Our Duty in the Crisis. 
 
 A DISCOURSE 
 
 DELIVERED ON THE 
 
 Occasion of t|e Rational Jfast 
 
 SEPTEMBER 26, 1861, 
 
 IN THE 
 
 M. E. CHURCH, SIMSBURY, 
 
 By Rev. ICHABOD SIMMONS. 
 
 HARTFORD: 
 PRESS OF CASE, LOCKWOOD AND COMPANY. 
 
 1861. 
 

 MCXGKMet 
 •Wi « ,9,1 
 
Rev. Mr, Simmons, 
 
 Dear Sir: — In behalf of the large and appreciating audience, who lis- 
 tened with rapt attention to your eloquent and patriotic discourse delivered 
 on the occasion of the late National Fast, Sept. 26, 1861, we respectfully 
 ask of you a copy for publication. 
 
 LUCIUS I. BARBER, \ 
 JEREMIAH A. TULLER, > Committee. 
 JOSEPH R. TOY, ) 
 
 SiMSBURY, September 27, 1861. 
 
 SiMSBURY, Sept. 30, 1861. 
 
 Messrs. Lucius I. Barber, Jeremiah A. Tuller, Joseph R. Toy, 
 Gentlemen : — I am gratified to be able to help, with pen and voice, the 
 glorious cause so nobly supported by a loyal people. The discourse you 
 request for publication is at your command. 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 ICHABOD SIMMONS. 
 
SERMON. 
 
 Text : Zech. XIII — 9. " And I will bring the third part through 
 the eire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will trt 
 them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and i will 
 hear them: i will say, it is my people; and they shall say, the 
 Lord is my God." 
 
 The victories of God's enemies have always been only par- 
 tial, and really savored of defeat rather than victory. The 
 cunning of Satan overcame the scruples of our first parents, 
 and the earth, the human race and all living things were 
 cursed; but the devastation was not as complete as he 
 would have had it. He would have had everything useful and 
 beautiful destroyed, for usefulness implies reformation and 
 beauty is heavenly. But he was disappointed. The earth 
 should bring forth briers and thorns, and thistles should 
 spring up in the path of the laborer; (this was Satan's 
 triumph ;) but it should also be spotted with gardens of beau- 
 tiful flowers, carpeted with broad acres of verdure, and with 
 rivers like net-work winding through fruitful valleys. The 
 grain harvest should annually cheer the exile from Eden, and 
 beneath the ground, the myriads of crystal makers should be 
 forming gems for future use and beauty. This was Satan's 
 defeat. In the progress of the human family, though each 
 unit should be born in sin, he has often been defeated. He 
 laid his plans with the ken of an angel, but when the wicked- 
 ness of the race had risen to the brim of vengeance, he saw 
 
6 
 
 the whole lying fathoms deep beneath the floods of heaven, 
 and floating on this shoreless sea, the ark of safety with its 
 few faitiiful defenders of the righteousness of God. But he 
 rallied his strength, commenced again his infernal engineer- 
 ing, and was successful to his heart's content, until God met 
 him on the plains of Jordan. Now it was the fire, and not 
 the flood; (are not all the elements the ministers of his will?) 
 The sun was just gilding the golden portals of the morning, 
 when the fiery baptism of wrath fell upon those sin-intoxica- 
 ted cities, and only Lot and his two daughters escaped to re- 
 late this total overthrow of a wicked people. 
 
 The entire discomfiture of great armies composed of thou- 
 sands, by little bands of a few hundreds, are now the historic 
 facts, as they were once the present proofs, that when the 
 Almighty makes bare his arm, no power can stand against it. 
 The fact connected with the prophecies and histories of both 
 the Old and New Testament is, that it is a contest in which 
 the superiority of numbers is a mere accident, bearing in not 
 the slightest degree upon the certainty of success. What did 
 Hezekiah care for the Assyrian army ? Their numbers were 
 greater he knew, and their leaders mighty men of valor ; but 
 every step they advanced toward the camp of Judah, they 
 walked over a mine of death, whose explosion would be ter- 
 rific. It did explode and the whole army perished. Such a 
 mine is a wrong principle in any age of the world. At Cal- 
 vary it was a defeat of numbers ; victory perched upon the 
 banners of God's enemies when the Son of Man died, but 
 such a victory as has been spreading dismay through the 
 ranks of sin ever since. 
 
 In the progress of nations, principles have survived powers, 
 and honest hearts have conquered dishonest hosts. Not per- 
 haps in the first, second or third special contest, but in the 
 final summing up of the issue, where alone success is a fixed 
 
and certain quantity. The autograph of a whole nation's 
 aristocracy, was attached to the uncharitable proscriptions of 
 James the First, in the great strife of prerogative and privi- 
 lege, and the embarkation at Leyden was a retreat of brave 
 patriots to the bleak freedom of a strange country ; but that 
 temporary triumph of selfishness and power was long ago ren- 
 dered insignificant, by the brilliant achievements of thirteen 
 sparse colonies intrenched behind a principle. It is the province 
 of pure religion to recognize the power of principles ; it is right, 
 the right prevails, therefore we shall prevail, is the grand syl- 
 logism with which she rushes to every encounter. Thus 
 armed, her one missionary stands before the strongholds of 
 Paganism, and, despite its age-honored traditions, demands 
 unconditional surrender; and it gradually yields to his re- 
 quest. And this principle of right finds its way into every 
 question ; and men should array themselves accordingly. 
 
 It is justly assumed that government is divine. Its throne 
 is the bosom of God. Hence, nations with natural boundaries 
 and constitutions acknowledging the supreme will, rest not 
 OP "*^^e uncertain demands of lawless passion, but on the fixed 
 decree of the Almighty. And if any nation retains an injus- 
 tice in its economy, a redress of grievance can be obtained in 
 a legitimate way, suggested both by reason and revelation. 
 This vast nation of States, the city of refuge for the world, is 
 of all nations under the Sun a divine government. Art never 
 suggested its origin, and has only helped its growth. The 
 discovery of the continent was a triumph of inspiration over 
 incredulity, and the landing of the pilgrims on its wildest 
 coast was no more of human design, than that the rush boat 
 of the infant Moses should catch in the reeds off abreast of 
 Pharaoh's palace. The revolution of the colonies never had 
 its equal in profane history. The conquest of Gideon, strange 
 enough for romance, is its only equal in sacred history. The 
 
8 
 
 more those seven years are reviewed, the more clearly the 
 outlines of a Divine plan appear. The wisdom of its early 
 legislations is a proverb in the world. In the declaration of 
 independence, the brightest political and social idea of the bi- 
 ble is the central sun : the equality of men and their certain 
 inalienable rights, those of " Rfe, liberty, and the pursuit of 
 happiness." In the struggle, only defeated where defeats were 
 glorious, striking blow after blow with tremendous precision, 
 and guided by a Commander-in-Chief who feared God and at 
 night retired beyond the watch-fires, into the thicket, to pray ; 
 — no wonder the old Indian, who fired at him eighteen differ- 
 ent times, said, " it was impossible to kill him." And when 
 at last the peans of peace rung through the land, and its wis- 
 dom assembled to lay the foundations of its future greatness, 
 it was God who directed in the intricate plan, and enabled 
 them to gather up from the fallen republics of Greece, and 
 Athens, and Rome, all that gave them true greatness and 
 glory. 
 
 The healthy, intellectual, social and moral influences, that 
 have accompanied every ship and traveler through the wide 
 world, have made us the North star of nations ; and the sen- 
 timents that now prompt us to national action, because divine 
 sentiments, are stirring deep thoughts and suggesting strong 
 questions in their minds which can not be answered without 
 imperilling thrones. The scriptures everywhere acknowledge 
 God, a sovereign of governments as well as of hearts, and in 
 every great conflict the government that is true to Him shall 
 not be destroyed, but " refined as silver is refined, and tried 
 as gold is tried ; " and the effect of the purification, that the 
 people shall be His people, and He will be their God. The 
 conflict now progressing with us is a moral one. It has shaken 
 itself clear of political influences, and entered the domain 
 of the religious. Expediences have become exigencies, and 
 
9 
 
 compromises on paper, complements of powder. The nation 
 is being purified. The silver and the gold are in the crucible. 
 May the merciful God soon bring the pure metal forth ! The 
 question with each one now is, what have I to do ? A plausible 
 answer would be, 
 
 I. Be loyal to the existing government. " Mankind are 
 highly concerned to support that wherein their own safety is 
 concerned, and to destroy those arts by which their ruin is 
 consulted." If the government ever afforded us safety, it 
 will do so until it is overthrown. It is no less able to-day to 
 grant the strong arm of power to support its loyal subjects, 
 than it was eight years since, when this trouble was only in 
 prophecy. A change of government officers has taken place, 
 it is true, but the President is not the government. He, with 
 the poorest man among us, is only a subject. The Constitu- 
 tion is Governor, and to its behests all ought to bow. 
 
 Loyalty is in the highest sense liberty, and disloyalty is 
 licentiousness. A safe government must limit its subjects, 
 and absolute freedom is only the non-government of savages. 
 "A secure and happy subjection is more to be esteemed than a 
 dangerous and factious liberty." Hence, healthful restraint 
 is benevolent, and just and equitable restrictions are profitable. 
 Freedom to speak in every case would be fearful folly in 
 some cases, and the pen is m-^re dangerous than the sword in 
 any cause. It therefore behooves all who would render good 
 service toiiheir country, to be loyal in sentiment and loyal in 
 action. What in times of quiet would seem to be a mere 
 ripple on the surface, in times of peril assumes a great import- 
 ance. The hoisting a flag of any or all colors, when the 
 national machinery is moving without friction, occasions but 
 a passing notice, but in times of war it is laden with import- 
 ant meaning. As it snaps in the breeze, it gives responses to 
 the peculiar sentiments of one or the other party. The hands 
 2 
 
10 
 
 that hoist it are ready to grasp the musket and fight under its 
 folds. It means every thing' that the national flag does not 
 mean. Its declarations are as positive as those of the actual 
 combatants, for no man can live in these days of blood and not 
 be stirred to a positiveness that will make his position known. 
 The expressions of thought weigh much at the present time. 
 What would be considered, in the normal state of things, a 
 powerless opinion, is now a torch in the incendiary's hand. 
 Expressions now mean all the words will allow. They nerve 
 the arm of those who can draw encouragement from them, 
 and palsy the strength of those they oppose. True loyalty 
 will stand by the star-spangled banner until constitutional 
 action has rent it asunder, and speak only the sentiments of 
 Union, till the Union is constitutionally severed./i 
 
 There is nothing sure in rebellion. "As it is a weed of 
 hasty growth, so it will decay as suddenly ; and that knot 
 which is united in treachery, will easily be dissolved by 
 treacheries." Suppose the enemies of the government suc- 
 ceed in its overthrow. They have established a precedent 
 that has made the elective franchise a farce, and republican- 
 ism a monarchy without its head. The present movement is 
 nothing less than the bayonet subjecting the ballot. The 
 people voted, and the stirring reveille echoed from South 
 Carolina to the Gulf of Mexico as soon as the vote was 
 counted. The Yice President in the Senate had hardly 
 declared the people's choice, when the first boom ^ the can- 
 non aimed at Sumter told the full story ; that bullets should 
 veto what ballots had done. The success of such a scheme 
 would be hazardous. If Mr. Davis occupies the white house 
 at Washington, will the people choose a president in 1864 ? 
 Will the people choose a president ? Of course not, only as 
 dictated by the impulses of fear. The people would not be 
 permitted to do as they pleased, for his government, if formed 
 
11 
 
 at all, would be an offense to a vast majority of them, and he 
 knows it. The object of it is odious to more than twenty of 
 the thirty millions. There can be only one course suggested 
 that he would pursue : Absolute authority granted and held 
 by one section of the people, and tame submission demanded 
 of the other. It does not need a prophet to see that the 
 ballot-box, once disgraced, the party disgracing it for a pur- 
 pose will not suffer it to regain its reputation, until so well 
 guarded by constitutional amendments unconstitutionally 
 made, that it would have no power. Those who are not satis- 
 fied with three votes for every five oxen who can manage a 
 hoe, would, if to gain a point, strengthen that prerogative, 
 and count every slave a man to vote and a beast to be bought 
 and sold. The success of the South in this movement is the 
 introduction of the worst kind of anarchy. If New England 
 is dissatisfied at the next election of president, the precedent 
 is before her. The same battle must be fought over again at 
 Boston and in the Connecticut valley. 
 
 Disloyalty is unsafe, because those who have proved treach- 
 erous to one government, will also to another. And " it 
 becomes all disloyal persons to consider, that when those who 
 employ them have effectuated their impious designs, they 
 will either disdain the instruments as useless, or destroy them 
 as dangerous." Loyalty is always honorable. Rogues always 
 pay deference to honesty, and if they should be lifted into 
 stations where betrayal would be ruin, they would destroy 
 their comrades as possessing a dangerous secret. 
 
 Loyalty is not mere patriotism ; that is love of country, right 
 or wrong ; but loyalty is love of country kindled into a brighter 
 glow by the love of principle. It is the soul mounting above 
 mere affection, into the atmosphere of heroic sacrifice. Life 
 is not too sacred for its altars, and nothing but duty should 
 keep any from the post of danger. Duty, stern duty alone I 
 
12 
 
 Affection for wife and children or love of home should be no 
 barrier ! Only the obligations of necessity should keep us 
 quiet while an enemy threatens our land ! There is nothing 
 before us but glorious victory or inglorious defeat. The latter 
 is yet an impossibility in the patriot's mind. Peace only 
 means shameful submission, and compromise with men who 
 would burn a bridge to hurl innocent women and helpless 
 children to destruction, — a mode of warfare the Sepoys of 
 India would have shuddered to use, — compromise with such 
 men for the present is impossible. I see no better way than 
 to right up the old ship as she was before, and when we get 
 in sailing trim again, give the disaffected, if they wish it, 
 their discharge. But until then, there must be loyalty and 
 bravery and sacrifice. If we were not able to cope with 
 them, I have no doubt we should soon see wonders performed 
 by the interposition of the Almighty. He helps us, but our 
 emergency has not come. As long as there are instruments 
 to use. He will work with those instruments, and it is not 
 until every available man hastes to the rescue that he will mi- 
 raculously interfere. If then our enemies out-number us and 
 out-strength us, you will see the chariot of the mighty Jehovah, 
 with his war-steeds snuffing the battle, standing at the head of 
 his people. But now, He waits ; our army, scattered about in 
 little bands, is suffering for want of men. Fill all these 
 ranks ; bring all these instruments into effective action, and 
 mark, all the discipline treason has gained during the past 
 years of betrayed trust, and all the numbers multiplied by 
 the prudent management of faithless officers, will not be a 
 dust in the balance. The principle of action must be, use 
 all the means and pray with faith. " Trust in God and keep 
 the powder dry." 
 
 II. It is the duty of every Christian man, the sooner to 
 purify his country, to connect this great subject with his 
 
13 
 
 religious faith. It is a profound respect paid to our Christian- 
 ity, that we are so frequently called upon to fast and pray. 
 Full well the magistrates know the power of faithful prayer, 
 and their appeals to the churches for this kind of sympathy 
 should meet with a cheerful response. And the more so in 
 this crisis, as there are sins that lie at our own doors which 
 have helped to aggravate, this terrible disease, and from which 
 we need the crucible of war and want to purify us. Let none 
 pharisaically place his hand upon his heart and repeat his blas- 
 phemous catechism of self-righteousness ; .for the wrongs we 
 have done, and the right left undone, for many years have 
 been a dead fly in the precious ointment of our free institu- 
 tions, and the fearful retribution has not delayed to come. If 
 we were to trace many ^f our sins back to their source, we 
 should find them not only springing from a bad heart, but a 
 wrong idea. That is, the idea that all our national prosperity 
 springs necessarily from our republican form of government. 
 Except now and then a devout Hebrew who recognizes God 
 in every providence, all have given glory to the minor influ- 
 ences: Constitution, Congress, or idol President. It has 
 been often said in national peril, and is often repeated now 
 that the proud ship is tossing on the sea of blood, " Oh that 
 Washington or Jackson could arise and grasp the spokes of 
 the wheel ! " If Washington or Jackson were in the pilot 
 house to-day, they would need the same God to pierce the 
 thick darkness for them that Mr. Lincoln needs. National 
 distress is Jehovah's opportunity to display his power. This 
 forgetfulness of God has begotten an infidelity of the most 
 dangerous character, and partially accounts for the lack of 
 piety in our State and National legislations. It is strange 
 that with Caesar, and Livy, and Gibbon, in the hands of the 
 student, and smaller histories of the rise and decline of the 
 ancient Republics, in every house library, we should boast of 
 
14 
 
 the indestructibility of our government. The preservation of 
 a government is not in its form, but in its spirit. Kingdoms 
 may be righteous, and under them the people live happy and 
 contented. Greater happiness is offered by a Republic, but 
 only as it adheres to the Divine law, and shapes itself by the 
 Divine economy. Happiness is not felt by any one man 
 because he has voted ; his happiness will only be pure if he has 
 voted conscientiously. So national happiness and security are 
 not the result of freedom to vote, but spring from the satisfac- 
 tion of having brought a willing offering to the Supreme 
 Governor ; of having voted right, not right by the law of pol- 
 itics, but right by the law of God. 
 
 This trusting to government form rather than God has very 
 much palsied the energies of government. We have ignored 
 a great principle in the election of men without the least 
 basis of moral character; drunkards, infidels and rogues. 
 Trusting treasury, life and national character to them, we 
 have left them to the harmless restraints of Republicanism. 
 We are requested to pray for them, but not religiously ; it 
 must be done politically, and the ministry must hold their 
 peace. The efforts to carry on this great government without 
 God, or with God just a little now and then, would be really 
 amusing, if the questions involved were not too serious. 
 The very agents God has chosen to renovate the world and 
 bring all governments up into harmony with his own pure 
 reign, namely, the church and the ministry, are shut out from 
 all say and do, and forced to quiet themselves in waiting for 
 deliverance from this Popish intolerance. If you wish to see 
 a nation in a strait, with nothing but a political hand to guide 
 her, witness the disgraced thousands fleeing to Washington 
 after a universal disregard of the fourth commandment at 
 Manassas ; and if you would see that same nation guided by 
 religious principle, witness the indignant protests of a whole 
 
15 
 
 church, ministry and Christian associations, and the immedi 
 ate Sunday order of the pious Gen. McClellan, and the conse- 
 quent discipline and constantly growing heroism of the entire 
 army. The muscles of the nation are strengthened by relig- 
 ious faith, and the President recognized it when he uncovered 
 his head before the crowd at Springfield and besought their 
 earnest prayers ; and by Gen. McClellan, who, hasting from 
 the triumphs of Western Virginia to the command at Wash- 
 ington, and going around through Cincinnati, stopped in the 
 parsonage of Dr. Thomson of that city, and there, in tremu- 
 lous tones, consecrated himself to the God of battles. I am 
 glad of these frequent proclamations to fast and pray. When 
 twenty millions, in deep humiliation, bow before the treasury of 
 strength, plying with united faith its massive gates, and among 
 them millions who have taken God at his word for years past, 
 the prayer will not be in vain. The arm of the nation will be 
 strengthened to-day. Brave men, on the tented field, the 
 church is with you ! Wrapping around you the strong wings 
 of our faith, we will bear you to our eyrie in the bosom of 
 God ! It is yours to suffer, yours to die ; but the church will 
 enshroud you in her warmest memories, and in every heart 
 your names, like choice gems, shall be preserved ! Pray, oh 
 pray before the battle, pray in the battle, and when you fire, 
 take good aim and fire for the glory of God ! 
 
 Another sin of which we are guilty, bearing directly upon 
 our difficulties, is complicity with great crimes. The sin of 
 human slavery is not alone with those that buy and use them. 
 We have lent our means, our voice and our mighty silence 
 to this terrible evil, and God has humbled us because of it. 
 Arguments on the wrongs of slavery are fresh in your minds. 
 I need not repeat them, but simply say as I pass, it is an 
 awful crime against humanity and against God, and I give it 
 as my firm belief that when He writes up his people, if He 
 
16 
 
 is the New Testament God, soul traders and holders will find 
 but little favor with Him. 
 
 We have also cherished a mistaken philanthropy which is 
 odious in the sight of real humanity and hateful to true reli- 
 gion. We have compromised principle to escape a war, be- 
 cause war means the loss of blood and life. War is only 
 evil when for revenge or plunder. Its influence upon a 
 nation is salutary, and recovery from it speedier and surer 
 than recovery from a cancerous sin. It is justly said, " A 
 just and necessary war is no sin at all. Its weapons, its ships, 
 its fortifications are not more sinful than the plow and the 
 pruning-hook. . . . Shall punishment, which is morally 
 right when inflicted by national authority upon individuals, 
 become suddenly wrong when inflicted far the same offenses 
 on communities ? . . . Men do not convince us that war 
 is evil, by pointing to desolated homes and wasted fields and 
 smoking cities, or to commerce and manufactures standing 
 stock still while the grass grows on the wharves and the ships 
 rot in the docks." Such pictures of ruin there may be, 
 "but at the same time, material ruin may have a side of 
 grandeur, which, when time has worn away the smart, and 
 history has cleared the eye, may outshine the most prosper- 
 ous commerce and the most prolific tillage. The sacrifices 
 of commerce and husbandry are nobler than its achieve- 
 ments. It required only avarice and enterprise to build up 
 a fortune, it calls for conviction and right-heartedness to sac- 
 rifice it on the altar of the country. The deserted cottage 
 of a true Union man in East Tennessee, who has saved his 
 conscience at the expense of his property, would touch and 
 move you more than the most prosperous homestead. Deso- 
 lations and losses and sufferings in the cause of one's coun- 
 try are evidences of the highest and truest prosperity ; of the 
 noblest progress ; and seen in this light, they blossom as the 
 
17 
 
 rose. This is prosperity of the national conscience and the 
 national character; the growth of moral wealth. . . . 
 Nor must it be forgotten in studying the effect of this war 
 upon our national character, that a nation, like an individual, 
 needs to be consolidated by trials. It must not only have a 
 good government, but must be deeply and firmly convinced 
 of its excellency. Now in times of peace, such vivid con- 
 victions are not easily obtained. We are not brought in any 
 practical way to make the comparison between the just prin- 
 ciples of the government and the transient interests. We 
 compare them, but we do it in the sunshine and amidst the 
 flowers ; we do it rhetorically and poetically. We feel what 
 is excellent rather aesthetically than ethically, and proudly 
 fancy it were easy to make any necessary sacrifice. But 
 there is a great difference between estimating a burden and 
 actually bearing it. And when the trial comes to a nation, 
 and the poetry of patriotism is required to become the patri- 
 otism of sacrifice, that nation is not only tested, but if the 
 test is endured, it is improved. Thus it is with us ; this war 
 both proves and mproves us. That the nation rises under 
 this load with a shout and bears it onward without shrinking, 
 both shows what her convictions were, and gives her a 
 strength and solidity which only the burdens and dangers of 
 war could impart. As to the assertion that civilization or 
 Christianity will be injured by the war, nothing could be 
 shallower. As well might we show that these results would 
 follow the execution of the laws against crime at any other 
 time. For this is the same thing, only upon a scale of terri- 
 ble grandeur. Why, the very aim of the war, and the war 
 itself, considering its aim, are among the noblest illustra- 
 tions on record, of the power of Christian civilization. 
 Christian civilization might seem to pause for a moment be- 
 fore the gigantic conflict, but it would only be in amazement 
 3 
 
18 
 
 at the mad wickedness which made the war necessary; at 
 the forces which the rebels have mustered in so bad a cause." 
 Let us stand by true principle, and if it now and then costs 
 a baptism of blood, the integrity and vitality of the nation 
 will be worth the sacrifice. It was a noble cause and great 
 was the blessing for which Abraham journeyed to Mt. Moriah, 
 to offer an only son as a token of firm allegiance to God's 
 government ; and as noble the cause for which precious sons 
 are now bound by willing parents to the nation's altar. May 
 heaven bless every son that has gone up to the Mt. of battle 
 and furnish a sacrifice that shall spare his life ! Our fear of 
 war has aggravated our difficulties and driven us into a mul- 
 titude of sins. We now reap the whirlwind. 
 
 Sinful indulgence, waste of wealth and hardness of face 
 against the poor, have been crying evils among us. A need- 
 less expenditure is dangerous to individual character, and 
 ere it has gone through many generations, meets with God's 
 fearful curse ; so when such extravagance becomes a national 
 custom, it will not be permitted to run through many de- 
 cades, before a visitation of calamity marks the Divine dis- 
 approval. Are you guilty in this respect? Has the one- 
 tenth been set aside as sacred? Are the first fruits or the 
 profits thereof given into the treasury of the Lord ? If we 
 fast with sincerity to-day, these questions demand attention. 
 It is well to repeat over the decalogue slowly and thought- 
 fully as we review our life before God. Begin at the first 
 solemn charge, striking so deeply at the dearest idols of our 
 hearts. Let each "Thou shalt" and "Thou shalt not" ring 
 through the desolate halls of our neglected moral nature and 
 awaken conscience from its easy reclining. Add to these the 
 eleventh commandment; the new one of Christ: "A new 
 commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another." 
 Then add the golden rule, " Do unto others as ye would that 
 
19 
 
 others should do unto you." Then ask, "Where is my 
 neighbor?" and "Who is my neighbor?" and when you find 
 him, love him; if he is in darkness, change places with him 
 in imagination, and then let your own imagined darkness 
 prompt your course of action; if he is in distress of any 
 kind, take you his distress and give him your freedom from 
 pain, and then, when you are in his place and he in yours in 
 imagination, let your cries for his help prompt you to your 
 duty when he cries for your help. 
 
 It is well to review personal piety to-day. Blow the dust 
 from the Bible covers and gather up the fragments of our 
 broken vows. The young man who can not go to the war 
 for a reason, has no excuse if he returns not to God sorrow- 
 ing and fasting for his sins. The old man, who has enjoyed 
 all the immunities and privileges of a benevolent nation, un- 
 molested and unrestrained, may consistently bemoan his 
 ingratitude to the Father of mercies, and thank Him with 
 real fervor for a home where plenty so richly abounds. Who 
 has nothing to fast for to-day ? Oh think of your neglected 
 Sabbaths, your awful profanities, your deceits, your covet- 
 ousness; think of your presumptuous indifference to holy 
 things, your wandering prayers, your superficial faith ; think 
 of your wasted morals, your prayerless children, your altar- 
 less families, your thankless tables ; think of the providences 
 disregarded, how many times you have been raised up from 
 sickness and death; think of your happy location, far away 
 from the boom of cannon and the shrieks of dying men ; 
 think — Oh think of yourself as a sinner, a part of the cause 
 of this terrible war, and let your faith in a pardoning God 
 give wings to your feet as you haste to stay the falling sword 
 of his vengeance. 
 
 The nation, as one agonizing penitent at the altar, should 
 be humbled before God. Wherever absolute vigilance is not 
 
20 
 
 necessary and defense a duty, every man, civil and military, 
 statesman and officer, should consecrate this day to worship. 
 Let the President and august Secretaries appeal to the cabi- 
 net of eternal wisdom ! Let the General and his staff learn 
 by communion with Christ how to meet a mighty foe ! Let 
 every soldier flee to his tent and prostrate himself in humble 
 prayer ! Let the whole North and West heed this call for 
 general humiliation, and methinks I read the speedy result. 
 See the soldier's arm with valor nerved ! His brow glistens 
 with the radiance of success ! The flag brightens with in- 
 tenser glory ! Every stripe is a scourge of scorpions for 
 treason, and every star a gem in the patriot's crown. The 
 hosts of a fatal delusion tremble with weakness ! A palsy 
 seizes the arm that would strike ! Confusion sits on their 
 banners and shame on their faces ! Sennacherib's host gives 
 way! For "the sword of the Lord and of Gideon" comes 
 gleaming from its scabbard, and before it who can stand ! 
 Such will be the power of united prayer. Then let all pray ! 
 Let the Episcopalian lay aside his book and groan his heart's 
 wants before the throne ! Let the Calvinist leave his " de- 
 crees " and the Arminian his " choice " and the Sons of 
 Roger Williams their baptidzo, and let them come as one to 
 the prodigal's home, and pray that the fatted calf may be 
 killed, the nation restored to plenty and happiness, and the 
 feast of rejoicing and merry-making begin ! 
 
 But we must let God work in his own way. His way may 
 not be as our way. Praying is not dictating. I know not 
 the full issue of this war ; I have my thoughts. It is not 
 conducted by our Statesmen for the purpose of liberating the 
 Southern slaves; it is the government saving itself. The 
 declarations of the President prove this ; the actions of his 
 advisors prove it ; the kind of men largely composing the 
 army proves it, and the President's modification of Gen. Fre- 
 
21 
 
 mont's proclamation silences all dispute on the question. 
 But what God may do is another thing. This is not of hu- 
 man legislation. He is certainly punishing the entire nation, 
 but it falls more heavily in some quarters than in others. 
 Will/ this blow falls more heavily on a particular portion of 
 the people, philosophy and philanthropy might both suggest 
 a reason, but let the nation keep praying, keep doing, stick 
 to the Constitution, and wait ! If slavery is divine, it can 
 not be crushed out. It will survive all war and needs no 
 boundaries to define its rights. If it is wrong, and the dark 
 days of the Jewish Lawgiver do not furnish creeds for the 
 more charitable dispensation of the Christian era, and the 
 Paul and Onesimus question after all should be decided in 
 the negative, then it must perish. Constitutions can not pre- 
 serve it ; it can not be nursed into vitality. It must yield 
 to God's behest. With strong public sentiment hedging its 
 advance like a broad deep sea ; with the mountains of preju- 
 dice and wrong education on either side, and the Constitu- 
 tion behind it, what will it do ? Let God suggest ; the slaves 
 of Egypt were once in the same predicament. It is for us 
 to trust Him. We should incite no insurrections, break no 
 laws, (save those that bind our conscience, suffering the pen- 
 alty willingly if we do break them,) say no hard things, call 
 no hard names, keep our temper always, and advance as fast 
 as Providence opens the way. I should rather be the slave 
 than the master, if God makes his decisions on this question 
 in his usual way of justice. 
 
 We are now in the midst of bloody war. Do we desire 
 peace ? Let us multiply our numbers, ammunition and 
 prayers, and we shall have peace. Do we hate war ? Let 
 us make it short by a speedy and decisive victory. Do we 
 dread taxation ? Let us haste to restore our nation's stolen 
 property and our taxes will be modified. Peace is impossible 
 
22 
 
 at present. The text suggests when peace may be expected. 
 The nation must pass through the fires. From her sins she 
 must be purified as gold and silver are purified. She must 
 own God as her God ; then there will be peace. St. James 
 also suggests it, " First pure and then peaceable." Till then, 
 there must be war. If " the sun of our liberties " must set, 
 it must " go down in a sea of blood." If the stars and the 
 stripes trail on the earth, it must be when the last brave tar 
 turns his glazed eye to the skies and the last soldier sleeps in 
 his glory. 
 
 But that flag will not fall. Where one sailor or soldier 
 falls, another to avenge him shall seize the weapon from his 
 relaxing grasp ; the ranks shall close up and the battle move 
 on. Hundreds will fall, but thousands will return to disband 
 amid happy wives and mothers and jubilant children ; will 
 return to the plow with fervent gratitude that it plows free 
 soil ; to the manufacture, with satisfaction that they have not 
 died " all slaves," but live " all freemen." The banner may 
 be bullet riddled and bayonet torn, — this will only evince the 
 inspired heroism that defended it, and its scars will be our 
 glory. Like the grandsire, reverenced by admiring children, 
 and grandsire still, though vrith limb at Bunker Hill, Valley 
 Forge or Yorktown, arm disabled and breast deeply scarred, so 
 that flag will be reverenced and honored, though age and ser- 
 vice pale its beauty. We will live under it while we live, and 
 we will pray in the words of Webster, that when we die, " our 
 eyes with their last feeble and lingering glance, may behold 
 the gorgeous ensign of the Republic, now known and honored 
 throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and 
 trophies streaming in their original lustre, not a stripe erased 
 or polluted, nor a single star obscured, bearing for its motto 
 no such miserable interrogatory as ' What is all this worth,' 
 nor those other words of delusion and folly, ' Liberty first and 
 
23 
 
 Union afterward,' but every where, spread all over in charac- 
 ters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds as they float 
 over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the 
 whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true 
 American heart, ' Liberty and Union, now and forever, one 
 and inseparable.' " 
 
 I pray for our Land, that the right and the true and the 
 good may rise above the wrong the false and the evil. The ken 
 of a prophet is given unto me. By a well balanced faith, poised 
 over the sacred promises of the Divine Omnipotence, I look 
 down upon the nations as grand divisions of God's army, 
 marching on with firm tread from the dim-lighted caverns of 
 modified barbarity, to the high and broad table lands of a 
 perfect civilization. Israel, the cast out but not forgotten 
 nation, is hasting with deep contrition to its beloved Jerusa- 
 lem ; Italy, by the light of the sparks struck from her chains 
 through Garibaldi's steady strokes, is assuming the gospel and 
 a higher national honor ; Russia has already changed the 
 wailments of her millions of serfs to loud acclamations of glad 
 rejoicing ; Central Europe is consolidating fast into righteous 
 Republics; the North is retrenching the prerogatives of the 
 Crown ; Austria must fall into the upward line of march, 
 however reluctantly ; Asia, with her China and India, rich 
 isles and treasures of wealth and produce, is girding her loins 
 for this pilgrimage of nations ; France, with the blood of her 
 patriots still reeking on her altars, is looking, through her 
 free-thinkers to her last and successful revolution ; England, 
 modified by the successes of the American Colonies, only a 
 monarchy because she has a Queen and an army, is ^slowly 
 yielding to the national tide ; the minor nations have joined 
 the train ; and at the head of this grand stampede walks a 
 giant of four score years. A Samson in his strength. His 
 brow is decked with the interminable forests and rolling 
 
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 prairies, rich with future harvests of the North and West. 
 His feet shod with the golden sandals and rich produce of 
 California and the South. His right arm is the Pacific and 
 his left the Atlantic, and in his hands is the wealth of the 
 seas. Above him, nailed to the staff, is his banner and motto : 
 The Star-lighted flag of the Home of the Free ! Purity and 
 Righteousness are the secrets of strength ! The Constitution 
 is our safeguard, the Bible our law, and our War-cry, God 
 and Humanity forever ! 
 
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