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LC Control Number 
 
 tmp96 028343 
 
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 THEMES OE THANKFULNESS. 
 
 THA^^KSaiVI^a SERMOI^, 
 
 ./ 
 
 OF THE 
 
 EEY. GEO. W. PEPPER, Chaplain F. S. A., 
 
 Delivered he/ore the Governor and merahers of the Legislature^ in the 
 Cwpitol, Raleigh, IS. C, Noveraher mth, 1868. 
 
 n 
 
 [Re-publisbed from the North Carolina Standard, Dec. oth.] 
 
 < 
 
 We publish this morning, at the request of 
 a large number of friends, the eloquent 
 Thanksgiving Sermon of Rev. George W. 
 Pepper. Extended commendation of this 
 sermon is unnecessary. We invite our rea- 
 ders to peruse it carefully. It would have 
 been published earlier, but official duties pre- 
 vented the gentleman from preparing even so 
 brief a sketch. 
 
 "Enter into His <^ates with thanksgiving, and 
 into His Courts with praise."— Psa^/nlOOf/^. 
 
 Wondrnusly l)eautitu! are the ancient 
 Psahns of David. These jjccrless composi- 
 tions in splendor of diction and adaptedness 
 to every human event, are not surpassed by 
 any portion of the Sacred Book. They 
 furnish affliction with words of comfort, de- 
 spondency with expressions of hope, and 
 gladness with strains of triumph. We love 
 these grand outbursts of a kingly heart, as 
 they portray the smitten soul of the penitent, 
 the l)itter tears of the returning prodigal, 
 and tiie exulting gratitu<le ot the emancipa- 
 ted soul. 
 
 We fail to realize the "oeauty and gran- 
 deur of the Psalms, unless we remember 
 that they weie written for the Temple ser- 
 vice, and sung by well trained choristers. 
 Praise was the cliief emph)yment of the 
 Jewish church. The voice of rejoicing wab 
 heard daily in the tHbern icles. In Hi-aven 
 the angels and the sacramental host are per- 
 petually praising God. The world, ere it 
 groaned l)enearli the curse, was one grand 
 temple of praise. Tlie spangled heavens 
 declared his glory. The stars in their ever- 
 larsting march sung praises in tiie grandest 
 snusic to Him who sits upon the Throne. 
 The mountains, the tyjjes of eternal power, 
 proclaimed His gloriou> majesty. 
 
 The Jews were celebrated for their tii 
 umphni odes. From the day wlu-n they left 
 Egypt tr) their decline and tall, the Jewish 
 people Ipresented the sublime spectacle of a 
 nation ot tiiMiiksoivers. (^ehoi<! that vast 
 
 jubilant host, wending its way through the 
 classic lands of Judea, to stand before God 
 in the attitude of grateful worshippers 1 
 Some of them from the purple vine tields; 
 some from invaded borders ; some from des- 
 olated h(mies; some from resounding vic- 
 tories ; old prophets, like Moses, whose 
 faces were bonedictions; stout warriors, ra- 
 diant with victory ; old mothers in Israel, 
 like Deborah ; young men and maidens, with 
 the summer of life dawning on their brows ; 
 j little children, whose eyes kindled with 
 I beauty as they looked upon the grand and 
 I beautiful image of their native land. They 
 I pitched their ever-green booths on the sacred 
 I hills of Judea, and held high festival in 
 j commemoration of the distinguished good- 
 I ness of their Deliverer. 
 
 j Thanksgiving day is five generations old. 
 I How grand that one of the Pil grims 
 i on Plymouth Rock I There standing 
 j on the ice bound coast this immortal band 
 ' offered up their first thanksgiving in the 
 New World. 
 
 Aye, amid the storm they sang, 
 
 The stars heard and the sea. 
 While the sounding anthem of the dim woods 
 rung 
 
 Witii the anthems of the free. 
 
 Can we ever forget New England ? It is 
 1 to the thankful piety of her Puritans that 
 I we owe this hallowed day. Wherever her 
 children are scattered over the earth's sur- 
 I face, to-day they will travel back to in lov- 
 j ing memory to the old homestead. This 
 I Thanksgiving day will return to them 
 brighter and fresher than ever. The moss 
 on the ancient trees will brighten with No- 
 vember lii^ht, and the tufts of grass will 
 wear a sunnier green. 
 
 In dear New England, since the lathers slept. 
 The sweetest holiday, of all the year. 
 
 Busy hands anrl joyous hearts all over the 
 land are now engaged in the grand service 
 ot praise. Gray-headed men and venerable 
 matrons will repeat to the children and 
 grandchildren that girdle them with beauty, 
 the story of their early days. In sympatny 
 
with this good old custom we, too, have as- 
 sembled in this historic Commons Hall to 
 tune our American harps to the strains of the 
 Hebrew bard. In looking over this l)rilliant 
 assemblage, I see some on whose heads 
 winter has left its snows ; some in the buoy- 
 ancy of youth ; some clad in mourning. 
 That mind must be dark, and that heart ad- 
 amant, which, in reviewing the past year, 
 cannot behold the many marks of Divine 
 goodness to the Nation, to the family, to the 
 Church, and to the individual. We are here 
 to look upon the the bright lining on the 
 clouds, to string our mercies upon a silver 
 thread of praise. When one of the old 
 guards of Napoleon, who had served the 
 Emperor in days of triumph, lay dangerously 
 wounded by a musket ball, while the sur- 
 geon was probing above the soldier's heart 
 to find the bullet, the i)rave hero's reply was, 
 " A little deeper, and you will find the Em- 
 peror." So in the soul of every Christian, 
 the sentiment of gratitude has a conspicu 
 ous place. 
 
 Shall I not call upon this assembly to 
 guide me to-day up into the mountain of 
 Thanksgiving and offer their praise God lor 
 his favors and mercies. Botii hands are full of 
 blessings. The grumblers and evil prophets 
 predicted that this year we were to have a 
 financial crash, the nation's most sacred debt 
 was to be repudiated. Grant's election has 
 settled that question forever. This year we 
 were to have the Cholera. Last year this 
 Angel of death swept by .the x\tlantic sea- 
 board and thousands perished as its shadow 
 fell. There has been perfect health in all 
 our borders. The winter was to crush out 
 our harvests ; but in early July, God gave us 
 gentle rains and sunl)eams, the fruits ripened 
 and a glorious harvest waved and glittered 
 like a a golden banner. Memorable will 
 indeed this day of Thanksgiving be to the 
 dwellers of the South, Come forward then 
 children of the beneficent Father. The Cap- 
 tol flings open its portals, let us sing the 
 praises of the Lord and His Majestic glory. 
 
 We should thank God for the extent and vari- 
 etyof the yiational domain. We have the no 
 blest heritage and the fairest lands on earth. 
 We have a country where the grand and the 
 graceful, the awful and the lovely mingle 
 together. Behold its splendid lakes, its fer- 
 tile plains, its grand mountains, its lovely 
 valleys, its sweeping prairies, its entrancing 
 landscapes, audits sky soft and blue as that 
 which bends over the faded spleud(M-s of 
 Italy, That acute observer and great friend 
 of America, De Tocqueville in his work on 
 our country says : 'That the United States 
 is the most magnificent dwelling place pre- 
 pared by God for man's abode. In fashioning 
 this great home for oppressed races tlie 
 Creator gave us not a barrack, but a palace, 
 not a desert but an Alhambra. When Hor- 
 ace Greeley made his first visit to England, he 
 wrote back to Americans to be sure if they 
 contemplated a trip to Europe, to take a 
 long earnest gaze at the sun, for the thing 
 called sun in England, only shone occasion- 
 ally and bore little resemblance to its Ameri- 
 
 can namesake. Oh ! that the crowned 
 princes and kings of E irope would 
 come across the ocean, and behold the 
 greatness of the American Republic. With 
 forty millions of people with a territory 
 greater than all Europe, with a climate un- 
 surpassed, with a soil fruitful as God's love, 
 with immense valleys, the fruits and fleeces 
 of which bid fair to rival the golden sands 
 of our streams, as well as the treasuries of 
 our enchanted rocks. 
 Great God, we thank thee for this Home 
 
 This bounteous birthland of the free . ^/\^ 
 Where wanderers from afar may comi^^^l /ifV^ 
 
 And breathe the air of liberty. Jn* >^A 
 
 Still may her flowers untrampled sprifl^, I " 
 
 Her harvests wave, her cities rise — 
 And yet till Time shall fold bis wing 
 
 Remain Earth's loveliest paradise. 
 
 A nation with such peerless gifts can af- 
 ford to exercise a broad and generous spirit 
 of magnanimity to the brave but mistaken 
 soldiers of the South, who, tor four tempest- 
 uous years, upheld .heir banner with a gal- 
 lantry, worthy of a purer cause. The reck- 
 less defiance of suffering and death exhibi- 
 ted by the soldiers of Lee and Johnston, 
 in the Ijlaze ol battle, entitles them to 
 generous consideration and magnan- 
 imous treatment. The spirit of proscrip- 
 tion is the spirit of perdition ! The 
 spirit of charity is the spirit of Heaven. Let 
 the great Ilepublican party and its chief^ 
 General Grant, place another pillar and 
 crown of gold in the re.'eemed nation, by 
 proclaiming a general amnesty to all politi- 
 cal offenders. 
 
 We should be thankful for our system of 
 Oovernment., combining as it does the great- 
 est security with the largest liberty. The 
 priceless blessings of our government may be 
 understood and appreciated by a collation 
 of the various forms of civil polity which 
 existed in the world. The first was mou<v 
 cratic, corresponding to an absolute monar 
 chy of the present day. The second form 
 WPS theocratic, the I'ulers of which were 
 called Hierarchs. The third was aristocrat- 
 ic, the few noble gf)verning the many. The 
 fourth anfl best of all was democratic. The- 
 ocracies and an istocr.icies are founded on 
 the superiority of races. Monarchies have 
 been tried and have fa'ded. Hierarr-hies 
 have l)een tried and have failed. Arristoc- 
 racies have been tried, anfl they also have 
 failed. Fired by a Heaven-enkindled zeal 
 in behalf of man, our revolutionary fathers, 
 composed of exiles from all lands, flung the 
 banners of Deiuociacy to the l)reeze, appeal- 
 ing to High Heaven for the vindication and 
 success of their cause. God bent from the 
 splendors of His Throne and blessed the 
 sword of Washington. The crippled colony 
 emerged from obscurity, becoming, as it is 
 now, Lhe greatest Hepublican Empire in the 
 world, knowing no boundaries save the two 
 great oceans. The hopes of tyrants were 
 defeated. Then the songs of our venerated 
 fathers l)urst forth like the voice of many 
 waters and the noise of mighty tluinderings. 
 Thank God we have a free press, a free gos- 
 pel, and a free land. America is to teach 
 
the nations the true tlieory of government. 
 Hail to the day winch shall see them risino- 
 in their majesty twinging their naked breasts 
 ajiainst the kings. 
 
 From rock hound Maine to the golden 
 shores of the Pacific enfranchised millions 
 swell the full chorus of liberty. Oh ! for 
 the kingly heart of the royal bard that 
 God might be adequately praised for 
 his wonderful mercies. All Europe is 
 catching inspiration from our success. Free- 
 dom is everywhere extending her dominion. 
 Spain looks up to tlie immortal Father. 
 We hail her deliverance from the last Bour- 
 bon. Spain of Ferdinand and Isabella has 
 disappeared — the accursed inquisition that 
 flevoured the fair Andalusia, turning the 
 loveliest spot in Europe into a pandemo- 
 nium, is destroyed. Spain, the mother of 
 Hel>rew poets, has signalized her progress 
 among the nations i:)y taking dmvn the pic- 
 ture of Isal)ella an 1 placing in its stead that 
 of Washington. The sons of Italy burn 
 with noble wrath, craving Garibaldi as their 
 chief. Austria's surging millions are ad- 
 vancing. England, the country of Bright 
 and Gladstone, is' enfranchising additional 
 thousands. The genius of America is abroad. 
 Her voice is heard in the dungeons of Euro 
 pean despotism. In France, in Hungary, in 
 Poland, the voice of earnest imprisoned pa- 
 triots are urging " how long ?" This fiery 
 spirit of revolution cannot be extinguished. 
 In every region of the South men are waking 
 up as from a nightmare. The Moslem of the 
 old Mogul Empire feels the scimiter stir in 
 its scal)l»ard, and he murmurs " God is 
 great." The Irishman lays his hand once 
 upon his trusty pike and hopes tor a day of 
 vengeance. Japan opens iier gates and Pa- 
 gan millions hear the gospel. China selects 
 the Repu!)lican Burlingame as her messenger 
 by the nations. The spirit of Washington 
 is n)archin<; on. Convict ships, scaffolds 
 and pools of blood, cannot quench the iu- 
 destructil)ie principle of Right. It is older 
 than mitres and thrones. 
 
 "There is a sound on every sea, 
 
 A voice on every wave, 
 The watchword of the free, 
 
 The antliem of tlie bnvc. 
 From step to stej) it rings 
 
 Throut>;h Europe's many climes , 
 
 A knell to despot kings, " 
 
 A sentence on their crimes ! 
 
 Where'er a wind is rushing, I 
 
 Where'er a heart is gusiiing ' 
 
 The swelling sounds are lieard | 
 
 Of man to free man calling 
 Of broken fetters lalling, i 
 
 And like the carol of "a cageless bird I 
 
 The bursting shout of 
 
 Freedom's i allying word." I 
 
 The pntriotism of the American people j 
 during the icar <md .ruice is a theme of thank- 1 
 julnens. Patriotism or the k)ve ot country ; 
 is a Ixautiful seniiment. There is a splendor j 
 al»ont it which commends it to all men. It | 
 is tins principle that arms the patriot in the ! 
 defence of his country an<l impels eager \ 
 flKiusands to share his fate. I 
 
 It is this noble sentiment that l)inds man | 
 to man; which associates with itself all the ' 
 't ciiai'ities of home, sjx'aks the s inif la 
 
 guage and recognizes a conimon interest. It 
 inspires the Laplander to prefer the eternal 
 sorrows of his country life to all the splendor 
 and profusion of Asia, because it is his coun- 
 try. The savage clings to his native land, 
 however barren, and disdains to barter his 
 independence. There is no nobler answer on 
 record than that which w'as given by a fa- 
 mous Chief of a savage tribe, to some Euro- 
 peans who would have bribed him to give 
 up his patrimony : " We were born," said 
 he, " upon this spot ; our fathers are buried 
 here. Shall we then say to these bones, rise 
 up and let us go hence V The sentiment of 
 patriotism is universal among nations. 
 
 The Scotchman is aff'Cted by the sight of 
 a thistle in a foreign land. It reminds him 
 of the land of Wallace and of Bruce. The 
 Shamrock, the chosen leaf of bard and chief, 
 stirs the heart of the exiles of Erin, making 
 them long for the arrival of the day when 
 they shall muster under Emmet's immortal 
 name. The Frenchman is aroused at a 
 glimpse of the i^Ze?^?' de Us," for it awakens 
 pleasant memories of sunny France. This 
 noble virtue is not confined to any particu- 
 lar age, language or nation. The Abde de 
 Lisle, of France, relates of an Indian who, 
 amid the splendors ot Paris, beholding a 
 banana tree in the jardiii des plantes, bathed 
 it with tears, and seemed for a moment to 
 be transported to his own shores. 
 
 The Ethiopian ^imagines that God made 
 his sands and deserts, while angels were em- 
 ployed to make the rest of the world. The 
 Maltese, isolated on rocks, distinguished 
 their lands by the appellation, " the flowers 
 of the world." The Norwegians, proud of 
 their barren summits, inscribed upon rix 
 dollars, " spirit, loyalty, valor, and whatever 
 is honorable, let the world learn among the 
 rocks of Nf^rway." 
 
 This fidelity to one's country is acknowl- 
 edged by the fisherman as he sits by his cot- 
 tage on the Atlantic or Pacific beach, and 
 by the wild hunter of the Western plains. 
 It is heralded in lands distant from each 
 other and different in political institutions, 
 in the plaudits of a Tell, a Washington, a 
 Wallace, a Brutus, an Emmett and a Lincoln, 
 
 It nerves the arm and fires the bosom in 
 every scene and vicissitude of life, and when 
 the patriot's closing eye is turned for the 
 last time to the sun in the heavens, whether 
 amid the shock of steel, or from the victo^ 
 ries of [)eace, his last thought is his country, 
 and his last prayer that its greatness may 
 be coeval with the coming grandeur of 
 God's eternal Son. 
 
 The illustrious son of Chatham, brooding 
 over the failure of the coalition against 
 France, when stretched upon the bed of 
 sickness,cxhausted l)y debility, and wrecked 
 with pain, forgot his own sufferings and ex- 
 claimed with his expiring breath, *'0h, my 
 country." The philosophic and chivalrous 
 Falklanrl, when his native land was rent by 
 civil war, moved by this loyalty to country, 
 reiterated in words which forever consecrates 
 his memory, "peace for England." and perish- 
 ed intrepidly in battle, defending that cause 
 whinh his conscience told him was riiHit. 
 
We should de thankful for abundant har- 
 vests. The fields have been covered with 
 oolden crops, the gardens have blushed with 
 ripe frail., the pastures are clothed with 
 flocks, and all nature teems with tokens of 
 our Maker's providential care ; the very 
 rivers that run through the valleys, while 
 they beautify the scenery, bear on their bo- 
 soms the products of every clime for your 
 enjoyment ! the air around you is scented 
 with sweetness and echoes on every side 
 with the cheering melody of song. What a 
 scene is this to refresh and gladden man's 
 heart, and to lift in adoring gratitude to 
 the Giver of all good ! We hold it to be 
 hardly possible for an individual to take his 
 stand upon any elevated spot on a fine sum 
 mer's day, and to survey the panorama of 
 richness and of loveliness which is spiead 
 out before him, all over canopied by the soft 
 blue sky, looking the very image of Heav- 
 en's protecting tenderness, without feeling 
 touched with some sensations of God's good- 
 ness, or sending up some gratitude to the 
 Author of so many bounties. Who can 
 s„and upon the summit of some lofty hill 
 and survey in a glow ol excitement the wide 
 extended fields, tinted with various hue, 
 bathed in a flood ot light, or as he has pas 
 sed in his rural stroll through fields ripe 
 with corn, and observed the peaceful ears 
 bending before each rustling breeze, or rip- 
 pl'ng like an ocean of gold at every passing- 
 gale. Who, I say, can have witnessed scenes 
 like these without feeling his heart stirring 
 within him with new and uncontrollable 
 emotions? Andean we not find a scene 
 similar to this? Will not our own land 
 present it ? Hovv richly, how bountifully 
 has America been blessed of God ? We had 
 a genial seed time, followed by warm suns 
 and refreshing showers; A few weeks roll- 
 ed on, and our hills were luxuriant with 
 verdure, and our valleys overflowing with 
 corn. Then came the glorious harvest time, 
 with its golden sheaves and rejoicing hus- 
 bandmen, and stirring scenes ! Gleaners 
 plying their busy task in the field, and barn- 
 yards replete with produce ! x\nd look at 
 us now. We have our granaries filled to j 
 the full with corn. Ships from our shores 
 freighted with food are bearing it to many 
 distant nations. 
 
 Consider God''s dealings with you as fami- 
 lies, and you icill have materials for grate 
 fill acknowledgments. Among the bright 
 and peaceful creatures of our holy religion ; 
 among those things which stamp with a pe- 
 culiar and impressive beauty, will ever 
 rank the delightful spectacle of a united 
 family, connected for the most part by ties 
 ot common blood, and having the same 
 hopes, the same interests, the same common 
 fears and joys. Let us glance at such a 
 home. There are the calm and secret joys 
 3f the domestic hearth, that l)rigi)t and con 
 secrated spot, where husband and wile, pa- 
 rents and children, brothers and sisters 
 mingle their purest affections, their most 
 intimate thoughts, their fondest hopes in 
 unrestrained fellowship. No chalice ot 
 
 earthly bliss is so sparkling, so little 
 adulterated as that which they pass from 
 hand to hand, not only on fes.ive times, but 
 in their daily gathering around their own 
 firesides. These homes are Edens, little 
 enclosures of blessing,favored spots in earth's 
 wide waste. There is something in the word 
 home that wakes the kindler feelings of the 
 human heart. No songs are sweet like those 
 we hear among the boughs tiial shade the 
 ancestral mansion 
 
 Our grandest theme of. thankfulness is a 
 restored Union. In Dresden there is an iron 
 egg, the history of which is something like 
 this. A young prince sent this iron egg to a 
 lady to whom he was betrothed. She re- 
 ceived it, held it in her hand, and looked at 
 it with disdain. In hur indignation that he 
 should send her such a gift, she cast it to 
 the earth. When it touched the ground, a 
 spring, cunningly hidden in the egg, opened 
 and a silver yolk rolled out. She tt)uched a 
 secret spring in the yolk and a golden chicken 
 was revealed. She touched a spring in the 
 chicken and a ruby crown was found within. 
 She touched a spring in the crown, and 
 within it was a diamond mtirriage ring. The 
 great God in his mystery threw dcnvn to us 
 an iron egg; it was rusted with tear? and 
 clotted with blood. We took it in our 
 hands and looked at it. We lifted 
 our eyes to Heaven and said : "Great 
 Father, what broods of devils may 
 be hatched from this" Inii^ as we let it fall, a 
 spring was touched, and a silver yolk rolled 
 out tliat spread like a broad shield of pat- 
 riotism all over the laiid in the days that 
 followed the dismantling of Sumter. When 
 the spring was touched again, there came 
 out, not a single golden chicken, but a glo 
 rious brood of them. Ellsworth, Banics, 
 Burnside, Foote, Seigel. Shields, Logan, 
 Meade, McPherson, Sheridan, Grant. TUen 
 we found each a spring, and when we touch- 
 ed the spring, we found yvithiii each a ruby . 
 for a crown. 
 
 Shields gave us Winchester, Logan D' 'nel- 
 son; McPherson, Vicksburg; Sheridan, Five; 
 Fords; Sherman, the Carolinas; Farragut, 
 not a handsome name, l)Ut was it not a hand- 
 some deed ? gave us New Orleans and Mo- 
 bile; Grant the noblest Roman of them all, 
 gave us the Republic. When all these rubies 
 were gathered we put them in a crown. 
 
 spring 
 
 and in the crown there was 
 we touched it and within vi/as the 
 diamond ring of Union unbroken still ! and 
 with God's help we have placed it on the 
 nation's finger and she shall wear it ever 
 more. Grant's election is a grand augury 
 of the nation's future peace, prosperity and 
 perpetuity. God save the Republic. 
 
 Sail on, O Union, strong and o-reat 
 Humanitj' with all its fears 
 With all its hopes ot future years 
 Is banging breathless on thy fate. 
 
 What a o()()(lly heritage is ours. Its area 
 is grander than that of Rome in its palmiest 
 days. The ocean is studded with the na- 
 tion's commerce, and our rivers are covered 
 with floating palaces. America has the best, 
 
the freest government on the face of the 
 earth. The weary and oppressed children 
 of Europe are always welcome to her blessed 
 shores. We liave two millions of farms and 
 yet this is not one quarter of the national 
 domain. We publish more newspapers and 
 possess more schools than all Europe. Amer- 
 icans invented steamlioats and the telegraph, 
 ynd they are now buildiug the grandest rail- 
 road in the world. The republic is not 
 wanting in great and brilliant names. She 
 can show to the world her shining paragons, 
 the founders of the government. The De- 
 claration of Independence, written by Jef- 
 ferson is the undying monument ot our 
 fathers glory. Every sentence of this im- 
 mortal charter is a crushing thunderbolt 
 against tyrant wrong. The brilliant crown 
 to which our fathers aspired was patriotism. 
 What a grand array of names — Benjamin 
 Franklin^ who tamed the lightning and 
 called the thunders sweet music. George 
 Washington, an angel in human form. Then 
 the brighest jewel of the later days the 
 consummate flower of the present centu- 
 ry, Abraham Lincoln. As he passed to a 
 better world, the eternal gates opened unto 
 
 him the grandest of all ovations. In the lit- 
 erary world, we can point to such essayists 
 as Emerson, Whipple, Holmes, Lowell and 
 Curtis; to such iiisrorians as Bancroft, Ir- 
 ving, Prescott and Motley ; to such soldiers 
 as Sherman, Sheridan, Thomas, Meade and 
 Grant ; to such statesmen as Charles Sumner, 
 Henry Wilson, Stanton, Chase and Colfax ; 
 tn such poets as Whittier, Pierpont, Long 
 fellow; to such sculptors as Powers and 
 Crawford; to such orators as Phillips, 
 Evarts and Simpson. Shall not the re- 
 view of these wondrous national privi- 
 leges cause to arise from our united hearts 
 as from a living altar the incense of ado- 
 ring praise to the fo'itstool of the Divine 
 majesty ? Sons and daughters oT God, take 
 your harps from the willows and I>reak forth 
 unto singing. Sin^- unto the Loid with 
 thanksgiving. Praise God in His sanctuary ; 
 praise Him in the iinnameni of His power ; 
 praise Him for His mighty acts; praise Him 
 and l)e exeeedino-ly ulad mm of the South, 
 for the poisonous snake of slavei'v has been 
 chased from your blooming paradise forever. 
 Praise the Lord, Oii my soul and all that is 
 within me Bless His holv name. 
 
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