m iFSl Glass Book »'- .^.61 THE SIN AND THE CURSE; THE UNION, THE TRUE SOURCE OF DISUNION. AND OUR DUTY IN THE PRESENT CRISIS. A DISCOURSE PREACHED ON THE OCCASION OF THE DAY OF HUMILIATION AND PRAYER APPOINTED BY THE GOVERNOR OF SOUTH CAROLINA, ON November 21st, 1860, IN THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. CHARLESTON, S. C. BY REV. THOMAS SMYTH, D. I). PUBLISHED BY REQUEST <>F THE SESSION AND CORPORATION. CHARLESTON : STEAM-POWER PRESSES OF EVANS & COGSWELL. No. 3 Broad and 103 East Hay Street. 1860. .5 7 PEOCLAMATION. Whereas, it is proper and becoming a people who acknowledge the hand of God in every event, and bow in reverence to His will, and who desire to imitate the noble example of their forefathers, not only in resist- ance to oppression and injustice, but in supplication for Divine aid and Counsel in this momentous crisis of our country's history, to implore a con- tinuance of His favor and interposition to protect and sustain us in all the trials we may be called upon to undergo, and the dangers to which we may be exposed: Now, therefore, I, WILLIAM EL GIST, Governor of the State of South Carolina, in obedience to a resolution of the General As- sembly, appointing Wednesday, the 21st instant, as a day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer, make this my proclamation, inviting the clergy and people of all denominations in this State, to assemble at their respec- tive places of worship, to implore the direction and blessing of Almighty God in this our hour of difficulty, and to give us one heart and one mint/ to oppose, by all just and proper means, every encroachment upon our rights. Given under my hand and the seal of the State, at Columbia, on the 13th day of November, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hun- dred and sixty. WM. II. GIST. <*7 Y 0'2 r DISCOURSE Daniel ix, 11, 14— "Yea, all Israel have trangressed thy law, even by depart- ing, thajt they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the Lord hath watched upon the evil and brought it upon us." God is governor among the nations, King of Kings and Lord of Lords,, the high and mighty ruler of the Universe, doiriff whatsoever it pleaseth him among the armies of heaven, and the inhabitants of the earth — none, with im- punity, daring to stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou ? The most High ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will. This great practical truth is embodied in the wisely worded proclamation of a most seasonable appointment, by tlie present Governor of South Carolina, His Excellency W. H. Gist, as follows : " Whereas, it is proper and becoming a ^people who acknowledge the hand of God in every event, and bow in reverence to 'his will, and who desire to imitate the noble example of their forefathers, not only in resistance to oppression and injustice, but in supplication for divine aid and counsel in this momentous crisis of our country's history, to implore a continuance of his favor and interpo- sition, to protect and sustain us in all the trials we may be called upon to undergo, and the dangers to which we may be exposed. Now, therefore, I, William H. Gist, Governor of the State of South Carolina, in obedience to a resolu- tion of the Genera] Assembly, appointing Wednesday, the 21s1 instant, as a day of Pasting, Humiliation and Prayer, make this my proclamation, inviting the clergy and people of all denominations in this State, to assemble at their respective places of worship, to implore the direction and blessing of Almighty God in this our hour of difficulty, and to give as one heart and one mind, to oppose, by all just .•tnd proper means, every encroachment upon our rights." This then is a day of fasting. Fasting has been universally adopted by all nations as an expression of consciously-felt sin and sorrow, through which, by the suffering and impoverishment of the body, the mind is led to realize man's helplessness, dependence and want of all things; and the conscience and heart to tome in humble contrition before an offended God, under whose judgments they may be suffering, and whose gra- cious providence alone can either remove them, or in the midst of judgment remember mercy. Till- IS ALSO A DAY OF HUMILIATION. This implies calamity, tall and ruin; sin and sorrow; contrition and confession; and the recognition of God, whose righteous indignation has brought all upon us. Hit this ts further a day of prayer. This implies that God can, and that God alone can, help us, and give us true repentance and unfeigned humiliation ; that God, alone, can avert all the evils thai might come upon us; impart wisdom to our coun- selors; and give to all our citizens unity of purpose ; ""1 plans. It implies that God can influence our sister States— who are alike interested— to stand or fell with us; and cause other States to acknowledge his power and presence in this national calamity, and to do justly, and IV act righteously and peaceably before him. Ii implies, fur ther, that God can, and thai God alone can, incline th hearts of foreign nations to recognize our true posture, purposes and plans ; and his purposes concerning us: and to fraternize with us. It implies, in short, that God alone can mitigate inevitable disasters and suffering; give us patience and perseverance under all adversities;' and secure for us a peaceful, prosperous and happy issue out of all our troubles. ^o God-believing and God-fearing mind, can question the sad and melancholy fact that God's curse is poured out upon us, and that the Lord has watched for the evil to bring it upon us. But mark our distinction. This curse is upon the nation, and not upon the constitution ; nor upon the union, nor upon the government under that con- stitution. That constitution and constitutional compact was, and- is, and ever will remain, in all history, and to the end of time, great, glorious and free. That constitution was found sufficient to produce, perfect, preserve, propagate and prosper these United States in a progressive and ever augmenting greatness, beyond all par- allel in the history of the world; and it is sufficient to have sustained that growing development; and to have encircled with a halo of glory, inscribed all over with the stars and stripes, the mightiest nation of the earth, shining more and more resplendent in its greatness and glory. The constitution of the United States has been admitted. the world over, both by Statesmen and Philosophers of every school, to be an embodiment of wisdom, patriotism, sagacity and prudential foresight and moderation ; of ster- ling good sense ; and of religion without restriction upon the full exercise of conscientious differences. 6 Qui fathers signed it amid the solemnities of religion, .,,,,1 j n the awful silence of a realized futurity; amid the ._,,.-,,,, spectres of war, famine and wasting desolations; .,,,,! [ D the arm intrepidity of martyrs. Having ratified their signatures with their blood, they bequeathed it, to- gether with the name, character and farewell address of Washington, as a priceless inheritance to their posterity in all future generations : and thus handed down the States, united under that constitution— as a land of promised rest, recompense and great reward, flowing with milk and honey, and under the peculiar patronage and protection of heaven— to all the downcast and downtrodden nations of the earth. My brethren, that constitution is still our boast and glory, yea our consolation and strength, in this day of dis- aster and disruption. We love and cherish it still. We love it. even in death. We bow in reverence before the >ha< U's of the mighty dead, who stand this day as mourn- ers around the bier on which it lies shrouded in grave clothes, pale in death, and soon to be committed to an untimely and dishonored grave. Our faces, like theirs, e-ather blackness, and our hearts even bleed within us. How doth the nation sit solitary that was full of people ! 1 1 . >w is she become as a widow ! She that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, \how is she become tributary! She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers, she hath none to comfort her. All her Mends have dealt treacherously with her ; they are become her enemies. When 1 was a child upon my mother's knee, I heard the praises of thee, my adopted country! In my childhood's visions thine image rose proudly magnificent before me, towering aloft to heaven, and spreading thy branches over the seas ! Boyhood's sports were jubilant of thee, and manhood brought with it eager expectations of becoming inseparably thine! Hen- for thirty years 1 have heard from every lip, on every festive occasion, the praise of thee! Language was too poor, all analogies too feeble, all pageantry too trivial to adorn thy majestic person, and to illustrate thy fame ! The infant lisped it in the cradle, and the child shouted it in his sportive gambols. The boy heralded it in his mimic warfare and oratorial decla- mation. Men marched to the music of its stirring: sounds in gay review, or in the dread and deadly clash of death- giving battle. The bells tolled it. The martial band gave to it the symphony of its most melodious music. It ascend- ed from the pulpit to heaven in grateful thanksgiving and praise; and thence, also, it sounded forth to patriotic hearts in words of counsel, admonition, and prophetic warning. It mingled with the incense which arose from every household, it soared upon the wings of every private prayer; and was breathed forth in thousands of silent or out-bursting ejacu- lations. It gave softness to the bed of the weary; security and solace to the disheartened; and illumined with joyful exultation the departing hour of him who, with or without any other legacy, could transmit to his children an unim- paired and unparalled political heritage. And must we take up the lamentation and say, from this glorious constitutional union all the beauty is departed ! This nation hath grievously sinned, therefore is she re- moved. All that honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness. Yea, she sigheth and turneth backward. She remembered not her last, — her chief and purposed end, — therefore she came down wonderfully. She had no comforters. For these things I weep. Mine eye, mine eye runneth over with water. Mine eyes do fill with tears. Mv bowels are troubled for the destruction of the daughter of my people. How is the gold become dim, and ili<' mos1 fine gold changed! The crown is fallen from our head. Woe unto as, for we have sinned! M v brethren, in this calamity the whole world sympa- thizes. Thai sun of liberty, whose rays shone so brightly over every laud and sea — which went forth on its mission of glad tidings to the ends of the earth, rejoicing as a strong man to run a race — has gone down while it wae yet day. The brightest example of free constitutional self-govern- ment, and the last hope of a Republic based on universal equality, liberty, and fraternity, — the cynosure of all nations, — has darkened into a dreadful eclipse, and left a tempestuous sea, to be navigated by foundering barks, without chart, compass or rudder. Woe, woe, woe to the inhabiters of the earth! To whom, then, and to what, is all this misery and destruction of the hopes of man to be attributed? jSTot, my brethren, to any one political party, — not to any present political excitement, — not to the recent triumph of sectional pride, and its meddlesome interference with an institution altogether beyond its interests, authority or con- trol, and its traitorous disloyalty to the sovereignty of the constitution, and of Southern as well as Northern States. This is only the result, — the consummation of a tragedy which has been long progressing to its last act, — when the curtain fell upon the dismembered body of the Union. In the overwhelming mass which, like an avalanche, swept away all existing landmarks and barriers, there was a conglomeration of all possible variety of materials, — atheists, infidels, communists, free-lovers, rationalists, Bible •s, anti-ehristian levellers, and anarchists, — many of whom had no interests at stake, and no principles to 9 restrain them within the limits of constitutional truth, jus- tice or propriety. But heside these, there were a large number of God- fearing and Christ-loving, conscientious people, of whom we must hoar the testimony of Paul, that they have a zeal for God, and seek his glory and the good of man, but not according to knowledge. They pervert the golden rule of our Saviour. That rule was designed not to impart to men the first principles of justice, of right and wrong, but, on the assumption of their exigence, to guard us against the perverting and blinding influence of selfishness, pride, passion and prejudice. Inter- preted as these people apply it, that rule would lead to absurdity, injustice, or to impossibility; to the overthrow of virtue, chastity, honour, honesty, and all the rights of law, property and power; and instead of requiring us to do to others only what, in their circumstances and relations, we would have -a just and reasonable right to expect, in view both of all their and our own best interests, it would require us to do what others desired, though their selfishness should demand the sacrifice of virtue, chastity, property or power. Verily, verily, they have put into the hands of an unre- strained populace a double edged sword, which will yet pierce through their own soul. They have perverted and prostituted the Bible. They have done this by subjecting it to the private interpre- tations of men ; to the developments of philosophy, falsely so called; to the licentious and atheistic spirit of a liberty which knows no restraint and no authority, human or divine ; and, by thus converting the Bible into a law, binding, according to their view of it, upon God and all other men beyond themselves, instead of being an 10 infallible and unalterable standard of right and wrong, truth and error, of what is to be dpne, and what is not to be done, and a standard imposed equally and alike upon all men, bond or free, and to add to, or to take from which is alike cursed of God. They pervert the great doctrines of personal responsi- bility, liberty of conscience, liberty of thought, liberty of opinion and liberty of action. This they do by requiring all others to adopt as God's truth, that which is believed to be beside and contrary to Scripture; and by assuming that tbey are responsible for the opinions and conduct of other men, who are, nevertheless, independent of them, and free to will and to perform within their sphere of action, without any other interference than their own con- science, and the word, will and providence of God. They pervert truth, justice, honor and good faith. This they do by availing themselves of opportunity, under a bond of mutual, written, and strictly limited partnership, to act contrary to the terms of that partnership; to the injury and destruction of their confiding partners; and by attempting, through that violated bond, to coerce unwill- ing and injured parties to remain and suffer insult and injustice under it. But, besides these perversions of fundamental principles, these good and well iritentioned people are willingly igno- rant of, or praetiealhy ignore, the prescience and providence of God ; the fore-knowledge and fore-ordination by God, of whatsoever cometh to pass, so that not even a sparrow can fall unheeded to the ground, nor a hair of our heads be unnumbered, nor any event happen by chance. They for- get that government is from God; that the powers that be are ordained of God; and that we are to be subject to every 11 ordinance of man, not only from fear, but for conscience- sake. They forget that man and this present world are under the curse of sin; that trial and temptations difficulty and distress enter into the very warp and woof of this present state ; that God's judgments are scattered abroad over the earth that its inhabitants may learn righteousness; that God maketh even the wrath and sin of man to praise him, and out of great evils and privations bringeth greater good. They forget that the condition of slavery has been and is recognized and regulated by God, who first ordained that it should ceme to pass as a penal infliction upon a guilty race, for the mitigation of greater evils, and for the good of all : that he has twice embodied it in the moral law, and has thus environed it with immutable and eternal sanctions; that men perfect before God, friends of God, and beloved by God, lived under it, ruled over -it, and consecrated it with God's blessing, promises and protection; that the Saviour of the world assumed and acknowledged it, and chose from under its polity his apostles, disciples and friends ; and that the Scriptures of his inspiration are closed and sealed up from all addition or substruction — by men of perverse minds who would be wise above that which is written, and wiser than God — with the recognition and regulation of slavery as a civil and domestic institution. They forget that God is in this whole matter; that against their most earnest wishes he brought this institution into these Southern States, where he had prepared a soil, and has pro- vided a seed, whose fruit now supplies food and raiment, with a home and home comforts, for millions of slaves, for millions of masters, and for untold millions in every nation in the whole earth, themselves included; while its culture and 12 climate arc healthful to the slave, and fatally hurtful to all others. Tlirv forgel that under the fostering care of these South- ern St ;iies, and of this legally bounded institution, these people have multiplied in a ratio greater than their mas- ters: that they are healthier and happier than any other laboring class on the face of the earth; and that the gospel of Christ ] (reached to these poor, has come to them with mere of the power of God, unto their present peace and everlasting blessedness, than the missionary labors of all ( ihristendom, in all the world beside, though greatly blest i ) great and glorious results, have as yet accomplished. For all such persons, let us exercise pity, sympathy, and forbearance. "The} T have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge." For that large, respectable, and heroic body of conserva- tive and faithful friends, who, like Eddistone lighthouse, have for thirty years stood firm, though alone and in mid- ocean, against the whole force of the winds and waves of boisterous fanaticism, let us cherish gratitude and praise, and erect for them, monuments in the fleshy tablets of our hearts. And what, then, remains for ourselves ? Let us learn and profoundly contemplate that secret seminal princi- ple, which, having been conceived, has brought forth all the iniquity and mischief under which our country lies overwhelmed. My brethren, I am not here to speak to you as a politi- cian, or as a philosopher. I am here in God's name and stead to point out to you the causes of his anger, the sources of all our past and present dangers, the proper ground for humiliation and repentance, and our present and future course as Christian patriots. 1 Q Now, to me, pondering long and profoundly upon the course of events, the evil and bitter root of all our evils is to be found in the infidel, atheistic, French Revolution, Red Republican principle, embodied as an axiomatic semi- nal principle — not in the Constitution, but in the Declara- tion of Independence. That seminal principle is this: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and that to secure these rights, governments are instituted by God, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,"* and so on to inevitable conseque'nces. ISTow, though God is here introduced, the Declaration is Godless. God is introduced to give dignity and emphasis ; to create man, and to ordain government ; and then He is banished. The sceptre is torn from his hands, and fictions are substituted for facts. All men are not born equal, in bodily constitution, size, sex, or capacity ; nor in mental faculties and endowments; nor in emotional susceptibilities; nor in moral tastes and judgments; nor in social position; nor in their relations to law and government. The only equality is, that all men are born in sin; children of wrath, even as others ^ lost, and yet redeemable ; and that as society, government, and parentage are all of, and from, God, so do these determine every man's rights, responsibilities and duties, and are to be submitted to, by all men equally and alike, as the ordi- * Since writing, I find that John Randolph, of Virginia, said, that there was poison hid, from its origin, in the present Constitution of the United States; and being warned beforehand, by the departed voice of this remarkable but able man, let us avoid a like evil in forming our new Constitution. 14 uaries of God, and that, too, not only from necessity, but for conscience's sake. Now, Lei us trace the progressive development of this atheistic, revolutionary and anarchic principle. First, it Led to universal suffrage— that is, it put the gov- ernment of this country into the hands of a majority of many— and in some cases, of multitudes— who were igno- rant, unlettered, unacquainted with its principles, alto- gether uninterested in its course of policy, and restrained by no Love of truth, justice, or constitutional order. As a natural consequence, it followed that majorities should absolutely govern, and should interpret and govern even the Constitution. "The will of majorities," 'says Jef- ferson, "is the vital principle of Republics, and from which there is no appeal, except to force the vital principle of despotism." "But submission to the will of the majority is not a principle of our Federal Government. The one prin- ciple of that is, submission to the Constitution, and the laws made in conformity with it. Submission to the will of the majority, is the principle of pure, absolute democracy, which our government is not. Our written constitutions are designed for the express purpose of limiting, defining, and regulating the power of the majority. And one soli- tary citizen, with the constitution on his side, has a right to govern all the rest of the nation, until the constitution is changed according to its own provisions." Another consequence of this seminal principle was the interpretation of the Bible according to the majority — that is, according to the popular opinion, and the coercive enforcement of this majority-interpretation as a higher law upon all who differ from it. The transfer of this principle, with its higher law, to the Constitution as a written bond of union was easy. The 15 higher law, or in other words, the majority-opinion ot the Northern States repudiated the Constitution by antagonis- tic, nullifying legislation, preparatory to the time now arrived, when a majority of the States have carried out their sectional and anti-constitutional interpretation against the minority; and preparatory to a time progressively not far distant, when, by a two-thirds' majority, the Constitu- tion . itself might be adapted to the views of this sectional majority. A further consequence of this development has been the rejection, by many, of the divine inspiration, and infallible, unalterable authority of the Bible, as the only standard of faith and practice, of right and wrong, of sin and duty. Hence, also, the doctrine of a self-developing morality. If God is the same yesterday, to-day and forever, and the moral law as the standard of what is right and wrong is im- mutable, then slavery, which God made right, authorized, limited, directed, and imbedded in that moral law, must still remain right, and shall be maintained as long, and so far, and for- the purposes, which God by his word and providence points out. But on this higher law principle, a majority of his creatures can decide for God, and against God, that slavery is, in its essential nature, absolutely sin- ful ; further, that it is so essentially and hienously wicked, that in order to overthrow it, compacts may be broken, and robbery, murder, arson, treason, rebellion and massa- cre with all the hellish crew of bigotry, hatred, uncharita- bleness, excommunication, calumny, opprobrious vitupera- tion, are let loose to devastate and destroy. And what, we ask, could finally be the result of this higher law — that is, this majority and equality -principle — but anarchy, prodigality, profanity, Sabbath profanation, vice and ungodliness in every monstrous form, and in the 16 end the corruption and overthrow of the Republic, and the erection, upon its ruins, of an absolute and bloody despot- ism, of which coercion, or in other words, force, is the vital principle. An anti-slavery Bible must have an anti-slavery God, and then a Gocl anti-law, order, property and moral- it v : that is no God but " the God of this world.* Now, my brethren, having become originally partners in this primal sin, we are now, however unwillingly, par- takers in the penal curse and consequences, and in all the disastrous results of violated faith, and in the aggressive encroachments of a cruel and crushing majority. True, 3'ou found out your sin and misery, — but too late. Thank God, however, not too late, with his blessing, to repent, reform, return unto him, and be governed by his word, will, and providence. It is your consolation, that your opponents themselves being judges, you have claimed only that which, by the Constitution, was righteously and equitably yours.f Con- * At the late infidel convention in New York, a quondam preacher moved that it be " Resolved, That creators are accountable to the created, causes to effects, parents to children, gods to men" ! We find a similar sentiment in Gerrit Smith's recent " Discourse on Bible Civil o ■> ernment." He says : " Dr. Cheever sees no hope for freedom, if the Bible shall be given to the side of slavery. But I see no hope for the Bible, if it shall be proved to be for slavery. Slavery is not to be tried % the Bible, but the Bib/, by freedom. Ail the talk that the Biblt is th charter of man's rights is nonsenee. His nature is that charter ; and his rights are the rights of his nature — no more nor less — every book to the contrary, notwithstanding. The nature of a monkey determines its rights. The nature of a man his." What a glorious country would this be, with institutions based on the principle that "parents are accountable to their children," "causes to effects," "the Bible to fri edom," God to man ! ! But this identical doctrine of Gerrit Smith is the egg out of which modern abo- litionism has been hatched. — 2V. Y. Obs. fin proof of this, the following deserves preservation and promulgation : The Newark Weekly Journal, of November 6th, contains a speech delivered by Col. James W. Wall, at Beverly, New Jersey. 17 tributing more than others to the common welfare, you have asked nothing beyond equal rights, privileges, and property in the common domain ; the faithful execution of constitutional guarantees; and the free use of God's word, worship, and institutions, unfettered by the party and par- tial interpretation of equally ignorant and prejudiced fel- low men. And though it may seem an extravagant assertion, it is nevertheless true, that by the peculiar providence of God towards you, to you is given the high and holy keeping, above all other conservators, of the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible; and of that liberty of con- science, free from the doctrines and commandments of men — which is based upon and sustained by the right and duty of every man to search the Scriptures, to prove all things, and to hold fast that which is good; — a liberty "But looking away," he says, "from the blackest side of this party, this Re- publican party is aggressive against the South from the very nature of its organi- zation. It arrays itself against fifteen States in this Confederacy, and from its peculiar principles its triumph must be recognized as the triumph of a party whose political faith is founded upon geographical discriminations and distinc- tions in the Union, against which the good Washington warned his counti^-men.'' "Modern Republicanism," says he, ••first made its appearance rising like a spectre from amid the ruins of the political earthquake of '52, that first overwhelmed the Whig party. The Free Soil agitation, which was the first wave of the great catas- trophe which finally overwhelmed the part}', carried with it the seminal principles, out of which this strange and anomalous creation was born. * * * » " I know that this bold, confident, and determined enemy in our front, is sneerin" complacently, and laughing to scorn all these threats of disunion, wrung from our Southern brethren by the fierceness of the persecution they have suffered, that is threatened if the Republican party succeed. And they ask you the question they conceive to be unanswerable, 'Do you ever hear the North talk about secession? Oh, no, the North is loyal to the Constitution.' Now, my answer to all this is, the North has never had any provocation; and I defy any man to lay his finger upon a single point in the history of our Congressional legislation, where the South has ever attempted to infringe upon a single guaranteed Constitutional right of the North. But the Congressional page is blistered all over with just such attempts made by the North against the South. And from the first anti-slavery petition in Congress, as early as 1789; through the fierce agitation of the question calmed down by the Missouri Compromise; and during the stormy period when abolition IS of conscience drawing after it liberty of thought, opinion, and conduct, individual responsibility, and individual re- gality as kings and priests unto God — and a liberty of eon- science, which lias never existed among men severed from the pure, perfect, and unfettered word of God. Upon this rock let the South build her house, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. God's word obeyed, and God's will followed, will secure for us that Divine succour, which is greater than all that can be against us. As it regards your political course, I have but a word to say. 1 am here to speak to you in God's name and for God, and as standing in relation to God. ]STow, the voice of the people, it is said, is the voice of God. But, my brethren, this is true only in the sense that it is permitted and overruled by God, and that it may be instrumentally employed by him for evil as well as for good; for destruction as well as for deliverance. For the proverb is equally pregnant, quern Deus perdat prius demen- iat, whom God would destroy, he first dements, or gives up to some mad delusion; making the wrath of man to praise him, and restraining the remainder thereof. But when there are two lawful ways open for accom- plishing some lawful and laudable end, then the united petitions, insulting to Southern men and their rights, fell in showers upon the Bouse; on through the brief struggle about the Wilmot Proviso; and on to the final and crowning act, tbe organization of a strictly sectional party, making war upon their rights. Everything in the nature of agitation; everything in the nature of aggression; everything in tbe nature of insult to Southern men and Southern institutions; everything in the nature of the whispering of rebellion in the ear of the Southern .-line, originating in the North. It is this mad Northern fanaticism — pirit of never-ending, still-beginning aggression, which has served to aggra- vate and torture with the neuralgia of apprehension, the keen, shrinking, sensitive nerves of the South, and has given rise to all these mutterings of discontent, these threatenings of disunion." To this ought to lie added the late letter and admirably bold truth-loving and truth-telling speeches of Hon. Caleb dishing. 19 heart and voice of a whole multitude may be very safely regarded as the voice of God, saying "Go Forward." Now, us there, perhaps, never was a time when the people of South Carolina were more truly of one heart, and that heart an eager, anxious, throbbing heart, so there never was a time when they had more need to call niton God than now. We want, oh yes, we want the Spirit to be poured out from on high, as a spirit of wisdom and grace, upon the counsellors who shall be called to guide our ship of State through that Scylla and Charybdis, which, with syren voice of song, or the roar of terrific breakers, endanger our in- evitable course. We want, oh yes, we want Him, who has said, '•counsel is mine and sound wisdom; I am understanding, I have strength. By me kings reign, and princes learn justice." We want this mighty God to appear for our help. AVe want the Spirit of God to come as an enlightener and reprover, to show to us as a people our sins and our transgressions. We want that there should be such an acknowledgment of past error, such searching out of present tampering with evil, such putting away of the accursed thing, that as a people we may plead the promise, (2 Chron. xvi. 9,) "the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him." A great and mighty king of old, raised up by God to be an instrument for the accomplishment of His own pur- poses with reference to his people, Israel, was afterwards deprived of reason for seven years, and sent to eat grass with the beasts of the fields, that he might know, and that it might be written for our learning, "that the Most High 20 ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whom he will." Now, God, my brethren, is now just what he was then, and in words we all acknowledge it. We call him King of kings and Lord of lords. But, oh! the secret and evil root of unbelief which lurks in many a heart. And with the words, God and God's providence on our lips, how prone are our hearts to he secretly leaning on an arm of tlcsli. on chariots and horsemen, on counsellors and meas- ures rallicr than on the living God. Oh how solemn is the warning, "Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, that maketh flesh his arm, and in his heart departeth from the Lord." Jer. xvii, 5. But it is said in busy, clamorous reiteration, we want this tiling and that thing, and then all will go on prosper- ously. I will answer thee — "God is greater than man," and if man acknowledge it not, God must make him feel it, for " my glory I will not give to another, saith the Lord of hosts." Surely, we have had some experience that "boasting is not good," and that there is one mightier than man, before whose providence all the might, wisdom and wrath of man melt away like smoke beneath the sun, or wood within the fire. "Arise," ye people, "and call upon thy God, for the Lord he is the true God, he is the living God, and an ever- lasting King; at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation." (Jer. x, 10.) But we also recpiire a sincere, practical belief that God hears an