewell, " has not only a moral character, but a conscience ; and has duties of the same description as those of individuals — duties of humanity, justice, truth, purity, order, and religious belief." | Burlamaqui, in speaking of it, says it is accountable to God for its legis- lation. " The will of God is its supreme rule, and ought absolutely to determine its conduct." T John Locke, in his essay on Civil Government, makes use of this language: "The rules that legislators make for other men's actions, as well as their own, must be conform- able to the law of nature and the will of God, of which * BLickftone's Commentaries, vol. i. Introduction, sect. ii. + Coke upon Lyttleton, 341 (a). Also, Broom's Legal Maxims, p. 59. I Law of Nations, Preliminaries, pp. 49, 55. So Wheaton, Inter. Law, p. 28. § Commentaries, vol. i. p. 88. H Elements of .Morality, vol. ii. pp. 208, 210. T[ Principles of Natural Law, p. 172. 15 that is a declaration, and no human sanction can be valid against it." * So says the profound and judicious Hooker, in his Polity. " Human laws have their higher rules to be measured by, which rules are two, the law of God and the law of Nature ; so that laws human must be made according to the law of nature, and with- out contradiction to any positive law of Scripture." f In the same unwavering recognition of the eternal and predestinated foundation of all national righteousness, Dr. John Owen, the prince of theologians, has said : "Men have a Superior Power over them in heaven, whose laws, and the revelation of whose will concern- ing them, is the supreme rule of their duty, whence an obligation is laid upon their consciences of doing what- soever is commanded, and not doing whatsoever is for- bidden by Him, which is superior to, and actually su- persedes all human laws and commands that interfere therewith." J I cannot refrain, in fortifying this great position and elucidating the doctrine of the text by the testimonies of great men, who have stood as beacon lights in the world, from quoting the words of Sir Edmund Burke, the most gifted man the British Parliament ever knew. Instructed by the terrible lessons of the French Revolu- tion, and speaking in his "Reflections" of the impor- tance of a nation building itself upon the word of God as its only security, he thus grows eloquent: "Taking ground on that religious system of which we are now in possession, we continue to act on the early received and * Essay, Civil Government, cap. xi. sect. 135. f Ecclesiastical Polity, Book iii. seot. 9. X Right of Dissent, p. 393. 16 uniformly continued sense of mankind. That sense, not only like a wise architect, hath built up the august fabric of states, but like a provident proprietor, to preserve the structure from profanation and ruin, as a sacred temple, purged from all the impurities of fraud, and violence, and injustice, and tyranny, hath solemnly and forever consecrated the Commonwealth and all that offi- ciate in it. This consecration is made that all who ad- minister in the government of men, in which they stand in the person of God himself, should have high and worthy notions of their functions and destination, that their hope should be full of immortality, that they should not look to the paltry pelf of the moment, nor to the temporary and transient praise of the vulgar, but to a solid permanent existence in the permanent part of their nature, and to a permanent fame and glory in the example they leave as a rich inheritance to the world. All persons possessing any portion of power, ought to be strongly and awfully impressed with the idea that they act in trust, and that they are accountable for their conduct in that trust to the one great Master, Author, and Founder of Society."* I will only add here the further utterance of one of England's greatest living statesmen, Mr. Gladstone, who, in his work upon the Relation of the State to the Church, affirms: "Any other view sets up a vast unconsecrated atheistic power at the head of all the social interests of mankind as an ex- ample for all individuals to follow, a model to teach them, an authoritative declaration to assist the evil voice within in teaching them that they may withdraw * Works. Vol. i., p. 415, col. 2; p. 416, col. 1. London, 1850. 17 their own individual lives from allegiance to God, and base their methods of social conduct upon a code in which His name is not to be found."* Thus it is that the patient students of national great- ness, enlightened by the history of the world, and in- doctrinated by the word of God, announce everywhere, in tones of mighty earnestness, the great principle that a nation's glory consists not in policies of human wis- dom, accumulations of wealth, flourishing trade, physi- cal strength, extent of empire, or splendid conquests, but in the unfeigned recognition of Jehovah as Supreme Ruler over all, and in the practice of that righteousness of national life which conforms the body politic, in all its legislations, and the individuals of society to the Supreme, the Absolute, and Authoritative Law of God. And thus it is that kings, rulers, presidents, cabinets, councils, senates, legislatures, governors, judges, and people, are instructed to look upward and backward to that great and eternal will of God, which, lying at the foundation of the constitution of things in the universe, reveals an established government of the world as the " mirror for the government of a state, a wisdom almost lost;"f and also to look to that Divine Revelation which requires obedience to God's word as the evidence of national righteousness. Man, sinful and inflated with a vain and false idea of liberty, may flatter himself that he is born free to legislate in his own behalf, and, by com- pacts and conventions, establish such a social constitu- tion, independent of God's will, as will secure national * State in its Relations with the Church. Vol. ii., p. 350. London, 1841. f Bacon's W rks. Vol. ii., p. 138. 2 18 exaltation and the Divine blessing. But the sad disap- pointment of his hope is not more certain than his theo- ries and philosophies of himself and government are absurd and disastrous. "We are all born," it has elo- quently and truly been said, "in subjection, all born equally, high and low, governors and governed, in sub- jection to one great, immutable, pre-existent law, prior to all our devices, prior to all our contrivances, para- mount to all our ideas and all our sensations, antecedent to our very existence, by which we are knit and con- nected in the eternal frame of the universe, out of which we cannot stir. This great law does not arise from our conventions or compacts ; on the contrary it gives to conventions and compacts all the force and sanction they can have. It does not arise from our vain institutions. Every good gift is of God. All power is of God, and He who has given the power, and from whom alone it originates, will never suffer the exercise of it to be prac- tised upon any less solid foundation than the power it- self. If, then, all dominion of man over man is the effect of the Divine disposition, it is bound by the eternal laivs of Him that gave it, which no human authority can dispense ivith."* Thus it is we are taught that a first and fundamental duty of every citizen is the acknowl- edgment of the indisputable authority of this law, which binds the conscience in unswerving allegiance to constituted civil government as an ordinance of God, making resistance thereto resistance to God, and rebel- lion against it rebellion against Him, until government itself, by the enactment of laws in contravention of the * Burke's Works. Vol. iii., p. 327. Harper's edition. 19 laws of God, becomes a " throne of iniquity," the de- stroyer of the very foundation of national righteousness, and prepares the people for the judgments of Heaven. That a capricious people, given over to avarice or pride, or led away from justice and truth, and moral virtue, by the love of pecuniary profit ; or that unprin- cipled, designing, and godless men, ambitious of power at whatever hazard and cost, or even timid and wavering men, should deny the supremacy of the Will of God over the national and individual conscience, in all things, or dream that tmrighteousness will exalt a nation, is not surprising. But that any who profess to enjoy the ad- vantages of a liberal education, who have the condensed wisdom of the greatest writers upon ethics, jurispru- dence, and theology, before them, the lights of universal history as guides, and above all, the Word of God in their hands, should deny this, or compromise the prin- ciple, is marvellous indeed ! Pagans themselves might afford us better example and better teaching. " Moral righteousness," said Plato, " is the pillar and support of the State." This, then, is the method by which a nation is to be exalted ; even by building itself upon the Will of God. The expression of that will as found in Nature, but more as shining in Revelation, compassing all our natural, civil, social, political, moral, and religious duties, legislating not only for time, but also for eternity, not only for the body but more for the soul of man, is the authoritative and supreme rule for all society, and the only pledge of security and honor. 20 III. Having spoken thus, I proceed to mention some of the things which, growing out of the present struggle in which we are engaged, afford us great reason, as Christians and patriots, for thanksgiving to Almighty God, and promise for us, I think, a future brighter than the past. And the first I mention is, 1. The direct recognition of Jehovah, to which, by affliction, the nation has been brought, and our public hu- miliation on account of our transgressions as a people. The prophet Isaiah says, "With my soul have I desired thee in the night ; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early; for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteous- ness." " The fear of the Lord is to depart from all in- iquity." Just in proportion as a people forget to recog- nize, individually, or collectively, God as the author of their blessings and their destinies, and cease to feel their dependence on Him, in that proportion they depart from Him and forsake that righteousness of life upon condition of which He has promised all national security and glory. How great have been our shortcomings in this respect, we all know. We look back, indeed, to the epoch when the representatives of the people, at the time of the birth of the nation, halted in their deliberations to invoke the blessing of God upon their efforts, and appealing to the Supreme Ruler of all for the rectitude of their in- tentions, pledged to each other, their " lives, fortunes, and sacred honors." Further still in the retrospect, shortly after the morning of the Reformation had cast its light upon the world's darkness, and a new hope dawned on the human mind, we behold the exiled pio- 21 neers of this nation, kneeling with their shivering house- holds on the wintry and rock-bound shores of a new country, and committing all their interests to the care of Him, to serve whom, in righteousness of life, they had suffered the loss of all. Alas ! how different has been the conduct of the American people during the present generation of men, in reference to this public recognition of God in the affairs of the nation ! What forgetfulness of Him, what pride and selfishness, and violence, and evil work ! How little have rulers and ruled remem- bered that He is God over all, and can save or destroy ! To-day, we are permitted to rejoice and bless God for the returning and increased sense of our dependence on Him, in all things. We have truly been humbled into the dust, our national vanity broken, and our self- boasting destroyed. Our calamities, trials, pressures and defeats, have inaugurated a new era, one of National re- cognition of God as the arbiter of nations, one of National and State proclamations from our Chief Magistrates, Congress and Legislatures, calling upon us to humble ourselves before God, confess our sins, and supplicate His favor in our behalf. To these proclamations, we have every reason to believe, our rulers, whether State or Federal, our Army, Navy, and people, have paid becoming deference, and awakened to the consciousness of national sin, as the reason of God's controversy with us, have earnestly sought, and are still seeking from Him, His interposition in our behalf. In the eyes of the whole world, God has been publicly acknowledged, and na- tional dependence on Him publicly recognized. We have begun to learn, and to instil into the hearts of the 22 on-coming generation, that there are such things as na- tional righteousness, national sin, national guilt, and national reckoning, and that only can a people be per- petually blessed, prosperous and peaceful, who make Jehovah their Lord, and His Supreme Will their Statute. In our disasters and reverses, in our shame and humilia- tion, as a people, in the pain of our hearts, and the turn- ing of our thoughts to God, the " wise man " has been taught not to "glory in his wisdom," the "mighty man" not to " glory in his might," and the " rich man " not to " glory in his riches," but whosoever will glory, to glory alone in the understanding and knowing of God ; that it is He who exercises "loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth." God grant that the Ameri- can people may never forget this lesson, but that chas- tened by affliction, they may pass all the rest of their lives under the sombre memory, the deep shadow of Jehovah's judgments, doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly before God. 2. We give thanks to-day, for the revival of the true spirit of patriotism in the hearts of the people. Time was, not long ago, when the love of country seemed to be utterly absorbed by the love of gain ; when the rapa- city of an extravagant commercial spirit, confident of success, had called away the minds of men from the cultivation of noble virtues, to the scramble for riches and luxury. It was a time when country, and all that the patriot holds dear, honor, justice, truth, respect, order, government, and national glory, would have been bartered away for the base commodity of perishable wealth, when every great and eternal principle seemed 23 to have been subordinated to low material and com mercial interests, and peace among ourselves desired at whatever cost or hazard, rather than the loss of trade or money. The words of "honest, honest Iago" in the play, " Go, make money ; put money in thy purse ! Go to, Go to, put money in thy purse, Go to," were ringing in the ears of all, in high as well as low places, in public as well as private life, and sordid avarice was bribing fast the virtue of the people, and their rulers, to sell the country, government and all, or else divide the nation for the sake of gold. One cry seemed to be upon the lips of all, engaged in business, or having to do with the conduct of the nation, and that was gold ; — "Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold! Bright and yellow, hard and cold, Heavy to get, and light to hold, Hoarded, bartered, bought and sold ; Stolen, borrowed, squandered, doled ; Spurned by the young, hugged by the old, To the very verge of the church-yard mould, Price of many a crime untold. Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!" Bless we God, this day, with all our heart, for the bombardment and fall of Fort Sumter, which, mightier in its effect than the fabled stamp ofPompey, that start- ed legions into life, has thrilled the national heart with the ardor of a just resentment, and wakened into patriotic array an army of heroic men, greater than ever had Pompey, Ctesar, Alexander, Hannibal, or Napoleon! Bless we that predestinating purpose of God, which, according to His inscrutable wisdom, sub- 24 jected us to the stroke, in order that, brought to our senses, by humiliation and shame, we might, first of all, break asunder the bonds that bound us, in our servile drudgery, to mammon, and pouring out the country's treasure for the country's good, rally around her falling standard, lifting ourselves up to noble sacrifices, self- denials, sentiments of honor, self-respect, and deter- mined will to kill the principle that sought to kill the nation for the sake of gain ! We hail with joy the new era that dawns upon us, because of the promise it gives that the power of a low, wretched, and materializing philosophy, and the power of an inferior civilization yet lingering among us, subsidizing to themselves, by oppression and corruption, all the energies of the nation, are to be broken, and we trust, fall into perpetual dis- grace. Well has an accomplished writer, in our country, Mr. Sewell, in his work on " Christian Politics," said, "It is absolutely necessary, at this day, that all who value their country should raise a warning voice, whether in legislature, pulpit or schools, or in books, against that theory which makes the accumulation of physical good and augmentation of ivealth, the end of society, and the primary obligation of a citizen. Such a theory has gnawed its way, not only into all our political philosophy, but into our public legislation, and private practice, till it has degraded society from its highest functions, sensualized, and annualized its char- acter, and extinguished the noblest instincts of private as well as of public life."* * Quoted by E. D. Macalester, D.D., in his address upon the " True Life of a Na- tion," p. 26. 25 Thank we God, then, for the patriotic spirit of the day, than which nothing, save the gospel, is more op- posed to the purely selfish and all-devouring com- mercial. It is one of the most powerful correctives of this evil, and productive of some of the grandest traits that can adorn the human character. Thank we Him for that spirit which, sacrificing all for the love it bears to' its country, listens to the call of the trumpet, and rushes to brave danger for the sake of national ex- istence, principle, justice, honor, and renown. Let it be cherished. Let it be fanned into a brilliant flame. Let it be fixed deeply in every breast, teaching that no man was ever born for the sordid service of self, nor merely for the better service of his parents, but born for his country and his God ; that he who waits in passive submission for the hour of his natural death, living for self, and unwilling in a holy cause to lose his life, or sacrifice his property, is a soul to be de- spised and shunned ; while he who holds himself in readiness to welcome danger and encounter death, at any moment, rather than endure his country's vassal- age and shame, and falls upon the crimsoned field, shall write his chronicle upon a nation's memory, and share a nation's glory, gratitude, and tears. And as we thank God, this day, for the hundreds of thousands of brave souls who are bearing aloft the banner of their country's greatness, and for the hundreds of thousands more soon to follow, like waves succeeding waves, let us pause to pay our tribute to the martyrs of the strife who have already fallen where the battle boomed, and the smoke spread thick, where warriors shouted, and 26 where garments, rolled in blood, reddened on the sight ! Let us repeat, uncovered, over the patriot dead, the eulogy inscribed upon the public monument, reared by the city of Athens, to those who fell at Chasronea : " These for their country's sacred cause arrayed. In arms tremendous, sought the fatal plain; Braved the proud foe, with courage undismayed, And greatly scorned dishonor's abject stain. " Fair virtue led them to the arduous strife ; Avenging terror menaced in their eyes ; For freedom, nobly prodigal of life, Death they proposed their common glorious prize." * How different this spirit from that of selfishness and sordid avarice ! 3. I mention, also, as another cause of thanksgiving to God, the returning sense of public justice, and the de- termination of our citizens and rulers, that due punish- ment shall he executed, not only upon the authors of our present calamity, ivherever possible, but upon all offenders * Quoted by Demosthenes, in his " Oration on the Crown." " OlSe irarpas eveKa (rcperepas etr drjpiv e&evTO 'OirAa, Kai avTiiraAuv vppiv aTrecnceSaffav." &c, &c, &c. It were well for those who have no thanks for the army or navy, or Administration, if their souls could only be stirred by that burst of patriotic sublimity which escaped from the lips of Demosthenes, when justifying the Athenians for battling against their enemies ; — a burst of eloquence which has challenged the praises not only of Longinus and Quinctilian, but of every reader and critic, both ancient and modern. "AAA' ovk tariv, ovk eariv, birus Tifxaprere," &C, &c. "But no! no! my country- men, it cannot be, it cannot be, that ye have erred in encountering danger bravely for the liberty and safety of the whole. No ! By the memorj- of your forefathers exposed to danger upon the plains of Marathon ; by those who stood in battle array at Platea ; by those who encountered the Persian fleet at Salamis, by those who fought at Arte- misium, and by many others, illustrious sons of Athens, whose remains lie deposited in the public monuments! " Dcmosth. Orat. Tom. i., pp. 284, 307. Leipsic, 1844. What American can think of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill, and not feel that th re he finds the justification of his country's present effort, to smite her assailants to the ground ! 27 against the public weal. Too long, the people of this nation, inflated with the idea of a spurious liberty, and a false independence, have presumed to transgress, with impunity, the laws of the land. Too long, rulers and ruled have connived at crime, corrupting and being cor- rupted, until, by the unpunished conspiracies of design- ing men, the nation has well nigh been brought to de- struction. Subjection to civil authority was daily giving place to defiance thereof, and success in escaping the threatened penalty becoming a license for the commission of bolder iniquity. Had but the strong arm of the law been vigorously applied in time, the American nation had been spared her present calamity. It is not more a truth of Scripture, than it is of individual and national experience, that "because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." Wicked men and seducers wax worse and worse, until the very foun- dations of national greatness and security are upturned and destroyed in one common ruin. It is vain for the State or the Nation to leave to morality or religion, alone, the task of restraining society from crime. With- out the aid of the strong arm of legal enactment, and the unflinching execution of legal penalty, all that reli" gion or morality can do will be swept away in the rising and overwhelming tide of social and political degeneracy. Offenders must be punished, and villains must be ex- pelled by the timely visitation of condign punishment, and made an example to all. The tendency of our present struggle is to produce precisely this wholesome sentiment among all classes of men. It is, therefore, a bow of promise to the nation. How much such a sentiment is needed, is sadly manifest, even in the present crisis, in which, men, though con- scious we are struggling for national existence, are yet found excusing, palliating, and even justifying that treachery in others which lifts its arm to pull down the Government and Nation from turret to base, and destroy our constitutional union. There is no better method of educating offenders into loyalty, obedience to law, and good citizenship, than to furnish them a practical per- suasion of the impossibility of escaping their just deserts, if they are guilty of transgression. Never, till the whole people are imbued with the sentiment that justice shall be meted out impartially to vicious men, will society feel secure. Never, till our judges and lawyers and juries, and all in authority, are made to understand that the indignant rebuke, and frown of a virtuous commu- nity, await the neglect of official duties, will they realize that what quantum of official power they possess, has only been allowed them in the State or the Nation, as so much of power held hy them in trust for the 'peo'ple^ and to be diligently exercised by them for the welfare of all. " Juries, indeed," says a recent writer on " Christian Politics," "are not to indulge conjectures or magnify suspicions into proofs, or even weigh probabilities in gold scales ; but when evidence furnishes that degree of credibility upon which men decide and act in all other doubts, and which experience hath shown that they may decide and act upon with sufficient safety, to reject such proof, from an insinuation of uncertainty that belongs to all human affairs, is a conduct, which, however natural 29 to a mind studious of its own quiet, is authorized by no considerations of rectitude or of utility."* Let us hail, then, as a blessing from God, the dispo- sition to insist upon the uncompromising enforcement of the law against transgressors, or the abettors of trans- gressors, who seek only their own profit at the expense of the country's good. It is one of those providential indications which foreshadow a brighter future, and aim at the establishment of the nation in righteousness. And let us not be deterred by the vain and foolish clamor of those who, professing to be in favor of their country's union, are cordially opposed to their country's manly struggle to maintain it. In the conflicts of jus- tice, and the discussions of right and wrong, there always has been, and ever will be, a large class of men, half on this side and half on that, who, either because of their natural timidity, or their inward hatred of the principle which has left them in the minority, or their sympathy with transgressors, or their pecuniary interest, or something else, suddenly become afflicted with a more than usual amount of wisdom, and desire to deal with most miraculous candor when justice is about to fall terribly upon unwhipt offenders — that candor which the British poet describes : " Which loves, in see-saw strain to tell, Of acting knavishly, but meaning well ; Too nice to praise exactly, or to blame, Convinced that all men's motives are the same, And finds, with keen discriminating sight, Black's not so black, nor white so very white. * Christian Politics, p. 219 ; by Rev. H. Christmas, St. John'3 College, Lon- don, 1855. 30 Barras plays traitor, Merlin takes a bribe : What then? Shall Candor these good men prescribe? No: ere we join the loud accusing throng, Prove— not the facts — but that they thought them wrong.'''' Such are some of our patriotic enemies — candid men, who would see rebellion triumph rather than lend a hand to put it down — men who, of all others, are the most difficult to be endured. "Give me the avowed, the erect, the manly foe; Bold I can meet him — perhaps may turn his blow ; But of all plagues, good heaven, thy wrath can send, Save, save, O save me from my candid friend!" " I love the bold, uncompromising mind, Whose principles are fixed, whose views defined ; Who owns, when traitors feel the avenging rod, Just retribution and the hand of God.'" 4. I must omit several other things I desired to mention as reasons for thanksgiving ; and note, in the last place, the growth of another wholesome sentiment, which, pushed into the background by party strifes and political issues, reappears at the present juncture to as- sert its importance. I refer to the sentiment that religion should eve?* be connected with the politics of every citizen who desires the establishment of his country in national righteousness. How often the insane cry of the blinded partisan has been heard, Religion has nothing to do with politics ; the Church has nothing to do with the State ! a cry heard sometimes even from the pulpit. It is refreshing, indeed, to read from the pages of one of our most distinguished theological professors, in a neighboring State, these words : " The most pernicious maxim which could seize upon the American mind, and which is just as rife as it is ruinous, is that politics and 31 religion have nothing to do with each other, — that they are entirely to be divorced in this country."* To the same purpose is the equally direct sentiment of another distinguished theologian, associated with the former in the same Seminary, and of European fame : u Let Ctesar attend to his own affairs. But if Caesar undertakes to meddle with the affairs of God — if the State pass any laws contrary to the law of God — then it is the duty of the Church, to whom God has committed the great work of asserting and maintaining His truth and will, to protect and remonstrate. . . If, in short, it does any thing directly contrary to the law of God, the Church is bound to make that law known, and set it home upon the conscience of all concerned. 1 '! And again, " The doctrine that Christian ministers, as such, and Church courts have nothing to do with politics, as all other the- ories, either false, or half true, has given way like tow on the touch of fire when the test occasion comes. If by politics be meant the policy of states in reference to secular affairs, then it is true that the gospel minister has nothing to do with them in the pulpit. But if by politics we mean the principles of civil government, and the duties thence resulting, then politics belong to the higher sphere of morals ; and morals is the science of duty, and duty is determined by the law of God."J Every unprejudiced mind cannot fail to see the truth of these sentiments. Let a state or a nation act upon the contrary principle and the result can only be a return of the body politic to barbarism, paganism, and the * " Sermon for the Times," p. 15, by Eev. A. T. McGill, D.D. Pittsburgh, 1853. f Princeton Review. July, 1859, pp. 615, 616. Dr. Hodge. X Dr. Hodge. Princeton Review. January, 1861, p. 167. 32 power of physical force as the only law. "Had the Christian Church," says M. Guizot, the most accom- plished writer upon European civilization, "not existed, the whole world must have been abandoned to purely material force. The Church alone exercised a moral power. It did more : it sustained, it spread abroad the idea of a rule, of a law superior to all human laws."* The triumph of this principle through the labors of early Christians, a principle "involving belief toward a Person whose authority they regarded as paramount to every other," was wrought out, says Isaac Taylor, "by a century and a half of suffering by the martyr Church, "f Let us hail the re-establishment of such sentiments as these in the hearts of the people, as unmistakable indications that God is awakening, by our afflictions and trials, our minds to the nature of the solemn trust He has committed to our keeping, in giving us such a country as this, blessed with such peerless institutions. Let us recognize in this a divine warning how much in the past we have neglected our duty, and in what manner we are to fulfil it in the future. I think it may safely be said, had Christian citizens, magistrates, judges, legislators, ministers, and rulers, but mingled their religion with their politics more than they have done, our nation had not fallen upon these evil times. It is " righteousness" that exalts a nation, and the effect of it is " quietness and assurance." But if the truths of the Bible and the religion of Christ are not to find their * History of Civilization. Vol. i., p. 38. Bonn's edition. + Restoration of Belief, p. 72. Philadelphia, 1853. way into all our political, as well as social relations, such effect is impossible. Why should the family be religious and not the state or the nation ? The thought- less manner in which Christians and our best citizens have exercised the civic function, has but opened the way for the elevation to office of low unprincipled poli- ticians, whose hands are yellow with the gold that has bribed them, who are in league with all iniquity, and who by our sufferance, and the indulgence of ourselves in the neglect of duty, have been permitted in muni- cipal, state, and national affairs, to direct our counsels, frame our laws, preside over our interests, and bring us into shame and contempt. It is, however, a cheering augury of good, that the virtuous and Christian portion of the people begin to realize the fact that Religion has something to do with Politics, — that the duty of the pulpit, the press, and the platform, is to stir up the State and the Nation to a sense of its religious responsibilities, and to impress upon every citizen the necessity, not only in the present crisis, but for all time to come, of carrying into political and civil, as well as social rela- tions, the eternal principles of God's word. Let us thank God that there is an increasing determination on the part of the people (may it spread wider!) to burst asunder mere party bonds, and elevate to office men of personal virtue, such as fear God, love justice, and hate a bribe. Speaking of religion and politics, Sir Edmund Burke has said, " When a people have emptied them selves of all the lust of selfish will, which, without religion it is impossible they ever should, when they are conscious that they exercise the power which to be 3 34 legitimate must be according to that immutable and eternal law in which will and reason are the same, they will be more careful how they place power in base and incapable hands. In their nomination to office, they will not appoint to the exercise of authority as to a pitiful job, but as to a holy function ; not according to their sensual, sordid, selfish interest, nor to their wanton caprice, nor to their arbitrary will, but they will confer that power on those only in whom they may discern that predominant proportion of active virtue and wis- dom, taken together and fitted to the charge, such as in the great and inevitable mixed mass of human imper- fections and infirmities is to be found."* May the American people be emptied of their self- ishness, by the power of religion, and rise to the full appreciation of their duty. Let us hear no more the cry, Religion has nothing to do with Politics. Whenever religion has adverted to some great moral evil in muni- cipal, state, or national affairs, preying upon the very vitals of the community, and destroying the foundation of all order, and good character, thousands who are interested pecuniarily, in some way, in the evil, — like the shrine-makers of Diana at Ephesus who, when Paul preached, exclaimed " Great is Diana of the Ephesians," — have all uttered the common cry that ever excuses municipal, state, or national crime, Religion has nothing to do with Politics ! The cry is barbarous, pagan, and shameful. For, if the foundation of all proper laws is, as we have shown, the supreme will of God, if this is the basis of all national righteousness, if Government is * Works. Vol. i., p. 41G, col. 2. Lond. 1850. 35 an ordinance of God, and the Body Politic an institute of His, if the Civil Magistrate is God's minister for good to the people, and all who are in power hold their power as a trust, and become officially accountable to God for the exercise thereof, let no man who has any respect for either his knowledge, wisdom, common sense, or reason, ever mutter that Religion lias nothing to do with Politics. It was the disguised cry of the ancient Epicurean, as it is of the modern infidel, " God has nothing to do with the affairs of men." It finds its root and support philosophically in that exploded Warbur- tonian and Benthamite theory of Civil Government, so plausibly elaborated by writers of the materialistic school, (the very men who have made wealth and out- ward physical comforts to be the chief aim of society,) that government is of origin purely human, by means of compacts and conventions, and conversant alone with outward and material interests. It is this very error, fundamental, deep-rooted in the practice of the Ameri- can nation, that lies at the bottom of our national calam- ity this day. Accumulation ! Wealth ! Gold ! this has been the word. Divide the nation rather than not have it. The contest is one between Mammon and God, involving the policies, institutions, laws, and purposes of each ! Let us bless God that, at last, the people are awaking to see that Religion has every thing to do with Politics. On such like accounts as these, I think we have abundant reason, this day, for thanksgiving to Almighty God. We still are a nation, crowned with blessing, in 36 the enjoyment of a government, brought to public re ; cognition of God, and public humiliation on account of sin, disturbed in our selfish and too commercial spirit, called up higher to the practice and cultivation of noble virtues by the necessities of patriotism, returning to a better sense of obedience to law, and of the duty of administering public justice to offenders, discarding the corrupt sentiment that religion has nothing to do with politics, opening our eyes to see that civil govern- ment is an ordinance of God, religiously to be preserved and kept pure, and, in this way, opening our hearts to receive those sublime lessons of heavenly wisdom found in the Scriptures, whereby we may be built up in right- eousness, and secure for ourselves the blessing of that people whose God is the Lord. These are the promises, the buddings, we cannot but believe of a "good time coming." They are proofs that God but designs to discipline us, by national judgments, into obedience to Himself. They are prophecies that, ere long, the power of our national sins shall be so broken, and themselves so removed from us, as that the whole country, grateful to God for chastisement, and thankful for deliverance from rebellion, shall lift herself up from the dust and celebrate afresh, with songs of rejoicing, the jubilee of her pristine birth. Then, strengthened in the founda- tions of national greatness, and established by the ex- perience of her afflictions, throwing aside her garments of mourning, she shall enter upon a career of national glory, greater than ever, by as much as the furnace through which she is passing will have consumed her dross, and consecrated her to Jehovah as a national 37 Israel and servant of the Lord, fit for her Master's use. God's voice to her is, to-day, in matchless mercy. Amid the roar of His cannon, and the clash of the conflict through the wild storm and the agitations of the times, I hear that voice ringing still louder in tones of comfort and compassion, " thou, afflicted, tossed with tempest and not comforted ! I am laying thy stones with fair colors, and thy foundations with sapphires. I will make thy windows of agates and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones. And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children. In righteousness shalt thou be estab- lished : thou shalt be far from oppression, for thou shalt not fear, and from terror, for it shall not come nigh thee. Behold ! they surely shall gather together, but not by me : whosoever shall gather together against thee, shall fall for thy sake. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper ; and every tongue that shall rise in judgment against thee thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith God." In conclusion let me say, God is preparing the world, by the overthrow of all organized systems of error and iniquity, for millennial glory. A most striking and re- markable feature of the times is that most of the civil and political convulsions of the earth, those which gather around them the might of military preparation, seem to centre themselves upon questions of purely religious and moral character. No intelligent man can study the present crisis of the world's history, and not be arrested 38 by this palpable truth. And no one can fail to see that Christianity is the solution. It is in this light the study of our modern era becomes clothed with the intensest interest. " Modern history," says one of the most saga- cious thinkers and accomplished writers that ever touched upon history, "is not only a step in advance of ancient history, but it is the last step. It appears to bear the marks of the fulness of time, as if there would be no future history beyond it." He continues to say, " with- out any presumptuous confidence, if there be any signs, however uncertain, that we are living in the latest period of the world's history, that no other races of men remain behind to perform what we have neglected, or restore what we have ruined, then indeed the interest of modern history does become intense, and the importance of not wasting the time still left to us, may well be called incal- culable. When an army's last reserve has been brought into action, every single soldier knows that he must do his duty to the utmost ; that if he cannot win the battle now, he must lose it. So, if our existing nations are the last reserve of the world, its fate may be said to be in their hands, — GocVs work on earth will he left undone if they do not do it."* Occurring events, all over the world, justify the more than probable truth of such profound and solemn reflec- tions, and open out, I think, before the American nation a prospect most glorious, and a future most sublime. By the civil and political agitations of the earth, God is but preparing the nations to accomplish His eternal will. Zion is to be redeemed with judgment and her converts * Arnold's Lectures on Modern History, pp. 46, 48. New York, 1S5G. 39 with righteousness. To fulfil this, Jehovah will let loose His anger upon the world, breaking in upon all forms of organized error and iniquity, in states and kingdoms, in empires and nations. He will derange the entire sys_ tern of things, shaking once more not only the earth but heaven also, and removing the things that are shaken to make way for a kingdom which cannot be moved. The earth shall be utterly emptied and spoiled. Then, when the vials are poured, and finished, and He shall say " Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations He hath made in the earth ; He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth ! " where, amid crumbled em- pires, demolished thrones, broken political organizations, and the wide wreck of kingdoms, shall this nation ap- pear ? Standing, we humbly and devoutly believe, es- tablished in righteousness and truth before the Lord, purified by all her trials now, and whatever others He may see fit graciously to send upon her, and wearing, upon her brow, His blessing, as the diadem of her glory. The Lord smile upon her and deliver her out of all her troubles ! "Jussaiwtcslatis terrenm discutienda Cortestis tibi mox perficienda, scias: Siquis divinis jubcat contraria jussis To contra Dominum f actio nulla trahat." Abelard. i TRRftRY OF CONGRESS llllli 011 933 388 H LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 011 933 388 A